Something that has kind of irked me in modern times is this need for humans to maintain the mythic great justice dealer. It is a thing we embrace that when a suspected felon is placed under it’s inspection, there is only the truth. In the old days it was the omnipotent being that would cast it’s wisdom either within a lifetime or supposedly after. People believe this even to this day. I myself as a human will admit to just desserts as a superstition. It is just this overbearing need for fairness that can be traced as far back as even our quadruped ancestors, still existing even to this day in primate species. we are naturally seeking fairness in everything and will exhibit both the action and expectation instinctively. which is a great thing when you think of it for an animal that depends on it’s social behavior for existence. however, there is this other extension we have ultimately shown and produced within our cultures. we want and desire a be all and end all when it comes to finding the truth about a judgement. As a result, lie detectors were seen as god like. that was until ideas like social chameleons and the fun experiments with galvanic stress meters demonstrated a potentially flawed result. it later became a  question of perception. so the entire hopes of a society would be based on the expertise of the reader of the graphs to ascertain the validity of the person being interviewed statements.it began to look like there was no hope for the proper and just assessment for people suffering from psychopathic or similar disorders. the hypnosis concept was also brushed off as being highly subjective and via the unconscious state of heightened suggestibility on the person placed under, there was no real way to deduce what was real or planted via body language into the persons mind. basically , if you stand back you can almost chart the understanding of science towards the complexity of the human mind and capability through the quest of the human race to produce a proper form of judgement.which remains separately interesting.

 in modern times though we have the miracle of dna. it was claimed to be absolute answer to cases and judgement calls . more reliable then a finger print and extremely accurate. which as a previous student of the biological sciences i don’t find all that surprising. as far as claims go. but reality, as i always tell my friends, is a whole lot different or at least says a different story.one of the things people have a hard time accepting is that each individual is really a mess load of individual cells. which in that simple statement comes across rather well. but the idea or the true meaning never seems to get across. i have a model i use in my mind when i think of this. it goes like this. i picture a primordial sea, which is pretty good for life. i then picture the individual single celled organisms all swimming and doing their business of living. one of the catches of leaving the ocean was to somehow bring the ocean with you. so, we have a cell that has a fairly tough outer membrane and is remarkably semi-permeable. some things go in, other things go out. this is the casing. inside we need something to maintain the salinity of the ocean. so we have the endocrine system. we need water that has oxygen, so we have slightly moist tissue that will separate the oxygen from the air. lungs, only work if moist. same thing for any animal, even worms have to keep their skin moist in order to breathe through the skin. this all really just equals the same thing as being in the water.so things like this exist in the body and the main point i need to make is. each one of the cell types we have can be found in some form in the wilds living on their own. if you go along this way of though you will hopefully see us as a type of coral reef. extremely advanced, but nonetheless an entirely contained coral reef. this is basically what animals and humans and pretty much anything that is multi-cellular really are. the most incredible form of what you would find in an ecology of the primordial sea.

 seems pretty heavy doesn’t it? but it gets more fun , when you consider that the animals or cells as it were that live as ourselves, are pretty much unchanged. if i were to compare the muscle cell of an alligator to a hippo and throw a platypus in for good measure, they are basically the same animals. the only difference, that would be of  heavy importance , is that the dna is different. That is it. this is why we can transplant animal organs and the subject can potentially live. the cells, are the same animal pretty much. really it all comes down to maintaining what that particular batch of cellular colony considers a good environmental. the acidity and the salinity and the water content and so on, remains different. but you can see quite easily that each and every animal is in someway trying to recreate the ancient ocean within it’s biology. so for example, the flagellates which created the amazing contradiction called the euglena, are also existing in the body of a human. the throat has them lining the interior. the tails are used to help discard the flotsam that can not be digested by our immune system which is found in the lungs.the immune system is a symbiosis of a animal called the amoeba. which by all rights is still pretty much the same, only because of the ocean it lives in now, (the human blood stream) it has specialized feeding. our eyes the retinal cells are a prelude to possibly the cells that feed of of light via the sun , similar to plants i would suspect. but somehow these wonderful animals * the eyes) have evolved over massive eons to be triggered by light and preform a function that nerves, another variation of a free roaming type that would utilize the chemical composition of water and acidic emission to defend its self from predators.these things and many more of what we can find just inside of humans still exist freely and roaming in some form or the other. i admit some may be way more evolved out there or alternatively having adapted exclusively for some purpose in the animal’s body. they are nonetheless in most cases, the same animal. the differences being only minor, like a seal to a walrus or a whale to dolphin. but consider that even in cross species some of these animals (cells) are still pretty much the same. muscles in fish are the same as in a earthworm, they are the same in a squid and they are the same in a turtle. the function, general over all look and method are the same. i personally find this fascinating and i am sure the reader can see my love of paleontology shining n this. because well, we have living fossils within the very biosphere of the earth animals. the legacy of the cell and it’s ingenious colonization as a means to survive is by far one of the first earth changing events and it still remains the one single most powerful strategy that life has on earth. so you can imagine, that since they haven’t really changed all that much. this was a winning deal from the start.

 Yet. the main difference that remains striking true is the dna. the genetics of a rabbit versus a crayfish are explicitly unique for each species. As we become more familiar with the variations , we become more aware of the subtle differences between each individual member of a species.it creates interesting science, for instance, a wolf is not a dog. no matter how much i try to explain that to some people they wont buy it. the wolf is actually in it’s own class for a reason. another example is how bears are related to seals. whales have been shown to be genetically related to wolf like creatures through fossil dna. we have a mix of neanderthal in us. this however is where i begin to jump of that train. reason for it is because, well there is this thing called mtdna, which is transferred through only the mother-> children. there is no evidence of neanderthal mtdna in any humans. since you need a mother to be born, it kind of creates a problem doesn’t it? here is where it gets fun. i do not doubt that they have found neanderthal dna. but i also do not doubt that neanderthal is human. so it would make sense that their dna is similar and in some cases identical by some percent. after all, a rose is a rose by any other name. so what we see, is the liberal use of the end all to be all of the magical god of genetics. proclaiming a fact that really cant be disproved. why? because it only makes sense. here is an example. a triangle has three sides, a right angle one, a isosceles and every other variation all have three sides. if i look at the facts on paper, i can safely say that they are all related. such as the case with genetics and dna. technically i can say we are related to fish, worms, mollusks and single celled organisms.it becomes redundant.

 the only true problem is the way society has made dna , the unquestionable authority when it comes to judgement. it can be no more then an indicator. a good one, but nonetheless, because i can show that a brown haired Caucasian male from german  ancestry has similar genetics to any other same origin. i can only show that there is a similarity to that race. it does not indicate an individual. the fear of this all powerful creation we have fashioned has many times forced innocent people to give up, simply because of the superstition. which is what we want. we want as a people something that eradicates the fear of the unpunished and unspeakable acts in our society. we keep looking for it, we keep hoping for it. it is how we maintain our belief in the pursuit of justice.hence forth you wont see very much discussion like this one  i am having regarding dna as a means of proof positive. there are so many of these kinds of tests in society too, the blood test for example. which is actually more reliable and certainly more exact. simply because of the possible chance of being a match is pretty slim. compare that to two species of animal of the same race. be more viable to find what is not the same as an indicator. so, i question that. i question it a lot. to anyone out there, that has fallen victim to the witch hunt superstition of the dna judgement call, as a fellow human, please accept on my behalf my sincere apologies. i can only pray that your pain was not long and not life threatening. i know some would question this, but to be honest. we haven’t even mapped out insulin. we haven’t even mapped out humans. the way it works is like this. a bunch of blotches are compared to a template created by an average compilation fashioned through intensive research. ( i am not debunking the science at all). then, when held to each other the similarities are checked and if x amount are same then bingo we got the bad guy. sound familiar? it should, it is what a lie detector does.almost the exact same process really. so, if lie detectors are considered fallible, why then is the dna one not? because, we need the be all to end all. otherwise people would have no faith or ability to feel safe about anything. the main reason it is used is because of the superstition. which works fine and if it prevents many people from doing anything horrible , then thank god. however, the question remains doesn’t it? do we still have to use medieval tactics to try and discourage criminal and horrid actions? under the guise of science, we still are not much farther from the witch hunt mob mentality.just something to think about.thanks for reading.

I would feel strangely pompous if i stated that i know about addiction due to my previous lifestyle. largely because if i knew about addiction i would not have lived it. seems cruel to oneself to make such a stark disfranchisement, but rest assured i am secure in that position. because as many horrible events i can bring up and life anecdotes i can hopefully relate to the reader , i know that ultimately this would in no way provide information about what addiction is and other then possessing the unique quality of being a deterrent in reflection, it offers no real understanding. if you get that addiction as witnessed by the practitioner is a question of perception, then you are at the point where i can talk about what it is. the entry point to any addiction is a question of perception both on the practitioner and the observers and this is why the vast majority of them defy common sense. think of it like the three blind men, who having encountered an elephant relate to each other what they discovered. one would say the elephant is a tall trunk, hanging like a vine, another would declare that no, it is a rectangular series of stumps supporting a large frame and lastly one would say it is a immense bipedal wall that is precariously flat. the old version of this axiom is that only when all three definitions are applied are the blind men right and correct, however imagine if one was sickeningly dizzy, the other gravely opinionated and the last one socially impartial. there would be no definitive concept of the elephant but it would be agreed eventually that it was indeed there.

so to claim oneself as the authority of addiction due to the method or style in which it was expressed within the life of that person, is foolish. everyone i know and everyone i don’t know (if we allow the abusive use of sociology and its perversion with statistics) is an addict. actually the word perversion and addiction are quite interchangeable with each other when you think of it.however, as always i make a claim and i find myself trapped in having to define the validity of the it’s intent.but first, just allow that due to the fact that everyone is an addict and because of this , me stating that the past i have experienced and lived does not really make me anymore of an authority then the next person, which is important to understand when one wants to write about addiction or attempt to define it.it means that of myself i can say nothing, so i am forced to relate from where i do know and what i can state with confidence. that is what we think of addiction and what it is are two strangely alien creatures that have little if anything in common save the focus of the person who practices it. who also knows even less then the ones watching. therefore, even know countless blind men will offer their take on it and many different species of elephant addictions will be found and recognized. none can truly exist.

so, i have stated that we are all addicts. how can i say that i dont know anything of consitutional value regarding what addiction is, at least nothing that we dont know already that hasnt been witnessed or written endless times and many varitions before, but still state that i know we are all addicts? because, we need it to survive. our survival depends on our addictive tendency. the marked brevity of this discourse should obviously create a comparative form of denial among the readers, as they relate within themselves to what degree and nature i may be right or wrong. it seems that with humans when a statement that infers such a precept as this, there is always the pass off of it being an opinion. let me finally start off by saying, i hope sincerely that it is not. i can think of no other more important and vital requirement of any living thing, more so for humans.

however you may receive these words do understand that i am talking about the nature of addiction. which means why it exists and the purpose. this is easy to define and actually outline. the reason i suspect that some people would have a hard time believing this is because of the personal effect it has on themselves and others. which is fairly expected and i can totally relate. actually if you can understand this aspect then if i say that the whole reason addictions are a problem in human terms exists is because of our intimate connection to the body and the mind. that we can talk and rationalize aspects of our own and other people’s behavior so detailed that we get hung up on the slightest variations of sense and self. addiction can appear much different then what it truly is. such is the connection between humanity and it’s addictions that even the ancient humans with only a rudimentary understanding utilized multitudes of forms to moderate the profound effect it can have on the individual. buddhist monks, christian morals, chivalry and many stories have a message of being cautious and therefore aware of self.

the nature of addiction however is where i am more suited to talk about. which would appear odd to those who know and knew me when i myself was actively pursuing a socially recognized aberration of what would otherwise be considered acceptable. here too, i find that it is hard not to just go into a litany of my personal battle and confrontation regarding the senseless addiction i was suffering from. but, alas , no amount of my story will provide the what and how and more importantly the very true why such a thing should exist.that being, a behavior or repetitive action that can be detrimental to both the health of yourself and others. this would be easily expanded to anything we do that is dangerous. in the natural world, a few hazardous events relating to some action usually ends up in abandoning the event or unfortunately serious detriment. so with that concept fresh in your mind i offer the one addiction that is shared by all life. the desire and obsession to eat.

sounds crazy doesn’t it? but, i am actually very right about this. you see, at least in mammals there is a release of the very same drug that induces sleep in mammals when they eat. this is certainly present in humans and you can surely expect it to be in cats. lions, the males for instance have been known to sleep in excess of 10 hours when they have eaten.which conflicts greatly with what we think of them, but it means they don’t eat as much or often as we think. the sensation of a good meal, the sedation we look for. the sensation of well-being and fully repasted peace. well, that is a drug and we seek that every time we eat. it is an obsession and in early days we as individuals would place ourselves into danger at times , especially when pursuing a similar prey as other similar seeking animals. dogs, cats, wolves and any other extinct animal that remains unnamed all were seeking the same sensation of well-fed sleepiness that we ourselves look for. so we are hooked on that drug like there is no tomorrow. because if we weren’t, there would be no tomorrow.

this may seem at this point ludicrous to some people. but actually it is very real, very strong and highly addictive. the snack food industry and the concept of how media has manipulated the strangely acceptable bias of comfort food versus required nourishment and needed foodstuffs for survival. it is confusing, we don’t need some brand chocolate bar to remain alive, but we do need various combinations of food groups to effectively remain healthy. good and bad, yet we want the same effect. the same drug release into our systems. if i were to expand on this, the next question would be, ok mark, so lets just say it is an addiction, why? because, the amount of effort required, the needed energy spent in foraging and the very unpredictable state of affairs, being an encounter with a similar seeking life form or the lesser acquirement of food itself. we need the desire for that sensation that is created by the sleep drug to cause our minds to imprint both a desire mental and physical dependence on obtaining the food.without this , no animal would have the motivation really to seek out food. it is that simple really.

although looking for food is an example of real addiction, it remains probably greatly overlooked. just bear in mind that this action satisfies the requirements for the definition. hunting for food can: affect the social behavior of an animal, it can place it into serious harm ( ever heard of an angler fish?), it can result in strange ritualized behavior and a few other aspects of addiction as we understand it in social media. sex falls into the same pattern. more so when it comes to higher life such as humans,whales,cats,dogs and a host of other mammals that have some form of courtship and social grouping structure. in essence though, they say, talk about what you know about so i will explain the aspect from primates and humans.

within our variation of addictions there is a massive amount of deceptively simple or lesser grandiose addictions. so many fall under the social radar. workaholic, bibliophiliacs, pack rats or hoarders, people who buy excessive amount of clothing. yes, even hobbies are a mild addiction in potential. our so called advanced state of being exists largely in our minds and really only comes into realistic focus when we are banded in social groups. it is here we have the deepest and most profound addictions. the effect of oxytocin as it is released in the body naturally is beyond comprehension. it creates one symptom that remains the single most powerful case of how deep addiction can be. we crave human touch and intimacy. it is the nature of our success, through bonding and the sensation of touch , our nerves for touch are complex. touch, can cause a human to release a drug, called oxytocin. which creates a sense of brotherhood and bonding, peace and good feelings. it also can make it so anyone outside of the group is an enemy. literally, this drug can and does do this. this is the very same drug we hear about on the street. it seems that we are only told half the story.

we crave it, we produce it naturally as a addictive quality towards group behavior, it therefore can seriously alter not only our perception of selves but other people. it inhibits natural social and group behavior and it can be lethally dangerous. war, feuds,gangland warfare, tribal battles and pretty much anything that involves an us versus them , ultimately stem from this drug and the way it affects our perception.they curiously undermine this aspect when reporting and in medical journals, focusing with a vague reference about how they have used it to install the mother instinct in new mothers that have a deficience of oxytocin when they give birth. it helps them feel the maternal instinct, where without it there is no real connection. this drug is so addictive to us, that we seek peer groups and we will refuse and deny any outsider access. it is also a major element in sexual orgasm and the feeling afterwards. the actual opiate responsible for orgasm escapes me, but you can bet it is addictive too.

this certainly paints a different picture i am sure of things, but you see, it is necessary. without these drugs and our natural tendency to be addicted to them and it seems even things of the mind that can cause us to release various chemicals into our metabolism. stress junkies, adrenalin junkies and drama queens are all examples of people who are addicted to the sensation that each of these states release. once again, it affects their livelihood, their perceptions of events and pretty much everything else. one curious aspect is evasiveness, which causes a release of endorphines that both reinforce self perception and gives a mild rush in the body.fight or flight is a major source of various biochemical release as well. it can be easily demonstrated how each one of the addictions i have mentioned can be effectively beneficial and explicitly required for a human to survive. people pleasers are by no doubt required to survive and they service the addiction endlessly. against social,personal and logic restraints. yet, being this way provides rewards and chemical release. we all seek for the pleasure and pain aspect. but it isn’t the pleasure that we are constantly pursuing. here is where it gets more interesting.

as you can probably tell, we need these and the ability to be addicted to survive, it provides a massive incentive to preform tasks that are both potentially destructive to oneself and others. but as in the case of food, we have no real choice. but we are not seeking gluttony, not really, as an organism we are simply seeking balance and mutual coexistence.in doing so, a vast majority of the mental and softer addictions such as hobbies go by undetected and unrealized for the true nature of what they are.they all do have at one time or with varying degrees the same destructive effect over time and sometimes within a very short while after the witnessed behaviors effect.

so, i hope this helps people understand what addictions are. i have no idea why they exist other then the very need to survive. without them, there would be no reason. no reason to work, no reason to date, no reason to eat, no reason to sleep and many many more actions which provide a reward through our own indiviual selves. when i relized the true nature of my addiction, i had the toolset i needed to repel and fight back against the addiction. i hope to have provided the very same insight and with knowledge, comes ability, i hope i have given everyone an ability that will enable them to fathom their life. it will make my past of mistakes and addiction induced failures finally more bearable.

have you ever wondered why we chose light as our main sense for information? i know i have, when i was younger and freshly aware of the ability that animals have when it comes to the sense that provides update of the environment. say like smell or sound. when a person investigates the options a few things come to the mind. first is the fact that since bats can safely navigate in pitch black via the echolocation. speed of information of the carrier seems to be trivial. considering that being mammalian and the fact that yes some bats but mostly other mammals have night vision. why would the sound bats opt for this method? the advantage is elusive and remains for someone to uncover. since the bat uses sound which travels at roughly 700 mph at sea level versus light which travels at 186 696 mps (miles per sec: kind of like going two times and a bit over 2/3rds the circumference of the earth in one second), there must be something to it. however the day that the universe fulfills human logic is the day i stop thinking of these kind of questions. no time soon, i guarantee it. still, to make this more tantalizing the fact that some blind people use sound waves and the faint effect of rebounded sound on the tip of their tongues to navigate is just all the more intriguing. sound, as a means of sight seems unlikely and strange , but as we know the whales would have a few words to say on that.though, conceivably in water, for some reason i can fathom it, having more vibration and in a finite environment, it seems to make sense. however, light surely is the way to go. it is not a restrictive quality of earth alone. to espy light is to look upon one of the genuine forces of the universe. light, travels in its way from distances well beyond any possible ability to imagine from galaxies in space.

so light surely seems the winner. still questions come up. like why are the truly environmentally conditioned animals at the bottom of the deepest trench of the ocean seen to have markings when there is literally no light at all to be found? this question is perplexing. the truth is, life is tuned into many different wavelengths of light. it is incredible to consider that the color red, if it is down in the depths, may not reflect red at all but being a substance that reflects emf rays or photons, which are electromagnetic just like microwaves and radio waves, cosmic rays as well as pretty much anything that can be applied to the spectrum all belonging to the emf band. fm and am respectively exist just after light.(mixed with micro,x-ray and uv). so, surely the electromagnetic sensing the deep sea life has to locate prey at the bottom comes into play with the reflective quality of the markings on the denizens of the deep. they may very well see them. though i am not sure if it would appear as the same as we do. i can safely say that whatever the passive quality of reflected coloration that occurs is, there is a perception that means the same, even know color via reflected light doesn’t exist that deep. though some animals will glow and emit photons in the deep. there is still some valid reason for the actual color. the tube worm which lives at the bottom of some of the deepest trenches, has an entire life cycle and creates a valid ecology via the bacteria that grow within it. the bacteria are actually what break down the foodstuff into edible source, it is a symbiosis that defies the conditions for life. because there is no light , no possible way light can reach there at all. the whole thing proves that light is ultimately not a needed thing. yet they still have two colors with the top being red.

so light remains ever so important for most animals to see though. one reason why is because when it began , when life began to utilize light for information gathering, the atmosphere was deadly. mostly uv and what uv can do to a life form is damaging on the genetic level. so it was obvious that some form of detection was necessary .the trilobites had crystal for their multi faceted eyes. literally, crystal. able to be found naturally outside of the extinct animals biology.it had a faceted like set of eyes like what we see on insects today.the only thing i can comment on is that crystal is one thing that can slow the speed of light down. light literally slows down as it passes through crystal which is how quartz finds it’s use in electronics, by being able to slow light down in the emf and thereby regulate the flow through the circuit. these crystalline eyes disappeared with the trilobites.

the ability to take inventory of the surroundings has always been the difference between life and death. it started out with the ability to sense the chemical composition of the aqueous solution the organism was in. this has evolved to many states of complexity.i would wager a carry over of this is the sense of smell. which is by large one of the greater opted for solutions for life on this planet.the land animals use it to locate the hidden or unseen sustenance underground and more importantly , it enables the creature to detect the change of gas composition in the air. the main problem surrounding this is that largely bacteria create the sensation of odor and the undetectable gases are as one suspect, life threatening. still, it remains quite impressive how even some land animals can detect complex information with the sense of smell. dogs by far are the perfect example. one would surmise that what a dog dreams about when we watch them reacting to sensation of dreams, is smells. imagine, navigating and seeing the world in smells. i personally find it hard to even begin to understand what it is they ‘know’.

yet, we sacrificed smell and sound for the sake of light. more specifically the ability to sense the different reflective qualities of visible light. colors are keenly our gambit. not exclusive by no means to us, it still remains a key to the mystery of our origin. more uniquely our own is the stereoscopic vision we have which remains as yet unsolved. though i agree with the idea of us being hunters.insectivores more specifically. the three theories are as follows: we gained it for the purpose of manipulating and foraging seeds, we gained it to race through trees and lastly we gained it to hunt insects. as the theorist who figured the insectivore idea out states. squirrels and a large part of the animal population pretty much prove that running and highly skilled dominion in the trees does not require stereoscopic vision. they can do quite impressively well with the vision they have. this would also go with the idea of foraging seeds and other variations. he pointed out that prey animals have the eyes to the side of the head in order to have a near 360 field of vision. only predators have near stereoscopic or depth perception as a main component of their tool set. i find this perfectly legit. it may also explain the intricate color perception we have.

the ability to see light, is by far one of the most profound things animals on earth have. the distortion of light and potential optical illusions withstanding are greatly undermined it seems with the instantaneous and therefore highly detailed information received. there is a concept that i have always liked about us, life and humans who have the ability to discern through language what we see in a photograph. even know it has the radio waves and the heat waves and pretty much the entire spectrum (if present at time of taking the picture present). we cant see them, but they are there. to think that such a vast amount of information exists, in that small sliver of a stunning spectrum of a cosmic force. imagine, what some animals could potentially see in a photograph. it is bewildering.but i feel no envy, the richness of colors from the green of jade to the softness of dawn reflected on clouds. the majesty of sunset and intricate layering of sediment rock , crystallized and forever the sedating testimony of time beyond reckoning. what my eyes, our eyes, see and how we can perceive with the mind that we have. one can not blame us for the desire of reproduction. art remains our providence.it remains our testimony of an animal form that fell in love with the earth.

Something i have believed i noticed about house cats or pet cats is this envy of our hands. I can swear at various times in my life i have seen them looking at me and just wishing they could have what we got. They watch and they just don’t get it when it comes to that claw begot the paw thing.maybe cats just look sneaky and i am not really just catching this look of envy on me and my human dexterity but it all comes out good when you demonstrate just how good you are with your hands on their back. so they forgive you of that supreme one up thing in advent of a neurotic self cleansing of your human oil on their fur.my but they do tolerate a lot don’t they?

 Now cats, they are awesome as far as a needed ecology component. one quickly learns that in all ecological environments there is an example of the cat in every type of life, except maybe cellular lifeforms and soft tissue life. but pretty much every other type has a version of the cat in it’s closet. it is basically what the cat preforms that makes it so necessary. it maintains the middle and in the case of big cats larger prey base. they are quite varied and wildly opportunistic.bears would realistically cover this area were it not for that fact they are omnivorous and therefore are quite happy eating honey and berries. however cats have the call on small and medium prey with varied competition from birds of prey and reptiles.like the birds of prey and reptiles that fulfill the same ecological niche, they are what you would call specialist hunters. they have the fangs for the purpose of severing the spinal cord of the prey and rendering it paralyzed, the claws hold it in place after the cat has pounced.there is only one other cat in the whole world that hunts differently. the jaguar , which will sometimes use the claws to lock on to the chest of the animal prey and wrap its mouth over the nostrils and suffocate it till it drops.this is what cats do, how they hunt and the only way they can eat. they have no molars, so it makes me wonder why people buy the hard food. i guess they think their cats are dogs. all they can do is incise and strip flesh. they do not have the teeth required to break bone and grind as molars do. cats are specialists for a reason though, they practice and perfect when young by playing and watching the mother.

 The factor that cats and dogs as well as a host of other animals experience rem sleep and in theory dream, as is demonstrated by the animal reacting to the avatar or environment within the dream sequences they are experiencing is of special and worthwhile note . lets move on to Australopithecus afarensis or A. afarensis for ease now. when i was in university and we began the section on these hominid members of the primates there was a fascinating realization that overcame me when the professor described in his words the foraging behavior of these prehuman ancestors. A. afarensis was the same species as lucy and therefore is well known by anyone that was around when her bones were discovered. this species was also uncovered by leakey and his wife at Olduval gorge. where he researched and then provided anthropology with this information. roughly 5 miles from his spot there was a dried river bed and he found stones from that river bed at the site he dug. however most these stones were not exactly worked on. leakey deduced a concept about the afarensis that will stay in my head forever. they would go to this riverbed, pick up a rock, somehow knowing it is the right rock. this is noted because there is no evidence of any rock being tested or pieces of rock being worked on at the river bed location. 

 afarensis would simply grab the rock of choice, walk with it while it would go almost 8 miles in a rough radius looking for scavenge. they would traverse along the treeline because the jaguars would sometimes leave their prey on the ground when they would go sleep in the trees during the day.afarensis would then upon discovering a kill, create the tools they need , at the spot , for the purpose of hewing off the limbs and whatever else they could to bring back to a central spot and they would commune and bond with the food each one found. what is remarkable is, these upright ape-like hominids were able to project the possibility that there would be a need for the rock, carry it. then fashion what they needed for the task at the spot.this was the start of the advancement of human intelligence. it is fascinating to even imagine.

 though, to be more to the point there are monkeys now that demonstrate incredible ability to project a future outcome and make it happen or act upon it when it does occur. one such monkey , Capuchin , will hide stuff it has foraged from the lead monkey. it then will make the sound of a cat and quickly devour the stash before it is found out. this is in itself maybe not impressive on the surface. it is however incredibly impressive when you consider what really happens. this monkey can imagine that if it makes the sound they recognize as cat , or call wolf if you like. the other monkeys will run for cover, therefore react to a stimulus that is not even in the environment. the stashing monkey knows they will. it is incredibly complex and highly abstract.

 as our species went on and managed to invent and evolve culture. we created myths, to somehow involve the nature we saw and ourselves as an agent of it as a way of educating our people about moral good and bad. we began to give animals and elements personality traits.it was because at that time our psychology of self had not yet recognized a separation of nature.this went on for many countless years till agriculture was invented.when, we began agriculture we started making the gods somewhat humanoid. we had begin the seperation of humanity from nature.

the abstract thought patterns we have was what enabled us to be the greatest copycats and tool makers on earth.through the years of tactilce stimulation our minds evolved complex and our dexterity increased. there is a noticeable co-orrelation between dexterity and the size of our minds. you can see this in the tool technology of our prehistory and distant extinct lineage from apes. the more flakes the more refined the rock is, the more dexterity.  so the great part of the way we think and how we approach postulations such as problem solution, be it physical or mental we owe to our hands.the size of the brain is not easily applicable but from the casts of the cranial cavity of the fossilized remains, the folds and ridges which are a sign of advanced brains can be demonstrated as a correlative result. so the next time a cat looks at you and your hands funny. be happy knowing that yep these two paws gave me the ability to make things.

 they have every right to envy us.

 I have been into paleontology long before i studied at university. The second book i ever read in my life was this large book of dinosaurs , which was quite descriptive and very technical. i ate it all up. so you may say i have been into fossils and prehistory earth since i was 5. evolution and biology was my favorite aspects of science and i began to muse the crossover of physical and biological existence within the universal concept early on. needless to say when i was assaulted by the church goers for actually embracing this fantastic reality through my childhood, i began to grow a real resentment towards organized religion. i remember an argument i had with a priest once in a hockey rink. it was late at night, i was alone watching the team that was slated for practice that night. it was an open format, people could come off the street and go watch. i was using this to stay warm and to have a place to escape the perils of being a street denizen. next to the public library , it was the only place i knew at the time where i could just be allowed to go and exist. so i was 15 and homeless, exhausted from forcing myself to stay awake out of falling asleep in the cold and just trying to regenerate with the the coffee i was able to get from the snackbar. i was still very naive about the world of humans at the time and as a result i was trying to formulate the world as i understood it. trying to imagine how prehistoric humans survived. i was thinking of neanderthals and trying to piece together the way they would encounter the cold and living at the mercy of the elements. in retrospect i was looking for hope and guidance. 

 at any rate , this tall skinny priest walked up and sat next to me as i watched the team circling about like a bunch of circling buzzards on the puck. i lit a smoke and he asked me how i was doing. i have nothing to hide , so i told him basically my plight. wondering if the christian would give me money for food. apparently not. at any rate he began to quote his book. i told him that his book is second hand testimony and he has no real proof of what he is saying. a factor i am sure he has heard before because i remember he responded really quick, not demonstrating any pre-thought towards his response and meaning that it is rehearsed. it was as usual a lot of mumble jumble resulting in an authoritative opinion that equals less conviction then if he remained quiet. seems to be the one mistake these type of people make, they over do the tone and didactic nature of a precept of belief as if it was a fact and you automatically have a pretty good base of their mental state. i actually became concerned for him. imagine this for a second. here i was homeless and messed up emotionally with the fears of the earth at the age of 15. not knowing where and how to survive and i was actually more concerned about the priest then myself. 

 i asked him what he thought about neanderthals. they apparently were animals with no souls. i asked him why and he said they aren’t human. i said they were our ancestors and they came before us. he said that is just a theory. i go no its not, i said we have teeth just like them, hands and other stuff that is only human. he told me they don’t have a soul and they were animals. i explained if they have no souls, then why were they burying their dead with the possessions of the diseased? i waited while he thought about it. i said , wouldn’t that mean they had a concept of the soul? like the egyptians? but he said if they did they had a false god, they didn’t worship his god. apparently this meant they were soulless and animal. i began to really question his psyche at this point. i asked him what kind of a god that apparently loves all of creation , would condemn a species of human simply because it has a different name for it or quite simply had no way of knowing about it because writing didn’t exist. wouldn’t it be just suffice to have a sense of morality that is just and good and follow a moderate life? he said that they didn’t pray and worship the god he believes in. you know i said, just to survive in this human mess of self inflicted laws that have no basis in the universal reality without going crazy or hurting other people is good enough when it comes to praying to any creator. after all, whatever created us , just wants us to live and try our best to be human. i don’t see the difference between me watching the ballet of seagulls at a shoreline and loving the beauty of their flight to me paying verbal homage to an as yet proven concept of social control.

 such is the way i am. i have no problem accepting the universe as it is and i have always been against any belief that wont allow a person to just live. don’t get me wrong though, the ideal of most religions have merit. as they attempt to train the people how to approach the universe and other people in a non hostile or destructive manner. placing moral structure into our conscience and giving us the clarity of choice. things like this proves more needed in our metropolis and major cities then anything else. it is just not the only way and besides, the act of good and morally just actions is not an ownership of any imaginary god. our closest primate relatives demonstrate the very same behaviors. so there remains this need for people to belong to a group and feel part of, which as a teen and for most of my life, i have tried to avoid. i am not a group type of person. i feel this is not a unique thing nowadays. i don’t know, i guess when you learn about the witch hunts and mob mentality as a kid you just tend to stay away from that kind of potential scenario.

 so there i was , as i am now, only not as educated , thinking and asking myself  about our ancient prehistory.wanting to understand humans the way the universe made us and not our directorates want us to believe.it seemed like a good way to understand the earth and life. seeing as how, unlike the rest of the extinct species of life, i am an existing survivor and i can talk with other surviving members of my species. if i could talk to sharks or birds, well actually trees even, i would gladly drop our tom foolery and just try to find whatever it is i am looking for. however, i cant and so i discovered anthropology and have been in love with it since. it was anthropology and the fossil record of our species that gave me exactly what i was looking for all my life. proof that i belong and am part of the universe. that i am anchored and the earth is my place of birth. i was made for this wonderful doomed beauty (when the sun goes into red stage, the earth will be gone). however, my conviction is not based on belief, it is formulated from existing facts. things that can be demonstrated and pretty much proven beyond doubt. we come from a branch of primates. of this there is no question. of course this is just as scary to me as it would be for any religious type to accept. why wouldn’t it be? i mean , it is frustratingly harsh to have to constantly remind oneself they are an animal and they are in the universal sense really no different or better then any other animal. believe me, when it comes to animals, we really don’t hold up to what some of the wonderful forms of life have. this is why i get a kick when i inform people about ants. i love how the concept that basically they are superior to us in many ways. just luck and fate has it differently. the universe and chance creates such amazing results. it created the variation of all life. so it should be pretty effective in other areas too.

 chance and fate. no stranger to the primates. it was chance and fate that enabled us humans to exist in the first place. however, mysteries persist. one of the hardest ones to understand is when and how did we get so spread out. the most prolific wanderer was homo erectus. this prehuman has been all over. but we know it didn’t quite understand how to control fire. not like us. but somehow they survived. i have and always will argue that we humans as a species are not aggressively violent. it seems to go against our need to communicate and various physiological response that we exhibit when in groups as an individual. i don’t really believe that we would attack each other without provocation. however, seeing as how all we had at the time, as erectus was this stone axe. that is trademark for that species plus no real indication of controlling fire. ( an example we would look for is what we find in neanderthal dig sites. where there is fire spots that are encircled by stones. thereby containing and therefore a control of fire. nothing like this has been found in any of the erectus sites and the only maybe or possibility to date is a group of spears that have been hardened on the tips in fire. these may have belonged to erectus, but there is no real effective way these humans could have held them. their hands were always facing palm outwards , due to a structural anomaly. a trait they all shared.) but how did we spread out so far before our genus even exist?

 i have learned over time that what that priest calls soul is interchangeable to the concept of sentience. this understanding has been reinforced by the fact that as usual, we humans think we are the only sentience around. this is of course simply not true. elephants are sentient. this is really one of those facts that they wont come clean about. but it is always written down as a serious consideration. i have always wondered if the poaching of elephants classifies as murder. a question i had once asked a friend. no,was the answer, it isn’t human. i said in response, well no wonder no little green men will come to earth. when they see what we treat other sentient species that aren’t human , who can blame them? i know i wouldn’t. i would just keep on moving and go hobnob with microbes on titan or something. but anyways, elephants are sentient. i have no problem with accepting that and it makes real sense to me. but i remember, i was trying to figure out how, like where did this advanced form of social behavior come from. i was watching an African animal show, with the typical elephant parade going through the bright hot savanna. lions wanted nothing to do with them and gave them a clear path. i remember thinking how cool it is that they can just walk in their slow elephant way knowing that nothing wants to mess with them. i also noticed that a lot of other grazers and herbivores hung around them. it got me to thinking.

 so, as you know, we and neanderthal (mostly) lived off of the elephants ancestors. mammoths and mastadons. the precursors to them existed pretty far back, all the way to hominids like Australopithecus and gigantopithecus ( i think, i seem to remember one species that didn’t have a fully long nose like the ones we have now, it wasn’t that big either). but we were not always hunters. we were scavengers, pretty much up to homo erectus. i began to visualize the fact that we must have hung around them a lot. they would be free protection. plus, they cant see well at night, nothing provides a good alert like a bunch of freaked out primates scared in the dark. so i think, we must have hung with them and our interaction somehow conditioned them to adapt and create their own form of sentience. it could very well be an exchange. a similar type of possibility exists with the Capuchin monkeys that have this amazing system for preparing nuts and using a flat bed rock with stones to hammer the nuts when ripe. i think they are copying a behavior witnessed by them of some ancient tribe that is no longer there. we very well could have used them to get the tree’s fruit for us  by dropping certain ones to the ground.fossilized behaviour fascinates me no end. the possabilties are incredible. 

 so, it may be that we teamed up with the mammoths precursors and that enabled us to travel and reach places that make no sense otherwise. since we originated in africa largely, and somehow erectus has been found even in australia in fossil beds. we may have actively started to hunt them when we would get trapped in the frozen tundra, with no food to eat, we may have graduated from eating the dead carrion that we would find of them to eating them as fresh kills in the neanderthal stage.only the earth knows. i believe that such a true connection to the ancient past is what we need as a race in modern times to understand and fully accept our effect and causation within the ecology of the earth’s environments. we are highly opportunistic and practice a form of one sided symbiosis that i have only seen in one other animal, ants. so, in the end, if, my fascination leaves me stranded on earth for eternity, i could be no happier. because the earth is so beautiful i would want to belong to nothing else.

When i was a boy , my dad once tried to tell me what is inside of a car. He is a marvelously mechanically minded person. whose talent for understanding things machine wise has proven very advantageous during my childhood. however one day we were at the station wagon. typical brady mobile pontiac when he began to tell me what the different innards of the car were. this is called the butterfly valve, i nodded got ya, the lung. this is the fuel pump, right i said, the heart. he went on like that and i was translating it to what i would know the object as. It was funny , but it also worked, i have a pretty good understanding of cars as a result of me comparing it to a living thing. As time went on, i still find automobiles to be quite effective when thinking of life on earth. the whole transgression of cars from the model t to the electric hybrids that exist today is really like a primer to evolution and the process which is self evident in the fossil record. however, what motivates life to change this millenia ‘s model sedan is sometimes quite uneasily accounted for. when it comes to trying to understand the natural expression of life and the genetic evolution in its vast variety, there is always a stunning fascination one will feel. for the genius of life is far superior to any human mind, even know the mind is itself an expression of that very same genius.

 one of the things that i tend to debate a lot with geneticists is the concept of randomness they love to embrace. with their perception of the variance of the genetic code being mutation and it falls into the darwin concept of survival of the fittest. which, is really misunderstood by people these days. the term does not mean being the biggest silver-back gorilla and being able to fend off everything around because it is superior in strength.though to be honest, that particular idea works fine for the gorilla concept of being fit. really what darwin meant was, the species with the most offspring is the fittest. so, technically rabbits could potentially be the most fittest thing around, by numbers. rodents are one of the most fittest species of mammal there is. so although i can totally agree on this aspect with the genetic afficiandos , i do not necessarily believe that there is a wholey unbiased randomness involved. see, the dynamic that i am talking about belongs to life as a whole. it is self preservation and the will to live. this alone creates a quality that can only be recognized and is always incredibly genius in its expression. one example that comes straight to my mind is the nature of asian or mongoloid eyes. the extra layer of fat enabling these people to see in the brilliant glare of the snow. of all the possible solutions that would seem logical to the human mind, that is one that i doubt anyone would have figured out. we would have figured some kind of filtration of light glare or something along the lines of naturual sunglasses. but, an extra layer of fat/ incredible and absolutely ingenious.

 so,  we have this incredible intelligence in life that seeks to manifest the will to live and self preservation within it’s forms. sometimes , we can get a glimpse of life’s intelligence. due to its persistence of using the same type of solutions regardless of species. dolphins and sharks are an example of this. where a previously land animal , goes back into the ocean and it acquires the same answers that an animal that has been the model of perfection since it was first on earth. they have physiological traits that are identical on paper. streamlind body which is very close to a sharks. porpoises look more so that way , dorsal fins and flukes on tails that differ really because one goes side to side whereas the other goes up and down.when you consider that these traits are not exactly shared by other marine mammals , you begin to see the intelligence of life. though the reason why becomes hazy, as a manatee certainly throws a lot of presumption into the waste basket.yet here we have two species whale and shark both almost identical. whale sharks , with their broad head and snout (mouth) compared to other plankton eating whales, does itself almost seem to have found the same solution. to think that two species , completely alien to each other, with different stimuli (echolocation versus the magical lateral line of all fish) still manifest almost identical body types. it is hard not to think that there is an intelligence behind evolution. something not exactly bound by chance alone.

 ok, i sense a no duh moment here, but you see , most people want to attribute this to an invisible alien entity they call a god or perhaps to the universal way of a cosmic intelligence. it seems that very few want to actually accept that it is really just life practicing its will to live. maybe it is because it does it openly or presumed massive scale of such a change seems too unworldly . i dont really know. however, myself, i have come to recognize that life is a perfect way to know what is important in the universe. because life, pays absolute attention to the universe. i have marveled over this magnificent awareness of life for a very long time. as we humans typically walk around in our made up social and culture inflicted fantasy worlds. fully involved with it from a need to fulfill the primate requisite of socialized behavior. around us we have plants, that are intrinsically aware and devoid of the modern human world or mind. they are completely aware of the sun. the distance, the existence and object. they track it faithfully everyday admist us humans who are numbed by our creation of utopia. the reason why plants do this is not a mystery at all to us, but it is the concept that these forms of life are aware of a distance and an object that is so far away , the light that it sends is 7mins late.so you see, plants live in the universal frame of reference. they exist according to forces of the universe and live lifespans that defy any animal in existence and possibly extinct. this vast awareness of things that are completely lost to the human perpetuation of earth that animals and life has is almost as incredible as existence. birds are aware of the magnetic north, so are sharks,who use it to navigate where they are going. this means that some forms of life are aware of an invisible energy that still defies rational explanation except it can be recreated by electricity and appears to be a property of atoms. they can see it and react to it using it’s variation they encounter to adjust their paths of transit. all we can do, is use sound and the light of the sun as our navigational aids.

 all these things and pretty much everything alive on earth is an expression of this vast intelligence and it’s need to survive. nothing can solve problems like life. each peculiar thing that we find out about an animal is an answer to some complex problem that life has not only solved but as it continues to survive perfect. perfect so much that many different species belonging to radically different types of life will ultimately find similar solutions. yet for all the similarity there are some answers that remain absolutely fascinating in their concept. we humans have one such thing that is both unique and extremely genius. being bipedal we had to manifest a balance. since we don’t have tails (only the remnants) the counter balance afforded by a tail as was present in the dinosaurs is not available. the answer was to have the middle ear with hairs and one that will stimulate a sensation so keen, when we altered our posture.you may say, we have tails in our ears. however, it is the solution that is amazing. it defies rational thought. i doubt that any human would have come up with that as a possible solution.

 so like cars, life has these templates and amazing history of engineering solutions that when viewed objectively not only changed radically , but did so in a common fashion for reasons that became apparent only after the first car was made. cars , it seems always started out large and very waste producing. this is comparable to practically every type of animal that has ever existed. practically every specimen of life on earth has at one time or the other , had a specimen that was huge in relativistic frames of relevance. even cells have an example that lives to this day. the largest cell in the world is a ostrich egg.which brings me to what i wanted to talk about.

 there was this incredibly huge snake fossil found recently in brazil. the snake belonged to the python family and was around presumably after the dinosaurs . it was incredibly huge. very long and whilst obeying the proportion of a snake of immense length was very thick. it was a very successful predator and in theory should not have died out. for all we know it has, though there have been many sightings of incredibly large snakes in our written history. so it became a question of why did they die out. usually, like cars, it is because some force in the ecology due to lack or some other variable has occurred. there is a condition called island dwarfism/gigantism which is recognizable even to this day with some species of animals. this is easily attributed to the availability of food. however, these snakes whose name i forget, so i am going to call it megapython lived in an excellent fauna/swamp environment with it’s territory being challenged by it’s own predator.  it becomes a real question as to what happened to megapython. turns out the answer was not a result of ecological abundance. it was a ratio of body mass versus temperature of the climate. in other words, the climate was hotter when it existed, its metabolism was able to maintain incredible size. the reason why megapython doesn’t exist and probably doesn’t even in a cryptozoological meaning is because we are a few degrees cooler then when it lived. so heat equals bigger snakes. given the global warming this is something to look forward to for sure.

 so cars have given me incredible insight with animal both past and present , but what fascinates me is the story and solutions that life has come up with.because although cars can be easily understood about the reason for change. life is not so easily deciphered, but it has incredible understanding of the real universe so much that it does things that no one would ever be able to come near.only life , whose model t ford long after the other life and models came out unlike the real t-ford is superior even when primitive.

The premise of alien life is not a question of or if  it exists at all, it exists no doubt outside earth. as was recently confirmed by the fossilized meteor from mars last year. the rock itself was discovered a decade or so ago and it has taken this long to finally admit/confirm that yes it had microbial life and originated from mars. this roughly 4.2 billion years ago, whereas life as we know it came into being 3 billion years ago.personally, i love stuff like this.it is what i live for.to me it is almost as much fun as trying to figure out how our species ancestors survived and existed. they would most certainly classify as alien life and intelligence as any typical space creature. it is interesting really, we humans only became redundant and predictable when we became sapiens. before that it is a pretty varied spectrum and quite mysterious. the advancement of communication that would precede a ritualized form of burial as practiced by neanderthal, but having no other forms in physical state other then the artifacts of their stone technology remaining is mysterious as is the spread of homo erectus , while using only one form of tool the hand axe, in all climates. things like this are still within the realm of human mindset and it is more of a how or why then a what type of question. but life elsewhere? oh yea believe it. there is no rational reason to think otherwise. which given the modern vantage and our discovery of countless planets. most people are satisfied with this idea, they are too far away and too primitive (most likely) to be a concern.

 however for me, it is a matter of time frame and the reference point we look at it. i am quite conditioned to think in insurmountable frames of time. just the other day i was explaining to my friend how , most of the time no matter where i am, i am imagining the state of the earth at that spot at a given epoch. i went on to describe how where the region that we both live in was an inland sea that had these columns of plant life that would be more then 20 or 30 feet high, as if it were an underwater dense forest really. there was a massive amount of life around, fish and insects, i pointed at the ground and said and even the last remaining post Cambrian trilobites, some incredibly huge with one that looked like a carpet with whiskers would be right there. i cant help it, i love it so much , it just happens. that era was roughly 480 million years ago.offhand there are few remaining representatives left from that time, the sturgeon being one of them.still living and still existing in the lakes and in the ocean. something like three species are left. incredible to think of,the earth , at this point.so time and reference are a big part of how a person approaches the concept of alien life in the universe.

 towards the big bang, which is really just an easy way to explain a phenomenon about the universe coming into being and not necessarily the actual  event, weird things were happening. the concept of a big bang is descriptive of what happened when the universe existed, it is  way of describing, that everything existed at once. basically, as the universe expanded , everything went with it. so, think of a balloon being filled with air. the actual balloon is the edge of the universe, inside is the existence. i find everyone, including myself has a hard time picturing this. but try to imagine time,space, matter,everything including the physical laws coming into instantaneous existence and existing instantly to the expanding edge of the universe.there is nothing, the darkest of dark outside the balloon universe, but inside, contained and expanding as fast is everything else.so basically we have this happening even now, as the farther it expands the more the nothing becomes reality and existence. when it all first started, things were obviously different. in the sense that time and space were smaller and well, things just happened at a faster rate relativistically speaking. as a result the first thing a person who can at least conceive this understands is potentially every galaxy that exists may very well have had countless species that evolved and reached sentience probably many times and then vanished or moved on.

 so time reference is certainly a consideration. more so, if you can visualize this then imagine that the space we see, for the most part, the stars and galaxies, probably don’t exist or have long since moved out of our sight. we are seeing things farther back then earth’s existence now. which means that in reality a good amount of those objects aren’t really there.it is like the after image of something moving very fast. we can see the blur of effect, but the creator in reality has moved on long ago.this is fascinating and somewhat funny to me. cause it means that the sky at night that we see, is not really there. the map we have for places way beyond our reach is flawed. i have often wondered how come NASA hasn’t exactly stressed this point.astronomy is the keenest of archaeology when understood in this aspect.

 so life, with so much having happened already , most surely exists outside the earth and probably has been long gone since earth came into being. this doesn’t mean that there is no chance of life near earth. it just means that anything is possible, literally.one of the things i have noticed is the need to make life obey earth and its life. they talk about a cradle orbit and always are looking for planets that are similar to earth as candidates. this however is not even close to the reality of what is truly out there. such a limited view creates the concept of us being precariously unique easily.however, the real problem is not if life exists, it is the matter of expanding the conditions required for life.which is where i personally have the most fun. as it stands, when one approaches the concept of life, it turns out that pretty much everywhere can potentially have life. this statement usually creates a funny sense of metaphysical new age sensation in people. they will nod and say , yes there is a ‘energy’ which remains nameless or named that embraces life in the universe. however, this is not exactly what i am saying. what i am saying is more fun.more conceivable.

 when that archeo microbiologist produced the ‘alien’ life substrate in the salt lake of California, many people were not really aware of what was really happening. it actually was a very well timed curve ball. you see, it was announced previously roughly a few months beforehand that NASA was going to announce something awesome. we all thought that basically they were going to come clean about titan. a moon at Saturn, which incredibly most likely has life. it is one of those we know it without saying type of things that you see Hollywood actors do when making an ‘in-joke’ about the establishment. aside from the curious conspiracy theory aspect regarding the mysterious malfunction of the Cassini probe when it finally reached the moon with one of its transceivers (the left monitor) which was blacked out for a about 15 min or longer, then before we could figure out what happened it just magically came on perfectly ok and been working ever since. ( the conspiracy being that some higher -ups wanted to get a look at what was being sent before the rest of the world would, like a pre-emptive pg -rating). there remains the fascinating paradox of titan itself. which has methane rivers and ethane and countless amino acids in the atmosphere. what i love is the fact that water is lava there. the land is water, volcanoes of water exist there and what is really trippy is the concept that the atmosphere gets thicker as you go higher not lower as it does on earth.in the end all that NASA will admit to is that it is definitely a perfect representation of what the earth was like just before life appeared. though in a way i cant blame their position in this one. by saying the methane was created by physical chemical reactions they have trapped themselves into a no win situation. since they have to demonstrate how methane can exist naturally and therefore solve the world’s energy crisis or admit that there is life which as happens on earth through metabolic process creates methane in the ocean. you see it is a catch-22. so when that announcement was supposedly supposed to come clean on the very real possibility of there being life there, they threw in the arsenic based dna microbe from California. knowing that after a  few years they would be able to denature that claim easily from alien down to extremophile adaptation.the lady has not exactly been proven false in her claim. she has just openly said that the methods the labs who are trying to disprove it are using the same or valid research as herself. however, she is not really out to prove herself right, which was criticized by a few people wanting to believe. in other words , it was a beautifully executed curve ball which resulted in exactly what NASA had intended.
 
 my scepticism of NASA is probably obvious at this point. i have no choice and am disheartened by NASA’s seemingly hubris defiance to allow the human race to grow beyond the confines of the earth. so many of us would love to have the true and real hope of life outside the earth. it would give us faith and a reason to continue. there is a form of security in knowing that we are not unique and that in the end of things we are a true function of the universe. it makes us feel safe. however due to the church and other religious institutions it has been hard as hell to get anything out to the public. NASA fears what would happen if the religious people had to accept that they are not the only kid on the block and so they are forced to constantly renege on many fascinating discoveries. the first was the actual viking landing on mars made in the 70′s. the designer of the three tests for presence of life to this day swears that his method was true. he has spent his entire life from that moment,  in a  true and valid scientific method, reproving the findings of the probe. basically, one of the tests he had proved positive and constant reproduction of the tests here on earth have produced positive. however NASA continues to deny this. when the two rovers were launched recently, the inventor of the original life form test said that he cant wait to see his own lander’s findings confirmed. things were looking rosy till that horrible event about the stupid video that resulted in the embassy being attacked. up to that time, NASA was stating it was looking for life as part of it mission. either ancient or presently existing evidence. that religious video and the resulting violence and demonstrations worldwide may have caused NASA to change its tune. because they began to claim they were looking for the possibility to support life on mars.slight change in vernacular, creating an easy rhetorical escape route. meanwhile, as i said, we already know there was life on mars. the meteorite i talked about above pretty much confirmed and proved it. heck it even gave it a time stamp. imagine , how funny it is to see today, headlines in the science news that life has existed on mars due to whatever they been doing with the rovers. as if this was news.
 
 this is the way that things like this get hidden you know. people don’t pay attention to science news because they think that this is like school. that basically whatever NASA finds or for that matter science discovers is a separate classroom. technically it is not. it is real and actual history.as profound a human event as any other historical text. but such manipulation by the corporations and higher ups exists that people don’t get the connections. this explains many things that exist today when it comes to how connected we feel to true human progress. it also explains how, last year a British official in the parliament declared that it wasn’t really no longer an issue about the gene splicing resulting in human /animal hybrids that were estimated to be existing in the rounded number of a known 145 living specimens. he said that they have to figure a way to control it. shocking isn’t it? it wasn’t the fact there was human hybrid with animals that was the concern, apparently this is yesterdays news, it was how to control it. the first thing that comes to my mind is, how in the hell did this happen? well, now you know. the continuing opposition of religious institutions playing scapegoat and the overt techno-babble to discourage a common person from investigating science, hidden in journals with exasperating long titles and latin-esque names works pretty good. which makes the normal person believe they have to have a degree to have an imagination. honestly if this was true, in any way, do you think that lorenzo’s oil would have been discovered by his father? a construction builder?
 
 but it works. it works wonderfully . which is why when i try to inform people that there is roughly four places we are pretty sure that the possibility of life existing in our solar system is reduced to a rhetoric debate and not a sound proclamation they don’t get what i mean. the places that may have life are fascinating, hence the debate.venus,mars, two moons at jupiter and a moon at neptune plus titan. the environments are radical and it is the stuff of imagination. i love it immensely. venus is fascinating in the fact that the life there is most likely sulphur based. but imagine this, the compression of the atmosphere is so strong that the wind on the surface of venus is only a few miles per hour. as a result you can see impact craters from the time of the one impact on earth that resulted in the ending of the dinosaurs, remain in pristine condition on venus. there is no wind erosion and no real change of the craters. this along is stunning to think about, but what is really neat is the fact that the atmosphere gets thinner as it goes up and that basically there is definitely a point where thermal and elements are pretty good to support life. the fact that yes, they have found trace of amino acid in the atmosphere of venus only tantalizes more. imagine this, a lifeform that lives in the air. when we are informed that venus is considered a sister planet to the earth. that there is a very strong possibility that at one time it was potentially bearing life . well, it just becomes a matter of debate doesn’t it?

 neptune’s moon triton , has a possibility of life but is perhaps the most coldest place in the solar system. the same theory behind this moon involves jupiters moons. where the geothermal concept of water being liquid below an ice crust is applied. this of course creates a kind of theoritical dyson sphere concept. where the life would live in a finite space. it would be huge in it’s beginning then through adaptation and evolution become inredibly smaller. to maximize space and territorial proficeincy. the whole idea here is, as i stated above. it is not really a question of if there is life out there. it is a matter of expanding what the conditions required for it are. which, if you accept that the universe is constantly changing and therefore the premutations of matter under physical law create simply more refined and conditioned states of the matter , via chemical and physical. well, it just doesn’t make any sense that there isn’t. i don’t really go into a big discussion about the individual places because that is like telling you guys a movie plot before you see it. however, i hope some of you will be piqued to investigate some of the places i mentioned. more correctly to the idea of this writing though, you should consider the fact that amino acids were found on even comets. this has created the whole concept that maybe life on earth is the result of a comet strike on earth. so possible, they are actually considering this as the source of the first mass extinction. i love it when the plot gets juicy, don’t you?

 the fun idea is that if you expand the conditions, then lif eis possible anywhere even on the moon. since at a given latitiude the sunlight is degrees less and there is water present on the moon. you never know. which just makes it all the more fun doesn’t it?

 Sharks. I am Californian. Possibly the oldest memory i have as a boy at 4 years or 3 years old involves sharks. My mother had gone for a swim, i was alone on the beach. she disappeared  for a while, because of a current that made her go off base a bit when she was out there swimming. I was too young to understand that type of stuff, her extended absence was automatically feared to be from a shark. 3 or 4 years old and even know i have no recollection of ever seeing a shark, i knew what they were and i knew they were dangerous. i was afraid she had been eaten by one. 45 years old, i still have that memory of that fear strongly vivid in my mind. sharks to the mind of 4 year old are the perception of monsters. A huge , voracious creature that will steal people you love from you, it classifies right up there with any other imaginary creature that lives in the imagination of child. when, i read the comments of adults, towards the impending demise of the sharks. i was sickened. it is with the mind of an adult and educated one that i witnessed , such remarks as ‘go swim in the deeper water and see how you feel when one gets you or good, they will not be taking our fish from us. these and similar opinions were not exclusively limited to one or two people. it was the consensus of a majority as they attacked a person that actually was as dismayed as i am about the fate of sharks.

 as is wont, i began to fathom a complete spite for the people that were writing these idiot remarks. but, unfortunately as any university educated person, i began to rationalize this all out. slowly i began to realize that it isn’t them i am angered with, it is the very scientists that seem to be just pulling our legs when they claim that the attitude for sharks has been changed. they haven’t achieved nothing. it is terrible. they haven’t even explained the very real problem that we face if these beautiful animals are gone. so i have mulled over this all day. i have constructed so many mental scripts in my head, then i had actually decided that it is pointless, that the human race is diseased with its mindset and why would i even bother?

 My knowledge is primarily ancient stuff. yet, if anyone understands paleontology at all, they understand that sharks play probably more of a role then even dinosaurs. so, even if the actual science that deals with them directly is reneging and somehow not getting the extreme importance of these animals across, it seems that ultimately, by my nature , i have no choice. if, they cant get the common person to even realize what can happen with their disappearance or even get people to understand the impudent mentality these animals innocently face. then, i guess, it is up to  a person like me.

 honestly, i am finding it hard to get inspired to inform and educate about them, from what i know. not because of them, because of us. because we are allowing something that in reality never should be happening in the first place. our excuse of the past of not knowing what this kind of mindless destruction of earth does, does  not apply. we will be guilty absolutely , of wiping out one of the most incredible animals that has ever existed. faith is hard to find with these type of things. but first, i guess, i should give some education.

 sharks first showed up around the middle of the Devonian era. this is a time when roughly 500 million years ago (i am going by memory) , there was nothing on land. the best way to understand sharks is by comparison, so think of the role a cat plays in ecology. this is basically where sharks first began. they were scavengers and hunters. like tigers or any of the big cats, except lions.though if i was to apply the idea of a lion as far as pack or school, then that belongs to hammerheads. they are the only type of shark that travels in schools. (there is even something about the minor shapes of their heads that is recognizable towards their grouping). the rest of the sharks are like cats. lone and free roaming. the Devonian was an incredible time on earth. most of the survivors from that mass extinction display incredible abilities. something that demonstrates how they survived.the Devonian created boney fish, perciformes. largely only surviving in the land and fresh water systems. now, the boney fish dominate the waters of earth. the cartilaginous ones, that had proven domination are pretty much gone. sharks, are the last of that legacy save i think one or two other phylum( like the lamprey). the rest, are all ascendants from sharks. so basically any cartilaginous fish, is most likely a shark or in someway related to sharks. this, means that these creatures are almost the sole survivors, give or take a phylum. it is the same as finding a dinosaur.not by age , but because it would be all that remains.

 during the reign of the dinosaurs, the sharks were hunted and hunters. they were largely the middle section of the ecology. they predominantly thrived in coral reefs.which they do as well now. the large prey eating type, didn’t even show up till near the end of the dinosaurs and roughly during the Holocene. when mammals showed up. they expanded immensely , because the competition from the sea reptiles was no longer there. the only thing that even remotely still exists , that would classify as a competitor in dinosaur is the sea crocodile. sharks, live in a vast desert. the ocean. the ocean is a desert. the food is so far apart and they can go for weeks if not months not finding any food. this seems to be something the modern sharks are conditioned for. they have amazing stamina , with the sustenance digesting slowly. sharks are like artic wolves. who we know little about , but exist in a desert that defies the idea of survivability. part of the sales pitch i see from the biologists is that the shark is an apex hunter. however, so are we, we are not even naturally worthy of that title. it means nothing to state this, without explaining it.

 so, i choose to just explain it the way i understand it from prehistory. they as i said were like the cat in the coral reefs. there are certainly other predators in the reef as well, groupers,squid,tuna,barracuda,eels and octopus are examples. the thing is, sharks are their predator as well. not much will go after a grouper.any major upset of the ecology of the coral reefs will spell the end of them as well. yes, if the shark is gone, the ones the Chinese are killing off, are all mostly medium sized sharks, that are imperative to the healthy maintaining of the reefs. you can pretty much count the end of a lot of things when sharks are gone . this is exactly what paleontology learns and deals with. so, with history of the earth written in rocks, we know that a screwed up ecology in coral reefs equals, end of reef.

 an example of what i mean is, the condition that exists in some segments of the Japanese water. it is void of oxygen ,( one thing that may happen). as a result jellyfish are the apex hunter there. not very much else can survive there. with no predator to cull off the weak or diseased, the potential for disease increases and it goes downhill from there.This is the kind of effect that we witness with city pigeons and birds and house cats that are allowed to roam outside. the genetics of the pigeons is messed up because nothing can take that screwed up source away. it is called synurbanization and is a very real problem for us and the animals involved.sharks eat the majority of phytoplankton and the predators of phytoplankton. this will potentially create a ice age effect over time due to the amount of gas that is not being recycled by the prey. it actually will create the opposite of global warming. as the Japanese continue to kill off the species that is around the areas they are near, other ones will come in to replace that ecological niche. as a result it is just going to end up eradicating more and more species of shark. then, that is the end. really. this kind of stuff is exactly what happened with the previous mass extinctions, only difference is, it isn’t nature and therefore no animal can evolve a better state to deal with it. our technology will always out do animals and further , it would take roughly thousands of years till any evolution would be able to contend with recognizing the sonar and whatever else means we use. so basically, these ingrates, who have no idea about earth are providing the very real possibility for the end of this era.
 sharks are more then necessary for the well being of this planet. without them, we will be at extreme risk. even the opposition, whales, which eat phytoplankton and the predators of phytoplankton are at risk. so once again the world, with all this knowledge just turns a blind eye and stupidly thinks it is untouchable. that for some reason living in a middle of the metropolis protects them from the earth.honestly, i cant understand us humans , why we seem to think there is justification in the destruction of earth and subsequently life as we know it for the purpose of gaining wealth. money is not even an existing reality, we earn money, which can be anything from a loaf of bread to a car. it doesn’t even exist till we make it exist and then it becomes whatever we want it. we cant buy back a species of animal that is so magnificent that it has survive two mass extinctions . money can not make it suddenly reappear. but apparently it can make it disappear.from elephants, a surviving sentient species from the ice age, to polar bears and sharks, whales,primordial cultures of humans in a foraging tribal setting and well heck just about anything we humans feel looks good,tastes good or claim has magical properties is on the hit list. it shocks me. does everyone think that what we learn in paleontology is a joke or an opinion?
 to wit, we do know for sure there was three mass extiction, we also know that the last one was not only because of the metoer strike. the other two we haveonly theory. but real evidence to support the existing theory. will the human race be the cause of the 5 th mass extinction on earth? is this our legacy? i really cant say, i can say that as long as we do nothing, letting these japanese kill off the sharks that we pretty much are on that road. personally, i dont want to be part of a species remembered as the one that killed the earth. i kind of want to go in the opposite direction. i guess i am funny that way.

 Truth is a funny creature. It can take many forms and have only one effect. This proves to be conflicting when it comes to the impression and perceptions of our species and its view of the universe. Truth is universal and intimate to the individual selves that experience it. It becomes disjointed and often misled, because truth is an energy that remains impartial and at the same time exact. The elastic nature of it alone confuses most people into thinking that they own  or in some way possess truth where other people do not. This factor alone is a major source of conflict and pain in the world of humankind since the ability to communicate became refined. The action that i am doing now for instance, writing , is an expression of how truth, based on human perception can influence and create the illusion of connection to the universe. Writing was originally created to keep tally of the trade deals that were going on when agriculture first began. it was a way of seeing how much was owed and who was being dishonest. the earliest artifacts that contain writing have been deciphered to represent the spreadsheets of modern day accountants. That is why much of the ‘letters’ of ancient alphabets show or depict animals and other forms of produce. so, centuries long after the original use of words and written language was created, the written language has become a perception of truth,depending on a person’s private interpretation of truth. for instance, some of you may not accept what i just said and you may actually dismiss it’s validity. suits me fine, i mean i took archeology, it is after all a part of anthropology. meaning, it is true regardless of what anyone thinks or not, but here is what i am trying to show, it is still questioned regardless.

 Which is fine, the freedom to question anything that is of the human mind and rhetoric is a privilege which we humans endeavor to participate and share exclusively. It is after all just an extension of our ability to recognize connection and harmony within the universe that we perceive.What i mean is we all have to participate in order to fully define the universe we are in and, if a person maintains an open approach they can perceive a full picture of an element within existence through the positive and negative. the best way to understand this is through the idea of a vacuum, which can only exist if there is a container. so there is the inside and the outside, both of which depending on a person’s vantage define the shape and therefore the existence of the vacuum. many social issues we face these days are constructed this way in our minds, with our minds borrowing from both sides to complete the vision of the object which we , individually conceive as truth. These statements can permute into conditional arguments which go either direction but originate from a single statement or question. gay marriage, same sex families,abortions and even the concept of self defense can easily be shown to display exactly what i am saying here. however, the intimate nature of the thought involved and subsequent deduction which results into the solution, based on personal vision or perception of the object in question sometimes results in denial. such is the nature of human thought, which can have a positive effect in reality.

 universal truth exists outside the control of the human mind. we find this problematic. for centuries we have attempted to either control or in some way communicate with it. from the great diviners like Nostradamus or even the religious text of the christian faith called revelations, all the way to the horoscope and fanciful conceptions of spiritualism that exist in modern times, we have not allowed the possibility of being at the whim of truth, universal to stray far from us. Some of these dogma are passive and others are aggressive. but either way, they remain subjective. which is not all that surprising for an animal that is predominantly a master of subjective interpretation. it makes sense, when we are unconsciously aware of the passage of the sun at differing times of the year and arrival or departure of migrating animals. the sense of knowing just kind of dawns on us. how many of you are truly surprised when the first days of spring arrive? we , watch nature exclusively and intricately even in our modern times. yet socially amongst ourselves practice the belief of being in control and often even stating that we are in tune with it.

 human behavior is probably the first science that ever truly existed. we have body language which is genetically a language that is ingrained inside of us. each of us , so in tune with it , that we have physiological changes occur unconsciously inside of us regardless of our own thoughts. it is unavoidable and can not be controlled naturally, only manipulated . such was the understanding of the ancients. they attempted to try and impart an ideological foundation for both understanding and based on cultural differences what their society and its rituals conceive as good and bad. religions, for the most part are the first attempt to try and understand or acknowledge this reality in human existence. hence the attractiveness of eastern philosophy and the moral stories of Aesop. these and many other scriptures purport a sense of order and balance that in the long part utilized the foundation of what once was animism and our connection to the nature and the presence of the human self within. even the folk tales of brer rabbit, which originated from timeless African myths, had nature acting out various caricatures with human attributes. the christian bible, also has many references to human behavior and supposed outcomes.Sodom and Gomorrah for example represent a type of moral lesson which under the guise of religion is just a segment of the statement of what can only be considered as the first attempts to somehow understand the truth of humans and nature. if one expands objectively, the whole enterprise of religion and its effect on the earth both human and natural , is really just an experiment of mixed truths and their perception being forced upon a naive population. it displays the perversions of the human race and its potential for destruction exclusively.

 What i love about science is simple. science wants to be wrong. it really does. i want to be wrong more then i want to be right. i want to be able to explore forever the universe and learn it’s secrets. i don’t ever want to know everything. true science is never about answers, it is about greater questions.because true science is about the human race and its intimate communication with the universe. scientists let the universe tell us its story. religion is an ancient attempt at a single form of science , behaviorism , that was built upon second hand observation and had socially imposed mores enforced within it’s conclusion. it was never about discovery, it was about compliance. how can i say this? because, like i said, archeology is part of my science. basically the story is typical for any civilization. it revolves around trade. when we humans finally figured out how to bring water to the crops , we had finally solved a lot of basic problems. however, this was still during stone age and well, not everyone was gifted at making stone tools (for example). most fertile valleys or land was obviously becoming more populated either by campaigns or simply moving there. the demand for artisan and tradesmen became more stronger. so the answer was to make a central spot, where the tradesman and artisans would more or less live and dedicate their talents towards producing the tools and wares that people wanted. however not being able to tend to their own farms and keep up with the demand proved to be a problem. so it was incorporated that a donation soon to become  tax when money became norm.since not everyone was game to this ideal two forms of enforcement came into fashion, the regional warlord who would represent later the legal standard and the religious leader who incorporated a form of socialized behavior control through fear of the unknown and loose manipulation of human behaviors both instinctual and social. ancient Egypt is an example of this concept going into extremes, where for instance they were intent on getting the best of what each area had to offer through trade and conquest. so dedicated to this ideal were they, that the Greeks , who had little fertile land had a trade of warriors. it really all comes down to that simple concept. this is the way it has been since then, through history , even in modern times, when a person investigates the source for most social unrest, the underlying cause always comes to a form of trade issue.

 we created walls, which kept the wild animals outside our vision, reinforcing our sense of control of what we believed to be true. within the walls, we recreated the jungle and manifest a human perception of the jungle. to this day, we are constantly recreating the jungle of our minds into the present reality of our existence.believing it is universally true, because within our walls we can make it appear true. what i mean is, if you were to investigate the social norms of say the 1800′s and then the ones that exist now, no matter how different both in belief and perception, each in their respective age created a positive influence on the environment they existed in. the industrial revolution largely was a concern for most visionaries for this very reason, they for instance feared that we would lose touch with our natural selves. mary shelley herself was one such person. who wrote Frankenstein as a type of declaration against the advent of technology. she never described the monster being born from electricity and machines, she actually described the monster being born from alchemy and being born on a stormy night. the movies sadly left that out and wrongly depicted her true message. even Eisenhower in his goodbye speech warned about the control such technology would and most certainly has on us, when he declared that the military industrial complex had pretty much gained so much control, that we as a people had to do something about it. this fell onto deaf ears, just like mary shelleys similar type of warning. belief, faith and behavior as manipulated by the years of religious abuse of human behavior has had its impact. we stand at this moment, as a species, just starting to realize the extreme effect such careless behavior has had on the earth. not knowing what to do, not knowing who to believe.not knowing that  we are seeing the outside of the vacuum or the inside , just beginning to recognize the shape.

 when Rene Descartes had left his home , in a form of self imposed exile to the Swedish queen. he knew absolutely through word of his friend Galileo what would happen when he disclosed his world changing thesis. the scientific method was created as a way of discerning the truth. he knew what would happen with the church when he released it. so , he first used it to prove the most profound words of modern time cognito ergo sum or i think therefore i am. basically what it means is, he had worked out a premise that went like this. what if my god is really a devil and i have been misled all my life? how do i know who i am. he then proceeded to use his method of removing all plausible doubt, by investigating all possible elements he could think of that would play a part in perception of self. for example he stated that the senses are not indicative of self because senses lie, optical illusions can exist therefore he couldn’t trust exclusively the sense of sight. he even worked out dreams and instinct this way all the way down to one last common denominator, he realized that his thoughts were his own, that he, is the product of his thoughts. hence, i think therefore i am. then, he was fearful of prosecution of the church , so he quickly and not as effectively proved the existence of the christian god , using fallacy of circular reasoning and other lesser critical reasoning. he figured, that this would not get the church after him.released the thesis and the world was changed ever since.

from his dissertation, Darwin was able to work out the process of evolution,newton was able to work out gravity and practically every science had a real and substantial way of effectively existing in the universe of humanity. he gave humanity the ability to look at the universe and ask questions. to find truth, which can not be dissuaded unless a greater truth were uncovered or the opposing truth can be demonstrated.his gift, allowed us to finally question the universe and to finally listen to the universe openly. which is what we have been wanting all along. the church was threatened so much that it went and has been on a total disinformation campaign since. many people for instance don’t know that Darwin was as devote believer in his religion as his science. his private beliefs versus his incredible deciphering of the universal truth are in no way conflicting. he simply was in a state we humans used to be in. witnessing the universe and accepting it on its terms. our debt to Descartes, who facing the terrible affliction of pneumonia and his old age had felt so strongly about his gift to us, had exiled himself from his native country of birth and braved the cold winter nights freezing and living in a shack. so important that this brilliant mathematician, who also gave us the Cartesian map method, risked his life and prestige against the religious dogma, to give us the tool to question the universe and the means to decipher it’s answer. we owe everything to him, when it comes to modern thought and how we approach the world. now if only we can use it right.

  MEMORIES IN A DARK NIGHT

  Coffee is a pseudo religious experience for those who appreciate it. Even instant coffee can have euphoric effects if imbued under maintained self prescribed levels. Caffeine and its psychoactive propriety towards conversation are legendary. I wanted to have a special coffee, at the coffee store near where I live. So once there and with the cup of desired elixir in my hand I took a seat with a lady I met in passing from a previous well intentioned outing. ‘Hello Donna, mind if I join you?’ she beckoned acquiescence and began to tell me her daily planned scheduled roster. The last item was talk to her lawyer, ‘I got to make sure I am home for his call.’ Coffee, coursing it’s intellectually “symbiant” form through my veins caused me to ask simple why?

  She is finally of great hope that she will get full custody of her 13 year old son. It has been a hellish ride for her. This maternal victory is a great inspiration for her. Which is great, I mean I totally agree, however, when she trailed words of the father participation and I heard the ‘brainwashing him (son)’, I kind of perked my inner ear up. I have heard that before. She took her leave and my mind was racing to events in my past, this need I had when I was younger at 30 to write a story. I felt I had to convey back then. It was something and an awareness I never really acquitted. The remainder of that caffeine effervescence was spent isolating the fiction from the truth back in those days.

  That night, I was remembering phantasms of old days. The two old lovers of mine that I would spend hours listening to when they would relate their trauma of the exe boyfriend and their incurring abuse regarding the children that the union of those two adults had been awarded. Grace is an unmerited gift, to some, and grace sometimes comes hidden amongst angst and trial. The next morning I informed Donna that I intend to write a story that I have wanted to write for a very long time. That if she would participate, I think I can pull this off. She wholeheartedly agreed and I set off on this journey with voice voices and my willingness to listen.

MEDIUM HAWIAN PLUS OLD ROCK, DASH OF REMINISCING

  A few days went by and I went to see Donna. We ordered a pizza and she put on a classic rock station. The day was cloudy but patches of blue shone through. It was time. Donna ate a slice and sat on the couch across from me. Relaxed and began her story.

 Her son’s father was a heavy substance abuser. The way of life previous to the breakup was therefore highly erratic. He did however manage to keep a roof and food in the fridge for them. Concerns such as drinking and driving were common plagues of her mind every time he went out with their son. The fear of never knowing what would happen, compounded by the natural parental need to protect their child caused a obsessive fear alone. There was one episode of physical abuse, witnessed by the son and verbal abuse carried from the start to well beyond the separation. Even with a daily life raked with the chaotic nature of a practicing substance abuser, she still strung on to the security of the family unit. The breakup came from his desire to expand on his joyride lifestyle.

  The Stones played Jumping jack flash, while I watched the steamy mozzarella stretch, I asked ‘Did you ever bring this up to the court?’

  ‘Once he even admitted to her lawyer that he was a drug and alcohol abuser. It was the last court date. He was questioned by her lawyer outside as too why he didn’t pay the child and spousal support, equaling 2200 a month. He was negligent up to this court date. He used that as his excuse.’ Then she added, they wanted a criminal records check on each of us. She was fairly secure in this, as she had no record; in fact she was once an active worker in the security and surveillance industry. The exe who had a criminal record proved apparently non consequential towards the son at the age of 12 deciding that he wanted to go live with his father. She was wholly dependant on the exe for roof and food at time of separation, and he was practically non active towards raising the son. [The financial problem of one of the parents is fairly common in separations; the courts would take that into a serious account which is why I found it interesting that she initially had custody.]

  (Six slices left, the Eagles were playing hotel California in the background.) When her son decided on his own elective at the age of 12 to go live with the father, is when the real problems that would be prevalent throughout the years of spousal separation would become an active part of her life. Donna explained that ‘she really had nothing against this, she figured that he may as well go and live there and get it over with now, instead of doing it later on in life’. [Concerns of the father’s lifestyle sponsored this]. In effect she felt that he would find out on his own.’ Her son began to exhibit violent reactivity to her and was beginning to be verbally abusive’. Each visit she claims was going downhill. She surmised that he was seeing the way the father was talking about her at the father’s residence and was transferring this to her. Of note is the fact that her son suffers from ADHD and a mild developmental delay.

  Even know this diagnosis of her son is recent, it displays two factors about the situation that her son was in. The father as a substance abuser was in no way capable of effectively tending to their son’s special needs nor was he even compelled to try and find what out the problem with his son was. Adhd is a very obvious and extrovert disorder by way of behaviors displayed and would be kind of hard not to notice something is wrong. Donna even know she was living in separation and was at whim of whenever the father decided that the son should visit, still cared so much for the son , and what she witnessed in his behavior on the visitations, that she had the behavior looked at. She was taking him to a psychologist as far back as 3 or 4 years ago. when he was prescribed Ritalin  she was not convinced that the diagnosis and the drug prescribed was helping the child, she went further and got more information and resulted in the diagnosis he has now.[Of note he was taking Benedryl, at the time of this writing. Which when I was younger I was prescribed for hyperactivity, when I told her this, she said ‘oh they gave him that for beestings.’]

  (Wild thing faded out as I sipped a gulp of pop to chase the last of a crust and gestured to her to take the last slice.)’ her son was very sad when he realized to some degree how he was treating her. Donna wasn’t convinced that it was his true feelings and asked him to explain to her in his own writing. He produced a handwritten document disclosing an aggressive attempt by the father, where he was dictated by the father to countermand anything that would prove against or antagonist to the Donna’s attempt to raise her son in a social and moral manner. She related to me a quote where he informed that the father had deliberately told him not to go to school if she told him too and many things like that which in her summary was to ‘destroy her life’. Donna admitted to me that she had reached near suicidal thoughts as a result of the father’s commitment to vandalize her effect on her son as parental figure. Things are different now, her son is showing good improvement and she is highly confident that she is getting full custody. We sat and talked for awhile about nostalgia on the radio and I smiled to her and thanked her for letting me write her story. Pizza in belly and questions rebound in my head. I went home and tried to digest both as I listened to Vivaldi’s seasons.

CLEANING MY PLACE AND FINDING CHANGE

(I woke up this morning after a few days and realized my place was a disaster. It was a strangely logical form of chaos. Where the piles of papers and the forgotten artifacts of fancy were stationary but in some way sensible)

  As I have said, I have heard the stories before from different voices and different actors in this unnerving drama of life. Almost always I was left with this feeling of why wasn’t anything done about it. I remember an exe lover of mine telling me virtual horror stories which unfortunately are referenced by my memory. I also have a male friend that I wish I could contact for a balance but he is hard to contact and I am not sure he would participate as memories are hard for some to revisit. in an attempt to achieve an objective view and to possibly draw a rational thread through the stuff that has been related to me. I began a search for a legal viewpoint. Since law is representative of our society. It surely has a vantage of objectivity. [This is where it gets interesting.]

  (From the kitchen and the main room to the bedroom, I was seeking a systematic judgment on how to effectively begin cleaning.) The first thing that must be pointed out is there is an awareness that truly exists about this type of situation although it deals mostly with the initial custody disputes and the time within that event. There once was a man named Socrates who used the same methods of debate to find truth, in ancient Greece. When the sophists appeared, he was accused of being one of them. It resulted in his trial and ultimately his death. Sophists seek only to win the argument. Here is where the similarity of the task of the typical lawyer comes into play. They are required to effectively advocate for their client to the best of their ability in respect to the individual parents need. However, such zealous single motive seems to over look a serious condition or it turns out the prospective long term affect of what can potentially be wrong is overlooked. Although I wouldn’t be suspect of intentional wrongdoing, [even Socrates said no human intentionally does wrong.] I began to see this strange form of tennis match in my imagination. The two players are the parents, the net is the child and the referees were the court. The only time that it was a smoothly operating game was when both opponents play the game through. The net hardly ever gets hit. Only it looks like the net is constantly being hit by one player. Every time the volley from the opposition was sent, the one player would smack it straight into the net. The natural course of the game would be constantly stopped and constantly restarted. The refs would call foul or ‘in’ not understanding the desire of the one opponent trying to explain that the contestant was intentionally messing the flow of the game. The net was constantly being barraged and constantly soaking the intent of the non compliant player. What else can be said? The net soaks the violence and the meanness of the effort of the non compliant player. The ref can only pay attention to the players it seems and the focus is only on the damage of the net, when it strikes absolutely on the net.

  In order for what I am about to refer too, to be admissible in court, the theory of psychology that would definitely encompass this must be recognized as a syndrome. I read a scathing dissention of a female activist in regards to the hopefully soon to be named disorder, which is really not accountable. see, I have a very close relative that suffers from a potentially life debilitating disorder and this relative has told me how even to this day its not recognized wholly. The beloved relative’s disorder is now known as multiple personality syndrome One year it was called a disorder the next it was a syndrome, the medical community as well of the psychological community accepts it then discards it. Yet, when I last checked I think it was declared a disorder. The one that pertains to this type of topic is called parental alienation syndrome.

DEFINITION AND CONCLUSION

  The reader should know that I am by no way an authority on this subject; I am as you are someone that has and had questions. So, what I relate here is not intended to say that donna has or is suffering any of the stuff which I am about to disclose. Only, it can maybe explain the one pertinent question which I have wondered for years on end. Why wasn’t anything done about it? Well, it turns out that there was a man named R A Gardener that recognized some serious behavior traits identifiable with children of a select problematic separation. He noted the seemingly untoward assailment of the child towards a particular parent and realized there was a form of brainwashing happening. He was a highly skilled child psychologist and was certainly of credential to recognize this sad situation. He devised a theory regarding the effect of a parent that was enabling and enforcing the child to become an extension of his/her hate towards the other parent. “This emotional and psychological form of child abuse, whereby the child participates in the denigration campaign by lashing out at the targeted parent, developed a name for itself about 25 years ago and that acronym is PAS, standing for Parental Alienation Syndrome.”

  That quote was supplied by Dean Tong, whom I contacted during the writing in an attempt to find out why this type of thing can go on. His quote is right on the money too. I recognized it as a form of child abuse way before I was writing it. See, the premise of it being a form of child abuse is fairly simple to understand. First, you see, the child has every right to think of the other parent in equal and same terms as the other one. In fact it is a true right. I have thankfully read some court cases where at least one judge declared it an abuse. The child has the right, unequivocally to consider each parent as a verifiable and studious figure. When, there is one parent that is constantly denigrating (read that as constantly destroying the reputation) of the other parent. The child’s rights are being violated .this is a serious concept. I speculate that even worse can come from this type of involvement, such as, the teaching of the ability to exhibit hate freely to the world or target. Not a good practice.

 Mr. Tong also supplied me with this insight, which may explain it a little better. “The case law that governs the admissibility of science and expert testimony in America is Frye or Daubert, the former requires the theory (PAS in this discussion) to be reliable, valid and “generally accepted by the entire scientific community.” Obviously, because of its controversiality PAS has not met the legal standard in many states and as such is oft rejected by judges. In Canada, the legal standard is Mohan or Mohan Hearing. Although PA(S) is a legitimate form of emotional and psychological child abuse I have never witnessed one case where Child Protective Services (CAS in Canada) has removed a child from the alienator for same. Clearly, because most mothers are targeted as alienators and fathers recipients of said alienation, gender-laden “experts” offer confirmatory biased views against PA(S). It’s ironic, too, because these same “experts” who talk down of PA(S) talk highly of Battered Women’s Syndrome and try and ignore Munchausen Syndrome By Proxy (MSBP), or Factitious Disorder by Proxy (FDP) – Ostensibly, because like in cases of PA(S), many more mothers than fathers are guilty of committing FDP.”

  His comment is not biased in the least. It deals with the fact that there is a bias that existed somewhat at one time, as a result of feminist movements in the 60’s and 70’s. Ironically before that time, males would be given custody, a tradition that apparently went as far back as early Greece. The feminists striving for equal rights (justifiably so) managed to dissolute that, so the rule of thumb was unwritten, but mother’s would most likely get custody. When this happened, the originator of the parental alienation syndrome had only a majority of females and little males to study as far as the prospectus of the disorder was concerned. See, it was just signs of the times. There were at his time more females with custody. That is the only significance for the female/male concept. However, this incredible gender war has been going on since the conception of the parent alienation syndrome.

  We see adults fighting back and forth and a seemingly valid premise, stripped of gender but applicable in roles of custodian vs. non custodian parent seems lost. The courts both deny the possibility, while they wait to see if the dsv-II (a form that APA uses to designate disorders) is released in 2010 actually accounts for the parental alienation syndrome. Thing is, I am wondering why, even if it is not recognized ad pro, why, if the chance or remotely possibility exists, doesn’t the courts take it into account?

  Why indeed. There is much to write and I can’t really effectively demonstrate the entire scope of this form of child abuse. So, I trust awareness is supplied to some, of you, so that you will go look it up. It was suggested by a friend that both parents don’t necessarily know how to be a good parents, she suggested that it should be mandatory that the two parents take classes after the separation. It should be part of the legal precedent in an effort to protect the child; it is definitely a good idea.