World's First Electric Fish Choir
03.10.11
Conducting a choir is no small feat. Conducting a choir of fish is a first of its kind. Biological engineers, visual artists and composers at Northwestern University have come together to create the world’s first fish chorus. Normally silent fish from the amazon can now be heard in a project called 'scale'.
"One of the things that we really enjoy about this installation is that it is interactive, the person has a very unique experience,” Marlena Novak, MFA, a visual artist at Northwestern University told Ivanhoe.
The Black Ghost Knife Fish emits an electric field to sense its surroundings. Cables placed inside the tank pick up the field and the sound is amplified through speakers. The result? A chorus of electricity!
"What you end up with is a 12 speaker surround sound system with 12 different choir members each of which you're able to mix dynamically to create your own sound field,” Malcolm MacIver, Ph.D., a bioengineer at Northwestern University told Ivanhoe.
Source: Ivanhoe Broadcast News
A slice of convenience
03.10.11
When it comes to home baking, the idea of convenience has been kidnapped by well-meaning manufacturers who have created a culture of pre-rolled pie crust, shrink-wrapped cookie mix and frozen cudgels of bread dough.
Granted, the pie crusts do save time, and the bread dough may serve as training wheels for those tentative about dealing with yeast. (Come on, you can do it!)
But the convenience of refrigerated cookie dough is hardly modern. Our great-grandmothers knew this with their recipes for icebox cookies, as they once were called. These mostly humble treats got a boost in the 1930s when electric refrigerators became more affordable. Manufacturers trying to drum up business created recipes that required refrigeration, and icebox cookies were rechristened as refrigerator cookies.
When cookies became even more convenient - already baked and packaged! - the appearance of dough in our grocer's dairy case seemed positively homespun. All well and good, but making your own gives you greater control over ingredients, and can be way more fun, depending on what additional ingredients you want to stir in. How about chopped dried cherries, figs or apricots? Roll the tube of dough in chopped nuts, candy sprinkles or sparkling sugar. Blend in flavors such as cocoa, coconut, flavored chips, even potato chips - whatever strikes your fancy.
Source: Sacramento Bee