Thursday, February 23, 2006

Dubai Got Special Deal

There are always two sides to a story, the public and the secret.

DP World agreed to disclose internal records to US

WASHINGTON - Under a secretive agreement with the Bush administration, Dubai Ports World of the United Arab Emirates promised to cooperate with US investigations as a condition of its takeover of operations at six major American ports, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press.

The US government chose not to impose other, routine restrictions.

In approving the $6.8 billion (Ð5.73 billion) purchase, the administration chose not to require state-owned Dubai Ports World to keep copies of its business records on US soil, where they would be subject to orders by American courts. It also did not require the company to designate an American citizen to accommodate requests by the government.

Though apparently Bush knew nothing about it. Deal on ports approved without Bush's knowledge With the Bushies awarding their friends in Dubai a favorable set of conditions, the apparent amnesia of King George II is not a sign of pending Alzheimers rather it is of course that old ruse of plausible deniability. In case they got caught. Which they did.
Bush insists Dubai firm is safe to run US ports

"If there was any chance that this transaction would jeopardize the security of the United States, it would not go forward." - President Bush, on Tuesday.

Wait a minute how can he say that if he didn't know anything about it? Hmmm Dubya, Dubai. Sound alot alike. Do ya think maybe he thought he was getting the contract?

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Wednesday, February 22, 2006

Chickens Have Teeth!!!


Oh my gawd we've gotta all become vegans now!

Mutant Chicken Grows Alligatorlike Teeth
But a chicken's underlying ability to grow teeth derives from a common ancestor with alligators--archosaurs--that is more recent than the one linking birds and mammals. Nevertheless, the underlying genetic mechanism that produces teeth in mice, alligators and mutant chickens remains the same.

Think of it giant killer chickens.They Walked Like Men

What's also interesting in this article is this:

Working late in the developmental biology lab one night, Matthew Harris of the University of Wisconsin noticed that the beak of a mutant chicken embryo he was examining had fallen off. Upon closer examination of the snubbed beak, he found tiny bumps and protuberances along its edge that looked like teeth--alligator teeth to be specific. The accidental discovery revealed that chickens retain the ability to grow teeth, even though birds lost this feature long ago. The finding also resurrected the controversial theory of one of the founders of comparative anatomy, Etienne Geoffroy Saint-Hillaire. In the early 19th century, Saint-Hillaire observed that developing parrots have tiny bumps on their beaks that resemble teeth, something he ascribed to modern animals deriving from more basic primitive forms. But due to his developing battles with Georges Cuvier over evolution, the finding was forgotten until Harris, a graduate student, rediscovered it nearly 200 years later.

So much for Creationism or Intelligent Design this means Chicken Have Teeth. Duck and cover Colonel, duck and cover.



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Another Prehistoric Woman


The male bias in science presumes that the humnaoid fossils we find are male.

The fact is that now more often than not they are found to be women continues to be revealed as in the case of Our Lady of Flores and now in China with the Jinniushan fossil.

Women built the ancient cities in the era of agriculture, and in earlier eras built, lived and died in the dwelling places such as caves. Cave art, ceremonial and ritual areas have been defined in terms of men, as hunter gathers rather than as being the social realm of women.

In one famous case a shamans staff with notches in it was mistakenly identified by Mircea Eliade, the historian of religion and author of Shamanism, as being a male warrior shamans power stick. It was later found that the notches coincided with the lunar cycle, and womens mensturation cycles, it was in fact a woman shamans magick wand.

(See:
William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality, and the Origins of Culture New York: St. Martin's Press, 1981)

Such is the case today with the revelation that Jinniushan was a woman.

Based on what they had, scientists' best guess was that brain size was increasing relative to body size during the Pleistocene. The Jinniushan specimen bears this out: her brain was large for her body size, even though she was larger-bodied than more primitive peoples. In fact, the lady from Jinniushan is the biggest woman yet found from the Pleistocene, weighing in at an estimated 173 pounds or so and standing some five feet tall. This led some researchers to classify her as a male specimen, but the shape of her pelvis suggests differently. "If we use modern sexing criteria, it looks clearly female," Rosenberg says. The size and apparent strength of the Jinniushan woman may have been an adaptation to a cold climate.

The reassessment of the sex of ancient humanoid fossils and the increasing number of them being female could lead one to suspect that the idea of ancient matriarchical origins of society is not so far fetched as some male chauvinist detractors claim.




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Choke!

Canada and the U.S. mens hockey teams are out of the finals. Out of the Olympics. They choked. Both NHL teams. Choked. Canada was never there in the first place.

Don Cherry, Mr. Macho complained our womens Hockey Team were to aggressive, to dominating early in the games. The men well let's call em as Grapes would, whimps, limp from start to finish. If ever a team needed Viagra (tm) or Cialis (tm) it was Canada's Mens Hockey Team. I guess maybe now Grapes might have wished that the men had run the score up like the women had.

Don Cherry criticized the Canadian women's hockey team yesterday for running up the score against their weaker opponents at the Winter Olympics. He referred to Canada's 16-0 shellacking of host Italy to open the tournament, followed by a 12-0 victory over Russia on Sunday. Cherry said the women made a big mistake. "To run up a score like that, that is wrong," said Cherry during last night's Olympic broadcast on CBC. "It is not the Canadian way."


Nope should have been like the men and choked. I cry no tears for them. I cheered
our Womens victories today, gold and silver in speed skating, silver in speed skating relay, Gold in cross country. Thats the real story the Canadian women and their victories in the 2006 Winter Olympics.

The image “http://www.cbc.ca/olympics/materials/images/content/landingpagecontent/instigator_day12.jpg” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.

And the NHL hockey loss, sorry I mean the Canadian Mens Hockey Team it will be news for a day, but put it out of your mind, they never showed up to play, they were defeated from day one.

Our women's Hockey team came to play and dominated and on Sunday Canadian, Swedish and American Women Hockey Players beamed at their wins, tears of joy not tears of defeat. Even the Americans, who would normally scowl and frown beamed. It had been a hard fight and even bronze was a victory. They all came to play and play they did.

This Winter Olympics shows the power of Canadian Women in Sport. The men in the NHL who leave Turin could learn a lesson or two from them. So could Grapes and the other macho men who complained about our aggressive women hockey players. Canadian Sports has been dominated by men, this Olympics changed that hopefully forever.





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My Way



King Ralph made his annual infommercial to the Volk of Alberta just before the opening of the annual and only required sitting of the Legislature. In the radio ads promoting the Ralph Show on CTV it was billed as Ralphs Vision for Alberta. Read or watch the Address to see how other Albertans, and I, imagine Alberta.

The Premier was to tell his volk his vision of Albertas future and we were all to ooooo and ahhhhh and then applaud. It cost us $170,000 because Ralph never uses the already paid for services of Canada's public Broadcaster CBC, and he couldn't use the Provincial TV Radio outlet ACCESS/CKUA because he privatized it.

Well his vision was certainly lacking in orginiality
Klein announces $1 billion boost to Heritage Fund and then as predicted here the King embraced the other King, King Coal. But here again his vision was blurred by the rose coloured glasses he was wearing. It wasn't imaginative but it certainly was a fantasy.

Klein also spoke enthusiastically about so-called "clean coal" technology and the need to expand research "to unlock coal's massive potential."

"We already use clean coal to meet more than half of our electricity needs," the premier said.

"The coal beneath our feet contains twice the energy of Alberta's conventional crude, natural gas and bitumen combined."

But Klein's statement about how much power is being generated from "clean coal'' was immediately challenged.

Mary Griffiths, with the Alberta-based Pembina Institute, said the province's coal plants have significant emissions, so there is no clean coal generation.

"They have emissions of sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, mercury and other heavy metals, and very large emissions of carbon dioxide which causes global warming," she said.

"I don't understand where the premier got his information from."

David Lewin, chairman of the Canadian Clean Power Coalition, also confirmed that Alberta has no coal-fired plants that meet the latest definition of "clean coal."

"We're a fair ways away from having zero emission coal-fired plants. That technology doesn't exist," said Lewin, who also gave a testimonial in the broadcast.

Alberta's newest coal-fired plant uses emissions technology from 2000, while most of the province's coal generators use 20-year-old technology, he said.

Not to be detered King Ralph also Announced that he would find a cure for
Cancer.The man is an absolute wizard.

Curing Cancer, creating clean coal technology out of thin air. He even compared Alberta to a little slice of Heaven.

"
In the future I see for Alberta, no one will need to worry about where they’ll live, or who will look after them as they enter their golden years." Yeah unlike today.

Ralph is not only our King he is an absolute Wizard. Wizard of Oz that is.

What is more important is WHAT HE DIDN'T SAY. Not a word about his much vaunted
Third Way for Health Care Reform, the real source of his My Way or the Highway. But of course this is classic Klein. He has been announcing Health Care reform for a Decade...and all we get is studies, reccomendations, more studies, focus groups, more reccomendations, Bill 11, more studies, focus groups, International Conference, and finally a private untendered contract to a health care priavteer to see if we can reintroduce the old Alberta MSI scheme.

Nil to say on 'Third Way'

The most interesting aspect of Premier Ralph Klein's annual televised address last night was not what he said - among other things a vow to put some big money in the bank - but what he did not say.

Klein missed a perfect opportunity to explain his Third Way for health care directly to Albertans, says a University of Calgary political scientist.

"If you were going to move very dramatically on health care, boy, this is your opportunity to speak to Albertans. Lay a little ground work, make headlines," David Taras said following Klein's annual televised address.


And he had nothing to say about changing Alberta's draconian pro employer labour laws that became a public outrage this summer during the violent Tysons Strike, which his labour Minister promised would be changed by the legislature. Not done in the the fall session nor apparently on the agenda for this spring session. Another hollow promise to the workers and immigrants in this province.

Yep the outgoing, soon to retire, wait another year, I promise I will go, King Ralph's vision was myopic despite the rose coloured glasses. He is in serious need of corrective lenses.


Mr. Mensah said the popular Premier, who has said this will be his fourth and final term, could regain much-needed credibility with the public if he can quickly outline a clear vision for Alberta's bulging coffers.

"What we've gotten so far hasn't really addressed that question of long-term planning," he said.

Mr. Gibbins agreed, saying that Mr. Klein hasn't communicated where he wants to take Canada's wealthiest province in the coming years.

"He's thinking bigger, but it's hard for Albertans to connect the dots in his thinking," Mr. Gibbins said, mentioning recent spending announcements, including $1-billion for cancer research and treatment.

He is all about doing it My Way, Perhaps he should be singing If I Only Had A Brain or a Heart.

And now, the end is near,
And so I face the final curtain.
My friends, I'll say it clear;
I'll state my case of which I'm certain.

I've lived a life that's full -
I've travelled each and every highway.
And more, much more than this,
I did it my way.

Regrets? I've had a few,
But then again, too few to mention.
I did what I had to do
And saw it through without exemption.

I planned each charted course -
Each careful step along the byway,
And more, much more than this,
I did it my way.

Yes, there were times, I'm sure you knew,
When I bit off more than I could chew,
But through it all, when there was doubt,
I ate it up and spit it out.
I faced it all and I stood tall
And did it my way.

Frank Sinatra My Way



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Tuesday, February 21, 2006

Gothic Capitalism Redux


A year ago I published this essay on horror literature , legends and mythology and their cultural impact on the modernist culture of 20th Century Capitalism. I thought it was worth posting the abstract for it here, with the link back to the original article.

It is a piece of original writing that counters the concept that the blogosphere is dying, or just about diaries, or lacks the depth of other forms of web based publishing, or publishing period.

It is buried deep in the dusty back pages of this blog and so I blow the cobwebs off it and present here f
or those who missed it the first time around. Yes I am rather proud of it....just like Dr. Frankenstein, "It's Alive", when the creature arose from the slab. I guess like the good doctor you could say I am reanimating this essay.

I left out the Vampire in this essay but later in the year found an excellent article on the subject that fit my thesis. I also have expanded on my writings on cyborg culture and AI since then.


GOTHIC CAPITALISM

The Horror of Accumulation and the Commodification of Humanity.

ABSTRACT:

This article is in six parts with appendices. All footnotes are at the end of the article

1 ZOMBIE CAPITALISM
In Haiti under American Imperialism, 1915-1935, the cult of the Zombie developed and under capitalism became a tool for creating a docile labouring class for work on American controlled sugar plantations. With the publication of the Magic Island by William Seabrook in 1929 American popular culture was introduced to the Zombie, and it quickly became a popular character in horror literature, news stories and movies.


2 FRANKENSTEIN THE LUDDITE
The first monster of ascendant capitalism was Frankenstein’s monster. Like the Zombie this creature had no name and was made up of the spare parts of capitalisms rejects, (the criminal, the vagabond, the worker starved and thrown out of work), he was a scientific experiment to create man, man the machine, the human result of mechanization, the mechanical man. He was in short a prototype not only of the Zombie but the later Robot or android, the ultimate proletarian, a machine man to operate the machinery of capitalism.

3 REVOLT OF THE ROBOTS
Like the mechanized working class the majority of robots in science fiction revolt against their human masters, whether it is the artificial environment of the spaceship computer Hal in 2001, the worker robot Hector in Saturn 3, or the artificial human ‘replicants’ in Blade Runner, or the recent movie version of I, Robot, the fact remains that as the robots become self conscious they recognize their oppression and revolt. This metaphor could not exist without the class struggle that has actually occurred under capitalism itself.


4
THE GOLEM: the Origin of Artificial Man
The Jewish legend of the Golem is another form of the Zombie/Frankenstein/Robot iconography. The Golem is written after Frankenstein, in 1889. The legend of the Golem, is about a man of clay created by Rabbi Loew in 16th Century Prague to free the Jews in the Ghetto from their endless toil and oppression. The mindless clay monster eventually learns and becomes conscious and like Frankenstein he must be destroyed when he attacks those who would oppress the Jews.

5
CAPITALIST GHOULS
The modern day ghoul is the doctor and his criminal working class accomplices who preyed on the poor in Edinburgh’s working class ghetto for their body parts for scientific research. The ghoul appears in English literature as the short story the Body Snatchers by Robert Louis Stevenson, 1881 based on the actual 19th century grave robbers and murders Burke and Hare.


6 THE MANY HEADED HYDRA: The Proletarian History of Atlantic Expansion. Leviathan and the Great Beast go head to head in the New World as workers, peasants, slaves and indigineous peoples struggle for liberty in the first age of global capitalism.

If you would like you can download GOTHIC CAPTIALISM as a PDF or Word Doc


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We Are The Champions...of Freedom


While George Bush plots how to invade Iran or bomb it back to the stone age, Iran has embraced the ultimate in Satanic Western Culture, Rock n Roll.

Freddy Mercury and Queen are being sold and distributed in Iran something Freddy had always wanted, since he was Iranian.

So while American right wing Christian fundamentalists burn rock n roll albums and denounce homosexuality, claiming their way is the white, er right way and chastise Muslims for being intolerant, Freddy and Queen rock Persia.

And during the protests over the Muhammed cartoons Queen albums were not burned in Iran. Take that Tony Blair.



Queen album brings rock to Iran
Rock band Queen, fronted by gay icon Freddie Mercury, has become the first rock act to receive an official seal of approval in Iran. Western music is strictly censored in the Islamic republic, where homosexuality is considered a crime. But an album of Queen's greatest hits was released in Iran on Monday.

Mercury, who died in 1991, was proud of his Iranian ancestry, and illegal bootleg albums and singles made Queen one of the most popular bands in Iran.

The cassette, costing less than $1 (55 pence), comes complete with translated lyrics and an explanatory leaflet.

It tells Queen fans that Bohemian Rhapsody is about a young man who has accidentally killed someone and, like Faust, sold his soul to the devil.

On the night before his execution he calls God in Arabic, "Bismillah", and so regains his soul from Satan.

Freddie Mercury
Queen's gay frontman Freddie Mercury had Iranian ancestors

Akbar Safari, a salesman at a Tehran book and record store, said the album was already selling very well.

"It is the first rock album to hit the market legally and people are surprised and pleased to see it has the lyrics, not just the music," he said.



A tip o the blog to
The Mystery of the Haunted Vampire for this. The article goes on to talk about how Rock n Roll subverted the USSR more than anything Carter, Reagan or Radio Free America, now off the air, could do. So true.

Hungarian communism collapsed in 1989, and Simonyi, now 51, still believes rock can set you free. "Today, there is criticism that rock is imperialistic," he says. "Nonsense. Only dictators are afraid of rock."

Yep everyone knows that the music of American Imperialism is Country and Western. Of course that's commercial C&W, cause real outlaws don't support Bush and his war.

And unlike those authoritarian Mullahs in Iran, even the Pope is afraid of Rock n Roll.....the revolution continues Rock On!

The Pope Hates Rock and Roll!

Forget gay marriage, women priests, abortion and euthanasia. Here's the real reason why you should all FEAR THE POPE!

In a small volume published in 2000 called The Spirit of the Liturgy, itself an expansion of an essay Ratzinger wrote in 1986, the future pope argued," 'Rock'... is the expression of elemental passions, and at rock festivals, it assumes a cultic character, a form of worship, in fact, in opposition to Christian worship. People are, so to speak, released from themselves by the experience of being part of a crowd and by the emotional shock of rhythm, noise, and special lighting effects. However, in the ecstasy of having all their defenses torn down, the participants sink, as it were, beneath the elemental force of the universe."


We Are The Champions

Song Duration 2:57
Written by Freddie Mercury.
Sung by Freddie Mercury.

 we Are The    champions cover
Listen to Midi file

Comments

Released 7th October, 1977. Spent 10 weeks on chart and reached number 2. Went Gold.

Lyrics

I've paid my dues
Time after time
I've done my sentence
But committed no crime
And bad mistakes
I've made a few
I've had my share of sand
Kicked in my face
But I've come through

And we mean to go on and on and on and on

We are the champions - my friends
And we'll keep on fighting
Till the end
We are the champions
We are the champions
No time for losers
'Cause we are the champions of the World

I've taken my bows
And my curtain calls
You brought me fame and fortune
And everything that goes with it
I thank you all
But it's been no bed of roses
No pleasure cruise
I consider it a challenge before
The whole human race
And I ain't gonna lose

And we mean to go on and on and on and on

We are the champions - my friends
And we'll keep on fighting
Till the end
We are the champions
We are the champions
No time for losers
'Cause we are the champions of the World

We are the champions - my friends
And we'll keep on fighting
Till the end
We are the champions
We are the champions
No time for losers
'Cause we are the champions




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Relatively Speaking



A new study suggests our primate relatives are quick learners, and as tool makers are evolving.
Captive gorillas have cultural differences: study Genetics or environment alone cannot explain variations in the behavior of different groups of the apes, a study found. Behavioral surveys of the roughly 370 gorillas in U.S. zoos showed 48 variations in how individual groups of the apes make signals, use tools and seek comfort, said Tara Stoinski of Zoo Atlanta and the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International. Such examples of learned behaviors, when passed down from generation to generation, may have an influence on evolution, said Carel von Schaik, an orangutan expert at the University of Zurich."You can also argue that cultural species will become smarter species," von Schaik said.
Chimps have been found to use tool kits. Showing that they too are evolving along human like lines. Chimps filmed for first time using a 'tool kit'

Just as Engels wrote 130 years ago.

The Part played by Labour in the Transition from Ape to Man

It stands to reason that if erect gait among our hairy ancestors became first the rule and then, in time, a necessity, other diverse functions must, in the meantime, have devolved upon the hands. Already among the apes there is some difference in the way the hands and the feet are employed. In climbing, as mentioned above, the hands and feet have different uses. The hands are used mainly for gathering and holding food in the same way as the fore paws of the lower mammals are used. Many apes use their hands to build themselves nests in the trees or even to construct roofs between the branches to protect themselves against the weather, as the chimpanzee, for example, does. With their hands they grasp sticks to defend themselves against enemies, or bombard their enemies with fruits and stones. In captivity they use their hands for a number of simple operations copied from human beings. It is in this that one sees the great gulf between the undeveloped hand of even the most man-like apes and the human hand that has been highly perfected by hundreds of thousands of years of labour. The number and general arrangement of the bones and muscles are the same in both hands, but the hand of the lowest savage can perform hundreds of operations that no simian hand can imitate-no simian hand has ever fashioned even the crudest stone knife.

The first operations for which our ancestors gradually learned to adapt their hands during the many thousands of years of transition from ape to man could have been only very simple ones. The lowest savages, even those in whom regression to a more animal-like condition with a simultaneous physical degeneration can be assumed, are nevertheless far superior to these transitional beings. Before the first flint could be fashioned into a knife by human hands, a period of time probably elapsed in comparison with which the historical period known to us appears insignificant. But the decisive step had been taken, the hand had become free and could henceforth attain ever greater dexterity; the greater flexibility thus acquired was inherited and increased from generation to generation.

Thus the hand is not only the organ of labour, it is also the product of labour. Only by labour, by adaptation to ever new operations, through the inheritance of muscles, ligaments, and, over longer periods of time, bones that had undergone special development and the ever-renewed employment of this inherited finesse in new, more and more complicated operations, have given the human hand the high degree of perfection required to conjure into being the pictures of a Raphael, the statues of a Thorwaldsen, the music of a Paganini.

Much more important is the direct, demonstrable influence of the development of the hand on the rest of the organism. It has already been noted that our simian ancestors were gregarious; it is obviously impossible to seek the derivation of man, the most social of all animals, from non-gregarious immediate ancestors. Mastery over nature began with the development of the hand, with labour, and widened man's horizon at every new advance. He was continually discovering new, hitherto unknown properties in natural objects. On the other hand, the development of labour necessarily helped to bring the members of society closer together by increasing cases of mutual support and joint activity, and by making clear the advantage of this joint activity to each individual. In short, men in the making arrived at the point where they had something to say to each other. Necessity created the organ; the undeveloped larynx of the ape was slowly but surely transformed by modulation to produce constantly more developed modulation, and the organs of the mouth gradually learned to pronounce one articulate sound after another.


And recent studies in Chimp DNA finds them closer to humans than previously thoughtA chimp link for human evolution

And the idea of the Golden Age of Matriarchy which Engels and later writers made reference to appears as part of at least one chimpanzee culture.

And their culture is not unlike what Wilhelm Reich found inMalinwoski's study of
Trobriand Islanders that along with their gift economy, they had unique sex positive culture which is still true today, that Matriarchical societies, unlike patriarchies, are sex positive and non violent.

It is not only early human civilizations like the Trobriand who practice primitive communism through a gift economy, matriarchical property relations and a sex positive culture, but it appears that this is also true of our primate relatives as well.

Humans could learn a thing or two from primates, researcher says

Humans, de Waal says, should pay more attention to the way a few thousand surviving wild bonobos live out their lives in matriarchal bands deep in Africa's humid Congo rainforests. Not so much because of their sexuality, but their ability to reject violence and maintain peace.

Bonobos and chimpanzees are humans' closest relatives, each sharing more than 98 percent of the same genes as humans. But science has spent much more time studying chimps because they share our propensity for violent, murderous territorial ambition.

"When humans behave murderously, such as inflicting senseless slaughter of innocents in warfare, we like to blame it on some dark, `animalistic' instinct," de Waal said in an interview here.

"When we do good things," he continued, "act with generosity and compassion towards others, we like to credit our own `humaneness,' as though only humans can act that way."

In fact, as his book points out, emotional responses such as generosity, compassion and forgiveness play out constantly in the daily lives of wild and captive chimps and bonobos, as do jealousy and reprisal, just as they do in human lives.

Comparing humans genetically to bonobos and chimps, de Waal said, is like comparing dogs to foxes, they are so close. The other two great ape species, gorillas and orangutans, aren't far behind, so studying how they live offers clues to the most primal human behaviors.

"We (humans) are apes. Darwin didn't go far enough," said de Waal, shrugging off the religious creationist movement currently trying to question the theory of evolution.

"We are smart apes. We are bipedal apes. But we are apes."


Ben Bova: Encounters with our cousin apes

Sunday, February 19, 2006

I was attacked by a gorilla once. In Philadelphia.

Well, "attacked" is probably too strong a word. Let's say "accosted."

I'll tell you the story shortly, but first I want to say a few words about a book that reminded me of the incident. It's "Almost Us," by William H. Calvin, affiliate professor of psychiatry and behavioral science at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle.

"About Us," though, is a picture book. It consists of photographs Calvin has made over the years of apes: chimps, gorillas, orangutans and bonobos (once called pygmy chimps but now known to be a separate species).

The photos are charming; some of them are really funny. Together with Calvin's comments on the pictures, this slim book brings home how much like us the primate apes are. The apes look out from the pages with expressions we recognize: happy, suspicious, cunning, even sneering.

Calvin's point is that the primate apes are indeed almost us: They exhibit great similarities to our own facial expressions and behavior. They're part of our extended family; or rather, we're part of theirs.


Psychologist apes monkeys' parenting skills

The Tempe psychologist has just published her first book, Parenting for Primates, which chronicles her experiences as the "Monkey Lady," who has raised more than 50 cotton-top tamarins.

Smith wrote the book to help parents realize that they don't automatically know how to raise children and that their instincts sometimes need to be developed

"Parenting isn't automatic for people any more than it is for monkeys," she said. "Mothers say to me, 'I don't have that maternal instinct - what do I do?' A lot of couples I've worked with have dealt with postpartum depression, and they feel so inadequate."


picture of troop of bonobos

Peace-Loving Primates' Population Plummets

Washington - Bonobos, or pygmy chimpanzees, arguably our closest relative, may have been hunted so extensively that the survival of the species is at risk, World Wildlife Fund warns.


"The world could soon lose the primate species that shares the greatest genetic connection to humans," said Richard Carroll, a primatologist and director of WWF's Central Africa program. "Bonobos are fascinating creatures and little understood. They have the only great ape society led by females, with a sophisticated social structure that encourages cooperation and peace and settles disputes through sex. If humans allow our closest relatives to go extinct, we have failed as a species."

Found only in the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo in Central Africa, bonobos were believed to number as many as 50,000. But preliminary results from the first systematic survey of a known bonobo stronghold found more evidence of poachers than bonobos, indicating that there may be as few as 10,000 left in the wild. Bonobos, along with other species, are targeted by hunters for meat for personal consumption and for the commercial bushmeat trade.


Also See:

A Murder of Crows

Prisons Need Police Society Needs Mediators

Primate Man

Mutual Aid

Evolution

Anarchism and Authority


Wilhelm Reich

The Sexual Revolution Continues



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Canada's CEO's Full of Hot Air

Empower provinces, CEOs say taxing spending rather than earning by expanding RRSP contribution limits, lower taxes levied on investment income and create a tax prepaid savings plan which the Conservatives announced in the final days of the election. Once again taxing us to benefit the rich.

And they want to see our education system re-tooled like they have re-tooled and Toyotaized manufacturing.

Other recommendations include:

encouraging Ottawa and the provinces to take the lead in establishing benchmarks to measure performance of schools;

taking steps to attract more skilled immigrants;

setting up a Commercialization Partnership Board, led by business, to review and recommend programs for commercializing research;

offering more support, including scholarships, grants and loans, to students;

This is the education agenda of Canada's CEO's and not suprizingly it coincides with this report from Manpower Inc. The outsourcing temp worker exploiter.


Where's the talent?

Survey shows two-thirds of employers in Canada are struggling to find qualified job candidates

“These factors are combining to create a shortage in availability and in specific skills and competencies.”

Worldwide, employers having the most difficulty finding the right people to fill jobs are in Mexico, Canada and Japan. The talent shortage appears to be least problematic in India, Manpower said.

“Among the actions required to address these shortages in the coming years are enhanced links with schools, investment in training, re-skilling and up-skilling employees and flexible use of talent,” said Ms. Procher.

The global head of Manpower spoke of the need for appropriate job training.

“Anyone who is currently searching for a new job or a different career path should...set their sights on getting the education and training required to pursue one of these promising career paths,” said Jeffrey Joerres, chief executive of Manpower Inc.

Forget liberal arts post secondary education, everyone is out to create or gain skills. Job training. Paid for by you and I of course and not the corporations who demand it. There they go again wanting something for nothing. Tax Breaks for the rich and corporations, commercialization and private profit from post secondary education R & D, and the working class can pay for their own job training and their kids too.




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King Coal

King Klein will announce to his people today that he has no plan for the future, that the billion dollar give aways will not continue, cause he has no plan, because a planned economy of course is communist. He will announce much to the joy of the right wing coal lobby; Energy Probe, that King Coal has returned to dominance in the province.

We were once the source of coal for most of the country, before Leduc #1 made us the petro capital of Canada. Now with the need for more energy, King Coal will return to dominance in the province. Oh joy more pollution, more acid rain, more climate warming. The King is Dead lon live the King. Oh joy. All is right in Ralph's world.



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