Wednesday 31 March 2010

Magnets Manipulate Morals

“A new study has found magnetic fields can be used to confuse a region in the brain that controls a person’s sense of morality.

Using a powerful magnetic field, scientists are able to scramble the moral centre of the brain, making it more difficult for people to separate innocent intentions from harmful outcomes.

The research, which appears this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could have big implications for not only neuroscientists, but also for judges and juries.

‘It’s one thing to ‘know’ that we’ll find morality in the brain,’ says Dr Liane Young, a scientist at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and co-author of the article. ‘It’s another to ‘knock out’ that brain area and change people’s moral judgments.’”

Source: Discovery News


So..... Pretty sure that'll be a new story idea in the X-Men comic books. Magneto uses his magnetic powers to make everyday people commit atrocious crimes that they have no remorse for... And if not... WHY NOT?!? It's the perfect cover! The X-Men will be looking for a telepath and they won't ever see it coming. Geek rant over.

Tuesday 30 March 2010

Solar Beat One - Our Universe in a Music Box


This is such a great piece of design and sonic work. It's a musical representation of the movements of our solar system. you can adjust the tempo and watch and listen as the years fly by. It's quite beautiful and hypnotic. Just click HERE to check it out.

Powerful Words on Free Speech

Phillip Pullman, writer of the "His Dark Materials" saga is releasing a new book entitled, "The Good Man Jesus, and the Scoundrel Christ". Obviously many people will find this an offensive title, and while addressing an audience at the Sheridan Theatre, the intelligent and well spoken Pullman had these words to say on the matter:



Whether you agree with his point of view or not... Whether you like him or not... Whether you are religious or not... Pullman has voiced the most concise and truthful argument for free speech that I have heard in recent years. And with his experience, (The 'His Dark materials" saga was discontinued as a film project after only one film, "Golden Compass", because of pressure from the Catholic church) he speaks with a weight of intelligence that simply cannot be denied.

Monday 29 March 2010

Hilarious Jesus Platform Game

Feel like life is hard? Why not put it into perspective and walk... for just 10 seconds in Jesus's shoes. (No doubt they were some sort of sandal.)

Not possible? Not true!

Finally YOU CAN DO EXACTLY THAT with this short platform game which puts you right there!

CLICK HERE

Try to win the hearts and minds of all 12 apostles and do great works, all in just 10 seconds!

I can only get 11 apostles... so that just proves to me that Jesus must've been really good at computer games.

Thursday 25 March 2010

World's first cyborg created using Rat brain.



Check out the video above and see what happens when the neurons from a Rat's brain are used to control what is essentially a remote control car...

Saturday 20 March 2010

Sceptic challenges guru to kill him live on TV

image

When a famous tantric guru boasted on television that he could kill another man using only his mystical powers, most viewers either gasped in awe or merely nodded unquestioningly. Sanal Edamaruku’s response was different. “Go on then — kill me,” he said.

Mr Edamaruku had been invited to the same talk show as head of the Indian Rationalists’ Association — the country’s self-appointed sceptic-in-chief. At first the holy man, Pandit Surender Sharma, was reluctant, but eventually he agreed to perform a series of rituals designed to kill Mr Edamaruku live on television. Millions tuned in as the channel cancelled scheduled programming to continue broadcasting the showdown, which can still be viewed on YouTube.

First, the master chanted mantras, then he sprinkled water on his intended victim. He brandished a knife, ruffled the sceptic’s hair and pressed his temples. But after several hours of similar antics, Mr Edamaruku was still very much alive — smiling for the cameras and taunting the furious holy man.

“He was over, finished, completely destroyed!” Mr Edamaruku chuckles triumphantly as he concludes the tale in the Rationalist Centre, his second-floor office in the town of Noida, just outside Delhi.

Mr Edamaruku has dedicated his life to exposing the charlatans — from levitating village fakirs to televangelist yoga masters — who he says are obstructing an Indian Enlightenment. He has had a busy month, with one guru arrested over prostitution, another caught in a sex-tape scandal, a third kidnapping a female follower and a fourth allegedly causing a stampede that killed 63 people.

I think I've found a new hero.


Source: Times Online

Thursday 18 March 2010

Business is as Business Does...

So, as some of you know I recently took part in an exhibition of works relating to album artwork for the One Bird Records launch party.

I took it upon myself to assume that there might be some musicians/managers/label related people there. So I decided I may just need a couple of business cards available to give out to people interested in my art. Being the organized person that I am, I thought of doing this roughly 4 hours prior to the exhibition. (But time pressures work for me so all was well in hell. Ho Hum.)

Below are some of the business cards I hand rendered for the event. Each one was drawn as an individual piece whilst sat in a coffee shop waiting for my train.

CLICK THE IMAGE TO ENLARGE IT

It was fun watching people flick through them and pick their favourite out, or in fact, looking at them worryingly... like they weren't supposed to take them. haha.

One or two of them will end up being redrawn as larger pieces later down the line. I am a particular fan of "Toothby Jones" in the top left. I'm already working on a mahoosive version of him. Shweeeet.

Wednesday 17 March 2010

Insane Science News: Humans could regrow body parts like some amphibians

“Researchers have found that the gene p21 appears to block the healing power still enjoyed by some creatures including amphibians but lost through evolution to all other animals. By turning off p21, the process can be miraculously switched back on.

Academics from The Wistar Institute in Philadelphia found that mice lacking the p21 gene gain the ability to regenerate lost or damaged tissue. Unlike typical mammals, which heal wounds by forming a scar, these mice begin by forming a blastema, a structure associated with rapid cell growth. According to the Wistar researchers, the loss of p21 causes the cells of these mice to behave more like regenerating embryonic stem cells rather than adult mammalian cells. This means they act as if they creating rather thane mending the body.

Their findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, provide solid evidence to link tissue regeneration to the control of cell division. They turned off the gene in mice which had damaged ears and they regrew them. While they say it is early days, there is nothing theoretically different about applying the same process to humans. Professor Ellen Heber-Katz, the lead scientist, said: “Much like a newt that has lost a limb, these mice will replace missing or damaged tissue with healthy tissue that lacks any sign of scarring.”

"We propose that any future therapy would involve turning off p21 transiently during the healing process and only locally at the wound site. This might be done through locally applied drugs. This should minimise any side effects.


Source: Telegraph

Sunday 14 March 2010

Gimmicks are for Morons

Found this image on the "Blog" of "Unnecessary" Quotation Marks for it's use of "Waste Reducing", a fair point... but I have something else relating to the image to complain about...


This soap boasts that it reduces waste by eliminating the unused central part of the soap bar. Completely ignoring the fact that it is not the central part of the soap that everyone hates, but just the flimsy last bit. Which this will also have.

In fact, it will be more flimsy because it has a fucking hole in the middle.

Gimmicks are for morons.

Friday 12 March 2010

Ok. Ok. Somehow.... Some Way... they did it again.

Artist travels world using LEGO to fix crumbling monuments

lego

“Jan Vormann, 26, has taken his project from its humble beginnings at an art fair in Rome and brightened up thousands of people’s days with his brightly coloured plastic version of Polyfilla. From the old quarter of Tel Aviv in Israel to the grand Bryant Park of New York, Mr Vormann has acted either independently or with the city’s permission to leave a little part of his childhood behind.

Estimating to have used upwards of 1,000 of the little Danish building blocks, Mr Vormann enlists the help of passers-by intrigued by his careful placing of the Lego bricks. “I like to think of my work as a Repair Manifesto,” said the Berlin-based installation artist. “My work draws attention to the smallest parts of our cities that are falling apart because of the brightness of the Lego. “It draws people’s attention through the coloured blocks and makes them aware that this wall or statue or construction is not complete anymore, for whatever reason. “In the case of my latest project in New York which I completed in early March, I simply wanted to help the Mayor Bloomberg brighten up the great city.”"


Souce: Telegraph

Wednesday 10 March 2010

A little off the top? : Why 'Scalped' is the Graphic Novel You Need.


“Scalped”
is a Graphic Novel series that started in 2009 on Vertigo Comics. Eisner Award Nominated and well deserving, it is one of my favourite reads of the moment.

Dispatching with the rather overcrowded world of ‘Superheroes’ and dealing with a more realistic and engaging plot of a corrupted Native American Reservation... A once proud people’s shameful truth… and the lives entwined within it.

This is basically a modern western in ink form.

Created & Written by Jason Aaron, and largely illustrated by the talented R.M. Guera, it is a work of perfect Noir. It’s dark and twisting plotlines all leading towards an inevitable conclusion, but giving you a tense ride all the way there.

Aaron pulls no punches, and with Guera’s canvas worthy artwork, they draw you right into the seedy, hopelessness of it all. Making you experience every wrong decision the characters make, every sexual encounter and dirty fistfight, every drunken regret and every repressed memory.

The characters are ugly and flawed, and each page looks as if it could be actually stained with real blood and flecks of dust from the dry landscape.

Through all this, the beauty of the story is in the depth and breadth of the bitter world Aaron envisions, and the artwork is actually breathtaking. Stylistically, it’s all there. Not only is it a good read, but it is actually a classic film waiting to happen….

And if it gets picked up, I vote that Clint Eastwood gets the directors chair.

All Images taken from various issues of 'Scalped'.

Excuses Excuses.....

Here I am, sitting in a damn Wetherspoons of all places, just so I can upload some Blogs and answer my rapidly filling email inbox. What a bore. 99p for a mediocre cup of coffee isn't the end of the world though... And for now... while I move house and have no net at home, it will have to do.

It is crazy how much life is now connected with the internet... Everyone is a legend in their own mind... but that's the modern era... Complete insanity. Bring on the Zombie Apocalypse?

Anyway, at least I've been up to loads of stuff while I've been away so that I can upload new and, hopefully interesting things for you to peruse. I've got a few reviews I'll be putting up in the coming weeks... plus a running sketchbook diary I've been keeping with a few comics in it. Once I get my new scanner I'll try and upload a page every other day. Might be fun? A slightly more personal way of seeing what I'm up to anyway.

Right... next up... my 'Scalped' Blog.

Tuesday 2 March 2010

One Bird Records Exhibition

A few weeks back I was asked by a friend who was launching a record label to be part of an exhibition that was being held for the launch party.

The brief was simple but exciting... The artists were to create a rendition of their favourite Album Art. The concept was to promote artwork as being an intrinsic part of the music listening experience. (Which I fully agree with.)

'Melon Collie And The Infinite Sadness' - Revisioned By PatrickJPC

I chose the artwork to "Melon Collie and the Infinite Sadness" by the Smashing Pumpkins.

This album came out at a pivotal point in my musical development, and I have always greatly admired the bravery of the design. To me, that record SOUNDS like the artwork... All of the videos/photos of the band etc around the time tied-in to this design style. It was perfect.

Obviously, I redid the artwork in my own style. (The original was like a renaissance painting that had been fired through a black hole.) Mine is much more of a graphic/comic revision. I really tried to push the boat out with the colours and I'm please with the results, as I toyed with the idea of it being Black and White!

Feel free to comment on your views of the piece.