tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24272729804637507682024-02-21T10:05:35.763-08:00Mind BlownYou'll figure it out.Penguin Petehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04954697720073484557noreply@blogger.comBlogger276125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2427272980463750768.post-17171830376670630872013-10-24T10:21:00.000-07:002013-10-24T10:22:02.470-07:00A Disturbing Little Tour Of Rogue Taxidermy<span style="color: white;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxidermy#Rogue_taxidermy">Rogue Taxidermy</a> is a folk-art form where you use dead animal parts to create some new, unique creature that never could have existed... but should have! So appropriate for Halloween.</span><br />
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<span style="color: white;"><a href="http://images.bimedia.net/images/130305_Taxidermy_Cat_300.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://images.bimedia.net/images/130305_Taxidermy_Cat_300.jpg" width="251" /></a></span></div>
<span style="color: white;">The folk art form of rogue taxidermy seems to be rooted in the midwestern United States, and can be considered a hallmark of Midwest Gothic. The most famous group is the <a href="http://www.roguetaxidermy.com/">Minnesota Association of Rogue Taxidermists</a>. One typical truckstop chimera is the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackalope">jackalope</a>:</span><br />
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<span style="color: white;"><a href="http://www.skeptiseum.org/images/exh/jackalope.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://www.skeptiseum.org/images/exh/jackalope.jpg" width="240" /></a></span></div>
<span style="color: white;">Rogue taxidermists got so carried away with the jackalope thing that they managed to infuse the critter into the North American culture at large, and now no roadside truckstop is complete without a mounted jackalope head on the wall. There's jackalope tattoos and faux nature documentaries and hundreds of photo manipulations. Jackalopes are world famous, a triumph of rogue taxidermy! Future popularity to a similar degree may be won for the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hodag">hodag</a>:</span><br />
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<span style="color: white;"><a href="http://www.roadsideamerica.com/attract/images/wi/WIRHIhodag07_1156.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.roadsideamerica.com/attract/images/wi/WIRHIhodag07_1156.jpg" /></a></span></div>
<span style="color: white;">Or the fur-bearing trout:</span><br />
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<span style="color: white;"><a href="http://www.microkhan.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Fur-Bearing-Trout.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="206" src="http://www.microkhan.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Fur-Bearing-Trout.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div>
<span style="color: white;">As you can imagine, there's a huge crossover between the rogue taxidermy and cryptozoology worlds. Whether through intentional attempts to hoax the public, or tongue-in-cheek attempts to hoax the hoaxers by going "Look, I found one!"</span><br />
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span>Penguin Petehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04954697720073484557noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2427272980463750768.post-78558801884954149972013-10-23T07:44:00.000-07:002013-10-23T07:56:58.560-07:00Several resources about Quantum Entanglement<span style="color: white;">Since we now have our <a href="http://science.slashdot.org/story/13/10/23/129220/first-experimental-evidence-that-time-is-an-emergent-quantum-phenomenon?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed">first experiment demonstrating that time is an emergent quantum phenomenon</a>, it's about time we rounded up some info on this quantum entanglement idea and see if we can corner it.</span><br />
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<span style="color: white;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_entanglement">The Wiki</a>.</span><br />
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<span style="color: white;">A friendly introduction to the fundamental problem we're trying to solve:</span><br />
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<span style="color: white;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZNedBrG9E90?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></span></div>
<span style="color: white;">Here's Neil DeGrasse Tyson explaining it some more:</span><br />
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<span style="color: white;">So what's the big deal? Putting it into the most basic possible terms: We've observed small particles in the universe that act like they're "talking to each other" and determining how to be, even after they're separated and shouldn't be able to affect each other. It's like we can slice a red apple in half, put each half in a box and send the two boxes to opposite sides of the world, then have somebody open one box and paint their half of the apple green, and then when somebody on the other side of the world opens the box with their half-apple in it, it's turned green too.</span><br />
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<span style="color: white;">And we don't know how this works. We've been trying to find out since the time of Einstein. Einstein himself called this "a spooky action at a distance."</span><br />
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<span style="color: white;">Not only are we observing the effect that two particles can have on each other, and not only is it instantaneous (defying everything we know about the speed of information alone), but it appears to even be possible to have the same thing happen when the entangled elements are separated not only by space, but time as well. So <a href="http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/156673-the-first-quantum-entanglement-of-photons-through-space-and-time">Israeli scientists have made photons affect each other even when they didn't coexist at the same time</a>.</span><br />
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<span style="color: white;">So either we're dead wrong about this, or we have a way to both time travel and teleport either information or physical actions instantly. It could be a flaw in our reasoning based on some fundamental shortcoming of human perception and reasoning.</span><br />
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<span style="color: white;">A LiveScience infographic:</span><br />
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<span style="color: white;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvMHp0q76EJP5ad5I4TUqjBI3VTzXISkvMEYn_2615L7r7V-1cDTyRETO3KxnWSeANBXYUqYSMPqUrVE2HFMYstHySkV3AXYQMGMHdhshXb4LFvFDQrKyMNRH6I2RtSSXPaeDHWClzQhLT/s1600/quantum-entanglement-spooky-action-at-a-distance-130408c.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvMHp0q76EJP5ad5I4TUqjBI3VTzXISkvMEYn_2615L7r7V-1cDTyRETO3KxnWSeANBXYUqYSMPqUrVE2HFMYstHySkV3AXYQMGMHdhshXb4LFvFDQrKyMNRH6I2RtSSXPaeDHWClzQhLT/s320/quantum-entanglement-spooky-action-at-a-distance-130408c.jpg" width="137" /></a></span></div>
<span style="color: white;">And finally, quantum entanglement has been simulated within the world of, of all things, Minecraft.</span><span style="color: white;"><br /></span>
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<span style="color: white;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/hu2TvEhCLi4?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></span></div>
<span style="color: white;">Are we nuts? Maybe. Maybe the universe is nuts, too.</span><br />
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span>Penguin Petehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04954697720073484557noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2427272980463750768.post-42909637204041210462013-09-09T12:44:00.002-07:002013-09-09T12:44:28.080-07:00A second gallery of mathematical cranks, wanks, and wonks<span style="color: white;"><br /></span>
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<span style="color: white;">Continued from <a href="http://mind--blown.blogspot.com/2013/06/a-gallery-of-mathematical-cranks-wanks.html">part one</a>, this will be a second look at the many purveyors of woo in the math world. Fascinating though they are...</span><br />
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<span style="color: white;"><a href="http://radiantprime.com/">Radiant Primes</a></span><br />
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<span style="color: white;">OK, we'll start with a gentle example. This guy... might be right, it seems to check out. But his idea of taking prime numbers, converting them to another base, reversing the digits, converting that number back, and then checking if it's composite or prime and <i>then</i> (are you still following?) plotting the result in dots on a graph produces a picture that's pretty much the random static noise you'd expect to get with some radial lines raining down. <a href="http://radiantprime.com/HowWork.htm">He explains the process lucidly here</a>. It makes a pretty cellular automata, but I don't see what he's so excited about. This isn't crank math so much as it's a fundamental failure to understand how math research works.</span><br />
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<span style="color: white;"><a href="http://gagutofappit.org/">"God Almighty's Grand Unified Theorem" (GAGUT)</a></span><br />
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<span style="color: white;">Oooooh, we have a live one! It's hard to tell if this is math though, or if the passion of this person's vision transcends the simple arts of calculus altogether. Anyway, any page written in ALLCAPS that yells "GOD!!!" this many times is a guaranteed winner. Diving deeper into the site, however, reveals a lot more ALLCAPS raving and not a hell of a lot of math. But I noticed an awful lot of focus on race (pro-black) including one link that insists God elected Obama. Then you find this:</span><br />
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<span style="color: white;"><a href="http://gagutofappit.org/OTP1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://gagutofappit.org/OTP1.jpg" width="302" /></a></span></div>
<span style="color: white;">...clicky to biggy, and you'll find the biggest equation to nutting ratio on the site, and that's just one unexplained line. Yes, I see, the capital G is God. Now what?</span></div>
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<span style="color: white;"><a href="http://unifytruth.20m.com/">Truth Evolutionism</a></span><br />
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<span style="color: white;">Now this guy sounds like the Time Cube guy on Prozac.</span><br />
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<span style="color: white;">"<span style="font-size: small;">So sciences about largest negative action pursuit,
largest happiness pursuit, largest profit pursuit and largest knowledge
pursuit are unified into one: Science of Pursuit"</span></span></blockquote>
<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;"> Right, but how does that help us get laid? I confess that this guy loses me every other sentence, so I can't so much trace reasoning flaws because I can't follow the reasoning. The guy just won't slow down and let the rest of us catch up to the monologue in his head.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;">"</span><span style="font-size: small;">In Truth Evolutionism, every existence origins from perturbation in
nihility. So its ultimate goal is to find the evolution process from
perturbation to existence and the best methods for expansion."</span></span></blockquote>
<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;"> um?</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;"> "</span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">Physicists have discovered least action principle, so
basic natural laws are best methodology to pursue negative action. So
for systems with the same mathematical expression as negative action,
basic natural laws will be their best methodology.</span>" </span></span></blockquote>
<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;">ah...</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;">"</span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">This is an objective truth standard. Larger system won
more attention, respect and even worship from human beings. You can
imagine, if there were a system larger than universe, its laws will be
worshiped better than "natural laws", and treated as more important
truth than natural laws. With the objective truth standard, the system
with the largest possibility to be observed contains ultimate truth.</span>"</span></span></blockquote>
<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;">Dammit man, <i>slow the hell DOWN!</i> This sounds like you could cook up a philosophy here, if only you'd quit nouning verbs and dropping 'the's!</span></span><br />
<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span><a href="http://saliu.com/">Return to Socrates</a></span><br />
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<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;">Right at the top, we start out with "Ideas, Philosophy, Science, Software, God, Universe, Randomness" - Which leads me to my own first theory of math cranks: If you're trying to tackle more than two big ideas in one paper, you're probably a crank. This guy has also been in business a <i>long</i> time, and makes reference to readers and even a message board for open discussion at one time. But, weird for an admirer of Socrates, <a href="http://saliu.com/more.htm">his primary mathematical fixation seems to be on gambling</a>. We're in luck, probability math happens to be one of my favorite fields. Anyway, he starts out attacking the lottery for not paying true odds. Correct so far; I think all lotteries should be burned to the ground. As soon as he starts rattling about betting systems, I set my Ctrl-F for "Martingale" and <a href="http://saliu.com/occult-science-gambling.html">bingo</a>!</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;">Yep, crank. For those of you wondering, a Martingale system is one where you try to recover previous losses by doubling your bet or using some other complex betting pattern. The problem where all Martingales fail is that they fall against the casino concept of a "table limit":</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: white;"><a href="http://gamblingguides.pulcinientertainment.com/baccarat/baccarat-table-limit-sign.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://gamblingguides.pulcinientertainment.com/baccarat/baccarat-table-limit-sign.gif" /></a></span></div>
<span style="color: white;">That limit stops you from doubling your bet infinitely; eventually you'll lose big, and then you'll never get it back. And then right after Martingale you get the famous gambler's fallacy, <a href="http://saliu.com/best-roulette-systems.html">stated so well by our "expert" here</a>:</span></div>
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<span style="color: white;">"What you need is a notebook and a pencil. Write down the last roulette spins, from the oldest one available to the most recent spin. Do not start playing until you have at least 42 spins on your piece of paper. I prefer a small notebook with 20 rule lines. Multiples of 10 or 20 make it easy to count quickly the number of roulette spins. Use the roulette report that follows as the template (rows and columns). "</span></div>
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<span style="color: white;">...<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gambler%27s_fallacy">the gambler's fallacy, explained in Wikipedia</a>, is the fallacy of believing that past trials dictate future trials; in other words, if the wheel comes up red six spins in a row, then the gambler's fallacy would have it that black is a good bet right now because "the law of averages" say that red has less of a chance coming up now. The problem here is that the roulette wheel <i>has no memory</i>! Neither does any other random device - the dice don't know which number's "turn" it is to come up, your coin does not know that it's "supposed to" come up heads next toss because it just tossed five tails in a row.</span></div>
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<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;">Still, this guy's a real card. He's got books he's sold, casinos he's gotten into fights with... He's got his racket, he's happy.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;">Well, that runs my bookmark list dry. Til next time, True Believers!</span></span><br />
<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span> </span></div>
Penguin Petehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04954697720073484557noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2427272980463750768.post-79272813476429544662013-08-29T14:00:00.000-07:002013-08-29T14:04:21.581-07:00Trivia Gibs #5<span style="color: white;"><br /></span>
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<span style="color: white;">Napoleon was not French, but Corsican. Hitler was not German, but Austrian. Stalin was not Russian, but Georgian. </span><br />
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<span style="color: white;">The country with the lowest average IQ is Sudan, with an average of 72. The country with the highest is Hong Kong, with an average of 107. The United States isn't even in the top 10. This, according to the book "IQ and the Wealth of Nations", grain of salt prescribed.</span></div>
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<span style="color: white;">North Dakota has the lowest divorce rate (8.1%) in the United States, where the average for the country is 3.4 per 1000. Of divorced women, more than one-fourth of them are under the age of twenty.</span></div>
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<span style="color: white;">The sun loses an average equivalent of one Earth every 100,000,000 years because of radiation. Solar wind wipes out another one-fourth of that mass in the same time period.</span></div>
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<span style="color: white;">A nanocentury is exactly Pi seconds long.</span></div>
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<span style="color: white;">If you stored the Library of Congress on computers, you would only need less than 30 terabytes.</span></div>
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<span style="color: white;">Being able to quit smoking easily and not have it bother you can be a positive thing - or an early sign of Alzheimer's disease.</span></div>
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<span style="color: white;">The composer of the battle hymn "Onward, Christian Soldiers," Sabine Baring-Gould, also kept a pet bat - which was so tame that he'd greet guests with it perched on his shoulder.</span></div>
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<span style="color: white;">Which movie script is the most foul-mouthed? "Pulp Fiction"? "South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut"? Not even close! In terms of dropping the F-bomb, the winning film so far is "Tigerland" (2000), with an F-word count of 527 for a 100-minute film - working out to five f***s per minute!</span></div>
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<span style="color: white;">We bless sneezes with "God bless you" because it was ordained so by Pope Gregory the Great in the year 600 AD, by official papal decree. So there.</span></div>
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Penguin Petehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04954697720073484557noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2427272980463750768.post-14531115272419246512013-08-28T12:04:00.001-07:002013-08-28T12:04:51.842-07:00Zombie Transformation<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://i.imgur.com/BDve3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://i.imgur.com/BDve3.jpg" width="75" /></a></div>
<br />Penguin Petehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04954697720073484557noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2427272980463750768.post-67161474541920188712013-08-27T16:42:00.001-07:002013-08-27T16:42:29.918-07:00Storm rolling<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9HvNVAOO4tM/Ug_mSWH2HEI/AAAAAAAAG3c/IfK1EZbIZ48/w506-h379/tumblr_miwvzlAlnm1r3gb3zo1_500.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="298" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9HvNVAOO4tM/Ug_mSWH2HEI/AAAAAAAAG3c/IfK1EZbIZ48/w506-h379/tumblr_miwvzlAlnm1r3gb3zo1_500.gif" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />Penguin Petehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04954697720073484557noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2427272980463750768.post-42662196734615906512013-08-17T08:29:00.001-07:002013-08-17T08:29:13.515-07:00How one hack for playing a TRON lightcycle game went on an Apple IIgs<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: white;"><a href="http://danielwellman.typepad.com/.a/6a00e55055486e883301053548d5df970c-800wi" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="250" src="http://danielwellman.typepad.com/.a/6a00e55055486e883301053548d5df970c-800wi" width="400" /></a></span></div>
<span style="color: white;">Folks, I was there in those ancient days of computing yore, and reading pixels off the screen for collision detection was exactly how I did games, too. I even still have code that does that lying around somewhere for some silly screensaver modules I wrote. Anyway:</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: white;">"The algorithm to determine which pixel to check next used some fast assembler math to calculate a memory address – either one pixel above, below, to the left, or to the right of the current pixel. But since any given pixel on the screen was really just a memory address, the algorithm simply calculated a new memory location to read. So when the light cycle left the screen, the game happily calculated the next location in system memory to check for a wall crash. This meant that the cycle was now cruising through system RAM, wantonly turning on bits and “crashing” into memory. </span><br />
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white;">Writing to random locations in system memory isn't generally a wise design practice. Unsurprisingly, the game would generate spectacular crashes as a result. A human player would be driving blind and usually crash right away, limiting the scope of system casualties. The AI opponents had no such weakness. The computer would scan immediately in front, to the left, and to the right of its position to determine if it was about to hit a wall and change directions accordingly. So as far as the computer was concerned, system memory looked no different than screen memory."</span></blockquote>
<span style="color: white;"><a href="http://blog.danielwellman.com/2008/10/real-life-tron-on-an-apple-iigs.html">Real Life Tron on an Apple IIgs</a></span><br />
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white;">You young'uns might recognize this game better as 'Snake' as played on your phone.</span>Penguin Petehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04954697720073484557noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2427272980463750768.post-15127663691344656262013-07-30T14:04:00.002-07:002013-07-30T14:04:11.391-07:00Paul the Psychic Octopus<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: white;"><a href="http://pinktentacle.com/images/10/xpaul_kun.jpg.pagespeed.ic.NSrf2zN_Hl.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="http://pinktentacle.com/images/10/xpaul_kun.jpg.pagespeed.ic.NSrf2zN_Hl.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div>
<span style="color: white;">From 2008 to 2010, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_the_Octopus">a pet octopus named "Paul"</a> was given the rather burdensome chore of predicting the outcome of World Cup soccer matches. His handlers would put food into two boxes at a time, each box decorated with the flag of their respective country's teams, then whichever one Paul decided to chow down on first would be the predicted winner. Over his two-year career, Paul got it right 11 out of 13 times.</span><br />
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white;">Of course, nobody's really suggesting that Paul was following soccer games. Rather, plain old luck doesn't put the odds too far away - one might get the same sort of record flipping a coin. Some have speculated that Paul was attracted to flags with horizontal stripes, which just raises the question of why countries with horizontally-striped flags should win soccer matches more often.</span><br />
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white;"><a href="http://www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/opinion/blogs/2010-world-cup-blog/Top-10-things-you-need-to-know-about-Paul-the-Psychic-Octopus-death-threats-treachery-calamari-blogs-Twitter-and-video-of-World-Cup-s-biggest-star-in-action-article520263.html#ixzz0tBNfEcrR">Paul was the subject of international fame</a> - for an octopus, anyway - and was widely missed after his passing at old age of octopus years. And just when this story couldn't get any sillier, there's conspiracy theories around his passing.</span><br />
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white;">Here's Paul in action during one of his televised picks:</span><br />
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span>
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<span style="color: white;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/Ya85knuDzp8?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></span></div>
<span style="color: white;">Paul and his handler also got death threats and recipe suggestions after Paul's predictions proved accurate:</span><br />
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<span style="color: white;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/HEnhiJRep3g?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></span></div>
<span style="color: white;">OK, now <i>that's</i> silly enough!</span><br />
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span>Penguin Petehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04954697720073484557noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2427272980463750768.post-38161432579346229312013-07-29T17:16:00.001-07:002013-07-29T17:16:39.869-07:00The curious case of James R. Todino, the stranded time traveler<span style="color: white;">Time travel hoaxes are popular surreal pranks. <a href="http://mind--blown.blogspot.com/2012/04/john-titor-greatest-internet-prankster.html">I've mentioned John Titor</a> before as being one of the greatest Internet pranksters of the time-traveller genre. But what can you do about a guy who's really convinced that he's a time traveller? </span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: white;"><a href="http://www.allspammedup.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/time-travel-SPAM-400x316.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="252" src="http://www.allspammedup.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/time-travel-SPAM-400x316.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div>
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white;">Such was the conundrum facing the maintainers over at <a href="http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/timetravelspam.html">the Museum of Hoaxes</a>, who was one of many at the beginning of the century to receive spam emails asking for someone to sell the subject a "dimensional warp generator." The email went into great detail about specs for this device, which would include 512GB of RAM and a menu-driven GUI.</span><br />
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white;">It turned out that the emails were being sent out by a known professional spammer who also happened to be delusionally insane. <a href="http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/news/2003/08/60141">Wired</a> breaks the straight story. Far from being a time traveller, Todino was a perfectly ordinary 22-year-old with a father in this present day who was worried about his son's mental illnesses being exploited by scammers online.</span><br />
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white;">Make no mistake about it, this is actually a common problem with spammers. If you've ever received spam and wondered "who would ever fall for this?", the answer is, "nobody, actually, but authors of spam software and systems prey on gullible people who think <i>they</i> can make millions sending out spam. Big fleas got little fleas on their backs to bite 'em!</span><br />
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white;">Todino (like the mythical John Titor, whom, remember, has never been positively identified) gained widespread Internet fame and cultural tribute, making <a href="http://guyism.com/humor/people-who-claimed-to-be-time-travelers.html#5-4-james-r-todino">this list of time travel claims</a>, and being famous enough that there's dozens of accounts claiming to be him on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and so forth.</span><br />
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white;">Sadly, no verifiable interviews with Todino exist on YouTube. So for second prize, here's a different kook who raves about time travel conspiracy theories:</span><br />
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span>
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<span style="color: white;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/EMdGKn0nXbQ?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></span></div>
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span>Penguin Petehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04954697720073484557noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2427272980463750768.post-12448987336815908762013-07-27T14:19:00.002-07:002013-07-27T14:19:21.897-07:00Japanese sewer system makes an excellent place to stage a Quake match<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: white;"><a href="http://ad009cdnb.archdaily.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/1121033921_japanesesewer-6-528x338.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="255" src="http://ad009cdnb.archdaily.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/1121033921_japanesesewer-6-528x338.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div>
<span style="color: white;">That's a normal-sized person on the floor of the place. The <a href="http://www.archdaily.com/3591/giant-storm-sewer-system-sitama-japan/">storm sewer system underground in Saitama, Japan</a>, is one of the largest in the world and a steady tourist attraction.</span><br />
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<span style="color: white;"><a href="http://ad009cdnb.archdaily.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/722986965_japanesesewer-13-528x338.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="255" src="http://ad009cdnb.archdaily.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/722986965_japanesesewer-13-528x338.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div>
<span style="color: white;">Saitama has a population of about 1.2 million, making it the most populous cities in the prefecture. And situated where it is on the coast and Japan being prone to the sea-related disasters as it is, the storm control system is no joke.</span><br />
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<span style="color: white;"><a href="http://ad009cdnb.archdaily.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/1959565656_japanesesewer-5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="256" src="http://ad009cdnb.archdaily.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/1959565656_japanesesewer-5.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: white;"><a href="http://ad009cdnb.archdaily.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/1948322946_japanesesewer-11.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="256" src="http://ad009cdnb.archdaily.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/1948322946_japanesesewer-11.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div>
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span>Penguin Petehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04954697720073484557noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2427272980463750768.post-89871700337316805742013-07-25T18:19:00.000-07:002013-07-25T18:19:00.065-07:00Norwegian town engineers mirrors reflecting sunlight to shine into town during dark winter months<span style="color: white;"><br /></span>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: white;"><a href="http://www.popularmechanics.com/cm/popularmechanics/images/Uo/Norway-mirror-01-0713-mdn.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.popularmechanics.com/cm/popularmechanics/images/Uo/Norway-mirror-01-0713-mdn.jpg" /></a></span></div>
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white;">I know this isn't the first time this has been done, but the town of Rjukan, Norway, is <a href="http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/engineering/gonzo/giant-mirrors-to-light-up-one-dark-norwegian-town-15720433">installing mirrors on top of local mountains to reflect light</a> into the town square during the sunless winter months of the far north.</span><br />
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white;">I always love stories like this, because they show off the clever audacity of the crafty ape we call man.</span><br />
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white;">A related concept is that of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daylighting">daylighting</a>, where architectural measures are taken to treat buildings with natural sunlight where possible.</span><br />
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white;">And I mentioned this has been done before; specifically, in <a href="http://www.amusingplanet.com/2012/07/viganella-italian-village-that-brought.html">Viganella, Italy</a>, mirrors were constructed on local mountaintops to reflect sunlight into the city's valley, which, due to the depth of the valley, was resigned to shadows for so long in the year. Here's the trailer for the documentary about Viganella's mirror:</span><br />
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span>
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<span style="color: white;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/s9aRTjfDFFI?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></span></div>
<span style="color: white;">Oh, and the town of Rattenberg, Austria, <a href="http://pruned.blogspot.com/2005/12/let-there-be-light.html">also did the same thing</a>, for the same reason as Rjukan.</span><br />
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span>Penguin Petehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04954697720073484557noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2427272980463750768.post-43490052247482651872013-07-23T16:28:00.001-07:002013-07-23T16:28:40.025-07:00Astounding engineering for a marble-moving toy<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: white;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/HrIfZrDe788?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></span></div>
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<span style="color: white;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/SfVcSVfSzKY?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></span></div>
<span style="color: white;">From the website <a href="http://woodgears.ca/marbles/paul.html">woodgears.ca</a>, creation of Paul Grundbacher of Switzerland.</span><br />
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span>Penguin Petehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04954697720073484557noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2427272980463750768.post-48731868650738299812013-07-22T14:05:00.000-07:002013-07-22T14:07:11.925-07:00If it walks like a duck, eats like a duck, and shits like a duck...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: white;"><a href="http://www.swarthmore.edu/Humanities/pschmid1/essays/pynchon/vaucanson2.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://www.swarthmore.edu/Humanities/pschmid1/essays/pynchon/vaucanson2.jpeg" width="273" /></a></span></div>
<span style="color: white;"> ...it might only be a mechanical "digesting" duck.</span><br />
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white;">Such was one of the iconic inventions of the dawn of the mechanical age, "<a href="http://www.swarthmore.edu/Humanities/pschmid1/essays/pynchon/vaucanson.html">The Duck</a>." The steampunk creature of clockwork limbs could not only move, but simulate eating food and - sparing no effort in attention to detail - pass droppings as well, although the actual product was pre-stored and didn't involve actual biological digestion.</span><br />
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<span style="color: white;"><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/75/Duck_of_Vaucanson.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/75/Duck_of_Vaucanson.jpg" /></a></span></div>
<span style="color: white;">Such was the invention of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaucanson">Jacques de Vaucanson</a>, widely considered to be one of the fathers of robotics or at least automata. He created this duck in 1738, for demos to the elite, using it to finance further creations. </span><br />
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white;">Before you scoff too loudly at such frivolity, keep in mind that Vaucanson's major accomplishments included automated, programmable looms, which could be programmed with punch cards - in 1745. Later this same media storage format would be used to input data into the world's first computers.</span><br />
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<span style="color: white;"><a href="http://www.kloth.net/services/pcard.php?punch2=Mind--Blown&code=DEC-029&unk=ignore&ccolor=yellow&t=png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="177" src="http://www.kloth.net/services/pcard.php?punch2=Mind--Blown&code=DEC-029&unk=ignore&ccolor=yellow&t=png" width="400" /></a></span></div>
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white;">You can still generate <a href="http://www.kloth.net/services/cardpunch.php">a punched-card design at emulators like this</a>. I would recommend the 'bcd' command from the bsdgames package on Unix systems, but that's such lost technology that it's barely worth mentioning.</span><br />
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span>Penguin Petehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04954697720073484557noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2427272980463750768.post-79249701282958673162013-07-21T12:10:00.000-07:002013-07-21T12:10:02.761-07:00Get hit by lightning seven times; kill yourself at age 71 by gunshot<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: white;"><a href="http://lazerhorse.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/roy-sullivan-lightning-thunder-man.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://lazerhorse.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/roy-sullivan-lightning-thunder-man.jpg" /></a></span></div>
<span style="color: white;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Cleveland_Sullivan">Roy Sullivan</a> got into the Guinness Book of World Records as having been struck by lightning seven times - and survived them all! This was seven separate incidents, mind you, over a period of years from 1942 to 1977. He also claimed an eighth strike which happened to him as a child, but never bothered to record it.</span><br />
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white;">Perhaps bothered too much by the way God seemed to have it in for him, he committed suicide by gunshot at age 71. His experience, however, form an important contribution to the specialized medical field of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keraunomedicine">Keraunopathy</a> - the study of the effects of lightning strikes on the human body.</span><br />
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span>Penguin Petehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04954697720073484557noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2427272980463750768.post-40253437803775378382013-07-20T15:20:00.003-07:002013-07-20T15:20:28.660-07:00Who built the ruins on Malden Island?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: white;"><a href="http://mw2.google.com/mw-panoramio/photos/medium/64466278.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="http://mw2.google.com/mw-panoramio/photos/medium/64466278.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div>
<span style="color: white;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malden_Island">Malden Island</a> is a tiny uninhabited dot of land sticking up smack in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, part of what is today the Republic of Kiribati. It was discovered by a British sea captain in 1825. And upon discovery of this tiny ~15 square-mile island, a mystery was born.</span><br />
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: white;"><a href="http://mw2.google.com/mw-panoramio/photos/medium/64466348.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="http://mw2.google.com/mw-panoramio/photos/medium/64466348.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div>
<span style="color: white;">Specifically, the uninhabited island was the site of many stone structures, including the ruins of "temples" or at least monolithic, temple-like structures. Nobody knows who could have put them there. To this day, your theory is as good as anybody else's.</span><br />
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white;">Very little else is known about or written about this site; however, I did find <a href="http://overmanwarrior.wordpress.com/2011/08/13/secret-of-malden-island-why-public-education-is-hiding-history/">one crackling good conspiracy theorist</a> who classifies it as 'forbidden archeology.'</span><br />
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span>Penguin Petehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04954697720073484557noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2427272980463750768.post-21287584907870897442013-07-19T11:22:00.001-07:002013-07-19T11:22:08.103-07:00Horned-head<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: white;"><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e6/Forbidden_Corner_-_geograph.org.uk_-_407992.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e6/Forbidden_Corner_-_geograph.org.uk_-_407992.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div>
<span style="color: white;">Just found it startling, that's all. <a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Forbidden_Corner_-_geograph.org.uk_-_407992.jpg">Wikimedia commons images</a> can surprise you sometimes.</span><br />
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span>Penguin Petehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04954697720073484557noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2427272980463750768.post-73958300832389005012013-07-18T11:19:00.001-07:002013-07-18T11:19:34.153-07:00What was up with the green children of Woolpit?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: white;"><a href="http://myths.e2bn.org/library/1165751436/wool01_mid.teach.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://myths.e2bn.org/library/1165751436/wool01_mid.teach.jpg" width="258" /></a></span></div>
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white;">Of all the feral children stories, <a href="http://brian-haughton.com/articles/green-children-of-woolpit/">the green children of Woolpit</a> seem the most curious. They were two Flemish children who walked up to farmers in Suffolk, England, in the 12th century. The children, a boy and a girl, both had green skin. After dumping a fanciful story of a distant twilight land called "Saint Martin", which may or may not have been true, the children were adopted into the community and eventually went on to live normal lives and regain normal skin color.</span><br />
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white;">It turns out that the skin pigment could have been a symptom of a nutritional deficiency, called '<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypochromic_anemia">hypochromic anemia</a>.' Similar to how leaves turn color in the fall, the lack of red blood cell pigmentation simply leaves other elements of the body to lend a skin color instead.</span><br />
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white;">Whatever you do, do not search Google images for 'hypochromic anemia'. They're not nearly as pretty as you're picturing it.</span><br />
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white;">But perhaps encounters with people afflicted with this condition accounts for widespread folklore tales of little green elves, gnomes, leprechauns, and other mythical humanoids - maybe they were just malnourished, and so short, and anemic.</span><br />
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span>Penguin Petehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04954697720073484557noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2427272980463750768.post-58677201071094792742013-07-16T17:04:00.000-07:002013-07-16T17:04:07.958-07:00Well, I guess I have to post "Malice in Wonderland" (NSFW or the timid)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/Lv8IezFbADc?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
<span style="color: white;">You can't tell me this wasn't Cyriac's first classroom project.</span><br />
<br />Penguin Petehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04954697720073484557noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2427272980463750768.post-67555555431869539022013-07-16T15:32:00.000-07:002013-07-16T15:32:19.685-07:00Edmund Trebus, notorious hoarder<span style="color: white;">In Crouch End, North London, Trebus was constantly at odds with police over <a href="http://peteashton.com/trebus/">his hoarding behavior</a>. He would come home with wheelbarrows of trash and lovingly sort it into piles in his home and yard. Amongst his many acquisitions were almost every record recorded by Elvis Presley.</span><br />
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white;">Despite these problems, <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1409049/Edmund-Trebus.html">he lived to the age of 83</a>.</span><br />
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white;">Today he stands as one of history's most famous hoarders.</span><br />
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<span style="color: white;">One wonders why more researchers don't tie hoarding disease to rampant capitalism. When you build an entire society based on owning more and more crap, what can you expect but that some people take it to an extreme?</span><br />
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<span style="color: white;">Now go clean your house.</span><br />
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span>Penguin Petehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04954697720073484557noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2427272980463750768.post-34530413132091911072013-06-26T14:45:00.002-07:002013-06-26T14:45:29.297-07:00Wacky medieval laws<span style="color: white;">During the height of witch-hunting in the 15th century, there was a book published in Germany that was a sort of "Witch-Hunting for Dummies" guide, name of <i>Malleus Maleficarum</i>.</span><br />
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<span style="color: white;"><a href="http://digital.library.cornell.edu/cache//w/i/t/wit060/06000010.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://digital.library.cornell.edu/cache//w/i/t/wit060/06000010.gif" width="195" /></a></span></div>
<span style="color: white;"><a href="http://digital.library.cornell.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=witch;cc=witch;view=toc;subview=short;idno=wit060">Full page scans available at Cornell's online repository,</a> and while you're there, they have a few other witch-related tomes to check out for all your witchery needs. <a href="http://www.malleusmaleficarum.org/">There's also a full site devoted to this and other witch-related beliefs</a>, even into the present day.</span><br />
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<span style="color: white;">But even practices for catching plain old criminals wasn't much better. For instance, there was the process of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cruentation">cruentation</a>, in which an accused murderer was brought together with the corpse of the presumed victim and ordered to lay their hands upon the carcass. If the dead body should then spontaneously begin bleeding from its wounds, that would be a sign from on high that the defendant was guilty. One can only imagine how many murderers got off scott-free.</span><br />
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<span style="color: white;">Many such practices are covered in the blanket category of "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trial_by_ordeal">Trial by Ordeal</a>," where you get all the variations on tying you up and throwing you into the river to see if you sink or swim, or plunging your hand into boiling water to see if God healed you, or simply swallowing poison, or other such life-jeopardizing trials. In some cases, surviving the ordeal unscathed meant that God had declared you innocent, while in other areas it was considered just the opposite proof, that you had escaped by the Devil's aide.</span><br />
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<span style="color: white;">Then there was the practice of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compurgation">compurgation</a>, a law which meant that you could be found innocent if you could find twelve people who said they believed your side of the story. Well, who couldn't scare up twelve friends?</span><br />
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<span style="color: white;">One more curiosity is the German principle of "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stadtluft_macht_frei">stadtluft macht frei</a>," a kind of statue-of-limitations where if a serf had managed to escape capture for a year-and-a-day, they was no longer open to being re-chained.</span><br />
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<span style="color: white;">And for a final medieval law oddity, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_trial">animals could be tried in a court of law</a> exactly as if they were human.</span><br />
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span>Penguin Petehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04954697720073484557noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2427272980463750768.post-17220221990670985762013-06-25T09:50:00.001-07:002013-06-25T09:50:58.097-07:00Space dreamer answers childhood call to destiny<span style="color: white;">A NASA / DARPA plan is underway to launch a "100-year" spaceship for deep space exploration. But while that's interesting of itself, <a href="http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20120321-searching-for-a-starship">I was struck by this wild anecdote</a>:</span><br />
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<span style="color: white;">"When Jack Sarfatti was 13 years old, he began receiving phone calls from a strange metallic voice that told him he would someday become part of an elite group of scientists exploring uncharted territory. Those calls, which he believes may have come from a computer on a spacecraft, proved a seminal influence on his life and led him to pursue a career that combined mainstream physics with an enduring interest in UFOs and the far-out reaches of science."</span></blockquote>
<span style="color: white;"><a href="http://www.100yss.org/">The program</a> is just one of many ambitious attempts to kick the human race into its interstellar travel era. So far, Voyager is still the most distant man-made object in the universe, and it's just crossing the threshold out of our solar system. As Cecil Adams points out in <a href="http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/3058/can-alien-beings-listen-in-on-tv-and-radio-broadcasts-from-earth">this Straight Dope column</a>:</span><br />
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<span style="color: white;">"Then again, the thinking goes, if you can pinpoint where to look, you can accomplish seemingly miraculous feats. Just ask the project team for Voyager 1, which is still communicating with a spacecraft so far away its incoming radio signals have less than a twenty-billionth the power of a watch battery.</span><br />
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<span style="color: white;">But let’s put that in perspective. Voyager 1 is the most distant manmade object in the universe, far beyond the orbit of Pluto. It’ll soon leave the outer reaches of the solar system behind and enter the depths of interstellar space. Even so, another 14,000 years will have to pass before Voyager attains a distance of one light year from earth. The star closest to us, Proxima Centauri, is more than four light years away."</span></blockquote>
<span style="color: white;">...so at present technology, 100 years will be long enough to get, meh, a stone's throw from Earth, relatively speaking.</span><br />
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<span style="color: white;">However, getting our space legs on might be a necessity at some point in the future, especially if we want to do anything about threats like <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%2829075%29_1950_DA">29075-1950-DA</a>, the asteroid which has the greatest probability of hitting earth. It's only expected to muss our hair sometime about the year 2880, but it's still much too soon from now to comfortably put it off.</span><br />
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<span style="color: white;">Here's a little presentation on this asteroid and other near-Earth objects, just to scare you a little bit:</span><br />
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<span style="color: white;"><br /></span>Penguin Petehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04954697720073484557noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2427272980463750768.post-17576979318339817392013-06-20T14:42:00.000-07:002013-06-20T14:43:20.339-07:00It's come to this: Happiness is now a disease<span style="color: white;"><a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1376114/">A proposal to classify happiness as a psychiatric disorder</a>:</span><br />
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<span style="color: white;">"It is proposed that happiness be classified as a psychiatric disorder and be included in future editions of the major diagnostic manuals under the new name: major affective disorder, pleasant type. In a review of the relevant literature it is shown that happiness is statistically abnormal, consists of a discrete cluster of symptoms, is associated with a range of cognitive abnormalities, and probably reflects the abnormal functioning of the central nervous system. One possible objection to this proposal remains--that happiness is not negatively valued. However, this objection is dismissed as scientifically irrelevant."</span></blockquote>
<span style="color: white;">Okaaaay... Pretty sure this is a parody, but you never can be quite sure.</span><br />
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<span style="color: white;">On a related note, there's also <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12167505">discussion about whether to classify unipolar mania</a>. See, unipolar mania is like bipolar disorder in a higher key; instead of cycling between extremes of depression and mania, you just have the manic phases. So most of the time you're normal, except sometimes you're extremely hyper and happy.</span><br />
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<span style="color: white;">Doesn't that sound nice?</span><br />
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span>Penguin Petehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04954697720073484557noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2427272980463750768.post-79545441947429019902013-06-16T13:03:00.003-07:002013-06-16T13:03:53.320-07:00Sleeping Mother Earth<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: white;"><a href="http://oi53.tinypic.com/iqvdad.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="276" src="http://oi53.tinypic.com/iqvdad.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div>
<span style="color: white;">From <a href="http://www.madretierra.com.ec/">the tourist info</a>:</span><br />
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<span style="color: white;">"The Madre Tierra Eco-Resort is located a mile from the center of Vilcabamba, the Andean village made famous for the longevity of its citizens. Visitors come from all over the world for the relaxed atmosphere, the deliciously healthy food from our gardens, the mineralized pure water, the fresh, clean air and to spend time among Ecuador's very gentle people."</span></blockquote>
<span style="color: white;">And this creation, sleeping mother earth personified.</span><br />
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span>Penguin Petehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04954697720073484557noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2427272980463750768.post-26543333233204273232013-06-11T13:58:00.001-07:002013-06-11T13:58:27.354-07:00A gallery of mathematical cranks, wanks, and wonks<span style="color: white;">You wouldn't think that mathematics, as a field, would attract that many fringe-living crackpots - at least not as much as, say, medicine or space physics. In math, after all, either 2 plus 2 adds up to 4 or else it doesn't, and there's not much room for argument after that. But, oh, how wrong you'd be! Join me on this intellectual Tilt-A-Whirl as we explore the home pages of some extremely unhinged amateur mathematicians:</span><br />
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<span style="color: white;"><a href="http://www.zimmathematics.com/">Zim Mathematics</a></span><br />
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<span style="color: white;">The startling page layout is just the appetizer to Zim Olsen's theories. However, Zim doesn't really seem as out there as some, merely extremely eccentric. On the crank side, there's the ranting <a href="http://www.zimmathematics.com/creati.htm">philosophy of how we should think of mathematics</a>, which reads like a better-educated Time Cube manifesto. On the other hand, we have the following masterpiece:</span><br />
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<span style="color: white;"><b>The Lord’s Prayer in System(s) Mathematics</b></span><br />
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<span style="color: white;">Our Father who art in heaven</span><br />
<span style="color: white;">hallowed be thy name;</span><br />
<span style="color: white;">(1) + - × ÷ = (0) + - × ÷ = (1+0) + - × ÷ = (1,0) + - × ÷</span><br />
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<span style="color: white;">Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done</span><br />
<span style="color: white;">on earth as it is in heaven.</span><br />
<span style="color: white;">(1) +, -, ×, ÷ = (0) +, -,×, ÷ = (1+0) +, -, ×, ÷ = (1,0) +, -, ×, ÷</span><br />
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<span style="color: white;">Give us this day our daily Bread.</span><br />
<span style="color: white;">Y(A,B) + - × ÷ => X(1,0,Y(A,B) +, -, ×, ÷)</span><br />
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<span style="color: white;">Forgive us for our sins,</span><br />
<span style="color: white;">X(1,0,Y(A,B) +, -, ×, ÷) + - × ÷ => Y(1,0))</span><br />
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<span style="color: white;">As we forgive those who sin against us.</span><br />
<span style="color: white;">W(A,B,Y(1,0) + - × ÷) => W(1,0)</span><br />
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<span style="color: white;">Lead us not into temptation</span><br />
<span style="color: white;">X(1,0,Y(A,B)) + - × ÷</span><br />
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<span style="color: white;">But deliver us from evil.</span><br />
<span style="color: white;">X(1,0,Y(A,B) +, -, ×, ÷) + - × ÷ => Y(1,0))</span><br />
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<span style="color: white;">For thine is the Kingdom, the Power,</span><br />
<span style="color: white;">and the Glory, forever and ever.</span><br />
<span style="color: white;">F(1,0) = ___, ___, …___</span></blockquote>
<span style="color: white;">OK, anybody who can engage in such whimsy has my benefit of the doubt.</span><br />
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<span style="color: white;"><a href="http://www.finitegeometry.org/sc/gen/dth/DiamondTheory.html">Diamond Theory</a></span><br />
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<span style="color: white;">Here again, I don't think Steven Cullinane is really unhinged per se. At the very least, his geometric study is fun to play with, particularly when you <a href="http://www.finitegeometry.org/sc/16/puzzle/index.html">find this toy</a>. And I'm not really sure that anything he says is wrong per se. But you might find yourself asking "So what?" or more to the point, "Why is this supposed to be the central theory to explaining life, the universe, and everything?"</span><br />
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<span style="color: white;"><a href="http://www.correctpi.com/">The Correct Value for Pi</a></span><br />
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<span style="color: white;">OK, here at last is somebody I can pin to the board. This Iranian scholar can't stand it that Pi is infinite, and insists that its true value is actually 3.125, so there! Wrong sir! Thank you for being up front and not burying it under 100 pages of dense "proof."</span><br />
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<span style="color: white;"><a href="http://www.greatdreams.com/grace/">Impossible Correspondence</a></span><br />
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<span style="color: white;">Ah, we love the argumentative ones! This colorful Mad Hatter uses amusing George-Clinton-type coinages like "supraconsciousness" to insist that everybody else is wrong, dammit, especially that Albert Einstein. Go on, pick a page, any page - the "Analysis of Maths by Theosophical Reduction" argues that we only need nine digits to define the universe and then wades into the I-Ching and something called the Mayan "Tzolk'in"... uh, this:</span><br />
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<span style="color: white;"><a href="http://www.greatdreams.com/grace/images/Kindaystzolkin.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://www.greatdreams.com/grace/images/Kindaystzolkin.jpg" width="248" /></a></span></div>
<span style="color: white;">...guaranteeing that this refugee from Klingon astrology will lose the hell out of you before you can even suss out what he's rambling about. Oh, and there's <a href="http://www.greatdreams.com/grace/146/153quran.html">a great bit of numerology about the Quran</a>, and a piece on <a href="http://www.greatdreams.com/grace/170/177gann.html">market cycles and Fibonacci</a> done with no sense of irony for Darren Arinovsky's film. And hey, <a href="http://www.greatdreams.com/grace/146/147supraphase.html">there's this</a>:</span><br />
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<span style="color: white;">"In his stand against the ether, Einstein had argued, "we should not speak of things that can't be measured." Probably the number one reason for saying that was to insure the job of measurements. Today, the Aether not only has been experimentally shown to "exist", but the reversed, subluminal group wave Aether and the superluminal phase wave Aether could also be measured once it was defined as the existent medium."</span></blockquote>
<span style="color: white;">Treasures, treasures I tell you!</span><br />
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<span style="color: white;"><a href="http://cfrussell.homestead.com/files/intro.htm">C.F. Russel - Cubed</a></span><br />
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<span style="color: white;">This is impossible. I take back everything I ever said about the Time Cube guy; THIS is the craziest web person with a cube-centric theory! Oh, the pages start out tame enough,</span><br />
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<span style="color: white;"><a href="http://cfrussell.homestead.com/files/cubed1a.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://cfrussell.homestead.com/files/cubed1a.gif" width="320" /></a></span></div>
<span style="color: white;">but it gets crazier...</span><br />
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<span style="color: white;"><a href="http://cfrussell.homestead.com/files/cubed1c.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://cfrussell.homestead.com/files/cubed1c.gif" width="320" /></a></span></div>
<span style="color: white;">and crazier...</span><br />
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<span style="color: white;"><a href="http://cfrussell.homestead.com/files/vcube2.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="310" src="http://cfrussell.homestead.com/files/vcube2.gif" width="320" /></a></span></div>
<span style="color: white;">and CRAZIER!!!</span><br />
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<span style="color: white;"><a href="http://cfrussell.homestead.com/files/turns3.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="121" src="http://cfrussell.homestead.com/files/turns3.gif" width="320" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="color: white;">God, thank you, man! I made it up to page 16 before I couldn't hang on any more and blew my load! And THEN <a href="http://cfrussell.homestead.com/files/3d/cubespin.htm">I found this dingus</a>. Take me! Take me away to your crazy, right-angled world forever.</span><br />
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span>Penguin Petehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04954697720073484557noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2427272980463750768.post-21809590814599469662013-06-09T11:24:00.001-07:002013-06-09T11:24:39.091-07:00Cats seem pretty freaked out by space travel<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: white;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/fUIokQ36rbA?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></span></div>
<span style="color: white;">Sorry, Robert A. Heinlein, cats just aren't a good mix for space-faring cultures.</span><br />
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<span style="color: white;">More:</span><br />
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<span style="color: white;"><br /></span>Penguin Petehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04954697720073484557noreply@blogger.com