Tuesday, December 8, 2015

Grandmother Ocean and Mother Earth - exchanging

This post will be somewhat lacking in chronology due to my life taking on a different kind of pace and I’m just not keeping track like I used to.

I am having a meeting at the school this Thursday because there has been movement on the marine lab. I really, really think it’s going to happen – “perseverance furthers”. I am of course thrilled that it may come to be and my whale friends will be forever watched over. AND it appears that one of my adopted grandsons,Tristan, may one day be a part of it, if not the next “El Ballenero”. This gives me an additional and wonderful satisfaction.

Lots of critter action lately, not of the marine mammal kind but very much a part of my life.

The other day I was swimming laps (back up to 20) and was suddenly surrounded by a large school of surf fish (grunts or chubs?) that decided to swim with me for a while. As I continued forward they surrounded me and kept pace while circling me an arm length away. There were perhaps 200 or more, very silvery and with the clarity of the water, the calm of the sea, the perfect temp and the overall state I was in, it was truly a delight.


Not my pic

Not such a delight has been my on going war with the ants. Not all ants (we have many species) but these small black ones that bite. It has been a constant battle but at the moment I am winning – albeit with the help of chemicals. They are very persistent even though I keep the kitchen very clean – and they are psychic!

Time for a visual – check this out, well worth it!

Isn’t that amazing!!

Now here’s a nice pic (not mine) of my second favorite mammal. If I hadn’t got into the whale thing, these are definitely the critters I would have studied.


 The "original" dog

Clinging to the screen door the other day were these breeding male and female stick insects. I’ve never seen that before. They stayed like this all day long and into the night. Now that’s serious perseverance. 


 Amorous Stick Insects

Quick change of pace. This is an actual porcelain bowl being thrown by one man. Wouldn’t our ancient ancestors be impressed.



The “BIG” critter event of the day, week, month, year was just the other day (I’m being redundant aren’t I?) when I saw my neighbor Leslie south of me on the beach and acting kinda strange. She would move up the beach, get on her hands and knees, pick something up, walk to the water, place something there and return to do it again. After watching her do this a number of times I thought it must be turtles – baby turtles! I walked down the beach to join her and, yes, there was a shallow depression where more little heads were emerging. Bad timing for the turtles due to the recent high winds having piled up a berm that would be difficult for them to traverse. It was also windy and hot with the danger of desiccation, not to mention dogs and birds. We were joined by other neighbors, Lisa and Gary, and we did what we could to insure as best a chance for them as we could. It was a very special gift that we received that day. They are the last of the true dinosaurs (literally) and deserve our respect and protection. 






I mentioned wind a moment ago. This November, and now one week into December has been about as windy as I can remember. Very few days that I could even think about kayaking and I have had to take every window of opportunity just to swim my laps.

Not this again!


On the other hand here’s something to enjoy – talk about nostalgia!


The Martian moon Phobos is very slowly “falling” into the gravity well of Mars and will become many small pieces eventually making up a planetary ring system not unlike Saturns but smaller of course. Don’t wait around – it’s a few million years off but once again underscores the essential nature of the Universe – CHANGE.


Phobos


There's been a lot of talk recently about the question of the validity of The Big Bang Theory. We have plenty of time to debate it seeing as the Universe pays little attention to human time. In the long run it will most likely be The Shamans that are the only ones who really get it. If you have a mind to read the whole article you will not be disappointed.




Me – I’m trying my best to fathom my role in it all but find myself doing this occasionally.



A couple of local pics that “charm” my day: 


These palms were planted by Susanna when we first started developing the lot.

 Susanna and the palms - 2001



Part of the path to my workout center.

Just one socio-political comment this time!



Be good to yourselves and your loved ones – Hell, why not everyone.





Monday, November 2, 2015



The Great Mother

Once again human occupation and level of culture has been pushed back in time. Here are some findings in Kazakhstan recently that require reevaluation of just how sophisticated our “prehistory” is.



 Geoglyphs

“The idea that foragers could amass the numbers of people necessary to undertake large-scale projects – like creating the Kazakhstan geoglyphs – has caused archaeologists to deeply rethink the nature and timing of sophisticated large-scale human organization as one that predates settled and civilized societies,” Dr. Clarkson said, according to The New York Times.
https://www.rt.com/usa/320195-nasa-releases-images-of-enormous/

It is also becoming quite clear that the western way of conceiving what drives man and has been perpetuated by the “genius” of men like Freud may be simply a concept created by their own mental meanderings (and phobias) and has done us little good in the long run. It appears that all peoples do not share the avarice for accumulation that we have been convinced is our natural state. Here is an example of a different way of looking at things that works.



Isn’t this a cool moon – earth shot from NASA?



Ever since I can remember I was taught that it would be impossible to “create life”. As a graduate student in Microbiology in the 60’s I noticed that people began to question that premise, for which I was delighted. Was it life if it could reproduce itself and metabolize (secure it’s own food and process it into parts and energy – the two necessary criteria)? Well, it appears we are getting closer. 

 Protocell

Thought I would just throw this pic in now because it’s one of my favorites. I took this about five years ago as I was sitting on the beach in El Cardonal. This is one of our many Ospreys taking home some dinner. That’s the biggest of the catches I’ve seen made here. I may have shown you all this before but I wanted to again.


Osprey - lookin' out for family

OK – now just a bit of serious stuff, there’s plenty to go around, no?
Here’s a recent paleontological find that is both interesting and impressive. This is the ancient shark Megalodon, lived about 16 million years ago. Check out the jaw!



 
And how about this tooth!

Now the serious part, here’s a man who leads one of the most heavily armed countries in the world and what he has to say about the whole dinosaur era.



http://www.sott.net/article/304670-Netanyahu-Palestinians-killed-the-dinosaurs

One other “serious matter” and then on to cool science stuff. Some years ago (1992?) the brilliant social historian James Burke presented a PBS special called “After the Warming”. It was two hours of hard hitting reality checks regarding what has become recognized as a major concern for our future. One prediction (not exactly brilliant but unanticipated by the masses) was that if one or two of the climate changes introduced by Burke were to actually happen then one outcome would be huge migrations of populations from under developed countries would by necessity bring them into conflict with the borders of the first world countries. This has begun to happen and is resulting in just the consequences suggested by Burke – armed violence on both sides. Here is just one example:


Enough of the craziness, and like I said there is plenty to go around. So check out these cool things because worry gets one nowhere.



Speaking of the marine world here is a great example of what basic intelligence and caring can achieve. This kind of thing will be becoming more important all the time. This is coming from a commercial fisherman – THEY are acutely aware of the difficulties of the future fish harvests. 




http://www.sott.net/article/304965-Fisherman-designs-prize-winning-solution-for-sustainable-ocean-farming

The picture below was sent to me by my daughter Kersti but I didn’t know where to fit it in (I loved it) until I came across the article referenced below. Interesting stuff!! The human mind and it’s capabilities, complexities and mysteries is still untapped.



http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2015/10/14/belief-in-god-and-perception-of-immigrants-can-be-altered-with-magnetic-energy-claim-scientists_n_8291732.html



Here’s a little article on the plant extract Tumeric. I am using this, along with meditation, herbal supplements (Green Vibrance) etc to deal with my cancer. Feels right.




JUST FOR FUN check out what seemed to appear over Manipur India. 




This however DID appear in a field in England recently. Again: no lights, no noise and in a very short time – minutes!



Is the quote below appropriate? 




Another interesting archeological discovery near Stonehenge. No, not a space port but a human dwelling dated 8300 years ago. Another example of a wider human impact then previously thought.




And all this stuff is going on here on Planet Earth that is found in the Milky Way Galaxy (of 200 billion+ in the known universe) right about in the center of that little circle. All the stars we can see are contained within that circle too.









Monday, October 5, 2015


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I remember in High School enjoying geometry as the only math I could grasp. There was something familiar about it and it helped me understand matter in a way that later became useful in my appreciation of my true love biology. It is in every sense sacred and I am grateful to have had the opportunity to learn some of it’s many faces.

In one of the great tragedies of our age, indigenous traditions, stories, cultures and knowledge are winking out across the world. Whole languages and mythologies are vanishing, and in some cases even entire indigenous groups are falling into extinction. This is what makes the news that a tribe in the Amazon—the Matsés peoples of Brazil and Peru—have created a 500-page encyclopedia of their traditional medicine all the more remarkable. The encyclopedia, compiled by five shamans with assistance from the conservation group Acaté, details every plant used by Matsés medicine to cure a massive variety of ailments.

http://news.mongabay.com/2015/06/amazon-tribe-creates-500-page-traditional-medicine-encyclopedia/




"This grand show is eternal. It is always sunrise somewhere; the dew is never all dried at once; a shower is forever falling; vapor ever rising. Eternal sunrise, eternal sunset, eternal dawn and gloaming, on seas and continents and islands, each in its turn, as the round earth rolls".- John Muir
Space - the endless frontier......and we are just getting started!

After New Horizons probe's historic flyby of planet Pluto on July 14, 2015, NASA plans to get the tiny craft even further. New Horizons is now slated to reach a tiny icy body in the Kuiper belt on New Year's Day, 2019, but scientists believe that beyond that region a hidden planet may be lurking, the famous Planet X. This is not to be confused with the Planet X in the 50’s SciFi movie, “The Man from Planet X” that gave me nightmares for years. What is cool about this is that IF there is another planet out there then it too is of course a part of the ebb and flow of our solar system. It is interesting to imagine what that might be.

Here on our own planet science continues to open new vistas in the understanding of plate tectonics and it’s influence on our planetary super-structure. Check out this latest model of what might be going on under the mid-pacific and that has created the islands we have become familiar with.


In a unique and ground-breaking operation, scientists plan to search for evidence of Stone Age human activity on Britain's very own 'Atlantis' - a vast prehistoric land, once located between England and southern Scandinavia, which was engulfed by rising sea levels some 7500 years ago. This is especially interesting because a good 10% of the ancient coastlines of the continents are now submerged and could have evidence of a far larger and older human occupation then we currently accepted.



And then there are questions raised by structures such as this. Highly controversial but fascinating to contemplate...and why not?



First Nations “Mrs. Universe” not going to go into the night lightly – Hurrah!! Her name is Ashley Callingbull.


A “high” moment (two years ago) during my campaign to include the El Cardonal area in the proposed Protected Area for Breeding Humpbacks.....and we got it. Now the laboratory! Still in the works and I am confidant it will happen – patience as a virtue is particularly the case in my dear Mexico.


The picture below was taken a couple of years ago when I captured my really good friend and neighbor Carla playing with her grand-daughter Case-Noel. Sweet moment!


And here is a pic of my dear and good friends in Palo Alto who put me up in their home for a number of days before my flight down here.

 Steve & Briel

 And this -


Ahhh….levity, subtle humor – where would we be without it?

I am El Cardonal once again. This time staying in the beautiful home built by my partners, "The Q's". I am open for very special company. e-mail first!!






Friday, September 4, 2015

I have not been inspired to write much but it's nice to sometimes just say hello.  I have been in California since July and will be here for some time yet to come. I’m feeling pretty good and continue to enjoy the presence of family. My intention is to stay here in California and return to El Cardonal only for the whale season - if able.

No whale or dolphin news of course or Baja sunsets etc. but some good stuff happening elsewhere. The galaxy is becoming more familiar to us and just as suspected we exist in a manifold universe/multiverse where mysteries and delights abound....and discoveries to be made beyond imagination. These new planetary discoveries are favorites of mine. You have to understand that when I was a child we were told with absolute conviction (at least by those who wrote and chose our test books) that there were only 9 planets in the universe and weren’t we lucky that God gave us this one! Here’s a close one.


By the way when I was a child we didn’t have any digital electronics to play with (only some of our families had televisons) so we spent our time at each others homes playing sports and riding our bikes to the limits of our endurance. You could always tell who was where by the parked bikes.


I transgress – back to space!

http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/news/1792-ssc2015-02-NASA-s-Spitzer-Confirms-Closest-Rocky-Exoplanet-

Using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, astronomers have confirmed the discovery of the nearest rocky planet outside our solar system, larger than Earth and a potential gold mine of science data.

Dubbed HD 219134b, this exoplanet, which orbits too close to its star to sustain life, is a mere 21 light-years away. While the planet itself can't be seen directly, even by telescopes, the star it orbits is visible to the naked eye in dark skies in the Cassiopeia constellation, near the North Star.

HD 219134b is also the closest exoplanet to Earth to be detected transiting, or crossing in front of, its star and, therefore, perfect for extensive research.

"Transiting exoplanets are worth their weight in gold because they can be extensively characterized," said Michael Werner, the project scientist for the Spitzer mission at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. "This exoplanet will be one of the most studied for decades to come."

The planet, initially discovered using the HARPS-North instrument on the Italian 3.6-meter Galileo National Telescope in the Canary Islands, is the subject of a study accepted for publication in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.

Study lead author Ati Motalebi of the Geneva Observatory in Switzerland said she believes the planet is the ideal target for NASA's James Webb Space Telescope in 2018.

"Webb and future large, ground-based observatories are sure to point at it and examine it in detail," Motalebi said.

Only a small fraction of exoplanets can be detected transiting their stars due to their relative orientation to Earth. When the orientation is just right, the planet's orbit places it between its star and Earth, dimming the detectable light of its star. It's this dimming of the star that is actually captured by observatories such as Spitzer and can reveal not only the size of the planet but also clues about its composition.

"Most of the known planets are hundreds of light-years away. This one is practically a next-door neighbor," said astronomer and study co-author Lars A. Buchhave of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts. For reference, the closest known planet is GJ674b at 14.8 light-years away; its composition is unknown.

HD 219134b was first sighted by the HARPS-North instrument and a method called the radial velocity technique, in which a planet's mass and orbit can be measured by the tug it exerts on its host star. The planet was determined to have a mass 4.5 times that of Earth, and a speedy three-day orbit around its star.

Spitzer followed up on the finding, discovering the planet transits its star. Infrared measurements from Spitzer revealed the planet's size, about 1.6 times that of Earth. Combining the size and mass gives it a density of 3.5 ounces per cubic inch (six grams per cubic centimeter) -- confirming HD 219134b is a rocky planet.

Now that astronomers know HD 219134b transits its star, scientists will be scrambling to observe it from the ground and space. The goal is to tease chemical information out of the dimming starlight as the planet passes before it. If the planet has an atmosphere, chemicals in it can imprint patterns in the observed starlight.

Rocky planets such as this one, with bigger-than-Earth proportions, belong to a growing class of planets termed super-Earths.

"Thanks to NASA's Kepler mission, we know super-Earths are ubiquitous in our galaxy, but we still know very little about them," said co-author Michael Gillon of the University of Liege in Belgium, lead scientist for the Spitzer detection of the transit. "Now we have a local specimen to study in greater detail. It can be considered a kind of Rosetta Stone for the study of super-Earths."

Further observations with HARPS-North also revealed three more planets in the same star system, farther than HD 219134b. Two are relatively small and not too far from the star. Small, tightly packed multi-planet systems are completely different from our own solar system, but, like super-Earths, are being found in increasing numbers.

JPL manages the Spitzer mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Science operations are conducted at the Spitzer Science Center at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Spacecraft operations are based at Lockheed Martin Space Systems Co. in Littleton, Colorado. Data are archived at the Infrared Science Archive, housed at Caltech's Infrared Processing and Analysis Center.

Also check out the anomalous bright spot on the asteroid Ceres.

Not fully understood yet but definitely something new. And something else to ponder, how about this?

 The Resonance Project

POINT TO THINK - science has evolved changing the language. It has not evolved by changing the perception. Newton observed apple falling to perceive Gravitational Theory. Einstein perceived a spider moving on a globe, blew the globe, and perceived the curvature. Newton looked to matter and visualized a minimum speed and motion in nature. Einstein looked to light and visualized maximum speed and motion. Heisenberg looked at motion and saw uncertainty. This struck down Euclidean geometry of Newton and Riemann's geometry of Einstein. Scientist failed to comprehend and perceive why and how motion occurs. They adopted a new language- statistical mechanics. The world failed to visualize and understand why and how motion occurs. Instead, they went about exploiting material nature. The present state of the world squarely exist in this failure – Here is a figure that summarizes and gives new perception and foundation to science that can unite ancient and modern knowledge answering most of the key questions science left behind.

Believe it my friends – we are like children in our understanding of reality. Nevertheless, that is our present state so why not enjoy it, eh?

 One day perhaps

A short and deeply respectful honoring of just one aspect of the female energy within our species. I did not write this but concur whole heartedly.

Once upon a time sexual women ruled the world. They were independent, empowered and embodied love. Their energy flowed through every crevice of the earth with the capacity to heal and restore. These women were Sacred Prostitutes, and it’s time they were reawakened. The History of the Sacred Prostitute. In ancient Sumeria, Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Greece, there were no brothels. Instead there were Temples of the Sacred Prostitutes inhabited by holy women who embodied love, owned their sexuality, and held the highest spiritual authority.

These women were known as Priestesses, or Sacred Prostitutes.

 Within those Temples men were cleansed of battle scars and nourished with divine sexuality. A common practice that took place in the Temple was called “Taking the War out of Man”. Upon returning from war, men were invited to pass through the Temple doors. The Priestess would bathe, soothe and knead their physical, emotional and spiritual wounds. She would expand her magnetic field to absorb all of his wounded energy, literally drawing the effects of war from his system. Through the power of her energy, and purity of her femininity, she would gently and tenderly love him back to wholeness. These Women Were The Original Sexual Healers

The Priestess was luminous and, because of her power, purity, and willingness to love with her entire body and soul, she enabled man to reconnect with both himself and higher forces through pleasure and prayer. Within society, and to the families of the men she served, she was not seen as a threat. On the contrary..

 The Sexual Priestess was regarded as holy and celebrated for her sexuality.

Men entered the Temple with the full permission and blessing of their families, and emerged cleansed of the nightmare of war. This process was a natural and essential part of life. The Sacred Prostitute was not shamed, viewed as a victim, or “forced into prostitution.” She willingly took the office of Priestess, and acted from an empowered place of service.

    Not everyone saw it this way.

The Biblical Patriarchs saw the practices and beliefs of the Priestesses as immoral. As a result, as the Patriarchs came to rule the world, Priests systematically replaced Priestesses as intermediaries between men and ‘God’. Where the world of the Sacred Prostitute considered love, kindness and sensuality as necessary elements to maintain healthy balance – the world absent of her presence became secularized, impersonal, and detached.

Speaking of balance here is something said by one of the many great Native orators of The First Nations – Chief Seattle circa 1854:
In 1854, the “Great White Chief” in Washington made an offer for a large area of Indian land and promised a “reservation” for the Indian people. Chief Seattle’s reply, published here in full, has been described as the most beautiful and profound statement on the environment ever made:

 Chief Seattle: Suquamish

"How can you buy or sell the warmth of the land? The idea is strange to us. If we do not own the freshness of the air and the sparkle of the water, how can you buy them?

ALL SACRED

Every part of the earth is sacred to my people. Every shining pine needle, every sandy shore, every mist in the dark woods, every clearing and humming insect is holy in the memory and experience of my people.
The sap, which courses through the trees, carries the memories of the red man.
The white man’s dead forget the country of their birth when they go to walk among the stars. Our dead never forget this beautiful earth, for it is the mother of the red man.
We are part of the earth and it is part of us. The perfumed flowers are our sisters: the deer, the horse, the great eagle, these are our brothers. The rocky crests, the juices in the meadows, the body heat of the pony, and man – all belong to the same family.

NOT EASY

So, when the Great Chief in Washington sends word that he wishes to buy our land, he asks much of us. The Great Chief sends word he will reserve us a place so that we can live comfortably to ourselves. He will be our father and we will be his children. So we will consider your offer to buy our land. But it will not be easy. For this land is sacred to us. This shining water that moves in the streams and rivers is just not water but the blood of our ancestors.
If we sell you land, you must remember that it is sacred,and you must teach your children that it sacred and that each ghostly reflection in the clear water of the lakes tells of events and memories in the life of my people. The waters murmur is the voice of my father’s father.

KINDNESS

The rivers are our brothers, they quench our thirst. The rivers carry our canoes, and feed our children. If we sell you our land, you must remember, and teach your children, that the rivers are our brothers, and yours, and you must henceforth give the rivers the same kindness that you would give any brother.
We know that the white man does not understand our ways. One portion of land is same to him as the next, for he is a stranger who comes in the night and takes from the land whatever he needs. The earth is not his brother, but his enemy, and when he has conquered it, he moves on.
He leaves his father’s graves behind, and he does not care. He kidnaps the earth from his children, and he does not care. His fathers’ grave, and his children’s birthright, is forgotten. He treats his mother, the earth, and his brother, the sky, as things to be bought, plundered, sold like sheep or bright beads. His appetite will devour the earth and leave only behind a desert.
I do not know. Our ways are different than your ways. The sight of your cities pains the eyes of the red man. But perhaps it is because the red man is a savage and does not understand. There is no quiet place in the white man’s cities. No place to hear the unfurling of leaves in the spring, or the rustle of insect’s wings.
But perhaps it is because I am a savage and do not understand.
The clatter only seems to insults the ears. And what is there to life if a man cannot hear the lonely cry of the whip-poor-will or the arguments of the frogs around a pond, and the smell of the wind itself, cleaned by a midday rain, or scented with the pinion pine.

PRECIOUS

The air is precious to the red man, for all things share the same breath – the beast, the tree, the man, they all share the same breath.The white man does not seem to notice the air he breathes. Like a man dying for many days, he is numb to the stench.
But if we sell you our land, you must remember that the air is precious to us, that the air shares its spirit with all the life it supports. The wind that gave our grand father his first breath also receives his last sigh. And if we sell you our land, you must keep it apart and sacred, as a place where even the white man can go to taste the wind that is sweetened by the meadows flowers.

ONE CONDITION

So we will consider your offer to buy our land. If we decide to accept, I will make one condition: The white man must treat the beasts of this land as his brothers.
I am a savage and do not understand any other way. I have seen a thousand rotting buffaloes on the prairie,left by the white man who shot them from a passing train.
I am a savage and do not understand how the smoking iron horse can be more important than the buffalo that we kill only to stay alive.
What is a man without the beasts? If all the beasts were gone, man would die from a great loneliness of spirit. For what ever happens to the beast, soon happens to man. All things are connected.

THE ASHES

You must teach your children the ground beneath their feet is the ashes of your grandfathers. So that they will respect the land, tell your children the earth is rich with the lives of our kin. Teach your children what we have taught our children, that the earth is our mother. Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of the earth. If men spit upon the ground,they spit upon themselves. This we know: The earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the earth. This we know.
All things are connected like the blood which unites one family. All things are connected. Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of the earth. Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.
Even the white man, whose God walks and talks with him as friend to friend, cannot be exempt from the common destiny. We may be brothers after all. We shall see.
One thing we know, which the white man may one day discover – our God is the same God.
You may think that you own him, as you wish to own our land, but you cannot. He is the God of man, and His compassion is equal for the red man and the white.
This earth is precious to Him, and to harm the earth is to reap contempt on its Creator. The whites to shall pass; perhaps sooner than all other tribes. Contaminate your bed, and you will one night suffocate in your own waste. But in your perishing, you will shine brightly, fired by the strength of the God who brought you to this land, and for some special purpose gave you dominion over this land and the red man.
That destiny is a mystery to us, for we do not understand when the buffalo are all slaughtered, the wild horses tamed, the secret corners of the forest heavy with the scent of many men, and the view of the ripe hills are blotted by talking wires.
Where is the thicket? Gone.
Where is the eagle? Gone.
The end of living and the beginning of survival.

I am happy to say that this kind of wisdom is finding it’s way into our judicial system ie:
WASHINGTON -- The Senate quietly made history on Wednesday night when it confirmed Diane Humetewa as a federal judge -- the first Native American woman to ever hold such a post.

Humetewa: Federal Judge

Humetewa was confirmed 96-0 to serve on the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona. She is a former U.S. attorney in Arizona and a member of the Hopi tribe. She is now the only Native American serving on the federal bench and just the third Native American in history to do so.

In a different vein, the new Mrs. Universe chosen this year is a Native Cree from The US.

A few extra pics:

 My son Zack after his first swim with a whale

My first sighting of "Odin" - to return three more times to my search grounds.


"Ain't it the truth"