in search of (2) timeline
in this, our second installment of in search of, we google the word timeline. as it turns out the internet is absolutely chock full of timelines, choked with timelines, infested with them really. we will filter them as best we can and serve up what we think is a nice stew of timeline goodness. let’s begin
1) chemsoc timeline an exploration of key events in the history of science with a particular emphasis on chemistry. spiffy graphics.
2) dark watcher a very thorough and heavily illustrated timeline of video game consoles. dig that crazy tellstar.
3) ultimate sf an exhaustively detailed timeline of all things science fiction, somehow going all the way back to prehistory… warning, absolutely no pictures only unending context. if you prefer pictures check out b.e.t.‘s timeline of black folks in science fiction.
4) for all you typographers and graphic designers modern type timeline, or if you wanna go back, way back, check out ancient scripts.
5) a historic timeline of cgi animation. some movies and quite a few images.
6) timeline of art history brought to you by the nice folks at the metropolitan museum of art of course. pretty well done really.
7) an unofficial timeline of hip hop history. not very deep and bereft of the ol’ school images you’d so thoroughly enjoy, but fairly interesting in a nostalgic way.
8) gui timeline. a nicely illustrated timeline of the evolution of graphical user interfaces. worth a look for the old flat graphics alone. if you go to the homepage you can see many more images organized by company. panther users check out apple os 1.1. crazy huh?
9) for the more spiritual or fanatical among you check out the timeline of scared texts. provides a nice historical context for when the heavy texts were created in comparison to one another, and when certain religious events occurred or are said to have occurred in comparison to scientific events and estimates. or just try these for visual reference eastern religions and western religions.
10) timeline of intelligent machines. a very thorough timeline with many interesting offshoots and subtopics to explore. from the always interesting kurzweilai.net
11) for you forecasters and futurologists, here are a couple of timelines breaking down events and trends to come. humanknowledge, and the illustrated speculative timeline.
12) timeline of comic books. this is pretty nice, lots of illustrations, goes way back. good stuff.
13) timeline of computing. interesting mainly for its illustrations and facts concerning ancient modes of computation, especially since it only goes up to 97. good reading though.
14) here’s the big daddy of timelines i suppose, a timeline history of the world. LOTS of stuff covered here, as the title suggests. endless context for the over specialized.
15) how about a little philosophy served fresh and hot? here you go, timeline of western philosophy, strangely we didn’t come across one for eastern philosophy, oh well.
16) very detailed timeline of photography, though sadly not nearly enough photographs included.
17) and lastly a historical timeline of garbage. yes garbage. the whole stinky, statistic and fact filled history.
until the next installment, enjoy.
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the grand illusion
interesting article about the search for the nuerological basis of consciousness, or rather about a guy who is involved in the search. if you find it interesting, this paper is more in depth about the science involved, specifically dealing with visual consciousness. since the neurologists seem to often use optical illusions to prove there points here are a few nice links to some of those as well. 1>
, 2, 3. enjoy.
umberto eco talks the talk
an interesting lecture given by umberto eco in egypt concerning the new initiatives of the bibliotheca alexandrina, namely the creation a truly expansive internet library. he touches on much of what has been debated in the last 10 years, the “death” of the paper book etc. incidentally if you like ebooks why not check out project gutengerg, the million book project, the hyper text library, or the world ebook library. if you prefer holding a nice bound book in your hand, or want to make unforeseen connections between books why not take advantage of amazon.com’s new search inside the book function? enjoy.
political turkey tryptophan
in case the masters of the oversimplified sound byte and engeneered photo-op have managed to make you sleepy with there thanksgiving cornucopia of media tryptophan here are some gentle reminders of reality to wake you from your happy slumber.
1) loosening the noose on corporate criminals, i.e. campaign contributors
2) letting monopolies off the hook, legally and permanently
3) expanding the patriot act, ironically, on the sly
4) we love trees! money is made from trees, or pocket the buck then pass the buck
humans humans everywhere
a study (published in proceedings b) found that there are simply too many humans on little ol’ planet earth to sustain civilization ad infinitum. to quote the findings “Our study found that when we compare ourselves to otherwise similar species, usually other mammals of our same body size, for example, we are abnormal and the situation is unsustainable.”
anyone living in a major metropolitain area intuitively knows this i think. (i can attest to it at this very moment. their are hundreds of people outside my window just now, moving towards and away from the thanksgiving day parade. a swarm is the best word i can think to describe it, reinforced by the unending noise from the circling helicopters, and the waves of cheers about who knows what. but then, i have the thought “there are just too many people!” every day just about. in the subway, on the street, on line, trying to hail a cab… don’t get me started. ) and we city dwellers certainly get a good sense for the “abnormality” of the race. anyhow a good site for more info about humanities annoying proliferation is overpopulation.org. if you prefer to simply laugh at some of the “abnormality” try losers.org instead.
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zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
am i the only one who’s tired, and really just plain unimpressed with all the kasparov vs. fritz vs. big blue chess matches? it was interesting the first time around i suppose, but at this point, who really gives a shit? isn’t this really just a guy playing a terrifically boring video game? no one cheered me when as a child i heroically beat this s.o.b. and made the maniacal laughter stop. no one noticed as people all over the world struggled valiantly against this massive challenge. so until i see kasparov conquer something at least as exciting as this i can do without all the trumped up man versus machine reporting. thanks.
the doctors are in, or nearly
jeff vandermeer, author of such gems as city of saints and madmen, and veniss underground will be in new york soon in support of the thackery t. lambshead pocket guide to eccentric & discredited diseases, a book he brought together and co-edited featuring work by, among others, dr.neil gaiman, dr.china mieville, dr.michael moorcock, and dr.alan moore.
here is a description of the reading: THE THACKERY T. LAMBSHEAD POCKET GUIDE TO ECCENTRIC & DISCREDITED DISEASES comes to New York City, Fri 21 Nov 2003, 7:30 p.m., at the Kipp’s Bay Borders (#228. 576 Second Ave) Join discredited doctors such as the diabolical World Fantasy Award winners Jeffrey Ford and Jeff VanderMeer, Paris Review contributor and disease poet Shelley Jackson, the anti-typhoid sufferin’ International Horror Guild Award winner Michael Cisco, the evil Robert Wexler, author of In Springdale Town, and the mysterious G. Mesa for a one-of-a-kind literary experience. What can you expect from the Lambshead Traveling Carnival and Fun Show? Laughter, props, giant microbes, and advanced cases of hypochondria. You can even win free stuff! Additional work by Philip K. Dick Award winner Stepan Chapman and American Goliath author Harvey Jacobs will be read at the event.
i’ll see you there.
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a.d.d. and a.r.t.
20-60 seconds per art object (art object, what a stupid term) that’s how long viewers view. when interactive display material is added the number goes up 300%. yippie! why not add some commercials and a laugh track? sheesh.
john currin
a story in the nytimes about john currin (whose paintings are amazing). it seems he’s getting a major retrospective at the whitney soon (nov 20). the opinions he expresses are so nice to hear i want to hug the guy. deborah solomon, who wrote the piece, however, needs a nice smack. seriously. also, something i’ve always wanted to say to the new york times- how in the hell can you write 5 pages on an artist and only offer a single 2 inch thumbnail of the work? it’s the internet! put up some fucking links at least! with that in mind, here you go. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. best i could do. enjoy.
mock your mortality
it’s past halloween, and not quite the apocalypse, but mortality never goes out of style does it? first, plan ahead. calculate the day of your demise with the death clock. then send your future self a reminder of said date. now while you sit around, waiting for the date to arrive, first get into the mood with some appropriate litterature, then why not see how your passing will fit in to the statistics, or search for some quality post life real estate with some nice neighbors. not dead yet? ok, get a snack and check out who beat you to the punch… still here? feeling a bit downcast waiting around for your demise? well, maybe, if your lucky, your slated for a nice bout of bucket kicking on the same day as everyone else. that would be nice huh? anyhow, have a swell day, and don’t forget to fill out that organ donor card! smooch.
that is a magazine
a new issue (#11) of thisisamagazine is out. the title of this installment is i am not an artist, in the middle of which is a nice reductionist section outlining the few archetypes current “big” artists fall into. they name names which is very enjoyable. here are some back issues as well. 11&1/2<,
10, and 9. plenty more at their archive. enjoy.
lost and found round up
i think that perhaps the lost and found section of zeitgeist has been languishing. where are the conspiracies? where are the enigmatic gurus? where are the alternate philosophies? where are the kooks, the mad geniuses, and the prophets i’ve promised? well, in this massive round up i will attempt to satiate your insatiable thirst for all things other.
hilarious, misunderstood, or deadly serious? you, fine nonist, be the judge. but beware some of what you see here may challenge your very understanding of reality and change your life forever!
amazing technologies:
1) the eternal life device.
2) your ticket home
3) butt candles
4) doggie diapers (don’t cheat yourself, see the video)
5) feel the globes pain
6) voodoo magic
7) lifters
8) reverse speech
9) quantum xrroid consciousness interface
10) pulsed plasma mobile hydrogen generator”
11) kirlian camera
12) atlin
extraordinary people
1) kim skipper corbin
2) eve alien love bite lorgen
3) uhh, well
4) dore the second coming williamson
5) jaqueline rumpology stallone
6) ras mikael the excorsis enoch
7) hmm, well, lets see…
8) jelaila nubrian starr
9) the athlerius society
10) ashtar sheran, take your time, much to see here, much
11) john titor. if you’ve never heard of him and his time travelling exploits you’ve got some catching up to do.
12) and finally the trinity of al bielek, preston nichols, and duncan cameron. whose all encompassing montauk project is so expansive, so massive you can only hope to scratch the surface with these links.
alright folks, suck on that for a while. hope your minds don’t explode from all the profundity.
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filler time
well folks, had a technological meltdown on thursday. dead hard drive. infinite tortures of the “press 6 to speak with a human” loop. long session of mind bendingly boring archiving of data… thus the silence and tumbleweeds prevailing here for the last couple of days. anyhow, got a shiny new G5 and am revving back up. while i do that why not peruse some of this stuff? ought to keep you busy for a little while…
ok, lets see, grab bag time…
1) neave, includes a virtual planetarium, moon spin, and parallax stars.
2) entropy8zuper. a bunch of obtuse flash stuff. some of which is purty.
3) fable an intriguingly designed but ultimately pointless bit of flash gamery.
4) destination mars. interactive mars exploring thingamajig. may or may not be up and running (if not, check here for a similar though much less attractive mars explorer via cnn)
5) oculart. an intriguingly designed but ultimately pointless bit of flashery. i guess you might call it… dare i say it… art.
6) insert silence. refreshingly 2d messy motion goodness.
7) gooberstory. not sure how to explain this. a really long, quiet, quasi tragic flash movie. nature and animals and fish that turn into a peanuts.
8) ova. lots of video stuff to look at, digi, found footage, animation, etc.
9) shift. the ever enjoyable, ever expanding japanese site.
10) and finally, the classic and beloved powers of ten
enjoy, be back soon.
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cash gordon
a company is auctioning off a satellite space mission on ebay. in their own words: “Have you ever thought about having your own space mission? Do you have a payload that you would like to put in orbit around the Earth? Need a holiday gift for the person who has everything? Have you ever wondered what it would be like to explore space with your own spacecraft?? Now, you can.” current and only bid is 250 thousand. yeesh. what does it all mean?
respect your elders!
alright, i’m getting tired of all the politico posts and will put a temporary moratorium on my own output in that area. instead lets see some art why don’t we? let’s start right at the beginning. think back to the days before track lighting, overhead projectors, and liquitex. before linseed oil, and dryer, and matte medium. back before you could stroll into pearl and buy any of the million different minutia of fetishistic art supplies. before grants, and manifestos, and auctions, and critics. hell, before anything.
first see the utter failure of the modern gallery to act as “elevated” space by taking three virtual tours of ancient cave systems. lascaux, chavet, and cosquer. then once you’ve gotten tired of those why not check out these, or these, or check out this really thorough site where if you search a little you can find some real gems. if you prefer your ancient artwork with a heaping side dish of kook theory and conspiratorial weirdness you will prefer this place.
in any case next time you’re feeling uninspired and depressed saying to yourself “it’s all been done before” don’t forget to add “and better”. it has been done. whatever it is. it’s been done for thousands upon thousands of years, by millions upon millions of people. but that does not mean a thing because it hasn’t been done by you. right? take a cue from these folks and remember why you are doing it… just because. so nod your respect to your wise old elders and then get cracking.
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evilometer
came across this site which analyzes web sites to see whether the content is good or evil. the results are a bit odd though, in that this site received a 99 percent good rating, while a page from the official re-elect bush page got only a 79 percent evil rating. grain of salt obviously.
the president can save your life
just swallowed 40 sleeping pills and having second thoughts? did rat poison make an unwelcome appearance in your pb&j? did you sprinkle comet in your coffee thinking it was non-dairy creamer? have a night out and want to avoid the emergency room’s alcohol poisoning stomach pump? quick! grab an industrial sized bucket and go here.