[Vision2020] MIT's Focus On Mother Earth...

[Ted Moffett]

Tom et. al.

MIT has SHASS, School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences... Programs in
music, literature, theater, writing...

http://web.mit.edu/shass/undergraduate/programs/majors.shtml

As to the irony of quoting Macbeth off an MIT website... whatever!

But consider this MIT offering, related to the theme of "The Earth is our
mother, and we are all her children..." under "Sustainability @
MIT," covering the subject of our beleaguered biosphere, the MIT
Environmental Film Festival, a week worth of films. It would be great to see
the U of I sponsor such an event, or maybe the Kenworthy?

http://sustainability.mit.edu/Environmental_Film_Festival

http://sustainability.mit.edu/Main_Page

It appears there is quite a focus at MIT on the environmental and energy
crisis our planet is facing:

http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2006/energy-initiative.html

Hockfield thanked the members of the Energy Research Council (ERC) for
articulating recommendations that will allow MIT, with its unique talents
and capabilities, to address what she called "one of the most urgent
challenges of our time."

"The need for new global supplies of affordable, sustainable energy is
perhaps the single greatest challenge of the 21st century," the report
stated. "Increasing tension between supply and demand is exacerbated by
rapidly escalating energy use in developing countries, security issues
facing current energy systems and global climate change. These converging
factors create an unprecedented scenario requiring a multifaceted approach
to increasingly urgent energy issues."

-----------
Ted Moffett

On 1/15/07, Tom Hansen <thansen at moscow.com> wrote:
>
>  No offense intended, at all, towards (I didn't even think it existed) the
> Liberal Arts Department of MIT, but quoting Shakespeare's "Macbeth" from an
> MIT website seems just a tad ironic.
>
> Just a thought.
>
> Tom Hansen
>
> Debi et. al.
>
> "Which way to the egress?"
>
> I could attempt an answer... I rehearsed, with poetic inspiration and
> lofty, passionate ideals, philosophical dissection and illumination,
> scientific precision and wonderment, the complexities of political and
> economic systems, the universals and particulars of spiritual struggle, the
> Eros of human compassion and empathy, the unthinkable and horrifying depths
> of evil, cruelty and deception, and...
>
> "The Earth is our mother, and we are all her children, down to the
> most infinitesimal living being...We live or die insofar as we respect this
> truth"
>
> This ridiculous, laughable, simpleton, childlike statement will be
> dismissed my most...It suggests more than I am capable of articulating.  But
> if all that this statement implies was "respected," this might be an answer
> to your question, which for some reason felt I should answer seriously, and
> simply, however silly my response...
>
> Despite my all too human need to feel I have the human condition, our
> place in the universe, figured out, that I can make sense of it all, really,
> I have no clue!
>
> Which way to the egress, indeed!
>
> http://www-tech.mit.edu/Shakespeare/macbeth/macbeth.5.5.html
>
> *MACBETH*
>
> She should have died hereafter;
> There would have been a time for such a word.
> To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
> Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
> To the last syllable of recorded time,
> And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
> The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
> Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
> That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
> And then is heard no more: it is a tale
> Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
> Signifying nothing.
>
> ---------------------
>
>    Ted Moffett
>
>
> On 1/14/07, *debismith at moscow.com* <debismith at moscow.com> wrote:
>
> Ted, very true. Anyone who believes his or her own bull can lie with a
> straight face, dissemble
> until dawn, and give you a Hale-Fellow-Well-Met firm handshake while
> picking your pocket.
> Politicians have to believe their own BS to get elected. They also have to
> be able to baffle with
> their BS all those voters who will fall for a con.
>
> I met both these men when they were candidates--I knew Brady wouldn't get
> elected because
> he was a real person. While being near Butch raised the hair on the back
> of my neck, I looked
> at the folks around him and knew they were believing everything he said
> and inventing wonders
> he hadn't said, and I knew he was gonna get elected. People love to be
> lied to. Just look at
> those (fewer than six months ago!) Bushites---they know he's a damn liar,
> but they don't care.
> They will invent their own story to justify his lies because they can't
> admit they were conned.
>
> Also keep in mind that the easiest person to con is a con artist...they do
> believe there is a
> quick fix, a magic bean, a real get-rich-quick scheme. Bushites, and
> Otterists, and
> ChickenHawks, oh my....Barnum was right! Which way to the egress?
>
> Debi R-S
>
>
>
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