Earlier this week, as I was chatting with Dan Lloyd about an upcoming show on consciousness, he dropped a really beautiful line:
“It’s amazing to think that when you look at that person on the subway, or that woman on the train …we’re all connected … we all have this beautiful symphony going on in our head.”
Lloyd was referring to brain music, which is created via an fMRI and a computer program that translates neuron flickers into sound.
Who says a love letter can’t fall in love?
An utterly charming 1982 animation from Tim Burton.
Narrated by Vincent Price.
Jane Mayer’s piece about why Eric Holder is at the center of America’s terrorism debate.
Worth reading (especially if you’re interested in the Obama administration’s complex relationship with terrorism suspects), but Mayer sums up Holder’s position with one beautiful ending paragraph:
Late last month, at home, in Northwest Washington, Holder addressed those who have suggested that he and Obama are too weak to take on terrorism. “This macho bravado—that’s the kind of thing that leads you into wars that should not be fought, that history is not kind to,” he said. “The quest for justice, despite what your contemporaries might think, that’s toughness. The ability to subject yourself to the kind of criticism I’m getting now, for something I think is right? That’s tough.” He paused, and added, “This is something that can get a rise out of me, the notion that somehow Eric Holder and Barack Obama, this Administration, is not tough. We have the welfare of the American people in our minds all the time. We’ll fight our enemies, and we’ll do that which is necessary, and we won’t turn our backs on the values and traditions that have made this country great. That is what is tough.”
In 1977 NASA launched two spacecraft as part of the Voyager mission.
On board each craft was a golden record chronicling the sounds of humanity – including everything from the sound of a kiss to music from all over the world.
NASA: Jept Propulsion Labratory
The creative director of the Voyager Project, Ann Druyan, describes what it was like to work with astrophysicist Carl Sagan and how the pair fell in love during their work on the mission.
As RadioLab tells, the pair were professional acquaintances and friends for years, but nothing more. Shortly after Druyan discovered a key-piece of music, however, something happened. The pair exchanged a message and by the end of one phone call – Sagan and Druyan were engaged to be married.
The story continues:
“We both hung up the phone, and I just screamed out loud,” says Druyan, “It was this great eureka moment. It was like a scientific discovery.” The first of the Voyager project’s two spacecraft launched on Aug. 20, 1977. Druyan and Sagan announced their engagement two days later. They married in 1981, and were together until Sagan’s death in December 1996.
Druyan had an idea for the record: They could measure the electrical impulses of a human brain and nervous system, turn it into sound, and put it on the record. Then maybe, 1,000 million years from now, some alien civilization might be able to turn that data back into thoughts. So, just a few days after she and Sagan declared their love for each other, Druyan went to Bellevue Hospital in New York City and meditated while the sounds of her brain and body were recorded. According to Druyan, part of what she was thinking during that meditation was about “the wonder of love, of being in love.”
And the gold records? They’re still out there with their offer, to whomever might stumble across them, of a human body newly in love.
“Whenever I’m down, ” says Druyan, “I’m thinking: And still they move, 35,000 miles an hour, leaving our solar system for the great open sea of interstellar space.”
Note: If you’ve never listened to the voyager record. I’d encourage you to. It’s a cosmic journey on its own.
Parry Gripp’s heartfelt song about the iPad and … nachos.
Not to be outdone by BANANA WIG.
Whoops! Looks like Sayid was actually claimed by ole mister Smokey.
So, you know, take what I said in the last post with a grain of salt.
I’ll post more detailed thoughts once my brain unscrambles. Glad to see Claire as the new iteration of the French woman, however. Yes. Oh yes.
UPDATE: My more detailed thoughts are this – Kate remains useless. As for the whole “claimed” thing. The battle between the Man in Black and Jacob is shaping up to be a nice manifestation of that final game everyone was talking about in season 1. How they are going to shake that out and keep in tune with the plot, I have no idea – but I’m willing to sit back and hope. At this point, I’ve pretty much given up on LOST explaining everything and I’m holding out a thin hope they will really adequately explain anything. They are, however, doing a good job explaining the origins of the smoke monster. And if they’re able to tie that one up along with a few other key plot points I’ll be happy. I left the episode feeling like I’d wasted 40minutes watching Kate do absolutely nothing, but in the end that was fine. They explained something big in the final 5 minutes and really didn’t introduce anymore questions. So, I was happy about that. /rant
Well, there’s no doubt zombie Sayid is Jacob.
Based on what was in the guitar case, we’re looking at some immortal pissing match between two deities (or aliens?) living outside of our conception of time.
It also appears Ilana really is “one of the good guys.” Remember her specific mission was to make sure Sayid was delivered to the island in season five. Mission accomplished. Presumably, the only reason the island needed Sayid to come back was so he could house the spirit of Jacob. Which makes sense. Esau (the most evil entity on the island) goes into the body of Locke (arguably the purest of the Oceanic survivors). And Jacob (the purest entity on the island) goes into the body of Sayid (arguably the most evil of the Oceanic survivors). Dark to light and light to dark. Balance. A theme shifting back to season one.
"Hey guys, I'm a toolbag."
Anyway, Esau wants to get home — a home, which of course isn’t specified. I still think is off this planet. Call me crazy, but I still cling to the theory that the island is a giant space ship. I just hope they send it off with a lot more class than they did in that movie that nuked the fridge.
And now for the meat and potatoes:
I LIKED:
