STATIC DISCHARGE

2005-09-06T19:32:00.000-07:00

I have always been touting anthony and the johnsons to my friends and anyone that would listen since hearing their samples online years ago and later when they first started touring, and seeing them play live at Cafe du Nord.

Seems he just won the Mercury award! Congratulation Antony and your much deserved award!

Mister Skye

For more info - please refer to their website..... http://www.antonyandthejohnsons.com/

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Antony and Johnsons win Mercury
Antony and the Johnsons
Chichester-born Antony Hegarty is now based in New York
Antony and the Johnsons have won this year's Mercury Music Prize for the album I Am A Bird Now.

Led by New York-based singer Antony Hegarty, they beat acts including Coldplay, favourites Kaiser Chiefs and hip-hop artist MIA.

The £20,000 award is for the best album of the year by a British or Irish act.

"I think they must have made a mistake," Chichester-born Hegarty said. "I am completely overwhelmed. I think that's insane."

The pianist and torch singer's winning album, features contributions from Boy George and Lou Reed.

Standing 6ft 4in tall and with a shock of black hair, the 34-year-old has a voice as unconventional as his looks.

The Mercury Music Prize was voted for by a panel of industry experts, journalists and artists, and is said to reward originality and creativity rather than sales success.

As he collected his award from host Jools Holland to a standing ovation, Hegarty said the competition was "a bit nutty".

"It's kind of like a crazy contest between an orange and a spaceship and a potted plant and a spoon - which one do you like better?" he said.

Kaiser Chiefs
Leeds band Kaiser Chiefs had been favourites to win
"What's really exciting about this night is just this wonderful biennial that shows the rich diversity of the spectrum of music that's going on at the moment.

"It's been so wonderful to be here and just to meet everyone. I just love so many of the artists performing tonight, I think it's a bit bonkers to just give it to one person."

He performed at the Mercury award ceremony in London's Grosvenor House Hotel, as did fellow nominees Kaiser Chiefs, KT Tunstall, Seth Lakeman, Bloc Party, Polar Bear, Maximo Park, The Magic Numbers and the Go! Team.

Multi-million selling band Coldplay, nominated for their third album X&Y, could not attend the ceremony as they were on tour in the US.

Previous winners of the Mercury prize include hip-hop artist Dizzee Rascal, Primal Scream, PJ Harvey and last year's victors Franz Ferdinand.

KT Tunstall at Mercury Prize
KT Tunstall was among the other performers at the ceremony
Simon Frith, chairman of the judges, said Antony and the Johnsons won because they produced "such an extraordinary album".

"It's not like any album I've heard before or since," he said.

"It doesn't seem to have any obvious place where it's coming from - and yet play it to anybody and they're arrested.

"Some of them hate it, some of them absolutely love it - but nobody can ignore it."

The Mercury Prize was not designed to pick the least offensive album, he said, but to pick "a record that's really interesting, and this one is".

'American album'

Chris Salmon, music editor of Time Out magazine, said it was a surprise choice.

"There were a lot of strong albums on there and I don't think a lot of people thought Antony and the Johnsons would be the one," he said.

"Some people thought of it as an American album - its whole genesis was in New York," he said.

"But he's got a beautiful voice and he writes beautiful songs, so in that sense it shouldn't be a surprise - but I think it still is."

Mercury Music Prize 2005 nominees:

# Antony and the Johnsons - I Am A Bird Now
# Bloc Party - Silent Alarm
# Coldplay - X&Y
# The Go! Team - Thunder, Lightning, Strike
# Hard-Fi - Stars of CCTV
# Kaiser Chiefs - Employment
# KT Tunstall - Eye to the Telescope
# The Magic Numbers - The Magic Numbers
# Maximo Park - A Certain Trigger
# MIA - Arular
# Polar Bear - Held on the Tips of Fingers
# Seth Lakeman - Kitty Jay

2005-08-26T18:55:00.000-07:00

Yamamoto Gendai Gallery

"Becoming Animal" at Mass MoCa explores boundaries between "animal" and "human," as in Motohiko Odani's "Erectro."

this is a great sculpture!

2005-08-01T22:25:00.000-07:00

The First Comic!

WEBSITE LINK

2005-07-26T18:16:00.000-07:00

Pinar Yolacan

A photographer based in NY.

2005-07-26T15:12:00.000-07:00

2005-07-26T09:06:00.000-07:00

Ancient phallus unearthed in cave
By Jonathan Amos
BBC News science reporter

It may also have been used to knap, or split, flints

A sculpted and polished phallus found in a German cave is among the earliest representations of male sexuality ever uncovered, researchers say.

The 20cm-long, 3cm-wide stone object, which is dated to be about 28,000 years old, was buried in the famous Hohle Fels Cave near Ulm in the Swabian Jura.

The prehistoric "tool" was reassembled from 14 fragments of siltstone.

Its life size suggests it may well have been used as a sex aid by its Ice Age makers, scientists report.

"In addition to being a symbolic representation of male genitalia, it was also at times used for knapping flints," explained Professor Nicholas Conard, from the department of Early Prehistory and Quaternary Ecology, at Tübingen University.

"There are some areas where it has some very typical scars from that," he told the BBC News website.

Researchers believe the object's distinctive form and etched rings around one end mean there can be little doubt as to its symbolic nature.

"It's highly polished; it's clearly recognisable," said Professor Conard.

The Tübingen team working Hohle Fels already had 13 fractured parts of the phallus in storage, but it was only with the discovery of a 14th fragment last year that the team was able finally to put the "jigsaw" together.

The different stone sections were all recovered from a well-dated ash layer in the cave complex associated with the activities of modern humans (not their pre-historic "cousins", the Neanderthals).

The dig site is one of the most remarkable in central Europe. Hohle Fels stands more than 500m above sea level in the Ach River Valley and has produced thousands of Upper Palaeolithic items.

Female forms, such as the 30,000-year-old Venus of Willendorf are more common
Some have been truly exquisite in their sophistication and detail, such as a 30,000-year-old avian figurine crafted from mammoth ivory. It is believed to be one of the earliest representations of a bird in the archaeological record.

There are other stone objects known to science that are obviously phallic symbols and are slightly older - from France and Morocco, of particular note. But to have any representation of male genitalia from this time period is highly unusual.

"Female representations with highly accentuated sexual attributes are very well documented at many sites, but male representations are very, very rare," explained Professor Conard.

Current evidence indicates that the Swabian Jura of southwestern Germany was one of the central regions of cultural innovation after the arrival of modern humans in Europe some 40,000 years ago.

The Hohle Fels phallus will go on show at Blaubeuren prehistoric museum in an exhibition called Ice Art - Clearly Male.

2005-07-25T22:28:00.000-07:00

Space Sounds from Saturn

and other space sounds {CLICK}

2005-07-22T08:14:00.000-07:00

NY Times
In This Corner, in the Flouncy Skirt and Bowler Hat...
By JUAN FORERO

EL ALTO, Bolivia - In her red multilayered skirt, white pumps and gold-laced shawl, the traditional dress of the Aymara people, Ana Polonia Choque might well be preparing for a night of folk dancing or, perhaps, a religious festival.

But as Carmen Rosa, master of the ring and winner of 100 bone-crunching bouts in Bolivia's colorful wrestling circuit, she is actually dressing for a night of mayhem.

With loyal fans screaming out her name, she climbs the corner ropes high above the ring, bounces once for momentum and flies high, arms outstretched for maximum effect. To the crowd's delight, the dive flattens her adversary, María Remedios Condori, better known as Julia la Paceña (Julia from La Paz).

This, ladies and gentlemen, is "lucha libre," Bolivia's version of the wacky, tacky wrestling extravaganzas better known as World Wrestling Entertainment in the United States and Triple A in Mexico, which serve as a loose model. But there are no light shows, packed arenas or million-dollar showmen.

Here in El Alto, with an almost entirely indigenous population of 800,000 Aymara and Quechua residents, wrestling is a throwback to a simpler, perhaps more innocent era, when late-night fights featuring men in black tights were carried across flickering black-and-white TV screens.

Except that Bolivian wrestling is not televised.

Those who want to see the matches - and a growing number do - pack El Alto's Multifunctional Center by the hundreds, paying $1 per person to sit on concrete bleachers in sub-freezing temperatures, popcorn in hand. For four hours every Sunday, they watch good-versus-evil struggles that almost always end up with wrestlers like Mr. Atlas or Batman triumphing over the Red Baron, the Grim Reaper or Black Beard.

In a hardscrabble city of daily hardship, freestyle wrestling, or lucha libre, provides a much needed diversion for people who have little time or money for recreation.

"This is a distraction, a chance to laugh, to yell, mostly for the kids," said Víctor Choque, 40, and no relation to Ana. By the sign of his wide grin, however, he seemed to be enjoying the bouts more than his three daughters. "I come every Sunday, every one. I love it. I don't miss it."

El Alto, which in a generation grew from hamlet to sprawling satellite city overlooking La Paz, has largely created its own form of wrestling, borrowing from Mexico's famed spectacle of masked men battling for the honors and sprinkling it with a local touch. Ms. Choque fights with a particularly successful troupe of wrestlers called the Titans of the Ring.

"The cradle of freestyle wrestling is Mexico because that's where the best fighters were - Hurricane Ramírez, the Jalisco Lightning, the Blue Demon," explained Juan Carlos Chávez, promoter of the Titans.

But now, he says proudly, Bolivia has its own stable of wrestlers who tussle in choreographed matches. And Bolivian organizers have introduced the innovation of fighting Cholitas, the indigenous women who wear bowler hats and multilayered skirts.

"I wanted to get people's attention and fill up the coliseum," said Juan Mamani, 46, the president of the Titans and a wrestler himself. "At first, I thought of fighting dwarves. I even brought in one from Peru. Then I thought of Cholitas. It's been popular ever since."

The most successful has been Ms. Choque, who is 34, has a lovely wry smile and weighs in at 149 pounds.

Married, with two children, and the successful owner of a jewelry business, Ms. Choque recalled her husband's skepticism, seeing her come home bruised and battered. But when he saw how much she liked her hobby, he started attending all the bouts and now supports her tough training regimen, which includes a weekly hike up a 15,000-foot peak.

"I want to do this as long as I can," she said. "It's my life, la lucha libre."

Mr. Chávez, the promoter, said that bringing in the Cholitas was a brilliant stroke that attracts 1,000 or more spectators to the bouts in El Alto, and hundreds when the Titans travel to smaller towns. "This has gotten bigger and bigger, and so we have put more into it and it has gotten better," he said.

There are plenty of half nelsons, headlocks, pile drivers and just plain dirty fighting, with wrestlers thrown out of the ring, chairs thrown in and even the referees bounced on their heads on occasion.

To train, the Titans gather twice a week in Juan Mamani's cold, dank gym and, under three bare light bulbs, throw one another around, practicing their moves.

Even the popular Titans cannot make a living wrestling; they earn about $13 for a bout. Most have other jobs, from guitar teacher to textile worker to vendor of trinkets and jewelry.

But that does not mean they do not take lucha libre as seriously as possible. They have to. Just last year, one of the Titans lost his life after breaking his neck in a bad fall in the ring.

"Let me tell you, this looks like play acting, but it hurts," said Yenny Wilma Maras, who weighs 167 pounds and, once in the ring, is transformed into Marta, the Woman From El Alto.

"It looks easy, you get up there and jump around, but it is not. It is all training and conditioning."

Perhaps the most dedicated of the wrestlers is the oldest, Daniel Torrico, 62, who began wrestling more than 40 years ago and has faced off against foes in Mexico, Peru and Central America. A weight-lifter with a barrel chest, Mr. Torrico becomes Mr. Atlas in the ring, with his blue tights and fearful grin.

"This is a spectacle," he said in a spartan dressing room, moments before heading out into the ring. "People know us, they appreciate our agility, our strength. And we do it for the happiness of the crowd."

2005-07-16T08:32:00.000-07:00

"THE BLOB"

2005-07-16T08:30:00.000-07:00

albino deer!

2005-07-14T16:32:00.000-07:00

MAMMATUS

2005-07-14T16:28:00.000-07:00

BP's Thunderhorse platform still listing precariously
By Tim Wood
13 Jul 2005 at 11:53 AM

The damage wrought be Hurricane Dennis on BP's massive Thunder Horse platform has not yet been undone. Lying 150 miles southeast of New Orleans, Thunder Horse is still listing heavily with the lower deck reaching the sea surface. However reports suggest engineers are confident it is just a ballast problem that won't jeopardize the $1 billion platform.

BP says the platform has been stable for two days with the list consistent at 20 degrees. Pictures by the U.S. Coast Guard.

2005-07-14T13:16:00.000-07:00

I just read the below article, and was reminded of a time when my friend and I were bored and played this very same game. We would all take turns at making each other pass out, and try and recant what we experianced, saw, or dreamed of when "out". We noticed that the guys tended to have blask and white dreams, and the girls tended to see vibrant colors. On my last try, I had a very vivid and colorful dream that seemed to go on forever - to this day I remember tropical island type scenery, teal colored water, purple blue skies, and lime green foliage. Another experiance that we all went through was an eery disorientation such as time lapse - when I came to, I freaked out when I opened my eyes and saw all these people standing around me. It took me a few moments to realize, that I was not in my bed sleeping, and it wasn't 7am in the morning and these "people" were my friends and I was on the floor at their house. Oh yeah, that brings up another aspect. There were like 5 of us doing this, so when we passed out, there was always someone to catch us and gently move us to the floor.

God. Still can't believe the stupid stuff I did as a kid. Sheesh.

*****************************************************************

Boy dies playing 'passing out game,' officials believe

Wednesday, July 13, 2005; Posted: 10:29 a.m. EDT (14:29 GMT)

BOISE, Idaho (AP) -- A 10-year-old boy was found dead, hanging from a tree, apparently killed while trying to get high by playing the "pass-out game," authorities said.

Dalton Eby may be the second Idaho child killed in recent months while playing a choking game, trying to cut off the oxygen supply to the brain to achieve a type of "high."

Dalton's mother reported him missing last Thursday when he failed to return home after visiting a friend. Search and rescue crews found his body Friday in a tree near his Island Park home, the Fremont County sheriff's office said in a statement.

There was nothing at the scene suggesting that anyone else was involved, the sheriff's office said.

"During the course of the investigation it was learned that there is a game that is common knowledge to many of our youth. A game known as the 'pass-out game,' the 'fainting game,' the 'tingling game,' or the 'something dreaming game' -- to name a few," the statement added.

Dalton's parents had never heard of the game, and neither had the parents of his friends, the sheriff's office said.

That was also the case three months ago in Nampa, where 13-year-old Chelsea Dunn was found dead after apparently hanging herself in her closet.

An investigation was inconclusive, but Dunn's family believes she died accidentally while playing the game, which was popular with a group of girls at her school. Six girls at the school were suspended for a day after a security camera videotape showed the seventh-graders choking each other in a hallway.

Though the so-called game is new to many adults, it's likely something that children have been doing for a long time, said Connecticut-based child psychologist Dr. Lawrence Shapiro, author of "The Secret Language of Children: How to Understand What Your Kids are Really Saying."

"That's scary," Shapiro said.

In addition to talking to kids about drugs and alcohol, parents should discuss other risky behavior, like the pass-out game, Shapiro said.

"Younger kids don't know that they can die from this, that it's a very dangerous activity," Shapiro said.

Nathan Hoiosen, a school resource officer with the Nampa Police Department, said youngsters think the choking game offers a safe buzz compared with drinking or doing drugs.

"You wish you could just take the kids and shake them and say, 'What are you thinking?"' Hoiosen said.

2005-07-13T16:46:00.000-07:00

Mystery 'sex change' has curious flocking to Myanmar monk-to-be

ANN
Publication Date : 2005-07-13

Myanmar chicken seller, Thin Sandar, who grew a penis a month ago, treated it as an awe-inspiring omen -- as have the thousands of stunned villagers who have travelled to a pagoda to see him -- AFP

Thin Sandar, a chicken seller in Myanmar, had always dreamed of being a man. When she inexplicably grew a penis last month, the 21-year-old treated it as an awe-inspiring omen -- as have the thousands of stunned villagers who have travelled to a pagoda to see him.

"On the morning of the full moon day of June 21, I noticed my thing (sex organ) was not the same as before," Thin Sandar, who now goes by the male name Than Sein, told AFP in an interview at his home.

"And my breasts disappeared," Than Sein added. "So I called out and showed it all to my mom and dad. It was very strange."

Strange enough that he has attracted significant attention in this deeply superstitious country, where the unexplained can quickly be exalted to hold powerful spiritual significance.

People privately concede Than Sein is a hermaphrodite. Several medical experts have examined him, and he awaits test results from the central women's hospital.

But few have come forward with a medical explanation of the transformation as they await an official report by the health ministry, whose experts have also examined Than Sein.

"We can not say right now if she has really undergone a sudden gender change," said a township official who declined to be named, adding that Than Sein's birth certificate shows that he was born a girl.

"It can be confirmed when we receive the report from the health ministry, although some medical checkups have shown her to be a true man," he added.

Hermaphrodites, also known as intersexuals, are often born with ambiguous genitalia, or have both testicular and ovarian tissue in a single person.

Medical doctor Aye Sanda Khaing put it in layman's terms in a local journal: "Her penis appeared at the site of her clitoris," the doctor was quoted as saying.

Regardless of the official findings, local villagers and other curious Myanmar nationals are flocking to the Aung Myay Thar Yar pagoda, in this new satellite township 19 kilometres (12 miles) from Yangon, to see Than Sein for themselves and make donations to him or the temple.

Up to 400 gather at the pagoda each day, often in a courtyard under colorful umbrellas to ward off the sun's rays, waiting for the chance to talk with and touch Than Sein.

"I have never heard of anything like this, so I came to see him," 21-year-old housewife Thandar Win told AFP.

"If I was not married, then I too would want to become a man!"

When word spread of Than Sein's transformation, locals raced to his home to see for themselves. Authorities, sensing a possible security hazard -- and, perhaps, an opportunity -- hastily arranged for him to be moved to the pagoda to accommodate more visitors.

Than Sein appeared comfortable with the sudden attention in the new surroundings. Wearing a checkered longyi, the traditional Myanmar pants commonly worn by men, he sat on a rug in the pagoda's side building, flanked by his parents.

"I was so happy," father Kyaw Htay, 46, said about his son's developments. "I wanted other sons so they could offer themselves as Buddhist monks, but I had only two daughters."

Occasionally Than Sein stepped out to talk with excited visitors, who shook his hand, stroked his arm, and wished him well.

A Myanmar state television crew has already interviewed him and awaits the military junta's permission to air the broadcast nationwide.

As he waits for the final test results, Than Sein said he firmly believed he had been transformed, and would enter the monkhood for a period of time and seek spiritual contemplation and guidance before deciding whether to marry and raise a family.

"Whenever I went to the pagoda I prayed to become a man in my next life," he said, referring to the Buddhist concept of rebirth.

2005-07-13T09:09:00.000-07:00

Charlie White - Photographer

Very interesting artist, working at exploring the ID of the generic teen male.

(click image for larger version)

2005-07-12T10:28:00.000-07:00

Universe 'too queer' to grasp
By Jo Twist

BBC News science and technology reporter

Scientist Professor Richard Dawkins has opened a global conference of big thinkers warning that our Universe may be just "too queer" to understand.

Professor Dawkins, the renowned Selfish Gene author from Oxford University, said we were living in a "middle world" reality that we have created.

Experts in design, technology, and entertainment have gathered in Oxford to share their ideas about our futures.

TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) is already a top US event.

It is the first time the event, TED Global, has been held in Europe.

Species software

Professor Dawkins' opening talk, in a session called Meme Power, explored the ways in which humans invent their own realities to make sense of the infinitely complex worlds they are in; worlds made more complex by ideas such as quantum physics which is beyond most human understanding.

"Are there things about the Universe that will be forever beyond our grasp, in principle, ungraspable in any mind, however superior?" he asked.

"Successive generations have come to terms with the increasing queerness of the Universe."

Each species, in fact, has a different "reality". They work with different "software" to make them feel comfortable, he suggested.

Because different species live in different models of the world, there was a discomforting variety of real worlds, he suggested.

"Middle world is like the narrow range of the electromagnetic spectrum that we see," he said.

"Middle world is the narrow range of reality that we judge to be normal as opposed to the queerness that we judge to be very small or very large."

He mused that perhaps children should be given computer games to play with that familiarise them with quantum physics concepts.

"It would make an interesting experiment," he told the BBC News website.

ET worlds

Our brains had evolved to help us survive within the scale and orders of magnitude within which we exist, said Professor Dawkins.

We think that rocks and crystals are solid when in fact they were made up mostly of spaces in between atoms, he argued.

This, he said, was just the way our brains thought about things in order to help us navigate our "middle sized" world - the medium scale environment - a world in which we cannot see individual atoms.

This idea meant that life was probably "quite common" in the Universe, Professor Dawkins said.

He concluded with the thought that if he could re-engineer his brain in any way he would make himself a genius mathematician.

He would also want to time travel to when dinosaurs roamed the Earth.

More serious focus

Developing world economist and businesswoman Jacqueline Novogratz brought Professor Dawkins' thinking into focus, arguing that we need to fully engage with "developing worlds" to move away from "them and us" thinking.

"The world is talking about global poverty and Africa in ways I have never seen in my life," she said.

"At the same time I have a fear that the victories of G8 will see that as our moral absolution. But that is chapter one; celebrate it, close it and recognise we need a chapter two - a 'how to'.

"The only way to end poverty is to build viable systems on the ground that can deliver services to the poor in ways that are sustainable," she said.

Former Afghan finance minister Ashraf Ghani added that globalisation was "on speed" and needed real private investment and opportunities to flourish.

"Events of 7/7 and 9/11 remind us that we do not live in three different worlds; we live in one world."

He criticised the West for being only concerned with design issues that affect them, and solving environmental problems for themselves.

"You are problem solvers but are not engaging in problems of corruption," he told TED Global delegates.

"You stay away from design for developments. Your designs are selfish; it is for your own immediate use.

"We need your imagination to be brought to bear on problems the way meme is supposed to. It is at the intersection of ideas that new ideas and breakthroughs occur."

More than 300 leading scientists, musicians, playwrights, as well as technology pioneers and future thinkers have gathered for the conference which runs from 12 to 15 July.

2005-07-12T07:51:00.000-07:00

The Glory Hole

2005-07-11T22:22:00.000-07:00

SEATTLE (Reuters) - Tales about "Thunderbird" and "Whale" by native tribes along the U.S. West Coast, along with geological clues, point to at least two massive quakes and tsunamis that have hit the area in the last 1,100 years, a researcher said on Monday.

"Native people here were well aware that earthquakes happened and that is reflected in their oral traditions," said Ruth Ludwin, a University of Washington researcher who recently published two papers detailing such folklore.

In one tale, the mythical wind creature "Thunderbird" drives its talons into "Whale's" back and is dragged to the bottom of the ocean, which she said could be interpreted as a tsunami-like event.

The stories were collected from native tribes in northern California, Oregon, Washington and just south of Canada's Vancouver Island.

Ludwin, who collaborated with seismologists, said she began looking into the region's "geomythology" six years ago because of the lack of such data, which can be found in other areas such as Japan and the Indonesian island of Sumatra.

In December, a 9.15 magnitude earthquake erupted off the coast of Indonesia's Sumatra island. The quake, the strongest in 40 years, sent walls of water as high as 33 feet barrelling into 13 Indian Ocean nations and killed 160,000 people. Last month, a major 7.0 magnitude earthquake off the coast of northern California triggered tsunami alerts along most of the U.S. West Coast. The alarm was quickly called off and there were no casualties or damage.

The Cascadia subduction zone, which generates much of the seismic activity in the Pacific Northwest, had at least seven major earthquakes in the last 3,500 years, according to researchers.

One massive earthquake is estimated to have hit the region in 900, while eyewitness accounts from the 19th century point to a huge earthquake and tsunami that hit the area in 1700.

2005-07-04T09:20:00.000-07:00

Erkut Terliksiz

2005-07-03T22:23:00.000-07:00

Borderline kooky i know, but albeit very interesting video footage of all that ruckus that is happening down in Mexico with those UFO's. And in my naive and humble opinion - those do not look like balloons.

And in the off chance they aren't flares or some experimental goverment aircraft - i am completetly floored by the monumental number of them. It is really quite overwhelming, especially seeing this so soon after seeing "War of the Worlds" - which (if you can just blank out tom cruise and dakota fanning) is a pretty decent popcorn film. I mean - I always assumed that a UFO visitation would be with like maybe one UFO. Not a whole fleet of them! lol!

Anyhow - enjoy!

FLEET.MOV

FLEET_CLOSE.MOV

TVFOOTAGE.MOV

FLYINGHUMANOID.MOV

2005-06-23T12:58:00.000-07:00

This is a great article aligning Jungian theory with contempory politics! (click text for full article)

A collective psychosis is a closed system, which is to say that it is insular and not open to feedback from the ‘real’ world. Reflection from others, instead of being looked at and integrated, is perversely mis-interpreted to support the agreed-upon delusion that binds the collective psychosis together. Anyone who challenges this shared reality is seen as a threat and demonized. An impenetrable field gets conjured up around the collective psychosis that literally resists consciousness. There is no point in talking rationally with a Bush supporter, for example, as their ability to reason has been dis-armed.
Because of our inherent suggestibility, we can easily reinforce the unconscious parts of each other, as if we are mutually hypnotizing each other in a self-perpetuating feedback loop.

To be of genuine benefit, we need to understand the dynamics that are at the root of this psychic epidemic. If we don’t understand the psychic roots of our current world situation, we are doomed to unconsciously repeat it and endlessly re-create destruction. Recognizing the psychic origin of what is playing out on the world stage is, in-and-of-itself, the very realization that the deeper, underlying psychic process is revealing to us.

THE UNCONSCIOUS IS COMING!
To quote Jung, “The great problem of our time is that we don’t understand what is happening to the world. We are confronted with the darkness of our soul, the unconscious.” [Emphasis added] It is as if our shadow, both personal and archetypal, has gripped us and is revealing itself to us as it plays itself out through our unconscious. This is particularly dangerous because this process is happening unconsciously. When we act out and give shape and form to our unconscious without being consciously aware of what we are doing, it is always destructive.

2005-06-20T16:34:00.000-07:00

2005-06-18T19:20:00.002-07:00

After waking up from a momentary lapse into the unconsciousness, he saw that he had collapsed at the dinner table. Bits of sweaty lettuce clung to his face. At the other end of the table, his wife's head was festooned with tree roots.

2005-06-18T19:20:00.000-07:00

2005-06-16T09:20:00.000-07:00

The Case for Phenomenal Externalism

There visually appears to Ludwig to be a red tomato; there visually appears to Bertie to be a green blob.The tomato is real and so is its redness, but the blob is unreal, an intentional inexistent, and so is its greenness.The greenness is the color of an illusory, nonexistent thing.If that seems weird to you, think of hallucinating pink rats.Perhaps you know the rats are not real, but they are unquestionably pink.The pinkness is the color of the nonexistent rats.(I take that to be uncontroversial.[4])Construing intentionality as representation, we can say that the pinkness is the represented color of the represented but nonactual rats, i.e., it is the color they are represented as having.[5]

Nor should it be surprising that Bertie’s blob is a nonactual, nonexistent thing.Since in reality there is no green blob in the room with Bertie, his visual experience is unveridical.Remember that after-images are illusions; it looks to Bertie as though there is a green blob before him, when there is not anything green before him.Moreover, vision science has an extensively worked out explanation of this particular illusion.It is well understood why it can look to someone as though there is something green even when there is not anything green before that person.

(click text for full essay)

2005-06-06T11:11:00.000-07:00

www.themonsterengine.com

2005-06-05T21:14:00.000-07:00

A brief review of an article proposing that rates of global innovation have been declining in recent decades, since 1914 by an analysis of U.S. patents, which seems contradicted by independent data, and since 1873 by a subjective analysis of "important innovations," which may have greater general merit. I disagree with the author's analysis with regard to technological innovation as we might generally define it, which appears to be increasingly rapid, autonomous, and occurring more below the threshold of human perception with each passing year, while a number of objectively measurable technological capacities (Moore's law, etc.) continue to grow at exponential or slightly superexponential rates. But it seems at least plausible that there has been a decline in rates of human-initiated innovation (as opposed to that initiated by our technologies) and in subjective or apparent innovation rates, specifically, technological advances that are easily observable and classifiable by human beings. Two other factors that might be contributing to Huebner's observation of declining innovation in the human domain are an apparent saturation of fixed human needs by our accelerating technologies, and the abstract, higher-order, and incremental nature of innovation in today's increasingly virtual and human-surpassing digital environment. If replicable, this article's findings have important implications for better innovation metrics in a world of continuously accelerating change. In the context of other papers on innovation saturation, some also referenced here, Huebner's study may indicate a need for us to learn how to see and measure innovation from a technological, not just a human perspective in coming years.

2005-06-05T21:10:00.000-07:00

2005-06-05T21:07:00.000-07:00

Hearing Colors, Tasting Shapes

People with synesthesia--whose senses blend together--are providing valuable clues to understanding the organization and functions of the human brain

By Vilayanur S. Ramachandran and Edward M. Hubbard

When Matthew Blakeslee shapes hamburger patties with his hands, he experiences a vivid bitter taste in his mouth. Esmerelda Jones (a pseudonym) sees blue when she listens to the note C sharp played on the piano; other notes evoke different hues--so much so that the piano keys are actually color-coded, making it easier for her to remember and play musical scales. And when Jeff Coleman looks at printed black numbers, he sees them in color, each a different hue. Blakeslee, Jones and Coleman are among a handful of otherwise normal people who have synesthesia. They experience the ordinary world in extraordinary ways and seem to inhabit a mysterious no-man's-land between fantasy and reality. For them the senses--touch, taste, hearing, vision and smell--get mixed up instead of remaining separate.

Modern scientists have known about synesthesia since 1880, when Francis Galton, a cousin of Charles Darwin, published a paper in Nature on the phenomenon. But most have brushed it aside as fakery, an artifact of drug use (LSD and mescaline can produce similar effects) or a mere curiosity. About four years ago, however, we and others began to uncover brain processes that could account for synesthesia. Along the way, we also found new clues to some of the most mysterious aspects of the human mind, such as the emergence of abstract thought, metaphor and perhaps even language.

A common explanation of synesthesia is that the affected people are simply experiencing childhood memories and associations. Maybe a person had played with refrigerator magnets as a child and the number 5 was red and 6 was green. This theory does not answer why only some people retain such vivid sensory memories, however. You might think of cold when you look at a picture of an ice cube, but you probably do not feel cold, no matter how many encounters you may have had with ice and snow during your youth.

Another prevalent idea is that synesthetes are merely being metaphorical when they describe the note C flat as "red" or say that chicken tastes "pointy"--just as you and I might speak of a "loud" shirt or "sharp" cheddar cheese. Our ordinary language is replete with such sense-related metaphors, and perhaps synesthetes are just especially gifted in this regard.

We began trying to find out whether synesthesia is a genuine sensory experience in 1999. This deceptively simple question had plagued researchers in this field for decades. One natural approach is to start by asking the subjects outright: "Is this just a memory, or do you actually see the color as if it were right in front of you?" When we tried asking this question, we did not get very far. Some subjects did respond, "Oh, I see it perfectly clearly." But a more frequent reaction was, "I kind of see it, kind of don't" or "No, it is not like a memory. I see the number as being clearly red but I also know it isn't; it's black. So it must be a memory, I guess."

To determine whether an effect is truly perceptual, psychologists often use a simple test called pop-out or segregation. If you look at a set of tilted lines scattered amid a forest of vertical lines, the tilted lines stand out. Indeed, you can instantly segregate them from the background and group them mentally to form, for example, a separate triangular shape. Similarly, if most of a background's elements were green dots and you were told to look for red targets, the reds would pop out. On the other hand, a set of black 2's scattered among 5's of the same color almost blend in [see sidebar]. It is hard to discern the 2's without engaging in an item-by-item inspection of numbers, even though any individual number is just as clearly different from its neighbors as a tilted line is from a straight line. We thus may conclude that only certain primitive, or elementary, features, such as color and line orientation, can provide a basis for grouping. More complex perceptual tokens, such as numbers, cannot do so.

We wondered what would happen if we showed the mixed numbers to synesthetes who experience, for instance, red when they see a 5 and green with a 2. We arranged the 2's so that they formed a triangle. If synesthesia were a genuine sensory effect, our subjects should easily see the triangle because for them, the numbers would look colored.

When we conducted pop-out tests with volunteers, the answer was crystal clear. Unlike normal subjects, synesthetes correctly reported the shape formed by groups of numbers up to 90 percent of the time (exactly as nonsynesthetes do when the numbers actually have different colors). This result proves that the induced colors are genuinely sensory and that synesthetes are not just making things up. It is impossible for them to fake their success. In another striking example, we asked a synesthete who sees 5 tinged red to watch a computer display. He could not tell when we surreptitiously added an actual red hue to the white number unless the red was sufficiently intense; he could instantly spot a real green added to the 5.

Visual Processing
Confirmation that synesthesia is real brings up the question, Why do some people experience this weird phenomenon? Our experiments lead us to favor the idea that synesthetes are experiencing the result of some kind of cross wiring in the brain. This basic concept was initially proposed about 100 years ago, but we have now identified where in the brain and how such cross wiring might occur.

An understanding of the neurobiological factors at work requires some familiarity with how the brain processes visual information [see illustration on opposite page]. After light reflected from a scene hits the cones (color receptors) in the eye, neural signals from the retina travel to area 17, in the occipital lobe at the back of the brain. There the image is processed further within local clusters, or blobs, into such simple attributes as color, motion, form and depth. Afterward, information about these separate features is sent forward and distributed to several far-flung regions in the temporal and parietal lobes. In the case of color, the information goes to area V4 in the fusiform gyrus of the temporal lobe. From there it travels to areas that lie farther up in the hierarchy of color centers, including a region near a patch of cortex called the TPO (for the junction of the temporal, parietal and occipital lobes). These higher areas may be concerned with more sophisticated aspects of color processing. For example, leaves look as green at dusk as they do at midday, even though the mix of wavelengths reflected from the leaves is very different.

Numerical computation, too, seems to happen in stages. An early step also takes place in the fusiform gyrus, where the actual shapes of numbers are represented, and a later one occurs in the angular gyrus, a part of the TPO that is concerned with numerical concepts such as ordinality (sequence) and cardinality (quantity). (When the angular gyrus is damaged by a stroke or a tumor, the patient can still identify numbers but can no longer divide or subtract. Multiplication often survives because it is learned by rote.) In addition, brain-imaging studies in humans strongly hint that visually presented letters of the alphabet or numbers (graphemes) activate cells in the fusiform gyrus, whereas the sounds of the syllables (phonemes) are processed higher up, once again in the general vicinity of the TPO.

Because both colors and numbers are processed initially in the fusiform gyrus and subsequently near the angular gyrus, we suspected that number-color synesthesia might be caused by cross wiring between V4 and the number-appearance area (both within the fusiform) or between the higher color area and the number-concept area (both in the TPO). Other, more exotic forms of the condition might result from similar cross wiring of different sensory-processing regions. That the hearing center in the temporal lobes is also close to the higher brain area that receives color signals from V4 could explain sound-color synesthesia. Similarly, Matthew Blakeslee's tasting of touch might occur because of cross wiring between the taste cortex in a region called the insula and an adjacent cortex representing touch by the hands.

Assuming that neural cross wiring does lie at the root of synesthesia, why does it happen? We know that it runs in families, so it has a genetic component. Perhaps a mutation causes connections to emerge between brain areas that are usually segregated. Or maybe the mutation leads to defective pruning of preexisting connections between areas that are normally connected only sparsely. If the mutation were to be expressed (that is, to exert its effects) in some brain areas but not others, this patchiness might explain why some synesthetes conflate colors and numbers whereas others see colors when they hear phonemes or musical notes. People who have one type of synesthesia are more likely to have another, which adds weight to this idea.

Although we initially thought in terms of physical cross wiring, we have come to realize that the same effect could occur if the wiring--the number of connections between regions--was fine but the balance of chemicals traveling between regions was skewed. So we now speak in terms of cross activation. For instance, neighboring brain regions often inhibit one another's activity, which serves to minimize cross talk. A chemical imbalance of some kind that reduces such inhibition--for example, by blocking the action of an inhibitory neurotransmitter or failing to produce an inhibitor--would also cause activity in one area to elicit activity in a neighbor. Such cross activation could, in theory, also occur between widely separated areas, which would account for some of the less common forms of synesthesia.

Support for cross activation comes from other experiments, some of which also help to explain the varied forms synesthesia can take. One takes advantage of a visual phenomenon known as crowding [see sidebar]. If you stare at a small plus sign in an image that also has a number 5 off to one side, you will find that it is easy to discern that number, even though you are not looking at it directly. But if we now surround the 5 with four other numbers, such as 3's, then you can no longer identify it. It looks out of focus. Volunteers who perceive normally are no more successful at identifying this number than mere chance. That is not because things get fuzzy in the periphery of vision. After all, you could see the 5 perfectly clearly when it wasn't surrounded by 3's. You cannot identify it now because of limited attentional resources. The flanking 3's somehow distract your attention away from the central 5 and prevent you from seeing it.

A big surprise came when we gave the same test to two synesthetes. They looked at the display and made remarks like, "I cannot see the middle number. It's fuzzy but it looks red, so I guess it must be a 5." Even though the middle number did not consciously register, it seems that the brain was nonetheless processing it somewhere. Synesthetes could then use this color to deduce intellectually what the number was. If our theory is right, this finding implies that the number is processed in the fusiform gyrus and evokes the appropriate color before the stage at which the crowding effect occurs in the brain; paradoxically, the result is that even an "invisible" number can produce synesthesia.

Another finding we made also supports this conclusion. When we reduced the contrast between the number and the background, the synesthetic color became weaker until, at low contrast, subjects saw no color at all, even though the number was perfectly visible. Whereas the crowding experiment shows that an invisible number can elicit color, the contrast experiment conversely indicates that viewing a number does not guarantee seeing a color. Perhaps low-contrast numbers activate cells in the fusiform adequately for conscious perception of the number but not enough to cross-activate the color cells in V4.

Finally, we found that if we showed synesthetes Roman numerals, a V, say, they saw no color--which suggests that it is not the numerical concept of a number, in this case 5, but the grapheme's visual appearance that drives the color. This observation, too, implicates cross activation within the fusiform gyrus itself in number-color synesthesia, because that structure is mainly involved in analyzing the visual shape, not the high-level meaning of the number. One intriguing twist: Imagine an image with a large 5 made up of little 3's; you can see either the "forest" (the 5) or focus minutely on the "trees" (the 3's). Two synesthete subjects reported that they saw the color switch, depending on their focus. This test implies that even though synesthesia can arise as a result of the visual appearance alone--not the high-level concept--the manner in which the visual input is categorized, based on attention, is also critical.

But as we began to recruit other volunteers, it soon became obvious that not all synesthetes who colorize their world are alike. In some, even days of the week or months of the year elicit colors. Monday might be green, Wednesday pink, and December yellow.

The only thing that days of the week, months and numbers have in common is the concept of numerical sequence, or ordinality. For certain synesthetes, perhaps it is the abstract concept of numerical sequence that drives the color, rather than the visual appearance of the number. Could it be that in these individuals, the cross wiring occurs between the angular gyrus and the higher color area near the TPO instead of between areas in the fusiform? If so, that interaction would explain why even abstract number representations, or the idea of the numbers elicited by days of the week or months, will strongly evoke specific colors. In other words, depending on where in the brain the mutant gene is expressed, it can result in different types of the condition--"higher" synesthesia, driven by numerical concept, or "lower" synesthesia, produced by visual appearance alone. Similarly, in some lower forms, the visual appearance of a letter might generate color, whereas in higher forms it is the sound, or phoneme, summoned by that letter; phonemes are represented near the TPO.

We also observed one case in which we believe cross activation enables a colorblind synesthete to see numbers tinged with hues he otherwise cannot perceive; charmingly, he refers to these as "Martian colors." Although his retinal color receptors cannot process certain wavelengths, we suggest that his brain color area is working just fine and being cross-activated when he sees numbers.

In brain-imaging experiments we are conducting with Geoff Boynton of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in San Diego, we have obtained preliminary evidence of local activation of the color area V4 in a manner predicted by our cross-activation theory of synesthesia. (Jeffrey Gray of the Institute of Psychiatry in London and his colleagues have reported similar results.) On presenting black and white numbers to synesthetes, brain activation arose not only in the number area--as it would in normal subjects--but also in the color area. Our group also observed differences between types of synesthetes. One of our subjects with lower synesthesia showed much greater activation in earlier stages of color processing than occurred in controls. In contrast, higher synesthetes show less activation at these earlier levels.

A Way with Metaphor
Our insights into the neurological basis of synesthesia could help explain some of the creativity of painters, poets and novelists. According to one study, the condition is seven times as common in creative people as in the general population.

One skill that many creative people share is a facility for using metaphor ("It is the east, and Juliet is the sun"). It is as if their brains are set up to make links between seemingly unrelated domains--such as the sun and a beautiful young woman. In other words, just as synesthesia involves making arbitrary links between seemingly unrelated perceptual entities such as colors and numbers, metaphor involves making links between seemingly unrelated conceptual realms. Perhaps this is not just a coincidence.

Numerous high-level concepts are probably anchored in specific brain regions, or maps. If you think about it, there is nothing more abstract than a number, and yet it is represented, as we have seen, in a relatively small brain region, the angular gyrus. Let us say that the mutation we believe brings about synesthesia causes excess communication among different brain maps--small patches of cortex that represent specific perceptual entities, such as sharpness or curviness of shapes or, in the case of color maps, hues. Depending on where and how widely in the brain the trait was expressed, it could lead to both synesthesia and to a propensity toward linking seemingly unrelated concepts and ideas--in short, creativity. This would explain why the apparently useless synesthesia gene has survived in the population.

In addition to clarifying why artists might be prone to experiencing synesthesia, our research suggests that we all have some capacity for it and that this trait may have set the stage for the evolution of abstraction--an ability at which humans excel. The TPO (and the angular gyrus within it), which plays a part in the condition, is normally involved in cross-modal synthesis. It is the brain region where information from touch, hearing and vision is thought to flow together to enable the construction of high-level perceptions. For example, a cat is fluffy (touch), it meows and purrs (hearing), it has a certain appearance (vision) and odor (smell), all of which are derived simultaneously by the memory of a cat or the sound of the word "cat."

Could it be that the angular gyrus--which is disproportionately larger in humans compared with that in apes and monkeys--evolved originally for cross-modal associations but then became co-opted for other, more abstract functions such as metaphors? Consider two drawings, originally designed by psychologist Wolfgang K?hler. One looks like an inkblot and the other, a jagged piece of shattered glass. When we ask, "Which of these is a 'bouba,' and which is a 'kiki'?" 98 percent of people pick the inkblot as a bouba and the other one as a kiki. Perhaps that is because the gentle curves of the amoebalike figure metaphorically mimic the gentle undulations of the sound "bouba" as represented in the hearing centers in the brain as well as the gradual inflection of the lips as they produce the curved "boo-baa" sound. In contrast, the waveform of the sound "kiki" and the sharp inflection of the tongue on the palate mimic the sudden changes in the jagged visual shape. The only thing these two kiki features have in common is the abstract property of jaggedness that is extracted somewhere in the vicinity of the TPO, probably in the angular gyrus. (We recently found that people with damage to the angular gyrus lose the bouba-kiki effect--they cannot match the shape with the correct sound.) In a sense, perhaps we are all closet synesthetes.

So the angular gyrus performs a very elementary type of abstraction--extracting the common denominator from a set of strikingly dissimilar entities. We do not know how exactly it does this job. But once the ability to engage in cross-modal abstraction emerged, it might have paved the way for the more complex types of abstraction. The opportunistic takeover of one function for a different one is common in evolution. For example, bones in the ear used for hearing in mammals evolved from the back of the jawbone in reptiles. Beyond metaphor and abstract thinking, cross-modal abstraction might even have provided seeds for language [see sidebar].

When we began our research on synesthesia, we had no inkling of where it would take us. Little did we suspect that this eerie phenomenon, long regarded as a mere curiosity, might offer a window into the nature of thought.

VILAYANUR S. RAMACHANDRAN AND EDWARD M. HUBBARD collaborate on studies of synesthesia. Ramachandran directs the Center for Brain and Cognition at the University of California at San Diego and is adjunct professor at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. He trained as a physician and later obtained a Ph.D. from Trinity College, University of Cambridge. He has received a fellowship from All Souls College, University of Oxford, the Ariens Kappers Gold Medal from the Royal Netherlands Academy, and the plenary lecture award from the American Academy of Neurology. He gave the BBC Reith Lectures for 2003. This is his fourth article for Scientific American. Hubbard is a fourth-year graduate student in the departments of psychology and cognitive science at U.C.S.D. His research combines psychophysics and functional magnetic resonance imaging to explore the neural basis of multisensory phenomena. A founding member of the American Synesthesia Association, he helped to organize its second annual meeting at U.C.S.D. in 2001.

2005-06-05T20:49:00.000-07:00

Princeton University's 1st Annual Art of Science Convention

2005-06-05T20:46:00.000-07:00

Sex-mad Demon Terrorizes Village

CHAKE CHAKE, Tanzania - Vacationers on the Indian Ocean islands tend to smile dismissively at accounts in guidebooks of the bat-like ogre said to prey on men, women and children. But for superstitious Zanzibaris a visit from the sodomizing gremlin is no joke.

Although no one ever has seen it, belief in the monster and his unnatural lust is so strong that entire villages will sleep out of doors for protection: Popo Bawa (Swahili for Bat's Wing) prefers to attack behind closed doors at night.

In huts set amid rustling groves of jackfruit and mangoes on Zanzibar's Pemba island, victims told Reuters in interviews that they detected a bad smell, became cold and went into a trance in the moments before they felt the creature's inhuman strength.

Some attacks were heralded by the sound of giant wings and claws rattling and scraping on huts' tin roofs. Others cringed in terror at what sounded like a car engine ticking over.

"We heard a rustling on the roof," recalls ASHA SALEH, in her late 50s, in Machomanne village near Pemba's main town of Chake Chake. "I felt someone fondling me. I felt very cold. I felt weak," she said, recalling the attack some 35 years ago.

LEGENDS

"I couldn't call out for help to my husband who was lying asleep beside me. Popo Bawa is strong: He really presses down on you. And it took such a long time: One hour! Eventually I lost consciousness. And I was one of many who were attacked."

Successive waves of colonizers and traders -- Arabs, Portuguese, Hindus, Chinese, Britons, Persians and Africans -- left behind a multinational array of legends on Zanzibar.

Accordingly, many dismiss Popo Bawa as another of the satanic stories swapped over the centuries by migratory Indian Ocean peoples as they moved back and forth on the tides from Indonesia to the Comoros, from Madagascar to the Maldives.

Zanzibar's distinctive past as an Arab-run slave market prompted some academics to speculate that the story of Popo Bawa emerged from a collective race memory of the horrors of slavery.

But Popo Bawa is unlike the many goblins believed by the islanders to populate the tall grasses that ring their huts.

Many on the islands are adept at exorcisms, placing charms at the base of fig trees or sacrificing goats to avert evil or draw favor from the spirit world.

So experienced are the isles' traditional healers that they draw visitors from the Gulf and east Africa, with the successful amassing riches and prestige.

But no placatory offering or witch doctor can deflect Popo Bawa when he has made his mind up to strike, islanders say.

The monster favors Pemba, the poorer and more backward of the archipelago's twin islands despite being home to the clove plantations that provide the mainstay of Zanzibar's economy.

He also becomes active at election time: a habit that is testing nerves ahead of polls due in October.

His last major visitation was during elections in 1995, when JUMA says he endured his terrifying ordeal, although some reported his presence again in 2000 and in 2001.

"APOLITICAL"

Pemba's population are staunch opposition supporters. Many accuse the ruling party of Tanzanian President BENJAMIN MKAPA of neglecting the island since 1964, when Zanzibar merged with mainland Tanganyika to form the United Republic of Tanzania.

But JUMA says Popo Bawa is apolitical even though electoral emotions seem to summon him from the beyond. "He can strike even if the opposition wins the elections," he said.

The driver vows to do his utmost to avoid what happened to him back in 1995 as he sat alone late one evening.

"Many were afraid and were sleeping outside. But I was confident and was alone in my room. I was reading the Koran for protection. After about 20 minutes I started feeling sleepy. I heard something falling on the roof. I continued reciting. I started feeling something in the room.

"I felt my mouth becoming bigger and bigger. I started losing my ability to form words. My feeling was that my lower lip had stretched to my lap. I felt weak in my body. I became very sweaty. My experience was like that of a neighbor of mine who said his head seemed to grow to an enormous size."

Popo Bawa gets annoyed if villagers deny his existence -- a fact to which KHAMIS JUMA HAMAD says he can testify.

HAMAD, a retired village chief now aged 75, said that in 1971 Popo Bawa spoke to terrified villagers on Pemba through a girl possessed by the monster.

"I am Popo Bawa," said the girl, called FATUMA, speaking in the unnaturally deep voice of a man. "You have challenged my existence so I have come to prove I am here."

Seconds later, he says, the villagers heard the sound of a car revving and a rustle on a nearby roof -- signs of Popo Bawa. "The people felt cold, almost paralyzed. They were terrified."

2005-06-01T17:05:00.000-07:00

Lynch invades an 'Empire'
Digital pic details a mystery

By ADAM DAWTREY
David Lynch
Lynch
David Lynch is making a new movie with StudioCanal. In fact, he's already been shooting it under the radar for two years.

Titled "INLAND EMPIRE" (in capitals, though Lynch doesn't explain why), it stars Laura Dern, along with Justin Theroux, Harry Dean Stanton, Jeremy Irons and a host of others Lynch won't specify.

In fact, there's still very little the enigmatic Lynch is comfortable to reveal about the movie.

"It's about a woman in trouble, and it's a mystery, and that's about all I want to say about it," he comments diffidently.

The title refers to the bleak residential area on the edge of the desert near L.A. -- the antithesis of the tony locale of his last movie "Mulholland Drive."

Lynch has shot much of his latest film in Poland with local actors, after making friends with the organizers of the Camerimage festival in Lodz. He's now back shooting in and around Los Angeles.

Even at this relatively advanced stage of production, Lynch is cagey about when it will be finished. But it's understood that StudioCanal is aiming for a world preem at Cannes next year.

"Making a film is a beautiful mystery," Lynch says. "You go deep into the wood, and you don't want to come out of that wood, but the time is coming very soon when I will have to."

Lynch has financed the production to date from his own resources, with his wife and longtime artistic collaborator Mary Sweeney producing. The budget is unknown.

StudioCanal, which financed "Mulholland Drive" and "The Straight Story," has come aboard "INLAND EMPIRE" to handle worldwide sales.

Digital convert

What Lynch will reveal -- and indeed, waxes lyrical about -- is the fact that he's shooting the movie on digital video.

"I started working in DV for my Web site, and I fell in love with the medium. It's unbelievable, the freedom and the incredible different possibilities it affords, in shooting and in post-production."

"For me, there's no way back to film. I'm done with it," Lynch says. "I love abstraction. Film is a beautiful medium, but it's very slow and you don't get a chance to try a lot of different things. With DV, you get those chances. And in post-production, if you can think it, you can do it."

DV has clearly given Lynch the freedom from having to clarify his intentions -- to financiers, or even to himself -- before he starts shooting.

"The explaining of things in words is always a huge problem," he confesses.

He characterizes the DV production process as a journey of "huge exploration" to discover what his film will be.

"I'm writing as I go," he says. "I believe in the unity of things. When you have one part, and then a second part that doesn't relate to that first part, it's very curious to find that they do relate after all. It's a most beautiful thing."

He also believes that it produces a different kind of performances from actors. "When you run out of film, you have to stop and reload, and during that time the heat sometimes goes off. But with this medium you can keep that heat, and it builds, and it's beautiful to see."

He says that Dern, in particular, has benefited from this freedom. "She's the most incredible actress. Some people get roles and do their thing, but some have a lot more inside and don't usually get the chance to show it."

As for the quality of the DV image, Lynch says, "It looks different. Some would say it looks bad. But it reminds me of early 35mm, that didn't have that tight grain. When you have a poor image, there's lots more room to dream."

"But I've done tests transferring DV to film, and there are all kinds of controls to dial in the look you want."

2005-05-30T10:58:00.000-07:00

Scientists link plastic food containers with breast cancer

James Meikle, health correspondent
Monday May 30, 2005
The Guardian

A chemical widely used in food packaging may be a contributing factor to women developing breast cancer, scientists have suggested.

The study links the compound to the development of hormone sensitive tissue in mice and has prompted environmental campaigners to call for far tighter regulation of such chemicals.

Experiments at Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston, Massachusetts, have potentially worrying implications for human health since they suggest mammary glands of female mice grow in a way that makes them more likely to develop breast cancer and also to respond unusually to oestrogen, which fuels most breast cancer in humans.

Article continues
The compound involved is called bisphenol-A or BPA. It is used in plastic food containers, cans and dental sealants and other research suggests it leaches from products and is absorbed in low concentrations by the human body,

The scientists behind the latest findings say in the journal Endocrinology that they are involved in further work to test the hypothesis that exposure in the womb and shortly after birth to BPA in particular, and to oestrogens in general, might increase people's susceptibility to breast cancer.

It is the second report in a week to raise concerns about widely used chemicals. Research has also shown that phthalates, often found in plastics, affects the genital development of baby boys.

The Tufts researchers report "persistent alterations" to mammary gland development after giving doses of BPA to pregnant mice which were designed to mimic levels humans are likely to be exposed to.

The rodents were treated late in pregnancy and about four days after birth. The offspring were checked as they reached puberty about 30 days later. The researchers found large increases in the number and density of terminal end buds, part of the mammary gland structure where breast tumours start in both animals and humans.

They also found a drop in the number of cells programmed for death, the natural defence mechanism by which the body gets rid of damaged cells that might become cancerous. Animals exposed to higher doses of BPA developed mammary glands more sensitive to oestrogen.

Professor Frederick vom Saal, of the University of Missouri-Columbia, commenting on the findings, said: "This is of tremendous concern because this is clearly a study that is relevant to human exposure levels to this chemical."

Gwynne Lyons, a policy adviser to environment group WWF UK, suggested that humans and wildlife were being put at risk. "Because industry wants business as usual, the UK government and regulatory authorities in the European Union member states are not adequately controlling these gender-bending chemicals and are fighting shy of pressing industry to come up with safer chemicals."

A study to be published this week in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute will raise questions over the long-term daily use of the pain-killer ibuprofen by suggesting it may increase breast cancer risk.

Researchers at the University of Southern California studied the health histories of 114,000 women and compared them to the pills and medicine they said they had taken.

The painkiller is widely available over the counter and has long been seen as one of the safest drugs. Researchers say further study of its possible effects is needed because of the public health impact should the findings be confirmed.

But there is better news for women diagnosed with cancer who may choose to preserve their fertility by freezing eggs before they undergo chemotherapy or radiation treatments.

Existing freezing and thawing techniques can damage the eggs but scientists from the University of Michigan told a conference in Istanbul yesterday they had developed a promising process called vitrification, already tried in mice and scheduled for trials of women this autumn. This instantly freezes the eggs, preventing the formation of dangerous ice crystals.

2005-05-29T15:26:00.000-07:00

Recently have been reflecting on Gregory Crewdson's work while writing some notes on a new project I am working on titled "Wisconsin".

2005-05-29T15:22:00.000-07:00

Edgar Cayce on the Akashic Records

The Akashic Records or "The Book of Life" can be equated to the universe's super computer system. It is this system that acts as the central storehouse of all information for every individual who has ever lived upon the earth. More than just a reservoir of events, the Akashic Records contain every deed, word, feeling, thought, and intent that has ever occurred at any time in the history of the world. Much more than simply a memory storehouse, however, these Akashic Records are interactive in that they have a tremendous influence upon our everyday lives, our relationships, our feelings and belief systems, and the potential realities we draw toward us.

It is no exaggeration to state that the computer has transformed (and is still in the process of transforming) the entire planet. Whether it's technology, transportation, communication, education, or entertainment, the computer age has revolutionized the globe and the ways in which we understand and interact with one another. No segment of modern society has gone unaffected. The amount of information now stored in computer memory and crossing the Internet highway daily is literally unfathomable. And yet, this vast complex of computer systems and collective databases cannot begin to come close to the power, the memory, or the omniscient recording capacity of the Akashic Records.

The Akashic Records contain the entire history of every soul since the dawn of Creation. These records connect each one of us to one another. They contain the stimulus for every archetypal symbol or mythic story which has ever deeply touched patterns of human behavior and experience. They have been the inspiration for dreams and invention. They draw us toward or repel us from one another. They mold and shape levels of human consciousness. They are a portion of Divine Mind. They are the unbiased judge and jury that attempt to guide, educate, and transform every individual to become the very best that she or he can be. They embody an ever-changing fluid array of possible futures that are called into potential as we humans interact and learn from the data that has already been accumulated.

Information about these Akashic Records – this Book of Life – can be found in folklore, in myth, and throughout the Old and New Testaments. It is traceable at least as far back as the Semitic peoples and includes the Arabs, the Assyrians, the Phoenicians, the Babylonians, and the Hebrews. Among each of these peoples was the belief that there was in existence some kind of celestial tablets which contained the history of humankind as well as all manner of spiritual information.

The first reference in Scripture to some unearthly volume is found in Exodus 32:32. After the Israelites had committed a most grievous sin by worshiping the golden calf, it was Moses who pleaded on their behalf, even offering to take full responsibility and have his own name stricken "out of thy book which thou hast written" in recompense for their deed. Later, in the Old Testament, we learn that there is nothing about an individual that is not known in this same book. In Psalm 139, David makes reference to the fact God has written down everything about him and all the details of his life – even that which is imperfect and those deeds which have yet to be performed.

For many individuals this Book of Life is simply an imagery symbol of those destined for heaven and has its roots in the custom of recording genealogical records of names or perhaps early census taking. Traditional religion suggests that this book – either in literal or symbolic form – contains the names of all those who are worthy of salvation. TheBook is to be opened in connection with divine judgment (Dan. 7:10, Rev. 20:12). In the New Testament, those redeemed by Christ are contained within the Book (Philippians 4), those not found in the Book of Life will not enter the kingdom of Heaven.

Sir James George FrazerAs an interesting corollary, in the ancient world, a person's name was symbolic of his or her existence. According to Sir James George Frazer, author of The Golden Bough – one of the most extensive volumes on world mythology – there was such a bond between one's name and one's existence "that magic may be wrought on a man just as easily as through his name as through his hair, his nails, or any other material part of his person." In ancient Egypt, to blot a name out of a record was equivalent to destroying the fact that the person had ever even existed.

Closer to our current era, a great deal of contemporary information on the Akashic Records has been made available by both reputable psychics and modern-day mystics – individuals who have somehow perceived beyond the limits of three dimensions. According to H.P. [Helena Petrovna] Blavatsky (1831-1891), Russian immigrant, mystic, and founder of the Theosophical Society, the Akashic Records are much more than simply an account of static data which may be gleaned by a sensitive; instead, the records have an ongoing creative stimulus upon the present:

Akasha is one of the cosmic principles and is a plastic matter, creative in its physical nature, immutable in its higher principles. It is the quintessence of all possible forms of energy, material, psychic, or spiritual; and contains within itself the germs of universal creation, which sprout forth under the impulse of the Divine Spirit.

Alchemy and the Secret Doctrine

Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925), the Austrian-born philosopher, educator, and founder of the Anthroposophical Society possessed the ability to perceive information beyond the material world: a "spiritual world" which was just as real to him as the physical world was to others. Steiner claimed that the ability to perceive this other world could be developed, enabling an individual to see events and information every bit as concrete as the present:

...man can penetrate to the eternal origins of the things which vanish with time. A man broadens his power of cognition in this way if he is no longer limited to external evidence where knowledge of the past is concerned. Then he can see in events what is not perceptible to the senses, that part which time cannot destroy. He penetrates from transitory to non-transitory history. It is a fact that this history is written in other characters than is ordinary history. In gnosis and in theosophy it is called the "Akasha Chronicle"...To the uninitiated, who cannot yet convince himself of the reality of a separate spiritual world through his own experience, the initiate easily appears to be a visionary, if not something worse. The one who has acquired the ability to perceive in the spiritual world comes to know past events in their eternal character. They do not stand before him like the dead testimony of history, but appear in full life. In a certain sense, what has happened takes place before him.

Cosmic Memory

the most extensive source of information regarding the Akashic Records comes from the clairvoyant work of Edgar Cayce In terms of contemporary insights, perhaps the most extensive source of information regarding the Akashic Records comes from the clairvoyant work of Edgar Cayce (1877-1945), Christian mystic and founder of A.R.E. For forty-three years of his adult life, Edgar Cayce possessed the uncanny ability to lie down on a couch, close his eyes, fold his hands over his stomach, and put himself into some kind of an altered state in which virtually any type of information was available. The accuracy of Cayce's psychic work is evidenced by approximately one dozen biographies and literally hundreds of titles which explore various aspects of his information and the thousands of topics he discussed.

When asked about the source of his information, Cayce replied that there were essentially two. The first was the subconscious mind of the individual for whom he was giving the reading and the second was the Akashic Records.

Most often, when giving a reading which discussed a person's soul history and his or her individual sojourn through space and time, Cayce would begin with a statement such as, "Yes, we have before us the records of the entity now known or called _________." In discussing the process for accessing these records, Edgar Cayce described his experience as follows:

I see myself as a tiny dot out of my physical body, which lies inert before me. I find myself oppressed by darkness and there is a feeling of terrific loneliness. Suddenly, I am conscious of a white beam of light. As this tiny dot, I move upward following the light, knowing that I must follow it or be lost.

As I move along this path of light I gradually become conscious of various levels upon which there is movement. Upon the first levels there are vague, horrible shapes, grotesque forms such as one sees in nightmares. Passing on, there begin to appear on either side misshapen forms of human beings with some part of the body magnified. Again there is change and I become conscious of gray-hooded forms moving downward. Gradually, these become lighter in color. Then the direction changes and these forms move upward and the color of the robes grows rapidly lighter. Next, there begin to appear on either side vague outlines of houses, walls, trees, etc., but everything is motionless. As I pass on, there is more light and movement in what appear to be normal cities and towns. With the growth of movement I become conscious of sounds, at first indistinct rumblings, then music, laughter, and singing of birds. There is more and more light, the colors become very beautiful, and there is the sound of wonderful music. The houses are left behind, ahead there is only a blending of sound and color. Quite suddenly I come upon a hall of records. It is a hall without walls, without ceiling, but I am conscious of seeing an old man who hands me a large book, a record of the individual for whom I seek information.

Reading 294-19 Report File

Once given the record, Cayce had the ability to select the information which would be most capable of assisting the individual at that time in his or her life. Frequently, a reading might suggest that only a selection of the available material was being provided, but that the individual was being given that which would be "most helpful and hopeful." Additional insights were frequently provided in subsequent readings once an individual had attempted to work with and apply the information which had been given previously.

As a means of perhaps alluding to the fact that the Akashic Records were not simply a transcription of the past but included the present, the future, and certain probabilities as well, in reading 304-5, Cayce began the reading with a curious statement.

When discussing the Book of Life, he stated it that it was "The record of God, of thee, thy soul within and the knowledge of same." (281-33) On another occasion (2533-8) Cayce was asked to explain the difference between the Book of Life and the Akashic Records:

Q. [What is meant by] The Book of Life?
A. The record that the individual entity itself writes upon the skein of time and space, through patience – and is opened when self has attuned to the infinite, and may be read by those attuning to that consciousness...
Q. The Book of God's Remembrances?
A. This is the Book of Life.
Q. The Akashic Records?
A. Those made by the individual, as just indicated.

2533-8

The Edgar Cayce readings suggest that each of us writes the story of our lives through our thoughts, our deeds, and our interactions with the rest of creation. This information has an effect upon us in the here and now. In fact, the Akashic Records have such an impact upon our lives and the potentials and probabilities we draw toward us that any exploration of them cannot help but provide us with insights into the nature of ourselves and our relationship to the universe.

There is much more to our lives, our histories, and our individual influence upon our tomorrows than we have perhaps dared to imagine. By accessing information from the Akashic Records, the universe's computer database, much might be revealed to us. The world as we have collectively perceived it is but a faint shadow of Reality.

2005-05-29T15:15:00.000-07:00

Prophet Summons UFO

CLICK HERE

2005-05-27T10:29:00.000-07:00

1953

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Toxin in plastics harming unborn boys

Scientists say chemicals have gender bending effect

Ian Sample, science correspondent
Friday May 27, 2005
The Guardian

Scientists in America have found the first evidence that common chemicals used in products as diverse as cosmetics, toys, clingfilm and plastic bags may harm the development of unborn baby boys.

Researchers have long known that high levels of substances called phthalates have gender-bending effects on male animals, making them more feminine and leading to poor sperm quality and infertility. The new study suggests that even normal levels of phthalates, which are ubiquitous, can disrupt the development of male babies' reproductive organs.

Article continues
The discovery poses a huge problem for the chemical industry, which is already embroiled in a battle with the government over EU proposals on chemical safety.

Several types of phthalates, which are used to make plastics more pliable, and have been around for more than 50 years, have been banned, but many are still produced in vast quantities.

The study was carried out by scientists from centres across the US, including the University of Rochester and the National Centre for Environmental Health.

The researchers measured the levels of nine widely used phthalates in the urine of pregnant women and compared them with standard physiological measurements of their babies.

Tests showed that women with higher levels of four different phthalates were more likely to have baby boys with a range of conditions, from smaller penises and undescended testicles to a shorter perineum, the distance between the genitals and the anus. The differences, say the authors, indicate a feminisation of the boys similar to that seen in animals exposed to the chemicals.

Shanna Swan, an obstetrician at the University of Rochester, and lead scientist on the study, said researchers must now unravel what kinds of products are most to blame. One way that phthalates get into the bloodstream is when they seep into food from plastic packaging.

"It's going to take a while to work out which of these sources is most relevant to human exposure," she said.

Although the observed differences in body measurements were subtle, they indicate that what is generally regarded as the most ubiquitous class of chemicals is having a significant effect on newborns.

"Every aspect of male identity is altered when you see this in male animals," said Fred vom Saal, professor of reproductive biology at the University of Missouri-Columbia. Levels of aggression, parenting behaviour and even learning speeds were affected, he said.

Andreas Kortenkamp, an expert in environmental pollutants at the School of Pharmacy in London, said: "If it's true, it's sensational. This is the first time anyone's shown this effect in humans. It's an indicator that something's gone seriously wrong with development in the womb and that's why it's so serious."

He added: "These are mass chemicals. They are used in any plastic that is pliable, whether it's clingfilm, kidney dialysis tubes, blood bags or toys. Sorting this out is going to be an interesting challenge for industry as well as society."

The work, which is to appear in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, is due to be presented at the Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals Forum in San Diego on June 3.

Gwynne Lyons, toxics adviser to the WWF, said: "At the moment regulation of the chemicals industry is woefully inadequate."

She added: "Right now the government is looking at how the regulation of hormone disrupting chemicals could be made more effective under new EU chemicals law, but the chemicals industry is lobbying very hard to water down this legislation.

"Political agreement on this legislation is not expected until later this year so it remains to be seen whether the UK government has the guts to stand up to industry lobbying. If they don't, wildlife and baby boys will be the losers."

2005-05-25T09:46:00.000-07:00

Internet Delusions
by: Vaughan
A report in the medical journal Psychopathology notes that psychotic delusions increasingly concern the internet, suggesting high-technology can fulfil the role of malign 'magical' forces often experienced in psychosis.

Traditionally, psychiatry has considered the content of delusions as irrelevant and only sees the 'form' of a belief as important in diagnosis and treatment. For example, how true it is, how strongly it is held, how it was formed and so on.

This paper analyzes four case-reports and notes that, contrary to the traditional view, the cases are examples where an internet-theme has particular clinical implications.

In one case, a patient began to have paranoid thoughts and used an internet search engine to investigate suspicions about an ingredient on a chewing gum packet.

Her searches led her to believe she had discovered a secret terrorist network, and was therefore being personally targeted by the authorities using phone taps and hidden cameras.

Presumably, by using a different search engine, she would have found different pages, and her delusion would have been centred on something else.

The authors also consider that a person's understanding of technology may be a limiting factor in their ability to incorporate it into a delusional system. People with a poor understanding for example, may be more likely to attribute seemingly supernatural abilities to technology.

As Arthur C. Clarke famously noted "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic".

In delusions that feature spirits or other supernatural forces, there is no objective limit to the perceived 'powers' of the 'spirits', making such delusions sometimes difficult to refute.

In contrast, technology-related delusions can be more easily tested against reality, making for a good prognosis by using techniques such as cognitive behavioural therapy.

The authors also note that cultural concerns can influence delusional beliefs, suggesting technology-related delusions will become more common as the use of high-technology grows.

Link to study abstract.
PDF of full text.

2005-05-20T09:50:00.000-07:00

RUSSIAN LAKE DISAPPEARS BAFFLING LOCALS

MOSCOW (Reuters) - A Russian village was left baffled Thursday after its lake disappeared overnight.

NTV television showed pictures of a giant muddy hole bathed in summer sun, while fishermen from the village of Bolotnikovo looked on disconsolately.

"It is very dangerous. If a person had been in this disaster, he would have had almost no chance of survival. The trees flew downwards, under the ground," said Dmitry Zaitsev, a local Emergencies Ministry official interviewed by the channel.

Officials in Nizhegorodskaya region, on the Volga river east of Moscow, said water in the lake might have been sucked down into an underground water-course or cave system, but some villagers had more sinister explanations.

"I am thinking, well, America has finally got to us," said one old woman, as she sat on the ground outside her house.

2005-05-20T08:25:00.000-07:00

Fesitval De Cannes

Awesome lineup.

2005-05-19T16:56:00.000-07:00

Lars Von Trier's new film "Manderlay" looks interesting.

I really enjoyed his concepts and storytelling in "Dogville" and look forward to seeing this one as well.

www.manderlaythefilm.com

2005-05-17T22:32:00.000-07:00

This has already past - but I really like the concept behind it!

Guy Richards Smit

Roebling Hall is very pleased to present Nausea 2, Guy Richards Smit’s porn rock opera, which premiered last December at MoMA.

Nausea 2 is a feature length video project in the tradition of cinematic rock operas. It is the absurdist journey of two adult film stars through crippling doubt, self-discovery, healing and finally – thanks to an ecstatic fashion-filled shopping spree – unconditional love. Smit’s carnal, rocking, stylish and hilarious tale doubles as a pop critique of the contemporary art world as it exposes the eternal themes of love and vanity.

After achieving stardom in the art world and literary circles, Guy Richards Smit’s character Maxi Geil! experiences a physical repulsion to his vocation as an adult film star and is left unable to perform. He calls a press conference to announce his retirement, and there he meets another adult film star, Giselle Thurst (Rebecca Chamberlain), who has experienced a similar physical reaction to her work. They bond but are thwarted in their search for help. Ultimately, they achieve a state of ecstasy and healing by way of high fashion consumption.

Written, starring and directed by Guy Richards Smit, Nausea 2 features the music of Smit’s band Maxi Geil! & PlayColt. Time Out New York has described the band as a “glammy art-rock group whose sly, tuneful music hearkens back to early Bowie and Roxy Music, with all the camp, drama and fabulousness the description implies. The band is tight and funky, and backing vocalist Rebecca Chamberlain's purr makes us weak in the knees." In addition to Smit and Chamberlain, the supporting cast includes the fantastic Zoe Lister-Jones as a young conflicted starlet and King Lou Fernandez as Maxi Geil's loyal manager. Nausea 2 features a cameo studded roster of art world notables such as Leo Fitzpatrick (Kids), Delia Brown, Fritz Chesnut, Chris Chiappa, Will Cotton, Tony Matelli, John Pilson, and many others.

Also included in the exhibition are a number of Guy Richards Smit’s hilarious watercolors that riff on the front pages of The New York Times. With dark humor and painterly panache, Smit evokes an emotional response to current events that is half interior-life diary and half old-fashioned social commentary.

The production of Nausea 2 was partially funded by the Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art. Additional funding was provided by the MAT Charitable Foundation. Clothes supplied by Amarcord; make-up by 3 Custom Color; post-production by Subvoyant; incidental music by David Abir; music produced and recorded by Roger Fife; produced by Ami Armstrong.

Guy Richards Smit has previously exhibited his work in, among other venues, Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art, MOMA’s Mediascope, La Bienal de Valencia, the Havana Biennial, the Palm Beach Institute of Contemporary Art, the Bass Museum of Art, Aeroplastics (Brussels), and G-Module (Paris).
Guy Richards Smit has upcoming exhibitions at Sketch (June 2005) and the new Fred (London) Ltd (June 2005), both in London, UK.

2005-05-17T22:27:00.000-07:00

Soo Jin Kim

i love this work.

2005-05-17T16:47:00.000-07:00

Contact: Vladimir Sloutsky
Sloutsky.1@osu.edu
614-688-5855
Ohio State University

Too much knowledge can be bad for some types of memory, study finds
COLUMBUS , Ohio – Sometimes knowledge can be a bad thing, especially when it comes to exact remembering of certain things.
A new study found adults did better remembering pictures of imaginary animals than they did remembering pictures of real cats.

"The adults remembered these artificial insect-like creatures they had just seen for the first time much better than they did the cats that were very familiar to them," said Vladimir Sloutsky, co-author of the study and professor and director of the Center for Cognitive Science at Ohio State University.

The results show how some types of memory might be better when people forget what they know and instead approach a subject with a child-like sense of naïveté.

"Verbatim memory is often a property of being a novice," said Sloutsky, who is also associate dean of research at the university's College of Human Ecology . "As people become smarter, they start to put things into categories, and one of the costs they pay is lower memory accuracy for individual differences."

The ability to categorize is often very helpful, but this study shows how it can lead people to ignore individual details, Sloutsky said. The inappropriate use of categorization can also lead to problems such as stereotypes of groups, Sloutsky said.

Sloutsky said adults are flexible and can pay attention to and remember details if they are asked. However, the key is for people to know when to "turn on" their ability to remember details and when the ability to categorize is more important.

"If you categorize a person, you will be less likely to remember individual details about the person. At the same time, these individual details undermine stereotypes," he said.

Sloutsky conducted the study with Anna Fisher, a graduate student at Ohio State . Their research will be published in the May/June 2005 issue of the journal Child Development.

In this paper and in a previous one (see here) Sloutsky and Fisher did a series of studies that found children have better recognition memory than adults. The reason has to do with how people learn to categorize and classify groups, he said.

In one study published in the new Child Development paper, 5-, 7-, and 11-year-old children and college-age adults viewed a picture of a cat and were told that it had "beta cells inside its body." They were then shown 30 pictures of other animals (either cats, bears or birds) and asked whether the animal had beta cells in its body. The participants were given feedback after they were shown each picture that indicated that only cats had beta cells.

Later, the participants were shown 28 pictures of animals and were asked if that exact animal had been shown previously. Going into the experiment, the participants did not know they were going to be given this recognition test.

The results showed that the younger the children, the more accurate they were in remembering which pictures of animals they had seen before, and which they had not. At the same time, adults were not accurate at all.

The reason children did so much better than adults was that they had not yet learned to categorize animals, he said. Once adults learned in this experiment that only cats had beta cells, they stopped paying attention to the details of the pictures that would help them recognize the pictures later. Children, on the other hand, looked closely at each picture to determine if it was similar to the picture of the cat which had beta cells.

"There seems to be an inverse relationship between the ability to categorize and the ability to remember details," Sloutsky said. "If you're very attentive to details – like the children in this experiment – you can't create categories. But without ignoring the details, we would be unable to categorize."

Similar results were found in the earlier paper, but Sloutsky said this new paper provided two important details.

First, they found that there is a gradual decrease in recognition memory from children to adults – there is no large jump that occurs as people approach adulthood.

Secondly, the study shows that it is "lack of knowledge – not something specific to children – that helps make recognition memory more accurate."

That's why adults had accurate, child-like memory in the experiment in which they were tested using the imaginary animals.

This experiment was almost exactly like the first one, in which adults and children were shown pictures of cats, bears and birds and had to remember which pictures they had seen before. However, in this new experiment, adults were shown three different types of imaginary, insect-like creatures that Sloutsky calls "ziblets." In this experiment, adults performed as well as children did in the first study in remembering which ziblets they had seen before without having many "false positives."

The difference here was that the adults had no previous knowledge that allowed them to easily categorize the ziblets without paying close attention to each picture.

"They remembered them because they had to pay close attention," Sloutsky said. "They remembered the details."

Sloutsky said adults are flexible and can pay attention to and remember details if they are asked. However, the key is for people to know when to "turn on" their ability to remember details and when the ability to categorize is more important.

The results of this study also hold implications for memory research, he said. The results show that knowledge of a category affects recognition accuracy in a specific way – it increases false positives. In many of these experiments, for example, adults did as well as children in correctly identifying pictures they had seen before, Sloutsky said. But this gives a n misleading view of the adults' memory if you don't also note how often they said they saw pictures they actually had not.

###
This study was supported by grants from the National Science Foundation.

Contact: Vladimir Sloutsky, (614) 688-5855; Sloutsky.1@osu.edu

Written by Jeff Grabmeier, (614) 292-8457; Grabmeier.1@osu.edu

2005-05-14T10:36:00.000-07:00

Hans Bellmer is part of "The White Rose" exhibition. Looks good.

LINK TO SITE

2005-05-12T13:14:00.000-07:00

GENIESS: new work by John Russell

GENIESS presents one of many possible material instantiations of the virtual image The Philosophy is in the Meat (2005) in the form of a 28 x 8ft image-object, including blood, entrails, internal organs of war victims and other forms of violence, as well as ecstatic uses of flesh such as child birth, orgasm, defecation and thinking. The ineluctable flatness of the image opens out onto an eventspace of affect and untimeliness, transforming all viewers into potential geniesses and visionaries.

John Russell was a founder member of the artists’ group BANK (1990-2000) and was responsible for exhibitions such as Zombie Golf (1994) and Cocaine Orgasm (1995). BANK artworks and publications from this period were shown at the Whitechapel Art Gallery and Tate Modern. Since January 2000 he has been working both independently and collaboratively with Fabienne Audeoud. Recent exhibitions include a 6 page artist project for Sleaze Nation Magazine in June 2004 and The Thinking, 2004, a film project at PS1/MoMA, New York (in collaboration with Mark Beasley).

LINK TO SITE

2005-05-12T13:04:00.000-07:00

ACHEWOOD!

LINK TO SITE

2005-05-12T12:51:00.000-07:00

Beautiful!

The Orb of Chatham

LINK TO SITE

Self-Replicating Robot

2005-05-12T12:36:00.000-07:00

This design is awesome. Although its potential is scary.

LINK TO SITE

2005-01-20T17:02:00.000-08:00

Crispen Hellion Glover's new feature film "What Is It?" or WII

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2005-01-17T20:24:00.000-08:00

This is a brilliant collection of quicktime films and soundbytes.

Check it out!

MOVIE LINK

2005-01-16T20:10:00.000-08:00

Performance artist Istvan Kantor splashes some red near some gold.

BERLIN - A Governor General's Award-winning artist was arrested in Germany Tuesday after he attempted to throw a vial of his own blood on a sculpture of pop star Michael Jackson at a Berlin art gallery.

Istvan Kantor was charged with disturbing the peace and property damage after trying to splatter blood on a statue by well-known Los Angeles artist Paul McCarthy.

The statue, which depicts Jackson and his pet chimpanzee "Bubbles," is on display at the Hamburger Bahnhof museum as part of an exhibit of contemporary art from the collection of German businessman Friedrich Christian Flick.

Museum officials said the artwork was not hit by blood, which landed on a nearby wall.

The 55-year-old Toronto artist reportedly shouted "I am protesting against the loss of independence in art" following the incident.

Born in Hungary in 1949, Kantor is considered the father of "Neoism" an international anarchist art movement that has been compared to Dadaism.

Over the space of two decades he has been banned from numerous galleries, including New York's Museum of Modern Art and the National Gallery of Canada, for splattering "X" marks with his own blood on the walls.

In March, he was awarded the 2004 Governor General's Award for Visual and Media Arts in recognition of his body of work.

The awards jury praised Kantor for being a "no-holds-barred, neo-Dada" artist whose work ventured into music, kinetic sculpture, multimedia installations and, most memorably, performance art.

During the 1980s Kantor began his "Blood Campaign" series, the first instalment in which he was suspended naked in the lotus position, his mouth filled with his own blood.

In a later instalment he dug a shallow grave, inserted a vial of his own blood into his anus and contorted himself so that the blood flowed into his mouth.

He also gained notoriety when he splattered his blood on the walls of art galleries and then recited a prepared text in which he donated the blood painting to the museums' permanent collections.

Kantor is currently living in Berlin where he is working on a video installation Lebensraum/ Lifespace, A Spectacle of Noise.

ARTICLE

The article claims that the "Michael Jackson and Bubbles" statue is by Paul Mccarthy, but I think they are referring to Jeff Koons.

Istvan Kantor WEBSITE

2005-01-14T16:56:00.000-08:00

Robot Quilts by Kathy Weaver

2005-01-13T11:08:00.000-08:00

www.owltooth.com

2005-01-11T07:47:00.000-08:00

Exhibit of Optical Toys

LINK HERE

2005-01-10T13:16:00.000-08:00

2005-01-05T10:56:00.000-08:00

Super Mario Mosaic by artist: Douglass Lalonde

2005-01-04T14:29:00.000-08:00

LINK

2005-01-04T08:45:00.000-08:00

"The Hunter Dunk -- This is the Nike Dunk we designed well over a year and a half ago for Reese Forbes called "The Hunter". It's made out of burlap sack, tree camouflage, fluorescent orange canvas and quilted jacket lining to keep your feet warm this fall. They're scheduled for release in November."

Quote by shoe designer: Matt Irving

MORE INFO HERE

2005-01-03T13:02:00.000-08:00

Medical workers put dry ice on bodies at a makeshift morgue inside a Buddhist temple in Takuapa, Thailand.

2004-12-30T13:50:00.000-08:00

I'm Loving It

2004-12-27T13:14:00.000-08:00

Børre Sæthre

brilliant work

2004-12-27T09:53:00.000-08:00

Rumsfeld says 9-11 plane
'shot down' in Pennsylvania
During surprise Christmas Eve trip, defense secretary contradicts official story

2004-12-26T22:10:00.000-08:00

Child Prodigy Channeling Pollack

Article

2004-12-26T21:53:00.000-08:00

2004-12-26T21:43:00.000-08:00

Jeana Sohn

2004-12-26T21:26:00.000-08:00

Super Moving dot NET

Movie with Live Soundtracks

2004-12-26T21:20:00.000-08:00

Movies w/ Live Soundtracks

2004-12-26T21:03:00.000-08:00

CASSHERN
I'm already loving the fusion of fashion and art.

A film by new directer Kazauki Kirita based on the 70s animated series with the same name.

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Sin City

2004-12-26T20:51:00.000-08:00

Frank Miller's "Sin City" - New Film by Robert Rodriguez

TRAILER

LESLIE HALL SWEATERS

2004-12-26T20:42:00.000-08:00

LESLIE HALL SWEATERS

2004-12-17T19:57:00.000-08:00

Chaos Theory

2004-12-14T14:01:00.000-08:00

Bush Monkey by Chris Savido was Censored at the Chelsea Gallery

Chris Savido's Website
Article of Chelsea Gallery Censorship

Gay Book Ban

2004-12-03T08:38:00.000-08:00

Gay book ban goal of state lawmaker

By Kim Chandler / The Birmingham News

MONTGOMERY - An Alabama lawmaker who sought to ban gay marriages now wants to ban novels with gay characters from public libraries, including university libraries.

A bill by Rep. Gerald Allen, R-Cottondale, would prohibit the use of public funds for "the purchase of textbooks or library materials that recognize or promote homosexuality as an acceptable lifestyle." Allen said he filed the bill to protect children from the "homosexual agenda."

"Our culture, how we know it today, is under attack from every angle," Allen said in a press conference Tuesday.

Allen said that if his bill passes, novels with gay protagonists and college textbooks that suggest homosexuality is natural would have to be removed from library shelves and destroyed.

"I guess we dig a big hole and dump them in and bury them," he said.

A spokesman for the Montgomery-based Southern Poverty Law Center called the bill censorship.

"It sounds like Nazi book burning to me," said SPLC spokesman Mark Potok.

Allen pre-filed his bill in advance of the 2005 legislative session, which begins Feb. 1.

If the bill became law, public school textbooks could not present homosexuality as a genetic trait and public libraries couldn't offer books with gay or bisexual characters.

When asked about Tennessee Williams' southern classic "Cat On A Hot Tin Roof," Allen said the play probably couldn't be performed by university theater groups.

Allen said no state funds should be used to pay for materials that foster homosexuality. He said that would include nonfiction books that suggest homosexuality is acceptable and fiction novels with gay characters. While that would ban books like "Heather has Two Mommies," it could also include classic and popular novels with gay characters such as "The Color Purple," "The Picture of Dorian Gray" and "Brideshead Revisted."

The bill also would ban materials that recognize or promote a lifestyle or actions prohibited by the sodomy and sexual misconduct laws of Alabama. Allen said that meant books with heterosexual couples committing those acts likely would be banned, too.

His bill also would prohibit a teacher from handing out materials or bringing in a classroom speaker who suggested homosexuality was OK, he said.

Allen has sponsored legislation to make a gay marriage ban part of the Alabama Constitution, but it was not approved by the Legislature.

Ken Baker, a board member of Equality Alabama, a gay rights organization, said Allen was "attempting to become the George Wallace of homosexuality."

Aside from the moral debates, the bill could be problematic for library collections, said Jaunita Owes, director of the Montgomery City-County Library, which is a few blocks from the Alabama Capitol.

"Half the books in the library could end up being banned. It's all based on how one interprets the material," Owes said.

If you wish to contact Rep. Gerald Allen his info is below:

REPRESENTATIVE GERALD ALLEN (R)
62nd District
(Tuscaloosa)

State House:
Room 531
11 S. Union Street
Montgomery, AL 36130
(334) 242-7758

District:
Post Office Box 71001
Tuscaloosa, AL 35407

Work Phone:
(205) 556-5310

Home Phone:
(205) 556-5310

Information courtesy of www.legislature.state.al.us/index.html

Zauberwelt

2004-11-27T13:58:00.000-08:00

Zauberwelt

2004-11-26T19:12:00.000-08:00

2004-11-25T19:10:00.000-08:00

What I am listening to at this moment.

CLICK TO DOWNLOAD AND LISTEN (courtesy of Biennale Bonn)

The new album "I Am A Bird Now" is due in February 2005 on Secretly Canadian Records

2004-11-25T18:50:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving: Its True History

Community News / East Texas Review

As history teaches us, the greatest conflicts and the bloodiest wars throughout time have been waged because of belief systems and boundaries. We can trace this from the Crusades and the Spanish Inquisition through Hitler to the “ethnic cleansing” now going on around the world. This mentality does not tolerate differing political, social and religious beliefs, and it does not hesitate to sieze another’s land and property if it suits a purpose.

It was the custom in European countries to mark the boundaries of land with fences ranging from palisades to low rock walls. Once word spread throughout Europe and Spain about this wonderful land called The Americas, which was wild, untamed and unclaimed, this new territory became a safe haven for outlaws, prisoners, and the radical element of politics, social structure and religious practices - the violent and the non-conformists.

Even though the first explorers and early settlers had been warned about the heathen savages found in the “New World”, they found the First Peoples of this land curious about these strange people, and more than willing to teach them how to survive and live well in their new surroundings. The flow of people into this country was slow in the beginning and, even though there was the occasional hothead among the newcomers, life was generally a peaceful co-existence for almost 150 years.

However, as the trickle of settlers turned into a steady river, the atmosphere began to change. In 1614, a band of English explorers had landed in the vicinity of Massachusetts Bay. When they returned home, they took with them Native slaves they had captured, and left smallpox behind. By the time the Puritan pilgrims sailed the Mayflower into southern Massachusetts Bay, entire nations of New England Natives were already extinct, having been totally exterminated by smallpox.

The Puritans were religious radicals being driven into exile out of England. Since their story is well known, I will not repeat it here. They settled and built a colony which they called the “Plymouth Plantation”, near the ruins of a former Native village of the Pawtuxet Nation. Only one Pawtuxet had survived, a man named Squanto, who had spent time as a slave to the English. Since he understood the language and customs of the Puritans, he taught them to use the corn growing wild from the abandoned fields of the village, taught them to fish, and about the foods, herbs and fruits of this land. Squanto also negotiated a peace treaty between the Puritans and the Wampanoag Nation, a very large Native nation which totally surrounded the new Plymouth Plantation. Because of Squanto’s efforts, the Puritans enjoyed almost 15 years of peaceful harmony with the surrounding Natives, and they prospered.

At the end of their first year, the Puritans held a great feast following the harvest of food from their new farming efforts. The feast honored Squanto and their friends, the Wampanoags. The feast was followed by 3 days of “thanksgiving” celebrating their good fortune. This feast produced the image of the first Thanksgiving that we all grew up with as children. However, things were doomed to change.

Until approximately 1629, there were only about 300 Puritans living in widely scattered settlements around New England. As word leaked back to England about their peaceful and prosperous life, more Puritans arrived by the boatloads. As the numbers of Puritans grew, the question of ownership of the land became a major issue. The Puritans came from the belief of individual needs and prosperity, and had no concept of tribal living or group sharing. It was clear that these heathen savages had no claim on the land because it had never been subdued, cultivated and farmed in the European manner, and there were no fences or other boundaries marked. The land was clearly “public domain”, and there for the taking. This attitude met with great resistance from the original Puritans who held their Native benefactors in high regard. These first Puritan settlers were summarily excommunicated and expelled from the church.

With Bible passages in their hands to justify their every move, the Puritans began their march inland from the seaside communities. Joined by British settlers, they seized land, took the strong and young Natives as slaves to work the land, and killed the rest. When they reached the Connecticut Valley around 1633, they met a different type of force. The Pequot Nation, very large and very powerful, had never entered into the peace treaty negotiated by Squanto as had other New England Native nations. When 2 slave raiders were killed by resisting Natives, the Puritans demanded that the killers be turned over. The Pequot refused. What followed was the Pequot War, the bloodiest of the Native wars in the northeast.

An army of over 200 settlers was formed, joined by over 1,000 Narragansett warriors. Because of the lack of fighting experience, and the vast numbers of the fierce Pequot warriors, Commander John Mason elected not to stage an open battle. Instead, the Pequot were attacked, one village at a time, in the hours before dawn. Each village was set on fire with its sleeping Natives burned alive. Women and children over 14 were captured to be sold as slaves; other survivors were massacred. The Natives were sold into slavery in The West Indies, the Azures, Spain, Algiers and England; everywhere the Puritan merchants traded. The slave trade was so lucrative that boatloads of 500 at a time left the harbors of New England.

In 1641, the Dutch governor of Manhattan offered the first scalp bounty; a common practice in many European countries. This was broadened by the Puritans to include a bounty for Natives fit to be sold for slavery. The Dutch and Puritans joined forces to exterminate all Natives from New England, and village after village fell. Following an especially successful raid against the Pequot in what is now Stanford, Connecticut, the churches of Manhattan announced a day of “thanksgiving” to celebrate victory over the savages. This was the 2nd Thanksgiving. During the feasting, the hacked off heads of Natives were kicked through the streets of Manhattan like soccer balls.

The killing took on a frenzy, with days of thanksgiving being held after each successful massacre. Even the friendly Wampanoag did not escape. Their chief was beheaded, and his head placed on a pole in Plymouth, Massachusetts, where it remained for 24 years. Each town held thanksgiving days to celebrate their own victories over the Natives until it became clear that there needed to be an order to these special occasions. It was George Washington who finally brought a system and a schedule to thanksgiving when he declared one day to be celebrated across the nation as Thanksgiving Day.

It was Abraham Lincoln who decreed Thanksgiving Day to be a legal national holiday during the Civil War, on the same day and at the same time he was ordering troops to march against the Sioux in Minnesota.
In our society, it is not uncommon for our modern celebrations to have arisen from evil beginnings. Over the centuries, Thanksgiving has become a special day to join with loved ones in an offering of thanks for our blessings. Some give their time to help with the homeless and hungry. It is now a day of giving, and of honor, and of true thanksgiving.

In your Thanksgivings to come, I would ask that you offer a silent prayer for the spirits of those who were sacrificed so long ago. You and I did not commit these atrocities, and we are certainly not responsible for the behavior of our ancestors be they red, white, black or yellow.

However, we are charged with the responsibility of learning our true history, and of having the courage to behave with honor and dignity toward our fellow man. If the lessons of history are not learned, they will repeat themselves.

2004-11-25T09:22:00.000-08:00

Space Quilt

Credit & Copyright: Judy W. Ross, Point Roberts, WA
(link)

2004-11-19T22:23:00.000-08:00

2004-11-11T18:26:00.000-08:00

US Media Creating A
Culture Of Sadism

By Michael Goodspeed

"I came up with a new game-show idea recently. It's called The Old Game. You got three old guys with loaded guns onstage. They look back at their lives, see who they were, what they accomplished, how close they came to realizing their dreams. The winner is the one who doesn't blow his brains out. He gets a refrigerator."

--Chuck Barris, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind

"When the Games first started, people said they were the world's greatest entertainment because there had never been anything like them. But nothing's that original. There were the gladiators in Rome who did the same thing."

--Ben Richards, running for his life on the game-show The Running Man (from Stephen King's The Running Man.)

A man is driving in his car, and stops at a red light. He gazes out his window and sees two people standing on a sidewalk. One is a beautiful, shapely woman in a low-cut dress. The other is a wino, bent over and puking his guts out. Which figure do you think garners the man's full attention? If you answered the woman, you need to take a class in basic human psychology.

It has been said that no one can look away from a train wreck. Even genuinely nice and empathetic people will find their attention held rapt by the sight of human catastrophe. It's not that most of us would derive enjoyment from seeing a bunch of innocent people annihilated. It's just that nothing is more inherently dramatic than death, destruction, and suffering in extremis.

There are two types of people who are compelled by the drama of human tragedy. One is a normal person who can't turn away from his brother's pain because he feels it as his own. The other is a sadist who takes grim and perverse pleasure in the suffering of others. The latter type actively wishes misfortune on his fellow man, largely because it makes him feel better about himself.

The US media fully understand this dark aspect of the human psyche. They know that our country consists of tens of millions of consumers who are willing to spend their hard-earned cash to be "entertained." And in 21st century America, the cheapest and most scintillating form of "entertainment" is human ruination.

For many years, debate has raged over the influence of media violence on mental health. Numerous controlled studies have indicated that the human brain is negatively affected when it witnesses acts of violence, real or simulated. But the TV, movie, music, and video game industries have veiled themselves in the 1st amendment, claiming that any restraints on their creativity is akin to censorship. And besides, they argue, they are marketing fantasy, not real life.

But an incredibly disturbing trend has emerged in the US media over the last several years. No longer is violence in the media entirely FICTIONAL. Never again can anyone claim that the bloodshed and carnage marketed to young people is harmless, just because it's "make-believe." Real human beings are being hurt as a form of entertainment, and the producers of this filth are making money hand over first.

As a citizen of the United States who was weaned on masked-killer horror flicks and video game carnage, I thought I had reached the limit of my capacity for abashment. In recent years, I've witnessed the proliferation of reality TV shows that traumatize, wound, and endanger (often non-consenting) human beings. I've seen people gorge on worms and walk on hot coals for a shot at a little fame and a little money. I've watched these grotesque displays of cruelty and self-abasement, and asked myself, "What is LEFT? Short of people actually DYING, how could anything still shock anyone?"

A few nights ago, I was watching a basic cable network late at night, and saw an ad for a video called "Street Racers -- Outlaws Unleashed!" Since the network I was watching was Comedy Central, I thought for a moment that the "ad" might be a bit for a comedy show. But it was not; it was all too real. "Street Racers" features actual footage of illegal car racing on city streets. It also features unbelievably violent crashes and wipe outs, with big-chested girls wrapping themselves around the "victorious" drivers. None of the races are conducted on closed courses.

Here is how the ad reads:

"The cops don't want you see to see this video! Fast cars, bone-shattering accidents, and HOT CHICKS! Street Racers presents Outlaws Unleashed! Penetrate the underground racing where extreme speed and pure adrenaline leave you...BREATHLESS! This is not a closed course! This is not a movie! This is the real thing! Watch modern day outlaws outrun the cops...AND WIN! Order Outlaws Unleashed for only $9.99..."

It is an interesting synchronicity that on the same night I saw this ad, I noticed the following story on the website of KATU News (the ABC affiliate in my hometown of Portland, OR.):

November 7, 2004

Pregnant Woman Injured by Street Racers Over the Weekend

A pregnant woman is recovering after getting caught up in a street racing accident.

Police say a Honda Civic and another car were racing up to 100 m.p.h. north on Greeley avenue when they got tangled in traffic.

In an effort to avoid hitting a pickup truck, the Honda slammed into another car with a pregnant woman inside.

She was taken to the hospital for observation.

The driver of the Honda was arrested on charges of assault, reckless endangerment and speed racing.

The other driver who was racing took off and police do not have a strong description of that vehicle. (Artice link: http://www.katu.com/news/story.asp?ID=72416)

I wonder, had the "street racers" in this case seen the Outlaws Unleashed video? Does it even MATTER?

I suspect that if one were to ask the producers of Outlaws Unleashed how they can sleep at night, they would give a pat and well-rehearsed response: they are not responsible for the actions of the drivers, it is only entertainment, they provide a disclaimer, adults can watch that kind of thing and not be influenced by it, and so forth, and so on. But only a brain-dead and/or dishonest apologist would deny the effect that this type of "entertainment" is having on our culture.

Outlaws Unleashed will enhance the popularity of an illegal and often DEADLY activity. Directly or indirectly, people are going to DIE as a result of this video. Do you think the fine folks marketing this horseshit are bothered at all by this?

As a free speech absolutist, I honestly don't know if "entertainment" like "Outlaws Unleashed" should be legal in the United States. But I do know that I am within my own first amendment rights when I call these bastards out for what they are -- cold-blooded sociopaths.

US citizens need to understand that taking pleasure in the suffering of others is a form of MENTAL ILLNESS called SADISM. It is not possible to be happy or healthy without a sense of empathy for one's fellow man. The next time you sit in front of the TV and guffaw at the sight of your brothers and sisters being hurt and humiliated, remember the words of French actor Antonin Artaud: "Theater of cruelty means a theater difficult and cruel for myself first of all."

2004-11-11T18:04:00.000-08:00

L.A. (CIRCA BUSH'S 2004)

la.indymedia.org/

WATCH CLIP HERE

2004-11-09T10:47:00.000-08:00

2004-11-09T10:45:00.000-08:00

2004-11-06T13:01:00.000-08:00

Air Force wants $7.5 million to study Psychic Teleportation

or

supporting PDF file

2004-11-06T11:08:00.000-08:00

2004-11-04T19:14:00.000-08:00

AHAHA or 18181

2004-11-04T18:30:00.000-08:00

2004-11-04T18:29:00.000-08:00

Serf

A peasant who was considered un-free. His duties were usually agricultural, to which he paid his lord from the profits of his toil. Either by money or produce. A serf must be distinguished from a slave because a serf had rights and recourse to the law.

Walmart Near Mexican Pyramid

I find this article problematic in several instances. The first being a Wal-Mart situated near a post card picture of a Mayan pyramid. The other being that not only does this creat Wal-Mart jobs for people, but it also provides them with Wal-Mart goods. They can work at Wal-Mart to pay off what they think they may need from Wal-Mart. Brilliant.

11.05.2004 UPDATE: CLICK HERE

2004-10-29T10:56:00.001-07:00

CLICK ON IMAGE

2004-10-25T10:56:00.000-07:00

See it.

tARnATIon

2004-10-23T11:28:00.000-07:00

Orgies are the way to ease social tensions, claims US judge

Oliver Burkeman in New York
Friday October 1, 2004
The Guardian

He is the conservative bastion of the US supreme court, a favourite of President Bush, and a hunting partner of the vice-president. He has argued vociferously against abortion rights, and in favour of anti-sodomy laws.

But it turns out that there is another side to Justice Antonin Scalia: he thinks Americans ought to be having more orgies.

Challenged about his views on sexual morality, Justice Scalia surprised his audience at Harvard University, telling them: "I even take the position that sexual orgies eliminate social tensions and ought to be encouraged."

It seems unlikely that this is what President Bush meant when he promised to appoint more judges like Scalia to the court, should the opportunity arise. Crucially, Justice Scalia is one of the judges in favour of overturning Roe v Wade, the landmark judgment protecting abortion as a constitutional right.

One audience member also asked the judge "whether you have any gay friends, and, if not, whether you'd like to be my friend," the Harvard Crimson newspaper reported.

"I probably do have some gay friends, but I have never pressed the point," Justice Scalia responded. He offered no clue to the logic behind his claim that orgies eliminate social tensions.

Nobody asked him whether he was familiar with Rick Moody's novel The Ice Storm, turned into a movie by Ang Lee, which appeared to suggest the exact opposite.

LINKIE POO

2004-10-20T11:43:00.000-07:00

POINT OF INTEREST:

Lotte Reiniger (Interesting Animator)

HMCB (Gay Porn collection produced by Lars Von Trier)

Erwin Wurm (Conceptual Artist/Photographer/Sculptor)

Matthew Barney (New film - "De Lama Lamina")

2004-10-17T10:37:00.000-07:00

ASSHOLE

2004-10-12T15:17:00.000-07:00

So with the eery haze we have over the city today, I decided to stay in and get lost on the internet.

Lookie what I found. Christian Bale lost 60 lbs, he really couldn't afford to lose for his character in a new film called "The Machinist".

"The Machinist" seems to be apart of a recent popular string of movies concerned about exploring the theme of psychology, anxiety, and the unreliable perspective of someone's POV. Films like, Lost Highway, Mememto, The Forgotten, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Identity - where the story is told by someone suffering with some mental illness that causes abstract thinking and tenuous connections in plot. It looks interesting, but the more successful films like Lost Highway, and Eternal Sunshine, go whole hog and really immerse the audience in the character and it's anyones guess where the story is going or what to believe.

Now someone needs to come up with a new genre title for these series of films to secure their unique position in the film collective. Some arty-farty title like: Industrial Anxiety Psychosis genre. or IAP.

(in other related news: The Transformation of family and population structure has given rise to the incidence of mental diseases such as Schizophrenia.)

Brilliant.

for more info on "The Machinist", and Christian Bale's excuse for anorexia,:

THE MACHINIST

2004-09-13T21:11:00.000-07:00

Brilliant. I have come across another great and beautifully unique and unnusual instrument using performer named: Natalia 'SawLady' Paruz

CLICK HERE TO HEAR "THE SWAN" - as performed by Natalia at the PERFORMANCE OF A PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION show.

For more info on Natalia please visit her site at:

WWW.SAWLADY.COM

Brilliant!

2004-09-09T23:33:00.000-07:00

The Astrology Singer:

Sometime in 1996, shortly after I moved to San Francisco, I lived in a beautiful flat on Baker and McAllister. It was here that I was introduced to the conduit of ambitious artists that were funnelling their work through the local cable access network. I made a recording of one particular program and in it is featured a well dressed singer in a two piece black suit. Well groomed and clean shaven, he began to sing against a powder blue backdrop that seemed to melt into the floor making him appear as though he were floating in blue.

His songs were simple and nearly folksy, but it was the lyrics that caught my attention. In lounge-singer fashion, he sang his heart out and relentlessly sang a song about each trait of an astrological sign. The only break or pause between was his heated breath before he thrust himseld into the next set. I couldn't have possibly thought it to grow any stranger - when suddenly - a woman dressed in some strange dancer tu-tu (a modern interpretation of the seven veiled dancer) suddenly jutted out from backstage and would dance around this well dressed singer.

To and fro she jumped in an excited manner. So well poised was this interpretive dancer that she made sure to nearly duplicate every word in the lyric in her strange dance/pose/hand sign/facial expression. She would change costumes with each different song, striving to match fashion to the traits of each astrological sign.

Needless to say, I told all my friends about this said program, and none believed me. Or they demanded to see it. But with my compulsion to tape strange glimpses of tv shows, I have a multitude of tapes to go through - hours each tape. And my worst fears is that I sacraficed it to archive some other strange late night programming.

ugh.

and then the internet came along.

on a whim i did a search. and lookee what I found.....

he comes highly recommended from mister skye.

SIGN SINGER

2004-09-09T22:45:00.000-07:00

The Electric Saw

VIDEO

It really is a throwback to those old Sci-Fi film from the 50's. For a funny retrospective page on the musical saw check: HERE

2004-08-24T23:44:00.000-07:00

Family of faggot fans fly the flag

A West Midlands family is playing a central role in the quest to raise the profile of a forgotten British dish - faggots.

The Doody family from Wolverhampton has been crowned The Faggot Family in a national competition, and to kick off their reign they will launch National Faggot Week.

The family will be touring the country extolling the virtues of the dish, which is best-known for its links with the Black Country.

The Doody family were chosen to front the campaign after impressing judges at the Savoy Hotel in London in November.

They displayed their fanaticism for the delicacy during quizzes, role-plays and mock commercials.

"The nation knows that the Cornish pasty, Yorkshire pudding, haggis and fish and chips are great British dishes, but all too often the faggot is left off that list," said Janet Doody.

Her husband Fred added: "It's unfair because faggots were a British delicacy long before any of the others.

"The great British faggot is full of flavour and a great belly warmer at this time of year."

The family, including Lewis, 13, and Grace, 7, eat faggots twice a week, with mashed potato and mushy peas, and will be launching the awareness campaign on Tuesday at Liverpool University, followed by visits this week to Nottingham, Leeds, Sheffield and Birmingham.

The competition was organised by faggot producer Mr Brain's Faggots.

2004-08-22T14:49:00.000-07:00

Winged Cat “From Hell” Put to Death in Central Russia

A winged cat has been killed by villagers near the Central Russian city of Kursk. The locals drowned the deformed puss after believing it was a messenger of Satan, the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper reports.
On entering her yard, Nadezhda Medvedeva saw how a stray cat stood up and, just like a chicken, stretched out two wings. She said that at that moment her hair stood on end. The locals had no doubt the unlucky cat was a messenger of the devil, the Vlasti.net website writes.
Where the cat came from and why it appeared in the village of Bukreyevk nobody knows. Nadezhda Medvedeva, whose home is located on the edge of the village, said she initially heard a soft meowing.
“We poured some milk into a bowl,” Medvedeva recounted. “A tom cat came out — ginger, huge, twice as big as normal. He drank greedily and started meowing again…asking for more. We started feeding him. After a couple of days my daughter came running in all scared and whispered: ’Mom, come and look at the cat! He’s got wings!’”

Nadezhda Medvedeva went out and saw how the cat slowly moved its wings exactly as a chicken would. The woman immediately came to the conclusion that the cat was sinister, “just like a sort of devil”.
The daughter, having already named the cat Vaska, claimed he was affectionate and had obviously been a pet.
The rumor of the winged cat soon reached Kursk, but by the time a correspondent got wind of it the cat had already been killed by a local drunk, who drowned the unique feline. A sack with the animal’s body was recovered later from a pond near the Medvedev’s home. Despite the fact decomposition had already set in, the correspondent form the local Komsomol newspaper confirmed the cat did actually have wings.