Overview effect.
Earth meditation exercise.
https://epic.gsfc.nasa.gov

Selfie 1.0

All flat earthers please look away. Thanks to Jenny Green for the video recommendation



OVERVIEW from Planetary Collective on Vimeo.

A great video which begins with the Blue Marble image before exploring the profound sense of wonder that the ability to view the planet earth has roused for those astronauts who have been privileged to see it. For the rest of us we can look at the images from the Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera.
Here's a challenge. Go the the above link and watch the image sequence as it covers the revolution of the planet. Use it as a point of focus while meditating/praying etc. Especially after having watched the film about the Overview effect (above but also here). It can be quite a profound moment in your day!
Now I'm not normally very susceptible to rhapsodic moments of wonder, clearly a failing in my part, but I was quite taken in by the coverage of the 50th anniversary of the moon landings this summer just past. I realise that there is an increasing number of people who doubt that it ever happened, but I confess to being sceptical of such scepticism! I was prepared by this flurry of celebration for a genuine sense of awe when looking back at the images.
 I seem to remember a documentary on the BBC  about James Lovelock's  GAIA "theory" in which a former astronaut was talking about this Overview effect. I can't recall the details and I must confess to being slightly uncurious about the various formulations of these ideas, even though I am a child of the 70's and subsequently susceptible to post hippy leanings from time to time. I would be curious if anyone could remember the programme (probably from the early 80's). I digress. 

Returning to the Overview effect. I want to keep it separate from that mention of Gaia theory, that just happens to have been how I originally became aware of the phenomenon.

Just focus on the image of the satellite relay, allow it to soak your attention for a while - it can give you an incredible sense of wonder. I hope it makes you more compassionate for the people in it rather than the reverse. I'd be very interested in what comes to you - please comment.

Google Alphabet - research

 

This was an interesting idea that my kids came up with, to take each primary suggestion:-

A is for:  Amazon http://www.amazon.co.uk/

B is for:  BBC  http://www.bbc.co.uk/

C is for:  Currys  http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/index.html

D is for:  Daily Mail  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/index.html

E is for:  Ebay  http://www.ebay.co.uk/

F is for:  Facebook  https://www.facebook.com/login/

G is for:  Gumtree(!)  http://www.gumtree.com/

H is for:  Hotmail  https://www.live.com/

I is for:  Ikea  http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/

J is for:  John Lewis   http://www.johnlewis.com/
 
K is for:  KFC  https://www.kfc.co.uk/

L is for:  Laura Ashley  http://www.lauraashley.com/

M is for:  McDonalds  http://www.mcdonalds.co.uk/ukhome.html

N is for:  Next  http://www.next.co.uk/

O is for:  Outlook   https://www.live.com/

P is for:  Peacocks   http://www.peacocks.co.uk/

Q is for:  Quidco   http://www.quidco.com/

R is for:  River Island  http://www.riverisland.com/

S is for:  Sainsbury's   http://www.sainsburys.co.uk/

T is for:  Topshop   http://www.topshop.com/?geoip=home

U is for:  Uk top 40   http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/chart/singles

V is for:  Very   http://www.very.co.uk/

W is for:  Weather   https://www.google.co.uk/#q=weather

X is for:  Xbox   http://www.xbox.com/en-gb/

Y is for:  Youtube  https://www.youtube.com/?gl=GB

Z is for:  Zoopla   http://www.zoopla.co.uk/

The current alphabet according to Google. What is surprising is the extent to which the originally and  theoretically still free and open web space has been so clearly, completely and relatively rapidly occupied.

Google started out being a clever idea, but it is quite amazing how quickly it has become intrusive, branded and dull in its ubiquity.
It is a fudged attempt to both shrink wrap your world around your search history at the same time as being a commercial advertising platform. That combination creates a stale experience predicated on inductive reasoning; it's simply an engine of confirmation bias.
 Perfect for business interests, but only those of a certain scale. There is a cloud of SEO optimising companies,  marketing agencies and consultants buzzing around those interests, like flies fighting each other of a nibble of the biggest corporate dung heaps. Ultimately, however, it's an industry of unalloyed manipulation. As an aside, I do wonder whether history will look back on us purely as the generation of  swerve, nudge and spin.
Not a great pair of hands in which to entrust the curation of the huge range of cultural references that our world has at our fingertips.

Were I to advise a student on how to go about research online, I find now that I would  recommend that they at least try to avoid Google search results altogether.

But I know that I also have to be a realist, and I am aware that most would not pay attention to my cry! So in that case I have to as a minimum standard advise them to avoid Google headline search results as a place from which to start, maybe it's a place to input some keywords based on your initial research. Maybe the library. Or talking to someone

The New BBC

Alan Moore on the Super Hero

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-24032641

"I have nothing but abhorrence for the super hero as a figure.

I think that there is something wrong with our culture. These are responsible adults and they are thrilling to concepts and characters and stories that were written to entertain the twelve year old boys of fifty years ago.

I think that it say something a little bit disturbing if we want to just regurgitate the culture we grew up with and which takes us back to our happy place"
Alan Moore

Alan Moore, creator of, among others Watchmen and V for Vendetta talking about his latest project which sprang from an original idea of the late Malcolm Maclaren.

I remember being in a well know toy retailer a few years ago, in the run up to christmas. There was a rack of Terminator toys. Toys suitable for a child aged 4 years and upwards. The original film was rated 18!

Perhaps what we need now is a 9/11 lego set? Oh, wait...

I'm not the first one to think of that one.

In the process of co-opting children's toys both to market adult product and at the same time to take the piss, is this a step too far in the infantilisation of the adult, will we inevitably traumatise, desensitise and render calloused future generations for the sake of finding something "ironic", or for just giving people what they want? I know that you could always buy kids cap guns, swords etc and perhaps this is no different. but, it seems as though it is a more claimed corporate landscape, where everything is syndicated and licensed and heavily crafted by marketing.

Short Youtube films getting picked up by studios

http://screenrant.com/the-raven-sci-fi-short-film-clip-pauly-56349/

A short on youtube gets picked up for a feature. Film makers, your dreams are coming true. It's just that it's happening to someone else.

City One Minutes Sheffield

City One Minutes: Sheffield from deBuren on Vimeo.