Stung Eye

World Population by Year:

• 1800: 978 Million
• 1900: 1.65 Billion
• 2007: 6.60 Billion (Currently)
• 2050: 8.90 Billion (Estimated)

World Population Growth:

• We hit 1 billion in 1804.
• 123 years later we hit 2 billion in 1927.
• 34 years later we hit 3 billion in 1961.
• 13 years later we hit 4 billion in 1974.
• 13 years later we hit 5 billion in 1987.
• 12 years later we hit 6 billion in 1999.

The word on the street is that our growth is slowing, but these numbers are still worrisome.

See: World Population @ Wikipedia

Update (29/10/07) - Comment from a friend on facebook:

"I think we need to see the country breakdown to remind us how lucky Canada is to play such an important role despite our small numbers. We are such a well-off nation (in so many ways)."

"Map" of Population Size of Countries

View Simulation: Interactive model of my generative crystal algorithm.

Restart the DLA simulation by clicking on the crystal. Try adjusting the growth parameter (set using the slider at the bottom of the screen). The higher the number shown in the slider, the quicker the crystal will grow. The effects of changing the growth parameter are most dramatic after a restart. (For example, try restarting with a growth factor of 5).

The crystal is initially "seeded" with 4 points in the centre of the screen.

Boiled down, the algorithm is as follows:

• Start with a number of white seed crystal particles.
• Add grey particles in a band around the seeds.
• Have the grey particles move about.
• If a grey particle touches a white crystal, have it freeze and turn white (crystalize).

As the crystal grows, more and more particles are added to the simulation. The radius of the band where the new particles are placed also grows with time. To inhibit grey particles from moving too far away from the crystal to be useful, a weak pseudo-gravity was implemented.

Note: An interesting side-effect of the crystalization is that once particles reach the outer edges of the screen they will start to crystalize on the word "growth" beside the slider.

This is a "crystal" I generated using a DLA algorithm implemented in Processing.

I first saw a generative crystal back in early ninties. Sam and I had come across a collection of fractal programs written in C.

I can remember spending hours trying to figure out how the crystal grew. Since then I've tried coding generative crystals a number of times and have always failed.

Yesterday I came across an article on Diffusion-limited aggregation in a Demoscene zine, and everything "crystalized."

An interactive model is forthcoming.

Busy busy bumble bee.

• Artist gets probation for building secret mall apartment [more]
• Mystery man leaves trail of stone heads in the UK
• The Problem with Atheism by Sam Harris
• Blade Runner is being re-release, again
• "The time for philosophising is over" - An interview with Ernst Tugenhat
• Batman by Dostoyevsky
• Inscribed in the living tile - Type in the Toronto subway
• Still Life
• What single book is the best introduction to your field for laypeople?

A guest post by my uncle Ken McGrath:

When I first visited Toronto as a teenager from Winnipeg, Manitoba in 1968 I was amazed at the Toronto Skyline, (seen from my Great Aunt's backyard on Lake Crescent and Lakeshore Boulevard in the last image). I always loved the idea of being on a Lake and enjoy walking and biking the shoreline.

This collection of images starts in High Park at Grenadier Pond and proceeds westbound on Lakeshore to Mimico along the shore. These images document the old "No Tell" Motels that are slowly being replaced by High Rise Condo's. The Hillcrest Motel was built around 1949 and just sold to a German Company for Condo's. I thought I should take some photos of these properties before they disappear. These Motels have appeared in numbers of Movies and Television Shows.

Also included are small and large apartments that were likely built around the same time, and may also disappear one day. In contrast to the new concrete Towers they represent a different era and a different relationship to the the area.

View the Lakeshore Boulevard West Gallery

"Life in the 'peg seems to be steamrolling forward at a pace I once reserved for last minute projects."

That is a sentence from an email I sent a friend after returning home from Australia in 2000. I had just started my first full-time job. The steamroller is back in gear.

Today the Free Press published a letter I wrote them:

I am disappointed with the *Winnipeg Free Press*. Here is a quote from the Arts & Life cover story about Britney Spears at the MTV Video Awards (Some comeback, Sept. 10.)

"(M)ost unforgivable given her once taut frame, (Britney Spears) looked embarrassingly out of shape."

A glance at the image run alongside the article confirms that the author, Associated Press writer Nekesa Mumbi Moody, may have very high standards.

Increasingly, our society is struggling with problems related to body image. It is widely recognized that these problems are linked to the propagation (through the mass media) of unrealistic standards for a beautiful and healthy body.

By printing this article, the Winnipeg Free Press has lent credibility to a poisonous idea. Young girls and boys reading your paper may now be inclined to equate this image of Britney Spears with an out-of-shape body. At the same time, they are being told to exercise and stay in shape themselves. Do you feel comfortable with the standard you have helped set for them?

I did not submit the letter through the regular channels; I sent it to the acting editor in chief, the publisher, and the editor of the Art & Life section. Someone from the Free Press called yesterday to confirm the authorship, and to ask that I not send my future letters directly to the editorial staff. :)

* * *

• Against Interpretation by Susan Sontag
• Why Is There Something Rather Than Nothing?
• The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences
• What is Generative Art? Complexity Theory as a Context for Art Theory [pdf version]

Show + Tell: Notions of Home and Place by Alumni is a group exhibition featuring contemporary art in various media by 13 graduates of The University of Winnipeg.

My father, Allan Geske, has two recent prints, titled Atlas Vignette (above) and Prairie Orbs, highlighted in the exhibition.

The exhibition is organized in conjunction with The University of Winnipeg's 40th Anniversary and Homecoming celebrations and introduces the University community -- past and present -- as well as the general public to work by professional artists who are UWinnipeg alumni.

Opening reception:

Thursday, September 13, 4:00 p.m. -- 6:00 p.m.

Performance by Glen Johnson at 5:00 p.m.

Special Gallery hours for Homecoming:

Friday, Sept. 14, 10:00 a.m. -- 4:00 p.m.

Saturday, Sept. 15, 10:00 a.m. -- 4:00 p.m.

Regular Gallery hours:

Monday -- Friday, Noon -- 4:00 p.m.

Saturday, 1:00 p.m. -- 4:00 p.m.

Religious "discussions" on the net tend to become flame wars, but they seem to be keeping it civil over at AskMeFi: (The != in the link is computer talk for "not equal.")

The Old Testament God != The New Testament God?

Wonder where all the hippies went? We call them nerds these days:

Introducing the Hardy Heron the latest planned release of the Ubuntu (free as in beer and speech) Operating System.

I'm trying to be more like "him":

She Said Thank You

Toss on your hip-waiters and dive intro the Toronto underground:

Drains of Canada - An Interview with Michael Cook

Beautiful:

Moon and Stars

I start teaching this Tuesday, XML and Mobile Development.

Last weekend I went on a canoe trip in Nopiming Provincial Park:

Zoom out to get a better idea of where the park is located.

* * *

• Holding a Program in One's Head
• Space Dust: It's Alive and It's ... Us?
• Anymails - Email as Microbes
• Thinking As A Hobby
• The Origin of Everyday Punctuation Marks
• The Thirty Theses
• The Age of Simulation
• The Origins of Pattern Theory
• A Sketch Towards a Taxonomy of Meta-Desserts [large]
• Least Religious Countries

It's the Summer of Thought brought to you by Winnipeg's Consideration Liberation Army.

From their manifesto:

We are the Consideration Liberation Army. Underground, over airwaves, lollygagging in air-conditioned offices, and cavorting behind basement curtains. We smile in broad daylight and shout while you are sleeping.

[...]

The indifferent will be tattooed with troubling questions. The thoughtless will be flogged with compact lines of verse. And the cruel and condescending will held captive in waterparks until they learn to laugh like children.

The Consideration Liberation Army was created by Shawna Dempsey and Lorri Millan.