Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Con Carro, a Obscuras y Sin Titulo

Decidi discutir tres temas en el articulo de hoy, Primero un poquito mas de detalle del retorno del aerio. El caculo azul esta de vuelta. Seguido del tema de la obscuridad, la ecolocacion y un webcomic de lo mas interesante llamado Sin Titulo. Siin nada mas los temas.

Issue # 1 - I Got My Car Back

Tras a/no y medio de estar varado en casa se le reparo la transmision y las puntas de eje del Aerio. De vez le enderezaron par de entuertos y esta corriendo. Esta pasada semana le hicimos ajustes finales que incluyeron la eliminacion de un cortacorriente y un starter defectuoso. Una gran preocupacion resuelta, aunque todavia me queda por pagar la mitad de las cosas que se hicieron. Hice este lindo sketch mientras le instalaban el starter, luego lo pinte en casa con las acuarelas.



Issue # 2 - La AEE Me Tiene a Obscuras

Pasa Earl cerca de Puerto Rico, me llevan la luz a las 8 PM y todavia no ha vuelto. La necesito ahora mucho pues me toca viajar de nuevo a Mississippi y me acabo de enterar. Mientras tanto practicare ecolocacion (http://encyclopedia.farlex.com/echolocation), caminando como los murcielagos, a obscuras por toda la ruta en casa.

A mi no me molesta la obscuridad. Busco a tientas mi ruta. Conozco mis alrededores. A mi hijo no le agrada. Si no tiene una vela o un flashlight se hace un ocho. Este articulo habla de la ecolocacion como tecnica de nuestros antepasados...

Este articulo estaba en las cosas viejas aqui incluyo nota:


Citing Jean-Jacques Rousseau's book Émile, Ekirch suggests that echolocation was one of the best methods: a portable, sonic tool for finding your way through unfamiliar towns or buildings. And it could all be as simple as clapping.


From Émile: "You will perceive by the resonance of the place whether the area is large or small, whether you are in the middle or in a corner." You could then move about that space with a knowledge, however vague, of your surroundings, avoiding the painful edge where space gives way to object. And if you get lost, you can simply clap again. Ekirch goes on to say, however, that "a number of ingenious techniques" were developed in a pre-electrified world for finding one's way through darkness (even across natural landscapes by night). These techniques were "no doubt passed from one generation to another," he adds, implying that there might yet be assembled a catalog of vernacular techniques for navigating darkness. It would be a fascinating thing to read. Some of these techniques, beyond Rousseau and his clapping hands, were material; they included small signs and markers such as "a handmade notch in the wood railing leading to the second floor," allowing you to calculate how many steps lay ahead, as well as backing all furniture up against the walls at night to open clear paths of movement through the household. Entire, community-wide children's games were also devised so that everyone growing up in a village could become intimately familiar with the local landscape.

Games like "Round and Round the Village," popular in much of England, familiarized children at an early age to their physical surroundings, as did fishing, collecting herbs, and running errands. Schooled by adults in night's perils, children learned to negotiate the landscapes "as a rabbit knows his burrow"—careful after dark to skirt ponds, wells, and other hazardous terrain. In towns and cities, shop signs, doorways, and back alleys afforded fixed landmarks for neighborhood youths.Incredibly, Ekirch points out, "Only during the winter, in the event of a heavy snowfall, could surroundings lose their familiarity, despite the advantage to travels of a lighter, more visible landscape." The mnemonic presence of well-known community landmarks has been replaced by what mammoth calls a "whitesward." But this idea, so incredibly basic, that children's games could actually function as pedagogic tools—immersive geographic lessons—so that kids might learn how to prepare for the coming night, is an amazing one, and I have to wonder what games today might serve a similar function. Earthquake-preparedness drills?

Mas del libro Emile y de Rousseau aqui:



Los espa/noles estudian este principio en mas detalles:







"Wired reports that with just a few weeks of training, you can learn to 'see' objects in the dark using echolocation the same way dolphins and bats do. Acoustic expert Juan Antonio Martinez at the University of Alcalá de Henares in Spain has developed a system to teach people how to use echolocation, a skill that could be particularly useful for the blind and for people who work under dark or smoky conditions, like firefighters — or cat burglars. 'Two hours per day for a couple of weeks are enough to distinguish whether you have an object in front of you,' says Martinez. 'Within another couple weeks you can tell the difference between trees and pavement.' To master the art of echolocation, you can begin by making the typical 'sh' sound used to make someone be quiet. Moving a pen in front of the mouth can be noticed right away similar to the phenomenon when traveling in a car with the windows down, which makes it possible to 'hear' gaps in the verge of the road. The next level is to learn how to master 'palate clicks,' special clicks with your tongue and palate that are better than other sounds because they can be made in a uniform way, work at a lower intensity, and don't get drowned out by ambient noise. With the palate click you can learn to recognize slight changes in the way the clicks sound depending on what objects are nearby. 'For all of us in general, this would be a new way of perceiving the world,' says Martinez."

Mas sobre la ecolocacion en los ciegos aqui:
http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/~hsmbb/BRAIN/vol1/echo.html

Several species of animals, most notably bats and dolphins, use their own emitted sounds, along with their auditory systems to perceive and localize objects in their environment. Pulses of emitted sound reflect from objects in the animal's path and may be interpreted by the auditory system, much as refl ected light waves are interpreted by the visual system (16). This ability to localize objects with echoes was termed echolocation by Donald Griffin, who, in 1938, pioneered a breakthrough in the science of auditory perception with his discovery of the ba ts' amazing ability to utilize high-frequency sounds to avoid obstacles (3). Echolocation makes it possible for species to decrease their dependence on the visual system; such independence confers advantages to the echolocator for navigation and huntin g under poor lighting conditions. Echolocation has also been observed in terrestrial mammals, such as rodents, insectivores, Megachiroptera, and in nocturnal cave-dwelling oil birds and cave swiftlets (11). In the past fifty years, research has re vealed that the auditory system is a major tool of perception employed by blind humans.


Similarities of Human and Bat EcholocationBlind and blindfolded sighted human subjects were in fact able to learn to use echolocation to detect objects in their environment (5). Efforts have been made to devise an effective mechanical aid for the blind to improve their auditory perception of obstacles (4).
From 1944 to 1947 the Committee on Sensory Devices of the National Academy of Scien ces developed eighteen different portable devices to aid the blind in avoiding obstacles. Only two performed sufficiently well, but these devices performed analysis on a point-by-point basis. This point-by-point analysis can be compared to a flashlight which "reveals only the small portion of the environment that falls within its scope (18)." Much remains to be learned about the physical properties and cues which affect object perception by the blind.
These issues were addressed by many scientists , including Diderot who, in 1749, recorded his observation that a blind person has the ability to perceive the presence and distance of objects. Since then different theories have been postulated to account for this phenomenon. One theory described obje ct detection through the use of skin sensitivity to temperature or pressure. Another theory offered pressure on the tympanic membrane (which vibrates with sound waves in the inner ear) as the mechanism of detection. Occult theories postulated object det ection through utilization of such phenomena as magnetism, electricity, or a sixth sense. The blind themselves had different interpretations of the mechanism of their perception.





Aunque no...no creo que estemos todavia en los niveles de ecolocacion de Daredevil...
Issue # 3 - Sin Titulo - No Preguntes Simplemente Leelo


Me gusto mucho este webcomic. Lo lei de una sentada...Muy buena historia y me gusto el pacing de la historia y el layout de las paginas...Esta en su mejor parte...y es ongoing.
http://www.sintitulocomic.com/2007/06/17/page-01/



Ahora salgo de la oficina a llegar a casa, a obscuras...a tientas. Cierra agosto y entra octubre.

Saturday, August 28, 2010

Ambientes de Trabajo Toxicos

No he mantenido esta pagina desde hace unos cuantos dias. Entre mudanzas, peque/nas crisis y otros asuntos mas he relegado el blog a un segundo plano. Como hace tiempo no presento un articulo per se les discuto este interesante tema que vi hace par de meses atras. Luego le seguire a/nadiendo.

En resumen, trata de como el Sistema nos absorbe y nos afecta si tan si quiera percibirlo. Llama el sistema como quiera, pero estos elementos siempre estan presentes. Conocer las causas es el inicio de poder solucionarlas. Por lo menos veo que no soy el unico que piensa asi.

http://kottke.org/10/06/creating-a-sick-system

Creating a sick system

Really disturbing piece about how to make someone dependent on you...i.e. "creating a sick system". Here are the four basic rules:

1. Keep them too busy to think.
2. Keep them tired.
3. Keep them emotionally involved.
4. Reward intermittently.

Then the author provides a number of techniques you can use to achieve those goals. Like:

Keep real rewards distant. The rewards in "Things will be better when..." are usually nonrewards -- things will go back to being what they should be when the magical thing happens. Real rewards -- happiness, prosperity, career advancement, a new house, children -- are far in the distance. They look like they're on the schedule, but there's nothing in the To Do column. For example, everything will be better when we move to our own house in the country... but there's nothing in savings for the house, no plan to save, no house picked out, not even a region of the country settled upon.

http://issendai.livejournal.com/572510.html

Este es el articulo original. Muy interesante la lectura. Con ese proposito dejo un video relacionado aqui:

http://videolimbo.blogspot.com/2008/01/muffs-dont-pick-on-me-2004.html



En otros temas, ya me entregaron el Aerio. Transita de nuevo tras estar a/no y medio varado en casa, con muchos yerbajos debajo. Era la transmision y las puntas de eje. Ese tema de por si requiere un post aparte. Maybe despues...

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Dibujos Recientes desde Milla de Oro

Estos son varios dibujos de mi moleskin hechos durante la pasada semana. Andar en tren y guagua ha sido fuerza motriz de esta accion. El primero (disculpen la baja resolucion) es una prueba en acuarelas usando como referencia las mesas de Island Bagels en Hato Rey, que tiene mesas hechas en losetas de colores como en el dibujo.
Este es la vista desde el Metrobus II las otras ma/nanas.
Esta toma es desde el Coffee Express de la Ponce de Leon (colinda con el Popular Center).


Este ultimo es una prueba de acuarelas que hice en casa de un sketch malo que hice desde el edificio de la Asociacion de Industriales.

La dejo ahi.



Sunday, August 15, 2010

Inception y Ciencia Ficcion Latinoamericana


Entro a la normalidad. Tras dos semanas de volver a casa fui a ver Inception, a insistencia de mi esposa (Y DE MI HIJO de 11 a/nos!!!). Excelente pelicula, en el trama de la pelicula el tema es el robo de ideas desde un sue/no o el dilema moral de sembrar ideas en el subconsciente.

Por alguna razon, la traduccion al espa/nol de la pelicula es El Origen. No se, llamarle El Hombre Que Sembraba Vientos y Cosecho Tempestades no hubiese hecho sentido.... Peliculas de sue/nos, psiquis y ciencia ficcion me fascinan. Ya saben de mi obsesion con Alicia en el Pais de las Maravillas, Matrix, 13th Floor y otras peliculas que tratan de este mismo tema.
Sin embargo, esta tiene la diferencia de tener cierta viabilidad de ocurrir. Con peque/nas modificaciones tecnologicas de aqui a 10 a/nos. Matrix, donde los humanos somo cabezas de cobre (Baterias Duracell) que duermen, no se ve muy real. Para no dar mas spoilers les incluyo varios articulos rese/nando la pelicula aqui:

http://www.septimoarte.org/catalogo/peliculas/el_origen_inception_,_resena_critica_de_alberto_posso_gomez.html
http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2010/07/inception_theory.html
http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/reviews/17388/180225
http://macanudoliniers.blogspot.com/2010/08/inception.html
http://www.bitrebels.com/geek/inception-explained-in-infographic-spoiler/

Hollywood ha tratado de crear peliculas basadas en los grandes autores suramericanos como Borges, Saramago y Bioy Caseres. Esta pelicula en particular me recordaba La Invencion de Morell. Donde los personajes ganan su inmortalidad al estar grabados, aunque hayan muerto. Las memorias, son software. Nuestra personalidad esta definida por nuestros recuerdos.
Algo de invencion de morell aqui:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Invention_of_Morel
http://www.lisaswanstrom.net/fantasticpastresponses.html

Y de Blindness y el Ensayo Sobre La Ceguera aqui:http://deriklatorreboza.blogspot.com/2008/11/ensayo-sobre-la-ceguera-y-blindness.html

Cortos de Inception MASHUP
http://unrealitymag.com/index.php/2010/07/21/inception-trailer-mashups/

Sobre como las memorias nos definen me acordaron de este episodio de Aeon Flux...

6. Reraizure (September 12, 1995)

Summary

After a Monican agent is captured, Æon, disguised as a Breen soldier, infiltrates the prison where he's being kept.

Synopsis

Æon comes upon a young woman (later named as Muriel) trying to escape (strangely enough with Trevor Goodchild's help). Muriel mistakes Æon for an e

nemy soldier and attacks her. Æon kills her by accident. When the woman's partner drives up out front of the building, she gets inside in hopes of alleviating her guilt. The man inside was Muriel's boyfriend Rordy. He is stricken by his lover's death. When Æon tries to comfort him, they end up sleeping together. The next morning he tells Æon of his plan. Years ago he and a young woman took a drug called Bliss together. The terrible si

de effect was that they lost their memories. Not knowing who they were or why they knew each other, they formed a bond. The drug Bliss is only created by a small turtle-like creature called a Narghile. In a pouch on its back it forms, pearl-like, the pellet which can be easily consumed. Since the Narghile cannot be killed for some reason, Rordy planned with his ex-lover to collect them all and blast them into the sun on a rocket platform, forcin

g their extinction in revenge. They were getting down to collecting the last few, but it seems their dream was crushed by fate. Æon, who is touched by the story, and has fallen more than just a little for Rordy, promises to help him finish his mission. With Narghiles in tow, she climbs a sheer cable up to the rocket platform, suspended miles up in the air. Expecting to find thousands of jars filled with the Narghiles on the platform, she merely finds a few

empty jars, and oddly enough, Trevor Goodchild. Seeing as they are both wearing bulky protective air suits, Trevor doesn't recognize Æon, thinking her to be the now dead girlfriend. He connects the tube from his air suit to hers and by having the air forced back and forth through the tubes they have a bizarre form of non-contact sex, forcing Æon to orgasm. During this strange exchange, Trevor confesses to his newest evil: He and the now-dead woman were lovers and they both led Rordy on his wild goose chase quest so that

Trevor could gain control of the Narghiles. The woman gave Trevor all of them, in a fantastic act of betrayal. Æon reveals herself by attacking Trevor, but Trevor escapes. When she tells Rordy (who's never actually seen the platform for himself), he reacts violently, unable to believe this. While Æon goes after Trevor, Rordy climbs to the platform and finds the proof of his girlfriend's betrayal. Shattered, he blasts the platform away and awaits Æon back at his home. She arrives finding him in a bathtub, memories completely erased by another Bliss pill he took, a sort of mental suicide. As he tries to figure out who she is, she flees the house, leaving one of the few men she may have ever loved.

En fin, la pelicula pone uno a pensar. Creo que ma/nana ire mas light, algo como Scott Pilgrim vs the World...

UPDATE!!!
Contra, como pude dejar fuera esta excelende discusion de Geek Feed.

http://twatgeek.com/geekfeed/?p=2647


Scrooge McDuck and The Inception Incident

Luckily, all of you should’ve seen Inception by now. If you haven’t, you have to choices: run to the nearest movie theater, or skip to the next article. I haven’t been this excited and satisfied over a movie since Star Trek and (500) Days of Summer.

Anyway, to my surprise, some clever soul on the Internets found an old Uncle Scrooge comic book that apparently has way too many similarities with the movie.

http://disneycomics.free.fr/Ducks/Rosa/show.php?num=1&loc=D2002-033&s=date
http://movies.yahoo.com/feature/inception-comic.html

y otra mas vieja de Vortice On Line
http://www.vorticeonline.com/2010/07/24/inception-nolan-suena-a-borges-sonando-a-cervantes/

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Recap from Biloxi

Just wanted to share some sketches I made on my Molly while I worked on the special project down at Biloxi. Long time since I could actually sketch anything...The site was near an old shipyard and had an abandoned storage building nextdoor. That is the first image...

I mentioned on the previous post I was very anxious to get to PR. I got to the Gulfport airport two hours before hand. I forgot this was not PR. Things move when there is not much people. The second image is my view from Gate 7 of the airport.Biloxi is oyster and shrimp industry as I posted earlier. Now add the oil skimmers that are deployed all over the transects of the Gulf of Mexico. This is a sketch of a crew receiving oil contaminated boom material for decontamination. Note that direct contact is using tyvek suits while the crane operator uses standard PPE (helmet, gloves, floater device and high visibility jackets).
It is not news that BP is contracting local ships to deploy the boom. They are also involving the local communities for the cleanup activities. As for me, I am adjusting my schedule to Puerto Rico again. Old projects are screaming up in vengeance.




Monday, August 2, 2010

Mi TV Desde Lejos

Estoy por volver a Puerto Rico y sinceramente no tengo sue/no. Quizas preocupado por volver al planeta realidad. He decidido hace lo siguiente, les dejo par de videos colectados de la web, enfasis en espa/nol...

Primero algo de Enjuto Mojamuto:

http://www.drisas.com/2010/06/22/enjuto-mojamuto-mirando-y-poco-mas-01%C3%9703/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IN7Wk6_ikmo

Entonces una entrevista con la mona Chita (cortesia de Muchachada Nui):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iO0uHa3hfJo

Algo relacionado a Chavez...con Vulgarcito:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JY06ySAnoKw


Este grupo esta bueno. El Chavez - Monterrey

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXwn2hxFm_E&hd=1
cortesia de:
http://www.clubfonograma.com/2010/06/video-el-chavez-monterrey.html
We learn via ZonaIndie (Argentina's ultimate Indie guide) about this one-band band El Chavez, founding member of Arbol. He is releasing a solo album titled Moron City Groove, and judging from first single “Monterrey”, he’s into something. The colorful video (directed by Fernando Radl) really makes up for the thrilling groovy-cumbia song. He’s already got us dancing to this hot tune and we would love for this to go wildly mainstream, it’s got such potential. “Hoy no se como mis pies siguen bailando este ritmo.”

Lo dejo ahi. Tengo mucho que hacer ma/nana.

Transformemos el Perú

Un excelente video que me envio mi hermana. Es para Peru pero toca la fibra de todo el mundo, incluyendo a Puerto Rico... Repite como mantra mi punto de vista de este blog. No nos quejemos, seamos parte de la solucion. Lastima que no tenga un transcript.



http://blogs.deperu.com/productos-peruanos/en-que-momento-se-jodio-el-peru
http://www.elpais.com/articulo/narrativa/Despues/jodio/Peru/elpbabnar/20020316elpbabnar_9/Tes

Bueno, lo dejo aqui por ahora que estoy viajando ma/nana.
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