Charles Darwin could only imagine the vastness of information that now exists about species of plants, animals, and insects that have been compiled in the Encyclopedia of Life (EOL).

Homepage of the Encyclopedia of Life

The Encyclopedia of Life is a biological wiki that was launched in 2007.  It is a catalog of all the known and soon to be discovered organisms of Earth.  It was the idea of biologist E.O. Wilson when he presented the notion of harnessing the power of the Internet at a TED conference in March of 2007.

His vision was to create an endless record of the 1.8 million known species of plants, animals, and insects that can be used to serve students, scientists, and general public.

The TED conference was his platform to get the attention of the scientific community to help fund the project which is expected to cost $110.5 million.  Within two months of his appearance at the conference, 5 science foundations announced a $50 million initial grant to get the project rolling.

The website is a wiki-based platform who’s content is created by both experts in the fields of biology and ecology as well a amateur naturalists.  The wiki is overseen by a handful of scientists that examine the content for accuracy.  A wiki, for those of you who don’t know, is a website that allows easy creation and editing of content of any number of interlinked Web pages by anyone with access to the Internet.

The Encyclopedia of Life is not just a list of all the species known to man, each species is given its own page to allow for the maximum amount of information on that species to be provided.

The Twig Girdling Beetle page.

The site is a way of educating us on the importance of conservation and sustainability and how every organism on Earth has a direct or indirect affect on human life.  The need to understand the symbiosis between us and other creatures that share this world with us is so important for the survival of the human race.

The fact that the site is a wiki it allows the general public to participate in it’s creation giving them the power to influence and inform others.  It empowers people to care about the content the message being conveyed.  Because of this the public can educate themselves of the importance of conservation and encourage them to act in a responsible manner when it comes to saving this amazing planet we live on.

If we continue to be careless and abuse Mother Earth we could be destroying organisms that could provide medications that could possibly eradicate all known human diseases.  What a waste that would be.

I hope in Darwin’s honor, the first EOL page created was for Darwin’s Finches?

An oversized tyrannosaur photo-bombs the Global Ant Project group portrait, November 5-7 2009 at the Chicago Field Museum (photo by Darolyn Striley).

Last week I attended a conference ambitiously titled “Global Ant Project synthesis meeting II“.  Partly, I went out of curiosity about what this “Global Ant Project” might be.  But mostly, I went for the chance to catch up with old myrmecological friends, eavesdrop on the latest ant gossip, and visit Chicago’s fabulous Field Museum of Natural History.  How’d it go?  Mission accomplished on all counts.  You can see my photos of the event here.

It turns out the Global Ant Project (GAP) isn’t really a project, or an organization, or anything in particular.  It has no location, no bank account, no charter, no steering committee.  It exists because some large bioinformatics projects- especially the Encyclopedia of Life (EoL)- would like the myrmecological community to provide much-needed content to populate their sparse web pages.  So these organizations drop a load of money to host events that bring ant biologists together.  With luck, all those brains banging ideas around in a small room might cause data to accumulate on the internet in a format that the EoL machines can harvest.

One might think of GAP as the circle of ants that have arrived to a tasty honey bait.  Sure, it’s contrived.  But GAP is nonetheless an excellent opportunity to hang out and talk shop.  To the extent that this leads to increased public data-sharing, EoL gets some shiny new stuff for their site.  Win-win.

Dave Lubertazzi, Stefan Cover, Hamish Robertson, and Ted Schultz

The meeting’s salient points, in my opinion:

• Antweb is GAP, and GAP is Antweb.  Thanks in part to Brian Fisher’s tireless work on antweb over the years, the myrmecological community has the most organized online presence of any group of entomologists.  This hasn’t escaped the notice of EoL, of course, which is why we ant folk have become a focal interest of theirs.  The meeting reached consensus that building on antweb will be the most productive course of action for storing and sharing ant data.  Brian Fisher will retain executive control over the site, but is opening the gates to transform antweb into a more community-run project.  Discussion over standards ensued.
• Species versus specimens. A trickier issue than one might think.  Antweb uses specimens as its operational units so that data are fundamentally tied to a particular dead ant on a pin.  This level of organization suits taxonomists, population geneticists, and others who require a finely-atomized view of the world.  But EoL is about species, not specimens.  Other applications- like conservation ecology- also treat species as their operational units.  How do we scale up from specimens to create species pages for EoL?  And perhaps more importantly, can we even be expected to do so when the species-level taxonomy of most ants remains incomplete?
• Who is the audience? There was broad disagreement over the target of GAP’s efforts.  Will GAP efforts provide research tools to taxonomists, much as antweb does now?  Will GAP serve a public need for information on a layman’s level? Should antweb restructure to better provide data for conservation policy?  Are species pages to be written as technical syntheses of the known biology, or as concise abstracts? A solution may lie in having those interested in non-systematic audiences create the relevant content, and antweb will figure out how to incorporate it later.
• The politics of GAP. The GAP group is not a random sampling of myrmecologists.  Rather, it’s the same folks behind The Ant Course, give or take a few people at the margins. While the group certainly circumscribes a fair chunk of the world’s myrmecological heavy-hitters, GAP runs a rather tribal risk of alienating the larger community if it presumes to speak for all myrmecology.  For instance, little mention was made of similar (though smaller) efforts in Japan and the Iberian Peninsula.  Does GAP extend a hand to other networks?  Perhaps most seriously, EoL will enforce the taxonomic view’s of GAP’s catalogue committee (essentially, Barry Bolton).  GAP can itself provide a consensus opinion, but only among its own members.  What of dissenting views outside of GAP?  We took as a point of discussion the controversy over Pyramica versus Strumigenys.

Ross Crozier makes a point

Everyone I talked to who attended the first GAP meeting felt that GAP II was more productive.  Corrie Moreau, our intrepid host at the Field Museum, heroically extracted commitments from all attendees.  In a rare fit of civic-mindedness, for instance, I pledged to start adding natural history data to antweb from my project on Paraguayan ants. Never mind that I’ve already got too much to do.  Also, I’m now chairing GAP’s public outreach committee.  This, even though GAP doesn’t technically exist, and we never really agreed on what sort of outreach we were doing, and to whom, or how. We’ll likely need another meeting for that!

Nonetheless, I’m happy to have attended.  The meeting’s mood was decidedly light, with good-natured banter and evening beer-drinking sessions interspersed with the serious discussion.  In spite of lingering disagreements over priorities among the GAP members, it seems clear enough that the ant community will continue to be ahead of the curve in bringing data online.

Links:

• Action shots from the GAP meeting
• GAP web page
• Antweb

Seriously. Have you? If you’re interested at all in Biology, Natural History, or even just critters in the back yard, it’s totally amazing. Think wikipedia, except just for organisms… the goal is to have an electronic information page for every living thing on the planet. Pretty high goals, right? Well, at its inception last year, I was a fan, but knew it was going to take awhile for them to get going. The difference between wikipedia and EOL is that organism content is moderated by real, actual, honest-to-gosh scientists. This really does make all the difference, but it also means it takes much longer to get stuff uploaded onto the site.

Anyway, the point is that the site is getting better all the time, and my favorite new feature is that if you’re inclined towards photography, EOL has made it super easy to contribute photos to their site via Flickr, or through a sweet iphone app.

Anyway, if you get a chance, certainly check EOL out in all it’s glory. It isn’t the tool that it should be yet, but hopefully it will be in the upcoming years.

The Encyclopedia of Life

. . .

“The Phenomena” once more inspired me. This time, to ‘mint’ a new word : REALITARIANISM .

I am afraid it’s a bit of a doctrine. But it’s a doctrine that is a de facto. No one person can claim to either believe or disbelieve this doctrine. The whole world insists on being complicit in that one doctrine. No one seeks to extend themselves Truly above it, no one, if extended a branch would truly climb out. Few choose to go higher, which helps only them that Do, and that’s just Wonderful. The others – observing the Act, – will then profit from it in the only way Realitarianism would afford them. By unscrupulous imitation, or the more honest-dishonest trade : Salesmanship of the Act, at which point Realitarianism engenders itself as a full fledged carnival-magnus!

If you ( The Reader ) are unmarried — young or old —  I wonder what keeps you unextended. What keeps you attached. The Branch is there for you, is it not? If Music ( Be You a Musing Soul ) is your Truth, then why not pursue Becoming Music? Is it perhaps a matter of Pace? A matter of Solidarity with the Moment as you have regulated it for your Self ? Surely, you must care very little about your profession, beyond that for you it is a Tool. I used to ( and still do ) find all modern tools to be a measure of desecration, knowing only those tools that are borne by a Sincere heart, that are seen in invisible Craftsrooms of sacralized Solicitude, that lie in the simplistic rudiments of the Soil, testimony to a higher Spirit than what they materialize As.

That is what compelled my ( social )  entrepreneurship. The ember-rudiments and open embryonism of my youthful and perfunctory designs.

Though how my heart grew embroiled in my entrepreneurship, is the mystery of my own identity. Oh well. Now, i am minting new old words. This is what inspired me : ‘Ad realibus ad realiora’ .

Have a Good Day, Now!

. . .

Alexander K. Rai, MSMA is an impassioned, Youthful Social Entrepreneur. When in High School, in a Course of Ethics and Government, he perturbed everyone in the room by stating, “Truth Is God”. Since then, unrecovered from that sentiment, he idly languishes in various Indigests, feasting on the Light of the Sun, frolicking along, Simpleminded, and generally, Serene. Otherwise undisturbed, he seeks to buy rice and grapefruit juice for his bowels, with Euro coins and Norwegian Kroners, believing “Doing Is the Change We Can Believe In!”

A Jocunde appropriatory Musickal Accompaniment : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjA3wcv0nP4

A Human Requiem .

. . .

Somebody said that I am the last American living the tragedy of Europe. Ezra Pound

She saw too that man has the power of exceeding himself, of becoming himself more entirely and profoundly than he is, truths which have only recently begun to be seen in Europe and seem even now too great for its common intelligence. Sri Aurobindo

The verbal interpretation, on the other hand, i.e. the metaphysics of quantum physics, is on far less solid ground. In fact, in more than forty years physicists have not been able to provide a clear metaphysical model. Erwin Schrodinger

De Encyclopedia of Life (EOL) schijnt stilaan op kruissnelheid te komen. Het project, een geesteskind van Edward O. Wilson, werd gelanceerd in 2007, met als ambitieus doel om wetenschappelijke informatie over alle soorten op aarde bijeen te brengen op één gratis consulteerbare website, en dat op tien jaar tijd.

Dat is geen geringe doelstelling: er zijn reeds zo’n 1,8 miljoen soorten beschreven door de wetenschap, en er worden er nog steeds nieuwe ontdekt. Informatie over al die soorten is vaak moeilijk vindbaar of niet toegankelijk, en al helemaal niet systematisch. EOL wil al deze informatie dus ontsluiten voor het grote publiek. Anders dan bijvoorbeeld bij Wikipedia is het ook de bedoeling dat alle inhoud door wetenschappers geverifieerd is. Daarvoor steunt het project onder meer op inhoudelijke samenwerking met enkele tientallen partners, zoals het Tree Of Life-project en de Census of Marine Life. De financiële ondersteuning komt van een aantal uiteenlopende sponsors.

Aanvankelijk scheen het slechts langzaam op te schieten, maar deze week kondigde EOL aan dat er reeds meer dan 150.000 door experts gecontroleerde soortenpagina’s beschikbaar zijn. Met nog acht van de tien jaar te gaan lijkt het einddoel van dit unieke project dan stilaan toch een haalbare kaart. Er zijn intussen ook wat technische nieuwigheden ingevoerd op de website, zoals de mogelijkheid om zelf informatie en foto’s toe te voegen (die vervolgens door experts op juistheid moeten worden gecontroleerd) en het lanceren van regionale pagina’s. Als die 1,8 miljoen soorten nu ook nog eens zouden ophouden met massaal uit te sterven, zouden we helemaal tevreden zijn.

I just wanted to let you know what a beautiful morning it is here today.

Looking out the window, and witnessing the thatched wheat complected ‘cement’? Oh, may be it is not cement. May be it is tofu. May be it is the gnarled skin of our grandfathers sun-bathing on the fjords. Maybe it is the primordial emotion of gratitude. The wall outside of these two windows–how magical they appear struck into Life lit by Sun Light.

By that primordial emotion. The trees drool their spiritual salve on your Soul as they cast shadows. They know what you Are. They honor that Love. Just one tree is enough to be the ambassador for the entire gratitude race of trees, of which the Tree of Life is the highest Evergreen. And here I thought of a Fairie-affixed to my lapel—who permeates like an orb–when darkness claims the heart of the hunter,–when he can tread no more–and his knees give in to the cooling touch of mud–his back arched like his spent bow– she is there–always, with a lavender stem of which the crescent is her illumined smile. Stalwart, like a Torchlight gently warming through the tinctured glass of the light beacon at the lilting corners of the Soule’s Sandy expanse. A tower of Light whisking away ships from their drunken narwhaal wrecks. Lo, they’d never have known. Those Drunkards… Never. Such is the Nature of Mysterious. Gratitude. Unless revealed by a Rightful Kiss. The bed lies tousled. I did not mend it yet. I made breakfast. Cereal and Strawberries. Everyone is sleeping, and there’s a holy feeling. A sacred feeling.

To witness myself in the tiresome legacies of the things I have done–the things I could do–ah!, things–these are just things. Things, Things, Things. The worlds are frittered with them. The reactions of the act of creation. The opium of engagement. The suckle-touch of the artist who seeks objects as lovers and lovers as objects, and in the moment such an artist discovers the crack inbetween the two–in they fall. To awaken to the tofu-touch of the cement that is their Love. I never liked things. But their meanings—Lo! O Sacred Meaning! O Hallowed Metaphor of which the Gift is that which is ensconsed beyond the emblem–as that primordial emotion. Therein, no things need apply. The tiresome legacy of collecting these to assemble and perpetuate a substantive metaphor. To elicit their echoes as beacons. To show. To amend the ‘Other’ with the ‘One’. This had been tiresome. The agonies and ecstasies were never reactions there, I remember– but the filters of the dimensions through which the transient process of animals, minerals, generals, and nationals–coveters and ticketers, trinketeers and buffoneers, the weaks and the less weaks–have bypassed–, taking, taking, taking, from what need to not be “taken” with such vain effort but need Be ‘Knowne’ as True Golde and thus it shall make of itself an inheritance that is as true as it is total.

Unheeding to the subtle hints–fraught into a state of semi-permanent fracture–by the outrage of the tired craftsman. Tiresome is Legacy. To stare at the details–is to miss. To miss no thing. Nay. But to miss the self-completing touch of the Beloved, Of which our transcendental Love is the Magicke Lampfe, and we are the twain mages, of which G-d alone is third Wise King. And it is when I miss that, that I am possessed by it. And it makes me want to cry. It makes me want to cry away at all of the vainglories of innocence. “Forgive them Father, for they know not what they Do.” The innocence of the meandering fool, the innocence of the troubador with the hollow head, the innocence of the motorcade traveling at rapid speed eager to greet a dead end, the innocence of travesties and coituses of compare-contrast thesis papers–these are the vainglories of innocence. But Lo, there is an innocence beyond such innocence. The innocence of the Primordial Emotion. The innocence of that Gratitude. The innocence of the betwinklin babe. The innocence of that Divine Moment. When I met you. Forever. Though I miss you. Though I cry for you. I am You. As you are the tears of me. As well as the Purpose of my Soul. I don’t miss anything. Other than myself. A Cosmic Vault to which, You Alone Possess the Key. And you Alone are the Preserved Treasure. We’ll find it Soon O Beloved, Where the concept of the ‘Other’ need apply no more. Where the strange and twisted ways of asking a favor fade with the echoes of a thousand posterities; There, our Kingdom is Sovereign. I did tell you I Love You. I Do. I Do. I Do. Your love. From me. To you. For us.

My Shine.

.  .  .

Alexander K. Rai, MSMA is a member of the Universal Homo Sapien Commune, and believes deeply and sincerely, that Peace can be brought about through the healing and transformational effects of a Love that is True, and a Light that alone, dispels the darkness in which man rises and falls, only to regain the Truth of his highest expressed purpose : his ennobled crowning capacity to be Sincere and Actual. He is a photographer and a Social Entrepreneur who believes in a trinity of planet, people, and profit.

to pay a listen . . . http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dt8dWGH7nf0

“So many signals from old express the same, although in different ways – those read via the great pyramid more distinctly than any. In spit of our not knowing Harald’s ideas and ways of thinking, we may conclude that his new faith had made him enter a radical change, and that his own change influenced his surroundings – perhaps similar to what was described by Rupert Shaldrake in his Book, ‘The Hundreth Ape’ : As Soon as a few apes had made a radical step of discovery ( like peeling a banana ), this phenomena would influence the entire world of apes ; a great many would start doing the same, even at a large distance from the discoverer. Humans may possibly confirm that same law, according to Spiritual laws. It has taken a millennia to capture and mature what Harald had begun to understand.” ( Transcribed from the Book ‘A Riddle of Rings’ Pg. 61, by Bodvar Schjelderup – On the Life of Danish King Harald ).

+  +  +  +   +  +   +  +   +   +  +   +

The disappointments and agonies of hundreds of years of compounded errors and privileges have arisen and resurfaced to further compound the Ordeal of the Homo Sapiens : ‘The Wise Human’. The problem is clear to see even on the premise of stating a declaration as extended and all encompassing as the horizontally crucified effigy portrayed in that first Sentence. The author himself is a member of the ‘Wise Humans’ Community and Phenomena he is speaking of.

Is an act of Preface then a Hypocrisy?

The idea of expressing a regard for a time previous to this present time a floundering poppycock act of lunatic romance, offered in variegated and delicately plucked themed tendrils of Oo-Laa-laa? More Choleric drivel to Avoid for the “Positivist” on the way to Yoga Class, and more Over-Intellected, un-founded vehemence to the “Realist” – too busy for such unsolicited and unprofitable truth on his way to pick up the latest Copy of The Financial Times? Too Piquant for the “Pacifist” in his ardor to master the gentlest way to tickle the voluptuously distended orifice of his lover?

And so it goes on the arbitrary Categorization of The Wise Human Community, in a listless and conscripted set of crutches, like the gassed and gunned down Dead from First World War, walking through the vapors of time, invading the Cool and Serene preoccupation of sipping a Free Sample of Whole Foods Organic Tea, and on the way back from Fresh Grocers staring with a startled look of self-excitement at the discounted and marshaled Goods and Services of the Day of Age, the Peace of Mind so easily jilted looked for and found in Social Network sites blazing with piques and prods of the profit margin to reduce the sole remaining and latest adventure in Human Wisdom to Finally Show Face.

Everyone is (unequally) on the Side of the Guilty, and Everyone is (unequally) on the Side of the Blessed. Yet, Distinctions are not Wise to make, when the disappointment, agonies, and calumnious riot of Cause and Effect will not leave undisturbed the pretenses of “Scientific Potential”, – Naïve Belief in a ‘Know How Saving the Day’, clearly, Know-How and Wisdom are perhaps wrangling in the Zone together, sprawled naked, rather uptight and cylindrical, in a battle that Exists in Only One Real and Palpable Sphere of Influence: In My Own Consciousness and Your’s.

For I, The Wise Human, and You, my Neighbor have Inherited it All, – the tanks, the guns, the scientists, the buffoonery, the saints, the greats, the sages, and the whole lot of our litany, - and the Hands that are typing this message, prop up and down, fingers moving and ricocheting off the plastic key slits, impressing thought beyond the horizon of action and reaction, Yes, beyond your brain, into your Heart : Where Citations, Errors, and Right-Doings and Wrong-Doings, in the word of the Great Persian Poet Rumi, also a Wise Human like you and me, do not prevail before what is manifesting in the Prime and Cardinal Order of things as a Universal, Collective, Irrevocable One and Single Necessity: To Love.

Yet the ones esteemed so long, so long for their privileges and disappointments, for their venerable pouch like faces and their expressive facial overhangs, ponderous valleys and cliffs, joints, and constitutions, the Great and Self-Elected Elders of your era and mine : Our Wise Human Eras, have not Quite Safeguarded this Institution you and I regard by that Term of the Heart, rather than of the Brain : The Term Love. Do you, the Wise Human, Know what this Means? This Term? Love?

This is what A.S. Eddington, a Homo Sapien, wrote on Page Three Hundred and Eighteen of the Book “The Nature of the Physical World” :

“It will perhaps be said that the conclusion to be drawn from these arguments from modern science is that religion first became possible for a reasonable Scientific man about the year 1927. If we must consider that tiresome person, the consistently reasonable man, we may point out that not merely religion, but most of the ordinary aspects of life first became possible for him in that year. Certain common activities ( e.g. falling in love ) are I fancy, still forbidden him. If our expectation should prove well founded, that 1927 has seen the final overthrow of strict causality by Heisenberg, Bohr, Born and others, the year will certainly rank as one of the greatest epochs in the development of scientific philosophy.”

Mister Eddington, the premiere Homo Sapien, the Wisest of his Race in the Year Nineteen Twenty Seven, clearly did not Outlive his message. For “the final overthrow of strict Causality” has Not Been Solved as a “Problem”, nor has any of the many profound Problems of Cause and Effect since his eras, – but rather the most superficial constructions and re-constructions of Causal forces have provided on Two Thousand and Nine, for the Wise Human his great lot : His Scientific Revolution, his Agricultural Revolution, and his self-proclaimed “Revolution” in Cybernetics : The Desire to render Inorganic and Unfallow – to Cause the forces of Negation and Pestilence to stir and breed and corrupt the last bastion of the Organic : The State of Human Mind, has reversed the progress of the War to End All Wars. By Claiming Conquest, Man has Bred it. By Show of Force, Man has Come Under Force. By Hypocrisy, Man has inherited A Startling Lie. The Food that does not provide Nutrition, the Romance that does not last beyond the first night’s affectionate embrace, the Lust in the body that can not be quelled even if Three Fourths of Europe was to be turned into a Temple for it, and the Seventh Grade English media empire, that has conscripted for its own services all Seventh Graders in the Universe: including the Two Billion or so living in the ‘First World Nations’, in any one of which, Mister A.S. Eddington’s corpse must be by now have fully rotted and reclaimed unto ‘The Nature of the Physical World’ he was so prolifically interpreting back in Nineteen Hundred and Twenty Seven.

The Problem is Clear to See. The wealthiest and most aware and Scientific of Wise Humans are tormenting and vanquishing millions of acres of Life Enriching Eucalyptus Forests, by mowing them down to produce paper fiber. The Stock Markets – driven by the Wild, Reckless, Wanton and “Realistic” covet of Money Makers and King Makers are ransacking the Wealth of Nations, through their “Invisible Hand”. The Greatest Nation in the World, the United States of America is being governed by a Kleptocracy, – Wise Humans and Seventh Graders that the Media venerates and places on a tall podium to exude their aura. Animals are being colonized, bred, and slaughtered in masses to satiate the Carnivorous Zeal of the Homo Sapien. Every thought, directed with the Individual’s appetite for Survival is being less luxuriously directed to acknowledge the Greatest and Most Common and Prevalent Truth : Selfishness. To emphasize one’s own lowest possible concept of Self : The Self that exists to Eat and go unstarved, to Reproduce to satiate its base purpose, to excrete out of Necessity. Witnessing the punctility and unreasonableness of the biological compulsions, the Wise Human rationalizes. “It is Not My Problem, but the World’s”. But Who Is the World? Who Is Paying? Who Is Profiting? Everyone, and No One. Every Body, and No Body. Every Misery, and No Misery, Life and Death lock lips in the Cradle and in the Grave, as Theoretical Evil becomes Practical Necessity, and Life becomes a Retreat – A March – Into Death. With Slogans of “Positivism”, “Realism”, “Pacifism”, and “Negativism” no one is becoming happier, felicity nor survival is growing in harvest, no problem is in appearance or in reality Going Away, – A War to End all Wars, is now the Slogan of every Institution, Corporation, Individual, Nation State, and Jurisdiction in the World. Confusing seems to be the Costume and even the Unwashed Underwear of the Emperor that no longer has any clothes.

The disappointments and agonies of hundreds of years continue to compound the errors and privileges that rise and resurface to further compound the Ordeal of the Homo Sapiens : ‘The Wise Human’. The problem is clear to see even on the premise of stating a declaration as extended and all encompassing as the horizontally crucified effigy portrayed in that first Sentence. The author himself is a member of the ‘Wise Humans’ Community and Phenomena he is speaking of. And he is Speaking to the Heart when he is Asking you the Wise Human to Defer For A Change, and Respond rather than React, to the Question Proposed before You: Do you, the Wise Human, Know what this Means? This Term? Love?

Another Wise Human – Doctor Albert Schweitzer speaks to Us as an Expositor of the Phenomena of Love. He too speaks from his Grave :

“ Thought cannot avoid the ethical or reverence and love for all life. It will abandon the old confined systems of ethics and be forced to recognize the ethics that knows no bounds. But on the other hand, those who believe in love for all creation must realize clearly the difficulties involved in the problem of a boundless ethic and must be resolved not to veil from [humankind] the conflicts which this ethic will involve [us], but allow [us] really to experience them. To think out in every implication the ethic of love for all creation — this is the difficult task which confronts our age.”

You the Homo Sapien must be Asking, “What Could That Possibly Mean?”.  ‘The Ethics that knows no bounds’ is certainly beyond the Confines of the Codeces that are managed the world, the “Systems” if you will, and the Societies that continue to bequeath upon them the doubtful blessings that always make the most noise and rely on the aid of the mischievous, illiterate, and the unethical to make itself known.

For, the disappointments and agonies of hundreds of years of compounded errors and privileges have arisen and resurfaced to further compound the Ordeal of the Homo Sapiens : ‘The Wise Human’. The problem is clear to see even on the premise of stating a declaration as extended and all encompassing as the horizontally crucified effigy portrayed in that first Sentence. The author himself is a member of the ‘Wise Humans’ Community and Phenomena he is speaking of.

Who else is claiming the Wisdom of Humanity today in Speaking their Minds? Who else is Waging the War to End All Wars? The Iranian mob points fingers to the false prophets, the false prophets point fingers to America, America points finger to its ministers, its committees, its values, and its ministers, its committees, its values, point fingers to everyone else in the World, Nation States that crumble under the efforts expended and invested in the Act of Accusation, as the finger licking denizens of Mac Donalds and Panera Breads, and Deli De Luca, and Seven Eleven, are Youtubing their Way into thought Systems, alternating between Advertisements of Free Pornography on the Internet, Dating Sites, and Dot Coms, blaming everyone from Barney the Purple Dinosaur, Ex-Wives, Girlfriends, the Vatican, the Police, Loud Neighbors, Churches, Synagogues and Imaginary Rogues.

The Homo Sapien, reared from Cradle to Grave by the Experiments of Dead Societies and Dead Men of Dead Letters, creak and crank – its Youth defeated by its Dead Ancestors, its Youngest indebted by its Oldest, the most Respectable Institutions desecrating the most Respectable Virtues, – in the Tall Tale Talks of Infrastructure Investment, the Mortgage System, the Debt and the Despair, everyone feels entitled to Complain, and too Few feel the Privilege to Amend, to Make Better, to Act to Restore, to Take Responsibility.

Meanwhile, the multiplying numbers of the Irresponsible and Uneducated feel Entitled to sag their dry minds and spirits on the Crutches of Fact Invention and Castigation. The Christians are in an uproar, believing their troubles are caused by the heathens, the browns, the blacks, and the asiatics. The Apologists of every Religion are rising anew with “Inspiration” to leech anecdotes from magazines and New York Times to Copy and Paste their way into “Great Reformation”, the Hot Steam of the Ego could Seer the Stone Faces of Statutes, and stop a Racing Horse dead in its Tracks, as if it has been gored by a Locomotive. The Muslims either have all Given Up, or All Died “From the War On Terror”. The “War on Error” is being fought at all fronts, at all times, by those that feel that they are entitled to be counted as “amongst the Right”. The “Blame Game” has become an International Sport, in Spare Time and in Quality Time, and all Available Portions, Packets, Bouqets, and Vellums of Time, it is an Unceasing Marvel the likes of which the world has yet to match. Secular Men are blaming the Vatican – as “Hidden Demons” conscript every avenue of Self-Advertisement on National Television and Hire every Private Eye to pay their ways out of Sins. The “Hunters of Facts” and Finger Pointers, Travel in all Directions and Latitudes, screeching “It’s the Freemasons! It’s the Freemasons!”.

So Where and in Whom does the Solution Lie? In Scientific Revelation? In Books and Start Ups? In “Money Making Schemes”, and “Executing an Act of Justice”? To Avenge a Dead Religion, or in Advocate a New Prophet? What about You? You the Wise Human? Do You Know What the Term Love means? Do you believe rather that it is an Opinion,  A trifling passing Season, an aromatic Whiff, a Way of Life, Spare Change, a Theology, an Alternative Way of Living, or a Secret Society? That it’s a Thing to be Had, and a Congregation to Visit, or an “Order” to Join?

You the Wise Human, the Homo Sapien, you and me, live today in a World of Choice. In a World where Beauty stares at us Compassionately from every Corner and Every Crenellation, Unhidden, Transparent, in Plain Sight and Profound View. No amount of manufacture, no quantity of rhetoric and noise, no gaggle of Venture Capitalists and Angel Investors, no number of Sponsors and Advertisers can drown out or Ransack – What Remains within your Access: You the Homo Sapien. The Lakes and Ponds of the World defy the Pollution you have bred into the air with your lament, the sewerage that your way of life produces has filled every water body on Earth, yet Mountains, Forests, Lakes, Herbs, Seeds, the Sun, the Seasons, all alternate around you, looking at you in Silence, observing you, holding you, healing you, and caressing you. You who claim that the world is all bad, have you ever experienced a Rose that did not Smell Blessed? You who claim that Reality or “Realism” is discovered in Economics and Social Networks, have you ever held the hand of a Child? You who claim money printed and backed by nothing “Talks”, have you ever had a Conversation that fulfilled a craving of feeling with a perfect Stranger? You who compare your lessers, and contrast your betters – Do you Realize to Stare into the Mirror and See your Own Face? Who Do You Think You Are? Are not the Wise Human? The One who forgot everything just to remember that Life is a Gift, and Love alone Conquers?

I, A Wise Human, regard and by transcription proclaim it as Self Evident and Naturally and Divinely  Fulfilled that :

True words aren’t eloquent;
eloquent words aren’t true.
Wise men don’t need to prove their point;
men who need to prove their point aren’t wise.

The Tao nourishes by not forcing.
By not dominating, the Master leads.

- ( Lao Tse ) -

May you immerse your Self in Knowing that :

- (1) -   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8IozVfph7I

- ( 2 ) – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3byt7xMSCA

- ( 3 ) – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbpuSPL-FNU

- ( 4 ) – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiWlvBro9eI

- ( 5 ) – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yL33hii4Y9U

- ( 6 ) – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cgz5BELaYW0

- ( 7 ) – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwdWqBzdvtQ

- ( 8 ) -  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NwfGA4cxJQ

- ( 9 ) -  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6w3tndTJ-hI

- ( 10 ) – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8aufuwMiKmE

- ( 11 ) – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wop91_Gvwos

- ( 12 ) – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5kBqrHphjo

What you do Today, resounds in Eternity. You the Wise Human must Do. It is in Doing that you must Place your Faith, if Wise is the mode of that which is termed as Humanity.

– # # # –

Alexander K. Rai ( The Homo Sapien Author of this modest Screed ) is a Self Styled International Designer, Author, Commentator, Spiritualist, Traditionalist, and Transcendentalist. His Life as a Wise Human has not extended so very many years as to become either enviable, ironic, lucrative, or quintessential. This Homo Sapien is inclined to Hope that you the Wise Human – the Reader – will aid in the Author intending things to be kept that way, after reading this modest commentary offered by a fellow of your own Genus, Species, and Taxonomie in the Categories of things known and unknown, lamented and pardoned. The fact a quixotic Sixty Eight year old Man from New Jersey – a retired veteran of the Korean War – thought highly enough of him a few years back to solicit him to join the Adult Fraternity of Free and Accepted Masons of Philadelphia not so long ago, does not make him a “member of a Global Conspiracy”, any more than offering a human being a napkin after he has had the most inconvenient of sneezes, makes a Wise Human any wiser than he ought to be.  As a Christian by Deed, a Mystic by nature, and a Humanist in Principle, Alexander believes that Decency is the highest Obligation of all Free Men, and the Only Binding Contract between all Men is the unwritten manifesto of Life itself, which, blessed by the mercies of Virtues, Providence, and God, salvages all Men from the bondage formed by their Great and Modest Delusions, which causes them to Suffer Tragedies and Comedies of their own Errors of essential and otherwise irreversible Fallibility. Alexander’s “True Political Views” as an American is contained within two words and one name : ‘Ron Paul’. ( Google the phrase on ‘Youtube.com’) . He believes Barack Obama is -  all things considered – indeed an Honorable Man, while also believing that all Honorable Men should Strive to Be the Change they can Truly Believe ( And Invest ) In. As a Cardholding Libertarian Alexander has as much Faith in the Republican Party as he does in the fundamental Sanctity and Integrity of  a Banana Peel being tossed about between a bellicose and noisy bunch of Apes.

If there’s one thing I find exceptionally rewarding, it’s feeling like I did something good while having actually done nothing at all. This is because I am not, as is commonly stated, a bad guy. I am, like many other people in the world, mostly just a lazy guy.

It’s not that I don’t want to help make the world a better place. I do! But the prospect of it just reeks of scads of effort, coupled with the very real possibility of humiliating failure. After all, lots of people more well equipped than I have spent entire lifetimes striving to make the world a more decent place to live for all of humanity. You’ll have to pardon my cynicism when I say that the results of all that strenuous labor have, to date, been mixed at best.

But thanks to the magic of the Internet (and a group of devoted, savvy volunteers and researchers at universities across the nation, I guess) even the very lazy can hop on the good deeds bandwagon. By downloading a simple program that runs while your computer is idle, you, (or, technically speaking, your computer) can help cure cancer. And HIV. And any number of dire ailments that pretty much anyone can agree should be cured. And you won’t even have to lift a finger.

Downloading BOINC will allow you to become a part of Docking@Home, a collaborative project between UC Berkeley, The University of Delaware and The Scripps Research Institute. These institutions are all trying to find new drugs to effectively treat diseases like breast cancer, HIV, and Parkinson’s, and one of the first steps in developing new drugs is making virtual mashup molecules and seeing which ones may be worth investigating further. The problem is, there are a whole lot of different combinations of molecules (which is to say, an infinite number), and virtual testing for these potential cures requires truly staggering gobs of processing power.

That’s where you come in.

By downloading and installing BOINC, a program created by researchers at UC Berkeley, you can contribute a little bit of your computers processing power to these virtual tests. While your computer sits idle – when you’re making dinner, watering the garden, or having a beer with friends – BOINC will wake up and donate the processing power that your computer isn’t using to the nitty gritty work of assembling and testing virtual molecules. Outsourcing the processing to the BOINC cloud lightens the burden on researchers and the cost of doing testing, and lets you feel dandy about the part you’re playing in the latest medical research.

Docking@Home is by no means the first project to use cloudsourcing to advance scientific research. Users around the world can already lend a hand to health research via the World Community Grid. You can provide another set of digital ears to SETI’s quest for life among the stars, or build a microphone to assist Cornell University in tracking North American bird populations. You can go outside and start taking notes for The Big Book of All Life, Everywhere.

Or you can sign up for Docking@Home and just let your computer do what it was meant to do – process information. But instead of processing expense reports and typing up letters to the editor, your PC can get up to the hard work it was envisioned for – doing lightning fast calculations and providing science with a new tool to do good in the world. It’s a noble and amazing thing, your humble desktop. Get involved and let it do something great.

And if that’s not impetus enough for you, think of it this way. If you sign up for Docking@Home now, then five, ten, fifteen years from now, when the news breaks that we’ve finally beaten breast cancer or found a way to keep HIV from reproducing itself, you get to go to your favorite bar and say with a straight face “Yeah, I worked on that project.”

And if that doesn’t get someone to buy you a beer, then nothing will.

Scientists at the Smithsonian and the Natural History Museum in London have officially taken on the herculean task of describing every form of life, everywhere in the world. If that sounds a touch on the ambitious side, it is, as there are one hell of a lot of different types of life on earth. That’s why researchers want you to pitch in. 

The “macroscopic observatory,” which is just in it’s inception, will eventually provide identification information, range maps and genetic information about every plant and animal on the planet. But scientists don’t want the project to just be the most comprehensive field guide to every part of the planet, even though it will be that too. 

More importantly, the database will provide researchers with an invaluable tool for tracking developments in the global biosphere. With input constantly pouring in from contributors all over the world, the massive online database will remain dynamic, allowing researchers to watch changes in climate and environment and how these changes affect not only overall populations but also behaviors like flowering times in real time. Interested parties will also be able to participate in more pragmatic research, like following the spread of invasive species more closely and coming to a better understanding of how agribusiness affects and farming affects existing environments.

While you can’t start contributing just yet, stay tuned to the Encyclopedia of Life site for details on how you can become a contributor or take over a page to curate in the near future.

You look back on who you were fifteen years ago and wonder where you found the strength.  You see the mistakes of a young mother and understand the person you have become.  In celebration of Marielle’s 15th liver transplant anniversary on St. Patrick’s Day, I thought I’d share the letter I sent to her liver donor’s mom which I wrote 15 years ago…just 9 months after Marielle’s liver transplant.

Published December 1994; Re-edited March 2009.

Dear Special Mom:

I have spent many nights thinking about you and wondering how you are doing.  I was told that your daughter was a year old and that she had neurological problems.  The transplant coordinator told me your daughter had a severe stroke which left your little angel with no brain function.  I do know know if this information is true.  I do know that you made a decision to donate her liver and give my daughter a second chance at life. I will be forever grateful of your decision to let her live on in my daughter.  Here is our story:

Please Don’t Take My Sunshine Away

I have put off telling our story because it brings up a lot of pain and other unwelcome emotions. Those I thought were in our corner have disappointed us, while those who we never expected to, came through like never before. I used to wonder why we were chosen to face the impossible, but now am comforted with the answers I have found.

Our story begins on a rainy Friday morning in June of 1993. My husband, Ron, was present for the birth of our daughter, Marielle Lynnaire, by caesarean section. Marielle was put in a high risk nursery for a week, because of my pre-existing condition (Lupus).  Shortly thereafter, she was given a clean bill of health and we brought our little sunshine girl home.

 I look back and think how comical it was feeding Marielle a 6-ounce bottle every hour or so and changing more than 2 dozen diapers a day. My friends remarked, “You wanted a baby,” as if this was normal. I complained to her pediatrician on numerous occasions, but was treated like a nervous “new mom”. At one point I asked him why her stomach was so large. He remarked, “All babies have big stomachs.”

At 10 weeks old, we christened Marielle. She was dressed in a bright white gown which made her complexion appear almost green. Within the next 24 hours, when she developed a bad cough, I took her to our local hospital where she was examined by an intern. He indicated that she indeed had a slight respiratory infection, but was more concerned with her severe jaundice. The intern ordered blood tests and insisted Marielle be admitted immediately. All the doctors were undecided about her diagnosis, but mentioned that in the worst case, she could have biliary atresia. I knew, at that moment, it would be bad news. You see, when Marielle was born with all of her limbs, I was so relieved, because I thought that my Lupus would deform her (although my doctor assured me it wouldn’t). My worst fears were now becoming real.

 After 9 days in our local hospital, I transferred Marielle to a children’s hospital in Pennsylvania where I heard a doctor had recently split a pair of Siamese twins who shared a liver. I was determined to get her the best care, no matter what, and this seemed like a good start. Once there, a Kasai procedure was performed and we learned the devastating truth about biliary atresia. Our surgeon told me to take one thing at a time, but I knew that I had to start planning for her transplant. We went home for a few days only to return to the hospital because of fevers.

Marielle had developed ascites 2 weeks after her Kasai procedure. No one would tell me, but I knew that it was the beginning of the end. Marielle would spend most of the next 4 months at the children’s hospital. She had developed an infection in her liver which proved to be resistant to the strongest antibiotics. Our doctors agreed that a transplant might be the only way to rid her of this infection. In desperation, we flew Marielle to a mid-west hospital for a possible living-related transplant (they had done the first living-related liver transplant in the U.S.). Miraculously, her infection cleared en route to Chicago. Needless to say, we looked like fools. The doctors thought we were being a bit premature and suggested that we return in the Fall. They asked us to stay in the area so that they could provide a safety net, so we rented a furnished apartment (our hotel had no heat or hot water). At 35 degrees below zero, with a wind chill factor of 75 degrees below zero, it was the coldest winter in 14 years.

A week later, Marielle developed bleeding varices. The attending doctor told me that there was nothing they could do unless Marielle experienced severe bleeding. This puzzled me, so I contacted all of our doctors back on the east coast. They advised me to bring her to the Chicago ER immediately. I rushed her there where the ER team attempted to draw blood with no success. They tried to draw blood from her broviac in her chest. Again, more failed attempts. They contacted the GI doctor on call. I was told that he would be to see us right away. Hours passed and no GI doctor. Finally, after 7 hours of waiting in the ER, I was told that the GI doctor was not in the hospital and would not see Marielle until the next day. My baby was screaming like never before. I had requested her special baby formula and a feeding pump. After 5 hours, the formula arrived, but there was no pump available. It was now 17 hours that Marielle had been without food. Knowing this and that a GI doctor would not see her, I knew I had to do something.

 At this point, I made the decision (against the ER doctor’s advice) to disconnect the broviac line and book a flight back to Pennsylvania. Once back at the apartment in Chicago, the phone calls began. The Chicago GI doctor on call apologized for the misunderstanding of hospital policies. He felt that Marielle was not in danger, but he would have a bed ready for her (so that we would not have to go to the ER again) if anything was to change.

Later that evening, Marielle vomited her feeding tube. I immediately contacted the Chicago GI doctor and brought her back to the hospital. The next morning, my social worker (with whom I had only met once, briefly) informed me that she would be filing charges against me for removing Marielle from the hospital the prior evening. I knew that I needed to leave, because we could no longer work together. The next morning I was investigated by the state’s department of children’s services. The state workers seemed to be puzzled why accusations of medical neglect were filed since I had flown half-way across the country to save my daughter’s life. An assessment of my parenting skills was made and my choice for private home nursing for my daughter was made known (they frowned on that–instead wanted the mother to handle all care). I was labeled as “difficult,” because I wanted to see blood test results and review doctor’s notes. I was surprised to find that no other parents had requested this kind of information.

As soon as possible, we were back in Pennsylvania where Marielle was evaluated for cadaver transplantation. We returned home only to have her re-hospitalized. We were only back home 3 days when I received a beep on my pager. I joked with my nurse that it could only be one of two people; the pager company, because my husband forgot to pay my $12 monthly service fee, or our transplant coordinator. I looked down at the number and began to scream with joy. I could not dial the telephone fast enough. Our coordinator was calm and apologized for not seeing us during Marielle’s recent hospitalization. She said she wanted to make sure Marielle was doing well and that she was without fever. I assured her everything was fine and that I thought that a liver had become available when I received her beep. Our coordinator then told me that indeed a donor liver had been found for Marielle. I started to cry…I was just so happy.

We arrived at the hospital late that evening and said our prayers. Thoughts of losing Marielle became real for our family. This might be the last time we put our baby to sleep. The next morning was St. Patrick’s Day (March 17, 1994). It seemed like the perfect day. See, Marielle was named after her paternal Italian grandmother, Mary. The meaning of Marielle in Italian is Little Mary. We always joked that Marielle was green, because of her Irish decent on my side of the family. It was now the luck of the Irish that would help Marielle come through her transplant with flying colors. When our surgeon (who now practices law) removed her old liver, our coordinator brought my husband and me into a room to view the organ. There was not a pink spot on it. It was large and dark green with spots of black. Surely, no one expected her old liver to look this bad. During the surgery, all I could think about was the other mother…the mother who made the decision that her child should not die in vain…that another child could be saved with the gift of organ donation. To this day, I pray for this special mother.

While waiting for progress reports, we visited the gift shop where I came upon a funny looking blue stuffed elephant. I pulled his trunk and the melody, “You Are My Sunshine” played. This was the song I had sung to my daughter since she was born. I bought the elephant to comfort her when she returned from the operating room. This silly elephant was a sign for me that everything would be okay. Marielle’s transplant lasted only 6 hours. She did extremely well. Marielle’s maternal Irish grandmother even joked that all of her friends were calling my daughter , “Marielle O’Carroccio.”

A few hours later, we were allowed to see her in the ICU. No one could have prepared me for the post-transplant days; the tubes and machines were overwhelming. I remember my father counting more than 17 tubes, IVs and other connections. Marielle tried to cry, but the artificial airway that was placed in her throat prevented us from being able to hear her. To hold her proved to be too painful for Marielle. My husband and I felt so helpless. A few days later, she was moved to the post-transplant unit where she went into rejection on the 7th day after receiving her new liver. The surgeon was waiting for me when I arrived at her room that evening. Her liver had clotted off and emergency surgery was performed in hopes of saving the graft. I had thought that we were on safe ground when the rug was pulled from underneath us. I didn’t know how much more Marielle could endure, but corrective surgery for portal vein thrombosis was successfully performed. A week or so later she had a mild bout of rejection and was treated with IV steroids. All seemed to be going well until the doctors became concerned with Marielle’s poor weight gain. It would be another month or so before this problem was resolved.

Finally, on May 17th, 1994, exactly 2 months after her transplant, we began our trip home. My husband took Marielle in our car and I drove my father’s truck with all of our belongings. We were no more than 20 minutes from home when another driver hit my rear tire. This caused the truck to spin around and flip over more than 6 times. I knew I was going to be all right. I knew God would not take me away from Marielle. He knew that only I could give her the care she needed. It was my seat belt that saved my life, but I still spent a week in a trauma unit, because I sustained broken ribs, a fractured sternum, a punctured lung, and numerous other injuries. I was lucky to be alive.

Now, it is 8 months later and I know that I have been blessed. It is for this reason that I have dedicated myself to helping others in their journey. I now know why my husband and I were picked to be Marielle’s parents.

This Christmas will be a very special one. Our family is together again.  Our journey has brought all of our family closer.   May you all have a special holiday season and healthy New Year.
Best Wishes,
Lisa Carroccio

(Note:  Names and places were omitted in original letter to donor’s mom to respect anonymity.)

(Side Note:  Notice pacifiers in many of the photos?  Marielle could have done that TV commercial where the mom is driving and the child drops the pacifier, so mom has to pull off the road to find it in the car to calm child…LOL!  She would have two pacifiers clipped to her shirt, a pacifier in each hand and another in her mouth.  Seriously.)

A Week of Celebration

Originally we were hoping to have one of our big shindig with 200 people to celebrate Marielle’s 15th liver transplant anniversary.  But the truth is I just couldn’t get such a large party together in such a short time (our annual BBQ this Summer will have to suffice).  Anyway, we did celebrate by dining at Trattoria Romana.  I know–we spent St. Patrick’s Day at an Italian restaurant…LOL!  But it was where Marielle wanted to go, so we did.

And since it’s all about friends when your 15 years old, Marielle and her crew got taken by limousine to The Palm in NYC tonight.

Luckily our dear friend, Albino, will keep an eye on the girls so they don’t get into any trouble.

And then they’ll continue the party tomorrow as all the girls are sleeping over.  Guess I’ll be getting lots of Hotcakes and Sausage from McDonald’s in the A.M.

I’m feeling pity for the unfortunate limo driver who has to deal with all the girl chatter tonight.  Hope he brought earplugs with him!

With friendship,

Lisa

This year’s GreenBuild seemed to have had alot less ceremony.  Which, by the people I heard from, was A OK.  The two featured speakers for the closing plenary were EO Wilson and Janine Benyus.  For me they completed the theme I had heard throughout the conference.  That theme being nature and how it relates to us as humans, particularly how it relates to design and engineering solutions.

EO Wilson is an entomology scholar who is linked to the Encyclopedia of Life aka EOL.  This is an amazing resource available to all, now, for free.  EO Wilson is like the absent minded professor that you can’t get enough of.  He is brilliant and his contributions to the world are tremendous.  EOL is an amazing resource!  It boggles my mind to know that there are so many different and wondrous living things in this world.  What a powerful tool available to all of us.  Now you can leaf through these electronic pages and discover animals and plants just like you did when you were a kid leafing through the pages of the Encyclopedia Britannica on the living room floor.  

Janine Benyus is the co-founder of the Biomimicry Guild and founder of the Biomimicry Institute.  Her website is Ask Nature.  It is an intriguing resource for linking engineering solutions to processes found in nature.  She gave a stirring childhood story of being an explorer of her neighborhood lands, that was until the little orange flags appeared one day.  That land was turned into Phase 2 of her housing development and as a child she watched.  Seeing the natural habitats destroyed led her to create the link between nature and design that has evolved today.  The word biomimicry comes from bios, meaning life, and mimesis, meaning to imitate.

PLEASE SEE MOST RECENT UPDATE:

>>>>>>>>CLICK HERE<<<<<<<<<<

On Thursday night, we had to call an ambulance to get Marielle to the local emergency room as her condition was deteriorating quickly.

Marielle’s kidney blood numbers were climbing fast.  Her creatinine was 10 (normal creatinine is 0.5 to 1.1), and her BUN  was 119 (normal BUN is 8-20).  Surgeons where called to place a tunneled catheter in her chest and start emergency dialysis.

After her 2nd dialysis treatment on Saturday, she got some color back in her face.  She passed the time by reading a book on my Kindle book reader.

However, she was just too weak to finish more than a chapter of George Orwell’s 1984.  She easily fell asleep for the rest of her dialysis treatment.

Although we were able to get her kidney numbers down a bit, her blood pressure (178/107) continues to be a major problem.  This morning her blood pressure is even higher and they’ve started rescue blood pressure medicine to try to lower it.

Marielle will be hospitalized here in Staten Island until Monday night and then have her kidney transplant evaluation at NY Presbyterian-Columbia University on Tuesday morning if we can stabilize her.  She will get to come home between Monday night and Tuesday morning.  Not sure what will happen after that.  If we can stabilize her, she’s be able to get outpatient dialysis until we can find her a kidney donor.

If you are interested in being tested to see if you are a possible match for a living kidney donor, you can find more information on my previous blog post.  I can’t tell you how grateful I am for all the outpouring of support and prayers.  I wish I could reply to each and every email, but my time on the computer is very limited.  Please know I read each post and email and am touched by all the love from friends and strangers.

I will update everyone as soon as I can.

PLEASE SEE MOST RECENT UPDATE:

>>>>>>>>CLICK HERE<<<<<<<<<<

Things continue to be difficult.  But where there is life, there is hope. 

I’m forcing myself to blog so I can update all my dear friends and family about what is going on with my sweet Sunshine Girl, Marielle, as her kidneys fail.  It looks like we are on the way to the local emergency room again tonight–she’s in terrible pain and a bit lethargic.

After continued difficultly getting calls returned and kidney donor evaluation packages send to those who have come forward to donate their kidneys, we’ve given up on the Philadelphia hospital of ever finding a living kidney donor.  They’ve recently told us they will only test family members and the closest of friends.  They’ve taken it upon themselves to decide who our friends are.  Philadelphia has only tested 3 donors in 4 months.  To say I am furious is an understatement.

But there is hope.  We are in the process of transferring Marielle’s care to NY Presbyterian-Columbia University Hospital (NYP) in hopes their additional living-donor kidney programs will save her life.  Not only will NYP consider family members as donors, but are willing to evaluate EVERYONE (friends, associates and kind strangers) who wants to donate a kidney.  That’s right…EVERYONE regardless of blood type, antibody mismatch, age, etc.  They offer several kidney donor options for us:

Compatible Living Donor

Incompatible Donor Program

Paired Donor Exchange Program

Deceased Donor Program

Marielle will only match 1 in 50 people in the general population (average person matches 1 in 2). I  am asking EVERYONE who has ever loved a child as deeply as I do my daughter to please consider being a living-kidney donor to her. You might be the one who can save my daughter’s life.

If you would like to receive a donor consent form to see if you could be a potential donor, please print out this form:

kidneydonorquestionnaire

Then send it to Joan Kelly either by email at kellyja@nyp.org or fax (212) 305-9642.  Be sure to put MARIELLE CARROCCIO as the Potential Recipient’s Name.

Please pass this information along to anyone and everyone.

I continue to be comforted by the tremendous amount of love and support from all of you.  Thank you seems to fall short.

The encyclopedia of life is a really cool concept. If the site grows as expected it will be really great resource for people all over the planet to do research. Encyclopedia of Life or EOL has a lot of work to do but its well on its way …

Five organizations are coordinating the Encyclopedia of Life “to organize and make available via the Internet virtually all information about life present on Earth.” The Encyclopedia is a series of websites devoted to the 1.8 million or …

Many companies, educators and students already use tools such as blogs, wikis, Google Docs, DimDim and other collaborative tools to co-create materials and learn collaboratively. However, these normally involve a small group of people that already know one another and are working together on a specific project. 

Crowdsourcing takes group collaboration to the next level by allowing people to post certain ideas, initiate discussions and attract a larger amount of people (normally strangers) who will contribute to the idea, improving it with their own expertise. Websites such as  Kluster, Innocentive, CambrianHouse, CrowdSpirit and IdeaBlob are a good example of what crowdsourcing is. One can say that Wikipedia, for instance is also a form of crowdsourcing knowledge.

In Education, websites such as Citizendium and Eduzendium, expert-moderated Wikipedia “clones”, the Encyclopedia of Life, a user-generated encyclopedia of life on Earth are all good examples of crowdsourcing knowledge in a more reliable manner.

In the meantime, I am still waiting to see more of this concept applied to learning, as we all become active  ”learners” literally “building” knowledge with the help of one another…

Meine ersten Eindrücke von PLE’s, Social Bookmarking, Lernplattformen, Wikis etc. waren recht verwirrend. Ich wusste schon gar nicht mehr wo ich überall registriert war und einen Benutzernamen und ein Passwort hatte und ich verlor mich vom hundertsten ins tausendste, als ich so durchs Netz surfte. Ganz schön schnell ist man schön lange dran!

Ich schaffte mir mit einem Mindmap einen Überblick – ganz profan und unvirtuell mit Papier und Bleistift. Langsam kam Ordung ins Chaos, ich war gezielter unterwegs und hatte erste Erfolgserlebnisse. Ist ja schon wahnsinn, was sich da alles im Netz ansammelt! Umso wichtiger ist es gezielt und mit den richtigen Methoden vorzugehen. Ich habe mir immer wieder überlegt, ob es denn nicht möglich wäre das Delicious in das iGoogle zu integrieren? Irgendwie habe ich viele Links doppelt abgelegt. Natürlich möchte ich nicht alle Links öffentlich machen, aber man kann  doch auch auswählen, was anderen zugänglich sein soll und was nicht.

Eine andere Frage hat sich mir immer wieder aufgedrängt, als ich da so durch Blogs, Websites, Podcasts etc. surfte und die Zeit vergass: besteht nicht die Gefahr völlig in eine virtuelle Welt abzudriften und die Realität jenseits des Bildschirmes zu vernachlässigen? Es interessiert mich, was andere darüber denken!

Nun zur Schule und wie sich diese Tools im Unterricht einsetzen lassen könnten. Das Social Bookmarking sollte eigentlich problemlos funktionieren, indem die Schüler  Links, die den Unterricht betreffen, austauschen. Der Aufbau einer Delicous-Seite könnte mit einem konkreten Projekt verbunden sein, wo die Schüler recherchen zu einem Thema machen und sich gegenseitig durch Social Bookmarking unterstützen sollen.

Des weiteren würd ich eher mit einem Wiki arbeiten als mit einem Blog. Man könnte ein gemeisames Wiki aufbauen, wo Zusammenfassungen der Lektionen drauf sind, Fragen und Projekte besprochen werden. Was mir bei einem Wiki nicht ganz klar ist, ist ob der Autor eines Beitrages immer bekannt ist. Und ob man auch bei kleinen, ausgewählten Stellen einen früheren Zustand wiederherstellen kann. Dies z.B. wenn ein Schüler einen kreuzfalschen Beitrag leistet.

Mit Schülern könnte man auch an bestehenden Web 2.0 Projekten mitarbeiten. Als zukünftige Biolehrerin finde ich dieses folgende Projekt eine gute Möglichkeit, Schüler an globalen Aufgaben und Problemen mitarbeiten zu lassen.

Ich denke, die Möglichkeiten, die das  Web 2.0 für die Schule bietet, sind fast unbegrenzt. Deshalb ist es wichtig als Lehrer kompetent darin zu sein, um das richtige Medium für einen bestimmten Unterricht zu finden und die Schüler so einzuführen, dass sie Spass daran haben.

Jetzt schauen wir erst, dass die Lehrer sich damit zurechtfinden!