More tips for dads

I take my hat off to any guy that decide to have a baby in this day and age. With all the challenges that we face on the social, political, financial, health and environmental fronts, you must have real guts to take on that kind of responsibility. And to bring a child into the world today you must have a lot of confidence, not only in yourself but in the whole of mankind.

But I find it amusing that there are still new parents today that are caught up in the angst of proper child raising techniques when, on the one hand more and more research is showing that all a child needs is good food, clean water, love and shelter, while on the other hand everyone is warning of a meltdown of just about everything that we have worked for. Polar ice caps included.

While parents are wondering if they are providing their children with the right values and norms to survive and thrive in a society that is changing so fast that they, the parents themselves are having difficulty to adapt, the odds are about even that there will any habitable world left for them to grow up in all! The only way that we can ensure that our children are left with a planet where they will be able to have their own children is by doing something now. We are the only hope they have.

There is very little sense in losing sleep over bad parenting when there isn’t a world left to give them. And infants born to this day and age are much better equipped to survive the society that is their legacy than we are led to believe. With the help of modern science and technology we are finding more and more evidence that our bodies and minds are uniquely designed to adapt to just about any environment we throw at it. But they are human, just like us. They need air to breathe, food to eat and water to drink.

The only thing our children really depend on us is a world to live in and love. The chances that we will understand their world is slim to none, and the odds of us being able to provide them with any useful advice almost zero. If I had any children and I was the betting kind, I’d take my chances on the 50/50 odds we have of saving our environment.

What are you planning for the end?

We’re going to have a party. And if you think 2012 is still far away, then may I remind you that something like a holiday cruise or religious recluse takes planning, time and money, and while time may be easy to find between now and the end of it, I can assure you that in a couple of months it’s value is going to shoot through the roof. If you haven’t heard the news then let my shortly fill you in. It’s over. The end.

Newton, a man that is perhaps a little more known for his discovery of gravity, also predicted the end of the world, but he said it would come in 2060. And since that is a little far away to start my own planning now, I’m going to go with the end as it is popularly foretold by the Mayan Calendar, and that would be 2012. At the same time it would be the perfect dry-run for the really BIG party that I am planning for 2060, if the Mayan’s got it wrong.

Considering the open-market principle that the availability of something also determine it’s value, and the law of economics that says that a commodity will get more expensive as it get’s less, then the market-worth of time is set to skyrocket any one of these day’s. Can you begin to imagine the bargains we’ll be getting at closing down sales!

Time is ticking, and the world is nervously getting ready for a market boom. Nobody is exactly sure where the strike will be, and speculation is already starting to stir? Will it come from stocks and bonds, equity or the property market, or perhaps the market share will turn to commodities or information as many would believe? Your guess is as good as mine, but I would like to think it depends more on what you value, than what it’s worth. Which bring me straight to the second thing that’s on my mind.

Money. From my point of view “You need’a the moola to get’a the groova”, and trying to cash in before the markets close for good is not going to be of much value. Then again you have to ask yourself what the value of anything would be, when tomorrow may be not .

And then there is always the possibility that everybody could be wrong, and that tomorrow breaks just like it did the day before, and like it will until it runs out of gas or we break it in a cock-up attempt to use it’s energy.

Weighing in the odd’s I think the best advice would be to throw a lavish Bon Voyage Shebang. That means venue, music, drink and entertainment, all of it to be booked and paid before the rush. And even if I get it COD, which makes perfect sense considering, just in case there is another day, I’d prefer to be in a financial position to pay my due. And then live my life in harmony and love, and peace and happiness just the way I have.

What’s your plan?

Lies, lies, lies

Take for instance the book of revelation. A book that was written by a spirit that had been preaching a message of peace and of love, and when he was banned by the authorities he retreated to a cave. It was the only shelter he could find, but then again the only shelter he would need to tell us of the things to come.

The author of the book of Revelation was John, but not the Baptist, although they did share a common bond. John was a spiritual teacher, much like many you would find in a man of his time. And to his fold and followers he spoke the word of God, interpreted it for those who were lost and searching for their soul.

And the word of John would bring peace. He would answer people’s questions about God and good and evil and forgiveness and salvation, for you see John was a man of God. A man that had, either by luck or suffering, been given a glance beyond the horizon of perspective to see the full plane of our existence. John was a man that had seen God, and with that been blessed to understand that we are much more than this, much more than we could ever understand. And that the reason for our existence would be pain and suffering if we would choose it such, or beautiful and bliss if that be what we worth. And low behold, it was.

If he was giving the people things that work, or things that made sense; if John was professing a word that’s true and pure and good, then chances are that he’d survive and even thrive. As well he should for giving people what they need. But then again, this is exactly the reason he was removed and banned from his own town.

John was only telling the truth, and giving people what they asked of him. And if people receive more good from a man like John than what they get for their taxes, you can see the reason why he was removed. Why, he was starting to cause unrest in the neighborhood and people were starting to refuse to pay their legal due. In a sense the man called John had inadvertently reached the delicate tipping point where the spirit comes face to face with establishment and people start to choose. Spirit always comes up trump.

In the face of such a show-off the establishment always get nasty and vindictive, and the spirit goes on doing what it always does in happiness and bliss. And such was the case with John, who moved into a cave and lived a hermits live of contentment and serenity. But such is the nature of the light, that once you meet the vantage point of life and what there is beyond, your life and everything makes sense. And in that sensibility there is nothing left but for you to tell of what you find.  And tell he did, the book we all know as Revelation.

My question now, and considering this, is do you think the Book of Revelation is anything but true? I think that we would all have to agree it is, at least to John it is. And John was a man who spoke of things that the people of his time considered more valuable than taxes.

Then lastly this: “Do you think the Book of Revelation is a prophesy of the end?” Do you think that he was sitting there in all his joy and love and kind, and thinking to find something that he could do in the happiness of the enlightened world he lived. And then in a flash of inspiration, and with all the creativity that tend to flow from being in a place as this, he then decides to write the horrors of apocalypse?

In time before time it was known that the truth shall set you free. Thank you for reading me, and do spend some time to make up your own mind. It is something I could highly recommend.

Rewards, rewards, rewards

(Eulogy to a man I never new, but greatly admire)

I recently heard of a man that lamented the loss of his soul, not that he had you see, but then neither did he. He thought that life was void of reward, and as a result he was ever depressed and always grumpy and pessimistic. So pessimistic in fact, that he became known as the biggest pessimist the world had ever seen.

He died alone, not because he thought he lost his soul, but because he was such a foul mouth sourpuss. No woman who deemed herself respective, indeed no person who had any drop of self respect would ever want to be seen near the old geezer. Of course there was a couple of friends, but they where the lucky souls that knew of him, before they knew him. The rest of the people never got a chance before he ignored, insulted, harassed or pissed them off so badly that they were at pains to make sure that their paths never crossed. That is, if they didn’t go to the police and demand that charges be laid.

In fact, somebody did in his early years. a woman he had harassed went to the police and opened a criminal case of assault against him. Assault against her personage and dignity was the charge, and she won the case. The court awarded her damages that the acclaimed philosopher had to pay for the rest of his life.

He was a pessimist because he believed that humanity will never be satisfied, no matter what the reward. In his eyes you see, life was not worth the effort it took to be alive. In fact, he was often heard to comment that the he could never understand why he continued to live himself. It was secretly guessed that he only did so to piss off a few more people before he died.

Even in the halls of higher learning, where much may be tolerated and offered before the altar of thinking and learning and human advancement did he find himself an outcast. After completing his thesis, a brilliant piece of work about the corruption and power of man’s will, only 5 students enrolled in the course he offered at the University of Berlin. He promptly refused to continue the class and cancelled the course in his signature style, ending the matter with a lengthy and public and pompous discourse on the knowledge and wisdom that accused the whole of the student body, in fact, the whole of the faculty, and indeed the institute of higher learning itself of corruption and sloth. He then added that he had walked through these hallowed halls long enough to see the fester that rots in this institution!” He made ‘institution’ sound dirty when he said it.

His public protest did fire the belly of some very bright and young upstarts, and not by his want or his will, but by divine intervention he became 'friends’ with some very talented people.

People like the quiet and demure scientist that struggled to get a tenure in academia, and ended up working in a patent office as an assistant examiner. He was passed over for promotion because he had not fully mastered ‘machine technology’, but ten years after his diploma he had produced such a body of knowledge that he was appointed “Professor Extraordinaire” for his theory of relativity. A theory that reconciled the laws of mechanics with the laws of the electromagnetic field, and introduced us to the field of quantum physics. In doing so he unleashed our own curiosity on itself, allowing us to peek into the hart of the universe, and some to venture all the way to our very soul.

People like the flamboyant composer that changed the face of music forever by abandoning the ‘happy tune’ that was then in vogue and brought to our hearts and our ear a new sound. A harmony that is richer and deeper and fuller and bigger and overwhelmingly loader than anyone could ever imagine. A symphony that reaches deep within our soul, and drags it kicking and screaming from the misery and evil that it hides, and exults it to to glorious heights of divinity where it belongs.

People who, even today are still known and revered for their contributions to the worlds of art and science and humanity. People who challenged the status quo of our existence and permanently altered the course of history. People like Friedrich Nietzsche, Richard Wagner, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Erwin Schrödinger, Albert Einstein, and Sigmund Freud.

And so the man who is known as the greatest pessimist in the history of human thought, the man who searched for 72 years but could not find a single reason to live left behind a legacy that bared our collective soul to our very own eyes, and then showed it to us in all it’s glorious magnificence.

That man was Arthur Schopenhauer, a grumpy old geezer who spent his whole life searching for reward and who was answered through the life’s and the work of the people he tolerated in his life.

Wherever you are old man, I would like you to thank you and let you know that you did good. And I guess since you died you already know the reason for life, but just in case you’re still out there searching for reward, I’d like to invite you to take a look at the legacy you left through your word. And if you’re still wandering somewhere alone in the misery of your own existence, then may I suggest you try a little love? It is after all the quality most often attributed to spirit, the very last of mysteries still left to man and the heart and soul of the legacy you left to us.

More sense and sensibility

Have you ever stopped to consider how common sense is, and what the world would be like without it?

Well, it may come as a surprise but the low down on sense is that it is not. Not common that is. In fact it would seem as if something as simple as a mutually shared sensory experience is just about the last thing we can expect.

You see, people observe the world they find according to the heuristic control of everything they believe to know. Simply put it means that people see what they expect, and the same holds true for pretty much all the commonly known senses.

Besides the fact that this innate ability is the reason for the infuriating futility of entertaining something as empty as jealousy, it also means that most of us would probably ignore the alien spacecraft that landed in our back yard, just because they don't.

And in defense of my argument on the absence of mutual sense I would like to submit into evidence the historical account of Columbus, from the native population's point of view.

The story goes that three days after Columbus dropped anchor and sails in the bay of the promised land, the native elders told of a strange dream they had. A vision that told of a massive white bird that would beach, and of strange men with strange clothes and strange customs that would step from it's fold.

It was shortly after they shared their “dream vision” that people started to notice the ships that lay anchor in plain sight for the last couple of days. Such is the power of our innate heuristic control, believe it or not.

And by a similar stroke of blind luck it would seem that we actually do not need to share such detail to communicate and grow. With half of it done it only remains to be told in the truth we behold…

I say who cares if it is common or not, the value of a picture without it’s emotional content is pretty obscure if you compare it to the full frontal quadraphonic kind, splendant and replete with enhanced 3D emotional content natively embedded.

Arrr me mateys, ahoy!

What’s up with water anyhow?

Well, I guess we could start with the obvious:

1. It is commonly known as a fluid, and it is found in all three states of matter (solid, gas and fluid) all over planet earth. Funny that, because water is in fact the only molecule that naturally occurs in all three states of matter.

2. Water is formed by a chemical bond between the two elements, oxygen and hydrogen. Two elements of oxygen combine with one element of hydrogen to form one molecule of water.

3. It is found in everything around us, yes even the iron shovel you hold in your hand or the crystal you use for channeling your healing energy. In fact, it is the third most common molecule in the universe, besides hydrogen and carbon.

4. It is found within our bodies, and in very high percentages I hasten to ad! Especially if we look at some organs like the brain.

5. Thanks to the discovery of the microscope, we also know that when water turns into a solid it forms a tightly packed lattice of tetrahedral crystals.

6. A few years ago we found out that the pattern of tetrahedral clumping as water turn in to a solid could be influenced by intention and music. This mystical ability was discovered thanks to a very observant and very lucky scientist called Dr Emoto, who observed the phenomenon and intuited it’s causality.

7. We recently discovered that this tetrahedral quality persists when water turns into a fluid, and water seem to have a natural ability to combine together in tetrahedral clumps of up to a 100 molecules each. The rest of the molecules floats around freely and disorganized, sometimes in more and sometimes in less quantities.

8. We also found that the amount of free and disorganized water molecules depend on factors such as the temperature and pressure of the fluid, and the presence of other molecules that may be dissolved within it.

Before we discovered the tetrahedral clumping, water was considered to be the odd one out amongst molecules, with some 66 qualities that distinguished it from other forms of matter. With the theory of clumping we can now start to explain some of these differences in the behavior of water.

Things like why water can absorb so much heat before it starts to boil, and why the crystalline structure of frozen water is influenced by thought. This in turn explain how crystals work, and why they have their power.

It starts to explain such mysteries as the recent finding that happiness is contagious, that music can trigger an automatic emotional response, and it provides new theories to explain the hitherto mysterious way our brain seem to work.

By discovering the tetrahedral clumping nature of water we may just have hit upon the holy grail, and suddenly a whole world of knowledge start to make sense!

What’s up with water you ask? Apparently quite a lot. It begs me to tip my hat and wink a smile at glimpsing some understanding about mystery of life, the universe and just about everything…

Baby steps I know, but giant leaps for mankind.

Dubious distinctions

Take for instance the German Philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer that has the dubious distinction of being the most articulate and influential pessimist in the history of human thought. Reading through the commentaries on his work you will quickly understand why, and if you follow the impact that Schopenhauer had on those he touched in his life you may be quite amazed to see how he may very well be the great-great-great granddaddy of Heavy Metal Rock.

According to Schopenhauer:

We flourish only at each other's expense, and evil, pain, and suffering are not aberrations but express the inner nature of the world. Our will to live is a continuing cycle of want, temporary fulfillment, and more want. New desires replace any satisfied ones, so no lasting happiness is possible. There is no overall end or purpose of life, and our will to live is doomed ultimately to fail, and we die.

(Ok, after that intro the possible link between Schopenhauer and Heavy Metal may be much more obvious than I originally thought…;-)

I stand in awe…

Arthur was born February 22 1788. He died alone, of heart failure while sitting in his armchair at home. He was 72.

If you would like to know more, drop me a note!

What is love?

The performer previously known as Prince proudly announced that love is the masterplan, while Bette Midler convincingly sings that love is a rose and Wet Wet Wet believe that love is all around.

Of the three I suppose my own point of view would be somewhere with the last , but after a quick survey it seems as if there are as many views on love as there are points in a Seurat, Signac or Cross.

The interesting thing about all of this, is just like the many points in pointillism combine to make a picture, the different views on love do exactly the same. That is, if you are prepared to change your perspective…

Touching the divine…

Whether by providence or design, my mind often plays around with the concept of divinity. In some cases these thoughts can be quite obscure since it isn’t easy to translate ideas from the realm of the spirit over to the spoken word. But then talking about God is nothing compared to the actual experience of touching the divine, and in my own mind it is as easy as play.

When consenting adults intimately share in mutual and honest physical play, and do so in love, it triggers a whole range of hormones and chemical reactions in our body that combine to result in the experience of orgasm. If you think back to your first experience that fit such a description I bet you will agree that it fits the idea of touching the divine quite nicely.

If you haven’t had an experience like that and you are over the legal age for intercourse then I would highly recommend that you try it. Orgasm is without a doubt one of the most powerful reminders of the spirit within us that we share with each other. If you are still not convinced, try reading up about tantric sex and give it some more thought. I have, and I like it!

Understanding our roots!

I cannot help but get exited every time that I find science conforming well known facts, take for instance making tea - http://shar.es/UbsZ, or the understanding that babies are the R&D department of the human species… Oh, you missed that?

Well, for the last few years we have been able to learn much more about the brain and how it works. The same is true for babies, and what we are finding out is literally turning the subject of childhood development on it’s head.

Take for instance the fact that babies start off by sleeping so much, not because they are tired, but because their brains are working at a furious pace trying to make sense of all the new information it has collected. And if trying to make sense of color doesn’t boggle your mind, then try to imagine what kind of computing power goes into a babies’ ability to recognize individuals across a range of species, including sheep.

Aren’t babies just incredible?

To Emily Dickson

It’s all a bit like making tea I suppose? Recent research has shown that making tea encourages conversation and sparks interest amongst those who would be drinking tea, and those who made it.

In the focus group and qualitative assessment, participants said they felt more relaxed when having tea, and tended to explain this with a sense of "partition", where there is an "end" or a "break" from a preceding period of anxiety.

So, beyond the fact that it contains chemicals to soothe and comfort you, the social interaction that takes place in the making of the brew is important too. Now there’s even more reason to make a cuppa, and if you can make it two, even better.

Care to join me as I do?

A tip for dad’s on babies…

Don’t compete. Don’t even try to compete and don’t for a moment consider that there is any kind of competition involved between you and The Mom. Let’s face it, you are competing against two mounds of yummy and a bond of comfort that started before the dawn of time, way before the first heartbeat was heard. It’s a bond as old as rhythm and rhyme, and dad’s simply cannot compete.

In the ideal world the bond of the dad with the baby would often be made through the love that they share with The Mom, but in these modern days that is something rare, to cherish and hold close. If you do you will see that the baby react automatically to the bond of love that is shared with The Mom and her lover.

You lucky-lucky fish.

Have you unleashed your sexual beast?

One of the things that most people seem to have a problem with these days is sex, even if it is just not getting enough of it. To complicate matters even further it is a subject that is shrouded in forbidden mystery and social taboo, not to mention religious dogma and shamed memory. Considering the odds against, it is a wonder that sex is still practiced at all! 

I think the answer to this curious state we're in can be found in the design of the human body where a few things immediately become clear:

• At the age of puberty our bodies undergo a total transformation that specifically prepare us to actively participate in the open sex market.
• The transformation that occurs at the time of puberty is not limited to physical changes, but includes a total rewiring of the brain, and activation of a new prime directive. A directive that is so overpowering that it has been known to drive some people mad.
• Besides probination, mutual sexual engagement is without argue one of the most enjoyable experiences anybody can ask for, almost as if our bodies have been uniquely designed for pleasure.
• While our environment serves up a pretty tasty array of appetizers, it is a poor excuse for the real main course… The butt naked, burning flesh mutual rapture to be had in shared orgasm.

If you combine these design specifications with an overpowering prime directive of survival you have, what some would quite rightly consider to be, a loaded weapon. Just point and shoot, or in the case of the human sexual beast, point and sniff…

Considering the facts I suppose that all the social and religious taboo that remain in society could serve some kind of purpose, but that still does not give us any reason for guilt or shame. Isn’t it about time that we start to enjoy one of the most complex and intricate design features we are capable of, the ability of pleasure.

Honesty and truth

Honesty and truth. You would think the two are pretty much the same thing, wouldn't you, but if you think about it for a moment you will see how unrealistic such an expectation would be. A very good example to demonstrate this is with photography.

By looking through a bunch of random photographs like you easily get from services such as Picasa and Photobucket there will be some that you like, and some that you don't. Of those that you don't, the nature of material will be the reason for some, while the others will be... Well... Just not to your taste.

If we compare those pictures that are "just not to your taste" to the rejections by other people, and then compensate for the approval and rejection of specific subject matter, the results will be pretty much the same across different points of view. This remains true, even across people from different cultures, although eastern and western cultures don't necessarily agree on "taste" in general.

Just like folklore, art and music; photography act as a medium that bond people together on a global scale, and the reason can be found in honesty. Any picture that portrays a moment of honesty will generally get the thumbs up from the majority of it's viewers.

And this is where the meaning between honesty and truth come to a violent separation. At least as far as photography and the other visual arts are concerned...

Performing art is a totally different matter... with performing art the relationship between the two is much more like you get with a smile, don't you think?



  

Orgasm - absolute ecstasy or emotional trip switch?

Survival is a genetically coded imperative that is reflected in our biological design. It is something that is encoded in our primitive reflexes, built in to our psychological make-up and hard wired in to our neurological circuits. The only thing that matches it in scope is pleasure. It makes sense I suppose, for what would be the point if we didn't enjoy it.

The pinnacle of this dual but opposite principle is orgasm, and it is in the moment of orgasm that we experience the utmost of what we were designed for. On the one hand it is the physical activity that sparks all the right conditions to ensure procreation, and on the other it is without argue the most pleasure that anyone can imagine! So much so that people get addicted to it.

The pleasure of orgasm is something of an enigma, but where in the past it was studied as an esoteric subject, most notably in the "art" of Tantric Sex, it has recently become the subject of serious scientific investigation. One of the first surprises we discovered is that it seems as if the brains of many women switch off during this moment of ecstasy.

According to a recent article in Scientific American the brains of the female of our species show the most muted response in the part of the brain that govern self control over basic desires with a corresponding release of tension and inhibition. In addition, the area responsible for moral reasoning and social judgment as well as the amygdala, responsible for "fear extinction" and the storage of memories associated with emotional events. One of the scientists researching in the field is even quoted as saying that women do not have any emotional feelings during the moment of orgasm.

And neither does it seem do they have any power of judgment or reflection. At least judging by the area's of their brain that still have power, which makes me wonder why certain areas switch off at all.

Could this perhaps be a design flaw, something that does not work in our otherwise perfectly adaptable biological blueprint? Or is it something that is somehow necessary, something that is crucial to the survival of us and our species?