google earth, traces art space, existential seasickness, fuzzy searching

Dear Nantoka, what sort of a tonic do you recommend against existential seasickness?

Sincerely, Raty in San Francisco

Dear Raty,

Try putting your hands in the dirt and see if that helps.

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hi folks, good morning. hope you are all well. Please excuse me if I seem out of sorts. I am still reeling from my ride last night on Google Earth.

this is some serious craziness. I don't even know where to begin to describe what it's like, or to guess what it will mean.

on the very narrow scale, I would say that landscape art is taking a major turn here, and I hope that park making and sustainable land use will become vastly more recognized as a social responsibility--not just as an icing-on-the-cake sort of thing.

On the very, very grand, sweeping scale, we have just opened a door into a parallel universe.

Everything we have ever believed about human existence has taken a major turn here.
The ability to conceive of our fragile living sphere in this way cannot possibly leave us the same people that we used to be.

Welcome to the Organic thought movement, folks. Don't take any wooden nickels.

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to the folks at Roanoke City Magazine--thank you so much for putting Moth Girl in this month's issue.

to folks who collect Moth Girl pictures---maybe see if you can still find a copy of the city magazine because Moth Girl is in there.

Kerri at the Roanoke City Magazine wrote me an email a few weeks ago asking for a little write-up to put in the gallery guide but I sort of blew it off for a while because I assumed I would have to pay to be included. Well, I was wrong about that. Thanks for calling me back Kerri. As it turns out this is a free listing.

Here is what the listing in the new 'Visions' art style guide will look like:

Name: The Traces Art Space
Address: Studio 124 at the Jacksonville Center, Floyd, Virginia
Phone: 540-745-2784
Website: www.traces.ws
Location: 1/2 mile south of the stoplight in Floyd
Description: an art & reading room managed by Suzy Nees
Calendar through January 31, 2006: Exhibits develop organically on a seasonal basis. Exhibit materials include books, farming tools, rock samples, antique maps, illustrations, etc. related to mountain culture and rural life.

Speaking of Etc. I counted up how many completed "Dogs on Trucks" etc coloring activities and man I am rich. I counted thirty five. These are really cool. I hope to scan at least a few of them soon. but I have a lot of work to do in the garden, so it may get put on the back burner for a while.

and speaking of gardening, I think that about does it for my time on the Internet. I need to get off this dumb computer and spruce up the planet a bit if I can.

have a wonderful day. Suzy

US scientists create zombie dogs

hi folks,

I just found an article on slashdot describing a process by which dogs have been drained of all their blood, injected with an ice-cold saline solution, and brought back to life a few hours later with an electric shock after their blood has been replaced.

the article says that the technique may be tested on humans in a year or so. The word "Boffin" in this article, by the way, apparently is some kind of term for a mad scientist.

boffins create zombie dogs

tags: pets, ethics, cryogenics, living will, is it the future yet?

posted by suzy nees, studio 124 at the Jacksonville Center, Floyd, Virginia

Letters to Nantoka: Gnomedex

Dear Nantoka,

What is all the fuss about this product "Gnomedex"?
Is it indeed a product at all? Does it cost money? Is it a scam?
Do you think it will help me at all with my sheepherding business?

Sincerely, Henry

Dear Nantoka,

Can you please tell me in plain English what NomeDecks is?

Sincerely, Curious in Copenhagen

Dear Nantoka,

My only computer access is a crappy dial-up connection on the public library computer.
Should I care about the word Gnomedex? Or the word Technorati?

Sincerely, Has a Life Outside of the Internet

Dear Nantoka,

Can you please tell me more about Gnomedex?
Will Gnomedex help me train my hunting dogs?

I don't really understand why I should care about this, but you have mentioned it in your newsletter so often I thought I would inquire since you have such a handy knack for explaining things to others in really simple terms.

Could you please explain to The Internet that I am likely to buy this product if it will help me figure out how I can spend less time in a cubicle and more time out in the woods with my pups.

Dear Nantoka,

I tried asking a friend about Gnomedex yesterday, but he used that "blog" word and I just have a phobia about the word blog.

I don't know. I just don't understand what a blog is. Can the world please slow down before we start re-inventing the wheel all over again? I am so exhausted and ready to get off the hamster cage wheel I could just scream.

Dear Nantoka,

I hear that you have the ability to transmit telepathic messages to robots. Will you please tell them to help stop desertification and soil runoff? These things are extremely frightening to me.

just posted on slashdot

UMass Amherst Researchers Discover That Microbes Can Produce Miniature Electrical Wires

AMHERST, Mass. – Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst have discovered a tiny biological structure that is highly electrically conductive. This breakthrough helps describe how microorganisms can clean up groundwater and produce electricity from renewable resources. It may also have applications in the emerging field of nanotechnology, which develops advanced materials and devices in extremely small dimensions.

The findings of microbiologist Derek R. Lovley's research team are published in the June 23rd issue of Nature , an international science journal. Researchers found that the conductive structures, known as “microbial nanowires,” are produced by a novel microorganism known as Geobacter . The nanowires are incredibly fine, only 3-5 nanometers in width (20,000 times finer than a human hair), but quite durable and more than a thousand times long as they are wide.

“Such long, thin conductive structures are unprecedented in biology,” said Lovley. “This completely changes our concept of how microorganisms can handle electrons, and it also seems likely that microbial nanowires could be useful materials for the development of extremely small electronic devices.”

“The microbial world never stops surprising us,” said Dr. Aristides Patrinos of the U.S. Department of Energy, which funds the Geobacter research. “The remarkable and unexpected discovery of microbial structures comprising microbial nanowires that may enable a microbial community in a contaminated waste site to form mini-power grids could provide new approaches to using microbes to assist in the remediation of DOE waste sites; to support the operation of mini-environmental sensors, and to nano-manufacture in novel biological ways. This discovery also illustrates the continuing relevance of the physical sciences to today's biological investigations.” More...

documentary explores "krumping" dance style

from an article by Daisy Nguyen

...While still mostly unknown beyond the LA neighborhoods of Compton, Inglewood, Watts and Long Beach, dancers hope that krumping will become more familiar with Friday's release of "Rize." The documentary by photographer and music video director David LaChapelle explores the phenomenon started by Thomas Johnson, a former drug dealer who turned to religion and clown dancing after the 1992 Rodney King riots. More....

"Scientific" whaling continues to draw heavy criticism

tags: whaling, science, conservation

excerpted from an article by Jon Herskovitz Tue Jun 21, 8:53 AM ET

ULSAN, South Korea (Reuters) - Japan lashed out at anti-whaling nations on Tuesday after its proposal to resume limited commercial hunting was voted down by an international commission and its "scientific" harvesting heavily criticized. More...

environmental effects of sod farming

an excerpt from a sprol.com article by Sheila Tipton.

"I live in the Leonard, Oklahoma area in a horseshoe-shaped land formation. The Arkansas River surrounds the land formation to the north, east, and west. The land is a sandy loam.

From our investigations, the sod farmers in the region, approximately eight farming operations in a five mile square area, have been operating for about 15 to 20 years.

Many of our citizens in the community, approximately 500 citizens, have reported unusual illnesses.These symptoms are being reported by the majority and not the minority of our citizens.

The Sod Farmers were using biosolid waste on their sod for fertilizing for over a decade, until the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) was notified of possible non-compliance in application of this waste.

Once an investigation was performed, the Sod Farmers were no longer allowed to purchase and use this waste in our area.

My question, however, is what effects might have occurred prior to the Sod Farmers supposedly stopping their use of biosolid waste.

Our water wells have been notably contaminated with high levels of nitrates in and around the main area of this dumping. The levels are from 10-20 Parts Per Million (or PPM, as in 10PPM-20PPM). We have not tested these wells for any other contaminants.

Also, our homestead wells are going dry, seven in one half mile area in the last two years.

For over 50 years old times indicated setting sand points and reaching good quality water at depths of 10 to 15 feet. Since the heavy irrigation of the Sod Farmers over the last 15 years, the citizens have had to go to depths of 30+ feet and some of us still have been unable to reach water.

And then, the water is not the quality needed to support a household.

We have contacted the Oklahoma Water Resources Board (OWRB) and they discovered that the Sod Farmers had been using the groundwater, without the proper permits, for a decade. There was a trial.

The OWRB allowed the Sod Farmers to apply for permits, and they were approved, even though the community offered much evidence of how their long standing operations were affecting and changing our environment.

We have not seen any frogs in our community in over two years....

more at sprol.com

PBS and NPR budgets at stake

excerpts from an email from moveon.org

...In the next few days, the House of Representatives will vote on whether to slash funding for NPR and PBS. And tomorrow, before Congress votes, we'll present stacks and stacks of printed petitions and public comments to save public broadcasting. We'll be joined by members of Congress and the public TV and radio staff fighting for survival.

Over 817,000 people have signed the petition so far—simply incredible. But we want to present 1 million signatures to the press tomorrow, and we can do it with your help.

In all our years of online organizing, we've never heard of one million Americans signing a petition in a week, but we're within striking distance now.

Then please send this message on to your friends and colleagues—it'll take all of us pushing together to get to the 1 million mark.

Already, the public outcry has delayed the effort to eliminate funding entirely, but the proposed cuts would still cripple NPR and PBS. The cuts threaten programs like "All Things Considered," "NOW," "Sesame Street," "Fresh Air," "The Charlie Rose Show," and "Clifford the Big Red Dog." In an era of corporate media, public broadcasting is one of the last places you can find insightful journalism and educational content. Quality costs money, and corporate owners are too willing to sacrifice good programming to save a buck.

If the House passes these massive cuts, we'll fight to restore the funding when the Senate takes up public broadcasting. But even if we stop the House cuts, we'll need to make sure Senate Republicans don't try the same thing.

Together, we can stop the House from slashing NPR and PBS in the federal budget.

Can you help us hit 1 million signers today?

The stakes are high: some of the best programs on the air are at risk. After you sign, please pass this on to any friends, family, co-workers and neighbors who watch or listen to public TV and radio.

Thank you for all you do,

–Noah, Micayla, Carrie, Marika and the MoveOn.org Team
Monday, June 20th, 2005

wal-mart on dateline tonight June 17

< loop fair trade, bangladesh, wal-mart loop >

Tonight at 8:00 p.m. ET NBC Dateline will air an in-depth, undercover investigation of sweatshop production in Bangladesh for major U.S. retailers like Wal-Mart. The National Labor Committee worked with NBC Dateline on this investigation.

Young women in Bangladesh are forced to work 14 hours a day, often seven days a week for wages as low as 13 cents an hour, leaving them trapped in inhuman living conditions. The workers are paid just 10 cents for every Wal-Mart shirt they sew.

If Wal-Mart and the other giant retailers would pay just 37 cents an hour, these women could climb out of misery and at least into poverty--which is their goal.

The National Labor Committee is launching a campaign calling upon Wal-Mart to pay 20 cents more per garment.

www.nlcnet.org to read more and participate in the campaign.
Visit the WalmartWatch.com Blog to join in the discussion.

Sugar as a pesticide

sugar, crop, organic

An article on sugar as a pesticide
by Bjorn Carey

apparently there is a new way to deal with crop pests: just put 'm in a sugar coma.

(It's special sugar, though, so don't worry about people sugar,
the kind you see in the grocery store...
...that, of course, is totally harmless...)

letters to Nantoka June 17, 2005

Dear Nantoka,
Will a penny cry if you pinch it too hard?
Sincerely,

Celeste in Louisville

-------

Dear Nantoka,

I hear you have developed a new recipe for <loop blackberry soup loop>

It sounds strange, but delicious!

Can I get the recipe from you please? I hear that this is a budget stretching recipe.
I have three kids and I always need a way to stretch my household dollar.
Is it healthy?

Sincerely,
Withholding my demographic data from prying eyes


Dear Withholding,
Yes, it is very healthy. It promotes good digestion.


Ingredients
3 domain names (freshly picked)
10 loop tags
1 can chicken or vegetable soup
1 tsp. Content ( a little goes a long way)
3 blackberry plants

Trim every bit of fat you can from the domain names.
This is the most important part of the recipe,
and it you don’t do this right the whole dinner will be ruined.
Make sure you don’t add Spam instead of Content.

Once you have finished your website, fix yourself a can of soup.
As an added treat, cook the soup on the stove, instead of in the microwave.

Then plant your blackberry plants.
Only do this if they are native to your area.
This will provide food for migrating birds.

If, on the other hand, you have no lack of blackberry bushes, be delighted: you are rich!


------

Dear Nantoka,

I've never asked anybody before but maybe you might have some
ideas or just 1 idea for me (if it's something that I maybe want to do),
and if it's something that you might think some people might be able to do --

What's your opinion about how somebodyor anybody might be able to get off the
hamster wheel?

(Even for just a day or two or a minute or two, if that is all that is possible),
If they truly want to that is?

This might be too simple a question or too complicated to answer,
so if I don't hear from you I'll understand.

P.S. Not that I'm necessarily on the hamster wheel; but I actually think I am.

Thanks for reading this

Sarah's Mom


Dear Sarah's Mom,

Thank you for writing. I have given this priority contemplation status.

Project30 June exhibit

------------------------------------

< loop loup loupe epuol puol pool >

------------------------------------

This is an invitation to view Projekt30's June Juried Exhibition.
Follow the "june exhibition" link at http://www.projekt30.com.

------------------------------------

Who we are:

Projekt30 is an online gallery, run by artists, designed to expose
artists to "brick and mortar" art galleries which may be interested
in presenting their work. We are an arts organization
using technology to encourage public interest in the fine arts,
and help shape the art world in the twenty-first century.

What you will find:

Projekt30 is pleased to present 30 artists that have been
selected from a large pool of applicants. This is the most competitive
exhibition we have hosted, and we are very pleased with the results.
If you are interested in any of the featured artists for any reason
(even just to say hello) please feel free to use the "contact this
artist" link below their work.

Thank you for your time, we hope you enjoy the show!

You are receiving this invitation because you have been identified as a
person involved or interested in the arts, either in a personal or
professional capacity.

We are not selling anything and understand the
frustration some people experience due to unwanted email...

tags: air, physics, wiring, space

His-n-her brains

...Spurred by learning, neurons and synapses are ruthlessly pruned, a process that continues in fits and starts throughout adolescence, then picks up again in middle age.

"The brain is being sculpted gradually through sets of interactions," said Anne Fausto-Sterling, a gender studies expert at Brown University. "Even when something in the brain appears biological, it may have come to be that way because of how the body has experienced the world."

< loop loup loupe epuol puol pool >

loop starts here

from the National Priorities Project

---------loop

The Right to be Cold

OSLO (Reuters) - Inuit hunters threatened by a melting of the Arctic ice plan to file a petition accusing Washington of violating their human rights by fueling global warming, an Inuit leader said Wednesday.

be careful what you google for

Overheard...

"The Google method for reimbursing Web sites and ranking them has led to a proliferation of sites designed merely to collect revenue from Google. These sites may contain some superficial articles on a subject, but their main purpose is to trick the Google algorithms so they gain a high ranking and earn income from users who use their links. Google is constantly trying to modify its algorithms to stay ahead of the imposters.

The net result of all this "portal spam" is that searches done through Google become less useful. Instead of finding meaningful results, the user is confronted with a bunch of meaningless sites, while the really useful sites who are not "playing the game" end up relegated to the bottom of the results, if they show up at all. People end up abandoning the Internet for their locally focused and trusted source, the Yellow Pages."

-------------

from a related article:

..... I'm expecting that number to inflate considerably now that Google has disclosed that it is testing the placement of ads in syndicated RSS feeds. (See yesterday's Industry Standard article for more on this.)

Too bad, because the great value of RSS has been non-existent ad noise. Given the great wealth of blogs (and bloggers who need some cash to compensate them for the time they waste re-posting the comments of others), this has the potential to be a significant new revenue stream for Google and other search engines that will race to compete.

--------

a very brave woman is free

Mukhtaran Mai free to go abroad

June 15, 2005

hi folks,

just got finished posting some pictures of some of the landscaping & home projects I have been working on. It's hard to spend time on the computer with the weather as nice as it is now...

Anyway I have started plugging links into the ideapark.org site. I will work more on this project just as soon as I finish spending just a little more time in the sunshine.

Today I got an email from Silvia of VI aniversario en la web del Grupo VirtuArt. It looks interesting, I will look at this more sometime.

warm wishes,

Suzy

brain-in-a-jar link, etc.

Blue Brain project: the ethics of creating consciousness

For Chinese, Peasant Revolt is Rare Victory

overheard: "...Half the fun of being a conservative is listening to liberals who vastly overestimate your power. (Hint to panicky feminists: natural family planning/fertility awareness is empowering, effective, cheap, and very private.)"

Tuesday June 14

good morning to everyone, hope you are all well.

I have been having good luck recently finding some really neat websites, wikis and blogs in the Yahoo search directory...including some satellite photos of mountaintop removal in West Virginia. I found them just two pages in...Thanks for that, Yahoo!

Spoke with Mary Ann Hitt from Appalachian Voices yesterday and she will be giving me newspapers to distribute at the gallery in Floyd...

Also anyone who is interested in helping to co-manage the Traces projects is warmly encouraged to watch for announcements on the ideapark.org site.

Informal exhibit proposals for the Traces space are welcome via postcard or letter to Traces, Room 124 at the Jacksonville Center. Please be advised that exhibitors will be asked to cover the cost of renting the space, although promotional assistance will be provided free via Traces and ideapark.org. More on this soon.

Pledge Bank is a pretty neat new thing. It is something I found in the Yahoo Directory too.

bye,
Suzy

the failure of war

the failure of war by Wendell Berry

a science & ethics article

many scientists admit to misconduct

open letters

Dear Nantoka,
Why is madness, and the idea of objectivity, so superficially addressed in science textbooks? I am trying to prepare to be a Real Scientist and I am really concerned with the possibility that I might become an Evil Scientist.
Sincerely, Effing Confused

Dear Effing,
What, you think those textbooks are going to sell themselves?

Dear Nantoka,
I am terribly upset because I am rapidly approaching my thirty-sixth estrus. I have read a great many scientific textbooks that suggest that by the fifty-eighth estrus, the females ovaries in my species are essentially useless. How will I procreate?
Sincerely, Elka in Wisconsin

Dear Elka,
I have wonderful news for you. Your problem is the size of an atom.
-----------------------------

Keywords: wired, news, dearth, technology, tumor, stem, vomit, tooth, stomach, descent, slope, panic, lineage, pedigree, Jefferson, dark, darker, darkest, decent, males, ladies, influence, intelligence, natural language, advertisement, offline, intelligent selectivity, vs. the prettiest antlers, procreation, co-ownership, adoption vs. authorship, ego, noise, breeding, eugenics, whitewashing, genetics, look it up, petri dish, conquest, domination, will, force, struggle, genocide, slavery, war, remedy, spit, cooties, bad memories, remediation, set it and forget it, workflow, intelligence, forget, select what you most wish to forget very carefully, It could make your life many thousands of times better. This is how you learn. Free textbooks. For real.

reverse engineering, agriculture, peace, work, food bank, permanence, seed bank, chameleon, book, archive, artifact, life, focus, quality, censure, industry, pornography, Christianity, agreement, values, life, result, child, proposal, Swift, fodder, cannon, crusade, children of holy wars, ecology, ghetto, inheritance, bleak, pandas in captivity, husbandry, animal cruelty, link, psychosis, factory farming, human trafficking, underground railroad, escape, release, frustration, I will fight no more forever, freedom, liberty, justice, wisdom, ownership, stewardship. See also: Naikan, poetry, will to live, virtuality, captor, consumer, bot no follow, don't be a sheep, North, orientation, drive, desire, consumer, trend, shift, onbashira

---------------------------------------

Dear Wired magazine,

Thanks for the great picture of the Tooth in a wad of meat and fat. I almost barfed. That article completely gave me the creeps. A Modest Proposal came immediately to mind. Please fax me immediately if you ever get word that a machine has been invented which will allow me to never have seen this picture.

Sincerely, Nantoka

----------------------------------

Dear Wired magazine.
Will you please tell me how I can arrange to adopt the Tooth in a wad of meat and fat pictured in your current issue? I have started to feel very sorry for him.

--a someone in Albuquerque

-------------------------------------

hi readers,

If you are not sure how you feel about stem cell research, pick up the current issue of Wired magazine and read it from cover to cover. When you get to the picture of the fully formed tooth in a wad of meat and fat, make sure you are not eating.

Even if you are not really interested in all the new hand held information devices and robotic vacuum cleaners and gizmos in the first part of the magazine, try to get an overall feel for the shape of our world according to this magazine before you get to the Tooth part. Even if technology is not your cup of tea, you need to know about the new robots and things that geeks are inventing these days. Trust me.

press release: clean water protection act

PRESS RELEASE - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

JUNE 2, 2005
CLEAN WATER PROTECTION ACT INTRODUCED IN US CONGRESS

CONTACT: Andrew Souvall or Jennifer Cannata, Rep. Frank Pallone, 202-225-4671
Mary Anne Hitt, Executive Director, Appalachian Voices, 540-239-0073
Janice Nease, Executive Director, Coal River Mountain Watch, 304-854-2182

The Clean Water Protection Act, H.R. 2719, has just been introduced by Reps. Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ), Christopher Shays (R-CT), and 53 other members into the United States House of Representatives.

The bill will protect communities and water quality by outlawing the dumping of mining waste into streams.

The legislation was introduced to address a 2002 executive rule change that altered the long-standing definition of "fill material" in the Clean Water Act. The new definition allows mining waste to be used to fill streams, an attempt to legalize the filling of Appalachian mountain valleys with countless tons of mountaintop removal coal mining waste.

"Congress meant for the Clean Water Act to protect our nation's water resources; the Administrative rule change endangers those resources," said Rep. Pallone, the author of the legislation. "The dangerous precedent set by the Administration's rule change undermines the Clean Water Act. I've proposed the Clean Water Protection Act so the Bush Administration can no longer use our nation's waterways as dumping grounds for industrial waste."

Mary Anne Hitt, executive director of the regional conservation group Appalachian Voices, stated, "Mountaintop removal mining has already obliterated hundreds of thousands of acres of mountain forests and buried over 1,000 miles of streams. Mountaintop removal is not only destroying one of the richest ecosystems on earth, but it is terrorizing families in the coalfields."

Janice Nease, executive director of the coalfield citizens' group Coal River Mountain Watch, continued, "From flooding to blasting to coal dust to dangerous sludge dams, the families in the coalfields are under siege as a result of mountaintop removal coal mining. We need Congress to take action to protect our safety, security, and rights as United States citizens."

An editorial by the Harrisburg (PA) Patriot News published on May 25 echoed that sentiment, stating, "Such environmental destruction as [mountaintop removal] - and we've barely touched on its full ramifications - should not be allowed in the United States of America. Indeed, it should not be allowed anywhere on this planet where there exists an ounce of respect for the land or even a modest concern for the people who call it home. This type of mining needs to be stopped in its tracks. And only Congress can do that."

For more information, go to http://en.groundspring.org/EmailNow/pub.php?module=URLTracker&cmd=track&j=32292320&u=294228.