Cave of Forgotten Dreams

We're a species with amnesia says Graham Hancock over and over again. Given how little we know of our origins and how suspect the whole academia peer review process is (homogeneous story telling by committee) it's important to embrace the mystery of our existence. 


We can barely tell what it was like 500 years ago apart from rudimentary and subjective texts but still we behave like most people can describe the downfall of Rome, the origins of enlightenment or the inspiration for the renaissance. Wind the clock back further and we're looking at a film by Werner Herzog of cave paintings. They cry out with more elegance than the crudeness of early cave man as if to say it's not us you want to pay attention to. It's the fleeing animals. We're just in a cave painting the last sight of nature we saw before escaping. Well that's my fantasy for the day. Who knows?

Are You Thinking What I'm Thinking?

Update: Marina Abramovic has inspired Lady Gaga to explore performance art.

The Chances Of Anything Coming From...

I just love that all the UFO action is happening in Nakhon Sawan. Sawan means heaven in Thai.

Radiohead

It's not often I post music but this did make my body hair (cute & fluffy as it is) stand on end. I've no idea why British music has been so fecund in the 20th and 21st century. Love the dancing moves. We should all dance more and talk less.

Perpetual Motion?

I've no idea whether this is a hoax but the topic is certainly popping up on the radar lately from Escher to a Youtube link I spotted Faris sharing on Facebook the other day.

Space Time

So much is dependant on the velocity and vectors of space time as we perceive it. I was reading about meditation increasing the clock cycle of the brain and thus slowing time down ( I may have that the wrong way round) which is an insight into conciousness.

Ancient Aliens

Over the weekend I kicked back and watched the entire series of Ancient Aliens. Irrespective of whether the evidence is conclusive or inconclusive it's some of the best and most interesting video content I've seen period. The episode below is an hour and a half of freshly uploaded video so unless you've seen it on TV it's probably new to you too. 


I've been pursuing a couple of key themes lately on quantum mechanics and mysticism, and there's a lot of barmy stuff out there but History.Com here have churned out some of the finest produced material I've come across. I've always had trouble switching off and relaxing but I spent a lot of enjoyable hours learning more than I ever expected.


In Particular (for me) my attention has narrowed in on the Sumerian culture who may possibly be even more interesting than the Egyptians; if anything could ever possibly be more interesting than the Egyptians given the pivotal role in contemporary and ancient world history. (Watch that space closely as it unfolds)

Zeitgeist

Zeitgeist was much more useful for me the second time round than the first. It compelled me to drill down into topics I don't really have enough time for till cloning is on the table but the result of that work was happily fruitful and in some ways releases some spare tick over capacity I'd probably cordoned off subconsciously when asking that really boring question. Who am I?

I still ask of course but some of the chronology has been taken off my shoulders.

I learned that the producer of Zeitgeist relented to the inquisition for his full name and gave the interview above. He's got two things going for him. He's young and he's rapaciously clever. I only know that because I was getting hammered and laid in bars at his age. I'm a late bloomer. He works in advertising sometimes so I thought that was interesting. 

His name is Peter.

War Porn - Festival of Dangerous Ideas

I was all prepared to criticize P.W. Singer in this talk, properly entitled Wired for War at the Festival of Dangerous Ideas. He's too young to work at a think tank, he must be immoral for working at the Pentagon, he's too tall and so on and so forth but in conclusion it's a useful exploration of technology acceleration in war though it really is depressing to hear a well framed adumbration of war technology squared when the reality of an ecologically strip mined planet with obesity and hunger as the definitive wellbeing paradigm is where the good brains should really be put to work.

Update: Original video censored or deleted. Replacement is a similar presentation.

In Defense of Philosophy: Derek Jarman - Wittgenstein

Whenever I hit on a rich seam of content of the net I mine it empty like the hardcore info glutton I am. About 5 years ago there was nothing on the internet in video or audio that Chomsky had said, and which I hadn't consumed (the only use of that word I feel comfortable with). That's changed a bit as there are whole channels devoted to Chomsky who I fear is the last great American intellectual. The rest being too cowardly to take on the Anti Semitic Zionists dominating Israeli and AIPAC political discourse at present (though at least the formidable Haaretz is printing more bravely than any American newspaper has done).

Recently I just wolfed down Zizek's entire content except for a badly recorded lecture, a problem that recurs often with many amateur recordings, and may require a software solution that just irons out the speakers voice for something more synthetic but less aggressive on my ears and speakers.

I've been wanting to write about this Golden Age of the internet. It's truly awesome and I can't imagine it being any better than this. In fact I dread it all going downhill compared to the current flood of top quality content, peer to peer sharing, pretty good speeds/bandwidth, and net neutrality. I can't imagine this lasting given the disproportionate advantages that predatory business takes of any commons resources (House of Commons is next) and the depressing discretions that people/public seem willing to sacrifice, but I might be wrong on that as even China struggles to keep a lid on content it doesn't want shared and at least the French seem prepared to protest on behalf of Europe.

I don't want to write too much about Derek Jarman's Wittgenstein as I've not seen it yet. But it is 69.2% downloaded and as it's 4.33 am and I've an early start tomorrow I should try and grab another hour or so because the real point is I woke up in the wee hours and just passed a pleasant hour listening to Tariq Ali (lovely chap) and Jonathan Derbyshire (he seems like a nice lad too) talking about all things Ludwig and Jarman, through the generosity of the Tate Channel which just emphasises that point I want to elaborate on which is that that I'm finding a critical mass of content on the subjects and topics I'm most interested in. Often there's only a few thousand views of it on Youtube so I can't imagine this is any different and yet it's a lovely example of the long tail in action. Or at least keeping my boat floating.

Scheduled Vs Unscheduled Content

Sometimes we get a bit bogged down with which pipes the content is delivered on or what screen it's going to be viewed with. It's true that you can tell a lot from the contextual variables for enjoyment based on that but in principle the single largest differentiator in terms of value for video content is scheduled versus unscheduled. The reason for that was brought home again listening to you lot on Twitter talking about how rubbish the last episode of LOST was.

I should thank you for that. I don't watch many TV shows and even films are a struggle outside of a movie theatre but I make an effort to download something I keep hearing about so I can keep an eye on TV culture. 

Even though LOST was obviously a bit contrived at points (how many fit babes can you fit on a beach?) I was into the second series and doubting if that was a wise investment of time but you nailed it for me by saving me having to endure all of the series only to be disappointed at the end. 

Though it was interesting to make a note of you scheduled types because apart from it being more expensive to watch it's also a lot more sociable in that format. Which is what I mean by scheduled versus unscheduled. TV was often a lot more social than we gave it credit for. Do you remember the next day when Del Trotter famously leaned on a non existent bar in Only Fools and Horses? Everybody was miming it weren't they. It was so funny and so memorable.

The wire is different though YO! I love the characters and script writing  in it (You feel me?).

So if you have any other must see tips I'd love to know what is culturally important and maybe why you think that too would be great.

Through Ficken Fin (Some thoughts on social media)

When is Germany going to wake up to the genius that is Marcus Brown?

Hero

I did mention back here that the Scandinavians are producing some of the smartest and most creative work on the planet and I stand by it. Particularly digital.


Via Leon

Context Collapse

In itself context collapse is a heavy duty context, but however we approach the meaning of meaning, this Youtube presentation by Professor Michael Wesch of Kansas State University given at the Personal Democracy Forum is essential viewing.

Neurological Processing

I find it deeply human to know that my consciousness is somewhat analogous to the broadband internet connection I'm using to write this (and download (illegally of course) The Wire and Family Guy with a P2P bit torrent utility). What is amazing is that to concentrate, I'm also ignoring the roughly-equivalent data-bandwidth of the whole 70 story apartment building block overlooking Victoria Harbour in Tung Chung (is that right?) and Chek Lap Kok airport.

Basically our brains are a vast filtering system designed to keep us focused and with enough back office processing to have an imagination too. This very short video is brilliant and comes via the formidable Katie Chatfield who along with Gavin were top of my Australia visit-list (and of course Angus) before all this Dacoity/Detective Inspector Clouseau stuff that I'm hoping will make some progress very shortly.

Check out Sputnik Observatory for more hardcore info-porn over here.

The Economist - Digital Nomads

"Every morning, when I get up say around 6.30 or 7.00, I go to my God, which sits in my kitchen and I have a two minute word with him, asking him to reduce my broadband costs which we have to incur every month" - I love Indians.

How To Pronounce Beijing

Let's start as we mean to go on shall we. No need for French emulation.

Special Olympics Update

Jon Stewart punctures the hypocrisy of the U.S. and makes us laugh at the same time.

Film & Music Matter

Age picks up on a piece of film that is ace.

Paris Hilton

See more funny videos at Funny or Die

When I read Alex Bogusky talking about Paris Hilton's intelligence in this Fast Company interview I thought it an interesting comment, and now I've seen the video I actually think she comes across as articulate and in control. See for yourself.