A single sperm has 37.5MB of DNA information in it. That means that a normal ejaculation represents a data transfer of 1,587.5TB.

– from Reddit

Of course, one could claim that the majority of that is duplicate data, so really the transfer rate is much lower, with lots of effort to make sure the data is not lost. It’s also encoded information, so with the right algorithm one could decode it and get a lot more data out of it. Of course, one usually doesn’t think of a fertile woman and 18 years of child-rearing as an algorithm, but there you have it.

-c

Mainly this is something to give my friends VeniVici and Satan to tease me about. But seriously, why not advertise at a funeral? Or maybe this is reaching out to the oft-forgotten grave robber demographic.

Oh, and I do like the green one best, because, you know, green is more earth-friendly. Just so you know.

-c

-c

Theo Jansen is an artist who works in the union between art, engineering, genetics, and machine learning, to speak venn-diagrammatically. The basic gist is that he writes computer programs that work with models of motion, and through genetic algorithms those models are developed or grown into new forms; they are subjected to many iterations of selection and reproduction (according to a predetermined abstraction of fitness), and through this “artificial evolution” new forms emerge. Some of the models which are born out of these computer experiments Jensen then makes into real life constructions, breathing life into plastic tubing, soda bottles, and plastic sheeting. These contraptions are wind-powered, and are often let loose upon the windy shores of the beach that his studio sits on (confabulation might be a better word for what he builds, as the vision they create blends the tastes of both familiarity and imagination).

This intangible recognition of the other-worldly and biological natures of his creations just mystifies me. A very similar emotional response as to the fantastic and ineffable creations of Hayoa Miyakaki, which in itself touches upon a similar juxtaposition as what the steampunk and/or cyberpunk movements seem to be aiming for. In this case it is the “kinetic” part of his self-ascribed moniker where most of the magic is to be found. Take a look for yourself:

• a BMW commercial that features a number of his creations walking about
• Animaris Rhinoceros
• Animaris Geneticus Ondula

There is a fair bit of information about Jansen’s work online, and if you have the time, there’s a great 20-minute lecture he gave which goes over how these models are created and function in more detail.

Enjoy!

-c

From what I can tell, these all come from a Japanese children’s educational TV show, where such devices are often used for the intro/ending of to the show. Just amazing stuff! It is reminiscent of the Pointer Sister’s pinball number song on Sesame Street.

Of course, thinking about Sesame Street got me going on a YouTube hunt, where i found one of my favorites of all time, fat cat sat hat:

Another favorite of mine, over under around and through:

and who could forget riding on the subway!

A bonus find is this video of Stevie Wonder playing Superstition:

As an extra listening bonus, check out this cello and flute playing in Union Square!

-c

That all being said I am going out of town on Friday and if my apartment is pink upon my return, well, there had better damn well be a time-lapse video and a killer web site detailing it.

-c

Hmmm?

-c

It isn’t news because they are terrorists, you fucking simpletons. Yesterday, my cat scratched himself then shit in a box. The media didn’t report that, either.

Anyway, what I found totally and utterly fascinating was this post, and in particular, the YouTube links found within. I mean, the first link, Apache is totally in itself absolutely blogworthy, but the Hasselhoff-er-ific follow up as almost as mind blowing. And some people take drugs to alter their state of consciousness. Man, they could save a lot of time by just looking for stuff on YouTube.

So, for those of you with a curious and masochistic streak, I’ll save you some time and link to the videos strait up and stuff. First, everybody do the Apache:

Now, everybody sit back and try not to lose their lunch over this cover of “Hooked On A Feeling”:

Man, and you thought Pour Casses Avec Toi left an indelible mark on your brain. You may now go back to worrying about the fate of the United States economy, and try to pretend like the last 8 minutes of your life didn’t happen.

-c

So, in the spirit of things, I’ll leave you with one of my favorite quotes from Douglas Adams:

Isn’t it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?

Enjoy the gardens out there everybody.

-c

fi yuo cna raed tihs, yuo hvae a sgtrane mnid too.

Cna yuo raed tihs? Olny 55 plepoe out of 100 can.

I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The
phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno’t mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the lny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot
slpeling was ipmorantt!

Pretty neat demonstration of how well our brains work when reading, and how large of a role context really does play in our cognitive parsing. I tried looking up stuff on the net concerning this, and as far as I can tell the “research at Cambridge University” is misleading, or at least that research isn’t represented too well on the ‘ol ‘net (sounds like the “55 out of 100″ statistic is off too). I found a couple of interesting viewpoints though, including that from a professional speller and some guy who compares it to nucleotide polymorphism. But honestly, most references to this on the net are just people doinking around, and I guess with this posting the number of doinkers just went up by 1.

Hmmm, I wonder if it works with numbers too…let’s try it! What do you see here: 8.474132? Do you really read that as 8.314472, the universal gas constant from the Nernst equation?

-c