BBC – Wonders of the Solar System

As Earth passes Mars, the latter planet will temporarily appear to reverse its motion across the sky. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

One of the nice things about living in Toronto is that our library is pretty much second to none. It’s amazing what a relatively small city like Toronto has in its public library holdings. Speaking of which, I’m now watching BBC’s Wonders of the Solar System, and so far it’s pretty good.

I just finished part one, Empire of the Sun, which touches on some interesting points that I was only dimly aware of—for instance, the retrograde motion of Mars is explained very well.

There’s also some good footage of India during a solar eclipse. And the footage of the northern lights from the arctic circle is outstanding. No need to go there. Just watch this.

Perhaps I’ll report more as I plow through the series.

Related articles

• For Kids – Planetarium Star Show at Maynard F. Jordan Planetarium 4/22/12 (thevalleyvoice.org)
• ~ The Enchanted Realm ~ The Solar Eclipse & Pleiadian Alignment ~ May 20, 2012 (globallightmindsdailyinspirations.wordpress.com)
• National › Panasonic to broadcast solar eclipse live from summit of Mt Fuji (japantoday.com)
• Panasonic to use solar-powered batteries to broadcast Japanese solar eclipse on May 20th (theverge.com)
• NASA – Eclipses During 2012 (steinalive.wordpress.com)
• Brian Cox iPad app touts the Wonders of the Universe (guardian.co.uk)
• BBC must promote excellence and not be vulgar says Lord Patten (dailymail.co.uk)
• Maggie Aderin-Pocock: A woman on a mission, proving science isn’t just for rich, white men (independent.co.uk)
• Solar Eclipse 20 May 2012 (starsandstones.wordpress.com)

Telling Lies – David Bowie

Interesting student video of Bowie’s Telling Lies. I don’t think Bowie did a video for this song. There’s another video at YouTube that’s a sort of remix of other Bowie footage, and *very* ugly as all lies and liars are. But this one isn’t quite so harsh. I like its ambiguity.

Related articles

• Visual Proof that David Bowie and Tilda Swinton Are the Same Person (hintmag.com)
• Hallo Spaceboy (ladygarfunkel.wordpress.com)
• David Bowie ‘The Jean Genie’ 1973 (bestoftopofthepops.wordpress.com)
• Video: True Blood’s Joe Manganiello Talks Season Four, His David Bowie and Sookie Hopes (popsugar.com)
• The Red Hot Chili Peppers Cover Bowie, Neil and The Beach Boys on New EP (929dave.radio.com)
• David Bowie’s ‘Ziggy Stardust’ Gets 40th Anniversary Reissue (rollingstone.com)
• David Bowie’s “Ziggy Stardust” Turns 40 (news.radio.com)

Blood on the Dance Floor: HIStory in the Mix – Track 7 – Money (FIR Edit)

I remember when I was doing my PhD in Ottawa during the 90s. I went into HMV and this CD caught my eye. I never really liked Michael Jackson all that much when Thriller came out in ’82. But in India, a few years later, I  bought a tape of BAD, which for the most part I liked. They also played a film about MJ in the small Indian town where I did my M.A. Even there his impact was felt. Some people liked the film, others didn’t. I did.

What If – Nichole Nordeman

Here’s another Christian pop tune that I stumbled across in my travels. I like the song and don’t really know if it needs a video. But this video seems the least intrusive of all the others I saw at Youtube.

One of things I like about music is how it can create its own visual landscape of the imagination. So if the video just gets in the way, you can always sit back, turn your head the other way, and listen.

Related articles

• A Faithful Friend (karenbarnesjordan.wordpress.com)
• Mandisa – Stronger (mclark.wordpress.com)

People See Through You

This song was fairly popular when I was an undergraduate student at Trent university. I just watched the video after so many years, and the lyrics make so much more sense to me today.

Apocalypse 2012: The World After Time Ends (DVD Review)

This review also appears at Earthpages.org

Title: Apocalypse 2012: The World After Time Ends
Genre: Conspiracy, Prophecy, End Times
Production Company: Reality Films

Apocalypse 2012: The World After Time Ends is a bit of a mind-bender. Just when you think you can forget about the world’s problems, sit down and have a nice cup of tea, along comes Reality Films with this engaging, sometimes disturbing film.

The premise of Apocalypse 2012 is that the Earth is alive, a living organism. Hippies from the 70s or students from the 80s might remember James Lovelock’s Gaia Hypothesis. Or maybe Lewis Thomas’ The Lives of a Cell. These two scientists have their differences, but both agree that the Earth looks like it’s some kind of self-regulating, living system.

That’s a nifty idea, but Apocalypse 2012 takes it to a whole new level. A panoply of elders, sages and unorthodox thinkers all seem to be saying that the Earth doesn’t just look alive. It is alive—and not just as a simple organism or self-adjusting system.

Many of the film’s speakers believe that Mother Earth is a conscious entity, one that demands payback for terrestrial abuses. So 911, for instance, wasn’t caused by a single group of extremists but, rather, by our collective exploitation of the planet. We’ve been treating the Earth as a money making resource instead of seeing it as a source of life. And this, according to the film, is an unforgivable no-no just asking for planetary retribution where countless people get hurt and die.

Pretty heavy stuff. I started to feel a bit glum after the first hour. So I paused the DVD and went out to do some shopping. (Food shopping that is, and thank God I didn’t drive a SUV or the roads might have cracked before me..!).

Reality Films

Okay, honestly, I struggled a bit with this film. Part of me felt it was naive but another part sensed that it was important. At least, important for me to see at the time.

On the plus side, 2012′s archival footage and editing are amazing. It’s worth watching for that alone. And the soundtrack is effective. Also, its eclectic mix of speakers aren’t identified until after the show is done, which is a great idea. This sort of levels the playing field so we hear what’s being said without prejudging on the basis of credentials or honorary titles. (I hope that’s vague enough to avoid a spoiler!).

On the not so great side, the DVD offers a simplistic view of history that seems to glorify a distant, golden age that most likely never was (unless one takes Adam and Eve and other creation stories literally). The industrial revolution is portrayed as the Big Bogey Man that’s chasing us toward our collective downfall. But what about the Black Death of the Middle Ages, and various other lethal diseases spread by contaminated water in ancient and medieval society? All this happened well before the industrial revolution.

Having said that, can we really deny that the 21st century is dangerously imbalanced, globally speaking? The news media tells us that so-called mental illnesses are on the rise, as are the environmentally polluting drugs manufactured to treat them (most people forget that man-made medications, now matter how nicely they’re presented by pharmaceutical marketing agencies, are constantly being urinated back into the water supply). And as 2012 rightly says, the oil supply will eventually run out. Not even the Canadian oil sands are limitless.

Reality Films

But as to what happens next, I disagree with some of the film’s more gloomy pundits. I’m no gambler but would be willing to bet that God allows us to continue only so far on our haphazard course until we come up with better solutions. Technology isn’t necessarily the problem. We just need to develop better technologies, as many green companies already are (ask Neil Young if you don’t believe me).

I mean, where would we be without electricity? Just think of music. No Chuck Berry and “Johnny B. Goode.” No synthesizers or digital keyboards. No Close to the Edge or Fragile by Yes. Come on. Obviously this blending of art and technology was meant to be. True, those classic 70s albums warn us, as does 2012, to take stock of our situation and make a better world. But I believe God knows what’s going on, and won’t let us slide too far without giving us the necessary light and practical conditions to make that change happen. In the worst case scenario, a lot of people might go insane, murder, die or commit suicide. But the whole human race won’t.

Apocalypse 2012 was probably also meant to be, a DVD that uses all sorts of high tech gadgets and natural resources to get its message across. But just because something is meant to be doesn’t mean that I agree with everything it says. To be fair, though, the second hour affected me more positively than the first. I could feel it working away on my opinions, shaking my proverbial cage, and compelling me to reflect.

And that’s exactly what this film sets out to do.

—MC

Related articles

• Timely Novel Reveals Apocalypse 2012: Bad Weather Portends Global Disaster (prweb.com)
• 2012 Movie Spurns Futurist to Give 10 Practical Tips for Surviving the Apocalypse (prweb.com)
• Zombie Apocalypse 2012: Vodoo and the Magic Zombee Spell (waitingonthenewmoon.wordpress.com)
• Maya scholar uses 11/11/11 predictions to teach critical thinking (scienceblog.com)
• 11/11/11: Anthropologist debunks doomsday myths (eurekalert.org)
• Rapture hype (and humor) resurrected (cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com)
• 2012 According to the Maya (stickingpoints.wordpress.com)
• NASA Denies 2012 Apocalypse (newser.com)
• Review – Secret Societies and Sacred Stones: from Mecca to Megaliths (DVD) (epages.wordpress.com)
• Second Mayan tablet links to 2012 apocalypse (100gf.wordpress.com)
• 2012 Apocalypse Fears Unfounded, NASA Says (livescience.com)
• Mayan Doomsday Prophecy of 2012 apocalypse ‘wrongly translated’ (news.bioscholar.com)
• 2012 Apocalypse Fears Unfounded, NASA Says (space.com)
• Apocalypse 2012 Update: Second Mayan Inscription Uncovered (tammybruce.com)
• NASA rebuts talk of 2012 apocalypse (msnbc.msn.com)
• Agave Apocalypse: 2012 on the Riviera Maya (orbitz.com)

Exploring my French Canadian subtle body…

Growing up in Toronto you couldn’t really get away from French class, even if you wanted to. I suppose it’s the same for some Americans and Spanish class.

Although I was never that adept at second languages — mind you, my French teacher once said I had a great ear — I liked the exposure to French Canada and, as a kid, imagining Montreal as some huge city (it used to be bigger than Toronto, I think).

One day, however, I fell from grace with my elementary school French teacher, who must have been good at French but not basic physics.

What happened?

Well, we had an assembly in the gym and I was doing my best to belt out a French song that we’d learned. The French teacher was at the front end of the gym while I and a childhood pal were at the back end. And I guess because it takes a while for sound to travel across distances, there was a slight delay. So while my pal and I thought we were right on time and being good, enthusiastic boys, my French teacher heard us just behind herself and the kids singing close to her.

C’était terrible! And was she ever ticked off! “Michel, I know you are better dan dat…” she said disapprovingly.

And me?

Utterly perplexed and quite innocent.

Ceci a fini mon statut comme étoile lumineuse dans la classe française !

Related articles

• We live in igloos! (triplytriple.wordpress.com)
• Air Canada to pay $12K for French service lapse (cbc.ca)
• The devil. In a bar. In Quebec. With Jesus. Scandal. (josahlin.wordpress.com)
• William & Kate Speak French, Charm The Pants Off Canadians [Video] (jezebel.com)
• Air Canada ordered to pay $12K to man who couldn’t order 7Up in French (news.nationalpost.com)
• I’m not French…but many would mistaken me so… (istealkisses.wordpress.com)
• Le petit Nicolas (alannapeebles.wordpress.com)

Civilization – The Skin of Our Teeth

Image by sc63 via Flickr

This was a huge BBC documentary when I was a kid in 1969.

Snapshot—the Beatles are close to breaking up; mankind was about to set foot on the moon for the first time; Kubrick’s 2001 seemed almost too good (and strange) to be true; the (now) politically incorrect Get Smart was the TV show of the day; FM radio was still cool, and “high tech” meant… well, let me think… that was so long ago I can hardly remember. A push button phone? Cassette tape recorders? IBM electric typewriters?

Some have accused Kenneth Clark of being racist and ridiculously selective in this series. But we might consider — for the last charge, anyhow — that he states the limits of his study very clearly in the companion book, Civilization, which closely follows the TV script.

As for the other charge. Well, let’s just say that he’s certainly not politically correct, from a 21st century yardstick. But the fact that this series was so incredibly well received (even the Queen of England loved it and consequently made Clark a Baron) seems to indicate that Kenneth Clark was nothing more (or less) than an effective spokesperson for the prevailing Western mindset of the time. He was also a gifted scholar.

If we isolate one or two of his statements here and there, out of the entire series, he might seem like a racist. But after watching the first three segments, I’ve found counter-statements that balance out or contextualize some of his seemingly racist opinions.

Also, KC says many times that we’re all creatures of opinion and never claims to be laying out some grand immutable theory.

I’m not defending his questionable statements. Just saying that, for the most part, he’s a product of early to mid-20th century thinking, not enjoying the wisdom of eternity. And he fully knows those limitations.

So watch this and decide for yourself.

Related articles

• Cameron’s U-Turn Causes Kenneth Clarke Some Pain (ranknews.wordpress.com)
• Is there life on earth after Attenborough? (environmentaleducationuk.wordpress.com)
• NYT, Crowdsourcing and Cathedrals (laf.ee)
• Is there life on earth after Attenborough? (guardian.co.uk)
• Advanced Thinking (geopolicraticus.wordpress.com)

Review – Finding God: The Enlightenment (DVD 2 of 3)

Title: Finding God: The Enlightenment – Disc 2
Genre: Body Mind Spirit, Religion, Meta-Physics
Production Company: Reality Films

(Review for Disc 1 is here; Disc 3 is here)

Philip Gardiner’s Finding God: The Enlightenment is a three DVD set including Quantum Mind of God, Science of Soul, and Ancient Code.

Disc 2, Science of Soul: The End-Time Solar Cycle of Chaos in 2012 A.D., asks whether the year 2012 will bring about a quantum leap of consciousness or possibly a global nightmare.

Closely following Dr. John Jay Harper’s book Tranceformers: Shamans of the 21^st Century, Science of Soul explores these and other compelling questions.

The film’s innovative graphics and haunting soundtrack set the mood for a detailed examination of the mythic symbol of the axis mundi (world axis). Also, possible links among DNA, psi and global transformation are investigated.

Those sympathetic to the philosophy of natural pantheism, where the universe is taken to be God and therefore conscious, will find much in this DVD to support their beliefs. Meanwhile, believers in theism (where God is conceptualized as ‘wholly other’ from Creation) might bristle a bit at its unabashed syncretism.

Regardless of our guiding beliefs, Science of Soul carries an ethical message that few sane people would find fault in: To love and live peacefully among ourselves. And when you think about it, no one fully knows just what God is and how the divine interacts with organic life and the supposedly inorganic universe.

It’s probably just a matter of time before Science of Soul’s integral approach is embraced by the gatekeepers of both contemporary scientific and religious thought. But a comprehensive gelling of Big Science and Big Religion might take a little longer than most of us would hope for, given the deeply entrenched historical biases that inform our 21^st century worldview.

We shouldn’t be discouraged, however. As a catalyst for this much needed dialogue, Science of Soul is a definite step in the right direction.

–MC

(Review for Disc 1 is here; Disc 3 is here)

Related Articles

• Review – Finding God: The Enlightenment (3 DVD set) (epages.wordpress.com)
• Samantha Brown’s Asia DVD Review – Great Fun From the Travel Channel (screenhead.com)
• Elisa Medhus, M.D.: Channeling Erik: The Insider’s Guide to Death and the Afterlife (huffingtonpost.com)
• What’s Your Path To Enlightenment (everydaygyaan.com)
• GOD, THE CAMEL… AND YOU [Blog] (themoecashchronicles.com)
• The Inside Problem And The Outside God (samuelatgilgal.wordpress.com)
• The Immortalization Commission: Science and the Strange Quest to Cheat Death by John Gray – review (guardian.co.uk)
• Who Are We? (vicdicara.wordpress.com)
• God and Science – Can They Coexist? (epages.wordpress.com)
• God Speaks – Our Soul Seeks And Listens To The Speech Of The Divine Light Amazingly – Enlightenment – God Bless, Love, Light & Wisdom, Vashi (wearetrulyhappy.wordpress.com)
• DVD St Anthony – The Miracle Worker Of Padua (catholicjules.net)
• How Enlightened are we? (goodnewsnow.wordpress.com)
• The Enlightenment Attack on Christianity (livedtheology.wordpress.com)

Lady Gaga in TO – Would she love them if they didn’t shell out the admission price?

I couldn’t help but remember the old Fleetwood Mac lyric, “players only love you when they’re playing…”

Still, I’m starting to see why LG is getting so big…