The Contents of H-Town

Further Adventures of J. Craig Venter

Taken from Discover magazine

GENETICS-When last we heard from J. Craig Venter, he was sailing around the world in his 95-foot sloop, Sorcerer II, collecting water samples from the sea and inland takes. So far the voyage, which started in Nova Scotia and is now in the Caribbean, has more than doubled the number of know microorganisms-and uncovered millions of new genes. In 2005 Venter also began collecting and cataloging the microorganisms of urban air, starting with those floating in Midtown Manhattan. The J. Craig Venter Institute, a not-for-profit research group of more than 200 scientists and staff members, sequences the genes using the same techniques Venter developed to decode the human genome.

At the same time, institute scientists are trying to build new genes that have never existed on Earth. They hope to synthesize genes for specific purposes-the production of hydrogen, for instance. They are also sequencing cancer genes. Meanwhile, the institute is offering a $500,000 prize to anyone who can come up with a technique that would prove a full DNA analysis of a human for $1,000 or less.

In August Venter purchased the Norman Collection of microbiology archives, which contains the papers of genome pioneers like Francis Crick, James Watson, Rosalind Franklin, and Linus Pauling. It will be made available to researchers at the institute's Maryland headquarters. And if that isn't enough, keep an eye out for the institute's mobile education lab, a bus coming soon to a school near you...

50 Greatest Indie Films of All Time

Okay, so I nabbed this from someone else's blog...

I think it is tres cool. From the top 50 here are the movies I have seen:

01 Run Lola Run
02 The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
03 Mad Max
04 Swingers
05 Grosse Point Blank
06 Being John Malkovich
07 The Blair Witch Project
08 Shallow Grave
09 Pink Flamingos
10 Drugstore Cowboy
11 The Evil Dead
12 Nosferatu
13 Slacker
14 She's Gotta Have It
15 Memento
16 Eraserhead
17 The Usual Suspects
18 Sex, Lies and Videotape
19 Night of the Living Dead
20 Clerks
21 The Terminator
22 Donnie Darko
23 Reservoir Dogs

Jean-Michel Basquiat

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

Saturday, November 26

Why did I feel like I was meeting the man himself? I could understand feeling excited, even a little anxious, there was a lot to live up to here. But the heart-pounding, the tightness in the chest? I didn't realize I was quite that awe struck. What would happen if Warhol came to town? Maybe I'd faint like a groupie?

Boy and Dog in a Johnnypump (the print I bought)

The Irony of the Negro Policeman (the print I wanted but they didn't have)

The sheer size of the paintings is awesome, it's hard to know where to look first, the colors pull you in so many directions. I found The Irony the most striking of all the images and it was one that I was unfamiliar with. Some genius once said that if you look at things a different way; out of focus, you can concentrate on the bigger picture without being distracted by the details. I tried it with several of the Basquiats by taking off my glasses, The Irony had the most impact. It's hard to tell in this image, but if you've seen the painting in person you'll appreciate the colors, the way the blues melt together, it's hard to stop looking at it. I wanted to stand there all day but I had a date with some chili.

What I enjoy most about Basquiat is his use of urban subjects. He may like to relay his African and Jamaican heritage and the ties that lead back to slavery, his love of jazz, boxing and anatomy and his morbid memories of childhood, but he always seems drawn to the harsh realities of life in the big city: Poverty, money, low income housing, advertising, flashes of real life come through amidst the history and culture he uses to tie his life together.

It was all it could have been and then some.

Tapley Tributary Restoration project

The view from the Sabine Street bridge: Not quite the same on a misty day...

Charles Tapley's creation, trash and all.

This sign makes you want to find a big stick, pronto.

The wetlands area created to catch run-off, part of the Tapley Tributary Restoration project.

More Tapley.

Anyone know what kind of bird this is?

Preservation at its best...

Oh, Ford! Mary constructed from beer cans...What ever next?

MECA (Multicultural Education and Counseling through the Arts)

Expressive in ways that have to be seen to be believed.

The Urban Harvest Garden

Is it a laundry shoot? Is it part of Wallace and Gromit's morning routine?

No, it is in fact an emergency exit, used back in the day, before the rust set in, ouch!

Library Thing

The lovely Laura has a cool link on her blog to the Library Thing. The Library Thing is great for book hoarders like us, it's a site that allows you to catalog your personal library on line. I attempted to launch into this mammoth task one evening but then I realized how long it was going to take me and so I stopped.

I counted 341 books in my "reading room" as it's known. Laura, I know you own more books than I do, please tell me you didn't catalog all of yours or I'll feel compelled to finish the job...

I've come to the not so hard to arrive at conclusion that I hate to write. Posting blogs doesn't count because no one cares if you mith smell words or if what you sense doesn't say make. I'm talking about writing proposals - ugh.

Today I had to come up with the following gems:

• The always popular "cover letter" - you've got money and you pay in a timely fashion; please give us work
• Capability to provide professional services in a timely manner - yep, we can do it
• Past performance in terms of quality work and compliance with performance schedules - we got it done, eventually
• Demonstrated knowledge of local building codes - there's a book and yes, we look in it
• Overall team approach towards the provision of comprehensive services as required by this RFP - we're a team and we provide the services which you are asking for, duh

In other words - Bullshit. I'm not very good at it, it involves long, waffling sentences that include grand, meaningful words. Someone that is adept at BS is the fabulous, and I mean FABULOUS DARLING, Mr. Charles Birnbaum, FASLA

founder of the Cultural Landscape Foundation and overall cutie-pie. He can rattle on for hours about the importance of historical landscape preservation as proven at our office on Wednesday. I say rattle, but really it's far from rattling, it's almost hypnotic and dreamy and extremely informative. Miss Margaret (who, of course, was immediately taken with CB) and I came to the conclusion that he actually makes up some of his big words. Maybe I should take a well preserved leaf from his book, Design with Culture: the one he personally signed for me...

Tomacco

Now you can smoke your tomacco and eat it too

Coincidence?

According to my fave online encyclopedia, on the very day I was born the first 911 emergency telephone system went into service in HALEYVILLE Alabama!

Shanti

Here are just some of Ms. Macdonald's fascinating insights into the beautiful and colorful country of India...

Cows, though revered as sacred, roam freely and are allowed to die slow and painful deaths by grazing on the thousands of plastic bags that line the streets. The bags collect in their stomachs, strangulating the innards.

Swimming in the Ganges is thought to cleanse you of sin. What they don't tell you is that babies are not cremated in India, but their bodies are left to float down the river, insuring that their souls will pass to heaven.

MacDonald talks about the peace, love and joy shared by Hindus, but how about this practice...When a greedy family wants more dowry money from the bride's parents, they set her alight and leave her in the streets, if she dies from her wounds the husband is set free to move on to a new bride, if she survives the family is "allowed" to abandon her as damaged, or worthless goods.

To this day, girls are not counted as children. Even farm stock is given pride of place above a daughter.

Hindu Sadhus, or holy men, perform atrocities to their bodies to show that pain means nothing; their minds and bodies are given over to worshiping God. One such Sadhu has held his hand in the air for three decades, his limb becoming withered and useless. I think he proved his point.

Parsi, an ancient religion, almost extinct in its pure form, is turning to modern science to aid the passing of its departing spirits. Parsi are known for their love and respect of nature, they will do nothing to pollute or harm the earth or its creatures, even down to their burial rituals: The Parsi leave their dead out in the open for the vultures to feed on; believing that the flesh is returning to nature when being eaten by the bird. Problems recently began when the particular species of vulture who habitat the area of Bombay which is home to the Parsi, began to die out. The rotting corpses lying out in the open began to cause major problems, so solar panels were installed to "speed things up".

While Hindus make up over 80% of the population, India is home to many other religious practitioners including Muslims, Jews, Christians, Catholics, Buddhists, Sufis, Sikhs, Parsis and Jains.

Great quizes for all you quiz-heads out there...

Wings update...

First let me state that I am having real problems with the format for some reason. Blogger is misbehaving and I am turning a blind-eye...

Finally had my film developed, so here's the real thing:







The Hovering Harrier - my personal favorite









CDVN and the AH-64 Apache, which for some weird reason I can't recall - check out the extras, they're all watching the Super Hornet - maybe that explains things, although I did take this photo...








The afore-mentioned F-18F Super Hornet back on the ground - sweet

The Cardboard F-117A Nighthawk; Ali wearing his Canadian pride; an officer giving me the evil-eye - maybe he was just posing for the camera, but it made me pretty uncomfortable; and Christian standing to attention









A World War II BMW, and yes, that is a Nazi officer in the background. Purely there for educational purposes so I was assured. Hmmm...










Last but not, well okay, last, came the Canadian Snowbirds. What dare devils.

Hop to it

There's something just magical about driving through town at night, singing along to Radio Head at the top of my voice; sometimes trying real hard, sometimes breaking into Fozzie Bear. Maybe it's the cool city lights, maybe it's that the daytime obstacle that makes the self-conscious-me clam up at red lights is missing, maybe it's the fact that just when I sing Flying on your motorcycle, watching all the ground beneath you drop some dude actually flies past on a motorcycle...

Anyway, I was returning from my very first Rice University lecture. The speaker was Manuel De Landa - self professed Street Philosopher. The title of the series is The Role of Cities in New Social Science. Tonight's lecture was about Beyond Micro & Macro: The Place of Cities in a Materialistic Philosophy. Now, I have to admit at this point that I've never taken a philosophy class, or an economics class (we're very backward in England), so 50% of the class went straight over my head. The good thing about this is that I actually understood 50% of the class. My quibble with Mr De Landa is this: His lecture series lasts all week, each day is a different topic about THE ROLE OF CITIES IN NEW SOCIAL SCIENCE. With that in mind, I wonder why I sat for two hours listening to the theory behind the philosophy of social ontology. One would presume that in order to apply the theory toward the City one would actually have to refer to said City. I expected to discover something about urban application and came away instead understanding the difference between Idealism, Realism and Materialism, and that interpersonal networks form high density networks which influence social behavior and ultimately form solidarity. I also learnt that organizational hierarchy, while necessary in society, brings a question of legitimacy concerning authority. De Landa's goal is to peel away the micro and macro examinations of society to reveal the more complex meso levels. He certainly applied meso levels to his speech, going in one direction then another, referring to bizarre examples that led off to other tangents. All that without really getting to the heart of the matter: The City.

I did hate the way he openly thrust his "leftist" beliefs on me and all present. Keep politics out of it, let the young and impressionable form their own opinions. (Although it was fun, and surprising, to listen to him shred Che Guevara and his rrrrrrrrrevolution to pieces)

To sum this experience up, I learnt something, even if it wasn't what I was expecting, I wish I had two hours off at lunch time tomorrow so I could hear his opinions on Jane Jacobs' theories, and I will definitely be going back for more Rice please, Sir.

Oh, and I managed to swipe a copy of Cite on my way out and I got gas for $2.65 a gallon. Just grand, Gromit!

Sphammers

To nuke those annoying "visitor comments" on your blog go to settings/comments then check the 'yes' box for the word verification option. People then have to enter a simple code they see to add a comment which leaves automated spammers S.O.L. Hee hee.

Will Humans Last Another 10,000 Years?

That's the cover question on the latest edition of Discover.

My opinion: Phugh, at the rate we're going we're practically sprinting down the path of self-destruction. 10,000 years? Religious hatred, disease, over population, pollution, enormous individual ecological footprints...more like 1,000. Can't wait to read Discover's prediction.

Emerging Green Builders/USGBC

Just got home from an interesting event, attended once again, by the unwashed. What is it with this topic? Isn't anyone squeaky-clean interested in sustainable design? Actually, my washed-friend, Anica, was in attendance. Sadly for us she just landed an extremely cool job in D.C., so one more pleasant smelling buddy bites the dust...

Anyway, it's so good to know that schools are trying to teach sustainable design to those willing to learn. Professors from U of H, TAMU, and Rice all presented their sustainable (or with the emphasis on sustainability) curriculum to us. Sadly, one of their award winning students, who graduated about a year ago, told us that now he's out there in the real world none of his colleagues are interested in his SD qualifications. Doink! As well as teaching how to apply the practice they might want to teach future architects/engineers/contractors how to sell the product. Mr. I-graduated-with-my-MARCH-in-1968 isn't going to change his way of thinking: The client is the one to convince and there are plenty of them willing to listen...

Wings Over Houston

If you weren't there you certainly missed out.

The F-18F Super Hornet. At 117 decibels it was incredibly loud. Apparently ear pain can start at 120 decibels; which explains why 70% of the crowd (even military personnel) had their fingers stuffed in their ears. I thought the Hornet was the coolest thing I had seen for a while, but then...
















Along came the AV-8 Harrier Jump Jet. I grew up watching these things on TV, I never dreamed I would see one in real life, let alone watch one do the vertical take-off, hover for at least 3 minutes, slowly reverse, hover again with it's nose dipped, then do the vertical land. Breathtaking.








The F-117A Nighthawk (Stealth Fighter) was pretty cool, I shouldn't say this, especially when you consider it's one of the most expensive military aircraft ever built ($45M per plane) but up close it looked like a cheap cardboard toy. Sorry Lockheed.








Of course, Christian wanted to see the AH-64 Apache Attack Helicopter. I think we stopped by it on the way out, but I was so intrigued with the Harrier that I missed the Apache completely. Bummer. Anyway, a fun and sunburnt day was had by all. Even the hotdogs were good. Can't wait until next year's Wings.

Upcoming update uploading...later this weekend

THIS SEASON'S PREVIEWS
Coming soon to a blog near you






The Beginning of The End (yes, it's morbid)





My Sustainable Crush on New Urbanism






They're Cute, They're Cuddly and They Come by the Ounce