The Other People With Your Name

Still from The Double Life of Véronique (1991). Image Source: Wonders in the Dark.

I have a friend who wants to streamline his online image for professional reasons. He wants to deal with the Facebook photos which other people obligingly took, posted, and tagged with his name without asking. He wants make sure that nothing weird comes up when you google him, either correctly (some detail he would rather not remain permanently public) or incorrectly (some detail that is falsely associated with him).

Depending on how common your name is, you will be familiar with the experience: you google yourself, and up come the other people with your name. If you have a common name, then you have the comfort of the crowd; but then you have the problem of having any Web presence at all (assuming you want one).

But since my friend has an unusual name, for a long time googling him only brought up results about him. As the Web's reach deepened, another person appeared online with his name.

Crunching the Dataset of Immortality

The smaller Google barge. Image Source: Portland Tugboat LLC via Business Insider.

Google's expansions show how different aspects of the tech revolution and globalization can combine with radical results. In this case, an investment opportunity arises from a mash-up of social networking, genetics and data processing. The MSM focussed recently on Google barges off the coasts of California and Maine. These are supposedly luxury Google Glass showrooms made out of shipping containers.

But Google is preoccupied with more than gadgets. It has recently set up camp at the crossroads of data-crunching and life itself with its new venture, Calico. Researchers at Calico aim to extend the normal human lifespan by 20 to 100 years. An innovation like that would be worth a lot of money to the company which successfully develops it. Time comments that in 2012, "the regenerative medicine industry was estimated at $1.6 billion. Scientia Advisers, a life sciences consulting firm, estimates that the industry could reach $15 billion to $20 billion over the next 15 years."

With Calico, Google will combine all the bits of private information accumulated from a person's life with, according to Mashable, 

each person's genome — a partial genome can be mapped today for $99 via 23andMe (another Google investment), but many are hoping a full genome will cost as much in the next few years. Daniel Kraft, medicine and neuroscience chair of Singularity University, affirms that this will require people to relinquish some privacy, in hopes of helping others and themselves, but predicts it to be something many will do. "Lot of folks will be happy to share elements of health history," he says.

From Techland:

Calico ... will be run by Arthur Levinson, former CEO of biotech pioneer Genentech, who will also be an investor. Levinson, who began his career as a scientist and has a Ph.D. in biochemistry, plans to remain in his current roles as the chairman of the board of directors for both Genentech and Apple, a position he took over after its co-founder Steve Jobs died in 2011. In other words, the company behind YouTube and Google+ is gearing up to seriously attempt to extend the human life span. ...

Apple may have set the standard for surprise unveilings, but excepting a major new product every few years, these mostly qualify as short term. Google’s modus operandi, in comparison, is gonzo airdrops into deep “Wait, really?” territory. Last week Apple announced a new iPhone; what did you do this week, Google? Oh, we founded a company that might one day defeat death itself. ...

It’s a lot easier to take Google’s venture seriously if you live under the invisible dome over Silicon Valley, home to a worldview whereby, broadly speaking, there is no problem that can’t be addressed by the application of liberal amounts of technology and everything is solvable if you reduce it to data and then throw enough processing power at it.

The twist is that the technophiles are right, at least up to a point. Medicine is well on its way to becoming an information science: doctors and researchers are now able to harvest and mine massive quantities of data from patients. And Google is very, very good with large data sets.

Like China's one child policy, this project will undoubtedly suffer from unintended and unforeseen consequences.

Anniversaries ... and a Royal Horrorshow

Image Source: Thomas Kluge / Danish Royal Family Collection via Yahoo.

Thoughts go out today to all who are marking the grim 50th anniversary of the assassination of JFK and those celebrating the happy 50th anniversary of the time-traveling TV series, Doctor Who (including Google!). What also caught my eye was this Flowers in the Attic-retro-styled portrait of the Danish royal family by Gen X Danish artist Thomas Kluge. From Yahoo:

A new portrait of the Danish royal family has been unveiled, and critics are saying something's rotten in Denmark. The painting, which depicts the group in a shadowy hall against a classical backdrop, is currently being displayed in Copenhagen's Amalienborg Museum. It took Danish artist Thomas Kluge four years to complete, though it may haunt him though the afterlife.

The work is being described by some as more Addams Family than royal family. Only three of the subjects make eye contact with the viewers, Queen Margrethe II, her son and heir apparent, Crown Prince Frederik, and his son, Prince Christian. The little boy, lit eerily from behind, is standing alone, front and center, while the other children play. He carries the weight of his duties-or is that the thoughts of his sinister deeds?-on his shoulders. To his left, his evil twin-like cousins build a blood-red tower, and to his right, slouched in an inky black corner, sits his little sister, Princess Isabella, blueish-lipped and hunched over a rag doll. She resembles none other than a six-year-old ... [Heather O'Rourke] cowering in the flickering light of a TV screen, seconds before her first run-in with a poltergeist.

The painting will "steal your soul," writes Fast Company and also claims it looks "Satanic" and "creepy" and describes the royal brood as "Damien-like progeny." The Daily Mail says it resembles a poster for a scary movie, and the gathering does have the feel of a season one American Horror Story reunion.

Generation X Goes Back to the Future 12: Danny Torrance Grows Up

From Kubrick's The Shining (1980) © Warner Bros. Image Source: Feel Guide.

It's strange, being a near-exact contemporary of a famous fictional character. The five-year-old child, Danny Torrance, in Stephen King's 1977 horror novel, The Shining, and depicted in Stanley Kubrick's immortal 1980 film of the same name, grew up this fall. King's sequel, Doctor Sleep, depicts Dan Torrance as an adult. The book debuted on 24 September 2013, and immediately became a best-seller.

Shelley Duvall as Wendy with Danny Lloyd as Danny Torrance in The Shining. In this scene, Danny Torrance wears an Apollo sweater which fueled Illuminati conspiracy theories that director Kubrick had participated in a moon landing media hoax. Image Source: Warner Bros. via NY Daily News.

I just finished reading The Shining and Doctor Sleep. I was struck by Dan Torrance, a character whose cultural world was almost exactly contemporary to my own Gen X experience; and I was impressed by how Stephen King made him grow up. The first book is pure 1970s. And, as several characters in its sequel state, 'we're in the twenty-first century now.'

Artwork for Doctor Sleep. by Glenn Chadbourne. Image Source: The Overlook Connection.

King states in the afterword of Doctor Sleep that he changed a great deal in the thirty odd years between writing these two novels; he is also preoccupied with how his characters change, and how the world changed in that time. This is horror for the new Millennium.

Curios: Upcoming Hollywood Memorabilia Auction

Up at auction: the 1940 Buick Phaeton automobile from Casablanca (1942).

An amazing array of Hollywood props, scripts and other memorabilia is going up for auction at Bonham's in New York City on the 25th of November, 2013 at 1 p.m. Eastern - from the Maltese Falcon prop, to wafers of Soylent Green, to Michelle Pfeiffer's Catwoman suit and Michael Keaton's Batman suit. And Bonham's have storyboards from Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Soylent Green! The original prop.

They have signed contracts, countless costumes (some are breathtaking, have incredible craftsmanship, or are sci-fi classics) and posters, and they have Francis Ford Coppola's working script (here) from The Godfather (1972). They have a script from Citizen Kane (1941). And Marilyn Monroe's high school yearbook.

A Gotham Taxi license plate from Batman Returns (1992).

All film genres, classics from all decades. See the auction house's Website here. You can bid online.

Sam Spade's chair from The Maltese Falcon (1941).

The iconic lead statuette of the Maltese Falcon from the 1941 film of the same name.

Plutonium at the Bay of Rainbows

The Bay of Rainbows (Sinus Iridum). Image Source: NASA via Space.com.

Next month, China will launch an unmanned lander mission to the moon, which, if successful, will be the first non-crash landing on the moon since Apollo 17's 1972-1973 manned mission and Russia's unmanned Luna missions from the mid-1970s. Although the International Space Station has contributed invaluably to our knowledge of how to live in outer space, there is a sense now (not least with mythical movies like Apollo 18 - see my posts on that film, here and here) America got sidetracked when she abandoned the moon. Of course that myopic view also excludes NASA's great accomplishments in the exploration of Mars over the past twenty years.

Apollo 17 mission insignia. Image Source: Wiki.

Nevertheless, it was an American flag that was first planted on the moon during the Apollo 11 mission in 1969. Apollo 17 was also the most recent, and sixth, manned mission to the moon. For all Russia's contributions, humans had walked on the moon, and the moon was American! For over a generation, that claim has rested on laurels which lay neglected and undisturbed.

Look Skyward: The Leonid Meteor Shower

The Leonids in 2001. Image Source: Space.com.

To see the Leonids tonight or tomorrow, look eastwards between 2 and 5 a.m. EST in the direction of the constellation of Leo:

The Leonid meteor shower will peak overnight Saturday and early Sunday (Nov. 16 and 17) and is typically one of the most dependable meteor displays of the year. Astronomers at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center will provide a live views of the night sky over Huntsville, Ala., beginning at nightfall.

You can watch the Leonid meteor shower webcast here, courtesy of NASA MSFC. This year, the bright moon may interfere with the meteor display, scientists say. [Gallery: Most Amazing Leonid Shower Photos]

"Unfortunately the full moon in the sky will likely wash out all but the very brightest Leonids," NASA officials explained in a skywatching guide. "Meteor rates, normally 10-20 per hour, are predicted to be less than 10 per hour. The shower should be visible from any populated area on the planet with clear dark skies, though Northern Hemisphere observers are favored due to the radiant's location in the constellation Leo."

NASA's history of the Leonid meteor shower is here. If you're in an urban area, or the southern hemisphere, or just don't want sit in the cold, see feeds from NASA (Saturday night and early Sunday morning) and Slooh (Sunday night) below the jump.  Space.com notes times for the Webcasts:

NASA will provide live views of the Leonid meteor shower peak on Saturday night and early Sunday morning (Nov. 16 and 17) in a webcast from the agency's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. On Sunday, the community telescope group Slooh will offer live views of the Lonids and Comet ISON.

The Leonids in 2002. Image Source: Space.com.

Image Source: Universe Today.

The constellation Leo. Image Source: Starry Night Education.

Scientists Killed Oldest Known Animal In Order to Find Its Age

Image Source: Breitbart. 

From Breitbart, via The Mirror, there is a report that scientists killed the oldest known animal - a clam - in order to determine its age:

In 2006, climate change experts from Bangor University in north Wales found a very special clam while dredging the seabeds of Iceland. At that time scientists counted the rings on the inside shell to determine that the clam was the ripe old age of 405. Unfortunately, by opening the clam which scientists refer to as "Ming," they killed it instantly.

Cut to 2013, researchers have determined that the original calculations of Ming's age were wrong, and that the now deceased clam was actually 102 years older than originally thought. Ming was 507 years old at the time of its demise.

According to the Mirror, Ocean scientist Paul Butler from Bangor University said: “We got it wrong the first time and maybe we were a bit hasty publishing our findings back then. But we are absolutely certain that we've got the right age now.The nice thing about these shells is that they have distinct annual growth lines, so we can accurately date the shell material. That’s just the same as what archaeologists do when they use tree rings in dead wood to work out the dates of old buildings.”

The 507-year-old clam shattered the previous unofficial title holder for world's oldest creature held by a 374-year-old Icelandic clam in a German museum.

See other reports, here and here. Related: see my earlier post on Rachel Sussman's work on The Oldest Living Things in the World.