Words

Dragon & JudgeCal : Water to water, dust to sand

elnino — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 16:19:03 GMT

Many in the NY Burning Man community have heard the doubly tragic news of Dragon's (IamTony) and JudgeCal's passing away. Tony was caught by a riptide while surfing in Costa Rica on July 21st, 2008. Like many who knew him, I was crestfallen and overwhelmed at the news. For a few years now, Lowroad and I have been going to a little piece of heaven on Fire Island. Every summer , sometimes 3 or 4 times a summer, we would gather a few of our favorite people, pack up tents, guitar and whiskey, and go back-country camping in the dunes of Fire Island, falling asleep on the sound of crashing waves or late-night singing. It was as we were planning this year's trip that Lowroad informed me of Tony's disappearance. We immediately planned on celebrating his existence by a beach memorial, which we were to make of stray material granted by the sea. It seemed only fitting as his body now belonged to the ocean ; the water of his cells having returned to the primordial waters. On August 1st, as we were walking to the train that would lead us to Fire Island, Lowroad informed me of JudgeCal's tragic fate. Cal's inert body was found by his landlord ca July 25th. The causes of his death are still unknown at this time. A beautiful obituary can be found here : http://www.huffingtonpost.com/belisa-vranich/cal-chamberlain-rip_b_116645.html I was also in shock, and everyone immediately felt like the memorial should be dedicated to them both. The next day, at sunset, we set out to build it near the high water line ; it was to live for a few hours, then get dissolved by the Sea. Lowroad set his footprints in the sand , facing the ocean, and drew what seemed like concentric circles around them, in a revolving river of sand escaping to the ocean. I gathered shells of various sizes and was looking for ways to generate two intertwined spirals out of them, when Lowroad , looking at me with slight surprise, said "El Niño, this *is* a spiral". He had beaten me to it. I started randomly dropping stones and shells inside the spiral, before a scheme coalesced, whereby large shells would occupy the periphery and shells of decreasing size and more delicate aspect would converge to the center. All were organized in tight radials making the spiral only slightly depart from axisymmetry. DaFong, Big Dawg, Sera, Lowroad and I worked in silence to ornate this impermanent monument to our friends. I felt frustrated that my attempts to reach the center would always mar the periphery, as sand is such a movable material under our clumsy feet. Thus, once all ornaments were in place, I seized a large shell and redrew the spiral by lifting the stones& shell one by one. Once i was done, Lowroad nodded and simply said "It is proper". I rose up from the sand and looked at what we had all achieved. With no prior design and little conscious effort, a beautiful spiral mandala had emerged from the Sea. It was a circular path from the immense waters into the vortex of human existence, their presence (the footprints) left by our friends, for the short time they had had on this planet, and the even shorter time we had been lucky enough to know them. The crooked wood piece in the center symbolized the more organic and unpredictable element that their soul was made of ; there is no such thing as straight line in our non-Euclidean universe. The water was starting to flow into the trenches and we sensed it would soon all return to the sea. All who were present (the above crew plus my girlfriend Vanita and two of her friends) then grabbed hands and gathered in a semi-circle facing the ocean. We stood in silence for a while. Sera led the ceremony by sharing her emotions about the tragic loss. Those who felt like words best honored their souls spoke a little ; those who felt that silence best honored them, remained silent. I knew too little of Cal and not enough of Tony. Both always struck me as men of few words - and many thoughtful actions. It felt proper to honor their shining trajectory through our lives by making a piece a collaborative piece of art in silence - that is the way most of us had first and last interacted with them. We then parted and let Lowroad and Sera's baby Sequoia wander into their spiral ; her irresistible life taking over the temporary remembrance of their passing, as a timely reminder that nothing is eternal and that we should cherish the time we have we those who love. Within a few hours the Sea had eaten everything. Rest in Peace, Live like you mean it.

To Everyone their own Pollock

elnino — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 23:48:20 GMT

Draw a genius fractal of drip paint yourself : all you need is a mouse. http://jacksonpollock.org/ (requires Flash installed on your browser, so unless you're reading this from a beach-shack internet café in Myanmar, you should be all right. ) Enjoy !

Name in a Circle

elnino — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 15:28:36 GMT

Everyday brings its lot of wonderful surprises. Today, at the favor of a seemingly banal Wikipedia search, i discovered that my playa name (El Niño, better known in the scientific community as ENSO) also means "circle" in Japanese. No amount of jumping and prancing would do justice to the extent of my excitement at this wondrous idea. See for yourself : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enso That only inspires me to further follow the teaching of the father of Aikido ( the Art of Peace), Sensei Morihei Ueshiba "Move like a beam of light: Fly like lightning, Strike like thunder, Whirl in circles around A stable center. " So today is Earth day and it reminds me that the same wise man once wrote : "Those who practice the Art of Peace must protect the domain of Mother Nature, the divine reflection of creation, and keep it lovely and fresh. Warriorship gives birth to natural beauty. The subtle techniques of a warrior arise as naturally as the appearance of spring, summer, autumn, and winter. Warriorship is none other than the vitality that sustains all life." (from "The Art of Peace", http://www.aikidonj.com/pages/ueshiba.html) So i ask you today to get in touch with Nature. Put your feet in a natural body water, your fingers in the ground, breathe in air and flowers, and make a commitment to use your energy to help protect your Mother, the ones you love, the ones you don't know yet but love already - and thus you will do the best for yourself. Ah, and yes, today is 4.20. So don't be shy about moving in circles (of the smoke-ring kind) ... Peace to you. Keep moving in circles around a stable center. El Niño

The art of French living in a freek world - lesson # 2 : Of the distinguished use of canned foods.

elnino — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 15:46:04 GMT

Ban all canned foods from your diet... except the ones that send fresh ingredients to 11. For instance, obstinately refuse any pre-made hummus... but rush for canned garbanzo beans (chick peas), open the can as in lesson #1, and empty the water out of the can. Place the beans in a blender with 2 large spoonfuls of tahini, one lemond juice, as many cloves of garlic as your vampire neighbors can stand, and enough extra virgin Olive oil to make the blender not choke. Press "play". Tweak proportions until the "Yum" LED sign lights up in your brain. Add salt , pepper and a little paprika. Once all is smooth, pour out in a small , deepish dip dish. cover with a sizable drop of Olive oil. Sprinkle with paprika. Garnish with parsley. Voilà ! You have used canned food to noble ends. Other acceptable use of cans : - canned coconut milk , for cardamom chicken stew, piña coladas, thai -style curry, and just about anything tasty because coconut milk is da bomb. - canned refried beans, to mix with mexican salsa. - canned cocktail mix, for nefariously ethylic purposes. - canned mac&cheese, only to use on "international I'm-being-crass-and-i-like-it" day. - (develop your own here)

The art of French living in a freek world : lesson # 1

elnino — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 23:18:52 GMT

Move into an apartment, preferably in an artist community. If you own a can-opener, DISCARD it, sell it on eBay, ship it to the moon, or burn it. If you don't, RESIST the temptation to buy one at all costs. Anytime you need to open a can, go knock on someone's door whom you do not already know. Ask politely if you can borrow their can-opener, and invite them for a drink afterwards . Give them your best cognac, drink their finest bourbon, feed them you best hummus. Stay up until 4 am sharing stories. The next day, go return their bottle opener with a blender container full of carrot-apple-ginger smoothie in hand. Repeat until you know everyone, but change the smoothie every time.

I feel so fine !

elnino — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 04:21:42 GMT

I feel great. Partly because I kicked the last chapter of my dissertation in the butt and told it "Go kid. It's now or never. I'm not giving you a second chance. You're only half finisned like Dr Frankenstein's monster, but I can't bear the sight of you any more. Just go chill the fuck out on someone else's desk. The most I'll ever give you is a spellcheck". So, done , finito, out of my life. Till it comes back to me with a lot of red ink between the lines.... But I also feel great because I had a terrific weekend in the company of brilliant people, and one of them has this ABSOLUTELY thoroughly enthusiasmatic web project called "We Feel FIne" : http://www.wefeelfine.org/ If you have any time to devote to a website today, tomorrow, or the week after, I urge you to. It is, so far, the best example I can quote of Web Art. Something that only the Internet had made possible, and that gives insight into some aspect of human nature. It is a beautiful idea and the guys behind it are awesome. In a nutshell, it is an algorithm that parses the web (via search engines) to isolate the string "I feel" or "I am feeling" and classifies the corresponding feeling in a multidimensional, colorful and dynamic view : like a moving snapshot of feelings on the blogosphere. Incredible. Check it out - It's a fun game connecting to feelings. It will make you feel human. It will make you say "I feel better knowing that this thing is out there".

"An inconvenient truth" : it's true.

elnino — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 05:47:04 GMT

After much lagging behind my duties as your official natural disaster and weatherman, I finally got around to watch the now celebrated documentary on Al Gore's crusade against global warming. Since so many of my friends were waiting for a grain of salt from their home climatologist, here is my take on it. Get ready to change into clothes that go with green, cuz that will be your color by the time you finish this blurb. Without further ado, the punchline is that Gore's got it right, by and large. In fact, so many of the ideas presented there are in such striking agreement with my (professional) thinking on the subject that I am beginning to think that Mr Gore has been rummaging through by drawers to read my notes. Or could it just be common sense ? I am not going to paraphrase the whole film, but a few things inspired a comment or two. It's pretty long, but hopefully there are enough anchors that you can navigate all right. - "Consensus" ------------------ The "skeptics" have long argued that a good reasons for sitting on our hands and burn oil while we leisurely watch the Earth change is that "global warming is not a fact", and that there is yet "no scientific consensus" backing the claim that "human activities are beginning to have a discernible warming effect on Earth's climate, and are very likely the cause of the observed warming of the past 50 years". Of course that's plain propaganda. More consensus around a scientific issue is, in fact, pretty hard to come by.... Accordingly, Gore cites a study by science historian Naomi Oreskes, which shows rather eloquently that out of 928 abstracts from the "Climate" literature between 1983-1993, *not a single one of them* disagreed with the aforementioned statement. He brushed over it a little quickly, but I thought some of you might like to read it more in-depths, which you can do here : http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/306/5702/1686 Where consensus is NOT apparent is in minor newspapers around the country, whose science writers have as much qualification about climatology as I do on topics such as Chinese philosophy, Samoan hip-hop, or Zulu music theory. Go figure why the same newspapers tend to endorse creationism as a valid alternative to evolutionary biology. -"It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on not understanding it ". (Upton Sinclair). ---------------------------------------------- What is interesting about this quote is that its used on both sides of the public debate. I have even heard some people tell me, with a straight face, that it is the reason why climate scientists work to support the consensus position stated earlier : they get paid for that. If I am to believe such commendable sources as Michael Crichton ( http://www.crichton-official.com/fear/ ), our system of self-perpetuating governmental agency grants is the reason why James Hansen ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Hansen ) draws logical inferences based upon facts the way he does. Well, my lovelies, this remarkably candid statement ignores two essential points : 1) Quoting the man whose main contribution to paleontology is Jurassic Park - at the same level as a recipient of the Revelle medal ( http://www.agu.org/inside/awards/bios/hansen_james.html ) - is not making you look very smart. Read on http://www.earthinstitute.columbia.edu/news/2004/story12-13-04b.html if you want some more. 2) If greed were the only reason why we back the consensus, all of us moneyless scientists would have long betrayed that meaningless cause to go work for oil companies, which pay much more handsomely. And, oddly enough, their science staff or affiliates publishes independent studies showing that "global warming is not a fact". Go figure. Whose salary depends on not understanding 1+1=2? You judge. Tobacco --------------- Here and there, the director errs for a little while on some melodramatic subject, which I could have lived without. One such moments narrates the death of Gore's older sister, Nancy, succumbed to her unrestrained tobacco addiction. This lead Gore's father, struck by sorrow, to stop growing the crop in their Tennessee farm. The example illustrates how knowledge of the consequences of some human activities can cause a reasoned change in the way those activities are carried out, in spite of immediate financial rewards (tobacco=$$$). Despite the death of what looked like an honorable woman, I could not help smiling inwardly as I was watching this. For a while now, I had been thinking about the following analogy to the general public's perception of the climate challenge. Burning fossil fuel is a lot like smoking : almost every user now knows that it's bad for them and their children, but do you think that would be enough to make them stop ? We are addicted to our fossil-fuel-intensive lifestyle in a similar way that smokers are addicted to soiling their lungs. And unfortunately, we haven't found a magical formula to have people quit smoking, no matter how harsh the public health advertising campaign. Perhaps it is because, in both cases, there is a tremendous financial consortium benefitting from the addiction, which isn't easing the case. But mostly it is about a weakness that we all have when it comes to take long-term decisions in contradiction with our immediate notion of well-being. For what it's worth, one thing that really helped me stop smoking was - you will never believe it - the NYC smoking ban in bars and restaurants. Hum... regulation... Could that be the way forward with greenhouse gas emissions ? Libertarians and partisan of savage economic laisser-faire will tell you "get the fuck out of here !", but hey, I'm not smoking anymore. And you can't blame a shivering and puny "knee-jerk democrat" for this piece of legislation, it came from Bloomberg himself . An inspiration for other Republican leaders armed with common sense ? I'm not talking about this administration, obviously. Not bad for a darn politician ! ------------------------------------------ The slideshow that Al Gore's is using as a weapon of mass persuasion is a carefully crafted flow of relevant and well-explained scientific data , theories, and model results, which I had very little qualms about, surprisingly. Gore did his homework like a real good boy. I am surprised because most politicians who take on to discuss the subject regularly make an ass of themselves. I could cite a great number of boring examples, but I can't resist giving the best critique of all : http://www.transbuddha.com/mediaHolder.php?id=1147 (disclaimer : I am aware that Will Ferrell is not an elected US official. He just happens to be more like Bush than Bush himself when he wants to ;-). Seriously, one day I'll get to document a real list. For now we can have a little bit of laugh. So admittedly, as a scientist, i have to say that Gore is a little shaky on labeling the axes of his plots ; he tends to conveniently forget to mention some uncertainties, and he falls into the trap of blaming the Younger Dryas on some meltwater-induced shutdown of the North Atlantic thermohaline circulation, which I think is a theory that is now highly questionable. But he is not alone in that mistake, and that shall not deter us from my main point : overall, these minor points do not undermine the gist of his message . He makes an excellent job of presenting overwhelming evidence for anthropogenic global warming, both scientifically correct and visually striking ; he does the same with its projected ecological and societal consequences ; and most remarkably, he presents credible alternatives to the current situation. Alternatives that I have long thought about. "Green is money" ----------------------- It is often all to easy for the "skeptics" to dismiss any action taken on the reduction of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions (carbon dioxide and methane, chiefly) , because it's bad for business. And God knows we can't allow that. Oh no. Whatever we do, and even if Florida becomes a giant swamp with a handful of remaining crooked trees periodically swept away by category 6 hurricanes, we can't possibly harm next trimester's earnings of such and such outdated industrial juggernaut. That would upset stockholders, detract investors, cause body aches on the board of directors, and more generally spread a foul smell everywhere. God knows we can't allow that to happen. Next trimester is IMMENSELY more important than the next generation, you liberal fuckhead. Besides, who needs a planet to live on as long as we can do business ? This view is only valid in a world where invention, creativity and scientific progress are repressed, and where all we do is consume the way we have for the past few industrial revolutions. But there is a much more exciting way forward. Yes, I actually said "exciting", because I think now is a turning point for mankind, and if we rise up to the challenge of sustaining more than 10 billion human beings on our planet with entirely destroying it (and ourselves), we will have effectively reached a long sought-after maturity. Oil, coal and gas have been fueling our economic development for a while, starting from a time when, truthfully, we could not have anticipated their negative impacts. Now that we are aware of the latter, don't we have a moral imperative to do something about it ? Oh, sorry, I forgot. If you are a fiscal conservative, you don't give a shit about moral imperatives. Well, how about financial incentives ? It's getting increasingly costly to extract oil, both in terms of drilling, and all its geopolitical consequences . Read Sonia Shah's excellent book if you don't believe me ( http://www.globalpublicmedia.com/lectures/162 ). The latest industrial revolution is running out of steam in the US. It is my personal view of economic development that since the Middle Ages occurs primarily in times of : a) peace and political stability (even better, democracy). b) new discoveries (natural resources, like the Americas in 1492, or technology before and after) Well, now that we see the limits of our natural resources, why not put our brains to work and perfect existing technology (most of it is already here) to satisfy our energy needs, take a leadership in tomorrrow's technologies (before China does), and solve a lot of middle-Eastern geopolitical problems all at the same time. It's not even liberal propaganda, I've actually heard Gov. George Pataki say this. All these issues are deeply interconnected : if the US and the EU can lead the way to a society that continues leaving with comfortable abundance, but little waste ; with clean energies and no dependence on Middle-Eastern oil fields ; then it will pave the way to a sustainable economic growth, powered by innovation. Saudi Arabia and Iran will have lot less money to fund islamic terrorism. The current mayhem in the Middle East is not an accident of geography. Jews, Christians and Muslims have long had somewhat difficult relationships - but some of them would have little more than stones to throw if some oil fields weren't at stake. It's all tied up in the climate knot. Sure, it won't solve all the issues in the world. Not all, but quite a few of the most crucial ones. Gore does a wonderful job of illustrating that turning our minds to solve environmental problems is not only necessary, but promises to be lucrative. It is not even a question : the next industrial revolution *has* to address sustainable development, otherwise, well, we as anorganized society can kiss our ass goodbye. Slowly or not, but surely. Contrary to what most oil hunks are saying, the green revolution does not have to be to our economic detriment, but just the opposite. The following link is somewhat grandiloquent, but I think its main point is right : http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.05/green.html You knew that money was green . Now you shall think that Green means money. Blue or green ? -------------------- I have only one main reservation about Gore being the standard-bearer of a green revolution : the fact that he used to sport the Democrats' banner at the nation's second rank, is in my opinion a serious disservice to the cause. Don't get me wrong : everyone should think green. The blues and the reds alike. But in Gore's case it then becomes all too easy for skeptics and conservatives (two sets that have a suspiciously large intersection...) to just waive a hand in dismissing some facts as "liberal propaganda", instead of looking at the truth eye to eye. More subtly, almost all media coverage I have read on the movie never fails to ask whether it is a not-so-subtle message that Al Gore is back on the campaign trail. Instead of asking : "So what I can I do about my energy consumption ?", the burning question floats everywhere : " Is he going to run for office in 2008 ?". He claims he isn't , but the doubt is seeded in everyone's mind that he can't possibly be crusading for the Earth from the goodness of his heart. I personally think he is, but hey, I can't even vote in this country. On the other hand, with all their purported legitimacy, scientists haven't been very good, thus far, at changing the minds of the American people. As a former vice-President, Gore knows all too well that "an administration does not take an issue seriously unless it is on the tip of the tongue of its constituents". Scientists haven't been able to get there, therefore Gore is embarking on the crusade. Well, I think i'll follow him. Will you ? El Niño, August 2006

"Too much choice is confusing"

elnino — Fri, 13 Jan 2006 05:50:36 GMT

I don't mean to appear as a fucking elitist of an enlightened bastard. But I was in a deli 2 days ago, waiting in line to order my sandwich like a few million New Yorkers between 12 and 2 PM. I overheard this conversation between a few geeks, who, like meself, were likely to be Columbia scientists coming to fulfill some earthly desires. I was hungrily contemplating the colorful fluorescent board where the tachiest handwriting was touting the virtues of a Hero with Philly Cheesesteak or a roll with Arizona chiken salad, when this very geeky guy - an engineer, no doubt - started to complain that there was "too much choice" amongst the sandwiches. He even went so far as to say that so much choice was, I quote - holding the quotes with tweezers and holding the tweezers with 2 pairs of latex gloves - in a word, "confusing". He topped it off by proposing to limit the number of offered sandwiches via a mandatory cap. (this guy was not joking . I can tell humor when I hear it . Indeed, the Monty Python Flying Circus was also broadcasted in France). I stayed silent because I have no right to tell this guy what his life should be about. I was just immensely happy that I saw choice, as so many other things, as a way to achieve further happiness, rather than restrict it - in food or in everything. I then made up my own sandwich to avoid the conformism of submitting to one of the 120 already proposed. But this was about so much more than a stupid sandwich. Lost are the souls who prefer all decisions made for them. Vast is the world. Numerous are the dull souls who would rather stay with their head in the ground rather than risk anything into the unknown. If you aren't one of these people, the world is yours. Go, fly, run, breathe, and experience as much of it as you can. Leave the "Happy Meal" to the dead. (And don't spend so much time on the internet, it's waste of time !! Less than writing blogs, but still a waste... )

The high spheres of Carnegie Hall.

elnino — Fri, 21 Oct 2005 16:59:11 GMT

Yesterday i went to hear some thrilling music for piano at Carnegie Hall. By signing up on a student mailing list, you can get, for the unbeatable price of 10 dollars, the crumbs that the New York establishment scorned : a seat at an amazing classical or contemporary music performance. I had few illusions about the way I would be treated, but it still pinched my insides when the seater twitched at my ticket, pointed at a large marble stairwell, then said with an embarassed look : four stairs up, please. I don't mind stairs. But I certainly wasn't climbing up the social ladder. If anything, I was climbing it backwards : as the steps went up, the exterior signs of richness went down, and the ambient disgruntlement of being pack together with other cheap bastards on the top balcony went up. We had to climb in such low-pressure regions of the atmosphere that my bottle of sparkling water let out a loud pop when I opened it... The bubbles I was drinking were shooting up, far away from the high social spheres, comfortably seated in the "orchestra". I did not care the least about this inverse social stratification. I had some good reading, and in a few minutes I would be hearing the marvellous sounds of a grand concert piano stimulated by the delicate touch of Pierre-Laurent Aimard. But you wouldn't believe how pissed my neighbors were for being reminded their social status by means of numerical distance from the ground - and the stage. Well, there were better seats up for grabs. Everywhere I looked down upon (literally, not cynically ;-), there were empty seats in the better balconies, the dress circle, the orchestra. The "first tier" was like a beautiful woman awaiting to be seduced. So at the intermission I ventured in the lower floors - the higher spheres. I could not play the card of social imposture as my large backpack and sneakers gave me out as student like a sore thumb. Hey, whatever, I was working my ass off on some chaotic time series analysis until I had the whim to go and wash my soul in the blood of some powerfully distinguished music - but carrying a laptop on your back is like bearing a dark mark on your skin, in the halls of Carnegie Hall. The mark of infamy. Nonetheless, I baldly went to take an empty seat in a good spot. Task complicated by the fact that the bourgeois audience of Carnegie Hall is not only unpleasant to look at in the eyes : they are even more painful to listen to, from the young bourgeois ladies talking house decoration and wedding invitation, and the old bourgeois ladies shrieking their frustrated complaint at whoever wants to hear it - their husbands, mostly. The men are silent, therefore. One old foggey was so painful that I had to relocate to be able to continue reading my article. Picked a spot that was claimed a few minutes later by a young and discrete lady who told me in shock and awe " that's my seat !" . Oh well, is the next one taken ? "No", she says, and here I am for the second half of the concert, obviously breaking the rules upon the frowning eyes of the bourgeois 1st balcony, and delighting in hearing Schumann's carnival with proper acoustics. Only music exists a this stage. The stage is made for music. The concert ends, after two encores. Exit, the French and American bourgeois ! ( an unusual amount of rich and ignorant French people had come to hear Pierre -Laurent Aimard and the programme featuring Debussy, Ravel and Boulez ). Exit, the last vibrating notes, back to the social theater , its noise and its fury. I closed my mind. The joy of hearing such wonderful music was still on my face, luminous and irrepressible. It looked strangely out of place, of course. One is not supoosed to smile at strangers in the high spheres. I went back into my own. Fortunately, not all people are closed to smiles. I met a very nice old romanian man in the hallway, and we chatted about the music, Europe, nature, and the Kyoto protocol. Thank god there is eastern europe to remind us what romantic music is all about. Where the passion was from before it became salon music in the chich Paris of the 19th and 20th century. The discreet charm of bourgeoisie is a dish best savored in small quantities. I'm glad the dessert was sweeter than the main course. JEG