Jo S. Wun's Blog, page 10
November 10, 2011
A Man On A Bike With A Dog
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Not a bad picture but not especially good either. I'm sure a professional photographer could offer some advice about exposure, lighting and so on. But it's just a snap, right?
Well, not exactly. It's part of a snap, a very big one. In fact this snippet is a mere 0.0006% of the photograph of which it is a part. That gigantic photograph is far too big to display in this post, so click the link below to experience it in all its glory.
Sevilla 111 Gigapixels is a huge panoramic and interactive photograph of the Spanish city of Seville, which consists of 111 thousand million pixels.
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November 9, 2011
Alpha Unblocker
In a time described as 'way back when':
I verge on desperation,
As the ink of inspiration,
Congeals within my pen.
And now the modern paradigm:
Blank pixels by the million tease
As fingers over keyboard freeze
While dredging for a rhyme
Circling The Prey
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A few days ago, maybe a week or more, I clicked a link and found myself at the Circle of Prayer Facebook page where Circle of Prayer asks, "What prayers has God answered for you this week?" Always curious, I read the long list of comments.
Quite a few people said that they and their family had woken up in the morning, alive and well. Fingers crossed they never forget to say the prayer they believe was the cause of that outcome, although, barring a Groundhog Day type of miracle, it seems likely there will come a day when it's not answered. Of the rest, apart from some rather odd ones, and others of a very mundane nature, there were some which did touch my 'heart strings' because they reflected the troubles which many people face in their day to day lives.
There was one though, which, bad as it may make me, caused me to GOL (giggle out loud):
"God kept me safe from harm and unwanted traffic fines and accidents, schemes and attacks of the enemy." [My emphasis]
I pictured a slightly manic motorist careening around committing traffic violations galore, while making the sign of the cross and asking God to protect him/her from the wrath of the traffic cops.
Something which became apparent as I read through the something over one hundred comments, which were visible on that day, was that the vast majority seemed to be from females. Not much can be inferred from such a small sample, but I counted anyway. Of the 143 comments, 116 were from females, 25 from males, and two from people whose gender was not easily discovered. That's about 81% from females.
According to Richard Peppiatt in a recent article for The Independent, roughly 75% of Britons who convert to Islam are female. That, coupled with my own observation of the Circle of Prayer contributors, who hail from the world over, makes me wonder why there seems to be a gender imbalance when it comes to things religious. I don't have any answers, and wild speculation isn't my thing, but it does raise the intriguing question of why it is so (assuming that casting the net much wider would return the same result).
Going back to the Circle of Prayer comments, I'll allow myself to speculate that, regardless of gender, nobody's been praying for world peace lately, or if they have, for reasons that entirely escape me, keeping us safe from unwanted traffic fines takes precedence.
~:~
Footnote: While looking for a suitable image for this post, after I finished writing it, I came across Christian Graphics. Now either their spelling abilities could do with a prayer or two, or someone with an uncanny insight has been at work:
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Ta very much - that's how I got the title of this post.
November 8, 2011
Where Are We Now?
No, I'm not referring to the question asked at increasingly short intervals by small, bored children on a long journey. Although, come to think of it, perhaps we are, as a species, like small children on a long journey in this universe. And where we are in this universe is what this post is about.
This interactive flash animation, by Cary and Michael Huang, allows you to zoom in and out to see the scale of what we currently know about our habitat. The original, which displays in a bigger window, can be found on their website. There are also links there to a couple of variations on the theme.
It reminds me of an old film called Powers Of Ten, made by the office of Charles and Ray Eames, which I featured in a post way back when (but I can't find it so here is the You Tube link).
Most of the time, my consciousness is concerned with my immediate environment, my physical needs and wants, my desires, and also, those of the people and creatures who share my immediate environment. I also spend time thinking about the state of the world, and what I might be able to do to influence what's going on. But sometimes, it's good to put it into the wider context of the universe, where, looking at it dispassionately, we appear to be insignificant in the extreme. A good antidote to species arrogance.
There seems little doubt that at the vast scale of the universe, what we do here on our little mouldy pebble will not have any more affect on the universe than a single ant climbing up the side of a house has on our solar system. But what we do does have an effect on each other, our yet to be born children, and all the other occupants, both current and future, of this planet. And that's good enough reason for me to think we should think carefully about our actions.
I hope that in a hundred, a thousand, or even ten thousand years time, human beings will still be pondering our place in the universe, even though they are sure to understand more about it than we do today. Here's a question to ask ourselves on a regular basis: Is the way I lead my life likely to help or hinder future generations? Hopefully you will want to be one of the helpers.
The flash animation above is hosted by Primax Studio who specialize in digital design and website optimization.
November 7, 2011
Two Brainy Guys And Some Mince Pies
Always good to see things presented visually. It adds a perspective to the data that makes it more comprehensible. However, data and statistics are always open to different interpretations. I wish I felt as confident as Hans about the future. I don't think our current economic and political systems are designed to achieve the outcome he sees as 'fully possible'.
I could take a semantic scalpel to that phrase, and bang on about things being either possible or not possible, but that would be boring! Much more interesting to mention how Hans, despite being Swedish rather than German, reminded me of Professor Heinz Wolff, who became quite famous as the presenter of The Great Egg Race, a quirky science show on BBC2 television, in the 70s and 80s.
I can't find a video clip of it, but I remember the professor saying in an interview that, to him, his voice did not sound odd at all - he didn't hear an accent when he spoke. I think he must have been referring to listening in real time, while he was speaking 'live'. Listening to my recorded voice always surprises me slightly, because it sounds different to what I hear when I'm speaking 'live'. Here's the professor, in 2008, talking about the Large Hadron Collider and mince pies.
November 6, 2011
A Little Light Irreverence For A Sunday
WARNING: Do not watch the video if your religious sensibilities are easily offended. If you don't understand the difference between humour, being offensive, and taking offence, then, for your own benefit, stand away from the humour now, and vacate the area immediately!
The original footage, taken in 2008, can be found on the BBC News website.
November 5, 2011
Ancestral Revelation
Eyeballs swivel to and fro
In lubricated sockets
Detecting light and shadow.
Through optic nerve raw signals race
To feed the hungry visual cortex.
A painter of reality
Fills in data gaps galore
From the palette of imagination.
Behold! The supernatural
Alive in vivid thoughts and dreams
Gives birth to unassailable belief
Passed on through generations.
And underneath it all
A theme as yet unknown:
The mighty double helix holds
A Detailed Natural Archive
Pre-tagged 'Do Not Adjust'.
One hundred thousand years
Five thousand generations
Fifteen hundred lifetimes
Mistakes were made!
Eyeballs swivel to and fro
In lubricated sockets
Detecting light and shadow.
Through optic nerve raw signals race
To feed the hungry visual cortex.
Your painter of reality
Converts this data stream to words
From the palette of your education.
Knowledge tames imagination
Imagination fuels knowledge.
A symbiotic beauty
Guiding us into the unknown
November 4, 2011
Shock Horror - Science Fraud Outted
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Diederik Stapel, a scientist working in the field of social psychology at Tilburg University in the Netherlands, has been suspended after it came to light that he had made up, or manipulated, data in dozens of papers over nearly a decade. When confronted with the accusations, it is said that he stated that some of his papers contained falsified data. In a statement issued on October 31, he wrote, "I have failed as a scientist, as a researcher," and offered his "sincere apologies" to all concerned.
I was able to speak with several members of the International Interfaith Dialogue Unit which discovered the discrepancies, and who, as a body, subsequently alerted the authorities. All those I spoke with expressed a wish to remain anonymous, unanimously citing the maintenance of social cohesion within their unit as the reason. In deference to their wishes, I will refer to them by the agreed aliases "Honest John", "Honest Gabriele" and "Honest Abdul."
Speaking with Honest John, via Skype, he explained that the International Interfaith Dialogue Unit (IIDU) were discussing the way forward for interfaith dialogue when, incredibly, he fell into a deep sleep. In a dream, the Lord came unto him and spake thusly: "Honest John, there hath been grave misdeeds committed by Juan Stapel at the Kirk of Tilburg." When he awoke, it came to him that he must have misheard 'Juan Stapel', and that the Lord had meant 'one Stapel', the relatively unknown scientist working at Tilburg University. Immediately, he interrupted the proceedings to convey this message to those of other faiths in the IIDU, and after a bit of interfaith dialogue, they all agreed that the revelation should be passed on to the University.
Honest Gabriele, via satellite link, confirmed the overall story, although he said he felt honour bound to say that it was actually revealed to him by an angel who appeared to him in the corridor after he'd slipped out for a quick one.
Honest Abdul, via short wave radio, assured me that it had indeed been a revelation, but it had in fact been revealed to him during the time that interfaith dialogue had been put on hold while he broadcast afternoon prayers. He said he had picked up a direct transmission on a divine wavelength.
Read the full story here: ScienceMag Insider
November 3, 2011
Top Stories!
I don't use Facebook, apart from having set up a page which is really not much more than a repeater of what I post here. A case of, "it seemed like a good idea at the time."
I do know people who are Facebook users, from casual once-in-a-while types to serious addicts, who spend all their waking hours logged in. A friend, who falls midway on that scale, asked me if I have trouble with the Top Stories feature. "Top Stories?" I enquired. He gave me a rather disdainful look, but patiently explained about the news feed and the relatively recent change whereby Facebook highlights what it thinks are status updates of special note, and puts them in their own section above all the other updates. It was clear from his tone that this behaviour is something he despises, with a vengeance.
It turns out that ever since it was introduced, he has clicked the little blue triangle which denotes a 'Top Story' (an action which removes 'Top Story' status) on every single one which has appeared. Doing so briefly displays the following pop-up notice...
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It seems the algorithm Facebook uses doesn't try very hard - he still regularly gets several status updates marked as Top Stories in his news feed, which all seem very similar to the ones he marks as 'ordinary', Perhaps the algorithm has self-esteem issues and has trouble accepting defeat. Or maybe it just goes something like this:
START: Mark random status update as 'Top Story'
If user removes Top Story status
Then pop up plausible acknowledgement
Goto START
I hope Diaspora* doesn't ever start to behave that way, but then the code is open source so the chances of it happening are practically nil. I like what I'm seeing there. Look me up if you join.
November 2, 2011
What's Sour In Japanese?
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Sorry Sour, but I'm not sure I'd listen to the music if it wasn't the soundtrack to the video. That said, the video is worth watching. The notes from the You Tube page are below, which explains how it was done. The lyrics are also reproduced below - I think they may have lost a little something in translation! The gist seems to be 'be yourself, join together, puddles are ok'.
= = = From the You Tube page = = =
This music video was shot for Sour's 'Hibi no Neiro' (Tone of everyday) from their first mini album 'Water Flavor EP'. The cast were selected from the actual Sour fan base, from many countries around the world. Each person and scene was filmed purely via webcam.
Director: Masashi Kawamura + Hal Kirkland + Magico Nakamura + Masayoshi Nakamura
SOUR official site: http://sour-web.com
2009 Zealot Co.,ltd / Neutral Nine Records
LYRICS ----------------------------------------------------------
Your heart that gently reflects in the puddle
is your tone, as you pass through the maze of everyday
Footsteps of spring
the city starts adding color
The melody flowsLE LU LA LI
Through the colored lenses
ReggaeDubHiphopTechnoLatin
Between the waves of all the different values
JazzRockPops Category no more
Whats the most important thing?
Spinning and turning on the overpass
as we overtake that season
this and that, which color is your melody?
Sometimes you could get confused
ReggaeDubHiphopTechnoLatin
Between the waves of all different values
JazzRockPops Category no more
What are you thinking of now?
If we can embrace all the differences
It will shine the sky in rainbow colors
Your heart that gently reflects in the puddle
is your tone, as you pass through the maze of everyday
You can see it in any color, because of your clear feeling
Dont worry about it, lets just go as we are.
If we can embrace all the differences
The rain will stop, and the sky will shines in rainbow colors
Your heart that gently reflects in the puddle
is your tone, as you pass through the maze of everyday
You can see it in any color, because of your clear feeling
Let your tone shine like the rainbow
Pass through the maze of everyday
And start playing your tone
