Burningman 2008 - Tour Du Black Rock

This is a giant throne, aka monkey bars. Was a fun way to spend some time in the breeze.

Burningman 2008 - Tour De Bike Dos

These will be some of the last temple pictures- promise.

Burningman 2008 - The Bike Tour de Uno

In trade for letting me borrow her bike, I decided to make a series with Laura's bike in the foreground. Here are all of the pictures, they kick off our Bike Tour de Burningman. We went out on this day and just cruised. In the middle of the heat of the day we found someone to spray us all down and some snow cones. It was glorious. Please let me know which four of these bike pictures are your favorites.









PS
There's more coming, I finished like 20 pics tonight but am fading fast, will try to get some up in the morning.

Neil Gaiman Quote

I have finally decided to give Illuminatus! a break. Slogging through mostly stream of consciousness writing can get to be teadious to say the least, and I thought that my the voracious reader in me needed some red meat, so I decided to pick up the Neil Gaiman book Anansi Boys up off my shelf and give it a read. Excellent writing, I highly recommend this book, and I'll let you know about other Gaiman books, but from what Jeff says, they are all well written. Very easy read, but good style:

"Like all sentient beings, Fat Charlie had a weirdness quotient. For some days the needle had been over in the red, occasionally banging jerkily against the pin. Now the meter broke. From this moment on, he suspected, nothing would suprise him. He could no longer be out-weirded. He was done."

Say Hi to the Protocell

I've been feeling like biology and engineering are in the process of merging. There have been more and more cross-over concepts/technologies in recent years (think algae that makes H2, bacteria that makes crude oil, and using butterfly wings to understand photonic crystals). Now we are appearantly on the verge of the Protocell. Link-Wired

Just imagine, plop in some DNA, lets things evolve in specific conditions, see what comes out- repeat, pick the best- repeat. Cells are specifically evolved to perfrom tasks on the atomic level. It is how calcium becomes bone, it is how iron sticks to blood, and it is how food becomes atomic poop. The microelectronics world are quickly approaching the atomic level with 45nm consumer level transistor sizes, they are already at 450 atoms per element. People point to nano-particles, and yes they are going to play a huge roll in the future, but nano-particles still represents a relatively traditional way of processing. The Protocell is totally new, innovative, and really scary. 

Pollan Quote

Here Pollan is describing how agroscience has re-enforced the views of the author Sir Albert Howard in recent years: 

"As it happens, in the years since Howard wrote, science has provided support for a great many of his unscientific claims: Plants grown in synthetically fertilized soils are less nourishing than ones grown in composted soils; such plants are more productive and less prone to disease than monocultures; and that in fact the health of the soil, plant, animal, human, and even nation are, as Howard claimed, connected along lines we can now begin to draw with empirical confidence. We may not be prepared to act on this knowledge, but we know that civilizations that abuse their soil eventually collapse."*

These various statments are supported by a series of footnotes which includes Asami et al, Tilman, and Diamond to name a few. 

Turret Photosynth

My second attempt at a MS Photosynth and I got 100% synth vs. the 13% synth I got before. I think it's pretty neat and fun, check it out- Link

You have to download some software, but it is worth it, there are many different ones to view. 

Burningman 2008 - Hot Burner at the Temple

Burningman 2008 - The Temple Set 5

Politics: Compare and Contrast