Formerly "The Downward Spiral." An art blog run by a grumpy chemist. Contains art, social commentary, science, and some humor. To the left you'll find my index and ask box, as well as my liked posts. On my way to a master's in chemical engineering. My research was in polyfunctionalized and orthogonally protected azamacrocycles.
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5 years ago on July 4th, 2016 | J | 3,416 notes
Tagged as: #humor 
silezukuk:
“David Mazzucchelli - Rubber Blanket # 1, 1991
”

silezukuk:

David Mazzucchelli - Rubber Blanket # 1, 1991

5 years ago on June 19th, 2016 | J | 11 notes
Tagged as: #art 

No.
he said.
“no,” he said.
“no,” i said.
“i know,” she said.
“thank you,” she said.
“come with me,” she said.
“talk to me,” she said.
“don’t worry about it,” she said.
it made me want to cry.
no one had seen him since.
it made me feel uneasy.
no one had seen him.
the thought made me smile.
the pain was unbearable.
the crowd was silent.
the man called out.
the old man said.
the man asked.

he was silent for a long moment.
he was silent for a moment.
it was quiet for a moment.
it was dark and cold.
there was a pause.
it was my turn.

there is no one else in the world.
there is no one else in sight.
they were the only ones who mattered.
they were the only ones left.
he had to be with me.
she had to be with him.
i had to do this.
i wanted to kill him.
i started to cry.
i turned to him.

-

After reading thousands of romance books, Google’s AI is writing eerie post-modern poetry

Google had a problem. Their AI engine spoke with grammatical precision and factual accuracy, but its diction remained terse and limp. They wanted it to be more conversational, so they made it read 2,865 romance novels. Now Google has a poet.

(via pornosophical)

@steinbecks

(via kesja)

this is so good.

via @whupassonsight

(via kenyatta)

The experimental parameters are simple and might actually make for a fun group writing game of some sort. The team gave the AI a starting sentence and an ending sentence. Then they asked artificial intelligence to bridge the two concepts using up to thirteen additional sentences. In a sense, they gave it a beginning and an end and asked it to tell a story 

So these are 3 different ‘Bridges’ shown above; The machine learning is good at finding patterns in the writing style specific to modern romance novels; very good, but knowing it was written by a machine learning algorithm designed to mimic them it’s clear there’s no secondary or tertiary message hidden in the text. 

It’s not the same as when an author dreams up a much broader story and compresses it to its bare bones to evoke a specific emotion from the reader, or tries to capture the feeling of a dream/memory. Or is it? If it does evoke a reaction from the viewer in the same way a human author’s work does, not knowing it was written by an AI, then is it only the intent that matters?

To quote Paul Dempsy, ‘What if it’s only worth the bundle of nerves it’s written on?’

(via thecraftychemist)

5 years ago on May 29th, 2016 | J | 9,975 notes
Tagged as: #art #science 
Rufous Hummingbird showing the tip of the feeder
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wingedjewels:

Rufous Hummingbird showing the tip of the feeder by John Gerlach
Via Flickr:
I try to hide the feeder when I photograph hummingbirds. One trick is to use a tube feeder with no perch on it and then provide a more attractive perch just barely within reach of the feeder. You notice the end of the feeder on the right side.

5 years ago on May 25th, 2016 | J | 18 notes
Tagged as: #art #birds 

cammadanar:

Masaaki Yuasa’s “Kick-Heart” by Production I.G — Kickstarter

5 years ago on May 24th, 2016 | J | 1,451 notes

coleott:

SHEEP • RABBIT • DRAGON • TIGER • HORSE

5 drawings from Zodiac, a new art zine I debuted (& sold out of) at TCAF last weekend!

5 years ago on May 18th, 2016 | J | 1,796 notes
Tagged as: #art 

melancholic-wallflower:

Studio Ghibli Films: 3840 x 1080

5 years ago on May 4th, 2016 | J | 67,809 notes
wingedjewels:
“Vermillion Flycatcher on Stalk by pandatub on Flickr.
”

wingedjewels:

Vermillion Flycatcher on Stalk by pandatub on Flickr.

5 years ago on April 14th, 2016 | J | 27 notes
Tagged as: #art #birds 
Worrying is like a rocking chair, it gives you something to do but it doesn’t get you anywhere.
- Van Wilder (via tool13)
5 years ago on April 11th, 2016 | J | 8 notes
Tagged as: #quotes 
default album art
Song: Mexico
Artist: Cake
Album: Prolonging the Magic
Played: 0 times.

napallnightnapallday:

CAKE // Mexico

5 years ago on April 10th, 2016 | J | 173 notes
Tagged as: #art 

reverendbobbyanger:

Trees, Dartmoor.

Words and Image, Reverend Bobby Anger

5 years ago on April 3rd, 2016 | J | 24 notes
Tagged as: #art 
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5 years ago on March 31st, 2016 | J | 259,650 notes
Tagged as: #humor 
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5 years ago on March 29th, 2016 | J | 11 notes

k-eke:

I Love the birds GIFS on the internet sooo much that I wanted to illustrate them with little funny GIFS as well =D

We always need birds !!! 

So, which one represents you :D ?

The american woodcock’s name in french is “La bécasse américaine” ^^ 

Flamingo - Flamant rose

Perroquet - Parrot

Robin - Rouge-gorge (red throat !

5 years ago on March 26th, 2016 | J | 97,448 notes
Tagged as: #birds 
default album art
Song: Kettering
Artist: The Antlers
Album: Hospice
Played: 0 times.

farewell-kingdom:

The Antlers - Kettering

5 years ago on March 25th, 2016 | J | 1,610 notes
Tagged as: #art