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Everything posted by Encephalon
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There you go again, getting all sciencey! I don't have TV, but I did catch Michio Kaku online this morning. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42124500/ns/world_news-asiapacific/?GT1=43001 It's interesting to watch the interplay between tv "journalists" and scientists. They each have their own agendas. Kaku is trying to spell it out, and the news reporter is trying to frame the news for a Hollywood ending;humans will triumph, goodness will reign, you'll be back on your sofa eating cheeze doodles by the weekend.
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This is for audio only. Go to http://www.democracynow.org/2011/3/17/serious_danger_of_a_full_core This is Pacifica Radio, the investigative arm of scary liberals and other Monsters of the Left. It seems the best scenario is to bury all 6 reactors Chernobyl style, since they are all at risk of meltdown. The problem of being able to get close enough continues.
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All I can say is, nei kung practice seizes hold of your endocrine system and dramatically reduces your stress level. I'd be freaking out without it, or completely despondent, i.e., a pothead back on the bottle.
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Damn good stuff here, Nanashi. And it's really simple too, vastly more simple and more sensible than all the conspiracy theories thrown out. I hope our species can buy enough time to let this simplicity wash over us.
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I submit that it's too early to tell one way or another. The only problem with the Best Minds scenario is that we don't have enough of them to keep the rest of the stupid bastards from screwing everything up in the first place! It would've been great if the best Minds could've weighed in at Chernobyl or deep-sea oilwells, but they're spread just too darn thin. We've never encountered this problem before. No reactor has ever gotten so hot that we couldn't get close enough to cool it down so it's too soon to tell. As far as the Gulf of Mexico goes, it will take decades to measure any appreciable shifts in that ecosystem, so O wouldn't hold out for too much optimism. But as an expectant father, part of me is compelled to.
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Wow! Found your balls, eh? The obvious difference between me and Harold camping is that I am not making declarative statements about the return of supernatural beings and he is. That in iteself doesn't make him wrong or me right. What it does mean is that you're too fucking clueless to see the larger point of the danger and folly of religious extremism.
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That's about the worst news I could possibly imagine. I'm personally ready to go down with the ship; I've lived a full and interesting life. But my wife is 3 months pregnant. Tell Kate we'll be leaving LA and moving in with her.
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Wall Street Journal- Most published science studies found to be wrong
Encephalon replied to Immortal4life's topic in General Discussion
No worries. -
You held a reputable scientific body suspect and deferred to what people said on the Internet? Sorry, that's just a little too disingenuous for me. You really need to get a library card and stop acting like such a chump.
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Yep. RESOLVE Banish uncertainty. Affirm strength. Hold resolve. Expect death. Make your stand today. On this spot. On this day. Make your actions count; do not falter in your determination to fulfill your destiny. Don't follow the destiny outlined in some mystical book: Create your own. Your resolve to tread the path of life is your best asset. Without it, you die. Death is unavoidable, but let it not be from loss of will but because your time is over. As long as you can keep going, use your imagination to cope with the travails of life. Overcome your obstacles and realize what you envision. You will know unexpected happiness. You will know the sorrow of seeing what is dearest to you cut down before your eyes. Accept that. That is the nature of human existence, and you have no time to buffer this fact with fairy tales and illogical explanations. Each day, your life grows shorter by twenty-four hours. The time to make achievements becomes more precious. You must fulfill everything you want in life and then release your will upon the moment of death. Your life is a creation that dies when you die. Release it, give up your individuality, and in so doing, finally merge completely with Tao. Until that moment, create the poetry of your life with toughness and determination. 365 Tao: Daily Meditations Deng Ming-Dao
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you've really got me curious now. What qualifies you to speak disparagingly of the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology, or to suspect them in any way? Do you have a background in Earth Sciences?
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Wall Street Journal- Most published science studies found to be wrong
Encephalon replied to Immortal4life's topic in General Discussion
I have to give Immortal4 credit; his writing is comprehensible, even if I find reason to disagree. I agree that Kuhn seeks a paradigm shift. -
Wall Street Journal- Most published science studies found to be wrong
Encephalon replied to Immortal4life's topic in General Discussion
The fact that we haven’t fully figured out the universe is not the problem. You could probably argue that we are beginning to see the limits of Newtonian physics, but that is no reason to go online and throw salvos at the scientific method and preach metaphysics. Ecology is a subject better suited to the understanding of conditions on our planet as it is teeming with life, but this actually obliges us to be even more tenacious with the scientific method, but deployed in the service of biological science, in addition to the tools of Newtonian discoveries. An important part of the appeal of Taoism is the discovery that ancient Taoists conceived of essential ecological facts that have been corroborated by modern science, but they did so by refining their powers of intuition. Anyone not heartened and overwhelmed with encouragement by this simple fact is missing the boat. The implication is that we do possess another means of more deeply understanding our world without jettisoning our rational faculties. “The Web of Life” by Fritjof Capra is a modern classic that details this phenomenon. “The Dharma of Natural Systems” by Joanna Macy, “A Buddhist History of the West” by David Loy, “The Structure of Scientific Revolutions” by Thomas Kuhn, and “The Passion of the Western Mind” by Richard Tarnas all contribute powerfully to this understanding, and those are just four titles that I’ve read. There are hundreds more on the subject. I honor your desire to see the world healed, and as you have correctly intuited, this will require a better understanding of it, but your prescription of throwing the baby out with the bathwater to make room for metaphysical speculation doesn’t seem all that viable to me. -
The Tao Bums Interview with Bruce Frantzis - March 2011
Encephalon replied to sean's topic in Interviews
Wow. This is a goldmine! Thanks. -
I don't care for this food product myself - I love it but I don't like to eat it - but my stepdaughter gobbles it down and it seems to agree with my pregnant wife. I was at my local Asian market ready to buy in bulk but I was too bewildered by the selection. Any Taoist rice connoisseurs out there?
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Wall Street Journal- Most published science studies found to be wrong
Encephalon replied to Immortal4life's topic in General Discussion
I think you've completely missed the whole point of the article. This is not an indictment of the scientific method; it's an observation of how rampant are the flawed research practices of human beings. Judging by the points you've made in other posts as well as this one, your agenda seems plain enough; you fancy yourself as a one-man crusader out to undermine the world scientific communty and have us replace it with metaphysics and superstition. Attributing the earthquake in Japan to "Gaia," the living earth who's taking out her wrath on the human race, was not only idiotic but profoundly vulgar and beneath the measure of wisdom and clear thinking that must be summoned to address this tragedy. New Age bullshit doesn't have a lot of utility here. Sorry for not being more diplomatic, but not all of us in here are uneducated idiots looking for the hippest new mythology. I appreciate your heartfelt desire to update our ruling paradigm, but this is accomplished by transcending the paradigm, not going back to the Pre-Copernican era and looking for shortcuts around it. If this is genuinely an interest of yours, as I believe it is, then there's no way around reading Thomas Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. We all had to read it in college. You will too. Sincerely, Blasto, the presumptous and pedantic asshole from hell -
I truly didn't expect there to be anything approaching consensus among TTBs about something so essential as white rice! Do TTBs have consensus about anything? Still, I figured if I got a "Thumbs Up!" from 75% of you for Basmati, or Jasmine, or Sushi I would've called it a day of fine research. We personal trainers have been begging our clients to get off white rice for years, for many reasons, mostly because people eat too much of it in one sitting but also because, carb for carb, the nutrient value is less than quinoa, or buckwheat. But I trust Taomeow with my life and I know where I can get a 30-pound bag for less than $15, So I'm done. Thanks. Try sprinkling this on white rice. My family's been doing this for 35 years. It's not a Taoist dish but it's awesome.
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Morphic Fields and Morphic Resonance
Encephalon replied to Immortal4life's topic in General Discussion
Nonsense. There are individuals in this forum, members for years who've committed themselves to the hard and consistent work of Taoist alchemical practices precisely because they have extraordinary faith in, and personal experience with, the higher reaches of human potential. You seem to be of the opinion that the shades of magical thinking as espoused by the likes of Sheldrake, et.al., constitue some measure of intellectual advancement, while categorizing skeptics and critical thinkers as spiritual flunkies. Have you ever read some of Sheldrake's detractors? Sorry to burst your bubble but sound reasoning and spiritual evolution are not antithetical. Perhaps if you're up to it you'd be interested in sharing your ideas for a change. Many of us already know our way around Youtube. -
My first reaction was that she was trying to pull everyone's leg, but she has dozens of these online. And I agree that she's repugnant, and has literally "lost" her mind, insofar as she no longer possesses a capacity for independent thinking, critical thinking, skepticism, etc. This poor kid has been subjected to so much social conditioning to get her to where she is that I actually take pity on her, and save my scorn for her parents and her church brethren who are obviously more fucked up than she is. It will take her years and the equivalent of Moonie deprogramming to get her back. She actually feels justified in demonizing those who differ from her absolutism; she didn't get there on her own. Nope, the NWO did this to her!
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Traps you in a file download.
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I'm with you all the way on this one, Ralis. I came in here to post an obvservation that the Japanese people are comporting themselves with absolute dignity; there doesn't seem to be any evidence of looting or shenanigans of any kind. Can you imagine how Americans would behave in similar instances? But to come in here and read these preposterously asinine and uninformed comments about the revenge of Gaia and other so-called causal explanations makes me want to blow up the schools these posters went to.
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Toying with the idea of replacing Vicodin with reefer for pain mgmt.
Encephalon replied to Encephalon's topic in General Discussion
I don't ever see myself swearing off mind-altering substances for good. I had sense enough at 21 to know that alcohol is fucking deadly and I quit. But I was in tremendous pain back then and blacking out every nikght for a year made sense on that level. I'm confident that there will come a day when a certain amount of balance is achieved in my life (mostly the kind of balance I have now, but with more $$) that I may partake from time to time, but I haven't teased all that out yet. When I buy it at the clinic and it's in the house, I'm looking at my watch and asking my wife when she's leaving for work, so that I may fire up the second she's left the building. I want weekly, saturday afternoon smoking or brownie sessions with my screenplay collaborators and my bosu ball. But tonight I take a one-year no-pot pin, and it's been mighty fine and my wife and I have become extremely close. And I don't want to be a pothead with my newborn come 9/30/11. ps - I've had nothing but IBU and tylenol for twelve hours and I'm okay, so I guess this tunnel has been successfully navigated.