Money is one of the most mysterious things in the universe. Here's an article from economist Brad Setser's weblog that I found interesting and incomprehensible... how the black markets of the world, and the money-under-the-mattress funds are switching from dollars to euros. This has a huge impact on the US economy, and is sure to be big news on CNBC really really soon. No, just kidding!



Something similar happened to the shekl around 350AD and I still haven't recovered.

I'm finally doing what Dr. Quang told me to do a couple of months ago: take it easy. Being in Florida at Mom's helps with that. I'll be heading back to Pittsfield at the end of the week to find a new studio, and perhaps a flight to New Mexico later int he month.



Found a great book review by Malcolm Gladwell on "Collapse" by Jared Diamond. About another kind of Tipping Point. This via a nice new-to-me blog called 3quarksdaily. Worth a look. And this via the most interesting Preposterous Universe. Nothing like quantum physics to help give one a different perspective. A bit larger. Or a lot smaller.

Greetings to Paul -



things have changed, I'm not heading for NewMex anytime soon. Weather in the midwest changed the plan at first, but then certain obstacles came up for a visit at this time.



I'm in Florida right now, and will be getting back to Pittsfield at the end of the week.



Paul- hope we can visit in the Land of Enchantment sometime - I think you'll love it there.



That school looks interesting. I might be out in Cal in Jan or Feb - I'll let you know.



***



I read an article today - one of those scary true things. Belief in Book of Revelation driving US Politics. No wonder the rest of the world thinks we're outa our tree.



best of all of us humans in the coming year.

Hello! This is Paul Hindt here to wish everyone reading this blog Happy Holidays for whatever you may be celebrating this season (or not celebrating if one so chooses). Also, Douglass, if you are going to be staying in New Mexico for some time I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to come check it out down there and pay you a visit. I have had an interest in exploring the Southwest for some time now and this could be the perfect opportunity for me. Hope you are doing well, Doug. I can't believe I've already finished a year of school at Ex'Pression and only have a year to go.

Went to see Dr. Quang, the vietnamese herbalist (his autobiography was recently published) in North Bennington today, for the last time for a few months. He turned me around but good with his wonderful herbs - they smelled heavenly. And I feel good enough to go to New Mexico for a few months. I'm still looking for a place in Silver City, if you know of anything.



The reason I'm going to Silver City NM is because of a dream I had about the place. I went through there ages ago, in the early 60s in a summer camp, and it made a small impression on me. I remember most the catwalk, a hanging catwalk above a mountain stream that seemed reaaaallly cool to me then. I again passed through in my first big road trip, 1972. then forgot about it till a dream a few months ago. Now it seems like I ought to go there. que sera sera.



The closing of all the libraries in Buffalo NY and Salinas Ca has me much disturbed. The "Twin Towers" of debt and trade imbalance threaten this country and its well-being and security a lot more than most terrorists. Library closings, are, I'm afraid, only the beginning. People simply don't seem to see it (ie we're broke) - or don't want to, which is understandable, seeing how we, as a nation, have had it so sweet for so long. I think maybe our good karma has run out, and there are bills to be paid now. My main concern -seeing as how there's very little any of us can do about this situation (except fight to end the war on drugs, a financial disaster, which we can afford less and less) - is my own mood. I get awfully frightened and depressed about it all, and I know that's no good for anyone. Someone I know said that our work is to raise people's spirits. That's a fine goal, maybe the most important one, at least regarding our human interactions. Other interactions, I don't know much about, but I have my suspicions.

Did you see that "blog" was the number one new word in the English language - according to those who would know, I guess. Well, I agree. Blogs are the greatest thing since sliced bread, and I say that even though I don't mind slicing bread, and even though I worked at a wholesale bakery in Seattle and sliced a lot of bread. Fer instance, I just stumbled on Bob Mould's blog, and from there, a bunch of other interesting things I had no idea about. One of my favorite columnists Robert Dvorak has a blog, about any little thing that catches his eye. It's great. And then there's the science ones. Like Preposterous Universe - the great thing is to hear the voice of all these creative types and heavy duty thinking types in just an ordinary way. Sure, I scan a lot of it, otherwise there's not enough time in the universe to read everything. But I love just stumbling across Bob Mould's blog, and reading about his tour and his drive home yesterday, another life...



I'm reading Lee Smolin's Three Roads to Quantum Gravity. I'm a bit tapped out from end of year business stuff, and so I tend to nod offf with it, but it's energizing - at least intellectually - to think about what things are like at the Planck scale. Lee Smolin was the writer that turned me on to Julian Barbour's writin. Reading Smolin and Barbour makes me envious of the physicists and their incredible group workings. Their global friendships and partnerships, in an effort that seems more and more to me like building the cathedrals... the edifice of the Grand Theory, hundreds of physicists, members of the most elite clan, working away night and day on things most of us really, and here I mean this literally, really cannot even begin to understand. The secrets of the cathedrals... hey, those builders were the Masons! Wonder if we'll enter a dark age (he said casually) and the physicists will form a secret society to protect the knowledge against, well, yes, I hate to be so blunt about it, but the fundamentalists, who of all stripes are moderately to severely anti-intellectual. But back to physics: I wonder when they're going to tackle the question on Consciousness... and maybe find out that the Buddhists were already there 2500 years ago...



enjoy the holidays. relax when you're driving...