Dragon

After my roommate got back from a primitive skills gathering in the N. GA mountains, he was trying to start a bow and spindle fire in the living room to show us how to do such a thing. We became convinced after the spindle started smoking and moved onto headstands. Each of the four of us had a particular style of head and hand stand that we showed off to the group. I have not been in a group that body-aware before and it led to The Dragon:





I've never heard of AcroYoga, but thoroughly enjoyed it.
(i conjecture that the top and the front person could wear Mindfolds, but the foundational person needs too much balance)

These are Financial Times

Yes, a single link post. But you just can't get this kind of perspective inside the US. The last line drove me to post this.

Let us pay homage to Rene Magritte

Rene Magritte is my favorite painter. He is the analogist of the canvas.
(if you open the first link in a new tab or page it may be easier to just use the sideways arrows above the paintings than these links, I can't decide so here's both)

Clairvoyance--egg is to bird as i am to self portrait

Not To Be Reproduced--mirror is to face as perspective is to vision

The Listening Room--size is to memory as apple is to room

Mysteries of the Horizon--moon is to individual as soul is to man

My personal favorite, Homesickness where views are to nature as black is to wings

and of course, The Treachery of Images where painting is to understanding as word is to mind.

Forestry

We reached the ridgeline after hiking up the side of the Linville Gorge east of Asheville. We had been hiking a few hundred yards to the next border of burned forest for our guide, a Forest Reseracher, to take some measurements and program the coordinates into his GPS system for later data crunching. The fires here are special because one section burned one year. Then part of it and part of a second section were burned the next year. So you have three different sections: 1) burned the first time 2) burned the second time 3) burned the first and second time...setting up a great control group for a data-based inferential research to be done on forest regeneration timelines.

I was in charge of the 6-inch ruler and photographing duff, which is the layer of needles and bark scraps that stack up around trees. Here is a good illustration of how the duff burns away in a fire:




My own research consisted of gaining purchase on the unleveled logs full of branches broken off into spear points.
 


As well as the time lag of balance determination among carbonized tree-remains.
 


And of course trying to line my's elf between both a pair of foreground burned tree-remains as well as centering among the backdrop's pair of charred remains flanked by a pair of living trees.


All in all a fascinating journey that we ended with setting up camp on the top of the ridge. We built a heck of a campfire which ended with Freeflow making fire faeries.
While I urged him on.

The next day we closed up camp after being rained on overnight. This had us hankering for more than fruit and cold tea. So we went to Famous Louise's and ate in Avery County.

The view from the top

 
 

New World Order

This article will likely not be here long, so take a look because it is a great example of the astuteness of this publication's perspective on finance and economics.

Transforming the Bailout.

And here is an interesting article that, behind the narrative, gives a good summary of the process of injecting capital into banks.

There's a lot of doubt and questions raised in the article, as I presume is being done by most medias. But there is no precedent for this unraveling of the global economy and so there is no plan of reaction. Everything that would be done at a time like this will be full of questions. I think, at the very least, its good the US is willing to reconsider its plan of action and probably mimic the European tactic. Its about time we considered more than just our own opinion.

Economy

Here is a good 4 minute summary of what the bailout hopes to accomplish.

As with every huge financial endeavor involving public markets, its largely a psychological gambit. There is no way a government could save all its banks. What they are basically doing is buying the debts (like your home mortgage)which are most likely to not get paid back from the banks in the worst shape. This makes the bank look stronger financially so that other banks are willing to led it money. This is necessary because no bank has enough money at any one time, they are all tied together with short-term loans (often as short as overnight); so if a bank can't take out more loans it'll default on previous loans its taken which are due. The bank then goes bankrupt.
So if money isn't in the banks, where is it?
[taps temple with concentrating look on face]

Mush in my Room

Here is the hike I took from Old Barnesville Road. My most-knowledgeable roommate gave me directions which I almost followed properly except for finding the trailhead. So I ended up bushwacking up a large hill across this stream.
 

To get to this view.
 
 
 
 

In about two weeks the colors here are going to make rainbows frown, oh wait, they already do frown.



Then I followed this rabbit and when I lost his trail this was sitting at my feet:

 
Not seeing any caterpillars nearby, I ganked it and ran.




What better place to bring a mushroom than my new room?! Those are Kiers alongside me, they are sentries for One Second Time Travelers
 


Crash course on Shark Riding!
 

Wait, what was it the caterpillar said again about taking sides?
 


Not remembering which side was which, I could just go for it...
 



Or take the middle road...