One final act in life

Yesterday Andrew Joseph Stack piloted his plane into a local tax office in Austin, Texas - deliberately. People killing themselves, and others these in the process, are not uncommon these days. Especially USA and Europe seems to be hit hard by these disturbed people, but we also see violent acts elsewhere. Statistics on educational institutions alone list 13 killings, 7 in Europe and 5 in USA, and 1 in Canada over the last 20 years.

The Department of Homeland Security have according to the news classified Stacks suicide has nothing to do with terrorism. I bothered to look up Stacks suicide note and read it in The New York Times. From what I understand Stack had enough of being abused by the law and so called justice, and in a act of desperation tried to strike a blow to the corruption that had damaged his life thus far. Stack writes as final words:

I saw it written once that the definition of insanity is repeating the same process over and over and expecting the outcome to suddenly be different. I am finally ready to stop this insanity. Well, Mr. Big Brother IRS man, let’s try something different; take my pound of flesh and sleep well.

Is that not terrorism? Or is it not terror when a country's own citizens attack its own country and its systems out of desperation of its monstrosity? But our governments highly peculiar and selective investigations of terrorist acts at 9/11, and mostly criminal and unethical actions that followed by that event, is supported by real terrorism then or what? Hmmm. I have read some comments from people on this already outdated news event. Oddly enough people do not disagree with Stacks perception leading to his actions, but rather his conscious taking of other peoples lives and some strange assumptions of political orientation. The latter seems to be exactly what we (The Coalition countries) seem to do in counter-terrorism. It is a very vague and foggy business who gets to do terror apparently.

One can agree or disagree with Stacks actions, but it made me think: What would you do if you knew your life was over? Terminal cancer, suicide, starvation, death of your loved ones, a future in slavery... would you lie down and take it, or would you do something with that last breath? Was this what Stack was thinking?

I know abuse and injustice makes most non-masochistic people angry. How we deal with that anger varies individually. I was angry, very very angry, already when I was 5 years old - because at that age I could already perceive something was insanely wrong with the way humans acted just because. Adults could not answer me the most fundamental questions: "What is evil? Why do money make people do bad things? Why do we tell people in Africa how to behave? etc." My son now answer the same kind of questions, and not because I ask him to, but I can at least attempt to answer them from my best ability.
At the age of 15 I was ready too follow Stacks example, and I can at least imagine I understand why peoples anger grow into terror to get YOUR attention - because governments can not afford to sway at one mans sacrifice! Georgians: "Help us - they are slaughtering us and stealing our country!", Uganda: "They are mutilating and raping our women and children and enslaving our sons as brainwashed soldiers!", Kosovo: "We are dumped in mass-graves in your back yard!" and so on. But those kind of cries drown in headlines like "Norweigan clown trousers are a hit in Canada" and "After plus degrees the frost returns". Luckily my fate allowed me to enslave my anger and transform it into something more constructive, as you are reading about it now.

My final act in life is raising my children with open answers to their questions and nourish a critical attitude to seek out meaning and answers in their world. For as long as I can remain free in thought I can guide my work towards finding smarter ways for us all and expose the wasteful ones. And with a little luck I may keep evolving and learning something new every day.

Doctor of Philosophy - Egypt and Thoth

When it comes to the wheels of religion, secret societies, science, and civilization, Dan Brown has to eat his heart out when it comes to how Egyptian thinking has rippled our culture. Gospel editing is just a tiny aspect from what lies beneath. Most who write or talk on the origins of science begin with the natural philosophers. But where did they get the idea from to study methodically and why? The alchemists! But where did they get the ideas from? The Greeks philosophers (among others)! And where did they get it from... the Egyptians! Perhaps the thread goes further back, but I have seen no references.

As introduction I think most need to get an insight into what purpose icons or pictures of deity's could mean. This is important because when you start to examine it, everything in our systems are based on symbols from cave paintings, religion, quantum physics, to commercial logos. Even reading these symbols right now gives meaning to you as sounds unlocking the ability to read and write. Example: "A" is a bulls head (Aries) turned upside down, you know as the phonetic sound "A". Icons are concentrations of symbols. I was introduced to this insight through martial arts where I was shown how some icons once banned by law in Japan and thus were hidden. Often the picture of a deity, prophet, angel, demon, etc. is filled with symbols that have powerful meanings in the context of those who live in that icons culture. It would give you guidance and purpose in how to live your life - and could thus be dangerous to those who disagree with the ideology. Just have a closer look at Virgin Mary for example or the 12 disciples and see what they are carrying. Thoth pictured here have the head of the ibis, which also was associated with the phoenix legend, which will make sense later. Above Thoths head is the sun, connecting him to the main deity Ra. He is counting or measuring showing his association with science. And so on. Keep this in mind, because symbols are the language which both science and religion are explained the interpretations and misunderstandings are many. And which interpretation is closest to the original meaning, and which one is more sensible?

What did the Egyptians believe about perceptions of science? Their deity Thoth embodied the heart and the tongue of the sun god Ra. The heart in Egyptian mythology was the vessel of the mind and intelligence, and Thoth was so to say the "mind" and the "voice" of Ra, or God if you like. He (Thoth is pictured as a male) was associated with functions that involved magic, writing, science, and the judging in disputes and fate of the dead. He had these functions because of the mastery in physical (science) and moral (divine) law.

First I skipped through that last sentence without thinking, but later learned it was very important. Science, was meant to be the workings with matter, while religion was the workings of the right and wrong (good and evil) - what to do with science. It is kind of simple and logic once you think of it: what good is knowledge if you have no good use of it? Often people make the quick assumption that these things as defined or fixed (such as facts or laws), but for mortal man the understanding of these two dualities was a work in progress - also known as life or learning. Egyptians was aware of a duality, a balance, in things and was symbolized in Thoth carrying a staff which later became the winged staff crowned with a sun and two coiling snakes - the Caduceus or Staff of Hermes. "Duality" is in my interpretation another word for "balance".

Thoths judgement of the dead as described in The Book of the Dead, carries a lot of information as to what originally may have been the idea of a good life. As the dead was brought before Thoth, Anubis would weigh the heart of the dead on the scales of Maat against the Feather of Truth. If the heart was too heavy, the chimera Ammut would tear the person to pieces. If the person was vindicated the person was raised to assume power in the universe as one of the gods (chapters 130-189). I think this description hold a lot of information to what happened later in our history and thought.
My first note, though a theory since I can not find evidence of a direct link, is that Maat and the scale (the female counterpart of Thoth of justice and law) could have been the original concept of justice (Lady Justice). She commonly assigned to originate from the Greek goddess Dike. But as I will write later - Greeks borrowed heavily from the older Egyptian civilization. Or as Herodotus would write in The Histories (book II), that Egyptians knew of the old gods and were the older culture (meaning there were similarities between Greek and Egyptian pantheon). If this is of interest to you, I suggest having a look at the Zeitgeist movie (first half).
Secondly, the judgment of the heart against the soul is fascinating once you put things into context. The heart was according to Egyptians the vessel of the intellect and the soul. This had to be lighter than the Feather of Truth (or in other words probably light). What does that mean? I understand this as if you had been living an immoral or abused your intellect you would be burdened by this on this final day of judgment Now, if there is no difference between intellect and moral (both hosted by the heart), and a good life was a pursuit of both moral (the divine) and physical intellect (science), this could explain the development that followed in Greek philosophy, alchemy, and some of the earliest science. But somewhere something went off this track, for I dare say that the present day science is not driven by a moral pursuit to any great extent today!
Thirdly, a successful vindication would give the person would assume power in the universe as one of the gods. Gods ultimate power was the ability to differ good from evil, right from wrong. This would later be the goal of the alchemists, a goal never reached, refined through experimentation, but pivoting around a perfection of the person himself. The alchemists call this the search for the Philosophers Stone. Today we call this pursuit the Grand Unified Theory.

Another interesting observation mentioned in Manley Palmer Halls lectures on alchemy, is the way knowledge was probably passed in this culture. Egyptians knew mathematics, accounting, astronomy etc. but there were not schools for common people. You had to be accepted into an order that would eventually give you this knowledge, bit by bit as trade for your dedication to the order. These were religiously orientated. Belief and logic mixed into a ritualistic entity. We know of these kind of organizations still because they became guilds, the strongest and most famous known as Freemasons as we know today. There is nothing occult or weird about this really. Sharing knowledge makes it vulnerable to criticism and evolution. In suppressive regimes knowledge makes you a target. Large companies do the same today regarding their strategies and know-how, binding employees best they can they higher they go in the hierarchy.

This was stray thoughts on the Egyptians at the root of science, among many other things affecting us today. Later I wish to take this to the next phase of what I learned about the Greek philosophers involvement.

Further reading

Doctor of Philosophy - without the philosophy please!

Science. People who have an opinion about science, and what it is, are not in shortage. But how many have bothered to try and find the roots and the original purpose of science?

When I did my Ph.D. I asked myself: What is a Doctor of Philosophy? Apparently one that teaches philosophy. Besides some rudimentary course in "Philosophy of Science" that mainly focused on how to write a science application, "philosophy" was an alien word during my work. I love philosophy and thought I could easily discuss this topic with my ph.d. colleagues and students. Alas, I found few such people interested in training their minds on the basis of science. To some it even looked like I suggested heresy.

So, if I wanted to know anything on the topic "what is science?" and "what is the purpose of science?" I had to find some answers myself. I found this part very important part of my work since I was/am dealing with disease control in livestock farming, and frankly, there is no control despite decades of research in the field. So something must be off target, I thought.

The essence of what my research in the roots of science was baffling and eye opening to me to put it mildly. Not only could I find a purpose for myself in science, it also gave me many answers to questions on religion, esoteric disciplines, politics, human behaviour, and history. When I defended my thesis I spent half of my time presenting this research which I will elaborate on in this blog. Speaking of Egyptian religion, alchemy, and the art of transformation in a modern doctoral defense felt like a big risk - but one I had to take to be honest to myself and my colleagues. Luckily the commission I defended in was open (mentally) enough to accept this (or ignore it), and a few even gave a positive feedback on the topic.

I must strongly recommend anyone who has any passion in science (please note that I did not write: "interest" or "carreer wishes") to do their own studies into what makes science.

Please follow the topic line ("Doctor of Philosophy").

University budget - copy+paste+pray... or WAKE UP!

University budget cuts while the obligatory short sightedness continues - I had enough and had to put my head on the chopping block! We are experiencing severe budget cuts to an extent where there literally is no money for research after (some of) the payrolls have been secured. I am submitting the article below to the university newspaper where I work (Estonian University of Life Sciences, aka EMÜ) in Estonian.

I know I do not have The Truth and the Glorious Facts which others might have, but at least I am making honest attempts of finding a way out. I thought the article fit the topic of the blog and added the English version here.

Crisis?

It is easy to cut down on budgets. It is perhaps easier to make savings into continuous profit. I would like to suggest EMÜ directors several strategies that can do that.

I work with parasites at EMÜ. To me it is obvious to see the same general survival strategies are used by cooperate firms as seen in the biological world. We have to live with them because we are too weak and starved to expel them. Just like getting rid of a parasite infection will give you surpluses in health and economy, so will independences from licences and resources.

Here are 4 ideas EMÜ can apply to save vast amounts of money.

1. Replace expensive licences with open source.
2. Make internet telephony standard
3. Become an green independent university.
4. Make savings self-perpetuate in the budget.

The software licenses are expensive and almost without exception, unnecessary. Open source programs such as Open Office can replace most tools used on the computer, for free. Though it is mainly myth that licensed programs can do more and are safer than open source, individual exceptions can be made to satisfy sceptics or specialists – opposite of the current strategy.

Skype is already standard many major firms because it is free and ridiculous cheap use compared to standard telephony. A headset and web cam cost less than most of us pay for a phone bill each month. A hand held phone that can use Skype through the WiFi network cost less than 2200 EEK. It does not take much imagination to manage a credit system for those calling non-Skype networks, and for monthly unlimited world wide use of landlines cost less than a meal in the university cafeteria for 3 persons. Why pay for both internet and telephone when you only need to pay for one?

Being "green" looks good. Being "independent" works! EMÜ has all the facilities to implement technology that provide free heat and electricity. Already working radiator systems, water tanks, and flat roofs (even south facing tilted roofs) are begging for solar heaters and sun cells. The university has several hectares of land for pipes that could provide buildings with heat through ground pipes and heat pumps. These technologies can easily be rejected as options when buying them from firms who sell and install each of the items for around 100.000-150.000 EEK at household size. However, most items can, and is, easily made by untrained hands at a quarter of the price or less. I would love to share my knowledge and be part of such a project at EMÜ – because it is fun and it makes a lot of sense.

Most of us do not make use of the above methods regardless of their obvious and proven benefits. It can be difficult convince oneself to find that extra financing to invest in a method that will save you money. So, if you succeed making the first baby step and save something on your budget after the initial investment is paid back, immediately invest it again! The second step is much easier when there is nothing to loose any more - your overall expenses are the same with the savings reinvested. The self-perpetuating strategy can makes the progress possible. Normal strategy would be to put the savings into the bag of money, look at the minus on the bottom line, and say "sorry, there is no finances for it this week/month/year". In stead of staff taking extra holidays, perhaps they should build sun panels?

We got the tools, let us grow the will!

Further reading