Dead: Grateful Dead's Weir, 'Dilbert' creator

Chariots of the Gods?

This world has lost Erich von Däniken, influential author of Chariots of the Gods?. Swiss author Erich Anton Paul von Däniken (April 14, 1935–January 10, 2026) was the author of several scientific (critics deem "pseudoscientific") books that claimed extraterrestrial (ET) influences on early human culture, including the bestselling Chariots of the Gods?, which was published in 1968. Däniken was one of the main figures responsible for popularizing the ancient astronauts or "paleo-contact" hypothesis. More

Antropomorfi detti astronauti, Area di Zurla, Nadro (ph Luca Giarelli) - Ancient astronauts

(Eyewitness News ABC7NY) Young Grateful Dead founding member Bob Weir dies at 78 of lung issues, having overcome cancer.

• Weekend Update: Dilbert on Scott Adams' racist rant (SNL)
• Erich von Däniken of Ancient Alien fame dies #aliens #archaeology

Scott Adams' racist rant to whites: 'Get away from Black people'

(TODAY) Newspapers drop 'Dilbert' over creator's racist comments

Elon Musk and other racists jump on board 'Dilbert' creator's comments

Scott Adams' racism #shorts #scottadams #dilbert

Our city is #1 best place to live in USA

Evening twilight over Berkeley, California (Alfred Georg Sonsalla/Getty Images)

.

Beloved city has neighborhoods and Cal (UC)

What is the healthiest city in the U.S. to live in? Niche.com did its annual analysis, and a California destination came out on top.

Berkeley, California, was named the healthiest city in the USA by niche.com. The Northern California Alameda County city (just across the bay from overpriced San Francisco) enjoys an average of 256 sunny days each year and a mild Mediterranean climate, allowing residents to spend ample time outdoors.

• The strangest thing about attending UC Berkeley is that no one here calls it "Berkeley." Everyone refers to it as "Cal" (or Cal Berkeley) because "Berkeley" (so often misspelled as Berkley) refers to the city, which is also sometimes called the "Republic of Berserkley" and F everywhere else because this is the best place to go to college, the greatest public university in the world since Nalanda and Timbuktu closed, rivaling the great private universities of the nation. (Wisdom Quarterly: American Buddhist Journal likely exists because Berkeley exists and, strange and counterintuitive as it may seem to outsiders, half-baked L.A. is more spiritual than Berkeley or S.F. probably because it needs to be, with so many people desperately searching for meaning in the throat chakra of the planet (thanks in large part to Hollywood film, music, radio, and TV industries). That surprised us, thinking we were going to the Shangri-La of the state where everyone would be spiritual, where the Sixties would still be alive, where San Francisco was just a BART ride away to visit Golden Gate Park and join a love in, be in, or free concert, slipping over to Haight Ashbury, but it's always so cold, and Berkeley mostly empties out for the summer when the tourists come and classes are not in session. There is KPFA.org (the founding Pacifica station even older than KPFK.org in LA, where Alan Watts got his start and where he lives on, respectively). There are so many protests on campus and in Berkeley that there is a nationwide media blackout about it. One rarely hears about all that is going on there, and every week something IS going on there. It's a nearly daily occurrence the mainstream media keeps quiet, ignores, and suppresses so that the radicalism doesn't spread as quickly to other campuses across the nation. It is the most progressive of the big schools.
• Vintage 1980’s Berkeley “Berzerkley” SF artist artwork - Etsy
• College Confidential Forums - Admissions Discussions

• In this famous scene (and song) Ben, "The Graduate" (played by a young Dustin Hoffman), is driving his red convertible to Berkeley, which is funny because he's headed the wrong direction, but that never stopped Hollywood (who needed to show him with the top down, which wouldn't look as good on the lower level that runs toward Berkeley. He's from Los Angeles and going to UC Berkeley in Berkeley to see about a girl, Elaine, which is odd because she's the daughter of Mrs. Robinson, the older married woman he's been having an affair with all summer. Had it not been for a roommate at Cal, I would never have known to see such an important film all about the wonders of legendary California.

Each year, Niche.com reveals the healthiest places in the nation, based on "a comprehensive assessment of the general health levels among residents in an area." The company considers key indicators of personal health, including smoking and excessive alcohol consumption, rates of obesity, and people's access and proximity to health care facilities, including gyms, doctors, and mental health practitioners.

And this year, Niche.com named Berkeley, California, the healthiest city in the U.S. The Alameda County city is less than half an hour from San Francisco [depending on traffic on the Bay Bridge, it would only take 15 minutes to go between the two] and boasts 256 sunny days per year [but is nearly always cooler than one would think, just like San Francisco is chilly and foggy] and a mild Mediterranean climate.

Residents don't have to travel far to enjoy time in nature and stay active. Why? — Berkeley has over 50 parks with sports facilities, trails, and playgrounds. [There's a secret swimming lake behind the campus, up the mountain on Grizzly Trail.] Additionally, places like Muir Woods National Monument, Yosemite National Park, and Pinnacles National Park offer even more options for outdoor recreation.

In fact, the city was named the No. 1 Healthiest Place to Live in America and the No. 1 Healthiest City, really driving home the point that this is indeed a healthy place.

Berkeley also snagged an A+ rating for its schools, A+ for nightlife, and an A+ for outdoor activities, which surely helps to keep its population in tip-top shape.

The only categories it falls short in are housing, where it scored a C-, crime and safety, which also nabbed it a C-, and the cost of living, where it scored a low D+. And these grades are well reflected in the local reviews. More

• MSN.com, June 7, 2025; Eds., Wisdom Quarterly

Alan watts on the illusion of self (TV)

Maya, the Illusion of the Self: Alan Watts will transform YOU

(Simply Art - Inspire) May 2, 2025: Alan Watts unpacks the ancient concept of Maya — the illusion of the self (The Matrix) — in this 27‑minute remastered talk, set to soothing meditation music and complete with accurate subtitles. Discover how our sense of “I” is shaped by thought (thing) patterns, why letting go of the selfish ego can open us to deep peace, and practical insights for seeing through what is really an illusion.

🔔 Subscribe for more life-changing wisdom and spiritual insights. ► Subscribe to Simply Art - Inspire @simplyart-inspire. Maya, the Illusion of the Self - Alan Watts will transform US

Of course, I'm real! I'm a self with a soul!

What is maya? It literally means "illusion," "magic," or "appearance" [1, 2, 3] but has multiple meanings in Indian philosophies depending on the context. In later Vedic texts, māyā connotes a "magic show, an illusion where things appear to be present but are not what they seem" [2, 4], the principle which shows "attributeless Absolute" as having "attributes" [3].

Māyā also connotes that which "is constantly changing and thus is spiritually unreal" (in opposition to an unchanging Absolute, or Brahman), and therefore "conceals the true character of spiritual reality" [5, 6].

The question becomes, Is this true of the [Five Aggregates clung to as] "self," "ego," "personality," or "soul"? Are they absolutes or conditioned phenomena coming into temporary being utterly dependent on supporting causes and conditions?

The Mahayana (Hindu-Buddhist) way of saying this is to state that self and all other phenomena are empty (Śūnyatā).

• Alan Watts, when there was a Zen boom, provided explanations and answers for Westerners wishing to understand Eastern philosophy and The Way, be that the Buddha's eightfold path or the Tao or the marga as found in the Vedas and Hinduism.
• Alan Watts (alanwatts.org), KQED; Eds., Wisdom Quarterly

NEW photos of 1960s San Francisco

Turn on, tune in, drop out: The Hippie Trail

The Hippie Trail: The Story of the Original Travel Influencers

Our quest will take us high up to the very top

(Alive & Curious) Who were the original travel influencers? This is the story of the Hippie Trail, the ultimate road trip of the 1960s and 70s, a countercultural odyssey that saw free-spirited travelers journeying overland from the U.S. and Europe to Asia in search of enlightenment and adventure.

The journey usually began in Western cities like London, Amsterdam, and West Berlin (with plenty others coming from New York and Los Angeles, San Francisco and New Jersey) before weaving through Istanbul and venturing into Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, and finally Freak Street in Nepal.

• 00:00 Introduction
• 00:52 What started the Hippie Trail?
• 04:01 The Hippie Trail routes
• 09:49 Modes of Transport
• 11:01 The Loney Planet story
• 12:53 Drug use and psychedelic rock music
• 13:22 Charles Sobhraj
• 14:21 Why did the Hippie Trail end

Natural class of drugs

Like new the Silk Road for Western Seekers

Entheogens are mind-expanding drugs that are capable of bringing out the divine that resides within. More than mere drugs and far from pharmaceuticals, these natural substances (like DMT, bufo, magic mushrooms, a fungus synthesized as LSD, harmaline, and even cannabis in some uses) may have been the lure -- along with the promise of "free love" -- of the Hippie Trail:

The Hippie Trail: West to East

Bamiyan was a destination the CIA/ISI blew up

The Hippie Trail (or Overland) was a land journey taken by members of the hippie subculture and others from the mid-1950s, all through the 1960s, to the late 1970s [2], travelling from Europe and West Asia through South Asia via countries such as

• Formerly Buddhist Afghanistan (ancient Gandhara, particularly the fabled hometown of the Buddha, Bamiyan),
• Pakistan [3],
• India,
• Nepal,
• Sri Lanka,
• Bangladesh to
• Thailand.

American hippies ruined by Pres. Dick Nixon

The Hippie Trail was a form of alternative (sometimes spiritual) tourism. One of the key elements was travelling as cheaply as possible (on a shoestring, with a knapsack, rucksack, or backpack and a big thumb), mainly to extend the length of time away from home.

Pres. Dick Nixon killed Freak St.

This is part of the trail that started in the U.S.

The term "hippie" became current in the mid-to-late 1960s; "beatnik" (BG) was the previous term from the later 1950s, when everyone was reading Jack Kerouac's Buddhism-infused The Dharma Bums.

• American Buddhist Beat Poet Jack Kerouac

At every major stop of the Hippie Trail, there were cheap hotels, cozy restaurants, and far out cafés for Westerners, who networked with each other as they travelled West and East.

These hippies tended to interact more with the local population than traditional sightseers did [1], really wanting to experience each location fully.

Pink Floyd starring in Dune (Jodorowsky)

Old Freak Street, Kathmandu, Nepal

The Hippie Trail largely ended in the late 1970s primarily due to both the Iranian Revolution resulting in an anti-Western government, and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, closing the route to Western travelers [4, 5, 1, 6].

Nowadays, a handful of overlanders, van-dwellers, and adventure travelers follow roughly the route of the old Hippie Trail [7, 8] -- destination Freak Street (Jhochhen Tole). More

The Beatles destinations Pink Floyd Jimmi Hendrix The Pudding Shop Istanbul the Lale Restaurant Magic Bus Company Goa Volkswagen Kombi VW Combi Van Travel in 1960s Travel in 1970s Role of Psychedelic Music The Bikini Killer Serpent Bangkok Drug Tourism Rishikesh Ashram The Who

• Lunar.latitude (IG), Aliveandcurious, YouTube, Dec. 15, 2024; Dhr. Seven, Pat Macpherson, Amber Larson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly Wiki edit

Summer of Love's Fantasy Fair: 1st fest

1967 Fantasy Fair and Magic Mountain Music Festival (home movie)

The Summer of Love of 1967 (wiki)

(Digitalbondo) The Summer of Love was 50 years ago, way back in 1967. The KFRC Fantasy Fair and Magic Mountain Music Festival ran from June 10th to the 11th, 1967. Here are home movies (from a kind of recording time machine) of The Seeds, Country Joe and the Fish, The Jefferson Airplane, and The Byrds by John Cuniberti. Music by The Byrds.

Why is summer for love? - It's the outfits.

June 10, 1967, was an important day for the Summer of Love and for music history.

Exactly one week later than its originally scheduled date (inclement weather the previous weekend having postponed it for a week), the Fantasy Fair and Magic Mountain Music Festival kicked off on Mount Tamalpais in Marin County, next to San Francisco.

Over two days (June 10-11, 1967), tens of thousands of music fans (many of the shiny hippies) would participate in the first rock festival in American history.

While the Monterey Pop Festival is often credited with being the first rock music festival in history, in fact it was the “Fantasy Fair” that deserves the honor.

Led by KFRC, an AM radio station, the festival featured the Doors, Jefferson Airplane, the Byrds, Sons of Champlin, and many other bands that were gaining notice throughout California and beyond.

The event was designed as a benefit...in San Francisco. More: America's First Rock Festival: The KFRC Fantasy Fair and Magic Mountain Music Festival - Summer of Love

• Digitalbondo, June 11, 2017; Seth Auberon, Crystal Q., CC Liu, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly Wiki edit

Vietnam Peace Treaty Day

1971 VIETNAM WAR PROTEST HIPPIE PEACE MOVEMENT SHORT MOVIE BY WILLIAM LING WL10014

Were the 1960s incredible? (photos)

"The times they are a changin'," icon Bob "Deal with the Devil" Dylan sang (Elaine Mayes/Getty)

.

Berkeley in the Sixties (film)

Jethro Tull has that song, "Living in the Past." We have to wonder if we're sad, pining for what was or, worse, what might have been, or worrying by always forecasting the future. Almost certainly, we're stuck in the past, thinking about all the good parts of the Sixties in Berkeley. But that means forgetting almost all of the bad. We have made progress as a country, in as much as things have not changed for the better nearly enough for our liking. Still, it's fun to reminisce and imagine how it must have been when we know it wasn't. The Sixties have good PR and drive us to arise and make things even better for the whole world.

We can learn from the CIA and Americans (DL)

The decade of the 1960s was one of the most tumultuous decades in American history. It was marked by peaceful political radicalism, violent American imperialism abroad and conservative clampdowns at home, unpopular overseas wars, popular anti-war and civil rights movements, and the terrifying threat of nuclear Armageddon in a phony "Cold War" used by cynical Russian and American leaders to control their gullible populations.

But there were breakthroughs too thanks to those citizen struggles: in civil rights, free love, reproductive rights, reverse engineering of ET technology from UFOs that came into the possession of various governments (with the US distributing the advanced technology to private industry to enrich them as it was given to the world population with the sudden appearance of transistors, chips, computers, Velcro, and more in a single century than thousands of years leading up to it, with the rate of advances still growing exponentially), and space travel.

Click through this gallery to see incredible images that capture the drama and upheaval of 1960s America... PHOTO GALLERY (Love Exploring via MSN)

Daily Show covers the RNC (gun control)

Jon Stewart, Jordan Klepper, and Ronny Chieng cover the RNC | The Daily Show

(The Daily Show) July 20, 2024: Jon Stewart covers night one of the Republican National Convention and the Trump assassination attempt. Ronny Chieng and Jordan Klepper handle nights two and three of the RNC, including Vivek Ramaswamy's appeal to Gen Z, Sarah Huckabee Sanders's minor tragedies, Hulk Hogan's guest appearance, and a speech from Trump's newly named VP pick, J.D. Vance. #DailyShow #JonStewart #Trump

Gun control abroad vs. the USA

(The Daily Show) June 29, 2023: The Daily Show correspondents John Oliver, Michael Kosta, and Roy Wood Jr. travel the world to find out why Americans are obsessed with guns and what Australia, Switzerland, and the U.K. are doing right in the fight against gun violence. #dailyshow #comedy

Poetry by Charles Harmon "Beat It"

When you're burning on the inside...

American Buddhist Jack Kerouac is recognized for his style, which is stream of consciousness called "spontaneous prose."

Thematically, his work covers topics such as Buddhism, promiscuity, his Catholic spirituality, drugs, jazz, travel, life in NYC, and poverty.

He became an underground celebrity and, with other Beat Poets, a progenitor (precursor) of the hippie movement...

He greatly influenced many 1960s cultural icons, including the Beatles, the Doors, Bob Dylan, and the founder of the Grateful Dead Jerry Garcia. More

BEAT IT

By Charles Harmon (edited by Seven)

Allen Ginsberg with Jack Kerouac

Cruising Hollywood, 1959,

family wagon, parents at the

wheel, little sisters gawking at

Grauman's and the imprints of idols,

feet, hands, endearments

etched in concrete, Walk of Fame,

pointing at the stars set in the sidewalk

between tourist toes and heels

"Look, a Beatnik!" mom directs us

toward a man who sits on the curb,

his sandaled feet dangling in the gutter,

dressed in a dark turtleneck and smart

black beret, whacking a bongo,

singing, billowing smoke

as a young woman sits next to him

with an arm around his waist, cigaretting

smoldering on his lipstick stained cheek,

as tourists drop coins in a cup

"What's a Beatnik?" I ask, but a man

without options, who looks cool doing

nothing

"They like poetry," Mom explains, "and

music, don't care too much about money,

seeking enlightenment or come what may"

Wow, I think, a man after my own heart,

as I'd already memorized dozens of poems

in school and liked to sing, a choirboy

with a radio and TV, eager to learn

the way to enlightenment, something I

read in the World Book of all the Buddha

knew, understanding stated in haiku

like a novel on James Bond in the 6th

grade, when 007 visits a faraway land

to extract useful information from the

Japanese Secret Service, offering

some spy service in return, but JSS

Head Tiger Tanaka teaches 007 how

to compose haiku instead

You only live twice

once when born and once when you 

finally face death

A spy evades capture, and a ten-year-old

is blown away, one avoids execution

the other asks his mom, Is Death here yet?

There is reality and there is fate

and are they not the same? Knowing

that we all know Death, who is yet to

come, I resolved to live, to do something

to make life amount to more than

not yet dying

So I did, I understood what the Buddha

must have meant, only etching out haiku

much later on a cube of rice paper, square

and the size of a cigarette with twisted ends,

discovering Kerouac Jack, who presented it

to an audience American, altering the rules,

setting it free

On the Road, The Dharma Bums, and

artful lines in 5-7-5 or not

all to kindle a sense of the adventure, an

excursion with and without signs

do not enter here

do not look behind

enter over there

Did it rhyme? Did I trek with Scouts

arm myself with the Sierra Club

get away with friends until my 16th

summer on the planet, hitching my sole

and the other on a hike to NorCal to visit

Berkeley and Stanford and grandparents in the Bay,

listening to the Jefferson Airplane and Grace

steering clear of the scene psychedelic, blazing

on a natural high and the books at City Lights

and a man named Ferlinghetti

who gave me a Little Red Book by Mao

a souvenir of what might have been had I

been a Beat, had I penned as artfully as

the JuBu Ginsberg and other rows at City Lights

Rodolfo Ybarra: On the Beat Generation and Bob Kaufman

Snyder, Everson, Rexroth, Jeffers, Welch, McClure

many of whom I met at their readings, discovering

former Zen monastic Leonard Cohen who sat atop

Mount Baldy overlooking L.A., searching for Truth

in nature, peace, love, spirituality, seeking

the mystical in the ordinary, while I climbed mountains

in the vast out of doors, seeking it in science at the UC

with Fritjof Capra's Tao of Physics, exploring the

parallels of East and West on a quest for Truth

ism after ism saying the same thing: we are all

connected as we learn to see

all of it a mystical experience, haiku poetry

• POEM: Me and Jack Kerouac: "Repo Man"

The Sixties: Cartoon History of a Decade

I just want freedom, free love, enlightenment

What were "The Sixties"? They were a time of protest, peace activism, fighting the power for freedoms we take for granted today: free speech, civil rights, free love, racial equality, academic freedoms, fairness...

This country used to be about pretending to be all for "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." The Sixties tried to cash that check so said, "Well, let's have it, Old People! You've been promising these three since the time of the Puritans, and we have yet to see the country live up to its ideals."

I did it! I got my spaceship to freedom! (VW)

The deception was, and it took the nation decades to figure this out, revealed: We have a right to pursue, not to catch. There's no happiness, just an endless search for it. We are lied to by TV and the media as to what would make us happy, when they know that such things -- carrots dangled before us -- will never lead to lasting happiness or fulfillment even if we could catch them.

We have to fight each other to even try to catch them. When we have a right at all, it is only to endlessly pursue. So secure some debt loans and make payments on this car and then another, on that house and then another, enter that relationship and then another...THEN you'll be happy.

Everything happens for a reason but WTF?

Make your appearance this way then another, lose this much weight then some more, grow to this height then some more...THEN you'll be happy. Own this jewelry then some more, have this experience then some more, win these honors then some more...THEN you'll be happy. It's the lie of endless consumerism. Welcome to the Machine, my son. Do what you're told, keep your head down, and just before you die, you'll be happy with nothing more to strive for, except an afterlife in heaven. So this is what you have to do to get it. We own here and hereafter.

The Sixties: A Cartoon History of the Decade That Rocked the Nation and the World

I started it. You're welcome.

This collection of cartoons is a humorous look at the characters and events that shaped the tumultuous Sixties (1960s).

The continuing tension of the

• American Cold War against the impoverished Russians,
• the crescendo of American racism that led to the Civil Rights Movement, 
• the deepening gloom of the American War on Vietnam [and the secret American bombing of Buddhist Cambodia and Laos],

• 

  Berkeley had a lot to do with it

  the Cultural Revolution in music and a questioning of morals,
• the triumph when American men pretended to step onto the moon on live TV [which was fake footage by Hollywood director Stanley Kubrick, which is not to say we never went to the moon. The Nazis got there, so there's no reason our American Nazi NASA program did not
• Woodstock and the Free Love Movement of the hippies]...

Dude, we were totally there in '69, I think.

they are all captured in the pages of this book.

So, too, are the larger-than-life figures who dominated this era:

• young, handsome first Catholic President John F. Kennedy,
• sociopath Lyndon B. Johnson,
• Tricky Dick Nixon,
• [Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.,
• Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh,
• self-immolating Buddhist monk U.S. War on Vietnam protester Thích Quảng Đức,
• UC Berkeley and anti-war/pro-peace Student Free Speech Movement Founder Mario Savio,
• genocidal Jewish madman and U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger],



Chicano/Chicana Movement: Viva La Raza!

• Barry Goldwater,
• George Wallace,
• Nikita Khrushchev,
• China's Mao Zedong,
• Cuba's Fidel Castro,
• Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh,
• Russia's Leonid Brezhnev,
• France's Charles DeGaulle,
• plus a host of supporting characters.

Brother, we just hitchhiked a ride to the show, parked in the road, then walked to the farm.

Woodstock never happened, Man, just a pipe dream! - But Hendrix played! - Oh, yeah, huh?

.

I was tripping on CIA acid: LSD

Cartoonist (and author) Bill O'Neal was there during the decade to capture the spirit of the times, primarily for The Springfield Republican in Springfield, MA.

His satirical style was a fresh departure from the staid cartoons that dominated editorial pages up to then.

For younger readers, this collection of cartoons and commentary serves as a quick and entertaining introduction to the grooviest era that ever was.

For those who lived through the decade, who of course do not remember it (or are proving they were not there if they do claim to remember it) this book offers a telling reminder of the divisive issues of the time.