negative radio

Dunne & Raby, Faraday Chair, 1998
(thanks to Duncan)

"Faraday Chair: As electronic products escape their cases and leak into the space surrounding them, it might become necessary for people to seek shelter in specially constructed non-radio spaces or negative radios. To shield our homes would be a luxury only the rich could afford. The Faraday Chair provides shelter from electromagnetic fields invading our homes. It is a utilitarian shelter of minimum dimensions and comfort, it might even be a retreat, a new place to dream, away from the constant bombardment of telecomunication and electronic radiation."

One part of their Hertzian Tales, 1994-97

nomadic living

via http://www.nextnature.net

nausea and seduction

JILIN CITY, China — Tian Lihua was just beginning her morning shift when she felt a wave of nausea, then numbness in her limbs and finally dizziness that gave way to unconsciousness. In the days that followed, more than 1,200 fellow employees at the textile mill where Ms. Tian works would be felled by these and other symptoms, including convulsions, breathing difficulties, vomiting and temporary paralysis.

“When I finally came to, I could hear the doctors talking but I couldn’t open my eyes,” she said weakly from a hospital bed last month. “They said I had a reaction to unknown substances.” -from this article by Andrew Jacobs for the NY Times

ON a recent evening, an unusual experiment took place at a lounge in downtown Manhattan. Nine blindfolded women were asked to determine, by smell alone, whether any among a group of nine men was worth pursuing.

Three men had just showered using a body wash with synthesized pheromones, three had used a body wash without pheromones, and the rest had worked up a sweat and not washed at all. They then rubbed their arms on scent strips, and handed them to the women to sniff. -from this article by Camille Sweeney for the NY Times

And in more architectural news, White Roofs Catch On as Energy Cost Cutters.

coral figuring

Margaret Wertheim- amazing!



At The Institute for Figuring,
more pictures of crochet coral

smelling salts

Smelling salts were a likely companion for any 19th century lady prone to faints and swoons. Tightly bottled and tucked into pretty pouches, these vapours were kept close at hand and called upon as necessary to "arouse consciousness".

Known throughout history by many names, smelling salts generally refer to "any preparations of ammonium carbonate ((NH4)2CO3H2O) and perfume, sniffed as a restorative or stimulant." Upon making contact "the fumes irritate the mucus membranes of the nose, throat, and lungs, stimulating the body to breathe more quickly."

A delightful and grotesque cause and effect, acting on but unbeknown st to body or mind.

*Please note that "ammonia fumes are not very good for the body, and prolonged exposure should be avoided."

either/or

caption reads:
Fig. 1. MALE NARWAL. or UNICORN. 15 Feet in Length.

!!!!!

(image from wikipedia)

april is over

(Cushing/Whitney Medical Library, Yale University, from “Dissection”)
image from this review of new coffee table book, Dissection

decisions, decisions

"Fig.2 - A taxonomy of uncertainties and decisions"

This diagram is from this strange article, The ethics of uncertainty: in the light of possible dangers, research becomes a moral duty, published by EMBO, the European Molecular Biology Organization, found on the web through Nature Magazine.

“Any scientist knows that knowledge is never complete and that research can do no more than produce estimates of what we think is happening. Science, at least in part, is not about facts but about odds. Yet accepting and realizing this principal uncertainty is a conceptual challenge, and it is within this framework that we must make decisions of a moral nature…Uncertainty itself has no ethical quality—it is an inherent attribute of a situation. However, in a potentially dangerous situation, uncertainty can trigger ethically adjusted behavior that aims to avoid dangers and diminishes risks." (from article above)

Also check out Figure 1, The Igloo of Uncertainty. The igloo schematically “distinguishes between open and closed forms of both ignorance and knowledge.”

I’m not sure why I’m so fascinated (and puzzled) by this article. I think I’m drawn to the language and its terms, even if they are used to discuss an unfamiliar topic in a way that is very different from what I’m used to.

The allure resides in the promise of clarifying certain ideas and relationships I’ve found difficult to define for myself: ethics, morality, danger, risk, certainty, uncertainty, research, facts, knowledge, and ignorance. The more I read it, the less I want to understand it word for word; and at the same time, I feel there must be another layer of comprehension or parallel reading to be distilled from it. But I’m not getting it.

The End of Philosophy, (no, not the Heidegger but this op-ed piece in, what else?, the New York Times), on moral emotions, or is it emotional morality?, is more of my grade level. It’s not especially good or compelling but I liked the concluding lines: "Finally, it should also challenge the very scientists who study morality. They’re good at explaining how people make judgments about harm and fairness, but they still struggle to explain the feelings of awe, transcendence, patriotism, joy and self-sacrifice, which are not ancillary to most people’s moral experiences, but central." (moral allusions and associations in scent?)

I was given a book I like very much for my birthday last fall from a friend I was feeling very uncertain about at the time. It is called The Principles of Uncertainty, by Maira Kalman. (small review here.) He knew I felt uncertain about a lot of things, especially my thesis. We both wondered without saying, how can such a hesitant and doubtful person ever find a way into this profession of ideals, decisions, solutions, permanence?

editing memory

Brain Researchers Open Door to Editing Memory
by Benedict Carey for The New York Times, April 5th, 2009

excerpt:
"How on earth can a clump of tissue possibly capture and store everything — poems, emotional reactions, locations of favorite bars, distant childhood scenes? The idea that experience leaves some trace in the brain goes back at least to Plato’s Theaetetus metaphor of a stamp on wax, and in 1904 the German scholar Richard Semon gave that ghostly trace a name: the engram.

What could that engram actually be?

The answer, previous research suggests, is that brain cells activated by an experience keep one another on biological speed-dial, like a group of people joined in common witness of some striking event. Call on one and word quickly goes out to the larger network of cells, each apparently adding some detail, sight, sound, smell. The brain appears to retain a memory by growing thicker, or more efficient, communication lines between these cells.

The billion-dollar question is how?"

Molecules. Everything comes down to molecules. Can they be considered the world's smallest beings? Yes, smaller things are known to us (atoms, electrons, quarks, neutrinos, etc) but do they have active lives, reasons to live, in themselves? Molecules seem exceptional, more purposeful. They have different identities and defined roles in the world- or do I just think this because the matter they compose seem more alive, even if they are not? Am I talking about the part or the whole?

Some time ago, I learned that all living things are made of cells, that cells are made of molecules, and molecules made of atoms. For some reason, atoms don't seem to have any personality of their own. Is it that while all things are made of atoms, not all things are made of molecules? Would it be true to say that only complex things are made of molecules? or that molecules always compound into complex matter? What scale am I even talking about? Atoms are incredibly complicated and energetic and the object of much concentrated study. I suppose molecules are associated more with biology and living things. Maybe that's why I think they are alive and leading interesting lives.

(Should I be equating "personality" and "complexity" with each other and with life and being? I'm not sure. I'm not really going anywhere with this anyway. I'm not sure what I even mean by personality, complexity, or life...)

In chemistry, an element is matter composed of only one type of atom- it cannot be broken down into simpler forms. Basic, inert, seemingly ineffectual in isolation- i.e. lithium, sodium, zinc - these substances are lifeless when not reacting to things external to themselves. They exist in a vacuum of sorts. On the other hand, molecules, formed when different atoms are combined in fixed ratios, can almost be seen to have a certain kind of existence of their own- complete with roles to play, jobs to do, expectations to fulfill. (this whole thought coming out of reading the brain/memory article and with the intention to researching more in depth/writing about scent molecules soon in the back of my mind). In my mind, molecules are alive in the same way a tree is alive, and atoms are dead in the same way a piece of plastic never lives.

Water molecules are particularly exciting. I remember marveling (being told to marvel?) when learning about its complex and paradoxical nature. (ice, its solid form, floats! and I remember learning something special about their magnetic polarized bondage to one another). And water in general is just kind of beautiful and lively and alive on its own.

cloacal kiss

Tiny broken shells, the prettiest sand in mississauga. Find more sand here: sand map


A friend of mine once thought that male birds inseminated eggs that female birds had lain by sitting on them in the nest, post-lay. Wonderfully uncomplicated. The whole process seemed a little too simple to believe. To find out how birds really procreate, go here for a layman's description of cloacal kissing, and here for scientific diagrams of avian reproduction.