OT ~ Welcome to Saturday!

Sit-a-while
on swinging porch
where tin-dippers and
sweet water
in cool touches
meet lips
from hand dug wells.

Good morning good people!

Lovers
lay your hand on top of mime,
for a while
feel
come what may and May does spring
easing winter’s dull
unless you go downhill

Lay your hand on mine
time does very well.
"We don't stop playing because we grow old: we grow old because we stop playing." ~ George B. Shaw


Today's art: Psyche Revived by Cupid’s Kiss ~ Antonio Canova, 1793, Musée du Louvre in Paris
In Bed: The Kiss ~ Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, 1892

“A day spent without the sight or sound of beauty, the contemplation of mystery, or the search of truth is a poverty-stricken day; and a succession of such days is fatal to human life.”
~ Lewis Mumford

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mimi's picture

what is the meaning of the 7 in your name?

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An amazing book. Learn new things every few pages and they are really important things. For health, mental acuity, driving, cancer, heart disease, athletic performance, your hormones, etc.

I was getting tires rebalanced at COSTCO and I mentioned the book to the technician and he said he doesn't read. A man in his 40's. He said he would get the an audible book to listen to it because he learns better by hearing rather than reading.

I had previously watched a couple of videos of authors mentioned in the book but had not watched videos of the author of "Why We Sleep", Matthew Walker.

Here he is giving an one hour lecture

Matthew Walker: "Why We Sleep: The New Science of Sleep and Dreams"

I had earlier looked up two authors mentioned in the book and watched videos of them. I seem to get a better list of videos when I use my phone with the default Samsumg browser rather than a google search on my desktop computer. In any case, when I went back to the book to try and figure out who they were, there was so much in the book. In other words, the videos here are just a path to the book.

David Dinges Univ of Penn
David Dinges, PhD: Wakefulness in the 24/7 Society

Eve Van Cauter at Univ of Chicago
Interview with Dr. Eve Van Cauter at the CCB Symposium 2016

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mimi's picture

@DonMidwest
every person dreams and if they say they don't, it just means they have forgotten their dream?
I always sleep tight. I am never sleepless and I never dream. My sister says that's not true, I just forget my dreams. If she is right, then it means I am smart, because who wouldn't want to forget one's dreams, if they never come through? And yes, I am right, because she dreams a lot and is sleepless often and suffers under it. Well, she has reasons to have nightmares. So, I don't blame her.

Yeah, this life is one of the most difficult, isn't it?

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Mark from Queens's picture

@DonMidwest
This looks fascinating. The topic of sleep and dreams is one I would like to explore more, so I'm looking forward to this today.

Intuitively I think we understand the healing properties of sleep and the value of dreams. But I've always adhered personally to a belief that napping is the perfect antidote to stress, fear, anxiety. I always go into sleep mode when I feel the challenge ahead of me that day might possibly overwhelm me, and it recharges me. Just as the author says at the beginning of his speech, that you need sleep after but also before you learn something, in that case to be like a dry sponge ready to absorb. If I'm feeling anxiety about a big gig I'm about to play or something else, a nap always sort of recharges me by removing the anxiety, which refocuses me. Even if it's just a short while that I can shut my eyes, lie still and drift away in thought and possible fragmentary dream - that's usually sufficient, or at least better.

And dreams. Man, I've had really vivid dreams for as long as I can remember. Some themes reoccur, and some are so real or interesting that they're almost indelible in me. Just this morning I awoke again, with the most vivid of dreams, pulling together so many facets of my life, relationships, interests and hopes - and was about to write a quick synopsis of it, when I read this and excitedly came here instead. Weird thing for me is, those vivid dreams can stay with me all day, to an extent that when I go to bed that night I find I can still review that one, but then go off to the new one.

About sleep, especially in this shithole country. I always thought it was so detrimental that in our workplaces that our capitalistic, he-man, rugged individualist culture wouldn't even conceive of seeing fit to offer a dark room with a bed, pillows and relaxing environment for stressed, sick or overworked employees. You could just see all the reflexive derogatory RW cliches about laziness, living off the fat of the land, layabouts, etc. Capitalism drives all this garbage. Because we all know that everyone at one point or another needs a bit of comforting or relaxation in a world of relentless work, striving and competing. Mark Twain called himself the laziest man in the world and could be seen in bed most of the day, with newspapers, books and note pads (and of course cigars) strewn about the bedsheets. he didn't do too bad, did he?

More Bed-Ins, like John & Yoko did in Montreal! As I said once to a guy at a party who didn't think my socialist line of thinking, that suggested everyone wants the same things, was correct, as he inferred that people may want different amounts of different things: "Ok, but there are certain things everyone wants irrespective of that. Does anyone in the world not want a warm bed to sleep in at the end of the night? Let's just start there. But I could think of a hundred similar things that we as a society make sure not one person is without. That's what socialism means."

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"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:

THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"

- Kurt Vonnegut

@DonMidwest I posted this and someone provided to this link.

This is actually better than the other link I had because Terry discusses her own sleep and he responds to her questions rather than giving a lecture. Sorta like you had the chance to talk with him.

Sleep Scientist Warns Against Walking Through Life 'In An Under-Slept State'

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Mark from Queens's picture

@DonMidwest
I often wonder, and did so aloud to my doctor once, why the medical profession isn't more vested in something that takes up generally a third of our lives.

Seems that alone would have warranted a whole host of engagement (the importance of nutrition also), including teaching people how best to, what to avoid, etc.

What an upside down world we live in.

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"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:

THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"

- Kurt Vonnegut

I would really like to see a serious discussion of this approach.

Can anyone tell me why it is not worth $5 to try.

I gave hundreds to Bernie. I can trust these billboards.

I have never pushed anything here, but this looks so promising. They are at 468 contributions with goal of 800.

http://worldbeyondwar.org/billboards-opposing-drone-wars-going-syracuse-ny/

Now we’re putting these two images up on billboards in Syracuse, NY, where drone pilots participate in U.S. wars from Hancock Air Base:

For 8 hours a day for 16 days in March, these two images (antidrone ads) will be on either side of a billboard truck driving around downtown Syracuse and the University of Syracuse. Then, from April 2 to May 27 each image will be on two of the four stationary billboards located at 115 South Street, 700 East Washington Street, 1430 Erie Boulevard East, and 1201-1208 South Salina at Raynor Street. Then, from May 28 to July 22, one image will be on two and the other on one of three billboards at 700 East Washington Street, 909 East Genesee Street, and 1758 Erie Boulevard East.

Why Syracuse?

The Syracuse area hosts Hancock Air National Guard base where the Guard’s 174th Attack Wing conducts drone assassination and target identification missions using MQ-9 Reaper drones in Afghanistan and probably elsewhere. It has been announced that the numbers of drone operators being trained at Hancock will be doubled.

The billboard ads are being undertaken in the context of what amounts to a whiteout of information on drone and other air operations in Afghanistan. Pentagon reports on drone and other air attacks in other nations are inadequate at best, and these reports when they come have been inaccurate and have grossly under-reported casualties. The U.S. government has made no reports and taken no responsibility for the emotional devastation of drone attacks on children as well as adults, as documented by the Al Karama Foundation’s “Traumatising Skies.”

Syracuse is home to a creative and courageous group of activists who have done a great deal of public education already and who are continuing those efforts.

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mimi's picture

@irishking
and couldn't find one, because to me these days, I have an 'all of the above' kind of urge to resist whatever needs to be resisted. Drone wars needs to be resisted.

So, sure one can support them. I always admire those, who go on against all odds.

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@mimi

others make different points. http://worldbeyondwar.org/billboards/

thanks. I hope you will consider a contribution.

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riverlover's picture

@irishking in May. I'll try to remember to bring a camera to photograph a billboard. SYR is a strange place. Only an hour from me, but I rarely stop. Even though they have a Costco somewhere. Not into malls now, walking is variable. I do have canes, but still have not given up hope. I try walking without one. Stair climbing and descending is a gamble I take.

I grow weary of snow. And there is an icing event predicted for next week. I saw daff leaves emerging. My snowdrops always bloom or whatever under snow. I am buying rocks. An insurable quantity. No interest in jewelry-making but time will tell. Mostly they speak to me. A few honkers will live outside, on my septic tank lid, along with some erratic quartz that a glacier left here.

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Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.

@riverlover

thx.

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smiley7's picture

@riverlover

good to see you and i feel you as walking uphill is almost an impossible chore, legs splitting in pain from lack of 02. Thankfully, on skis, i can go downhill until the breath runs out. This aging with comorbidities ain't for the faint of heart, that's for sure...somedays!

C99 helps me, the camaraderie here soothes my soul as we all "keep on trucking."

Trusting the body to signal when to sit; best advice i know; take good care and again, congrats!

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We watched Cabaret recently and are working our way through some of our other favorites.

The word cabaret was first used in 1655.[1] It is derived from tavern probably from Middle Dutch cambret. The word cabaret came to mean "a restaurant or night club" by 1912.[2]

Cabarets existed in Paris in the 16th century; they were ancestors of the modern restaurant. Unlike taverns they sold wine not by itself but only with a meal, presented on a tablecloth. Customers might sing if they had drunk enough wine, but early cabarets did not have formal programs of entertainment. Cabarets were frequently used as meeting places for writers and artists. Writers such as La Fontaine, Moliere and Jean Racine were known to frequent a cabaret called the Mouton Blanc on rue du Vieux-Colombier, and later the Croix de Lorraine on the modern rue Bourg-Tibourg. In 1773 French poets, painters, musicians and writers began to meet in a cabaret called Le Caveau on rue de Buci, where they composed and sang songs. The Caveau continued until 1816, when it was forced to close because its clients wrote songs mocking the royal government.[3]

The Moulin Rouge was opened in 1889 by the Catalan Joseph Oller. It was greatly prominent because of the large red imitation windmill on its roof, and became the birthplace of the dance known as the French Cancan. It helped make famous the singers Mistinguett and Édith Piaf and the painter Toulouse-Lautrec, who made posters for the venue.

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mimi's picture

@randtntx
years old.
[video:https://youtu.be/2bmEDkIFq_E]
Haven't changed my mind. "I see gestures fighting with amongst themselves" ... lyrics you can't ignore.

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smiley7's picture

@mimi

leaving a flight of singing and music behind, not forgotten.

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@mimi she is one of my favorites too, I just love her.

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My CCC camp was in Yountville at the Veterans Home, we were the only camp without a kitchen and so had to eat pureed food with the old folks or drive in to town for a decent meal. We did not get the "board" part of "room and board", but the state still deducted $300 from every check. For me it was cool, I was a "hardship" case who got to go home every weekend to watch my mom die of cancer. Then she died and I quit the corps, shortly after that Reagan became precedent. Life in California has always been a public private bowl of cherry pits for me. One day at a time.
All 3 hostages and gunman die in armed attack on Yountville veterans home in Napa Valley

A decorated Army veteran with a high-powered rifle returned to the Veterans Home of California in Yountville, where he had recently been kicked out of a program for treatment of combat stress, and killed three mental health workers Friday, officials said.

He and the victims were found dead about 8 hours after he exchanged gunfire with a Napa County sheriff’s deputy, officials said.

The attack, just after 10 a.m., touched off a daylong lockdown at the nation’s largest veterans home, which occupies a sprawling 600-acre state campus. The victims died in a building where they worked with The Pathway Home, a private organization that helps traumatized veterans transition to civilian life.
...
We need to do everything we can to put a curb on gun violence,” said Thompson, a Vietnam war veteran. “We have to make sure that my colleagues in Washington, who have to date refused to do anything, get off the dime.”

Get off the dime and what? Send more troops to the middle east? Start bombing Russia's borders? Make war on Iran? Yeah, in D-Value land, Mike Thompson makes sense. "That's the system." Have a nice day.

Lord Chancellor's Nightmare Song

the end

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smiley7's picture

@eyo

sad in memories of the too many occasions i did the 'requiting.' Why does it take a lifetime to learn some lessons?

Cheers eyo and onward...

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smiley7's picture

to special comments from special people opening conversations; sharing! Thank you, All!

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smiley7's picture

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