enhanced-buzz-wide-20861-1338324633-14
Bitcoin runs at…
Bitcoin runs at 141 Petaflops, using distributed computing. I grazed over that number the first time around when looking at BOINC-like project FLOP numbers. By contrast, the fastest single supercomputer like the K runs at 11 petaflops. Exascale computing is arriving in 2018, but it hadn’t occurred to me that the incentive to simulate a global currency exchange has surpassed folding@home and SETI@home, and it’s quite impressive that it’s the most widespread and invested distributed computing project. Perhaps the quasi-fiat economy really is too big to fail, thus to simulate it is a viable replacement. I’m curious how the energy requirements will decrease or increase as time goes on.
1)1st photo: Ar…
1)1st photo: Art stills that doubles the skyline of Manhattan with a visual timeline in digital audio files.
2) Tom and Jerry
3) A lamplight in Midtown-ish
4) Morning view at the Time-Warner Center
new music genre…
new music genre: de-Prog
It can be like what anti-folk was to folk music. De-prog as the counter/non-tempo to anything progressive music stands to support, though progressive music could also represent an umbrella of many musical genres. By progressive, I don’t mean the kind that activists tend to promote- actually, I would categorize that type of progressive as using music in a De-prog way. It’s closer in meaning to debug, and thus de-program, rather than de-progress. though the staircase descent is multi-faceted and multi-helical.
It’s amazing h…
It’s amazing how I passed all 4 of the original 4 off-off-broadway theaters. Cafe Cino at 31 Cornelia, LaMama ETC in the LES, Judson Memorial Church, and Theater Genesis at St. Marks. I’m obviously drawn to atmosphere, and no doubt when I follow a path I pick the most conspicuous buildings. If past souls were like invisible frisbees, then there are a lot of souls atop the roofs of these buildings drawing me towards theater history. That and a literary knowledge of areas and textual tracings..
Kangoo Jumps
I have an incentive to start running again- the Kangoo Jumps protect joints by 80%, which was the main reason I didn’t like running. they cost about $230. I’ve never seen these outside of NYC.
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https://www.youtube.com/embed/4IH5X12knqU?feature=player_embedded“>
This shows what the Square Kilometer Array (SKA) might use in 10 years as the exascale computers in 2018 will process millions of GPGPU cores operating at NTV. The entire FLOPS of the daily internet traffic will be matched by the SKA server.
at 27:29 10^10 threads per machine in 2018 compared to 170M threads/machine in 2011, because 7000 Nvidia GPUS take up a lot of inefficient processing power at around 250watts+/ 7970. But the convergence of Amdahl, Moore, NTV and better more capacity to use 90,000 GPUs instead of 7,000 with a lower wattage while still using less than 20 Megawatts are all the factors that make this fundamental change in scaling different. Simulating viruses, microbial popuations, circulatory systems, humans…hmm. strange future ahead, and supercomputers are a fose to be reckon’d with. By comparison, the Large Hadron Collider at CERN uses 300 Megawatts for all them magnets, and has its own power station.
It also mentions at 38:32 Dragonfly Interconnect, a massively scalable software/hardware architecture. When I started to read deeply into how exaflop computers would be assembled, it occured to me that the room where many servers are built resemble a future computer that might take only a few cubic centimeters in 30 years, just like mainframes. This photo shows how optical computing would be assembled- curiously, I imagined an optical computer not originating in a supercomputer room with many servers, but on an average x86 chip. But, like vaccuum tubes and transistors, they were first made so they could be seen by the human eye, and then minaturized when machines could manufacture them even tinier.. This PDF is particularly interesting to see photos of optical transceivers between the memory banks and GPU cores, using 30-50Ghz, and one of the slides demonstrates up to 40 terahertz.
Topic Are…
|
Topic Area 2 Systems and Exclusions |
from
Applications submitted under Topic Area 2 that propose simple strain improvement approaches (i.e., single gene manipulations) through common, currently practiced technologies will not be considered responsive to this FOA and will be excluded from further consideration. Applications must propose the use of strains that have a reasonable industrial relevance to biofuels and commodity chemicals production. Therefore, strains involved in biomedical or pharmaceutical product development are not acceptable; applications proposing such strains as models for demonstrating improvements via synthetic biology approaches will not be considered responsive to this FOA and will be excluded from further consideration. Strains that previoiusly had been used in biomedical or pharmaceutical product development but have been adapted to work in biomass processing applications are acceptable. Evidence to that effect should be included in the application.
I Me: The industrial-batch strain I was going to suggest was this strain: http://etd.library.pitt.edu/ETD/available/etd-05302007-093344/unrestricted/ZhiweiPan_ETD2007.pdf Though, that requirement got me thinking…What other strains have been developed for biofuels and products like photovoltaic pre-cursor materials of “your favorite operon” |
Wes Anderson, your’re banned from using slow-motion
recording. Your newest movie recycles Bottle Rocket and Rushmore.
Weirdos: http:/…
Weirdos: http://www.iloveskydiving.org/view/videos/amazing-400-way-formation-skydiving-world-record/
“Fed by Devout…
“Fed by Devout, Monkeys Overwhelm Delhi
By GARDINER HARRIS
The monkey population of Delhi has grown large and aggressive, overwhelming efforts to control it, but Hindu tradition calls for feeding the animals twice a week.”
Romantic thinking leads to other scientific modes of thinking and ideas
Not all science is rooted in the Age of Reason
“Protecting State Secrets Through Copyright”
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/12/05/20/121217/protecting-state-secrets-through-copyright
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2042692
This shows how worldwide trade and IP agreements like CISPA, SOPA, ACTA, benefit from the trend of consolidation of multinational entities, because “prosecuting to the fullest extent of the law” just shows that it requires the whole world to conspire with you to “assure” your intents can be met.
It’s been said…
It’s been said that the lottery is played by the mathematically challenged. And it’s also been said it’s the “poor man’s tax.” I would say there is another mathematically challenging game for a middle class person, if they have a poor estimate understanding of how wealth (in quality and quantity) has changed over the past 40 years. Some things are better, but the cost of living is being aligned closer to a global squeeze. I haven’t heard great opinions about the book “The World is Flat,” but I like this article by Friedman called “Do you want the good news first?” https://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/20/opinion/sunday/friedman-do-you-want-the-good-news-first.html?_r=1&ref=thomaslfriedman
It says that the best developments happened with public funding- large academic projects, but now much of that is going to private development. Perhaps Kickstarter has replaced that and allowed direct democracy of fundraising rather than the representational one that seemed to promote more public works projects like National Parks projects and a lot of that Renewable energy technology funded by Carter in the late 70s (and defunded by Reagan). This was also before much of those TTOs and patent gridlocks started cropping up as in Myriad’s BRCA gene case and the Alzheimer’s research - which are research projects that Kickstarter isn’t really mature enough to really establish funding networks immediately to home laboratories on cancer research. For those types of projects, university labs are best suited for that, but the culture of openness needs to be embraced, with alternative incentives to be paid- not by being the first lab to make a discovery, but merely for contributing to a project that any one lab can’t accomplish on its own.
Shit New Yorkers Say
It makes sense. I think this mode of thinking leads to a higher level of thinking. But at the expense of becoming esoteric. Yet, I don’t think it’s a closed club. Anyone could think like this, but of course not afford to live like this. A major, but subtle difference in personal preference. It’s basically saying, “why aren’t you choosy, between two things that cost the same price?”
imaginary cities
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apngLIah7hU&feature=related
John Hodgeman on Chicago
“(The American…
“(The American Psychiatric Association finally dropped hysteria altogether from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders in 1952, the same year it added homosexuality.)”
“For Imboden, debuting in European retailers was a deliberate end-run around American social taboos, and also made a sidestep of the sex toy industry entirely. It was a statement that products like vibrators did not have to be relegated to their own store or a discreet Web site. Premiering in lofty precincts before trickling down to the mainstream borrowed from a fashion playbook: Little Gold could be thought of as Jimmyjane’s couture offering, its runway showpiece. A more accessible aluminum version, Little Chroma, now sells for $125 at Drugstore.com. “
“These big multinational companies are realizing there is a ton money to be made,” says Cory Silverberg. “They will change things more significantly than the political feminist sex stores and some of the more interesting manufacturers like Jimmyjane.”
“These ranged …
“These ranged from the subtle — the word “story” in the post’s opening lines, the framing around “Honest Abe,” the multiple circuitous references to P.T. Barnum, he of “sucker born every minute” fame — to the more obvious: the blurry image of the Springfield Gazette.”
http://natestpierre.me/2012/05/08/abraham-lincoln-patent-facebook/
http://natestpierre.me/2012/05/10/hoax-abraham-lincoln-invented-facebook
I have an earlier post on a play I saw in Chicago a few months ago- “The People’s Barnum“
“In 1850, the castle was the site of two extraordinarily successful concerts given for charity by the Swedish soprano Jenny Lind to initiate her American tour, managed by P. T. Barnum.”
“In 1941 the politically powerful Park Commissioner Robert Moses wanted to tear the structure down completely, claiming that this was necessary to build a crossing from the Battery to Brooklyn. The public outcry at the loss of a popular recreation site and landmark stymied his effort at demolition, but the aquarium was closed and not replaced until Moses opened a new facility on Coney Island in 1957. See Brooklyn-Battery bridge.[4]“
I also have several earlier posts on urban planning and architecture of NYC by Jane Jacobs and Robert Moses.
“In his organization of the fair, Moses’s reputation was tarnished by his disdain for the opinions of others, his high-handed attempts to get his way in moments of conflict by turning to the press, and the fact that the fair was not sanctioned by the Bureau of International Expositions (BIE), the worldwide body supervising such events.[23] Moses refused to accept BIE requirements, including a restriction against charging ground rents to exhibitors, and the BIE in turn instructed its member nations not to participate.[24] “
” Legacy and lasting impact
The bridges of Robert Moses are a hotly disputed topic in the Social construction of technology, because Langdon Winner in his acclaimed essay Do Artifacts Have Politics? used Moses’ bridges to make his point that artifacts do have politics.”
This is Great
“High School Students Sue Federal Gov’t Over Global Warming”
“It may seem ironic that the hyper-focused Loorz is one of the more than five million youth diagnosed with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder. In this case, however, Loorz contends that it’s the grownups who are suffering from disabling distraction. He argues that U.S. politicians are so preoccupied by the lingering economic crisis and this year’s presidential campaign that they’re ignoring an environmental threat that could ultimately bring about devastating consequences.”
LMAO SUCK IT old folks!
This is a colossally innovative breakthrough idea (but it’s been used before with civil rights) and movement with far and wide ranging applications and impacts.
I’d like to sue the federal government for
1. The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and more recent trade agreement.
2. The War on (some) Drugs for ruining the lives of millions of minorities
3. The Department of Energy for continuing federal subsidy preferences for oil, gas and nuclear fuels.
4. The U.S. Patent and Trade Office for preventing innovative discoveries from being freely distributed.
more I guess are available…ah yes! The Atlantic article mentions:
“Defendants include not only Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson but the heads of the Commerce, Interior, Commerce, Defense, Energy, and Agriculture departments.”
“The plaintiffs contend that they have standing to sue under the “public trust doctrine,” a legal theory that in past years has helped protect waterways and wildlife. It’s the reason, for example, that some state government agencies issue licenses to catch fish or shoot deer, particularly when populations are declining. The doctrine has never before been applied to the atmosphere, and it’s a trickier prospect, not least because the sources of atmospheric pollution are so diffuse and wide-ranging, extending to other countries whose actions the United States may not be able to influence.
Defense attorneys have, in fact, have argued that the plaintiffs are essentially seeking for a court to make foreign policy decisions. To this, the plaintiff’s attorneys counter that other nations’ supposed inaction on climate change shouldn’t be used as an excuse for the United States to do nothing. “That is like saying poverty exists everywhere, other countries have poverty, so it is ok for us to permit poverty,” attorney Phil Gregory wrote in an email.”
“”The judicial branch is much less influenced by special interests such as the fossil fuel industry,” said Hansen, who recalled that U.S. courts have succeeded in breaking such policy logjams in the past, including in the successful cases against tobacco firms and the enforcement of racial integration during the Civil Rights battles. “
a “top 12″ …
a “top 12″ list of greatest software programs.
http://www.informationweek.com/shared/printableArticle.jhtml?articleID=191901844\
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_global_distribution_systems#Major_systems
. I’d add: bittorrent, p2p anonynets-both in hardware&software like freifunk, freedombox, freenet, Tor, retroshare, and anonymouse browsers/operating systems. I like the ability to recombine modular concepts of any type of software, making any of these things able to run alongside itself/in virtualization, depending on how one defines the computing and simulation of the partitions and abstract GUIs/codes and augmented realities.
FCC bans slow-motion video in pharmaceutical commercials
The FCC voted 3-2 to ban pharmaceutical commercials from recording footage that uses overcranking projectors or timestretching techniques in post-production. The vote was held after complaints were filed by depressive viewers who, after watching the commercial for an anti-depressant, in fact became depressed by the slow-moving stills of senior citizens “enjoying” (too slowly) or agonizing over some experience.
ideal:porphoryi…
ideal:
porphryin, soluble PCBM with non-toxic solvent, no cobalt, all-aqueous, amorphous or controlled assembly/polymerization, with antioxidants to prevent degradation from UV= finding every component that is “green” in an organic solar cell, including cathodes and anodes.
visualization o…
visualization of hypercomplex numbers, first spotted on Alex’s blog:
http://1plus1is0.com/2012/05/08/mathemusical-musing/
Over-enthusiastic review and speculation of a card that is missing 256 shaders out of 1024.
A reviewer like this was so enthusiastic because s/he wanted to speculate on how important it is to sell a GPU between $100 and $250. Yes, I can see that. But why does this article sound so crazy for a market that that is so ephemeral as annually released next-gen GPUs? Surely, an AMD 7850 can be considered a major step up in performance compared to a 7770. It’s exploring a conspiracy to avoid a price bracket. Yes it’s definitely plausible, such as profit margins being a reason, but the enthusiasm seems over the top.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/768-shader-pitcairn-review,3196.html
Wordsmith Recombinator Synthesis Lab 5-9-2012
The Needless Reification Machine, and Why All Reality is about Mirrors
To the solipsist, all agents are wittingly, or unwittingly, agents that propel or edit reality. Art reflects reality, and reality is perceived by artists. The pool is always closed in this sense, because it includes the environment.
The processive, oscillating, transgressive logic omnipole octonion eigenvalue bipyramid sextion paraproskdokian, zeugma, parallelism stimulus synesthetic digit node thought element central processing unit converter of perceptive-control theory.
Earth’s water
And, the entire population of the earth can fit in Rhode Island…Forgive my crude association to conceptualize the water-human drinking and excreting cycle.
“It” began with the Crystal Palace, Great Exhibition
The first Great Exhibition:
“The Exhibition caused controversy as its opening approached. Some conservatives feared that the mass of visitors might become a revolutionary mob,[7] whilst radicals such as Karl Marx saw the exhibition as an emblem of the capitalist fetishism of commodities. King Ernest Augustus I of Hanover, shortly before his death, wrote to Lord Strangford about it:
The folly and absurdity of the Queen in allowing this trumpery must strike every sensible and well-thinking mind, and I am astonished the ministers themselves do not insist on her at least going to Osborne during the Exhibition, as no human being can possibly answer for what may occur on the occasion. The idea … must shock every honest and well-meaning Englishman. But it seems everything is conspiring to lower us in the eyes of Europe.[8]“
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World%27s_Columbian_Exposition
Planning and organization
The fair was planned in the early 1890s, the Gilded Age of rapid industrial growth, immigration, and class violence. World’s fairs, such as London’s 1851 Crystal Palace Exhibition, had been successful in Europe as a way to bring together societies fragmented along class lines. However, the first American attempt at world’s fair in 1876 in Philadelphia, though hugely successful in attendance, lost money. Nonetheless, ideas about marking the 400th anniversary of Columbus’ landing started to take hold in the 1880s. Towards the end of the decade, civic leaders in St. Louis, New York City, Washington DC and Chicago expressed interest in hosting a fair, in order to generate profits, boost real estate values, and promote their cities. Congress was called on to decide the location. New York’s financiers J. P. Morgan, Cornelius Vanderbilt, and William Waldorf Astor, among others, pledged $15 million to finance the fair if Congress awarded it to New York, while Chicagoans Charles T. Yerkes, Marshall Field, Philip Armour, Gustavus Swift, and Cyrus McCormick, offered to finance a Chicago fair. What finally persuaded Congress was Chicago banker Lyman Gage who raised several million additional dollars in a 24-hour period, over and above New York’s final offer.[5]
The exposition corporation and national exposition commission settled on Jackson Park as the fair site. Daniel H. Burnham was selected as director of works, and George R. Davis as director-general. Burnham emphasized architecture and sculpture as central to the fair and assembled the period’s top talent to design the buildings and grounds including Frederick Law Olmsted for the grounds. The buildings were neoclassical, painted white, resulting in the name “White City” for the fair site.[5]“
My theory is that the Great Exposition, authorized by the most powerful person in the world at the time- Queen Victoria, by the most powerful empire at the time (not the U.S.), suggested an natural improvised phenomena occurred. An extremity of contrasts…most powerful to most weak being deliberately allowed to assemble in a public space- at the Great Exposition. No one particular event can be proven to have been so influential, but it’s interesting to speculate. Perhaps the idea led to another idea- of the wisdom of crowds, that anarchic dynamics and self-assembly promotes the most legitimate goodness and rationality, let alone freedom, which is a tool and a right, but also a method. Embrace chaos because chaos is honest and practical. There is a myth to the madness of crowds. Upon closer inspection, what appeared to be the most insane abdication of power and thought, diffused it to an entity that was more meritocratic- the fair was an idea, an event, and a person all in one- a superconsciousness, a noosphere, of noopolitiks, and temporarily defined with borders in the realm of an “exhibition” rather than calling it reality, because to live an ideology it must be defined first. A play within a play and a tesseract shows those borders only exist if one observes them, but must imagine them first.
unbiased reporting.
Seems like advertising and journalism can be both blurred without being biased.
there are omissions, of course. This focuses on aspect of leading- they progress faster and on a greater scale than other semiconductor companies/chip firms. In the basic ascendancy of smaller, faster, more energy efficient x86 general computing sense. It’s as if a lot of science, but not all science would depend and prosper on increasing scientific capabilities, which follow the constant of moores law. So, much scientific progress is limited to Moore’s law, or 2.5x increases every 18months, like Nvidia has been doing. The implications of this constant, if other things could be extrapolated, such as exaflop capability predictions, could be explored more. There is also a trans-competition concept, that is not about competition, but about bottlenecks, where funding becomes a too-big to fail concept, and the world just funds one company because so much depends on the next tick-tock yields. That’s not to say innovations from other places, like AMD, won’t be copied and pasted into to the cosmopolis, just that the concept becomes like an open-circle group think.
There is subjectivity to this entire entry. It is why I chose to write on this topic.
http://www.ante…
“Mr. Udagawa, 47, and Ms. Moeslinger, 44, are the principals of Antenna Design, the company behind the last major changes to New York’s subway cars, in 2000 and 2006. Of the city’s 6,374 subway cars, 3,504 bear the pair’s interior and exterior designs, as do MetroCard vending machines and other accouterments of underground life. These are people who obsess about the effects of steel dust on MetroCard readers or the ways light and color can influence riders’ moods.
“We subscribe to the idea of City Beautiful,” Mr. Udagawa said, referring to an architectural and urban-planning movement from the 1890s and 1900s that sought to use attractive design to make people better citizens. “It promotes the idea that a nice environment creates nice behavior.”
The sun never sets on the Manhattan empire
Sunlight during the day, Time Square billboards-lit at night.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Power_Broker
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Power_Elite
http://cityroom…
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/06/a-new-surreal-chapter-for-a-site-steeped-in-history/
http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/05/striking-oil-artistically-in-midtown/
https://en.wiki…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_Beautiful_movement
If you’re not searching for beauty you won’t notice the difference.
Effortless Economy Institute
http://www.ieet.org/index.php/IEET/about
http://p2pfoundation.net/Effortless_Economy Nathan Cravens
http://p2pfoundation.net/Resource-Based_Economy (similar to the technocracy movement it seems)
https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!topic/openmanufacturing/wV_s_Xsl6MQ
Solaris, the novel, film
“We don’t want to conquer space at all. We want to expand Earth endlessly. We don’t want other worlds. We want a mirror.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solaris_%28novel%29
wanting to believe in the exact quantity of altruism, and from whom
is a hard to thing to adjust. http://www.infowars.com/chemist-fluoride-one-of-the-greatest-public-health-threats-of-modern-times/
“A combination of ignorance and pride both appear to be factors, as the medical establishment largely refuses to accept modern science showing that fluoride is unsafe because it has been claiming for many decades that fluoride is safe.” Usually American Republicans are more ignorant, but here they’re more ready to drop state-owned public water plastic bottles. I’ll be ready to use the fountain again after they remove the flouride. and other things, like pharmaceuticals in any harmful quantity.
Systems biology and bioengineering complex metabolic pathways
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=%22Wintermute%20EH%22[Author]
Microbial synthesis of Hydrogen would be a great, inexpensive, and disruptive technology if the tools, materials, and protocols were freely distributed. But first, the Fe-Fe Hydrogenase needs to be optimized..for abundant yields.
I can’t separate politics from science, thus it’s rare to find a lab/individual that is far more leftist about his plans for clean energy independence using a medium that actually could be distributed. So far, I’ve only come across my idea (RepRappable organic, biodegradeable solar PV printers and materials), bioalgae (but that leaves byproducts in combustion), and here: hydrogen. Ideally, one would link their ideology to their work from the onset, not at the end. I’ve wasted a lot of time talking to people who either prefer to keep that intellectual property to themselves, without searching for both criteria being satisfied: a clean, renewable energy source, and a FOSS platform, medium philosophy and (bonus) along with a welcoming academic environment that supports the idea and seems to show a lot of promise.
http://www.blue…
http://www.bluelight.ru/vb/threads/572898-quot-How-to-spot-a-psychopath-quot-book-excerpt-with-a-part-on-LSD-studies-with-psychopaths?s=55284f2ca5c94c94861aa5b86848a3a3&p=9663844&viewfull=1#post9663844
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/sep/05/psychedelic-therapy-war-on-drugs?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/blog/2011/jun/21/scientists-make-lsd-from-microbes
http://www.wgbh.org/articles/Unlocking-LSDs-Medical-Properties-4390
Energy limits and ideas
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermi_paradox
http://www.johnzerzan.net/articles/no-way-out.html and
“Interview with Ross Andersen
for The Atlantic Online, October 13, 2011″
“Getting back to Jobs’ legacy, is there an Apple product, or an Apple-enabled product that you regard as particularly corrosive to culture?
Zerzan: I was reading in the New York Times about this Baby Cry app for the iPhone that interprets the cry of a baby when it wakes up, whether it’s wet or hungry or whatever. I look at that, and I think to myself the human species has been around for two million years and now we have a fucking machine to tell us what our babies’ cries mean. If that isn’t horrendous, I don’t know what is. To me, that is just so telling about our dependence on this stuff, and you can say this is a loony example, but is it not indicative of where we’re going? And it’s everywhere, this dependency. When did you need a life coach? When were there billions and billions of dollars in self-help books?”
https://clevercycles.com/energy_and_equity/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endgame_%28Derrick_Jensen_books%29
inner circle of innovative influence
http://artnode.se/artorbit/issue4/i_brockman/i_brockman.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2005/apr/30/featuresreviews.guardianreview25
http://www.criterion.com/films/1558-savages
“The reason for this prohibition is
that E dge is a conversation – it’s not a
magazine written for the public. The
audience for the contributors to E dge
is the other contributors. The readers
have the opportunity to look over the
shoulders of some extraordinarily
gifted individuals as they go back and
forth in the battle of ideas. And since
the scientifi c method is central to our
activities, I want to avoid the personal
and focus on evidence.
JN I was pleased to see quite a lot about
the “collective IQ” of the net – which is
something that the mainstream media
don’t seem to understand at all. A
passage in William Calvin ’s essay where
he talks about the net enabling us to
“stand on the shoulders of a lot more
giants at the same time” reminded me
of an older metaphor coined by, I think,
Doug Engelbart, who invented the
mouse, windowing interfaces and a lot
of other seminal computing technology:
“Power steering for the mind”.”
Is no-tempo the contemporary punk music?
I would say the logical conclusion of music today is that it can easily be detournement material for mindlessness, Folk music (a.k.a. closer-to-contemporary punk music) can also fall into this category, thus music that truly rebels is acapella, hip-hop, and percussion-less music with lots of silences. Or, music that constantly defies expectations. http://www.southparkstudios.com/full-episodes/s11e13-guitar-queer-o
on artificial scarcity
Corporations and the corpus. Spiritations and the spirits
Insolvencies make corporations potentially mortal, but exorcists and poltergeists make spiritations potentially undead. If a spirit is swept under a rug, then, as a tube of toothpaste, squeezing the gel out of the burrow could plump a blimp out of the woodwork.
Blue Sky Music
There isn’t enough blue sky music. I define “blue sky” music as a sunny, clear skies song that is nearly pure ecstasy, one that isn’t a downer nuisance like a pharmaceutical commercial’s butchered samples. It is also borderline “spotless mind.” Lobotomy, if you will. But it involves instrument, or vocal harmony, in an a captive way. It can’t even be sad in a good way, even though there’s nothing wrong with that. It just has to reach those peaks, and often. Or, like “Boys of Melody”, it has to to start from very low and rise to very high, but it has other exceptions. Examples can be heard throughout every decade.
songs or events:
1900s – Scott Joplin – “The Entertainer” 1902
1930s – Solomon Linda & The Evenings Birds “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” 1939
1940s Andrews Sisters’ “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy Of Company B” 1941 (Interestingly, Bettle Midler appearance on the Wikipedia entry for Camp explains this connection.
1950s The Chordettes- “Mr. Sandman” 1954
1960s The Beach Boys- “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” 1966
“Crosby Stills & Nash – Suite – Judy Blue Eyes” 1969
Jefferson Airplane “White Rabbit” 1967 3-Way Tie.
1970s Ry Cooder “Little Sister” 1979
1980s n/a (There was no summer of ’89), but Paul Simon’s “You Can Call Me Al,” 1986, is close.
1990s Jimmy Cliff – “I Can See Clearly Now” 1993
2000s The Hidden Cameras – “Boys of Melody” 2003
Ry Cooder – Little Sister
Aside from its other lyrics, the peaks at 0:17, 0:55 (Please, please) and especially the (ooohs)1:07, 1:46 (ohhhs), and (ruuuun) 1:05 have sunny vocal harmonies
from the 1979 album “Bop Til you Drop”
“A spoonfulof sugar to help the medicine go down” (or, making spinach palatable)
Smart, Healthy, Effective.
“sunshine is the best disinfectant.”
Forget Clarity. Heighten cloudy writing to an
outrageous level. Just for an exercise:
The lion seeks courage. In the lion’s den, the lion hides and sleeps tonight. The lion seeks courage. In the lion’s den, the lion hides and sleeps tonight. The lion seeks courage. In the lion’s den, the lion hides and sleeps tonight. The lion seeks courage. In the lion’s den, the lion hides and sleeps tonight. The lion seeks courage. In the lion’s den, the lion hides and sleeps tonight. The lion seeks courage. In the lion’s den, the lion hides and sleeps tonight. The lion seeks courage. In the lion’s den, the lion hides and sleeps tonight. The lion seeks courage. In the lion’s den, the lion hides and sleeps tonight. The lion seeks courage. In the lion’s den, the lion hides and sleeps tonight. The lion seeks courage. In the lion’s den, the lion hides and sleeps tonight. The lion seeks courage. In the lion’s den, the lion hides and sleeps tonight. The lion seeks courage. In the lion’s den, the lion hides and sleeps tonight. The lion seeks courage. In the lion’s den, the lion hides and sleeps tonight. The lion seeks courage. In the lion’s den, the lion hides and sleeps tonight. The lion seeks courage. In the lion’s den, the lion hides and sleeps tonight. The lion seeks courage. In the lion’s den, the lion hides and sleeps tonight. The lion seeks courage. In the lion’s den, the lion hides and sleeps tonight. The lion seeks courage. In the lion’s den, the lion hides and sleeps tonight. The lion seeks courage. In the lion’s den, the lion hides and sleeps tonight. The lion seeks courage. In the lion’s den, the lion hides and sleeps tonight. The lion seeks courage. In the lion’s den, the lion hides and sleeps tonight. The lion seeks courage. In the lion’s den, the lion hides and sleeps tonight. The lion seeks courage. In the lion’s den, the lion hides and sleeps tonight. The lion seeks courage. In the lion’s den, the lion hides and sleeps tonight. The lion seeks courage. In the lion’s den, the lion hides and sleeps tonight. The lion seeks courage. In the lion’s den, the lion hides and sleeps tonight. The lion seeks courage. In the lion’s den, the lion hides and sleeps tonight. The lion seeks courage. In the lion’s den, the lion hides and sleeps tonight. The lion seeks courage. In the lion’s den, the lion hides and sleeps tonight. The lion seeks courage. In the lion’s den, the lion hides and sleeps tonight. The lion seeks courage. In the lion’s den, the lion hides and sleeps tonight. The lion seeks courage. In the lion’s den, the lion hides and sleeps tonight. The lion seeks courage. In the lion’s den, the lion hides and sleeps tonight. The lion seeks courage. In the lion’s den, the lion hides and sleeps tonight. The lion seeks courage. In the lion’s den, the lion hides and sleeps tonight. The lion seeks courage. In the lion’s den, the lion hides and sleeps tonight. The lion seeks courage. In the lion’s den, the lion hides and sleeps tonight. The lion seeks courage. In the lion’s den, the lion hides and sleeps tonight. The lion seeks courage. In the lion’s den, the lion hides and sleeps tonight. The lion seeks courage. In the lion’s den, the lion hides and sleeps tonight. The lion seeks courage. In the lion’s den, the lion hides and sleeps tonight. The lion seeks courage. In the lion’s den, the lion hides and sleeps tonight. The lion seeks courage. In the lion’s den, the lion hides and sleeps tonight. The lion seeks courage. In the lion’s den, the lion hides and sleeps tonight. The lion seeks courage. In the lion’s den, the lion hides and sleeps tonight. The lion seeks courage. In the lion’s den, the lion hides and sleeps tonight. The lion seeks courage. In the lion’s den, the lion hides and sleeps tonight. The lion seeks courage. In the lion’s den, the lion hides and sleeps tonight.
Crouching Tigger, magic dragon. I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll bounce a check over your mortgage. Crouching Tigger, magic dragon. I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll bounce a check over your mortgage. Crouching Tigger, magic dragon. I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll bounce a check over your mortgage. Crouching Tigger, magic dragon. I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll bounce a check over your mortgage. Crouching Tigger, magic dragon. I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll bounce a check over your mortgage. Crouching Tigger, magic dragon. I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll bounce a check over your mortgage.Crouching Tigger, magic dragon. I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll bounce a check over your mortgage. Crouching Tigger, magic dragon. I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll bounce a check over your mortgage. Crouching Tigger, magic dragon. I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll bounce a check over your mortgage. Crouching Tigger, magic dragon. I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll bounce a check over your mortgage. Crouching Tigger, magic dragon. I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll bounce a check over your mortgage. Crouching Tigger, magic dragon. I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll bounce a check over your mortgage. Crouching Tigger, magic dragon. I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll bounce a check over your mortgage. Crouching Tigger, magic dragon. I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll bounce a check over your mortgage. Crouching Tigger, magic dragon. I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll bounce a check over your mortgage. Crouching Tigger, magic dragon. I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll bounce a check over your mortgage. Crouching Tigger, magic dragon. I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll bounce a check over your mortgage. Crouching Tigger, magic dragon. I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll bounce a check over your mortgage. Crouching Tigger, magic dragon. I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll bounce a check over your mortgage. Crouching Tigger, magic dragon. I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll bounce a check over your mortgage. Crouching Tigger, magic dragon. I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll bounce a check over your mortgage. Crouching Tigger, magic dragon. I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll bounce a check over your mortgage. Crouching Tigger, magic dragon. I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll bounce a check over your mortgage. Crouching Tigger, magic dragon. I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll bounce a check over your mortgage. Crouching Tigger, magic dragon. I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll bounce a check over your mortgage. Crouching Tigger, magic dragon. I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll bounce a check over your mortgage. Crouching Tigger, magic dragon. I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll bounce a check over your mortgage. Crouching Tigger, magic dragon. I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll bounce a check over your mortgage. Crouching Tigger, magic dragon. I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll bounce a check over your mortgage. Crouching Tigger, magic dragon. I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll bounce a check over your mortgage. Crouching Tigger, magic dragon. I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll bounce a check over your mortgage. Crouching Tigger, magic dragon. I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll bounce a check over your mortgage. Crouching Tigger, magic dragon. I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll bounce a check over your mortgage. Crouching Tigger, magic dragon. I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll bounce a check over your mortgage. Crouching Tigger, magic dragon. I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll bounce a check over your mortgage.
Explicit Artificial Intelligence
This site explains the cogs (a.k.a. guts) of artificial intelligence better than any other site I’ve read.
It seems to integrate multiple personalities, dualisms, maybe even perceptual-control theory (it mentions WiIlliam James-brother of Henry James), logic and mysticism, hierarchical, associative learning, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perceptual_control_theory (see earlier post) .
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6992613.stm
“Who’s afraid of the big bad wolf?”
“
I was in there having a beer one night, and I saw “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” scrawled in soap, I suppose, on this mirror. When I started to write the play it cropped up in my mind again. And of course, who’s afraid of Virginia Woolf means who’s afraid of the big bad wolf . . . who’s afraid of living life without false illusions. And it did strike me as being a rather typical, university intellectual joke.
- — Edward Albee [4]“
A thinking machine, that is a large server that stores a lot of information like IBM’s Watson, but in the dynamic way of an organic, evolving, and interactive way of a human, would be scary, but not necessarily different from getting closer to approximating a human mind. What’s interesting is how abstract and generic nodes and links serve as a basic building blocks of the mind- they are just permutations and multiplications of the same things- patterns. Like in graphics visualization, there is the spooky realization that the closer it gets to resembling and acting like a real human, the more it feels creepy and that it should not approach that kind of usurp-potential.
It just occurred to me that I made an unconscious association between Big Bad Wolf (unified cognition engine AI), and Beowulf Cluster!
The neurobiological basis of physiognomy, Vanity, and Ugliness
What are we writing our Master’s Thesis on?
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/10/the-phenomenology-of-ugly/
Edward Albee character analysis
2007 nyt article:
“But if he remains a puzzle even to many who know him, he is a reassuringly solid one.”
“Like someone who goes bald early and thus appears to stay the same age for decades, Mr. Albee has pulled off the neat trick of remaining an enfant terrible long after his terrible infancy balded him emotionally.”
“Even now Mr. Albee’s eyes spark with satisfaction when he gives a contrary answer, makes an obscure reference, mystifies, illuminates, divulges, withholds.”
“Theater should be a tough experience like anything else,” he said, “but it also has the responsibility not to be boring.”
“And while he admits that the persistence of the theme of splintered identity in his work is probably biographical in origin (“Being adopted,” he mused, “did I want to be an identical twin?”), that’s the extent of his interest in the connections between life and art. The connections are there, he said, but are not terribly valuable: “They don’t determine the limitations of your experience.” It’s no accident that in “Three Tall Women,” the only one of his plays he considers at all autobiographical, his “mouthpiece” character is given neither name nor lines.
And yet the last of this season’s four Albee productions explores such connections head on.”
“Act II of “Me, Myself & I” shows similar restraint, completely maintaining the existential levity and vaudevillian antics of Act I even though it concerns one twin’s decision to untwin himself: to detach his identity from that of his mirror image forever.”
“We expect artists, at least in extremis, to admit if not wallow in their humanity. But Mr. Albee stands aloof from all that. He is amazed that people are more interested in Beethoven’s deafness than in Beethoven’s music, and troubled by the pervasive idea that one explains the other. Which is not to say his writing is unaffected by his emotions. It’s just that there’s a kind of air-lock system keeping the worlds separate. Even loss must stand in a queue.
“Wait until the next play,” Mr. Albee said. “I know it’s going to cover a great deal of what we’ve been talking about. It’s not a delayed reaction. It’s a reaction that’s coming at the proper time, when I can handle it with better equanimity.”
“In this, as in most things, he seems to avoid the swamp of self-doubt. He has instead the sangfroid of a con man, but beneath the blur of moving shells — if only you pick the right one — are genuine prizes.”
“He is what used to be called a public artist: the kind whose eminence has given him, as he put it, “more than one vote” and who casts those votes as effectively as possible.”
“I’m not in a hurry,” he said. “I keep having ideas. The creative mind doesn’t seem to have collapsed.”
“He teaches extensively (albeit sometimes caustically) and turns honorary degrees into opportunities to lament “the destruction of democracy in the United States” and proselytize for change.”
from encylcopedia:
“
- “What could be worse than getting to the end of your life and realizing you hadn’t lived it?”
- “A usefully lived life is probably going to be, ultimately, more satisfying.”[7]
- “Writing should be useful. If it can’t instruct people a little bit more about the responsibilities of consciousness there’s no point in doing it.”
- “If you’re willing to fail interestingly, you tend to succeed interestingly.”
- “That’s what happens in plays, yes? The shit hits the fan.”
- “Creativity is magic. Don’t examine it too closely.”[8]
- “Sometimes it’s necessary to go a long distance out of the way in order to come back a short distance correctly.”
- “All serious art is being destroyed by commerce. Most people don’t want art to be disturbing. They want it to be escapist. I don’t think art should be escapist. That’s a waste of time.”
I largely agree about that last quote- art should be real, but escapism is a much less expensive remedy than pills, vacations at a 5-star hotel, and even living in an oversized house. “Realist” art is like one’s day job/study, while escapism is part of one’s rest. It doesn’t have to be very commercial either. The difference is that some categorize art as part of one’s day, whereas others consider the whole day as potentially artistic. When off-stage, it’s as if all the immaterial learned was forgotten, if one proceeds to the casino. One of the reasons I agree with the above quote- Albee, who has nothing to do with vaudeville, except for the fact that his adoptive grandfather owned many vaudeville theaters, might analogously, possibly, see Las Vegas as a false, commercial substitute of the pure vaudeville art form & essence. I doubt he bundles escapism with rest- it’ just something extra…on the side…not something I’d consider serious as a center-piece, if I was showcasing something as my intended main message. But comedy can be genuine and solid. Consider free Steampunk e-books.
Reviving something because it still has partial relevance.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technocracy_movement
“The technocracy movement is a social movement which arose in the early 20th century. Technocracy was highly popular in the USA for a brief period in the early 1930s, when it overshadowed many other proposals for dealing with the crisis of the Great Depression.[1][2] The technocrats proposed replacing politicians and businesspeople with scientists and engineers who had the technical expertise to manage the economy.[1]
Contents
|
Overview
Technocracy advocates contend that price system-based forms of government and economy are structurally incapable of effective action, and promoted a more rational and productive type of society headed by technical experts.[3]“
The coming of the Great Depression ushered in radically different ideas of social engineering,[4] culminating in reforms introduced by the New Deal[5][4] By late 1932, various groups across the United States were calling themselves “technocrats” and proposing reforms.[6]
By the mid-1930s, interest in the technocracy movement was declining. Some historians have attributed the decline of the technocracy movement to the rise of Roosevelt’s New Deal.[7][8]“
“
Europe
In Great Britain, Political and Economic Planning, a think-tank founded in 1931, also advocated similar economic intervention. In Germany prior to the second world war a technocratic movement based on the American model introduced by Technocracy Incorporated existed which ran afoul with the political system there.[38]
A Russian movement existed based on similar beginnings from the North American movement also.[39]Alexander Bogdanov also had a conception of technocracy, and his conception of Tectology bears some semblance to technocratic ideas. Both Bogdanov’s fiction and his political writings as presented by Zenovia Sochor,[40] imply that he expected a coming revolution against capitalism to lead to a technocratic society. The most important of the non-Leninist Bolsheviks may have been Alexander Bogdanov.[41]“
Fine arts vs. applied arts
“That fine art is seen as being distinct from applied arts is largely the result of an issue raised in Britain by the conflict between the followers of the Arts and Crafts Movement, including William Morris, and the early modernists, including Virginia Woolf and the Bloomsbury Group. The former sought to bring socialist principles to bear on the arts by including the more commonplace crafts of the masses within the realm of the arts, while the modernists sought to keep artistic endeavor as exclusive and esoteric.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fine_arts
While I strongly support socialist ideas, along with other ones, I can’t possibly see a functional purpose “applied art” would serve. Crafts connotes a “cookie cutter” distribution of bite-sized pieces of pop art as the only, limited definition of art. Fine art is not restricted to tangibles. It is a transcendental idea, and one that is not necessarily elitist, expensive, exclusive, or esoteric either. The only pre-requisite is, at minimum, free thought, not class, lineage/dynasty, or whether one has old money. If one can afford more, pre-requisites are time and commitment.
I have a tendency to be more into aesthetics than content. There is nothing necessarily at the core. There is, alternatively, just a two dimensional surface and texture, wrapped around a physical entity. I replace quantity with quality and maintain a transcendental idea and experience of art, rather than a necessarily physical one that is limited often to time frame, director’s cut, and packaging.
Thus, I recombine the positive social and economic aspects of the Arts and Crafts movement, particularly the anti-excessive aspects of industrialization (“It advocated economic and social reform and has been said to be essentially anti-industrial.[4][5]“) with the UN-capitalistic predecessor of Bloomsbury modernism- Symbolism- and I make fine art (the good stuff, going all the way) an accessible, affordable medium to the proletariat. Whoever declared this artificial binary divide between applied and fine arts was not being constructive. Others, take two asses and put them together to produce a “so-called” chimera, when I instead combine the best of both worlds- their souls. Symbolists, in their era, had to emphasize and distinguish themselves from what they were commonly perceived as decadents. Maybe Charles Addams falls into this category.
“Transcendence, transcendent, and transcendental are words that refer to an object (or a property of an object) as being comparatively beyond that of other objects. Such objects (or properties) transcend other objects (or properties) in some way.”
In this case, it is the concept of a work of art that is the mental tangible, rather than the tangible work itself. This is seemingly what the Symbolist art movement used as its currency: “Symbolism was largely a reaction against naturalism and realism, anti-idealistic styles which were attempts to represent reality in its gritty particularity, and to elevate the humble and the ordinary over the ideal. Symbolism was a reaction in favour of spirituality, the imagination, and dreams.[2] “
So, the working class is limiting themselves if they don’t talk enough about their dreams. But, I empathize with those who can’t afford to speak their mind. I’m not exclusively a Symbolist, because I recognize that realism still carries more narrative weight or cache to those that are slaves by oppressive forces. Those who have time and money should therefore invest their time in reforming unideal, unjust laws, while those who are afflicted or disenfranchised should not have to do anything that endangers them, but try to make their stories known.
My Open Technical Forum, Faux-Elitism, Explained
It is easy to conflate technical parlance with elitist intent. I am not an elitist. I invite anyone to discuss topics at the forefront of human knowledge. Some questions and ideas are class-less, level-less. Some topics, however, do require climbing, figuratively speaking, cerebral-intensive steps. A person can become knowledgeable on a topic in any way they can- via schooling, a tutor, or as an auto-didact. I, however, am not always the go-to person to help someone reach that level required for competency. There is a story about an ancient king, who wanted his tutor to teach him geometry or (trigonometry). The king asked the mathematician tutor, “Is there any shortcut to learning geometry?” The tutor replied, “No, there is not.” All the money and power in the world will not guarantee someone from learning certain levels of knowledge. Achieving certain levels of knowledge creates a valuable possession. It is one that cannot be quickly acquired, however. The academic long-view, requires a long path of time and mental exercises to traverse.
https://en.wiki…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Access_time
not sure what abstraction levels this may be related: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DragonFly_BSD
and Julia language: http://julialang.org/ http://www.statalgo.com/julia/
http://www.yodaiken.com/papers/rtlmanifesto.pdf
“The
worst case time between the moment a hardware
interrupt is detected by the processor and the
1RTLinux is released, as is, with no warranty of any
kind. Use at your own risk.
moment an interrupt handler starts to execute is
under 15 microseconds on RTLinux running on
a generic x86. A RTLinux periodic task runs
within 35 microseconds of its scheduled time on
the same hardware. These times are hardware
limited, and as hardware improves RTLinux will
also improve. Standard Linux takes up to 600
microseconds to start a handler and can easily
be more than 20 milliseconds (20,000 microseconds)
late for a periodic task2. As an unfair
but fun comparison, an optimistic study of MSWindows/
NT didn’t even bother to try to measure
times under a millisecond and still found
that NT numbers were essentially the same as
the standard Linux numbers, while Windows/98
was up to 140 milliseconds too late on a periodic
task [7]. To be fair, there are now Window-NT
versions of the RTLinux method and these seem
to get low level timings that are sometimes almost
as good and generally not more than two
times worse than RTLinux[6].”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RTLinux
http://www.yodaiken.com/papers/BarabanovThesis.pdf
http://www.linuxfordevices.com/c/a/Linux-For-Devices-Articles/An-Introduction-to-RTLinux/ :
“RT-Linux is both spartan and extensible in accord with two, somewhat contradictory design premises. The first design premise is that the truly time constrained components of a real-time application are not compatible with dynamic resource allocation, complex synchronization, or anything else that introduces either hard to bound delays or significant overhead.”
sounds a lot like https://lwn.net/Articles/440064/ :
“The realtime tree got started partially because of a conference he attended in 2004 where various academics gathered there agreed that it was not possible to turn a general purpose operating system into a realtime one. He started working on it because of that technical challenge. Along the same lines, when asked what he would do with all the free time he would have once the realtime code was upstream, Gleixner replied that he would like to eliminate jiffies in the kernel. He has a “strong affinity to mission impossible”, he said. “
Further more,
“One should be careful about choosing the realtime kernel and only use it if you need the latency guarantees, he said. So smartphone kernels might not have any real need for such a kernel, he said. But if the baseband stack were to move to the main CPU, then it might make sense to look at using the realtime code. One “should only run such a beast if you really need it”. That said, he rattled off a number of different projects that were using the realtime kernel, including military, banking, and automation applications. He closed with a short description of a gummy bear sorting machine that used the realtime kernel, and was quite fancy, but after watching it for a bit, you wouldn’t want to see gummy bears again for a year.”
What could possibly have been the gummy bear story?
This is an interesting post too: https://lwn.net/Articles/370998/ WHY is it interesting?? Because he implies that CRAZY PEOPLE in this world are the ones who believe they are sincere (and rightly so) when they care to explain why their practical feature should be adopted by the mainline, when everyone else acts like a trojan. Sorry world, for being so explicit. Subtlety carries an overrated premium and I care to expose the emperor’s new clothes.
There’s nothing “soft” about “reaching out” to “far-right” French voters
“France’s Sarkozy reaches out to far-right voters” http://www.cnn.com/2012/04/23/world/europe/france-election/index.html
Outreach? Reaching out? I only can see a sensible connotation of warm connections when I read “reaching out.” “Far-right” is intrinsically cold and unreceptive to hands, whether they be invisible hands, hands that feed you, a government helping hand, and the like. How’s the weather inside that bunker? Did you receive my radio communication? Oh that’s right, radio-jamming is being employed. Well, how may I contact you? I don’t mean to be too snarky. Trust is a gelatinous house of cards to build.
I’ve noticed t…
I’ve noticed that http://www.orionsarm.com/ is to plausible, long-term science fiction as the Hieroglyph Project is to plausible, near-term science fiction.
an article that informed me of the latter: http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/editors/27775/
“To quote Arthur C. Clarke’s Second Law:
The only way to explore the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.“
“It therefore …
“It therefore decides to show the answer by demonstrating the reversal of entropy, creating the universe anew.”
“The last time it was asked, it was the last question it needed to answer, and thus, Multivac spent its remainder of time solving the question.”
from an Isaac Asimov short story summary.
https://en.wiki…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_Yorker#cite_ref-2
“One thing we used to talk about – when I was out in Iowa – was that the limiting factor is the reader. No other art requires the audience to be a performer. You have to count on the reader’s being a good performer, and you may write music which he absolutely can’t perform – in which case it’s a bust. Those writers you mentioned and myself are teaching an audience how to play this kind of music in their heads. It’s a learning process, and The New Yorker has been a very good institution of the sort needed. They have a captive audience, and they come out every week, and people finally catch on to Barthelme, for instance, and are able to perform that sort of thing in their heads and enjoy it. I think the same is true of S. J. Perelman; I do not think that Perelman would be appreciated if suddenly his collected works were to be published now to be seen for the first time. It would be gibberish. A learning process is required to appreciate Perelman, although it’s very easy to do once you learn how to do it. Yeah, I think the readers are coming along; that’s a problem; I think writers have tried to do it always and have failed because there’s been no audience for what they’ve done; nobody’s performed their music.”
Reading and cerebral tasks are like one of the most finely tuned, controlled-release activities that maximize the duration of the procession of the 2nd law of thermodynamics.
People Like Us
A very cool website: http://www.pbs.org/peoplelikeus/stories/index.html
I first saw some of the episodes on TV a few years ago. They’re little things that reveal a lot about ourselves, if we’re willing to discover the other worlds…
If you found that website disingenuous, you might be find this book review amusing: http://www.amazon.com/review/RF70KQWAULQD3/ref=cm_cr_pr_perm?ie=UTF8&ASIN=1440179069&nodeID=&tag=&linkCode=
“
This review is from: How To Marry The Rich: The Rich Will Marry Someone, Why Not You? TM – Ginie Sayles (Paperback)
This book is all fiction.
Ginny Sayles never married a millionaire,just created a story to make money.Just like all her books.I feel all her books are in bad taste.
Bobby “
Speaking of bad taste, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_%28style%29#Humour_and_Allusion
There are some real treasures in the wastebasket of taste:
“Timbre has been called a “wastebasket” attribute (Dixon Ward 1965, 55) or category (Tobias 1970, 409), or “the psychoacoustician’s multidimensional waste-basket category for everything that cannot be labeled pitch or loudness” (McAdams and Bregman 1979, 34).”
The difference is, that it is more like a wasteland, and searching for gems/”diamonds in the rough” is an arduous, time consuming effort. Some people/things/works of unfinished art remain rough, thus life is sometimes a bittersweet experience.
A more optimistic poem contrasted with Eliot’s The Wasteland, but parallel in acclaim, is The Bridge, by Hart Crane.
“”In a slightly more mixed review, “Metaphor in Contemporary Poetry,” Cudworth Flint wrote, “This poem seems to me indubitably the work of a man of genius, and it contains passages of compact imagination and compelling rhythms. But its central intention, to give to America a myth embodying a creed which may sustain us somewhat as Christianity has done in the past, the poem fails.”[8]“
“There are in Stevens many moments rich in beauty,” Robert Rehder writes, “but he does not want them to be too sweet and resists ‘the bawds of euphony’.”[29] Stevens’s fondness for American locale helps him temper many such moments. A poem like The Jack-Rabbit illustrates his affection for rural and frontier America and the native folk tradition, leaving no doubt that his poetry is rooted in America.[30] Poems like Ploughing on Sunday. The Doctor of Geneva, and Bantam in Pine-Woods are an implicit tribute to Walt Whitman and other American poets, including himself, making evident his pride in the poetic revolution taking place on the North American continent. Indian names are another aspect of Stevens’s Americana, as in the title of Stars at Tallapoosa. Movement away from European influences and toward the responsibility of writing distinctly American poetry may be traced to Anecdote of the Jar (1919).
Bates suggests that Stevens the American burgher was self-conscious about the poses of aesthete and dandy, writing,
It is as though Stevens, having assumed the pose of aesthete, had suddenly caught sight of himself in a mirror; thereafter, his dismay and amusement became an integral part of the pose. The same might be said of his dandiacal poems, for the dandy is by definition someone who lives always as though reflected in a mirror; the dandy’s vaunted wit sprang in the first place from an awareness of his own absurd pretensions. Further compounding the aesthetic dandy’s self-consciousness, in Stevens’ case, was his burgherly sense of his own foppish creations.[31]
Allen Tate suggests a different interpretation in maintaining that Stevens’s dandyism was “the perfect surface beneath which plays an intense Puritanism”.[32] The burgher does not look on with ironic dismay, but rather uses the poses to achieve reticence about self-disclosure. The poses allow modulation in revelation of the poet and his world. Tony Sharpe expresses a similar thought when he refers to Stevens as “that exponent of American loneliness.”[33]
When I started writing this post, I didn’t know I’d end up where I thought previously has been the forefront of much contemporary class issues. Dandyism and self-consciousness is very much a topic that has been expressed by Stevens, but poetry comments by that of Tate and Sharpe say that these are Modernist issues. What I’m interested in addition to this, is how much of the current day is still Modernist, and how much is it post-modern?
I think they are co-dominant, perhaps varying in predominance in some contexts.
Linguistics & Neuroeconomics: Could they serve as wave-particle duality function in monetary currency?
The Dollar replaced the Gold Standard in 1971. A capitalist’s language is quantitative. A socialist’s currency is language. An anarchist’s language is a free, radical idea. The Tower of Babel struck lightning to humanity’s tongues and monoglots were born. Polyglots are rare human Rosetta Stones, and my thesis is to test the hypothesis that the bulk of socialistic and capitalistic economic models overlap when it comes to labor and compensation, but differ on the flanking regions of these parallel Bell Curves,, or long tails. The differences are that Socialism establishes social policy preconditions for due diligence as the subject for a labor contract, while capitalism is concerned solely with establishing financial preconditions as the subject for a labor contract. There is, thus, a bureaucratic impasse and gridlock when it comes to declaring legitimacy. One system is older, while a newer one, can’t be implemented simply through wealth creation without making illegitimate many aspects of the former. Quantizing the resources of basic needs, such as food and water, is largely a rational system, if it is able to help, with people’s labor compensation, to exchange the amount of work needed to pay for food and water, which should actually be quite a small fraction of a day’s labor effort. However, as water is not unlimited it starts to cost something, but if it were nearly too cheap to matter, from a near abundant source of desalination from the voluminous ocean, then it would be largely a system that would only need to be maintained by an free and open-source, but small community effort of water utility plant technicians, scalable SQL database/cloud computing software engineers, utility bill subsidizers, who could quantify and manage the rationed ocean in a way to distribute, dispose, and recycle water 12 billion x 5 liters of potable water servings of water a day in 2100, analogous to a natural water cycle, except integrating humans and cloud computing infrastructure into the cycle. The point I’d like to make is, a technological and neuroeconomic model of rewards (and interfaced, but not necessarily in a cyberpunk way, but air-gapped to the brain’s dopamine reward system) could be fused like an organic System-on-a-chip (SoC) server and sensory port farm, linked to a distributed, redundant server which samples total available ocean water, and adjusts desalination, filtration, and distribution center configuration parameters accordingly. By universalizing basic needs and stripping exotic brands, establishing a common denominator in acceptable potable water quality, science and engineering could go much further in allaying fears of increasing economic inequalities. I also suggest wave-particle as an analogy (although, physically, really close in size to a neuron/synapse unit/modulation for a numerical digit and a convertibility to a word-e.g. converting a neuronal memory of an abstract concept of a unitless”1″ to a” drop of water” or “joule of carbohydrate” or “glass of water”; other unitless memristors could be”zero” or “non-1″ binaries; in other words, what types of matter can be converted reversibly to other molecules in a biological system? many types of energy conversion systems like turbines turn kinetic energies of motors using electromagnetic induction to create electric current- Faraday; in biology; a hybrid could be a neuroenergy storage system involving action potentials, glycogen/adipose, ATP, and protein/sucrose) to linguistic currency/language-fiat money as opposing political turf wars. Some issues are, with some debate, easier to reform, because they don’t specifically cost the government (but do cost actuarial insurance companies) money, such as the 1870s Reconstruction, the 1910-20s womens suffragist movement, 1964 civil rights, and recent gay marriage reforms. But much more fundamental reforms such as healthcare, and labor, face much more pitted testaments with no one policy easily able to remain dominant for very long in the short term, due to evolving and regressive public opinions. I want to add, that financial computation and exact numerical values are important when they must be applied to wide, unchanging, and largely universal needs/constants (of course considering separate the “worth two in a bush” category), such as drinking potable water, but they should vary when it comes to luxury goods and prices. A luxury could have wildly fluctuating prices based on the public demand and background knowledge of such a good. More to be edited and added later
.
Update: A distilled synthesis product of theory from yesterday’s (above) post is:
Could a synapse for storing numerical representations or digits be reversibly and dynamically converted into the synapse that stores units? Perhaps this is the reductionist neuronal equivalent of the analogy of exchanging a quantitative sum for a political preference (e.g. for/against one verbal view or another).
Transnihilism. The concept of converting one unvalued section of grey matter into meaningful, but perhaps temporary random access memory (RAM). This could be stored as static-ram or dynamic ram. Also, long-term storage, and long-term dynamic parallel processing of cladistics/classifications.
Continued, from my previous Brutalist Architecture post today
is a link to an article, as the sole purpose for posting this.
Brutalist Architecture
“Although the Brutalist movement was largely dead by the mid-1980s, having largely given way to Structural Expressionism and
Deconstructivism, it has experienced an updating of sorts in recent years. Many of the rougher aspects of the style have been softened in newer buildings, with concrete façades often being sandblasted to create a stone-like surface, covered in stucco, or composed of patterned, pre-cast elements. Modernist architects taking this approach in recent projects include Steven Ehrlich, Ricardo Legorreta, and Gin Wong.”
If you resent any upswing in an ugly architecture’s popularity, don’t narrate the present day as if there is an upswing happening. Just deny its existence, or, if forced to comment on it, declare the statistic an anomaly. However, this Wikipedia excerpt does border on unbiased. While I would prefer to deny fueling its existence by mentioning it, since irresponsible architects would proliferate it, the above excerpt is objective in the sense that it doesn’t say the style has increased, but has been modified, implying (or openly meaning) it has survived but mutated. I might accept this like the function that sulfates served in brewing the first India Pale Ales from “the water of Burton on Trent“, which is a bitter taste that I prefer to balance the seesaw effect of alcohol. I am unsure if sulfate is still used as the bitter ingredient in IPAs today, and/or added to create that same flavor. Yes, it’s 8:33am- the healthiest time of day to drink a beer, I should add, if I were to, today.
Furthermore, some interesting contrasts between the Luftwaffe and U.S Air Force:
“Brutalism has some severe critics, including Charles, Prince of Wales. His speeches and writings on architecture have excoriated Brutalism, calling many of the structures “piles of concrete”. “You have to give this much to the Luftwaffe“, said Prince Charles at the Corporation of London Planning and Communication Committee‘s annual dinner at Mansion House in December 1987. “When it knocked down our buildings, it didn’t replace them with anything more offensive than rubble.”[6]“
“[Walter] Netsch was the chief architect for the U.S. Air Force Academy, including the distinctive Cadet Chapel, seen here“
On university campuses: “Following his work on the Air Force Academy, Netsch led the team which designed the original University of Illinois Circle Campus. The campus design grouped buildings into functional clusters and now constitutes most of the east campus buildings at the University of Illinois at Chicago.[1]“
“Likewise, architect Walter Netsch designed the entire University of Illinois-Chicago Circle Campus (now the East Campus of the University of Illinois at Chicago) under a single, unified brutalist design.[4] “
“”http://www.uic.edu/depts/oaa/walkingtour/4b.html“:
“Measuring 200 feet in length, this particular walkway was unique in that it was constructed of steel, not granite, and it was the only screened walkway on campus.”
I’m curious if the steel was Netsch’s idea, and why it was switched to granite. Perhaps granite, in this context, design, and style, was more dreary.
“At the University of Oregon campus, outrage and vocal distaste for Brutalism led, in part, to the hiring of Christopher Alexander and the initiation of The Oregon Experiment in the late 1970s. This led to the development of Alexander’s A Pattern Language and A Timeless Way of Building.
In recent years, the bad memories of under-served Brutalist community structures have led to their demolition in communities eager to make way for newer, more traditionally-oriented community structures. Despite a nascent modernist appreciation movement, and the identified success that some of this style’s offspring have had, many others have been or are slated to be demolished.
Theodore Dalrymple, a British author, physican, and political commentator, has written for City Journal that Brutalist structures represent an artifact of European philosophical totalitarianism, a “spiritual, intellectual, and moral deformity.” He called the buildings “cold-hearted”, “inhuman”, “hideous”, and “monstrous”. He stated that the reinforced concrete “does not age gracefully but instead crumbles, stains, and decays”, which makes alternative building styles superior.[7]“
From an article titled, “Life after carbuncles” in the Guardian, 2004:
“The prince was on fertile ground, however, when he spoke of the need to produce buildings of beauty that “lift our spirits”. And a number of commentators, with a love for buildings old and new, might have written this: “For a long time I have felt strongly about the wanton destruction which has taken place in this country in the name of progress; about the sheer unadulterated ugliness and mediocrity of public and commercial buildings, and of housing estates, not to mention the dreariness and heartlessness of so much urban planning.
If Prince Charles really feels this, he should be championing a campaign to stop this country from being smothered in cornball American business parks, the New Jersey-style developments that rip along the Thames estuary, the banal new housing estates blighting Britain. What he might worry about less today is the quality of most buildings at the top of the architectural tree; he, and we, need to worry about the weeds and brambles spreading below.
We might all join forces if the prince wanted to launch a campaign against the trashy architecture and design that those without means are forced to endure, and which are like a plague of boils rather than just the one carbuncle he lampooned 20 years ago. In a speech to the Housing Corporation in Brighton in February 1999, the prince said: “We should build legacies, not blots, on our landscape.” I agree, but those legacies, your Royal Highness, can take many forms.”
Commuting, to keep large houses and large salaries. If only there was an alternative… Wait, there is!
Ever since seeing those storefronts with a 2nd floor apartment, I’ve always idealized those businesses as the ideal lifestyle. No commuting, whatsoever. Just breakfast, and walking down the stairs to open up shop. So it disturbs me to read about daily “super” commuters from Pennsylvania and Connecticut, who travel 4-5 hours a day, at the environment’s expense. City housing costs, but also the desire for large homes, in addition to the relatively minor cost of commuting compared to the reward, it’s easy for them to see why the tradeoff is worth 20% of your day in motion. Some people don’t mind the tedium, the utter tedium. The first thing probably worth abandoning is your large home. The next thing, is the permanent job lifestyle (but that would require a cooler socialist network system like in Norway to retrain people for new fields, like renewable energy installation technicians).
The environment deserves better. But going even further than Metropolis is the seemingly unrealistic (at least to preserving some natural Earth as we know it) Coruscant, the planet-wide city, or ecumenopolis, known as Imperial City, in Star Wars. The sun would never set on the Imperial city, being one that is constantly facing the sun, somewhere around the planet. I’m unsure what fuel source Coruscant or Trantor uses-perhaps some type of fusion or “dicrystal” (or similar compound I heard about).
The biggest Megalopolis on Earth is the Pear River Delta, at 120,000,000 people, with a fascinating skyline of Hong Kong. The largest one in the U.S. is called the “Great Lakes,” with 64m. But, having lived in Chicago, it hardly feels like a Metropolis like NYC, and jury rigging an interstate system to tack on places like Columbus and Quad Cities to fulfill the candidacy requirements for megalopolis status is contingent. There are corn fields that go on for hundreds of miles, and thus it can safely be said that the scenery earned itself a clean break.
Exploring designs for a mass transit system for an ecumenopolis would be a practical exercise for sustainable urban planners and architects. Not that it would overdevelop that much sustainably, unless some exotic energy source could produce all basic needs or importable from a different galaxy.
Reviving Architectural Criticism (for my sake of Art Deco)
I took a nap at Hudson River Park, near the West Village around noon. A couple hours later, I woke up, wanderlust, as if the intoxicating mid-Atlantic April air and afternoon sun caused some rose-tinted glasses to adjust my vision and make new plans (I was originally going to pick up my mail) on Greenwich Ave. I instead walked south on Greenwich St., not caring if I was going the wrong direction (let alone wrong street, which I didn’t notice until later) where I arrived at what is currently known as Traveler’s Plaza, and the current headquarters of Citigroup. I couldn’t help but notice the hanging gardens (or shrubs) above the entrance walkway, and the seemingly neo-Art Deco architecture of this 1988 building. Lawn and abundant greenery surrounds stepping stones of the plaza area. The base and the sides of this buiding are solid stone, but the top center is nearly all glass windows, which does not give an appearance of a neoclassical, all-around solid Art Deco edifice.
Really good, all-around article that supports the observation of the declining (and now reviving) career position of architecture critic here.
“As Alison Arieff says in her 2012 Editorial piece, quoting Alexandra Lange: ‘Architecture [...] ‘is the art you cannot avoid’ and it carries a burden that the other arts don’t — it must reconcile aesthetics and ideas with user functionality.’
A building after all, beyond an aesthetic marvel, is a shelter, a home, a school, that directly affects the lives of the people who inhabit it. But we seem to have taken that concept one step further. Today, architecture is not just an Art that considers the user, it’s an Art that betters the life of the user. It serves a higher moral purpose:
‘readers, who, in addition to just star architect fatigue, have tired of the excesses of the last dozen or so years and are less interested in architecture if it isn’t doing something to improve lives or radically transform the landscape or infrastructure of the city; if it doesn’t have a social mission.’
So what does this mean for the critic? It means that he or she must transform too. It means moving beyond the description of the building as “object” and delving into its context; it means talking to the people who live down the block; discovering how the average man perceives it; determining the extent to which it serves humanity.
It means the critic must be a reporter. And an activist one at that.”
I agree with a lot of that, though it would be interesting (and definitely conflicting with that to ignore social issues) and just have an all-Art Deco metropolis, reconstructing a life-size version of Fritz Lang’s movie set:
“Influences
Metropolis features a range of elaborate special effects and set designs, ranging from a huge gothic cathedral to a futuristic cityscape.
In an interview, Fritz Lang reported that “the film was born from my first sight of the skyscrapers in New York in October 1924″. Describing his first impressions of the city, Lang said that “the buildings seemed to be a vertical sail, scintillating and very light, a luxurious backdrop, suspended in the dark sky to dazzle, distract and hypnotize”.[5]
The appearance of the city in Metropolis is strongly informed by the Art Deco movement; however it also incorporates elements from other traditions. Ingeborg Hoesterey described the architecture featured in Metropolis as eclectic, writing how its locales represent both “functionalist modernism [and] art deco” whilst also featuring “the scientist’s archaic little house with its high-powered laboratory, the catacombs [and] the Gothic cathedral”.[6] The film’s use of art deco architecture was highly influential, and has been reported to have contributed to the style’s subsequent popularity in Europe and America.[7]
The film drew heavily on Biblical sources for several of its key set-pieces. During her first talk to the workers, Maria uses the story of the Tower of Babel to highlight the discord between the intellectuals and the workers. Additionally, a delusional Freder imagines the false-Maria as the Whore of Babylon, riding on the back of a many-headed dragon.”
I saw a job ad for an online green publication, but then I noticed…
that the application requires 3 publications in magazines/newspapers. I never bothered to publish since a college newspaper. I’ve had multiple online blogs for years and I’m always crazy enough to prefer my solitude when it comes to ‘publishing”. That doesn’t mean I wouldn’t forward a “blog entry” to an editor to review for a cross-posting at their request, but I have less of an interest in writing on a topic with any planned regularity. Even though I return to topics quite consistently, I prefer to find a unique concept to add or comment on. I like stating ideas and stories on forums. I like to read tons of newspapers, but I don’t see myself as a bureau member. I think sleuthing for meaning in things around me is a legitimate motivation in itself. I’ve learned many skills that made me qualified for numerous jobs, but the fact that I’m curious in other “ideas” suggests I’m more talented and consistent at….thinking. The most boring activity that effects the slightest changes.
Charles Atlas
Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Olympics.
I should add, that last fall, I visited the Fashion Institute of Technology Museum, which had a convincing free exhibit on the history of sportswear as tomorrow’s casualwear, and when I went to purchase some shoes today, one of the least expensive and most stylish to me seemed to be a pair of amphibious swimming shoes. The Evolution of Man is going both backwards and forwards, into the sea and space. Probably a good thing.
Kickstarter bans stalker victim.
Kickstarter, you’re supposed to write code to prevent and deter stalkers from contacting crowdfunders and accessing/spamming their private/public fundraising accounts/webpages, not tell victims they shouldn’t apply to an account. At the least, you can say you have no current ability to accommodate victims, but you could also at least make the effort to try to plan for those changes or declare something could be better.
http://news.slashdot.org/story/12/04/14/1233254/banned-from-kickstarter-for-being-cyberstalked
Foucault’s Pendulum, by Umberto Eco
After reading a summary, I don’t need to read this book. It sounds wild, but I am too much already. An extra light-humored film could be made, that only needs to indirectly, loosely address its topics, in a completely anonymized way. Stranger than Fiction (2006), though hardly related, does construct the thought-becomes-instant-reality scenario.
I Vitelloni (1953)
Stanley Kubrick’s favorite movie, by Fellini.
I saw it today. It concludes with the suggestion that it’s better to move to a major city like Rome, to abandon the monotony of a provincial town. Other interesting themes include a Faustian bargain by one of the leading roles: “Fausto” Morelli, who heeds no one’s advice as he habitually womanizes (often the monogamous), to his friends’ and family’s (including his wife Sandra’s) distress and anger. Moraldo Rubini, perhaps shares similar playboy interests of Fausto, but actually leaves for the city, presumably to date the Carrie Bradshaw-type, avoiding the Faustian strings. Or, he is monogamous, and just prefers the city. He is more of a dreamer, and thus has less difficulty in resisting certain calls (as exemplified by the scene at Sergio’s where he shows cautious interest in one of his entourage’s actresses (although he might just be doing this to avoid the same problem as Fausto, and as the scene exhibits him with no further interest, as it turns to Fausto and one of the actresses)- not much other character development on Moraldo’s part, because his role was deliberately kept minor/less dominant until the very end, to reveal the major differences between Fausto and Moraldo’s fates. I Vitelloni is also the thematic predecessor to Fellini’s La Dolce Vita (1960), which is probably a much more explicit manifestation of whatever Casanovan interests Fellini had (curiously, the protagonist’s name is Marcello Rubini, not too far off from Moraldo). I Vitelloni is the provincial stem cell, the train depot for the city-bound dreamer, before any of that “good life” begins. Ideally, it’s best to stay that way after arriving- a dreamer, like a raisin in the sun.
I could tell this DailyKos diary was going to be good when I read the headline.
There are a few reasons to oppose a new construction of a tunnel under the Hudson, but it wasn’t mentioned there and it involves reducing overall traffic, along with a FoodTubes project, something a pro-business, car-friendly governor wasn’t thinking about and was mentioned in one of my earlier blog posts.
My optimum computer font
on this netbook resolution of 1024×600 is Liberation Sans Narrow Condensed, with font size 11 and UI theme High Contrast. Firefox’s override is set to Liberation Sans Narrow, size 24. Standardization across javascript applets is a funky nuisance. Everything else is gaudy.
Stress-Tested Insights, Digests from Yesterday Night (and supplemented, edited this morning)
Alcohol seems to help separate the neuronal chaff from the wheat.
Where is the West Side’s Big Idea theater?! The Park Avenue Armory needs a run for it’s money. Historically, it is the amphitheater. The Delacorte Theater doesn’t really count, since it’s not open year round. I read what happened to the East River Park amphitheater on the Lower East Side:
“The amphitheater in East River Park was built in 1941, along with an adjacent limestone recreational building, as part of an urban renewal project for the Lower East Side. Joseph Papp, founder of Shakespeare in the Park and the Public Theater, staged Julius Caesar there in 1956. During much of that decade, the amphitheater was the site of free Evening-in-the-Park concerts. Local schools held their graduation ceremonies there, and the Group of Ancient Drama performed free productions of Greek classics. In 1973, however, the amphitheater closed due to a budget shortage. Vandals attacked the neglected theater and by 1980 it was unusable.
East River Park runs 57.46 acres alongside the Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) Drive and the East River from Montgomery Street to East 12th Street. It was conceived in the early 1930s when Robert Moses was designing the FDR Drive, also known as the East River Drive. Moses was unable to acquire enough land for the park, so he built a 10-foot wide concrete extension to the eastern shorline, creating enough space. In 1949, when the FDR Drive was widened, a portion of the park between Montgomery and Jackson Streets was eliminated. South Street was extended in 1963, protruding onto another 30-foot section of the park. In 1951, Parks built the 10th Street pedestrian overpass above the FDR Drive, connecting the park with East Village residents, especially allowing easy access to residents of the neighboring Lillian Wald Houses.”
Ok, I get it. Two glaring problems. Oil Crisis in 1973, which among other things, led to NYC budget mismanagement, along with the eventual the lack of federal funding for cities. And Robert Moses chose the Lower East Side, hometurf of Dadaist punk, saboteurs and counterculture, which does not blend well with polite theater/the aristocratic court, unless you’re a genius like Falco. Moses didn’t know anything about culture or neighborhoods, and Papp couldn’t have predicted the arrival of The Ramones, CBGB, and Joy Divison, thus the gritty, confrontational energy that permeates the Lower East Side and lower Manhattan air is derived from the pulverized chips off the old Plymouth LES amphitheater, though it ultimately originates from the Five Points, and NYC’s history of bullies, “hustlers, criminals, prostitutes, losers, and swindlers” as researched in Luc Sante’s 1992 Lowlife. The ghosts of NYC’s snares continue to maintain cosmic influence by prodding the current, descendant generation of bullies, foremen and neighborhood characters, haunting the streets at night, where drunken fights occasionally break out at 4am. Though it certainly is different from the forgotten past- a different era is stored from what remains in microfilm, media archives and museums.
If, on the other hand, Jane Jacobs carefully commissioned the amphitheater to be built in Chelsea, perhaps along Hudson River Park, the city atmosphere would be much different. For example, English ex-pats would probably guard The Public Theater’s premiere outdoor venue (The PT was founded as The Shakespeare Workshop, hence a major classical bent, along with aspiring to sculpt classics out of contemporary noosphere with “dedicated to embracing the complexities of contemporary society” and “creating a place of inclusion and a forum for ideas.”) like The Globe Theater, or Her Majesty. Fortunately, there is now at least The High Line, with a little performance space.
ImprovEverywhere and The Public Theater seem to be the most qualified resident troupes. I’m desperately seeking Situationists, not glaringly obvious activism, but a crème de la crème spectacle, seamlessly integrated into society. Fighting hot air with hotter air. Capturing and conveying the rational spectacle of absurdity. The optometrist of mass sentiment. The orthopedic surgeon of gait.
As much as comics know and inform the uninformed, they always need even more humor for personal consumption. I think the previous sentence wins this post’s #1 truism.
My purpose isn’t necessarily to explain my message in the frankest terms, but to deliver it in a way that causes the most appropriate level of awareness. Effected, ideally, with an appropriate volume. Hence, the need for artistic theater.
Update: The plot thickens: The East River Park amphiteater was renovated and re-opened:
“In 2008 the City Parks Foundation brought free music, dance, and theater arts programming to the amphitheater in an effort to further engage the surrounding communities in the revitalization of the park. The first performance held was a music concert by Fiery Furnaces which drew an audience of 1,500. KRS-One and Willie Colón also performed in 2008, drawing crowds upward of 3,000 people.”
Now, it was built for theater, not music, but theater is an outcast in LES it seems, except for La MaMa ETC and other off-off Broadway cafes that inched gains into hostile territory. I got sour grapes. Chelsea is mainly art galleries, LES and Brooklyn is music, models, and mopeds. Upper West Side is occasionally out of touch (aren’t we all?). I do like the Rose Hill/Gramercy Park neighborhood, all around. Madison Square Park is a really non-disagreeable place. Actually, to periodically cycle peripatetically amongst various neighborhoods’ atmospheric dietary needs is really the issue/preference. In Biology, you learn you’re not just an organism, you’re an environment/host for other organisms. Enviroments can also feed on other environments too. Who begets what I don’t know, though. 
I’m a critic to edit my own sense of the world, thus I think it’s best to not communicate most criticism to artists, unless they’re interested in feedback (it disrupts some of their focus, from what I hear). I’m hardly an artist- I identify most with corporeal mime- with the physical environment being my only equal, in terms of weight (heavyweight champion of the worrrrld!) and in cadence.
Rose-Tinted Glasses
Many choices are rather among different tints. Chances are one filters more than one other color, with a bias against the rose-related realms.
Family Tree of the Gods and Realms
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_tree_of_the_Greek_gods
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_primordial_deities
I’m rediscovering some genres such as the Symbolist era. I think I was just never ready or had the interest to examine much literary history in further detail. So I have encroached a bit today (not that there is a net decrease in available noosphere space in this genre by seizing the topic.)
I find Greek mythology interesting because there is so much of an infinite realm from which to base a source of guidance and wisdom. What is sometimes overlooked among contemporaries and the Enlightenment, who assume the latest knowledge and assumptions is the most apt and relevant, is recycled by the Modernists. Problem solving thrives on using an imagination that is partly fantasty and partly realist. “Make it New!” Most assumptions of “reality” are in fact social norms that one has to adhere to. Thus, it is most practical to be a thinker when approaching a given issue. We are too much a society of doers. Or, doers without much ruminated backtracking up the vines of Will and Ananke. Modernism is a lot like the quantum mechanics breakthroughs in the 1920s and 1930s: Some of the physicists of that era like Richard Tolman are still at the leading edge of their fields, and their textbooks have not had “successors” in certain fields, such as the link between statistical and classical physics.
This has answered a lot:
“In more recent times, classical themes have been reinterpreted by dramatists Jean Anouilh, Jean Cocteau, and Jean Giraudoux in France, Eugene O’Neill in America, and T. S. Eliot in Britain and by novelists such as James Joyce and André Gide.[2]“
Art Deco is Here to Stay
There is no metropolitan architectural apex higher than Art Deco. Human civilization has reached A Wrinkle in Time, and concepts that appear to be even more ideal than Art Deco only turn out to be teratogenic offspring of Atlas and Columbia. Outside the New York City limits, as in Portland and London, all land and seas should return to a pristine and romantic state.
Edit: Alternative Blog entry title candidate: “This town deserves a better class of architect.” So yeah… Neil Young & Heath Ledger.
Also, this entry wouldn’t be complete without saying that there should be no blind faith towards Atlas Shrugged. Neither Rand nor Prometheus are ideals, thus it’s best to understand situations by their current moment, rather than on what the past has shown or merely appears to suggest as an applicable guide.
Here’s WHY I don’t eat meat.
I prefer to FLUSH out ALL the shit. Input requires 1:1 output, figuratively (and literally, where applicable) speaking. I like the FIBER of beans. I like the natural smell of REAL FOOD. I prefer that my colon not smell like a taxidermist’s chimeric scrapyard. I feel GREAT after a major organic vegetable shit, not when it’s constipation and the ghosts of Animal Farm. Meat makes you fat. And I prefer not to carry the burden of said animals’ potential cancer/cysts.
Making Dionysus and Persephone proud. I don’t date Greek tigers.
This blog is be…
This blog is bending into a major literary pocket component: https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=87779452
Writer that epitomizes what aesthetics/habitus are seldomly sought, among both the “indie left” and the “monolithic right”
https://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/27/books/review/ORourke.html?pagewanted=1
““The Emperor’s Children” is, on its surface, a stingingly observant novel about the facades of the chattering class — with its loves, ambitions and petty betrayals — but it is also, more profoundly, about a wholesale collision of values: those of the truth-telling but hypocritical Murray Thwaite, who epitomizes earnest 1960’s liberalism, and the Machiavellian Seeley, who represents postmodernism and its assumption that truth is fungible.”
This seems like Damsels in Distress: when money can buy options, it’s interesting to see the cultural divide among the fine art bourgeois (in character and idealism, not necessarily material works. As an aside, I’m equally interested in “fine science” when practical, or not, like pure mathematics, because they lend themselves to quality works, as if there is a practical logic in following a wild rabbit- like augmented music- where interpolation leads you to a core understanding of natural principles), and the bland, ugly, but equally wealthy, merely capitalists.
“One could (and should) question, for example, whether she’s right to lump together McSweeney’s, The Onion and The New York Observer as publications that represent a generation’s lack of aesthetic direction, magazines that “aren’t for anything, just against everything,” as Danielle puts it. “
“Among its many pleasures, this novel indisputably reminds us of one truth that cannot be declared fungible: the obdurate reality of the human imagination. “The Emperor’s Children” is a penetrating testament to its power.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habitus_%28sociology%29
Add this to the mix: https://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/06/books/columbia-u-haunts-of-lucien-carr-and-the-beats.html?_r=1
“Great Minds talk about ideas.
Average Minds talk about events.
Small Minds talk about people.”
If I’m talking about a person, then I’m probably talking about their ideas/beliefs. That’s what more people ought to do. I’m being a critic because that’s 1/3rd of my identity, along with 1/3 academic, and 1/3 artist, per Guy Davenport’s recipe which I’ve constructed. Avoid such objective physicality and ad hominems. Thoughtful idealists are ideal. Republicans have become the real “nattering nabobs of negativism” (coined by Will Safire) and others too, just look how absurd the campaign season and its commercial ads have become.
Guy Davenport “Every Force Evolves a Form”
Artist as Critic
Scholar as Artist
Critic as Artist
Artist as Scholar
Scholar as Critic
Critic as Scholar
Molecular Mechanics, Modeling and Visualization
http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/Development/Download/download.cgi
NAMD and VMD
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_software_for_molecular_mechanics_modeling
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_quantum_chemistry_and_solid_state_physics_software
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TeraChem
“Self-consistent field, one of the principal calculation approaches comprising Hartree–Fock method in quantum chemistry”
petaFLOPS, exaflops, zetta, yotta
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FLOPS#Future_developments
“In India, ISRO and Indian Institute of Science have planned to make a 132.8 exaflop supercomputer by 2017, 100 times faster than any supercomputer ever planned. It would cost US $2 billion, but the Indian Government is ready to provide funding and all key equipment is booked. ISRO Scientists say they have planned very carefully to put up such a target.[39]“
“Erik P. DeBenedictis of Sandia National Laboratories theorizes that a zettaFLOPS (ZFLOPS) computer is required to accomplish full weather modeling of two week time span.[37] Such systems might be built around 2030.[38]“
“The Indian supercomputer will not be used only for enhancing the country’s space abilities, it will also be used to predict monsoon and precise weather inputs to boost agricultural output of the country.”
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/03/ff_nsadatacenter/all/1
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/fermi-kepler-maxwell-gigaflop-watt,11339.html
The upcoming 2013 Nvidia Maxwell GPUs are 4x more powerful than the current Keplers (GTX680), which are 3Teraflops. So, using GPU computing alone (and not AMD Opterons), 1 Exaflop would require 83,333 Nvidia Maxwell 780GTX at 12 TFlops each. If it costs $500 per flagship card, that’s $41.7 million alone on just the Nvidia cards, although there are probably unprecedented costs, such as new parallelization hardware. The Indian project costs $2billion dollars and if complete by 2017, that means that 132 exabytes would require 83,000 x 132 (exa flops) cards, or 10 million cards (unlikely, considering the NSA Stellar Wind uses 18,000 GPUS) using a Maxwell GPU, which is $5.5 billion dollars alone for the GPU. Unless Opterons+Maxwell multiply FLOPS, then maybe it would be using a GPU past Maxwell, such as a 2014 or 2015 card, which may use…64 TFlops or 256 Tflops/s card. Roughly estimated, Video cards in 2019 commercially would have 1 petaflop, and 1 exa flop in 2025, and 1 Zetta flop in 2029…
Though, that’s if one wants those operations completed in one second. 1,000 seconds is 16 minutes. Thus, 18,000 Gpus at 3 Teraflops/ second is 54 petaflops/second and 54 exaflops in 16 minutes. It’s also 54 zetta flops in 277 hours, or 11 days and one yotta flop in 198 days, or 6 months and one week. 54 exaflops in 16 minutes means that 1 zetta flop can be computed in 16 x18 minutes, or 4.8 hours for 14 days of global weather predictions. Using 18k Maxwell GPUS instead of Kepler would reduce that simulation to 1.2 hours.
Edit (4-10-12): One thing I’ve overlooked about weather prediction is, if climate change accelerates, could that introduce more factors and uncertainties, both anthropogenic and collateral that make predictions even more computationally intensive and short-lived (e.g. 5 days instead of 14)?
“Distributed computing uses the Internet to link personal computers to achieve more FLOPS:
- Folding@Home is sustaining over 5.6 native petaFLOPS as of March 2012[23] or 8.1 x86 PFLOPS (x86 flops are an approximate measurement of the speed of a calculation on an x86-based processor, different from native flops[24]). It is the first computing project of any kind to cross the 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 native petaFLOPS milestone. This level of performance is primarily enabled by the cumulative effort of a vast array of powerful GPU, PlayStation 3 and CPU units.[25] “
Other things that will be interesting to compute on a single computer, or cheaply available AGPL cloud services that makes the science data public, is solar photovoltaic research, and water filters.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clean_Energy_Project
- ^“Computing for Clean Water Announcements”. World Community Grid. 2010-08-23. Retrieved 2010-10-25.
- ^“Computing for Clean Water”. Beijing: Center for Nano and Micro Mechanics, Tsinghua University. 2010-09-20. Retrieved 2010-10-25.
“Chemical engineering in the electronics industry: Progress towards the rational design of organic semiconductor heterojunctions.”
Correction: Like ATM, and at some point I remembered that FLOPS stood for floating point operations per second, but the appearance of FLOPS suggests it could be something else. thus I will use the phrase “float ops per second or ps”
i like “float ops/s”
i haven’t corrected the above errors yet.
BioMedical Research
http://news.yahoo.com/cancer-science-many-discoveries-dont-hold-174216262.html
I’d like to say this has something to do with ($$) the fact that labs aren’t open enough to maximize their collaboration table. But I’ll let others do the explaining.
Exploratory Committee for a Kickstarter Campaign to Purchase a CAD design of a water filter
My question is, how are water filters made? Do they require CAD? Or are they woven together using some fine industrial process?
Instead of researching something already developed, purchasing it could be a simpler option. Raising awareness first, popularizing the idea, doing “grassroots” fundraising and determining at what price a quality water filter could be sold, open sourced, and GPL’d by a leading filtration company. That could then make 3D printing a little easier.
http://forums.reprap.org/read.php?129,88506,127614#msg-127614
Edit: Found one: http://www.freepatentsonline.com/y2010/0181288.html
Happy Hour and Classy Hour
In light of: http://ryanfunduk.com/culture-of-exclusion/
Well, this is probably going to make some straight male techies uncomfortable, so only read this if you’re not feeling insecure about your masculinity. Here’s the truth. If you went into science, engineering, or technology field to identify with like-minded male geeks, party at a tense happy hour gathering once or twice a week, and return back to work, then you are susceptible to falling into a sexist mindset, if not already. Happy hours are not fun for most women in tech fields, as that article shows. Guys, if you really want to have a classy time, go to a theater bar, let men flirt with you, and see a play or improv show, so you can become less insecure.
Sim City (2013)
The good: first Sim City with multiplayer (cities next to each other)
The bad: login (single/multiplayer) requires a constant internet connection.
http://www.1up.com/previews/simcity-returns-simulation-stump-speech
Mitch Altman Parts Ways With Maker Fair Over DARPA Grant
http://slashdot.org/story/12/04/03/1656224/mitch-altman-parts-ways-with-maker-fair-over-darpa-grant
https://twitter.com/?category=people#!/maltman23/status/186997470180548609
http://www.librarycult.com/2012/02/make-darpa-one/
I too have hesitated and rejected research with universities and companies that interviewed me for a position that briefly mentioned defense funding or have suspected them not even mentioning their support at all. I prefer research be contractually obligated to have no ties to defense “applications” or “intellectual property.” If the public wants the U.S. to fund education in science and technology, the Department of Education should get a HUGE funding increase to fund hackerspaces and associated hadware in schools.
Beyond the Two Cultures
http://seedmagazine.com/content/article/are_we_beyond_the_two_cultures/
“Brockman has the distinction of being the only person to have been profiled on Page One of both The New York Sunday Times “Arts & Leisure” (1966), and The New York Times “Science Times” (1997).“
http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/bios/brockman.html
Don’t get me wrong, I actually identify currently more with with the political leanings of the literary fields, considering most scientific and engineering groups are elitist and privatized. Thus, I’m interested in more effective communication between the open science & engineering design groups (such as OpenManufacturing on Google Groups) and public literary intellectuals to promote both scientific and cultural literacy.
A distinction should be made between public intellectuals and those that view their work as a personal endeavor. There is nothing wrong with either, although one who researches at a public university and makes no effort to disseminate their tax-payer funded discoveries should be conscious of that expectation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellectual#Public_intellectual_life
apples and oranges (I also found an image somewhere on Edge.org or somewhere linked to it of a apples and oranges sliced and stacked together, a much better representation. I’m not confusing elements, but I still think it’s a great way to look at some of the things that can be linked between the two domains. If I can find it or you can, please post the link as a comment. Thanks)
Wired for cultural determinism
Edit (4-10-12): Perhaps the most influential scientist in uniting the sciences and the humanities on the west side of the Atlantic might be J. Robert Oppenheimer:
“Oppenheimer brought together intellectuals at the height of their powers and from a variety of disciplines to solve the most pertinent questions of the age. He directed and encouraged the research of many well-known scientists, including Freeman Dyson, and the duo of Chen Ning Yang and Tsung-Dao Lee, who won a Nobel Prize for their discovery of parity non-conservation. He also instituted temporary memberships for scholars from the humanities, such as T. S. Eliot and George F. Kennan. Some of these activities were resented by a few members of the mathematics faculty, who wanted the institute to stay a bastion of pure scientific research. Abraham Pais said that Oppenheimer himself thought that one of his failures at the institute was being unable to bring together scholars from the natural sciences and the humanities.[119] “
Other success stories of interdisciplinary studies in the two cultures include, (while it lasted) Black Mountain College, and the current Santa Fe Institute.
morning picks
http://www.designspark.com/home
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/28/bizarre-insights-from-big-data/
https://rjlipton.wordpress.com/2012/03/30/when-is-a-law-natural/
‘What we need is a LAMP stack for robotics’
http://www.twea…
“At first, Android Police didn’t know what the “awesome new features” would consist of, but after the news broke ASUS’ Italy Facebook page blew the hinges off the news and released a brief summary of what to expect:
- Market will be updated to Play Store (that should’ve already happened, actually), as well as Books, Music, and Movies updated to their Play varaints
- ASUS Vibe will be updated from 1.0 to 2.0 with an improved interface and content
- LAN Support via USB to ethernet adapter
- Ad-hoc network support
- The ability to choose between landscape and portrait mode when using HDMI output to a TV
- Face unlock”
Software support for a ubiquiitous usb to ethernet adapter is great and quite surprising considering it’s disappearing from some of their netbooks. I guess compactness requires some features to be removed, though LAN driver support could extend to any asus/portable computing device with a usb port and linux/android, etc…
Go See It
Damsels in Distress, opens April 6th
http://www.villagevoice.com/2012-03-28/film/whit-stillman-in-distress/
http://cityarts.info/2012/04/03/bouquet-of-eccentrics/ “By bringing a sense of manners back to the chaos of modern social license, Stillman could, possibly, inspire Mumblecore to rethink itself in less slovenly terms, as a true aesthetic.” I’m not just critiquing Sex and the City; rather, I’m saying that the aesthetic of the academic idealism from the earlier decades is nearly completely lost amongst the indie crowd. You mean you couldn’t wait to finish college so you could work at that independent film archive? For life?
The End of the Beginning
http://inhabitat.com/chevy-volt-u-turn-fox-news-changes-its-tune-about-the-electric-car/
In the future, Fox News’ logo streak’s color will have green instead of red. There! I said it.
Doctor Curator, The Scientist of Art
What are the goods available to us, both natural and artificial, that make the good life affordable? Among these goods, which are culturally deemed as desirable or honorable? Among these goods, which are scientifically elucidated to have certain qualities that distinguish it clearly from other matter? In this essay, I suggest that scientifically curating the “stuff” of the opulent life would make make pop culure, high culture, esoteric scientific and academic fields, more lucid of the other fields and sub-cultures in existence. If there’s any thing that prestigious science and art have in common, it is an acutely fine eye for detail and magnanimous sense of inquiry on the nature of things.
Take theater and poverty, for example (i’ll return to both more later). Marx wrote about one of poverty’s chronic obstacles being never having the investment capital to get out of it. This is a clear example that distinguishes a lacking good (money or information) from a nourished “have” behavior, such as the dubious idea “culture of poverty.”
My inquiry into affluence is about what is absolutely affordable and available to the vast majority of the population, and what is relatively a matter of luxury. Thus, it would be harsh to deny the absolute essentials from a culture that prioritizes what goals it desires, such as a big house and car, at the expense of having less to spend on vacations or health care. The blooming cycle begins in any subculture where basic needs are met and where surplus funds and time are then directed (i.e. towards any debts, hobbies, or material collections, etc). To the very frugal, such as me, I consider information/knowledge to be one of the most valuable ways to save additional time and money on my future behavior, if a new idea or bit of information I discover suggests a “better” habit, food, or good than my existing lifestyle. It is a fine line, however, between good and desire, essential and luxury. But for anyone wealthy or poor, a steady desire for information at least on the status of one’s goods/behaviors/artistic/hobby activities, and how that activity/good is viewed in society/culture, is the leading incentive to continue or discontinue said activity/acquisition.
Is theater a choice? Isn’t it a misconception that it is more expensive? Don Hall in Chicago posted a blog on this subject, asking random passersby what stops people from going to theater, such as price or time. The same as is said about those who do not have time to read a book, but have time to watch many episodes of television that eventually add up to the pages one could read over that time.
Is personality a choice? Is it the the imitative and dissociative tendencies of those with multiple personality “disorder” that makes acting a perceivably “sell out” of the soul? Is gender just the construct that began with whatever clothes you were wearing when you were an infant? Do these questions really feel personal to you, or were you just taught to treat these types of questions with contempt?
Here’s an informative basis for the reasoning behind the RepRap, and how the technology behind such a p2p economy could get improve the state of the world: http://staff.bath.ac.uk/ensab/replicator/background.html “By proletariat is meant the class of modern wage labourers who, having no means of production of their own, are reduced to selling their labour power in order to live.” The idea to have the means of production, available anywhere people need them, to meet their basic physiological needs- such as the ability to grow food and filter collected water, is the most practical and advantageous use of adopting and developing a RepRap.
“During the th…
“During the third season of The Brady Bunch, the living room of the Brady home was used as a villain’s Hawaiian home in a sixth season episode of Mission: Impossible, “Double Dead” (both shows were produced by Paramount Pictures Television). The set was redressed with tropical plants and the staircase removed. All of the Brady furniture, including the television, remained in its usual place in the Mission: Impossible episode.” 
p2p in silico open solar energy optimization research
DotGNU+Software Transactional Memory (TM) + Haswell hardware TM+distributed computing grid for semi-empirical quantum mechanics of organic semiconductors + AGPL.
Wise words from the comedy scholars
“You don’t stop laughing because you grow old; you grow old because you stop laughing.“
New Position Openings
I have two positions available at the moment. One is a flame fanner. The other is a refueler. The first position requires excellent ergonomic practices to avoid carpal tunnel syndrome (not covered by insurance). The second requires being able to lift 50lbs of charcoal and having your own car.
Anxiety, that normal thing
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/17/the-danish-doctor-of-dread/
Timbre
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timbre
“Timbre has been called a “wastebasket” attribute (Dixon Ward 1965, 55) or category (Tobias 1970, 409), or “the psychoacoustician’s multidimensional waste-basket category for everything that cannot be labeled pitch or loudness” (McAdams and Bregman 1979, 34).”
Great Expectations
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Expectations
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Expectations_%281998_film%29
People are expecting you. It is not essential to keep that promise. Sanity first.
Math
I’m not sure why I get so sidetracked, but in the past on several occasions I had renewed my interest in developing my math knowledge beyond Calculus. The reason I spend so much time away between attempts is because I completely have the interest absent in my system for long periods of time. Thus, I wiil see if this time the interest remains.
Select Programming Languages and Paradigms
http://www-ps.informatik.uni-kiel.de/currywiki/
http://www.mozart-oz.org/
http://www.ps.uni-saarland.de/alice/
and: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programming_paradigm
“Programming paradigms
- Agent-oriented
- Automata-based
- Component-based
- Concatenative
- Concurrent computing
- Data-driven
- Declarative (contrast: Imperative)
- Constraint
- Dataflow
- Cell-oriented (spreadsheets)
- Reactive (Whoa!)
- Functional
- Logic
- End-user development
- Event-driven
- Expression-oriented
- Feature-oriented
- Function-level (contrast: Value-level)
- Generic
- Imperative (contrast: Declarative)
- Language-oriented
- Metaprogramming
- Non-structured (contrast: Structured)
- Nondeterministic
- Parallel computing
- Programming in the large / small
- Semantic
- Structured (contrast: Non-structured)
- Modular (contrast: Monolithic)
- Object-oriented
- Recursive
- Value-level (contrast: Function-level)”
Hardware and software-based transactional memory (STM) for optimized/efficient parallel processing
http://www.realworldtech.com/page.cfm?ArticleID=RWT021512050738
http://www.mercury.csse.unimelb.edu.au/information/papers.html#bmellor-hons
Mercury programming tutorial:
http://www.mercury.cs.mu.oz.au/tutorial/book/book.pdf
Understanding the important differences between and amongst Introverts, Extroverts, and Ambiverts
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extroversion_and_introversion
Implications
Acknowledging that introversion and extroversion are normal variants of behavior can help in self-acceptance and understanding of others. For example, an extravert can accept her introverted partner’s need for space, while an introvert can acknowledge his extroverted partner’s need for social interaction.
Researchers have found a correlation between extroversion and happiness. That is, more extroverted people tend to report higher levels of happiness than introverts.[22][23] Other research has shown that being instructed to act in an extroverted manner leads to increases in positive affect, even for people who are trait-level introverts. [24]
This does not mean that introverts are unhappy. Extraverts simply report experiencing more positive emotions, whereas introverts tend to be closer to neutral. This may be due to the fact that extroversion is socially preferable in Western culture and thus introverts feel less desirable. In addition to the research on happiness, other studies have found that extraverts tend to report higher levels of self-esteem than introverts.[25][26] Others suggest that such results reflect socio-cultural bias in the survey itself.[27] [28] Dr. David Meyers has claimed that happiness is a matter of possessing three traits: self-esteem, optimism and extraversion. Meyers bases his conclusions on studies that report extraverts to be happier; these findings have been questioned in light of the fact that the “happiness” prompts given to the studies’ subjects, such as “I like to be with others” and “I’m fun to be with,” only measure happiness among extraverts.[29] Also, according to Carl Jung, introverts acknowledge more readily their psychological needs and problems, whereas extraverts tend to be oblivious to them because they focus more on the outer world.[3]
Extraversion is perceived as socially desirable in Western culture, but it is not always an advantage. For example, extraverted youths are more likely to engage in delinquent behavior.[30] Conversely, while introversion is perceived as less socially desirable, it is strongly associated with positive traits such as intelligence[31] and “giftedness.”[32][33] For many years, researchers have found that introverts tend to be more successful in academic environments, which extraverts may find boring.[34]
Types of natural negative feedback loops:
http://psychology.wikia.com/wiki/Baroreflex
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erythropoiesis
Also: http://psychology.wikia.com/wiki/16_basic_desires_theory
http://psychology.wikia.com/wiki/Theories_of_motivation
I am unsure if anyone has been able to find a pattern to my posts. Semi-regularly I’ve been gaining an interest in AI and automation. I have an interest in machine and natural learning. Some of my posts are for personal reference for future analysis/reminder. Perhaps have developed an interest in his subject as a way to reactively keep myself from pursuing any interest steadily without refection or change of course, and to maintain an element/utility of debugging. An exit button, if you will. A need for an exit symbolizes a natural Turing halting problem solution. The ability to halt as an indicator of a human trait, though not the only pre-requisuite…
control theory
Fascinating field in programming, AI, and neuroscience:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_important_publications_in_theoretical_computer_science
http://www.perceptualcontroltheory.org/overview.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perceptual_control_theory
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AgentSpeak
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belief-Desire-Intention_software
_model
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_Community_Metaphor
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datalog
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_Prolog
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_Abstract_Machine
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Society_of_Mind
http://alexpetrov.com/proj/dual/
http://www.pctweb.org/
http://www.pctweb.org/LondonRiots.pdf
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1533-8525.1994.tb00396.x/abstract
http://www.amazon.com/Madding-Crowd-Social-Institutions-Change/dp/0202304248?tag=duckduckgo-lm-20
5 things I like…
5 things I like about NYC.
1. Haute Couture
2. Municipal utility sophistication…
3. Change/Movement/Adaptation
4. Union Square personalities
5. Fresh Flowers at every corner!
Things it could do without:
1. Traffic
2. McDonalds
3. Cigarettes
4. Asphalt
5. Bad architecture/facades (many are beautiful, others are so-so)
Why we need more Roombas: to prevent a Randian reality
Two topias- this article: http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2011/10/a-cultural-experiment.html “The future is already here; it’s just not very evenly distributed.” -William Gibson and: http://www.giantbomb.com/profile/ubik/bioshocks-critique-of-ayn-rand-objectivism/30-80374/
Robots won’t solve all our problems, but I think it may mitigate some of the most common, disgruntled sentiments out there. Or at least offer others a “way out,” with some options. Logistically, I don’t see a short-term way around some dirty jobs, nor do I have an explanation why I tend to return to this subject somewhat neurotically on occasion, but with enough time and research, a new discovery may appease my own curiosity soon enough.
Roombas are largely a symbolic harbinger of what’s to come. This post focuses largely on developments that are surely arriving- realistic, advanced solutions that are just a matter of funding. The future will be simpler in some ways, because more big advances, like water treatment plant advances, will process more steps in fewer steps.
The main reason I want more singular-tasked, autonomous Roomba-like robots in widespread use (like I, Robot, where no mishaps happen), is so more doers can afford more think time. Free-thinking is vastly underrated, but also not closely affiliated enough with open-design engineering firms in mechanical and electrical engineering, for example. It’s taken me 8 years since I began my undergraduate to finally have an in-depth understanding of what engineers actually do (mainly because I finally developed a prepared curiosity, albeit one that is not able to endeavor into the coursework, though I may one day in my late 30s, for a few reasons). Since then, I developed an interest in 3D printable solar panels and water filters. Quantum mechanics is hard, and I think it will take me a while to get into that. But I am still looking into water filtration, since I am a huge fan of widely available, decentralized fresh water resources (recycled is as good as new- water is part of the Hydrosphere, in any case), and I think I could maintain an interest in learning a programming language, if I actually can find a specific, clear instance of a middleware solution to printable filters and mechanical software (OpenCAD) engineering. Beginning that may involve searching for an existing CAD filter design, adjusting (programming) it to be compatible with the printhead resolution of a RepRap/Fab@home printer, and seeing what magic can fly. I’m unsure what raw materials I would need. I presume carbon-filter materials, or some bioplastic (PLA) equivalent. Following these guidlelines are also a worthy set of criteria. Eventually, I will see myself as an Andy Warhol/American Apparel factory, cranking out filters like an organic chemist distributing blotter paper squares pre-1967 prohibition, and people will be tripping on the lack of chemicals in their water (except for flouride- that remineralizes my cavity-susceptible teeth, but treat yourself to your needs however- separately, etc).
I admit I’m currently better at evangelical, heraldic blogging of science news than actual hard-science research, though I think it’s been worth the wait in exploring and discovering amazing new frontiers in engineering, software, and biotechnology research groups, among those that are open (aforementioned AguaClara, 3D printers, the new Bioprinters hacking Google Group associated w/ Biocurious, OpenManufacturing, and also the Maker culture), before thinking of and actively embarking on realistic, technological convergences of their functional compatibilities/parameters. One particular utility I want to make, that is larger-scale than canteen-size potables, is rainwater harvesting, and tile-like printing of filters in a more complex apparatus that could be installed somewhere, anywhere, thus making it more modular for urban environments. Another reason I just realized that this would be innovative, is that it would significantly supplement municipal clean water for vertical urban farming. This is also nowhere near as sophisticated as more black-water filtration solutions, but will not take as long to develop 3D printable solutions to it. Short term, I will focus on water filter CAD designs. Just a personal reminder. Symbolically, water fountains, hardly ubiquitous as they used to be, represent the ideals of Rand, even though her methodology and conclusions on collective beliefs seem flawed (if it recognizes impossibly individualistic attributions. Barbara Ehrenreich appropriately attributes the working class with much more deservedly benefactor status, reversing the vector-class assumptions about philanthropy always coming from the top).
Horoscope Rotoscope
You want eyeglasses that make you look like you know what you’re talking about.You want a shirt that speaks, “balance.” You want to look sharp, but dull around the edges. Earth tones are always in style, but a little more flair shows that you’re ready and responsible with your new venture. Bossa Nova is in. Actually, it just happens to be the type music playing at the moment, making this blog post totally reflective of that mood. Though pleasing as many people as possible with small talk and insights may not directly benefit you, it gives your social environment optimal comfort space for going your separate ways, and of course it’s best to keep necessary digressions from turning into major procrastination.
Speaking of procrastination, I’ve got just the thing to get back to.
5 Best Jobs for Angry People
1. Fitness trainer- A fitness trainer has access to a wide array of gym equipment, which allows for ready exercising and channeling one’s negative energy into machines ready to accept that negative energy, no questions asked.
2. Sanitation truck driver- A garbage truck driver has a very satisfying button on his dashboard- the compress button that compacts the new trash added to the back of the collection truck in a timely manner.
3. Bulldozer- A bulldozer is tasked with demolishing buildings that are falling apart, historical landmarks that unfortunately haven’t gotten enough preservation funding, or unprofitable buildings that can be replaced by real estate plans for much more tax and income revenue. Comes in the form of a tractor or wrecking ball.
4. Crop Duster. Forget ChemTrails (that’s just cruel), if you know how to fly a plane, you can fantasize that you’re “intoxicating” thousands of happy plants. Ideally you would use natural pesticides instead of that artificial stuff, though it doesn’t seem like a job you’d be able to do most of the year, unless you travel to several farms.
5. Steamboat captain. Nothing like letting off a bunch off steam, literally. Confined mainly to rivers and not widely in commission anymore, as diesel-powered ships took over in the 20th century.
Update: My blog statistics show a web search has been made for for “what is the best job for a angry person.” I’m proud to have been ready to address one unique query. I’ve also added a link to the Freudian term “sublimation” and a couple public domain cartoon drawings of Steamboat Wilie (racial undertones aside, it was 1928 and Walt Disney’s breakthrough work)
Update 2: I don’t ever feel angry enough to actually want to pursue one of these jobs. Rather, I fancy imagining some burly , brawly-prone individual trudging towards an equal and balancing force.
Theater to go to
The People’s Barnum, by Qwest Theatre Ensemble, at the Blue Theater in Andersonville (I’m in Chicago for 10 days).
Excellent performance, very creative use of inexpensive props. Bailey, the slightly androgynous master of ceremonies/ringleader, steals the show from Barnum’s sincerity troubles. He keeps the show moving with extremely likeable charisma. Best free theater company in Chicago. Donate if you have some. I saw their adapted performance of The People’s History of the United States at the same venue in 2008, also a classic. Flirt with Bailey after the show.
How many months must I wait before I can become a New Yorker? :)
I see myself as one the spiritual successors to Jane Jacobs, though I don’t have the credentials to show (though she didn’t start with any formal training herself either). Thus, I am just a kindling spirit, at the moment. Here is an online series on transport in cties: http://www.pbs.org/e2/episodes/307_london_the_price_of_traffic_excerpt.html (also is relevant to the UK-based FoodTubes project)
Here are my vast plans for Manhattan:
1. Reduce car, SUV, yellow taxi, and truck traffic to 10% of current levels by 2030. Remaining cars will travel at no more than 15mph and will be customarily stared down by pedestrians, wherever they go.
2. Close even more streets to autos, starting with adjacent, parallel streets that have evened out their traffic loads to less than 30% usage each. For those of you new to the topic, since 2009, NYC has closed off Herald and Times Square to traffic, and it is now a street open to only pedestrians. https://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/26/arts/design/26clos.html?_r=1 This model will increase in future hot spots, leading to a slow down of combustion travel and a fresher air permeating the streets.
3. Reinstate mixed-usage neighborhoods that are not dominated visually and physically by banks and drugstores, using the Upper West Side’s upcoming storefront regulations, which limits storefront width to 40ft (though it should be less in some other places) as a citywide model.
4. Renovate any unused, underground train stations as public spaces similar to the brilliant new Delancey St Lowline project idea (which has raised $99,000 out of $100,000 on Kickstarter) on the Lower East Side: http://inhabitat.com/nyc/low-line-park-under-delancey-street-launches-kickstarter-campaign/
5. Explore a multi-crossing Foodtubes infrastructure that could consolidate transport cargo from New Jersey through a few of the existing tunnels or overpasses across the Hudson: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fixed_crossings_of_the_Hudson_River (This would go hand in hand with reducing daily auto traffic and commuters of fresh food trucks bringing in fresh fruits, vegetables, flowers, and other perishables). Theoretically, it would also be luxurious to have another/shared tube for materialism/”shit we don’t really need” to further reduce cars carrying cargo in their trunks and backseats alongside all that fast food trash littering under their seats.
6. More to be added.
Chances are…
Aptitude is needed. Do you have it? General aptitude. Aptitude is like teaching a person how to fish so they can keep themselves fed for a lifetime.
Sugar(1 part fructose) in liver processing & Supermarkets: 1st Step: Dilute that drink
This essay integrates two major articles/topics on sugar and food choices at supermarkets where most U.S. residents shop.
An April 2011 article, detailing extensively how sugar(namely fructose, in both refined cane and high-fructose corn syrup) leads to obesity and disease:
https://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/17/magazine/mag-17Sugar-t.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all
A January 2011 article, detailing a government effort to promote healthier foods in the largest supermarket chain in the U.S., Walmart:
http://www.ndtv.com/article/world/how-michelle-obama-is-changing-wal-mart-strategy-80536
Disclaimer: I’m not a doctor. (Not even a Ph.D)
The problems in agricultural food production include the corn lobby, but also processed food manufacturers that add plain refined sugar to just about any recipe, such as oatmeal cookies and crackers, along with fruit juices from concentrate. The April 2011 NYT articles specifies the mechanism of liver malfunction (from too much fructose), which contributes to insulin resistance, the first straw that breaks the camel’s back, rendering him a diabetic:
“The fructose component of sugar and H.F.C.S. is metabolized primarily by the liver, while the glucose from sugar and starches is metabolized by every cell in the body. Consuming sugar (fructose and glucose) means more work for the liver than if you consumed the same number of calories of starch (glucose). And if you take that sugar in liquid form — soda or fruit juices — the fructose and glucose will hit the liver more quickly than if you consume them, say, in an apple (or several apples, to get what researchers would call the equivalent dose of sugar). The speed with which the liver has to do its work will also affect how it metabolizes the fructose and glucose.”
So here is a problem of economy and produce (referring to the noun definition variant of the word “produce,” and indicating fruits and vegetables, not the verb). Walmart makes a lot of money by packaging lots of products compactly because it delivers processed sugar and nutrients in dry, small, easy to transport packages, compared to romantically sinewy asparagus, broccoli, and mangos, that overstay their boxes, bulging outside of their containers, defying easy quantification and identification. Natural produce evokes images of nature, picturesque food markets, quaint villages, health, and even the labor movement, since it is so normal to associate and counting of fruits and vegetables with human handling. I haven’t done the organic farming statistical research to know exactly how much healthy foods from U.S. farms can be theoretically transported to every Walmart in the United States, but it’s a start to ask this crucial question. If production had to be “ramped” up, via the hiring of *gasp* human labor, then so be it. Artificially intelligent, automated robots that till and plant crops, along with human-operated ones (tractors), are only part of the solution. A decentralized, but national exchange network of ideas, tools, and resources is what makes an economy prosperous and secure. Harvest yields, due to climate change, are increasingly a problem to be dealt with.
If processed foods are the only food available at a store, then reason has it that if I were to eat this food and not have my liver overworked, then the food has to be diluted (watered down in other words) to allow a slow uptake of fructose by the liver. Thus, if I wanted some vitamin C and “orange” juice, and Sunny D is the only thing resembling oranges on the shelf, then diluting Sunny D “orange” juice by 1/5 or 1/10 will nutritiously fulfill me with vitamin C and whatever goodness is in its 5% juice without overworking the liver and pressuring the system towards diabetes. In theory, that is. I haven’t tried this out yet, not have I made any measurements of my past fruit drinks, but it’s something I will do in the future to compare and fine-tune. I don’t want to use “reaching diabetes” as the threshold indicator, thus there’s not an easy way to find out if I am not overworking my liver, except for perhaps the presence/buildup or absence of abdomen fat.
Here are the ingredients for Sunny D:
Ingredients: Water, High Fructose, Corn Syrup and 2% or Less of Each of the Following: Concentrated Juices (Orange, Tangerine, Apple, Lime, Grapefruit). Citric Acid, Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C), Beta-Carotene, Thiamin Hydrochloride (Vitamin B1), Natural Flavors, Food Starch-Modified, Canola Oil, Cellulose Gum, Xanthan Gum, Sodium Hexametaphosphate, Sodium Benzoate To Protect Flavor, Yellow #5, Yellow #6
Source: http://www.cspinet.org/new/sunnyd_factsheet.html
Nutrition Info:
- Servings:
| Calories | 50 | Sodium | 140 mg |
| Total Fat | 0 g | Potassium | 0 mg |
| Saturated | 0 g | Total Carbs | 13 g |
| Polyunsaturated | 0 g | Dietary Fiber | 0 g |
| Monounsaturated | 0 g | Sugars | 11 g |
| Trans | 0 g | Protein | 0 g |
| Cholesterol | 0 mg | ||
| Vitamin A | 0% | Calcium | 0% |
| Vitamin C | 80% | Iron | 0% |
*Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs.
Source: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/calories/sunny-d-orange-juice-11719914
A couple website comments from: http://www.peertrainer.com/LoungeCommunityThread.aspx?ForumID=1&ThreadID=117424
“Sunny D is fortified with Vitamin C (100%) and B1 (15%). It has *about* the same amount of sugar as leader juice products (about 25-27 grams). Though it isnt the healthiest thing for you to be drinking, its certainly not the least and not at all dangerous for children. Sunny Delight has changed its product over the past several years in response to the growing demands of the “healthier” consumer–as with any product in a capitalist system. Yes, it is annoying when advertisers market it as a “healthy” drink, but I wouldn’t say it “flat out isn’t”. They aren’t lying, just focusing on the good points. It is certainly a healthier alternative to other beverages on the market. Check it out if you don’t believe me.
Thursday, April 16, 2009, 12:44 PM”
“also, its true that Sunny D is only about 5% juice, but other “fruit drinks”–as opposed to fruit juice–are only about 10%, so its really not that much of a difference. Sunny Delight is an orange juice SUBSTITUTE. And allow me to reiterate that its fortified with Vitamin C (100%) and more B1 (15%) than any other drink in its category, including Minute Maid and Tropicana.
FYI, thiamin deficiency could lead to problems with the nervous system, the cardiovascular system, and/or diabetes. In less severe deficiency, nonspecific signs include malaise, weight loss, irritability and confusion.
Thursday, April 16, 2009, 12:48 PM”
Thus, high fructose issues aside, Sunny D seems (from my own price observations at various stores, including gas stations and drugstores), a more affordable way to get one’s nutritional supply of Vitamin C (ascorbic acid, 80-100% DV) and B1(thiamine 15%DV), which are two ingredients that are more essential to one’s homeostasis and well-being. If one is only drinking carbonated beverages with no Vitamin C or other Vitamins, such as D2, D3, B12, B6, A and E, then more problems will mount. However, if one can only afford to purchase a 99 cent half gallon of Sunny D, compared to a 4 pound bag of oranges for 3 or 4 dollars, then Sunny D would fulfill one of the body’s needs, while introducing a new problem: fructose processing in the liver. Water and 100% unconcentrated natural orange juice aren’t things I usually water down, but there is a reason to do so with concentrated orange juice, as with artificial fruit juices. The issue in this crucial range here isn’t cost, as one might be able to afford a several bottles of Sunny D a week to serve a family or commune of 4 to 5 (but perhaps not enough to afford a pricier natural alternative, such as 10lbs of oranges a week). The reason to dilute it is not because one must ration the orange juice (though that can be an issue too), but because the goal is to slow down the body’s uptake of fructose, which the NYT article says is 55% fructose, 45% glucose. Not only that, but HFCS is not like sucrose, which has a glucose six-carbon chain linked to a fructose six carbon chain, but are unlinked, independent moieties:
“The difference between the two lies in the fact that HFCS contains little sucrose, the fructose and glucose being independent moieties. Even so, Melanson et. al found that “Longer-term studies on connections between HFCS, potential mechanisms, and body weight have not been conducted”.”
This renders fructose extra “readily ready” for “processing” by the first enzyme, fructokinase:
“The first step in the metabolism of fructose is the phosphorylation of fructose to fructose 1-phosphate by fructokinase, thus trapping fructose for metabolism in the liver. ” Wait, isn’t high-fructose already phosphorylated? Yes, that’s why they call it “high fructose”- it’s like it’s “charged” with a phosphoryl group. If you’ve taken a physics or chemistry course, you’ll know what I mean.
Foods with refined sugar, are just as potent, with 50% fructose and 50% glucose. Liquid itself as a medium has potentially intrinsically processed aspects about it, thus if one is consuming a nutritious artificial fruit juice or “shake” that isn’t sufficiently diluted with milk or water, then the ingredients such as sugar (in regular or HFCS form) will flow freely through the digestive system and reach the liver like a wild, whitewater rafting trip. One serving of a 6.5 ounce bottle of Sunny D has 11 grams of sugar (in the form of “corn syrup,” likely a euphemism for HFCS. In the early 1700s, the yearly consumption of sugar was less than 5lbs. In 2000, it was near 90lbs, according to https://vegetarische.wordpress.com/2011/06/10/total-sugar-consumption-in-u-s-vs-germany/
Rafting trips, like drinking a bottle of fruit juice or pop, are a wild party for the intestinal tubes. Adding boulders would make it more dangerous for the rafters, and a minor obstacle for the fructose, thus changing the way our intestines process fructose would be dramatic, expensive, and risky, not to mention bionic. But preventing the changes by diluting the juice, would 1) remind you to drink water again, which is good (after making sure there’s no endocrine disruptors in there), and 2) prevent the liver from having an unnatural, industrially processed delivery of fructose waiting forever to be catabolized, for which it is instead converted to fat, because it must do something with it.
It may be impossible to recreate the human dietary physiology of 10 generations ago after subtle evolutionary changes, but it should be possible to eat such little sugar as to prevent diabetes. It will not help, however, if our supermarkets are inundated with with aisles of products that have 10-47 grams of sugar per serving as a norm. Most foods I try to purchase say less than 6 grams of sugar a serving, or per box. A major restructuring needs to happen in supermarkets, and the desire for sugar needs to be extinguished with something else. Solid, Sugary foods also must be “diluted,” Just eating a few biscuits isn’t necessarily making things on the liver easy. Drinking a lot of fluid may help water it down, but solids alone have to be sorted and delayed by other means- perhaps multi-grain bread can help unsaturate a large pinch of sugar in the frosting, or cream, or whatever frakenstein industries are serving up next.
Teas, such as black and green teas (which have moderate caffeine amounts), are rich in phytochemicals, which inhibit the uptake of fructose. When combined with fruit drinks, they may help slow the processing of fructose by the liver, but at the expense of potentially digestive problems. Adding a tinge of citrus Sunny D to a glass of hot tea with Pekoe could be an inexpensive way to get antioxidants, vitamins B, C and slow the readiness of a fructose moeity from being processed by the liver:
Fructose absorption occurs in the small intestine via the GLUT-5[38] (fructose only) transporter, and the GLUT2 transporter, for which it competes with glucose and galactose. Over consumption of fructose, inhibition of GLUT2 by other phytochemicals, such as flavonoids,[39] or other issues, may result in unabsorbed fructose’s being carried into the large intestine, where, like any sugar, it may provide nutrients for the existing gut flora that produce gas. It may also cause water retention in the intestine. These effects may lead to bloating, excessive flatulence, loose stools, and even diarrhea depending on the amounts eaten and other factors. For people with celiac disease, irritable bowel syndrome, or other fructose absorption issues, fructose malabsorption may be a major health concern.
Digestive fructose overconsumption problems above, aside from those with celiac disease & IBS, of an occasional (on a single day event, that is) nature should not be confused with the chronic, metabolic problems that become the syndromes of diabetes:
“Excess fructose consumption has been hypothesized to be a cause of insulin resistance, obesity,[40] elevated LDL cholesterol and triglycerides, leading to metabolic syndrome.[41] Fructose consumption has been shown to be correlated with obesity,[42][43] especially central obesity, which is thought to be the most dangerous kind of obesity. A study in mice showed that a high fructose intake increases adiposity.[44]
Although all simple sugars have nearly identical chemical formulae, each has distinct chemical properties. This can be illustrated with pure fructose. A journal article reports that, “…fructose given alone increased the blood glucose almost as much as a similar amount of glucose (78% of the glucose-alone area)”.[45][46][47][47][48]
One study concluded that fructose “produced significantly higher fasting plasma triacylglycerol values than did the glucose diet in men” and “…if plasma triacylglycerols are a risk factor for cardiovascular disease, then diets high in fructose may be undesirable”.[49] Bantle et al. “noted the same effects in a study of 14 healthy volunteers who sequentially ate a high-fructose diet and one almost devoid of the sugar.”[50]“
Orange juice is not real oranges (even freshly squeezed, though tasty), and one commonly misunderstood aspect about where the vitamin C is found is in the white region between the peel and the transparent orange sacks, also held together by the web-like mesh of white fiber. As a consolation prize for not knowing that fact, here is a song by the Scottish post-punk band Orange Juice, called, “Consolation Prize.’
Truth & America
The truth will set you free, but in America it’s a dead end parking spot that you have to defend to keep alive.
February 29, 2012
Fujimoto changed his name to Tannerandey
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Top Five Journalism Articles of 2011
Here are my belatedly rated, top five articles in Journalism for 2011:
1. http://articles.boston.com/2011-04-17/bostonglobe/29428429_1_altruism-mole-rats-evolutionary-theory
2. http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/02/income-inequality-labor-union-decline?page=1
3. http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2011/10/a-cultural-experiment.html
4. http://www.salon.com/2011/10/04/adbusters_occupy_wall_st/
February 24, 2012
Fujimoto changed his name to Tannerandey
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Voluntary Product Promotion Series Review #1: Asus Eee PC X101
The Asus Eee PC X101 is a terrificly inexpensive (not cheap), thin and lightweight 10″ netbook at $200 MSRP. If you don’t need a solid state hard drive like I do, wait for the ASUS X101CH, which comes with 320GB, and a dual core Intel N2600 Atom chip for $269 MSRP.
I bought this as my new netbook. The operating system was Meego Linux (based on Linpus Lite) and it has an 8GB SSD. I removed MeeGo and installed Linux Mint 12 (using Unetbootin) with Gnome, but installed the LXDE desktop package from Software Manager. Now it runs modestly fast for an Atom n455. The Mint install took up only about 2.9GB, leaving 4.9GB on the SSD. The only con is that you might not like the keyboard buttons- they’re spread apart and you’ll miss some of them often, while on the plus side, typing fluency will have a speed bump that may prevent embarrassing internet rage by giving you enough time to correct your typing “errors.” 
This is also one of the first net/notebooks that share the thinness of the upcoming “ultrabooks” first seen in the Macbook Air. The Mac being overpriced, and the PC ultrabooks to cost about $600 minimum, the dual core X101CH offers a budget “ultrabook” with several multimedia features with VGA and HDMI out, though technically speaking, at 22mm, it’s not as slim as the X101, which is 17.6mm. Perhaps there will be an upcoming Eee PC that is 10″ or 12″ with HDMI but missing the VGA (D-Sub), which would make the netbook slim like the X101 and still relatively affordable around $260-$350 (as opposed to an i3 notebook that goes for $450+).
Links: Asus X101: http://products.liliputing.com/database/ASUS/Eee%20PC%20X101 $199 (near discontinuation) available on Amazon and online shops where they’re not on backorder.
X101CH http://liliputing.com/2012/01/asus-eee-pc-x101ch-netbook-offers-cedar-trail-for-269.html $269
Liliputing Review: http://liliputing.com/2011/09/asus-eee-pc-x101-meego-netbook-first-impressions-of-a-200-laptop.html
1025C http://liliputing.com/2012/01/asus-eee-pc-1025c-cedar-trail-netbook-coming-in-february.html $299-$319 ((keyboard is larger)
The shock impression
The first and only impression. Used as a practical introduction to the Shock Doctrine.
Sensible Systems
Sensible soundness. Quality studio sound, without blips or bleeps. One question is, where does sensibility begin and end? Perhaps in many circumstances, the answer is obvious. In others, it is a slippery slope, much like declarative programming, with automatic garbage collection. Ask yourself, do you want robots doing everything for you? When to edit and when to take the helm. This sensible operator query leads to the Age of Android, where all things are assisted learning devices. Part human, part robot, seamless operation or not. It runs through the fabric of events, dwarfed by all types of causation. Causation without a traceable origin, like paw tracks on snow swept away with a branch of leaves. The physical world is not aware of the sinookas or the untraceable events of busy, busy, busy, but rather, only self-aware systems are. When life is not a small world, it’s unpredictable, at least based on anthropic assessments.
types and definitions of intelligence-
one (of several, this one-mine) definition of general intelligence; fuzzy interpreter and recombinator of semantics and environmental signalling interaction.
“Social intelligence describes the exclusively human capacity to use very large brains to effectively navigate and negotiate complex social relationships and environments” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_intelligence
definition of an intelligent agent (in Artificial intelligence) is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its chances of success.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_intelligence
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6del_%28programming_language%29
an incomplete list.
Hellen Keller, Miracle Worker
The inspiring story many people know about Hellen Keller, the first deafblind woman to earn a bachelors and go on to lecture internationally while publishing 12 novels, would not be complete without a complete biography of the woman’s accomplished life.
In the early 20th century, Keller guided Louis & Clark IIIs, through the Appalachian trails of North Carolina & Tennessee, and helped map out an underground network of “spring” societies. A self-professed kerosene expert, Keller taught miners and travelers about canary physiology and illumination protocols, blazing a trail towards establishing the first precursor institute to the Occupational Health and Safety Administrations in Kentucky. Kellers’s prodigious Braille skills made her unusually adept at discerning native American cave art from the indigenous Middle Ages, known as a prolonged era in the both Europe and the Americas as a Cromwellian, puritanical reign of terror. Keller was not above transporting heavy slates of of cave art and inscriptions to Philadelphia via hot air balloon after lugging them out of intraversable mountainsides. The maximum altitude and aerodynamics of dirigibles necessitated that the helm be located beneath the hydrogen blimp, for balance. Drawing the ire of the underground spring societies’ patriarchs, her hieroglyphic-like Braille exposés ended up in the hands of Samuel Clemens, likely by her request, and were published in the Kansas City Star. Keller wrote on a series of affairs documenting imprisoned women with severe vitamin D deficiencies being housed in dungeon-like quarters. She was persecuted and nearly imprisoned in what was then considered a 19th century attempt (separate from the Northern suffragist movement) at feminist and sexual liberation, then considered an assault on Appalachian values. At age 18, she met an elderly Elizabeth Cady Stanton, then 83, at a hotel banquet room in Pittsburgh in 1899, where they sparred on topics such as abolitionism, temperament, and religious freedom. The underground spring societies went extinct in the 1970s, due to the newborns’ low bone mass, leading the younger generations to become too weak for a stone’s throw. The societies thrived on earthworms, insects, and freshwater.
A leading defender of the waning Reconstruction era, Keller was a beacon of hope during the Nadir of American Race Relations in the South. Though her teacher, Anne Sullivan, earned the name “The Miracle Worker” by Clemens, Keller vied for a different meaning of the term, to the shock of carpetbagging missionaries. Keller gained the admiration of blacks, Klondike-bound miners, and saloon owners for acquiring vaudeville talent, and a knack as an event organizer. Though rarely appearing on stage, rumor mills anticipated her surprise visits, where she was known to heal various ailments and existential conditions. On one notable appearance (among others), Keller gracefully balanced a live dove on the shoulder of a seated sheriff, to the amazement of the crowd. The pacified sheriff was humbled at his transcendental realization, but caused a flutter amongst the audience and Keller’s stern disapproval when he asked the bird to be temporarily caged so it may later find the Exit (not to be confused with the illuminated red signs which were nonexistent in the day and still illegible to birds today) to the theater house and not fly haphazardly, encircling the ceiling.
Hellen Keller is known for many accomplishments, and her story would not be complete without additional research into the national archives, where it is believed that historians have collected countless other sightings of her mark in American history.
wordsmith recombinator lab harvest: 10-26-11
apparent brain skills/widgets:
raw analytical sifter- seeks and interprets ideas i haven’t come across.
intermediate processing core-etymological, lexiconal, epistemological, jurisprudential, logistical polyglottal sorter, aggregator, blotter, brewer, cog-dissolving stew, salad, amorphous-morphous homeostasis, non-stasis, assymetric, hypo-cyclic, hypercyclic, lateral-ovallic, circuit, symporter and antiporter, quorum, ports, distributed control system (DCS), centralized and hybridized form-function duality, wave-light packet packaging, self-awareness, feedback and pingback loops, queues, mirrors and relativity
analytical distillery- Golgi-like synapse-neuron memory trafficking, outer limits, terminal depositions, recycling, sensory input & outputs.
Pink-eye journalism, the muckraker’s dirty cousin
It could also be said that Academic Rigor’s dirty cousin is the Provocative, Risque`, and the Avante-Garde`, except packaged out of bounds of formal terms such as “Outreach”. If one can’t succeed at recruiting students to pursue the virtues of a formal, but dry education, along with investigative, journalistic inquiry, it might just be best to settle with the half-success, which is the push-pull logic of provocative infotainment. Yellow journalism and other popular 20th century media experiments (and lucrative industries) such as gonzo journalism, if not an end in itself, could be a gateway to a better informed populace. But I won’t hold my breath.
Origins of the 99% movement and #ows
excerpts:
“The Birth of the 99% Movement On February 15th, 2010, AmpedStatus.com published the first-part of an extensive six-part series that I wrote detailing the financial destruction of the US economy. “
“…The report quickly went viral and many popular websites picked it up and published it. AlterNet.org featured an adapted excerpt from the report with the headline, “The Economic Elite Have Engineered an Extraordinary Coup, Threatening the Very Existence of the Middle Class.” It became one of the most popular reports that they have ever published. In aggregate, across many websites that have publish sections of the report, it has received an estimated five million page views.
Soon after the report was released, AmpedStatus formed the 99% Movement based on a general platform put forth in part-six of the report, entitled “How to Fight Back and Win: Common Ground Issues That Must Be Won.”
“As the movement began to build over the course of the next ten months, after a series of TV interviews in which I supported the 99% Movement and called for acts of non-violent civil disobedience, the AmpedStatus.com website was attacked and repeatedly knocked offline. The source of the attacks remains unknown. After publishing investigative reports detailing the fraudulent activities of Wall Street; the destructive impact the financial elite have had upon the American people; revealing direct connections between economic hardships in the US and the uprisings that, at the time, were just beginning to take shape throughout Northern Africa, the Middle East and Europe, it was obvious that we were upsetting many powerful forces.”
” In what appeared to be a fatal blow, the entire ISP network that the AmpedStatus.com site was hosted on was knocked offline, hundreds of sites were also affected and the AmpedStatus.com web hosting provider said that they would no longer be able to host the site unless it was moved to a service that was significantly more than we were paying or could afford. With a very limited budget, and in complete desperation, AmpedStatus put out a call for help.”
“http://ampedstatus.org/analysis-of-the-global-insurrection-against-neo-liberal-economic-domination-and-the-coming-american-rebellion-we-are-egypt-revolution-roundup-3/#empire” #ows
Imagination to the People
If the coalition of protesters seeks to grow, it will only remain legitimate if it understands that knowledge is the only form of power it can use to exchange amongst its constituents. In the past millenium, there were three (debateably four) forms/waves of power, first reviewed by Foucault (?). The first was force/violence (Middle Ages), the second was wealth (Medici family), and the third is knowledge (Enlightenment). A fourth would be imagination, via Einstein’s famous quote, “Imagination is more important than knowledge.” All four form of power co-exist today in the form of military, wealthy institutions, academia (including non-institutional), and the creative and freelancing arts & sciences (imagination). Not one form of power always supercedes another form, but force is often a threatening tactic used which can “override” cash/goods, papers, and iotas. If the coalition seeks to gain strength, it must view a gathering as also a history lesson. One cannot arrive with knowledge and expect it will be useful. People with various sorts of backgrounds will be at a rally, and knowledge must be exhanged so backgrounds can be tied with foregrounds. While all forms of actionized-power (possession of any of the four isn’t necessarily bad, plus we all have the right to public knowledge, but the use of a form of power must be vetted to be considered legitimate, but not by “higher” ups, hence anarchy) are illegitimate unless justified (anarchy), the power that the resistance seeks to gain is used solely to reach a level of subsistence, as many do not have enough to subsist. That is the simple goal of the coalition/movement.
wordsmith recombinator redundant lab
Master image with interim phases. Recursion and permutation in repertoire, thesaurus and lateral thinking weaseling out of the machine’s vertical-integration pull. Retournement to counter the simulacra of Mao II ‘s theft of the writer’s narration. Dada multimedia with form leaking through the boundaries of the sphere of bricks- oft-weighty units “fair” enough when tempo seems sound. Synesthetic multi-tasking and ice-breaking. Diversity day, celebrating the anti-flag with restrained glee, moping about the peak-cut, oversimplified and heavily processed dietary substitutes, existing as the area under the curve, stressing over the irreproducable, disproving, and exceptional outliers. Brainstorming and haywire falling through the barn drain. Limits to growth. The science of economics. The science of natural resources. The science of art. The art of politics. Chaos as the most honest force in nature. Understanding chaos. Understanding the vectoral units, agents and individuals in chaotic systems. Critical thinking as the only portable thing one should take from an education. George Carlin. Never letting school get in the way of education. Raw, analytical engine. now accepting reservations! Information analysis. When you can analyze you can deconstruct concepts and salvage the essentials, and put it back together with a minimum loss of time so it’s customized for relevance or personal adaptation. Orthogonal recombination and lateral brute-force, trial and error, supercomputer surplus and worldcommunitygrid. Random and deliberate. Calculated and wishful thinking. Mysterious in artificial is less mysterious than the yet unexamined natural phenomena. Obsession with fake plastic convenience. Abundant natural alternatives. Overton windows. Circular spectrum linking flanking extremists of the wagon train. Regressives ruling much of the world, explaining why sh#t is so f#cked up. Rinse, repeat. Alternatively, don’t rinse, and don’t repeat. But there’s hope. Lighten up with some Asimov! Isaac Asimov figured it out. Asimov solved everything. All you need to do is more Asimov.
Theoretically assembling a solar laptop
Solar laptops are just starting to be released, such as the Samsung NC215 (~$399 MSRP), but the charge times require more time of off-use than on, by a 2:1 ratio. The quickest and most ideal electronics to utilize solar, yet absent from popular technology discourse are the amorphous silicon panels that charge 4-function and scientific calculators such as the TI-30XA-Solar, which were tools I used for math classes as a former student. What makes solar power interesting again, is the ability to have a computer or smart phone with a likewise low energy usage such as to allow real-time solar charging and running of the device.
I will skip over smartphones and tablets for now to review a full-featured PC modification & assembly using two kits being sold that together, might offer one of the lowest-power options to solar computing.
The first device is a PC running linux with an ARM board and an e-ink display, presumably one of the earlier e-ink models, since it is listed as a Vizplex (which E-ink has since replaced with Pearl displays, which have higher refresh rates). This laptop’s most significant convenience is the fact that it can be powered under 5v at 500mA, signifying the Bootstrapsolar is capable of charging it. The only other cable/peripherals needed to run this would be a keyboard, mouse, and a USB to 5V DC adapter, which can be purchased on Amazon for $2-3.
The CFA-910 costs about $422 and is not really a huge deal despite the fact that it can be combined with a truly convenient $70-$80 solar power kit, but this article is also to theorize a proof of concept first and the amount of time I spent reaching this conclusion has saved much of the workload (which previously involved looking for internal adapters to assemble an e-ink display myelf, which is still on the table, just not literally- but possibly soon). Crystal Fontz also released their CFA-910 almost a year ago and their page already announces a newer version with a faster screen will be available (as for a faster ARM processor and more RAM than 128mb, that is also yet to be seen).
The least expensive option would be to buy something like the Raspberry Pi (a $25 PC) and have an HDMI-to-LVDS/eDP/DSI adapter (if they exist) to the E-ink display, along with using one of the Bootstrap’s 2 USB ports to power the display, as the Rasp Pi can’t power it via usb alone. A nother option is a Beagleboards, but that too requires separate powering cables and runs at $150 just for the motherboard. Finding a 6-7″ e-ink Pearl display opened from one of those new $79 Kindles, but I’ve found barebone displays sold alone for $50/$45 bulk on some sites. If i can find the link I’ll include it. The Rasp Pi is listed to have a 4-lane DSI header. I will look into figuring out more what that means in terms of what kind of LCD panels can be connected to it. Edit: This site sells TFTs, some of which appear to use DSI connectors: http://www.newhavendisplay.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=1_593
Thus, there most certainly will be vendors that likely integrate many of these new low-voltage technologies towards a long lasting (or a daylight-lasting) solar-powered computer, but until then, the combination of these two devices offers a provoking solution to off-grid linux (Fedora, Debian, etc) devices running fully featured operating system devices that are not just iOS-based or Android forks. More to come, while in the meantime I will search for some e-ink displays that require little to no soldering to retrofit existing netbooks, such as the Pixel Qi, and casing shells that would allow me to put most of these devices together in some supra-assembly box, though the bootstrap solar seems already enclosed well enough to remain separate. The large size of the solar panels compared to the CFA-910 also means I might want to look for a folder- or briefcase-like portfolio for those panels along with a mini-keyboard and mouse for the PC.
2011 Maker Faire – Queens, NYC
My first attendance to the Maker Faire in New York City was amazing. Lots of people I talked to working on absolutely stunning projects.
Highlights: Kippkitts- developer of a low voltage, high-efficiency heat-exchanger (heat pump, air conditioner, cpu cooler, etc). Update (9/28/11): runs at 24V, with 10A full capacity; the exhibit’s air conditioning unit was running at 10% capacity (i.e. 2A) and was outputting cold air. Video & Store Preview
- ^ Kipp Kitt
QandAbe.com – developers of a water bath-based, temperature-specific food cooker that doesn’t over or undercook, and reaches the exact targeted temperature while keeping the heating uniform with a vacuum-sealed bag of liquid. Website includes a list of foods that have already been cooked using DIY Sous-Vide.
- DIY Sous-Vide
Noisebridge and All Hands Active founders Mitch Altman and Bilal Ghalib gave the first presentation on the main stage (auditorium) on Saturday and talked about the friendly environments that hackerspaces promote and also about how hackerspaces are having an impact in places like Cairo, Egypt.
Jason Yosinki, computer scientist, of Cornell’s Creative Machine Laboratory gave an excellent presentation on the field of evolutionary robotics including a talk on a website called endlessforms.com.
Arduino- announced version 1.0, several new boards, including a developer board for earlier releases to the community, and a new manufacturing set of boards with Amtel, announced by Massimo Banzi.
Raspberry Pi had an informative and friendly booth on their upcoming $25 PC.
Museum of Interesting Things- Instead of keeping up with the latest and greatest, this booth was more interested in educating faire-goers of the antique technologies prominent in the 20th century that preceded much of the internet and phone devices used today.
Chris Landau- develops fine laser-cut etching of boards and glasses for signs and art. Booth was adjacent a book digitizer that simplified the archival process using a transparent, coffee table-like scanning bed window to minimize wear of old books during the handling process. Used two digital cameras positoned to clearly take a photo of each page.
- fine laser etching, Chris Landau
Genspace had (what seems to be) Makerfaire’s first booth dedicated solely to DIYbio, including community education in biology and biohackerspaces for iGEM teams.
Bootstrapsolar was another amazing booth, with solar panel power kits capable of universally charging many electronics. I plan to test one myself to see if I can assemble/mod/connect a solar powered laptop using an e-ink display (Pixel Qi/Pearl for 0.5 watt B&W or newer version in color <2.5watt) with and an LVDS monitor or eDP (e-display port) cable mod from a linux plug or Raspberry pi with video out/hdmi out.
Sustainability tent (multiple booths)- many inventive DIY solutions to environmental and efficient lifestyles, including organic and vertical farming, solar and wind harvesters, and composters.
There were also several interesting solar panel booths, including a solar-powered carousel and a portable charger. In sum, an amazing event and definitely plan to go to it next year.
3D Printers: RepRaps, Fab@home, and Makerbots
- RepRap
- Fab@home
- Makerbot(?) Most are custom designed. this one looked like an oven.
It was nice meeting you all!
A Wintertime Tale
If you’ve ever wondered what life would be like inside a tesseract, this neatly interlaced play within a play reveals itself as a metaphorical representation of an outer story. Set in a winter cabin with acting couples on a retreat, A Wintertime Tale features a large center rug that serves as a stationary platform of the plays’ constantly emerging divulgations between the actors and their characters’ past and present romantic crossings. Eric Holm mixes Charles Mee’s Wintertime with Shakespeare’s A Winter’s Tale using a suent matchup of fiery and sappy lovers resolving their discords in a cleverly buried-within-the next-scene format. A Winter’s Tale‘s script lines are enhanced as they double as the balm for the newly evident affair problems occurring within the room, cooling eruptions as they form, but not without total salvage. The consequentially wounded, then, are rushed into the next scenes like on gurneys or left to heal on their own in the corners.
Unpredictable, yet coherent, the two best scenes involved a pinata as a mule walked by a delirious hag who was convinced she had stumbled upon a beautifully abandoned newborn and a bag of, no doubt, gold. Calling out “Open it, Open it!” to herself before opening the bag was a richer and funnier anticipation than any amount of gold could produce. The other involved a marriage proposal scene that overused technology that played an apparently Louis Armstrong solo as “their song”, which was both bright and wrong. Strawdog Theatre. A-. Through 4/8.
Agamemnon
The Dream Theatre Company’s production of Jeremy Menekseoglu’s “Agamemnon” blends the ancient Greek story of Agamemnon’s return from Troy with tattered, 1950s steampunk attire and a worn, wooden set design. Set mainly in a ship cabin isolated from deck crew, with Menekseoglu as Agamemnon and Courtney Arnett as Cassandra, the kidnapped princess from the Trojan War, the play is the first in a trilogy by the DTC. A combination of well-timed, grey-yellow lighting transitions, water sounds crashing the ship’s hull, sea gull cries, and a radio with era-music used for a tap “dance-off” on hazardous, protruding plankwood floors tunes the ambiance fittingly for a repressive and stormy, but partly sunny Stockholm syndrome. Cassandra and Agamemnon embroil to the dire limits of their tolerances and tread towards psychological exits- whilst always in the other’s presence. Peculiar props such as a pint-sized tea cup sipped by a chic Cassandra in an animal cage transform remarkably an unbearable perception into a possibly comfortable one. Nevertheless, the reminder that Agamemnon’s wields Cassandra’s fate glimmers, heightens in the room when scenes end and returns with terrifying new life. Being relatively new to Chicago theater, the most recent, well-done show I can compare this dark gem to was last year’s oft-intense production of Noel Coward’s “Private Lives,” with Cameron Feagin and Don Bender at the City Lit Theater- sans dark. A. Through 4/11.
