It's not a judgment, it's a survey

[Taomeow]

I have no idea if cucumbers are capable of self reflection...doesn't seem to be the case! Maybe about as much as someone with a lobotomy...probably less.

 

But of course they have life and existence. Not the human kind with cardiac tissue that miraculously pulsates on its own, but yeah.

 

PS: Mmmmm...iced coffee! Want some, cucumbers?....anyone???? No? Okay more for me.

 

"The latest discovery comes from Kew's Jodrell Laboratory, where they found that Paris japonica, a small, white flower from Japan, has the largest genome of any organism studied! The smallest genome yet reported (at least among eukaryotes, or organisms with nuclei enclosed in membranes) is found in an intestinal parasite (0.0023 picograms of DNA), and the human genome falls in between, at 3.0 picograms and 3 billion "letters" of DNA. The flower's genome is a whopping 150 billion letters long, making it 50 times the size of the human genome."

 

So, what do you think this pretty white flower does with its staggering complexity 50 times exceeding our own?..

 

All we know about its inner life is that it does not cause it to speak English aloud (you can't be sure it doesn't speak it in its flowerhead though... ayahuasca made me speak Spanish with her "because that's what people speak here" and when I protested that I don't know it, she downloaded it into my head instantly -- and it lasted me three weeks, with some residual Spanish vocabulary of a couple hundred words still remaining operational to this day.) Oh, and another thing we know about Paris Japonica's (or a cucumber's) inner life is that they don't care for iced coffee... no wait, do we?.. HOW do we know?.. We "assume" and therefore don't offer them any. I'm going to ask the tomato plants I currently have if they care for some. (I don't, thank you, I prefer my coffee hot -- and strong enough to walk on its own.)

[Mark Foote]

The greatest Sage I've met to date is a plant.

 

 

Truffle oil over hamachi, I am looking for the place, someday maybe I will find myself there.

 

Peculiarly human, who can say what we are here for, in our moment-to-moment dream of life- or what our actions mean, in the vegetable garden of the universe. Thanks for the story of the cucumber plant. Do animals think in pictures, how do plants think then. Can I think in pictures, can I relate to creatures that think in pictures or those who think some other way, apart from heart and mind? Apart from the soil of heart and mind? Night time in the big city, and all who come this way are in the middle of a saki punch, and I'm looking to try nigori sake now, with a friend online. Ha ha!

[Aetherous]

So, what do you think this pretty white flower does with its staggering complexity 50 times exceeding our own?

 

I think it doesn't do nearly as much as a human being, and I don't think it's as complex as a human being, despite it having a much longer genome.

 

With ayahuasca type experiences, it could be that the plant really has a great intelligence and capability, or it could be that the plant causes us to access our own greater intelligence and capability. It is a subjective experience.

[3bob]

"...our this-here reality is a side effect of operations of one of those, a trickle-down manifestation of its functions... the universe if full of weird stuff, ten thousand times weirder than anything humanly weird...) So, anyone says something condescending about vegetables, I just LOS... the silent counterpart of LOL." by Taomeow

 

Indeed, pick up just about any issue of National Geographic and one can see pictures and descriptions of all sorts of interesting and different types of life forms...!

 

then again in a basic sense all those would suffer in vain without the unchanging, simple beyond simple and beautiful beyond beautiful core of all things that is deeper than any level of mind creation or forms, yet is also the answer and rest that all forms seek in one way or another.

Edited May 16, 2012 by 3bob

[Cat Pillar]

I think I've had nigori sake before, it was Hana Fuji Apple (also tried their Lychee flavor, both were excellent.)

 

I definitely prefer the chilled stuff. First time I tried Hana was at a sushi bar, at the recommendation of the waiter.

 

I love reading your posts, Taomeow. I always learn something from you.

[Taomeow]

Truffle oil over hamachi, I am looking for the place, someday maybe I will find myself there.

 

Peculiarly human, who can say what we are here for, in our moment-to-moment dream of life- or what our actions mean, in the vegetable garden of the universe. Thanks for the story of the cucumber plant. Do animals think in pictures, how do plants think then. Can I think in pictures, can I relate to creatures that think in pictures or those who think some other way, apart from heart and mind? Apart from the soil of heart and mind? Night time in the big city, and all who come this way are in the middle of a saki punch, and I'm looking to try nigori sake now, with a friend online. Ha ha!

 

Yeah, food tourism! Another overlooked human advantage! Places you go -- everybody can go places, but a koala will still want eucalyptus leaves for breakfast, lunch and dinner no matter where he roams, and if there aren't any in a new place, he will rather die than try something else! There's definite disadvantages to being a specialist...

 

I think plants think in sacred geometry, and then perhaps in Euclidean and Lobachevsky's too, they are absolute masters of geometry (and if we take Plato's word for it, as I tend to, to the effect that "god is a geometer," then they think way closer to god than we do.) Geometrical thinking (which I'm familiar with from those of my meditations that come out the very best hands down) does not rely on pictures -- much less numbers or words -- it's a direct influx of reality. "Images arise in the Creative (heaven) and take form in the Receptive (earth)," as Ta Chuan put it. Plants translate heaven-speak into earth-speak... and embody what they think. Knowing that can actually help a human read their minds. The Doctrine of Signatures was all about reading the plants' minds based on how they embody it. (Chinese medicine never lost that. A seasoned TCM master can tell what the qi of a plant will do in the human body by just looking at it.)

 

I think I've had nigori sake before, it was Hana Fuji Apple (also tried their Lychee flavor, both were excellent.)

 

I definitely prefer the chilled stuff. First time I tried Hana was at a sushi bar, at the recommendation of the waiter.

 

I love reading your posts, Taomeow. I always learn something from you.

 

Why thank you!

 

While we're learning things from each other, could you please tell me what's that ponies thing about that everybody seems to know something about but me? I only know an old Russian song about a pony... here's a quick translation:

 

The pony gives the girls a ride,

the pony gives the boys a ride,

the pony runs in circles

counting circles in his mind!

 

(Scotty would disagree I'm sure. )

[Cat Pillar]

 

Why thank you!

 

While we're learning things from each other, could you please tell me what's that ponies thing about that everybody seems to know something about but me? I only know an old Russian song about a pony... here's a quick translation:

 

The pony gives the girls a ride,

the pony gives the boys a ride,

the pony runs in circles

counting circles in his mind!

 

(Scotty would disagree I'm sure. )

 

I'd be more than happy to explain, but you may learn more than you ever wanted to know.

 

My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic

 

This is the newest iteration of Hasbro's "My Little Pony" franchise. (My avatar was created using an online pony generator a fan of the show created. Edit: You can't see it very well, but the "cutie mark" is a Hello Cthulhu)

 

Marketed towards six-year-old girls, there have been 4 generations of "My Little Pony" cartoons, the latest being "Friendship is Magic". Previous generations had a history of being pretty terrible, but Hasbro was doing a reboot on a lot of their franchises for their new cable channel (in partnership with Discovery Communications, Inc) and they wanted to do one for MLP.

 

Lauren Faust, the creator of such media powerhouses as "The Powerpuff Girls" and "Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends", had been trying to pitch an original series to Hasbro called "Galaxy Girls". Hasbro wound up asking Faust to make a pitch bible for the reboot of "My Little Pony" because they thought her style was well-suited to the franchise, and her pitch got the green light.

 

Faust was a fan of the franchise, and she wanted to challenge the "girly" stigma it had developed. One of the animators she got to help create the series was Paul Rudish, who also worked on the popular series "Samurai Jack" and "Dexter's Labratory". With the help of writers Faust had worked with in the past and many other talented animators, along with a large cast of great voice talent (including a cameo by John De Lancie, Star Trek's "Q"), music by a great composer, songs by a great songwriter...they wound up creating a show that had such broad appeal that one of it's largest demographics is now young male adults between the ages of 18 and 25. This is due in part to the cultural references that only adults would get that are scattered throughout the show.

 

Fans of the show call themselves "Bronies," and apparently the show is a big draw among the artistically inclined. Fan created media such as art and Youtube videos is almost as popular as the show itself and has reached a very high level of quality, some select pieces even rivaling the quality of the show itself.

 

Hasbro noticed the popularity among demographics they never really expected to grab, and decided to make some very savvy business decisions. They generally left alone full episodes posted to Youtube, increasing the reach of the series to the Internet crowd. They also started making nods to their fans both in advertising and in the show itself - most notably in the popular background pony called "Derpy Hooves," who first showed up with her eyes all cattywampus (derped, majorly cross-eyed) and after becoming so popular with the fans was inserted as an easter-egg, derped eyes and all, in various episodes. She even got a speaking line in Season 2, which caused some controversy because they actually used the fan-given name "Derpy," and that apparently offended someone. It was later re-dubbed in an apparently less-offensive manner. As mentioned before, there are also countless references to popular culture and history that only adults would be likely to get.

 

And there you have it. That's what's with the ponies thing.

 

Check out the My Little Pony thread in Off-Topic for some examples of fan-created media.

Edited May 17, 2012 by Cat Pillar