Release the bats! I am not sure I could convince myself to leap from a perfectly functional aircraft (I wish I had the requisite courage as one hears parachuting is a freakin’ blast!), but maybe the perfect outfit would help. This gentleman definitely has the perfect outfit! The lovely picture featured below was originally found here.
Maybe it’s not really a costume, but more of a lifestyle choice. : )
Really? A bird smuggler with his illegal live cargo strapped to his crotch? Sounds like some sort of thrill junkie to me, with just a little sexual oddity added to spice up the game. But then, once you see the provided image of his “pigeon pants”, it’s clear this is not some extreme sex pervert but something else again entirely. Nice plug for Adidas man-tights!
Damn, but the ocean continues to slowly yield more and more fantastical creatures! Of particular note is the elusive magnapinna or elbowed squid. Found at depths of 1.5 miles underwater, these deep sea dwellers are still mostly a mystery to science as they have yet to examine an intact body, dead or alive. One positive of the continued deep sea drilling by petrol companies is the capture of creatures on remote vehicle video. Click the link below to see the video footage released and hosted by National Geographic, and shared by the Shell oil company.
Link via National Geographic
The actual beginning of the 6th day was earlier this week, Thursday 13Nov08, which was also a full moon. And not just a full moon, but a super moon – meaning that our satellite was at it’s closest orbit to the planet earth (also called perigee). According to this Super Moon Table, we will be enjoying another 2 super moons in a row, so be prepared. Aside from higher tides, what can a super moon bring? Depending on who you talk to, we might have expected some crazy earth quakes or tidal actions, or a stronger pull on our psyche.
Of much greater interest is the beginning of the 6th day, the day of flowering in the galactic underworld cycle. We will spend 360 days basking in this cycle where awakening, unfolding, and opening up to new possibilities is the order of the day. Are you ready for a galactic flowering? There is one more night cycle before the final day, the 7th day (fruition) which will close on the glorious date of winter solstice 2012. Also, the 9th and final underworld (universal) will begin it’s cycle of days in 2011 as we count down to the 2012 end date of the calendar. Of course, the dates are not universally agreed upon by Mayan scholars, so it’s hard to say if Calleman got the dates right, or John Major Jenkins.
The Mayan calendars strike me as pretty complex, or maybe just tightly interlocked in a fashion I have never recognized in our own mundane calendarics system. Interested in exploring a bit more? See day 6 flowering, which started on Tzolkin Date: 13 IMIX.
I love people with the money, vision and passion to move forward on a fantastical idea, and this is a great example. With a generous donation from PayPal founder, Peter Thiel, The Seasteading Institute is moving forward with their vision of creating experimental ocean communities. They plan to have an example in the water of the San Francisco Bay within two years, basing their prototype on a scaled down version of an off-shore oil rig design called a spar platform. They are not only envisioning a new approach to living on/in the ocean with the establishment of deep water homesteads on the high seas, they are desirous of a new utopian community based on a different political model than the standard nation-state that we are all familiar with. Sounds pretty fashion-forward and far out there, but I would love to see them succeed. Hell, I’d be interested in signing up for my small piece of the libertarian ocean colonies – living space is currently projected to be in the neighborhood of 300 square feet deep in the concrete tube. While the project is in it’s very early conceptual stages, there are already concerns about sovereignty and fending off established governments – they even have a plan to purchase a flag of convenience from one of the countries that sell them. One imagines this flag would be replaced once the seasteading colony became established and went through the process of being recognized as it’s own country, which appears to be a pretty complicated feat. Read more of the seasteading ideas in their 300 page on-line book.
via Wired: Peter Thiel Makes Down Payment on Libertarian Ocean Colonies
Last Christmas I was the recipient of a fun interactive gift – Sea Monkeys on Mars
I have always been interested in divination and philosophy and things of that nature. When I was younger I flirted with the I Ching. Considered an ancient Chinese classical text, it’s been dated back 5000 years. The asking and generating a response process is deceptively simple (got a question? 3 coins with differentiated sides – you know, heads and tails?), plus a book for hexagram definitions and you’re ready to go. But then comes interpreting your answer – wow! The possibilities were overwhelming to me. Too complex, too much study required, no simple thing at all. I Ching interpretation made tarot cards look like a piece of cake, comparatively. But I really do love pattern recognition and interpretation, and that is definitely what the I Ching is about. The book is described as a symbol system used to identify order in chance events. Plus, one of my favorite authors, Terence McKenna, connected his own studies of the I Ching
Amazon: I Ching book of changes
Amazon: I Ching workbook
just looking for the fun part? Ask a question and see what this free online I Ching oracle predicts
