avanti popolo

2 Or 3 Things I Know About Her (Excerpt) by Jean Luc Godard (1967)

2011-03-28T16:49:00.002-04:00

Henry Miller Asleep and Awake by Tom Schiller (1975)

2011-03-06T17:58:00.002-05:00

Homage to Beksinski

2011-02-24T22:40:00.001-05:00

24 February 1929 – 21 February 2005

The Saltmen of Tibet by Ulrike Koch (1997)

2011-02-01T02:03:00.001-05:00

Sweat by Thomas Hilland (2009)

2011-01-20T15:26:00.000-05:00

Altun Ha

2011-01-19T05:00:00.002-05:00

Hauschka

2010-12-01T17:18:00.000-05:00

Bharat

2010-10-16T00:49:00.010-04:00

2010-10-10T22:10:00.000-04:00

What time is it?

Tango by Zbigniew Rybczynski (1980)

2010-09-18T03:05:00.004-04:00

Homage to Beardsley

2010-08-21T23:14:00.004-04:00

21 August 1872 – 16 March 1898

Vimeo digest

2010-07-24T23:09:00.002-04:00

The Aquatic Ape

2010-07-12T00:17:00.001-04:00

Since Raymond Dart's 1924 discovery of the first ever australopithecine fossil, Australopithecus africanus, anthropology and the course of evolution has endured a perspective dominated by the hegemonic view come to be known as the Savannah Hypothesis. As the fossil record gained momentum, the view became solidified that the transition from ape to hominid proceeded in response to climatic conditions caused by a the recession of forested area. Our ape ancestors allegedly left the dwindling tree habitat in favor of the contemporaneously widespread grasslands and savannahs. This change of habitat, it is supposed, was the impetus for the behavioral and concomitant physiological changes that led to these woodland apes eventually becoming human. However, there has been a more recent call for a paradigm shift in our anthropological understanding. The Aquatic Ape Hypothesis has gained some support, as it holds that it more deftly accounts for anthropological development while not being mutually exclusive from the Savannah Hypothesis. However, as the hypothesis was first put forth in a 1960 article by marine biologist Alister Hardy and more maturely developed by the writer Elaine Morgan (from outside the scientific community altogether), it remains largely castigated from within the academic anthropological community. Nonetheless, the Aquatic Ape Hypothesis seems to succinctly account for seven points of departure that are hallmarks of the hominid:

Loss of body hair
Subcutaneous fat
Tears
Bipedalism
Ventro-vental copulation
Swimming/diving
Speech

Our understanding of human evolution we infer from our understanding of apes, our understanding of humans, our understanding of the fossil record, our understanding of climatic conditions, and our understanding of the evolutionary process writ large. Given this criteria, the Savannah Hypothesis seems a grotesque oversimplification of hominid development. Further, the Savannah hypothesis seems to suppose the course of evolution proceeded on a bias of traits for the success of the hunter-gatherer male, with maladaptive characteristics for the nurturing female. The following will briefly assess the contrasting notions of the Savannah Hypothesis with that of the Aquatic Ape Hypothesis in regard to the aforementioned seven anomalies of the human organism.

Contrary to the claims of the recession of forest area and increase in open savannah providing the impetus for evolutionary changes in our ancestors, the picture seems rather incomplete. Our reliable fossil evidence begins with Australopithecus at about 3.5 million years ago. Prior to this, we have sparse remnants of Sivapithecus which lived between 12.5 and 8.5 million years ago, yet in-between is a great void. Our understanding of climatic conditions during this "void" indicates that sea levels rose considerably in the north of Africa, inundating expanses and isolating forested areas as islands. The Aquatic Ape Hypothesis suggests that apes marooned on these tracts of forest, with dwindling resources, very well could have taken to the sea in order to supplement their needs. This would have spawned the chain of events that would lead our ancestors on a unique path into the sea only to return upon the sea's retreat. Yet, to gain credibility, we will need to analyze how the hypothesis explains the course of hominid evolution.

1. Loss of body hair

The Savannah Hypothesis best explains the loss of body hair in the hominid as a function of two factors. The first factor is the emergence of game hunting causing a potential for overheating, leading to hair loss and sweating to keep the body cool. The second factor suggests that the problem of hair dwelling parasites and related diseases would be eliminated were hairlessness naturally or sexually selected. However, both factors have no parallels. It seems a curious state of affairs for nearly all African mammals to maintain their fur with the exception of mud and water "wallowers." This may be taken as a case in point in perpetuating the fallacy that hair only insulates heat - in fact, the hair maintains temperate air close to the body, warding off excessive heat as well as cold. It might be noted that the vast majority of "naked" mammals are those that have followed a course to becoming fully aquatic or wallowers. These would include: cetaceans (whales, dolphins, and porpoises), sirenians (manatees, dugong, etc.), hippopotamuses, elephants, and rhinoceroses. Further, it may be noted that sweating is a maladaptive trait for the open savannah, depleting the body rapidly of essential water and the electrolyte sodium.

2. Subcutaneous fat

One of the instrumental factors in Alister Hardy first positing an aquatic episode in hominid evolution was the deposition of energy in subcutaneous fat - a ubiquitous characteristic amongst aquatic mammals and one particular to humans as a terrestrial mammal. The Savannah hypothesis best explains subcutaneous fat as a reaction to hairlessness; the cooling mechanism proved to be too successful, necessitating fat to keep the body warm enough. This seems rather careless when considering the fact that humans maintain all of the hair follicles and very well could re-evolve a coat for warmth. Nonetheless, subcutaneous fat is a characteristic in aquatic mammals that seems to aid in buoyancy as well as insulation against the perils of water temperatures. In fact, it seems rather maladaptive for some whale species that dive to great depths and would find the buoyant nature of the fat to be a hindrance, yet would still provide the benefit of insulating body heat effectively. It may be noted that in human newborns, the extent of their fatty tissue stands in great contrast to other primates.

3. Tears

Although all mammals have tear glands which bathe the eyeball in a protective saline solution, no other terrestrial mammals exhibit the phenomenon we can call weeping. Though other mammals may howl and whimper, even our closest primate "relatives" lack the tears we associate with it. The only phenomenological cognate amongst mammals occurs in pinnipeds (seals) which display tears in times of distress. Curiously, sea birds contain nasal glands similar to our tear glands that drain fluid. In 1956 a study was conducted in which cormorants were fed sea water via feeding tube at 6% of their body weight. The motivation for the study was to observe how a diving bird could manage incidental ingestion of sea water. As expected, the cormorants were found with higher concentrations of soduim in the urine, yet a surprising discovery was the nearly pure sodium content excreted from the cormorants' nasal glands. It isn't difficult to extrapolate that our hominid ancestors could have developed a similar, convergent evolutionary coping mechanism to rid the body of ingested excess sodium in sea water. This mechanism for dispensing waste product could have later been modified for further ridding the body of chemical wastes produced by stress responses.

4. Bipedalism

Bipedalism is often suggested as a result of leaving the hands free to carry tools and the need to see farther in the high brush of the grasslands. However, barring a counterbalancing tail, a phenomenon of locomotion emergent only one time in biological history seems suspect, surely others in the same habitat would follow some convergent evolutionary trait. Also, it seems counter-intuitive for the freeing of the hands to be any sort of evolutionary impetus. We can see from chimpanzees and other knuckle walking apes with whom we share a common ancestor, they are quite adept at maintaining a grasp on objects during locomotion. Further, the fossil record indicates that bipedalism was present in the Australopithecus yet tool-making was not mastered for nearly another two million years with Homo habilis. Although most primates seem to have a fear of water, wading upright has been witnessed specifically in different macaque species naturally in hunting for sea food or washing food in a controlled experiment. This is analogous to the claim that Alister Hardy first presented as an impulse toward bipedalism: advancing into the sea would not permit one to venture very far as a quadruped, it would be natural to proceed on two. However, when swimming, the natural reaction is to take a horizontal orientation. It is likely that this coupled with the penchant for wading would provide a natural impetus for skeletal realignment of the spinal and pelvic adaptations we see as a predisposition for bipedalism. Of course, this taking place within water would not come with the precarious question of balance on terra firma.

5. Ventro-ventral copulation

Ventro-ventral copulation, or belly-to-belly, is a practice seldom found in any other primate. Perhaps the only exception is the bonobo (though it is not a regular and common practice therein). Nonetheless, human anatomical study informs us that ventro-ventral copulation is a coital position for which humans are adapted; the vaginal canal is angled to accommodate this position, an attribute unique to hominids and no other primate. The Savannah Hypothesis proffers that the physiological and behavioral adaptation are such as to enhance pair bonding. However, many other primates practice pair bonding and yet we do not see the advent of ventro-ventral copulation. It has been observed amongst whales, dolphins, seals, manatees, and other aquatic mammals that ventro-ventral copulation is veritably the norm, one with which humans conform, particularly within the perspective that humans underwent an aquatic episode before returning to land.

6. Swimming/diving

It is often conjectured that human swimming is strictly a cultural, nurture phenomenon. However, in the same manner we now accept speech and language to be partially hardwired yet transmitted culturally, it is not far fetched to suppose the same for swimming. Many claim that primates have an innate fear of water that is distinct among mammals and swimming is not natural to humans. However, the proboscis monkey, found in the swamplands of Borneo, has been found miles out at sea. Also, the talapoin, a monkey native to central Africa dives into water as a defense strategy. Of course, there are physical and behavioral observations that aid in understanding the human penchant for water. The human nose has nostrils that differ quite remarkably from other primates. One might suppose human nostrils to present a splash shield. Also, the position of the larynx in the human permits breath control not found in other primates. The human capacity for "holding ones breath" is rather unique. The most controversial evidence stems from research begun by Russian gynecologist Dr. Igor Tjarkovsky on infants in the 1960s. Before being condemned and shut down by the USSR Ministry of Public Health, Tjarkovsky pioneered underwater childbirths, now a growing trend in natural births. Tjarkovsky's observations began on his premature daughter who barely weighed over two pounds. Putting her in warm baths, rationalizing it to be simulation of the amniotic fluid, he found that at three months, she was able to hold her breath up to three minutes under water without any adverse effects. Noting a remarkable development in his daughter, Tjarkovsky then went on to incorporate these techniques into his practice. Infants, have been found to exhibit reflexes to not breathe when submerged as well as "ipsilateral flexions" which amount to swimming motions of the arms.

7. Speech

One of few traits that are markedly distinctive of humanity is the capacity for speech and language. The Savannah Theory best accounts for the development of speech as a manner of instructive communication in the making of tools and/or a measure of coordination in big game hunting. Nonetheless, many terrestrial animals hunt cooperatively without the use of verbal communication. Also, it seems odd for communication to follow a verbal track rather than the already highly developed visual one in terms of tool-making instruction. However, we can gather primates, particularly our closest relatives to be social by nature. Upon that presumption, if we then posit the Aquatic Hypothesis, it then follows that the exigencies of locomotion in water would prevent effective visual, tactile, or olfactory communication and facilitate a need to develop a vocal form. Unequivocally, other aquatic mammals have displayed a convergent evolution to harbor vocal capabilities. Namely, dolphins, whales, and the Ross Seal all have been documented to use vocal communication and echolocation under water.

Tadanori Yokoo

2010-06-27T17:10:00.000-04:00

Aggressive Maneuvers for Autonomous Quadrotor Flight

2010-06-02T17:34:00.001-04:00

The Secret Powers of Time by Philip Zimbardo

2010-05-24T11:55:00.000-04:00

Kon-Tiki by Thor Heyerdahl (1950)

2010-05-21T03:44:00.000-04:00

Frankenstein's bacterium

2010-05-20T23:22:00.011-04:00

Apprearing in tomorrow's edition of Science, we have news of considerable advances in genomics from the J. Craig Venter Institute. One team of geneticists at the institute led by Daniel Gibson succeeded in creating a synthetic genome capable of reproduction. While the genome is not a Frankenstein-esque monster, it is synthetic in the sense that it is the first ever genome constructed from raw chemicals. The process has been long and daunting, calling on years of previous breakthrough work from the institute in order to materialize the bacteria chromosomes in yeast and then transplant them successfully. Often using the analogy of computer terminology, Venter explains that once a genome has been sequenced and placed in a recipient cell's cytoplasm (devoid of genetic material), the newly inserted genome "boots up like software."

Of course this instance wasn't without some error at the outset. The genome the team attempted to synthesize was switched at one point during the course of the project. Initially using a simpler, smaller genetic sequence, the team found that the cell's phasing took so long to cycle, they needed to switch gears and use another species in order to yield results. In the end, the constructed genome was that of Mycoplasma capricolum, a bacterium containing 1.1 million base pairs. Even so, the initial trial of M. capricolum didn't yield any results as the cell remained completely inactive. The project underwent a delay of three months while software analysis checking the constructed genome indicated a single base pair was a "typo" and the team located and amended the mistake.

This research proved not only the magnitude of possibility the field holds, but also the necessity for complete accuracy in genetic engineering. Venter and his institute have plans, provided no governmental interference, to pursue wholly synthetic creations that could provide effective health, commercial and industrial applications to some of the most pressing world issues of energy, waste, and medicine. Of course, from the pitfalls in the process of this research, it logically follows that the essential components that make nature's "software" work need to be understood before completely fabricated species have their "software" engineered entirely anew.

TED provided video of J. Craig Venter's press release.

Holographic paradigm

2010-05-15T01:32:00.007-04:00

I've resurrected some notions regarding unified theories of consciousness and the universe. The holographic paradigm is of particular interest as a perspective to account for anomalies in our material understanding of the known physical realm. In the video below, note Michael Talbot's depiction of entanglement through the prescient analogy of an aquarium. His characterization of a reduction toward some cosmic unity seems to acquiesce with the concepts that begat my introduction to the holographic paradigm. I've always found it a curious notion the manner in which quantum physics portrays the former classical model particles as energy fields. Accounting for the disparate nature of these fields must (one would think) reduce to some uniformity. Perhaps certain quantitative properties give rise to qualitative ones as is such in electromagnetic radiation. Simple adjustments in frequency is the attribute responsible for all types of electromagnetic radiation let alone the colors in the visual spectrum. This may be a univocal paradigm for the manner in which energy fields interact and formulate the holographic interface of reality.

Null-i

2010-05-13T23:58:00.023-04:00

In previous musings, I questioned the hegemonic notion that all life on Earth has a common ancestor. I expressed this notion as thus: "If conditions on Earth supported one biological genesis, then these conditions were such that a genesis could have been supported on multiple occasions." For whatever independently arriving at this conjecture is worth, I later found this notion to be referred to as the Shadow Life Hypothesis. The ramifications vary based upon how stringent one's claims are therein, yet the foundation of the hypothesis is simply more than one origin of life. However, published in the latest edition of Nature, life's origins were analyzed.

Douglas Theobald, a biochemist at Brandeis University, began his study by selecting 23 proteins ubiquitous across the taxonomic spectrum. Each species represents these proteins via a structure that is particular to that given species. Theobald then ran the gamut of statistical analyses in order to yield the likelihood of any model to derive these protein structures. His computational simulations indicated that the universal common ancestor hypothesis is 10^2,860 times more probable than any concatenation of multiple ancestors. In spite of the fact that many microbiologists may note that microorganisms of disparate species may swap genetic material, the computations accounted for this and still found a single ancestor to be the most efficacious solution.

*Blue dotted line represents swapped genetic material

Theobald qualifies that his study does not in any way suggest the number of times life on Earth emerged. Nonetheless, it does suggests that only one strain would ultimately reign supreme. In any case, while we may concede that this statistical analysis is perfectly cogent, it may be begging the question with regard to our taxonomic categorization. Further, Theobald's statistical analysis as a formal study is questionable; our notion of nature as a pinnacle manifestation of logical eloquence does not always prevail. Considering what we know of the human genome (and genomics writ large), the retention of archaic sequences from genetic ancestors that no longer code for active traits serves as a case in point where the precedent of logical eloquence and simplicity in nature breaks down in biology. (**EDIT** - in light of my critique, I just happened upon this article.)

Why Cecco Beppe Does Not Die

2010-05-12T00:11:00.000-04:00

Troglodyte

2010-05-07T20:01:00.003-04:00

Today's edition of Science includes the article, "A Draft Sequence of the Neandertal Genome." The aptly titled article not only describes this rough sequence of the neandertal genome, but offers particularly intriguing commentary on the difficulties of ancient DNA retrieval. Yet, most importantly, the article compares the genome of Homo neanderthalensis with that of five modern humans.

Only recent advances have permitted ancient DNA retrieval. In spite of this, problems persist as remains are replete with microbial colonization. The natural process of putrefaction introduces the DNA of microbes which begin to interfere. Roughly 95-99% of the samples were comprised of microbe DNA, which had to be treated with enzymes to "enrich" the samples such that the ratio of neandertal DNA was accessible. Further, a close genetic "relative" must serve as a basis of comparison to ensure the research is on track. It then logically follows that sequencing the neandertal genome would imply an analysis with respect to modern humans.

Insodoing, DNA samples were collected from 21 late Pleistocene (±38,000 year-old) bones of three neandertal women discovered in Croatia's Vindija Cave and compared to samples from five individuals from China, France, Papua New Guinea, Southern Africa, and Western Africa. The genome was analyzed across genetic "hotspots" derived from known deviations between chimpanzee and human DNA. The results suggested that neandertals fall within the degree of genetic variation found in modern humans. There were only five genes found to be distinctly modern human. Interestingly, there was greater variation amongst the neandertal genome when compared to those of the modern human genomes from both African individuals than all non-African samplings.

Considerable speculation on the potential for human and neandertal cross-breeding has circulated academia with regard to hominid evolution for some time. Nonetheless, the hope that this study could formulate a conclusive posit on the notion is unfulfilled. The article suggests that based upon the research, neandertal and human divergence from a common ancestor is too recent to confirm or deny any definitive understanding for the genomic overlap.

La Soufriere By Werner Herzog (1977)

2010-05-06T21:03:00.001-04:00

New findings on AIDS non-progression

2010-05-05T19:54:00.005-04:00

I wrote on AIDS non-progressors some time ago, yet today new information was published in Nature pertaining to the genetics behind individuals whose immune systems are seemingly miraculously able to maintain HIV from developing into full-blown AIDS.

The article explains that for some time there has been a known link between these AIDS non-progressors and the expression of the distinctive HLA B57 gene. A team of researchers led by MIT Professor Arup Chakraborty and Harvard Professor Bruce Walker observed that this gene is responsible for immune systems producing an abundance of CD8+ T cells, the killer T cells that destroy infections such as HIV. All T cells bind to foreign proteins on the surface of infected cells; they then seek out all other cells with this same particular foreign protein. The unique CD8+ T cells have the ability to not only bind to one specific protein, but seek multiple proteins and thus destroy any infections that have mutated.

The key to the function of these T cells is their interaction with self-peptides in the thymus. The variety of self-peptides in the thymus dictate the number and type of T cells that can be produced. The variety of self-peptides is a consequence of the HLA genes, including the aforementioned HLA B57.

Based on these findings that illuminate the workings of the immune system, the researchers are optimistic that this may lead to a potential "vaccine." Since all individuals possess the CD8+ T cells, the difference only being in number, they reckon they may find a way to provoke the same production of CD8+ T cells in all individuals as that of those with the HLA B57 gene. There is however one negative repercussion noted about individuals with this gene. The unique ability of these abundant T cells to bind with many proteins means it often does so with healthy cells. Individuals with the HLA B57 gene, therefore, have a high prevalence of autoimmune disease.

Om from India

2010-05-05T17:51:00.008-04:00

Located in the West Village, Om from India is a unique shop that specializes in original lithographs of traditional Hindu religious imagery. The collection largely represents the primitive technique of limestone block prints used from the late 19th century until the 1940s. Prints can only be purchased in person and by appointment. Nonetheless, the website offers a great sampling of their compendium.

Priča Jedne Ljubavi

2010-05-04T05:20:00.000-04:00

Stereotypes in Williams Syndrome Children

2010-04-18T23:04:00.003-04:00

A new study (journal article here) suggests curious findings pertaining to stereotypes in children with Williams Syndrome. Williams Syndrome is a disorder caused by the deletion of about 28 genes from chromosome 7. This genetic disorder is most often manifest in cognitive delays, inimitable physiological (namely facial) features, a penchant for music, and a strikingly unrestrained social nature. Stereotypes, which the article succinctly expresses as "implicit attributions to an individual based on group membership categories such as race, religion, age, gender, or nationality," seem to have a peculiar role in our mental life. The unique social nature of individuals with Williams Syndrome posed an interesting subject for analysis. In the study, researchers contrasted a control group with that of one in which all members were children diagnosed with Williams Syndrome. The results indicated that children with Williams Syndrome lacked any racial stereotypes. Oddly, the same group did, however, display stereotypes regarding gender - in fact, gender stereotypes were uniform across children in both groups. The research concluded that heretofore no human group has ever displayed a lack of racial stereotyping. Further, causes for the formation of stereoptypes across disparate categorizations must not be acquired in a consistent manner.

Truck art of Pakistan

2010-04-18T23:02:00.001-04:00

Triggerfish

2010-04-01T16:04:00.003-04:00

A new contact lens from Sensimed, called the "Triggerfish," could provide great potential in learning about the relatively poorly understood condition of glaucoma, a deterioration of the optic nerve. The lens is made of a typical silicon hydrogel used for soft contact lenses, yet it contains a microprocessor and strain gauge. The strain gauge measures changes in the diameter of the cornea that are a result of variations in the amount of fluid within the eye. This fluid accumulation causes the high intraoccular pressure that has been linked to the disease. This noninvasive machine interface collects data on any fluctuation in the cornea diameter and transmits the data via radio waves, permitting a close monitoring of the progression.

Fine collection of curious sound objects

2010-03-26T17:59:00.000-04:00

FINE COLLECTION OF CURIOUS SOUND OBJECTS from Georg Reil on Vimeo.

Polish poster art

2010-03-25T00:49:00.012-04:00

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.

Dark flow

2010-03-24T15:47:00.003-04:00

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.

BKK

2010-03-23T14:48:00.005-04:00

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.

"The Weed"

2010-03-22T15:00:00.000-04:00

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.

Sans Soleil by Chris Marker (1983)

2010-01-12T18:42:00.001-05:00

Pt. 1

Pt. 2

Opening to the Typophyle Film Festival 5 by Brent Barson

2009-09-21T08:12:00.004-04:00

P.S. no CG effects.

Stephen Scott - "Entrada" (Performed by the Bowed Piano Ensemble)

2009-09-03T17:46:00.001-04:00

The quantum leap

2009-08-27T15:28:00.002-04:00

In 1965, Intel co-founder Gordon E. Moore described a business trend that the number of transistors which can feasibly be placed in an integrated circuit has increased at a fixed exponential rate since the invention of the integrated circuit in 1958. To the present day, we have seen processing speeds doubling roughly every 18 months. This trend, which has come to be known as Moore's Law, has seen the inception of personal computing devices in the 80s, their ascent in the 90s, and the widespread networking of them in the 2000s. However, the trend is not without bounds.

It is true that the generally held belief is such that the trend described by Moore's Law will continue for at least another decade; but then what? Physicists allege that Moore's Law will collapse within a few decades due to the limitations of silicon processors. Currently, the smallest chip has a layer of silicon no more than 20 atoms across and before long this number is expected to drop to a mere 5 atoms. At this point, due to the uncertainty principle in such a confined area, the silicon will be unstable and result in short circuits.

Of course this seeming inevitability does not mean the end of computing. Rather, where silicon semiconductors break down, is the operating level of quantum computers. Quantum computing was first proposed in the 1980s by Richard Feynman and Paul Benioff -- a process which exploits the ambiguities of quantum mechanics. That is to say, quantum computers run on mere atoms, utilizing the fundamental principle and superposition which states that the state of a particle such as an electron is ambiguous. Thus, in a quantum computer, the atoms are in an unfixed state and by using probabilities, a simple two quantum bits, or qubits, of information can have four disparate values (00, 01, 10, 11 in binary); five qubits can have twenty-five values and so on. When functioning with sizable chunks, the processing speed will far surpass current digital processors.

The upshot of quantum computing I see as twofold. Human thought operates at a speed of about five-hundred trillion bits per second, a level that would take approximately 50 years to achieve with our conventional methods, a duration which cannot be sustained. It is likely we will see serious and considerable breakthroughs in artificial intelligence only by way of harnessing quantum computing. Although current efforts in the realm of quantum computing have been relegated to qubits in the single digits, many believe it is only a short matter of time the field gains momentum. In addition to implications for artificial intelligence, the revolution of quantum computing will first see the drop in demand for silicon and corresponding drop in price. Before silicon valley becomes the new rust belt, it is likely to have widespread applications and give rise to ubiquitous computing -- putting processors in pretty much anything and everything.

Akira Naito's Yuri I

2009-08-25T15:23:00.000-04:00

Recycling

2009-08-23T02:18:00.000-04:00

via re-nest

Wine corks: Yemm & Hart (www.yemmhart.com), which produces recycled building materials, turns used corks into floor and wall tiles.
Foam packaging: Lightweight "peanuts" made from expanded polystyrene (EPS) contain 25 to 100 percent recycled material. The Plastic Loose Fill Council (www.loosefillpackaging.com) has a "Peanut Hotline" (800-828-2214) you can call to find local recycling centers, including chain-store shippers such as Pak Mail and The UPS Store. To recycle large, molded chunks of EPS used to cushion televisions, air conditioners and such, contact the Alliance of Foam Packaging Recyclers (www.epspackaging.org).
Potato chip bags and those other foil packaging that often are used to wrap up junk food can be recycled at Terracycle.net.
Tyvek envelopes: Quantities less than 25: Send to Shirley Cimburke, Tyvek Recycling Specialist, 5401 Jefferson Davis Hwy., Spot 197, Room 231, Richmond, VA 23234. Quantities larger than 25, call 866/33-TYVEK.
CDs, jewel cases, DVDs, audio and video tapes, pagers, rechargeable and single-use batteries, PDAs, and ink/toner cartridges: For $30, GreenDisk will send you a cardboard box in which you can ship them up to 70 pounds of any of the above. Your fee covers the box as well as shipping and recycling fees. 800/305-GREENDISK, www.greendisk.com.
CDs/DVDs/Game Disks: Send scratched music or computer CDs, DVDs, and PlayStation or Nintendo video game disks to AuralTech for refinishing, and they’ll work like new: 888/454-3223, www.auraltech.com.
Phone Books: If your local recycling center accepts phone books, drop them off there. Otherwise contact the closest Project ReDirectory center. Find your local center with an Internet search or by contacting the company issuing the directories.
CFLs: Many people already know that IKEA accepts your old CFLs. So do many hardware and home improvement stores though they may charge if you're not replacing an old bulb with a new one. LampRecycle.org lists businesses and organizations that will recycle these bulbs.
Carpets, Rugs, Padding: There are places that will try to recycle used carpets and rugs rather than toss them into landfill. To recycle yours (depending on your area) try checking with the Carpet America Recovery Effort, UGA Carpet Recycling Resource, the California Intergrated Waste Management Board or any other number of organizations geared towards recycling.
Old Medicine: Rather than tossing it into the toilet (where it can end up in the water supply) or in the garbage, why not recycle it? Some states have enacted drug recycling programs including: So far, the following states have recycling programs: AK, CO, IL, KS, MA, MN, NE, NM, NY, OK, PA, SC, WV. Check the National Conference of State Legislatures website for updated information.

The End of Food

2009-08-16T02:22:00.000-04:00

Thomas Pawlick attempts to expose the agenda behind corporate agribusinesses in The End of Food. Surely, it doesn't even cross the minds of most consumers that through the corporatization of foodstuffs, produce is grown in strains that will withstand transportation and handling, meat will be treated with additives to maintain freshness, and countless other procedures will be conducted to present appealing grocery options. The problem is that these choices made for shelf-life and appearance come at a cost; nutritional value is sacrificed.

The basic underlying principle is a good one to raise, nonetheless, Pawlick is a little too ambitious with his thesis. The large-scale trend in declining food quality Pawlick backs up with data from US Department of Agriculture Food Tables as well as Canadian Nutrient Data from 1963 to the present. Pawlick claims that the downward trend has been so significant that at the rate his data indicates, within a few decades, food will no longer have any nutritional value -- we will have to rely on suppliments -- it will be "the end of food." His unabashed use of inductive reasoning is abhorrent. Just because my alarm clock goes off every morning without fail, doesn't mean the batteries won't simply crap out one day. Clearly, if we can attribute the decline in a tomato's nutritional value to opting for a more hardy strain that has less vitamin content, it isn't the case that the tomato inherently has a disease withering its nutrients. Rather, it has been substituted with a different kind of tomato and it is absurd to think that the future of the tomato is such that it will be systematically substituted for strains of asymptotically decreasing nutritional value.

Further, Pawlick's data is presented in such a manner that it is misleading. He cites data that ranges from 1963 to the present. It isn't clear whether data was collected at any intervals in-between. Also, he always quantifies data as percentages, for example, suggesting that the potato lost 100% of its vitamin A between 1963 and 2005. The initial amount of vitamin A may have just as well been a minute trace amount and maybe even a fluke at that. Needless to say, I did not even make it halfway through the book -- waste of paper.

2009-08-10T02:21:00.000-04:00

Trans-Europ-Express by Alain Robbe-Grillet (1966)

2009-07-28T23:00:00.000-04:00

Destino by Salvador Dali, Walt Disney (1949)

2009-07-10T02:55:00.001-04:00

Free rice

2009-07-04T04:45:00.001-04:00

Freerice.com is a website which not only works as an effective learning tool, it also serves a charitable humanitarian function. The website prompts multiple choice questions in topics ranging from identifying famous paintings to geography, vocabulary in five languages, chemical element symbols, and mathematics. Questions ascend in difficulty as the user selects the correct answers and level of difficulty is determined as the system tracks the number of correct responses. You would be hard pressed to find someone that is unable to find a challenge somewhere on the website. Even incorrect responses pop back up after a few turns so the user has another chance.

Each correct answer donates ten grains of rice to the United Nations World Food Program. The rice is paid for by the site sponsors. Further, where and when possible the donations are used to buy rice from sources domestic to the beneficiaries so as to stimulate their economies. Unwittingly, many humanitarian efforts send foodstuffs and other goods from external sources, incurring both transportation costs and competition. This program is conscientious enough to take measures in evading the problem.

Tenth dimension

2009-06-29T12:07:00.001-04:00

Here is an elegant 11 min. animation depicting the proposed 10 dimensions of the multiverse.

Dead Aid

2009-06-22T20:51:00.002-04:00

With estimates of world human population to reach 9 billion by 2050, even the most generous appraisals from experts suggest a sustainable level to be a mere half of where we are today (6-7 billion). Unstable growth in human population has far reaching repercussions from the amount of strain placed on resources. Sure, with the proliferation of the "green" movement, the effectiveness of our resources may be increased, but that will only take us so far. The emerging Asian countries that have dominated world population growth have shown clear signs of a plateau as successful development has taken hold in their economies. The gap between geographic regions with rapid and slow population growth is undeniably linked to disparities in wealth. However, as reported by the World Bank, Sub-Saharan Africa alone is at a rate of increase that will constitute 20% of the world population by 2050. So then, if we effect the economic circumstances in Africa, in-so-doing perhaps we can bring more stability to world population growth.

In Dead Aid: Why Aid is Not Working and How There is a Better Way For Africa, Dambisa Moyo provides a no holds barred attack on the economic situation of the African continent, suggesting that foreign aid monies counterintuitively hinder economic growth rather than catalyze it. She provides a detailed critique, yet more importantly, provides alternative economic models for climbing out of the ditch that has been dug.

In the wake of a WWII, in 1947 George C. Marshall, US Secretary of State, outlined how a war ravaged Europe would receive US$13 billion (US$100 billion today, adjusted for inflation) from the USA for reconstruction. The success of the Marshall Plan served as the paradigm for raising the foundering economies of Africa. Over US$1 trillion has poured into Africa from richer countries since the 1940s. What no body has bothered to address is that post WWII Europe was on a reconstruction mission and was not so dependent upon aid, marking only 5% of GDP at most for any recipient country for the five year life of the program. African countries on the other hand are still developing, lacking the infrastructure and political stability to effectively use the foreign aid as one would with investment capital. Foreign aid to African countries has continued for well over 50 years and averages 15% of GDP across the continent today. It's a substantial amount of money, but how is it hurting Africa?

Systematic aid (monies from government-to-government or from organizations such as the IMF, to be contrasted with humanitarian aid) has consequences that have largely crippled the African continent. In the context of Africa, the legal borders carved across the continent from colonial powers with no regard for tribal homelands has led to great political instability and stalemates in their democratic politics. Eventhough aid is lent at interest rates far below the market, underdeveloped countries riddled with kleptocracy and cronyism, feed the pockets of corrupt officials and force the country into further aid-dependency to pay back the interest. In an underdeveloped economic climate, the influx of aid monies cannot be absorbed quick enough into the economy due to the lacking industry; there are often use-it-or-lose-it conditionalities and thus countries are too hard-pressed to find ways of investing wisely. This reduction in savings and investment means more money chasing consumer goods. Whether the consumer goods are produced locally or imported, the industry will have to keep up with demand, otherwise the scarcity of goods inflates prices. The inflationary consequences can choke off exports of domestic goods as prices are no longer competitive on the international market.

It's not just a slippery slope argument, these events have spiraled out of control for decades upon decades across the majority of the African continent due to the foreign aid economic growth model -- however, Moyo proposes several alternative approaches to raise the economies of African nations, approaches which have been tried and tested successfully in South Africa and Botswana.

Between Foreign Direct Investment and trade, there is great potential to get Africa on the right track. Yet, the tendency of developed nations to support domestic agro-business with government subsidies coupled with strict intra-African trade tariffs has left little ground for any economic growth from trade programs in Africa. That is with one exception; the ascent of the economic powerhouse of China has already positioned itself as a major player for the region. As China has seen unprecendented growth levels, Africa's resources pose a mutually beneficial relationship. Abundant natural resources and cheaper labor than in the developing Southeast Asia can mean big dollars for China. As of now only baby steps are being taken, but this comes along with the promise of a full-fledged China-Africa alliance.

Innovations in banking also hold the key to financial success in Africa. How can small businesses begin without loans? And how can loans be obtained when people have next to nothing for collateral? Muhammad Yunus, a Bangladeshi national was rewarded for his revolutionary approach to finance structuring with a Nobel Peace Prize in 2006. Yunus' approach was to revaluate the lacking quantitative assets of the poorest, most rural people with their qualitative assets; the opportunity to receive loans based on a community of interdependency and trust. The way it works is that a group of individuals form a coalition in order to receive the loans they desire. Person A receives a loan and if and only if person A repays the loan with interest does person B get their loan, and so on. Thus, a community is implicitly liable, willing to help a potential defaulting individual in order to get loans for the rest of the community. This banking procedure has popped up across dozens of countries already. Further banking reforms include the global decentralization of banking loans. Suppose a Burundian man wants US$3,000 on loan. (Though it presupposes internet infrastructure) through an online interface, the risk can be divied up by individuals the world over by loaning with a predetermined interest rate in denominations of their choosing until the Burundian man has his desired loan.

There is no question that the private sector is the means to raise up African economies. The unconditional giving of aid to African governments has fueled corruption; when there is accountability to foreign monies, the stealing will only happen once before the country is cut off. (In contrast, the World Bank and IMF is essentially part of an industry of foreign aid with many jobs involved in the giving of aid. Insofar as the aid is being distributed, jobs are secure and there is no accountability for how the aid funds are used). If we can bring more economic security to the developing world, we can bring more stability to the world as a whole. However, it is imperative that in building up from ground zero, we heed to a conscientious approach to social and environmental factors.

Orhan Gencebay

2009-05-31T02:52:00.000-04:00

The missing link?

2009-05-19T16:59:00.011-04:00

Today a press conference at the American Museum of Natural History in New York with Dr. Jørn Hurum of the University of Oslo revealed that a fossil excavated 25 years ago is much more than it first appeared to be. After 2 years of study at the Oslo Natural History Museum, the cat-sized Eocene fossil named Ida, after Hurum's daughter, has been claimed to be a "missing link." However, Darwinius masillae is not quite what the media has hyped it up to be in calling it a "missing link" which would suggests an evolutionary step in the divergence of anthropoids from prosimians. Rather, it is a "missing link" in that it was a link we didn't know was there - part of a larger group Adapoidea, from which humans, great apes, and lemurs have all descended. In other words, it's not a missing link at all since it is in no way a homonid. Perhaps the fossil's greatest significance resides in that, barring human burial, never before have any primate remains been so incredibly preserved.

The remarkably intact fossil was found preserved in oil shale in the Messel Pit in Germany. The Messel Pit is known as a treasure trove of fossils today due to the formation of the pit. What was once a volcanic crater about a half-billion years ago, over time became filled with groundwater, forming a deep, still lake. Very little microbial life could survive at the depths of the lake. Surrounded by rich, diverse rainforest at the time, the accumulation of noxious gases coupled with the rainforest downpours, many helpless animals were swept into the lake (Ida appeared to have a broken wrist) to settle upon the bottom undisturbed while falling sediment covered and compressed to form the fossils that now fill the dry quarry.

Visit RevealingTheLink.com for the bizarre made-for-tv hype
Visit PLoS one for the full journal article on the findings

The Machine

2009-05-18T17:25:00.000-04:00

Uploaded today to youtube, the below video from last Friday captures accomplished Los Angeles-based artist Llyn Foulkes performing on his "Machine" - a homemade instrument inspired by his childhood idol, Spike Jones, comprised of car and bicycle horns. Meanwhile, his feet control drums and basslines, yet he often throws in xylophone and cowbell for good measure. While the Machine may look like an invocation of Italian futurist Luigi Russolo's intonarumori, and anyone that attempts to create a whole self-sufficient ensemble out of piecemeal horns would be assumed to have a penchant for the avantgarde, indeed Foulkes dabbles in some abstract sound on occasion. Nonetheless, by and large Foulkes plays a fairly straightforward combo jazz (albeit as a soloist). He created the Machine in 1980 and now at the age of 74, has grown to focus on music and performing the Machine moreso than his visual art career. Foulkes plays his Machine on a live webcast from the Church of Art every Tuesday at 1am EST.

The interlocutor

2009-05-09T21:38:00.011-04:00

The following is an excerpt from an online correspondence with Michaelyn Bertino:

We are inexorably the product of our genetic make-up and cultural conditioning. I think that's a pretty well accepted notion at this point although perhaps it wasn't always. To my understanding, this is what we get from Sociobiology. Prior to E. O. Wilson, sociology and anthropology suggested as fact that human behavior was all nurture and no nature. He saw the social nature in different animals, primarily ants and then other primates, and he then extrapolated that there was something from our biology that arose into behavioral patterns. He was castigated by many of his Harvard brethren as some thought his ideas had the potential to bring about eugenics as a logical consequence. Then James Watson and Francis Crick discovered DNA and the rest is history.

But there is danger that belies human culture. I tend to think of human culture stratified in two levels. There is human culture writ large where biology unwittingly underlies our actions to maintain and carry on the life cycle. Then there is culture in the weak sense where individuals ally themselves based on commonalities of interest - that is, your mainstream popular and counter cultures. Of course these tendencies can't be completely inconsequential. While in terms of evolution there is a general principle of safety in numbers, why would countercultures arise and have schisms and infighting amongst these opposing weak cultures? We arrive at a dissonance of sorts. Safety in numbers means larger societies which means more competition. I think that a hypothesis at which I arrived it isn't without flaw, yet makes sense in some respects.

It is fairly ubiquitous that we find sexual dimorphism in the animal kingdom that favors the presence in the male (and absence in the female) of body parts used in the rites of courtship. Tusks, antlers, horns, vibrant colorization, they are all used in some display or fight for domination to establish primacy for mating. When it comes to humans, aside from differences of muscle mass, stature, and hair differentiation, I think there may have been an internalization of this notion of a display mechanism into weak culture. The advent of cultural alignment, talents for art, music, sports, etc. may have risen out of this internalization to show mental fitness. This is of course not to say that females have no place in these "cultures" but that in a patriarchal society that has subsisted prior to the dawn of man back to our woodland ape ancestors (approximately four million years ago), males gave it the first impetus. Insofar as any of it could be a display mechanism, still females have to be able to understand and interpret as a display of mental fitness and further, being sentient with the same brain capacity and structure, can learn and engage in these cultures just the same.

So let me get to the point. This notion of weak culture is still typified by an adherence of a group to certain commonalities. Acceptance within the group would require some normative notions - orthodoxy and heresy. Of course some groups are more stringent than others, but there is an inexorable conformity that ensues. This conformity certainly makes some things easier - one doesn't need to consider their beliefs, they are provided: "What do I believe? I believe in Christianity." But in the (translated) ironic words of the devoutly Christian Immanuel Kant, "Dare to reason for yourself!" Enter the equally ironic Martin Heidegger. Heidegger, although he aligned himself with the Nazi party and never renounced it or apologized after WWII, surprisingly enough contributed his notion of authenticity in his canonical work of modern philosophy: Being and Time. He asserts that people conform, become lost, and inauthentic individuals when they get caught in the throws of social constructs. It takes a certain conscientiousness to first recognize our conformity and then secondly react by formulating lives that are our own. Initially an ontological anxiety of confrontation with diffuse, fragmented aspects of our self, it then becomes an act of purification, refinement, and self-actualization.

Wave-particle duality and the photoelectric effect

2009-05-03T00:53:00.001-04:00

The wave-particle duality in light is a particularly mystifying problem in physics. One determining factor to demonstrate light to have particle characteristics is the photoelectric effect. The photoelectric effect is manifest as photons of a light beam with a given frequency are absorbed by a given material. When the energy of one photon is absorbed by the material, provided the net energy is greater than the electron binding force, the incoming photon will cause an electron in the outer level of an atom in the absorbing material to be ejected.

However, a recent experiment (as reported by Wired Science) conducted with FLASH, an x-ray laser in Hamburg, shot at xenon atoms yielded some interesting results. Apparently, the high frequency laser caused the inner level electrons to move violently and their displacement cascaded into a total of 21 electrons being ejected simultaneously. The common notion of a photon like a cue ball in billiards is now being reconsidered as the experiment suggests the photons working as a wave and not individual particles. Of peculiar interest is the fact that the photons penetrated to inner electron levels and not working from outside-in.

Micro-holographic storage

2009-05-02T04:22:00.005-04:00

While it seems the reality of consumer storage devices would seem to go the way of the dodo bird with the advent of broadband internet and opensource media, one might very well be mistaken. Case in point: read the recent article "Do you think bandwidth grows on trees?" Apparently due to operating costs exceeding $700 million for Youtube, Google (as owner) is said to be losing around $470 million dollars this year. Afterall, it seems there may be a niche for storage and General Electric has just upped the ante with the development of a micro-holographic dvd, capable of storing 500 gigabytes of information. Youtube is going down the drain for you, so watch the video below.

Endosymbiosis in doubt

2009-04-22T21:36:00.006-04:00

Researchers have provided compelling evidence to discount one of the mainstream views in biology regarding the evolution of eukaryotic cell structure. Eukaryotic cells are those which make up virtually all complex, multicellular life on Earth. They are markedly different from that of prokaryotes (bacteria and archaea); they have a cell nucleus that contains DNA as well as mitochondria and other structures. Bacteria and archaea on the other hand merely have free-floating DNA within the cell membrane. One mainstream theory in biology suggested that the structures in eukaryotes originated as disparate organisms eventually forming a symbiotic relationship, called endosymbiosis.

Temple Smith and Hyman Hartman, from Boston University and MIT respectively, conducted research on a particular structure found in many eukaryotic cells called cilia. Cilia are hairlike projections from a cell which help move and sense the environment. These are one of many structures believed to be originated from endosymbiosis. However, Smith and Hartman, through newly available genomic techniques, were able to determine that genes responsible for the cilia have a uniqueness that could not be present in the simple organisms believed to be part of the endosymbiosis. Therefore, it is suggested that the cilia must have arisen from within via evolutionary forces not yet understood.

While this research can only speak with regard to cilia alone, the notion can be easily extrapolated for the many other structures in eukaryotic cells as well, casting much doubt over the notion of endosymbiosis.

(image shows electron micrograph scan of cilia in human trachea)

The Color of Pomegranates by Sergei Parajanov (1968)

2009-04-19T22:00:00.000-04:00

Entre dos aguas

2009-04-11T14:33:00.001-04:00

Invisible people

2009-04-09T03:56:00.013-04:00

Largely inspired by the recent posts on mad daps concerning homlessness, I realized that avanti popolo rarely directly involves pressing social issues. Motivated by a general interest in paradigm shifts of cultural perspectives ushered in by the creative minds behind technological and artistic evolution, the topics at most involve a mere instrumental step toward social transformation. I hope to aggregate notions pertaining to culture properly-so-called and not the passing masquerade of dreams and diversions taken as culturally relevant.

Homelessness is a global issue that has been exacerbated by the current economic crisis. As more enter a state of financial panic, fewer are looking at the circumstances of others. Although little media attention is given to the issue other than an index for our economic zeitgeist, social media has stepped in to fill the void. The availability of cameras and social networking is an impetus toward the decentralization of mass media and at the forefront of this movement are the initiatives of those like Mark Horvath.

Horvath was once a TV executive in Hollywood. Fourteen years ago, a drug addiction, a lost job and a house foreclosure sent him out onto the streets. Sober and off the streets, now equipped with little more than a car, a laptop, and a digital camera, he utilizes social media outlets like twitter to show the realities behind homelessness and the people afflicted with the stigma. Further, he created a website, Invisible People, which is a video blog interface with the shunned voices and unseen faces of homeless individuals from all walks of life. In spite of warnings and threats from government officials and homeless service agencies for Horvath not going through the "proper channels" to expose the issues around homelessness, he has remained committed to his project. While it might not be a solution to put a roof over anyone's head, hopefully it transforms ideas about who these people are.

L'Eden et Apres by Alain Robbe-Grillet (1970)

2009-04-08T04:10:00.001-04:00

BioArtist Eduardo Kac

2009-04-07T11:10:00.000-04:00

Viral batteries

2009-04-03T15:37:00.001-04:00

Also published in Science, MIT genetic researchers have succeeded in engineering bacteriophage viruses to build both the anode and cathode of rechargeable batteries.
Three years ago, a team of MIT researchers were able to create virus-built anodes, engineering the viruses to coat themselves in cobalt oxide and gold before assembling together into a nanowire. The missing piece was to create the cathode. The problem lay in the fact that most candidate materials were not highly conductive to permit the flow of electrons. The newest MIT group to approach this challenge realized that the viruses engineered to coat themselves in iron phosphate and then attach to a conductive carbon nanotube would solve the problem.

The viruses are non-harmful to humans (bacteriophages only infect bacteria) and the battery manufacturing process uses all non-toxic checmicals. Not only is the process environmentally benign, it is also inexpensive. Further, the batteries permit a great deal of plasticity in their design as the anode and cathodes can be organically constructed to fit the shape of the container.

The next step is the pursuit of materials such as manganese phosphate and nickel phosphate to allow higher voltage and capacitance. The current prototype is only a typical coin-size battery and is limited to the use of about 100 times. Future projects hope to break the use limitations and increase the size. The aims of these researchers are ultimately set for green car batteries.

Autonomous science

2009-04-02T15:36:00.005-04:00

I'll assume we are all familiar with the steps of the scientific process. Whether or not scientific research actually follows this canonical procedure, ever since the onset of our digital age, it has not been uncommon for parts of scientific research to be delegated to the realm of robotics and computing. From experiments screening for data to sequencing genomes, software has even been developed to crunch numbers from experimental research to arrive at conclusions. Never before has the human element been removed from the equation until now. British designers from Aberystwyth University in Wales have reaped the benefits of scientific discovery from their autonomous mini laboratory system, dubbed 'Adam.' The artificial intelligence lab-bot hypothesizes, conducts experiments, and formulates conclusions all without any human intervention aside from cleaning any waste product in experimentation.

Adam observed data about baker's yeast to form hypotheses about as of yet uncovered parent genes for enzymes therein. Subsequently, experiments were constructed to test these hypotheses within Adam's fully equipped robotic centrifuges, pipettes, incubators, and growth analyzers. The end result was a conclusion that pointed to three new genes that together coded for a particular enzyme. These findings were published today in Science.

Of particular interest from these discoveries is how these tests that can be run autonomously even on the likes of baker's yeast might relate to our own livelihood. The rise of genomics has given credence to a biological truism that regardless of species, a protein that successfully performs a specific biological function will have that protein structure repeated. Therefore, understanding the biology of other systems can and often will map onto the human genome to help us understand our own biology.

UbuWeb

2009-03-31T22:20:00.002-04:00

One of the internet's best resources, UbuWeb encompasses the work of hundreds of artists with an immense library of audio, text, photo, and video all available for free. This post is merely to acknowledge their continued success at making accessible the work of countless minds upon many platforms. Last week they revamped their film & video hosting to now run more smoothly and to permit clip embedding. From their vaults, I offer a BBC program, The South Bank Show, airing in 1985 and consisting in an interview with one of 20th century-painting history's wonderful eccentrics: Francis Bacon. In a series of conversations, Bacon discusses his taste in art, ideas, influences, and fixations with interviewer Melvyn Bragg.

Quiet American

2009-03-30T00:05:00.005-04:00

Whether it be for a professional attempt at art or an amateur preservation of memories, it is not uncommon to find the commitment of our memories and imagination to the spatio-visual snare of photography. Neglected has been the capture of strictly audio (beyond musical intentions). I find it interesting to shift the hegemonic means by which we have come to document places and times. Experimentation with field recordings as an art and documentation ought not supplant photo or video, but stand alongside as a deservedly appreciated medium. Quiet American is a website featuring field recordings taken to document the evocative aural textures experienced in one's travels, both foreign and domestic - as near or far as they may be.

Book From The Ground (excerpt) by Xu Bing

2009-03-26T21:56:00.006-04:00

"Book from the Ground is a novel written in a 'language of icons' that I have been collecting and organizing over the last few years. Regardless of cultural background, one should be able understand the text as long as one is thoroughly entangled in modern life."
-Xu Bing

Optron

2009-03-26T19:51:00.008-04:00

I finally found the photovoltaic cells I've been looking for to finish building an instrument inspired by Atsuhiro Ito's optron.

EDIT 04/02: It works.

American Boy by Martin Scorsese (1978)

2009-03-22T23:35:00.001-04:00

Accelerating evolution

2009-03-20T18:55:00.006-04:00

Multiplex-automated genomic engineering, or MAGE, is a revolutionary technique in genome sequencing pioneered by George Church, PhD at Harvard, MIT, Boston University, and University of Cambridge. Rather than step-by-step alterations to a genetic code, MAGE enacts numerous changes throughout the genome simultaneously. The experiments on bacteria thus far have accelerated genome sequencing exponentially, condensing work that would take months into a turnaround of a few days. This innovation holds promise to genetically modify bacteria instrumental in pharmaceuticals and biofuels to be more productive. MIT's Technology Review offers more details.

Reinventing the wheel

2009-03-17T15:06:00.008-04:00

Theo Jansen, Dutch artist famed for his kinetic sculptures, has been preoccupied for a period nearing two decades with his concept of creating a new form of "life." He envisions a Dutch coastline inhabited by his "strandbeests" and other structures of yellow piping that move with the power of the wind, outfitted to detect and change direction in the presence of water. In so doing, he engineered a mechanism by which his sculptures would be motile. This mechanism is more efficient than the wheel (i.e. less friction/resistance). Theoretically, the mechanism should be compatible with our current vehicle paradigm as they function on a stationary axle or "hip", all while having a much greater load carrying capacity. Product developers may begin to take notice now that students at the University of Louisiana created what they call the "Cajun Crawler" - a Segwey type of vehicle outfitted with the Jansen mechanism.

Ungulate magnetoreception

2009-03-17T11:20:00.008-04:00

Last year, an article appeared in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America suggesting that cattle and deer grazing and at rest are ubiquitously oriented North-South. The initial tip-off came from researchers analyzing Satellite images from Google Earth. Further findings suggest that low-level magnetic field emissions from the likes of power lines show a disruption in cattle herd orientation. While the methods are inconclusive, the findings warrant further research. Though it does not follow that these animals have a sense of magnetoreception (they could merely be exposing their elongated sides to the warmth of the East-West "traveling" Sun), it is an intriguing notion. Of course it wouldn't be too far fetched considering we have the sensory percept apparatuses to detect electromagnetic radiation in the visible spectrum. However, we have evolved such a mechanism due to its pertinence to our well-being. Being a motile creature, it is useful to navigate the world we live in. Stationary organisms like a sea sponge have no use for eyes; natural selection would not favor the evolution of such a sense organ. So then, a logical question to ask: for what reason might ungulates develop a sensory mechanism by which they detect magnetic fields? Further, what might this mechanism be? I cannot think of any (scientifically acredited) sensory perceptual mechanism that is not manifested anatomically. This leads me to think that either magnetoreception capabilities are in stark contrast to the evolutionary model we have all come to know, certain organs have eluded verterinary sciences, or geomagnetic fields affect certain known sensory mechanisms in a manner we do not yet understand.

New life

2009-03-14T13:55:00.003-04:00

Last month, I posted about some ideas that occurred to me; one of those concerned the possibility of more than one biological origin on Earth. This week, a great article in NewScientist discusses this notion (called "shadow life") as well as biochemists on the verge of producing life from scratch in the laboratory.

Read the article here.

I Eye Aye - Rahsaan Roland Kirk live in Montreux (1972)

2009-03-13T21:14:00.000-04:00

A statement with which I wholeheartedly agree appearing at the end of this film reads: "He had no precedent or competition. Since his death in 1977, no one has come along to claim his mantle. It should be safe until the end of time. - jd"

Even if you're not one much for jazz, it is difficult not to recognize that Columbus's own Rahsaan Roland Kirk was not only a talented musician, but gifted in the musical innovations he devised to humbly "just recreate the sounds in [his] head." This footage captures him in his inimitable style as not only a multi-instrumentalist, but a mulit-simultaneous instrumentalist. Often playing upward of three saxophones at a time or harmonizing the flute along with a recorder played with his nose, I hope everyone can appreciate one of the oft forgotten greats of music. Also noteworthy of his career are his experimentations with electronic noise music in the 1950s, which he abandoned so as to not be subject to the whims of the electric companies. Highlights in the film aside from his regular bag of tricks include him dishing out bumps of cocaine to the audience and later wandering into the crowd (he was blind) whilst sustaining a single note through circular breathing. Anyhow, enjoy.

A neurologist's notebook

2009-03-12T03:34:00.000-04:00

I became acquainted with the writings of Oliver Sacks about five years ago studying cognitive science as part of my degree program. I am presently reading his latest, Musicophilia, and I thought it appropriate to note something about his work.

To anyone unfamiliar, Sacks is a preeminent neurologist and author of many works detailing particularly odd and interesting neurological (or when neurology fails to explain, simply phenomenological conditions) he has found in his patients. He came to notoriety with Awakenings, an autobiographical work chronicling his success in the late 60s at treating the catatonic victims of the 1920s encephalitis lethargica "sleeping sickness" epidemic. The book was adapted for both the stage as well as an Academy Award-nominated film (starring Robert De Niro and Robin Williams) in 1990. He has published several other highly acclaimed works including: The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, An Anthropologist on Mars, and The Island of the Color Blind, among others. In addition to his books, he is a frequent contributor to the New Yorker. Some of his articles can be found online:

The Mind's Eye: What The Blind See

The Abyss

J'adore Mimi

2009-03-11T17:37:00.004-04:00

Clean energy out of mud

2009-03-11T06:41:00.012-04:00

Dutch designer Marieke Staps harnesses the energy of our Earth's soil. The metabolism of microbial life coupled with the conductive metals naturally present in soil have the capacity to convert electrolytes into usable energy. Embedded in the ground, the Soil Lamp runs purely off of the "earth battery" with enough energy to power an LED bulb. It only requires a bit of watering now and then.

Engineering a lettuce, engineering a cure

2009-03-11T06:08:00.009-04:00

Type 1 diabetes, the autoimmune disease that destroys the insulin producing cells of the pancreas, is a widespread life-threatening disease that requires daily injections of insulin to maintain the proper levels of blood sugar. A professor at University of Central Florida, Henry Daniell, believes he has found the cure in the form of a GMO.

Using genetically engineered lettuce containing the insulin gene, Daniell believes he is able to train the body to once again produce insulin. Using GMO lettuce freeze-dried, he forms a capsule. When the lettuce cells break down in the intestines exposing the insulin, the immune system responds by producing its own.

Thus far, on the experimental front, Daniell has succeeded in bringing diabetic mice to produce their own insulin after only eight weeks of treatment.

À bout de souffle by Jean Luc Godard (1960)

2009-03-06T11:10:00.004-05:00

Сталкер by Andrei Tarkovsky (1979)

2009-03-05T11:18:00.000-05:00

Eunoia

2009-02-06T12:35:00.001-05:00

Eunoia is a word meaning "beautiful thinking." It also happens to be the shortest word in the English language to use all five vowels. By no coincidence, Canadian poet Christian Bök (pronounced "book") used the word as the title of a remarkable five chapter book that cycles through the vowels of the roman alphabet, devoting each chapter to the limited use of a single vowel to construct all words therein. The project took 7 years to actualize and if his often bizarre and humorous conceptual poetry wasn't enough, this staggering work has secured his place as one of the true innovators in the art of writing. The entire text can be found here.

2 things

2009-02-03T13:06:00.007-05:00

I was on a plane coming back from Guatemala last week and took the time to contemplate, arriving at a couple ideas - scientific propositions one might say.

1. The fundamental particles/fields of physics are not static. If particles are field quanta, energies at given momentum, that which differentiates one energy from another is not fixed. Energy may "flow" albeit not on a human but a cosmic time scale and collapses to some greater uniformity of energy.

2. All life-forms on Earth do not have a common origin. If conditions on Earth supported one biological genesis, then these conditions were such that a genesis could have been supported on multiple occasions.

I do not know (and most likely never will know) enough about physics or biology to go into this further, but hopefully more on this later.

Do you want to live forever?

2009-01-04T14:13:00.007-05:00

Moving into the 21st century, the rise of hybrid brain-machine interfaces and other biotechnological breakthroughs are beginning to challenge our notions of personhood. Philosophical arguments often appeal with brain in a vat arguments, but Aubry de Gray wants to actualize some of these ideas. He works on what he calls "strategies for engineered negligible senescence." He thinks a fundamental human right is to live indefinitely insofar as we have the technology to do so. Thus, de Gray is challenging the scientific community to achieve this end. Here is a documentary chronicling the emerging figure and some controversey surrounding him. (Props to whomever decided to use Mahler's "Resurrection" in the film).

Waste = food

2009-01-03T14:09:00.002-05:00

If you have not read Cradle to Cradle, this is a 50 minute documentary on Bill McDonough and Michael Braungart, a duo who is essentially the foremost impetus in actualizing the green movement for industrial design, production, architecture, and city planning.

Architectural smörgåsbord

2008-12-09T01:06:00.007-05:00

Saturday Morning Science

2008-12-06T15:44:00.002-05:00

In 2003, on board the International Space Station, Science Officer Don Pettit conducted several experiments regarding simple tasks in a microgravity environment. Here is a compilation of his demonstrations.

AIDS non-progressors

2008-12-05T22:32:00.005-05:00

A new breakthrough in understanding the ability of HIV infected persons to control the disease is reported in the new issue of Immunity.

The natural course of Human Immunodeficiency Virus is such that it attacks essential cells in the human immune system such as T cells (CD4+ T helper lymphocytes) and the T cell generators of the thymus (thymocytes). The viral load eventually overruns the immune system leaving it susceptible to infection as AIDS. Current treatments with antiretroviral medication decrease the rate of mortality drastically, however, eluding scientific explanation, some immune systems have been found to naturally control HIV infection, duly dubbed "non-progressors."

It has previously been recorded that non-progressors have a higher count of CD8+ T cells, yet researchers did not understand the function of these cells until recently. CD8+ T cells were observed attacking HIV infected cells. A protein called perforin enable the CD8+ T cells to puncture the membrane of infected cells while molecules of the cytotoxic granzyme B rushed in to destroy the cells conjunctively like a poisoned dagger. These new findings provide hope in developing a vaccine and effective treatment for staying the disease.

Null-e

2008-11-14T14:40:00.008-05:00

In this TED talk from A. Garrett Lisi, he describes a unique new unified field theory. He barely scratches the surface and appeals to no formulae whatever, nonetheless, a great deal of his talk is completely incomprehensible to the layperson of no familiarity with quantum physics. In spite of this, it is clear that his theory is one of profound eloquence in that it is grounded in pure geometry. The graphic representation of his model suffices to explain how Lisi intends to unify quantum field theory and general relativity through differential geometry. The points and charges of all elementary particles fully realized as well as those posited by his theory work within the framework of E8 symmetries (figure shown below). All of the interactions between known particles and their charges have fit into Lisi's model of a single field through the four dimensions of spacetime. The use of E8 symmetry leads him to posit 22 new bosonic particles.

In the 1960s, Murray Gell-Mann's model for the quark was based in mathematical symmetries of group theory and may be a precedent giving credence to this contemporary venture. The Large Hadron Collider is to resume operations in the Spring, (after a hiatus to fix a Helium II leak) upon which hopefully some of this will come to light, beginning with the Higgs boson.

The Great Stalacpipe Organ

2008-11-11T11:30:00.006-05:00

Over the course of three years, Leland Sprinkle, a mathematician at the Pentagon, spent seeking out, shaving down, and shaping stalactites in the 64 acre Luray Caverns of Virginia. The stalactites were known to have a particular musical quality and Sprinkle was creating the worlds largest lithophone (spreading throughout three and a half acres of the caverns). With a constructed organ console, Sprinkle wired solenoid actuators which would cause rubber mallets to strike stalactites he had specifically chosen for their pitch.

Check out the previous post about unique homemade instruments here.

Through the looking "glass"

2008-11-10T20:26:00.010-05:00

I posted about an interactive mirror a few weeks ago. A WebUrbanist article features some particularly cool novelty mirrors. Be sure to check out the quicktime movie of Daniel Rozin's wooden mirror (seen below).

It's a nice time to become a mortician

2008-11-10T18:36:00.007-05:00

An unwavering truism about our present world demographic: there are more people now than ever before. Human life has come to dominate the biosphere not only in the exponential population explosion we've witnessed in the past century, but further to include the primacy of domesticated plants and animals to sustain us. These factors have set the stage for the dilemmas of our time.

In Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, author Jared Diamond takes a tour of societal failures - those realized, those avoided, and the potential for those to come. While societal collapses are replete with particularities to the given circumstances, Diamond finds commonalities which thread them all together. Extensive historical comparative analysis as well as modern examples of collapse are examined under the five-point framework Diamond ultimately sees as determining the success or failure of a society:

1. environmental impact
2. climate change
3. hostile neighbors (war)
4. friendly neighbors (trade)
5. response to problems

Diamond's proposition stands in stark contrast to previous works of the sort which argue for societal collapse as an inevitable stage inherent in the cyclical nature evident in the evolution of a culture. This archaic view seems to disregard the cognizance of a culture and its ability to respond to the social pathology of which it ails. Diamond explains that a society may fail anywhere along three steps: the society must first perceive their situation, choose to take action and a course of action to solve the problem, and lastly to succeed in that course. Aside from when the problem is not perceived, often dilemmas arise where short term and long term consequences are not adequately evaluated to inform the process or long-held values distort the decision.

The takeaway Jared Diamond provides is that although past societies have failed to transform a large percent of the time, some have managed to succeed such as the deforestation of Tokugawa Japan and the agricultural issues of New Guinea. In light of what we face in our present day, the stakes are higher. The global economy intertwines all societies such that the failure of one could create a domino effect for the rest. Further, there are so many issues that we face, it would be devastating to prioritize a single threat to our livelihood; there are at least a dozen of serious threats which need to be dealt with on the same scale and with the same degree of subtlety.

To mention a few of the issues Diamond highlights: deforestation, arable land and soil fertility, competition between introduced and native species, poaching, water management, environmental toxins, energy shortages, and of course climate change. Since Diamond among others have graciously identified the issues, it is up to us to decide our course of action. Geneticists have already arrived at successes in developing modified plants that are: aluminum tolerant, saline tolerant, drought tolerant, and flood tolerant. Mycologists have discovered fungi that can break down environmental contaminants, and others which are able to produce hydrocarbon chains not unlike that of diesel fuel. We need to take the steps to ensure these fields of scientific research have permanence. In the end, we will reap just what we sow.

Zen for Youtube

2008-11-08T06:18:00.002-05:00

Human fuel efficiency

2008-11-07T15:06:00.003-05:00

Considerable breakthroughs have been on-going in research attempts to understand the aging process. First, it is necessary to place some emphasis on the aging process and how we might define it. Largely, aging has a great amount to do with hereditary factors tied to an individual's genetic material in each cell nuclei. However, the effects of aging are manifest in another part of the cell, mitochondria. Mitochondria are the gas-tanks, so to speak, of our cells and convert glucose into ATP (adenosine-5'-triphosphate) to power cellular functions. ATP is a form of intracellular chemical energy as various enzymes "feed" off of it in a number of processes. Most of these processes include aspects of the cell cycle including its growth, differentiation, and death. As mitochondria perform these tasks, a by-product of the chemical reactions are molecules with unpaired electrons called free-radicals. Free-radical Theory suggests that these molecules when oxidized can cause damage to the cell and lead to their atrophic demise (antioxidants are molecules which prevent the free-radicals from oxidizing). Aside from genetics, this cellular death can be understood on a more readily observable level as tissue degeneration.

So, the question is, how are we to stop or at least delay cellular death? Leading the research on this question, or at least at the forefront of the media seems to be research from Sirtris Pharmaceuticals. Published last year in NATURE, studies dating back some years found that the natural compound resveratrol caused life-prolonging and disease resistant effects in animal test subjects. More recently, tests in caloric restriction on lab animals has shown a similar reaction at the cellular level. Cells go into a defensive state and become more efficient with the fuel they have when less is coming in. Caloric restriction places less biological stress on cells by reducing the reactions to produce ATP. A reduction in these reactions therefore limits the amount of free-radicals and their oxidized cell-killers. As far as similarities go, both resveratrol and caloric restriction activate the same enzyme, namely SIRT-1. SIRT-1 is a sirtuin, a family of enzymes which regulate cellular function. The SIRT-1 enzyme is believed to rejuvenate damaged mitochondria and unraveling DNA where other cell-repair proteins fail.

Other cellular regulators such as the gene IGF-1 have been tested for their ability to increase lifespans with limited success. While simpler organisms like yeast lived an amazing 10 times longer, complex organisms could have serious growth defects such as the presence of Laron Syndrome in an Ecuadorean population with a naturally occurring mutation to the gene.

From the published successes of Sirtris Pharmaceuticals, nearly all large pharmaceutical companies are now working to develop mitochondria directed treatments. This could reach milestones in the prevention and treating of age-related illnesses such as heart disease, diabetes, cancer, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, and others. It is only a matter of time and money before a substantiated breakthrough ends up on the market. In the meantime, for any human guinea pigs, while I'm no dietitian as opposed to the self-imposed starvation of calorie restricted diets, I'd recommend a diet with plenty of antioxidants and more grape leaves, a known plentiful source of resveratrol.

Derrida

2008-11-06T14:28:00.002-05:00

Jacques Derrida is deconstructing you and this film from his grave.

Pleistocene Park

2008-11-04T13:05:00.004-05:00

Not Jurassic Park, Pleistocene. For some time now, there has been considerable attention placed on the possibility of resurrecting Ice Age animals, particularly the woolly mammoth via the Mammoth Creation Project. Comprised of a group of Japanese researchers, the project would like to fulfill the dream of a Siberian reserve for cloned extinct Ice Age species. The group has made considerable headway from its initial goal of impregnating an elephant with the frozen sperm of a mammoth (nh). There are believed to be anywhere from tens of thousands to millions of mammoths encased and preserved in ice across the globe.

While stumbling upon frozen mammoth sperm seems like a shot in the dark let alone a rather unorthodox way of going about cloning, some recent developments may present new avenues. Stem cell research has faced limitations in the delicacies of the DNA, always requiring the material from live animals. Dead tissue, and particularly frozen tissue, irreparably damaged the genetic material. Or so we thought. In Kobe, Japan at Riken Center for Developmental Biology, successful experiments have cloned mice dead and frozen for 16 years. Researchers were able to create stem cell lines from the cloned embryos made with nucleic transfer, that is, healthy egg cells were injected with nuclei extracted from ruptured brain cells of the dead mice. Further, the cloned mice were successful progenitors.

Of course, while the breakthrough presents better chances of ushering ideas such as the Mammoth Creation Project to fruition, ethical questions will loom over these practices. Is it irresponsible to introduce extinct species to an environment inexorably unnatural to them?

Begotten by E. Elias Merhige (1991)

2008-10-30T17:39:00.000-04:00

Goddamn, that's a lotta work

2008-10-26T21:27:00.011-04:00

An artist must regulate his life.

2008-10-26T11:22:00.003-04:00

Here is a time-table of my daily acts. I rise at 7.18; am inspired from 10.23 to 11.47. I lunch at 12.11 and leave the table at 12.14. A healthy ride on horse-back round my domain follows from 1.19 pm to 2.53 pm. Another bout of inspiration from 3.12 to 4.7 pm. From 5 to 6.47 pm various occupations (fencing, reflection, immobility, visits, contemplation, dexterity, natation, etc.)

Dinner is served at 7.16 and finished at 7.20 pm. From 8.9 to 9.59 pm symphonic readings (out loud). I go to bed regularly at 10.37 pm. Once a week (on Tuesdays) I awake with a start at 3.14 am.

My only nourishment consists of food that is white: eggs, sugar, shredded bones, the fat of dead animals, veal, salt, coco-nuts, chicken cooked in white water, mouldy fruit, rice, turnips, sausages in camphor, pastry, cheese (white varieties), cotton salad, and certain kinds of fish (without their skin). I boil my wine and drink it cold mixed with the juice of the Fuschia. I have a good appetite but never talk when eating for fear of strangling myself.

I breathe carefully (a little at a time) and dance very rarely. When walking I hold my ribs and look steadily behind me.

My expression is very serious; when I laugh it is unintentional, and I always apologise very politely.

I sleep with only one eye closed, very profoundly. My bed is round with a hole in it for my head to go through. Every hour a servant takes my temperature and gives me another.

- Erik Satie "A day in the life of a musician"

It would be a bitch

2008-10-25T15:22:00.005-04:00

...trying to clean this mirror.

Kinetic fashion

2008-10-25T14:31:00.005-04:00

Today I read a CNN.com article about "futuristic fashion" in which they describe the motion of fashion items to incorporate more practical electronic devices. This has largely been limited to the domain of specialty, athletic apparel. Now, however, it is apparently crossing over into the fashion world with the likes of CuteCircuit's M-dress (a silk dress that can function as a cellular phone - described in the CNN.com article).

What I found most interesting is where the article glossed over "Montreal's XS Labs has used a shape-memory alloy called Nitinol to produce extraordinary dresses that change shape while you wear them." Nitinol is a common name for nickel titanium, which as the article indicates, has shape-memory characteristics. This is a function of the crystalline molecular structure of the alloy which has the ability to change that crystal structure under applied heat or pressure.

How can do they use this to effect fashion apparel? I found that it is done from the use of nickel titanium wire threaded through a garment which must be given an electrical charge to heat the wire. As the wire contorts and contracts, the garment along with it is set into motion. It isn't far fetched to incorporate solar panels or magnets to charge the wires.

I hope they do scarves... for children!

Seriously though, I give them credit for their using this within the realm of fashion, but on the technology front, I am surprised to not hear more about alternative electro-mechanical devices. Why not build motors utilizing thermokinetic materials?

Miracle fruit

2008-10-17T13:07:00.004-04:00

If you don't know, now you know.

Palmarès des chansons

2008-10-10T22:39:00.001-04:00

La dolce vita

2008-10-08T19:48:00.007-04:00

In his book The Paradox of Choice, Barry Schwartz offers a critique on what he describes as a fundamental dogma of the Western industrialized world. He asserts this fundamental dogma as: maximizing the welfare of citizens through maximizing the individual freedoms of those citizens. On the question of facilitating this freedom, it is assumed that freedom is a function of choice. Increased choice means increased freedom, increased freedom means increased welfare. This, Schwartz suggests, arrives at a paradox. To summarize his argument:

1. If we maximize freedom, then we maximize welfare.
2. If we maximize choice, then we maximize freedom.
3. Maximized choice is excessive choice.
4. Excessive choice is overwhelming.
5. It then follows that being overwhelmed is maximized welfare???
6. Conclusion: some choice is better than no choice, but it does not follow that more choice is better than some choice.

There are psychological repercussions of maximal choice; maximal becomes excessive. A fundamental revolution in view not of potential, but missed opportunities results from this phenomenon. It can be said that from the sheer number of choices available in the industrialized world, the odds of making the most choiceworthy decision are never in our favor. There is no room for surprise; our levels of expectation and standards are impossibly high to the point that it impedes the satisfaction from the choices we make. Fundamental attribution error -- the tendency for an individual to place blame on situational circumstances rather than oneself -- fails to come to aid our self-efficacy. An elementary shift in culpability results from this self-determinism as the decision rest entirely on the decision-maker. The increase in choices for a given decision invariably increases the need to justify the decision. Thus, a culture of consumer escapism undermines itself, resulting in considerably lesser satisfaction with the freedoms it implemented to enjoy.