| Sunday, March 16, 2003 |  |
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 16 Mar 2003 @ 06:49
I recently discovered this website. Physically located in Seneca Falls, New York, it is regarded as the birthplace of women’s rights in America. The first women’s rights convention was held here in 1848.
So far to date there are 195 women, both living and dead, who have been inducted. Check here here for a detailed list.
""We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men and women are created equal........." With these words a dream was given life in historic Seneca Falls, New York, the Birthplace of Women's Rights. Here, in 1848, Elizabeth Cady Stanton (a Seneca Falls resident), Lucretia Mott and 300 other women and men held the first Women's Rights Convention. The Declaration of Sentiments, modeled after the Declaration of Independence, was presented and passed by the convention. These resolutions included among other demands, that women have the right to vote. The struggle for women's rights had begun.
Seventy-two years later in 1920, the 19th amendment to the Constitution of the United States was ratified, which gave women many rights, including the right to vote. It had been a long, hard fight by women and men who believed in the equality and rights of women.
The women and men of Seneca Falls created the National Women's Hall of Fame in 1969, believing that the contributions of American women deserved a permanent home. In 1979, after a major fundraising drive, the Hall purchased an historic bank building in the heart of the Seneca Falls Historic District, renovating it to house the Hall's permanent exhibit, artifacts of historical interest, and offices."
I have many wonderful women in my life. If you do and would like to nominate them for the Hall of Fame, here is the criteria.
Don't forget to honor the great women in your lives this month!
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| Friday, March 14, 2003 | |
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 14 Mar 2003 @ 18:23
This is not science fiction, this is real! An article in New Science by Duncan Graham-Rowe talks about "the world's first brain prosthesis -- an artificial hippocampus" which is about to be tested in California.
"The job of the hippocampus appears to be to "encode" experiences so they can be stored as long-term memories elsewhere in the brain. "If you lose your hippocampus you only lose the ability to store new memories," says Berger. That offers a relatively simple and safe way to test the device: if someone with the prosthesis regains the ability to store new memories, then it's safe to assume it works.
Good to know that soon, any damaged parts of my brain can be replaced.
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 14 Mar 2003 @ 17:22
By Holland Cotter New York Times February 25, 2003
Iraq has hundreds of thousands of archaeological sites. Some 10,000 have been identified, but only a fraction have been explored. Any of them could change what we know about human history, as past excavations have done. Some have already revealed the world's earliest known villages and cities and the first examples of writing.
The country is also one of the prime centers of Islamic art and culture. It is home to some of the earliest surviving examples of Islamic architecture -- the Great Mosque at Samarra and the desert palace of Ukhaidar -- and it is also a magnet for religious pilgrimage. The tombs of Imam Ali and his son Husein, founders of the Shiite branch of Islam, at Najaf and Karbala, are two of the most revered in the Muslim world.
During the Persian Gulf war in 1991 at least one major archaeological monument, the colossal ziggurat of Ur, was bombed. Shock from explosions damaged fragile structures like the great brick vault at Ctesiphon, and the 13th-century university called the Mustansiriya in Baghdad. These are among the sites most at risk from war.
The article ends stating:
"If any of the holiest Shiite shrines at Karbala, Najaf or Kadhumain are hit, we can only expect a very angry reaction from Muslims everywhere," said Zainab Bahrani, who was born in Iraq and teaches Islamic art at Columbia University. "It would be like bombing St. Peter's in Rome."
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 14 Mar 2003 @ 11:55
Sister Usha Devi asked if I might post this. Please email her directly if you want to volunteer or participate. We will begin at 5:30AM Los Angeles time.
Peace!
I repeat my invitation to the following. We have not yet had enough volunteers to make this successful. Please volunteer, and encourage your friends to do this also. Sister Usha Devi ---
Date: Sun, 9 Mar 2003 04:11:20 -0800 (PST)
Please forward this note to anyone whom you feel might be interested. Hello. I am Sister Usha Devi, Founder of a religious group called Divinely Female. We sponsor the divinely-female list at yahoogroups, as well as several other lists.
Many people in the world today are concerned about the current situation in Mesopotamia, specifically, the threat of war between the United States and Iraq. This is holy ground, home of one of the most ancient and venerable civilizations on Earth. A major war in this region would be a great tragedy not only for the people of region, but for all peoples everywhere. We wish to pray for peace by appealing to the oldest Goddess known from anywhere in the world, Inanna. She was worshipped thousands of years ago by the direct ancestors of the present-day Iraqi peoples. She was called Inanna when the region was known as Sumer, Ishtar, Astarte, Aphrodite, and Virgin Mary by later civilizations. Here is what we propose. I shall open a yahoo chatroom on the morning of Saturday, March 15. Anyone who wishes to participate is invited. We shall use the book "Inanna, Queen of Heaven and Earth" by Diane Wolkstein and Samuel Noah Kramer. This was published by Harper and Row of New York in 1983. You may be able to find a copy at a library or at [link] . The first part of the book contains a complete transcript of Inanna's mythology: her coronation, her marriage, her descent to the Underworld, and her return to Heaven. This is followed by seven hymns in her honor, then by explanatory text by modern authors.
I ask now for volunteers to play the various characters in the myth: Inanna, Dumuzi, Ereshkigal, etc. The person playing Inanna will type into the chatroom the lines attributed to Inanna, etc. We shall go through the entire myth like this. Then, when we have finished, we shall do the same with the hymns, one volunteer taking each hymn. You must have a copy of the book to volunteer to be a typer, but if you do not have the book, you can come anyway and read silently what others type.
It is our prayer that Inanna will hear our words and bring peace to the land where she was worshipped so many centuries ago.
Please contact me at sisterusha@yahoo.com if you wish to volunteer. This will begin Saturday, March 15, at 9 in the morning New York time. We shall be unable to do this unless we receive enough volunteers. May the Great Mother bring a song to your heart and a smile to your lips today and every day.
At 07:47 AM 3/14/2003 -0800, you wrote: My dearest friends and Siblings, We are still planning our ceremony tomorrow, but we still need more volunteers to make it work properly. Most of the major parts are already taken, except the very major role of Inanna's husband, Dumuzi. For some of the minor parts, I might be able to give you instructions by email, telling you what to say and when to say it. So you will not need the book; you will simply need to email me very soon requesting this. Several people have said that they wish to participate, but have not chosen a role. It is important that you do so soon so that I as coordinator will not panic.
Procedure: I shall create a yahoogroups chatline about 8:30 tomorrow morning, New York time. This will be by invitation only; you send me a short email to sisterusha@yahoo.com asking me to invite you into the chatroom, and I shall invite you in.
Here is the list of charaters.
FEMALE:
Inanna, Queen of Heaven and Earth [taken] Ereshkigal, Queen of the Underworld, sister of Inanna [probably taken] Ninshubar, servant of Inanna Ningal, Moon Goddess, Inanna's mother Geshtinanna, Lady of Wine, Inanna's second cousin and Dumuzi's sister Sirtur, Inanna's great aunt and Dumuzi's mother
MALE Utu, Sun God, Inanna's brother An, Sky God, Inanna's great-grandfather Enki, God of Wisdom, Inanna's grandfather [taken] Isimud, servant of Enki Dumuzi, Inanna's husband and second cousin Neti, gatekeeper of the Underworld [taken] Enlil, Air God, Inanna's grandfather Nama, Moon God, Inanna's father an unnamed friend of Dumuzi
also a few unnamed demons
Please volunteer.
===== Sister Usha Devi Founder, Divinely Female and worshipper of the Sacred Flame that shines inside every woman
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 14 Mar 2003 @ 09:13
NATIONAL GUARD DEPLOYMENTS: STATE BY STATE
The Associated Press / Department of Defense
As war with Iraq looms and the war on terror continues, National Guard members and military reservists are being called up in greater numbers, with some states being hit harder than others by the deployments.
Click on the map below to see how many reservists have been activated from your state:
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 14 Mar 2003 @ 06:04
Dr Elwyn Jenkins has developed Smoogle - The Smart Googler's News, Views and Tools about online search Google™ is a trademark of Google Inc. This website is not affiliated with Google Inc.
He has a great Guide to Meta Search Engines listing several and reviewing each of them.
"Many people use one search engine, Google, and do not wander to any other. I know what you are thinking. Google gives such good results, why would I bother using any other tool? The web is a big place -- much larger than the 3 billion or so pages that Google Indexes. No one really knows how large it might even be 8 billion pages. Each search engine has its own strengths and weaknesses."
I played around with these:
dugdugi, kartoo (my personal favorite), ez2find
Not being much of a techie myself, kartoo appeals to me with it's playful Genie who floats around while the search is going on. I love the roll over buttons and text pop ups.
For now Google is the easiest search engines for me to use, probably just because I am use to it. I have to say that Genie is pretty cute and as I said before, I like the roll over action on the buttons.
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| Thursday, March 13, 2003 | |
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 13 Mar 2003 @ 21:00
Marylaine Block, your "librarian without walls", puts out a great weekly newsletter called Neat "New Stuff I found On the Web This Week". I always find something that is extremely useful and/or interesting. Take a look at this week's issue for some really neat stuff!
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 13 Mar 2003 @ 11:05
Ming's wrote about one of his favorite walks in the valley. It is amazing to find nature in an urban setting. I don't live in the LA area anymore, but visit often. This is the site I use to explore all the trails in an about the city.
We have great walking trails in Oaji. My walks these days take me into the Los Padres National Forest.
Ming, time for a visit to the duck pond? Well maybe when you return from France for sure!
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| Wednesday, March 12, 2003 | |
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 12 Mar 2003 @ 23:47
If only we had the cure now, we would less War-talk! Check here for the entire article:
STUPIDITY SHOULD BE CURED, SAYS DNA DISCOVERER By Shaoni Bhattacharya New Scientist February 28, 2003
Fifty years to the day from the discovery of the structure of DNA, one of its co-discoverers has caused a storm by suggesting that stupidity is a genetic disease that should be cured.
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 12 Mar 2003 @ 21:00
How many of us remember the early consciousness raising groups? Not me (smile)! Celebrating women during the entire month of March has me surfing the net reading about women's herstory. What delights me is that this information is both old and new...that is plenty of women began waking up in 1971 and many more wake up every year.
I loved this oldie but goodie piece:
How to start your own consciousness-raising group Reprinted from a leaflet distributed by The Chicago Women's Liberation Union (1971)
(Editors Note: The CWLU organized many consciousness raising groups around the city.)
Consciousness-raising groups are the backbone of the Women's Liberation Movement. All over the country women are meeting regularly to share experiences each has always thought were "my own problems". A lot of women are upset by remarks men make to us on the street, for instance, but we think other women handle the situation much better than we do, or just aren't bothered as much. Through consciousness-raising we begin to understand ourselves and other women by looking at situations like this in our own lives. We see that "personal problems shared by so many others--not being able to get out of the house often enough, becoming exhausted from taking care of the children all day, perhaps feeling trapped--are really 'Political problems. Understanding them is the first step toward dealing with them collectively, whether in forming a day care center, exploring job possibilities, or planning the best strategy for getting our husbands to help with the housework. It's easy to form a group of your own. Here's how:
A consciousness-raising group consists of a small number of women (generally not more than 12) who meet informally once a week at a member's home or women's center. Ask friends to bring friends--it isn't necessary to know everyone. Sisterhood is a warm feeling!
Check the site for the entire article and many more interesting bits in the archive section.
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| Friday, March 7, 2003 | |
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 7 Mar 2003 @ 22:07
Tomorrow is International Women's day. Around the globe women will be gathering to celebrate the day. Gather the Women
Beginning the week of March 3-8, 2003, linked globally by our interactive website, we are inviting women to demonstrate their courage to risk leaving old conformities by joining with millions of others throughout the world in thousands of unique events celebrating woman's true worth, expressing shared concern for our human family, and creating and supporting actions that will enable humanity to live together in a world based on life-affirming values.
Gather the Women is a project of Women of Vision and Action, a nonprofit, 501c3 organization established in 1994. Please click on the links below to learn more about the individuals and organizaitons who are working behind the scenes to make this initiative successful.
WOVA is a network of established and emerging women leaders who share the following beliefs:
We believe in the qualities of compassion and courage, and that spirit-based social action can change the world. We believe in the creative ability of all people as part of one human family, who are united in one global community. We believe in the positive uses of technology for peace, information services, communication and cooperation for all people. We believe in the right of all individuals to a healthy, safe and productive life. We believe in the methods of dialogue and mediation to resolve disputes both personal and global. We honor the sacredness of ALL life and the gifts of diversity in ethnic, racial, religious backgrounds, beliefs and ideologies. We embrace all children of the world and seek to create a world where they can thrive.
I first became aware of WOVA shortly after doing a project for the UN Conference of Women in 1995. Check here for more information.
Women around the world are gathering to celebrate Peace. Check these links to participate in actions near you:
Global Women's Strike
United for Peace
Code Pink
Women In Black
Peace Women
Women's International League for Peace and Freedom
Women's Action for New Direction
Grandmothers for Peace
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 7 Mar 2003 @ 14:32
I am a huge stone circle fan. When this story appeared from the Discovery Channel. I had generally heard that Stonehenge was more associated with men more than women. According to Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News:
Feb. 28, 2003 —The design of Stonehenge, the 4,800-year-old monument in southwestern England, was based on female sexual anatomy, according to a paper in the current Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine.
The theory could explain why the ancients constructed Stonehenge and similar monuments throughout the United Kingdom.
Anthony Perks, a professor emeritus of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of British Colombia in Vancouver, and a doctor at the university's Women's Hospital, first thought of Stonehenge's connection to women after noticing how some of the stones were smooth, while others were left rough.
OK, so then Anthony goes on to say:
Thinking how estrogen causes a woman's skin to be smoother than a man's, the observation led Perks to further analyze the monument in anatomical terms.
He noticed how the inner stone trilithons were arranged in a more elliptical, or egg-shaped, pattern than a true circle. Comparing the layout with the shape of female sexual organs showed surprising parallels.
Perks believes the labia majora could be represented by the outer stone circle and possibly the outer mound, with the inner circle serving as the labia minora, the altar stone as the clitoris and the empty geometric center outlined by bluestones representing the birth canal.
I honestly had not considered these details about stonhenge before. Next time I am across the pond, I will be more inclined to check it out for myself.
I understand there is some concern about a roadway that is being built near the site that might cause damage to this ancient site. Check here for more details and how you might help to preserve this ancient sacred site.
If you are not inclined to travel, perhaps you might like to visit America's Stonehenge:
Built by a native American culture or a migrant European population? No one knows for sure. A maze of man-made chambers, walls and ceremonial meeting places, America's Stonehenge is one of the oldest man-made construction in the United States. (over 4000 years old). Archaeological Excavation at the site has uncovered an amazing range of historic and pre-historic artifacts-from stone tools, pottery and ancient old world scripts to 18th and 19th century house wares, and manacles (possibly removed from slaves who used the site as a stop on the underground railroad in the 1830's and 1840's.
Along with it's astronomical alignments, America's Stonehenge continues to be one of the most fascinating archaeological discoveries of the century
You can actually rent out the henge for your next event.
Take a look at this link to learn more about Archeoastronomy.
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| Tuesday, March 4, 2003 | |
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 4 Mar 2003 @ 11:22
March is National Women's History Month,
The National Women's History Project In 1980, the National Women's History Project (NWHP) was founded in Santa Rosa, California, as a nonprofit corporation by Maria Cuevas, Paula Hammett, Molly Murphy MacGregor, Bette Morgan, and Mary Ruthsdotter.
More from the site:
90 years ago a small group of women organized a parade that would help change the U.S. Constitution and win political power for half of the American population. On March 3, 1913, a band of suffragists in Washington D.C. staged such a remarkable demonstration for women’s rights that it has long been acknowledged as one of the high points in the 72-year drive for Votes for Women in the U.S.
Another place to visit with great info and links, is the Feminist Majority website
By changing the focus of the larger suffrage movement from campaigns in the states to federal action on a Constitutional amendment, Alice Paul, Lucy Burns, and their Congressional Committee of the National American Woman Suffrage Association led the way towards the final national enfranchisement of women. The charismatic Alice Paul was 28 years old and her colleague, the brilliant and courageous Lucy Burns, was 33.
If you are interested in keeping up in the academic world on Women's Studies check here.
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| Saturday, March 1, 2003 | |
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 1 Mar 2003 @ 19:11
I get tired of spam in my ebox. I am glad to see that there is a movement afoot to isolate spammers. Here is an article from ZDNet David Berlind decided to do something about it. You can read about his reason's why here.
David did some research and organized a meeting to rally support for an anti-spam coalition. SpamJam was born on Feburary 15th when industry praticipantsgathered for the first time.
If you ask the average Internet user, or even the above average Internet user, what the negative effects of spam are, more often than not they will tell you about the first edge of the double-edged sword that is spam. It's the one we all know about. The one where our inboxes get clogged, our productivity is drained, and valuable resources such as storage space and network bandwidth are unnecessarily consumed. For businesses, this often translates into a quantifiable loss.
But there is a second, more insidious edge to spam and the stakes associated with that edge are actually higher than those associated with the first edge. This second edge has to do with (1) the blacklists that ISPs have been forced to build or subscribe to in an effort to keep spam from passing through their systems and (2) the amount of legitimate email that is denied safe passage through the Internet as a result of those blacklists. Why would ISPs attempt to block spam if their spam countermeasures end up blocking legitimate mail too? There are several reasons. But two of the most common ones have to do with the threat that spam poses to the reliability of their services and the desire to keep themselves from becoming an entry on the blacklists that other ISPs subscribe to. gathered for the first time to set anti-spam standards.
They close in saying:
JamSpam is all about creating an industry-wide initiative to take action against the double-edged sword of spam now. Not tomorrow. Over the last two decades, the technology industry has proven time and time again that its members can set aside their competitive differences and work together to produce interoperable protocols that solve a mutual problem. It's about producing a protocol that not only solves a problem for everyone in the room. It's about the betterment of the entire Internet community. No other problem demands this sort of collaboration today like spam does. If there was ever a time to produce an anti-spam protocol that interoperates between the many email-enabled systems that are connected to the Internet, now is that time.
Check the website for more details. Join the anti-spam clan today!
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 1 Mar 2003 @ 19:11
Oh my, where does the time go? Seems the days fly by before I find myself blogging again. Raymond posted a rant about the challenge of being the last land line in our canyon. Makes blogging a slow process.
When I read articles like this one from Rebecca's Pocket or from Julie, I am more inclined to find time. Well and of course Ming always has something to read that sparks my thoughts.
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 1 Mar 2003 @ 18:26
Z Budapest has released a new CD of stories, poems and meditations from two of her books GrandMother of Time and GrandMother Moon. Winter is the first in a series of CD's Z's is calling Goddess Monologues:
"Align yourself with the universe. Mythical winter as rest and regeneration. Poems/Holydays and stories from Grandmother Moon and Grandmother of Time. The whole CD floats on the beautiful choral works of Bela Bartok and the Hungarian Women's Chorus from Gyor."
Congratulations Z!
And just who is Z Budapest?
Zsuzsanna E. Budapest, better known as "Z," is a passionately committed feminist who sees Goddess religion as a crucial ideological and psychological support to the work of feminism. She is considered to be one of the founding mothers of the women's spirituality movement, and coined the term "feminist spirituality." She is the author of The Holy Book of Women's Mysteries, GrandMother of Time, GrandMother Moon, The Goddess in the Office, The Goddess in the Bedroom and Summoning the Fates. She is the spiritual mother of the American Dianic Tradition and as High Priestess within her tradition, she leads Goddess-centered retreats and celebrations throughout the year. She is also the matron of the Women's Spirituality Forum and uses her work with the forum to further women's spirituality, education, empowerment and peace.
She is the founding mother of the Dianic Tradition which began in Los Angeles, CA on Winter Solstice night 1971. When Z moved north to the SF Bay area, she ordained Ruth Rhiannon Barrett to stand at center. Ruth was with the Los Angeles Community, Circle of Aradia, for twenty years before moving to Madison, Wi. Ruth along with Falcon River co-founded The Temple of Diana.
Before leaving the Los Angeles area, Ruth ordained Holin Badger Shubad, who stands center at Arachne's Grove and me. I stands center at Circle of Aradia. Amazing to think that COA entered our 32nd year of serving women in the greater Los Angeles Community.
Oh dear, seems I have done my own Goddess Monologue...Anyway check out Z's new CD.
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"In chaos theory, the edge is the meeting point between order and chaos, between the known and the unknown. In nature it is where creativity and self-organizing happen. It is where new information is created."
Dana Zohar & Ian Marshall
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"Dancing is just discovery, discovery, discovery."
Martha Graham, Blood Memory |
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Morphogenesis - Priestessing on the edge of chaos
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