Universe 25 and The Beautiful Sink

a reply to: TEOTWAWKIAIFF

it is, she is shy, it's a reminder go out there own it you are you. You're beautiful we need you to be happy, you're the thermomet(h)er fo society. How free are we? Which flowers bloom despite all odds?

a reply to: Peeple

Lola the Bashful. I love it!

This is just funny!

Women trying to find a decent man is an eternal problem, but I think it might be a particularly acute one in Japan right now, where we seem to be in the midst of John B. Calhoun’s (1917-95) Universe 25. In the course of his studies on overpopulation Calhoun created a living environment for mice that provided unlimited food and water, but was limited in space. A group of mice developed that Calhoun dubbed “the beautiful ones,” as they lost interest in socializing and reproduction, and spent their days grooming themselves.

The “Physicatopia” exhibition at the Watari Museum of Contemporary Art by art performance collective contact Gonzo definitely has an air of unravelling masculinity about it.

The Japan Times - ‘Physicatopia’: Boys being boys.

In a review of performance art in Japan we get a quip about Universe 25. Then it gets better! The artist is not one person but a collective called, Gonzo, after Hunter S. Thompson!! Then to top it all off, the exhibit has video of them spending time at the home of the guy who invented reiki and shooting grapefruits at each other!

About the only thing more bizarre I have found is a distortion pedal called Universe 25 and at its heart is a ProCo Rat distortion pedal all modded out.

Universe has a sense of humor!

Previous studies have found that as many as a third of Americans are lonely, and that 18% of UK adults felt lonely “always” or “often”. The latest research, which collated studies in two meta-analyses, connected the issue of isolation to health and specifically to premature death.

Julianne Holt-Lunstad, a professor of psychology at Brigham Young University in Utah, presented the meta studies at a meeting of the American Psychological Association last week. The first, which involved 148 studies representing more 300,000 participants, found that greater social connection was associated with a 50% reduced risk of dying early.

A second meta-analysis took in 70 studies, representing 3.4 million people from the US, Europe, Asia, and Australia. It found that the effect of isolation, loneliness, and living alone had an effect on the risk or of dying younger equal to that of obesity.

Quartz.com - People in rich countries are dying of loneliness.

This popped up on quartz today. Peeple, I swear they read our posts and then write these stories! Notice the word, "meta"? I think it may be a hint that somebody is trying to talk to us!



Again we see what an aging population does. The "normal" social roles are pushed back to later in life. Marriage being a key indicator. The need for that institution is being questioned. As length of life increases we tend to shut the elderly off like we do with the infirmed. That leads to another form of isolation that is not really a self-seclusion but a societal one. This is the other end of the Universe 25 spectrum where the focus was on breading aged mice. This happening in humans. The study comes out of sociology so this may be something to really be aware of.

The choice is be in shape and die alone, or be fat? That is a tough one! Especially if you don't really like people to begin with and as you age end up with a forced social interaction.

They lived for two years and 20 minutes under the glass of a miniature Earth, complete with an ocean, rain forest, desert, grasslands and mangroves. Their air and water were recycled, and they grew the sweet potatoes, rice and other food they needed to survive.

About 1,500 people were invited and some 200 journalists were on hand as the eight original inhabitants of Biosphere 2 left their glass terrarium a quarter-century ago last month in two groups that no longer talked to each other amid the stress of sharing a small space and disputes over how the project should be run. Detractors called the $150 million experiment a failure because additional oxygen was pumped into what was supposed to be a self-sustaining system.

phys.org, Oct. 12, 2018 - Biosphere 2 legacy lives on more than quarter century later.

Besides a Pauly Shore movie, here is an example of what enclosed spaces can do to a even a small group of people.

The factions inside the bubble formed from a rift and power struggle between the joint venture partners on how the science should proceed, as biospherics or as specialist ecosystem studies (perceived as reductionist). The faction that included Poynter felt strongly that increasing research should be prioritized over degree of closure. The other faction backed project management and the overall mission objectives. On February 14, a portion of the Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) resigned. Time Magazine wrote: "Now, the veneer of credibility, already bruised by allegations of tamper-prone data, secret food caches and smuggled supplies, has cracked ... the two-year experiment in self-sufficiency is starting to look less like science and more like a $150 million stunt". In fact, the SAC was dissolved because it had deviated from its mandate to review and improve scientific research and became involved in advocating management changes. A majority of the SAC members chose to remain as consultants to Biosphere 2. The SAC's recommendations in their report were implemented including a new Director of Research [Dr. Jack Corliss], allowing import/export of scientific samples and equipment through the facility airlocks to increase research and decrease crew labor, and to generate a formal research program. Some sixty-four projects were included in the research program that Walford and Alling spearheaded developing.

Undoubtedly the lack of oxygen and the calorie-restricted, nutrient-dense diet contributed to low morale. The Alling faction feared that the Poynter group were prepared to go so far as to import food, if it meant making them fitter to carry out research projects. They considered that would be a project failure by definition.

In November 1992, the hungry Biospherians began eating seed stocks that had not been grown inside the Biosphere 2.

Source: Wikipedia.

I am sure that diet had a hand but it seems that the enclosed nature had more of an effect on the social aspects.

Psychosocial adaptation to isolated and confined environments exhibits 4 distinct characteristics. First, it is seasonal: Variations in mood are associated with the altered diurnal cycle and psychological segmentation of the mission. Second, it is situational: Concurrent measures of personality, interpersonal needs, and coping styles are better predictors of mood and performance than are predeployment measures. Third, it is social: Members of expeditions with low social coherence report significantly more depression, anxiety, and anger than individuals belonging to expeditions with high social coherence. Fourth, it is salutogenic: Depressed mood is inversely associated with the severity of the physical environment of the station, and the winter-over experience is associated with reduced subsequent rates of hospital admissions, suggesting positive benefits for individuals seeking challenging experiences.

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov - The psychology of isolated and confined environments. Understanding human behavior in Antarctica.

And that is access to open areas and a known end date! Then there are stories of lots of sex happening.

Seems we are not much different that U25 when it comes to enclosed spaces.

originally posted by: TEOTWAWKIAIFF

... it is social: Members of expeditions with low social coherence report significantly more depression, anxiety, and anger than individuals belonging to expeditions with high social coherence.

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov - The psychology of isolated and confined environments. Understanding human behavior in Antarctica.

And that is access to open areas and a known end date! Then there are stories of lots of sex happening.

Seems we are not much different that U25 when it comes to enclosed spaces.

Doesn't it remind you of the format for a good majority of TV reality shows - throw a group of strangers into a house/island, stick cameras on them 24/7 and just watch the sparks fly and the "lots of sex happening"?

Treating people like U-25 rats is perhaps the new throwing Christians to the lions in populist entertainment (I am wondering if that should be pronounced enter-trainment).