Message-ID: <Pine.NEB.4.64.0707302327060.18074@panix3.panix.com>
From: Alan Sondheim <sondheim@panix.com>
To: Cyb <cybermind@listserv.aol.com>, Wryting-L <WRYTING-L@listserv.wvu.edu>
Subject: on our earth, the killdeer
Date: Mon, 30 Jul 2007 23:27:23 -0400 (EDT)
on our earth, the killdeer we are on earth for such a shorttime, we have no more than a picture. the picture is what we think of when we say, 'the way things are.' just yesterday or tomorrow, something new, perhaps a bee. the bee pollenates a flower shortly after our death. there is a storm somewhere. just now, i am beginning to understand the alarm calls of the killdeer. the ghost of a shorebird, the feint, the run, the back and forth. everything, everyone, lives in a different world. i can say this because the image is always a sad image, the image is in mourning for our death. http://www.asondheim.org/killdeeralarm.mp3 like neural signals, the killdeer calls are a mix of analog and digital phenomenology - their frequency is very narrow, and the repetitions of standard (most likely territorial or display) calls are easily comprehen- ded - at least they appear to be (the cry of the killdeer is easily iden- tified) - on the other hand, there are temporal processes, non-standard pitch and repetition, which present information, in this case alarm based on distance, degree of threat, etc. - as far as i can tell - which means nothing at all - on the sample you hear both calls and responses and the changes within individual calls as well.