Midweek Miscellany

We frequently see or hear quips about the older generation's fumble-fingered efforts with new (to them) technology - here's a chance for those of us of "a certain age" to have a little snigger at the younger generation:

"Are we supposed to pick up the phone and then do it?' Fun footage shows two teenagers completely baffled by a rotary telephone when given four minutes to make one call:

Teacher wears same dress for 100 days to teach students a lesson

By Hannah Frishberg

Teacher Julia Mooney dressed to impress her earthy beliefs on middle school students.

To prove that you are not what you wear, Mooney, 34, donned the same gray, button-down dress for 100 days in a row, washing it only “as needed.”

She didn’t tell her young charges what she was up to in the beginning — but slowly they caught on that she was rocking the roughly $50 frock “through ceramics projects, blizzards, whatever.”

“I was a little bit fed up with the cultural expectation to go shopping and spend all this money for other people to approve of me,” Mooney told “Good Morning America” back in November, when she launched her minimalist mission. “There is no rule that says I cannot wear the same thing every day if I choose to, so I thought, why not.

Fast-forward to February: By buying into the buzzy “fast fashion” trend, Mooney says we are cultivating what she describes as a “culture of excess” that hurts the environment — and young people.

"This is something they deal with every day as 12- and 13-year-olds,” she tells TreeHugger. “As they try to define themselves, they are often identifying with brands or superficial things like their social media presence. Many seemed excited to have a reason to talk about how silly all of that really is.................“Let’s use our energy to do good instead of looking good,” Mooney advises on her @oneoutfit100days Instagram account, where she posts about the importance of sustainability and the evils of fast fashion.

Do read the full piece (linked at the title) where there's a photograph of Ms Mooney, and the dress.

Cartoon by Mad John Peck (1971) - the idea never gets old!

A movie "coming soon"- actually at the end of June 2019, is said to offer a new slant on Beatlemania, with a spoonful of sci-fi added.

A failing musician finds himself the only person in the world who remembers, after a weird world-wide sci-fi type event, the Beatles and their music. Guess what a failing musician might do next in such circumstances!

If the movie hadn't been written by Richard Curtis (from a story by Jack Barth) I'd probably be very wary of its potential, but Curtis has written such delights as Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994), Notting Hill (1999), Bridget Jones's Diary (2001), Love Actually (2003)... Yesterday is directed by Danny Boyle.

This coming movie has to be worth a look (keeping disbelief suspended!)

Official trailer:

Mid-week Meanderings

This post will stand until the weekend. I shall be otherwise engaged. Currently I have something serious on my plate - some surgery. More on this later on, perhaps.

Anyway, a few odds and ends:



On the environment....

"Your descendants shall gather your fruits." (Virgil)

(Note: no doubt it was implied anyway, within this ancient wisdom that: "whether the fruits be nourishing or poisoned is up to you.")

"And Man created the plastic bag and the tin and aluminum can and the cellophane wrapper and the paper plate, and this was good because Man could then take his automobile and buy all his food in one place and He could save that which was good to eat in the refrigerator and throw away that which had no further use. And soon the earth was covered with plastic bags and aluminum cans and paper plates and disposable bottles and there was nowhere to sit down or walk, and Man shook his head and cried: "Look at this Godawful mess."
Art Buchwald, humorist.

On future potential for revolution - here, there and everywhere:

A poem, by Otto Rene Castillo who was a Guatemalan revolutionary.

One day
the apolitical
intellectuals
of my country
will be interrogated
by the simplest
of our people.

They will be asked
what they did
when their nation died out
slowly,
like a sweet fire
small and alone.

No one will ask them
about their dress,
their long siestas
after lunch,
no one will want to know
about their sterile combats
with "the idea
of the nothing"
no one will care about
their higher financial learning.

They won't be questioned
on Greek mythology,
or regarding their self-disgust
when someone within them
begins to die
the coward's death.

They'll be asked nothing
about their absurd
justifications,
born in the shadow
of the total life.

On that day
the simple men will come.

Those who had no place
in the books and poems
of the apolitical intellectuals,
but daily delivered
their bread and milk,
their tortillas and eggs,
those who drove their cars,
who cared for their dogs and gardens
and worked for them,
and they'll ask:

"What did you do when the poor
suffered, when tenderness
and life
burned out of them?"

Apolitical intellectuals
of my sweet country,
you will not be able to answer.

A vulture of silence
will eat your gut.

Your own misery
will pick at your soul.

And you will be mute in your shame.

On different elemental matters:

In "The Night Sky" by Richard Grossinger, some food for thoughts astrological:

In 1869, the Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev discovered that the chemical properties of the elements (My note: this refers to the non-astrological elements)are periodic functions of their atomic weights, i.e. of the number of protons in their nuclei. When he arranged the then-known elements in a series, he found that there were familial resemblances among elements at regular numerical intervals. For instance, carbon, silicon and tin lie in a series for which the member between silicon and tin was then apparently missing. This was later found to be germanium. Fluourine, chlorine, bromine and iodine constitute another family. Then there's a group of lithium, sodium and potassium; another of nitrogen phosphorus, arsenic and antimony; and so on. Nature contains a hidden periodic function which is basic to form and order in the world. (My note: There are "families" in astrological elements too, at regular numerical intervals - the Fire family Aries, Leo, Sagittarius, the Air family Gemini, Libra, Aquarius etc.) All the other elements are based on the simplest one, hydrogen with its single proton, which is also - we were to find out - the fuel of the stars.

Mendeleev's periodic table, and the reality that lay behind it gave a new basis for understanding the history and evolution of matter. Mathematical relationships determined the seemingly limitless display of forms in nature, from plants and animals to stars and galaxies. It was hauntingly Pythagorean, as Heisenberg would remind us.

The echo of astrological elements and modes and the way they were arranged by ancient astrologers is discernible. They had no knowledge of periodic tables and suchlike, as far as we know.

I have confidence that astrology is more than mere superstition. It's something rooted in the very nature of the universe. Oh - it's rough and ready, imperfect and encumbered with a plethora of unnecessary accessories, but beneath it all there is a gem - just waiting to be discovered.

Hand-held Earth

This week I'm continually being reminded of things. The image below was pulled from my over-filled memory banks after reading my weekly forecast, commencing 21 September 2017, by one of my favourite astrologers,
Rob Brezsny of Free Will Astrology.
Snips from THIS:

Aquarius
"The brain is wider than the sky," wrote Emily Dickinson. "The brain is deeper than the sea." I hope you cultivate a vivid awareness of those truths in the coming days, Aquarius...............

Try this visualization exercise: Picture yourself bigger than the planet Earth, holding it tenderly in your hands".

The image that brought to mind is one I originally found on a notice board in a gallery or museum, years ago, while on our travels - we took a photograph of it then; later I found it online, and discovered that it was written by Joe Miller for a children's book, illustrated by Wilson McLean.

Too Many of Us ? What's to be done?

Overpopulation - of planet Earth: a delicate, yet important, subject. Articles pushing the need for population control are persuasive, but without much searching, an article dismissing those needs can be found. I have to remain a don't know on this issue, though I do lean towards voluntary control of family size. In truth, nobody knows for sure how the matter of overpopulation will develop; in known history, on an Earth-wide scale, overpopulation hasn't happened before. In extremity, would nature itself step in? I do wonder!

Sir David Attenborough, naturalist (born 1926):
“The human population can no longer be allowed to grow in the same old uncontrolled way. If we do not take charge of our population size, then nature will do it for us.”

It makes sense that couples ought to voluntarily limit the size of their families, for numerous reasons, and not only environmental. This has happened in recent history already, without regulation being needed. Families of 10 or more were not uncommon a century or so ago. Life spans were considerably shorter then, even for those who survived childbirth, childhood diseases, and went on to live a reasonably healthy life. My father's parents brought forth 10 children, but none of those ten have parented more than two offspring apiece. As a very loose pattern I'd guess broadly similar applies generally, both in the UK and in the USA ( excluding families whose religion dictates life choices).

Also, on this topic, an archived post from 2012:
Every Sperm is Sacred - or so they say.


Overpopulation is a concern oft approached by writers of dystopian speculative fiction, and film makers of that ilk. We watched one such movie, via Netlix last week :
What Happened to Monday? In that movie, set in the year 2073, the world is in turmoil, a Child Alloocation Act dictates and enforces (without pity, and with Gestapo-style tactics) a one child per family mandate. Any surplus children are rounded up to be (euphemistically)"cryogenically frozen until overpopulation is solved"...for "frozen" read the opposite! Glenn Close plays the evil leader in charge of all this unpleasantness.

What Happened to Monday proved to be something of a collage of ideas already used in several other movies in the dystopian genre. This movie's trade mark, though, is somewhat shared with a TV series, Orphan Black, in that one actress, in this film Noomi Rapace, plays several different personalities of identical physical appearance. She plays seven siblings, septuplets born during a spate of multiple births thought brought about by various environmental or food-related factors. The seven girls' grandfather has named them after days of the week - Monday is girl number one, and she goes missing.

I found the movie interesting, but suspension of disbelief was severely taxed, particularly in the premise that, in order to protect themselves, the seven girls could act as if they were the same person, while undertaking the same employment, one day at a time. Passing on necessary information on work and relationship issues, by word of mouth, to one another each evening. In my view that was just, well, silly - far beyond belief that such a plan could be workable.

Afterwards, I got to remembering a couple of other overpopulation tales in film. First to come to mind, one from the 1970s Logan's Run (my blog post here is relevant). That film could sorely use a good re-make! In the year 2274, the remnants of human civilization live in a sealed city contained beneath a cluster of geodesic domes, a utopia run by a computer that takes care of all aspects of their life, including reproduction. The citizens live a hedonistic life but, to maintain the city, at age 30 all must undergo a ritual, when they are "renewed" a.k.a. vaporized. Population size and consumption of resources are maintained by killing everyone who reaches age 30.

Also from the 1970s, Soylent Green, set in 2022 (today that's just around the corner!) Dying oceans and year-round humidity due to the greenhouse effect, result in suffering from pollution, poverty, overpopulation, euthanasia and depleted resources. 40 million people live in New York City; housing is dilapidated; homeless people fill the streets; many are unemployed; those few with jobs are only barely scraping by and food and working technology are scarce with most of the population surviving on rations produced by the Soylent Corporation. Their latest product is Soylent Green, a green wafer advertised to contain "high-energy plankton" from the World Ocean, more nutritious and palatable than its predecessors "Red" and "Yellow" but in short supply. Most passing readers will know the true content of the green wafer!

There's also The Thinning (2016) I've yet to see this one. Synopsis tells that in the year 2039, Earth's resources are nearly depleted by overpopulation, so the United Nations declares that all nations must cut their population by 5% each year. While some countries remove their elderly, others enforce a one-child policy. The United States implements a policy known as 10-241 or the "Thinning", a standardized test taken from first grade to twelfth grade. Those who pass continue to the next grade, while those who fail are executed. This film's story is set in Austin, Texas.

Margaret Atwood, novelist (born 1939):
“The world is finite. For everybody in the world to have the same lifestyle that we [in the West] have now, at only six billion people, would take four additional Earths [in resources].”

Arty Farty Friday ~ Alexandre Hogue, Artist and Ecologist.

 Howdy Neighbour (1936)

Alexandre Hogue. Who was he? I didn't know. I do now.

Born on 22 February 1898 in Memphis, Missouri, moved with parents to Texas at a young age. A He was, by style, a realist and regionalist painter associated with the "Dallas Nine"; he also taught art in the region. The majority of his works focus on Southwestern and Midwestern landscapes during the time of the Dust Bowl.
From the Wikipedia link above:

Hogue’s mother had a huge influence on his work; she taught him about “Mother Earth,” which became a key concept to most of his paintings, specifically Mother Earth Laid Bare in 1938. Hogue connected the human body to the natural world, recalling his mother’s words that “...conjured up visions of a great female figure under the ground everywhere- so I would tread easy on the ground." In addition, the effects that the Dust Bowl had on the land that Hogue had grown to love had a profound effect on his works

 Erosion #2 - Mother Earth Laid Bare (1935 /1938)

The Modern West: American Landscapes, 1890-1950
By Emily Ballew Neff

Interesting video - just 2 mins and 44 secs.

A few of his paintings (more can be seen via Google Image).

 Drought Stricken Area (1934)

 Red Earth Canyon

 The Crucified Land

 Oil in the Sandhills

From NCBI, here.

Hogue described his work as “psycho-reality,” involving “mind reactions to real situations, not dreams or subconscious.” He converted his thoughts into abstract visual terms, which were stronger than nature itself. In his work Drouth Stricken Area, “The windmill and the drink tub are taken from life,” he wrote. “I worked on that windmill. In fact I was knocked off it by lightning. It was the windmill that was on my sister and brother-in-law’s place―the Bishop Ranch near Dalhart, Texas. The house was strictly my own. I just depicted it so it would be typical of the time…. The placing of a top of a shed coming in front of the tank is strictly a matter of composition. The whole thing is just visually built.”

“Some may feel that in these paintings… I may have chosen an unpleasant subject, but after all the drouth is most unpleasant. To record its beautiful moments without its tragedy would be false indeed. At one and the same time the drouth is beautiful in its effects and terrifying in its results. The former shows peace on the surface but the latter reveals tragedy underneath. Tragedy as I have used it is simply visual psychology, which is beautiful in a terrifying way.”

“I don’t like to be called a ‘regionalist’ or ‘American scene painter,’ or, as Life magazine called me, ‘painter of the Dust Bowl,” proclaimed Hogue even as he urged farmers to cooperate with federal soil conservation efforts. “My paintings are as much a statement of what may happen as what has happened―a warning of impending danger in terms of present conditions...."

ASTROLOGY

No time of birth known, chart set for 12 noon.

Most surprising factor about Hogue's natal chart: no planet in an Earth sign. Perhaps he had an Earth sign rising - if we only knew his time of birth!

He does have a very nice Grand Trine in Air, sharpening his intellectual understanding of environmental matters, and related issues. The Grand Trine can take in Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, Pluto and Neptune.

Sun conjunct Venus (planet of the arts) in Pisces speaks of highly sensitive emotion in his artwork. Natal Moon's position isn't known exactly, but would be either in late Pisces or early Aries - and quite possibly in trine to Chiron (known as the Wounded Healer) in Scorpio. That would fit very well!

Arty Farty Friday ~ Andy Goldsworthy, Sculptor, Naturalist, Photographer.

 Hat-tip HERE for photograph

In comments following an Arty Farty Friday post in June (HERE) there was mention of art using nature - transient but environmentally gentle. Brandon Anderton and Patrick Dougherty were mentioned. Here's another such artist, a Brit this time:
Andy Goldsworthy.
He has a birthday coming up on Sunday: born 26 July 1956 in Cheshire, now lives in Scotland.
He works with all manner of natural materials : ice, snow, water, wood, flowers, stones, pebbles....Many or most of his pieces are by nature transient, so to preserve a memory of his work he photographs them - at their best.
I can do no better than add parts 1 to 4 of videos showing some of his works, and occasional sight of him working on them, along with quotes of a few of his remarks.
The videos are each around 4 and a half minutes long.

If videos aren't your thing, just go to Google Image, insert this artist's name in the search box - hundreds of examples of his work are pictured there.











ASTROLOGY
I won't post a natal chart, that would seem intrusive - but will just say that Mr Goldsworthy has his Leo Sun conjoining Uranus, and natal Venus in Gemini in trine to Neptune in Libra. Highly creative art arising from unexpected sources?

Keystone (not the Kops) XL (not the record label)

What are the odds now, given the results of last week's midterm elections, that President Obama will give his seal of approval, or will it be his veto to the Keystone XL pipeline?

There are small pockets of resistance around in Canada and in the US - even in Texas, in the city of Denton a small group of protesters did their best - see HERE.

Refresher on the Keystone XL pipeline (see HERE)

What is the Pipeline exactly?

The Keystone Pipeline already exists. What doesn’t exist fully yet is its proposed expansion, the Keystone XL Pipeline. The existing Keystone runs from oil sand fields in Alberta, Canada into the U.S., ending in Cushing, Oklahoma.

The 1,700 new miles of pipeline would offer two sections of expansion. First, a southern leg would connect Cushing, Oklahoma, where there is a current bottleneck of oil, with the Gulf Coast of Texas, where oil refineries abound. That leg went into operation in January 2014. Second, the pipeline would include a new section from Alberta to Kansas. It would pass through Bakken Shale region of eastern Montana and western North Dakota. Here, it will pass through a region where oil extraction is currently booming and take on some of this crude for transport.

The southern leg of the Keystone XL ties into the existing Keystone pipeline that already runs to Canada, bringing up to 700,000 barrels of oil a day to refineries in Texas. At peak capacity, the pipeline will deliver 830,000 barrels of oil per day. While the pipeline is initially carried U.S. light crude, it is expected to carry more heavy Canadian oil harvested from tar sands over the next year.

In passionate opposition to this pipeline "The Way of the Warrior" points to one way it might possibly be stopped, or at least construction of it and of other proposed pipelines be slowed down.
The Way of the Warrior: How To Stop A Pipeline by Abby Zimet, staff writer at Common Dreams.

With a newly elected Congress gearing up to pass Keystone, the inspiring story of the Unist'ot'en Camp, an indigenous resistance community established in northwest Canada to protect sovereign Wet'suwet'en territory and blockade up to 10 additional proposed pipelines aimed at expanding Alberta Tar Sands operations. The Uni’stot’en Clan, which has families living in cabins and traditional structures in the direct pathway of the Northern Gateway and Pacific Trails fracking lines, argues that "since time immemorial" they have governed Wet’suwet’en lands, which thus remain unceded and not subject to Canadian law "or other impositions of colonial occupation" - an argument that has been sustained in court cases, and bolstered by the camp's recent peaceable ejection of a drilling crew........."

More strength to all protesters, everywhere!

Dang! If I don't laugh, or at least drag out a wan smile, I'll cry. So...

“Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the Western spiral arm of the galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun. Orbiting this, at a distance of roughly ninety million miles is an utterly insignificant little blue-green planet, whose ape descended life forms are so amazingly primitive that they still think digital watches are a pretty neat idea. This planet has, or had, a problem, which was this. Most of the people living on it were unhappy for pretty much of the time. Many solutions were suggested for this problem, but most of these were largely concerned with the movements of small, green pieces of paper, which is odd, because on the whole, it wasn't the small, green pieces of paper which were unhappy. And so the problem remained, and lots of the people were mean, and most of them were miserable, even the ones with digital watches. Many were increasingly of the opinion that they'd all made a big mistake coming down from the trees in the first place, and some said that even the trees had been a bad move, and that no-one should ever have left the oceans. And then one day, nearly two thousand years after one man had been nailed to a tree for saying how great it would be to be nice to people for a change, a girl, sitting on her own in a small cafe in Rickmansworth suddenly realised what it was that had been going wrong all this time and she finally knew how the world could be made a good and happy place. This time it was right, it would work, and no-one would have to get nalied to anything. Sadly, however, before she could get to a phone to tell anyone, the Earth was unexpectedly demolished to make way for a new hyperspace bypass and so the idea was lost forever.”

― Douglas Adams, from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

IF ONLY!

For the book, see HERE.

From D.J. Rivenburgh's review of the book:

Jonathon Porritt's fascinating book takes us on a journey looking back from the year 2050 to paint vivid images of what we got right, what we missed and how different life can (and will) be in the future. "The World We Made" is written as if from the perspective of 50 year old Alex McKay, a community college history teacher describing the changes he's seen in the world over the previous 30 plus years. (McKay would be in middle school today.) Far from science fiction, this book tells of innovations, experiences, successes and failures built on systems, discoveries and power structures in existence today. Images throughout the book help us visualize possibilities. The interconnectedness of global economic, environmental, social, religious and political forces cannot be denied.

One of my favorite parts was reading about the 2018 Enough! movement, where young people throughout the world rise up to rebel against high unemployment, climate-induced disasters, war, poverty and the growing wealth gap to demand change and create "A Manifesto for Tomorrow." There isn't a country or industry left untouched by the future. This book should be read by executives, teachers, students, advocates, community leaders and politicians.

While some might be quick to label this book in a "green" category, I see it as being highly useful for business, governments, education and leaders in all sectors. Porritt's examples, made personal through a college professor's story, explore banking, agriculture, water, energy, wellbeing, health, education, democracy, capitalism, religion, population growth, innovation, communities and more.

(About Jonathon Porritt)
Also HERE.

LOOK IN

Something interesting to peruse -





A collection of wonderful satirical illustrations by Pawel Kuczynski - there are even more from the same artist around the net. Three samples:

ALSO this video: an invention with great possibilities, if not now, then later.


And...Spurious Correlations offers several chuckle-worthy correlations. I don't know how factual these are, but they're fun. Think how many of these we might be able to construct using astrological stuff....if we had some useful data that is.


Finally...I noticed this vintage photograph among husband's collection at Flickr and for some reason, with tongue in cheek, the planets sprang to mind. "Why?" I hear a passing reader ask.

Look - The sun has got his hat on (front right), Moon in the dark above looks outward ready to move quickly. At centre back - cannot miss Saturn standing adamantly straight, unmoved and sure. To Saturn's left there's Jupiter always ready for a journey, scanning the route.
Next to the Sun are sweet pretty Venus, and open-mouthed Mercury. To Mercury's right - has to be Mars looking determined and a bit grim. The two young outliers to left and right have to be Uranus on the left and Neptune almost too far out to see on the right. (Click on image for a bigger version.) See?

BITS & BOBS

Among the many thousands of comments I read this week relating to lost Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777, Flight MH370, I came across one observing that events and explanations thereof were starting to remind him (and any readers "of a certain age") of the old phrase
"Send Three and Fourpence. We’re Going to a Dance."
Being of a "certain age", I searched memory for this phrase without success, then used the Google.

Quote Investigator helped. Several explanations, based on the Chinese Whispers phenomenon (aka "Telephone" in the USA) date from both World Wars and beyond.

Example of an initial military order and how it became mangled:

Send reinforcements. We are going to advance.
Became, the story goes:
Send three and fourpence. We are going to a dance.

During the week I rented a 4-disc DVD set of an old, and doomed, TV series, Caprica. It was cancelled very early on due to bad ratings, and was meant as a prequel to the better-known Battlestar Galactica series of which we were vaguely familiar. Caprica tells how humanity first created robotic Cylons who would later, in the Battlestar Galactica series, plot to destroy humans in retaliation for their enslavement.

Caprica was the name of a planet home of humans, one of a colony of 12 planets in the outer solar system. Half way through the pilot episode I suddenly realised, having heard mention of Tauron, another planet of the 12 colonies, that there must be some relationship to the zodiac: Capricorn, Taurus. I was further amused to hear a character from Tauron stating, "We Taurons are nothing if not stubborn!" Writers consult astrology text books then!

Having looked into this further at Wikipedia, I found that, indeed:

The names of the tribes and the planets they lived on were borrowed from the Zodiac:
Caprica - capital, pseudo-United States

Tauron - one of the wealthy colonies, and a troublesome member of the federal government. Caprica's great rival, Tauron is described as a repressive pseudo-Soviet Union to Caprica's United States.

Sagittaron - exploited, oppressed colony that is discriminated against

Gemenon - religiously fundamentalist

Aerilon - poor agrarian breadbasket world

The Caprica prequel series set the goal of trying to round out and further develop the culture of all Twelve Colonies.

In Battlestar Galactica: The Plan establishes that Leonis has plains, Scorpia has jungles, Virgon is forested, Libran is dedicated to the Colonial judiciary, Tauron has pastures, both Picon and Aquaria are largely covered in water, and Canceron is known for its beaches. No mention is given of Sagittaron, with the television version mentioning temples on Gemenon, reinforcing the strong religious fabric on the planet..

Husband found this vintage snapshot among some he had purchased recently. His research turned up information about a government and society in the USA that, he observed - and I agree - seems, well ... is impossible today, more's the pity!



From Wikipedia

Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a public work relief program that operated from 1933 to 1942 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men from relief families, ages 18–25 as part of Roosevelt's New Deal. Robert Fechner was the head of the agency. It was a major part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal that provided unskilled manual labor jobs related to the conservation and development of natural resources in rural lands owned by federal, state and local governments. The CCC was designed to provide jobs for young men, to relieve families who had difficulty finding jobs during the Great Depression in the United States while at the same time implementing a general natural resource conservation program in every state and territory. Maximum enrollment at any one time was 300,000; in nine years 3 million young men participated in the CCC, which provided them with shelter, clothing, and food, together with a small wage of $30 a month ($25 of which had to be sent home to their families).

The American public made the CCC the most popular of all the New Deal programs. Principal benefits of an individual's enrollment in the CCC included improved physical condition, heightened morale, and increased employability. Implicitly, the CCC also led to a greater public awareness and appreciation of the outdoors and the nation's natural resources; and the continued need for a carefully planned, comprehensive national program for the protection and development of natural resources.

During the time of the CCC, volunteers planted nearly 3 billion trees to help reforest America, constructed more than 800 parks nationwide and upgraded most state parks, updated forest fire fighting methods, and built a network of service buildings and public roadways in remote areas.

The CCC operated separate programs for veterans and Native Americans and African Americans. Though camps were separate, the accommodations and pay were equal.

Responding to favorable public opinion to alleviate unemployment, Congress approved the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1935, on 8 April 1935, which included continued funding for the CCC program through 31 March 1937. The age limit was also expanded to 18-28 to include more men. From 1 April 1935 to 31 March 1936 was the period of greatest activity and work accomplished by the CCC program. Enrollment had peaked at 505,782 in about 2,900 camps by 31 August 1935, followed by a reduction to 350,000 enrollees in 2,019 camps by 30 June 1936. During this period the public response to the CCC program was overwhelmingly popular. A Gallup poll of 18 April 1936 asked "Are you in favor of the CCC camps?"; 82% of respondents said yes, including 92% of Democrats and 67% of Republicans.

Despite its popular support, the CCC was never a permanent agency. It depended on emergency and temporary Congressional legislation for its existence. By 1942, with World War II and the draft in operation, need for work relief declined and Congress voted to close the program.

The following snip indicates exactly where Camp NP7C, signed in the photograph, was located: Excerpt from “The Archeology of the Civilian Conservation Corps in Rocky Mountain National Park” by William B. Butler, Park Archeologist.:

Five camps were built in the park, along with one outside the park that also did some work in the park. The camps on the east side of the park were NP-1-C in Little Horseshoe Park, and camps NP-4-C and NP-11-C that were located beside each other along Mill Creek in Hollowell Park. Camps across the Continental Divide to the west were NP-3-C and NP-7-C in the same area on Beaver Creek in the Kawuneeche Valley. Camp NP-12-C was also constructed on the west side, but south of the park and the Town of Grand Lake.

Earth: "This Godawful mess"

To give this post an astrological flavour I'll invite passing visitors, before reading on, to crank up their inner Virgo (responsible, careful, health conscious), and their inner Saturn (self-discipline, thrift).......then continue:

And Man created the plastic bag and the tin and aluminum can and the cellophane wrapper and the paper plate, and this was good because Man could then take his automobile and buy all his food in one place and He could save that which was good to eat in the refrigerator and throw away that which had no further use. And soon the earth was covered with plastic bags and aluminum cans and paper plates and disposable bottles and there was nowhere to sit down or walk, and Man shook his head and cried: "Look at this Godawful mess." ~ Art Buchwald, humorist

By the time I left its fair shores in 2004, recycling had become way of life in England. Local authorities provided separate garbage bins for our newspapers. Centres for collection of other items, such as glass and aluminium cans, were plentiful in most neighbourhoods. Here in Oklahoma it's a different story. Few facilities to encourage recycling exist, and whenever some do emerge they are short-lived.

For a few years we ferried our collection of newspapers and aluminium cans the 35 miles to a recycling collection centre in a neighbouring city. Then the military base in that city, whose staff collected recycling materials from several centres, was prevented, by Department of Defense financial constraints, from continuing the collections. Later a few, smaller, re-cycling bins were replaced in school locations.

Then, about a year ago, Power Shop, an organisation which helps to provide jobs for people with disabilities set up a re-cycling centre in our town. We were able to deposit paper, cans, cardboard, and plastic bottles there regularly. The centre seemed to be doing good business, but last week, when we visited to deposit some newspapers, we were told that the centre is closing, is now closed in fact, for re-cycling, but will continue to accept donations of aluminium cans. Reason: it hasn't made a profit. “We had a grand idea that we believed would provide jobs for people with disabilities, help the community, save the earth and make money,” the executive director said in a statement. “Unfortunately, it did everything except make money.”

Ye gods!!! Surely the state or city or federal government could subsidise something as important as this, so that profit need not be paramount? I should send a letter or a copy of this post, perhaps, to the state's governor, Mary Fallin - but it's a lost cause. A standard letter would be the response, as it was when I wrote to our Senator Tom Coburn about health care reform. They. Don't. Care. In this as in many spheres Oklahoma lags behind the rest of the US. I should not tar the whole of the US with the same brush. The following is from Encyclopedia of Earth's Recycling section

.....In particular, the culture of consumption of post-World War II America re-enforced carelessness, waste, and a drive for newness. Environmental concerns contributed to a new "ethic" within American culture that began to value restraint, re-use, and living within limits. This ethic of restraint, fed by over-used landfills and excessive litter, gave communities a new mandate in maintaining the waste of their population. Re-using products or creating useful byproducts from waste offered application of this new ethic while also offering new opportunity for economic profit and development.

Non-profit recycling centers began opening around the country, followed by municipal recycling programs. Today, most U.S. communities have such programs. A typical program asks people to separate their recyclables from their trash before placing them at the curb for collection. To encourage recycling, some communities also charge residents for the quantity of trash put out for collection. The most commonly recycled household items are paper and cardboard; metal, glass, and plastic containers and packaging; and yard waste. Recycling the recovered materials is simple for metals and glass; they can be melted down, reformed, and reused. Yard waste can be composted with little or no equipment. Paper, the most important recycled material, must be mixed with water, and sometimes de-inked, to form a pulp that can be used in papermaking. Plastics recycling requires an expensive process of separation of different resins.

In the US, plastics are all numerically coded according to type, including: polyethylene terphthalate (PETE or PET; 1) an example of these plastics are virtually all soft drink bottles, high density polyethylene (HDPE; 2) an example would be detergent bottles, polyvinyl chloride (PVC; 3), sometimes used for water or oil bottles but now rare in food beverage packaging, due to concerns about its environmental hazards; low density polyethylene (LDPE; 4) often used for plastic bags, polypropylene (PP; 5) examples are some yogurt containers and bottle caps, and polystyrene (PS; 6) used to make Styrofoam containers. Number 7 seen on some packaging, refers to all plastics other than these six. It is not a single plastic material.

Lessons are being learned - somewhere - if not in Oklahoma. Because of the horrendous growth of the "plastic garbage island" in the North Pacific, grown 100-fold in the past 40 years, several Californian city authorities have placed a ban on the use of plastic bags in grocery stores. That's a start! The use of styrofoam/plastic cups, cutlery and plates in motels and fast-food places ought to be next on the list.


Photograph from ambiental.

The huge patch (some say the size of Texas, but calculation is difficult because much of the broken down material remains below the surface) of 80% plastic garbage has been created by waste swept into the North Pacific Subtropical Convergence Zone by circulating ocean currents known as a gyre. Eventually the plastics are broken down by wind and waves and become small particles which will, someday, enter the food chain.

"Your descendants shall gather your fruits." ~ Virgil
(Note: I'd add to Virgil's ancient wisdom, and no doubt it was implied anyway: "whether the fruits be nourishing or poisoned is up to you.")

10 - 10 - 10

I feel as though I ought to be writing something about 10 on this day of three tens.

As a start: what's the significance of the number 10 in astrology? Let's see.

Each zodiac sign of 30 degrees is split into "decans" - 10ths : 3 sets of 10 degrees. Erm.....Capricorn, Cardinal Earth is the 10th sign of the zodiac, ruled by Saturn . 10th house represents one's career, work and public persona. On 10th house cusp is the midheaven angle - a potent spot in any astrological chart.

That's all I can come up with for astrological 10.

In Tarot, card 10 of the Major Arcana is The Wheel of Fortune. In traditional tarot decks the wheel has the four mystical creatures of the bible (Ezekiel 1:10, Revelation 4:7) in the four corners, corresponding to the four Fixed signs of the Zodiac: A bull = Taurus, a lion = Leo, an Eagle = Scorpio, and a winged man = Aquarius. The card is interpreted along these lines: unexpected developments, change of course, new way of life; conflicts of interest , circumstances beyond one's control; some chaos then the start of something better ; the hand of fate; advice to maintain a flexible attitude.

Number 10 follows number 9 which in the Tarot is the Hermit. The Hermit is the self-realized wise one. 10 + 9 = 19; 1 + 9 = 10; 1 + 0 = 1.... and round and around we go.....the wheel turns.

Ten is the culmination of previous steps into a 2 digit numeral
but 1 + 0 = 1 thus the end becomes the beginning.

The 1 and the O = binary code, the male and female that is within every structure and every code of creation.
Biologically the 1 represents the male penis and the O is the woman's vagina, which combine to create life.

Everything written thus far may seem like so much gobbledegook to some passing readers, but there ARE far more down to earth events taking place on 10-10-10.
What follows might just herald in The Wheel of Fortune's promise of better things after chaos, or echo astrology's Capricorn and 10th house symbolism of Earth, work - getting things DONE!

When our leaders won't lead, it's time to take climate matters back into our own hands. At the Global Work Party this weekend, October 10, we are organizing our communities from the ground up.
350.org - are inviting people in every country on earth to take tangible local actions to make their communities better places to live, and emit less carbon at the same time. Through local climate action projects, we'll make our leaders wake up and lead on the climate crisis. It's a plan that may well break the logjam and get us moving.

http://tcktcktck.org/events/major-moments/global-work-party


Some things we can all do to help the cause today....and every day following:
Easiest of all, but oft forgotten - switch off unnecessary lights and appliances.
Adjust thermostats to more economical settings. Be aware of wasteful use of water - lawn sprinklers are not a necessity of life on Earth. Recycle, recycle, recycle.



Some events organised for today in countries throughout the world (copied from http://blog.iesve.com/)

Sumo wrestlers cycling to practice in downtown Tokyo.

An education center in the Namib Desert in Namibia installing six solar panels.

Divers on the smallest island nation of the world, Nauru (8.1 square miles) will plunge into their coral reefs for an underwater clean-up.

President Mohamed Nasheed of the Maldives is installing solar panels on his roof.

Partiers in Edinburgh will be throwing a “Joycott” (a reverse boycott) at a local bar that agreed to put 20% of its extra revenues on 10/10/10 to making the bar more energy efficient. Attendees will try and drink as much as possible to raise money. Cheers!

In San Pedro Garza Garcia, Mexico, students will hand out solar-powered lights to families, who are still recovering from the devastation of Hurricane Alex this June, 2010.

Over 100 cyclists from Jordan, Israel and Palestine taking part in a 3-day bicycle relay to carry water from the Yarmouk River and the Sea of Galilee to the Dead Sea to symbolize the need for cooperation to stop climate change and save precious water resources.

On 10/10/10 the Mayor of Mexico City will sign a commitment to reduce the city’s emissions 10% in a single year. The city government will be directly responsible for 5% of the reductions and lead a public campaign to get citizens to cut the remaining 5%.

Young people in Barbados will be demonstrating the viability of fuel cell technology in a hovercraft they have built themselves.

Sunday Supplement ~ Rome~Copenhagen~Sweden ~Oklahoma.

In Rome on this day, December 13, a Festival in honor of ancient Earth goddess Tellus was held. It seems appropriate that the climate conference in Copenhagen is going on at this time - a modern attempt to honor our Mother Earth as she ought to be honored.

In Sweden and Norway, the Sun Goddess Lucina and/or Catholic Saint Lucy is still celebrated and honored on this day each year with a traditional festival of light: St. Lucia's Day (also known as Little Yule). At daybreak, the first-born daughter of the house wears a candle crown in obvious reference to the Pagan symbols of fire and life giving light, and serves her family cakes. There are processions and treats. Young girls often wear white dresses and many of the men dress as elves, who are known as Lucina's helpers.

The Feast of St Lucy: Luciadagen

And I will stay awake throughout the longest winter night
And dress up in a red silk sash and flowing gown of white
And serve my parents with warm sweets and sing for their delight.
And I will wear upon my head a crown of fragrant green
Ablaze with tall white candles, with golden candle-gleam,
And I will be a Lussibrud as in some wondrous dream.
And as the night begins to fade I'll greet December sun
And knock on all the neighbors' doors and sing t o everyone
And offer all the friends I greet a golden saffron bun.
Lucia maidens will come too, with silver in their hair
And star boys with their studded wands and pointed caps to wear,
And elfin boys will follow us as we walk everywhere.
And I will stay awake throughout the longest winter night
And dress up in my silken sash, my crown, my robe of white
And I will be, for one brief day, Lucia of the Light.

Myra Cohn Livingston, The Feast of St. Lucy: Luciadagen
(Here)

And in Oklahoma, yesterday evening on a cold misty Saturday night we went out to the local theater to see "2Tone", a duo on harp and guitar playing jazzy versions of well-known tunes, and a few self-penned. It was an unusual mix - harp and guitar. We were very pleasantly surprised at how well they blended, and how very listenable and memorable the performance was. Their version of Sting's "Fragile" was absolutely beautiful. Their music pleased both me (not particularly hip, up for anything melodic and emotional) and himself (jazz and music elitist).



On the way home, in tune with the festival of lights held elsewhere in the world, my husband took a couple of shots of pretty festive lights on some houses in our neighbourhood. Lights this year are more restrained than in previous years, as I recall. If this is due to environmental considerations, I'm glad. If it's due to dire economical straits, I'm not so glad for the respective householders. We've not been inclined to put lights in our front yard. Our first attempt to join in the fun resulted in the destruction of an expensive lit Christmas tree by gale-force winds. We now satisfy tradition with a seasonal wreath on the front porch, and leaving the porch light on.