Saturday, January 31, 2015
Man holds his dog that passed on due to smoke inhalation. Picture was taken just after firefighters brought her out.
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| Sometimes you just need to know you can see and feel a picture again-So much beautiful love in all this pain. |
it may be the coldest day of the year,
it may be the coldest day of
the year, what does he think of
that? i mean, what do i? and if i do,
perhaps i am myself again.
frank o’hara,
from meditations in an emergency
frank o’hara,
from meditations in an emergency
Sunday, January 25, 2015
Saturday, January 24, 2015
Then again maybe we should
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| “We were told we were fighting terrorists. The real terrorist was me. The real terrorism is this occupation.” Mike prysner - US soldier fought in Iraq 2003. |
The Most beautiful of us all
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| One of the finest examples of early human art: Venus of Willendorf. Created 25,000 years ago in the Upper Palaeolithic, Venus of Willendorf is considered one of the most beautiful female statuettes of prehistoric art history. The name, however, is misleading. Archaeologists dubbed such Paleolithic statuettes found ‘Venuses,’ after the Greek/ Roman goddess of love and beauty, who was most often depicted nude. Found in Austria in 1908, this 11cm intact limestone figurine was originally coated with red ochre. Interpreting prehistoric art, especially of this age, remains problematic. One must always be careful not to enforce their own ideas or views onto the creators of the art, who lived in a very distant period of history we know little about. The extensive anatomical exaggeration of the depicted women has led many to suggest that these statuettes served as some form of fertility image. Like others, Venus of Willendorf is depicted with no facial features. Whatever the exact purpose was of these figurines, their sculptors do not seem to be depicting a specific woman, rather the female form. |
Effortless.Logical. Breathtaking.
It’s also to keep them clean because they live in parts where water is scarce and drinking > bathing. As the otjize flakes off, dirt and dead skin go with it.The Himba wear little clothing, but the women are famous for covering themselves with otjize, a mixture of butter fat and ochre. The mixture gives their skins a reddish tinge. This symbolizes earth’s rich red color and the blood that symbolizes life, and is consistent with the Himba ideal of beauty.It also protects their skin from the harsh sun.
The Himba also use it to style their hair, and different headwear is worn during different stages of a female’s life to symbolize her becoming a woman.
Engineered DNA Make Nano-Machines
Engineered DNA Make Nano-Machines
Engineers have built simple folding machines the size of molecules out of snips of synthetic and natural DNA. The nano-machines, like the opening and closing hinges shown above, can repeatedly perform the task for which they are designed.
Mechanical engineers at The Ohio State University built these objects using the long-understood principles of human-sized machine design. They say this approach to building 3-D constructs out of DNA is different from other groups, which are instead trying to build complex, static shapes or mimicking the structure of biological systems.
“Nature has produced incredibly complex molecular machines at the nanoscale, and a major goal of bio-nanotechnology is to reproduce their function synthetically,” said Carlos Castro, the group project leader and an assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering. “In essence, we are using a bio-molecular system to mimic large-scale engineering systems to achieve the same goal of developing molecular machines.”
Castro says the work could eventually lead to tiny robots that deliver medicines to targeted areas inside the body and perform diagnostic functions.
To get their DNA machines to work in a predictable way, the team made parts that are meant to flex out of single-stranded DNA. Regions that are supposed to remain stiff are built from snips of double-stranded DNA. For the opening and closing movement in the hinges above to be reversible, the engineers attached small strands of synthetic DNA off the sides of main components. These can latch onto each other like hook-and-loop fasteners when the little device is closed and release when it opens. The whole system works on chemical changes the researchers make in the environment around the machine.
They say their work represents the first time such a macroscopic machine design approach has been used to form a complex DNA-based mechanism that performs a repeatable and reversible function. Their work was presented in a paper published Jan. 5 in the journal PNAS. “DNA origami enables the precise fabrication of nanoscale geometries,” the authors write. “We demonstrate an approach to engineer complex and reversible motion of nanoscale DNA origami machine elements…Our results demonstrate programmable motion of 2-D and 3-D DNA origami mechanisms constructed following a macroscopic machine design approach.”
Read more about the work here.
“I’m pretty excited by this idea,” Castro said. “I do think we can ultimately build something like a Transformer system, though maybe not quite like in the movies. I think of it more as a nano-machine that can detect signals such as the binding of a biomolecule, process information based on those signals, and then respond accordingly—maybe by generating a force or changing shape.”
Gifs and image courtesy of Castro et al./The Ohio State University.
Engineers have built simple folding machines the size of molecules out of snips of synthetic and natural DNA. The nano-machines, like the opening and closing hinges shown above, can repeatedly perform the task for which they are designed.
Mechanical engineers at The Ohio State University built these objects using the long-understood principles of human-sized machine design. They say this approach to building 3-D constructs out of DNA is different from other groups, which are instead trying to build complex, static shapes or mimicking the structure of biological systems.
“Nature has produced incredibly complex molecular machines at the nanoscale, and a major goal of bio-nanotechnology is to reproduce their function synthetically,” said Carlos Castro, the group project leader and an assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering. “In essence, we are using a bio-molecular system to mimic large-scale engineering systems to achieve the same goal of developing molecular machines.”
Castro says the work could eventually lead to tiny robots that deliver medicines to targeted areas inside the body and perform diagnostic functions.
To get their DNA machines to work in a predictable way, the team made parts that are meant to flex out of single-stranded DNA. Regions that are supposed to remain stiff are built from snips of double-stranded DNA. For the opening and closing movement in the hinges above to be reversible, the engineers attached small strands of synthetic DNA off the sides of main components. These can latch onto each other like hook-and-loop fasteners when the little device is closed and release when it opens. The whole system works on chemical changes the researchers make in the environment around the machine.
They say their work represents the first time such a macroscopic machine design approach has been used to form a complex DNA-based mechanism that performs a repeatable and reversible function. Their work was presented in a paper published Jan. 5 in the journal PNAS. “DNA origami enables the precise fabrication of nanoscale geometries,” the authors write. “We demonstrate an approach to engineer complex and reversible motion of nanoscale DNA origami machine elements…Our results demonstrate programmable motion of 2-D and 3-D DNA origami mechanisms constructed following a macroscopic machine design approach.”
Read more about the work here.
“I’m pretty excited by this idea,” Castro said. “I do think we can ultimately build something like a Transformer system, though maybe not quite like in the movies. I think of it more as a nano-machine that can detect signals such as the binding of a biomolecule, process information based on those signals, and then respond accordingly—maybe by generating a force or changing shape.”
Gifs and image courtesy of Castro et al./The Ohio State University.
Friday, January 23, 2015
Thursday, January 22, 2015
Wednesday, January 21, 2015
— Walter Gropius, Bauhaus Manifesto and Program, April 1919.
“Architects, sculptors, painters, we all must return to the crafts! For art is not a “profession.” There is no essential difference between the artist and the craftsman. The artist is an exalted craftsman. In rare moments of inspiration, transcending the consciousness of his will, the grace of heaven may cause his work to blossom into art. But proficiency in a craft is essential to every artist. Therein lies the prime source of creative imagination. Let us then create a new guild of craftsmen without the class distinctions that raise an arrogant barrier between craftsman and artist! Together let us desire, conceive, and create the new structure of the future, which will embrace architecture and sculpture and painting in one unity and which will one day rise toward heaven from the hands of a million workers like the crystal symbol of a new faith.”
— Walter Gropius, Bauhaus Manifesto and Program, April 1919.
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