Match Made in Marrow…

Date: November 20, 2017

01) Match Made in Marrow

02) Direct Download [MP3]

“You never know what might happen when you sign up to donate bone marrow. You might save a life… or you might be magically transported across a cultural chasm and find yourself starring in a modern adaptation of the greatest story ever told.

One day, without thinking much of it, Jennell Jenney swabbed her cheek and signed up to be a donor. Across the country, Jim Munroe desperately needed a miracle, a one-in-eight-million connection that would save him. It proved to be a match made in marrow, a bit of magic in the world that hadn’t been there before. But when Jennell and Jim had a heart-to-heart in his suburban Dallas backyard, they realized they had contradictory ideas about where that magic came from. Today, an allegory for how to walk through the world in a way that lets you be deeply different, but totally together.”

It’s nice to know, the scary, big, painful needle is no longer part of the process, anymore.

I was actually looking for this weeks episode of RadioLab…which, apparently, is not online yet…And I found this interesting episode, instead.

What do you do, when someone interprets something like this…as being “proof” of the existence of a god?…

…Is it even your place, to do anything at all?…

I can understand the awkwardness…of being an atheist who saves a Christian in this manner…and then unwittingly being pulled into this very public narrative, which you don’t even agree with.

I don’t tell anyone what to believe, when it comes to issues like the existence of gods…I only tell people what has led me to my own conclusions, in my own life.

…But this “live and let live” stance doesn’t translate so well…should someone want to use me as a prop, to sell their belief in a god.

Charles Manson dead at 83…

Date: November 20, 2017

01) Hippie cult leader Charles Manson dead at 83

“LOS ANGELES (AP) — Charles Manson, the hippie cult leader who became the hypnotic-eyed face of evil across America after masterminding the gruesome murders of pregnant actress Sharon Tate and six others in Los Angeles during the summer of 1969, died Sunday night after nearly a half-century in prison. He was 83.

Manson died of natural causes at a California hospital while serving a life sentence, his name synonymous to this day with unspeakable violence and depravity.”

What is there to say?…

…I never revered him…though I did find some of his dispositions he was born into, and some of his resulting cognition [and honesty] on society, to be sympathetic.

This honestly is a guy, who was “raised by the system”…

I know it’s unrealistic, to expect everybody can turn out okay…or that “the system” even has that kind of power…

…But, I’ve commonly seen people like Charles Manson, as being direct products of “the system”…

It’s a system which expects and demands that everyone conform, on every level of life [including those dealing with simple survival]…when it’s known all along, that many people simply cannot conform…and there is no place allowed for them…It kills and degrades those people, to live their life in subservience to this…Countless people become unstable, under the stress…and we get predictable outcomes.

It’s an absurdity, wherever humans behave as though they own portions of planet Earth…If anything, planet Earth owns us, as animals inhabiting Earths life sustaining atmosphere…As such, we all have equal right to Earth’s resources…just as wild animals have right to them.

…It’s an absurdity, to imagine anything can control any species…especially one so complex as humans…

…And while the system continues to dominate and degrade, in attempts at attaining such a fools goal…it continues to create “Charles Manson’s”, of varying sizes, shapes and degrees.

I don’t know if any model of system even can exist, which avoids doing this…

…But it does seem to me, that we need to keep striving for something a hell of a lot better…than what currently exists.

Album: Yule Love It! – Songs of the Winter Château Book III…

….	Date: November 20, 2017 Yule Love It!: Songs of the Winter Château Book III [48:35] 01) The Night Before Christmas 02) Hark The Herald Angels Sing 03) We Gather Together to Ask the Lord’s Blessing 04) Angels from the Realms of Glory 05) Angels We Have Heard on High 06) Joy to the World 07) God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen 08) Once in Royal David’s City 09) Gather Around The Tree 10) Light The Advent Candle 11) Oh Come Oh Come Immanuel 12) One Bright Star 13) It Came Upon a Midnight Clear 14) Toyland 15) Boars Head Carol 16) Exidus 17) Come Little Children 18) In the Bleak Mid Winter 19) Star of Christmas Morning 20) How Quietly 21) Candlelight Carol 22) Lo How Rose E’er Blooming 23) The First Noel 24) A Child A King 25) Oh Come All Ye Faithful 26) Alleluia Acclamation Christmas 27) Bring A Torch Jeanette Isabella I’m releasing this one a little bit early…but late November isn’t “too early”… I still have to get the video exhibition put together for this one, at the time of this writing…I’m confident I’ll have it done by early December. I should point out…this album was actually started just shortly after completion of “Yule in Strings”…But it got shelved for a long, long time…And I had a collection of tracks I wasn’t entirely pleased with…I pruned a few of those away, and probably should have taken at least one other out…but…I’m pleased with what is here. I was beginning to wonder if I’d have this completed by Yule time…I’m happy to put out another alternative version [a la “Yule in Strings”] of this series…but, I’d been promising the third installment for at least a year now…so, I needed to get this done. Unfortunately, as happens sometimes when a project gets shelved…sometimes you forget what you was doing, and you wander off the path a bit…and there are two different styles of track on this album…Several are of a more typical acoustic piano…and all the rest are “Baby Grand”…and the difference is obvious…I wanted to keep these albums as uniform as possible…Guess I didn’t. I trust this will hinder no ones enjoyment of the album. As to this series of albums…I set out to make a trilogy, and this is the third… …Of course, there’s lots to do with alternate versions of the music already covered…I expect a second “Yule in Strings” at some point…and an orchestral album…plus a church organ album…If I can come up with something I find release worthy…I may even play around with the choir synthesizer…and I’ve got a few nice tracks with the Celtic harp…a few other synthesizers I’ve never even tried, are just waiting for me… …I’ve got some stragglers, however…I don’t think I’m going to release most of the tracks I’ve pulled [over not liking how they turned out]…but I’ve still got some material I haven’t even loaded up yet, to see what I can do with it…There’s still a bit of fertile ground to dance upon… …Which means there might be a small “encore” album, in the future…I make no promises… …except that I’ll rummage through what I already have on hand, and see how many albums I can make of them…They’ll likely be small…like, ten or so tracks…But I’ll be releasing things, well into the future… …And I’ll get back to my regular albums, too. – Steve	….

The 99 Best Thanksgiving Side Dishes…

….	Date: November 20, 2017 01) The 99 Best Thanksgiving Side Dishes “Fill your plate with our tastiest sides, from classic mashed and sweet potatoes to green beans, roasted vegetables and cranberry sauces bearing unique flavors.”	….
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R.I.P. The Internet, 1983-2017…

Date: November 20, 2017

01) R.I.P. The Internet, 1983-2017

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“The head of the Federal Communications Commission is set to unveil plans next week for a final vote to reverse a landmark 2015 net neutrality order barring the blocking or slowing of web content, two people briefed on the plans said.

In May, the FCC voted 2-1 to advance Republican FCC Chairman Ajit Pai’s plan to withdraw the former Obama administration’s order reclassifying internet service providers as if they were utilities. Pai now plans to hold a final vote on the proposal at the FCC’s Dec. 14 meeting, the people said, and roll out details of the plans next week.

Pai asked in May for public comment on whether the FCC has authority or should keep any regulations limiting internet providers’ ability to block, throttle or offer “fast lanes” to some websites, known as “paid prioritization.” Several industry officials told Reuters they expect Pai to drop those specific legal requirements but retain some transparency requirements under the order.”

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Internet Citizens: Defend Net Neutrality [2014]:

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I’m not really sure how this will play out…I mean…the online resources I tend to most use [WordPress, YouTube, Vimeo, Twitter, etc.], are big and well established…

…But I’d be shocked if this internet coup doesn’t happen…despite that virtually everybody is dead set against it.

I don’t know if this is going to mean higher internet bills, in order to reasonably access much of the content online…or if the cost is all going to be dumped on individual companies and people who own that content…Either way, it’s likely to be catastrophic.

At least if it falls upon the individual internet subscriber…they have some type of potential for easy access, across the board…But if everything is reliant on the individual abilities of millions of companies and people, then even that potential will no longer exist.

The true power of the internet has always been, that even the grossly disenfranchised groups can have their own easy to access networks and media…Internet culture, is primarily about “the alternative”…

What’s happening right now, is likely the old media companies trying to re-establish their dominance over the public…in an age where few people even want what they have to offer.

We all know this is coming, eventually…They’re not going to stop…

…They’re getting weaker…and it seems, it’s time to make their strike.

…Maybe, it’s their “Hail Mary”?…

…Wouldn’t it be nice to imagine, that they’ll fail at this…crumble…go away, and stop harassing us?…

…If they had any respect for the public, they’d have stopped a long, long time ago.