Centripetal Notion: category

(image)

Trulia Hindsight takes property construction data and animates the growth of streets, neighborhoods and cities in the US over the last couple centuries.

“At first glance, the manuscript appears to be a medieval Christian prayer book.

But on the same pages as the prayers, experts using a high-tech imaging system have discovered commentary likely written in the third century A.D. on a work written around 350 B.C. by the Greek philosopher Aristotle.”

This slipped by me unnoticed until today. Mstislav Rostropovich, former director of the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, DC and virtuoso cellist died last Friday morning in Moscow, the city he considered home. Included in this post is a recording of him playing Haydn’s Cello Concerto No. 1 in C with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields.

“Awww, pat me on my back and call me shorty.”

I’ve not read much of Vonnegut’s work myself — only bits and pieces here and there. In the wake of his passing, bits of his quoted wisdom have flooded our consciousness, though none thus far have been presented as well for me as in this recent article from The A.V. Club.

Tiger got to hunt, bird [...]

“These prophecies will seem strange, almost impossible. Yet, they have come from the most learned and conservative minds in America. To the wisest and most careful men in our greatest institutions of science and learning I have gone, asking each in his turn to forecast for me what, in his opinion, will have been wrought in his own field of investigation before the dawn of 2001 - a century from now. These opinions I have carefully transcribed.”

National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Wade Davis, here speaking at TED 2003, has some excellent insight to share from his travels. Here he discusses world cultures, dying languages and unique spiritual practices including tribal psychoactive rituals.

Some thoughts from Danah Boyd on the implications persistent digital memory (IM/email archives, blogs, images, video) has on culture, relationships, etc.

I’ve seen Hans Rosling’s Gapminder, a stunning interactive display of world social and economic statistics, but I’ve never taken the time to watch his presentation at TED 2006 until today. His passion for visualizing data that thus far resides in a more nebulous region of global consciousness is inspiring.