Thursday, March 25, 2010

Polish poster art

I've long had a particular interest in Polish poster art. Initially, it was the animated and experimental film collaborations of Jan Lenica and Walerian Borowczyk that made me aware of the tradition of Polish graphic arts. Lenica having a diverse career with films that inspired the likes of Jan Švankmajer and Terry Gilliam, forrays in music, architecture, additionally he was a poster artist himself. Borowczyk also had a significant amount of training and a career in the visual arts encompassing poster art, painting, and lithography. Nonetheless, he is most known for his early animations: solo works, the aforementioned collaborations with Lenica, as well as Chris Marker, leading a surrealist aesthetic revolution into the mainstream. Yet, I digress. Eventually coming to find poster works by such names as Wiktor Sadowski, Wiktor Gorka, Andrzej Pagowski, and above all Francizsek Starowieyski (below), I became genuinely enamored with these artists that lent their craft to film, theater, opera, ballet, and even circus posters. I recently found a website that offers prints (some original) of their works, though they don't come cheap.

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Dark flow

Since 2008, a research team at NASA lead by astrophysicist Alexander Kashlinsky, has been tracking a unique phenomena at the outer reaches of our known universe. Initially, the team was studying the effects of microwave background radiation on the gases of galaxy clusters. The gases scatter the radiation as any medium diffuses energy, yet when the team noticed a peculiar amount of scattering, namely from the doppler effect, they knew the gases were moving at incredibly high velocities. Thus, the NASA researchers took note of a coherent stream of galaxy clusters traveling in a pathway at more than 2.2 million miles per hour. The hegemonic view of our universe and it's distribution of mass could not account for a gravitational pull of this magnitude.

Now, after an additional two years of study, the research team has expanded their observation, tracking more galaxy clusters, all revealing more of the same phenomenon now being referred to as 'dark flow.' Kashlinsky suggests that this observation is indicative of matter beyond our universe, extending some 47 billion light years. He emphasized that this 'dark flow' would be more difficult to explain if it traversed a 2.5 billion light year expanse and simply stopped.

Personally, as attractive as the ongoing research findings may be, I find Kashlinsky's reasoning suspect. Whether the 'dark flow' extends 47 billion light years or merely 2.5, either case would have a point of termination. Nonetheless, it is a unique finding and particularly interesting if it gives credence to any number of multiverse theories.

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

BKK

I just came across this blog Still Life in Moving Vehicles that is all dedicated to the world surrounding Bangkok taxis. The decorum such as Buddhist monk scripts, religious symbols, and figurines are all done in a measure to ensure safe travel.








Monday, March 22, 2010

"The Weed"

I'm a little late on it, however this journal article proposes Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (that is, the agent found in marijuana, THC) has a profound impact on human glioma, a cancer of the brain and spine. The following is the abstract from the article:

Autophagy can promote cell survival or cell death, but the molecular basis underlying its dual role in cancer remains obscure. Here we demonstrate that Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the main active component of marijuana, induces human glioma cell death through stimulation of autophagy. Our data indicate that THC induced ceramide accumulation and eukaryotic translation initiation factor 2α (eIF2α) phosphorylation and thereby activated an ER stress response that promoted autophagy via tribbles homolog 3–dependent (TRB3-dependent) inhibition of the Akt/mammalian target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1) axis. We also showed that autophagy is upstream of apoptosis in cannabinoid-induced human and mouse cancer cell death and that activation of this pathway was necessary for the antitumor action of cannabinoids in vivo. These findings describe a mechanism by which THC can promote the autophagic death of human and mouse cancer cells and provide evidence that cannabinoid administration may be an effective therapeutic strategy for targeting human cancers.
What this means is that THC, from marijuana, caused an accumulation of a lipid molecule called ceramide, which is instrumental in regulating cell death. This accumulation induced an ER stress response, which regards the cell organelle the endoplasmic reticulum that is responsible for folding and transporting proteins for proper use within the cell . This stress response is such that too many proteins are unfolded or misfolded, triggering the cell to halt normal function such as translation (genetic reproduction) until a homeostasis is reached. When this homeostasis is not reached, it induces autophagy, essentially a form of cell death. Thus, the findings indicate that marijuana is effective in treating cancer cells.