Clipmarks | enbar's 'post:tumblr' clips

How to wreck $100,000,000 worth of cars

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 04:41:30 GMT

clipped by: enbar
clipper's remarks: Mazda Corp. decides to destroy almost 5000 new vehicles after an almost-sinking freighter exposes them to unknown environmental stresses. Turns out wrecking a lot of new cars isn't as easy as it sounds: they created a "disassembly line."

Clip Source: online.wsj.com

A Crushing Issue:
How to Destroy
Brand-New Cars

Mazda Forced to Design
A 'Disassembly' Line
After Odd Sea Disaster

It all started about two years ago, when a ship carrying 4,703 shiny new Mazdas nearly sank in the Pacific. The freighter, the Cougar Ace, spent weeks bobbing on the high seas, listing at a severe 60-degree angle, before finally being righted.

The mishap created a dilemma: What to do with the cars? They had remained safely strapped down throughout the ordeal -- but no one knew for sure what damage, if any, might be caused by dangling cars at such a steep angle for so long.

Mazda saw no easy way to guard against these outcomes. So it decided to destroy approximately $100 million worth of factory-new automobiles.

So every steel-alloy wheel has to be sliced, every battery rendered inoperable, and every tire damaged beyond repair. All CD players must get smashed.

Tags: strange, news, cars, business, post:tumblr

American Sign Museum website: historic signs and lettering

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 03:49:41 GMT

clipped by: enbar
clipper's remarks: The museum is in Cincinnati, Ohio (800-925-1110), if you want to visit. I love this kind of stuff.

Clip Source: www.signmuseum.com

Come take a walk down Memory Lane and experience the only public sign museum in America. Click through our website, and find a treasure trove of information relative to the rich tradition of sign fabrication and design. You can also find news of sign preservation efforts throughout the country and even visit the Museum's permanent collection.

But better yet, arrange to visit the American Sign Museum: You'll get a one and a half hour personal tour of more than 150 vintage signs guided by the museum's founder himself-Tod Swormstedt. Swormstedt is the former editor and publisher of Signs of the Times magazine, a trade journal which celebrated its 100^th anniversary of continuous publication in May, 2006.

Click here for a video tour with museum founder Tod Swormstedt

Website Design by BrianTheBrush.com

Tags: fonts, art, history, museum, cool, post:tumblr

Transgendered Oregon man is pregnant (he says)

Sun, 30 Mar 2008 00:02:48 GMT

clipped by: enbar
clipper's remarks: Thomas Beatie, who has undergone sex-change surgery and is legally male and legally married, has conceived a child via a home insemination from a sperm donor. He plans to carry the child to term. Others, however, are skeptical of his claims.

Clip Source: www.advocate.com

Labor of Love

Is society ready for this pregnant husband?

By Thomas Beatie

From The Advocate April 8, 2008

To our neighbors, my wife, Nancy, and I don’t appear in the least unusual. To those in the quiet Oregon community where we live, we are viewed just as we are -- a happy couple deeply in love. Our desire to work hard, buy our first home, and start a family was nothing out of the ordinary. That is, until we decided that I would carry our child.

I am transgender, legally male, and legally married to Nancy. Unlike those in same-sex marriages, domestic partnerships, or civil unions, Nancy and I are afforded the more than 1,100 federal rights of marriage. Sterilization is not a requirement for sex reassignment, so I decided to have chest reconstruction and testosterone therapy but kept my reproductive rights. Wanting to have a biological child is neither a male nor female desire, but a human desire.

Tags: gender, glbt, parenting, health, law, commentary, post:tumblr(source)

I.B. Singer on Yiddish, via A.Word.A.Day

Mon, 24 Mar 2008 20:04:32 GMT

clipped by: enbar
clipper's remarks: I.B. Singer is a great writer; here's an excerpt from his Nobel Prize acceptance speech, plus, as a bonus, the definition of the word "schnorrer."

Clip Source: wordsmith.org

Here's what Yiddish writer Isaac Bashevis Singer had to say about the language in his 1978 Nobel Prize acceptance speech:

"Yiddish language - a language of exile, without a land, without frontiers, not supported by any government, a language which possesses no words for weapons, ammunition, military exercises, war tactics ...
There is a quiet humor in Yiddish and a gratitude for every day of life, every crumb of success, each encounter of love. The Yiddish mentality is not haughty. It does not take victory for granted. It does not demand and command but it muddles through, sneaks by, smuggles itself amidst the powers of destruction, knowing somewhere that God's plan for Creation is still at the very beginning ...
In a figurative way, Yiddish is the wise and humble language of us all, the idiom of frightened and hopeful Humanity."

schnorrer (SHNOR-uhr) noun

One who habitually takes advantage of others' generosity, often through an air of entitlement.

Tags: language, judaism, post:tumblr(clip)

RepRap: the self-replicating rapid prototyper

Mon, 24 Mar 2008 16:43:42 GMT

clipped by: enbar
clipper's remarks: A "3D printing" device (rapid prototyper) made from parts that the machine itself can make; thus, it can "copy" itself. This project is still under development, but it seems likely that it will be built in the not-too-distant future.

Clip Source: reprap.org

"Wealth without money..."

"The promise of advanced fabrication technology that can copy itself is a truly remarkable concept with far reaching implications."

- Sir James Dyson, 17 April 2007.

"[RepRap] has been called the invention that will bring down global capitalism, start a second industrial revolution and save the environment..."

- The front page of The Guardian, November 25, 2006.

"Money is a sign of poverty."- Iain M. Banks, 1987.

Project Status: RepRap at the London Science Museum; click here. And see the main and builders' blogs for more news.

Look at your computer setup. Imagine if you hooked up a 3D printer. Instead of printing on bits of paper this 3D printer makes real, robust, mechanical parts. To give you an idea of how robust these parts are think of Lego bricks and you're in the right area. You could make lots of useful stuff, but interestingly you could also make most of the parts to make another 3D printer. That would be a machine that could copy itself.

Tags: post:tumblr(source), technology, cool

Jazz improvisation and the brain: new research studies spontaneous creativity and brain activity

Sat, 22 Mar 2008 20:15:15 GMT

clipped by: enbar
clipper's remarks: A group of researchers at Johns Hopkins and NIH used fMRI equipment to study what goes on in the brains of musicians who are perfoming spontaneous musical improvisation. The layman's summary doesn't say all that much, but there's a link to PLoS.

Clip Source: www.hopkinsmedicine.org

THIS IS YOUR BRAIN ON JAZZ: RESEARCHERS USE MRI TO STUDY SPONTANEITY, CREATIVITY

A pair of Johns Hopkins and government scientists have discovered that when jazz musicians improvise, their brains turn off areas linked to self-censoring and inhibition, and turn on those that let self-expression flow.

This keyboard was specially designed for a study to assess brain activity in jazz musicians during improvisation. Because fMRI uses powerful magnets, the researchers designed the unconventional keyboard with no iron-containing metal parts that the magnets could attract.

The joint research, using functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI, and musician volunteers from the Johns Hopkins University’s Peabody Institute, sheds light on the creative improvisation that artists and non-artists use in everyday life, the investigators say.

It appears, they conclude, that jazz musicians create their unique improvised riffs by turning off inhibition and turning up creativity.

Tags: science, music, health, psychology, art, cool, post:tumblr:source

Illustrations of the "Harrowing of Hell"

Sat, 22 Mar 2008 19:57:17 GMT

clipped by: enbar
clipper's remarks: Happy Good Friday, everybody. Here are a few interesting historical images of the "harrowing of Hell" tradition drawn from various Christian iconographic sources.

Clip Source: www.patzinakia.ro

ILLUSTRATIONS

Anastasis

Tags: religion, christianity, image, history, primary_source, rels333, post:facebook(clip), post:tumblr(source)

Thomas Merton on "sanity" and Christianity in the modern world

Sat, 23 Feb 2008 17:36:08 GMT

clipped by: enbar
clipper's remarks: Merton's thoughts on the finding that Eichmann was legally "sane": "sanity" is overrated in a world where mass destruction is considered an acceptable way of waging war. Given the modern situation, no Christian should aspire to sanity or realism.

Clip Source: www.tomjoad.org

It is the sane ones, the well-adapted ones, who can without qualms and without nausea aim the missile, and press the buttons that will initiate the great festival of destruction that they, the sane ones, have prepared What makes us so sure, after all, that the danger comes from a psychotic getting into a position to fire the first shot in a nuclear war? Psychotics will he suspect. The sane ones will keep them far from the button. No one suspects the sane, and the sane ones will have perfectly good reasons, logical, well-adjusted reasons, for firing the shot.

And so I ask myself: what is the meaning of a concept of sanity that excludes love, considers it irrelevant, and destroys our capacity to love other human beings, to respond to their needs and their sufferings, to recognize them also as persons, to apprehend their pain as one's own? Evidently this is not necessary for "sanity" at all.

in a society like ours the worst insanity is to be totally without anxiety, totally "sane."

Tags: christianity, violence, war, politics, religion, primary_source, history, roman_catholicism, post:tumblr

A blog about coffee and the environment

Sat, 23 Feb 2008 04:30:02 GMT

clipped by: enbar
clipper's remarks: I've been wondering lately about the environmental impact of my fairly serious coffee habit, since I know coffee farming and trade has a pretty hefty ecological footprint. I came across this blog. Voila.

Clip Source: www.coffeehabitat.com

Blogging bird and coffee research

At the Partners in Flight 4th International Conference

Coffee in the paper sessions
The first day, I attended a full-day symposia on conservation projects in Central America. Several described the identification of Important Bird Areas (IBAs) in countries such as Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Guatemala. Each speaker identified "sustainable agriculture" and "promotion of high-value cash crops" as a priority means of conserving these key bird conservation sites. Maps of the regions all showed IBAs which included areas whose primary land use was coffee production.

Clip Source: www.coffeehabitat.com

Tags: food, coffee, environment, blog, post:tumblr

Lunar eclipse in North America, Feb. 20/21

Sat, 02 Feb 2008 04:05:38 GMT

clipped by: enbar
clipper's remarks: A lunar eclipse will be visible in North America, beginning 8:43 pm EST on Feb. 20 and ending 12:09 a.m. EST Feb. 21 (totality 10:01-10:51).

Clip Source: sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov

NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration)

Eclipse Home Page

by Fred Espenak, GSFC Planetary Systems Laboratory

Total Lunar Eclipse: February 20, 2008

--- Live Webcast of Eclipse! ---

Path of the Moon through Earth's umbral and penumbral shadows
during the Total Lunar Eclipse of February 20, 2008.
(Eastern Standard Time)

A total eclipse of the Moon occurs during the night of Wednesday, February 20/21, 2008. The entire event is visible from South America and most of North America as well as Western Europe, Africa, and western Asia. During a total lunar eclipse, the Moon's disk can take on a dramatically colorful appearance from bright orange to blood red to dark brown and (rarely) very dark gray.

Tags: events, science, moon, post:tumblr, post:facebook(source)

"Fogcatchers": a new source for potable water

Fri, 01 Feb 2008 03:22:52 GMT

clipped by: enbar
clipper's remarks: In remote Chilean villages where fresh water is often scarce and contaminated, a simple new technology -- mesh sheets strung between posts -- captures condensation from coastal fog, providing an abundant and reliable source of cheap drinking water.

Clip Source: www.idrc.ca

Tapping Into Fog

The frugal use of expensive water trucked in from distant wells was a way of life in the parched desert village of Chungungo, Chile — located in one of the driest parts of the world. In addition to being costly, the water was often contaminated, contributing to poor sanitation, ill health, and low food production.

Today, a simple technology collects water from fog, supplying villagers with two or three times more water than they once used and at a lower cost.

With IDRC funding, Chilean and Canadian scientists fashioned an inexpensive, sustainable water supply system by stretching polypropylene mesh between two posts -- like an oversized volleyball net. Precious water droplets form on the mesh as the fog passes through it. The droplets then run down into gutters that feed a reservoir and network of pipes in Chungungo.

Tags: water, sustainability, south_america, international, news, technology, post:tumblr, post:facebook(clip)

Travelling by bus in Sweden? Beware of dwarves

Thu, 24 Jan 2008 18:18:18 GMT

clipped by: enbar
clipper's remarks: One of the weirdest news stories I've read in some time. Apparently some criminal gangs are smuggling dwarves in duffel bags into the luggage compartment of long-haul buses, where they loot the other passengers' bags.

Clip Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

Dwarves zipped in suitcases steal from Swedes

Last Updated: 2:07pm GMT 24/01/2008

Criminal gangs are using dwarves in a ruse to steal from the luggage holds of long-distance coaches, by hiding them inside suitcases, according to police.

The bizarre crime is on the rise in Sweden and officers say thieves have got away with thousands of pounds in cash, jewellery and other valuables in recent months.

Gangs are said to sneak the dwarves into the luggage hold, hidden inside baggage.

Then, once the journey has begun, the stowaways are free to rifle through the bags of other passengers without fear of being apprehended.

A spokesman said: “We have had reports about several thefts by dwarves on the stretch between Vasteras and Stockholm.

A spokesman said: “We are looking at our records to identify criminals of limited stature.”

Tags: via:twitter, post:facebook(clip), news, weird, europe, crime, travel, post:tumblr

Václav Havel's 1994 speech on transcendence

Mon, 21 Jan 2008 22:35:42 GMT

clipped by: enbar
clipper's remarks: Inspiring, but also provocative and fascinating. Havel basically insists that some kind of religiousness is all that can "save" us now, though he doesn't really say how or what.

Clip Source: www.worldtrans.org

The Need for Transcendence in the Postmodern World

In this postmodern world, cultural conflicts are becoming more dangerous than any time in history. A new model of coexistence is needed, based on man's transcending himself.

By Vaclav Havel

A modern philosopher once said: "Only a God can save us now."

It logically follows that, in today's multicultural world, the truly reliable path to coexistence, to peaceful coexistence and creative cooperation, must start from what is at the root of all cultures and what lies infinitely deeper in human hearts and minds than political opinion, convictions, antipathies, or sympathies - it must be rooted in self-transcendence:

The Declaration of Independence states that the Creator gave man the right to liberty. It seems man can realize that liberty only if he does not forget the One who endowed him with it.

The speech was made in Independence Hall, Philadelphia, July 4, 1994.

Tags: religion, postmodernism, politics, international, primary_source, metatheolgy, post:tumblr, post:facebook(clip)

Newsflash about me: I got tenure!

Sun, 20 Jan 2008 17:41:22 GMT

clipped by: enbar
clipper's remarks: This is a personal note... This semester, I was up for tenure at the small Pennsylvania college where I work. I was just informed a few days ago that my tenure bid was approved. This clip says a little bit about what that means.

Clip Source: ursinus.facebook.com

My Notes

Tenure and what it means

11:10pm Saturday, Jan 19 | Edit Note | Delete

Thursday night (two nights ago) I got a call from my dean, saying that the Promotion and Tenure committee had met and recommended me for, well, promotion (to associate professor) and tenure. This represents the culmination of many, many years of work and the end of a long probationary period with an institution (Ursinus) I've grown to really love, so it was a very big deal. I actually found myself a little short of breath when I hung up the phone.

It means being less afraid of those dreaded teaching evaluations that the students fill out every year. It means not having to weigh the potential repercussions -- at least, not quite so much -- of speaking your mind in a committee meeting.

It also means, and this is sort of a sad commentary on society, that I have more job security than most Americans will ever experience.

Tags: personal, academe, career, post:tumblr

Slavoj Žižek on the Matrix

Sat, 19 Jan 2008 07:16:20 GMT

clipped by: enbar
clipper's remarks: This is Žižek's famous 1999 essay, "The Two Sides of Perversion." I'm clipping it because I intend to read it; the bits I've looked at are very good.

Clip Source: www.lacan.com

Inside the Matrix: International Symposium at the Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe

October 28 1999

The Matrix, or, the Two Sides of Perversion
By Slavoj Zizek

When I saw The Matrix at a local theatre in Slovenia, I had the unique opportunity of sitting close to the ideal spectator of the film - namely, to an idiot. A man in the late 20ies at my right was so immersed in the film that he all the time disturbed other spectators with loud exclamations, like "My God, wow, so there is no reality!"... I definitely prefer such naive immersion to the pseudo-sophisticated intellectualist readings which project into the film the refined philosophical or psychoanalytic conceptual distinctions.(1)

The key opposition is here the one between Frankfurt School and Lacan: should we historicize the Matrix into the metaphor of the Capital that colonized culture and subjectivity, or is it the reification of the symbolic order as such? However, what if this very alternative is false?