Drum Sound Buddha
Before Tara was Tara, a princess made her vow before a buddha called Drum Sound. Who he was, how little is written about him, and the old pattern of a past buddha who hears a vow.
Ideas
Ideas I keep coming back to, written in layers: the overview first, the deep dive last. Feed
First Computer
The Texas Instruments TI-99/4A: programs saved to cassette tape, and a map of Hawaii drawn on graph paper in hex codes.
From Turntable to Controller
A DJ deck was once one machine: the groove held the sound and the platter was the control. Fifty years of step changes pulled those two jobs apart, moved the sound engine into a laptop, and are now putting it back in the box.
The Fourth Color
Most people see color with three kinds of cone. Some women may have four, birds and fish do, and a rock band wrote a song about wanting one. What a fourth color channel really adds.
The Musilanguage Hypothesis
Before people spoke or sang, they may have done something in between. Steven Brown's musilanguage, its rivals in gesture and grammar, and the oldest form of exchange of all, call and response.
Tibetan Lineage
In Tibet, who you learned from, and whose rebirth you are, decides what you may teach. A free encyclopedia of lives shows how that idea worked, and why it is fought over today.
Panspermia
Did life on Earth start somewhere else? The old idea that life drifts between worlds, and what meteorites and asteroid samples actually show.
Solar Religion
Many ancient peoples worshiped the sun. Victorian scholars went further and saw the sun behind almost every myth. What holds up, and what does not.
The Gaia Hypothesis
Does life keep Earth fit for life? Lovelock and Margulis said yes, critics said it can't evolve, and the argument is still going.
The Stoned Ape Hypothesis
Did magic mushrooms help build the human mind? A famous, mostly unproven idea, and the careful versions scientists now discuss.