Giant Ant Hill Colony Impresses Scientists (Video)

Giant Ant Hill Colony Impresses Scientists (Video) | Third Monk image 2

Nature is up to its amazing feats once again. The ant colony featured in this video is so big that it would be the equivalent of building the great wall of china.

Now I can’t speak on the method of excavation, concrete dumped into the colony then excavated, but I do hope that the majority of the colony moved on before the concrete came down to freeze this epic structure in time.

I’ve highlighted ant hills that were made into sculptures using aluminum in the past but this behemoth of a structure is a metropolis in comparison.

This giant ant hill is a testament to the complexity of life on this planet, all living things continue to grow and evolve creating things that we have never seen before, there is tons of excitement left in what we don’t know.

Giant Ant Hill Images

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The Psychological Importance of Movement and Exercise – Ted Talk (Video)

The Psychological Importance of Movement and Exercise - Ted Talk (Video) | Third Monk image 2

importance of movement

Exercise is the catalyst to learning and high brain function. Kids need to move around and activate the brain but these days schools have kids sitting for ridiculously long periods of time causing an uptick in the diagnosis of ADD-ADHD.

Children get fidgety and stop paying attention when they have not had enough movement. 20 minutes a day of movement is not enough. Exercise directly correlates to the way our brain functions.

Movement is beneficial throughout a humans life. Lack of exercise and movement may lead to a lack of motivation and depression in adults.

These two Ted Talks explore the importance of movement and exercise in school children and adults, as well as the benefits to the brain, its affect on learning and its affect on behavior.

The Importance of Movement and Exercise

Run, Jump, Learn! How Exercise can Transform our Schools: John J. Ratey, MD

Wendy Suzuki – Exercise and the Brain

Circle of Abstract Ritual – Psychedelic Stop Motion Time Lapse About Creation and Destruction (Video)

Circle of Abstract Ritual - Psychedelic Stop Motion Time Lapse About Creation and Destruction (Video) | Third Monk image 2

This short film combines 300,000 photos of riots, wildfires, and paintings in abandoned houses. The entire stop motion time lapse was created without any digital special effects.

Circle of Abstract Ritual began as an exploration of the idea that creation and destruction might be the same thing.

The destruction end of that thought began in earnest when riots broke out in my neighborhood in Anaheim, California, 2012. I immediately climbed onto my landlord’s roof without asking and began recording the unfolding events. The news agencies I contacted had no idea what to do with time lapse footage of riots, which was okay with me because I had been thinking about recontextualizing news as art for some time. After that I got the bug.

I chased down wildfires, walked down storm drains on the L.A. River and found abandoned houses where I could set up elaborate optical illusion paintings. The illusion part of the paintings are not an end in themselves in my work. They’re an intimation of things we can’t physically detect; a way to get an ever so slight edge on the unknowable.

Jeff Frost

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Trust Yourself – Terence McKenna (Video)

Trust Yourself - Terence McKenna (Video) | Third Monk image 2

Experience is real. This moment is real. How much of your own experience on this planet is tainted and perverted by different ideologies, looping thoughts, and enshrined beliefs?

Terence McKenna urges you to trust yourself. Question everything, and embrace the chaos of the world.

Claim your identity, your vision, your being, your intuition, and then act from that without regret.

Take responsibility for what you think and what you do.

Trust Yourself Waterfall

Empower Experience…

What do YOU think when YOU face the waterfall?

What do YOU think when YOU have sex?

What do YOU think when YOU take psilocybin?

It’s a wonderful thing to learn to be able to stand up and yell “Bull Shit!”. I did it when I was about 18 years old and it was the meme of the hour and it did blow their minds. It was uncivil. It was rude and crude and correct. – Terence Mckenna

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> Terence McKenna | Eco Hustler

Don’t Fall in Love With a Girl Who Travels (Video)

Don't Fall in Love With a Girl Who Travels (Video) | Third Monk

Stoner girls take pride in being free spirits and that can mean little or no attachment to things, places, and even loved ones.

Excerpts from Don’t date a girl who travels by Adi Zarsadias:

Don’t date a girl who travels. She is hard to please. The usual dinner-movie date at the mall will suck the life out of her. Her soul craves for new experiences and adventures.

Chances are, she can’t hold a steady job. Or she’s probably daydreaming about quitting. She doesn’t want to keep working her ass off for someone else’s dream. She has her own and is working towards it.

She makes money from designing, writing, photography or something that requires creativity and imagination. Don’t waste her time complaining about your boring job.

She might have wasted her college degree and switched careers entirely. She is now a dive instructor or a yoga teacher. She’s not sure when the next paycheck is coming. But she doesn’t work like a robot all day, she goes out and takes what life has to offer and challenges you to do the same.

So never date a girl who travels unless you can keep up with her. And if you unintentionally fall in love with one, don’t you dare keep her. Let her go.

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Short Film Directed by David Joseph Falossi II, Edited by Jonathan Wallace

High Culture in Spain – Cannabis Social Clubs and Hemp Museum (Video)

High Culture in Spain - Cannabis Social Clubs and Hemp Museum (Video) | Third Monk image 2

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While the Spanish culture certainly embraces their buds, it’s become clear that they do so in subtle and elegant ways. 

Barcelona Hemp Museum

The Barcelona Hemp Museum presents valuable paintings and prints depicting cannabis use throughout history and rare antiques, such as the various tools and implements used to make hemp into rope, paper and fabrics.

A medicinal section representing one of the world’s largest collections of medicinal cannabis bottles dating back to the 19th Century testifies to the widespread use of medicinal cannabis in the past.

Cannabis Social Clubs in Spain

Cannabis Social Clubs are private places where the social side of cannabis is encouraged since it is illegal in Spain to profit directly from it.

The clubs are formed by thousands of members, creating a strong pressure group supported by professionals and legislators as well as large plaintiffs firms and specialized doctors. A CSC is a social meeting place, a catalyst for art and culture in general, a “fix” on the loopholes to grow and use cannabis at a private place.

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Don’t Believe in Anybody Else’s BS – Robert Anton Wilson (Video)

Don't Believe in Anybody Else's BS - Robert Anton Wilson (Video) | Third Monk

Robert Anton Wilson shares his view on belief systems and offers us a glimpse into the framework of his own.

A must see for anyone who is having trouble harmonizing their expanding beliefs (many of which may be contradictory).

If one can only see things according to one’s own belief system, one is destined to become virtually deaf, dumb, and blind. – Robert Anton Wilson

Omega Point created this video, his youtube page has a number of similarly themed works, featuring luminaries Alan Watts, Terence Mckenna, & Carl Sagan.

truth lies robert anton wilson

Cosmic Flower Unfolding – Psychedelic Animation on Abstract Connections (Video)

Cosmic Flower Unfolding - Psychedelic Animation on Abstract Connections (Video) | Third Monk image 1

Cosmic Flower Unfolding is a psychedelic animation on the constant flow of emerging and dissolving oceanic, futuristic, and mandala forms. It is a tribute to abstraction, its connection to the inner space we inhabit and how it can be externalized.

My abstract animations investigate the metaphysical features of reality. They are designed to stimulate archetypal associations and invite the viewer to make personal connections to the visual and auditory experience without any reliance on narrative or spoken language.

My work is abstract by nature and uses non narrative film making techniques. The undercurrents of my work point to themes centered around time, cycles, the concept of infinity, and the similarities between artificial and natural systems. In a world where technology and artificial systems are becoming more prevalent, my films are a reminder that they are both a product of nature. –  Ben Ridgway, Animator

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A Gourmet Cannabis Dinner Celebration at Hunter S. Thompson’s Ranch (Video)

A Gourmet Cannabis Dinner Celebration at Hunter S. Thompson's Ranch (Video) | Third Monk image 2

To celebrate marijuana legalization in Colorado, Munchies columnist David Bienenstock traveled to Aspen, to attend a legal seminar hosted by the NORML —America’s largest group dedicated to legalizing cannabis.

And since the late Hunter S. Thompson was one of NORML’s earliest and most consistent supporters, what better way to embrace the sweet smell of herbal liberation in the Colorado than by throwing a small victory party at Owl Farm—the author and advocate’s home and “fortified compound” in Woody Creek—featuring an appropriately over-the-top pairing of fully legal cannabis and high-end cuisine?

To handle the culinary and scientific feat of preparing a multi-course marijuana-infused meal of the highest order, Munchies partnered Chef Chris Lanter of Cache Cache with cannabis-infusion expert Tamar Wise, former head of science at the world’s largest marijuana edibles company.

In all, the dinner infused four different oils, using four different ganja strains, for use in four different preparations (three savory and one dessert), with a joint of each strain set aside for smoking.

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Solar Roadways: A Safer Solar Alternative to our Concrete Jungles (Video)

Solar Roadways: A Safer Solar Alternative to our Concrete Jungles (Video) | Third Monk image 1

Solar Roadways have successfully funded their IndieGogo campaign, raising 2 million dollars for their project. 

LEDs - white Solar Roadway

Solar Roadways Claims

– A Nationwide Solar Roadway System could produce more clean renewable energy than a country uses as a whole

– Heating elements to keep roads snow and ice free

– LEDs to make road lines and signage

– Attached cable corridor to store and treat stormwater & provide a “home” for power and data cables

– Electric Vehicles will be able to charge from parking lots and driveways after roadway is in place, mutual induction technology allowing for charging while driving.

They also claim roads will be smarter and safer as a whole.

Sandpoint Sidewalk - Solar Roadway

Safer Roads with Solar Roadways

It sounds too good to be true, and perhaps it is.

I’m a fan of hearing both sides of a story, and the video below takes a critical view of Solar Roadways and its claims.

Solar Roadways, an Expensive Joke?

I’m not sure if Solar Roadways are the answer to the many questions being asked of humanity, but there are a few things we know for sure.

We need new systems that are stable-state, self-sustaining  and will work in concert with the Earth to sustain and enrich its vast web of life.

It’s not too late, and ideas like this, if not perfect, are at least moving us in the right general direction. 

What do you think?

Downtown Sandpoint 2 - Solar Roadway

Wild Child – Blowing Minds with Trippy Videos (KJ Song Rec)

Wild Child - Blowing Minds with Trippy Videos (KJ Song Rec) | Third Monk image 1

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Wild Child’s indie-pop folk sound is a wonderful addition to a relaxing time.

Their chill vibe blends smoothly with any laid-back session, and their attention to detail and creativity in their trippy music videos is the proverbial cap on the stem.

Chill out with Wild Child… let us know what you think of their sound and visual style below.

Wild Child – Rillo Talk (3D Go-Pro Special)

Rillo Talk was shot using 6 GoPro Cameras on 3D printed mounts.

Wild Child – Crazy Bird

I’ll wait around for days
this porch on which I pace
I need you mine I need me yours
You stole my breath away
You swore to me you’d stay
I’ve found something that I adore
Oh how
How we supposed to go on
Not knowing if you
bleed the way I do
I do (well I did)
are your eyes traveling elsewhere
You need to know I got the bones rolling hard against the floor
And if you left i’d break until the little pieces felt no more
Whisper the things we’d scream
now kid let’s not get mean
I need you mine I need me yours
Four walls and fancy friends
Don’t need me none of them
Because I’ve got you know and that’s enough (Well I’m glad)(Well so am I)
Let’s take good from our past
Patch holes with things that last
Let’s tear it up here you and I
Oh how
How we supposed to go on
Not knowing if you
bleed the way I do
I do (well I did)
are your eyes traveling elsewhere
You need to know I got the bones rolling hard against the floor
And if you left I’d break until the little pieces felt no more
Well these fights sure do take a lot out of me
but the secret I can tell you is I still do believe
I can’t promise that I’ll always be careful with things
But just know that I’ll expect it if you ever do leave
Sweet Marie
I love your name
Oh babe
can you turn your heart this way
Oh how
How we supposed to go on
Not knowing if you
bleed the way I do
I do (well I did)
are your bags traveling elsewhere
You need to know I got the bones rolling hard against the floor
And if you left I’d break until the little pieces felt no more

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