The story of physicist Richard Feynman's fascination with the remote Asian country of Tannu Tuva, and his efforts to go there with his great friend and drumming partner Ralph Leighton (co-author of the classic 'Surely You're Joking, Mr Feynman'). Feynman was dying of cancer when this was filmed, and died a few weeks after the filming. Originally shown in the BBC TV science series 'Horizon' in 1988, and also shown in the USA on PBS 'Nova' under the title 'Last Journey of a Genius'
Spent this last weekend with a Thai friend at Doi Inthanon National Park, a little over an hour's drive from my home here in Northern Thailand. It contains the highest spot in the country at 2,565 m [8,415 ft.], an abundance of natural beauty, both flora and fauna, and the site of the Napamaytanidol Chedi which features two stately stupas erected in honour of the present King and Queen of Thailand. The climate up at the top is somewhat cool at all times of the year and the sun can often be temporarily obscured by the sudden appearance of soft enveloping clouds.
There is a pleasant nature walk at the summit with a National Park guide which includes passing through a succession of differing micro-climates - from drippy rain-forest, mountain meadows, vistas of valleys far below and even includes native rhododendrons [Doi Inthanon is the most southerly extension of the Himalayan mountain range].
[click to enlarge]
The Queen's stupa
Within the Doi Inthanon park is the Napamaytanidol Chedi, which includes sweeping vistas of the valley below. The two Royal stupas commemorate the 60th birthday of the King and Queen and have a number of exquisite tiled murals and are surrounded by well tended gardens. However, cloud cover is frequent and visibility can change from one moment to the next.
“Sita Sings the Blues, Nina Paley’s new film, which arrives in New York on Friday trailing festival love, is certainly ambitious and visually loaded. There are songs, bright colors and a story taken in part from one of the biggest, oldest epics in the world. But it is also modest, personal and, in spite of Ms. Paley’s use of digital vector graphic techniques, decidedly handmade. A Pixar or DreamWorks extravaganza typically concludes with a phone book’s worth of technical credits. Ms. Paley did everything in “Sita” — an amazingly eclectic, 82-minute tour de force — by herself.
Well, she didn’t sing the songs. Instead, she selected recordings from the early jazz singer Annette Hanshaw, whose voice, poised between heartbreak and soigné resignation, sets a mood of longing for this multilayered tale of love gone wrong. This music also provides an unlikely but seductive accompaniment to the main story, which comes from the Ramayana, an ancient and voluminous Indian epic.
Its hero is the blue-skinned Rama, avatar of the deity Vishnu, but Ms. Paley is more interested in Sita, his wife, whose devotion becomes both a romantic inspiration and a feminist cautionary tale. Her adventures are narrated by three shadow puppets who speak in the accents of modern Indian English and who quibble over details and interpretations.
Meanwhile, Sita, Rama and other characters from the Ramayana are rendered in various styles, including a “Betty Boop Goes Bollywood” look for the musical numbers and an illuminated-manuscript manner for the dramatic scenes." ...
This is not the first time that I have mentioned Sita Sings the Blues, a personal favorite work of creative genius. And coincidentally a friend brought over a copy of the Sita DVD yesterday. I immediately called a couple of friends and neighbors who are film aficionados and we had an impromptu 'Sita' party.
"The Mexico City government approved a far-reaching gay-rights bill Monday, voting to allow people of the same sex to marry and to adopt children.
Ending a lively debate and turning aside opposition from the influential Roman Catholic Church, this massive city's leftist-dominated legislature approved the measure by a 39-20 vote. Mayor Marcelo Ebrard must sign the bill into law, and he is expected to do so.
Uruguay was the first country in Latin America to recognize same-sex unions. But Mexico City's initiative goes further by rewriting the law to redefine "marriage" as a "free union between two people."
"Con el voto mayoritario de los diputados de PRD y PT, la Asamblea Legislativa del Distrito Federal (ALDF) aprobó ayer las reformas al Código Civil de esta capital, mediante las cuales se legaliza el matrimonio entre parejas del mismo sexo, quienes incluso tendrán derecho a adoptar hijos." ......
Was amused by one of the reader's comments in La Jornada: "¿Y la opinión de la iglesia?, pues que se expresen estan en su derecho, pero no vale madre. [And the church's opinion? Well, it is their right to express it, but it isn't worth shit]."
"There are many reasons for hoping the Senate health care bill doesn't become the law of the land. But the biggest reason of all is the desperate need for a DC pattern interrupt. The desperate need to draw a line in the sand against the continued domination of our democracy -- and the continued undermining of the public interest -- by special interests. From start to finish, the insurance and drug industries -- and their army of lobbyists -- had control over the process that resulted in a bill that is reform in name only. A new study found that 179 former congressmen and Congressional staffers were actively engaged in lobbying their former colleagues on the bill. The companies they were working for spent $635 million on lobbying. It was money extremely well spent."
Wake up call for Americans - your government is NOT managed by your elected representatives, but by the lobbyists with the big bucks.
The first decade of the year 2000 is at a point of change. [Although the only significace that I can fathom is that there is always change.]
December 21, 2009 will be the shortest day of this year, and tomorrow the days begin to lengthen as the new year, and new decade, begins. Most people wait for the calendar celebration on the 31st of this month, but my personal change is at hand with the Solstice. And in order to celbrate I usually produce a new fractal design, created specifically for this date.
"Femke Hiemstra’s meticulously tight, jewel like mixed media paintings and exquisitely rendered black and white drawings are homes to a dark fairytale land where inanimate objects come to life and frolic with animal neighbors. Lollipops become ship captains, strawberries become giant wrestlers, and vegetables become Halloween gods with lantern eyes. Femke occasionally uses typography in her work, using words from various languages and letters in her paintings to further enhance the narrative while still retaining a playful sense of mystery, or as a visual device to frame in the scenery, as if you were looking at her world through a secret window. She also uses found objects to paint on, such as boxes and wrappers, to create imaginary products with magical properties.
Drawing from a range of influences, from firework wrappers to Japanese woodblock prints, Femke’s use of both pop culture detritus and child-like fantasy create a vibrant playground for the imagination, with each piece looking like a portal for a fantastic adventure, which is left up to the viewer to imagine the story that lies inside."
Fox seems to get dumber with each passing day - obviously in order to please their not too bright viewing audiance. Jon Stewart discovers the 'dumb act' of Gretchen Carlson is just more of their 24/7 bullshit. Which leads one to believe that the only truthful thing about that network is that they really are catering to the abysmally low I.Q.'s of their 'all uhmericun' viewers.
As anyone who speaks English knows, 'Oh My God [OMG] is a frequent expression, used on a daily basis, to express wonder or surprise about anything of an extraordinary nature.
Have noticed recently that here in Northern Thailand, among those Thais who frequently speak English, that they have begun using the term 'Oh My Buddha' [OMB] instead of 'oh my God'. At first it sounds a bit odd, but I think is quite clever. Why should the Buddhists let the Christians monopolize the diety department?
"Obama voters" ??? So now everyone who voted for President Obama is going to hell. Well that is certainly news.
"Jesse Morrell — a 25-year-old evangelist preacher from Cheshire, Conn., who said he did three stints at the juvenile detention center on Whalley Avenue for selling drugs — says he knows where most Yale students are headed: hell.
For the past three days, Morrell has used Yale’s campus as the platform for his open-air preaching. A self-proclaimed born-again Christian, he has spent much of the past three days sermonizing about the “evils of sin” on Old Campus, Cross Campus and the section of Wall Street near Woodbridge Hall." ....
So some of the Yale students gave him something to really get his undies in a twist over....
I am constantly being reminded of how refreshing it is to live in a country devoid of evangelical imbeciles.
I have mentioned Jonathan Safran Foer several times in the past. A favorite author and it would appear he has had his first non-ficition book published.
"Jonathan Safran Foer spent much of his teenage and college years oscillating between omnivore and vegetarian. But on the brink of fatherhood-facing the prospect of having to make dietary choices on a child's behalf-his casual questioning took on an urgency His quest for answers ultimately required him to visit factory farms in the middle of the night, dissect the emotional ingredients of meals from his childhood, and probe some of his most primal instincts about right and wrong.
Brilliantly synthesizing philosophy, literature, science, memoir and his own detective work, Eating Animals explores the many fictions we use to justify our eating habits-from folklore to pop culture to family traditions and national myth-and how such tales can lull us into a brutal forgetting. Marked by Foer's profound moral ferocity and unvarying generosity, as well as the vibrant style and creativity that made his previous books, Everything is Illuminated and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, widely loved, Eating Animals is a celebration and a reckoning, a story about the stories we've told-and the stories we now need to tell." [Amazon]
Stumbled on a great little video [with a tip of the hat to Daniel at Unreasonable Faith].
Clear, concise, great illustration, and to the point. Summed up my personal point of view regarding 'God' and religion in only 3 minutes and 9 seconds. Now THAT is real winner of a video. None of the frequent anger and tanturms often represented on both sides of the aisle, 'pro' or 'con', but rather with logic, brilliantly conceived stickfigures, and a nice touch of humor.
Made by the talented Levni Yilmaz who has a website with more of his artwork.
Perhaps the most beautiful, poetic and melacholic, moment in the classic SF film 'Bladerunner' was the line 'like tears in rain' Curiously it was not a part of the original script, but rather just happened as Rutger Hauer was performing this moving scene. ' Roy', a non-human Replicant, knows that his alloted time to live has reached the end, and reflects:
"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I've watched c-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those ... moments will be lost in time, like tears ... in rain. Time to die."
Then for the first time in that vast multidude of buildings they had encountered here in this section of this inconceivably gigantic spaceship called Rama, with its large cities, there was an entrance door. On entering, it immediately became evident to both Cosmonauts that they had entered what appeared to be an enormous art gallery. The walls were covered in large panels of exquisite, yet somewhat curious, images, and not unsurprsingly, like everything in this enormous spaceship. they were grouped in series of threes. Each 'picture' was also composed of elements which repeated this seemingly Raman obsession with triplicity. What had appeared to be the transparent nature of this building from the outside proved to be an opitical illusion since it was composed of a multitude of different levels reached by graceful curving ramps, and each of the many levels had hunreds, perhaps thousands, of panels of works of art of this unknown species.
[click to enlarge]
It appeared that there was a common element in each series of three images, much like 'variations on a theme' of a classical musical composition of Earth.
Due to the almost real nature of the pictures the separate elements appeared to be hovering in space. It was Nicole who first curiously pushed a small button next to one of the panels and immediatey these new visitors, perhaps the first in millions of years, were presented with a large holographic image, more than two meters in height, which hovered in front of them. It was a breathtaking exerience. Then the holographic image of each of the images revealed themselves in gradual succession. As an accompaniment to the visual presentation there was the slight tinkling of what could only be likened to the sound of tubular wind chimes on their home planet.
Remember Ray Comfort's "Living Waters" handout of 170,000 copies of Darwin's 'Origin of Species' on various college campuses'? And which of course contained a 50 page introduction by none other than Mr. 'Banana-man' himself. It would appear that a large portion of that introduction was a direct copy of “A Brief History of Charles Darwin,” which Prof. Guffey, at the University of Tenneesee, wrote in 1997 for UT’s first Darwin Day event.
So why do people seem so surprised when notable christians plagiarize from other people and sources? Both old and new testaments of their holy and sacred book, supposedly written by the hand of God himself, have been conveniently lifted form other sources. Noah didn't exactly build a big boat and experience 'the Flood' himself, but rather stole the story from his neghbors the Sumerians taken from their Gilgamesh legend. From Genesis I to the Book of Revelations, the list of plagiarized passages is limitless and over the years has become a well established tradition.
So get over it folks. Christians get their 'copy cat' habits first hand, from their 'good book', and they are not about to change at this late date.
The following is an interesting clip from 'Zeitgeist', which shows how much of Christianity was adapted from other sources. But of course all religions build on each other, incorporate each other's myths and rituals, and then just rename and claim them as their own.
Jason Jones discovers how an Ohio tea party movement was torn apart by a plastic Jesus on a spring. [Or, how some American political movements continue to be the laughing stock of the entire world.]
"This is a spiritual book in the truest sense of the word. Although I kept laughing throughout the book, its simplicity is deceptive. Between the lines, Gilbert is about so much more: vitality, coming into one's own, creating reality and matching the soul's aspirations to the delicious unpredictability of life." [Amazon review]
"Gilbert's prose is fueled by a mix of intelligence, wit and colloquial exuberance that is close to irresistible, and makes the reader only too glad to join the posse of friends and devotees who have the pleasure of listening in." [JENNIFER EGAN, NY Times, Feb 2006]
I can't vouch for the book since I haven't been able to find a copy in the local English-language emporium known as Gekko Books. But she definitively is a brilliant, inspiring and humorous speaker. And I was certainly able to identify with her description of some of the pitfalls, joys and absolute wonder inherent in the creative process.
"Eat, Pray, Love" Author Elizabeth Gilbert muses on the impossible things we expect from artists and geniuses -- and shares the radical idea that, instead of the rare person "being" a genius, all of us "have" a genius. It's a funny, personal and surprisingly moving talk."
Elizabeth Gilbert: A new way to think about creativity
I knew it, I just knew it, and a fast Google search presented the evidence. The Catholics and Orthodox churches have a saint for EVERYTHING. Including, as it turns out, a Patron Saint of the Internet, St. Isidore of Sevilla. As a child growing up in Slovakia I had a large collection of the cards of saints, with all relevant information printed on the back - a saint for every occasion and need. Though as I recall St. Isidore wasn't among them.]
"St. Isidore followed his brother St. Leander as Archbishop of Seville, Spain. During the Middle Ages he was looked upon as “the Master” because of his “Etymologies,” twenty books that brought together all the religious and secular learning of his time. As a result, he has been invoked recently as the patron saint of the Internet and computer programmers."
Oh, St. Isidore I beseech you to grant my good friend and email companion Marina Baba of Sibiu, Romania, to have her internet connection restored pronto, if posible, mañana. I now light these candles in your name St. Isidore - now do your stuff.
[Now Blessed St. Isidore, I feel that modems are also a part of your domain since the Internet can't operate without modems. It may well be that she has a bad modem. If this is not a part of your heavenly duties, can you please direct me to the Patron Saint of Modems?]
Recently began rereading Arthur C. Clarke's excellent SF novels the 'Rama series'. These inventive novels contain an account of humanity's first three 'visitations' by an alien species. And in fact it provoked me to create the above fractal image entilted 'Rama Revealed III'. Then synchronistically a friend emailed, and knowing of my obsession with world of fractal design, asked if I had seen the Youtube video about 'fractals' introduced by. and featuring Arthur C. Clarke.
"Arthur C. Clarke presents this unusual documentary on the mathematical discovery of the Mandelbrot Set (M-Set) in the visually spectacular world of fractal geometry. This show relates the science of the M-Set to nature in a way that seems to identify the hand of God in the design of the universe itself. Dr. Mandelbrot in 1980 discovered the infinitely complex geometrical shape called the Mandelbrot Set using a very simple equation with computers and graphics."
Arthur Clarke - Fractals - The Colors Of Infinity [1 of 6]
"The country can have stability, prosperity and peace only if all Thai people perform their duties with sincerity, true intention and honesty, and put the country above self interest", His Majesty the King said in a speech from the throne on Saturday, his 82nd birthday.
"My happiness derives from the stability, prosperity and peace of our country," the King told members of the royal family, cabinet ministers, privy councilors, state officials and members of the House of Representatives. His Majesty this morning left Siriraj Hospital for the Amarin Winitchai Throne Hall in the Grand Palace, where he appeared to his subjects.
His Majesty called on all members of the country’s key institutions and the Thai people to perform their duty with sincerity, true intentions and honesty, and to put the benefit of the country above self interest. “Stability, prosperity and peace can occur only when all Thai people know their duty and fulfill their responsibilities,” the King said.
Saw this photo today on the internet, that inconceivably gigantic repository of images and words from all over the planet. Immediately recognized it as being "Mt. Tam" [Tamalpais], that most characteristic feature of Marin county, north of San Francisco. I lived on its forested slopes back in the 60's when I was attending San Francisco State and working on my masters degree. And later when I had a home there. An absolutely magical mountain.
However this is the view of Mount Tam which I often relished when I went over to the 'east bay' [Berkeley, Oakland] to visit with a friend who was studying at UC Berkeley. And obviously where the picture was taken.
Guess I was just born with an especially inquisitive mind. In fact my parents nicknamed me "Prečo" [precho], the Slovak word for 'why', since, after being informed of absolutely anything, it was my most common retort and immediate question. And that desire for knowledge has not abated with the passage of time but if possible, has grown even stronger.
As an adolescent growing up in So. California one of my mother's first purchases was a World Book Encyclopedia, which along with a gigantic Webster's dictionary, was located in the dining room, and hence never far from her grasp during our evening meals together. She considered food for the body and food for the mind to be somewhat synonymous.
When I entered L.A. State University and moved away from home, one of my cherished possessions was a set of Encyclopaedia Britannica, all 32 volumes, on very thin pages and relatively small print so as to include all possible information. This was the tool that assisted me nearly every day during my years at L.A. State University and later at S.F. State University.
Years later after we had entered the age of computers, naturally I purchased Microsoft's 'Encarta' on a single computer disk, not as complete as my beloved Encyclopaedia Britannica, but with a lot more illustrations and pretty pictures. Plus it had the ability to immediately access any related articles to the one I was reading. This was when I really learned how to 'copy and paste'.
In 2001 'Encarta' was eclipsed by the advent of Wikipedia, that online marvel of knowledge, and which soon became nearly everyone's choice of a favorite website. In addition, it had information available in hundreds of the world's languages. I still access it several times every day.
Well, there has been a new innovation in the world of knowledge and information, The WikiReader has arrived. A small battery operated device, which you can hold in the palm of your hand, and contains more than three million of the online Wikipedia articles - yet you don't have to be online to use it, since all the information is self-contained.
And what would any new innovation be without a YouTube video touting its virtues?
Not really my thing, but have a friend in the U.S. who is absolutely freaky about calendars, and he has a large and growing collection. I get a free one every year from the local Bangkok Bank, no pretty pictures but just filled with Thai holidays [they roll around with amazing frequency here]. Found an amazing website, Calendars, which has the most outstanding selection of calendars I have ever encontered in one place.
From Astronomy .....
..... to Astrology
And that was just in the 'A's. Over 3,000 '2010' calendars to choose from. Even found a 'Fractal' calendar.
But the most bizarre might well be the Latin Phrase-A-Day desk calendar.
"Latin is lively again in this amusing and incisive page-a-day calendar for 2010. Quips and quotations from the mother of the Romance languages appear on every page."...
OH MY GOD, this in incredbible. A simple tool which you can install on your browser toolbar which turns ANY page into readable type and in the process gets rid of all the crap. And more than afordable since it is free.
Yet another fractal creation, 'Dragons Tears'. These 'Dragons Tears' drop down out of the inky blackness, luminous points of sparkling, iridescent light, falling forever.
Dragon's Tears also produce an exquisite melodious sound, though infinitely melancholic, as they fall....
Cândido Godói,, a small town in Brazil, has long astonished the world with its very abnormally high level of birth rates for twins. The rate is nearly a thousand percent higher than the global average: "the 80 households in a one-square-mile area have reportedly some 38 pairs of twins. Blond, blue-eyed twins."
National Geographic Explorer is digging into this mystery and they have come up with a pretty out there, and horrifying, theory. They investigate claims that mad Nazi scientist Joseph Mengele, who escaped to Brazil, continued his research into using twins as a way to build a perfect Aryan master race. One historian thinks Mengele succeeded, and this town is the proof.
"Joseph Mengele, the escaped Nazi war criminal and SS physician, known as the Angel of Death, spent years doing bizarre medical experiments on twins at Auschwitz working to determine if twins held the key to building a blond-haired, blue-eyed master race for Adolf Hitler. Now a historian says he has evidence that Mengele's attempts may not have ended at Auschwitz, and that his obsession to engineer an Aryan master race continued, and that succeeded while he was on the run in South America. Deep in the Brazilian outback in a tiny town among the 80 households in a one-square-mile area are reportedly some 38 pairs of twins. Blond, blue-eyed twins. Bizarre and inexplicable, could they be the product of Mengele's machinations? Now, with exclusive access, EXPLORER goes inside the investigation; From the secret agents who trailed him, to the scientists now uncovering the facts behind the fantastical phenomenon, no stone is left unturned."
