Piltdown Hoax

Happy Birthday Cheeta!

2007-04-24T16:46:00.000-04:00

I couldn't believe it when I heard that Cheeta is alive and well and is the oldest chimp ever! I grew up watching Tarzan, which was staple viewing on Sunday mornings in NYC. Moms would cook a full blown breakfast and I would spend the entire morning in the lotus postion in front of the tube watching the canon of popular American films. Tarzan, Abbott and Costello, Vincent Price/Edgar Allen Poe, Hope and Crosby road flicks...pure magic! To this day I sign any cards I give to my folks as "Boy"

(Photo Credit: Signed autograph from a monkey movie star originally posted by Max Sparber)

I am Sisyphys!

2007-03-22T13:02:00.000-04:00

("Sisyphus" originally uploaded by Vidiot)

Dear All,

My life as a nursing student has usurped all of the time that isn't otherwise devoted to my wife, child, and to my day job as a social justice grantmaker. My apologies for allowing The Piltdown to go silent this long. I will try to post more but as reality strikes I will probably continue to be lame until the Summer.

Peace,
Noel

Jay Wasco, Johnny Skilsaw, and the Swiss Army Bass!

2006-11-09T14:26:00.000-05:00

I came across this posting on Boing Boing about a wonderful place in Los Angeles called Apex Electronics that specializes in cool space-age electronics and other assorted flotsam and jetsam. It got me thinking about an old friend who to me epitomizes the Piltdown Hoax / hacker ethic. I first met Jay Wasco at Giant studios in NYC. Giant was a sprawling rehearsal space that started in the 80's but is mostly remembered in the 90's (at a different location) as it played host to some well-known (Black 47 and White Zombie) but mostly unknown bands (like every band I was in!) Jay had a "luxury suite" filled literally to the knees with wiring and audio equipment and of course his signature Swiss Army Bass. A keyboard screwed onto a bass that he played hammer-on style with one hand and the keys with the other (check out the YouTube performance more vids here). When I heard what came out of Jay that day, my jaw dropped. It was the kind of performance that makes you want to give up playing. Jay paid the bills by recording people's demos and my band, October’s March, quickly enlisted his talents. Jay was not only a musical wiz but an engineering one, the kind of guy who would salvage a massive 2-inch recording console and rebuild it just because he can. In addition to the SAB, he's also created a sideshow of freak instruments!

Soon after, he moved out of Giant and into a small loft space in the garment district. OM spent an entire year recording our three-song-demo with Jay, not just because we were overindulgent (we were), nor because Jay was so inexpensive (will engineer for food!), but because we loved hanging out there (even with his ancient, decrepid cat!) Jay's band Johnny Skilsaw was a popular local band that featured the sonic assault that is Jay and the incredible drumming of the late Nick DiCorato. Nick was a great guy and his story is a heartbreaking one but thankfully his work is available to be appreciated. My band played one gig with JS but we mostly attended their gigs where, because their setup was so elaborate, we were cajoled into roadie work. The best time we ever roadied for them was on their incredible gig as part of the evening's entertainment at legendary producer Jack Douglas' wedding. It was held at the Hammerstein Ballroom and featured members of Aerosmith! That was a great night!

JS was a ferociously loud band. Where most concert goers belly up to the stage, the crowd at a JS show usually stepped back about four feet and were uniformly leaned back like trees after a nuclear test. Jay is a prolific musician who fronts several projects to cover his spacious musical tastes and Zappa-esque penchant for classically-tinged weirdness . His main work is with Skilsaw which he is reforming and will be opening for the new "supergroup" Army of Anyone which features former Filter frontman Richard Patrick and the DeLeo brothers of Stone Temple Pilots. He also does some corporate stuff. It's good to see Jay out there unleashing more of his outrageous creations. His website may be a web designer’s worst nightmare but it’s a wonderful trip through crazytown--lots of music and riches! It's also the first website that I have ever known to openly embrace the horizontal scroll! Rock on Jay!

(Photo credit: swiss_army_hand originally uploaded by sillydog)

Last of the Neanderthals

2006-09-16T22:25:00.000-04:00

Well if you're going to have a last stand I suppose Gibraltar makes for a very dramatic setting. It seems that some Neanderthal-like tools were discovered there and they date a mere 28,000 years ago. Which opens the possibility that homo sapiens spent thousands of years alongside their cousins! It's gettin' hard out there for a hominid!

Researchers Offer a New Date for Neanderthals Last Stand
By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD | New York Times

(Photo Credit: Ancestral Box Originally uploaded by Baggis)

R.I.P. Mate

2006-09-06T16:34:00.000-04:00

Steve Irwin 1962 - 2006

(Photo Credit: Krikey!_01 originally posted by Slick Vic)

...This is your brain on God

2006-09-02T21:34:00.000-04:00

Brain Scan Of Nuns Finds No Single 'God Spot' In The Brain, Study Finds
A new study at the Université de Montréal has concluded that there is no single God spot in the brain. In other words, mystical experiences are mediated by several brain regions and systems normally implicated in a variety of functions (self-consciousness, emotion, body representation).
Via Science Daily

(photo Credit "Sparking Nunzilla" originally posted by T.A.G.)

Google Map a Grave

2006-08-19T13:55:00.000-04:00

I recently came across findagrave.com. They compile information on gravesites and cemetaries. It's got a very cool "celebrity" search tool. While I was looking up Miles Davis and Duke Ellington, who I knew were buried in my hometown of Da Bronx in Woodlawn Cemetary, I noticed that the records contained GPS coordinates and a Google map link. I then used the satellite view feature to get a cool birdseye view and discovered that they are buried a mere 47 feet from each other! Lots of famous and infamous are buried at woodlawn. A very cool place if you're into that sort of thing. An excellent use of google maps too!

South American Dog Rabbit Fossil Found!

2006-08-11T06:33:00.000-04:00

Notice how I didn't say "Rabbit Dog" since folks would probably think that I meant rabid dog which isn't as interesting. Hey, I only report this stuff okay!

Paleontologist Discovers South American Mammal Fossils

"Fossils of a new hoofed mammal that resembles a cross between a dog and a hare which once roamed the Andes Mountains in southern Bolivia around 13 million years ago was discovered by Darin A. Croft, assistant professor of anatomy at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and a research associate at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History."

Photo Credit: "marblebunny" originally posted by er1danus

Planet of the Apes For Sure!

2006-08-10T06:22:00.000-04:00

Looks like the great apes are really great after all. They made monkeys out of...well monkeys!

Apes -- Not Monkeys -- Ace IQ Tests
"The great apes are the smartest of all nonhuman primates, with orangutans and chimpanzees consistently besting monkeys and lemurs on a variety of intelligence tests, Duke University Medical Center researchers have found."

(Photo Credit: APE, Originally posted by Liang@Flickr)

And Now for Some Monkey News...

2006-07-29T06:53:00.000-04:00

So apparently pink elephants aren't a problem to spot but a guy in a gorilla suit gets a free pass. A very interesting study on the effects of alcohol from the University of Washington via Science Daily.

Ape-earances' Can Be Deceiving For Many Under The Influence Of Alcohol

"It's pretty difficult to overlook the proverbial 800-pound gorilla, or even an average-size person dressed in a gorilla suit.
But a new study indicates that people who were given a simple visual task while mildly intoxicated were twice as likely to have missed seeing the person in a gorilla suit than were people who were not under the influence of alcohol."

Also, check out the back from the dead after 30 odd years New York Dolls and their awesome NEW video "Dance Like a Monkey"

(Photo Credit: "2627 Kong Ross" originally uploaded by rosschapman)

More Happiness on the Net!!!

2006-06-21T10:11:00.000-04:00

"Companion to a series of BBC programs that explores the causes of human happiness. Features video clips and stories on levels of happiness throughout our lives, and happiness and public policy, politics, diversity, the use of cyberspace, and more, Includes reader-supplied tips for happiness and a quiz that measures how happy you are. From the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)." Source: Librarians' Internet Index
Photo Credit: "HEY, HEY, HEY!!!" originally posted by cutglassdecanter

Geeks Find Happiness in the Blogosphere!

2006-05-23T17:45:00.000-04:00

A pair of researchers analyze the blogosphere in search of hapiness and here's what they come up with ...
Abstract:
What are the sources of happiness and sadness in everyday life? In this paper, we employ ‘linguistic ethnography’ to seek out where happiness lies in our everyday lives by considering a corpus of blogposts from the LiveJournal community annotated with happy and sad moods. By analyzing this corpus, we derive lists of happy and sad words and phrases annotated by their ‘happiness factor.’ Various semantic analyses performed with this wordlist reveal the happiness trajectory of a 24-day (3am and 9-10p are most happy), and a 7-day week (Wednesdays are saddest), and compare the socialness and human-centeredness of happy descriptions versus sad descriptions. We evaluate our corpus-based approach in a classification task and contrast our wordlist with emotionally-annotated wordlists produced by experimental focus groups. Having located happiness temporally and semantically within this corpus of everyday life, the paper concludes by offering a corpus-inspired livable recipe for happiness .

Read the full study here
A fascinating study but if you're pressed for time, here's the punchline...

"Recipe for Happiness (Ingredients with high happiness load are italicized.)
Ingredients

Something new
Lots of food that you enjoy
Your favorite drink
An interesting social place

Directions Go shop for something new – something cool, make sure that you love it. Then have lots of food, for dinner preferably, as the times of breakfast and lunch are to be avoided. Consider also including a new, hot taste, and one of your favorite drinks. Then go to an interesting place, it could be a movie, a concert, a party, or any other social place. Having fun, and optionally getting drunk, is also part of the recipe. Note that you should avoid any unnecessary actions, as they canoccasionally trigger feelings of unhappiness. Ideally the recipe should be served on a Saturday, for maximum happiness effect. If all this happens on your birthday, even better. Bon appétit! And so concludes this paper. Yay!"

Originally posted by ResourceShelf
Photo Credit: Buddha of the Salon originally posted by untitled13

Jump the Blaine!

2006-05-03T22:48:00.000-04:00

I really don't know much about David Blaine other than he's one of those attention-grabbing magician/illusionist types that seek a bit of the old Houdini Magic. I do know that he dated Fiona Apple at one time and that he is a native New Yorker and that he is half Puerto Rican and half Jewish. Okay, maybe I know more about David Blaine than I thought or really should know. Maybe David Blaine is controlling my thoughts?...Nah, if anyone is controlling my thoughts it's Doug Henning. He was so...magical. Blaine on the other hand is all in my face as I have to deal with his everpresence on my way to delivering my daughter to daycare behind Lincoln Center. I took this groovy pic on his first day in the tank as the setting sun shone through giving him the otherworldly aura that he craves with every fiber of his being. The young man oogling Mr. Blaine participated in a peace march that morning, a very moving thing to see local youth march for peace on May Day! Maybe that's what this post is really about...peace! Cue the Fonz!

It's the Missing Link You Bloated Sack of Protoplasms!!!

2006-04-17T22:30:00.000-04:00

I guess this site would be remiss if it did not join the throngs of fossil geeks who have been waxing on about the Tiktaalik Roseae fossil find. The official site could be longer on the fossil info and shorter on the crew bios but it does explain the relevance of this historic find. Wikipedia is picking up some of the slack though! All that's well and good but any fan of Ren and Stimpy will tell you that this muddy mudskipper has been around for a while!! You eeeediots!






The Muddy Mudskipper theme song...

"Who's the greatest mudskipper of them all?
Who can skip in the mud with the greatest of ease?
What kind of wonderful guy?

Who can crawl like a dog without scraping his knees?
Who's got segmented eyees?

It's Muddy Mudskipper, it's Muddy Mudskipper
It's the Muddy Mudskipper show!"

(photo credit: IMG_4457 originally posted by bminish)

You Will Be Assimilated!

2006-04-02T23:26:00.000-04:00

Researchers in Europe have begun experiments to fuse human neurons with microchips! This is amazing! I wonder if they can overclock my noggin'?

Brain Cells Fused with Computer Chip
By Ker Than

Thanks to we make money not art!
(Photo credit: The neuron and the visualization, originally posted by __ethan)

250-Year-Old Tortoise Dies :(

2006-03-24T10:22:00.000-05:00

Wow!! Talk about turtle power!! Around the time this tortoise was born, Benjamin Franklin was flying kites, Louis the XV was king of France, the industrial revolution was getting started in England, and Voltaire published "Micromegas" in which he mentions "aliens from outer space, " believed to be the first time aliens were mentioned in literature! Thanks Timelines of History for the fun facts and Librariran's Internet Index for getting me there!

250-Year-Old Tortoise Dies
Associated Press
"KOLKATA, India -- A giant aldabra tortoise thought to be around 250 years old has died in the Kolkata zoo of liver failure, authorities said on Thursday."
Source Link: Wired News

(photo credit: "Tortoise Skull" originally posted by Kalshassan)

Science Discovery: Bushcronium - A New Element

2006-02-13T16:06:00.000-05:00

Yeah, I know I haven't been blogging, blah blah blah! I'm in nursing clinicals, I have a three-month- old baby, I have a very full time job! Boo hoo! OK, I'm good, just needed to work out the guilt! Anyway, my man Ernest, who I haven't seen in a dog's age give or take six years, sent me this. It's been floating around the innernet for a while and my apologies for failing to properly attribute this but its provenance is hazy. Anyway it's funny and kind of science related...

*Science Discovery: Bushcronium - A New Element*

Heaviest element.

A major research institution has just announced the discovery of the heaviest element yet known to science. The new element has been named "Bushcronium." Bushcronium has one neutron, 12 assistant neutrons, 75 deputy neutrons, and 224 assistant deputy neutrons, giving it an Atomic mass of 311. These 311 particles are held together by forces called morons, which are surrounded by vast quantities of lepton-like particles called peons.

Since Bushcronium has no electrons, it is inert. However, it can be detected, as it impedes every reaction with which it comes into contact. A minute amount of Bushcronium causes one reaction to take over 4 days to complete when it would normally take less than a second. Bushcronium has a normal half-life of multiples of 4 years; it does not decay, but instead undergoes a reorganization in which a portion of the assistant neutrons and deputy neutrons exchange places.

In fact, Bushcronium's mass will actually increase over time, since each reorganization will cause more morons to become neutrons, forming isodopes. This characteristic of moron-promotion leads some scientists to believe that Bushcronium is formed whenever morons reach a certain quantity in concentration. This hypothetical quantity is referred to as "Critical Morass."

When catalyzed with money, Bushcronium activates Foxnewsium, an element which radiates orders of magnitude, more energy, albeit as incoherent noise, since it has 1/2 as many peons but twice as many morons.

(photo credit: Element originally uploaded by Jason Hightower )

=============================================
Ok, Here's a real physics story!

World's Fastest Image Processor Aids Search For Elusive Form Of Matter (February 9, 2006) — It is the new particles created by the crashing protons that scientists are intensely interested in, as they may well permit researchers to drill down to the true fundamental units of nature and sample conditions that existed right after the Big Bang some 15 billion years ago, when mass and energy were almost infinitely compressed. But how do scientists study those particle-collision events and the newly created but ephemeral particles that result? The answer, according to a team of UW-Madison scientists, is you build the world's fastest digital camera.

The Frogs Are Dying!!!

2006-01-15T22:46:00.000-05:00

Climate Change Drives Widespread Amphibian Extinctions; Warmer Temperatures Enhance Growth ...
"Results of a new study provide the first clear proof that global warming is causing outbreaks of an infectious disease that is wiping out entire frog populations and driving many species to extinction. The study reveals how the warming may alter the dynamics of a skin fungus that is fatal to amphibians. The climate-driven fungal disease, the author's say, has hundreds of species around the world teetering on the brink of extinction or has already pushed them into the abyss. "

(Photo Credit: Frog in a Pond originally uploaded by Dan Zen)

Check Out My Tag Cloud!

2006-01-07T11:57:00.000-05:00

I've eliminated my list-o-links (except for the people category) and in its place I have included my del.icio.us tag cloud. I love it! Now I can show my tag categories for my links. The more links there are in the category, the bigger the text size. Give 'em a click and see exactly what I've been doing with my time lately! :)

(photo credit: Up and Away, originally uploaded by i a n )

2005 was HOT!!!

2006-01-01T22:02:00.000-05:00

Hi there! Sorry for the lapse. I've been busy with my social justice work, microbiology finals and a baby, so you gotta know that blogging is way down the list. Do remember to look at my del.icio.us thingy on the right as it is a good way to see what I've been finding out there even though I have little time to blog about it. In January (not at all a New Year's resolution) I plan to blog more by virtue of the fact that I will be on paternity leave and while I joke about watching Opra! and hanging around in my fuzzy slippers the reality is that I will be hanging out in my jammies, surfing, blogging, and coding away! Oh yeah, and taking care of my infant daughter! ;>

2005 was a great year! We honeymooned in New Zealand in February (amazing!) and the rest of the year was the crazy ride that is birthing a child. I'd like to give a big shout out to my baby mama, the love of my life, my wife Angi for the strength to quarterback this project. She gets all the credit but while I was strictly Ringo on this gig, I have to say I was fab!

Ok, here's the article of 2005 that caught my attention. It was a busy year what with the war, hurricanes, scandal(s), lies, more lies...Project Runway! Let's face it people, it was hot! In fact it was one of the hottest years on record. The above-mentioned article basically says the earth in 2005 was like a cat on a hot tin roof! While it is promising that the U.S.' denial of science, starting with the recent desicion on intelligent design (or as I like to call it crap!) seems to be thawing like the Arctic ice shelf, we are still in Kyoto Protocol denial and we need to step up efforts to get in line with the rest of the civilized world. That means that we listen to credible, independent scientists and not corporate bought ones... or worse.

(photo credit: fire 4, originally uploaded by goynang )

Giant Jellyfish Invade Japan!!!

2005-12-09T19:10:00.000-05:00

Not only is this a great opportuniy to plug my own flickr photostream but Japan is seriously under attack from giant jellyfish! These things are like 450 lbs and 6 feet wide! Man, you can't make this up! I wonder if the call has been made out to Gamera or Godzilla? Seriously though these animals are threatening shipping lanes and everything! I have an idea, why don't we feed them Donald Rumsfeld!
Link

'Godzilla' Crocodile Had Head Of A Dinosaur, Fins Like A Fish

2005-11-27T21:53:00.000-05:00

I love when they find new, terrifying creatures! I can't wait to see this bad boy mounted in the museum. Grrrrrrrrr!
Fossil Find: 'Godzilla' Crocodile Had Head Of A Dinosaur, Fins Like A Fish "Researchers have discovered evidence of an ancient sea creature that would have made Tyrannosaurus rex, think twice before stepping into the ocean. At the southern tip of South America, they found fossils of an entirely new species of ancient crocodile -- one whose massive jaws and jagged teeth would have made it the most fearsome predator in the sea."

(Photo Credit: Food Chain originally uploaded by somebonnie)

I Love Meeces to Pieces!

2005-11-16T00:47:00.000-05:00

Mice are amazing! If you don't think so, check out these recent articles on the super powers and love prowess of our furry little friends.

Mighty Mice Regrow Organs
By Kristen Philipkoski
"A strain of genetically altered rodents can grow new skin, toes, tails and even organs. Are humans next?"

Mice Sing In The Presence Of Mates, Researchers Discover
"Scientists have known for decades that female lab mice or their pheromones cause male lab mice to make ultrasonic vocalizations. But a new paper from researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis establishes for the first time that the utterances of the male mice are songs. This finding adds mice to the roster of creatures that croon in the presence of the opposite sex, including songbirds, whales and some insects."

(Photo Credit: Life Size Mousetrap Halloween, originally uploaded by Laughing Squid)

Knitting, Nuns, and DNA!

2005-11-03T20:56:00.000-05:00

Ok, so you never thought these things could actually go together. Well, they do thanks to recent posts on Boing Boing and Wired! As a native New Yorker, educated by nuns in denial of Vatican II, not to mention my being a Nursing student who has survived A&P I and II (the latter in the Summer session!,) I've got two out of three down pat. But for the knitting trifecta I must turn to my wife Angi. She is a knitting knitter, I mean she can knit anything...she can knit a satellite dish, or a chair, or enui! Do you get the sense that given my previous post, I haven't gotten any sleep in a looong time. Well you're right! Here are the links!

Catholic Schoolgirls Unravel DNA Led by a nun with a passion for science, high-school students at the Sacred Heart Academy in Connecticut join top genetic scientists at the cutting edge of research into the roots of osteoporosis. By Michael O'Neill.

This is a knitted model of DNA

Hey, here's more fun with knitting & science!
The Knitted Digestive System

(Photo Credit: zombie nun, originally posted by cakeyvoice)

Introducing Miss Rebecca Jane

2005-10-27T01:08:00.000-04:00

I'd like to introduce you to the recent addition to my family. Miss Rebecca Jane Piñero. She was born this past Saturday at 10:28 am and weighed 6 lbs. 14 oz. This peaceful, beatific photo is what we get 18 hours a day. The other times she does a very good impersonation of a despotic ruler! We love her with all our hearts even while she sucks the very marrow from our bones! Nature is amazing that way because if babies weren't soooo cute, as ours clearly is, I do not see how we could possibly survive as a species. Now I must return to my Igor-like duties...yehs mahster!

Bigfoot...Well, you know.

2005-10-16T20:55:00.000-04:00

Ahhhh the 70's! I'm of the generation that spent its pre-pubescent years in that glorious decade. It was just a cavalcade of fads...Sharks, Pyramids, UFO's, Fonzie! One of my favorites was Bigfoot. Maybe its our current oil headaches coupled with the wholesale meltdown of our politicians that has led even the Huffington Post to cover this wonderful Bigfoot convention article. It seems as though our good neighbors in Texas not only believe that man was made oh about 6,000 years ago out of a lump-o-clay, but they also got a hankerin' for a Texas-sized hairy humanoid we all lovingly call Sasquatch (remember when he cameo'd on the Six Million Dollar Man!) These people are serious folks! Case in point...the Texas Bigfoot Research Center.

(Photo Credit: Nose Job, originally uploaed by Jan Tik)

Oh, What a Tangled Web 2.0 We Weave!

2005-10-12T05:40:00.000-04:00

So in case you haven't heard the web is changing...again.
The so called Web 2.0 phenomenon has become mainstream, getting increasing coverage in major news outlets. But really, what is this new wave? Well many have offered their opinions including how lame it is to call it Web 2.0. Surely new technology is at play such as RSS, MP3, P2P, programming languages such as Python and Ruby, and an amalgamation of web programming protocols called AJAX. But none of this stuff is really new, especially in geek time. Others point to how the web is becoming increasingly social, a many to many paradigm shift in how we do the web. Sites like del.icio.us, Flickr, and 43 Things point to an increase in bottom up taxonomies and collective processes. Again, sooo not new. Another interesting trend is mashing up or remixing data from multiple websites for example craigslist + google maps. Podcasting also is a combination of RSS and MP3. While this activity is new, the technology is not so new and hacking the web and remixing in general is not, just ask Grandmaster Flash. How about the emergence of a Do-it/Fab-it-Yourself, Hacker culture propogated by Tim O'Reilly's Make magazine where every cool twenty-something is geting their applied engineering groove on by embedding Atmel chips in their Chuck Taylors? Yeah, okay that's not new at all except for the (at least in theory) accessability of consumer-grade fabrication equipment. The Steves Wozniak and Jobs created Apple computers by sticking Motorola chips on hunk of plywood. Garage inventors are the backbone of innovation in this country. Not since the Russians launched Sputnik and sent us all back to the lab have we seen such an interest in engineering. I'm glad to see engineering is becoming cool again we need more engineers. Okay, how about the whole Creative Commons thing? The fact that we are greasing the way for people to gift intellectual property for the sake of innovation and free access to information and content is nothing short of revolutionary. You guessed it, not new. There are many other "new" things I didn't mention but when you look at them they're really just novel ways at using old and relativley old technologies.

So none of the stuff I've mentioned is really new and a bunch of it actually is quite old. Some of it also extends outside of the online, virtual world. So what's happening? Wha happen? I think what best describes what "it" is is what MIT professor Eric von Hippel calls Democratizing Innovation. In his book of the same name, which true to form is available free online, von Hippel makes the case with manufacturing that (from the MIT Press blurb,) "innovation is rapidly becoming democratized. Users, aided by improvements in computer and communications technology, increasingly can develop their own new products and services. These innovating users -- both individuals and firms -- often freely share their innovations with others, creating user-innovation communities and a rich intellectual commons. In Democratizing Innovation, Eric von Hippel looks closely at this emerging system of user-centered innovation. He explains why and when users find it profitable to develop new products and services for themselves, and why it often pays users to reveal their innovations freely for the use of all."

While Professor von Hippel is talking about this phenomenon within the context of manufacturing, his final chapter hints at how this idea can extend to other spheres, and clearly it already has. The Marxists should not leave the room! These ideas are extensible along the lines of Dr. W. Edwards Deming and Peter Drucker. If we can truly democratize innovation, we will see some amazing things happen all over the place (not just the web) and it will be totally grassroots. Power to the people indeed.

(Photo credits: Night Web, originally uploaded by Katemina; Roof, originally updleaoded by taniwha; A spiders web, originally uploaded by see what you want to see)

So that's why they call it the White House!

2005-10-03T22:29:00.000-04:00

First Evidence Of Brain Abnormalities Found In Pathological Liars
"A University of Southern California study has found the first proof of structural brain abnormalities in people who habitually lie, cheat and manipulate others."

Wow! The timing is impeccable! Just when I thought science in the U.S. was done for those mad nerds out in Cali make a significant breakthrough! It seems as though they have identified a physiological brain abnormality in pathological liars. The study shows that these freakazoids had a 22% increase in white matter in their frontal lobes than normal folks, who have a preponderance of grey matter. On a related note, "Pathological Gambling Associated With Brain Impairments" Someone should tell this guy.

(photo credit: A Twisted Family Tradition ~ The Lime Jello Brain, originally uploaded by hurleygurley)

A Whole Lotta Sashimi!

2005-09-29T05:12:00.000-04:00

Here in the U.S. we've got a lot of fishy business going on but on the other side of the planet, a team of Japanese scientists have shot what is believed to be the first footage of the giant squid (Architeuthis dux.) This feat was thought to be impossible. This creature, whose body is the size of a VW Bug and whose tentacles have been recorded up to 60 feet (18 m,) has been the stuff of legend for centuries. It only feeds at night and at great depths so it's a little camera shy. Kudos Japanese team of scientists! It's good to know science marches on! We really miss science here in the U.S.!

Giant Squid links Here, Here, and Here

(photo credit: creatures of the deep, originally uploaded by dotpolka)

Avian Flu: How Panning Academics=Pandemic

2005-09-26T03:53:00.000-04:00

(l. to r.: roosting, uploaded by Guerito; Maybe it's a virus?, uploaded by Pandarine; three little pigs..., uploaded by Indigo Goat.)

Viruses are amazing things. I say things because most scientists put viruses in the non-living category. This is the kind of thing that scientists argue over and sometimes even fight over. That's why you see so many nerds with tape on the nosebridge of their eyeglasses. Viruses are in-and-of-themselves inert and can't exist outside of their hosts for very long (though some can be re-activated long after.) They have various ways of transmitting themselves. Some viruses get "airborne," hitching a ride on moisture or droplets in the air. Viruses aren't much, just loose strands of genetic code wrapped in a "candy coating" of proetein, sometimes with an extra gooey layer of lipid (fat.) They're teeny tiny. By contrast bacteria are living things and are big enough to become infected by viruses. Like viruses, toxic chemicals can kill, cause degenerative diseases, and even in the case of radioactive toxins "infect"others, but viruses do something that lifeless toxins don't do... they reproduce and require lifeforms to do so. Once they find a host they "live" inside the host.

Tactically speaking, what viruses do and how they do it is nothing short of brilliant, although viruses don't really think now do they. Then again neither do many humans really. Scientists have been doing a lot of warning lately-global warming, hurricanes, tsunamis, etc. The warning that this post is dedicated to is of course the one where they have this really good guess that we are on the verge of a global pandemic stemming from the Influenza A H5N1 virus that causes Avian Flu. The rate of lethality of this virus at its current strength is around 57%, somewhere between the Ebola and Marburg viruses, two of the deadliest viruses known. When (not if) it mutates and becomes a full-fledged human (to human) virus it will not be anywhere near as strong or posess this rate of lethality. By then however it will have traded in quality for quantity! With a lethality of around 10% (still very high the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic was 2%!), it would have already won the viral jackpot going from being a disease that kills a few rural farmers in a remote, third-world village to a global pandemic that kills millions. What gives it the ability to be a pandemic is its ability to do the hitchhicking thing in the air that I mentioned above. If Ebola or HIV had that ability there would be no word(s) to describe how bad it would be.

If you were Keanu Reeves, at this point in the story you'd say Whoa!!! And then, you'd start asking tough questions like, why are we (U.S.) spending so much time dissing scientists and science? We like need these people to help us avoid a catastrophic catastrophy of epic proportions! Instead we're like keeping them from doing lifesaving research 'n stuff and we're forcing them to spend all this time and effort defending evolution. It's totally bogus dude!

Bogus indeed. It's like our "leaders" are only interested in porn and monkeys! Now I can see how porn and monkeys would be important if this was a sexually transmitted virus or if you were...eating monkeys (the other bushmeat,) but it's transmitted in the air and we all know how little our leaders think of air these days. In fact this may all be a diabolical plan to privatize air! I get it now! They want to promote something that they themselves have failed to engage in...intelligent breathing!

Learn more here, here, and here

Found Footage Films

2005-09-13T00:01:00.000-04:00

I was organizing my digital files recently and found these lovely stills from several reels of 8mm home movies that I purchased from that evil, sordid online auction website that has managed to suck down a good share of my hard-earned cash and shall go nameless because it is a sinister and vile enterprise. OK, sometimes I get addicted to said website and must pull myself back into the light, there I said it.
Now these home movies are of people I don't know. Most have probably gone to that cutting room floor in the sky. I am simply riveted by the happy scenes of familial bliss and end up asking myself a litany of questions. Who were these people? What misfortune, if there was any to speak of, befell these folks who's happy, perhaps happiest, moments ended up in an online auction to be purchased by this random-memory fetishist? What became of them? These are all currently unknowable questions. The only thing I know is that they are beautiful. They dance, smile, and twirl in their Kodacolor time capsules and in doing so have become part of the enduring history of everyday 20th-century American life. I say enduring because these folks managed to document their existence in a medium that will actually last, unlike the ephemeral optical discs and magnetic tapes that we use today. Our technology is impressive, but woefully too temporary to last the way celluloid, vinyl, and paper does. The key to keeping your digital information alive is to backup frequently, make redundant copies of data in multiple formats and media and of course dumping it into vast databases on the Net helps. Who says you can't live forever!

Help Our Brothers & Sisters

2005-09-08T21:28:00.000-04:00

I vowed that when I set up this blog I wouldn't get political or topical (those who know me know that this is a tall order!) This blog was just going to be fun stuff, my quirky interests, a light-hearted log of my personal online excursions--besides, so many others do it better... here and here! I tried to stay on my little nerdy theme but then I came across a website that was also geeky and light-hearted and also had a Red Cross banner on the sidebar. So I went to the Red Cross website and got one because our national tragedy cannot be denied...anywhere. Please help our brothers and sisters and give what you can.

Toon Nation X

2005-09-05T23:18:00.000-04:00

Destroy All Hairdos,
originally uploaded by jawboneradio.

I love cartoons! I believe my generation is the quintessential 'toon generation even though the classic toons were either produced before our time or while we were still babes. From go we were immersed in the language of frying pans, anvils, and dynamite. That's probably why we seem to always be willing to scrap it all and start from scratch. One word sums it up...re-runs! Gen X'ers [I know some think this term lame] were bombarded with toons. We were the first fully [dis]functional t.v. and videogame generation. As a result and depending on who you speak to, we either rise or fall due to this ability to engage in "toonthink." We'll leave that for the "expertrs" to ponder. Just gimme my toons! From Gertie the Dinosuar to SpongeBob! Even the cartoons of the 80's have aged nicely and are definitelty making a comeback. Now, I normally fill my posts with hyperlinks because I'm such a Ted Nelson fan but this post has but one link that is in the do-not-fail-to-visit category and this is IT! Enjoy!

Hockey's Back! Oh Baby!

2005-08-28T22:41:00.000-04:00

bubble hockey,
originally uploaded by
richard winchell

Hockey is the greatest sport ever. It has the hand-eye coordination of baseball, the rock'em sock'em action of football, the fancy passing of basketball, the international flavor of soccer, and of course the pomp and majesty of figure skating! It's all of that rolled up into one big ball of excitement, plus it's fast.

That's right, hockey is a twenty-first-century sport. It's figure skaters on meth or tweakers on skates, you decide. This past year hockey fans have had to endure the deep depression of a season with no hockey. I was in Montreal during the lockout of '95 that cut the season in half and let me tell you the French Canadians were about to start burning cars in the streets. While it is true that they'll do that for just about anything, that's beside the point, hockey was missed!

I'm a huge hockey fan. Most people don't know this but hockey was big in the Bronx, okay it wasn't but it did have a dedicated following, especially after 1980. The whole "miracle on ice" thing happened and everyone was lacing up and smashing each other in the face, it's true that Bronxites will do that anyway but trust me hockey was loved! A live game is a beautiful spectacle to behold; a cavalcade of sights, sounds, and smells; a sensual stream of consciousness involving prodigious amounts of blood, swirling bright colors, gut wrenching screams, profane chanting, and mustard-slathered pork byproducts! Okay, I'm ready...Let's go R_A_N_G_E_R_S!!!

Don't Be Afraid of Color!

2005-08-25T17:58:00.000-04:00

light sculpture,
originally uploaded by clickykbd.

In fact, you should love the color, become a… color-lover if you will. If you are a "chromaphile" or in desperate need of a color keeyaak! You would be in good hands with COLOURlovers and ColorBlender. COLOURlovers is a social ranking/database of colors and palettes. Some of the names are hilarious! Check out the Michael Jackson palette. ColorBlender is an online color matching toolbox. Both are just colorlicious! I love color!...Love it!

You're Sired!

2005-08-24T23:41:00.000-04:00

Happy, my pet sperm,
originally uploaded by zen³.

The title of this post is my punchline to the new Dutch reality show [from the brilliant minds who brought us Big Brother] in which contestants vie to artificially inseminate a woman who goes by the name of Yessica. This post however is about an article I came across in Vanity Fair [disclaimer: I do not subscribe, my wife "found" a copy] about the creators of Skype, the voice over internet protocol [VOIP] software that allows one to place free/low cost phone calls through a broadband connection. These are the same guys who started Kazaa. One is Swedish the other Danish, both have a lazy eye and a good twenty-dollar bet, mild Asperger's. Considering my recent Dungen post, I smell a Scandinavian conspiracy!

Bob Moog R.I.P.

2005-08-24T08:37:00.000-04:00

moog,
originally uploaded by chacabuco.

I never owned a Moog. My main instruments are of the stringed/analog variety and any keyboards were of the cheap kind. The worlds of guitars and synths have coexisted (mostly) amicably (think ELO...maybe not.) My interest in synthesizer music can all be summed up in the term "cheesy vinyl," those wonderfully bad albums (example) that featured Mr. Moog's instruments. Bob Moog's contribution to music and music technology is monumental. He will be missed.

Psychedelic Swede Invades My Stereo!

2005-08-23T13:39:00.000-04:00

I came across this 21-year-old, Swedish one-man-band called Dungen (pronounced Doon Jen.) The backstory is amazing (even more so if true!) He grew up in rural Sweden where his folk musician dad taught him like 500 instruments and he records in his grandmother's barn (or something like that.) The single Panda features Mitch Mitchell-style drumming; Blue Oyster Cult's...I dunno cowbell?; Boston's vocal and guitar multi-layering, Swedsih folk music's..I've got nuthin'; a country twang/lap steel that slides into infinity; and mid-90's garage band chugging (like Loud Lucy) all rolled up into a massively addicting tune that I can't stop from listening to over and over! Don't you just love when that happens?! Plus, I don't have a clue as to what he's singing about! I do know one thing...Det är bra! (That's good!)

Finding Your Inner Blog

2005-08-21T01:11:00.000-04:00

Ok, so far my blogging experience has been centered around...well, my blogging experience. My posts have been on the navel gazing end of the spectrum. Hopefully I've been pointing to some really interesting destinations and once I get comfy, I will "find my voice." (yeah, whatever)

I've been down with the Web since Netscape 1.0 and have been a proffessional surfer for twelve (12!) years. So if I find something cool I will let y'all know. Just letting it flow. I hope you like the graphical additions. I'm going for the 19th century dilettante natural scientist look (think dusty display cases of fossils).

I've added a link to my boss' blog...Gara LaMarche's GaraLog. Here's a link to Mark Schmitt's [The Decembrist] post about posting his [then] boss' blog. It's a great overview of Gara's blog, which is resplendent with travel pics and off-the-beaten-path music and lit. I'm a bit younger than Mark but definitely subscribe to the Hüsker Dü/non-fiction skool that he aligns himself with. Gara's a young baby boomer (snicker) so we'll humor his wide-ranging, eclectic taste.

I've also added Siva Vaidhyanathan's Sivacracy.net. I recently read Siva's The Anarchist in the Library and, as a life-long librarian, I must say biggup to a man like Siva! He definitely knows que hora es! Also, I've added my del.icio.us bookmarks and vox delicii, a great site that gives you near-real-time coverage of what's popular on the del.icio.us-sphere; and I cap it all with my favorite Creative Commons license [attribution/non-commerical/sharealike]

Gift it Yo!

Peace!

Ahoy Pirate Tim!

2005-08-19T15:14:00.000-04:00

When I grow my goatee, my wife calls me Pirate Tim. Tim's my middle name. The moniker is just an odd juxstaposition...Pirate Tim, like who could possibly take Pirate Tim seriously? So I made it my flickr handle. Today I log on to and it says , "Ahoy Pirate Tim" It just made me smile! Arrrgghhhh!

We Don't Need No Stinkin' Flickr Bajess

2005-08-19T11:57:00.000-04:00

Okay maybe we do. I have a added a lovely flickr badge "montage" slash area rug to the sidebar. It features the whoppin' six photos I have in my flickr account. Maori carving. More will come for sure. For now just watch the pretty pictures transition...it's hypnotizing. ZZZzzzzzz.

Note: If you can't see the flickr badge you need to install the flash plugin or update your browser.

Blogging About My Blog

2005-08-16T23:07:00.000-04:00

Okay so I've been kind of slack this summer with the blogging and all, but hey, it's been a rough summer! I've completed Anatomy and Physiology II and an English 101 class that I had to re-do because I was such a slacker back when I was eighteen [twenty years ago, people!] and so I must live the nightmare a la Rodney Dangerfield. A word to the kids...get the best grades you can! They WILL come back to haunt you! [full disclosure--I've maintained a 3.8+ average since grad school.] I also have a VERY full-time job and a kid on the way (queue the violins!) On a positive note, the English class was awesome! It's nice to get back to the basics! I'm a life-long learner and proud of it, yo!

So now I'm blogging essentially about setting up this blog. It's kind of like moving into a new apartment and getting just the right pieces of furniture, a couch here, a coffee table there...
Anyway, I've been updating the sidebar and have added more links and been placing them in topical "buckets." The "utilities" section is where I'm putting essential links which I will probably rename "essential links." It's all over the news (I know) but Flickr and del.icio.us are killer web apps! If you don't know, then act like you know and get with it! These two sites are "de rigueur" right about now, or at least they were five minutes ago (backlash in 4...3...2...1)! Also TinyUrl makes big URLs that wrap around and are unusable totally clickable so you don't have to add the "cut and paste" disclaimer--nice!

On the cybrarian tip I've added ResourceShelf and ResourceShelf's DocuTicker. These are run by Gary Price and Steve Cohen who have been fixtures at the Internet Librarian conferences I go to and are cybrarian "celebs." The info on these two sites is massive! Even if you aren't a librarian you can still get your geek on!

Artsy Schmartsy has my favorite artsy blog Drawn! for now ...more coming soon.
Finally, my profile pic is a Maori carving I snapped at the Auckland War Memorial Museum while honeymooning in New Zealand. Believe me, it's much better looking than I am!

Ode to MST3K

2005-08-13T03:20:00.000-04:00

Man I miss this show! Looking at this website of movie posters featured in MST3K got me all weepy-eyed over Servo, Crow, Mike, and the rest of the gang. This show took an old t.v. gag and made it something truly special and it could be enojoyed by all ages. My dad, my nephew, and I cracked up for two glorious hours every Saturday morning (reruns). That's like three generations dude!
Thanks Drawn!

A word about my links...

2005-07-16T19:16:00.000-04:00

I've started to add a few links to the sidebar. A word or two about them...

Music Thing: this is a very cool blog about music hardware, software, and strangeware. They have a great eye for the cool and bizarre when it comes to music gear.

Lawrence Lessig: Awww everybody links to him. He is just the leading thinker on intellectual property in the digital age and is the founder of Creative Commons. His take on society and technology is right on! Nuff respect Larry!

The Galoot's Progress: This link just shows the "Amish" side of me. It is a page and listserv dedicated to the fine art of woodworking with only handtools. I love making things out of wood and now that I am again an apartment dweller, I have a need for clean, efficient, physically and environmentally safe ways of hacking the material world, especially the cellulose variety. Of course I have a fantasy of leaving it all behind and becoming a fine furniture craftsman working in a barn in the Midwest! Doesn't every one? Anyway, it is a fine group of folks that call their listserv "the Porch" where they "sit around" talk about old tools, their disdain for power tools, wood planes, sharpening chisels by hand, metallurgy and beer!

Make Magazine: This magazine is about hacking life! It details all sorts of groovy ways to butcher the analog and the digital. I have both of their issues now and am anxiously awaiting their third. I was incredulous when I stumbled upon a video camera stabilizer made out of galvanized pipe! In the late eighties I made a video animation camera stand out of the same material. Great minds think alike! Hack on Make!

infoAnarchyWiki: Wiki's are amazing! Wikis are part of a new wave of great social software tools that are light-weight, web-native and put the power of information into the hands of the people! This wiki is dedicated to openness and the hacker ethos! Hack the Planet!

The Decembrist: If you're into political commentary you can't go wrong with Mark Schmitt's insights. He is one of the most intelligent writers on the political left. He was, for some time, a colleague of mine at the Open Society Institute. He is now a senior fellow at the New America Foundation and his blog is one of the top political blogs in the country.

I'll be adding more links soon. This is what cybrarians do in their spare time!

Peace,
-N

Piltdown Hoax: The Dawn of Man

2005-07-08T17:14:00.000-04:00

I read about the Piltdown Hoax as a kid and have always been fascinated with the story of amateur scientists in turn of the century England perpetrating a massive fraud claiming to have found the "missing link", that included a famous author, an existentialist priest, crushed careers and reputations, and even a death-bed confession. Why this isn't a movie I do not know! I wanted to start (yet another) band called Piltdown Hoax but now I'm old(er), married, a soon-to-be-father, a "professional" (whatever), so my hopes of ever being cool are as dead as, well Piltdown Man. So my only consolation is to title my blog Piltdown Hoax dedicated to my ADD interests which always seem to include the act of hacking, gerryrigging, jigging, duct-taping, hybriding, remixing, fusing, crazyglueing, jacking, spackling, cracking, breaking, welding, melding, fluxing and generally screwing ideas and objects together to create something...else. So I think Piltdown Hoax is a fitting title for this blog since not only does it conjure the fusing of disparate, albeit genetically similar, things together, it too is a massive fraud.
Enjoy!