In the Good News Department

Silicon Valley's "best brains" work on energy by Leonard Anderson

MENLO PARK, Calif (Reuters) - Venture capitalists in Silicon Valley have been searching for the next big thing in high-tech for years, but now many have switched to greener pursuits -- finding technology to help cut global warming.

Although commercial success could take years, venture capitalists are pouring cash into solar power, fuel cells, wind energy, biofuels, new lighting microchips, "smart" power grids, and other innovative energies.

"The best brains in the country are no longer working on the next pharmaceutical drug or the next Silicon Revolution. They want to work on energy," said Vinod Khosla, a top venture capitalists in Silicon Valley.

read all at link above

It's too bad that we aren't using the trillion plus dollars or more that we'll end up spending on Iraq to pursue innovations in the energy field. So much to gain from energy independence, but then again we have oil people in charge now so don't expect them to look for ways to change the status quo. We might also solve the health-care and social security problem with a few billion dollars. So look to the grass-roots movements from smart and inspired people to move us forward into a great new future with or without help from Uncle Sam, at least the current Uncle Sam.

Marijuana in the News

Marijuana as wonder drug by Lester Grinspoon | March 1, 2007

A NEW STUDY in the journal Neurology is being hailed as unassailable proof that marijuana is a valuable medicine. It is a sad commentary on the state of modern medicine -- and US drug policy -- that we still need "proof" of something that medicine has known for 5,000 years.

New Mexico approves medical use of marijuana

ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico (Reuters) - New Mexico doctors are allowed to prescribe marijuana to help some seriously ill patients manage symptoms including pain and nausea under a bill signed into law by Gov. Bill Richardson on Monday.
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"This law will provide much-needed relief for New Mexicans suffering from debilitating diseases," Richardson, a Democratic candidate for U.S. president in 2008, said at the signing ceremony. "It is the right thing to do."

On this Date in History

Births:

1593 George Herbert English metaphysical poet (5 Mystical Songs)
1783 Washington Irving New York NY, American writer (Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Rip Van Winkle) (picture on right)
1924 Marlon Brando Omaha NE, actor (Superman, Godfather)
1948 Garrick Ohlsson Bronxville NY, pianist (International Busoni winner 1969)
1958 Alec Baldwin Amityville NY, actor (Joshua-Knots Landing, Beetlejuice)
1959 David Hyde Pierce Saratoga Springs NY, actor (Niles Crane-Fraiser)
1961 Eddie Murphy Brooklyn NY, actor (Saturday Night Live, 48 Hours, Beverly Hills Cop, Raw)
1961 Melissa Etheridge rock guitarist/vocalist (Come to My Window)
1971 Picabo Street skier (Olympics-gold-94)

Deaths:


0033 Christ crucified (according to astronomer Humphreys & Waddington)
1897 Johannes Brahms German composer/conductor (Hung Dances), dies at 63 (picture on right)
1986 Peter Pears English tenor (Death in Venice), dies at 75
1990 Sarah Vaughan jazz singer, dies of lung cancer at 66
1996 Carl Stokes 1st black mayor of a major US city (Cleveland OH), dies


Events:

1776 Washington receives honorary Ll.D. degree from Harvard College
1790 Revenue Marine Service (US Coast Guard), created
1860 Pony Express began between St Joseph MO & Sacramento CA
1868 An Hawaiian surfs on highest wave ever, he rides a 50' tidal wave
1926 1st performance of Jean Sibelius' 7th Symphony in C
1933 1st airplane flight over Mount Everest
1948 1st US figure skating championships held



Check sidebar under references for more on this date in history.


You can listen to my recording of Brahms' Intermezzo Op118 No2 here. Scroll down to find it.


Correction from an email today:

In the section On This Date in History, your blog listed the first US figure skating championships as being held in 1948. That date is off by 34 years.

The first US figure skating championships were held in 1914. The winner for ladies was Teresa Weld. The winner for men was Norman Scott. There were also awards for pairs (Jeanne Chevalier and Norman Scott) and dance (Teresa Weld and Nathaniel Niles).

I have no idea what the calendar date was. I only know the year. This data is from the annual directory published by US Figure Skating that is made available to skating officials.

I hope this information is of interest to you.

So I looked and found this:

Jackson Haines, the father of figure skating, originated the type of figure skating you see on TV today. In the 1860s he brought ballet style and techniques to the sport. Although he won the U.S. men's championship, his expressive style did not yet catch on in the U.S.

Haines went to Europe in 1865 and became a popular success but died before his style of skating caught on. Called the "International Style," Haines's form of skating eventually overcame resistance in the U.S., and on March 20, 1914, the first national figure skating championships in the "International Style" were held at New Haven, Connecticut.

Thanks for your email A.S.

LGBT youth, the movement's new ambassadors

From PlanetOut

SUMMARY: Young people, some barely in their teens, are gay rights' newest ambassadors at statehouses from Olympia, Wash., to Montpelier, Vt.

The half-dozen lobbyists who crowded into a lawmaker's office in Sacramento, Calif., recently didn't come bearing campaign cash or votes to swap. Instead, they recounted tales of high school torment as fresh as their faces.

Ignacio Pitalua, 19, spoke about having a trash can dumped on him by other boys who suspected he was gay.

"It's a big obstacle to learning," Pitalua said, pressing Assemblyman Curren Price to co-sponsor a bill that sets specific requirements for schools to stem anti-gay discrimination.

Young people, some barely in their teens, are becoming the gay rights movement's newest ambassadors at statehouses from Olympia, Wash., to Montpelier, Vt. Their advocacy, unheard of as recently as a decade ago, reflects the slowly growing acceptance that is emboldening gays and lesbians to come out of the closet while they are coming of age.

The article goes on to say:

Yet the most effective spokespeople are not necessarily gay youth, but the straight students who joined with them to form more than 2,500 high school gay-straight alliance clubs across the country since the early 1990s.

Carolyn Lamb, director of California's Gay-Straight Alliance Network, estimates that up to 40 percent of the 400 high school and college students recently bused to Sacramento for Queer Youth Advocacy Day were not LGBT.

"Most of the adult-driven (gay) civil rights work doesn't have such large numbers of straight allies who see it as a civil rights cause," she observed.

All and more at links above.

Quote

You don't have to go
where you don't want to be

to get where you want to be.

You can go from
where you are

to where you want to be.



Abraham

"Captain April"

I met Liz Story in Prescott, Arizona sometime around 1996 through mutual friends. She was preparing the music for her up-coming album
"17 Seconds to Anywhere." We had many discussions about philosophy and art. She previewed her sketches for me for her new songs. I remember expressing my enthusiasm for what was to be called "Captain April." I told her it was like Spring bursting out all over. She later named it. She mentioned me in the thank you notes on her album. She said I was the "Architecture of Flow". I guess because of the things we talked about and my encouraging her to go on with her music.

One day Liz came over for a lesson wherein she brought a classical piano transcription of "Widmung" by Robert Schumann. She had a recording by Van Cliburn that she loved very much. It is a song steep in rich sentiment for what is best within us. We played and cried and talked and cried and had a wonderful time together.


Here's two of my favorite songs and one she has written since for Mark, who was someone very dear to her that passed away a few years ago.

"Church of Trees" has always made me cry as it does now. Bless you Liz , you wild and dear soul.

If link above doesn't work try here:
My Rhapsody Playlist

The Month of April.

On this Date in History

Births:
0742 Charlemagne 1st Holy Roman emperor (800-14)
1725 Casanova writer(picture on right)
1805 Hans Christian Andersen Denmark, author of 150 fairy tales
1875 Walter Chrysler founded Chrysler car company


Events:
1513 Explorer Juan Ponce de León claims Florida for Spain
1739 Handel's "The Cuckoo and the Nightingale" was performed for the first time.
1792 Congress establishes Philadelphia mint; US authorizes $10 Eagle, $5 half-Eagle &
$2.50 quarter-Eagle gold coins & silver dollar, ½ dollar, quarter, dime & half-dime
1800 1st performance of Ludwig von Beethoven's 1st Symphony in C
1845 H L Fizeau & J Leon Foucault take 1st photo of Sun
1866 President Andrew Johnson ends war in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Louisiana, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee & Virginia
1870 Victoria Woodhull is 1st woman to be nominated for US President, (picture at right)
1872 George B Brayton patents gasoline powered engine
1877 1st Easter egg roll held on White House lawn
1889 Charles Hall patented aluminum.
1902 1st motion picture theater opens (Los Angeles CA)
1908 Mills Committee declares baseball was invented by Abner Doubleday
1910 Karl Harris perfected the process for the artificial synthesis of rubber.
1917 President Woodrow Wilson asks Congress to declare war against Germany
1917 Jeannette Rankin becomes 1st woman member of US House of Representatives
1921 Professor Albert Einstein lectures in NYC on his new theory of relativity
1932 Charles Lindbergh turns over $50,000 as ransom for kidnapped son
1935 Mary Hirsch, becomes 1st woman licensed as a horse trainer
1935 Sir Watson-Watt patents RADAR
1986 NCAA adopts 3-point basketball rule (19 feet 9 inch distance)



more here and here.

Congratulations

MELBOURNE, Australia — Michael Phelps equaled the most hallowed mark in swimming, winning his seventh gold medal at the world championships Sunday night with his fifth world record.

Phelps smashed his own standard in the 400-meter individual medley by 2.04 seconds, becoming the most successful swimmer ever at the worlds.

"This is probably one of the best meets I've ever had," he said. "I'm definitely happy with how it turned out."

The 21-year-old American joined countryman Mark Spitz as the only swimmers to win that many golds at a major international meet. Of course, Spitz' achievement came on the sport's grandest stage _ the Olympics.

Phelps hopes to equal the feat or go one better at next year's Beijing Games.

When a teammate messed up his chance for an eighth gold medal in a relay race he was as gracious as they come saying:

"When Team USA comes into a swim meet, we come as a team and we exit as a team," he said. "There are things that don't happen exactly as we want it to, but it's better to happen now than next year."

How wonderful to see such a fine young person doing so well. All the best in the coming Olympic Games in Beijing, Mr. Phelps.

Sweet, Sweet Jesus

The 485,460-Calorie Messiah
The six-foot tall, milk-chocolate Jesus Christ art catastrophe.

"Man cannot live on bread alone, but if he were to consume Cosimo Cavallaro's newest creation he could live off of Jesus -- for approximately eight months. An oddball artist known for his "eclectic" forms of expression, Cavallaro's latest contribution to culture is a six-foot tall, anatomically-correct milk-chocolate sculpture of Jesus Christ. His confectionary Christ is made with more than 200 pounds of chocolate, containing approximately 480,000 calories. (The artistic endeavor titled, "My Sweet Lord," can also give you 3,240 percent of the Vitamin A you need each day.)"




NPR Audio: Chocolate Jesus May Prompt Boycott. There are two sides to Easter. There's the Christian holiday. And then there's the bunny, the eggs and maybe some candy, too. A group called the Catholic League wants to boycott a New York hotel that is mixing the two sides by displaying a sculpture of Jesus made of chocolate. It's described as "the 485,460-calorie Messiah." People will be invited to eat it on Easter Sunday.

Chocolate Jesus
Written by: Kathleen Brennan and Tom Waits

Well, i don't go to church on sunday
Don't get on my knees to pray
Don't memorize the books of the bible
I got my own special way

I know jesus loves me
Maybe just a little bit more
I fall down on my knees every sunday
At zerelda lee's candy store

Well, it's got to be a chocolate jesus
Make me feel good inside
Got to be a chocolate jesus
Keep me satisfied


more here.


With Jesus, Do You Eat The Ears First?

Bread and Wine or the Chocolate kind? by meEE

People eat Jesus alot. They are Jesus eaters. They eat him in the form of a host, a wafer of unleavened bread every Sunday, and some more frequently than that. They also drink his blood in the form of a sip of wine. I did this growing up in the Catholic Religion. I never thought of myself as a Jesus eater but I was. I think I'll copyright a slogan "I eat Jesus."

The Catholic Church Dogma is that the bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Christ through transubstantiation. They are the only ones who claim this power that I know of. So when you eat the bread and drink the wine it is no longer just eating bread and drinking wine, you're eating and drinking Jesus. So now you too have Jesus in you and that's how you get Jesus in you, because Jesus can't just get in you by himself for some reason. The by-products of the bread and wine, excuse me, the essence of the by-products, are still Jesus as far as I can tell. So when you go the the bathroom does Jesus come out your...well you know what I mean?

Oh, man, what vain attempts to reach for that which has always been unreachable, to grasp at that which is not graspable, meaning, I say meaning that which IS and has Always Been and Will Always Be. No need of seeking outside yourself, literally or figuratively(grasping). That's why atheists can be actually closer to "What Is", Truth, they have either forsaken appearances or never had to deal wih them in the first place. Although to be sure their are plenty of "seemings to be" to get caught up in for those of any persuasion.

Creation is One with it's Creator and that Creation and Creator is only known through Love because it is Love. That's why the Chocolate Jesus may be as close to the truth as bread and wine. More people love chocolate. Even though the Catholic Church claims this power of catering Jesus's body, it's theology is so messed up with good and evil that it really doesn't make much sense. In so many ways the kingdom is kept at a "safe"distance, for another time and place, only after this life of trials and tribulations and eating Jesus every Sunday. Eating Jesus keeps you "online" but not "logged in"(yet) to that place that you want to be someday with all the good folks in the good place.

Are you not already there? Come on...

Eat more Jesus

Update: At Crooks and Liars via Shakespeare's Sister:
The Daily Donohue: The Violent Rantings of a lunatic bully over a Chocolate Jesus




me in the chocolatEE (yum)

On this Date in History - April Fool's Day

Births:
1578 William Harvey England, physician (discovered blood circulation)
1873 Sergei Vasilievitch Rachmaninov Novgorod Provine Russia, composer (Prelude in C# Minor)
1905 Winfried P I Zillig German opera composer/conductor (Fantasia Irica)

Deaths:
1917 Scott Joplin ragtime composer (Sting), dies at 48
1930 Cosima Liszt wife of Austrian composer Richard Wagner, dies at 92
1976 Max Ernst German/French surrealist painter/sculptor, dies at 85
1991 Martha Graham US, choreographer (Appalachian Spring), dies at 96

Events:
1578 William Harvey of England discovers blood circulation
1748 Ruins of Pompeii found
1778 Oliver Pollock, a New Orleans businessman, creates "$" symbol
1789 House of Representatives 1st full meeting, New York NY, F Muhlenberg 1st speaker
1792 Gronings feminist Etta Palm demands women's right to divorce
1826 Samuel Mory patents internal combustion engine
1853 Cincinnati becomes 1st US city to pay firefighters a regular salary
1866 US Congress rejects presidential veto gives all equal rights in US
1876 1st official National League baseball game (Boston-6, Philadelphia-5)
1889 1st dishwashing machine marketed (Chicago)
1891 Painter Gauguin leaves Marseille for Tahiti
1927 1st automatic record changer introduced by His Master's Voice
1929 Louie Marx introduces Yo-Yo
1952 Big Bang theory proposed in Physical Review by Alpher, Bethe & Gamow
1973 John & Yoko form a new country with no laws or boundaries, called Nutopia, its national anthem is silence
1986 World oil prices dip below $10 a barrel

There's alot more here and here.


me in historEE