Sunday, December 30, 2012

The New Year's Kiss... or any kiss

A kiss to build a year on - if your brain's chemistry agrees
By Sheril Kirshenbaum
Thursday, December 23, 2010


A kiss at midnight to ring in the new year. That's what Friday night should bring, right?

It's tradition, compulsion, festive duty. An excuse to make a bold move with someone new, a reason to be anxious about finding a date or a chance to celebrate with a longtime love. And there's pressure to get it right.

There ia a scientific basis for those high stakes. Whom you kiss can set the course for a good year. Really. It's not magic - it's chemistry and neuroscience. And no matter how painstakingly you set the scene, in the end chemistry trumps mood music. From a scientific perspective, a kiss is a natural litmus test to help us identify a good partner. Start the first moments of 2011 with the right one, and you're beginning the year on a natural high.

Just what is it that makes kissing such a powerful and significant part of the human experience?

A kiss influences important chemicals in our brains and bodies responsible for promoting social bonding. According to the work of Rutgers University anthropologist Helen Fisher, kissing evolved to facilitate three essential needs: sex drive, romantic love and attachment. Each is involved in promoting reproduction, and kissing bolsters all three. In that view, locking lips helps us find partners, commit to one person and keep couples together long enough to have a child.


Humans have evolved to use a number of signals - including taste, smell and possibly silent chemical messengers called pheromones - to help us figure out whether someone is a suitable partner and a good person to reproduce with. A kiss means getting close to someone - close enough to suss out important clues about chemistry and genetics. At this range, our noses can detect valuable information about another person's health and perhaps even his or her DNA. Biologist Claus Wedekind has found, for instance, that women are most attracted to the scents of men with a different set of genetic coding for immunity than their own. This is probably because when there is greater genetic diversity between parents in this area, their children will have more versatile immune systems. The assessment occurs at a subconscious level, yet a bad initial kiss may be a result of a genetically star-crossed pair. (Which is something else to worry about during a new encounter: "What if the girl of my dreams rejects my genes?")

During a passionate kiss, our blood vessels dilate and our brains receive more oxygen than normal. Our breathing can become irregular and deepen. Our cheeks flush, our pulse quickens, and our pupils dilate (which may be one reason that so many of us close our eyes). A long, open-mouthed exchange allows us to sample another person's taste, which can reveal clues about his or her health and fertility. Our tongues - covered with little bumps called papillae that feature our 9,000 to 10,000 taste buds - are ideally designed to gather such information.

When we kiss, all five of our senses are busy transmitting messages to our brain. Billions of nerve connections are firing away and distributing signals around our bodies. Eventually, these signals reach the somatosenory cortex, the region of the brain that processes feelings of touch, temperature, pain and more.

Our brains respond by producing chemicals that help us decide our next move. A good kiss can work like a drug, influencing the hormones and neurotransmitters coursing through our bodies. It can send two people on a natural high by stimulating pleasure centers in the brain. The feeling has much to do with a neurotransmitter called dopamine, which is responsible for craving and desire and associated with "falling in love." When it's really pumping, dopamine spurs us to take things further.

Kissing also promotes the "love hormone," oxytocin, which works to maintain a special connection between two people; kissing can keep love alive when a relationship has survived decades, long after novelty has waned. In other words, kissing influences the uptake of hormones and neurotransmitters beyond our conscious control, and these signals play a huge part in how we feel about each other.

A bad kiss, alternatively, can lead to chemical chaos. An uncomfortable environment or a poor match can stimulate the "stress hormone" cortisol, discouraging both partners from continuing. Evolutionary psychologist Gordon Gallup of the University at Albany reports that 59 percent of men and 66 percent of women say they have ended a budding relationship because of a kiss that did not go well.

Whether it's magic or a disaster, there is one thing that a first kiss is very likely to be: unforgettable. Psychologist John Bohannon of Butler University and his research team surveyed 500 people to compare their recollections of a variety of significant life experiences - such as a first kiss and the loss of virginity - to find out what made the most dramatic impression. A first kiss trumped everything: It was the most vivid memory in the minds of those being surveyed.

In fact, when asked about specifics, Bohannon reported that most people could recall up to 90 percent of the details of the moment - where they were, who made the first move - no matter how long ago the exchange took place.

Which is not to say that sharing a New Year's Eve kiss with someone new will necessarily be a memory worth savoring for a lifetime. If midnight's buss is a bust, remember that you can't control everything about the situation and that your body (or your partner's) may be saying something very important: Look elsewhere. If the chemistry is wrong, there's not much you can do. But take heart. Valentine's Day is less than two months away.

Sheril Kirshenbaum is a research scientist at the University of Texas and the author of the new book "The Science of Kissing."

Friday, December 21, 2012

Where is the House of the Rising Sun?

Thanks to Blake Ponchartrain of New Orleans Gambit Magazine. Blake is one of the best history researchers on the planet.  He answers questions sent into him from readers wondering about their history and their environment.  And what's not to like about that?

Where is the House of the Rising Sun?
Blake Pontchartrain


Hey Blake,
I have some questions about a song written about New Orleans, "House of the Rising Sun." Was there a real House of the Rising Sun in New Orleans, and where was it? Who wrote the song?
Cynthia

Dear Cynthia,

There probably were several buildings in New Orleans called House of the Rising Sun over the years, but it's likely most would have been named after the song, not served as the inspiration for it.

Back in the 1980s, Record Ron, whose Record Ron's Good & Plenty Records regularly won "best used record store" honors in reader polls, said he was told his record shop at 1129 Decatur St. occupied the original House of the Rising Sun. Ron, who died in 1996, never could authenticate that claim.

A Jan. 29, 1821, issue of the Louisiana Gazette ran an advertisement announcing L.S. Hotchkiss and Co. had bought John Hull and Co.'s interests in the Rising Sun Hotel at 535 Conti St. That hotel opened in 1801 and was destroyed by fire in 1822.

Another story proffers the famed house was at 826-830 St. Louis St. and was a brothel originally run by Madam Marianne LeSoleil Levant, whose surname is French for "rising sun."

Today, the three-story white building on St. Louis Street is owned by attorney Darlene Jacobs Levy and houses her Home Finders International real estate company. She inherited the building when her husband died in the late 1980s, and she began renovating the front apartment of the derelict building as a place for her father to live. Workmen at the site discovered risque postcards of half-dressed women from the 1800s behind a wall and uncovered fancy fluted columns and a ceiling mural of a golden rising sun surrounded by three cherubs. Levy says the house was a bordello operated by a succession of different madams for many years before her husband bought the building.

blake-1 House of the Rising Sun

Eric Burdon, the vocalist for The Animals, which scored a huge hit with "House of the Rising Sun" in 1964, wrote in his book Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood about meeting Levy and touring the St. Louis Street house.

"It was all I'd dreamt it would be," Burdon wrote. "A palace in the New Orleans heat. It was a wondrous feeling learning that the place I'd fantasized about for thirty years wasn't some run-down shack but was in fact a place of beauty."

Levy says she has no legal documents to prove the building's history. "It has been passed down in history and folklore as being the House of the Rising Sun," she says. "It doesn't really matter to me whether it is or not. It's not open to the public."

Levy restored the house out of a duty to conserve historic structures, she says. "What you see now is what we feel is the original house as it was in the 1800s."

As for the author of "House of the Rising Sun," that is unknown. Musicologists have traced the song's origins back as far as the 18th century to a traditional English ballad. Like many ballads and folk songs, the lyrics have changed over the years to suit the singer and the audience. No one can claim rights to the song, so anyone can alter it, record it or sell it royalty-free.

Thursday, December 20, 2012

Solar Power

Pagans generally want to weave their value system into how we live our lives and we generally see things as more interconnected than non-Pagans. This combined with the recent presidential election and the state of our economy has caused me to chase worldly, but oh so connected, things..... like Solar Panels

By the end of the month of October 2012 (instead of September as orginally planned due to delays related to Hurricane Isaac) my house was generating its our own Solar Power.  The Federal tax credits for this expire in 2016.  If you own your own home, don't wait.  Do it now.  Yes it does take investment dollars from you. BUT you can get ALL of the dollars that will be reimbursed from the Feds (and your state) can be financed for 0% interest for 12 months.  The company I used Solar Universe does all the hard work. They connect you to the lender, complete all the paperwork; all you have to do is file the forms with your taxes.   With the Federal and State rebates we  had to come up with less than 20% of the cost.  With "netmetering" this will annually ZERO out our power bill.  My carbon footprint goes WAY down and I am living more lightly on the earth, woven into the web of life, even if this weave is using technology and involves plugging into our city grid.

Ok so how do you come up with 20%?  Assuming that you have a job/provable income, find a local bank and refinance your house.  That's what I did.  And along with the refinance we got what was needed to put Solar Panels on the house. 
I know. I know.
Not everyone can do this. The economy sucks and some people are upside down on their mortgages. BUT if you can, it perfectly aligns with pagan value system.

Another thing to think about. Our mortgage was with one of the large, national corporations that provide mortgages to most Americans.  And I figured that it would be easy to re-finance. After all they had watched me pay the bills (even through the chaotic aftermath of Katrina) for years. All they did was waste my time. So in July 2012 I ended up working with a local bank and the refi (at not quite 2% less interest than the mortgage I had) went through in a month.  A month! It took almost that long for the big corporation to tell me what they needed from me. And here is the ultimate irony. These days, even if you do the refi work with a local bank, they are going to "sell your mortgage" (Yep!) to one of the large corporations that provide the bulk of mortgage lending in this country.  Weird.  But true.   Yet at the local bank I spoke to a person, who walked me through the paperwork and made sure the timing (I was leaving town for 2 weeks) worked out.

This is only one of the physical, practical, grounded things that I kept me busy in 2012.
But I'm glad I did it because Solar Power fits my Value System.

Thursday, November 22, 2012

Remembering the 1st Thanksgiving

"The first Thanksgiving Day did occur in the year 1637, but it
was nothing like our Thanksgiving today. On that day the
Massachusetts Colony Governor, John Winthrop, proclaimed
such a "Thanksgiving" to celebrate the safe return of a band
of heavily armed hunters, all colonial volunteers. They had just
returned from their journey to what is now Mystic, Connecticut
where they massacred 700 Pequot Indians. Seven hundred Indians
- men, women and children - all murdered." Richard Greener

Read the Richard Greener 2010 article from the Huffington Post   ( and below).

The idea of the American Thanksgiving feast is a fairly recent fiction. The idyllic partnership of 17th Century European Pilgrims and New England Indians sharing a celebratory meal appears to be less than 120 years-old. And it was only after the First World War that a version of such a Puritan-Indian partnership took hold in elementary schools across the American landscape. We can thank the invention of textbooks and their mass purchase by public schools for embedding this "Thanksgiving" image in our modern minds. It was, of course, a complete invention, a cleverly created slice of cultural propaganda, just another in a long line of inspired nationalistic myths.

The first Thanksgiving Day did occur in the year 1637, but it was nothing like our Thanksgiving today. On that day the Massachusetts Colony Governor, John Winthrop, proclaimed such a "Thanksgiving" to celebrate the safe return of a band of heavily armed hunters, all colonial volunteers. They had just returned from their journey to what is now Mystic, Connecticut where they massacred 700 Pequot Indians. Seven hundred Indians - men, women and children - all murdered.

This day is still remembered today, 373 years later. No, it's been long forgotten by white people, by European Christians. But it is still fresh in the mind of many Indians. A group calling themselves the United American Indians of New England meet each year at Plymouth Rock on Cole's Hill for what they say is a Day of Mourning. They gather at the feet of a stature of Chief Massasoit of the Wampanoag to remember the long gone Pequot. They do not call it Thanksgiving. There is no football game afterward.

How then did our modern, festive Thanksgiving come to be? It began with the greatest of misunderstandings, a true clash of cultural values and fundamental principles. What are we thankful for if not - being here, living on this land, surviving and prospering? But in our thankfulness might we have overlooked something? Look what happened to the original residents who lived in the area of New York we have come to call Brooklyn. A group of them called Canarsees obligingly, perhaps even eagerly, accepted various pieces of pretty colored junk from the Dutchman Peter Minuet in 1626. These trinkets have long since been estimated to be worth no more than 60 Dutch guilders at the time - $24 dollars in modern American money. In exchange, the Canarsees "gave" Peter Minuet the island of Manhattan. What did they care? They were living in Brooklyn.

Of course, all things - especially commercial transactions - need to be viewed in perspective. The nearly two-dozen tribes of Native Americans living in the New York area in those days had a distinctly non-European concept of territorial rights. They were strangers to the idea of "real property." It was common for one tribe to grant permission to another to hunt and fish nearby themselves on a regular basis. Fences, real and imagined, were not a part of their culture. Naturally, it was polite to ask before setting up operations too close to where others lived, but refusal in matters of this sort was considered rude. As a sign of gratitude, small trinkets were usually offered by the tribe seeking temporary admission and cheerfully accepted by those already there. It was clearly understood to be a sort of short-term rental arrangement. Sad to say, the unfortunate Canarsees apparently had no idea the Dutch meant to settle in. Worse yet for them, it must have been unthinkable that they would also be unwelcome in Manhattan after their deal. One thing we can be sure of. Their equivalent of today's buyer's remorse brought the Canarsees nothing but grief, humiliation and violence.

Many Indians lived on Long Island in those days. Another Dutchman, Adrian Block, was the first European to come upon them in 1619. Block was also eager to introduce European commercialism and the Christian concept of "real estate" to these unfortunate innocents. Without exception, these Indians too came out on the short end in their dealings with the Dutch.

The market savvy unleashed by the Europeans upon the Indians constituted the first land use policies in the New World. In the 17th Century it was not urban but rather rural renewal. The result was of course the same. People of color with no money to speak of got booted out and the neighborhood which was subsequently gentrified and overrun by white people.

Not far from Manhattan, one tribe of about 10,000 Indians lived peacefully in a lovely spot on a peninsula directly along the ocean. There they fished in the open sea and inland bay. They hunted across the pristine shoreline and they were quite happy until they met a man - another Dutchman - named Willem Kieft. He was the Governor of New Netherland in 1639. These poor bastards were called the Rechaweygh (pronounced Rockaway). Soon after meeting Governor Kieft, they became the very first of New York's homeless.

The people of New Netherland had a lot in common with the people of Plymouth Colony. At least it appears so from the way both of these groups of displaced and dissatisfied Europeans interacted with the local Indians. The Pilgrims in Plymouth had a hard time for the first couple of years. While nature was no friend, their troubles were mostly their own doing. Poor planning was their downfall. These mostly city dwelling Europeans failed to include among them persons with the skills needed in settling the North American wilderness. Having reached the forests and fields of Massachusetts they turned out to be pathetic hunters and incompetent butchers. With game everywhere, they went hungry. First, they couldn't catch and kill it. Then they couldn't cut it up, prepare it, preserve it and create a storehouse for those days when fresh supplies would run low. To compensate for their shortage of essential protein they turned to their European ways and their Christian culture. They instituted a series of religious observances. They could not hunt or farm well, but they seemed skilled at praying.

They developed a taste for something both religious and useful. They called it a Day of Fasting. Without food it seemed like a good idea. From necessity, that single Day became multiple Days. As food supplies dwindled the Days of Fasting came in bunches. Each of these episodes was eventually and thankfully followed by a meal. Appropriately enough, the Puritans credited God for this good fortune. They referred to the fact they were allowed to eat again as a "Thanksgiving." And they wrote it down. Thus, the first mention of the word - "Thanksgiving." Let there be no mistake here. On that first Thanksgiving there was no turkey, no corn, no cranberries, no stuffing. And no dessert. Those fortunate Pilgrims were lucky to get a piece of fish and a potato. All things considered, it was a Thanksgiving feast.

Did the Pilgrims share their Thanksgiving meal with the local Indians, the Wampanoag and Pequot? No. That never happened. That is, until its inclusion in the "Thanksgiving Story" in 1890.
Let the Wampanoag be a lesson to us especially in these troubled economic times. These particular Indians, with a bent for colorful jewelry, had their tribal name altered slightly by the Dutch, who then used it as a reference for all Indian payments. Hence, wampum. Contrary to what we've been shown in our Western movies, this word - wampum - and its economic meaning never made it out of New England.
Unlike wampum, Thanksgiving Day has indeed spread across the continent. It would serve us well to remember that it wasn't until the victorious colonial militia returned from their slaughter of the Pequot that the New Americans began their now time-honored and cherished Thanksgiving.

Enjoy your turkey.

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Words of Aradia: Concerning Tana & Tanus

These words are taken from Italian Witchcraft by Raven Grimassi:

Tana is the sacred name of the Great Goddess, She who is all Goddesses. Upon the Earth She is known as Fana, in the heavens She is Diana (the Moon) and in the universe she is Tana (containing them all).

Lakes, hills, streams and beaches are sacred places to Tana. The animals which are sacred to Her are dogs, owls and cats. Her sacred plants are MoonFlowers and willows. Lemons and apples are sacred to Tana. 

Tana is all that is feminine. She is total beauty and love. She is the Divine Lover, Enchantress, Temptress and Mother. At times She is the Eternal Virgin, at times the Mother but truly, She is free, loving, sexual, independent and powerful. Tana loves her followers with unequaled passion. She never forgets nor neglects Her own. She is generous and protective of all who love Her.

Tanus is the Great God, who is all Gods. On Earth He is Fanus, in the heavens he is Janus (the Sun) and in the Universe he is Tanus.

All mountains are sacred to Tanus. His sacred animals are horses, wolves, woodpeckers and ravens. His sacred plants are the fig tree, oak, dogwood, laurel and the bean plant. 

Tanus is all that is masculine. He is strength and will. He is the power of fertility (which is shared with Tana) and the desire behind all creation. Tana is the source of all creation. 

At times He is the hunter and provider and at times He is the destroyer. But truly He is wise and powerful. He is the freedom of things that are wild. He is loving and sexual, independent and powerful. Tanus loves His followers with a demanding love. He protects and provides but He is stern and judgmental. He expects strict adherence to His ways and His laws. But He is always fair and just. 

Faunus is the Eternal Child, for we see Him in the frolicsome Pan. Yet the noble side if Faunus can be seen in the grace of a beautiful stag in the forest. We can see His spiritual nature in the circling of a hawk. And in the playful bunting of young goats can we see the lighthearted Faunus. All these are lesser reflections of Janus and Tanus in their own natures.

Tana is the balance to Tanus and He is the balance to Her. Without Tana, the God would be a judge without compassion. He would be stern without understanding. He would control without loving.

Without Tanus, the Goddess would have compassion without direction, understanding without foundation, love without form. The God and Goddess complete each other, and together they are the One True Creator and Maintainer of the Universe.

Sunday, November 4, 2012

Raven Grimassi on Tradition


"It seems appropriate to say a few words about the Tradition, and about Tradition itself.

I believe in the tenacity of nature. Look at a sidewalk with a crack in it, and most often there will be some grass there. Paved streets and cement sidewalks are pushed up by the roots of trees. The modern ways of human kind cannot, in the end, prevail against nature.

I believe this also about nature religion. It is the soul of nature and it will live on, even if only in the hands of the chosen ones of the secret few.

When I think about all the generations that have passed on the Old Ways through times of great adversity and even danger to their own lives, I am determined that the Old Religion will not end in our time. For decades I have planted seeds. Some have fallen on fertile soil, some have not, and some have been thrown away. But I have seen some sprout, and I admire the beauty of what has grown from them.

The Old Ways are about companionship with the forces of nature, and about honoring our ancestors who kept the Ways before us. The Old Religion reminds us that we are part of the whole, part of something greater than ourselves. This is important to remember, particularly in this time of New Age philosophies that elevate the self over all else. But what works uniquely for one person, perishes when that person dies. They have left nothing behind, and they have not been a part of anything greater than themselves.

People pass away, but traditions can survive. And we as initiates are part of that survival. We are remembered and we possess honor throughout time for we are part of the living legacy.

With all good wishes,
Raven "

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Reflections on the Hurricane


Take a look at one New Orleanian's view of living without, electricity.
http://b.rox.com/2012/09/04/revelations-in-blackout/

I'm beginning to think that the next decade is going to be one
where we learn to choose what we do without
by learning to ask ourselves questions like:
  • Do I need X? (with the emphasis on need and not want)
  • How does X serve me or my "ecosystem"/relationship with the rest of the world?
  • Is there another option?
  • Is there another way to get what I need (or want) that better serves me and my "ecosystem"/relationship with the rest of the world?

The effects of the Hurricane make it easier to reflect on these questions.

I like the freedom my petroleum provided vehicle provides.
I like my AirConditioning.
I like what "the internet and all it's options" offers me.
That's why I'm putting Solar Panels on my home and acquiring a Solar Generator.
These things allow me to have the benefits of electricity but change how I get it and has already begun encouraging others to think about doing the same.

These choices are not just about going back to the "good ole days"
but about making smarter long term decisions
instead of simply feeding the "consumer beast".

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

"Thanks Nature"

I'm sure you heard about the recent evidence for the long anticipated "Higgs Boson".
It was of course announced as the "Discovery" of "The God Particle".

To Quote the article referenced in the link above:
"Thanks, nature!" Gianotti said to laughs, giving thanks for the discovery.

Later, she told reporters that "the standard model (of physics) is not complete" but that "the dream is to find an ultimate theory that explains everything -- we are far from that."

And there you have it Nature as the Great Teacher acknowledged by one of the lead physicsts on the team that found evidence of "The God Particle".

Live Science Higgs Boson

Sunday, July 1, 2012

Lazy... maybe not

I've listened to people from cooler climates bemoan the slow pace of life in the south... These days I'm hearing more people from (formerly) cooler climes complain about the heat, saying they want to stay inside, saying they are going to "do nothing". If culture had any heat dependencies... and I think it does... then perhaps *it is* the heat.... well... and the humidity.

Summer is our Winter. It is when we slow down and stay indoors.
But given the climate, we also adjust *when* we go outside. Am I lazy when I am inside with something cool by 10AM? Or smart? My outdoor work hours tend to be 5:30AM-9AM or after 7PM. Small windows, which is why I am glad for my day job... in the air conditioning.

An exerpt by C. W. Cannon below gives you more information to ponder... in the heat.

Approach to leisure is a happy habit: C.W. Cannon
Published: Friday, April 15, 2011, 10:17 AM


Louisiana and these national ranking lists. Now the state is the "most violent," according to the Institute for Economics and Peace. Last summer, the label was "lazy."

Of course, data can be spun different ways, be attached to different words.

If "lazy" means actually enjoying leisure time and not working too much, why not call Louisiana the "happiest" state? Oh, yeah, we won that one the previous year, in a study by the Centers for Disease Control.

Sadly, the most recent thorny laurel -- most "violent" -- is a less spinnable word than "lazy" or "happy." More sadly, Louisiana's long history is replete with unspinnable evidence that the violence is not a new phenomenon here.

"Lazy," though, we might be able to dodge. It depends on what it means. Certainly the word has been associated with Louisiana for a long time. "Dose Creole' is lezzy,"Aurora Nancanou says of her own people, in George Washington Cable's 1880 saga of old New Orleans, "The Grandisimmes."

Indeed, Bienville himself complained of the laziness of the settlers sent by the mother country. However, if it's true that Louisiana has an approach to work and leisure that distinguishes it from the average American state, could the earliest cultural formation of the region be a factor?

I've spent the past year searching for clues to whatever cultural residues might remain from the earliest generations of New Orleanians, residing first in France, then in Senegal. I've come across some very concrete parallels, such as Senegal's soupu kandia, a spicy seafood stew distinguished by inclusion of a vegetable they call "gumbo" (okra).

But lifestyle approaches are more difficult to generalize about. Even scientific-seeming surveys reveal highly subjective judgments upon closer inspection. As it turns out, the "lazy" ranking Bloomberg put together included time "working" (presumably at one's job, for money) and how leisure time was spent, whether in physically strenuous activities or in sedentary ones. Sedentary leisure activities covered not only watching TV, but also "thinking" and socializing.

Louisianians spent a big chunk of their time socializing, coming in at the third-most social state in the country. Most importantly, time spent "working" was very low. Maybe those bumper stickers proclaiming, "Work is for people who don't know how to fish," say it best.

The idea of challenging the pre-eminent status of work as the raison d'être of our identities is sacrilege for many Americans. However, one does get a very different sense of the value of work -- in perspective -- in both France and Senegal. The way the French demand leisure as a right and insist on actual legal limits to time and days worked per year is well known. Their leisure habits, too, revolve very much around unrushed meals and conversation with friends and family.

Senegal, too, approaches the idea of work differently than in the United States. It's a highly entrepreneurial culture, much more than France. Vendors of everything from phone cards to shoes and clothes energetically trudge the streets in the driven pursuit of a sale (to the great irritation of many foreigners). And there's a craftsmanly work ethic of doing the job right, from carpentry or tailoring to peeling an orange or putting the straw in a bag of cold fruit juice in just the right way.

But there's also a sense that work can't be rushed, that time working needs to be leavened with breaks for rest, family and friends, contemplation, prayer. You want the job done by 5? Maybe, incha Allah (God willing).

While this approach to the customer's demands is famously annoying to many a Westerner, it does preserve a salutary degree of autonomy to the guy on the other end of the transaction. And if he gets the job done, and done well, and makes enough money to enjoy life with friends and family, what's the problem?

It may be that Louisianians' approaches to work and leisure have roots in the first generations from Europe and Africa, but the comparison does not extend to violence. Both France and Senegal have far more peaceable societies than even the average American state can boast. Apparently, the causes of the real problem in Louisiana will have to be searched for closer to home.

............................

C.W. Cannon is the 2010-11 Fulbright Professor of American Civilization at Universite Cheikh Anta Diop, Dakar, Senegal. He returns to the Loyola University English Department in the fall.

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

"Early" Solstice

Feel the wheel turn.... be aware... so that you can learn from Nature.

http://www.hudsonvalleyalmanacweekly.com/2012/06/17/a-sooner-solstice/
Information below taken from the Link above:

This Wednesday, June 20, is the Solstice. It happens at 7:09 p.m. What’s so special about it? It’s the earliest summer since 1896: the earliest start of summer that you have ever experienced. Let’s see if the media pick up on this, or even realize it. So far as I know, it has not been published anywhere.
Anyway, summer: great. Bring it on.

Even in normal times, the Solstice is one of the few links between sky and Earth that’s popularly celebrated. Ask friends what happens and they’re likely to get it right, mostly. Longest day: check. Sun highest up: check. Sun moves through the sky along its most curving path: hmm, what? That one’s not widely known.

Still, people do pretty well with the Solstice. Yet most folks fail miserably when it comes to everything else about the sky. Even those with PhDs bomb when asked the stone-simple sky-stuff that every village idiot would have known 200 years ago. Go ahead: Test your friends. As the Sun is setting, does it move straight down, down and to the left, or down to the right? Most get this wrong. A century ago, everyone would have picked the latter choice without a moment’s hesitation.

Perhaps modern people are less observant. More finish college than ever before, but you don’t need a classroom to learn the basics of nature. It stares you in the face. But if you’re not looking, you won’t see it.

We could offer a hundred pages about the Solstice and its fascinating history, mythology and science, but let’s settle on ten goodies:
The word solstice comes from the two Latin words for “Sun” and “stoppage.” Makes sense: The Sun stops moving north that day.
The Solstice Sun hovers straight over the Tropic of Cancer, just south of Key West.
It’s when the Sun reaches its highest of the year, but it’s getting less high over time. That’s because Earth’s tilt is decreasing.
The Solstice is when the Sun is lowest in the sky for those at the Equator.
It arrives earlier as each century wears on. It’ll occur on June 19 in many places by century’s end. It was exclusively June 21 for all of our lives, until now.
In India, the Summer Solstice ends the six-month period when spiritual growth is supposedly easiest. Better hurry up and meditate (yes, that’s a joke): You’ve got less than a week left.
That day, the Sun rises farthest left on the horizon, and sets at its rightmost possible spot.
Sunlight strikes places in rooms that get illuminated at no other time.

In ancient Greece, the solstitial Sun happened in Cancer. But it has been in Gemini since around the time of Christ. In 1989 it shifted into Taurus, where it will remain until the fifth millennium.

But with all these goodies, the nicest fact may simply be that the Sun is now so wonderfully high. It’s 72 degrees up at 1 p.m., and won’t change much the next few weeks. It misses the zenith by a paltry 18 degrees. Look how short your shadow is.
With all that, given the world’s short attention span nowadays, TV announcers merely grant it two seconds: “It’s the start of summer!”

Friday, March 16, 2012

Spring in New Orleans

Posted at Nola.com by Brett Will Taylor... local blogger.

"Because I think there's a really awesome lesson to learn in the way that Spring really does bust out all over around here. The lesson is this: We live in a time when man actually thinks he is the master of Mother Earth. And, when it's spring in New Orleans, you can actually hear Mother Earth laugh at the foolishness of that notion!"

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Italian Immigrants in New Orleans

Our local newspaper the Times Picayune is 175 years old.  They also are on-line at

They recently published a list of 175 Events, People & Things that shaped New Orleans.

The article below by Laura Maggi on Italian Immigrants was one of the 175.

The tourists waiting patiently for muffulettas in the aisles of Central Grocery likely have no idea they are surrounded by what was once a standard fixture of many New Orleans neighborhoods: the Italian-owned corner store.
italian-immigrants.jpgView full size

These grocery stores once dotted the city’s landscape, built by immigrants who flocked to New Orleans and surrounding parishes beginning in the late 1800s. Unlike Italian immigrants to other major American cities — who hailed from all over the then recently unified country — New Orleans’ immigrants came almost entirely from the poverty-stricken island of Sicily.

The Sicilian transplants found work on sugar plantations upriver or toiling on New Orleans docks. Many who stayed in the city settled in the lower French Quarter, creating what was known at one point as Little Palermo. Macaroni factories popped up around the neighborhood, while Italian vendors sold fruit at the French Market.

Eventually, some immigrants were able to open small businesses, such as corner stores or restaurants. Some didn’t stay small, such as Progresso Foods, the soup and condiment giant, which began as a New Orleans import company.

As Italians prospered, many followed the path of earlier immigrants, leaving the city for suburban parishes. Their culinary traditions, New Orleans twists on Italian food, can be seen all over the metropolitan region. These traditions include, of course, the muffuletta: a sandwich of deli meat and cheeses smothered in olive salad. Many local kitchens offer up red gravy, a long-simmered tomato sauce.

Each March, local families descended from Sicilian immigrants erect elaborate altars laden with bread, cookies and other food in honor of St. Joseph’s Day. St. Joseph’s has also been adopted as one of the few non-Carnival days of celebration for the city’s Mardi Gras Indian tribes, which don their elaborate suits in the evening and parade in the streets.

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Time and Direction and Circle Casting

We pagans put emphasis on the cardinal directions and meanings associated with directions.
East is where the sun rises and where seasons begun and from where new life and possibilities spring.
West is where the sun sets and where the path to the underworld begins. North is a position of power.
NorthEast an especialy important position for Streghe. This is where we enter our circles and where we interface with the gods.

Time and direction are woven together in our circles and our rituals.  When we set our circle and move through our rituals we are mirroring and influencing and interacting with "Time".

We pagans view the solar year as cyclical year, not quite linear time.The streghe view time as cyclical following the cycles inside of cycles approach. We have both the repeating annual solar cycle, monthly lunar cycle and the Ages which (I think) are stellar. 

A 2010 study looked at time and direction and shows that what we do in our rituals is essentially an innate tendency of humantiy but is also influenced by culture. The Science News article below talks about this study and is interesting in the way is shows different peoples will view time and direction differently. Time and direction are influenced by culture and these days technology. 

To quote from the article below:
For the Pormpuraawans {from a remote community in Australia}
"... time flows from left to right when facing south, from right to left when facing north, toward the body when facing east and away from the body when facing west."

"... studies have indicated that people use their bodies as a reference to lay out time."
Isn't that what we are doing when we lay out a circle?
"In the United States, time is generally thought of as running from left to right. Other populations arrange time from right to left, back to front, or front to back."  

Aboriginal time runs east to west
Sun’s trajectory may channel time’s flow for one remote groupBy Bruce Bower December 4th, 2010; Vol.178 #12 (p. 11)


Time rises in the east and sets in the west in a remote part of Australia. Aborigines living there assume that time moves westward, apparently in accord with the sun’s daily arc across the sky, say Stanford University psychologist Lera Boroditsky and linguist Alice Gaby of the University of California, Berkeley.

Unlike any other group studied to date, these hardy foragers think about the day after tomorrow as two days to the west, the olden days as times far to the east, and the progression of a person’s life from infancy to old age as running from east to west, Boroditsky and Gaby report in an upcoming Psychological Science.

Grounding time in absolute directions makes it imperative for these people, called Pormpuraawans, to know which way they’re facing at all times. For them, time flows from left to right when facing south, from right to left when facing north, toward the body when facing east and away from the body when facing west.

Pormpuraawans rarely use terms for right and left and instead refer to absolute directions, making statements such as “Move your cup over to the north-northwest a little bit.”

Culture powerfully influences how people conceive of time, in Boroditsky’s view. “Pormpuraawans think about time in ways that other groups cannot, because those groups lack the necessary spatial knowledge,” she says.

Previous studies have indicated that people use their bodies as a reference to lay out time. In the United States, time is generally thought of as running from left to right. Other populations arrange time from right to left, back to front, or front to back.

“This new finding is of great significance since cognitive scientists have assumed that time representations must be body-based,” remarks psychologist Asifa Majid of the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in Nijmegen, the Netherlands.

Cultural differences in thinking about spatial orientation shape time representations, proposes psychologist Daniel Haun, also of the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics. In 2009, Haun reported that Namibian hunter-gatherers remember dance steps and other body movements according to absolute directions. Time perception has yet to be studied in this group.

Some evidence suggests that an innate tendency to navigate by consulting external landmarks and absolute directions gets transformed into a body-centered viewpoint in certain cultures (SN: 2/10/07, p. 89).

Boroditsky and Gaby studied 14 Pormpuraawans and 14 Stanford students. Each group contained seven men and seven women. Aborigines ranged in age from the late 40s to the mid 70s.

In one task, participants examined six to 12 sets of cards. Each four-card set depicted a progression over time, such as a man at different ages. On each trial, participants received a shuffled deck and were asked to lay the cards out in the correct order.

In a second task, an experimenter placed a marker on the ground and asked volunteers to denote time periods with their own markers. If the experimenter’s stone represented today, volunteers indicated spots for yesterday and tomorrow. In other trials, volunteers arranged markers for morning, noon and evening, and for olden days, nowadays and far in the future.

Halfway through each task, each participant switched his or her sitting position to face in a different direction.

U.S. students always portrayed time as moving from left to right. Most Pormpuraawans depicted time as moving from east to west, so time’s flow systematically shifted course as the direction they faced changed.

The few body-based responses among Aborigines may reflect increasing exposure to television and other facets of Western life, as well as unfamiliarity with arranging objects in sequences, Boroditsky suggests.

Monday, March 12, 2012

Natural Resiliance

Below is an article published in the Times Picayune that talks about a community's resiliance.   If you've read any news in the past 6 years you've probably heard about at least 2 of the disasters that affected the Barataria community: Katrina & the BP Oil Spill.  While the article is short on detail the fact that these communities are made up of individuals who live close to nature and who understand how they are interdependent on nature *and* each other is at the core of their capacity to survive.

It makes a unique kind of South Louisiana sense when you come from an area named after the immeniently adaptable Pirate, Jean Lafitte, when you live in an area named for the Pirate Jean Lafitte  will you get someone saying that the secret to their success is that they are like a Pirate, Jean Laffite.
They were able to adapt and change in order to continue,” Peterson said. “It’s kind of the lessons from what we can learn from Jean Lafitte.”


Full Article captured for reference below:
Barataria area is model of resiliance.
Allen Powell II - March 11, 2011 - Times Picayune

Most communities couldn’t survive six natural disasters in six consecutive years, particularly if they destroyed hundreds of homes and cost hundreds of people their jobs. But if you ask residents of Lafitte, Barataria and Crown Point, they’ll tell you they aren’t most people, and according to a recent study from the University of New Orleans’ Center for Hazards Assessment, Response and Technology, they’re right.
Researchers found that residents of the fishing enclave are extremely resilient, which is evident in how quickly their communities have rebounded from hurricanes, floods and the BP oil spill, said Kristina Peterson, a senior researcher with CHART. The group studied those communities to determine the root cause of their resiliency in the hope that it might help others.

“They were able to adapt and change in order to continue,” Peterson said. “It’s kind of the lessons from what we can learn from Jean Lafitte.”

Researchers used “participatory action research,” a method that lets residents drive the focus of the study. Peterson said researchers spent four years meeting with residents and developed an oral history of the communities. They discovered the skill sets and practices that made the areas stronger and made residents more willing to reinvest despite the damage caused by hurricanes like Katrina, Rita and Ike.
Peterson said researchers presented their findings to residents several times, and then residents would tell them whether those findings were accurate to provide a complete picture. She said this type of research is more valuable than simple surveys or data mined from the U.S. Census Bureau.
“They told us their story,” Peterson said.
What researchers found was that despite the lack of outstanding public infrastructure, the communities had intense and extensive private bonds that provided a helpful social network. In addition, certain skills that were essential to disaster recovery, like carpentry, were often tied to the livelihoods of many residents. Residents said they had a close relationship with public officials, and that allowed them to minimize or eliminate the red tape that slowed recovery in other areas, she said.
Jean Lafitte Mayor Tim Kerner said the study validates what he already knew about the area. Residents in those communities are willing and able to do their part to recover, but they do need a helping hand from politicians to make certain that things are not too difficult.

Lafitte, Barataria and Crown Point, Kerner said, play an important role in the Louisiana economy as well as the nation because of its fishers, and oil and gas workers. He said he hopes the study will stand as testament to the will of those individuals.

“I think what they saw is that the people here bounce back faster and stronger than some other areas,” Kerner said. “If you look, we’ve been through six disasters in six years, and if you drive through Jean Lafitte, Crown Point and Barataria, it doesn’t look like we’ve had one.”
Allen Powell II can be reached at apowell@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3793.

Saturday, March 10, 2012

Nature Deficit Disorder

Click the link and read about Richard Louv and how critical it is to connect with Nature.

It makes me glad I have spent time this weekend with my hands in the dirt, planting and weeding.  This always centers and calms me.  

It always seems to come back "Nature is the Great Teacher."

Or as Richard Louv says it:
"Simply put, the Nature Principle maintains that a reconnection with the natural world is fundamental to human health, well-being and survival."

Read more in Richard Louv's  "The Nature Principle"

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

The stars and our connection...

Astrophysicist Dr. Neil DeGrasse Tyson was asked in an interview with TIME magazine, "What is the most astounding fact you can share with us about the Universe?" This is his answer.

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Rites & Offerings

See this link for some solid insights and historical background on Rites & Offerings from Religo et Pietas.

The quotes are from the link above.
"A relatively simple rite is called the adoratio. It may involve a simple greeting such as saying “Ave, Ave, Di parenti.” This greeting is coupled with a gesture where in one kisses the back of the right hand just behind the knuckle of the index finger, and then touches the finger tips onto an altar or an image. It is specifically used when addressing one’s ancestors, so one approaches a family member’s tomb, or the family lararium within the home, or sometimes it might be a tree or other outdoor shrine."
Or blowing 3 kisses to the moon.

"Ritus Romanus was performed in the Latin fashion with the toga pulled tightly around the torso (cinctus Gabinus) and drawn up to veil the head (capite velato). "
This posture is often used in Streghe rituals.

"Other kinds of offerings were likewise selected according to the particular deity or the particular festival. Milk was used as a libation in the oldest rites. Generally Goddesses received milk libations, although there are exceptions here too. Venus is one Goddess Who usually receives wine as a libation. Where wine is the libation commonly used in Roman ritual, wine is prohibited in some rites."
Think about the energy and the god or goddess you are reaching out to.  Align the offering, its color, smell, composition with these characteristics. It is the essence of sympathetic magic.

"Every family, every clan or gens, every temple, shrine, and altar had their own traditional rituals, many of which changed over time."
And this aspect is captured in the very imporatnt Lare/Lasa Shrine of Stregheria.

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Mardi Gras !!!!! Throw the baby out the window let the sun burn down!

Thank YOU!!!! Washington Post!!! and Jordan Flaherty!!!!
Wondering about Mardi Gras???  ... Read Five Myths about Mardi Gras
 
Then if you're not able to be here.... at least listen!
And think of the baby as a Mardi Gras King Cake Baby
Mardi Gras King Cake Babies





Sunday, February 19, 2012

Listening to Whales and Silence

Classic Pagan Tenet:  Be still and listen.

and that's just what these scienctists did... they listened.... to whales and to the data

This is why I love science. We think things like this intuitively. Whales...water...sound... noise...stress. Can't you just hear the child's question?

But science shows us so that we don't have to wonder. We can know. Now we have to wonder if we humans are capable of change,of doing anything about this. Can we learn to live lightly on the earth? Can we learn to live quietly too?

Nature is the Great Teacher.

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Because it's beautiful


Nicolas Bernard & Ludevine Furnon from Cirque Du Soleil,
Former Cirque du Soleil Artists and
Silver Medalist in Paris at the 31th Festival Mondial du Cirque de Demain,
performing at "Benissimo" Live TV show 2010.
 Music composed by Martin Villiger.

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

But our race is of the stars


The molecules in my body are traceable to phenomena in the cosmos
The iron from the meteorite and the iron from you blood
has common origin in the core of a star...
It is quite literally true that we are stardust;
in the highest exalted way one can use that phrase.

Sunday, February 5, 2012

A Christian gets it and calls it her own

An article by Sallie McFague...  shows that it is possible for Christians to understand what we pagans have always known in our bones, or perhaps never forgotton.  We are all connected.
"... the ecological model claims that housemates must abide by three main rules: take only your share, clean up after yourselves, and keep the house in good repair for future occupants. We don’t own this house; we don’t even rent it. It is loaned to us "free" for our lifetime with the proviso that we obey the above rules so that it can continue to feed, shelter, nurture, and delight others. These rules are not laws that we can circumvent or disobey; they are the conditions of our existence and they are intrinsic to our happiness. If we were to follow these rules we would be living within a different vision of the good life, the abundant life, than is current in our consumer culture and that is destroying the planet."

"... take only your share, clean up after yourselves, and keep the house in good repair for future occupants."

Ah.... yep.... dare I say "Duh?"

She claims there are:
"two worldviews—the neo-classical economic one and the ecological economic view"
Ok... a classic "us" and "them" but Ok.

and that:

"The second model" (ecological) "sees the planet more like an organism or a community, that survives and prospers through the interdependence of all its parts, human and non-human."

and while the description of the ecological/pagan model is correct....

this is not:
"The second model rests on assumptions from postmodern science in its view of human beings as the conscious and radically-dependent part of the planet, and of the world as a community or organism, internally related in all its parts."

The "second" ecological model is NOT postmodern  It is shamanistic, pagan, primal, as old as dirt.  Only from a Judeo-Christian Genesis "have dominion over" viewpoint is it postmodern.

But if other Christians take what she has written and begin to *act* on it, perhaps there is hope.


 




Saturday, February 4, 2012

We are all connected

Symphony of Science: We are all connected

[deGrasse Tyson]
We are all connected;
To each other, biologically
To the earth, chemically
To the rest of the universe atomically

[Feynman]
I think nature's imagination
Is so much greater than man's
She's never going to let us relax

[Sagan]
We live in an in-between universe
Where things change all right
But according to patterns, rules,
Or as we call them, laws of nature

[Nye]
I'm this guy standing on a planet
Really I'm just a speck
Compared with a star, the planet is just another speck
To think about all of this
To think about the vast emptiness of space
There's billions and billions of stars
Billions and billions of specks

[Sagan]
The beauty of a living thing is not the atoms that go into it
But the way those atoms are put together
The cosmos is also within us
We're made of star stuff
We are a way for the cosmos to know itself

Across the sea of space
The stars are other suns
We have traveled this way before
And there is much to be learned

I find it elevating and exhilarating
To discover that we live in a universe
Which permits the evolution of molecular machines
As intricate and subtle as we

[deGrasse Tyson]
I know that the molecules in my body are traceable
To phenomena in the cosmos
That makes me want to grab people in the street
And say, have you heard this??

(Richard Feynman on hand drums and chanting)

[Feynman]
There's this tremendous mess
Of waves all over in space
Which is the light bouncing around the room
And going from one thing to the other

And it's all really there
But you gotta stop and think about it
About the complexity to really get the pleasure
And it's all really there
The inconceivable nature of nature

Thursday, February 2, 2012

Gods Behaving Badly

gods behaving badly barberini
Above is the cover of the book and the original statute

Publishing notes from on Amazon say:
"Being a Greek god is not all it once was. Yes, the twelve gods of Olympus are alive and well in the twenty-first century, but they are crammed together in a London townhouse-and none too happy about it. And they've had to get day jobs: Artemis as a dog-walker, Apollo as a TV psychic, Aphrodite as a phone sex operator, Dionysus as a DJ.

Even more disturbingly, their powers are waning, and even turning mortals into trees-a favorite pastime of Apollo's-is sapping their vital reserves of strength.

Soon, what begins as a minor squabble between Aphrodite and Apollo escalates into an epic battle of wills. Two perplexed humans, Alice and Neil, who are caught in the crossfire, must fear not only for their own lives, but for the survival of humankind. Nothing less than a true act of heroism is needed-but can these two decidedly ordinary people replicate the feats of the mythical heroes and save the world?"

It's Neil Gaiman's American Gods with wry British humor.  It explores the concept of egregore
and the thought that our attention and worship feed the gods with the energy they need to exist.
The book is a fun way to look at the base "personality traits" of the gods and how hard it is to weave our modern life into "ancient ways". Keep a look out for the movie. IMDB says it's in "post production".

Take the time to Howl a little this Lupercus and shed, for just a little, while the cares of the modern world.   Take a look at this statue, a copy at the Louvre, which shows the "wolf cloak".
Louvre - Barbarini

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Why do Wolves Howl?


Why do Wolves Howl?
Lisa Matthews / Wolf Song of Alaska Volunteer


Howling is the type of vocal communication the wolf is most famous for (also in their vocal repertoire are whimpers, yips, growls, and barks). It’s no surprise that we are captivated by the sound of a howl, for as the mysterious song fills the vast expanses we are somehow reminded of, and are reconnected to, the wondrous aspects of nature that we may have forgotten about.
Once a wolf begins howling, other pack members often show a strong tendency to approach that animal and join in. Lois Crisler has said, “Like a community sing, a howl is a happy occasion. Wolves love to howl. When it is started, they instantly seek contact with one another, troop together, fur to fur. Some wolves will run from any distance, panting and bright-eyed, to join in, uttering, as they near, fervent little wows, jaws wide, hardly able to wait to sing.”
While the functions of howling are not fully understood, several different types of howling have been identified, each used under different circumstances. Once thing is certain, howling appears to be the glue that keeps the pack together and plays a role in the formation and/or the maintenance of strong bonds between other members of the pack. Some members, usually those who rank lowest in the pack hierarchy, however, may be discouraged, or “punished” for joining in a howling chorus.
One of the most often used howls is a call which reassembles the pack, such as after a chase, or if a wolf has gotten lost. This is a deep, loud, and guttural sound sometimes accompanied with a few barks. Howling seems to convey the location of individual wolves so they can reunite. As wolves range over vast areas to find food, they often become separated from one another. Because of its low pitch and long duration, howling is well-suited for transmission in forests and across tundra and can be carried several miles. If a wolf gets separated from the pack, howling soon begins. In one instance, it was observed that after a mother wolf became separated from her young on one side of a river, she howled to guide her pups to a safe spot to cross.
When wolves return from a hunt, those who stayed behind will rush to greet them and howling may break out as well. Additionally, wolves will sometimes howl after a chase to celebrate a successful hunt.
Before a hunt, a different kind of howl, the social howl, may serve to excite the pack members and bond them prior to setting out. This type of howl is one of sheer joy and is often heard as the pack gathers for a hunt. This social howl celebrates togetherness, pleasure, and friendship. Resting wolves will begin romping about with tails wagging while they sniff and press against each other. Then they will join in on the howl. Wolves will not, however, howl to initiate a chase and will be silent when actually hunting.
The social howl is also used as a warning to wolves in nearby territories. This howl, therefore, has much significance between packs, as well as within. Inter-pack howling may sometimes go on for hours promoting speculation that the howling may function in territorial advertisement or maintenance, and may be a threat or warning. Howling to warn other packs to stay away is most often heard during the mating season, as well as when the pack is at the den or resting sites. Wolves responding to unknown wolf howls are warning the intruder that they will hold their territory and defend their mates, pups, or food sources. However, lone wolves who intend to travel outside their home territory do so silently, because a meeting with wolves in another territory may lead to a confrontation, which sometimes proves fatal to the intruder.
Another type of howl occurs when a wolf is lonely. This is a rising and falling sound with a long slide at the end. This howl is heard mostly during the mating season when a wolf is looking for a possible mate and wolves tend to howl more frequently around the breeding season. A captive wolf might also howl due to a feeling of isolation.
Some researchers have noted that wolves sometimes appear to howl simply because they are happy (a happy howl can sound “mournful”). For example, it has been observed that when a mother wolf is giving birth to her pups inside the den, wolves on the outside start howling and become very excited, prancing about. Once the pups are born the excitement increases and howling gets even louder.
Howling appears to identify a particular wolf, much like a fingerprint does for primates. The many different qualities within a howl allow other wolves to know which wolf is doing the howling so they may identify each other and also those individuals who are not part of their pack. Several field researchers have even claimed the ability to distinguish specific wolves in a pack by their characteristic howls! Additionally, no two wolves will howl on the same note. There is harmony. If two wolves do start on the same note, one or both will change their beginning note. Why they do this is unclear, although some believe it makes the pack sound like a bigger group of animals and, therefore, more threatening to intruders.
There is some evidence that howling might also supply information about their behavior, such as whether the wolf is walking slowly, pacing, or lying down. If such details can be detected in howls, they only occur among associated wolves that have learned to relate each other's behavior to the specific changes in howling. This is only one example illustrating the importance of learning during the socialization process of these intelligent animals.
So, do wolves howl at the moon? It is safe to say that this thought is just a myth. Wolf howls have been inadvertently associated with the moon most likely because they are more active on brighter lit nights.
If you are one of the fortunate ones able to hear a wolf, or a pack of wolves, howl in your lifetime think about all the reasons why they might be howling and, as Mark D. Martinson has said, “ When you hear a wolf’s howl, listen to it to the full. Feel its primeval beauty, way deep in your soul.”

Friday, January 27, 2012

USDA Zone Maps..... duh!

The USDA has decided that it is OK to officially tell us what we already knew; that our environment is changing and that this affects what will grow where and when. Anyone who operates under the tenent that Nature is the Great Teacher.... or who gardens.... has know what the USDA told us this week for at least a decade.

Read the article for yourself. I get our local newspaper and the article below was published in our Times Picayune. But when I "googled" to find the article on the web I found scores of other articles with the same basic Associated Press lead but with local details on local impacts added for scores of locations.

The article below tells us: "Spring is arriving earlier in the year."  Again, Duh!
Take a look at this NASA model and tell me you didn't feel this in your pagan bones.


New USDA Plant Zone map reflects warmer temperatures in south Louisiana and nationwide.
Times Picayune January 25, 2010 - nola.com & January 26, 2012 -  hard copy
Associated Press Seth Borenstein

WASHINGTON -- Global warming is hitting not just home, but in the garden. The government's colorful map of planting zones, most often seen on the back of seed packets, is changing, illustrating a hotter 21st century.

map-hardiness-012612.jpgView full size

An update of the official guide for 80 million gardeners reflects a new reality: The coldest day of the year isn't as cold as it used to be. So some plants and trees that once seemed too vulnerable to cold can now survive farther north.

It's the first time since 1990 that the U.S. Department of Agriculture has updated the map and much has changed. Nearly entire states, such as Ohio, Nebraska and Texas, are in warmer zones.
South Louisiana, which had been in Zone 8, is now placed in Zone 9. Times-Picayune garden writer Dan Gill, an LSU AgCenter horticulturist, has long advised south shore gardeners to "firmly place themselves in Zone 9."

New Orleans and adjoining parts of Jefferson and St. Bernard parishes are now officially in Zone 9b, which has an average annual extreme minimum temperature of 25 to 30 degrees Farenheit; the surrounding areas are in Zone 9a, with lows of 20 to 25.

The new guide, unveiled Wednesday at the National Arboretum, also uses better weather data and offers more interactive technology. For the first time it takes into factors such as how cities are hotter than suburbs and rural areas, nearby large bodies of water, prevailing winds, and the slope of land.
"It truly does reflect state of the art," said USDA chief scientist Catherine Woteki.

The new map can be found online at www.planthardiness.ars.usda.gov. Gardeners can register their zip code into the online map and their zone will pop up. It shows the exact average coldest temperature for each zip code. The 26 zones, however, are based on 5-degree increments.
28_hardy_us.JPGView full size
 
It's the first time since 1990 that the U.S. Department of Agriculture has updated the map and much has changed.

For example, Des Moines, Iowa, used to be in zone 5a, meaning the lowest temperature on average was between minus 15 and minus 20 degrees Fahrenheit. Now it's 5b, which has a coldest temperature of 10 to 15 degrees below zero.

"People who grow plants are well aware of the fact that temperatures have gotten more mild throughout the year, particularly in the winter time," said Boston University biology professor Richard Primack. "There's a lot of things you can grow now that you couldn't grow before."
He uses the giant fig tree in his suburban Boston yard as an example.

"People don't think of figs as a crop you can grow in the Boston area. You can do it now," he said.
In the old 1990 map, the USDA mentions 34 different U.S. cities on its key. Eighteen of those, including Honolulu, St. Louis, Des Moines, St. Paul and even Fairbanks, are in newer warmer zones. Agriculture officials said they didn't examine the map to see how much of the map has changed for the hotter. But Mark Kaplan, the New York meteorologist who co-created the 1990 map and a 2003 update that the USDA didn't use, said the latest version clearly shows warmer zones migrating north. Other experts agreed.

The 1990 map was based on temperatures from 1974 to 1986; the new map from 1976 to 2005. The nation's average temperature from 1976 to 2005 was two-thirds of a degree warmer than for the old time period, according to statistics at the National Climatic Data Center.
USDA spokeswoman Kim Kaplan, who was part of the map team, repeatedly tried to distance the new zones in the map from global warming issues. She said even though much of the country is in warmer zones, the map "is simply not a good instrument" to demonstrate climate change because it is based on just the coldest days of the year.

David W. Wolfe, professor of plant and soil ecology in Cornell University's Department of Horticulture said the USDA is being too cautious and disagrees with Kaplan about whether this reflects warming.
"At a time when the 'normal' climate has become a moving target, this revision of the hardiness zone map gives us a clear picture of the 'new normal,' and will be an essential tool for gardeners, farmers, and natural resource managers as they begin to cope with rapid climate change," Wolfe said in an email.

Another and even more dramatic sign of global warming in the plant world is that spring is arriving earlier in the year, Wolfe said.

The new map is based on temperature records.

An earlier effort to update the planting map caused a bit of an uproar when the USDA in 2003 decided not to use an updated map that reflected warmer weather. Kaplan said the 2003 map wasn't interactive enough.

The Arbor Day Foundation later issued its own hardiness guide that had the toastier climate zones. The new federal map is very similar to the one the private plant group adopted six years ago, said Arbor Day Foundation Vice President Woodrow Nelson.
"We got a lot of comments that the 1990 map wasn't accurate anymore," Nelson said. "I look forward to (the new map). It's been a long time coming."
Nelson, who lives in Lincoln, Neb., where the zone warmed to a 5b. Nelson said he used to "a solid 4" but now he's got Japanese maples and fraser firs in his yard -- trees that shouldn't survive in a zone 4.

In Des Moines, Jerry Holub, a manager for the Earl May Nursery chain, doesn't think the warmer zone will have much of an impact on gardeners. But he said this may mean residents can even try passion flowers.
"Now you can put them in safely, when you couldn't before," he said.
Vaughn Speer, an 87-year-old master gardener in Ames, Iowa, doubts the change in zones will mean much to him, but he said he has seen redbud trees, one of the earliest blooming trees, a little further north in recent years.
"They always said redbuds don't go beyond U.S. Highway 30, but I'm seeing them near Roland," he said, referring to a small Iowa town about 10 miles north of the highway that spans central Iowa.

The Times-Picayune staff contributed to this report.