Global Megalopolis

Of all the world's great cities, only four qualify as global.

Urban and technological infrastructure, political, economic and cultural assets and international projection with the ability to influence world affairs are the qualifying factors that set these four megalopolis apart from the rest.

London

New York

Paris

Tokyo

Shiloh Pepin, Mermaid Girl

SHILO PEPIN:

Google her name and learn of her amazing story, her courageous ongoing struggle due to her medical condition and her unyielding will to live and be normal

Mermaid

To Shiloh Pepin, for her courage and her amazing personality. Your presence in this word makes me a better person

Beautiful, freer child

your 'flippers' are wings

to the human soul,

your endurance

a testimony

to the human will

your magnificence

a claim

to your right

to exist.

A Wise Presidential Decision

Kudos to President Obama, his closest advisors and the Pentagon for deciding to scrap plans for a so called Missile Defense System based in Poland and the Czech Republic to "defend U.S. and allied positions and interests" against a hypothetic ballistic missile attack from Iran or North Korea.

These plans were part of the Bush-era preemptive and asymmetrical war scenario doctrines and were a contentious and thorny issue with Russia. So much so that U.S.-Russia relations regressed alarmingly during the Bush years to just a notch below Cold War status.

Russia feared –with plausible though disingenuous justification– that the system could be used against Russia itself at any given moment. It would have also signified –symbolically and geopolitically- the undeniable and openly defiant entry of the United States into Russia's own 'backyard' and 'natural' sphere of influence in Eastern Europe.

The governments of Poland and the Czech Republic have voiced concern and disappointment for this decision, though the Polish and Czech peoples were largely opposed to these plans for radar and missile deployment in their respective territories. They worried about the political, economic and military reprisals that a resentful and menaced Russian Federation could take against their governments for allowing such deployments.

NATO, Russia, the European Union and other world governments have expressed relief and have offered support for the measure. The governments of Britain, France and Germany –all NATO members and U.S. allies– have also issued public statements of support and praise for this decision.

Republicans in Capitol Hill, as expected, are hailing the change in foreign policy as a de facto 'capitulation' and a signal of 'weakness' towards Russia... I question how these very same Congresspeople would react if Russia were to announce missile system deployments –already happened in 1962– in Cuba, Mexico, Canada, or even Venezuela or Nicaragua... Or, further yet: is the United States willing to damage its all important global geopolitical relation with the Russian Federation or even willing to risk a nuclear exchange with Russia over Iran, Poland or the Czech Republic?

I don't think so. And neither do those very few and powerful supranational interests that move the threads and pieces of international relations and current global Realpolitik.

December 21, 2012: Doomsday?

The Mayan or Mesoamerican Long Count calendar ends (according to some calculations) on December 21, 2012.

Pseudo-theories and predictions dealing with what will happen on that date abound. They range from forecasting the dawning of a 'new age' and the gaining of a higher level of consciousness and grace by Humanity to the utter destruction of the planet by either electromagnetic pole reversal, by direct impact or cosmic influence of Planet X -known as Nibiru in esoteric and occultist circles- or by the unique planetary alignment that will supposedly take place at the center of our own galaxy, the Milky Way on that day.

Others still see this date as the Day of Judgement or the day the world goes up in flames in the Battle of Armageddon; yet some predict First Contact with an alien superhuman intergalactic species, perhaps the creators who promised to return...

Something to think about...

'Steel' a grand vision of modern France

Surprising many tourists and foreign visitors who envision France as a land of traditional well-preserved architecture, lavish palaces, manicured gardens, medieval castles and classical buildings and monuments, France shows the world its modern visage at La Défense District.

La Défense is the vibrant state-of-the-art concrete, steel and glass corporate, financial and business center just west of Paris. This elegantly planned urbanization of futuristic-looking and tall skyscrapers serves as proud, maverick France's domestic and international lettre de présentation showcasing its increasing economic, technological, entrepreneurial, geopolitical and military might in Europe and in the world.

Julie & Julia: a personal blog story

Julie & Julia (Sony Pictures, 2009) was the most immediate and pressing reason for me to start writing this blog a week ago. I simply ran out of reasons not to do it.

Thinking that writing a blog would be both very difficult and expensive, I resisted the idea for years, resigning myself to live in self imposed ‘silence’ as a writer. Somewhere in my mind I knew, however, that the true reason for that prolonged and stubborn resistance is the fact that I was (still am a little) fearful of net invisibility and rejection. I did not want to become a literary cyber ghost, someone writing facelessly into the vast, heavily trafficked, hectic and overly competitive void of cyberspace and its wondrously monumental and ever-evolving offspring: the internet.

But here I am, seven days later and some 50 postings later… and loving it! My creative and literary juices are flowing again and I know some curious and other friendly visitors have come to take a peek at my newly surfaced Island and to see (in the case of my friends and family) the end result of my tireless efforts in writing and choosing templates and widgets in my computer over the breakfast area table during the last few days.

Thank you beforehand and come back often to see how things are improving. It will only get better as my confidence and level of comfort writing in this new medium grow and I get a better sense of what makes my readers and myself ‘tic’ and what works and doesn’t work in the design and layout of the page.

Thank you Julie & Julia et al. Until next posting…

Bon appétit!

THE VERY TALENTED MR. KISSINGER

Brian S. Kissinger is the artist, creator and webmaster of the stunningly beautiful website VISUAL PARADOX, a tastefully and intelligently crafted and gallery-indexed depository of his magnificent and uniquely generated 3D art. The artwork (titled Isle by Kissinger) that identifies and embellishes this blog is one among hundreds of his 3D rendered masterpieces found there.

His works are simply breathtaking in subject and project execution. Don't just take my word for it. Visit his website and download some of his free wallpapers. He maintains the site by showing advertising at the top of each page you visit so please, make sure to view at least one advertiser so that he can keep this wonder of a website free of charge for all of us to enjoy the magic of his unparalleled 3D creations.

Please use the link reproduced herein: http://visualparadox.com/ or tap the link to his website on the sidebar of this blog under the heading Island World Links.

Humanness

Humanness is the quality, the abstraction, the fact and the act of being human.

Humanness sets up apart and ideally above all other known species in our ability to be sentient, act, react and interact with each other, the surrounding environment and members of other species. Humanness intuitively derives most of its manifestations and intellectual feedback from our capacity to feel and process those feelings at a subconscious level and how we project those very personal yet universal feelings onto others.

Our humanness prompts us to undertake and execute seemingly impossible acts of selflessness, bravery, defiance of our own physical abilities and heroism.

When a 110-pound mother is able to pick up a small truck and set it aside to save her offspring trap underneath it; that is humanness. When the firefighter risks his life to rescue a person in a burning structure and sometimes indeed gives his life in the process or after achieving his noble objective; that is humanness. When a small child holds and cuddles an injured animal and feels its pain and vulnerability and attempts to nurture it and heal it; that is humanness.

Sometimes, however, our humanness fails us miserably. Precisely because we are human and miscalculation and misjudgment are constant variants of our very frail humanity and social framework. Sometimes we think and behave in ways that unwillingly infringe upon other people’s humanness and we hurt their feelings though that was not remotely the original intention and all was done in the fun or spur of the moment.

Those moments invariably test the caliber, genuineness and depth of our true humanity. Feeling bad with and for the injured person is the right and only human thing to do.

Today I am felling a little more human than other days…

Oceanic Blue Planet

Earth is perhaps the most conspicuous misnomer given to our planet. Seventy one percent of the planet's surface is occupied by a saltwater global ocean subdivided into five major oceanic bodies of water: the Atlantic, the Pacific, the Indic, the Arctic and the Southern oceans.

The global ocean with all its geographical subdivisions possesses the vastest amount of biodiversity, riches and natural resources anywhere on Earth. It is also (saved our poisoned atmosphere) the most polluted environment of the planet, facing increasing threats and challenges from the constant dumping of industrial chemicals, toxins and heavy metals, unprocessed human waste and garbage, oil and chemical spills, overfishing, the urban-driven overdevelopment and destruction of coastal areas and marine environments and the overall pollution of other Earth biosystems directly interconnected with the global ocean (the atmosphere, other bodies of non-oceanic water -rivers, lakes, aquifers-; forests, human urban and rural settlements).

We are killing the Ocean without even knowing most of its assuredly beneficial and awe-inspiring mysteries and secrets. This is the one frontier we may never get to explore or fully conquer just because we destroyed it before we had a chance to do anything else with it!

Read and learn about the ocean and its many wonders and treasures. Better yet, get in touch with the ocean, immerse yourself in it, let it touch you, soothe you, caress you, cleanse you. Let it tell you its ancient and life-giving story. If the evolution theory has it correctly, we all (all living systems on Earth) came from the primordial ocean, so we owe the ocean the consideration and respect it deserves as our primeval forebearer.

Brief history of the birthday cake

Birthday cakes have been around in one form or another for many centuries and throughout many cultures the world over. In ancient Greece and Rome, flat round (moon) shaped cakes sweetened with honey were baked for those celebrating a birthday, though the more current idea of an actual cake (not a flat piece of sweetened bread) with candles can be traced, according to some sources, to Germany (though the Greeks did use candles on their unleavened cakes to represent the light of the Moon in honor of the Goddess Artemis).

There is also growing evidence that flat, honey-sweetened cakes were also baked in ancient Egypt, preceding Greece and Rome.

During the 17th and 18th Century, with the advent of new food sources, foodstuffs, new baking and culinary skills and techniques the baking and decorating of cakes makes a leap forward, thought these much elaborate and sometimes ridiculously impractical confections became the almost exclusive privilege of the upper classes in Europe and to a lesser extent the colonized territories of the Americas, Africa and Asia.

The voracious and innovative mercantile impetus of the Industrial Revolutions in England and France during the late 18th and throughout the 19th centuries also gave raise to new standards of production and mechanization for many industries and crafts, including baking, thus creating a need for broader markets beyond just a reduced group of royals, nobles and rich bourgeois families. The birthday cake had arrived at this point to the beginning of its proletarianization, claiming henceforth its iconic place in the palates and preferences of millions of people, notably so in Western societies.

Succinctly and simplistically

Haiku is a form of traditional Japanese poetry, which gained independence and its own right to stand alone (up to that period haiku was considered to be the starting verse in a much longer poem) in the mid 19th century.

Haiku is structured as a 17-syllable verse consisting of three metrical units of 5, 7, and 5 syllables...

Google and read more about haiku and its fascinating history, techniques, themes, musicality and cadence and learn about its most representative (traditional and modern) authors both in Japan and other countries.

So, start writing your own haiku and share their beauty and profound simplicity with the world.