The I Love Lucidity Show

[ Comments Off ]Posted on September 22, 2009 by admin in Lifestyle & Culture

You think you’re reading this, but maybe you’re only DREAMING that you’re reading this. Lucid dreaming is a powerful tool. So powerful in fact, that I’m not sure I actually wrote this.


Don’t worry Lucy. It’s only
a dream. Take control of it!

As someone who entered their teens at the dawn of the New Age era, I was exposed to lots of crazy things like EST, Carlos Castaneda, and the sight of post-hippy nutjob entrepreneurs standing in bookstores’ newly-created self-help sections muttering “OM” to themselves. By the mid 80′s, although I had – for better or worse – integrated a lot of this stuff into my daily experience, I jokingly referred to myself as “Post New Age”. For a brief time I even opportunistically bought quartz crystals at about $5/lb and turned them over at a hefty $20 per crystal to people who believed they had magical powers. In spite of my original fascination with all these metaphysical meanderings, I ended up with a more cynical spirit for a long time, or at least a more pragmatic one. However, some of these crazy ideas ended up becoming scientifically documented, and amongst these was one of my favorites: Lucid Dreaming. I so completely integrated this concept into how I sleep, think and dream, that I forget that others have never even heard of it. Which is why I was surprised to run across the post Lucid Dreaming: A Beginner’s Guide on Tim Ferriss’ blog (he’s the guy that wrote The 4-Hour Workweek) that passionately extols the virtues of Lucid Dreaming. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that Ferriss is into it, I guess if you only work four hours a week, you have plenty of time to dream and sleep. In any case, his post sent me on a refresher course; I had no idea that one of the first scientists to seriously study lucid dreaming – Stephen LaBerge, Ph.D. -went on to form the Lucidity Institute, and that the concept actually is a documented phenomena with such an extensive history. If you’re interested in learning more about LaBerge’s work with lucid dreams, check out his book Lucid Dreaming, or check out the very thorough Lucidity Institute FAQ. Me? I’m going back to sleep. If I’m not already. Sweet dreams!

Is The Age of Stupid Stupid?

[ Comments Off ]Posted on September 21, 2009 by admin in Clean & Green, Popular Media

Today is the global premiere of The Age of Stupid, a dystopian eco-film that the New York Times is calling a sterner and more alarming polemic than An Inconvenient Truth. But is it based on solid science?

In spite of being almost foolishly utopian in nature (I genuinely like to believe humans will come to their senses, commingle, and create a beautiful single race blended from all of the current allegedly separate ones) I still loves me a good dystopian film now and then. Which is why I’m disappointed that I’ll probably miss the special global premiere of The Age of Stupid today. In spite of some complaints from the more level-headed members of the progressive scientific community that the film’s heavy-handed assertions about the end of the world as we know it are poorly supported by science, it looks like a thought-provoking film. It’s also getting decent reviews from sources like Wired and the NYT. The clip featured here, for instance, provides an amusing and brief history of war, which, as the clip points out, is always over resources. They move quickly through war for animals, war for water, war for “shiny things”, war for fertile land, war for “nutmeg slice and tea”, and finally diamonds, slaves and oil. The global premiere of the film – which takes place today and tomorrow – will feature a “green carpet” solar-powered cinema tent in New York, and will be linked by satellite to 442 cinemas across the USA (find a theater here) and to more than 200 cinemas abroad. Special guests include the likes of Kofi Annan and Thom Yorke of Radiohead. The film was put together by Franny Armstrong, director of McLibel and founder of 10:10, a UK non-profit. It was crowd-funded by 220 people who donated between £500 and £35,000 each. Read the rest of this entry »

Exploring My Bai Lingualism

[ 3 Comments ]Posted on September 20, 2009 by admin in Popular Media

Why I wish I were having Chinese tonight.

I’m not generally prone to star-struck fanboy-ness, idol worship, and fantasizing about romance with movie stars, but Bai Ling has changed all of this. I had seen her name and random photos in the media on occasion, but wasn’t aware of her remarkable depth as an actress* until seeing her performance as a crack whore in the over-the-top but definitely-worth-a-watch Crank 2: High Voltage. Maybe it’s just her archetypal Chinese beauty. She looks like an ancient stylized rendition of a royal warrior, partly because of her strangely-proportioned nose, which I could gleefully ski down, and partly because of the way her bangs frame the gaze of her disturbingly asymmetrical eyes. Or maybe it’s her musical talent. You haven’t really experienced the Divinyls’ “I Touch Myself” until you’ve seen Bai Ling performing it. Or maybe it’s her nipples, which she seems to be obsessed with herself. In this Mr. Skin interview (NSFW), she’s asked what the favorite part of her body is, and she replies: “Probably you already know. My nipples! Once in Asia they asked me ‘what are the windows to the soul?’, and the word ‘nipples’ almost came out of my mouth. But then I swallowed and said, ‘The eyes. The eyes are the window to the soul.’ And that’s true too. But sometimes after I get out of the shower I look at my nipples and think, ‘Wow, they’re provocatively something else.’ I feel like they do not belong to me. They’re supposed to be like an African woman’s nipples. They’re something sexy.” But really I think it’s because Read the rest of this entry »

Argh Vey! Talk Like A Jewish Pirate & Other September Holidays

[ 1 Comment ]Posted on September 19, 2009 by admin in Holidays

It’s probably going to be a long time before Talk Like a Pirate Day and Rosh Hashanah coincide, so let’s talk for a moment about Jewish booty.

If I were an idiot savant, I’d tell you when Rosh Hashanah and Talk Like a Pirate Day will coincide again. But I’m not, so I won’t. But I will suggest that this rare event may be a good time to place your advance order for the book Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean: How a Generation of Swashbuckling Jews Carved Out an Empire in the New World in Their Quest for Treasure, Religious Freedom–and Revenge, due for release November 3. Yes, apparently there were Jewish pirates, including Jean Lafitte (aka The Buccaneer). For some reason this fact was overlooked in the 1958 film The Buccaneer starring Yul Brenner. Other holidays remaining this month include the rest of National Hispanic Heritage Month, which continues through October 15. Strangely, in spite of the GOP’s apparent disdain for Hispanics themselves, they like the culture; the observance was initiated by Ronald Reagan, of all people. Also in September we have Native American Day, which we as we pointed out previously sort of supercedes “Citizenship Day” on the 17th somehow. And on September 27 we have Yom Kippur, on which all the Jewish pirates will presumably atone for their wrongs.

Not To Be Cryptic Or Anything….

[ 2 Comments ]Posted on September 18, 2009 by admin in Editorial & Opinion

A friend accused me of being cryptic the other day. I begged to differ.

n pbhcyr bs lrnef ntb n sevraq bs zvar gubhtug ur jnf orvat ernyyl pyrire ol fraqvat zrffntrf va jung ur gubhtug jnf n frperg pbqr. ur jbhyq glcr n zrffntr va na r-znvy, gura punatr gur sbag gb n jvaqbjf “jvatqvatf” sbag. jung ur qvqa’g ernyvmr jnf gung ur jnf hfvat n zrgubq nf byq nf napvrag ebzr, gur fhofgvghgvba pvcure. gur snpg vf, gur nirentr crefba pbzrf hc jvgu cerggl ynzr zrgubqf sbe rapelcgvba. rira jvgu fvzcyr gnfxf yvxr cnffjbeq perngvba. guvf yvfg, sbe vafgnapr, pbagnvaf gur 500 jbefg cnffjbeqf bs nyy gvzr. bar gung v hfrq gb hfr dhvgr bsgra vf ba vg. vf bar bs lbhef? n tbbq rknzcyr bs whfg ubj tbbq rapelcgvba pna or vf gur xelcgbf fphycgher ol nzrevpna negvfg wvz fnaobea, juvpu vf ybpngrq ng gur pvn urnqdhnegref va ivetvavn. gur orfg rkcregf va gur svryq unir bayl fbyirq guerr bs sbhe cnegf bs gur zrffntr. vs lbh’er ernyyl vagb guvf fbeg bs guvat, gurer ner cyragl bs obbxf ba gur gbcvp, ohg gung yvax vf n gbgny erq ureevat; whfg na bccbeghavfgvp nznmba cebqhpg yvax. gur fbyhgvba gb gb gur fvzcyr pvcure hfrq sbe guvf negvpyr vf eryngviryl rnfl gb svaq; bar zrgubq jbhyq or gb hfr gur vzntr ng yrsg naq qrpbqr vg jvgu gur fnzr fvgr gung rapbqrq vg, juvpu hfrq fgrtnabtencul. vs lbh’ir znantrq gb fbeg guvf nyy bhg, cbfg gur grkg bs gur negvpyr vagb gur pbzzragf naq v’yy onxr lbh fbzr pbbxvrf be fbzrguvat nf n erjneq. Read the rest of this entry »

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