Walking to the Yarra drinking hole I think of those words by Burroughs that sometimes come back to me, from the book with the corny slang: ‘Kick is seeing things from a special angle. Kick is momentary freedom from the claims of the aging, cautious, nagging, frightened flesh.’ Seductive words. He was talking about drugs, about escaping the prison of the body, the sensory world – until you drop back down and want some more...
The moment that holds time open for you: that gathers up your past and lets you face the future, lets your life take shape. Wouldn’t it be a kind of torment otherwise, the slow steady arc of your life? But you know what that’s like. Empty time. As if you’d lived the same life many times over and drained it of meaning. A ghostly life, as in Kafka’s story about Gracchus, the long-dead hunter whose barge was meant to take him to the beyond before it was blown off course, and who now floats aimlessly on the earth’s seas, unable to live or die.
The moment that holds time open for you: that gathers up your past and lets you face the future, lets your life take shape. Wouldn’t it be a kind of torment otherwise, the slow steady arc of your life? But you know what that’s like. Empty time. As if you’d lived the same life many times over and drained it of meaning. A ghostly life, as in Kafka’s story about Gracchus, the long-dead hunter whose barge was meant to take him to the beyond before it was blown off course, and who now floats aimlessly on the earth’s seas, unable to live or die.
A dull slow life, stretching time beyond all proportion. Flat horizon. Whatever you do, you’ll be just as bored as before. It reaches such a pitch that it seems like time itselfis boring, life is nothing but boredom. It fills you so completely that now it’s only a small step to – what? You can almost see it, time itself, which you’ll only ever know as pure boredom… but you can almost see it, a time when boredom lifts like a fog, when it’s never existed, can’t exist, a time that knows nothing of boredom. You can almost see it: a kind of grace.
FASTER, PLEASE: Japan approves test of iPS cells for treating spinal injuries. “Japanese scientists will test the use of human-induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS) to treat spinal cord injuries, a health ministry panel that approved the research project said on Monday.”
Amazing Winners of the 2018 International Landscape Photographer of the Year Contest MyModernMet The potential to deliver ‘one shot cures’ is one of the most attractive aspects of gene therapy, genetically-engineered cell therapy and gene editing. However, such treatments offer a very different outlook with regard to recurring revenue versus chronic therapies,” analyst Salveen Richter wrote in the note to clients Tuesday. “While this proposition carries tremendous value for patients and society, it could represent a challenge for genome medicine developers looking for sustained cash flow.”
GOLDMAN SACHS ASKS: Is Curing People A Sustainable Business Model?
IF YOU DON’T HAVE THE RIGHT TO DO THINGS OTHERS CONSIDER BAD, YOU’RE NOT FREE: The Right To Go To Hell.
Want To Read All Of The Oscar-Nominated Screenplays?
“Given the amount of time a modern human being spends watching film and television, a little familiarity with the form doesn’t seem like a bad thing.” So, here are all of the links. – Slate
IF YOU DON’T HAVE THE RIGHT TO DO THINGS OTHERS CONSIDER BAD, YOU’RE NOT FREE: The Right To Go To Hell.
Best images
Nissan’s battery recycling solution is made possible by a device the company created called Roam. It’s a small cube that is packed with the lithium-ion battery cells pulled from first-generation Nissan vehicles and can be hooked up to an Air Opus trailer. Roam can store up to 700Wh of electricity and offers 1kW of electrical output — enough to power devices, small appliances, and the onboard lights and heating system in the trailer. Nissan claims that when the battery is combined with a 400W solar panel, it can provide power to the trailer for a week without interruption. The battery can also be recharged in just one hour when plugged into a 230-volt power outlet.
When it comes to making babies, it’s all about a need for speed.
It’s long been said that “strong swimmers” win the day but new research shows just how important being fast is in the race to fertilization. That’s because zippy sperms are likely to be the only ones quick enough to wriggle past the bottlenecks of the female reproductive tract.
Scientists used small-scale models and computer simulations to “investigate sperm locomotion” in research that could one day be used to boost male fertility. But in the meantime, it has produced a lovely video of semen struggling to swim upstream (say that five time quickly).
With a single ejaculate, 100 million sperm can swim up the female reproductive tract but there are bottlenecks on the route from the cervix to egg known as “strictures.” These can change the mucus flow and impact how the little guys try to battle against the current.
