Futures so bright I gotta wear shades: a very brief history of Neon
Written by Leah Faust
Thursday, 15 March 2007
Neon is the 4th most abundant chemical element in the universe, although it only makes up about 0.0018% of the Earth's atmosphere. It is obtained through liquification and distillation of air.
The concept of barometric light was first investigated in 1675 when Jean Picard observed a light inside of a mercury barometer tube caused by static electricity after it was shaken. Using chemicals to create light was further investigated by German glassblower Heinrich Geissler in 1885. Geissler applied low voltages of electricity to glass tubes filled gas which eventually led to invention of vapor lamps. Finally, illumination of neon was discovered in 1902 by French chemist Georges Claude, who encapsulated the gas in glass and applied an electrical charge to create a lovely red glow.
Pictures: From Diners, People and Places by Gerd Kittel Jellyfish by Eric Ehlenberger
Since its discovery, neon has been used as a way to grab attention and make statements. It's use ranges from a utilitarian form of advertising (coffee shops, diners, bars) to fine art. Artists such as Peter Freeman,Lili Lakich,Pacifico Palumbo have shown their neon art in galleries worldwide.
Here in the City of Angels, we even have a museum dedicated to this gorgeous gas; Museum of Neon Art. Although MONA is closed for relocation, driving around the city (or anywhere for that matter) at night is a great way to take in a huge variety of neon eye candy!
Hollyridge Gem
Walking around Los Angeles it is hard to imagine what the city would look like without the influence of Modernism. Frank Lloyd Wright,Rudolph Schindler,Richard & Dion Neutra,Charles & Ray Eames (among many, many others) redefined the home by designing living spaces that were both natural and architectural. L.A. modernism was shaped by an influx in population post-world war 2. The style spread through the Hollywood Hills , Silverlake, Echo Park & Los Feliz, dotting the rolling landscape with straight planes of concrete, wood and glass. These functional living spaces rejected the old sense of home and replaced it with open-air bohemian living.
In the hills, artful detail is everywhere: teal blue homes flanked by red pointsettia trees, 3 story wonders on stilts jutting into the canyon, millions of plants, trees, flowers. The architectural landscape is inspiring. I think I'll stay a while...
Joomla WYSIWYG JCE Editor now offers lightbox photo gallery
Written by Amanda Steinberg
Wednesday, 21 February 2007
It's called the JCE Simple Images Gallery Plugin. Most Joomlers will tell you, the JCE WYSIWYG editor is far superior
to all other Joomla WYSIWYGs. It's what makes Joomla the content management
system so easy to use. It seems that every month, Joomla
must-haves (video management, advanced link management,and the list
goes on) launch as "buttons" within the JCE text editor -- making maintenance for my non-technical
clients as easy as composing an email.
Here goes a test (meet my son Dylan):
{ gallery}samplegallery{/gallery }
Doh! Strike one.
[I added spaces after the { } so that the code doesn't actually render so that you see my initial results]
The developer didn't mention on his site (well, his site is in german so maybe he did mention) that I ALSO have to install the "Simple Image Gallery" Mambot. That was 1hours worth of banging my head against my desk. So be it. So, in sum, the JCE plugin is simply the button for JCE. You still need to go get the Mambot as well.
(updated Feb 9) In a recent email exchange with Donald Lobo and David Geilhufe of CivicSpace, makers/managers of non-profit open source solution CiviCRM, we were batting around some questions pertaining to the market viability of CiviCRM to the largest non-profits (here defined as 1 million+ email records, brining in over $500,000 a year online in donations). Are any open source solutions deep enough to compete with the likes of Kintera, GetActive or DIA? What do they need that the current solutions don't provide? What would need to change about the product to make it ready for the bigger players?
Back when I was studying at the Institute for Social Ecology, I stumbled across a rather profound debate over nature philosophy.
Nature
philosophy, in general, seeks to define a definition of both humanity
and nature and how they relate to each other. A coherent nature
philosophy is very important when approaching the implementation of
sustainable practices in, say, forestry or agriculture. In many ways,
nature philosophy defines cultural-cognitive boundaries which, through
both discourse and "social engineering", become a the means in which
future generations will view, and interact with, the world around them.
Strike one.
