deja vu

“i was haunted and perplexed by an idea that somewhere or other I had seen just this strange spectacle before. the height, the blackness, the dismal void, before my eyes, seemed as familiar as the decorous neatness of my grandmother’s kitchen… it’s that odd state of mind wherein we fitfully and teasingly remember some previous scene or incident, of which the one now passing appears to be but the echo and reduplication.” -nathaniel hawthorn.
nice article looking into the many notions historically held about that most off putting of sensations, deja vu.

posted by jmorrison on 07/31 | lost & found - ideas | | permalink
does money buy happiness?

from the m.i.t. press, a detailed look into just that question. the standard answer is “money can’t buy you happiness, but it can buy you things that contribute to your happiness, or which help to make that happiness possible”. so what’s the difference? semantics, seems to me. this essay attempts to look a bit deeper at the question. one thing i’ve always wondered though, why do people think happiness is a baseline value? why is happiness considered the norm and any other mental state as something divergent which needs to be fixed through copious amounts of meds, analysis, counseling, etc? happiness can not exist alone and is not the default setting of consciousness. it is not concrete. it is not and could never be an infinitely sustained quantity. it is simply one emotional temperature in the flux, and that’s all. it is not the holy grail. essentially i guess i’m saying i don’t think it’s the point of life… any more than money is.

posted by jmorrison on 07/31 | lost & found - ideas | | permalink
tall buildings

nice flash exhibition from the moma web site. all about tall buildings the world over. in related flashiness there is also manhattan timeformations, a mapping of new york skyscraper districts through time. enjoy.

posted by jmorrison on 07/31 | sights & sounds | | permalink
paper polyhedrons

came across this guy selling nice paper polyhedrons. pretty cool. he’ll paint them in any hexadecimal color value you choose. if you prefer to make your own check here, or here. more polyhedra fun at polyhedra pastimes, encyclopedia of polyhedra, and the geometry junkyard.

posted by jmorrison on 07/30 | sights & sounds | | permalink
kerry’s speech

kerry delivered a pretty good speech last night. if you didn’t care enough to actually tune in to get a feel for the candidate, here is the transcript. i must say, and this is a surprise for everyone, the stiff drone we’ve come to expect was nowhere in sight. he was almost, dare i say it, charismatic.

posted by jmorrison on 07/30 | news & views - op ed | | permalink
get rich! or burn in hell.

want to understand the complex workings of world economics? well it’s not as complex as you might have been lead to believe by all those text books, in those silly classes you took as a kid. turns out, there is a much simpler way to understand it: “in countries where where large percentages of the population believe in hell, there seems to be less corruption and a higher standard of living”. so there you are. belief in hell is all it takes. of course NO ONE believes in hell without believing in god. specifically a certain all knowing, all powerful, cloud dwelling god with a beautifully quaffed white beard. so, finally decisive proof! christians believe in the one true god and doing so makes them rich! halleluia! if you’re reading this, and your poor, it’s because you worship a false god. plain and simple. so not only will your life on earth be full of pain and misery but when you die, probably of an s.t.d. or some crack related mishap, you can be sure you’ll burn for eternity in an extremely unpleasant place you were too stupid to believe in! serves you right… idol worshiping, crack whoring, gutter trash that you are. in any case this also answers the gnawing question of why said bearded god always seems to be in need of money himself? those in close contact with him are always collecting after all. obviously he has lot’s of people to make rich! gotta spend money to make money… i love you god of america. you’re the coolest.

posted by jmorrison on 07/28 | lost & found - belief | | permalink
the x men

the x prize is on the line. scaled composites just announced the date it plans to make it’s run. sept 29. the balloon-lofted wild fire rocket team is trying to keep it interesting. meanwhile back in nasa land the messenger mission is set. also a leading space scientist has called to question the validity of human spaceflight, suggesting that sending astronauts outward from earth is outdated. harumph.

posted by jmorrison on 07/28 | tech & science - space | | permalink
so many links, so little to say about them

escher web. explore the 17 two dimensional space groups. say what? just click it. (warning, java)

cut and paste. history of photo montage.

how and why wonders. cool book series from b.i.t.d.

dead bug funeral kit. if only they made a hamster version so i could have buried mine in something other than a wadded up dishrag.

pillow blog. 10th century pillow book recast in blog form.

argon zark, “the original interactive digital web comic”. don’t forget to click stuff.

the kingdom of loathing. see for yourself.

wordcount. graphic representation of the 86,800 most frequently used english words, ranked in order of commonality.

innexplicable objects. goofy stuff fo yo ass.

let’s play 66. be a game show contestant in 60’s london. win and join the in crowd.

marge lets norah see sharon’s telegram.

make the jackass speak. look at those beady little eyes!

the candy wrapper museum. sorry no wax lips.

the beastly garden of wordy delights. wordy delights of the beastly sort.

gps drawing. what the hell will they think of next?

posted by jmorrison on 07/28 | lost & found | | permalink
with all that oil money

with the importance on the world stage of fossil fuels and energy resources, all the lobbying by the involved industries to prop up their agenda, with all the romance of the road, the rout 66 mythos, the jack kerouacing of every college kid.. with all the “brand new cars” given away on the price is right, all the obsessive attention afforded chrome rims, the booming 2 dollar dashboard bobble-head industry, etc, you’d think we’d be further along with our transportation than the hyundai accent and the kia rio

posted by jmorrison on 07/24 | sights & sounds | | permalink
forbidden knowledge

cool link. a short history of banned books: the forbidden library. i must say though, this list paints a petty strange picture of humanity. for example harry potter’s no good because of the concentration of witchcraft but h.p. lovecraft is fine and dandy? mein kamp isn’t banned. neither is anton szandor lavey, or whatever else you might think of as nefarious or threatening to your belief system (catholics i’m talking to you!). it’s mostly literature, and children’s books. school reading lists basically. so strange. here is a list of the most challenged books of the last decade. wtf? protecting your child’s delicate mind by not letting him read lord of the flies or a wrinkle in time? man. pathetic. since when do we want our children to be weak minded one dimensional cream-puffs with no tools to handle a world bursting with conflicting ideas? oh, wait…

posted by jmorrison on 07/24 | sights & sounds - books | | permalink
what the hell were you thinking?

before you could speak that is. researchers try to hone in on the content of baby thought. their findings suggest that “humans possess a rich set of concepts before we learn language. learning a particular language may lead us to favor some of these concepts over others, but the concepts already existed before we put them into words.” seems obvious. speaking of language, also want to post this fine link (friend of a friend) which provides me with much etymological fun: the double-tongued word wrester.

posted by jmorrison on 07/24 | tech & science - theory | | permalink
building a bridge to the 19th century

very interesting article at whiskey bar about “the underlying fundamentals of bushonomics (like reaganomics, but without the compassion)” give it a read.

posted by jmorrison on 07/24 | news & views - op ed | | permalink
first contact and an audible snickering

seth shostak, the SETI Institute’s senior astronomer, using drakes equation and factoring in moore’s law has made calculations which suggest we puny earthlings will make first contact with an extra terrestrial intelligence within the next twenty years. meaning only that in the next twenty years our future alien overlords will finally hear us. when they respond with their wide beamed mind rays and planet devouring silicon particle clouds he does not claim to know. now i’d love nothing better than enslavement at the hands of ruthless insectoid aliens, but can there be a more useless prediction? thanks seth. why not write a big ol’ book with some of your astronomer pals while we wait to hear back? we can call it the new new testament.

posted by jmorrison on 07/24 | lost & found - ideas | | permalink
“If I had the faith to do it, I’d be a notable madman

now I am an insignificant one, but you see i am not sufficiently ambitious for that fame to set a match to the powder… you are a good enough judge of painting to see and understand what i may have of originality, and also to see the uselessness of presenting what i am doing to the modern public, because the others surpass me in clearness of touch. that is more the fault of wind and circumstances, compared to what I could do without the mistral and without the fatal conditions of vanished youth and comparative poverty.” the complete letters of vincent van gogh, unabridged, annotated, and illustrated. well done.

posted by jmorrison on 07/24 | sights & sounds | | permalink
changes, they are a coming

i want to assure all those who have been sending me fevered, urgent, plaintive, and concerned emails asking why-oh-why i have not been blogging of late… to mrs. betty dowrimple from tuscaloosa: no i have not given up on the nonist. to mr. p. qhadijah from the great country of gabon: no i have not been jailed. to father o’shea from the massachusetts archdiocese, no i have not forsaken you (ye of little faith!) though a rum cake with a file inside would still be gladly accepted. i was simply experiencing technical difficulties, and though too tired and lazy from long days of meaningless corporate whoring, i fully intended to continue. and here i am. since you all seemed to be waiting with baited breath for my next post i figure now is as good a time as any to tell you all i am in the beginning stages of rethinking and redesigning the nonist. in many ways the site will be simpler, in others more developed. most likely zeitgeist as it is now will cease to exist in favor of a more cohesive blog/site simply called the nonist. with all this in mind i ask, as i have before, if there are any requests? is there anything you would like to see included in the nonist? any content? any functionality? in short any suggestions or criticisms from our fine readership? in that i am currently redesigning, this is a case of speak now, or continue the annoying habit of forever holding your peace. that said, we continue…

posted by jmorrison on 07/24 | announcements | | permalink
that certain isometric something

as goofy as it is at this point i still find something satisfying about isometric pixel stuff. must be all those years of zelda sprites? or the early mac os icons? i don’t know. in any case, i found this complete guide to isometric pixel art and thought someone else out there might share my secret admiration. plus, as an added bonus, all this stuff:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and for good measure 10. any better pixel links are welcomed.

posted by jmorrison on 07/18 | sights & sounds | | permalink
stop motion studies

using footage from the subway lines of london, paris, boston, new york, and tokyo stop motion montages are constructed. pretty cool. the newest installment is here, the archive is here. one thing that struck me is how using only two or three frames gets across all the information needed to understand the experience of big city subway ride. a few scowling faces, some blank stares, looping blurs of motion, shifting eyes, repeat.

posted by jmorrison on 07/18 | sights & sounds | | permalink
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