All posts by Robert

a broad mandate

…I go to encounter for the millionth time the reality of experience and to forge in the smithy of my soul the uncreated conscience of my race.

James Joyce. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. p 252-53.
maybe a bit tongue-in-cheek.

Lawrence Weiner Statements

Dig on R.Serra, kind of hilarious/appropriate:

Big egocentric expensive works become very imposing. You can’t put twenty-four tons of steel in the closet.

On fascism:

Art that imposes conditions — human or otherwise — on the receiver for its appreciation in my eyes constitutes aesthetic fascism.
My own art never gives directions, only states the work as an accomplished fact:

The artist may construct the piece;
the piece may be fabricated;
the piece need not be built.

I have to say I prefer Weiner to Kosuth or others. Weiner describes language as a valuable addition to the set of viable mediate but does not advocate for language/lingustic concept at the exclusion of other existing media. I like this inclusive rather than dogmatically exclusive framing.

more here http://www.ubu.com/papers/weiner_statements.html

Serial Art, Systems, Solipsism

For the solipsist reality is not enough. He denies the existence of anything outside the self-enclosed confines of his own mind. (Sartre refers to solipsism as “the reef,” for it “amounts to saying that outside me nothing exists.” Schopenhauer speaks of the solipsist as “a madman shut up in an impregnable blockhouse.”) Viewed within the boundaries of thought, the random dimensions of reality lose their qualities of extension. They become flat and static. Serial art in its highly abstract and ordered manipulation of thoughts is likewise self-contained and nonreferential.

Some may say, and justifiably, that there is a poetry or power or some other quality to this work that an approach like the above misses. But aspects like those exist for individuals and are difficult to communicate using conventional meanings for words. Others may claim that given this they are still bored. If this is the case, their boredom may be the product of being forced to view things not as sacred but as they probably are–autonomous and indifferent.

Serial Art, Systems, Solipsism. Mel Bochner 1967.

Compiling/running CMUSphinx EvalDictator

A few simple steps to get CMUSphinx EvalDictator running in OS X 10.6.

1. Check out the source for cmusphinx tools:

svn co https://cmusphinx.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/cmusphinx/trunk/tools sphinxtools

2. Set environment variable JAVA_HOME:

This variable should point towards your java installation. Edit .bash_profile in your home directory, and add the line:
export JAVA_HOME="/System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Home/"

Quit Terminal and start it again.

3. In your sphinx tools directory (sphinxtools/dictator/build) edit build.xml:

In the path section, change${env.JAVA_HOME}/jre/lib/javaws.jar" to ${env.JAVA_HOME}/lib/javaws.jar.

4. In that directory, type ant to build the application.

5. Run Sphinx: java -mx256m -jar dictator.jar

more help here http://www.speech.cs.cmu.edu/sphinx/dictator/#what_is_dictator

Body Temperature

Where is body temperature measured?

Your body temperature can be measured in many locations on your body. The mouth, ear, armpit, and rectum are the most commonly used places. Temperature can also be measured on your forehead.

What is normal body temperature?

Most people think of a “normal” body temperature as an oral temperature of 98.6F. This is an average of normal body temperatures. Your temperature may actually be 1°F (0.6°C) or more above or below 98.6F. Also, your normal body temperature changes by as much as 1°F (0.6°C) throughout the day, depending on how active you are and the time of day. Body temperature is very sensitive to hormone levels and may be higher or lower when a woman is ovulating or having her menstrual period.

A rectal or ear (tympanic membrane) temperature reading is 0.5 to 1°F (0.3 to 0.6°C) higher than an oral temperature reading. A temperature taken in the armpit is 0.5 to 1°F (0.3 to 0.6°C) lower than an oral temperature reading.

thank you webmd.

Design and Construction of a Quad Rat Vitals Monitor.

J. R. Feddes, J. A. DeShazer. Development of a Portable Microprocessor for Measuring Selected Stress Responses of Growing Pigs. Transactions of the ASABE. 36(1): 201-204. @199

The development of a non-restrictive method for measuring selected stress responses of growing pigs in their environment is important to assess the acceptability of an environment for the pig. Blood pressure, body temperature, and animal activity are three measurements that can relate to stress of an environment. A portable microprocessor-controlled data logger was developed to measure these three parameters every 16 min over several days. These measurements were found to be accurate when obtained from the data logger strapped to a pig. Surgical techniques were developed to obtain blood pressure and body temperature. Specific data collected from this study showed that typical blood pressure for a growing pig (35 kg) is 80±5 mm Hg, blood temperature varied between 398 C (thermoneutral) and 428 C (surgical recovery) and the pig was active 26% of the time.

Vicks Wearable Thermometers. ages 6+.

Vicks Baby Rectal Thermometers. 10-second readings.

Vicks Underarm Thermometer.

Vicks Forehead Thermometer.

Vicks Ear Thermometer.

Vicks Pacifier Thermometer.

AdaFruit data logging shield.

Wide range thermistor. (-40 C to 150 C). good and useful..

Biofeedback Video Editor…. I like the force-sensor collar to get a heartbeat… maybe they will respond to my comment on YouTube and tell me what kind of sensors they used. Edit:They did! A large square FSR placed near the jugular. Thanks youmadeline85!