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 was a little dubious about them, as I know they are actually brine shrimp, and when I was a kid this fact was a major disappointment to me. I was the child at school who busted up the myth of the sea monkey. Not only did they not look like the advertisements, but they were actually a form of fish food! I have always been overly literal, and the discrepancy between the sales pitch of the sea monkeys and the actuality soured me on them. I decided as an adult to give them another shot and relax my literal standards a bit and see if maybe I could just sit back and enjoy what they did have to offer. Guess what? They were totally fun and interesting and when the last of them recently passed away I was dismayed to see my little terrarium empty. The idea of their ability to enter into suspended animation (called cryptobiosis) is nothing short of amazing.
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
with historical patterns and the Mayan end date of 2012. So, I am going to undertake a bit of study on this fascinating subject. I plan to start with this seminal book, translated by Richard Wilhelm.
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
One of the coolest happenings of recent years is the release of so much outstanding underwater video footage. The ocean is freakin’ amazing! Humans really haven’t been able to explore the undersea realms all that well and have only recently begun to tap into life at the really intense depths. This is a pretty sweet giant 6 gilled shark video clip. The footage is great, and the dialog is also pretty outstanding. “He’s so huge! Look how thick he is!” While there’s not much in the shot to give you a sense of perspective and size, the shark was estimated at 17 feet. This shark was seen off the coast of the Hawaiian island of Moloka’i.
via: Deep Sea News
Today we would like to give special thanks to Janine Bauer, the German medical student who stepped in and offered a life saving assist to a 4 month old tiger cub who was choking on a hunk of meat. The event occurred a few weeks ago when she and her son were visiting the zoo. She helped remove the overly large piece of meat that the cub was attempting to swallow, attempted mouth to muzzle, then heart massage. Within 5 minutes, the cub revived. In homage to these events which saved the little tiger, the zoo in Halle has named the cub Johann which is the name of Janine’s son. See original Reuters article. No images accompanied the article, but the BSH loves tigers and their pictures, so I have included an unrelated but lovely image to enjoy.
A simple, fun, on-line vocabulary building game that helps out people in need? Perfect. If you have not already heard about www.freerice.com, you should check it out. The simplistic but challenging game is addictive, and the time flies once you start playing. You are presented with a word and 4 possible definitions. For each word you correctly define, 20 grains of rice are donated to people in need. If you get a word right, you get a harder word and if you miss a word the next one will be a little easier, so the game play stays interesting. How can me playing a game generate money, you ask? With each new word, or round of the game, a different banner ad is displayed at the bottom of the screen, and it is through these ads that the money is generated to buy the rice. The site has been up since October 2007, and they recently posted a video of rice being delivered to refugees from Myanmar who are sheltering in Bangladesh. Pretty inspiring stuff.
Welcome to 2008. It’s blustery and cold here, but not unseasonable. The Mayan apocalypse is actually slated for winter solistice 2012, so I guess that puts us just under 4 years until the end of a world age.
