Naatsis'áán
Monday, August 31, 2009
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Saturday, August 29, 2009
The FLIP research vessel
The FLIP ship is designed to study wave height, acoustic signals, water temperature and density, and for the collection of meteorological data. Because of the potential interference with the acoustic instruments, FLIP has no engines or other means of propulsion. It must be towed to open water, where it drifts freely or is anchored
Via
Friday, August 28, 2009
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Thunderhead-Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child
Archaeologist Nora Kelly is adrift in her career and her personal life when a violent, inexplicable incident leaves her in possession of a mysterious letter.
Written sixteen years before by her father, who vanished without a trace in the remote desert, the letter points to a mythical place hidden in the redrock canyon country of southwestern Utah: Quivira, a city of gold and wonder, the lost city of the Anasazi Indians.
Convinced that her father found Quivira before he disappeared, Nora puts together an expedition. Supported by the head of a well-funded archaeological institute, Nora will take a team up Lake Powell to the mouth of Serpentine Canyon.
What lies ahead in the harsh labyrinth of canyons and slickrock desert is more than she could ever have expected. It is the answer to both her greatest hopes and her deepest nightmares. For hidden in the shadows of the sunbaked cliffs are untold treasures; the answer to the greatest riddle of American archaeology--and implacable, suffocating death.
From the colossal fury of a savage desert storm to the sunlight penetrating a mass grave for the first time in a thousand years, THUNDERHEAD is a tale for anyone who has ever searched for clues to the past. In the masterful hands of Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, THUNDERHEAD becomes an epic tale of discovery, human deceit, and a desperate struggle for survival in a place that has guarded its extraordinary secret for centuries--and will not let go without a devastating fight.
Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey
This is the most beautiful place on earth.
There are many such places. Every man, every woman, carries in heart and mind the image of the ideal place, the right place, the one true home, known or unknown, actual or visionary. A houseboat in Kashmir, a view down Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn, a gray gothic farmhouse two stories high at the end of a red dog road in the Allegheny Mountains, a cabin on the shore of a blue lake in spruce and fir country, a greasy alley near the Hoboken waterfront, or even, possibly, for those of a less demanding sensibility, the world to be seen from a comfortable apartment high in the tender, velvety smog of Manhattan, Chicago, Paris, Tokyo, Rio or Rome-there's no limit to the human capacity for the horning sentiment. Theologians, sky pilots, astronauts have even felt the appeal of home calling to them from up above, in the cold black outback of interstellar space.
For myself, I'll take Moab, Utah. I don't mean the town itself, of course, but the country which surrounds it—the canyonlands. The slick-rock desert. The red dust and the burnt cliffs and the lonely sky—all that which lies beyond the end of the roads.
Museum of Ancient Life
Opened in 2000 as part of the $23-million Thanksgiving Point museum complex in Lehi, Utah, the Museum of Ancient Life contains sixty mounted dinosaur specimens, and proclaims itself the largest dinosaur museum in the world. The collection includes two Tyrannosaurus rex skeletons, the world's most complete Stegosaurus skeleton, ultra-rare specimens of Cerratosaurus and Gargoylasaurus, a Quetzalcoatlus with a 40-foot wingspan, and a 120-foot-long specimen of the largest dinosaur ever discovered, the Supersaurus. In addition to its many hands-on exhibits, the museum is also known for its lovely, if slightly kitschy, dioramas and miniature dinosaur tableaus.
Via
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Big Bang and Creation of Time
World-renowned physicist Janna Levin explains the often-misunderstood relationship between the Big Bang and the creation of time.
I think I'll have a beer.....
This makes me so proud to be a law abiding,upstanding citizen.
Doing my part to make America a better place......
Via
Doing my part to make America a better place......
Via
Pennywise singer leaves band
After a run of 19 years, lead singer and a founding member of Pennywise, Jim Lindberg, has made the decision to leave the band.
The remaining members of Pennywise, Fletcher Dragge, Byron McMackin and Randy Bradbury, have issued the following statement regarding singer Jim Lindberg’s departure:
“After 19 years with Pennywise, Jim Lindberg has decided to step down as lead singer. Pennywise has long stood behind the motto that you should always follow your heart and pursue what makes you happy, and we wish Jim the best of luck in his new ventures, whatever they may be. Pennywise has become a way of life for a lot of people, and has definitely become a way of life for us. As the three remaining members of Pennywise we feel that we are not done delivering our message to our fans.
”The band has always been about moving forward in life no matter what obstacles stand in front of you. We will begin our search for a new singer immediately. We will continue to tour the world and we are looking forward to writing new music. We’ve had a lot of good times and survived the hard times thanks to the undying support of our fans. We’re looking forward to what the future may bring.”
Sincerely,
Fletcher, Randy, and Byron
Via
The remaining members of Pennywise, Fletcher Dragge, Byron McMackin and Randy Bradbury, have issued the following statement regarding singer Jim Lindberg’s departure:
“After 19 years with Pennywise, Jim Lindberg has decided to step down as lead singer. Pennywise has long stood behind the motto that you should always follow your heart and pursue what makes you happy, and we wish Jim the best of luck in his new ventures, whatever they may be. Pennywise has become a way of life for a lot of people, and has definitely become a way of life for us. As the three remaining members of Pennywise we feel that we are not done delivering our message to our fans.
”The band has always been about moving forward in life no matter what obstacles stand in front of you. We will begin our search for a new singer immediately. We will continue to tour the world and we are looking forward to writing new music. We’ve had a lot of good times and survived the hard times thanks to the undying support of our fans. We’re looking forward to what the future may bring.”
Sincerely,
Fletcher, Randy, and Byron
Via
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Kriminalmuseum
Skulls, medieval torture devices, bloody gloves, depictions of murder, death masks, and rusty axes - the Kriminalmuseum in Vienna, Austria is not for the faint of heart.
The Kriminalmuseum or Criminal museum follows crime, punishment and murder from the Middle Ages right up to the present day. It is housed in one of the oldest buildings in the Leopoldstadt area, the "Seifensiederhaus," or "Soap Boilers House," and dates back to 1685. Twenty rooms of this 324 year old home are devoted to this surprisingly large and very morbid museum about crime and murder.
Skulls, medieval torture devices
Of course the Kriminalmuseum is about more than just murder. There are cases devoted to counterfeit money, lock picking, brothels, and police investigation. But mostly, images of crime scenes, murder weapons and the skulls of both murderers and their victims fill the space. While macabre, the museum has a fascinating and somewhat mysterious quality to it.
For non-German speakers there is a further air of mystery: the informational signs and grizzly newspaper articles are all in German. Though sometimes, in the Kriminalmuseum, it is better not to know.
Atlas Obscura
Monday, August 24, 2009
At the Mountains of Madness
I am forced into speech because men of science have refused to follow my advice without knowing why. It is altogether against my will that I tell my reasons for opposing this contemplated invasion of the antarctic - with its vast fossil hunt and its wholesale boring and melting of the ancient ice caps. And I am the more reluctant because my warning may be in vain.
At the Mountains of Madness
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Snake Island - Ilha de Queimada Grande
Off the shore of Brazil, almost due south of the heart of São Paulo, is la Ilha de Queimada Grande. The island is untouched by human developers, and for very good reason. Researchers estimate that on the island live between one and five snakes per square meter.
That figure might not be so terrible if the snakes were, say, 2 inches long and nonvenomous. The snakes on Queimada Grande, however, are a unique species of pit viper, the golden lancehead. The lancehead genus of snakes is responsible for 90% of Brazilian snakebite-related fatalities. The golden lanceheads that occupy Snake Island grow to well over half a meter long, and they possess a powerful fast-acting poison that melts the flesh around their bites. Golden lanceheads are so dangerous that, with the exception of some scientific outfits, the Brazilian Navy has expressly forbidden anyone from landing on the island.
Locals in the coastal towns near Queimada Grande love to recount two grisly tales of death on the island. In one, a fisherman unwittingly wanders onto the island to pick bananas. Naturally, he is bitten. He manages to return to his boat, where he promptly succumbs to the snake's venom. He is found some time later on the boat deck in a great pool of blood.
The other story is of the final lighthouse operator and his family. One night, a handful of snakes enter through a window and attack the man, his wife, and their three children. In a desperate gambit to escape, they flee towards their boat, but they are bitten by snakes on branches overhead.
Marcelo Duarte, a biologist who has visited Snake Island over twenty times, says that the locals' claim of one to five snakes per square meter is an exaggeration, though perhaps not by much. One snake per square meter is more like it. Not that that should ease one's mind: At one snake per meter, you're never more than three feet away from death.
Atlas Obscura
Das Klown
The first film ever from Das Zombie Director CJ Hutchinson, this film was lost in the vaults for almost a decade and is finally finished and ready for Prime time... Directed by Erin Essery and CJ Hutchinson this short film stars Jason Neufeld, John Bryans, Stacey Hutchinson, Anthony Greenberg, Darcel Wotten, Andrew Libich and Erin Essery... It is a story of an alcoholic, cleptomaniac clown who goes to a childrens party and gets more than he bargained for...
Ball's Pyramid
The remnants of a massive volcano, Ball's Pyramid juts 1,843 feet out of the Pacific Ocean. Discovered in 1788, the barren, rocky spire was thought to be devoid of life until 2001 when a group of scientists discovered what may be the world's rarest insect.
The Lord Howe Island stick insect (Dryococelus australis) had not been seen alive in over 70 years. Known as "land lobsters" or "walking sausages," the six-inch long insects were once common on the neighboring Lord Howe Island, but were assumed to have been eaten into extinction by black rats introduced when a supply ship ran aground in 1918.
Yet in 2001, the scientists found a colony of the huge Lord Howe Island stick insects living under a single bush, a hundred feet up the otherwise entirely infertile rock. Somehow a few of the wingless insects escaped and managed--by means still unknown--to traverse 23 kilometers of open ocean, land on Ball's Pyramid, and survive there. Just 27 of the insects have been found on the rocky spire. They are currently being bred in captivity.
Atlas Obscura
Door to Heaven - 1941
This bizarre, low-budget film was produced to propagate "the gospel of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ," at least the one according to the members of this religious sect based in Wheaton, Illinois.
Setting itself up as an instruction manual on how to get your soul through those pearly gates, the film really stretches the door metaphor thin.
Some quick tips for those who want to get to Heaven –
- Door to heaven is identifiable by a stencil that reads “Door to Heaven” above it
- The door will permit toddler sinners only if accompanied by a parent or guardian
- Like an am/pm market or 7-11, it’s open all night; we recommend the sweat dogs
- Like a museum, admission is free after 5pm on the third Tuesday of each month
- There is no alarm system so it’s possible to slip through the window at night
- Sometimes those jokers inside will lock you out and turn on the fire sprinkler system
- No large boxes admitted; baggage must be stowed away in overhead compartments
- Anyone conveying poorly-conceived symbolic props will be barred from entry
- Suspected socialists or communists behind the door since you cannot bring in money
- No other material possessions will be admitted except double-breasted business suits
- Certain times of the year there may be a line to get in; please be patient with the bouncer
- Selling magazine subscriptions or six-packs of Kool Aid can get you on the guest list
- You may also just “Come” – yeah, that gets you through that door to heaven
- Door may be locked indefinitely at an undetermined future date
It also appears that the Door to Heaven, at least in this case, would not fit anyone taller than 6’2” or heavier than 320lbs.
Sorry big and tall types- No Heaven for you!
Weirdo Video
Friday, August 21, 2009
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Journalist hunts for acid-spitting Mongolian death worm
The worm apparently jumps out of the sand and kills people by spitting concentrated acid or shooting lightning from its rectum over long distances, NZPA reports.
Mongolian death worm
The Call of Cthulhu
The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new dark age.
The Call of Cthulhu
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
The Unabomber Was Right
"The system does not and cannot exist to satisfy human needs. Instead, it is human behavior that has to be modified to fit the needs of the system. This has nothing to do with the political or social ideology that may pretend to guide the technological system. It is the fault of technology, because the system is guided not by ideology but by technical necessity.”
The Technium
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Coffee......
This is the coffee pot at work. Listen to it perk. Look at the coffee as it gets darker and stronger. Smell the honest coffee smell. Ahhhh ... ... Smell it!
Day in the Death of Donny B.
... forever wandering the streets looking for that fix to end all fixes. Those around him, his family, people in the neighborhood, functionaries in the system, however, know what's in store ... the degradation of junkie-life.
Via
Via
The Hubble Ultra Deep Field in 3D
There are approximately 10,000 separate galaxies in this tiny little piece of sky. Well, the good folks at NASA and the ESA have created a 3-D flythough simulation of the image, showing you what it would look like if you actually flew through this image! Now that you know how distances work in cosmology, all they had to do was measure the redshift of each galaxy and program it in. Tony Darnell narrates it, and I've embedded it for you right here! (You can start at the 2:53 mark if you want to skip the intro.) And remember, as you watch it, that each dot of light in this image is a galaxy, comparable to our own Milky Way, with nearly a trillion stars, only one of which is our own Sun.
What Makes the Universe Expand ?
What Makes the Universe Expand ?
Monday, August 17, 2009
The Colour Out of Space - by H. P. Lovecraft
West of Arkham the hills rise wild, and there are valleys with deep woods that no axe has ever cut. There are dark narrow glens where the trees slope fantastically, and where thin brooklets trickle without ever having caught the glint of sunlight. On the gentle slopes there are farms, ancient and rocky, with squat, moss-coated cottages brooding eternally over old New England secrets in the lee of great ledges; but these are all vacant now, the wide chimneys crumbling and the shingled sides bulging perilously beneath low gambrel roofs.
further reading
THE MOON: A Propaganda Hoax
An Expose by
THE MAD REVISIONIST
In 1995, the American Historical Association, in an attempt to stifle revisionist scholarship, marked the 50th anniversary of the defeat of Nazism with a resolution calling on scholars to "initiate plans now to study the significance of the Holocaust." This, however, was not enough of a blow to free academic discourse for the enemies of truth. The president of the AHA, William Leuchtenburg, was asked why the resolution did not go so far as to explicitly recognize the Holocaust as a fact of history. He answered that for a group of historians to say that there had been a Holocaust was tantamount to "an organization of astronomers saying there is a moon."
While, on the surface, this appears as nothing more than a shameless attempt to trivialize and thereby discredit the work of revisionists, it nonetheless got me to thinking: why did this historian single out the moon? Why would a scholar, so familiar with academic standards of evidence, use such language to imply that the existence of the moon, unlike any other issue, was a given and not subject to proof? What, in other words, was he trying to hide?
It was then that I embarked on my research, which has led me to this day when I can confidently make the following assertion: The Moon does not exist. As I realize this revelation may appear shocking to the average reader, allow me to repeat it:
The Moon does not exist!
This is no lie. Until recently, I, too, believed in the traditional, establishment view of the moon. But any thinking person, untainted by the biases imposed on us by the controlled media, will have no choice but to reach the conclusion I did once faced with the facts described in this account.
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Newspaper Rock
Newspaper Rock is a petroglyph panel etched in sandstone that records perhaps 2,000 years of human activity in the area. Etched into the desert varnish are symbols' representing the Fremont, Anasazi, Navajo and Anglo cultures. The exact nature of these symbols meaning is still not clearly understood. But they are typical of many sites throughout the U.S. in their use of universal symbols, be it graffiti or a true "newspaper," recording events of the times and earlier.
The area is right next to Utah Route 211, 24 miles northwest of Monticello on the main road into the Needles section of Canyonlands National Park. It is usually bypassed by travelers hurrying elsewhere. They are missing one of the finest displays of Indian rock art to be found anywhere in the U.S. This is also one of the few petroglyph sites that is so easily accessible and can be viewed and that photographed at close range.
The area is right next to Utah Route 211, 24 miles northwest of Monticello on the main road into the Needles section of Canyonlands National Park. It is usually bypassed by travelers hurrying elsewhere. They are missing one of the finest displays of Indian rock art to be found anywhere in the U.S. This is also one of the few petroglyph sites that is so easily accessible and can be viewed and that photographed at close range.
Friday, August 14, 2009
Pickman's Model - H.P.Lovecraft
You needn't think I'm crazy, Eliot- plenty of others have queerer prejudices than this. Why don't you laugh at Oliver's grandfather, who won't ride in a motor? If I don't like that damned subway, it's my own business; and we got here more quickly anyhow in the taxi. We'd have had to walk up the hill from Park Street if we'd taken the car.
further reading....
Histroy according to Grog
They used to use urine to tan animal skins, so families used to all pee in a pot & then once a day it was taken & sold to the tannery……….if you had to do this to survive you were “Piss Poor” But worse than that were the really poor folk who couldn’t even afford to buy a pot………..they “didn’t have a pot to piss in” & were the lowest of the low.
The next time you are washing your hands and complain because the water temperature isn’t just how you like it, think about how things used to be. Here are some facts about the 1500s:
Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in May, and they still smelled pretty good by June.. However, since they were starting to smell . .. . brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body odor. Hence the custom today of carrying a bouquet when getting married.
Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water.. The man of the house had the privilege of the nice clean water, then all the other sons and men, then the women and finally the children. Last of all the babies. By then the water was so dirty you could actually lose someone in it. Hence the saying, “Don’t throw the baby out with the Bath water!”
Houses had thatched roofs-thick straw-piled high, with no wood underneath. It was the only place for animals to get warm, so all the cats and other small animals (mice, bugs) lived in the roof. When it rained it became slippery and sometimes the animals would slip an and fall off the roof. Hence the saying “It’s raining cats and dogs.”
There was nothing to stop things from falling into the house. This posed a real problem in the bedroom where bugs and other droppings could mess up your nice clean bed. Hence, a bed with big posts and a sheet hung over the top afforded some protection. That’s how canopy beds came into existence.
The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt. Hence the saying, “Dirt poor.” The wealthy had slate floors that would get slippery in the winter when wet, so they spread thresh (straw) on floor to help keep their footing. As the winter wore on, they added more thresh until, when you opened the door, it would all start slipping outside. A piece of wood was placed in the entrance-way. Hence: a thresh hold.
(Getting quite an education, aren’t you?)
In those old days, they cooked in the kitchen with a big kettle that always hung over the fire.. Every day they lit the fire and added things to the pot. They ate mostly vegetables and did not get much meat. They would eat the stew for dinner, leaving
leftovers in the pot to get cold overnight and then start over the next day Sometimes stew had food in it that had been there for quite a while. Hence the rhyme: Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old.
Sometimes they could obtain pork, which made them feel quite special.. When visitors came over, they would hang up their bacon to show off. It was a sign of wealth that a man could, “bring home the bacon..” They would cut off a little to share with guests and would all sit around and chew the fat.
Those with money had plates made of pewter. Food with high acid content caused some of the lead to leach onto the food, causing lead poisoning death. This happened most often with tomatoes, so for the next 400 years or so, tomatoes were considered poisonous.
Bread was divided according to status. Workers got the burnt bottom of the loaf, the family got the middle, and guests got the top, or the upper crust.
Lead cups were used to drink ale or whiskey. The combination would sometimes knock the imbibers out for a couple of days. Someone walking along the road would take them for dead and prepare them for burial. They were laid out on the kitchen table for a couple of days and the family would gather around and eat and drink and wait and see if they would
wake up. Hence the custom of holding a wake.
England is old and small and the local folks started running out of places to bury people. So they would dig up coffins and would take the bones to a bone-house, and reuse the grave. When reopening these coffins, 1 out of 25 coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside and they realized they had been burying people alive. So they would tie a string on the wrist of the corpse, lead it through the coffin and up through the ground and tie it to a bell. Someone would have to sit out in the graveyard all night (the graveyard shift.) to listen for the bell; thus, someone could be, saved by the bell or was considered a dead ringer…
And that’s the truth…Now, whoever said History was boring ! ! !
Professor Grog adds: I will not stand by any of this as fact but it sounds possible.
More facts about the 1500's
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Thursday, August 13, 2009
Living Root Bridges
In the depths of northeastern India, in one of the wettest places on earth, bridges aren't built - they're grown.
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Via
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Monday, August 10, 2009
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