Clipmarks | Nomads Clips

Ars Electronica 2008

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 11:56:58 GMT

clipped by: Juan da Cruz
clipper's remarks: The Theme for this year is "A New Cultural Economy"

ARS ELECTRONICA

Festival for Art, Technology and Society
Linz Thu 4 - Tue 9 September 2008

Under the banner of “A NEW CULTURAL ECONOMY – The Limits of Intellectual Property” the 2008 Ars Electronica Festival aims to co-author the preamble to a new knowledge-based society.

Ars Electronica invites artists, network nomads, theoreticians, technologists and legal scholars from all over the world to convene in Linz September 4-9, 2008. Their artistic and scholarly investigations in the form of symposia, exhibitions, performances and interventions will transcend the confines of conventional conference spaces and cultural venues and pervade the entire city.

A tempting trip will kick off “A New Cultural Economy,” the 2008 Ars Electronica Festival.

The 2008 Ars Electronica Symposium is curated by Joichi Ito (J)

Joichi Ito is the CEO of Creative Commons

The War in Darfur

Thu, 14 Aug 2008 10:07:07 GMT

clipped by: legend89

Clip Source: en.wikipedia.org

The War in Darfur is a military conflict in the Darfur region of western Sudan. Unlike the Second Sudanese Civil War, the current lines of conflict are seen to be ethnic and tribal, rather than religious.^[1] One side of the armed conflict is composed mainly of the Sudanese military and the Janjaweed, a militia group recruited mostly from the Arab Abbala tribes of the northern Rizeigat, camel-herding nomads. The other side comprises a variety of rebel groups, notably the Sudan Liberation Movement and the Justice and Equality Movement, recruited primarily from the land-tilling non-Arab Fur, Zaghawa, and Massaleit ethnic groups. The Sudanese government, while publicly denying that it supports the Janjaweed, has provided money and assistance to the militia and has participated in joint attacks targeting the tribes from which the rebels draw support.^[2]^[3] The conflict began in February of 2003.

Great Wall Of China

Sun, 10 Aug 2008 23:30:23 GMT

clipped by: cdhall4ever

Clip Source: geography.about.com

The Great Wall of China is not a continuous wall but is a collection of short walls that often follow the crest of hills on the southern edge of the Mongolian plain. Overall, the wall extends about 1500 miles (2400 kilometers).

A first set of walls, designed to keep Mongol nomads out of China, were built of earth and stones in wood frames during the Qin Dynasty (221-206 BCE).

Some additions and modifications were made to these simple walls over the next millennium but the major construction of the "modern" walls began in the Ming Dynasty (1388-1644 CE).

The Ming fortifications were established in new areas from the Qin walls. They were up to 25 feet (7.6 meters) high, 15 to 30 feet (4.6 to 9.1 meters) wide at the base, and from 9 to 12 feet (2.7 to 3.7 meters) wide at the top (wide enough for marching troops or wagons). At regular intervals, guard stations and watch towers were established.

The History and Development of The Great Wall of China

Mongolia

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 04:38:12 GMT

clipped by: dustingransden
clipper's remarks: Land of the nomads..

Clip Source: www.dorlingkindersley-uk.co.uk

Experts study nomadic 'Rainbow' group's health

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 07:35:22 GMT

clipped by: hitchhiker08
clipper's remarks: "They are easy to distinguish from their well-heeled counterparts, Sullivent says. They do not wear gold rings, expensive watches or high-priced hiking shoes. They are young, skinny and obviously unwell."

"Many of the young people they met reported physical abuse by a parent, forced sexual intercourse and use of medication for depression. Many had run away from home."

Clip Source: edition.cnn.com

Experts study nomadic 'Rainbow' group's health

Story Highlights
Nomadic "Rainbow Family of Living Light" gather annually to party, pray for peace
Gathering is a time when the Rainbow population is accessible
Hardcore members generally young, skinny and unwell, researchers say
Researchers: Getting help to members requires unconventional approach
Next Article in Health »

MORGANTOWN, West Virginia (AP) -- They are a mysterious, almost mythical group, the Rainbow Family of Living Light, gathering again this summer to party and pray for peace, many appearing wild and unwashed, barefoot and bearded, secretive and standoffish.

Zen, his wife, Storm, and son hike to their camp at the Rainbow Family of Living Light annual gathering.

To study the Rainbows in 2005, researchers stopped shaving and changing clothes to better fit in.

Their annual pilgrimage -- this year to Wyoming -- is typically preceded by rumor, anxiety or fear among locals.

Tags: rainnbow group, nomads, gypsies, civilization, hygiene, sexual abuse, tribals

The ADHD Advantage: Did the “Hyper” Gene Benefit Our Nomadic Ancestors?

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 19:22:24 GMT

clipped by: Mohir
clipper's remarks: "So, in other words, all of us with ADHD need to head back to the desert with a pack of camels loaded up with tents to really make the most of our “disorder” (how dare they call it that when it turns out it’s an evolutionary advantage unless you’re a semi-comatose couch potatoes). Of course half of us will absent-mindedly forget to bring essentials—like water—but we’ll have a lot of fun. Who’s with me?"

Clip Source: www.dailygalaxy.com

ADHA has gotten a bad rap in the 21st century, but all of us fidgety hyper-hypos may have evolved this way for good reason, say scientists. An ADHD-associated version of the human gene DRD4 was found to be linked to superior health among nomadic tribesmen. But oddly enough, it seems to be linked with malnourishment among their more settled cousins. Here is my completely unscientific explanation for why that might be the case: People who can’t sit still would be appreciated in a society that is always on the move, whereas in a sedentary population—like most of us live in today—we’re all but an unwanted annoyance. But whatever the real reason, scientists say these findings offer clues to why some of us evolved the way we did, and what that means for the future.

They found that those with the 7R allele in the nomadic population were better nourished than their non-nomadic brethren who carried 7R allele.

Tags: adhd, nomads, evolution, genetics

Did hyperactivity evolve as a survival aid for nomads?

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 18:42:59 GMT

clipped by: spherepet

Clip Source: www.newscientist.com

Did hyperactivity evolve as a survival aid for nomads?

11:39 10 June 2008

Ewen Callaway

Impulsivity and a short attention span may be the bane of every parent with a hyperactive toddler, but those same traits seem to help Kenyan nomads keep weight on.

A gene mutation tied to attention deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD) is also associated with increased weight among a chronically undernourished group of nomads called the Ariaal. Notably, the mutation offers no such benefit to a cousin population that gave up the nomadic lifestyle in the 1960s.

The nomads' active and unpredictable life centred on herding might benefit from spontaneity, says Ben Campbell, an evolutionary anthropologist at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, US, who was involved in the new study.

"If you are a nomad then you ought to be little more impulsive than if you are settled," he says. "You should be a little quicker on the trigger."

brain's response to a pleasure-delivering chemical called dopamine

DRD4

Tags: hyperactivity, adhd, ariaal, dopamine, drd4

The Bactrian Hoard - Afghan treasure to tour US

Wed, 14 May 2008 19:14:32 GMT

clipped by: JohnWaterman

Clip Source: www.archaeology.org

Archaeological treasures from Afghanistan, including the Bactrian Hoard, will begin a tour of the United States later this month. Staff members of Afghanistan’s National Museum locked the Bactrian Hoard in a vault in the presidential palace for safekeeping during the Soviet invasion, where it stayed until 2003.

Clip Source: discovermagazine.com

A collapsible crown made of gold and studded with
flowers and semiprecious jewels

Clip Source: news.nationalgeographic.com

The 2,000-year-old Bactrian treasures were discovered in 1978 in the graves of six nomads who lived in the ancient nation of Bactria, which covered parts of what is now Afghanistan

But the finds were later hidden and eventually thought stolen—until the Afghan government found them stashed in boxes in 2003

Clip Source: news.nationalgeographic.com

A close view of a dagger

Clip Source: news.nationalgeographic.com

Clip Source: phdiva.blogspot.com

Quite a number of Roman coins have been excavated in Afghanistan, and the Kushans imitated Roman coins with portraits of their own kings

Clip Source: news.nationalgeographic.com

Clip Source: discovermagazine.com

Clip Source: news.nationalgeographic.com

The far-flung origins of the exhibition's pieces underscore Afghanistan's ancient role as a cultural transmission point

American Generational Archetypes: Prophet and Nomad

Wed, 14 May 2008 06:57:26 GMT

clipped by: zizzy
clipper's remarks: I'm a nomad. So is Barack Obama. I wonder what generational archetypes are represented at Clipmarks - clippers within and outside of the U.S.

Clip Source: en.wikipedia.org

Generations last the length of time of one phase of life--the same length of time as a turning. Like turnings, generations come in four different archetypes

Prophet, Nomad, Hero and Artist

Prophets are values-driven, moralistic, focused on self, and willing to (see other people) fight to the death for what they believe in. They grow up as the increasingly indulged children of a High, come of age as the young crusaders of an Awakening, enter midlife as moralistic leaders during an Unraveling and are the wise, elder leaders of the next Crisis. The Boomers are an example of a Prophet generation.

Nomads are ratty, tough, unwanted, diverse, adventurous, and cynical about institutions. They grow up as the underprotected children of an Awakening, come of age as the alienated young adults of an Unraveling, become the pragmatic, midlife leaders of a Crisis and age into tough, post-crisis elders during a High. Generation X and the Lost Generation are examples of Nomad generations.

America's vagabonds

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 10:17:00 GMT

clipped by: hitchhiker08

Clip Source: www.tutztutz.com

The Life of American Vagabonds

Tags: vagabonds, nomads, tramps, garbage dump, shanty, slum

The Most Ancient Technology of All

Thu, 03 Apr 2008 02:54:13 GMT

clipped by: Rustee
clipper's remarks:

Its function is to put reality in terms that make sense. That means dramatizing what we see -- transmuting it into something more than what's obvious.

Clip Source: www.uh.edu

What's the oldest technology? Farming came late in history. Before farming, settled herdsmen and gatherers made clothing, knives, tents, spears -- but so did nomads before them. Go back further: archaeology tells us that pictures and music were among stone-age technologies. Some really magnificent cave paintings survive, along with evidence of rattles, drums, pipes, and shell trumpets. Even the Bible -- the chronology of the Hebrew tribes -- identifies musical-instrument-making as one of three technologies that arose in the 7th and 8th generations after Adam.

Music is the most accessible art, and -- at the same time -- the most sophisticated. In almost any age, or any society, music-making is every bit as complex as other technologies.

Music is clearly as old as any technology we can date. Couple that with the sure knowledge that whales sing -- that the animal urge to make music precedes technology, and I offer music-making as my candidate for the oldest technology of all.

Tags: music, history

Worlds oldest 'bling'

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 01:13:26 GMT

clipped by: kenstipe

Clip Source: www.nature.com

A four-thousand-year-old burial site may change our notions about that most ubiquitous of status symbols: gold. The oldest-yet find of gold beads in the Americas shows that even people in small communities could show off a little bling.

Gold has always been a symbol of wealth.

One theory is that complicated gold working is exclusive to stratified societies with elites rich enough to support it, says Mark Aldenderfer, an anthropologist at the University of Arizona, Tucson.

So Aldenderfer was surprised to find the metal in a small grave at a site of hunter-gatherers in southern Peru. The hamlet, consisting of a handful of dwellings, was probably settled around 2300 BC by former nomads. Carbon dating of wood from the grave puts it sometime between 2155 and 1936 BC, at least 400 years earlier than the previous oldest example of worked gold in the Americas.

it is a perfect status symbol. “It’s attractive and scarce,” he notes. “These are the two attributes you need for a status symbol.”

The Dubai Death Star

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 08:51:50 GMT

clipped by: zizzy

Clip Source: blogs.guardian.co.uk

An artist's impression of Koolhaas' proposed city in Dubai, left, and the Death Star in Star Wars.

is Rem Koolhaas, of the Office of Metropolitan Architecture, planning to build a a gargantuan 44-storey replica of the Death Star as a corner-piece for his planned city in Dubai?

According to his office, the enormous sphere will be part of a masterplan for his concept of "the generic city", which has been described by the New York Times as a "sprawling metropolis of repetitive buildings centered on an airport and inhabited by a tribe of global nomads with few local loyalties

The building will act as a symbol for a 1.5bn-square-foot "global city

promises to be home to 1.5 million inhabitants

The sphere itself, with a telltale circular recess that looks like its been taken from George Lucas's drawing board, is conceived as a self-contained three-dimensional urban neighbourhood and will encase various public institutions in a series of smaller spheres suspended on the inside

Ancient Afghan Gold to Tour U.S.

Sun, 30 Dec 2007 19:53:39 GMT

clipped by: mickfinn

Clip Source: news.nationalgeographic.com

1 of 7 Next >>

December 21, 2007—Part of the famed "Bactrian hoard" of treasures, a folding gold crown dating from the first century A.D. is one of the Afghan treasures that will go on display in the United States in 2008, it was announced today.

The crown was discovered in one of six graves of nomads of the ancient state of Bactria at an archaeological site in northern Afghanistan in 1978.

Russian-Greek archaeologist Viktor Sarianidi unearthed the hoard—a crown, necklaces, belts, rings, and headdresses set with precious jewels. The finds were later hidden and eventually thought stolen until the Afghan government found them stashed in boxes in 2003.

The touring exhibition—"Afghanistan: Hidden Treasures from the National Museum"—is organized by the National Geographic Society and the U.S. National Gallery of Art, in cooperation with the National Museum of Afghanistan, Kabul.

The 17-month tour of the U.S. will begin in spring 2008 in Washington, D.C.

Tags: afghan art treasures

Sahara Nomads in a Modern World

Tue, 25 Dec 2007 01:54:20 GMT

clipped by: ruralart
clipper's remarks: Sound clips, video and images as well as words.

Clip Source: africa.si.edu