Category Archives: READING MATTER

Books I read & recommend

...and other stuff, CARTOONS, FREE ADVICE, PICTURE POEMS, POETIC NONSENSE, READING MATTER

FACEBOOK FILOSOFER: HOW TO GUIDE FOR AMATEURS

February 13, 2026 LRS

Anyone can be a FaceBook Filosofer. (and most Facebookers are.) But, if you’re a amateur, and aspire to be a “professional” (like me) here’s all you need: 1) a Facebook account 2) a photo — preferably with a black background for more dramatic textual contrast 3) a photo editing ap 4) type a slogan, quotation or cliche on the picture. 5) Upload your picture. (shazzam!) Now you’re a professional Facebook Filosofer! It doesn’t matter how many “Likes” you get. It’s all about the deep filosfical drama of posting platitudes to impress yourself and your “Friends” with your clever witicizms and deeply spiritual understanding of all things political, social, and sexual. Who knows, maybe you”ll even hook up with someone along the way who “Likes” you or at least shares your version of reality anonymously over the internet.

...and other stuff, BULLSHIT, FREE ADVICE, READING MATTER

NESTLE: PRIVATE WATER PIRATE

February 12, 2026 LRS

Republished by Blog Post Promoter

(Visit website for the film “Bottled Life” http://www.bottledlifefilm.com/index.php/home-en.html )

A typical American uses 80 to 100 gallons of water a day, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The entire country consumes about 323 billion gallons per day of surface water and another 84.5 billion gallons of ground water. Do you have any questions about why Criminal Corporations like Nestle want to PRIVATIZE water distribution?

Perhaps the most incredible number: at an average cost of $1.22 per gallon, consumers are spending 300 times the cost of tap water to drink bottled water.

In fact, that number could be even higher, writes Colas in a note to clients.

“The [bottled water] industry grossed a total of $11.8 billion on those 9.7 billion gallons in 2012, making bottled water about $1.22/gallon nationwide and 300x the cost of a gallon of tap water,” Colas says. “If we take into account the fact that almost 2/3 of all bottled water sales are single 16.9oz (500 mL) bottles, though, this cost is much, much higher: about $7.50 per gallon, according to the American Water Works Association. That’s almost 2,000x the cost of a gallon of tap water and twice the cost of a gallon of regular gasoline.”

Do the math: 323 billion gallons surface water PLUS 84.5 billions gallons of ground water EQUALS 407.5 billion gallons TIMES $1.22 per gallon EQUALS $497.15 billion per day. Now, multiply this number by 300 for the price of Nestle bottled water!

ANY QUESTIONS?

Get yourself educated about the subject of “Water Privatization” before NESTLE STEALS OUR WATER. Here are a few excellent articles:

http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/water/private-vs-public/facts-and-figures/

http://academic.evergreen.edu/g/grossmaz/vanovedr/

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=7&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CEsQFjAG&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.citizen.org%2Fdocuments%2Ftop10-reasonstoopposewaterprivatization.pdf&ei=GuxKVYG3JsSyoQSt-IDgAQ&usg=AFQjCNFEWVHFOD7S9XB3SJ_cBWjFrNgqTA&sig2=SD0y2rPDbLOTGdaoP6xZ4Q

http://www.slate.com/blogs/business_insider/2013/07/12/cost_of_bottled_water_vs_tap_water_the_difference_will_shock_you.html

ART, PICTURE POEMS, POETIC NONSENSE, READING MATTER

THE SACRIFICE

February 12, 2026 LRS

Republished by Blog Post Promoter

“The erosion of cultures – and of “culture” as a whole – is the theme that runs through the last 25 years of my artistic practice. Cultures emerge, become obsolete, and are replaced by new ones. With the vanishing of cultures, some people are displaced and destroyed. We are currently told that the paper book is bound to die. The library, as a place, is finished. One might ask so what? Do we really believe that “new technologies” will change anything concerning our existential dilemma, our human condition? And even if we could change the content of all the books on earth, would this change anything in relation to the domination of analytical knowledge over intuitive knowledge? What is it in ourselves that insists on grabbing, on casting the flow of experience into concepts?
When I was younger, I was very upset with the ideologies of progress. I wanted to destroy them by showing that we are still primitives. I had the profound intuition that as a species, we had not evolved that much. Now I see that our belief in progress stems from our fascination with the content of consciousness. Despite appearances, our current obsession for changing the forms in which we access culture is but a manifestation of this fascination.
My work, in 3D as well as in painting, originates from the very idea that ultimate knowledge could very well be an erosion instead of an accumulation. The title of one of my pieces is “ All Ideas Look Alike”. Contemporary art seems to have forgotten that there is an exterior to the intellect. I want to examine thinking, not only “what” we think, but “that” we think.
So I carve landscapes out of books and I paint romantic landscapes. Mountains of disused knowledge return to what they really are: mountains. They erode a bit more and they become hills. Then they flatten and become fields where apparently nothing is happening. Piles of obsolete encyclopedias return to that which does not need to say anything, that which simply IS. Fogs and clouds erase everything we know, everything we think we are.
After 30 years of practice, the only thing I still wish my art to do is this: to project us into this thick “cloud of unknowing.” ~ Guy Laramée

Visit the website of the artist, Guy Laramée

http://www.guylaramee.com/index.php/intro/

...and other stuff, ART, FREE ADVICE, READING MATTER

A MASTER OF INTELLIGENT RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

February 11, 2026 LRS

Republished by Blog Post Promoter

The Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker is a master of natural resource management, conservation, symbiosis, and being a good neighbor!On a walk through the forest you might spot rows of shallow holes in tree bark. In the East, this is the work of the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, an enterprising woodpecker that laps up the leaking sap and any trapped insects with its specialized, brush-tipped tongue.

The Yellow-bellied Sapsucker makes two kinds of holes in trees to harvest sap. Round holes extend deep in the tree and are not enlarged. The sapsucker inserts its bill into the hole to probe for sap. Rectangular holes are shallower, and must be maintained continually for the sap to flow. The sapsucker licks the sap from these holes, and eats the cambium of the tree too. New holes usually are made in a line with old holes, or in a new line above the old.

The sapwells made by Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers attract hummingbirds, which also feed off the sap flowing from the tree. In some parts of Canada, Ruby-throated Hummingbirds rely so much on sapwells that they time their spring migration with the arrival of sapsuckers. Other birds as well as bats and porcupines also visit sapsucker sapwells.
Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers have been found drilling sapwells in more than 1,000 species of trees and woody plants, though they have a strong preference for birches and maples.
Sapsuckers tend to choose sick or wounded trees for drilling their wells, and they choose tree species with high sugar concentrations in their sap, such as paper birch, yellow birch, sugar maple, red maple, and hickory. They drill wells for sap throughout the year, on both their breeding and wintering grounds. In addition to sap, Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers also eat insects (mostly ants) and spiders, gleaning them from beneath a tree’s bark like other woodpeckers. And at times they perch at the edge of a tree branch and launch after flying insects to capture them in midair, like a flycatcher.

LEARN MORE: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Yellow-bellied_sapsucker/lifehistory/ac