Posts tagged with “inspiration” and “book of ideas”
April 25
China’s Three Gorges Dam: An Environmental Catastrophe? Chinese officials staged a sudden about-face, acknowledging for the first time that the massive hydroelectric dam, sandwiched between breathtaking cliffs on the Yangtze River in central China, may be triggering landslides, altering entire ecosystems and causing other serious environmental problems—and, by extension, endangering the millions who live in its shadow. <a href="http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=chinas-three-gorges-dam-disaster&sc=WR_20080401" target="_blank">>>Link</a>
02:24 PM
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Tags: inspiration, book of ideas
<strong>How Squishy Squid Handle Sharp Beaks: </strong>They found that it consists of a changing mix of chitin, water and proteins. When the base is dry, it is about as stiff as the tip. But moisture softens the base up to 100-fold. Advances in tailor-made “functionally graded” materials could allow two different materials to become bonded together by a third, smoothly varying substance, obviating the need of a rivet or an adhesive. <a href="http://www.sciam.com/gallery_directory.cfm?photo_id=06CDA45A-F938-9DE3-0581432855DFFB9A&sc=WR_20080401" target="_blank">>>Link</a>
02:23 PM
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Tags: inspiration, book of ideas, science
The Graveyard is a very short computer game where you play an old lady who visits a graveyard. Buying the full version of The Graveyard adds only one feature, the possibility of death. The full version of the game is exactly the same as the trial, except, every time you play she may die. <a href="http://www.boingboing.net/2008/03/31/graveyard-game-walk.html" target="_blank">>Link</a>
02:22 PM
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Tags: inspiration, book of ideas
Mural by Kevin Taylor (135 6th st. at Minna Alley, SF). Love animal heads on people, love bandanas as masks (now appearing in “Elbina Rides Again”, a short story in-progress).
02:21 PM
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Tags: inspiration, book of ideas, art
I’ve fallen in love with St. Pauli Girl. I think it’s the cleavage on the bottle. Every time I tilt one back to take a gulp, I get eye level with a nice rack. Brilliant marketing scheme, and I’m a sucker for it. Just the sight of her makes me happy. She’s so cheerful in that German dress, two-fisted, and smiling. Love at first sight. Now, if she were completely naked, I don’t think I’d like her as much. She wouldn’t have as much mystery to her. She reveals just enough to tease me. Hey, there’s stories everywhere, even on bottles of beer.
— Kevin Lottes, musings over email
02:20 PM
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Tags: inspiration, book of ideas
regrowing limbs
<div class="description"><p>The early responses of tissues at an amputation site are not that different in salamanders and in humans, but eventually human tissues form a scar, whereas the salamander’s reactivate an embryonic development program to build a new limb. Learning to control the human wound environment to trigger salamanderlike healing could make it possible to regenerate large body parts.</p> <p>When the tiny salamander limb is amputated, blood vessels in the remaining stump contract quickly, so bleeding is limited, and a layer of skin cells rapidly covers the surface of the amputation site. During the first few days after injury, this so-called wound epidermis transforms into a layer of signaling cells called the apical epithelial cap (AEC), which is indispensable for successful regeneration. In the meantime, fibroblasts break free from the connective tissue meshwork and migrate across the amputation surface to meet at the center of the wound. There they proliferate to form a blastema—an aggregation of stemlike cells that will serve as progenitors for the new limb. </p></div> 02:18 PM | 0 Comments | Tags: inspiration, book of ideas, scienceFish, to taste right, must swim three times: In water, in butter, and in wine.
— Polish Proverb
02:17 PM
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Tags: inspiration, book of ideas
New sins have appeared on the horizon of humanity as a corollary of the unstoppable process of globalisation. You offend God not only by stealing, blaspheming or coveting your neighbour’s wife – but also by ruining the environment, carrying out morally debatable scientific experiments, or allowing genetic manipulations which alter DNA or compromise embryos.
— Monsignor “no irony at all” Girotti. <em><a href="http://blog.newhumanist.org.uk/2008/03/deadly-sins-for-modern-age.html">link</a></em>
02:17 PM
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Tags: inspiration, book of ideas
a few definitions (morning-walk self-query)
<p>Thank you Wikipedia, the people’s definitions:</p> <p><strong>Evil</strong> is a broad term used to indicate a negative moral or ethical judgment, often used to describe intentional acts that are cruel, unjust, or selfish. Evil is usually contrasted with good, which describes intentional acts that are kind, just, or unselfish. In many cultures, evil is used to describe acts or thoughts which are contrary to some particular religion. In some religions, evil is an active force, often personified as an entity such as Satan or Ahriman.</p> <p><strong>Fear</strong> is an emotional response to tangible and realistic dangers. Fear should be distinguished from anxiety, an emotion that often arises out of proportion to the actual threat or danger involved, and can be subjectively experienced without any specific attention to the threatening object. Most fear is usually connected to pain (i.e., some fear heights because if they fall, they may suffer severe injury upon landing). Behavioral theorists, like Watson and Ekman, have both suggested that fear is one of several very basic emotions (e.g., joy and anger). Fear is a survival mechanism, and usually occurs in response to a specific negative stimulus.</p> <p><strong>H.P. Lovecraft</strong>’s major inspiration and invention was cosmic horror: life is incomprehensible to human minds and the universe is fundamentally alien. Those who genuinely reason, like his protagonists, gamble with sanity. </p> 02:16 PM | 0 Comments | Tags: inspiration, book of ideas
Phrenology Heads by Morwenna Catt <a href="http://www.we-make-money-not-art.com/archives/2008/03/pricked-extreme-embroidery.php" target="_blank">»</a>
02:16 PM
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Tags: inspiration, book of ideas, art