Yield To Pedestrian: All the Cool, All the Time

Thailand: Buddhist Temples Worth Viewing

YTP — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 14:17:59 +0000

I haven’t done a PixRemix photo in a while, but I feel it’s time. Thailand is known for its amazing Buddhist Temples, but I often find them a bit off-putting. Many of them are very garish by American standards of taste, and they also tend to look “new”, which is something that we don’t often expect. When we (or at least, when I) think of temples, we think of the crumbling, archaic beauty of Angkor Watt in Cambodia, or the thousands-of-years-old temples in the Middle East with all their tremendous history. We don’t think of… new. Fresh paint. Bright colors.

Yet, ironically, when all those ancient temples were first build, they were usually covered in beautiful dyes and colors, and decorated with jewels, fabrics, and other ornamentation. They were not the somber black-and-white relics of today, but were much closer to how the temples of Thailand look. I find that contradiction fascinating, and for that reason alone, the Buddhist temples of Thailand are worth a look.

For the first time in the history of PicsRemix, I am using a photo *not* taken by me. Why? Because I have to admit, I had a hard time taking any good pictures of these temples, at least by my standards. They are incredibly hard to photograph, both because of their odd, tall shape, and the immense detailing with which each temple is decorated. There is something about the design that is extremely hard to capture, in part because Buddhist temples in Thailand are meant to be experienced, not photographed. They are meant to be an intense moment for the individual at a micro level, and are designed and decorated accordingly. It is a rather unique way to look at architecture, if you think about it. So take a look at this temple pic and see what you think!

Photo credit: Alex’s Blog – asmodehn.fr

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Thailand: Buddhist Temples Worth Viewing

Recommended Combo: Cage the Elephant and Gnarls Barkley

YTP — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 16:09:47 +0000

It’s a grey cloudy day here in New England, but nothing beats the grey like Southern rock with an edge. I know Cage the Elephant has been on the charts for the past year, but the band never ceases to hit the right note (oooh, I couldn’t resist that one) for me.

But lately, just to make things even better, I’ve been mixing Cage with a little Gnarls Barkley, and let me just say – it’s a devastating combo. Gnarls Barkley has been around a while – it’s a duo with a rather famous half: CeeLo Green. And as much as I like CeeLo solo, I far prefer the musical complexity of Gnarls Barkley. The only way I can think to explain it is that it is depth and difficulty of jazz at its best, mixed with the soulfulness of R&B at its best, and colored up nicely by a serious splash of rock here and there. It’s… fun. And funny.

I don’t often wax poetic on bands and musicians, primarily because I think people sound really strange when they do, but I’m making an exception to recommend this latest mix: Cage and Gnarls are all that is acoustically right in this digital world of ours. Set the playlist for yourself and see what I’m talking about.

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Recommended Combo: Cage the Elephant and Gnarls Barkley

RIP Christopher Hitchens

YTP — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 12:12:31 +0000

Christopher Hitchens died today.

That I am taking space on my blog to mention someone I don’t actually know is no small thing. I have, by default of a crusty and slightly suspicious personality, an aversion to the hero worship of celebrities, of authors, of… anyone, frankly. Having met many a President, Prime Minister, Senator, and celebrity in my twenties, and seen all too clearly that most don’t measure up intellectually or morally to many of the “regular” people I know, I see everyone’s value through the lens of what they contribute, not where they rank.

Perhaps that is why I am overcoming my aversion to speak emotionally of someone I’ve never met in this post. Christopher Hitchens contributed. Greatly. His writing was such that even if you did not agree with his point, you still wanted to finish reading his prose, and not just for greater edification on the opposing point of view. I admired his intellectual discipline, his obviously self-imposed high standards, his brutal honesty. We have so many voices in our world in this digital era that is it a bit impossible any more to have “the voice of a people” or “the writer of an age” as many of his peers were called in the past. Further, it’s not hard to be the voice of a people if there aren’t many voices.

Of the many, many, many writers out there, however, and the many, many, many voices joining in the discussion these days, Hitchens still managed to stand out among them. I will miss his mind and his provocations terribly, and can say, with all the cynicism of one who has met and worked with those who are supposed to be the best of our time, that Hitchens actually was.

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RIP Christopher Hitchens

Orca Whale Tail Tale: More Than Just Marine Mammals

YTP — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 14:52:30 +0000

I recently finished a fascinating book written by Alexandra Morton entitled “Listening to Whales: What the Orcas Have Taught Us”.

This story is, ostensibly, one of a field researcher in British Columbia and Washington state who did early pioneering work on orca identification. Where that is the goal, the author does a great job of communicating her professional achievements and methods.

For me, however, this orca whale tale is much more a tale of early feminism, of the evolutions in the field of behavioral science, and of the impact of technology both on the environment and our ability to understand the environment. These themes are not part of the Orca’s lessons for Morton or for us, but they resonate with heavy voice throughout the text. To wit:

1) Morton’s efforts in the 70s and 80s to enter a relatively new field, and one dominated by men, in a region of the world dominated by men, do not read with any overt calls to girrrl power or feminist ideals. She simply tells it like it was, and then she goes out there and does it. It is a powerful story of how one woman just sort of ignored gender roles and ideas, and did her own thing. For me, that is the essence of feminism: less thinking or talking about discrimination against women, more doing the work and doing it *really* well (with no apologies for the job well done). She just sort of blasts through anyone’s expectations or mental limitations of her, and gets it done. She faces a tremendous number of challenges, in a very daunting environment, and gets it done. Over and over again. It’s the very definition of power, and empowerment.

2) Morton’s tale of the world of behavioral science, specifically marine mammal behavioral science, is both fascinating and disturbing. I say this from the perspective of having spent many a BF Skinner-style hour observing and studying large mammals as well. It makes one realize a) the incredible limits and bias inherent in this method of observation; b) the incredible difficulties involved in observing marine mammals in any effective way. Morton’s methods and science are simultaneously elementary and admirable, a perspective that can only be had from the technological viewpoint of 2011. Nevertheless, her amazing patience, self-discipline, and methodical practices essentially make her work *the* foundation of orca whale research.

3) The final – perhaps unintended theme – of Morton’s book is technology. She focuses on its negative impact on the environment, and the incredibly destructive way that it affects the orca whales and their food and life cycle. Her message and research here are, again, very well-documented and thorough. The message on technology that she doesn’t necessarily intend, but which still comes across, is the impact that such technology might have on orca whale research. fMRIs, mass acoustic spectrum analysis, supercomputer analysis of patterns and trending – there is a entire field of marine mammal research just waiting to explode into the tapes, recordings, and other data Morton has collected. I wondered throughout the book why she didn’t address this, or see it. Her sound recording catalog of orca vocalizations is amazing. Why not connect the dots and take it to the next level? This is the overarching question of the book, and one that she doesn’t address. It feels to the reader, perhaps, that the horrible fight she waged against technological trampling over the natural environment turned her off to the potential that the same innovation has for her orcas. If that is the case, then it is truly a loss for Morton, for the orcas, and for all of us, as this ground-breaking woman has much left to give the creatures she loves and the people who share her interest in and affection for them.

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Orca Whale Tail Tale: More Than Just Marine Mammals

What I Learned From My Week Without An Internet Connection

YTP — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 16:24:41 +0000

The Halloween snowstorm that hit New England hit us hard at the YTP homestead, primarily because we have a ton of oak and maple trees (literally, a ton) that were still full of beautiful fall leaves when 12 inches of wet, heavy snow landed upon them. Trees and branches the size of trees landed on the house, the treehouse, the cables, the road… it looked like the forest version of East Beirut. But, fortunately for us, the members of the small village in which we live did what New Englanders do best: the residents got out their chainsaws, shovels, coffee and smiles, and worked together to clear each other’s land and reclaim the space. It wasn’t a pleasant experience by any means, but it was also affirming in the way that disasters like this can be in small communities. We all have four wheel drive vehicles, generators, and the general “gonna have to rough it” New England attitude. It took seven says, but the power came back on, the roads became safe, the snow thawed.

But during those seven days, something happened to my brain. My brain had a hard time. This was due, in part, to the fact that since I work in the digital age, most of my business work involves places and people that don’t ever see snow, much less the number of trees surrounding just my house. So I had to keep working. And working, for me, requires an Internet connection.

This was a problem. A big problem.

While I could, and did, drive down into the city until I found a place that had Wifi, and while I did, at times, have a decent 3G connection on my phone to see me through at my home office, it was far, far, far worse to have no working Wifi at home than no working stove or oven. I was fine being colder than normal (the furnace doesn’t like running on the generator, so we have to rest it often). I was fine to work around lights that did not turn on, and laundry that could not be washed.

But every time I went to look something up, to hit that old “CTRL+T” in the browser for a new tab, or otherwise think about anything at all, my brain ran painfully into the lack of connection like a giant truck hitting a brick wall over and over again.

I have no shame in admitting I’m addicted to the Internet, and I acknowledge I really like my work that I do there. That’s no surprise. What is more startling is how much my brain has taken on the Internet as an extension of its functions. It was almost as if there are thought paths in my mind that loop out from my brain and require an internet connection to loop back into the other parts of it. It truly felt like someone had cut off a limb or a lobe, if you will. It wasn’t so much that I felt like I was missing out, or missing some emotion, but that I could. not. think. without that Internet connection.

Why leads me to my main point: there are some emerging studies on this topic out there in neurobiology, but all joking aside, what does it look like when thoughts go racing around the synapses like this? Does the loop of connection jump out through the orbital processing centers of the brain, and then loop back in? How does this kind of interaction remap the human nervous system?

And, above all, what happens when it is involuntarily cut off?

I may not have an fMRI or be a neurobiologist, but I can tell you that after a week of mental brain wall slamming, you are left with one really, really, really nasty headache. And getting the Wifi back? It was like being able to breathe again. I place no judgement on whether or not this is good or bad, but it does presage for me the idea that we are entering a whole new era of thought and mental processing that is entirely new territory for human evolution.

And occasionally very painful territory too

Illustration by Hank Grebe; Mediaspin.com

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What I Learned From My Week Without An Internet Connection

Brain Break: Exploring The OffBeat

YTP — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 15:08:13 +0000

I stumbled across the University of California’s Museum of Paleontology website this week, and was totally entranced.

The imagery was stunning, but even more importantly – the research collections online were amazing as well as the teaching tools.

These are two distinct sections, with two different purposes. However, you should really explore both. As a parent, I loved the resources in the teaching tools, and thought they did an excellent job both explaining complex scientific concepts and giving useful and unique visual aids to assist. This is no small feat, and it really worth checking out.

From a research perspective, the online database of specimens is also amazingly well-done, and addictive.

However, let’s get down to it – what I really liked? Are all the photos, including this one of a blue-ringed octopus, one of the deadliest creatures in the ocean. In the online exhibits section, you can actually click through all the available taxa, moving through the evolutionary order of each creature and linking it back to its relatives. This sounds extremely dry to type it, but it is fascinating to actually engage the fossil record in this way.

So if you are needing a mental break from whatever is stressing you out today, I highly recommend some Marine Taxa Therapy. It’s a whole other world!

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Brain Break: Exploring The OffBeat

Smashing Astrophysics and Astronomy

YTP — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 03:18:28 +0000

There have been some… wait for it… stellar! discoveries in astrophysics and astronomy in recent weeks. So many, in fact, that I am compelled to take the time to do a composite post of the greatest images and articles describing all of these events.

Star Nurseries: baby stars being born.

The Vela Earth: If “They” Are Out There, “They” Are Likely Living Here
Exploding Stars (always a classic)
And my personal favorite, a giant black hole ripping a star apart as it passes by.

Science does not get much cooler than this:

So take a moment to check out some of these truly exciting and unique developments in the world of space and science. It is hard to imagine how complex and powerful the world around us is, but it is definitely healthy to keep that kind of perspective in mind, especially on not so great days! Enjoy!

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Smashing Astrophysics and Astronomy

The Best Set In Music: Adele’s 21

YTP — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 13:34:57 +0000

I don’t get excited much about music these days, primarily because we’re surviving the rise and fall of princess pop right now, a phenomenon that is only really useful for cardio workouts and giving elevator muzak a hipper edge.

Once in a while we still get some gems. Muse, for instance, has taken musical irony and allegory to a level of true art. And like everyone else, I love me some Coldplay or Mia Todd on mellow days and long drives. But I haven’t been genuinely excited about an entire album since Cake’s Fashion Nugget in 1996.

Into this morass of histrionic divas and bad hip-hop (come on, after Run-DMC and Public Enemy peaked, the whole genre should have just taken a nap), however, has finally come something worth celebrating. The much-touted album 21 by Adele is worth writing about, and worth investing in. This woman absolutely rocks her songs, and her gravelly voice hits that jazzy punch that recalls all the female lates and greats of that world. The lyrics are unique, interesting, and powerful. I love the whole album, but the best set is really the first five songs on the album: Rolling in the Deep, Rumour Has It, Turning Tables, Don’t You Remember, and Set Fire to the Rain.

So if you, too, have tired of the Aguilera-esque trills and other equally horrid trends in music of the past ten years, check out Adele’s 21. It’s a refreshing change of pace into something mature and interesting, while still paying homage to all that is awesome in our musical history.

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The Best Set In Music: Adele’s 21

Goodbye Cable TV, Hello Internet TV

YTP — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 16:10:12 +0000

Image via CrunchBase

I finally did it. After thinking about it for over two years, I finally cancelled all cable and satellite television. Gone. The screen is black on that setting.

In its place, I spent $99 on a tiny black box known as “Apple TV 2″. I plugged it in. It thought about the meaning of life for a few minutes. And shortly thereafter, a new screen lit up.

If this sounds overly dramatic, consider three things:
1) We have small children at the YTP household, children who consider it a birthright to have a DVR programmed to record the best of the three Disney Channels, Nick Jr, and Sprout. They have never known anything different. Commercials? Waiting for a show to come on at a particular time? They have never experienced either of these things.

2) The YTP Spouse loves football. In particular, he loves football in the home state where he grew up, a state nowhere near where we live now. In the past, buying the NFL Sunday Ticket was the only way to let him experience the annual heartache of yet-another-Superbowl-they-just-missed.

3) Apple TV really is *that* awesome.

In place of the cable, and for $8 a month, instead of $94 a month, we now have a Netflix subscription running. This subscription allows us to watch everything in Netflix’s directory on our laptops, iPhones, iPads, and our Apple TV. For $13, I bought an AV port to HDMI cable, and hooked one of the laptops up to one of the hi-def TVs, making the upstairs TV a defacto Apple TV as well, except that I can watch all the primetime evening shows via Hulu on it. Similarly, the NFL online games can run straight off the laptop as well. All of our purchased movies and TV shows off of iTunes – plus the thousands of CDs we loaded in over the years – are all wireless streamed into the Apple TV, or played via the HDMI cable.

What does all that gibberish mean?

It means we took a $94 bill, reduced it to $8, and still have more TV and more movies than we can ever hope to watch. We still have sports. We still have fall primetime television. We still have kids shows and movies. And we have it all commercial free, instantly, always. The real kicker? We don’t even have to store it. We don’t need a 3 terabyte drive and a DVD ripper. If we want to watch a DVD we already have, we pop it in. But the rest of the time, Netflix does the work.

I have no words for how totally amazing, how totally slick and simple this entire set up is. To say I highly recommend it would be an understatement. And that extra $86 a month? It goes straight into savings. Literally!

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Goodbye Cable TV, Hello Internet TV

Solar Flares and Magnetic Bubbles

YTP — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 12:31:01 +0000

Two astronomic items of interest:

The recent images of the Sun’s solar flares are too spectacular not to post. These flares aren’t going to affect Earth in any major way, except to give us something beautiful and awe-inspiring to admire.

And if you are wondering how NASA is able to capture such amazing imagery, check out this diagram. I include it because a) I love diagrams and b) it is always wonderful to see tax dollars at work.

As a corollary, there is also a fantastic image breakdown of a wave – a true surfer’s-style wave – ripping through the surface of the sun. If you are into waves at all (and if you have read the recent book I reviewed on Killer Waves, you will be), check the surfing wave out. http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sunearth/news/sun-surfing.html

Secondly, there is a fascinating webinar today from NASA about the make up of the edge of our solar system. Turns out the Milky Way ends not with a smooth taper, but with magnetic bubbles. How intriguing is that? The talk is at 1pm EDT. Here’s the link: http://www.nasa.gov/news/media/newsaudio/index.html

I’m tuning in if for no other reason than to see if they have some visualization of a magnetic bubble!

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Solar Flares and Magnetic Bubbles

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