Article: The Itch

Fascinating article in the New Yorker about itching, phantom limbs, sensory perception and new treatments.

One morning, after she was awakened by her bedside alarm, she sat up and, she recalled, “this fluid came down my face, this greenish liquid.” She pressed a square of gauze to her head and went to see her doctor again. M. showed the doctor the fluid on the dressing. The doctor looked closely at the wound. She shined a light on it and in M.’s eyes. Then she walked out of the room and called an ambulance. Only in the Emergency Department at Massachusetts General Hospital, after the doctors started swarming, and one told her she needed surgery now, did M. learn what had happened. She had scratched through her skull during the night—and all the way into her brain.
...
Doctors have persisted in treating these conditions as nerve or tissue problems—engine failures, as it were. We get under the hood and remove this, replace that, snip some wires. Yet still the sensor keeps going off.

So we get frustrated. “There’s nothing wrong,” we’ll insist. And, the next thing you know, we’re treating the driver instead of the problem. We prescribe tranquillizers, antidepressants, escalating doses of narcotics. And the drugs often do make it easier for people to ignore the sensors, even if they are wired right into the brain. The mirror treatment, by contrast, targets the deranged sensor system itself. It essentially takes a misfiring sensor—a warning system functioning under an illusion that something is terribly wrong out in the world it monitors—and feeds it an alternate set of signals that calm it down. The new signals may even reset the sensor.

Artists: James Jean and Kenichi Hoshine

James Jean
Kindling: New Works on Paper and Canvas
Gallery I
Solo Exhibition
Jan 10 thru Feb 7, 2009
Opening Reception—Saturday, January 10th 6pm-9pm

Kenichi Hoshine
The Night Before
Solo Exhibition
Project Room
Jan 10 thru Feb 7, 2009
Opening Reception—Saturday, January 10th 6pm-9pm at

Jonathan Levine Gallery
529 West 20th Street, 9E
New York, NY 10011 ph:212-243-3822
Open Tuesday through Saturday, 11am to 6pm

Today: Dickinson

Emily Dickinson (1830–86). Complete Poems. 1924.

Part One: Life

CXXVI

THE BRAIN is wider than the sky,
For, put them side by side,
The one the other will include
With ease, and you beside.

The brain is deeper than the sea, 5
For, hold them, blue to blue,
The one the other will absorb,
As sponges, buckets do.

The brain is just the weight of God,
For, lift them, pound for pound, 10
And they will differ, if they do,
As syllable from sound.

Art: Masstransiscope

On the Q train through Brooklyn by Bill Brand. I actually sort of loved the graffiti that covered this current (former) piece. There was an element of mystery to it; I always yearned to go behind the rail gates and see the full station space. The restored Masstransiscope is visually appealing as well but feels more...commercial and gratuitous.

Today: Geeky

So my whole theory about the Hobbesian world being driven by sex already exists! Hobbes + sex = Schopenhauer. Of course, I don't learn about this by actually reading Schopenhauer, but by reading this blogpost: The Philosophy of Batman: Schopenhauer Edition.

from my new favorite blog overthinkingit.com

Today: Wishful

Don Draper makes me wish I were a cigarette.






Just started watching Mad Men and my eyes are in love with it. There is one shot in one of the first episodes of Peggy standing alone by her desk, rows of fluorescent lights hanging above her, empty desks surrounding her.

On things I want

Tandem umbrella by Marc Owens.

On things I want

The dove grey lace up "men's" shoes of my dreams. by LD Tuttle, from Lamb's Ear Shoes

Video: Photograph of Jesus

from CR blog

Article: The NYT 2008 Year in Ideas

The 8th Annual Year in Ideas

Welcome back to the Year in Ideas issue. For the eighth year in a row, we have compiled an alphabetical digest of ideas, from A to Z Start Reading (almost), that helped make the previous 12 months, for better or worse, what they were.

Article: Beer, bread, coffee better than in the good old days.

Makes me homesick."
Represent

Article: Obama makes pick for energy chief, sources say

President-elect Barack Obama is likely to name Steven Chu, a physicist who runs the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, as his energy secretary, three Democratic officials close to the transition told CNN.

Represent.

Article: Lard Sculptures

Only one thing comes to mind...why?

Army Gurkha chefs in Hampshire have been recognised for making eye-catching sculptures - made from lard.

Article: Black Holes

According to Dr Robert Massey, of the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS), the results suggest that galaxies form around giant black holes in the way that a pearl forms around grit.
from the BBC

Article: Birth, death and shopping

The rise and fall of the shopping mall
Dec 19th 2007
From The Economist print edition

America now has some 1,100 enclosed shopping malls, according to the International Council of Shopping Centres. Clones have appeared from Chennai to Martinique. Yet the mall's story is far from triumphal. Invented by a European socialist who hated cars and came to deride his own creation, it has a murky future. While malls continue to multiply outside America, they are gradually dying in the country that pioneered them.

Today: Cock Animal Cracker. Hee.

This came from a Japanese food store in New Jersey. I'm told that words are put on the crackers to help Japanese children learn English.
from here.

Performance: Desert Sin

Desert Sin Dance Company, known internationally for their edgy and erotic fusion of dance and theater, now comes to New York with their acclaimed production, "Musée des Femmes - Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque". This sideshow-stylized psychological spectacle is an imaginative journey through sight-and-sound and is guaranteed to mesmerize the audience! The unique story line lends an emotional and
human twist to stories of some of the boldest and most intriguing women throughout time, both fictional and historical, including legendary film starlet Mata Hari, The Hindu Goddess Kali, The Snow Queen, and Joan of Arc.

Desert Sin Dance Company presents:
"Musée des Femmes - Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque"
Thursdays, November 20th and December 18th at 8pm at the Zipper Factory Theater and Tavern
336 W. 37th St. NY, NY 10018
Tickets $20: (212) 352-3101 or available at www.thezipperfactory.com
Produced by Djahari Clark and Cassandra Siegler, in association with The Zipper Factory Theater
Directed by Djahari Clark

Some of their work:

Today: Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog

Joss Whedon conceived and produced this during the writers' strike.

Awesomeness. Stars Neil Patrick Harris as Dr. Horrible, aspiring evil, and Nathan , as his nemesis. Both are hysterical.

I only wish Joss Whedon would make a happy love story for once.

Article: Well, Excuuuuuse Meee!

Why humans are so quick to take offense, and what that means for the presidential campaign. By Emily Yoffe

It is at the intersection between the urge for cooperation and desire for self-interest that we experience so much internal turmoil and external conflict. Observing how others handle this balance has a great deal to do with how we judge their trustworthiness and their fitness.

via Slate

Today: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.