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November 30, 2005
Koko settles out of court
Koko, the signing gorilla with a nipple fetish settles out of court, reports Court TV
Two women who claimed they were pressured to show their breasts to Koko, the famous gorilla who communicates with humans through sign language, have dropped their sexual harassment lawsuit after reaching a settlement agreement earlier this week.
via Mike Jay
Former gorilla caretakers Nancy Alperin and Kendra Keller asked for more than $1 million in damages in their sexual discrimination and wrongful termination suit filed in February against the Gorilla Foundation — the Woodside, Calif. nonprofit charged with Koko's care — and Dr. Francine Patterson, the foundation's president and Koko's primary caretaker
...
"Patterson would interpret certain hand movements made by Koko as a 'demand' to see exposed human nipples," their suit alleged. "[Patterson] made it known to Keller and Alperin that if [they] did not indulge Koko's nipple fetish, their employment with the Gorilla Foundation would suffer."
Both women claimed they refused to show Koko their nipples.
...
Both sides entered into settlement discussions in August, preempting the filing of an amended complaint by the women, which would have gone into greater detail about Koko's alleged nipple fetish and sexually aggressive behavior.
Posted by Mark at 10:56 AM | Comments (0)
What do you want to build today?
How a favourite sci-fi fantasy is becoming a reality
Jimmy Lee Shreeve in The Independent 30 Nov 05
One of the most intriguing devices featured in Star Trek was the replicator. It could copy the molecules of any given object and store them in a massive database. Whenever Captain Kirk or his crew needed anything - such as an authentic Old West revolver (if they happened to be travelling back in time) - the replicator would produce a shiny new copy of the desired item. While such a sophisticated device is probably not likely to appear for a couple of hundred years or more, the fact is, everything has to start somewhere. And the very beginnings of replicators are being developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Center for Bits and Atoms (CBA).
Called "fab labs" (short for fabrication laboratories), the devices cannot yet assemble things from their component atoms, but can be used to make just about anything with features bigger than those of a computer chip.
"The fab lab is a really early prototype of a personal replicator," says Sherry Lassiter, CBA's programme manager. "The fab lab can't push molecules around, but it can do maybe 10 per cent of what a personal replicator might do."
In essence, the fab lab - more formally known as a "personal fabrication system" - is a small package of tools and software that functions as a complete design and manufacturing workshop. All the components are easy to use and allow almost anyone, including people in remote African villages who may never have seen a computer or sophisticated machine tools before, to manufacture a surprisingly wide range of items. A typical fab-lab system includes a laser cutter, a vinyl cutter (normally used for making signs but used in fab labs to cut copper for electrical circuits), and a milling machine to make circuit boards. All are connected to Linux-based computers loaded with open-source design and manufacturing software.
A fab-lab system currently costs around $20,000 (£11,570). But its inventor, the top MIT physicist and CBA director Dr Neil Gershenfeld, predicts that fab-lab prices will follow the path of PCs. With volume production, these advanced DIY systems could drop by half to $10,000 and then possibly to $1,000, making them accessible to nearly anyone. "In the end, fabrication [systems] will be just like PCs - just technology that people have," he says.
For Gershenfeld, the primary benefit of fab-lab systems is they have the potential to be empowering, especially in rural, developing communities. He says: "By personal fabrication, what I mean is ordinary people creating, rather than consuming, technology, creating technology to solve local problems."
This vision is no pipe-dream. It has already turned into reality across the globe. Students at Vigyan Ashram science school near the village of Pabal in India, for example, used Gershenfeld's technology to help local dairy farmers. The farmers' income is tied to the level of fat in their cows' milk, so the students used a fab-lab system to develop a sensor to give a precise measure of the fat content. They are also creating equipment that tunes diesel engines to run more efficiently, particularly with local bio-fuels. In Takoradi, Ghana, fab labs have been used to produce a cassava grinder, jewellery, car parts, agricultural tools, and communication equipment such as radio antennae. In the works are solar-energy collectors to turn the country's near-constant sunlight into power for cooking, cutting and refrigeration. To the north, in the cooler climes of Norway, Sami animal herders are using fab labs to make radio collars and wireless networks to track their animals.
In the urban environment, 13-year-old Makeda Stephenson from Boston, Massachusetts, dissatisfied with the flight-simulator games sold in computer shops, used a local fab-labs project to build her own - one that would let her "fly" an aeroplane of her design over an alien planet born entirely of her own imagination. "It's different if you make it yourself," she says. "It's more personal."
For the next generation of fab labs, Gershenfeld hopes to include a rapid-prototyping machine, a device that is already becoming common in industry. In some ways, such devices are similar to ink-jet printers. The difference is that they create three-dimensional "images" from computer models, laying down layer upon layer of plastic, powdered metal, or other material, until the image becomes reality. Overnight, for example, they can create the shell of a cellular phone. In the long run, by combining plastics and metal circuitry, rapid prototyping machines are expected to deliver a working cellphone - or pretty much any other similar gadget.
The concept isn't limited to small consumer products, though. In his book, Fab: The Coming Revolution on your Desktop - From Personal Computers to Personal Fabrication (Basic Books 1995), Gershenfeld reports on initiatives to develop large, mobile printers that squirt concrete for "printing" a building or bridge. Larry Sass, an MIT professor of architecture, is already developing a fab-lab system for constructing simple, customised houses from plywood panels, costing roughly $2,000 (£1,160).
Soon, Gershenfeld plans to offer fab labs that can reproduce themselves over and over again, creating waves of successively cheaper systems, eventually making them affordable for all. A fab lab in every home could have a dramatic impact on today's throwaway culture. When a home-made appliance or toy breaks, for example, a fab lab would be able to disassemble it and either rebuild it or recycle the materials. Gershenfeld is not naive enough to image fab labs will replace mass production - not in the short term, anyway. But he does believe that, within the next few years, they will allow growing numbers of individuals and businesses to customise products to fit their needs.
Some people, however, are sceptical about the sustainability of fab labs. The devices are relatively inexpensive to create, and so far MIT pays the start-up costs. But after a year or so, the labs are on their own. The ultimate goal is for the labs to be financially self-sustaining.
To that end, Gershenfeld has met people from the World Bank, the US National Academies, and the World Economic Forum, about funding. Although they like the idea of the fab lab, they all say it doesn't quite fit into their agendas. "It's an animal the likes of which hardly anyone has seen," says Michael Jensen, the director of web communications at the National Academies. As far as he and the other organisations are concerned the project is far too speculative.
Gershenfeld, though, has thought up a solution: to create a different kind of funding organisation, "somewhere between philanthropic aid, basic research, and business development". But fab labs, Gershenfeld stresses, are research experiments and are still very much works in progress.
Whether fab labs will take off in a big way only time will tell. But a New Jersey start up, eMachineShop.com, has seized the commercial initiative and is using the fab-labs model to make it possible for anyone, anywhere in the world, to design their own item and get it built and delivered directly to their door. The process is simple and straightforward: you download the free Computer Aided Design (CAD) software, then create a 3D model of the item you require. If you've never used CAD before, the help wizards are extensive enough to get even the most technophobic designing objects within 20 minutes or so. Once satisfied with your creation, you click to get a price for manufacture and delivery. If you're happy with it, you place your order online.
The US journalist Clive Thompson, a guitar player since his teens, decided to use eMachineShop.com to create a unique guitar body. Although he had no experience in design, he soon managed to come up with what he describes as "a curvy, amoeba-like adaptation of a [Gibson] Flying V guitar", made out of acrylic (because eMachineShop.com didn't stock wood thick enough). After accepting the $880 quote and hitting the "Place Order" button, Thompson eagerly awaited delivery. But when the finished product arrived he had mixed feelings - his design abilities had fallen short. "I'd made the guitar body far thicker than I should have, [which made it] much heavier than a conventional guitar," he says. Thompson also noticed he'd made other design errors. "I'd forgotten to round the corners on all sides of the guitar, so the back part looks like a table-top." But once he'd attached the pick-ups, neck and strings - and all importantly, plugged it into an amplifier - Thompson thundered out a powerchord, and his feelings changed.
"For all its imperfections, my creation looks... less a straight-ahead guitar than a piece of mildly psychedelic Soviet machinery. Maybe this is the appeal of the fab-lab revolution: When you create something from scratch, even the flaws are charming."
As Gershenfeld says, "Fab is about making the things you can't find at Wal-Mart. It's stuff for a market of one."
The birth of Fab
* The idea for fab labs was sparked by a course called How to Make (Almost) Anything at MIT's Center for Bits and Atoms (CBA), which the fab labs inventor, Dr Neil Gershenfeld, heads.
* Gershenfeld saw the class as a how-to exercise for engineering students. They would get to experiment with CBA's multimillion-dollar range of machinery and tools - the grandfather of fab labs.
* The first class met in 1998, and Gershenfeld was astonished to find that it consisted of as many aspiring artists and architects as it did of engineers.
* Another surprise came when he discovered why most students wanted to take the course: "They were motivated by the desire to make things they'd always wanted but that didn't exist."
MIT's Centre for Bits and Atoms fab labs project
Posted by Mark at 10:48 AM | Comments (0)
November 28, 2005
Scientology's (once) Secret Bunker
Situated about 200km East of Albuquerque, New Mexico lies the small town of Trementina.
And deep inside a mesa not far from here, engraved into stainless steel tablets encased which are then in titanium capsules, are the complete works of L Ron Hubbard and the Church of Scientology...
A Washington Post article reveals all, while you can zoom in on the site, complete with the evocative ground markings you can just make out here, and a convenient runway, at Terraserver.
Via Boing Boing
Posted by Mark at 09:26 PM | Comments (0)
November 22, 2005
'Play On' at the Royal Institution
Monday 28 November 2005
7.00pm-9.00pm
The Royal Institution, 21 Albemarle Street, London, W1S 4BS. Tel 0 20 7409 2992
Tickets £8, £5 members & Concessions
Play on: a journey into the mystery of song
With Prof Steven Mithen , Evan Parker , Prof David Rothenberg , David Toop
The propensity to make music is perhaps the most mysterious, wonderful and neglected feature of humankind and it is a skill we share with, among others, our feathered friends. But just how similar are Bach’s Fugues or the tunes of Lennon and McCartney to the call of a starling or the song of a lark? Why, when humans have language, are our emotions, mind and indeed body so stirred by music, and why do birds sing?
The ‘music instinct’ is far more ancient than previously suspected, and neanderthals and birds may have been jamming before they were talking. But why do humans and birds converge on the same acoustic and aesthetic choices and why do babies respond to musical sound? Do the so-called musical sounds created by birds serve only a biological function or do they sing for the same reason humans do: because they can, and because they must? Together with legendary saxophonist Evan, Steve and David R will bring these ideas and songs to life and delve deep into some of the oldest music on earth. This event will be chaired by musician, writer and curator of sound, David Toop.
Posted by Mark at 01:22 PM | Comments (0)
November 18, 2005
Oldest map fragment found
(OK, this is old, but nowt compared to the apparent 4800-yr-old "Moon map" of the Knowth passage mound in Ireland...)
From the Daily Telegraph
The oldest map of anywhere in the western world, dating from about 500 BC, has been unearthed in southern Italy. Known as the Soleto Map, the depiction of Apulia, the heel of Italy's "boot", is on a piece of black-glazed terracotta vase about the size of a postage stamp.
The map details the Puglia region of southern Italy
It was found in a dig led by the Belgian archaeologist Thierry van Compernolle, of Montpellier University, two years ago. But its existence was kept secret until more research was carried out.
"The map offers, to date, for the Mediterranean, and more generally for western civilisation, the oldest map of a real space," the university said recently.
Its engraved place names are indicated by points, just as on maps today, and are written in ancient Greek.
The sea on the western side, Taras (Taranto), today's Gulf of Taranto, is named in Greek. But the rest of the map is in Messapian, the ancient tongue of the local tribes, although the script is ancient Greek.
The seas on either side of the peninsula, the Ionian and the Adriatic, are depicted by parallel zig-zag strokes.
Many of the 13 towns marked on the map, such as Otranto, Soleto, Ugento and Leuca (now called Santa Maria di Leuca) still exist.
The map went on public display for the first time this week in the Archaeological National Museum of Taranto.
Apart from being the oldest geographical map from classical antiquity ever found, it is the first material proof that the ancient Greeks were drawing maps of real places before the Romans.
It was known from ancient Greek literature that the concept of a map existed and that some had been drawn but none had been found.
The ancient Chinese had a well-defined system of map-making, but modern cartography descends from techniques laid down by the ancient Greeks.
Most existing classical maps are Roman and date from the period after Christ's birth.
Experts have suggested that the discovery demands not only a reconsideration of the beginnings of ancient cartography, but also of regional history, in particular that of relations between the local population of the Messapian tribes with their neighbours, the Greeks.
The Soleto map also gives vital new clues to the cultural exchange between the newly arrived Greeks and the Messapi.
They lived in the area but probably came originally from Greece as their language is believed to be a dialect of Illyrian.
The Soleto map is a contemporary of the Greek mathematician Pythagoras, who set up a philosophy school in Crotone, now Calabria, on the other side of the Gulf of Taranto.
His hypothesis that the Earth was round, developed after observing that the height of stars was different at different locations and noticing how ships appeared on the horizon, formed the basis of modern map making.
Posted by Mark at 11:04 AM | Comments (0)
US grants antigravity patent
Antigravity craft slips past patent officers
By Philip Ball, in Nature 438, 139 (10 November 2005)
'Impossible' device gets seal of approval.
The US patent office has granted a patent on a design for an antigravity device — breaking its own resolution to reject inventions that clearly defy the laws of physics.
This is not the first such patent to be granted, but it shows that patent examiners are being duped by false science, says physicist Robert Park, watchdog of junk science at the American Physical Society in Washington DC. Park tracks US patents on impossible inventions. "The patent office is in deep trouble," he says.
"If something doesn't work, it is rejected," insists Alan Cohan, an adviser at the patent office's Inventors Assistance Center in Alexandria, Virginia. And when something does slip through, he says, the consequences are not significant: "It doesn't cause any problems because the patent is useless."
But Park argues that patenting devices that so blatantly go against scientific understanding could give them undeserved respectability, and undermine the patent office's reputation. "When a patent is awarded for an idea that doesn't work, the door is opened for sham."
Full story over at Nature
Posted by Mark at 10:29 AM | Comments (0)
US Govt loosens its grip on Steven Kurtz
At last some good news in the bizarre and frightening case of Steven Kurtz.
Kurtz is an artist and professor at the University of Buffalo in New York State. In May 2004 he was arrested on grounds of being a possible blological terrorist threat, when police, called to his home after his wife suffered a fatal heart attack, found several petri dishes containing bacteria that he used in his artwork and teaching and deemed them to be suspicious...
Full FAQ here
ARTIST RELEASED FROM PRETRIAL SUPERVISION OVER DOJ OBJECTIONS
Supervisor requests release, prosecution attempts to block
Buffalo, NY - Artist and University at Buffalo professor Steven Kurtz has been released from pretrial supervision despite strong objections from US Department of Justice prosecutor William Hochul.
Kurtz's case has not yet gone to trial and motions for its dismissal are pending, but until last week the artist was subject to random house searches and drug tests, was limited in his ability to travel, and had to report regularly to a probation officer. (See "Summary of Case" below for background.)
Last week, arguing that there was no hint of criminality or risk of flight, Zenaida Piotrowicz, Kurtz's pretrial supervisor, motioned a federal court to release Kurtz from supervision. Despite vigorous and exceptional objections by Department of Justice prosecutor Hochul, Magistrate Judge Kenneth Schroeder agreed there was no reason not to release Kurtz on his own recognizance to await trial.
Kurtz's Defense Committee believes that the prosecutor's unusual and fierce opposition to the pretrial supervisor's motion to release Kurtz from probation is yet another example of the extreme prejudice with which the Department of Justice has approached the case. The Defense Committee believes the case in fact represents a deliberate attempt to intimidate and silence artists and scholars critical of US government policy, and that the DOJ's extreme prejudice is further suggested by the following facts:
* This is the first time the Department of Justice has ever tried to prosecute the alleged breaking of a material transfer agreement as federal mail fraud. In the prosecution's radical interpretation of mail fraud law, incorrectly filling in a warranty card would be grounds for federal criminal prosecution. Last July, at a hearing on the case, Magistrate Judge Kenneth Schroeder noted that such an interpretation would be akin to opening a "Pandora's box."
* The Department of Justice is completely outside its own guidelines for prosecution on this case ("9-43.100 Prosecution Policy Relating to Mail Fraud and Wire Fraud"). According to these guidelines, an alleged infraction involving $256 worth of harmless bacteria should be left to the relevant state agencies, i.e. those of New York and Pennsylvania; these, however, have declined to take action in the case. (The alleged victims of the "fraud," American Type Culture Collection and the University of Pittsburgh, have likewise declined to take any action, either criminal or civil.)
* The substances Kurtz allegedly received are harmless and are not regulated by any law or government agency (EPA, FDA, etc.), as prosecutor Hochul was forced to admit at a hearing last July. Furthermore, they are legal for any citizen to buy and possess. Their intended use was very obviously in bonafide creative work and research by a well-known artist and university professor with a long and institutionally validated record.
Kurtz is currently awaiting a ruling on motions to dismiss the entire case filed by his attorney Paul Cambria.
The story so far:
Almost eighteen months have passed since Kurtz awoke to find that his wife of twenty years had died of heart failure. He called the police, who, upon noticing lab equipment that Kurtz used in his artwork and teaching, contacted the FBI. The FBI detained Kurtz as a potential "bioterrorist" and initiated an investigation involving the Joint Terrorism Task Force, the Department of Homeland Security, and numerous other federal and international law enforcement agencies, at an estimated cost to taxpayers in the millions of dollars.
Kurtz was finally indicted not for bioterrorism, but for "mail and wire fraud" - charges traditionally brought in weak cases when no other charges will stick. (These charges still carry a possible sentence of twenty years in prison.)
Posted by Mark at 10:16 AM | Comments (0)
November 14, 2005
Retuning Pask's Ear
Tuning Pask's Ear: The result of an ongoing collaboration between artist Andy Webster [Falmouth College of Arts] and scientist Jon Bird [Centre for Computational Neuroscience and Robotics, University of Sussex]. The film depicts an attempt to tune a glass of water to a tone generated by an electrochemical system. The device emits a slowly varying pitch and the performer is seen attempting to modify the pitch of the glass by adding more or less water. The electrochemical system responds to sound by changing the pitch it emits. Therefore the performer’s attempts at tuning are futile, with any degree of harmony being short-lived.
It is inspired by 'Pask’s Ear', a cybernetic device constructed by Gordon Pask in the 1950’s, and a film from 1970 by John Baldessari, who irreverently tuned wine glasses to music by John Cage.
Via Richard Brown.
UPDATE:
Usman Haque has just sent in some useful links to more Pask related research. I suspect we'll be hearing more about these experiments in the near future:
* To Evolve an Ear: epistemological implications of Gordon Pask's electrochemical devices, by Peter Cariani
* Images from a Pask experiment conducted by Army of Clerks
Posted by Mark at 12:01 PM | Comments (0)
Galdrbok talk this week
Galdrbok: Heathen Runecraft, Shamanism and Magic
A talk from SAJ2 contributor Robert Wallis, and Nathan Johnson
Friday, November 18
At Treadwells, 34 Tavistock Street, Covent Garden, London, WC2E 7PB
7.15 for 7.30 pm start £5.00
The speakers have worked experientially, based on historical texts, in what could be called heathen shamanism. The elements include scrying, galdr (magical chants or sung spells), and rune techniques (whispered secrets and magical letters). Their work explicitly focuses on inducing the altered states necessary to enter and explore the nine magical worlds of Yggdrasill - the World Tree. Tonight they will be discussing their experiences and the original texts that inspired them.
Tonight is the release launch of their book, Galdrbok, which means 'spell-book'. A party and signing follows the talk. Those who wish to come to the party only are invited to attend at 9.30 pm. Booking for the talk is advised, as we expect this evening to sell out.
Nathan Johnson is a teacher and the author of ten books, including Barefoot Zen (Red Wheel/Weiser 2000). Robert Wallis lectures in art history, archaeology and religious studies, and is the author of three books including Shamans/neo-Shamans (Routledge 2003), and he co-directs the Sacred Sites Project. Robert and Nathan are founders of the Ulfhednr Heathen group in Hampshire.
About the book:
Galdrbok offers a complete system for accessing the nine otherworlds of the Northwest European shamanic world tree Yggdrasil. The initiatory system in Galdrbok is inspired by the spiritual legacy of Heathen Northwest European communities of the migration age. Galdrbok maps the altered conscious states which enable shamanic travel - by means of scrying ('to descry'/'foresee'/ crystal gaze), galdr ('sung spells'), runic mediation and other powerful techniques, you can enter ecstasy and 'walk between the worlds' in the footsteps of Woden and Freyja, the Northern shamanic deities par excellence.
This is a remarkably intelligent, thoughtful and well-informed practical guide to the magic and spirituality of the Old North, in a form accessible to the present. It helps to confirm the Northern Tradition as one of the most scholarly and sophisticated in modern Paganism. Prof Ronald Hutton, Author of The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles and Triumph of the Moon.
Posted by Mark at 10:47 AM | Comments (0)
November 11, 2005
Tinfoil Helmets: A Safety Warning
On the Effectiveness of Aluminium Foil Helmets:
An Empirical Study
Abstract:
"Among a fringe community of paranoids, aluminum helmets serve as the protective measure of choice against invasive radio signals. We investigate the efficacy of three aluminum helmet designs on a sample group of four individuals. Using a $250,000 network analyser, we find that although on average all helmets attenuate invasive radio frequencies in either directions (either emanating from an outside source, or emanating from the cranium of the subject), certain frequencies are in fact greatly amplified. These amplified frequencies coincide with radio bands reserved for government use according to the Federal Communication Commission (FCC). Statistical evidence suggests the use of helmets may in fact enhance the government's invasive abilities. We theorize that the government may in fact have started the helmet craze for this reason."
Read the full report
via Dr Ben
Posted by Mark at 02:23 PM | Comments (0)
November 09, 2005
Raagnagrok: Red Threads
On Saturday 12 November, Raagnagrok will be performing at the opening of Red Threads, a new exhibition of photographs by Poulomi Desai.
The images.., look at first sight like portraits of glamorous young Asian women and respectable older ladies. Her irreverent aim is to shatter the contours of these fixed notions of sexual, national, cultural, personal, political and diasporic identities.. Her work is resolutely hybridised.
Professor Stuart Hall from "Different", published by Phaidon
The opening is from 6-9pm.
FOVEA gallery
140 Vaughan Rd Harrow HA1 4EB
Tel: 020 8357 2924
The exhibition runs until 11 December.
More information at USURP
Posted by Mark at 10:45 AM | Comments (0)
Stay in touch... forever
Voice from the grave is Ireland's latest fad
By Allison Bray in Dublin
The Independent 09 November 2005
An increasing number of bereaved relatives in Ireland are laying their loved ones to rest with a mobile phone in a new take on the ancient practice of burying a loved one with personal mementos.
While the ancient Egyptians were buried with jewels and other earthly treasures and Viking warriors were buried with their weapons, in Ireland a small but growing segment of the departed are leaving this world equipped with the latest electronic gadgets, and mobiles are top of the list, said Seamus Griffin, of Kirwan's funeral homes in Dublin.
A decade ago it was common to see people buried with their favourite tipple or bottle of whiskey, along with photographs, wedding rings and other personal items, he said. But with the recent explosion in popularity of mobile phones and other personal electronic gadgets, people now see them as extensions of themselves that will follow them to the grave. "I've seen it a few times. I've seen people buried with all kinds of things, even a pager," he said.
Keith Massey, another Dublin funeral director said he had also noticed the trend, especially among young people.
"Some people, especially young girls, live their lives by their mobiles and feel it's part of them," he said.
"Some other people may be terrified they'll wake up in the coffin, so they take along a mobile to ring for help to get them out," he said. However, certain rules would apply, including making sure the mobile is switched off or on silent before it accompanies the deceased.
The trend away from strictly religious ceremonials at funerals in favour of a more personal and relaxed approach is also making the practice of being buried with unusual items more acceptable, Mr Griffin added.
"It has opened up and people aren't afraid to express their loved one's wishes."
Posted by Mark at 10:24 AM | Comments (0)
November 07, 2005
USO off the Andamans?
"Strange underwater sound and a burst of electromagnetic waves – a new military weapon system or a new type of extraterrestrial UFO?" asks India Daily
It happened in Andaman beach areas. The fishing boats in the region observed it. It is happening since the last year’s devastating Tsunami.
Scientists believe, it is either a new military super weapon – a next generation stealth super-sub or a new type of advanced extraterrestrial UFO that can penetrate oceanic crust.
According to scientists, the burst of electromagnetic waves and strange sound provide some clues. The propagation, navigation, stealth and communication are all controlled by electromagnetic waves of unknown spectrum. The sound characteristic is strange. Any technologically advanced entity at that level is able to provide sound shields to suppress these sounds. These sounds may be coming from electron beaming to penetrate the oceanic crusts to build bases. It can also be caused by slow shifting of oceanic crusts.
Andaman is extremely active seismically. This started in July of last year exactly six months before the devastating Tsunami.
When these strange underwater sound and a burst of electromagnetic waves are experienced, no seismic tremors are recorded. No correlation between small earthquakes and this strange phenomenon can be recognized. However, computational models exploring numerical analysis of the stress at the plate levels are showing some clues. There is a harmonic progression observed in the level of stresses observed in the crust levels.
According to scientists, if it is true that the extraterrestrials caused the Tsunami of the last year, it was an accident and they have perfected their technologies not to repeat the same. The aftershocks have harmonic progression too which means what ever is causing this instability is slowly dissipating away!
Posted by Mark at 11:57 AM | Comments (0)
Fire in our hearts
A fine time was had by all at our annual pilgrimage to Lewes, East Sussex, for their bonfire celebrations, this year marking 400 years since Guy Fawkes almost wiped out the British establishment of his day.
I was camera free this year, but you'll find some fine shots over at Blather and a Flickr group set up by Gyrus.
Posted by Mark at 11:12 AM | Comments (0)
November 05, 2005
Curse of the Iceman
The death of a molecular biologist, Tom Loy, is the seventh to be connected with a Stone Age cadaver found entombed in an alpine glacier in 1991.
Kathy Marks reports
Published: 05 November 2005
When the 5,300-year-old body of a Stone Age man was discovered entombed in a glacier in the Italian Alps in 1991, it was hailed as one of the most significant archeological finds ever. Then the deaths began.
These were strange, often accidental deaths of people who had come into close contact with the frozen corpse, dubbed Oetzi. There was talk of a curse. Could it be that the Iceman was angry at being disturbed from his 53 century-long slumber?
Yesterday it was revealed that Oetzi (found in the Oetzal Alps) had claimed his seventh "victim": an Australian-based scientist, Tom Loy, who carried out ground-breaking DNA analysis on the corpse. His colleagues are in shock, his family bereft. And even those who disparage curses as superstitious nonsense are experiencing, perhaps, the tiniest of shivers.
Full story at The Independent
Posted by Mark at 12:01 PM | Comments (0)
Designer punks
This appeared in the inbox from at least three different directions and is well worth a look:
Celebrating the 30th anniversary of...what, exactly?
Not so Punk (230k pdf)
And in the interest of fairness, here's the official version:
"The birth of punk
Thirty years ago this weekend, a group of scruffy kids calling themselves the Sex Pistols blagged their way on to the bill at a college gig. And so began the story of punk. John Robb tracks down those who were there the night rock history was made"...
Posted by Mark at 11:10 AM | Comments (0)
November 03, 2005
NYC Hack
"I understand how Travis Bickle could be pushed to shave his head and commit murder after driving a cab for too long. Sometimes the job makes you a little crazy."
An old and very dear friend of mine, Melissa Plaut, is on her way to becoming New York City's favourite cab driver, thanks to her blog New York Hack.
There's a recent interview with her up at The Gothamist.
Posted by Mark at 10:57 AM | Comments (0)
Futurist war machines
WWI ships decked out in brain-warping camouflage.
During World War I, the British and Americans faced a serious threat from German U-boats, which were sinking allied shipping at a dangerous rate. All attempts to camouflage ships at sea had failed, as the appearance of the sea and sky are always changing. Any color scheme that was concealing in one situation was conspicuous in others. A British artist and naval officer, Norman Wilkinson, promoted a new camouflage scheme that was derived from the artistic fashions of the time, particularly cubism. Instead of trying to conceal the ship, it simply broke up its lines and made it more difficult for the U-boat captain to determine the ship's course. The British called this camouflage scheme "Dazzle Painting." The Americans called it "Razzle Dazzle."
Full story over at Go Touring
Plucked from Boing Boing
Posted by Mark at 10:48 AM | Comments (0)