In the middle of the desert you can say anything you want
“The drugs were hidden inside the rings of Native American style dreamcatchers. “This is one of the most unusual smuggling episodes we have ever encountered,” said CBP Columbus Port Director Robert Reza. “”
gratuitous ɡrəˈtjuːɪtəs/ adjective adjective: gratuitous 1. done without good reason; uncalled for. “gratuitous violence” synonyms: unjustified, without reason, uncalled for, unwarranted, unprovoked, undue; More antonyms: justifiable, necessary 2. given or done free of charge. “solicitors provide a form of gratuitous legal advice” synonyms: free, gratis, complimentary, voluntary, volunteer, unpaid, unrewarded, unsalaried, free of charge, without charge, for nothing, at no cost, without payment; More antonyms: paid, professional
“Far away in the heavenly abode of the great god Indra, there is a wonderful net which has been hung by some cunning artificer in such a manner that it stretches out infinitely in all directions. In accordance with the extravagant tastes of deities, the artificer has hung a single glittering jewel in each “eye” of the net, and since the net itself is infinite in dimension, the jewels are infinite in number. There hang the jewels, glittering “like” stars in the first magnitude, a wonderful sight to behold. If we now arbitrarily select one of these jewels for inspection and look closely at it, we will discover that in its polished surface there are reflected all the other jewels in the net, infinite in number. Not only that, but each of the jewels reflected in this one jewel is also reflecting all the other jewels, so that there is an infinite reflecting process occurring.”
Definition of jinx: one that brings bad luck; also : the state or spell of bad luck brought on by a jinx (used in http://nautil.us/blog/the-rituals-that-ward-off-bad-luck-arent-arbitrary)
Opposite of paranoia: Pronoia is a neologism that is defined as the opposite state of mind to paranoia: having the sense that there is a conspiracy that exists to help the person. It is also used to describe a philosophy that the world is set up to secretly benefit people.
“. By the time you read this, Terence McKenna will likely have died.” “The most prominent feature of the room are the 14 large bookcases that line the walls, stuffed with more than 3, 000 volumes: alchemy, natural history, Beat poetry, science fiction, Mayan codexes, symbolist art, hashish memoirs, systems theory, Indian erotica, computer manuals.”
“They’re no longer extra worried about getting into a car accident. If they knock down on the table, that bad feeling goes away,” said Risen. “There’s very little cost to knocking, and it does seem to affect people’s beliefs about things.” “Like the knocking of wood or throwing a ball in the previous examples, washing your hands is “a way of distancing yourself, a way of separating yourself from previous events”” Basically small things that make us feel better make us feel better and improve our outlook on things
Excellent, about the problems encountered when naming unknown threats by different entities and the chaos which usually follows + Excellent blog itself