Quotes

An email from a friend contained this quote in his signature:

Despite its artistic pretensions, its sophistication, and its many accomplishments, humankind owes its existence to a six-inch layer of topsoil and the fact that it rains.

I googled the quote and found this site which featured the following quote by Siggy Freud:

The first human who hurled an insult instead of a stone was the founder of civilization.

NBC Exec Voices More Beef With iTunes

NBC Exec Voices More Beef With iTunes Pricing | Epicenter from Wired.com
We thought it was video who killed the radio star, but NBC Universal president Jeff Zucker (pictured right) claims that Apple killed both. While being interviewed by The New Yorker’s Ken Auletta at a benefit for Syracuse University, the executive claimed that Apple has made millions on its iPod “off the backs of our content” and that the software maker “destroyed the music business in terms of pricing.”

What about Sony and many others making money off of CD players? What about cassette players, turntables? I am not sure I see the difference, except that iTunes dictates a certain price-format.

Free of what?

I was running some errands this morning when the iPod in shuffle mode served up a Q&A with Stephen Batchelor at Upaya – in 2005 or 2006. How appropriate, I thought, since he is here this week. He answered a question, which was not audible, saying something like this: You hear that a certain teacher is really free – free from what? Liberated from what? Enlightened about what?

In other words, everything is related and relative. One is free to breath, but one can’t be free from breathing. You cannot be free from cause and effect. You can be enlightened about one thing and be plain stupid about the next. Levels and lines, I can hear Ken Wilber say.

Brain Activity

Brain Activity Differs For Creative And Noncreative Thinkers
A new study led by John Kounios, professor of Psychology at Drexel University and Mark Jung-Beeman of Northwestern University answers these questions by comparing the brain activity of creative and noncreative problem solvers. The study, published in the journal Neuropsychologia, reveals a distinct pattern of brain activity, even at rest, in people who tend to solve problems with a sudden creative insight — an “Aha! Moment” – compared to people who tend to solve problems more methodically.

This program on the “Zen Brain” at Upaya looks very interesting.