March 2011
The Cruise: Speed Levitch →
courtesy of optimisto
The Cosmic Wow Happening Right Now
“On this bridge,” Lorca warns,
“life is not a dream. ” Beware and beware and… beware.” And so many think because “then” happens, ” now” isn’t. But didn’t I mention the ongoing “wow” is happening right now? We are all coauthors of this dancing exuberance… where even our inabilities are having a roast. We are...
Purple Pedal Power Berry Bicycle Blender →
WatchThe Most Depressing Part of My Week
Kopi goes down:(
Brain-computer implant has passed 1000-day... →
fuckyeahneuroscience:
A paralysed woman was still able to accurately control a computer cursor with her thoughts 1000 days after having a tiny electronic device implanted in her brain, say the researchers who devised the system. The achievement demonstrates the longevity of brain-machine implants.
The woman, for whom the researchers use the pseudonym S3, had a brainstem stroke in the...
The King of Limbs and David Lynch →
Film critics love to throw around the word “Lynchian” to describe genre films that borrow a few of those elements. These pieces shift dramatically in tone, and rather abruptly so, too. There’s this dreamlike quality to them that baits its audience and it’s been programmed that way. There’s a specific reasoning for every image, every sound, and every action. Or, is there? That’s the game.
Not to...
The truth can set you free…and get you fired →
Pastors and Shepherds, here are some helpful tips if you wish to remain employed. Disregard at your own risk.
Don’t blog or Facebook.
If you ignore #1, at least do so anonymously.
If you ignore #1 and #2, be sure your stuff is fluff. Write about daisies, the weather, your kids t-ball game, vacation plans, car repairs, and dinner recipes.
If you ignore #1, 2, and 3 and choose...
Radiohead — All for the Best
Kid Genius says Big-Bang is Wrong →
When Jacob Barnett first learned about the Schrödinger equation for quantum mechanics, he could hardly contain himself.
For three straight days, his little brain buzzed with mathematical functions.
From within his 12-year-old, mildly autistic mind, there gradually flowed long strings of pluses, minuses, funky letters and upside-down triangles — a tapestry of complicated symbols that few...
Christian Corruptions
Some might wonder whether the integrity of the Christian message was really preserved during Greek Hellenization. In contrast to the Apocalyptic Hebrew God, the Hellenized God came about through a long line of preceding Greek metaphysicians (for example, Xenophanes, Parmenides, Heraclitus, Plato, etc.) whose philosophies were later Christianized by St. Augustine (Third and Fourth-Century A.D) and...
“If human appetites are mistakenly viewed as the only authentic reality and “now”...”
– Neal A. Maxwell
Psychedelics and Religious Experience, by Alan... →
The experiences resulting from the use of psychedelic drugs are often described in religious terms. They are therefore of interest to those like myself who, in the tradition of William James,1 are concerned with the psychology of religion. For more than thirty years I have been studying the causes, the consequences, and the conditions of those peculiar states of consciousness in which the...
While we certainly can be moral without religion...
Divine Coporeality
Some religious scholars have argued that any scriptural reference to divine parenthood, or even divine corporeality, should not be taken literally, but metaphorically. Anglican theologian, John Macquarrie, observes: “That God is a purely spiritual being, immaterial, invisible, intangible is assumed to be a basic truth by the great majority of those who believe in God. To suggest that God might...
A Wish of Comfort for the Japanese People →
My heart throbs with empathy for the Japanese who are experiencing such all-encompassing destruction and suffering from the natural disaster. I hold you in my heart through-out the day, and wish I could just spend some time with each person suffering to offer a warm blanket, listen to your fears and comfort your distress in any small way that I can. Perhaps a warm wash cloth to wipe off the grit...
“Whether our service is to our fellowmen or to God, it is the same.”
– Dallin H. Oaks
Joy
Experiencing joy is a matter of living righteously, plain and simple. But the profundity of living righteously entails first that we know what righteousness is. It is a chosen way of life built upon intelligence, self-control, and compassion. Only impatience prompts the idea of sudden improvement and thereby richer joys, but this is self-delusion. Real joy is fought for and earned.
The methods by...
“Intellect is…a vital force in history, but it can also be a dissolvent and...”
– Will Durant
“I hope that you understand what the word ’spiritual’ really means. It means to...”
– Lama Zopa Rinpoche
