Monthly Archives: February 2011

1964 LSD Test on British Marines

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Dr Albert Hofmann

This is the most unintentionally funny video clip I’ve ever seen.  It’s the incongruity of the stiff upper lip military commentary, combined with the fact that these marines are tripping out of their skulls and experiencing the world in a completely different way.  The delicious irony is not lost on the troop commander (also part of the experiment) who says – in a deadpan tone, one imagines – “I cannot do anything about this.  I cannot control the men and I can take no action myself.  I am wiped out as an attacking force.”  Then he falls over, laughing.

Definitely Pythonesque, life imitating art even before it was art.  There are 2 clips here because the original footage was obviously edited at least a couple of different ways.  Watch them both to get the full flavour – it’s worth it just to know that the chap climbing a tree is up there so he can feed the birds.

Jigme Norbu

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An SUV ran over a man in Florida last night, while he was walking along the side of the road in the dark.  This is headline news because his name is Jigme Norbu, nephew of the Dalai Lama.  Norbu was on a 300 mile Walk For Tibet to gather support for Tibetan independence from China.  Here’s the full Guardian story, and here’s Norbu (on the right) on a similar walk last year.

Norbu’s father, Thubten, another walker for a free Tibet, was the Dalai Lama’s eldest brother.  He settled in Bloomington, Indiana, where he became Professor Emeritus of Eurasian Studies at Indiana University.  He also founded the Tibetan Cultural Center in 1979, a remarkable collection of Tibetan-style buildings in a woodland setting.  The Center was rescued from bankruptcy in 2005, only after his family – wife, Jigme and Jigme’s wife – were booted off the board of directors.  Phayul.com has the full story.

The news of Jigme’s death reminded me of a visit last March to my daughter and grandchildren in Bloomington, on the way to Scotland.  Ellie drove me out to the Cultural Center for a look at the place.  Nobody else was there, it seemed, and the unfamiliar buildings in their bright primary colours looked like a stage set.  It was very quiet and peaceful, we had a good walk, talked about important things, and I took some photos.

Tibetan Cultural Center

Temple

Stupa

No idea what this is

Stupa containing Mandala

Inside Stupa

Mandala on Ceiling

And just a couple of miles away, there’s this.  I suspect the farmer hanging from the hayloft is a Hoosier joke.

 

Reasons Why You Should Not Trust Fox News #2753

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Spot the mistake?  Possibly the reason they replaced Iraq with Egypt is because Egypt has become an official Bad Guy, having defenestrated Hosni Mubarak.  A dictator, but he was our dictator.  So it makes a weird kind of Fox News sense to conflate Iraq and Egypt, placing them (Egyraq?) right next to Iran.  Because we all know that guilt by association (even on a map) makes great propaganda.

Or it could just be that Fox News employs people who don’t know their Alaska from Arkansas?

Henry Revealed

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I recently posted a photo of a mural, Henry, in Seattle.  I photographed it while walking to the Fremont Fair in 2009, and that’s all I knew about it – until today.  But I noticed from the blog stats that someone had searched for henry paintings seattle and I did the same.  Lo and behold!  Loads of information.

Henry & Merlin

The artist is Ryan Henry Ward.  Here’s a profile in the Seattle PI from February, 2009.  His mission at the time, accompanied by his dog, Merlin, was to paint 50 murals throughout Seattle.  His fantastical creatures make me smile, and I hope he succeeded.  Below are some of the murals and you can find his other work here.  This is a link to the Google search page.

This is making me so homesick.

Atlas Obscura

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Atlas Obscura is a website for people who regard travel brochures as negative recommendations.  It’s full of rabbit holes, places where you can disappear for hours on end, following the trail from one weird place to another.  It took a major effort to disengage long enough to write this post.

Navigation is clear and logical.  You can explore by region (including Antarctica) or a wide range of categories, and each location has photos, maps and directions, sources, websites as well as information about the place.  I was particularly taken by the discovery huts of Antarctica, from the Heroic Age of Polar Exploration (1897-1922), frozen time capsules that look as if the heroes had just left the room.

That effect is often due to careful conservation, as the video below shows.  Atlas Obscura is the perfect site for dreamers and armchair travelers, drooling at the chance of visiting these places.

Creature Comforts

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I know that I recycled the title from an earlier post, but it’s too good to waste.  And this one has the splendid Isabella Rossellini playing a major role.  She dresses up in a variety of fetching costumes and has sex with human-sized model animals, while using the correct anatomical terms to explain what’s happening.

That’s the idea behind Green Porno and Seduce Me, two series of short films from Sundance Channel, exploring the mating rituals of animals.  It’s a winning combination and quite puts David Attenborough out of the running.

Spoiled for choice as to what clip to share with you, but I think the duck episode has the best lines.  After all, how often do you hear, “I can discombobulate the phallus”?  Brilliant stuff.