∂an
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Posts posted by ∂an
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i cant help looking round and thinking we are the aliens
maybe that was said in jest, but many people seriously consider this possibility.
Perhaps the original seed of life originated from outside the Earth (panspermia), but most animals that have had their genome sequenced show striking similarity. For example chimpanzee's share 96% of their DNA with humans, and even fruit flies share 60% of their DNA with us.
We are very different from all other forms of life on Earth, but we are almost certainly share a common ancestor.
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why should a former defense minister be an expert on extraterrestrial life?
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yeah maybe not enough sunlight hours although it is still growing prolifically. it has been a dry year in these parts from what I have heard so maybe it just needs a bit more time. shall wait and see, thanks for the help guys!
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gold coast. a little bit more similar to its natural habitat than perth, but still the sub end of subtropical. reckon its just sensitive to the climate?
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my mate has an argyreia nervosa vine that is now about 2 years old. it is pretty big now, about 2 meters off the ground and 4 meters across, however it hasn't flowered yet. when would it be expected to flower? I have read that one way to induce flowering is top trim the roots but this plant is in the ground and this wouldn't really be possible.
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Yeah you have a very good point. The dilemma that humanity must face is that deep down we know our way of life is killing the planet.
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Essentially human minds work in the reverse fashion - we take a stance based on psychological reasons and personality traits, and our view of what "tribes" or groups we belong to, and then we hang our hats on whatever explanations are necessary and we generally stick by them no matter what.
well said - I catch myself doing exactly this on forums such as this.
however I still have some faith that sufficiently articulate and concise presentation of scientific facts will eventually motivate our civilization to take appropriate action on climate change. as william blake said:
Truth can never be told so as to be understood, and not be believed.
edit: but maybe it is not enough for people to see the reality of climate change via scientific evidence, when we don't seem willing to sacrifice our own standard of living for the future of our planet. the real problem could be that we lack empathy for the future generations that will inhabit this planet.
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I agree it would have been nice if he added references to the papers in question so you didn't have to track them down manually. But he's hardly alone that regard. Even most major news outlets don't specifically reference the papers they write about these days, only saying "a team of scientists say..." or "a recent study has found..."
It would be a positive step forward for science reporting and science literacy in general if that was more widely adopted as standard practice.
Especially when presenting the case for anthropological climate change. Given that this is such a potentially important issue for the planet, I think presentations such as this should be more rigourous in proving their case. I think most people can understand that even a 2 degree change in average temperature in the next few decades will have a significant impact on the Earth's biosphere - the real challenge is demonstrating with scientific evidence that this will occur.
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It is a nice presentation, but a few more references to the literature used in compiling the figures would be useful. Does TedX require the speakers to submit a paper in order to get a podium?
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I am looking forward to contributing more in 2014, as I am back down under and keen to get back into gardening again. I must say that I have been put off by some of the trolling and personal attacks that have been going on, but hopefully that stuff gets drowned out by a flood of more productive posts in the year to come.
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The Abbott government is cutting funding to many programs and industries that do not fit in with their mining and military oriented agenda. For example aboriginal legal aid has also had a 3 million dollar cut. At the same time the construction project to build navy destroyers is leaking 10 million dollars a month - this is the same amount of money that the environment legal centres discussed in the article above were promised over a 4 year period. We have the resources to build a better world, it is just a matter of directing our efforts in the right direction. We need forward thinking and visionary people to take control of this planet - that means people like us.
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It is my understanding that visitors to the Bunya Mountains are not supposed/permitted to take the nuts as it will reduce the availability of seeds to produce new trees. I am not sure how this relates to people of aboriginal decent. Also I remember reading that during the tri- or bi-annual bunya nut feasts animals were not to be killed or eaten, and that people from as far away as Bundaberg would walk to the Bunya mountains for the feasts.
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Nepal
in Chill Space
the tastiest mo:mo's are those made with fresh yak meat the week after divali festival, when the yak's are slaughtered. best enjoyed above 3000m with a ghurka beer.
namaste to you all, from nepal!
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fair call, I guess the lesson for many people from psychedelics and psuedo-psychedelics like cannabis is that its not for them and they are better off without them. using cannabis constructively is an art in itself and it involves equally how much you don't do it as how much you do.
When you say you love cannabis, what does that mean to you?
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+1 to what anodyne said. A lack of sense of belonging and purpose in the society we live in, I think, is a root cause of much substance abuse. It may well be that this is because we live in a mad world and introversion for many is the sanctuary - I certainly can relate to this. But ultimately we all, as in the human race, are in this together and we must find community one way or another.
Personally I have found ayahausca sessions to be highly beneficial in realigning my habits in more positive directions. The ted talk by graham hancock I think is especially relevant here:
http://www.shaman-australis.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=36774
I don't think it is necessary to totally abstain from cannabis, or to be totally addicted to it like some of the comments made in this thread, but rather to use it in such a way that honours the great gift that it is.
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Ken Adams' film 'the terence mckenna experience' looks amazing! Anyone seen it?
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Hey vegetarium, I have struggled with sleep most my life too, but have now ejust come to accept that some nights I won't get as much as I need. Last night I got 6 hours for example, but it was deep sleep and I feel rested enough to face the day. What tends to happen for me is I will get more and more tired due to low sleep then eventually I will get 8 hours that will fix me up.
In the end you have just got to listen to your body - no point in trying to sleep if your body doesn't want to. Exercise can really help here too, especially soon after you wake up and at the end of the day. That way, in oz at least, you will also be getting melatonin doses twice a day from the sun to reinforce your circadian rhythm.
Gut Schlafen!
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Wow epic dream! I find dreams that are not focused on people or personalities (like this one which was focused on plants) to be the most interesting, as it seems to hint at source deeper within the psyche. I have had a few vivid dreams focused on animals, such as an anaconda like creature and a giant preying mantis. Mostly however they are focused on people I know from my past. I bet a psychologist would have a field day analysing them!
Also from watching that great talk on dreaming, what he was describing as lucid dreaming doesn't seem to fit my experience as it definitely felt like I had to adhere to the rules of that world, and couldn't change it at my will. I can't remember what the other category he described was though...
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That is interesting regarding salvia Ceres, as it had a similar effect on me when I first tried it (in the US where also legal) - a mild intoxication while awake, followed a deep visionary state while asleep. The dream state is an incredible thing, as you say it reveals to us the latent creativity of our minds and perhaps even evidence of the nonlocality or interconnectedness of consciousness. One could argue that much of the content of the dream I described is a manifestation of residual memories from my waking consciousness (I.e. from watching the fifth element), but I remember almost being lucid in the dream and thinking how curious it was that I could interact with these beings as if they were real people with complex emotions. Also I remember gazing out over the rocky outcrops and being able to make out the details in the rock strata, the beauty of the scene filling me with happiness. It feels like their is the possibility of travel to another reality in the dream state, even more so than with psychedelics alone.
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Taking small quantities of plants and preparations thereof prior to sleep seems to be a very effective method for catalysing the dream state. Some of the most detailed visionary states that I can recall are from this method. Last night I felt compelled to chew a handful of the big juicy leaves from a coleus I have growing next to where I sleep. I have been nibbling a leaf here and there for a few weeks, and it seems that subconsciously my brain has developed I liking for it as this time I felt a definite desire for its bitter taste. So I ate the leaves and drank some weak caapi infusion, and was soon fast asleep. What followed was one of the most amazing dreams I have ever had. Incredibly detailed places like I have never visited, strange undulating hills and towers of stone. There was a Spanish train ticket conductor who turned out to be an imposter that pik pocketed the diplomat sitting next to me on our way to a conference. At the conference we were abducted by alien like creatures that took us to a plane where we were strapped into hairs. They were all awaiting 'her' to find out what should become of us. Suddenly an airlock door snapped open and there she was, a cross between jabba the hut and that singing blue lady from the fifth element. She saw right through us, init our deepest fears and desires. At that point I felt the straps starting to hurt and I woke up. In the slow return to consciousness that followed I experienced the full range of post-tryptaminesque intoxiation emotions; the interconnectedness of all beings, the realisation that we know deep inside our that our being extends beyond the corporeal plane, and wonder at the stars that shone through the window.
Ok so maybe this was just an excuse to share that trippy dream but I definitely think it had something to do with the coleus and caapi, especially that I felt compelled to eat them not unlike the brain that knows cannabis desires that next hit. I have heard that aust. aboriginal spirituality relies heavily on visionary states experienced while dreaming. I wonder if they were onto something like this, colouring or catalysing dreams with weakly active plants. It also reminds me of how Amazonian shamans are said to use the ayahausca preparation to get to know the character of other plants. Perhaps endogenous betacarbolines and tryptamines are the ur visionary vine.
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Apparently merkel has had an encryption chip in her phone for a while now.
I think it's a good thing as it has motivated at least one western leader to stand up and take a real stand against the NSA. Funny that she couldn't give a shit about other German citizens being spied on, only when it was her phone.
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yeah generic "T. peruvianus" from Köhres. they do seem like peru's to me, guess I will never know.
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Yeah those bizarre depictions in the codes seraphinianus are cool. The attraction I think for the voynich manuscript might be it perputed age. Art says a lot about the psyche of the society that made it, and it is fascinating to looking at art produced by people long ago and imagine why they wanted to draw such things. Communication of ideas through time.
Aliens living on earth.
in Chill Space
Posted
wow I bet your kids were fascinated with those tardigrades, I would be at least! just had a quick look over the wikipedia page and it said that they took some into space for 10 days, and although the majority survived the trip many of them subsequently died after a few days. so although tardigrades are certainly extremephiles, they are no interstellar travellers. the earth has gone through many chaotic periods in the past few billion years, so one could argue they developed these abilities just to survive any condition the Earth could throw at them (e.g. planetary impacts, solar storms, ice ages, volcanic eruptions etc).
the study of the possibility of life existing throughout the universe is called astrobiology, and as far I understand one of the most promising candidate for existence outside of Earth are viruses:
Recently, viruses have been recognized as the most numerous entities and the primary drivers of evolution on Earth. Historically, viruses have been mostly ignored in the field of astrobiology due to the view that they are not alive in the classical sense and if encountered would not present risk due to their host-specific nature. What we currently know of viruses is that we are most likely to encounter them on other life-bearing planets; that while some are exquisitely host-specific, many viruses can utilize hundreds of different host species; that viruses are known to exist in our planet's most extreme environments; and that while many do not survive long outside their hosts, some can survive for extended periods, especially in the cold. In our quest for extraterrestrial life, we should be looking for viruses; and while any encountered may pose no risk, the possibility of an encounter with a virus capable of accessing multiple cell types exists, and any prospective contact with such an organism should be treated accordingly.
http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10.1089/ast.2012.0959
It seems unlikely to me that life would limit its range to a single planet in the vastness of the universe. Perhaps proto and primative life forms are constantly drifiting throughout the universe or embedded in comets. Planets however seem like the place where life really gets going, however, and can achieve complex forms such as human beings. Our insatiable desire for evermore complex and powerful tools, exemplified by computers and space craft, may just be natures way of devising a strategy for highly evolved life to leap frog from the earth to other more fertile worlds in the universe. So if we are not yet aliens, we soon will be.