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-   -   Call for Intellectuals (https://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hubb/the-hubb-pub/call-for-intellectuals-61319)

xfiltrate 15 Jan 2012 14:50

Call for Intellectuals
 
Believe it or not motorcycles have their own academic journal.

Here is the web site to the "International Journal of Motorcycle Studies" - and the NJMS is calling for papers, speakers etc for the upcoming conference in Colorado Springs - June 2012.

http://ijms.nova.edu/

Next time you are on a university campus check for the Department of Motorcycle Studies, there may be one near you soon.

When tango was made an academic discipline in Buenos Aires, I was surprised and moved to Argentina. If motorcycles are made an academic discipline I will be thrilled and would consider returning to the academic...

xfiltrate

Walkabout 15 Jan 2012 15:16

Zen
 
Nice one Exfiltrate and thanks for drawing attention to this development.
Just reading the front page of the website reminds me of "Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance".

The first time I read the book I could not finish it and had little idea what the author was getting at; years later, older and hopefully a bit wiser, I returned to the book and it made a lot more sense (I always understood the paragraphs and chapters about riding, it was the philosophical stuff that was outside my range).

Nor did I realise that Tango is an area of academic study :thumbup1:

xfiltrate 15 Jan 2012 15:45

Yep
 
Some times the philosophical stuff is easier to digest read "inhale" with

a different kind of "papers."

I know what you mean, Immanuel Kant - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Kant couldn't and Alfred Korzybski - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

really had no sip at all. I am with you brother. My first moped was

traded for 3 1920s U S postage stamps in Tokyo, Japan at the tender age of

13, but not so tender as to not partake of the gin offered at the gin bars of

Shinjuku, Tokyo - Wikipedia, free encyclopedia (circa 1959) and the very

young kimono clad japanese hostesses.

I have ridden motorcycles to almost 50 countries and absorbed, by

experiencing, the realities of many cultures. Zen is a part. But, as

those who suffered through the Viet Nam war often say, "It just don't mean a

thing!" It really don't.

xfiltrate ride hard ride free

Rory799 15 Jan 2012 22:33

After reading the first few lines of the link :confused1: . . . . . I think I'll sign up for the Tango classes:smartass::wave:

Rory:thumbup1:

oldbmw 15 Jan 2012 22:57

Not sure about the tango, but had my incredulity stretched by :=

solo synchronised swimming

and

indoor windsurfing.

but they do exist...

xfiltrate 16 Jan 2012 19:28

Tangozen
 
Regarding the academic qualifications of tango.

A friend of mine noticed that tango was actually a walk set to music. He had been a NASA rocket scientist for 20 years and a practicing Zen Buddhist .

He loved traditional tango, quit his job at NASA and moved to Buenos Aires to study tango. After his research, he worked out a mathematical formula that described a wide variety of the steps that compose traditional tango and then worked out a walking Zen meditation utilizing that formula. He wrote a book entitled Tangozen, established workshops and instructors in 28 countries and is about to release a documentary that he, himself, wrote, produced and directed.

Perhaps the beauty, the academia, the fun is all in the eye of the beholder.

Perhaps a life, maybe....

ride hard, ride free xfiltrate

xfiltrate 24 Jan 2012 00:51

Questions?
 
What if anything can those of us who ride motorcycles, at home or internationally, do individually or as a group?

To assist in the survival of others in meaningful ways?

To become known as responsible and caring human beings by our good deeds?

xfiltrate

xfiltrate 28 Feb 2012 14:23

Let's be more positive?
 
What I had hoped would evolve from my "Call for Intellectuals" would be an "on the road think tank" of sorts. Many of us have the advantage of knowing first hand several different countries and indeed some of us have experienced several different cultures and many, many, people

Perhaps it would be good to dump positive observations on this thread at the HU bar. Main stream news and alternative news is preoccupied, and so have I been, with threats to our survival. And even some of the posts on the HUBB have also been negative.

I want to change my point of view and although over the course of the existence of Homo Sapiens - our brain's primary function has been to detect threat, i want to also know of the good , the survival oriented observations.

Not just what can be done to make things better, but observations of the actions of others or your own actions that have made things better.

Better here means - assist in the survival of someone, some group, plants and animals, or the planet itself.

My premise is that focusing more on the positive and less on the negative is beneficial to humanity in general.

It has been very difficult for me to find the good in some events and in some people, anyone who has discovered why or how to do this is welcome to post here.

xfiltrate

maja 29 Feb 2012 21:56

Argentinian beer might not be the best in the world but their wine is excellent. However, what I would really like to try is a pint (medio litro) of whatever Xfiltrate has started drinking. Ride safe.

xfiltrate 1 Mar 2012 16:57

2012
 
Maja, thanks for your observation. Recently I have been drinking beer bottled in Galicia, Spain "Estrella Galicia". I do miss my Argentine Malbec.. that grape imported from France and grown in the sierras of Argentina with the combination of sun and cold nights producing a sweeter variety than normally found in France.

Previous to relocating temporarily to northern Spain I have not imbibed beer at all, but I gave up my Malbbec and my Rioja (Spainish wine) because under my, on the beach, apartment are 3 cafes, the regulars who live in the pueblo, and, on the weekends, the Spaniards who ride all the way from A Coruña, a distance of 9 K on their BMW 1200s with full rally or full touring gear - all drink "Estrella Galicia" and are suspect of anyone who does not.

I really don't feel like justifying my choice of beverage to really tough looking fisherman and those who, wear full professional rally suits, and ride BMW 1200s for 20 k round trips. Something not quite right there. Oh, there I go again being negative. Help. Everyone looks good, the fisherman in a lobo of the mar SeaWolf kind or way and the Spanish BMW bikers are very colorful.

Anyway, if I had to explain the influences that have caused my dramatic turn around, it would be that I am living the Mayan prediction for 2012, which, as far as I can determine, states that mankind will experience a shift from being obsessed with threat to being obsessed the opposite.

Whatever that means.

xfiltrate

xfiltrate 18 Mar 2012 19:18

Followup Kony 2012, the Sahara and Overland Expo
 
Well before public opinion and self destruction imploded Kony 2012 (see thread at HU Bar) I expressed my reservations about the then viral video shown on YouTube that attracted millions of views.

This is the place to discuss "Wa Happined Man" *Limón English colloquial for
"what's going on" in standard English colloquial.

BTW, Limón English is linguistically established as a trade language - still spoken along the Caribbean coast of Central America. I am fluent in Limón English - "The wata walk up, but the yucca no mash" means - the water is boiling, but the yucca is not yet cooked. And, "me guona go up college" means.... well , those who know - know...

Anyone who would like to discuss Kony 2012 or any other topic that is interesting, in Standard English, Spanish or Limón English, is more than welcome to post here.

Much to my imagined chagrin of the Sahara Hubbers, I did remote view Kony 2012 and just as I remote viewed the now long ago kidnapping of the Spaniards via a 3rd party and was proved correct.... after having been banned from the Sahara Travel Forum - Hubb region..... for posting results of a remote viewing session .... I also saw the demise of Kony 2012 in a remote viewing session.

Let me say here that HUBB's author and famous overlander Chris Scott and our favorite Tiffany Coates will both be in attendance at the Overland Expo near my ranch in Flagstaff, Arizona. May 18-20, 2012 Overland Expo - Home

Not sure if Elisa and I will attend yet....

Life is good.

xfiltrate

twowheels03 18 Mar 2012 19:58

I nominate Graham Hancock take my place on this thread, I'll be riding my bike.

Viva Flagstaff and it's many interesting people.

Paul

McCrankpin 18 Mar 2012 22:48

Quote:

Originally Posted by xfiltrate (Post 371844)
Anyone who would like to discuss Kony 2012 or any other topic that is interesting, in Standard English, Spanish or Limón English, is more than welcome to post here.

xfiltrate


Right, thanks, I wondered whether to comment on this youtube on other forums. But here goes. Whether it's interesting is another matter....

The InvisibleChildren website states that a third of money goes to "Making the world aware....", a third to "large-scale advocacy...." and a third to "operate programmes on the ground in LRA-affected areas...."
So, in my opinion, it's a lobbying operation.

I think it's lobbying western governments to get involved in a part of the world where China and the US, among others, are mining, as fast as possible, the rare minerals required to make your modern mobile phones.
These minerals are found almost exclusively in central Africa.
The competition for mining rights, and the protection of them by western-owned mercenary 'security companies', is the main cause of continuing unrest in most central African countries. Oil accounts for most of the remainder (of that unrest).
So I'd conclude that the objectives of "Making the world aware..." and "large-scale advocacy....", are to persuade western populations that sometime soon, it'd be right and proper for their governments to commence military action in central Africa.

Whether that's to find Kony, or to grab the continent's minerals faster than the Chinese can, I wouldn't like to guess.
But these figures may help.
They're from a website linked to the Kony 2012 video. (LRA Crisis Tracker | Invisible Children + Resolve)

Civilian deaths last month - 3
Civilian deaths last year - 149
That's attributable to the LRA throughout the areas in which they operate.

In London, the figures look like this:
Murders in one month, average - 14
Murders in one year, average - 170
So I'd say that London criminals, as a group, are far more dangerous than the remnants of Kony's LRA. None of this comparison is to trivialise the actions of any murderous groups anywhere.

But the whole programme, I think, amounts to demonisation.
And demonisation, in persuading western populations that military invasions of foreign countries were necessary, has been well used for Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya. And maybe Vietnam as well as cited by Xfiltrate.
It's being used now for Syria and Iran.

There's a HUBB Kony 2012 thread here:
http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...y-2012-a-63120
And a bit of a rant about consumption of rare minerals here:
http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...e-planet-61893

While at it, I noticed strange things in Uganda and Mozambique back in 2010, when I'd be travelling through endless little villages out in the countryside, and suddenly enter upon mile upon mile of road through securely fenced-off land. Land so huge that it's clearly farmed and tended entirely by machinery. Not a single local villager or worker to be seen anywhere.
What I subsequently read about "carbon offsetting", and where the fiver goes that you pay to make your journey "carbon neutral", all made sense when I found this Oxfam report:
The New Forests Company and its Uganda plantations: Oxfam Case Study | Oxfam International
A good chunk of it goes towards throwing Ugandans off their land so that western companies (one British) can plant trees.

The colonisation of Africa continues apace, but hidden from view.
Always Follow the money.

twowheels03 18 Mar 2012 23:44

Quote:

Originally Posted by McCrankpin (Post 371873)
Right, thanks, I wondered whether to comment on this youtube on other forums. But here goes. Whether it's interesting is another matter....

The InvisibleChildren website states that a third of money goes to "Making the world aware....", a third to "large-scale advocacy...." and a third to "operate programmes on the ground in LRA-affected areas...."
So, in my opinion, it's a lobbying operation.

I think it's lobbying western governments to get involved in a part of the world where China and the US, among others, are mining, as fast as possible, the rare minerals required to make your modern mobile phones.
These minerals are found almost exclusively in central Africa.
The competition for mining rights, and the protection of them by western-owned mercenary 'security companies', is the main cause of continuing unrest in most central African countries. Oil accounts for most of the remainder (of that unrest).
So I'd conclude that the objectives of "Making the world aware..." and "large-scale advocacy....", are to persuade western populations that sometime soon, it'd be right and proper for their governments to commence military action in central Africa.

Whether that's to find Kony, or to grab the continent's minerals faster than the Chinese can, I wouldn't like to guess.
But these figures may help.
They're from a website linked to the Kony 2012 video. (LRA Crisis Tracker | Invisible Children + Resolve)

Civilian deaths last month - 3
Civilian deaths last year - 149
That's attributable to the LRA throughout the areas in which they operate.

In London, the figures look like this:
Murders in one month, average - 14
Murders in one year, average - 170
So I'd say that London criminals, as a group, are far more dangerous than the remnants of Kony's LRA. None of this comparison is to trivialise the actions of any murderous groups anywhere.

But the whole programme, I think, amounts to demonisation.
And demonisation, in persuading western populations that military invasions of foreign countries were necessary, has been well used for Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya. And maybe Vietnam as well as cited by Xfiltrate.
It's being used now for Syria and Iran.

There's a HUBB Kony 2012 thread here:
http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...y-2012-a-63120
And a bit of a rant about consumption of rare minerals here:
http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...e-planet-61893

While at it, I noticed strange things in Uganda and Mozambique back in 2010, when I'd be travelling through endless little villages out in the countryside, and suddenly enter upon mile upon mile of road through securely fenced-off land. Land so huge that it's clearly farmed and tended entirely by machinery. Not a single local villager or worker to be seen anywhere.
What I subsequently read about "carbon offsetting", and where the fiver goes that you pay to make your journey "carbon neutral", all made sense when I found this Oxfam report:
The New Forests Company and its Uganda plantations: Oxfam Case Study | Oxfam International
A good chunk of it goes towards throwing Ugandans off their land so that western companies (one British) can plant trees.

The colonisation of Africa continues apace, but hidden from view.
Always Follow the money.


Agree with most of what you say.We have been travelling in the US of A for the past 8 months. As far as I can see - It's the murder and Consumption of materials capital of the world. And they all moan about a possible $4 gallon. Who ever has the cheap oil has to be Demonised by America.

NZ in two days, hip hip !!!!!!!!

Paul

xfiltrate 24 Mar 2012 23:06

You are in the right place
 
Those who have traveled , actually been there, have shared some of what they know here. I am so very pleased and honored to hear your points of view regarding Africa, the United States and any other country or situation. Perhaps our opinions/suggestions might help find the solutions to problems.

On other threads problems are presented and solved. This "call for intellectuals" thread could become a "think tank" approach for problems not finding solutions elsewhere. I hope so.

Please post any problem I/we will offer solutions.

xfiltrate


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