nude

Super UnderThermia

click to embiggen

SuperUnderThermia is the 2007 Australian of the Year Tim Flannery's latest project and follows his previous effort at establishing new society known as Geothermia. SuperUnderThermia is different in more than one way.

First, this project takes into account rain.
Second, who doesn't like Seamonkeys? (or as they'll be known in the future : SuperUnderThermians)
Third, it shares some of the same essential principles as Geothermia.

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This is my entry for the Flannery Centre's art contest.

(I note disappointingly that the Flannery Centre's own domain simply redirects to another site.) This seems like a good opportunity to note my distaste for naming things (not web sites but buildings etc) after living people. I think it often reflects poorly on both the person deciding the name and the person after whom the eponymous thing is being named.

movie notes : the Avengers movie

1) I note that Loki's illusionary versions of himself flicker remarkably like the Princess Leia hologram that R2D2 showed to Obi Wan Kenobi. Clearly, Hollywood is under the impression that holograms will never, ever be perfected even with otherworldly technology or magic.

2) The designers of the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier learned the lessons of the Death Star and installed lots and lots of guardrails.

3) a very "Marvel" movie. I never understood the idea of licensing characters and then changing all the details.  (ie an Italian Red Skull)

4) it dawned on me that Chris Evans who played Marvel's Captain America in the Avengers also played Marvel's Human Torch in the Fantastic Four movies. Potential nicknames for him : Captain Torch or Human America.

5) Some of the aliens were kind of disappointing : a kind of Skrull-like chin, 2 thumbs (but on the same side of the hand. WTF. to compensate for an evolutionary inclination to stick their finger in places they shouldn't?) The alien design and armor seemed somewhat generic. Not bad but sort of a default.

the Pioneer Plaque

Since a simple star map would become distorted over time by gravity and expansion, the Pioneer plaque used distance from pulsars and the pulsars frequency to note its origin.

wiki notes that the arrow denoting the Pioneer spacecraft's origin received criticism because "arrows are an artifact of hunter-gatherer societies like those on Earth; finders with a different cultural heritage may find the arrow symbol meaningless"

Similarly , one could criticize the drawing of humans drawn in a simplified way that the vast majority of people can understand but may not translate to an alien that would have drawn in a topographic way or drawn heat or sees in another alien way.

But should aliens expect some other aliens' (Earthlings') spacecraft to not use their own language and their own symbols?

Morbo: Hmmm… judging by this the puny humans are nearly as tall as this spacecraft and the spacecraft is several times larger than their planet!

Kang : you have to admit that their planets are evenly spaced in a manner that is pleasing to the eye.

Morbo : The puny humans, don't realize that will only make it easier for Morbo's people to conquer their solar system!

Kang : It's a shame they haven't figured out a phonetic written language.

Morbo : Yes, for these puny humans to have spent so much effort to send a craft so far without asking how we are or describing how they taste is the height of rudeness!

Kang : Yes, yes, their message mostly seems to be about having us looking at them naked and they have drawn some disembodied boobs in the upper left...

Kang : I'm not sure if that is a frontal view or a top view or both.

Morbo : Puny humans only draw 2 bosoms! Pathetic!

Morbo : but these tasty circuits boards have all sorts of cryptic markings on them.

Kang : it must be a secret message. Perhaps it is a clue to a hidden treasure like in that Nicholas Cage movie.

Why not engrave a text explanation on the back or to the side? When dealing with aliens advanced enough for space travel, more information would be more useful. I think if we were to receive a message from aliens the more information received would be better.

(btw, I've always been annoyed at the fact that the 2 people are superimposed over the Pioneer craft – floating in front of it – instead of standing on the same plane as the spacecraft and standing in front of it.)

Thoughts from the Phallocracy

Mary Daly, feminist formerly of Boston College and currently dead, once said "If life is to survive on this planet, there must be a decontamination of the Earth. I think this will be accompanied by an evolutionary process that will result in a drastic reduction of the population of males."

So, like me – a member of the Phallocracy in good standing – Mary Daly envisioned and yearned for a future very much like a harem.

I suppose the only difference would be the eternal question of whether the dress code would be more like I Dream of Jeannie or more like J.A.D. Ingres' Turkish Baths.

p.s. "decontamination" is an interesting choice of words. I'm sure the problem of what would be the best and most proper term to use led her to consider her words carefully before she chose her final solution.

on musicals

Above is "Life's a Happy Song" from the Muppet movie with music & lyrics by Bret McKenzie (the beardo half of Flight of the Conchords aka NOT the sideburns dude from Flight of the Conchords) and it sounds like it. Bravo.

The problem I have with musicals is that not everything is sung. If everyone always sang then there would be a single point of suspension of belief : these people are crazy good at rhyming, improvisation and performing. Since everyone doesn't always sing then that implies it is still a difficult task requiring forethought and training.

Everything goes along like a normal day only occasionally, out of the blue someone will burst into song and then random people in the background will do a little back up singing and, of course, a bit of dancing. (not really out of the blue, it is usually at a significant event or preceding a significant event. Rarely, if ever, is there singing about eating breakfast or putting on socks)

Does this happen every day? Is that how everyone knows the words and have seemingly well practiced their synchronized dance moves? Are the back up singers/dancers paid or is there some social obligation that if someone starts singing then everyone else is expected to join in?

Are the songs made up impromptu or do they hire writers? Choreographers? Rehearse? Do they keep singing basically the same song everyday and eventually it gets better?

Sometimes, does one of the lonely background people decide to start singing and then does everyone else join in or is that reserved for certain people? Could someone jump up onto a table and start singing and dancing and then that would make everyone else believe they are part of the "star" social class?

What happens to those who can't sing or dance; are they shunned? Or when the dancing starts are they required to leave the room and hide or pretend to be a tree until the number is over?