asdfghj

N I G H T V I S I O N: CONVERSATIONS: NIC ENDO.

Tue, 21 May 2013 13:24:28 -0300

N I G H T V I S I O N: CONVERSATIONS: NIC ENDO.:

Few women in music can compare to Nic Endo, the modular synth-warping magi behind the classic Nineties album, Cold Metal Perfection, and beloved comrade of Berlin’s enduring digital hardcore pioneers, Atari Teenage Riot. As Atari’s frontwoman, a vanguard architect of experimental noise, and as…

Photo

Mon, 20 May 2013 21:08:48 -0300

<3

Sun, 19 May 2013 22:17:20 -0300

Photo

Sat, 18 May 2013 00:07:08 -0300

Photo

Fri, 17 May 2013 23:16:44 -0300

Photo

Fri, 17 May 2013 22:44:06 -0300

Photo

Fri, 17 May 2013 22:39:09 -0300

Photo

Fri, 17 May 2013 22:25:30 -0300

drunkblogging: so what if apathy is my greatest vice

Fri, 17 May 2013 20:21:32 -0300

drunkblogging:

so what if apathy is my greatest vice

the-cool-nerd: behold technological advancements

Wed, 15 May 2013 16:20:24 -0300

the-cool-nerd:

behold technological advancements

bluedogeyes: NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratories recruitment...

Wed, 15 May 2013 16:18:21 -0300

bluedogeyes:

NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratories recruitment ads (via fdecomite)

Ads from late 60’s Scientific American.

Photo

Fri, 10 May 2013 23:35:43 -0300

Although I don’t like this faggotry of xanax on tumblr

Fri, 10 May 2013 03:58:00 -0300

Although I don’t like this faggotry of xanax on tumblr

Photo

Wed, 08 May 2013 14:36:58 -0300

sweetsfiend: Since my eyes couldn’t handle the 3D of a bigger...

Mon, 06 May 2013 21:45:13 -0300

sweetsfiend:

Since my eyes couldn’t handle the 3D of a bigger screen (and I do cherish my old 3DS too much), I’ve decided to make someone on tumblr happy with their very own Pikachu Limited Edition 3DS XL! I’m really excited to be doing this, and I can just hope it will make someone smile.

No, I won’t be selling it. I am not obligated to answer why, because if you honestly want me to sell it, my answer won’t be sufficient for you. Message me off anon if you’re really dying to know.

Now that the boring parts are over with, let’s go over even more boring stuff, shall we?

Reblogs and likes both count and will combined give you two entries.

You don’t need to be following me. However it would be nice to meet new people, and I do post a lot of Pokémon.

I’ll ship internationally, but the system is European.

No giveaway blogs.

Have your ask box open so that I may contact you.

The giveaway will end on May 10. Have fun, okay? (◡‿◡✿)

lareviewofbooks: Science Fiction in China: A Conversation with...

Mon, 06 May 2013 02:21:36 -0300

lareviewofbooks:

Science Fiction in China: A Conversation with Fei Dao
by Alec Ash

Fei Dao, a science fiction writer born in 1983, chose for his pen name the two characters for “flying dagger” (飞刀). When he achieved some success, he changed the second character to another, also pronounced Dao (氘), that made the nom de plume sound less jejune.

Science fiction in China is attracting special interest of late. The mind-bending trilogy Three Body by Liu Cixin has been selling strong for its genre. Sci fi is also a theme of the new edition of the Beijing-based (English language) literary magazine Pathlight, slated to come out next week. Alice Xin Liu, managing editor of the magazine, tweeted “Chinese scifi is, politically, most daring genre in Chinese contemporary literature”.

So, who should we be reading? Does this sci fi have Chinese characteristics? What is its history in the mainland? And does it matter?

I sat down with Fei Dao in Tsinghua university, where he is studying comparative literature, to ask him these questions and more. Here it is, straight from the horse’s mouth.

Alec Ash: How did you start writing science fiction?

Fei Dao: When I was at middle school, 16 or 17, I started to read a lot of sci fi. I read the magazine Science Fiction World, and became more familiar with sci fi literature. I liked it because there was a lot of imagination and novelty in it. At that time, my dream was to become an author. When I started out, I didn’t think at all about writing science fiction. Back then I felt sci fi was very difficult to write, and needed some knowledge of science, so I could only appreciate it but not write it myself.

Like many post 80s authors, I started out writing campus stories about young people in school. But I couldn’t get them published. Until one day in university, I wrote a science fiction story on the side, and sent it in to Science Fiction World. I was just giving it a go, I had no idea that that first story would get published [in 2003]. A year later, I had another idea, and that second story also got published. So that encouraged me, and I started writing sci fi.

AA: How popular is sci fi in China?

FD: In my opinion, it’s mostly popular among young people. This has a big connection to Science Fiction World, because a lot of students at middle school and university buy that magazine. It has a very large readership. But after people graduate and start to work, most people don’t read science fiction. They think it’s just youth literature and that grown-ups should read more mature stuff, not childish stuff.

AA: How do you feel about that?

FD: Of course I don’t think it’s childish literature. But Science Fiction World is, after all, for young readers. The whole feel of the magazine is like that. So while there is lots of mature science fiction for grown-ups, the readers are still mostly young.

I feel lots of people are prejudiced against sci fi. They think that if you’re a certain age and still read sci fi, that’s immature and unrealistic, like you are letting your fantasies run wild. So I think that prejudice is a problem. But now that Three Body (三体) [by Liu Cixin] has been publically praised, I hope that is slowly changing people’s opinion.

AA: Who are the Chinese authors we should read?

FD: The most popular authors now are Liu Cixin, Han Song and Wang Jinkang. Those three are the most famous at this time. Some people jokingly call them “the three generals”.

AA: What is unique or particular about Chinese science fiction?

FD: Chinese sci fi has about a hundred years of history. When it started, in the late Qing dynasty around 1902, it was chiefly concerned with the problem of bringing ancient China into modernity. At that time, Liang Qichao [translated sci fi] because he thought it would be beneficial for China’s future … as something that could popularize scientific knowledge. And Lu Xun thought that if you gave ordinary people scientific literature to read, they would fall asleep. But if you blended scientific knowledge into stories with a plot, it would be more interesting. [He thought that] in this way, the people could become more modern.

So at that time science fiction was a very serious thing to do in China that could allow ordinary people to get closer to modern scientific knowledge, and serve as a tool for transforming traditional culture into modern culture. It played a very important role, and had a serious mission to accomplish.

Today, there is a commercial publishing market for sci fi, and people don’t have such weighty expectations of literature, yet authors are still discussing serious topics. Three Body by Liu Cixin or Subway (地铁) by Han Song both have many reflections about the direction of this country and of humanity. So this kind of writing can convey concerns about the future, or discuss the current situation in China.

For example, Han Song’s Subway is about a subway station. In China, subway systems are an emblem of modernization. Many cities in China are building huge subway systems, because to have one or not is the standard of a city’s modernity and development. So in discussing this symbol, Han Song seized on a sensitive point. After publishing Subway, he wrote another book called Highspeed Rail (高铁), another emblem of technological innovation. So Han Song is consistently concerned with the potential catastrophes of the process of modernization.

Liu Cixin, on the other hand, is expressing a more grand feeling of the universe in the tradition of Western sci fi. In doing so, he wants Chinese people to look up at the sky, and not just be concerned with earthly matters. The mainstream of Chinese literature is about real-world subject matter, such as the countryside or urban life. Very few people are concerned with the fate of humankind, the future of the universe, or even aliens. These things are themselves alien to Chinese readers, but can be introduced through this kind of writing.

I think that the key theme of Chinese science fiction, no matter how it develops, is how this ancient country and its people are moving in the direction of the future.

AA: What is the relationship between Chinese sci fi and the culture and censorship authorities?

FD: Because I’m an author not a magazine publisher, I’m not sure precisely what the relationship between them and the censorship department is. But in China, no matter what the subject matter of literature is, you have to communicate with the censorship department. For example, if you write realistic fiction about a sensitive subject, you’ll also come up against objections. It’s the same for sci fi.

AA: Is there a big Western influence on Chinese sci fi?

FD: Science fiction is a new variety of literature [in China]. Before a hundred years ago, it had no frame of reference, so it just studied Western works. Of course there were native influences too, but in the end the learning process was from the West. [Chinese] sci fi writers today have also read a lot of Western sci fi. They’re very familiar with it, and it’s given them a lot of inspiration. For example, Liu Cixin emphasizes his admiration of Arthur Clarke.

AA: What are the other main influences?

FD: There’s also a big influence from Japan. Historically there were a lot of Japanese [sci fi] stories translated into Chinese. Jules Verne was also first translated from Japanese into Chinese. And contemporary Japanese sci fi, for example Japan Sinks (日本沈没) by Sakyo Komatsu, is very popular in China. Anime and manga are also an influence, but only starting from the post 80s generation … because that is the generation where TV shows began to become popular.

Another big influence on Chinese sci fi is Soviet sci fi. Especially after 1949, when China had less connection to the West and more connection to the USSR, the most famous Chinese sci fi authors were most influenced by Soviet sci fi with communist themes. So there are three big influences: the West, Japan and the USSR.

AA: Who are your biggest influences?

FD: I’ve been influenced by a lot of non science fiction writers, and I’ve read classic Western sci fi such as [Arthur] Clarke and [Isaac] Asimov. But when I was young, one of the works that most subtly influenced me [was] a novella by Ted Chiang (姜峯楠) called “Tower of Bablyon”. That story gave me a new understanding of science fiction – i.e. that it doesn’t have to be just about technology.

In the story, they built a high tower in Babylon that became a world with different floors and people living inside. They built it bit by bit, until it reached the top of the sky. Then they burnt through the sky, and the protagonist entered into the heavens, where there was water and a sandy shore. So this world was cyclical – you arrive in the heavens and it’s like the seabed. It’s hard to explain, but this was a very serious science fiction or fantasy story, and it opened up a large imaginative space for me.

AA: Do you think sci fi is important?

FD: I do. I think that imagination is very important. People must preserve a curiosity about the future. Many people, because of everyday pressures, don’t have the time or the energy to care about things that don’t seem to be about everyday reality. But I think that to be curious is very important, and so is sci fi.

Read last week’s interview with Mara Hvistendahl at The China Blog here.

Photo

Fri, 03 May 2013 00:21:44 -0300

Photo

Fri, 03 May 2013 00:21:41 -0300

plutarc: fun things to do when you’re single!! masturbate cry do both at the same time eat a whole...

Sun, 28 Apr 2013 23:09:00 -0300

plutarc:

fun things to do when you’re single!!

masturbate

cry

do both at the same time

eat a whole cake by yourself

cry

cry more because you think you couldn’t keep a relationship if you were to have one

neuromorphogenesis: What is Schizophrenia? Many people think...

Sun, 28 Apr 2013 22:06:56 -0300

neuromorphogenesis:

What is Schizophrenia?

Many people think people with schizophrenia have a ‘split personality’. Perhaps this comes from Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic novel, ‘Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’, in which the sane and upright doctor, experimenting with mind-altering drugs, descends into the near-bestial Hyde with tragic results. But schizophrenia, which affects one in every 125 people worldwide, is not really like this.

It is true that ‘schizo’, from Ancient Greek, means split. The ‘phrenia’ part is harder to translate. ‘Phrenum’ originally meant ‘bit’ or ‘bridle’, something assisting a rider in controlling a horse. In human anatomy, the word came to refer both to the diaphragm, the membrane that rises and falls with our breathing, and to our minds, to what goes on inside our heads. Schizophrenia, then, can literally mean ‘split-mind’, renowned psychiatrist, Professor Nancy Andreasen’s phrase, ‘broken brain’, used in the title of one of her books.

Susceptible people usually develop schizophrenia in their teens or early twenties. Before that, their brains and minds seem to be working okay. Then something goes wrong. The brain gets broken. Mental functions go awry… But nobody has yet discovered precisely what is at the heart of the problem. Biological factors – including abnormal brain anatomy, alterations in brain chemistry, genetic influences, and/or the effects of toxic substances (including cannabis and other drugs) – are strong possibilities that have been investigated. Psychological factors – such as early losses and other forms of emotional trauma – must be considered too.

Any or all of these various factors, plus others perhaps, may combine to produce the mental illness (or group of related illnesses) we call schizophrenia. About one-third of people who get it later recover. About one-third have a fluctuating course, with variations in intensity and periods of partial or complete remission; and about one-third experience more or less permanent symptoms and associated disabilities.

Treatment with medication (‘anti-psychotics’) can help reduce symptom intensities, suppressing some or all symptoms, but the illness process continues, so that stopping medication results in the symptoms returning.

Working with people with schizophrenia for many years has taught me much. To me, they are always ‘people with schizophrenia’, never ‘schizophrenics’. The disease label is utterly insufficient to define everything that these individuals have been, are now, and might become. To use it that way is an insult.

A typical person will have been doing fine at home and school when something starts to go wrong. For many patients, it is as if the focus of consciousness starts blinking, switching rapidly on and off, occasionally at first, and then more consistently. There are mini-gaps in the flow of mental activity. Imagine watching a television programme, then the screen very briefly goes blank, and when the picture and sound return the set is tuned to another channel and another programme. You start watching that, and then it happens again. You try and get back to the first programme, but the harder you try, the more frequently the blank screen effect cuts in.

This may be the basic fault in schizophrenia. Most of the other symptoms can be attributed to this fundamental imperfection, a repeated interruption to the flow of thoughts and sensations. When this starts happening, there is a tendency to open up to the inner world of experiences, paying less attention to whatever is going on in the environment. There are strong suggestions that the basic fault is linked – whether as cause or effect – to a persistent overload of stimulation. Colors or sounds may, for example, seem exceptionally vivid or altered in character. This can all be very disconcerting.

It is wise to think of the young person with schizophrenia as having a healthy functioning mind trying to make sense of, and get under better control, the part of itself which is broken. Successful mental health professionals always try to work with this healthy part, even when the symptoms seem overwhelming.

When the mind blinks, so to speak, goes blank briefly and keeps switching channels, the person’s thoughts become vague, elliptical and obscure. He or she can no longer easily, therefore, master and follow a series of instructions, or plan and carry out a course of actions. Often feeling impotent and useless, they may respond badly when pressure is put on them to achieve in the way they had been able to before the onset of the disorder.

Irritability is common. The person naturally feels a deep sense of being invaded. Their thoughts, feelings and actions seem to be known to other people, as if perhaps inserted into or withdrawn from their minds by others. By way of explanation, they readily develop false beliefs about being targeted and persecuted. They mistrust people, including close family members, who are themselves having difficulty understanding what seems to be happening, and the person’s changed pattern of behavior. Affected people may, for instance, isolate themselves much of the time, as a way of coping with the sensations of outside interference, as well as the demands of well-meaning but misplaced encouragement. Another symptom, hallucinatory voices, that are often highly critical, may add to the person’s feelings of persecution.

In the early stages, a teenager or young adult, will only rarely consider (much less like the idea) that they have a mental illness and go for professional help. Usually, the person keeps quiet about it. With difficulty concentrating, in class for example, he or she may try harder at first, in an almost obsessional way. Eventually, though, unable to keep up, it is common for such a person to fall behind and, often, to drop out of school, or later to give up their employment. He or she may self-medicate with so-called ‘recreational’ drugs and/or alcohol, in unwise amounts, as another (ultimately self-defeating) way of trying to cope with the symptoms.

Much has been written about the emotional state of people with schizophrenia, and how their mood can often appear shallow, volatile or incongruous. Some forms of schizophrenia are thought to include a depressive component as part of the illness process. However, great care should be taken when interpreting a person’s emotional reaction to very challenging, often bizarre internal mental experiences and their consequences.

With the healthy part of their mind working alongside the broken elements, a person might naturally seek to minimize external stimuli and close down their emotional responsivity. Those who seem apathetic, dull and closed off, hard to reach and communicate with, are often super-sensitive, sometimes instinctively feeling the raw emotional state of other people better than those people do themselves. Social withdrawal is, for them, an important and understandable form of self-defence.

The healthy mind of the sufferer will also recognize that, unable to finish school, he or she will be unable to find decently paid employment, and will not be attractive to others, and so less likely to find a life-partner. With poor job and marriage prospects, and low income, they will miss out on many of the things that seem necessary for simple human happiness. They may well, in a natural and healthy way, feel unhappy about that, perhaps angry too, or ashamed. There is, in other words, even at a young age, a good deal of grieving to be done, and new, appropriate, reachable goals to be set, once optimal treatment and symptom control have been reached.