Monthly Archive for May, 2009

The Most Amazing Science Of May ’09

julius published on May 31, 2009 in technology and zeitgeist. 2 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

On the last day of every month SuperForester Julius presents a monthly recap of the most amazing happenings in the world of science, technology and computing. Julius is currently in his last year of High school and plans on enrolling the Applied Physics bachelor this September.

The mysterious click of the sperm whale

Chances are that you’ve never seen a sperm whale before, at least, not in real life. Sometimes they show up on the television when they get stranded and disrupt entire towns. The sperm whale is one of the biggest species on Earth, a male can grow up to 20,5 meters (67 ft.) in length. This huge creature does something that has been bugging scientists for a while because they were unable to explain it (scientists generally need an explanation for everything). A sperm whale is able to produce incredibly loud clicks, they can reach an intensity of 230 deci-Bells while a loud gunshot (probably the loudest sound humans can produce) only reaches 160 dB. The deci-Bell scale is pretty vague if you don’t know the maths that go beyond it, so I’ll save you the hassle: 230 dB is about 10000000 times louder then 160 dB.

The question was: why do sperm whales do this?

Scientists got the answer from fisherman that were rather annoyed with the whale since it stole and ate their newly caught fish. On video recorded with underwater cameras the scientists saw that the whale produced it’s famous click when it was about to start dining/stealing. Just a matter of minutes later other whales joined and they had one big dinner party. The conclusion was that the whales did this in order to communicate, to say: “Yooo there’s free dinner here!”

The Ida fossil

The Ida fossil is probably the science news of the last month. Ida is the nickname of a fossil of the primate Darwinius masillae, a species that was walking the Earth a long, long, loooong while before we did.

Ida_fossil
This is her claw (wait, why am I applying a gender to it? I guess because her name is Ida… nevermind) and when this picture made the news it was reported that ‘they’ – being archeologists – found the missing link in our evolution. As a matter of fact the fossil was already pretty long in human hands, it was a private collection though so not a single scientist was able to analyze it. And the claim that the unprivatized fossil would be the missing link in our evolution was directly criticized by archeologists worldwide, saying Ida would be “more of an aunt”. Something which is perfectly demonstrated in this family tree.

Ida_family_tree

Nevertheless it’s fun to know something about the history of your auntie, right?

Radical new approach to cancer

A few days ago I read something about a new treatment of cancer designed by mathematical oncologist (that’s a mathematician treating cancer, interesting combo by the way) Robert Gatenby. His treatment is radically different then the one applied today. He says that we shouldn’t want entire tumors to disappear when using chemotherapy. When this kind of treatment is used over time cells can and will build resistance for such a therapy and the tumor starts growing again. Gatenby’s suggestion is that we should lower the dosis so that a few cells will stay alive.

It turns out that non-resistant cells replicate much quicker then resistant cells, this is because resistant cells have to pour loads of energy into their resistance and thus replicate slower. This causes non-resistant cells to dominate in untreated tumors. Gatenby’s treatment would make sure that resistant cells won’t start occurring in large numbers and this would make the tumor manageable.

In an interview with Wired: Science Gatenby says that further research in better methods of treatment is an absolute necessity but that this could work for now. Of course there are major downsides to chemotherapy treatment which is another obstacle for the ‘new method’. At least there’s a lot of thinking going on concerning the problem of cancer, and the fact that it’s giving of it’s fruits is rad.

That rounds it up for May’s Most Amazing Science. Of course, not everything could have been covered. But if you feel like I’ve missed out on something huge feel free to share your scientific news of last month in the comments section. And if you feel the urge to share your thoughts about anything that got covered the comments section is opened too! Have an awesome Sunday!

Recycled Coin Purse Update: DIY

iman published on May 30, 2009 in build. 7 Comments Tags: , , .

Hello all!

Yesterday April posted something about recycled coin purses and seeing as I was in full on procrastination mode (my finals are next week), I decided to give it a go myself. Now I do have a very good guess of how they made theirs, but truth be told, when I held one myself, it seemed rather bulky. So my goal was to make one out of recycled materials and to make it thinner. My design ended up being much much simpler, taking only about an hour or two to complete (unlike the original which, if they use the method I think they do, takes way longer), AND you get the satisfaction of saying you made it yourself! Double yay!

So heres what you need:
Newspaper
Paperclips!!!
Needle and thread

And if you’d like to make it more functional:
Packaging tape
Zipper

The first thing you have to do is cut out your strips.
newspaperstrips
You’re going to want 2 strips of A length, 4 strip of B length, and 1 strip of C length. (A length= the height of a newspaper, B length = half of A, C length= a good four to five inches longer than B)

Now comes the fun part. Weaving. Take your four B strips and weave them into C, making it as centered as possible.

Once they are centered makes folds on the B strips along these lines (believe me it will save a lot of time)
newspaperstripsfold

This part gets a little tricky and is what I think to be the hardest part of it all; weave the A strip into what you have so far

Once you’ve woven your first A strip through it should look like this

Now weave in your second A strip above the first one


USE PAPERCLIPS! It gets a bit chaotic if you don’t

Once thats woven thru it should look like this (if any strips are still sticking up, fold them down and paperclip them)

Sew a straight line about an inch from the top making sure you sew thru as many layers as possible:

Now it should look like this!

I was rather worried about it being durable so I covered the whole thing with a thin layer of packaging tape and sewed on a zipper

Now I have a personalized iPod purse made with mainly recycled materials!

Try making one with different colored ads to go for a more chic design or possibly use a recycled plastic-like material thats a bit more durable than paper (chip bags possibly?). Special thanks go out to April for inspiring me to finally make one of these! I hope you all have fun trying it out yourselves.

Have a great weekend,
-iman

SuperForest Soundtrack Exclusive Interview: Ian McAllister

iman published on May 29, 2009 in zeitgeist. 3 Comments Tags: , .

Dearest SuperForest,

Today SF Soundtrack has a very very special treat for you. I’d like to introduce you all to the great Ian McAllister: artist extraordinaire. You may remember him from his great image “Ahoy Forever” featured on Jackson’s post earlier this month. Today, however, we are spotlighting the brand new video for his song “The Fountainhead”, the first part of a series of five videos that can be found on his youtube channel. Upon being asked to introduce the song he stated:

“the Fountainhead is about how planet Earth is more of a sponge than a rock. Time is the 409 that will wipe our olive oil stain from the stovetop of existence.”



Its a brilliant song with a contagious tune and I truly hope you enjoyed it as much as I do. Ian was kind enough to respond to a few questions for us.

SuperForest: Hello Ian! Tell us about yourself

Ian McAllister: Well, my name is Ian and I’m a real person.

SF: Who are your musical inspirations?

IM: I think you can hear my ‘musical’ inspirations pretty clearly in the songs. The Beatles. You’re never too old to grow up on the Beatles. I think any artistic influence is devoted without question to the place you ‘music’. Like the Super Forest humanifesto states, that can be your bedroom, in my case the Sky Cave, or the city you live in. Musically, the city of Reno is my biggest influence. Its culture is internationally distinguishable, you just have to come here and do a little farming to find the really potent stuff.

SF: What’s the song writing process like?

IM: Oh! Wouldn’t a process be nice? A system to rely on. It’s like asking someone what their process is when their house is on fire. My songwriting method is beautifully inefficient. I just write little helpings of ideas, whether they are words or chords or riffs, and just hope they make a full meal. Most the time they don’t. I more often than not end up with a buffet of jelly bean booger burritos.

My songs that actually get finished are just populations of pure luck.

SF: So what’s the recording process like?

IM: I try to record the root of the idea first. If I wrote the guitar first, that comes first. If I write the words first, I sing first. Then I work backwards. I’ll record the other tracks and slowly take by take work them until they feel most like the idea. Thelonious Monk once said ‘Genius is the man who is most like himself’. Songs are people too.

SF: When did you decide you wanted to become a musician?

IM: Everybody is a musician, they just don’t know it yet. The way you make your breakfast is music. The way you ride your bike to work is music. The way you put your kid to bed is music. You just have to make the choice to listen.

SF: On your blog it seems you enjoy using several mediums of art (photography, music, etc.) Is there any one you enjoy more than the others?

IM: Unfortunately, the way the world is instinctually set up with jobs and rent and mortgages and families and all the responsibilities that are mis-catgorized as non-art, most of us are left filling our days with activity that is far from flawless. That leaves a guy like me, and I imagine most people, the time to realistically be good at just one thing besides our finesse of life chores (true music). The thing I try to be good at is juxtaposing interesting words with a more absorbing art form in a way that communicates an idea. I think most of the work (I hate the word work for art) on the Sky Cave speaks to that to some degree. So I’ve shown you my trick, if you can verbalize many things as one thing, you can be good at more.

SF: The Fountainhead is part of a series entitled “the Orange Century”. What is the meaning behind this name and what sort of message are you trying to convey?

IM: The Orange Century idea comes out of a psychiatry exercise I found extremely telling of the living generations. It was an exercise of hypnosis through a process of private visualization. It was the classic, ‘You’re feeling very relaxed, you’re breathing slowly…in….out…in….out’. For part of the exercise the hypnotizing professor went into an exhaustive description of this cool orange ooze seeping through my entire body and glowing through my skin. It was the most relaxed I have ever felt, and it was absolutely artificial. So the Orange Century is really about us humans reaching such an unbelievable ability to control our brains to the point that a placebo effect is as good as the real deal. We seek artificial sweetener to fill our lives, and that’s not only okay, it’s fantastic. The nostalgic videos, in which I know nobody personally, put together with genuine pop songs are, in my opinion, absolutely perfect moments of pure artificial happiness. So happy in fact, that they start to turn sad again.

SF: Is there anything else you’d like the readers of SF to know?

IM: You are who you think you are, and don’t let anyone tell you any differently.

A giant thanks go out to Mr. McAllister for taking the time to write to us. Make sure to check out his website, the Sky Cave along with the other songs in “The Orange Century”. If you like what you hear, pass it along! “There is no delight in owning anything unshared” (Seneca), so please spread the know about SuperForester Ian and his wonderful music.

Much love,
iman

Carla’s Journal (5/29/09): Goodbye (for now) Lovely Chalk Art!

carla published on May 29, 2009 in art, superforest journal and zeitgeist. 4 Comments Tags: , , , , .

Gooooood Afternoon, SuperForest!

It’s a particularly misty day here in San Diego; one of those days where everything around you seems to be in the thick of a massive cloud. Surreal, no doubt, and although I normally welcome any sort of precipitation in Southern California with open arms, on this particular day rain meant I had to say farewell to a piece of artwork I really loved and appreciated.

sspx0605

There it is! I know what you’re thinking, “Why, that’s just chalk on a cement wall!” It very much is simplistic in nature, I mean, it is no masterful painting but even so, I really enjoyed its presence. Around ten weeks ago, as the spring quarter’s classes were commencing at UCSD, I took a shortcut toward one of my classes and found the chalk drawing on a wall. It was a wonderful blast of color and positivity in a campus full of concrete blocks of buildings. And upon taking a gander, I found that it quite literally looks like the plant below has a brilliant idea and is radiating with happiness and positivity. Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning, I’d pass the little drawing and felt that positive energy transmit into my own being. It was a fresh, wonderful way to start out the day; receiving love and inspiration from not only a simple drawing but a little plant as well.

Today upon following my normal route, this is what I found:

sspx0607

Though I fully accept and acknowledge the concept of impermanence (as magnificently described by Peter Donnelly), I must admit, I was a bit saddened at first. Although it was a silly chalk drawing, I got a lot out of that thing. The light bulb came, it shone brightly, and it left. Such is life. A big thank you goes out to the clever cat that put the light bulb there in the first place. I’m sure the bright and sunshiny drawing put smiles on a lot of faces.

Upon leaving campus, I got into the car and still had a strange feeling of dissatisfaction. Then the thought occurred to me…

Ladies and Gents, I am going to bring the lovely light bulb back, and not only that, but I’m going to SuperForestify it a bit. Not sure if it is breaking any university rules but if that’s the case, I shall don my hoodie and go at it Roadsworth style. More news to come. I’m still thinking up how I want to do it, but stay tuned for the rebirth of the light bulb chalk art piece. It will return brighter and stronger than ever! Yay!!!

Much love,

C

Found Poetry Friday: DIY!

jordan published on May 29, 2009 in art and build. 3 Comments Tags: , , .

While writing my Found Poetry post last friday, I realized that there are 5 fabulous Fridays in this special month of May.  So for this, the 5th Friday, I’ve decided to switch up the series with something different:  The Do-It-Yourself Poetry Card!

Remember those colorful construction paper cards we all made as kids for our mommies’ birthday.  The ones she would gush over and stick on the fridge?  Well why did we ever stop giving those?  When did we turn to the sappy sentiments of hallmark or the impersonal convenience of an ecard?

Because the sentiment that made those kiddy cards so special still applies — which is that no one appreciates a gift more than when it comes direct and from the heart.  Especially if that expression is bursting with creative effort!

And making a DIY Poem-Card is so easy to do!  Just follow these three steps:

1) WRITE SOMETHING DOWN

poem-scan0031It doesn’t have to be Shakespeare of Neruda.  It doesn’t have to rhyme.  It just has to come from the heart.

2) FIND AN IMAGE:

Ideally one the reflects or matches your more personal words.  Or if you are artistically inclined, paint, draw, collage, construct your own!

3) COMBINE THE TWO!

hummingbird

If a picture is worth 1000 words, then a picture with words is worth that much more!

And voila!  A card for your loved one to paste to their refrigerator door.  To cherish and remember your love until the next mother’s day, birthday or holiday gift.

The Ecoist – recycled coin purses

april published on May 29, 2009 in zeitgeist. 6 Comments Tags: , , , , .

coin-purse-newspaperGuten Friday,

Earth Made Me is a haven for eco-friendly fashion. One of the brands they promote is called Ecoist, and here’s its philosophy:

Ecoist develops unique fashion accessories, merging design with social and environmental consciousness to provide stylish, functional, and durable products. Manufactured through a network of Fairtrade partnerships around the world, their distinctive accessories are made from organic, Earth-friendly or recycled materials such as plastic wrappers and bottles.

While perusing the website, I found these completely funky coin purses. They’re absurdly priced (as there’s gotta be a way we can make them ourselves … will make mental note right now to attempt this), but they’re definitely cool.

every-any-confetti

Have a great weekend :)

Wolfram|Alpha Revisited!

carla published on May 28, 2009 in technology. 3 Comments Tags: , , .

untitled11

For the last few weeks, I’ve been working day and night making sense of census data for a research methods course I’m taking. It’s very interesting but basically, it has been hours and hours of staring at pages and pages of charts and numbers.

When working for hours on end, I’ve noticed that my mind tends to wander. And while wandering the other night, my curiosity led me back to Wolfram|Alpha, a groovy computational knowledge engine that impressively spits out some crazy facts. When I first wrote about this website, I explained that I typed in my birthday and discovered some amazing facts. Soonafter, Miss Maya of the incredible 4fives wrote that her class did the same thing and had a lot of fun with it!

Well, I have another fun project for you all. Upon returning to the Wolfram|Alpha site, I thought I’d go simple. Rather than putting my birth date I’d simply put my first name. So I typed it in: “Carla”. Boy, I wasn’t expecting what I got in return. In a matter of seconds, this is what I found:

untitled2

In 2007, my name was ranked somewhere around 538th (Come on Carlas you’ve got to pick it up!). There are approximately 136,039 people in the U.S. with the name AND the name was most popular during the 60s (awwwwwwesome!).

This is too fun, you guys have to try it out.

Click here to visit the site and let us know what incredible treasures you find!

Yay, Wolfram! You did it again! What other tricks do you have up those sleeves?

-C

P.S. I’ve noticed this among friends and family and yes, now I have data to back up my previous assumptions…ALL Jasons (give or take) are around 30 years of age. It’s insane.

Ben Kirchner: “The Beatles-Songs with Animals in the Title”

carla published on May 28, 2009 in art and celebrity. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

Hey friends!

A couple days ago, It’s Nice That wrote a feature on the fabulous work of Ben Kirchner. His work is widely varied and I was really digging his style…then I flipped when I saw this…

Kirchner's Beatles

What a beauty! Man oh man, I love this image!!! And being that Kirchner so wonderfully listed a collection of Beatles songs with animals in the title, I decided to make you a playlist!

Consider it a “Hope you are having a wonderful Thursday, you fly cat, you” gift! 12 juicy tracks for you to enjoy!

Love!
Carla

P.S. Thanks are in order for SuperForester Julius, he found out how to embed youtube playlists for you guys! Woot! Thanks, Julius!

P.P.S. Speaking of the Beatles, I still haven’t finished listening to Geoff Emerick’s Here, There and Everywhere!!! I’m getting down to the last CD and I’ve found myself saving it because I really don’t want it to end. It’s still really good! If those four incredible guys and their sound make your heart pitter patter, go check it out!

Thursday’s Inspiration Information – The Sand Dancer

aaron published on May 28, 2009 in art and zeitgeist. 3 Comments Tags: , , , .

Peter Donnelly is an artist who works on a unique and temporal canvas… sand.  His only tools: the low tide, a stick, a rake, and his boundless enthusiasm.  A local kiwi of New Zealand’s Christchurch, Peter has created over 700 massive works in the last 10 years.  

In his own words: “Like all of us, we draw on the sand, we scribble in the sand, and it’s just taking it further and giving it more intense concentration and focus.”  The sand paintings are impressive works on their own, and Peter often includes uplifting messages woven into the images.  Like Love World Peace, Total Immersion, Boundless Original Mind.  

But to watch him work is the true inspiration.

 
He draws, he rakes, he leaps, he sways.  He moves with the energy and purpose of a trained dancer and his movements are melded seamlessly into the art forming beneath his fleet-footed feet.  This is art for creation sake, for the sheer joy of imagining something and then bringing it to life.  It’s about give and take, ebb and flow.  And ultimately, when the high tide sweeps in and the waves slowly wash away his work, it’s about detachment and release.  

It’s a good reminder about the shifting, sweeping nature of life.  Each moment is an opportunity to create something spectacular, to appreciate a beautiful sunrise, to embrace passion and spontaneity, to play in the sand.  And at the same time, the very next moment might erase all that you worked for in the previous moment.  

Don’t fight it.  Trust Peter’s example:  the unstoppable tide is an opportunity for change, for rebirth.  Destruction is part of the evolution of beauty.  It’s elemental, inevitable and ultimately LIBERATING.  

I urge you to check out Peter’s photo gallery where you can see a sampling of his incredible work.  And whatever you are doing today, whether it’s slaving away behind a computer, reading a book, sitting in class, try to do it with the same grace of movement as Peter on the sand.  This moment will soon wash away, so you might as well dance and celebrate.  Rejoice in the NOW.

DIY: What’s For Dinner?

april published on May 28, 2009 in food. 2 Comments Tags: , , , .

Hey SuperForesters,

As promised, here’s the recipe for the broccoli-chilli spaghetti that I prepared recently which caused my eyebrows to tingle. It’s fast, cheap, easy and only requires 4 ingredients. Yes, 4!

1/2 pkt spaghetti
1 bunch of broccoli, cut into pieces
1-2 fresh red chillis, halved, finely chopped (seeds included)
A good splash of extra virgin olive oil

Method:
1. Place the spaghetti and broccoli in a saucepan and cook following the spaghetti’s packet instructions.
2. Drain the spaghetti and broccoli. Return to the saucepan and mash the broccoli up very well using a fork.

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3. Heat the oil in a frying pan. Add the chilli and cook for less than 1 minute (taking care not to let the chill burn).
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4. Pour the chilli-oil mixture over the spaghetti and broccoli. Stir well.
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5. Serve and smile!
051

Drizzle more oil over it depending on your tastes. Also, it took me about 3 to 4 attempts to get it just right. Make it for your friends and let me know how it goes.

The KeepCup update!

april published on May 27, 2009 in zeitgeist. 2 Comments Tags: , , , .

Hi everyone,

For those who are keen to try out this new eco-friendly coffee-drinking device, fret not. It’s on the way …

email1

Art is a Process

joanna published on May 27, 2009 in art. 3 Comments

“You’re confusing product with process. Most people, when they criticize, whether they like it or hate it, they’re talking about product. That’s not art- that’s the result of art. Art, to whatever degree we can get a handle on (I’m not sure that we really can) is a process. It begins in the heart and the mind with the eyes and hands.” -Northern Exposure

A model in my portraiture class.

A model in my portraiture class.

This drawing took me several attempts to get it to where I was happy with it.  I agree with this quote in that art is a process and not a product.  When I see my own or other people’s art, I tend to think how they did it and why they made the decisions that they made.  I think art SHOULD make you think.
Also, this girls nose was incredible.  I had so much fun making this.  It was my first time with charcoals!  My hands were dirty, I was listening to music, I was at an art school that I have a lot of respect for,  I was under the tutelage of an amazing portrait artist. I wouldn’t have even discovered this place had it not been for a random walk through that part of town…now look what it brought to my life!

Yay to art and more importantly to LIFE being a process.  Yay to the process.  The process is the journey.  Yay to the journey.  That’s what it’s all about.  I am in lurve with life.

So much love,

jo

100 Ways To Make The World A Better Place: #95 Say G’day

april published on May 27, 2009 in zeitgeist. 4 Comments Tags: , .

This series will comprise a list of 100 cool – sometimes quirky – achievable things you can do to help make the world a better place.

Okay, okay, so G’day might not be the greeting of choice in your neck of the woods (cliche!), but you get the gist. I’m always utterly impressed with people/strangers/anyone really who “make the first move” so to speak, and say hello first. Sometimes, while standing in an elevator with one other human being, my train of thought goes something like this: “Say hi, say hi. Just say it you big wuss. Oh bugger, this is my floor”. My lesson? Don’t wait for others to be friendly, show them how it’s done. You will (I hope, most to all of the time) always be pleased that you did.

hello

Supa-fly pic from here!

Side note: During the composition of this post, my eyebrows have mysteriously begun to hurt. It feels as though they’re on fire. What does that even mean? Help!

Five minutes later: My bad. I was cutting up fresh chilli earlier and must have afterwards rubbed my fingers over my eyebrows (don’t ask), and this would explain the burning eyebrow sensation. By the way, I’m making chilli-broccoli spaghetti and it’s one of my faves. I’ll post the recipe up on the ‘morrow.