Five nuggets is a series inspired by an accidental collision with a similar project by Tim Ferris, author of The 4 Hour Work Week and Tools for Titans. In this weekly series, I share five things which caught my interest this week through my wanderings, web surfing, researching and time spent on Steemit.
Without further ado, five nuggets which caught my attention this week:
https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/science/universe-conscious-ncna772956
As I have reached middle age, it seems like the esoteric subjects of life once reserved for philosophers of an earlier era have become more prominent. As a self-ascribed agnostic, what consciousness is has always fascinated me.
Recently, Gregory Matloff, a veteran physicist at New York City College of Technology published a paper arguing a “proto-consciousness field” extends through all of space, implying even stars may be conscious entities which deliberately control their own path. Essentially, the entire cosmos is a self-aware entity. This new field is called panpsychism and it's not occupied totally by fringe crackpots – rather quite the opposite. Some of the most well-known proponents of this theory are the philosopher and cognitive scientist David Chalmers, neuroscientist Christof Koch of the Allen Institute for Brain Science, and British physicist Sir Roger Penrose, renowned for his work on gravity and black holes.
Amazing stuff.
I absolutely enjoy excellently, unintended Photoshop FAIL photos. It warms the cockles of my heart and makes my day feel complete each time I come across one. Call it a guilty pleasure.
In this particular feature, it’s an absolute smorgasbord of epic Photoshop skills as one man inserts himself into a series of celebrity photos in only the most awesomely compromising positions. Truly awesome find.
I first came across Morgan Spurlock when I was introduced to the movie Supersize Me and became hooked on his work (30 Days, Failure Club, The Greatest Movie Ever Sold, etc.) and partly inspired both my Subcultures and Social Trends and Deeper Dives series. I find him to be one of the best documentary film producers in the market today.
In this one-hour documentary piece, we get to look back to a time when Bitcoin was only $600 USD and still considerably outside the mainstream. We have the opportunity to see Morgan Spurlock attempt to live one week on Bitcoin alone. Bask in the nostalgia.
For any who have played the game World of Warcraft, it would appear the Skystone actually does exist. In 1990 Italian geologist Angelo Pitoni found an unusual blue stone with white lines while visiting Sierra Leone. After sending samples of the stone to the Institute of Natural Sciences in Geneva, Switzerland and Universite la Pienza in Rome, it was determined to be a substance which did not correspond to any known mineral and was composed of 77% Oxygen.
Why have I not stumbled across at least one in my numerous visits to the Ripley’s Odditorium?
https://www.theatlantic.com/timeline/
Seems more and more as I go into tourist traps, card shops, and Cracker Barrels, and I see small booklets showing me everything historic which happened the year I was born. It's convenient nostalgia with a dash of ageism to keep us all humble.
The Life Timeline project is, in my opinion, something infinitely more effective because it shows curated historical life events which have occurred from the time you were born, through the present day and into known future events. For instance, my future timeline brightened my day by informing me when I turn 57, humanity’s water requirements will exceed potable water sources by 40%.
Optimism at its finest.
Growing old never made the future seem so bright before.
That concludes my #fivenuggets for this week’s episode. Take care my Steemitland friends and until next time…
