‘Magicians of the Gods’ - Graham Hancock

The Mind - Alan Watts

The Artist's Task - Abby Martin

Star Talk with Neil deGrasse Tyson

Season 5, Episode 11

 "Red pill or blue pill? You get both when Neil deGrasse Tyson interviews Morpheus himself, actor Laurence Fishburne. They sat down while Neil was in New Mexico filming COSMOS and Laurence was filming The Signal, a new indie sci-fi film. You’ll get a healthy dose of reality, as they talk about Fishburne’s roles in The Matrix, Searching for Bobby Fischer, and CSI. And you’ll dive into the world of the imagination as the two sci-fi fans discuss why style can be more important than substance in sci-fi and geek out over Star Trek, Superman and Watchmen. They also talk about chess, science vs. religion, planetariums and using math and science to explore the world. Laurence tells Neil how and why he became an actor at age 10, and discusses his future plans to produce, direct, write plays and return to Broadway. You’ll also find out what role Laurence wanted to play but didn’t, and why he got the key to the city of Cambridge."  (via StarTalkRadio)

Web Nuggets 2

Just some stuff around the web that I have had kicking around:

Check out the Ulysses comic that these guys are creating at ulyssesseen.com

“The Reign of the Penitents”

More illustrations of classic works.  Check out Dali's 100 Illustrations of Dante's Divine Comedy at lockportstreetgallery.  (via open culture)

How the world will end in one chart:

You can actually read it at the washington post.

Science!

In two studies in the January 24 issue of Science, researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University used advanced imaging techniques to provide a window into how the brain makes memories. These insights into the molecular basis of memory were made possible by a technological tour de force never before achieved in animals: a mouse model developed at Einstein in which molecules crucial to making memories were given fluorescent "tags" so they could be observed traveling in real time in living brain cells.  (read the rest here)

In the take it with a 'grain of salt, category.  Scientists claim that Quantum Theory proves consciousness moves to another universe at death.

Words I should follow:
"I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time."  - Jack London

The World of Man and Nature [Alan Watts]

THE TRANSCENDENCE - Jason Silva, David Lynch, Terence Mckenna, Ram Dass, Russel Brand

via graham hancock)

Terence McKenna - Reclaim your mind

The Future of us: Transcension Hypothosis

The Future of Us: Transcension Hypothosis

The Art of Meditation - Alan Watts

Reality on the radio waves

The BBC radio show, The Infinite Monkey Cage, had a very interesting discussion on consciousness.  One of my favourites, Alan Moore, is on the panel. 
Check the show out here. 

Inner Space and quantum Space

NASA gets itself a quantum computer.  What are their plans?

"According to physicist David Deutsch, a quantum system can work on a million computations at once while a standard desktop PC works on just one. Put another way, a 30-qubit system would be equal in processing power to a traditional 10 teraflop machine, which crunches trillions of operations each second.
These computers will help us find the most expedient solution to a complex problem. As such, they're poised to revolutionize the way we go about data analysis and optimization — including such realms as air traffic control, courier routing, protein modeling, weather prediction, database querying, and hacking tough encryption schemes."

Read the rest. 

(via IO9)


A Neuroscientist's Radical Theory of How Networks become Consciousness

"It’s a question that’s perplexed philosophers for centuries and scientists for decades: Where does consciousness come from? We know it exists, at least in ourselves. But how it arises from chemistry and electricity in our brains is an unsolved mystery.
Neuroscientist Christof Koch, chief scientific officer at the Allen Institute for Brain Science, thinks he might know the answer. According to Koch, consciousness arises within any sufficiently complex, information-processing system. All animals, from humans on down to earthworms, are conscious; even the internet could be. That’s just the way the universe works."

Read the rest on Wired.com

(via Grahamhancock.com)

The Wisdom of Robert Anton Wilson

Pretty awesome talk about Robert Anton Wilson by John Higgs. 

91 Centimeters

This is a short animated film that I watched this morning.  At first my thoughts about what the movie meant ran towards whether or not the individual is the center of his or her own universe; that is, did the meteorite knock the man, Henry, out of his world by 91 centimeters or did it knock the world 91 centimeters away from him.  Of course, when I contemplated the role of the psychologist/psychiatrist in the overall narrative, I began to see the movie as a parable for some sort of sudden onset mental illness that Henry is dealing with all alone; thus the relative or I guess absolute indifference of everyone around him.

What do you think?   

Reality's hidden layers

A Midsummer Night's Dream

I have always associated Midsummer with the first few days of August, but it is technically a ancient pagan summer solstice celebration, appropriated into St. John's Day among Christians.  Among the rituals is the lighting of bonfires, because it was/is believed that once the sun starts it southward journey again and summer wanes while winter waxes, evil spirits and witches were free again to roam the earth.  The fires were supposed to protect mere mortals from the spirit beings.

"It is at Midsummer that the Holly King, God of the Waning Year, has encountered the Oak King and succeeded in usurping the reign of the year. In Celtic Mythology the Young God withdraws into the Wheel of the Stars and it is here he waits and learn before his rebirth at Winter Solstice. It is the time when Belenus, Belenos - the Sun god, begins to die, fir-branches; Balefires; were kindled to light his downward path, he will return again at the Winter Solstice, when the Yule logs and lit fir-braches will guide His return."

"The passion at Midsummer has escalated from the playfulness of Beltane to a more fervent intensity. Couples who handfasted the year before at Beltane, tend to marry in a more formal handfasting at Midsummer or Lughnasadh. Divination on matters of love are especially powerful Midsummer's eve. In Scandinavian countries, the night before Midsummer, every young girl places a bunch of flowers tied with nine pieces of grass or nine flowers under her pillow, upon which she will sleep and dream of her future husband. In Ireland the young lasses place yarrow under her pillow to dream of her mate.

The moon of Midsummer have a few names one being the Honey Moon, as this is a time when the hives are been rich in honey, which gathered and fermented into a drink known as mead, customarily, drunk at wedding parties. Mead is rumored to be an aphrodisiac; thus we can observe the roots of modern day marriage practices and "honeymoons", in their Pagan soil."

It is from these rituals and myths, among others associated with this holiday, I suppose, that Shakespeare drew inspiration for what is my favorite play of his, "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and the play relies heavily on spirits wandering the earth, meddling in the weddings and love lives of mortals.

One of these spirits, Puck, who is clearly the embodiment of the trickster, is far and away the show stealer.  So, because it is the middle of the summer, I'll leave you with some of my favorite parts of the play involving Puck.  Revel in the language of a true master of the word.



 Fairy: Either I mistake your shape and making quite,
Or else you are that shrewd and knavish sprite
Call'd Robin Goodfellow: are not you he
That frights the maidens of the villagery;
Skim milk, and sometimes labour in the quern
And bootless make the breathless housewife churn;
And sometime make the drink to bear no barm;
Mislead night-wanderers, laughing at their harm?
Those that Hobgoblin call you and sweet Puck,
You do their work, and they shall have good luck:
Are not you he?

 PUCK: Thou speak'st aright;
I am that merry wanderer of the night.
I jest to Oberon and make him smile
When I a fat and bean-fed horse beguile,
Neighing in likeness of a filly foal:
And sometime lurk I in a gossip's bowl,
In very likeness of a roasted crab,
And when she drinks, against her lips I bob
And on her wither'd dewlap pour the ale.
The wisest aunt, telling the saddest tale,
Sometime for three-foot stool mistaketh me;
Then slip I from her bum, down topples she,
And 'tailor' cries, and falls into a cough;
And then the whole quire hold their hips and laugh,
And waxen in their mirth and neeze and swear
A merrier hour was never wasted there.
But, room, fairy! here comes Oberon.

(more after the break)

Alan Watts - The Fool,The Joker And The Monk

The Omega Point [Jason Silva]

Joe Rogan - Seek to improve yourself (NSFW due to curse words)

Life Emergence