Warning: strtotime() [function.strtotime]: It is not safe to rely on the system's timezone settings. You are *required* to use the date.timezone setting or the date_default_timezone_set() function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identifier. We selected 'America/Los_Angeles' for 'PDT/-7.0/DST' instead in /home/hadar3/public_html/blog/wp-includes/functions.php on line 35
Warning: date() [function.date]: It is not safe to rely on the system's timezone settings. You are *required* to use the date.timezone setting or the date_default_timezone_set() function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identifier. We selected 'America/Los_Angeles' for 'PDT/-7.0/DST' instead in /home/hadar3/public_html/blog/wp-includes/functions.php on line 43
Warning: strtotime() [function.strtotime]: It is not safe to rely on the system's timezone settings. You are *required* to use the date.timezone setting or the date_default_timezone_set() function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identifier. We selected 'America/Los_Angeles' for 'PDT/-7.0/DST' instead in /home/hadar3/public_html/blog/wp-includes/functions.php on line 35
Warning: date() [function.date]: It is not safe to rely on the system's timezone settings. You are *required* to use the date.timezone setting or the date_default_timezone_set() function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identifier. We selected 'America/Los_Angeles' for 'PDT/-7.0/DST' instead in /home/hadar3/public_html/blog/wp-includes/functions.php on line 43
Warning: strtotime() [function.strtotime]: It is not safe to rely on the system's timezone settings. You are *required* to use the date.timezone setting or the date_default_timezone_set() function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identifier. We selected 'America/Los_Angeles' for 'PDT/-7.0/DST' instead in /home/hadar3/public_html/blog/wp-includes/functions.php on line 35
Warning: date() [function.date]: It is not safe to rely on the system's timezone settings. You are *required* to use the date.timezone setting or the date_default_timezone_set() function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identifier. We selected 'America/Los_Angeles' for 'PDT/-7.0/DST' instead in /home/hadar3/public_html/blog/wp-includes/functions.php on line 107
Warning: date() [function.date]: It is not safe to rely on the system's timezone settings. You are *required* to use the date.timezone setting or the date_default_timezone_set() function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identifier. We selected 'America/Los_Angeles' for 'PDT/-7.0/DST' instead in /home/hadar3/public_html/blog/wp-includes/functions.php on line 109
Warning: date() [function.date]: It is not safe to rely on the system's timezone settings. You are *required* to use the date.timezone setting or the date_default_timezone_set() function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identifier. We selected 'America/Los_Angeles' for 'PDT/-7.0/DST' instead in /home/hadar3/public_html/blog/wp-includes/functions.php on line 111
Warning: date() [function.date]: It is not safe to rely on the system's timezone settings. You are *required* to use the date.timezone setting or the date_default_timezone_set() function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identifier. We selected 'America/Los_Angeles' for 'PDT/-7.0/DST' instead in /home/hadar3/public_html/blog/wp-includes/functions.php on line 112
Warning: strtotime() [function.strtotime]: It is not safe to rely on the system's timezone settings. You are *required* to use the date.timezone setting or the date_default_timezone_set() function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identifier. We selected 'America/Los_Angeles' for 'PDT/-7.0/DST' instead in /home/hadar3/public_html/blog/wp-includes/functions.php on line 35
Warning: date() [function.date]: It is not safe to rely on the system's timezone settings. You are *required* to use the date.timezone setting or the date_default_timezone_set() function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identifier. We selected 'America/Los_Angeles' for 'PDT/-7.0/DST' instead in /home/hadar3/public_html/blog/wp-includes/functions.php on line 107
Warning: date() [function.date]: It is not safe to rely on the system's timezone settings. You are *required* to use the date.timezone setting or the date_default_timezone_set() function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identifier. We selected 'America/Los_Angeles' for 'PDT/-7.0/DST' instead in /home/hadar3/public_html/blog/wp-includes/functions.php on line 109
Warning: date() [function.date]: It is not safe to rely on the system's timezone settings. You are *required* to use the date.timezone setting or the date_default_timezone_set() function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identifier. We selected 'America/Los_Angeles' for 'PDT/-7.0/DST' instead in /home/hadar3/public_html/blog/wp-includes/functions.php on line 111
Warning: date() [function.date]: It is not safe to rely on the system's timezone settings. You are *required* to use the date.timezone setting or the date_default_timezone_set() function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identifier. We selected 'America/Los_Angeles' for 'PDT/-7.0/DST' instead in /home/hadar3/public_html/blog/wp-includes/functions.php on line 112
Art Review: Macoto Murayama
H. annuus
In Japan there is a saying: “unsan mushō”, which means- to disappear without a trace. When first seeing the work of Macoto Murayama, a Tokyo based artist, this phrase is instantly evoked in the mind. Like an ethereal fog, or a physical spirit apparition there is something both otherworldly but at the same time overtly biological about his art. One can find him or herself lost and perplexed by the complexity of his renderings, and ironically, in the simplicity of the image as a whole.
It can take Murayama months to create just one of his renderings. Starting with the physical dissection of captured organisms he will sometimes use a microscope to see all of its otherwise invisible characteristics. He then painstakingly sketches every detail of his subject onto paper before lastly, digitally scanning it to create a high resolution, three-dimensional computer composite.
Digital art is nothing new. It has been around in various forms since the 1970’s with the newly discovered employment of computerized modeling technology. Benoît Mandelbrot, the French mathematician, first used geometrical equations to create his famous “Fractal” images. Geometrical shapes that reflect naturally occurring mathematical sequences as found in biology, such as a leaf or an ice crystal.
It seems that today’s society has become so saturated by digital art that it now seldom recognized or noticed. It inundates our every day life from product advertisement to animated Pixar movies.
But Murayama’s work stands out. Not simply because it is ‘fine art’ separated from commercial media on a platform of pretention or theory, and also not because it ground breaking in the sense of the tools employed in its creation. It stands out because of his unique method and vision, and because of the extreme difficulty and vast complexity in its creation.
With the wide accessibility to advanced software it has perhaps been made too easy to use technology as a crutch, or even a cheat. But for Murayama, technology is instead used selectively like a single imperfect flower or branch in the ancient Japanese art of ikebana, expressly harmonizing his vision with careful and deliberate clarity.
Warning: strtotime() [function.strtotime]: It is not safe to rely on the system's timezone settings. You are *required* to use the date.timezone setting or the date_default_timezone_set() function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identifier. We selected 'America/Los_Angeles' for 'PDT/-7.0/DST' instead in /home/hadar3/public_html/blog/wp-includes/functions.php on line 35
Warning: date() [function.date]: It is not safe to rely on the system's timezone settings. You are *required* to use the date.timezone setting or the date_default_timezone_set() function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identifier. We selected 'America/Los_Angeles' for 'PDT/-7.0/DST' instead in /home/hadar3/public_html/blog/wp-includes/functions.php on line 43
Warning: strtotime() [function.strtotime]: It is not safe to rely on the system's timezone settings. You are *required* to use the date.timezone setting or the date_default_timezone_set() function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identifier. We selected 'America/Los_Angeles' for 'PDT/-7.0/DST' instead in /home/hadar3/public_html/blog/wp-includes/functions.php on line 35
Warning: date() [function.date]: It is not safe to rely on the system's timezone settings. You are *required* to use the date.timezone setting or the date_default_timezone_set() function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identifier. We selected 'America/Los_Angeles' for 'PDT/-7.0/DST' instead in /home/hadar3/public_html/blog/wp-includes/functions.php on line 43
Warning: strtotime() [function.strtotime]: It is not safe to rely on the system's timezone settings. You are *required* to use the date.timezone setting or the date_default_timezone_set() function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identifier. We selected 'America/Los_Angeles' for 'PDT/-7.0/DST' instead in /home/hadar3/public_html/blog/wp-includes/functions.php on line 35
Warning: date() [function.date]: It is not safe to rely on the system's timezone settings. You are *required* to use the date.timezone setting or the date_default_timezone_set() function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identifier. We selected 'America/Los_Angeles' for 'PDT/-7.0/DST' instead in /home/hadar3/public_html/blog/wp-includes/functions.php on line 107
Warning: date() [function.date]: It is not safe to rely on the system's timezone settings. You are *required* to use the date.timezone setting or the date_default_timezone_set() function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identifier. We selected 'America/Los_Angeles' for 'PDT/-7.0/DST' instead in /home/hadar3/public_html/blog/wp-includes/functions.php on line 109
Warning: date() [function.date]: It is not safe to rely on the system's timezone settings. You are *required* to use the date.timezone setting or the date_default_timezone_set() function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identifier. We selected 'America/Los_Angeles' for 'PDT/-7.0/DST' instead in /home/hadar3/public_html/blog/wp-includes/functions.php on line 111
Warning: date() [function.date]: It is not safe to rely on the system's timezone settings. You are *required* to use the date.timezone setting or the date_default_timezone_set() function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identifier. We selected 'America/Los_Angeles' for 'PDT/-7.0/DST' instead in /home/hadar3/public_html/blog/wp-includes/functions.php on line 112
Warning: strtotime() [function.strtotime]: It is not safe to rely on the system's timezone settings. You are *required* to use the date.timezone setting or the date_default_timezone_set() function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identifier. We selected 'America/Los_Angeles' for 'PDT/-7.0/DST' instead in /home/hadar3/public_html/blog/wp-includes/functions.php on line 35
Warning: date() [function.date]: It is not safe to rely on the system's timezone settings. You are *required* to use the date.timezone setting or the date_default_timezone_set() function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identifier. We selected 'America/Los_Angeles' for 'PDT/-7.0/DST' instead in /home/hadar3/public_html/blog/wp-includes/functions.php on line 107
Warning: date() [function.date]: It is not safe to rely on the system's timezone settings. You are *required* to use the date.timezone setting or the date_default_timezone_set() function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identifier. We selected 'America/Los_Angeles' for 'PDT/-7.0/DST' instead in /home/hadar3/public_html/blog/wp-includes/functions.php on line 109
Warning: date() [function.date]: It is not safe to rely on the system's timezone settings. You are *required* to use the date.timezone setting or the date_default_timezone_set() function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identifier. We selected 'America/Los_Angeles' for 'PDT/-7.0/DST' instead in /home/hadar3/public_html/blog/wp-includes/functions.php on line 111
Warning: date() [function.date]: It is not safe to rely on the system's timezone settings. You are *required* to use the date.timezone setting or the date_default_timezone_set() function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identifier. We selected 'America/Los_Angeles' for 'PDT/-7.0/DST' instead in /home/hadar3/public_html/blog/wp-includes/functions.php on line 112
The Hybrid Hoax
For the past decade now the auto industry under pressure from an increasingly changing market has vehemently pushed hybrid vehicles as the solution to continually rising fuel costs and as an environmentally responsible alternative to traditional carbon spewing fuel guzzlers.
Unfortunately Hybrids are not a solution but an embellishment, that has not only been embraced by the general public but by policy makers in Washington, who have gone so far as to issue large tax incentives of up to $3000 for those who purchase a new hybrid vehicle.
It’s widely known that the energy intensive production of creating the necessary lightweight materials, the mining of rare metals, and especially the manufacturing of nickel hydride or lithium ion batteries (most commonly employed as the power supply in hybrids) create enough emissions to greatly offset any benefit of an average hybrid’s slightly increased hybrid fuel economy, while at the same time creating vast quantities of highly toxic elements that will one day end up in landfills.
You would need to drive fifty thousand miles in the most fuel-efficient hybrid just to make up for the extra energy spent on making it. That’s over two years of driving for the average American, and all the while still burning gasoline to run the vehicle’s true power source; its internal combustion engine.
Even the Toyota Prius, the most efficient hybrid on the market, can still only accomplish an unrealistic EPA estimated mileage of 50 mpg while the most efficient non-hybrids such as the full sized Audi A3 is capable of over 42 mpg without the aid of toxic and heavy carbon producing battery manufacturing.
In 2008 Volkswagen created a concept car capable of running at up to 285 mpg with a traditional, although high tech diesel engine. Even the most advanced concept hybrids cant even touch it. But this is not the answer.
The future of transportation will not rest on simply creating more efficient internal combustion engines. Limiting emission instead of ceasing them is not a valid response to a wounded planet that is slowly drained of its fossil fuels used to run it, but it is also obvious that investing in hybrid technology is a bad alternative.
