New Museums: “Academy Museum Of Motion Pictures” By Architect Renzo Piano (Opens 2020)

From the Renzo Piano Building Workshop website:

Academy Museum Renzo Piano Architect“The Academy Museum gives us the opportunity to honor the past while creating a building for the future—in fact, for the possibility of many futures. The historic Saban Building is a wonderful example of Streamline Moderne style, which preserves the way people envisioned the future in 1939. The new structure, the Sphere Building, is a form that seems to lift off the ground into the perpetual, imaginary voyage through space and time that is moviegoing. By connecting these two experiences we create something that is itself like a movie. You go from sequence to sequence, from the exhibition galleries to the film theater and the terrace, with everything blending into one experience.”

Renzo Piano, Architect

When it opens in the heart of Los Angeles, at the intersection of Wilshire Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue, the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures will be the world’s premier movie museum.

Academy Museum Renzo Piano Architect

Academy Museum Renzo Piano ArchitectSituated on the famed “Miracle Mile,” the museum will preserve and breathe new life into the former 1939 May Company department store, now re-named the Saban Building. Celebrating its history and imagining new possibilities, the additions to the building that date from 1946 have been removed and replaced with a spherical building that features the 1,000-seat David Geffen Theater and the Dolby Family Terrace with views towards Hollywood. The revitalized campus will feature more than 50,000 square feet of gallery space, two theaters, cutting-edge project spaces, an outdoor piazza, the rooftop terrace, an active education studio, a restaurant, and store.

https://www.academymuseum.org/en/

To read and see more: http://www.rpbw.com/project/academy-museum-of-motion-pictures

 

Housing: Los Angeles Approves Movable Tiny Homes As Legal “Accessory Dwelling Units” (ADU’s)

From the Tiny Home Industry Association (Dec 11, 2019):

Tiny House as Accessory Dwelling UnitThe City of Los Angeles has given the Green Light to Movable Tiny Homes as ADUs!
The Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) ordinance has been APPROVED today by the LA City Council. This ordinance permits Movable Tiny Houses as permissible and permanently habitable accessory dwelling units (ADU). The ordinance becomes law in time for Christmas!

Suffice it to say that, now that the nation’s 2nd largest city recognizes Movable Tiny Homes as habitable ADU’s, it will go a long way in providing a model for other cities around the country.

To read more: http://www.tinyhomeindustryassociation.org/la-gives-green-light-to-moveable-tiny-homes-as-adus

Literary & Cultural Books: “The Peanuts Papers” Looks At Life Of Charles M. Schulz And His Cartoon Characters

The Peanuts Papers Writers and Cartoonists on Charlie Brown Snoopy & the Gang and the Meaning of LifeOver the span of fifty years, Charles M. Schulz created a comic strip that is one of the indisputable glories of American popular culture—hilarious, poignant, inimitable. Some twenty years after the last strip appeared, the characters Schulz brought to life in Peanuts continue to resonate with millions of fans, their beguiling four-panel adventures and television escapades offering lessons about happiness, friendship, disappointment, childhood, and life itself.

In The Peanuts Papers, thirty-three writers and artists reflect on the deeper truths of Schulz’s deceptively simple comic, its impact on their lives and art and on the broader culture. These enchanting, affecting, and often quite personal essays show just how much Peanuts means to its many admirers—and the ways it invites us to ponder, in the words of Sarah Boxer, “how to survive and still be a decent human being” in an often bewildering world. Featuring essays, memoirs, poems, and two original comic strips, here is the ultimate reader’s companion for every Peanuts fan.

Website: https://www.loa.org/news-and-views/1586-silliness-small-stakes-and-a-compelling-other-world-jonathan-franzen-pays-homage-to-_peanuts_

 

Diet Studies: Age-Related Macular Degeneration Linked To Processed, Refined And Fried Foods

From a Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News release:

Age-Related Macular Degeneration“Our work provides additional evidence that that diet matters,” Millen added. “From a public health standpoint, we can tell people that if you have early AMD, it is likely in your best interest to limit your intake of processed meat, fried food, refined grains, and high-fat dairy to preserve your vision over time.”

Participants who ate a diet high in red and processed meat, fried food, refined grains, and high-fat dairy were three times more likely to develop an eye condition that damages the retina and affects a person’s central vision, according to the results of a study, “Diet patterns and the incidence of age-related macular degeneration in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study,” from the University at Buffalo (UB) that appears in the British Journal of Ophthalmology.

The condition is called late-stage age-related macular degeneration (AMD), which is irreversible and affects a person’s central vision, taking away their ability to drive, among other common daily activities.

To read more: https://www.genengnews.com/news/age-related-macular-degeneration-linked-to-diet-high-in-refined-processed-and-fried-foods/?utm_medium=newsletter&utm_source=GEN+Daily+News+Highlights&utm_content=01&utm_campaign=GEN+Daily+News+Highlights_20191212&oly_enc_id=5678C5137845J4Z

Travel Video Commentary: Do “Too Many People Want To Travel”? (The Atlantic)

The Atlantic VideosTourism has surged in recent decades, causing large-scale environmental degradation, dangerous conditions, and pricing-out locals at major tourist sites. In this episode of The Idea File, Atlantic staff writer Annie Lowrey explains over-tourism and what we can do to fix it.

Website: https://www.theatlantic.com/video/index/603451/overtourism/

Health Studies: Poor Sleep Associated With Non-Alzheimer’s Dementia And Impaired Cognition

From a University of Toronto Medicine article:

University of Toronto Medicine“There are two important takeaways from this paper. One is that poor sleep is associated with brain immune dysregulation or dysfunction,” says Lim, the corresponding author for the paper.

“The second part is that dysfunction appears to be further associated with impaired cognition.”

The study shows that in adults with fragmented sleep – where people were waking up repeatedly instead of sleeping soundly – there was an effect on microglia, and the cells showed signs of accelerated aging and other abnormalities.

The researchers were then able to identify that these changes in the microglia could be associated with worse cognition in older adults, both with and without Alzheimer’s disease.

To read full study: https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/5/12/eaax7331

To read more: https://medicine.utoronto.ca/news/research-suggests-fragmented-sleep-may-affect-brain-s-immune-cells-impair-cognition

Destinations: “Salesforce Park” In San Francisco Is “Floating Utopia”

Salesforce Park Transit CenterThe Salesforce Transit Center is a green infrastructure that enhances public transportation, reduces traffic congestion, and serves as an economic catalyst. As San Francisco’s new downtown gateway, it greets tens of thousands of residents, commuters, and visitors daily, providing a dynamic destination while engaging, enriching, and connecting people coming and going throughout the San Francisco Bay Area.

Seventy feet above the Grand Hall, the Park runs the entire length of the Transit Center’s nearly four-block stretch. Home to 600 trees and 16,000 plants arranged in 13 different botanical feature areas, the newest public park in the San Francisco Bay Area is for the benefit and enjoyment of all…and there’s nothing else like it anywhere.

Read New Yorker article for great description: https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-silicon-valley/the-floating-utopia-of-salesforce-park

Website: https://salesforcetransitcenter.com/salesforce-park/

Top Events: “To Sail Beyond The Sunset – Central Coast Airfest 2019” (Video)

Edited and Directed by: Henry Behel

Produced by: Henry Behel and Carl Indriago
EP: Chris Kunkle
Airboss: Owen Ashurst
Narrated by: Vicky Benzing
AD: Katie Sanderson
Director of Photography: Gus Bendinelli

Come, my friends,
‘Tis not too late to seek a newer world.
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die.
–from “Ulysses” by Alfred Lord Tennyson

2020 SHOW: October 17-18, 2020

Central Coast Airfest Short Film

Flying is about freedom. Freedom to move, to travel, to savor all three dimensions we’re capable of experiencing. The wheels leave the ground and everything just melts away. Airshows give us an opportunity to look skyward at the people who fly and say… “I want to do that.”

This film celebrates the performers of the Central Coast Airfest. These are aviators who have pushed their love for flying to the edge. Stunt pilots who roll and tumble mere feet from the ground. A fighter pilot who blasts through walls of fire with 30,000 lbs of thrust at his back. A rodeo clown who lands airplanes on top of ambulances.

For thousands of years, flying was an impossible dream. Now, flying is more accessible than ever before, but it’s no less a dream. Look up, and dream.

Website: http://centralcoastairfest.com/

New Timelapse Videos: “The Milky Way And Northern Lights” By Timo Oksanen

Filmed, Edited and Directed by; Timo Oksanen

Music: ‘Remorse’ by The Wong Janice – music producer & cellist based in Amsterdam, NL.
Album: Cello Music for Meditation

A collection of those moments when I was able to capture both the Milky Way and the Northern Lights at the same time. Captured between October 2016 and October 2019 in Finland and Norway.

The Milky Way and Northern Lights Timelapse Film in Norway and Finland by Timo Oksanen 2019

List of locations (in the order of their first appearance):
Utsjoki, Finland
Hetta, Finland
Pöytyä, Finland
Nordkapp, Norway
Skibotn, Norway
Muonio, Finland
Kolari, Finland
Lieto, Finland

Website: http://timoksanen.fi/

New Tech Books: “The Future Is Faster Than You Think”, Peter H. Diamandis & Steven Kotler (Jan 2020)

The Future Is Faster Than You Think Peter H. Diamandis and Steven Kotler 2020Technology is accelerating far more quickly than anyone could have imagined. During the next decade, we will experience more upheaval and create more wealth than we have in the past hundred years. In this gripping and insightful roadmap to our near future, Diamandis and Kotler investigate how wave after wave of exponentially accelerating technologies will impact both our daily lives and society as a whole. What happens as AI, robotics, virtual reality, digital biology, and sensors crash into 3D printing, blockchain, and global gigabit networks? How will these convergences transform today’s legacy industries? What will happen to the way we raise our kids, govern our nations, and care for our planet?

Peter Diamandis The Future Is Faster Than You ThinkRecently named by Fortune as one of the “World’s 50 Greatest Leaders,” Peter H. Diamandis is the founder and executive chairman of the XPRIZE Foundation, which leads the world in designing and operating large-scale incentive competitions.  He is also the executive founder of Singularity University, a graduate-level Silicon Valley institution that counsels the world’s leaders on exponentially growing technologies.

As an entrepreneur, Diamandis has started over 20 companies in the areas of longevity, space, venture capital and education. He is co-founder of BOLD Capital Partners, a venture fund with $250M investing in exponential technologies, and co-founder and Vice
Chairman of Celularity, Inc., a cellular therapeutics company.

Website: https://www.diamandis.com/