I’ve had enough of this full-sized blogging crap! I’m a busy man!
Well yeah, I find the desire to post highly-revised content means I’m not touching on enough stuff. So micro-blogging it is. I’ll post here as I can but Twitter will give you a more up-to-date rundown on my thoughts, which you want of course. I’m displaying it to the left or you can click here.
http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/c0cf508ff8
(I’m back! And trying less-involved post content to acheive more frequent posts.)
Read this fascinating letter from Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to President-Elect Barack Obama. It’s interesting—definitely aggressive; not exactly polite. But it sort of passive-aggressively says, “I hope we can reach a peaceful situation.” Not a bad sign from a feared dictator.
Listen. We have the opportunity to really work to bring about peace in the world. I think electing Barack Obama as President of the United States could be the start of a great era on Earth. What if we said to the other major leaders of the world, “Look, how do we get peace with you? Let’s do it. (Yes) We can.”
Imagine of John McCain lead an intiative for all the people who voted for him: “Look, you voted for me, and we lost. But now we’ve still got to do what we said we would: work together to come up with solutions that will make this country work. I want to join hands with Barack Obama and make this happen. With your help, (yes) we can.”
This election will be remembered. But imagine if it marks the start of a new era in not just American, but World politics—one in which the entire world realizes that we can work together to solve the great challenges of our generation–to bring about peace and prosperity to all.
The time has come. We are too smart to let the world continue in upheaval as it has. We are smart enough to figure out ways to keep the world peaceful and prosperous. For all the intelligence built up in millions of well-educated and wise thinkers around the globe, we can find a way to make our global society work.
Leaders of the world, and particularly President-Elect Obama, I urge you to make this kind of change an important part of your agenda. (Yes) We can do this.
Elephants communicate with infrasound, rumblings at frequencies too low for us to hear. The sounds travel at least 4 km (2.5 mi) through the ground; elephants listen for these with extra-sensitive feet. Each species has a complex library of calls–greetings, mating announcements, long-range group coordination–and can recognize the “voices” of family members. Check out the Elephant Listening Project, where you can listen to recordings of calls.
This is beautiful, stunning, computer-aided mechanical art. See your face in blocks of wood. This one’s my favorite video, but check out all of Daniel Rozin’s mechanical mirrors and other cool interactive art.
Jack Kerouac is an essential American author. You can read a scanned image of the first page-worth of the 120-foot scroll on which he typed On the Road in a single paragraph. They’ve come out with a book that recreates the scroll.
Jill Bolte Taylor is a neuroanatomist who had a stroke and remembers the whole process. Her talk at TED is absolutely fascinating and inspiring.
Thanks to Matt for the tip.
Dr. Albert Hofmann, on the occasion of celebrating the 50th anniversary of his famous bicycle ride: “You, my dear friends, and millions all over the world who now commemorate the 50th birthday of ergot’s child, we all testify gratefully that we got valuable help on the way to what Aldous Huxley said is the end and the ultimate purpose of human life–enlightenment, beatific vision, love. I think all these joyful testimonies of invaluable help by LSD should be enough to convince the health authorities, finally, of the nonsense of the prohibition of LSD and of similar psychedelics.”
A clam was found in Iceland, cut open, and had its rings counted. It was over 400 years old. Sadly, the procedure killed the creature. Who knows how much longer it would’ve lived?
Did you know? The USA PATRIOT Act is an acronym? That is, the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act. Wonder how long it took ‘em to work that one out. Oh well; this article hepped me to the acronym-ness and the news that a judge just struck down key parts of the act. It’s a start.
Friends, I’d like to tell you about psilocybin. It’s the active molecule in psychedelic mushrooms and the focus of a 2006 study by Roland Griffiths and others at Johns Hopkins University. Most participants in the double-blind study, full text here, reported having mystical experiences—for many, the most profound experiences of their lives. Follow-ups with the participants several months later indicated they were happier and more productive; this was corroborated by interviews with friends, family, and co-workers.
More studies must be conducted to investigate how psilocybin and other psychoactives have the potential for positive impact on society. The government also needs to get its head out of its ass and let its citizens do what they want.
Here’s Q&A with Griffiths, who headed the study. Here’s the Wikipedia article on psilocybin. Here’s an Independent article outlining some of the positive benefits and research possibilities of several other controlled substances.
Swarm theory has been around for a while, but this National Geographic article is the first comprehensive piece I’ve read on it. Smart swarms occur in all kinds of creature societies, including our own, and the theory has useful applications in lots of human endeavors. I’m interested in training people to use swarm theory when they’re in large groups—say, at Burning Man.
Scope their cool photos too—above is a flock of starlings!
My one problem with the article: they’re so matter-of-fact about how it “wasn’t intuitive” for delivery truck drivers to travel way farther than they had before–but “the savings have been impressive”!
It’s been a while since my last post. REAL life’s been so fascinating, I’ve hardly any time to relate its wonders electronically! Fret not; I’m saving things up and will dispense as I can. Since you’re hanging on my every post and all.
Anyway, I just randomly stumbled across cartoons by Patrick Smith and was struck by their imagery and storytelling. Here’s a fun one:
I’d like to use this small, rickety soapbox to say that I want Barack Obama to be our next president. I read (okay, listened to the audiobook of) The Audacity of Hope, his second memoir, and was thoroughly impressed. A lot of the book analyzes the current situation of American politics and talks about how it could/should be, and a lot of it is practical. It’s also clear in the book that Barack just wants to bring good to the world—not just to his constituents or the people who gave him money. Plus he’s really smart, which is something I’d like to see in our next Commander in Chief.
Barack’s campaign is really grass-roots; it’s raised a great deal of its money in increments of $10 to $50. Saturday June 9 they’re having a Walk for Change where volunteers will knock on doors and get people excited about the campaign. I’ll be one of them! I encourage you to find a Walk for Change in your neighborhood.
When Rachmaninoff heard Art Tatum play, he said he was the great pianist in any style. When Art Tatum entered a club where Fats Waller was performing, Fats stood up saying, “I only play the piano, but tonight God is in the house.”
Here’s a video of him swinging Dvorak.
Google brings my front door to the world. Currently there’s only data for certain metropolitan areas: New York, Miami, Las Vegas, Denver, and a whole lot of the San Francisco Bay Area. Check out my gate; garage; front window! Right now! Good thing we had our curtains closed!
More cool views:
To further ambiguate the purposes of this blog, I’ll post a neat tip for Apple Macintosh users.
That fart-like sound that plays when you change the volume on a Mac can be annoying, but occasionally it’s useful. If you turn it off (System Preferences > Sound > uncheck “Play feedback when volume is changed”) you can always get the feedback by pressing Shift while changing the volume. The rest of the time you can set your levels in peace.
By the way, is ambiguate really a word?
This is interesting for the sheer incomprehensibility of its statements. Let me know if you have any idea what this person is trying to say. I’ll see if I can wade through to the bottom.
<–from Wikipedia
