� March 2004 | Main | May 2004 �
April 28, 2004
from comedian Bill Hicks
"I'm so sick of arming the world, then sending troops over to destroy the fucking arms, you know what I mean? We keep arming these little countries, then we go and blow the shit out of them. We're like the bullies of the world, y'know. We're like Jack Palance in the movie Shane, throwing the pistol at the sheepherder's feet."Pick it up."
"I don't wanna pick it up, Mister, you'll shoot me."
"Pick up the gun."
"Mister, I don't want no trouble. I just came downtown here to get some hard rock candy for my kids, some gingham for my wife. I don't even know what gingham is, but she goes through about ten rolls a week of that stuff. I ain't looking for no trouble, Mister."
"Pick up the gun."
(He picks it up. Three shots ring out.)
"You all saw him - he had a gun."
Boing Boing: A Directory of Wonderful Things
Posted by thdyck at April 28, 2004 | Comments (0)
SIT applied to mosquitos
The IAEA is best known for its inspections of countries like Iran and Iraq, suspected of building atomic weapons. But the agency has already used its expertise to wipe out the dreaded tsetse fly, which can transmit fatal sleeping sickness, from the island of Zanzibar.
The Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) is a simple idea. Scientists breed insects and expose the males to enough radiation to render them sterile. The males are then released into the environment to breed with the females, whose eggs are unfertilized and never hatch.
"The whole idea or concept is that the population would actually start to crash and eventually may actually lead to eradication of the insect, and therefore eradication of the disease and less malaria," said Knols, who has personally suffered nine bouts of malaria through working with mosquitoes.
Wired News: Nuke Mosquito, End Malaria?
Posted by thdyck at April 28, 2004 | Comments (0)
April 27, 2004
Next-gen plant breeding
Food scientists around the world are picking up on her work. In China, researcher Deng Qiyun, inspired by McCouch's papers, used molecular markers while crossbreeding a wild relative of rice with his country's best hybrid to achieve a 30 percent jump in yield - an increase well beyond anything gained during the Green Revolution. Who will feed China? Deng will. In India, the poorest of the poor can't afford irrigated land, so they grow unproductive varieties of dryland rice. By some estimates, Indian rice production must double by 2025 to meet the needs of an exploding population. One researcher in Bangalore is showing the way. H. E. Shashidhar has cataloged the genes of the dryland varieties and used DNA markers to guide the breeding toward a high-yield super-rice. In West Africa, smart breeders have created Nerica, a bountiful rice that combines the best traits of Asian and African parents. Nerica spreads profusely in early stages to smother weeds. It's disease-resistant, drought-tolerant, and contains up to 31 percent more protein than either parent.
Wired 12.05: Super Organics (page 2 of article)
Posted by thdyck at April 27, 2004 | Comments (0)
April 20, 2004
Energy-efficient architecture
Low energy architectural features were also incorporated into the design. One such feature reduces the use of air-conditioning by manipulating natural ventilation effects. The principle relies on air temperature differences between the top and bottom of the building caused by solar radiation that heats the air.
The buoyancy of the warm air causes the air movement to rise vertically through the stack, resulting in a cool breeze running through the house.
Meanwhile, a combination of both classical day-lighting techniques (such as side-lighting and top-lighting) and innovative ideas (sloped light shelves and shading devices) were used, further reducing the usage of energy needed for lighting the house during the day.
(from Slashdot)
Posted by thdyck at April 20, 2004 | Comments (0)
Brazil
In psychological terms, says Gil, the problem with puritans is that they have to repress the "shadow" (in Jungian terminology), or project it elsewhere. They have to find an enemy to become the repository of all evil.
The real danger comes when one lot of puritans come up against another even more illiberal group, such as extreme Muslims. I told Gil of a surreal conversation I had with a wannabe suicide bomber in Yemen, who told me with absolute seriousness that if he could behave himself on earth or preferably be a martyr, he could look forward to an eternity of non-stop sex with virgins and as much drink and drugs as he could manage. As he had a Kalashnikov I wasn't going to argue. It did occur to me that here was a man who could really use a week at the Rio Carnival.
Telegraph | Arts | First person singular: the connection between Brazil and Janet's nipple
(also see "We liked Brazil before it was cool..." at WorldChanging for some of the fascinating political decisions Brazil's new government is making)
Posted by thdyck at April 20, 2004 | Comments (0)
April 14, 2004
Close relationships lead to healthier hearts
The researchers also found that people without a very close relationship were twice as likely to have lost both parents during childhood as patients who enjoyed a very close relationship with another person.
They speculate that separation from parents during childhood might adversely affect the chances of forming an intimate relationship as an adult.
Belinda Linden, of the British Heart Foundation (BHF) which co-funded the research, said: "This research is helping us to understand how important such psychosocial factors can be in preventing further cardiac events.
"A close relationship - whether it be a lover, friend or relative - is obviously a potentially vital source of social support, which can play an important role in both preventing coronary heart disease and enhancing recovery from a heart attack."
BBC NEWS | Health | Human warmth 'can protect heart'
Posted by thdyck at April 14, 2004 | Comments (0)
April 9, 2004
Mandy Thursday
from the Latin mandatum or commandment, that which Jesus gave at the Last Supper:
"I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." (John 13:34-34, NRSV)
Posted by thdyck at April 9, 2004 | Comments (0)
April 7, 2004
An interview with George Saunders
George Saunders is a favorite creator of short fiction. His use of voice is unforgettably idiosyncratic.
MV: While your short stories always have interesting plots--an aunt returning from the dead, guy working as cave man in theme park, etc.--it's the voices of these stories (for me, at least) that make them so memorable. In fact, when I remember your stories, I remember the voices: the rhythms, the repetition, the idiosyncratic logic, the corporate-babble, the exuberance, the wisecracks. Can you talk a bit about the importance of voice in your fiction, and how you come to discover the voices of your characters?
GutCult Issue 2 -- George Saunders Interview by Matthew Vollmer
Posted by thdyck at April 7, 2004 | Comments (0)
April 6, 2004
Exorcism in the Catholic Church
I have no idea what to make of this. It was a frequent activity in the New Testament period.
The work of the exorcists is to relieve suffering, to free souls from torment, to bring us closer to God."
Father Amorth has laughed and smiled a good deal during our three-hour discussion. He has pulled sundry rude faces to indicate his contempt for the pusillanimous bishops who have a monopoly on exorcism and refuse to license more practitioners. In his mouth it does not seem like mumbo-jumbo or hocus-pocus. He produces detailed case histories. He quotes scriptural chapter and verse to justify his actions. And he has a large following. His book, An Exorcist Tells his Story, has been reprinted in Italy 17 times.
An Interview with Fr Gabriele Amorth - The Church's Leading Exorcist
Posted by thdyck at April 6, 2004 | Comments (0)
Community theatre 450 km north of the Arctic Circle
Cool!
"Each night we have a late show with thrillers, which create a very special atmosphere under the arctic night sky," Ms Utsi says.
...
"This is a fantastic experience. You have a full moon, the very special Artic light, and you can hardly see where the cinema ends and the artic wilderness begins," audience member Per Ivar Jensen said.
BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Drive-in cinema is Norway's coolest
Posted by thdyck at April 6, 2004 | Comments (0)
April 5, 2004
Burning of the bread
I was not aware of this practice: Orthodox Jews burn all levened food as part of preparation for Passover. This would be a striking thing to do in a service.
BBC NEWS | In Pictures | Day in pictures
Posted by thdyck at April 5, 2004 | Comments (0)
BBC: Gao's deadly migrant trade
The Touareg sound like Fremen from Frank Herbert's Dune series.
The Malian town of Gao has been at the centre of cross-Sahara trade for hundreds of years.
In the 15th and 16th Centuries, it was the capital of the Songhai empire, which stretched from Senegal to Nigeria.
Gold, salt, dates and slaves used to be the most lucrative goods, taken in camel caravans across the desert by Touareg nomads, protected from the elements by the indigo turbans wrapped around their faces.
BBC NEWS | Africa | Gao's deadly migrant trade
Posted by thdyck at April 5, 2004 | Comments (0)
April 4, 2004
"A Softer World" by Joey Comeau and Emily Horne
An online strip that is brilliant and minimalist -- little jabs of meaning and color:
Posted by thdyck at April 4, 2004 | Comments (0)
April 3, 2004
Ute prayer for the coming of spring
Earth teach me stillness
as the grasses are stilled with light.
Earth teach me suffering
as old stones suffer with memory.
Earth teach me humility
as blossoms are humble with beginning.
Earth teach me caring
as the mother who secures her young.
Earth teach me courage
as the tree which stands all alone.
Earth teach me limitation
as the ant which crawls on the ground.
Earth teach me freedom
as the eagle which soars in the sky.
Earth teach me resignation
as the leaves which die in the fall.
Earth teach me regeneration
as the seed which rises in the spring.
Earth teach me to forget myself
as melted snow forgets its life.
Earth teach me to remember kindness
as dry fields weep with rain.
-- Ute Prayer
from Imaging the Word
Posted by thdyck at April 3, 2004 | Comments (0)
Wired: Apocalypse Now
Fascinating Wired story about a project to build a virtual temple over the Temple Mount. There's also a nice pictorial history of the Temple Mount.
He was inspired in part by a passage in the Midrash Rabbah, a collection of Torah analysis written more than 1,000 years ago, which says that the temple will descend fully built from heaven as a manifestation of light. It's a prophecy that many Jews have embraced because it suggests that only God can build the temple. But Hayutman found a loophole. He realized that another way to get a temple of light to descend from the heavens was to combine a blimp with hologram-producing lasers.
Posted by thdyck at April 3, 2004 | Comments (0)
April 2, 2004
Flâneur, a magazine about wandering
An intoxication comes over the man who walks long and aimlessly through the streets. With each step, the walk takes on greater momentum; ever weaker grow the temptations of shops, of bistros, of smiling women, ever more irresistible the magnetism of the next streetcorner, of a distant mass of foliage, of a street name.
-- Walter Benjamin
Posted by thdyck at April 2, 2004 | Comments (0)