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Molecules can evolve convergently, especially when parasites mimic molecular messages that signal 'self' to immune responses of hosts, which allows the parasite to elude its host's defenses. Molecular convergence could also take place when a particular metabolic function requires similar or identical molecular structure (Doolittle 1994). Some gene circuits and gene networks appear to have undergone convergent evolution by single-gene duplications in higher eukaryotes (Amoutzias et al. 2004, Conant and Wagner 2003). Convergence in DNA nucleotide sequences would lead to erroneous phylogenetic conclusions, which would be problematical for molecular systematic studies.

Evolutionary convergence involving unrelated organisms living in similar environments but in different places (allopatry) can also occur in another way. This usually takes place in relatively simple communities in which biotic interactions are highly predictable and the resulting number of different ways of exploiting the environment are limited. Similar environments pose similar challenges to survival and reproduction, and those traits that enhance Darwinian fitness are selected for in each environment. Such organisms that fill similar ecological roles in different, independently-evolved, biotas are termed "ecological equivalents" (Grinnell 1924, Hubbell 2006). Examples are legion.

Müllerian mimicry is different, and occurs when two species, both distasteful or dangerous, mimic one another. Both bees and wasps, for example, are usually banded with yellows and blacks. Because potential predators encounter several species of Müllerian mimics more frequently than just a single species, they learn to avoid them faster, and the relationship is actually beneficial to both prey species. The resemblance need not be as precise as it must be under Batesian mimicry because neither species actually deceives the predator; rather, each only reminds the predator of its dangerous or distasteful properties. Müllerian mimicry is beneficial to all parties including the predator; mimics can be equally common and are rarely polymorphic.

Valid Theories?

Are his theories something to be taken seriously or is he off in left field? Given the amount of research that has gone into this subject over the years, enough evidence, case studies, and experiences have been documented to suggest it’s not at all unreasonable to believe that aliens not only exist, but that they could be among us already. Even Harvard professor John Mack states when it comes to alien abductions: “Yes, it’s both. It’s both literally, physically happening to a degree; and it’s also some kind of psychological, spiritual experience occurring and originating perhaps in another dimension.”

Even popular scientists Neil deGrasse Tyson and Bill Nye believe aliens and ETs exist and are intelligent.

Canada’s former defense minister Paul Hellyer not only believes ETs exist, but states that “at least 4 known alien species have been visiting earth for thousands of years.” In an interview we did with Hellyer at Toronto City Hall I asked him outright about the existence of different species, and he told me that at some levels of military and government it’s such a known fact that it’s not even surprising to them anymore.

Professor Conway Morris continues to say: “Fermi’s paradox seems to be coming rather sharply into focus. If I’m on the right track then the likelihood of intelligence is evolving and actively engaging in some sort of transgalatic expeditions doesn’t seem to be completely beyond the realm of possibility.”

“What Fermi didn’t know when he asked that famous question was that the number of Earth-like planets is absolutely gigantic now. More problematic is that many of these solar systems far, far pre-date our solar system. They would have, in principle, a major head start of hundreds of millions, if not billions, of years.”

“The problem is exceedingly acute: we shouldn’t be alone but, famous last words, all the evidence suggests we are. Maybe [aliens] are hiding, the Arthur C Clarke idea, or as Stephen Baxter mischievously suggested we live in a virtual world. I don’t honestly know. My suspicion is we have only begun to scratch at the surface of reality, for want of a better word.”

But are they hiding? It almost seems like there’s been so much evidence of “someone else” that the statement “maybe they’re hiding” seems misplaced.

Given his history, it’s not much of a surprise that Morris also delves into the ET realm. He feels that because many of the planets we have discovered are similar to our own, harbouring the distinct possibility for life, it is likely life has already emerged.

Morris has stated: “I would argue that in any habitable zone that doesn’t boil or freeze, intelligent life is going to emerge, because intelligence is convergent.”

“One can say with reasonable confidence that the likelihood of something analogous to a human evolving is really pretty high.”

“And given the number of potential planets that we now have good reason to think exist, even if the dice only come up the right way every one in 100 throws, that still leads to a very large number of intelligences scattered around, that are likely to be similar to us.”

Aliens Are Real & They Will Look Like Humans â€" Claims Cambridge University Scientist
https://www.collective-evolution.com/
July 5, 2015 by Joe Martino


Evolutionary biologist Simon Conway Morris has shared his belief that aliens are real and that they look just like us, noting how interesting it is that we have yet to find or come in contact with human-like beings, given the number of Earth-like planets we have discovered so far.

Professor Conway Morris is best known for his study on the Cambrian explosion, which saw a sudden evolutionary burst of complex animal life occur around 542 million years ago. Morris, a man of both religion and science, has also been challenging popular scientific theories with an open mind for quite some time. He feels that many theories, when pulled together, can help explain how we all got here, but on their own paint only an incomplete picture.

Many species of harmless snakes mimic poisonous snakes (Greene and McDiarmid 1981); in Central America, some harmless snakes are so similar to poisonous coral snakes that only an expert can distinguish the mimic from the 'model.' A few experts have even died as a result of a superficial misidentifications. Similarly, certain harmless flies and clearwing moths mimic bees and wasps, and palatable species of butterflies mimic distasteful species. Batesian mimicry is disadvantageous to the model species because some predators will encounter palatable or harmless mimics and thereby take longer to learn to avoid the model. The greater the proportion of mimics to models, the longer is the time required for predator learning and the greater the number of model casualties. In fact, if mimics became more abundant than models, predators might not learn to avoid the prey item at all but might actively search out model and mimic alike. For this reason Batesian mimics are usually much less abundant than their models; also, mimics of this sort are frequently polymorphic (often only females are mimics) and mimic several different model species.

Mimicry is an interesting consequence of warning coloration that nicely demonstrates the power of natural selection. An organism that commonly occurs in a community along with a poisonous or distasteful species can benefit from a resemblance to the warningly colored species, even though the 'mimic' itself is nonpoisonous and/or quite palatable. Because predators that have experienced contacts with the model species, and have learned to avoid it, mistake the mimic species for the model and avoid it as well. Such false warning coloration is termed Batesian mimicry after its discoverer.

http://www.zo.utexas.edu/
© Eric R. Pianka


Convergent evolution is the process by which unrelated or distantly related organisms evolve similar body forms, coloration, organs, and adaptations. Natural selection can result in evolutionary convergence under several different circumstances. Species can converge in sympatry, as in mimicry complexes among insects, especially butterflies (coral snakes and their mimics constitute another well-known example). Mimicry evolves after one species, the 'model' has become aposematic (warningly colored) because it is toxic or poisonous and therefore protected (Wickler 1968). Two distinct kinds of mimicry are recognized, Batesian and Müllerian. In Batesian mimicry, the mimic is palatable or unprotected, but gains from being mistaken for the model, which is unpalatable or protected. Two protected model species can also converge because of the advantage of being mistaken for each other (Müllerian mimicry).

I just hope walay madisgrasya ani nga disaster preparedness caravan.

Cool. Easy target...

Marsupials such as koalas and kangaroos have some strange sex organs. Males have two penises and females have 3 vaginas; 2 for sex and 1 for giving birth. -- http://thechive.com/

"Red to black, venom lack."

"Red to yellow, kill a fellow."

Countries that signed and ratified the treaty were bound to implement tobacco control measures, like the ban on smoking in public places and the ban on promotion and advertisement of tobacco products.

Some countries have also implemented the graphic health warning on cigarette packs and imposed higher sin taxes for tobacco products.

Ubial said they expect the prevalence rate of smoking in the Philippines to go down further when the sin taxes and graphic health warnings are fully implemented.

“Globally, what reversed the trend is really the sin tax. If you reduce the buying power of the people, if you increase the prices of cigarettes, they will at least smoke less â€" if they will not stop smoking,” she added.

Ubial lamented the cigarettes sold in the Philippines are among of the cheapest in the world.

“At present, the tax on cigarettes is still 30 to 40 percent. When we reach the tax of 75 percent of the price of cigarettes, we expect to see a big decline in the trend,” she added.

The DOH is also looking forward to the full implementation of graphic health warning, which pertains to the printing of pictures showing the ill effects of smoking on health.

Under the law, there is a transition period during which tobacco manufacturers would be required to have picture warnings on cigarette packs.

By Sheila Crisostomo (The Philippine Star) | Updated July 5, 2015 - 12:00am





MANILA, Philippines - Smoking is now on the decline, thanks to aggressive global health campaigns.

Citing the Global Tobacco Report of the World Health Organization (WHO), the Department of Health said the global smoking epidemic had been reversed, particularly in Asia.

“It’s going down. Even in the Philippines, the trend of smoking among the adults had been reversed,” Health Asec. for Technical Services Paulyn Jean Ubial said.

Ubial said that from 24 percent in 2008, the prevalence rate of adult  Filipinos who were smoking went down to 22 percent in 2013.

Ubial added that is the “first time in history” that the smoking trend had gone down.

According to Ubial, the decline could be attributed to the anti-tobacco measures under the WHO-initiated Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), the world’s first treaty on public health.

Hmm, puslan man, the whole caboodle na lang, a real, complete, living tortoise...

And while we're at it, apilan pud nato og complete tortoise shell...

Pakapinan nato og real tortoiseshell nga sudlay...





...nga real pud ang palami nga gold, sapphire ug pearl.

The Islamic State captured the ancient city of Palmyra in May, an area replete with priceless ruins and artifacts now in the line of fire. ISIS jihadists have become notorious for destroying such pre-Islamic artifacts, claiming that their existence constitutes “idolatry” to false ancient gods, and thus they must be destroyed before the eyes of Allah. While the group initially released a video promising that they would not destroy ruins in Palmyra that did not violate this “idolatry” provision, recent photos indicate that many of the ruins have been removed from the area, and the city itself has been filled with land mines. The amphitheater appears intact, perhaps due to its usefulness as an arena in which to dramatically stage executions.

Defying their promise, photos published by Islamic State supporters on social media this week show ancient statues being destroyed in Palmyra, all representing pre-Islamic gods and supernatural creatures. Of particular note is the destruction of the Lion of al-Lat, a 2000-year-old statue dedicated to an ancient Middle Eastern deity discovered in 1977.

NEW ISIS VIDEOS SHOW CHILD JIHADIS MASSACRING SYRIAN SOLDIERS AT PALMYRA AMPHITHEATER
by FRANCES MARTEL
4 Jul 201565


The massacre occurs in the historic amphitheater at Palmyra, an ancient Roman city cited as a UNESCO World Heritage Site that has recently been overrun by ISIS terrorists.

The video depicts children pulling the triggers against more than 25 men identified as Assad’s soldiers, egged on by a large crowd of men and boys forced to watched the ceremony. The men are lined up on their knees as they usually are in Islamic State execution videos.

The boys watching, reports note, appear younger than the boys pulling the trigger, who appear to be in their teens and can be thus believed to have completely or come close to completing terrorist camp training forced on boys living in Islamic State territories. The Islamic State has released multiple videos showing training camps for both boys and girls, in which the “caliphate cubs” are shown learning how to use automatic weapons and building explosives. The video is believed to have been released by an ISIS group close to the ravaged Syrian city of Homs.

The Daily Mail notes that experts have estimated that at least 500 children have been abducted by ISIS for use as child soldiers in recent weeks, particularly from the Iraqi provinces of Anbar and Diyala. The BBC notes that this particular video does not have many indications making it easy to place when it was filmed.

A new video released by the jihadi terror group, the Islamic State, depicts children, abducted and trained to kill by ISIS, executing 25 men identified as soldiers for the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad. -- http://www.breitbart.com/

Quote from: hubag bohol on July 05, 2015, 01:45:18 PM
BRAC has spread its approach to 10 other developing countries, including Uganda, Tanzania, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Liberia, Haiti, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and the Philippines.

Hmm, nia pud diay ni sa atoa...

BRAC (formerly known as Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee) was founded by Sir Fazle in 1972, and has since helped lift more than 150 million people out of poverty with advancements in the poultry, seed, and dairy industries in Bangladesh. BRAC has spread its approach to 10 other developing countries, including Uganda, Tanzania, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Liberia, Haiti, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and the Philippines.

Sir Fazle's developmental programs have focused on ways to help increase crop yields, livestock production, and research and development on new seed varieties, while keeping sustainability, adaptability, climate change, the environment and affordability in mind. As a result, more than 500,000 farmers have access to efficient farming practices, technologies, and financial support services to help manage and control their livelihood.

Empowering women through microcredit programs, small loans, education, and healthcare has also been a primary focal point to give women the tools they need to be an agency in their village and help unite their community. BRAC recently made a pledge to reach 2.7 million additional girls through schooling, teacher training, empowerment programs, and scholarships.

BRAC has more than 110,000 employees around the world, with an additional 150,000 BRAC-trained entrepreneurs that provide affordable goods and services, such as seed, medicine and training, to their rural neighbors.

http://www.agriculture.com/
Jody Korthaus
07/02/2015 @ 12:56pm


The World Food Prize named Sir Fazle Hasan Abed of Bangladesh its 2015 laureate for his role in developing the largest non-governmental organization to tackle food insecurity and poverty around the world. 

The World Food Prize recognizes individuals who have improved the quality, quantity or availability of food in the world, and calls attention to what has been done and can be done to improve global food security. 

Sir Fazle, the 2015 World Food Prize Laureate, has been described as a “strategic thinker, and a man with a future vision” by Dr. M.S. Swaminathanthe, the chairman of the World Food Prize Selection Committee and the first World Food Prize Laureate in 1987. Sir Fazle, who was also knighted by the British Crown in 2009, has lead BRAC for more than 40 years, addressing the link between hunger and poverty with a concentration on scientific innovation and local participation.

Mora lag namaligyag kinhason...

This photo of Jade Market is courtesy of TripAdvisor

July 5, 2015 - 2:27PM


BEIJING â€" China has frozen new share listings and announced it will set up a fund to stabilise its nose-diving sharemarkets in the latest raft of urgent moves indicating the growing concern over the potential for the country's stock panic to spread and threaten the world's second-largest economy.

Official news agency Xinhua reported late on Saturday that 28 companies had agreed to withdraw their initial public offerings (IPOs) despite having already gained approval from Shanghai and Shenzhen trading authorities.

That came just hours after a statement from the Securities of Association of China announcing 21 of the country's largest brokerages had agreed to pledge the equivalent of 15 per cent of their net assets â€" or no less than 120 billion yuan in total â€" to invest in blue-chip investment stocks.

The group of 21 brokers said the economic fundamentals that had justified the stock market's rally before the rout hadn't changed.

"It is therefore our duty to unite in stabilising this market," the statement said.

But the plunge in Chinese equities over the past three weeks have reached close to $3 trillion in market value, about 10 times Greece's gross domestic product last year â€" and nearly double Australia's.


More at: http://www.smh.com.au/business/china/china-moves-to-stem-sharemarket-plunge-20150705-gi5fnk.html

Bwahaha!

AFP
4 hours ago


When he was told at the fourth that he could not withdraw his 120 euros ($133), it was all too much and he collapsed in tears.

The 77-year-old told AFP that he had broken down because he "cannot stand to see my country in this distress".

"That's why I feel so beaten, more than for my own personal problems," Chatzifotiadis said.

The image of him sitting outside the bank, openly crying in despair with his savings book and identity card on the floor, was captured by an AFP photographer illustrating how ordinary Greeks are suffering during the country's debt crisis.

Athens had imposed capital controls and shut all banks since Monday to stem a haemorrhage of cash, but on Wednesday allowed some branches to reopen for three days so retirees who have no bank cards could withdraw their pensions -- capped at 120 euros.

Recounting how he had gone from bank to bank in a futile attempt to collect his wife's pension, Chatzifotiadis said when he was told at the fourth "that I could not get the money, I just collapsed".

Both he and his wife, like many Greeks in the north of the country, had spent several years in Germany where he "worked very hard" in a coal mine and later a foundry.

And it is from Berlin, which is being blamed by many in Greece for its hardline stance in demanding the government impose more austerity measures for fresh international aid, that Chatzifotiadis is receiving his wife's pension.

"I see my fellow citizens begging for a few cents to buy bread. I see more and more suicides. I am a sensitive person. I can not stand to see my country in this situation," he said.

"Europe and Greece have made mistakes. We must find a solution," he added.

But Chatzifotiadis feels he can do little to change the situation, and he is not even sure if he would be able to vote at Sunday's referendum on whether to accept international creditors' bailout conditions.

European leaders have warned that a 'No' vote would also mean no to the eurozone.

Pointing out that the polling station is 80 kilometres (50 miles) away, Chatzifotiadis said: "I have no money to go there, unless perhaps if my children would take me in their car."

Greek pensioner, Giorgos Chatzifotiadis, cries as he sits on the ground outside a national bank branch in Thessaloniki on July 3, 2015 (AFP Photo/Sakis Mitrolidis)

Daghan hinuong naangin. Pero, hmm, unsa kahay epilogue aning estoryaha?

He he, gidali-dali og trapo kay kahibawo si Goyax nga di angaay ligoon ang kitty...

Japan's southernmost prefecture, Okinawa Prefecture, makes up the southern half of the Southwest Islands. The prefecture stretches from the southern islands in Kagoshima Prefecture to within 110km of Taiwan. Three island groups make up the prefecture. From north to south, they are the Okinawa Islands, Miyako Islands and Yaeyama Islands.

The northernmost island group is the Okinawa Islands, which contains Okinawa-hontō (meaning 'Okinawa Main Island' in Japanese), home to the prefectural capital, Naha. This is the prefecture's transport hub, easily accessed by flights and ferries to/from the mainland. Plentiful ferries run between Naha and the Kerama Islands, which lie about 30km west of Okinawa-hontō.

Located 300km southwest of Okinawa-hontō, the Miyako Islands are home to the popular beach destination of Miyako-jima. There is no ferry access to this group; you must arrive via flights from the mainland, Naha or Ishigaki.

The Yaeyama Islands, a further 100km southwest, include the coral-fringed island of Ishigaki and the nearby jungle-clad Iriomote-jima. Like the Miyako Islands, you have to fly in. -- http://www.lonelyplanet.com/

Nakalimot na man ko ani. Mao ba to ni ang original story?

Still at it...

In summary, the Okinawa approach is:

Consciously controlled portion sizes through the practice of Hara Hachi Bu: eat until you are 80% full.

A low-calorie, mostly plant-based diet with plenty of fish and soy foods, a great variety of vegetables as well as moderate amounts of the monounsaturated fats and Omega 3’s. Include high fiber whole grains and starches.

Regular, life-long physical activity. Tai Chi, walking and gardening are common forms of exercise.
Staying lean and fit. The combination of diet and activity keeps body fat low (BMI 18-22). -- http://okinawa-diet.com/

In Okinawa, Heart Disease rates are 80% lower, and stroke rates lower than in the US. Cholesterol levels are typically under 180, homocystein levels are low and blood pressure at goal levels. Rates of cancer are 50-80% lower - especially breast, colon, ovarian and prostate cancer. Hip fractures are 20% lower than mainland Japanese and 40% lower than in the US. Dementia is rare.

However, Okinawans who adopt Western eating styles have similar rates of heart disease as in the US. Young Okinawans, eating more processed foods, have a higher risk of heart disease than their elderly relatives. A study of 100,000 Okinawans who moved to Brazil and adopted local eating habits, showed a life expectancy 17 years lower than in Okinawa.

Hara Hachi Bu


Hara Hachi Bu - eat until you are 80% full.

The traditional Okinawa diet, with its emphasis on vegetables, whole grains, fruits, legumes (soy foods) and fish with limited amounts of lean meats serves as a model for healthy eating and healthy aging that not only reduces your risk of cardiovascular disease but also helps to minimize free radical production. Free radicals are cell-damaging molecules that are generated mainly by our bodies' metabolism when we create energy from food.

The Okinawan cultural habit of calorie control called hara hachi bu, which means eat only until you are 80% full, plays a role as well as their habit of eating an antioxidant rich plant-based diet. Stopping at 80% capacity is actually a very good strategy to avoid obesity without going hungry because the stomach's stretch receptors take about 20 minutes to tell the body that how full it really is and 20 minutes after stopping you will really feel full.

Rescuers stand on a capsized ferry boat in Ormoc city on Leyte Island, Philippines, Thursday, July 2, 2015. A ferry capsized Thursday as it left a central Philippine port in choppy waters, leaving dozens dead and many others missing, coast guard officials said. Ignatius Martin/Miquicar Photostudio via AP

Matud pa ni Morano, “seaworthy” ang maong motor banca apan  wala kini gidesinyo aron makasugakod og dagkong balod. Ang duha ka andana niini matud pa niya humok kaayong matikyaob tungod kay mawad-an kini dayon og balanse kun dagko ang bawod.

Base sa pamahayag sa mga pasaherong naluwas, mitakilid og maayo ang motor banca dihang nisibog ang kargamento sa kalit nga pagliko sa kapitan.

Ang tag-iya sa maong pasaheroan nga si Joge Bong Zarco kinsa usa usab sa mga sakay ug naluwas wala mobasol sa kapitan nga si Warren Oliverio tungod kay taas na kaayo kini og kasinatian sa pagpamasahero sa dagat.

Matud niya, bag-o pa ang maong motor banca ug duha pa lang kini  ka bulang nagbiyahe. Samtang si DOTC Secretary Emilio Aguinaldo Abaya, miadto usab sa Ormoc City isip representante ni Pres. Benigno Aquino ug miingon wala siya’y nakitang kasaypanan sa habig sa coast guard.

Si Oliverio, mga tripulante ug si Zarco gikostudiya alang sa ilang “safekeeping.”

Sumala pa ni Abaya ang clearing officers sa PCG-Ormoc City nga sila si 2nd Seaman Sabado ug Seaman Pvt. Blanco wala magkulang sa paghimo sa ilang trabaho, gani gipasidan-an pa nila ang mga pasahero magsul-ob og life jackets apan naandan sa mga tawo nga ini og biya na sa pantalan panghubuon kini.

Si Alfred Li, CEO sa Tzu Chi Philippines miingon nanghatag sila og mga habol, P3,000 sa mga survivors ug tag P5,000 sa pamilya sa mga nakalas.

Ang kagamhanan sa probinsiya maoy moabaga sa galastohan sa mga biktima. (Report sa The Freeman ug nila ni Rowena Capistrano ug Brenda Batuto/EIM)

Trahedya sa Ormoc
(Banat) | Updated July 4, 2015 - 12:00am


CEBU, Philippines - Mokabat na og 45 ka tawo ang patay sa natikyaob nga MB Kim Nirvana B pipila pa ka metros gikan sa pantalan sa Ormoc City niadtong Huwebes sumala pa sa Philippine Coast Guard.

Matud pa sa mga otoridad, tanang pasahero ug tripulante kompleto na apan kinahanglan pang padayunon karong adlawa ang pagpangita tungod kay daghan pang mga pamilya ang niinsister nga wala ilang mga kabanay sa tambalanan o bisan sa punerarya.

Matud pa sa report sa Interaksyon.Com, si Ormoc City DRRM officer Ciriaco Tolibao nagkanayon miabot og 191 ka tawo ang sakay sa MV Nirvana-B, sukwahi sa unang nabalita nga 173 lang ang pasahero niini lakip ang 18 ka tripulante.

Atol sa uwahing pag-ihap kagahapon sa hapon adlaw nga Biyernes, miabot na og 141 ang naluwas apil na ang 71 nga naa sa tambalanan apan padayon pa gihapon ang paghusay sa tinud-anay nga gidaghanon sa mga pasahero niini.

Giguyod na padaplin ang maong motor banca kagahapon sa hapon ug padayon gihapon ilang pagpangita sa na-missing.

Si Engr. Danilo Morano, sa Maritime Industry Authority (MARINA) nagkanayon makadawat og tag P200 mil ang pamilya sa mga nakalas gikan sa insurance sa British Assurance, Inc. apan way labot ang mga survivors kay pagbuot na kini sa tag-iya kun mohatag kanila.

Ang Marina miadto sa Ormoc aron motabang sa paghikay sa claims sa mga pamilya.

The biggest irony, however, is that all these attempts at derision and subversion, all the marginals’ mockery, usually end up making the center stronger; they are needed in the same vital way an organism needs antibodies. If the center manages to recruit the marginals to work for its own purposes, then it is saved. Indeed, the center often thrives on marginals. Take the academy: When the mainstream is just about to collapse under the weight of its own scholasticism, marginals can save it through a healthy dose of unorthodox ideas, wild theories and other shocking novelties. Not only did Benjamin eventually become part of the canon after his death, but he has revitalized significantly the same field in which his habilitation thesis was found substandard. The savage novelty of his thinking, the unusual cast of his mind and his profoundly unclassifiable genius â€" all markers of his marginality â€" have ended up not only strengthening the center but also expanding its epistemic horizons. That may also be the legacy of the American marginal, who have enacted their own form of change on the center.

But even in their moment of victory, those very same outsiders face a challenge. Marginals know only too well that, by subverting the center, they risk becoming part of it; those who challenge the canons or ideological foundations of the mainstream most vehemently can turn one day into canonic figures themselves â€" think Picasso, Martin Luther King Jr., Bob Dylan.

But perhaps there is something further to learn from the Dadaists. Since they led profoundly ironical lives they don’t mind: One more irony doesn’t really matter, the whole thing is a farce anyway. “Everybody knows that Dada is nothing,” says Tzara. “Like everything in life, Dada is useless.”

Among the center’s chief virtues may be that of knowing how to absorb the healthy dose of nihilism that marginals often smuggle in with them from the periphery.


Costica Bradatan is an associate professor in the Honors College at Texas Tech University and the religion/comparative studies editor for The Los Angeles Review of Books. His most recent book is “Dying for Ideas. The Dangerous Lives of the Philosophers.”

As long as one does not follow the standards set up by the mainstream (the center’s other name), one’s work is in vain, no matter how brilliant or original it is. Indeed, the more original, the more problematic. In 1925, one of the finest institutions of higher learning in Europe, Goethe University Frankfurt, rejected Walter Benjamin’s habilitation thesis, “The Origin of German Tragic Drama.” The work did not meet the standards of the German academia, which disqualified Benjamin from teaching at a German university. The center’s punishment for disobedience can be crushing.

What usually happens as a result is that an inordinate amount of talent, energy and time is spent on figuring out the best ways to elbow one’s way to the core of the mainstream. Then, once there, one has to behave in a way that will never jeopardize one’s position. Since most do what they can to keep their place within the status quo, far-reaching innovation is usually discouraged, and conformism rules. In the sphere of humanistic scholarship, for example, that’s conspicuous in the scholasticism that often comes to dominate one discipline or another. Desperate that they not be left out, the aspirants (Ph.D candidates!) blindly imitate the establishment’s preferred style â€" using and abusing the same formulaic language, the same safe patterns of thinking, the same old tricks.

“Creativity,” then, often boils down to recipes for the reproduction of the same with a minimum of variations; only a select few would risk their position by engaging in something too bold. Yet if this conformity remains unchallenged over time, a general sense of atrophy threatens to set in. That’s when the center, as a matter of life and death, needs significant challenges from the outside.

And that’s what marginals are for: to stick out their tongues at the center’s elaborate protocols, at everything “established” and “respectable.” They use the center’s standards â€" if they ever do â€" only to undermine them. Marginals, uninvolved in the ceremonies of the center, often end up not taking anything too seriously. In the arts, they often make the greatest ironists because, for them, irony is much more than a mode of expression, it is a way of life.

If conformity remains unchallenged over time, a general sense of atrophy threatens to set in.
There is, then, a certain way of conducting your life at the center, of making a living, getting an education, writing an academic paper, of greeting your neighbor, dressing yourself or just sitting at the table. You signal your determination to belong to the center by unreserved conformation to its standards. For all these elaborate protocols are also meant to ensure that not everybody gets in and that enough are left out; this way the center makes itself perpetually desirable.



Tristan Tzara
Credit Henri Martinie/Roger Viollet, via Getty Images


Power and standardization, though, make for an intriguing combination: to gain full access to the former you have to excel at dealing with the latter. The better one is at following the standards established by the center the more one advances towards the place of power. And that can be intoxicating. Among the many privileges of the center, for example, is the power to name things, one of the greatest powers of all. From there you can say what others are doing, and who they are, without them having any say in the process.

It would be a simplification of the full nature of the center to identify it as merely the site of social change or of victories in the march toward what we might like to believe is greater social justice. The center has a character of its own, which does not care one way or the other about our moral imperatives.

By definition, any center is a site of concentration and intensity â€" after all, it’s the place toward which everybody is attracted in some way or another. That’s also what makes it so formidable. The center possesses a wealth of prospects, opportunities and resources, but also anxieties â€" it is the place where the possibility of collapse, disintegration or descent into chaos figure prominently. To keep such dangers at bay, life at the center has to be regulated in every detail, its energy well managed, impulses properly channeled and spontaneity standardized. Sophisticated and expensive bureaucracies are developed to make sure that the pursuit of happiness does not turn into a stampede.

Tzara’s case is not isolated. Indeed, there is a strong sense that not only Dada but also avant-garde in general is very much about a rebellion of the margins against the center. A remarkable number of avant-garde artists of the 19th and 20th centuries came â€" in person or vicariously, through their work â€" from the margins: Munch, Malevich, Brancusi, Picasso, Chagall, Kafka, Borges, Joyce, Frida Kahlo, Paul Celan and Fernando Pessoa, to name just a few.

Of course this process has never been restricted to art movements. And geography has no special claim on marginality; the center can have its own marginals â€" racial, ethnic, social, political, intellectual and epistemic, as we have forcefully been reminded of late. Historically, figures like Walter Benjamin, Hans Jonas and Simone Weil effected their own influence by operating from outside the standards of their accepted academic disciplines.

While it may seem like a mere staple of historical progress, the almost electric force of change from the margins is felt by us anew each time a damaging or oppressive convention is smashed or overturned. In the United States, we are immersed in such a moment, after an almost dizzying chain of events â€" the most immediate and profound being the Supreme Court ruling legalizing same-sex marriage; the increased cultural awareness and tolerance of gays, lesbian and transgender people, brought to the attention of many in the mainstream by the public transformation of Bruce Jenner into Caitlyn Jenner; and the gradual changes in policing being put into effect in cities across the United States. Despite the possible impression that each shibboleth was toppled overnight, each was the result of years of agitation, strategic fighting and pressure on the center from those outside it.

Ball’s somewhat inelegant account suggests that Tzara and the others showed up carrying their marginality around quite visibly. Looking “Oriental” (at that point in time, a label that most certainly implied “otherness”), appearing slightly lost and bowing more than they should have â€" as recent immigrants often tend to. Tzara was indeed doubly marginal: as a Jew and as a Romanian. At the time Jews in Romania were so marginal that they could not even become citizens; and in Europe Romania suffered â€" as it still does â€" from that kind of marginal condition for which those living in better places use the condescending euphemism “exotic.”

And yet it must have been Tzara’s marginality that enabled him to do what he did: founding an artistic movement meant to deride systematically a civilization whose blind trust in instrumental rationality and fetishization of technology had pushed it into one of the most destructive wars the world had ever seen. For Dadaism the center â€" be it artistic, philosophical, intellectual, economic or political â€" was not worthy of anything but mockery. Tzara could afford the gesture; coming from the furthest margins, he didn’t have any qualms about crying out loud against and smashing the conventions of the center, exposing its damaging lies, and turning the dismantling of its pious proclamations into a prolific career.

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/06/30/change-comes-from-the-margins/?_r=0#more-157497


By Costica Bradatan



Detail from "Dada Conquers," by Raoul Hausmann.Credit Raoul Hausmann/Bridgeman Images, via Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, via ADAGP, Paris, 2015


In 1916, Hugo Ball, the German writer who would soon become a founding member of the Dadaist movement, wrote the following account of his first meeting with the men who would be his artistic and philosophical compatriots: “An Oriental-looking deputation of four little men arrived, with portfolios and pictures under their arms: repeatedly they bowed politely. They introduced themselves: Marcel Janco the painter, Tristan Tzara, Georges Janco, and a fourth gentleman whose name I did not quite catch.”

Ball was also the creator of the “Cabaret Voltaire” in Zurich, a city where the Romanian Tzara had come to shelter from the war. But almost as soon as he arrived, Tzara started a war of his own, an artistic revolution of grand proportions. Dadaism may well have started on the first evening at “Cabaret Voltaire” in February 1916, with Janco’s paintings and Tzara’s poetic performance. All these men, in one sense or another, began their transformative work from the margins.

The almost electric force of change coming from the margins is felt by us anew each time a damaging or oppressive convention is smashed or overturned.

Of course, the challenge is to get there first and this is no easy feat.

Scaling the steep cliff would usually be an activity left to experienced rock climbers. However, the folks at Natura Vive Skylodge have built a via ferrata to get up and zip lines to get down.

The via ferrata â€" a mountain route equipped with fixed ladders, cables and bridges in order to be accessible to climbers and walkers â€" has been built for beginners as well as the experienced, so the hotel is accessible to all with a fair level of fitness.

Guests will be provided with a standard climbing harness, helmet, gloves and a via ferrata lanyard.

Should a climber slip, they'll remain attached to a "lifeline", preventing a nasty fall.

Using a zip line to leave the hotel is less of a challenge.

The cliffside suites have four beds, a dining room, and, most importantly, a private bathroom with curtains in case you object to the condors taking a peek inside.

The bathroom is also eco-friendly, with an ecological toilet and sink. The beds have high-quality mattresses, cotton sheets, down pillows and quilts.

Promising 300 degree views, the only discomfort you may feel is because of the height.

An overnight package at Natura Vive Skylodge includes a gourmet dinner and breakfast. A night in an adventure suite complete with climb and zip line costs about $400.

A view to a thrill. Photo: Kusi Seminario

Natura Vive Skylodge, Peru: Transparent cliffside rooms provide thrilling view of Sacred Valley
http://www.traveller.com.au/
Kylie McLaughlin   Jul 3 2015 at 10:30 AM





The death-defying views at this Peru hotel could be seen as either spectacular or terrifying; either way, there's no escaping them.

In the heart of the old Inca empire in Sacred Valley, three transparent pods cling for dear life to the side of a 121-metre cliff.

These pods are hotel rooms, each measuring 7 x 2.5 metres and constructed from aerospace aluminum and weather-resistant polycarbonate, large enough to sleep eight people.

Dia ra, Bay Tigs, good luck sa imong paggamit...