National Novel Writing Month

It’s early November. Halloween is only just over and the Christmas decorations are already making their appearance in local stores. But for many, the frenzied holiday shopping will have to wait another month: all their free time in November has already been claimed. If the roads seem quieter, it may not be your imagination. If the coffee shops and libraries seem more crowded, they probably are. Take a look at these newcomers (or the occasional regular who seems more settled in to their usual booth than normal.) They are part of a larger group, a silent and industrious movement that happens once a year.

Some sit in the corners of busy coffee shops, hidden away with their laptops and take-out cups filled with coffee. They jump a little and glance up as customers nearby laugh loudly, but only moments later, they’re deeply absorbed again. Their fingers tap on the keyboard, creating a din that’s nearly audible over the voices and the sounds of espresso machines and milk frothers. Or they perch on a chair in the solitude of their homes, their laptops balanced on their knees as they build up a momentum of written word.

These people are WriMos (or NaNos, if you prefer.) They are participating in National Novel Writing Month (or NaNoWriMo), an annual event that involves writers from all over the world. Between 12:00:00 on November 1 and 11:59:59 on November 30, the participants scramble to write a 50,000-word novel. Tens of thousands of participants (over 256,600 signed up in 2011 and 36,843 finished their novels) write works the length of The Great Gatsby or Catcher in the Rye. Some write even longer novels, by some miracle of time management. This year, I will be one of them. After a three year absence, I have decided to recommit my Novembers to the somewhat absurd, often infuriating, and always rewarding pursuit of writing a novel in 30 days on top of an already demanding course load, work schedule, and generally busy life.

Read more.

Photography: "Autumn Bliss"

Last weekend, I went to the Circleville Pumpkin Festival, to see the giant pumpkins and get some photographs.

 

The day after, I went to my old high school and took a walk on the cross country trail to get some photos of the beautiful fall colors before they fade into winter:

Can you see why this is my favorite season? :)

Sex, Pistols

About a month ago, a new PC game showed up on Steam, as part of their Greenlight program that allows customers to vote on the next games to be offered on the site. The same day, Steam took it down, later citing inappropriate content. On the game’s page, Steam left a message saying that: “the item has been banned for either violating the Steam Terms of Service or the Terms of Service for Greenlight.” It must have had some pretty questionable contact to be removed from a server that also sells Grand Theft Auto.

Before I get into the details of this particular game, I want to point out some of the most popular games that have been sold through Steam or comparable services: Left 4 Dead, Doom 3, multiple iterations of the Call of Duty series, and most infamously, Grand Theft Auto IV. Most of these are well-known, even outside the gaming world, but it doesn’t take a lot of scrutiny to figure out that they are structured around violence: most of them include references to war, death, and violence in their titles. Now, to be fair, some of the “greatest hits” in the gaming world are games like Portal and Minecraft, which involve no violence and focus instead on puzzles, creativity, world building, and other engaging and positive activities. The gaming industry, like the film industry, has a rating system intended to keep young children from games with inappropriate content, so violent games are rated M, for 17 and older, but that doesn’t stop many “underage” teens from playing these bloody and brutal games.

So what was the incredibly offensive content that caused a terms of service violation and got this game removed from Steam’s Greenlight page? It must be worse than the mechanism in Grand Theft Auto – or GTA – in which you can have sex with prostitutes and then kill them. This behavior is not only possible, but is encouraged by the gameplay mechanics, because having sex with a prostitute raises your health. The drawback, according to the wikia page for GTA, is that it costs money – a problem easily remedied by killing the hooker and taking her money. The sex acts, while not shown in great detail, are also not skipped over (NSFW). This is not objectionable to Steam.
And it definitely must be worse than the scoring system in Manhunt, which encourages you to carry out grisly and sadistic murders. In that game, your score is dependent on how gruesome the executions are (Disturbing images abound), and you are rated from a low “unimpressive” to a high “extremely competent.”

In fact, it is an erotic game called Seduce Me, which focuses on building relationships – yes, sexual ones – with characters in the game. The sex appears to be all consensual, and from what little I have seen of it (the game has yet to come out, but the developer has gameplay clips up as a preview), your actions in the game have consequences. So while I can’t make pronouncements about the detail of its content, I can say that from what the developer released, it seems rather, well, harmless.

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Choice for the Choiceless

It’s that time again. Political ads frame segments of your favorite television show. Signs pop up in yards, inspiring rage or camaraderie. Bumper stickers become ubiquitous. I have only been eligible to vote in one election in my short life and have only been tuned in to three, but already I’m growing battle-weary. And I sense this same fatigue among many of my generation. We often hear that the youth vote is in the tank for Obama. But what we don’t hear a lot is that the youth vote isn’t as excited as it was four years ago. In fact, a Gallup poll this summer reported that only 58 percent of the 18-29 demographic plans to vote this year.

This is our future that is being debated. This is our country, our leaders, our government. And yet, there is a sense of helplessness.

I watched two debates this week: the first presidential debate and “The Rumble 2012.” The presidential debate was first, and within five minutes I was already yelling at the screen and fiercely regretting my decision. And I was not just shouting at Romney (full disclosure, I’m one of those youth voters who will be ticking the box for Obama this year, though my reasoning behind that is more complicated than one might expect which we’ll get to later). I was shouting and shaking my fist because both candidates were up there delivering false or exaggerated sound bites rather than honestly addressing the real problems that are facing our country. Romney was proclaimed the winner, and fact checkers everywhere revealed the gross exaggerations and blatant lies that won him the debate. They also revealed a smaller though not insubstantial number of lies and gross exaggerations from Obama.

”The Rumble” was an online, live-streamed debate between Jon Stewart of The Daily Show and Bill O’Reilly of The O’Reilly Factor. Although it was less formal than the presidential debates, and largely intended for entertainment rather than substance, it brought up a number of interesting and complex issues. What intrigued me the most were the audience questions that were read in the final segment of the debate. Many of these questions addressed the issue of trust. Why should we vote for Obama over Romney? Or Romney over Obama? How can we trust either presidential candidate? They both lie. They are both vying for the job of commander in chief of the largest military in the world, leader of arguably the only remaining superpower, the position called “most powerful man in the world,” and “leader of the free world.” High stakes lead to high risks. How can we believe that either candidate or either party can be trusted with our future?

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Photography: "Fallen"

"Fallen."
El fuente del angel caído in Parque Retiro in Madrid.  Available for purchase on FineArt America.

Photography: "Vigil"

"Vigil"

Available on FineArt America

Photography: "Universal Laws"

Available for purchase at FineArt America.

As the Singularity Approaches

Science lately is blurring the line between biology and technology. Harvard has made two startlingly large advances recently: they managed to use DNA to store 700 terabytes of data, and they have created synthetic (read: cyborg) flesh. DNA is essentially the original computer code: it stores complex information in different arrangements of four different molecules, called A, G, C, and T for simplicity. Scientists assigned zeroes and ones to these letters to simulate binary code, the language on which computers run. Using this makeshift binary code, they were able to store 700 terabytes in just one gram of DNA (for comparison, the first 4 terabyte hard drive for computers was just manufactured in 2011, and the average MacBook Pro has less than one terabyte of hard drive space).

Along with this new DNA-as-disk-drive ability, Harvard also melded electronics with living cells to create honest-to-God cyborg flesh. The human body reacts to electrical impulses fired by the brain, something loosely replicated by these part-biological, part-technological tissue cultures. While the half-organic tissue can’t yet react to the electrical impulses, the technology allows for close monitoring of the tissue. The short term implications are earlier warning for medical conditions caused by inflammation, monitoring pre-cancerous cells, or even tracking drug absorption and measuring the effectiveness of medications. The long-term implications are on a much grander scale.

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How We Remember

They say the 9-11 attacks of 2001 were our generation’s Pearl Harbor or Kennedy assassination. It seems that everyone over 18 has a story about where they were that day, when their world changed so abruptly.  I was in eight grade, and I remember teachers interrupting my science class to whisper to each other.  It wasn’t until third period history, at 9:45, after the planes had hit, that they told us what happened.  We watched the news all through class that morning, and we saw the towers fall. It was the first time I’d ever heard the name “Osama bin Laden.”  It’s hard to believe, now, that there was a time before bin Laden, and before the War on Terror.

Photography: "Good Vibes at Venice Beach"

"Good Vibes at Venice Beach"  Available at Fine Art America.

A Man Beyond

The great state of Ohio has produced 25 NASA astronauts. Or, as I heard it phrased for most of my childhood: “what is it about this state that makes people want to flee the Earth?” Every day, I pass the John Glenn School of Public Affairs on my way to class at Ohio State University. Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth and an Ohio native, went on to become a memorable senator and public leader. It is a reminder that Ohio is not only home to a large number of astronauts, but to some of the best-known. One of the greatest of these Ohio astronauts, Neil Armstrong, passed away at the end of August. But unlike Glenn, Armstrong chose to live his post-spacefaring days as far from the limelight as possible.

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Photography: "Salzburg by Night"

Salzburg by night - Canon Rebel with effect added in Photoshop.

Available for purchase.

Curious Silence

The seven minutes of terror were over. Mission Control at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena finally had the news: Curiosity had landed as gently as a feather on the surface of Mars, every step of the complex landing process proceeding with unparalleled perfection. Even the weather conditions on the red planet were ideal for the landing. It was a spectacular accomplishment.

This was a huge victory for NASA and JPL, but much of the enthusiasm got lost in the much greater excitement over the Olympics and negativity of the multiple mass murders of recent weeks. A few weeks ago, a panorama of Mars exploded onto the internet, filling the public with awe over the alien yet strangely familiar landscape. President Obama’s lauding of the great accomplishment of this mission was not met with the rapt attention of the American public the way our great space explorations of the past were. The urge to explore is still out there – in all of us – but why is it that Curiosity’s landing was so overshadowed by everything else in the news?

Read more at The Inclusive.

On the Goodness of Humanity

Sometimes this world is like a sucker punch to the stomach.  You can’t help but stand there, immobile and gasping for breath at the sheer senselessness of it.

It has been hard lately to be optimistic. An old friend of mine was just involved in a horrible car accident. Five years ago, another close friend was in a coma when she was hit by a drag racer on the freeway. At least twelve people died last night in a mindless shooting in Colorado.  And in the weeks prior to that, the internet was awash with stories of rape, child molestation, and violence against and harassment of women.  The world is bleeding deep, personal pain, and history tells us this is nothing new. It seems that every time I check my email, go online, or read a paper, something horrific has occurred. When I walk outside, the number of suffering, hungry, and homeless in just my own neighborhood is impossible to deny. Even for those of us fortunate to be healthy and have a roof over our heads and food to eat at night, so many carry around deep pain.  The developed world has an entire set of its own problems: eating disorders, cancer, obesity-related illness, office anxiety. So many suffer in silence.  The pain out there is fathomless.  It’s palpable. It’s tangible.

A girl can only do so much, only be pulled so many directions before it feels hopeless.  There are days that I don’t want to get out of bed. I want to pull the covers up over my head and never speak to another human being again.  Yes, this world can knock the wind out of you.

But it can also take your breath away for other, more beautiful reasons.

Photography: "Rustic"

"Rustic" - the inside of a lodge in a South African game reserve.

http://fineartamerica.com/featured/rustic-casey-berger.html

Casey's Law of Hipsterism

Much research and testing went into creating a definition of hipsterism for future scientific debate.

Definitions:

Let j = "tightness of jeans"

Let c = "time since last haircut"

Let u = number of times the subject has dismissively uttered "I liked it before it was cool"

Let i = "irony of eyewear or t-shirts"

Let R'(t) be the frequency of obscure cultural references over time t

Hipsterism (H) as a function of age (t) is defined as the following:

As you can see, the significance of the utterance “I liked it before it was cool” becomes diminished as the subject ages, and irrelevant after 35, as it is more likely to be a factually accurate statement at that time. The choice of clothing has no relationship to age and is consistent regardless of the subject’s age, but the obscure cultural references compound over time.

I present these findings for peer review, and for the edification of my peers and future students of the science of human behavior.

Read more responses to the question "what is a hipster?" at The Inclusive.

Photography: "Last Night of Vacation"

Available for purchase at Fine Art America.

The Best-Laid Plans

It’s amazing the havoc that stress and lack of sleep can wreak on your mind.

I’m what psychologists call a “highly sensitive person.”  No, that does not mean that I’m easily offended.  It does not mean that I fly off the handle at the slightest provocation. It means that my brain processes information differently – in greater detail.  It’s actually a relatively common trait – occurring in about one in five people – and it appears to be biological.

Sometimes, I love this about myself.  But sometimes, it exhausts me.  One of the drawbacks to having a brain that’s more sensitive to incoming information, is that it’s easily overloaded.  I hate crowds.  I hate loud noises.  I used to be absolutely inconsolable during the 4^th of July fireworks.  They still scare me a little, if I’m too close to the source.  Combine the sensitivity with my natural introversion (the traits are not always concurrent, but in my case, they are), and if I’m around people for too long, I just want to scream.  It’s not the people – it’s just my brain.

Enough

What do Daniel Tosh, Anita Sarkeesian, and Jesse Lee Peterson have in common? Practically nothing, except that they have all appeared in news stories this year about women’s issues that have been quite frankly horrifying.

I wrote an article about Reverend Peterson earlier this year when he gave a sermon on why he believes women are destroying America. His sermon was filled with hateful vitriol about women, running the gambit from they can’t handle pressure to they’re all sluts to they aren’t even capable of love. In the article, I explained why we should pay attention to this blatantly bigoted small-time preacher:

We should bother ourselves with people like him because this ugly sentiment is buried deeply in American culture. We see it come out in media figures like Rush Limbaugh, in legislative efforts like the more than nine hundred bills introduced this year alone in state and federal legislature to limit women’s rights, in the thirty-one Republicans who voted against the Violence Against Women Act, and we see it glamorized in media portrayals of women as objects. When almost a third of female homicide victims are killed by their partner and one in five American women have been the victim of rape or attempted rape, we can’t afford to remain silent about this issue.

The events in recent weeks involving Daniel Tosh and Anita Sarkeesian are exactly the sort of thing I was talking about.

Read more at The Inclusive.

Past Our Horizons

Science fiction as a genre has existed almost as long as storytelling itself. Jules Verne wrote of travel to the moon in the eighteen hundreds. The Princess of Mars, upon which Disney’s recent film John Carter of Mars was based, was published in the early part of the twentieth century. Even in Ancient Greece there was sci-fi: Lucian of Samasota wrote of creatures that resided on the sun and the moon in the second century C.E. That’s right – nearly two thousand years ago, someone wrote a book about aliens. Philosophy, science, and literature have always sought to reach beyond our planet, and the general public devours stories that combine this super-terrestrial striving with the very human desire for adventure and exploration.

Last week, NASA released a panoramic photo taken by Opportunity, the sole remaining functioning Mars rover since Spirit fell silent in August 2010. (The new Mars rover, Curiosity, will not land until this August). This beautiful image (which you can click to make massively large) was seen worldwide – the alien landscapes of Mars brought home to Earth. This is the power of space exploration. Children dream of becoming astronauts. Consumers in cafés discuss the possibility of alien life. Dreams of exploring other planets, other galaxies, and even other universes enthrall the public. It is possibly the single greatest way to popularize science as a whole.

Read more at The Inclusive.

The Face of God (Particles)

The Large Hadron Collider in Geneva Switzerland may have caught a glimpse of the elusive “god particle” – a subatomic particle predicted by the Standard Model of physics. This particle, officially named the Higgs boson, is called the “god particle” because without it, the universe as we know it would simply not exist.

Last week – as America was celebrating Independence Day – European scientists were also celebrating.  CERN announced the discovery of a new particle – a boson that fits the description of the Higgs. They were careful to call the data preliminary, and stated that more analysis was needed, but discovery of a particle that fits the parameters of a predicted particle is exciting at least and world-shaking at most.  If the results are verified, we could essentially have proof for one of the most important theories in modern physics. And I, for one, am confident the results will prove to be the Higgs boson. The scientists said there is approximately a one in two million chance that the data from the collision would not correspond to the Higgs boson. You don’t have to know much about science to know that those odds are pretty good.

Photography: "Summer Blooms"

Getting up-close-and-personal with a beautiful bloom in my mother's garden, Georgia O'Keefe style.  In honor of summer.

Available for purchase on my site.

Nothing Ever Ends: Mass Effect 3's Extended Cut DLC

Note: this article contains spoilers for the entire Mass Effect trilogy

The platform was eerily quiet. The floating shadows of the Reapers darkened the stars that hung around the Citadel while Earth burned below. I contemplated my choices, feeling again the sinking dread in my stomach. None of the three options given to me would be enough. With the entire future of the galaxy riding on my decision, I couldn’t bring myself to pick any of the choices the Catalyst presented me with. None were good enough for the sacrifices made by my friends. My team. Here, at the end of our journey, I was faced not with victory, but with discouragement.

A Terminal System

America either has the best health care in the world or the worst of the developed nations. It is either a proud bastion of capitalism that our Kenyan president and his liberal elites are trying to destroy through socialism, or it is a greedy and broken den of thieves decimating the livelihoods of those Americans who are unfortunate enough to get sick. The Affordable Care Act (most often called by its quippy nickname, “Obamacare”) is being challenged in the Supreme Court. The court is expected give its ruling on the subject in the next few days, but there are many emotions involved in this touchy subject no matter the result.

I had a recent run-in with the health care system that left me on the fence, both challenging and reinforcing the various expectations I had about the status quo. One afternoon about a month ago, I noticed some mild but still unpleasant stomach cramps. I assumed I’d eaten something bad, or perhaps was just having a reaction to stress, so I ignored it and went about my day. But by midnight, I was in so much pain I couldn’t even stand up straight...

Read more at: http://theinclusive.net/article.php?id=751

Photography: "Seagull Afternoon"

Seagulls resting on pilings on a beautiful day by the ocean.  I love the way the sun illuminates the clouds.

Available for purchase: http://fineartamerica.com/featured/seagull-afternoon-casey-berger.html

Photography: "Lavender Sunshine"

Beautiful wildflowers in Malibu on a sunny California day.

Available for purchase on my site: http://fineartamerica.com/featured/lavender-sunshine-casey-berger.html

Dolphins and Aliens

If humans were sea creatures, dolphins, not dogs, would probably be man’s best friend. They are widely recognized as one of the most intelligent species on earth. They are playful, show signs of altruism to their own species and to others, and have even been known to use tools. They have fascinated biologists for years, but now they’ve caught the attention of an astrophysicist who believes they may be the key to a challenging puzzle in the search for intelligent extraterrestrial life.

As someone who is very interested in languages and linguistics, I have always wondered how we would cross that vast divide between human and alien. Alien life is likely to have little common ground with humans upon which to build a mutual understanding. On Earth, an obscure tribe with an unknown language has at least some tools with which to communicate with newcomers. There are hand gestures, shared areas of knowledge, and – most importantly – facial expressions, the ultimate universal language. Within the same species, there will always be commonalities – keys to communication built into our DNA.

But how could we possibly communicate with aliens – beings that might bear no passing resemblance to us, who may or may not have a gesturing ability that we would recognize, and whose appearance may be so foreign as to be indecipherable? Without common ground, how will we know if they are intelligent or even have a language to decode?

Read more at The Inclusive: http://theinclusive.net/article.php?id=713

Healthy Shrimp in Garlic White Wine Sauce

A lightened up version of a classic Italian recipe.  I made this for dinner yesterday and it hit the spot.  This recipe has 2/3 the calories and half the fat and saturated fat of the original dish, but it lacks nothing in flavor:

Photography: "Casa Battlò"

One of my favorite photos - taken in Casa Battlò, a house designed by Antoni Gaudí, in Barcelona.

http://fineartamerica.com/featured/casa-battlo-casey-berger.html

Photography: "View from La Alhambra"

A view from a window in La Alhambra, a beautiful palace in Granada, Spain.

http://fineartamerica.com/featured/picture-window-casey-berger.html

Photography: "Transit of Venus"

The Venus transit, taken with a Canon Rebel EOS T1i, with an ND400 filter and f/22 aperture.

Before the transit

First sighting of Venus!

The Transit of Venus

Today, we will have the opportunity to experience something that truly deserves the over-used phrase "once in a lifetime."  Venus will be passing directly between Earth and the sun and will be visible with the correct equipment.  The next time this particular phenomenon will occur will be in 2117 - 105 years in the future.  Even with all the advancements in modern medicine, it's unlikely that anyone will be around long enough to see this event twice.

Photography: "Dreamer"

Photograph of the "Free At Last" sculpture honoring Martin Luther King Jr. on Boston University's campus.

http://fineartamerica.com/featured/dreamer-casey-berger.html

NuSTAR: A 2012 Space Odyssey

It’s been an exciting month full of supermoons, solar eclipses, and black holes devouring stars. This week, there will be another exciting development, but one that is much easier to miss. However, it might lead to answering the greatest question ever encountered by humanity: how did we get here?

NASA will be holding a press conference Wednesday regarding the upcoming launch of their NuSTAR probe. NuSTAR, which stands for “Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array,” is the first orbiting telescope of its kind, built and managed by CalTech and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. It’s an X-ray telescope, which means that its mirrors are designed to reflect and focus X-rays, allowing scientists to see high-energy waves that our eyes can’t normally detect. This telescope does not emit X-rays like the machine in your doctor's office – it receives X-rays from space and reflects them using mirrors into something we can see...

Read more at The Inclusive: http://theinclusive.net/article.php?id=691

Photography: "In Memoriam"

A memorial made of blank dog tags in the North End of Boston.

Happy Memorial Day, everyone!  Today we honor those who give their lives in service to our country.

Photo available for purchase on my page at Fine Art America

Engagement Photography

Yesterday, I participated in a mock engagement photo shoot with the wedding photography company that I’m working with.  We practiced photographing a couple for an engagement shoot.  I’m quite happy with how a number of the shots came out:

The Resurgence of Sexism

A sermon, first posted on YouTube in March, recently made headlines when Fox News host Kirsten Powers protested participating in a panel on Sean Hannity's show with Reverend Jesse Lee Peterson, who delivered the sermon. Hannity serves as a member of the board of Reverend Peterson’s organization, Brotherhood Organization for a New Destiny (BOND).

The first time I saw the video of Peterson’s sermon about women’s rights, I had to walk away for a few minutes. I didn’t even know where to begin. This sermon is riddled with some of the most hateful, condescending sexism I have ever heard. As a woman in her twenties, I have been blessed to grow up in a culture that, for the most part, accepts me as a whole, functioning, and valuable member of society. I was never told as a child that I couldn’t do science or math because I was a girl. One of my friends in elementary school wanted to be the first female president and no one told her “you can’t do that.” I have been accepted and supported every step of the way. I have been called equal.

But as I’ve grown older and have experienced more, I’ve realized that sexism is far from dead. It’s not something we should sweep under the rug and pretend is a thing of the past. We need to confront people like Rev. Peterson, even if those people are unlikely to change their opinions, because the message needs to be repeated loud and clear: women are not second-class citizens... 

Read more at The Inclusive: http://theinclusive.net/article.php?id=660

Photography: "Brand New Day"

Photography: "Brand New Day"

Sun streaming through the mountains in the early morning.  Taken at a game reserve in South Africa.

Photo available for purchase on my site at Fine Art America

Black Swan Workout

Cardio Barre.

It’s a stylish workout popular with celebrities and those who mingle with celebrities out here in Los Angeles.  No doubt, it will soon be trending nationwide.

And for very good reason.

Hapless Star Devoured by Black Hole

Black holes: infinitely deep pits from which nothing can escape. They’ve captured the imaginations of scientists, writers, and the general population, and are commonly found in science fiction, pop culture, and common vernacular. But despite our interest in black holes, we actually know very little about them.

This year has been awash with tales of black holes devouring other cosmic entities. In February, NASA reported that the supermassive black hole at the center of our very own galaxy was “snacking” on asteroids. Now, researchers at Johns Hopkins have detected a supermassive black hole approximately two billion light years from us that recently swallowed an entire star.

Multidimensionality

Multidimensionality...


It's not something that is often embraced by this world that values efficiency and specialization, but it's what makes that same world so engaging and fascinating.  No one is truly one-dimensional, no matter how much they focus their energy on one or two particular talents or traits, and complexity challenges us, excites us, and teaches us.