Douglas Adams - Almost Harmless Nothing travels faster than the speed of light with the possible exception of bad news, which obeys its own special laws.

The history of the Galaxy has got a little muddled, for a number of reasons: partly because those who are trying to keep track of it have got a little muddled, but also because some very muddling things have been happening anyway.

One of the problems has to do with the speed of light and the difficulties involved in trying to exceed it. You can’t. Nothing travels faster than the speed of light with the possible exception of bad news, which obeys its own special laws. The Hingefreel people of Arkintoofle Minor did try to build spaceships that were powered by bad news but they didn’t work particularly well and were so extremely unwelcome whenever they arrived anywhere that there wasn’t really any point in being there.

So, by and large, the peoples of the Galaxy tended to languish in their own local muddles and the history of the Galaxy itself was, for a long time, largely cosmological.

Which is not to say that people weren’t trying. They tried sending of f fleets of spaceships to do battle or business in distant parts, but these usually took thousands of years to get anywhere. By the time they eventually arrived, other forms of travel had been discovered which made use of hyperspace to circumvent the speed of light, so that whatever battles it was that the slower than-light  fleets had been sent to fight had already been taken care of centuries earlier by the time they actually got there. This didn’t, of course, deter their crews from wanting to fight the battles anyway. They were trained, they were ready, they’d had a couple of thousand years sleep, they’d come a long way to do a tough job and by Zarquon they were going to do it.

This was when the first major muddles of Galactic history set in, with battles continually re-erupting centuries after the issues they had been fought over had supposedly been settled. However, these muddles were as nothing to the ones which historians had to try and unravel once time-travel was discovered and battles started pre-erupting hundreds of years before the issues even arose. When the Infinite Improbability Drive arrived and whole planets started turning unexpectedly into banana fruitcake, the great history faculty of the University of MaxiMegalon finally gave up, closed itself down and surrendered its buildings to the rapidly growing joint faculty of Divinity and Water Polo, which had been after them for years.

Which is all very well, of course, but it almost certainly means that no one will ever know for sure where, for instance, the Grebulons came from, or exactly what it was they wanted. And this is a pity, because if anybody had known  anything about them, it is just possible that a most terrible catastrophe would have been averted - or at least would have had to find a different way to happen.

- Speed of Light, Douglas Adams, Almost Harmless, Bad news,

How to Negotiate Effectively - David Oliver

Negotiation is never about digging our heels in.
. . . . .  .
 A number of possibilities exist about the way we view the negotiation process. The moderately aggressive stance is where we look out primarily for a strong gain for ourselves. The win-win concept is where we look for our best interests, if served well, can often serve ours even better. To be effective, both parties must feel they have won.

How to Negotiate Effectively - David Oliver

- Negotiations,

Counting Coop: Woodcraft and Indian Lore Earnest Thomspon

HEAD BAND
Each brave needs a head band This holds his feathers as they are won and his scalp if he wears one is fastened to it behind It consists of a strip of soft leather long enough to go around the head and overlap by two inches it is fastenedat the rear with a lace through the four holes like the lace of machine belting A bead pattern ornaments the front and it may be finished at each side in some broader design It is the foundation for the warbonnet and has places for twenty four feathers two eagle tails See Warbonnet later The feathers are made of white quill feathers the tip dyed dark brown or black a leather loop is lashed to the quill end of each to fasten it on to the head band Each feather stands for an exploit and is awarded by the Council An oval of paper is glued on near the high end This bears a symbol of the feat it commemorates If it was Grand Coup or High Honor the feather has a tuft of red horsehair lashed on the top

WARBONNET OR HEADDRESS ITS MEANING

The typical Indian is always shown with a warbonnet or warcap of eagle feathers Every one is familiar with the look of this headdress but I find that few know its meaning or why the Indian glories in it so In the days when the Redman was unchanged by white men's ways every feather in the brave's headdress was awarded to him by the Grand Council for some great deed usually in warfare Hence the expression a feather in his cap These deeds are now called coups pronounced coo and when of exceptional valor they were grand coups and the eagle's feather had a tuft of horsehair or down fastened on its top Not only was each feather bestowed for some exploit but there were also ways of marking the feathers so as to show the kind of deed Old plainsmen give an exciting picture in Indian life after the return of a successful war party All assemble in the Grand Council lodge of the village First the leader of the party stands up holding in his hands or having near him the scalps or other trophies he has taken and says in a loud voice Great Chief and Council of my Nation I claim a grand coup because I went alone into the enemy's camp and learned about their plans and when I came away I met one of them and killed him within his own camp Then if all the witnesses grunt and say Hul or Howl Howl So it is so the Council awards the warrior an eagle feather with a red tuft and a large red spot on the web which tell why it was given The warrior goes on I claim grand coup because I slapped the enemy's face with my hand thereby warning him and increasing the risk before I killed him with my knife A loud chorus of Howl Howl Howl from the others sustains him and he is awarded another grand coup I claim grand coup because I captured his horse while two of his friends were watching Here perhaps there are murmurs of dissent from the witnesses another man claims that he also had a hand in it There is a dispute and maybe both are awarded a coup but neither gets grand coup The feathers are marked with a horseshoe but without a red tuft The killing of one enemy might according to Mallery 4 Ann Eth p 184 confer feathers on four different men the first second and third to strike him and the one who took his scalp After the chief each of the warriors comes forward in turn and claims and is awarded his due honors to be worn ever afterward on state occasions All awards are made and all disputes settled by the Council and no man would dream of being so foolish as to wear an honor that had not been conferred by them or in any way to dispute their ruling In the light of this we see new interest attach to the headdress of some famous warrior of the West when he is shown with a circle of tufted feathers around his head and then added to that a tail of one hundred or more reaching to the ground or trailing behind him We know that like the rows of medals on an old soldier's breast they are the record of wonderful past achievements that every one of them was won perhaps at the risk of his life What wonder is it that travelers on the plains to day tell us that the Indian values his headdress above all things else He would usually prefer to part with his ponies and his teepee before he will give up that array of eagle plumes the only tangible record that he has of whatever was heroic in his past

PLENTY COUPS

 I remember vividly a scene I once witnessed years ago in the West when my attention was strongly directed to the significance of the warbonnet I was living among a certain tribe of Indians and one day they were subjected to a petty indignity by a well meaning ill advised missionary Two regiments of United States Cavalry were camped near and so being within the letter of the law he also had power to enforce it But this occurrence was the last of a long series of foolish small attacks on their harmless customs and it roused the Indians especially the younger ones to the point of rebellion A Grand Council was called A warrior got up and made a strong logical appeal to their manhood a tremendously stirring speech He worked them all up and they were ready to go on the warpath with him to lead them I felt that my scalp was in serious danger for an outburst seemed at hand. But now there arose a big square jawed man who had smoked in silence He made a very short speech It was full of plain good sense He told them what he knew about the United States Army how superior it was to all the Indian tribes put together how hopeless it was to fight it and urged them to give up the foob sh notion of the warpath His speech would not compare with that of the other He had neither the fire nor the words he had not even the popular sympathy and yet he quelled the disturbance in his few sentences and as I looked there dawned on me the reason for his power While the gifted orator of the big words had in his hair a single untuf ted eagle feather the other the man with the square jaw had eagle feathers all around his head and trailing down his back and two feet on the ground behind him and every one of them with a bright red tuft of horsehair at its top and I knew then that I was listening to the voice of Plenty Coups the most famous chief on the Upper Missouri and I realized how a few words from the man of deeds will go further than all the stirring speeches of one who has no record of prowess to back up his threats and fiery denunciations Tail feathers of the war eagle were considered essential at one time but many others are now used I should be sorry to increase a demand which would stimulate pursuit of a noble bird already threatened with extinction Most of the big feather dealers have what are known as white quills These are wing feathers of swans and are sold at about 25 cents a dozen These when the tips are dyed brown make a good substitute for eagle feathers They are still more like if a little down from a white hen be lashed on.

- Woodcraft and Indian Lore, Feathers, Earnest Thompson Seton, Coop, HeadDress,

Painting is - Degas

Painting is easy when you don't know how, but very difficult when you do. 

Edgar Degas

-Art, Human Value, Doing, knowledge, Edgar Degas,

From photos and floor plans, I could write about what makes Rafe's project special. I could describe colors and light, fixtures and finishes. However, when I visited this house and sat in the living room with Rafe, I was less inclined to ask him about the design process or the trim details than I was to be quiet - to experience the house rather than deconstruct it. The building disappeared, and ease and joy settled in.
I could easily spend my time in this house, not because of the floor plan or the trim, but because it just feels right. Great design, too is a special transmission, outside the blueprints, with no dependence on fixtures and materials. It's no surprise that the designers themselves often can't explain what makes their work great.

Brian Potolilo, Design Editor
Fine Home Building Summer 2016 Editors Note

Alexander Solzhenitsyn on government

If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?
The Gulag Archipelago (1973).
In our country the lie has become not just a moral category but a pillar of the State.
As quoted in The Observer (29 December 1974).
Untouched by the breath of God, unrestricted by human conscience, both capitalism and socialism are repulsive.
In his interview with Joseph Pearce. "An Interview with Alexander Solzhenitsyn." St. Austin Review 2 no. 2 (February, 2003)

David Foster Wallace, This Is Water: Some Thoughts, Delivered on a Significant Occasion, about Living a Compassionate Life

Because here's something else that's weird but true: in the day-to day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. And the compelling reason for maybe choosing some sort of god or spiritual-type thing to worship—be it JC or Allah, be it YHWH or the Wiccan Mother Goddess, or the Four Noble Truths, or some inviolable set of ethical principles—is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive. If you worship money and things, if they are where you tap real meaning in life, then you will never have enough, never feel you have enough. It's the truth. Worship your body and beauty and sexual allure and you will always feel ugly. And when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before they finally grieve you. On one level, we all know this stuff already. It's been codified as myths, proverbs, clichés, epigrams, parables; the skeleton of every great story. The whole trick is keeping the truth up front in daily consciousness.

Change and staying the same N2

We will keep clear the distinction between “what we stand for” (which WILL never change) and “how we do things” (which should never stop changing).
N2 

New Perspectives - John James Audubon

pg 25Purple Finch
They frequently associate with the common Cross-Bills, feeding on the same trees, and like them are at times fond of alighting against the mud used for closing the log-houses. They are seldom seen on the ground, although their motions there are by no means embarrassed. They are considered as destructive birds by some farmers, who accuse them of committing great depredation on the blossoms of their fruit trees, I never observed this in Louisiana, where they remain long after the peach and pear trees are in full bloom. I have eaten many of them, and consider their flesh equal to that of any other small bird. Excepting the Rice Bunting.

Pg27 Bonaparte's fly-catcher
Monday, Agust 1301. - Lousiana - on arriving at the Cypress Swamp (about five miles from St. Francisville), I saw a great number of small birds of different species, and as I looked at them I observed to engaged in a fight or a quarrel. I shot at them, but only one fell. on reaching the spot, I found the bird was only wounded and saw it standing still and uprights as if stupified by its fall. When I approached it to pick it up, it spread its tail opened its wings and snapped it bill about twenty times sharply and in quick succession, as birds of the genus do when seizing insects on wing. I carried it home and had the pleasure of drawing it while alive and full of spirit. It often made off from my hand, by starting suddenly, and then would hop around the room as quickly as a Carolina Wren, uttering its tweet, tweet, all the while, and snapping its bill every time I took it up. I put it into a cage for a few minutes, it obstinately thrust its head through the lower parts of the wires. I relieved it from this sort of confinement and allowed it to go about the room, Next day it was very week and ruffled up, so I killed it and put it in ju spirits." to this account I have only to add, that I have not seen another individual since.

Pg 35 Purple Grakle or Common Crow-Blackbird
I could not think of any better mode of representing these birds than that which I have adopted, as it exhibits them in the exercise of their nefarious propensities. Look at them: The male, as if full of delight at the sight of the havoc which he has already committed on the tender, juicy, unripe corn on which he stands, has swelled his throat, and is calling in exultation to his companions to come and assist him in demolishing it. the female has fed herself, and is about to fly off with a well-loaded bill to her hungry and expectant brood, that, from the nest look on their [plundering parents, joyously anticipating the pleasures of which they shall ere long be allowed to participate. See who the husk is torn from the ear, and how nearly devoured are the grains of corn! This is the tithe our Blackbirds take from our planters and farmers; but it was so appointed, and such is the will of the beneficent Creator.

Ornithologic Biography volume 1

John James Audubon

April 26, 1785 – January 27, 1851

As a democracy is perfected - H.L. Mencken

 

As democracy is perfected, the office of the president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.
H.L Mencken 1880 -1956

- People, Politics, White House, democracy,

When I was a boy - Clarence Darrow

When I was a boy I was told that anybody could become president. I'm beginning to believe it.
Clarence Darrow 1857 - 1938

- President, Politics, politicians, congress,

Grief . . . . - Madeleine L'Engle

But grief still has to be worked through. It is like walking through water. Sometimes there are little waves lapping about my feet. Sometimes there is an enormous breaker that knocks me down. Sometimes there is a sudden and fierce squall. But I know that many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it.
- Madeleine L'Engle

by showing them a light that is so lovely that they want with all their hearts - Madeleine L'Engle

“We draw people to Christ not by loudly discrediting what they believe, by telling them how wrong they are and how right we are, but by showing them a light that is so lovely that they want with all their hearts to know the source of it.”


― Madeleine L'Engle