"Saruman believes that it is only great power that can hold evil in check. But that is not what I have found. I’ve found it is the small things, everyday deeds of ordinary folk, that keeps the darkness at bay. Simple acts of kindness and love. Why Bilbo Baggins? Perhaps it is just because I am afraid, and he gives me courage."
"The world is much more interesting than any one discipline."
"I don’t know everything- I’m just a kid. But I do know this. It’s everybody’s duty to give the world a reason to dance."
"You do not really understand something unless you can explain it to your grandmother"
"BUDDING RADIOTEURS. HEAR ME NOW: Just make your show. It’s not hard. Just make your show. It’s not expensive. Just make your show. I feel like I spent much of my life not understanding that the people I admired who were writing novels or making movies or writing in magazines or making music or whatever were, on a fundamental level, real people. Then I did. So, make your show. A ________ is a person who sat down and _______. That’s it (insert ‘Novelist’ and ‘Wrote a novel’ or ‘Podcaster’ and ‘Made a podcast’ or whatever you want). That’s all there is to it."
(via wnycradiolab)
Source: reddit.comGoogle Public Data Explorer
This thing is awesome! I have much exploring to do. Check this out for starters:
I love the new Dropbox icon. Something about the color (and maybe the simplicity), just makes it pop off the screen. They also use the new “dropbox blue” for the top bars in the app itself. Is it possible to have a crush on a color? I think I do.
"Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known."
This is another of my favorite radio stories of all time. This one is science fiction, and has been done by many people in many different ways for years, but I think this is a good rendition.
I remember reading this in middle school at some point, but its even better as a radio piece (it wouldn’t work well with video so I don’t really want to see those versions that have been done). A feeling of revelation hit me that first reading, one that was powerful enough for me to reflect upon periodically since then.
I’m not sure if revelation is the right word. Because it doesn’t always stick with me. Do you ever have those moments of insight where suddenly you realize how amazing or absurd something is? When you see something in a light you’ve never even considered before, and it just feels different. In this case, the idea in question is the fact that somehow our consciousness arises from meat, but I’ve had the experience with other ideas as well.
The thing is, the feeling doesn’t stick and it drives me crazy. I vividly remember my new perspective when I first came across this story and the way that it felt, but I don’t really feel it the same way anymore. Yes, I intellectually still have the same perspective that “woah, we are made out of meat,” but it no longer has that unbelievable quality to it, and I wish I could get that back.
This has also happened to me once when I was thinking about death and the idea that I was really going to stop existing one day suddenly hit me. The thought just felt so visceral. Now, I still think about it, but the impact isn’t there like it used to be. I wonder if these things can only be felt once.
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This interview with Jad Abumrad, creator of RadioLab (and Nashville native!) is really something. More and more I’m realizing that the people I really admire are the storytellers. Jad is one of the best.
"The pursuit of truth, properly considered, shouldn’t stop short of insanity."
An overlooked super-power
Have you ever thought of what a ridiculous superpower the ability to speak is? If I want somebody else to know something, I don’t have to wait until that idea pops into their head (the likelihood of which approaches zero). I can actually put it there. But there is no way to transfer the pattern of action potentials in my brain’s wiring directly into someone else’s wiring because our brains are simply too important to not be 100% encased in protective skull. And make no mistake, thats exactly what you are doing when you talk to someone: you are changing the way their brain is firing, which is nothing less than who they are at the most fundamental and meaningful level.
Not only that, I don’t even have to be able to see them or be anywhere near them to do so. I take the enormous complexity of information that is making up my thoughts (who I am) and succinctly encode it in a pattern of vibration. I can then simply will the air molecules 200 feet away to vibrate in accordance with the pattern that represents my state of being. That part is incredible. I can simply cause a piece of nature that contains no information to be saturated with information from huge distances. Mind. Blown.
As if that wasn’t enough, the receiver of that information gets a boat-load of meta information where the source of that information is in physical space despite the fact that she only has access to the air molecules within an inch or two of her head.
This is absolutely one of the top 5 best radio-pieces I have ever heard (and I have heard A LOT of radio/podcasts). It will hit you in so many ways. It captures the smallness and the bigness of what we are at the same time. Just listen - you’ll see.
