curiosity...

A Lesson in Political Philosophy: Only a matter of perspective

"Doublespeak."

Social Controlling Processes: It's all a matter of how you word your actions to disguise your true intent.

Real Beauty Sketches

Here is an interesting little psychological experiment on self perception and esteem in American society. Is the face you gaze upon in the mirror every morning really the same face that the rest of the world sees everyday?

Remember to smile      
Love and be Loved. Aloha~

30 Abandoned Places That Look Truly Beautiful

More specifically, an eerie tone of beauty which lies in the mystery of human desolation. Because we are mortal beings, we are an amnesic species from generation to generation; and our past is nearly as mysterious as our future. What we can remember, marks the capacity of human knowledge. What we have yet to learn, marks the capacity of human potential.

Incredible. Isn't it?


Craco, Italy.

Born Curious

Michio Kaku: The Universe in a Nutshell

It's Monday, time for some mental exercises in theoretical physics! If you have 42 minutes and just the smallest ounce of curiosity, you will definitely enjoy this entertaining lecture by the popular Japanese-American physicist, Michio Kaku, as he delivers a more practical approach to appreciating a world full of cultures full of physics. It is the cornerstone of all the fields of science after all. Stay curious my friends, and be enlightened!

Tilt-Shift Crazy

I finally got around to leaning how to create these awesome miniaturized style photographs on photoshop. I've included the how-to below so you can learn how to create your own tilt-shifted photos too. Have fun!












1. Enter Quick Mask Mode in Photoshop by pressing Q on your keyboard.

2. Make sure that your foreground color is set to black and the background color is set to white. If they are not, you can reset them to this setting by pressing D on your keyboard.

3. Select the Gradient tool by pressing G on your keyboard. If the Paint Bucket tool is set as the default, simply click and hold down the mouse button over the Paint Bucket icon, then select the Gradient tool icon.

4. Set the gradient to “Reflected Gradient” and the gradient type to “Foreground to Background”

5. Move the mouse cursor to a focal point of the image. This is the part of the image that you want to make appear to be the most clearly miniaturized. Hold Shift, click and hold the mouse, then drag the cursor vertically to about halfway up the picture and release. For scenery pictures a good guideline is to drag the cursor from your focal point to about where the skyline meets the horizon. 6. A red gradient will appear. This is why it is necessary to be in Quick Mask Mode.

7. Exit Quick Mask Mode by pressing Q on your keyboard. The red gradient will disappear, and in its place, the image will now appear with a selection around the area of the focal point.

8. Now apply a lens blur to the image. Select “Filter” then “Blur” and click on “Lens Blur”

9. The Lens Blur dialogue box will open. Apply the following settings to the blur--set the “Shape” to “Hexagon”, set the “Radius” to “15", set the “Threshold” to “245” and set the “Distribution” to “Uniform”. If you’d like, you can play with these settings until you achieve the desired effect. Click OK to apply the blur.

10. The image should now look blurred with a clear area where you selected your focus point. Now, deselect the selection around the focal point by clicking “Select” then “Deselect” or by pressing “Ctrl + D” (on a PC) or “Cmd + D” (on a Mac).

11. Open the Hue and Saturation settings for the image by selecting “Image” then “Adjustments” and clicking “Hue/Saturation” or by pressing “Ctrl + U” (on a PC) or “Cmd + U” (on a Mac)

12. Set the Saturation to roughly 25 to 35. You can also play with this setting until you get the desired effect.

13. Click OK to apply the Saturation change. Objects in the image should now appear miniaturized or toy like in their appearance.

And here is a different, supplementary site for learning how to create the tilt-shift effect.

Let's Go!

The 7 Wonders of the World

Now, go out and explore the world!

Carl Sagan: "A Message For The People Of Earth"

A spectacular sound bite that humbly paints the human condition as a perspective of our collective human experience amongst the greater scheme of things. We have come so far in the history of our little blue planet, and yet we have barely begun to unravel the greater mysteries of the universe. Dream BIG my friends! And take care of each other! This is what we must accomplish first before we can ever save our planet for whatever the future may hold.

"We embarked on our cosmic voyage with a question first framed in the childhood of our species and in each generation asked anew with undiminished wonder: What are the stars? Exploration is in our nature. We began as wanderers, and we are wanderers still. We have lingered long enough on the shores of the cosmic ocean. We are ready at last to set sail for the stars."
...

Be Curious

My curiosity claws at my insides, crying to get out and run wild with my entrails through infinity. I want to be taken to the corners of the earth and my story told to children long after my bones rot and my footprints wash away from the surface of the sun. My imagination glides in and out of history as if there were no tomorrow. Who knew the dead spoke so loud?

A Toast!

Here's to those like you and me:
Constant scholars and connoisseurs of the fine arts. Critics of premiere human expression delivered in many a medium, ranging from the purely refined to the utterly distasteful. Our undying curiosity for the human condition and psychological motive wanders from day to day continuously searching for the answer to the inevitable question: "Why?"