New Findings about Whale Behavior

A 25-year-old named Alberto Haro Romero, known as Beto, told me of something he saw a month earlier while kayaking off Cabo San Lucas. A group of southward-migrating gray whales were suddenly surrounded and attacked by a pod of pilot whales. Out of nowhere, a group of humpbacks — who, like grays, are baleen whales — appeared and began going at the pilot whales, a highly coordinated counterattack. “It was unbelievable,” Beto said. “One baleen whale coming in on the behalf of another. It was, like, tribal.”

link: Watching Whales Watching Us - NYTimes.com

[This is a lengthy and complex piece, fascinating all the way: strongly recommened. *TRH*]

Mother's 35: Miyako Ishiuchi

Michael Hoppen writes:

Miyako Ishiuchi was born in 1947 to a country whose culture had been infiltrated by the influence of the US servicemen living on the naval bases in major ports and cities during the military occupation post World War II. The presence of the western soldiers had a profound effect on Ishiuchi’s early childhood, and inspired her to produce her first body of work- ‘Yokosuka Story’. Miyako Ishiuchi was one of a renowned group of Japanese photographers, including Shomei Tomatsu and Daido Moriyama who confronted the trauma of post – war Japan and the dawning of a new era by using their cameras as tools to express, record and explore what it meant to be Japanese at this pivotal moment in history.

link: Michael Hoppen Contemporary - Artist - Miyako Ishiuchi - Miyako Ishiuchi - Mother's 35

Steven Hawking on the Evolution of Intelligence

Intelligence, Hawking believes contrary to our human-centric existence, may not have any long-term survival value. In comparison the microbial world will live on, even if all other life on Earth is wiped out by our actions. Hawking's main insight is that intelligence was an unlikely development for life on Earth, from the chronology of evolution: "It took a very long time, two and a half billion years, to go from single cells to multi-cell beings, which are a necessary precursor to intelligence. This is a good fraction of the total time available, before the Sun blows up. So it would be consistent with the hypothesis, that the probability for life to develop intelligence, is low. In this case, we might expect to find many other life forms in the galaxy, but we are unlikely to find intelligent life."

link: Stephen Hawking: Why Isn't the Milky Way "Crawling With Self-Designing Mechanical or Biological Life?"

O Arizona: Sheriff Joe's Understatement of the Year

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio vowed Friday to continue his immigration enforcement efforts even if he decides to opt out of a deal that gives 160 of his officers the power to enforce federal immigration law.

The U.S. Homeland Security Department said it was changing the rules for allowing local police to enforce those laws. Arpaio has been using those rules to arrest suspected illegal immigrants.

If he walks away from it, he said he will continue enforcing state laws that prohibit immigrant smuggling and ban employers from knowingly hiring illegal immigrants.

"I get the impression that they don't like the way we are operating," said Arpaio, who believes the changes in the program would hamper his immigration enforcement efforts.

link: Arpaio Vows More Immigration Enforcement - Phoenix News Story - KPHO Phoenix

Uighurs Gather At Mosques Despite Injunctions

Several mosques in the riot-hit Chinese city of Urumqi have opened for Friday prayers, countering earlier notices that all places of worship would be closed following clashes that left more than 150 people dead.

Mosques across the city, capital of China's far western Xinjiang region, had been ordered to close amid fears that large gatherings of ethnic Uighur Muslims could spark renewed unrest and clashes with the city's ethnic Han Chinese community.

Authorities had said the closures were for the sake of public safety and told Uighurs to pray at home.

However by midday on Friday large crowds had gathered at major mosques in the city.

link: Al Jazeera English - Asia-Pacific - Uighurs defy Urumqi mosque closure

Clair Morgan: Fluid

Coilhouse » Blog Archive » A Cloud Of Strawberries.

A Special Place in Hell: The Wicked Statesman

Artist unknown "The wicked statesman, or the traitor to his country, at the hour of death" 1772

link: MONSTER BRAINS

Cosmic: Breaking Open the Head

Phantasmaphile writes:

I just finished Breaking Open the Head by Daniel Pinchbeck, and I can honestly say it is one of the most fascinating books I have ever read. It is at once a history of the psychedelic movement, an exploration of shamanism, and an autobiographical spiritual narrative recounting the author's own mind-boggling experiences. I found myself underlining entire chunks of the book, as there were so many rich ideas which were either brand new to me or else entirely affirming of my own suspicions and views. I think I will leave it there, as it's far too brilliant and complex a book to sum up in just a few words, and I am frankly still digesting it. I will say that I did discover two of Pinchbeck's other projects, Reality Sandwich and Evolver, and have been delightedly poking around those two sites recently. Have a look.

link: Phantasmaphile: Breaking Open the Head