Substrate

A living collection of notes, ideas, and reflections from Doug Belshaw.

notes

Yamabushi AI artworks

I lreally like this artwork, generated by Richard Nadler, which I discovered via Are.na. So I went looking formore information t and discovered it's part of a series. More here.

Yamabushi are revered as mountain priests or ascetic hermits in Japan, devoutly following the ancient traditions of Shugendō. This spiritual practice intertwines elements of Buddhism, Shintoism, and the indigenous worship of mountains. The very name "yamabushi" itself translates to "those who find solace in the mountains."

notes

The arbuscular mycorrhizal network is literally cool

I knew mitochondrial networks were interesting, but this is next level.

Using machine learning models, [scientists have] estimated that worldwide, the arbuscular mycorrhizal network stretches for 110 quadrillion kilometers, almost a billion times the distance from Earth to the sun. (Scoop up just a teaspoon of soil and you might find 10 meters of fungal strands.) Every year, these fungi shuttle around 4 billion metric tons of carbon, equal to 11 percent of humanity’s CO2 emissions.

notes

Mountains at Saint-Rémy

I don't think I've seen this painting before, but I really like it.

From the Guggenheim website:

During the years preceding his suicide in 1890, Vincent van Gogh suffered increasingly frequent attacks of mental distress, the cause of which remains unclear. Mountains at Saint-Rémy was painted in July 1889, when Van Gogh was recovering from just such an episode at the hospital of Saint-Paul-de-Mausole in the southern French town of Saint-Rémy. The painting represents the Alpilles, a low range of mountains visible from the hospital grounds. In it, Van Gogh activated the terrain and sky with the heavy impasto and bold, broad brushstrokes characteristic of his late work.