Rabbit Holes 2
This week found me poking around in a few of the many random hidey holes of the internet, attempting to get answers to sometimes deep, other times ephemeral, but always interesting questions. Some of the best were offered up by my kids, who were asking some of the more confoundingly simple questions. In fact, even as I write this, I'm trying to simultaneously field questions from my 6 year old like, "Are knights real?"
I can't help but laugh.
How much time you got, kid?
Now onto the links!
Provocative and illuminating essays from women at the forefront of the climate movement who are harnessing truth, courage, and solutions to lead humanity forward. All We Can Save is blowing up the charts!
Naturalia: Chronicle of Contemporary Ruins asks a fundamental question: that of the place of Man on Earth and his relationship with Nature. Far from being pessimistic, and at a time when Man’s domination of Nature has never been so extreme, it aims to wake our consciousness.
Environmental activist groups from the ‘Brandalism’ network have installed over 100 parody car advert posters on billboards and bus stops in England and Wales.
The bombing itself was shocking. But the part that surprised me at the time was that, despite having pleaded guilty, serving 25 months in jail, and being released on probation, most of his case was still under federal protective order. Keebler’s attorney told me he’s not allowed to say why. I’m at the Denny’s hoping Keebler might be willing to tell me anyway. Bundyville is a must-read story.
The aim of the WPA is to include all who want to help change the conversation about windows. We want to connect those who wish to save their windows with professionals who can provide the needed services. We want to demystify the process of finding the appropriate materials and products for window restoration. We want to introduce those considering window restoration as a career to professionals who can help them grow. Our goal is to help preservationists find the tools they need to educate building owners, architects, and other decision makers about the value of original windows. Window preservation for the win!
An oldie but goodie from the late great David Graeber: Army of Altruists.
Is the universe conscious?” and “Does consciousness pervade the universe?” are nearly identical questions posed in recent books, articles, and scientific conferences. While provocative, the wrong question is being asked. Most people associate consciousness with the mindful awareness of what’s happening. This ability to perceive, to notice ourselves and our environment, leads to other abilities: to question, remember, anticipate, know. If we consider whether the smallest elements of matter—or the fields within which they exist—have the potential for consciousness, well, it’s a stretch. But let us recognize that sentience—the ability to feel—underlies consciousness, indeed that consciousness could not exist without the ability to feel. It’s entirely possible, furthermore, that one can feel something and not quite grasp it. We can be bothered by something precisely because we “can’t put our finger on it”; we can also derive insights from dreams that were evidently in our unconscious but not our conscious mind. So, the possibility that the universe is conducive to sentience or to feelings and images beneath the threshold of consciousness becomes a more elementary prospect to tackle. If the answer turns out to be yes, then a model exists for some fascinating phenomena that science has yet to take seriously despite their experience being longstanding and widespread. Equally, these phenomena might provide evidence that the cosmos is sentient. Sentience, Not Consciousness, Is Key to the Cosmos.
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