Taomeow

Chinese dragons have many functions, sizes, and meanings. They have a different anatomy -- e.g. most Chinese dragons have no wings and none breathe fire -- they breathe mists and clouds instead. Most Chinese dragons go through metamorphoses during their life cycles, starting out with typical yin characteristics (living in bodies of water) followed by a flip over to yang -- that's when they can fly and produce things like thunder and lightning. For flight, they use different means -- specific anatomical organs (chimu and/or poshan), gravity manipulation through magic, etc.. They don't normally eat maidens nor are interested in forcing unwanted sex on them. They can eat up whole empires though if sufficiently pissed off or harmed by humans, but otherwise are mostly benevolent. Some are very large and are perceived as mountain ranges -- they move in a different timeline, which to ours appears so slow as to be imperceptible. Others are very small -- worm-sized or even smaller. Some reside in the human body and participate in its physiological functions, e.g. peristalsis. Some can assume human form and live a human life as rulers or wise taoists (which according to apocryphal accounts is what Confucius discerned when he met Laozi -- "he is not a man, he is a dragon," he reportedly asserted.)

You won't see your feet if you don't pull them out of your mouth, right and left

To which I would add, all of them except for civil wars are started by something that was mistranslated. 8 out of 10 of those are started by something that was mistranslated on purpose, and the other 2, by something mistranslated due to ineptitude. The prevalent kind of little gifts and little debts in today's world are of a very specific, very carefully fine-tuned nature: they are almost exclusively such as to make the gifted/indebted party highly blackmailable. If there's no dirt on them, preferably of the most horrendous kind, they are never given a place by the power trough to begin with.

Thank you very much, Dainin. I still miss Cheya. Could always feel her presence here as a blessing. I know people close to her in real life felt the same, only stronger. RIP.

To answer what? I've perused enough literature on the subject -- books, not articles -- so if you could give a short (one or two sentences) synapsis of what that comprehensive article is driving at, I'd have a better idea of whether it's so revolutionary as to read it. "In god we trust." In science we question. How about 400 000 years of the ice ages right before the latest warming ( which started about 18 000 years ago -- not the evolutionary age of humans by a long shot?..) Guess "Ethiopia" and "sunny Thailand" were exempt from Ice Ball Earth conditions? Sunny Thailand was inhabited for half a million years -- and cold as hell for most of that time. On the other hand, during the warming periods (very short compared to the ice ages they interspersed), the average yearly temperature in Greenland was 85 degrees Centigrade -- so I wouldn't write off Europe as a place where fruits could be added to the diet when it was warm, nor Africa as a place where to this day the last surviving hunter-gatherer tribes answer the question "What's the most important thing in life" with a quick and simple response: "Meat."

No joy in sulking or crying over spilt milk on the Milky Way

What you get here and now are baby apricots, they never sell them ripe. Fully tree-ripened apricots are delicious, though the level of deliciousness also depends on the variety, of which I know four, and like all of them (when ripe of course). The one that I only had in Armenia and haven't encountered anywhere else was the best, in fact it was so good as to be a strong contender for "The best fruit I ever had" title. Interestingly, the local name for that variety is zirani, reminiscent of the taoist concept of ziran. I grew up eating plenty of apricots every summer, and later I would always make some apricot preserves at home, using a recipe which preserved their shape intact -- they turned a transparent amber and were not only great to have with tea but also a feast for the eyes to look at. That preserve took three days to make, you just brought them to a boil in syrup and then turned the heat off and left them to soak for hours, repeating the process several times in the course of three days.

For vitamin A, I wouldn't be choosing between nectarines and peaches. I would go for liver, fish, cheese, butter and eggs. Fruits and veggies don't contain vitamin A straight up -- instead, they contain carotenoids which the human body can convert into vitamin A in 55% of people. 45%, however, are not genetically equipped to take this metabolic step, so no matter how many carotenoids are present in their diet, they will wind up vitamin A deficient unless they get it in its ready-made form from foods that have it in this form. A bit of a gamble to assume that one belongs to the lucky 55% without knowing for sure.

But back to aliens visiting or refusing to visit our planet. Some of them have a problem, not with the human species but with an older, wiser one.

Years ago, California Science Center had an exhibit, a simulator of a bee's eyesight. It was a very bulky contraption, something like this: I looked through it for a while and decided that what it really was was a simulator of the human mind imagining the bee's eyesight as seen through the human eyes. I guess all our reverse engineered alien technology has the same built-in flaw. "You are not a fish, how can you possibly know if the fish are enjoying themselves," as Zhuangzi's friend said in a famous story. "You are not me, how can you possibly know whether I know if the fish are enjoying themselves," Zhuangzi reminded him. Since you talked to the Queen Bee and live close to nature, maybe you can ask a butterfly on my behalf -- I've occasionally wondered and I have my own hypothesis, but a hypothesis is just that... can you ask a butterfly: what do they have light receptors in their reproductive organs for??

The boy who cried wolf comes to mind. And Kent Brockman.

Sunrise is also magical, but most urban/suburban dwellers are asleep at the time. Last year I made a point of seeing the sunrise every day. A good spot closest to home is where a long open street goes East downhill so nothing obstructs the view of the mountains -- although the mountains themselves obstruct the view of the sun during certain seasons -- it moves a bit every day, left to right, and might reach a position where the mountains won't let you see it until it's fully emerged. So, one fine morning I was sitting there with a cup of coffee and a car passed by, then abruptly turned around, stopped, and some young guy got out to ask if I was OK. 'cause, you know, someone who doesn't look homeless just sits on the curb circa 5:30 a.m., something might be wrong with them. I responded, "I am, what about you?" "Oh... not really," he said, "had a huge fight with my girlfriend, just stormed out mad, went for a drive. Anyway... so, what are you doing here?" I explained that I was sitting there waiting for the sun to rise. What?! I just want to see the sunrise. He looked a bit confused for a moment -- as though he thought that something must be wrong with me after all -- then goes, ah, what the hell, I'll watch the sunrise too. Haven't seen one in... I dunno, maybe ten years? Fifteen? Long story short, he sat down next to me and started looking at the clouds gradually changing color over the horizon, the unique play of ever-changing light and shadows, the strange pictures of fantastic landscapes emerging below, changing minute to minute, gently, getting brighter, forming animal shapes, transforming them, now here, now gone. He was absolutely blown away. "It's better than a movie!" he kept raving. Once we were done watching the sunrise, he made a solemn oath that he will try to see the sunrise as often as possible from then on. He positively looked enlightened, LOL.

No, not necessarily ill-advised -- except in a too generic, one-size-fits-all shape and form. The practice itself is absolutely legit for the first 45 minutes after sunrise and the last 45 minutes before sunset, it's known as "absorbing the qi of the sun." Not only is it traditional in many cultures (I know of similar Indian and African ones, e.g.) but recent studies apparently suggest that it's the prime time for producing vitamin D in response to solar irradiation -- has to do with the angle of the sun's rays hitting the body, apparently it's a big deal biologically and has to do with our evolution. If true, this might partially explain, e.g., why in Southern California vitamin D deficiency is found in 50% of the population -- there's a lot of sun exposure but not enough of it during this crucial interval. (The rampant -- and misguided -- use of sunscreens might be another factor.) Climate, weather, season, timing, individual tolerance (of which most adults would be expected to be aware), state of health at a given moment, hereditary factors, acclimatization, what not -- everything plays a part. As always, the devil is in the details.

One of those diets that make WEF happy. The most radically privileged elites in history openly maintained that meat consumption should be reserved for the upper classes. Today they use propaganda, brainwashing and corrupt science rather than direct statements of this nature, so the ruled cooperate with the rulers more eagerly. For their own good of course.

If I were to follow my own rules, I'd ask the bees, don't like the middleman's interpretations of anything. But my bee buzz proficiency is limited and my bee dance is pedestrian, so I'll have to guess in human terms. Efficient use of space minimizing gaps between cells and maximizing storage space, even distribution of load, efficient use of the building material (the least wax is required compared to other shapes), sturdiness and stability under load due to interlocking pattern. Adrenochrome defined in the wiki and explained by google is, to the kind that may be of interest to some aliens and of concern to others, what water is to heavy water.

Blooms of Irish loughs. Murdris, Ireland's own Nessie, grazes on clover.

Adrenochrome.

Fire gives you yang energy too, but you don't want to sit in meditation in the middle of a campfire or inside a lit fireplace toward getting it. With the sun, it's the same situation, and "many people talking" you refer to ought to stop talking outta where the sun don't shine. The real traditional instructions ask you to never practice in direct sunlight, and for certain practices, to avoid the time of the day when the sun is too close to its maximal yang position altogether, especially in summer. Depending on the climate and weather it may mean from 11 am to 1 pm -- or even from 9 am to 4 pm.

Hey CT, way back when I did something similar volunteering at the Open Center in NYC. Because it is "open," meaning eclectic, I got exposed to many modalities -- everything and the kitchen sink can get thrown your way at the seminars and workshops. Lectures on all manner of "spiritual" topics, hands-on practice classes -- could be reiki, foot reflexology, zen meditation, you name it. Things I had to do as a volunteer were easy menial work -- arrange the chairs and/or tables and/or demo materials/props for the event, do something with brochures (don't remember what -- hand out? mail?) and troubleshoot along the way, in exchange for free access to the events. Of course I approached everything with an open mind, ready to learn, make discoveries, or suffer disappointments. And it so happened that this way I gradually weeded out absolutely everything being offered "out there," for lack of genuine resonance with my own nature, and was able to leave most of it well alone for the rest of the foreseeable future. A negative experience is also experience, and giving something in return ( like easy menial work, in this case) is only fair.

In the heaven phenomena take form; on earth shapes take form. -- Ta Chuan In the human world, they get bent out of shape. -- Ta Om Eow Illustration: Rene Magritte, "Personal values."

However, in terms of women's rights he (Genghis Khan, not George Carlin) was centuries ahead of his time. Also, he said it was his dream, and dreams are born of frustration with reality. (If reality was fine, who would need to escape into dreams?..) Of course dreams of powerful men are usually more likely than not to make reality worse instead of better. There were many dreamers-in-power in the history of this world whose dreams turned into nightmares for those tasked with making them come true...

Why do I want to conquer the world? Because I dream of creating a world where a girl carrying a large dish of pure gold can walk for thousands of miles, from one end of the world to the other, without losing either her dish or her honor. -- Genghis Khan

Yes, that's a good definition. Too bad most actual practices of life sciences and many in other fields haven't been applying this method since corporate patronage of science went into full swing.

Overheard my son make a brilliant argument in a politically sensitive dispute with a longtime friend of his. In confirmation of his take my son sent this friend some links, and the friend pooh-poohed the information in the usual (for such debates) manner: "that's just some dingy such-and-such-wing website, it's not a reputable source!" I thoroughly enjoyed my son's response: "Dude. Remember when, back in high school, we wanted weed and would go get it? Remember how we had to cross over Passaic River into this dingy, unfriendly and unsafe territory where, however, weed could be procured? Or how we had to deal with Archie the dealer, a shady enough character, or else ask Tom for an introduction to his dealer who was only a little less shady but a lot more expensive? Now why were we so stupid as to not go to a reputable source, huh? Why didn't we go to CVS next door, or to Rite Aid a few blocks away, to get our weed? Mighty reputable drug dealers, aren't they? Oh... but CVS and Rite Aid didn't have any weed to sell. None. Ever. And if we tried insisting at the CVS counter that we wanted weed, not bubble gum, they might have even called the cops on us?.. Well... there's a lot of information out there these days that you can't buy from CVS, nor from any other 'reputable source.' If you want to obtain specific information, you need to cross Passaic River to get it -- at your own risk -- and then use your own senses to ascertain its quality. But when we wanted weed, it didn't stop us, remember?.."

What exactly is "science" and who exactly are "scientists"? I come from 4 generations of Ph.D.s -- in fact, my great-grandfather was one of the pioneers of a whole new science -- but none of these people ever thought that the definition of "science" is "whatever is profitable for a corporation and heavily promoted by a mainstream authority getting a cut of the profits." They had entirely different definitions. What's yours?