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Compare and contrast: Bertrand Russell vs the guy who says the world is 6000 years old
04.03.2010
10:26 pm
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Happy Easter!
 

Posted by Richard Metzger
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04.03.2010
10:26 pm
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Big Think: Noam Chomksy shares his thoughts on the meaning of love
03.10.2010
09:55 pm
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Big Think is a website devoted to giving some big brains a platform to spout off on topics meaningful to them, and hopefully to other citizens of this planet we call Earth. With a cadre of boldface names like Ricky Gervais, Robert Wright, Stephen Fry and Ray Kurzweil, Big Think aims to put its readers in touch with… well, big thinkers on topics like sustainability, religion, alternate energy sources, artificial intelligence, history, justice, cultural identity, politics and much more. It is what tends to be called a “heady brew”!

Perusing the site this morning, I watched this sincere short video with M.I.T. professor Noam Chomsky—probably America’s single most important intellectual—discussing the concept of what love is. He admits at the outset that he really doesn’t know, but he takes a good stab at it anyway. Big Think does a great job at fulfilling its mission statement with articles and videos quite akin to TED conference speeches. If you like TED talks (and who doesn’t?) then Big Think is probably a site you’ll want to bookmark, pronto.

Here’s a tip: Don’t miss author Gay Talese on “getting drunk at the New York Times” in the 1960s
 
Cross posting this from Brand X

Posted by Richard Metzger
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03.10.2010
09:55 pm
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John Taylor Gatto: Another Brick in the Wall
03.05.2010
02:10 pm
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Gnostic Media just did a podcast interview with John Taylor Gatto, one of the world’s foremost critics of the educational system. Gatto was the New York State teacher of the year in 1991. He refused the award and instead used his stage time to discuss exactly how the state was paying him to damage children. His books have gone on to inform the home and alternative schooling movement, both left and right wing alike.

Continuing our education on the Trivium method, this is one of the most important and powerful interviews to date, and my guest for this week and next is John Taylor Gatto - probably the most famous school teacher in the world, and he was New York State teacher of the year when he quit on the OP Ed page of the Wall Street Journal in 1991.

John Taylor Gatto climaxed his teaching career as New York State Teacher of the Year after being named New York City Teacher of the Year on three occasions. He quit teaching on the OP ED page of the Wall Street Journal in 1991 while still New York State Teacher of the Year, claiming that he was no longer willing to hurt children. Later that year he was the subject of a show at Carnegie Hall called “An Evening With John Taylor Gatto,” which launched a career of public speaking in the area of school reform, which has taken Gatto over a million and a half miles in all fifty states and seven foreign countries. In 1992, he was named Secretary of Education in the Libertarian Party’s Shadow Cabinet, and he has been included in Who’s Who in America from 1996 on. In 1997, he was given the Alexis de Tocqueville Award for his contributions to the cause of liberty, and was named to the Board of Advisors of the National TV-Turnoff Week.

(Gnostic Media: Another Brick in the Wall)

(Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling)

Posted by Jason Louv
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03.05.2010
02:10 pm
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Genesis: A Game of History Creation
03.02.2010
01:45 am
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The following card game, meant to be played with a pack of Aleister Crowley’s Thoth Tarot cards, was invented by Anders Sandberg. Sandberg holds a Ph.D. in computational neuroscience from Stockholm University, and is currently a James Martin Research Fellow at the Future of Humanity Institute at Oxford University. He’s a leading transhumanist and is quoted extensively in Ray Kurzweil’s “The Singularity is Near.” Back in my day, however, we knew him as the guy who ran the most wicked “Mage: The Ascension” fan page on the Internet. If you know what this game is (aka “Dungeons and Dragons wasn’t enough to corrupt you brats into the occult? Here, have this.”) (aka “Nothing in this game is true, but it’s exactly the way things are”) you are already doomed. If you don’t, it’s too late to explain now.

The card game can be played by anybody without any previous knowledge of any other system, including Crowley’s deck. Looks very keen.

The game is played with a deck of tarot cards and a few ten-sided dice. There is nothing magical about the use of tarot, except that it is good for bringing up associations. I have used the Aleister Crowley Thoth deck, and would recommend it because the cards both have a rich symbolism and (in the case of the suits) written names giving helpful suggestions for their uses (four of disks is “power”, two of cups “luxury”). It can be run using other decks of course, but often the images are less helpful and the meanings more psychological. Knowing the symbolism and meanings of the cards makes the game far more entertaining and flexible, but just looking at the images can give inspiration. The knight of wands is riding a black horse and carrying a huge torch – a violent warlord. The fool is carrying a sack of coins – an opportunity to swindle.

The basic system is simple. Each player represents one group, society, organisation, person or something different. There may or may not be a GM with a final say, although it is useful (as is having somebody as a note-taker if the results are to be used later). Over the span of the game players may join or leave depending on whether their sides are removed or new sides of the story appear (temporarily removed players make good note takers). Unused players may act as “fate” or “chance”, playing cards that represent outside forces.

(Anders Sandberg: Genesis)

(Thoth Tarot Deck)

(Wiki on Mage: The Ascension)

Posted by Jason Louv
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03.02.2010
01:45 am
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Robert Anton WIlson: New Media
02.22.2010
11:54 pm
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Dangerous Minds pal Joseph Matheny of Alterati fame, has produced a trio of new Robert Anton Wilson related releases on audio CDs and DVD and you can get a discount by ordering all three at publisher Original Falcon and get The Insiders Guide to Robert Anton Wilson thrown into the mix for free. The DVD lecture, titled The “I” in the Triangle discusses the Western Hermetic tradition, Aleister Crowley, Jean Cocteau, extraterrestrials from Sirius and various conspiracy theories, And then there are the audio CDs, one a document of T.A.Z. A Night of Ontological Anarchy and Poetic Terrorism that took place on February 6th, 1993, the 2-disc set also features Rob “Real Astrology” Brezsny, Hakin Bey (his speech is great), physicist Nick Herbert, Joseph Matheny and Bob Wilson, who is in fine form here. The other disc is The Lost Studio Session that features a long intimate conversation with Bob.

Previously on Dangerous Minds:
The Infinity Factory: Robert Anton Wilson, Genesis P-Orridge and me

 

Posted by Richard Metzger
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02.22.2010
11:54 pm
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Howard Zinn Dies
01.27.2010
11:23 pm
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Sad to hear this:

Howard Zinn, an author, teacher and political activist whose leftist “A People’s History of the United States” became a million-selling alternative to mainstream texts and a favourite of such celebrities as Bruce Springsteen and Ben Affleck, died Wednesday. He was 87.

Zinn died of a heart attack in Santa Monica, California, daughter Myla Kabat-Zinn said. The historian was a resident of Auburndale, Massachusetts.

Howard Zinn, author of ‘People’s History’ and left-wing historian, dies at 87 in California

Posted by Tara McGinley
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01.27.2010
11:23 pm
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Archive of Burroughs and Ginsberg Lectures at Naropa Online
01.24.2010
04:30 pm
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Recently seen (via, uh, the William Burroughs re-tweet bot), the mother load… Check out this HUGE online archive of audio of lectures given by William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg and others at Naropa Institute in the 1970s. Naropa is developing an online browser of the material, but for the moment, it’s ALL on Scribd.

The Naropa University Archive Project is preserving and providing access to over 5000 hours of recordings made at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado. The library was developed under the auspices of the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics (the university’s Department of Writing and Poetics) founded in 1974 by poets Anne Waldman and Allen Ginsberg. It contains readings, lectures, performances, seminars, panels and workshops conducted at Naropa by many of the leading figures of the U.S.literary avant-garde.

The collection represents several generations of artists who have contributed to aesthetic and cultural change in the postmodern era. The Naropa University Archive Project seeks to enhance appreciation and understanding of post-World War II American literature and its role in social change, cultural criticism, and the literary arts through widespread dissemination of the actual voices of the poets and writers of this period. Current interest in Oriental religions, environmentalism, political activism, ethnic studies, and women’s consciousness is directly indebted to the work of these New American Poets, writers and musicians.

Funding for this project was provided by the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, Save America’s Treasures, the GRAMMY Foundation, the Internet Archive, the Collaborative Digitization Program, and private donors. If this collection is important to you please help us preserve it with your donations.

(Scribd: Naropa Archives)

Posted by Jason Louv
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01.24.2010
04:30 pm
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Counterculture legend Mick Farren reads at La Luz de Jesus Gallery
01.22.2010
09:50 pm
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In his 60+ years on Earth, Mick Farren has worn many hats. He’s one of the founders of the “underground” press in Britain, he was the doorman at the psychedelic UFO Club (where Pink Floyd and the Soft Machine got their starts), a political activist, a well-respected science fiction novelist, a TV and media columnist, a poet, and, not least, he was the lead singer of the proto-punk band, The Deviants. His autobiography Give the Anarchist a Cigarette is an indispensable volume in any library about the ‘60s and ‘70s. In short, the man is a counterculture legend, and one of the last of the “gonzo” journalists.

Saturday night, Farren will be reading at La Luz de Jesus Gallery from his recently published anthologyZones of Chaos (which features an introduction by sci-fi great Michael Moorcock) accompanied by fellow Deviant, guitarist Andy Colquhoun.

La Luz de Jesus Gallery, 4633 Hollywood Blvd, Saturday, Jan. 23, 2009, 6 ?

Posted by Richard Metzger
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01.22.2010
09:50 pm
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Coke-powered cellphone: It’s the real thing, seriously!
01.21.2010
06:32 pm
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You’ll never have to fear your cellphone running out of juice again as long as you’re near a 7-Eleven or a vending machine, thanks to brilliant London-based designer Daizi Zheng. But maybe “juice” is the wrong word; Zheng has produced a cellphone that runs on Coca-Cola. Or Mountain Dew or Pepsi or whatever sugary, fizzy beverage you happen to have handy. Yes, you read correctly, this is a cellphone that runs on soda. It’s the call that refreshes!

As Zheng explained to Tree Hugger:

“Through my research, I found that phone battery as a power source, it is expensive, consuming valuable resources on manufacturing, presenting a disposal problem and harmful to the environment. The concept is using bio battery to replace the traditional battery to create a pollution free environment. Bio battery is an ecologically friendly energy generates electricity from carbohydrates (currently sugar) and utilizes enzymes as the catalyst. By using bio battery as the power source of the phone, it only needs a pack of sugary drink and it generates water and oxygen while the battery dies out. Bio battery has the potential to operate three to four times longer on a single charge than conventional lithium batteries and it could be fully biodegradable.”

Three to four times longer than a lithium battery? Sounds good to us. Now all Zheng has to do is come up with a way to run a cellphone on booze, for a sort of unholy cellphone/hip flask hybrid.
 
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Cross posting this from Brand X

Posted by Richard Metzger
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01.21.2010
06:32 pm
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Jeff Vandermeer on Jaron Lanier
01.18.2010
05:04 pm
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Jeff VanderMeer chimes in on Jaron Lanier’s new book, the short essay version of which apparently sobered some people up a few weeks ago when it was published in the New York Times. Nooo! The Illuminati have turned against the web! What next, oh evolutionary mandate… don’t… don’t… DON’T TAKE MY DRUUGS

Even as I?

Posted by Jason Louv
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01.18.2010
05:04 pm
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