BioPoems and the artificial compound eye

The BioPOETS (Biomolecular Polymer Opto-Electronic Technology and Science) have announced the development of insect-like artificial compound eye technology. Surveillance cameras are a likely application of this new technique for enhancing field-of-view, or as the website explains:

This work offers a promising new paradigm for constructing miniaturized optical systems for omni-directional detection, wide field-of-view or fast motion detection.

Note that the website name is “biopoems.bekeley.edu”? Could this be a clear case of POETS in motion? Har har.

Slashdot provides some comic relief, as usual:

This will be like camera phones, but squared and then cubed.

Touareg Poems

The enigmatic Touareg people have been struggling for survival for over forty years. Drought and state repression menace their future. And from that VW names a giant SUV after them. Why?

The Germans have interesting names for their cars. The Bora is a cold, north to northeast wind that blows down from the mountains of Hungary and across the Adriatic Sea. The Passat is a tradewind and also may be an old name for a trader’s sailboat. And of course the warm desert winds that blow from Africa across the Mediterranean are known as the Scirocco. Apparently VW claims the Golf is some sort of transliteration of gulf stream currents, but that seems like a stretch to me.

Was the name “Touareg” intended to draw attention to their survival or elevate world consciousness about these people? Doubtful. That’s about as likely as Porsche trying to help Cayenne drivers learn to add a little spice to their palate. Was it the Germans making light of yet another French colonial debacle of international proportions? Nah. Marketing is probably just marketing and someone thought the Touareg (for those who have heard of them) represent strength and survival in harsh conditions; exactly the sort of thing that a soccer mom driving around suburban American can really appreciate. Hmmm, when will a car company name one of their vehicles “the soccer mom”?

Incidentally, someone recently said to me that they think cars shouldn’t be named after people at all. I agree! The “New Yorker” was a horrible name for a car and certainly did no justice to inhabitants of that fine city. In its original incarnation it was a 19 foot 5000 pound monster with a 440 cubic inch engine that burned gasoline like it would never disappear. Does that say “New Yorker” to you?

Touareg in Indigo

Alas, a web search for Touareg brings up 10,000 pointers to an automobile. Well, who knows what the impact of that will be, but I just thought I might be able to do my part and bring a little attention back to international history as well as poetry by talking about the real people here.

In brief: the Touareg (who call themselves Kel Tamsheq) live in the southern Sahara, dispersed across the borders of several countries including Algeria, Mali, Libya, and Niger. Despite this separation they share a common language apparently related to Berber. They are perhaps most known historically for establishing the north African city Timbuktu in the 10th century near the Niger river and fostering trade including scholarship, literature and books.

They were essentially tribes of caravans around the Sahara with agricultural work performed by non-Touareg serfs. Fast forward several hundred years to their fierce resistance to French colonization in the 1890s — colonial guns against swords of the nomads. The French feared them as raiders, which led to massacres of the nomadic minority. They were thus forced to sign treaties that led to oppression by the state. Their attempt to gain autonomy during the Mali independence movement in the 1960s failed and so they struggled as dislocated minorities through severe African drought in the 1970s and 1980 that devastated their livelihood. With little or no control of government, and rampant corruption, foreign aid rarely was distributed where it was needed most.

Their suffering resulted in a cultural revival and rebellion. By the start of the 1990s the Touareg attempted again to gain more autonomy in Niger and Mali through armed resistance. This led many into years of rebel training camps, imprisonment and even exile to Mauritania, Algeria and Burkina Faso. The mid-1990s, finally saw cease-fire agreements and they are apparently doing better under President Konare.

Touareg in IndigoI think. Anyway, the Touareg are said to be famous for their literature, wit and poems, especially women’s love songs, but I have had a hard time finding any examples that aren’t buried away in impenetrable ethnographic tomes. Instead I have been listening to an all-woman call-and-response group called Tartit (apparently their name means “united” or “union”). Some of the more interesting things about the Touareg traditions include the fact that despite the prevalence of Islamic influence only men wear veils. Women are also allowed to divorce and choose their own husbands. And perhaps most shocking is that men aren’t allowed to play the tinde (drum). Yes, I’m being sarcastic, although I have to admit that women drummers are rare in Western culture and almost unheard of in military/marching bands. Touareg men instead play an imzad (guitar) or tehardent (violin). Thus they appear to be a people known for wit, pride and fearlessness and the women clearly play a dominant/respected role. All this tells me that their lyrics and poetry may have some interesting insights and matrilineal perspectives that we would be wise to preserve before it is too late. My favorite song so far is Holiyane Holiyana, that is said to tell the story of a man who seduced women by advising them to beware of him. I might have botched the translation, though.

If only I could find someone who could point me to the language of the Touareg poems…perhaps next year I’ll have to attend the Festival in the Desert and sit among the indigo robes in the sand.

And if anyone’s looking for a real mind-bender, check out the MIT puzzle pages called Timbuktu. I especially like the History Lesson puzzle, which reminded me of the news about the code buried in the da Vinci ruling not to mention Scott Crosby’s infamous method of hiding DeCSS code in a news report about the DeCSS trial itself.

King Without A Crown

by Matisyahu

You’re all that I have and you’re all that I need
Each and every day I pray to get to know you please
I want to be close to you, yes I’m so hungry
You’re like water for my soul when it gets thirsty
Without you there’s no me
You’re the air that I breathe
Sometimes the world is dark and I just can’t see
With these, demons surround all around to bring me down to negativity
But I believe, yes I believe, I said I believe
I’ll stand on my own two feet
Won’t be brought down on one knee
I fight with all of my might and get these demons to flee
Hashem’s rays fire blaze burn bright and I believe
Hashem’s rays fire blaze burn bright and I believe
Out of darkness comes light, twilight unto the heights
Crown Heights burnin’ up all through till twilight
Said thank you to my God, now I finally got it right
And I’ll fight with all of my heart, and all a’ my soul, and all a’ my might

What’s this feeling? My love will rip a hole in the ceiling
I give myself to you from the essence of my being
Sing to my God all these songs of love and healing
Want Moshiach now so it’s time we start revealing

Strip away the layers and reveal your soul
Got to give yourself up and then you become whole
You’re a slave to yourself and you don’t even know
You want to live the fast life but your brain moves slow
If you’re trying to stay high then you’re bound to stay low
You want God but you can’t deflate your ego
You’re already there then there’s nowhere to go
You’re cup’s already full then its bound to overflow
You’re drowning in the water’s and you can’t stay afloat
Ask Hashem for mercy and he’ll throw you a rope
You’re looking for help from God you say he couldn’t be found
Searching up to the sky and looking beneath the ground
Like a King without his Crown
Yes, you keep fallin’ down
You really want to live but can’t get rid of your frown
Tried to reach unto the heights and wound bound down on the ground
Given up your pride and the you heard a sound
Out of night comes day and out of day comes light
Nullified to the One like sunlight in a ray,
Makin’ room for his love and a fire gone blaze

What’s this feeling? My love will rip a hole in the ceiling
Give myself to you from the essence of my being
Sing to my God all these songs of love and healing
Want Moshiach now so it’s time we start revealing

Chinese thieves fake entire company

Worried about corporate espionage? A Herald Tribute report today reveals that NEC, the entire company, was duplicated. Company investigations uncovered the length to which some counterfeiters/competitors will go — from producing branded new product release announcements right down to their business cards:

After two years and thousands of hours of investigation in conjunction with law enforcement agencies in China, Taiwan and Japan, the company said it had uncovered something far more ambitious than clandestine workshops turning out inferior copies of NEC products. The pirates were faking the entire company.

Evidence seized in raids on 18 factories and warehouses in China and Taiwan over the past year showed that the counterfeiters had set up what amounted to a parallel NEC brand with links to a network of more than 50 electronics factories in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Now, do you have less trust in NEC products because they might be fake, or do you trust them far more because they are concerned about their brand reputation/quality if not lost revenues? If nothing else it shows that the pirates think NEC is worth copying.