Where is the sense of finesse.....that make us want to live longer...and enjoy the world around us? Natasha Vita-More On Transhumanism, the PRIMO Post-human.

More info on nanotech and brain augmentation

http://news.discovery.com/tech/nanotech-brain-ear-implant.html

Conceptual Artwork for My Novel-in-Progress

Dreaming and the Future of Virtual Word/Augmented Reality Gaming

If you can accept the chees-ball voice-overs and the kitschy music (probably should have just found scenes from the Matrix or Inception) and the fallacies they depend on to prove that there is no reality- this may be of interest.  I am facinated by the brain's ability to create a narrative when we dream; to incorporate all of the senses into an illusion-like narrative. Imagining the virtual world/ and augmented reality communities interacting with one another based on stimuli from an outside system to have a place in creating these narratives.  And then study the (drug-like?) effects of messing with the somewhat unknown recuperative necessities of the dream state. Imagine it's another episode of "Check it Out!" by Dr. Steve Brule, and you may have a fun time while learning something.

A crude beginning to the new future of computing and media

This is what I've been talking about over the last two years. My ideas had several refinements to this one, but it is interesting that this development is finally getting some public attention.

The Killer in Me Is the Killer in You: An Interview with Richard Beck

Fascinating interview at The Other Journal titled "The Killer in Me Is the Killer in You: An Interview with Richard Beck"
on Thursday, February 16, 2012

Inner Space

An interesting link to a project happening off the PacNW coast Find the link here

Empty Sky

Jim Churchill-Dicks


Monday

Late for work. Barely light I drive
into the forest to meet my students
and fellow guides, armed with backpacks
ready for the Strawberry Mountains.


Tuesday

At Strawberry Lake, nestled in crowning
mountains, there isn’t a cloud in the sky,
not even a jet stream, just an empty
blue, met by jagged rocky spires.

Up high, we swim in icy water
with barely enough breath to tread above
the surface. We fish with found hooks
and discarded line, try to make fire
with bow drills and friction, and carve
loved ones’ initials into sticks.

Approaching midnight, my friend and I look
up at the stars, the night’s full harvest
of fireflies. Not even airplanes pollute the sky.


Wednesday

We reach the top of Strawberry Mountain,
scaling stone upon orange stone, devoid
of plant life, yet there are thousands
of black butterflies, fluttering up in our faces,
then rising upward--


Thursday

My friend emerges from the store, armed
with plastic sacks of groceries for a picnic
lunch. There is urgency in his face as I
come to help him. His face is ashen.


He tells me about pictures, about something
horribly wrong, planes like meteors falling
from the sky, driving the towers down, pouring
smoke, raining people, the ground collapsing
beneath them.

We look to the bus of hungry children,
expectant and oblivious, more innocent
than we’ve ever seen them
and I think back to the thousands of black
butterflies, ashen paper floating
from an otherwise empty sky.

We Are All Cyborgs

Blood Cloning

Imagine the ability to clone the human blood supply...thus creating a limitless supply of blood. And say, in the case of one of my characters whose blood genome is the only substance known to stabilize the nanobot plagues. Such a 'blood offering' could give him a sort of messiah complex. In any case, here is an article that shows a contemporary study to clone blood with embryonic stem cells.

Nanotechnology and Brain Function

An interesting recent article on a scientific breakthrough using carbon nanotubes to create synthetic neurons and pathways.

New Blog Trajectory

This blog is moving away from the 'bloggy blog blog' confessional life log, and steering more toward research that interests me; particularly for my novel in-progress.

Magic Waters

I cannot fly, on thermal paths of the osprey’s sky
nor can I hunt with quickened feathered wing-beats

but I too, have fished in magic waters,
heaved my innards over the side
of my grandfather’s boat
bobbed in the river’s maw
with sweaty pale-faced groans while
my riverboat captain, my grandfather
laughed a booming laugh,
my abandoned rod arched in his meaty
hands, as he reeled in my undeserved harvest,
a ballooning silver salmon
slapping foam against the hull.

We reaped this monumental moment
together. My grandfather clapped my back
and laughed that face-saving laugh,

“At’s alright, Jimmy! You feed ‘em, I’ll catch ‘em!”

and for that, if only for that

I believe.

Joseph of Bethlehem

My twelve year-old son is conscientious
to soak his injured ankle in the stream.
Returning home to me, he tries so hard
to heal, as if healing were an act of will.

I wasn’t there when they collided, some
grown man and he on some far-away field,
but when I heard, alone in my kitchen,
I fiercely slapped my palm against the door-

Watch how I sink upon my son’s return.
Witness how I cradle his wounded foot.
See how I slowly unwrap his dressing,
his toenails barely grazing my chest.

Look, my boy rests his hand on my shoulder,
my shoulder, as if healing was something
he was born to do.

The Beautiful Creatures featured in the SL Enquirer

Here is an in-depth review of the Beautiful Creatures featured in the SL Enquirer, one of the preeminent news sources in the Second Life Platform. They like us. They really really like us!

The faint sound of trumpets, approaching the crest of the hill...

For the entire school year, I have been earnestly praying (yes, praying) for there to be "a new sherriff in town"--- The Honorable Scott Cooper is a judge. My cup runneth over. He is running for a vacant spot on our local school board. Here's what he had to say about our kids yesterday:

"Last night, I attended a meeting of the Crook County School District budget committee. This was the final meeting of the committee before it deliberates on how to cut $3 million to $4.5 million from its $28 million budget. Needless to say, the pain is real. This was brought home to me when I was visiting with a group of high school students recently who very articulately observed: “Everyone is talking about us, but no one is talking TO us.” I took it upon myself to take that message to the school board in my role as citizen (although I very well could have taken it under the Partnership under the banner of civic engagement.) The committee, especially the school board, was oddly reluctant to take on the meeting but finally agreed to do so.



Notwithstanding that, nearly 100 students showed up to speak. By and large they represented not the “jocks and cheerleaders” crowd, most of whom were involved in either a couple major out-of-town sporting events or away serving as camp counselors this week at the sixth grade outdoor school. Instead, those that showed up were but that group of students who perform at the middling level who are typically not heard from. Given the setting, the relative placement within the power structure of the high school of these students and the high level, highly technical, no-quarter-given financial overview with which the superintendent and business manager started the meeting, it must have been terrifying prospect for these kids to line up at the microphone to address their concerns.



But these kids were so motivated out of passion for saving the things they considered important to their lives and futures, that they overcame their fears and testified anyone. It was an awesome display of courage. Tears ran down my cheeks as I watched—not figuratively but literally. I don’t think I could have been more proud of our student body.



Their themes, some delivered passionately, some delivered creatively, some delivered succinctly but all delivered reasonably, responsibility and respectfully (the three R’s that govern student at CCHS) were clear:



They are aware of and concerned about the connection between trade skills learned while in high school and their career potential. These kids are not floating through life assuming the government or Mom and Dad will take care of them once they graduate. Many of them know that college is not in their future, and they know that they need competitive skills if they hope to find jobs and be competitive with a large pool of older workers competing for those same jobs. They rely on their high school to provide those skills from traditional vocational training to computer-aided design to public speaking skills to foreign language to give them the ability to find post-graduation work and they connect the loss of these programs with a diminished future for themselves.



They understand very clearly that they are the upcoming generation of leaders in their communities. They believe that without arenas such as extracurricular activities, school-based community service opportunities and the opportunity to compete on the athletic field that they will not gain the skills they need to provide leadership in their communities when they become young adults.



They understand very deeply and articulate well that success in core classes and the likelihood of their peers attending or completing school correlates directly to the financial stability of the school district and the well being of the entire community. They understand that creative outlets and athletic achievement make for well rounded adults and individuals and better communities. They understand that young people will vote with their feet if their schools are unable to meet their needs.



One girl stirred deep emotions when she explained that she lives in deep poverty and that the only thing that makes her day worthwhile are the two back-to-back drama classes she has in the morning where she can be someone other than herself for two hours each day. And then she added that she knows that when the drama teacher asks her some mornings, “Are You OK?” she’s the one person in her life who really means it. Humbly, she asked the committee not to take away that lifeline from her.



Two girls from FFA gave presentations that were so well polished and so well put together than none of us in this office could pull them off. And they talked about how when they put on their jackets and look in the mirror in their own minds they put on not just an article of clothing but the mantle of role models to other students. Take that away from them, and they simply sink back to obscurity with the rest of the student body.



Two young men from the NJROTC program described how the combination of military discipline and creativity expressed through choir and band class had given them purpose and direction, both in setting life goals and in improving their academic performance. Both have their sites firmly set on career goals of becoming music teachers—something that can’t happen if they don’t have a music program. I know the circumstances in which one of the young men lives. Without the motivation and opportunity that high school provides, his future is challenging.



A THIRD GRADER competently addressed the board and the room of 100 people and explained why her elementary school is special to her and why shutting it down would create discord in her family and her community.



A young man told the board that he couldn’t express in words his concerns. So he played his guitar and sang a song he had written in class expressing his angst over the diminishment of his opportunities.



For three and half hours this went on. It was one of the most compelling things I have ever seen in my public life, primarily because it came from such an unexpected place.



I came away admiring the courage of young people, the awareness that this generation has about how its welfare connects to the welfare of society as a whole and the passion that causes young people to be willing to stand up for something bigger than just themselves. I have administered public hearings for the past 12 years, and I can only wish that the adults in the community had half the skills and approach of these young people.



I can’t wait for the next person to tell me how our kids are underperforming in our schools. If anything, it is the community that is underperforming for its kids."



Scott Cooper

Director of Public Policy,

Partnership To End Poverty

521 SW 6th St.

Redmond, OR 97756

direct dial: (541) 923-9663

cell phone: (541) 420-1998

fax: 541-420-1399

scott@partnershiptoendpoverty.org

www.partnershiptoendpoverty.org

Prineville Students to Present Poetry from The Nature of Words Creative Writing Program

Darkness and scarcity abound in our district, and yet...check out this article which features our students, as well as the great generosity from a solid local literary festival...

To Ellen Waterston, Margie Robberson and our Writer/Teacher in residence Jamie Houghton, we are forever in your debt.

My Boys-Smith Rock

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When darkness surrounds, hunt for the light. I am the moth to these two flames, and I am blinded by my love for them. This is a darkness I can live with.

The Better to See You With My Dear

I can't stop giggling. If you're not reading Katie's blog, you are missing out. Here is an example...

And the most important part of the week (from a letter to my friend Beth)

I lost a treasured former student to an auto wreck last week. She was blossoming, doing so well. She would be 20 on the 5th. I went to her funeral, packed with beautiful studded leather multi-pierced smelling of hand-rolled tobacco angels who loved her and sang raucous irish/punk goodbyes. I don't cry at funerals. I suck at death. Everything is numb and sucked inside of me in mid-inhale, afraid I will break something. But their singing broke me free. Sad, Sad and raucous and beautiful and tragic...