Video from "Stacked" ISS Images

The ISS "Stacks" from Christoph Malin on Vimeo.

This video was made by "stacking" images taken from the International Space Station and then, apparently, processing them so they would run smoothly as a video.  Although frame stacking is a common practice in both astrophotography and HDR photography, I am not clear how it was applied here -- the explanation at Vimeo by the Christoph Malin, the principal creator, is too cryptic, though I assume it involved registering and overlaying video sequences.  Some of the photos or underlying video are from astronaut Don Pettit, whose incredible photos I posted on before.

Happening Science

I've noticed a slew of interesting science news stories in the last few days.  The New York Times has reports on the rapid developments in growing artificial organs, the developments by chemist Paul Chirik of Princeton that allow iron and to be used in place of platinum as a catalyst in certain reactions (and a similar process that allows cobalt to be used as a catalyst in making plastic), and on confirmation that a meteorite that fell last year in Morocco came from Mars.  And then there's this cool video, via Physics arXiv, showing that liquid droplets hitting a pool will sit on the surface and no coalesce if the surface is vibrating:

The world is simply cool (and getting cooler).

Sure, Sure, We all Know It's Easier to Get Elected as a Latino in the U.S.

I think she hits it on the head towards the end when she say's the problem with Mitt is not that he's a white male, the problem with Mitt is that "his policies suck."  Via Cynical-C.

The Island of Idiots

You may have noticed that we have a new tag around here called "Island of Idiots." Okay, you didn't notice. Well, we do.

Now, I don't want to insult anybody or anything, but some people are just idiots. I think most people deserve respect -- really, everybody deserves to be treated with a dose of humanity -- but ... there are some folks whose stupidity, dishonesty, or appeals to fear, bigotry and hate are so unabashed and affect so many that I feel they should be called out.  Oh, if only there were a place we could send them, a metaphorical Australia, a place to they could share with the narcissists, sociopaths, and shitheels of their ilk.  A corner to stand them in.

The Island of Idiots is that place. It's reserved not just for those who are wrong or dishonest but who are wrong or dishonest without repentance and with utter disrespect for their fellow humans by the score.  Rush Limbaugh, we welcome you.

[Ed: You keep using this word "idiot." I don't think it means what you think it means.]
[GF: "Idiot: an utterly foolish or senseless person."]

Bryson Andres

Ghostbusters Gangnam Style

Kimono Nagoya

Via MetaFilter, the blog Kimono Nagoya to address all of your kimono wearing needs. Do you know whether the appropriate kimono style for older unmarried woman (25-35) is still furisode? No, unfortunately it's not, because traditional Japanese culture expects you to be married by 25. If you're not you're "Christmas cake" (because after 25 nobody wants any); furisode is worn by younger unmarried women who would not be embarrassed wearing it.

See?  I, for one, didn't know that.

A List of Reference and Educational Sites

[Note: An updated list of sources is in the "References Sources" tab, above]

I looked for a list of reference and educational sources on the internet, and I wasn't able to find one I discuss one here and linked it below, so I've made a more updated one.

After going through hundreds of sites, I've winnowed the list to about 150.  If I had to only pick a few they'd be Wikipedia (and its associated sites), Google (also for its associated sites), The New York Times (for its archives), the Internet Archive, WolframAlpha, JSTOR, SSRN, NASA, FindLaw, How Stuff Works, Khan Academy, and Open Culture. (For non-reference/education, but just general interest I'd have to add MetaFilter.)

The full list, below, avoids sites behind a paywall or requiring registration (though sometimes that's necessary for full content). Here's the full list:

Just So I Can Call Somebody a Nazi

I know some day in the future I am going to look back on this blog and wonder if I ever called anybody a Nazi.  I thought I should ...

So, these people were Nazis:


These people are Nazi wannabes and equally idiotic:


This person is just an idiot:

We're In This Together -- Obama

Shortly after President was elected in 2008 a number of Republicans made it plain that their first order of business was to make sure Obama's term as President was unsuccessful.  What was startling about this was that they said it out loud -- many already believed that would be the attitude of some (but certainly not all) Republicans, particularly the "tea party" types.  It seemed evident given the attempt to continually distract the Clinton administration with repeated unfounded "investigations" into Whitewater, refusal to act on his judicial nominees, and so forth.

Alizée and K-Pop (it being Another Saturday)

Last Saturday, being so ahead of the curve as I am and all, I posted to a video for Mr. Taxi by the Korean popular music group Girls' Generation, only to find that they're featured this week in an article in The New Yorker. The article focuses on the burgeoning "factory music" scene in Korea, which is dominating Japan, China, Taiwan, as well as Korea, among other Asian countries -- a situation where the singers' lives as well as their music and dancing is tightly choreographed, and which has obvious precedents not only in Motown but in U.S. and U.K. boy bands and J-Pop. The music, too, while borrowing from many genres, has its primary roots in New Jack Swing, mostly from the U.S. The result is K-Pop -- a genre that does not really include Psy, by the way (he sort of makes fun of it) -- a genre where looks are every bit as important as the music, and Korea apparently leads the world in plastic surgery per capita.

Proving My Flexibility in Inspirational Sources and Lack of Cultural Sophistication, I Link to Dilbert

I think you should click this to enlarge it.

Malaria and Half of Humanity

According to a (slightly dated) article in The Wall Street Journal written by Sonia Shah, who wrote a book called The Fever: How Malaria Has Ruled Humankind for 500,000 Years :

The malaria parasite has been responsible for half of all human deaths since the Stone Age, and one in 14 of us alive today still carry genes that first arose to help protect us from its ravages. ... Today, it sickens 300 million every year, and kills nearly 1 million, despite the fact that we've known how to cure it (with parasite-killing drugs) and prevent it (by avoiding mosquito bites) for over a century.

"The Chameleon Farm"

The Chameleon Farm (facebook link) is a private "farm" owned by a man and a woman who raise "high quality chameleons" and provide training in raising chameleons. Their site has a lot of good photos of interactions with chameleons, and Devid Sketchbook, where I found the link to this site, has a number of very cool chameleon close-ups.

Alison Balsom Blows David Letterman Away

An Ethical Question

Let us suppose you have discovered a new energy source, one that is bountiful and cheap and easy to implement. You have, say, devised away to use seawater to generate electricity by polarizing its natural ions which, when they comeback together, push electricity down electric lines -- creating an energy source that, while prodigious and dwarfing other sources of energy on Earth, is constantly renewed by sunlight (the incidence of which ionizes and polarizes the seawater). The process is like a siphon: once started it keeps flowing as long as there's an outlet on or pull coming from the other end. (We're dreaming here.)  And it's non-polluting to generate.

Good Advice for All of Us

The Artwork of Zhou Fan

Zhou Fan (周范) is a Chinese surrealist illustrator/painter whose brightly colored work features, usually, women and fish.  I will not speculate on the psychology behind this -- he says it comes from childhood dreams (which is a good answer for a surrealist) -- and I am doubtful the freud would have actually contributed much to a discussion of it, either, though no doubt his speculations would have been fascinating. Zhou's work is nonetheless beautiful (I word I use far too often, but still, if it's beautiful it's beautiful). There's a lot of sites that have covered his work -- The Jealous Curator (great site where I first saw his work), Booooooom, and Art Scene Warehouse (Chinese contemporary art), among others. And though it has no particular relevance other than sometimes it's interesting to see the creator, here is an image of the Zhou, a very young guy.

"Eloquent Biden Brings Entire Audience To Tears In Debate Stunner"

As reported in The Onion, America's Finest News Source, Joltin' Joe Biden, U.S. Vice President, just killed at tonight's Vice Presidential debate. Joe gave an impassioned closing statement, according to the article:

We’ve been through some crazy times, me and Barry [Pres. Barack Obama],” said Biden, taking a quick swig from a flask he pulled from the inside pocket of his leather jacket. “He’s caught me on his roof doing some stuff I probably shouldn’t have been doing. Stuff I’m not proud of, despite how cocky I might act. But you know what? I trust him. And he trusts me. I don’t want to make some big political speech up here, but I will tell you right now that Barry’s the guy to lead us. He’s a good fuckin’ man. What’s more, he’s my dear friend. And I love him.

Unlike my sarcasm at President Obama's poor debate performance, I actually think Joe Biden won this one.  I was particularly offended, though, that Ryan provided no specifics on anything.

The Kinetic Sculptures of Theo Jansen

Theo Jansen is a Dutch physicist/artist who refers to his large walking, usually wind powered sculptures -- which he calls "Strandbeests" ("Beach Beasts") -- as if they are alive and capable of evolving, and the stepping he developed for them as equivalent to the creation of the wheel. I don't know that I'd go that far, and I see his creations as works of art, not highly developed technology. Nonetheless, they are very beautiful and fascinating works of art. Here's a TED talk showing his work:

The Worlds of Catherine Nelson

Via Colossal, the work of Catherine Nelson, an Australian artist who digitally  manipulates hundreds or thousands of photographs to create new "worlds." Her completed works are huge -- each piece is about a meter on a side -- and (from what I can see through the magic of the internet) gorgeous.

Nelson's work is a response to the fact that single photographs are limited by the frame of the shot. She blends photographs, creating a sort of 360° image but in the round -- a fictional world.  She describes her work as painterly, yet I think her work is much more like a visual poem than a painting.

The post at Colossal has better images of her work (though fewer) than her site.  Here are some I've shamelessly borrowed from there:

A Goddamned Good Site

Fucking Homepage. That is all.  (Other than that all the filters in the World just banned my site.)

Fine Americans, All

Recently in exciting news from the world of Republicans:

• David Siegel, whose made his billions in the timeshare condo racket (and had to settle a criminal case for violations of federal laws as well as paying millions for sexual harrassment), threatened his 6500+ employees with termination if they vote for Obama.  This despite the fact he's prospered greatly while Obama's been President and, in fact, is in the process of building himself the largest house in the United States.
• Georgia U.S. Representative Dr. Paul Broun said "All that stuff I was taught about evolution and embryology and Big Bang theory, all that is lies straight from the pit of hell." He also said he believes the Earth is about 9,000 years old and it was made in six days. Broun sits on the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology. Broun says in the video that he got into politics to support hunting -- during his speech there are a huge number of stuffed deer heads on the wall behind him.  He believes President Obama is a socialist trying to destroy the Constitution.
• Meanwhile, guitarist with hearing loss Ted Nugent, who also has had his share of legal troubles , accused the Obama administration of treason, referring to them as "enemies of America." He did this on the eve of a Discovery Channel special promoting "an inside look at gun culture" from Nugent's viewpoint. Nugent said at the 2012 NRA Convention "if Barack Obama becomes the President in November, again, I will either be dead or in jail by this time next year." He also compared the Obama administration and Democrats to coyotes who needed to be shot, and encouraged voters to "chop [Democrats'] heads off in November." In the past he's threatened to kill the President and the Secretary of State.  Nugent is an avid gun and hunting proponent.
• Donald Trump, who is both (a) a multimillionaire real estate mogul with a lot of legal troubles and huge houses and (b) an entertainer, called President Obama a "Foreign candidate getting foreign donations."  Trump ... wait, frankly, the less I say about Donald Trump the better we'll all be since he thrives on the attention he gets from being shitheel.

Houses in Luque, Paraguay

One of a pair of houses by Bauen (which may have the least helpful website of any architectural firm in this sector of the galaxy) in Luque, which is part of Greater Asuncion in Paraguay.  This is really a beautiful earth berm adaptation and an elegant adaption of the house to its landscape. See the initial link for more site and interior shots. Via Contemporist.

"Meet the Supercow"

Via a link at Bits & Pieces, a National Geographic short about cattle that have been selectively bred to avoid the gene (myostatin) that limits muscle growth:

See also Cow Engineered to Produce Less Allergenic Milk; an article on cows supposedly genetically modified to produce human breast milk (I think the key word there is "supposedly"); an article on blocking myostatin in macaque monkeys to increase muscle growth; and an article about super strong children lacking the gene for myostatin.

Popsicle Advertisement

It's been a while since I've posted anything upbeat, and, since I am a "tool for the Man" or something, here's an upbeat ad:

Popsicle - Sweeten Your Life from Ross Ching on Vimeo.

Incredible Ballpoint Pen Drawings by Mark Powell on Old Envelopes

Mark Powell's drawings are simply amazing. Using simple ballpoint pens he draws incredible portraits, usually of the elderly, on old envelopes, filling them with thought, experience, and expression. His site is definitely worth clicking through to; just keep scrolling down.

His biography and artist's statement also say something, which is unusual -- artist's statements often seem to be so much tripe. Here, let me quote it:

"TV Tricks of the Trade -- Quotes and Cutaways"

Via Bits & Pieces.

"Powering the Cell: Mitochondria"

Another incredible video from Harvard Bio Visions:

The Problem with Huawei and ZTE

The U.S. House Intelligence Committee recommended yesterday, October 7, 2012, that the U.S. Government not do business with two Chinese technology companies, Huawei and ZTE, and other companies should avoid conducting business with them. The report raises questions about the balance between free trade and security. The report, which is bipartisan,was based on a yearlong investigation and supposedly discovered evidence of potentially criminal conduct that is being turned over to the F.B.I.  On the eve of the report the television show 60 Minutes had a report on Huawei and the Intelligence Committee investigation.