I will talk to you of art,
For there is nothing else to talk about,
For there is nothing else.Life is an obscure hobo,
Maxwell H. Brock
Bumming a ride on the omnibus of art.
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Can Architecture Trigger Neuroinflamation?
Studies have established that architecture can trigger a stress response, but stress is more than a mental response – it triggers a whole host of compensating mechanisms in our bodies including hormonal changes.
Cleo Valentine is doing interesting research, taking the impact of architecture one step further, by examining whether persistent exposure to stress caused by architecture can cause the same long term impacts of other stress such as chronic inflammation, anxiety, and depression.
Cleo Valentine Researchcargo.site -
The Human Use of Human Beings: Cybernetics and Society
After the Second World War, philosophers were playing a bit of a game of catch up behind the scientists. The war machine had driven all sorts of advancement, but there wasn’t a lot of thought about the impacts to people or society of these advancements. Norbert Wiener’s book The Human Use of Human Beings: Cybernetics and Society brings a sociologists perspective to examine the impacts resulting from automation and communication.
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Monotrail Tech Talks
My favourite source for modular synthesizer patching ideas is Monotrail Tech Talks. This channel consistently provides inspiration for new techniques to try, illustrated by easy to follow block diagrams.
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N.T. Wright on Personal Purity
We in our modern world have many ways of dealing with personal impurity. Contemporary hygiene and chemicals mean we don’t need to worry about it nearly as much as people in the ancient world … there are still other types of pollution as well: the pollution which gets into our minds and hearts, into our imagination and memory. How can we get rid of that? One way is to spend time with a story like this.
N.T. Wright, Matthew for Everyone, Part 1 -
Thoughts on Hiring
Thinking about hiring, the typical process for screening candidates using written applications is likely to become far less effective as it becomes a game of adversarial bots both creating applications for positions and evaluating them. In light of this I see one possibility being less emphasis on written applications going forward, resulting in more emphasis on the strength and scope of one’s personal connections in turn. This could be a big step backwards for equality and inclusion as it would increase the barriers to moving outside of one’s current social circle.
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Recapturing the Magic of the Early Blogging Days
Chuck Grimmett’s post on recapturing the magic of the early blogging days describes a lot of my intentions with the latest changes to my website. The one thing I would add from my philosophy is: ‘spend less time building, more time using and maintaining’
Recapturing the magic of the early blogging days – Chuck Grimmett -
December 2024
This website
After reading a number of thought provoking articles on sharing work and connecting with people, I’ve decided to become more intentional with this website and share more of what I’m doing, what I’m reading, and what I’m thinking about.
This necessitates a bit of a redesign of the website so apologies in advance, this website is probably going to get worse before it gets better.
Housing
Suzy and I are in the process of purchasing a new home and selling our existing house. This month the focus is basically on the paperwork, whether legal, finance, or insurance. The practical matters of moving will become a concern in January.
This is putting a lot of other priorities on hold temporarily (all my synth building gear is already tucked away in boxes), so this list is going to be a bit shorter for the next few months than it otherwise would be.
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Fire Insurance Maps of Calgary
Back in the early days of fire insurance, when you wanted to insure a building, the insurance company would send a underwriter to view the building and gain a first hand appreciation of the risk. As cities began to expand at the turn of the century, this became less practical and a new solution came in to widespread usage: fire insurance maps.
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Speaker Grills of the World
Speaker Grills of the World is a single topic website, which is exactly what it sounds like, a collection of different speaker grill designs. A great source for examples and inspiration when designing patterns of holes in things.
speaker grillspeaker grill hole patterns DXF download