what's the buzz...

The Vendor Client Relationship - Yes, this might be YOU.

boxeswithknobs — Sun, 31 May 2009 21:53:31 GMT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2a8TRSgzZY Negotiation is one thing, but as a vendor (or otherwise), there's an old standby: "A LACK OF PLANNING ON YOUR PART DOES NOT CONSTITUTE AN EMERGENCY ON MY PART." If you jump at requests like these, you're ENABLING bad behavior and encouraging lack of planning!

2nd Los Angeles Brazilian Film Festival - Bahia Edition - LABRFF 2009 - March 12-15th

boxeswithknobs — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 06:13:59 GMT

March 12 - 15 at The Landmark, Westside Pavilion 10850 West Pico at Westwood Blvd. Los Angeles, CA (90064) Enter on Westwood Blvd. or Pico Blvd. Tickets: (310) 961-4986 Wed. Mar. 11 8:00pm Tons of good screenings, come check it out!!! PRE-EVENT with Singer MONTSERRAT LATIN SENSATION, MONTSERRAT, BRINGS “BOLEROS WITH BOSSA” To open the Los Angeles Brazilian Film Festival Pre-event Brentwood Theatre, West Los Angeles Free admission, RSVP to rsvp@labrff.com Thu. Mar. 12 OPENING NIGHT GALA “A BEAUTIFUL NIGHT TO FLY” (Bela Noite Para Voar) Directed by: Zelito Viana Red Carpet Event 6:00pm Opening Ceremony 7:30pm Opening Film 8:30pm After party entertainment provided at Stella Artois' lounge with DJ Elias Cabuzz from New York Brazilian Celebrities attending the red carpet: Erika Mader, Murilo Rosa, Jair Oliveira, Jose de Abreu, Selton Mello, Malu Mader, Caua Reymond, Paloma Rocha, Mini Kerti Hollywood celebrities attending red carpet will be announced on March 12th. $60 includes After Party.Click here to purchase your ticket!!! Venue: The Landmark, Westside Pavilion Fri. Mar. 13 Screenings from 10:00am - 11:00pm Special tribute to Glauber Rocha Painel Discussion 1 - "Locations: how to shoot in Brazil" Workshop about the State of Bahia: Workshop about the State of Bahia: The Ministry of Tourism Embratur, and the Secretariat of Tourism of the State of Bahia are very pleased to invite the Los Angeles Touristic Trade to attend a special documentary: “ Bahia is it and too much more” and “ Embratur Brasil –Sensacional” with Q & A opportunity. We will be distributing promotional materials and offering a cocktail with great taste of Bahian Food. FREE EVENT! rsvp@labrff.com Cocktail Party at LABRFF's lounge Venue: The Landmark, Westside Pavilion Sat. Mar. 14 Screenings from 10:00am - 11:00pm Special tribute to Glauber Rocha Painel Discussion 2 - "New Media" Painel Discussion 3 - "The film and legacy of Glauber Rocha" Cocktail Party at LABRFF's lounge Venue: The Landmark, Westside Pavilion Sun. Mar. 15 Screenings from 10:00am - 11:00pm Special tribute to Glauber Rocha Painel Discussion 3 - " The tricks and traps of financing in Brazil and abroad for new filmmakers" CLOSING NIGHT & AWARDS CEREMONY “Golden Oldies” (Casa da Mae Joana) Directed by: Hugo Carvana Red Carpet Event 6:00pm Awards Ceremony 7:00pm Closing Film 8:00pm After party entertainment provided at Stella Artois' lounge $40 includes After Party. Click here to purchase your ticket!!!Venue: The Landmark, Westside Pavilion

Credo in $

boxeswithknobs — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 22:31:25 GMT

[pretty amusing - found on the net] I believe in worldwide Ponzi schemes and universal gullibility. I believe that reckless lending can be cured by reckless borrowing and that fraudulent borrowing can be healed by fraudulent lending. I believe that a housing bubble fueled by loose credit can be corrected by easing credit. I believe that each trillion of hallucinated dollars that disappears in a puff of Wall Street smoke then always reappears magically from behind a Treasury Department mirror. I believe in America's almighty financial geniuses and monetary officials, who destroy wealth indiscriminately and indefinitely, and whose kingdom shall have no end. It is divine justice that those who cause financial catastrophes are rewarded with public money, while innocent bystanders are punished in their stead. I believe that central banks can print all the money anyone will ever need. I believe that if one stimulus package does not work, the next one surely will. I believe in the redeeming power of financial complexity. I believe that hedge funds and sovereign wealth funds are righteous to enter into incomprehensible contracts having convoluted ownership and no inherent value. And I believe that opaque, secretive companies which pretend to insure those investments are offering a valuable service, even if this requires the use of public money. I believe that economic stability and confidence will return when every failing business is bailed out, with no failure too small to be left behind. I believe that all dying institutions shall be consolidated, merging the smaller basket cases with the larger ones. The lion and the lamb shall lie down together in a new spirit of national competitiveness. I believe that the end of days shall come when there is only one institution left, comprehensively unified, far too big to fail, owning everything and controlling nothing. All shall come and supplicate before its holy ATM machines, for they are subtle and quick to anger. It is in this one true financial institution that I put my faith, truly gigantic, truly bankrupt, amen.

Word Social Forum 2009, Belem Brazil

boxeswithknobs — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 10:26:15 GMT

BELEM, Brazil (AP) — Some 100,000 activists of all stripes converged on this steamy Amazon city Tuesday, opening the World Social Forum with a rambunctious march to the beat of samba drums. An afternoon jungle downpour could not drown the spirits of those who came from all corners of the globe to participate: Socialists, environmentalists, anarchists, Indians, communists and even a fellow dressed as a pirate. The massive meeting — coming amid the worst global economic crisis in decades — was held for the first time in the Amazon region, an especially poignant fact for attendees. "During a financial crisis, the environment is the first thing to be pushed off the agenda of most governments," said Andrew Riplinger, 22, of Chicago. "I think having the social forum here in Belem, surrounded by the rain forest — it's keeping environmentalism on the table." http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5i4H7iUakuekLJ9vn_w0ZBNbTLcSQD95VPGFG1 http://www.wsftv.net/Members/bfocuspuller/videos/Highlights_1.mp4/view

Seeking models for jewelry line

boxeswithknobs — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 20:28:40 GMT

FYI, seeking models of Dominican, Puerto Rican, or Cuban descent for February photo shoot. Small shoot, low-pay, outdoors. Please use contact form at tainogallery.com.

Obama photos from Salvador!

boxeswithknobs — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 20:24:41 GMT

Latest round in from Salvador... http://flickr.com/photos/boxeswithknobs also, wonderful video on the Obama effect outside the U.S. - http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/election2008/2008/10/the-obama-samba.html I'm planning to be gone for a chunk of this year, looks like March-Sept. journeying. Hoping to find a way to Siwa, Egypt..

Zap-Masters - Robert Crumb

boxeswithknobs — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 06:26:47 GMT

R. Crumb, R WMS, S. Clay Wilson & Rick Griffin Zap-Masters - The Juxtapoz Factor Hey Everyone - We are having an incredible event this Saturday at CoproNason Gallery. Zap-Masters art show, Live grunge, surf music from the V-Guns, and a book release & signing of the Laguna Art Museum catalog "Land of Retinal Delights : The Juxtapoz Factor " The "Zap-Masters" show features historical artwork from the original underground artists that started it all. R. Crumb, Robert Williams, S. Clay Wilson and Rick Griffin all worked together in the forefront of the Underground art movement that metamorphosed into what it is today. We have artwork from R. Crumb that dates back as far as 1959 and actual original pages from Zap 0 dated 1967 and other work that changed history!!! All of the most valuable pieces will be on display ONE NIGHT ONLY!!! After Saturday night we will be adding other pieces and re-hanging the show so if the history of underground art interests you don't miss out!!! The show will run 2 more weeks after that and will still include many great pieces. Hope to see you there!!! ZAP-Masters web-preview R. Crumb ( http://app.expressemailmarketing.com/get.link?linkid=1132258&subscriberid=45125084&campaignid=320962&linkurl=http://www.copronason.com/crummweb/index.html ) Zap-Masters web-preview Rwms, S. Clay, Rick Griffin ( http://app.expressemailmarketing.com/get.link?linkid=1132259&subscriberid=45125084&campaignid=320962&linkurl=http://www.copronason.com/griffnweb/index.html ) Zap-Masters press release ( http://app.expressemailmarketing.com/get.link?linkid=1132260&subscriberid=45125084&campaignid=320962&linkurl=http://www.copronason.com/zap_pr.html ) In the Land of Retinal Delights - The Juxtapoz Factor ( http://app.expressemailmarketing.com/get.link?linkid=1132261&subscriberid=45125084&campaignid=320962&linkurl=http://www.lagunaartmuseum.org/shop/index.php?_a=viewProd&productId=47 )

Ascent of Money

boxeswithknobs — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 05:42:45 GMT

Great detail in this program. Worth checking out. Being from Detroit, I'm familiar with a big chunk of the history! http://www.pbs.org/wnet/ascentofmoney/ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyMZhkITPWE

Van Jones on Green...

boxeswithknobs — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 21:45:47 GMT

Van Jones, founder of the Green for All jobs campaign, asserts that "the idea that it's jobs versus environment is an utter falsehood." Jones, speaking at the Take Back America Conference of the Campaign for America's Future on March 17, 2008, called on the government to get on the side of those trying to simultaneously help our economy and stop global warming. There are more jobs in the clean economy, he said, than in the current polluting one. http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=rAHRdQvHnPs

Bose-Einstein condensate - BIG BANG on a needlepoint!

boxeswithknobs — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 23:40:54 GMT

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bose-Einstein_condensate#Unusual_characteristics When the scientists raised the magnetic field strength still further, the condensate suddenly reverted back to attraction, imploded and shrank beyond detection, and then exploded, blowing off about two-thirds of its 10,000 or so atoms. About half of the atoms in the condensate seemed to have disappeared from the experiment altogether, not being seen either in the cold remnant or the expanding gas cloud.[10] Carl Wieman explained that under current atomic theory this characteristic of Bose–Einstein condensate could not be explained because the energy state of an atom near absolute zero should not be enough to cause an implosion; however, subsequent mean-field theories have been proposed to explain it. Because supernova explosions are also preceded by an implosion, the explosion of a collapsing Bose–Einstein condensate was named "bosenova", a pun on the musical style bossa nova. The atoms that seem to have disappeared almost certainly still exist in some form, just not in a form that could be detected in that experiment. Most likely they formed molecules consisting of two bonded rubidium atoms. The energy gained by making this transition imparts a velocity sufficient for them to leave the trap without being detected.

The World's Oldest...

boxeswithknobs — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 21:08:04 GMT

Imagine being almost 10,000 years old. That's how old a tree in the Dalarna province of Sweden has just been calculated to be, making it the oldest living tree - and quite possibly the oldest organism of any kind - in the world. http://www.newscientist.com/blog/shortsharpscience/2008/04/worlds-oldest-organism.html

great pics!

boxeswithknobs — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 21:37:45 GMT

http://interfacelift.com/wallpaper_beta/downloads/date/any/index1.html

Vending Opps at parties or boutiques - Early Dec/NYE?

boxeswithknobs — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 07:34:15 GMT

Looking around, anyone know of anything? LA Area is the focus. Saw some boutique/holiday type things last year in temporary spaces, anything in the works among the crafty types this year? thanks, m.

Can you Quit like Andrew did?

boxeswithknobs — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 20:33:06 GMT

This guy really knows how to quit. If all those folks chasing the madness only understood! http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2008/10/17/17194/andrew-lahde-bows-out-in-style/ Andrew Lahde bows out in style Say what you will about Andrew Lahde, but the man knows how to write a letter. Last month, the famed-for-betting-against-subprime hedge fund manager shuttered his operations, citing unacceptable levels of counterparty risk. His goodbye missive is impressive not just for its length, but for its clearly-articulated (and somewhat apocalyptic) closing arguments. Verbatim: “Today I write not to gloat. Given the pain that nearly everyone is experiencing, that would be entirely inappropriate. Nor am I writing to make further predictions, as most of my forecasts in previous letters have unfolded or are in the process of unfolding. Instead, I am writing to say goodbye. Recently, on the front page of Section C of the Wall Street Journal, a hedge fund manager who was also closing up shop (a $300 million fund), was quoted as saying, “What I have learned about the hedge fund business is that I hate it.” I could not agree more with that statement. I was in this game for the money. The low hanging fruit, i.e. idiots whose parents paid for prep school, Yale, and then the Harvard MBA, was there for the taking. These people who were (often) truly not worthy of the education they received (or supposedly received) rose to the top of companies such as AIG, Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers and all levels of our government. All of this behavior supporting the Aristocracy, only ended up making it easier for me to find people stupid enough to take the other side of my trades. God bless America. There are far too many people for me to sincerely thank for my success. However, I do not want to sound like a Hollywood actor accepting an award. The money was reward enough. Furthermore, the endless list those deserving thanks know who they are. I will no longer manage money for other people or institutions. I have enough of my own wealth to manage. Some people, who think they have arrived at a reasonable estimate of my net worth, might be surprised that I would call it quits with such a small war chest. That is fine; I am content with my rewards. Moreover, I will let others try to amass nine, ten or eleven figure net worths. Meanwhile, their lives suck. Appointments back to back, booked solid for the next three months, they look forward to their two week vacation in January during which they will likely be glued to their Blackberries or other such devices. What is the point? They will all be forgotten in fifty years anyway. Steve Balmer, Steven Cohen, and Larry Ellison will all be forgotten. I do not understand the legacy thing. Nearly everyone will be forgotten. Give up on leaving your mark. Throw the Blackberry away and enjoy life. So this is it. With all due respect, I am dropping out. Please do not expect any type of reply to emails or voicemails within normal time frames or at all. Andy Springer and his company will be handling the dissolution of the fund. And don’t worry about my employees, they were always employed by Mr. Springer’s company and only one (who has been well-rewarded) will lose his job. I have no interest in any deals in which anyone would like me to participate. I truly do not have a strong opinion about any market right now, other than to say that things will continue to get worse for some time, probably years. I am content sitting on the sidelines and waiting. After all, sitting and waiting is how we made money from the subprime debacle. I now have time to repair my health, which was destroyed by the stress I layered onto myself over the past two years, as well as my entire life — where I had to compete for spaces in universities and graduate schools, jobs and assets under management — with those who had all the advantages (rich parents) that I did not. May meritocracy be part of a new form of government, which needs to be established. On the issue of the U.S. Government, I would like to make a modest proposal. First, I point out the obvious flaws, whereby legislation was repeatedly brought forth to Congress over the past eight years, which would have reigned in the predatory lending practices of now mostly defunct institutions. These institutions regularly filled the coffers of both parties in return for voting down all of this legislation designed to protect the common citizen. This is an outrage, yet no one seems to know or care about it. Since Thomas Jefferson and Adam Smith passed, I would argue that there has been a dearth of worthy philosophers in this country, at least ones focused on improving government. Capitalism worked for two hundred years, but times change, and systems become corrupt. George Soros, a man of staggering wealth, has stated that he would like to be remembered as a philosopher. My suggestion is that this great man start and sponsor a forum for great minds to come together to create a new system of government that truly represents the common man’s interest, while at the same time creating rewards great enough to attract the best and brightest minds to serve in government roles without having to rely on corruption to further their interests or lifestyles. This forum could be similar to the one used to create the operating system, Linux, which competes with Microsoft’s near monopoly. I believe there is an answer, but for now the system is clearly broken. Lastly, while I still have an audience, I would like to bring attention to an alternative food and energy source. You won’t see it included in BP’s, “Feel good. We are working on sustainable solutions,” television commercials, nor is it mentioned in ADM’s similar commercials. But hemp has been used for at least 5,000 years for cloth and food, as well as just about everything that is produced from petroleum products. Hemp is not marijuana and vice versa. Hemp is the male plant and it grows like a weed, hence the slang term. The original American flag was made of hemp fiber and our Constitution was printed on paper made of hemp. It was used as recently as World War II by the U.S. Government, and then promptly made illegal after the war was won. At a time when rhetoric is flying about becoming more self-sufficient in terms of energy, why is it illegal to grow this plant in this country? Ah, the female. The evil female plant — marijuana. It gets you high, it makes you laugh, it does not produce a hangover. Unlike alcohol, it does not result in bar fights or wife beating. So, why is this innocuous plant illegal? Is it a gateway drug? No, that would be alcohol, which is so heavily advertised in this country. My only conclusion as to why it is illegal, is that Corporate America, which owns Congress, would rather sell you Paxil, Zoloft, Xanax and other additive drugs, than allow you to grow a plant in your home without some of the profits going into their coffers. This policy is ludicrous. It has surely contributed to our dependency on foreign energy sources. Our policies have other countries literally laughing at our stupidity, most notably Canada, as well as several European nations (both Eastern and Western). You would not know this by paying attention to U.S. media sources though, as they tend not to elaborate on who is laughing at the United States this week. Please people, let’s stop the rhetoric and start thinking about how we can truly become self-sufficient. With that I say good-bye and good luck. All the best, Andrew Lahde"

Wise thought for the day & coming years...

boxeswithknobs — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 18:40:03 GMT

No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it. - Albert Einstein

"Obama the 'Magic Negro'

boxeswithknobs — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 04:50:04 GMT

Interesting analysis... The Illinois senator lends himself to white America's idealized, less-than-real black man. By David Ehrenstein, L.A.-based DAVID EHRENSTEIN writes about Hollywood and politics. March 19, 2007 AS EVERY CARBON-BASED life form on this planet surely knows, Barack Obama, the junior Democratic senator from Illinois, is running for president. Since making his announcement, there has been no end of commentary about him in all quarters — musing over his charisma and the prospect he offers of being the first African American to be elected to the White House. But it's clear that Obama also is running for an equally important unelected office, in the province of the popular imagination — the "Magic Negro." The Magic Negro is a figure of postmodern folk culture, coined by snarky 20th century sociologists, to explain a cultural figure who emerged in the wake of Brown vs. Board of Education. "He has no past, he simply appears one day to help the white protagonist," reads the description on Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magical_Negro . He's there to assuage white "guilt" (i.e., the minimal discomfort they feel) over the role of slavery and racial segregation in American history, while replacing stereotypes of a dangerous, highly sexualized black man with a benign figure for whom interracial sexual congress holds no interest. As might be expected, this figure is chiefly cinematic — embodied by such noted performers as Sidney Poitier, Morgan Freeman, Scatman Crothers, Michael Clarke Duncan, Will Smith and, most recently, Don Cheadle. And that's not to mention a certain basketball player whose very nickname is "Magic." " http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-ehrenstein19mar19,0,5335087.story?coll=la-opinion-center http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Ehrenstein

The Elephant in the Electoral Race...

boxeswithknobs — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 11:12:43 GMT

From http://news.yahoo.com/page/election-2008-political-pulse-obama-race Poll: Racial views steer some white Dems away from Obama By RON FOURNIER and TREVOR TOMPSON, Associated Press Writers WASHINGTON (AP) — Deep-seated racial misgivings could cost Barack Obama the White House if the election is close, according to an AP-Yahoo News poll that found one-third of white Democrats harbor negative views toward blacks — many calling them "lazy," "violent," responsible for their own troubles. The poll, conducted with Stanford University, suggests that the percentage of voters who may turn away from Obama because of his race could easily be larger than the final difference between the candidates in 2004 — about two and one-half percentage points. Certainly, Republican John McCain has his own obstacles: He's an ally of an unpopular president and would be the nation's oldest first-term president. But Obama faces this: 40 percent of all white Americans hold at least a partly negative view toward blacks, and that includes many Democrats and independents. More than a third of all white Democrats and independents — voters Obama can't win the White House without — agreed with at least one negative adjective about blacks, according to the survey, and they are significantly less likely to vote for Obama than those who don't have such views. Such numbers are a harsh dose of reality in a campaign for the history books. Obama, the first black candidate with a serious shot at the presidency, accepted the Democratic nomination on the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech, a seminal moment for a nation that enshrined slavery in its Constitution. "There are a lot fewer bigots than there were 50 years ago, but that doesn't mean there's only a few bigots," said Stanford political scientist Paul Sniderman who helped analyze the exhaustive survey. The pollsters set out to determine why Obama is locked in a close race with McCain even as the political landscape seems to favor Democrats. President Bush's unpopularity, the Iraq war and a national sense of economic hard times cut against GOP candidates, as does that fact that Democratic voters outnumber Republicans. The findings suggest that Obama's problem is close to home — among his fellow Democrats, particularly non-Hispanic white voters. Just seven in 10 people who call themselves Democrats support Obama, compared to the 85 percent of self-identified Republicans who back McCain. The survey also focused on the racial attitudes of independent voters because they are likely to decide the election. Lots of Republicans harbor prejudices, too, but the survey found they weren't voting against Obama because of his race. Most Republicans wouldn't vote for any Democrat for president — white, black or brown. Not all whites are prejudiced. Indeed, more whites say good things about blacks than say bad things, the poll shows. And many whites who see blacks in a negative light are still willing or even eager to vote for Obama. On the other side of the racial question, the Illinois Democrat is drawing almost unanimous support from blacks, the poll shows, though that probably wouldn't be enough to counter the negative effect of some whites' views. Race is not the biggest factor driving Democrats and independents away from Obama. Doubts about his competency loom even larger, the poll indicates. More than a quarter of all Democrats expressed doubt that Obama can bring about the change they want, and they are likely to vote against him because of that. Three in 10 of those Democrats who don't trust Obama's change-making credentials say they plan to vote for McCain. Still, the effects of whites' racial views are apparent in the polling. Statistical models derived from the poll suggest that Obama's support would be as much as 6 percentage points higher if there were no white racial prejudice. But in an election without precedent, it's hard to know if such models take into account all the possible factors at play. The AP-Yahoo News poll used the unique methodology of Knowledge Networks, a Menlo Park, Calif., firm that interviews people online after randomly selecting and screening them over telephone. Numerous studies have shown that people are more likely to report embarrassing behavior and unpopular opinions when answering questions on a computer rather than talking to a stranger. Other techniques used in the poll included recording people's responses to black or white faces flashed on a computer screen, asking participants to rate how well certain adjectives apply to blacks, measuring whether people believe blacks' troubles are their own fault, and simply asking people how much they like or dislike blacks. "We still don't like black people," said John Clouse, 57, reflecting the sentiments of his pals gathered at a coffee shop in Somerset, Ohio. Given a choice of several positive and negative adjectives that might describe blacks, 20 percent of all whites said the word "violent" strongly applied. Among other words, 22 percent agreed with "boastful," 29 percent "complaining," 13 percent "lazy" and 11 percent "irresponsible." When asked about positive adjectives, whites were more likely to stay on the fence than give a strongly positive assessment. Among white Democrats, one third cited a negative adjective and, of those, 58 percent said they planned to back Obama. The poll sought to measure latent prejudices among whites by asking about factors contributing to the state of black America. One finding: More than a quarter of white Democrats agree that "if blacks would only try harder, they could be just as well off as whites." Those who agreed with that statement were much less likely to back Obama than those who didn't. Among white independents, racial stereotyping is not uncommon. For example, while about 20 percent of independent voters called blacks "intelligent" or "smart," more than one third latched on the adjective "complaining" and 24 percent said blacks were "violent." Nearly four in 10 white independents agreed that blacks would be better off if they "try harder." The survey broke ground by incorporating images of black and white faces to measure implicit racial attitudes, or prejudices that are so deeply rooted that people may not realize they have them. That test suggested the incidence of racial prejudice is even higher, with more than half of whites revealing more negative feelings toward blacks than whites. Researchers used mathematical modeling to sort out the relative impact of a huge swath of variables that might have an impact on people's votes — including race, ideology, party identification, the hunger for change and the sentiments of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's backers. Just 59 percent of her white Democratic supporters said they wanted Obama to be president. Nearly 17 percent of Clinton's white backers plan to vote for McCain. Among white Democrats, Clinton supporters were nearly twice as likely as Obama backers to say at least one negative adjective described blacks well, a finding that suggests many of her supporters in the primaries — particularly whites with high school education or less — were motivated in part by racial attitudes. The survey of 2,227 adults was conducted Aug. 27 to Sept. 5. It has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2.1 percentage points. ——— Associated Press writers Nancy Benac, Julie Carr Smyth, Philip Elliot, Julie Pace and Sonya Ross contributed to this story. ——— On the Net: Polling site: http://news.yahoo.com/polls

one way to save your tribe stuff...

boxeswithknobs — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 23:58:18 GMT

thanks DJ: http://homepage.mac.com/djdawson/TribeBlogRescue/Mac/

Saci - One-Legged Wish Granter

boxeswithknobs — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 01:42:46 GMT

The Saci is arguably the most popular character in Brazilian folklore. He is a one-legged black or mulatto youngster with holes in the palms of his hands, who smokes a pipe and wears a magical red cap that enables him to disappear and reappear wherever he wishes (usually in the middle of a dust devil). Considered an annoying prankster in most parts of Brazil, and a potentially dangerous and malicious creature in others, he will nevertheless grant wishes to anyone who manages to trap him or steal his magic cap. There are several variants of the myth, including: Saci Pererê. black as coal. Saci Trique. mulatto and more benign. Saci Saçurá, with red eyes. Saci Pererê is also the name of a Brazilian cocktail consisting of 1/4 cup of cachaça and 3 tablespoons of honey, which is said to be good for the common cold. The character remains quite popular in present-day urban culture, mainly due to the immensely popular children’s book O Saci by Monteiro Lobato (1932). Blame It On Rio Saci An incorrigible prankster, the Saci will not cause major harm, but there is no little harm that he won’t do. He will hide children’s toys, set farm animals loose, tease dogs, and curse chicken eggs preventing them from hatching. In the kitchen, the Saci would spill all salt, sour the milk, burn the bean stew, and drop flies into the soup. If a popcorn kernel fails to pop, it is because the Saci cursed it. Given half a chance, he will dull the seamstress’s needles, hide her thimbles, and tangle her sewing threads. If he sees a nail lying on the ground, he will turn it with the point up. In short, anything that goes wrong — in the house, or outside it — may be confidently blamed on the Saci. Origins While some claim that the Saci myth originated in Europe in the 13th century, it probably derives from the Yaçi-Yaterê of Tupi-Guarani mythology, a magic one-legged child with fire-red hair who would spell-bind people and break the forest’s silence with his loud shouts and whistles. He was originally a creature of the night, and indeed the Yaçi (Template:Ipa) means “Moon” in Old Tupi. This indigenous character was appropriated and transformed in the 18th century by the African slaves who had been brought in large numbers to Brazil. Farm slaves would tell Saci stories to amuse and frighten the children, black and white. In this process the creature became black, his red hair metamorphosed into a red cap, and — like the African elders who usually told the tales — he came to be always smoking his clay-and-reed pipe. His name mutated into various forms, such as Saci Taperê and Sá Pereira (a common Portuguese name), and eventually Saci Pererê. His red cap may have been inspired on the Phrygian cap which was at one time worn by Portuguese peasants. The Saci-Pererê concept shows some syncretism with Christian elements: he bolts away when faced with crosses, leaving behind a sulphurous smell — classical attributes of the Devil in Christian folklore. The concepts of imprisoning a supernatural being in a bottle by a magically marked cork, and of forcing him to grant wishes in return of his liberty, have obvious parallels in the story of Aladdin from the Arabian Nights. This may be more than just a coincidence, since many slaves were Muslims and thus presumably familiar with the Arabian tales. Moreover, the occupation of parts of the Portuguese territory (namely in the south) by the Muslim Moors, between the years 711 and 1249, provides another possible path for Arabian influence on the Saci legend.

IOUSA

boxeswithknobs — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 01:11:04 GMT

The critically-acclaimed documentary film I.O.U.S.A. was concieved of, co-written and executive produced by Agora Financial's Addison Wiggin. In July 2008, the film was acquired by The Peter G. Peterson Foundation. It will be featured in a Live Premier with Warren Buffet, Pete Peterson and David Walker in 400 theatres around the nation on August 21st, 2008. To find out more visit the film's official site or click here to locate a theater near you. http://www.agorafinancial.com/iousa.html

View from the diaspora...

boxeswithknobs — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 01:14:33 GMT

GriotArteNegra.com A unique exploration of Candomble and Yoruban influenced art and culture.

View from the diaspora...

boxeswithknobs — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 01:13:55 GMT

TainoGallery.com Beautiful ceramic reproductions of Taino-influenced artifacts

Who are your neighbors: Are you vulnerable to the humanity of others?

boxeswithknobs — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 19:29:32 GMT

Having just returned from the DR and Brazil, I felt resonance with this...In DR we were greeted by children running up to vehicles at roadside selling roasted cashews for pennies - in stories in Brazil fellow travelers shared details of the time consuming and somewhat hazardous process of harvesting those cashews from their cardol-filled shells (detail: http://tribes.tribe.net/triviarocks/thread/812d1fe9-23a1-44b9-9c3c-2be0bdad1091 ) . The relation between sustainability and accessibility is pretty clear, isn't it? New Essay by Corey Anton from the latest issue of Wide-Eyed Magazine: LOTS OF PEOPLE ARE COMPLAINING about the soaring price of gasoline. And not just that. Prices of things like alcohol, tobacco, and coffee are up, and people are paying more for their eggs, their flour, and their milk too. As many people gripe and bitch over the state of affairs, few are taking the time to reflect upon what it will mean for U.S. culture, and how, in many respects, some of these adjustments are long overdue. Sorry to say it, and please don’t be angry at the messenger, but the truth be told, we as a culture seem a little out of touch with the conditions of living found throughout the bulk of the world. Let me give you just one example: A friend of mine, someone who is both a great lover of coffee and an owner of a coffee shop in Canada, went to Costa Rica to learn about the particular coffee beans that he loves so much. At the coffee bean plantation he was given the opportunity to pick his coffee beans from the plants, and the experience was quite an eye- opener to say the least. He discovered that it takes around three thousand hand picks—somewhere between two and three hours depending on how fast he could pick the beans—to produce one pound of coffee. Picking a couple of pounds of coffee was backbreaking labor, and after only a couple of hours he was exhausted. “I had no idea how much effort and time was behind just one pound,” was his first thought, followed quickly with, “and that was just the picking, not the roasting and packaging and delivering.” As he was telling me the story, we both just sat back and sighed. What a depressing state of affairs. “How to make amends for all of this?” was the thought that plagued us both. We in the U.S. have had it way too good for way too long. In many respects we’ve lost the perspective of the bulk of the rest of the world. Whereas starvation, privation, and want prevail in many places, modern U.S. problems are mainly due to excess: countless health problems associated with over-indulgence, wide spread obesity, mounds of high-tech trash, and growing numbers of narcissistic and self-image disorders. And, despite all of this, so many people still seem not to understand how much goes into the foods and products they love. Admittedly, the oil companies suck and they’re ripping people off, but we, you and me, are sadly enough the exploiters on other fronts. Migrant workers and people employed in third-world countries are exploited and ripped off by rich countries and this means us. In many places of the world, people work long hours in brutal conditions and have no health insurance or medical benefits. If people in the U.S. could learn to be more aware of how much exploitation is involved in the items they regularly enjoy, they might be willing to pay more for them, and maybe, just maybe, people could learn to waste a little less. Maybe people could act more locally when they think globally and think more globally when they act locally. They might actually try to ask themselves, who, actually, are their neighbors? We are not, even as individuals, simply in the world; we are of it: we all are indigenous inhabitants. Communication scholar Amardo Rodriguez writes that communication is a kind of love, for it refers to the habits and practices by which we become vulnerable to the humanity of others. To overcome a discrete sense of self, to learn how to open to others and to the world more generally, we need these more than ever in today’s global economy. One of the more relevant and insightful books on this issue is The Community of Those Who Have Nothing in Common by Alphonso Lingis. He argues that people too often attempt to define themselves or each other by using categories, the problem being that an excluded group inevitably emerges. Any collective based in race or nationality or religion or political party or even belief is a collective that excludes in order to include. In contrast to such symbolic identifications and disidentifications, Lingis argues that there is but one community, the true community, a community sharing in their very nonbeing. That’s right. Nothing is what everyone in this group has in common. To be alive is always to be among the community of the dying, and this community excludes no one. What more do you need to share? We perhaps could learn much from Epictetus, one of the great teachers of Stoicism and arguably the person who issued the Western world’s first cosmopolitanism. Once asked where he was from, he gave a reply that all of us might just as well say: “I am a citizen of the world.”

Do Galactic Cycles Influence Earth's Biological History?

boxeswithknobs — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 18:36:01 GMT

This is pretty frickin' cool - it connects to many things in a larger cycle of time (Aztec, Mayan calendars, anyone?)... http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2008/07/do-galactic-for.html Horoscope enthusiasts will be happy to hear that a grand cosmic force does indeed seem to be responsible for controlling the direction of all life on Earth. However, this grand cosmic cycle has more to do with extinction than finding a tall, handsome stranger. Early last year, research revealed that the rise and fall of species on Earth seems to be driven by the undulating motions of our solar system as it travels through the Milky Way. Some scientists believe that this cosmic force may offer the answer to some of the biggest questions in our Earth’s biological history. The University of California, Berkeley found that marine fossil records show that biodiversity increases and decreases based on a 62-million-year cycle. At least two of the Earth's great mass extinctions-the Permian extinction 250 million years ago and the Ordovician extinction about 450 million years ago-correspond with peaks of this cycle, which can't be explained by evolutionary theory. Early last year, a team of researchers at the University of Kansas came up with an out-of-this-world explanation for the phenomenon. Their idea hinges upon the fact that stars move through space and sometimes rush headlong through galaxies, or approach closely enough to cause a brief cosmic tryst. Our own star moves toward and away from the Milky Way's center, and also up and down through the galactic plane. One complete up-and-down cycle takes 64 million years- suspiciously close to the Earth's biodiversity cycle. Once the researchers independently confirmed the biodiversity cycle, they then proposed a novel mechanism whereby which the Sun's galactic travels is causing it. It’s no secret that the Milky Way is being gravitationally pulled toward a massive cluster of galaxies, called the Virgo Cluster, which is located about 50 million light years away. Adrian Melott of the University of Kansas and his colleague Mikhail Medvedev, speculate that as the Milky Way rushes towards the Virgo Cluster, it generates a so-called bow shock in front of it that is similar to the shock wave created by a supersonic jet. "Our solar system has a shock wave around it, and it produces a good quantity of the cosmic rays that hit the Earth. Why shouldn't the galaxy have a shock wave, too?" Melott asks. The galactic bow shock is only present on the north side of the Milky Way's galactic plane, because that is the side facing the Virgo Cluster as it moves through space, and it would cause superheated gas and cosmic rays to stream behind it, the researchers say. Normally, our galaxy's magnetic field shields our solar system from this "galactic wind." But every 64 million years, the solar system's cyclical travels take it above the galactic plane. "When we emerge out of the disk, we have less protection, so we become exposed to many more cosmic rays," Melott has said. The boost in cosmic-ray exposure may have a direct effect on Earth's organisms, according to paleontologist Bruce Lieberman. The radiation would lead to higher rates of genetic mutations in organisms or interfere with their ability to repair DNA damage. In this way, the process could lead to new species while killing off others. Cosmic rays are also associated with increased cloud cover, which could cool the planet by blocking out more of the Sun's rays. They also interact with molecules in the atmosphere to create nitrogen oxide, a gas that eats away at our planet's ozone layer, which protects us from the Sun's harmful ultraviolet rays. Richard Muller, one of the UC Berkeley physicists who co-discovered the cycle, said Melott and his colleagues have come up with a plausible galactic explanation for the biodiversity cycle. If future studies confirm the galaxy-biodiversity link, it would force scientists to broaden their ideas about what can influence life on Earth. "Maybe it's not just the climate and the tectonic events on Earth," Lieberman said. "Maybe we have to start thinking more about the extraterrestrial environment as well." Posted by Rebecca Sato.

Where you at? (by Derrick Carter)

boxeswithknobs — Mon, 12 May 2008 23:47:51 GMT

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?