China cleans up one-child slogans (from bbc)

It gave examples of "low quality" slogans posted on rural banners or the internet: "Raise fewer babies but more piggies", "Houses toppled, cows confiscated, if abortion demand rejected" and "One more baby means one more tomb."

Among the new slogans recommended are "The mother earth is too tired to sustain more children" and "Both boys and girls are parents' hearts."

China's 28-year-old family planning policy limits most urban couples to just one child and allows some families in the countryside to have a second child if their first is a girl.

Critics say it has led to forced abortions, sterilizations and a dangerously imbalanced sex ratio due to a traditional preference for male heirs, which has prompted some families to abort female foetuses in the hope of getting boys.

China has the largest population in the world - 1.3bn in 2005 - and says its policies have helped limit its growth rate.

Thai cops punished by Hello KittyHello Kitty, in handbag form
The Hello Kitty cartoon character is known across AsiaPolice chiefs in the Thai capital, Bangkok, have come up with a new way of punishing officers who break the rules - an eye-catching Hello Kitty armband.The armband is large, bright pink and has a Hello Kitty motif with two hearts embroidered on it.From today, officers who are late, park in the wrong place or commit other minor transgressions will have to wear it for several days.The armband is designed to shame the wearer, police officials said."This is to help build discipline. We should not let small offences go unnoticed," Police Colonel Pongpat Chayapan told Reuters news agency."Guilty officers will be made to wear the armbands in the office for a few days, with instructions not to disclose their offences. Let people guess what they have done," he said.Further offences would be dealt with using a more traditional disciplinary panel, he said.The cartoon character Hello Kitty was first introduced by Japanese company Sanrio in 1974.The cute round-faced cat has become an Asia-wide marketing phenomenon, with Hello Kitty products such as stationery, hair accessories and kitchen appliances available across the region.

of these things I give freely

destiny keeps leaving little notes with shaky hand writing
she's been kidnapped, locked in a basement somewhere
but I still feel her everywhere
making these things I do feel lonely
making them feel beautiful
making me write little notes everyday

a quote

"The illusion of freedom will continue as long as it's profitable to continue the illusion. At the point where the illusion becomes too expensive to maintain, they will just take down the scenery, they will pull back the curtains, they will move the tables and chairs out of the way, and you will see the brick wall at the back of the theatre."

- Frank Zappa, 1977

Becoming a Freethinker and a Scientist *Einstein*

One can refer to this from the perspective of any life searching activity

Becoming a Freethinker and a Scientist
By Albert Einstein

Taken from:
Albert Einstein's Autobiographical Notes
Open Court Publishing Company,
LaSalle and Chicago, Illinois, 1979. pp 3-5.


When I was a fairly precocious young man I became thoroughly impressed with the futility of the hopes and strivings that chase most men restlessly through life. Moreover, I soon discovered the cruelty of that chase, which in those years was much more carefully covered up by hypocrisy and glittering words than is the case today. By the mere existence of his stomach everyone was condemned to participate in that chase. The stomach might well be satisfied by such participation, but not man insofar as he is a thinking and feeling being.

As the first way out there was religion, which is implanted into every child by way of the traditional education-machine. Thus I came - though the child of entirely irreligious (Jewish) parents - to a deep religiousness, which, however, reached an abrupt end at the age of twelve. Through the reading of popular scientific books I soon reached the conviction that much in the stories of the Bible could not be true. The consequence was a positively fanatic orgy of freethinking coupled with the impression that youth is intentionally being deceived by the state through lies; it was a crushing impression. Mistrust of every kind of authority grew out of this experience, a skeptical attitude toward the convictions that were alive in any specific social environment-an attitude that has never again left me, even though, later on, it has been tempered by a better insight into the causal connections.

It is quite clear to me that the religious paradise of youth, which was thus lost, was a first attempt to free myself from the chains of the "merely personal," from an existence dominated by wishes, hopes, and primitive feelings. Out yonder there was this huge world, which exists independently of us human beings and which stands before us like a great, eternal riddle, at least partially accessible to our inspection and thinking. The contemplation of this world beckoned as a liberation, and I soon noticed that many a man whom I had learned to esteem and to admire had found inner freedom and security in its pursuit. The mental grasp of this extra-personal world within the frame of our capabilities presented itself to my mind, half consciously, half unconsciously, as a supreme goal. Similarly motivated men of the present and of the past, as well as the insights they had achieved, were the friends who could not be lost. The road to this paradise was not as comfortable and alluring as the road to the religious paradise; but it has shown itself reliable, and I have never regretted having chosen it.

Tycho to start

Not expecting too much. Heavy handed dreams, like those of the past. Juggling. Drink quick and believe in your future. Beliefs ever changing, always present. Warmth of a beautiful feline queen in your lap. The intriquicies of fur radiating up along the bridge between her nose and furrowed neck. The spell is broken and she's clawing up the canvas, scratching open the illusory insulation. Still love. Still thorough and williaming. Still kitchy grins. Still standing up.
She's gone and I am alone in my room clicking away. A distant fall sunlight so still. Left with my music, campfire smell on my jacket, twisted spine, desires still cooking over varnished and painted wood of childrens bed lofts.