I want to have my mind opened up, teased, exploded, blown to bits. I want to have my current conception of the world turned upside-down. I want to move forward today on a different tangent than the path I started it. I am interested in hearing/seeing/reading about anything obscure, esoteric, or even downright plain, as long as it's something you know of that you don't think I do. Or just something you want to share.
It could be a new form of music or an incredibly ancient one. It could be a new way of thinking about organization. It could be an insight into the body, mind, or spirit. It could be a universal fact or truth about humans and humanity. It could be a whole class of ideas and ways of thinking. It could be a prediction of the future. It could be an animal.
Show me something that will allow me to see the world in a different way. Show me something wonderful.
This might pique your interest: Errors vs. Bugs and the End of Stupidity I revisit this piece quite often and take something from it every time, depending on the current state of my life and emotions.
It's a great essay, and Bertie makes some good points. I think the weak spot is that if you somehow manage to get work shifts down to four hours a day, a lot of people will choose to work two jobs. Not all of us have been brainwashed by elites into worshipping the God of Toil; some of us actually derive a bit of satisfaction from work, value leisure more when it comes in limited quantities, and want to buy more goodies. It's great to pursue hobbies and art, but most of the improvement in standard of living for rich and poor alike has come from industry (literal and figurative).
It's great when someone can earn their means to basic sustenance in four hours a day. They can fly kites or write novels the rest of the day, or sit in a cabin by the pond. If they aspire to more than basic sustenance, I say they should be allowed to work as hard as they like. Perhaps they don't love their work, but they love the idea of saving up for big vacations, or having savings to handle emergencies, or practicing philanthropy. Russell, born into aristocracy, didn't have to worry about sustenance and had the luxury of working hard for causes he believed in. Like him, I hope that life will continue to get better for workers. And I suppose life in the developed world today is as much better than it was in 1932 as it was then compared to the times when "fifteen hours was the ordinary day's work for a man; children sometimes did as much, and very commonly did twelve hours a day."
I don't know some stuff has been written about the reduced work-week mostly positive.
The modern piano is asymmetrical. Make it symmetrical, you make learning scales and playing patterns easier. You shorten the length of the keyboard and increase the amount of keys you can reach by 2. Pic Related. 
As someone who plays a bit of piano, I find that interesting. But I wonder about a few things: the current layout makes it dead easy to play using the Do scale, and it gets more and more awkward as you add sharps or flats to change the key; but you tend to play much more frequently things in Do major, Fa major, Sol major... Wouldn't that layout make it that much more akward to play basic stuff?
Do-Mi-Sol would require you to put one finger in the top row, at a different distance than the one between the Do and the Mi... I don't know, it seems a bit strange to me, but then again, that was the idea of that post. I'd love to try out such a layout some day.
Perhaps if you take a slightly different perspective. I'm gonna use 12 tone to describe it, since I don't know any music theory. do-mi-sol is 1-5-8. to transpose it, you add one 2-6-9. And so forth. That is why you are not discriminating much between white keys and black keys in your memory. Instead, you memorize simple patterns. Only six patterns to memorize all of the major and minor scales--not counting one additional memory factoid to distinguish how major and minor differ (+6) Does that make sense?
The last line of this lecture on the crisis of capitalism is this: "We have a duty to change our mode of thinking." The lecture is illustrated by the brilliant RSA animators. I find their work more compelling than TED talks. You can get to this wonderful lecture via Youtube or avoid the ad and get there via the Occupy Movement's one demand website. Scroll down to the video screen at the bottom.I want to have my mind opened up, teased, exploded, blown to bits. I want to have my current conception of the world turned upside-down.
I don't know what your current conception of the world is, but if you blithely accept capitalism or haven't thought too much about the economic crises, this will open your mind in an understandable engaging way.
Go for a run. It's magic, as it has transformative powers.
I've been meaning to get back into running, but honestly I'm underprepared for the cold weather. I also need new sneakers. The sneakers I believe I can take care of, but what's your recommendation for gear (long sleeves, gloves, leggings, hats, etc.) to keep me toasty in the winter without needing to molest my wallet to do it?
Just pm'd you but to put it succinctly, I think the great thing about running is that all you really need that is outside the ordinary is a pair of running shoes. Otherwise, if it's cold wear two pair of sweatpants, a hat and some gloves. No need to over think it, just get out there and do it. Good luck!
esoteric, insightful though a bit verbose: http://www.ribbonfarm.com/2012/05/09/welcome-to-the-future-n.../ beautiful, fluid, dark: http://theotherpages.org/poems/books/owen/owen.html#love enjoy!
If there's an equivalent to earworms in the realm of ideas, I've been stuck for a little while on Fitch's paradox of knowability. Fitch shows that if all truths are knowable (a sensible premise) then it must be that all truths are known (an unreasonable conclusion). I'm happy to transcribe Fitch's elegant, pithy proof in plain English if there's any interest.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transactional_analysis I'll answer any questions on the subject.
To what extent do you think Games People Play is still valuable now that Freud's ideas are no longer in vogue (and have even been partially discredited)? My parents gave me a copy of the book not so long ago (they have fond memories of its heyday), and the whole Parent-Adult-Child schema struck me as a bit...outdated.
I was talking to a pair of immunologists tonight about how the immune system might be used to fight cancer, since cancer "turns off" the immune system's ability to fight cancerous cells. This is not exactly a new idea, but exciting explorations are being made in how to use the existing human body in different ways to counter and even prevent diseases that are considered scourges. I also ate a whole bunch of awesome Indian food and held my friend's 5 month-old son tonight for a while before the mothers in attendance decided I wasn't holding him right (he was fine). Life has a way of marching on even though we might not feel ready for it. Again, this is not a new idea, but as it's "that time of year again" I'd encourage you to reflect on the state of things (The State of Louderwords) and how things got there. It certainly blew my mind tonight.
That shit will blow your mind. The interaction between the immune system and any disease is pretty incredible, but when it comes to 'fighting' your own cells--as is the case in cancer--it's a whole new level of weird. My personal hope is that immunology is the key to a good cancer fighting strategy (if there is such a thing as a generic cancer fighting strategy, as 'cancer' isn't in any way a singular disease). The way we treat cancer now is barbaric and simple, but sadly, it's the best we currently have.I was talking to a pair of immunologists tonight about how the immune system might be used to fight cancer, since cancer "turns off" the immune system's ability to fight cancerous cells. This is not exactly a new idea, but exciting explorations are being made in how to use the existing human body in different ways to counter and even prevent diseases that are considered scourges.
Last year I read The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee, which greatly expanded my concept of what exactly cancer is. I'm sure that there are much more in-depth books on the subject, but as a layperson, I really enjoyed reading it to learn more about the topic in general. I have a very, very limited understanding of immunology, but from what I gathered from the conversation was that the field shows a lot of promise. The woman who mentioned using the immune system to fight cancer works for a company that is also trying to figure out how to get the immune system to recognize HIV as an intruder. I must admit that the way these two were talking really confused me, as I don't speak immunologistese. At one point, one of them simply said, "humanodon, this is really important!" when she caught my eyes glazing over. Anyway, what I do find fascinating is that people are finding ways to extend and expand on the utility of the human body. It seems like an obvious idea to use what is already there to accomplish something new or different and yet it seems like until recently, the technology or understanding has not existed to make these things happen.The way we treat cancer now is barbaric and simple, but sadly, it's the best we currently have.