Cartoons: the police, automation, and golf

The events in Ferguson have released a wave of editorial comments about the current state of policing in the U.S.  Or is it the current police state?  Of the opinions below, take your pick.

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Mike Keefe, The Week

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Rick McKee, The Week

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David Horsey, US News

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On a side note, if automation does take over, this may be the case.

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Drew Sheneman, US News

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So Obama golfs.  So did 18 other presidents.  Here's a little perspective: Obama's Played 100 Rounds Of Golf; Which Presidents Beat That?.  Note that in the photo he's golfing with former president Clinton; could it be that he's asking a little advice from a veteran?

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Obama & Clinton golfing, Chris Kleponis-Pool/Getty 
Images, NPR

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Meanwhile, the cartoonists are having a field day with the topic.

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Nate Beeler, US News

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-- Marge

DIY: YouTube channel art, part 3

procedural water, Landmark Game

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Adding channel art to your YouTube channel can be a challenge. To address the different sizes of displays that YouTube can be viewed on--cell phone to TV--it's necessary to upload a very large image. Google suggests 2560 X 1440 pixels. At 72 dpi an image that size is about 3.5 Megabyte. The upload window at YouTube says that 2 MB is the maximum file size. What to do?

By using the service available at Image Optimizer I was able to compress my image to a little over 1 MB. The process is easy. Upload your picture, type in the dimensions desired for the result (in this case 2560 width and 1440 height), and click the Optimize Now! button. When the optimizing is done, download the result, now renamed with the term "Optimized-" added to the original filename. You can also download the Image Optimizer. BTW, it's always a good idea to scan downloads for viruses. Remember to donate, if you take advantage of the service. (Note that their site currency is British Pounds (GPB) and at today's rate 5£= $8.54.)

Then upload your optimized image to YouTube.

There is a hitch in that different devices will show different parts of the image. Images that have the main feature oriented horizontally and centered will work best. In my case the image--a screenshot of Moon and water from Landmark Game--is oriented vertically and the Moon is not visible on the YouTube webpage or a cell phone. You can see what I mean by visiting my channel,

To get to the page that permits you to add channel art, browse to the Home page of your channel and click Add channel art near the top of your channel.  For more instructions and the guidelines, try Google's help page.

-- Marge

Picasso and the tyranny of realism

The other day my attention was caught by this Picasso quote:

It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child. (Brainy Quotes)

It's so true, but more about this later.

To acquaint yourself with Picasso's paintings, take a look at Wikiart, where the Picasso entry shows all of his works (at least that what the site says). Picasso's works number in the ten thousands.  "8 Things You May Not Know About Picasso" gives some interesting facts about him.  Ironically, I like this painting from his early period, where he painted more realistically.

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Picasso, Portrait of the artist's mother (1896), Wikiart

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To paint like a child is, to me, painting from inside.  What we see when we open our eyes is a world rendered in full 3D.  It's a beautiful world, granted.  But overwhelmingly so.  And it has been painted over and over without touching what's going on in the mind and emotions of the painter.  Often the works most technically true to life are the most lifeless.

As an example, compare Bouguereau's work with that of Toni Shulajkovski, a frequent poster on Google+.

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William Adolphe Bouguereau, Work Interrupted(1891, bougereau.org

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Toni Shulajkovski, The Resonance, Google+

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Toni definitely doesn't paint like a child--there's a lot of technique in his paintings (and of course there's technique in Picasso's more childlike works).  But he does paint what he feels.  Here's one he did that's more thought-provoking.
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Toni Shulajkovski, Mirage 2011, Google+

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Even painting in the abstract genre doesn't touch what I'm trying to say. (Warning: sermonizing imminent.) What I'm trying to say is be present with your work: artwork, coding, writing, whatever.  Let the work evolve on its own, not just follow someone's convention or even what your eyes see in the 'real' world. And if the juices stop flowing, step away and come back later. If the work has merit, a break from it will help--a lot.

Here's another quote from Picasso:

Inspiration exists, but it has to find us working.

-- Marge

Cartoons: Thorny places

In Ferguson, Missouri, riots followed the shooting of robbery suspect Michael Brown, an incident that they tried to keep quiet.

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Adam Zyglis, The Week

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During the riots, reporters were arrested.

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Jack Ohman, The Week

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As a result of the riots and police actions,

...federal and state officials for the first time offered a sweeping response, criticizing the police reaction and calling for changes. Gov. Jay Nixon (D) announced that the Missouri State Highway Patrol would take over running security in Ferguson from the local police, which was followed by a remarkably different night in Ferguson that saw hugs and calm replace tear gas and fear. (Washington Post article about the shooting) 

War in Iraq continues. Although there may be hope on the horizon with Haidar al-Abadi stepping in as Prime Minister.

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Dan Wasserman, The Week

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Mike Keefe, The Week

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This last cartoon is a reference to M.C.Escher, perhaps best known for his constructs that jumble planes.

On the American homefront, there are many tributes to Robin Williams. In this one Jonathan Winters is speaking. I, for one, was deeply affected by Robin's death and already miss him.

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Chip Bok, The Week

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-- Marge

DIY: maintaining a local webserver (technical difficulties)

Computer woes, image found at Negative99

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My machine is a dual boot system with Windows 7 and Ubuntu. I use Ubuntu to test web development before being released to a public server for further testing.  All has gone well for several years, except for disagreements between the clocks on each operating system (OS).

The best arrangement for a local web server is to mimic the setup on the hosting service or machine. Servers facing the internet that are Linux-based often use CentOS, a derivative of Red Hat which requires a paid subscription. Since Ubuntu has been developed to be user-friendly, I opted to use that. But my versions of Apache and MySQL agree with my host Bluehost. My version of PHP is in keeping with Drupal 7.

It's worth noting here that hosting companies often operate on older, known reliable, versions of software. Introducing new versions requires a lot of testing and there may be some users who can't upgrade for one reason or another.

All was going well until I clicked on the button to update Ubuntu to 14.04. Now I have a Linux OS that runs the next version of Apache, which is 2.4, a very different animal. (Far as I can tell, this new version of Ubuntu will only run Apache 2.4.) PHP is not currently working (still have to check to see if it's not turned on or not installed). Needless to say, my test sites no longer work.

So the questions at hand are--do I learn Apache 2.4, role back to Ubuntu 12.04, or migrate to CentOS? If I choose a rollback or migration, as with any major change in an OS, the current file system must be combed through to see what needs to be set aside and saved and to produce a list of what applications to re-install or substitute.

Still thinking it over.

-- Marge

How current science and cartoons view time

Meme with Wile E. Coyote found at Man vs Brain

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Are space and time (aka spacetime) a continuum?  Einstein thought so, Petr Hořava, a physicist at the University of California, Berkeley, does not.  Quoting from the article, Splitting Time from Space, in Scientific American:

Physicists have struggled to marry quantum mechanics with gravity for decades. In contrast, the other forces of nature have obediently fallen into line. For instance, the electromagnetic force can be described quantum-mechanically by the motion of photons. Try and work out the gravitational force between two objects in terms of a quantum graviton, however, and you quickly run into trouble—the answer to every calculation is infinity. But now Petr Hořava, a physicist at the University of California, Berkeley, thinks he understands the problem. It’s all, he says, a matter of time.

More specifically, the problem is the way that time is tied up with space in Einstein’s theory of gravity: general relativity. Einstein famously overturned the Newtonian notion that time is absolute—steadily ticking away in the background. Instead he argued that time is another dimension, woven together with space to form a malleable fabric that is distorted by matter. The snag is that in quantum mechanics, time retains its Newtonian aloofness, providing the stage against which matter dances but never being affected by its presence. These two conceptions of time don’t gel.

Evidence for Hořava's theory is offered in this followup.

So why are we including gravity in a discussion of spacetime?  This article at Einstein Online explains Einstein's geometric gravity.

NASA has confirmed Einstein's theory by means of its Gravity Probe B. You can download the results of NASA's report cites at Physical Review Letters; click on the Download Accepted Manuscript link.

What do you think: is time a continuum or discrete?

-- Marge

Cartoons: Ebola, suing Obama, Russian hackers and agribiz

Well, at least it's not wars and rumors of war this week.  Instead we have the Republicans approving Boehner's lawsuit against Obama, threat of bodily harm by the Ebola virus, and Russian hackers stealing more than a billion usernames and passwords.  Also there's a comment on whether junk food is cheaper than healthy food.

Just the day before beginning summer recess, Republicans voted to sue Obama.  I think the following cartoon adequately describes the U.S. Congress' actions since Obama entered office.

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Adam Zyglis, The Week

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A majority of Americans disapprove of the GOP's lawsuit, according to the Huffington Post.

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David Fitzsimmons, The Week

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Meanwhile, Ebola spreads.

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Drew Sheneman, The Week

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Promising experimental drugs and vaccines are being developed for reputedly incurable Ebola, but there are obstacles, some man-made.

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Chip Bok, The Week

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It would be easy to say that the theft of 1.2 billion user login credentials by Russian hackers is a response to current sanctions, but the records were amassed earlier.  It's possible that release of the information about the hack was timed for maximum affect.

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Mike Luckovich, The Week

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Finally, Is Junk Food Really Cheaper?

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Pat Bagley, The Week

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-- Marge

DIY: staying sane in crazy times

Rick McKee, The Augusta Chronicle

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With reports of war, aggressive actions, tyranny, children in distress and increasing violence of all sorts multiplying exponentially, it's time for some psychological self-preservation.  One could just turn off the TV and radio and stop reading, or at least tune out the news, but that seems somewhat self-defeating. And, considering the current state of the world, it may be dangerous not to have some warning.

Another possibility for self-preservation is humor, particularly satire.  Dr. George Simon, psychologist and responder to Ask the Psychologist, writes "Satire [is] Snideness that Satisfies."

To me Jon Stewart's presentations of the news in The Daily Show feel like fresh air in the way he cuts through the feldergarb.

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Jon Stewart, Let's Buy CNN Kickstarter, The Daily Show

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Stephen Colbert's presentations in the Colbert Report are similar to Jon's but more clearly satiric, in that you're often not quite sure whether he's being serious or sarcastic.

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Stephen Colbert, The Colbert Report

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Other resources for satire are The Onion, The Daily Currant, and National Report.

If you feel you must act out, here are "Fourteen Insane Ways to Stay Sane During These Crazy Times." Be warned: doing any of these things will probably get a reaction, maybe adverse.

-- Marge

How we humans view time

This video posted on YouTube by the Science Channel caught my attention and started me thinking about how we view time.  This video is part of the series Through the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman.

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To say most of us view time as a linear progression appears to be true, and some people value time's linearity, as explained by Benjamin Sisko in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.  The video below was posted by Viral9.

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Many cultures and belief systems see time as cyclical, as noted by the Wikipedia article Time Cycles.  This ties in with the "study of the origin, evolution, and eventual fate of the universe" (Wikipedia) called Cosmology, which presents many interesting views from around the world.

Practices and viewpoints concerning time in a variety of cultures have been analyzed by anthropologist Edward T. Hall. You can find some of his views at Changing Minds.

And at Cracked.com you can find the attention-grabbing article, 7 Theories on Time That Would Make Doc Brown's Head Explode.

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Theory #7: We May Not Live in the Present. --Cracked

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-- Marge

Two cartoons: bad news vs good news

With all the vitriol in the air, I'm reluctant to add to it.  So here's a comment on the bad news and one on good news.  Take your pick.

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Gary Varvel, The Week

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Joe Heller, Cagle

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-- Marge

DIY: backyard chickens

Thomas Kriese, Zsu Zsu in the Grass (Barred Rock hen), Wikipedia

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My relatively new next-door neighbor has started raising chickens!  It has been fun to watch them grow, interact socially (some days there's a fair amount of bickering), and make numerous breaks for freedom. Must admit, it's a little startling to catch a 7-pound Plymouth Rock hen clearing the fence out of the corner of your eye. At first there was a rooster as well, but I'm guessing the neighbors found out that zoning laws exclude roosters.  (The primary care provider is not exactly communicative.)

With the current state of supermarket meat and rising prices, raising chickens makes a lot of sense.  Recently in the news was this:  "Roosters' fertility problem hits U.S. chicken supply, lifts prices." (The fertility problem is due to genetic 'tweaking'.) Although, don't ask me to butcher and dress one.  The eggs would be nice.

On rainy days these little guys huddle together in the driest spots they can find.  They need a coop--also an enclosure they can't breach.  Next door I see uncut panels of low-grade plywood proliferating, but no structures being formed.

A list of free chicken coop plans can be found at freebies.about.com.  This portable poultry pen (PDF format) from pvcplans looks like a good solution.

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Portable Poultry Pen, pvcplans

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For ready-made, there's quite a selection at Amazon; search for "chicken coop."  The Eglu in the background of ZsuZsu's picture above is offered by Omlet (UK).

For a wealth of good information about raising and caring for chickens there's Lisa's blog, Fresh Eggs Daily. Check out her Ultimate Chicken Care Guide.

I'm hoping the chickens will be able to survive an Alaskan winter.

-- Marge

Concept art: three artists

In my view concept artists have the best of both realistic and abstract art worlds.  Good ones paint with detailed realism on topics imaginary--or derivative.  Here are three of the best.

Aaron Blaise who worked as an animator for Walt Disney Feature Animation.

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Aaron Blaise, concept/character art gallery

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Michael Kutsche does work that sticks in my mind, like this piece that I first saw on deviantART:

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Michael Kutsche, Astronauts (2010)

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Michael Whelan is a prolific artist and perhaps best-known for his illustrations for Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern science fiction series.

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Michael Whelan, Death Wing

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-- Marge

Cartoons: fools and posers

News from the war front at the US-Mexico border verges on delirious.

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Pat Bagley, the Week

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Drew Sheneman, the Week

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David Fitzsimmons, the Week

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Meanwhile, at the war front in DC, it verges on insane.

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Steve Sack, Cagle

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Seems to me these guys in Washington were elected to represent their constituents. They're supposed to be adults.

-- Marge

DIY: getting water from air

Arturo Vittori, WarkaWater tower, Smithsonian Magazine

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Yesterday fellow G+ poster +Lacerant Plainer published an article on a structure that produces "Water from thin air." Lacerant wondered why this concept hasn't been developed more.  And so did I.

Called a WarkaWater tower by the architect Arturo Vittori who designed it, this airwell, is a passive device (requires no energy input) that can be made from bamboo and nylon by hand. Information on the Warka project can be found at Architecture and Vision.

Online Vittori's idea is quite popular--just do a search on 'Warkawater 2014.'  A good article on it can be found at the Smithsonian site. The tower is considered an elegant solution to collecting water, especially in less developed areas.  Finding potable water is rapidly becoming a worldwide problem badly needing a solution, as explained by HowStuffWorks:

Water is becoming an increasingly important issue in the developed world. But this issue is nothing new for other, less developed nations. For centuries, clean drinking water has been hard to come by for many populations, especially the poor. In some areas, water may be available, but it's often disease-ridden, and drinking it can be fatal. In other areas, a viable water supply is sim­ply not available at all.

With all the crowdfunding sites available you'd think someone would have jumped on one, but none lists 'WarkaWater' or 'Warka' as a current project.  If you'd like to look yourself, Forbes has a list of the top ten crowdfunding sites.  Matt Damon's Water.org make no mention of the concept.

While looking for reasons (besides funding) why this project hasn't taken off, I hit on acceptance by the Ethiopians, atmospheric availability of water vapor, and drinkability of condensed water.  Take a look at the Modern Survivor Magazine for a how-to on water from condensation. Found during my search process is an interesting paper (PDF format) on "Health Risks from Drinking Demineralised Water," published by the World Health Organization (WHO).  Another source of interesting information is this page on Ethiopian social etiquette.

Other water-from-air concepts presented but not fully developed are Edward Linacre's Airdrop, winner of the 2011 Dyson Award prize, and Phil Pauley’s Solar Cucumber.  Both are discussed at Green Prophet.

My conclusion?  Talking about, even admiring, a concept is not the same as bringing it to market.  To parrot a quote I found at the Green Prophet (link above):

The cure for anything is salt water – sweat, tears, or the sea.  ~Isak Dinesen

-- Marge

Art: Firefly the TV series lives on

Some refer to Joss Whedon's Firefly as a 'cult classic.'  Wikipedia describes it as a "American space western drama."  To me it had some of the most memorable characters seen on television.

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Firefly original cast, Netflix

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For years fans have tried to revive it, as reported in "Fans launch 'Help Nathan Fillion Buy Firefly' movement (2011)." Earlier this year the Netflix announcement "Firefly to make landmark return to Netflix" turned out to be an April Fool's joke with the joke on Netflix. Drats!

If you want to see what I'm talking about, mosey on over to Hulu where you can watch Firefly free.

Firefly also lives on in Serenity comics by Dark Horse. According to the Wikipedia article--

Written by Joss Whedon and Brett Matthews, and illustrated by Will Conrad, the first miniseries, Those Left Behind, was created as a bridge between the events of the series and film. Those Left Behind was popular: the first issue was the highest-selling comic published by Dark Horse Comics until the release of Buffy Season 8 in 2007.

Last December Comic Book Resources interviewed Joss on the Serenity series.

Here's a video with screenshots of frames from the comic and music from the TV series, posted by Chaitea16.

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-- Marge

Cartoons: quaking, hedging, fleeing, and shooting

Reporters have a wealth of news to give us this week, sad to say.

The number of earthquakes is up in Oklahoma. Meanwhile, gas producers in Pennsylvania quake at proposed taxes.

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John Cole, The Week

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The CDC keeps losing (or misplacing) infectious toxins.

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Drew Sheneman, The Week

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Violence in Chicago may be somewhat comparable to that in Central America.

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Scott Stantis, The Week

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The Mideast, specifically Palestine-Israel, appears to be imploding.  This opinion in Al Jazeera asks if Hamas provokes Israel to attack Gaza.

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Dana Summers, The Week

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Russia is proving deadly, as well. Hopefully, this will not be the final result.

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David Fitzsimmons, The Week

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-- Marge