A Science View

This is a photo of rogue biologist Russ George's experiment with geoengineering plankton blooms by dumping 100 tons of Iron Sulfate in the Pacific Ocean. The idea is that by stimulating plankton blooms, you will remove CO2 from the atmosphere and also reinvigorate Salmon fisheries.

Here is a view from space.

The Proposition and how savages are portrayed

I recently watched the Proposition. It is an excellent movie well worth the time. It is in the same vein as There Will Be Blood and 3:10 to Yuma, a 19th century frontier epic.

One issue that I found myself thinking about was how to portray the "savages." The aborigines are the savages, as the movie is set in Australia. It is a tough needle to thread. Because if I'm an aborigine actor, I would feel angry at my coworker who plays the role of the captor. They portray the captors as monstrous, in a good-intentioned attempt at bringing some balance, but still, they hold more power than the aborigines at the end of the day, no matter how ugly they are. But an unrealistic portrayal is also condescending.

I wish that there could be a film shown which depicted life from the perspective of the aborigine, or of the Indian. Show their own factions in their own cultures, their prestigious places, their ugly moments, and how they deal with the outsider Europeans.

I've been watching Oliver Stone's Untold History of the United States which starts with why the Soviet Union, not the US, won WWII

Family meal time

The Gameboy Guitar Pedal

Cheap Dinosaurs

Let it be known that when the high priests of video gaming convene in their own council of Nicene, the bedrock of catchy video game design should be known as tactile sound. Simply put, every action that the player performs, even trivial actions like opening the menu, should be accompanied by a sound. This is to assist immersion, since in real life every action that we take produces a sound, even something as simple as dropping a pen on the table. Compelling gaming demands the same.

Cheap Dinosaurs is probably the most interesting instrumental rock band I've ever listened to. Their catch is the source of their main melody: a Nintendo Gameboy. That's right: 8 bit processor running at 4.19 MHZ, 8 kb RAM, output to a 160x144 pixel passive-matrix lcd 4 shade grayscale screen. 

The Nintendo Gameboy.

They recall your favorite whimsical 8 bit soundscapes from games that you can't quite recall but which sound familiar...somehow...from the days of the Nintendo Entertainment System. I'm not familiar enough with the great 8 bit RPG's to really put a finger on it, but the melodies shout out, "look at this incredible digital world! Green fields, impossible blue skies, dark forests, what more could you want? Now go and play!" 

Behind it all is a full backing band digging some really great grooves. Really, they remind me of the beloved Interpol in some of these grooves. In the meanwhile, for all the 8-bit nostalgists, why bother with actually playing old ROM'd games on buggy computer emulators? I end up having to reload 20 times per hour anyways. Just listen to this band. 

Becky Yee

Unfortunately, her site is flash so I can't link to the image, but this is pretty cool I met her in person a few years ago and she gave me a postcard with this image on it she said she found the models on Craigslist for a surprisingly low price gotta love it. 

I'm going to start a new series showcasing the art of below-famous artists