Prometheus 6

What is(are) your field(s) of advanced study or interest? You sound like a chief executive of science and engineering who seeks the advice and consent of the humanities. Well done.

It's interests, not advanced studies. I have no degree...I got into Brooklyn College at 16 years old, which turns out to be entirely too young to hang with college folk.

Right now my interest is in social sciences. I've been fascinated by science since I was five years old. Once my kindergarten teacher found out I could read and they hit me with an IQ test (I scored better then than I do now) they actually called my mom in to tell her about it. I had to wait for her to show in my sister's 5th grade class. Her teacher dropped me in the back of  the class near the stash of books and I stumbled on her science textbook.

It was amazing to me. There were actual answers to questions I had in those books. Science became a permanent avocation. 

The real reason I think as I do is getting into comparitive religion, especially the Asian religions. I actually practiced yoga, Indian and Tibetan. Two literal epiphanies, one kicked off by reading alan Watts' Tao, The Watercourse Way, and by actual practice of The Yoga of the Great Symbol, literally restructured the way I see and think about things. As a result, regular everyday stuff really doesn't take much effort, so I've had a LOT of time and energy to use where I see fit. And I saw fit to look into mathematics, logic and psychiatry, all in study of myself. I sit at the core of my model for humanity...most of what I say is about myself.

Incidentally, this is why I never go into details about my development. It is not possible to walk the path I did. That doesn't mean it's not possible to get to where I am, just that you have to find your own way.

Your background is fascinating and I have really enjoyed, and have even been uplifted, by searching throught the archives of this site. I have two questions.

1) How do you approach your day, with regards to generating posts for this site? Are there specific media sources that your regularly frequent that get you going? Why did you choose them.

I guess I meant I have two areas of interest I'd like to pursue, lol

the second) What do you want to accomplish with this site?

Thanks for doing it, by the way!

In my head there are three categories of posts 'round these parts: editorials, news wire posts and links. The news wire posts are easiest. They're the posts that lead with a quote, followed by the initial few paragraphs of the linked article. They tend to be supportive of some ongoing theme. The editorials start, continue or expand on a theme. The link posts are to recognize things that make me think or entertain me, though they often serve as news wire posts in a way. In fact, the big difference between link and news wire posts is I will respect the link folks, whether or not I agree with them. For instance, Cobb used to get a lot of links from me until he went waaaay out there. I had to choose between reading and keeping a modicum of respect for him, so I chose the latter. If I had kept reading, I'd have eventually classed him with McWhorter, et al.

My primary sources to react to are the NY Times and Washington Post because they are our newspapers of record. I watch Washington Journal on CSPAN for the call-in and interviews but also because they scan hella more newspapers than I do and point me toward significant stories. I scan the stories (I am afraid I'll ultimately be classified as some sort of freak but I speed read...), bookmark the interesting ones then look for patterns in the ones that caught my attention. Those patterns determine the order in which I present them, as well as whether I need to do editorials to either fill the gaps or be the base on which I hang the other stories like decorations. I also have techie sites I check regularly. I don't read anywhere near all of them every day, but I have over 1000 sites in my aggregator list. Its why I stopped maintaining my blogroll.

What I would like to do is teach teachers by disproving the "common sense" about Black people that makes it so easy to demonize us. I want to add those answers to the general pool of knowledge so that "common sense" can't be used without fear of humiliation. After that, y'all can do what you want.

What I would like to do is teach teachers by disproving the "common sense" about Black people that makes it so easy to demonize us. I want to add those answers to the general pool of knowledge so that "commonn sense" can't be used without fear of humiliation. After that, y'all can do what you want.

Again, I thank you for doing it. I visit daily not only for the rich information, but for that "breath of reality" that has been systematically suffocated in the mainstream press.

Almost an aside, the Sarah Palin narrative to date suggests that "fear of humiliation" might not be a strong deterrent for certain types.

I can understand your choosing the NY Times and the Washington Post as credible news sources, mainstream though they may be, but as the so-called newspapers of record, what I wonder what happened to them on those censored stories from Project Censored? My problem is, after having spent some time in the employ of one of the big three's network news organization, I don't trust any of 'em. At least not without someone I respect vouching for them.

NY Times and the Washington Post as credible news sources

I said they were the newspapers of record, not credible news sources. They bring the story we're all supposed to believe (which explains their issues with the stories pointed out by Project Censored, too).

The Elliot Spitzer story was damn interesting.

To what extent do you think the GOP is going to draw upon the ACORN story to provoke fear and discredit the political shift taking place? It seems they have everything in place to do so.

To the degree they are still believed.

You owe me an answer, Michael.

1000 sites? what do you use to aggregate them?

Feeddemon. Windows desktop client. There's a couple of features I don't need, or even like, but it's the best RSS client I know of. And I've tried several.

You seem inhumanly (in a good way) so even. And you have a dry humor I find laugh out loud funny at times (I refuse to type LOL). If so, which practice?

The absolute is movement and stillness without beginning, yin and yang without beginning,

Buddhists call this complete awareness, Taoists call it the gold pill, Confucians call it the absolute. What is called the infinite absolute means the limit of the unlimited. Buddha called it "as is, immutable, ever clearly aware." The I Ching says, "tranquil and unperturbed, yet sensitive and effective." An alchemical text says, "body and mind unstirring, subsequently there is yet an endless real potential."

So we know what the three teachings of Buddhism, Taoism abd Confucianism esteem is calm stability. This is what a Confucian master called being based on calm. When the human mindis calm and stable, before it is effected by things, it is merged in the celestial design; this is called the subtlety of the absolute. Once it is affected by things, then there is partiality; this is change ofthe absolute.

When you are calm and stable, careful of attention, the celestial design is always clear, open awareness is unobscured; then you have autonomy in action and can deal with whatever arises. With the maturation of calm stability, one spontaneously arrives at this true restoration of the infinite, where the subtle responsive function of the absolute is clear abbd the design of the universe and all  things is complete in oneself.

That's from The Book of Balance and Harmony, a source book for the Complete Reality School of Taoism. There are several other bits that might actually be of better general use. 

I am not (repeat: NOT) always "calm and stable, careful of attention." I am smart enough not to write until I become so again.

Again, what actually shaped my mind was the meditation guided by the  Tibetan Yoga of the Great Symbol practice, but I have the sense that, had I run into the Complete Reality School I'd have saved a LOT of time. Might be a different person, though...

Point being, life is meditation.

Allow the body to be tranquil, the mind to be clear, society to be integrated, events to be spontaneous. Then body, mind, society and events follow the order, way, time and design of nature, in responding to people, things, changes and opportunities.