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Diary, July 2023


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Saturday, July 1, 2023

The Psychopath Inside

I finished reading the book The Psychopath Inside by James Fallon, which I started reading on June 21. I bought the book on April 15. It is an autobiographic book about psychopathy. I found it an interesting read. It also made me think about myself. It would not surprise me if my dorsal prefrontal cortex is more active than my orbital/ventromedical prefrontal cortex. For a long time, I had this idea that I do not have an average brain. I am bit jealous that the author did get his brain imagide through a PET scan and an EEG. I wonder if there is a place where you can enlist as yourself as a test person for scientific research.

Sunday, July 2, 2023

Visiting all MUPIs

From 9:59 till 12:02, I biked around the city to visit all the MUPIs that had a poster on it made by one of the graduates of the AKI. Because this time the MUPIs were more around the center, the biking route was a bit shorter than previous years. I found the works of the following students noteworthy (in some random order):

Monday, July 3, 2023

The Hague

Today, Conny and I, traveled to The Hague. Around three in the afternoon, we arrived at our hotel. After having checked in, we left again, and visited some bookshops: Paagman, Mayflower Bookshop, and (just briefly) The American Book Center. Next we walked to Pamir Uyghur Restaurant to check it out, but it was closed. From there we walked back to the parking and drove to Scheveningen to walk along the beach and have a dinner at Naturel. When we arrived at the beach, there was a sign saying that there was a private meeting at Naturel. Nevertheless, we decided to walk in that direction. The wind was blowing at our backs. (I estimate that the wind was blowing between 40 and 50 Km/h.) There were also some kite surfers in the sea. At 17:55 we stopped at a bench, such that I could put on my swimming truncks in order to walk in the sea. The waves were coming in strong. I did not walk that far into the sea and had to brace myself for the oncoming waves. I also sensed a strong under current after a wave retracted. The water temperature was about the same as the air temperature, about 18° Celcius. Conny took some pictures of me, one of them is shown below. After I came out of the sea, I spend some time letting myself dry by the wind. I changed into my clothes and we walked over to the beach bar Het Puntje were we arrived around 18:19. We ordered some drinks and food. Conny order lasagne and I ordered a Thai green curry. The food tasted good, better than I had expected for such a remote location and also looking rather simple. He had to battle the wind while walking back to the parking lot. We walked close to the waterline to avoid all the drifting sand that was blown up by the wind. We found a shell with a width of 9 cm. On the way back to the hotel, we had some icecream from The Gelato District.

Tuesday, July 4, 2023

Graduation show KABK

I went to Graduation show 2023 exhibition at Royal Academy of Art. I found the works of the following graduates noteworthy:

Dinner

We had a dinner at Indonesian Restaurant Instana where we shared the fish and meat menu with the following dishes: Daging Rendang, Ayam Cashew, Pisang Goreng, Ikan pepesan, Sayur Lodeh, Saté Kambing, Udang Kerrie, Ikan Asam, Gado Gado, Sambal Goreng Boontjes, Sambal Goreng Telor, Atjar Ketimoen, Emping, Kroepoek, Seroendeng, Sambal Goreng, Kentang and Tempé. Conny had Lontong (rice) and I had Nasi Goreng. Afterwards we walked around a bit and had some ice cream at McDonalds.

Wednesday, July 5, 2023

Escher - Other World

In the moring, the Netherlands was hit by the strongest summer storm on record. The storm was named Poly. The storm caused massive dammage in certain parts of the country, including the provinces North Holland, Flevoland and Friesland. The strongest measured wind gust was 146 Km/h. In The Hague the wind force just reached 7 on the Beaufort scale. Around noon Conny and I arrived at the Kunstmuseum. We first went to see the exhibtion Escher - Other World with works by M. C. Escher and Gijs Van Vaerenbergh, which is a cooperation of the two Belgian artists Pieterjan Gijs and Arnout Van Vaerenbergh. They created some new art works to decorate the exhibtion rooms. The works in the order I saw them, all by Escher except when attributed differently, grouped by room:

Next we saw the exhibition with works by Marlene Dumas. I found the following works noteworthy:

Next we saw the exhibition Breaking Boundaries. Art of the 1960s. I only found a few works worth noting. These are:

Next we saw the exhibition Flemish Expressionism. I found the following works noteworthy:

We walked also to the rest of the museum. I found the following works noteworthy:

At 15:14, I received the book Alphonse Mucha written by Sarah Mucha and Ronald F. Lipp translated from the English into Dutch and published by Waanders Uitgevers on Thursday, February 3, 2022, ISBN:9789462624115.

Food and book

On the way back to the hotel, we ordered some Chicken Dürüm (Wrap) at Layali Al Sham. After some stay in our hotel room, I went to visit some bookshops. I first went to bookshop Paagman to check some book that I had seen before only to conclude that I already own a copy of the book. Next I went to the American Book Center, where at 17:41, I bought the book The Left Hand of Darkness written by Ursula K. Le Guin in English and published by Berkley in 2019, ISBN:9780441478125, for € 12.99. Next, I went to bookshop De Vries Van Stockum, only to discover that someone was giving a talk and that it was not possible to visit the bookshop. A spend a short time at The English Bookstore before it closed. From there I walked to Pamir Uyghur Restaurant where I ordered Kao Rou Chuan and Gan Bian Chao Miam (rather spicy) and took this back to the hotel.

Saturday, July 8, 2023

AKI exhibtions

I went to Rijksmuseum Twenthe to see RMT x AKI Exhibtion. I found the following works noteworthy:

I also went to the small movie theater Sickhoes in Los Hoes, where I saw part of the video L'Autre Monstre by Alix Desaubliaux that is part of Sickhoes #2 Through the Eyes of the Digital Animal. In the entrance hall, I met with two people from Sickhouse. Sickhouse is going to move from Stationplein to a new locations, possibly to the old fire station in Enschede.

I biked to the city where at Fotogalerie Objektief I saw the exhibition 'The Great Unknown' with works by the AKI first year crossmedia design students.

Summer sale

At bookshop Broekhuis they were helding a summer sale. I spend more than an hour going through the books on sale but did not buy anything.

32.8° Celsius

The temperature at Twenthe Airport has gone up to 32.8° Celsius, which breaks the previous record of 32.9° on this date in 1959. It is also the first that the temperature reach this high this year. Yesterday, But also in the world temperature records are broken. Last Thursday, the Daily 2-meter Air Temperature reached 17.23° Celsius. Yesterday, the Sea Surface Temperature of North Atlantic (0-60N, 0-80W) reached 23.9° Celsius. For the past four months it has been higher than ever on record. The same is true for the (60S-60N) sea water temperature. Also the Antartic Sea Ice Anomalies has been larger than ever on record.

Sunday, July 9, 2023

Turbulent clouds

At the end of the afternoon, the temperature at Twenthe Airport reached 33.1° Celsius. When I went outside, it felt tropical due to high humidity, almost like I was in a glasshouse of a hortus botanicus. I noticed some flowers in out magnolia. I took some pictures of the turbulent clouds overhead, one of which is shown below. Around 17:40 it started to rain and there was some lightning and thunder, not very close. There were some gusts of wind shaking the trees. The temperature quickly dropped below 20° Celsius.

Monday, July 10, 2023

Watanabe Ito Soma 12-fold

On June 29, I came accros the tilling pattern Watanabe Ito Soma 12-fold, which consists of squares, triangles and diamonds. The area of the diamonds are half the area of the squares. This made me think about irregular grids of squares and equilateral triangles. I wondered if adding diamonds leads to a richer structure or that they are somehow equivalent. After some thinking, I realized that a triangle and a square can be replaced by a triangle and two diamonds. And that there is a constelation of square, two triangles and a diamonds, which can rotate around its center in steps over 120° and that there is another such constelation of these elements that can be rotated over 180°. It looks like that in the 'Watanabe Ito Soma 12-fold' tilling pattern, all the diamonds can be removed by using combinations of these three replacements. On either side of each diamond, there is either another diamong, with which this diamong could be eliminated or one of the two constelations, such that is can be moved closer to some other diamond. I have not yet found a complete proof for this. The animation below shows the three replacements.
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Sunday, July 16, 2023

The Rachel Papers

I finished reading the novel The Rachel Papers by Martin Amis, which I started reading on July 5. I bought the book on April 15. It is the kind of book where you only understand that start of the story when you have read it till the end. At times, I found it hard to follow because it jumps forward and backwards in time. It feels like a strong autobiographic book. At least Amis studied at Oxford, The book is rather egocentric, from the point of the main character.

Tuesday, July 18, 2023

Book from summer sale

At 11:52:33, I bought the book You Are Beautiful and You Are Alone: The Biography of Nico written by Jennifer Otter Bickerdike in English and published by Faber & Faber Limited in 2021, ISBN:9780571350018, from bookshop Broekhuis for € 15.00 with 50% off from the summer sale.

Wednesday, July 19, 2023

Book

At 09:29, I bought the book De schilders van Drenthe written by Annemiek Rens in Dutch and published by WBOOKS in 2017, ISBN:9789462582279, from thrift store Het Goed for € 4.60.

Saturday, July 22, 2023

The Left Hand of Darkness

In the evening, I finished reading the book The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula L. Le Guin, which I started reading of July 16 after I bought it on July 5. Although the story is presented in linear fashion, I guess a second reading is required to fully graps the story. Luckily the introduction by David Mitchell and the afterword by Charlie Jane Anders (which I both only read after finishing the book) helped grasp some aspects that I had missed. I found the Chapters 15 to 19 a bit tedious and not really adding much to the story. I guess that Harth must have gone into kemmer at least a second time during their long trip, but nothing is written about it. I somehow was expecting that something sexual might have happened between them. Although the book deals about the subject of gender and sexuality, it is very sexless book. Nevertheless, I enjoyed reading the book.

Friday, July 28, 2023

Weeding

This evening, I went weeding at the Herenboeren Usseler Es. This was the second time that I helped take care of the vegetables. The first time was last week Tuesday, when I just did a bit of weeding. This time, I used a very simple weeding tool, a weeder with a straight blade, that is known in the Netherlands as a 'schoffel'. Weeding with this kind of tool is called 'schoffelen'. I guess, I was a bit enthusiastic as I got two blisters on my fingers. I found it very relaxing, almost meditative, to perform the weeding. The weather was nice and the sun was slowly setting. Afterwards, I took a bit longer route through the fields to bike home.

Monday, July 31, 2023

We see only 0.0035% of reality

Today, I read a tweet (in Dutch) by the Dutch professor of social psychology Roos Vonk with a quote from an article with the title (translated to English): 'We see only 0,0035% of reality' by Marian Donner in the news magazine De Groene Amsterdammer. In the quote it states that the visible (with our human eyes) part is 0.0035% of the full electromagnetic spectrum. I replied to this (in Dutch, translated to English): 'That light statement is a bit nonsense. If you look at the energy of the entire spectrum, what we can see is about 30% of the energy. Organic life cannot be observed much higher and lower either.' I based the 30% on a rough estimate of the visible part of the spectrum of solar radiation. There are some insects that can also see part of the ultra violet spectrum, but I do not know of any animals who can see part of the infrared spectrum. The most important reason for this, is that the temperature of most living organisms is such that they radiate infrared light and a sensor cannot detect light at a frequency that it emits itself or is transparent to. The latter is the reason why we cannot see X-rays. Humans are almost transparent at X-rays and higher energies and shining at the infrared spectrum. The reason we observe ourselves as solid (not transparent and not shining) is because of our eyes, that in order to be able to sense light need to non-transparent and non-emitting at the frequency range. There are some transparent sea animals, but the sensing part of there eyes, are never transparent. An interesting example is the Barreleys fish. To sense anything below infrared range you would need some (metal) conductors and complex resonance systems with amplifiers. There are no natural sources of signals in that range that convey interesting information.

In a reply to my tweet professor Vonk tweeted (translated to English) 'Man sees 30% of what matters, according to man. We from toilet duck.' (The expression 'We from toilet duck' referes to a TV commercial by Toilet Duck in which they advice their own product.) In a reply to a reply by someone else she wrote (translated to English): 'You can only say something about it if you know what you don't see. And you don't know that, do you? What is the world like when you see ultraviolet? When you feel the Earth's magnetic fields? Communicate with sonar, feel the muscle tension of peers with echolocation? Do you know what you're missing?' I struggled a lot with giving a sensible reply to this, as the questions she is raising here and that is why I decided to write this. It is true that there is a lot we cannot perceive directly, but in the past centuries we have developed instruments with which we can perceive these with. There is some indication that birds and also humans can sense the Earth's magnetic field. I once heard about a man who wore a belt with vibrating elements that would indicate the direction of the magnetic North and how it affected his preception of the world. I also have to think about how many insects are sensitive to the polarisation direction of light, something we cannot percieve at all. And also how our eyes, for those with normal colour preception, translate the visible spectrum to just three colour channels. And more interestingly how our colour perception is adjusted by lightning conditions and we barely have an absolute colour sense. And that brings us to the fact that our brain is the most important sense organ. I have heard that some sheperds after some time can distinguish between all the sounds of their sheep and even recognize individual sheeps and know when something is wrong with them. Our brains work such that if we are long enough exposed to some signals, that we start to differenciate them more and more. But at the same time a lot of perception is also unconsious. The paper Multisensory integration across exteroceptive and interoceptive domains modulates self-experience in the rubber-hand illusion seems to indicate that we can sense our own heart beat and that we can percieve very tiny changes in the colour of our hands due to our heart beat. Both things we normaly cannot consciously percieve. It seems that the reality as we percieve it is something that is produced by the unconscious part of our brain. Of course, you do not know what you do not know, but you can realize that there are a lot of things that you do not know. Through my life, I have realized that any area, even as simple as making clay pots, is always far more complex than you at first sight would have thought. This gives me some sense of how limited my knowledge is and that there are subjects that I know nothing about. I have become more and more careful with expressing certainty about facts. I have become a sceptic. I also think that a bigger problem of not knowing what you know is that many people seem not to be able to recognize that others might percieve 'reality' in a different way. Many neurodivergent persons have come to the understanding that others percieve reality different, but also that many neurotypicals have a hard time to even imagine that neurodivergency exists. One reason why I reacted to the original tweet is because I felt that a cetain scientific fact was taken out of context to support something unrelated. It is something I see happen more often and that irritates me. I do not claim to be an expert in all fields, but many people are not aware that they are not an expert in a certain field.

This months interesting links

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