What is a meme? It is a term borrowed from evolutionary biology. Used in an internet context, the definition (taken from wikipedia) is:
"An Internet meme is a piece of digital content that spreads rapidly, widely, and organically from person to person on the internet. The term is a reference to memes as virus-like self-replicating packets of information."
So, if you are keen to spend time exploring this phenomenon there is a brilliant portal where a new meme is posted each day. It is run by Gary La Pointe, who has his own blog here.
The portal points to many sites where you will find memes. Many of them take the form of '5 questions' or '10 favourites' and spread using internet tag. I've answered this one, now I name 5 other bloggers and ask them to do it too. A bit like a blogging chain letter.
[from the 'Things I found' archive]
Monday, 20 August 2007
Friday, 17 August 2007
Fascinating facts # 1
I like to buy magazines that I wouldn't normally buy every now and then. It is a great way to nurture creativity and to get the brain thinking in ways that are different.
Recently I bought an issue of 'BBC Focus' magazine, which is a science and technology magazine here in the UK, produced by the Public Broadcaster. It is full of fascinating facts.
There is a whole section on atoms, which includes this which I thought was really mind-warping:
"Atoms are 99.9% empty space. If all the space was sucked out of the atoms in your body, you'd shrink to the size of a grain of salt. If you did the same thing to the entire human race then all six billion of us would fit inside a single apple."
I'm doing a series on Buddhism on this blog at the moment. This fact about atoms conjures all sorts of ideas about us being full of emptiness, and the idea that we can all fit inside an apple is a beautiful way of looking at the connectivity of us all.
Recently I bought an issue of 'BBC Focus' magazine, which is a science and technology magazine here in the UK, produced by the Public Broadcaster. It is full of fascinating facts.
There is a whole section on atoms, which includes this which I thought was really mind-warping:
"Atoms are 99.9% empty space. If all the space was sucked out of the atoms in your body, you'd shrink to the size of a grain of salt. If you did the same thing to the entire human race then all six billion of us would fit inside a single apple."
I'm doing a series on Buddhism on this blog at the moment. This fact about atoms conjures all sorts of ideas about us being full of emptiness, and the idea that we can all fit inside an apple is a beautiful way of looking at the connectivity of us all.
Friday, 10 August 2007
Spiritual Start-up
[from a new poetry sequence which I am developing]
I watched the little specs of dust as they floated
In shafts of light through the church
A voice was working its way through a sermon
But my mind was engaged in this little world
Where the dust bits fall then spin and whirl
Some micro universe where I can imagine
A whole world flowing out and away
I imagine being a deity myself
A young Buddha watching worlds collide
Wanting to ease suffering, push aside
Left beneath the senses
Once it was all flickered into my inner world
Where the imagination can withstand anything outside
Crash of life-form to the real meaning of all things.
I watched the little specs of dust as they floated
In shafts of light through the church
A voice was working its way through a sermon
But my mind was engaged in this little world
Where the dust bits fall then spin and whirl
Some micro universe where I can imagine
A whole world flowing out and away
I imagine being a deity myself
A young Buddha watching worlds collide
Wanting to ease suffering, push aside
Left beneath the senses
Once it was all flickered into my inner world
Where the imagination can withstand anything outside
Crash of life-form to the real meaning of all things.
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