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26 April 2012
22 April 2012
round one
Far-right got 20% (I'm very doubtful about future of France)
Right got 26%
Far left 13%
Moderate left 29%
Perhaps, only good news is that Sarkozy will go away.
It never ceases to amaze me that when neo-liberal policies fail, far-right gets even higher votes. This happened in almost every country after financial crisis. I'm not sure how to analyze this. Perhaps, media is so effective that people really buy the bullshit they are selling?
How do people analyze the shift into even further right just after financial crisis? You know, my common sense told me that people would move further to left but only opposite happened, and I really don't know how to correctly analyze that.
18 April 2012
Lucas Simões
retrofit
I see this. Its pretty, kinda cool looking, gives a nice skyline, but overall I think there's a lot of 'wasted potential' (good thing buildings don't have feelings). Rooftop space could be converted, relatively cheaply into a green roof. The side of the building is wasted space, maybe for solar panels. Even a skyscraper's most inherent characteristic, its height, could be put to work (in this case, at a much larger scale). All of this is known and acknowledged, but then why isn't it happening?
problem: combating the urban heat island effect
- ? -
"Open spaces and undisturbed land have given way to buildings and roads. Sealed with concrete and asphalt, these surfaces no longer allow water to infiltrate the ground. Dark rooftops and pavement absorb and store energy from the sun during the day and reflect it at night."
REDEFINE THE ROOF
In the urban setting, where land is sold by the square foot (sqft) rather than by the acre, space is becoming a very valuable commodity. To deal with public goods, we cannot divest ourselves to private interests, as the tragedy of the commons has proven time and time again.
Rather, we should look to the root causes of the problem, in order to find practical solutions.
One way is to re-explore the roof. Traditionally, the roof has been seen as a necessity, rather than as a tool. Arguably more than the wall, it is the most integral part of any building, as it provides shelter from weather and shade from sun.
Criteria (1) is that it continue to provide these functions, while (2) doing so in a way that mitigates the adverse effects of impervious land cover and the problems associated with thermal storage (heat island effect).
iNtensive (N): Up to or more than a foot of soil. Pro (+) : can sustain larger plant coverings, greater capacity to store water, greater insulation properties. Con (-) : Heavy (from 80 to 150 pounds per square foot [lbs/sf]), requires a lot of maintenance.
eXtensive (X): Less than a foot of soil. Pro (+) : lighter at about 40 lbs/sf, less maintenance. Con (-) : less capacity to store and clean water, lesser insulation properties, can only sustain small vegetation.
Arguably, if you are already going to use the resources and know how to retrofit your roof, you might as well create type N, given that the building's structural specifications can hold the heavier load.
The benefits, however minute, of vegetation vastly outweigh the costs of installation. This is especially true in an urban setting, where due to near 99% impervious land coverage, dealing with storm runoff has increasingly proven to be a challenge. Plants provide an adequate solution, in how they can metabolise the water into more plant growth.
Note: A green roof makes no sense in Kuwait or Las Vegas, because water is especially precious in the desert. Conservation and preservation of water as our most coveted resource should be the priority driving design in those regions.
For example: the Southwestern United States gets an average rainfall of less then (< 5) five centimeters a year. Evapotranspirative potential (the sum of the water the sun can evaporate and that plants can metabolize) is between (5 < 2) two and five meters per year. Water is precious, make no mistake about it.
17 April 2012
15 April 2012
Yoshitoshi
My thoughts:
A giant spider that lives in the ground. He leaps out to snatch you to his lair and then devour you there.
A precursor to Shelob?
This reminds me of a conversation I had with my Mum recently. We had just finished watching the Lord of the Rings (albeit for her bridled attention span I had shortened the movie to the essentials), and she said,
"This is the problem I had with any book to movie transformation. It can't capture the vividness and emotionality I can experience from reading the book"
Its true, in terms of expressive fluidity, no technology can come even come close to the imagination's potential for complete immersion. There's this point in that transition from partial to total enthralment , where the story stops being yours.
As they say, too much of a good thing is a bad thing.
Note that although his sword is half drawn, the spider's net is already fast closing; though armed, the swordsman is doomed.
14 April 2012
12 April 2012
Better Dead Than Red
This is so disturbing:
______________
Until the mid-1960s, American population control programs, both at home and abroad, were largely funded and implemented by private organizations such as the Population Council and Planned Parenthood — groups with deep roots in the eugenics movement. While disposing of millions of dollars provided to them by the Rockefeller, Ford, and Milbank Foundations, among others, the resources available to support their work were meager in comparison with their vast ambitions. This situation changed radically in the mid-1960s, when the U.S. Congress, responding to the agitation of overpopulation ideologues, finally appropriated federal funds to underwrite first domestic and then foreign population control programs. Suddenly, instead of mere millions, there were hundreds of millions and eventually billions of dollars available to fund global campaigns of mass abortion and forced sterilization. The result would be human catastrophe on a worldwide scale.
Among the first to be targeted were America’s own Third World population at home — the native American Indians. Starting in 1966, Secretary of the Interior Stuart Udall began to make use of newly available Medicaid money to set up sterilization programs at federally funded Indian Health Services (IHS) hospitals.
...
Accordingly, ideologues at some of the highest levels of power and influence formulated a party line that the population of the world’s poor nations needed to be drastically cut in order to reduce the potential recruitment pool available to the communist cause. President Lyndon Johnson was provided a fraudulent study by a RAND Corporation economist that used cooked calculations to “prove” that Third World children actually had negative economic value. Thus, by allowing excessive numbers of children to be born, Asian, African, and Latin American governments were deepening the poverty of their populations, while multiplying the masses of angry proletarians ready to be led against America by the organizers of the coming World Revolution.
________________________
more dream symbolism
When interpreting a dream about breathing underwater it is important to note that there are actually two prominent symbols that must be looked at--breathing and water.
As for the latter, no matter what form it takes--snow, sleet, ocean, lake, stream, rain--water in dreams usually stands in as a symbol for the emotions. Different water forms can help one identify what kind of emotional content is indicated but nonetheless water will usually mean some kind of emotion is coming to the forefront of the psyche.
Breathing, on the other hand, involves another element--the element of Air. Air in dreams is usually symbolic of the intellect and intellectual pursuits and endeavours.
Given that water is an emotional symbol and air an intellectual one, what does dreaming about having the ability to breathe underwater mean?
As mentioned, dreams of underwater breathing are almost always pleasurable and the reason for that is that there is a harmony in the dream--the emotions and intellect are in balance. Despite being underwater, which could mean one felt as if she were drowning or overwhelmed by the emotions, the dreamer is now at harmony with her surroundings and environment. She has tackled the hard work of treading water and seeking simple survival and has moved into a space where despite rough waters and emotionally turbulent times, she can still find the intellectual capacity to be in her emotions without becoming her emotions.
________________
read more!
As for the latter, no matter what form it takes--snow, sleet, ocean, lake, stream, rain--water in dreams usually stands in as a symbol for the emotions. Different water forms can help one identify what kind of emotional content is indicated but nonetheless water will usually mean some kind of emotion is coming to the forefront of the psyche.
Breathing, on the other hand, involves another element--the element of Air. Air in dreams is usually symbolic of the intellect and intellectual pursuits and endeavours.
Given that water is an emotional symbol and air an intellectual one, what does dreaming about having the ability to breathe underwater mean?
As mentioned, dreams of underwater breathing are almost always pleasurable and the reason for that is that there is a harmony in the dream--the emotions and intellect are in balance. Despite being underwater, which could mean one felt as if she were drowning or overwhelmed by the emotions, the dreamer is now at harmony with her surroundings and environment. She has tackled the hard work of treading water and seeking simple survival and has moved into a space where despite rough waters and emotionally turbulent times, she can still find the intellectual capacity to be in her emotions without becoming her emotions.
________________
read more!
11 April 2012
explanation
I feel my work here necessitates a few more words.
The process of changing one's mind is arduous, but its necessary because the alternative is a life of dullness and vacuity. Nobody wants that.
The name Underwater Ape symbolizes a renaissance, or rebirth.
The ape is me, a mere monkey.
Let me elaborate:
The good news is YOU can be a monkey too! The bad news is it takes work, so invariably, a few of you will abandon this quest. I'm sorry to already be constraining my dear readers, but I do find it necessary. So!
The first requirement is that you use your mind, which if you have read this far you clearly have already satisfied as a precondition. Humanity is just a term we apply from person to person; the mind is the characteristic that differentiates Einstein from lifeless brick.
The second is to accept the theory of evolution as a fundamental truth which defines our reality. I don't think this is incompatible with theistic worldviews (if you are so inclined). Accepting evolution means accepting past as past, and living firmly in your present.
To dream of being underwater is so symbolically complex. It is to relive the long nine months before your birth. It is also to abandon the security of the air above in order to explore the darkest depths. It is a return to our origins, as the first fishes who walked out of the sea. The pressure from below, as you remember to kick upwards towards the light, is the kind of experience I would like to provide to you as you read these posts.
Monkeys don't, normally, spend much (if any) time underwater. There's a bunch of reasons for this. We don't breathe underwater very well, that is unless technology, in the form of self contained underwater breathing apparatus (SCUBA) are concerned. Also the ocean is so much more wild than we can even imagine. We know more of space than we do of the deep oceans!
And make no mistake about it, the underwater is so dangerous! Sperm whales regularly dive to depths that even our most advanced submarines can't attain, and when they come back they have sucker marks and wounds that indicate there are potentially massive squid down there. In California, tentacles the size of school-buses regularly wash up on the beach.
Us monkeys, we don't take kindly to danger; we are creatures of comfort, but this sets us up for our failings. Those who refuse comfort, in constant search of this danger are history's greats. To live in danger, accepting it, and making more of yourself in spite of it. That is the essence of greatness. So call me Monkey or call me Ishmael, but set out and go in for it, whatever be your White Whale.
The process of changing one's mind is arduous, but its necessary because the alternative is a life of dullness and vacuity. Nobody wants that.
The name Underwater Ape symbolizes a renaissance, or rebirth.
The ape is me, a mere monkey.
Let me elaborate:
We are all just a bunch self-sustaining chemical reactions (hereby termed 'monkey') on a ball of mud (we call Earth) whirling about a nuclear explosion (the Sun, our star) millions of miles away. From our perspective this feels perfectly normal because it is all we have ever known. Whatever insanity you use to rationalize this madness is fine by me.
The good news is YOU can be a monkey too! The bad news is it takes work, so invariably, a few of you will abandon this quest. I'm sorry to already be constraining my dear readers, but I do find it necessary. So!
The first requirement is that you use your mind, which if you have read this far you clearly have already satisfied as a precondition. Humanity is just a term we apply from person to person; the mind is the characteristic that differentiates Einstein from lifeless brick.
The second is to accept the theory of evolution as a fundamental truth which defines our reality. I don't think this is incompatible with theistic worldviews (if you are so inclined). Accepting evolution means accepting past as past, and living firmly in your present.
To dream of being underwater is so symbolically complex. It is to relive the long nine months before your birth. It is also to abandon the security of the air above in order to explore the darkest depths. It is a return to our origins, as the first fishes who walked out of the sea. The pressure from below, as you remember to kick upwards towards the light, is the kind of experience I would like to provide to you as you read these posts.
Monkeys don't, normally, spend much (if any) time underwater. There's a bunch of reasons for this. We don't breathe underwater very well, that is unless technology, in the form of self contained underwater breathing apparatus (SCUBA) are concerned. Also the ocean is so much more wild than we can even imagine. We know more of space than we do of the deep oceans!
And make no mistake about it, the underwater is so dangerous! Sperm whales regularly dive to depths that even our most advanced submarines can't attain, and when they come back they have sucker marks and wounds that indicate there are potentially massive squid down there. In California, tentacles the size of school-buses regularly wash up on the beach.
Us monkeys, we don't take kindly to danger; we are creatures of comfort, but this sets us up for our failings. Those who refuse comfort, in constant search of this danger are history's greats. To live in danger, accepting it, and making more of yourself in spite of it. That is the essence of greatness. So call me Monkey or call me Ishmael, but set out and go in for it, whatever be your White Whale.
"why do we (as Americans) love sociopaths?"
My hypothesis is that the sociopaths we watch on TV allow us to indulge in a kind of thought experiment, based on the question: “What if I really and truly did not give a fuck about anyone?”
 |
| Tom Huck - The Transformation of Brandy Baghead (2007-2009) |
And the answer they provide? “Then I would be powerful and free.”
Yet as I understand it, real-life sociopaths are pitiable creatures indeed. Often victims of severe abuse, they are bereft of all human connection, unable to tell truth from lies, charming and manipulative for a few minutes at most but with no real ability to formulate meaningful goals. The contemporary fantasy of [the] sociopath picks and chooses from those characteristics, emphasizing the lack of moral intuition, human empathy, and emotional connection. Far from being the obstacles they would be in real life, these characteristics are what enable the fantasy sociopath to be so amazingly successful.
_________________
10 April 2012
09 April 2012
el bandido
05 April 2012
04 April 2012
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sent chills straight down my spine
Anyway, one day, I was walking to school, and in the midst of my dejection I saw some tulips. Purple, yellow, red, white. And I thought of how pretty they were. And of how, simply by thinking that thought, I had done something that hadn't hurt anyone. And I had the epiphany that I could fill myself with things that I liked that didn't hurt anyone. Sunsets. The feel of a breeze on my face.
And in that moment, my life changed. Like the ancient mariner, it was as though whatever curse under which I'd been living my entire life was broken.
02 April 2012
symbolically secular replacing the thoroughly theistic
I couldn't help but be blown away by the symbolism; this modern society which worships the written word of man. We are so imprudent so as to put this bookstore within the Cathedral, perhaps the ultimate house of God.
Perhaps a little sad, these last vestiges of antiquity being put to such secular use. I disagree though, better this than that they sit, gathering dust and losing friends and memories as time slips by. I especially can respect it when its done so elegantly; the modern architecture of the bookstore 'sits' inside the Cathedral, clearly respecting the boundary between its secular function and the theistic origins of its shell.
Perhaps a little sad, these last vestiges of antiquity being put to such secular use. I disagree though, better this than that they sit, gathering dust and losing friends and memories as time slips by. I especially can respect it when its done so elegantly; the modern architecture of the bookstore 'sits' inside the Cathedral, clearly respecting the boundary between its secular function and the theistic origins of its shell.
The saddest thing; this bookstore is going under from the pressure of shipping industry. When buying your newest novel is but a click away, why go to the lengths of walking to your bookstore and having to interact with a real person? Unless, of course, the bookstore was in as beautiful a locale as this.
There is talk of technology firms housing data centers and servers in unused portions of old buildings (like this one). It's sad, but I'd rather see a beautiful icon such as this Cathedral in Maastricht (its in the Netherlands) go to good use than be torn down by the developers and replaced by shitty condominiums.
I guess in this case, we can't have our cake and eat it too.
01 April 2012
UMWELT
the idea that "because their senses pick up on different nuances of the reality around them, animals within the same ecosystem actually inhabit very different worlds".
Everything shapes the worlds we live in; from the particular ideologies that you identify with, to the prescription of your eyeglasses.
No thing is objective; everything can be categorically rationalized, but only if and when we choose to think like this.
betray
That weird feeling that something isn't right. I've been taken advantage of, but when, who, where? and how?
Is this all in my head or am I in the RIGHT?
Is it morally justifiable to act, or is it better just to do nothing?
I don't know.
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