While exploring in Second Life, I came across the ISRVW apparently set up by Dr. John Traphagan. Â You can visit the ISRVW here. Â It’s set up as a meeting space, no resources and not very large, but interesting that it exists. Â Also explored the LDS welcome center for a while, interesting to note that all the Mormon avatars I encountered were children.
Vincent Callebaut Architectures is designing entirely new spiritual spaces. Many of his recent designs are buildings that function as eco-technology. They integrate with the multiple environments that overlap in our cities: human, mechanical and Gaian.
Mitch Horowitz writes about Psychiana, a “mail order” New Thought religion created by Frank B. Robinson in 1928. Robinson ran the religion from his office in Moscow, Idaho.
“Robinson was probably the first religious figure of the twentieth century to fully grasp the power of advertising and mail-order marketing. But he was more than just that. With only a deeply held conviction and a few hundred dollars in ad money, he brought attention to the neglected needs of millions of people who wanted religion to provide practical guidance in daily life.”
OGMA releases his his first album. His ecstatic music can be heard on myspace.
“Titled “The Pope Meets You on Facebook,” the new Pope2You application lets people send and receive “virtual postcards” of Pope Benedict along with inspiring text culled from the pope’s various speeches and messages.”
Via Cult of Mac, via Catholic News.
Using a tactic that was also used by the military dictatorship in Burma, New York University has cut off internet access to students who are occupying the school.
This is another example of corporate powers disabling network access to prevent social justice. Hopefully, some students in the occupation have access to the network via 3G networks or other means and can continue to communicate.
Are there thoughts that are not permitted by the software of the brain?
Human rights depend on Animal rights. We can never have liberation of humankind without the same for all of animalkind. So long as we enslave, we will never be free.
If your browser isn’t functioning well, get an upgrade. New Version Culture.
Playing tonight, here:
The Wild Project, 195 East 3rd St., New York, NY
(Doors 7p, screening 8p sharp, $10)
The Temple of Awakening Divinity. There’s something to this, my friend and I in elementary school used to say while high-fiving: “we’re the TOADS, totally outrageously awesome dudes!”
Little did I know we were right, but it actually stood for Temple Of Awakening Divinity Supplicants.
Learn about the Temple of Awakening Divinity on The Entheogenic Evolution podcast.
This feels at first, in a speculative fiction sort-of-way, like one more step toward turning the planet into a large neural network… Building floating synapses for the network mind, out in the sea.
“In general, computing centers are located on a ship or ships, which are then anchored in a water body from which energy from natural motion of the water may be captured, and turned into electricity and/or pumping power for cooling pumps to carry heat away from computers in the data center,” Google writes in the patent application.
The NYT writes about the decline of buddhism in Japan. Within the article is an aside about buddhist priests for hire via the internet:
It was partly to dispel this bad image that Kazuma Hayashi, 41, a Buddhist priest without a temple of his own, said he founded a company, Obohsan.com (obohsan means priest), three years ago in a Tokyo suburb. The company dispatches freelance Buddhist priests to funerals and other services, cutting out funeral homes and other middlemen.
Prices, which are at least a third lower than the average, are listed clearly on the company’s Web site. A 10 percent discount is available for members.
“We even give out receipts,” Mr. Hayashi said.
Mr. Hayashi argued that instead of divorcing Japanese Buddhism further from its spiritual roots, his business attracted more people with its lower prices. The highest-ranking posthumous name went for about $1,500, a rock-bottom price.
“I know that, originally, that’s not what Buddhism was about,” Mr. Hayashi said of the top name. “But it’s a brand that our customers choose. Some really want it, so that means there’s a strong desire there, and we have to respond to it.”
After apologizing for straying from Buddhism’s ideals, Mr. Hayashi said he offered his customers the highest-ranking name, albeit with a warning: “In short, that this is different from going to a shop in town and buying a handbag, you know, a Gucci bag.” Read more…
I want to watch A&E’s remake of Andromeda Strain… However, the digital cable god won’t give it to me. Why is this? I keep thinking it’s somehow related to the rain.
Is this the moment when technology becomes a part of our religious environment? When we suspect it is affected by numinous forces like weather and the hand of nature or gods or weather systems? Why would my digital cable be at all affected by the weather? Why not? I’m affected by the weather.
The little arrows on the screen chase one another round and round never ending or beginning…the screen says “Your program is now being accessed and will begin shortly.” But nothing happens. There is a large eye in the graphic behind the spinning arrows, an eye with a spiral in it. The whole thing concludes with the phrase:
“One moment please…”
This is one of the most responsive, interactive and informational web interfaces I’ve encountered:
Take a look at Gregory Donovan’s brilliant research blog - he’s re-launched. What a code master!
Devices are always watching us - and feeding data into the network. This OS X screensaver by Michael Zoellner searches for CCTV feeds and displays them. Very eerie.
Dr. Mala Htun discusses the crucial role that electronic communication plays in the social justice movement for Burma.
riseup.net has a great collection of tech activism listserves.
Highlights include:
nomesh-tech New Orleans Mesh Networking - Technical Support & Discussion
farma Renewable energy sources campaign for the Zapatista communities
leftistpython Leftist and combative object oriented programming
fpl-fbv Forum on the Patenting of Life - Forum sur le brevetage du vivant
vgranjeros List for the farmers who tend the fields of the vfarm
techne technology and democracy
My host switched DNS info and didn’t update - apologies for the outage over the last day!
