Most Powerful U.S. Nuclear Bomb to be Dismantled

The U.S.' most powerful atomic bomb, put in service in 1962, will begin to be dismantled ahead of schedule as part of an attempt to lessen the amount of nuclear weapons on the planet. The bomb, named B53, was 600 times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45031536/ns/us_news-security/#.Tqcx2WAkLKE

The Crystal Ships

Did a bit of work on it last night and I think its done...big fan myself

The Crystal Ships. (click image to enlarge)

36"x60" acrylic, ink and pastel on canvas
Created between Saturday Oct. 22nd & Monday Oct. 24th, 2011

(Time-lapse to come)

The PC Police take on Halloween

And they don't want you to dress up as any other race for Halloween. Read the article below and then continue if you wish...it's not a fun subject.
http://www.thegrio.com/news/ohio-university-students-blast-racist-halloween-costumes.php

First of all...I get it. The costumes are in bad taste, it's not positive, and it doesn't help anything involving race relations. But with that said, I have some problems with this campaign.

First, I realize "minorities" in the US deal with this problem more than anyone else, but there is some political incorrectness with this whole execution. First of all, there are no white people...No I don't mean Americans, I mean, how many drunken kilt wearing Irish Leprechauns do you see every Halloween? How many big-boobed german girls in lederhosen do you see? How many beret wearing frenchmen with pencil mustaches are walking around? The point is, there are other negative costumes that reflect poorly on any number of "cultures" and the fact that they didn't include them, presumably becaus they are white, defeats the entire purpose of the campaign. In other words, making fun of a culture is OK if it's majority is white. Do I personally care? No, I think most "political correctness" is completely overblown and actually calls more attention to the problem than the solution, but for a campaign to oppose these specific examples and leave out some very prominent others hurts the legitimacy in my opinion.

Secondly, especially with the two posters shown above, I think the campaign is making the costumes more culturally offensive than the costumes themselves. Does a middle-eastern student really identify with the terrorists that share a common homeland? Is the middle eastern culture really that of a guy wearing a bomb? Are all japanese people represented by a person wearing a geisha costume? Do all japanese people feel that a geisha is a symbol of their culture? If so, should I, as a white american, take offense if someone dresses as a radical evangelical? I would hope not...my culture has nothing to do with radical religion and I don't identify with it just as I would hope any person would be able to do the same with their culture.

Look...its halloween, not a political statement. Is it in bad taste? yes...but that doesn't mean its a deliberate attack on your culture. I personally would never wear a costume like the ones they picture, but I would also never assume that any of those people were purposefully offending anyone or projecting their costume into symbolizing an entire culture. Almost all halloween costumes are a butchering of some type of cliche or stereotype and to single out a few as "racially motivated" while forgetting others is incomplete at the least, and hypocritical at the worst. All I'm saying is that if you agree with this movement, support its cause, and promote it's ideas, we better not see you walking around as a southern pregnant hick, a drunk german beer-lady or a kilt wearing Irishmen...and if you do...well...you might want to take a look at the definition of "hypocrite" before you yell at the geisha walking down state street.

If anything, these posters should say "this is NOT my culture, it's a costume. And thinking they are the same is not OK."

Things I learn as an artist #8

16. if you accidentally shatter something glass, don't try to catch it because even if you succeed with the catch, you lose with the fingers.

Modern Medicine

I hear all the time about how people hate doctors, don't trust them, hate medicine, and would rather let "sicknesses take their course" over taking some over te counter drugs to fix it up. Even more, I hear about all these "magic cures" that take care of EVERYTHING. You got a cold? take this thing that has no legal information whatsoever. Hungover? drink this thing that says it cures it. Stuffy nose? don't take psuedophed, that's what they use to make meth. Eat this all natural cookie...guaranteed to cure.

And I guess it's just really depressing to me. Yes, some doctors suck, some doctors are not the most moral people and you DO have to watch out for what they prescribe or diagnose. They are people doing a job, not infallible medical judges. You wouldn't take the word of a car salesmen without checking out a car model's ratings and history would you?

But with all that said, I think the malice toward them, and the resulting cozying up to "natural" cures results in a great disservice to all our great advancements in medicine and a dangerous de-education of the public toward their own health. I know people who take "Emergen-C" over straight vitamins and cough/cold medicine. I've known people to buy "weight-loss tea" instead of listening to the doctor's order of simply walking or running a couple times per week. And in the article below, the original writer even infers that our body "initiates" illnesses and we simply need to find out why the body "released" the sickness or disease in order to cure it. Oh...and this guy gets to post his "professional opinion" on the Huffington Post as well.

I guess I just use this guys article (if you care to read it, it's linked within the article below) and mostly the response (linked below) to show just how outlandish and, while possibly convincing, easily disproven his ideas are. Just keep an eye out. Not all real doctors are bad, and not all "natural" doctors are bad. Not everything works every time and that's no reason to say it's "bad." If you aren't sure about something, the best thing to do is research from reputable sources...

I guess the whole point here is to say, once again, don't believe everything you are told and be responsible and informed about whatever you are doing. Maybe alternative medicine IS the right choice for you...but you shouldn't make that decision because you saw it on TV or because you just don't like doctors...you should make it because it's right for what's wrong with you. Harboring "beliefs" can blind you to facts when it comes to things like this and the best way to approach it is the same as how a student should approach a new subject and teacher...teach me facts, express your opinion, but I'll use my own brain to form the opinions I follow.

http://biologyfiles.fieldofscience.com/2011/10/huffington-post-irresponsible.html

7 Billion is A LOT!

So the world population is getting close to 7 Billion people...ya...that's with a B. Check out these photos...kinda makes you think we should probably get a handle on this whole thing huh?
http://photoblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/10/24/8401161-what-do-7-billion-people-look-like

MIAD Alumni Show

Thanks all who came and the artists who exhibited. the show looked great, the gallery was mostly full the whole night, and Gallery Night was a great time. I only sold one piece so that was a bit disappointing, but swiftly counteracted said disappointment with a couple trips to the bar. Congrats to the sellers and buyers and really, Overall congrats to everyone. There was some very good work and great pieces from every corner of art.

That's all my stuff. I had about 20 pieces up, one small guy sold and a lot of people took my business cards which is positive, though now I need more business cards printed...it's a vicious cycle

Here are some quick, badly taken photos of some work that I liked...(not that if you aren't in here I didn't like you're stuff, just that I was walking through pretty quick and can only take about 15 pics on my camera thanks to a lack of memory card).