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MonthAugust 2008

David Lynch making new films with Herzog, Jodorowsky

August 13, 2008 /

Hot on the heels of a different announcement about Werner Herzog’s collaboration with Nic Cage comes words of an even stranger paring. The Hollywood Reporter reports that a film co-written by Herzog and his longtime assistant director Herbert Golder will be produced by David Lynch and his Absurda production company.
My Son, My Son is based on the true story of a man who, based upon a play by Sophocles, kills his mother with a sword. Lynchian enough already, the film will tell the story in a flashback structure. Also following Lynch’s style, it will be shot in DV rather than film. My Son was actually delayed in order for Herzog to work with Cage while his schedule allows. He’ll also be tight on shooting afterwards, since he’s signed on to shoot The Piano Tuner this fall. With his documentary Encounters at the End of the World out this summer, even for Herzog, 2008 is one prolific year.

As odd a collaboration as Herzog and Lynch may be (and trust us, it’s odd), even more unlikely comes the announcement that Lynch and Absurda will be working on a film with Alejandro Jodorowsky. Best known for his series of surreal, mind-bending Fando y Lis, El Topo and The Holy Mountain, Jodorowsky hasn’t made a film since 1990. Jodorowsky certainly shares a lot more common ground with Lynch, but hearing of any new project by the Chilean 79-year-old is a bit incredible.

Jodorowsky’s film will be the metaphysical gangster movie King Shot. Already guaranteed to be NC-17 (no surprise given his earlier works), the film features Marilyn Manson as a 300-year old pope and will star Nick Nolte.

Meanwhile, Lynch is spending any time he’s not producing on his own project according to Hollywood Today. A “Lynch-esque documentary,” (as if he could direct any other kind), it’s a road movie where he speaks with regular folks on the meaning of life and discusses the ’60s with Donovan and John Hagelin. Looks like these days Lynch may be just as busy as Herzog.

From: Pastemagazine

(via Coilhouse)

Berkeley Scientists: World In ‘Mass Extinction Spasm’

August 13, 2008 /

Devastating declines of amphibian species around the world are a sign of a biodiversity disaster larger than just the deaths of frogs and salamanders, University of California, Berkeley scientists said Tuesday.

Researchers said substantial die-offs of amphibians and other plant and animal species add up to a new mass extinction facing the planet, the scientists said in an online article this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

“There’s no question that we are in a mass extinction spasm right now,” said David Wake, professor of integrative biology at UC Berkeley. “Amphibians have been around for about 250 million years. They made it through when the dinosaurs didn’t. The fact that they’re cutting out now should be a lesson for us.”

New species arise and old species die off all the time, but sometimes the extinction numbers far outweigh the emergence of new species, scientists said.

Extreme cases of this are called mass extinction events. There have been only five in our planet’s history, until now, scientists said.

Full Story: NBC

(via Cryptogon)

Birth control pill may interfere with mating instincts

August 13, 2008 /

Taking the contraceptive pill can lead a woman to choose the “wrong” partner, the findings of a study published today suggest.

The pill is thought to disrupt an instinctive mechanism that brings people with complementary genes and immune systems together.

By passing on a wide-ranging set of immune system genes, they increase their chances of having a healthy child that is not vulnerable to infection.

Couples with different genes are also less likely to experience fertility problems or miscarriages.

Experts believe women are naturally attracted to men with immune system genes that differ their own because of their smell.

Full Story: Guardian

(via Cryptogon)

With Jealous Colleagues and Wisconsin on His Case, This 8-year-old Guitar Wizard has the Blues

August 12, 2008 /

http://www.illinoisblues.com/images/112407sopro_talan.jpg

“When Tallan “T-Man” Latz was 5, he saw Joe Satriani playing guitar on TV. “I turned around to my dad and said, ‘That’s exactly what I want to do.'” Three years and countless hours of practicing later, 8-year-old Tallan is a blues guitar prodigy. He’s played in bars and clubs, including the House of Blues in Chicago, and even jammed with Les Paul and Jackson Browne. He has a summer of festivals scheduled and has drawn interest from venues worldwide.

And what, you might ask, would a kid not even in the third grade have the blues about? The state of Wisconsin for one, and some possibly jealous older musicians for another. An anonymous e-mail sent to state officials complained that Tallan was too young to perform in taverns and nightclubs because of state child labor laws. His booking agent even got an anonymous letter threatening her with death if she keeps booking him.”

(via The Chicago Tribune)

(Talan “T-Man” Latz playing at the Steel Bridge Songfest)

Lunch With Heather Perry

August 12, 2008 /

“Last month, I travelled to Bristol to meet 37-year-old Heather Perry, one of a very small number of people to have voluntarily undergone trepanation for non-medical reasons. As we ate a pub lunch, I asked Heather about her experience. Below is a transcript of our conversation.

M: How did you first hear about trepanation, and why did you decide to have it done?

HP: The first time I heard about trepanation was when I was a kiddie. I was really into Bob Dylan and John Lennon, and I remembered that Lennon had mentioned that he wanted it done. He had spoken to Bart Huges about it, and Bart had said that he didn’t think Lennon’s cranial sutures had healed anyway, because he was such a creative person. At the time, I just thought “Wow! That’s a bit freaky” and didn’t think much more about it. Then later on, I did a lot of acid, which kind of mashed my head up a bit. I remember getting these pressure or tension headaches, and thinking that John Lennon said he was going to do it to relieve the pressure. By the mid-nineties, I started to realize that it wasn’t dangerous, and decided that I was going to it if I could find somebody to give me a hand. But that proved to be quite difficult, so then I let it drop for a while. One of my initial reasons for wanting to have it done was for more mental energy and clarity. I had been working in Cheltenham, and got made redundant. I bought a computer, got online, and eventually got in touch with Pete Halvorson in the States, who had trepanned himself in the early 1970s. I was going over for a wedding anyway, so we arranged to meet so he could help me with it.”

(via Neurophilosophy)

Scientists Stop the Ageing Process

August 12, 2008 /

“Scientists have stopped the ageing process in an entire organ for the first time, a study released today says. Published in today’s online edition of Nature Medicine, researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine at Yeshiva University in New York City also say the older organs function as well as they did when the host animal was younger.

The researchers, led by Associate Professor Ana Maria Cuervo, blocked the ageing process in mice livers by stopping the build-up of harmful proteins inside the organ’s cells. As people age their cells become less efficient at getting rid of damaged protein resulting in a build-up of toxic material that is especially pronounced in Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and other neurodegenerative disorders. The researchers say the findings suggest that therapies for boosting protein clearance might help stave off some of the declines in function that accompanies old age.”

(via ABC Science. h/t: Professor Hex)

Update: Pyramid Texts Online

August 12, 2008 /

“The Pyramid Texts Online website has had a major update with the addition of the Library. Sit down and relax with an old classic, flick through the pages on-screen thanks to the Internet Archive’s Flip Book. Due to the antique age of most of these books it is best to use something more current for study purposes but these old books are an enjoyable look back at the past thoughts of earlier writers.

There are also links to other online books, articles and also a paprii section which includes Papyrii.info, a search engine of papyrological resources called the Papyrological Navigator. Other pages were also updated and the Tools page now has some new additions and Mark Vyges’ Egyptian Hieroglyphic Dictionary has just been updated this week.”

(via Talking Pyramids. h/t: Egyptology News.)

(Mark Vyges’ Egyptian Hieroglyphic Dictionary via Egyptology News)

New dream machine documentary FLicKeR

August 10, 2008 /

FLicKeR iS a new Dream MachHine documentary directed by Nik Sheehan, who is apparently much beloved of rAndOM CapITaL LetTerS. We begin with Sheehan carting a new and beautifully engineered Dream Machine around and testing it out on rock stars, DJs, and old cronies of Gysin, who died in 1986. For the most part, hearing their reactions to the device is no more interesting than hearing about people’s pot trips, but because Sheehan picked some perceptive-if not always particularly germane-trippers, the talking heads give good talk. Sitting in a comfortable New York loft with his eyes closed (which is the best way to let the Dream Machine’s pulsing frequency bring on the alpha waves and audio-visual stimuli that can trigger trance), Sonic Youth’s Lee Renaldo, not only describes beautiful clouds of color but points out the device’s connection to early cinematic devices.

Unfortunately, this is the only time this vital vein of flicker tech is even mentioned in the film. The brain science behind the effect gets a bit more time, but in general this is a very average documentary that blows more chances for excellence and depth than it exploits. The written voice-over material is terribly banal, with potted histories of the Beats and Hassan i Sabbah (illustrated with cheesy CG that brings back 1992 rave graphics), and a legion of unfortunate phrases. For example, Gysin is described as a ‘serious dabbler in the occult’ (a serious dabbler?) and his machine as a ‘portal into the space-time continuum.’ I mean, aren’t we already stuck inside the space-time continuum? Didn’t these guys want to find a way out?

Full Story: Techgnosis

Trailer:

Pacemakers can be remotely hacked

August 10, 2008 /

A collaboration of various medical researchers in the academic field has led to proof that pacemakers can be remotely hacked with simple and accessible equipment. [Kevin Fu], an associate professor at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, led the team. [Kevin] first tried to get documentation from the manufacturers, believing they would support the effort, but they were not interested in helping. They were forced to get access to an old pacemaker and reverse engineer it. They found that the communication protocol used to remotely program the device was unencrypted. They then used a GNU radio system to find access to some of the machine’s reprogrammable functions, including accessing patient data and even turning it off.

Full Story: Hack a Day

Dire Prognosis for Once-Promising Artificial Blood

August 10, 2008 /

It “doesn’t look like something you’d want dripping into your veins,” wrote Wil McCarthy in the August 2002 issue of Wired. At the time, he had no way of knowing just how right he was about Hemopure, the artificial blood that seemed so promising. It was universally compatible and had a three-year shelf life (unrefrigerated). But a recent meta-analysis of trials on several substitutes – including Hemopure – contains some gory results. Turns out, the fake bloods scavenge nitric oxide, causing vasoconstriction; patients who get them are 2.7 times more likely to have a heart attack and 30 percent more likely to die. A Journal of the American Medical Association editorial has called for a halt to trials.

From: Wired

(via Grinding)

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