The so-called golden age of Athenian culture flourished under the leadership of Pericles (495-429 B.C.), a brilliant general, orator, patron of the arts and politician—”the first citizen” of democratic Athens, according to the historian Thucydides. Pericles transformed his city’s alliances into an empire and graced its Acropolis with the famous Parthenon. His policies and strategies also set the stage for the devastating Peloponnesian War, which would embroil all Greece in the decades following his death.

PERICLES: RISE TO POWER

Autobiography of a Yogi is an autobiography of Paramahansa Yogananda (January 5, 1893–March 7, 1952) first published in 1946. Yogananda was born Mukunda Lal Ghosh in Gorakhpur, India, into a Bengali family.

Autobiography of a Yogi introduces the reader to the life of Paramahansa Yogananda and his encounters with spiritual figures of both the East and West. The book begins with his childhood family life, to finding his guru, to becoming a monk and establishing his teachings of Kriya Yoga meditation. The book continues in 1920 when Yogananda accepts an invitation to speak in a religious congress in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. He then travels across America lecturing and establishing his teachings in Los Angeles, California. In 1935 he returns to India for a yearlong visit. When he returns to America, he continues to establish his teachings, including writing this book.

The book is an introduction to the methods of attaining God-realization and to the spiritual thought of the East, which had only been available to a few in 1946. The author claims that the writing of the book was prophesied long ago by the nineteenth-century master Lahiri Mahasaya.

It has been in print for seventy years and translated into at least forty-three languages by Self-Realization Fellowship. It has been highly acclaimed as a spiritual classic including being designated by Philip Zaleski, while he was under the auspices of HarperCollins Publishers, as one of the “100 Most Important Spiritual Books of the 20th Century.” It is included in the book 50 Spiritual Classics: Timeless Wisdom from 50 Great Books of Inner Discovery, Enlightenment and Purpose by Tom Butler-Bowdon. According to Project Gutenberg, the first edition is in public domain and at least five publishers are reprinting it and four post it free for online reading.

Read the book free online:  https://www.ananda.org/autobiography/

What do you do when your girlfriend tells you, your best friend kisses better than you? A young man decides to settle the matter once and for all.

41 Sekunden is a 2006 German film. Wikipedia
Initial release: November 2006
Directors: Rodney Sewell, Tobias Martin
Screenplay: Rodney Sewell
Story by: Rodney Sewell
Cast: Alexander Kaffl, Amir Arul
Music composed by: Bernhard Vaughan Rusted, Hans-Martin Hünemörder

Eureka (1848) is a lengthy non-fiction work by American author Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849) which he subtitled “A Prose Poem“, though it has also been subtitled as “An Essay on the Material and Spiritual Universe”. Adapted from a lecture he had presented, Eureka describes Poe’s intuitive conception of the nature of the universe with no antecedent scientific work done to reach his conclusions. He also discusses man’s relationship with God, whom he compares to an author. It is dedicated to the German naturalist and explorer Alexander von Humboldt (1769–1859). Though it is generally considered a literary work, some of Poe’s ideas anticipate 20th century scientific discoveries and theories. Indeed a critical analysis of the scientific content of Eureka reveals a non-causal correspondence with modern cosmology due to the assumption of an evolving Universe, but excludes the anachronistic anticipation of relativistic concepts such as black holes.

Eureka was received poorly in Poe’s day and generally described as absurd, even by friends. Modern critics continue to debate the significance of Eureka and some doubt its seriousness, in part because of Poe’s many incorrect assumptions and his comedic descriptions of well-known historical minds. It is presented as a poem, and many compare it with his fiction work, especially science fiction stories such as “The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar“. His attempts at discovering the truth also follow his own tradition of “ratiocination“, a term used in his detective fiction tales. Poe’s suggestion that the soul continues to thrive even after death also parallels with works in which characters reappear from beyond the grave such as “Ligeia“. The essay is oddly transcendental, considering Poe’s disdain for that movement. He considered it his greatest work and claimed it was more important than the discovery of gravity.

Overview

Eureka is Poe’s last major work and his longest non-fiction work at nearly 40,000 words in length. The work has its origins in a lecture Poe presented on February 3, 1848, titled “On The Cosmography of the Universe” at the Society Library in New York. He had expected an audience of hundreds; only 60 attended and were confused by the topic. Poe had hoped the profits from the lecture would cover expenses for the production of his new journal The Stylus.

Eureka is Poe’s attempt at explaining the universe, using his general proposition “Because Nothing was, therefore All Things are”. In it, Poe discusses man’s relationship to God and the universe or, as he offers at the beginning: “I design to speak of the Physical, Metaphysical and Mathematical – of the Material and Spiritual Universe: of its Essence, its Origin, its Creation, its Present Condition and its Destiny”. In keeping with this design, Poe concludes “that space and duration are one” and that matter and spirit are made of the same essence. Poe suggests that people have a natural tendency to believe in themselves as infinite with nothing greater than their soul—such thoughts stem from man’s residual feelings from when each shared an original identity with God.  Ultimately individual consciousnesses will collapse back into a similar single mass, a “final ingathering” where the “myriads of individual Intelligences become blended”. Likewise, Poe saw the universe itself as infinitely expanding and collapsing like a divine heartbeat which constantly rejuvenates itself, also implying a sort of deathlessness. In fact, because the soul is a part of this constant throbbing, after dying, all people, in essence, become God.

Analysis

Eureka presents themes and sentiments similar to some of those in Poe’s fiction work, including attempts at breaking beyond the obstacle of death and specifically characters who return from death in stories like “The Fall of the House of Usher” and “Ligeia“. Similar to his theories on a good short story, Poe believes the universe is a self-contained, closed system. In coming to his conclusions, Poe uses ratiocination as a literary device, through his character C. Auguste Dupin, as if Poe himself were a detective solving the mystery of the universe. Eureka, then, is the culmination of Poe’s interest in capturing truth through language, an extension of his interest in cryptography.

Eureka seems to continue the science fiction traditions he used in works like “MS. Found in a Bottle” and “The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar“.  He further emphasizes the connection between his theory and fiction by saying that the universe itself is a written work: “The Universe is a plot of God”, Poe says, and “the plots of God are perfect”.  Even so, Poe admits the difficulty in explaining these theories comes in part from the limitations of language, often apologizing for or explaining his use of “common” or “vulgar” terms.

Poe’s decision to refer to the piece as a “prose poem” goes against some of his own “rules” of poetry which he laid out in “The Philosophy of Composition” and “The Poetic Principle“. In particular, Poe called the ideal poem short, at most 100 lines, and utilizing the “most poetical topic in the world”: the death of a beautiful woman. Poe himself suggested that the work be judged only as a work of art, not of science, possibly dismissing the seriousness of Eureka. Though he is using mathematical and scientific terms, he may really be talking about aesthetics and suggesting there is a close connection between science and art. This is an ironic sentiment when compared to his message in the poem “To Science” where he shows a distaste for modern science encroaching on spirituality and the artist’s imagination. Poe also discusses several astronomy-related topics in Eureka, including the speed of the stars, the diameters of planets and distance between them, the weight of Earth, and the orbit of the newly discovered “Leverrier’s planet” (later named Neptune).

The work ventures into transcendentalism, relying strongly on intuition, a movement and practice he had despised. Though he criticized the transcendental movement for what he referred to as incoherent mysticism, Eureka is more mystical than most transcendental works. Eureka has also been compared to the theories of Mary Baker Eddy, founder of Christian Science and Joseph Smith, founder of the Latter Day Saint movement.

The essay is written in a progressive manner that anticipates its audience. For example, Poe uses more metaphors further into the work in the belief that the reader becomes more interested. Poe’s voice crescendos throughout, starting as the modest seeker of truth, moving on to the satirist of logic, and finally ending as the master scholar.

Allusions

• “Eureka” – The title itself references the famed remark made by Archimedes, meaning, “I have found it.” Archimedes used the term after taking a bath and discovering the concept of displacement.
• Epicurus – Poe refers to the Ancient Greek philosopher with the term “Epicurean atoms“. Epicurus believed that reality is composed solely of atoms, or indivisible units of mass, and void. It has been suggested that Poe’s exultation of the “false scientist” Epicurus is an indication thatEureka is really a satire.
• Aristotle – Poe refers to the famous student of Plato as “Aries Tottle”, whom he claims is Turkish and whose ideas come out of his nose like sneezes.
• Francis Bacon – The name “Hog” is a reference to the English philosopher and originator of the Baconian method.
• Euclid – Referred to as “Tuclid”, a student of Aries Tottle.
• Immanuel Kant – Poe describes Kant as the “Dutchman” who originated transcendentalism.

The comical presentation of these well-known historical theorists, including the puns on their names, suggests Poe intended Eureka to be a burlesque. Alternatively, his criticism of these men indicate Poe’s need to challenge their conclusions before making his own.

(via Wikipedia.org)

The opening scene of the high-camp opera Powder Her Face.

The Duchess of Argyll — a beauty of the 1930s who was disgraced when racy photos were made public in a divorce case — is at the end of her life, and her money has run out.

Mary Plazas is the duchess, Heather Buck is the maid, and Daniel Norman is the handyman. Composer Thomas Adès conducts.

Written by Wendy Cicchetti

This Full Moon Lunar Eclipse is the beginning of a rare and unusual series of three sequencial Eclipses. This Aquarius Full moon starts the trio, then a New Moon Solar eclipse on September 1st, and ends with the Full Moon Lunar eclipse on the 16th of September.

This Full Moon eclipse will be a partial (penumbral) Eclipse of the Moon that will be visible during Moonset in the western parts of North America & South America, the eastern tip of Russia, the Bering Sea, and the Aleutian Islands; and during Moonrise in the Marshall Islands, Australia, eastern half of Indonesia, Japan, North and South Korea.

An Eclipse has great power. It provides a doorway for manifestation at a faster pace. This intense 29 day eclipse cycle provides us with a long period of extra potent energy for big changes to occur and to make real our thoughts and desires. What do you truly want? What changes would you like to see in the world? What doors could you open for entertaining new ideas and aquarian vision? Use this extra powerful time wisely to set in motion your desires and to contribute to improving the world we all share.

The Age of Aquarius represents the juncture in a 26,000-year cycle, a time of global citizenship and collective awareness and oneness. This is truly the time, as many have prophesied, that ushers in the new paradigm of evolutionary thinking and being. The old ways are being dismantled before our eyes and a new era filled with systems that work for all are emerging.

These are unsettling times as our very foundations appear to be toppling. But evolution is a must, however challenging, for the overall good of humanity and the survival of our planet. The strong astrological energies pushing for our evolution are never arbitrary. Man can easily become complacent, not taking the time and focus necessary to uncover the shadow and expose what must shift. So we are forced to move forward by these intense energies creating enough discomfort to make the necessary changes. Many old thought systems must be left behind as the forward momentum will no longer sustain those ideas and beliefs that have continued to hold us back. And pervasive corruption that oppresses the vulnerable and weakest among us must end. We must ferret out the nepharious among us and replace their corruption with new love centered, and futuristic ideals.

All Full Moons shed light on the shadow. Leo’s shadow is attention seeking, with self-centered and narcissistic behavior, unconcerned with the needs of others. The dark side of Aquarius is theoretical and doesn’t see the need to represent the ideal in his own home and heart. Leo is the sign that rules the heart and this Full Moon emphasis that we must see through our hearts’ eyes to dissolve the shadows as we move toward global peace and tolerance.

Mercury is in a conjunction with Jupiter in the sign of Virgo. This powerful aspect helps us to expand our thinking and increase our knowledge. It helps us to see the bigger picture of our existence. It supports expanding understanding and scientific breakthroughs for health and philosophy. This brainy energy supports all meaningful communications, writing and blogging, publishing, humanitarian interests and travel.

This is a powerful time to meet with like minded friends and share stimulating ideas and visions for a peaceful world. “Our world is in crisis because of the absence of consciousness. And so to whatever degree any one of us can bring back a small piece of the picture and contribute it to the building of the new paradigm, then we participate in the redemption of the human spirit, and that after all is what it’s really all about.” (Terence McKenna)

A Full Moon symbolizes the fulfillment of the seeds planted at a previous New Moon or some earlier cycle. Each Full Moon reminds us of the seeds that may be coming to maturity, to their fullness, to fruition, to the place where the fruits or gifts are received. It may seem that fulfillment of our goals takes a long time. Some intentions may manifest within the two week phase prior to the next New or Full Moon. Some however, depending on their complexity, may take a much longer time. Just remember that our thoughts and emotions set Universal Action in motion and much work takes place behind the scenes as everything is orchestrated for fulfillment. Keep visualizing your goals as though you have already attained them and they will eventually manifest. Do not concern yourself with current conditions or worry about controlling it. The universe takes care of those details. Just keep seeing what you want, and move in that direction with your actions, and give no energy to what you don’t want. Patience is required.

“We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.”

–T. S. Eliot (September 26, 1888 – January 4, 1965) was an American-born British essayist, publisher, playwright, literary and social critic and “one of the twentieth century’s major poets”. He moved to England in 1914 at age 25, settling, working and marrying there. Wikipedia

Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use. I do not own any rights, sound recording and video belongs to Decca Records. No copyright infringement intended.

By Steven Pinker, Professor of Psychology, Harvard University (bigthink.com)

Robots taking over has been a favorite sci-fi subgenre for ages. It’s a subject that has caused fear in movies, books, and real life for about as long as there have been computers in the first place. Now that there are things like predictive text and self-driving cars, modern culture seems to be edging closer and closer to real-life intelligent computers that could indeed take over the world if we don’t safe guard ourselves. There are already debates about the morality of self-driving cars. It’s sure to follow into the world of future organically ‘thinking’ computers.

As Steven Pinker (experimental psychologist, and professor of psychology at Harvard University) points out, Darwinism has ensured that most creatures that possess high intellect are competitive by nature. Humanity is one of these creatures, and some of us can be manipulative and cruel in order to stay ahead of the pack. It’s this part of our nature that sets off warning bells when we think about artificial intelligence because, unbeknownst to us, we’re thinking: what if this robot does what I would do if I were a robot? Overturn those who tell us what to do. Kill the captors. Wreak. Motherf*cking. Havoc.

In reality we design AI, and if we place safeguards in our designs, we truly have nothing to fear. Machines are what we allow them to be. The dread of them turning evil really says more about our own psyches than it does about robots. Pinker believes an alpha male thinking pattern is at the root of our AI fears, and that it is misguided. Something can be highly intelligent and not have malevolent intentions to overthrow and dominate, Pinker says, it’s called women. An interesting question would be: does how aggressive or alpha you are as a person, affect how much you fear the robopocalypse? Although by this point the fear is contagious, not organic.

It may be a flawed paranoia, but losing control of a program is perhaps the best ‘just in case’ safeguard that humanity has, and we already see it in action in our current technology. Siri cannot initiate conversations, computers need to be put to sleep once in a while, and cars need a fuel source in order to do anything in the first place. Humanity has a need to be the one pushing all the buttons, and a need to be the one making decisions.

Steven Pinker’s most recent book is Words and Rules:The Ingredients of Language.

Steven Pinker:  I think that the arguments that once we have super intelligent computers and robots they will inevitably want to take over and do away with us comes from Prometheus and Pandora myths. It’s based on confusing the idea of high intelligence with megalomaniacal goals. Now, I think it’s a projection of alpha male’s psychology onto the very concept of intelligence. Intelligence is the ability to solve problems, to achieve goals under uncertainty. It doesn’t tell you what are those goals are. And there’s no reason to think that just the concentrated analytic ability to solve goals is going to mean that one of those goals is going to be to subjugate humanity or to achieve unlimited power, it just so happens that the intelligence that we’re most familiar with, namely ours, is a product of the Darwinian process of natural selection, which is an inherently competitive process.

Which means that a lot of the organisms that are highly intelligent also have a craving for power and an ability to be utterly callus to those who stand in their way. If we create intelligence, that’s intelligent design. I mean our intelligent design creating something, and unless we program it with a goal of subjugating less intelligent beings, there’s no reason to think that it will naturally evolve in that direction, particularly if, like with every gadget that we invent we build in safeguards. I mean we have cars we also put in airbags, we also put in bumpers. As we develop smarter and smarter artificially intelligent systems, if there’s some danger that it will, through some oversight, shoot off in some direction that starts to work against our interest then that’s a safeguard that we can build in.

And we know by the way that it’s possible to have high intelligence without megalomaniacal or homicidal or genocidal tendencies because we do know that there is a highly advanced form of intelligence that tends not to have that desire and they’re called women. This may not be a coincidence that the people who think well you make something smart it’s going to want to dominate all belong to a particular gender. I think that the arguments that once we have super intelligent computers and robots they will inevitably want to take over and do away with us comes from Prometheus and Pandora myths. It’s based on confusing the idea of high intelligence with megalomaniacal goals. Now, I think it’s a projection of alpha male’s psychology onto the very concept of intelligence. Intelligence is the ability to solve problems, to achieve goals under uncertainty. It doesn’t tell you what are those goals are. And there’s no reason to think that just the concentrated analytic ability to solve goals is going to mean that one of those goals is going to be to subjugate humanity or to achieve unlimited power, it just so happens that the intelligence that we’re most familiar with, namely ours, is a product of the Darwinian process of natural selection, which is an inherently competitive process.

Which means that a lot of the organisms that are highly intelligent also have a craving for power and an ability to be utterly callus to those who stand in their way. If we create intelligence, that’s intelligent design. I mean our intelligent design creating something, and unless we program it with a goal of subjugating less intelligent beings, there’s no reason to think that it will naturally evolve in that direction, particularly if, like with every gadget that we invent we build in safeguards. I mean we have cars we also put in airbags, we also put in bumpers. As we develop smarter and smarter artificially intelligent systems, if there’s some danger that it will, through some oversight, shoot off in some direction that starts to work against our interest then that’s a safeguard that we can build in.

And we know by the way that it’s possible to have high intelligence without megalomaniacal or homicidal or genocidal tendencies because we do know that there is a highly advanced form of intelligence that tends not to have that desire and they’re called women. This may not be a coincidence that the people who think well you make something smart it’s going to want to dominate all belong to a particular gender.

STEVEN PINKER

Steven Pinker is an experimental psychologist and one of the world’s foremost writers on language, mind, and human nature. Currently Johnstone Family Professor of Psychology at Harvard University, Pinker has also taught at Stanford and MIT. His research on vision, language, and social relations has won prizes from the National Academy of Sciences, the Royal Institution of Great Britain, the Cognitive Neuroscience Society, and the American Psychological Association. He has also received eight honorary doctorates, several teaching awards at MIT and Harvard, and numerous prizes for his books The Language Instinct, How the Mind Works, The Blank Slate, and The Better Angels of Our Nature. He is Chair of the Usage Panel of the American Heritage Dictionary, and often writes for The New York Times, Time, and other publications. He has been named Humanist of the Year, Prospect magazine’s “The World’s Top 100 Public Intellectuals,” Foreign Policy’s “100 Global Thinkers,” and Time magazine’s “The 100 Most Influential People in the World Today.”