Owl & Ibis - A Confluence Of Minds

Thanks to all those who attended the July 23, 2019 O&I presentation, "The Nile: River of Life and Death in a Time of Climate Change, Part 2 of 2" by yours truly. Great questions and discussion! A link to the presentation's MS Powerpoint slideshow is here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WAsyUaqeHnv_4AVDwNltbegVmwSH2xmC/view?usp=sharing Note that there are a number of very recent videos linked on many of the slides. One is an outstanding one-hour 2019 BBC documentary on the Nile, the rest are 5-10 minutes each but very worth watching. The links on the slides are at these symbols (a) at the bottom of selected slides. An asterisk at the upper left indicates a new slide added since Part 1 was presented on July 9, 2019. If your slideshow viewer does not support the fonts properly, attached is a PDF copy: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1w5ZC7ToCU7VOLTsWTQUFB4niypgPBxo6/view?usp=sharing Finally, here's an excellent unlinked video from...

UPDATE Here's an essay that also urges having hope and taking action in the face of imminent catastrophe: On the Cusp of the Coming 'Perfect Storm' by Dennis Oliver June 27, 2019 ORIGINAL ESSAY I live through the filters of three worldviews – that of a US white male, atheist, liberal progressive; that of an adopted Ugandan for the past 36 years; and that of an anthropologist. I have lived and worked in rural and urban Africa off and on, for extended periods, from 1980 to the present. I have led major grassroots international development assistance programs in Swaziland, Tanzania, and Ghana. I have led refugee resettlement programs in Kenya, and from there visited and worked for extended periods in cities and deep rural areas of over twenty African countries. I have seen hope and despair firsthand in the eyes of Africa’s rural impoverished; seen hope realized and lost in African cities and suburbs; listened to African refugee stories of torturous perse...

Straight Shootin’ Info: The History of US Gun Rights/Gun Control by Pam Dewey This three-part series by author, blogger and master videographer Pam Dewey explores the historical tension between gun rights and gun control in the United States. I highly recommend it. JEL Part 1 - Setting the Stage: Pre-History of the 2nd Amendment & Early History of the NRA https://youtu.be/jdhXap2jGVM Part 2 - "Collision Course: 2nd Amendment, the First 2 Centuries & The NRA, the Second Century” https://youtu.be/L9F9BHN0shQ Part 3: "A Nation Divided: Examining the Modern Battle Lines & Looking for Common Ground” https://youtu.be/EdhceR32tYI  

Illustration of the Great Exhibition, London, 1851 WORLD'S FAIRS EXPOSed by Pam Dewey Episode 1 - “Fair Enough: The "Great Exhibition," London, 1851 https://youtu.be/mfwtwlfwvaU Episode 2 - “Yankee Doodle Palace: The New York World’s Fair, 1853-1854” https://youtu.be/D_hFbKrTI3A Episode 3 - “The ‘Happy Birthday’ World’s Fair: Visiting the Centennial Exhibition of 1876” https://youtu.be/mv_QmiMsSkg Episode 4 – “1893 Chicago World’s Fair, Part 1: Uncle Sam Welcomes the World” https://youtu.be/rXvX5QxzC2w This four-part presentation on world fairs by author, blogger and master videographer Pam Dewey is an outstanding expos é  on the visual and material display of nations and cultures. Here is Pam’s description of her production contained in the YouTube posting of Episode 1: “This is an introductory video to a DocuCommentary series entitled "WORLD'S FAIRS EXPOSed," which focuses primarily on the World's Fairs held...

Humankind has allowed itself to be ‘progressed’ into a  cul de sac  of inhumanity and enslavement. Collectively, we have acquired lots of material stuff and knowledge, but little personal wisdom, empowerment, and contentment. This path was laid out for us long ago in the Middle East by our very first rich and powerful elites. That is, the kings who took power beginning when Humankind transitioned from nomadic hunting and gathering and pastoralism, to settled agriculture and urban living. Very soon humans had wealth (food) surpluses for the first time. That contributed to a perceived need to take strong control of such wealth, and the land and people that produced it, through laws, money, and corporeal and supernatural enforcement. This was quickly followed by the tactical and strategic use of power against neighboring lands and peoples. And this, in turn, lead to an unquenchable desire among the new ruling elites for ever more wealth, land and powe...

Print by  Leopoldo Mendéz Here’s something I wrote in 2014, two years before Trump was elected: ‘Suffering and Injustice - Whose Awe, Truth, and Hope Will Prevail?' http://jameselassiter.blogspot.com/2014/06/suffering-and-injustice-whose-awe-truth.html Trump and what has now become his Republican Party epitomize the very defiance of Humankind’s ‘cultural human nature’ I was writing about five years ago. But, as the saying goes, the band plays on. After all, who reads, much less heeds, the run-on sentences of an agnostic-atheist philosophical ethnographer? Much less one not affiliated with a major university, think tank, or political party. An old retired guy who happily spent most of his working life in Trump’s so-called ‘shithole’ countries. A language blessed/cursed primate whose every thought and written word is not peer-reviewed or influenced by a craving for academic tenure and book deals? An unorthodox emotional guy, a sometimes loose cannon? ...