click image to source
via the friendly atheist
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
the believing brain
on skepticblog, michael shermer presents an excerpt of his book, the believing brain: from ghosts, gods, and aliens to conspiracies, economics, and politics—how the brain constructs beliefs and reinforces them as truths [what a title!] :
snip
according to a 2009 harris poll of 2,303 adult americans, when people are asked to “please indicate for each one if you believe in it, or not,” the following results were revealing:
82% believe in god
76% believe in miracles
75% believe in heaven
73% believe in jesus is god or the son of god
72% believe in angels
71% believe in survival of the soul after death
70% believe in the resurrection of jesus christ
61% believe in hell
61% believe in the virgin birth (of jesus)
60% believe in the devil
45% believe in darwin’s theory of evolution
42% believe in ghosts
40% believe in creationism
32% believe in ufos
26% believe in astrology
23% believe in witches
20% believe in reincarnation
/snip
i'm thinking of carrying around this checklist and conducting a private poll...
tick tock, the dandelion clock
like it? click it!
view in the dark
our world is increasingly fragile -- and cosmos is more relevant than ever.
the introduction to carl sagan's cosmos: the shores of the cosmic ocean
"
the size and age of the cosmos are beyond ordinary human understanding. lost somewhere between immensity and eternity is our tiny planetary home -- the earth. for the first time, we have the power to decide the fate of our planet and ourselves. this is a time of great danger, but our species is young and curious and brave, it shows much promise. in the last few millennia we have made the most astonishing and unexpected discoveries about the cosmos and our place within it. i believe our future depends powerfully on how well we understand this cosmos in which we float like amote of dust in the morning sky.
we're about to begin a journey through the cosmos. we'll encounter galaxies and suns and planets, life and consciousness, coming into being, evolving and perishing. worlds of ice and stars of diamond, atoms as massive as suns, universes smaller than atoms. but it's also a story of our own planet, and the plants and animals that share it with us. and it's a story about us, how we achieved our present understanding of the cosmos, how the cosmos has shaped our evolution and our culture, and what our fate may be.
we wish to pursue the truth no matter where it leads, but to find the truth we need imagination and skepticism both. we will not be afraid to speculate, but we will be careful to distinguish speculation from fact. the cosmos is full beyond measure of elegant troves, of exquisite interrelationships, of the awesome machinery of nature.
the surface of the earth is the shore of the cosmic ocean. on this shore, we've learned most of what we know. recently, we've waded a little way out, maybe ankle-deep, and the water seems inviting. some part of our being knows this is where we came from. we long to return, and we can, because the cosmos is also within us. we're made of star stuff. we are a way for the cosmos to know itself. the journey for each of us begins here. we are going to explore the cosmos in a ship of the imagination, unfettered by ordinary limits on speed and size, drawn by the music of cosmic harmonies. it can take us anywhere in space and time. perfect as a snowflake, organic as a dandelion seed, it will carry us to worlds of dreams, and worlds of facts. come with me.
"
- carl sagan
©2011 helen sotiriadis
Monday, May 30, 2011
Sunday, May 29, 2011
syntagma square, athens, may 28th, 2011: a show of hands.
click!
i went to syntagma square again on saturday evening and shot some more.
please view the entire set:
set | slideshow
my previous shoot was on may 25th.
©2011 helen sotiriadis
Saturday, May 28, 2011
connectivity
i believe facebook is buggy, inconsistent and untrustworthy -- still, it's great for keeping in touch with my friends, especially if they're abroad or from past activities and towns. it's also an important tool to connect with people who don't ordinarily rummage around the internet in general.
i find myself spending quite a bit of time on FB, often linking to interesting tidbits on my profile that i don't share on my blog, either because they're unrelated to my usual subject matter, or because i'm just feeling lazy.
if you'd like to follow my personal page, you can send me a message and, if i feel confident about the request, i'll add you. if you're interested in getting notices about my photography, you can like my helen sotiriadis photography page! i'm also on twitter, if that's your thing.
of course, there's also my new, improved website, which craves comments on my guestbook!
you can find even more ways to connect with me via the little square icons just under my profile image on the right sidebar (although, to be honest, i've pretty much given up on myspace).
sean carroll: physics and the immortality of the soul
from scientific american:
'very roughly speaking, when most people think about an immaterial soul that persists after death, they have in mind some sort of blob of spirit energy that takes up residence near our brain, and drives around our body like a soccer mom driving an suv. the questions are these: what form does that spirit energy take, and how does it interact with our ordinary atoms? not only is new physics required, but dramatically new physics. within qft, there can't be a new collection of "spirit particles" and "spirit forces" that interact with our regular atoms, because we would have detected them in existing experiments. ockham's razor is not on your side here, since you have to posit a completely new realm of reality obeying very different rules than the ones we know.'
the entire piece here and at cosmic variance.
'very roughly speaking, when most people think about an immaterial soul that persists after death, they have in mind some sort of blob of spirit energy that takes up residence near our brain, and drives around our body like a soccer mom driving an suv. the questions are these: what form does that spirit energy take, and how does it interact with our ordinary atoms? not only is new physics required, but dramatically new physics. within qft, there can't be a new collection of "spirit particles" and "spirit forces" that interact with our regular atoms, because we would have detected them in existing experiments. ockham's razor is not on your side here, since you have to posit a completely new realm of reality obeying very different rules than the ones we know.'
the entire piece here and at cosmic variance.
Friday, May 27, 2011
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
are geometry skills innate?
this is especially interesting to me, having taught CAD for twenty years. it seems to me that geometry skills have declined drastically since the early 90s, even in basic concepts, and even among engineers. if so much of geometry's innate, the schools are one big fail.
at BBC news:
'tests given to an amazonian tribe called the mundurucu suggest that our intuitions about geometry are innate.
researchers examined how the mundurucu think about lines, points and angles, comparing the results with equivalent tests on french and us schoolchildren.
the mundurucu showed comparable understanding, and even outperformed the students on tasks that asked about forms on spherical surfaces.'
read on...
at BBC news:
'tests given to an amazonian tribe called the mundurucu suggest that our intuitions about geometry are innate.
researchers examined how the mundurucu think about lines, points and angles, comparing the results with equivalent tests on french and us schoolchildren.
the mundurucu showed comparable understanding, and even outperformed the students on tasks that asked about forms on spherical surfaces.'
read on...
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
wrong, wrong, wrong
pz myers' wrong, root and branch; wrong at every cell and molecule; wrong to the core.
'sure, everyone is laughing at harold camping now, except his followers, who are undeterred. but you're missing the real joke. look at every abrahamic religion, with their myths of prophets and favored peoples and fate. look at the crazy conservative church in your town, that preaches homophobia and anti-science and supports israel because of the armageddon prophecy. look at the liberal christian church down the street from you that has the nice vacation bible school and puts on happy plays for the older kids, and also teaches that one day you will stand before a great god and be judged. look at your family members who blithely believe in death as a mini-apocalypse, in which they will be magically translated into another realm, again to be judged.'
the entire piece, here.
'sure, everyone is laughing at harold camping now, except his followers, who are undeterred. but you're missing the real joke. look at every abrahamic religion, with their myths of prophets and favored peoples and fate. look at the crazy conservative church in your town, that preaches homophobia and anti-science and supports israel because of the armageddon prophecy. look at the liberal christian church down the street from you that has the nice vacation bible school and puts on happy plays for the older kids, and also teaches that one day you will stand before a great god and be judged. look at your family members who blithely believe in death as a mini-apocalypse, in which they will be magically translated into another realm, again to be judged.'
the entire piece, here.
fuchsia
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view in the dark
no, really! i'd never seen them before!
license: creative commons. blog post: ©2011 helen sotiriadis
Monday, May 23, 2011
window picture
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reprocessing a detail from my visit a couple of years ago -- you can see several more images from the town of mesta here and from chios island here.
©2011 helen sotiriadis
Sunday, May 22, 2011
parakeet
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i love shooting portraits! if anyone local is interested in being an experimental
bytheway, after finishing this image, i started reading through a friend's copy of scott kelby's professional portrait retouching techniques for photographers using photoshop (voices that matter) and it's on my list for my next amazon order. i love it.. not only for the tips for portraits, but for his techniques which can be applied to other types of photos as well.
©2011 helen sotiriadis
after the rapture
funny -- but mostly i liked the thought of how better off we'd be if we stopped wasting our resources on crap.
so here it's almost 3am on may 22nd and we're still at it, and i wish we had a carl sagan channel.
via the RDFRS
so here it's almost 3am on may 22nd and we're still at it, and i wish we had a carl sagan channel.
via the RDFRS
Saturday, May 21, 2011
you never heard a sound like the rubberband man
like it? click it!
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the rapture's not happening -- and it's my nameday -- as it is for all people named helen or constantine (some byproducts of our superstitious past ain't that bad).
have a takei ol' weekend, everyone!
you’re bound to lose control
when the rubberband starts to jam
more stationery
©2011 helen sotiriadis
Friday, May 20, 2011
david silverman's take: doomsdayers show what's wrong with all religion
on CNN's believe blog:
click image to source
'let nobody doubt that religion hurts people. good, intelligent, caring people suffer every day and everywhere at the hands of religion, the happy lie.
religion is used by dishonest people who claim to know the way to the one thing humans want most: immortality. to combat fear of death, religious people ignore their intellect, believe the lie, and follow the preacher, usually blindly and sometimes to the point of insanity.
we are witnessing one very good example of this right now, as a group led by christian ministry leader harold camping prepares for the end of the world this saturday, may 21.'
read on...
via laughing in purgatory
click image to source
'let nobody doubt that religion hurts people. good, intelligent, caring people suffer every day and everywhere at the hands of religion, the happy lie.
religion is used by dishonest people who claim to know the way to the one thing humans want most: immortality. to combat fear of death, religious people ignore their intellect, believe the lie, and follow the preacher, usually blindly and sometimes to the point of insanity.
we are witnessing one very good example of this right now, as a group led by christian ministry leader harold camping prepares for the end of the world this saturday, may 21.'
read on...
via laughing in purgatory
a miracle of science
on BBC news:
click image to source
a US man who was paralysed from the chest down after being hit by a car is now able to stand with electrical stimulation of his spinal cord.
read on...
click image to source
a US man who was paralysed from the chest down after being hit by a car is now able to stand with electrical stimulation of his spinal cord.
read on...
![five daisies [nuclear]: 5/5](http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2274/5739601292_5060b34700.jpg)
Thursday, May 19, 2011
![five daisies [shade of blue]: 4/6](http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2741/5735878541_23aa510120.jpg)
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
five daisies [ ಾ ]: 3/5
like it? click it!
view in the dark.
website | blog | facebook | twitter
license: creative commons.
blog post: ©2011 helen sotiriadis
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
![five daisies [lucent]: 2/5](http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3180/5729803806_7bf0d54df8.jpg)
Monday, May 16, 2011
![five daisies [danbo's daisies]: 1/5](http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5068/5725341953_7e4df5f7ef.jpg)
stephen hawking: there is no heaven or afterlife
at the guardian:
click image to source
snip
Q: you had a health scare and spent time in hospital in 2009. what, if anything, do you fear about death?
A: i have lived with the prospect of an early death for the last 49 years. i'm not afraid of death, but i'm in no hurry to die. i have so much I want to do first. i regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail. there is no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark.
/snip
via the RDFRS
click image to source
snip
Q: you had a health scare and spent time in hospital in 2009. what, if anything, do you fear about death?
A: i have lived with the prospect of an early death for the last 49 years. i'm not afraid of death, but i'm in no hurry to die. i have so much I want to do first. i regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail. there is no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark.
/snip
via the RDFRS
your monday smile.
rayna asks for duncan -- paul simon tells her to come onstage and sing it!
via open culture, shared by jonathan shock.
via open culture, shared by jonathan shock.
Sunday, May 15, 2011
the four horsemen reunite in 2012
at the atheist foundation of australia.
click image to source
'the atheist foundation of australia is excited to announce that the next global atheist convention – ‘a celebration of reason’ will feature headline speakers richard dawkins, daniel dennett, sam harris and christopher hitchens (health permitting).
the global atheist convention will be held once again at the melbourne convention and exhibition centre from 13 - 15 april 2012.'
the atheist movement has made great strides these past few years. i'm curious to this meetup will differ from the first.
click image to source
'the atheist foundation of australia is excited to announce that the next global atheist convention – ‘a celebration of reason’ will feature headline speakers richard dawkins, daniel dennett, sam harris and christopher hitchens (health permitting).
the global atheist convention will be held once again at the melbourne convention and exhibition centre from 13 - 15 april 2012.'
the atheist movement has made great strides these past few years. i'm curious to this meetup will differ from the first.
21st century enlightenment
sketches for thought.
video description:
'matthew taylor explores the meaning of 21st century enlightenment, how the idea might help us meet the challenges we face today, and the role that can be played by organisations such as the RSA.'
via sociological images
video description:
'matthew taylor explores the meaning of 21st century enlightenment, how the idea might help us meet the challenges we face today, and the role that can be played by organisations such as the RSA.'
via sociological images
Saturday, May 14, 2011
Friday, May 13, 2011
sam harris on accommodationism
i like this so much... i'm copy/pasting the quote from sam harris' the moral landscape as it appears on RDFRS:
"
‘many of our secular critics worry that if we oblige people to choose between reason and faith, they will choose faith and cease to support scientific research; if, on the other hand, we ceaselessly reiterate that there is no conflict between religion and science, we might cajole great multitudes into accepting the truth of evolution (as though this were an end in itself). here is a version of this charge that, i fear, most people would accept, taken from journalist chris mooney and marine biologist sheril kirshenbaum’s book unscientific america:
while it is invariably advertised as an expression of “respect” for people of faith, the accommodationism that mooney and kirshenbaum recommend is nothing more than naked condescension, motivated by fear. they assure us that people will choose religion over science, no matter how good a case is made against religion. in certain contexts, this fear is probably warranted. i wouldn’t be eager to spell out the irrationality of islam while standing in the great mosque in mecca. but let’s be honest about how mooney and kirshenbaum view public discourse in the united states: watch what you say, or the christian mob will burn down the library of alexandria all over again by comparison, the “combativeness” of the “new atheists” seems quite collegial. we are merely guilty of assuming that our fellow homo sapiens possess the requisite intelligence and emotional maturity to respond to rational argument, satire, and ridicule on the subject of religion—just as they respond to these discursive pressures on all other subjects. of course, we could be wrong. but let’s admit which side in this debate currently views our neighbors as dangerous children and which views them as adults who might prefer not to be completely mistaken about the nature of reality.
"
"
‘many of our secular critics worry that if we oblige people to choose between reason and faith, they will choose faith and cease to support scientific research; if, on the other hand, we ceaselessly reiterate that there is no conflict between religion and science, we might cajole great multitudes into accepting the truth of evolution (as though this were an end in itself). here is a version of this charge that, i fear, most people would accept, taken from journalist chris mooney and marine biologist sheril kirshenbaum’s book unscientific america:
if the goal is to create an america more friendly toward science and reason, the combativeness of the new atheists is strongly counterproductive. if anything, they work in ironic combination with their dire enemies, the anti-science conservative christians who populate the creation science and intelligent design movements, to ensure we’ll continue to be polarized over subjects like the teaching of evolution when we don’t have to be. america is a very religious nation, and if forced to choose between faith and science, vast numbers of americans will select the former. the new atheists err in insisting that such a choice needs to be made. atheism is not the logically inevitable outcome of scientific reasoning, any more than intelligent design is a necessary corollary of religious faith. a great many scientists believe in god with no sense of internal contradiction, just as many religious believers accept evolution as the correct theory to explain the development, diversity, and inter-relatedness of life on earth. the new atheists, like the fundamentalists they so despise, are setting up a false dichotomy that can only damage the cause of scientific literacy for generations to come. it threatens to leave science itself caught in the middle between extremes, unable to find cover in a destructive, seemingly unending, culture war.the first thing to observe is that mooney and kirshenbaum are confused about the nature of the problem. the goal is not to get more americans to merely accept the truth of evolution (or any other scientific theory); the goal is to get them to value the principles of reasoning and educated discourse that now make a belief in evolution obligatory. doubt about evolution is merely a symptom of an underlying condition; the condition is faith itself—conviction without sufficient reason, hope mistaken for knowledge, bad ideas protected from good ones, good ideas obscured by bad ones, wishful thinking elevated to a principle of salvation, etc. mooney and kirshenbaum seem to imagine that we can get people to value intellectual honesty by lying to them.
while it is invariably advertised as an expression of “respect” for people of faith, the accommodationism that mooney and kirshenbaum recommend is nothing more than naked condescension, motivated by fear. they assure us that people will choose religion over science, no matter how good a case is made against religion. in certain contexts, this fear is probably warranted. i wouldn’t be eager to spell out the irrationality of islam while standing in the great mosque in mecca. but let’s be honest about how mooney and kirshenbaum view public discourse in the united states: watch what you say, or the christian mob will burn down the library of alexandria all over again by comparison, the “combativeness” of the “new atheists” seems quite collegial. we are merely guilty of assuming that our fellow homo sapiens possess the requisite intelligence and emotional maturity to respond to rational argument, satire, and ridicule on the subject of religion—just as they respond to these discursive pressures on all other subjects. of course, we could be wrong. but let’s admit which side in this debate currently views our neighbors as dangerous children and which views them as adults who might prefer not to be completely mistaken about the nature of reality.
"
Thursday, May 12, 2011
almost midmay
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view in the dark
... but still cold and rainy...
website | blog | facebook | twitter
license: creative commons.
blog post: ©2011 helen sotiriadis
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
niche
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'an interesting groove i find myself in - fits me rather neatly, doesn't it? in fact it fits me staggeringly well, must have been made to have me in it!'
- paraphrasing douglas adams, 11 march 1952 – 11 may 2001
website | blog | facebook | twitter
license: creative commons.
blog post: ©2011 helen sotiriadis
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
theo jansen's strandbeests
very cool, except for his reference to a 'creator'.
well, these are created, and not evolved.
via why evolution is true
well, these are created, and not evolved.
via why evolution is true
Monday, May 09, 2011
christopher hitchens: find your own voice
unspoken truths, at vanity fair.
snip
deprivation of the ability to speak is more like an attack of impotence, or the amputation of part of the personality. to a great degree, in public and private, i “was” my voice. all the rituals and etiquette of conversation, from clearing the throat in preparation for the telling of an extremely long and taxing joke to (in younger days) trying to make my proposals more persuasive as i sank the tone by a strategic octave of shame, were innate and essential to me. i have never been able to sing, but i could once recite poetry and quote prose and was sometimes even asked to do so. and timing is everything: the exquisite moment when one can break in and cap a story, or turn a line for a laugh, or ridicule an opponent. i lived for moments like that. now, if i want to enter a conversation, i have to attract attention in some other way, and live with the awful fact that people are then listening “sympathetically.” at least they don’t have to pay attention for long: i can’t keep it up and anyway can’t stand to.
/snip
if it be your will,
that i speak no more:
and my voice be still,
as it was before...
snip
deprivation of the ability to speak is more like an attack of impotence, or the amputation of part of the personality. to a great degree, in public and private, i “was” my voice. all the rituals and etiquette of conversation, from clearing the throat in preparation for the telling of an extremely long and taxing joke to (in younger days) trying to make my proposals more persuasive as i sank the tone by a strategic octave of shame, were innate and essential to me. i have never been able to sing, but i could once recite poetry and quote prose and was sometimes even asked to do so. and timing is everything: the exquisite moment when one can break in and cap a story, or turn a line for a laugh, or ridicule an opponent. i lived for moments like that. now, if i want to enter a conversation, i have to attract attention in some other way, and live with the awful fact that people are then listening “sympathetically.” at least they don’t have to pay attention for long: i can’t keep it up and anyway can’t stand to.
/snip
if it be your will,
that i speak no more:
and my voice be still,
as it was before...
Sunday, May 08, 2011
you were born
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for nix.
happy mother's day to us all.
you were born by cloud cult | lyrics
this is another wildflower from parnitha... a tiny one!
for this image, i used dirty spring.texture 34 by dyrk.wyst
license: creative commons. blog post: ©2011 helen sotiriadis
Friday, May 06, 2011
Thursday, May 05, 2011
resisting the tyranny of the discontinuous mind
love-love-love this!
click to enlarge
what a lovely way to resist the tyranny of the discontinuous mind.
image via the friendly atheist.
click to enlarge
what a lovely way to resist the tyranny of the discontinuous mind.
image via the friendly atheist.
sky in motion
the sky is falling over greece, by my friend, chris kotsiopoulos... and check out more extraordinary, inspirational work on greek sky.
this also appeared on apod!
this also appeared on apod!
Wednesday, May 04, 2011
Tuesday, May 03, 2011
let me go
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if you have a minute, check out my reworked website!
in this photo, i used a subtle texture:
texture 138 by nasos3.
thank you!
©2011 helen sotiriadis
Monday, May 02, 2011
what grows on parnitha
like it? click it!
view in the dark. you can download large sizes.
wildflowers, on parnitha, four years later.
if you have a minute, check out my reworked website!
image license: creative commons -- attribution-noncommercial-noderivs.
blog post: ©2011 helen sotiriadis
Sunday, May 01, 2011
mayday, m'aider
here... have a flower:
like it? click it!
view in the dark
for me, the first of may is two things: a day to celebrate spring, and a day to celebrate international worker's day.
americans tend to honor the working people on a september day off, and not on the anniversary of the haymarket massacre in chicago, the historic rally for the 8-hour workday. how clever, to remove it from its original context and meaning.
people with sleek lives and cool apps tend to tell me that celebrating workers' rights is antiquated. yet... who works 8 hours now? if we're lucky to work at all, we accept any terms, and enthusiastically blaze our trail to certain burnout.
still, from tahir square, to athens, to wisconsin, increasing numbers gather courage for the renewed struggle against corporate greed, as humanity metamorphoses to a curiouser existence.
it's a good day to celebrate spring, and it's a good day to read chris hedges' the corporate state wins again, which begins,
'when did our democracy die? when did it irrevocably transform itself into a lifeless farce and absurd political theater? when did the press, labor, universities and the democratic party—which once made piecemeal and incremental reform possible—wither and atrophy? when did reform through electoral politics become a form of magical thinking? when did the dead hand of the corporate state become unassailable?'
finishes with
'the game is over. we lost. the corporate state will continue its inexorable advance until two-thirds of the nation is locked into a desperate, permanent underclass. most americans will struggle to make a living while the blankfeins and our political elites wallow in the decadence and greed of the forbidden city and versailles. these elites do not have a vision. they know only one word—more.
they will continue to exploit the nation, the global economy and the ecosystem. and they will use their money to hide in gated compounds when it all implodes. do not expect them to take care of us when it starts to unravel. we will have to take care of ourselves. we will have to create small, monastic communities where we can sustain and feed ourselves. it will be up to us to keep alive the intellectual, moral and culture values the corporate state has attempted to snuff out. it is either that or become drones and serfs in a global, corporate dystopia. it is not much of a choice. but at least we still have one.'
with a great deal in between.
for this image, i used two textures:
paint by numbers by dog ma
texture 129 ttv by nasos3
thanks to both for their lovely work.
©2011 helen sotiriadis
... and check out my reworked website...
like it? click it!
view in the dark
for me, the first of may is two things: a day to celebrate spring, and a day to celebrate international worker's day.
americans tend to honor the working people on a september day off, and not on the anniversary of the haymarket massacre in chicago, the historic rally for the 8-hour workday. how clever, to remove it from its original context and meaning.
people with sleek lives and cool apps tend to tell me that celebrating workers' rights is antiquated. yet... who works 8 hours now? if we're lucky to work at all, we accept any terms, and enthusiastically blaze our trail to certain burnout.
still, from tahir square, to athens, to wisconsin, increasing numbers gather courage for the renewed struggle against corporate greed, as humanity metamorphoses to a curiouser existence.
it's a good day to celebrate spring, and it's a good day to read chris hedges' the corporate state wins again, which begins,
'when did our democracy die? when did it irrevocably transform itself into a lifeless farce and absurd political theater? when did the press, labor, universities and the democratic party—which once made piecemeal and incremental reform possible—wither and atrophy? when did reform through electoral politics become a form of magical thinking? when did the dead hand of the corporate state become unassailable?'
finishes with
'the game is over. we lost. the corporate state will continue its inexorable advance until two-thirds of the nation is locked into a desperate, permanent underclass. most americans will struggle to make a living while the blankfeins and our political elites wallow in the decadence and greed of the forbidden city and versailles. these elites do not have a vision. they know only one word—more.
they will continue to exploit the nation, the global economy and the ecosystem. and they will use their money to hide in gated compounds when it all implodes. do not expect them to take care of us when it starts to unravel. we will have to take care of ourselves. we will have to create small, monastic communities where we can sustain and feed ourselves. it will be up to us to keep alive the intellectual, moral and culture values the corporate state has attempted to snuff out. it is either that or become drones and serfs in a global, corporate dystopia. it is not much of a choice. but at least we still have one.'
with a great deal in between.
for this image, i used two textures:
paint by numbers by dog ma
texture 129 ttv by nasos3
thanks to both for their lovely work.
©2011 helen sotiriadis
... and check out my reworked website...
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