The Centre for Independent Studies 2010 John Bonython Lecture with Niall Ferguson. Is the rise and fall of empires cyclical or arrhythmic? How does economic profligacy - whether the result of arrogance or naivety - contribute to the downfall of civilisations? Today Professor Ferguson will argue that great powers or empires are in the strict sense of the word, complex systems. Made up of very large numbers of interacting components that are quite asymmetrically organised. In other words, he continues, their construction more resembles a termite hill than an Egyptian pyramid. They operate somewhere between order and disorder. Moreover imperial falls are nearly always associated with fiscal crises, when there are dramatic imbalances between revenues and expenditures. Thus alarm bells should be ringing in Washington DC but what does that for mean for Australia?
Clampants
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Tim Lynch
Adjunct professor of theoretical linguistics from an imaginary university in a run down warehouse somewhere.
There are six people in Clampants’s collective.
Huffduffed
(484)
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The Science and Function of Dreams
We close our eyes at night and dream. Sometimes beautifully, sometimes fitfully, sometimes frighteningly. But why?
The ancients looked for omens. Sigmund Freud saw clues from our past. Some researchers now say dreams help us brace for the future. Ben Franklin advised a light supper, clean sheets, fresh air, and as little dreaming as possible — to avoid painful dreams.
And what about nightmares? Can we, should we, rewrite them? We spend a lot of our lives dreaming. What’s it all about?
Tagged with dreams neuroscience sleep sleeping nightmares culture on point
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Lightspeed Magazine: More Than The Sum Of His Parts by Joe Haldeman : SFFaudio
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Mary Roach: Packing for Mars
She took us into the world of cadavers and examined the anatomy, physiology and psychology behind sex. Now, Mary Roach discovers the surreality and weirdness of space.
For example, what happens when you’ve been in space for a year? And is it possible for a human body to survive a bailout at 17,000 miles per hour? From the space shuttle training toilet to NASA’s crash simulation tests, Roach explores the strange universe.
Tagged with book:author=mary roach space gravity survival science nasa space shuttle mars
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New Yorker Out Loud: Oliver Sacks on living with face blindness
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The Books That Made Me: China Miéville
is week sees the launch of a new series on the Books podcast, The Books That Made Me, with China Miéville.
He talks about how growing up in a world where music is cobbled together from samples of other music has given wing to his piratical tendencies as a writer, and names Beatrix Potter, Max Ernst and Charlotte Brontë among those who have shaped his writing life.
Miéville cites visual art – from comics to the surrealists – as a major inspiration, confesses that he used to have a tin ear for poetry and issues a plea for help in rescuing from oblivion two novels by the Zimbabwean writer Dambudzo Marechera.
Reading list The Tale of Mr Jeremy Fisher by Beatrix Potter Une semaine de bonté by Max Ernst Mindblast by Dambudzo Marechera Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë The General Theory of Law and Marxism by Evgeny Pashukanis Creepy Creatures edited by Barbara Ireson
Tagged with book:author=china miéville books authors writing inspiration fiction
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Best Sci-Fi Flims, w/ A.O. Scott, Annalee Newitz
"Inception" has put sci-fi back in the movies, with mixed reviews. We look at the best science fiction films of all time. With guests A.O. Scott, chief film critic for the New York Times, and Annalee Newitz, critif for io9.com.
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This American Life - 110: Mapping
Five ways of mapping the world. One story about people who make maps the traditional way — by drawing things we can see. And other stories about people who map the world using smell, sound, touch, and taste. The world redrawn by the five senses.
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Jesse Schell: Visions of the Gamepocalypse
Games perpetually revolutionize computer use toward denser interaction with the human mind. To do that, they perpetually revolutionize themselves. Understanding the next frontiers of the genre is one way to understand where society is going.
In this talk Jesse Schell explores the social, cognitive, and technological trends in computer game design and use.
Jesse Schell is the CEO of Schell Games, the author of the authoritative text, The Art of Game Design: A book of lenses, and a Professor of Entertainment Technology at Carnegie Mellon, specializing in Game Design. At Walt Disney, he was Creative Director of the Imagineering VR Studio. Date: Tue, 27 Jul 2010 00:00:00 -0700 Location: San Francisco, CA, Novellus Theater, Long Now Foundation Program and discussion: http://fora.tv/2010/07/27/Jesse_Schell_Visions_of_the_Gamepocalypse
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Radiolab: Words
http://www.wnyc.org/shows/radiolab/episodes/2010/09/10
It’s almost impossible to imagine a world without words. But in this hour of Radiolab, we try to do just that. We speak to a woman who taught a 27-year-old man the first words of his life, and we hear a firsthand account of what it feels like to have the language center of your brain wiped out by a stroke.
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