The Lake Eyre basin stretches across 750,000 square miles of inland Australia, draining nearly a quarter of the continent’s land mass. During the rare rainy season, Lake Eyre fills with water; the rest of the time, its lake bed forms a vast salt flat the size of Holland.
I am sitting in a room different from the one you are in now. I am recording the sound of my speaking voice and I am going to play it back into the room again and again until the resonant frequencies of the room reinforce themselves so that any semblance of my speech, with perhaps the exception of rhythm, is destroyed. What you will hear, then, are the natural resonant frequencies of the room articulated by speech. I regard this activity not so much as a demonstration of a physical fact, but, more as a way to smooth out any irregularities my speech might have.
This performance piece, by Alvin Lucier, was regularly played on KBVR, Oregon State's student radio station, when I was an undergraduate. The text above was read, then replayed and recorded, then that recording replayed and recorded, and so on, over and over, ultimately becoming a series of squeals and hoots. You can hear an mp3 of the original recording here, though I don't think that was the one I was accustomed to. Here's a YouTube clip that sounds more like the version I recall, but I do remember the original as being something like 15-20 minutes; this one is 8:21.
It's odd, and you may not want to sit through the whole thing. It's not intended to be aesthetically pleasing, but I did, and do, find it fascinating and thought-provoking.
So what? If an admittedly unpleasing demonstration of resonant frequencies isn't your cup of tea, so what? Well, as with so many things in this age of lightning-speed data, there's a remake...
That's the original.
I am sitting in a room different from the one you are in now. I am recording the sound of my speaking voice as well as the image of myself, and I am going to upload it to YouTube, rip it from YouTube, and upload it again and again, until the original characteristics of both my voice and my image are destroyed. What you will see and hear, then, are the artifacts inherent in the video codec of both YouTube and the mp4 format I convert it to on my computer. I regard this activity not so much as a demonstration of a digital fact, but more as a way to eliminate all human qualities my speech and image might have.
Here's number 56:
Number 168:
Turn down the sound... number 1000 is really ugly.
As I said, this isn't intended to be "pretty," but it is fascinating to me. If you're curious, it looks as if all 1000 iterations have been posted.
but the pictures at Dark Roasted Blend today are very nice, nevertheless.First, I wouldn't call those striations; the bedding is being clarified as the result of differential weathering and erosion. Second, striations (meaning scratches) are not necessarily caused by glaciers, wind or waves. Third, these canyons are not "fed by the Colorado River." They're tributaries of that river, meaning they flow into it, not vice-versa.
In 1507, German cartographer Martin Waldseemueller named a huge land mass in the Western Hemisphere “America,” in honor of Italian navigator Amerigo Vespucci.
Apparently, this is a big day in the history of navigation. From the same link,
In 1859, ground was broken for the Suez Canal.
In 1959, the St. Lawrence Seaway opened to shipping.
In 1513 Waldseemüller appears to have had second thoughts about the name, probably due to contemporary protests about Vespucci’s role in the discovery and naming of America, or just carefully waiting for the official discovery of the whole northwestern coast of what is now called North America, as separated from East Asia. In his reworking of the Ptolemy atlas, the continent is labelled simply Terra Incognita (unknown land). Despite the revision, 1,000 copies of the world maps had since been distributed, and the original suggestion took hold. While North America was still called Indies in documents for some time, it was eventually called America as well.
I've always been a little curious about how these two continents came to be known as America, rather than Columbia. I mean, I knew where the name came from, but why didn't he choose the actual discoverer as the eponym, rather than a second explorer and writer? According to the excerpt below, the decision was made because it was Vespucci's observations, not those of Columbus, that made it clear this was an entirely new land:
Apparently among most map-makers until that time, it was still erroneously believed that the lands discovered by Christopher Columbus, Vespucci, and others formed part of the Indies of Asia. Thus some believe that it is impossible that Waldseemüller could have known about the Pacific, which is depicted on his map. The historian Peter Whitfield has theorized that Waldseemüller incorporated the ocean into his map because Vespucci's accounts of the Americas, with their so-called "savage" peoples, could not be reconciled with contemporary knowledge of India, China, and the islands of Indies. Thus, Waldseemüller reasoned, the newly discovered lands could not be part of Asia, but must be separate from it, a leap of intuition that was later proved uncannily precise.
Also from Wikipedia, the above is apparently the chart under discussion. I love old maps, but the full size image is ginormous, 13,708 × 7,590 pixels, file size: 19.65 MB, and my computer basically choked on it. Below is a crop (from the same page as above) showing our part of the world getting named.
I don't recall whether I got around to posting this video when I first saw it. I meant to, but there are far more blog-worthy things I come across than I actually get to. At any rate, if this is a repeat, apologies; if not, it's a fun clip of zebra finches playing guitars.
I'm curious if the birds learn to make an association between the instruments and the noise that's produced, but the reason I bring this up is that there was a fun story at The Guardian yesterday on the unfolding events at this exhibit: one of the finches laid an egg on a guitar. "The day an egg stopped the rock-chick show. The Barbican's new exhibition features birds playing musical instruments – which leads to the occasional unexpected drama." I read it, then marked it as unread, half thinking I might write a bit about it, but not really wanting to bother seeing if I'd posted the clip before. Then this morning one of the bloggers I follow, Bing McGhandi at Happy Jihad's House of Pancakes, stuck it up, making it easy, and really, unavoidable.
And you thought this post was going to be about the upcoming film, "The Runaways," didn't you? No. I would never refer to Joan Jett as a "chick."
Krista Huot: "Four Unicorns of the Apocalypse" 2009, via Phantasmaphile. This is one of quite a few paintings in a show that will open at Gallery 1988 in San Francisco tomorrow (January 9), and be on display until January 30. Unlike about half the others, this one hasn't been bought yet. Out of my price range, but I like the simplicity and humor of this. Ms. Huot's website is here; I haven't looked through it thoroughly yet, but there are lots of paintings there.
Dark Roasted Blend has a gallery of terrific renderings of recently discovered crocodiles via National Geographic. I have been less than impressed with NatGeo's science reporting over the last few years; they seem too eager to jump on sensationalist reporting, and sometimes don't vet their research and sources well. Nevertheless, their imagery is, as always, very impressive. Just take the veracity with a grain of salt.Another recent post at Dark Roasted Blend features some photos of magnificent science glass work created by a couple from 1887 to 1936 for a Harvard botany professor who wanted to show what plants actually looked like, rather than dead, faded, dried, and flat specimens. Yes, you read that right: the above are glass!Later in the same post as the glass plants is this photo of street art from Russia. I can't help but think of Night of the Lepus... (If unfamiliar, you can see some clips from this enjoyably awful movie here.)Finally, today's Big Picture features a selection of 24 shots from 100 photos on 100 consecutive days from Glacier National Park, compiled to commemorate the park's upcoming centennial anniversary. There is also a link there to the full gallery, but I haven't looked at that yet.
And blow it to pieces. It would be messy for a while, and random poofs would appear on Earth as pieces hit the ground. Yeah, some people would die, and it would basically put an end to the space program. But it would so totally be worth it, don't you think?
I haven't picked up a copy of Mad magazine in many years. I loved it when I was young, but sort of lost interest during college. That said, their "20 Stupidest People" issue, which was supposed to hit the stands Tuesday, looks terrific. Coming in at 18th place (18th? srsly?) is Sarah Palin. Hot on the heels of the Newsweek scandal, rampant sexism raises its ugly head again. Comics Alliance posted this picture more than a week ago: (click for fool size) Michael Jackson is ranked first. Now I think he was crazy, and the style of music for which is famous isn't my cup of tea, but in the stupid department, Palin so outclasses him that I have to wonder about Mad's ranking system. But I do love the picture, again via Comics Alliance. I'm betting you can figure out how to see this in glorious full-size.
From Regretsy. The last frame is an actual product for sale (only $50.00). What? You don't recognize The Artist formerly known still known as Prince? (He is still called Prince isn't he?) The whole series is Helen Killer's mathematical summary of how one gets to that last frame.
The Telegraph has a mind-blowing gallery of Lego sculptures. The artist, Nathan Sawaya, quit a job with a "six-figure salary" (keep in mind this is a London Paper; in Pounds Sterling, that's a minimum of 150 K USD), and sells these for thousands of dollars apiece. Looking through the photos, I personally wouldn't buy them- I can't afford that kind of money, and I have no place to put them that would do them justice- but they're totally worth it.
MC Escher + Animation = Mesmination? I have probably spent ten minutes or more watching this loop this afternoon. From Julia Segal's Tumblr, Skull Swap. In other news, fellow geoblogger Silver Fox stopped by my favorite coffee shop for a couple of hours this morning and early afternoon. It was a pleasure to chat for a while, and I felt kind of honored that she made the effort to drive out of her way during her trek from Nevada to Portland for the GSA Convention. Hope the final leg worked out OK, Silver!
According to Kottke, "Each frame of this 19th century film by the Lumière brothers was hand-colored to create an early color moving picture." I presume that the coloring was done at the time, and that the narration, which I can't understand, was more recent. Whatever the case, this is facsinating and beautiful, in addition to being the oldest film clip I've ever knowingly seen.
Okay... the artwork Beck refers to was done in the 30's, at the height of the great depression. WWII hadn't even really started yet (though it was developing), and the cold war was 20 years away. The painting he refers to during the latter part was initially papered over, then ultimately destroyed because Nelson Rockefeller disliked the communist iconography. The illustration Beck is using is a recreation from photos that resides in Mexico. The symbolism Beck repeatedly invokes has been used widely in many cultures and economic systems. To argue that the Rockefeller was a communist would be like arguing that Hitler was a humanitarian... it's like rubbing pecans on your genitals: effing nuts. Many, many of my relatives had hammers and sickles. I own several hammers. None of us are communists.
Crap. There's no point in arguing with a madman. Neither of you will convince the other, and he enjoys it.
Actually, I'll bet there are many people who study fluid dynamics who would argue vehemently that this is not pointless. OK, I'll grant that. To me, the coolness factor alone is enough to make it not pointless. I'm still not changing the title. So sue me. But watch the clip first.
On July 29 of 2008, Vanity Fair posted the following caricature of shrub: Over the last 24 hours, this similar take on Obama has gone viral... though actually, tracking it down, it turns out it's actually been around at least since late April. But memes go viral on their own schedule; the fact the picture has been around for months is not really a surprise to me. Haw Haw! Those nutters are so funny! I just wish they'd bother to look up the definition of "socialism."
As an aside, I don't see the reaction to this as "racist" as being terribly valid; it's just stupid. As another article pointed out, The Joker was an anarchist reacting to an overly strong (socialist?) government. In fairness, most of the wingnutty metaphors and images attempt to get racist symbolism involved. I just feel in this case, it's not an issue that jumps out at me any more than it does in the first Joker picture above.
All this reminds me of an article ten years ago, I believe in George Magazine, that had a profile of then-candidate W. It was that article that convinced me he was a very dangerous person. I don't remember much in the way of detail, but the quote that has always stuck in my head was this one: "If a fresh idea wanted to cross George W. Bush's mind, it would have to carry two canteens."
Guess that's true for fresh, original ideas and the whole right wing's minds as well.
...coffee, coffee, coffee... I like coffee, do you like coffee, let's get some coffee, what shall we do with the coffee, let's get some more coffee... The Mocha Lisa, in Sydney, Australia. The above is from SFGate, and I found another at DemocraticUnderground:
Rob Griffith /AP
I tried to find a story on the inspiration and creation of this wonderful, tongue-in-cheek artwork with no luck, but I did come across a link to a delightfully named coffee shop in Racine Wisconsin, also called the Mocha Lisa. To my fellow caffeine freaks in the northern midwest, greetings from Outside the Interzone. Ilikecoffee,doyoulikecoffee,let'sgetsomecoffee...
The NYT has an article and video clip promo for photographer Murray Fredericks' trekking about on Australia's Lake Eyre:
And continuing to promote astronomy with excellent geology, APOD today shows hills eroded from layered deposits on Mars
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