Memory Palace

(Source: Te Ha)

Author: Eduard Josef Gübelin
Copyright date: 1979

We can use the internal characteristics of gemstones to extrapolate the conditions in which they were formed, including temperature and pressure, and how that relates to the geological and geographical region they may have been associated with. The original locality of a particular gemstone can be traced back to the source by diagnostic features like a specific solid crystal inclusion or the presence of a 3-phase inclusion, just to name a couple.

The internal world of gemstones reveals mineralogical clues to trace a gem’s origin and what has happened to it on its way from the mine to the jeweler. Enhancements and treatments are even more of a factor today since the average gem collector has the infinite resources of the Internet to research and explore the secrets of the gem trade. Understanding internal characteristics can help identify the presence of heat treatment and distinguish a natural from a synthetic

(Source: palagems.com)

At first, a thin, almost fluid veil appears to cover everything, while at a later point, objects become much more defined and easy to isolate visually. I decide that watching television is a complete waste of time at this point and turn it off. I go upstairs, turn on the shower and undress. It feels like a good idea to wash off the remains of the day and it is. As I finish and look in the mirror, I greet myself and wish myself a good journey.  A warm and relaxed feeling of anticipation and homecoming flooded over me. I knew that this would be a great moment to get to know this “Golden Teacher”.

(Source: A Lesson in Cosmic Consciousness by Nomad Kamda)

It’s partly to do with the praise lavished on him when he’s introduced to audiences. “I feel that people are saying, ‘You’re doing beautiful work’; and that doesn’t interest me because what they are really saying is, ‘I’m glad you’re doing it, not me.’ But it’s mainly that I find I have more fun, I’m more myself, when I’m with people who are a little bit crazy. And our people are a little bit crazy. I mean that they are not bothered by the need to conform—to be dressed as they should, to do as they should. I don’t want to be part of a world where every­body has to be the same, and to win—‘I succeed, therefore I am.’ I don’t want to live under the tyranny of normality.”

(Source: “Jean of Ark”—Intelligent Life Magazine July/August 2014)

(Source: Soundcloud—Scientific Dreamz of U)

We join spokes together in a wheel,
But it is the center hole
That makes the wagon move.

We shape clay into a pot,
But it is the emptiness inside
That holds whatever we want.

We hammer wood for a house,
But it is the inner space
That makes it livable.

We work with being,
But non-being is what we use.

(Source: Lao Tzu—Tao Te Ching)

(Source: Morr Music—Blue Skied an’ Clear, 2002)

With the Andes Mountains forming a barrier to clouds gathering above the Amazon to the east, and the winds from the Pacific to the west picking up little moisture as they pass over the cold Peru Current (formerly called the Humboldt Current), the Atacama Desert is known to be among the driest places on Earth, with less than a half inch of rain a year on average. The desert’s remoteness and inhospitably thin, dry air—ideal for observing the night sky—had already lured several large, multinational telescope projects.

For the most part, these were designed to view the fraction of the cosmos visible at optical wavelengths—the portion of the light spectrum that the human eye can see. Quintana and his companions were scouting a location for a different kind of telescope, one designed to penetrate the curtains of dust and gas that shroud galaxies, swirl around stars, and stretch through the expanses of interstellar space. The project would require some 20 years and more than a billion dollars to design and build.

First, however, they had to find the right spot.

(Source: National Geographic—Cosmic Dawn)

The Method of loci (loci being Latin for “places”), also called the memory palace or mind palace technique. It is one of the most widely-used mnemonics (or memory aids) in which one creates a place, or series of places, in the mind where they can store information they need to remember. With time and practice, anyone can build a memory palace. Many memory contest champions claim to use this technique to recall faces, digits, and lists of words. These champions’ successes have little to do with brain structure or intelligence, but more to do with their technique of using regions of their brain that have to do with spatial learning.

(Source: Wikipedia—Method of Loci, Images—Robin F Hunter, Wikihow—How to build a memory palace)