The Daily Render

A Digital Scrapbook for the Past, Present, and Future

the wildlife of an idea
|| 3/16/2008 || 4:47 pm || Comments Off on the wildlife of an idea || ||

[Youtube Link]

French creative agency, Callegari Berville Grey, took a popular viral video of African water buffaloes valiantly defending a newborn calf from lions & a crocodile and anthropomorphically reassigned the roles of nature to that of an idea in our modern workplace.

The final and overarching message is that we should all struggle for our ideas- whatever they are. Like a raisin in the sun whose seeds have found their way to moist soil, ideas and their subsequent dissemination face many perils along the way from conception to execution.

Related YouTube Entries:

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Hic sunt dracones!
|| 3/21/2007 || 9:49 am || Comments Off on Hic sunt dracones! || ||

I’ve had a few friends and strangers comment that they loved the story, but they didn’t understand what the name “Here be dragons” meant. Unless you know a little bit about cartographic history, it could mean a lot of things….

This morning I found a good explaination from the MapHist website:

How and when did the notion that old maps commonly bore the phrase “here be dragons” become established in popular belief? Did a Shakespeare or a Byron put it into circulation? It must at least pre-date the publication of Dorothy L. Sayers’ short story “The Learned Adventure of the Dragon’s Head” in Lord Peter Views the Body (London: Gollancz, 1928), in which a character refers to having seen “hic dracones” on an old map [spotted by both Andrew S. Cook and Benjamin Darius Weiss]. Does it pre-date the publication of the text of the LenoxGlobe in 1879? Why dragons, and not one of the other terrifying creatures depicted on old maps? We don’t know.

According to Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, “The animal called a dragon is a winged crocodile with a serpent’s tail; whence the words serpent and dragon are sometimes interchangeable.” Furthermore, says Brewer, the word “dragon” was used “by ecclesiastics of the Middle Ages as the symbol of sin in general and paganism in particular. The metaphor is derived from Rev. xii. 9, where Satan is termed ‘the great dragon’.” In this sense, a picture of a dragon on an old map is analogous to a modern map which shows Commonwealth countries in pink, not to a vignette of the Official State Bird, or the notation “unsurveyed area”. As M. Hoogvliet pointed out to MapHist, “The dragon (draco) is a sub-species of the serpents (cf. Isidore of Seville, Etymologiae XII,4,4: “Draco maior cunctorum serpentium …”); most medieval maps have serpents in southern Africa (i.e. southernmost part of habitable world), which derives from Classical Roman authors, e.g. Pliny the Elder and Soninus.”

Read the rest here. Or to summarize, “Here Be Dragons” / “Hic sunt dracones” was placed at the edges of maps showing the edge of the known world. However, I am told there aren’t any maps that actually use the exact text and I have not seen a map with that text on it.

Al-Jazeera VS. CNN on Banksy’s show in LA
|| 9/17/2006 || 10:22 pm || Comments Off on Al-Jazeera VS. CNN on Banksy’s show in LA || ||

My favorite culture jammer / art terrorist / meme warrior, Banksy had an exhibit in LA this weekend. I posted the info about it last Friday night on MySpace. Since then there has been AP, UPI, and Reuters news releases which resulted in over 370 news stories about his exhbit.

Of note is how the artist is covered in the press. CNN literally attacks the messenger (the elephant) instead of addressing it’s message (poverty, social justice, etc.), while Al-Jazeera using the Reuters report treats the exhibit in a more balanced tone. Few of the articles even reference this similar stunt where he painted farm animals (see below)).

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Hospital for Horses & Dogs
|| 8/20/2006 || 4:11 pm || Comments Off on Hospital for Horses & Dogs || ||

I am exhbiting my maps at this:

transit recap
|| 11/23/2005 || 2:08 pm || Comments Off on transit recap || ||

I arrived this morning at train station in Ann Arbor…

Ride Recap–

I enjoyed the train ride from DC to Toledo, OH and the bus trip from Toledo to Ann Arbor by way of Detroit and Dearborn.

When I boarded in DC, I found that there were no window seats left, so I made my way back up the isle and plopped down in a seat next to a person who was not currently seated. When the person got back, I realized I sat next to one of the more beautiful & entertaining women on the train. We ended up chattin for most the train ride and it made the time fly by. She & I went to the cafe car and proceded to get somewhat drunk together. She turned out to be a woman named Jenn from somewhere in rural Ohio who was living in NYC studying television & acting. She was also probably the most “pop-culture” I’ve ever seen one person be. This is not a bad thing perse, but rather it showed me how vastly different we were. To explain this labeling, I have mention that she has a dog named “Paris Brittney,” and throughout the trip she & I periodically listened to her iPod- which was loaded with Brittney Spears, Good Charolette, and other boy & girl bands. It was sorta surreal, like I was sitting next to someone who just walked out of the MTV studios. Regardless, she was cool and I had a blast sharing that portion of the train ride with her.

After she got off, my drunk ass passed out- waking up about 30 seconds before the train was about to start moving toward Chicago– I was in Toledo and overslept through the 10 minutes of deboarding time I was supposed to use! I hurried up and got off the train in time to see it start to chug away from me.

With the close call out of the way, the bus trip from Toledo to Ann Arbor was quite decent. As we travelled north on highway 75 towards Detroit, off in the distance I could see the twin towers of the Enrico Fermi Nuclear Power Plant. Its been a long time since I’ve seen a nuclear power plant and I must say it was eerie. It’s like there is a controlled nuclear reaction taking place less than a mile away from me that could go horribly wrong at any second….

About an hour an half later I arrived in Ann Arbor and was picked up my sister and taken to her spacious apartment about 3 minutes away. My other sister arrived before I did and is asleep in the other room, and this evening my mom, her fiance, and her fiance’s son should arrive. It should be a fun Thanksgiving and I feel blessed that I was able to get here without any problems.

Finally I got to meet Cindy Sheehan
|| 10/26/2005 || 2:57 pm || Comments Off on Finally I got to meet Cindy Sheehan || ||

So after dropping off the grant at the DCCAH , I decided to ride my bike down E st and I rolled in on the presidental dragnet. GWB was speaking at the J.W. Marriot and the entire section of 15th St. was closed off and the police were not letting people on the sidewalks on 15th. There were about 150 people total standing on either side of the corner of E & 15th. As we waited for Bush’s motorcade to emerge, I announced to the 30 or so folks around me that I was going to boo the president and I suggested people join me. One of the employees from the Waldorf chatted with me and told me a joke:

So GWB left the White House and walked by a woman with a litter of tiny puppies and she had a big sign saying “Free Republican Puppies.” Bush remarks on how much he’d like to bring them home, but there are already too many dogs, but he was going to ask Laura. The next day as Bush walked by the puppies again the lady had a new sign that said “Free Democratic Puppies.” Bush stops in his tracks and asks her, “Why did you change the sign?” The lady remarks, “The puppies opened their eyes.”

I smiled and laughed…… a few minutes later the motorcade emerges from the parking garage. As the first limo drives by I start to boo as loud as I can. In the second limo I see Georgie waving to me and the crowd facing his window. I continue to boo and he remains smiling & waving and drives on by…. I was the only person to boo and it really made the moment special. Last night I started my first rendering with George Bush & an aerial photograph of the White House and today I saw him.

It gets better… I ride back over to the White House to see how the festivities were going. As I was sitting on my bike, up walks Cindy Sheehan and the cameras flocked to her. After about 20 minutes, she engaged the lone freeper who had a sign that says “Saddam Loves Cindy.” It was really fun to watch. During an interview someone asked her about Puerto Rico and she said something about “the 51st State” and I quipped aloud “That should be DC,” and everyone cracked up. After about 30 minutes of hanging out in the park, I decided to head back to my house but as I was riding out, I noticed Cindy was hanging out with Gael Murphy of Codepink and decided to roll by and tell her “Keep up the good work Cindy,” and she thanked me. Shortly after that I rolled on home to write this.

This evening I am going back to the White House for the vigil.

Sensors Spatial Analysis of Tularemia on the National Mall
|| 10/6/2005 || 4:47 am || Comments Off on Sensors Spatial Analysis of Tularemia on the National Mall || ||

An attempt at being funny (cartographic humor) using a cute red-eyed rabbit as an icon of the locations of the sensors that found “rabbit fever.”

The other (below) is a quick & dirty spatial analysis of the area around the protests made using NASA’s World Wind (free), Google Earth (free), and Photoshop. I used the measure tool in Google Earth to measure a mile from the Lincoln Memorial, I used World Wind to acquire the USGS imagery, and Photoshop to draw the circles. The Lincoln Memorial’s circle served as the template for the other two sites.

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Reasons to be a vegetarian
|| 6/20/2005 || 8:18 pm || Comments Off on Reasons to be a vegetarian || ||

Now I like these lists as much as the next person does, but I really wish the “facts” were cited somewhere or had some authorative author…. Nonetheless, I’m glad I’m a veggie :)

Here’s why you shouldn’t eat meat. Pick one argument and read it. If you’re not satisfied, read another… maybe you will all be able to get the point.

The Hunger Argument

Number of people worldwide who will die as a result of malnutrition this year: 20 million
Number of people who could be adequately fed using land freed if Americans reduced their intake of meat by 10%: 100 million
Percentage of corn grown in the U.S. eaten by people: 20
Percentage of corn grown in the U.S. eaten by livestock: 80
Percentage of oats grown in the U.S. eaten by livestock: 95
Percentage of protein wasted by cycling grain through livestock: 90
How frequently a child dies as a result of malnutrition: every 2.3 seconds
Pounds of potatoes that can be grown on an acre: 40,000
Pounds of beef produced on an acre: 250
Percentage of U.S. farmland devoted to beef production: 56
Pounds of grain and soybeans needed to produce a pound of edible flesh from feedlot beef: 16

The Environmental Argument

Cause of global warming: greenhouse effect
Primary cause of greenhouse effect: carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels
Fossil fuels needed to produce meat-centered diet vs. a meat-free diet: 3 times more
Percentage of U.S. topsoil lost to date: 75
Percentage of U.S. topsoil loss directly related to livestock raising: 85
Number of acres of U.S. forest cleared for cropland to produce meat-centered diet: 260 million
Amount of meat imported to U.S. annually from Central and South America: 300,000,000 pounds
Percentage of Central American children under the age of five who are undernourished: 75
Area of tropical rainforest consumed in every quarter-pound of rainforest beef: 55 square feet
Current rate of species extinction due to destruction of tropical rainforests for meat grazing and other uses: 1,000 per year

The Cancer Argument

Increased risk of breast cancer for women who eat meat daily compared to less than once a week: 3.8 times
For women who eat eggs daily compared to once a week: 2.8 times
For women who eat butter and cheese 2-4 times a week: 3.25 times
Increased risk of fatal ovarian cancer for women who eat eggs 3 or more times a week vs. less than once a week: 3 times
Increased risk of fatal prostate cancer for men who consume meat, cheese, eggs and milk daily vs. sparingly or not at all: 3.6 times.

The Cholesterol Argument

Number of U.S. medical schools: 125
Number requiring a course in nutrition: 30
Nutrition training received by average U.S. physician during four years in medical school: 2.5 hours
Most common cause of death in the U.S.: heart attack
How frequently a heart attack kills in the U.S.: every 45 seconds
Average U.S. man’s risk of death from heart attack: 50 percent
Risk of average U.S. man who eats no meat: 15 percent
Risk of average U.S. man who eats no meat, dairy or eggs: 4 percent
Amount you reduce risk of heart attack if you reduce consumption of meat, dairy and eggs by 10 percent: 9 percent
Amount you reduce risk of heart attack if you reduce consumption by 50 percent: 45 percent
Amount you reduce risk if you eliminate meat, dairy and eggs from your diet: 90 percent
Average cholesterol level of people eating meat-centered-diet: 210 mg/dl
Chance of dying from heart disease if you are male and your blood cholesterol level is 210 mg/dl: greater than 50 percent

The Natural Resources Argument

User of more than half of all water used for all purposes in the U.S.: livestock production
Amount of water used in production of the average cow: sufficient to float a destroyer
Gallons of water needed to produce a pound of wheat: 25
Gallons of water needed to produce a pound of California beef: 5,000
Years the world’s known oil reserves would last if every human ate a meat-centered diet: 13
Years they would last if human beings no longer ate meat: 260
Calories of fossil fuel expended to get 1 calorie of protein from beef: 78
To get 1 calorie of protein from soybeans: 2
Percentage of all raw materials (base products of farming, forestry and mining, including fossil fuels) consumed by U.S. that is devoted to the production of livestock: 33
Percentage of all raw materials consumed by the U.S. needed to produce a complete vegetarian diet: 2
Percentage of all raw materials consumed by the U.S. needed to produce a complete vegetarian diet: 2

The Antibiotic Argument

Percentage of U.S. antibiotics fed to livestock: 55
Percentage of staphylococci infections resistant to penicillin in 1960: 13
Percentage resistant in 1988: 91
Response of European Economic Community to routine feeding of antibiotics to livestock: ban
Response of U.S. meat and pharmaceutical industries to routine feeding of antibiotics to livestock: full and complete support

The Pesticide Argument

Common belief: U.S. Department of Agriculture protects our health through meat inspection
Reality: fewer than 1 out of every 250,000 slaughtered animals is tested for toxic chemical residues
Percentage of U.S. mother’s milk containing significant levels of DDT: 99
Percentage of U.S. vegetarian mother’s milk containing significant levels of DDT: 8
Contamination of breast milk, due to chlorinated hydrocarbon pesticides in animal products, found in meat-eating mothers vs. non-meat eating mothers: 35 times higher
Amount of Dieldrin ingested by the average breast-fed American infant: 9 times the permissible level

Here’s to your health!

sixth sense
|| 12/29/2004 || 12:42 pm || Comments Off on sixth sense || ||

From Yahoo News

“The strange thing is we haven’t recorded any dead animals,” H.D. Ratnayake, deputy director of the national Wildlife Department, told Reuters Wednesday.

“No elephants are dead, not even a dead hare or rabbit,” he added. “I think animals can sense disaster. They have a sixth sense. They know when things are happening.”

It should be noted that:

Researchers around the world continue to pursue the idea, however. In September 2003 a medical doctor in Japan made headlines with a study that indicated erratic behavior in dogs, such as excessive barking or biting, could be used to forecast quakes.

There have also been examples where authorities have forecast successfully a major earthquake, based in part on the observation of the strange antics of animals. For example, in 1975 Chinese officials ordered the evacuation of Haicheng, a city with one million people, just days before a 7.3-magnitude quake. Only a small portion of the population was hurt or killed. If the city had not been evacuated, it is estimated that the number of fatalities and injuries could have exceeded 150,000.

The Haicheng incident is what gave people hope that earthquakes might be predictable, says Michael, and what prompted the animal behavior studies by the USGS.

It was later discovered, though, that a rare series of small tremors, called foreshocks, occurred before the large quake hit the city.

“It was the foreshock sequence that gave (Chinese officials) the solid prediction,” Michael said.

Still, the Chinese have continued to look at animal behavior as an aid to earthquake prediction. They have had several notable successes and also a few false alarms, said Rupert Sheldrake, a biologist and author of the books, Dogs that Know When Their Owners Are Coming Home and The Sense of Being Stared At.

A reproducible connection between animal behavior and earthquakes could be made, he said, but “as the Chinese have discovered, not all earthquakes cause unusual animal behavior while others do. Only through research could we find out why there might be such differences.”

Sheldrake did his own study looking at animal reactions before major tremors, including the Northridge, California, quake in 1994, and the Greek and Turkish quakes in 1999.

In all cases, he said, there were reports of peculiar behavior beforehand, including dogs howling in the night mysteriously, caged birds becoming restless, and nervous cats hiding.

Geologists, however, dismiss these kinds of reports, saying it’s “the psychological focusing effect,” where people remember strange behaviors only after an earthquake or other catastrophe has taken place. If nothing had happened, they contend, people would not have remembered the strange behavior.

I gotta wonder what the animals were up to earlier that day before the earthquake & tsunami. I also wonder if some sage people noticed the animals moving to higher ground and decided to follow them, I’d like to think I would have.

Brussels & the American Candidate
|| 8/15/2004 || 9:55 pm || Comments Off on Brussels & the American Candidate || ||

Version 4.0 of the Monrovia series is very simple with a black torus & some blue smoke. I started a new series using a satellite image of Brussels, Belgium. The Brussels rendering image looks pretty good. I tried to make the texture of the torus similar to the rooftops in the city and it turned out well. The only problem is that the satellite image is not as large as it could be (about 8,000 pixels) so when the rendered image is looked at in full size it looks slightly pixilated. That kinda sucks, however the actual rendered image looks good the way its reflected. I am going to start on version 2.0 shortly.

Right now I’m watching American Candidate on Showtime. Its a pretty good show! I think I’ll record it next week. There is actually a green party candidate “Bruce” who has some intelligent words to say. More importantly, the show actually gives 3rd parties a platform to speak. Bruce is making a point of putting animal rights into political discourse. I wish the actual presidential candidacy was like this- minus all the psuedo-drama of the reality show. Next up is Entourage, Ali G, and Def Poetry- probably my favorite night of television :-)

The party at my house last night was a lot of fun. I got rather drunk and met a bunch of people. Good times!

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Nikolas Schiller is a second-class American citizen living in America's last colony, Washington, DC. This blog is my on-line repository of what I have created or found on-line since May of 2004. If you have any questions or comments, please contact: