Technology & art imagine Japan's crystal universe

feast your eyes with these very creative work ...

Japan's crystal universe: A magical installation from another planet
By Amanda Sealy, CNN
August 5, 2016

Technology and art collide in DMM. Planets Art is one of Japan's largest art exhibitions to-date. Tokyo-based teamLab (http://www.team-lab.net/) -- an artist collective made of self-described 'ultratechnologists' -- is behind the otherworldly showcase this summer. The elaborate exhibition features four main interactive installations, one of which imagines a "crystal universe". By employing a mix of mobile devices, sensors and computer renderings, visitors can become a part of each world. Walk through one room's pond, for example, and a projection of Koi fish swim away, detecting your movement. Below, teamLab member Kuda Takahashi describes each installation room as a different planet and likens the experience to traveling through space.
 
What was the overall concept of this exhibition?

The concept is more about the feeling in the body or a physical thing using the five senses at the same time with other people. We wanted to have this completely immersive huge installation, more than 3,000 square meters. There is no right order when people wander through the whole installation -- planet to planet as they like.

What's the difference between looking at a painting in a museum versus experience art this way?

The biggest difference is we can make people participate in the artwork or we can make people part of this artwork and that is very important. I'm not against the Mona Lisa, but if I see the Mona Lisa at the Louvre, the relationship is one-by-one. So it's a bit negative toward other people's existence because I want to see it by myself. Here, if I see it by myself not as much happens, but if I see it with other people, more effects will happen. It's more of a beautiful experience we are going to have, so we can be a little bit positive toward the other people.

How would you describe the current relationship between art and technology?

For us, technology is only a tool or a material. It's important for us at the beginning to have a concept and we have something we want to do and then we use the tool of technology. If you compare it with some old artworks, our artwork is light and our canvas is everything. We want to expand past the physical work itself, so when we create that kind of space we need new technologies. We cannot make it by ourselves, we need many, a team. So that's the reason why we have 400 people in our office. You wanted this experience to be so immersive, you even went as far as creating unique smells for each room. Yes, for example, in "Wander Through the Crystal Universe," we actually made a special scent by working with an astronaut. We asked her to remember the smell of space and we tried to make that smell or its sense and we put it inside this artwork.

So maybe people can feel space through the smell also. The budget to create this special installation is huge, but it's actually much cheaper than to creating a rocket to travel to different planets. DMM.Planets Art by teamLab runs through August 31, 2016.

10 fun facts about 1st man in space, Gagarin

may not sound fun to everyone...

10 fun facts about 1st man in space Gagarin
RT, 11 Apr, 2016

On April 12 Russia marks 55 years since cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin set off on his mission and became the first man in space. Yuri Gagarin was born in Klushino, in the Smolensk Oblast which is in Russia.

10 facts about the legend behind the man.

1) Let's Go

"Poyekhali!" ("Let's go!") was Gagarin's iconic phrase at take-off from the Baikonur cosmodrome on April 12, 1966, when he became the first man to travel to space. However, according to protocol he was meant to say "Crew, taking off!" His informal approach signalled the beginning of the Space Age in human history.

 

2) The letter

Before his space flight, Gagarin wrote a farewell letter to his wife and daughters. Luckily his safe return meant that the letter was of no use. However, seven years later Gagarin's wife, Valentina, had to open it when Yuri lost his life during a routine training flight in a fighter jet.

3) Collectors’ items

The Vostok 3KA-2 Spaceship Capsule was sold at a Sotheby's auction five years ago on April 12, 2011, for US$2,882,500. This is the only Vostok spaceship outside of Russia and the only one in private hands; all other surviving Vostok capsules are in permanent Russian museum collections.

4) Prized underwear

For his bravery Gagarin received many perks from the Soviet government, including an apartment and a car. But the list was so detailed that every single item was on protocol, such as "six pairs of silk undergarments" and "six pairs of socks."

5) Are you for real?

When Gagarin flew to Moscow to meet then-leader Nikita Khrushchev, the crowds of journalists and officials were stunned that he was a regular person because of one small detail: his shoe laces were untied.

6) Love hurts

The scar on Gagarin's brow has become a fruitful source of myths and tales of love, violence, bravery and whatnot. It seems, however, that he earned it when he was caught by his wife in a room with another woman, a nurse named Anna who had aided him after a boating incident earlier in the day, at a Black Sea resort in September 1961. He attempted to escape by jumping out of the window, which resulted in him hitting his face hard on a kerbstone.

7) Kremlin tomb

Gagarin and flight instructor Vladimir Seryogin died in a MiG-15UTI crash near the town of Kirzhach. Their bodies were cremated and the ashes were buried in the walls of the Kremlin on Moscow's Red Square.


8) Gagarin had 2 daughters

His elder daughter Yelena Gagarina (in the photo) is an art historian who has worked as the director-general of the Moscow Kremlin Museums since 2001, and his younger daughter, Galina Gagarina, is department chair and a professor of economics at the Plekhanov Russian University of Economics in Moscow.


9) Hometown honor

Yuri's hometown, Gzhatsk, was renamed after him when he died in 1968. It's now called Gagarin. The house in the photo is where Gagarin lived during his school years.


10) Cosmonautics Day

The day when Gagarin committed the first manned flight into space has become widely celebrated in Russia as Cosmonautics Day – in 2011, April 12 was declared International Day of Human Space Flight by 60 countries at a UN General Assembly.

French mayor bans burqinis on Cannes beaches

Heading to hypocritical secularism or seclusion ?!

French mayor bans burqinis on Cannes beaches

AFP/Cannes (France)

August 12, 2016

"Beachwear which ostentatiously displays religious affiliation, when France and places of worship are currently the target of terrorist attacks."

The mayor of Cannes has banned the wearing of burqinis -- full-body swimsuits -- on the beaches of the French Riviera resort famous for its annual film festival, officials said Thursday.

Mayor David Lisnard signed off on the ruling that "access to beaches and for swimming is banned to anyone who does not have (bathing apparel) which respects good customs and secularism," which is a founding principle of the French republic.

"Beachwear which ostentatiously displays religious affiliation, when France and places of worship are currently the target of terrorist attacks, is liable to create risks of disrupting public order (crowds, scuffles etc) which it is necessary to prevent," it says.

Thierry Migoule, head of municipal services for the town, sought to clarify the ruling's intent. "We are not talking about banning the wearing of religious symbols on the beach ... but ostentatious clothing which refers to an allegiance to terrorist movements which are at war with us," he said.

On July 14 the nearby Riviera city of Nice was the target of an attack claimed by Daesh which killed 85 people, when a truck ploughed into seafront crowds celebrating the French national holiday.

On July 26 a priest was killed in his church in northwestern France by two attackers who had proclaimed their allegiance to Daesh.

Islamic dress is a hot-button issue in France, where the full-face veil is banned in public places. But there is no ban on wearing religious symbols or clothing.

Migoule said that no burqini had been seen on any beach in Cannes since the ruling was signed into force on July 28 by Lisnard, a member of the centre-right Les Republicains party.

Earlier this week a waterpark in nearby Marseille cancelled plans to host a private event for Muslim women wearing burqinis after they sparked outrage, including from politicians on both the right and left.

Middle East' affluent head to UK for carvaganza !!

Who says the middle east is infested with terrorism? :-)

Rich Arabs hit UK streets with supercars this summer

Curated by Yousuf Saifuddin Kapadia

Middle East' affluent head to UK for the summer with their supercars and 6x6(s)!

With temperatures soaring in the Middle East, rich Arabs have once again headed to the United Kingdom for the summer.

Luxury and sports cars have once again flooded the streets of London, a favourite destination among Middle Eastern travellers.

Londoners, who consider the flashy rides an eyesore, have taken to social media to post photos and videos of the supercars, driving around or parked in all their glory.

The Middle East's affluent spare no expense, paying in excess of £20,000 for a return journey - for their metal marvels to be flown around 3,000 miles, and often leave them parked up on the streets of London, the Daily Mail reported.

Most of the fancy rides spotted are flown in from Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE and Kuwait - considered among the top richest countries in the region.

From a chrome Mercedes-Benz McLaren to a silver Lamborghini Aventador, the luxury supercars are among hundreds which have been flown into the UK from the Middle East.

Local parking wardens were spotted descending on the supercars in Knightsbridge this afternoon, handing out fines which may never be paid.

According to the Daily Mail, Qatar Airways is one such airline that ships the luxury cars. Using their main and lower deck, the airline offers 31 positions on each flight.

In recent years, Londoners have reportedly complained to authorities about the noise these supercars create, apart from blocking parking spaces and causing traffic.

According to a recent report by The Sun, since the drivers rack up thousands in fines, multi-millionaire Arabs have been offered "50 per cent discount" if they pay their fines within 14 days, under the the Traffic Management Act 2004.

Russia floats out world’s largest nuclear icebreaker

awesome...

Russia floats out Arktika icebreaker, set to be world’s largest
16 Jun, 2016

Nuclear icebreaker Arktika has been floated out in Russia’s St. Petersburg. The vessel is expected to become the world’s largest in its class when finished.

Arktika is the lead ship of the Project 22220 series scheduled to replace nuclear ships of the previous generation. They are going to be not just bigger, but more powerful. Thanks to variable draft, these ships will be capable of sailing open seas and operate in shallow waters of Arctic rivers’ debouchments.

Started in November 2013, the project’s estimated worth is 122 billion rubles (about $2 billion). All three ships of the series will be commissioned by Rosatomflot, an integral part of Russia’s Rosatom nuclear energy monopoly.

The nuclear-powered giant will be capable of breaking ice fields up to 3 meters thick, making way for LNG carriers delivering Russian gas to Asian customers.

The ship was floated off without the deck housing, because the vessel’s “heart,” the double nuclear reactor delivering 60 MWe of power, could not be mounted inside the hull while the ship was on the stocks. The icebreaker will be complete by December 2017.

Arktika’s length is 173.3 meters, its beam is 34 meters, and its draft is variable – 8.55/10.5 meters.

Her maximum speed is 22 knots, and maximum draft is 33,540 tons. The ship will have endurance of six full months having 75 crew members onboard. The icebreaker carries a helicopter for ice reconnaissance and communication purposes.

 

Anti-Trump coup in the offing...

Sadly, Muslim Americans are also duped by the MSM-crafted mass propaganda ...

Obama versus Trump, Putin and Erdogan: Can Coups Defeat Elected Governments?

By Prof. James Petras

Global Research, August 10, 2016

“Many of our interlocutors have been purged or arrested”. — James Clapper, US Director of Intelligence on Turkish Coup (Financial Times 8/3/16, p. 4)

Washington has organized a systematic, global, no holds barred campaign to oust Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump from the electoral process.  The virulent anti-Trump animus, the methods, goals and mass media resemble authoritarian regimes preparing to overthrow political adversaries.
Comparable propaganda efforts led to political coups in Chile in 1973, Brazil 1964, ad Venezuela in 2002.  The anti-Trump forces include both political parties, a Supreme Court judge, Wall Street bankers, journalists and editorialist of all the major media outlets and the leading military and intelligence spokespeople.
Washington’s forcible and illegal ouster of Trump is part and parcel of a world-wide campaign to overthrow leaders and regimes which raise questions about aspects of the imperial policies of the US and EU.
We will proceed to analyze the politics of the anti-Trump elite, the points of confrontation and propaganda, as a prelude to the drive to oust opposition in Latin America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

The Anti-Trump Coup
Never in the history of the United States, has a President and Supreme Court Judge openlyadvocated the overthrow of a Presidential candidate.  Never has the entire mass media engaged in a round-the-clock one-sided, propaganda war to discredit a Presidential candidate by systematically ignoring or distorting the central socio-economic issues of their opposition.
The call for the ouster of a freely elected candidate is nothing more or less than a coup d’état.
Leading television networks and columnists demand that the elections be annulled, following the lead of the President and prominent Republican and Democratic Congressional and Party leaders.
In other words, the political elite openly rejects democratic electoral processes in favor of authoritarian manipulation and deception.  The authoritarian elite relies on magnifying tertiary, questionable personal judgement calls to mobilize coup backers.
They systematically avoid the core economic and political issues which candidate Trump has raised – and attracted mass support – which challenge fundamental policies backed by the two Party elites.

The Roots of the Anti-Trump Coup
Trump has raised several key issues which challenge the Democratic and Republican elite.
Trump has drawn mass support and won elections and public opinion polls by:
(1)  rejecting the free trade agreements which has led major multinationals to relocate abroad and disinvest in well-paying industrial jobs in the US
(2)  calling for large scale public investment projects to rebuild the US industrial economy, challenging the primacy of financial capital.
(3)  opposing the revival of a Cold War with Russia and China and promoting  greater economic co-operation and negotiations.
(4)  rejecting US support for NATO’s military build-up in Europe and intervention in Syria, North Africa and Afghanistan.
(5)  questioning the importation of immigrant labor which lowers job opportunities and wages for local citizens.
The anti-Trump elite systematically avoid debating these issues; instead they distort the substance of the policies.
Instead of discussing the job benefits which will result from ending sanctions with Russia, the coupsters screech that ‘Trump supports Putin, the terrorist’.
Instead of discussing the need to redirect investment inward to create US jobs, the anti-Trump junta mouth clichés that claim his critique of globalization would ‘undermine’ the US economy.
To denigrate Trump, the Clinton/Obama junta resorts to political scandals to cover-up mass political crimes.  To distract public attention, Clinton-Obama falsely claim that Trump is a ‘racist’, backed by David Duke, a racist advocate of “Islamophobia”.  The anti-Trump junta promoted the US- Pakistani  parents of a military war casualty  as victims of Trump’s slanders even as they rooted for Hillary Clinton, promotor of wars against Muslim countries and author of  military policies that sent thousands of US soldiers to their grave.
Obama and Clinton are the imperial racists who bombed Libya and Somalia and killed, wounded and displaced over 2 million sub-Saharan Black-Africans.
Obama and Clinton are the Islamaphobes who bombed and killed and evicted five million Muslims in Syria and one million Muslims in Yemen, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq.
In other words, Trump’s mistaken policy to restrict Muslim immigration is a reaction to the hatred and hostility engendered by the Obama- Clinton million-person Muslim genocide.
Trump’s “America First” policy is a rejection of overseas imperial wars – seven wars under Obama-Clinton.  Their militarist policies have inflated budget deficits and degraded US living standards.
Trump’s criticism of capital and job flight has threatened Wall Street’s billion-dollar profiteering – the most important reason behind the bi-partisan junta’s effort to oust Trump and the working class’s support for Trump.
By not following the bi-partisan Wall Street, war agenda, Trump has outlined another business agenda which is incompatible with the current structure of capitalism.  In other words’ the US authoritarian elite does not tolerate the democratic rules of the game even when the opposition accepts the capitalist system.
Likewise, Washington’s quest for ‘mono-power’ extends across the globe.  Capitalist governments which decide to pursue independent foreign policies are targeted for coups.

Obama-Clinton’s  Junta Runs Amok
Washington’s proposed coup against Trump follows similar policies directed against political leaders in Russia, Turkey, China, Venezuela, Brazil and Syria.
Russian President Putin has been demonized by the US propaganda media on an hourly basis for the better part of a decade.  The US has backed oligarchs and promoted economic sanctions; financed a coup in the Ukraine; established nuclear missiles on Russia’s frontier; and launched an arms race to undermine President Putin’s economic policies in order to provoke a coup.
The US backed its proxy Gulenist ‘invisible government’ in its failed coup to oust President Erdogan, for failing to totally embrace the US Middle East agenda.
Likewise, Obama-Clinton have backed successful coups in Latin America. Coups were orchestrated in Honduras, Paraguay and more recently in Brazil to undermine independent Presidents and to secure satellite neo-liberal regimes.  Washington presses forward to forcibly oust the national-populist government of President Maduro in Venezuela.
Washington has escalated efforts to erode, undermine and overthrow the government of China’s President Xi-Jinping through several combined strategies.  A military build-up of an air and sea armada in the South China Sea and military bases in Japan, Australia and the Philippines; separatist agitation in Hong Kong, Taiwan and among the Uyghurs; a US- Latin American- Asia free trade agreements which excludes China.

Conclusion
Washington’s strategy of illegal, violent coups to retain the delusion of empire stretches across the globe, ranging from Trump in the US to Putin in Russia, from Erdogan in Turkey to Maduro in Venezuela to Xi Jinping in China.
The conflict is between US-EU imperialism backed by their local clients against endogenous regimes rooted in nationalist alliances.
The struggle is ongoing and sustained and threatens to undermine the political and social fabric of the US and the European Union.
The top priority for the US Empire is to undermine and destroy Trump by any means necessary.  Trump already has raised the question of ‘rigged elections’. But each elite media attack of Trump seems to add to and strengthen his mass support and polarize the electorate.
As the elections approach, will the elite confine themselves to verbal hysteria or will they turn from verbal assassinations to the ‘other kind’?
Obama’s global coup strategy shows mixed results: they succeeded in Brazil but were defeated in Turkey; they seized power in the Ukraine but were defeated in Russia; they gained propaganda allies in Hong Kong and Taiwan but suffered severe strategic economic defeats in the region as China’s Asian trade policies advanced.
As the US elections approach, and Obama’s pursuit of his imperial legacy collapses, we can expect greater deception and manipulation and perhaps even frequent resort to elite-designed ‘terrorist’ assassinations.

--

Raging Anti-Trumpism

By Stephen Lendman

Global Research, August 10, 2016

 

It seems like the whole universe opposes him with an unprecedented daily blizzard of anti-Trump articles, commentaries and editorials in US print media and what passes in America for television news – stuff no respectable independent news director would allow on air.
Make no mistake. He’s not above reproach, not by a long shot. He didn’t get to be a billionaire by being a good guy. He’s unaccountable for lots of unsavory baggage, what it takes to become a corporate tycoon. Maybe he’s not all bad.
His anti-establishment sounding rhetoric rattles bipartisan power brokers, especially Wall Street, war-profiteers and other corporate interests wanting no changes from current policies – not even around the edges, the most to be hoped for from a Trump presidency if elected.
Giving overwhelming opposition from powerful interests and media scoundrels, it’s hard imagining him having any chance to succeed Obama.
He calls things rigged against him. America’s sordid history of election rigging shows he’s right, today with electronic ease and other dirty tricks.
Clinton was chosen to succeed Obama last year before campaigning began. Trump’s nomination defied predictions. Long knives emerged to stop him straightaway after announcing he’d seek the GOP nomination last year. They continue their daily dirty work, especially after he got it.
Why? He says things on the stump other aspirants for high political office wouldn’t dare, virtually unique in US presidential races.
Some comments are outrageous like wanting a wall on Mexico’s border and “a complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on.”
Others suggest important steps in the right direction if implemented – including a new role for NATO, rapprochement with Russia (the best hope for preventing WW III), perhaps better relations with China, Iran and other independent countries, opposition to TPP and other jobs-destroying trade deals, as well as hopefully less eagerness for war to be America’s top geopolitical strategy of choice.
Advocating these type policies even rhetorically mobilizes America’s bipartisan establishment militantly against anyone suggesting them – wanting Trump defeated in November by fair or foul means.
Electing Clinton assures continuity on steroids, accelerating America’s war on humanity at home and abroad.
If Trump emerged victorious, defying long odds against him, at least they’d be a chance for turning US policy modestly in the right direction.
Preventing WW III is the best reason for opposing Clinton. Trump would rather make money from planet earth than destroy it.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

His new book as editor and contributor is titled “Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III.” http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.

Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network.
 

Gaddafi's Last Formal Speech

Those greedy, bloodthirsty traitors (including the so-called Islamists) are to be blamed for the sorry state of affairs of present-day Libya which was turned into one of the most prosperous nations on earth under the leadership of Muammar Gaddafi despite all his shortcomings...

“ In the name of Allah, the beneficent, the merciful…

For 40 years, or was it longer, I can’t remember, I did all I could to give people houses, hospitals, schools, and when they were hungry, I gave them food. I even made Benghazi into farmland from the desert.

I stood up to attacks from that cowboy Ronald Reagan, when he killed my adopted orphaned daughter, he was trying to kill me, instead he killed that poor innocent child. Then I helped my brothers and sisters from Africa with money for the African Union.

I did all I could to help people understand the concept of real democracy, where people’s committees ran our country. But that was never enough, as some told me, even people who had 10 room homes, new suits and furniture, were never satisfied, as selfish as they were, they wanted more.

THEY TOLD AMERICANS AND OTHER VISITORS THAT THEY NEEDED ‘DEMOCRACY’ AND ‘FREEDOM’, NEVER REALIZING IT WAS A CUT THROAT SYSTEM, WHERE BIGGEST DOG EATS THE REST. But they were enchanted with those words, never realizing that in America there was no free medicine, no free hospitals, no free housing, no free free education, and no free food, except for when people had to beg or go to long lines to get soup.

No, no matter what I did, it was never enough for some, but for others, they knew I was the son of Gamal Abdel Nasser, the only true Arab and Muslim leader we’ve had since Salah-al-Deen, when he claimed the Suez Canal for his people, as I claimed Libya, for my people, it was his footsteps I tried to follow - to keep my people free from colonial domination – from thieves who would steal from us.

Now, I am under attack by the biggest force in military history, my little African son, Obama wants to kill me, to take away the freedom of our country, to take away our free housing, our free medicine, our free education, our free food, and replace it with American style thievery, called "capitalism".

But all of us in the Third World know what that means, it means corporations run the countries, run the world, and the people suffer. So, there is no alternative for me, I must make my stand, and if Allah wishes, I shall die by following His path, the path that has made our country rich with farmland, with food and health, and even allowed us to help our African and Arab brothers and sisters.

I do not wish to die, but if it comes to that, to save this land, my people, all the thousands who are all my children, then so be it. Let this testament be my voice to the world, that I stood up to crusader attacks of NATO, stood up to cruelty, stoop up to betrayal, stood up to the West and its colonialist ambitions, and that I stood with my African brothers, my true Arab and Muslim brothers, as a beacon of light.

When others were building castles, I lived in a modest house, and in a tent. I never forgot my youth in Sirte, I did not spend our national treasury foolishly, and like Salah-al-Deen, our great Muslim leader, who rescued Jerusalem for Islam, I took little for myself…

In the West, some have called me "mad", "crazy", but they know the truth, yet continue to lie. They know that our land is independent and free, not in the colonial grip, that my vision, my path is, and has been clear and for my people and that I will fight to my last breath to keep us free, may Allah almighty help us to remain faithful and free".

My brothers and sisters let's start loving more of each other and stop killing each other because Europe America and other western world will never want to see sunshine for the Africans..”