Hail Eris,

Why don't you make something of your life, you slob? Start by checking out these free online courses taught by leaders in their fields from universities like Stanford. There's Game Theory, Green Building, Information Theory, Entrepreneurship, Information Theory and loads of fun stuff like that. They're mostly starting in February.

This explosion in high-quality free online courses was sparked by Stanford's very successful recent course 'Introduxion to Artifical Intelligence'. I took that course and it was totally worth it and I recommend signing up for one of these.

All hail Discordia.

Remember that movie The Shining? It starts off with this family getting an awesome offer to live rent-free in a luxury hotel as caretakers when the hotel is out-of-season. Then they move in, get to enjoy all the rooms, swimming pool, bar, sauna and all the facilities a hotel offers. I forget what happens next, but I'm sure they had a great time.

Well there's a company called Camelot who are offering the exact same deal. They need people to look after unoccupied buildings, building sites, schools during summer holidays etc. They let you live in some massive building for €30 a week or something like that.

Check it out -
http://ie.cameloteurope.com/549/1/live-in-guardians/live-in-guardians.html

I have the head of a giraffe, the legs of a zebra, the body of a horse and a bright blue tongue long enough that I clean my ears with it



The classifiers recently classified me as a type of small giraffe, which make me even more confused about myself

Researchers at Johns Hopkins have been giving psilocybin to 51 volunteers. The participants had between two and five encounters with the psilocybin. At least three weeks spaces were left between sessions, which is in line with conventional wisdom among heads. On one of these sessions (neither the researchers and participants knew which one) a "large dose" was given, but I only have the abstract and it doesn't say exactly how much that is.

Participants were encouraged to lie down with headphones on and eyemasks, in accordance with the "psychedelic therapy" protocol common back in the good old days. ("Psychedelic therapy" is distinct from "psycholytic therapy", where moderate doses are used and the subject interacts with the therapist.)

Of the 51 subjects, 30 had mystical experiences. (If you're wondering what a mystical experience is, I refer you to Louis Armstrong's words: "If you gotta ask, you ain't never gonna know".) According to before-and-after personality test, the people who had mystical experiences showed marked increases in 'Openness'. Openness is a personality trait in the Five Factor Model. It means having a vivid imagination, taking an interest in artistic, aethetic and sensual things, paying attention to your interior life, being willing to try new things and explore new ideas and beliefs. Participants who did not have mystical experiences did not show such big changes. The other four traits measured on the personality test - neuroticism, extroversion, agreeableness and conscientiousness - did not change.

What I find interesting is that follow-up personality tests 14 months after the last drug session showed that the personality changes remained. Psilocybin appears to be catalyse lasting personality changes. The researchers point out that no other single intervention has been shown to permanently create personality change in healthy adults. The popular belief is that personality becomes fixed as we get older, but the research shows that psychedelic experiences can shake up these encrusted patterns. (This, of course, was exactly Dr Leary's heresy.)

Abstract is available online here: http://jop.sagepub.com/content/early/2011/09/28/0269881111420188.abstract

http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/media/releases/single_dose_of_hallucinogen_may_create_lasting_personality_change

Keep the lasagne flying,
Conor

The World is your lover. She loves you no matter what. She is constantly telling you this, except you didn't realize it, because – being a Woman – she speaks in riddles. The homeless couple sleeping in a doorway, the kids celebrating Junior Cert results night, all the other people you had the privilege of meeting yesterday – they were all coded, feminine messages of her love to you.

The World is always there for you. She always lusts after you because you are strong and beautiful at your core. You may act strong for her, but you are not duty-bound to do so. True Love knows no duties, only Free Will. You may act weak, and she will love you nevertheless; she loves you no matter what. Your strength is your gift to give her, should you choose to do so.

Why do you suffer in your relationship with the World? Why do you get frustrated with it sometimes, and it with you? For the same reasons a Man's relationship with a Woman suffers and stagnates –
You forget to show Her your passion.
You did not give yourself totally to her. You were more concerned with being validated and reassured yourself than with taking care of your Woman and loving her and giving to her no matter what, loving and giving to her creatively, passionately, playfully.

Honour and please the World with your strength, your courage, your giving, your passion, your creativity. This gets her all excited. It makes her feel grateful, and she knows she is loved. You know how a Woman responds when a Man makes her feel this way. Be a Man and you let her be a Woman, a nurturer and a pleaser.

A documentary called DMT: The Spirit Molecule, following on from Rick Strassman's book of the same name, was released two or three months ago, but my assistant failed to tell me at the time. I've watched it just now and I'm pleased to report that director Mitch Schultz has done a insane job. He doesn't shy away from the grandiosity of the subject, but the appropriate tones of caution are sounded.

The documentary includes interviews with Rick Strassman, Dennis McKenna, Alex Grey and many of the volunteers who took part in Dr Strassman's research. It's overlaid with real cool visuals. And the presenter is that guy without a neck who presents the UFC - it's nice to see a mainstream celebrity saying something like, "We humbly reintroduce psychedelics back into the cultural dialogue"

Watchy-watchy: http://watch-movies.ro/movie/the_spirit_molecule_(2010)

Very bad news for the world of consciousness expansion, Alexander Shulgin is in ill health

From 'Godfather of ecstasy' Alexander Shulgin suffers stroke





The Ultimate Comment has donated some money (undisclosed) to the Shulgins because they are in dire financial need. Please help out at http://shulgin.chipin.com/help-sasha-shulgin

Hello again, it's shanet. Back from a long spiritual journey, it is time to rebuild The Ultimate Comment.

The wiki had some weird problems after we were "hacked into", but they are now fixed.

Over the next week I will by tidying up the navigation, launching a facebook fanpage and getting everyone from our group to join that.

This is rad. In ten years all computers will be like this and the world of information will be a seamlessly woven into the fabric of the physical environment.

We've been stuck with the mouse-and-keyboard interface for way too long. The mouse-and-keyboard interface is what made cyberpeople pale and skinny. So far as first-generation personal computers were concerned, the human body is nothing more than a vehicle used to carry the brain around. But with motion-capture (and voice-commands) interacting with a computer is no longer synonymous with 'sitting at a computer'. Interacting with computers becomes something more along the lines of dance or sculpture, a body-discipline. This totally changes the social niche occupied by computers.

And behold this sorcery:

3D design software has been the reserve of pros until now. The average person couldn't make a digital design for even a spork - not without spending weeks learning how to use the software. The reason: the shittiness of the keyboard-and-mouse interface. With motion-capture, anyone can design anything. With motion-capture plus digital manufacturing, anyone can design and manifest anything. Spread this to a broad enough range of goods and poverty becomes impossible. The revolution is over and we have won.

See openkinect.org for more further and so forth.

We can now interact with information the same way we interact with objects. The boundary between the informational and material worlds has done its berlinwall act. The revolution is over and we have won.

I asked him, "Do you think you could separate the mechanisms of action of LSD on you, as distinct from the actions of carbon dioxide?" He told me quite honestly, "No, they sure came on in the same way." 

- Saint Alexander Shulgin

When I was a teenager, I took a course in freediving in Cannes with a fellow called Pierre Frolla. Monsieur Frolla was and remains one of the happiest, brightest people I have ever met. The core of his life is the extraordinary sport of freediving, which he practices relentlessly day after day, every morning, every afternoon, and every night at 2a.m. For those of you unfamiliar with the sport's obscure charms, freediving involves plunging down into the ocean as deep as possible, until you are overwhelmed by the lack of oxygen, the building water pressure and the mental voice that yells, “Breathe!”

When practising freediving, I noticed something strange – a psychoactive effect. At the very end of the dive, as my diaphragm was kicking me in the ribs demanding air, my brain would suddenly enter a vivid state of peace. Brightly-colored shapes and beings would appear before me and the mania and confusion of ordinary human thought was briefly silenced.

Yoshiro Nakamatsu is the most prolific inventor in the world, with 3000 inventions to his name, including the digital watch, the taxi meter and the floppy disk. Ask him how he gets all these ideas and he will tell you he sits at the bottom of a swimming pool until half a second before death, when the idea pops into his head.

The physiology of this effect is quite interesting. The urge to breathe is not, as you would expect, caused by a lack of oxygen. It is caused by the buildup of carbon dioxide. It appears that the human body has evolved a response to diving or suffocation. A buildup of carbon dioxide is normally associated with drowning, so to protect the brain, a reflex causes the carotid arteries to open up, and extra blood floods into the brain. The good news is that if this exposure to carbon dioxide is repeated many times, the expansion of the carotid arteries becomes permanent. The bloodflow to the brain is permanently increased. Do you think this could increase intelligence, neurological health or energy? Hang around with some professional freedivers and tell me they don't have sharper minds than ordinary humans. Proponents of the aquatic ape theory even go so far as to say that this particular Intelligence Increase technique was responsible for the emergence of human intelligence from the brutes.

One way to build up carbon dioxide in the body is to not breathe for a few minutes. I highly recommend this practise to humans, as it does lead to a state of lucidity in the short term and Intelligence Increase in the long term, as well as developing self-control in the face of panic. The problem is that by the time you enter the state of lucidity, your diaphragm is burning and you have just a second or two to enjoy it before you have to breathe. However, some experiments I've been doing over the past two weeks have turned up a way to extend this state to 20 or 30 seconds, and which (for better or worse) requires less self-control than holding your breath.

It is very simple. Get some baking soda, also known as bread soda. (Do not use baking powder; that's something else.) Put about two teaspoons of this at the bottom of a 2 liter plastic bottle. Pour in about 100ml of vinegar. It fizzes excitingly and then settles down, but it has left an invisible fluid in the bottle: pure carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide, being heavier than air, sits in the bottle like water does, rather than dissipating. Using household ingredients, you have just made a bottle of a psychoactive Intelligence Increase agent.

Exhale strongly to empty your lungs. Draw a deep breath from the neck of the bottle, emptying the bottle so that the sides pucker in. Without removing your mouth from the neck of the bottle, take several deep breaths in and out. Now close your eyes, hold your breath for about twenty seconds and enjoy the lightshow. Repeat twice daily until mutation into a higher life form.

Marijuana has been legal in California for medical purposes for some time now, but a new proposal to legalize it for recreational use - with similar levys and controls as alcohol - is now on the ballot cards.

A petition for 'The Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act' has gathered enough signatures to bring about a referendum, which will be held on November 2nd. Democracy works!

Hats off to the good people at the Tax Cannabis Campaign for their work in writing the act and running the petition. Frankly, weed being illegal in California is like wine being illegal in France and we trust the voters will strike another victory for freedom in November.

In the Republic of Ireland blasphemy is illegal as of yesterday. The new Defamation Act provides the following definition of blasphemy:



Since the Ultimate Comment holds the number of gods we have, that is, eight, to be sacred, and if someone pointed out to us that in fact, the notion of eight gods, one of which is a spoon, is quite ridiculous, we would obviously be insulted, any mention of any or no gods where the number of them is less than eight in Ireland and/or one of these gods is not a spoon is now ILLEGAL in the Republic of Ireland and subject to a fine of €25,000.

Our first target will be the Church of Dermotology in Ireland. They worship Dermot Ahern (which by the way also happens to be grossly insulting to all of us). We intend to pursue this to the full extent of the law, with possible public lynching involved.

TRIANGULON SPOTTED IN BELFIELD

 

The ICE-SHADOW of Triangulon has been spoted in UCD. Also, isn't it hilarious that everything is covered in something that makes it impossible to walk?

BIG SHINY FISH MADE OF CDS

According to this thread, The Ultimate Comment's latest task is to build a giant shiny fish made of CDs

Dimensional Transfunctioner elsewhere on the internet

Have a look at this and this.

The Ultimate Comment has once again defied all credibility, this time by invoking the Spirit of Santa Claus into a human being, at our stall at the BioCycle event in McGruder's.


Some other pictures of last night's event are in this thread.

The Ultimate Comment held another insanity/free cake/magazine stall in McGruders as part of MarQ's 4th Eyez event. It all went very well. Watch this space for analysis of the results of some of the interactive stuff we had, including a video of the Robot Wedding.

For those of you who are unaware, The Ultimate Comment will be holding another stall in McGruder's for a psychedelic event on the 27th of this month. We'll be holding meetings to help organise activities, decoration and insanity between now and then. Keep reading this page.