new studies

oct 19 2010, from my backyard

they were both right, say i.

http://www.prosebeforehos.com/image-of-the-day/08/24/huxley-vs-orwell-infinite-distraction-or-government-oppression/

saturn's day's child

Alexander Cornelius Polyhistor referred to the Druids as philosophers and called their doctrine of the immortality of the soul and reincarnation or metempsychosis "Pythagorean":

"The Pythagorean doctrine prevails among the Gauls' teaching that the souls of men are immortal, and that after a fixed number of years they will enter into another body."

"The principal point of their doctrine", says Caesar, "is that the soul does not die and that after death it passes from one body into another" (see metempsychosis). Caesar wrote:

"With regard to their actual course of studies, the main object of all education is, in their opinion, to imbue their scholars with a firm belief in the indestructibility of the human soul, which, according to their belief, merely passes at death from one tenement to another; for by such doctrine alone, they say, which robs death of all its terrors, can the highest form of human courage be developed. Subsidiary to the teachings of this main principle, they hold various lectures and discussions on astronomy, on the extent and geographical distribution of the globe, on the different branches of natural philosophy, and on many problems connected with religion".

—Julius Cesar, "De Bello Gallico", VI, 13

This led Diodorus Siculus and others to the unlikely conclusion that the druids may have been influenced by the teachings of Pythagoras,^[18] One modern scholar has speculated that Buddhist missionaries had been sent by the Indian king Ashoka.^[19] Others have invoked common Indo-European parallels.^[20]

^[[[ Irish has no indefinite article, so "a day and a night" is the same as "day and night"^]]]

Sideritis syriaca

Greek Mountain Tea and bloody finger tips. I am suddenly nocturnal.
I fall asleep at five in the morning and wake up at two or three. Or four. Or five.
& I smith all night. All night. I am the sober, nocturnal silversmith.
Drinking mountain tea by the gallon.

Seven of my fingers are bleeding. From files, snips, saws, edges, hammers.
I sleep on the couch. I've slept on the couch for almost a year now. With
the lights on. Mountain tea. Ironwort. I seem to be getting younger.

Went to the beach and shot arrows at the moon at three in the morning. Lost three arrows.

I made a set of copper runes. And an antler ring. And a chainmail necklace with wisdom teeth and bear claws. The tea is best hot, with honey or lemon or both. It smells like field flowers; tansy and chickory and horsetail and pineapple weed. Like lemon and metal. Strong.

My fingers are bleeding. Time for a salt bath. I can't believe it's dark already.

I haven't seen daylight in three days. At least.

explanation of my current state.

I have no prefrontal cortex. I lent it to my daughter and
she left it on the bus.

I'm not quite myself.

On Drinking.

.

I am confuse.

.

symbolism: the language of reality.

This sick, fat, tick-looking motherfucker eats your tongue and then plants itself in the place where your tongue was. Then it continues to grow, steals your food and probably makes off-colour comments to people so that you get beat up a lot (and, thus, your mouth is full of delicious blood more often).

Were I charged with recreating the earth and I thought of this I'd immediately follow that thought with, "Wow. That's fucking crazy, shan. No such thing. Impossible."

Look at that abomination. It has a face. It's emoting. Look at its fat legs. I'd kill myself. If I woke up and saw that my tongue had been replaced by a fist-sized, bloodless, leggy, maggotty-assed parasite I'd just calmly gather pharmaceuticals and get a bottle of absinthe and give up the ghost.

No problema, guera.

Reichstag zu Worms

Yesterday evening I earned the trust of a skunk.

It took a several hours and I experienced pangs of guilt while I was doing it because it's not fair to teach any wild animal to trust my kind. But I did anyway. Mea culpa.

He or she was very cute; stumpy little bear legs with long, black diggerclaws, head like a tiny seal and the suspicion of an abuela. I could tell its sight was poor and it threw its head around to smell me every time I moved. Probably only three or four months old. I knew its mother when she was pregnant. We called her "Shufflebutt". She had a litter of six or seven kits and they followed her around like monochromatic ducklings, tripping over their own front legs.

After a couple of hours of hissing at me and stomping its feet and threatening to spray me it started letting me get closer until I could wave my arms over it and it no longer scurried away.

I think I'll name it Priest. It dresses like one and spreads its message in a similar manner. Plus, I'm reasonably sure that both (priests and skunks) can survive on a diet of worms.

Priest. How lovely. Namaste.

The Questions of King Milinda

BOOK III. CHAPTER 6.

1. The king said: 'Is the body, Nâgasena, dear to you recluses?'

'No, they love not the body.'

'Then why do you nourish it and lavish attention upon it?'

'In all the times and places, O king, that you have gone down to battle, did you never get wounded by an arrow?'

'Yes, that has happened to me.'

'In such cases, O king, [74] is not the wound anointed with salve, and smeared with oil, and bound up in a bandage.'

'Yes, such things are done to it.'

'What then? Is the wound dear to you that you treat it so tenderly, and lavish such attention upon it?'

'No, it is not dear to me in spite of all that, which is only done that the flesh may grow again.'

'Just so, great king, with the recluses and the body. Without cleaving to it do they bear about the body for the sake of righteousness of life. The body, O king, has been declared by the Blessed One to be like a wound. And therefore merely as a sore, and without cleaving to it, do the recluses bear about the, body. For it has been said by the Blessed One:

"Covered with clammy skin, an impure thing and foul,
Nine-apertured, it oozes, like a sore 1."'

'Well answered, Nâgasena!'

It was the ultimate expression of road rage. A furious woman driver died after ramming another vehicle and spinning her wheels so fast that her own car burst into flames.

Serena Sutton-Smith, 54, burnt to death after refusing to get out of her Vauxhall Nova as she sat with her foot flat on the accelerator.

She spun the wheels so fast that her tyres disintegrated and the metal rims sent a shower of sparks into the engine, igniting the brake fluid and setting the car on fire.

Appalled onlookers urged her to get out of the car as the flames licked around her but she told them to “F*** off”, an inquest in Gloucester was told.

space tastes like raspberries. t or f.

Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn, were searching space for evidence of amino acids: the basic chemicals from which life is created.

They told the Guardian newspaper that, despite failing to locate any such aminos, they did find a substance called ethyl formate, the chemical responsible for the flavour of raspberries.

broad flat nails

When Plato gave Socrates' definition of man as "featherless bipeds" and was much praised for the definition, Diogenes plucked a chicken and brought it into Plato's Academy, saying, "Behold! I've brought you a man." After this incident, "with broad flat nails" was added to Plato's definition.^[16]

He used to stroll about in full daylight with a lamp; when asked what he was doing, he would answer, "I am just looking for a human being."^[14]

In his new home, Athens, Diogenes' mission became the metaphorical adulterating/defacing of the "coinage" of custom. Custom, he alleged, was the false coin of human morality. Instead of being troubled by what is really evil, people make a big fuss over what is merely conventionally evil. This distinction between nature ("physis") and custom ("nomos") is a favorite theme of ancient Greek philosophy, and one that Plato takes up in The Republic, in the legend of the Ring of Gyges.^[7]

Diogenes was a self-appointed public scold whose mission was to demonstrate to the ancient Greeks that civilization is regressive. He taught by living example that wisdom and happiness belong to the man who is independent of society. Diogenes scorned not only family and political social organization, but property rights and reputation. The most shocking feature of his philosophy is his rejection of normal ideas about human decency. Exhibitionist and philosopher, Diogenes is said to have eaten^[34] (and once masturbated)^[13] in the marketplace, urinated on some people who insulted him,^[35] defecated in the theatre,^[36] and pointed at people with his middle finger.^[37] Sympathizers considered him a devotee of reason and an exemplar of honesty. Detractors have said he was an obnoxious beggar and an offensive grouch.

In this sense, Zen, as a means to deepen the practice and in contrast to many other religions, could be seen as fiercely anti-philosophical, iconoclastic, anti-prescriptive and anti-theoretical. The importance of Zen's non-reliance on written words is often misunderstood as being against the use of words. However, Zen is deeply rooted in both the scriptural teachings of the Buddha Siddhārtha Gautama and in Mahāyāna Buddhist thought and philosophy. What Zen emphasizes is that the awakening taught by the Buddha came through his meditation practice, not from any words that he read or discovered, and so it is primarily through meditation that others too may awaken to the same insights as the Buddha.

इ वास ओं थे बस. २२३०? २३००? देफिनितेली थे १३५. आफ्टर क्लास आफ्टर थे पुब. इ सव थिस अड़ उप अलोंग थे टॉप ऑफ़ थे बस वाल. इ एक्ष्पेरिएन्केद अन इन्तेंसे देसिरे तो टेक थे अड़ एंड इ रेअसोनेद ठाट इ दिदं'टी वांट थे ड्राईवर तो सी में एंड फील अंगरी और रिप्पेद-ऑफ़ सो इ फिगुरेड इ'डी जुस्त आस्क हिम इफ इ कोउल्ड टेक आईटी. "हेल्लो", इ सैद, "इ वास वोंदेरिंग इफ इ कोउल्ड टेक ओने ऑफ़ थे एड्स."

"ऊउउह", हे सैद, "वेल, यू क्नोव, उह, अद्वेर्तिसेर्स पे फॉर ठोस तो बे ओं डिसप्ले, एंड..." (हे वेंट ओं फॉर अ व्हिले हियर. हे दिदं'टी क्नोव वहत तो से सो हे वास रेअसोनिंग अलौद. इ हद हद ४ बिर्स - नोट एनौघ तो बे स्लोप्प्य, जुस्त एनौघ तो बे इनात्तेंतिवे तो लेक्टुरेस अबाउट अद्वेर्तिसिंग. इ वैतेद उन्तिल हे पौसेद).

"बुत इ'म अन आर्टिस्ट", इ सैद, "एंड इ वांट तो मके सोमेथिंग आउट ऑफ़ आईटी".
"वेल..." हे सैद.
"लुक", इ सैद, तू क़ुइएत्ल्य फॉर थे ओथेर पस्सेंगेर्स तो हेअर, "वहत इ वांट तो क्नोव इस: अरे यू गोइंग तो चेस में व्हेन इ टेक थे अड़"?

वे वेरे स्तोप्पेद नार थे एंट्रेंस ऑफ़ थे पने. हे द्रोप्पेद हिस हेड एंड थें तुर्नेद तो लुक अत में विथ अ कांफुसेद हलफ स्मिले. इ मिर्रोरेड सैद कांफुसेद हलफ स्मिले.

हे चुच्क्लेद एंड चेक्केद हिस मिर्रोर एंड पुल्लेद बेक ओंतो हास्टिंग्स एंड सैद, "नव, इ'म नोट गोंना चेस यू". & इ सैद, "ठनक यू"! एंड इ मेड सुर तो ब्लेस हिम विथ अन एलाबोराते साइन ऑफ़ थे क्रॉस व्हेन इ पीलेद थे अड़ ऑफ़ थे वाल अस इ गोत ऑफ़ थे बस. हे लौघेद.

इ लौघेद अल थे वे होम.

इ लव थिस पोस्टर.