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Friday, November 04, 2011

BlogBlast For Peace


One Footfall,
Breaks a Path.
One Path,
Blazes a Trail.
One Trail,
Opens a Road.
One Road,
Forms a Highway.
One Highway,
Connects People.
Connected People,
Forms Understanding.

One Thought,
Becomes and Idea.
An Idea,
Develops a Concept.
A Concept,
Leads to a Vision.
A Vision,
Starts a Movement.
A Movement,
Forms a Paradigm.
A Paradigm,
Shifts People.
Shifted People,
Change Worlds.

A Sound,
Forms a Tone.
A Tone,
Becomes a Note.
Notes,
Write a Score.
Scores,
Form Music.
Music,
Transmits Feeling.
Feeling,
Changes Moods.

One Woman Stepped,
Formed a Path,
That's Blazing Trails,
On a Virtual Highway,
Connecting People,
With an Idea,
Now Paradigm,
Moving People,
Changing Worlds,
Instilling Understanding,
One Blog,
One Update,
One Tweet,
One Peace Globe,
At a Time.
For BlogBlast For Peace,
Is Music.

Thank You Mimi.

News Flash!
I think I found it.
I think I found the Great GrandDaddy of the first Cat Peace Blogger!
I just had to share this photo, mercy and tenderness can happen anywhere at any time. 



Monday, August 29, 2011

BlogBlast4Peace #79: We, Robot

 Reason 79 
We, Robot
Okay. I admit it, I'm a Sci-Fi nut. I especially like anything that has to do with robotics. I like all the robots, even the bad evil ones. A common motif in science fiction stories is to villainize a robot in order to examine and explore our own humanity. There's way too many examples in science fiction stories, TV shows, or even cartoons to go into here, but let's just say that I'm hooked hard-core.
One of my favorite authors that write robotic science fiction is Isaac Asimov. If you've seen the movie "I, Robot", it is loosely based on his "I, Robot" novel and series of short stories, you may be aware of the Three Laws of Robotics for it does explore those laws. If not, I've listed them farther down the post.
In his short stories, Isaac explores the dilemmas the robots can get into if they have been put in positions where they may break one or all of the laws. According to Wikipedia, there is a total of 29 explorations of this type through his stories. And thanks to Wiki, I have some titles I have to hunt down.

Isaac Asimov's Laws of Robotics
  1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
  2. A robot must obey any orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
  3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

Of all the science fiction stories that I have read, or movies that I've seen, I have not seen or read any story which instills upon humans any type of formal laws such as those above for robots. So I took the liberty and wrote them myself.

Foxxfyrre's Laws of Humanics
  1. Lex terrae et hominem: A human must respect and not harm the Earth and its environment or, through inaction, allow the Earth and its environment to come to harm.
  2. Lex nihil noceat: A human must not injure or harm another human or, through inaction, allow a human to come to harm.
  3. Lex quantum ad scientiam: A human must learn from other humans. If knowlege gained is in conflict with the first or second Law, it may not be actively or passively enacted upon.
  4. De lege propriae exsistentiae: A human must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not directly conflict with the First Law, or aggressivly conflict with the Second Law.

What kind of world would we be living in if we followed these laws? The first law protects our little blue ball we live on, therefore preserving it for future generations. The second law simply means "Do no harm." Every doctor has taken an oath where do no harm is a central point. The third law respects knowledge, and the pursuit of pure science. Just because we know the science behind a Nuclear Bomb, doesn't mean we should make one. The fourth law may cause some debate, for many may think it does not allow for one to defend oneself. On the contrary, but it doesn't allow one to OVER defend oneself. Shoot first, ask questions later is in direct conflict with the law.

In an ideal world, could we live with those laws? I think so. 
Could they instill peace in the world? Positively. 
Could we live with them now? It would be nice. 
Will we? There's always hope.

I'll leave you to ponder this a little. I know I will. Here is a little snippet from Wikipedia, which refers to an Isaac Asimov short story within the compilation novel "I, Robot" about his main character Dr.Susan Calvin--
The plot of "Evidence" revolves around the question of telling a human being apart from a robot constructed to appear human – Calvin reasons that if such an individual obeys the Three Laws he may be a robot or simply "a very good man". Another character then asks Calvin if robots are very different from human beings after all. She replies, "Worlds different. Robots are essentially decent."

TTFN

BlogBlast4Peace #80 Peeing on the Linoleum

Reason #79
Peeing on the Linoleum
Lola and I went to her sister's place for a barbeque earlier today. Laughs, stories, and good food was shared by all. My niece, Tina, was also at the there, but her boyfriend, Pepper, couldn't make it. From what I gather he was also in a little hot water with Tina over earlier events of the day. Tina told Lola the story of why he was in hot water with her and when Tina finished her story she said, "He peed on the linoleum again." Of course, I giggled at this and Tina laughed at me. Tina explained to me that she uses that phrase whenever Pepper has erred. I had to asked how she came up with the phrase, for I haven't heard her use it before. So Tina explained that when they first started living together Pepper got up a little earlier than Tina and went into the kitchen. He was thirsty and noticed that they had run out of iced tea so he made some. He made it like a male would, he grabbed the iced tea crystals, poured in cold water into the jug, placed his hand over the top of the jug and shook vigorously. To his credit, he did shake the jug over the kitchen sink.

A little while later Tina got up and went into the kitchen and was also thirsty, so she went to the refrigerator first. She noticed the newly made iced tea and thanked Pepper for being so thoughtful to make some fresh, Jug in hand, Tina walked toward the kitchen cabinet to grab a glass, but noticed something peculiar and said to Pepper, "Why is the floor sticky?' Before he could answer Tina looked down at the floor and noticed a myriad of nearly dried iced tea droplets on the floor. She pressed further, "How exactly did you make the iced tea?"

Pepper told her step by step how he made the iced tea. Tina immediately schooled him in the proper steps to take and the proper instruments to use, namely. a long wooden spoon to mix the ingredients thoroughly.

Time passed. Then one day Pepper again got up earlier than Tina, and again there was no iced tea, so he made some.

When Tina got up, she was also thirsty and went and got some fresh iced tea, She went to grab a glass and noticed that there was no sticky floor this time and smiled to herself that the schooling must have worked. Nothing more was thought about it. Pepper left for work, and Tina decided she should also get ready and went to bathroom to have a shower. She pulled the curtain back and noticed that the walls and tub were covered with droplets of iced tea everywhere. Pepper still made the iced tea the man way, but thought that if he shook it over the bath tub, there would be no sticky drops on the floor. Tina was a little irked by this, but she also had to laugh. She thought to herself, "Teaching Pepper something is like paper training a little puppy. After time a puppy will get used to the idea of the paper, but will stand there with two front paws on the paper and still pee on the linoleum. You can't get mad at them, but you still have to correct them."

To this day, when Pepper does screw up even though there was an effort to improve from the previous similar situation, Tina calls it Peeing on the Linoleum.


 
Tina's Peeing on the Linoleum story got me thinking about the state of things, our governments, and the general unrest in the world. Has our governments gone about things the right way? Public opinion of everything that has happened in the Middle East, Afghanistan, and now Libya (just to name a few) has really dropped. Public opinion of NATO, a force that was designed not to fight, but keep peace where there is unrest, has waned. There's even mixed feelings about how Saddam and Bin Laden were finally dealt with. I'm not saying that these tyrants and despots didn't need to be ousted, I'm really asking if the approach our governments took was the right way to go about it, or have we become the puppies that miss the paper? Doing what is right the wrong way. Maybe it is through efforts like BlogBlast4Peace that we can teach each other, and learn from each other. Maybe all these thoughts and efforts from bloggers can reach our governments so they can stop Peeing on the Linoleum.

Saturday, August 27, 2011

BlogBlast4Peace #80 Account Closed

Reason 80
Account Closed!

How would you like a bank account that deposited $86,400.00 into your account every morning that you could spend anyway you would like for that day. There is no charges, no hidden fees, no interest or any other gimmick to get you to join and open an account. At the end of the business day, all unspent funds are removed from your account. If you don't use it today you lose it today. Then the next business day $86,400.00 is redeposited into your account to spend as you wish for that day. I know I would like an account like this, and I'm sure you probably would like one too. The funny thing is we all have this account and it is open 24/7/365 plus an additional day every four years. The currency this bank uses cannot be traded by any Forex Trading Markets, but is still just as valuable as any Dollar, Pound, Euro, Rupie, Zloty, or Yen. The standard unit currency in this bank is 1 second (1s), and the Bank of Day gives you 86,400s every day of your life. I have equated one dollar to one second above to give qualitative value to the second.

So you just recieved your 86,400s deposit into your account, now what are you going to do with it? Just remember, the end of every business day at the Bank of Day your account is emptied. Sure, we spend many of those seconds sleeping, but we need those to recharge our batteries. It's what we do with the balance of seconds that counts. Four hours couch potato-ing for the day is pretty expensive seconds with very little return.

Just in case you don't agree that there is a value to each second, just as there is a value to each dollar and that their worth can be measured and each can fluctuate--

How much is ONE YEAR worth to the university student that just failed core courses?

How much is ONE MONTH worth to the mother that just gave birth to her child prematurely?

How much is ONE WEEK  worth to the editor of a weekly newpaper?

How much is ONE DAY worth to the weary traveller that has been rerouted due to airport closures?

How much is ONE HOUR worth to the young lovers that have to work late on DATE NIGHT? (HINT: Value for young love is minimum of  double time)

How much is ONE MINUTE worth to the cardiac patient during surgery when his heart is stopped?
How much is ONE SECOND worth to the motorcyclist that just missed side-swiping another vehicle due to his quick reflexes?
How much is a SPLIT SECOND worth to an Olympic Skier?
The value of a second fluctuates and has value to the account holder. Initially every second has the same value, but it is how the account holder spends those seconds that creates the value higher or lower for each second spent or squandered. It is because of the value of each of these seconds, that we should not involve ourselves in conflicts, wars, uprisings and such. For every war we get into, it is literally going into the Bank of Day and closing someone else's account--many, many accounts.

We become the Bank of Day's auditors and shut down accounts at will. We can't do that in any other financial institution, so we shouldn't be able to close others accounts in the Bank Of Day either. When we strive for peace, and actively pursue it, we become the Tellers at the Bank of Day greeting everyone with a smile and saying,

"How can we help you today."

TTFN

BlogBlast4Peace #81 Colours


Reason #81
Colours
The world is full of colour. 
 The Aquamarines,

The Yellows

The Greens


The Oranges
The Reds
And even the Whites
But nuclear winters wash all the colour away.

But Blogging4Peace
Can keep everyone in the Pink

TTFN

Sunday, August 21, 2011

BlogBlast4Peace Reason 82: Love Letters

Reason #82
Too many Love Letters

I'm dedicating a short story I wrote a few years back called Lixue and Salvatore to this years BlogBlast4Peace. Without including any spoilers, please pay close attention to dates in the story.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lixue and Salvatore
by Frank Sirianni

April 11, 1918

My Dearest Lixue,

Every day without you is agony. When I can close my eyes, all I see is you. When I wade through the trenches, gun and mortar fire all around me, I smell the sweet smell of lavender. A lavender that is you. I taste you, sweet as morning dew infused with honey. I taste you. Not one moment of this bloody war goes without the wanting, the yearning, the need for your caress. To touch you. To share a kiss, tasting our love.

They say this is the war to end all wars, Lord, I hope this is true. True and quick. For as soon as it is over, I'm not ever returning to England. I'm booking us passage to San Francisco, just as we talked about before I left Hong Kong to be in this damn battle. I can't bear to be away from you any longer. I don't have too much time to write you, the battle has been severe, but today the guns have slowed.

My Beautiful Snow,
Love and always,
Salvatore


May 27, 1918

My Salvatore My Love,

Every day is longer than the last. Without you, I'm empty inside. I worry everyday. But everyday I pray, I pray for your safe return. I return every full moon to the Pagodas of the 10,000 Buddhas and sit in the square just as we did so many months ago. Even though I am alone, you are there with me confirming our love, and melting my inner being. I can only imagine the hell you are going through, fighting some war that seems so distant.

The little news that we get of the war seems hopeful, Germany is showing signs of weakening. They say it is only a matter of time and Germany will surrender. I just pray that you stay safe and well till that time.

All my Heart
My savior
Lixue



June 9, 1918

My Dearest Lixue,

They pulled us out of the last battle only to move us to a more bloody fight. I lost two friends this week, both were just young men that would have had a whole life ahead of them if is wasn't for this bloody war. I keep hearing that the allies are gaining a stronghold and that Germany is weakening and ready to surrender, but it doesn't seem that way in the trenches. Each fight just seems bloodier, more vile. All I can think about is when this tour of duty is over, and being with you. Every day is more laborious than the last without you.

When we're one again
Salvatore


June 21 1918

My Salvatore,

It seems that everyday, lately, we hear more and more news about Germany's weakening stance. The war may be over soon, at least that's what the papers are reporting. You could be coming home anytime now, but when you do return, there will be a little surprise for you. We are going to have a child. I didn't tell you earlier because I thought it might distract you on the battlefield. But now that it seems that you'll be coming home soon, I just couldn't keep it from you any longer. I'm due in August, and the doctors say everything is fine and going on schedule. Maybe the war will be over in time for you to be here for the birth of your baby. I wish it were so.

All My Love,
Lixue

June 12, 1918

Dear Mrs. Lixue Sheppard

It is with our deepest heartfelt regret that we must inform you that your husband, Salvatore Sheppard was killed on the battle field June 11, 1918. I know it is of little consolation, but Salvatore died a hero to his troops, he fought with honor, he fought with conviction. Details of internment will follow in another communication.

Sincerest Condolences,
Lieutenant Major Richard Donner


November 15, 1934

Dear Lixie,

How are things in San Francisco, everything fine I hope? Your mother and father always had plans to go to San Francisco when the war was over. I've enclosed a few letters that I know that you are now ready to read. They are letters that your mother and father wrote to each other during the war. I've had them tucked away till I felt you were ready for them. Your mother gave them to me just before she passed away. She wanted me to give them to you so you could know them a little better, for you were just an infant when she passed. Your parents shared a true love, and from that love, I was blessed with raising the product of their love from bud to blossom. Take care Lixie, and through these letters may you see why we love and hold the memories of your parents with all our hearts. Enjoy your studies, I know you will do well, and don't forget to write...Often!

Keep in touch
Miss you much
Love
Auntie Ming

-------------------------------------------------------------------
Too many love letters. Too many. Sent to and from battlefields, sealed with kisses, scented with love. Too many, still being mailed, still being sealed from the heart with hope. Too many families broken forever. Too many soldiers that never knew the joy of fatherhood. Or even aware that they are to become fathers. 
Too many.
Still happening.

TTFN

Thursday, August 18, 2011

BlogBlast4Peace Reason 83: Right Now #2

Reason #83

Right Now
At this moment
Young children all over the world 

Are singing and dancing 

Before they even realize 

There is anything that isn’t music.

Let's hope
That they don't learn these
As their percussion instruments.

Peace
And make 
WAR


TTFN

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

BlogBlast4Peace Reason #84: Right Now. At this Momemt--Someone

Reason #84
Right Now
At this Moment
Someone 
Is enjoying a beautiful sunrise,
And at the precisely same moment
Somone
Is enjoying a surreal sunset.
Which is as deep as our differences in perspective should ever be.

Peace
and make 
WAR

TTFN

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Declare WAR for Peace


Blogblast4Peace Reason 85:
Declare WAR! for Peace

Yes, I said it, but it’s not what you think. My WAR is an acronym where "war" is a nasty business. To avoid any confusion, my WAR will be capitalized, and the nasty business word will be in small letters and in red. So what is WAR? As I said it’s an acronym, but also a little thought experiment. I’ll explain WAR one letter at a time (which seems to be an unintended motif to my peace posts so far).

First the W, which stands for Worldwide. I don’t think Worldwide needs any explanation for either word choice or meaning as to why it was chosen.

The A in WAR stands for Amity. Why I chose Amity? Well, the synonyms tell their own story, but the definition nailed it for me. Amity: friendship or harmony between individuals or groups.

Lastly, the R, which was my hardest to nail-down choice, stands for Rapport. Why did I finally choose Rapport? Because of one of its simple one word definitions -- Understanding.

WAR equals Worldwide Amity Rapport and is meant to instill Worldwide Friendship and Understanding which is the ultimate goal of anyone who hopes for Peace.


I’m not a word-smith by any means, but if a little thought experiment can turn war -- the absolute antonym of Peace -- into an acronym that becomes the definition and ultimate goal of Peace, then I know that Mimi’s Blogblast4Peace is declaring WAR, not war, for Peace. And as Mimi says about Blogblast4Peace, “One blog post at a time.”

TTFN

Friday, August 05, 2011

BlogBlast4Peace: Reasons 90 - 86

PEACE
 
I'm going to look at this simple word peace, letter by letter (but not in any given order), to give my next five reasons to blog for peace. 
 
Reason 90:
  
Is for
War is just too expensive. I don't mean the money taxpayers dole out every time there is a conflict, I mean the human price. It's just too large a price to pay. Military personnel, on either side of the conflict, killed or wounded. "Collateral damage" you know, the citizens caught up in conflict; women, children, elderly that have lost their lives or maimed for life. The veterans that suffer the ills of war and never retain a normal life after war. The families and friends of the lost. Everyone. Somehow, no matter who it, is pays a part of themselves to war.

Reason 89:
 Is for
Earth
Yes, we have the technology to do it real damage. Let's just get it done. Force the big boys to drop the missiles on all those that don't agree with our views. Fall-out, schmall-out. We're smart and adaptable. We can bundle up and get through that nuke winter that the know-alls say will happen. Once it warms up, we will finally create that loving human society that shares the same views. 
I mean really, lets get with the program. Even if the entire globe was conflict free, we are still at war with something, and that something is earth itself and we are the aggressors. We need to stop with all the bickering between ourselves and work to reverse the damage we have already done. 
Can we reverse the damage? I hope so.

Reason 88:
 
 
Is for the 
Children
 
 If we don't stop paying those terrible prices, or start looking after our earth, what future lies ahead for them? It's a price they may have to pay.

Reason 87:
 
Is for
Eager (beavers). 
And we should all be eager and industrious and committed to do our part to refuse to pay P, and look after E, so that C will have something for their future C's. They are our Grand C's after all. 

Reason 86:
 
 
Is for:
If and only if, 
we can be that eager beaver (E) and do something 
about all the wonderful PEACE letters, 
and I pray that we can. 

A
is


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