Politics is the entertainment division of the military industrial complex.

– Frank Zappa

Forgive this video it’s poor English subtitles, it’s rare that someone on a television program truly tries to capture the complexity of current affairs instead of reducing their argument to a series of emotive, simplistic appeals.

via @darkoptimism

via Justin Pickard

This hour long lecture from earlier this year is filled with varying values of Interesting.

More generally you have the Benevolent aspect of an ever-more god-like entity, Google; and the level to which it’s “organizing everything”.

Then you have the degree of complexity required to contribute; not that much actually, though the code still probably looks like a magical incantation to the uninitiated.

But above all else, this points to the many, many ways anyone with a ‘net connection and motivation can help prepare for, or assist with, the impact of natural disasters and emergencies of many kinds. Because (and they have the graphs to prove it) the Internet is the key now; phone lines may go down, SMSs may be delayed, but the signal cannot be stopped.

Longtime readers will know by now that – scientific issues aside – some of us here at Grinding have a fondness for the “Stoned Ape” theory of the evolution of consciousness, language and technology.

The following video details a… version of that theory – with killer videodrome singularity robots, too.

“This is a clip from Duncan Trussell’s Comedy Central Pilot “Thunderbrain.” The animation and voice over was by Will Carsola from daybyday (www.livedaybyday.com) and it was produced by RZO Hothouse (http://www.hhouseproductions.com/)”