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  • Yes, the science says the way to be happy is have low expectations. High expectations turn into entitlement, and rancor, and disappointment, gnashing your teeth into a brick wall of angry ennui. But an interesting thought experiment is moving from low expectation… to no expectation, releasing you from all evaluation and living in a reality that is both fascinating but horrifyingly amazing while being endlessly interesting; then you pass through existence like an bemused warrior of kindly interests.

 

  • I upgraded my VR headset, and have a Vive Pro I want to sell, but if it’s to a friend it will be heavily subsidized and come with some free setup help. There will be an investment, but if you’ve had any interest, I can help get you setup and experiencing some pretty amazing stuff.

 

  • If you look at anything this week… read the article under SciTech on the GPT-3 AI recreating a man’s dead girlfriend, and his relationship to it in finding closure and help his endless grieving. Lots of feels in that thing, but you might be able to wait for the movie. Also, someone joked this week that we fucked up the earth, and now the penis spaceship is going to help us fuck space. Actually, Bezos said we should put our trash there? COME ON. Also, the kid landing a first ever 1080 IN FRONT OF TONY HAWK!

AND THE TOP TWO MUSIC VIDEOS ARE UNBELIEVABLE JAMS… Hip Hop for the Jazz Age? Jazz for the Hip Hop Age?

WHO SAYS A JAZZ BAND CAN’T PLAY DANCE MUSIC?

 

  • THIS IS ME, ERRRRRY TIME:

SPACE

You can click the pic to enlarge, but also the below pic in 8K here- https://i.imgur.com/TkydJbg.jpeg

 

  • Some of my favorite people are Hunter S. Thompson, Christopher Hitchens, Fred Rogers, Dick Feynman, Bill Hicks… but Carl Sagan is the tippy top not reachable by mortals.

You know he used to get high and use soap bubbles in the shower to do equations?

“I can remember one occasion, taking a shower with my wife while high, in which I had an idea on the origins and invalidities of racism in terms of gaussian distribution curves,” wrote the former Cornell University professor. “I wrote the curves in soap on the shower wall, and went to write the idea down.” https://www.theguardian.com/science/1999/aug/24/spaceexploration

The full essay written in 1971 under the “Mr. X” pseudonym is here: Carl Sagan’s Profound Essay On Why Cannabis Consciousness is Desperately Needed in This Mad and Dangerous World https://highexistence.com/carl-sagans-profound-essay-on-why-cannabis-consciousness-is-desperately-needed-in-this-mad-and-dangerous-world/

Cliff Notes: https://bigthink.com/mind-brain/carl-sagan-on-smoking-marijuana

 

  • Do you think Bezos experienced “The Overview Effect”??

A Psychological Transformation That Only Astronauts Experience https://gizmodo.com/a-psychological-transformation-that-only-astronauts-exp-1655217228

 

 

  • Cruise by Jupiter and its giant moon Ganymede in this gorgeous Juno flyby video

https://www.space.com/juno-flyby-jupiter-ganymede-video

 

  • AAAANnnnnndDDDD…. WE’RE BACK!

Rebooted Hubble Telescope Wastes No Time, Captures Cool New Pics of Misfit Galaxies

Science operations resumed on July 17 after the orbiting observatory spent a month stuck in safe mode. https://gizmodo.com/rebooted-hubble-telescope-wastes-no-time-captures-cool-1847327365

 

  • Our universe might be a giant three-dimensional donut, really: Examining light from the very early universe, Buchert and a team of astrophysicists have deduced that our cosmos may be multiply connected, meaning that space is closed in on itself in all three dimensions like a three-dimensional donut. Such a universe would be finite, and according to their results, our entire cosmos might only be about three to four times larger than the limits of the observable universe, about 45 billion light-years away. https://www.space.com/universe-three-dimensional-donut

Three-torus model of the universe - Wikipedia

 

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY AND STUFF

  • GPT-3 bot resurrects man’s dead girlfriend: grieving and loss in the age of AI. This is one of the greatest stories I’ve read in awhile, and everything that pens the human condition down to art, love, loss, while living in the future. This will be a movie or book, assuredly. The impact of bringing someone back to find closure is mind bending with ambivalence and empathy:

The Jessica Simulation: Love and loss in the age of A.I. The death of the woman he loved was too much to bear. Could a mysterious website allow him to speak with her once more? https://www.sfchronicle.com/projects/2021/jessica-simulation-artificial-intelligence/

 

 

  • HOLY CRAP: First Total Artificial Heart Successfully Transplanted In the US

The artificial heart has four chambers and runs on external power. Welcome to a new cyborg future. https://interestingengineering.com/first-total-artificial-heart-successfully-transplanted-in-the-us

 

  • FINE. Artificial Intelligence ACTUALLY MAY BE BIGGER THAN THE DISCOVERY OF FIRE. Like the above article on bringing someone back to life to grieve, how about keeping people alive?

Protein Folding AI Is Making a ‘Once in a Generation’ Advance in Biology https://singularityhub.com/2021/07/20/new-protein-folding-ai-just-made-a-once-in-a-generation-advance-in-biology/

 

 

  • WELL THIS IS WHY HE THINKS NOTHING MATTERS. Ambivalence. But he’s probably right. [SHRUG]

William Shatner: Humanity won’t survive to reach a Star Trek future: At 90, riding horses and petting sharks, William Shatner seems fearless – but ask him if humans will live long and prosper on Earth and it’s a different story: https://www.bigissue.com/culture/film-tv-radio/william-shatner-humanity-wont-survive-to-reach-a-star-trek-future/

 

 

  • BUT HEY WE GOT THE BRONTOSAURUS BACK!
The Brontosaurus Is Back Decades after scientists decided that the famed dinosaur never actually existed, new research says the opposite https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-brontosaurus-is-back1/

CONTENT LIKE MOVING PICTURES BUT NOT EAR STUFF

 

 

EAR STUFF ONLY IE MUSIC

 

  • Just saw Glasper Martin Presents Dinner Party featuring featuring Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah:

 

  • Also, the Jammy jam here… a different group, but this entire melding of Jazz and Hip Hop is a new era I am HERE FOR. Forever:

 

People, Society, Culture

 

These ‘bikes’ ride the rails through a Northern California forest (Fort Bragg) https://www.latimes.com/travel/story/2021-07-22/people-pedaling-bikes-on-rail-tracks-in-northern-california-forest

A man and woman pedal a four-wheeled recumbent-style bike through a redwood forest.

 

 

  • 12 year old lands first 1080 in competition in history, in front of Tony Hawk… cries his thug tears. Amazing.

 

  • I dislike the new Anchor Brewery Steam Beer label. It’s likely appropriate for these times. Also, I think the funny thing is people are LOSING THEIR MINDS that they thought it was “Anchor Steam Brewery”, and “Anchor Steam Beer”, when it’s “Anchor Brewing” and “Steam Beer” and I had zero idea people didn’t realize that… so this will fix that assuredly. I miss the ornate label greatly… but Stitt’s answer is classy:

One artist drew Anchor’s beer labels for 45 years. Here’s what the 93-year-old thinks of the controversial redesign Jim Stitt, who started hand-drawing Anchor labels in 1974, reacts to the new look in this week’s Drinking with Esther newsletter https://www.sfchronicle.com/wine/article/anchor-beer-label-original-artist-jim-stitt-15902872.php

 

 

  • THIS IS SO FREAKING AWESOME (I’m always fascinated about the interplay between art and the workers and how they interpret it and the relationship between their work and the art, vs a patron)

BMA Security Officers Take Center Stage as Guest Curators of a New Exhibition Opening in March 2022 artbma.org/about/press/release/bma-security-officers-take-center-stage-as-guest-curators-of-a-new-exhibition-opening-in-march-2022

In March 2022, the Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) will present Guarding the Art, an exhibition curated entirely by 17 members of the museum’s security team. The exhibition will draw from works of art in the BMA’s collection, with each work selected by one of the participating officers. As guest curators, the officers will be collaborating with leadership and staff across the museum to select and reinterpret works from a variety of eras, genres, cultures, and mediums—offering a particularly human-centered lens through which to consider the objects. In addition, the team is working with renowned art historian and curator Dr. Lowery Stokes Sims, who is providing additional mentorship and professional development.

“Our security officers spend more time in our galleries and living among our collection than any other staff within the institution,” said Christopher Bedford, BMA Dorothy Wagner Wallis Director. “It is their perspectives, their insights, and their relationships with the art and daily interactions with our visitors that will set the stage for Guarding the Art to be an exceptional experience.”

 

VEHICLES

 

California Smog Testing Will Now Sniff Out (and Fail) Tuned ECUs The toughest smog check state in the nation is getting a little tougher https://www.motortrend.com/news/california-smog-testing-ecu-software-flash-modifications/

 

  • CARS ARE CULTURE. CULTURE IS CARS.
@lilsnoop213On #whittierblvd #minis #minitruckin #beddancer #beddance #kickback #90s #cutlass #mini #trokiando #parati #foryou #explore #trending #lowrider #fyp?? Planet Rock – Afrika Bambaataa & The Soulsonic Force

 

more: https://steampunkvehicles.tumblr.com/search/mckeen

 

Performance Art Comes in Many VARIETY, & Poetry & Art

  • This guy drowns himself. He dies. He is brought back by friends. He lives, but he kills himself for art.

 

  • Abstract in Concrete, 1954: Video of Times Square shot in puddles.

 

  • Last known footage of Bukowski. He actually looks pretty good. 1991 I think, about 2 years before he passed:

 

  • NO WAY THIS ISN’T PERFORMANCE ART:

 

By Uncle FishbitsCategories: Newsletter