Monday, February 28, 2011
Saturday, February 26, 2011
The writing Life
Writing Is A Kind of Double Living
Writing, I think, is not apart from living. Writing is a kind of double living. The writer experiences everything twice. Once in reality and once in that mirror which waits always before or behind.
CATHERINE DRINKER BOWEN
A Writer Is Not An Ideal Husband
I think a writer is not an ideal husband. . . . Writers tend to get off into their own heads and not notice the people that they’re living with, or they get irritable with the people that they’re living with when the people insist on being noticed.
ROY BLOUNT, JR.
Sent from my iPhone
Friday, February 25, 2011
Thursday, February 24, 2011
A Weakened Moment
A Moment of Weakness
While listening to Bruce Hornsby Live, I am undone and trip on the natural chemicals in my brain.
His talented fingers pluck melodies that please and soothe me. I groove and gather myself tight in the music.
I am transported to another era
Where things were not always simpler
and not always sadder,
When my hair, golden thick reached my waist and I could see the toes of my biker boots.
My heart's arsonist tendencies burned more bridges than I care to admit
And I walked and strutted blind and full of pride through a perceived black and white world.
Now, I allow a self-indulgent smile, a weak instant of self-pity as I recognize how everything, including our perceptions is tainted by time's grey passage.
His talented fingers pluck melodies that please and soothe me. I groove and gather myself tight in the music.
I am transported to another era
Where things were not always simpler
and not always sadder,
When my hair, golden thick reached my waist and I could see the toes of my biker boots.
My heart's arsonist tendencies burned more bridges than I care to admit
And I walked and strutted blind and full of pride through a perceived black and white world.
Now, I allow a self-indulgent smile, a weak instant of self-pity as I recognize how everything, including our perceptions is tainted by time's grey passage.
Lee Gooden 2-24-11
Sent from my iPhone
Sent from my iPhone
Sent from my iPhone
A Moment of Weakness
While listening to Bruce Hornsby Live,
His talented fingers pluck melodies the please and soothe me. I groove and gather myself tight in the music.
I am transported to another era
Where things were not always simpler
But they were sadder for me,
When my hair, golden thick reached my waist and I could see the toes of my biker boots.
My heart's arsonist tendencies burned more bridges than I care to admit
And I walked and strutted blind and full of pride through a black and white world.
Now, I allow myself a self-indulgent Melancholy smile, an instant of self-pity as I recognize the how are everything, including our perceptions are tainted by time's grey passage.
Sent from my iPhone
His talented fingers pluck melodies the please and soothe me. I groove and gather myself tight in the music.
I am transported to another era
Where things were not always simpler
But they were sadder for me,
When my hair, golden thick reached my waist and I could see the toes of my biker boots.
My heart's arsonist tendencies burned more bridges than I care to admit
And I walked and strutted blind and full of pride through a black and white world.
Now, I allow myself a self-indulgent Melancholy smile, an instant of self-pity as I recognize the how are everything, including our perceptions are tainted by time's grey passage.
Sent from my iPhone
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Monday, February 21, 2011
Johnathan Lethem and They Live
Jonathan Lethem — "Just who are these weird people that you see when you put on the mysterious sunglasses in They Live? What do they want? More importantly, what do they mean? Novelist Jonathan Lethem investigates, in three excerpts from his new book analyzing They Live..." "Lethem's They Live book is part of Soft Skull Press' new Deep Focus series, "A Novel Approach To Cinema." Here are three sections that deal with the movie's Ghouls." "As the night deepened, so deepened to me the interest of the scene; for not only did the general character of the crowd materially alter (its gentler features retiring in the gradual withdrawal of the more orderly portion of the people, and its harsher ones coming out in bolder relief, as the late hour brought forth every species of infamy from its den,) but the rays of the gas-lamps, feeble at first in their struggle with the dying day, had now at last gained ascendancy, and threw over everything a fitful and garish lustre… With my brow to the glass, I was thus occupied in scrutinizing the mob, when suddenly there came into view a countenance (that of a decrepit old man, some sixty-five or seventy years of age,) – a countenance which at once arrested and absorbed my whole attention, on account of the absolute idiosyncrasy of its expression."
– Edgar Allan Poe, "The Man of the Crowd" "They're appalling, that's what they are. Walking disasters. Flayed, scalded, piebald, grimacing, corrupted, robotic, evoking syphilis-victim scare-photos from teenage health-ed nightmares, yet somehow accusatory, defiant inside their disguises, the ghouls present no limit of affront to a healthy construction-worker's eye. They looked burnt, yet gooey. They're also – how to say this? – affrontingly cheapo (eventually we'll even notice in their ghoul-hands what looks like the wrinkling of rubber dishwashing gloves, and so this may be another reason for the black-and-white, better to mask low-budget inadequacies). This fact frees a certain relieving hilarity yet also synthesizes with our revulsion: Something this skeezy is ruling my world? Something this ludicrous is freaking me out? (The virtuosity of Carpenter's mise-en-scène ensures it is.) The first to turn to the camera and say, more or less, 'Fuck you lookin' at? is this silver-haired, foxy
older gentleman of obvious privilege referred to in the credits as "Well-Dressed Customer"; his sustained, withering ghoul-glare as he purchases his magazine (with dollars that confess THIS IS YOUR GOD) is one of They Live's icons, an instant that punches a spooky hole in time. Nada hasn't located his voice yet, so we're left undistracted, or unconsoled, by any cheese-dip-Brazilian-plastic-surgery-perfume-on-a-pig one-liners. What's brilliantly guaranteed is how totally we'd loathe this guy anyway; you may not be going home in your BMW and Rolex to soak in your Jacuzzi, but he certainly is. So, already brewing within our terror is a lavish contempt, one that finds satisfaction at the rotten-corpse visage before us. Any rich guy who's every glowered at us like we didn't belong somewhere – an outdoor magazine rack, for chrissakes! – really ought to look as sick on the outside as we're certain he is in his soul. I'm fucking looking at you, man! Nada's
not quite there, but he's just a step away. Also, ghouls wear wigs. For some reason their masterful illusion-generator can't do hair. Don't think about this too hard..." http://io9.com/#!5766538/jonathan-lethem-psychoanalyzes-they-lives-ghouls
– Edgar Allan Poe, "The Man of the Crowd" "They're appalling, that's what they are. Walking disasters. Flayed, scalded, piebald, grimacing, corrupted, robotic, evoking syphilis-victim scare-photos from teenage health-ed nightmares, yet somehow accusatory, defiant inside their disguises, the ghouls present no limit of affront to a healthy construction-worker's eye. They looked burnt, yet gooey. They're also – how to say this? – affrontingly cheapo (eventually we'll even notice in their ghoul-hands what looks like the wrinkling of rubber dishwashing gloves, and so this may be another reason for the black-and-white, better to mask low-budget inadequacies). This fact frees a certain relieving hilarity yet also synthesizes with our revulsion: Something this skeezy is ruling my world? Something this ludicrous is freaking me out? (The virtuosity of Carpenter's mise-en-scène ensures it is.) The first to turn to the camera and say, more or less, 'Fuck you lookin' at? is this silver-haired, foxy
older gentleman of obvious privilege referred to in the credits as "Well-Dressed Customer"; his sustained, withering ghoul-glare as he purchases his magazine (with dollars that confess THIS IS YOUR GOD) is one of They Live's icons, an instant that punches a spooky hole in time. Nada hasn't located his voice yet, so we're left undistracted, or unconsoled, by any cheese-dip-Brazilian-plastic-surgery-perfume-on-a-pig one-liners. What's brilliantly guaranteed is how totally we'd loathe this guy anyway; you may not be going home in your BMW and Rolex to soak in your Jacuzzi, but he certainly is. So, already brewing within our terror is a lavish contempt, one that finds satisfaction at the rotten-corpse visage before us. Any rich guy who's every glowered at us like we didn't belong somewhere – an outdoor magazine rack, for chrissakes! – really ought to look as sick on the outside as we're certain he is in his soul. I'm fucking looking at you, man! Nada's
not quite there, but he's just a step away. Also, ghouls wear wigs. For some reason their masterful illusion-generator can't do hair. Don't think about this too hard..." http://io9.com/#!5766538/jonathan-lethem-psychoanalyzes-they-lives-ghouls
There Can Never Be Too Horror Fiction Revised
Check out this blog http://toomuchhorrorfiction.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2010-01-01T00%3A0...
Sent from my iPhone Whoa! Long link, hope it works. The first book in the discussion series is The Manitou by Graham Masterton. I must have been twelve or thirteen years old when I found the book in a box of my Uncle Bruce's paperbacks and misc bric-a-brac shoved in a cache between the rafters and ceiling of my Nan and Pap's (Maternal- Grandparents) garage, a treasure trove of awesomeness. I remember opening it to the first greasy page which was a secondary cover of a half naked chick expressing pulp fear and a scary Indian Medicine Man trying to remove himself as if being born as a fully grown man from a tumour on the chick's neck. It was gross, nasty, silly and played havoc with my over active prepubescent imagination. It terrified the shit out of me and cracked me up at the same time. I shoved the Manitou paperback in the back of my pants and covered it with my shirt tail. I put another paperback, (the name escapes me but it had a similar goofy scary cover) into my sock and covered it with my pant leg. Through this method I was able to smuggle both books home. I think the Manitou cover freaked me out so much that I threw the book away after reading it over and over. Later, I had a much more terrifying experience reading Stephen King's novel The Shining for the first time. But that, is another story. L https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK0A9lFhTNPY10r_Y9sihed_zSmgYAcF1kSZWaV2Yqdp0IYz66JmzZEPrO3V8WAOWMEFsq8c-i92t7_rEx60pKlFNGgl8KY1b4mbg-lt6sEsAvXNEpd8O8E6CKgOokdWtGPiqzAuIW53Q/
Sent from my iPhone
Web Comic Corporate Skull
Check out this web comic. I like it. The format is simple, almost minimalist, but not quite. Reminds me of Berkeley Breathed's Bloom County and Outland series.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berkeley_Breathed?wasRedirected=true Web comics is medium that I want to explore...soon!
L http://www.corporateskull.com/?p=20 Sent from my iPhone
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berkeley_Breathed?wasRedirected=true Web comics is medium that I want to explore...soon!
L http://www.corporateskull.com/?p=20 Sent from my iPhone
Libyan Air Force Fighters Seek Asylum in Malta
Feb. 21, 2011, 11:50AM
Lino Arrigo Azzopardi AP
One of two Libyan Air Force Mirage jet fighters to land in Malta, is surrounded by Maltese police after it landed in Malta's International airport, Monday, Feb. 21, 2011. (AP Photo/Lino Azzopardi)
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EmailVALLETTA, Malta — "Two Libyan air force jets landed in Malta on Monday and their pilots asked for political asylum amid a bloody crackdown onanti-government protesters in Libya, a military source said.
The two Mirage jets landed at Malta International Airport shortly after two civilian helicopters landed carrying seven people who said they were French. A military source familiar with the situation said the passengers had left in such a hurry that only one had a passport.
The source, who insisted he not be identified further, said the jet pilots — both Libyan air force colonels — had communicated from the air that they wanted political asylum. They had left from a base near Tripoli and had flown low over Libyan airspace to avoid detection, the source said.
The aircraft remained at Malta's airport, away from the commercial area, while the pilots and helicopter passengers were being questioned by airport immigration officials, the source said..."
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/top/all/7439184.htmlSent from my iPhone
Planets in Interstellar Space Might be Habitable
The Steppenwolf: A proposal for a habitable planet in interstellar space
(Submitted on 5 Feb 2011)
"Rogue planets have been ejected from their planetary system. We investigate the possibility that a rogue planet could maintain a liquid ocean under layers of thermally-insulating water ice and frozen atmosphere as a result of geothermal heat flux. We find that a rogue planet of Earth-like composition and age could maintain a subglacial liquid ocean if it were ~3.5 times more massive than Earth. If a rogue planet had about ten times higher water mass fraction or a thick cryo- atmospheric layer, it would need to be only ~0.3 times the mass of Earth to maintain a liquid ocean. Such a planet could be detected from reflected solar radiation and its thermal emission could be characterized in the far-IR if it passed within O(1000) AU of Earth."
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Thursday, February 17, 2011
The lost art of editing
The lost art of editing
"The long, boozy lunches and smoke-filled parties are now part of publishing's past, but has rigorous line-by-line editing of books been lost too, a casualty of the demands of sales and publicity?
A meeting of the board of directors at Faber, March 1944. From left to right TS Eliot, Morley Kennedy, Geoffrey Faber, WJ Crawley, Miss CB Sheldon and Richard de la Mare. Photograph: Picture Post/Felix Mann and Kurt Hutton/Getty Images
Alex Clark
The Guardian, Fri 11 Feb 2011 14.05 GMT
Reach for the current issue of Private Eye and you will find "Bookworm", the anonymous author of the magazine's Books & Bookmen column, indulging his or her fondness for schadenfreude by rounding up the worst reviews of this season's crop of new books. The writers mentioned will no doubt simply shrug – or perhaps grimace – to have readers' attention drawn to less than ecstatic comments, especially when numerous glowing reviews are ignored. But "Bookworm" also has a few sharp words for those whose work is undertaken outside the glare of publicity: "it's not only the authors who will and should wince on reading these words. The editors . . . are responsible as well, for being too indolent, timid or unobservant, if the reviewers are right. But will pain spur them to remember that editors are supposed to edit?"
Sent from my iPhone
Our Programs - Warren County, NY
Research to expand First Baptist Church's interaction with the community, specifically youth services. Part of my assignment as a member of FBC's research task-force committee.
Our Programs - Warren County, NY: ","
Our Programs - Warren County, NY: ","
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Yeah, my head is swelling, what of it?
My editor referred to me a "top notch reviewer." Excuse me, while I pat myself on the back and gloat a little.
Sent from my iPhone
Sent from my iPhone
Monday, February 14, 2011
A Surrogate Wanted
I am so tired today and still have crap loads of stuff on my plate. I wonder If it is possible to hire somebody to take my place on days when I'm this tired. I would stay in bed and only deal with the immediate pressing matters, while my surrogate, keeping to a carefully contrived script, attends to the rest of my day, dealing with the mundane shit, like IRS audits and prostate exams.
L
Sent from my iPhone
L
Sent from my iPhone
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Saturday, February 12, 2011
CHARLES DICKENS ON WRITING
Charles Dickens – Three Principles of Writing
Only jolter-headed, conceited idiots suppose that volumes are to be tossed off like pancakes, and that any writing can be done without the utmost application, the greatest patience, and the steadiest energy of which the writer is capable.
~ Charles Dickens
To be fair, this quote took a little remanufacturing on the part of yours truly. The original quote comes from The Letters of Charles Dickens. In the original, Dickens was writing to Wilkie Collins to congratulate Collins on “Basil”. Dickens was delighted to find that the author took great pains to be discriminating and yet to also deliver casual blows to the aforementioned “jolter-headed, conceited idiots”.
Personally, I loved the idea of Dickens railing about people believing that writing was as easy as tossing off pancakes. If you consider the sheer volume of work produced by the man, you have to wonder just how he managed it.
Of course, there is just one answer to that… he wrote.
It’s true that Dickens lived in an age without electronic diversions, but it was not without any diversions. Still, he managed to create volume after volume by following the formula:
UTMOST APPLICATION + GREATEST PATIENCE + STEADIEST ENERGY = WRITING (AND ANYTHING ELSE WORTH DOING RIGHT)
UTMOST APPLICATION
Of the three principles, the craft is the one I think most writers tend to gloss over when starting out. It sounds weird to say that of course. If you consider any other profession, it would be strange for one to simply dive in and have at it. Yet, this is how most writers get into the craft and like a surgeon who has no training the patients seldom see the light of day.
But the real application goes much further than training and practice. Writing is a lifelong pursuit of skill and knowledge. The writer must work within the medium but they most also read and learn from others practicing the craft as well, pick up new techniques, experiment, and seek opinion. Writers who fail to do this are as unlikely to get a letter of praise from Charles Dickens’ (he’s dead after all) as they are from the Charles Dickens’ of their day.
GREATEST PATIENCE
If patience is a virtue, then I’m afraid I’m going straight to Hell.
All writers have some method of beginning, some bit of inspiration that sparks the burning need to put words down and create something from the void. We write these beautiful, fevered phrases while hoping to catch all the vibrance of the vision before it fades. We scribble and scribble and scribble till our hands become raw and our minds race at speeds our words cannot hope to keep up with.
Then we get muddled.
We call this writing ourselves into a corner and it happens whether you cautiously plan your narrative or go straight at it free form. The writer with patience understands this happens. They wait and watch while the paint dries and then go back and fix things up. The rest of us (meaning everyone) just walk across the wet floor, leaving footprints everywhere and start over.
STEADIEST ENERGY
Write every day. The End.
Alright, that isn’t quite the end. It should be, but it’s not. You see, it isn’t enough just to say you need to write every day. Yes, “Steadiest Energy” implies that you must be consistent in the practice of the craft, but you must also apply sustained effort.
This means that you must develop the ability to do more than write the fevered words I mentioned in the last section. You must also learn to write all the other words that need to be said as well.
When I first wrote this little bit, it was just the opening quip:
Write every day. The End.
I was going to leave it at that because I thought it was clever. Then, as I was wrapping things up, I realized I skipped over the meaning of the phrase entirely. I wasn’t patient and I wasn’t adhering to the utmost application of the writing craft. I was coasting.
So, yes, you must write every day. However, you must apply a consistent effort across every bit of your practice. You must write and read and edit with equal vigor but also maintain a sense of calm about it.
It isn’t a race. It’s a practice.
Which of these three principles give you the most trouble? How do you deal with it?
Sent from my iPhone
William Trevor Interview 1989
William Trevor first achieved prominence with the publication of his second novel, The Old Boys (1964); but perhaps he is best known for his volumes of short stories, including The Day We Got Drunk on Cake (1968), Angel at the Ritz and Other Stories (1976), winner of the Royal Society of Literature Award, and The News from Ireland (1986). His other novels include The Children of Dynmouth (1977), winner of the Whitbread Prize for Fiction, Fools of Fortune (1983), and most recently Silence in the Garden (1988). Trevor met me at the Exeter railway station on a chilly, drizzly February morning, cutting a rather startling figure on the platform in his matching tweed greatcoat and deerstalker hat. Although my train had kept him waiting for nearly an hour, he was smiling when I arrived, and even apologized ambassadorially for British Rail’s inefficiency. Trevor lives in a ruined mill in the green countryside of Devon, with his wife, Jane. They also spend a few months of the year in Tuscany and go back regularly to Ireland, where he was born. The interview took place in the sitting room of their Victorian farmhouse, where a small fire burned in the hearth. Books lay neatly stacked on a side table amid fringed lampshades, and the walls were bare with the exception of a few Redouté prints. Windows curtained in Wedgewood-blue velvet opened out over rolling downs. Trevor settled languidly into an armchair, crossed his long legs, and bore the expression of a man who had just fastened his seat belt for a long and possibly perilous airplane ride...
Friday, February 11, 2011
Tycho Bass has sent you a link to "My essential Mac applications, part 2" on Boing Boing
Hi, Tycho Bass has sent you a link to "My essential Mac applications, part 2" on Boing Boing. http://www.boingboing.net/2011/02/10/my-essential-mac-app-1.html ""
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Who ate all the planets? Blame the 'bloatars' - space - 10 February 2011 - New Scientist
WHEN stars put on weight, it really shows. A group of oddly bloated stars may have grown fat by eating their own planets in a feeding frenzy.
No one has ever seen anything quite like the nine stars spotted by the Hubble Space Telescope in a young cluster called NGC 3603. They are too cool to be ordinary stars, with analysis of their infrared light emissions indicating surface temperatures between 1700 and 2200 kelvin. By this measure, they are more like brown dwarfs, objects intermediate in mass between planets and fully fledged stars.
Yet brown dwarfs are dim objects that should be too faint to detect at the cluster's distance from Earth - 20,000 light years. "We were quite puzzled," says Loredana Spezzi at the European Space Agency in Noordwijk, the Netherlands.
Now Spezzi and her colleagues have another explanation. They think the enigmatic objects are part of stellar systems that spawned planets - then hastily devoured them.
Some planets are thought to spiral in towards their stars. That would explain why so many alien worlds have been found in star-hugging orbits. The team says that some may spiral so close that the star "eats" them - the star's gravity rips the planet apart and captures its debris.
This captured debris would form a temporary outer atmosphere for the star, which would be cooler than the star's normal light-emitting surface, explaining the apparent low temperatures of the nine mysterious objects.
These bloated stars, or "bloatars", would also be bigger and brighter than brown dwarfs, explaining how they could be seen at such a great distance, the team says in a paper to appear in The Astrophysical Journal (arxiv.org/1101.4521).
Astronomers have previously found a few cases of stars with odd properties that might be explained by planet-eating, including stars containing unusually large amounts of lithium, possibly a consequence of feasting on planets containing the element. But these bloatars are the first example of a feeding frenzy, with many stars in the same cluster all devouring planets.
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Wednesday, February 9, 2011
LITERARY AGENT
I am not in any way (at this moment)involved with this literary agency, so please do not contact me about representation.
L
L
Welcome!
"Folio Literary Management places both fiction and non-fiction with major publishers throughout the U.S. and around the world. We represent many first-time authors, some of whom have gone on to become bestsellers and major award-winners. We also represent many well-established authors, and work closely with them to take their careers to new heights. Folio is proud to offer a full complement of literary services in a changing publishing landscape, and provide our clients with access to marketing services, website development, and media training that it takes to make each book a success. We are dedicated to supporting authors across all platforms, from film adaptation to enhanced e-books and apps. Although each agent has particular likes and dislikes, certain criteria make a project/author particularly well suited for Folio": http://foliolit.com/
"Folio Literary Management places both fiction and non-fiction with major publishers throughout the U.S. and around the world. We represent many first-time authors, some of whom have gone on to become bestsellers and major award-winners. We also represent many well-established authors, and work closely with them to take their careers to new heights. Folio is proud to offer a full complement of literary services in a changing publishing landscape, and provide our clients with access to marketing services, website development, and media training that it takes to make each book a success. We are dedicated to supporting authors across all platforms, from film adaptation to enhanced e-books and apps. Although each agent has particular likes and dislikes, certain criteria make a project/author particularly well suited for Folio": http://foliolit.com/
BOOKS HOLD MANY WORLDS BUT WHO KNEW?
Microb Ecol. 2010 July; 60(1): 69–80.
Published online 2010 May 7. doi: 10.1007/s00248-010-9667-9.
PMCID: PMC2917558
Copyright © The Author(s) 2010 Molecular and Microscopical Investigation of the Microflora Inhabiting a Deteriorated Italian Manuscript Dated from the Thirteenth Century Astrid Michaelsen,1 Guadalupe Piñar,2 and Flavia Pinzari3,4
1Department of Microbial Ecology, University of Vienna, Althanstrasse 14, 1090 Vienna, Austria
2Institute of Applied Microbiology, Department of Biotechnology, University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences, Muthgasse 18, 1190 Vienna, Austria
3Laboratorio di Biologia, Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali, ICPAL - Istituto Centrale per il Restauro e la Conservazione del Patrimonio Archivistico e Librario, Via Milano, 76, 00184 Rome, Italy
4Dept. of Plant Biology, School in Ecological Sciences, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy
Flavia Pinzari, Phone: +39-06-48291215, Fax: +39-06-4814968, Email: flavia.pinzari@beniculturali.it.
Corresponding author.
Received March 1, 2010; Accepted March 12, 2010.
Other Sections?
Abstract "This case study shows the application of nontraditional diagnostic methods to investigate the microbial consortia inhabiting an ancient manuscript. The manuscript was suspected to be biologically deteriorated and SEM observations showed the presence of fungal spores attached to fibers, but classic culturing methods did not succeed in isolating microbial contaminants. Therefore, molecular methods, including PCR, denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE), and clone libraries, were used as a sensitive alternative to conventional cultivation techniques. DGGE fingerprints revealed a high biodiversity of both bacteria and fungi inhabiting the manuscript. DNA sequence analysis confirmed the existence of fungi and bacteria in manuscript samples. A number of fungal clones identified on the manuscript showed similarity to fungal species inhabiting dry or saline environments, suggesting that the manuscript environment selects for osmophilic or xerophilic
fungal species. Most of the bacterial sequences retrieved from the manuscript belong to phylotypes with cellulolytic activities.
Other Sections? Introduction
Biodeterioration of paper and parchment in ancient books and documents represents a cause of great concern for libraries and archives all over the world. The study of the mechanisms underlying the microbiological attack of historical materials has been widely practiced and still represents one of the main focuses of those institutions and laboratories that are involved in cultural heritage conservation. Microbial investigations based on cultivation strategies are not reliable because they yield only a limited fraction of the present microbial diversity [26]. The application of molecular biology techniques on cultural heritage environments has shown that new spoiling taxa and unsuspected microbial consortia are involved in the discoloration and biodeterioration of paintings and monuments [44]. Restricted sampling from art and documental objects results in additional
problems for representative floristic analyses..." complete article below http://hubs.plos.org/web/biodiversity/article/10.1007/s00248-010-9667-9
Published online 2010 May 7. doi: 10.1007/s00248-010-9667-9.
PMCID: PMC2917558
Copyright © The Author(s) 2010 Molecular and Microscopical Investigation of the Microflora Inhabiting a Deteriorated Italian Manuscript Dated from the Thirteenth Century Astrid Michaelsen,1 Guadalupe Piñar,2 and Flavia Pinzari3,4
1Department of Microbial Ecology, University of Vienna, Althanstrasse 14, 1090 Vienna, Austria
2Institute of Applied Microbiology, Department of Biotechnology, University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences, Muthgasse 18, 1190 Vienna, Austria
3Laboratorio di Biologia, Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali, ICPAL - Istituto Centrale per il Restauro e la Conservazione del Patrimonio Archivistico e Librario, Via Milano, 76, 00184 Rome, Italy
4Dept. of Plant Biology, School in Ecological Sciences, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy
Flavia Pinzari, Phone: +39-06-48291215, Fax: +39-06-4814968, Email: flavia.pinzari@beniculturali.it.
Corresponding author.
Received March 1, 2010; Accepted March 12, 2010.
Other Sections?
Abstract "This case study shows the application of nontraditional diagnostic methods to investigate the microbial consortia inhabiting an ancient manuscript. The manuscript was suspected to be biologically deteriorated and SEM observations showed the presence of fungal spores attached to fibers, but classic culturing methods did not succeed in isolating microbial contaminants. Therefore, molecular methods, including PCR, denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE), and clone libraries, were used as a sensitive alternative to conventional cultivation techniques. DGGE fingerprints revealed a high biodiversity of both bacteria and fungi inhabiting the manuscript. DNA sequence analysis confirmed the existence of fungi and bacteria in manuscript samples. A number of fungal clones identified on the manuscript showed similarity to fungal species inhabiting dry or saline environments, suggesting that the manuscript environment selects for osmophilic or xerophilic
fungal species. Most of the bacterial sequences retrieved from the manuscript belong to phylotypes with cellulolytic activities.
Other Sections? Introduction
Biodeterioration of paper and parchment in ancient books and documents represents a cause of great concern for libraries and archives all over the world. The study of the mechanisms underlying the microbiological attack of historical materials has been widely practiced and still represents one of the main focuses of those institutions and laboratories that are involved in cultural heritage conservation. Microbial investigations based on cultivation strategies are not reliable because they yield only a limited fraction of the present microbial diversity [26]. The application of molecular biology techniques on cultural heritage environments has shown that new spoiling taxa and unsuspected microbial consortia are involved in the discoloration and biodeterioration of paintings and monuments [44]. Restricted sampling from art and documental objects results in additional
problems for representative floristic analyses..." complete article below http://hubs.plos.org/web/biodiversity/article/10.1007/s00248-010-9667-9
DID THE VILLAGE PEOPLE KNOW THAT THIS COULD BE DONE IN THE NAVY?
What can a fetus hear in the womb?
Esther Inglis-Arkell — "We've seen parents-to-be in sappy movies putting headphones or speakers up to the pregnant woman's stomach. Sometimes they're trying to make the fetus listen to some grandparent's voice. Sometimes they're trying to make some kind of crazy-smart super baby. But can a fetus stuck behind thick walls of flesh hear any of it? And if it can, would it hear anything more than muted noise? First of all, parents-to-be need to be careful with that kind of stuff. The wrong kind of sound, especially low frequency vibrations, could turn a kid into a bony, muscled-over, dead-eyed drone. Some wasps determine what their larvae will develop into by drumming their antennae on the egg chambers, and studies show that young rats exposed to similar vibration lose fat and gain bone and muscle. But how about normal, high-pitched conversation? Surely a fetus couldn't hear anything like that. Studies by the US Navy say yes they can. Obviously, the Navy couldn't experiment on actual human fetuses, but they could and did play around with lamb fetuses. While the fetuses were in development, the Navy placed tiny microphones inside of the lambs' ears. They then placed microphones in the fluid around the lamb. A final set of microphones was attached to the outside of the sheep. Once the microphones were in place and recording, the Navy used speakers to play a series of words to the sheep. The sheep were unmoved, but a group of volunteers listened to the recordings that the three microphones made. The volunteers were able to understand all of what was recorded on the external microphone, three-quarters of what was recorded on the microphone inside the sheep, and 30-40% of what was recorded on the microphone inside the lambs' ears. I know that this will spur a great deal of potential parents to record obscenities and try to get the Guinness world record on the youngest person to say f***. Before you do so, however, I must remind you that this study was made possible by the United State Navy. And if there is one thing the Navy disapproves of, it's salty language. I trust you will do your duty." Via The Naked Scientists. http://io9.com/#!5755343/what-can-a-fetus-hear-in-the-womb
Esther Inglis-Arkell — "We've seen parents-to-be in sappy movies putting headphones or speakers up to the pregnant woman's stomach. Sometimes they're trying to make the fetus listen to some grandparent's voice. Sometimes they're trying to make some kind of crazy-smart super baby. But can a fetus stuck behind thick walls of flesh hear any of it? And if it can, would it hear anything more than muted noise? First of all, parents-to-be need to be careful with that kind of stuff. The wrong kind of sound, especially low frequency vibrations, could turn a kid into a bony, muscled-over, dead-eyed drone. Some wasps determine what their larvae will develop into by drumming their antennae on the egg chambers, and studies show that young rats exposed to similar vibration lose fat and gain bone and muscle. But how about normal, high-pitched conversation? Surely a fetus couldn't hear anything like that. Studies by the US Navy say yes they can. Obviously, the Navy couldn't experiment on actual human fetuses, but they could and did play around with lamb fetuses. While the fetuses were in development, the Navy placed tiny microphones inside of the lambs' ears. They then placed microphones in the fluid around the lamb. A final set of microphones was attached to the outside of the sheep. Once the microphones were in place and recording, the Navy used speakers to play a series of words to the sheep. The sheep were unmoved, but a group of volunteers listened to the recordings that the three microphones made. The volunteers were able to understand all of what was recorded on the external microphone, three-quarters of what was recorded on the microphone inside the sheep, and 30-40% of what was recorded on the microphone inside the lambs' ears. I know that this will spur a great deal of potential parents to record obscenities and try to get the Guinness world record on the youngest person to say f***. Before you do so, however, I must remind you that this study was made possible by the United State Navy. And if there is one thing the Navy disapproves of, it's salty language. I trust you will do your duty." Via The Naked Scientists. http://io9.com/#!5755343/what-can-a-fetus-hear-in-the-womb
Must Have Gonzo
I just ordered this, cannot wait to read it.
Gonzo: a Graphic Biography of Hunter S. Thompson
“If you're going to be crazy, you have to get paid for it or else you're going to be locked up”
The great American iconoclast, the great American outlaw, the great American hedonist. However you choose to view him,Thompson remains the high water mark for social commentators worldwide, and a truly fearless champion of individual liberties.This is his story.
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Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Sickness and in Health
I've got some reviews due soon and I accidentally left my review bks in my wife's car (well, actually I left the books in my car and she took my car for the day) I had all these plans of stuff I wanted to accomplish and didn't. Oh, well got some rest but still feel like I'm in the last stages of Captain Trips. Back to transportation job tomorrow and hopefully back into a normal writing routine, unless between now and then I cough up a lung and a mile or so of small intestine. As long as my wife wakes me up from my nap in time to go to bed, my day of rest and dvr'd
Tv has been uneventful except I was able to see my six year old daughter practice her tap-dancing. I liked that a lot.
L
Sent from my iPhone
Tv has been uneventful except I was able to see my six year old daughter practice her tap-dancing. I liked that a lot.
L
Sent from my iPhone
Monday, February 7, 2011
Sick Typhoid Mary and my upper respiratory system
While shoveling snow the last couple of days I must have unearthed some kind of February related sickness from one of the many cloned corpses of Typhoid Mary and other disease carriers of her ilk stolen from the Center of Disease Control in Atlanta by a bunch of bad assed transhumanist bikers. They take their eugenics seriously. Why they would hide one of those critters in a snowbank in upstate New York is beyond me, but I know what I know. I'm sick and I don't like it. I haven't worked on my novel in two days. Instead, I've been lying around and moaning about how crappy I feel, between snow shoveling sessions.
good night
good night
Libraries of the rich and famous
I really identify with with the first one. http://flavorwire.com/141846/celebs-theyre-geeks-like-us-libraries-of-the-ric...
Sent from my iPhone
Sent from my iPhone
A dailymail.co.uk article from Tycho Bass
'Super pack' of 400 wolves terrorise remote Russian town after killing 30 horses in just four days The bloodthirsty wolves have been spotted prowling around the edges of Verkhoyansk, in Russia, attacking livestock at will.Full Story:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1354445/Super-pack-400-wolves-kill-30...07 February 2011
www.dailymail.co.uk
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1354445/Super-pack-400-wolves-kill-30...07 February 2011
www.dailymail.co.uk
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Stuff I'm Thinking About
Transhumanism is an international intellectual and cultural movement that affirms the possibility and desirability of fundamentally transforming thehuman condition by developing and making widely available technologies to eliminate aging and to greatly enhance human intellectual, physical, and psychological capacities.[
The contemporary meaning of the term "transhumanism" — which is now symbolized byH+ (previously >H[3]) and often used as a synonym for "human enhancement" — was foreshadowed by one of the first professors of futurology, FM-2030, who taught "new concepts of the Human" at The New School of New York City in the 1960s, when he began to identify people who adopt technologies, lifestyles and world views transitionalto "posthumanity" as "transhuman".[4] Thisforesight would lay the intellectual groundwork for British philosopher Max More to begin articulating the principles of transhumanism as a futuristphilosophy in 1990,[5] and organizing in Californiaan intelligentsia that has since grown into the worldwide transhumanist movement.[4]
The transhumanist vision of a transformed futurehumanity, which is influenced by the techno-utopias depicted in some great works of science fiction, has attracted many supporters and detractors from a wide range of perspectives.[4]Transhumanism has been condemned by one critic,Francis Fukuyama, as the world's most dangerous idea,[6] while one proponent, Ronald Bailey, counters that it is the "movement that epitomizes the most daring, courageous, imaginative, and idealistic aspirations of humanity".[7]
(Man In The Box Notes)Sent from my iPhone
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