It turns out Jason Bourne didn’t really have amnesia. That would require a hit on the head or something similar. He would then lose all of his past memories and kind up wake up clueless, maybe even unable to make new memories.

No, Jason Bourne had selective amnesia where he was able to forget all the bad things in his life, but remember how to speak several languages, fight 16 bad guys at once, and generally act like a superhero. This is called ‘dissociative amnesia’ which usually occurs after a traumatic event.

So, it is a form of amnesia just not one that requires you to be bonked on the head. It’s sort of the brains way of dealing with something to hard to handle. You forget that incident but remember pretty much everything else and function normally.

It is the perfect writer’s device. Start your character with nothing but an awesome set of skills and bad guys to foil…fill in the personality later.

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More on this from an engaging post on neuroscience, The Weird History of Amnesia:

The major fascination with amnesia is that it’s so specific. When an amnesiac wakes in a hospital, they may not know who they are or where they are, but they do know that they are in a hospital. They know what hospitals are and what they look like. They retain the ability to talk, to count, to recognize certain aspects of the world they live in, while blanking out personal memories entirely.

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Baja California seems like the perfect place to recreate that Italian sense of wine. Both are peninsulas with rolling hills of heat and fresh ocean breezes, perfect for a multitude of grape varieties. Food is central to the culture, like it is in Italy, with most Mexicans in the area practicing some sort of agriculture, aquaculture, or livestock herding. Finally, both have a bustling tourist industry more than ready to accommodate wine loving visitors.

Mark my words, Baja California is on the rise as a wine destination.

A review of Deckman’s seasonal restaurant located on the El Mogor winery:

My dear pal took me to Baja’s wine country – the Valle de Guadalupe near Ensenada – to lunch under the pine trees at Drew Deckman’s new seasonal restaurant at the charming Mogor Badan winery…there is no dearth of fine eateries in the Ensenada area.

And all take full advantage of what the region offers including organic produce; regional cheeses in both the farm and European styles; hand-crafted wines that are winning accolades throughout the world, and meats and seafood that are cultivated locally.

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The term ‘carbon sink’ is becoming more common as we all gain the scientific education needed to deal with climate change and global warming.

According to Wikipedia, carbon sinks can be both natural and artificial. Both involve the process of absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, which is called carbon sequestration.

The main natural carbon sinks are the oceans and plants, and with our planet covered in so much water, the oceans are the biggest sinks on Earth. The main artificial ones are landfills and the various carbon capture projects.

In those countries that follow the Kyoto Protocol, the use of artificial carbon sinks can serve as a way to offset other carbon use.

Of course, as we are pumping more carbon into the atmosphere our natural carbon sinks are ingesting more carbon dioxide:

Nature has her own way of dealing with excess carbon dioxide. When human activities spew CO2 into the atmosphere, plants absorb more of it than usual, leading to profuse growth. The ocean, too, swallows more than it otherwise would. Many scientists fret that these so-called carbon sinks risk getting clogged up. Some even suggest that this has already started happening. - The Economist

Some even estimate that the amount of CO2 absorbed by the oceans and plants has doubled. Nobody knows what this means, maybe it can continue and alleviate some of our carbon problems, or there could be a backlash effect.

For more on this, check out The Economist article, That Sinking Feeling.

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One of the last holdouts retail, video games, looks like it too will disappear. The biggest player, GameStop, who controls nearly two-thirds of the market, has been able to stay alive by pushing used games and devices. Last year the company earned $9.55 billion, 46% of which came from used items.

Unfortunately, that cannot sustain the company as more games go online, available for download. Which makes paying $60 for a cartridge much less appetizing for gamers, and takes away the bulk of GameStop’s earnings. This presents the company with a challenge…what to do next?

Believe it or not, become an Apple retailer. The company has opened an expansive new refurbishment factory for iPhones, iPads, iPod Touches. They hope to apply all that used experience to the booming world of the touchscreen.

Two articles cover this, the first is a summary and the second is a full behind-the-scenes feature:

In an effort to avoid the fate of Blockbuster, Circuit City and others in the remainder bin of failed retailers, GameStop has embarked on a daring, if inglorious, strategy: refashioning itself from a console-game purveyor into a repairer and reseller of Apple gadgets, betting that its retail visibility will prove an advantage. - Summary – SF Gate

“If you want to understand GameStop, you must understand refurbishment,” says GameStop CEO Paul Raines. Behind the tall executive lies a 182,000-square-foot facility filled with workers who are polishing discs, piecing together video game consoles, and rigorously testing pre-owned iPads, iPhones, iPods and Android tablets. It’s called the Refurbishment Operations Center, or ROC for short, and GameStop is giving us a first-hand tour of the $7 million facility. - Behind-the-scenes – The Verge

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Did you have a chance to see the white water sports at the Olympics, like kayaking and canoeing?

If so, you probably noticed that the entire venue was artificial. The Lee Valley White Water Centre in the north of London was created out of a vast expanse of flat land. The designers, including a firm from Colorado, S20, had to build it all from scratch, including the high-powered water pumps and the speedy, treacherous river.

It made for a fantastic set of competitions and, it turns out, a lasting site for Londoners. The venue is going to stay open for both recreational activities and as a training site for future Olympians.

And, the Smithsonian blog wrote about an intriguing innovation used in the building of the rapids. They used what looks like Lego blocks to create the river bottom:

Since the earliest whitewater slalom competitions in the 1930s, most artificial courses have been constructed primarily of concrete, with static forms inserted to mimic boulders, logs…S20′s design turns the static features into adjustable plastic modules—a bit like underwater Legos—which can be positioned with a high degree of precision, and moved at no cost, essentially creating a new stretch of river each time.

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An article from The Atlantic focuses on the value of trees:

I was approached by someone from an initiative called San Diego County Trees…(a project) extolling the benefits of urban trees. I just spent time on the website, where the coolest feature is an interactive map of the whole county showing very specific tree locations and information, including quantified benefits…(like) carbon sequestration, water retention, energy saved, and air pollutants reduced.

Wow! Look at that image…millions of dollars in savings, water conservation, improved air quality. That is impressive.

Some more facts include, “the net cooling effect of a young, healthy tree is equivalent to ten room-size air conditioners operating 20 hours a day,” and the energy savings of planting a tree on the sunny side of your house (3% after 5 years, 12% after 15 years).

I love trees.

Camera in tow, Jana Morgan and a few friends dove in and looked around. Her images expose a mesmerizing world of green sea grass and a community of marine mammals that seem blissfully ignorant of the debate that rages on land about how to split the cove’s sand between people and animals. – UT San Diego

Photos by Jana Morgan, see more.

A great move by the photographer, but I don’t need the photos. I am a full supporter of the seals on this one. By my reckoning, every inch of the coast is owned by humans, so why not give them this small section?

The debate rages around the famous La Jolla Children’s Pool, originally created for the kids of La Jolla then taken over by the seals. That happened many decades ago and ever since a fight has been raging among the local community.

The creator of the man-made cove built the cement walls to shield children from harsh waves. She then willed it to the children of future (hence the name Children’s Pool).

Then the seals came in, 100s of them, and it became an instant tourist attraction. This places environmentalists and nature lovers on one side, open-access for children on the other side. An unfortunate split.

The debate still rages every morning as both sides trek out to the beach and mark their territory. The open-access folks plant a flag in the sand that says “open” and shoo away the seals from that part of the beach. During which the pro-seal activists film this to ensure no harmful shoo-ing occurs, and, lately, document any problems the pregnant seals and baby seals encounter with all this conflict.

If you’re interested, join the pro-seal cause – Facebook – Save La Jolla Seals

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What if Mexico were to become a bigger economy than Brazil?

In recent years Brazil has outplayed Mexico, growing at 6% or more as Mexico bumped along in the slow lane. But lately that has changed. Last year Mexico grew by 4% and Brazil by 2.7%. This year Mexico is expected to get close to 4% again, whereas some economists reckon that Brazil’s rate could dip below 2%. A recent report by Nomura predicted that Mexico’s economy, currently half the size of Brazil’s, could end up the bigger of the two within the next decade. – The Economist

To get into some detail, in 2011 Mexico had a GDP of $1.15 trillion and Brazil with $2.48 trillion. It seems like a tall order for Mexico to more than double its economy.

Google Public Data

But, if you look at certain sectors, like automobiles, Brazil is starting to face some growth problems. Originally, the country grew by exploiting is size, natural resources, and population. In order to keep up growth they will need to expand internationally with products and services.

Last year, Brazilians created 3.4 million cars and exported only 540,000. That is worth $372 million.  Mexico, on the other hand, created 2.6 million cars and exported 2.1 million of them. That is worth $2 billion and reflects a growth of 40%. (The Economist)

Mexico may be more ideally situated for growth in the next few decades than Brazil is.

“I based everything on that part of the ocean called the beach – the border between common civilization and dreams…I chose the dreams and it’s like living in Wonderland.”

 

Block10 productions is proud to present David Pecchi, eclectic and talented surfer of the Onde Nostre Crew, shot in Italy, California, Indonesia.

Ritratti Di Surf is a series of short videos about surfers, shapers, artists and other characters somehow connected to Onde Nostre and the Italian surf culture.

 

“Us Italians we don’t have waves but we have a heart, big like this, more. Even bigger than the brain. We have passion. We suffer, we wait for waves for months, and after a month of flat spell when we get a 2 foot wind swell. If you really like surfing, you paddle out and give it all you got.”

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Directed by Luca Merli
Edited by Giovanni “Sbrokked” Barberis and Luca Merli
Photography by Luca Merli, Matteo Ferrari and Giovanni “Sbrokked” Barberis.
Additional Photography by Alessandro Ponzanelli, Daniele Testi
Lettering by Luca Barcellona
Music Consultant & Marketing by Gabriele “Gabro” Minelli
Songs: VOICES OF JAMAICA A Mixtape by Blundetto, Joya Landis (Blundedit) ‘When The Lights Are Low’, Ken Boothe ‘Mr Wind’, Gregory Isaacs ‘Reform Institute’, Blundetto dubplate with Don Camilo ‘Rocky Road’.
Starring: David Pecchi, Alessandro Ponzanelli, Oliver Parker, Ricky Brotini.

I love sharing surf films on 1X57 – check out the nearly 50 videos.

Clearly, the U.S. has the best women in the world.

As the London Olympics near their end, one of the biggest, most significant storylines is the dominance of America’s female athletes. There’s no other word for it. It’s because of the women — not the men — that the United States stands atop the medal table. – The Modesto Bee

Our ladies have also pulled in twice as many gold medals as the men.

And that’s despite the fact that 10 percent fewer women’s medals have been awarded so far. – Seattle PI

Altogether, women represent 44% of the Olympic athletes, up from 26% at the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games. Thirty-four countries sent more women than men to compete.

Finally, a nice article from USA Today exploring this historic shift:

Something historic and even a little strange is happening in the 2012 London Games. A nation that has been known for wielding a strong male chauvinistic sports streak has fallen in love with its female athletes. And it’s not just the Brits. American female athletes, outnumbering their male counterparts for the first time in an Olympics, are having their finest Games so far, outpacing the men in gold medals 18-10. Overall, they’ve won 53% of all U.S. medals, up considerably from 31% in the 1988 Olympics in Seoul.

This site is archiving the electronic sounds of the past, and it’s awesome

The site archives a few sounds that might have you nostalgically playing them over and over again. There’s everything from the sound of dialing a rotary telephone to the sound of a floppy drive chugging away. If nothing else, listening to the sound of a screeching modem kicking into high gear will make you eternally grateful for your 24 hour broadband connection.

I love this idea!

The Museum of Endangered Sounds

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In case you thought no one fished (and ate the fish) in the Anacostia River, here is an article from National Geographic:

Fishermen were casting their lines into the urban waters of Washington, D.C., into a river notorious as one of the dirtiest in the nation. What’s more, according to a recent study, they represented a small fraction of the 17,000 or more residents of this metropolitan area who are consuming fish from a river that has all the markings of a Superfund site.

Sometimes you just can’t believe it, the article even says that a sewer line directly dumps a billion gallons of human waste every year.

Yeah, the river really needs help.

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BBC wrote an interesting piece on the history of the steel pan:

Amid the electronica of 20th Century music one new instrument stands out for its simplicity. The steel pan, possibly the only instrument made out of industrial waste, has become an icon of Trinidadian culture.

“There is something about the steel pan and Caribbean music in general that resonates with the rest of the world,” says Professor Tim Wall.

The music has been keenly adopted by the pop world. The Hollies used the sound of the steel pan in their song Carrie Anne, Prince used it in his song New Position.

Go ahead and read the full story, but make sure to compare these two steel pans. They will get you in the right frame of mind.

Here is one you can buy new for $150:

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NBC’s London Olympics ratings defy expectations

NBC’s ratings are on track to outdistance numbers from the 2008 Beijing Olympics, which many TV industry executives had figured would be a high-water mark. The last Summer Olympics to consistently attract such large crowds were the Montreal Games in 1976 — long before cable TV networks began splintering the audience.

Wow, NBC had 32 million people watching every night!

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Another epic journey for the retirement of a space shuttle. This one is Endeavour and it is destined for Los Angeles. It will arrive at the airport, LAX, on September 20, where it will be moved through heart of the city to the California Science Center.

This will be the first time a spacecraft has been moved through a city and it should be quite a spectacle.

Moving the shuttle — which measures 57 feet tall at the tip of the tail and has a wingspan of 78 feet — will be no easy task. Trees will be pruned back or taken out. Power lines will be raised. Traffic signals will be removed.

At its top speed, the transporters carrying the shuttle will travel about 2 mph along the city streets.

full story - Space shuttle Endeavour to make 12-mile trek on L.A. streets

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There is a new meme floating around the internet and it involves finding the rarest of cult hits on Netflix. Anything from classic 80s comedies, to Japanese cartoons, even art-house flicks from the 50s.

Well, here is a new one, the 11-minute entertainment clips Netflix created to test out new streaming devices.

“This is television done right.” “Absolutely spellbinding!” “This wasn’t a show. It was a revelation.” These are only some of the raving customer reviews for Netflix’s first original TV show…I asked Netflix about it, and was told that the clips were produced a few years ago for testing purposes. Also, the moon-walking Shakespeare aficionado starring in them doesn’t actually work at Netflix. He’s a freelancer, specifically hired for this project.

Netflix’s secret cult hit

It’s silly and childish, I know. But where else can you write an over-the-top review just to make yourself laugh?

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Curbing tobacco use by growing less

In China, 350 million people smoke. Each year, 1 million die from smoking. Many more become disabled. Approximately 20 million Chinese farmers produce the world’s largest share of tobacco, nearly 40 percent of the global supply.

A compelling story of how one scientist created a for-profit organization for the farmers. It teaches them the skills to grow other crops, like fruits and vegetables, which allow them to increase their revenue while decreasing the supply of tobacco, something China is committed to doing.

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Planetary geologist An Yin has made a startling discovery about Mars:

UCLA scientist discovers plate tectonics on Mars

For years, many scientists had thought that plate tectonics existed nowhere in our solar system but on Earth. Now, a UCLA scientist has discovered that the geological phenomenon, which involves the movement of huge crustal plates beneath a planet’s surface, also exists on Mars.

This is exciting news, Mars has earthquakes and lava!

The article also talks about the Grand Canyon of Mars that is 9x times bigger, called Valles Marineris.

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Surfer magazine has posted 16 amazingly large overhead shots of the U.S. Open of Surfing and the Orange County coastline.

Here is one of them, mightily shrunk:

See the rest – Above the Open – an oddly serene look at the U.S. Open