wasswasswass

June 17, 2009

Moderate Drinkers

“Moderate drinkers are healthier, wealthier and more educated, and they get better health care, even though they are more likely to smoke. They are even more likely to have all of their teeth, a marker of well-being.”

Maybe also better looking and loads more charm…

June 12, 2009

What the Fuck? File # 17-L

A 14-year old German boy was hit in the hand by a pea-sized meteorite that scared the bejeezus out of him and left a scar.

“When it hit me it knocked me flying and then was still going fast enough to bury itself into the road,” Gerrit Blank said in a newspaper account. Astronomers have analyzed the object and conclude it was indeed a natural object from space, The Telegraph reports.

Most meteors vaporize in the atmosphere, creating “shooting stars,” and never reach the ground. The few that do are typically made mostly of metals. Stony space rocks, even if they are big as a car, will usually break apart or explode as they crash through the atmosphere.

There are a handful of reports of homes and cars being struck by meteorites, and many cases of space rocks streaking to the surface and being found later.

But human strikes are rare. There are no known instances of humans being killed by space rocks.

According to a SPACE.com article on the topic a few years, back:

On November 30, 1954, Alabama housewife Ann Hodges was taking a nap on her couch when she was awakened by a 3-pound (1.4-kilogram) meteor that crashed through the roof of her house, bounced off a piece of furniture and struck her in the hip, causing a large bruise.
On October 9, 1992, a large fireball was seen streaking over the eastern United States, finally exploding into many pieces. In Peekskill, New York, one of the pieces struck a Chevrolet automobile owned by Michelle Knapp. Knapp was not in the car at the time.
On June 21, 1994, Jose Martin of Spain was driving with his wife near Madrid when a 3-pound (1.4-kilogram) meteor crashed through his windshield, bent the steering wheel and ended up in the back seat.

In 2004, a 2,000-pound space rock bigger than a refrigerator exploded in the late-night sky over Chicago, producing a large flash and a sound resembling a detonation that woke people up. Fragments rained down on that wild Chicago night, and many were collected by residents in a northern suburb.

May 17, 2009

Titles

Title = intention or context

Yes?

No?

May 16, 2009

Processed Foods

I know processed foods are unhealthy but this really was a shocker…

“Increasingly, the corporations that supply Americans with processed foods are unable to guarantee the safety of their ingredients.” (From the NY Times)

May 15, 2009

CI

Contact Improvisation:

2 or more dancers sharing weight experiencing gravity.

May 12, 2009

Abstract Narrative

Is “abstract narrative” code for “I am not sure what I am doing”?

May 8, 2009

Laughter

If sit-coms have laugh tracks, why do dramas not have crying or screaming tracks?

April 16, 2009

Choreo vs. Impro

The glass is either half full or half empty.

Wrong. It’s both. Those two states are not mutually exclusive.

Been thinking about choreography, improvisation, definitions a lot since M2M ’09. Had an “aha” moment the other day driving home. No piece is either choreographed or improvised. All pieces are both. Even the most rigorously choreographed piece has a vast number of variations each time it is performed. And each improvisation has a lot of choreography i.e. habit, physical limitations etc.

Also the question of which elements are improvised and which are choreographed arises. For several years, Lower Left has been choreographing pieces using the lights. We predetermine(choreograph) what the lights will be and how long each will be on and what the transitions will be. What our bodies do within those lights is improvised. But then there is the question of habits and current injuries and what other information we have been taking in recently. All those elements can limit or choreograph us.

In fact with each improvisation each piece that people claim is “open” has a huge amount of predetermined factors:
-Gravity
It will still be same throughout the piece. There might be some fluctuation due to the moon and the earth’s spinning core or other factors. But essentially the same.
-The Theater
Not many pieces change venues partway through. How many improvisations have decided to leave the building completely? (How about choreographing a piece but improvising the theater/location?)
-Performers
yes, people do enter and exit the performance space, but they are still the performers. How do we improvise the performers. Beside the names in a hat thing, because that is from a predetermined set of performers.
–Costumes
The pieces I have been in that had costume changes were choreographed as were the costume changes. I haven’t been in a single improvisation in which I had the opportunity to improvise my costume. I have disrobed, maybe that counts. But never had an improvisation with costume as an equal improvisational element. Must look into this.
-Bodies
I always (for the most part) have the same body. I have never been able to grow extra legs on stage. Never have I seen anyone improvise on stage how many limbs s/he had.

Every piece is choreographed and every piece is improvised. The question is what elements are the choreographed ones and which ones are the improvised ones. And the next question is how tightly each one is improvised and choreographed.

function fbs_click() {u=location.href;t=document.title;window.open(‘http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=’+encodeURIComponent(u)+’&t=’+encodeURIComponent(t),’sharer’,’toolbar=0,status=0,width=626,height=436′);return false;} html .fb_share_button { display: -moz-inline-block; display:inline-block; padding:1px 20px 0 5px; height:15px; border:1px solid #d8dfea; background:url(http://b.static.ak.fbcdn.net/images/share/facebook_share_icon.gif?8:26981) no-repeat top right; } html .fb_share_button:hover { color:#fff; border-color:#295582; background:#3b5998 url(http://b.static.ak.fbcdn.net/images/share/facebook_share_icon.gif?8:26981) no-repeat top right; text-decoration:none; } Share

April 12, 2009

Darwin Thwarted Again

BERLIN, Germany (CNN) — A polar bear attacked a woman at Berlin Zoo Friday afternoon after she climbed a fence and jumped into its habitat during feeding time, police said Saturday. One adult polar bit her several times after she plunged into the moat, police said.Zoo workers tossed rescue rings toward the woman to hoist her out and distract polar bears swimming nearby, said Goerg Gebhard, a Berlin police officer. At one point the woman fell back into the water and was grabbed by a bear before she was eventually hoisted to safety. “They saved her life,” Gebhard told CNN. The woman was severely injured and was being treated at a hospital, police said. It’s unclear why the woman entered the bear habitat, but police issued her a citation for trespassing. Berlin Zoo is home to Knut, the first polar bear to be born there in over 30 years. The bear became a huge talking point in Germany when his mother gave birth to him in December 2006.

Embedded video from CNN Video

April 7, 2009

New Method of Terrorist Attack?

A man stole a plane from a Canadian flight school and flew into the United States.

Will this be the new paradigm of attack? 9/11 caused the first shift. And then the Shoe Bomber, Richard Reid caused another shift. Thanks to him we have to take our shoes off now when going through security. Found out after looking at Wikipedia that I am 6 days older than the Shoe Bomber.

from Wikipedia – “He was sentenced by Judge Young to life imprisonment on each of the three charges, 20 years imprisonment on four other charges, and 30 years on four other counts, to be served consecutively, followed by five years of supervised release.”

So after the Shoe Bomber serves his life imprisonment term he will have 5 years of supervised release. Who is going to supervise that? And then once the supervision is done, will he be able to freely roam the after-life?

But back to the topic at hand – Are Cessnas from Canada the new dirty bomb? What about Mexico? Well, those from Mexico are probably too full of cocaine or weed to put any bombs in them. But then again, I heard that Canada grows some fine buds also…