- Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA/GSFC
- On May 22, 2002, Svalbard, Norway, tucked inside the Arctic Circle, was showing no signs of spring on land, while in the Barents Sea, ice had begun retreating from the western coastline. This series of images shows the thawing of the sea ice around Svalbard, and also shows snow retreating from the landscape. Patches of brown are showing through, especially along fjords and inlets. Some images show blooms of marine plants called phytoplankton, which create colorful blue and green patterns on the ocean surface.
- The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind (Wikipedia)
The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind is a 1976 book by the Princeton psychologist, psychohistorian and consciousness theorist Julian Jaynes (1920-1997). The book addresses the problematic nature of consciousness – “the ability to introspect” – which in Jaynes’ view must be distinguished from sensory awareness and other processes of cognition. Jaynes presents his proposed solution: that consciousness is a learned behavior based more on language and culture than on biology; this solution, in turn, points to the origin of consciousness in ancient human history rather than in metaphysical or evolutionary processes; furthermore, archaeological and historical evidence indicates that prior to the learning of consciousness, human mentality was what Jaynes called “the bicameral mind” – a mentality based on verbal hallucination.
