I have determined to discover and showcase at least one site per week that enhances our shared state of being human. I hope to find sites offering publications or activities that promote both introspection and connection. Let us hope my quests are successful and my determination lasts :-).
My first "Weekly Wonder" is To Think Is Human. The online, interactive , multimedia magazine describes itself this way:
No other media covers the past three thousand years of global thought the way we do. We want to make it easy for you to stay familiar with the great minds and incredible works of art that have created our civilization. Eternal wisdom needs to be reviewed and reviewed again; inspirational guidance needs to be constant. That's what we offer. We are certain that you will be happier and healthier if, often enough, you read To Think Is Human instead of the news. And, no one else goes to the great lengths we do to select Passages for you personally -- each of your Issues is uniquely crafted based upon your Ratings and upon your responses to our unique "picture ending" artwork presentation.
As this description mentions, To Think is Human, like Pandora from the Music Genome Project (maybe next week's wonder), endeavors to personalize content based on user feedback. Each post finishes a with set of images. Subscribers are asked to select which image best represents the text and multimedia content, for them. In other words, you introspectively reflect on your experience interacting with the content and select a visual representation of that experience.
Here is a link to the Sample/Free Tour offered as an example of the magazine's passages. This is another sample, from the category Spirituality: The Dhammapada-Gautama Buddha. Other samples can be found through the links near the top of the site's home page.
Though I wish all the conscious-enhancing wonders on the Web could be free, producing quality content does call for cash. From what I have seen, unlike Pandora, To Think is Human is not splashed with corporate advertisements (encouraging). Instead, there is a yearly subscription cost--currently $29.95, including a free T-Shirt. Subscribers receive five passages each week, selected in accordance with their previous feedback.
The publication also has a presence on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/tothinkishuman. Here, you can view an array of videos that are included as part of passages, along with the text and graphic art. Here is an example (well worth viewing):
To Think is Human draws from literature, philosophy, mythology, spirituality, history and some politics and science. From what I have seen, editor Tom Lombardo and his colleagues find content that truly reaches beyond the mundane world toward building the internal connection between each individual's mind, body and spirit...and, in turn, that individual's connection to the whole of the human experience.
I won't write on and on about my impression; I will encourage you to have To Think is Human experiences of your own.
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