Howards End: Charles Wilcox (1992)
Immaculate Conception: Alistair (1992)
Tales From The Crypt: Horror In The Night- Nick Marvin (1996)
Lady Chatterley: Sir Clifford Chatterley (1993)
Adam Bede: Arthur Donnithorne (1992)
Crocodile Shoes: Ade Lynn (1994)
Tell Me That You Love Me: Michael Evans (1991)
You, Me And It: Charles Henderson (1993)
Tom's Midnight Garden: Uncle Alan Kitson (1999)
Cotton Mary: John Macintosh (1999)
WOODS WITCH (2023) Shawn C. Phillips comedy horror with trailer
Woods Witch is a 2023 American comedy horror film in which two internet bloggers take a road trip to film footage in a creepy forest. Unfortunately, they find themselves in a fight against the supernatural for more than ratings. The events to follow considerably deteriorate, spiralling the hapless adventure seekers head-on into black magic, mayhem, and murder.
Directed by Lauren Francesca and…
New findings suggest more ocelots in Texas than previously thought
Approximately 100 ocelots have been documented in South Texas.
The results of a recent DNA test on an ocelot found dead three years ago in Hidalgo County suggests there may be more of the endangered wildcats in Texas than previously thought.
Scientists studying samples collected from a male ocelot that had been killed after being hit by a car along Highway 281 in 2021, determined the feline was not only related to breeding populations in deep South Texas but also shared the same DNA as ocelots found in northeast Mexico.
It's the first time that an ocelot has been found outside of its known range in the U.S., according to Tom DeMaar, former Gladys Porter Zoo veterinarian. "It makes you wonder; how many more ocelots are hidden out there?" DeMaar, who is also a member of the board of directors for Friends of Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge, said in a statement.
Approximately 100 ocelots have been documented in South Texas between Laguna Atascosa Wildlife Refuge in Cameron County and private lands in Willacy County, according to Defenders of Wildlife, a U.S. conservation organization.
"The results suggest that this cat possibly occupies a region of South Texas not yet known to ocelot researchers," said Sharon Wilcox, senior Texas representative for Defenders of Wildlife, in a statement. "Hidalgo County may have more ocelots present in its more remote sections where appropriate habitat and access to prey exists." ...
why fish don't exist & “the eleventh word” by lulu miller
book and essay by npr journalist lulu miller on the search for order in a world of chaos. miller was inspired by the story of naturalist david starr jordan, whose collection of carefully classified and labeled fish specimens was scrambled in an earthquake in 1906. while researching his quest to rebuild his life's work she discovers surprises about his life that yield insights about her own search for order and meaning. “the eleventh word” follows her family after the onset of the covid-19 pandemic and the publication of why fish don’t exist, when her young son learns the very word “fish” that she attempts to complicate in her book.
chaos: the making of a new science by james gleick
the first popular science book on chaos theory aimed at non-physicists and non-mathematicians, published in the 1980s by science reporter james gleick. presented chronologically, chaos begins with the story of meteorologist edward lorenz's experiments with a weather simulator and expands to cover the ubiquity of chaos in fields like astrophysics, ecology, economics, geometry, and biology; as well as the ways the study of chaos has altered scientific paradigms.
"the lava lamps that help keep the internet secure" by tom scott
video in which youtuber tom scott visits the web security company cloudflare, where a camera photographs the changing patterns in a row of lava lamps to generate unpredictable values for their cryptography. in another office, a receipt printer generates outputs such as magic 8-ball responses, mazes, and sudokus from their random data.
"just randomness" by michael marder
essay in real life magazine by philosopher michael marder about ethics and algorithmic decision-making, in which he argues that algorithms should not recuse us from making fundamental decisions about justice. by trying to use randomness to create fairer systems, marder writes that we are prone to the pitfalls of perceived randomness-- particularly at the hands of the learned gender, race, and class biases absorbed by artificial intelligence.
"what does chaos theory have to do with art?" by dean wilcox
paper by culture writer dean wilcox on the connections between chaos theory in physics and image/process-driven work in art. wilcox uses the plays of robert wilson and the films of david lynch, both of which eschew predetermined narrative structures, as artistic corollaries for chaos science. for an analysis on art and entropy focusing on the work of many 1960s artists and architects, see robert smithson's "the new monuments and entropy." (thank you to @vis-uh-vis for the suggestion!)
"divination and game theory" by john henrich
short section of evolutionary biologist john henrich's book the secret of our success, which as a whole explores various ways that cultural evolution may advantage the human species. he touches on several examples of how random divination techniques, such as augury or osteomancy, are an evolutionary boon in situations where random decisions are valuable. for more thoughts see "paul the octopus' death and other thoughts on animal oracles" by alice dos reis from the dutch socio-political research project, schemas of uncertainty (many other interesting pieces here too!)
"the elusive apple of my i," "consciousness = thinking", "a courteous crossing of words," & the final pages of i am a strange loop by douglas hofstadter
a selection from cognitive scientist douglas hofstader's book on consciousness, i am a strange loop. these parts are dedicated to pondering how our coherent sense of self is established in spite of the chaotic "mass of seething and churning” at the level of cellular structures or subatomic particles. (note: brief references are made to concepts from elsewhere in the book, notably epi from ch. 7 and careenium from ch. 3 in the full text. thanks to @calliopecantaloupes for pointing me to this!)
alan watts on the myopic view of the world
lecture by theological writer and speaker alan watts on the common western perception of the universe as chaotic, alien, and unsympathetic. he explains how we might expand our "myopic" view of life, which focuses on our individual egos and voluntary actions, to see a larger order of magnitude in which the self and environment depend harmoniously on each other.