A very nice read about religious experience as associated with space travel, enhanced by quotations from an international roster of astronauts. For many people, space represents its own religion, a spiritual experience on its own, secular terms, with no help from the divine or ancient rituals. But for those who believe and travel into space,…
Everything Old Is New Again (If You Don’t Look Too Hard)
I was reminded recently of something my English teacher once told me. In the middle of the English lesson he fixed me and my classmates with a solemn stare and imparted this great truth about literature and creativity: “There is nothing new under the sun.” I nodded. “Yeah, I’ve heard that before.” Fortunately my teacher…
If Science Kills God, What Fate the Devil?
The Extinction Papers – Chapter One Greetings, dear readers, and welcome to the First Chapter of The Extinction Papers. I’m genuinely thrilled that The Teeming Brainfather Matt Cardin has asked me to pour out my often daft and hastily supported thoughts into this ever-growing dossier as I attempt to document the multitudinous Mass Extinction of…
Phantom Histories: Thoughts on the Work of Medievalist Claude Lecouteux
In those days it was common to bury people at night and by torchlight: and it was noticed that whenever a funeral was toward, John Poole was always at his window, either on the ground floor or upstairs, according as he could get the better view from one or the other … There came a…
Welcome to the new Teeming Brain
The beast has slouched and the stars are right. Elder gods shudder in their ancient sleep. Ripples spread across the interwebs. The brain has landed. In short, welcome to the new Teeming Brain, also known as The Teeming Brain 2.0. As you’re already noticing from this page’s appearance if you’ve been a visitor at any…
Recommended Reading 16
This week’s recommended readings include an essay in defense of the philosophy of science; thoughts and insights on channeling, creativity, savants, and the farther reaches of human potential; a recounting of Bobby Kennedy’s defense of LSD research during the heady 1960s; essays about the influence of neuroscience on novelists and the deep value of the…
Obama quietly gives gov’t control of US communications. Foreign press spooked while American press snoozes.
“President Obama has quietly issued an executive order that, in a state of emergency, prioritizes government communication over civilian.” So states CNN Newsroom (“Government re-prioritizing US communication,” July 9, 2012) in a sentence whose single adverb, “quietly,” resounds with unsettling connotations to complement its already unsettling informational content. Dana Kerr elaborates for CNET: President Barack…
U.S. corn growers “farming in hell” as drought, heat portend another global food price spike
Things are grim if you’re a U.S. corn farmer right now: The worst U.S. drought since Ronald Reagan was president is withering the world’s largest corn crop, and the speed of the damage may spur the government to make a record cut in its July estimate for domestic inventories. Tumbling yields will combine with the…
The Internet’s corrosive mental effects: A growing problem requiring a deliberate defensive response
For those of you who, like me, have been interested to hear the background drumbeat of warnings about the mental and neurological effects of the Internet revolution over the past several years — think Nicholas Carr’s “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” and The Shallows, just for starters — a recent, in-depth article about this very subject…
Denis Leary: Kiss My A$$ (’cause I’m American)
Everybody sing along! Especially us Americans. (Warning: NSFW language.)