Dusk of One Year, Dawn of Another
Lago Maggiore dusk from Stresa, Italy. June 1973[/caption]
Lago Maggiore dusk from Stresa, Italy. June 1973[/caption]
Lago Maggiore dusk from Stresa, Italy. June 1973[/caption]
Data Visualizations of Vital Statistics
Here are two well done data visualizations by mathematician and software design Brad Lyon and graphic designer Bill Snebold.
The first depicts real-time information about births and deaths in the United States. Whenever and wherever one of those events occurs, the map shows it.
The second depicts the same real-time information worldwide. (Click ‘Restart Simulation’ if either data visualization doesn’t automatically start when you visit it).
The Atlantic monthly magazine explains more background about these data visualizations.
September Sunset
Stamford, Connecticut, September 16, 2014. 30-year old Rokkor 500mm f/8 catadioptric lens adapted for a Sony digital camera[/caption]
Balinese Men
The Power and Pleasure of Color
Spring here in the Northern Hemisphere brings more color to the world, reminding me me of the power of color. Although the flowers and leaves have not yet blossomed where I am in Connecticut, this photo I took at a temple in Bali shows the power and pleasure of color.
Efficient Days
A story in the Huffington Post features a chart from the book Daily Rituals: How Artists Work by Mason Currey and RJ Andrews how famously creative people spend their average days. Besides Ludwig von Beethoven, it features people such as Victor Hugo, Charles Darwin, Benjamin Franklin, et. a. Besides showing who was a ‘morning’ and who an ‘evening’ person, it’s helped me realize that my most productive working hours aren’t that eccentric.
What else I’m reading today:
For the first time in the history of the United States, the majority of member of its Congress are millionaires (as is President Obama and six of the nine members of the U.S. Supreme Court). So, is the United States governed by rich people? Quite literally, it is: the majority are people in the top one-percent of incomes.
Mother’s and Brother’s Induction into the New England Newspaper Hall of Fame
I am proud that the New England Newspaper & Press Association has inducted my late mother and my late brother into the New England Newspaper Hall of Fame.
Please click this link to see photos of the induction dinner and event, which was held in the Park Plaza Hotel, in Boston, Massachusetts. Besides my surviving family, many people from the New England newspaper were there. Charles Ryan, editor of the daily Chronicle in Willimantic, Connecticut, gave the nomination speech. Patrice Crosbie, Kevin’s widow and his successor as Publisher of the Chronicle, accepted the award, which was given by Gary Ferrugia, publisher of The Day, of New London, Connecticut.
Is Mass Nudity Art?
Are nude photographs art? Does nudity still shock you? If you’ve been perplexed by those questions, take a look at New York photographer Spencer Tunick’s ‘human art‘. During the past 20 years, thousands of people en masse have volunteered to disrobe and pose for him. I think his work is certainly art and nudity has ‘paint’ (even when his nudes are wearing paint!)
May my Robot Mix a Drink for You?
httpv://youtu.be/8zP7yP8hdLE
This amazing documentary from the Japanese TV network NHK (which someone on YouTube mistakenly labelled as from the BBC) details how advanced technologies about humanioid robots have become. Because I think NHK erred by starting the documentary with an artist’s robot, rather than with something more interesting, feel free to start this video as 4 minutes 15 seconds. This clips ends unexpectedly after 48 minutes, but continues (with a bit of overlap) at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrBWsSFgNsM
Expect to see these robotic being around town in 2020. I’ll then be asking you if my home robot recognize who you are, greet you at the door, escort you to me, then get us some tea, coffee, or some other beverage?
My Favorite Quotations
“The most beautiful makeup for a woman is passion. But cosmetics are easier to buy.” – Yves Saint Laurent.
“Don’t tell me how educated you are; tell me where you have traveled.” – Mohammed.
“All is flux, nothing stays still. Nothing endures but change.” – Heraclitus.
“The seen is the changing; the unseen is the unchanging.” – Plato.
“It is not certain that everything is uncertain.” – Pascal.
“The future is here. It’s just unevenly distributed.” – William Gibson.
“If you want to know the future, invent it.” – Peter Drucker.
“The most important skill to learn is the skill to learn new skills.” – Paul Bourke.
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” – Einstein.
“They were there looking for people who had the talent to think outside the box. It never occurred to them that, if everyone had to think outside the box, maybe it was the box that needed fixing.” — Malcolm Gladwell.
“An important scientific innovation rarely makes its way by gradually winning over and converting its opponents. … Its opponents gradually die out and the growing generation is familiar with the idea from the beginning.” — Seventy-eight year-old, Nobel Prize-winning physicist Max Planck in 1934.
“Some see the glass as half empty, some see the glass as half full. I see the glass as too big.” — George Carlin.
“Of all manifestations of power, restraint impresses men the most.” – Thucydides.
“I have often reflected that the causes of the success or failures of men are dependent on their ability to suit their manner to the times.” — Machiavelli.
“Out of clutter, find simplicity. From discord, find harmony. In the middle of difficulty, lies opportunity.” – Einstein.
“Be regular and orderly in your life, so that you may be violent and original in your [creative] work.” – Flaubert.
“”Do not deny the classical approach, simply as a reaction, or you will have created another pattern and trapped yourself there” – Martial artist Bruce Lee.
“If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don’t have to worry about answers.” – Thomas Pynchon, Gravity’s Rainbow
“This is a great wall.” – U.S. President Richard Nixon at the Great Wall of China, February 1972.
What My DNA Says About My Ancient Ancestry
As my wife has long suspected, I’m part Neanderthal!
