Wednesday, November 11, 2009
bellies-full of plastic
via @NYRblog
Chris Jordan's latest photography set.
These photographs of albatross chicks were made just a few weeks ago on idway Atoll, a tiny stretch of sand and coral near the middle of the North Pacific. The nesting babies are fed bellies-full of plastic by their parents, who soar out over the vast polluted ocean collecting what looks to them like food to bring back to their young. On this diet of human trash, every year tens of thousands of albatross chicks die on Midway from starvation, toxicity, and choking.
posted by Sal Towse at 3:32 PM|
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Chris Jordan's latest photography set.
These photographs of albatross chicks were made just a few weeks ago on idway Atoll, a tiny stretch of sand and coral near the middle of the North Pacific. The nesting babies are fed bellies-full of plastic by their parents, who soar out over the vast polluted ocean collecting what looks to them like food to bring back to their young. On this diet of human trash, every year tens of thousands of albatross chicks die on Midway from starvation, toxicity, and choking.
Labels: environmentalism, photographs, science
posted by Sal Towse at 3:32 PM|
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Monday, June 08, 2009
People Who Wear Rose-colored Glasses See More, Study Shows
People Who Wear Rose-colored Glasses See More, Study Shows
A University of Toronto study provides the first direct evidence that our mood literally changes the way our visual system filters our perceptual experience suggesting that seeing the world through rose-coloured glasses is more biological reality than metaphor.
posted by Sal Towse at 3:02 PM||
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A University of Toronto study provides the first direct evidence that our mood literally changes the way our visual system filters our perceptual experience suggesting that seeing the world through rose-coloured glasses is more biological reality than metaphor.
Labels: science
posted by Sal Towse at 3:02 PM|
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Thursday, May 21, 2009
Dept. of Science: Don’t!
Dept. of Science: Don’t! -- Reporting & Essays: The New Yorker
The 18May2009 issue of The New Yorker has a loooong article by Jonah Lehrer that begins with Walter Mischel's 1960s research at the Bing Nursery School on the Stanford campus (AKA "the marshmallow experiment") and other research along similar lines.
The questions researchers and others are asking are, is the ability to delay gratification a far better predictor of academic performance and adult "success" than I.Q.? Is the ability to delay gratification a genetic trait? Will brain scans show gratification delayers' brains function differently than instant gratifiers' brains? Can one be trained to be more future-oriented and less into instant gratification? Would this help children struggling with school?
Interesting article.
Jonah Lehrer weaves his words well. These two sentences are part of Lehrer's description of Walter Mischel:
Mischel was born in Vienna, in 1930. His father was a modestly successful businessman with a fondness for café society and Esperanto, while his mother spent many of her days lying on the couch with an ice pack on her forehead, trying to soothe her frail nerves
How much is packed into those few words!
posted by Sal Towse at 6:04 PM||
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The 18May2009 issue of The New Yorker has a loooong article by Jonah Lehrer that begins with Walter Mischel's 1960s research at the Bing Nursery School on the Stanford campus (AKA "the marshmallow experiment") and other research along similar lines.
The questions researchers and others are asking are, is the ability to delay gratification a far better predictor of academic performance and adult "success" than I.Q.? Is the ability to delay gratification a genetic trait? Will brain scans show gratification delayers' brains function differently than instant gratifiers' brains? Can one be trained to be more future-oriented and less into instant gratification? Would this help children struggling with school?
Interesting article.
Jonah Lehrer weaves his words well. These two sentences are part of Lehrer's description of Walter Mischel:
Mischel was born in Vienna, in 1930. His father was a modestly successful businessman with a fondness for café society and Esperanto, while his mother spent many of her days lying on the couch with an ice pack on her forehead, trying to soothe her frail nerves
How much is packed into those few words!
Labels: education, psychology, science
posted by Sal Towse at 6:04 PM|
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Monday, March 23, 2009
Carl Sagan's Cosmos
Carl Sagan's Cosmos is available for free! at Hulu.
In 1980, the landmark series Cosmos premiered on public television. Since then, it is estimated that more than a billion people around the planet have seen it. Cosmos chronicles the evolution of the planet and efforts to find our place in the universe. Each of the 13 episodes focuses on a specific aspect of the nature of life, consciousness, the universe and time. Topics include the origin of life on Earth (and perhaps elsewhere), the nature of consciousness, and the birth and death of stars. When it first aired, the series catapulted creator and host Carl Sagan to the status of pop culture icon and opened countless minds to the power of science and the possibility of life on other worlds.
[via JDRoth's twitterfeed]
posted by Sal Towse at 9:46 AM||
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In 1980, the landmark series Cosmos premiered on public television. Since then, it is estimated that more than a billion people around the planet have seen it. Cosmos chronicles the evolution of the planet and efforts to find our place in the universe. Each of the 13 episodes focuses on a specific aspect of the nature of life, consciousness, the universe and time. Topics include the origin of life on Earth (and perhaps elsewhere), the nature of consciousness, and the birth and death of stars. When it first aired, the series catapulted creator and host Carl Sagan to the status of pop culture icon and opened countless minds to the power of science and the possibility of life on other worlds.
[via JDRoth's twitterfeed]
Labels: culture, science, video
posted by Sal Towse at 9:46 AM|
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Friday, February 20, 2009
Field Trip Report (12Feb-19Feb 2009)
BEGIN FIELD TRIP REPORT
Thursday 12 Feb 2009
Up by 3:15A. Super Shuttle pickup at 3:45A for a 6:A departure from SFO.
Arrived O'Hare. Caught GO Shuttle to Fairmont for the 2009 AAAS annual conference, which split meetings between Hyatt Regency (sessions) and Fairmont (plenary talks).
We've been attending AAAS meetings during the long Presidents' Day weekend in February since 2001 when the meeting was held in San Francisco and had dueling plenary talks by Francis Collins (director of the government's National Human Genome Research Institute) and J Craig Ventner (head of privately-held Celera Genomics) announcing the decoding of the human genome.
Also that year was one of the best (and most beautiful) plenary talks I've been to: David Malin's overview of astronomy images from the Anglo-Australian Observatory. Beautiful.
We had such an entertaining time that in 2002, when the meeting was in Boston, we went again. And we've continued going each year as the meeting moved.
# Boston, Massachusetts, February 2008
# San Francisco, California, February 2007
# St. Louis, Missouri, February 2006
# Washington, D.C., February 2005
# Seattle, Washington, February 2004
# Denver, Colorado, February 2003
# Boston, Massachusetts, February 2002
# San Francisco, California, February 2001
Back in the day when I was writing a monthly surfing-the-web column, I could always depend on the AAAS meeting to give me enough batter to cook up several months of columns.
Arriving at the Fairmont, Chicago, Thursday afternoon, we checked into our room and walked over to the Hyatt to pick up our badges and bags and schedules.
(The AAAS Annual Meeting offers a unique, exciting, interdisciplinary blend of more than 150 symposia, plenary and topical lectures, specialized seminars, poster presentations, and Exhibit Hall.)
From 5-6:30P Thursday, we attended the Canadian reception at the Hyatt and schmoozed and noshed and drank wine, then moved over to the Fairmont for the AAAS opening and plenary talk by James T. McCarthy, President of AAAS, followed by more nosh and wine. Wine at the AAAS function was open bar (and $9/glass of wine!), so the amount poured by the tenders was considerably less than what was poured at the Canadian reception.
Friday 13 Feb 2009
Friday... sessions. His nibs' background is in experimental high energy particle physics. Mine is in biology with a chemistry minor. When we look at the sessions (15-25 per time slot) and scratch this one and star that one as we decided which of the multitude available we'll check into and maybe stay with, our choices are amazingly complementary. i.e. He scratches the things I star and vice versa. We do meet up at the noon-time topical lectures sometimes and the evening plenaries, but he'd rather listen to people expound on string theory while I'd rather listen to people talk about the problems of resuscitating dead zones in the Black Sea.
The Friday plenary (Evolutionary biologist Sean B. Carroll on Remarkable Creatures: Epic Adventures in the Search for the Origins of Species ) was held early, (4:30 - 5:30P). Interesting. Carroll talked of Charles Darwin, Alfred Russel Wallace and Henry Walter Bates, who were all under 25 when they went off exploring into the Amazon jungle, the Malay peninsula and on the Beagle and came back and changed biological science. Wallace, Bates and Darwin and their on-going inter-related histories made for an interesting tale.
Luckily for us we went, because some people left after the talk and we shifted over five seats in our row (third row back, stage left, even with the speaker podium) and wound up within feet of the speaker podium with an uninterrupted view.
We sat around, holding onto our super primo seats, waiting for the 6:30-7:30P talk by ... Al Gore. We were >< that close to him. The ballroom was packed. The bouncers at the door were checking to make sure all the people filing in to find seats had their conference badges showing. The room kept getting fuller and fuller until it was utterly packed and Gore took the stage, thanking everyone for the welcome, thanking the scientists in the audience (by name) who had helped him further his understanding of climate change, thanking the multitudes who were off in another room listening to his talk because they couldn't be seated in the ballroom.
Interesting to see him do his pitch, which we've all heard so much about. I've never seen An Inconvenient Truth, but had heard folks tit for tatting about it. Gore had new slides and a revamped talk, updated things to say about climate change. Turns out a slew of scientists at the meeting, including the Prez, who'd given the plenary the night before, had given him long and lengthy explanations about what was going on that he'd used as a basis for parts of his original talk, and this one.
I knew some folks I knew from elsewhere would be having kittens if they were listening to Gore talk, which made it all the more enjoyable.
Walked over, after Gore finished and left the building, to the Elephant & Castle and had a couple Guinness and steaktips in gravy w/ mashed for dinner.
Saturday 14 Feb 2009
Saturday was another full day of sessions.
From 5:-6:30P we went to the AAAS Awards Ceremony and Reception at the Fairmont and enjoyed delish food (lamb riblets, &c.) and wine after. Then on to the 6:30-7:30P plenary address. Planetary scientist Susan W. Kieffer gave Saturday's address: Celebrating the Earth: Its Past, Our Present, a Future? Kieffer had interesting things to say, but gave her lecture reading from her notes. STOP IT!
One of the things that becomes obvious during AAAS is the difference between having something interesting to say and having an interesting way to say it. Some sessions have talks that are just too mumble mumble boring while others are pepped up and interesting.
Stopped off to see Paul Sereno give his Family Science Day pitch in the exhibit hall on Saturday. He has amazing energy and a way of connecting to young people who come to listen to him talk about hunting down dinosaurs. Compare his stage presence with ... well, we won't go there. Suffice to say that some scientists really really really need media coaching to properly convey the excitement of the stuff they work on.
We returned Saturday night to Elephant & Castle for Valentine's Day dinner. Ah, the romance.
Sunday 15 Feb 2009
After another full day of sessions, Sunday's plenary was A Neanderthal Perspective on Human Origins by evolutionary geneticist Svante Pääbo. Interesting guy. Interesting talk.
We had Sunday dinner at the Fairmont because by this time it was snowing a bit and we had no clue which restaurants might be open on Sundays. We'd been stopping off at a coffee/sandwich place for a morning poppyseed bagel (split, toasted, with cream cheese) and coffee on our way over to the Hyatt and discovered Saturday and Sunday that "our" place was closed so we stopped off at a local small market that sold far-too-sweet-plastic-wrapped-coffee-rolls and coffee.
We didn't want to wander out in the cold and snow Sunday evening and find that the restaurants we might be thinking of going to were closed. Hotel it was. We stopped off in the bar/sushi/casual food venue because we weren't interested in what a hotel might think was a dining experience. The food arrived tepid. Too long under the heat lamps, perhaps. The service was slow. The food was over priced for what you got. The waitress mis-represented the beer she offered as an alternative after she told us they'd run out of the beer we wanted. (Gee, the beer she offered was $3/bottle more than what we'd ordered and she forgot to mention it?!??! Gee ... Odd.)
Other than that ...
Monday 16 Feb 2009
Monday was the wrap up of the conference with the last sessions ending at 12:30P. We'd asked for late checkout Sunday evening, and needed the extra time. We caught a cab to the Metra @ Union Station about 1:15. Ate sandwiches at the station while we waited for the express train that zipped us to Naperville in half an hour or so where Mom picked us up with the grandkids in the car -- even the teenager, who was off school because it was Presidents' Day.
Mom is in a bowling league and rather than spend hours there on Tuesday, when her team/league was playing, we went over to the bowling alley Monday evening so she could bowl three games in lieu, with the alley keeping her scores for the league play.
The teenager, his nibs, myself, the five-year-old and the three-year-old bowled in the alley to the right of Mom's. Our single game took as long as she took to bowl three. The two youngest in our set had to roll the ball with both hands down the alley (bumper guards up of course). We waited patiently each time to see if the ball would even reach the pins. The ball always did, although not at great speed.
The teenager beat me by a point. His nibs came in just a bit behind our scores. Not bad for a couple geezers who hadn't bowled in forever. (I think my last bowling set was about three decades ago.)
Tuesday 17 Feb 2009
Next day the teenager went to school and the geezers and Mom took the younger ones to the Brookfield Zoo for the day to see dolphins and pennipeds and orangutans and such. Came home in time for Mom to head off to her p/t job.
Wednesday 18 Feb 2009
Wednesday, the teenager stayed home from school to spend some quality time with her gparents. (Permission granted by Mom because the teenager's grades showed all As and Bs when checked online.)
Thursday 17 Feb 2009
We got up early in order to spend some time with the teenager before she left to catch the school bus at 7:15A. Three and a half hours later, a shuttle picked us up and drove us to O'Hare to catch our plane home.
A fine time was had by me, and I think by all. More complete notes re sessions and plenaries remain to be straightened out.
END FIELD TRIP REPORT
posted by Sal Towse at 1:07 PM||
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Thursday 12 Feb 2009
Up by 3:15A. Super Shuttle pickup at 3:45A for a 6:A departure from SFO.
Arrived O'Hare. Caught GO Shuttle to Fairmont for the 2009 AAAS annual conference, which split meetings between Hyatt Regency (sessions) and Fairmont (plenary talks).
We've been attending AAAS meetings during the long Presidents' Day weekend in February since 2001 when the meeting was held in San Francisco and had dueling plenary talks by Francis Collins (director of the government's National Human Genome Research Institute) and J Craig Ventner (head of privately-held Celera Genomics) announcing the decoding of the human genome.
Also that year was one of the best (and most beautiful) plenary talks I've been to: David Malin's overview of astronomy images from the Anglo-Australian Observatory. Beautiful.
We had such an entertaining time that in 2002, when the meeting was in Boston, we went again. And we've continued going each year as the meeting moved.
# Boston, Massachusetts, February 2008
# San Francisco, California, February 2007
# St. Louis, Missouri, February 2006
# Washington, D.C., February 2005
# Seattle, Washington, February 2004
# Denver, Colorado, February 2003
# Boston, Massachusetts, February 2002
# San Francisco, California, February 2001
Back in the day when I was writing a monthly surfing-the-web column, I could always depend on the AAAS meeting to give me enough batter to cook up several months of columns.
Arriving at the Fairmont, Chicago, Thursday afternoon, we checked into our room and walked over to the Hyatt to pick up our badges and bags and schedules.
(The AAAS Annual Meeting offers a unique, exciting, interdisciplinary blend of more than 150 symposia, plenary and topical lectures, specialized seminars, poster presentations, and Exhibit Hall.)
From 5-6:30P Thursday, we attended the Canadian reception at the Hyatt and schmoozed and noshed and drank wine, then moved over to the Fairmont for the AAAS opening and plenary talk by James T. McCarthy, President of AAAS, followed by more nosh and wine. Wine at the AAAS function was open bar (and $9/glass of wine!), so the amount poured by the tenders was considerably less than what was poured at the Canadian reception.
Friday 13 Feb 2009
Friday... sessions. His nibs' background is in experimental high energy particle physics. Mine is in biology with a chemistry minor. When we look at the sessions (15-25 per time slot) and scratch this one and star that one as we decided which of the multitude available we'll check into and maybe stay with, our choices are amazingly complementary. i.e. He scratches the things I star and vice versa. We do meet up at the noon-time topical lectures sometimes and the evening plenaries, but he'd rather listen to people expound on string theory while I'd rather listen to people talk about the problems of resuscitating dead zones in the Black Sea.
The Friday plenary (Evolutionary biologist Sean B. Carroll on Remarkable Creatures: Epic Adventures in the Search for the Origins of Species ) was held early, (4:30 - 5:30P). Interesting. Carroll talked of Charles Darwin, Alfred Russel Wallace and Henry Walter Bates, who were all under 25 when they went off exploring into the Amazon jungle, the Malay peninsula and on the Beagle and came back and changed biological science. Wallace, Bates and Darwin and their on-going inter-related histories made for an interesting tale.
Luckily for us we went, because some people left after the talk and we shifted over five seats in our row (third row back, stage left, even with the speaker podium) and wound up within feet of the speaker podium with an uninterrupted view.
We sat around, holding onto our super primo seats, waiting for the 6:30-7:30P talk by ... Al Gore. We were >< that close to him. The ballroom was packed. The bouncers at the door were checking to make sure all the people filing in to find seats had their conference badges showing. The room kept getting fuller and fuller until it was utterly packed and Gore took the stage, thanking everyone for the welcome, thanking the scientists in the audience (by name) who had helped him further his understanding of climate change, thanking the multitudes who were off in another room listening to his talk because they couldn't be seated in the ballroom.
Interesting to see him do his pitch, which we've all heard so much about. I've never seen An Inconvenient Truth, but had heard folks tit for tatting about it. Gore had new slides and a revamped talk, updated things to say about climate change. Turns out a slew of scientists at the meeting, including the Prez, who'd given the plenary the night before, had given him long and lengthy explanations about what was going on that he'd used as a basis for parts of his original talk, and this one.
I knew some folks I knew from elsewhere would be having kittens if they were listening to Gore talk, which made it all the more enjoyable.
Walked over, after Gore finished and left the building, to the Elephant & Castle and had a couple Guinness and steaktips in gravy w/ mashed for dinner.
Saturday 14 Feb 2009
Saturday was another full day of sessions.
From 5:-6:30P we went to the AAAS Awards Ceremony and Reception at the Fairmont and enjoyed delish food (lamb riblets, &c.) and wine after. Then on to the 6:30-7:30P plenary address. Planetary scientist Susan W. Kieffer gave Saturday's address: Celebrating the Earth: Its Past, Our Present, a Future? Kieffer had interesting things to say, but gave her lecture reading from her notes. STOP IT!
One of the things that becomes obvious during AAAS is the difference between having something interesting to say and having an interesting way to say it. Some sessions have talks that are just too mumble mumble boring while others are pepped up and interesting.
Stopped off to see Paul Sereno give his Family Science Day pitch in the exhibit hall on Saturday. He has amazing energy and a way of connecting to young people who come to listen to him talk about hunting down dinosaurs. Compare his stage presence with ... well, we won't go there. Suffice to say that some scientists really really really need media coaching to properly convey the excitement of the stuff they work on.
We returned Saturday night to Elephant & Castle for Valentine's Day dinner. Ah, the romance.
Sunday 15 Feb 2009
After another full day of sessions, Sunday's plenary was A Neanderthal Perspective on Human Origins by evolutionary geneticist Svante Pääbo. Interesting guy. Interesting talk.
We had Sunday dinner at the Fairmont because by this time it was snowing a bit and we had no clue which restaurants might be open on Sundays. We'd been stopping off at a coffee/sandwich place for a morning poppyseed bagel (split, toasted, with cream cheese) and coffee on our way over to the Hyatt and discovered Saturday and Sunday that "our" place was closed so we stopped off at a local small market that sold far-too-sweet-plastic-wrapped-coffee-rolls and coffee.
We didn't want to wander out in the cold and snow Sunday evening and find that the restaurants we might be thinking of going to were closed. Hotel it was. We stopped off in the bar/sushi/casual food venue because we weren't interested in what a hotel might think was a dining experience. The food arrived tepid. Too long under the heat lamps, perhaps. The service was slow. The food was over priced for what you got. The waitress mis-represented the beer she offered as an alternative after she told us they'd run out of the beer we wanted. (Gee, the beer she offered was $3/bottle more than what we'd ordered and she forgot to mention it?!??! Gee ... Odd.)
Other than that ...
Monday 16 Feb 2009
Monday was the wrap up of the conference with the last sessions ending at 12:30P. We'd asked for late checkout Sunday evening, and needed the extra time. We caught a cab to the Metra @ Union Station about 1:15. Ate sandwiches at the station while we waited for the express train that zipped us to Naperville in half an hour or so where Mom picked us up with the grandkids in the car -- even the teenager, who was off school because it was Presidents' Day.
Mom is in a bowling league and rather than spend hours there on Tuesday, when her team/league was playing, we went over to the bowling alley Monday evening so she could bowl three games in lieu, with the alley keeping her scores for the league play.
The teenager, his nibs, myself, the five-year-old and the three-year-old bowled in the alley to the right of Mom's. Our single game took as long as she took to bowl three. The two youngest in our set had to roll the ball with both hands down the alley (bumper guards up of course). We waited patiently each time to see if the ball would even reach the pins. The ball always did, although not at great speed.
The teenager beat me by a point. His nibs came in just a bit behind our scores. Not bad for a couple geezers who hadn't bowled in forever. (I think my last bowling set was about three decades ago.)
Tuesday 17 Feb 2009
Next day the teenager went to school and the geezers and Mom took the younger ones to the Brookfield Zoo for the day to see dolphins and pennipeds and orangutans and such. Came home in time for Mom to head off to her p/t job.
Wednesday 18 Feb 2009
Wednesday, the teenager stayed home from school to spend some quality time with her gparents. (Permission granted by Mom because the teenager's grades showed all As and Bs when checked online.)
Thursday 17 Feb 2009
We got up early in order to spend some time with the teenager before she left to catch the school bus at 7:15A. Three and a half hours later, a shuttle picked us up and drove us to O'Hare to catch our plane home.
A fine time was had by me, and I think by all. More complete notes re sessions and plenaries remain to be straightened out.
END FIELD TRIP REPORT
posted by Sal Towse at 1:07 PM|
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Saturday, December 20, 2008
Fireworks and explosions
Of the jobs I wish I'd had, fireworks designer/handler is up near the top of the list. Also near the top is implosion designer/handler.
Implosion designers don't just blow things up, they calculate things so precisely that the building/stadium/whatever blows up and falls in on itself without damaging nearby structures.
Beautiful example of a controlled implosion. RCA Stadium. Indianapolis, IN. This morning. Eight hundred holes drilled and kaboom! powder added and then at the specific moment ...
posted by Sal Towse at 10:07 AM||
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Implosion designers don't just blow things up, they calculate things so precisely that the building/stadium/whatever blows up and falls in on itself without damaging nearby structures.
Beautiful example of a controlled implosion. RCA Stadium. Indianapolis, IN. This morning. Eight hundred holes drilled and kaboom! powder added and then at the specific moment ...
posted by Sal Towse at 10:07 AM|
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Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Ars Technica acquired by Condé Nast: the low-down
Ars Technica acquired by Condé Nast: the low-down
Oh. For. Pete's. Sake.
Ars Technica will now grow with the tools and resources of Condé Nast's WIRED Digital unit. WIRED Digital oversees the business operations of not only WIRED.com, but also Reddit, WebMonkey, HotWired, and other technology destinations. Ars Technica will remain an independent publication, with the same editorial leadership in place. I will remain the Editor-in-Chief, and Jon, Eric, and the rest of the editorial team is staying on board, too.
... and so forth. Don't worry, Community! We're not gonna change. Condé Nast is benevolent folk. Shhh. Shhh. Shhh. There there. It will work out. Just you see!
posted by Sal Towse at 9:18 AM||
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Oh. For. Pete's. Sake.
Ars Technica will now grow with the tools and resources of Condé Nast's WIRED Digital unit. WIRED Digital oversees the business operations of not only WIRED.com, but also Reddit, WebMonkey, HotWired, and other technology destinations. Ars Technica will remain an independent publication, with the same editorial leadership in place. I will remain the Editor-in-Chief, and Jon, Eric, and the rest of the editorial team is staying on board, too.
... and so forth. Don't worry, Community! We're not gonna change. Condé Nast is benevolent folk. Shhh. Shhh. Shhh. There there. It will work out. Just you see!
Labels: blog, science, technology
posted by Sal Towse at 9:18 AM|
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Thursday, February 07, 2008
Human Proteinpedia
Human Proteinpedia -- the wonders of the Web.
A researcher at the Johns Hopkins Institute of Genetic Medicine has led the effort to compile to date the largest free resource of experimental information about human proteins. Reporting in the February issue of Nature Biotechnology, the research team describes how all researchers around the world can access this data and speed their own research.
Zounds, eh?
No anonymous postings. Only experimental results. (i.e. no predictions) You must be registered and logged-in to add data, but anyone can query.
Human Proteinpedia is a community portal for sharing and integration of human protein data. It allows research laboratories to contribute and maintain protein annotations. Human Protein Reference Database (HPRD) integrates data, that is deposited in Human Proteinpedia along with the existing literature curated information in the context of an individual protein. All the public data contributed to Human Proteinpedia can be queried, viewed and downloaded.
Data pertaining to post-translational modifications, protein-protein interactions, tissue expression, expression in cell lines, subcellular localization and enzyme substrate relationships can be submitted to Human Proteinpedia.
Protein annotations present in Human Proteinpedia are derived from a number of platforms such as
And if you understood all that, this site's for you.
So far 71 labs have contributed information on 2,695 experiments covering 15,231 protein entries.
Zounds.
THIS IS WHAT THE WEB IS FOR.
The Web wasn't created just to distribute pron and LOLcats (although it's very good at that too).
posted by Sal Towse at 1:42 PM||
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A researcher at the Johns Hopkins Institute of Genetic Medicine has led the effort to compile to date the largest free resource of experimental information about human proteins. Reporting in the February issue of Nature Biotechnology, the research team describes how all researchers around the world can access this data and speed their own research.
Zounds, eh?
No anonymous postings. Only experimental results. (i.e. no predictions) You must be registered and logged-in to add data, but anyone can query.
Human Proteinpedia is a community portal for sharing and integration of human protein data. It allows research laboratories to contribute and maintain protein annotations. Human Protein Reference Database (HPRD) integrates data, that is deposited in Human Proteinpedia along with the existing literature curated information in the context of an individual protein. All the public data contributed to Human Proteinpedia can be queried, viewed and downloaded.
Data pertaining to post-translational modifications, protein-protein interactions, tissue expression, expression in cell lines, subcellular localization and enzyme substrate relationships can be submitted to Human Proteinpedia.
Protein annotations present in Human Proteinpedia are derived from a number of platforms such as
- Co-immunoprecipitation and mass spectrometry-based protein-protein interaction
- Co-immunoprecipitation and Western blotting based protein-protein interaction
- Fluorescence based experiments
- Immunohistochemistry
- Mass Spectrometric Analysis
- Protein and peptide microarray
- Western blotting
- Yeast two-hybrid based protein-protein interaction
And if you understood all that, this site's for you.
So far 71 labs have contributed information on 2,695 experiments covering 15,231 protein entries.
Zounds.
THIS IS WHAT THE WEB IS FOR.
The Web wasn't created just to distribute pron and LOLcats (although it's very good at that too).
Labels: resource, science, URL
posted by Sal Towse at 1:42 PM|
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Friday, October 26, 2007
Turn, Turn, Turn*
Note the difference between October's full moon (above)
and September's.
Update: and October cropped. [for Asha]
There must be a science lesson here somewhere ...
Update2: and then, of course, there's always
That's 14Nov 2005. How weird is that?
Oh, wait. Daylight Savings Time ... clock falls back ...
* (Turn, Turn, Turn - Pete Seeger)
Labels: photographs, San Francisco, science
posted by Sal Towse at 7:46 PM|
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Sunday, October 14, 2007
Right Brain v Left Brain
Right Brain v Left Brain
[via Adventures who plucked it from Bryce, who skinned it from Kottke]
Seems the direction you see her spinning determines whether you are left-brain or right-brain.
Right-brain here and I couldn't for the life of me get her to reverse her spin direction until I looked away and in my peripheral vision, she reversed direction! Then I couldn't get her to spin as I'd originally seen until ... I looked away and in my peripheral vision ...
from the original Herald Sun article:
"LEFT BRAIN FUNCTIONS
uses logic
detail oriented
facts rule
words and language
present and past
math and science
can comprehend
knowing
acknowledges
order/pattern perception
knows object name
reality based
forms strategies
practical
safe
RIGHT BRAIN FUNCTIONS
uses feeling
"big picture" oriented
imagination rules
symbols and images
present and future
philosophy & religion
can "get it" (i.e. meaning)
believes
appreciates
spatial perception
knows object function
fantasy based
presents possibilities
impetuous
risk taking"
Hmmm.
Parlor trick?
Eventually, as I was creating this post, I had all of her obscured except her feet and the shadow of her feet and she seemed to be reversing back and forth in a 180deg range.
I must be PERFECTLY BALANCED mind-wise.
posted by Sal Towse at 8:39 PM||
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[via Adventures who plucked it from Bryce, who skinned it from Kottke]
Seems the direction you see her spinning determines whether you are left-brain or right-brain.
Right-brain here and I couldn't for the life of me get her to reverse her spin direction until I looked away and in my peripheral vision, she reversed direction! Then I couldn't get her to spin as I'd originally seen until ... I looked away and in my peripheral vision ...
from the original Herald Sun article:
"LEFT BRAIN FUNCTIONS
uses logic
detail oriented
facts rule
words and language
present and past
math and science
can comprehend
knowing
acknowledges
order/pattern perception
knows object name
reality based
forms strategies
practical
safe
RIGHT BRAIN FUNCTIONS
uses feeling
"big picture" oriented
imagination rules
symbols and images
present and future
philosophy & religion
can "get it" (i.e. meaning)
believes
appreciates
spatial perception
knows object function
fantasy based
presents possibilities
impetuous
risk taking"
Hmmm.
Parlor trick?
Eventually, as I was creating this post, I had all of her obscured except her feet and the shadow of her feet and she seemed to be reversing back and forth in a 180deg range.
I must be PERFECTLY BALANCED mind-wise.
posted by Sal Towse at 8:39 PM|
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Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Page 3.14 : "What May Happen in the Next Hundred Years," circa 1900.
Entertaining blog entry over at Page 3.14:
Page 3.14 : "What May Happen in the Next Hundred Years," circa 1900.
Earlier today, a friend sent me a link to this old-ish post from the excellent history/art/cultural curiosity blog Paleo-Future. It's a document written by John Elfreth Watkins, Jr., for Ladies' Home Journal in 1900. It is entitled "What May Happen in the Next Hundred Years."
I couldn't resist reading the whole thing (see the big version here), and am compelled—as a person of the future—to log a few replies.
Entertaining snippets from the December 1900 LHJ article and replies from Katherine Sharpe.
Read the article yourself or just dip into Sharpe's blog entry.
[via science blogs from Seed Media]
posted by Sal Towse at 1:20 PM||
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Page 3.14 : "What May Happen in the Next Hundred Years," circa 1900.
Earlier today, a friend sent me a link to this old-ish post from the excellent history/art/cultural curiosity blog Paleo-Future. It's a document written by John Elfreth Watkins, Jr., for Ladies' Home Journal in 1900. It is entitled "What May Happen in the Next Hundred Years."
I couldn't resist reading the whole thing (see the big version here), and am compelled—as a person of the future—to log a few replies.
Entertaining snippets from the December 1900 LHJ article and replies from Katherine Sharpe.
Read the article yourself or just dip into Sharpe's blog entry.
[via science blogs from Seed Media]
posted by Sal Towse at 1:20 PM|
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Tuesday, June 26, 2007
And as long as we're discussing pain and fashion
On Your Feet by January W. Payne (yes, no kidding, payne) Washington Post Staff Writer. Subtitled: How do shoes affect your feet? Is there a good way to walk in heels? Want to know about Morton's neuroma? How about hammertoe and pump bumps?
A quick snippet from the middle:
One of trendiest shoes this season is YSL's platform "Tribute" -- with a tottering 5 1/2 -inch heel. Often painstakingly selected to complete outfits, shoes like these put stress not just on feet, but on ankles, knees and backs, contributing to the approximately $3.5 billion spent annually in the United States for women's foot surgeries, which cause them to lose 15 million work days yearly.
Ouch.
(mentioned in the comments tail of the previously mentioned aetiology post)
posted by Sal Towse at 8:29 PM||
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A quick snippet from the middle:
One of trendiest shoes this season is YSL's platform "Tribute" -- with a tottering 5 1/2 -inch heel. Often painstakingly selected to complete outfits, shoes like these put stress not just on feet, but on ankles, knees and backs, contributing to the approximately $3.5 billion spent annually in the United States for women's foot surgeries, which cause them to lose 15 million work days yearly.
Ouch.
(mentioned in the comments tail of the previously mentioned aetiology post)
posted by Sal Towse at 8:29 PM|
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The things women do for beauty--or, beware the bikini wax
The things women do for beauty--or, beware the bikini wax
Tara C. Smith, an Assistant Professor of Epidemiology, University of Iowa, creates a post with serious ewww factor.
Here's the background: A woman with untreated Type 1 diabetes (making her susceptible to infections) gets a bikini wax. ... She comes down with a fever, swelling and pain where the bikini wax works its magic, waited another week to find a doctor. ... and ...
She presented to the ER with not only "grossly swollen" external genitalia, and pain so extreme that she had to be put under general anesthetic just so her physician could perform a gynecologic exam. She was so swollen that, according to the legend to Figure 1 (which you can find online, as the article is freely available), "she was unable to pass urine, and the vaginal space was obliterated by edema."
Ouch.
The patient also had a rash over her chest and neck. From these clinical signs and the subsequent isolation of S. pyogenes from a urine culture and sample of the vaginal discharge, she was diagnosed with streptococcal cellulitis and toxic shock syndrome, and was also found to have an active herpes simplex virus type 1 infection.
[...]
Ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ....
[via pharyngula. Thanks for the intro to Dr. Smith and aetiology, a blog that discusses "causes, origins, evolution, and implications of disease and other phenomena."]
posted by Sal Towse at 7:58 PM||
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Tara C. Smith, an Assistant Professor of Epidemiology, University of Iowa, creates a post with serious ewww factor.
Here's the background: A woman with untreated Type 1 diabetes (making her susceptible to infections) gets a bikini wax. ... She comes down with a fever, swelling and pain where the bikini wax works its magic, waited another week to find a doctor. ... and ...
She presented to the ER with not only "grossly swollen" external genitalia, and pain so extreme that she had to be put under general anesthetic just so her physician could perform a gynecologic exam. She was so swollen that, according to the legend to Figure 1 (which you can find online, as the article is freely available), "she was unable to pass urine, and the vaginal space was obliterated by edema."
Ouch.
The patient also had a rash over her chest and neck. From these clinical signs and the subsequent isolation of S. pyogenes from a urine culture and sample of the vaginal discharge, she was diagnosed with streptococcal cellulitis and toxic shock syndrome, and was also found to have an active herpes simplex virus type 1 infection.
[...]
Ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ....
[via pharyngula. Thanks for the intro to Dr. Smith and aetiology, a blog that discusses "causes, origins, evolution, and implications of disease and other phenomena."]
posted by Sal Towse at 7:58 PM|
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Wednesday, June 13, 2007
RIP Mr. Wizard
RIP Mr. Wizard.
During the 1960s and 1970s, about half the applicants to Rockefeller University in New York, where students work toward doctorates in science and medicine, cited Mr. Wizard when asked how they first became interested in science. [ref: International Herald Tribune]
more articles
posted by Sal Towse at 4:24 PM||
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During the 1960s and 1970s, about half the applicants to Rockefeller University in New York, where students work toward doctorates in science and medicine, cited Mr. Wizard when asked how they first became interested in science. [ref: International Herald Tribune]
more articles
posted by Sal Towse at 4:24 PM|
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Symptoms Found for Early Check on Ovary Cancer
Symptoms Found for Early Check on Ovary Cancer - New York Times
By DENISE GRADY
Published: June 13, 2007
Cancer experts have identified a set of health problems that may be symptoms of ovarian cancer, and they are urging women who have the symptoms for more than a few weeks to see their doctors.
The new advice is the first official recognition that ovarian cancer, long believed to give no warning until it was far advanced, does cause symptoms at earlier stages in many women.
The symptoms to watch out for are bloating, pelvic or abdominal pain, difficulty eating or feeling full quickly and feeling a frequent or urgent need to urinate. A woman who has any of those problems nearly every day for more than two or three weeks is advised to see a gynecologist, especially if the symptoms are new and quite different from her usual state of health.
[...]
Take note. Read the rest of the article too.
posted by Sal Towse at 3:34 PM||
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By DENISE GRADY
Published: June 13, 2007
Cancer experts have identified a set of health problems that may be symptoms of ovarian cancer, and they are urging women who have the symptoms for more than a few weeks to see their doctors.
The new advice is the first official recognition that ovarian cancer, long believed to give no warning until it was far advanced, does cause symptoms at earlier stages in many women.
The symptoms to watch out for are bloating, pelvic or abdominal pain, difficulty eating or feeling full quickly and feeling a frequent or urgent need to urinate. A woman who has any of those problems nearly every day for more than two or three weeks is advised to see a gynecologist, especially if the symptoms are new and quite different from her usual state of health.
[...]
Take note. Read the rest of the article too.
posted by Sal Towse at 3:34 PM|
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Robot Scans Ancient Manuscript in 3-D
The amazing world of the Web.
Robot Scans Ancient Manuscript in 3-D by Amy Hackney Blackwell
[Action takes place in Venice at the Public Library of St. Mark.]
After a thousand years stuck on a dusty library shelf, the oldest copy of Homer's Iliad is about to go into digital circulation.
[...]
To store the data, the team used a 1-terabyte redundant-disk storage system on a high-speed network. The classicists on duty backed up the data every evening on two 750-GB drives and on digital tape. Blackwell carried the hard drives home with him every night, rather than leave the data in the library.
The next step is making the images readable. The Venetus A is handwritten and contains ligatures and abbreviations that boggle most text-recognition software. So, this summer a group of graduate and undergraduate students of Greek will gather at the Center for Hellenic Studies in Washington, D.C., to produce XML transcriptions of the text. Eventually, their work will be posted online for anyone to search, as part of the Homer Multitext Project.
Brilliant use of technology.
posted by Sal Towse at 12:28 PM||
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Robot Scans Ancient Manuscript in 3-D by Amy Hackney Blackwell
[Action takes place in Venice at the Public Library of St. Mark.]
After a thousand years stuck on a dusty library shelf, the oldest copy of Homer's Iliad is about to go into digital circulation.
[...]
To store the data, the team used a 1-terabyte redundant-disk storage system on a high-speed network. The classicists on duty backed up the data every evening on two 750-GB drives and on digital tape. Blackwell carried the hard drives home with him every night, rather than leave the data in the library.
The next step is making the images readable. The Venetus A is handwritten and contains ligatures and abbreviations that boggle most text-recognition software. So, this summer a group of graduate and undergraduate students of Greek will gather at the Center for Hellenic Studies in Washington, D.C., to produce XML transcriptions of the text. Eventually, their work will be posted online for anyone to search, as part of the Homer Multitext Project.
Brilliant use of technology.
Labels: books, culture, science, URL
posted by Sal Towse at 12:28 PM|
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Tuesday, June 05, 2007
[URL] www.arachnoid.com: a playground for thinkers
OK. This site is just plain mind-stretching. I came to it from the discussion of Olbers' paradox.
Subtitled "a playground for thinkers," this site has articles ranging from science to philosophy to bumperstickers to programming. The index is a breeze to use. The site is full of fascinating stuff.
Dip in: www.arachnoid.com
posted by Sal Towse at 4:59 PM||
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Subtitled "a playground for thinkers," this site has articles ranging from science to philosophy to bumperstickers to programming. The index is a breeze to use. The site is full of fascinating stuff.
Dip in: www.arachnoid.com
posted by Sal Towse at 4:59 PM|
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Olbers' Paradox: Why is the Sky Dark at Night?
Why is the Sky Dark at Night?
In 1826, the astronomer Heinrich Olbers asked, "Why is the sky dark at night?" By his time, physicists had learned enough to realize that, in a stable, infinite universe with an even distribution of stars, the entire universe should gradually heat up. Think about it — if there are stars generating energy throughout the universe (energy sources), and if there is no way ultimately to dispose of that energy (energy sinks), then all the objects in the universe must rise in temperature, in time achieving the temperature of the stars themselves.
Scientists and physicists had to learn quite a lot about the behavior of energy before they were even prepared to ask Olbers' question. In fact, for millennia the dark night sky provided an answer to a question no one thought to ask.
In these pages you will learn the simple physics behind Olbers' question, some of the answers that have been proposed, and the currently accepted answer. You will also discover the connection between a rubber band, your refrigerator, and the universe.
(Found while looking for information on Olbers' Paradox, natch.)
posted by Sal Towse at 4:55 PM||
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In 1826, the astronomer Heinrich Olbers asked, "Why is the sky dark at night?" By his time, physicists had learned enough to realize that, in a stable, infinite universe with an even distribution of stars, the entire universe should gradually heat up. Think about it — if there are stars generating energy throughout the universe (energy sources), and if there is no way ultimately to dispose of that energy (energy sinks), then all the objects in the universe must rise in temperature, in time achieving the temperature of the stars themselves.
Scientists and physicists had to learn quite a lot about the behavior of energy before they were even prepared to ask Olbers' question. In fact, for millennia the dark night sky provided an answer to a question no one thought to ask.
In these pages you will learn the simple physics behind Olbers' question, some of the answers that have been proposed, and the currently accepted answer. You will also discover the connection between a rubber band, your refrigerator, and the universe.
(Found while looking for information on Olbers' Paradox, natch.)
Labels: science
posted by Sal Towse at 4:55 PM|
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[URL] HyperPhysics
HyperPhysics, "a continually developing base of instructional material in physics."
Amazing collection of physics-related information.
(Found whilst looking for information on The Michelson-Morley experiment, which drove a stake into the heart of the theory of a luminiferous aether|ether back in 1887.)
posted by Sal Towse at 4:35 PM||
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Amazing collection of physics-related information.
(Found whilst looking for information on The Michelson-Morley experiment, which drove a stake into the heart of the theory of a luminiferous aether|ether back in 1887.)
posted by Sal Towse at 4:35 PM|
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SparkMuseum
John Jenkins' SparkMuseum
Welcome to my "virtual" radio and scientific instruments museum where I display the radios and other items I have collected over the past 35+ years. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do. I'm always interested in early wireless, radio, scientific and other electrical items up to about 1920 (including books and other publications)
Highlights of Jenkins' collection.
This site is amazing. A prime example of Web sites offering up a treasure trove of information simply because someone (in this case Jenkins) has a passion for a subject.
(Found whilst searching for information on Geissler tubes.)
posted by Sal Towse at 4:07 PM||
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Welcome to my "virtual" radio and scientific instruments museum where I display the radios and other items I have collected over the past 35+ years. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do. I'm always interested in early wireless, radio, scientific and other electrical items up to about 1920 (including books and other publications)
Highlights of Jenkins' collection.
This site is amazing. A prime example of Web sites offering up a treasure trove of information simply because someone (in this case Jenkins) has a passion for a subject.
(Found whilst searching for information on Geissler tubes.)
posted by Sal Towse at 4:07 PM|
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Saturday, June 02, 2007
[URL] Gernot Katzer's Spice Pages
Web wandering brought me to Gernot Katzer's Spice Pages.
I'd had the brilliant idea two days ago of creating a Web site called wherecanifind.com/ where, f'rex, if I wanted to know where I could find Long Life Tea in San Francisco, I would go to wherecanifind.com/sanfrancisco and type in my request.
Handy helpful w2.0 folks would swarm the site, providing searchers with solutions.
Alas. I went to godaddy.com and every single wherecanifind.* has been snapped up, except .mobi and ...
Well, another brill idea up in smoke.
But I still wanted to know where I could find Long Life Tea in San Francisco, so I searched and came across the San Francisco Herb Company down on 14th St. which had not only a HUGE inventory but also a small retail operation. (A later post.)
Rambling through the SFHCo site, I came across a reference to Nigella sativa, which I used to have growing in our old front yard. SFHCo was selling it as a cooking spice. Who knew you could use the seeds for cooking? (I always saved them to scatter the next spring ...)
But was the Nigella sativa really the one I'd been growing in my front yard?
Check Google images!
No. Turns out I'd been growing Nigella damascena AKA Love in a Mist.
Ah, well. Still curious, though, a further search took me to Gernot Katzer's Spice Pages where he gave me the lowdown on N.s. in great and gory detail.
What a site. Depth and breadth about spices.
solid information on (currently) 117 different spice plants. Emphasis is on their usage in ethnic cuisines, particularly in Asia; furthermore, I discuss their history, chemical constituents, and the etymology of their names. Last but not least, there are numerous photos featuring the live plants or the dried spices.
posted by Sal Towse at 11:58 AM||
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I'd had the brilliant idea two days ago of creating a Web site called wherecanifind.com/ where, f'rex, if I wanted to know where I could find Long Life Tea in San Francisco, I would go to wherecanifind.com/sanfrancisco and type in my request.
Handy helpful w2.0 folks would swarm the site, providing searchers with solutions.
Alas. I went to godaddy.com and every single wherecanifind.* has been snapped up, except .mobi and ...
Well, another brill idea up in smoke.
But I still wanted to know where I could find Long Life Tea in San Francisco, so I searched and came across the San Francisco Herb Company down on 14th St. which had not only a HUGE inventory but also a small retail operation. (A later post.)
Rambling through the SFHCo site, I came across a reference to Nigella sativa, which I used to have growing in our old front yard. SFHCo was selling it as a cooking spice. Who knew you could use the seeds for cooking? (I always saved them to scatter the next spring ...)
But was the Nigella sativa really the one I'd been growing in my front yard?
Check Google images!
No. Turns out I'd been growing Nigella damascena AKA Love in a Mist.
Ah, well. Still curious, though, a further search took me to Gernot Katzer's Spice Pages where he gave me the lowdown on N.s. in great and gory detail.
What a site. Depth and breadth about spices.
solid information on (currently) 117 different spice plants. Emphasis is on their usage in ethnic cuisines, particularly in Asia; furthermore, I discuss their history, chemical constituents, and the etymology of their names. Last but not least, there are numerous photos featuring the live plants or the dried spices.
posted by Sal Towse at 11:58 AM|
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Tuesday, May 29, 2007
[URL] Darwin Correspondence Project
Darwin Correspondence Project
Welcome to the Darwin Correspondence Project’s new web site. The main feature of the site is an online database with the complete, searchable, texts of around 5,000 letters written by and to Charles Darwin up to the year 1865. This includes all the surviving letters from the Beagle voyage - online for the first time - and all the letters from the years around the publication of Origin of species in 1859.
posted by Sal Towse at 6:13 PM||
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Welcome to the Darwin Correspondence Project’s new web site. The main feature of the site is an online database with the complete, searchable, texts of around 5,000 letters written by and to Charles Darwin up to the year 1865. This includes all the surviving letters from the Beagle voyage - online for the first time - and all the letters from the years around the publication of Origin of species in 1859.
posted by Sal Towse at 6:13 PM|
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Monday, May 28, 2007
Do-it-yourself highway repairs
News in ABC [abc.net.au] Science Online - 28/05/2007:
Marching ants fix their own roads
posted by Sal Towse at 1:21 PM||
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Marching ants fix their own roads
Labels: science
posted by Sal Towse at 1:21 PM|
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Thursday, May 03, 2007
[URL] John Woram's Galápagos History & Cartography
The Encantadas: Galápagos History & Cartography
Wide-ranging collection of materials on the Galápagos Islands, Ecuador, collected by the author of CHARLES DARWIN SLEPT HERE.
Ephemera, maps, texts, factoids. Darwin's Journal. Darwin's Diary. H.M.S. Beagle logs. Eleanor Roosevelt "My Day" (her description of her trip to the Galápagos in 1944).
More.
posted by Sal Towse at 12:49 PM||
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Wide-ranging collection of materials on the Galápagos Islands, Ecuador, collected by the author of CHARLES DARWIN SLEPT HERE.
Ephemera, maps, texts, factoids. Darwin's Journal. Darwin's Diary. H.M.S. Beagle logs. Eleanor Roosevelt "My Day" (her description of her trip to the Galápagos in 1944).
More.
Labels: history, science, travel, URL
posted by Sal Towse at 12:49 PM|
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Tuesday, May 01, 2007
Renzo Piano Building Workshop - Official Site
The official site for Renzo Piano's Renzo Piano Building Workshop.
Nice use of Flash.
RPBW are the architects for the new California Academy of Sciences which is going up in Golden Gate Park, across the Concourse from the DeYoung Museum. The new Academy will open late 2008. 370K sq ft -- of which 95K sq ft are public space. Living roof. Zounds.
We almost stopped into the Academy's temporary digs on Howard Street yesterday, but I was tuckered out, having walked down to SFMOMA to meet up with his nibs and visit, among other exhibits, the Picasso and American Art exhibit. Get there if thee can. Exhibit closes Monday, May 28, 2007.
Philistine that I are, I did not get Brice Marden, especially his monochrome work.
Where were we? Ah, yes: Renzo Piano Building Workshop. The RPBW site covers projects, bio, history, &c. An interactive map gives access to projects worldwide.
Interesting.
(Walked back home again, too, even though it was a free transit day: RT was 4mi+ and then there was all the walking around inside SFMOMA)
posted by Sal Towse at 11:38 AM||
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Nice use of Flash.
RPBW are the architects for the new California Academy of Sciences which is going up in Golden Gate Park, across the Concourse from the DeYoung Museum. The new Academy will open late 2008. 370K sq ft -- of which 95K sq ft are public space. Living roof. Zounds.
We almost stopped into the Academy's temporary digs on Howard Street yesterday, but I was tuckered out, having walked down to SFMOMA to meet up with his nibs and visit, among other exhibits, the Picasso and American Art exhibit. Get there if thee can. Exhibit closes Monday, May 28, 2007.
Philistine that I are, I did not get Brice Marden, especially his monochrome work.
Where were we? Ah, yes: Renzo Piano Building Workshop. The RPBW site covers projects, bio, history, &c. An interactive map gives access to projects worldwide.
Interesting.
(Walked back home again, too, even though it was a free transit day: RT was 4mi+ and then there was all the walking around inside SFMOMA)
Labels: architecture, art, life, San Francisco, science
posted by Sal Towse at 11:38 AM|
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Saturday, April 28, 2007
Are you ocean people?
http://www.ocean.com
It is the mission of The Ocean Channel to provide 'ocean people' from around the world with a comprehensive and centralized source of ocean news, education, conservation, and entertainment.
[...]
Focus is the aggregation, production and distribution of premium ocean content for an array of media--specifically, broadband Internet, television, and DVD home video
Deep resource. Conservation issues. Film.
It is only through knowledge and education that we can expect our audience to recognize the challenges the sea faces now and in the future.
Wander through this one.
posted by Sal Towse at 5:32 PM||
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It is the mission of The Ocean Channel to provide 'ocean people' from around the world with a comprehensive and centralized source of ocean news, education, conservation, and entertainment.
[...]
Focus is the aggregation, production and distribution of premium ocean content for an array of media--specifically, broadband Internet, television, and DVD home video
Deep resource. Conservation issues. Film.
It is only through knowledge and education that we can expect our audience to recognize the challenges the sea faces now and in the future.
Wander through this one.
posted by Sal Towse at 5:32 PM|
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: views from the Hill
Bertold Brecht:
Everything changes. You can make
A fresh start with your final breath.
But what has happened has happened. And the water
You once poured into the wine cannot be
Drained off again.
Everything changes. You can make
A fresh start with your final breath.
But what has happened has happened. And the water
You once poured into the wine cannot be
Drained off again.
