• • • an aural noise • • •
word garnish: Cerebral Meltdown Records proudly presents part two in the Tranquilize series. Taking you on a ride through some of the neural pathways of a bunch of Australia’s hidden sound alchemists. Enjoy!
• some of the things I read while eating breakfast in antisocial isolation •
To Imagine a 39-Million-Year-Old Forest, Start Small—Very Small
Decades of work has revealed a “megadiverse” ancient landscape in northern Peru that was destroyed in a volcanic eruption.
A thin section of petrified wood identified as Cynometra, a genus of tree also found throughout the tropics today. Embiggenable. Explore at home.
BEFORE IT WAS LOST, IT must have been a wild paradise: a lowland tropical forest near the sea and thick with tall palms and other slim, flowering trees. Woody vines snaked through the dense understory, shaded by relatives of today’s cashew and tropical chestnut trees, while stout hop-bushes clustered where sunlight pierced the canopy. Black mangroves sank their roots into the water where crocodiles likely waited, silent and patient, for an unsuspecting meal to wander past. The air would have been thick with birdsong and the click and buzz of insects. Then everything changed.
The sky darkened and choking black ash rained down. Rivers of hot ash snapped trees in half or uprooted them, and then dumped them in a mass grave. A volcanic eruption in what’s now northern Peru destroyed this tropical forest 39 million years ago, but the story does not end there.
Fragments of the forest, buried in ash, were fossilized. The Andes continued to rise, a fitful process across millions of years that pushed the remains of that lowland forest site skyward. At last, at more than 8,000 feet above sea level, the rocks surrounding the petrified forest began to erode, revealing the world hidden within. After more than 20 years of work, a team of researchers has been able to reconstruct what that world was like, but it wasn’t easy.
A petrified log, now at a high elevation near Sexi, Peru, was once part of a lush, lowland forest. Embiggenable.
“You have to have a taste for this, looking and looking through the specimens,” says project coleader and Clark University research scientist Deborah Woodcock, who specializes in paleoenvironmental reconstruction. Woodcock and her colleagues first had to understand the geological forces that created the petrified forest of Piedra Chamana, located near the small village of Sexi in Peru’s northwest corner. That meant dating the rocks and piecing together the chain of events that followed the eruption. …
PODCAST: Nepali Folk Musical Instrument Museum
Join us for a daily celebration of the world’s most wondrous, unexpected, even strange places.
IN THIS EPISODE OF THE ATLAS OBSCURA PODCAST, tune in to learn more about a secluded museum that beats the drum for the preservation of Nepal’s musical heritage. …
MEANWHILE, in Los Angeles:
COVID Anti-Vaxxers are the Ultimate Snowflakes
Equating vaccine mandates and mask requirements with tyranny shows us all how privileged and fragile you are.
GOP anti-vax mandate protest, NYC, 8/15/21.
They say no two snowflakes look alike. But from all appearances at the anti-vax and anti-mask rallies — filled with people convinced that either COVID is a hoax or efforts to mitigate it are one step removed from the gulag — I’m not so sure.
There’s an awful lot of similarity there: overwhelmingly white and with the kind of wide-eyed look so common for those whose marination in conspiracy theories has all but pickled their brains.
For those who’ve been wondering, this is why America can’t have nice things.
Seriously, how fragile must one be to think having to wear a mask in a grocery — or even being encouraged to do so since few mandates are in place — is tantamount to oppression?
How utterly spoiled, privileged, and not oppressed must you be to think having to get a vaccine to get on a cruise ship or to come back to your dorm room this fall are examples of persecution? …
5 Things To Know About Ivermectin pic.twitter.com/PyutDHjpZ9
— The Onion (@TheOnion) September 16, 2021
Scientists Want to Build Mars Bases Out of Human Blood
Humans are a “significant, but chronically overlooked, source of natural resources” for Mars missions, according to a new study.
Astrocrete.
In what may be the gnarliest scientific proposal of the week, researchers have suggested that future Martian bases could be built from bricks made of astronaut blood, sweat, tears, and urine, according to a study published on Monday in the journal Materials Today Bio.
Led by Aled D. Roberts, a research scientist at the University of Manchester, the study test-drives this novel approach to cutting costs on human trips to Mars that treats astronauts as just another onsite resource.
“The proverbial phrase ‘you can’t get blood from a stone’ is used to describe a task that is practically impossible regardless of how much force or effort is exerted,” Roberts and his team said in the study. “This phrase is well-suited to humanity’s first crewed mission to Mars, which will likely be the most difficult and technologically challenging human endeavor ever undertaken.”
After noting that these missions will need to capitalize on Martian resources, as opposed to hauling Earth supplies to Mars, the researchers eerily add that “there is one significant, but chronically overlooked, source of natural resources that will—by definition—also be available on any crewed mission to Mars: the crew themselves.” …
CRISPR Startup Looking To Bring Back Woolly Mammoth By 2027https://t.co/1e7ZJuyr1K #WhatDoYouThink pic.twitter.com/2jSVdCEt9q
— The Onion (@TheOnion) September 16, 2021
4 Famous Expressions Everyone is Using Wrong
Communication is hard. People can barely say what they mean, let alone make it sound clever. That’s why we all borrow the words of the smart people who came before us. But the problem with grabbing isolated quotes out of the mists of time is that they can shed context until the meaning has changed beyond all recognition, so let’s remember that …
4. A “City On A Hill” Is Supposed To Be Judged, Not Mindlessly Praised
If you’re a columnist who needs to opine on the state of America, calling it a “shining city on a hill” gives you instant credibility. Here’s an editorial about how America is still a shining city thanks to its welcoming of Afghan refugees, here’s one on how it lost its shine thanks to something Joe Biden did, and this one says most of the world will stop viewing America as that shining city if those communist Democrats pass their relief bill.
Not a day goes by without someone at the Fartsville Star-Tribune-Post-Herald busting “shining city” out. It’s especially popular among Republicans insisting that America is uniquely awesome because, while many presidents used the expression, Reagan bought it an apartment and paid its bills. In his farewell speech he said he pictured the city as “a tall, proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans.”
So this columnist says that, because America is a “shining city on a hill,” it can and must dominate the global economy. Mike Pompeo said America’s special shininess means those commies in Beijing and terrorists in Tehran are doomed. Even when a piece is warning that America’s ideals are failing, the implication is usually “If we keep this up, the rest of the world will no longer be amazed by us.”
The phrase is popular because it goes all the way back to the founding of America, right? In 1630, before colonists departed to settle Massachusetts Bay, Puritan lawyer John Winthrop told his fellows that the community they were about to found would be “as a city upon a hill, the eyes of all people upon us.” That’s practically a prophecy about how awesome America would be, right?
But wait, where’d the “shining” go? Is it later in the speech? Winthrop kept going to say, uh, “So that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken and so cause him to withdraw his present help from us, we shall be made a story and a byword through the world.”
Oh. Yeah, Winthrop’s speech wasn’t a prediction that America was destined for unbridled greatness; it was a warning that they’d be criticized if they failed to live up to the high standards they’d set for themselves. The city isn’t shining, it’s exposed. …
Taco Bell Testing Monthly Subscription Service https://t.co/zixftlMJbm #WhatDoYouThink? pic.twitter.com/m0pdvck5GQ
— The Onion (@TheOnion) September 17, 2021
UNRELATED: Crypt Of Civilization: America’s Time Capsule That’s Closed Til 8113
In Oglethorpe University, a small school near Atlanta, Georgia, there is a time capsule. Rather than a simple collection of mementos, this time capsule is intended to serve as a sort of ark for humanity — a collection of knowledge to be used in the distant future. It is called the Crypt of Civilization, and it is intended to be closed until the year 8113.
The story of the Crypt of Civilization is the story of Thornwell Jacobs, the longtime president of Oglethorpe University. Jacobs was interested in the future, and he wanted to create something that could keep the best of human knowledge preserved for those thousands of years from now. He was particularly inspired by the pyramids of Egypt.
This is where the 8113 year came from. The first date recorded in the Egyptian calendar was 4241 BC, which was 6,177 years from when Jacobs started the project in 1936. Fast forward 6,177 years, and you get to AD 8113.
Preserving all of human knowledge and culture may sound like a daunting task, and that is because it most certainly is. The Crypt was to be 20 feet long, 10 feet wide, and 10 feet tall, and Jacobs was going to make the most of this space. He enlisted the help of the U.S. Bureau of Standards, who recommended measures such as storing microfilm in stainless steel with a glass lining. …
California Governor Gavin Newsom Survives Recall Votehttps://t.co/R9bWymTVl0 #WhatDoYouThink? pic.twitter.com/K1FtP3cZI9
— The Onion (@TheOnion) September 16, 2021
Healing The Nervous System after Trauma
How the Parasympathetic Nervous System plays a crucial role in the healing journey.
“When you heal trauma, you heal the nervous system. When you heal the nervous system, you heal the emotional body. When you heal the emotional body, you heal the psychic (empathic) body. When you heal the psychic body, you heal vibration. Once the vibration is healed, realities change.”
– blksoltheory.
When we replay the memory of a traumatic experience, we experience a distinct emotional connection with the event. When we recall these memories in our minds, we either feel our bodies expand or contract. These memories have the ability to either make us smile or cry. We either revel in the joy of a nostalgic moment or the memory makes us feel like we want to crawl out of our skin.
Emotional and psychological trauma can be caused by difficult-to-forget memories. Bad experiences, negative feelings, and painful moments that replay in our minds can sometimes have an irrevocable effect on us. This is how we hold onto trauma.
A very uncomfortable or upsetting encounter is classified as a traumatic event. Those terrible events in our life cannot be changed, and yet if left unhealed, they have the potential to continue causing harm well into the future.
People who have experienced trauma may develop coping methods that they may not even be aware of. Coping methods can look like poor diet, drug and alcohol abuse, self-sabotaging behaviors, toxic relationships, etc. These coping mechanisms essentially mask the wound and provide temporary relief, but they end up causing more fragmentation between your mind, body, and spirit long-term.
Although we cannot change the past, we can learn to create safety in our bodies again. We can learn to regulate our nervous systems so that we do not constantly have to live in a fight-or-flight response. …
Ed. I’ve been living a fight-or-flight response since January due to long Covid. I need to read this piece again.
7 Paradoxes That Will Drive You Crazy
It’s all about contradiction.
A paradox is always an amusing situation that contradicts itself in many ways. A phenomenon that may exist in reality but has no logical explanation. Common sense is alien to the paradoxes surrounding us; nevertheless, they are precious for the development of critical thinking.
We find new ways to explain various mysterious phenomena, moving further towards knowledge about the world. Teasing your mind and asking difficult questions is part of a lot of intellectual activity. And the more closely you look at the things around you, the more you will find surprising and inexplicable.
Here are some of the most exciting paradoxes you should know about today. Enjoy! If you know any more, share it in the comments.
1— Omnipotence paradox
In general, there is a whole family of such paradoxes, but they all boil down to what an omnipotent being can do, and can his omnipotence limit the ability to perform God’s actions?
The simplest example is: “Can Almighty God create a stone that he himself is not able to lift?”
Meanwhile, Richard Dawkins notes that God’s omnipotence and omniscience also conflict with each other: either God knows what he will do tomorrow or has the freedom (ability) to do whatever.
2— Ship of Theseus paradox
Briefly described, it sounds like this: an object, all the components of which have been replaced, can remain the same object? …
Ed. I have several of those. I call them Frankenthings.
Video Goodnesses
and not-so-goodnesses
and not-so-goodnesses
this film is at its heart an exploration of both personal and cultural themes, exposing our exploitative relationship with our environment on a personal level and, by extension, as a society or species. The poo in this sense is a symbol of the by-products of our capitalist consumerism, with alan titchmarsh reflecting the role of the media; alerting us, ridiculing us, perhaps even judging us – the media becomes a collective conscience that binds us to our own environmental mortality. The refrain of titchmarsh is answered by our inability as a global society to take a truly global responsibilty; as we continue to poo at paul’s we are nevertheless reminded that the poo is in fact very much situated in our own pants.
And if you made it through that bullshit then your prize is a link to download the poo-pants song: http://snipurl.com/s44u0
Ed. The link is dead. Sorry.
We made Desi Lydic watch 87 hours of Fox News to explain why Biden’s vaccine mandate is North Korea times Apartheid plus 9/11.
THANKS to Comedy Central and The Daily Show with Trevor Noah for making this program available on YouTube.
In this installment of his very unfortunate segment on how knuckleheads are handling the pandemic, Stephen looks at the latest bogus Covid-19 “treatments” being promoted on the web.
THANKS to CBS and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert for making this program available on YouTube.
The Establishment breaks down Biden’s meeting with business leaders on vaccine mandates, Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema’s infrastructure holdup, Gen. Mark Milley’s attempt to stop Trump from launching a nuclear weapon, and the panel pitches future Best Picture-winning roles to legendary actor Jeff Daniels.
Stephen Colbert Presents Tooning Out The News is Now Streaming, only on Paramount+.
Republicans are up in arms about the latest vaccine mandate handed down by President Biden. But if getting a shot in the arm sounds painful to them, wait until they find out about all the historical and constitutional precedents vaccine mandates have.
THANKS to TBS and Full Frontal with Samantha Bee for making this program available on YouTube.
None of us thought Nicki Minaj would go down in the history books for her stance on COVID vaccines…but here we are!
Seth takes a closer look at the biggest scandal and mystery in current politics: What happened to Nicki Minaj’s cousin’s friend’s balls?
THANKS to NBC and Late Night with Seth Meyers for making this program available on YouTube.
CAUTION: Some language may not be appropriate for work or children.
匂いチェックは一度で十分なまるさん。One smell check is enough for Maru.
FINALLY . . .
RELATED: It Has Come to Subscription Tacos
Even Taco Bell is a tech company now.
Embiggenable. Dine at home.
I LIKE TO THINK OF AMERICA’S FAST-FOOD chains as a bunch of dysfunctional family members. McDonald’s is the golden boy, the kid who’s good at everything and won’t shut up about it. Burger King is the jealous younger brother. KFC is perhaps the cousin who still wears cargo shorts. And then, there’s Taco Bell: fast food’s problem child.
The purveyor of fluorescent nacho cheese is just plain weird. I’m not simply talking about those tacos with Doritos for shells. This is a brand that reportedly spent $500 million on an ad campaign featuring Gidget, a talking chihuahua with the catchphrase “Yo quiero Taco Bell!” A completely real tagline on Taco Bell’s webpage for its fountain drinks reads: “Taco Bell Cups, Matryoshka Dolls, and the Multiplicity of Human Existence.” (It only gets weirder from there.)
Alas, Taco Bell is at it again. This month, the brand announced the “Taco Lover’s Pass,” which lets you get exactly one taco every single day for 30 days with a subscription that costs $5 to $10, depending on the store. Right now, Taco Bell is trial-running the service in 17 locations in Tucson, Arizona, and there are lots of caveats: The only way to become a certified Taco Lover is by buying the pass through the Taco Bell app; no, sorry, the Chalupa Supreme is not part of the deal. A company spokesperson told me that “there’s no guarantee” the subscription service will become available nationwide, “but when it comes to Taco Bell innovation, we never say never.”
Although “Netflix for tacos” should absolutely not be a phrase we all have to endure in the future, I will very reluctantly acknowledge that this does seem like a good deal. Some qualifying tacos at the chain sell for $1.99, so if you buy the $5 pass and go in just three days out of 30, you can more than break even. Taco Bell’s most ardent fans are going bonkers over subscription tacos. “I think so far this might be one of the few perks I’ve gotten for living in AZ lol,” reads one comment on r/livingmas, the Reddit forum for discussing Taco Bell. But even a good deal has its downsides. “That’s brilliant marketing. No one with that subscription could possibly live for 30 days,” joked the comedian Larry the Cable Guy on Twitter. (Hey, when he’s right, he’s right.) …
Taco Bell now has a subscription card good for one taco a day for 30 days. That’s brilliant marketing. No one with that subscription could possibly live for 30 days.
— Larry The Cable Guy (@GitRDoneLarry) September 15, 2021
Ed. More tomorrow? Possibly. Probably. Maybe. Likely, if I find nothing more barely uninteresting at all to do.
Ed., etc. I didn’t have time to do this today.
