thecages

I first took an interest in Taoism after reading a slim volume entitled Introducing Taoism which I bought at a flea market second-hand book stand.
The book identifies three aspects to what is commonly termed Taoism: Taoist philosophy, Taoist practice and Taoist religion.
These aspects are roughly derivative, Taoist practice derives from the philosophy and the religion from the practice.
Several other traditions influenced Taoist practice and religion (notably the Shamanic traditions of various Northern tribes), but the name remains Taoism as this is its root.

Of the three aspects, what is of interest here is the philosophy.

Taoist philosophy formed from around 600BC as a result of the life of two Chinese philosophers: Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu.



Lao Tzu's ideas are collected in the Tao Te Ching. As in all such cases there is disagreement as to whether Lao Tzu was a single person and whether he actually wrote the book, but still the central ideas of Taoist philosophy are ascribed to him(or her or them).

Here are a few translations of the opening chapter of the book:

The Tao that can be spoken is not the eternal Tao.
The name that can be named is not the eternal name.
That which has no name is the beginning of heaven and earth.
The named is the source of ten thousand things.
Without desires, one can see the mystery.
With desiring, one can see the manifestations.
These two arise from the same source but differ in name; this appears as darkness.
Darkness within darkness.
The gate to all mystery.

The way that can be spoken of
Is not the constant way;
The name that can be named
Is not the constant name.

The nameless was the beginning of heaven and earth;
The named was the mother of the myriad creatures.

Hence always rid yourself of desires in order to observes its secrets;
But always allow yourself to have desires in order to observe its manifestations.

These two are the same
But diverge in name as they issue forth.
Being the same they are called mysteries,
Mystery upon mystery -
The gateway of the manifold secrets.

The tao that can be described
is not the eternal Tao.
The name that can be spoken
is not the eternal Name.

The nameless is the boundary of Heaven and Earth.
The named is the mother of creation.

Freed from desire, you can see the hidden mystery.
By having desire, you can only see what is visibly real.

Yet mystery and reality
emerge from the same source.
This source is called darkness.

Darkness born from darkness.
The beginning of all understanding.

The second major work that originated the Taoist philosophy is the book named after Chuang Tzu (its author).
This dates from around 300BC and its modern form is generally taken to be a compedium of writings attributed to Chuang Tzu rather than a single work.
The Chuang Tzu takes a more practical approach to the Tao and is often seen as a contextualisation of the extremely abstract content of the Tao Te Ching.
It is written in the form of several short stories that have a very similar feel to Christian parables.


Here's the opening portion of Deformities, or Evidence of a Full Character:

In the state of Lu there was a man, named Wang T'ai, who had had one of his legs cut off. His disciples were as numerous as those of Confucius. Ch'ang Chi asked Confucius, saying, "This Wang T'ai has been mutilated, yet he has as many followers in the Lu State as you. He neither stands up to preach nor sits down to give discourse; yet those who go to him empty, depart full. Is he the kind of person who can teach without words and influence people's minds without material means? What manner of man is this?"

"He is a sage," replied Confucius, "I wanted to go to him, but am merely behind the others. Even I will go and make him my teacher, -- why not those who are lesser than I? And I will lead, not only the State of Lu, but the whole world to follow him."

"The man has been mutilated," said Ch'ang Chi, "and yet people call him 'Master.' He must be very different from the ordinary men. If so, how does he train his mind?"

"Life and Death are indeed changes of great moment," answered Confucius, "but they cannot affect his mind. Heaven and earth may collapse, but his mind will remain. Being indeed without flaw, it will not share the fate of all things. It can control the transformation of things, while preserving its source intact."

The Tao Te Ching and Chuang Tzu have been interpreted, translated and rewritten over centuries but several basic ideas have remained intact.
They include the futility of trying to capture or teach the Tao(as concept), the unchanging nature of the Tao, the notion of Ch'i, the principle of Wu-Wei and an approach to harmonious life characterised by simplicity and striving for actions that are natural(unmodified/uncoerced).

Of these ideas it is the last two that are most relevant to Anarchism.

It's been a long time since I last put together a compilation and while I've been piling up songs that I like under a make-shift playlist I've not actually trimmed and organised it.
The recent trip to the Natal coast gives me a reason to trim and name it.

Long Time No Sea

1.  The Magic Numbers   Forever Lost
2.  XTC                 I'd Like That
3.  David Kramer        Biscuits and Biltong
4.  Luke Doucet         It's not the Liquor I miss
5.  Fleetwood Mac       Rhiannon
6.  Grant Lee Buffalo   Mighty Joe Moon
7.  Pearl Jam           Tremor Christ
8.  Fiona Apple         Get Him Back
9.  Calexico and
    Iron & Wine         A History of Lovers
10. King Creosote       My Favourite Girl
11. Travis              Last Train
12. David Kramer        Annette van der Wa

A couple of notes:
- The David Kramer song is the last to be added to the list. Its's about time that I add a song from one of my all-time favourite albums; Bakgat!
- The one song that feels a bit out of place is Tremor Christ, but I've felt that I didn't really pay it enough attention first time around (back in 199x) and it really is flippin' amazing.
- If I could keep only one song from the list it would be XTC - oh, or Calexico and Iron & Wine - or King Creosote.

Reading the in-flight magazine ranges from the mind-numbing to the totally absurd.

Here's some of my favourite letters from a BA in-flight rag.
But first; who has the inclination/energy to write to an in-flight magazine? You must be either very pissed off or very dull.

Or just a bunch of kids.

Kidding Around

Children also enjoy High Life.
After reading the interesting bits together, our favourite activities are tearing out the ten best photos and making a story to link them together, and

identifying capital cities on the flight-path pages. This is tricky as there are no country boundaries, but it is a food way to start arguments about

geography and why the city names are all in English spelling.
When we were little we also loved the safety-card pictures of children escaping from planes. Now we translate sick bags.
BA ones are in several languages. Sick bags are just the right size for school lunches. This totally grosses out our friends.
Finally, if longhaul flights run out of children's activity packs, we ask the cabin crew for a feedback card. Writing to customer services takes at least half an hour, and is good for spelling practices.
They write back, too!

Tara(11) and Luka Tosic(9),
Belgrade,
Serbia and Montenegro

This next one seems bogus/planted to me

Film Starred

My favourite luxury when flying with BA is being able to catch up on all the films that I seem to miss.
It's a pastime I look forward to on the many longhaul flights I find myself on, thanks to my new job.
As I settle down to a three-course meal and a glass of wine, I wonder where else I can find the time for this

little bit of 'me' time.
On my last flight back from Bangkok, I managed to reconnect with the world, enjoying three Oscar-winning films. Meanwhile, watching Chicken Little

gave me something to talk about with the kids. So thank you.

Claire Lewis,
via email

And finally, here's one of those dullard ones. Note how this letter was not received via email. The dude (probably) wrote it long-hand and mailed it.

Greasy Boon

I was surprised about your inclusion of coconut oil in a piece about superfoods[March 2006].
As I understand it, like palm oil, coconut oil is super-high in saturated fats.
Doesn't sound healthy to me.

Edward J Bace,
Henfield,
United Kingdom

We spent this last w/end (a 3-day-er with Friday being Youth Day) on the Natal North Coast - Blythedale beach to be exact.


I've always loved the tropics and spending 3 days in shorts and swimming(!) in the middle of June has made me long to live there again. fantastic.


We stayed in `beautifully appointed` minivillas which are strolling distance from the beach.


Not even the air-conditioned mess of airports or the absurdity of in-flight magazines(on which more later) could dull the gentle glow of spending time in the sun.

From the NYTimes (via that bastion of fine reading - The Sunday Times):

Passengers May Now Pirouette Their Way to Gate 3

In short it's about an architect who collaborated with a choreographer to improve the flow of people through a new airport terminal.


The Grand Foyer at Radio City Music Hall has been described as many things[...] But it has not typically been described in the language of dance, as it recently was by [...] David Rockwell. The room, he said, functioned as a kind of ballet master: a magnetic presence that forced people to move well and look good.
[...]
Individual behaviour is only part of the story; the Grand Foyer also alters the behaviour of crowds, who instinctively know how to use it. [...] visitors, without even realizing it, use the room's precisely deployed architectural signposts [...] to align themselves and stay on track.
As a result, Radio City can pull 5,900 people through its lobby without contusion or confusion.

[Mr Rockwell's] latest project involves one of the most notoriously pushy environments there is: an airport terminal [...] the new JetBlue Airways terminal being built at Kennedy International Airport.
[In] what may be a first for architectural collaboration, Mr. Rockwell hired a choreographer - his Broadway colleague Jerry Mitchell - to help him.

"The original design made it hard to understand where you were supposed to go, either entering or leaving," Mr. Mitchell said of the JetBlue terminal flow simulations. "Traffic diagrams showed a huge amount of path-crossing. I started to think it would be fabulous to eliminate all this criss-crossing and straight edges, which cause anxiety when they go on too long.[...] People move easiest in circles; off and on the merry-go-round."

The design did not account for [...] the different emotional experiences of arrival or departure. "Coming into an airport when you're leaving on a trip you have to slow down, you've got to arrive two hours early, and you've got security, luggage, kids, older people to deal with. That experience has to be made more leisurely. Coming back, to New York at least, you want to get out of the airport as fast as possible."
[...]
So he and the architects looked for ways to alter the shape and pace of passenger movement within the terminal.

Various obstructions (principally two large bleacherlike seating areas[...]) would subtly lead outbound travellers toward the periphery of the space - the longer, more circular route - while inbound travelers would be directed straight between them, down a level and swiftly out.
The periphery walls would be curved to slow down the outbound experience and, not incidentally, enhance the likelihood of lingering over merchandise.
And the bleacherlike seating areas would encourage people to get above the action and watch the shapes of the promenade.
[...]
Mr. Mitchell: "Is it an airport? Is it a Broadway show? What's the difference?"

Anita has started recruiting writers and artists for her (and her partner Zanne's) new comic project (the working title is Mtchanna(sp?) loosely translated as Buddy).

She recently received the following 'application'. I thought about protecting the innocent etc. but this guy deserves it.
Check out the rocking grammar in the subject and the even more rocking name - Nxt-Faze-of-Man !
Fuck you.

-----Original Message-----
From: Nxt-Faze-of-Man ! [mailto:sun_of_ra@xxxmail.xxx]
Sent: 14 June 2006 02:08 PM
To: Anita
Subject: [Maybe spam] Far beyound Driven (reative Wr8r

Hi Anita

Tick
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Tock
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I'm waiting for your call:)

Thanks
Chris E David
084xxxxxxx
www.oroccipictures.bravehost.com

Here's a cool little subversion courtesy of Digg.
Some years ago the first devices were introduced into malls etc. to drive away loitering teenagers. One of these emits a high-pitched whine which is more audible to (undesirable)teens than what it is to (desirable)older folks.

Score one for the old fogeys. Not quite - a British teen has come up with a ringtone which uses the same frequency range which will supposedly provide stealth rings in a classroom etc.

It seems that as we get older we lose the top-end of our hearing range and the ringtone takes advantage of this to let kids go under the radar (at least to some extent) of their snooping parents.


The downside is that the tone is horrifically irritating.


Last year I played around with a cool tone generator from NCH and had a lot of fun at the bottom end of my hearing range.
My favourite tone is here.
It uses two low-end frequencies per channel(stereo) and is vaguely binaural.

What makes it cool is that (when played on a good quality hi-fi that will produce the tone correctly) the dynamics changes substantially if you move around it.
This is best done setting up the speakers a few meters apart in the middle of a room and walking around it.
Various aspects of the tone slide in and out of hearing range in different areas.
There's no need to turn it up too loudly since the effect is actually more interesting at relatively low volumes.



Read some interesting articles a while ago on research undertaken to study the sub-audible characteristics of Cathedral organs and choirs - must look into that again...

I have often been accused of/admired for a taste for Schadenfreude: 'A malicious satisfaction obtained from the misfortunes of others'.
And the recent events around the Brett Goldin murder crystalised this.

Let's be clear, I loathed the motherfucker[1] - even though I had never met him and he had never done me any harm.
However, he had a crap hairstyle and him and his Eurotrash friends (in their Prada sunglasses which I covet) talked too loud at Mellissa's where they were nursing their coke hangovers at a Sunday brunch.

Upon hearing of his (and Richard Bloom's) murder I kneejerked: 'Drug-deal gone wrong! Open and shut!'
This of course wasn't the case.

A few definitions:

• Wikipedia - Pleasure taken from someone else's misfortune.
  
• Merriam-Webster - Enjoyment obtained from the troubles of others.
  
• Dictionary.com - Pleasure derived from the misfortunes of others.

What a frickin' moron.
Well, not actually. More like, what a frickin' ruthless moron.

I invariably filter any news of either the US or GB himself or his administration exclusively for juicy bits of embarrassment or failure.
Anything else (the real impact of the news on the world) is secondary to my lust for his downfall.

Example:

'President George W. Bush cancelled a long-awaited trip to Alaska to enact new legislation that would put the Northern territories beyond the clutches of evil oil companies due to a case of uncontrollable intra-pants pooping after a Mexican meal at a roadside truck stop.'

In reality there's nothing good about this news.
: Much needed legislation postponed - uhm.
: Possible derailment of hard-fought victory for sensible environmental types - uh yah.
: Intra-pants pooping? Hot dog and whoopee!

In my defense I could say that it is actually mechanism to stave off total disillusionment and despondency.
But shedding these types of defenses is exactly what becoming an adult should be about.
So, if I qualify it as a defensive measure, it points to immaturity.

And this is where the truth has me. Schadenfreude; while the idiots certainly do deserve it; isn't about restoring or maintaining a balance. It's about extracting retribution from wherever you can get it.

He died three years after me -- cancer too -- and at that time I was still naive enough to imagine that what the afterlife chiefly provided were unrivalled opportunities for unbeatable gloating, unbelievable schadenfreude.
-- Will Self, How The Dead Live

[1] I should qualify this, I didn't loathe him - I loathed the image/symbol/concept that was presented to me through him.
Phew! Luckily Structuralism let's me neatly detach myself from the person of Brett Goldin.

Autumn is gone and winter has arrived to curl my toes deeper into the duvet each morning.

Actually, winter has been here for some weeks now and we're currently enjoying a bit of an indian summer.
But my mind is very much in winter mode and I'm enjoying the turned leaves and the general quiet in the streets (apart from the horror traffic which I'm neatly avoiding on my bicycle).

I really don't have much to write about just now. Work is challenging: the deadlines are ambitious(their terminology) and the expectations are high(my terminology).
I like the team that I'm in and I believe in the system that we're building.
And while I am generally working like a dog it has been a long time since I've been able to say this about my work.

So while I enjoy my winter lull - here's little bits of Cape Town in winter.

Space-time is one of those concepts that everyone knows about, but no-one really seems to know what it is. I certainly don't.

It featured prominently in a recent article in the New York Times (courtesy of that bastion of quality smut, The Sunday Times) entitled 'Black Holes Collide, and Gravity Quivers and Ripples'.

It's all about a massive installation named the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (affectionately known as LIGO).
Essentially it is two sets of tunnels (each tunnel being 4 kilometers in length) that form large Vs which detect rippes in the gravitational field caused by cosmic events within 300 million light years of earth.
So what exactly do you get for $300million (capital expenditure) and $30million per annum (operational costs)?
You get a LIGO which will detect a change of less than a thousandth of a proton (not the car, the little thingie inside atoms) within the length of a tunnel.
So far (several years down the line) they've not detected anything, but everyone is holding thumbs.

Getting back to the topic at hand.
So what the fuck is space-time?

The internext offers a variety of explanations.

Firstly from the GP-B[1] site at einstein.stanford.edu.

Space-time is a four dimensional description of the universe that includes the usual three dimensions of height, width and length and a fourth dimension of time.

OK, I'm with you so far...

You might be wondering how time can be considered a dimension and why it can be lumped in with space. Consider the definition of time: time as we know it is really a man-made concept and is defined by physicists to be the measurement of a series of events. If one considers what time really is, one can see that it is simply the counting or measuring of things occurring, such as the vibrations of a quartz crystal in a watch, or the movement of the earth around the sun.
Really, time does not exist as its own entity; the event is the true variable we must consider when thinking about time. Without events occurring, there would not be a way to measure time.

sure...

Now, getting back to our space and time link, an event must occur in a space. That point in space is particular to the observer (or measurer) of the event. Therefore each point in space is associated uniquely with an event.

uhm...

Thus space and time are tied intimately together.

Wtf? How did they make that leap?

Numerous other sites offer similar explanations, inveriably featuring links to more technical explanations where, I expect, squiggly symbols will start appearing.

Heading towards amateur-ville (an area that I am certainly more familliar with) we get Cyberia.

Space has three dimensions. However, the theory of relativity predicts that time, like space, is a dimension. In order to describe a four dimensional universe which has three spatial dimensions and one time dimension the word "spacetime" was coined. Each point in spacetime is called an event.

OK

Imagine that the universe has two spatial dimensions instead of three, and that there are flat creatures living on its surface. Now imagine that the surface they are living on is subject to deformations, something like a bedsheet. The creatures living on the bedsheet can only see length and depth, they can only see within the bedsheet. They cannot even imagine the concept of height.

OK, I'm still with you. And as a matter of fact I can see how this analogy can be stretched into our three-dimensional world and how we (on a day-to-dat basis) suffer from the same myopia that prevents us from seeing the fourth dimension that shapes our world.

And finally, writer and composer Michael Spirit offers this take in a page simply entitled what_is_spaceTime.htm.

       Space-Time is the directionless flow of Consciousness
          at its most basic level within a Universe.

       It is what we call Inertia in its least compounded state.

       It is a function of the Universal Mind acting upon itself,
         generating a multiplicity of diverse thoughts within itself.

       Some of those thoughts are Life Forms, (such as we),
         who perceive undivided from within..

Hooray! I think I'll buy his beautifully illustrated tome: The Grand Uni-"Verse" of Primary Consciousness.

Grand UniVerse Presents
Some of the Most Brilliant Minds on our planet in the fields of Consciousness,
Spirituality, Quantum Theory, Quantum Reality, and Cutting Edge Theoretical Physics

       Creation!

       ...of the Illusions of Reality
         by the Mechanism of
        Foundational Existence!

       When Inertia acts upon itself,
        it generates an imbalance
         and a seeking of
       Equivalence within itself..

       As a Dynamic Function in Self Encounter, the Will of Inertia acting upon itself poses the Eternal Question;

       "What is"

       And its answer
       returns as;

       "I Am!"

[1] Gravity Probe B is the relativity gyroscope experiment being developed by NASA and Stanford University to test two extraordinary, unverified predictions of Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity.

The experiment will check, very precisely, tiny changes in the direction of spin of four gyroscopes contained in an Earth satellite orbiting at 400-mile altitude directly over the poles. So free are the gyroscopes from disturbance that they will provide an almost perfect space-time reference system. They will measure how space and time are warped by the presence of the Earth, and, more profoundly, how the Earth's rotation drags space-time around with it. These effects, though small for the Earth, have far-reaching implications for the nature of matter and the structure of the Universe.