#I’ve been hearing stories of the inventor for nearly two decades

[thatonceandfutureprat]

Speaking of diabetes type 1, LOOK WHAT MY DOC SHOWED ME!

It’s a pump that doesn’t just do insulin, it also does glucagon (or glucose)! It’s basically a pancreas!

A PANCREAS!

The man (who workshopped this in his garage) who invented this has managed to get this ready for use to a bigger market, and my hospital is doing a one year trial. I might be able to join, and then miiiiight be able to try this absolute unit for a year.

Ngl, it’s a huge pump and both daunting and a hassle to use atm, but I’d love to see what it does!

[polizwrites]

PoliZ’s Birthday Self-Recs: Stony

Indulging myself in the week leading up to my birthday by sharing some of my favorite fics I’ve written, grouped primarily  by pairing/relationship.  

Next up is Stony - aka SteveTony aka Steve Rogers/Tony Stark.   I’ve written 38 Steve/Tony fics  and  nine  Steve &Tony fics  (note: another relationship could be the main focus in these).

To my understanding this ship is a little more supported by canon in the comics/ animated shows,  but it’s not too much of a stretch to see a connection between them in the MCU as well.  They are both opinionated men who feel strongly about  many things and when the writers allowed Steve and Tony to work together, they did so beautifully.  

Their complementary character traits give me lots to work with in canon-adjacent as well as AUs.   And while I might not have written as many fics featuring these two together,  my word count more than makes up for it, as four of my five longest fics involve Steve and Tony as the main characters.

Here  - in reverse chronological order  by pub date - are my half-dozen favorite Stony fics I’ve written, at least as of this moment.   If you want to know why I picked these, feel free to ask.  Also if you go read them, I’d love to hear what you think, either here or as a comment on the fic!  Finally - I will award a shiny  No Prize to anyone who identifies the songs that 4 of these titles came from!

Home of the Brave 

(General, historic AU, dragon AU, 42,206 words) Blacksmith and inventor Anthony Stark has convinced himself he is satisfied with his life.  A tragic accident cut his career as an aviator short, so he retreated to upstate New York and a hermit life.   He unintentionally becomes companion to a runty dragonet who is more than he seems, and it turns his life upside-down. (NOTE:  This is a platonic Steve & Tony fic with background Tony/Pepper)

Sometimes a Fantasy 

(Explicit, No Powers AU, 28,024 words) - Steve works mornings at a coffeeshop in a downtown NYC skyscraper.  He’s got a slight crush on one of the customers who stops by for his daily dose of caffeine. Not that Steve would have a chance with the genius playboy (straight - SO straight) billionaire philanthropist, of course. But Steve also moonlights as a phone sex operator, working for Fury Enterprises.  Anthony, an older guy still more or less in the closet and just starting to explore his bisexuality, becomes one of Steve’s steady clients. Along with the steamy scenarios they play out, they actually get to know one other.   Cue the identity porn with Steve's two worlds colliding (eventually)

The Lengths That I Will Go To 

(Teen/Mature, Canon-divergent, 92,739 words) After forty-five years,  Howard Stark discovers the wreck of the Valkyrie and that Captain America somehow survived the crash and nearly a half-century of being frozen in the ice. Tony Stark,   having been brought back to the fold after several years of freedom, finds himself face to face with his childhood idol (and teenage crush) when he is recruited to help care for the recovering Captain Rogers, whose existence is being kept a secret.

To Shield from the Storm       

(Explicit,  canon-adjacent a/b/o AU,  42,872  words) The Avengers have gone their separate ways after the Battle of New York and Tony Stark is on his own in the Tower.  He's successfully kept his omega status secret from all but a very few for decades; the suppressants have (mostly) done their job, but not for much longer.  Learning to team up with Captain America --  possibly the most famous alpha of the 20th century and someone Tony's already managed to alienate --  is going to be just that much more difficult, now, isn't it?

Go Ask Friday  also available as a podfic

(General,  canon-divergent Alice in Wonderland fusion, 4475 words) In a last-ditch effort to defeat Thanos, Tony finds himself in a somehow familiar waking dream. As he works his way through the story, confronted at every turn by those he thought were his friends,  he can't help but question everything about himself.

Earth’s Mightiest Heroes at the Happiest Place on Earth

(General, canon-adjacent Disney fluff, 3535 words) Tony Stark takes the Avengers (and Avengers-adjacent personnel)  to Walt Disney World - and gets to spoil his beloved a bit along the way.     A series of vignettes where our faves have fun (mostly) at the Happiest Place on Earth. (with Steve/Tony bookending the story)

[rockisagirlsbestfriend]

The Isolation Journals: Glorious Awkwardness

April 4, 2020

Today’s writing prompt proved a challenge because what was once my most glorious awkward intrinsic trait is currently a way of life for a vast number of people globally. I agonized over the topic longer than I should have.

It felt “too easy” – choosing to write about a “glorious awkward trait” that is so widely accepted now.

It felt “too hard” – would people relate to this as “awkward” now? Could anyone imagine the feeling of hundreds of people staring at them as if they were a freak when they walked down the aisle of an airplane? Would people be able to relate to the experience of returning to the box office, 10 minutes into a movie, to request a new seat assignment; or asking the manager at the gym if they could move to a different cross-training workout station? As many people embrace this trait now, would they be able to imagine their co-workers and friends repeatedly teasing them about this awkwardness and questioning their sanity?

On the idea of it being “too easy”: I thought about some of our most brilliant artists, inventors, designers, musicians, and filmmakers. Stories of being “misunderstood”, “an outcast”, or feeling “different” are commonly shared in interviews. However, once a certain level of fame or recognition is achieved, people celebrate and often emulate their “glorious awkward traits”. But it wasn’t easy. Sometimes that recognition came after decades of taunting by peers, sometimes after death.

On the idea of it being “too hard”: Just this morning, I opened the front door, and saw the grocery delivery driver, in his N95 mask and latex gloves, jump back to the required social distance of 6 feet. Yes, even though this trait is now widely accepted, it still feels awkward. Each of us shrouded in masks as a way to protect each other and ourselves from a dangerous virus. While we both understood it as a necessity, it felt surreal, removed from humanity.

The delivery driver was visibly nervous and anxious to leave. I’d ordered some wine so he needed to scan my ID. With our feet firmly planted on their 6’ marks, our bodies stiffly upright to remain out of the no-fly zone, we extended our arms just far enough that his scanner could read my driver’s license, and retreated as soon as we heard the confirming “beep”.

The writing prompt Jon Batiste offered this morning asked us to describe our “glorious awkwardness”. Well, my glorious awkwardness is: early onset Germaphobia.

I first remember consciously being disgusted by people’s hands in middle school. It wasn’t about the person. I simply saw all the things they touched, could envision dirt and bacteria piling up each time they picked up a pencil, touched the desk, tied their shoe, or twirled their hair. I hid it well (I think), but inside I cringed seeing them raise their unwashed hand to their mouth to eat a sandwich, a healthy snack, or a cookie.

My friends would get sick and brush it off. Their congested nasal passages trying to intake air as they argued, “Agh, izzz jus uh hedddd cold” when I’d decline their request to “try a sip” of my soda. I didn’t want a cold, a head cold, the flu, their mouth on my straw, their breath droplets on the lid.

And it never went away. I thought about it during sex (this was after middle school, for those tracking chronologically). “He didn’t wash his hands when we got home and now they’re where. . . and then. . . ?”

The 3-second rule… or 10 second rule… I don’t remember how many seconds it was, but if a thing fell on a table, the floor, a counter, my shirt, it was not going in my mouth.

In order to have any semblance of a social life, I did the best I could to hide it. Unlike the arbitrary “x-second rule” which never worked for me, I tried to appease my anxiety with “the alcohol will kill it”, which worked for me if I’d consumed enough alcohol.

I’m active, physically and socially. I like to run half marathons, am competitive in a circuit training class, go to rock concerts surrounded by thousands of sweaty people, eat meals out, bump elbows at a crowded bar, travel. The longer I was out in the world, the more I witnessed the repulsive and inconsiderate trait many people - adult people - had of not covering their faces when they sneezed or coughed.

As recently as February – when we were well aware of COVID19, but before we were ordered to stay home – I saw a man sneeze all over the self-service ticket kiosk at the movie theater, as he retrieved his tickets. It was a busy Saturday night. I envisioned all the people who would touch that kiosk after him, print their tickets, go buy popcorn, and put that popcorn directly in their mouth to determine whether it would be salty enough a third of the way through the bucket, before leaving the concession stand to take their seat and perhaps wash their hands on the way. Perhaps.

I alerted an employee, who politely responded, “Thanks for letting us know!” As he continued to address the needs of people in line, the thought of a deadly virus on a high-touch public surface was now trailing off in the distance, unattended.

I’ve been wearing a mask on airplanes, trains, and in all forms of public transport, for more than a decade. The most accessible photo of it I have (meaning I don’t have to sift through 8 hard drives to find an older one) is from 2018 and is posted at the end of this story.

First, it was the looks on the faces of the gate agents, followed by the flight attendants who strained to hear my replies, muffled by the mask. Then, of course, there are the looks other passengers give you, followed by their sighs of relief that you’re not sitting next to them, until you do. Sit. Down. Next. To. Them.

At dinners, my friends would sit waiting around the table, while I washed my hands for well over 20 seconds. Often, depending how long we’d been friends, people would say, “C’mon. It’s ok. The alcohol will kill it!”

Their children would ask, “Can we just start eating?” Sometimes, they could.

Business meals were equally complicated. A coworker once wiped her nose on her napkin, put her napkin on the table, and it touched my fork. I tried to hold it together, to not request new utensils, which would likely be uncomfortable for at least two of us during this business lunch. But I was eating chopped salad. I needed a fork. And I could not use that one. I tried to flag down the server as inconspicuously as possible.

“M’am?” he said.

Fuck. I’m a “M’am” already. Fuck. “Could you please bring me another fork?”

The server picked up the fork, raised it toward his eyes, and twirled it around until nearly every part of it had been touched by his fingers, and declared, “This fork is clean!”

To which my colleague added, “It’s fine. It’s just my allergies.”

Allergies… COVID-19…. the mucus oozing from your nose… whatever hepatitis may now be smeared all over that fork… I’m not using it to place things in my mouth.

This text message regarding COVID-19 is from that co-worker:

To me, for as long as I can remember, this trait wasn’t awkward. It was sensible. I could see how we moved through the world - and we weren’t clean about it. How many things do you do, and surfaces do you touch, between using the ATM and washing your hands? Even if you wanted to, there’s no mechanism for hand washing directly adjacent to the ATM (yet). How many other people pressed those buttons with their dirty hands? Those of us who carry hand sanitizer still have to reach into a pocket or a purse to get it out, mash our dirty ATM hands all over the lid to get it open, splatter it on a hand, close the bottle, brace it between our non-dominant forearm and our ribs, and then rub our hands together vigorously without having it splash in our eyes. 

Put the bottle of sanitizer away.  Feel victorious. And then hear the parking lot attendant decree, “You’re safe!”

One of my favorite observations came from my friend’s son. He was only 5 at the time, but he’d been witness to my glorious awkwardness for most of his life.

“Colette? What happens if you run out of hand-sanitizer?”

“I have more hand-sanitizer.”

“No, but say you’re out - like now -  and that bottle is empty… “

“I’ve got a backup bottle in my purse,” I responded, waving the evidence before him.

“Ok, but what about if you’re in the car. . .  and you run out of hand-sanitizer in the car??”

“I have a backup bottle in the car too…”

“Can we get ice cream?”

In January and February, people freshly returned from their global voyages and large family dinners, would come to circuit training class sick. Coughing, sneezing, sick. “After this workout, I’m going to urgent care,” one member told her friend as we waited in the lobby for class to begin. “I haven’t been able to get rid of this cough for weeks!”

I’d speak with the manager or guest services (they have a fancier name for it, but whatever) people at the front desk. “I come here to be healthy, to stay healthy, to keep my immune system strong. There are visibly sick people about to get on the treadmill adjacent to - and touching - my treadmill, while we breathe heavily, running 8 miles per hour, for 23 minutes, in a steamy enclosed studio. Do you think you could send out an email alerting members that if they’re sick, they should stay home?”

“No, we can’t ask our members to stay home,” they’d respond, while simultaneously – and at my request - reassigning me to a station further away from said sick people. By the way, it wasn’t up to the lovely people at the front desk. They had been told or, at minimum, believed it to be a corporate policy that sick people could workout there.

Fast forward to April 2020: my glorious awkwardness is your glorious awkwardness.

My friends now call me for advice. Colleagues ask where I got my reusable mask (the one pictured below in 2018). “Where did you get that bottle of hand sanitizer?” someone will ask, unaware there’s backup.

But it’s still awkward, isn’t it? Not being able to see the smile of a stranger, clutching the wall as your neighbors cross paths in the narrow walkway, flinching anytime someone sneezes during a ZOOM call. It was one thing when a handful of us felt this way. We understood it to be odd, but we couldn’t escape it, and everyone else seemed to balance it out with their carefree spirits. But now we’re all fumbling through space, with as few points of contact as possible.

Back on the subjects of “easy” and “hard”: in many ways, the new CDC guidelines and local safety mandates have been exceptionally easy for me. It’s my “glorious awkward” moment in the spotlight. I haven’t had to change my behavior at all. I didn’t have to rush to the store (though, on the subject of toilet paper, I am living roll-to-roll).

I have had to change my activities. I miss going to the gym, the crowded bars, the packed arena concerts. I miss running on the beach. I miss traveling. I’ve become numb to the notices of concert cancellations and postponements. Are the days of being at a music festival, with 100,000 people, crammed into sweaty tents, over?

The active part of my life coming to a standstill is hard. But that, I’m still hopeful, is temporary. The hardest part, for me, now that everyone shares this glorious awkwardness, is wondering how we regain that sense of safety in physical space. Will we become afraid to do the things that used to make us feel so alive? Hopefully, we’ll remind each other, “The alcohol will kill it!”

TODAY:

[wittypenguin]

Metropolis (1927)

With a running time of over 2½ hours — plus the only sound being music — this seems like an insane amount of time to devote to watching a silent film from over nine decades ago.

It’s not. It is totally worth your time to locate the ‘restored’ version which came out around 2010. The narrative is clear, the acting over the top but forgivably so, the special effects eye-popping, and both the art design and cinematography excellent. It really doesn’t feel like 2:33 at all. 

Being one of the most expensive movies of the time, costing around 5m Reichsmarks, this film nearly sent its studio, UFA (Universum Film), into bankruptcy. Adjusting for inflation, the budget for Metropolis ran around $200 million ($ as of June, 2007). Given this was only a decade after the First World War, and Germany was only barely getting itself on its economic feet, this was simply an insane amount of money to spend on a film. Adding to that insanity was the fact it took almost a year and a half to shoot.  In the end, it was worth it: this was the first film ever to be registered in the “Memory of the World-Register” of the UNESCO in 2001.

I have cut a massive amount of text discussing how bits were edited out and thought lost and then found but they were in awful condition and they didn’t know for sure what order things should Abe in so they…

You’re welcome.

If you really feel the need to lose the amount of time I just saved you, Google “Metropolis edited lost Buenos Aires” and you’ll have more than enough material to go down a rabbit hole for a good hour or more. Here’s a place to start: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolis_(1927_film)#Restorations

The influence of the film is almost too long to attempt to list, but here are a few things to consider, some of which even surprised me when I looked into the matter.

The look of the robot in the story (and seemingly the first time an automaton was pictured in a film) is directly comparable to the appearance of C3PO from the Star Wars films. The machine that transfers a soul into the robot has been duplicated a gajillion times, including The Fifth Element.

The mad scientist / inventor Rotwang's mechanical right hand was later imitated in Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964).

Have a look at that city and tell me you don’t see Blade Runner? Also, consider the fact that all of those vehicles (on the ground and in the air) were animated using stop-motion techniques. Every single one of them was nudged a little bit in the direction desired, then another frame was shot, then every single one of them was individually nudged forward a bit, then another frame was shot… it took a week for ten seconds of film.

Look of the lab: Frankenstein’s Monster

The story of man’s fight to be both a valuable part of society as well as valued for being human is a story as old as time itself, and something this film really hammers home. It’s pretty heavy-handed at times, and its naïveté about how the Industrialist and Labour interests being mediated by the heart / soul / love for others in a community is… well… sweet, I guess. Thinking about it later, Herr Lang said that he probably wouldn’t have taken such a simplistic approach to the matter. Given he was a much older man at that point, the mild regret is hardly surprising. Who but a young man could make a film such as this with its heavy symbolism? 

With the ‘new industrial age’ dawning at this point (arguably, at least), the movie tries to grapple with Machine v Man and provides two answers: build a mechanical human (the robot who takes on the soul of Maria), and the epigram-referencing bridging notion. The former doesn’t work — or does it work too well, hmmm? — and the latter works in this story but cannot be considered as a serious solution today. Even if you consider the problem at its most basic, balancing work, life, mental health, productivity, economic vibrancy, and social good is hardly something one can suggest the solution is ‘being compassionate. The Dali Lama urges us to bring compassion into everything we do, for it is that which makes our lives full and ride both want and sadness from our lives, yet want is something which economic vibrancy requires to exist; so the two are at odds with one another. 

The film is in one sense a thriller / mystery / romance / futuristic dystopian tale with romantic elements (and perhaps some occultism, but nearly all of the intended aspects of this were edited out of the script before production), with some calling it ‘the first SF film.’ There’s a French movie called A Trip to the Moon (or something) which was released decades before Metropolis and puts the lie to that notion, but it could be argued that this is is the first full-length SF masterpiece. The mere fact I’ve banged on and on about it this much certainly says it’s more than just a puff-piece. 

The performances are very much over the top, as mentioned above, but it’s a silent film; this was the style at the time. We cannot hear the voices of the actors, so their faces and gestures needed to convey the excitement or horror of their ‘words.’ You get used to it fairly quickly. 

Alfred Abel who plays the Master of Metropolis Joh Fredersen is particularly restrained, with some really nice moments where you see him thinking and caring about what happens. 

Also a treat is Brigitte Helm as Maria, but for entirely apposite reasons: she’s both super restrained but passionate in her role as ‘Maria Prime’ (if you will), but when the ‘Man Machine’ transforms into ‘Maria Machine,’ she is one quirky, twitchy mass of mechanical mayhem! She’s great! Her ‘Erotic Dance’ is tame by today’s standards, but you’ll see all sorts of things Madonna, Paula Abdul, and a host of others have ripped off over the years.I’d wager serious money that I’ve seen local burlesque performers do some of her moves and I completely missed it at the time!

Honestly, this film never ages, and if you haven’t seen it, you are missing out on an absolute gem.

★★★★★ 

[theinkquiry]

Illeagle

Pairing: George X Reader Prompt: George discovers a secret that you hoped no one would ever find out about. He doesn't take it the way you expected he would. Warnings: The bad pun for the title A/N: I think I'm too clever for my own good sometimes. Enjoy the pun and the story too I suppose.

Your mother always told you that the Ravenclaw's curiosity knew no bounds. Every single person in your family has managed to prove this in some form or another. Your father was a brilliant inventor, and his latest achievements skyrocketed your family wealth. Your grandmother had a perfect photographic memory that has lasted her for decades. Even your great-great-grandaunt was brilliant, having the ability to memorize the entire book of spells and even inventing a few of her own.

"You're brilliant, Y/N," your mother told you. You were eleven and your mother was fixing your hair right before you got on the Hogwarts Express. "Your whole family is brilliant, and so are you, and if you ever find the right partner in your life they will certainly be brilliant as well."

As an eleven-year-old, you believed your mother's words with a passion. You began your journey at Hogwarts with a clear goal in mind and a determination to complete it. As the years flew by, you found it harder and harder to stand out. Everything you tried was a repeat of what someone else in your family had accomplished. Studying hard? Most likely checked off as soon as your lineage began. Dueling? Covered by your great uncle. Potions? Herbology? Charms? Arithmancy? All done within generations ago. You weren't even one of the 'creative type' Ravenclaws. You couldn't draw, and you've been told more than once that your voice was best kept confined to shower stalls.

"Ms. L/N. Care to tell the class what are the fundamental aspects of the proper animate object to inanimate object transformations?" Professor MacGonagall snapped.

"Huh?" Your head shot up like a rocket. "I-I'm sorry?"

The older woman sighed and narrowed her eyes. "You should be, Ms. L/N. You've been dawdling off an awful lot in class lately."

"I really am sorry, professor. I'll be more focused from now on," you promise. You couldn't help it. Nearly every day, you were plagued with dread about being something great. It was a burden that you carried alone. Even mother couldn't help you.

"That you will, after detention this evening. Six sharp, Ms. L/N."

You groaned quietly and went back to scribbling notes. Mother would not be happy about this.

"It takes time to discover your talents, Y/N," mother reassured. "Why, your great-great-great grandmother didn't realize she had invented new flying methods until she was nearly sixty!"

You frequently had these talks. It has become a form of mother-child bonding exercises. You would sit outdoors in your garden. Trees with big leaves providing shade and fragrant flowers creating a peaceful environment. You and your mother would sit on two metal chairs painted a pearly white.

Typically, a tray of earl-grey tea and some small cakes would accompany you two as you sat together to chat and reflect on your life. Most days, it was just you eagerly awaiting to discover your talents. More recently, you began to wonder if you had any at all.

"Mother," you whined. "That was ages ago. Everyone else had already known they were special before they graduated Hogwarts!"

"Patience, Y/N. School isn't over yet." She handed you a small piece of cake.

Your favorite flavor in your favorite place in the world. It was here where everything felt resolved. You didn't have to worry about the knowing looks people would give you. The rest of your family eagerly trying to figure out what you were and all the cool things you were 'destined' to do.

"I expect you to read this series of essays and write your own on the complexities of this form of Transfiguration." Professor MacGonagall handed you a small stack of parchment. You wanted to cry just looking at it.

"Professor, how long does this have to be?" You asked.

"Hmm, I believe it should be at least three-quarters as long as the rest of them," she answered. Sitting behind her desk and placing her spectacles on, the witch looked down at her papers and began to read. You suppose she wasn't taking any more questions.

"A History on Animagi..." you began to read.

You wouldn't admit it, even under the heaviest of interrogations, but you actually learned a lot from that detention. Animagi were probably the most fascinating subject you've ever studied. The art of turning yourself into an animal? You were enamored with the idea of becoming one. After that day, you spent your days at the library pouring over an entirely different kind of books.

The process didn't daunt you like it did others. You were bent on completing the trials. It was a bit difficult trying to hold a Mandrake leaf in your mouth for a month, but you had managed to successfully fake a severely irritated throat after lots of forged medical notes.

Not to mention the daily incantations. It was gruesome and not to mention highly illegal. The ultimate sentence was Azkaban. Some days, when you felt especially defeated, you considered giving up. A sentence to prison made your bones rattle, but you persevered. You couldn't tell anyone, not even mother. It was a thrilling, terrifying secret that kept you on your toes at all times.

He first saw it on his trip to fetch letters for him and his brother. A single glance at the skies and he was intrigued. A great eagle soared above the sky. In the sunlight, it gave off an almost..blue outline. George squinted, trying not to look directly at the sun. Upon closer inspection and later research, he found that it was a sea eagle. It had a white body with light gray colored wings. Yet again, it was like the bird had a blue tint to it.

"Strange..." George murmured to himself. "Sea Eagles aren't exactly native to the surrounding Hogwarts area..unless..."

It was just a hunch, but George predicted that the eagle he saw was not all it was at first glance. He started to sneak up to the Owlery just to spot the same blue-lined bird on an almost daily basis. It was a good thing that they frequently got mail, or else people would start to suspect something.

It was difficult. The eagle always seemed to spot him and fly away before George could inspect it more. It was frustrating, but he wouldn't be deterred. So, George devised a plan. Quite a few actually.

First, he tried setting up bait for the bird, but no matter what treats he brought it never seemed to be interested. This was the first alarm that set his curiosity off. He tried to entice it with different bird calls. It didn't result in much other than a new skill to mimic bird noises.

"Third time's the charm," George whispered. He hid behind one of the larger columns of the tower. By the window, he pretended to be reading. It was a long stretch, but if his hunch was right then he would finally be able to find out what...who the eagle was.

You were soaring overhead, just enjoying the exhilaration of being a bird. You liked to run far away from the castle and test out your new power. It was nice to fit so easily into the setting of the Forbidden Forest. No one around to see anything, just the animals and the trees. Sometimes you felt braver in the forest than as a human, strange as it sounded. On your way flying back to the castle, you saw him again.

One of the Weasley twins. You never bothered to get close enough to tell which one, but you did enjoy their outgoing personalities as a bystander in school. You had apparently caught his eye, and it amused you to no end. This twin was acting very strange. You were sure that he wanted to capture you or something. That must be why he set out those traps that were obvious to spot since you weren't really a bird. He seemed to have given up today, content with just reading a book and occasionally glancing up at the sky.

It wasn't until he left that you noticed he had forgotten to bring his book along with him. You immediately swooped down. The title was very familiar. In fact, it was the one that got you interested in the depths of Transfiguration magic in the first place. You used a wing to scratch under your beak. Perhaps you could drop by and give it back to him.

This appeared to be a mistake. Next thing you know, the book was in your hands but you were cornered.

"I knew it!" George leaped out from behind a column, fingers pointed in a 'gotcha!' fashion.

You held your hands up in surrender, unsure of what to do next. If you looked panicked, the Weasley certainly picked up on it. "Hey, you don't have to worry. I'm not here to hurt you."

"You sure did a great job showing it with the traps and all," you mutter sarcastically. "Then what are you here for?"

He stood there, almost looking confused. "Wait, don't tell me you did this for no reason. I didn't just get caught doing illegal activity by some guy just fooling around. Merlin, I just did, didn't I?" You exhaled sharply through your nose.

"Sorry, I'm George by the way. And thank you for 'finding' my book," he grinned with a wink.

"You're not going to turn me in?" You cocked a brow.

"Tell you what," George smirked, "you go on a date with me and I'll forget about the prettiest eagle I've ever seen."

You gave a dry laugh. "Always the charmer, huh?"

"I didn't hear a 'no'," George teased.

You looked him up and down, smiling. "It's a date, George."

He just looked at you in awe as you tossed him the book and sashayed out. "You know where to find me."

[airoasis]

Everything is Connected -- Here's How: | Tom Chi | TEDxTaipei

New Post has been published on https://hititem.kr/everything-is-connected-heres-how-tom-chi-tedxtaipei/

Everything is Connected -- Here's How: | Tom Chi | TEDxTaipei

Translator: Queenie Lee Reviewer: Rhonda Jacobs hey. (viewers) hi there. My name is Tom Chi, and ever for the reason that I used to be a younger child, I used to be decided to understand how the complete universe worked, and that fascination led me to my first job, at age 15 – I did astrophysical study with the Harvard-Smithsonian Observatory in lively galactic nuclei. Now, years after being a scientist and astrophysicist, I slowly sort of matured out of that and entered the arena of individuals. It virtually seems that the world of humans is way harder to comprehend than the entire universe.But I stayed with it, and within the process of being a technologist, an inventor, and an entrepreneur, I’ve learned rather a lot about humans. What i will speak to you today is slightly little bit of what I’ve learned. Considering as I be taught about humans, I get very interested in the gaps that still remain for us as human beings and us as a civilization, relative to the challenges which can be in entrance of us. And one of those gaps that I’ve visible is round this idea, and the proposal is a rather simple one. It is the suggestion that the whole lot is hooked up. You’ve gotten usually heard this many, generally, actually.It can be an detail of nearly every religious way of life of humankind during all of historical past. But at any time when I hear individuals speak and mention this phrase that "we are all linked," they do so in a way the place it can be whatever they wish that they might believe was once actual, that it can be some thing that is summary; that it is esoteric; that it’s a factor that is unprovable, but they simply particularly desire the universe was once like that. And at present i’m right here to explain that the whole thing quite is hooked up, and now not in some abstract, esoteric approach however in an extraordinarily concrete, direct, understandable approach. And i am going to try this with three exclusive studies: a story of the heart, a narrative of the breath, and a narrative of the mind. So let’s . So all of you on this viewers today, your hearts are beating right at this second. And the cause that your hearts beat is when you consider that you must transfer this molecule by way of your blood known as hemoglobin. And hemoglobin contains this smaller molecule that is known as heme B, which is what we see over here.Now, on the heart of heme B is a single atom of iron, so in a technique, on the coronary heart of our coronary heart is this little iron atom. And this is truely relatively a critical part of the hemoglobin molecule considering the fact that this is the item that permits us to bind oxygen and transfer that via our circulatory approach. However one factor that you may not be aware of is that the one way that iron is created within the universe, is by means of supernovas and by means of supermassive stars. So the universe began with clearly no iron in any respect. Hydrogen. Helium – And most effective through the system of those stars forming, exploding, forming and exploding, was iron ready to be created that now publications by way of every certainly one of our veins. However the story doesn’t really end there. In view that – why do stars preserve forming? Sincerely, after a supernova occurs, it could be a very long time earlier than those gases come again collectively to form a star. So in an effort to understand how this works, we ought to comprehend why stars would type.Although there’s a couple different ways that stars kind, some of the robust is that this process: galactic collisions. And these are portraits from the Hubble house Telescope, they usually show by means of a series of panels – which can be honestly distinct galaxies in view that this procedure takes, like, a half of billion to one thousand million years – distinct galaxies what the process of a galactic collision would seem like. So across the top, you get the galaxies slowly coming collectively, and within the backside three frames, you see them smashing into every other, and their interstellar gases mixing, and in the procedure of doing that, they set on hearth with new big name formation across the entire galaxy, and whatever stays after the collision.Now, even right here is just not the end of the story. In view that why on the earth would galaxies collide? This doesn’t appear like a factor that will have to simply occur for no reason. So, to recognize this, we’ll have to scoot again way, far more. And here we’re on the degree of seeing about a hundred,000 galaxies. So last slide, two galaxies. This slide, a hundred,000 galaxies. Each such a dots here’s a galaxy that is in our supercluster. And we’re that pink dot over here, the place it says, "you’re right here." And these glowing traces aren’t galaxies. These glowing lines are the trajectories that these galaxies are going to take through gravity over the approaching billions of years on this gorgeous gravitational dance of all these galaxies swirling collectively in a gravitational constitution that we name Laniakea, which in Hawaiian manner the immeasurable heaven. And it’s this procedure, the gravitational dance of one hundred,000 galaxies swirling together, which drive the system of galaxies colliding, which pressure massive star formation, which pressure the procedure of creating the iron that publications by way of each considered one of our veins with each heartbeat.And in this manner, every body of our heartbeats is hooked up. Now we’re going to transfer to a 2d story. And this story is ready breath. Taking a deep breath is among the simplest methods to connect with our own bodies – a deeply grounded, calming breath. But taking a deep breath used to be no longer some thing that used to be possible on this earth three billion years ago. On this slide, we’ve the composition of the surroundings of the earth for the period of that time period. We had concerning the same quantity of nitrogen, however we had virtually no oxygen at all. So you possibly can be taking a breath in vain three billion years ago. And we virtually had a big amount of carbon dioxide. And the online result was once an almost inhabitable planet. The only organisms that might exist that point had been single-celled organisms inside stromatolites and different closed areas. Now, fortunately for us, a kind of organisms that used to be alive at the moment was once some thing called a cyanobacteria. That’s a image of it in the heritage.And this organism has the certain trick that we call "photosynthesis," the potential to move take vigour from the solar and transform carbon dioxide into oxygen. And over the path of billions of years, so beginning from two and a half billion years ago, step by step these micro organism unfold throughout the planet and changed all that carbon dioxide in the air into the oxygen that we have. And it used to be an extraordinarily sluggish procedure. First, they had to saturate the seas, then they needed to saturate the oxygen that the earth would soak up, and most effective then, subsequently, would oxygen begin to build up within the surroundings. So that you see, simply after about 900 million years in the past, oxygen begins to construct up in the surroundings.And about 600 million years in the past, some thing relatively effective occurs. The ozone layer types from the oxygen that has been launched in the surroundings. And it feels like a small deal, like we talked about the ozone a couple decades ago, however it without a doubt turns out that before the ozone layer existed, earth was once now not particularly able to preserve difficult, multicellular existence. We had single-celled organisms, we had a few easy, multicellular organisms, however we did not really have anything like you or me. And rapidly after the ozone layer came into position, the earth was in a position to preserve elaborate multicellular lifestyles. There was a Cambrian explosion of existence in the seas. And the primary plants acquired onto land. Correctly, there used to be truly no life on land ahead of that.An extra strategy to see this is, this is variety of a chart of almost always many of the animals that you guys are aware of. And right at the backside in time is the formation of the ozone layer. Like nothing that you are acquainted with today would exist without the contributions of these tiny organisms over those billions of years. And where are they now? Good certainly, they under no circumstances fairly left us. The direct descendants of the cyanobacteria have been eventually captured via vegetation. They usually’re now known as chloroplasts. So it is a zoom-in of a plant leaf – and we ordinarily ate some of these guys today – where plenty of little chloroplasts are nonetheless trapped – contributing photosynthesis and making power for the plants that proceed to be the opposite half of our lungs on the earth.And on this way, our breaths are very deeply united. Each out-breath is mirrored by the in-breath of a plant, and their out-breath is mirrored through our in-breath. I will take slightly aside here for a second with this story. Because suppose for a moment – and this is a concept scan – assume you were any such little organisms two billions 12 months ago. You probably born. You are living a couple weeks. You die. And also you variety of feel like, well, nothing really converted. I imply, I had no cause in this life. Like, the sector I came to is strictly the same as the world that I left. However what you should not have understood is that each breath that you just took contributed to the likelihood of numerous lives after you – lives that you’d in no way see, lives that we’re all part of today. And it is worth thinking that possibly the which means of our lives are clearly now not even within the scope of our figuring out. Considering it is authentic of each this sort of organisms, and it may also be genuine of us.Final story of connection is the story of the intellect. This is not "our minds are all connected in some psychic method or some scientifically unexplainable way," i am going to give an explanation for the connection of the intellect by way of the easy story of this instrument. This is a piano. And i have sincerely a just right relationship with pianos. Thanks, mom. She gave me piano lessons very early. I think you have got to if you are Asian.However – (Laughter) a beautiful thing about this instrument is it’s so nuanced and so textured and so intricate, and so much magnificence can also be comprised of it that humans can make an entire career, they are able to make an complete lifetime out of taking part in this instrument. Legit musicians, concert pianists get to grasp this instrument deeply, intimately. And by way of it, they’re equipped to create with sound in a method that just dazzles us, and challenges us, and deepens us. However if you have been to seem into the mind of a live performance pianist, and also you used all of the latest ways of imaging it, an interesting thing that you would see is how much of their brain is actually dedicated to this instrument.The capability to coordinate ten fingers. The ability to work the pedal. The sensation of the sound. The understanding of tune conception. All these matters are represented as unique patterns and buildings in the mind. And now that you have that idea to your mind, appreciate that this gorgeous pattern and structure of idea in the mind was not possible even only a couple hundred years in the past. Since the piano was once no longer invented until the yr 1700. This gorgeous pattern of concept in the mind failed to exist 5,000 years ago. And on this way, the skill of the piano, the connection to the piano, the beauty that comes from it used to be now not a thinkable idea until very, very lately in human history. And the invention of the piano itself was no longer an impartial concept. It required a depth of mechanical engineering. It required the history of stringed instruments. It required so many patterns and structures of suggestion that led to the probability of its invention after which the possibility of the mastery of its play. And it leads me to a inspiration i might like to share with you guys, which I name "The Palette of Being." due to the fact that every person are born into this life having available to us the experiences of humanity that has come up to now.We almost always are only ready to color with the patterns of ideas and the approaches of being that existed earlier than. So if the piano and the best way of enjoying it is a manner of being, this is a way of being that didn’t exist for individuals 5,000 years ago. It used to be a color in the Palette of Being that you couldn’t paint with. In this day and age if you’re born, that you could certainly gain knowledge of the ability; which you could learn to be a pc scientist, one more colour that used to be now not to be had only a couple hundred years ago. And our lives are particularly wonderful for the following intent. We’re born into this lifestyles. We have now the potential to go make this targeted painting with the colours of being which can be around us on the factor of our delivery.But in the approach of existence, we even have the exact possibility to create a new colour. And that could come from the invention of a new thing. A self-driving car. A piano. A computer. It could come from the best way that you simply express your self as a person. It might come from a section of art work that you simply create. Each one of these approaches of being, these things that we put out into the world via the creative system of mixing collectively all the different things that existed at the factor that we had been born, permit us to broaden the Palette of Being for all of society after us. And this leads me to a quite simple technique to go body the whole lot that we now have talked about today.Considering that I think a variety of us understand that we exist in this form of the marvelous universe, however we consider about this universe as we’re this tiny, unimportant factor, there is this huge bodily universe, and within it, there’s the biosphere, and inside of that, that’s society, and inside us, we’re only one individual out of seven billion people, and how do we subject? And we consider about this as like a container relationship, where all the goodness comes from the external to the inside, and there may be nothing quite unique about us.But the Palette of Being says the opposite. It says that the best way that we are in our lives, the way that we affect our friends and our family, to change the best way that they’re equipped to paint someday, starts offevolved to vary the way that communities then have an effect on society, the best way that society could then influence its relationship to the biosphere, and the way that the biosphere could then influence the bodily planet and the universe itself. And if it’s a feasible factor for cyanobacteria to absolutely develop into the bodily atmosphere of our planet, it’s definitely a feasible factor for us to do the identical thing. And it results in a particularly important question for the way in which that we’ll do this, the way wherein we’re going to do this. On account that now we have been given this robust reward of recognition. And due to the fact that of this present, now we have the capability to deeply realize our connectedness, in the way we have not visible other animals having the possibility to take action. And considering we are able to deeply appreciate our connectedness, we are the ones which have the determination on how we will go use that skills, how we will go use it to construct our societies and to shape our lives.I believe the rationale that the entire spiritual traditions have obtained this inspiration of "we’re all connected inside of it" is due to the fact that the societies that without a doubt deeply undertake this suggestion are the ones that over time deepen their level of consideration, deepen their stage of expression, deepen their level of understanding for every different. That is the motive that this proposal pops up time and again at the core of spiritual traditions. And i am hoping by way of this speak you see that the rationale that it seems on the core of science is it’s surely anything that’s just literally actual of the physical universe at each single level of organization and each single manifestation of topic, power, and life.So i’d like us all to return along side this skills and comprehend this actuality about how the universe is, that considering that our hearts, our breath, and our mind are connected on this method, we need to venture ourselves to understand what it approach to live from this reality. Thank you. (Applause) .

[batterymonster2021]

Everything is Connected -- Here's How: | Tom Chi | TEDxTaipei

New Post has been published on https://hititem.kr/everything-is-connected-heres-how-tom-chi-tedxtaipei/

Everything is Connected -- Here's How: | Tom Chi | TEDxTaipei

Translator: Queenie Lee Reviewer: Rhonda Jacobs hey. (viewers) hi there. My name is Tom Chi, and ever for the reason that I used to be a younger child, I used to be decided to understand how the complete universe worked, and that fascination led me to my first job, at age 15 – I did astrophysical study with the Harvard-Smithsonian Observatory in lively galactic nuclei. Now, years after being a scientist and astrophysicist, I slowly sort of matured out of that and entered the arena of individuals. It virtually seems that the world of humans is way harder to comprehend than the entire universe.But I stayed with it, and within the process of being a technologist, an inventor, and an entrepreneur, I’ve learned rather a lot about humans. What i will speak to you today is slightly little bit of what I’ve learned. Considering as I be taught about humans, I get very interested in the gaps that still remain for us as human beings and us as a civilization, relative to the challenges which can be in entrance of us. And one of those gaps that I’ve visible is round this idea, and the proposal is a rather simple one. It is the suggestion that the whole lot is hooked up. You’ve gotten usually heard this many, generally, actually.It can be an detail of nearly every religious way of life of humankind during all of historical past. But at any time when I hear individuals speak and mention this phrase that "we are all linked," they do so in a way the place it can be whatever they wish that they might believe was once actual, that it can be some thing that is summary; that it is esoteric; that it’s a factor that is unprovable, but they simply particularly desire the universe was once like that. And at present i’m right here to explain that the whole thing quite is hooked up, and now not in some abstract, esoteric approach however in an extraordinarily concrete, direct, understandable approach. And i am going to try this with three exclusive studies: a story of the heart, a narrative of the breath, and a narrative of the mind. So let’s . So all of you on this viewers today, your hearts are beating right at this second. And the cause that your hearts beat is when you consider that you must transfer this molecule by way of your blood known as hemoglobin. And hemoglobin contains this smaller molecule that is known as heme B, which is what we see over here.Now, on the heart of heme B is a single atom of iron, so in a technique, on the coronary heart of our coronary heart is this little iron atom. And this is truely relatively a critical part of the hemoglobin molecule considering the fact that this is the item that permits us to bind oxygen and transfer that via our circulatory approach. However one factor that you may not be aware of is that the one way that iron is created within the universe, is by means of supernovas and by means of supermassive stars. So the universe began with clearly no iron in any respect. Hydrogen. Helium – And most effective through the system of those stars forming, exploding, forming and exploding, was iron ready to be created that now publications by way of every certainly one of our veins. However the story doesn’t really end there. In view that – why do stars preserve forming? Sincerely, after a supernova occurs, it could be a very long time earlier than those gases come again collectively to form a star. So in an effort to understand how this works, we ought to comprehend why stars would type.Although there’s a couple different ways that stars kind, some of the robust is that this process: galactic collisions. And these are portraits from the Hubble house Telescope, they usually show by means of a series of panels – which can be honestly distinct galaxies in view that this procedure takes, like, a half of billion to one thousand million years – distinct galaxies what the process of a galactic collision would seem like. So across the top, you get the galaxies slowly coming collectively, and within the backside three frames, you see them smashing into every other, and their interstellar gases mixing, and in the procedure of doing that, they set on hearth with new big name formation across the entire galaxy, and whatever stays after the collision.Now, even right here is just not the end of the story. In view that why on the earth would galaxies collide? This doesn’t appear like a factor that will have to simply occur for no reason. So, to recognize this, we’ll have to scoot again way, far more. And here we’re on the degree of seeing about a hundred,000 galaxies. So last slide, two galaxies. This slide, a hundred,000 galaxies. Each such a dots here’s a galaxy that is in our supercluster. And we’re that pink dot over here, the place it says, "you’re right here." And these glowing traces aren’t galaxies. These glowing lines are the trajectories that these galaxies are going to take through gravity over the approaching billions of years on this gorgeous gravitational dance of all these galaxies swirling collectively in a gravitational constitution that we name Laniakea, which in Hawaiian manner the immeasurable heaven. And it’s this procedure, the gravitational dance of one hundred,000 galaxies swirling together, which drive the system of galaxies colliding, which pressure massive star formation, which pressure the procedure of creating the iron that publications by way of each considered one of our veins with each heartbeat.And in this manner, every body of our heartbeats is hooked up. Now we’re going to transfer to a 2d story. And this story is ready breath. Taking a deep breath is among the simplest methods to connect with our own bodies – a deeply grounded, calming breath. But taking a deep breath used to be no longer some thing that used to be possible on this earth three billion years ago. On this slide, we’ve the composition of the surroundings of the earth for the period of that time period. We had concerning the same quantity of nitrogen, however we had virtually no oxygen at all. So you possibly can be taking a breath in vain three billion years ago. And we virtually had a big amount of carbon dioxide. And the online result was once an almost inhabitable planet. The only organisms that might exist that point had been single-celled organisms inside stromatolites and different closed areas. Now, fortunately for us, a kind of organisms that used to be alive at the moment was once some thing called a cyanobacteria. That’s a image of it in the heritage.And this organism has the certain trick that we call "photosynthesis," the potential to move take vigour from the solar and transform carbon dioxide into oxygen. And over the path of billions of years, so beginning from two and a half billion years ago, step by step these micro organism unfold throughout the planet and changed all that carbon dioxide in the air into the oxygen that we have. And it used to be an extraordinarily sluggish procedure. First, they had to saturate the seas, then they needed to saturate the oxygen that the earth would soak up, and most effective then, subsequently, would oxygen begin to build up within the surroundings. So that you see, simply after about 900 million years in the past, oxygen begins to construct up in the surroundings.And about 600 million years in the past, some thing relatively effective occurs. The ozone layer types from the oxygen that has been launched in the surroundings. And it feels like a small deal, like we talked about the ozone a couple decades ago, however it without a doubt turns out that before the ozone layer existed, earth was once now not particularly able to preserve difficult, multicellular existence. We had single-celled organisms, we had a few easy, multicellular organisms, however we did not really have anything like you or me. And rapidly after the ozone layer came into position, the earth was in a position to preserve elaborate multicellular lifestyles. There was a Cambrian explosion of existence in the seas. And the primary plants acquired onto land. Correctly, there used to be truly no life on land ahead of that.An extra strategy to see this is, this is variety of a chart of almost always many of the animals that you guys are aware of. And right at the backside in time is the formation of the ozone layer. Like nothing that you are acquainted with today would exist without the contributions of these tiny organisms over those billions of years. And where are they now? Good certainly, they under no circumstances fairly left us. The direct descendants of the cyanobacteria have been eventually captured via vegetation. They usually’re now known as chloroplasts. So it is a zoom-in of a plant leaf – and we ordinarily ate some of these guys today – where plenty of little chloroplasts are nonetheless trapped – contributing photosynthesis and making power for the plants that proceed to be the opposite half of our lungs on the earth.And on this way, our breaths are very deeply united. Each out-breath is mirrored by the in-breath of a plant, and their out-breath is mirrored through our in-breath. I will take slightly aside here for a second with this story. Because suppose for a moment – and this is a concept scan – assume you were any such little organisms two billions 12 months ago. You probably born. You are living a couple weeks. You die. And also you variety of feel like, well, nothing really converted. I imply, I had no cause in this life. Like, the sector I came to is strictly the same as the world that I left. However what you should not have understood is that each breath that you just took contributed to the likelihood of numerous lives after you – lives that you’d in no way see, lives that we’re all part of today. And it is worth thinking that possibly the which means of our lives are clearly now not even within the scope of our figuring out. Considering it is authentic of each this sort of organisms, and it may also be genuine of us.Final story of connection is the story of the intellect. This is not "our minds are all connected in some psychic method or some scientifically unexplainable way," i am going to give an explanation for the connection of the intellect by way of the easy story of this instrument. This is a piano. And i have sincerely a just right relationship with pianos. Thanks, mom. She gave me piano lessons very early. I think you have got to if you are Asian.However – (Laughter) a beautiful thing about this instrument is it’s so nuanced and so textured and so intricate, and so much magnificence can also be comprised of it that humans can make an entire career, they are able to make an complete lifetime out of taking part in this instrument. Legit musicians, concert pianists get to grasp this instrument deeply, intimately. And by way of it, they’re equipped to create with sound in a method that just dazzles us, and challenges us, and deepens us. However if you have been to seem into the mind of a live performance pianist, and also you used all of the latest ways of imaging it, an interesting thing that you would see is how much of their brain is actually dedicated to this instrument.The capability to coordinate ten fingers. The ability to work the pedal. The sensation of the sound. The understanding of tune conception. All these matters are represented as unique patterns and buildings in the mind. And now that you have that idea to your mind, appreciate that this gorgeous pattern and structure of idea in the mind was not possible even only a couple hundred years in the past. Since the piano was once no longer invented until the yr 1700. This gorgeous pattern of concept in the mind failed to exist 5,000 years ago. And on this way, the skill of the piano, the connection to the piano, the beauty that comes from it used to be now not a thinkable idea until very, very lately in human history. And the invention of the piano itself was no longer an impartial concept. It required a depth of mechanical engineering. It required the history of stringed instruments. It required so many patterns and structures of suggestion that led to the probability of its invention after which the possibility of the mastery of its play. And it leads me to a inspiration i might like to share with you guys, which I name "The Palette of Being." due to the fact that every person are born into this life having available to us the experiences of humanity that has come up to now.We almost always are only ready to color with the patterns of ideas and the approaches of being that existed earlier than. So if the piano and the best way of enjoying it is a manner of being, this is a way of being that didn’t exist for individuals 5,000 years ago. It used to be a color in the Palette of Being that you couldn’t paint with. In this day and age if you’re born, that you could certainly gain knowledge of the ability; which you could learn to be a pc scientist, one more colour that used to be now not to be had only a couple hundred years ago. And our lives are particularly wonderful for the following intent. We’re born into this lifestyles. We have now the potential to go make this targeted painting with the colours of being which can be around us on the factor of our delivery.But in the approach of existence, we even have the exact possibility to create a new colour. And that could come from the invention of a new thing. A self-driving car. A piano. A computer. It could come from the best way that you simply express your self as a person. It might come from a section of art work that you simply create. Each one of these approaches of being, these things that we put out into the world via the creative system of mixing collectively all the different things that existed at the factor that we had been born, permit us to broaden the Palette of Being for all of society after us. And this leads me to a quite simple technique to go body the whole lot that we now have talked about today.Considering that I think a variety of us understand that we exist in this form of the marvelous universe, however we consider about this universe as we’re this tiny, unimportant factor, there is this huge bodily universe, and within it, there’s the biosphere, and inside of that, that’s society, and inside us, we’re only one individual out of seven billion people, and how do we subject? And we consider about this as like a container relationship, where all the goodness comes from the external to the inside, and there may be nothing quite unique about us.But the Palette of Being says the opposite. It says that the best way that we are in our lives, the way that we affect our friends and our family, to change the best way that they’re equipped to paint someday, starts offevolved to vary the way that communities then have an effect on society, the best way that society could then influence its relationship to the biosphere, and the way that the biosphere could then influence the bodily planet and the universe itself. And if it’s a feasible factor for cyanobacteria to absolutely develop into the bodily atmosphere of our planet, it’s definitely a feasible factor for us to do the identical thing. And it results in a particularly important question for the way in which that we’ll do this, the way wherein we’re going to do this. On account that now we have been given this robust reward of recognition. And due to the fact that of this present, now we have the capability to deeply realize our connectedness, in the way we have not visible other animals having the possibility to take action. And considering we are able to deeply appreciate our connectedness, we are the ones which have the determination on how we will go use that skills, how we will go use it to construct our societies and to shape our lives.I believe the rationale that the entire spiritual traditions have obtained this inspiration of "we’re all connected inside of it" is due to the fact that the societies that without a doubt deeply undertake this suggestion are the ones that over time deepen their level of consideration, deepen their stage of expression, deepen their level of understanding for every different. That is the motive that this proposal pops up time and again at the core of spiritual traditions. And i am hoping by way of this speak you see that the rationale that it seems on the core of science is it’s surely anything that’s just literally actual of the physical universe at each single level of organization and each single manifestation of topic, power, and life.So i’d like us all to return along side this skills and comprehend this actuality about how the universe is, that considering that our hearts, our breath, and our mind are connected on this method, we need to venture ourselves to understand what it approach to live from this reality. Thank you. (Applause) .

[esthermeronobaro]

The Dying Art of Light

This article was first published in the January 2014 issue of SLUG Magazine. Read it online or in print on page 33.

Over 100 years after Cinématographe was invented and used by the Lumiére brothers in France to show the first paying audience a projected film, Edward Norton looks directly into the camera as he explains the job of a projectionist in a scene from Fight Club. “Why would anyone want this shit job?” he asks as his alter-ego Tyler Durden splices pornography into family cartoons. “Because it affords them other interesting opportunities.”  

Walking up the steps to the projection booths of the Salt Lake Film Society’s Broadway Theatre, I imagine what it would’ve been like, watching that scene from Fight Club when it showed in theaters in 1999, from a projection booth—like looking at a reflection, perhaps. 

Lance Walker, SLFS Head Projectionist, has been working in the booth since 2001, just before the Salt Lake Film Society came into fruition to save the Tower Theatre from demise. “There really wasn’t anyone else who could come here and do it, so they trained me and the other guy who was working the concession stand at the time … They showed me really fast how to do it, and everything else I’ve had to learn on my own,” he says. Walker speaks slowly and affirmatively—he reminds me of a more subdued version of Wallace Shawn’s character in The Princess Bride—a little bored, a little cynical, and his rare smile reveals an endearing gap in his teeth behind a full beard.  

Lance Walker, Head Projectionist for the Salt Lake Film Society, has survived the digital conversion, though his job has considerably changed. Photo: Russel Daniels

We walk through the hallway to the projection booths and Walker apologizes for the smell, but the overwhelming aroma of popcorn that fills the lobby below doesn’t seem to penetrate the dark upstairs. Instead, the winding hallways contain a light scent of dust among the organized clutter of boxes, tables and machines—very few people come up here, which is part of the magic. 

“I like the projection booth because it’s like a dark hole that no one really wants to go into,” says Walker. “It’s loud and dark and it’s not a place for people to go.”

Tyler Durden defines the employment opportunities of a projectionist as creative mischief, but speaking with Walker—and having worked in the movie theater business myself for nearly a decade—I realize that, though most projectionists aren’t using their position to terrorize children, there’s a certain character trait needed to draw someone to the booth: those who find solace in solitude. Walker tells me he’s not much of a film fanatic, citing The Shining as a favorite, and admitting he prefers B movies he can watch and be done with in the comfort of his own home. “ … I can pause [the movie], get food or drink, go to the bathroom and never miss any of it. I can have the lights on or off. I don’t have to come into work or any of the other movie theaters, now very demanding of you knowing exactly where you want to sit. I’m not into that,” he says. “I guess I might be a control freak.”  

A few days later, Scott Farley of Brewvies Cinema Pub, and I sit in a booth at Juniors discussing his own film interests: “I think I have a fairly deep knowledge of film for a pedestrian, but not for a film buff,” he says. “I would say that I am an autodidact and there were times when it was necessary for me to know film … I sort of tried to surround myself with people who were real cinema heads and try to get them to educate me, but … I am pretty absent from my own personality, and what people tell me to think, I’m pretty easily convinced of … ”

Scott Farley of Brewvies Cinema Pub boasts over three decades of experience in the projection booth. Photo: Russel Daniels

Having spent a few years’ worth of Friday nights with Farley closing up Brewvies when I worked there, I can personally attest to his above-average knowledge and understanding of film, having benefitted from a number of his recommendations—and anyone can call the Brewvies Movieline at 801-355-5500 to hear his forcibly optimistic and concise reviews for the current lineup. 

Farley’s history in the booth starts in Logan, when he was attending Utah State University in 1985. 

“You try to have jobs, and since you can’t make a lot of money because there isn’t a lot of money to be made unless you’re having a miserable life, you come up with jobs where your perks also fill your social needs,” he says, explaining what led him to start working at a movie theater. 

“Dates were free, and I could hook up friends on any number of levels, so I had entrées of social significance greater than just my charming personality.” 

Farley eventually ended up at the Tower Theatre, working under Greg Tanner before the SLFS took over, making his way to Brewvies in 1997. “I kind of left being a projectionist when I came to Brewvies,” he says, admitting that the years he’s been at the cinema pub have been more fruitful as a bartender. Though it’s true that the job is now predominantly accomplished by the bussers, they’re trained at a very surface level, making Farley’s nearly three decades of projection experience crucial when it comes to troubleshooting impending film disasters—soon to be antiquated memories.

In his 2011 documentary series, The Story of Film: An Odyssey—consequently another Farley recommendation—Irish film critic Mark Cousins describes film as “the art of light.” He says, “[Thomas] Edison and the many other manic, ideas-y inventors of cinema realized that beyond the equipment and machines, what you needed most for movies was light”—essentially making the role of the projectionist somewhat of a poetic intermediary between the art and the audience. 

According to the first episode of the series, and confirmed by Walker’s extensive knowledge of traditional movie projectors, the actual machine is an amalgamation of varying components from other inventions, including the sewing machine and the vacuum, slowly tweaked by new innovations, but not as quickly evolving as one would expect compared to the technological advances surrounding it. Perhaps this is why, a year after Tyler Durden explains the basics of projector mechanics, the first digital projectors are installed and tested in a few movie theaters across the country.  

SLFS's Lance Walker enjoys the more carefree, digital format of projecting films. Photo: Russel Daniels

Nearly 14 years later, the labs producing celluloid film are shutting down and movie studios big and small have finally caught up with the digital, economical and eco-friendly age, sending notices to theaters, independent and commercial, that they’ll no longer be producing 35mm prints. Instead of heavy, metal canisters of film, briefcases are arriving on theater doorsteps full of hard drives about the size of a paperback—compressed movie files. Large chain theaters, like the Megaplex at the Gateway, completed their conversion to digital a couple of years ago, but a quick search on Google reveals that independent theaters across the country are struggling to purchase the expensive new projectors in time to meet the studio deadlines—a story of its own. Salt Lake’s independent theaters have survived the changing of the guard, and at the Broadway, aside from two running 35mm projectors, the outdated machines have been pushed into even darker corners to make room for whirring blocks—looking a bit like oversized window units—topped with glowing touch screens. In one day, Walker laments, a century’s worth of invention and innovation was replaced. 

“Film” is a vestigial word now. 

The job of the projectionist, though, is still very much alive, however changed. “I was led to believe that the digitals would take care of themselves, which they haven’t done yet, so I still have a job,” says Walker. “They never implied that I would be fired, but that I would have less to do. It’s all the same amount of work—it’s just different work.” Walker is now part DJ, part IT tech. His day begins by uploading or “ingesting” the movie into the digital projector, inserting special keys sent via email to decode the encrypted information, and then, essentially making a playlist that includes a schedule of showings, trailers, credits, etc. “When it was all 35mm, you would come in and turn on the power, thread up the movies, and you were ready to go,” says Walker. “Now, you have to make sure the machines are actually networked, and sometimes you have to restart them several times to make sure that they’re connecting. So it just takes a lot more time to get the day started, but other than that, you just put in the schedule and it goes. Then someone complains about it—the cleaning lights have been left on—and you’re like, ‘That’s not my deal—the machine left the cleaning lights on.’ When automation is going, it just makes people think it’s taken care of—‘I don’t have to worry about it.’ Digital is a fickle thing.” 

At Brewvies, the two back-to-back 35mm projectors have not been converted as of writing this article, though they’ll be switched out soon, but Farley sees the change as a positive one. “The idea of not having to use resources which are largely slandered, and ship items across the country that burn carbon—it’s going to be a great efficiency and a great good in a deep ecological sense to not have film,” he says. “The projection will always be significantly improved, because it’s really easy to flub a film and ruin it, and digital looks good now.” Walker agrees, saying, “I really think that whoever did the digitals went around and figured out all of the awful things that happen, and they did a really good job in putting their thing together.” 

Brewvies' Scott Farley acknowledges that going digital will make film projection a bit more environmentally friendly. Photo: Russel Daniels

There’s no romanticizing 35mm film when you’re the one spending a whole night in the booth, putting together two miles of film after dropping a print—which Farley admits to having suffered on a couple of occasions in his early days as a projectionist. “That will never happen anymore—I will never have to look at a projector and think, ‘How do I fix this?” he says, pausing with what I read as a hint of poignance.  

For myself, threading the film through the projector was a meditative respite from the rush of working as a barback. It was detail-oriented, mechanical work that satiated a compulsive urge. It was a small piece of art that I mitigated to an audience through a machine whose parts contain the genealogy of industrious and romantic ideas. The digital conversion has changed the mechanics of cinema, evolved the projectionist from a torchbearer waiting in the shadows to a button pusher glowing in the dark, but no one’s really crying about it. “It is, after all, just an aesthetic end you’re searching for,” says Farley. “There’s no quantity of truth you’re trying to get out of it because it’s a lie anyway—you’re just trying to get a really great lie.”

[airoasis]

Everything is Connected -- Here's How: | Tom Chi | TEDxTaipei

New Post has been published on https://hititem.kr/everything-is-connected-heres-how-tom-chi-tedxtaipei/

Everything is Connected -- Here's How: | Tom Chi | TEDxTaipei

Translator: Queenie Lee Reviewer: Rhonda Jacobs hey. (viewers) hi there. My name is Tom Chi, and ever for the reason that I used to be a younger child, I used to be decided to understand how the complete universe worked, and that fascination led me to my first job, at age 15 – I did astrophysical study with the Harvard-Smithsonian Observatory in lively galactic nuclei. Now, years after being a scientist and astrophysicist, I slowly sort of matured out of that and entered the arena of individuals. It virtually seems that the world of humans is way harder to comprehend than the entire universe.But I stayed with it, and within the process of being a technologist, an inventor, and an entrepreneur, I’ve learned rather a lot about humans. What i will speak to you today is slightly little bit of what I’ve learned. Considering as I be taught about humans, I get very interested in the gaps that still remain for us as human beings and us as a civilization, relative to the challenges which can be in entrance of us. And one of those gaps that I’ve visible is round this idea, and the proposal is a rather simple one. It is the suggestion that the whole lot is hooked up. You’ve gotten usually heard this many, generally, actually.It can be an detail of nearly every religious way of life of humankind during all of historical past. But at any time when I hear individuals speak and mention this phrase that "we are all linked," they do so in a way the place it can be whatever they wish that they might believe was once actual, that it can be some thing that is summary; that it is esoteric; that it’s a factor that is unprovable, but they simply particularly desire the universe was once like that. And at present i’m right here to explain that the whole thing quite is hooked up, and now not in some abstract, esoteric approach however in an extraordinarily concrete, direct, understandable approach. And i am going to try this with three exclusive studies: a story of the heart, a narrative of the breath, and a narrative of the mind. So let’s . So all of you on this viewers today, your hearts are beating right at this second. And the cause that your hearts beat is when you consider that you must transfer this molecule by way of your blood known as hemoglobin. And hemoglobin contains this smaller molecule that is known as heme B, which is what we see over here.Now, on the heart of heme B is a single atom of iron, so in a technique, on the coronary heart of our coronary heart is this little iron atom. And this is truely relatively a critical part of the hemoglobin molecule considering the fact that this is the item that permits us to bind oxygen and transfer that via our circulatory approach. However one factor that you may not be aware of is that the one way that iron is created within the universe, is by means of supernovas and by means of supermassive stars. So the universe began with clearly no iron in any respect. Hydrogen. Helium – And most effective through the system of those stars forming, exploding, forming and exploding, was iron ready to be created that now publications by way of every certainly one of our veins. However the story doesn’t really end there. In view that – why do stars preserve forming? Sincerely, after a supernova occurs, it could be a very long time earlier than those gases come again collectively to form a star. So in an effort to understand how this works, we ought to comprehend why stars would type.Although there’s a couple different ways that stars kind, some of the robust is that this process: galactic collisions. And these are portraits from the Hubble house Telescope, they usually show by means of a series of panels – which can be honestly distinct galaxies in view that this procedure takes, like, a half of billion to one thousand million years – distinct galaxies what the process of a galactic collision would seem like. So across the top, you get the galaxies slowly coming collectively, and within the backside three frames, you see them smashing into every other, and their interstellar gases mixing, and in the procedure of doing that, they set on hearth with new big name formation across the entire galaxy, and whatever stays after the collision.Now, even right here is just not the end of the story. In view that why on the earth would galaxies collide? This doesn’t appear like a factor that will have to simply occur for no reason. So, to recognize this, we’ll have to scoot again way, far more. And here we’re on the degree of seeing about a hundred,000 galaxies. So last slide, two galaxies. This slide, a hundred,000 galaxies. Each such a dots here’s a galaxy that is in our supercluster. And we’re that pink dot over here, the place it says, "you’re right here." And these glowing traces aren’t galaxies. These glowing lines are the trajectories that these galaxies are going to take through gravity over the approaching billions of years on this gorgeous gravitational dance of all these galaxies swirling collectively in a gravitational constitution that we name Laniakea, which in Hawaiian manner the immeasurable heaven. And it’s this procedure, the gravitational dance of one hundred,000 galaxies swirling together, which drive the system of galaxies colliding, which pressure massive star formation, which pressure the procedure of creating the iron that publications by way of each considered one of our veins with each heartbeat.And in this manner, every body of our heartbeats is hooked up. Now we’re going to transfer to a 2d story. And this story is ready breath. Taking a deep breath is among the simplest methods to connect with our own bodies – a deeply grounded, calming breath. But taking a deep breath used to be no longer some thing that used to be possible on this earth three billion years ago. On this slide, we’ve the composition of the surroundings of the earth for the period of that time period. We had concerning the same quantity of nitrogen, however we had virtually no oxygen at all. So you possibly can be taking a breath in vain three billion years ago. And we virtually had a big amount of carbon dioxide. And the online result was once an almost inhabitable planet. The only organisms that might exist that point had been single-celled organisms inside stromatolites and different closed areas. Now, fortunately for us, a kind of organisms that used to be alive at the moment was once some thing called a cyanobacteria. That’s a image of it in the heritage.And this organism has the certain trick that we call "photosynthesis," the potential to move take vigour from the solar and transform carbon dioxide into oxygen. And over the path of billions of years, so beginning from two and a half billion years ago, step by step these micro organism unfold throughout the planet and changed all that carbon dioxide in the air into the oxygen that we have. And it used to be an extraordinarily sluggish procedure. First, they had to saturate the seas, then they needed to saturate the oxygen that the earth would soak up, and most effective then, subsequently, would oxygen begin to build up within the surroundings. So that you see, simply after about 900 million years in the past, oxygen begins to construct up in the surroundings.And about 600 million years in the past, some thing relatively effective occurs. The ozone layer types from the oxygen that has been launched in the surroundings. And it feels like a small deal, like we talked about the ozone a couple decades ago, however it without a doubt turns out that before the ozone layer existed, earth was once now not particularly able to preserve difficult, multicellular existence. We had single-celled organisms, we had a few easy, multicellular organisms, however we did not really have anything like you or me. And rapidly after the ozone layer came into position, the earth was in a position to preserve elaborate multicellular lifestyles. There was a Cambrian explosion of existence in the seas. And the primary plants acquired onto land. Correctly, there used to be truly no life on land ahead of that.An extra strategy to see this is, this is variety of a chart of almost always many of the animals that you guys are aware of. And right at the backside in time is the formation of the ozone layer. Like nothing that you are acquainted with today would exist without the contributions of these tiny organisms over those billions of years. And where are they now? Good certainly, they under no circumstances fairly left us. The direct descendants of the cyanobacteria have been eventually captured via vegetation. They usually’re now known as chloroplasts. So it is a zoom-in of a plant leaf – and we ordinarily ate some of these guys today – where plenty of little chloroplasts are nonetheless trapped – contributing photosynthesis and making power for the plants that proceed to be the opposite half of our lungs on the earth.And on this way, our breaths are very deeply united. Each out-breath is mirrored by the in-breath of a plant, and their out-breath is mirrored through our in-breath. I will take slightly aside here for a second with this story. Because suppose for a moment – and this is a concept scan – assume you were any such little organisms two billions 12 months ago. You probably born. You are living a couple weeks. You die. And also you variety of feel like, well, nothing really converted. I imply, I had no cause in this life. Like, the sector I came to is strictly the same as the world that I left. However what you should not have understood is that each breath that you just took contributed to the likelihood of numerous lives after you – lives that you’d in no way see, lives that we’re all part of today. And it is worth thinking that possibly the which means of our lives are clearly now not even within the scope of our figuring out. Considering it is authentic of each this sort of organisms, and it may also be genuine of us.Final story of connection is the story of the intellect. This is not "our minds are all connected in some psychic method or some scientifically unexplainable way," i am going to give an explanation for the connection of the intellect by way of the easy story of this instrument. This is a piano. And i have sincerely a just right relationship with pianos. Thanks, mom. She gave me piano lessons very early. I think you have got to if you are Asian.However – (Laughter) a beautiful thing about this instrument is it’s so nuanced and so textured and so intricate, and so much magnificence can also be comprised of it that humans can make an entire career, they are able to make an complete lifetime out of taking part in this instrument. Legit musicians, concert pianists get to grasp this instrument deeply, intimately. And by way of it, they’re equipped to create with sound in a method that just dazzles us, and challenges us, and deepens us. However if you have been to seem into the mind of a live performance pianist, and also you used all of the latest ways of imaging it, an interesting thing that you would see is how much of their brain is actually dedicated to this instrument.The capability to coordinate ten fingers. The ability to work the pedal. The sensation of the sound. The understanding of tune conception. All these matters are represented as unique patterns and buildings in the mind. And now that you have that idea to your mind, appreciate that this gorgeous pattern and structure of idea in the mind was not possible even only a couple hundred years in the past. Since the piano was once no longer invented until the yr 1700. This gorgeous pattern of concept in the mind failed to exist 5,000 years ago. And on this way, the skill of the piano, the connection to the piano, the beauty that comes from it used to be now not a thinkable idea until very, very lately in human history. And the invention of the piano itself was no longer an impartial concept. It required a depth of mechanical engineering. It required the history of stringed instruments. It required so many patterns and structures of suggestion that led to the probability of its invention after which the possibility of the mastery of its play. And it leads me to a inspiration i might like to share with you guys, which I name "The Palette of Being." due to the fact that every person are born into this life having available to us the experiences of humanity that has come up to now.We almost always are only ready to color with the patterns of ideas and the approaches of being that existed earlier than. So if the piano and the best way of enjoying it is a manner of being, this is a way of being that didn’t exist for individuals 5,000 years ago. It used to be a color in the Palette of Being that you couldn’t paint with. In this day and age if you’re born, that you could certainly gain knowledge of the ability; which you could learn to be a pc scientist, one more colour that used to be now not to be had only a couple hundred years ago. And our lives are particularly wonderful for the following intent. We’re born into this lifestyles. We have now the potential to go make this targeted painting with the colours of being which can be around us on the factor of our delivery.But in the approach of existence, we even have the exact possibility to create a new colour. And that could come from the invention of a new thing. A self-driving car. A piano. A computer. It could come from the best way that you simply express your self as a person. It might come from a section of art work that you simply create. Each one of these approaches of being, these things that we put out into the world via the creative system of mixing collectively all the different things that existed at the factor that we had been born, permit us to broaden the Palette of Being for all of society after us. And this leads me to a quite simple technique to go body the whole lot that we now have talked about today.Considering that I think a variety of us understand that we exist in this form of the marvelous universe, however we consider about this universe as we’re this tiny, unimportant factor, there is this huge bodily universe, and within it, there’s the biosphere, and inside of that, that’s society, and inside us, we’re only one individual out of seven billion people, and how do we subject? And we consider about this as like a container relationship, where all the goodness comes from the external to the inside, and there may be nothing quite unique about us.But the Palette of Being says the opposite. It says that the best way that we are in our lives, the way that we affect our friends and our family, to change the best way that they’re equipped to paint someday, starts offevolved to vary the way that communities then have an effect on society, the best way that society could then influence its relationship to the biosphere, and the way that the biosphere could then influence the bodily planet and the universe itself. And if it’s a feasible factor for cyanobacteria to absolutely develop into the bodily atmosphere of our planet, it’s definitely a feasible factor for us to do the identical thing. And it results in a particularly important question for the way in which that we’ll do this, the way wherein we’re going to do this. On account that now we have been given this robust reward of recognition. And due to the fact that of this present, now we have the capability to deeply realize our connectedness, in the way we have not visible other animals having the possibility to take action. And considering we are able to deeply appreciate our connectedness, we are the ones which have the determination on how we will go use that skills, how we will go use it to construct our societies and to shape our lives.I believe the rationale that the entire spiritual traditions have obtained this inspiration of "we’re all connected inside of it" is due to the fact that the societies that without a doubt deeply undertake this suggestion are the ones that over time deepen their level of consideration, deepen their stage of expression, deepen their level of understanding for every different. That is the motive that this proposal pops up time and again at the core of spiritual traditions. And i am hoping by way of this speak you see that the rationale that it seems on the core of science is it’s surely anything that’s just literally actual of the physical universe at each single level of organization and each single manifestation of topic, power, and life.So i’d like us all to return along side this skills and comprehend this actuality about how the universe is, that considering that our hearts, our breath, and our mind are connected on this method, we need to venture ourselves to understand what it approach to live from this reality. Thank you. (Applause) .

[batterymonster2021]

Everything is Connected -- Here's How: | Tom Chi | TEDxTaipei

New Post has been published on https://hititem.kr/everything-is-connected-heres-how-tom-chi-tedxtaipei/

Everything is Connected -- Here's How: | Tom Chi | TEDxTaipei

Translator: Queenie Lee Reviewer: Rhonda Jacobs hey. (viewers) hi there. My name is Tom Chi, and ever for the reason that I used to be a younger child, I used to be decided to understand how the complete universe worked, and that fascination led me to my first job, at age 15 – I did astrophysical study with the Harvard-Smithsonian Observatory in lively galactic nuclei. Now, years after being a scientist and astrophysicist, I slowly sort of matured out of that and entered the arena of individuals. It virtually seems that the world of humans is way harder to comprehend than the entire universe.But I stayed with it, and within the process of being a technologist, an inventor, and an entrepreneur, I’ve learned rather a lot about humans. What i will speak to you today is slightly little bit of what I’ve learned. Considering as I be taught about humans, I get very interested in the gaps that still remain for us as human beings and us as a civilization, relative to the challenges which can be in entrance of us. And one of those gaps that I’ve visible is round this idea, and the proposal is a rather simple one. It is the suggestion that the whole lot is hooked up. You’ve gotten usually heard this many, generally, actually.It can be an detail of nearly every religious way of life of humankind during all of historical past. But at any time when I hear individuals speak and mention this phrase that "we are all linked," they do so in a way the place it can be whatever they wish that they might believe was once actual, that it can be some thing that is summary; that it is esoteric; that it’s a factor that is unprovable, but they simply particularly desire the universe was once like that. And at present i’m right here to explain that the whole thing quite is hooked up, and now not in some abstract, esoteric approach however in an extraordinarily concrete, direct, understandable approach. And i am going to try this with three exclusive studies: a story of the heart, a narrative of the breath, and a narrative of the mind. So let’s . So all of you on this viewers today, your hearts are beating right at this second. And the cause that your hearts beat is when you consider that you must transfer this molecule by way of your blood known as hemoglobin. And hemoglobin contains this smaller molecule that is known as heme B, which is what we see over here.Now, on the heart of heme B is a single atom of iron, so in a technique, on the coronary heart of our coronary heart is this little iron atom. And this is truely relatively a critical part of the hemoglobin molecule considering the fact that this is the item that permits us to bind oxygen and transfer that via our circulatory approach. However one factor that you may not be aware of is that the one way that iron is created within the universe, is by means of supernovas and by means of supermassive stars. So the universe began with clearly no iron in any respect. Hydrogen. Helium – And most effective through the system of those stars forming, exploding, forming and exploding, was iron ready to be created that now publications by way of every certainly one of our veins. However the story doesn’t really end there. In view that – why do stars preserve forming? Sincerely, after a supernova occurs, it could be a very long time earlier than those gases come again collectively to form a star. So in an effort to understand how this works, we ought to comprehend why stars would type.Although there’s a couple different ways that stars kind, some of the robust is that this process: galactic collisions. And these are portraits from the Hubble house Telescope, they usually show by means of a series of panels – which can be honestly distinct galaxies in view that this procedure takes, like, a half of billion to one thousand million years – distinct galaxies what the process of a galactic collision would seem like. So across the top, you get the galaxies slowly coming collectively, and within the backside three frames, you see them smashing into every other, and their interstellar gases mixing, and in the procedure of doing that, they set on hearth with new big name formation across the entire galaxy, and whatever stays after the collision.Now, even right here is just not the end of the story. In view that why on the earth would galaxies collide? This doesn’t appear like a factor that will have to simply occur for no reason. So, to recognize this, we’ll have to scoot again way, far more. And here we’re on the degree of seeing about a hundred,000 galaxies. So last slide, two galaxies. This slide, a hundred,000 galaxies. Each such a dots here’s a galaxy that is in our supercluster. And we’re that pink dot over here, the place it says, "you’re right here." And these glowing traces aren’t galaxies. These glowing lines are the trajectories that these galaxies are going to take through gravity over the approaching billions of years on this gorgeous gravitational dance of all these galaxies swirling collectively in a gravitational constitution that we name Laniakea, which in Hawaiian manner the immeasurable heaven. And it’s this procedure, the gravitational dance of one hundred,000 galaxies swirling together, which drive the system of galaxies colliding, which pressure massive star formation, which pressure the procedure of creating the iron that publications by way of each considered one of our veins with each heartbeat.And in this manner, every body of our heartbeats is hooked up. Now we’re going to transfer to a 2d story. And this story is ready breath. Taking a deep breath is among the simplest methods to connect with our own bodies – a deeply grounded, calming breath. But taking a deep breath used to be no longer some thing that used to be possible on this earth three billion years ago. On this slide, we’ve the composition of the surroundings of the earth for the period of that time period. We had concerning the same quantity of nitrogen, however we had virtually no oxygen at all. So you possibly can be taking a breath in vain three billion years ago. And we virtually had a big amount of carbon dioxide. And the online result was once an almost inhabitable planet. The only organisms that might exist that point had been single-celled organisms inside stromatolites and different closed areas. Now, fortunately for us, a kind of organisms that used to be alive at the moment was once some thing called a cyanobacteria. That’s a image of it in the heritage.And this organism has the certain trick that we call "photosynthesis," the potential to move take vigour from the solar and transform carbon dioxide into oxygen. And over the path of billions of years, so beginning from two and a half billion years ago, step by step these micro organism unfold throughout the planet and changed all that carbon dioxide in the air into the oxygen that we have. And it used to be an extraordinarily sluggish procedure. First, they had to saturate the seas, then they needed to saturate the oxygen that the earth would soak up, and most effective then, subsequently, would oxygen begin to build up within the surroundings. So that you see, simply after about 900 million years in the past, oxygen begins to construct up in the surroundings.And about 600 million years in the past, some thing relatively effective occurs. The ozone layer types from the oxygen that has been launched in the surroundings. And it feels like a small deal, like we talked about the ozone a couple decades ago, however it without a doubt turns out that before the ozone layer existed, earth was once now not particularly able to preserve difficult, multicellular existence. We had single-celled organisms, we had a few easy, multicellular organisms, however we did not really have anything like you or me. And rapidly after the ozone layer came into position, the earth was in a position to preserve elaborate multicellular lifestyles. There was a Cambrian explosion of existence in the seas. And the primary plants acquired onto land. Correctly, there used to be truly no life on land ahead of that.An extra strategy to see this is, this is variety of a chart of almost always many of the animals that you guys are aware of. And right at the backside in time is the formation of the ozone layer. Like nothing that you are acquainted with today would exist without the contributions of these tiny organisms over those billions of years. And where are they now? Good certainly, they under no circumstances fairly left us. The direct descendants of the cyanobacteria have been eventually captured via vegetation. They usually’re now known as chloroplasts. So it is a zoom-in of a plant leaf – and we ordinarily ate some of these guys today – where plenty of little chloroplasts are nonetheless trapped – contributing photosynthesis and making power for the plants that proceed to be the opposite half of our lungs on the earth.And on this way, our breaths are very deeply united. Each out-breath is mirrored by the in-breath of a plant, and their out-breath is mirrored through our in-breath. I will take slightly aside here for a second with this story. Because suppose for a moment – and this is a concept scan – assume you were any such little organisms two billions 12 months ago. You probably born. You are living a couple weeks. You die. And also you variety of feel like, well, nothing really converted. I imply, I had no cause in this life. Like, the sector I came to is strictly the same as the world that I left. However what you should not have understood is that each breath that you just took contributed to the likelihood of numerous lives after you – lives that you’d in no way see, lives that we’re all part of today. And it is worth thinking that possibly the which means of our lives are clearly now not even within the scope of our figuring out. Considering it is authentic of each this sort of organisms, and it may also be genuine of us.Final story of connection is the story of the intellect. This is not "our minds are all connected in some psychic method or some scientifically unexplainable way," i am going to give an explanation for the connection of the intellect by way of the easy story of this instrument. This is a piano. And i have sincerely a just right relationship with pianos. Thanks, mom. She gave me piano lessons very early. I think you have got to if you are Asian.However – (Laughter) a beautiful thing about this instrument is it’s so nuanced and so textured and so intricate, and so much magnificence can also be comprised of it that humans can make an entire career, they are able to make an complete lifetime out of taking part in this instrument. Legit musicians, concert pianists get to grasp this instrument deeply, intimately. And by way of it, they’re equipped to create with sound in a method that just dazzles us, and challenges us, and deepens us. However if you have been to seem into the mind of a live performance pianist, and also you used all of the latest ways of imaging it, an interesting thing that you would see is how much of their brain is actually dedicated to this instrument.The capability to coordinate ten fingers. The ability to work the pedal. The sensation of the sound. The understanding of tune conception. All these matters are represented as unique patterns and buildings in the mind. And now that you have that idea to your mind, appreciate that this gorgeous pattern and structure of idea in the mind was not possible even only a couple hundred years in the past. Since the piano was once no longer invented until the yr 1700. This gorgeous pattern of concept in the mind failed to exist 5,000 years ago. And on this way, the skill of the piano, the connection to the piano, the beauty that comes from it used to be now not a thinkable idea until very, very lately in human history. And the invention of the piano itself was no longer an impartial concept. It required a depth of mechanical engineering. It required the history of stringed instruments. It required so many patterns and structures of suggestion that led to the probability of its invention after which the possibility of the mastery of its play. And it leads me to a inspiration i might like to share with you guys, which I name "The Palette of Being." due to the fact that every person are born into this life having available to us the experiences of humanity that has come up to now.We almost always are only ready to color with the patterns of ideas and the approaches of being that existed earlier than. So if the piano and the best way of enjoying it is a manner of being, this is a way of being that didn’t exist for individuals 5,000 years ago. It used to be a color in the Palette of Being that you couldn’t paint with. In this day and age if you’re born, that you could certainly gain knowledge of the ability; which you could learn to be a pc scientist, one more colour that used to be now not to be had only a couple hundred years ago. And our lives are particularly wonderful for the following intent. We’re born into this lifestyles. We have now the potential to go make this targeted painting with the colours of being which can be around us on the factor of our delivery.But in the approach of existence, we even have the exact possibility to create a new colour. And that could come from the invention of a new thing. A self-driving car. A piano. A computer. It could come from the best way that you simply express your self as a person. It might come from a section of art work that you simply create. Each one of these approaches of being, these things that we put out into the world via the creative system of mixing collectively all the different things that existed at the factor that we had been born, permit us to broaden the Palette of Being for all of society after us. And this leads me to a quite simple technique to go body the whole lot that we now have talked about today.Considering that I think a variety of us understand that we exist in this form of the marvelous universe, however we consider about this universe as we’re this tiny, unimportant factor, there is this huge bodily universe, and within it, there’s the biosphere, and inside of that, that’s society, and inside us, we’re only one individual out of seven billion people, and how do we subject? And we consider about this as like a container relationship, where all the goodness comes from the external to the inside, and there may be nothing quite unique about us.But the Palette of Being says the opposite. It says that the best way that we are in our lives, the way that we affect our friends and our family, to change the best way that they’re equipped to paint someday, starts offevolved to vary the way that communities then have an effect on society, the best way that society could then influence its relationship to the biosphere, and the way that the biosphere could then influence the bodily planet and the universe itself. And if it’s a feasible factor for cyanobacteria to absolutely develop into the bodily atmosphere of our planet, it’s definitely a feasible factor for us to do the identical thing. And it results in a particularly important question for the way in which that we’ll do this, the way wherein we’re going to do this. On account that now we have been given this robust reward of recognition. And due to the fact that of this present, now we have the capability to deeply realize our connectedness, in the way we have not visible other animals having the possibility to take action. And considering we are able to deeply appreciate our connectedness, we are the ones which have the determination on how we will go use that skills, how we will go use it to construct our societies and to shape our lives.I believe the rationale that the entire spiritual traditions have obtained this inspiration of "we’re all connected inside of it" is due to the fact that the societies that without a doubt deeply undertake this suggestion are the ones that over time deepen their level of consideration, deepen their stage of expression, deepen their level of understanding for every different. That is the motive that this proposal pops up time and again at the core of spiritual traditions. And i am hoping by way of this speak you see that the rationale that it seems on the core of science is it’s surely anything that’s just literally actual of the physical universe at each single level of organization and each single manifestation of topic, power, and life.So i’d like us all to return along side this skills and comprehend this actuality about how the universe is, that considering that our hearts, our breath, and our mind are connected on this method, we need to venture ourselves to understand what it approach to live from this reality. Thank you. (Applause) .