Happy Winter Holidays.

We now have a brussels sprouts tree in my brother's place, thanks to Trader Joe's! It looks similar to this one:


Ah, California. As a visitor to your state, you have succeeded in making me feel inadequately green. You've made my efforts to recycle, save, and spend a sustainable dollar feel insignificant compared to your conservation-friendly, sustainable infrastructure and your abundance of widely-available organic food. Sadly, New Yorkers often only embrace a green, sustainable diet/lifestyle because it's the "trendy" thing to do. It's OK to be crunchy here.

Be blessed in knowing that, now, in the most desolate time of year, God loves you.

Amaranthine flowers feel no decay.

I drank something with elderberry liqueur, ginger, and absinthe in it recently, so I've been thinking about the language of flowers.

Amaranth = immortal, Rose = fleeting.

Milton, Paradise Lost:
"Immortal amarant, a flower which once
In paradise, fast by the tree of life,
Began to bloom; but soon for man's offence
To heaven removed, where first it grew, there grows,
And flowers aloft, shading the fount of life,
And where the river of bliss through midst of heaven
Rolls o'er elysian flowers her amber stream:
With these that never fade the spirits elect
Bind their resplendent locks."

Winter cheer to brighten your cold day.

In this photo provided by Disney, the canine stars from Disney's new holiday DVD 'Santa Buddies: The Legend of Santa Paws' pose on Sunday Dec. 6, 2009 on Main Street U.S.A. at the Magic Kingdom in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., while taping a segment for the 'Disney Parks Christmas Day Parade' TV special. The annual holiday telecast is scheduled to air December 25 on ABC-TV.


A participant rides with his eagle during an annual hunting competition in Chengelsy Gorge, some 150 km
(93 miles) east of Almaty, December 5, 2009. REUTERS/Shamil Zhumatov


Finally, a use for lazy cats.

Sesame Street's 40th birthday

Some songs have gotten stuck in my head over the years. Others, for example, the Letter "U" video, have been more like nightmares - downright scary.

The Ladybug's Picnic


Do De Rubber Duck

Offensive Halloween Costumes

Chinese Food Delivery Guy

"Fee Ling Yu"

Elderly Hip-hop choir

Green Halloween

Every year, it kills me to see the amount of packaging wasted on single-serving bags of candy passed out on Halloween. Tiny bars of chocolate, each wrapped in their own plastic covering, sold in a huge bag of 50, are cute - and safe, for practical, hygienic reasons - although the amount of wrapping used seems wasteful. Several ideas for a more conscious breed of candy-giving:

Give out things that come packaged in recyclable cardboard or paper rather than plastic. Whoppers (in the cardboard box), raisins, paper-wrapped candies and gums are a great start.

Avoid high-fructose corn syrup and other artificial products. Organic lollipops, natural licorice, fruit leather and fruit snacks are an alternative to heavily sweetened pseudo-foods.

Go for foil-wrapped chocolates that are low on wrapping. Earth chocolates are pretty cool.

Non-food items I used to get when I was a kid included pennies/spare change, small toys such as whistles and puzzles, and stickers. If you own your own business, this is a great opportunity for free, wide-ranging advertising: print your own candy wrappers and distribute.

Don't forget, candy wrappers can be recycled as craft material. Save bright plastic wrappers for art projects, such as this woven bracelet.

Rare Cloud Formations

Spotted on Wired: Weird, Rare Clouds and the Physics Behind Them.

Morning Glory


Lenticular


Noctilucent (Creepy!)

Aliens in a Crowded Establishment

I recently read John Gatto's Weapons of Mass Instruction: A Schoolteacher's Journey Through the Dark World of Compulsory Schooling (2008). See a short, interesting guide here. The indoctrination of mass consumerism starts at a very young age in America. I always knew that high school was always about being popular and having the clothes/toys/things of the moment, but now I understand why.

The Scholar's Desk

Some interesting things that I've seen in professors' offices over the years:
-Dog testicles from a neutered pet, dipped in gold and framed on a plaque. (She was a veterinarian/evolutionary biologist)
-6-foot tall Greek sculpture
-Academic regalia (perfect for those days when you're out of normal clothes, or when they're being laundered)

My desk is my creative space, my Paracelsan alchemical laboratory, my place to think and tinker. I'd actually prefer to have the thing entirely clean and clutter-free, that is, without a single object in sight - but at times, when one gets writer's block or needs to take a break, it's better to have some kind of inspiration than to stare off into space (or at the very worst, a blank cubicle wall). Blank, empty spaces are supposed to be better for sparking one's imagination, but I have too much junk and distractions on my desk. Toys are good for breaks, too (think of slinkies, rubik's cubes, and puzzles that you turn over in your hands, such as the breakable sphere, Jacob's ladder, infinite edamame toy, etc).

Worst possible thing for "inspiration" breaks: picking up any kind of handheld electronic device such as an iphone, checking e-mail or FriendFace.

Here's what's in my workspace. Even if you are not Dan Brown, feel free to interpret the symbolism of each object.

Framed painting of Darwin

Color-changing LED eggs

Vase with no flowers, at the moment

Framed family/friend photos

Stuffed Chihuahua, an old friend

To add:

Sculpture #1: Glass sculpture of embryo inside a round-bottomed flask

Never:
Food, with the exception of coffee/water/tea

Funnies for Friday

A Caveman Can
September 3, 2009

While channel-surfing, my dad stops at an educational channel that’s showing a documentary on Neanderthals—at a part of the documentary that happens to be without narration. After two full minutes of watching a Neanderthal going about his business in silence, Dad uttered: “This is a really long Geigo [sic] commercial.”

Why Puccini makes me cry.

Spotted at MedGadget: Latest Print Ad Campaign for the Zurich Chamber Orchestra.

Metaphors of Mind

M.C. Escher

Excerpted from Roger von Oech's A Whack on the Side of the Head: How You Can Be More Creative (Hachette Book Group, 2008, p. 56):

The models people use to understand mental processes often reflect the technology of their time.

For example, in the 17th century, people thought about the mind as though it were a mirror or lens, and this "reflects" the advances made then in the fields of optics and lens making.

The Freudian model of the mind, developed in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, seems based on the ubiquity of the steam engine locomotive. Ideas billow up from the subconscious to the conscious in the same way steam moves from boiler to compression chamber.

In the early twentieth century, the mind was viewed by some as a vast telephone switching network with circuits and relays running through the brain.

For the past forty years or so, we've had a new model of the mind: the computer. This model does a good job of describing certain aspects of our thinking. For example, we have "input" and "output" and "information processing." There is also "feedback," "programming," and "storage." This is fine as far as it goes, but some people take this model literally and think that the mind really is a computer. Indeed, they may not only dismiss the soft types of thinking for not being "logical," but even treat other people like machines.

I believe that the mind is not only a computer that processes information, it's also a museum that stores experiences, a device that encodes holograms, a playground in which to play, a muscle to be strengthened, a workshop in which to construct thoughts, a debating opponent to be won over, a cat to be stroked, a funhouse to be explored, a compost pile to be turned, and forty-one others [including a drunken crazed monkey that has St. Vitus' Dance, cavorting in a cage. Take that as a compliment, human.]
-------
I'm guilty of thinking of my mind as a machine. Why do we bang our heads repeatedly against the wall when we're frustrated, or against a desk? It's like when we smack a vending machine to get it to work, futilely.

I've also thought of my brain as a huge filing cabinet, one of those memory-ball keeper things from The Neverending Story, and a labyrinth with many unknown rooms to be discovered. If only we could. My brain is aware of itself? Sorry, it's getting pretty embarrassed right now.

My hair's way too long, therefore...

It's within one's capacity, as a native speaker of English, to understand and explain the difference in meaning between the following two sentences:
1) I really don't like pizza.
2) I don't really like pizza.

However, how would one explain the following difference? I've been thinking about this all evening.
I freaking need a haircut.
I need a freaking haircut.

Stuff to keep you entertained while my brain organizes its thoughts...

An 18th-century German physician designs a cat-piano (katzenklavier). The possibilities for LOLCAT captions are endless.

I am frequently guilty of using Thought-terminating Cliches when I assume neutrality on bothersome issues. (No one needs to know what I really think until I know you well enough.) I am also guilty of using these phrases when I don't want to engage someone in a dialogue that might lead to an argument. (Thanks to Best of Wikipedia blog)

IKEA catalog from 1965. The Scandinavian gestalt or aesthetic is still there. What did living room items look like in 1639?

Facedown - Matt Redman

Welcomed in to the courts of the King
I've been ushered in to Your presence
Lord, I stand on Your merciful ground
Yet with every step tread with reverence

And I'll fall facedown
As Your glory shines around
Yes, I'll fall facedown
As Your glory shines around

Who is there in the heavens like You?
And upon the earth, who's Your equal?
You are far above, You're the highest of heights
We are bowing down to exalt You

So let Your glory shine around
Let Your glory shine around
King of glory, here be found
King of glory

Three Wise Monkeys

"See No Evil, Hear No evil, Speak No Evil"


17th-century carving at a shrine in Nara, Japan

The origin of this ditty is debated. It has been attributed to a phrase in Japanese, a play on words, "Mizaru, kikazaru, iwazaru" (don't see, don't hear, don't speak).

At the interface of Man and Machine

Gary Numan, cover by Nine Inch Nails

We're in the building where they make us grow
And I'm frightened by the liquid engineers
Like you

My Mallory heart is sure to fail
I could crawl around the floor just like I'm real
Like you

The sound of metal I want to be you
I could learn to be a man
Like you

Plug me in and turn me on
Oh everything is moving

Heinlein - Specialization is for Insects

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.

-Robert A. Heinlein

Core Human skills

- post via Kottke.org

Children Full of Life

A must-watch documentary about the teaching of compassion, empathy, and team spirit in Japan.