Player 2 Curiosity.

-  I read one legal analyst compare patents to bullets last year, in that they’re cheap and quick to manufacture and they have the potential to do a LOT of damage.  The past few years have seen an escalation of patent-based lawsuits, and I don’t just mean the high profile cases like Apple v. Samsung (or the latest Facebook suit).  Patent based legal action has skyrocketed in all sorts of industries, but yes… mostly the tech industries.   “Everybody in the hi-tech industry is picking up their patenting, but we are also seeing that litigation is slowing people down,” Gwylim Roberts to BBC in THIS ARTICLE…  “We didn’t see litigation for a long time and suddenly it began. I personally think it might be peaking at the moment – it’s now starting to get in the way of business objectives.”  I believe in the next few decades — as the exponential curve of tech growth continues — we will see a revamping in patent laws across the globe.

-  The Curiosity Rover has drilled into the rock on the surface of Mars, and taken the first interior sample of another planet.

-  Ryan Gosling is co-writing and directing an underwater fantasy called “How To Catch A Monster”.  Weird.

-  UNEMPLOYMENT STORIES, Volume 26: ‘I Want Hope‘ and Volume 25: ‘I Still Exist‘.

“My wife had only recently been unemployed for 4 months and has a good understanding of what it is like. Her warnings and advice have been invaluable. That said, I was not prepared for the full brunt of it. I make a point of applying for at least 2 jobs a day, maybe more. These are not necessarily jobs on my formal career path, but are jobs I am qualified to do based on my career or based on my experience over the last 15 years. Anything and everything. The Kitchen Sink approach. Throw shit at the wall and see what sticks.”

-  A Fascinating ‘New’ Planet.

“Of course, astronomers have known about Mercury for thousands of years, but since NASA’s MESSENGER probe went into orbit around Mercury in 2011, researchers feel like they’ve been discovering the innermost planet all over again. One finding after another has confirmed the alien character of this speedy little world, which you can see this week with your own eyes. Mercury is emerging from the glare of the sun for a beautiful two-week apparition during the month of February 2013. The show begins about a half hour after sunset. Scan the horizon where the sun’s glow is strongest and, if the sky is clear, Mercury should pop out of the twilight, a bright pink pinprick of light. Mercury itself is not actually pink, but it is often colored so by the rosy hues of the setting sun.”

-  Valentine for nerds.  Love you Laura!

-Sonny

Minor-Key Solitude.

-  Via SuperPunch’s Tumblr account:

-  Julian Assange hiding out in Ecuador comes close to defining irony; here’s an article from February of just this year titled, “Ecuador’s [President] Under Fire for Media Laws”, which goes on to say, “President Rafael Correa of Ecuador is leading a relentless campaign against free speech” and “the most comprehensive and ruthless assault on free media under way in the Western Hemisphere”.  Nevermind, it defines irony.

-  That JJ DOOM album I mentioned yesterday is now streaming in its entirety.

-  One gripe I have with current state critically acclaimed music is that a disproportionate amount of it is infinitely happy.  I’m happy sometimes too.  It’s good to be alive.  But far too many bands are failing to explore the darker sides of music (some of these band’s lyrics get dark, I guess).  It’d be very interesting to somehow take all the acclaimed albums of the last two years and compare the amount of minor-key’d songs to that of years past.  A lot of it is major keys, with very consonant, resonant melodies and hooks.  In previous decades/cultural trends this has been the aim of Top 40/Pop music, not independent and/or acclaimed music.  And considering the uncertain atmosphere that seems to be leaking into almost every aspect of our lives on a global scale, one would think it’d be the opposite.  What’s probably really going on here is bands/musicians/possibly artists are overcompensating for this, and using their output to cope with all the unrest.  But for me, it just doesn’t seem honest a lot of times.  And even when it does feel honest, it is not for me.

I tried Googling this, to see if anyone else what noticing or writing about this… I found nothing.

-  Through Edward Hopper’s Eyes: In Search of an Artist’s Seaside Inspiration.

She was also intrigued to discover that Hopper, who is regarded as a realist and who painted the houses in Gloucester with great precision, manipulated one important aspect of what he saw. “He changed the light and shadows in his pictures a lot and combined different times of day so that the shadow might go in two directions – that’s how he created his narrative, his drama.” Albert Halaban responded to this by taking a more painterly approach to her photographs and manipulating the light as Hopper had done in the 1920s. “The houses that he painted remain, but the narratives he created only exist on his canvases. Standing in the same places, I was inspired to take my own liberties and create narratives that are my own.”

-Sonny

The Moving Mirror of Mars.

-  Oh yes.  Yes, yes, yes.  Christopher Waltz just signed up to star in the upcoming Terry Gilliam flick, Zero Theorem.  Course, in Gilliam time “upcoming” could mean years upon years.  But supposedly, the film we be going into production soonish… with Waltz fresh off his stint on Tarentino’s set.  Reason I’m so excited — besides loving said star/director combination — is because SlashFilm is calling the script “a Philip K. Dick story on steroids”.  It revisits the Orwellian world and themes of Gilliam’s Brazil.  BleedingCool has a synopsis, if you like.  The story involves virtual sex, a Big Brother-esque organization called “Management”, therapists as computer applications, and suits that allow users to explore their souls (falsely?).  Not to mention the theorem (titular) Waltz’s character is working on, which will once and for all prove that life does or does not have a purpose.  Wheew.

Living in an Orwellian corporate world where “mancams” serve as the eyes of a shadowy figure known only as Management, Leth (Waltz) works on a solution to the strange theorem while living as a virtual cloistered monk in his home—the shattered interior of a fire-damaged chapel.

His isolation and work are interrupted now and then by surprise visits from Bainsley, a flamboyantly lusty love interest who tempts him with “tantric biotelemetric interfacing” (virtual sex) and Bob.

Latter is the rebellious whiz-kid teenage son of Management who, with a combination of insult-comedy and an evolving true friendship, spurs on Qohen’s efforts at solving the theorem. But these visits turn out to be intentional diversions orchestrated by Management to keep control of Qohen’s progress.

Bob creates a virtual reality “inner-space” suit that will carry Qohen on an inward voyage, a close encounter with the hidden dimensions and truth of his own soul, wherein lie the answers both he and Management are seeking. The suit and supporting computer technology will perform an inventory of Qohen’s soul, either proving or disproving the Zero Theorem.

-  Star’s Dying Scream May Be A Beacon For Physics.  

Such an event occurred in March 2011, when scientists using NASA’s Swift telescope detected a sudden flare of X-rays from a source located nearly 4 billion light-years away in the constellation Draco. The flare, called Swift J1644+57, showed the likely location of a supermassive black hole in a distant galaxy, a black hole that had until then remained hidden until a star ventured too close and became an easy meal.

The resulting particle jet, created by material from the star that got caught up in the black hole’s intense magnetic field lines and was blown out into space in our direction (at 80-90% the speed of light!) is what initially attracted astronomers’ attention. But further research on Swift J1644+57 with other telescopes has revealed new information about the black hole and what happens when a star meets its end.

-  What’s really happening on Mars with Curiosity:

-Sonny

They Are Missed.

-  Kurt Cobain would have turned 45 today.  Probably still living in Washington, hopefully still making music.  I’m confident that is the case.  It’s amazing how different the industry would likely be now if he were around.  And especially throughout the late 90′s/early 2000′s.  If you listen to “You Know You’re Right”, you will find quite a different shade to Nirvana under the surface.  Upon first listen it sounds like an above average Nirvana song, but bubbling under the surface lies noises running on a loop, fairly progressive drumming, and a surprisingly cleaner gain.  I love that song; and it bums me out to no end because I’m certain that’s the direction they were heading.  Granted, if Kurt were around it’s highly unlikely Nirvana would still be making music.  There’s just no way that could last after they’d been received the way they were.  But that doesn’t mean each member could not still be pursuing music.  Perhaps Kurt would be making solo albums the way Mike Doughty does.  Perhaps he’d be collaborating with any number of people (Danger Mouse?).  Who knows.  But I’m sure it would be something.  Such a waste.  Happy birthday Kurt.

-  Also missing someone I lost 2 years ago today.  Her favorite color was blue… I found this:

-  Mars Rocks Indicate Relatively Recent Quakes, Volcanism.

“With High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) imagery, the research team  examined boulders along a fault system known as Cerberus Fossae, which cuts across a very young (few million years old) lava surface on Mars. By analyzing boulders that toppled from a martian cliff, some of which left trails in the coarse-grained soils, and comparing the patterns of dislodged rocks to such patterns caused by quakes on Earth, the scientists determined the rocks fell because of seismic activity. The martian patterns were not consistent with how boulders would scatter if they were deposited as ice melted, another means by which rocks are dispersed on Mars.”

-  My monthly list of awesome things from the “Around The Net” Whitechapel thread:

• Multiple exposures of takeoffs at Hannover Airport in Germany.  Wow.
• How much would it cost to build the Death Star conversation.
• Advice for musicians from the great Thelonious Monk.
• Abstract Art Generator.

-Sonny

 

A Break In the Exploration.

-  I’m taking a break from studying to write this, but I’m also watching the first episode of Game of Thrones.  It’s been so well received by critics and viewers alike I figured I had to at least give it a try.  I’m not too big into the medieval fantasy stuff, but it’s certainly not something I would shy away from.  The first thing that struck me from the opening episode is how nice it looks, probably on account of Tim Van Patten (he directed the first 2 episodes; he’s also done a bunch of Sopranos and Boardwalk Empire) and whomever he hired as a DP.  It’s a beautiful looking show, if anything else.

-  An analysis of why Blue Velvet is so fascinating:

“Watched again over 25 years later, Blue Velvet looks even more bizarre than ever, a disorientating palimpsest of moods and eras and genres. It’s an intensely 80s film in many ways: MacLachlan in his white jeans and shirt looks as 80s as Michael J Fox in Back to the Future. But perhaps only the tape-deck playing In Dreams signals this period explicitly. The rest of the time it could, of course, be a Forties noir. His small town is quaintly known as Lumberton, on account of the local logging business, and perhaps we are supposed to assume the lumber is transported via the hugely wide river that we see in one shot – it looks as huge as the Charles in Boston. This little place is nonetheless sufficiently cosmopolitan to support a smart night spot called, enigmatically, The Slow Club, where a live band and singer perform ballads.”

Here’s a watercolor I found on DeviantArt of Isabella Rossellini’s character from the film:

-  Unfortunately, Obama’s new budget is putting Mars exploration out of reach (far, far out of reach):

“While the overall proposal is to give NASA $17.7 billion, a decrease of 0.3 percent or $59 million less than 2012, the steepest cuts — a near 39 percent decline — hit plans for robotic exploration of Mars.

The budget did not specifically mention the ExoMars collaboration with the European Space Agency, which was to send an orbiter to the red planet in 2016 followed by a pair of rovers in 2018 ahead of plan to return samples to Earth in the 2020s.

However, scientists familiar with the proposal have said the level of financial cuts would likely spell the end of the NASA-ESA deal.

The president’s budget said that “support for robotic exploration of Mars is reduced following the launch in 2012 of the multi-billion dollars Mars Science Laboratory,” a sophisticated rover nicknamed Curiosity that should land on the red planet in August.”

-  There’s an excellent collection of poetry (among other things) at Guernica.  Here’s one from Daniel Bourne called “The Last Bestiary”:

When all animals have died
even the ones in books

grow frightened, their eyes
like wormholes. Their spines

not so much broken, but the hide
abraded and peeling. The gutters

filled with debris,
plucked feathers, old yellow tape.

No one was there
to hear their last song.

And in between the last pages
were two old brown leaves

speaking in a language
only other brown leaves would know.

-Sonny

 

Ghosts Of Mars.

-  Label Conscious: The Ghosts Of Def Jam’s Past.

“In 1995, the head-trauma wing at a nursing home in Bensonhurst began acquiring the lost memories of Def Jam’s first rapper. Terry Keaton, a new patient at Haym Salomon hospital, had emerged from a coma unaware that he was T La Rock. Or that T La Rock had a hit in 1984 called “It’s Yours.” What was known is that the history of T La Rock — and perhaps the time of his life — had been purged from Terry Keaton’s mind with a blunt instrument.

The assailant was never caught, and Keaton spent much of his rehab listening to “It’s Yours,” recollecting lines that the rest of the hip-hop world had been quoting for the past decade. Though “It’s Yours” wasn’t exactly targeting the Yiddish-speaking Russian-granny demographic, this Def Jam moment essentially became theirs: a new memory that required an additional memory for all that excess bass. Listening to an 808 drum machine certainly beat not recognizing your loved ones.”

-  And speaking of ghosts and hip-hop: one of those albums I was referring to yesterday is the oft-delayed Ghostface & DOOM record “Swift & Changeable“.  Since first getting into Wu-Tang, Ghostface quickly rose to the top of those 9 rappers for me personally.  I’m a big fan.

And since we’re on the subject, if you do not already have WUGAZI on your computer I’d suggest getting it.  It’s free, and awesome.  Now here’s more links:

-  Third Lunar Mineral — Tranquillityite — Found In Western Australia.

“Birger Rasmussen, paleontologist with Curtin University in Perth, and colleagues have found natural samples in several sites in Western Australia, and as they describe in their paper published in Geology, it appears likely the mineral is more common here on our home planet than anyone might have surmised.

The mineral has been found in six sites in all, in various remote spots in Western Australia, and occurs in very small amounts. The samples found were actually about the width of a human hair and just microns in length, and that’s part of the reason why it’s taken so long for those that study rocks to find such samples here on Earth. Another reason is that tranquillityite is comparatively delicate and tends to break down when exposed to normal surface climatic events such as heat, rain and wind.“

-  A natural hangover cure?  For real?

-  Warren Ellis: Five Predictions About The Immediate Future Of Comics.  Among them:  indie creators being offered deals to do their own bidding via digital storefronts/apps, more self-publishing/direct to book publishers, several of the DC staff will begin exiting the company due to the constant shifting of… everything.

-  Our Tools Don’t Make Us Who We Are; We Make Tools Because Of Who We Are.

“Cyberculture legend RU Sirius, editor at the Acceler8or webzine, interviewed Joel Garreau and myself about the Prevail project. (Short summary for those who missed the earlier post: Prevail is an Arizona State University-sponsored non-profit organization looking to build collaborative knowledge about transformative technologies and culture.) In a series of back-and-forth email among the three of us, we discussed everything from the logic of transhumanism to the power of the Occupy movement. “

-  And:  Should We Terraform Mars?

-Sonny