will brady's "short notes" : links library

hearing voices

2009-09-04T09:30:00.034-04:00

   Hearing voices is not an unusual phenomenon. As many 1 of every 25 people hear voices on a regular basis, therefore it is a rather common "symptom" among people. But such is not the case for all who hear voices.
   Sometimes hearing voices can be disturbing; a reaction to troublesome life events: stress; emotional, physical or sexual abuse; traumatic events; electrical or chemical dysequilibria in the brain ...or even sometimes without any discernible cause.
   William James, in The Varieties of Religious Experience supposed that exposure to disturbing visions [which included hearing voices] was somehow an unexpected leap into realms that only mystics are adequately trained to experience; for others it would be a ride of complete psychic terror.
   On such occasions, it would seem understandable that the hearer might seek help in explaining their presence, or try to mask the intensity of the experience with things such as alcohol or drugs.
   In aboriginal cultures, voice hearers are often seen as visionaries; learning how to manage the voice-hearing experience delegated to working with a shaman or healer. And there are others who believe that hearing voices is clearly a spiritual matter.
   In contrast, for the most part, in urban, materialist "westernized" cultures the tendency is to turn to psychiatry and mental health to address the phenomena; a process that oft-times does dis-service to the hearer.
   The conventional mental health response is to, 1- suppress the intensity of the experience using psychotropic drugs; 2- invalidate the experience by calling it a set of "delusions" and 3- consign the voice hearer to institutional placement. Yet the drugs don't stop the experience, which continues to be quite real to the hearer [albeit blunted], and institutional placement often lacks any real ways to provide comfort and solace. Clearly a different approach is required.

   In the coming days, I shall be posting here a compendium of links that relate to this phenomena. Stay tuned.

IMAGE SOURCES: [upper right] Will Brady's photo collection; [lower left] Out-take from Terry Gilliam's dark visionary film Brazil

mushrooms

2009-05-05T03:40:00.027-04:00

   To the left is a chart that shows some edible mushrooms. There are many varieties. You might want to get to know them.

   Seasoned forager Steve Brill suggests some important pointers on gathering edible mushrooms at "...before you do anything..."
   Some mushroom species are very easy to identify (the chicken mushroom or sulfur shelf, the giant puffball, morels, and the chanterelle are considered so obvious that people call them the foolproof four).
   Others are quite difficult. Some species have poisonous look-alikes, others are quite distinct and have no poisonous relatives.
   Above all, learn a small number of the most unmistakable species at first, and check with an expert before you eat any wild mushrooms.

[general interest]
• Brill's Wild Mushrooms
• David Spahr Mushrooms of New England + Eastern Canada
• The Mushroom Journal

[identifying mushrooms]
• Gourmet Mushrooms + Mushroom Products
• Missouri Dep't of Conservation's Edible Mushroom List

[medicinals]
• Benefits from Medicinal Mushrooms
• Readings on Medicinal Mushrooms
• Healing Mushrooms
• Tom Volk's Fungi-Net

• Chris Hobbs's Medicinal Aspects of Mushrooms

[mycologists]
• Mushroom Clubs of North America
• Illinois Mycological Association
• Mid-Hudson Mycological Society
• Mycological Society of America
• Mycological Society of San Francisco

[psychedelics]
• Shroomery
• The Vaults of Erowid

[photography]
• Photovault's Mushrooms
• David Work's Mushroom Gallery
• Don Wiss's Edible + Inedible Mushroom Gallery

[recipes]
• About.com History of mushrooms as food
• Erowid's Mushroom recipes
• Wild About Mushrooms
• Robert Rich's Wild Mushroom Cookbook

IMAGE SOURCES: [upper left] Vintage ilustration of edible mushrooms from Charting Nature; [lower right] A Morel from the Mid-Hudson Mycological Association

genocide histories

2009-05-02T16:28:00.006-04:00

remembering the Holocaust(s). In September 2002, a swiftly retired German Foreign Minister made a comparison between the tactics of Adolph Hitler and George W. Bush. I won't speak to that event [it rather speaks for itself] but it led me to do some research on the Nazi era and the mass extermination of many peoples that occurred.
Readers will note, however, that the list below isn't just about that era but also has links to other holocausts, atrocities and acts of genocide¹ that have occurred in history. Humanity cannot afford to forget any of them.

• remember.org. An extensive and frequently updated site detailing people's recollections of the Nazi extermination camps

• Holocaust History Project. The Holocaust History Project is a free archive of documents, photographs, recordings, and essays regarding the Holocaust, including direct refutation of Holocaust-denial.

• The Holocaust Chronicles. "...hatred carried to the nth degree. A human story with victims and perps, heroes and villains and far too many people around the globe who remained indifferent ...even as it was being committed..."

• Web Genocide Documentation Centre.20th century atrocities compiled and documented by University of London professor Stuart Stein

• statistics on 20th century atrocities. What nations, which world leaders, do democracies make war on one another?

• holocaust and genocide studies. "...It is imperative that a greater understanding of the ...roots of human cruelty, mass violence, and genocide be developed. We need to ...examine the factors which enable individuals collectively and individually to perpetrate evil/genocide and the impact of apathetic bystanders as fuel for human violence...".

• The Genocide Research Project. The stated purpose of the site is to provide: "...a useful set of links without duplicating others' work. The sites are chosen not only for the quality of their content and their perceived utility for genocide researchers and educators, but also for the quality and quantity of other links they provide..." There's a focus on solutions, too!

• Wounded Knee Massacre ². Americans genocide statistics may be under-represented on other links, but that's because they only looked at 20th century stats. Here's a site on one infamous massacre in the 19th century American frontier.

• From Wounded Knee to Afghanistan The big friendly teddy bear ain't always what it seems to be. Just in case you thought that Wounded Knee was an isolated incident, even disregarding World Wars I and II, Z-net provides a list of American incursions.

• The Bisbee Deportation of 1917. Phelps-Dodge executives and other copper company magnates sent 1197 miners into the desert rather than negotiate a fair wage³. Though the resulting court cases against the perps (Phelps- Dodge, etcetera) went all the way to the USA Supreme Court, no one was held accountable for the acts.

• Atrocities in the name of Revolution. Evidently an anti-Castro website, but, still, the number of events beg the question.

• The Corporate Crime of the Century. Mother Jones magazine reports on how chemical companies dump dangerous drugs, pesticides and toxic chemical products on to unsuspecting third world nations resulting in deaths, eco-degradation and personal sorrows. While the numbers may not be as easy to tally as other forms of murder, the numbers are there, nevertheless.

• guerrilla news network. Bringing reports on corporate crime, human rights violations, the "drug and anti-terrorism" wars. All actions requiring our attention and review in combating future acts of genocide

• Tiergartenstrasse 4. Bringing this page full circle, this link provides the text from the plaque in front of the Berlin house where the Nazi's euthanasia program began. And the first to be exterminated were the first people deemed "unworthy of living," namely, people who were disabled, mentally retarded and mentally ill⁵

It may seem a surprise to see connections between mass atrocities made by tyrants and corrupt leaders and the actions of corporate executives. But, truth is, those corporations are nations unto themselves, beholden to themselves; not the United Nations, the World Courts, nor to the citizenry of landed nation-states. As long as we fail to make that connection, corporate executives [21st Century feudal rulers in my book] shall continue to act with impunity, behaving as they are accountable to no one, not even to themselves.
subject footnotes:
1- UN Secretary General's Report establishing a Commission of Experts to examine and analyse information on the evidence of breaches of the Geneva Conventions and other violations of international humanitarian law in Yugoslavia
2- This is one page from First Nations remarkably extensive links website on Native Peoples and "Issues of Consequence." Well worth the visit.
3- Facts about Bisbee is not an easy site to negotiate | Even 90 years later, Phelps-Dodge and others apparently still weild enough power to make it difficult to get the facts about their involvement in deporting free citizens who disagreed with the company about their avarice and were forcibly removed from their families and livelihoods as a result.
4- recounts from survivors: Witnesses from the Holocaust; Bisbee; Freedom from Fear Tour; The Disability Social History Project
5- The Museum of Madding Beauty | Ironically, at the same time Hitler's regime was exterminating crazy people, a famous German psychiatrist, Prinzhorn, was collecting the creative art work of his patients, for he saw within them a redemption of the insane.

conspiracies

2009-04-29T01:09:00.007-04:00

It doesn't really matter whether or not I believe in conspiracies; suffice it to say many people do accept conspiracy theories as unrefuted fact. No matter the POV - be it left, right, papist, anti-catholic, corporate and state elites, populist rants - conspiracy theories abound. Here are but a handful of conspiracy sites that I find interesting.

• Above Top Secret. Quote: "the Internet's largest and most popular discussion board community dedicated to the intelligent exchange of ideas and debate on a wide range of "alternative topics" such as conspiracies, UFO's, paranormal, secret societies, political scandals, new world order, terrorism, and dozens of related topics..."

• Axis of Corporate Evil. A classic Dubya and Big Dick Cheney are taking us all to Hell! Unfortunately, it doesn't appear to have been updated since, maybe, 2003.

• Ayn Rand Institute. What else but a site devoted to the popularizer of John Galt; acolyte of "Objectivism" glorification of the individual and unfettered Capitalism and the so-called "free market"

• Bilderberg; "the High Priests of Globalization." Here's one that makes a connection between the Bush family and Adolph Hitler via the secret Yale University "Skull and Bones" Society.

• Great Dreams! From "...who killed JFK?" to "Why didn't anybody report that the collapse of the World Trade Towers on 9/11 was a controlled demolition"? A whole panalopy of late 20th Century conspiracy tales, and the evidence behind them.

• The Illuminati. Recently popularized in films like The Da Vinci Files, this is Jesuits and International Bankers intent on destroying the world.

• Psychic reader Ellie Crystal's Conspiracies and Mystery School Teachings. From Area 51 and Roswell to Secret Societies; but the focus seems to be more on UFO suppression ideas.

• Reverse Panopticon. There is no privacy anymore. From the creators of Cryptome and Cartome, long dogged investigators into the murky alphabet soup of agencies like the OSS, CIA, KGB, NSA, Homeland Security. Wandering about the factual reporting fount on these other two sites, it becomes difficult to debunk conspiracy theories at all.

• Trufax. I suspect that the originators of this site - the "Leading Edge International Research Group" do not see their perspective as based on conspiracies, as much as it is a description of actual current events. Nevertheless, there ii still a paranoic buzz here. The site's Introduction spells out what you'll find.

• The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion. Published "anonymously" some time in the late 19th Century, The Protocols was an Anti-Semetic screed first edited and publicized in Russia in 1903 by Pavel Krushevan, the instigator of an infamous pogrom. It was published to blame the Jews for Russia's embarrassing defeat in the Russo-Japanese War. Later it was used in opposition to the Russian Revolution of 1905, the October Revolution (1917), and the peace negotiations at the end of World War I. Protocols was eventually published in English in the United States, but the bad guys became Bolsheviks. Reading just some of the chapters, like the one on preparing for power or another on controlling the Press, conjure up images of Rupert Murdoch and Cheney [again]. Gotta wonder.

IMAGE SOURCES: Top Right: Socyberty entry on "The Red Menace". It was actually once a Scott Towels advertisement; Lower Left: Gustavé Dore, an illustration from Dante's Inferno found at WikiMedia Commons

aboriginal peoples + cultures

2009-04-12T23:19:00.021-04:00

The interest in aboriginal peoples and cultures stems, for me, from the belief that "First Peoples" who remain possess a world of knowledge - from herbal medicines and healthy foods, to the rhythms and cycles of nature, and an understanding of the Spirit Realm. The conqueror cultures have worked hard to eradicate, albeit intentional [vis - the European conquest of the Americas] or by accident [e.g. exposing people to diseases from which the conquerors had become immune].
There is still much that can be learned, and a surprising amount remaining that can be preserved so to provide humanity some much needed guidance for our future. The links here include sites by and about indigenous peoples, as well as sites that tell where to learn about the lore and skills that urban cultures so quickly dismiss as "primitive" when, in fact, they are not.

[learning centres]
• Alba Wilderness School | CA
• Center for Indigenous Nations Studies
• Tom Brown's Tracker School | US
• Wilderness Awareness School

[technology]
• Primitive Ways
• Primitive Way's Reading List
• Society of Primitive Technology

[other links]
• Bill's Aboriginal Links | CA

IMAGE SOURCES: [l] Steer Head and Feathers dream catcher from True Tribal; [r] Margaret Preston, an Australian artist. Published in The Age.com.au, 15 nov 2005

websites I check in on

2009-04-10T16:25:00.010-04:00

Thought provoking reads, useful links to information & images
     This is what you'll get here. I post links and my thoughts about websites + blogs I find interesting. Entries are added according to my own curious and eccentric classification system.
     You may suggest new links using the "Comments" feature, or e-mail me. I'll review and place in a category that makes sense to me. Constructive suggestions on how I can better classify links will be appreciated, though may or may not be acted upon, depending.
     I also include some very basic technical stuff on managing web page design, such as HTML coding, color classification charts or discussions about fonts and layout.
     The intent is to be more focused than what you might have come to expect from my Blogspot Short Notes and Rondacker LiveJournal sites.
     Hope you'll find these entries useful.

Please note: ANY efforts at inundating this links site with spammer sites, junk mail or commercials for your favorite product or cause shall be deleted and the offending party shall be barred from posting in the future. As that goes, commenters shall be expected to identify themselves when posting their thoughts, observations or opinion. No anonymous postings permitted.

collage art + artists

2009-04-10T10:47:00.033-04:00

Writer Donald Barthelme (1831 - 1989) once said that "...the principle of collage is the central principle of all art in the twentieth century." In fact, interest in collage as a means of expression continues strong into the 21st century as well. Forthwith, here are some links to discussion of this art form as well as collagists who have become renowned.

[about collage]
• Wikipedia on Collage

[collage websites]
• collage art.com
• National Collage Society

[collage/photo-montage]
• agraphie
• Gèrard Bertrand - an homage to Kafka, Proust and Hitchcock
• Michel Bezman
• Kirsten Gran
• Mike Koppa
• Jonathan Talbot
• Mitzi Trachtenberg

[postcard collage]
• Ray Johnson
• Post Secret - anonymous collage project

[assemblage]
• David Brady

[boxes]
• Artchive on Joseph Cornell

[omnimedial]
• Apostolos

[constructions/sculptural]
• John Chamberlain at Marfa
• Louise Nevelson
• Robert Rauschenberg and his Combines

[collage collectives]
• Collage Artists of America mostly west coast
• Global Collage

•

type faces, typography + design

2009-04-07T08:29:00.009-04:00

[typography tools]
• DaFont's Free Downloadable Typefaces
• Linotype's Font Explorer X
• Typo Generator

[layout + design]
• ITC's U&lc magazine
• Mr. Toad's Layout tips. you need to already know something about typesetting, this helps when talking to printers

My friend Pat asked for some links to typesetting and design. Finding sites that offer free downloadable fonts, that's easy; discovering something that helps to properly design a project - a newsletter, for example - harder to come by. I'll keep looking

reference links

2009-04-05T00:05:00.019-04:00

dictionaries, grammar sites, and other online language resources

[English Language]
• Acronym Finder
• Blogossary
• One Look's Dictionary Search
• Etymological Dictionary
• JURIST: Legal Dictionary
• Rhymer: The Rhyming Dictionary
• Slang City Dictionary
• Word Spy "The word lover's guide to new words"

• Thesaurus
[Literature]
• Emily Dickenson's Lexicon
• Indeterminacy
• Poem Hunter
[Other Languages]
• Jennifer's Language Page

encyclopedias, fact checkers, atlases,cartography

[encyclopedae, etc]
• About
• CIA World Factbook
• RefDesk
• Project Gutenberg
• Project Gutenberg - 2004
• Questia

• Wikipedia
[statistics]
• Nation Master
[atlases, maps]
• U S Census Bureau Maps
• USGS Land and Map

important documents

[civil/human rights protections]
• Bill O'Rights

• Magna Carta
• Unversal Declaration of Human Rights

postal codes and snail mail info

[postal codes]
• Canadian Postal Codes
• International Postal Codes

• USA Zip Codes
• Universal Postal Union

meteorology

[weather]
• Foote's Forecasts
• NOAA National Weather Service | USA

• Weather Channel
• The Weather Underground

measurement tools and conversion charts

[Weights and Measures]
• Measurement Conversion Charts

• RefDesk's weights and measures resources

language translation sites

[translators]
• Babelfish Translation Service

• IM Translator Translation Service

html coding tools

2009-04-04T22:14:00.008-04:00

[basic information]
• Page Tutor's HTML Basics
• Quackit.com's free HTML code
[codes for special characters]
• Alan Wood's Unicode + Multilingual Support in HTML
• Alan Wood's HTML special character codes
• WebDesign's ASCII special character codes
[html color codes]
• Hex Hub's Color Codes
• Page Tutor's 1536 Colors Chart
[CSS]
• CSS Zen Garden

archery / bowhunting

2009-03-06T01:23:00.024-05:00

Hunters contribute over $500 million a year from hunting licenses and excise taxes on hunting equipment. All of that money goes to state wildlife agencies to run their programs. In most states these two items pay for over 75% of the wildlife agencies budget. In some states it pays for everything. Most people, even those who hunt, don't know this.
My preferred hunt method is using bow. Here's some sites that show there's even more to learn than how wildlife management programs are funded.

• Archery Forums. Hosted by eders.com, and onine archery supplies market site, there are active discussion groups on a range of topics from maintaining your equipment, traditional archery skills, to fishing with the bow.

• Bow Country Forums: You may have to register before you can post, and you won't have access to the member list, but the Question + Answers forums are extensive and the classified ads are current. It is an actively used site and worth looking at.

• Principles of Archery. H. Kent Craig outlines six important principles to consider when becoming an archer:

1- You must actually be taught archery by a teacher.
2- All flights to the stars must begin atop a firm and well-constructed launching platform.
3- Quality of equipment does matter, up to a point.
4- Your point of aim is never the target itself, but the point of impact where the arrow would land if the target wasn't in the way.
5- Practice does matter, but only up to a point, and never makes perfect.
6- Make the target your enemy.

• Hunting in the Cold. A readable and handy article on being prepared, written by Steve Bartylla [and found in his new book, Advanced Stand Hunting Strategies]. Originally posted on Bowmasters e-magazine website. This had been a very good site, regrettably, the links provided there are no longer active.

• Getting the most from your tree stand. Another Steve Bartylla article, this one published on North American Whitetail e-zine.

• Bowsite: There is almost too much information to review; first person accounts; legislative updates; places to hunt, maintaining your equipment and more

• Bowhunting.net: Truly information overlaod, the site has been online since 1996. Sections and links include * Daily eNews | * Online Bowhunts | * Archery & Bowhunting | * Online Events | * Photos | * Web Casts | * Community | * Networks | and thankfully * Past Months archives. Looking for a product by the vendor? This is the place to find a link.

• Bowyers & Fletchers Guild [UK]. The Craft Guild of Traditional Bowyers and Fletchers was formed in 1989 by a group of craftsmen bow and arrow makers capable of making longbows of marketable quality and performance to the criteria of the British Long-Bow Society.

• Hunting Society's Archery Links. From the site: "We are anon-profit, public service organization devoted to promoting archery and bowhunting, the protection of wildlife, and the preservation of wildlife habitats for use by all people.
"We try to provide the largest and best collection of information about archery and bowhunting on the web, in as convenient a manner as possible. You won't see a lot of pretty pictures but it will load quickly and not waste your valuable time. We think that is a plus". I agree.

• Primitive Archer. Written for people who love the outdoors, hunting and archery and dedicated to “Passing On The Traditions Of Classical Archery” since 1992.

IMAGE SOURCES: Top Right: Pheasant Country.com photo gallery; Left: N C Weyth, Robin Hood

manifestos

2009-02-13T09:48:00.018-05:00

• A Call to Economic Justice. American Labor Party Principles: "...our struggle for democracy pits us against a corporate elite that will fight hard to retain its powers and privileges. This is the struggle of our generation."

• Class War - "Capitalism is an economic system run purely for profit in the interests of a small class - the capitalists - at the expense of a larger class - the working class." A treatise collectively authored by members of a British group calling themselves the Class War Federation, organization of groups and individuals who strive to improve the lot of working class people.

• Richard Gosden's Shrinking the Freedom of Thought: How Involuntary Psychiatric Treatment Violates Basic Human Rights. "Involuntary mental patients [are] often ...incarcerated for indefinite periods without being charged with a criminal offence, interrogated, coerced into changing their thoughts and beliefs, subjected to painful and uncomfortable treatments if they cannot or will not ...[change] and denied freedom until their identity has been sufficiently modified. It is in this context that questions arise about whether certain psychiatric practices might routinely violate fundamental human rights. "

• Abolition of Work. Written by philosopher and humorist Bob Black this essay maintains that when "work" equates with "employment" it stifles the creative impulse. He's not calling for an era of idleness, as much as asking people to unleash their full potential.

• Orcinus' Media Revolt: "The well-being of democracy ultimately depends on a well-informed electorate. As such, the role of the media in keeping the public properly informed is not merely vital, it is sacred."

• Net Neutrality: Keeping the Internet equally accessible for all.

• The Cluetrain Manifesto: Four authors, Christopher Locke, Rick Levine, Doc Searls, and David Weinberger, maintain that the Internet's potential for all to communicate with one another directly, shall radically change business and marketing and that large corporations, ultimately, will fall as a result.

• McKenzie Wark's A Hacker Manifesto "The arrest of the free flow of information means the enslavement of the world" ...and... "It is not just information that must be free, but the knowledge of how to use it."

• Earth Charter: Promoting a just, equitable, sustainable global society founded on respect for the community, ecological integrity, universal human rights, multicultural diversity, economic justice, democracy, and a culture of peace.

• James M. Branum The Social Phenomenon of Blogs: Exploring the meaning and significance of the blogging phenomenon.

reference links

2009-02-12T02:22:00.020-05:00

dictionaries, grammar sites, and other online language resources

[English Language]
• Acronym Finder
• Blogossary
• One Look's Dictionary Search
• Etymological Dictionary
• JURIST: Legal Dictionary
• Slang City Dictionary
• Word Spy "The word lover's guide to new words"

• Thesaurus
[Literature]
• Emily Dickenson's Lexicon
• Indeterminacy
• Poem Hunter
[Other Languages]
• Jennifer's Language Page

encyclopedias, fact checkers, atlases,cartography

[encyclopedae, etc]
• About
• CIA World Factbook
• RefDesk
• Project Gutenberg
• Project Gutenberg - 2004
• Questia
• Wikipedia

[statistics]
• Nation Master
[atlases, maps]
• Digital Topo Maps
• U S Census Bureau Maps
• USGS Land and Map

health, diet, nutrition links

[dietary guidelines]
• USDA Dietary Guidelines 2005
• My Calorie Counter's Diet + exercise journal [requires log-in to use site]

• Fit Watch: Calorie + RDA Charts 2005
[health information]
• Web MD's Common Health Topics

important documents

[civil/human rights protections]
• Bill O'Rights

• Magna Carta
• Universal Declaration of Human Rights

postal codes and snail mail info

[postal codes]
• Canadian Postal Codes
• International Postal Codes

• USA Zip Codes
• Universal Postal Union

meteorology

[weather]
• Foote's Forecasts
• NOAA National Weather Service | USA

• Weather Channel
• The Weather Underground

measurement tools and conversion charts

[Weights and Measures]
• Measurement Conversion Charts

• RefDesk's weights and measures resources

language translation sites

[translators]
• Babelfish Translation Service

• IM Translator Translation Service