Short Notes: will brady's ruminations

A blog adjunct to rondak.org [click on the globe] | Perspectives on: human rights; environmental concerns; life as a visual artist; 21st century feudalism; progressive politics; aboriginal culture; new urbanism; permaculture; sustainable technology; non-traditional families; achievable utopias

2004-05-15

messing with the chemistry of the brain | The April Issue of Scientific American had an article on glial cells in the brain, [The Other Half of the Brain; April 2004; by R. Douglas Fields] and postulated the as yet little explored influence upon thinking that glial cells may have |
     The author clarified how these previously ignored cells, which make up at least half of the brain's cellular structure, are now seen to be a parallel [and co-existing] system to the neural network run on electrical synapses that neuroscientists have been studying intensively for these past 50 years |
     This is all the more interesting for me, given that I work with individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia and other perceptual discontuities in typical thinking processes | You know, those things more commonly referred to as mental illnesses |
     Those points said, I began wondering what research, if any, has been done to determine the effects, especially the unwanted ones, that neuroleptic drugs, used ~at times, indiscriminately~ to treat the unwanted symptoms of major perceptual disorders/disabilities |
     A Google Search was somewhat encouraging, producing a range of research findings, one as far back as 1998 | An article [by Normand Carrey and Stan Kutcher] provided some convoluted backhanded language suggesting that giving potent neuroleptics to children might have an adverse effect on healthy manufacture of gilal cells | Other items were less specific, but provided a snapshot of the researchers taking up the challenge in this field |
     And the challenge is great | For not only shall people with "major mental illnesses" be impacted by such research, but so too are folks with Alzheimer's Disease, Multiple Sclerosis, Huntington's Chorea... virtually any disorder affecting neural paths and operations |
     I'll remain particularly interested in following this line of observation and experimentation |

Posted by: Will Brady / 10:39

2004-05-14

v-- pix source | © www.naturaldesign.co.uk/ | wheatsheafs
wheat sheaf

Monsanto scraps modified wheat project | Bowing to pressure from consumers, Japan, the European Union, and American food processoing companies, agribusiness giant Monsanto has withdrawn its efforts to sell genetically modified wheat products in Europe.
Monsanto's press release obscures the experimental nature of Roundup Ready wheat [not to be confused with Roundup, the herbicide ~another Monsanto product] and states clearly that other genticically modified crops (oops, make that crops with "new and improved traits") such as corn, cotton and oilseeds shall continue, maybe even accelerate |
John Edward Peck, at University of Wisconson noted in Family Farm Defenders, a Yahoo discussion group posting that:

Posted by: Will Brady / 09:30

2004-05-13

space exploration | I don't agree with very much being done by the robber barons in the White House | Frankly I'm surprised to see I agree with 'em here ...in outer space | But I do | Perhasp I'm also a bit taken aback that anybody connected with the beltway bunch has any sort of vision toward the future | So I'll take as I may | The prospect of going to Mars excites me | Seriously | And if we find evidence that we aren't the only ones "out there" that will be a suitably humbling experience for the human race | And maybe we'd see the set to Total Recall! | Can't wait! |
v--pix credit - ©2004 | www.bosleybobbers.com

speaking of poor ahnold... | Some people don't know when to leave things alone | So maybe his sense of dignity has been besmirched by becoming a bobblehead doll though I find it difficult to understand how | For a guy who was willing (in Total Recall) to have his eyes bulging out of their sockets like a kweepee doll; for a guy who has been sanguine about the fact that nude posing photos of him can be found on the internet, it sure seems ridiculous that he'd be testy about bobblehead dolls |
     Maybe because there's no rear window shelf to display the bobblehead in the back of the Humvee |
A quick read of even one of the many bbs groups now chattering about this, just makes dear Ahnold out to be some stuffed shirt egoist with a thin skin |
     Life's tough up at the top |
     but really, Who cares? |

P.S. anybody care to contrast Ahnold's reaction to unsought publicity with Donald Rumsfield reaction to his press conferences being turned into opera and song? | Why he's downright modest!

Posted by: Will Brady / 09:25

V-- pix credit | © Mark G. Coppitella | Goodspeed Operahouse at sunset
Goodspeed Opera House

historic preservation or "don't make changes" ? | For eight years now I have served as chair to my town's historic preservation commission | For Connecticut it's a sparsely populated town | However, the Federally recognized areas include four designated "local" (i.e. state recognized) districts, two additional federal districts and a number of distinct properties | Over time, it's been valuable to conduct a review of those projects that have come before us | It's also valuable to gauge the perspectives of those who seek assistance from the Commission |
First Church, Congregational

     As a small town, without any significant commercial or industrial tax base, the majority of the applications are for residential structures | The largest applicants have been religious organizations and the Goodspeed Operahouse Foundation | The bulk of the applications are for additions to existing homes, re-roofing, sign applications, fences, stone wall construction and such |
     One component complicating the entire subject is that of personal aesthetics | A point of view interlinked emotionally with people's personal comfort levels | Any while preserving historic structures and areas has an aesthetic component, it is far from the only perspective that must be considered |
     There have been times, however, when some people seek to use the historic district concept to prevent change from happening | Part NIMBY, part "don't alter the view from my porch" personal mindset, it represents a challenge to those charged with making decisions about any particular district's future, while simultaneously perserving the historic character of any given designated place | Dealing with the NIMBY attitude is both challenging and, at times, disappointing | For it runs counter to the underlying principles of preserving historic areas | Equally sad are a trio of actions that some folks with the NIMBY perspective can fall into doing: [1] blithely riding roughshod over the shared interests of the larger community; [2] to overlook and/or ignore the realities of the past history of a specific area and [3] failing to consider that they, too, live in times that shall shape the history of an area |
Jas Goodspeed house circa early 1800's

     It is possible, even appropriate, to designate some historic locales so important that they need to be living monuments to a time, a place, some social upheaval or major event | But these are places that become parks or museums whose "walls" are psychic, not physical | Historic sites of such import, or with major irreplacable archeological treasures can an ought to be so saved |
     But, the view from our porches is not, in and of itself, historic | That view changes with time |Always has, always will | History is, after all, dynamic and alive | Change occurs naturally and as an everyday phenomenon | It isn't static | When we set about to preserve that which represents our collective history we have to also recognize that wherein those historic assets are placed, is also part of a still vibrant and alive community of people, businesses, commerce and ideas |
     Admittedly, right now we live in a time that has people by and large uncomfortable with change, especially things that seem dramatic [like the construction of some new grand edifice], but in the course of human events, are but a trickle in the progress of ideas and growth |
     Preserve the valued and treasured edifices of the past, certainly | But lets not lose sight that we, too, have potential legacies to present to our heirs | We should not hold them stagnant |

Posted by: Will Brady / 09:10

2004-05-11

cleartel still can't get it right | after satisfying Cleartel's order (removing an inactive web link critical of a white supremist group) to make an update [Cleartel threatened to shut the entire site down otherwise]; after agreeing to pay a higher per month fee for ISP hosting services (last week. nobody at cleartel mentioned the rate differentals beforehand); after dumping a couple of thousand archived e-mails ~from my own computer files~ I'm still unable to update ANY rondak.org pages, find that the links to my photos, sketches don't always work, AND rondak.org e-mail addy is bouncing back legitimate mail | Curiously, the SPAM generated from the old Connix e-mail addy (a corporate name now owned by Cleartel) comes to me without any problem | Suggestions anyone?

Posted by: Will Brady / 18:30

rural/urban - suburban | On Sunday, while I was painting along Wisshickon Creek, I got into a conversation with a young man in the Coast Guard, stationed in Philadelphia | We talked of how it may be best to live either in the wilderness or amidst the bustle of a large city | On one end, you are intouch with nature and the planet's life force | On the other, presumably surrounded by museums, libraries, places of learning and commerce - a vast exchange of ideas and thought can occur | We both agreed, albeit in the spirit of good humor, that suburbs should be illegal | Stutification of thought, homogenization of ideas, isolation from reality and a vast wasteland unconnected to anything real ...except, the fascination for game shows, "reality" television and the mistaken notion that an SUV is a "light truck" |

Posted by: Will Brady / 09:16

2004-05-09

v--pix credit - Thomas Sully (1783-1872) | Wissahickon Creek, 1845
Oil on canvas | Pensler Galleries

land planning - long term perspective | As East Haddam takes another step toward purchase of undeveloped land, the long term impact of lands that get developed but probably never shoud have, show up in other areas | Right now I'm in Philadelphia, and about to go hiting in one of my favorite places the Wissahickon Creek watershed area | The National Watershed Forum has done a study on this very area, identifying the difficuties that arise from not-point soucre pollution and runoff, as well as other demannds placed on the area the result of unthinking growth
So, what does this have to do with East Haddam CT? Quite simply, it is a call for clear, thoughtful planning of how we plan our watershed protections | The property we are looking at is a key acquisition and recognized by Connecticut's Department of Environmental Protection as a critical wildlife area and identified in the state's biodiversity database initatives |
There's more to this story, but right now it's time to get outdoors |

Posted by: Will Brady / 13:26

since 12 june 1999