Category: Whatever
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The Mariachi Mass
It’s a musical tradition found in Mexican-American enclaves mostly in southwestern U.S. cities. The mariachi Mass brings an ensemble of garishly dressed folk musicians — with their guitars, trumpets and violins — right down to the front of the church, where they play liturgical music as part of the Order…
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Unearthing music
We all knew that Stone Age humans were hunters and gatherers. But sculptors and flutists? Archeologists announced today that they had unearthed the oldest musical instruments ever found — flutes that inhabitants of southwestern Germany laboriously carved from bone and ivory at least 35,000 years ago. The find suggests just…
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Flowing Exploration
Metaphysics as a way of thinking suffers from confusion with superstition. As I have noted before, superstition encompasses more than the narrow notion thrown around by the “educated” where a person has irrational beliefs about a relationship between an imagined cause and a perceived effect. A major issue in terms…
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Upon the Depths of Uncertainty
Consider metaphysical thinking as the building up of vessels allowing us to explore the oceans of reality. Their hulls carry the provisions of our accumulated knowledge. Their rudders direct course by the pole star of the “Why not?” Their sails fill with the winds of the “As-if.” From a known…
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International: Ripe for rebellion? | The Economist
The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), a sister company of The Economist, measures the risk of social unrest in 150 countries around the world. It places a heavy emphasis on institutional and political weaknesses. And recent developments have indeed revealed a deep sense of popular dissatisfaction with political elites and institutions…
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Learning the Difference between Neo-Liberalism and Progressivism in the Poverty Nation
There is a big difference to be made between the progressivism that once was the hall-mark of left-wing politics and the left-leaning wing of neo-liberalism. This article, focusing on how corporations–and I would add many colleges & universities–make use of the working poor is a good way for you to…
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ArtiZen Threads
My good friend Rodney has started a marvelous small business creating some great products using hand woven fabrics from artisanal weavers in Vietnam and Guatemala. [Such as this Meditation Cushion pictured here.[ Brothers and sisters of the Ether, you know by now that I only give my support to businesses…
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▶ How Does Night Vale Confront Us With the Unknown? | Idea Channel | PBS Digital Studios – YouTube
Night Vale\’s masterful balance of mystery, humor, and horror has made it the #1 podcast in America. Night Vale employs the techniques of H.P. Lovecraft, specifically his masterful manipulation of THE UNKNOWN, but the medium chosen makes it literally impossible to visually depict its universe. And it is questionable, in…
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How to Piss Off Your Barista — I. M. H. O. — Medium
I have been working in the coffee industry now for a decade. I am not a world champion barista, but I am capable. All 10 of the items in this list are spot on and great. But number 3 is my particular pet peeve as a man who himself is…
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Nancy Gibbs on Why Pope Francis Is TIME’s Person of the Year 2013 | TIME.com
Picking Francis I, with Edward Snowden a close runner up, demonstrates how the power-hungry Financial Capitalist networks of the Society of Control are being challenged by both the most traditional channels of discourse as well as the most anti-imperialist channels. It some ways, it does not mean all that much.…
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7 Must-Read Books on Education | Brain Pickings
Education is something we’re deeply passionate about, but the fact remains that today’s dominant formal education model is a broken system based on antiquated paradigms. While much has been said and written about education reform over the past couple of years, the issue and the public discourse around it are…
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Looking for MURAKAMI | YouTube
…considered an important figure in postmodern literature. The Guardian praised him as “among the world\’s greatest living novelists” for his works and achievements. Murakami was born in Japan during the post–World War II baby boom… …Since childhood, Murakami has been heavily influenced by Western culture, particularly Western music and literature.…
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A Congressman Asks for Adjuncts’ Stories, and Responses Pour In | Vitae
“This eForum is an opportunity for adjuncts and other contingent faculty to inform the Congress about what’s happening on the ground with higher education,” said Miller, a Democrat, in a news release. “I think there is a huge lack of understanding of what it means to be in the adjunct…
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Kanye West: Easy Target for the Daily Currant
I like the Daily Currant because unlike the Onion, the stuff is written just close enough to reality to make you actually buy it for a bit. I figured Kanye actually said this stuff–he has said crap not that far away from it–until I realized the source. Still, that folks…
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Beware of the Philosopher: the Cynics | History of Philosophy
This is a nice quick lecture on the Ancient Cynics. Since the speaker references “The Bare Necessities” from The Jungle Book, I also include that song below. You might watch it before you listen to the lecture. In this episode we unleash the most outrageous ancient philosophers, Diogenes and the Cynics,…
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The Elusive Search for Certainty
Amen, amen! As I say to my young friends, philosophy is the willingness to embrace uncertainty combined with the will to ask questions.
CALL ME MAGGIE 
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