Where you at? (by Derrick Carter)

As I stop, and take the time
To inventory, the inside of my mind
I realize, it’s not as full as it used to be.
With images of justice, or designs of liberty

The world has changed, or is it me that’s new?
A different set of morals from a different set of clues
So still I wonder, is this all there is to life?
The ever changing cycles, of a world that’s damp and ripe

There must more, yeah in my heart I hold to this
I’ve known the joy of love and I’ve seen the peace and bliss
But as you know, all things must end, except the need for faith
And the spirit that’s within to keep you strong

When it seems you're 'bout to break
Just call upon the strength within and plant it as your stake

Move forward with power, program yourself to feel
With depth enough to know what’s up and heart to sense the real

Where you at?

And now a picture for the frame we set aside
Below the bassline a secret place awaits for us to hide
To pass the time as the war goes on-and-on
Post-apocalyptic sunset, Post-apocalyptic dawn
But just the thought of the world we once possessed
A place that wasn’t ours is just a house with an address
A false existence, wrought with fear and mistrust, a life inside a box
No life inside of us.

Find your soul, and use your inner voice,
The road less traveled, is now the path of choice.
Realize with time comes change
New attitudes, new values, priorities rearranged

Move forward with power, program yourself to seek
Wear your shield of justice and wield your sword of liberty
Move forward, move now, program yourself to feel
With depth enough to know what’s up and heart to sense the real

Where you at?

Bahia, Brazil!

Well, almost got all the paperwork done, just awaiting the consulate's approval, then I'll be off to Salvador da Bahia, Itapua, Itaparica.

This has been a while in the making, and follows with a cross circuit on return to the US thru Miami, Dominican Republic to Santo Domingo and Altos de Chavon. Photos coming soon, promise!

Kara Walker: My Complement, My Enemy, My Oppressor, My Love

Kara Walker: My Complement, My Enemy, My Oppressor, My Love is the first comprehensive presentation of this remarkable African American artist’s career. Walker has risen to international prominence for visually stunning works that challenge conventional narratives of American history and the antebellum South. With biting humor, the artist comments on race, slavery and liberation, sexual attraction and exploitation, discrimination, and modernity. The Hammer is the only West Coast venue for the show, which originated at the Walker Art Center and has traveled to the Musée d’Art moderne de la Ville de Paris and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. It has been curated by Walker Art Center’s Chief Curator and Deputy Director Philippe Vergne. Kara Walker is a particularly meaningful exhibition for the Hammer Museum, as Walker was the first artist to be featured in the now-celebrated Hammer Projects series, which offers solo exhibitions to emerging artists.

Open March 2 - June 8, 2008 @ The Hammer Museum, Los Angeles

Friday Jun 6, 7pm
Closing Party
Hammer Bash!
Cash bar and DJ in the courtyard. Extended gallery hours: 7-11pm.

Free admission!

The Economist Has No Clothes

wow, good checkpoint - know what you inherit.

www.sciam.com/article.cfm

Scientific American Magazine - March 25, 2008
The Economist Has No Clothes
Unscientific assumptions in economic theory are undermining efforts to solve environmental problems

By Robert Nadeau

The 19th-century creators of neoclassical economics—the theory that now serves as the basis for coordinating activities in the global market system—are credited with transforming their field into a scientific discipline. But what is not widely known is that these now legendary economists—William Stanley Jevons, Léon Walras, Maria Edgeworth and Vilfredo Pareto—developed their theories by adapting equations from 19th-century physics that eventually became obsolete. Unfortunately, it is clear that neoclassical economics has also become outdated. The theory is based on unscientific assumptions that are hindering the implementation of viable economic solutions for global warming and other menacing environmental problems.

The physical theory that the creators of neoclassical economics used as a template was conceived in response to the inability of Newtonian physics to account for the phenomena of heat, light and electricity. In 1847 German physicist Hermann von Helmholtz formulated the conservation of energy principle and postulated the existence of a field of conserved energy that fills all space and unifies these phenomena. Later in the century James Maxwell, Ludwig Boltzmann and other physicists devised better explanations for electromagnetism and thermodynamics, but in the meantime, the economists had borrowed and altered Helmholtz’s equations.

The strategy the economists used was as simple as it was absurd—they substituted economic variables for physical ones. Utility (a measure of economic well-being) took the place of energy; the sum of utility and expenditure replaced potential and kinetic energy. A number of well-known mathematicians and physicists told the economists that there was absolutely no basis for making these substitutions. But the economists ignored such criticisms and proceeded to claim that they had transformed their field of study into a rigorously mathematical scientific discipline.

Strangely enough, the origins of neoclassical economics in mid-19th century physics were forgotten. Subsequent generations of mainstream economists accepted the claim that this theory is scientific. These curious developments explain why the mathematical theories used by mainstream economists are predicated on the following unscientific assumptions:

* The market system is a closed circular flow between production and consumption, with no inlets or outlets.
* Natural resources exist in a domain that is separate and distinct from a closed market system, and the economic value of these resources can be determined only by the dynamics that operate within this system.
* The costs of damage to the external natural environment by economic activities must be treated as costs that lie outside the closed market system or as costs that cannot be included in the pricing mechanisms that operate within the system.
* The external resources of nature are largely inexhaustible, and those that are not can be replaced by other resources or by technologies that minimize the use of the exhaustible resources or that rely on other resources.
* There are no biophysical limits to the growth of market systems.

If the environmental crisis did not exist, the fact that neoclassical economic theory provides a coherent basis for managing economic activities in market systems could be viewed as sufficient justification for its widespread applications. But because the crisis does exist, this theory can no longer be regarded as useful even in pragmatic or utilitarian terms because it fails to meet what must now be viewed as a fundamental requirement of any economic theory—the extent to which this theory allows economic activities to be coordinated in environmentally responsible ways on a worldwide scale. Because neoclassical economics does not even acknowledge the costs of environmental problems and the limits to economic growth, it constitutes one of the greatest barriers to combating climate change and other threats to the planet. It is imperative that economists devise new theories that will take all the realities of our global system into account.

-Zam!- the walls became floors, became ceilings became doors

the singer just kept singing "feelings"
needless to say, the party broke up

- Was (Not Was)

Stop making freaks - Don't spank your babies!

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED! ;^)

www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi

Study: Spanking Can Bring Problems Later

Friday, February 29, 2008

(02-29) 17:15 PST Durham, N.H. (AP) --

New research by a University of New Hampshire domestic abuse expert says spanking children affects their sex lives as adults. Professor Murray Straus concludes that children who are spanked are more likely as adults to coerce partners to have sex, to have unprotected sex and to have masochistic sex.

Other studies have shown the link between spanking and physical violence, but Straus said his research is the first to show a link between corporal punishment and sexual behavior.

"My underlying motive was to bring this to the attention of parents and of more people," Straus said, "in the hope it will help continue the decrease in the use of corporal punishment."

Straus, co-director of UNH's Family Research Laboratory, conducted a study in the mid-1990s in which he asked 207 students at three colleges whether they'd ever been aroused by masochistic sex. He also asked them if they'd been spanked as children. He found that students who were spanked were nearly twice as likely to like masochistic sex.

He has bundled that study with three new ones that explore the connections between corporal punishment, coerced sex and risky sex. He presented all four studies this week at the American Psychological Association's Summit on Violence and Abuse in Relationships in Bethesda, Md.

Straus said his study found adults who were spanked as children are more likely to coerce their partners to have sex.

Straus asked 14,000 college students in 32 different countries whether they strongly disagreed, disagreed, agreed or strongly agreed with this statement: "I was spanked or hit a lot before age 12." He also asked whether they had ever verbally or physically coerced an uninterested partner to have sex.

He found a big difference between students who said they'd been hit a lot before age 12 and those who said they hadn't. For every increased step on Straus's four-step scale of agreement, men were 10 percent more likely to have verbally coerced sex from a partner by insisting on sex or threatening to end the relationship if the partner refused. Women were 12 percent more likely to have done that.

Previous studies have shown that 90 percent of parents strike their toddlers, a statistic that's held steady throughout the 30 years Straus has researched corporal punishment. Meanwhile, the number of parents who hit older children has drastically decreased. Straus said it's unclear why, though he has some theories. One is that 2- and 3-year-olds are less likely to respond to repeated verbal warnings.

Straus said he would like more pediatricians and child-rearing experts to warn against spanking. He'd also like lawmakers to take a stand by dedicating state money to teaching parents about the dangers of corporal punishment.

"The best-kept secret in child psychology is that children who were never spanked are among the best behaved," Straus said.

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Information from: Concord Monitor, www.cmonitor.com