This is one day’s observations from Himawari-8, a Japanese weather satellite, animated in a loop. It shows the western Pacific, Australia, and parts of Asia, Antarctica, and Alaska as they looked on one day in mid-2015. It covers 24 hours in 12 seconds – a time lapse factor of 7,200×.
To see this spectacular video in super-high resolution, go to: Glittering Blue
Learn more at: About Glittering Blue
you are water
I’m water
we’re all water in different containers
that’s why it’s so easy to meet
someday we’ll evaporate together
but even after the water’s gone
we’ll probably point out to the containers
and say, “that’s me there, that one.”
we’re container minders
– Yoko Ono, 1967
Dr. Masaru Emoto’s Water Experiment reminds me of Yoko Ono’s “We’re all Water,” except this adds a fascinating metaphysical element. If words, music, and environment can alter water in such profound ways, imagine how we are all affected, considering humans are 60% water.
Through the 1990’s, Dr. Masaru Emoto performed a series of experiments observing the physical effect of words, prayers, music and environment on the crystalline structure of water. Emoto hired photographers to take pictures of water after being exposed to the different variables and subsequently frozen so that they would form crystalline structures. The results were nothing short of remarkable.
Read more here: http://highexistence.com/water-experiment/
Dr. Emoto’s site: http://www.masaru-emoto.net/english/water-crystal.html
Below is a documentary on Dr. Emoto’s work:
Worldbuilding is an essential part of any work of fiction. But especially for science fiction or fantasy, it’s the lifeblood of storytelling. But when worldbuilding fails, it can wreck your whole story, and leave your characters feeling pointless. Here are seven deadly sins of worldbuilding.
1. Not thinking about basic infrastructure. How do they eat? What do they eat? Who takes away the garbage? Who deals with their bodily wastes? How do they get around? What do the majority of people do to survive? You’re not just constructing a society, you’re creating an economy. People don’t oppress each other for fun — usually, systems of hierarchy and oppression have an economic component to them. Maybe you need a lot of peasants to grow labor-intensive crops, or maybe you need lots of cannon fodder in your space war. Maybe your only source of protein is a weird fungus that needs to be tended by specially trained people. Maybe everybody’s eating algae. In any case, there’s nothing worse than a fictional world where there are elaborate social structures, which seem completely separated from the realities of food, shelter and clothing.
Continues at: 7 Deadly Sins of Worldbuilding
Cognitive scientist Donald Hoffman is trying to answer a big question: Do we experience the world as it really is … or as we need it to be? In this ever so slightly mind-blowing talk, he ponders how our minds construct reality for us.
Did you know that Finland has a Brand Book? I haven’t made it through this 365-page monster yet, but once you get past the cringe-worthy hyperbole of the first few pages, it actually turns pretty interesting. And insanely granular: there’s even a mission for grandparents.
http://www.demoshelsinki.fi/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/TS_Report_EN.pdf
I love this meditation tool at Pixel Thoughts. The design is beautifully simple and it’s actually really good for clearing your mind. Have 60 Seconds? Go to the meditation and give it a try.
Be a mother. Help a mother.
You can help mothers and their babies
have a healthy start together by supporting
EVERY MOTHER COUNTS.
Every Mother Counts is a maternal health organization that links mothers to providers of essential care by addressing three barriers to maternal health:
TRANSPORTATION
Many women live miles away from healthcare providers and facilities, with extremely limited access to transportation.
EDUCATION
Skilled attendance at all births is considered to be the single most critical intervention for ensuring safe motherhood.
SUPPLIES
Health centers and caregivers lack the basic supplies and equipment necessary to do their jobs.
Dedicated to making pregnancy and childbirth safe for every mother, Every Mother Counts informs, engages, and mobilizes new audiences to take actions and raise funds that support maternal health programs around the world.
“Each preventable death is one death too many.”
~ Christy Turlington Burns
EVERY MOTHER COUNTS IS A REGISTERED NON-PROFIT 501(C)(3) ORGANIZATION.
The early bird doesn’t always catch the worm. In fact, night owls are probably getting a lot more done–and are a lot more successful.
I knew I wasn’t the only one who appreciated working into the night. Here are the benefits of being a night owl:
Read more at Inc.com: 11 Scientifically Proven Reasons Why Night Owls Get More Done | Inc.com
This animated video describes the six universal Principles of Persuasion that have been scientifically proven to make you most effective based on the research in Dr. Cialdini’s groundbreaking book, Influence. This video is narrated by Dr. Robert Cialdini and Steve Martin, CMCT.
1. Reciprocity
2. Scarcity
3. Authority
4. Consistency
5. Liking
6. Consensus
How you know you’re working on the right thing.
Storytelling is a powerful thing. Here’s what Thom Hartmann had to say a few years ago on his radio program:
It’s interesting. In preliterate societies, which is the majority of the history of the human race, we didn’t write things down. We told stories. Everything had a story. Every tree had a story. Every rock had a story. Every animal had a story. Every place had a story. Every family had a story. Story was how we transmitted culture and it was how we remembered things.
When I lived in Vermont—I believe it was the University of Vermont, one of the colleges there—I heard of the Abenakis, the Native American tribe there. They have stories of what happened 10,000 years ago, when the mountains of blue ice, the walls of blue ice, receded: what happened, where and when, the order in which it happened, and things like that. A bunch of geologists checked it out, and the memory was accurate. A 10,000 year-old accurate memory.
There are a number of anthropologists over the years who’ve pointed out how literacy has really been a curse in some ways, as much as a blessing, because when we started writing things down, we stopped telling stories. We stopped having these multi-generational stories. We stopped teaching our children. And it’s so important that there be some stories that transcend literacy, that transcend the written down, the “here, it’s in a book.” It’s so important that we teach our children stories.
Thom Hartmann
29 January 2009
As the new year approaches, many of us will resolve to transform our bodies — but what about our minds?
Giving ourselves a mental makeover could be just as important as giving ourselves a physical one. But accomplishing that doesn’t just lie in changing our thoughts — it’s also dependent on changing our words.
How we speak — to others and to ourselves — has a huge impact on our overall outlook. So isn’t it about time we started paying more attention to what we’re communicating?
Below are 15 phrases that will transform the way you think, feel and act in the coming year. Using your words to change your life? Now that’s a resolution worth keeping.
continues at: 15 Phrases That Will Change Your Life In 2015.