I'm not dead yet.

It seems that despite the hushed silence in the media on the topic, bird flu is still a living threat. The folks at Xerox Parc seem to think so. They are having a forum on it tomorrow night. But the speaker, Dr. Harry Greenberg, is working on a vaccine. Let's hope the Virus stays quiet until we are all safely inoculated. I don't think H5N1 has as many potential positives as Hebbets.

Fact is Fiction

I just received a comment on one of my posts about the "New American Starling". Seems that life imitates art. The Main Street Museum at White River Junction in Vermont is also thinking about the Eurpean Starling population here in the America's and wondering if it should be called the "American Starling".

The only question is, what kind of museum is the Main Street Museum? Perhaps I could join their collection...?

related links:
Utilities of Fiction
Sturnus vulgaris

Technorati Flockorati

You should now be able to add The Flocking Party to your blog favorites in Technocrati.
Technorati Profile

Portrait of Arpa

Portrait of Arpa
Originally uploaded by flockingparty.

A portrait of Arpa that Frank drew. His infection was very deveoped at this point, so the drawing has some strange qualities.

Avian Brain

Avian Brain
Originally uploaded by flockingparty.

A model of an infected avian brain. This brain is from a pigeon infected with Hebbets.

Flight Analysis

Flight Analysis
Originally uploaded by flockingparty.

Another of Frank's drawings. Here, his artificial arm is enabling him to mimic traditional drawing mediums on his electronic notebook. He is examining bird flight fm a video.

Kathy taking care of Arpa

Kathy taking care of Arpa
Originally uploaded by flockingparty.

Kathy is really taken with this silent sparrow. He broke his wing and the lab took him in. Outside, you can see his flock swarming around. They want to stay with him. Very unusual.

Radio Protein Aggregation

Radio Protein Aggregation
Originally uploaded by flockingparty.

This a radio protein aggregation. It develops in the organic structures of the neural circuitry, but is very crystaline. We call this crystaltration.

Bird Brains

Bird Brains
Originally uploaded by flockingparty.

Here is another view of the pigeon brain from a rotating model in Frank's electronic journal.

Traffic Stream Cloverleaf

Traffic Stream Cloverleaf
Originally uploaded by flockingparty.

The traffic stream hums with autodrive. Frank looks through the lens of an eletromagnetic spectral analyzer to see birds that are producing radio signals.

Starling Skin

Starling Skin
Originally uploaded by flockingparty.

This is one of Frank's drawings from his electronic notebook. Here, he's analyzing a starling skin.

Hebbet Protein Binding

Hebbet Protein Binding
Originally uploaded by flockingparty.

These are binding simulations of the Hebbets virus. Hebbets has the ability to recombine in many different ways.

Starling as Trickster

Starling as Trickster
Originally uploaded by flockingparty.

A page from Frank's journal. Here, he is taking notes about starlings. Their behavior since they were infected with hebbets has caused a lot of concern. He likes to think of them as tricksters.

Ion Modulation Scan

Ion Modulation Scan
Originally uploaded by flockingparty.

This is a view from the IMS, or Ion Modulation Scanner, which produces stunningly accurate images of electromagnetic transmissions and reflections.

Maya Loops

Maya Loops
Originally uploaded by flockingparty.

PhD candidate, Janet Fu, is working on what she calls Maya Loops. these perceptual mechanisms in the brain can be augmented with Hebbet proteins, adding a great deal of associative capacity.

Crazy Transmissions

Crazy Transmissions
Originally uploaded by flockingparty.

Crazy Lucy has an idea about how signals are being transmitted between sparrows.

Silent Sparrow Flight

Silent Sparrow Flight
Originally uploaded by flockingparty.

A video that Frank took to draw from. He wants to know if their behavior is changed by their Hebbets infection.

Infected Neuron

Infected Neuron
Originally uploaded by flockingparty.

This neuron is infected with Hebbets, a virus, which produces crystalline formations of recombinant proteins. The crystalline structure actually adds associative capacity to each neuron and often between neurons.

Flocking Sound Algorithm

Flocking Sound Algorithm
Originally uploaded by flockingparty.

Frank created this algorithm that will produce posthebbet starling calls. It randomly samples from a series of waves to create it's unique mix.

Hebbets Phylogeny

Hebbets Phylogeny
Originally uploaded by flockingparty.

Over the seven years that this phylogeny encompasses, Hebbets has mutated into a number of breathtaking forms. It's orginal host species, the zebra finch, was actually the subject species for a series of tests that were being done with protein computing.

Starling Specimens

Starling Specimens
Originally uploaded by flockingparty.

Starling skins that Frank was drawing.

Pre and Post Hebbets Calls

Pre and Post Hebbets Calls
Originally uploaded by flockingparty.

After starlings were infected with Hebbets, their calls changed. They are able to mimic other sounds unlike ever before. Did you know that starlings are natural mimics. You can have them as pets and they will learn to talk like parrots.

Hebbet Binding Simulation (Rigid)

Hebbet Binding Simulation (Rigid)
Originally uploaded by flockingparty.

This particular model is good for studying Hebbets strains that produce robust and inflexible proteins. Large gaps often form between crystaltrations. This provides room for other aggregations in the future, as the bird learns.

Hebbet and Starling viral spread

Hebbet and Starling viral spread
Originally uploaded by flockingparty.

Hebbets followed a very similar grow pattern to its host species' owninvsive growth pattern.

The Landa Brothers

The Landa Brothers
Originally uploaded by flockingparty.

This is Frank and Calvin Landa. They are researching birds that are infected with the Hebbets virus in the lab of Dr Harp at the University of Michigan.

Have a Flocking Party! (interactive cinema)

Do you feel alone on the Internet? Well, pine no more!

HAVE A FLOCKING PARTY!

It's easy, here's how:

Steps
1. Place a (now very affordable) LCD projector on the floor facing a large open wall. move it as far back as it can go so that you can still get around behind it.

2. Plug in your favorite media: educational software, multi-linear narrative, the Internet, or maybe even a movie.

3. Sit as a group around the projected light, like a flock of geese so that no one is blocking the projection. You can sit more than one row deep, if you have a large group.

4. All participants can reach into the light to create shadows to point out where they want to go. The leader of the flock will use the mouse to navigate based on the group's preference.



Tips
-Instead of pointing with your finger (especially if you are sitting three-deep), make some eye-safe pointers. Get some thin poles and wrap a bit of foam around either end. You can customize your shadow icon so that people know who's who while looking at the screen. Be sure to wrap extra foam around the back end of the pole so that you don't poke anyone's eye out.

-set out mats for people to sit on (these are "nests")

-Just a like flock of geese, the leader never lasts long. You should periodically switch the leader (who is using the mouse). You might govern this by being very picky about their leadership skills.

-Keep the volume at a level, which people can still discuss the content cloud you're surfing.

-Wear bird costumes for all I care.

(I would love for other people to post some comments and suggestions about this.)

Laws of Unintended Consequence

From The Flocking Party p2:
"The Hebbets virus changed the world as much as the assembly line or the introduction of human culture. It did not take long for its presence to be felt, but few realized the positive impact it would have."

Catch 22: Out of the Nest and into the Sickbed

From The Flocking Party p4:
"It was a Catch 22, as you might say. On one hand, humans could not afford to have the birds overwhelm other species or their transportation systems, but on the other, destroying species could be ecologically disasterous. The fact that Hebbets infected birds was especially forboding to humans. Many of them remembered the plague that a similar virus had caused just after the turn of the Century.

Birds with Hebbets had the ability to communicate and organize themselves in ways they had never done before. Like throughout much of history, humans underestimated the potential force this carried."

New Native Species

From The Flocking Party p7:
"Tests, conducted in the 2020's by the DBD, showed that New World european starlings, when mated with Old World european starlings, produced fertile offspring only 3% of the time. Hence, they were considered a "new native" species and renamed "American" starlings."

Infected Starlings: Invasive Species

From The Flocking Party p8:
"When starlings were introduced to North America, the epicenter of starling population explosion was New York City. This growth did not slow until during the Environmental Reconstruction Period. A new pattern of starling density emerged from Detroit in 2028, when Hebbets was introduced. This led to highly successful breeding and foraging capacities for the starlings. Their distribution is evidence that they were also relying on humans to do so well. In 2034 their distribution begins to form large looping patterns. We call these geoloops. They help the flow of information throughout the species."

Ecocapitalist Information Control

From The Flocking Party p10:
"Environmental history was not taught to a great degree in public schools after the Reconstruction Period. The Prudicial Council wished to control this information. All that Frank learned was likely gained from material that his parents or Doctor Harp gave him or that he hunted down.

The Prudicial Council did not want people so informed; they were more likely to resist their environmental policies. The Council, along with the corporate network, reaped the benefits of ecocapitalism, while citizens did what they were told. Submersion in their entertainment media perhaps explains why they did not recognize this problem. By being less involved in policy decisions, people grew complacent about the environment once again."

Environmental Reconstruction Period

From The Flocking Party p11:

"During the Environmental Reconstruction Period the Prudicial Council was formed to be responsible for the business of reconstructing the ravaged environment. This required many changes in perceptions across the planet. A great deal of social engineering made this possible. Their primary method of changing perception was through the appropriation of the media industries.

The Council, despite early protests, redivided the political bodies of the world according to watersheds.
Previous national boundaries remained in place artificially to make the political transition more reasonable. Full implementation of the new boundaries was expected by 2040. In the interim some watersheds were divided amongst different countries as you can see of New Mexico, New Canada, Michigan, and others.

The motivation behind the watersheds was containment. Local environmental knowledge was to be kept inside of the ecological boundaries where it would be most relevant. The media industries were reconfigured to accommodate information distribution in particular watersheds.

Certain information was allowed to migrate beyond the watershed boundaries, but only through highly regulated channels. The most highly regulated was environmental research."