MindJunker - Viral Stuff For Entertainment Observatoire International des prisons Committee for Surrealist Investigation of Claims of the Normal Committee for Surrealist Investigation of Claims of the Normal [ CSICON ] Wilson describes himself as a "guerilla ontologist," signifying his intent to ATTACK language and knowledge the way terrorists ATTACK their targets: to jump out from the shadows for an unprovoked ATTACK, then slink back and hide behind a hearty belly-laugh. - Robert Sheaffer, The Skeptical Inquirer, Summer 1990 Dublin, 1986. I had given a talk to the Irish Science-Fiction Society and the question period began. "Do you believe in UFOs?" "Yes, of course," I answered. The questioner, who looked quite young, then burst into a long speech, "proving" at least to his own satisfaction that all UFOs "really are" sun-dogs or heat inversions. "Well, we both agree that UFOs exist. An elderly gentleman with blonde-white hair and a florid complexion cried out in great enthusiasm, "By God, sir, you're right. And thus I met Timothy F.X. In fact, Prof. Now I hear that Prof. At this, Murphy spoke up. O rare, Tim Finnegan!
10 Mind-Blowing Theories That Will Change Your Perception of the World Reality is not as obvious and simple as we like to think. Some of the things that we accept as true at face value are notoriously wrong. Scientists and philosophers have made every effort to change our common perceptions of it. The 10 examples below will show you what I mean. 1. Great glaciation is the theory of the final state that our universe is heading toward. 2. Solipsism is a philosophical theory, which asserts that nothing exists but the individual’s consciousness. Don’t you believe me? As a result, which parts of existence can we not doubt? 3. George Berkeley, the father of Idealism, argued that everything exists as an idea in someone’s mind. The idea being that if the stone really only exists in his imagination, he could not have kicked it with his eyes closed. 4. Everybody has heard of Plato. In addition to this stunning statement, Plato, being a monist, said that everything is made of a single substance. 5. 6. Enternalism is the exact opposite of presentism. 7. 8. 9. 10.
LEGO® Festival of Play Why living in a city makes you fat, infertile, blind, depressed and even causes cancer By John Naish Updated: 09:11 GMT, 21 November 2011 Should cities carry a health warning? A growing body of research shows that babies born in cities, and children who grow up in them, face a battery of health problems that afflict both their physical and mental well-being. The problems pose a serious threat because ever-increasing numbers of us are spending our lives in cities. The picture of happiness? In 1900, only 14 per cent of the world’s population were city-dwellers. By 2050, the United Nations predict that 70 per cent of people will be urbanites. City-dwellers should have a better deal in life, compared with their rural counterparts. But urban living carries a significantly increased risk of chronic health disorders, such as mental illness, immune diseases, arthritis, heart disease, cancer and fertility problems. City life: Studies have found that pre-natal daily exposure to urban pollution can set us up for a lifetime of ill-health But it doesn’t end there. Fun?
No Agenda Entertainment | Multimedia resource for the listener of No Agenda and Daily Source Code Podcasts/Digital broadcasts CHUTE DE STRINGS The Slightly Warped Website Le lynchage de Kadhafi : l'image du sacrifice humain et le retour à la barbarie L’exhibition des images du lynchage de Mouammar Kadhafi rend nos sociétés transparentes. Elles pétrifient et nous demandent de déposer les armes. Ce sacrifice traduit un retour vers une société matriarcale, vers un « état de nature ». En nous fixant dans une violence sacralisée, ces images nous révèlent que l’Empire étasunien constitue une régression inédite dans l’histoire de l’humanité. Elles attestent que l’objectif de cette guerre n’est pas seulement la conquête d’un objet, le pillage du pétrole ou des avoirs libyens, mais aussi, comme dans les croisades, la destruction d’un ordre symbolique, au profit d’une pure machine de jouissance, d’un capitalisme déchaîné. A l’occasion de la diffusion des images du lynchage de Mouammar Kadhafi, nos dirigeants politiques ont manifesté une étrange jouissance. « Strange Fruit » (1), ces images font immédiatement penser à celles de la pendaison de Saddam Hussein organisée le jour de « Aïd al-Adha », la fête du sacrifice. Des images de jouissance.
Whatever The Guilty Hyena Web Relic, the Animated GIF, Becomes Medium for Art More often than not, animated GIFs are reserved for quick chuckles. Cat portals , face palms , and even the occasional girl punch , are this limited media format's bread and butter. But the current crop of digital artists are turning to this former Net-annoyance to create Web-based art. Sites like Rhizome , 8-Bit Today , and Nasty Nets dig through the deepest recesses of the Internet to find these oddball creations. Many of these artists go by aliases that recall the early days of message board handles and instant messaging screen names (e.g., Videogramo and Out 4 Pizza ), and host their works at sprawling Web pages that are part portfolio, part art installations. Many pieces of animated GIF art are abstract designs , while others relish in their dated appearance -- incorporating '80s and '90s goth and cyberpunk influences as well as classic video game elements . Tags: animated gif , animated gifs , AnimatedGif , AnimatedGifs , art , gifts , top
Delusions of peace Steven Pinker argues that we are becoming less violent. Nonsense, says John Gray Storming of the Bastille by Francois Leonard. Many of the French revolutionaries favoured violence as an “engine of social transformation” “Today we take it for granted that war happens in smaller, poorer and more backward countries,” Steven Pinker writes in his new book, The Better Angels of Our Nature: the Decline of Violence in History and Its Causes. The celebrated Harvard professor of psychology is discussing what he calls “the Long Peace”: the period since the end of the second world war in which “the great powers, and developed states in general, have stopped waging war on one another.” A sceptical reader might wonder whether the outbreak of peace in developed countries and endemic conflict in less fortunate lands might not be somehow connected. Yet these are highly disparate thinkers, and it is far from clear that any coherent philosophy could have “coalesced” from their often incompatible ideas.