A Murmuration of Starlings

It's not often that one gets to observe collective consciousness at work. Somehow, the following image found me on Twitter the other day. It's a large school of fish adeptly keeping several sharks isolated and at bay on a reef somewhere in the tropical ocean.  The school's amazing, coordinated ebb and flow around the deadly predators leaves them frozen, confused and unable to respond to their presence.

Karl Robertson) via @WhySharksMatter pic.twitter.com/4NNWKglHmV

 

I forwarded this image to Rupert Sheldrake, the Oxford based biologist, whose research on consciousness and the nature of reality is so fascinating. I got a reply with thanks and a link to a lovely short video that shows the amazing aerial coordinations of a large flock of starlings, little birds that seem to operate as one collective consciousness as they move to and fro like nature's magic.

Here is the link to the Murmuration of Starlings video...  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRhv_tVMifk&feature=youtu.be

The Great Debate - Indoor Vs. Outdoor Cats

This is a subject close to my heart. I love cats and I absolutely understand that they are happiest when they can come and go as they please. At the same time, it is alarming to know that the 84 million domestic cats in America kill between one and four billion - that's billion with a b - birds every year.

I don't advocate keeping cats indoors. At the same time, cats are a significant factor in the diminishing number of wild birds in our environment.  It's a troubling dilemma.

Not long ago, I did a blog entry on a wonderful book titled, Lost Cat, by Caroline Paul and Wendy MacNaughton. While they were on tour for their book, Caroline and Wendy found themselves drawn into the  debate about whether cats should be kept indoors or allowed to roam free. In response, Wendy and her collaborator, Tom Westerlin, developed this one minute video that addresses this cat controversy in a delightfully creative way.

Here is a link to The Great Debate  Indoors Vs. Outdoors... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vKZtbGOuAA

An 'Online' Magna Carta

This is a very important issue.  The internet is the only media arena that remains reasonably open and accessible. Corporations like Comcast and Verizon are trying to use their political influence to take control of the internet and limit the ability of users to freely access its content.

Tim Berners-Lee invented the internet.  We must take what he has to say seriously.
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Published on Wednesday, March 12, 2014 by Common Dreams

Web Inventor's Bold Call: Time for 'Online Magna Carta'

Tim Berners-Lee issues call for "a global constitution – a bill of rights" to defend digital rights

- Andrea Germanos, staff writer

As the World Wide Web celebrates its 25th anniversary Wednesday, Tim Berners-Lee, the man who invented the system, is calling for an online 'Magna Carta' to protect users in the face of growing surveillance and attacks on an open internet.




 Tim Berners-Lee, World Wide Web inventor, speaking at a press conference on Human Rights Day in December 2013. (Photo: UN Geneva)

 

Tim Berners-Lee, World Wide Web inventor, speaking at a press conference on Human Rights Day in December 2013. (Photo: UN Geneva) Twenty-five years on, Berners-Lee said, "we need to make sure we establish the principles that the Web's been based on — principles of openness, principles of privacy, principles of not being censored."

"Unless we have an open, neutral internet," he told the Guardian, "we can rely on without worrying about what's happening at the back door, we can't have open government, good democracy, good healthcare, connected communities and diversity of culture. It's not naive to think we can have that, but it is naive to think we can just sit back and get it."

"It's time for us to make a big communal decision," he told BBC. "In front of us are two roads — which way are we going to go? Are we going to continue on the road and just allow the governments to do more and more and more control — more and more surveillance?"

"Or are we going to set up a bunch of values? Are we going to set up something like a Magna Carta for the world wide web and say, actually, now it's so important, so much part of our lives, that it becomes on a level with human rights?" he continued. Echoing that statement, he told the Guardian, "We need a global constitution – a bill of rights."

Because an open internet must be "nurtured and protected" from "some companies and some governments [that] threaten our fundamental freedoms on the Web," Berners-Lee's World Wide Web Foundation has set up the Web We Want campaign to support those groups working for an open, universal web.

A critic of government surveillance, Berners-Lee posed the first question to Edward Snowden Monday at the South by South West conference in Austin, thanking the whistleblower for the surveillance revelations that have been "profoundly in the public interest."
His Web We Want campaign is asking people to help craft an internet Users Bill of Rights to defend digital rights.

Efforts like this are "laudable and noteworthy," Timothy Karr, Senior Director of Strategy at internet rights group Free Press, told Common Dreams, as they "align people around the world around a set of principles that support internet freedom."

"The trick, though," Karr continued, "is going from declaration or statement of rights to action defending those rights as they are continually under assault around the world."
Berners-Lee is also marking the web's anniversary by taking part in a Reddit Ask Me Anything session Wednesday beginning at 3PM ET.

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License.

Lost Cat

So, our longtime friend, Alexandra Paul has a twin sister named Caroline, who is a very gifted writer. Caroline has written a couple of books, including one about her years as a firefighter in the city of San Francisco. 

Caroline’s latest book, Lost Cat is a story out of her own life. It begins as she is recovering from a very serious leg injury. One of her housemates is a cat named Tibby. Like all kittys, he is a bit of an enigma. For thirteen years, he was pretty much a homebody. Then, while Caroline is hobbled and on crutches, Tibby disappears. Caroline and her partner Wendy MacNaughton search frantically for Tibby, without success.   Then, five weeks later, when all hope is gone, the missing kitty returns, looking healthy, as if not a day had been lost. 

 

 

This is a wonderfully engaging, and amusing, true detective story.  It’s about the emotional distress that comes with the sudden, unexplained loss of a much loved, feline friend, and it’s about solving the mystery of where the venturesome kitty had been during his unexplained absence.

Last Cat is a simple tale. At heart, it is a love story. Caroline Paul tells it in a delightful way, that delivers lots of smiles. Her narrative is exquisitely complemented by Wendy MacNaughton’s sometimes quirky, always endearing illustrations.

 If you are a person with a soft spot for animals, particularly kitty cats, this is a book for you.

 

 

Drones do Dolphins and Whales

Drones are becoming more and more ubiquitous in our world.   Here is a video that shows whales and dolphins at sea from the viewpoint of a drone flying a few hundred feet above.  The best part come spatter in the video when the drone follows a humpback whale mom and her youngster.  Wonderful video.  It makes you wonderful about people who could hunt them and shoot exploding harpoons into their bodies.  Anyway, this is beautiful video. Enjoy.

Here is the 'You Tube' video of drones doing whales and dolphins...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bo_f8mV5khg

Lupita Nyong'o - An Exceptional Human Being

I watched the Academy Awards last night. I found myself completely charmed by a young woman named Lupita Nyong'o.  Ms. Nyong'o was born to Kenyan parents.  She received the Academy Award for 'Best Supporting Actress' for her role in Twelve Years a Slave, the film that won the award for 'Best Picture'

I was very taken with this young woman.  Her  speech accepting her Oscar was the best of the entire event.  Afterward, I came across another video of Ms. Nyong'o speaking to a meeting of black women film professionals.  She talked about beauty, and her own struggle to accept her 'blackness'. When she was young, she felt bad that her skin was not lighter.  Her speech about that is very moving.  Lupita Nyong'o is a very impressive human being.  I think we are going to hear a great deal more from her.

Lupita Nyongo

Here is the wonderful  'You Tube' video of Lupita Nyong'o talking about her struggle to accept her own personal beauty... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPCkfARH2eE