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Earliest known drawing found on rock in South African cave

Link | | Paul Greer
Researchers believe the pattern on the fragment of rock is 73,000 years old, but are perplexed as to what it might represent

“Archaeologists found the marked stone fragment as they sifted through spear points and other material excavated at Blombos cave in South Africa. It has taken seven years of tests to conclude that a human made the lines with an ochre crayon 73,000 years ago.

“The simple red marks adorn a flake the size of two thumbnails which appears to have broken off a grindstone cobble used to turn lumps of ochre into paint powder. The lines end so abruptly at the fragment’s edges that researchers believe the cross-hatches were originally part of a larger design drawn on the cobble.

“This is first known drawing in human history,” said Francesco d’Errico, a researcher on the team at the University of Bordeaux. “What does it mean? I don’t know. What I do know is that what can look very abstract to us could mean something to the people in the traditional society who produced it.”

— guardian

Split

Link | | Paul Greer

This is an incredible book of many intense stories of the process and survival of divorce. It doesn’t sound like a barrel of laughs as a concept but give it time and there’s joy, inspiration, hope, sadness, hilarity, devastation, fun and beauty.

It is an intense read, especially in the knowledge that it is all true, and as someone who has not experienced this directly (I think another reviewer has said this) an incredible window into a world that is not often written about. That intensity might be why it’s taken me so long to finish. I generally have five or so books on the go. I didn’t want to binge this, I wanted to remember each one so I took my time.

Looking forward to other publications from Fiction and Feeling.

Heavily recommended.

Data visualisation in virtual reality and 360°event at the Data Dome

Link | | Paul Greer

At BDH we have been working with scientists at the University of Bristol to produce visualisations of 3D High resolution brain MRI scans which help show “the brain in action”. Some of the results of this work is to be shown as part of a free event at the We The Curious 3D Planetarium in Bristol on Monday 2nd July 2018.

The remarkable inner workings of our growing brain presented in Virtual Reality and 360° Dome. Secrets of Brain Health is a pioneering collaboration between University of Bristol and multi-award winning BDH Immersive to be presented in VR and Digital Dome. The project addresses challenges in neuroscience and how the complex neural networks are formed throughout the human lifespan.

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More information and tickets are available on Eventbrite.

10 Rules For Students and Teachers From John Cage

Link | | Paul Greer

RULE ONE: Find a place you trust, and then try trusting it for awhile.

RULE TWO: General duties of a student — pull everything out of your teacher; pull everything out of your fellow students.

RULE THREE: General duties of a teacher — pull everything out of your students.

RULE FOUR: Consider everything an experiment.

RULE FIVE: Be self-disciplined — this means finding someone wise or smart and choosing to follow them. To be disciplined is to follow in a good way. To be self-disciplined is to follow in a better way.

RULE SIX: Nothing is a mistake. There’s no win and no fail, there’s only make.

RULE SEVEN: The only rule is work. If you work it will lead to something. It’s the people who do all of the work all of the time who eventually catch on to things.

RULE EIGHT: Don’t try to create and analyze at the same time. They’re different processes.

RULE NINE: Be happy whenever you can manage it. Enjoy yourself. It’s lighter than you think.

RULE TEN: “We’re breaking all the rules. Even our own rules. And how do we do that? By leaving plenty of room for X quantities.” (John Cage)

HINTS: Always be around. Come or go to everything. Always go to classes. Read anything you can get your hands on. Look at movies carefully, often. Save everything — it might come in handy later.

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John CageJohn Cage, 10 Rules for Students and Teachers

RULE ONE: Find a place you trust, and then try trusting it for a while.

RULE TWO: General duties of a student: pull everything out of your teacher ; pull everything out of your fellow students.

RULE THREE: General duties of a teacher: pull everything out of your students.

RULE FOUR: Consider everything an experiment.

RULE FIVE: Be self-disciplined: this means finding someone wise or smart and choosing to follow them. To be disciplined is to follow in a good way. To be self-disciplined is to follow in a better way.

RULE SIX: Nothing is a mistake. There’s no win and no fail, there’s only make.

RULE SEVEN: The only rule is work. If you want it to lead to something. It’s the people who do all of the work.

RULE EIGHT: Do not try to create and analyze at the same…

View original post 77 more words

8 for Kepler-90

Link | | Paul Greer

For the first time, eight planets have been found orbiting a distant star, Kepler-90, 2,545 light-years from Earth in the Draco constellation, NASA announced Thursday. It is the first star known to support as many planets as are orbiting our own sun, and researchers believe that this is the first of many to come.

Researchers had known that seven planets were orbiting the star. But Google Artificial Intelligence — which enables computers to “learn” — looked at archival data obtained by NASA’s planet-hunting Kepler telescope and uncovered the eighth planet.