OBAMA!

So it seems like Barack Obama is heading toward the general election against John McCain.

I really can't wait to see these two in a debate setting. It will be a real study in contrast!

McCain is no monster, & I'd vote for him over George W. Bush, but that's also not saying much. I'm sure some people will find McCain more appealing, but there also people out there who like to hang by their flesh on meat hooks.

When I hear Obama talk at length about his vision of what America should be, it resonates with me. Of course the guy's not perfect & has shady links, like every other high-profile American citizen. It's not a small thing that his associate Tony Rezko is convicted at the same time as the Dem race ends. I'm sure we'll being hearing about that till the fall. On the other hand, I don't think alot of what his former pastor Jeremiah Wright said was all that crazy... but then again I have a high threshold for craziness.

Anyway, I'm not one to get my hopes up about the American political system. Until President Obama is actually sworn, in I'm going to assume the worst - that Bush, Inc. will somehow stay in charge. But in the Election Multiverse, I prefer an outcome with a leader who can inspire this country & amplify the positive aspects of this nation, and not the negative.

In a tribute to "The Long Legged Mack-Daddy" here's some of my personal favorite Obama-related clips:

• The great viral video that started it all "Obama Girl":



• Pastor Manning's unbelievably awesome mack-daddy sermon on Obama that I referenced above. Howard Stern uses the clip of this guy yelling "OBAMA!" & I find myself exclaiming it.



• Stephen Colbert exposes Barack Hussein Obama:



• Daily Show interview with John Stewart:


• "Yes I Inhaled... That was the Point"

'Alien' Footage on CNN

My brother sent me this clip of that stud Larry King interviewing a man who claims to have footage of an alien looking into his window.

Larry's interview is predictably ridiculous in itself, but I laughed out loud when I saw the 'footage' of the alien in night-vision. It's only a video recreation, but for a second I thought he was actually trying to pass that off as real. Besides looking fake as hell, back in the day I used to have the same exact alien puppet they use. I quickly saw it was a reenactment, but its still funny.

Along with Great White Sharks, if this were real it would probably be up there with top scary things to see.

"Larry King Live: Alien on Tape"

Lost Tribes of the Amazon

There's a series of photos creating alot of interest in the news.

They were taken from a plane flying over an isolated village deep in the Amazon jungle. The people of the village are painted in bright colors and are obviously disturbed by the unknown object flying above, which they are threatening with yells & spears.

"BBC Photos: Lost Tribe in South America"

One can imagine the terror & anxiety seeing such a vehicle in the sky would cause to any person unfamiliar with aircraft. It's no different than if bizarre hyper-dimensional alien entities appeared to Americans over Washington DC. There was a pretty good comment in the Wall Street Journal article: "Will we look any less ridiculous if the aliens come? flying over in their giant silent craft and laughing at the nuclear weapons we point at them?"

Although I definitely don't think that inflicting mass psychological trauma on innocent people is a good thing, I have to admit these photos are pretty fascinating.

It shows that the myth of Eden is really just an analogy for a state of being. This way of life is one in complete sustainable harmony with the natural environment. Photos like these prove that this more organic state of existence still persists in certain isolated environments. The Garden of Eden is a cultural metaphor for a time before the imposition of large-scale society, when life was a process more in tune with the realities of Nature than a concept of "The State".

"The Last Tribal Battle"

Unfortunately, the abstract organizing process and system of control known as "civilization" is surely on its way to devour these holdouts of human independence & self-sustenance. Then, their lifestyle will become a memory in the growing collective consciousness of humanity.

However, like a bacterium absorbing DNA from other living things, civilization has a way of assimilating useful traits from the smaller social entities that it engages. So, maybe the positive aspects of life in the remote Amazon jungle will be able to inform the global culture that is evolving & looking for ways to harmonize with the world we live in.

Choose Your Overlord

I saw this blog on Design You Trust that deals exclusively with two of my favorite subjects: Robots & Monkeys!

Specifically, the focus is on which of these types of beings will end up being in control of the human race. Will our future resemble "Planet of the Apes" or "Terminator"?

Choose Your Overlord

As described in the Intro:
"Now, I realize that this is age old argument: monkeys or robots; robots or monkeys. Who will eventually dominate us? I really don’t have the answer, but with this question in mind, I have created this site to keep a running tally of the successes and failures on both sides."

Unfortunately, unlike The Matrix there is no real choice... because the actual horrible reality we may face will be cybernetic Robot-Monkey Hybrids!

Man is already using his unholy powers of reality-manipulation to create the precursor of unstoppable robo-chimps...

NY Times:
"Monkeys Control a Robot Arm With Their Thoughts"

Believe me,
he's plotting his revenge against our entire species.

Guess-the-Google

I think I saw this addictive game on i-am-bored.com called "Guess-the-Google".

It takes a favorite internet activity of mine - searching Google Images - & reverses the process.

You are given a grid of pictures & must guess the keyword that gives all the Google Image results shown.

I could keep playing this over & over just trying to get a high score.

"Guess-the-Google"

Natural Terror

Great White sharks top my list of the most fearsome creatures.

Crazy people who dive with these monsters to show their "docile" side don't ease the horror caused by seeing one. I've always loved the ocean and boats, but the idea of a huge fish with razor teeth is enough to prevent me from feeling completely at ease.

This past Sunday I was watching 2 shows that centered around sharks. "Science of Survival" was about staying alive at sea on a life raft. Of course, sharks were a problem that was addressed. It was hosted by Les Stroud. His other show, "Survivorman", is another one of my favorites. Although Bear Grylls is wackier & more animated on "Man vs. Wild", I don't think he's as informative.

The other show was what I think was another episode of "I Shouldn't be Alive" & told the nightmarish story of a shipwreck where the crew were stranded on a rubber dinghy w/ no supplies whatsoever. A couple of the guys drank seawater out of desperation & went crazy. They jumped into shark-infested water & the survivors explained how they felt the frenzy of sharks striking the victim right underneath their raft! That thought alone is horrifying, but they had a reenactment showing the whole scene & the bottom of the boat violently bouncing under the survivors. It almost made me want to never go on a raft again.

As I went looking for cool pictures of Great Whites online after watching these shows, I found a doozy. This has to be one of the absolute scariest pictures I've ever seen... The fact that you can barely make out the creature rising from the deep to attack makes it all the more terrifying.

Here's the link to the Flickr set I saw it in:

Flickr: "Wildlife and Nature"

The Election Multiverse

The idea of a multiverse - multiple, or even infinite, parallel universes existing simultaneously - has been pondered & discussed alot in physics, philosophy, and science-fiction.

Just the problem of free-will vs. destiny could fill volumes by itself. However, for all practical purposes, we can say almost anything the mind can imagine is possible. I started thinking about all the possibilities that could exist for even a single situation, like the outcome of the US Presidential election. Most people think "Oh, well it's easy, you fool, either a Democrat or a Republican will win!"

I'd say there are way crazier things that could happen that are neither choice A nor B. Sure, they might not seem possible, but alot of things don't seem possible... until they happen.

I'm channeling the multiverse and listing some of the myriad possibilities that currently exist for January 20th 2009. It has the potential to be one of the most significant days in history, regardless of the situation.

In order of the situation that I'd personally most like to see first:

1. The true progressive, Dennis Kucinich unbelievably wins through write-in votes, shocking the nation and the entire human race. However, he leads America into a Golden Age of reason, compassion, innovation, and prosperity. His smart & lovely wife, Elizabeth, is his Vice-President.
2. Barack Obama wins the election, & turns the established bureaucracy upside down like a modern-day Akhenaten. His VP is Dennis Kucinich. America is saved from oblivion.
   
3. Obama wins with John Edwards as his running mate & they lead the way in cleaning up The War Monkey's enormous mess.
4. Obama wins, with any other Democrat as his VP- including Hillary. America is returned to a course of sanity & fiscal responsibility.
5. Hillary is nominated and wins the election. She chooses any of the qualified Dems for VP & takes the country in a positive direction.
6. By the end of the summer, the technology exists to jack everyone into a virtual hive mind. As a result, there is no need for a governing body of any sort - all decisions are made through the Borg-like collective consciousness.
   
7. Either Obama or Hillary wins & chooses a Republican running mate. It might be strategically smart to pick someone competent from the other side of the aisle, like Chuck Hagel or another conservative who isn't a ideologue or a pandering hypocrite. I would personally not be thrilled about this possibility, though.
8. Ron Paul leads his 'Ron Paul Revolution' into the GOP convention & takes it over! He wins the election, and his first act in office is to immediately abolish the Federal Reserve.
9. Ralph Wiggum wins as a write-in candidate after a media campaign by Fox.
10. Kids who are too young to remember the 2000 election see the "new guy" Ralph Nader enter the race & forget all about Obama. John McCain wins, thanks to another Nader run. America continues it's descent into oblivion.
11. Obama is the nominee, but large numbers of white Americans would rather see their way of life crumble under a regressive Republican plutocracy than vote for an intelligent Harvard Law graduate with a multicultural background. John McCain wins. America continues it's descent into oblivion.
12. A dimensional portal opens and predatory alien entities flood our world, rendering governments useless. The election never takes place & mankind is scattered about the globe like cockroaches.
13. There is a violent shift of Earth's magnetic poles due to uncontrollable cosmic forces. Civilization is wiped out from the catastrophic effects & only a small number of people survive. Al Gore is one of them, and finally becomes President of New Earth.
14. "Skynet" comes online & the nations and military forces of humans are subjugated by autonomous Robot Armies. "Asimo" is declared the first robot President.
15. Bush & Cheney simply can't leave office without risking exposure to massive war crimes & fraud on the American people. So, they refuse to leave office, citing "Executive Privilege". The Democrats complain a little bit, while the citizens grumble & shake their fists before going back to their deteriorating lives. The United States is changed into The United Empire of America.
16. The Bush Inc. War Profiteering industry finds any loss of business unacceptable. A "terrorist attack" by "Iranian agents" causes George W. Bush to immediately declare nuclear war on Iran, wiping out bases and innocent civilians in cities. Before the election, a state of martial law is put in effect & Bush declares himself President-for-Life. Democrats, anti-war, and other liberal vermin are labeled "terrorist sympathizers" and placed into contracted Halliburton work camps. Dick Cheney's sick fantasy has come true & the rest of the world's nightmare begins.
17. I wake up to (what I think is) Inauguration Day. I'm filthy, tired, & feel absolutely miserable... To my horror, it was all a dream. The year is really 1840 & I realize I'm actually a child who works in coal mines. I don't know or care whose President at the time because my life sucks so bad.
18. Because of the massive amount of debt we can't pay, China announces that the US is now part of the People's Republic. World War III commences & our elections are suspended due to the crisis.
    
19. Anne Coulter becomes the first "female" President by some strange electoral anomaly that turns out to be the direct influence of Satan. He appears, in a horrifying physical form, to act as her Vice-President.
20. Bill Gates completely buys out the Electoral College, Congress, & Supreme Court with a billion dollars. He crowns himself "Supreme Technocrat" and mandates Windows Vista operating system on every single computer in the nation. Apple Computers are outlawed & I kill myself out of sheer desperation.

Wow, that was oddly cathartic.

Of course, I've only listed 20 of the infinite possibilites for this particular situation. I'm sure the universe will serve up a scenario that is probably different than all of these somehow. Since I am not really in the mood to challenge the entire universe right now, I'll stick with this list for now & see what "Reality" has to offer.

Hopefully, it's something that resembles one of my top choices,

...but I'm not holding my breath.

click to enlarge

(If you look close,
I'm in the green universe.)

aka "The Monkeybuddhasphere™"

Esoteric Star Wars

"Luminous beings are we....
not this crude matter!"

Besides being a fan of Star Wars movies since I was a kid, I've accumulated a ridiculous amount of movie trivia throughout my life. As I got older, though, I've also become more interested in the historical & philosophical roots behind these space-age myths that use classic themes. Reading Joseph Campbell or reading about ancient mythology has given me an even greater appreciation for these movies I used to watch for the monsters & spaceships when I was little.

Looking into the deep roots behind these stories and analyzing their meaning concerning the human condition never becomes dull for an inquisitive mind. The purpose of any mythological narrative is to cause a person to consider the external & internal forces that define our existence. The hope is that by recognizing what motivates and defines us, we can be a more positive influence in the world.

When I come across essays or websites discussing the philosophy of the Star Wars movies, I eat it up. The ability to be understood on so many different levels is what makes the saga so great for people of all ages & backgrounds.

Esoteric Star Wars Blog
(The archive of older essays is at the bottom of the page)

Star Wars Origins:
Joseph Campbell and the Hero's Journey

Nuttin' But Stringz

I was watching TV with some other people & something caught our eye. On WYBE (the public tv channel) there was a music festival & these 2 street-looking dudes playing violins to hip-hop beats.

It looked kind of wacky, but being a lover of all music except country, I kept it on for a second out of curiosity. After a few minutes, we were like "Wow!" They were really good & the music was a unique fusion of classical & hip-hop sounds. Alot of great art is simply the act of synthesizing existing elements or ideas into a novel, unique form. Their music is a great example of that creative process.

The musicians are brothers - Tourie & Damien Escobar. Their website and Myspace page have music & video examples. Their performance was pretty tight & the sound took me by surprise. Check it out...

"Nuttin' But Stringz"
Website

Myspace.com - Nuttin But Strings

Neatorama Link

Damn.
Neatorama is one of my favorite sites to browse every day. I'm sometimes inspired to post about things related to what I see there. A few weeks ago I posted about optical album art w/ hidden messages, so I emailed Alex from Neatorama, figuring his other readers would find it just as interesting as I did.

He was nice enough to link directly to the post & my website. I usually have about 80 people visit my site a day. This blog has been for my own amusement & mental release more than anything, so the fact that anyone was reading it at all is pretty cool to me.

Today, however, thanks to the apparent legion of Neatorama readers, I've had over 50,000 visitors view the post he linked to. That's more than double the total number of visitors to The Monkey Buddha since I started recording my thoughts here, 3 years ago. If I had that many readers every day I would probably write material that was completely outrageous & mind blowing - instead of my currently just mildly crazy & semi-enlightening posts.
: )

If anyone who visited that post actually ends up coming back & reading this, I guess I'd suggest
• perusing the links down the right side of the page,
• typing random topics into the search box at the very top,
• or clicking the categories at the end of each post.

I have three years worth of "Monkey Buddhism" that can be explored.

The only other thing I would have to mention to new visitors to this site would be to check out the award-winning strategy board game I created - "Da Vinci's Challenge". It is the yin to chess's yang & in my humble opinion it is one of the greatest games ever created. It's one of the rare creations that has the potential to survive the ages.

Enjoy!

Daily Zen - Breathing

My homepage is set to DailyZen.com.

I was dealing with allergies on top of a cold this weekend, so this quote inspired me as my own breathing ability had gone to hell.

"Now and again, it is necessary to seclude yourself
among deep mountains and hidden valleys
to restore your link to the source of life.
Breathe out and let yourself soar to the ends of the universe;
breathe in and bring the cosmos back inside.
Next, breathe up all the fecundity and vibrancy of the earth.
Finally, blend the breath of heaven and the breath of earth
with that of your own, becoming the Breath of Life itself."

- Morihei Ueshiba

"Breathing:
Techniques, Practice, Exercises, Theory, and Lore"

Spooky

No, "Spooky" is not a description of the above picture I came across online - it is the name of the Halloween clown persona of "Willace", a Florida-based clown. This multi-tasking entertainer has a half dozen characters. I definitely have to give him credit for his diversity. Be sure to go to the "Fun & Games Page" to see the super-accurate drawing of Willace next to the Word Find.

"Willace the Clown" website

The description of the Spooky character reads:

"Spooky Does Halloween Parties, Children's Haunted houses.
He Face Paints Halloween Themes &
Does Halloween Theme Balloon Art.
Spooky Will Come to Visit your Children
with a Trick or treat bag with his supplies
to make your child's Halloween Happy & Safe."

The reassuring note after this description is a valiant attempt to separate himself from the legions of diabolical trauma-inducing clowns out there:

(Note: Spooky will not accept any jobs
that require scaring people!!
We do not like to leave mental Scars)

Like many people, I have a conflicting dual outlook on clowns.
• On one hand, it is nice that people want to entertain and make other people laugh. Trying to bring joy to the world is truly a noble effort.
• On the other hand, despite all attempts at keeping an open mind, the typical adult will find that picture kind of creepy. (Sorry Spooky.)

Unfortunately, John Wayne Gacy did for clowns what Hitler did for the square mustache.

There was just no way I couldn't post about this versatile clown/hobo/santa/comic doctor, especially after seeing the "Willace the Clown" thong on his Cafepress shop.

I simply can't imagine the special girl who would want "Willace" in her intimate area...

Go Willace!!!

Collection of Fantasy Landscapes

Randomly scouring Google for interesting imagery (as I am prone to do), a cool landscape picture led me to a page w/ a collection of other thumbnails.

Grid Solver Demo:
Landscape Images

The images are a varied mix of styles & themes. They are all pretty captivating, though.

The page is actually a demo for software of some sort that collects and displays image files in a grid. I don't really care all that much about the technical aspects of the page. I just like the pretty pictures...

After my last post, the scenes featuring Mayan architecture especially caught my eye.

Mayan Media

Photo I took of
The Temple of Kukulkan
(and my Dad)

Like Mel Gibson's Apocalypto, the new Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull movie features the mysterious culture of the ancient Mayan civilization.

Unlike Apocalypto, the Indiana Jones movie will probably be less historically accurate & more about the mystic aspects of the culture. This is a characteristic of all the Indy movies, but especially obvious, given the subject matter of the crystal skull.

I have a general fascination with ancient history, and the Mayan people are one group that I've spent alot of time learning about in past years. Although we tend to treat cultures, nations, & empires as entities that have an actual beginning and end, reality is much more fluid than such human mental constructs. Large-scale societies don't really die out - people just continue living under new circumstances. It has been argued that aspects of the entities such as the Roman, Babylonian, and British Empires still exist today.

Case in point, when I was in Riviera Maya, Mexico, there were plenty of people who claim Mayan heritage. Unfortunately they have been regarded as second-class citizens like many indigenous groups. The Mayan people never disappeared, they still exist & are thriving, due in part to continually growing interest in their culture.

"Remnants of an Ancient Civilization;
Decendants of the Mayans still thrive in the Yucatan"

Also aiding the survival of their way of life is the widespread use of new media to preserve & transmit the perspectives of mankind's many ethnic groups. The Information Age is giving all people a voice, including people like the Mayans and Tibetans, whose voices would have been oppressed or silenced in previous ages.

"Maya Television Comes to Guatemala"

Iron Man 2: Leaked Sequel Photo!!!

I haven't seen Iron Man yet, although the movie & video game look pretty awesome. This is a rare case where the movie actually makes the comic book character look cooler, thanks to current computer-generated visual effects.

Anyway, I think I've somehow stumbled upon an actual production photo for the Iron Man 2 sequel - despite the first one just being released. It is an exciting glimpse of a new major character from the Marvel Universe who was bound to be introduced.

Behold, the mighty....

WAR MACHINE!

The Phantom of Language

A story caught my eye a few weeks ago about the discovery & analysis of a old type of medium called a "Phonautograph" from 1860.

It is basically a piece of paper with markings that were recorded from sound. The remarkable thing is that the researchers were able to translate the recordings back into sound. The resulting audio is on the New York Times website and it is fascinating & also creepy as hell.

Playing the song feels like you are opening a portal that closes the gap in space & time between the long-gone person whose voice now magically reaches our ears. Of course, sensory-recording media is omnipresent today, but the pre-audio age of this particular find is what gives it a mysterious quality.

The other amazing thing about the recording was that the inventor had not even conceived of a way to play the audio back!!! The imprint of the waveform created by the singer's vocal cords was 'frozen' in an abstract state for over a century with no one ever hearing it played! This use of current technology to unlock the data is a testament to the ingenious foresight of the inventor- Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville.

This is all fascinating to me, & it made me think about the ephemeral nature of human communication, in all its forms. Mankind is just a quick flash in one of the Universe's brain cells, but as a species we strive so hard to achieve the absurd notion of immortality. We are continually trying to create a lasting presence through art, architecture, sciences, stories, and all types of cosmically futile efforts.
*Why even bother with such "trivial" pursuits, then???
*The answer is as simple as it is all-encompassing and unerringly correct:
"We are humans and that's what we do."

Language defines our experience in all its forms. The craving for connections that people are perpetually seeking can span moments, lifetimes, and generations through language. Animals communicate, too, but we can just guess what aspects of consciousness they are perpetuating.

One of our "cosmically futile" (but sociologically noble) pursuits is the preservation of dying languages threatened with vanishing due to the disappearance of the cultures that used them.
It must be incredibly lonely to be the last person to speak an extinct tongue, knowing that untold legacies will also go with you. This compulsion for preservation of knowledge is especially evident right now, as the internet and other media are used non-stop to cache more and more of the human experience each passing minute.

"Saving Dying Languages"

Hopefully these efforts will prove to be cosmically futile much, much later than sooner.

"Bumbot": Harbinger of Robo-fascism?

One one of the many things that have the potential to do both great service & also great harm to the human race is robotics.

We've already taken a huge ethical leap towards the negative with the creation of military robots. I've lamented the apparent future Robot Army that is on a subtle, yet unstoppable, path that should concern all protoplasmic beings.

The Colbert Report featured "Bumbot," created by a US Defense worker-turned-bar owner to keep derelicts off the street after dark. It is equipped with lights, loudspeaker, & water cannon to disperse local homeless and vagabonds.

It's almost humorous... as long I'm not the shady character this heartless enforcer is soaking on a chilly night. At least it can't be equipped w/ a taser & flame-thrower, like it's creator would prefer! I think it's just a little too soon for robots with lethal force to be patrolling our streets. Once we see how successful they are in Iraq, though, I'm sure neighborhoods everywhere will be looking forward to weapon-wielding machines guarding our every move...

Difference Makers: Bumbot

Tila Time

Intelligent thought must
now completely stop for the night-

as it is approaching time for the season premiere of
my worst vice:

Shot at Love 2 -w- Tila Tequila

Obama: Won't Enslave the White Race!!!

Jon Stewart on the Daily Show has been giving a so-so performance lately. It seems like he expects unfunny things to be funny just because he's saying it. It's a stark contrast to Stephen Colbert's sharp character-driven wit. Both shows are great in their own way, though.

However, the iconic Mr. Stewart made up for any recent mediocrity with the single most absurdly poignant question of the campaign to Barack Obama, that comes toward the end of the 1st part of the interview. He exposes the ridiculous undercurrent of perceived racial implications of a non-white person leading the country.

JS: Sir, we are concerned that ultimately, at the end of the day, if you are fortunate enough to get the Democratic nomination, fortunate enough to become President of the United States, will you pull a ‘bait and switch’, sir, and enslave the white race? Is that your plan? And if it is your plan, be honest, tell us now.

BO:That is not our plan, Jon. But I think your paranoia might make you suitable as a debate moderator.

The Daily Show w/ Barack Obama

Where the interview completely fails is
1) his request for Obama to "add hope" to stupid phrases.
I could absolutely write better segments than that.
2) Stewart's obnoxiously self-indulgent recommendation of some unknown restaurant near Pittsburg. wtf cares?

Sen. Obama was also on the Colbert Report where he acknowledged "The #1 Threat to America"...

Colbert Report w/ Barack Obama

Sacred Geometry 101

To offset the insanity presented by my last few posts,
I'm posting what could be considered a primer in the knowledge of Sacred Geometry. This is one of the concepts behind the strategy game I created, Da Vinci's Challenge.

Using such tools 3D computer programs, I've gained a greater awareness of the geometric nature of the universe we perceive. How such form arises in our minds out of the quantum soup
is the mystery of the ages.

I found this picture in an interesting set of images on Flickr by "Mirahorian".

Great Women in US Elections

It's hard to find someone whose folly approaches the legendary status of 2004 Bush supporter Pat Peale. She is the nitwit that's remembered (probably by nobody except me) for wearing a Purple Heart Band-aid mocking John Kerry at the GOP convention.

Being a moron in that big ol' ship of fools was understandable.


Unfortunately, ABC found the Democratic counterpart to the lovely Ms. Peale. Thanks to the power of the Internets, saying something incredibly retarded on TV freezes your foolishness in time forever. Therefore, Nash McCabe will be forever remembered as the "Flag Pin Lady" because of her profoundly idiotic question to Barack Obama about if he loves the flag.



Obama (like 99.9 percent of Americans) has the nerve not wear some crappy, imported lapel pin of an abstract symbol representing an abstract concept - the flag of the United States.

This was by far the worst moment of ABC's disaster of a debate on Wed. night.

I'm sure Mrs. McCabe is a fine person, but posing a question of that level of mind-numbing stupidity is bound to attract the ire of thinking people everywhere.

She has done the country a positive service, though, by showing that this type of childish thinking is not acceptable in serious discourse concerning the issues of the nation.

Of course, ABC's producers are a bunch of jackasses for allowing this garbage to enter the debate.

"Mr. Obama,

Why did you send those bad terrorists
to attack America on 9/11?!?"

Can Evil Be Funny?

I might have to answer 'yes' to that.

Why? Because I found myself laughing (much to my own horror) at some of the lines delivered by The Evil One himself during the Radio Correspondent's Dinner.

Perhaps my mind was so terrified of the sneering Beast-Man who has wreaked havoc upon the world, that I was laughing due to some subconscious defense mechanism.

That is how I have to rationalize it...
...or I would feel as disgusting & guilty as if I was sitting at a banquet w/ Vlad the Impaler - having a chuckle while bodies on spikes were writhing around me.

Jon Stewart Interviews Pres. Bush!

Ok, so it's actually Will Ferrell... but it's funny stuff, especialy considering how hard it is to outdo the ridiculous antics of the real Dubya.

How a Monkey Greets God's Emissary

It seems like it's been a while since our "Leader" has made me cringe. I thought I was either becoming numb to his lunacy- or it's just been overshadowed lately by other news.

Tonight, though, The Daily Show made me feel that good ol' cringing feeling once again - with a clip of Dubya artfully greeting the fabulously glamorous, yet still creepy, old man in lavish garb who everyone pretends is divinely important...

NBC 10
"Bush Thanks Pontiff at White House"

Is it January 2009 yet?

After the Daily Show, I watched the Pope giving a speech in English on CSpan for a little bit - but The Colbert Report is more important, of course. If Joey the Rat's accent wasn't so bad, or there were subtitles, I may have watched a tiny bit longer.

As I was wathing the news earlier, I also realized it really pisses me off that the Pope drives around in a bulletproof Pope Mobile. It proves that he doesn't believe he's really in some kind of special rapport with an all-powerful deity. He's a mortal man in a position of enormous earthly power. And he's the total icon of humility with all the robes, fur, & glitz.

I'm sure "Peter the Roman" will be much cooler than the current Emperor Palpatine lookalike.

Warning:
Clicking on this picture
will enlarge the image.

Watch out for the Force Lightning!!!

Molecular Cloud or Galactus?

I saw an image of what is considered a "dark molecular cloud" of cosmic dust. Seeing this picture, I couldn't help thinking... what if the dark mass was actually an immense extraterrestrial swarm of nano-machines? It would be amazing & terrifying at the same time.

Molecular Cloud Barnard 68

This sentient cloud would be similar to the form that the Marvel character Galactus has been portrayed in Marvel Ultimate comics & the Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer movie.

This precursors of interstellar nanotechnology are already being explored here on Earth.
• NASA is experimenting with tetrahedral forms in a primitive version of autonomous swarm technology.
• The University of Glasgow is taking it closer to the molecular scale by designing interacting devices comparable to dust particles, only millimeters across.

Innocent dust cloud or world-devouring hive mind?...
Hopefully we never have to find out.

Hairy Wannabe Terrorist Troll-Man

Ebaum's World gives me countless reasons to be ashamed of my own species.

The picture I linked to below is so disturbing that I don't even want to post it, but it a compelling vision of the state of the human race. I am so eternally grateful that I am not this wacko...

I am not responsible
if you click here
& lose all hope for mankind.

Queen Kong

I saw this gem on the wonderful Neatorama...

This ridiculous trailer is so bad that it actually transcends "bad" - & ends up just being hysterical.

As entertaining as the trailer is, I think sitting through the whole movie would be unbearable. On the other hand, it might be really amusing...

I've found alot of cool monkey stuff, but nothing compares to the lost classic,

Queen Kong

Monkey Buddha Optical Design

After posting the designs with hidden optical messages, I decided to try to replicate the effect in Photoshop to create my own phantom message.

It took me about 30min of experimenting to get a decent result... I could briefly explain the process, but I really don't feel like it. Besides, anyone who is fluent in Photoshop should be able to figure out a method.

Click on the image for the full size,
which creates the optimum effect:

Obama: The Graphic Designer's Candidate

I was watching reruns of the saliva-monster Chris Matthews interview Barack Obama on the "Hardball College Tour".

"Barack Obama on Hardball
College Tour"

I've been mostly for Obama since John Edwards dropped out... but tonight "Osama-bama" sealed the deal for me. He had the good sense to pander to the creative engine of the American marketplace - the graphic designers!

While discussing the need to provide schoolkids with mentoring for future careers, Sen. Obama used the example of a student interested in art that could learn from a professional graphic designer.

Bravo, Senator!
His preacher can go bananas for all I care, he's the first presidential candidate I've heard acknowledge America's design industry.

Art is an important intellectual aspect of any culture & it's a vital resource that cannot be outsourced. To have a President intelligent enough to even recognize that fact alone would be a godsend.

Hidden Optical Design

I usually browse the first page of FFFFOUND! for a dose of visual inspiration each day.

I saw these awesome optical illusion/designs that look like a field of dots or lines. It appears they are album sleeves for a band called Soulwax.

I would have passed right by it, but I usually stare at optical designs for at least a few seconds to observe what prolonged visual effects there are. As I was looking at it I must've briefly blurred my eyes, because I was surprised to see words appear for a second. This is a pretty crazy effect that can be seen a few different ways:

• squint your eyes
• make your vision blurry by ''flexing' your eyes
• cross your eyes just a little bit
• raise your eyebrows & stretch your eyes tight
• you get the idea

I think these are perfect examples of the ephemeral nature of language & ideas...

Mad Magazine Fold-ins

When I was a kid in school, I wisely spent alot of allowance money on Mad & Cracked magazines. They taught me about realities and absurdities of the world that you can't find in a textbook.

I've seen alot of funny stuff linked lately from the Cracked.com site. It's cool to see that sort of deranged sort of creative publication can successfully adapt to the Internet Age.

Anyway, a cool digital application of the classic Mad Magazine folding back cover is being featured on the NY Times site. It's an interactive slideshow where you can 'fold' the illustrations by Al Jaffee that have graced the back overs of Mad since the 60's. Even if I didn't buy a magazine back in the day, I would take one off the rack & try to at least bend the cover enough to find out what the folded picture was.

I always thought those covers were really ingenious, but being a designer has given me more appreciation for the work that goes into each one.

NY Times
"Fold-Ins, Past and Present"

There's also an interview with Al Jaffee w/ great photos of his creative process:

NY Times
"A Veteran MAD Man Remains in the Fold"

Lo & behold, I went to the Mad Magazine website & their next issue is The Monkey Issue! I saw this banner for it, & had no choice but to click it:


You can download medium-resolution sample pages, including the cover featuring an office full of stock photo primates. It's good to see the monkeys of the world getting the attention they deserve...

Ultra-cool Sci-fi Info-graphics

I'm going to really let my 'inner nerd' shine through.

Although I've been a fan of mainly Star Wars since I was young, I've also picked up on bits of other Sci-fi knowledge, too. I think science fiction is fascinating in the sense that it's like a conceptual nursery for the future possibilities of humanity.

Searching through "Google Images" as I sometimes do, I came across these great charts. The first one is a comparison of everything from (comparatively tiny) earth-bound vessels from history to Darth Vader's mile-long intersellar craft, the Executor-class Star Destroyer.

The second chart is a map of all the planets in the Star Wars galaxy.
"The galaxy is filled with over 400 billion stars, around which circle over a million inhabitable planets that are home to over 20 million intelligent species."

*I also found this website that takes it to yet another level, including everything from the scale of humans & Ewoks to the Death Star to structures like the "Dyson Sphere" that encompass an entire solar system!

Starship Dimensions

One thing that nobody has thought of yet is the "Monkeybuddhasphere™" which is a spaceship, the size of the entire Universe. The control system for this complex vehicle is already in operation- your own brain!

click to enlarge

The Nature of Empire

I was reading this article which argues the British Empire still exists & actually dominates world affairs through "it's" influence in the realms of finances, politics, & natural resources.

"Largest Empire
in the History of the World"

Supposedly "it" just isn't called "The British Empire" anymore. Well, that made me question the very nature of the collective entities that we call empires & nation-states.

A 'nation' is basically an abstract concept of organization that people mutually accept or are usually forced to accept. It's interesting (for me, anyway) to consider the rise and fall of social structures throughout history. Despite its ephemeral nature, the nation-state is a useful organizing principle for the chaotic swarm known as 'the human race'. I just think it's good to keep a perspective on the actual reality of powerful institutions such as nations, banks, religions, sports teams- that we take for granted as 'real' things with a individual existence unto themselves. This, of course, is an illusion.

These videos from Maps of War shows what I've called the amoeba-like quality to the interaction of these political & religious movements throughout time.

Imperial History of the Middle East



History of Religion

Monkey on a Motorbike

That an 'animal' can operate technology as complex as a vehicle
should prove that the difference between 'man' & 'beast'
is a division that only exists in the human mind.

It should also further prove that
monkeys are hysterical.


Monkey Motorcycles! - The best home videos are here

The Brick Testament

I'm not what you would call a Bible Literalist by any means. Although I have a fair amount of scriptural knowledge, I have cultivated an interest in the myriad religious philosophies that have existed throughout history.

I discovered the best way to read about the socio-theology of ancient desert people... is with illustrations using Legos. The fact that someone took the time to create something like this completely astounds me.

Of course, the Bible has stories of sex, violence, intrigue... so some of these Lego scenes contain 'mature' content. These scenes are, of course, the most interesting.

The Brick Testament

The Booze Test

Neatorama & Mentalfloss have tests that I really get a kick out of.
The Booze Test proved that I'm definitely not an "Alcoholic".

With my liquor knowledge at 86%, I am merely a "Drunkard."
My Mom will be proud...

"The Booze Test"

The Fate of Oppression

One of the basic tenets of Buddhism is that 'suffering' is an unavoidable consequence of mortal existence.

However, another basic idea is that our individual & collective negativity can be transformed through right practice & awareness.

As long as we all have bodies of flesh, misery of every kind is to be expected. Therefore, it is tough for a skeptic like me to believe we can even make a tiny dent in the unfathomable behemoth that is human suffering.

Right now, the instant reporting of events is possible anywhere a person has a camera & internet access. In spite of this, the world's most powerful national bodies continue to flaunt their technologically superior, but morally inferior, methods of brutality. The civilian leadership of the US and their neo-con puppetmasters used our military and our financial resources to viciously decimate inferior nations. Russia continues to try exerting control over its satellite states to ward off American influence. Israel continues to propagate the fantasy of security through cultural segregation. China continues a senseless quest for domination over the people of Tibet, a nation of monks & villagers. The Chinese government's characterization of the Dalai Lama and his Tibetan followers would be laughable if it wasn't such a tragic situation.

These huge movements of Oppression vs. Dissension could be an indication of a tipping point for a collective rejection of all the paradigms we've been culturally brainwashed into accepting as inevitable reality. Such a drastic shift could have tremendous positive results, but also tremendously negative consequences. Will the result be an apocalyptic wasteland or a harmonious utopia? Probably.... neither.

I'd like to think that we are capable of creating a more positive reality for as many people on this planet as possible. Perhaps the people of the world will eventually reject the idea of subjugating other humans and finally unite as a global force of infinite diversity & productivity.

Unfortunately, I'm no starry-eyed optimist. It easily as possible that justified dissent will continue to be crushed in more efficient and widespread ways. There seems to be unlimited power in the soulless entities such as nations and super-national corporations that seem to feed off ever-increasing control of human beings. From the rise of ubiquitous surveillance to the growing Doomsday Robot Army, there are plenty of reasons to think everything in our future is not going to be all rainbows & jelly beans.

That is, unless the military robots are going to spray psychedelic colors and shoot out candy to overwhelm the world with joy...

Two Visions of the Future:

Choice #1:
Choice #2:

Choose Wisely!

His Holiness Saint Peter Rabbit

This wonderful season of the vernal equinox and the Resurrection of Life. Like all institutions, the holiday we celebrate as Easter has had a very interesting evolution which I've posted about before.

What most people don't realize is the hidden truth behind the Mysteries of Easter. Luckily, the masters of crazy wisdom at South Park have cracked the code:

Dreamlines

I forget where I saw this really cool website called Dreamlines.

http://solaas.com.ar/dreamlines/

"Dreaming in Images"

You type in a word or phrase and it uses images from the Web to form phantom images in realtime, using abstract brushtrokes, that eventually coalesce into recognizable forms.

I can just sit back & watch Dreamlines be created into ethereal images that meld into one another over & over. It can really be a mesmerizing non-linear visual experience. Wooah, dude.

I typed in "Da Vinci's Challenge" & took some screenshots of the resulting images that formed:

The Genius of Arthur C. Clarke

The "magic" Google News aggregation software has transmitted to my eyes the news that the visionary legend Arthur C. Clarke has passed from his mortal shell, back into the infinity of the universe.

Arthur C. Clarke,
Premier Science Fiction Writer,
Dies at 90

He was a generally inspiring personality, but here are the 3 particular things from the brilliant Sir Arthur that have influenced me the most.

Future Monkey & Past Monkey
are One.

• "2001: A Space Odyssey"

If you don't find this classic movie to be an aesthetic & conceptual masterpiece, then you are really no better off than the ape-man tossing a femur bone into the sky.

I read somewhere that the black monolith (which appears during each of man's 3 quantum leaps of consiousness) had measurements equal to the dimensions of an actual movie screen. The implication is that the movie itself, and art in general, were vehicles for the evolution of the soul/psyche.

Alchemical Kubrick

Unfortunately, the world has been overwhelmingly influenced by the violence of tyrants, the unbridled greed of faceless institutions, and man's own infinitely chaotic nature - all which prevent the human race from achieving exactly what Clarke envisioned. Therefore, the movie's optimistic projection of 21st century technology hasn't come to fruition.. yet. This hasn't stopped "2001" from being a continual source of admiration & interpretation now that the iconic year as come and gone.


• "Clarke's 3 Laws"

1. When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.
2. The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.
3. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

Last, but certainly not least...

• "Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious World"

Absolutely one of my favorite TV shows of all time. I used to watch it back in the day when there was nothing else like it on. From his jungle home in Sri Lanka, Arthur C. Clarke assured my young mind that our world was, in fact, as completely weird & crazy as I thought it was!

Sir Arthur engaged imaginations around the world with ideas that revealed the mysteries and the endless potential of the human race.