John Lopez's Worst Nightmare
You know bowl season is upon us when you see families clad in Rutgers gear strolling the streets of downtown Houston.
Architectural Indigestion
Thumbs down to the new Capital One branch bank on Bagby in Midtown. It's a case in point example of why the potential of Midtown will never be realized without proper zoning. When Midtown is nothing but drive-through banks with half acre parking lots and CVSes, they should change the name from Midtown to Katy.
Open Letter to John Lopez
NOTE: I sent the following e-mail to Houston Chronicle sports columnist John Lopez in response to his Dec. 22, 2006 column, which can be found at this link: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/lopez/4420145.html
John,
You wrote today that “bowls have lost their luster.” As evidence, you specifically mention four bowl matchups – 3 lesser bowls and the national championship game. Hmmm…interesting sample. True, there are lots of bowl games these days – 32 to be precise. And that necessarily means they can’t all be compelling matchups. But you overlook, intentionally I think, the fact that there are many great bowl games this year, as there are every year. Let’s take a look at a few. A&M plays Cal in the Holiday Bowl. You specifically asked about the Cotton Bowl in your column – Auburn vs. Nebraska. Not a bad game. Arkansas faces Wisconsin in the Capital One Bowl. And then there are the BCS Bowls, of course.
The only thing that has changed since the good ol’ days you pine for is the addition of more bowls. You can still gorge on the major bowls (now called BCS Bowls) and the so-called minor bowls – I’ve even listed a few interesting minor bowls to help you out. If you aren’t interested in the Rice/Troy game, then don’t watch it. But I fail to see how the New Orleans Bowl’s existence takes any luster off the USC/Michigan Rose Bowl matchup.
Yes, I understand the point of your article: College football would be better with a playoff system. Wow, another article whining about the bowls and pushing for a playoff system. Talk about a group shrug.
Regards,
Matt Bishop
John,
You wrote today that “bowls have lost their luster.” As evidence, you specifically mention four bowl matchups – 3 lesser bowls and the national championship game. Hmmm…interesting sample. True, there are lots of bowl games these days – 32 to be precise. And that necessarily means they can’t all be compelling matchups. But you overlook, intentionally I think, the fact that there are many great bowl games this year, as there are every year. Let’s take a look at a few. A&M plays Cal in the Holiday Bowl. You specifically asked about the Cotton Bowl in your column – Auburn vs. Nebraska. Not a bad game. Arkansas faces Wisconsin in the Capital One Bowl. And then there are the BCS Bowls, of course.
The only thing that has changed since the good ol’ days you pine for is the addition of more bowls. You can still gorge on the major bowls (now called BCS Bowls) and the so-called minor bowls – I’ve even listed a few interesting minor bowls to help you out. If you aren’t interested in the Rice/Troy game, then don’t watch it. But I fail to see how the New Orleans Bowl’s existence takes any luster off the USC/Michigan Rose Bowl matchup.
Yes, I understand the point of your article: College football would be better with a playoff system. Wow, another article whining about the bowls and pushing for a playoff system. Talk about a group shrug.
Regards,
Matt Bishop
Sen. Wentworth restoring belief in democracy
Texas State Sen. Jeff Wentworth, R-San Antonio, will submit a bill in the 2007 legislative session to ban driving while talking on a hands-on cell phone. Wentworth’s proposed bill would make the use of a cell phone while driving a Class C misdemeanor, which is punishable by a fine of less than $500. Using a hands-on phone while driving would be allowed only for emergency calls. Hands-free cell phones would be allowed while driving. While previous attempts at the same law have failed, Sen. Wentworth hopes a new chairman of Senate Committee on Transportation will be more favorable to the bill.
As luck would have it
Miss USA didn't get fired for her penchant for drugs and such. I don't know any details, and I really don't care, but I don't like leaving loose ends here on luridtransom.
Booing Metro officials like Chris Simms
The Houston Metropolitan Transit Authority eliminated the Afton Oaks neighborhood from its potential light rail routes. I haven't been this bitter about a loss since the 2001 Big XII Chanpionship Game.
Wild like a Caddyshack cast party
Miss USA Tara Conner might get fired for alleged cocaine use, bar-hopping (she’s under 21) and promiscuity. I can’t wait for her reality tv show. I'd post Tara's picture, but WVZ won't license that proprietary technology.
Cheat Codes
"There is no doubting the fact that the widespread availability of sexually explicit and graphically violent video games makes the challenge of parenting much harder,'' said Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, who asked the Federal Trade Commission last week to investigate one of the most violent titles, "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.''
Hey Hillary, have you ever played Grand Theft Auto? It's pretty fun.
Hey Hillary, have you ever played Grand Theft Auto? It's pretty fun.
Parvenu couture
When declining an evite, remember to let everyone know how important you are by stating where you'll be in lieu of the evited event.
Mofo supports enforcement of existing laws.
I e-mailed Gov. Rick Perry my suggestion to ban talking on cell phones without a hands-free device while driving. In response, I received a letter from a staffer informing me that there are already reckless driving laws on the books, and that Gov. Perry supports enforcement of those laws. Your governor kindly enclosed a list of contact information for all state Senators and Representatives. Thanks, Rick. I'll pass my suggestion along to John Sharp.
I made a large contribution to the off-road drivers' legal fund because I HATE canyons!
BALLARAT, Calif. — Whoever named Surprise Canyon got it right. Mere miles from bone-dry Death Valley, the canyon cradles two unexpected jewels: a gushing mountain stream and what's left of a once-bustling silver mining town. These treasures have attracted visitors for decades — and now they're at the heart of a legal battle between off-road drivers and environmentalists.
Five years ago environmentalists successfully sued to get the narrow canyon and its spring-fed waterfalls closed to vehicles, arguing that the federal Bureau of Land Management was not carrying out its duty to protect the land.
In response, more than 80 off-roaders purchased tiny pockets of private land at the top of the canyon, and now they're suing the federal government for access to their property, arguing that the canyon is a public right of way.
Environmental groups allege that, before they won protection for the area in 2001, off-roaders destroyed the canyon by cutting trees, dumping boulders in the water and using winches to drag their Jeeps up the waterfalls. They are seeking to intervene in the off-roaders' lawsuit. Since 2001, the canyon has regenerated, with new vegetation attracting wildlife.
Five years ago environmentalists successfully sued to get the narrow canyon and its spring-fed waterfalls closed to vehicles, arguing that the federal Bureau of Land Management was not carrying out its duty to protect the land.
In response, more than 80 off-roaders purchased tiny pockets of private land at the top of the canyon, and now they're suing the federal government for access to their property, arguing that the canyon is a public right of way.
Environmental groups allege that, before they won protection for the area in 2001, off-roaders destroyed the canyon by cutting trees, dumping boulders in the water and using winches to drag their Jeeps up the waterfalls. They are seeking to intervene in the off-roaders' lawsuit. Since 2001, the canyon has regenerated, with new vegetation attracting wildlife.
Other Edens
Taryn Simon will be taking us on a tour through the “weirdness hidden in plain sight — on our sidewalks, along our roadsides and in our public rituals and spectacles” next March in a solo exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art, and in a volume available later that summer.
If you can't make it to the exhibition or can't wait for the book, The New York Times Magazine has published some of Simon's photographs, including the one above taken at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Contraband Room at the Kennedy International Airport: “Among the items seized from passengers in the 48 hours before the photograph was taken: African cane rats infested with maggots, Andean potatoes, Bangladeshi cucurbit plants, a pig’s head from South America.”
One wonders if these detention rooms might just be some of the most biologically diverse places in the lower 48 states.
Another photo takes a look inside the Avian Quarantine Facility New York Animal Import Center in Newburgh, New York. What we see caged are “African gray parrots and European finches, seized upon illegal importation into the U.S., in quarantine. Imported birds must undergo a 30-day mandatory quarantine in a U.S. Department of Agriculture animal-import facility. Before release, each bird is tested for avian influenza and exotic Newcastle disease.”
Again, seeing how empty the sky above Chicago is at the moment, one wonders if it's an ecological wasteland compared to these secret aviaries.
Living Dead
DHL Gardens
Tropicalia
Considering that 1) public squares in northern climes generally turn lifeless during winter; 2) people become even deader once seasonal depression leads to suicides; and 3) landscape architects et al. are always looking for ways to improve the livability of urban landscapes — Perpetual (Tropical) SUNSHINE is thus worth investigating.
“This space is out of sync both temporally and climactically. A spatial screen, composed of 300 infrared light bulbs, transposes the state and image of a summer sun on the 23rd South parallel, thanks to live information transmitted by a network of weather stations all the Tropic of Capricorn and around the globe.
“Thus, the spectator can constantly track the path of the sun, thereby experiencing an abstract and never-ending, planetary form of day and of summer, across longitudes and time zones.”
Next up: Millennium Park's LED-tiledCrown Fountain gets retrofitted into blazing Prozac towers by CDC-licenced landscape architects.
Let there be light!
The “45.5 Meteorite Craters Made by Humans on Their 45.5 Hundred Million Year Old Planet” Fountain
Word of the Day
Cosplay, which originated in Japan, is a combination of the words "costume" and "play." In cosplay, people dress as characters from Japanese animation, as well as graphic manga novels and video games. Cosplay can also refer to someone simply wearing a costume.
More Garden Pr0n
In our most self-indulgent mood here at Pruned Headquarters, we try to convince ourselves that preceding the march of graduates at the start of our convocation, which by the way took place at a park as per department tradition, was a Poliphilian triumph, as hyperfestive and exuberantly rousing and vividly surreal as required for such an occassion.
I saw upon this superb and triumphal vehicle a white swan in amorous embrace with Theseus's daughter, an illustrious nymph of unbelievable beauty. The swan was kissing her with its divine beak; its wings were down, covering the pare parts of the noble lady, as with divine and voluptuous pleasure the two of them united in their delectable sport, with the godlike swan positioned between her delicate snow-white thighs. She was lying comfortably on two cushions of cloth of gold, softly filled with finest wool and with all the appropriately sumptuous ornaments, and was dressed in a thin virginal dress of startlingly white silk and a weft of gold, elegantly adorned in suitable places with precious stones. Nothing was lacking to contribute to the increase of delight. This triumph possessed all the features that were described in the first one, and gave especial pleasure to the onlookers, who responded with praise and applause.
* * *
* *
*
I saw upon this superb and triumphal vehicle a white swan in amorous embrace with Theseus's daughter, an illustrious nymph of unbelievable beauty. The swan was kissing her with its divine beak; its wings were down, covering the pare parts of the noble lady, as with divine and voluptuous pleasure the two of them united in their delectable sport, with the godlike swan positioned between her delicate snow-white thighs. She was lying comfortably on two cushions of cloth of gold, softly filled with finest wool and with all the appropriately sumptuous ornaments, and was dressed in a thin virginal dress of startlingly white silk and a weft of gold, elegantly adorned in suitable places with precious stones. Nothing was lacking to contribute to the increase of delight. This triumph possessed all the features that were described in the first one, and gave especial pleasure to the onlookers, who responded with praise and applause.
* *
*
The National Mall Rescripted
If we are to believe that the National Park Service will take public comments seriously enough that glaringly brilliant suggestions to improve The National Mall will likely be implemented wholly or in parts, then here's your chance to affect how American history is presented and experienced.
Give feedback on these questions at the Public Comment Page here by 11:59PM on December 29.
Some of the questions may sound pedestrian at first. For instance:
But considering how the entire landscape is a minefield of signification and is the most contested territory in the entire Western Hemisphere, then seemingly mundane questions as whether or not there should be a dedicated jogging path or what text should be placed in a historical marker take on dizzyingly monumental consequence.
A view can be worth a thousand truths and a thousand lies.
Some fugitive thoughts: 1) Should all the bollards, concrete planters, and English ha-has littering the Mall, while not as aesthetically pleasing but nevertheless fantastically interesting (if not more so) as the annual cherry blossoms -- should they and all the other topographical imprints of the Global War on Terror be preserved if and when this war ever ends as a de facto national memorial? 2) What's the deal with all the tunnel-digging? and 3) Pruned has never been to Washington, D.C., so interested shadowy supranational corporate funders, contact us.
Give feedback on these questions at the Public Comment Page here by 11:59PM on December 29.
Some of the questions may sound pedestrian at first. For instance:
What should visitor facilities and sidewalk furnishings look like, or what character should they have?
What programs, activities, educational, and recreational opportunities do you want on the National Mall?
What should Pennsylvania Avenue National Historic Park look like, or what streetscape character should it have?
But considering how the entire landscape is a minefield of signification and is the most contested territory in the entire Western Hemisphere, then seemingly mundane questions as whether or not there should be a dedicated jogging path or what text should be placed in a historical marker take on dizzyingly monumental consequence.
A view can be worth a thousand truths and a thousand lies.
Some fugitive thoughts: 1) Should all the bollards, concrete planters, and English ha-has littering the Mall, while not as aesthetically pleasing but nevertheless fantastically interesting (if not more so) as the annual cherry blossoms -- should they and all the other topographical imprints of the Global War on Terror be preserved if and when this war ever ends as a de facto national memorial? 2) What's the deal with all the tunnel-digging? and 3) Pruned has never been to Washington, D.C., so interested shadowy supranational corporate funders, contact us.
Flying Carpets and Magical Carbon Emissions
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India, considered to be one of the world's top polluters, said on Thursday that it was not doing any harm to the world's atmosphere despite increasing emissions of greenhouse gases.
Garden Pr0n
From the Gabinetto Secreto del Pruned, this woodcut from Hypnerotomachia Poliphili of “the rude image of the protector of gardens with all his decent and proper attributes” in a solemn rite, something which I've always thought my graduation ceremony had lacked.
Before this image, with great reverence and ancient rural and pastoral ritual, they were breaking a number of glass bottles or flasks, spattering the foaming blood of the sacrificed ass, warm milk and sparkling wine; and thus they made their libations with fruits, flowers, fronds, festivity and gaiety. Now behind this glorious triumph they led little old Janus, harness with ancient woodland ceremony, girt with strings and twisted tresses of many flowers. In rustic style they say nuptial and bawdy songs, and played their peasant instruments with the utmost joy and glory, celebrating with jumping, leaping and earnest applause, and with loud female voices.
We really needed Poliphilo at the convocation.
H-tastic!
You gotta see the smog in Houston today. It's beautiful. It reminds me of the popular bumper sticker that reads, "I came for the Rockets, but stayed for the sprawl."
Gut Flora
We learned a couple of things recently:
1) According to Science Magazine, “the adult human intestine is home to an almost inconceivable number of microorganisms. The size of the population—up to 100 trillion—far exceeds that of all other microbial communities associated with the body’s surfaces and is ~10 times greater than the total number of our somatic and germ cells.” Or to put it simply, they outnumber us.
And they may even be us, as this intestinal Amazonian ecosystem “provide[s] us with genetic and metabolic attributes we have not been required to evolve on our own, including the ability to harvest otherwise inaccessible nutrients.”
An organ within an organ, in other words.
And: 2) Sounding like a modern Mesopotamian domestication program, Yuichi Hiratsuka and his colleagues “have chemically harnessed bacteria to a micromotor so that they can make the device's rotor slowly turn.”
Pardon us while we quote nearly half of this article:
The machinery of each motor consists of two parts: a ring-shaped groove etched into a silicon surface, and a star-shaped, six-armed rotor fabricated from silicon dioxide that's placed on top of the circular groove. Tabs beneath the rotor arms fit loosely into the groove.
To prepare the bacterial-propulsion units, the team used a strain of the fast-crawling bacterium Mycoplasma mobile that was genetically engineered to crawl only on a carpet of certain proteins, including one called fetuin. The researchers laid down fetuin within the circular groove and coated the rotor with a protein called streptavidin.
The scientists then coated the micrometer-long, pear-shaped bacteria with a solution containing biotin, a vitamin that readily binds to streptavidin.
The team released the treated bacteria into the grooves in a way that sent them mostly in one direction around the circle. As the microbes passed each of a rotor's supporting ridges, their biotin-treated cell membranes clung to the streptavidin coating, causing tugs on the tabs and thereby turning the rotor.
Slow and weak, the rotors circle at about twice the speed of the second hand on a watch and generate only a ten-thousandth as much torque as typical electrically powered micromachines do. By using more bacteria, the scientists could boost the torque 100-fold, Hiratsuka predicts.
What should be done next is repurpose these micromachines for our own gut microbes. First encase them in a capsule. Once you've swallowed the whole lot, an instant zoo of mechanized anaerobic bioreactors blooms in your intestines. Harness the energy they produce to power, say, your iPod while you take a podcast tour through electrified or unelectrified locales.
Ingest a similarly encapsulated scanning electron microscope and project real-time photos as you ramble incomprehensibly through 30,000 years of agricultural terraforming at the next Pecha Kucha or Talk20. From post-lapsarian Eden to the rise of hydroengineered Mesopotamian civilizations; from massive European swamp-draining to the first transatlantic shipment of tomatoes and potatoes; from Jefferson's “no-nonsense (and topographically nonsensical)“ Land Survey grid to precision farming; from the staggering network of hydroelectric dams, reservoirs, levees, canals, and ditches irrigating the deserts of the West to the compact urban Vertical Farm; from the heroic American farmer in stoic communal with the sublime to the much maligned supranational industrial megafarmer; from John Deer to GMO rice; from Wheatfield to Not A Cornfield — all in precisely 6 minutes and 40 seconds.
Alternatively, you can program them so that you shit — well, what else — a shitty park. Your whole intestinal tract turned into a sort of Model T Ford assembly line.
Reprogram these external genetic apparatuses again and the designed metabolic pathway (e.g. indigestion, food poisoning) gets expressed epidermally as a garden.
Gut flora @ Wikipedia
Bouffant Topiary
Wake me up in 2008
US Weekly reports that Tori Spelling has been signed by Simon & Shuster for a memoir due out in April 2008.
Cold War National Park
“At the height of the Cold War,” Deutsche Presse-Agentur tells us, “strategic missile bases such as Zeltini were among the most heavily-armed sites in the USSR. Surrounded by barbed wire, electric fences and minefields, they were so closely guarded that they terrified even their own personnel.”
Then history happened, and “now the bases built to defend a quarter of a billion Soviet citizens stand derelict in a country of just 2.3 million. Airfields, missile silos, bunkers and hangars are slowly vanishing under encroaching vegetation - a silent, damp, concrete no-man's land.” And may have completely folded back into the wilderness if it were not for some insistent Americans:
“One day an American observer asked me if we'd found the nuclear warhead store yet. I replied, 'What store?' So he took me for a drive into the woods, reading off a GPS navigator,” [former Soviet military engineer] Upmalis said.
“We found the hidden entry to a nuclear weapons dump behind a ruined building. The Americans knew about it from satellites, but nobody in Latvia knew anything about it,” he added.
But if this hotel is any evidence of Latvia's entrepreneurial spirit, these “ghost bases” may just become the country's most popular tourist destination.
So to repeat: Mildewed missile silos. Subterranean bunkers. Minefields and pestilential swamps. Silent airfields and cavernous airplane hangers. Barbed wires. Electric fences. Arcadian birch-covered hills. GPS navigators. World War III launch pads. Munition dumps.
It's a landscape architect's paradise.
KGB Hotel
An old Soviet prison in Latvia has been converted into a hotel.
“This 'hotel',” writes Tim Bryan, “proudly bills itself as 'unfriendly, unheated, uncomfortable and open all year round'. But that's the point. A stay here is reality tourism writ large, a chance to experience at first hand (albeit handcuffed for part of the time) the brutal, degrading regime of a damp, rotting red-bricked naval jail built in 1905 to house the czar's mutinous sailors. New management took over in the 1970s: the KGB.”
So instead of a Presidential Suite with an ocean view, everyone will only have the choice of either solitary confinement or the interrogation room. Instead of pleasant greetings from a cheery staff, patrons will be welcomed with gun fire and barking orders from (former) Soviet prison guards. And instead of signing the guestbook, you'll be processed, photographed and given your arrest card.
And if you want to make your experience even more(!) unique, simplycontact the management for information.
Then let us know what these “top secret” details are.
“This 'hotel',” writes Tim Bryan, “proudly bills itself as 'unfriendly, unheated, uncomfortable and open all year round'. But that's the point. A stay here is reality tourism writ large, a chance to experience at first hand (albeit handcuffed for part of the time) the brutal, degrading regime of a damp, rotting red-bricked naval jail built in 1905 to house the czar's mutinous sailors. New management took over in the 1970s: the KGB.”
So instead of a Presidential Suite with an ocean view, everyone will only have the choice of either solitary confinement or the interrogation room. Instead of pleasant greetings from a cheery staff, patrons will be welcomed with gun fire and barking orders from (former) Soviet prison guards. And instead of signing the guestbook, you'll be processed, photographed and given your arrest card.
And if you want to make your experience even more(!) unique, simply
Then let us know what these “top secret” details are.
79 Recommendations for US Soccer Policy
Dear U.S. Soccer Federation president Sunil Gulati,
I hold you personally responsible for Juergen Klinsmann taking himself out of consideration for coach of the U.S. soccer team. I guess I’ll dig out my Les Blues gear again in 2010.
I hold you personally responsible for Juergen Klinsmann taking himself out of consideration for coach of the U.S. soccer team. I guess I’ll dig out my Les Blues gear again in 2010.
Yellow journalism at its worst.
NEW YORK - (AP) Britney Spears's recent nights out with party girls Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan — and those uncensored, R-rated crotch shots that were splashed across the Web — drew disapproval from her fans and other Spears watchers.
Disapproval? Are you kidding me?
Disapproval? Are you kidding me?
Unread
Welcome new readers! No doubt you've come by way of Fimoculous. Please make yourself comfortable as you peruse our archives. Grab a six-pack of Meta-Botanical Bitter, courtesy of BLDGBLOG, or mix your own cocktail, and take as much from the canapé tray as your clicked-out fingers can grab. But if you're pressed for time, here are ten semi-randomly selected posts, which hopefully will entice you to stay longer.
One thousand and one Mississippi Rivers! (x2)
A pilgrimage to necro-planetariums!
Petting at the Transgenic Zoo!
Versailles in the Pacific!
A wound in the geological bowels of the earth!
The 2018 Winter Olympics in Chicago!
Landscape architects as landscapes!
Busby Berkeley's Lost Musical Trilogy: Adventures in the Mantle; Adventures in the Empty Quarter; and Adventures on the Continental Shelf!
Dugway Proving Ground!
TerraServer appropriated as a guerilla tactic, and Google Maps as acts of civil disobedience!
Of tumuli, moonrises, and a nice Par 3!
The iconography of extraterrestrial landscapes: or, Future Jovian Israeli-Palestinian warfare as a function of geomorphological abstraction!
*
So maybe that wasn't exactly 10 posts. And the following aren't even in our archives; they are among our favorite blogs: BLDGBLOG, Subtopia, and The Dirt.
In any case, thanks for visiting! And come often as you like!
One thousand and one Mississippi Rivers! (x2)
A pilgrimage to necro-planetariums!
Petting at the Transgenic Zoo!
Versailles in the Pacific!
A wound in the geological bowels of the earth!
The 2018 Winter Olympics in Chicago!
Landscape architects as landscapes!
Busby Berkeley's Lost Musical Trilogy: Adventures in the Mantle; Adventures in the Empty Quarter; and Adventures on the Continental Shelf!
Dugway Proving Ground!
TerraServer appropriated as a guerilla tactic, and Google Maps as acts of civil disobedience!
Of tumuli, moonrises, and a nice Par 3!
The iconography of extraterrestrial landscapes: or, Future Jovian Israeli-Palestinian warfare as a function of geomorphological abstraction!
So maybe that wasn't exactly 10 posts. And the following aren't even in our archives; they are among our favorite blogs: BLDGBLOG, Subtopia, and The Dirt.
In any case, thanks for visiting! And come often as you like!
Who's at fault: Chris Simms or Greg Davis?
Texas's non-conference 2007 schedule: Arkansas State, TCU, Central Florida and Rice. Boooo!
Speaking of France: Book Review
Sixty Million Frenchmen Can't Be Wrong: Why We Love France but Not the French by Jean-Benoit Nadeau and Julie Barlow.
The French smoke, drink and eat more fat than anyone in the world, yet they live longer and have fewer heart problems than Americans. They take seven weeks of paid vacation per year, yet have the world’s highest productivity index. From a distance, modern France looks like a riddle. But up close, it all makes sense. Sixty Million Frenchmen Can’t Be Wrong shows how the pieces of the puzzle fit together.
Decrypting French ideas about land, food, privacy and language, the authors weave together the threads of French society—from centralization and the Napoleonic code to elite education and even street protests—giving us, for the first time, an understanding of France and the French.
My Review: Two thumbs up and raise the tricolor.
The French smoke, drink and eat more fat than anyone in the world, yet they live longer and have fewer heart problems than Americans. They take seven weeks of paid vacation per year, yet have the world’s highest productivity index. From a distance, modern France looks like a riddle. But up close, it all makes sense. Sixty Million Frenchmen Can’t Be Wrong shows how the pieces of the puzzle fit together.
Decrypting French ideas about land, food, privacy and language, the authors weave together the threads of French society—from centralization and the Napoleonic code to elite education and even street protests—giving us, for the first time, an understanding of France and the French.
My Review: Two thumbs up and raise the tricolor.
I will be contacting my local cable provider.
PARIS - France goes head-to-head with CNN and the BBC from Wednesday with the launch of its state-funded 24/7 news channel, part of President Jacques Chirac's efforts to make his country's voice heard.
France 24 will broadcast two channels, one in French and the other mostly in English.
"Our mission is to cover worldwide news with French eyes," CEO Alain de Pouzilhac told AP Television News. He said the channel will emphasize in-depth reporting and debate, culture and "l'art de vivre" — the art of living.
France 24 will broadcast two channels, one in French and the other mostly in English.
"Our mission is to cover worldwide news with French eyes," CEO Alain de Pouzilhac told AP Television News. He said the channel will emphasize in-depth reporting and debate, culture and "l'art de vivre" — the art of living.
Running count
Since the Ohio State-Florida game was announced, I've seen two Pat Forde articles criticizing the BCS, one by Gene Wojciechowski, and one by Richard Justice. All of the articles came to the same conclusion: The BCS sucks because it sucks. That's four articles, and I haven't really been looking. I wonder what that number would be if Michigan had finished ahead of Florida. I'll take a wild guess and say four.
Kudos to Bomani Jones for his level-headed article about the BCS on ESPN's Page 2. I'm sure Jones will be fired any minute now.
Kudos to Bomani Jones for his level-headed article about the BCS on ESPN's Page 2. I'm sure Jones will be fired any minute now.
The Machine
This is ATLAS, one of the major particle detectors for CERN's Large Hadron Collider being constructed underground in the Swiss Alps. The eight toroidal coils you see form the largest superconducting magnet ever built.
Called affectionately as The Machine, it will become fully operational in November 2007. And when it does, Wired tells us, physicist will try to answer some of the most puzzling questions about the workings of the cosmos.
Why do things have mass?
What is dark matter, that unknown stuff that makes up 96% of the Universe?
And why is there more matter than antimatter?
And barring the creation of micro black holes, strangelets, and magnetic monopoles, all of which could trigger the destruction of the earth, even the entire universe, scientists would also want to find out why gravity is such a weak force.
More intriguingly, they will try seek out evidence for the existence of extra dimensions.
In other words, nothing less than the fundamental construct of Nature and the landscape architecture of reality.
Admittedly, we're curious to know if all those scientists — all 1800 of them from 165 universities and laboratories representing 35 countries — may also want to find out if the Barrel Toroid can levitate a tree. A grove of exiled palm trees magnetically deterrestrialized.
Since nonsuperconducting objects have been shown that they can indeed be levitated, why not throw in some shrubs as well. And self-powered lighting fixtures; some artificial turf and mildly meditative Zen boulders; a few dozen rabbits, cute or otherwise; anti-gravity hydrology; and of course, the all-important signage: “Warning: If Not Rapture, May Cause Death.”
And after you push a few buttons, flick one or two switches and drain Europe of all of its electricity, your floating garden then goes on an endless subterranean ringed journey. It's the new $12 billion dollar theme park.
Or The Tenth Circle of Hell.
Which is reserved for landscape architects.
And by blasphemies, Dante meant producing absolutely boring landscape architecture.
Called affectionately as The Machine, it will become fully operational in November 2007. And when it does, Wired tells us, physicist will try to answer some of the most puzzling questions about the workings of the cosmos.
Why do things have mass?
What is dark matter, that unknown stuff that makes up 96% of the Universe?
And why is there more matter than antimatter?
And barring the creation of micro black holes, strangelets, and magnetic monopoles, all of which could trigger the destruction of the earth, even the entire universe, scientists would also want to find out why gravity is such a weak force.
More intriguingly, they will try seek out evidence for the existence of extra dimensions.
In other words, nothing less than the fundamental construct of Nature and the landscape architecture of reality.
Admittedly, we're curious to know if all those scientists — all 1800 of them from 165 universities and laboratories representing 35 countries — may also want to find out if the Barrel Toroid can levitate a tree. A grove of exiled palm trees magnetically deterrestrialized.
Since nonsuperconducting objects have been shown that they can indeed be levitated, why not throw in some shrubs as well. And self-powered lighting fixtures; some artificial turf and mildly meditative Zen boulders; a few dozen rabbits, cute or otherwise; anti-gravity hydrology; and of course, the all-important signage: “Warning: If Not Rapture, May Cause Death.”
And after you push a few buttons, flick one or two switches and drain Europe of all of its electricity, your floating garden then goes on an endless subterranean ringed journey. It's the new $12 billion dollar theme park.
Or The Tenth Circle of Hell.
Which is reserved for landscape architects.
Now 'gin the rueful wailings to be heard.
Now am I come where many a plaining voice
Smites on mine ear. Into a place I came
Where light was silent all. Bellowing there groan'd
A noise as of a sea in tempest torn
By warring winds. The stormy blast of hell
With restless fury drives the spirits on
Whirl'd round and dash'd amain with sore annoy.
When they arrive before the ruinous sweep,
There shrieks are heard, there lamentations, moans,
And blasphemies 'gainst the good Power in heaven.
And by blasphemies, Dante meant producing absolutely boring landscape architecture.
GPS Pigeons
Conceived by Beatriz da Costa, a professor of arts, computation, and engineering at the University of California, Irvine, PigeonBlog “enlists homing pigeons to participate in a grassroots scientific data gathering initiative designed to collect and distribute information about air quality conditions to the general public. Pigeons are equipped with custom-built miniature air pollution sensing devices enabled to send the collected localized information to an online server without delay. Pollution levels are visualized and plotted in real-time over Google’s mapping environment, thus allowing immediate access to the collected information to anyone with connection to the Internet.”
So rather than remaining an urban nuisance, pigeons coalesce into a network of ambient monitoring devices.
Which makes one wonder what other sort of urban animals can be recruited as bloggers, letting us know the particulars of their day, uploading mobile cam photos to Flickr of street scenes or rush hour traffic on the freeways or that four-alarm fire in downtown, all done in real-time. Can we soon expect stray cats and dogs, sewer rats, and cockroaches to be thought of as critical infrastructure rather than something to be designed out of the landscape?
Animal Vegetable Video
Clean Sheet Proposal
ESPN columnist Pat Forde revealed in his Sunday column that college football’s Bowl Championship Series (BCS) is “screwed up” and amounts to “haphazard guesswork at the 11th hour.” Thanks, Pat. You must be exhausted after such grueling journalistic analysis.
Over the next month I’ll keep a running count of how often I hear or read that the BCS sucks. I’ll also keep track of the number of proposed solutions. For the record, I don’t necessarily have a problem with the BCS, nor do I have a problem with the lack of a playoff. Those are two entirely different things, mind you, though most people don’t understand the difference. Sorry if I’ve lost you, but bear with me. Anyhow, I do think a playoff would be incredibly exciting and I’d love to see it happen. But as long as we’re in the land of what if, we might as well revamp college football from the ground up.
Here’s my suggestion: Form a league composed of the top 36 college football teams divided into six divisions of six teams each. Each team plays five divisional games and seven non-divisional games for a total of twelve regular season games. The top twelve teams qualify for the playoffs, with the top four teams receiving first round byes. The top two teams receive home field advantage until the Championship Game, which is played at a rotating neutral site. Playoff teams are determined by overall record, and divisional champions do not automatically qualify for the playoffs. The tie breaker for determining playoff qualification and seeding is head-to-head record followed by strength of schedule.
At the end of the season, the bottom four teams are relegated to the second tier, and the top four teams from the second tier are promoted into the league for the following season.
Divisions, which are realigned each year due to relegation, are created primarily for maintaining traditional regional rivalries. The divisions are also balanced to an extent for strength of schedule based on last year’s results. Disparities in divisional strength of schedule will be balanced with the non-divisional schedule. For example, if one division is relatively stronger than the others, the teams in that division will play easier non-divisional games. Obviously, scheduling for strength of schedule in college football is not an exact science. However, the idea is to make each team’s schedule relatively equal in difficulty. Over the course of the season, that goal can be achieved. Non-divisional games will also be scheduled to maintain traditional rivalries. For instance, the USC-Notre Dame game will remain on the schedule and Texas would still face Oklahoma even if they are not in the same division in a given season.
Although the teams in the league will change from year to year, determining which teams to place in the league at the outset is important for many reasons. The criteria would include the program's success (recent and historical), television market, stadium size and fan base, and traditional significance in college football. I will form a committee to determine the initial 36 teams, and I will chair the committee. The bribes and kickbacks will make the IOC blush. For illustrative purposes only, I have chosen teams based only on the 2006 Sagarin rankings. Using the Sagarin rankings through the end of the 2006 regular season to determine the top 36 teams, the 2007 league would be as follows:
Pacific Division
Hawaii
Southern California
BYU
UCLA
Oregon State
Washington State
Western Division
Arizona State
Boise State
Cal
Oregon
Arizona
TCU
Central Division
Texas
Oklahoma
Texas A&M
Wisconsin
Nebraska
Arkansas
Midwest Division
Ohio State
Michigan
Penn State
Notre Dame
Rutgers
Boston College
Southeast Division
Florida
LSU
Tennessee
Georgia
South Carolina
Auburn
Atlantic Division
Wake Forest
Virginia Tech
Clemson
Louisville
Georgia Tech
West Virginia
Texas’s schedule would be as follows:
Tennessee
@ Wisconsin
Arkansas
@ Michigan
Auburn
Georgia Tech
@ BYU
UCLA
@ Nebraska
Oklahoma (Texas/OU would almost certainly be home and home.)
@ Oregon State
@ Texas A&M
Over the next month I’ll keep a running count of how often I hear or read that the BCS sucks. I’ll also keep track of the number of proposed solutions. For the record, I don’t necessarily have a problem with the BCS, nor do I have a problem with the lack of a playoff. Those are two entirely different things, mind you, though most people don’t understand the difference. Sorry if I’ve lost you, but bear with me. Anyhow, I do think a playoff would be incredibly exciting and I’d love to see it happen. But as long as we’re in the land of what if, we might as well revamp college football from the ground up.
Here’s my suggestion: Form a league composed of the top 36 college football teams divided into six divisions of six teams each. Each team plays five divisional games and seven non-divisional games for a total of twelve regular season games. The top twelve teams qualify for the playoffs, with the top four teams receiving first round byes. The top two teams receive home field advantage until the Championship Game, which is played at a rotating neutral site. Playoff teams are determined by overall record, and divisional champions do not automatically qualify for the playoffs. The tie breaker for determining playoff qualification and seeding is head-to-head record followed by strength of schedule.
At the end of the season, the bottom four teams are relegated to the second tier, and the top four teams from the second tier are promoted into the league for the following season.
Divisions, which are realigned each year due to relegation, are created primarily for maintaining traditional regional rivalries. The divisions are also balanced to an extent for strength of schedule based on last year’s results. Disparities in divisional strength of schedule will be balanced with the non-divisional schedule. For example, if one division is relatively stronger than the others, the teams in that division will play easier non-divisional games. Obviously, scheduling for strength of schedule in college football is not an exact science. However, the idea is to make each team’s schedule relatively equal in difficulty. Over the course of the season, that goal can be achieved. Non-divisional games will also be scheduled to maintain traditional rivalries. For instance, the USC-Notre Dame game will remain on the schedule and Texas would still face Oklahoma even if they are not in the same division in a given season.
Although the teams in the league will change from year to year, determining which teams to place in the league at the outset is important for many reasons. The criteria would include the program's success (recent and historical), television market, stadium size and fan base, and traditional significance in college football. I will form a committee to determine the initial 36 teams, and I will chair the committee. The bribes and kickbacks will make the IOC blush. For illustrative purposes only, I have chosen teams based only on the 2006 Sagarin rankings. Using the Sagarin rankings through the end of the 2006 regular season to determine the top 36 teams, the 2007 league would be as follows:
Pacific Division
Hawaii
Southern California
BYU
UCLA
Oregon State
Washington State
Western Division
Arizona State
Boise State
Cal
Oregon
Arizona
TCU
Central Division
Texas
Oklahoma
Texas A&M
Wisconsin
Nebraska
Arkansas
Midwest Division
Ohio State
Michigan
Penn State
Notre Dame
Rutgers
Boston College
Southeast Division
Florida
LSU
Tennessee
Georgia
South Carolina
Auburn
Atlantic Division
Wake Forest
Virginia Tech
Clemson
Louisville
Georgia Tech
West Virginia
Texas’s schedule would be as follows:
Tennessee
@ Wisconsin
Arkansas
@ Michigan
Auburn
Georgia Tech
@ BYU
UCLA
@ Nebraska
Oklahoma (Texas/OU would almost certainly be home and home.)
@ Oregon State
@ Texas A&M
Biocidal Terrain
“A surface coated in spiky polymer molecules destroys the flu virus at a touch,” Scientific American reported last month. This nontoxic substance does so by “gouging holes in a microbe's cell wall and spilling out its contents. The polymer molecules stay rigid because they are all positively charged and therefore repel each other, like strands of hair standing on end from a static charge. The spikes have sufficiently few charges, however, that they can breach bacterial walls, which repel strongly charged molecules. The polymer probably neutralizes flu because the virus has an envelope around it suitable for spearing.”
As interesting as the image of viruses getting speared and eviscerated may sound, what is even more interesting is the fact that this “experimental substance, which can be applied like paint, might complement other germ control methods used in public spaces such as hospitals and airplanes.” So if the oft-forecasted influenza pandemic should come, those same public spaces will function more as biohazard filters instead of as urban vectors for the virus.
Even doubly more interesting is contemplating what possible landscapes this spiky paint and those “other germ control methods” might bring about. In fact, one cannot help but be giddy when one is reminded of the ubiquity of bollards, concrete planters, ha-has, and other topographical imprints of the Global War on Terror on our public spaces. And this despite their generally objectionable aesthetics.
So setting aside for now any and all skepticism of the polymer's ability to significantly mitigate some future species-ending plague, might we expect biocidal fountains to proliferate soon: like CCTV cameras, littering your daily commute, and misting you from the moment you exit your house till you finally settle down on your office chair? How about so-called respiratory oases retrofitted for the Ebola virus? Or benches, bathroom doorknobs, subway handrails, playground swings, elevator cars, and even nauseatingly boring public sculptures fostering an entirely new level of public intimacy? Etc.
Instead of barricading ourselves in our homes and bedchambers at the first sound of an ominous cough, we may prefer to seek shelter in our public spaces. Instead of avoiding it, we seek the crowd.
Demonstrations, riots, pole vaulting
Join me in my grassroots campaign to ban the use of cell phones while driving without a hands-free device. When I get around to it, I plan to send a letter to Gov. Perry. In the meantime, keep talking on your cell phone while behind the wheel.
Supplements linked to steroids.
It's been done quite often in the Main Stream Media, and now, College publications are echoing the same meme that supplements=steroids.
From Stefan Lovelace of the Penn State Collegian:
You should take the time to read the entire article because it is really chock full of factual (and scientifically unproven) claims. The most disturbing part (to me) is that Mr. Lovelace made no attempt to interview or present an opposing side to the argument he was clearly making throughout the piece: steroids=drugs.
Would that nutritionists did a small amount of investigative research they would see that, in the bodybuilding community especially, the tenents of a healthy diet and exercise are considered the first step to a quality physique. Yes, there is steroid use in competative bodybuilding, at least on certain levels, but even the drug tested organizations realize the healthy benefits of smart supplementation taken free of illegal substances. What the nutritionists fail to understand is that most football players need extra macro-nutrients (such as protien) to compete at the high athletic levels that they are constantly performing at. They cannot achieve (or maintain) these levels on a normal Collegiate meal plan, not even an athletes meal plan. It cannot be done.
The answer to this problem is smart, drug-free supplementation, including dietary supplements (which are protien powder, carb drinks and MRP's despite the author trying to seperate them). Creatine has been proven safe, and effective for most young adults over 18 years of age. Protein powder is a safe supplement, as are NO2 supplements, Beta-alanine, glutemine and a host of other compounds including multi-vitamins, the basis for any sensible supplement plan.
The Nutritionists aregument that supplemental micro-nutrients (Vitamin C, A, B and other compounds found in a multi) are "safe" while supplemental macro-nutrients (protein, creatine etc.) are not is simply not based on solid research, for healthy adults over the age of 18, which most College athletes are.
Steroids are illegal in certain professional and most amateur professional sports and should be treated as such. But to equate supplements with illegal substances is a knee-jerk reaction that is not based on any solid scientific evidence and has no place in the debate over what is acceptable in sports.
From Stefan Lovelace of the Penn State Collegian:
And unfortunately, steroids and illegal substances have spilled down from our professional leagues to the collegiate level. Many athletes take some sort of supplement while training to see improved results on the playing field. Penn State is no exception.
"It's a problem here, but it's a problem everywhere," said Dr. Kristine Clark, Director of Sports Nutrition for Penn State's athletic department, and an assistant professor of nutrition.
(snip)
"If you took testosterone in low doses, you'll beat the test and still have a performance effect," Yesalis said. "In my opinion, the size of the college [football offensive and defensive] lines, which is underestimated, I can't explain.
"Look at the size of these linebackers that are ripped. Weightlifting doesn't explain it. These drugs are available, affordable, they work and you can circumvent the drug testing process.
"The change in the size of football players, if you take drugs out of the mix, you can't explain it."
According to Clark, within the last decade, the increase of supplements taken among collegiate athletes has risen exponentially. Supplements that have become popular among athletes include protein supplements and shakes, creatine supplements, sports drinks and bars, multi-vitamins, fish oil supplements and the most potentially harmful: dietary supplements.
You should take the time to read the entire article because it is really chock full of factual (and scientifically unproven) claims. The most disturbing part (to me) is that Mr. Lovelace made no attempt to interview or present an opposing side to the argument he was clearly making throughout the piece: steroids=drugs.
Would that nutritionists did a small amount of investigative research they would see that, in the bodybuilding community especially, the tenents of a healthy diet and exercise are considered the first step to a quality physique. Yes, there is steroid use in competative bodybuilding, at least on certain levels, but even the drug tested organizations realize the healthy benefits of smart supplementation taken free of illegal substances. What the nutritionists fail to understand is that most football players need extra macro-nutrients (such as protien) to compete at the high athletic levels that they are constantly performing at. They cannot achieve (or maintain) these levels on a normal Collegiate meal plan, not even an athletes meal plan. It cannot be done.
The answer to this problem is smart, drug-free supplementation, including dietary supplements (which are protien powder, carb drinks and MRP's despite the author trying to seperate them). Creatine has been proven safe, and effective for most young adults over 18 years of age. Protein powder is a safe supplement, as are NO2 supplements, Beta-alanine, glutemine and a host of other compounds including multi-vitamins, the basis for any sensible supplement plan.
The Nutritionists aregument that supplemental micro-nutrients (Vitamin C, A, B and other compounds found in a multi) are "safe" while supplemental macro-nutrients (protein, creatine etc.) are not is simply not based on solid research, for healthy adults over the age of 18, which most College athletes are.
Steroids are illegal in certain professional and most amateur professional sports and should be treated as such. But to equate supplements with illegal substances is a knee-jerk reaction that is not based on any solid scientific evidence and has no place in the debate over what is acceptable in sports.
Colorado pursues policy of appeasement with Satan worshippers
PAGOSA SPRINGS, COLO. — The Loma Linda Homeowners Association has withdrawn its threat of $25 daily fines against homeowner Lisa Jensen for putting a Christmas wreath shaped like a peace sign on the front of her home. Jensen was ordered to take the wreath down when some residents in her 200-home subdivision saw it as a protest of the Iraq war. Bob Kearns, president of the board, also said some saw it as a symbol of Satan.
Euro Apologist
American grocery stores should charge for grocery bags. That way, people would bring their own bags and we'd create less trash.
Al Gore's new movie isn't as great as I thought it would be. Do you think things would be different today if he were president? Do you think American grocery stores would charge for grocery bags?
If Italy can ban smoking in all bars and restaurants, what's your excuse, America?
I was on a KLM flight from Venice to Amsterdam with two disgustingly fat Americans: a fat woman wearing pajama pants and a sleeveless shirt, and a fat man wearing, I swear, hospital scrubs. That should be grounds for passport revocation.
Al Gore's new movie isn't as great as I thought it would be. Do you think things would be different today if he were president? Do you think American grocery stores would charge for grocery bags?
If Italy can ban smoking in all bars and restaurants, what's your excuse, America?
I was on a KLM flight from Venice to Amsterdam with two disgustingly fat Americans: a fat woman wearing pajama pants and a sleeveless shirt, and a fat man wearing, I swear, hospital scrubs. That should be grounds for passport revocation.
The Politics of Palm Fronds
“Fed up with the cost of caring for the trees, with their errant fronds that plunge perilously each winter, and with the fact that they provide little shade,” Los Angeles has declared war on its iconic, though invasive, palm trees.
According to the New York Times, “The city plans to plant a million trees of other types over the next several years so that, as palms die off, most will be replaced with sycamores, crape myrtles and other trees indigenous to Southern California. (Exceptions will be the palms growing in places that tourists, if not residents, demand to see palmy, like Hollywood and Sunset Boulevards.)”
Litter-Free Landscapes and The Politics of Pollen
Our Daily Bread
Director Nikolaus Geyrhalter takes us on a tour through the dizzyingly spectacular landscape of high-tech agriculture: from hermetically sealed chicken hatcheries as sterile as computer chip factories to geospatially precise cultivated fields where crops mature right on cue and on to utopian factories with frightening efficiencies but whose assembly lines would be the perfect setting for a Busby Berkeley musical.
No voice-over commentary and no interviews; just some choice music, and the “whirring, clattering, booming, slurping” hydraulic breathing of heavy machineries.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Underpass
Below a highway overpass that has split a neighborhood in the Dutch city of Zaanstadt for decades, you can now find a supermarket, soccer fields, a skatepark, a fishmonger and a florist, a basketball court, and a car park. There is even a marina.
Designed by NL Architects, presumably with input from the local government and the public, the “intervention provides a quick solution to re-establishing the connection between the two parts of the divided township whilst also regenerating a space that had become dead, literally and symbolically in the shadow of the flyover.”
Moreover, this was the Joint Winner of the 2006 European Prize for Urban Public Space, a biennial competition organized by several architecture institutions.
A similar urban intervention in nearby Amsterdam is West 8's Carrasco Square, whose vacuity and hilarious desire lines inscribed on its neatly drafted geometry only make me wonder if letting it be inhabited by the homeless, drug addicts, prostitutes and their tricks, the idled youths, migrant workers, hardy native grasses, and landscape architecture PhD candidates on so-called field research would simply be a better use of public space.
In the U.S. there is Louisville's Waterfront Park, designed by Hargreaves Associates. This is the Great Lawn. The same office was also commissioned to do a temporary installation for SFMOMA's Revelatory Landscapes exhibition, taking as their site the intersection of Interstate 280 and Highway 87 — “a forbidding, yet somehow common landscape.”
In Chicago, there's the McCormick Tribune Campus Center at IIT.
Finally, from the master of messy public spaces, Walter Hood, there is Splash Pad Park in Oakland, California. Although you don't get to see much of the design in the website provided, just imagine the teeming masses you see in the photos buying their groceries, cooling off in the fountain, displaying a bit of civil disobedience, or simply minding their kids and walking the dog are doing so underneath a heavily trafficked highway.
POSTSCRIPT #1: Walter Hood's finished website now include photos of Splash Pad Park.
The fight against Creatine marches on.
Creatine is the most studied, most effective and safest supplements available. Those facts aren't stopping certain groups from continuing the fight to remove it from the marketplace however...
What's missing from the Doctors argument in this case is an adverse event history to hang their hat on. Since they don't have any hard evidence that creatine poses a threat, they are asking the supplement company to prove a negative:
With creatine that's a lie. There are volumes of studies on creatine, how it reacts to the body, and its efficacy in promoting muscle growth. Most have been favorable, and only a few showed side effects that could be termed: "moderate" (gastro-intestinal problems mostly that went away when the subject stopped supplementing).
The funding mechanisms for most of these "no-drug" groups is unclear, as several of them do not operate as non-profits and are not required to list their funding. Dr. Goldberg is a private citizen and has privacy protections prohibiting the general public from see the funding sources for the education programs, or if a material amount of Goldberg's income is derived from those same products. Those factors would, if proven true, have a great impact on Dr. Goldberg and Mr. Uryasz credibility on the matter.
There is not a unanimous front on this issue however:
Basically, when science is applied, the arguments being made by Dr's and non-scientists begins to fall apart. It's important to note that the support is coming from University Scientists, and the attacks are coming from people with unrevealed motivations.
As the supplement industry increases in size and big Pharmeceutical companies continue to turn their attention to the weight-loss and fitness regions you can expect more articles such as this, and more "concerns" being aired without the evidenciary backup of scientific research. The same thing happened with ephedra, and its happening again with creatine.
Caffeine is next, and then they'll attack protein supplements.
Creatine is a popular supplement among high school athletes, particularly football players. They think it helps them get bigger and stronger.
Doctors who specialize in sports medicine warn that research is lacking into creatine's effects on children. Neither safety nor effectiveness in children has been scientifically proved, they said.
What's missing from the Doctors argument in this case is an adverse event history to hang their hat on. Since they don't have any hard evidence that creatine poses a threat, they are asking the supplement company to prove a negative:
As it stands, "there's essentially no research into these supplements, what they do for kids or how they harm kids," said Dr. Linn Goldberg of the Oregon Health & Science University.
With creatine that's a lie. There are volumes of studies on creatine, how it reacts to the body, and its efficacy in promoting muscle growth. Most have been favorable, and only a few showed side effects that could be termed: "moderate" (gastro-intestinal problems mostly that went away when the subject stopped supplementing).
The funding mechanisms for most of these "no-drug" groups is unclear, as several of them do not operate as non-profits and are not required to list their funding. Dr. Goldberg is a private citizen and has privacy protections prohibiting the general public from see the funding sources for the education programs, or if a material amount of Goldberg's income is derived from those same products. Those factors would, if proven true, have a great impact on Dr. Goldberg and Mr. Uryasz credibility on the matter.
There is not a unanimous front on this issue however:
Professor Richard Kreider, the director of the Exercise and Sport Nutrition Laboratory at Baylor University, thinks creatine gets a bum rap from the medical profession.
"Because it's a very popular supplement, it gets lumped in with steroids and andro and all these other supplements that people are against," he said.
"You even see Blue Cross Blue Shield talking about the dangers of creatine. I think that's unfortunate. More than 1,000 studies have been done on creatine. If there's something hazardous to it, we would have seen it by now."
Several years ago, Kreider said, his study of college football players showed no harmful effects from creatine.
As for high-schoolers, "There's really no reason why somebody that's 16 or 17 years of age can't take creatine. There are no studies showing it's adverse to kids," Kreider said.
Basically, when science is applied, the arguments being made by Dr's and non-scientists begins to fall apart. It's important to note that the support is coming from University Scientists, and the attacks are coming from people with unrevealed motivations.
As the supplement industry increases in size and big Pharmeceutical companies continue to turn their attention to the weight-loss and fitness regions you can expect more articles such as this, and more "concerns" being aired without the evidenciary backup of scientific research. The same thing happened with ephedra, and its happening again with creatine.
Caffeine is next, and then they'll attack protein supplements.
Caffeine the next supplement in the crosshairs?
Not too far of a stretch if you believe the headlines in the media of late...
The move to purge the market of caffeine supplements surely will be the next step. If you don't think there's a problem out there, consider this statement:
The problem (as with Ehpedra) lies not with the educated population who are using supplements safely and effectively, but with a small group of abusers who are threatening to ruin the availability of caffeine for everyone. The Government, in its wisdom, seems to think that the best way to cure the patient of cancer is to chop off its head, instead of trying to attack the turmor.
As with any segment of society, the tumor ruins it for the rest of the body and can ultimately lead to the regulation and control of caffeine from the general populace. Right now such a move would cause a severe backlash as caffeine laced coffees and teas have become the liquid du jour for the "hip" set, and there is big money in caffeinated drink sales to be had by some BIG money industries.
And if you don't think an outright elimination of caffeine is the ultimate goal, here's your smoking gun:
We're rapidly nearing the point in America where only food and drink from "approved" Government vendors (large multinational Oligopolies)who process the nutrients out of sub-standard gruel and add artificial flavors and textures designed to taste almost exactly, entirely unlike food and drink.
Share and Enjoy.
To get a good kick from caffeine, most people need only drink a 6-ounce cup of coffee, about 100 milligrams. But on a popular pro-drug Web site, a visitor reported taking seven No Doz tablets, or 1,400 milligrams of caffeine, and compared the effects to a bad trip on LSD.
Then, like many who get carried away with the world's most popular drug, the person wondered: "Can caffeine really do this?"
It can. And abuse of the legal stimulant is an emerging problem among young people, according to Northwestern University researchers, who recently analyzed three years' worth of cases reported to the Illinois Poison Center.
Symptoms include everything from nausea, vomiting and a racing heart to hallucinations, panic attacks, chest pains and trips to the emergency room.
In the study that was presented at the annual meeting of the American College of Emergency Physicians, the researchers found more than 250 cases of medical complications from ingesting caffeine supplements. Twelve percent of those cases required hospitalization, including in the intensive-care unit. The average age of the caffeine abusers was 21.
(snip)
"Part of the problem is that people do not think of caffeine as a drug but rather as a food product," said study author Danielle McCarthy.
The move to purge the market of caffeine supplements surely will be the next step. If you don't think there's a problem out there, consider this statement:
The problem, said Michael Wahl, managing medical director for the Illinois Poison Center, is not necessarily in the caffeine but in the dose.
"Everything is a poison, including water, if you have too much," he said. "Caffeine is a stimulant that releases your internal catecholamines [compounds that can serve as hormones] that make you anxious, jittery and create the fight-or-flight response. When the heart beats too fast, bad things happen. It's an emerging trend to keep an eye on and see if it's getting worse."
The problem (as with Ehpedra) lies not with the educated population who are using supplements safely and effectively, but with a small group of abusers who are threatening to ruin the availability of caffeine for everyone. The Government, in its wisdom, seems to think that the best way to cure the patient of cancer is to chop off its head, instead of trying to attack the turmor.
As with any segment of society, the tumor ruins it for the rest of the body and can ultimately lead to the regulation and control of caffeine from the general populace. Right now such a move would cause a severe backlash as caffeine laced coffees and teas have become the liquid du jour for the "hip" set, and there is big money in caffeinated drink sales to be had by some BIG money industries.
And if you don't think an outright elimination of caffeine is the ultimate goal, here's your smoking gun:
"There is a trend in the pro-drug culture toward promoting legal alternatives to illegal drugs, and it can be very harmful," McCarthy said.
We're rapidly nearing the point in America where only food and drink from "approved" Government vendors (large multinational Oligopolies)who process the nutrients out of sub-standard gruel and add artificial flavors and textures designed to taste almost exactly, entirely unlike food and drink.
Share and Enjoy.
Canadians Ooouuut!
PHOENIX (Reuters) - The Nevada town of Pahrump passed a law this week making it illegal to fly a foreign nation's flag by itself, the latest swipe by a U.S. community at illegal immigrants.
Backyard Folly
The Amos Power Plant in Raymond, West Virginia, as seen from an ordinary backyard, and as photographed by Mitch Epstein, who coincidentally is part of ecotopia, the 2nd ICP Triennial of Photography and Video.
“In a time of rampant natural disasters and urgent concerns about global environmental change,” the catalogue tells us in that familiar bombastic messianic tone that so many often employ, “this exhibition demonstrates the ways in which the most interesting and engaging contemporary artists view the natural world. Shattering the stereotypes of landscape and nature photography, the thirty-nine international artists included in this survey boldly examine new concepts of the natural sphere occasioned by twenty-first-century technologies; images of destructive ecological engagement; and visions of our future interactions with the environment. Considering nature in the broadest sense, this exhibition reflects new perspectives on the planet that sustains, enchants, and—increasingly—frightens us.”
The exhibition ends 7 January 2007.
Those not living or traveling to New York before then are fortunate in that some of the artists have their own website. For instance, Mary Mattingly, featured earlier here in this post -- her entire line of post-apocalypse haute couture, New Time timepieces, and wearable homes are online.
David Maisel is here.
Catherine Chalmers' cockroaches and genetically engineered mice are here.
Simon Norfolk is here. And there's also this post.
Harri Kallio's flock of dodos are nesting here.
Sam Easterson's animal and vegetable videos, which I once mistook to be part of an extensive surveillance network in the American West monitoring the mental condition of reclusive landart artists and alerting the Army Corps of Engineers whenever their earth moving activities compromise the tectonic integrity of Nevada -- well, a handful of them are here.
As for the others, a search through artnet should suffice. Hopefully, fellow bloggers will start downloading some of these photographs, and create their own personal surveys of ecotopias for everyone to view for free. After all, an admission price of $12 is obscenely extravagant; the best things in life should be free.
World Gym purchased by Planet Fitness
Recent press releases have confirmed that the venerable gym brand World Gym has been purchased in whole by Planet Fitness in a purchase that is undoubtedly bad news for the bodybuilding customer.
Planet Fitness is a gym chain known mostly for its anti-bodybuilding ways is rapidly becoming the gym-du-jour for the casual fitness set in an environment that encourages members not to strain, but to work out in ways that they are comfortable. Unfortunately, for bodybuilders, that comfort and open mindedness do not extend to those who choose to compete with their physiques, nor does it extend to those who wish to push beyond failure. As a result of this, Planet Fitness is viewed as the antithesis of what a bodybuilding gym should be.
In contrast to this, World Gym was one of the most historic gym brands in the bodybuilding industry, and was the second gym brand founded by the Late Joe Gold. The loss of this chain should be marked in the bodybuilding community with a measured degree of sadness, as well as with a renewed sense of commitment to local gyms that are bodybuilding friendly.
It is undoubtable that Planet Fitness serves a niche in the fitness community, it is also undeniable that they have chosen to do this while discounting a sizable portion of the same community. Time will tell if Planet Fitness' decision is the correct one, until then World Gym is gone, and the bodybuilding industry is a little bit less because of that.
Planet Fitness is a gym chain known mostly for its anti-bodybuilding ways is rapidly becoming the gym-du-jour for the casual fitness set in an environment that encourages members not to strain, but to work out in ways that they are comfortable. Unfortunately, for bodybuilders, that comfort and open mindedness do not extend to those who choose to compete with their physiques, nor does it extend to those who wish to push beyond failure. As a result of this, Planet Fitness is viewed as the antithesis of what a bodybuilding gym should be.
In contrast to this, World Gym was one of the most historic gym brands in the bodybuilding industry, and was the second gym brand founded by the Late Joe Gold. The loss of this chain should be marked in the bodybuilding community with a measured degree of sadness, as well as with a renewed sense of commitment to local gyms that are bodybuilding friendly.
It is undoubtable that Planet Fitness serves a niche in the fitness community, it is also undeniable that they have chosen to do this while discounting a sizable portion of the same community. Time will tell if Planet Fitness' decision is the correct one, until then World Gym is gone, and the bodybuilding industry is a little bit less because of that.
The Programmable Amusement Park
“Why build a one-off ride that will eventually lose its appeal when you can create an infinite number of rides by using a programmable industrial robot?” asks gizmag.
Indeed, why go through all the trouble of clearing the last remaining stands of old-growth forest to make way for amusement parks that would only further unsustainable ex-urban development and extend travel time for gas-guzzling über-SUVs, when you could be building them, say, in the Loop or Millennium Park in Chicago as an interactive kinetic sculpture?
Quoting the article at length: “German company KUKA Roboter GmbH builds industrial robots for the automotive, aerospace and foundry industries, among others. Its fully-programmable 5- and 6-axis robots can reach of up to 3.7 metres with payloads of 570kg and are employed around the world for applications such as material handling and machine loading. Kuka has partnered with Canada’s Primal Rides to provide a new fully interactive amusement ride. The KUKA KR 500 robot will be used as the building block of Primal Rides’ new robotic gaming ride. The interactive ride can be designed to match customer’s requirements in theme, intensity and realism and to cost effectively change themes to adjust to rider appeal.”
And you can order the rides singly or as a whole group of Robocoasters, “each with its infinite range of programming options and ride variants: lined up in a row and performing the same acrobatic ride program in perfect harmony.”
Or you can order the Octomone, a swirling, gyrating mass of mechanized tentacles not that taxonomically different from a triffid.
Robocoaster brochure
The Rules
What's a public space without an extended guide in mandatory self-correction and self-surveillance that reads like an IRS tax code?
For more, check out Ken McCown's modest but hopefully growing Flickr photoset. In the meantime, is there a Flickr pool for this kind of signs?
“How deeply am I going into the wilderness?”
Immigrant Soil
A chunk of Canada is moving to California. Literally.
Next month Vancouver-based Polaris Mineral Corp., in partnership with the 'Namgis and Kwakiutl First Nations, will begin mining sand and gravel deposits from the Orca Quarry on Vancouver Island. Once extracted, they will then be transported via conveyor belts to waiting Panamax ships. Interestingly, parts of the conveyance system are submerged, supposedly, so as not to pollute the pristine view for passing hikers, kayakers, and mountain bikers.
Initially, most of what's mined there will be sent to the San Francisco area where “overall demand for construction aggregate is driven primarily by population growth and the resulting need for infrastructure expansion and maintenance.” Afterwards, who knows. Maybe soon all the new houses in the continental U.S. will be built entirely of imported Canadian soil. Or perhaps in the decades to come a freer global trade in islands and mountains will result in skyscrapers constructed entirely out of the Himalayas or interstate highways built from Pacific archipelagos, ingeniously self-erased before the impending sea-level rise had the chance to do so.
Orca Sand & Gravel Project
Next month Vancouver-based Polaris Mineral Corp., in partnership with the 'Namgis and Kwakiutl First Nations, will begin mining sand and gravel deposits from the Orca Quarry on Vancouver Island. Once extracted, they will then be transported via conveyor belts to waiting Panamax ships. Interestingly, parts of the conveyance system are submerged, supposedly, so as not to pollute the pristine view for passing hikers, kayakers, and mountain bikers.
Initially, most of what's mined there will be sent to the San Francisco area where “overall demand for construction aggregate is driven primarily by population growth and the resulting need for infrastructure expansion and maintenance.” Afterwards, who knows. Maybe soon all the new houses in the continental U.S. will be built entirely of imported Canadian soil. Or perhaps in the decades to come a freer global trade in islands and mountains will result in skyscrapers constructed entirely out of the Himalayas or interstate highways built from Pacific archipelagos, ingeniously self-erased before the impending sea-level rise had the chance to do so.
Orca Sand & Gravel Project
Whether the apocalypse comes in 6 months or 7 months.
From Adriana de Lorme's profile in the November 2006 issue of 002:
Q: What is the one thing you can't live without?
A: Tall nonfat no water 4 pump chai tea latte from Starbucks! I'm serious.
Q: What is the one thing you can't live without?
A: Tall nonfat no water 4 pump chai tea latte from Starbucks! I'm serious.
You said it, Daryl!
NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - More than a year after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, thousands of homes damaged by flooding still stand empty, stained by black mold and some of them infested with maggots.
"There's nothing like a maggot-filled refrigerator," said Daryl Durham, as he hauled one into the street to join a growing pile of possessions. The stench from the fridge filled the road.
"There's nothing like a maggot-filled refrigerator," said Daryl Durham, as he hauled one into the street to join a growing pile of possessions. The stench from the fridge filled the road.
Prunings XXIV
On blogs discovered recently or otherwise.
MEGAblog
Next Nature
Strange Maps
The Gowanus Lounge
Walking Turcot Yards
We Are All Doomed
Really? Gee, I believe you this time.
WASHINGTON - On Day 1 of the next session of Congress, newly empowered Democrats are promising restrictive rules to "break the link between lobbyists and legislation." The plan includes a list of changes designed to clean up what the party calls "a culture of corruption" in Washington.
Congress: Lying, hypocritical powerwhores.
GNR: Candid men of principle.
Congress: Lying, hypocritical powerwhores.
GNR: Candid men of principle.
Night Train
LEWISTON, Maine — Guns N' Roses canceled a performance in Portland, Maine, this week after being told by state officials that the band could not drink on stage. The band had wanted to drink beer, wine and Jagermeister while performing.
Opportunity Knocked
I missed a golden opportunity to vow to leave the United States if the Democrats took Congress, then not leave after the Democrats took Congress.
The Kuiper Belt Necropolis
The first ever extraterrestrial cemetery is set to launch next month, reports Wired: “On Dec. 6, the desert silence near Upham, New Mexico, will be shattered by the roar of a SpaceLoft XL rocket hurtling skyward from Spaceport America. The payload: individual capsules containing the ashes of 179 people, part of the Legacy Flight program, among them the late actor James (Scotty) Doohan and Gemini program astronaut Gordon Cooper.”
So will this new Kuiper Belt of micro-earths solve the high ecological cost of earthbound cemeteries? Not entirely, because there's a catch: “You're not actually 'buried' in space; you don't embark on an endless orbit of the Earth. The duration of the flight all depends on the apogee of the orbit, and can range from two to several hundred years, depending on the service the customer requests.”
Still, I do like the idea of gravesite visits reprogrammed, for instance, as a typical American suburban backyard barbecue. While the burgers and hotdogs are grilling, family and friends will consult NASA's Satellite Tracking service to determine the path of a spacebound crypt.
There will be a hubbub about vectors and declinations, some frantic ballyhoo about latitude and longitude. And there will also be a row about whether to use the metric system or English units, but then it's finally time. The lights are switched off, someone opens up a Bud Light, and everyone takes turns peering through the telescope as their dearly departed passes them by overhead.
Or maybe everyone will drive up to derelict observatories up in the mountains, made obsolete by more powerful telescopes or urban light pollution. A pilgrimage to necro-planetariums, through picturesque winding roads and autumnal colored forests.
When their orbit finally decays completely, they will then simply fall back to earth in a blazing, primordial meteor shower towards a cratered necropolis, their final impact coordinates having been picked, reserved and paid for centuries ago.
Memorial Spacefilghts
Columbiad Launch Services
Landscape architects as landscapes
Forever Fernwood, Part III
Posting the Dead
Roadside(america)memorial.com
Hill of Crosses
Forever Fernwood, Part II
Forever Fernwood
Nature is dead. Long live Nature.
Negative Manhattan
This is what happened:
Yesterday I sneaked into the ground zero hole.
Actually, I had no idea that this was possible, but I just passed the gate and walked down, and nobody really took notice. The first 3 levels down, everything is still quite messy, but the rest of the 119 below zero floors, are perfectly intact.
I took the speed elevator to go all the way to the bottom floor -121 to enjoy the view. I was a clear day and you could really see far away. all the way down, All of negative -Manhattan, the subways, the negative of the statue of Liberty, the roots of central park, really very nice.
I had a negative-coffee at the cafeteria and the white servant that worked at the counter, really thought I was telling here a joke when I said that all the positive had been blown away 2 years earlier.
Drawing by Hannes Kater. Text by Serge Onnen.
Drawings on Geology
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