Neil de Grasse Tyson at Rice's 100th Commencement

This past week, Rice graduated it's 100th class,  wrapping up a year's worth of Centennial celebrations. And Rice couldn't ask for a more fitting speaker to bring it all home than astro-physicist badass, Neil de Grasse Tyson. Not only did his wife graduate from Rice (Baker!) but he embodies Rice's marriage to NASA and the American spirit of exploration, commitment to the future, and to the great unknown. 

I don't feel like I live in that America. But I'm glad Tyson is around to remind us to keep pursuing the unknown, the spirit of innovation, of advancing, and of defining the universe-- and thus, the universal. That our pursuit of these things is tied to so many other important aspects of our perspective.

I often miss my time at Rice, and what it represents. But this was one of the most stinging. 

Congrats, class of 2013!

The Most Astounding Fact - Neil deGrasse Tyson Appreciation Day

My heart is warmed thinking of this guy speaking at the 100th commencement of my alma mater. Rice 2013 grads sure are lucky. (His wife is an alum, so I guess that was our in.) 

Neil is more than a scientist. He's a modern philosopher of real life and I can't wait to see what he tells those kids. I feel like he's going to blow our minds. Where Alberto Gonzales (a Rice alum) merely praised the virtues of George W. Bush in my own commencement speech-- in a desperate play to become Attorney General-- I doubt we'll hear much of that from Neil. 

Personally, I hope he break dances to Michael Jackson. But in lieu of that, I'll take something more like this. The simple revelry in the science, but also the magic of our existence. This is poetry as good as any I've heard. 

The Most Astounding Fact from Max Schlickenmeyer on Vimeo.

Berndnaut Smilde's Indoor Clouds

Today's meditation is on displaced natural elements. Dutch artist Berndnaut Smilde brings the outdoors indoors with these cloud art/experiments. Using an artist's imagination and a scientist's methods, Smilde created Nimbus clouds in abandoned gallery spaces and churches across Amsterdam. The result has a lot of people talking, and me having a daydream riff on the thought of....

For more, click here and here. 

A Mumuration is a Collection of Starlings

Here's the deal. There are all these things about the world and about nature that no one ever tells you living in a big city. You just have to get out into the world to see them. 


My friend Sophie posted this video over the weekend and I watched it while we were on Skye. Wow. This was on the River Shannon in Ireland. More from Sophie Windsor Clive & Liberty Smith at Islands & Rivers. 

Murmuration from Sophie Windsor Clive on Vimeo.

So Fresh & So Clean - Quiraing Hike

A hike in the Quiraing is amazing no matter how many times you go, no matter the conditions. Iona says she particularly loves the excursion when the weather is bad. And because the light is always different, the trip does always feel new. Or maybe it's because the Quiraing is actually still moving. It really is a different place. And it's easy to say Wow in every direction. And you pretty much can't take a bad photo. I heart Skye. 

Balloons of Bhutan: Jonathan Harris does it again

Ever since the first time I ever heard about Jonathan Harris, via his We Feel Fine project while I was working one of the worst jobs of my life, I have been a massive fan of his work. Of the ideas in his work. The boundaries he pushed. The questions he raised. 


One of his newest projects is the Balloons of Bhutan project. I have to say, I think it's stunning. I just can't think of anyone pairing moving ideas with moving imagery the way Jonathan Harris is doing. Obviously, they practice a different sort of Buddhism in Bhutan than the Japanese form of Buddhism I grew up practicing. But I've got to hand it to a country so intrigued by happiness and what it's made out of. On the Balloons of Bhutan website intro, Jonathan says "instead of 'Gross National Product,' Bhutan uses 'Gross National Happiness' to measure its socio-economic prosperity." 


I'll let Jonathan explain the bridge between the anthropology part and the art part in his own words from the website:

Given the seriousness with which this topic is treated, I thought it would be fun to do something a little bit silly, so in late 2007, I traveled to Bhutan and spent two weeks handing out balloons.I asked people five questions pertaining to happiness: what makes them happy, what is their happiest memory, what is their favorite joke, what is their level of happiness between 1 and 10, and, if they could make one wish, what would it be. Based on each person's stated level of happiness, I inflated that number of balloons, so very happy people would be given 10 balloons and very sad people would be given only one (but hey, it's still a balloon). Then I wrote each person's wish onto a balloon of their favorite color. I repeated this process for 117 different people, from all different ages and backgrounds.On the final night, all 117 wish balloons were re-inflated and strung up at Dochula, a sacred mountain pass at 10,000 feet, leaving them to bob up and down in the wind, mingling with thousands of strands of prayer flags.Here's the finished story — enjoy!

He's gotten some flack lately in various articles about another project of his-- which I'm preparing a longer post about as we speak-- but I wanted to let you float away on this lovely thing and hope it carries you into Friday and a great weekend. 

All photos from the Balloons of Bhutan project website. 

Let's over-simplify stuff with flow charts

Most of the time, I wish there were more straight-forward answers to things. Artistically, I get all turned on and what-not by negative capability and mono no aware, but, for my money, in my own life, quite a bit of the time, I wish it were as simple as a flowchart. 


Sometimes, I think it actually is that simple.  Maybe I've had too much time laid-up in my perfect bed with my brain is rotting, but I thought it would be fun to have some time-saving, problem solving charts to make life's answers a little more accessible. 


You know, life's toughest questions: Am I happy? Should I have a cookie? And most importantly, Should I work for free?