Queer Visions of Freedom
A progressive multi-media blog for the Gay and Atheist communities.
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- Beryl Skydomes 4096x1024
UPDATE: Thanks for the Diggs! Please note I did not create the video. See credit below.
My frequent trips to the Ubuntu forums often bring me in contact with posts about the visual wonder that is the Beryl desktop manager. I decided to take the plunge and see if my experience lived up to all the hype. In short, it has. I now find working with a regular desktop window manager limiting. Though I love the Gnome desktop environment, 3D desktops are so freeing it's difficult to go back to anything less.
See for yourself!
(hat tip: BastionPL)Installing XGL + Beryl on Ubuntu Edgy Eft with an ATI card is relatively easy once you get the fglrx video driver working properly (that can be the tricky part). By the way, I use Trevino's Beryl SVN repository. However, when I tried to enable the ANIMATED SKYDOME feature in Beryl-Manager under Desktop / Desktop Cube / Skydome, I had trouble. Browsing the Beryl forums led me to the realization that I needed to use a PNG image with a specific resolution ratio. I'm still at a loss as to the specifics beyond that but I have found a formula which works for me on my laptop with a screen resolution of 1280x800. The formula: a PNG image at a resolution of 4096x1024. That's it.
FYI: I'm on a Dell Inspiron e1505 with the Intel Centrino Core 2 Duo processor/s, an ATI Radeon Mobile X1300 video card with a 15.4" TrueLife Wide Screen. I dual boot WindowsXP (soon Vista) and Ubuntu Edgy Eft.
And now, for your skydoming pleasure, I have created eight 4096x1024 PNG images for you to use freely. A few of them would work well on a dual screen set up (big desktop) as well. Download them and try them out. I bet you'll fall in love with at least one. Enjoy and please leave a comment of thanks if you use them or if you have any questions. ~Seamus7
2. Cloudy Moon
3. Bucolic Beauty (hat tip: KoL, StudioTwentyEight, stock.xchange)
6. Mind Buddha
Thu, 08 Mar 2007 02:58:16 -0500 - The Iraq Disgrace and the Coming Spin
I didn't vote for Bush. Twice.
Yet when the Iraq occupation began, I had naively thought that it might be a good thing. Not so much for the USA but rather for the Iraqi people and the Mid-East in general. I thought that if a Secular Democracy arose it would provide a positive example in that religiously insane region. I also believed and still do that Nuclear Proliferation is an immense long-term threat to our planet that must be taken with the greatest seriousness. I think many people don't fathom the implications of nuclear technology post Cold War. I fear the Cold War was just a mild sampling of what is to come.
But let me get back to Bush. I always recoiled when I heard him speak. It is important that the most powerful person in the world be incredibly intelligent and, just as importantly, incredibly rational. Bush is neither. He's rich and connected. That's all. Unfortunately, by invoking the Jesus word, he was able to hypnotize the conservative Christian element in this country into believing he would not only be Commander in Chief but also Minister in Chief. But as others have so rightly pointed out, conservative Christians seem to be easily manipulated and intoxicated by power and authority.
Quickly it became apparent that Bush and his minions were incompetent and arrogant. It became apparent that many Americans have a childish view of the world and an overly mythologized view of our military. Mainstream corporate media seems to have only encouraged this broadly speaking, especially the popular Fox News Channel which can easily be described as nothing less than a Republican Propaganda Machine. Scary.
And so, every week, I read and watch and shake my head as the Pentagon releases the names of another dozen or so young men and women blown to smithereens or horrifically maimed. Simply shameful, despicable, immoral. Denials and wishful thinking aside, most have died for nothing. Nothing.
And yet, the ridiculous excuse making continues. We hear some saying things like "fight them there so we don't fight them here" or "send more troops" or "freedom isn't free" or "the media only shows the bad" or "defeatists".
While Iraq has become a great gift to Al-Qaeda's worldwide recruiting efforts, it is well known that most of the violence in Iraq is committed by Iraqis unaffiliated with Jihad. As Iraq is in chaos, beyond Civil War, sending more troops can only suppress the conflicts in that country. And more troops will only give the Insurgents/Resistance more targets for sniping. We are, after all, foreigners occupying their country.
As for freedom, Iraqis created a constitution and voted. They, like other countries in the Mid-East, are electing people who are at odds with American interests. Hmmmm. So Democracy isn't always the answer to complicated conflicts between warring religiously hysterical irrational ethnic groups unleashed by a power vacuum resulting from a lack of planning and leadership on the part of the Bush Administration and the silenced, fired or cowed military leaders under Rumsfeld.
Furthermore, the death of American soldiers in Iraq does not secure my freedom or yours one iota. And at this point, it's not securing that of the Iraqis. Ironically, the death of so many American soldiers likely has only made it more difficult for Bush and the NeoCons to stop the madness. How can they live with themselves if they can't spin this failed pre-emptive war as a success on some level? And until they figure out how to spin a success out of what is obviously not, they will continue to allow the young soldiers to die of yet more IED's, snipers and inadequate armor.
Rick Santorum ended his arrogant Senate career by lambasting the media for reporting that people die in war and for choosing to make horrific mass suicide bombings more newsworthy than a few schools getting new desks or a fresh coat of paint. Give me a break. Only the Rush Limbaugh set buy into that kind of irresponsible thinking. The job of journalism is to report the truth, to report what the government will not report, to expose reality. Sadly, many people prefer childlike simplistic world views which make no room for reality or facts. The truth is, the suffering and dying in Iraq is likely underreported.
And to all those who call my assessment defeatist, I can only counter that anything less than full admission of defeat and failure in Iraq when assessing the way forward is deluded irresponsible insanity. It is a kind of insane denial like that of a father who insists his family not flee from their home as it's being fully engulfed in flames but rather remain and fight it. There comes a point when the flames are too hot, too close, a point when to remain would be irresponsible, insane.
Our government with the consent of a large portion of its citizenry, consented to invade Iraq. In essence, like Colin Powell warned: we broke it; it's our mess to clean up. But that is too simple. What we have unleashed or uncovered or allowed to spiral out of control is now so bad that we are seemingly powerless bystanders. Unfortunately, most of those bystanders are American soldiers truly literally caught in the cross fire. What Bush has ignited in the Mid-East may be unstoppable now. He may have opened Pandora's Box there so to speak. And if it proves true, as it seems to be, that we are no longer able to affect any sort of positive change over there including containing a wider regional conflict, we must remove ourselves and let that region explode.
Not a single additional soldier should die for what has become and has been frequently described as one of the most catastrophic blunders in the history of American foreign policy. To all those who voted for Bush and especially to those who voted for Bush twice the word fool clearly comes to mind.
So, we await the coming "victory" spin that Bush and the NeoCons are now frantically testing out on Fox. They will have their "victory" of course but it will be even less meaningful than was their "mission accomplished".
Wed, 13 Dec 2006 01:59:03 -0500 - Atheists Come Out! Stop Tip-Toeing Around as Agnostics
While we cannot absolutely disprove the existence of Unicorns, Gnomes, Mermaids, Zeus, Aphrodite, Santa, The Tooth Fairy, The Boogey Man, etc. and must remain technically Agnostic about them, it is okay to proclaim oneself an Atheist when discussing such things. Most people do so easily. Thus, it is intellectually okay to proclaim one's Atheism when it comes to any of the popular supernatural beliefs of today. Just do it.Proclaiming one's Atheism is a statement about the importance of evidence in your thinking. We should not appease those who believe in the supernatural by being wishy-washy and identifying only as Agnostic if we would easily identify as Atheists about Mermaids, Unicorns and Talking Dogs.
Would you do the same if the Supernatural Set were to begin insisting that the world is flat based on an ancient text? Would you appease them by not insisting on evidence and reality in such matters? Would you appease them by calling yourself an Agnostic despite the overwhelming evidence?
It is irresponsible to tolerate nonsense especially in front of children. Naturalism (Atheism, Zoology, Geology, etc.) is to SuperNaturalism (Heaven, Gods, Curses, Withcraft, Hell) as the scientifically trained Medical Doctor is to the superstition based Witch Doctor. In both sets, one is easily and obviously discredited by the truthfulness (or lack thereof) of the information it gives us about reality. They ought not ever be equated.
God Beings are imaginary. Prayer is superstition like horseshoes or finger crossing. The Bible is repulsive, medieval, barbaric. Faith in the supernatural is bizarre and indefensible. An Afterlife is nothing more than wishful thinking. Sorry.
The Universe, just as we know it with our senses and with our technology, is more than enough for me. Its infinite awesome mystery, beauty and depth easily renders feeble and puny the various mythologies of man.
(Written in response to "Atheist groups are on the rise" from The Sun-Sentinel of South Florida.)
Tue, 17 Oct 2006 15:54:13 -0500 - Useful Web Tools and Services (Web 2.0)
The web is changing quickly. Really quickly. Only recently, a diverse range of stable user-friendly free web tools and services came online. Many of these tools and services allow for social collaboration on a mass scale unlike anything seen previously in human history. Others allow the individual to store a lifetime's worth of information online, thus making it accessible from any internet connected computer to anyone, anytool and anyservice the individual gives access. Some people call this phenomenon 'Web 2.0'.
Below are ten web tools and services (in no particular order) I find really useful:
- StumbleUpon: Start truly power surfing the web using this simple browser toolbar (IE and Firefox) in collaboration with a worldwide online community of fellow surfers.
Wanna see how StumbleUpon works? - del.icio.us: Start keeping all of your bookmarks online. This way, they're much easier to manage and accessible from any computer. A vast community of bookmarkers gives del.icio.us a powerful collaborative aspect, allowing you to monitor what's popular. Another great tool for power surfers.
Wanna see what people recently bookmarked with del.icio.us? - Writely: Create, store and share documents all online. Google bought Writely not too long ago but opened registration to the public just a few days ago. This is a great place to keep and work with important documents. (Tip: to upload up to 10 documents at once, email them to Writely as attachments!)
Wanna take a tour of Writely? - flickr: Stop crowding your hard drive and upload all your photos and all future photos to flickr - an online photo storage and sharing community. You get 20MB of online storage free per month.
Wanna explore interesting photos on flickr? - Snipshot: This online photo editing tool saves me a lot of time. When I just want to save an image with only minor alterations, Snipshot is a much better choice than Photoshop. Why? I don't need to leave my browser.
Wanna give the Snipshot bookmarklet a try? - meebo: Log into all of the major instant messaging services (AIM, Yahoo, MSN, GTalk, etc.) simultaneously and from one browser window. All of your chat buddies from each service are unified onto one list. And with meebo you can now uninstall all of those individual chat clients from your computer!
Wanna see who's using meebo? - popurls: This is the queen of Web 2.0 aggregators. (Who the king is I dunno.) On its one page you will find the current top links from each of several ... wait for it .... popular urls. And its simple slick presentation makes it very useful indeed.
- Stickam: It calls itself an all in one multimedia communication tool. It is. Upload your personal photos, audio and video. Hook up your webcam. Embed the Stickam player in your blog. Voila. Your broadcasting.
Wanna see who's live via Stickam right now? - Wayfaring: Create personalized maps and share them. Favorite cafes. Travelog. Celebrity sightings. Map them all.
Wanna see what others are mapping on Wayfaring? - Rollyo: Roll your own search engines. Really. Create a customized search roll for each of your interests or use those created by others.
Wanna see some search rolls created by celebrities on Rollyo?
There are many others. Any recommendations?
Sun, 20 Aug 2006 03:50:34 -0500 - StumbleUpon: Start truly power surfing the web using this simple browser toolbar (IE and Firefox) in collaboration with a worldwide online community of fellow surfers.
- Do We Need Religion to Make Good Decisions?
No. We don't need religion to make good decisions. And by religion, I mean that which differentiates it from other community organizations:
• belief in the supernatural and the superstitious (a god being, prayer, miracles) and
• faith in the infallibility of ancient texts or the authority of the priestly class (bible, koran, pope, preacher, etc.).Decision making ought to be based on the best facts that one can surmise. Since we know that ancient texts are often filled with barbaric cruel immoral contradictory stories (see the Bible) written by a multitude of men for a multitude of ancient cultures, they cannot be the best source of wisdom when deciding things today.
These facts ought to based on reality or as close an approximation to reality that is currently available. The Scientific Method (and its handmaiden: Technology) is the best tool we have for investigating reality. With science, we separate fact from wishful thinking (an afterlife, angels, psychic power). With science, we separate fact from superstition (prayer, ghosts, curses, hell).
Reality ought to be based on evidence. Evidence is the foundation of science. And evidence ought to be the foundation for good decisions. Not supernatural beliefs, not superstitions, not faith in ancient texts, not adherence to dogma, not anything non-reality based.
Therefore, the best decision making from the minute (or individual) to the grand (or governmental) ought to be based on facts, based on reality, based on evidence.
And most people already live their lives in this way. People insist their transportation, medicine, food, buildings and utilities meet strict scientific standards. People insist their professionals: doctors, lawyers, engineers, technicians, and mechanics are trained according to strict scientific standards.
(fade in scary music) Less and less, the purveyors of the supernatural - the priestly class - influence the day to day decisions of humanity. And that is good. Otherwise, a return to the Dark Ages awaits! (swell music) Wha Ha Ha Ha Ha!!!! (fade out)
(The preceding was my comment in resonse to a post at Newsvine.com.)
*Obviously, I'm an Atheist (naturalist, humanist, rationalist). I used to call myself an Agnostic until I thought about it. I can't definitively prove that Unicorns don't exist but I'm a Unicorn Atheist nonetheless. With that in mind, I've since dropped the wishy-washy Agnostic label when it comes to omnipotent omniscient magical God Beings in the sky and now Atheist easily and confidently rolls off my lips whenever anyone asks.
Thu, 17 Aug 2006 19:50:53 -0500 - Pema Chodron: Loving-Kindness
Pema Chodron is an American Buddhist nun and author whose teachings and writings on meditation have helped make Buddhism accessible to a broad Western audience. I have a couple of her books and admire her immensely. This last week she interviewed with Bill Moyers for his PBS special Faith & Reason. The first few paragraphs from her beautiful book The Wisdom of No Escape follow:
"There's a common misunderstanding among all the human beings who have ever been born on the earth that the best way to live is to try to avoid pain and just try to get comfortable. you can see this even in insects and animals and birds. All of us are the same.
A much more interesting, kind, adventurous, and joyful approach to life is to begin to develop our curiosity, not caring whether the object of our inquisitiveness is bitter or sweet. To lead a life that goes beyond pettiness and prejudice and always wanting to make sure that everything turns out on our own terms, to lead a more passioante, full, and delightful life than that, we must realize that we can endure a lot of pain and pleasure for the sake of finding out who we are and what this world is, how we tick and how our world ticks, how the whole thing just is. If we're committed to comfort at any cost, as soon as we come up against the least edge of pain, we're going to run; we'll never know what's beyond that particular barrier or wall or fearful thing.
When people start to meditate or to work with any kind of spiritual discipline, they often think that somehow they're going to improve, which is a sort of subtle aggression against who they really are. ... But loving-kindness --- maitri --- toward ourselves doesn't mean getting rid of anything. Maitri means that we can still be crazy after all these years. We can still be angry after all these years. We can still be timid or jealous or full of feelings of unworthiness. The point is not to try to change ourselves. Meditation practice isn't about trying to throw ourselves away and become something better. It's about befriending who we are already. The ground of practice is you or me or whoever we are right now, just as we are. That's the ground, that's what we study, that's what we come to know with tremendous curiosity and interest."
Mon, 07 Aug 2006 04:17:16 -0500 - Podcast 11: Brokeback Mountain Soundtrack
In this broadcast, I've assembled selections from the award winning Brokeback Mountain Soundtrack. Argentine composer Gustavo Santaolalla's evocative theme opens and closes this playlist. In between you'll hear music from Rufus Wainwright, Roger Miller, Bob Dylan, Teddy Thompson and Bernie Taupin with performances by Willie Nelson and Emmylou Harris.
Download QVF Podcast Eleven (mp3) or
Subscribe to the QVF Podcast Feed (iTunes, MyYahoo, Odeo, etc.).
Wed, 02 Aug 2006 19:04:33 -0500 - Podcast 10: Jerome Kern's All The Things You Are
In this broadcast, we'll be exploring a few variations on the Jerome Kern standard All The Things You Are. First, Sarah Vaughan uses her sultry voice to lay out the basics for us. Then, you'll hear the sax of Sonny Rollins, the trumpet of Chet Baker and the piano of Keith Jarrett. Can you identify the other perfomers? Who's the guitarist after Sarah and whose magnificent orchestra concludes this playlist?
Download QVF Podcast Ten (mp3) or
Subscribe to the QVF Podcast Feed (iTunes, MyYahoo, Odeo, etc.).
Sat, 29 Jul 2006 00:12:14 -0500 - Podcast 9: Cal Tjader and Al Di Meola
In this broadcast, Latin Jazz is our theme. First up, three selections from Cal Tjader's album Soul Sauce: Guachi Guaro, Cuando Cuando Que Sera and Afro Blue. Next, a brilliant performance by guitarist Al Di Meola entitled Mediterranean Sundance. Then, the British Jazz Fusion group Acoustic Alchemy gives us the beautiful The Wind of Change.
Download QVF Podcast Nine (mp3) or
Subscribe to the QVF Podcast Feed (iTunes, MyYahoo, Odeo, etc.).
Fri, 28 Jul 2006 22:59:17 -0500 - A Clearing in the Forest
A Clearing in the Forest by seamus.seven, originally uploaded 29th November, 2006
Thu, 27 Jul 2006 22:31:09 -0500
