Adriano

"Your average episode of “Breaking Bad” or “The Good Wife” or “Louie” will generate many times more debate and conversation – more actual excitement — than all except perhaps a half-dozen movies released this year (and most of those will involve superheroes). Film culture, at least in the sense people once used that phrase, is dead or dying. Back in what we might call the Susan Sontag era, discussion and debate about movies was often perceived as the icy-cool cutting edge of American intellectual life. Today it’s a moribund and desiccated leftover that’s been cut off from ordinary life, from the mainstream of pop culture and even from what remains of highbrow or intellectual culture." - Adriano from Bookmarklet

cf. chart at http://ff.im/12J7xe CINEMA getting worse since 1950s :: plotting the British Film Institute 1902-2012 rankings. - Adriano

2001 film by David Lynch: Mulholland Dr. -- ranked 28 of 250 top films since 1902 by the British Film Institute poll of 846 critics, academics, and distributors this year, http://goo.gl/mGwCh - Adriano

"The "Ecce Homo" a depiction of Christ crowned with thorns painted by local artist Elias Garcia Martinez has graced the wall of the Santuario de Misericodia Church in the village of Borja, near Zaragoza, Spain, for more than 120 years. But over the last 18 months its surface has deteriorated due to moisture in the church, causing parts of the painting to flake off. A woman in her 80s, upset at the worsening state of an image she loved to gaze on, took it upon herself to restore the artwork to its former glory, but with devastating results. The result was a botched repair in which the original face has been almost completely painted over with amateur brushstrokes and the image now resembles more ape than man." - Adriano from Bookmarklet

That lady later demanded payment from the Church for her work -- legal heads-up for those using her derivative image as avatar on social networks :-) - Adriano

currently 22.5%, details https://www.intrade.com/v4... \\ Another indicator is the USDIRR http://finance.yahoo.com/q... NB: "Iran's rial currency has declined 40% to 55% against the dollar on the black market since December. Iranian inflation, meanwhile, now exceeds 20% a month, according to the Central Bank. While the rial has been falling for almost a year, the latest drop appeared to be triggered by a recent U.S. announcement that it would penalize companies that do business with Iran's Central Bank, and a proposed plan to ban Iranian oil purchases in the European Union later this year. The rial was changing hands at 16,000 to 17,000 in recent days, down from 11,000 to 12,000 in December." http://online.wsj.com/article... - Adriano

2 Oct: currently USDIRR in Iran is officially set at 12,260 -- however, the rial is trading between 35,500 to 40,000. "The [Central Bank] announced that people who hold dollar accounts would no longer have access to their money in dollars and the bank would compensate them in rials at the official rate." The official rate is restricted to imports of food and medicine. http://online.wsj.com/article... - Adriano

"Here are some far out places of faith which house followers of many different creeds. Whether it is Orthodox Christianity, Buddhism or Islam, these monasteries were built to be protected from the powers that be – ones that may not agree with their words and lifestyle. They were built on mountains, rocks or cliff sides, overlooking beautiful vistas where one could chant into infinity and be “away from the world.”" - Adriano from Bookmarklet

"In 2005 Everett shot to international prominence with a paper http://goo.gl/KsoV3 claiming that he had identified features of the Pirahã language that challenged Noam Chomsky’s influential theory that human language is governed by "universal grammar," a genetically determined capacity that imposes the same fundamental shape on all the world’s tongues. That paper, published in the journal Current Anthropology, turned him into something of a popular hero, embraced in the press as a giant killer who had felled the mighty Chomsky -- but denounced by some fellow linguists as a fraud promoting dubious ideas about a powerless indigenous group while refusing to release his data to skeptics." Book reviewed http://www.nytimes.com/2012... - Adriano from Bookmarklet

"A French citizen has unintentionally breached the security of the French central bank over the phone and was freed by French authorities after being accused of "hacking" the central bank’s and triggering a 48-hours shut down of that particular computer system which handles the consumer indebtedness files. The man was trying to go around the paid telephone consumer support system and got from Internet forums what he thought was a direct-line to the central bank employees. When asked for a code by an automated system, he entered 123456 and it worked – he had just breached the central bank’s security. It gets better: according to the man’s attorney, 654321 would have worked as well." - Adriano from Bookmarklet

[this was really a random find on Youtube...] So surprising the extend to which a woman's face can be a canvas incorporating illusions -- I've been so unaware of such techniques :-) what, a Kabuki brush? - Adriano from Bookmarklet

actually my interest here is in eigenfaces and machine learning prediction :-) see this post re: Data-Driven Enhancement of Facial Attractiveness http://www.quora.com/Face-Re... - Adriano

includes socks in laundry... "Once objects fall through the event horizon, they're lost forever. Although the event horizon is an imaginary line that's impossible to observe, astronomers have imaged the region around a giant black hole at the center of a distant galaxy, and measured, for the first time, the closest stable orbit in which matter can circle the black hole. The supermassive black hole in question lies at the center of the galaxy M87, which is about 50 million light-years from our own Milky Way. This behemoth black hole contains the mass of 6 billion suns. Using a new observatory called the EVENT HORIZON TELESCOPE, which links up radio dishes in Hawaii, Arizona and California, astronomers measured that the innermost possible orbit for matter around the black hole is roughly 5.5 times the size of the black hole's event horizon. This innermost orbit is about five times the size of the solar system, or 750 times the distance from Earth to the sun." - Adriano from Bookmarklet

Sheperd Doeleman and his colleagues have published the results of their study this week in the journal Science: "The derived size of 5.5 ± 0.4 Schwarzschild radii is significantly smaller than the innermost edge of a retrograde accretion disk, suggesting that the M87 jet is powered by an accretion disk in a prograde orbit around a spinning black hole." http://www.sciencemag.org/content... - Adriano

"Built beginning around 520 B.C., the city was a showcase for the empire's staggering wealth, with grand architecture, extravagant works of silver and gold, and extensive relief sculptures such as this one portraying envoys with offerings for the king. The height of Persian rule lasted from about 550 B.C. until 330 B.C., when Alexander the Great overthrew the ruling Archaemenid dynasty and burned Persepolis to the ground." - Adriano from Bookmarklet

via @atalanta1 \\ I had to look up the direct link http://images.nationalgeographic.com/wpf... since the photo was so strong and vivid -- as a reminder of how grand dynasties just come and go... - Adriano

"Kasparov told a packed audience that the first chess program in history was written a few years before computers had been invented. It was designed by Alan Turing. Since there was as yet no machine that could execute the instructions he did so himself, acting as a human CPU and requiring more than half an hour per move. Kasparov sketched the historical context of Turing’s involvement in chess and then went on to describe how chess computer experts had reconstructed the paper machine to run on a modern day computer." http://chessbase.com/newsdet... \\ Not sure if Kasparov mentioned his ultimate defeat to Deep Blue :-) - Adriano from Bookmarklet

Kasparov concluded that Deep Blue's counterintuitive play must be a sign of superior intelligence -- but it was simply a bug !! http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs... - Adriano

"A system does tend toward disorder, which is the lowest "energy state" of the system, so how could evolution go in the other direction? It's because the Sun is always injecting new energy into the system, and it does it in a way that is harnessed by biochemistry and the ecosystem. The Earth is an open system, not a closed one. New energy in the form of sunlight is the first step of an "energy gradient" that flows through the ecosystem of life at multiple levels. This energy gradient drives the biochemistry of evolution: sunlight -> photosynthesis -> ATP production -> complex molecule construction -> food -> growth and reproduction (+ mutation) -> evolution. If the Sun were to "turn off" tomorrow, then evolution would come to a stop and life on earth would freeze over and decay into a lifeless rock." --Paul King - Adriano

... a bullet pass :-) - Adriano

"A 1,000-year-old Buddhist statue discovered in Tibet by Nazis searching for the origins of the Aryan race was hewn from meteorite. The "Iron Man" statue, which bears a swastika on its chest, was brought back to Germany in 1938 after being found in Tibet by a team of SS members led by zoologist Ernst Schäfer. The expedition was backed by Heinrich Himmler, the SS chief, who believed that the secret origin of the entire Aryan race could be uncovered in Tibet. Now the first scientific study of the statue's origins by experts from Stuttgart University has found that it is made of ataxite, a rare type of iron meteorite with a high nickel content. Experts concluded it had been chiselled from a remnant of the Chinga meteorite which fell to Earth near the border of Mongolia and Siberia 15,000 years ago. The 10 kg statue, believed have originated from the 11th century Bon culture, depicts the god Vaisravana, the Buddhist King of the North, known in Tibet as Jambhala." - Adriano from Bookmarklet

"Swastikas remain widely used in Indian religions, specifically in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism, primarily as a tantric symbol to evoke shakti or the sacred symbol of auspiciousness. The word "swastika" comes from the Sanskrit svastika - "su" meaning "good," "asti" meaning "to be," and "ka" as a suffix. The swastika literally means "to be good". Or another translation can be made:... more... - Adriano

"Seven rent-to-own companies and a software maker are settling charges with the Federal Trade Commission that rental computers illegally used spyware that took “pictures of children, individuals not fully clothed, and couples engaged in sexual activities.” The FTC slapped the hand of DesignerWare of North East Pennsylvania and the rent-to-own companies. The settlement only requires them to halt using their spy tools, which has been employed on as many as 420,000 rentals. The software, known as Detective Mode, didn’t just secretly turn on webcams. It “can log the keystrokes of the computer user, take screen shots of the computer user’s activities on the computer, and photograph anyone within view of the computer’s webcam. Detective Mode secretly gathers this information and transmits it to DesignerWare, who then transmits it to the rent-to-own store from which the computer was rented, unbeknownst to the individual using the computer." - Adriano

"German chemist Friedrich August Kekulé published a paper in French suggesting that the structure contained a six-membered ring of carbon atoms with alternating single and double bonds. Kekulé used evidence that there always appeared to be only one isomer of any monoderivative of benzene, and that there always appeared to be exactly three isomers of every diderivative—now understood to correspond to the ortho, meta, and para patterns of arene substitution—to argue in support of his proposed structure. Kekulé's symmetrical ring could explain these curious facts, as well as benzene's 1:1 carbon-hydrogen ratio. In 1890 the German Chemical Society organized a celebration of the 25th anniversary of his first benzene paper; Kekulé said that he had discovered the ring shape of the benzene molecule after having a reverie or day-dream of a snake seizing its own tail." - Adriano from Bookmarklet

RT @alaindebotton: We'll never avoid sadness because we inevitably get our doses of hope wrong. \\ Positive remedies: http://www.quora.com/Time-Ma... \\ BTW, the hex code for packaging jewels at Tiffany's is 60DFE5 -- but apparently it's protected as a color trademark, and thus it is not in the Pantone Colour system books. - Adriano

Less expectations, less disappointment. - Amira

imagine, all this time this painting was at Eric Clapton's place :-) Now imagine Ginger Baker's collection. - Adriano from Bookmarklet

"This book is an attempt to approach to the problem of paradoxes from within the reference of Theravada Buddhism. In 1970 Dr. Burns spent nine months in meditation practice. For over seven months of this period he was a monk and a disciple of the Venerable Ajahn Chah. The spirit of logical analysis combined with introspective awareness is reflected in this present writing. His other main Buddhist works are Buddhism and Depth Psychology and Nirvana, Nihilism and Satori. In 1977 Dr Burns mysteriously disappeared while exploring a national park in the south of Thailand. He was in his mid thirties at that time." - Adriano

"For more than half a century, Magnum photographers showed us the importance of picturing the human condition alongside reporting the news. An unintended consequence of their success has been to reduce news stories to a strikingly similar set of images: brave soldiers, weeping mothers, hungry refugees, election candidates reaching for a wall of hands. With the decline of the press and its demand for relevance, we have lost the tension between good and good-enough-to-show-the-world. When there were fewer photographers, Magnum admitted only the best to its club, and we trusted it to be our gatekeeper. Now we live in a world without Life magazine, but with too many pictures. What form of photojournalist will emerge from these conditions? Who can make images for the digital world that will show us something we can't see without them?" - Adriano from Bookmarklet

excellent animation by RSA... based on Ariely's lecture from his 2012 book _The Honest Truth about Dishonesty_. - Adriano from Bookmarklet

"Recently while on a dive near Amami Oshima in Japan, Ookata spotted rippling geometric sand patterns nearly six feet in diameter almost 80 feet below sea level. The artist is a small puffer fish only a few inches in length that swims tirelessly through the day and night to create these vast organic sculptures using the gesture of a single fin. The circles serve a variety of crucial ecological functions, the most important of which is to attract mates. The female fish is attracted to the hills and valleys within the sand and traverse them carefully to discover the male fish where the pair eventually lay eggs at the circle’s center, the grooves later acting as a natural buffer to ocean currents that protect the delicate offspring. Scientists learned that the more ridges contained within the sculpture resulted in a much greater likelihood of the fish pairing." - Adriano from Bookmarklet

WHOA! - AJ Batac

anyone know how such local micro-actions can result in a large macro pattern of such symmetry and beauty, i.e. what kind of "blueprint" did that tiny fish access? (Please don't say scaley fractal rules :-) - Adriano

"The Sachs Wolfe effect states that light from the cosmic microwave background—radiation present throughout the universe that was created by the Big Bang—would become more blue in color as it passed through the gravitational fields of lumps of matter. This effect was later used as a test for dark energy when scientists realized that they could compare that radiation’s temperature throughout our local universe with maps of where galaxies are located. If dark energy existed, their calculations showed, the maps should correspond, with the radiation's temperature being dependent on the location of galaxies. That is exactly what they found." New analysis rules out contamination in the data: http://goo.gl/zwXEd - Adriano from Bookmarklet

an Instagram soon... "The phone box-sized Dark Energy CAMERA or DECam is mounted on the 4m Victor Blanco telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile's Atacama desert. DECam is particularly sensitive to red and infrared light, to better study cosmic objects as distant as eight billion light-years away. The Dark Energy Survey's 570-million-pixel camera will scan some 300 million galaxies in the coming five years." http://www.bbc.co.uk/news... - Adriano

APA Psy Bulletin 133(1):65-94. "Steel's formula, called the Temporal Motivation Theory, factors the person's expectancy for succeeding at a given task (E) or self-confidence; the value of completing the task (V); its immediacy or availability (Gamma); and the person's sensitivity to delay (D) to come up with the desirability of the task (Utility). The equation reads: Utility = E x V / (Gamma) x D. Human behavior is marked by people's judgment of value and their expectancy--whether or not they expect to get something. A person's tolerance for delay also factors in the equation. Most people who procrastinate are impulsive; they value what they can have today more than what they can have tomorrow--and long-term goals don't have motivational force." - Adriano

Crap, I'm doing it now! - ʎəlɹoɯ uəʞ

given the recent FF blackout, this is a response to the discussion, "In case Friendfeed goes away again but never comes back, where do we go?" http://friendfeed.com/zeigen... \\ We can post, comment, and stay in touch via Quora. Plus there are some other interesting topics there as well :-) Join friendfeeders: http://www.quora.com/friendf... - Adriano from Bookmarklet

If you are not familar with this absolutely beautiful piece, find a very quiet moment, then listen to the entire composition: http://youtu.be/8as_BN5h5YQ *before* the masterclass. Pärt does his best to explain how he goes beyond just the simple notes to play the harmonics within the silence. There's no notation which will truly convey the composer's intentions. \\ Episode from "24 preludes for a Fugue." - Adriano from Bookmarklet

...and scores are here http://www.sheetmusicpiano.net/7972... :-) - Amira

his album _Alina_ (1999, ECM), which includes violincello/piano pieces, is one of my all-time favorites. - Adriano

Genetic algorithms and stochastic processes on Boolean functions can help us to better understand certain aspects of evolution and population theory. Papadimitriou also surprisingly points out why GA is usually not the most superior in optimization problems (cf. "asexual" algorithms like simulated annealing). Keyword: #mixability \\ Tip: start at 18m00s to skip basics on evolution. - Adriano from Bookmarklet

"Not eating for 12-16 hours can help people quickly reset their sleep-wake cycle, according to a study from the Harvard Medical School. This discovery can drastically improve a person's ability to cope with jet lag or adjust to working late shifts. Scientists have long known that our circadian rhythm is regulated by our exposure to light. Now they have found a second "food clock" that takes over when we are hungry. This mechanism probably evolved to make sure starving mammals don't go to sleep when they should be foraging for food. Lead researcher Clifford Saper explains: "The neat thing about this second clock is that it can override the main clock... and you should just flip into that new time zone in one day." It usually takes people a week to fully adjust to a new time zone or sleeping schedule. So if you are traveling from Los Angeles to Tokyo, figure out when breakfast is served in Tokyo, and don't eat for the 12-16 hours before Tokyo's breakfast time." PubMed http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed... - Adriano from Bookmarklet

Weird Tips to Help You Fall Asleep: white/brown noise \\ Curl your toes, hold for a few seconds, then uncurl. Repeat this movement to help relax your mind and body. http://thesecretyumiverse.wond... - Adriano

"The book unwittingly came to light when a Chinese monk clearing sand from a Buddhist meditation cave in 1900 noticed a crack in a wall. It suggested the outline of a doorway. Plastered over and painted, the entrance had been deliberately concealed. The monk, Abbot Wang Yuanlu, broke in and discovered a small chamber, about nine feet square and full from floor to ceiling with scrolls. They had been hidden and perfectly preserved in the dark, dry grotto for 1,000 years. Although he didn't know it, among the nearly 60,000 scrolls was the Diamond Sutra of 868 A.D., a woodblock printed scroll, more than 16 feet long, complete and dated, with an instruction that it be given away for free. And it was printed on paper, a material unknown in the West for another couple centuries. Ironically, this enduring scroll, with its illustrated frontispiece depicting the Buddha teaching his disciples, is about impermanence. The Diamond Sutra distils Buddhism's central belief that all is change." - Adriano from Bookmarklet