Interesting stuff

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2013/05/05

The Art of Speigelman

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spiegelman_co-mix_poster

Art Spiegelman
Self Portrait with Maus Mask, 1989

It was a gorgeous day yesterday, and I went downtown with my wife and daughter (Cathy and Brynne), to — among other things — take a stroll through the Vancouver Art Gallery. The exhibit that intrigued me the most was Art Spiegelman’s CO-MIX: A Retrospective of Comics, Graphics and Scraps. The exhibit includes more than four hundred preparatory drawings, studies, detailed drawings, sketches, et cetera, with connections to his early 1970s work in underground ‘comix’ (under the leadership of Robert Crumb), his award-winning Maus, and some newer works.

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I was amazed at the extent of Spiegelman’s high-quality output, and with the variety of style, subject, and composition. It was particularly interesting to see the process from scraps, through sketches with notes, studies, detailed drawings and, finally, the finished work. It was also nice to see some of the imperfections in his work; the kind of thing that is sanitized for public consumption — I rather like the slight smudges, et cetera: they add an essential layer of reality.

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It was also an eye-opener to see the detail, depth, and quality of the Maus compositions: the product available in book form doesn’t do the work justice.

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If you have a chance to see the show in Vancouver, or if it comes to a city near you in the future, I highly recommend a trip to view the works; particularly if you have any intention of becoming an illustrator, graphic artist, writing your own graphic novel, or if you just enjoy the art form; especially, of course, if you are a fan of Art Spiegelman.

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2013/04/29

Where in the world is the North Pole?

Posted by db johnston under almost falling, Interesting stuff | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , |
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http://www.physics.hku.hk

physics.hku.hk

It’s not like I was planning a vacation (but you never know); I was just curious, and decided to find out exactly where on the planet the North Pole is. The answer wasn’t as easy as I thought…

As a matter of fact, there are several ‘North Poles’ (the following is somewhat ‘borrowed’ from a Scientific American article…):

  • North Pole, Alaska. This town isn’t close to any of the other North Poles in this post, but the town gets a lot of mail just prior to Christmas every year.
  • Geographic North Pole, the point where all the lines of longitude of a map meet: known as true north to cartographers.
  • Celestial North Pole, a whimsical point that is defined by extrapolating the Earth’s axis of rotation into the heavens. If we imagine the celestial North Pole as a hub, the universe of stars — the celestial sphere — rotates around it. This is an important point for the set-up of sundials (Polaris — the North Star — is located surprisingly close to the Celestial North Pole).
  • Instantaneous North Pole, where the Earth’s rotational axis meets its surface. The instantaneous North Pole is not a fixed point: it whirls in an erratic, spiral dance called the Chandler wobble (i.e.: the Earth wobbles, as discovered in 1891 by Seth Carlo Chandler).
  • The North Pole of Balance is defined as the center-point of the Chandler wobble (see above).
  • Magnetic North Pole, where the Earth’s magnetic field is vertical (also called ‘the magnetic dip pole’: if you stand at this point, a compass needle will try to point (dip) straight down). Similarly to the instantaneous North Pole, the magnetic North Pole is not a static point; it moves as much as fifty kilometers per year. Currently, the magnetic North Pole is moving from northern Canada toward Siberia. And, to be factual, the magnetic North Pole is somewhat of a misnomer because it actually behaves like the south pole of a magnet (by definition, a magnet’s flux lines describe a vector away from the north pole and toward the south pole: the opposite of Earth’s north/south pole magnetic field vectors).
  • Geomagnetic North Pole is an attempt to treat the complexity of Earth’s magnetic field as a dipole bar magnet. Geomagnetic north is of little use to navigators — magnetic north is much more useful — but if you happen to be a space physicist, geomagnetic north might interest you because the further you travel from our planet the more it approximates the characteristics of a dipole bar magnet.

In summary, I have no idea which North Pole Santa calls home; also, if you’re planning a trip to the North Pole, you’d best decide which one you want to arrive at before setting out.

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2013/04/25

The QWERTY Keyboard

Posted by db johnston under History, Interesting stuff | Tags: , , , , , , , , |
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From the top left hand corner of the keyboard, the first six letters are almost invariably QWERTY.  Why is that, and how did the QWERTY keyboard become so popular?

Sholes and Glidden 1874

In 1868, an American Mechanical Engineer, Christopher Latham Sholes, produced a type-writer that had letters arranged in alphabetical order; unfortunately, among the design problems was the fact that if a typist worked too quickly, keys would jam together and slow the typist down (for those unfamiliar with the mechanical type-writer, it has arms, called keybars, with letters on the end. The keybars were raised to strike the printing surface when the corresponding key was pressed. The keybars became tangled if a typist hit two adjacent keys in quick succession). Sholes, with the assistance of his friends Carlos Glidden and Samuel W. Soulé (and probably educator Amos Densmore, who studied letter-pair frequency), redesigned the type-writer with the current QWERTY layout that survives today (it is a common misconception that the QWERTY design was meant to slow down typists so the ‘jams’ would not occur; rather, it was an attempt to prevent jams and accelerate a typist’s speed).  

Sholes was not an efficient businessman, or marketer, and sold the rights to the invention to James Densmore, a banker (and brother of Amos Densmore). James Densmore partnered with Philo Remington (of rifle manufacturing fame) to market and manufacture the type-writer. In 1877, the very first Sholes & Glidden Typewriter was available to the market, but it took engineers at Remington a few years to create a design that appealed to the masses; after the engineer’s tweeks, sales increased dramatically.  

There were competitors, with different layout configurations, but Remington had an ace up their sleeve…

They had an ace typist, Frank McGurrin, probably the first touch typist. He won several crucial typing contests, which were commonplace competitions in the late 1880s. In particular, McGurrin won a prestigious Cincinnati typing contest in 1888. The New York Times declared that the victory made it clear that the Remington machine was superior. And so the age of the QWERTY keyboard began…

Since then, there has been opposition to the QWERTY design, most notably due to the research of Frank Gilbreth, which eventually led to August Dvorak’s design. In the 1920s, Gilbreth, an Industrial Engineer, carried out time and motion studies and declared that alternate design layouts could not only increase speed, but reduce errors and fatigue. In the 1930s, Dvorak (along with colleagues at the University of Washington) designed a new keyboard layout, based on Gilbreth’s research; and, in 1936, the Dvorak Simplified Keyboard was patented, and Dvorak claimed it provided a scientifically proven, enhanced performance over the QWERTY design. Dvorak’s scientific methods have been seriously questioned, but he managed to convince the US Navy to order thousands of typewriters; regrettably (for Dvorak), the Treasury Department refused to complete the transaction (there was a Navy study that demonstrated the superiority of the Dvorak machine, but the experimental set-up and statistical analysis was unsound; furthermore, it was later revealed (by Sholes biographer, Arthur Foulke) that the author of the report was none other than Lieutenant Commander August Dvorak).

There have been some studies that indicate that Dvorak’s design may increase typing speed, but the layout hasn’t gained much momentum in the modern world.

 The ubiquity of the QWERTY keyboard, and the infrastructure surrounding the design (instruction infrastructure (instructors, facilities, books, software…), touch-typists already trained, manufacturing facility set-up, etcetera) dictate that the QWERTY keyboard will survive, unchallenged, until keyboards are replaced with an alternate technology (voice recognition, gesture recognition and motion sensing technology, or others (thought recognition?)).

 Long live QWERTY!

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For more information:

The Fable of the Keys, by S.J. Liebowitz and Stephen E. Margolis

QWERTY at Wikipedia

CBC Radio Spark

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2013/04/03

“If you can’t fix it, you don’t own it”

Posted by db johnston under Interesting stuff | Tags: , , , , , , |
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I happened upon an interesting website called iFixit that provides user manuals for repairing household appliances and electronic devices (this post’s title is from their Self-Repair Manifesto).

The next time something breaks (or, before you buy a gadget and want to know how easy it is to repair it or replace its battery) check out the site: it’s free, and there are step-by-step instructions and photos to guide you through the repair process. If something breaks, instead of buying a new one, try repairing your old one!

And, if you possess specific knowledge about repairing a device, you can share your expertise through the site.

The goal of Luke and Kyle (the website’s creators) is to help ‘fix the world’ by providing repair manuals for any hardware you can think of.

What an excellent idea!

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2013/03/01

Zira Island

Posted by db johnston under Current events, Interesting stuff | Tags: , , , , , |
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While wandering through the digital world, I came across an interesting architectural project by a Denmark firm, Bjarke Ingles Group (BIG). The architectural design is based on the seven peaks of Azerbaijan and the project was imagined by Avrositi Holding, based in Baku, Azerbaijan, with the goal being to set a new standard for luxury and sustainable living by creating a carbon-neutral eco-island with low-end resource usage that is independent of external resources.

Zira Island (aka Nargin) is the largest island in the Baku Archipelago, which separates the Bay of Baku from the Caspian Sea. The surrounding region is highly dependent on oil, but the projected development on the island will use alternate, renewable resources. Heat pumps, submerged in the Caspian Sea, will heat and cool buildings; Solar Hot Water Collectors, integrated into the buildings’ design, will provide hot water; photovoltaic cells, installed on facades and rooftops, will generate electricity; and off-shore wind farms,  positioned on existing oil platforms, will provide additional, sustainable electrical power. Desalination plants will provide potable water, and waste water will be collected, treated, and recycled for irrigation. Solid waste will be composted and recycled as fertilizer.

I’m not a proponent of luxury complexes, but at least this development is environmentally viable. I think the Zira Island project is a step in the right direction.

For more information:

Bjarke Ingles Group

Avrositi Holding

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2013/01/16

The Landfill Harmonic

Posted by db johnston under almost falling, Current events, Interesting stuff, Music | Tags: , , , , , |
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There is a dump in Cateura, Paraguay that receives over fifteen-hundred tons of waste every day. The dump site is home to twenty-five hundred inhabitants, most of whom — children included — sort the garbage for the recycling industry.

An ecological technician, Favio Chavez, wanted to teach music to the children of the community; his only problem was the cost of instruments: a violin is worth more than a house in the area. Then he came up with a brilliant idea: he reworked recycled materials from the dump into instruments. The children have formed The Recycled Orchestra, and a documentary is being prepared, which will be called Landfill Harmonic, to be aired sometime this year.

For more information, check out their Facebook page

Also, check out the trailer video below

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2013/01/08

The Olm

Posted by db johnston under Images, Interesting stuff | Tags: , , , , , , |
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The Olm (Order: Caudata, Family: Proteidae)

olm

Photo: EDGE of Existence
(http://www.edgeofexistence.org)

The olm are cave dwelling, aquatic vertebrates that have descended from an ancient branch of salamanders: they have evolved independently for one-hundred-and-ninety million years (since the early Jurassic period, in the era of the dinosaurs), but they are now a threatened species due to pollution and loss of habitat.

The olm prefer underground water systems that are calm, well-oxygenated, and maintain a constant, year-round temperature  of 6-12°C. The creatures have found a niche in the underground caves of the Dinaric Alps in north-eastern Italy and Boznia and Herzegovina. They are social animals, and populations have been discovered close to ground-level and as deep as three-hundred meters beneath the surface.

Olm do not metamorphose like most other salamanders; they maintain their larval characteristics throughout their aquatic existence: their eyelids never grow in, and they retain feathery gills and a tail fin.  They are pale creatures with skin-covered eyes; they cannot see objects, but their eyes are light sensitive. They hunt in pitch-darkness, using enhanced senses of smell, taste, hearing, and an additional faculty of electrosensitivity (recently, it has been suggested that the olm may also use the Earth’s magnetic field for orientation).

Olm are capable of consuming excessive quantities of nutrients for storage as fats and sugars in their liver; and, when food is in short supply, they can reduce their metabolism.  If sustenance is unavailable for a prolonged period, they are able to reabsorb their own tissues. They can live for ten years without food.

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2012/12/11

Derek Amato’s Acquired Savant Syndrome

Posted by db johnston under almost falling, Current events, Interesting stuff, Music | Tags: , , , , , |
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Derek Amato is one of about thirty people in the world with Acquired Savant Syndrome, which spontaneously bestows profound abilities to individuals who have suffered head trauma.

Derek dove into a shallow pool and ended up in the hospital with a severe concussion. As a consequence of the accident, he suffered a thirty-five percent loss in hearing, memory difficulties, and issues with over-stimulation of his mind. But he gained some qualities as well…

When Derek was released from the hospital he visited a friend who is a guitarist. Derek had dabbled in guitar playing, but was never proficient: he watched his friend play, but Derek’s hands began to twitch and he had a curious impulse to play the keyboard, which was also in the room. He sat at the keyboard and — even though he’d never had a piano lesson, couldn’t read music, and had never played the keyboard — he began to play a classical-type composition that he saw as flickering black and white squares in his mind. He played for hours into the night; apprehensive, but feeling as though a spiritual channel had arisen.

He has since been diagnosed with Acquired Musical Savant Syndrome (the only documented case known) and a form of Syneteshia, a neurological condition in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway.

After absorbing the remarkable phenomenon of this story, it occurs to me that the human mind is a far more complex organ than we imagine.

Check out the video below for more on this intriguing story, including Derek playing some of his music:

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2012/12/10

The Dumbo Octopus

Posted by db johnston under Images, Interesting stuff | Tags: , , , , |
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The Dumbo Octopus (genus Grimotheuthis) — named after the famed Disney elephant — has ear-like fins that are used for propulsion through the water. They also use water-jet propulsion and swim with a rhythmic thrust of their arms, like other octopods, but flapping their ear-fins seems to be a favoured form of propulsion.

Not a lot is known about this rarest of the Octopoda species. They have been found as shallow as 400 meters below the surface, but are most commonly found at depths of 3,000 to 4,000 meters. One species was discovered at a depth of seven thousand meters, deeper than any other known octopus. They hover above the ocean floor and feed on worms, molluscs and crustaceans; but, unlike other octopods, they swallow prey whole because they have no radula (a tongue with teeth on it).

The male has an adapted section on one arm that is probably used to convey spermatosphores into the female.

I wonder how many unknown, strange creatures lurk in the dark depths…

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2012/12/07

Muse: the brainwave sensing headband

Posted by db johnston under almost falling, Current events, Interesting stuff | Tags: , , , , , , |
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InteraXon_headbandHave you ever wanted to control objects with only your thoughts?

A company called InteraXon claims they have invented a device that will eventually “let you do more with your mind than you ever thought possible.”

Their product — Muse — is a brainwave-sensing headband; in their words, a comfortable, sleek four-sensor headband (to me, it looks like something from a bad science fiction movie, but I’m not exactly a fashion plate, so you should make your own determination).

InteraXon claims that their device will facilitate self-improvement in your brain activity. Muse measures your brainwaves and sends them to your smart phone or tablet and you can instantly gauge your brain’s effectiveness; for example, you can see if you are creating gentle, meditative, low-frequency alpha waves, or the intense, jagged peaks of ultra-creative beta waves. In this way, they claim, you will be able to improve your brain’s operation.

InteraXon is planning to enable brainwaves to control devices in the real world; devices that will respond to your thoughts. The Muse headband connects wirelessly, using Bluetooth, and will translate your brainwaves into directions to control your electronic devices, apps, and games.

InteraXon has an account on Indiegogo, hoping to raise the funds necessary to deliver brain-controlled computing to the masses.

Early-birds can get their hands on a Muse headband for a pledge of $135. For more information, check out the video on their website.

I suppose I’m just a bit paranoid, imagining the worst, but I’m slightly concerned about my brainwaves — my thoughts — being captured digitally and possibly re-used and manipulated: it gives me a bad case of the willies.

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