"...to enliven morality..."

so my birthday  was last month...this is the woman responsible...very cute!

porcupine skull at the top...bright yellow spider on a bright yellow flower...obviously more adjustments needed on the camera

 

listened to some good philosophy this week...giorgio Agamben was recommended by philosophize this so i looked up the site "Living on the margins; Agambens Homo sacer explained" "(7:28)(serenity of reason)...very radical views about the people who are sometimes called corpus vile...people without value in society so anything can be done to them...also i watched a documentary called "brilliant pebbles the rods from god...a brief history of kinetic orbital bombardment"....basically it is about taking light pole sized solid metal rods into space and dropping them back into earths gravity...they reach spectacular speeds and cause great kinetic power without explosives...whoa buddy!...carl jungs "the red book" is well worth listening to as it is about human psychology both positive and negative..."Carl Jung on "Wotan" what led to the rise of fascism and WWII."..i think judeo-fascism is becoming more common...i found a great documentary about the founding of the nazi organization called the SS a fellow named whistler put this online...very informative...you think it can not happen here!? think again...Philosophize this segment #185 is "should we prepare for an AI revolution"...so very current views about the so called intelligence developments in play today...i downloaded "TELEGRAM" on my phone...i think it must be for people who are much more secretive than i am...i have only made one phone call on my new government issued phone and it was to the phone service on the other phone...they pretty much told me i had blown 30 bucks on my additional time and that i should get the card from the dollar store...so i suppose we are getting into that part of the election where "transitory bumpiness" may raise it's ugly head...

it is good to know that shanghai is the first Chinese city to have 500 kentucky fried chicken restaurants...thats a lot of chickens being eaten...

"...to enliven morality with wit and to temper wit with morality..." motto of "The Spectator"

 

"Old age has been charged..."

 

the rain has brought good grazing to the livestock in the mountain pasturage in this area...
 

 

awoke to ukraine soldiers featured on the news with the drone operators showing how effective they can be in destruction...even at 3 in the morning the information flows...way too many political advertisements...unfortunately this election for the head of the executive branch of the government of the USA seems to have taken a turn for the desperate...both sides predicting apocalypse if the other side gets elected...i think there will be drastic events regardless of which side gets into office...we are just at a time in history where the physical realities mandate that change will take place...besides the inevitable climatic changes the reality of an increasing population of humans and a reduction of available natural resources sort of sets the stage for some drama....alas and alack as usual an orderly transition into fundamental changes is not likely to happen....soooo....disorderly change will happen...but change is on the way...

got a notice on the phone yesterday morning about a 6 year old boy who went missing at the lava caves a few mile down the road from where i was...then 4 hours later got a notice that an 8 year old boy had been found...aged two years in 4 hours...must have been a magic cave...i looked at some cheap GPS tracking devices online a few weeks ago...might be a good investment for folks to put one of these things on their valuables...like their kids for instance...

i looked at some interesting movies recently...one is called "Swamp Fire"...with buster crabbe and johnny weismuller both of whom were Olympic swimmers and played Tarzan in the movies...the story takes place in south louisiana and deals with boat captains in the southern  regions  of the state...it looked familiar...another movie was "Swamp Water" which deals with the Okefenokee swamps and was directed by Jean Renoir son of the famous artist...it has a very young walter huston and a very young walter brennon and several very young other eventually well know actors...the cinematography is excellent...there is a DVD which i picked up with a movie called "Barbarella" (1968) which i had never seen before before...it was a big deal back then...it is actually quite creative and being before there was very sophisticated "special effects" they make good use of physical stage settings such as shag carpeting...this film stars a very young jane fonda...it is a sort of a "lost in space" meets "austin powers" type expression of modernity...unfortunately ms fonda decided to go to north vietnam and "provide aid and comfort to the enemy" and her popularity was diminished...(she should have been thrown in prison)...anyhow the film is worth watching... 

i found an interesting YOUTUBE account called "The wicked fruits of Amalek" which is about the old testament character so named who was told by the old testament god to annihilate all the men women and children and livestock of their enemy who had attacked them...i think some of the attitude of the current crop of annihilators is based on these historical renditions...god forbid anyone should make their actions coincide with three thousand year old accounts of military encounters..."vanity vanity all is vanity"

i like to watch old television shows on DVD because they have no commercial advertisements...one of my favorites is "Maverick" with james garner...the later maverick where he moves to a small town in southern arizona and owns a bar and a ranch outside of town... one of my favorite episodes is called "The Mayflower Women's Historical Society"... all of the characters are very well played and this particular episode deals with "illicit ardor" which sort of in a very mild way portrays the choices women make in choosing who they grant their "favors" to...the choice is theirs...garner liked to push the envelope..

"Old age has been charged with being insensible to pleasure and the enjoyments arising from the gratification of the senses- a most blessed and heavenly effect, truly, if it eases us of what in youth was the sorest plague of life."

 

   

"What hate required these things..."

 decided to stealth film this hole entrance beneath a rock...probably a rock squirrel=Citellus variegatus the markings seems to me to have some california ground squirrel markings...lots of kaibab squirrels in this area but i have never seen this species...

encountered the usual harassment at this site on the pipeline in kaibab national forest...seems there is a lot of "outlaw" inhabitants in this neck of the woods....

lots of news about the gaza/israel perpetual hateful encounters...i finished watching the last segment of the "Elusive Peace" DVD...don't mean to sound negative but i think that these desert tribal people have spent so many thousands of years raiding each others camps that they still have  a lot of the genetic predisposition  to raid and slaughter and steal...i think maybe Netanyahu is a modern day Josephus and he just wants to be the "last man standing"...

i was listening to the "philosophize this" segment on erasmus and thought this observation about the myriad of ways humans have decided to "worship" were not unlike my own..."What hate required these things at your hand, in vain they make their idle pleas, one that has lived only on fish, one that he has never changed his sacred hood, this one that he has lost his voice by continual singing the holy anthems, and one has forgotten how to speak in his strict obedience to his vow to silence, our savior will interrupt their excuses and say "woe unto you, you scribes and pharisee, I know you not.  I left you but one precept of loving one another and I do hear anyone plead that he has faithfully discharged this"

"The prosperity of a people..."

found abandoned at the campsite...

does the ant feed on the bugs?

for a fly this is a handsome fellow

a woman said this was a bolete mushroom...i don't think so!

two large rats and 8 mice snapped at the grocery box this week...the ants, coyotes and the ravens liked it

i took the opportunity to listen to the 2 hour "conversation" between trump and musk...i have only made it through half of this encounter thus far...i highly recommend that anyone with an interest in trumps mental state listen to this...unfortunately there has been some rude remarks about trumps speech...first it was his hair then it was his body odor...it is inconsequential compared to the rest of his orientation...musk was very soothing and agreeable...he is obviously looking for a job...not born here so he can not be president...but he really wants to be...the conversation about climate change was not based on any science i ever heard of..i picked up a collection of DVD's entitled "The nature of matter: Understanding the physical world" by prof. david Bell (2015) lecture # 17 is entitled "The air we breath"...this 30 minute lecture is well illustrated and explains why the parts per million of carbon in the air is important...neither musk or trump seemed to have a good grasped of the concept of global warming...i have noticed that wealthy people view the seriousness of global warming differently from the less affluent...

I also heard a mr jamie diamond speak intelligently about the economic situation globally...his stance rejects the bickering that seems to dominate the conversation...

as i sat with my lovely $40 classical guitar in my lap i came across a ms. Konstantina Andritsou who was playing a classical composition on her guitar...she was 7 years old...i almost cried knowing i would never be anything but a very mediocre player at most...i do however love the guitar

the tension in various places around the world is somewhat disconcerting...is it time for CASTLE BRAVO!...lets hope not...

on a happier note i watched Andy Huggins "king of the one liners"...is is an old guy...and very funny

"The prosperity of a people is proportionate to the number of hands and minds usefully employed. To the community, sedition is a fever, corruption is a gangrene, and idleness is an atrophy. Whatever body or society wastes more than it acquires, must gradually decay; and every being that contrives to be fed, and ceases to labor takes away something from the public stock."  not sure who wrote this...maybe johnson?...

  
 

"Ain't no holy cows..."

little spiders everywhere

little lizards somewhere

russula(white) changes to lobster(orange) lots of these

watched this bird for several hours...probably a rufus

found lots of cans of colored hair spray in the thrift for a buck each...stencils next

weirdwokeweirdwokeweird  wokeweirdwokeweirdwokeweirdwokeweirdwokeweirdwoke ...nope makes no sense to me...

watched 2 of 3 segments of a PBS produced DVD called "Elusive Peace" israel and the arabs... 2005...arafat and sharon and clinton and bush...same un relenting crap that goes on now... it does not seem very likely that these so called leaders will ever stop slaughtering innocents...

while watching "Bones" (season 8) Sweets the shrink said the term 'HYPER-AROUSAL)...i wrote it in my notebook for future reference...the segment was about some african refugees who had been boy soldiers...i youtubed the term and was directed to a dr allan schore speaking on "hyper-arousal, disassociation and the inability to take in comfort." ,,,it is a very good talk and there are a couple of other talks he gives with this one...all useful information...

also robert sapalsky #22 "emergence and complexity" is well worth watching...

"little chinese everywhere" has a new segment where she takes her 125 suzuki motorcycle way high into the tibetian mountains to see a couple of remote lakes...great drone footage as usual

also i like to watch "SABBATICAL" who is a white guy from new york who speaks fluent chinese and was in china for 7 years according to himself...he obviously has a death wish as he searches out dicey places and dicey characters all across the globe...his latest trip is to nicaragua where he swims in i suppose lake nicaragua which has bull sharks a-plenty...he speaks pretty good spanish and says that everyone should travel to this communist narco-state...i dont think so!

found a Sierra Ferrell song called "Rosemary" which is one of the best i have seen on the internet...great vocals, great guitar, and lyrics reminiscent of Florence Welch who has a tune about witches and one about snatching someones eyeball out of the socket....what are these women thinking about! 

also saw a painting called "Lassitude" by Gari Melchers...makes you want to lay down for a rest...

"Aint no holy cows/ Aint no evil sows/ Aint no points / For them that bows/Aint no holy rocks/And all them chants/ Won't open locks/If God made Nature/God can't be pleased/ To see this planet / With the build disease/ But God might be pleased/ If you can help? the least of these...MRY

                               
 

"He raves;..."

antelope hill...should be called irresistible  hill...vehicles prohibited...but not enforced!

three buck pronghorn having a meeting in the morning...charismatic macro-fauna

large hawk...apparently not eating many chipmunks...there are lots of chipmunks here

                       rare guitar fly...charismatic micro-fauna

interesting week around here and beyond...a couple of "gunners" came out to the meadow and set up a target and fired a rifle from a prone position...sounded like maybe a 270cal. and then a single shot from a 50cal...DAMN! that be a loud gun! anyhow why they chose to do their shooting so close to me is not really a mystery...to be annoying...unfortunately they were very stupid in the placement of their target and were firing directly into the woods and road...yikes!...otherwise there was a proposal to open a firing range somewhere in this county but the neighboring residents opposed it and i guess not enough shooting sports advocates defended the idea...so it's back to shooting up the woods... 

i keep forgetting to recommend some youtube music i have found enjoyable..."The Knack" has long been one of my favorite bands and there are a several renditions of "Good Girls Don't(but I do)." one is in the studio and has the better sound but the other is at Carnegie hall with the better lyrics and is a tribute to teen lust... but one of the best videos is the knack at cbgb's and the first song is not one i have ever heard...but they bad mouth andy warhole...which is a good thing...and the lead guitarist get to show his chops...which are considerable...good retro video

also i found this 12 episode television show called "the fixer" which is quite good and european and has to do with "fixing" problems by using "extra-judicial" means''

so do you ever wonder why so many thousands of people are lined up at the US border to get in by whatever means possible....nigeria just raised their minimum wage to $40 a month ...i think i heard that Venezuela pays their government workers about 4 buck a month ...if you look at the wages paid around the world you can see why those folks are lined up to get in here...and if you think the economy can stand to have millions of hard workers (legal or not)tossed out of this country think again...India has this program where everyone in the country has an identification card...some people have eight...they have been able to cut out billions of dollars of graft and theft of government funds by having no anonymous people...

i thought that i should explain my recent suggestion to get involved in political expression...in ancient greece there was a term "idiota" from which the word idiot is derived...an idiota is a "private" person or a person who has no civic engagement...and they were thought to be stupid...therefore as i have not voted since about jimmy carters term in office i thought that i should express some political and or civic opinions this "election cycle"...i looks like Delusional Donald is doing a good  job of turning some folks against him...showing up in a room of black educated women and bad mouthing ms. harris is not a good idea... nor is questioning her "blackness"...i do not think she is anymore "black: than Obama was...Indian americans are not the same "ethnicity" as African americans...and anyone who wants to deny any part of their genetics does so with the reality of genetic testing...i embrace my neanderthal and denisovin heritage...i identify as an earthling...makes me less inclined to be dismissive of others...

Thucydides says that the "imponderables" effect the course of history...in his lifetime it was the plague which wiped out the population of athens and killed Pericles their illustrious leader...it was all downhill after that... of course the covid disease had its toll in our times and the climate changes and of course the possibility of wars all around the globe effect our mindset...whoa buddy... 

"He raves; his words are loose as heaps of sand, and scattered wide from sense.- So high he's mounted on his airy throne, that now the wind has got into his head, and turns his brain to frenzy." Dryden