Carl Jung- IN OUR TIME (BBC)

Posted by sillyreverie in Science and tagged with , , , ,

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the extraordinary mind of the psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung. In 1907 Sigmund Freud met a young man and fell into a conversation that is reputed to have lasted for 13 hours. That man was the Swiss psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung. Freud is celebrated as the great pioneer of the 20th century mind, but the idea that personality types can be ‘introverted’ or ‘extroverted’, that certain archetypal images and stories repeat themselves constantly across the collective history of mankind, and that personal individuation is the goal of life, all belong to Jung: “Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart… Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakens”, he declared. And he also said “Show me a sane man and I will cure him for you”.

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Will Corporations get the Right to Commit Genocide?

Posted by sillyreverie in Business and tagged with , , ,

Holymotherofgod, this is shocking! Ian Millhiser, Center for American Progress joins Thom Hartmann. Is the Supreme Court about to give corporations the right to commit genocide? Believe it or not – that may happen. The High Court has agreed to hear the case of Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum which could give corporations immunity from any lawsuits for their employees murdering, raping, or torturing people in the areas where they’re drilling for oil or fielding mercenary armies – just as long as they’re carrying out the atrocities under the heading of corporate business.

The GAG Quartet- EVERY internet meme known to man

Posted by sillyreverie in Imaginatively Humorous Bit's and tagged with , , , , ,

These guys have done it; in one hilarious music video, they have single highhandedly captured every meme on the internet. If you go online more than once a year you’ll still know at least one or two of these memes.  To name a few: Nyan Cat, Rage guy, Troll Dad, Trololo, O RLY, Keyboard Cat, Chuck Testa, Numa Numa, Rick Roll and Chacarron.

Ray Villafane- The pumpkin king

Posted by sillyreverie in Sculpting Magic and tagged with , , , ,

This is a bit late but i thought it’d be worth the share for the next Halloween season. I know you artsy bunch are out there, so to inspire you to make something astonishing for the spooky season, here is Ray and is amazing pumpkin sculptures!

He was born in Queens, New York and at a very young age showed a natural flair to the arts; a passion that his mother fostered, motivating him to pursue it as a career. He became a teacher and from 1993 to 2006 Ray taught art to grade K-12 students in Bellaire, Michigan. It was during this time he decided to play around with pumpkin sculpting, initially as a fun project for his students and himself.

His popularity grew with the students’ parents as he started getting requests for custom-carved pumpkins; this made him realize he was on to something and so he started offering them to local hotels and restaurants- it soon became his fall hobby for several years.

His pumpkin sculpting hobbies were brought to an entire new level in 2007 when he was contacted by High Noon Entertainment and asked to participate in the Food Network’s Challenge Show, Outrageous Pumpkins. Ray competed as one of four professional pumpkin sculptors, impressed the judges enough to sweep all three rounds and was awarded the Grand Prize. Outrageous Pumpkins logged the highest ratings of any other Challenge episode, and a second invitation was extended to Ray in 2009. They wanted him to come back and defend his title in their Outrageous Pumpkins Challenge II. Ray defended his 2008 title and took home the 2010 Grand Prize from the Food Network’s Pumpkin Challenge II.

The ensuing exposure of Rays unique talent and creativity ushered in a whole new appreciation for pumpkin “carving”, and his artistic take on the traditional jack-o-lantern has granted him invitations from across the globe for VIP Galleries (Very Impressive Pumpkins). From the President’s Quarters in the White House to Bermuda’s Sousa’s Gardens, Ray’s pumpkins have gathered a cult-like following. He also does some very impressive sand sculptures as well as making some fantastic looking collectables.

If your interested in more of Rays’ magnificent pumpkins, go check out his site!

LSD- Enter into the unified self

Posted by sillyreverie in Science and tagged with , , , ,

Decided to gather the videos about LSD that have a scientific/philosophical approach and expanded on the powerful effects it has on the human mind. Found this really fascinating clip from a 1956 television program on mental health issues. Dr Sidney Cohen at the time was dosing random volunteers at the Veteran’s Administration Hospital in Los Angeles; he is the one sitting at the table wearing a lounge suite asking the housewife all the questions. The housewife’s last remarks are what get me, “if you can’t see it, you’ll never know about it. I feel sorry for you.” The doesage she took, if you didn’t catch it was 100 gamma of LSD 25- one tenth of a milligram, the equivalent of one 600th of a grain. It’s interesting to see her accept this ‘new’ reality so readily and how she feels whole, unified with everything and everyone; I wonder if our sense of empathy is related to the DMT that’s naturally made in our brains. Not so keen about the message at the very end though, once you read more about the leaders of the psychedelic movement you’ll find that they had good intentions, which were shot down by the strictness of the Nixon era.

God, i love this man. Richard Alpert before he became the famed Ram Das, talks about the shifts society could have taken to become more collaborative, motivational and whole. I loved the slogan the presentor saw, which said “all wars are civil wars because all men are brothers.” It’s quite saddening that a powerful psychological tool like this would have such a negative stigma labeled onto it. Keep it in the labs and off the streets, no need to ban it from science as well. Then maybe we can start to recreate Huxley’s more utopian society that he wrote about in Island; a civilization that is truly ‘civilized’ without the “I’ve got to fuck you over to get where i want to get” mentality.

This video is so great, it shows the effects of LSD on military personnel during a military training exercise. Some of the things they do are just straight up comical, it’s almost like they’re children again.

Another experiment tested LSD with artistic ability, a series of 9 drawing were created during the trip; the test was conducted by the US government during it’s dalliance with psychotomimetic drugs in the late 1950′s. The artist was given a dose of LSD 25 and free access to an activity box full of crayons and pencils. If you want to see the results go to this link!

Web 3.0

Posted by sillyreverie in Science and tagged with , , ,

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A short story about the Semantic Web. Some Internet experts believe the next generation of the Web – Web 3.0– will make tasks like your search for movies and food faster and easier. Instead of multiple searches, you might type a complex sentence or two in your Web 3.0 browser, and the Web will do the rest. For example, you could type “I want to see a funny movie and then eat at a good Mexican restaurant. What are my options?” The Web 3.0 browser will analyze your response, search the Internet for all possible answers, and then organize the results for you. That’s not all. Many of these experts believe that the Web 3.0 browser will act like a personal assistant. As you search the Web, the browser learns what you are interested in. The more you use the Web, the more your browser learns about you and the less specific you’ll need to be with your questions. Eventually you might be able to ask your browser open questions like “where should I go for lunch?” Your browser would consult its records of what you like and dislike, take into account your current location and then suggest a list of restaurants.

Ron Dudley- Capturing winged grace

Posted by sillyreverie in Titillating Photography and tagged with , , , , ,

Oh man, i was riding the internet surf looking for some good nature photographers and found Ron Dudley’s awesome feathery pictures! He does to birds what Yoshika Sakai does to flowers, meaning the shots he takes are some of the best I’ve ever seen. He shows a unique side to the avian crew, a side people don’t often get to see, capturing their beauty, fortitude and strength perfectly. Ron needs a big pat on the back for these.

He has always had an interest in nature and forms a deeper understanding with it through the sciences- his college major was in biology & zoology which he later taught in high school for 33 years. Once he retired, nostalgic cravings for his science returned and he decided to give photography a whirl, as an avenue to peruse his interests without the stress of the work place. His interest in the behavior and beauty of birds made them a perfect subject to observe with his camera lens. Starting with zero skills to becoming a photographer of this caliber took determination and a financial hit in the face as he had to buy the proper lenses for the job.

Getting close to his air sailing subjects is no easy feat, he uses his pickup truck to get close since birds are less apprehensive about a vehicle approaching than they are a person. Finding the birds are another daunting task he has to undertake,  occasionally he reads up the birding listservs to get an idea of where is subjects are located, then goes off to investigate. He normally leaves to camp, taking advantage of his prime location which is close to the bird-rich wetlands surrounding the Great Salt Lake, the Wasatch Mountains and the west desert of Utah. Patience is a key ingredient in all of this, camping out and waiting for the opportune moment to snag a sweet shot- as you can see, it pays off in Rons’ pictures.

He uses a Canon 7D (nice) for his shots, and attaches a Canon F4L with a Canon 1.4 teleconverter, which allows him the ‘reach’ needed to capture his subjects. Roughly 10% of his shots are with a tripod, using a Gitzo GT3530LSV with full Wimberly head which is stable and lightweight enough to capture birds in flight. As stated before, bird photography is no easy task, Ron will normally shoot up to 16gigs worth of images (600 high-def photo’s) and does the most unloved part of any photographers job: herding the quality shots. Out of the 600, he usually only saves about 50 of which he uploads to his blog because of they’re expression of interesting behavior or beauty. He’s unbelievably happy when he gets at least 2 mega wicked sweet shots.

Ron does very little post processing, trying to present the birds as he saw them; obsessively trying to get the colors and light to look as natural as possible since he never uses flash. He’s not a fan of over saturated images that over blow the beautiful natural colors of the birds. Usually he just crops and makes small exposure adjustments in ACR and imports to photoshop to apply sharpening to the bird and the perch. He rarely does any saturation tweaks, only if the picture was captured in low light or fog.

He has been influenced by a variety of people, most of whom are not known for their avian shots. Those influences include: Frank and John Craighead, Edward Abbey, Doug Peacock and Terry Tempest-Williams. Also, his two mentors Mia McPherson and Richard Ditch who taught him everything he knows today. If you enjoy Ron’s work, you got to go check out his amazing collection of photographs on his site!

Hakan Ludwigson- architectural wonder shots

Posted by sillyreverie in Titillating Photography and tagged with , , , ,

If an original location is desired, Hakan Ludwigson knows where to find it since he’s one very well traveled man. It’s because of his worldly know-how he keeps his shots exotic and fresh, never letting the viewer get dulled by the same forms and environments.

The most recurring themes of Ludwigson’s include cars and architectural oddities, which when mixed in with his colorful style of picture taking results in some amazing photography! Ludwigson was born in 1948 in a quaint little town on the west coast of Sweden, after which he moved to Gothenburg in 1968 to start his photography studies.

His career started in 1975 when he started to professionally shoot for advertising and fashion companies, and was soon inspired by journalistic photography, architecture and cars. These have now become the pillars of which he based his current projects with the inclusion of his most recent rewarding passion for portraits.

Some of his clients include Condé Nast Traveller, Volvo Trucks,  Aqvavit, Fritidsresor, GEO, Oprah Magazine and Audi. He is represented by Agent Bauer in Sweden and Snyder & Co. in New York.

If your interested in his works go check out this link for more!

London’s Great smog of 52′

Posted by sillyreverie in History and tagged with , , , ,

Found some shocking images taken from London’s Great Smog of ’52 which i had no idea happened. The whole ordeal lasted for four brutal days as the city of London was flooded with poisons smog; a haze so heavy it reduced visibility to only a few meters.

This phenomena was the cause of over 12,000 fatalities, which is unbelievable in itself and reminds me of the start of a post-apocalyptic film where things go real bad. This horrible event, however, did trigger the wheels of change as the public’s eyes opened up to the horrors of pollution, which then lead to developments in research, government regulation, and public awareness of the relationship between air quality and health.

The National Public Radio announcement during the time says: “Roads were littered with abandoned cars. Midday concerts were cancelled due to total darkness. Archivists at the British Museum found smog lurking in the book stacks. Cattle in the city’s Smithfield market were killed and thrown away before they could be slaughtered and sold — their lungs were black. On the second day of the smog, Saturday, Dec. 6, 500 people died in London. When the ambulances stopped running, thousands of gasping Londoners walked through the smog to the city’s hospitals. The lips of the dying were blue. Heavy smoking and chronic exposure to pollution had already weakened the lungs of those who fell ill during the smog. Particulates and acids in the killer brew finished the job by triggering massive inflammations. In essence, the dead had suffocated.”

The last day of the fog, Dec. 9, 1952, took 900 more lives, but then the merciful wind swept in unexpectedly and it all vanished like a bad dream.

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Having a teaspoonful of white dwarf for breakfast

Posted by sillyreverie in Science and tagged with , ,

“Everything about it would be bad,” says Mark Hammergren, an astronomer at Adler Planetarium in Chicago, starting with the sad attempt to scoop some of that star candy up. Even though white dwarfs are fairly common throughout the universe, the nearest one is still 8.6 light-years away, which is roughly 81,360,544,300 kilometers. So assuming you’ve got a light-speed spaceship, a bunch of books and videos to keep you amused for 8.6 years and that the heat and radiation emanating from the star didn’t kill you on your approach you might be able to get somewhere. “You’d have to get your sample—which would be very hard to carve out—without falling onto the star and getting flattened into a plasma,” Hammergren says. “And even then, the high pressure would cause the hydrogen atoms in your body to fuse into helium.” (This type of reaction, by the way, is what triggers a hydrogen bomb.)

Now that you have your super volatile sample and have somehow removed it from the superdense, high-pressure star; you got the problem of containing it on Earth’s low-pressure environment, which would cause it to explode if not encapsulated properly. Let’s just say it didn’t blow up or vaporize your entire being, since the teaspoon sample temperature would range about 5538˚ and 55538 C˚- and you somehow got it to your kitchen table, it’d be pretty damn hard to feed yourself: A single teaspoon weighing in excess of five tons!


“You’d pop it into your mouth and it would fall unimpeded through your body, carve a channel through your gut, come out through your nether regions, and burrow a hole toward the center of the Earth,” Hammergren says. “The good news is that it’s not quite dense enough to have a strong enough gravitational field to rip you apart from the inside out.”Ouch. If you observed your friend doing all of this and still wanted a taste for yourself, but don’t want to travel the 8.5 light-years or die, you can always open your fridge since it’s full of the stuff. Most of the elements that make up our bodies and everything we see around us were formed in the cores of stars. We fall in love, play with, eat and live on star poop.

Martin Merz (14th century)

Posted by sillyreverie in History and tagged with , , , , ,

Very interesting drawings by 14th century gun-master Martin Merz; I’ve got to say, that’s one bad ass title to hold. He served Frederick I, the ruler of Elector Palatinate, which was the historical territory of the Holy Roman Empire.

In 1469 he became the supreme canon master of Frederick’s entire army and remained in service after Fredericks reign had ended, with his successor, Philip the Upright, Elecotor Palatine of the Rhine.

During this time, he created his Feuerwerksbuch which was around 1460-1480.

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Ron Mueck- Creating giants

Posted by sillyreverie in Sculpting Magic and tagged with , , , , ,

Hyperrealist sculptor Ron Mueck is one gifted fellow, who’s currently working in Great Britain. Early on in his career Mueck started making models and worked as a puppeteer for a childrens television show called Shirl’s Neighbourhood and later worked on the film “Labyrinth” for which he played the voice of Ludo.

He went on to establish his own company in London, creating animatronic and ultra realistic props for the advertising industry. To much of Muecks frustration, these realistic props we’re only needed in one angel, so most of the “sculpture” was not completed. He wanted to move on to bigger things, which meant creating photo-realistic sculptures which looked perfect on every angle.

He did just this, reflecting the human form quite flawlessly by detailing the most minute features, even though he played with the scales of the bodies which produced some sensational visual images-as you can see. His first five meter sculpture, Boy (1999) was featured in Millennium Dome and then later exhibited in the Venice Biennale.

After awhile, Mueck grew tired of using Latex as his medium of choice so he ventured to find a new type of material and luckily he did when he saw a small archtectural decor hanging on the wall of some nameless boutique. It was fiberglass resin, which has become from that day forth his bronze and marble.

The most ambitious work to date would have to be Muecks Pregnant Woman, a 2.5 meter high sculpture that incarnates the exhausting 9 month process of child birth. Some viewers feel intimidated when first seeing this gigantic model of our own “mothers” but after awhile this “majestic Earth Mother becomes familiar, unthreatening and endearing.” Mueck labored tirelessly for 3 months to complete this work, mimicking a single female model begining when she was six months pregnant. Most of her form was made from his prized fiberglass but the face, however, is made with silicone so that the eyebrows and hair could be punched in with greater ease. Miniscule needles were involved to painstakingly punch in the human hairs in dull repetition.

His many works have been exhibited in major galleries in New York, Germany and not to mention the selection for London’s Millenium Dome which has now moved on to become the subject of a solo exhibition in the cities highest profield contemporary space: The Anthony d’Offay gallery. If you enjoy viewing his amazingly out of scale (oversized or undersized) versions of us, then check out this site for more info!

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Productivity Future Vision (2011 release)

Posted by sillyreverie in World and tagged with , , , ,

Microsoft’s’ vision of a future world where technology will help people make better use of their time, focus their attention on the tasks at hand and strengthen relationships while being a busy bee at work, home and while on the road. Pretty interesting concept of the future, but it makes me feel somewhat overwhelmed with the amount of inner connectivity. One person remarked on the comments “So…porn on my fridge, newspaper, books, phones, tables, tablets, T.V.’s, and on the window of my car!” just goes to show that productivity is relative to the person.

Christopher Jonassen- Pan fried moons

Posted by sillyreverie in Titillating Photography and tagged with , , , ,

Wow, at first i thought i was looking at planets or one of Jupiter’s moons; my jaw dropped when i discovered that this series, Devour, is an investigation into worn-out frying pans! I’m really glad i found Christopher- he’s got quite a quirky, deep style to all his pictures.

Jonassen was born in 1978, graduated from the University of Sydney with a masters degree in design and is now an internationally recognized fine-art photographer based in Norway. He tends to stick to personal projects, exploring the artistic subtleties of the world close to home.

He delves into themes that seem to reflect the moments that are silent, frozen while time washes over, moving at it’s own pace. He captures emotions, using the objects we use to express them and picturing them so well that you can almost feel them for yourself.

He immortalizes natures fleeting, stunning hues as they fall away for winter time, letting us savior the magical qualities of all the seasons. Finally, he takes a snapshot of the reveries we have on existence, those brief moments of meditation, where we see the whole universe within ourselves; on top of all of this is the fact that he does it all so beautifully.

If you like his works, you got to go and click on this right away so you can see more of his stuff. Hope you enjoy!

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Life in a Day

Posted by sillyreverie in World and tagged with , , , ,

Director Kevin Macdonald and producer Ridley Scott team up to offer this candid snapshot of a single day on planet Earth. Compiled from over 80,000 YouTube submissions by contributors in 192 countries, Life in a Day presents a microcosmic view of our daily experiences as a global society.

From the mundane to the profound, everything has its place as we spend 90 minutes gaining greater insight into the lives of people who may be more like us than we ever suspected, despite the fact that we’re separated by incredible distances.

Facebook Shoes

Posted by sillyreverie in Dynamite Designs and tagged with , , ,

Are you obsessed with social networking? Now you can take it to a whole new level of creepy- no, not by stalking more friends or subscribing to unknowns, but by representing Facebook or Twitter as a fashion statement. Check out these concept shoe designs for Adidas by Gerry Mckay, unfortunately the MySpace editions had to be discontinued haha.

The fresh new Adidas Facebook Superstar’s come in a bright FB blue and even features the networks logo on the heel and tongue. If your unsure of what the slogan is, I’ve got it for you here: “Facebook is a social utility that connects you with the people around you.” The Twitter design comes in tame Twitter colors, with the twitter bird logo chilling on the heal. I love Adidas but this would just diminish their reputation, they would loose a Facebook friend if they followed this to the end.

I wonder though, do the shoes tweet the number of steps it’s taken or check into the places it’s gone (In David’s garbage with empty coke can and old toothbrush) to? The real question is: How did it get this far?