Integr8d Fictions

Transphenomenal Personal Experience

2012-03-02T04:46:00.000-08:00

Setting up the Lost World

2012-02-21T04:11:00.000-08:00

http://www.crystalinks.com/romeclothing.html

Danger Bot---your Science Instructor today!

2012-02-19T07:32:00.000-08:00

Sir Oliver Lodge

2012-02-13T17:08:00.000-08:00

test

2012-02-10T21:41:00.000-08:00

http://integr8dsoul.blogspot.com/

Casimir Effect: the secret of real levitation

2012-02-10T00:17:00.000-08:00

Photo from UK Telegraph article, listed but not linked here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/1559579/Physicists-have-solved-mystery-of-levitation.html

Can a hidden effect that causes things to stick together like dry glue on a tiny scale be the secret to levitation---of objects...even people?

Consider the gecko, walking on the ceiling---how? There's a molecular force that creates a friction allowing the feet to adhere without incident. (We could just as easily be excited here about the possibilities of scaling the wall like Spider-Man!)

ON the tiny level, one might construct nano machines, with parts invisibly small to the naked eye. These microelectrical machine systems, however, can encounter friction. When you are building circuits at the micro-chip level, it's here the Casimir effect becomes a problem to be studied. This is probably a major factor in the evolution of processors, which were doubling in speed every eighteen months by the turn of the millenium.

Great. So...how levitation?

Researchers at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland have explored this quantum phenomenon. The process of reversing the Casimir polarity would result in the nanomachines operating together in a fluid state. You see, the parts would basically levitate in place. If nano-machines can levitate, so can larger objects, possibly.

The applications of levitation could have enormous influence in engineering, medical, and exploration. To the point, if it could be done economically, the draining of fossil fuels could taper.

Here's a three minute explanation of the Casimir effect if you want it.

Here's a video introduction to Casimir effect.

Richard Rorty, philosopher

2012-02-09T01:32:00.000-08:00

I was just reading about Richard Rorty's critique of analytical philosophy and the continental school--chuckling over the possibility Steve Gerber had him in mind when he selected a name for his disc jockey and friend of swamp dwellers, Richard Rory. I came to Dr. Rorty's views through looking up Quietism, and got THERE from Discursive Meditation, which is not the same thing but is apparently elided with it historically. Let me share with you this from his last essay, Life with Fire (2007)

Shortly before his death, he wrote a piece called "The Fire of Life", (published in the November 2007 issue of Poetry magazine),[14] in which he meditates on his diagnosis and the comfort of poetry. He concludes, "I now wish that I had spent somewhat more of my life with verse. This is not because I fear having missed out on truths that are incapable of statement in prose. There are no such truths; there is nothing about death that Swinburne and Landor knew but Epicurus and Heidegger failed to grasp. Rather, it is because I would have lived more fully if I had been able to rattle off more old chestnuts — just as I would have if I had made more close friends."

Kudzu Mountain Gypsy Cave Makes the News

2012-02-05T17:12:00.000-08:00

Article:

http://rn-t.com/bookmark/17384012

Two new looks for Valentine's!

Cave Spring's newest original art contribution made the Rome newspaper! The wine bottles, repurposed into evocative canvasses, make great room show pieces to enliven your mantle, desk or shelf. Contact them at kudzumountaingypsycave@gmail.com or if you're in Rome, stop by Imagine Hair Salon and Art Gallery on Broad Street!

My first day programming Integr8d Soul.com

2012-02-01T17:28:00.000-08:00

Well, first I had to get the original password again. Always make sure you have your stuff backed up!

Opening the human story with science!

2012-01-31T13:24:00.000-08:00

There's more knowledge in this little girl's pinkie than some people have in their entire head!

Your body is full of information: about your environment, about your daily routines and habits, and about your parents. Pains and scars tell about experiences---even if we're not sure just WHY we have a particular hurt, like my friend Rick and his mysterious ache in his side, which the doctor couldn't illuminate.

So what is a 40,000 year old pinkie tip able to tell us about the human race---long before any written record?

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/31/science/gains-in-dna-are-speeding-research-into-human-origins.html?_r=1&smid=fb-nytimes&WT.mc_id=SC-E-FB-SM-LIN-DTH-013112-NYT-NA&WT.mc_ev=click

HTML: beginning the code journey (a tutorial)

2012-01-29T19:52:00.000-08:00

HTML has not been around for many years. November 1990 marks the day of the first web page and back then there were little to no HTML standards to be followed. A group called the World Wide Web Consortium was then formed and have since set the standards that are widely accepted and we will base our teachings around them.

Since my initial plan to get into my own integr8dsoul.com was foiled for now by a lost password, I took up Semeicardia's idea: go to Tizag.com and try programming tutorials there on notepad.

Mostly, I copied code and pasted it into the notepad, saving my changes. Tizag has a link straight to a notepad; you can also access your computer and search for "notepad" and you'll get one.

My next option was to download something called "Crimson Editor" as a more sophisticated substitute for the notepad, which I can also continue to use.

My next lesson told me two things about code: is a necessary command, and so is . I was asked to examine these closing tags. They tell the browser certain tags are ending. Tizag tells me:

The "/" that is placed before the tag's name informs the browser that you would like to stop using the specified tag. is used to begin a tag and is used to end a tag.

The order that opening tags appear and ending tags appear follow an important rule. If an HTML tag is opened within another, for example the body tag is opened inside the html tag, then that tag(body) must close before the outer(html) tag is closed.

We ended the body tag first because it was opened most recently. This rule of "closing the most recent tag before closing older tags" applies to all HTML tags.

Then, I'm given some more code to copy, and paste onto my "index.html" notepad document.

The next new tags are: < and "head" and>, then < then "title" then >, < then a "p" and close with >, and < then the letter "h" then a >.

I can't type these in without messing up my blog post! It's < then h then 2 then > but if I type it like the others, it will not publish my blog---because it's code, and the blog reads it as code. In fact, typing any of these, code style, affects my post!

Head tells the browser useful information like title and topic. Title is where the title bar will be. H2 represents one of the six different sized headers; h2 is the second largest available, good for distinguishing your title.

goes at the beginning of a paragraph;

ends a paragraph.

(I actually typed a bracket <, then the p, then the > but it disappears, as does < then / then p then >. Typing the commands within the blog post causes the browser to read them like code, which they are! This is an example of how code is used every day to compose these blogs and give them special features, using other code commands, inserted into the text. It just complicates me showing you the terms on a blog, doesn't it? LOL)

Now, it seems, we're heading for REAL html coding!

Deadline - Blue Öyster Cult - YouTube

2012-01-27T04:35:00.000-08:00

Deadline - Blue Öyster Cult - YouTube

Follow this blog

Death of Captain Stacy and birthday presents

2012-01-18T05:49:00.000-08:00

Doctor Octopus engineers an escape he never should’ve been able to make in the hero-filled Marvel Universe, with his set of renegade arms stomping across the country to free him. His actions covered by an apparent fiery airplane death, the psychotic scientist begins his next genius extortion plan, but Spider-Man knows deep inside his foe’s still out there!

A lot of fans at the time thought Captain Stacy was getting close to figuring out Peter Parker’s double life as Spider-Man, but even the shadowed face on the cover of ASM #90 couldn’t have prepared most of them for Stacy’s heroic death! Worst of all, not only does Peter lose a man he respects and loves---the man he hoped would become his father-in-law, and an ally to his alter ego—but his girlfriend Gwen, like the rest of the city, grieves in the belief that Spider-Man took him away to murder him! Not only must he support Gwen and grieve for himself, but his helpful heroic identity, ever the figure of controversy, is suspect number one for George Stacy’s killing!

The fact that Spider-Man and Doc Ock (as Stan likes to call him) are battling far away on the rooftop sets up the shock; there’s always a danger to bystanders, and the heroic retired police captain loses his life saving a child from the scattered debris falling to the street. As I recall, Spider-Man’s using a type of formula in these cartridges of his webbing to create signal confusion inside Octopus’s mechanical arms, so their thrashing about, unfortunately, is a fault he may take to heart.

When I found a very good copy of Amazing Spider-Man #90 I realized I had the best condition issue of any major event in Spider-history of any I’d ever had. With the amazing fortunes we felt we’d had in the personal sphere of relationships, our hearts were over-flowing, and so, the first friend to ever give me a comic book as a gift became the beneficiary of that very comic book. I knew what it would mean to him, as it was exactly the kind of treasure we’d sought for years, the kind we could rarely hope to afford. I knew giving my friend Holt that comic book would make it more meaningful than if I kept it myself! I know, two half-grown twins later, he’s still got it. Wonder if he ever pulls it out to read? Maybe when the kids are grown!

The Marvel Tales reprint of this middle chapter, complete with Todd McFarlane cover, was the last comic I bought from the corner convenient store where I’d spent so much lawn mowing money.

The Kitchen Comic Convention, '12!!

I had to get out for a walk before I could sit with the game, and then I found out it was my friend Torrey’s son’s birthday and decided to dig out some comic books! Torrey Sr. even asked if we could start guitar lessons, and Torrey Jr.’s got what became about 34 comic books stories to read now. We sat in the community kitchen and had our first conversation about comic books, while I wore my t-shirt with the cover of D’n’A #1. It feels so good to be the one to deliver the message of honing your talents, following your dreams, and doing that with which you’ve fallen in love, with all the time you have on hand.

I brought an entire mailing envelope with the first 19 comics to the community kitchen, taking out a parody “What Th--?!?” #12 and a couple I weren’t sure were age appropriate. “Wow, some of these must be worth some money!” he said, collecting instinct already alive. “He does that,” said Dad; “we’ll find pennies or any old coin, and he’ll say, ‘let’s look it up!’” I showed him how to read the indicia to find out what year your comic book was made. Before their pizza was done I was back with DRACULA and another dozen comics to borrow. Hey, less clutter!

I told him most of these were on loan, but he can pick out his five favorites and keep them! Considering his stash includes X-Men/ Teen Titans, X-Men/ Alpha Flight #’s 1&2, some crazy Grant Morrison Bat-Man, Hulk’s return to Jarella’s world courtesy Archie Goodwin, a big fantasy world run of Defenders with Namor, Hulk and Doc Strange, new Spider-Man comics with the Fantastic Four, even the first story arc of Ultimate Fantastic Four, I can only imagine how fun his 12th birthday turned out---and what will he decide to keep? (Not the color Tomb of Dracula vol. 2 book, though---unless it’s his favorite over Everything!)

His dad, a comics fan as a kid, has Y: The Last Man volume one, a gift to us from Marcus K. from New York last Christmas.

I gave “TJ” a Milestone comic from all-black creators, and told him about Dwayne McDuffie founding Man of Action Studios with his friends and creating his favorite cartoon, Ben 10. I took out the signed Ben 10 comic book I was given at last year’s Comic Con---the one I wish to mail this spring to Sri Lanka, where two or more fans who’ve maybe forgotten the affair will be quite surprised.

Black Widow and the Fever

2012-01-17T05:30:00.001-08:00

This is from my occasional hobby blog, Amazing Bronze Age of Spider-Man.blogspot.com

Amazing Spider-Man #86, 87 1970

The Black Widow sounded really exciting---let’s face it, my impression was built entirely on the cover!

I read the

synopsis on page two of my brand new comic book, an official index of Amazing Spider-Man issues, #85 (remember the one I said was reprinted in the 1976 comic I bought for cover price with my A’s money?) through #114, I believe. I was just innocent enough to be spooked and amazed and totally engrossed, reading each page, describing an issue of Amazing Spider-Man. Remember, in those days,

there was no readily more affordable way for me or any young fan to read a couple years’ worth of Spider-Man plots from fifteen or so years before. This comic book I describe featured each cover and a list of characters and other comments tying the individual stories to the larger storylines of the Spider-Man title. So the first page had my first true favorite comic book’s plot and cover, as they originally appeared. On the next: Spider-Man’s adventure with the Black Widow, one where the build-up of the suspense of her hunting down Spidey didn’t seem to match with that mysterious cover! By their second encounter, she realizes he doesn’t use gadgetry so much as raw, strange powers---no wonder he’s so difficult to subdue! Spider-Man’s on his way to bigger trouble, as we’ll see.

#87 has that very dramatic cover, and then the unthinkable occurs on the first few pages: a feverish Spider-Man, still desperate to produce a nice birthday present for Gwen Stacy (as seen in our subplot now for a few issues), uses his strength and climbing abilities to steal a nice necklace! He can’t just use being Spider-Man to get whatever Peter wants!

He puts it back, very worried about his fitness to function as a superhero anymore. He tries to take a look at his blood under a microscope, and can't focus.

Hoo, boy! Peter walks into Gwen’s party late, feverish, takes out the Spider-Man mask and tells them WHO HE IS!!! Talk about how does a hero get out of a jam?

Peter's problem, it turns out, is the FLU. And now he's walked into his girlfriend's party and announced "Spider-Man is finished! I know...because I'M Spider-Man!!!"

The solution revolves around the second of three pretty neat appearances of his friend Hobie Brown, who became Spidey’s friend after a misunderstanding in his first shot, ASM #78. (He was suggested by John Romita, Jr. I remember estimating, with a careful look at his age listed in a Bullpen Bulletin, JR Jr must have been about eight or nine when his father drew in his character! Nice, one-time deal for a father and son. And John Romita Jr.’s gone on to draw many more Spider-Man stories to continue the tradition with Marvel!

You can send $30 and get any three t-shirts and the comic, too---or $25 for the two styles of shirts and a comic.

NOT ANOTHER COMIC BOOK IS COMING IN 2012!!!! Like the INTEGR8D SOUL page on FB for more!!! And this blog and more new material are coming out as a book in spring of 2012, INTEGR8D FICTIONS.

eyes-instead-mouse

2012-01-13T21:58:00.000-08:00

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/this-could-be-big-abc-news/eyes-instead-mouse-151319314.html

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/abc-blogs/rare-white-penguin-spotted-antarctica-213152350--abc-news.html

David Stephens, a naturalist on board the Lindblad Expeditions' National Geographic Explorer ship, snapped the photo above of the rare leucistic bird, which he described on their blog as "whitish, but not quite an albino."
Leucistic penguins, sometime referred to as albinistic penguins, have a reduced level of pigmentation and are set apart from albinos due to their pigmented eyes, according to National Geographic. Their "washed-out" coloring clearly distinguishes them from the traditional black and white coat of the Chinstrap penguin.
It's so rare to find nearly all-white penguins, Stephens noted, because the birds' black and white coloring serves as crucial camouflage while diving for fish. Still, the leucistic penguins manage to breed normally, according to Stephens.

Lost World of Apes: the Bili and Mangani

2012-01-11T10:12:00.000-08:00

Mangani is the name of a fictional species of great apes in the Tarzan novels of Edgar Rice Burroughs, and of the invented language used by these apes. In the invented language, Mangani (meaning "great-ape") is the apes' word for their own kind, although the term is also applied (with modifications) to humans. The Mangani are represented as the apes who foster and raise Tarzan.

Dr. Peter Coogan wrote a page on the synthetic language created for the Mangani and Tarzan, provided here in pdf:

http://www.pjfarmer.com/woldnewton/Mangani.pdf
The language of the great apes of Africa that Edgar Rice Burroughs depicts in the Tarzan
novels is not some simple, made-up collection of sounds substituting for English. It is a
representation of a deeply structured, complex linguistic sign system with a grammar and syntax of
its own. This grammar has never been worked out because its last living native speakers (with the
exception of Tarzan himself) went extinct in the last century. Unfortunately, Burroughs never
presents an untranslated sentence, so we also have no real sense of Mangani syntax. Below, I offer
two examples that follow English syntax. Given the universality of the Mangani language in
nature, according to Burroughs, it is possible that we can learn something about Mangani grammar
and syntax by studying the language constructions of signing ape.

The creation of fictional species will pre-occupy me when I prepare Lost World of Dracula. Johann gave me a link from Wiki to capture the species search aspect, in this instance regarding the Bili Ape.

Since a five year long civil war ended in 2003, it has been easier for scientists to conduct field research in the Congo. The first scientist to see the Bili apes, and also recruited by Ammann, was Shelly Williams, PhD, a specialist in primate behavior. Williams reported on her close - and chilling - encounter with Bili Apes, "We could hear them in the trees, about 10 m away, and four suddenly came rushing through the brush towards me. If this had been a mock charge they would have been screaming to intimidate us. These guys were quiet, and they were huge. They were coming in for the kill - but as soon as they saw my face they stopped and disappeared."[6]
“The unique characteristics they exhibit just don’t fit into the other groups of apes,” says Williams. The apes, she argues, could be a new species unknown to science, a new subspecies of chimpanzee, or a hybrid of the gorilla and the chimp. “At the very least, we have a unique, isolated chimp culture that’s unlike any that’s been studied,” she says.[7]
Scientists believe they are dealing with a very inbred population, in which even a large number of animals could share identical or near identical haplotypes. Bili Ape reports have also been investigated by Esteban Sarmiento, who has said "I would think there is a strong possibility that south of Bili on the other side of the Uele River there may be gorillas, and this would seem an important area to turn our attention to." Scientists working within these forests south of the Uele, however, have found no such evidence, nor heard any such reports from local communities. It remains an important region, however, based on the discovered presence of other flagship species, like chimpanzees and elephants.[8]

In June 2006, British Science Weekly reported that Cleve Hicks and colleagues from the University of Amsterdam had completed a year-long hunt for these apes during which they were able to observe the creatures a total of 20 full hours. Hicks reported that he saw "nothing gorilla about them", stating that "they pant-hoot and tree-drum, and so on," and adding that "the females definitely have a chimp's sex swellings." DNA samples recovered from feces also reaffirmed the classification of these apes in the chimp subspecies Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii.

Origins of the Bronze Age of Spider-Man

2012-01-11T10:06:00.000-08:00

Origins of the Bronze Age: The comic that kicks off this blog was my favorite when I was seven years old: a copy of a 1976 issue of Marvel Tales Featuring Spider-Man that came out the week of my second birthday. Its story featured the End of the Kingpin after three years of terrific battles, which resumed at least every few months in 1967 through 1969, in the pages of Amazing Spider-Man, the original comic book series featuring Spider-Man.

Kingpin of Crime, Wilson Fisk; this normal man without superpowers became Spider-Man’s greatest archenemy of the Silver Age, due in part to his limitless supply of organized criminals. In the Steve Ditko days of colorful super-villains, the Scorpion from Amazing Spider-Man #20, 1965, was designed to be his arch-enemy. Under Ditko, however, from nowhere that arch-foe position became property of the mysterious Green Goblin. When Romita comes aboard with #39, Lee ends the Goblin with first Romita story, but the first Bronze Age Green Goblin story will become the last for both Norman Osborn, the original Green Goblin, and Peter Parker’s girlfriend Gwen Stacy! Well, as with the end of the Kingpin: originally-speaking, that was the end…

Amazing Bronze Age of Spider-Man

My reading of superhero comics as I recall, in particular Spider-Man, began with Marvel Tales #107, 89, 120, 133 (near end of Bronze Age reprints; about to cycle back to reprinting classic Lee/ Ditko original stories from 1962-1966) and 66; you could get your own copy for a dollar or less. Marvel Tales 133 and 66 were the first ever bought with an allowance, given to reward my good grades in second grade; Dad explained the system and the value of the quarters he gave me, and I spent seventy-five cents eventually on two salvage copies of Spider-Man, probably some Wholesale ID’s unreturned, undestroyed overstock. The 1977-78 live action Spider-Man TV series and cartoon from 1967-1969 provide two of the origins of my love of Spider-Man; in fact, finding there was a comic book featuring the wedding of Betty Brant to someone else, Ned Leeds, gave me a sense the cartoons with her at the Bugle were set in stories in the past, giving the illusion of life moving on.

The other source of origin, and Orange Juice, was my cup, which told the web-slinger’s origin with the same narrative caption that appeared on the top first page of most every Bronze Age issue of Amazing Spider-Man by Marvel Comics Group.

Amazing Spider-Man #83-85, however, is a pretty interesting personal ending to the Silver Age, for me. The tale of the Schemer, new rival to the Kingpin, goes from crime epic to intensely personal story, focused on a small cast. Peter’s lie he lives as Spider-Man drives his girlfriend away and worries her, while the ruse he tries so he can leave them at his apartment begins her father Captain George Stacy’s suspicions…or, the old fellow has it figured out, and feels like telling Peter at the tragic moment that ends his life in Amazing Spider-Man #90. In this lonely, bleak story, Peter fools his visitors the best he can with a bluff, delivered as Spider-Man, who of course he was. Peter’s desperate to throw Captain Stacy off the trail of guessing he and Spider-Man are one man and the same! Lies go on to utterly destroy the Kingpin’s family, however: his new rival’s revealed to be his long-lost son! The action of the story itself slows to a crawl, with Spider-Man captured, listening to the truth from the Schemer---Richard Fisk.

The Death of Captain Stacy, and the last great Stan Lee Doctor Octopus story to boot, a much stronger trilogy of issues, is probably another possible ending to the Silver Age, rather than the later death of Gwen Stacy and the Gobin under Gerry Conway in 1972. Stan Lee still wrote another year of stories, interspersed for the first time with scripts by Roy Thomas that don’t quite nail Spider-man (Savage Land? Nooo…New York City!) before Thomas takes over for about a year. Doctor Octopus is another contender along with Kingpin and Gobbie for Spider-Man’s Silver Age archnemesis.

For me, I became a fan of Spider-Man during the American Comics Bronze Age, which began sometime before I was born and ended about the time I gave up comics for girls (or a broader set of interests in general…obviously, it didn’t stay that way!). Incidentally, I think I’ll end this discussion about the time Spidey marries Mary Jane Watson in both the newspaper and the comics, as the era under editor-in-chief Jim Shooter ends. My three years as a reader of Jim’s Marvel Comics Group gave me a lifelong delight in comic books and Spider-Man in particular that keeps me re-visiting my webheaded friend now and then. I had another three years or so collecting while still a young married college student, and that will be another story to tell one day.

As it is, I’ve still got a few never filled holes, and I’m going to group a lot of multi-part stories into single blog posts. The goal is to work from memory, amidst the other regular work I do, so this is the closest thing to a hobby for me, aside from, I guess, socializing, which is still different.

I’ll bet I won’t be alone, however, in wiggling my webs at least twice weekly!

Long underwear Lue

http://amazingbronzeageofspider-man.blogspot.com/
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A New Lost World

2012-01-08T15:22:00.000-08:00

http://www.foxnews.com/slideshow/scitech/2012/01/04/lost-world-discovered-around-antarctic-vents/#slide=1

Head First!

2012-01-07T13:16:00.000-08:00

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/12/111221092001.htm

By analyzing the physical features of fossil fish that diversified around the time of two separate extinction events, scientists from the University of Chicago and the University of Oxford found that head features diversified before body shapes and types. The discovery disputes previous models of adaptive radiations and suggests that feeding-related evolutionary pressures are the initial drivers of diversification.

"It seems like resources, feeding and diet are the most important factors at the initial stage," said lead author Lauren Sallan, graduate student in the Department of Organismal Biology and Anatomy at the University of Chicago. "Strange heads show up first -- crushing jaws, animals with big teeth, with long jaws -- but they're all pretty much attached to the same body."

Adaptive radiations underlie the evolution of dominant and diverse groups. After a major disruption, such as an extinction event, surviving species diversify into a myriad variety of forms. Modern examples of this diversity are the fish family of cichlids, with more than 1,000 documented species, or "Darwin's finches" of the Galapagos Islands, which exhibit many different beak types.

Evolutionary biologists have used these living species to propose at least two models of how adaptive radiations work. One model proposes a single "burst" of divergence followed by a long period of relative stability. Another, sometimes known as the "general vertebrate model," introduced the idea of staged divergences, with habitat-driven changes in body type preceding diversification of head types.

However, these models had not yet been tested with the rich data sets available in the fossil record.

"There hadn't been any tests of these things using fossils," said Sallan, a graduate student in the laboratory of University of Chicago Professor Michael Coates. "You have all these analyses of diversification, yet not one of them goes back to the fossil record and says what's happening at this time period, and the next time period, and the one after that."

Sallan and co-author Matt Friedman, PhD, lecturer in paleobiology at the University of Oxford and a former member of Coates' laboratory, looked at two different adaptive radiations in the fossil record. The first was the explosion of ray-finned fishes after the Hangenberg extinction, an event 360 million years ago that decimated ocean life on Earth. The second group was the acanthomorphs, a group of fish that exhibited a burst in diversity around the time of the end-Cretaceous extinction that ended the age of dinosaurs.

In both datasets, the researchers used a method called geometric morphometrics to quantify differences in features such as body depth, fin position and jaw shape between species. Crucially, Sallan and Friedman separated head features from body features in their analysis, to better detect the timing of when each compartment showed a burst of diversity in the record.

The results of the two analyses were in agreement: Diversification in cranial features preceded diversification in body types. Unusual head features such as jaws lined with sharp teeth or blunt teeth for crushing appeared before diverse body shapes on a spectrum from slender and eel-like to broad and disc-shaped.

"We have these two entirely separate radiations, and in both of them the pattern is heads first. So feeding might be more important to diversification than habitat use," Sallan said. "It's against both the adaptive radiation model and the proposed stage model."

The pattern detected with the new analyses suggests that the appearance of new sources of food drives a burst of diversity before species begin to change to adapt to new habitats.

"Ecological limits are taken away," Sallan said. "There's more opportunity out there, more available resources, and they're taking advantage of that. Later, they're taking advantage of specializing to new habitats. So it's not something within the animals themselves; it's more opportunity that matters."

While the new study offers two distinct examples of head-first diversification separated by hundreds of millions of years, the universality of the model remains to be conclusively proven.

"Evolution is really complex, and it's not really clear that there should be only one model," Sallan said. "It might be that this model might apply to fishes in certain time periods, or might apply to vertebrates, but a lot more investigation is needed to see whether that is actually true."

The paper, "Heads or Tails: Staged Diversification in Vertebrate Evolutionary Radiations," was published online Dec. 21 by the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

Funding for the study was provided by the National Science Foundation, the Paleontological Association, the Paleontological Society, the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists, the Evolving Earth Foundation, the Natural Environment Research Council, the Fell Fund of the University of Oxford, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Lerner-Grey Fund of the American Museum of Natural History.

Dynamic programming: you can do it, too!

2012-01-06T21:00:00.000-08:00

Computer World Entrance

o Semeicardia and I had this discussion about computer coding, which I have his permission to share here.

o Semei writes:

o well there are really only 3 things you need for basic webdesign

o Knowledge of HTML, knowledge of one dynamic language + databases and knowledge of CSS. Start with HTML, then CSS and then move on to PHP (Dynamic coding)

o Okay I just looked up free tutorial on CSS

o I would like to promote Tizaf tutorials for any web design needs

o http://tizag.com/

o They use pretty much laymans terms and is a good starting place

Coded Story Generation

THEN, DANNY INITIATED MY THINKING ON THIS IDEA:

o I have an creative idea for you :

o Make an "Make your own adventure" on your website, once you have learned about dynamic coding, I'll help you with it as well

o You can some characters for choice, make a nemesis choice and eventually some other choice and it would generate a completely unique integr8 soul story based on your choice and from generic text

o I LOVE it!

o I already want to apply that principle to menu selection on my General Works dvds...the menu itself could take on a narrative, however, in a designed effort.

So you would write passages with variables and then it would automatically insert your choices
Then you could have some preset starts and endings

I loved those books, yes, the technology's ready to take it to another level.
So you're saying we could build in variables that are NOT chosen by the reader, too, as well as ones that are.
You can basically code anything

So each reading strings together different characters and aspects, sometimes of the same time period of events, and sometimes different plot twists lead into alternative versions of the storyline

But imagine, if you want a story about 5 heroes, fighting mr destroyer who is destroying Metropolis, you could get that

o Yes, that's the future, Semei, and I have the perfect book for its basis: TRANZ, which happens to characters all over the world

o yes, I should start with something relatively simple like that

o so I could have a successful project completed in the shorter term, then grow into it.

o “My Don Quijote time-travelling story's another example!“ I reply.

o “But you really should get the coding basics into your head first.” Semei continues:

Basically you could have a theme variable and then the story maker would grap some generic text from the "theme" folder, but still using variables for names, so it feels unique

My problem with TRANZ, see, is that if it were laid out linearly with all the characters I wanted, you would lose the narrative impact of each of their stories. But if you could take several shorter trips through the 900 or so pages, you could follow a smaller cast through the events...which would not end the same in everyone's parallel universes.

Simple Multi-variable Story Generation

That's excellent! Maybe within this year I could try one of the sort you describe here.
Have you completed a smaller example of your own?

Semei replies:

It's actually quite easy to get started
First you would not generate something too unique, pretty much just a preset story where the name changes, then you start expanding from there

For a very simple story generating preset story, change name thing? Not many
That is actually one of the easiest thing to do , but making something that generates something completely unique would take weeks.

Once the "engine" is coded, it is all up to how much "random" content you are willing to write.

o Webdesign / webcoding is the easy part, lol

Putting it together

o At least now I've opened my Tizag Tutorial

o Awesome

o Web tutorials --> Beginners tutorial

o Any thing else I should know going into Tizag, Danny? I love your hypertextural story ideas

o Well, when you are done with the beginners guide, to the HTML tutorial, then CSS, then PHP and lastly mySQL and you are ready to develop anything on a webpage really

We also just got a book and software on Flash animation for free from my friend Joseph Braband, too
He is the one who got me thinking about presentations done in multi-layered dvds...could work as well on websites too

Well, understanding html and php may make it easier to learn action scripting (flash programming) as action scripting is a dynamic language
The great thing about dynamic coding is it allows you to change the webpage, you could make the background change color everyime the page updated, lol, anything really

Oh, I see! Learning some terminology here
I have a few anime dvd's that actually let the viewer make some choices and depending on the choice the story changes... so I suppose you could make multiple path stories on dvd

· Applications for Integr8d Soul:

Semei’s suggestion gave me not only the future expression by which to tell my novel, Tranz, but also gave me notions on peace-making interactive programs, schools of learning, and stories, providing the interactive person a chance to explore how people get to their paths of thought and where those beliefs and facts overlap with seemingly dissimilar ones, placing them objectively side-by-side.

The great thing about dynamic coding is it allows you to change the webpage, you could make the background change color everyime the page updated, lol, anything really .

Mystic Order of Defenders number one, by Braband/ Disharoon

2012-01-03T00:12:00.000-08:00

Meanwhile, our remaining t-shirts are available at Convention Special Price, for $12 each plus $3.00 for shipping & handling.

"Relentless Fire!"

Plotted by Joseph Braband and Cecil Disharoon Scripted by Cecil Disharoon

"The Mind of the Father riding on the subtle guiders
which glitter with the inflexible tracings
of relentless fire." ---Zoroaster

Tijuana, B.C.

two poor boys, dark hair, eyes, skin, one a head taller than the other, play soccer in a muddy lot outside in moonlight beside warehouse. The smaller boy turns his back to kick the ball up on his heel,

then tries a bicycle kick pass.

The kick sends the ball over the other boy’s head, but the bicycle-kicking boy vanishes, for no reason we can see;

his playmate chases the ball, and dribbles it back towards where his friend should be---where is he?

A man appears, spreads his cape in the silhouette, and the boy hears “don’t be afraid” in his head. He sees a grim pair of brown eyes,
the cloak folds over them both, whipping with a life of its own,
and the boy suddenly appears four blocks away, beside his startled friend.

They watch in wonder as a man in a purple body suit says “Vamos a casa!” spins his orange cloak around himself,
and in an instant, it whips, twists into the thin air---vanishing!

“Rafael! Rafael!”cries the tallest one, pulling vigorously on the smaller one’s sleeve, who says "El Diablo..."

Devil-Slayer steps out of his cloak from the shadows of a warehouse, where eight men gather around several crates, opened to reveal machine gun parts.

As he watches them closely, thoughts from their heads sound off in his mind; he hears plans, names, cities, times---that these guns were laundered by the American Tabacco and Firearms agency, betrayed by one of the men standing before the rest.

“His mind...too opaque to read clearly” thinks Devil-Slayer.

Suddenly (in extreme close up) he thinks, “sixth sense!”
and pictures an image, as though through infra-red, for a flash: an enormous man, hefting a massive crate above his head.

Devil-Slayer rolls out of the way, and directly where he had crouched comes a shattering wooden crate.

He senses the sound calls the attention of the gangsters in his direction. Now he draws his cloak about himself, to again vanish...

...reappearing behind the vigilant gangsters. Without a sound, he spins and kicks one in the head, drops,

---and from his cloak, he suddenly possesses a jo ( a four foot wooden pole), which he uses with two hands to whack one gangster in the head,

then drill its flat point into his face.

Before the armed thug nearest him (bald, with a tear drop tattoo on his eyelid, a two inch scar on his cheek) can open fire,

the shadow cloak, as though alive, envelopes the gun, which then vanishes. This, the thugs cannot believe.

Now the one he does not believe is human draws a pistol; Devil Slayer rolls to bring himself close to this false official, grabs his arm as though he is about to smash him, but with the other hand pulls the closest gangster, freshly disarmed, forward.

With a tug of his cape, they vanish along with him, leaving the other five standing there, dumbfounded.

One of them attempts to flee, but one of his fellows, a goateed biker in denim, shoots him in the leg.

As that man cries out, the biker tells them, in Spanish, to fan out.

On another plane of existence, the displaced men float a few yards from Devil-Slayer.

They pass through seemingly solid floating stones, without gravity, while Devil-Slayer, a tall, physically-fit man (possibly resembling Michael Fassbender) clad in deep purple, shadow cloak wafting without gravity, walks towards them upside down across an orange beam of energy that makes a curving path.

Perpendicular lines create a yellow grid as far as the eye can see, across a navy blue atmosphere, sporadically populated with geometric shapes, tiny monsters on asteroids, and an eye of Horus type of thing floating beneath them, watching dispassionately, eternally on. Devil-Slayer speaks.

Now you are outside of human existence as you know it, he says. If you ever want to return, you will cooperate...and you will tell the rest that Devil Slayer is coming...”

He pulls the khaki-clad man with the pistol towards him with his mind. “Reveal to me...”

The “man” takes on a hideous face, reptilian, red, scaly, full of malevolence. “Curse you.”

The other gangster is terrified, praying for all of the saints to save him, quietly.
With his cloak, Devil-Slayer pulls him through the gravity-free void, turns him upside down, and says, “on your neck. Where did you get this six-fingered tattoo?”

> stammers the gangster. “Never mind, I see it in your mind,” says Devil-Slayer, telepathically. The gangster notices now his lips do not move as his voice comes through in both English and Spanish. “You are betrayed. This is no American official providing your gang with guns. It is an inhuman monster, working together with others of his kind to help you destroy yourselves. The power behind your enforcers is as dark as you ever dreamt.”

The shadow-cloak enfolds them all, growing to surreal size, then they are back in the warehouse, in the rafters. “Digalo,” says Devil-Slayer to the tattooed gangster.

The seemingly-caucasian man in khakis attempts to flee. Below them, the gangster who was shot squirms to his feet, bleeding. He lofts his AK-47 machine gun in an effort to finish off Devil-Slayer.

Devil-Slayer grins, reaches into his cloak, and aims a Tek-9 machine gun. “Guns come cheap,” he says. “Is this how you want to end your life?”

Suddenly, the enormous man from before, now with small horns grown through his scalp, comes rushing into Devil-Slayer, who opens fire at close range.

The tackle carries Devil-Slayer through one of the support studs,
before he is dumped unceremoniously amidst smashed boxes.

The giant’s temples begin to pulse, as though he is transforming horribly; he picks up another crate, to break as many of his foes’ bones as possible.

“Well, screw you, too,” Devil-Slayer says, while gesturing with out-stretched hand.

The crate breaks open, flooding the demon’s face with wholesale screws and washers.

Now Devil-Slayer reaches into his cape and produces a six-foot pike.

He slams the blade directly into the demon’s face with a bellow,

then leaps into the staggering body while blocking a blow with the handle.

He then smashes its blade into his head twice more in the darkness;
the head rolls along the floor.

A helicopter sound above grabs his attention; “the roof,” he thinks, heaving, sweating. Its searchlight is the only illumination, pale.

Upon the roof, Devil-Slayer’s cape unfurls, and he crouches dramatically, making out the form of his fleeing enemy as he climbs onto a lowered rope ladder.

“I remember when I won this dagger,” DS thinks. “The demon I fought had found purchase within my doubts...my hidden fear that, however many demons I destroy, I will never know peace, this war, never know an end. I have learned these battles begin and end with the soul, my soul, and the souls of man, who disguise the nature of this life in lies too kind.”

He flips the dagger like a missile towards the rising enemy.

We see his eyes, narrow. The dagger climbs impossibly higher, lifted by the force of his mind...

guided inexorably between the eyes of the mortally-clad demon.

Stunned by his predicament, the disbelieving demon reverts to his true form,

as he falls to the roof from forty feet above. The helicopter drifts away into the night.
(Voice over)

“By this dagger, I found in my heart the belief...the hope...the knowing...someday, this war must end. But first, its battlefield, hidden in the world we know, must be discovered...by the innocents who walk blindly through.”

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Neon Genesis Evangelion: Death and Rebirth part two

2011-12-31T18:14:00.000-08:00

If you want explanations of a sort that fill in the fast-flying edited story in Neon Genesis Evangelion: Death, the dvd extras go in-depth about terminology and the cast of characters, and that's the crux of what we'll discuss today.

NEON GENESIS

Event One in this storyline is the meteor onslaught of four billion years before, which massively transformed the Earth. Event Two struck on September 13, 2001, heralding the creation of Adam, a cosmic being in an embryonic form in Antarctica, from a place called White Moon. Its counterpart Lillith arises from Black Moon, in a mountain on the island of Japan. The Angels and EVA units make up the puzzle. Dr. Gendo Ikari, father of Shinji, Third Child (all EVA pilots are referred to as The Children), played a role in Event Two that’s gradually unveiled over the course of the movies.

Adam and Lilith are the first two Angels, from a translation of the Japanese “shito” for “messenger” or “apostle,” as “angel” is from the Greek for “messenger” as is the word “Evangelion”. Humanity’s descended from Lilith; Adam and Lillith are the progenitors of the Angels, who appear to be great monsters, attacking Tokyo-3. The Angels are, in fact, another evolutionary path which might have produced humanity.

The EVA units appear to be robots, but have a creature component within. Stephen Chung has written about the connection, the analogy, he sees with the Kabbalistic Tree of Life, as found here: http://www.evamonkey.com/writings_chung01.htm. He equates each character with an individual Sephira. It’s an interesting way of looking at Director Hideaki Anno’s work, and Kabbalah itself.

Apparently, souls exist inside the Angel technology used to create the Evangelions. This is why Rei Ayanami, First Child, has been cloned: to provide alternate pilot bodies as well as empty vessels. This character expresses few outward emotions, but probably has connected with the most fans. Dr. Ikari is also behind the experimentation done on Rei. Few know the secret of the nature of the EVAs, created by the scientists of NERV. The EVAs designs are drawn from Japanese folklore images of Oni, according to Wikipedia’s entry on Evangelion (mecha). EVAs are descended from Adam, except for EVA-01, piloted by Shinji, derived from Lillith, like Man.

This series is literally the stuff of scholarship, and as such represents the continued evolution of story in anime. The philosophical complexity of the work deserves much more than an index entry; if you’ve enjoyed the rest of my work, I recommend this from what I’ve so far found. I’m sure to come back one day with a richer analysis. Each character could literally take up a blog post! I look forward to seeing the entire series and movies, exploring Chung’s analysis (the Kabbalah relationship originated in fandom before his theory), and embracing the pinnacle of what art and story and sound can create.

We’ve gone from stories inspired by superheroes inspired by the simpler days of 1970’s attempts to generate meaning in what was considered children’s pop art, to rich analysis that welcomes the adult intellect. Two ends of my work, these classic comics blogs and my philosophical, life-story and music oriented Be Chill Cease Ill, are intersecting, through magic, science, and story. It’s such an intriguing theme on which to wrap up Integr8d Fix in its present incarnation.
---Lue Lyron December 31st, 2011

Neon Genesis Evangelion: Death and Rebirth

2011-12-30T15:50:00.000-08:00

Masayuki’s Neon Evangelion Genesis: Rebirth and Death (1997) illustrates the vast difference in kid-oriented narratives for which cartoons are known, and the bold paths blazed in later years. Nowadays, very adult material can be found in the anime world; this strikes a balance between its adventurous roots and psychologically complex drama.

If you watch N.E.G.: Death and Rebirth, as we just did, you notice the multiple episodes edited into one form---a typical strategy in anime movies based on a series. The heroes have barely entered puberty---a condition of their ability to merge with the fantastic technology that gives the world its savior super robots. The Angels---the 17 gigantic monsters---have their own secrets, but along with vaguely religious imagery and analogies, we’re mostly centered on three teen protagonists.
It’s a heroic drama, but all three of the young pilots have more complicated relationships with their mentors. Shinji‘s reluctance to be a pilot contrasts with his imminent natural skill; Asuka‘s a brash figure of the sort long associated with male super-robot pilots (isn’t there one in each super mecha movie/series?). Rei is almost emotionless, treated much like a science experiment. In fact, we find she’s been cloned for the sake of providing human pilot material. The scene where she’s shocked by her own tears moved me. Asuka’s described as self-involved and pushy, but while her taunting’s not particularly nice, her cockiness and liveliness contrasts nicely with the more emotionally self-contained pilots. She has her own struggle when her confidence and interface skill don’t match; her arrogant comparison to other pilots lends her to misery eventually. Just from her description, I liked her instantly: she’s full of life. Shinji’s shy, retiring personal decency appeals in a different fashion. Rei, you can’t help worrying about, as she seems so withdrawn. We become aware she’s been the subject of experimentation, troubled by her emotionally distant mother.

The mystery of the AT field that allows the pilots to interact with their mechs, called EVAs, has spiritual dimensions that initially evade the NERV project directors and the pilots. Life, death, betrayal, an awkward fascination with the opposite sex (based on genuine hearted friendship---but with hilarious results) as well as hundred-foot tall mechas make it a lot of fun and very involving. The robot designs, for their part, are alien, slender, agile, and in the tradition of Mazinger Z and company, rather frightful.

I think most teens would enjoy the story, which doesn’t pander or talk down. In fact, the stormy relationships with the adults probably contain significant emotional familiarity for its audience. Shinji’s father puts him in an awful, difficult decision when he overrides the EVA to counter a threat from a mysterious “fourth child” pilot, but then he tries to save Rei later. He’s not a villain exactly, but his cold streak makes him ambiguous. Misato seems to have a deeper vested interest in the kids making it through their strange evolution psychologically whole and holds the center, ethically.

The movie’s a simple enough affair for previous fans of the 24 episode series, but there’s not much time for explanation if you’re new. The second “Rebirth” part’s 27 minutes of new material, later incorporated as one-third of a sequel movie; it’s essentially the 25th episode. Comatose Asuka’s placed in her EVA for her own safety when shadowy Seele organization attacks the home of the EVA project, NERV. Black op soldiers meanwhile attempt to hunt Shinji and Rei like wild animals. The action seems overwhelming in the first minutes---the explanations may not be clear---but when the movie settles into the characters, it’s well worth unraveling their troubles. I’m sure a post based on the spiritual analogies would be fertile discussion ground.

Appleseed: the new generation

2011-12-30T13:42:00.000-08:00

This is an index entry about Appleseed, the 2004 anime directed by Shinji Aramaki.

Appleseed’s a remake of a 1988 original video (OV as they call it in the anime world). Danen Knute’s the superb human soldier retrieved from the battlefields of the global wars and brought to the utopian Olympus community. She takes her host Hitome hostage momentarily, only to discover her former lover, Briareus, is now a cyborg soldier on their side. Essentially, he’s almost entirely a robot on the outside; his emotional distance based largely on this fact helps not a bit. His place in the deadly game between the human-run military and the Olympians involves dramatic reveals, late into the movie.

The point of contention: the bioroids, artificial humans designed with emotional controls in place to keep them from passion and violence. The hope? These bioroids, which are half the population, inspire peace among the humans. Their life cycles are curtailed as well, and they cannot reproduce; in fact, they require chemical boosters, without which they, including Hitome, will expire in three days. Danen Knute joins the Olympus special forces, using her combat skills at one point to pilot a wicked cool robot in defense of the banks containing the genetic material used to preserve the bioroids. Watch this fight carefully!

Hitome’s friendliness at first led me to think she found Danen attractive, but you realize over time she’s got an admirer in the brilliant mechanic Yoshi. Her questions to Knute unveil her evolving sense of passion; whether this is part of a natural progress in her, or is perhaps abetted by her forestalling of the regenerative booster, it’s not said. The admiration of artificial life here is futuristic and thought-provoking, if perhaps playing into a science fiction cliché. Rest assured, the forces guiding the bioroids have cagey intentions as well. The appleseed and its location become the primary drama, for the life of the bioroids, and for the journeys of Knute and Briareus.

Heroines in particular have come a long, long way in the Japanese mind: no panty flashes or hostage situations for Danen Knute. One thing that's continued on in the best tradition is the thoughtful science fiction, exploring the world that could be, telling us of the world that is. Appleseed's at our end of the great line of Japanese superheroes. With the new Space Battleship: Yamato cartoon coming in 2012, pieces of the beginning of anime return with beautiful nostalgia and untold explorations to come from concepts standing the time test.

The music and drama here satisfy nicely alongside terrific animation. The robot designs by Shiro Masamune were the draw for me, at the suggestion of my friend DJ Parnell, who enjoyed our work on Danger Bot.

G-Force! Science Ninja Team Gatchaman (index)

2011-12-30T00:14:00.000-08:00

Science Ninja Team Gatchaman (科学忍者隊ガッチャマン Kagaku Ninjatai Gatchaman?) is a 5-member superhero team that is composed of the main characters in several Japanese anime created by Tatsuo Yoshida and originally produced in Japan by Tatsunoko Productions and later adapted into several English-language versions. It is also known by the abbreviated name Gatchaman.

The original series, produced in 1972, was eponymously named Kagaku Ninja Tai Gatchaman and is most well known to the English-speaking world as the adaptation titled Battle of the Planets. The title is unofficially called G-Force!

Best described as a science fiction action anime, recurring themes of Gatchaman involve conservation of nature, environmentalism, and responsible use of technology for progress and advancement. The series is centered around five young superhero ninja in the employ of Dr. Kōzaburō Nambu of the fictitious International Science Organization to oppose an international terrorist organization of technologically advanced villains, known as Galactor, from trying to take control of the Earth's natural resources. The operational leader of Galactor is an androgynous masked antagonist named Bergu Kattse, who is later revealed to be a shape-shifting mutant hermaphrodite who acts on the orders of an alien superior, Sosai X. The most common recurring plot involved the Gatchaman team opposing giant monster mecha dispatched by Galactor to steal or control various natural resources (water, oil, sugar, uranium, etc.). These Mechas were often animal-based.[3] The Science Ninja Team is often aided by a mysterious squadron of combat pilots led by the enigmatic Red Impulse, who is later revealed to be Ken's father.
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