According to a new study, cats understand certain laws of physics. Does this make them smarter than their owners? Dog lovers will probably have an opinion on this. If he were still around, Isaac Newton might have one as well.
This study may be viewed as evidence for cats having a rudimentary understanding of gravity.
And not just the “cats always land on all fours” kind of gravity. Researchers from Kyoto University in Japan, led by Saho Takagi, collected 22 cats from Japanese cat cafes and eight domestic cats (they weren’t volunteers – cats don’t volunteer for anything) and tested their ability to understand the physics principle of cause-and-effect and some others.
Gravity?
Cat cafes? In countries like Japan where cats are popular but apartments allowing cats are not, cat cafes charge people an hourly rate to come in and play with cats. Sounds like a great plan to prevent the stray cat problem other countries like the U.S. have.
The researchers used a plastic container lined with an electromagnet and three iron balls to test the cats. They rattles the balls and dumped them out, then turned on the magnet, rattled the box (no sound) and nothing came out. Next they switched things around to fake out the cats – noise with no balls dropping, no noise with balls dropping.
According to the study, the cats demonstrated their awareness of gravity by moving away from the noisy box so they didn’t get hit by falling iron balls. Then they showed their awareness of cause-and-effect by staring longer at the box that made noise (anticipating the falling balls) and looking puzzled when sometimes nothing came out of a noisy box.
At the risk of sounding like a biased dog owner … that’s it?
The results suggest that cats used a causal-logical understanding of auditory stimuli to predict the appearance of invisible objects. The ecology of cats’ natural hunting style may favor the ability for inference on the basis of sounds.
Gravity?
“Hunting based on sounds” sounds like the strategy of many animals, not just cats. If this is a demonstration of an understanding of physics, then there’s a lot of pets who could qualify for government grants to conduct government studies like this one.
Do cats understand physics better than some humans? Can you think of anyone you know who would flunk the “iron balls stuck to hidden magnets” test? Sober?
Did this cat sleep through the physics class on gravity?
You may recall that yesterday I blogged about an allegedly successful experiment in the “freezing”, or at least, “extreme cooling” of a human being, and his or her successful “reanimation.” The key to the allegedly successful experiment was, you might also recall, the removal of the patient’s blood and its replacement by an “ice-cold saline solution.” And I speculated that the whole procedure, since it was performed with the consent of the government, might have had as a hidden goal to discover what happened to that individual’s consciousness while undergoing the “procedure.” We may now also wonder if, indeed, the removal of the individual’s blood was part of my hypothesized “consciousness experiment”; was the individual’s own blood even restored to him or her? Or was it someone else’s?
We don’t know, because there was scanty information provided about the whole alleged success; we were told only that its performer, Dr. Samuel Tisherman, promises to deliver a paper on the whole thing in 2020.
But in that respect, there’s another odd story that was spotted by M.C., who is due a big thank you for sending it along:
Now, this is not exactly new; I have in fact blogged about the unusual nature of this “heart-brain” idea before; neurons are not confined merely to the brain, but appear in the heart as well. There was, however, something that caught my eye in this article, and I rather suspect it’s what caught M.C.’s eye as well and compelled M.C. to send the article along; you’ll note that the article enumerates various cases of individuals who have received heart transplants, and whose behavior suddenly changes to embrace habits and behaviors associated with the donor of the heart. While the article does not mention them, similar experiences have been recorded for other types of organ transplants. One wonders if a similar phenomenon can be associated with blood transplants.
But in any case, what caught my attention in this article was this statement:
Neurologist Dr. Andrew Armour from Montreal in Canada discovered a sophisticated collection of neurons in the heart organised into a small but complex nervous system. The heart’s nervous system contains around 40,000 neurons called sensory neurites that communicate with the brain. Dr. Armour called it “the Little Brain in the Heart”. It has been known for many years that memory is a distributive process. You can’t localize memory to a neuron or a group of neurons in the brain. The memory itself is distributed throughout the neural system. So why do we draw a line at the brain? (Emphasis added)
This idea of distributed memory sounds a bit like a hologram, and the article quickly proceeds to try to avoid the unpleasant aspects of that by quickly trying to tie it all to good-old-fashioned-and-purely-materialistic speculations:
Other medical experts offer different explanations, but all agree that it is not so much mystical as it is science, and a science that needs further exploration.Professor Pr Paul Pearsall and Pr Gary Schwarz got together.
Professor Gary Schwartz says that “Feedback mechanisms are involved in learning. When we talk, for example, about how the brain learns, we talk about what we call neural networks in the brain. It turns out that the way a neural network works is that the output of the neurons feeds back into the input of the neurons. And this process goes over and over again. So long as the feedback is present the neurons will learn. If you cut the feedback, there is no learning in the neurons.”
The Mind is Not Just in the Brain
Dr. Candace Pert, a pharmacologist at Georgetown University believes that the mind is not just in the brain, but also exists throughout the body. This school of thought could explain such strange transplant experiences. “The mind and body communicate with each other through chemicals known as peptides. These peptides are found in the brain as well as in the stomach, in muscles and in all of our major organs. I believe that memory can be accessed anywhere in the peptide/receptor network. For instance, a memory associated with food may be linked to the pancreas or liver and such associations can be transplanted from one person to another”.
Now I’m all for feedback loops as I’ve talked about them in all sorts of contexts. And for that matter, the idea of the heart being part of a kind of “distributed brain” also appeals to me; for one thing, octopuses appear to have this type of structure to their nine brains. But more importantly, I’ve always been an advocate of the more ancient idea that human reason is not mere ratiocination, but incorporates and includes what the ancients would have called the passions, a deeper word than “emotions.” So it appeals to me for this reason as well.
But it’s that “distributed memory” idea and its “holographic” overtones that really appeals, for lurking deeply within that idea is the idea that memory is not local, existing or concentrated in this or that area of the brain, or the body. It rather as if what is implied by that idea is the opposite: that the body exists within a memory, and is imprinted with it like a psychotronic object. If it’s distributed, and non-local, then perhaps it’s also an indicator that the body, in order to be a body, is integrated at the quantum level, by quantum tunneling, perhaps, and that memory may be a function of this somehow. Whatever one makes of my speculations here, I strongly suspect that this idea of distributed memory means that those old Cartesian dualisms and epiphenomena are, like all over-simplified dualisms, going to go the way of the dodo bird, and that the relationship between the tangible physical body and the immaterial intangible world of things like memory are going to turn out to be far more complex than we imagined, and that those “feedback loops” between the two are the key.
Enjoy the silence. It’s hard to find these days. It really does seem like you need to go up a mountain and climb into a cave to find silence. Even then, you will have the intruding sounds of airplanes overhead. What is a person seeking relief from this loud, loud world to do?
Would Siddhartha Gautama have been able to spend several weeks alone in the forest meditating without being bothered by the sounds of modern industry and crowds flocking to him and building a village around him, as happened to Ram Bahadur Bomjon, aka the Buddha Boy, in the mid-2000s?
Silence is more precious than ever today, and also more needed. Look around you. Most people seem to be stressed and anxious about something. About 43% of Americans are on mood-altering prescription drugs, which is not counting those who are going the route of plant-derived substances to get help with relaxing and just being in silent presence. There’s lots of doing, but hardly any being.
This is unfortunate, since silence awakens your world. People oftentimes find it difficult to just sit in silence, with themselves and with others. However, when you are utterly silent, a wave of peace washes over you. The secrets of the universe open up to you because you have become quiet enough to be aware of them. You connect with your inner being that connects with the Source Supermind of Reality.
How to Practice Silence
In today’s demanding and noisy world, it can be difficult to get truly silent and be at peace. Here are some tips on how you can cultivate silence for yourself.
Find a Place to Retreat Into Silence
Come up with a place outside, or a location within your home, where you can retreat to and become silent. You can consider this a sacred space where you will come to specifically practice silence. Make sure to leave your technology behind, or at least turn it off. Do what you can to make sure any intrusive sounds are not going to distract you.
If you hear the various modes of noisy transportation, incessant leaf blowers, or people shouting, you should probably find another space. If this is simply too difficult for you to do, get yourself a pair of noise-canceling headphones and put those on.
Set a Time for Silence
It may seem strange to schedule quiet time, but it really does help make this a new habit for you. Set a calendar reminder on your phone or write it down somewhere in an agenda so you will remember to go into silence at the same time, every day.
Close your Eyes and Listen
When you finally sit (this will help you avoid falling asleep), get comfortable and close your eyes. This is when you start the practice of silence awakening your world. Become open and receptive to the subtle voice of your inner being and the all-permeating field of consciousness that is All that Is.
You may find it difficult to get silent initially It may take you 15, 20, or 30 minutes at first to get to that place of inner calm, especially if you had a long day and are busy rehashing everything that happened to you that day. If you have difficulty breaking free from the distracting thoughts, focus on your breath or on peace. You can even visualize a calm lake with gentle ripples. Whatever works for you will work best, so just take these as suggestions.
Once you become truly silent, your world becomes alive in a way that brings you the clarity of insight, as well as a profound sense of inner peace. In a world which is becoming increasingly loud, it is imperative to give ourselves the gift of silence.
About the author:
Paul Lenda is a conscious evolution guide, founder & director of SHIFT, author, writer, speaker, meditation teacher, life coach, and ambassador for the New Paradigm wishing to provide an integral role in personal transformation and the collective social transformation of humanity. Paul offers private one-on-one holistic life counseling & conscious evolution sessions, via Skype or phone. Paul takes into account all aspects of the hyperdimensional matrix when providing guidance, counseling, and coaching.
So we all know about the missing trillions by now, but where is that money going? And what can Americans do to reclaim that money that is rightfully theirs?
Join Catherine Austin Fitts of Solari.com and James Corbett of The Corbett Report for this wide-ranging discussion on the most important topic of our time that no one is talking about.
There are three types of stress—physical, chemical, and emotional. Each of these stressors knocks the physical body out of its natural state of balance, otherwise known as homeostasis. Likewise, these three types of stress can be countered by balancing the physical, chemical, and emotional states back into order.
For years we’ve been teaching people how to shorten their emotional reactions by pausing between the stimulus and the response. When done effectively, this should diminish the very hormones of stress that push the genetic buttons which create disease. The problem is, many people get stuck in emotional states, and 70% of the time these states are derived from the hormones of stress. The longer one remains in these emotional states, the more the long-term effects of stress push the buttons of genetic disease.
One of our most popular and powerful meditations for bringing balance to the body is the Blessing of the Energy Centers, the purpose of which is to program the autonomic nervous system back into order. This series of meditations helps bring balance to people by having them rest their attention in each one of the energy centers of the body. Each of these centers has its own energy and frequency, and frequency carries information. Each center also has its own hormones, glands, chemicals, and plexuses of clustered neurons that are under the control of the autonomic nervous system. Essentially, each center is its own individual mini brain.
When the brain gets out of balance due to the hormones of stress, it creates incoherence, and as a result, each one of these little brains sends very incoherent messages to the cells, tissues, and organs in the body. By practicing a convergent focus, however, which means resting your attention in these centers – if where you place your attention is where you place your energy – you’re directing your energy to bring balance and order to the very center you are focusing on.
As you tune into the energy around these centers, you begin to create coherence in each of these little brains; that’s how people in our workshops have been responding to—and healing from—all sorts of medical conditions. Every time you create balance in each one of these centers, a coherent message is being sent to all the cells, tissues, and organs of the body.
The Value of Nutrition
Despite the fact that I have a background in nutrition, over the years I had been hesitant to talk about it, even though I have always provided nutritional consulting in my practices. The reason is that people tend to move to the extremity, believing that to change their inner state they need to make changes outside of them. The fact of the matter is, when we are less dependent on conditions in our outer world, we have more power and control over our lives. That’s not to undervalue the importance nutrition plays in bringing the body back to homeostasis.
In thinking about this, it occurred to me that, when we are putting our attention on each center and providing it with the proper instructions in the field, it would also be a good idea to provide the proper raw materials in the form of nutrition. As an example, a hormone is a protein made of amino acids, and amino acids—like box cars on a train—are the building blocks of complex proteins.
In addition, there are certain vitamins and minerals that are essential cofactors in helping to assemble, build, and create hormonal balance. By adding other important ingredients to help the body move back into chemical balance, and by providing more raw materials, we could say that the body is being given all the necessary components to make hormones. If we add natural herbs and plant-based products that have been clinically proven to create more hormonal balance, now we are providing the nudge of even more raw materials that the physical body is looking for.
But having all the necessary ingredients to cook a French dinner still doesn’t make the meal. We need instructions to prepare, organize, and cook the food.
And so I began researching many peer-reviewed articles to see what cofactors, vitamins, and minerals could help facilitate hormonal changes, in addition to other natural herbs and ingredients that could be beneficial in bringing more order to the body. It’s for this reason that I partnered with a company to create different amino acids that are correlated with different hormones related to each center. Thus, if you provide the raw materials to the body in the right amounts, and you provide the proper instructions in the field by blessing these energy centers, then the body has both the correct instructions and the proper nutrition to build healthy hormones.
So, while we’re teaching people how to create a high level of order and coherence in the field around each of these energy centers, we are creating very clear instructions to inform matter (chemicals and hormones). Why? Because coherent signals from coherent frequencies carry coherent information. By providing all of the raw materials to manufacture these hormones and chemicals, and teaching people how to organize energy in each energy center to instruct matter, then when the body is looking for those chemicals, they will be readily available. That being said, the thought occurred to me—why not provide the very raw materials that would help to create more hormonal and chemical balance?
Thus we are advancing the teaching of the Blessing of the Energy Centers by selecting the best ingredients for these products to help people who have health conditions—or at least want to perform better—so they can begin to program the different hormonal centers of the body into more chemical balance.
If you’d like to learn more about these products and when they will be available, please visit https://biosyntropy.com/.
Numbers are everywhere, all around us, especially in this modern digital age. From your smartphone to your smart fridge, electronic devices often tell us the time, and we may also notice numbers in car registrations, addresses, phone numbers and other data chunks. So, what does it mean if you keep seeing the same pattern of repeating numbers?
You’re probably aware of the 11:11 phenomenon – increasing numbers of people who believe they are seeing the number pattern 11:11 (as a time) or 1111 cropping up in daily life. In numerology, 11 is a master number, and is believed to signify a strong spirituality. Many people therefore consider 11:11 to be a sign of a spiritual awakening, and that if you are seeing this number repeatedly, you are being called to a spiritual pathway as a lightworker.
But 11:11 is not the only significant number pattern. Any sequence of three or four repeated numbers has numerological significance. People probably see 11:11 more than the others because 11:11 is the only four-digit sequence which can appear on our clocks, but 222 or 2222, 333 or 3333 and so on are also deeply meaningful.
If you think you’re starting to see number patterns regularly, you’ll find it helpful to keep a log or a diary recording when and where you see them. Of course, confirmation bias plays a part here, and a sceptic would suggest that you’re not seeing these patterns any more often than any other random pattern of numbers, but you’re just subconsciously choosing to notice the one you want to notice. We don’t remember the dozens of times a day we glance at a clock and it says some other time, but we do remember if it says 11:11. While there’s undoubtedly something in that concept, it doesn’t negate that the number patterns you choose to pay attention to may well have some significant symbolic message for you.
111, 1111, 1:11 or 1.11
As you might expect, the number one connects in numerology with the concept of a beginning. If you are repeatedly seeing a 1-based number pattern, it could be a sign from the universal consciousness that the time is right to make a fresh start. A new cycle is yours for the taking, but action on your part is needed to kick it off. Whether it’s a new business you want to launch, or a new relationship you’re seeking, pay attention to these cosmic nudges and take positive steps to get something new off the ground.
222, 2222, 2:22 or 2.22
Two is feminine energy which speaks of harmony, love and balance. If you’re repeatedly seeing a 2-based number pattern, ask yourself if everything in your life is as balanced as it should be. This may be your prompt to adjust your work-life balance for example, or to balance your responsibilities against some me time. The number two is also about feelings and emotions, especially in love and interpersonal relationships. If you’re looking for love, the cosmos may be telling you that a soul mate is on the way.
333, 3333, 3:33 or 3.33
The energy of the number three is all about self-expression and creativity. If you’re repeatedly seeing a 3-based number of patterns, you’re being prompted to step into your full power as a manifestor and co-creator of your life. Set your imagination free and know that your thoughts create your reality. Perhaps it’s time for you to express who you really are instead of fitting into someone else’s boxes. Speak up, create, express yourself and don’t hold back.
444, 4444, 4:44 or 4.44
Four in numerology is about stability – think of the stability of a solid square. The energy of this number manifests itself in matters to do with our home life – our own source of stability – and issues around security, both physical and emotional. If you’re seeing a 4-based number pattern on a regular basis, the cosmos may be urging you to stay put or to have patience. Wait a while before making dramatic changes. While you’re waiting, work on nurturing yourself so that you feel safe and in control.
555, 5555, 5:55 or 5.55
If the energy of four is stable, the energy of the number five is unstable, inviting – if not demanding – change. Change can be daunting at the best of times, but if you’re repeatedly seeing a 5-based number pattern, it’s heading your way, like it or not. Prepare for this change in the first instance by embracing it. The number five asks that you surrender or let go of all that no longer serves you. This may feel like a big ask, and a risk, but this is a necessary step before a new cycle can begin.
666, 6666, or 6.66
The energy of the number six is all about duty, responsibility and service. If you are repeatedly seeing a 6-based number pattern, ask yourself whether you’re truly living up to your responsibilities – or perhaps at the other end of the scale whether your responsibilities are drowning you. The number six can bring worry and feelings of fear or angst, so seeing this pattern may be a nudge from the cosmos that you need to take better care of yourself. You can’t care for others unless you are well yourself. If you’re seeing this pattern regularly, get health niggles checked out.
777, 7777 or 7.77
The energy of number seven is about intuition and instinct. Christians believe that number seven is a lucky number, because it was on this day during creation that god rested. In Chinese numerology, however, number seven, like number four, is intensely unlucky. Forget notions of either luck or bad luck and instead understand that you make your own luck, based in large part on whether or not you listen to your instincts. If you’re seeing a 7-based number pattern regularly, the cosmos wants you to listen to your gut. Trust yourself and don’t be deceived by what others tell you.
888, 8888 or 8.88
Eight is a powerful number which tends to bring transformation and growth. It looks similar to the symbol for infinity and it is a reminder that however bad things have been, and however long the journey, you have it within your power to direct your own life. If you’re repeatedly seeing an 8-based number pattern, you have probably been through a tough time recently. This pattern is the universal consciousness telling you that you will emerge into better times if – and it’s a big if – you can trust the process.
999, 9999 or 9.99
Here in the UK, we are conditioned to associate the sequence 999 with an emergency or crisis, since it’s the number we use to call the emergency services. However, in numerology, the number nine is associated with wisdom, completion and a universal compassion for our fellow earth-dwellers. If you’re repeatedly seeing a 9-based number pattern, you may be drawing close to the end of one particular growth cycle – but fear not, because every ending leads to another beginning. A nine sequence may also be your prompt to get involved with humanitarian causes, or to share the wisdom you have learned thus far. When you see repeated nines, start to clear the decks – and your clutter – so that when this cycle is ended, you can face the future with confidence.
About the author:
Nikki Harper is a spiritualist writer, astrologer, and editor for Wake Up World.
Are you one of over two billion people that use Facebook, the world’s largest social media site?
Facebook has become so deeply ingrained in people’s lives that it has now become the norm to give it access to personal data without much thought, as if this is but a small price to pay for Facebook’s “free” service. But nothing could be further from the truth.
These traceable and sellable data now give Facebook the power to manipulate what we do, how we feel, what we buy and what we believe. The consequences of giving Facebook this much power is only becoming apparent, with mounting lawsuits against their security breaches and lousy privacy settings.
Even CrossFit, the well-established branded fitness regimen, has decided to stop supporting Facebook and its associated services, putting all their activities on Facebook and Instagram to a halt starting May 22, 2019. This decision came in the wake of Facebook’s deletion of the Banting7DayMealPlan user group, which was done without warning or explanation. The group has more than 1.65 million members who post testimonials regarding the efficiency of a low-carb, high-fat diet.
Although the group was later reinstated, Facebook’s action still shows how it acts in the interest of the food and beverage industry. You see, big advertisers on Facebook, like Coca-Cola, don’t want you to have access to this information, and Facebook is more than happy to ban anyone challenging the industrial food system. By doing this, it potentially contributes to the global chronic disease crisis.
Would you continue trusting a company that thinks too little of violating your rights to privacy?
1Facebook’s Primary ‘Product’ Is You
If you think Facebook’s product is the very platform that users interact with, you’re wrong. You are actually Facebook’s primary product. The site makes money off you by meticulously tracking your hobbies, habits and preferences through your “likes,” posts, comments, private messages, friends list, login locations and more. It sells these data, along with your personal information, to whomever wants access to them, potentially facilitating everything from targeted advertising to targeted fraud — this is its entire profit model.
Did you know that it can even access your computer or smartphone’s microphone without your knowledge? So if you’re suddenly receiving ads for products or services that you just spoke out loud about, don’t be surprised — chances are one or more apps linked to your microphone have been eavesdropping on you. These privacy intrusions can continue even after you’ve closed your Facebook account.
Companies can also collect information about the websites you’re visiting or the keywords you’re searching for outside of Facebook’s platform without your permission, and then sell these data to Facebook so it knows which ads to show you. This makes Facebook the most infamous advertising tool ever created, and to increase revenue, it has to continue spying on you.
During Facebook’s early days, its founder, Mark Zuckerberg, assured in an interview that no user information would be sold or shared with anyone the user had not specifically given permission to. However, the site’s blatant disregard for its users’ privacy proves otherwise. In fact, Facebook has been repeatedly caught mishandling user data and lying about their data harvesting, resulting in multiple legal problems.
The origin of Facebook is also far from altruistic, even though it’s said to be created “to make the world more open and connected,” and “give people the power to build community.” A front-runner to Facebook was a site called FaceMash, which was created to rate photos of women — photos that were obtained and used without permission. Some of the women were even compared to farm animals! This speaks volumes about Zuckerberg’s disrespect for privacy. Facebook is basically founded on a misogynistic hate group and it should therefore ban itself.
2Facebook Faces Investigation for Its Lax Security and Privacy Practices
Facebook is currently facing a number of lawsuits regarding its controversial data-sharing practices and poor security measures. Back in 2010, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) revealed that Facebook was sharing user data with third-party software developers without the users’ consent, expressing concerns about the potential misuse of personal information, as Facebook does not track how third parties utilized them.
While Facebook agreed by consent order to “identify risk to personal privacy” and eliminate those risks, they did not actually pay attention to their security lapse. Had they done so, they would’ve been able to prevent the Cambridge Analytica scandal, the main focus of FTC’s first criminal probe. This issue involves Facebook’s deal with a British political consulting firm, allowing it access to around 87 million user data, which was used to influence public opinion in the U.S. presidential election.
Another criminal investigation into Facebook’s data sharing practice is underway. This time, it revolves around Facebook’s partnerships with tech companies and device makers, allowing them to override the users’ privacy settings and giving them broad access to its users’ information.
Amid federal criminal investigations, Zuckerberg announced the company’s latest plan to encrypt messages, so only the sender and the receiver will supposedly be able to decipher what they say. This is ironic, considering it was recently discovered that Facebook stored millions of user passwords in readable plaintext format in its internal platform, potentially compromising the security of millions of its users.
Zuckerberg has repeatedly demonstrated a complete lack of integrity when it comes to fulfilling his promises of privacy. In fact, in a 2010 talk given at the Crunchie awards, he stated that “privacy is no longer a social norm,” implying that using social media automatically strips you of the right to privacy, and that is why they do not respect it.
3Facebook Is a Monopoly
Facebook’s plan to integrate Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp would turn it into a global super-monopoly. This merger has been criticized by tech experts, as it robs users of their ability to choose between messaging services, leaving them virtually no choice but to submit to Facebook’s invasive privacy settings. This also gives Facebook unprecedented data mining capabilities.
German antitrust regulator, Bundeskartellamt, is the first to prohibit Facebook’s unrestricted data mining, banning Facebook’s services in Germany if it integrates the three messaging platforms. If other countries follow suit, the merger would fall through, as it probably should.
One of the outspoken proponents of breaking up monopolies like Facebook, Google and Amazon is U.S. presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. Her campaign to break up Facebook was censored by the site, taking down three of her ads with a message that said the ads went “against Facebook’s advertising policies.”
After Warren took to Twitter to comment how the censorship simply proves why her proposal was necessary, Facebook then reinstated her ads with the lame excuse that they were only removed because they included Facebook’s logo, which violates the site’s advertising policy.
I’ve Decided — I Am Leaving Facebook
At present, I have nearly 1.8 million Facebook followers, and I am grateful for the support. But a while back, I have expressed my concerns that perhaps I am doing more harm than good by being a part of Facebook, as I could be contributing to the invasive data mining, an idea that never sat well with me.
For those reasons, I decided that leaving the platform and going back to depending on email is the responsible way forward. If you haven’t subscribed to my newsletter yet, I urge you, your family and your friends to sign up now. I polled my audience and they agreed with my decision to leave.
What do you get when you combine science-inspired wonder and seven miles of desert? An incredible video.
Filmmakers Wylie Overstreet and Alex Gorosh, along with a few helpful friends, set out to make a scale model of the solar system. To do that, they traveled 600 miles to Black Rock Desert (home of the Burning Man Festival) in Nevada. Using various technology, vehicles, a drone, math and perseverance, they created “To Scale: The Solar System,” a seven-minute video that shows the orbits of the eight planets in our solar system. (Sorry, Pluto!)
The video is educational, beautiful and awe-inspiring. It shows off our planet’s place in the solar system, and it offers perspective on just how small Earth is in the grand scheme of things. The entire film is captivating, but perhaps the most poignant moment is at sunrise, when the real sun matches the model’s sun, showing that the representation is accurate.
As the video points out, most depictions of the solar system are inaccurate because to create a true scale rendering, the planets would need to be “microscopic.” Overstreet and Gorosh came up with a solution: build a “simulated model” in the middle of a dry lakebed where there’s plenty of space to show off a model of, well, space.
So, why did these filmmakers decide to take on this complex endeavor? Gorosh, a director with high-end commercials and documentaries to his credit, explains the inspiration for the project in a behind the scenes video: “As for why we made the model? Because it’s never been done before, and we felt like it.” Overstreet, a filmmaker with interests in science and nature, also notes, “There is literally not an image that adequately shows you what it [the solar system] actually looks like from out there. The only way to see a scale model of the solar system is to build one.” So they did. They spent 36 hours in what appears to be a rather cold desert to build the model and to capture the footage required.
The technology needed for this undertaking from conception to final cut ranges from sophisticated cameras to analogue tech, like a good old-fashioned compass. They even created a DIY harrow, a piece of equipment typically used to to break up soil but is apparently also excellent for drawing the orbits of planets in desert sand!
According to Overstreet’s website, he’s working on another “To Scale” video about deep time. If the first “To Scale” video is any indication of what’s possible, we can’t wait.
In books, I find psychological and emotional refuge, education and deep wisdom that I just don’t find elsewhere. My passion is connected to the words and the form they come in — printed pages bound together. So I’m not afraid to admit that when I read an article about how print book sales had risen (modestly) and e-book sales had declined (a bit) and that the number of independent bookstores had increased over the past year, I shed tears of joy.
It wasn’t that long ago that everyone was predicting the end of print and the demise of small bookstores. If people were reading, they were doing it digitally, and if they were buying paper books, they weren’t getting them from independent shops. The future looked grim for small stores.
But more and more, we keep hearing about the resurgence of the independent bookstore and how print is not dying after all. As The New York Times reported, “While analysts once predicted that e-books would overtake print by 2015, digital sales have instead slowed sharply.”
And one wonderful consequence of the changing market is that bookstores are slowly coming back.
“That’s right. The phoenix rises from the ashes. According to the American Booksellers Association, there are now 2,321 independent bookstores in the United States,” reported NPR’s Paddy Hirsch in March 2018. “And there are a couple of things that happened to prepare the grind for this recovery. First, when Amazon came along, the independents were decimated, sure. But the corporates — the big-box stores and the chains — they really got crushed. Borders, for instance, went out of business altogether. So that left a gap for the indies to fill.”
That’s hundreds of new, independent bookstores, which is just plain exciting. (I love to find local booksellers whenever I’m in a new city or town, and I know I’m not alone in that regard.)
The good news started to turn around a few years ago. Plus, sales at independent bookstores were up about 9 percent in 2018 from the year before, according to the American Booksellers Association. Bookstores in the U.K. also are experiencing increased revenue. Nielsen Bookscan statistics show year-on-year growth of 22 billion GBP with 2018 book sales reaching 1.59 billion GBP, reported The Guardian.
“I think the worst days of the independents are behind them,” Jim Milliot, coeditorial director for Publishers Weekly magazine, told the Christian Science Monitor in 2013. “The demise of traditional print books has been a bit overblown. Everybody is a little anxious, but they are starting to think they’ve figured it out for the time being.”
Why people want print
Shakespeare & Company bookstore in Paris has been open since 1919. (Photo: Christian Bertrand/Shutterstock.com)
What media stories don’t delve into are the reasons behind the stagnation in e-books and slight-but-real increase in demand for printed books. I don’t think this is anything like the niche nostalgia that’s driving vinyl record sales, which is still a tiny part of the huge music industry. Print book sales are still 80 percent of the market, the dominant form.
Could it be that, unlike music, there’s a real decline in utility when you choose e-books over printed ones — and only a marginal gain in efficiency? Are printed books simply a superior format, as my friend David Lanphier Jr. commented on Facebook?
Yes, you can carry a number of books with you on an e-book reader, which is an undeniable bonus. But most of us are only reading a couple of books at a time, and it’s not that hard to choose one or two books to carry around. For those who need larger print, e-readers are a definite win. If you live far from your local library, e-books are also a great solution.
And some people like looking up words, which is convenient with an e-reader. But in the days of smartphones, it’s almost as easy to grab your phone to check, so I’d call that one a wash.
The physicality of paper books
But unlike music, printed books are far sturdier and more reliable than e-readers. Many of my books have been dropped into water, partially set on fire by candles or campfires, and I hardly own a book that hasn’t had soup, coffee, tea, or water splashed on it. Printed books suffer all these indignities and more: Dogs chewing on them, toddlers throwing them out the car window, or use as a seat for butt protection against damp grass. All of those books are still readable.
You can take a biography to the seaside or read in the swimming pool as I’m wont to do without concern. You can throw a mystery in your backpack and take it to the top of the mountain and not care if it starts raining or your water bottle spills on it. You can keep reading in an Oregon drizzle and then dry that poetry out next to the fire. You can place a novel over your face and nap in the sunshine, breathing printer’s ink and words. You can even use the pages of a memoir to mop up a bit of blood when you fall off your mountain bike and cut your knee. (What? You’ve never bloodied a book?)
You can’t toss a terrible e-book across the room in frustration (cough, Nicholas Sparks, cough), and of course e-book publishers have made sharing titles nigh-impossible.
Of course, if you don’t like clutter, e-books are great; but if you love books, lots of them stacked up is comforting. And the used book market is still a relatively strong one, so just sell them if you don’t want to keep them around. You can then buy more books, something you can’t do with electronic copies of books. I buy used books for $5-8 each, then sell roughly two-thirds of them back to the bookseller for $3-4 credit. So new used books only end up costing me a few bucks, or I can put my credit towards a new title, cutting the cost below that of an e-book copy. Unless you’re buying new books all the time, I’ve found digital copies to be a significantly more expensive way to go.
Reading text in a digital format isn’t always the best way to get all the information from a story. (Photo: smokingapples.com/Flickr)
Besides being fragile, e-readers make scanning back into a book’s content difficult, because your story memory is not tied to a physical object and “spot” within it. You have to remember a word or phrase from the section you want to find. When I’m writing an article with books as reference, I find e-readers impossible to use; same with looking up a favorite few lines for reference later in my journal. And it’s not just because I didn’t grow up a digital native; even those who have grown up with e-readers and tablets still prefer print, according to a survey by Canon that looked at Millennial habits around reading and even sending written notes.
And as Lanphier added to his Facebook comment about this topic, “…my 6 and 1/2 year old niece has an iPad, and she reads on it, but she will read a book too. And, will choose a book over the iPad reading… because a book has that experience. You don’t see moms and kids and dads and kids gathered around the iPad reading together. But, you see them doing that with books.”
Clearly, I’m thrilled books are here to stay. And it looks like the next generation will love their printed books just as I do.
Editors’s note: This article has been updated since it was originally published in September 2015.
At the risk of sounding like a biased dog owner … that’s it?
