“Wired magazine’s own ‘Senior Maverick’ talks with Ken Wilber about some of the ideas behind Kevin’s blog The Technium, which explores the various ways humanity defines and redefines itself through the interface of science, technology, culture, and consciousness. Kevin also shares some of his own thoughts about the role of spirituality in the 21st century, going into considerable depth around his own spiritual awakening several decades ago.”
(via Integral Life. h/t: Integral Praxis)
“Neil Gaiman’s imaginary worlds are indisputably dark, often chillingly macabre, and always fun to visit. His characters are spooky but charming, like Death, the beguiling goth girl of the groundbreaking comic series The Sandman; the Other Mother, the soul-snatching matriarch of the young adult bestseller Coraline; and Aziraphale and Crowley, the angel and demon frenemies of the popular satire Good Omens. Gaiman chatted with Goodreads about his latest spine-tingling book, The Graveyard Book, his sources of inspiration, the Hollywood rumor mill, and what he has on his Goodreads currently-reading shelf.”
“A scene from the airport of the future: A man’s pulse races as he walks through a checkpoint. His quickened heart rate and heavier breathing set off an alarm. A machine senses his skin temperature jumping. Screeners move in to question him.Signs of a terrorist? Or simply a passenger nervous about a cross-country flight?
It may seem Orwellian, but on Thursday, the Homeland Security Department showed off an early version of physiological screeners that could spot terrorists. The department’s research division is years from using the machines in an airport or an office building – if they even work at all. But officials believe the idea could transform security by doing a bio scan to spot dangerous people.
Critics doubt such a system can work. The idea, they say, subjects innocent travelers to the intrusion of a medical exam. The futuristic machinery works on the same theory as a polygraph, looking for sharp swings in body temperature, pulse and breathing that signal the kind of anxiety exuded by a would-be terrorist or criminal. Unlike a lie-detector test that wires subjects to sensors as they answer questions, the “Future Attribute Screening Technology” (FAST) scans people as they walk by a set of cameras.”
(via USA Today)
Amazing true story of survival and the strength of the human will. Two mountaineers, Simon Yates and Joe Simpson climb the Suila Grande in Peru. They reach the summit, and on the descent (where about 80% of all fatalities happen) Joe breaks his leg. Simon attempts to help him down the mountain when Joe is left hanging over an icy cliff by a rope with no ability to climb it. Simon realizes that if doesn’t cut the rope they both will die, and he cuts the rope. Joe falls into a crevice, and is given up for dead. The story then focuses on Joe’s journey, injured and alone, but determined to make it back to base camp alive. With the mountain as a metaphor for life and death, this movie is an inspirational testament for the indomitableness of the human body and spirit.
Mr. Schneider Goes to Washington is a documentary about lobbyists and campaign finance reform in Washington. The film was made after Jonathon Schneider became irate watching a 60 Minutes episode with Senator Hollings’ candid account of the corruptive influence of money in Washington. You can see it for free for the next week and a half on YouTube.
“In a recent CNN poll 67% of Americans said they believe the American government is corrupt. Even more alarming, it seems 99.9% of the population does nothing to change it. Frustrated by Washington and his apathy towards it, I was finally shaken off my comfortable couch and compelled to storm to the capital of the worlds only superpower to find out what is going on with his government.
Quickly, I discovered that things in Washington are even worse than I imagined. Because of their dependence on big business and special interests to finance their political futures, almost every decision the President, Vice-President and Members of Congress make is corrupted. After all, there is no bigger issue facing our political leaders than getting re-elected. From education to health care, social security to taxes, foreign policy to gas prices, Americans interests repeatedly take a back seat to that of special interests.
Amazingly, Washingtons political elite agrees. Lobbyists, Members of Congress, lawyers, even the Commissioner of the agency responsible for regulating the influence of money in Washington candidly admit this is the most destructive influence on American democracy. Yet no one seems to care. More people voted for their favorite American Idol candidate than for their favorite candidate for President of the United States. We care more about the marital status of our favorite celebrity than what our elected leaders are doing in Washington. This isnt lost on the media, whose news coverage reflects its audiences preoccupation. The result: a population of uniformed, disengaged and disenfranchised non-voters hold the worlds only super power in check.”
(“Mr. Schneider Goes To Washington”. A.P.E . (Americans Pissed-off Enough) site)
“We live in a competitive society and are often told that to get ahead we require drive, commitment and determination, that we must expend a great amount of energy and, if necessary, use force to get what we want. A ?survival of the fittest’ mentality is deeply entrenched in our culture.
Much of this thinking comes from Darwin’s Origin of the Species, a work which has influenced us in the most profound and subtle ways, not least of all because it advanced the idea that competition was a natural and normal part of life, that nature was ?red in tooth and claw.’ Whatever we might think about Darwin, we do tend to see the world in these competitive terms.
But there is another way of thinking. There is another way of getting things done, a way which sees nature differently and recognizes the importance of harmony, balance and living peacefully. Taoism is a philosophy which seeks to achieve great things by ?going with the flow.’ The semi-mythical figure Lao Tzu is said to have written the classic Taoist text, the Tao Te Ching. Here are six short quotations from the text which give us advice on the best way to get things done. Much is lost in translation, of course, but you will have some sense of the original.”
(via The Positivity Blog)
In a follow-up to the Plot Synopsis Project, author Joshua Palmatier has put together the Query Project, in which a group of authors post and discuss actual query letters that got them an agent or an editor.
“Hey, all! A while ago, when I ran the Plot Synopsis Project, it was suggested that I also do a Query Project. I didn’t have the time then to organize it, but I’ve put something together now. What you’ll find here (from me) is an old post that I’ve reposted with some changes, mainly dealing with the actual paragraph pitch that I included. In the first posting of this, I made a pitch up on the fly, and it sucked. This time, I put in the pitch I actually used in the queries I sent out to agents and editors regarding that particular book. I’ve also tweaked some sentences and whatnot since the original post.
So, here’s my advice on how to write a query and what it should include. At the end of the post, there are links to a bunch of other authors who’ve agreed to post one of their own queries (one that netted them an agent or editor) along with comments about queries in general. Some of the authors participating never used queries, and they’ll explain how they got published without them, or why they didn’t need them. But most of us used queries to catch someone’s attention. As always, this is just our experiences and our advice, which may or may not be the best advice out there. Use your own judgment after considering what we’ve all had to say. And good luck with your own agent/editor hunt!”
(via Joshua Palmatier’s blog)
(Thanks Smoking Pigeon!)
“The University of Southampton is launching the world’s largest-ever study of near-death experiences this week. The AWARE (AWAreness during REsuscitation) study is to be launched by the Human Consciousness Project of the University of Southampton – an international collaboration of scientists and physicians who have joined forces to study the human brain, consciousness and clinical death.
The study is led by Dr Sam Parnia, an expert in the field of consciousness during clinical death, together with Dr Peter Fenwick and Professors Stephen Holgate and Robert Peveler of the University of Southampton. Following a successful 18-month pilot phase at selected hospitals in the UK, the study is now being expanded to include other centres within the UK, mainland Europe and North America. “Contrary to popular perception,” Dr Parnia explains, “death is not a specific moment. It is a process that begins when the heart stops beating, the lungs stop working and the brain ceases functioning – a medical condition termed cardiac arrest, which from a biological viewpoint is synonymous with clinical death.”
(via Science Daily)
“A judge on Wednesday rejected claims that DNA evidence clears three men convicted of killing three 8-year-old boys in 1993 and denied their requests for a new trial. Lawyers for Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley – known to supporters as the ‘West Memphis Three’ – had argued that new DNA tests would prove their clients’ innocence.
Both Baldwin and Misskelley claimed their lawyers failed to adequately represent them during trial. Their lawyers said DNA evidence provided by Echols’ defense team showed that the men did not kill Steven Branch, Christopher Byers and Michael Moore. ‘The court finds that (Echols’s) DNA-testing results are inconclusive because they do not raise a reasonable probability that he did not commit the offenses; that is, they are inconclusive as to his claim of actual innocence,’ Circuit Court Judge David wrote in a 10-page order denying the men’s requests for a new trial.”
(via Precious Metal)
(Related: “Updates on The West Memphis 3 Case”)
“Today, the Government Accountability Project (GAP) announced that seventy new organizations from across the United States have joined a June petition calling on Congress to enact sweeping new whistleblower rights for government employees. The groups are calling on Congress to finish the job before adjourning for the upcoming elections. Both chambers have approved legislation to revive the discredited Whistleblower Protection Act (WPA), but efforts to reconcile the different versions have stalled.
Tom Devine, Legal Director of GAP, which helps coordinate whistleblower rights advocacy for the 182 groups now supporting the legislation, explained, ‘Groups demanding reform have increased by over 60% in a week of outreach since Labor Day. Our goal is credible free speech rights enforceable through jury trials for all employees paid by the taxpayers. Government employees need the same free speech rights that Congress has passed three times since 2006 for corporate workers in various sectors. This should not be controversial.’
Until Congress acts, the current law will remain a trap that rubber stamps almost any retaliation government whistleblowers challenge. The administrative board where employees receive a ‘day in court’ only has conceded illegal retaliation against government whistleblowers in two cases during the entire seven and a half years of the Bush administration (the board has found against whistleblowers 55 times). Ironically, this has made a so-called good government law the best reason for those witnessing fraud, waste or abuse to remain silent observers, instead of blowing the whistle.”
(via GAP)
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