Calling all history buffs.
This video from Khan Academy has been circling around the Interwebs for a few months now and it is really incredible.
A team called the Rome Reborn project set out to show people what ancient Rome looked like from the ground up and boy did they.
Indiana University professor Bernard Frischer serves as a guide in the video, which depicts Rome as it looked in 320 AD.
The whole thing is really amazing and well worth the watch:
H/T: Vox
What Do You Think?
-
Have You Checked Out RoyMooreForGovernor.com Lately? You Probably Should
Oh Alabama chief justice Roy Moore.
How we love to hate you and your bigoted views on gay people. And apparently we’re not alone.
You see, Roy Moore has twice run for governor (2006 and 2010) and failed both times.
He also failed as a Presidential candidate in 2012 (yep he actually tried to be President).
He is best known however as a national laughingstock that has brought some pretty bad shame to the Yellowhammer state due to his fundamentalist views and intransigence on matters of basic human rights.
But he also seems to be entrenched as chief justice until he is forced out due to his age in 2018.
Until that great day however, you have RoyMooreForGovernor.com.
Created by a guy named Justin Gandy from Russellville, the site brutally mocks Moore for his backward beliefs on gay rights.
Here’s a taste from the site’s homepage, which is posing as a real campaign site for the judge:
“My name is Roy Moore, and I’m committed to making gay people go away because they are icky and Jesus doesn’t love them. Like you, I want to play an active role in making gay people’s lives as miserable as our own. I will work at the community, state and country level to make Alabama a safer, better place to raise our children, run a business, and forge a future filled with unlimited promise that is free from the tyranny of Clay Aiken and Sam Smith. I don’t care how angelic Sam Smith’s voice is I’m not listening to it!”
It also includes an “endorsements” page that is quite nice indeed.
Oh yes please.
Moore could run for governor again in 2018 when his term as chief justice ends, but if he does he’ll have to get creative about his choice for website URL since Gandy owns the domain until 2019.
RISE NEWS has tried reaching out to Gandy and we’ll update this story when we speak to him.
RISE NEWS is a grassroots journalism news organization that is working to change the way young people become informed and engaged in public affairs. You can write for us.
What Do You Think?
-
What Was Popular In Every Year During The 90s?
By Bryan Vu
The 1990s were a simpler time when frosted hair tips were all the rage and boy bands ruled the music charts.
The decade started with millions tuning in to watch “Cheers” every week on T.V. before it and ended with “Friends” dominating the ratings while adult women tried to copy Rachel Green’s hairstyles.
Blockbuster movie hits included a love story on a sinking ship and a disastrous theme park filled with dinosaurs. If you were a kid, there’s a good chance that you often found a pack of Dunkaroos in your lunchbox and a Capri-Sun pouch to wash it all down. You probably also owned a Super Soaker, Tamagotchi, Pokemon cards, and begged your parents one year for a Furby under the Christmas tree. Nirvana led the rise of grunge music (and sales of flannel shirts) while other artists like A Tribe Called Quest, Beastie Boys, LL Cool J, and Run-D.M.C. added to what many considered the golden age of hip-hop and rap.
There were many trends that lasted through the whole decade, but each year was also unique in its own way. To fuel your nostalgia, Sunglass Warehouse put together an infographic highlighting some of the most popular trends from the 90s.
RISE NEWS is a grassroots journalism news organization that is working to change the way young people become informed and engaged in the world. You can write for us.
What Do You Think?
-
Does The Center Of No Man’s Sky Actually Hold The Secret To Life After Death?
One could easily argue that No Man’s Sky was both the most hyped and most disappointing game of 2016, if not ever.
A nearly infinite universe was revealed to be nothing more than a series of expansive but lifeless copy and paste jobs of pre-made assets.
What many found to be the game’s largest let down was what players found at the center of the universe.
Originally rumored to hold a secret to life, understanding, or just a bunch of in-game currency, what players found was essentially a reset button.
But what if the ending to No Man’s Sky showed us what happens when we die?
According to Biocentrism, a theory created by scientist Robert Lanza, Life and Biology create the universe and not the other way around.
The theory argues that our consciousness creates the world around us, meaning space and time aren’t actually things, but are tools of our “animal understanding”.
Along with this is the belief in multiple worlds, where our choices have split one universe into different outcomes.
Read More: Can This Video Game Change Your Ideology?
Basically, your choice to read this article occurred in one universe while an alternate universe exists where you chose to scroll past.
The final part of Biocentrism suggests that our souls are essentially immortal.
Your soul can exist outside and beyond your physical body much like a hermit crab can exist outside of its current shell.
The controversial orchestrated objective reduction (Orch-OR) theory connects to Biocentrism and supports many of the near-death and out of body experiences humans have reported having throughout history.
Some scientists argue that there are simpler explanations for these visions and experiences.
According to inquisitr.com, “Skeptics have long attributed near death experiences to physical phenomena such as the brain being deprive of oxygen, not the human soul or any interaction with God or the afterlife.”
But former skeptics like Dr. Eben Alexander, a neurosurgeon who was stuck in a coma for 7 days says his near-death experience revealed a consciousness after death.
In an article for Newsweek, Alexander said his profound experience during the coma gave him “a scientific reason to believe in consciousness after death.”
“It exists, and what I saw and learned there has placed me quite literally in a new world: a world where we are much more than our brains and bodies, and where death is not the end of consciousness but rather a chapter in a vast, and incalculably positive, journey.”
The “Orch OR” theory could prove scientific evidence of our consciousness being “mere computations conducted within the neural networks in the human brain” while concurrently proving the long held belief of a separate mind, body and spirit in many religions.
So what does this mean for the ending of the game everyone loves to hate?
If your consciousness can’t die, but migrate as the Biocentrism suggests, the transfer and reset of your game once you reach the center of the universe in No Man’s Sky might be a realistic explanation of what happens when we die.
That blinding light and relocation to another universe with a clean slatemay truly be a glimpse into life after death.
That, or it could have just been a cheap way to insert replayability into the game.
Maybe in another universe, I also happened to put the $60 I spent on No Man’s Sky toward something I’d get more enjoyment from.
If you’re interested in learning more about the theory of Biocentrism, you can check out the book Biocentrism: How Life and Consciousness are the Keys to Understanding the True Nature of the Universe by Robert Lanza with Bob Berman on Amazon. You’ll also find No Man’s sky regularly discounted if you ever feel like seeing what all the fuss is about.
RISE NEWS is a grassroots journalism news organization that is working to change the way young people become informed and engaged in the world. You can write for us.
Photo Credits: Blake Patterson/ Flickr
What Do You Think?