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Posts Tagged ‘andrew sullivan’

Gigantic Statues

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , on February 14, 2015| 2 Comments »

I followed the consummate eclectic blogger Andrew Sullivan from 2004 until a couple weeks ago, when he closed up shop. I can’t begin to say what a loss it is, but at least he decided to leave up all his previous posts. I had planned to link to this one some time ago. It’s a good example of the kind of story I probably would have missed but for Andrew and his team.

In the post, we are directed to a Wired story about a series of Fabrice Fouillet photographs featuring giant statues. Zachary Slobig wrote, “Enormous statues have been erected around the globe for centuries, omnipresent memorials to historical figures and events. Fabrice Fouillet’s series Colosses—a collection of photographs of the world’s most imposing monuments—makes these familiar sights downright strange through a simple shift in perspective. It’s not the size and scale that interests him, but their place in the surrounding landscape. The result can be dizzying and disorienting. …

“ ‘It was important to me to extract the monument from its formal touristic and religious surroundings,’ said Fouillet. ‘It is not about a description of monumental symbol but more to observe how and where it takes place.’ ”

The Andrew Sullivan post, Face of the Day, is still available here. Photographer Fouillet’s website is here.

Image: Fabrice Fouillet
Grand Byakue. Takazaki, Japan

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Highway Bypass for Critters

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on October 27, 2014| 2 Comments »

Once again, Andrew Sullivan provides me with a thought to chew on. I had heard of building tunnels under highways to let wildlife maintain their historic routes, but  an Orion magazine article on the topic includes an overpass.

Andrew Blechman wrote the article. “When the Montana Department of Transportation approached the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes about widening the portion of U.S. Highway 93 that bisects the Flathead Indian Reservation, the tribes resisted. They first wanted assurances that any highway expansion would address the spirit that defines this region of prime wildlife habitat and natural wonders. The primary goal for the tribes was to mitigate the impact of the road on wildlife.

“While people view highways as a means of getting from one place to another, to wildlife they are just the opposite: a barrier….

“Collaboration between the tribes and highway engineers, with help from Montana State University and Defenders of Wildlife, led to the creation of the most progressive and extensive wildlife-oriented road design program in the country.

“The 56-mile segment of Highway 93 now contains 41 fish and wildlife underpasses and overpasses, as well as other protective measures to avoid fatalities. As creatures become accustomed to the crossings, usage is increasing—at last count, the number was in the tens of thousands. Motion cameras have captured does teaching their young to run back and forth through the crossings, much like human mothers teach their children to safely cross a street.” More at Orion.

See the overpass below.

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Read a Book While Bicycling

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on October 14, 2014| 3 Comments »

Adele Peters writes at FastCoExist that some schools, “like Ward Elementary in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, are starting to fill classrooms with exercise bikes, so students can work out while they learn.

“The Read and Ride program at Ward began five years ago. One classroom is equipped with enough exercise bikes for a full class of students, and teachers bring students throughout the day to use them. As they ride, they read. The combination burns calories, but it turns out that it also helps students learn better. As the elementary school analyzed testing data at the end of school year, they found that students who had spent the most time in the program achieved an 83% proficiency in reading, while those who spent the least time in the program had failing scores–only 41% proficiency.” More here.

The concept, which I learned about at Andrew Sullivan’s blog, is interesting. I hope most such efforts are in addition to recess, not instead of, but I know from experience that physical motion can helping with learning. And if the kids like it, so much the better.

Photo: Read and Ride

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A Holiday for Every Day of the Year

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on October 2, 2014| 2 Comments »

According to the website Days of the Year, today was Custodial Worker Day. I learned this by following a link at an Andrew Sullivan post.

Andrew quotes Megan Garber at the Atlantic, who writes, “Micro-holidays, which teeter somewhere in the center of the continuum between universality and irrelevancy, are political. They do what all holidays will, in the end: convene our attention around a cause. But they are different from official holidays in one crucial way: They are opt-in. …

“They’re about finding communities of like minds within the social chaos of the Internet. Every year, people will discover delightfully nerdy new ways to celebrate National Grammar Day – and they will do that in part because they are self-identified grammar nerds. Who are sharing a thing with other self-identified grammar nerds. … It says something, also, about what they want to share as people.”

By the way, Friday is Boyfriends Day, Virus Appreciation Day, and two other special days. Saturday has six micro-holidays, including World Card Making Day, Ship in a Bottle Day, and Taco Day.

You can sign up here to be notified about what each new day brings to celebrate.

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Recreating the Coral World

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on May 6, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Some posts at Andrew Sullivan I only need to glance at briefly and bells go off: for example, this entry about an artist who works with coral.

Andrew quotes Amelia Urry writing about Courtney Mattison, who became enamored of coral while studying conservation biology at Brown University and moonlighting at the Rhode Island School of Design.

“Mattison’s newest piece, Our Changing Seas III,” says Urry at Grist, “depicts a hurricane-spiral of bleached corals coalescing to a bright center. You can read it as a message of hope or one of impending doom, depending on your disposition …

“At the heart of Mattison’s artwork is her desire to inspire real-life changes in how people view and treat the world’s oceans and environments. Similar to the Our Changing Seas series, Courtney Mattison’s Hope Spots collection comprises 18 vignettes, each of which represents a vital marine ecosystem in its ideal form (that is, protected from various threats such as global warming or pollution).” Read more at Grist, here.

Art: Courtney Mattison
“Our Changing Seas III,” a ceramic coral reef

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New at Lugano Museum

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , on April 29, 2014| 3 Comments »

Photo of Lugano: Wikimedia Commons

Before Suzanne met Erik, she lived for a few years in Lugano, Switzerland. When I visited her, I took in the art museum and remember being exposed to the work of Austrian painter Egon Schiele for the first time.

Today Andrew Sullivan had a post about Museo d’Arte di Lugano, and naturally I zeroed in.

Andrew quotes Andy Cush on the museum’s latest exhibit: “36 ventilators, 4.7m3 packing chips, a new installation from the Swiss artist Zimoun … The artist filled a space inside Switzerland’s Museo d’Arte di Lugano with lots and lots of polystyrene packing peanuts, and uses 36 fans to whip them into a stormy frenzy.”

Watch the video of crashing packing-popcorn waves at Andrew Sullivan’s blog, here.

Lugano is a charming, Italian-speaking city. I passed through there as a teenager, with no premonition of my future connection to the place, just astonishment at palm trees in snow-capped Switzerland. Funny how things turn out.

 

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Toddlers: Memory Like an Elephant

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , on March 24, 2014| 3 Comments »

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAYou never know what you’ll find at Andrew Sullivan’s blog.

Today he notes research on the memory of toddlers. A new study has demonstrated that three-year-olds have memories of  seeing someone once, back when they were one.

Danish researcher Osman “Kingo and his team first renewed contact with parents and their children who’d taken part in an earlier study when the children were age one. That earlier research involved the infant children interacting with one of two researchers for 45 minutes – either a Scandinavian-Caucasian man or a Scandinavian-African man.

“Now two years on, 50 of these parents and children – the latter now aged three – were invited back to the exact same lab (hopefully cueing their earlier memories). Here the children were shown two simultaneous 45-second videos side by side. One video was a recording of the researcher – either the Scandinavian-Caucasian or Scandinavian-African man – interacting with them two years earlier; the other video showed the other researcher (the one they hadn’t met) interacting with a different child in the exact same way. …

“The children spent significantly more time looking at the video that featured the researcher they’d never met. … This result provides strong evidence that the children had some recognition of the researcher they’d met, and were drawn more strongly to look at the unfamiliar researcher.”

More at Andrew Sullivan, here, and at Research Digest at the British Psychological Society, here.

I am especially delighted that there’s a bit of proof for what I have long insisted was true. (No one ever believes that I remember taking my first steps.)

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The Song of the Bicycle

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 27, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Here’s an idea: music made with a bicycle.

Mario Aguilar writes at Gizmodo, “Riding a bike is a musical experience in more than a metaphorical way: Brakes squeal, spokes click, derailleurs clang. Composer Johnnyrandom sampled himself ‘playing’ his bicycle and the results are positively gorgeous. …

“It’s hard to believe that all of [the] sounds are made by a bicycle. Some of them are strictly the byproduct of the bike’s mechanical operation, like the sound it makes when you release a brake lever. Others are created when you play different parts of the bike with a musical accessory.

“For example, Johnnyrandom records the low-pitched flutter of a pick scratching on a spinning wheel, and tunes the bicycle’s spokes so he could play them with a bow like a string instrument. After capturing the sounds with a portable recorder, the different sounds were arranged and sequenced using software. This two-minute mix gives you a feel for the wide sonic that he was able to create.”

In typical bloggy fashion, I got this from Andrew Sullivan, who got it from Gizmodo (which also has a kinoscope of Frank Zappa, on the old Steve Allen tv show playing a bicycle, and a video of how Johnny Random works), who got it from This Is Colossal. Where will this message in a bottle land next?

(Be sure to check my post on composer Kenneth Kirschner, here, for more contemporary music using unusual instruments.)

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Siberians Get a First Photograph

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on November 25, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Andrew Sullivan‘s Nov. 24 “Face of the Day” leads one to a delightful website about a photography adventure in Siberia.

“Two years ago,” writes Sasha Leahovcenco, “I had the amazing opportunity to go literally to the end of the earth to photograph people who never had their photo taken.

“At schools, churches, homes and hospitals I could give people a moment to forget their troubles and just smile for the camera. But while shooting with nomadic reindeer herding families it was me who was most deeply touched by the experience. For although my hosts had few material possessions they shared with me something rare in the world – a sense of peace and satisfaction with life.

“This March we are going back on a new journey across Chukotka. We are going to travel over 1,000 miles and reach out to the most unreached places in Chukotka. We will visit people who have never had visitors in their life, stopping by every village and tribe on the way, giving them warm clothes, shoes, gifts, and simply showing them grace and love.

“The very exciting part of the trip will be taking pictures of the natives, printing them on the spot, and handing them to the villagers. This will be the very first time that these people had ever had their photo taken. …

“Our documentary film about this journey, will bring the voices of this land to people all around the globe. We hope to engage humanity’s deep rooted fascination with nature and desire to understand humanity. Perhaps by getting a glimpse of this nomadic way of life we will reflect on this modern world and what in our lives is truly important.”

Check it out here.

Photo: Sasha Leahovcenco

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Landmine-Sniffing Bees

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on June 18, 2013| Leave a Comment »

You never know what curiosity is going to turn up on AndrewSullivan.com, which is why I am a paying member of that blog (the posts are mostly free, except for a few jumps). Here Andrew links to a story about bees that are sniffing out deadly landmines.

As Olivia Solon writes at Wired, “A team of Croatian researchers are training honeybees to sniff out unexploded mines that still pepper the Balkans.

“Nikola Kezic, a professor in the Department of Agriculture at Zagreb University, has been exploring using bees to find landmines since 2007. Croatia, Bosnia-Hercegovina and other countries from former Yugoslavia still have around 250,000 buried mines which were left there during the wars of the early 90s. Since the end of the war more than 300 people have been killed in Croatia alone by the explosives, including 66 de-miners.

“Tracking down the mines can be extremely costly and dangerous. However, by training bees — which are able to detect odours from 4.5 kilometres away — to associate the smell of TNT with sugar can create an affective way of identifying the locations of mines.

“Kezic leads a multimillion-pound programme sponsored by the EU, called Tiramisu, to detect landmines across the continent. … The movements of the bees are tracked from afar using thermal cameras. Bees have the advantage of being extremely small and so don’t run the risk of setting off the explosives in the same way that trained mammals such as dogs or rats do.” More at Wired.

Andrew also links to posts on a mysterious illness affecting bee populations, an international concern. The cause, still under investigation, may relate to a pesticide.

Photo:: United States Department of Agriculture

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Kind of Crazy Organizing Impulse

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , on March 21, 2013| Leave a Comment »

I got this story from a recent post by Andrew Sullivan, who got it from Mark Frauenfelder at BoingBoing, who links to Leo Kent at Humans Invent.

It’s about Swiss artist/comedian Ursus Wehrli, who has written a book called The Art of Clean Up.

Leo Kent asks the artist how the book came about.

“I had already done two books before this one,” Wehrli answers. “The first two were about tidying up art and for the third one I devoted myself more to everyday situations or objects. I very often go to museums and I actually like modern art but I was standing in front of a piece by the very messy Swiss artist Jean Tinguely. He is famous for putting all sorts of colours, material and objects on a canvas and I tried to imagine what a cleaning lady would do if she had to clean up his studio.

“I imagined how she would not really know where the mess starts and the art begins so she would end up cleaning not only the floor and the tables but the artworks. I realised this was a fun approach because you really start to look at art very differently if you try to bring some order to it.” More.

More on Wehrli’s process here, at FastCoCreate.com, where Hugh Hart adds to the story.

(You just never know what will turn up next at Andrew Sullivan.)

Photo: The Art Of Clean Up

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Astronaut Food

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on February 13, 2013| Leave a Comment »

I am currently reading one of the many delightful Colin Cotterill mysteries about Laos (Slash and Burn). Because the Laotian/American MIA search team seems always to be eating tasteless “astronaut food” provided by the Americans, this story at Andrew Sullivan’s blog the other day caught my attention.

Andrew points to Adam Mann, who writes at Wired, “Several decades from now, an astronaut in a Mars colony might feel a bit hungry. Rather than reach for a vacuum-sealed food packet or cook up some simple greenhouse vegetables in a tiny kitchen, the astronaut would visit a microwave-sized box, punch a few settings, and receive a delicious and nutritious meal tailored to his or her exact tastes. …

“With 3-D printers coming of age, engineers are starting to expand the possible list of materials they might work with. The early work in food has been in making desserts – a Japanese company lets you order your sweetheart a creepy chocolate 3-D model of their head – but some researchers are already thinking of what comes next. The Fab@Home team at Cornell University has developed gel-like substances called hydrocolloids that can be extruded and built up into different shapes. By mixing in flavoring agents, they can produce a range of tastes and textures.”

Don’t you love the word “extrude”? Well, maybe not. But I do because when my husband, my older grandson, and I were waiting for the baby sister to be born a couple weeks ago, we spent an inordinate amount of time extruding Play-Doh snakes from special Play-Doh extruders. (“Don’t be scared, Grandma. It’s not a real snake, Grandma.”)

Come to think of it, I might rather eat a Play-Doh snake than some of this astronaut food.

More from Wired.

More from Andrew Sullivan’s blog.

Photograph: Fab@Home
A deep-fried space shuttle scallop built using Cornell’s Fab@Home 3-D food printer, below.

Photograph: Feb@Home
A 3-D food printer building turkey paste into blocks, below.

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Hiccup Entrepreneur: Age 13

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on May 6, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Connecticut seems to be doing quite a lot for entrepreneurs — even rather young ones. So thanks to an annual competition for young inventors in the state, Mallory Kievman is getting her hiccup-suppressing lollipop patented and marketed by experts.

Writing for the NY Times, Jessica Bruder quotes one of Mallory’s benefactors.

“ ‘It’s very rare, when you’re evaluating businesses, that you can envision a company or product being around 100 years from now,’ said Danny Briere, a serial entrepreneur and the founder of Startup Connecticut, which nurtures new companies, including Hiccupops, and is a regional affiliate of the Startup America Partnership. ‘Hiccupops is one of those things. It solves a very simple, basic need.’

“Mallory met Mr. Briere last spring at the Connecticut Invention Convention, an annual competition for kids. ‘I went there, and I knew it would either be a hit or a miss project,’ she said. ‘People would either like it, or they would think I was crazy.’ ” Read more.

I love reading about simple but valuable solutions to everyday challenges. Think paper clip. Think Post-it note. It takes a special kind of imagination. Nowadays, given the valuation of apps, you would think solving everyday challenges was too uncool for the inventive mind. But Hiccupops will likely bring Mallory checks in the mail long after Instagram is forgotten.

Photograph: Andrew Sullivan for the NY Times

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Hallelujah in Alaska, plus Bonus Video

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , on December 21, 2011| Leave a Comment »

This time of year there always seems to be a slew of good videos getting passed around. Already two people told me about the first one below, so maybe you have seen it, too. But unless you are a regular reader of Andrew Sullivan, you probably haven’t seen the second.

First, here is a most unusual “Hallelujah Chorus” performed by the Kuinerrarmiut Elitnaurviat 5th Grade in Quinhagak, Alaska.

And here is what the Quinhagak teacher says in response to the YouTube comments:

“Wow!! Thank you for all for the wonderful comments. The village of Quinhagak is glowing because of them. The amount of views is mind blowing!! Considering this video was intended for an audience of about 200. As many of you have thought, the kids worked very hard on this project. They put in 10 hours of work shooting all the scenes (on a weekend nonetheless!!) I am very proud of them!

“Thank you also for pointing out the apostrophes! I now have a very teachable moment once we start school again. One they will never forget!! I’m just glad I spelled ‘Hallelujah’ correct.

“Thank you on behalf of Quinhagak, Alaska!! Merry Christmas!!”

Now be sure to click on the old guys dancing at Andrew Sullivan’s blog. And leave a comment, why not?

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The Exceptional Brains of London Cabbies

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , on December 14, 2011| 2 Comments »

In a recent study of professions that involve intensive memorization, London cab drivers were found to have brains with swollen hippocampi. Not even doctors or so-called memory champions show that effect. Andrews Sullivan has the story.

Says researcher Eleanor Maguire, “We’re in a situation where people are living longer and often have to retrain or re-educate themselves at various phases in their lives. It’s important for people to know that their brains can support that. It’s not the case that your brain structure is fixed.”

A cabbie competes against a satellite system in a really cool video.

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