Game designer Will Wright tells SPTNK that a remarkable amount of our intelligence is actually ignoring the world intelligently. The trick, is to program the processor in your imagination.

Listen here: The Human Filter

The topic for the following blog story was provided by Advisory Board Member, Avikal Gebhard.

There are people that live on light. There is a man who for 60 years has lived without water or food or energy. There’s another man who underwent a 21-day breatharian process in January 2001, and hasn’t eaten since. These are just a couple incredible accounts from the recent groundbreaking documentary film, “In The Beginning Was the Light” by Austrian filmmaker, P.A. Straubinger.

The documentary follows the phenomenon of “breatharianism” aka “living on light,” —human beings who can survive without food or fluid, over weeks, years and even decades. The film, only available in German (unfortunately), is based on certified reports of personal experiences, interviews and scientifically documented laboratory experiments.

Some of the individuals interviews featured include: Dieter Hochegger, Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Marktl, Prof. Dr. Anton Luger, Univ. Doz. Dr. Ingrid Kiefer, Dr. Ruediger Dahlke, Jasmuheen, Walter “Omsa“ Rohrmoser, Dr. Michael Werner, Mataji Prahlad Jani, Dr. Sudhir Shah, Dr. V.N. Shah, Dr. Urmann Ohruv, Dr. Sanjay Metha, Hira Ratan Manek, Yuan Limin, You Xuande, Dr. TCM Qi Duan Li, Prof Dr. Gernot Pauser, Zinaida Baranova, Prof. Dr. Gerhard Hacker, Prof. Dr. Fritz-Albert Popp, PhD Dean Radin, Prof. Dr. Brian Josephson, Prof. Dr. Amit Goswani, Prof. Dr. Rupert Sheldrake, Dr. Jakob Bösch, Prof. Dr. Robert Jahn.

There is a long tradition of people who can live on light alone. As Pear Program Director, Professor Dr. Robert Jahn says, “the mind is capable of producing effects, and that’s mindblowing.

More at the official “In The Beginning Was the Light” film web site & trailer.

Photo via flickr by Phonton

Birds are getting smaller as a result of global warming, says Ary Hoffman, Faculty Member and evolutionary biologist at the University of Melbourne.

Global temperatures have risen an average of 0.6 degrees Celsius in the last century. What effect that may have on the planet’s species is hard to predict, but a recent paper by Hoffman evaluating data from more than 100 different bird species over the past 5 decades found that many of them have shrunk in size.

“The surprise is that you’re seeing these consistent patterns across a large number of species,” explains Hoffman. “Organisms are getting smaller. So it does look like there are these general patterns in size that seem to be related to conditions getting warmer in particular. I think what’s really nice about this study is the number of species that were actually showing the same patterns. Previously people had taken one or two species and shown these kinds of patterns. If you’re trying to establish patterns related to climate change, I think this study does emphasize the fact that you need to look at a large number of species.”

Read more: Shrinking Birds at The Scientist Magazine of Life Sciences.

What is the nature of our subjectivity?  Marilyn Schlitz, president and CEO for the Institute of Noetic Sciences explains to SPTNK how the ‘I’ is a part of ‘We’.

Listen here: Understanding Consciousness

Andre K. Geim and Konstantin S. Novoselov, winners of Nobel Prize in Physics. Photos by University of Manchester, via Associated Press

The 2010 Nobel Prize for Physics was won by two scientists for their work on a revolutionary ultra-thin material called graphene, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced.

The breakthrough has implications for areas from quantum physics to consumer electronics.

Andre K. Geim and Konstantin S. Novoselov, both scientists at the University of Manchester in England, shared the award for their development of a form of carbon that is only one atom thick.

In their announcement of the prize, the Academy said that “carbon in such a flat form has exceptional properties that originate from the remarkable world of quantum physics.”

Read more at Nobelprize.org and New York Times.

Impression of Gliese 581g and its parent star by Lynette Cook via UCSC

A team of astronomers from the University of California and the Carnegie Institute of Washington have found a planet they say could support life.

Called Gliese 581g, it is three times the size of Earth, has similar gravity, and could have liquid water on the surface.

According to Steven Vogt, a UC professor of astronomy and astrophysics, “The chances for life on this planet are 100 percent, I have almost no doubt about it.”

However, earthlings won’t be traveling to Gliese 581g any time soon. Scientists say a spaceship traveling close to the speed of light would take 20 years to make this journey.

But if we did, we’d find some other things familiar. The atmosphere and gravity are similar to Earth, and if you’re from the polar regions, you’d definitely feel right at home. Scientists say the highest average temperature is about -12 degrees Celcius (10 Fahrenheit), but they point out that the planet doesn’t have a night and day—one side continually faces the star and the other side faces the darkness of space. This means one side is blazing hot and the other freezing cold.

Gliese orbits a red dwarf star called Gliese 581. Dr. Elizabeth Cunningham, planetarium astronomer at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, UK says “it’s a Goldilocks planet. It’s not too hot, it’s not too cold, it’s just right” for water to form.

Now, astronomers are hoping to spot more exoplanets where life could be possible.

“We’re at exactly that threshold now with finding habitable planets,” said Paul Butler of the Carnegie Institution, a co-author of the study that was funded by National Science Foundation and NASA.

Dr Vogt agreed: “The number of systems with potentially habitable planets is probably on the order of 10 or 20%, and when you multiply that by the hundreds of billions of stars in the Milky Way, that’s a large number,” he said.

“There could be tens of billions of these systems in our galaxy.”

Gliese 581g is in the constellation of Libra. While Earth takes 365 days to orbit our star, the sun, Gliese 581g orbits its star in 37 days.

via BBC

Rocking, House, Poppin’ and Breakin’ Battles. The last Kings of New York is happening on Sunday, November 7th at St. Mark’s Church at East 10th Street and Second Avenue. Doors open at 7pm. Battles Start at 9 pm SHARP. Admissions $15, and if you have a camera, $20. View a trailer of Kings of New York 7 on YouTube.

From Team KNY: “We thank you for all the support you’ve given us through out the years. We are taking a break for now. Please join us on Facebook http://www.facebook.com or email us at thekingsofnewyork@gmail.com. Peace, Team KNY.”

The story which originated in the Sunday Times and soon spread around that world, has been denied.

Malaysian astrophysicist Mazian Othman has officially denied media reports that she was selected by the UN to represent earthlings in their future dealings with aliens.

“It sounds really cool,” Othman told The Guardian, “but I have to deny it.”

via The Guardian

Astrophysicist Mazian Othman, photo via Wikipedia

The United Nations is set to appoint astrophysicist Mazian Othman as Earth’s first alien contact. Othman is currently the head of The United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs. (UNOOSA)

UNOOSA is the United Nations office responsible for promoting international cooperation in the peaceful uses for outer space.

The UNOOSA conducts international workshops, training courses and pilot projects on topics that include remote sensing, satellite navigation, satellite meteorology, tele-education and basic space sciences for the benefit of developing nations.

It also maintains a 24-hour hotline as the United Nations focal point for satellite imagery request during disasters and manages the United Nations Platform for Space-based Information for Disaster Management and Emergency Response. (UN-SPIDER)

UNOOSA prepares and distributes reports, studies and publications on various fields of space science and publication on various fields of space and technology application and international space law. Documents and reports are available in all official languages of the United Nations through the UNOOSA website.

UNOOSA is located at the United Nations office at Vienna, Austria.

via New York Post

Image via Plan C

In the Summer 2010 a group of six artists who barely knew each other embarked on a journey to Chernobyl, to develop a secretive Plan C. They came from different parts of Europe and the US, and met-up at a random apartment in the suburbs of Kyev, Ukraine.  The one thing they had in common: an obsession for Tarkovsky’s 1979 movie Stalker.

The Chernobyl Zone of Alienation Administration—responsible for the protection of this highly radioactive area—issued the group’s authorization which included: Ryan Doyle, “The Machine Artist”; Eve and Franco Mattes aka 0100101110101101.ORG, “The Conspirators”; Jeff Stark, “The Organizer”; Todd Chandler, “The Director”; Tod Seelle, “The Photographer”; and Steve Valdez, “The Fabricator.”

While details on the mission remain sealed, images can be viewed at Plan C.