Hot Fossils and Rebel Matters 177 – Nuit Blanche 2009

During Nuit Blanche this year the highlights for me were three sound events.  The first you’ll hear is Sound(e)scape curated by Darren Copeland at New Adventures in Sound Art in Toronto’s Wychwood Barns Artscape venue.  The next is a segment from the storytelling event at the Barns. Finally I share an event called In Search of a Wife in Search of a Husband. First is the memoirs of the wife of the Crown Prince of Korea, and her “experiences before and after her father-in-law, King Yongjo, forced her husband, his 25 year old son, to climb into a rice chest.   The chest was then sealed and her husband died in the chest eight days later.”  Later, the letters between Hester Lynch Thrale and Dr. Samuel Johnson are read.  The exchange is from 16 days between June and July 1784.  Thrale communicates her in intent at 43 years old to remarry and Johnson reacts strongly to the threat of the end of their twenty year association.

Links:   http://www.angelusnovus.net/events.html, Hector Centeno, Andrew Stewart , Nuit Blanche Toronto 2009

Listen to it at this link:

• HotFRM 177 (31MB)

Hot Fossils and Rebel Matters 176 – Star Gazing at the Toronto International Film Fest

Special K and I head to downtown Toronto to star gaze during the Toronto International Film Festival.   We actually see Juliette Lewis, Marcia Gay Harden and Richard Kind.   But we have to wait a long time during which I muse about mango shakes at The Green Fusion. We then head over to an upscale nik-nak store called Teatro Verde where I read randomly from the books on display and check out the scary, spooky halloween stuff like eerie origami.   Finally we go to Starbucks and meet fake stars that people insist on taking pictures of.  Who are all the men in black suits?

Custom Motorcycle (Photo By Ninja)

Other famous people mentioned:  Jodie Foster, Laura Dern, Steve Lawrence, Donald Sutherland.  Other important links:  6 Billion Others Project, Eleven Thousand Things to be Miserable About.

Listen here at:

• HotFRM 176 – (33Mb)

The Search for Comfort is Not the Same as the Search for God

Hellbound Alleee of Mondo Diablo fame gets it right on the nose.  There is no rhyme nor reason to the world and this life.  There doesn’t have to be.  But that is not the subject of this post.   I am responding to her episode number 195 of Mondo Diablo where a believer says that the number one question of non-believers is “Why is there evil if there is a god?”.  Of course it’s the number one question that non-believers asks because the answer, that normally involves how god gave us free will to test our faith, is incomprehensible. It simply does not answer the question.   This whole business of free will and its relationship to evil begs the question of god,  as Alleee points out in Mondo Diablo #195 :    “What, indeed, do we need god for if we have free will”, she asks.  What exactly would be the point?

The whole question of a free will and the fallen world is very foreign to all other non-christian religions because no other religion has this concept of original sin.   Why bother to create an Adam and Eve if they’re going to disappoint you and once they’ve disappointed you why not just destroy the world and all its sinners and start over?  Oh sorry.  Is that what is supposed to happen with the coming of the apocalypse and Armageddon?  One might argue that the ways of the superior being are not understandable to us.   Then why bother at all believing?  If his ways are not penetrable, then why should I waste one moment on it?  I’ll tell you why:  because there are only about 1.5 billion of us in the world who are self described non-believers in a god and the rest believe in one (or many), much to the  puzzlement of non-believers, who spend a considerable amount of time defending ourselves against this offense to our sensibilities called “belief in a god and all that it means.”

Alleee hits another one right on the sweet spot in that episode.  I have to say it again because I love it:  “The search for comfort is not the same as the search for god.”   These are indeed and importantly two very different things.  A god is a very terrible thing to believe in.  A “bubba meisis” as my mother would say, “an old wive’s tale”, a scary monster thing to tell your children to keep them in line.   And then we tell them that it’s ok to believe in the scary monster because they’ll be rewarded when they die by some other fabrication called heaven or resurrection or rebirth as a brahmin, or with virgins in an afterlife that they can rape with abandon.

On the other hand I would like very much to remind Alleee how she got here -  Her wonderful show Mondo Diablo, that I have been enjoying for 4 years wouldn’t even exist if it were not for someone’s belief in god.  How’s that for a slap in the face?

Hot Fossils and Rebel Matters 175 – Wither Special K Goest So Shall We Wouldest Goest or Something Like That

Globe Thistle is very soft

Hop on the Magic Bus.  Naw – it’s just part two at the Market.   More vegetables and items of curiosity.   Fantastical clocks at Arts on King,  a visit to the bank, and we discover that Charlie is a master at parallel parking.

A clock adorned with a feather at "Arts on King" Toronto

Listen to it here:

• HotFRM 175 (20Mb)

Hot Fossils and Rebel Matters 174 – It’s About Doing It At All

Parallel parking is about doing it at all.   Bring your own bags to the store or it will cost you 5 cents a pop in Toronto since June 1 and Charlie needs to buy one for the steak she will be making for herself.  Charlie is a slow poke like we are.

All the gay people are out with their pink bags and bicycles.  Pigs are hanging in the window. Special K reveals a TTC Scam Story.  Famous 70s Rock Stars mentioned: Alice Cooper

Listen to the show at

• HotFRM 174 (23Mb)

Hot Fossils and Rebel Matters 173 – Scarborough Dude Zen Master

International Space Station (Photo from New York Times Nasa/Reuters)

On this, the summer of the 40^th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing,  Special K and I head outside the house one late evening to catch a glimpse of the space station making its way round the earth.  We are surprised by its speed, size, colour and certainly by the fact that we are actually able to view it.   We have less than five minutes to watch it pass overhead.

Scarborough Dude (Photo by Ninja)

On the first morning of Podcasters Across Borders in June, the Dude was called up for the first jolt session of the conference. This session is meant to be exactly five minutes and is intended to stimulate the mind and conversation during the break before the next longer scheduled session.  True to form The Dude expressed himself in his characteristic stream of consciousness way when the alarm sounded ending his five minutes.   We took pity on him however and gave him a precious few more moments to read a dude original poem –  irreverent yet moving.  By the way the Dude is completely NSFW : that is:  not safe for work.  You have been warned (audio of the Dude’s jolt courtesy of Whitney Hoffman).

Listen to it at

• HotFRM 173 – The Dude – Zen Master (18Mb)

Mr. Scary Corn Nuts

I just need to understand what has happened to people’s social skills.

On Friday night Special K and I went to see a film and were amazed to be sitting beside a rather large-ish fellow who pulled out a deli-tub of corn nuts before the movie started and began to eat them. He dug his hand into the tub each time, scooping out a handful of nuts and using his fist as a funnel, closed his eyes and poured them into his upturned mouth.  This prelude was followed by fierce crunching noises as he chewed  while the rest of the audience around him looked on in a mixture of amusement, fascination, horror and derision.

Do you have any idea how a corn nut crunch sounds in a darkened quiet theatre?  He proceeded to eat the entire tub without regard for any of the other members of the audience.  Several people moved away in disgust, others were looking back at him or over at him and yet, the fellow remained oblivious and non-plussed. When he finally finished The Tub, Special K said, “Thank god it’s over”. “Oh it’s not over. Not by a long shot. I think that bag there with him is full of food.”  I don’t know if he got the message, but he was fairly silent throughout the film except that he shifted around noisily and pulled out several plastic bottles of water which he held above his head and drizzled into his throat.

I think these people believe it is actually ok to behave as though they are alone in their living rooms.

Hot Fossils and Rebel Matters 172 – Dead Sea Scrolls and “Saving Souls (One Lapdance at a Time)”

Last week Special K and I went to see the Dead Sea Scrolls Exhibit at the Royal Ontario Museum.   We roamed among the historical artifacts that support the scroll exhibit and we were thoroughly awed by not only the scrolls themselves but the events themselves by which these items have finally made their way to public display.

In keeping with the semi-biblical theme, a few weeks ago I saw the most charming, delightful and poignant one woman show called The Burning Bush.  In this part musical, part ode to Madonna, and part dance, the main character Barbara Baumawitz embarks on a journey to teach Kabbalah to strippers.  In the process she makes friends, makes amends for past sins, and finds her true path in life.

Tracey Erin Smith is Toronto’s own, an actor and a playwright.  She teaches the art of solo shows and works with seniors and people with cancer focusing on comedy and personal story telling.

Regardless of what I may have expected from this play, some titillating strip tease or other erotic acts, I was surprised by the journey that Tracey Erin Smith took me on.  She takes us from silly geeky awkwardness to learning how to make her dreams come true. And how to bring joy to other people. This is how she makes the audience feel by the end of the show: Joyful

In a short talkback session after the performance, Ms Smith and the director Anita La Selva answer questions from the audience and talk a little about the artistic process of this one woman show.

• Listen to HotFRM 172 – Dead Sea Scrolls and Saving Souls (27mb)

Hot Fossils and Rebel Matters 171 – The Living Museum in 64 Stories

It took Jowi Taylor 11 years to collect the pieces and create “Voyageur”, the Six-String Nation guitar.   It was made from 64 individual artifacts modern and ancient.  Each tell a story from the history of Canada.  A piece from former Prime Minister Trudeau’s canoe paddle, wood from the sacred albino spruce, (also known as the golden spruce),  of the Haida First Nation people, the top of Wayne Gretzky’s hockey stick, part of the cabin of a former S. Carolina slave John Ware, a piece of the handle from a championship oyster-shucking knife, and many more objects adorn and make up this guitar.  Jowi calls it a living museum because he invites people to touch it, photograph it, and of course play it.

Photo By Ninja

This episode of Hot Fossils is an homage to this living piece of history, this unique method of telling 64 wonderful stories.  Jowi Taylor gave the keynote address at this year’s Podcasters Across Borders. I attended the weekend of June 21^st.  After the keynote, Jay Moonah was invited up to play the guitar.  My show today opens with Jay and Bob Goyetche playing “With A Little Help From My Friends” by Lennon and McCartney, followed by the question period.   I have edited out portions of the question period in order to focus on the story of the guitar itself.

After the question period, I talk to Jowi and he describes additional pieces that make up the guitar case.  For those of you interested in obscure and not so obscure Canadian lore, you’ll find out about the fun fur that lines the case, pieces of the costume that Karen Kain wore during the ballet Sleeping Beauty and material from the sportcaster Don Cherry’s pants.   You can read all about the six-string nation guitar project at the site sixstringnation.com.

Photo by Ninja

• Listen to it  HotFRM 171 – A Living Museum in 64 Stories (29.2Mb)

Hot Fossils and Rebel Matters 170 – Charlie Is Never Boring

Off to the Fromagerie for all types and ages of cheeses.  It’s our quarterly trip to the St. Lawrence Market.   Charlie is late, but when she does catch up to us, she brings along the specs for several laptops.  We invite her over to our place only to discover she’s going to bring her laundry with.   We discuss the number of expletives in the film In Bruges and Charlie informs us that Belgium is the Newfoundland of Europe.  Who knew?  Onions, Hot Cross Buns and how much weight Ninja and Special K are putting on.  Toothpicks and tear saving kitchen gadgets like onion goggles. Wind up bunnies and high bouncing balls that do not bounce. Ninja startles small children again and Charlie buys more potatoes.  Finally, Ninja is duly impressed by the Mulholland Drive California mandarin oranges.

• HotFRM 170 – Charlie is Never Boring (25Mbs)

Hot Fossils and Rebel Matters 169 – Mashed Potatoes Without the Gravy

Mashed Potatoes (No Gravy)

Billy Bob Thorton acted like a petulant, spoiled child on April 8 during a CBC interview with Jian Ghomeshi to promote his new band and musical venture the Boxmasters. Or is that the Mixmasters?   Boxmatches?  Boxcutters? I don’t know.  In any case,   for whatever reason,  Thorton seemed to be overestimating his importance and talent in the matter.  I think that he fancied that he was punishing someone by checking out of the interview.  It has been a long time since I have had the misfortune to witness such arrogant self-importance.  If you haven’t seen or listened to this insulting train wreck of unfathomable immaturity, you can catch it on at this youtube link: Jian Ghomeshi interview with Billy Bob Thorton.   Special K and I deconstruct his behaviour and then move on to discuss two movies about political figures.   It’s been 30 years since the White Night Riots after the city politican and gay activist Harvey Milk was murdered by Dan White.  We talk about the movie and how we feel about what happened during that time in gay history.  We move on to explore our reaction to a movie very difficult to make since it focused completely and solely on a conversation and a very difficult one at that.  We discuss the portrayal of David Frost and Richard Nixon in Frost/Nixon.

And finally I give you my first and original mashup of Billy Bob Thorton’s most annoying utterances from his April 8th excuse of an interview on CBC radio.

Harvey Milk - Gay Pride 1978 - Photo by Terry Schmitt

Listen to the show

• HotFRM 169 Mashed Potatoes Without the Gravy (24.7 mb)

Hot Fossils and Rebel Matters 168 – San Diego Equality Campaign

On May 4th Ninja interviewed Sara Beth Brooks the Executive Director and founder of San Diego Equality Campaign , an organization fighting to legalize same sex marriage and civil rights for LGBT people.  Sara talks about California’s Proposition 8, Camp Courage, and Join the Impact.   You can follow her on Twitter at:   http://twitter.com/sarabethbrooks.

Other Links: San Diego Equality Campaign on Twitter, Day of Decision, Gathering Storm,  PROP8 – The Musical,

• HotFRM 168 – Day of Decision Hope (36.3mb)

What Can Twitter Teach Me?

Traditional media has discovered Twitter.   So what?   As Jay Moonah tells us in his recent podcast, and here I am paraphrasing him according to my own interpretation, Twitter takes committment.   I don’t care if you are Oprah or Ashton or Ellen.  Are you willing to engage or just exploit the tool for what you think is short term gain?   And then once you’ve stepped on the track and discovered that it’s a long distance run, do you have the time or energy to make it worth the while for yourself and the twitter communities you are now part of?  I didn’t think so.  Because, if you agree with Jay, you have to be an electronic media junkie.  You have to spend the time learning how to speak in 140 character chunks and still have meaningful discourse.  You have to be willing to explore the new community and determine what value it has for you and others.   You have to know what you want to accomplish, like Yoko Ono seems to.   There is a lot of give and take in Twitter conversations.   And a certain  lightness of being. Depending on how many tweeters you follow, and how often you look at your tweets, you could have an overwhelming number of separate conversations and tweets to take in.  This can be a daunting proposition to some.

The first time I received more than 200 tweets between tweet sessions, I panicked.  How was I ever going to keep up?  If I didn’t find a solution fast,  I knew that I would become a twitter casuality in no time.  There is no way I can devote the same time to twitter discourse as I do to other things in my life.   I panicked publicly with a tweet to that effect.  To which kaymatthews responded with:

11:38 PM Mar 15th from web in reply to ninja_hotfrm

kaymatthews @ninja_hotfrm

Twitter is ephemeral. Just be in the moment (oo….twitterzen….)

Most excellent advice.  If I want to get the most from Twitter then I had better not treat it so seriously and really that is what Twitter became for me.  A fun way to engage in repartee, gay and otherwise.  I get to react to whatever I want at whatever point I enter the discussion.   Or I can ignore every tweet and push information that I think my twitter community might be interested in.  Or hell.  Just push out something that interests only me.

I’ll tell you something else I have noticed.   I have observed from my year and a half of being involved in Twitter that it is impossible to sustain a flame war.   Although it may seem easier to say sarcastic and mean things in 140 characters it is even harder to keep it up.  Perhaps that is because it takes a lot of energy to stay angry.  Angry people usually need a lot of space to build and maintain their justification for being angry.  And furthermore if you persist, I have the power to unfollow and block you.

Because I know I am dropping into something already and always in progress it is vitally important that if my comments lack social import, then at least let me be saying something to improve or brighten both of our days.  Of course this is only one tweeter’s story.  Some tweeters have a daily routine.  They greet us all every morning with a hale and hardy “top of the morning to you”, followed by the ingredients of their muesli.  Then many hours later they let us know they are turning in with a “night twittersphere”.  As a ninja, I prefer to drop in unannounced and leave just as quietly and unobstrusively having left my mark.   Everyone has their own particular style. I often have to remember that some people and organizations are actually using it to communicate their cause or product to what they hope is a wide audience that can in turn influence others.

Given all these factors, what can Twitter teach me?   I think it has taught me that, unlike e-mail, there is an implicit agreement that reading tone, especially a negative one, into a tweet, is a recipe for conversational disaster.  An open mind is a must for tweeting.  If we don’t understand each other that’s ok.  Move on.  It’s a tweet, not a relationship.  And that open mind also means I will expose myself, if I am lucky, to someone else’s experience that is different from mine.  And perhaps a way of looking at something I did not consider before.   I don’t have to be committed to meaningful discourse.  I can just have fun.  You know, for the long haul.

Hot Fossils and Rebel Matters 167 – The Changing Face of Opera

Special K and Ninja finally make it to an HD Simulcast of the New York Metropolitan Opera performance of  La Sonnambula or The Sleep Walker.   It’s a different opera experience than either of them had ever had and one they plan on repeating.   Have a look at Mike Fan’s review on his blog.

Listen to the show

• 167HotFRM – The Changing Face of Opera (15.2Mbs)

Take Up the Idaho Challenge

Hot Fossils and Rebel Matters 166 – Earth Hour Toronto 2009

People: It’s time to take down your Christmas lights.  C’mon it’s spring.   Ninja, Special K and Summer take a walk to the park to celebrate Earth Hour 2009.   Among the subjects discussed are dollar store lava lamps and flashlights, pickpockets and purse snatchers, girls rawk and trees that are pruned too much.  Famous celebrities mentioned: Lindsay, Britney.  Pests mentioned: porcupines, skunks, raccoons, sloth, carpenter ants. Movies mentioned: Over the Hedge, Doubt, Aliens vs. Monsters, Coraline.

Listen to the show :

• HotFRM 166 – Earth Hour Toronto 2009 - (29Mbs)

Hot Fossils and Rebel Matters 165 – Snow Monkeys and Snow Shoes

Blue Mountain Snow Trail (c) The Wryit Group

On the Snowshoe trails with Special K and Ninja.   There’s porcupines in them there hills.  They sit searching for serenity  in a steaming hot outdoor pool in subzero temperatures.   Special K promises to take pictures of Ninja if the podcast is turned off.  Ninja follows the winter stream instead.

Baraka - Snow Monkey (Film Still)

• HotFRM 165 Snow Monkeys and Snow Shoes (10.4 MB)

Who Mourns the Press?

The Writing Is On The Wall

Not me.

Newsflash: This particular revolution has been going on since 1970. Have we only just noticed that the computer changed the way we communicate and associate?  Writers have been blogging all our lives. It’s just a different presentation. Take all the technology away from me and I’ll get my message out. I promise. I’ll scratch it on the wall.

No.  The revolution has been going on forever.  How old do you think Speaker’s Corner in Hyde Park is?

Ninja’s Inner Kitchen

Hot Fossils and Rebel Matters 164 – Sense, Prosthetics, and Gay Sensibility

Ninja thinks the ability of the body to adapt is marvellous. She shares highlights from New Scientist’s January 07 2009 article about the technology being developed to provide better prosthetics. The human body proves even more interesting as we listen to one blind man’s ability to navigate himself and many others out of the World Trade Centre on 9/11.

Ninja knew there was reason she didn’t want to see He’s Just Not That Into You. Is it just because she isn’t a fan of chick flicks? No. Seems that homo stereotypes are still alive and well in the movie industry. She shares highlights from a review she found at queerty.com.

Famous cheetahs mentioned: Oscar Pistorius. Famous Centre Square mentioned: Paul Lynde.

• Hot Fossils and Rebel Matters 164 – Sense, Prosthetics, and Gay Sensibility 24.6 MB

Hot Fossils and Rebel Matters 163 – So Much Mustard. So Little Time

Chinese Eggtarts - A Favourite All Year Round

Valentine’s day mustard. Charlie meets or rather almost misses Special K and Ninja at the market for some breakfast and shopping. Special K shares a close call with mushy peas. Small children are fascinated by Ninja and it may be the most popular she has ever been on Valentine’s Day.

Links: Ontario Canada’s Family Day, Habitat for Humanity, J.S.Bach, peas on a bun, Sudoku, Black Harp

Strong Medicine

• HotFRM 163 – So Much Mustard – 14.4MB

Hot Fossils and Rebel Matters – The Podcast Feed Has Moved

Podcast Transport

The show’s podcast location has moved.   My hoster: BLOGMATRIX  is no more.  But Hot Fossils lives on. BLOGMATRIX is no longer serving up the podcast – so please use the following link henceforth to subscribe to the show using for favourite podcatcher (iTunes, Media Monkey – I for one am not particular):

http://www.mevio.com/feeds/hotfossils.xml

MEVIO is just my parking spot for now.  I’m looking for a permanent host for the podcast.  I’ll keep you posted.

Oh and by the way:  A new show will be posted soon.  So stay tuned.

Hot Fossils and Rebel Matters 162 – He Whom the Gods Wish to Destroy

Aretha's Hat at Obama Inauguration

Special K decides to take in the Obama Inauguration at Toronto’s own Bloor Street Cinema. Special K shares what she thinks are the high points and the low points of this historic event.   Things mentioned that white people like: Fair Trade Coffee. Special K’s Favourite Morning Show: Breakfast Televsion.  Homophobes Mentioned: Rick Warren.  Poets Ninja Likes : Elizabeth Alexander and her inaugural poem.  Rhyming Ministers Mentioned: Joseph Lowery.  Societal Limitations Mentioned: The Glass Ceiling.  Who will be the minority in 2030 in the UK: White people.

• 162HotFRM – He Whom The Gods (18.6 Mbs)

Announcement:   I have changed my podcast hoster – at least for now.  You can subscribe to the show using the following RSS feed file: http://www.mevio.com/feeds/hotfossils.xml in iTunes or your favourite podcatcher.  If you search for the show in iTunes, pick the entry that displays “Ninja” as the artist.  That will point to the new feed.  The old feed will no longer be accessible after February 2009.

Hot Fossils and Rebel Matters 161 – Coffee and Crystals

Ninja and Special K attempt to grow crystals in their science laboratory.  Alchemy will never be the same.  Ninja figures the whole experiment will be as successful as growing grass on a chia pet or raising sea monkeys.  She is pleasantly surprised by the results.

Ninja and Special K’s Crystal Experiment (2009) (Photo by Ninja)

“I love coffee. I love tea…” Special K is finally given license to discuss one of her favourite topics:  the Java and the best places in the world to find it.  Join us for an exploration of the cuppa.   Visit the Delocator for independent coffee shops in Britain, Canada and the U.S.

Cafe Doutor in the Ginza, Tokyo, Japan (2007) (Photo by Ninja)

• 161HotFRM Coffee and Crystals  (22.1 MB)

Hot Fossils and Rebel Matters 160 – Innovation at the AGO

The Rape of Daniel Boone Junior by Kent Monkman

Redesigned and enhanced by Frank Gehry, the renovated Art Gallery of Ontario impresses Ninja and Special K. They wander around the old and new exhibits, compellingly arranged. Special K enjoys the new architectural improvements. Ninja finds herself intrigued by the Cree artist Kent Monkman’s eerie landscape painting The Rape of Daniel Boone Junior, the welcoming interactive piece called Urban Disco Trailer #3, and the international art award winner, The Index, by sculptor David Altmejd.

Detail from The Index by David Altmejd

• 160hotfrmagoinnovations · 36.25 MB

“Peace Is a Resistance to the Terrible Satisfactions of War” – Judith Butler

On Sunday Morning the weekly CBC televsion newsmagazine, a Montreal actor and dubbing director, Michael Rudder, was interviewed from his hospital bed in Bombay.  He’d been shot at least four times last week in the Mumbai attacks.  He was shot in the arm, the leg, the buttocks and as of this writing, there is still a bullet lodged in his stomach.  Eating in the Oberoi hotel restaurant, he had heard shots and asked about them.  He was told by restaurant employees, that it was only gangsters.  A strange remark indeed.   (As strange as the remarks made during a Mexican murder aftermath in 2006.  Then, Mexican officials publically declared that an Italian couple killed in a resort near Playa del Carmen was the work of Canadian mobster hit women from Thunder Bay. That murder is another act of violence that outrages me.) Rudder doesn’t understand why, but assumed he and his party were not in danger.   Moments later he and the patrons found themselves in a hailstorm of bullets. He believes that extremism is on the rise. I think that this is nonsense. Extremism just is and sometimes it causes loss of life.

With innocence still and perhaps naivety Rudder continues in the interview, ” ...as long as people think that their hatred is more powerful than the wisdom that their mothers’ would have taught them…they will respond in such ways.“  This sentiment, of course, assumes that their mothers have a wisdom that prevents hatred. In my skepticism, I am not so sure that is true.   I could exercise a generosity of interpretation and suppose that “mothers’ wisdom” is a symbol for an attitude of peace, love and nuturance. In that case his statement is very much worth thinking about. But who is teaching the attitude?   I am not sure that human nature has changed in all of recorded history and I fear that the chance of that happening is very slim.  Every second a new baby on this planet is born, a stranger in a hostile land, a tabula rasa that his or her culture and economic position will imprint itself on, forever repeating the same patterns be they for good or ill.

Einstein said that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. That’s humanity.  That’s what we do generation after generation. We hate and fear the other and seeking vengence for real or perceived affronts is very human.   The philosopher, Judith Butler, discusses revenge in a 2003 interview in The Believer Magazine.  She says that when choosing non-retaliation: “Many people consider that refusing to strike back is a masochistic way of handling oneself when one is in a condition of injury, or that such a refusal is tantamount to political paralysis, but I actually think it is an adamant and vigilant stand, a difficult stand against violence itself.“  She reminds us that:

“War begets war. It produces outraged and humiliated and furious people…it is precisely because we’re constituted with aggression, it’s precisely because we are capable of waging war, and of striking back, and of doing massive injury, that peace becomes a necessity…[Peace] is a commitment to living with a certain kind of vulnerability to others and susceptibility to being wounded that actually gives our individual lives meaning. And I think this way of viewing things is a much harder place to go, so to speak. One can’t just do it alone, either. I think it needs to be institutionalized. It needs to be part of a community ethos. I think in fact it needs to be part of an entire foreign policy.“

I think these are the things we should be teaching our children.

Hot Fossils and Rebel Matters 159 – Guillain-Barre Syndrome – Interview with Ed Nyman

Ed Nyman October 2008

Guillain-Barre is considered a rare syndrome that causes progressive muscle weakness and paralysis. It develops over a few days or up to about four weeks and lasts several weeks or even months. As a temporary inflammation of the nerves, it often follows recovery from a viral infection such as a cold or gastrointestinal infection.  In some cases it is seen after immunization for flu. It causes the immune system to attack the peripheral nervous system. The syndrome is an inflammation of the covering of the nerves, the myelin, the surrounds nerve cells of the brain and spinal cord. Also, the elongated portion of the nerve cell, the axon, can be damaged. The axon conveys electrical signals to distant areas of the muscles and from one nerve cell to another. This damage and inflammation cause muscle weakness, loss of sensation and paralysis because the nerves cannot transmit the required signals to the muscles. The individual can become dysautonomic, meaning he or she becomes unable to feel heat, cold, and pain.  Approximately 95% of people who develop the syndrome recover, most of these, fully.

There are three main courses of treatment for Guillain-Barre. One treatment is to let the syndrome run its course, since it normally is a temporary condition. Another treatment that is used is known as plasmaphoresis, or plasma exchange. Antibody laden blood plasma, which is the liquid portion of blood, is removed from the body. Red blood cells are separated and put back into the body with antibody free plasma. This treatment lessens the symptoms and hastens recovery time. A third treatment is the administration of intravenous immune globulin which also lessens the symptoms and hastens recovery time. Sometimes both of these last two are administered to the patient. Physical therapy and exercise is also usually part of the regime to full recovery.

I had an opportunity to talk with Ed Nyman who got and recovered from the syndrome in April 2008.   And this show focuses on his experience.

Links : Toronto Star Article Guillain-Barre Syndrome – Answers Wiki Entry

• 159hotfrmguillainbarreednyman · 29.83 MB

Hot Fossils and Rebel Matters 158 – Steve Saylor, The Dude and The Closet Geek

Steve

That’s what we love about Scarborough Dude, the host of Dicks ‘n Janes podcast. He’ll raise the difficult questions and not let them go. I don’t want him to let them go, despite anyone’s opinion of them. He’s an activist that you’d rather have on your side than against you. Still he adamantly refuses to be on anyone’s but his own. I always listen to the dude, because he always has something to say to think about. This is part two of the geek fest held on October 18 at the Imperial Pub during which Scarborough Dude takes issue with us not wanting to talk about our day jobs. I spent some time talking with Steve Saylor. a writer who shares his superhero and adventure mystery novels on the internet. You can find the Black Shadow at http://stevesaylor.net/node/264 or http://feeds.feedburner.com/the12thdisciple. His newest effort is The 12^th Disciple at http://stevesaylor.net/node/301 or http://feeds.feedburner.com/the12thdisciple. We discuss his novels, his artistic process, copyright issues and finally the size of podcaster egos. Also featured is The Closet Geek of closetgeekshow.com If you listen carefully you can hear him eating popcorn in the background while barely concentrating on our conversation.

• 158hotfrmstevesaylorthedudeandthecloset · 16.87 MB

In My Next Life I Hope I am a Hacker

From the website saveournet.ca

Put simply, net neutrality means non-discriminatory treatment of traffic. That is, outside of limited exceptions such as spam and known viruses, the companies that deliver information over the internet have treated all information the same, delivering each package of information as quickly and efficiently as possible (often referred to as the “best efforts” internet). Under this regime an internet user is free to use any equipment, content, application or service on a non-discriminatory basis without interference from the network provider. Network neutrality means that the network provider’s only job is to move data – not to choose which data to privilege with higher quality service.

Legislation against net neutrality is not as simple as censorship if governments get their way.  Censorship is just an evil by-product.  It’s all about making a buck.  The less net neutrality we have, the more ways to charge me for use of the web.  But since there is more than one way to solve a problem, I shall just wait for the hackers to get around it.  And get around it they will.   In the meantime – please help save our net.

Neuro-Bio Gems from Jonah Lehrer

I give Proust was a Neuroscientist an 8 out of 10 for its ability to provoke thought in me and allow me to contemplate on my own assumptions about creativity, genius and the mind/body split.    If I ask you to visualize someone who is creative and/or brilliant what sort of person do you think about?  Special K thinks of Leonardo Da Vinci.   I think of some young mathematician.  Often I think of some young person who burns out his or her flame brilliantly and quickly – like Rimbaud, Michael Jackson, or Boy George.  Athletes often fall into this category.  Their talents are external.  They are so obviously dependent on the ability of their bodies to perform according to a range of activity that is almost never available to our aging shells.

In Musicophilia, Oliver Sacks writes about a forty-two year old man who after he was struck by lightening, becomes a musical prodigy.  Sacks loves to write about people who, at various points in their lives, because of neurological changes, develop talents previously unknown to them.  In Proust was a Neuroscientist, Lehrer instead focuses on established artists who reveal neuroscience through their art.  He explores where the body ends and mind begins and vice versa.  He asks what it means to be aware and conscious as human beings.   Personally, I tend to think that we are just a random collection of protein.  And that there is no distinction between the mind and the body.  My mind is in my toes and heart as much as it is in my brain. My brain is simply where the electronics gather to interpret.    About our experience inside ourselves, Virgina Woolf said: “We are the words; we are the music; we are the thing itself “.   And in reponse to this process, Leher is comfortable asserting that “…only the artist [is] able to describe reality as it [is] actually experienced”. Here are some of the other ways that Lehrer describes that same experience:

…the mind is not a place: it’s a process.

The self is simply…the story we tell ourselves about our experiences.

Reality is not out there waiting to be witnessed; reality is made by the mind.

When it comes to the drama of feelings, our flesh is its stage.

Marcel Proust