The Scroll

The Apostasy Project | Rationalist Association

The Apostasy Project aims to provide information and support for those thinking about leaving religion

Thinking about CAPITAL ‘R’ Religions Part 2

Douglas Rushkoff talking about Judaism, then and now and if.

Vinay Gupta's Our Future with Islam

http://guptaoption.com/3.future_islam.php

explore-blog:

Joe Hanson examines the sciences of what it is about music that makes us feel all those feelings. Pair with 7 essential books about music, emotion, and the brain.

Want to watch this later, so reee-bloooog

madmothmiko:

Zodiac Signs

[Yuhon/On Tumblr]

bio-mechanoid zodiacal-erotic renderings

(via scrollofthoth)

smalllindsay:

swegener:

joshtierney:

One of my favourite pieces by Roger Ebert is his “Great Movies” appreciation of Spirited Away (read it in full here). At the end of the piece he details an encounter he had with Hayao Miyazaki himself, where Miyazaki defines one of the key differences between the work of Studio Ghibli and mainstream American animation. I can see his words relating to comics as well, and these words are well-worth reading for any creative and parent.

Here is the excerpt from Ebert’s piece:

I was so fortunate to meet Miyazaki at the 2002 Toronto film festival. I told him I love the “gratuitous motion” in his films; instead of every movement being dictated by the story, sometimes people will just sit for a moment, or sigh, or gaze at a running stream, or do something extra, not to advance the story but only to give the sense of time and place and who they are.

“We have a word for that in Japanese,” he said. “It’s called ‘ma.’ Emptiness. It’s there intentionally.” He clapped his hands three or four times. “The time in between my clapping is ‘ma.’ If you just have non-stop action with no breathing space at all, it’s just busyness.”

I think that helps explain why Miyazaki’s films are more absorbing than the frantic action in a lot of American animation. “The people who make the movies are scared of silence” he said, “so they want to paper and plaster it over,” he said. “They’re worried that the audience will get bored. But just because it’s 80 percent intense all the time doesn’t mean the kids are going to bless you with their concentration. What really matters is the underlying emotions—that you never let go of those.

“What my friends and I have been trying to do since the 1970’s is to try and quiet things down a little bit; don’t just bombard them with noise and distraction. And to follow the path of children’s emotions and feelings as we make a film. If you stay true to joy and astonishment and empathy you don’t have to have violence and you don’t have to have action. They’ll follow you. This is our principle.”

He said he has been amused to see a lot of animation in live-action superhero movies. “In a way, live action is becoming part of that whole soup called animation. Animation has become a word that encompasses so much, and my animation is just a little tiny dot over in the corner. It’s plenty for me.”

It’s plenty for me, too.

Yes

Yes.

Reblogging this in tribute to Roger Ebert, one of only two working film critic-reviewers that i would always read.  RIP 

Even better than this is his review of ‘Grave of the Fireflies’. He was a key critical force in the mainstreaming of taking animation a bit more seriously, partly i think because of this review.  

fuckyeahpaganism:

Yemaya (Yemoja, Iemanja) is a Yoruban creation goddess, the mother of the seven seas. She is often depicted as a mermaid, and is associated with the moon, ocean, and feminine mysteries. She is the protectress of women and rules the subconscious and creative endeavors. She governs everything pertaining women; childbirth, conception, parenting, child safety, love, and healing. She oversees deep secrets, ancient wisdom, the moon, salt water, sea shells, and the collective unconscious. According to myth, she originated in Egypt as the goddess Isis, and is said that Nubian slaves who returned to different parts of Africa may have renamed Isis under the new name Yemaya. She gave birth to the 14 Yoruban goddesses and gods. When her uterine broke, it caused a great flood creating the oceans. The first mortal humans were created from her womb.

Yoruba. Good mojo.

(via scrollofthoth)

Nina Simone doing a little piano jazz jam of ‘Sounds of Silence’. consider it an Easter/late Exquinox gift.

nascentartifacts:

Globi coelestis in tabulas planas redacti descriptio… Opus Postumum

Pardies, Ignace Gaston, 1636-1673

Second edition. First edition was published in 1674 and this second edition in 1693 after Pardies’ death in 1673. A Third edition appeared in 1700. This copy is the six sheets of star charts only without binding, pages numbered 84-89, so probably removed from an atlas. Each sheet has engraved text panels in Latin and French. The projection is gnomonic so the six charts make up a cube of the universe. Elegant original color is used. The paths of several important comets are shown. These charts served as models for the star charts of William Dawes published by the SDUK in 1844 (see our 4063.000). From the Linda Hall Library exhibition catalog: “Pardies’ star atlas is stylistically one of the most attractive ever published. Pardies took his constellation figures primarily from Bayer’s Uranometria, but since each chart covers a large section of the sky, these figures had to be carefully integrated, which was not an easy task. Pardies’ engraver accomplished this task with great success…The plate(which) shows Hercules, Ophiuchus] Scorpius, Sagittarius, Aquila, and Lyra,..is one of the most stunning compositions in the history of celestial cartography.

from David Rumsey Historical Map Collection

This photoset considered sequentially is truly consciousness-expanding. The wallpaper is rich on the transforms of the wall.

(via fuckyeahcartography)