I’ve either witnessed or participated in a few intriguing discussions about light in recent days.
Dr. Demetria Shabazz analyzes the built-in ideology of television technology that, as one example, uses fleshtone as the standard for establishing the light spectrum while filming. The producers don’t start from any fleshtone, however. Instead, the industry has chosen those in the orange/red zone, not … Read more...
Category: the earth
What Trees Dream of
This one thinks, let me be the slender bow
of the violin. Another, the body of the instrument,
burnished, the color of amber.
One imagines life as a narrow boat
crossing water,
a light mist of salt on the prow.
And still another &emdash; planed down to planks,
then hammered into shelter
toices vibrating through the rafters.
We do not … Read more...
the Carrizo plain (earth)
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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A stunning picture by Frank Kee http://www.keesphotos.com, March 2005
The east side of the Carrizo plain, in the Temblor
Range, about 50 miles due west of Bakersfield,
California. via email from that Evil Kachina… Read more...
film festivals and politics
One of my students is soaking up Cannes and Al Gore (!) is making waves at Sundance. Funny, as Cole just asked who might run for President on the Democratic side…Hillary of course, I read about a Senator from Virginia whose name I forgot, and I mentioned that Gore might try again. It’s a new campaign style: provide serious … Read more...
powers of ten
Here’s another item I’m sure I’ve posted before but obviously didn’t catalog or code correctly for later retrieval. At any rate, I saw this short video on the powers of ten when I interpreted a science class some years back for upper elementary school students (possibly fifth-graders). I find it a useful metaphor for this notion of social metonymy that … Read more...
The Telegarden
Now, this must have been a really cool way to learn about and/or experiment with biology: . It was hosted for awhile by the Ars Electronica, which is by far and away the niftiest website I’ve come across to date. It doesn’t seem like one can get in as a guest anymore, but maybe that’s just my bad luck … Read more...
cross-species bonding
Don sent me news of this baby hippotamus who seems to have been adopted by an ancient male tortoise.
Pictures.
The original news story seems to have vanished … or one needs a subscription to get it. The next post, “confessions”, includes the text of a Reuter’s release, and Urban Legends reports the status of this story as … Read more...
PRO LAGO GUATEMALAN RELIEF
Update on casualties and damage in Guatemala from PRENSA LIBRE of October 11 and 12 provided some information on the extent of the damage country-wide as of last week:
657 muertos (people dead – note that these figures include 169 people
killed in the total destruction of the Santiago Atitlan village of
Panabaj through a mudslide).
99 heridos (people hurt)… Read more...
Shemaya does her part
Lately I’ve been just scanning the NYTimes headlines. The big picture is so grim. 🙁 And then there are these individuals working so hard on specific, tangible, real and practical issues, such as the Connecticut River “Source to Sea” Clean-Up effort being coordinated along its entire length. Shemaya’s taken up the Holyoke area’s “Source to Sea” event on Saturday, Oct … Read more...
My final note for today
My final note for today (I’m on a roll!) relates to my perennial interest in space: this from Esther (forwarded from someone else):
On August 27th the earth will make a CLOSE ENCOUNTER WITH MARS, apparently the closest in recorded history the two planets have ever come to each other.
“Never again in our lifetime will the Red Planet be … Read more...