Air Water Ground: June 2010

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Cultural Universals

Fun area of study.
If a behavior is present across a whole specie, it is probably safe to assume its origin (but not the expression) is in the genotype?

I am currently reading The Evolution of Childhood by Melvin Connor, which has some cool lists of these universals.

Overview:
Cultural Universals:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_universal
Behavioral Modernity:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behavioral_modernity

belief and pattern recognition

On TED, about "belief"

http://www.ted.com/talks/michael_shermer_the_pattern_behind_self_deception.html?utm_source=newsletter_weekly_2010-06-15&utm_campaign=newsletter_weekly&utm_medium=email

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Frank Sinatra would be proud...

I watched Michael Moore's latest, "Capitalism: A Love Story" this last weekend.
For me, the neatest thing in it was at the beginning of the credits. There you will hear Tony Babino's lounge style rendition of L' Internationale
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QP4l_PeBMyk

Spinning Away (Eno/Kale)

Up on a hill, as the day dissolves

With my pencil turning moments into line
High above in the violent sky
A silent silver plane – it draws a golden chain

One by one, all the stars appear
As the great winds of the planet spiral in
Spinning away, like the night sky at Arles
In the million insect storm, the constellations form

On a hill, under a raven sky
I have no idea exactly what I’ve drawn
Some kind of change, some kind of spinning away
With every single line moving further out in time
And now as the pale moon rides (in the stars)
Her form in my pale blue lines (in the stars)
And there, as the world rolls round (in the stars)
I draw, but the lines move round (in the stars)
There, as the great wheels blaze (in the stars)
I draw, but my drawing fades (in the stars)
And now, as the old sun dies (in the stars)
I draw, and the four winds sigh (in the stars)