2012/01/04
These images are from the site of artist Marcin Ignac. This particular project (Cindermedusae) generates imaginary sea creatures. According to his site, the …creatures were generated by an algorithm controlled by a number of parameters that can be randomized and animated. The look was inspired by the amazing works of Ernst Haeckel.
If you’re curious about what else Marcin Ignac is up to, check out his site: Marcin Ignac: Generative Art and Data Visualization
2011/12/06
I just came by this awwwesome picture of a Hell’s Angels’ dog being frisked at one of the protest sites [picture credit: Occupy The Game]:
2011/11/30
The barreleye fish’s eyes are tubular, light-sensitive, covered with green lenses, and are able to swivel within the transparent, fluid-filled dome on its head. The eyes point up when searching for food above, and forward when feeding (the green eyes are looking up in the image — photo credit: MBARI, Bruce Robison and Kim Reisenbichler).
The two indentations above the mouth look like eyes, but are olfactosensory organs (nares), which are similar to human nostrils.
The barreleye’s unusual, transparent head was first discovered by Researchers from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) and photographed from MBARI’s remotely operated vehicle (ROV). The fish were found in deep waters (600-800 meters (2,000 – 2,600 feet) deep) off the central California coast.
2011/11/27
One of my favourite poems from my school days (a couple of years back…) was In Broken Images, by Robert Graves: it said what I was trying to explain to a group of students in my English class…
He is quick, thinking in clear images;
I am slow, thinking in broken images.
He becomes dull, trusting to his clear images;
I become sharp, mistrusting my broken images.
Trusting his images, he assumes their relevance;
Mistrusting my images, I question their relevance.
Assuming their relevance, he assumes the fact;
Questioning their relevance, I question their fact.
When the fact fails him, he questions his senses;
When the fact fails me, I approve my senses.
He continues quick and dull in his clear images;
I continue slow and sharp in my broken images.
He in a new confusion of his understanding;
I in a new understanding of my confusion.
2011/11/22
Last night was stormy: high winds, driving rain, and an eleven-hour power outage. Perhaps that explains the thing that visited my dreams (it could also be a hangover from Perdido Street Station, which I read a while ago and still haunts a corner of my mind…)
“…But how is it
That this lives in thy mind? What seest thou else
In the dark backward and abysm of time?”
from The Tempest (Scene II), by William Shakespeare
2011/11/16
I felt indolent. Not the lazy feeling of I don’t want to do anything; rather, I had a sense that life should flow through me, instead of the other way ‘round.
In the morning I sat quietly as the sun roiled over mountains and the sky’s subtle colors softened to warmer hues.
I watched leaves waft gently from branch to ground, laying a carpet of yellow-gold. A cat eyed the tumbling foliage with suspicion, as if the leaves were devious, painted birds.
The day parceled itself into memorable hours, whittled the hours into baroque moments, and sifted what was left into nascent reminiscences.
And then, when the sun had almost arced beyond the western horizon, the sky displayed the first chill of dark blue, which bruised further to plum; and, finally, the day slipped into the obscurity of an almost-winter night.
There is a sublime mystery behind the veil of perception.
2011/11/13
Long night: unable to sleep.
The moon, how breakingly bright.
Calling, someone seems calling.
Into the empty air, I answer “Yes?”
— Song No. 4 (from Tzu-Yeh songs)
From the Yueh-Fu of the Southern Dynasty
found in Chinese Poetry: An Anthology of Major Modes and Genres, translated by Wai-lim Yip
2011/11/11
The image below is from one of my daughter’s (Brynne’s) imagination (at least I hope it’s from her imagination…). She’s always been artistic, and is currently attending the Emily Carr University of Art and Design. Many of her works are dark in nature, but this one — The Pill Bug’s Hat — is whimsical, and reminds me of Brynne when she was younger: she would’ve brought something like that home if she’d found it:
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2011/11/03
The next time you find yourself in Seoul, South Korea, be sure to visit the Bukchon Art Museum and rest on the bench pictured below. The bench/sculpture is entitled Eating a Biscuit Together, and was designed by Ku Bom Ju (Image from blueoceanpalm)
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2011/10/27
The image below was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope (found at NASA – Image of the Day Gallery). It shows the ‘encounter’ of two galaxies: the collision created a shock-wave that pulled matter into the center and then the matter disseminated outward to form a ring structure. The central bright protuberance that is perpendicular to the ring structure led NASA to believe that the image is a ‘snapshot’ of an ongoing collision. The pair of colliding galaxies is cataloged as ARP 148 (its nickname is Mayall’s object), and it is in the Ursa Major constellation (the Great Bear), five-hundred million light-years from Earth.
Image Credit:
NASA, ESA, the Hubble Heritage (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration
And
A. Evans (University of Virginia, Charlottesville/NRAO/Stony Brook University)
db johnston
almost falling 