Volcano Café has compiled a convenient list of the nine “New Decade Volcano Program” candidates announced thus far and invited speculation about the top spot on the list. A few weeks ago I wrote about Lake Kivu in the East African Rift, which is ominously close to Nyiragongo. I guessed then that a volcanic complex involving the lake would be first or second on the list, and I still think so. The most dangerous volcano on the planet, to the best of my (superficial) knowledge, is likely the Nyiragongo/Lake Kivu combination.
Odds and ends
Life is annoyingly busy, and I will have less time than usual for maintaining my websites until the middle of December. Expect even less activity here than usual. There might occasionally be posts of miscellaneous nonsense, such as what follows, but probably not much more.
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Flickr recently introduced a “camera roll” feature that displays thumbnails of your pictures arranged either by the date taken or according to its “magic view,” which sorts them into subject-based categories. The algorithms for the latter need a little refinement.
Details, details
Saturday was the fall orchid show at the botanical garden. Although it was Halloween, Dracula vampira 1 was missing. However, there were plenty of others to photograph, some spectacular, some bizarre.
The show gave me an opportunity to test Helicon Focus, another focus-stacking application. The picture above was compiled from four slices using the default settings, the one below from five.
I also ran a stack of images that Photoshop had trouble with through Helicon. It did much better, though the result could be just a tad sharper. The lack of resolution might be due to the particular settings, and once I figure everything out I might be able to get better results. (The same set processed by Zerene Stacker can be seen here.)
Demon cats and other holiday fun
So it’s Halloween, and you’d like to watch some spooky anime, preferably available online legally for free? There are some suggestions here, but there are other series I prefer. For monsters, there’s the currently-airing Ushio and Tora. For Shinto 101 and yokai, there’s Natsume Yuujin-cho. But my first choice is Mononoke, Kenji Nakamura‘s first series and still his best. The medicine seller’s investigations are as much moral detective stories as horror shows, informed by a stringent sense of justice. If you merely want to be scared out of your wits, there are many other shows to choose from, but if you want a work of art worth rewatching and thinking about, try Mononoke.
Definitely not Jeeves
I watched the first episode of Black Butler years ago and decided that it was not for me. Nevertheless, I’d like to attend tonight’s performance of OperAnime, which combines the peculiar anime with an opera from 1880. Unfortunately, the event is being held outdoors, and it is likely to rain all evening.
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I may need to watch this week’s episode of My Little Pony. What would Ranma’s cutie mark be?
Love and compassion
Insulting the right people signals compassion, and modern people buy it because hating the nasty backward traditional oppressor is what unites modern people. Despising the right people means love.
The microwave of doom
The dangers of dihydrogen monoxide are well-known, but there are other hazards that you might have been unknowingly exposed to. For instance, studies have demonstrated that over 93% of all cancer patients have at some time inhaled O2, a powerful oxidizer. More than 87% of people with bipolar personality have looked at a full moon without adequate eye protection. Anecdotal evidence suggests that individuals exhibiting egregious political activism ingested acetylsalicylic acid during childhood. It has been hypothesized that the majority of people who during early adulthood order a steak rather than a salad will not live to see their 100th year.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have important culinary matters to attend to.
Ballet, electronica, cats and the Swedish chef
Dance and animation.
The Nyan Cat Variations. (Via Fillyjonk.)
Continue reading “Ballet, electronica, cats and the Swedish chef”
Hmphmhmphwmhphm
Let no screencap go to waste: miscellaneous illustrations for posts I didn’t write.
What comes next …
… once polkas become passé?
Barbershop, of course.
Murder and meh-hem
The Perfect Insider has very good opening and closing animations. The stuff in between, which falls somewhere between a locked-room mystery and And Then There Were None and concerns people tediously self-conscious of their high IQs, is less enthralling. I did spot a pair of red half-rim spectacles, though. If there were any rubber ducks, I missed them.
Speaking of ATTWN, here’s Eve Tushnet on Agatha Christie: “Never trust the cute ones.”
Wilder than Wilma
Notes from the Psychiatric Center for Research on Regressive Tendencies
Various odds and ends:
Fillyjonk linked to an old but not outdated story by Ray Bradbury, “The Murderer.” I found a couple of other favorites, “The Veldt” and “The Pedestrian.”
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Perhaps not entirely unrelated to the Bradbury stories:
Having time each day merely to amuse oneself, or just to sit and think, greatly improves one’s life. Yet we’re practically taught to avoid such periods – to stay as busy as possible virtually all the time. The emphasis on work, on “multitasking” (which, as a former expert in the architecture of multitasking operating systems for embedded devices, I can assure you is always an illusion) and on achieving ever more per unit time is using us up in ways we don’t always perceive and even less often appreciate. You’d almost suspect that time spent in introspection had been deemed an offense against the social norms.
(Via Dustbury.)
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While Sakurajima is ominously quiet, in the South Indian Ocean Piton de la Fournaise is putting on a modest, colorful show.
Continue reading “Notes from the Psychiatric Center for Research on Regressive Tendencies”
Annual task
It’s time to look for next year’s calendars. I found a number at YesAsia that might be of interest to visitors here:
Studio Chizu (i.e., Mamoru Hosoda)
Japanese dream
Roger, who is spending the current semester in Japan, recorded a theme from Someday’s Dreamers, playing both the piano and fiddle parts. Unfortunately, I don’t know how to embed Facebook videos on my site, but you can listen here.
Update: It’s on YouTube now.
Update II: Roger with some of his Japanese friends playing a different sort of music:
Animation you can eat
Some stop-motion dessert for you.
Susan and friends
Occasionally an obscure tune that caught my ear back in ancient times pops into my mind. Last night it was “Susan,” by The Mauroks from 1969. I guessed right on the spelling of their name and found it quickly on YouTube. It’s no classic, but it has a nice garage/psychedelic sound and a good groove.
Other curiosities I’ve unearthed include The Damnation of Adam Blessing and very early Nils Lofgren. There are more here.
Afternoon glory
It was well after noon by my watch (though still morning according to the sun) when I spotted these today. Four o’clocks are also staying open into the afternoon hours. They still don’t open at 4:00, though.
Decline and fall, with peaches
On October 10, 1969, forty-six years ago today, three noteworthy albums were released simultaneously: Frank Zappa’s Hot Rats, King Crimson’s In the Court of the Crimson King, and the Kinks’ Arthur. To celebrate, here’s a tune from each, though not necessarily the version on the record.
This is the tune that persuaded me that Zappa was more than just a clever novelty act with a dirty mind.
Court indulged in science-fiction and fantasy, with lyrics so profoundly meaningful they’re silly. The music was pretty good, though.
While King Crimson did F&SF, the Kinks took their inspiration from recent British history and culture in lyrics blending nostalgia and cynicism. Musically, the Kinks were the least interesting of the three acts, but Ray Davies at his best was a formidable satirist.
Beyond healing
There’s “iyashikei,” or “healing” anime, “… created with the specific purpose of having a healing or soothing effect on the audience. Works of this kind often involve alternative realities with little to no conflict, emphasizing nature and the little delights in life.” In general I find these shows annoyingly bland. The few such that I like, I enjoy in spite of, not because of, their soothing nature.
On the other hand, there is what I think of as “convalescent” anime, shows to marathon when you’re starting to recover from an illness. Something invigorating with a good story and likable characters is what I want then, and the better efforts of Tatsuo Sato are perfect. Mouretsu Pirates has served me well in the past. A few days ago I watched Shingu yet again. It works every time.
I grabbed a few more screencaps along the way.