Something to look At

The Great Statue of Amida Buddha at Kamakura, Known as the Daibutsu, from the Priest's Garden

John La Farge
(American, New York 1835–1910 Providence, Rhode Island)

From the Metropolitan Museum of Art Collection

Aesop Rock - None Shall Pass

For your listening and viewing pleasure.  Aesop Rock's "None Shall Pass"

For your viewing pleasure

Considered by many as one of the worst movies ever made. "Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (1964)

Alan Watts Quote

Hit Them Hard!

Though we haven't had too many of these days this April, seeing as April is all but over I thought I should get this one on the old 'Alarm before we actually find ourselves in the middle of May.

"The sun was warm but the wind was chill.
You know how it is with an April day
When the sun is out and the wind is still,
You're one month on in the middle of May.
But if you so much as dare to speak,
A cloud comes over the sunlit arch,
A wind comes off a frozen peak,
And you're two months back in the middle of March."

If you're interested you can find the rest of the poem here.

 

A RAW Comercial Break

Cosmic Trigger Broadcast 01// Visual Propaganda meme for the Robert Anton Wilson based, audio visual stage performance extravaganza that is cosmictriggerplay.com by Daisy Campbell

1 of 5 : CTB_01// Network23 from amoeba on Vimeo.

And a pleasant song with some Robert Anton Wilson samples:

The Artist's Task - Abby Martin

Commercial Break

 Amazing. 



(via disinfo.com)

James Joyce reading from 'Finnegans Wake'

Laszlo Moholy-Nagy's Diagram of Finnegans Wake (1946)

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)

How do we know the Earth goes about the sun?

Image: NASA. A view of the sunrise (and moon) as seen from the ISS captured by astronaut Karen Nyberg

"The geocentric model is no more crazy than saying that a tennis ball is made of protons, neutrons and electrons. Sure, we all (most of us) believe there are these particles like electrons – but how do normal humans know this? In fact, the evidence in our everyday lives doesn’t make it obvious that there are protons and electrons (yes, you could argue the mere fact of things like computers says these have to exist). The same is true for the heliocentric model."

"The first big problem with the geocentric model was the retrograde motion of planets like Mars. If you looked at the location of Mars each night, it might sometimes do this."

(Read the rest  at Wired)

Robert Anton Wilson - Trajectories

'Trajectories' was the name of Robert Anton Wilson's newsletter which was published highly irregularly. The book "Chaos and Beyond" is a collection of some of the best articles.  Some of the issues would arrive in paper form, as a video tape or as a cassette.  Recently found of youtube were two of the video issues.  In these, RAW talks over a video of an aquarium. 

Issue 13

Issue 15

The great fan site Rawilsonfans.com has several of the other trajectories in PDF format.  A great read if you've got time to kill. 

Trajectories Spring 1979

Trajectories Fall 1981

Trajectories March 1982

Trajectories Spring 1993 12

Trajectories Spring 1995 14

Trajectories Autumn 1996 16/17

Journey - Awesome looking wordless Kids book

"Journey" written by Aaron Becker.  

(via brainpickings.org)

How big is the Universe?

How Big Is The Universe? from Beakus on Vimeo.

(via IO9.com)

Web Nuggets: Strange Days

Here are some of the stranger stories that I have seen floating around the web.

Mars rover captures beam of light on Mars

(via huffingtonpost.com)


Deer in a UFO's headlight


from WLOX:
" JACKSON COUNTY, MS (WLOX) -
They were caught on camera the night of February 16. Mysterious lights that appeared in the sky over the 150 acres that Rainer and Edith Shattles call home in the Cumbest Bluff area of Jackson County. Were they a phenomenon that's simple to explain, or something else?
The Shattles never tire of looking at the strange images caught by their trail cameras on that clear winter night.
"We have unusual things happen around here that happen, but it's usually associated with our grandchildren. But this case, we didn't know what it was," Edith recalled. "I was looking for a nice buck to be showing up on the trail camera actually."
The timeline of the pictures is clear. At 7:24pm, deer appear and all is normal. At 7:29, a dim light appears. At 7:35, it gets brighter. Then at 7:53, a weird shape appears on the camera.  The deer are lit up brightly, but how? The cameras are infrared and don't emit light. At 7:56, another sharper light appears, then it gets much closer, seemingly focused on the deer. It looks like headlights, but well off the ground and there is no road. It then flies away. (read the rest)

NASA's plans on the End of Days 

(Via Disinfo.com)

7 cursed objects

7) The Dybbuk Box

In Jewish folklore, a dybbuk is an evil spirit. Supposedly, a Holocaust survivor accidentally summoned the demon while using a homemade Ouija board, but managed to trap it inside the wine cabinet. Kevin Mannis bought the box at an estate sale in 2001, and immediately started having nightmares about an evil hag — as did friends who stayed with him. Mannis gave the box to his mother, who suffered a stroke on the same day. The box's later owners have also claimed the dybbuk has appeared in their nightmares as well. The last owner was Jason Haxton, Director of the Museum of Osteopathic Medicine, who not only had nightmares but developed a strange skin disease and began coughing up blood. At that point, Haxton contacted his local Rabbis, sealed the Dybbuk back in the box, and then hid it from the world. Thanks, dude!

(via IO9.com)

Are these fairies?  (Via Huffingtonpost.com)
" A British professor is getting a swarm of attention for a series of photos depicting tiny creatures that he suggests look like fairies." (read the rest)