globalnook

Manatee as one of God's Critters

   The manatee, the sad-eyed, slow-moving, creature found in the Florida glades, is the most wonderful amalgamation of “other-animal” characteristics evolution has ever created.

   Nature has borrowed from several other very diverse critters to create this one.

   Men who now about these things always point to the Australian platypus as the prime example of this characteristic.

   The platypus has the bill of a duck, the tail of a beaver and fur like four-legged, land-dwelling mammals. It has two “arms” and two “legs” with webbing to facilitate swimming underwater.

   The manatee, on the other hand, has no visible ears,  the eyes of a  St. Bernard dog, the bulbous, bulging snout of a walrus and the white, ashen-gray color of an elephant. The upper extremities are nothing more than nature-provided paddles.

  There is no differentiation of fingers, toes etc. to facilitate swimming. The lower extremity is a single tail fin like a dolphin which is perpendicular to the face.

  They are totally defenseless. If one is attacked,  they can’t swim quickly away, fend off enemies with sharp claws or keep an enemy at bay with bites or horns.

  Its safe to say that the manatee, in its evolutionary journey over the millenia,  has been varied and rich.

Self-Knowledge

  Self-knowledge is the most valuable of all human intelligence.

  Self-knowledge provides insights into our intrinsic selves like no other information.

  Self-knowledge represents a model of self which, once developed, indicates all of the characteristics of that self.

  Self- knowledge allows us to know who we are and allows us to predict how we will react in any number of life situations.

  Self-knowledge provides clues of greater things to come, but it can also be a warning to be on your guard.

  Self-knowledge is the key to understanding others. Only when you understand yourself can you begin to understand others. Your understanding of self is your benchmark for understanding others.

  Self-knowledge is the only knowledge which enables one to have almost total control over one’s self. It is the sustainer, the protector and the source of freedom. It is a total package and it serves our intrinsic selves like no other knowledge.

  Self-knowledge, once developed, becomes the bedrock of the human psychoscape.  Socrates said it much more succinctly and effectively than I when he said: “Know thyself”.

                                                             ******

More Favorite Quotes

   Our worst fear is not that we are inadequate.
     Our deepest fear is that we are too powerful beyond measure.
     It is our light, not our darkness, which frightens us the most.
     We ask ourselves: "Who am I to be so brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?"
     Actually, who are you not to be?
     You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn't serve the world.
     There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you.
     We were born to make manifest the glory of God within us.
     It is not just in some of us, it is in everyone and, as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
     As we are liberated from our fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

                                                                                                     -  Nelson Mandela

     Follow love and it will flee, flee love and it will follow thee.
                         
                                                                                                    -  Chinese Proverb
  

Sir Isaac Newton Would Be SOOOOO Proud!

      Oh, if Sir Isaac Newton were alive today he would be so proud that human beings had come up with a contraption—a computer--which validates all of the high-flying mathematical calculations he was putting together in the late 17^th century.

      The basis for all computer functionality is mathematics. A computer is essentially an intricately-woven embroidery of mathematical systems which reference one another.

      Take storage, for instance. All hard drives store data in numbered locations and mathematical algorhithms locate and deliver this data to the user.

      Loading data into memory, the basic functionality which makes all computers work, requires precise mathematical calculations. A single misplaced digit and data won’t load.

      The seven layers of the TCP/IP stack--the basic programming which enables the internet—is an intricately-woven fabric of interlocking mathematical calculations. One of the true majesties of the TCP/IP stack is that the last 3 layers use three totally different numerical notation systems and each interfaces perfectly with the other not only within that layer,  but across the layers above it and below it.

        At layer 3, the network addressing layer, decimal notation—numbers based on 10-is used to assign addresses to nodes and networking devices. At layer 2, which provides authentication to passing packets and preps the data to be put on the wire, MAC addresses are in hexadecimal notation which are 16-based numbers. At layer 1, the point at which data is actually placed on the wire, everything is translated into binary, a numerical system based on the number 2.  Binary is the basic notational system of all computing.

        I suspect that, in the late 1600s when he was toiling away at his great work, the Principia Mathematica, Sir Isaac had to wonder if the masses would ever make practical use of his superhuman mathematical expressions.

       The great genius had to wonder just how future generations would use this great knowledge. In my heart, I don’t believe that he ever imagined that the common man would ever have a contraption called a computer.

       Well, Sir Isaac, if you were alive today and witnessed modern man with his networked desktops, his speciality laptops, his Ipods, his blackberries, his hand-helds and his cell phones, you would know that all your great discoveries were not in vain.

        You would be so proud… oh, so very, very proud.

                                                                      ******

Tebow Deserved Another Heisman!

   Sports has a truth to it which reason cannot imagine.

   Men spend their lives trying to discover truth and the nature of reality, but sports produces a blunt cold truth which extends beyond human reason. It proves superiority in the most majestic, truly irrefutable manner.

    Never has superiority been demonstrated more convincingly than Tim Tebow’s performance during last week’s Florida/Oklahoma game.

    Since we know that football is an art form which human beings have created to release their aggressions, modern college football is a civilized form of war. Human beings can release their aggressions without killing one another.

    If football is war, then Tim Tebow is Achilles. He has proven his true mastery of football against his toughest opponents over the past two years

    But the Heisman committee didn’t think so.

    They didn’t want Tebow hogging the spotlight two years in a row. They needed some fresh blood. After all, Tebow set a precedent last year when he won the Heisman as a sophomore. The Heisman folks decided:”Wasn’t that enough? Who does this guy think he is?”

    Not that Sam Bradford is not a great quarterback and a great football player. It’s just that, if the Heisman trophy pretends to select the best college football player in the land, then it should go to the BEST.

    Last Thursday night, Tebow led his troops to a resounding victory over the Heisman winner and his fellow soldiers.

    The Heisman Committee didn’t believe—or didn’t want to believe—just how good Tebow is.

    Of course, it’s pretty stupid for the Heisman committee to pick the winner before the season ends. It’s like critiquing an actor for his performance before the play has ended.

    In this case, TRUE greatness went unrecognized and the Heisman committee missed the boat.

    Let’s see what happens in 2009!

                                                                      ******

More Favorite quotes.....

Blogmaster Comments: I just love GREAT quotes! Don't you?
OK, boys and girls, let's get very serious now. Ok..... Here  we go:

“Death is in the order of things.”
  Marcus Aurelius

 “I love you not for who you are, but for the person I become when I am with you.”
  Anonymous

“The human mind makes a great slave, but a terrible master….”
Carlos Castaneda

“I dreamed I was a butterfly. I wasn’t sure if I was a man dreaming I was a butterfly or a butterfly dreaming I was a man.
Lao- Tse

“The pump don’t work because the vandals took the handle…”
Bob Dylan

"... if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the man's becoming in very fact an American and nothing but an American ... There can be no divided allegiances here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag,... we have room for but one language here, and that is the English language ... and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people."
Teddy Roosevelt – 1907

“Be not forgetful to entertain strangers for some have entertained angels unaware.”                              
The Book of Luke

“If you don’t understand my silence, you can’t appreciate my words.”
Anonymous

"All happiness depends on courage and work. I have had many periods of wretchedness, but with energy and above all with illusions, I pulled through them all."
Honore de Balzac

          

Ramblings I

                                                                             ****

      Basically there are only two things in life, the things you should be doing and the things you want to be doing.

     All human endeavors fall within those two categories.

     You can't REALLY enjoy the things you want to do unless you are doing the things you should be doing.

     By the same token, you do the things you should be doing because it enables the things you want to do.

    Doing the things you want to be doing is the reward you get for doing the things you should do.

    There is a delicate balance between the two.

                                                                          ****

    With women, there is always the intellectual fit and the sexual fit.

    You'll meet women where there is a seamless intellectual fit, but the physical fit will be less than satisfactory.

    Then you will meet women who are a perfect body match, but intellectuality has become virtually lost. 

   When you find one that's a good mind AND body match, she's a keeper.

                                                                            ****

       "Sophocles long ago heard it on the Aegean....."

                                                                                       Matthew Arnold, "Dover Beach"

                                                                           ****

       "They dined on mince and slices of quince which they ate with the runcible spoon and hand in hand, at the edge of the sand they danced by the light of the moon".

                                                                                      Edward Lear, The Owl and the Pussycat

                                                                           *****

      "He not busy being born is busy dying."

                                                                                      Mr. Dylan

                                                                           ****

Just Another Walter Mitty......

     For a year, I was close to this woman from Gautemala. She was married, but we started meeting secretly on Friday mornings and Sunday afternoons while her husband was at work. We became very close and we shared our hearts, minds, spirits and bodies. We exchanged Christmas gifts and birthday cards and purchased love momentos for one another.

     Once when she was on vacation with her family up in Tennessee, she brought back a set of wind chimes. When she gave them to me, she said: ”From now on, whenever you hear these chimes, you’ll think of me……” 

   With sincere gratitude, I thanked her and hung the chimes from the wall light on my patio.

    Now, two later, I am involved with a different woman. I’m madly in love with this woman and, like with the Latin woman, we share your hearts, minds etc.

    Some hot summer nights when I’m lying in bed with her and can't sleep, I’ll get out of bed and go out to the patio with a cold green tea to feel the night air.

   Very softly, I will hear the wild chimes and I will hear the Latin woman's voice calling my name.  And my innermost soul will start to sob. It is the wail of a demon lover and,  for a moment I will imagine that I am with her and we are bathing in one another's souls again. Great dark atomic clouds of sadness will begin to accumulate in my intrinsic soul. It’s the part of me that recognizes just how fleeting life is and how that ultimately, all living things are nothing more than dust in the wind. No matter how great or small, all things come from this earth and all things return to this earth.

    Poets have called it ”that exquisite melancholy....”

   Moments later,  the new woman will appear at the patio door, drowsy and naked, and ask me: “Why aren’t you in bed?”

   Startled from my reveries, I will snap back.

   “Oh, I was just thinking,” I will reply innocently. “Just thinking…..,” I will say again as if the repetition added credibility to the first statement.

   “Come back to bed!” she will bark with simulated anger.

    Then she will turn and retreat back to our bed.

    For a moment, I will continue to ponder the impending mortality of all living things, then I will get up and go back to bed.

    Once back in bed, I will snuggle up behind her sleeping body and softly stroke her tummy.

   As I doze off to sleep, I'll start humming Bob Dylan's: "Oh, where are you tonight?"

   I guess I’m  just another Walter Mitty.

   One of those poor souls who will never reconcile his fantasies and his realities.

   What’s the Thoreau quote: ”The masses of men live lives of quiet desperation.”

 

 

Designer Children Next?

    Looks like the geneticists have created something new for you to spend your money on. It’s called designer pets.
    Check it out!

http://shopping.yahoo.com/articles/yshoppingarticles/89/how-much-is-the-kitty-in-the-window-22000

    They have cross-bred the African serval and Asian leopard cat with a domestic cat to come up with a once-in-a life critter that will make your neighbors green with envy. Price tag is $22,000. It looks like a small leopard and its called the “Ashera”. It comes complete with its own microchip identifier and an animal psychologist to ensure that the new pet adjusts well—both psychologically and emotionally-to its new environment.
    You won’t see photos of this animal in your zoology book because nature hadn’t thought of it yet. But the geneticist have.
    From all indications, the geneticists can now mix and match chromosomes and DNA patterns just like they were baking a batch of corn bread.
    My favorite designer critter is the see-through frogs which Japanese geneticists came up. Squeamish high school students don’t have to dissect them, they can just look inside the frog’s body to see how the heart, lungs and digestive system all work together. No formaldehyde, bloody, dissecting utensils and nauseating grimaces.
     At this rate, you’ll soon be able to design your offspring.
     Give me a couple of blue-eyed, fair-skinned, curly-haired males that are 6 feet tall with peasant dispositions and an IQ over 140. As a side-order, I’ll have a dark-haired, petite female with a quiet smile and a penchant for painting.
     It is absolutely impossible to not expect designer children next.
     If you’re got the money, you can get it.

 

 

Muslim Lunacy!

      The case of the British school teacher in Sudan who allowed pupils to name a teddy bear "Muhammad" is another example of the archaic lunacy which exists in the Muslim religion.
     Claiming that she insulted their religion, armed protestors in Khartoum are calling for her execution as punishment.
      http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071130/ap_on_re_af/sudan_british_teacher

     These people apparently see nothing beyond their religious beliefs.
     This brand of religious devotion goes beyond the bounds of human reason.
     No religious belief is worth more than the life of another human being.
     It's no wonder that this backward country is rife with hunger, AIDS and social chaos.
     They don't have food, moral values or social stability.
     All they have is their religion.
     What lunacy!!