Projo Subterranean Homepage News

Baboons led Robert Sapolsky to study stress. Here he explains what happened to a baboon troop when its alpha males' aggressive behavior wiped them all out, leaving a troop of "good guys" and females.

Under Pressure: The Search for a Stress Vaccine at Wired, by Jonah Lehrer is a good weekend read.

"The person most at risk for heart disease isn't the high-powered executive anxious about their endless to-do list -- it's the frustrated janitor stuck with existential despair." Lack of control over our lives -- low status in the baboon world and the human -- affects physical health: "the women with mean bosses and menial work showed the highest incidence of heart disease."

The sweeten aside is a graphic of ways to reduce stress, with some explanation. The headlines:

Make friends Get enough sleep Don't fight Meditate Confront your fears Drink in moderation Don't force yourself to exercise

But the hard-science core of this story -- vaccine design -- I had to read a few times: It's how to program a human:

If the chronic drip of glucocorticoids ("stress hormones that puts the body in a heightened state of alert") is so toxic, why can't the chemicals be stopped before it's too late?

That straightforward goal concealed a series of technical challenges. The first was that Sapolsky couldn't just eliminate glucocorticoids from the bloodstream, because they are involved in all sorts of important functions, like helping you run for your life. Second, Sapolsky needed to get his treatment past the blood-brain barrier -- the specialized capillaries that prevent blood contaminants from entering the brain. Sapolsky's vaccinelike cocktail needed to deliver a potent mixture of genes to the cortex -- these genes would counteract the stress response -- but the most common mechanisms of delivery, like free-floating strands of DNA called plasmids, were denied entry. There were a few years of false starts, but Sapolsky and his postdocs continued to play around with the herpes simplex virus, which has been used as a viral vector in gene therapy research for two decades. Herpes was a good candidate because it's able to slip easily into brain cells. Sapolsky then set about deleting all the dangerous genes in the herpes virus, replacing each of them with an assortment of "neuroprotective" ones, which increase the production of growth factors, various antioxidants, and substances that mimic estrogen. (Estrogen counters many of the deleterious effects of stress on the brain.) As a result, brain cells infected by Sapolsky's version of herpes would be protected in case they were subjected to stress.

The question was how to get the engineered herpes to turn on at key moments, then turn off so the cells could resume normal function. Fortunately, natural selection had already solved the biologist's technical problem. "Viruses aren't dumb," he says. "They don't want to become active until we're really vulnerable and our immune response is suppressed." How does the virus know we're stressed? To Sapolsky's pleasant surprise, the virus already had the necessary genetic machinery: It automatically monitors the flux of glucocorticoids in the bloodstream. It had evolved to start expressing its genes whenever its host felt overburdened by the world.

The video above is about a completely different sort of programming. At one point in it, there's mention of the Whitehall Study: "After tracking thousands of civil servants for decades, (Michael) Marmot was able to demonstrate that between the ages of 40 and 64, workers at the bottom of the hierarchy had a mortality rate four times higher than that of people at the top."

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The large Suitcase Stickers -- 16 inches by 12 inches -- were intended to help distinguish bags at airline kiosks, and perhaps as conversation pieces to those watching the endless carousel of boring luggage that is not theirs. The decals depict suitcases open at their corners to reveal photorealistic packets of white powder or money, erotic toys or an abducted flight attendant.

On Tuesday, CBC news reported (Novelty suitcase stickers go viral),

A pair of Vancouver entrepreneurs have taken the notion of making a suitcase stand out on the luggage rack to a whole new level.

The abducted flight attendant is one of four designs a pair of Vancouver entrepreneurs have developed to make luggage stand out on airport carousels. Colin Hart and Ryan McCormick have created large stickers that can be placed on luggage to give it the appearance that something strange or nefarious is going on.

The stickers make it appear that the suitcases have been ripped open to expose either stacks of money, cocaine, an abducted flight attendant or a case full of sex toys.

The pair operate a website that sells novelty items called thecheeky.com.

By yesterday, overreaction had set in: Montreal Gazette reports (Transport officials not amused by joke baggage decals),

"Joking around like this could possibly be a serious violation of the aeronautics act," said James Kusie, spokesman for Transport Minister John Baird, in an a e-mail.

"Joking about potentially trafficking illegal substances, or worse, is not funny, and the government will use the full force of the law to ensure Canadians who travel by air are safe."

Kusie said the stickers could violate Sec. 11 of the Canadian Aviation Security Regulations, which states a person at an airport or in an airplane must not falsely declare they are carrying a weapon, explosive substance, incendiary device or any other item that could jeopardize the safety of the airport or airplane.

And if Canada thinks a photo is a declaration of what's inside a suitcase, beware rucksacks bearing those Shepard Fairey "Obey" stickers: Andre the Giant is probably not inside the bag.

The sticker-makers' response: Cheeky.com Stops Sales of Suitcase Stickers In Canada.:

Our intention has never been to cause risk or harm and was only to make stickers; stickers to put on a bag that might make people take a second glance and maybe smile... at the sticker. It's a sticker. Our exposure to this media attention has been fun but not fun enough to hang out in prison and this statement puts us in a very awkward place.

Okay, so the bound flight attendant is tasteless/offensive. But criminal? The terrorists aren't responsible for the chilling effect here, the bureaucrats are. Art seldom causes such a stir.

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YouTube Blog: Upload limit increases to 15 minutes for all users

Without question, the number one requested feature by our creators is to upload videos longer than 10 minutes. We've heard you, and today we're pleased to announce that we've increased the upload limit to 15 minutes.

Which means those six-part video hours can now be four-part video hours.

Earlier: Edit video in the cloud with the YouTube Video Editor

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Jason Das, Sketching in DUMBO with Lapin and Friends at Urban Sketchers.

Urban Sketchers has become an expansive spot on my daily Web rounds. Always fresh, always different, I wish I could draw...

USK Manifesto 1. We draw on location, indoors or out, capturing what we see from direct observation. 2. Our drawings tell the story of our surroundings, the places we live and where we travel. 3. Our drawings are a record of time and place. 4. We are truthful to the scenes we witness. 5. We use any kind of media and cherish our individual styles. 6. We support each other and draw together. 7. We share our drawings online. 8. We show the world, one drawing at a time.

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MediaShift at PBS offers an eye-opening weeklong series on Web "content farms" -- sites such as Demand Media's eHow.com, Associated Content, AOL Seed and others that pay writers a pittance to generate answers on commonly searched topics.

The series kicked off with Davis Shaver's Your Guide to Next Generation 'Content Farms':

As traditional news outlets continue to lay off journalists, a new generation of companies is betting big on online content. Their approaches differ significantly, but are all built on the common premise that for online content to be profitable, it has to be produced at a truly massive scale. The proliferation of these so-called "content farms" -- a name the companies predictably dislike -- has raised the ire of journalists and pundits alike.

"If you want to know how our profession ends, look at Demand Media," wrote Jason Fry, a former Wall Street Journal columnist who edits Reinventing the Newsroom.

Earlier, Wired examined Demand Media (The Answer Factory) -- which owns eHow and other brands such as Livestrong.com and Cracked.com, and, Shaver notes, "is also the largest uploader to YouTube." Wired explained the algorithm that assigns the stories that make the money:

How to Give the People What They Want Demand Media has created a virtual factory that pumps out 4,000 videoclips and articles a day. It starts with an algorithm.

The algorithm is fed inputs from three sources: Search terms (popular terms from more than 100 sources comprising 2 billion searches a day), The ad market (a snapshot of which keywords are sought after and how much they are fetching), and The competition (what's online already and where a term ranks in search results).

(This is how we get all Britney all the time -- people click on it.)

The scariest report in the series is Writers Explain What It's Like Toiling on the Content Farm:

Although Demand pays only a meager $15 or so per piece, by choosing easy prompts (topics) and writing them up very quickly, Christopher managed to collect a tidy sum for his time and effort. Christopher forces himself to pump out a minimum of three per hour for three hours a day. "For me it's always the hourly rate," he said. "I won't [write for Demand] if I feel I can make money doing something else."

$15 a story is a pathetic wage, but there's nothing to indicate to the reader whether the information these writers deliver is even true. A journalism school grad who doesn't want to embarrass her current employer spoke anonymously to author Corbin Hiar:

The articles she wrote -- all of which were selected from an algorithmically generated list -- included How to Wear a Sweater Vest" and How to Massage a Dog That Is Emotionally Stressed," even though she would never willingly don a sweater vest and has never owned a dog.

"I was completely aware that I was writing ****," she said. "I was like, 'I hope to God people don't read my advice on how to make gin at home because they'll probably poison themselves.'

"Never trust anything you read on eHow.com," she said, referring to one of Demand Media's high-traffic websites, on which most of her clips appeared.

In real newsrooms, accuracy is the prime directive. Corrections are expected and volunteered if errors come to light, and real journalists are dismayed if readers have been misled. Journalism is a mental discipline that values accuracy, thoroughness, and transparency; it can't be practiced as piecework in a word mill.

If the Journal Food Editor decided to tell people how to make bathtub gin (unlikely) there'd be tastings and reports on the results. The feedback would lead to tweaking the recipe, and new comparisons, all of it painstakingly documented. There'd be "Don'ts."

But the potentially poisonous recipe for gin is still out there online, as is its author. And you, the reader, perhaps trusting that the first page of search results is the best, may not be able to tell the sage who shares all from the Google-driven rehashing hacks.

Or, as Jason Fry describes this brand of journalism, from "the kid waving his hand in class with an obvious, not particularly edifying answer to everything."

Educate yourself: Here are the PBS series' headline links again.

Related: At MinnPost, John Reinan writes, I'm still waiting to make a bushel from my 'content farm' work:

I recently became a contributor to Associated Content, which bills itself as "The People's Media Company." On its website, Associated Content explains that it "enables anyone to participate in the new content economy by publishing content on any topic."

So I thought I'd give it a try. I posted an article I'd written on accessible home design for aging baby boomers and sat back to watch the page views roll in. And did they ever!

To date, my article has been viewed 24 times. At Associated Content's going rate of $1.50 per 1,000 views, I've made 4 cents so far.

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I managed tonight to delete 17 months of comments while trying to get rid of a dozen or so identical ads posted by a rank, foul-smelling and undoubtedly fungus-ridden spammer.

My apologies to the readers whose contributions got hosed. Comments have dialed back to February 2009.

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The Axis of Awesome: 4 Chords

This Australian comedy troupe takes the old saw that all rock'n'roll is four chords played different ways and sings snippets of dozens of famous songs based on them, from Let It Be forward.

Studio recording of The Axis of Awesome's "4 Chords". The song that proves that all you need to be a pop star is four simple chords.

The audio is accompanied with a slide show of the original artists.

Different recordings of "4 Chords" will vary as the band continually updates the song with the latest hits that use the structure.

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Read the Sherlock Holmes stories: Free Public Domain E-Books by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who died of a heart attack three years after this film.

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Penne Mediterranean Delight Salad at the Dreamfields pasta site looks cool and light as another hot weekend looms.

The name is sort of lame -- "delight" is not informative -- but penne with hummus and feta and lemon juice, tomatoes and onions sounds very tasty, and it's high in protein as well. Dreamfields is normal-tasting, low-carb pasta that can be used by diabetics and dieters and, to me, tastes exactly like regular pasta (which can use instead if you like, of course).

Pasta Salad with Hummus and Feta

2 cups (dry) Dreamfields Penne Rigate
1 cup red and/or yellow cherry tomatoes, cut in half
2/3 cup prepared hummus
1/2 cup chopped red onion
1/3 cup black and/or green pitted Greek olives, cut in half
1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon capers, drained
1/2 teaspoon each salt and ground black pepper
2 tablespoons toasted pine nuts

Prepare pasta according to package directions. Rinse in cold water and drain well.

Gently toss remaining ingredients except pine nuts with pasta. Refrigerate, covered, to chill. Sprinkle with pine nuts before serving.

Makes 4 servings.

Nutrition information: 440 calories; 14 g protein; 55 g total carbohydrates; 17 g digestible carbohydrates*; 22 g fat; 4 g saturated fat; 8 mg cholesterol; 1154 mg sodium; 9 g total dietary fiber.

*If traditional pasta is used in this recipe there is a total of 54g carbohydrate per serving.

Comments: Hummus makes a very delicious and different pasta salad dressing. This recipe can serve as a filling lunch salad. If the mixture is dry, drizzle some additional olive oil to moisten. Add the pine nuts just before serving.

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Photo by Jef Nickerson, Greater City Providence Under construction now, at Trinity Rep.

Jef (Shepard Fairey Mural):

Shepard Fairey's mural is underway on the Pell Chafee Theatre on Aborn Street.

Fairey is of course most famous for his Obey stickers which can be found around the city and around the world. As well as the Obama poster controversy from the 2008 elections.

In Downcity: Shepard Fairey Makes His Mark in Downcity Providence

The progress that Johann Bjurman, the Rhode Island muralist and fine artist who is executing Fairey's vision, has made has been unbelievable since he just started on Thursday. It has been amazing to watch the mural unfold and we can't wait to see the finished product!

Fairey and AS220's own Jukebox creator, Brandon Edens will be honored at this year's Foo Fest, AS220's 25th anniversary, with the "Free Culture Award", a national honor bestowed every other year on two artists

AS220: Shepard Fairey Providence Silkscreen Red Colorway Ed. 400 - $75.00 : The AS220 Shop

AS220 has also commissioned a mural from Fairey on an exterior wall of the downtown Chafee Center, the piece will be the largest mural by Fairey in existence.

With plans for a downtown mural, Shepard Fairey returns to Providence. David Scharfenberg, Providence Phoenix:

The artist's return to Providence was born of a conversation between David Ortiz, development director for the arts group AS220, and communications consultant Andy Cutler on Cutler's porch on a warm day last fall.

Ortiz was searching for new ways to engage with supporters and raise money. And Cutler suggested reconnecting with the underground rock and art movement that animated Providence in the late '80s and '90s and was so central to AS220's early work.

The talk turned, inevitably, to Fairey. And soon, AS220 artistic director Umberto Crenca was chatting with the artist about limited-edition prints that could be sold to raise money for the organization and an even bigger prize: the mural.

AS220 originally hoped to put the wall painting on the side of the Mercantile Block, a Washington Street building the group is renovating. The $14 million project is to include 33 live-work studios and a host of AS220 facilities on the upper floors, with a locksmith, pizza restaurant, and bar at street level.

Historic preservation concerns got in the way, though -- legitimate concerns, Crenca says -- and AS220 partnered with Trinity Repertory and the city to shift the mural to a rear wall of the Pell Chafee center, looking out over Aborn Street.

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