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 "A Place Where I Leak Things" or the worrisome and anxiety riddled antics of skye thorstenson. |
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Tuesday, September 06, 2005 I have always been touting anthony and the johnsons to my friends and anyone that would listen since hearing their samples online years ago and later when they first started touring, and seeing them play live at Cafe du Nord. Seems he just won the Mercury award! Congratulation Antony and your much deserved award! Mister Skye For more info - please refer to their website..... http://www.antonyandthejohnsons.com/  ------------------------------------------------------- Antony and Johnsons win Mercury Antony and the Johnsons Chichester-born Antony Hegarty is now based in New York Antony and the Johnsons have won this year's Mercury Music Prize for the album I Am A Bird Now. Led by New York-based singer Antony Hegarty, they beat acts including Coldplay, favourites Kaiser Chiefs and hip-hop artist MIA. The £20,000 award is for the best album of the year by a British or Irish act. "I think they must have made a mistake," Chichester-born Hegarty said. "I am completely overwhelmed. I think that's insane." The pianist and torch singer's winning album, features contributions from Boy George and Lou Reed. Standing 6ft 4in tall and with a shock of black hair, the 34-year-old has a voice as unconventional as his looks. The Mercury Music Prize was voted for by a panel of industry experts, journalists and artists, and is said to reward originality and creativity rather than sales success. As he collected his award from host Jools Holland to a standing ovation, Hegarty said the competition was "a bit nutty". "It's kind of like a crazy contest between an orange and a spaceship and a potted plant and a spoon - which one do you like better?" he said. Kaiser Chiefs Leeds band Kaiser Chiefs had been favourites to win "What's really exciting about this night is just this wonderful biennial that shows the rich diversity of the spectrum of music that's going on at the moment. "It's been so wonderful to be here and just to meet everyone. I just love so many of the artists performing tonight, I think it's a bit bonkers to just give it to one person." He performed at the Mercury award ceremony in London's Grosvenor House Hotel, as did fellow nominees Kaiser Chiefs, KT Tunstall, Seth Lakeman, Bloc Party, Polar Bear, Maximo Park, The Magic Numbers and the Go! Team. Multi-million selling band Coldplay, nominated for their third album X&Y, could not attend the ceremony as they were on tour in the US. Previous winners of the Mercury prize include hip-hop artist Dizzee Rascal, Primal Scream, PJ Harvey and last year's victors Franz Ferdinand. KT Tunstall at Mercury Prize KT Tunstall was among the other performers at the ceremony Simon Frith, chairman of the judges, said Antony and the Johnsons won because they produced "such an extraordinary album". "It's not like any album I've heard before or since," he said. "It doesn't seem to have any obvious place where it's coming from - and yet play it to anybody and they're arrested. "Some of them hate it, some of them absolutely love it - but nobody can ignore it." The Mercury Prize was not designed to pick the least offensive album, he said, but to pick "a record that's really interesting, and this one is". 'American album' Chris Salmon, music editor of Time Out magazine, said it was a surprise choice. "There were a lot of strong albums on there and I don't think a lot of people thought Antony and the Johnsons would be the one," he said. "Some people thought of it as an American album - its whole genesis was in New York," he said. "But he's got a beautiful voice and he writes beautiful songs, so in that sense it shouldn't be a surprise - but I think it still is." Mercury Music Prize 2005 nominees: # Antony and the Johnsons - I Am A Bird Now # Bloc Party - Silent Alarm # Coldplay - X&Y # The Go! Team - Thunder, Lightning, Strike # Hard-Fi - Stars of CCTV # Kaiser Chiefs - Employment # KT Tunstall - Eye to the Telescope # The Magic Numbers - The Magic Numbers # Maximo Park - A Certain Trigger # MIA - Arular # Polar Bear - Held on the Tips of Fingers # Seth Lakeman - Kitty Jay posted by Mister Skye | 7:32 PM Friday, August 26, 2005  Yamamoto Gendai Gallery "Becoming Animal" at Mass MoCa explores boundaries between "animal" and "human," as in Motohiko Odani's "Erectro." this is a great sculpture! posted by Mister Skye | 6:55 PM Monday, August 01, 2005 The First Comic! WEBSITE LINK 
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Tuesday, July 26, 2005 Pinar Yolacan A photographer based in NY. 
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  Ancient phallus unearthed in cave By Jonathan Amos BBC News science reporter It may also have been used to knap, or split, flints A sculpted and polished phallus found in a German cave is among the earliest representations of male sexuality ever uncovered, researchers say. The 20cm-long, 3cm-wide stone object, which is dated to be about 28,000 years old, was buried in the famous Hohle Fels Cave near Ulm in the Swabian Jura. The prehistoric "tool" was reassembled from 14 fragments of siltstone. Its life size suggests it may well have been used as a sex aid by its Ice Age makers, scientists report. "In addition to being a symbolic representation of male genitalia, it was also at times used for knapping flints," explained Professor Nicholas Conard, from the department of Early Prehistory and Quaternary Ecology, at Tübingen University. "There are some areas where it has some very typical scars from that," he told the BBC News website. Researchers believe the object's distinctive form and etched rings around one end mean there can be little doubt as to its symbolic nature. "It's highly polished; it's clearly recognisable," said Professor Conard. The Tübingen team working Hohle Fels already had 13 fractured parts of the phallus in storage, but it was only with the discovery of a 14th fragment last year that the team was able finally to put the "jigsaw" together. The different stone sections were all recovered from a well-dated ash layer in the cave complex associated with the activities of modern humans (not their pre-historic "cousins", the Neanderthals). The dig site is one of the most remarkable in central Europe. Hohle Fels stands more than 500m above sea level in the Ach River Valley and has produced thousands of Upper Palaeolithic items. Female forms, such as the 30,000-year-old Venus of Willendorf are more common Some have been truly exquisite in their sophistication and detail, such as a 30,000-year-old avian figurine crafted from mammoth ivory. It is believed to be one of the earliest representations of a bird in the archaeological record. There are other stone objects known to science that are obviously phallic symbols and are slightly older - from France and Morocco, of particular note. But to have any representation of male genitalia from this time period is highly unusual. "Female representations with highly accentuated sexual attributes are very well documented at many sites, but male representations are very, very rare," explained Professor Conard. Current evidence indicates that the Swabian Jura of southwestern Germany was one of the central regions of cultural innovation after the arrival of modern humans in Europe some 40,000 years ago. The Hohle Fels phallus will go on show at Blaubeuren prehistoric museum in an exhibition called Ice Art - Clearly Male. posted by Mister Skye | 9:06 AM Monday, July 25, 2005 Space Sounds from Saturn and other space sounds {CLICK} 
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Friday, July 22, 2005      NY Times In This Corner, in the Flouncy Skirt and Bowler Hat... By JUAN FORERO EL ALTO, Bolivia - In her red multilayered skirt, white pumps and gold-laced shawl, the traditional dress of the Aymara people, Ana Polonia Choque might well be preparing for a night of folk dancing or, perhaps, a religious festival. But as Carmen Rosa, master of the ring and winner of 100 bone-crunching bouts in Bolivia's colorful wrestling circuit, she is actually dressing for a night of mayhem. With loyal fans screaming out her name, she climbs the corner ropes high above the ring, bounces once for momentum and flies high, arms outstretched for maximum effect. To the crowd's delight, the dive flattens her adversary, María Remedios Condori, better known as Julia la Paceña (Julia from La Paz). This, ladies and gentlemen, is "lucha libre," Bolivia's version of the wacky, tacky wrestling extravaganzas better known as World Wrestling Entertainment in the United States and Triple A in Mexico, which serve as a loose model. But there are no light shows, packed arenas or million-dollar showmen. Here in El Alto, with an almost entirely indigenous population of 800,000 Aymara and Quechua residents, wrestling is a throwback to a simpler, perhaps more innocent era, when late-night fights featuring men in black tights were carried across flickering black-and-white TV screens. Except that Bolivian wrestling is not televised. Those who want to see the matches - and a growing number do - pack El Alto's Multifunctional Center by the hundreds, paying $1 per person to sit on concrete bleachers in sub-freezing temperatures, popcorn in hand. For four hours every Sunday, they watch good-versus-evil struggles that almost always end up with wrestlers like Mr. Atlas or Batman triumphing over the Red Baron, the Grim Reaper or Black Beard. In a hardscrabble city of daily hardship, freestyle wrestling, or lucha libre, provides a much needed diversion for people who have little time or money for recreation. "This is a distraction, a chance to laugh, to yell, mostly for the kids," said Víctor Choque, 40, and no relation to Ana. By the sign of his wide grin, however, he seemed to be enjoying the bouts more than his three daughters. "I come every Sunday, every one. I love it. I don't miss it." El Alto, which in a generation grew from hamlet to sprawling satellite city overlooking La Paz, has largely created its own form of wrestling, borrowing from Mexico's famed spectacle of masked men battling for the honors and sprinkling it with a local touch. Ms. Choque fights with a particularly successful troupe of wrestlers called the Titans of the Ring. "The cradle of freestyle wrestling is Mexico because that's where the best fighters were - Hurricane Ramírez, the Jalisco Lightning, the Blue Demon," explained Juan Carlos Chávez, promoter of the Titans. But now, he says proudly, Bolivia has its own stable of wrestlers who tussle in choreographed matches. And Bolivian organizers have introduced the innovation of fighting Cholitas, the indigenous women who wear bowler hats and multilayered skirts. "I wanted to get people's attention and fill up the coliseum," said Juan Mamani, 46, the president of the Titans and a wrestler himself. "At first, I thought of fighting dwarves. I even brought in one from Peru. Then I thought of Cholitas. It's been popular ever since." The most successful has been Ms. Choque, who is 34, has a lovely wry smile and weighs in at 149 pounds. Married, with two children, and the successful owner of a jewelry business, Ms. Choque recalled her husband's skepticism, seeing her come home bruised and battered. But when he saw how much she liked her hobby, he started attending all the bouts and now supports her tough training regimen, which includes a weekly hike up a 15,000-foot peak. "I want to do this as long as I can," she said. "It's my life, la lucha libre." Mr. Chávez, the promoter, said that bringing in the Cholitas was a brilliant stroke that attracts 1,000 or more spectators to the bouts in El Alto, and hundreds when the Titans travel to smaller towns. "This has gotten bigger and bigger, and so we have put more into it and it has gotten better," he said. There are plenty of half nelsons, headlocks, pile drivers and just plain dirty fighting, with wrestlers thrown out of the ring, chairs thrown in and even the referees bounced on their heads on occasion. To train, the Titans gather twice a week in Juan Mamani's cold, dank gym and, under three bare light bulbs, throw one another around, practicing their moves. Even the popular Titans cannot make a living wrestling; they earn about $13 for a bout. Most have other jobs, from guitar teacher to textile worker to vendor of trinkets and jewelry. But that does not mean they do not take lucha libre as seriously as possible. They have to. Just last year, one of the Titans lost his life after breaking his neck in a bad fall in the ring. "Let me tell you, this looks like play acting, but it hurts," said Yenny Wilma Maras, who weighs 167 pounds and, once in the ring, is transformed into Marta, the Woman From El Alto. "It looks easy, you get up there and jump around, but it is not. It is all training and conditioning." Perhaps the most dedicated of the wrestlers is the oldest, Daniel Torrico, 62, who began wrestling more than 40 years ago and has faced off against foes in Mexico, Peru and Central America. A weight-lifter with a barrel chest, Mr. Torrico becomes Mr. Atlas in the ring, with his blue tights and fearful grin. "This is a spectacle," he said in a spartan dressing room, moments before heading out into the ring. "People know us, they appreciate our agility, our strength. And we do it for the happiness of the crowd." posted by Mister Skye | 8:14 AM Saturday, July 16, 2005 "THE BLOB" 
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albino deer!  
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Thursday, July 14, 2005 MAMMATUS 
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BP's Thunderhorse platform still listing precariously By Tim Wood 13 Jul 2005 at 11:53 AM The damage wrought be Hurricane Dennis on BP's massive Thunder Horse platform has not yet been undone. Lying 150 miles southeast of New Orleans, Thunder Horse is still listing heavily with the lower deck reaching the sea surface. However reports suggest engineers are confident it is just a ballast problem that won't jeopardize the $1 billion platform. BP says the platform has been stable for two days with the list consistent at 20 degrees. Pictures by the U.S. Coast Guard.  
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I just read the below article, and was reminded of a time when my friend and I were bored and played this very same game. We would all take turns at making each other pass out, and try and recant what we experianced, saw, or dreamed of when "out". We noticed that the guys tended to have blask and white dreams, and the girls tended to see vibrant colors. On my last try, I had a very vivid and colorful dream that seemed to go on forever - to this day I remember tropical island type scenery, teal colored water, purple blue skies, and lime green foliage. Another experiance that we all went through was an eery disorientation such as time lapse - when I came to, I freaked out when I opened my eyes and saw all these people standing around me. It took me a few moments to realize, that I was not in my bed sleeping, and it wasn't 7am in the morning and these "people" were my friends and I was on the floor at their house. Oh yeah, that brings up another aspect. There were like 5 of us doing this, so when we passed out, there was always someone to catch us and gently move us to the floor. God. Still can't believe the stupid stuff I did as a kid. Sheesh. ***************************************************************** Boy dies playing 'passing out game,' officials believe Wednesday, July 13, 2005; Posted: 10:29 a.m. EDT (14:29 GMT) BOISE, Idaho (AP) -- A 10-year-old boy was found dead, hanging from a tree, apparently killed while trying to get high by playing the "pass-out game," authorities said. Dalton Eby may be the second Idaho child killed in recent months while playing a choking game, trying to cut off the oxygen supply to the brain to achieve a type of "high." Dalton's mother reported him missing last Thursday when he failed to return home after visiting a friend. Search and rescue crews found his body Friday in a tree near his Island Park home, the Fremont County sheriff's office said in a statement. There was nothing at the scene suggesting that anyone else was involved, the sheriff's office said. "During the course of the investigation it was learned that there is a game that is common knowledge to many of our youth. A game known as the 'pass-out game,' the 'fainting game,' the 'tingling game,' or the 'something dreaming game' -- to name a few," the statement added. Dalton's parents had never heard of the game, and neither had the parents of his friends, the sheriff's office said. That was also the case three months ago in Nampa, where 13-year-old Chelsea Dunn was found dead after apparently hanging herself in her closet. An investigation was inconclusive, but Dunn's family believes she died accidentally while playing the game, which was popular with a group of girls at her school. Six girls at the school were suspended for a day after a security camera videotape showed the seventh-graders choking each other in a hallway. Though the so-called game is new to many adults, it's likely something that children have been doing for a long time, said Connecticut-based child psychologist Dr. Lawrence Shapiro, author of "The Secret Language of Children: How to Understand What Your Kids are Really Saying." "That's scary," Shapiro said. In addition to talking to kids about drugs and alcohol, parents should discuss other risky behavior, like the pass-out game, Shapiro said. "Younger kids don't know that they can die from this, that it's a very dangerous activity," Shapiro said. Nathan Hoiosen, a school resource officer with the Nampa Police Department, said youngsters think the choking game offers a safe buzz compared with drinking or doing drugs. "You wish you could just take the kids and shake them and say, 'What are you thinking?"' Hoiosen said. posted by Mister Skye | 1:16 PM Wednesday, July 13, 2005 Mystery 'sex change' has curious flocking to Myanmar monk-to-be  ANN Publication Date : 2005-07-13 Myanmar chicken seller, Thin Sandar, who grew a penis a month ago, treated it as an awe-inspiring omen -- as have the thousands of stunned villagers who have travelled to a pagoda to see him -- AFP Thin Sandar, a chicken seller in Myanmar, had always dreamed of being a man. When she inexplicably grew a penis last month, the 21-year-old treated it as an awe-inspiring omen -- as have the thousands of stunned villagers who have travelled to a pagoda to see him. "On the morning of the full moon day of June 21, I noticed my thing (sex organ) was not the same as before," Thin Sandar, who now goes by the male name Than Sein, told AFP in an interview at his home. "And my breasts disappeared," Than Sein added. "So I called out and showed it all to my mom and dad. It was very strange." Strange enough that he has attracted significant attention in this deeply superstitious country, where the unexplained can quickly be exalted to hold powerful spiritual significance. People privately concede Than Sein is a hermaphrodite. Several medical experts have examined him, and he awaits test results from the central women's hospital. But few have come forward with a medical explanation of the transformation as they await an official report by the health ministry, whose experts have also examined Than Sein. "We can not say right now if she has really undergone a sudden gender change," said a township official who declined to be named, adding that Than Sein's birth certificate shows that he was born a girl. "It can be confirmed when we receive the report from the health ministry, although some medical checkups have shown her to be a true man," he added. Hermaphrodites, also known as intersexuals, are often born with ambiguous genitalia, or have both testicular and ovarian tissue in a single person. Medical doctor Aye Sanda Khaing put it in layman's terms in a local journal: "Her penis appeared at the site of her clitoris," the doctor was quoted as saying. Regardless of the official findings, local villagers and other curious Myanmar nationals are flocking to the Aung Myay Thar Yar pagoda, in this new satellite township 19 kilometres (12 miles) from Yangon, to see Than Sein for themselves and make donations to him or the temple. Up to 400 gather at the pagoda each day, often in a courtyard under colorful umbrellas to ward off the sun's rays, waiting for the chance to talk with and touch Than Sein. "I have never heard of anything like this, so I came to see him," 21-year-old housewife Thandar Win told AFP. "If I was not married, then I too would want to become a man!" When word spread of Than Sein's transformation, locals raced to his home to see for themselves. Authorities, sensing a possible security hazard -- and, perhaps, an opportunity -- hastily arranged for him to be moved to the pagoda to accommodate more visitors. Than Sein appeared comfortable with the sudden attention in the new surroundings. Wearing a checkered longyi, the traditional Myanmar pants commonly worn by men, he sat on a rug in the pagoda's side building, flanked by his parents. "I was so happy," father Kyaw Htay, 46, said about his son's developments. "I wanted other sons so they could offer themselves as Buddhist monks, but I had only two daughters." Occasionally Than Sein stepped out to talk with excited visitors, who shook his hand, stroked his arm, and wished him well. A Myanmar state television crew has already interviewed him and awaits the military junta's permission to air the broadcast nationwide. As he waits for the final test results, Than Sein said he firmly believed he had been transformed, and would enter the monkhood for a period of time and seek spiritual contemplation and guidance before deciding whether to marry and raise a family. "Whenever I went to the pagoda I prayed to become a man in my next life," he said, referring to the Buddhist concept of rebirth. posted by Mister Skye | 4:46 PM Charlie White - Photographer Very interesting artist, working at exploring the ID of the generic teen male. (click image for larger version) 
Tuesday, July 12, 2005 Universe 'too queer' to grasp By Jo Twist BBC News science and technology reporter Scientist Professor Richard Dawkins has opened a global conference of big thinkers warning that our Universe may be just "too queer" to understand. Professor Dawkins, the renowned Selfish Gene author from Oxford University, said we were living in a "middle world" reality that we have created. Experts in design, technology, and entertainment have gathered in Oxford to share their ideas about our futures. TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) is already a top US event. It is the first time the event, TED Global, has been held in Europe. Species software Professor Dawkins' opening talk, in a session called Meme Power, explored the ways in which humans invent their own realities to make sense of the infinitely complex worlds they are in; worlds made more complex by ideas such as quantum physics which is beyond most human understanding. "Are there things about the Universe that will be forever beyond our grasp, in principle, ungraspable in any mind, however superior?" he asked. "Successive generations have come to terms with the increasing queerness of the Universe." Each species, in fact, has a different "reality". They work with different "software" to make them feel comfortable, he suggested. Because different species live in different models of the world, there was a discomforting variety of real worlds, he suggested. "Middle world is like the narrow range of the electromagnetic spectrum that we see," he said. "Middle world is the narrow range of reality that we judge to be normal as opposed to the queerness that we judge to be very small or very large." He mused that perhaps children should be given computer games to play with that familiarise them with quantum physics concepts. "It would make an interesting experiment," he told the BBC News website. ET worlds Our brains had evolved to help us survive within the scale and orders of magnitude within which we exist, said Professor Dawkins. We think that rocks and crystals are solid when in fact they were made up mostly of spaces in between atoms, he argued. This, he said, was just the way our brains thought about things in order to help us navigate our "middle sized" world - the medium scale environment - a world in which we cannot see individual atoms. This idea meant that life was probably "quite common" in the Universe, Professor Dawkins said. He concluded with the thought that if he could re-engineer his brain in any way he would make himself a genius mathematician. He would also want to time travel to when dinosaurs roamed the Earth. More serious focus Developing world economist and businesswoman Jacqueline Novogratz brought Professor Dawkins' thinking into focus, arguing that we need to fully engage with "developing worlds" to move away from "them and us" thinking. "The world is talking about global poverty and Africa in ways I have never seen in my life," she said. "At the same time I have a fear that the victories of G8 will see that as our moral absolution. But that is chapter one; celebrate it, close it and recognise we need a chapter two - a 'how to'. "The only way to end poverty is to build viable systems on the ground that can deliver services to the poor in ways that are sustainable," she said. Former Afghan finance minister Ashraf Ghani added that globalisation was "on speed" and needed real private investment and opportunities to flourish. "Events of 7/7 and 9/11 remind us that we do not live in three different worlds; we live in one world." He criticised the West for being only concerned with design issues that affect them, and solving environmental problems for themselves. "You are problem solvers but are not engaging in problems of corruption," he told TED Global delegates. "You stay away from design for developments. Your designs are selfish; it is for your own immediate use. "We need your imagination to be brought to bear on problems the way meme is supposed to. It is at the intersection of ideas that new ideas and breakthroughs occur." More than 300 leading scientists, musicians, playwrights, as well as technology pioneers and future thinkers have gathered for the conference which runs from 12 to 15 July. posted by Mister Skye | 10:28 AM  The Glory Hole posted by Mister Skye | 7:51 AM Monday, July 11, 2005  SEATTLE (Reuters) - Tales about "Thunderbird" and "Whale" by native tribes along the U.S. West Coast, along with geological clues, point to at least two massive quakes and tsunamis that have hit the area in the last 1,100 years, a researcher said on Monday. "Native people here were well aware that earthquakes happened and that is reflected in their oral traditions," said Ruth Ludwin, a University of Washington researcher who recently published two papers detailing such folklore. In one tale, the mythical wind creature "Thunderbird" drives its talons into "Whale's" back and is dragged to the bottom of the ocean, which she said could be interpreted as a tsunami-like event. The stories were collected from native tribes in northern California, Oregon, Washington and just south of Canada's Vancouver Island. Ludwin, who collaborated with seismologists, said she began looking into the region's "geomythology" six years ago because of the lack of such data, which can be found in other areas such as Japan and the Indonesian island of Sumatra. In December, a 9.15 magnitude earthquake erupted off the coast of Indonesia's Sumatra island. The quake, the strongest in 40 years, sent walls of water as high as 33 feet barrelling into 13 Indian Ocean nations and killed 160,000 people. Last month, a major 7.0 magnitude earthquake off the coast of northern California triggered tsunami alerts along most of the U.S. West Coast. The alarm was quickly called off and there were no casualties or damage. The Cascadia subduction zone, which generates much of the seismic activity in the Pacific Northwest, had at least seven major earthquakes in the last 3,500 years, according to researchers. One massive earthquake is estimated to have hit the region in 900, while eyewitness accounts from the 19th century point to a huge earthquake and tsunami that hit the area in 1700. posted by Mister Skye | 10:22 PM Monday, July 04, 2005  Erkut Terliksiz posted by Mister Skye | 9:20 AM Sunday, July 03, 2005 Borderline kooky i know, but albeit very interesting video footage of all that ruckus that is happening down in Mexico with those UFO's. And in my naive and humble opinion - those do not look like balloons. And in the off chance they aren't flares or some experimental goverment aircraft - i am completetly floored by the monumental number of them. It is really quite overwhelming, especially seeing this so soon after seeing "War of the Worlds" - which (if you can just blank out tom cruise and dakota fanning) is a pretty decent popcorn film. I mean - I always assumed that a UFO visitation would be with like maybe one UFO. Not a whole fleet of them! lol! Anyhow - enjoy! FLEET.MOV FLEET_CLOSE.MOV TVFOOTAGE.MOV FLYINGHUMANOID.MOV       
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Thursday, June 23, 2005 This is a great article aligning Jungian theory with contempory politics! (click text for full article) A collective psychosis is a closed system, which is to say that it is insular and not open to feedback from the ‘real’ world. Reflection from others, instead of being looked at and integrated, is perversely mis-interpreted to support the agreed-upon delusion that binds the collective psychosis together. Anyone who challenges this shared reality is seen as a threat and demonized. An impenetrable field gets conjured up around the collective psychosis that literally resists consciousness. There is no point in talking rationally with a Bush supporter, for example, as their ability to reason has been dis-armed. Because of our inherent suggestibility, we can easily reinforce the unconscious parts of each other, as if we are mutually hypnotizing each other in a self-perpetuating feedback loop. To be of genuine benefit, we need to understand the dynamics that are at the root of this psychic epidemic. If we don’t understand the psychic roots of our current world situation, we are doomed to unconsciously repeat it and endlessly re-create destruction. Recognizing the psychic origin of what is playing out on the world stage is, in-and-of-itself, the very realization that the deeper, underlying psychic process is revealing to us. THE UNCONSCIOUS IS COMING! To quote Jung, “The great problem of our time is that we don’t understand what is happening to the world. We are confronted with the darkness of our soul, the unconscious.” [Emphasis added] It is as if our shadow, both personal and archetypal, has gripped us and is revealing itself to us as it plays itself out through our unconscious. This is particularly dangerous because this process is happening unconsciously. When we act out and give shape and form to our unconscious without being consciously aware of what we are doing, it is always destructive. posted by Mister Skye | 12:58 PM Monday, June 20, 2005 
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Saturday, June 18, 2005 After waking up from a momentary lapse into the unconsciousness, he saw that he had collapsed at the dinner table. Bits of sweaty lettuce clung to his face. At the other end of the table, his wife's head was festooned with tree roots. posted by Mister Skye | 7:20 PM 
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Thursday, June 16, 2005 The Case for Phenomenal Externalism There visually appears to Ludwig to be a red tomato; there visually appears to Bertie to be a green blob.The tomato is real and so is its redness, but the blob is unreal, an intentional inexistent, and so is its greenness.The greenness is the color of an illusory, nonexistent thing.If that seems weird to you, think of hallucinating pink rats.Perhaps you know the rats are not real, but they are unquestionably pink.The pinkness is the color of the nonexistent rats.(I take that to be uncontroversial.[4])Construing intentionality as representation, we can say that the pinkness is the represented color of the represented but nonactual rats, i.e., it is the color they are represented as having.[5] Nor should it be surprising that Bertie’s blob is a nonactual, nonexistent thing.Since in reality there is no green blob in the room with Bertie, his visual experience is unveridical.Remember that after-images are illusions; it looks to Bertie as though there is a green blob before him, when there is not anything green before him.Moreover, vision science has an extensively worked out explanation of this particular illusion.It is well understood why it can look to someone as though there is something green even when there is not anything green before that person. (click text for full essay) posted by Mister Skye | 9:20 AM Monday, June 06, 2005 www.themonsterengine.com
Sunday, June 05, 2005 A brief review of an article proposing that rates of global innovation have been declining in recent decades, since 1914 by an analysis of U.S. patents, which seems contradicted by independent data, and since 1873 by a subjective analysis of "important innovations," which may have greater general merit. I disagree with the author's analysis with regard to technological innovation as we might generally define it, which appears to be increasingly rapid, autonomous, and occurring more below the threshold of human perception with each passing year, while a number of objectively measurable technological capacities (Moore's law, etc.) continue to grow at exponential or slightly superexponential rates. But it seems at least plausible that there has been a decline in rates of human-initiated innovation (as opposed to that initiated by our technologies) and in subjective or apparent innovation rates, specifically, technological advances that are easily observable and classifiable by human beings. Two other factors that might be contributing to Huebner's observation of declining innovation in the human domain are an apparent saturation of fixed human needs by our accelerating technologies, and the abstract, higher-order, and incremental nature of innovation in today's increasingly virtual and human-surpassing digital environment. If replicable, this article's findings have important implications for better innovation metrics in a world of continuously accelerating change. In the context of other papers on innovation saturation, some also referenced here, Huebner's study may indicate a need for us to learn how to see and measure innovation from a technological, not just a human perspective in coming years. posted by Mister Skye | 9:14 PM 
posted by Mister Skye |
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Hearing Colors, Tasting Shapes People with synesthesia--whose senses blend together--are providing valuable clues to understanding the organization and functions of the human brain By Vilayanur S. Ramachandran and Edward M. Hubbard When Matthew Blakeslee shapes hamburger patties with his hands, he experiences a vivid bitter taste in his mouth. Esmerelda Jones (a pseudonym) sees blue when she listens to the note C sharp played on the piano; other notes evoke different hues--so much so that the piano keys are actually color-coded, making it easier for her to remember and play musical scales. And when Jeff Coleman looks at printed black numbers, he sees them in color, each a different hue. Blakeslee, Jones and Coleman are among a handful of otherwise normal people who have synesthesia. They experience the ordinary world in extraordinary ways and seem to inhabit a mysterious no-man's-land between fantasy and reality. For them the senses--touch, taste, hearing, vision and smell--get mixed up instead of remaining separate. Modern scientists have known about synesthesia since 1880, when Francis Galton, a cousin of Charles Darwin, published a paper in Nature on the phenomenon. But most have brushed it aside as fakery, an artifact of drug use (LSD and mescaline can produce similar effects) or a mere curiosity. About four years ago, however, we and others began to uncover brain processes that could account for synesthesia. Along the way, we also found new clues to some of the most mysterious aspects of the human mind, such as the emergence of abstract thought, metaphor and perhaps even language. A common explanation of synesthesia is that the affected people are simply experiencing childhood memories and associations. Maybe a person had played with refrigerator magnets as a child and the number 5 was red and 6 was green. This theory does not answer why only some people retain such vivid sensory memories, however. You might think of cold when you look at a picture of an ice cube, but you probably do not feel cold, no matter how many encounters you may have had with ice and snow during your youth. Another prevalent idea is that synesthetes are merely being metaphorical when they describe the note C flat as "red" or say that chicken tastes "pointy"--just as you and I might speak of a "loud" shirt or "sharp" cheddar cheese. Our ordinary language is replete with such sense-related metaphors, and perhaps synesthetes are just especially gifted in this regard. We began trying to find out whether synesthesia is a genuine sensory experience in 1999. This deceptively simple question had plagued researchers in this field for decades. One natural approach is to start by asking the subjects outright: "Is this just a memory, or do you actually see the color as if it were right in front of you?" When we tried asking this question, we did not get very far. Some subjects did respond, "Oh, I see it perfectly clearly." But a more frequent reaction was, "I kind of see it, kind of don't" or "No, it is not like a memory. I see the number as being clearly red but I also know it isn't; it's black. So it must be a memory, I guess." To determine whether an effect is truly perceptual, psychologists often use a simple test called pop-out or segregation. If you look at a set of tilted lines scattered amid a forest of vertical lines, the tilted lines stand out. Indeed, you can instantly segregate them from the background and group them mentally to form, for example, a separate triangular shape. Similarly, if most of a background's elements were green dots and you were told to look for red targets, the reds would pop out. On the other hand, a set of black 2's scattered among 5's of the same color almost blend in [see sidebar]. It is hard to discern the 2's without engaging in an item-by-item inspection of numbers, even though any individual number is just as clearly different from its neighbors as a tilted line is from a straight line. We thus may conclude that only certain primitive, or elementary, features, such as color and line orientation, can provide a basis for grouping. More complex perceptual tokens, such as numbers, cannot do so. We wondered what would happen if we showed the mixed numbers to synesthetes who experience, for instance, red when they see a 5 and green with a 2. We arranged the 2's so that they formed a triangle. If synesthesia were a genuine sensory effect, our subjects should easily see the triangle because for them, the numbers would look colored. When we conducted pop-out tests with volunteers, the answer was crystal clear. Unlike normal subjects, synesthetes correctly reported the shape formed by groups of numbers up to 90 percent of the time (exactly as nonsynesthetes do when the numbers actually have different colors). This result proves that the induced colors are genuinely sensory and that synesthetes are not just making things up. It is impossible for them to fake their success. In another striking example, we asked a synesthete who sees 5 tinged red to watch a computer display. He could not tell when we surreptitiously added an actual red hue to the white number unless the red was sufficiently intense; he could instantly spot a real green added to the 5. Visual Processing Confirmation that synesthesia is real brings up the question, Why do some people experience this weird phenomenon? Our experiments lead us to favor the idea that synesthetes are experiencing the result of some kind of cross wiring in the brain. This basic concept was initially proposed about 100 years ago, but we have now identified where in the brain and how such cross wiring might occur. An understanding of the neurobiological factors at work requires some familiarity with how the brain processes visual information [see illustration on opposite page]. After light reflected from a scene hits the cones (color receptors) in the eye, neural signals from the retina travel to area 17, in the occipital lobe at the back of the brain. There the image is processed further within local clusters, or blobs, into such simple attributes as color, motion, form and depth. Afterward, information about these separate features is sent forward and distributed to several far-flung regions in the temporal and parietal lobes. In the case of color, the information goes to area V4 in the fusiform gyrus of the temporal lobe. From there it travels to areas that lie farther up in the hierarchy of color centers, including a region near a patch of cortex called the TPO (for the junction of the temporal, parietal and occipital lobes). These higher areas may be concerned with more sophisticated aspects of color processing. For example, leaves look as green at dusk as they do at midday, even though the mix of wavelengths reflected from the leaves is very different. Numerical computation, too, seems to happen in stages. An early step also takes place in the fusiform gyrus, where the actual shapes of numbers are represented, and a later one occurs in the angular gyrus, a part of the TPO that is concerned with numerical concepts such as ordinality (sequence) and cardinality (quantity). (When the angular gyrus is damaged by a stroke or a tumor, the patient can still identify numbers but can no longer divide or subtract. Multiplication often survives because it is learned by rote.) In addition, brain-imaging studies in humans strongly hint that visually presented letters of the alphabet or numbers (graphemes) activate cells in the fusiform gyrus, whereas the sounds of the syllables (phonemes) are processed higher up, once again in the general vicinity of the TPO. Because both colors and numbers are processed initially in the fusiform gyrus and subsequently near the angular gyrus, we suspected that number-color synesthesia might be caused by cross wiring between V4 and the number-appearance area (both within the fusiform) or between the higher color area and the number-concept area (both in the TPO). Other, more exotic forms of the condition might result from similar cross wiring of different sensory-processing regions. That the hearing center in the temporal lobes is also close to the higher brain area that receives color signals from V4 could explain sound-color synesthesia. Similarly, Matthew Blakeslee's tasting of touch might occur because of cross wiring between the taste cortex in a region called the insula and an adjacent cortex representing touch by the hands. Assuming that neural cross wiring does lie at the root of synesthesia, why does it happen? We know that it runs in families, so it has a genetic component. Perhaps a mutation causes connections to emerge between brain areas that are usually segregated. Or maybe the mutation leads to defective pruning of preexisting connections between areas that are normally connected only sparsely. If the mutation were to be expressed (that is, to exert its effects) in some brain areas but not others, this patchiness might explain why some synesthetes conflate colors and numbers whereas others see colors when they hear phonemes or musical notes. People who have one type of synesthesia are more likely to have another, which adds weight to this idea. Although we initially thought in terms of physical cross wiring, we have come to realize that the same effect could occur if the wiring--the number of connections between regions--was fine but the balance of chemicals traveling between regions was skewed. So we now speak in terms of cross activation. For instance, neighboring brain regions often inhibit one another's activity, which serves to minimize cross talk. A chemical imbalance of some kind that reduces such inhibition--for example, by blocking the action of an inhibitory neurotransmitter or failing to produce an inhibitor--would also cause activity in one area to elicit activity in a neighbor. Such cross activation could, in theory, also occur between widely separated areas, which would account for some of the less common forms of synesthesia. Support for cross activation comes from other experiments, some of which also help to explain the varied forms synesthesia can take. One takes advantage of a visual phenomenon known as crowding [see sidebar]. If you stare at a small plus sign in an image that also has a number 5 off to one side, you will find that it is easy to discern that number, even though you are not looking at it directly. But if we now surround the 5 with four other numbers, such as 3's, then you can no longer identify it. It looks out of focus. Volunteers who perceive normally are no more successful at identifying this number than mere chance. That is not because things get fuzzy in the periphery of vision. After all, you could see the 5 perfectly clearly when it wasn't surrounded by 3's. You cannot identify it now because of limited attentional resources. The flanking 3's somehow distract your attention away from the central 5 and prevent you from seeing it. A big surprise came when we gave the same test to two synesthetes. They looked at the display and made remarks like, "I cannot see the middle number. It's fuzzy but it looks red, so I guess it must be a 5." Even though the middle number did not consciously register, it seems that the brain was nonetheless processing it somewhere. Synesthetes could then use this color to deduce intellectually what the number was. If our theory is right, this finding implies that the number is processed in the fusiform gyrus and evokes the appropriate color before the stage at which the crowding effect occurs in the brain; paradoxically, the result is that even an "invisible" number can produce synesthesia. Another finding we made also supports this conclusion. When we reduced the contrast between the number and the background, the synesthetic color became weaker until, at low contrast, subjects saw no color at all, even though the number was perfectly visible. Whereas the crowding experiment shows that an invisible number can elicit color, the contrast experiment conversely indicates that viewing a number does not guarantee seeing a color. Perhaps low-contrast numbers activate cells in the fusiform adequately for conscious perception of the number but not enough to cross-activate the color cells in V4. Finally, we found that if we showed synesthetes Roman numerals, a V, say, they saw no color--which suggests that it is not the numerical concept of a number, in this case 5, but the grapheme's visual appearance that drives the color. This observation, too, implicates cross activation within the fusiform gyrus itself in number-color synesthesia, because that structure is mainly involved in analyzing the visual shape, not the high-level meaning of the number. One intriguing twist: Imagine an image with a large 5 made up of little 3's; you can see either the "forest" (the 5) or focus minutely on the "trees" (the 3's). Two synesthete subjects reported that they saw the color switch, depending on their focus. This test implies that even though synesthesia can arise as a result of the visual appearance alone--not the high-level concept--the manner in which the visual input is categorized, based on attention, is also critical. But as we began to recruit other volunteers, it soon became obvious that not all synesthetes who colorize their world are alike. In some, even days of the week or months of the year elicit colors. Monday might be green, Wednesday pink, and December yellow. The only thing that days of the week, months and numbers have in common is the concept of numerical sequence, or ordinality. For certain synesthetes, perhaps it is the abstract concept of numerical sequence that drives the color, rather than the visual appearance of the number. Could it be that in these individuals, the cross wiring occurs between the angular gyrus and the higher color area near the TPO instead of between areas in the fusiform? If so, that interaction would explain why even abstract number representations, or the idea of the numbers elicited by days of the week or months, will strongly evoke specific colors. In other words, depending on where in the brain the mutant gene is expressed, it can result in different types of the condition--"higher" synesthesia, driven by numerical concept, or "lower" synesthesia, produced by visual appearance alone. Similarly, in some lower forms, the visual appearance of a letter might generate color, whereas in higher forms it is the sound, or phoneme, summoned by that letter; phonemes are represented near the TPO. We also observed one case in which we believe cross activation enables a colorblind synesthete to see numbers tinged with hues he otherwise cannot perceive; charmingly, he refers to these as "Martian colors." Although his retinal color receptors cannot process certain wavelengths, we suggest that his brain color area is working just fine and being cross-activated when he sees numbers. In brain-imaging experiments we are conducting with Geoff Boynton of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in San Diego, we have obtained preliminary evidence of local activation of the color area V4 in a manner predicted by our cross-activation theory of synesthesia. (Jeffrey Gray of the Institute of Psychiatry in London and his colleagues have reported similar results.) On presenting black and white numbers to synesthetes, brain activation arose not only in the number area--as it would in normal subjects--but also in the color area. Our group also observed differences between types of synesthetes. One of our subjects with lower synesthesia showed much greater activation in earlier stages of color processing than occurred in controls. In contrast, higher synesthetes show less activation at these earlier levels. A Way with Metaphor Our insights into the neurological basis of synesthesia could help explain some of the creativity of painters, poets and novelists. According to one study, the condition is seven times as common in creative people as in the general population. One skill that many creative people share is a facility for using metaphor ("It is the east, and Juliet is the sun"). It is as if their brains are set up to make links between seemingly unrelated domains--such as the sun and a beautiful young woman. In other words, just as synesthesia involves making arbitrary links between seemingly unrelated perceptual entities such as colors and numbers, metaphor involves making links between seemingly unrelated conceptual realms. Perhaps this is not just a coincidence. Numerous high-level concepts are probably anchored in specific brain regions, or maps. If you think about it, there is nothing more abstract than a number, and yet it is represented, as we have seen, in a relatively small brain region, the angular gyrus. Let us say that the mutation we believe brings about synesthesia causes excess communication among different brain maps--small patches of cortex that represent specific perceptual entities, such as sharpness or curviness of shapes or, in the case of color maps, hues. Depending on where and how widely in the brain the trait was expressed, it could lead to both synesthesia and to a propensity toward linking seemingly unrelated concepts and ideas--in short, creativity. This would explain why the apparently useless synesthesia gene has survived in the population. In addition to clarifying why artists might be prone to experiencing synesthesia, our research suggests that we all have some capacity for it and that this trait may have set the stage for the evolution of abstraction--an ability at which humans excel. The TPO (and the angular gyrus within it), which plays a part in the condition, is normally involved in cross-modal synthesis. It is the brain region where information from touch, hearing and vision is thought to flow together to enable the construction of high-level perceptions. For example, a cat is fluffy (touch), it meows and purrs (hearing), it has a certain appearance (vision) and odor (smell), all of which are derived simultaneously by the memory of a cat or the sound of the word "cat." Could it be that the angular gyrus--which is disproportionately larger in humans compared with that in apes and monkeys--evolved originally for cross-modal associations but then became co-opted for other, more abstract functions such as metaphors? Consider two drawings, originally designed by psychologist Wolfgang K?hler. One looks like an inkblot and the other, a jagged piece of shattered glass. When we ask, "Which of these is a 'bouba,' and which is a 'kiki'?" 98 percent of people pick the inkblot as a bouba and the other one as a kiki. Perhaps that is because the gentle curves of the amoebalike figure metaphorically mimic the gentle undulations of the sound "bouba" as represented in the hearing centers in the brain as well as the gradual inflection of the lips as they produce the curved "boo-baa" sound. In contrast, the waveform of the sound "kiki" and the sharp inflection of the tongue on the palate mimic the sudden changes in the jagged visual shape. The only thing these two kiki features have in common is the abstract property of jaggedness that is extracted somewhere in the vicinity of the TPO, probably in the angular gyrus. (We recently found that people with damage to the angular gyrus lose the bouba-kiki effect--they cannot match the shape with the correct sound.) In a sense, perhaps we are all closet synesthetes. So the angular gyrus performs a very elementary type of abstraction--extracting the common denominator from a set of strikingly dissimilar entities. We do not know how exactly it does this job. But once the ability to engage in cross-modal abstraction emerged, it might have paved the way for the more complex types of abstraction. The opportunistic takeover of one function for a different one is common in evolution. For example, bones in the ear used for hearing in mammals evolved from the back of the jawbone in reptiles. Beyond metaphor and abstract thinking, cross-modal abstraction might even have provided seeds for language [see sidebar]. When we began our research on synesthesia, we had no inkling of where it would take us. Little did we suspect that this eerie phenomenon, long regarded as a mere curiosity, might offer a window into the nature of thought. VILAYANUR S. RAMACHANDRAN AND EDWARD M. HUBBARD collaborate on studies of synesthesia. Ramachandran directs the Center for Brain and Cognition at the University of California at San Diego and is adjunct professor at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. He trained as a physician and later obtained a Ph.D. from Trinity College, University of Cambridge. He has received a fellowship from All Souls College, University of Oxford, the Ariens Kappers Gold Medal from the Royal Netherlands Academy, and the plenary lecture award from the American Academy of Neurology. He gave the BBC Reith Lectures for 2003. This is his fourth article for Scientific American. Hubbard is a fourth-year graduate student in the departments of psychology and cognitive science at U.C.S.D. His research combines psychophysics and functional magnetic resonance imaging to explore the neural basis of multisensory phenomena. A founding member of the American Synesthesia Association, he helped to organize its second annual meeting at U.C.S.D. in 2001. posted by Mister Skye | 9:07 PM    Princeton University's 1st Annual Art of Science Convention posted by Mister Skye | 8:49 PM Sex-mad Demon Terrorizes Village CHAKE CHAKE, Tanzania - Vacationers on the Indian Ocean islands tend to smile dismissively at accounts in guidebooks of the bat-like ogre said to prey on men, women and children. But for superstitious Zanzibaris a visit from the sodomizing gremlin is no joke. Although no one ever has seen it, belief in the monster and his unnatural lust is so strong that entire villages will sleep out of doors for protection: Popo Bawa (Swahili for Bat's Wing) prefers to attack behind closed doors at night. In huts set amid rustling groves of jackfruit and mangoes on Zanzibar's Pemba island, victims told Reuters in interviews that they detected a bad smell, became cold and went into a trance in the moments before they felt the creature's inhuman strength. Some attacks were heralded by the sound of giant wings and claws rattling and scraping on huts' tin roofs. Others cringed in terror at what sounded like a car engine ticking over. "We heard a rustling on the roof," recalls ASHA SALEH, in her late 50s, in Machomanne village near Pemba's main town of Chake Chake. "I felt someone fondling me. I felt very cold. I felt weak," she said, recalling the attack some 35 years ago. LEGENDS "I couldn't call out for help to my husband who was lying asleep beside me. Popo Bawa is strong: He really presses down on you. And it took such a long time: One hour! Eventually I lost consciousness. And I was one of many who were attacked." Successive waves of colonizers and traders -- Arabs, Portuguese, Hindus, Chinese, Britons, Persians and Africans -- left behind a multinational array of legends on Zanzibar. Accordingly, many dismiss Popo Bawa as another of the satanic stories swapped over the centuries by migratory Indian Ocean peoples as they moved back and forth on the tides from Indonesia to the Comoros, from Madagascar to the Maldives. Zanzibar's distinctive past as an Arab-run slave market prompted some academics to speculate that the story of Popo Bawa emerged from a collective race memory of the horrors of slavery. But Popo Bawa is unlike the many goblins believed by the islanders to populate the tall grasses that ring their huts. Many on the islands are adept at exorcisms, placing charms at the base of fig trees or sacrificing goats to avert evil or draw favor from the spirit world. So experienced are the isles' traditional healers that they draw visitors from the Gulf and east Africa, with the successful amassing riches and prestige. But no placatory offering or witch doctor can deflect Popo Bawa when he has made his mind up to strike, islanders say. The monster favors Pemba, the poorer and more backward of the archipelago's twin islands despite being home to the clove plantations that provide the mainstay of Zanzibar's economy. He also becomes active at election time: a habit that is testing nerves ahead of polls due in October. His last major visitation was during elections in 1995, when JUMA says he endured his terrifying ordeal, although some reported his presence again in 2000 and in 2001. "APOLITICAL" Pemba's population are staunch opposition supporters. Many accuse the ruling party of Tanzanian President BENJAMIN MKAPA of neglecting the island since 1964, when Zanzibar merged with mainland Tanganyika to form the United Republic of Tanzania. But JUMA says Popo Bawa is apolitical even though electoral emotions seem to summon him from the beyond. "He can strike even if the opposition wins the elections," he said. The driver vows to do his utmost to avoid what happened to him back in 1995 as he sat alone late one evening. "Many were afraid and were sleeping outside. But I was confident and was alone in my room. I was reading the Koran for protection. After about 20 minutes I started feeling sleepy. I heard something falling on the roof. I continued reciting. I started feeling something in the room. "I felt my mouth becoming bigger and bigger. I started losing my ability to form words. My feeling was that my lower lip had stretched to my lap. I felt weak in my body. I became very sweaty. My experience was like that of a neighbor of mine who said his head seemed to grow to an enormous size." Popo Bawa gets annoyed if villagers deny his existence -- a fact to which KHAMIS JUMA HAMAD says he can testify. HAMAD, a retired village chief now aged 75, said that in 1971 Popo Bawa spoke to terrified villagers on Pemba through a girl possessed by the monster. "I am Popo Bawa," said the girl, called FATUMA, speaking in the unnaturally deep voice of a man. "You have challenged my existence so I have come to prove I am here." Seconds later, he says, the villagers heard the sound of a car revving and a rustle on a nearby roof -- signs of Popo Bawa. "The people felt cold, almost paralyzed. They were terrified." posted by Mister Skye | 8:46 PM Wednesday, June 01, 2005 Lynch invades an 'Empire' Digital pic details a mystery By ADAM DAWTREY David Lynch Lynch David Lynch is making a new movie with StudioCanal. In fact, he's already been shooting it under the radar for two years. Titled "INLAND EMPIRE" (in capitals, though Lynch doesn't explain why), it stars Laura Dern, along with Justin Theroux, Harry Dean Stanton, Jeremy Irons and a host of others Lynch won't specify. In fact, there's still very little the enigmatic Lynch is comfortable to reveal about the movie. "It's about a woman in trouble, and it's a mystery, and that's about all I want to say about it," he comments diffidently. The title refers to the bleak residential area on the edge of the desert near L.A. -- the antithesis of the tony locale of his last movie "Mulholland Drive." Lynch has shot much of his latest film in Poland with local actors, after making friends with the organizers of the Camerimage festival in Lodz. He's now back shooting in and around Los Angeles. Even at this relatively advanced stage of production, Lynch is cagey about when it will be finished. But it's understood that StudioCanal is aiming for a world preem at Cannes next year. "Making a film is a beautiful mystery," Lynch says. "You go deep into the wood, and you don't want to come out of that wood, but the time is coming very soon when I will have to." Lynch has financed the production to date from his own resources, with his wife and longtime artistic collaborator Mary Sweeney producing. The budget is unknown. StudioCanal, which financed "Mulholland Drive" and "The Straight Story," has come aboard "INLAND EMPIRE" to handle worldwide sales. Digital convert What Lynch will reveal -- and indeed, waxes lyrical about -- is the fact that he's shooting the movie on digital video. "I started working in DV for my Web site, and I fell in love with the medium. It's unbelievable, the freedom and the incredible different possibilities it affords, in shooting and in post-production." "For me, there's no way back to film. I'm done with it," Lynch says. "I love abstraction. Film is a beautiful medium, but it's very slow and you don't get a chance to try a lot of different things. With DV, you get those chances. And in post-production, if you can think it, you can do it." DV has clearly given Lynch the freedom from having to clarify his intentions -- to financiers, or even to himself -- before he starts shooting. "The explaining of things in words is always a huge problem," he confesses. He characterizes the DV production process as a journey of "huge exploration" to discover what his film will be. "I'm writing as I go," he says. "I believe in the unity of things. When you have one part, and then a second part that doesn't relate to that first part, it's very curious to find that they do relate after all. It's a most beautiful thing." He also believes that it produces a different kind of performances from actors. "When you run out of film, you have to stop and reload, and during that time the heat sometimes goes off. But with this medium you can keep that heat, and it builds, and it's beautiful to see." He says that Dern, in particular, has benefited from this freedom. "She's the most incredible actress. Some people get roles and do their thing, but some have a lot more inside and don't usually get the chance to show it." As for the quality of the DV image, Lynch says, "It looks different. Some would say it looks bad. But it reminds me of early 35mm, that didn't have that tight grain. When you have a poor image, there's lots more room to dream." "But I've done tests transferring DV to film, and there are all kinds of controls to dial in the look you want." posted by Mister Skye | 5:05 PM Monday, May 30, 2005 Scientists link plastic food containers with breast cancer James Meikle, health correspondent Monday May 30, 2005 The Guardian A chemical widely used in food packaging may be a contributing factor to women developing breast cancer, scientists have suggested. The study links the compound to the development of hormone sensitive tissue in mice and has prompted environmental campaigners to call for far tighter regulation of such chemicals. Experiments at Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston, Massachusetts, have potentially worrying implications for human health since they suggest mammary glands of female mice grow in a way that makes them more likely to develop breast cancer and also to respond unusually to oestrogen, which fuels most breast cancer in humans. Article continues The compound involved is called bisphenol-A or BPA. It is used in plastic food containers, cans and dental sealants and other research suggests it leaches from products and is absorbed in low concentrations by the human body, The scientists behind the latest findings say in the journal Endocrinology that they are involved in further work to test the hypothesis that exposure in the womb and shortly after birth to BPA in particular, and to oestrogens in general, might increase people's susceptibility to breast cancer. It is the second report in a week to raise concerns about widely used chemicals. Research has also shown that phthalates, often found in plastics, affects the genital development of baby boys. The Tufts researchers report "persistent alterations" to mammary gland development after giving doses of BPA to pregnant mice which were designed to mimic levels humans are likely to be exposed to. The rodents were treated late in pregnancy and about four days after birth. The offspring were checked as they reached puberty about 30 days later. The researchers found large increases in the number and density of terminal end buds, part of the mammary gland structure where breast tumours start in both animals and humans. They also found a drop in the number of cells programmed for death, the natural defence mechanism by which the body gets rid of damaged cells that might become cancerous. Animals exposed to higher doses of BPA developed mammary glands more sensitive to oestrogen. Professor Frederick vom Saal, of the University of Missouri-Columbia, commenting on the findings, said: "This is of tremendous concern because this is clearly a study that is relevant to human exposure levels to this chemical." Gwynne Lyons, a policy adviser to environment group WWF UK, suggested that humans and wildlife were being put at risk. "Because industry wants business as usual, the UK government and regulatory authorities in the European Union member states are not adequately controlling these gender-bending chemicals and are fighting shy of pressing industry to come up with safer chemicals." A study to be published this week in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute will raise questions over the long-term daily use of the pain-killer ibuprofen by suggesting it may increase breast cancer risk. Researchers at the University of Southern California studied the health histories of 114,000 women and compared them to the pills and medicine they said they had taken. The painkiller is widely available over the counter and has long been seen as one of the safest drugs. Researchers say further study of its possible effects is needed because of the public health impact should the findings be confirmed. But there is better news for women diagnosed with cancer who may choose to preserve their fertility by freezing eggs before they undergo chemotherapy or radiation treatments. Existing freezing and thawing techniques can damage the eggs but scientists from the University of Michigan told a conference in Istanbul yesterday they had developed a promising process called vitrification, already tried in mice and scheduled for trials of women this autumn. This instantly freezes the eggs, preventing the formation of dangerous ice crystals. posted by Mister Skye | 10:58 AM Sunday, May 29, 2005 Recently have been reflecting on Gregory Crewdson's work while writing some notes on a new project I am working on titled "Wisconsin". Edgar Cayce on the Akashic Records The Akashic Records or "The Book of Life" can be equated to the universe's super computer system. It is this system that acts as the central storehouse of all information for every individual who has ever lived upon the earth. More than just a reservoir of events, the Akashic Records contain every deed, word, feeling, thought, and intent that has ever occurred at any time in the history of the world. Much more than simply a memory storehouse, however, these Akashic Records are interactive in that they have a tremendous influence upon our everyday lives, our relationships, our feelings and belief systems, and the potential realities we draw toward us. It is no exaggeration to state that the computer has transformed (and is still in the process of transforming) the entire planet. Whether it's technology, transportation, communication, education, or entertainment, the computer age has revolutionized the globe and the ways in which we understand and interact with one another. No segment of modern society has gone unaffected. The amount of information now stored in computer memory and crossing the Internet highway daily is literally unfathomable. And yet, this vast complex of computer systems and collective databases cannot begin to come close to the power, the memory, or the omniscient recording capacity of the Akashic Records. The Akashic Records contain the entire history of every soul since the dawn of Creation. These records connect each one of us to one another. They contain the stimulus for every archetypal symbol or mythic story which has ever deeply touched patterns of human behavior and experience. They have been the inspiration for dreams and invention. They draw us toward or repel us from one another. They mold and shape levels of human consciousness. They are a portion of Divine Mind. They are the unbiased judge and jury that attempt to guide, educate, and transform every individual to become the very best that she or he can be. They embody an ever-changing fluid array of possible futures that are called into potential as we humans interact and learn from the data that has already been accumulated. Information about these Akashic Records – this Book of Life – can be found in folklore, in myth, and throughout the Old and New Testaments. It is traceable at least as far back as the Semitic peoples and includes the Arabs, the Assyrians, the Phoenicians, the Babylonians, and the Hebrews. Among each of these peoples was the belief that there was in existence some kind of celestial tablets which contained the history of humankind as well as all manner of spiritual information. The first reference in Scripture to some unearthly volume is found in Exodus 32:32. After the Israelites had committed a most grievous sin by worshiping the golden calf, it was Moses who pleaded on their behalf, even offering to take full responsibility and have his own name stricken "out of thy book which thou hast written" in recompense for their deed. Later, in the Old Testament, we learn that there is nothing about an individual that is not known in this same book. In Psalm 139, David makes reference to the fact God has written down everything about him and all the details of his life – even that which is imperfect and those deeds which have yet to be performed. For many individuals this Book of Life is simply an imagery symbol of those destined for heaven and has its roots in the custom of recording genealogical records of names or perhaps early census taking. Traditional religion suggests that this book – either in literal or symbolic form – contains the names of all those who are worthy of salvation. TheBook is to be opened in connection with divine judgment (Dan. 7:10, Rev. 20:12). In the New Testament, those redeemed by Christ are contained within the Book (Philippians 4), those not found in the Book of Life will not enter the kingdom of Heaven. Sir James George FrazerAs an interesting corollary, in the ancient world, a person's name was symbolic of his or her existence. According to Sir James George Frazer, author of The Golden Bough – one of the most extensive volumes on world mythology – there was such a bond between one's name and one's existence "that magic may be wrought on a man just as easily as through his name as through his hair, his nails, or any other material part of his person." In ancient Egypt, to blot a name out of a record was equivalent to destroying the fact that the person had ever even existed. Closer to our current era, a great deal of contemporary information on the Akashic Records has been made available by both reputable psychics and modern-day mystics – individuals who have somehow perceived beyond the limits of three dimensions. According to H.P. [Helena Petrovna] Blavatsky (1831-1891), Russian immigrant, mystic, and founder of the Theosophical Society, the Akashic Records are much more than simply an account of static data which may be gleaned by a sensitive; instead, the records have an ongoing creative stimulus upon the present: Akasha is one of the cosmic principles and is a plastic matter, creative in its physical nature, immutable in its higher principles. It is the quintessence of all possible forms of energy, material, psychic, or spiritual; and contains within itself the germs of universal creation, which sprout forth under the impulse of the Divine Spirit. Alchemy and the Secret Doctrine Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925), the Austrian-born philosopher, educator, and founder of the Anthroposophical Society possessed the ability to perceive information beyond the material world: a "spiritual world" which was just as real to him as the physical world was to others. Steiner claimed that the ability to perceive this other world could be developed, enabling an individual to see events and information every bit as concrete as the present: ...man can penetrate to the eternal origins of the things which vanish with time. A man broadens his power of cognition in this way if he is no longer limited to external evidence where knowledge of the past is concerned. Then he can see in events what is not perceptible to the senses, that part which time cannot destroy. He penetrates from transitory to non-transitory history. It is a fact that this history is written in other characters than is ordinary history. In gnosis and in theosophy it is called the "Akasha Chronicle"...To the uninitiated, who cannot yet convince himself of the reality of a separate spiritual world through his own experience, the initiate easily appears to be a visionary, if not something worse. The one who has acquired the ability to perceive in the spiritual world comes to know past events in their eternal character. They do not stand before him like the dead testimony of history, but appear in full life. In a certain sense, what has happened takes place before him. Cosmic Memory the most extensive source of information regarding the Akashic Records comes from the clairvoyant work of Edgar Cayce In terms of contemporary insights, perhaps the most extensive source of information regarding the Akashic Records comes from the clairvoyant work of Edgar Cayce (1877-1945), Christian mystic and founder of A.R.E. For forty-three years of his adult life, Edgar Cayce possessed the uncanny ability to lie down on a couch, close his eyes, fold his hands over his stomach, and put himself into some kind of an altered state in which virtually any type of information was available. The accuracy of Cayce's psychic work is evidenced by approximately one dozen biographies and literally hundreds of titles which explore various aspects of his information and the thousands of topics he discussed. When asked about the source of his information, Cayce replied that there were essentially two. The first was the subconscious mind of the individual for whom he was giving the reading and the second was the Akashic Records. Most often, when giving a reading which discussed a person's soul history and his or her individual sojourn through space and time, Cayce would begin with a statement such as, "Yes, we have before us the records of the entity now known or called _________." In discussing the process for accessing these records, Edgar Cayce described his experience as follows: I see myself as a tiny dot out of my physical body, which lies inert before me. I find myself oppressed by darkness and there is a feeling of terrific loneliness. Suddenly, I am conscious of a white beam of light. As this tiny dot, I move upward following the light, knowing that I must follow it or be lost. As I move along this path of light I gradually become conscious of various levels upon which there is movement. Upon the first levels there are vague, horrible shapes, grotesque forms such as one sees in nightmares. Passing on, there begin to appear on either side misshapen forms of human beings with some part of the body magnified. Again there is change and I become conscious of gray-hooded forms moving downward. Gradually, these become lighter in color. Then the direction changes and these forms move upward and the color of the robes grows rapidly lighter. Next, there begin to appear on either side vague outlines of houses, walls, trees, etc., but everything is motionless. As I pass on, there is more light and movement in what appear to be normal cities and towns. With the growth of movement I become conscious of sounds, at first indistinct rumblings, then music, laughter, and singing of birds. There is more and more light, the colors become very beautiful, and there is the sound of wonderful music. The houses are left behind, ahead there is only a blending of sound and color. Quite suddenly I come upon a hall of records. It is a hall without walls, without ceiling, but I am conscious of seeing an old man who hands me a large book, a record of the individual for whom I seek information. Reading 294-19 Report File Once given the record, Cayce had the ability to select the information which would be most capable of assisting the individual at that time in his or her life. Frequently, a reading might suggest that only a selection of the available material was being provided, but that the individual was being given that which would be "most helpful and hopeful." Additional insights were frequently provided in subsequent readings once an individual had attempted to work with and apply the information which had been given previously. As a means of perhaps alluding to the fact that the Akashic Records were not simply a transcription of the past but included the present, the future, and certain probabilities as well, in reading 304-5, Cayce began the reading with a curious statement. When discussing the Book of Life, he stated it that it was "The record of God, of thee, thy soul within and the knowledge of same." (281-33) On another occasion (2533-8) Cayce was asked to explain the difference between the Book of Life and the Akashic Records: Q. [What is meant by] The Book of Life? A. The record that the individual entity itself writes upon the skein of time and space, through patience – and is opened when self has attuned to the infinite, and may be read by those attuning to that consciousness... Q. The Book of God's Remembrances? A. This is the Book of Life. Q. The Akashic Records? A. Those made by the individual, as just indicated. 2533-8 The Edgar Cayce readings suggest that each of us writes the story of our lives through our thoughts, our deeds, and our interactions with the rest of creation. This information has an effect upon us in the here and now. In fact, the Akashic Records have such an impact upon our lives and the potentials and probabilities we draw toward us that any exploration of them cannot help but provide us with insights into the nature of ourselves and our relationship to the universe. There is much more to our lives, our histories, and our individual influence upon our tomorrows than we have perhaps dared to imagine. By accessing information from the Akashic Records, the universe's computer database, much might be revealed to us. The world as we have collectively perceived it is but a faint shadow of Reality. posted by Mister Skye | 3:22 PM Prophet Summons UFO  CLICK HERE posted by Mister Skye | 3:15 PM Friday, May 27, 2005 ------------------------------------------------------------- Toxin in plastics harming unborn boys Scientists say chemicals have gender bending effect Ian Sample, science correspondent Friday May 27, 2005 The Guardian Scientists in America have found the first evidence that common chemicals used in products as diverse as cosmetics, toys, clingfilm and plastic bags may harm the development of unborn baby boys. Researchers have long known that high levels of substances called phthalates have gender-bending effects on male animals, making them more feminine and leading to poor sperm quality and infertility. The new study suggests that even normal levels of phthalates, which are ubiquitous, can disrupt the development of male babies' reproductive organs. Article continues The discovery poses a huge problem for the chemical industry, which is already embroiled in a battle with the government over EU proposals on chemical safety. Several types of phthalates, which are used to make plastics more pliable, and have been around for more than 50 years, have been banned, but many are still produced in vast quantities. The study was carried out by scientists from centres across the US, including the University of Rochester and the National Centre for Environmental Health. The researchers measured the levels of nine widely used phthalates in the urine of pregnant women and compared them with standard physiological measurements of their babies. Tests showed that women with higher levels of four different phthalates were more likely to have baby boys with a range of conditions, from smaller penises and undescended testicles to a shorter perineum, the distance between the genitals and the anus. The differences, say the authors, indicate a feminisation of the boys similar to that seen in animals exposed to the chemicals. Shanna Swan, an obstetrician at the University of Rochester, and lead scientist on the study, said researchers must now unravel what kinds of products are most to blame. One way that phthalates get into the bloodstream is when they seep into food from plastic packaging. "It's going to take a while to work out which of these sources is most relevant to human exposure," she said. Although the observed differences in body measurements were subtle, they indicate that what is generally regarded as the most ubiquitous class of chemicals is having a significant effect on newborns. "Every aspect of male identity is altered when you see this in male animals," said Fred vom Saal, professor of reproductive biology at the University of Missouri-Columbia. Levels of aggression, parenting behaviour and even learning speeds were affected, he said. Andreas Kortenkamp, an expert in environmental pollutants at the School of Pharmacy in London, said: "If it's true, it's sensational. This is the first time anyone's shown this effect in humans. It's an indicator that something's gone seriously wrong with development in the womb and that's why it's so serious." He added: "These are mass chemicals. They are used in any plastic that is pliable, whether it's clingfilm, kidney dialysis tubes, blood bags or toys. Sorting this out is going to be an interesting challenge for industry as well as society." The work, which is to appear in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, is due to be presented at the Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals Forum in San Diego on June 3. Gwynne Lyons, toxics adviser to the WWF, said: "At the moment regulation of the chemicals industry is woefully inadequate." She added: "Right now the government is looking at how the regulation of hormone disrupting chemicals could be made more effective under new EU chemicals law, but the chemicals industry is lobbying very hard to water down this legislation. "Political agreement on this legislation is not expected until later this year so it remains to be seen whether the UK government has the guts to stand up to industry lobbying. If they don't, wildlife and baby boys will be the losers." posted by Mister Skye | 10:29 AM Wednesday, May 25, 2005 Internet Delusions by: Vaughan A report in the medical journal Psychopathology notes that psychotic delusions increasingly concern the internet, suggesting high-technology can fulfil the role of malign 'magical' forces often experienced in psychosis. Traditionally, psychiatry has considered the content of delusions as irrelevant and only sees the 'form' of a belief as important in diagnosis and treatment. For example, how true it is, how strongly it is held, how it was formed and so on. This paper analyzes four case-reports and notes that, contrary to the traditional view, the cases are examples where an internet-theme has particular clinical implications. In one case, a patient began to have paranoid thoughts and used an internet search engine to investigate suspicions about an ingredient on a chewing gum packet. Her searches led her to believe she had discovered a secret terrorist network, and was therefore being personally targeted by the authorities using phone taps and hidden cameras. Presumably, by using a different search engine, she would have found different pages, and her delusion would have been centred on something else. The authors also consider that a person's understanding of technology may be a limiting factor in their ability to incorporate it into a delusional system. People with a poor understanding for example, may be more likely to attribute seemingly supernatural abilities to technology. As Arthur C. Clarke famously noted "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic". In delusions that feature spirits or other supernatural forces, there is no objective limit to the perceived 'powers' of the 'spirits', making such delusions sometimes difficult to refute. In contrast, technology-related delusions can be more easily tested against reality, making for a good prognosis by using techniques such as cognitive behavioural therapy. The authors also note that cultural concerns can influence delusional beliefs, suggesting technology-related delusions will become more common as the use of high-technology grows. Link to study abstract. PDF of full text. posted by Mister Skye | 9:46 AM Friday, May 20, 2005 RUSSIAN LAKE DISAPPEARS BAFFLING LOCALS MOSCOW (Reuters) - A Russian village was left baffled Thursday after its lake disappeared overnight.  NTV television showed pictures of a giant muddy hole bathed in summer sun, while fishermen from the village of Bolotnikovo looked on disconsolately. "It is very dangerous. If a person had been in this disaster, he would have had almost no chance of survival. The trees flew downwards, under the ground," said Dmitry Zaitsev, a local Emergencies Ministry official interviewed by the channel. Officials in Nizhegorodskaya region, on the Volga river east of Moscow, said water in the lake might have been sucked down into an underground water-course or cave system, but some villagers had more sinister explanations. "I am thinking, well, America has finally got to us," said one old woman, as she sat on the ground outside her house. posted by Mister Skye | 9:50 AM Fesitval De Cannes Awesome lineup. posted by Mister Skye | 8:25 AM |
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