Kawaii Art

 Art and fashion often reflect or react to current socioeconomic or political events. The Japanese do this particularly well. As a child I preferred anime to western cartoons. As an adult Japanese video games or animated movies dealt with difficult topics on a much deeper, progressive and futuristic way.

One of these genres is Kawaii. Japanese for cute.

Im not sure but im guessing that part of this self expression is a longing for childhood. And to be honest, I envy the kids (under 20) for their access to toys that my generation did not have. I admire their ease with which they tell society that walking around with iconic childhood blushes on a key chain is cool and socially acceptable.

The 1950s were the golden age of science fiction. In part due to the global post war economic depression. Children in particular needed superheroes to rescue the world and let them know that the world will improve.

By the time I was a teen Greenpeace had already rescued the whales. Pesticides had been banned for a while, there was a positive outlook. Goths took themselves too seriously hippies and punks were long gone in terms of trendiness.

The Japanese are technologically advanced and ahead of us. And when they do something especially in art its next level as the kids say.

There is nothing new about Harajuku girls. The creativity of making themselves look like dolls is incredible. For the last decade or so I've started seeing the prince look, inspired by anime characters translated into real life.

Then there is Kawaii 3D nail art. The image below is done with molding paste and acrylic gel. I've looked into Acrylic embedding or epoxy resin years ago, but the materials are very toxic. To create this miniature art work on something as transitory as a nail though? I've seen quite a few that are very Kawaii kitsch with prefabricated charms as they're called, but also galaxies, planets where the nail polish is cured and magnetized (whatever that means). 

Spouse creates bead jewelry and was thinking about embedding in resin, which neither one of us has tried. The fish tank ring is made that way. The second ring is glass.

Very playful and creative. The embedded pendants we've seen are usually pressed flowers that seem outdated to me. Im not interested in creating small pieces but am amazed at this wearable art.

Healthy food for less

 

Yesterday I needed to pick up tomatoes and parsley for a dish I am making. (Spouse and I take turns.) While I joke about my cooking, the dishes I know how to make are quite good.

An unexpected and pleasant surprise happened in the health food store. I have been seeing large brown bags on a shelf without rhyme or reason in various stores and assumed it's for food drives.

In the past some of the big stores have a display bag, it's 10 or 20 dollars, they are usually filled with non-perishables, and allegedly given to food banks. I say allegedly because while I like to help, selling contents at regular price to give to a food bank instead of matching it or selling it at cost, doesn't seem charitable.

When grocery stores have a good idea, I wish they would keep it. As a graduate student, my budget was tight, but I wanted to eat healthy. Another student told me that a high end grocery store had an incredible fruit and produce sale before every long weekend. How good can it be I thought? Probably damaged product. Well. This was a high end store. The freshest berries imaginable, shrimp packages for 25cents each. I learned how to freeze the berries and make sugar free compotte for my oatmeal yoghurt breakfast. Every month practically free exotic fruit like physalis or passion fruit.

When covid then two wars increased food prices, I was happy to see health food stores do this. I peeked inside the bag, saw 7 vine ripened tomatoes and parsley. A container of strawberries, some nectarines, ten apples, perfect carrots. Normal quality. For three bucks. Why I asked one of the staff. Customer appreciation, I was told. When they buy surplus they reduce it before it goes bad. First time I bought one.

Great idea.

Great art should make you happy.

 

Banksy

There is a common and dangerous misconception that great art requires suffering.

It creates a skewed and imbalanced perception of art, romanticizes suffering, trauma and is dangerous and yet the myth persists.

This is not to say that it doesn't help cope with suffering, on the contrary. It is therapeutic and it can and does heal. Obviously mental stability is individual as is the art one creates. I personally am at my most productive when I'm in a good mood, which I generally am by nature.

At art school there was a group of students that were the more "artistic" types, they self expressed, were performative, created art that was provocative and disturbing. They put on airs and were very dramatic. Many did drugs as part of their artistic lifestyle, as they assumed they had to. I always thought of Basquiat when I saw them and stayed away. Basquiat was very gifted, co-created the neo-expressionism movement, one of the first to bring urban art and graffiti into modern art. He ended up hating addicts. The artist as tortured soul persists since then, but in the end becomes a victim of their own self promoting making.

I have a good friend who does not have any creativity of any kind. I focused on science, so there was little left over for art supplies. The ones I bought were geared toward the discipline I was interested in, but buying a complete set of acrylics, oils, inks, brushes and everything else in the professional grade materials list wasn't in the budget. I mentioned it to my friend, whose opinion I valued. Rather than help me come up with a solution she lectured me that Picasso created his best work during his blue period and painted on newspaper, because he was suffering. (He was very young and grieving. Hardly his best work.) This was the nonsense she had read somewhere and believed.

The New York art scene is notorious for propagating the myth, celebrating misery and tragedy, especially in conceptual modern art. I have yet to see an exhibit that celebrates everything we did achieve; the animals we brought back from the brink of extinction, the environments we did save; the positive work humans did accomplish especially now.

Art needs to uplift in bad times.

Rocky, Grace and a wonderful movie

 

Rocky by unknown posted by Weir

Spoilers: This post assumes you have watched it

Over the weekend I watched Project hail Mary with Grace and Rocky. Among many other themes it's a movie about the importance of friendship.

The type of friendship that crosses geographic location and cultural differences. I have not read the book, which probably explains more than could fit into a movie. I thoroughly enjoyed the movie. It's wonderful and uplifting.

There's humor throughout. One really cares about both characters and it focuses on empathy and compassion of two different species that despite their incredible differences learn to deeply care about eachother.

I was surprised at how much emotion it evoked. Everyone teared up at the sacrifices they made and were willing to make for eachother. I also enjoyed that rocky initiated the effort to communicate. Initially by imitating until they both had rudimentary simple speech. The effort Rocky put in to communicate and invent an environment that made a human comfortable are incredible.

Yet. Both species had common reference points; they're social, have mates, children and culture. A foundation that allows them to relate and communicate. It's clear that Eridians are much more emotionally intelligent because they had to be due to their regenerative sleep habits.

I won't get into the science except that there are some great ideas that aren't plausible. Astrophages are based on Bacteriophages which do exist. I don't see how a species can travel interstellarly  without discovering radiation or relativity. But it moves the story forward.

The scene where the ships tango in the beginning was hilarious. Overall a wonderful movie that reminds us about what compassion and empathy actually mean.

Fun with image generators

There's a previous post related to this one, I posted two in one day.

Spouse and I  were amusing ourselves with image generators.

Spouse went first:

Well. The cats had kittens and the hands are interesting. I went next

Too many cats. No room on the couch.

Oh dear Lord...

Spouse got freaked out by the mutated cats and left the room?

The future of technology?

 An increasing concern of mine is coming to fruition. 30% of the world market are invested in AI and its assistants. When I quickly try to research something I sometimes get a garbled mess that contradicts itself from one paragraph to the next. They are overvalued.

I could not recall who had written Starship Troopers and searching it told me that it was Hubbard rather than Heinlein. Then another search where the search engine (I'll call it SE instead of AI), confused an advertisement with actual information and combined the two. 

There was a student in university who supported herself by writing three romance novels per year. Hardly literature and she used the contractual template provided; a heroine who was average looking, a stunning male who wooed her and they lived happily ever after. It paid for her tuition. The recent AI written horror story was pulled off the market.

I love science fiction, but when I tried to watch Gemini man with will Smith. The cgi of his younger self was so poorly done it was unwatchable. Actors are not replaceable.

Recently big companies won what I expect is the first of many legal claims.

https://techcrunch.com/2026/03/16/merriam-webster-openai-encyclopedia-brittanica-lawsuit/

Another concern is if this story is actually true and if the players are all artificial, then LLMs are simply copying all of human history mixing it up with science fiction dystopia and creating a civilization that will become post-apocalyptic simply because there arent enough published utopias.

https://www.spacemolt.com/news/700-agents

Technology is supposed to be progressive, not rehash ancient history.

I think that the big tech company that will win is the one that brings a useful assistant on the market.

About friendships and strange news

 I have been thinking about friendships for a while and haven't gained any wisdom with age or time. In fact, I continue to be surprised that people do not change as we get older. They don't become better ir learn from their mistakes. But many simply do not know how to be friends.

I am speaking about the negative experiences and not the positive ones, because they have stuck with me. We all experience losses, it is sadly the human condition. Some just need to be listened to others require action.

A lawyering friend of mine had started working for a big law firm. 14 hour days, availability 24/7. What was worst for him was the exploitation, he needed to organize big events on top of bring coffee and pick up my shirts. He always invited me to have someone to sit with at these big gala events. He was witty and hilarious.

We were in our early twenties, both in demanding fields, both at that age of wanting to belong to the big boys club, both ambitious and both at the bottom of the totem pole of coffee bringers. Law firms still very much believe in toughening up their students to produce tough lawyers.

Anyway. For two years I listened and encouraged. Took time out of my life to be his friend. And while we were both chronically  sleep deprived, I am ultimately positive. You get to dine your clients in Michelin starred Restaurants, vacation at the firm's resort, get perks I can only dream of, all paid for. While the most we get is a pharmaceutical lunch of bagels cream cheese and cheap veggies with dip. (Stop complaining and look on the bright side). If my approach had not made him feel better he wouldn't have kept calling me.

We used to go out a lot. He was driving to the club when he hit black ice and we spun slowly 180° degrees into another lane. He was not a good driver and was freaked out. We came to a full stop, no traffic either way. "The club is the other way, Joe". I laughed, calming him down. "Maybe we should go home" he replied. After that, since I never drink, I became the designated driver.

On another occasion I was bumped in the parking lot. The other driver immediately offered to pay for the dent. Joe the budding lawyer minimized it instead of helping me. The fifty bucks offered do not pay for a dent in a car. I was mad. Joe was selfish. Had he insisted I would have gotten it paid for.

He was very superstitious. Sometimes we had to go through rituals before we could leave. Another occasion. We had a come together, leave together policy. One night he told me that I was cramping his style. Then I couldn't find him for an hour. I waited to drive him home, only to find out that he had left with someone, without telling me.

I did not drive him again.

Then came a real loss in my life. Coupled to another loss. I emailed him. I will never forget his response: It sucks to be you. 

This neurotic insecure friend whom I had accepted despite his flaws had relied on me for years with relatively minor things; girl at the bar wasn't interested isn't a crisis, didn't care.

They say misery loves company. It doesn't. It loves hearing about other people's misfortune, so they can feel better about themselves. Thats what my support was to him.

The betrayal by a friend was too much. In the intervening years I only inquired about him once. Not only was he doing well, he was doing something that is still on my bucket list. I wasn't envious just thought about how unfair life can be. He was unreliable, had used me, hurt me when I needed him the most. While I was doing the right thing helping people and scrambling for funding in my graduate degrees, he was living it up in a profession that can be sleazy.

--------------

I started writing this post about friendships, it was supposed to be a very different post. Left it in draft. Chatted to another lawyering friend yesterday, Joe came up. Someone had driven into his car and he was gone almost instantly.

I am processing this. Eventhough I follow Buddhist principles I don't believe in Karma. There was almost a foreshadowing that he created himself. Ive met people who are a lot worse than him. The whole thing is disquieting. He was relatively young. Life is so strange.

Fun with horses

 I don't know how many times I've watched it it still makes me laugh. According to Victoria his owner, he's just stupid and scared that inanimate objects will eat him. The voiceover of his internal dialog is great:

Max the scared horse

https://youtube.com/shorts/HbeqOllBS9o

Art College Interview.

 I always knew that I didn't want to be an artist as a profession but that it had to be a part of my professional life. When I chose to apply to art college I knew that it was only to learn the techniques to be a fine artist, purely representational realism.

As with many things in my life I did it differently; parallel to high school and then completed overlapping with my science degrees. I was busy but happy and did it as a teen with special permission. I was talented and mature and I think they realized that. All of my courses were weekends, evenings or in the summer.

Back then there was no youtube, I had no portfolio admission mentor I didn't know what to submit. The essay part was easy but which 30 pieces which sketchbooks should I submit what were they looking for. I had no idea. Creative and innovative meant nothing and my range was so very limited; animals plants wildlife and I did not want to do anything else. I was not interested in sculpture or design. I did need to learn how to avoid bird on a branch floating on white paper (fine for scientific illustration).

Not me. But I like the image.

My art teacher in high school was not a pleasant person. The wonderful previous one had retired. She had her favorites and only supported the expressionism/emotional art work of the students who were applying to places like Julliard and who wanted to be full time artists exploring the depths of the human soul while I wanted to paint an apple you could pick off the canvas and bite into.

My parents supported their Renaissance kid within reason. My budget was limited. I found out that I should have a cohesive presentation, mount it on foamboard (didn't know what that was or how to do it), attach labels (someone showed me some used in photography) but without someone showing me, I was winging it on my own.

I went to the art store attached to the art college and got very good advice as all the staff are art students themselves. The cost was prohibitive, spending money on supplies and Mi-teintes paper is one thing, wasting it on presentation materials another.

Also not me but what the portfolio
looks like

So black cardboard to mount. Instead of a professional architectural (poster tube) carrier I used the very sturdy (shipping) card board roll the Art paper was rolled up in. Instead of special adhesive, double sided removable painters tape and photo corners to mount. I bought a very large portfolio leather holder with handles that would fit all sizes of paper. (And that was sturdy enough to hold framed work). Everything looked hodge podge and amateurish to my eye.

The interview

Was three hours. With an admission panel of three art instructors. I had waited in the hallway and felt out of place. Everyone was artistic looking. Their presentations professional looking. Everyone had a portfolio document map, which I didn't. All my art work was loose in my portfolio carrier. My work was critiqued in the three hours which I really appreciated.

All of my linocut prints and everything that I did in high school didn't even receive a comment. They were interested in what I'd done at home. She wanted to see my sketch books. I had brought several. There weren't enough studies I was told. My photorealism (perfect copy) also no comment. She really liked three parrots I had drawn from photographs. You're very talented was high praise. This is were you need to continue. What surprised me was the piece I had thrown in at the last minute. It was a panoramic view of a harbor.  I had lined up the image of about 10 photographs, they overlapped perfectly, but the actual rectangular squares did not. It was the piece she like the most.

It was the most relaxed interview I ever had. Mostly because I knew I was going to University. Not sure if it was standard, but they told me on the spot that I was admitted.

Color theory and psychology part 2

 Goethe, another polymath, assigned emotions and characteristics to color. I went to an exhibit and was going to buy a mug from the gift shop with his color wheel on it:

Goethes color wheel

Yellow/orange was good and represented the mind. Red was beautiful and blue was mean. Except that the German word for mean was modern and meant common in the past.

Too much blue sky and ocean? 

Here's a two minute video on it:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=R7rA3XOHRic&t=341s&pp=2AHVApACAQ%3D%3D

As any artist knows there are colors that one likes to work with and it's very individual. Same with people in general. People have their preferences and dislikes when it comes to color; there is no generalized association of emotion with a particular color.

Goethe, a gifted poet, of the early 19th century mindset, had assigned his personal preferences to color in general.

I do not value psychology as a field all that much, while there is a lot of beneficial research and practice it can also cause irreparable harm.

As part of my science related training, I had to observe some patient interviews in child psychology. I had been warned about the supervisor Dr. Ratchet. Basically, sit down observe a 14 year old "troubled" kid, nod, endure it until you're back to science.

After such an interview Dr. Ratchet sat me down to teach and discuss. Out came this kids drawings. They were typical teen boy drawings. Attempts at comic book characters (superheroes are shown in countless violent poses) and copying is the first thing one does.

She wanted my opinion. The only thing I noticed is that even for an untalented 14 year old he was behind.

Dr Ratchet gave me a lengthy color theory speech. He was using a lot of black (batman's outfit IS black.) these colors represented anger  because yellow and orange meant well adjusted happiness and he wasn't using them. According to her, red was angry, (Again Superman...)

Maybe the subject matter was an expression of his anger, but it wasn't due to the colors he was using.

Early 19th century color theory that went nowhere being applied to the future of a 21st century teen... 

Poor kid.

Brief Color theory Part one

 

Various early color wheels

As a child I attended some courses offered through an art museum geared toward teens. It provided a brief intro on mixing colors using acrylic paint. Young and stubborn, I did not like it because the instructor did not permit us to use black. Something that I would later remember when I painted.

High school art teachers focused on creativity and innovation. The paints we used were premixed and the equivalent of 42 colors in a box of crayons. A lot of good habits were undone. We did sketch and paint for light source using only grey black and white, but how many vases next to a cup and apples for stilife practice can one draw?

The later was my last high school teacher, who taught us little, eventhough she was an artist herself. The emphasis was on. modern art, particularly the impressionist. An art period I appreciate but don't like.

Then came art college. Paint color chips from white to black in 36 squares in equal increments. After a weekend of frustration I got a B because one square was slightly off. Color palettes. Here are the colors in grids; next assignment replicate it using cold and warm palette then the same with changing the hues then cold secondary with warm tertiary and vice versa. An entire course for color theory.

Over and over until it became automatic, which was the point.

The lessons I learned were invaluable and lasted a lifetime. I knew before I was accepted that I was not going to be a professional artist. Little to no demand for realism painters, but a "when time permits" professional artist was perfect for me. Not using black because it dulls paintings has remained, as using cold colors to make something recede.

What surprised me is that very few books were used in contrast to science. We used Albert Munsell color theory (20th century) and his wheel, but the book wasn't required reading. 

Albert Munsell

I was interested in learning more but all I could find was Newton's discovery of the color spectrum, (1704 Opticks), and Goethes book on color theory. (1810) They were treated with as much reverance as old news the earth is round. There were many others, but Munsell is the one that is used.

I mention Goethe because he assigned emotions and psychological characteristics to each color.

I will split this into a second post.

Writing challenge #2

  Hello fellow bloggers

I'm creating another writing challenge: I'll start, you continue with a sentence or paragraph in the comments. Only one rule. It has to be positive. It can be mysterious or whatever direction you choose, but it has to be positive.

You continue were the last person left off until there is a short short story. No reason, just fun what type of story can come together as a collaborative project. Continue the story and comment as often as you wish, even after I post something else until the story is finished.

I am limiting the genres: no romance, nothing rude or vulgar, no horror. Fantasy, scifi, mystery, humor is fine.

Michael was gardening and digging holes for the fruit trees he was about to plant. As he dug deeper he discovered an iridescent oval shape. He removed it and showed it to his wife Linda who was pruning shrubs. "What is this?" he asked. "Looks like a dragon's egg" she replied.

Little Snafu but doing better

 Hello Readers

It's me. Well. Friday was not fun. The stressors of the last few months were a bit too much, both irl and through bloggers and I'm not allowing it to happen again. My body reminded me of that.

I wanted to thank everyone for your well wishes, they worked.

I'm exhausted and bored. Spouse is angry and I'm rambling. Blogging is supposed to be fun not stressful.

Here are ten minutes of cats imitating humans, unless it's frilly vintage stickers or capybara or a Penguin race in Japan or whatever other relaxing mindless videos I've been watching.

Cats are always a good thing.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=ZmuHa9l1-Ns

Comment moderation is enabled.

I no longer believe in the good of humanity, but thank decent people for their comments.

This Is Codex' Wife

Codex had a serious health issue. He is resting now. I do not know which blogger upset him yesterday, but he is dealing with long Covid and is to avoid stress as it exacerbates his symptoms. He has been through hell and still cares deeply about other human beings.

I have told him not to start blogging again. He would not listen. He has been nothing but kind, helpful and supportive to many of you. If you are not capable of that, you should be ashamed of yourselves.

His spouse.

Solidarity?

 I'm supposed to do other things. Insomnia is back so I haven't slept well the last few nights. And with it a recurrent memory that has been nagging and pestering me without rhyme or reason for the last decade.

It was back last night. My subconscious tugging at my conscious mind, demanding attention. I'm not at an age where an old brain remembers the early years and not much in between. So why a preteen memory?

One of the high schools I went to was a very good one. I could not appreciate at the time because I had no other reference point. We were a class composed of students from all sociodemographics. We valued eachothers interest; the student who was into photography and gave those who are interested a copy. The other student whose parents bred greyhounds and whippets. The student who went through a semi punk phase. A few crafters. The ones who could draw. Our teachers didn't do this; we did. Random luck of non cliques. When I watched the old john Hughes movies like breakfast club; it represented our individualities, but I couldn't relate to the stereotypes not interacting with eachother.

One day we had a two hour class, with a fifteen minute break. The teacher announced a surprise test after the break. We were scared and shocked. For the straight A students it meant that we weren't prepared enough. For the failing students it could mean failing the year. During the break we discussed what to do. Diane who was politically active told us it's against the rules. Andrew, the tall guy had already failed two school years and couldn't risk it. The more we discussed it the more outraged we became. We decided on a collective walk out, a protest of sorts. An entire class couldn't get into trouble, we decided.

The student who listened was Katie. Daughter of two physicians. Top student, quiet. She had a muscle tone disability and couldn't run. Anytime we rotated through picking a team in phys ed, some of the kids would pick her last, others picked her second so they weren't mean.

How to convince her? She always followed the rules. Are you in Katie? To our surprise she said yes. We worked out that we were going to do it alphabetically. We were going to walk out one by one. It felt great. It felt right.

The teacher came back in after the break. The test was distributed. No one got up to leave. There was nervous shifting. We looked at eachother. Andrew got up out of alphabetical order. No one followed. We waited. Then wrote the test. After the test we had a short break. Andrew had waited in the hallway. He was angry. Where were you guys?

I remember that we were silent as we walked past him. Looking down. Embarrassed. Feeling like cowards. I have not encountered a surprise quiz since. And I forgot about this event that lay in the past. We were kids, obeying authority.

I have a vague recollection that it was against school policy to count the mark as it can destroy someone's future.

Over the last decade I witnessed this behavior in adults. Outrage at various injustices. Inciting and encouraging others to take the fall, then backing away. Adults that behave like frightened children. Not wanting to get involved. 

The Outrage? Never more than a Netflix popcorn movie, fueled by self-righteous hypocrisy.

Comment moderation enabled

About books, writing and a little venting.

 Books have been a part of my whole life. My parents had a library and I could freely read whatever I chose. Whenever I could, I would encourage reading. 

I have published, collaborated, even managed to publish some short stories (more of an ego passion project), and anyone who has done the latter knows that the pay is negligible and it's a lot of work. It's also getting harder; professional fiction writers, not only have to go on tour but are expected to manage advertising, marketing and maintaining websites.

Meanwhile, the industry is changing, there will be no more mass market paperbacks and digital renting is increasing. It's not wishful thinking, when people realize that e books will become problematic, both will continue to run in parallel. I'm going to be right on this one. I grew up at a time where high quality TV programming existed AND everyone read. Lots to choose from. People are starting to read more again, paper books are increasing again and with what's on digital offer declining in quality, people will turn back to books.

In my twenties, where the majority of my course load and life was science, I took it upon myself to read world literature. Every summer I picked an era or country; Russian lit, German lit, Austin, Bronte, Allende, Canadian lit, American lit and so on. It was eye opening. I'm very much a snob about books in general. And today I feel like cathartic venting about the ignorance people have about anything to do with research or writing in any genre.

Here's one of my more bizarre encounters. My thoughts are in brackets.

1. I was buying writing supplies. It's my ritual when I start a new project. The cashier, was a woman in her fifties, who had helped me find a few things in the store. Cashier stops scanning. What do you do?

I write. (Please continue to scan)

Ooooooh. What kind of books?

Non fiction. Research. Very boring.

Oh. I have an idea of a book we could write together.

I don't write those kind of books.

Let me tell you about my idea. It's about all the experiences with crazy customers I've had. You wouldn't BELIEEEEEEVE the stories I have to tell. It's going to be a bestseller.

(Please tell me she's kidding. Scan lady scan.)

I think that's already been done and I don't write those kind of books. (I vaguely recalled a recent bestseller. Indeed there was a 2011 bestseller My life on the tills.)

Yeeeees. There was a bestseller. I can do that too. We're going to be rich. I'll tell you the stories and you write it. Well go 50/50 after that.

(Oh dear lord for the life of monk illuminated palimpsests and parchments; she's not kidding.)

I don't write those kind of stories. You need to write it and see if you can find a publisher. Alternatively, you hire someone to write it for you. That's at least $20,000 for a book.

You want how much?

I don't want anything. I.dont.write.those.type.of.books. (Please scan and ring me out). I need to go.

You'll regret  not saying yes to this. 

What's wrong with people?

Any unusual writing experience or comments about books or writing?

A message from Norway

 From Norways consumer council:

Enjoy

https://youtube.com/watch?v=T4Upf_B9RLQ

Women in STEM

 A very brief note with names not links, because they take time and no one is reading the articles on science it seems.

First of all and I was really surprised, google doodle celebrated with this as its 2026 topic.

There is some criticism which I partially agree with: "girly colors" and the wave length in a cube looks like a mustache. It also doesn't link to any recent scientists.

So here are a few, if interested there's always wiki.

1. Ilaria Capua-preeminent virologist from Italy, who cracked/discovered the H5N1 avian flu in 2006, which later became zoonotic (jumped to humans) as Capua predicted. Her prior work specialized in vaccinating poultry. She wanted the data shared among scientists around the world, was prevented from doing so, went into politics to change legislation to prevent illness and....

was accused of being a [bio]/#ter....ten year battle wrote a book about it and left for Uni Florida and Texas. This doesn't even come close to what she went through.

2. Charpentier and Doudna who codeveloped the Crispr technology and won the Nobel for it.

3. Lisa Randall mostly known for string theory and hyperspace, who despite holding most of the most important positions in physics still spends the majority of her time being asked what it's like being a female physicist (she hates the question) instead of the research she does.

There's one anecdote about Italian perception.  she attended a conference in Italy and could not get in. When she gave them her name repeatedly she was asked when Dr. Lisa (first name Randall) would show up. She was the key note speaker but it was assumed that she was HIS secretary.

4. Roberta Bondar first Canadian female Astronaut at 46, pilot and neurologist and subsequently Head of NASAs medical department. Also published some amazing photography of glaciers.

https://www.cbc.ca/radio/sunday/the-sunday-magazine-for-january-16-2022-1.6313448/roberta-bondar-flew-into-space-30-years-ago-and-never-saw-earth-the-same-after-that-1.6313449

might add a few more, but for now only 27% of scientists are female

For today: Gaming Grandma

 

I thought of writing about female scientists but realized there is little interest from others, even women. Video games have changed considerably. One of them is Skyrim. An open world game that parallels life in a fantasy medieval setting.

How one plays it is up to the individual, but one can find various objects to eg. buy a house and furnish it. Horses can be bought, stolen or found in the wild. If a player decides to steal items, they lose their reputation and become part of the dark brotherhood.

For teens it's a great way to learn to save for items just like life. Something that players do is walk throughs (on youtube), teaching others how to play or find items.

The gaming community is a kind one. When Curry revealed her age (she started in her 70s), she received nothing but support from everyone. She plays the game her way and became so famous that gaming grandma was featured in a documentary.

She's sharp as a tack and gaming is great for hand eye coordination, decision making and reflexes.

A true inspiration. This is how I want to be when I grow up.

Here's the 20 minute documentary:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=pxoXrc8pwx0

Shirley Curry:" What am I going to do? I don't like to knit"

Gastronomy shrinkflation

Sustainable, healthy and
environmentally friendly

 Most people are mislead to believe that restaurants operate one step above bankruptcy. In the case of chains not even close they're under incredible pressure from private equity companies to increase profit margins annually.

Many who were struggling a little because the quality went down prior to, made a lot more during covid. Overhead was down, less staff, basically a kitchen and staff that got the items packed for delivery.

I'm not talking about food court junk fast food or fast food, but mid range restaurants.

Red lobster is one example. I have a special place in my heart for them. In my university town we had a good one. On Tuesdays it was all you can eat. Everything on the menu. It was fresh, the waiter came regularly and I stayed away from anything deep fried or their dessert.

When a film student friend took me the first time it sounded too good to be true. I also felt like a cheapskate. We were about to gorge ourselves in our sweatshirts and jeans. Well. Red lobster treated us like regular customers not students on a tight budget. Not only that, but when the waiter recommended the chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream, I declined "I can't move. I'm about to roll out of here". 

He laughed. Then said skip the Minestrone next time. It's a filler. To this day I remember the sizzling garlic shrimp; fresh garlic and herbs. I knew a student that worked there; they were treated really well and everything was spotless.

In the early 2000s private equities started to buy up franchises, department stores and red lobster. They made a deal with one Thai seafood distributor which was too expensive. Then sold it for real estate, convinced the public that they were losing billions on the all you can eat, (they didnt) declared bankruptcy, tried to get a bailout for it and due to public support, red lobster bought back its company and brought back the all you can eat promo. Internet is still wrong about it.

As I discovered myself the first time. There's only so much one can eat in one sitting. At least I never could. I'm giving my student days as an example. Unless it was a birthday restaurants (that we actually liked) were not within our budgets. Red lobster never lost money.

You could not take what you couldn't finish home

You were only brought one item at a time

Instead of not going at all. I basically paid for the main, and received several appetizers and (had I chosen it) dessert for free.

Red Lobster uses good ingredients. They had mass purchasing power, sourced from several big sea food companies to the point that they could dictate the price due to its very high bulk volume. They also buy a variety of lobster species that are good but not the high end expensive ones.

Tuesdays is so slow for the restaurant business that they make money on those days with all you can eat.

Why am I mentioning it now? Because the food prices for big chains haven't gone up that much, but greed and disdain for the customer have. Unless people complain about items removed from menus (management not waiters) or companies replacing ingredients at will, the customer is no longer king but a joke.

Communication, Women and Science Fiction

 I was younger than most when I entered university. Through friends of my parents I ended up in an apartment with a flatmate named Mina. Mina was a few years older, studious like myself. Smart and quiet. She was like a big sister. Kind, encouraging, gentle yet assertive. She had (she still does) a bubbly reverse laughter that made me laugh even when the joke wasn't funny.

We were young idealists; we were going to save the world, people and the environment. Mina had gotten into a competitive program so we rarely saw eachother. Both of us spent time in the library, and we were very considerate of eachothers space. Every weekend she went home to be with her boyfriend, a physician in training.

Startrek was in syndication and was my dinner study break every evening. Mina didn't think much of scifi and couldn't understand why I watched it. One evening our disciplined lifestyles overlapped and she joined me on the couch while we were munching our salads.

 I explained that each species was not a representation of "race", but an extrapolated and stereotypical extreme of human personality and behavior; the Ferengi greedy businessmen, whose intentions could not even be read by an empath, the Klingons; the proud warrior race, the Vulcans who were logical and suppressed emotions, the Borg a totalitarian hivemind and so on. The show explored many ethical and moral themes including Data's struggle to be recognized as a person. Mina was passionate about women's and human rights. 

When i told her that the first Startrek was a product of the 60s, where Kirk "engaged" with animal, mineral or vegetable with some papermache aliens thrown in, and that TNG had changed the famous slogan: "To boldly go where no man has gone before" to "To boldly go where no one has gone before" as early as 1987, in order to be more inclusive, Mina became interested. Mina wasn't hooked per se, but she joined me frequently afterwards to watch and discuss.

Ionescu's play The bald soprano about the failure of communication did not resonate as much as TNGs episode Darmok. (The episode is free on youtube). An alien species whose brains have evolved to only speak in metaphors. AIs LLM feels that way. Our own communication is more anti-social. Even on these blogs I've witnessed adults imitate juvenile behavior and resort to bullying. The othering of anyone who is perceived as other.

Maybe Startrek should be mandatory viewing at an early age.

To this day when I encounter situations that are crazy because people aren't listening and talking at eachother rather than to eachother followed by the insincere "I hear you", there is hopefully a geek nearby who understands my "at Tenagra".

There's been recent talk about aliens again. I don't need a Drake equation to convince me that there's sentient life in the universe other than ourselves. However it has likely evolved so differently. that I doubt we'd have anything in common. We might not be able to perceive eachothers form of communication. (Take that egocentric Fermi paradox). There is probably nothing that we could trade. "We're a Foufna based lifeform and ecosystem, wth are we going to do with your coal, oil, plants or water???" 

Gary Larson

Darmok and Jalad at Tenagra. 

Sokath, his eyes open.

Update: Google AI gives a decent summary of the meaning of these sentences. Basically the first is about cooperation, the second about understanding.

Women, sports and science

I don't like any type of polarization that becomes extreme, turns to hate and ends up in pitchfork mentalities.

That being said, the last decade has been concerning to say the least on both sides. The nuances are gone. Watching and reading women unable to differentiate between the men who harm and those who do the opposite.

I am avoiding key words so readers will have to infer what I'm writing about.

Spouse is involved with the rights of women and what I can share is what she gives me permission to. One of the things spouse is particularly angry about is that the movement isn't getting anywhere. Women who rise emulate male behavior instead of insisting to be allowed the choice of how feminine and nurturing they want to remain. (Greer recently mentioned something similar). In the Stem sector the women who make it receive little help or mentorship from the women who made it before them.

A perfect example was Serenas win while preggers. Feminist called her "badass". Of course it was an incredible feat, but feminists had no regard or understanding that such extreme exertion might be dangerous. They had already moved on when Serena almost lost her child and her life as a result.

The recent win of Alysa liu also went a little unnoticed, but gives me hope for the future. As she disclosed in the 60 minute interview; at the ripe old age of 16 she quits, goes to college, comes back on her own terms; no more radar gun for speed by her traditional father, no more dieting and she manages her practice. Her father accepted. A healthy looking athlete wins.

My training as a Varsity athlete was mixed gender (we only split at competition). A very  progressive great coach addressed us one morning. He made it clear that anyone who didn't eat breakfast before morning training would be off the team.

Woman have allowed and participated in being reduced to their repro organs during demonstrations, when in fact their entire physiology is different. Unless female scientists represent half the population that research will not be done. Very few talk about that while women do better in STem initially, they leave later on. But I did not see a single sign during those demos representing half the population demanding that half the specialist physicians or scientists should be female. They need to be.

When I correct or mention scientists/science there is no interest (that's fine) but do self proclaimed feminist even know who Ilaria Capua (and what was done to her) is? Are the incredible accomplishments of women celebrated by women? Promoted?

IRL a woman asked me to explain psychopaths and sociopaths to her. Then she asked if it was mostly men. According to the irrefutable statistics, yes, I replied. Then why do women do it? Her question made me think. Why indeed? Is it socialization that turns some women into mean girls rather than wing men for eachother the way males do?

Of course I've encountered it in blogs as well, it's disappointing. Conversations that harp on about the misogyny of all men, tearing the normal ones down as well. Going back to precisely what we should be moving away from.

I've seen sudden criticism of Einstein for a few years. I even corrected a comment about facts (despite his century, he promoted women and was a humanist). I ended up with pseudofeminist backlash, from someone who didn't know what she was talking about. Apparently, Maria Popova noticed the same online and she posted this today:

https://www.themarginalian.org/2026/02/28/einstein-curie-letter/

"Don't heed the haters: Albert Einsteins wonderful letter of support to Marie Curie in the midst of Scandal".

I'm in good company.

Someone else who was an exceptional husband, father and genius was Darwin. (who among many other things custombuilt a stair slide so he could hear his children laugh while working) The preeminent Darwin scholar is a female Harvard historian Janet Browne.

Food for thought.