fascinating rhythm or third eye blind

I regret that I don’t always make more time to explore the missives that I subscribed to from the AlterNet media group. There’s grey area that forms when one is more pressed for time that blurs spam with an interest that’s been backlogged. These headlines are anything but, and when I do take the time to really read beyond them, I always find something interesting, presented in a way that’s not preachy or esoteric—not that there is anything wrong with preachy or esoteric and I am sure that both adherents and detractors would take exception with those terms.

One recent engrossing example was an article on the not fully understood organ that sits in our brain, the pineal gland. Its always-on function seems to be regulating our sleep- and wake-cycles, maintaining a physical connection with that other always-on organ, the brain—or more philosophically, the mind. The pineal gland, accorded much more scientific and spiritual notice by the Ancients up through the Renaissance and was really regarded as a third-eye, however, also ekes out a complex chemical cocktail for the body, which no one really fully appreciates. Whatever this vestigial eye might see, conscientious modern-day thinkers believe that maybe obscuring its vision is possibly responsible for a whole host of contemporary and near-sighted ills.

life in the biq house or cold water flat

The ex-patriot daily, the local (original story not there but visit the German daily), brings coverage of an interesting experiment in Passivhausing from the City of Hamburg. The two sides of the structure, called the Bio Intelligence Quotient (BIQ) Haus, with the greatest exposure to the sun have a facade comprised of algae encased in a thin transparent tank of flowing water. The bio-reactive facade will allow energy produced through photosynthesis to be harvested, in the form of biomass, to produce more than enough natural gas to heat the building’s fifteen units.

The BIQ experiment represents only one of several innovative designs set to debut in the Hamburg neighbourhood Wilhelmsburg along the wharves. It’s pretty neat that this new concept of reducing one’s ecological footprint premieres together with a calendar of holidays celebrating sustainability and the environment, and reminding us how each of us can help, in big and in modest ways.

recall-roster

Der Spiegel’s International Desk reports that back in late 2012, an anonymous researcher set out to take a roll-call, a secret census of the public internet worldwide.

No one had been able to accurately gauge the volume of world-wide-web activity beforehand, and the demographics of this convert door-to-door poll probably can never be studied in a meaningful way, since the results were obtained illegally. Unlike WiFi snooping scandals, the hacker pinged routers to illicit a response, in much the same way as one would launch a denial of service attack but without the ill-intent and for counting only.

After establishing dialogues with some 450, 000 server farms, the hacker’s creation, named Carna Botnet (after the Roman goddess of health, internal organs, hinges and stoops) was able to propagate itself further and shake hands with some 2.3 billion active internet protocol addresses. This ease of access was quite surprising and the census project turned unexpectedly into an industry warning about the robustness of security and systemic vulnerabilities. There probably will not be another such screen-capture, snapshot of the internet’s denizens but it was nonetheless exhilarating to be included in something benign that showed how fast the on-line world is growing.

hippity-hoppity

brinksmanship or no quarter

On the surface of things, the evolving situation in Cyprus’ finances does not seem to make complete sense. There was originally a strange sort stoical solidarity as the idea of levying a deposit tax as collateral against the Euro-Group’s line of credit from the island’s government but public outrage and fears of precipitating such seizures ultimately led to the collapse in negotiations. Presently, the Cypriots look poised to renege on the terms of this rescue package, and the EU looks willing to cut its losses, recognizing the grave realities of a marshal-economy. The transformation was quick, from darling of people seeking out a safe berth for the money to anathema, over-exposed—though fundamentally, the shenanigans were no different than what when on in other crisis lands, or for that matter, what is still tolerable, attractive about other safe harbours, like Luxembourg or the Channel Islands.

Further, that stoicism belied a calmness, which was not entirely unheard over the uproar, with the church offering certain securities and pawning pension funds. The Euro-Group rejected these avenues, which seem to be no longer options for the Cypriot administration either, as untenable and just setting up the country for a deferred failure with an unsustainable burden of debt, as well as intervention by the Russians. Though there may be some interest not brought openly to the bargaining-table, Russia seems to be snubbing Cyprus, even with its untapped natural gas reserves, and will let the banking system fail, despite standing to lose a lot of private money and its chief correspondent bank for clearing its transactions with Europe. To be sure, it’s chaotic and the most robust economist probably could not deftly navigate these waters, but things just stopped making sense. It almost seems like warfare-by-proxy, with vested interests in seeing the EU experiment crumble. I suppose too that as the crises initially began to unravel, for example, with the real-estate bubble in Ireland or Spain or the overvaluing of the Swiss franc, could also be shown in the harsh light of conspiracy. Perhaps, hopefully, Cyprus can emerge from this dilemma, bravely and ultimately stronger, like Iceland has done.

an embarrassment of riches

The latest reconnaissance from the superb BLDRBLOG documents the recent trophies of an internet entrepreneur, recovering the artefacts of the Apollo mission to the Moon—sunk and a repurposed as components of a natural environment, and poses the interesting question if such exploits and adventures will become signature for the fabulously wealthy—at least from those with a flair for conquests. Mounting the highest mountains, delving the deepest oceans, and even prospecting asteroids could become serious attractions, like record-setting feats gone unbroken since the Machine-Age. I just hope that the endowed buccaneers choose good and responsible investments for their exploits, legacy and a damaging spirit of competition does not arise.

jail-break, jail-bait

While most conversations about the architecture of Digital Rights Management (DRM, sometimes referred to as Digital Restriction Management) tend to focus the on fact that such platforms are an unwieldy punishment, which does not deter piracy, yields a bunch of play-devices that become quickly incompatible and even stifles creativity.

The happy mutants at Boing Boing share a surprisingly direct confession that this convoluted legislation on media is fundamentally flawed by design. In essence, the whole rationale behind DRM is to give proprietary rights holders leverage over, by analogy, philharmonics, operas, playhouses, the makers of phonographs, video cassette recorders and their more modern avatars, to adhere to the content licensees’ rules or risk facing a quickly creeping obsolesce. The efficacy of the methods do not matter, since the media conglomerates are drafting the laws as they go along and there is the impression of invention openness encroaching.

telomere

Biologists are at the verge of an important decision with technical hurdles toppled when it comes to the matter of de-extinction.  National Geographic covers this point of departure in a quite thoughtful manner, not dismissing the question of playing God, but positing that there is an ethical imperative to restore the individual species, and by extension the ecological diversity, that humans drove to extinction.
The dodo, passenger pigeon and even the woolly mammoth are poster-children representing many more creatures no longer around because of our activities, and scientists are quickly gaining the means to bring them back. What do you think? Are we obligated to make Nature whole again, or does our capacity to raise the dead cheapen our overall sense of stewardship and respect? Does Nature coldly absorb its losses quickly and move on, leaving no place for failed experiments? Our fault or not, since we are unable to operate outside of that broader context, should we be working to re-introduce some species? Ignoring individual ingenuity is something done at great peril and surely there is something to glean from every success and cul-de-sac. It was an unpopular argument when some ecologists advocated for a giant squid over a giant panda as a symbol for conservation efforts, since no one wants to lose the latter, but it was a judgement on our priorities.