5D Data Storage by Ultrafast Laser Nanostructuring in Glass
Proposed by Jingyu Zhang* , Mindaugas Gecevičius, Martynas Beresna, and Peter G. Kazansky.
The idea of the optical memory based on femtosecond laser writing in the bulk of transparent material was first proposed in 1996. More recenetly self-assembled nanogratings produced by ultrafast laser writing in glass were proposed for the polarization multiplexed optical memory, where the information encoding would be realized by means of two birefringence parameters, i.e. the slow axis orientation (4th dimension) and strength of retardance (5th dimension), in addition to three spatial coordinates. The slow axis orientation and the retardance can be controlled by polarization and intensity of the incident beam respectively.
The unprecedented parameters including 360 TB/disc capacity, thermal stability up to 1000°C and practically unlimited lifetime are quite outstanding! However the implementation of digital data storage, which is a crucial step towards the real world applications, has not been demonstrated by ultrafast laser writing. Here we succesfully recorded and retrieved a digital copy of the text file in 5D using polarization controlled self-assembled ultrafast laser nanostructuring in silica glass.
Information stored within a computer “memory crystal” developed in Britain could survive for a million years without being lost, according to scientists who said that it could long outlive the end of civilisation.The crystal can store digital information in five dimensions – the three dimensions of space and two extra dimensions of the crystal lattice – and pack up to 360 terabytes of data on to a single disc, equivalent to about half a million conventional CDs.
Jingyu Zhang and his colleagues at Southampton University have compared the glass memory device to the Superman memory crystal used in the films of the comic-book hero to store his parents’ archives of data.
“We are developing a very stable and safe form of portable memory using glass, which could be highly useful for organisations with big archives. At the moment companies have to back up their archives every five to ten years because hard-drive memory has a relatively short lifespan,” Mr Zhang said.
“Museums who want to preserve information or places like the national archives where they have huge numbers of documents would really benefit,” he said.
The fused quartz is made from almost pure silica and the data is stored by etching the surface of the crystal with ultra-high-speed laser light. The data is laid down on three rows of tracks separated by a millionth of a metre and each spot or bit of data can exist in one of two forms and up to 256 variable states, giving five storage dimensions, Mr Zhang said.
The crystal if very stable and can survive temperatures of up to 1,000C. At more normal temperatures it will remain unchanged for at least a million years, he said.
Professor Peter Kazansky, who led the team, said: “It is thrilling to think that we have created the first document which will likely survive the human race. This technology can secure the last evidence of civilisation. All we’ve learnt will not be forgotten.”
Denis Campbell, health correspondent The Guardian, Friday 23 October 2009 18.54 BST
A growing number of people are taking LSD and other psychedelic drugs such as cannabis and ecstasy to help them cope with a variety of conditions including anorexia nervosa, cluster headaches, and chronic anxiety attacks.
The emergence of a community that passes the drugs between users on the basis of friendship, support, and need – with money rarely involved – comes amid a resurgence of research into the possible therapeutic benefits of psychedelics. This is leading to a growing optimism among those using the drugs that soon they may be able to obtain medicines based on psychedelics from their doctor, rather than risk jail for taking illicit drugs.
source: guardian.co.uk
Phase I Clinical Trial (SAV CT 01) of the first and only preventative HIV vaccine based on a genetically modified killed whole virus (SAV001-H) has been successfully completed with no adverse effects in all patients, Western and Sumagen Canada Inc. announced today.
Developed by Dr. Chil-Yong Kang and his team at the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, with the support of Sumagen Canada, the vaccine (SAV001-H) holds tremendous promise for success in the final phases of clinical testing now that the first hurdle has been accomplished. It is the only HIV vaccine developed in Canada currently in clinical trial, and one of only a few in the world.
This vaccine is the first genetically modified killed whole virus vaccine (SAV001-H) in human clinical trial to evaluate its safety, tolerability and immune responses. The human clinical trial was initiated in March 2012 and completed in August 2013. This trial was a randomized, observer-blinded, placebo-controlled study of killed whole HIV-1 vaccine (SAV001-H) following intramuscular (IM) administration. HIV-infected, asymptomatic men and women, 18-50 years of age, have been enrolled in this study and randomized into two treatment groups to administer killed whole HIV-1 vaccine (SAV001-H) or placebo.
Weird 'Web' Found In Peruvian Amazon Baffles Scientists
LiveScience | By Douglas Main Posted: 09/04/2013 12:17 pm EDT
A bizarre-looking web structure has been found in the Peruvian Amazon, and apparently nobody knows what it is, not even scientists.
The strange formation resembles a tiny spire surrounded by a webby picket fence and is about 2 centimeters (0.8 inches) wide. Georgia Tech graduate student Troy Alexander first spotted one of these on the underside of a tarp near the Tambopata Research Center in the Peruvian Amazon. At first he thought it might have been an aborted moth cocoon, he wrote on Reddit. But then he found several more, all of which looked quite similar.
By Environment Correspondent Alister Doyle
OSLO, Aug 29 (Reuters) - A vast and previously unmapped gorge 800 metres (half a mile) deep has been found under ice in Greenland, comparable in size to parts of the Grand Canyon in the United States, scientists said.
Other studies have also revealed a rift valley entombed in Antarctica's ice in 2012 that scientists said may be speeding the flow of ice towards the sea, and a jagged "ghost range" of mountains buried in Antarctica in 2009 similar to the Alps.
"It's remarkable to find something like this when many people believe the surface of the Earth is so well mapped," lead author Jonathan Bamber, of the University of Bristol in England, said of the canyon described in Friday's edition of the journal Science.
"On land, Google Street View has photographed just about every building in every major city," he told Reuters of the study, using ice-penetrating radar and carried out with colleagues in Canada and Italy.
The canyon is 750 km (470 miles) long in central and north Greenland and comparable in scale to parts of the Grand Canyon that is twice as deep - 1.6 km - at its deepest, they wrote. The Greenland canyon is buried under about 2 km of ice.
About as long as the Rhone river in France and Switzerland, the ravine was probably cut by an ancient river that eroded rocks as it flowed north before temperatures cooled and ice blanketed Greenland 3.5 million years ago, they wrote.
The gorge probably still plays a role in draining some meltwater from beneath the ice sheet.
ICE FLOWS
The scientists used airborne data collected mainly by NASA and by scientists in Britain and Germany to piece together maps of the canyon. At some frequencies, ice is transparent to radio waves that bounce off the bedrock.
Bamber said the gorge would help scientists refine models of how Greenland's ice sheet slowly flows downhill but was unlikely to affect understanding of how global warming is melting ice.
"I don't think it's particularly influential" in determining the rate of ice flow, echoed David Vaughan of the British Antarctic Survey. He said the canyon was so deep under the ice that it was unlikely to be affected by any warming trend for many decades.
Vaughan led a four-year international study called ice2sea, which said in May that world sea levels could rise by between 16.5 and 69 cm (6-27 inches) with moderate global warming by 2100, partly because of a thaw of Greenland and Antarctica.
He told Reuters a few blanks remain on the map, including two areas of east Antarctica that scientists jokingly dub the "Poles of Ignorance". (Reporting by Alister Doyle; Editing by Alistair Lyon)
PHOTOS: (All images courtesy of the University of Bristol)
Human 'Mini Brains' Grown From Stem Cells In Lab Dish (INFOGRAPHIC)
The first complete living model of the developing human brain has been created in a lab dish.
Researchers grew human stem cells in an environment that encouraged them to form pea-size gobs of brain tissue, which developed into distinct brain tissues, including a cerebral cortex and retina.
The minibrains were used to model microcephaly, a human genetic disorder in which brain size is dramatically reduced. Though not capable of consciousness or other higher cognitive functions, the minibrains allow scientists to study aspects of the developing human brain that are difficult to model in animals. [Inside the Brain: A Photo Journey Through Time]
:: News from around the World.
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Mona Lisa Overdrive
Mona Lisa Overdrive is the final part of Gibson's loosely-related 'Sprawl'-trilogy of novels. It's set in the same near-future world as its predecessors Neuromancer and Count Zero.
Synopsis
Into the cyber-hip world of William Gibson comes Mona, a young girl with a murky past and an uncertain future whose life is on a collision course with internationally famous Sense/Net star Angie Mitchell. Since childhood, Angie has been able to tap into cyberspace without a computer. Now, from inside cyberspace, a kidnapping plot is masterminded by a phantom entity who has plans for Mona, Angie, and all humanity, plans that cannot be controlled...or even known. And behind the intrigue lurks the shadowy Yakuza, the powerful Japanese underworld, whose leaders ruthlessly manipulate people and events to suit their own purposes.
Count Zero
Count Zero is a sequel to Neuromancer, set in the same dark future universe as its predecessor. Count Zero is very similar to Neuromancer, it's a story of a young cyberspace hacker caught in the net of corporate intrigue. The Zen Differential, a movie based on Count Zero, is being planned for release in 1998. The film will be directed by Michael Mann.
Synopsis
Turner, corporate mercenary, wakes in a reconstructed body, a beautiful woman by his side. Then Hosaka Corporation reactivates him for a mission more dangerous than the one he's recovering from: Maas-Neotek's chief of R&D is defecting. Turner is the one assigned to get him out intact, along with the biochip he's perfected. But this proves to be of supreme interest to certain other parties--some of whom aren't remotely human.
Bobby Newmark is entirely human: a rustbelt data-hustler totally unprepared for what comes his way when the defection triggers war in cyberspace. With voodoo on the Net and a price on his head, Newmark thinks he's only trying to get out alive.
Neuromancer
Written by William Gibson.
Neuromancer is a 1984 novel by William Gibson, a seminal work in the cyberpunk genre and the first winner of the science-fiction "triple crown" — the Nebula Award, the Philip K. Dick Award, and the Hugo Award. It was Gibson's debut novel and the beginning of the Sprawl trilogy. The novel tells the story of a washed-up computer hacker hired by a mysterious employer to pull off the ultimate hack.
Between Pacific Tides
Written by Edward F. Ricketts, Jack Calvin, and Joel W. Hedgpeth. Revised by David W. Phillips.
Between Pacific Tides is a 1939 book by Ed Ricketts and Jack Calvin that explores the intertidal ecology of the Pacific coast of the United States.
The book was out of print from 1942 to 1948, but it has since been revised and updated to keep it current, and is now in its fifth edition with the size increasing around twenty percent from the original. Updated and expanded sections have been added since the original edition was published, including: John Steinbeck's Foreword to the 1948 edition; a new chapter regarding the influence on the distribution of shore organisms; an updated Annotated Systematic Index and General Bibliography comprising 2,300 entries; and the addition of 200 photographs and drawings.
By 2004, the book had sold around 100,000 copies, making it one of the best-selling books published by Stanford University Press.
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Between Pacific Tides: An Account of the Habits and Habitats of Some Five Hundred of the Common, Conspicuous Seashore Invertebrates of the Pacific Coast Between Sitka, Alaska, and Northern Mexico |
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Botchan (坊っちゃん?)
Written by Natsume Sōseki in 1906.
Botchan (坊っちゃん?) is a novel considered to be one of the most popular in Japan, read by most Japanese during their childhood. The central theme of the story is morality.
Among the classics of modern Japanese literature, Botchan is probably the most frequently read novel and the most often anthologized work in Japan. Its action is set in the 1890’s, during the Meiji Restoration, when Japan was making its cataclysmic metamorphosis from a cloistered feudal state to a major modern world power. The novel focuses on a few months in the experience of a neophyte teacher nicknamed Botchan (young master). Born and educated in Tokyo, he has accepted a job teaching mathematics at a middle school in provincial Shikoku. Botchan’s personality, values, and Tokyo manners clash with those of his new environment, and out of this conflict Sseki spins a comic tale that satirizes contemporary Japanese mores. The novel is narrated in the first person, and a substantial portion of its humor stems from Botchan’s verbose and vigorous Tokyo dialect, which, by all accounts, Sseki has brilliantly captured.
From his earliest childhood days, Botchan has been an impulsive and reckless scapegrace. He leaps from the upstairs window of his elementary school on a dare, fights with a neighbor boy in the middle of a vegetable garden, thus devastating it, and blocks up another neighbor’s irrigation source out of sheer curiosity. Botchan’s father dislikes him. Botchan’s elder brother blames him for hastening their mother’s death by his rowdiness. Through it all, Botchan grows into an unabashed and defiant individualist.
Handbook of Chinese Mythology
Written by; Lihui Yang, Jessica A. Turner, and Deming An.
An informative work of historical and contemporary Chinese myths, including a useful collection of historical documents, detailing myths as they live and change in China today.
Compiled from ancient and scattered texts and based on revelatory new research, the Handbook of Chinese Mythology is the most comprehensive English-language work on the subject ever written from an exclusively Chinese perspective.
This work focuses on the Han Chinese people but ranges across the full ethnic spectrum of ancient and modern China, showing how key myths endured and evolved over time. A quick reference section covers all major deities, spirits, and demigods, as well as important places (Kunlun Mountain), mythical animals and plants (the crow with three feet; Fusang tree), and appurtenances (Xirang—a kind of mythical soil; Bu Si Yao—mythical medicine for long life). No other work captures so well what Chinese mythology means to the people who lived and continue to live their lives by it.
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ISBN: 9781576078068
Publisher: ABC-CLIO
Series: Handbooks of World Mythology
Publication Date: 2005/09/31
Language: English
Pages: 293
:: BROWSE OUR LITERATURE ARCHIVES, CATEGORIZED IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER.
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Miscellaneous Articles
5 Awesome Stars You Won't Believe Science Class Left Out
By Luke McKinney | September 08, 2013 | via cracked.com
Stars are science we used to pray to.
Gravity draws things together, compressing light elements until they undergo fusion and start glowing. The mere existence of matter automatically creates shining lights in the darkness, joining things together to create warmth with a more stable result. The laws of physics are surprisingly romantic.
Stars are the source of all light, life, and warmth, and we take their name in vain to describe no-talent carbon wastes on reality TV. "Jesus, what is wrong with reality stars" is triple blasphemy against every noun in that sentence. Which is why we're looking at real stars worthy of your attention.
Eight Ways I Hacked My Tiny Apartment to Fit All My Stuff
ERIC RAVENSCRAFT, 8|27|13 {via lifehacker.com}
Decluttering is an unending art form. Sometimes, the solution is to get rid of things you don't need, but other times you have to keep a bunch of stuff in a small space. If you find yourself in a cramped home, here are some ways to keep your things stored without contributing to a mess.P
Recently, my girlfriend moved in to my home before the current residents moved out. Suddenly, we were faced with a very serious problem: how do you store five adults worth of stuff in a three bedroom home? We were forced to find space wherever we could. While some costly solutions were unavoidable (we had to at least temporarily acquire a storage unit), we discovered (read: she taught me) a ton of ways to add space where we thought we had none.
6 Lies About the Human Body You Learned in Kindergarten
By Karl Smallwood, Eddie Rodriguez July 11, 2011
When we reach the age of 2, we start to have a few questions about our bodies. At first they're simple. "Will that toy fit into the wet hole in the middle of my face?" But as we mature, the questions become more complex and too numerous for any reasonable human being to answer. It's no coincidence that around this time, our parents ship us off to school, where someone is paid to give us answers.
Unfortunately, many of the answers you get there are lies that seem specifically designed to make the world around you seem boring. Because how else are they going to get you to stop asking so many damn questions? For instance, you probably still believe ...
Ushi no Koku Mairi – Shrine Visit at the Hour of the Ox
by Zack Davisson, 03, Jan, 2013.
Translated and Sourced from Mizuki Shigeru’s Mujyara, Kaii Yokai Densho Database, Japanese Wikipedia, and Other Sources
At the Hour of the Ox (between 1-3 A.M.) a lone figure creeps silently towards a sacred tree. She is dressed in white, and on her head an upturned trivet is worn like a crown, three candles burning in the night. In one hand, she carries a doll made of bound straw in the form of a person; in her other hand, a small wooden hammer and a set of long, iron spikes. The hatred in her heart blazes brighter than the candles, appropriate for one completing the curse-ritual known as Ushi no Koku Mairi, the Shrine Visit at the Hour of the Ox.
5 Things You Didn€™t Know Could Make You Smarter
By Micah Niedner, XJ Selman August 24, 2012 (cracked.com)
We've depressed you already by revealing the things in your daily life that are making you dumber. The good news is that this works both ways -- there are lots of little, arbitrary things that can boost your brain power in ways you'd never expect. Like ...
5 Things You Won't Believe Are Making You Dumber
By XJ Selman June 28, 2012 (cracked.com)
Tell people that their diets or habits are making them fat or out of shape and they shrug -- we hear that crap every day. Tell them that their habits make them stupider and you're about to have a fight. We all know that our brain is a part of our body, but nobody likes to think of their intelligence as something that can get weak and flabby due to things that are out of our control.
Science says otherwise. Studies have shown ..
Preload Entire YouTube Videos By Disabling Dash Playback
SHEP MCALLISTER Today 11:00am
A few years ago, YouTube switched to a streaming protocol called Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP, or DASH for short. While it's more efficient in most cases, you probably know it best as the thing that only lets you preload the video a few seconds ahead of the playhead, no matter how fast your connection is. Luckily, it's easy to disable.P
First, you'll need to add YouTube Center to your browser of choice, either as an extension or as a user script. Once that's done, you'll notice a gear icon in the upper right corner of YouTube. From this dropdown menu, go to YouTube Center Settings > Player, and uncheck Dash Playback. Now, YouTube videos will be able to preload in their entirety, which is awesome if you're on a slow connection, or if you're jumping around from point to point.P
YouTube Center obviously has a lot else going on, so be sure to poke around once you've cured this particular grievance.P
Update: As has been pointed out in the comments, you'll need to enable developer mode in Chrome to install the extension, since it's not coming from the Chrome Web Store.P
YouTube Center (Free) | GitHub via GhacksP
A 3D printed future: 10 surprising things we could see printed soon
Posted by: Becky Chung July 29, 2013 at 1:52 pm EDT
It is the dawn of the era of 3D printing. From artificial prosthetics to very real human kidneys tofiligree skull sculptures – the number and variety of applications for this technology are growing, layer by printed layer. Combine this with the decreasing cost of owning a printer, as well as the cheaper cost of manufacturing in general, and it appears that 3D printers are here to stay. So, why stop at a kidney?
Bastian Schaefer of Airbus has a far bigger use in mind. In today’s talk, he shares a vision for the sustainable future of aviation: a jumbo jet that’s light, cheap and spacious, with an exterior that mimics the structure of bone. He imagines the jet as a “living, breathing organism,” complete with its own consciousness. And he imagines the jet printed from the ground up..
[via blog.ted.com]
The Best PCs You Can Build for $300, $600, and $1200
Written by; ALAN HENRY (lifehacker.com) 5/01/13 8:00am
We've walked you through building your own computer before, but what we didn't do at the time is give you a suggested parts list for that new computer. In this post—which we'll update regularly as prices and components change—we'll walk you through the parts and hardware we'll need for three different system builds: a budget workstation, a mid-range powerful PC, and an enthusiast's system for gamers and media professionals.
While some consider the desktop a dead platform, there are still plenty of us who use them as much as or in addition to laptops or tablets, love to play PC games, or just enjoy getting our hands dirty and building our own systems. Before we go any further, we should point out that these PC builds are designed to optimize your all-around computing experience, with some emphasis on PC gaming. What components give you the best bang for your buck depend heavily on what you're planning to do with the system: your parts may be different if you're building an HTPC on the same budget, or a super-speedy file server for your home network.P
We've talked about our own experiences building a system and why it's important already. If you're ready to set out on the task of building your own computer, here are the components you'll need to build the best system you can get for your money.
5 Badass Real Fugitives Who Put Action Movies to Shame
By Alex Hanton on August 17, 2013- via CRACKED.COM
Everyone loves a good fugitive story -- it's one of the mainstays of Hollywood action movies, right up there alongside heaving bosoms and pun-based deaths. But we all know that real-life fugitives are nothing like the crazy, resourceful badasses we see on screen, right? Right. Mmmmostly. Every so often, reality produces a criminal escape so awesomely ballsy that Bill Die-Hard and Mike Expendables would break down in tears just reading about it.
Kaguya-hime no Monogatari
Featurette and teaser trailer for the Studio Ghibli film directed by Isao Takahata
The first featurette of Kaguya-hime no Monogatari, the fifth animated feature film produced by Takahata Isao at Studio Ghibli, has debuted online. In the video this time it was shown the footage of the film but ...
A new extract of Kaguya-hime no Monogatari (The Tale of Princess Kaguya), the new film directed by Isao Takahata ( Grave of the Fireflies ), the co-founder of Studio Ghibli along with Hayao Miyazaki , was shown on Japanese screens . As you can see in the video you follow the full screenshot of the film, some sfondali and drawings taken from the storyboard.
The style used for this new animated feature film, the colors watercolor effect, reminiscent of that used for Hōhokekyo Tonari no Yamada-kun (Meet my neighbors, Messrs. Yamada , ed.), you can see the trailer below.
The film was made fourteen years ago. Regardless of the style of animation used, Takahata fails every time to excite his audience, a clear example is the teaser trailer of his latest film released in early July.
The film is co-written by Takahata and Riko Sakaguchi . The theatrical release of Kaguya-hime no Monogatari was scheduled for this summer in conjunction with the Miyazaki film, but due to a delay in the implementation of the storyboard of the film by Takahata, this April, it was announced that the release of the film is been moved to this fall. The date has not been announced yet.
Sources Catsuka , Catsuka , Kaguyahime-monogatari
Avocado Health Facts:
6 Things you didn't know!
You might be inclined to call it a vegetable, thanks to its green hue and savory taste, but the avocado is technically a fruit, and even more specifically, a single-seeded berry. A fruit is "the matured ovary of a flower," according to University of California Agriculture & Natural Resources. Fruits consist of a tough outer layer (the skin or rind), a middle layer we typically think of as the flesh of the fruit and a casing around a seed (or seeds). Avocado is further classified as a fleshy as opposed to a dry fruit, and a berry rather than a drupe, which has tough pits or stones, like peaches.
(via the huffingtonpost.com)
Seasteading
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Seasteading is the concept of creating permanent dwellings at sea, called seasteads, outside the territory claimed by the government of any standing nation. Most proposed seasteads have been modified cruising vessels. Other proposed structures have included a refitted oil platform, a decommissioned anti-aircraft platform, and custom-built floating islands.
No one has created a state on the high seas that has been recognized as a sovereign nation, although the Principality of Sealand is a disputed micronation formed on a discarded sea fort near Suffolk, England.
The closest things to a seastead that have been built so far are large ocean-going ships sometimes called "floating cities", and smaller floating islands.
At least two people independently began using the term, which is a portmanteau of sea and homesteading: Ken Neumeyer in his book Sailing the Farm (1981) and Wayne Gramlich in his article "Seasteading – Homesteading on the High Seas" (1998).
5 Billionaires Who Are Making Awesome Sci-Fi Come True
We love the character of Tony Stark because we wish all billionaires would spend their fortunes bringing sci-fi gadgets to life, instead of building gigantic yachts and buying private islands to hold gold-plated orgies. But there are actually a few Tony Starks out there, people who have big, ridiculous dreams and the cash to at least try to make them real.
We're not saying all (or any) of these projects will come to fruition within the next few years, but we're absolutely willing to applaud these crazy, rich bastards for trying.
(via cracked.com)
The Science of Fiction
Takes place Apr 13, 2013, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California
Parking on campus is $10.
Gates 3, 4, 5 & 6 will be open. Visitors will be directed to parking from there.
5D Institute, in association with USC, presents a groundbreaking festival, The Science of Fiction.
Join us in celebrating the new creators of our media future. Experience a live & interactive demonstration of the power of World Building to create narrative resolutions for an evolving media landscape.
The Science of Fiction will move beyond tired binaries to present a one day World Building event.
5D Institute
The Future of Narrative Design
What Is 5D?
5D Institute is a cutting edge USC non-profit Organized Research Unit dedicated to the dissemination, education, and appreciation of the future of narrative media through World Building.
World Building is the interdisciplinary process of building worlds that evolve into containers for the new narrative resolutions. World Building is the intersection of creativity and technology for students in academia and industry who need to understand now how to thrive in the media jungle of the future. World Building works beyond the edges of known media to express the full arc of our creative role in making new narrative worlds.
5D Institute is the world's leading World Building collective. Our network of preeminent World Builders transcends borders and boundaries in film, animation, fashion, gaming, theatre, television, music, architecture, science, interactive media and more.
Through the newly cemented partnership with USC School of Cinematic Arts, 5D Institute is evolving into an unmatched connector between the next generation of young and undiscovered creators traversing the bleeding edge of innovation and companies who want to be at the frontlines of the new media landscape.
Since Oct 2008, we have come together at 5D's distributed events to engage in a disruptive interrogation of our fractured disciplines, to create best practices and a new shared language across narrative media.
'The neural sparking between left brain and right brain is at the core of 5D - we are moving into a landscape where art and science, design and engineering are inseparable. At their intersection lies the new creative laboratory for the future of our narrative practices.'
- Alex McDowell, 5D Institute Director
Ukiyo-e 浮世絵
(Literally "pictures of the floating world")
A genre of Japanese woodblock prints (orwoodcuts) and paintings produced between the 17th and the 20th centuries, featuring motifs of landscapes, tales from history, thetheatre, and pleasure quarters. It is the main artistic genre of woodblock printing in Japan.
Usually the word ukiyo is literally translated as "floating world" in English, referring to a conception of an evanescent world, impermanent, fleeting beauty and a realm of entertainments (kabuki, courtesans, geisha) divorced from the responsibilities of the mundane, everyday world; "pictures of the floating world", i.e. ukiyo-e, are considered a genre unto themselves.
The contemporary novelist Asai Ryōi, in hisUkiyo monogatari (浮世物語 "Tales of the Floating World", c. 1661?), provides some insight into the concept of the floating world:
... Living only for the moment, turning our full attention to the pleasures of the moon, the snow, the cherry blossoms and the maple leaves; singing songs, drinking wine, diverting ourselves in just floating, floating; ... refusing to be disheartened, like a gourd floating along with the river current: this is what we call the floating world...[1]
The art form rose to great popularity in the metropolitan culture of Edo (Tokyo) during the second half of the 17th century, originating with the single-color works of Hishikawa Moronobu in the 1670s. At first, only India ink was used, then some prints were manually colored with a brush, but in the 18th century Suzuki Harunobu developed the technique of polychrome printing to produce nishiki-e.
Ukiyo-e were affordable because they could be mass-produced. They were mainly meant for townsmen, who were generally not wealthy enough to afford an original painting. The original subject of ukiyo-e was city life, in particular activities and scenes from the entertainment district. Beautiful courtesans, bulkysumo wrestlers and popular actors would be portrayed while engaged in appealing activities. Later on landscapes also became popular. Political subjects, and individuals above the lowest strata of society (courtesans, wrestlers and actors) were not sanctioned in these prints and very rarely appeared. Sex was not a sanctioned subject either, but continually appeared in ukiyo-e prints. Artists and publishers were sometimes punished for creating these sexually explicit shunga.
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Buddha (ブッダ Budda?)
A manga series both written and illustrated by Osamu Tezuka.
"In ancient Nepal, the lives of many people are plagued by drought, famine, constant warfare and injustices in the caste system. The intertwining lives of many unhappy souls are drawn together by the birth of the young prince Siddhartha, who embarks on a spiritual journey, becomes Gautama Buddha, "the Enlightened One," and attempts to bring about a spiritual rebirth of the people in this desperate age."
The Buddha manga series is Tezuka's unique interpretation of the life of Gautama Buddha, the founder of Buddhism. The critically acclaimed series is often referred to as a gritty, even sexual, portrayal of the Buddha's life. The series began in September 1972 and ended in December 1983, as one of Tezuka's last epic manga works.
Buddha received the 2004 and 2005 Eisner Award. As of early 2006, each volume had sold an average of 8,500 copies, withKapilavastu having sold 20,000 copies. Due to differences between the ways in which Japanese and English are read, the American volumes published by Vertical Inc. are presented as mirror images of Tezuka's original work so they can be read from left to right, rather than from right to left. Nearly three decades after the manga was completed, an anime film adaptation was released in 2011. A second film will be released in 2014.
CHANGE
Written by; Ales Kot, Sloane Leong, Morgan Jeske, and Ed Brisson.
It is the story of loosely associated individuals working against a Lovecraftian apocalypse that threatens to overtake Los Angeles and turn it into New Atlantis. It is also about the notion that these characters would rather face down a giant monster than deal with the horrors in their own existence.
Change is a virtuoso book that hurls itself at every risk it can take with every tool the medium has to offer at its disposal. There is a tension that becomes apparent by the second issue that balances like a knife edge across the Niagara with the Change team happily riding their unicycle back and forth across it. At any moment Change threatens to spin off into incomprehensible chaos — but it is through the almost meticulous focus of its creators that it not only stays together, but becomes greater than the sum of its parts. This is a comic about pushing out past your perceived capabilities because there is only two directions, forward or down. And that goes both for the story and its creators.
Tekkonkinkreet (鉄コン筋クリート Tekkonkinkurīto?)
Tekkonkinkreet (鉄コン筋クリート Tekkonkinkurīto?, a child's mispronunciation of "Tekkin Konkurito" (steel reinforced concrete)) is a three-volume seinen manga series by Taiyō Matsumoto, which was originally serialized from 1993 to 1994 in Shogakukan'sBig Comic Spirits and first published in English as Tekkonkinkreet: Black & White. It was adapted into a 2006 feature-lengthJapaneseanimefilm of the same name, directed by Michael Arias and animated by Studio 4°C.
In Treasure Town, orphans Black and White rule the mean streets through violence and terror. These lost boys are direct opposites: Black being a streetwise punk who embodies everything wrong about the city, while White is a innocent dope, out of touch with the world around him. Together, they're unstoppable as they take on petty thugs, religious fanatics and brutal yakuza. But when a corporation called "Kiddy Kastle" tries to tear down and rebuild Treasure Town to fit its own goals, the boys must save the soul of their beloved city, that is if they can save themselves from inner demons.
Bartender (バーテンダー Bātendā?)
Written by Araki Joh and illustrated by Kenji Nagatomo.
Bartender(バーテンダーBātendā?) is a Japanese manga series. Its focus is a genius bartender who uses his talents to ease the worries and soothe the souls of troubled customers. The manga was first serialized in the Japanese manga magazine Super Jump. The manga was later adapted into an anime which was broadcast between October and December 2006 on Fuji TV. In February 2011, TV Asahi began airing a live action television version starring Masaki Aiba of the Japanese pop group Arashi in the lead role. The Drama has mostly an original plot but follows the manga.
Bartender follows the nightlife of Ryū Sasakura, a bartending prodigy who is said to mix the best cocktails anyone has ever tasted. Sasakura bides his time in a bar named Eden Hall, hidden in a nook of the Ginza district in downtown Tokyo. It is said that normal people cannot simply find and enter Eden Hall, but they must be invited in by the host. Over the course of the anime, various figures of high and low stature, all of whom share unusual troubles and heavy burdens, are "invited" into Eden Hall and are treated to Sasakura's fine drinks, which, with guidance from the young bartender, lead the customers to reflect upon their lives and decide on a course of action to tackle their problems.
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September 5, 2012
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March 15, 2013
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April 22, 2013
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