M.O.I. vs. M.I.C.

Dave-E says the Military Industrial Complex and the Meritocracy of Ideas do not have to form a dichotomy, implying that both concepts can co-exist, and contradicting his position from the evening before.

I don't know what these big ideas mean, so I've looked them up.

Former Vice-President Al Gore used the phrase, "Meritocracy of Ideas," in a media conference address in 2005.
http://www.breitbart.com/news/2005/10/06/D8D2IU703.html
If the concept has philosophical precedents (which I'm sure it does), I don't know 'em by name.
In his speech, Gore laments a decay in American public discourse, including mainstream news and opinion, and the high cost of individual contribution to public discourse, in contrast to the situation at the time of the founding of the United States.
America, Gore argues, was founded as a marketplace of ideas, open to every individual and governed by "an unspoken duty to search for general agreement." The Meritocracy of Ideas [capitalized in the transcript] is the process by which the fate of ideas is decided. Good ideas succeed, bad ideas fade, "regardless of the wealth or class of the individual responsible for them." Apparently, this is no longer so.
I'm not sure I can buy Gore's pessimistic view of history--or, rather, pessimistic view of the present--but I like the concept of a meritocracy of ideas, and believe this system not only exists, but has existed in some form or other since long before the advent of Democracy, being a by-and-large natural process. In fact, Democracy, I suppose, is a one of those winning Ideas.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned, famously, of the growing Military Industrial Complex in his 1961 Farewell Address:
"This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence — economic, political, even spiritual — is felt in every city, every statehouse, every office of the federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.
In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist."
Now we may call him "President and Great Prophet Dwight D. Eisenhower."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military-industrial_complex

Perhaps Industry and the Military are mutually dependent, and as natural as any Meritocracy of Ideas. Which leads us to cry, How dare the Gods grant us the wonder of the engineering mind, but at such cost!
Or perhaps an alternative. For instance, perhaps Peace yet lacks the merit to supercede War in this great meme-eological evolution. Or maybe Peace IS the winning Idea, but our lives are too little to notice the change of epochs!

natural monocultures

Stenochlaena: Climbing Fern


65 million years ago, a meteor named Chicxulub struck Mesoamerica, wiping out 95 percent of the living things in North America. The first species to propogate the sterile clay was an ancestor of the Malaysian Climbing Fern that now covers entire islands in the South Pacific.

North America was almost entirely covered in climbing fern for tens of thousands of years.

Starting Transient v. Loop Mode

An Origin of Life assumes that at some deep, ancient time, Life did not exist.

That Life struggled forth from a miraculous -- or non-miraculous -- alignment of ecological variables,
Then Life must one day twinkle and fade, stars in the dawn of the day that one of those variables wavers or zips away!

But, does not our very existence prove the inevitable potential of Life; Life as Eternal as Lifelessness?
These novel forms of ours--must be locked into the Eternal. Essential Forever.

Mortality, as with Birth...perhaps these are illusions. Our little bodies, see them there?, tripping through the forest.

Natura Naturans!

Natura Naturans! Natura Naturans!
Natura Naturans! Natura Naturans!

Rejoice, fellow creature!
All is ours!
Rejoice, fellow creature!
All is ours!
I want no part of any other End of the World!

Natura Naturans! Natura Naturans!
Natura Naturans! Natura Naturans!

Rejoice, fellow creature!
All is ours!
Rejoice, fellow creature!
All is ours!
I want no part of any other End of the World!

[origin forgotten]

The People Lay it on the Line...

...to their computer overlords:

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Fresh Air
Clean Water
Self Reliance
Self Expression

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If I Have Not Love

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels,
but have not love,
I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal!

1 Corinthians 13 verse 1

panel ovolo single quirk

In architecture, an OVOLO is a round, convex moulding. In Roman work it is usually a quarter circle in section; in Greek work it is flatter, and is equivalent to the echinus; that is, it has in section the elastic curve of the shell of the sea urchin. In mediaeval architecture it is not distinguishable from the multitude of convex mouldings, of all sections, which are used.

In building, a QUIRK is a piece of ground taken out of any regular ground plot or floor, so as to make a court, yard, etc. In architecture a quirk is a small channel, deeply recessed in proportion to its width, used to insulate and give relief to a convex rounded moulding.

[from somewhere on the web]

Hours of Sleep

Nature asks 5
Custom says 7
Lazy takes 9
The wicked, 11.