Flânerie

phenergy:

In the first chart I’ve plotted 20 years of Philippine electricity sales data through 2010. The trends are linear (with an R2 value of 0.97). But I’ve plotted these on a logarithmic scale so you can appreciate the movement in growth rates.

A liner trend, of course, implies decreasing annual growth rates. And the second chart makes this explicit. After the 1991/92 blackouts, sales zoomed in the mid-1990’s. And the annual increases have slowed in the past decade.

But note Residential sales compared with Industrial. In early 1990s, Industrial sales exceeded Residential, nationwide. But Residential has caught up. Residential has been growing much faster than Industrial.

I defer to those steeped much deeper in socio-economic sciences than I to elaborate further on that.

futurejournalismproject:

Holy Texts

Meg Hitchcock creates collages using thousands of letters cut out from books both sacred (eg., the Torah) and profane (eg., The Satanic Verses),

Via Meg Hitchcock:

In my text drawings I deconstruct the word of God by cutting letters from sacred writings and rearranging them to form a passage from another holy book. I may cut letters from the Bible and reassemble them as a passage from the Koran, or use letters cut from the Torah to recreate an ancient Tantric text. The individual letters are glued to the paper in a continuous line of type, without spaces or punctuation, in order to discourage a literal reading of the text. By bringing together the sacred writings of diverse traditions, I create a visual tapestry of inspired writings, all pointing beyond specifics to the universal need for connection with something greater than oneself.

The labor-intensive aspect of my work is a meditation practice as well as a personal form of devotion. My long history in evangelical Christianity formed my core beliefs about God and transcendence, and continues to influence my creative work. I no longer follow a traditional spiritual path, and vehemently eschew all religious leanings. However, I have great respect for an individual’s spiritual beliefs and experiences, and my work is a celebration of that sacred experience.

H/T: Collossal (Click through for more images).

alecshao:

Kate MccGwire, Brood, 2004, 23,000 chicken wishbones

Via the American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language (emphasis supplied):

fa·çade also fa·cade (fə-säd)
n.

1. The face of a building, especially the principal face.
2. An artificial or deceptive front: ideological slogans that were a façade for geopolitical power struggles.

[French, from Italian facciata, from faccia, face, from Vulgar Latin *facia, from Latin faciēs; see dhē- in Indo-European roots.]