World We Dare to Imagine brainstorm/draft

I imagine a world where anyone with access to a set of headphones can experience surround sound as if they're sitting in a movie theater. My company takes surround mixes of movies and music, and converts the audio to binaural stereo using state-of-the-art personalized HRTFs. Just send in a few photographs of your head and ears, and we'll send you your own algorithm to turn multichannel audio into a virtual experience. 

Aight, I'm gonna go watch a TED talk about an idea that's probably much better than my garbage. See ya Friday. 

Challenge for Africa post 3: The Criminal Projective in 3D

In one section I read, Maathai discusses how the concept of land ownership has changed since the arrival of colonists. Originally, land was considered to be generally owned by a family, but when the colonists came in, they introduced the concept of land nominally owned by a single family member, sealed by a contract. I find that the native method is a lot more reasonable, especially considering the structure of tribal society.
Maathai also criticizes how the African tourism industry is controlled predominantly by foreign companies, while local Africans mostly perform service-level jobs for the industry. She recommends that the industry be run by local Africans with the local people and culture in mind, and believes it could help create a richer cultural experience. I also think that this is a good idea, as it can revitalize the economy in a way that is directly helpful to locals.

Challenge for Africa post 1

Something that interested me in the beginning of Challenge for Africa was how unskilled farmers were contributing to the degradation of the environment. One group of farmers that the author encountered, due to ignorance of proper farming techniques, were cutting plants in a way that would minimize water retention and increase erosion, and eventually make the land useless. Maathai also notes that while large-scale industrial work does a majority of the damage on the environment, such farmers finish the job with their unsustainable methods, completing the damage of the land. As this is taking place in one of the earth's most valuable rainforests, such degradation has consequences not only for locals, but for the world's climate and ecosystem at large.

Stuff again.

Later today I'll be able to register for classes, so I guess I'll talk about what I'm taking. For my Animation minor, I'll be taking "Animation Theory and Techniques" (which is basically working on the thesis project), and "Visual Music". I tried to take the Visual Music class last year, but it filled up really quickly. For my Math major, I'm taking 475 - Introduction to Theory of Complex Variables - and 445 - Mathematics of Physics and Engineering. I think 445 has some overlap with 475, and there are a couple other classes I'd rather be taking, but it's one of the only ones that fits into my schedule. And as a random elective I'm taking Introduction to Digital Logic. No idea why, it just sounds interesting. It's a 102 class, so it should be pretty easy. For the most part, I don't want to bog myself down with too much homework, because I want a lot of time to work on my animation thesis. And hopefully I'll be able to use some stuff from the Visual Music class in my thesis too. So, yeah, that should be cool. Last semester ever! And it's the first time that I'm taking less than 16 units. Cause some of the classes are 2 or 3 units. Then I'll be gone.

Interview with Paul MacKay

Paul MacKay is an economist who promotes the concept of anthroposophy. He believes that resources should be given value based on how people make use of them, as opposed to having value by themselves, since they exist independent of human work and ingenuity. He also thinks that the economy would be healthier if there were less focus on "virtual value," which is value created in terms other than human labor and intelligence. Virtual value is displayed by things such as the stock market and high prices for natural resources. MacKay believes more of this money should be used to fund more tangible needs, like education and research.

Genius ch. 14

So this chapter is talking about metaphors to labyrinths and touchstones, and horizontal and "vertical" movement. "Horizontal" movement represents the physical transaction, and "vertical" movement represents the metaphysical value of the transaction. At this point I really think Bloom is pulling shit out of his ass, cause I don't know what the relevance is to anything. Just more stuff about physical and spiritual sides of money, I guess.

Genius of Money, ch. 6

This chapter deals with the presence of distinct and often conflicting values in society and business. Bloom describes a Renaissance painting in which material and spiritual values appear to be competing in many ways, some of them very subtle. He describes these conflicting values as "polarities," and likens their presence in the painting (and implications about the society of the painting's provenance) to similar conflicting values in his own life. The conflict, as well as the balance, between material and spiritual values is as strong in today's society as it was in the time that the portrait was made, although many aspects of the values have switched over time.