Taomeow

Leopardess teaching her kittens how to cross the road

What happened to the flu?

Nature never breaks her own laws. ~ Leonardo da Vinci

The media fish?

It's a well-known fact that explaining a joke that wasn't clear makes it clear but can't make it funny, so I'll just address your concerns. This particular bear, named Stepan, is the star of many youtube videos you can check out if you like. He's 27 years old and has been living with his human family all his life, since he was adopted by them from a zoo where he was born. I don't remember the details but given the economical situation in Russia of the time when the bear was born, the zoo may have been struggling to survive, and the bear wouldn't have a better life if he was to stay there -- if any at all. I'm not a fan of zoos, and swore to never visit one ever again even though San Diego has one of the best -- still, my last visit left me depressed and furious over the casual cruelty characteristic of human approach to treating wild animals as inanimate objects. That's the general sentiment; an exception is kind treatment of an individual animal whose life would have been even worse from the get-go if it wasn't for human intervention. In those rare cases, the animal's life is still nowhere near normal but at least, for a beast born into bondage, kind owners who are willing to take on the role of adoptive parents are better than cruel ones who imprison and exploit the beast for profit or just for the hell of it -- in a zoo, circus, medical "research" lab (that's where the real horrors happen every day, millions of instances every year) or in just about any circumstances where an animal is subjugated by humans (or whatever those ghouls are). Stepan, basically, has always had the life of a well-loved family dog or cat -- who just happens to weigh 800 lb. He doesn't know any other life, never did, and if nothing bad happens to his family, never will. His story is just what it is. The joke in the comment I cited is funny to those who are aware of the politically motivated cliché image of Russians promulgated by the media.

A Russian guy posted a youtube video of his life with a pet bear. A comment someone left under the video: "This is extremely dangerous and stupid. It always looks as though they're happy and so on, but it's only a matter of time before they lose it and maim you. Yes, they can be domesticated -- but they are still Russians! Run, bear, run before it's too late!"

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The winner has many friends, and only they are the real losers. -- Niccolo Machiavelli

2020 in a nutshell

Rare black leopard in Africa, photographed for the first time in 100 years

Extremely rare white cougar in Brazil

"I want it to be" was an emotion. "I let myself think" was what came next. "And then emotion of sadness/tears began" -- feedback loop from thought back to emotion. So, it was emotion leading to thought reverting back to emotion. The thought acting as mediator, beginning in emotion and returning to emotion. To schematically simplify the sequence, it was something like this: "I want" -- "so I pretend it is what I want" -- "but I know it isn't" -- "so I get sad over not getting what I want." Thought is what you used to pretend, to briefly create a make-believe situation where your emotion -- "I want" -- gets gratified. Then the "pretend" thought gets defeated by the actual reality -- "it isn't what I want" -- which takes you back to the emotion that started it all, now clarified as "I want but I can't get" -- which corresponds to what we call sadness. Which is an emotion. I would recommend "Descartes' Error" by cognitive neuroscientist Antonio Damasio. He investigated those "as-if loops" in the neocortex and had interesting observations to report.

Cognitive neuroscientists uniformly agree with taoists on this one. Emotions absolutely come before thoughts and arise as soon as life itself. The origin is the simple dual distinction of stimuli into "pain" and "pleasure." Without such discernment life is not possible. Even unicellular organisms exhibit their ability to tell the difference between pain and pleasure. E.g., if you take a saucer with clean water and introduce some amoebae to this medium, then add a tiny drop of ink, the amoebae will all swim vigorously away from the inked side of the saucer toward the side with clean water. All subsequent, more and more complex emotions are ultimately traceable to the application of this one criterion -- what supports life vs. what threatens it. Of course an artificially complicated environment, especially one that demands repression of emotions as a prerequisite for being accepted, creates many artificially complicated emotions, convoluted and thwarted and irrational. And, ultimately, it creates thoughts, the last refuge and the last remaining outlet for emotions that haven't found their expression. Thought is a way for them to get transformed and dissipated. Thoughts are valves releasing that pressure.

“The secret of happiness is freedom, and the secret of freedom is courage.” —Thucydides

Streptomyces avermitilis

I'm not the only stochastic fortune teller in town. Here's The Economist's 2021 cover.

I'm sure there will be a lot of positive interpretations by FS new agers, but I was trained to look for problem areas first. It's the general principle of all FS arts --- which are diagnostic and prescriptive like all healing arts. You diagnose the problems first, you try to remedy them (and it can only be done if you are aware of them -- the body can't heal a wound if it doesn't know it's wounded.) And then you look for where there's good things possible that can be enhanced and supported. It's like going to the doctor to get your health evaluated -- yes, of course there's things that are problem free and will remain so in one's body, healthy organs, healthy habits, what not -- but you don't go to get a diagnosis of what isn't bothering you. If nothing is bothering you, you might consult a sports fitness specialist, e.g. -- hey doc, my health is stellar, now what can I do to turn it into fame, fortune and glory?.. That's for NBA players and Olympic athletes. Our world is not an Olympic athlete health-wise. So I start with evaluating a broken leg, so to speak, and diabetes and the danger of stroke or anaphylaxis, rather than with praising the thick head of hair of the patient and beaming and promising that the new year will bring him an even greater shampoo and a more flattering haircut. Which of course it might. That said, of course there's always some positive things for someone somewhere even under circumstances that are not that fortunate for others or for most. E.g. at a glance (pending a deeper analysis) I expect people who have extra Yang Fire to fare better this year than those who are Fire deficient. I expect Roosters and Snakes to be in a better situation this time around than Oxen and (especially) Goats. I expect Yang Wood to take advantage of the Nobelman Star. For a more focused analysis, I would have to do more work, I've just started with an overview of the qi of the Heavenly Stem and Earthly Branch of the year and at a glance it looks rather precarious, but of course I'll be looking for loopholes and wormholes into positivity. I'll report on my findings.

These nice-looking young guys are posing on the eve of their mission. They are about to kill 146,000 civilians. They just followed orders.

The power of any needle (and any hidden dagger) will be enhanced. Intent and motives behind using it will be amplified.

2021, Yin Metal year. Compared to the heavy, bulky Yang Metal of the Heavenly Stem of 2020 that put an oppressive, immobilizing weight over Earth, 2021 is going to operate in a more insidious manner. Yin Metal is associated with metal things that are fine and elegant -- like jewelry. Things that are designed for appearances and meant to look delicate, finely crafted, and precious. On a deeper level, at the heart of it, Yin Metal is cold and cruel, sneaky and brutal, hidden and deadly -- like a dagger. The year of the needle.

Snow leopard kittens

Forgiveness is the gift of fragrance given by a flower when it's being trampled underfoot.

Yes, but they charge a 37% sales tax on it here in CA. (( That used to happen to me with smoking it -- I did it so rarely and sporadically that I remained a perpetual novice. Importantly, don't do this with ayahuasca. The first dose kicks in, you're getting what you asked for times 1000. On its heels, the second dose finds you, three days later, standing immersed to the waist in a cold turbulent river while the shaman alternatively pours water over you from a bucket and blows smoke into the top of your head from a cigar as thick as an anaconda and almost as long. Which eventually helps the second dose leave your system -- only to open the way for the third. This one keeps you well away from this-here world for three more weeks, and basically never fully returns your mind back to its initial condition, for better or for worse. As Wang Liping later told me when I described my adventures to him, "the rest is consequences." I think he meant the rest of my life.

It was infused gummies, lemon flavored -- I got a box of 20, 5 mg each. Took about a quarter of one gummy yesterday, because I know from experience that I am pretty sensitive so starting low is prudent. Might try half a gummy today and take it from there.

@Nungali P.S. This is California. Everybody knows that "an edible" is not a reference to a meal.