Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

You’re just a puppy masquerading as an old coot.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

I desperately hope that, yet again, i am wrong.

Marge, god is saying you’re stupid.

An unpunished coup is a training exercise.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

Dear media: perhaps we ought to let Donald Trump speak for himself!

Someone should tell Republicans that violence is the last refuge of the incompetent, or possibly the first.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

Hi god, it’s us. Thanks a heap, you’re having a great week and it’s only Thursday!

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

You come for women, you’re gonna get your ass kicked.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

He imagines himself as The Big Bad, Who Is Universally Feared… instead of The Big Jagoff, Who Is Universally Mocked.

Since we are repeating ourselves, let me just say fuck that.

When you’re a Republican, they let you do it.

Wake up. Grow up. Get in the fight.

They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

You are either for trump or for democracy. Pick one.

You are here: Home / Popular Culture / KULCHA! / Sunday Night Open Thread: Eigen Druk

Sunday Night Open Thread: Eigen Druk

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escher puddle via wikipedia

If you’re within range and have an afternoon free before January 5th, the M.C. Escher: Reality and Illusion exhibit at the Currier Museum of Art in Manchester, NH is well worth the visit. Escher’s fantastical imagination, graphic precision, and sense of humor shine even in the standard reproductions, but this tidy and beautifully mounted little exhibit lets you get right up close to examine the true meticulous artistry of his prints, many of them signed “eigen druk” — roughly, “by my own hand.” Given the technical intricacy of these woodcuts, mezzotints, lithographs and relief prints, many of them involving multiple plates for a single finished work, this is no small achievement!

I’ve been fond of Escher’s work since the 1960s, but I never knew that he was left-handed. That he was the son of a civil engineer, and grew up in a scientifically sophisticated family, obviously influenced his work — but a professional career using tools and work-stations “wrong way round” would certainly seem to have been a factor as well.

Reader Interactions

63Comments

  3. 3.

    Mnemosyne (iPad Mini)

    Speaking of museums, I just bought a ticket to go see the Pompeii exhibit at the California Science Center tomorrow since it closes on 1/11. I will probably go to Huntington Library on Tuesday since we’re members and I can go whenever I feel like it.
    ;-)

  4. 4.

    Mnemosyne (iPad Mini)

    Also, too, if any science-y types stop by, could one of you translate the following into layperson English for me?

    The strong correlation between ADHD and mood disorders is of particular interest to Dr. Fasmer. “We have one calculation from these data that we didn’t present, because we did it after we published the study,” he explains. “We did a logistic regression and controlled for mood disorders, in which the difference in migraine prevalence between ADHD subjects and controls disappears entirely, so we think that this association between ADHD and migraine is mediated by a mutual comorbidity in mood disorders. Of course we cannot be absolutely sure, but that is our hypothesis.”

    I’ll post a link to the original article in my next comment so you have the context, but I think it’s saying that the link between ADHD, mood disorders, and migraines may be due to the mood disorder component and not the ADHD component. Or the opposite. I can’t really tell.

  6. 6.

    Southern Beale

    I just watched 10 minutes of some show called “Undercover Boss.” I learned a) there’s a Hooter’s rip-off called Bikini’s that is probably even more sexist and douchy than Hooter’s, and b) the boss of said chain is buying his employee new boobs, provided she can stay off her phone.

    I now need to guzzle bleach and despair for America.

  9. 9.

    Major Major Major Major

    @Mnemosyne (iPad Mini): ‘comorbidity’ = a thing that tends to occur with another thing, like depression and substance abuse. ‘mutual comorbidity’ = they’re comorbid in both directions. like substance abuse is comorbid with depression and depression is comorbid with substance abuse. ‘mediated by a mutual comorbidity’ = ADHD is comorbid with mood disorders and mood disorders are comorbid with migraines.

    ETA: It’d be helpful to diagram this but i can’t use the normal arrow glyph (dash dash greater-than) ‘cuz HTML and I’m getting ready for dinner anyway sorry. But yeah basically ADHD correlates with migraines but only through the fact that it’s comorbid with mood disorders, which are comorbid with migraines. ADHD doesn’t *cause* migraines per se. Is what that’s saying.

  18. 18.

    Mnemosyne (iPad Mini)

    @GHayduke (formerly lojasmo):

    Thanks! I ended up at the article because my migraines started coming back when I got lazy about taking my Singulair and I got curious about an asthma/migraines connection. Apparently there is a connection even though I don’t have allergies, but then I came across the further connection (like Major x4, I have the quadfecta, though the depression is fortunately in remission right now). So, yes, I will be more vigilant about my asthma mess from now on. ?

  21. 21.

    grondo

    Since no one has seen fit to comment on the topic of the post, let me say I love. Love, LOVE Escher and always have. Especially the print shown in the post. Art, people – it redeems us.

  22. 22.

    mainmata

    For DC area fans and others, the Arena Stage’s “Fiddler on the Roof” is a really great production, IMHO. We treated ourselves to it for Christmas.

  23. 23.

    Roger Moore

    @Mnemosyne (iPad Mini):

    I think it’s saying that the link between ADHD, mood disorders, and migraines may be due to the mood disorder component and not the ADHD component.

    That’s correct. They’re saying that ADHD has no explanatory power for migraines if you take mood disorders into account.

  28. 28.

    Peale

    Escher? Why that’s the guy who did the pictures in Night at the museum 3! it is so good to be home with control over what I watch.

  30. 30.

    burnspbesq

    Out of curiosity, has anyone else dumped Firefox because its default search engine is now Yahoo, and if you try to change the default search engine to Google in Preferences, the change doesn’t take? Firefox 34 for Mac.

  36. 36.

    ARoomWithAMoose

    Regarding the migraine study. That’s describing a statistical correlation, not a causitive relationship. That may just indicate the underlying mood disorder and migraines are caused by something not even looked at in the study.

    You’re doing the right thing trying to identify any consistent new triggers.

    FYI, sumatriptan (imatrex) is available in pill form, if you typically have a good ramp-up time to the full-on migraine, that might be something worth seeing if you can get a script filled for before hand.

  37. 37.

    Violet

    @Mnemosyne (iPad Mini): A lot of research is going on into the gut microbiome as a mediator for those diseases. I see a doctor who specializes in treating diseases through healing the gut. He works a lot with people with specific gut ailments (IBS, colitis, etc.) but he he also works with patients with other issues. He is kind of out there in the medical community but is considered one of the “doctors of last resort” that other doctors send their patients to when traditional treatments don’t work. He’s got patients from all over the world. It’s kind of interesting to sit in his waiting room if patients get chatting and talking about why they’re there.

    Anyway, a lot of the immune and endocrine systems are mediated through the gut and he works to calm the gut down via diet, specifically targeted supplements and sometimes medications. The effect of that is that when the gut calms down, the negative cascade of hormonal events slows, the endocrine and immune systems work more as they should and patients get off their related medications.

    As the study of the human microbiome, and specifically the gut microbiome, develops, I think a lot of diseases that are currently seen as isolated and unrelated diseases will be seen to have a gut component and treating the gut will be one of the key pieces in treating them. Chronic skin diseases will be one area, endocrine and immune issues another (especially autoimmune). It’s a way off but it’s happening and there’s a ton of clinical trials in this area that are being developed or are in the pipeline.

  39. 39.

    Mnemosyne (iPad Mini)

    @ARoomWithAMoose:

    Thanks! I usually have good luck getting the migraines under control with plain ol’ Excedrin (fortunately no auras or anything like that) and they definitely lessened when they figured out I have very mild asthma and started treating that. I’ve also noticed that I tend to get “weather migraines” if there’s a sudden dip or spike in humidity, which is probably another indication they’re linked to asthma.

    In doing my research, I discovered that Singulair is associated with a dip in reported migraines by asthma patients, so I guess the PA I saw really was listening to me after all.
    ;-)

  40. 40.

    NotMax

    @efgoldman

    Try clearing Firefox cache, closing browser and reopening anew.

    If that doesn’t help, download a fresh version of the Shockwave plug-in and install that.

  41. 41.

    PurpleGirl

    @Mnemosyne (iPad Mini): It’s been a while since I was a member at any museum but it was very handy — besides being to see the art work any time, if I was shopping and needed a restroom, the museum was usually handy, or its cafe was good for mid-afternoon coffee breaks. Not working, I have the time to go to musuems but I don’t have the money for it. It’s a bummer.

  42. 42.

    Mnemosyne (iPad Mini)

    @Violet:

    What’s interesting to me is that I have asthma but virtually no allergies. They tested me for just about everything and I only showed an extremely mild reaction to mold and nothing else. So my immune system seems to be perfectly fine. That’s why I got curious about the migraine/asthma connection.

    When I keep an eye on it, the FODMAPs thing is working well. It looks as though wheat/fructans is a heartburn trigger for me, not an IBS trigger, so I’m trying not to eat that too close to bedtime. I still need to do the full-on elimination diet and then re-introduction but have been too lazy to try it so far.

  43. 43.

    Mnemosyne (iPad Mini)

    @PurpleGirl:

    The Giant Evil Corporation reimburses me for my membership, which is a very nice fringe benefit. (Only my division does it, so mum’s the word.) The Huntington is too far out to stop by at lunchtime, but it’s a nice mini-getaway when all the concrete and traffic gets to be too much:

    http://www.huntington.org

    Fun fact: Henry Huntington married his aunt (by marriage) Arabella when they were both in their 50s and they built the art and library collection together.

  44. 44.

    max

    @efgoldman: HOWEVER: I am having an awful lot of trouble with the shockwave flash plugin hanging, such that I’ve disabled it temporarily, which means no flash videos. I’m looking for another plugin that does the same thing. Anybody have any ideas?

    There is NO other plugin that does the same thing. Generally the Flash_plugin version just causes all kinds of problems with FF. So I just use flash block so flash never runs unless I want it too. (In practice, as always, I use FF for most browsing, and open Chrome when I need flash, or certain secure logins. That keeps my private stuff away from Google, but I mostly avoid the bad firefox bugs.) And no, I haven’t noticed any issues with the Google search – I never use browser search because that transmits in the open over ye old internet. I always go to the Google homepage using HTTPS but I always wipe cookies.

    @Mnemosyne (iPad Mini): In doing my research, I discovered that Singulair is associated with a dip in reported migraines by asthma patients, so I guess the PA I saw really was listening to me after all.

    To elaborate on Roger Moore’s point, mood disorders are comorbid with *everything*. The neat part is, is if you cope with the other issues it reduces the impact of the mood disorders. So yay.

    max
    [‘Blah.’]

  46. 46.

    Violet

    @Mnemosyne (iPad Mini): Allergies they can test for are not the only way to assess the health of the immune system. Do you have any autoimmune issues?

    I think I forgot to mention previously that migraines are one of the issues the doctor I mentioned has great success with via diet, etc. He can explain it pretty easily about how the hormonal system goes wonky if the gut isn’t calm and that in turn affects things that affect migraines. I know quite a few of his patients who have kept their migraines under control by following his recommendations.

  47. 47.

    Mnemosyne (iPad Mini)

    @max:

    In case I wasn’t clear, Singulair is an asthma medication, not a mood medication. I’m not on any mood medications right now (well, except that taking my ADHD meds and getting therapy helps prevent another “atypical depression,” which some doctors now want to call ADHD depression since it’s primarily a side effect of ADHD and not a “true” depression).

    But I did see reports that some asthma meds worsened migraines, so I’m glad that Singulair is reported to both help asthma AND reduce migraines. I don’t have the links at the moment, but IIRC there is a verified connection between asthma and migraines even without allergies.

    The potential mood disorders and migraine connection is intriguing since they’re both brain disorders. Chicken and egg questions start to be raised, one would think.

  48. 48.

    Mnemosyne (iPad Mini)

    @Violet:

    No autoimmune issues that I know of. There’s an interesting recent study from Monash University that basically says “gluten intolerance” doesn’t exist. Either you have an autoimmune problem that needs treatment (like Crohn’s or related disorders) or you have a FODMAPs sensitivity. Let me find the link ….

  49. 49.

    Violet

    @Mnemosyne (iPad Mini): Glad the FODMAPs is having some helpful results. It’s a pain to do, though, I’m sure. If you can figure out what your issues are, at least you can make an effort to work around them and limit problems.

  51. 51.

    Roger Moore

    @burnspbesq:

    Out of curiosity, has anyone else dumped Firefox because its default search engine is now Yahoo, and if you try to change the default search engine to Google in Preferences, the change doesn’t take?

    I don’t like that they change the preference on existing installs- if I wanted to use Yahoo, I would have changed it in my preferences already, TYVM- but I haven’t had any problems changing it back to Google on either Windows or Linux.

  52. 52.

    Anne Laurie

    @Southern Beale:

    I’ve always wanted to visit New Hampshire in January, said nobody, ever.

    Low 50s and sunny this afternoon — it might’ve been nicer in NH than in your town!

    (Of course that won’t last, but it has been a lovely week around here…except for the skiers & those whose income depends on them.)

  53. 53.

    Violet

    @Mnemosyne (iPad Mini):
    I’ve read that study. It’s specific to IBS patients, right? Intestinal issues were never my problem with gluten, outside of some minor intestinal gurgling. I had other symptoms. Have you seen studies of people without IBS issues? I did some tests eliminating fructans, but they didn’t affect me at all. It was only the gluten that seemed to be a problem.

    So the FODMAPs way of looking at this is to remove whatever food issue is causing the problem. The gut microbiome way of looking at is that the person is missing the bacteria to digest the particular food (or category of food, like in FODMAPs), and that healing the gut/providing the bacteria can help solve the problem. It’s such a new field that it’s not well understood yet, but that’s the general difference in the way of looking at it.

    There’s a ton of research going on in the area of the gut microbiome, and some actual medical treatments, like fecal transplants for patients with c.difficile inections–they’ve had great results with those. Clinical trials treating the gut of autistic children are also happening–can’t remember if those are fecal transplant or probiotic supplements. Tons of mice research with really intriguing results in the area of obesity, depression, etc. Clinical human trails are not far behind in those areas.

    I’ve personally had great results with increasing resistant starch in my diet along with probiotocs. It has enabled me to eat some gluten this holiday season and so far I’ve not had problems with it.

  54. 54.

    Anne Laurie

    @Major Major Major Major: If our experience is any prediction, you’ll be either terrified, in tears, or fighting with someone — possibly your about-to-be spouse — for the next 24-36 hours. :)

    It gets better, though!

    Totally worth the trouble, after the fact!

    (And we’d been… dating… for 15 years before the wedding, which was 21 years ago and counting.)

  56. 56.

    Violet

    @Mnemosyne (iPad Mini): I used to be able to eat seitan just fine–before I had problems with wheat, so that was years ago. At some point I started looking into stuff and gave up wehat but didn’t notice any difference, so I ate it again. When I changed my diet a year ago or so I gave up gluten. That was kind of a revelation. I’d had these niggling aches and pains and they went away. I hadn’t even thought about them and then they werre gone–THAT I noticed. If I’d accidentally eat gluten they’d come back.

    At this point based on all the reading about the gut microbiome I’ve done I’ve shifted my way of looking at it. I’m making concerted efforts to replenish certain bacteria and, like I said, I seem to have had some luck with it. I’ve eaten gluten and have had no recurrence of the niggling aches and pains that previously would show up immediately. It’s also had a beneficial efect on my sinuses. I’m fascinated by it.

  57. 57.

    wasabi gasp

    @burnspbesq: Here’s some Firefox info you may find useful. In the about:config settings, you’ll find the browser.search.showOneOffButtons setting. Toggling its value to false will bring back the old search bar.

  59. 59.

    chopper

    @Mnemosyne (iPad Mini):

    They did a statistical analysis while removing the influence of mood disorders and found that migraine prevalence was suddenly the same b/w ADHD and non-ADHD folks. This implies that comorbid mood disorders are a large controlling factor in the higher prevalence of migraine among ADHD sufferers.

  61. 61.

    Mnemosyne

    @Violet:

    My problems with wheat are all intestinal — heartburn, and it probably contributes to the alternating diarrhea/constipation that’s a hallmark of IBS. Since I’ve cut out FODMAPs, I’m having a lot fewer digestive issues. And, frankly, when you have a lot of digestive issues as I’ve had, it makes you reluctant to mess around with your digestion even more in the hope that maybe it might turn out better in the end (no pun intended). So I’m afraid my gut flora are going to need to stay as they are until there’s an actual scientific program shown to reduce the diarrhea/constipation cycle. I know you’re enthusiastic about the gut flora hypothesis, but I’m not willing to spend additional hours on the toilet at this point to test it out. Sorry.

  62. 62.

    The Very Revered Crimson Fire of Compassion

    @Mnemosyne (iPad Mini): They’re saying (and this may have been answered above by someone else–haven’t skimmed the whole thread yet [and it’s probably dead, so I’m talking to myself, but–]) that the correlation appears to be a link between mood disorders and migraines, as opposed to ADHD and migraines.

  63. 63.

    grondo

    @SiubhanDuinne: You did! Funny comic too. I think the comments went off-topic in #3 when it said “Speaking of museums” and went on to talk about something totally unrelated. Just trying to herd the cats back to Escher!

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