heat, closer
Originally uploaded by Genista.
When asked about the strangeness of gas heaters in many houses in an area that is prone to earthquakes, and in a city that has already burned down a few times, she said: It’s a problem.
At the Bay Street Mall in Emeryville they were having a seasonal attraction: white foam was blown from the roof in tiny patches, looking entirely like snow in the light of the streetlamps. Until it landed on chairs, tables and customers clothing, when it looked like foam again. I’d like to think that the kids who were taken there now believe that snow is made from soap and falls from the roof of stores. But with all the TV they are watching, they of course are well aware that snow comes from Columbia and is bad for your septum.
I should be writing christmas cards, instead I’m writing this: Merry Christmas!
Dr. Ken Norwich informiert über seinen heutigen Vortrag: “This talk will consist, essentially, of a morass of unfathomable equations (some 40 of them). Although none of these equations will be derived, you will have to understand them fully in order to follow the talk. Very little effort will be extended to make this easy. Already you see that this seminar is not for you. To compensate, in part, for the discomfort of sitting through a seemingly interminable sequence of equations, you will be offered coffee and cookies. My own assessment is that the compensation is not commensurate with the discomfort. The take-home message is that Fechner’s law, as originally formulated, is incomplete. (Do you really care? Do you even remember what Fechner’s law is?) The take home thought is that in the process of sensating, the brain does not behave like a camera, which passively maps external events into corresponding cerebral events, or like a computer which produces an output corresponding to a given sensory input. Rather, the brain takes an active part in the process of sensating, and seems to be about the simplest model of itself. But do you really think I can develop ideas of this depth in 40 or 50 minutes? Be serious!”