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Angelo Badalamenti, Is Dead at 85

December 12, 2022 by sergneri Leave a Comment

Angelo Badalamenti, Composer for ‘Twin Peaks,’ Is Dead at 85

Posted in: Faits Divers, Modern Music, Obituaries Tagged: 1990 Grammy, Angelo Badalamenti, Composer, David Lynch, films, Isabella Rossellini, music, musical, Soundtrack

Lee Lorenz, 90, Cartoonist at The New Yorker, Dies

December 10, 2022 by sergneri Leave a Comment

This obituary of Mr. Lorenz contains many links to other cartoonists as well as his insights on the New Yorker.

Posted in: Content, Faits Divers, History, Obituaries, Politics, Thinking about Tagged: Cartoonist, Jack Ziegler, Lee Lorenz, Robert A. Gottlieb, Roz Chast, The New Yorker, Tina Brown, William Shawn

John Prados, Master of Uncovering Government Secrets, Dies at 71

December 7, 2022 by sergneri Leave a Comment

John Prados, Master of Uncovering Government Secrets, Dies at 71 New York Times By Clay Risen Dec. 3, 2022 John Prados, miner of declassified documents, dies at 71 Washington Post By Emily Langer December 5, 2022

Posted in: Ethical and green living, Faits Divers, History, IT Failures, Obituaries, Politics, Thinking about Tagged: antiwar activist, classified documents, Dr. Prados, George Washington University, John Prados, National Security Archive, Richard M. Nixon, scholar, U.S. government archives, Watergate

Jaron Lanier on Poisoning

November 27, 2022 by sergneri 1 Comment

Trump, Musk and Kanye Are Twitter Poisoned The New York Times, Opinion Guest Essay, Jaron Lanier, Nov. 11, 2022 ‘Extinction is on the table’: Jaron Lanier warns of tech’s existential threat to humanity, The Guardian, Edward Helmore, Sun 27 Nov 2022. Jaron Lanier is a computer scientist who pioneered research in virtual reality and whose … [Read more…]

Posted in: Climate Change, Environment, Ethical and green living, Faits Divers, Feminism, IT Failures, Politics, Racism, Science, Slavery, the Anthropocene, Thinking about, Trump Tagged: addiction, antisemitism, behavior-modification, cancel culture, Elon Musk, engagement, fandom, Jaron Lanier, Kanye West, online bullying, operant conditioning, public behavior, slavery denialism, Twitter Poisoned

The Crime Spike Is No Mystery

November 23, 2022 by sergneri Leave a Comment

In The Atlantic, Patrick Sharkey writes about the causes of crime; “By zooming out and looking at the big picture, the question of what causes violence becomes quite answerable.” November 23, 2022 Patrick Sharkey is the William S. Tod Professor of Sociology and Public Affairs at the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs. He … [Read more…]

Posted in: Environment, Ethical and green living, Faits Divers, Finanace, History, Politics, Racism, Science, Thinking about Tagged: Chicago, crime, geography of violence, Patrick Sharkey, Segregation, The Atlantic, Urban Crime, violence

The labyrinthine patterns traced by birds on the wing – in pictures

October 29, 2022 by sergneri 1 Comment

From the Guardian 10/29/2022 – The labyrinthine patterns traced by birds on the wing – in pictures by Alice Fisher. On a hike one day, photographer Xavier Bou, who is based in Barcelona, wondered if the flight paths of birds could be captured on paper. Through research he realised they could – and represented in … [Read more…]

Posted in: Environment, Faits Divers, Science, Sea Stories, Thinking about Tagged: birds, birds on the wing, flight paths, ornithographies, photographer, photographer Xavier Bou, Xavier Bou

The surreal photographs of Ralph Eugene Meatyard

October 28, 2022 by sergneri Leave a Comment

From the Guardian October 28, 2022, The surreal photographs of Ralph Eugene Meatyard “Ralph Eugene Meatyard (1925-1972) was an American optometrist and pioneer of experimental and surreal photography, working in Kentucky. Heavily influenced by Southern Gothic literature, his carefully constructed, haunting images are on display at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art in New Orleans … [Read more…]

Posted in: Content, Faits Divers, Sea Stories, Thinking about Tagged: experimental photography, Meatyard, Photography, Ralph Eugene Meatyard, Southern Gothic literature, surreal, surreal photography

Uncanny Art Generation

September 26, 2022 by sergneri 1 Comment

I’ve been working on my syntax, my commands, my interaction with my new toy, stable-diffusion. I’m like a few hundred thousand others tonight, all working away at how best to communicate with this software to get the images we think we might want, but we won’t know until the machine comes back with them, completed. … [Read more…]

Posted in: Content, Faits Divers, Future of Work, IT Failures, Science, the Anthropocene, Thinking about Tagged: AI, AI applications, art, computer generated, machine art, stable-diffusion

The Elusive Future of San Francisco’s Fog

September 14, 2022 by sergneri Leave a Comment

The Elusive Future of San Francisco’s Fog  from the New York Times of 09/14/2022.  

Posted in: California History, Climate Change, Environment, Faits Divers, History, Science, Sea Stories, the Anthropocene Tagged: California, coastal fog, fog, fog catchers, fog horns, Golden Gate, mariners, Northern California, redwoods, San Francisco

Dr. Gwendolyn Midlo Hall Dies at 93

September 12, 2022 by sergneri Leave a Comment

The New York Times obituary of Gwendolyn Midlo Hall tells a fascinating life of someone we should have heard more about when she was alive.   Dr. Hall led a colorful early life as a civil rights activist and spent the bulk of her academic career at Rutgers University, where she taught Latin American history. … [Read more…]

Posted in: Faits Divers, Feminism, History, Obituaries, Politics, Racism, Slavery Tagged: African-American, Africans, enslaved people, Francophone, Gwendolyn Midlo Hall, history, Latin American, Louisiana
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