Animator. Director. Artist. Scapegoat.
This very short, very concise, very understandable article by Rich Bailey is probably the best popular introduction to me and my copyright/copyleft issues. First published by the Epoch Times, I re-post it below.
Continue reading “My Copyright Story In A Nutshell”
I was neither prepared nor in a particularly good mood when I did this “webinar” for Agora I/O. It was eerie having a “conversation” in which I could neither see nor hear the other participants. It was just me and my own voice, with questions and comments occasionally popping up in text on another webpage. Because of that, I couldn’t read anyone’s body language and try to pre-emptively smooth things over and “people please”; I could only speak my mind. Which I did. Which, upon reviewing, was a pretty great thing. You may not like me, but I sure do!
The fun starts about 8 minutes in, and gets better as it goes along. If you know about my story and Sita Sings the Blues, you can skip what comes before that, which is a basic recap.
A few weeks ago I ran this comic at Mimi & Eunice:
I’ve long suspected that soy sauce could contain only small traces of wheat, so I did a little online research. Surprisingly, I found only one item that addressed the gluten content of soy sauce directly, and found it contains none at all:
Gluten analysis of two popular soy sauces
We sent a sample of soy sauce of the brands Kikkoman and Lima to an external laboratory to determine gluten levels. In both samples the gluten content was below detection limit of 5ppm (see report). According to a new European legislation, which will only be fully implemented in 2012, gluten-free foodstuffs should contain less than 20 ppm gluten. The FDA also proposes a limit of 20 ppm. This means that our two tested products may be considered as gluten-free soy sauce. link
The article contains a link to a lab report which appears to be Belgian. It’s strong evidence, but celiac organizations are still claiming soy sauce contains gluten, which leads trolls to leave furious comments at mimiandeunice.com and my Facebook page for daring to suggest otherwise.
I’d like to clear up the soy sauce confusion once and for all. A Belgian lab report makes one data point, but more data points are needed, especially because these substances may differ between the US and Europe. What I’d like is an analysis of several brands of American soy sauce, both conventional shoyu (derived from wheat ingredients) and “gluten-free” tamari. Also both fancy health food store brands, and cheap run of the mill supermarket kinds. What would really be helpful is a brand-by-brand chart the wheat-sensitive could refer to.
So, is there an analytic chemist in the house? A chemistry grad student? A biochem hacker space with time and resources on their hands? I’m certainly not a chemist, but if you produce such a report you’ll have my undying gratitude and whatever publicity I and Mimi & Eunice can muster. Also, you’d be doing good for the world.
Continue reading “Analytic Chemist Needed”
I just finished #3 in my 4 Elements quilt series.
This tapestry is a lot more colorful and contrasty than the others. It uses that “trapplique” technique I posted about before – that piece was a study for this one. Continue reading “Fire/Burnt Offering”
If you’re a librarian, and against DRM (and what librarian isn’t?) then please use these images which I made for The Readers Bill of Rights for Digital Books. Here’s another one:
More here.
I will be talking about Spirals: Fluid Dynamics in Tibetan Art, at the Rubin Museum’s “Artists on Art” series. We’ll look at a few paintings and a sculpture that have really cool spirally flames and clouds, and swirly water, and I’ll say intelligent things like, “Look! Spirals! Aren’t they neato?” Details:
Friday March 4, 6:15 pm
Program meets at the base of the spiral staircase.
Rubin Museum of Art
150 W. 17th St.
New York, NY 10011
And it’s FREE!