Yarr!

Sanningen om de somaliska piraterna!
Socialist Alternative

God jul då.

Teslaspolar är de nya Marshallstärkarna!

Merce Death - Thunderstruck (dåligt spelad) med TESLASPOLAR istället för förstärkare!

Imperiets nedgång och fall

Hello, everyone! The talk you are about to hear is the result of a lengthy process on my part. My specialty is in thinking about and, unfortunately, predicting collapse. My method is based on comparison: I watched the Soviet Union collapse, and, since I am also familiar with the details of the situation in the United States, I can make comparisons between these two failed superpowers.

Energy Bulletin

Mumbaiterroristerna tog LSD

Mumbaiterroristerna tog LSD, kokain och "andra droger" för att hålla sig vakna. LSD? Varför?

The Telegraph

5L4y3R

Slayer - Angel of Death 8-bit
via Coilhouse

Fortaste datorn

Petaflopbarriären sprängd!

A new crop of supercomputers is breaking down the petaflop speed barrier, pushing high-performance computing into a new realm that could change science more profoundly than at any time since Galileo, leading researchers say.

When the Top 500 list of the world's fastest supercomputers was announced at the international supercomputing conference in Austin, Texas, on Monday, IBM had barely managed to cling to the top spot, fending off a challenge from Cray. But both competitors broke petaflop speeds, performing 1.105 and 1.059 quadrillion floating-point calculations per second, the first two computers to do so.

These computers aren't just faster than those they pushed further down the list, they will enable a new class of science that wasn't possible before. As recently described in Wired magazine, these massive number crunchers will push simulation to the forefront of science.

Scientists will be able to run new and vastly more accurate models of complex phenomena: Climate models will have dramatically higher resolution and accuracy, new materials for efficient energy transmission will be developed and simulations of scramjet engines will reach a new level of complexity.

"The scientific method has changed for the first time since Galileo invented the telescope (in 1509)," said computer scientist Mark Seager of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

Wired

What is the time, Mr. Templar?

Jesper Dahlbäck - What is the time, Mr. Templar?

Obamas rymdpolitik

Obama klargör rymdpolicyn för kommande mandatperiod:

Lisa Ellman, Obama’s policy director in New Hampshire, said Obama “will work to strengthen American leadership in space” and that he “believes that the United States needs a strong space program to help it maintain its superiority not only in space, but here on earth in the realms of education, technology, and national security.”

Most importantly, Ellman clarifies what Obama meant by delaying Constellation by five years:

Obama believes we should continue developing the next generation of space vehicles, and complete the international space station. While Obama would delay plans to return to moon and push on to mars, Obama would continue unmanned missions, and use NASA to monitor the forces and effects of climate change, support scientific research, and maintain surveillance to strengthen national security. Obama also believes we need to keep weapons out of space.

Space Politics

Taro Aso har problem

“Det är svårt att läsa serietidningar eftersom jag har begränsat med tid” -- Japans Premiärminister Taro Aso

BoingBoing

Ny pulsar

Oct. 17, 2008: About three times a second, a 10,000-year-old stellar corpse sweeps a beam of gamma-rays toward Earth. Just discovered by NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, the object, called a pulsar, is the first one known that "blinks" in pure gamma rays.
NASA
Stulet från Jonas.

TGIF

Duane Eddy - Rebel Rouser

TGI-S?

För er som ännu inte sett Ljuset: Glasvegas - Geraldine (Live)

Undantagstillstånd i USA

1 Oktober ska en AKTIV arméenhet i tjänst i USA, för att "hjälpa" med "civil unrest and crowd control". JFR Italiens arméinsatser mot "organiserad brottslighet" etc.
Scary.

Obama & McCain rensar gatorna

Trailer för nya actionspelet Saints Row 2.
Gametrailers via Spelfeber

LHC-vidjo

LHC - Så Funkar Det!

Jag tänkte skriva något satiriskt om scientisterna, men det fanns inget att tillägga.

A temple for the worship of science will open later this month in Berkeley, California.

Conceived by artist Jonathon Keats -- designer of the petri dish God -- the Atheon is supposed to "provide a spiritual home for rational people," allowing atheists to nourish regions of the soul typically satisfied by religion.

"The leading minds believe that science can and should provide a spiritually satisfying replacement," said Keats in a press release. "But until recently no one bothered to consider what form that alternative might take."

Wired

Hawking förklarar hur det är

Ny svensk litteratur!

Sonny Boinners förlag
Att: redaktör Mi Mesison

Tjena.
Bra att ni tog mitt manus och vill trycka. Och kul. Grejen är att jag har frågor om villkoren som du kräver. Alltså jag flyttade till Stockholm för typ två år sen och jag har aldrig hört talas ens om halva av dom ställen du säger om. Du säger att ja ja skriv om dom i alla fall och det kan väl göra om du ringer innan så att jag kan komma in i alla fall till dom.
Och så undrar jag om det faktiskt är okej att skriva om hur man har snackat och mer med såna typ hon som sjunger i det där skånska bandet fast man inte har gjort det. Det är ok för mig om det är ok för dig men jag vill inte åka dit för det.
Tack för listan på märken jag ska skriva till in i romanen, men får jag också pengar för dom? Jeansen passade bra men det är ju så många märken jag ska skiva om så jag undrade bara om jag också får betalt.
Och så undrar jag vad jag ska säga när dom ringer och vill prata med mig från tidningar och allt. Är det ok att jag säger till att prata med dig istället? Jag är ju inte så bra på att tänka som du.
Och så är det det där med att min farsa nog blir rätt arg när han läser att hans alkolism och spöa mig och så. Och så hans anstälda på Hypnagogia Fond Invest som kommer att fråga han att vad fan är det här och så? Har ni något i kontraktet som handlar något om det?
Jag vill gärna ha svar innan oktober för jag håller på med avhandlig i nationalekonomi på Handels och vill vara färdig i november.

Hör av dig på mobilen eller sms
Jonas

Jonas Thente

HELIOTRON

Heliotron! Nej, det är INTE ett stonerrockband.

Large Hadron Collider who? Forget CERN’s little science gizmo - the supersexy science machine title [Heliotron] belongs to Japan’s Large Helical Device, the world’s largest superconducting stellarator* that employs a heliotron magnetic field. Via The Long Now Foundation

Plus, there is a large pic that looks good for your monitor’s background! (For some neat photos of the Joint European Torus nuclear fusion reactor and more, check out Kernfusie)

*A thingamajig used to contain hot plasma with magnetic field to sustain a controlled nuclear fusion reaction.

Neatorama

Snart sprider de frihet med laservapen

LASER weapons mounted on trucks could be ready to roll into battle within five years. This week Boeing won a $36 million contract from the US Army Space and Missile Defense Command to build the optics needed to track and focus lethal laser energy onto rockets, artillery shells and mortar rounds. The High Energy Laser Technology Demonstrator will use a new solid-state laser powered by electricity from a truck-mounted diesel generator, rather than bulky and dangerous chemicals.

New Scientist

TGIF

Supergrass - Mary

Seriebiografi om Jack Parsons

Stoppa pressarna! Jack Parsons (wiki) liv kommer i serieform!

The Marvel
Via BoingBoing

TGIF

Så hårt och bra att ingen vidjo behövs: Speedy J - Pannik.

För skopofilerna i publiken bjuder jag på lite ögongodis också:

Frankie Valli - Beggin'. Video av legendaren Cyriak.

McCain dissar D&D

Confronting questions about whether John McCain stole an inspiring POW story from the autobiography of a former Soviet prisoner, a campaign spokesman threw out this melee attack against a much-maligned geek pastime:

"It may be typical of the pro-Obama Dungeons & Dragons crowd to disparage a fellow countryman's memory of war from the comfort of mom's basement," said McCain aide Michael Goldfarb, in a posting to the campaign website. "But most Americans have the humility and gratitude to respect and learn from the memories of men who suffered on behalf of others."

Ouch. I'd take offense, but I have a saving-throw to make, and the dim light in this basement is making it hard to see the D20.

Missa inte kommentarerna, där de bestämmer ras, klass och stats för JMC. "Gelatinous Cube" är ett poppis val!
Wired

Robot med levande hjärna

Meet Gordon, probably the world’s first robot controlled exclusively by living brain tissue.

Stitched together from cultured rat neurons, Gordon’s primitive grey matter was designed at the University of Reading by scientists who unveiled the neuron-powered machine on Wednesday. [...]

Because the brain is living tissue, it must be housed in a special temperature-controlled unit — it communicates with its "body" via a Bluetooth radio link. The robot has no additional control from a human or computer.

From the very start, the neurons get busy. "Within about 24 hours, they start sending out feelers to each other and making connections," said Warwick. "Within a week we get some spontaneous firings and brain-like activity" similar to what happens in a normal rat — or human — brain, he added.

Via Neatorama

TGIF

Christian Death - Romeo's Distress (live)

TGIF

808 State - Cubik

Prosit

Virus kan också få virus; livet är bra jävla hårt ibland.

The discovery of a giant virus that falls ill through infection by another virus¹ is fuelling the debate about whether viruses are alive.

“There’s no doubt this is a living organism,” says Jean-Michel Claverie, a virologist at the the CNRS UPR laboratories in Marseilles, part of France’s basic-research agency. “The fact that it can get sick makes it more alive.”

NatureNews

Large Hadron Collider Rap

LHC Rap! Righteous. Tack Peter för tipset.

Ålar är Aliens

Enormous monsters scuttle across the screen in the movie "Alien," devouring humans with a second, saliva-dripping set of jaws thrust from the back of their throats. Although the creatures are contrived, a new study shows that moray eels use such a set of jaws to eat.

The discovery shows that morays use the second, hidden set of jaws to drag unsuspecting meals to their doom—a behavior unique among the eels' bony fish relatives, who suck in meals like vacuum cleaners.

LiveScience
Tack Peter för tipset!

TGIF

Tinariwen - Amassakoul N'Ténéré

Antikhyteramekanismen igen

Så här i OS-tider:

The Antikythera Mechanism is a two-thousand year-old clock made in Greece that was discovered a century ago in a shipwreck. Two years ago, scientists studying the bits and pieces that survived under the sea were able to figure out that the device was used to calculate astronomical cycles. Now though, British mathematician Tony Freeth, part of the original research group, has determined that the Antikythera Mechanism also shows the timetables of the Olympic Games. Freeth and his colleagues published their findings in this week's issue of the science journal Nature. The magazine also posted a fascinating video telling the clock's story. It's a marvelous tale of technology, history, and curiosity. From Nature News:

BoingBoing

Kryptid eller viral?

This is an actual monster, some sort of rodent-like creature with a dinosaur beak. A tipster says that there is "a government animal testing facility very close by in Long Island," but unless the government is trying to design horrible Montauk monsters that will eat IEDs and fart fire at bad Iraqis, we're not sure why they would create such an unthinkable beast. Our guess is that it's viral marketing for something. Ali Lohan's new album perhaps.

Gawker

Warpspeed teoretisk möjlighet

En Warp Drive-motor är inte en omöjlighet:

It is possible to travel faster than light. You just wouldn't travel faster than light.

Seems strange, but by manipulating extra dimensions with astronomical amounts of energy, two Baylor University physicists have outlined how a faster-than-light engine, or warp drive, could be created that would bend but not break the laws of physics.

"We think we can create an effective warp drive, based on general relatively and string theory," said Gerald Cleaver, coauthor of the paper that recently appeared on the preprint server ArXiv.org

The warp engine is based on a design first proposed in1994 by Michael Alcubierre. The Alcubierre drive, as it's known, involves expanding the fabric of space behind a ship into a bubble and shrinking space-time in front of the ship. The ship would rest in between the expanding and shrinking space-time, essentially surfing down the side of the bubble.

The tricky part is that the ship wouldn't actually move; space itself would move underneath the stationary spacecraft. A beam of light next to the ship would still zoom away, same as it always does, but a beam of light far from the ship would be left behind.

(...)
Cleaver agrees that the creation of a real warp drive is still far away.

"Warp drive isn't doable now, and probably won't be for the next several millenia," said Cleaver.

Discovery

UPDATE: Ingemar skriver:
Jag antar att du har läst detta:
http://xantor.webblogg.se/tempusfugit/2006/may/sikta-mot-stjarnorna.html

Jetpacks är framtiden

Here's a short video of the Martin Jetpack that's going to be unveiled at the Oshkosh Airshow next week.

BoingBoing

Solförmörkelse

1 augusti bjuds det på (partiell) solförmörkelse runt lunchtid. Inte missa!
Wiki

TGIF

Michael Dee - Hurra, hurra, det är så roligt i Moskva
Tack Danijel för tipset!

Watchmen blir spel

Variety rapporterar nu att Warner Bros. och Deadline Games (Faith and a .45.) kommer att släppa episodiska Watchmen-spel till PC, XBL och PSN.

With the clock ticking on the film’s release, Warner Bros. has decided to eschew the traditional console videogame tie-in and is producing a pair of downloadable games based on "Watchmen."The studio’s Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment unit plans to publish at least two "Watchmen" game episodes, with the first coming upon the theatrical release next March and the second around the DVD launch.

Spelet kommer tydligen bli en "brawler" där man antingen styr Night Owl eller Rorschach.

Spelfeber

Stupid Sexy Flanders!

Don't cry for me, I'm already dead. Rörande liten serie om kärlek, förlust och Simpsonscitat!

Don't cry for me, I'm already dead.

Skräckbläckis

At the Shima Marineland Aquarium is housed the preserved body of one of the most terrifying creatures the world has ever known. This Common Octopus (Octopus vulgaris) weighed seven pounds and measured three feet long when it was captured in 1998 in Matoya Bay. It also had ninety six arms.

Instances of octopuses with extra arms have been noted but few, if any, reach anything approaching this number. The octopus had eight main arms that branched off into separate bundles of multiple arms. It has been suggested that the extra arms may be the result of abnormal regeneration from suffering multiple injuries.

Also rare among octopuses is that this one laid eggs in captivity in the five months before it died. The octopuses that hatched from the eggs all had the normal number of arms, but all died in captivity.

Ectoplasmosis!

TGIF

Cassandra Complex - VALIS

Fallout 3 Hands-On

Destructoid har speltestat efterlängtade Fallout 3:

Exiting the vault reminded me why, despite whatever complaints one might have with the way Bethesda handles Fallout, the epic first-person 3D RPG will always be better than 2D, isometric third person perspective. In the original Fallout, as you’re leaving the vault, some text tells you something like, “You see a bright light ahead of you. This is the first time in your life you have seen sunlight.” That’s well and good, but it’s nothing like actually stepping out of the Vault into pure whiteness, so bright and overwhelming that I momentarily thought the game had crashed. The whiteness slowly faded away, however, and I realized that my character, the vault dweller, was adjusting his eyes to a sunlight he’d never before been exposed to in his life.

It was awesome.
(...)
I got lost, and ended up in a small house. A young woman with white hair came out, asking if a nearby gangster from Megaton had sent me to collect her debt. I told her no, that I was just looking for my dad, that I didn’t want any trouble, and that I would take her money to the gangster for her so she wouldn’t have to risk it. She thanked me and gave me all her bottle caps.

Then I shot her to death.

What? Don't judge me.

I wanted to see if, as was the case in the original Fallout, you could kill any character at any time. And, if that poor woman was any indication, you can.

Destructoid

Holländska enklaver i belgisk stad

"A reader emailed me about this amazingly weird town in Belgium where, due to how the town was divided back in the 12th century, parts of the village are actually now Dutch. In other words, you have this weird island-effect - check out the map - where pockets of the Netherlands exist within the larger matrix of a Belgian town. These sovereign pockets are only big enough to hold a few houses, though - and the houses differentiate themselves, nationalistically, by including coats of arms on their fronts. They even have separate postal services! It's like something straight out of Pynchon's The Crying of Lot 49. What's more, because laws differ in the Dutch parts of the town, restaurants apparently used to close at different times - but in some cases this simply meant that you had to move to another table, thus crossing the national border. "
BoingBoing

Corporate Cannibal

Video på en lördag? Visst! Grace Jones är tillbaka, om möjligt ännu mer badass än någonsin. Videon är till "Corporate Cannibal", första singeln från kommande albumet "Hurricane" i samarbete med Tricky, Brian Eno mfl. Righteous!

TGIF

Ozzy Osbourne - Bark At The Moon

Stenar från Mars

Stenar från Mars ska föras till Jorden:

Space experts will meet in France later this week to thrash out plans for an ambitious robotic spacecraft mission to return rocks from Mars to Earth – arguably the most ambitious interplanetary adventure ever attempted.

"This has been the holy grail for Mars scientists for a very long time," says David Parker of the British National Space Centre in London, UK. "We think it is doable, but it is going to take international collaboration and a lot of hard work to make it happen."

Mars is a hub of robotic activity, with NASA's Phoenix lander currently digging there and future landers such as the Mars Science Laboratory and ExoMars in the pipeline.

But no mission has ever returned Martian rocks to Earth, something that scientists consider essential to understanding the history of Mars and whether it ever hosted life.

New Scientist

Hellboy på Inside the Actor's Studio

Hellboy intervjuad av James Lipton på Inside the Actor's Studio!

TGIF

AC/DC - Problem Child

Lovecraftdokumentär

BBC har gjort en radiodokumentär om HP Lovecraft som finns på Youtube.
Intervjuer med Neil Gaiman, S.T. Joshi, Kelly Link, Peter Straub, China Mieville mfl.
Youtube via Ectoplasmosis!

Robot-TGIF

The Trons - Sister Robot. Bandet består av robotar!

Kemiskt bröllop

Fortean Times toksågar "Chemical Wedding" - Bruce Dickinsons (yes, THE Bruce Dickinson) film om Aleister Crowley som återvänder till de levande via cyberspace:

Co-written by Iron Maiden’s Bruce Dickinson and director Julian Doyle, the film lurches from black comedy to po-faced, heavy metal absurdity: at times it’s rather as if Spinal Tap had decide to make their own version of The Devil Rides Out. The script is the main problem – confusing, repetitive and unforgivably silly, its dialogue larded with indigestible chunks of Shakespeare (as if this would make us take the whole thing seriously) and its situations becoming ever more hackneyed.

Despite its shortcomings – and they are legion – the film does have a lot of fun with the whole Crowley mythos, and playing ‘spot the reference’ (characters have names like ‘Victor’, ‘Leah’, ‘Mathers’ and ‘Symonds’) may keep viewers amused. In the end, it’s a sporadically interesting, fatally flawed addition to cinematic Crowleyana, and one that will probably appeal to quite a few of the Great Beast’s fans – at least those of them who revel in stories of his legendary bad behaviour; modern-day Thelemites who actually take this stuff seriously will no doubt be deeply offended.

Fortean Times

Octophant!

Ectoplasmosis

De Palma gör film om mord

Brian De Palma ska göra film om "The Boston Stranglers":

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Brian De Palma is headed into murderous territory. He has signed on to direct The Boston Stranglers for Valhalla Motion Pictures, a movie all about the notorious 60's killing spree.

The movie will be based on Susan Kelly's nonfiction book, The Boston Stranglers: The Public Conviction of Albert DeSalvo and the True Story of Eleven Shocking Murders. The movie will detail the famous murders, as well as their controversial resolution. Debate still centers on the guilt of Albert DeSalvo, who confessed to the murders, but never fit the profile. He was later murdered in prison.

Cinematical

TGIF på en lördag

Coil - Tainted Love
Tack Hjalmar för tipset!

The Crippled Masters (1979) trailer

Förlåt.

Black Metal

Boston College Physicist Willie J. Padilla and a team from Boston College and Duke Univ. have nanoengineered a material that absorbs all the light that strikes it. How much more black could it be? None more black.

BoingBoing

Groda med klor

"Amphibian horror" isn't a movie genre, but on this evidence perhaps it should be. Harvard biologists have described a bizarre, hairy frog with cat-like extendable claws.

Trichobatrachus robustus actively breaks its own bones to produce claws that puncture their way out of the frog's toe pads, probably when it is threatened.

David Blackburn and colleagues at Harvard University's Museum of Comparative Zoology, think the gruesome behaviour is a defence mechanism.

The researchers say there are salamanders that force their ribs through their skin to produce protective barbs on demand, but nothing quite like this mechanism has been seen before.

NewScientist

Bilder från Phoenix

The Mars Odyssey spacecraft has again successfully transmitted data from the Phoenix lander back to Earth, following the newly arrived lander's first full day of operations on Mars. Pictures are now streaming down via NASA's Deep Space Network and can be viewed online in their unprocessed state.

Earlier, mission managers indicated that taking more pictures would be a high priority. "We want to look around and see as much of the surroundings as possible so that we can figure out where we are," said principal investigator Peter Smith.

New Scientist Space

Yeatsutställning online

National Library of Ireland har en utställning om Yeats som kan ses online.
The Life and Works of William Butler Yeats

TGIF

Underworld - Boy Boy Boy

Gratis web-rpg

Monster's Den: Book of Dread, kanske ett av de ambitiösaste webspelen på länge. Klassisk dungeon crawl, fett med loot utlovas.

BTW, för er som likt mig fortfarande tar sig en Neverwinter Nights då och då, rekommenderar å det grövsta modulen Darkness over Daggerford. Skulle blivit en betalmodul, men är nu gratis. Från delar av teamet bakom Baldur's Gate, säger väl allt. Ladda! Spela! Mölj!
Bioware

Handeys flagga

Kåsören Jack Handey har designat egen flagga:

The bra and panties stand for women’s rights.

Davy Crockett shaking hands with Daniel Boone symbolizes how we need to put aside our differences.

The skull and crossbones, in the lower right corner, stands for pirates, and all that they have given us.

The angel holding the sword represents how guns are nice but swords are more of a “heavenly” thing.

The plow with the four-leaf clover symbolizes the luck of the farmer.

The quicksand represents the travails of life. The hand sticking out of it is so you know it’s quicksand and not just a dirty spot on the flag.

The bat stands for eternal life, through our lord Dracula.

osv, osv...

NewYorker

Japanska militärsatelliter i rymden?

Japans armé ska ut i rymden och härja. Ja, nästan i alla fall.

A new law expected to be passed by the Japanese parliament will allow the country to have a military presence in space for the first time.

But don't panic. Japan isn't gearing up to make space into a shooting gallery. The country wants to bolster its space operations so it can keep a wary eye on North Korea and China, and so it can develop its own space industry.

Japan has been feeling uneasy and bolstering its defenses in recent years - in December, for example, it launched a sea-based interceptor that destroyed a test missile over the Pacific in the first test of the country's missile-defence system, which is based on US technology. North Korea sparked the unease by pressing for the development of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles. China's anti-satellite test last year only added to the anxiety.

Yet the resolution that first established Japan's space agency in 2003 limited it to peaceful purposes. When Japan decided it needed a spy satellite to watch North Korea, for example, the government had to go through a series of contortions to satisfy its own rules - including having the office of the prime minister operate the satellite.

The new bill will allow Japan's Ministry of Defense to deploy satellites for non-aggressive missions, including communications, surveillance and weather observations, as is routinely done by the military agencies of other countries. Industry is backing the move as a step towards creating a powerful space industry. The government is expected to follow by establishing a central space policy council to develop a national space strategy.

New Scientist Space

Kollosalbläckis

Wired har bildreportage från obduktionen av en kollosalbläckfisk.
Wired

TGIF

ZZ Top - Sharp Dressed Man

LHC, mer än bara bara ett hockeylag

"Rock star physicist" Brian Cox talks about his work on the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. Discussing the biggest of big science in an engaging, accessible way, Cox brings us along on a tour of the massive project.

B. Cox om Large Hadron Collider. Goda nyheter, kanske kommer den INTE att skapa ett svart hål som äter upp jorden. Men man vet ju aldrig, som Schrödinger sade.
Mental Floss

Iron Sky teaser

"In 1945 the Nazis fled to the moon. It's 2018, and now they're coming back"

Teaser för ny "internet feature film" från teamet bakom Sci-fi-parodin Star Wreck.

Iron Sky
Via BoingBoing

Mer övervakning än straff

Det enorma antalet övervakningskameror i Storbrittannien har mycket liten inverkan på antalet lösta brott:

Massive investment in CCTV cameras to prevent crime in the UK has failed to have a significant impact, despite billions of pounds spent on the new technology, a senior police officer piloting a new database has warned. Only 3% of street robberies in London were solved using CCTV images, despite the fact that Britain has more security cameras than any other country in Europe.

Guardian

Våldet i GTA nedtonat

Conan O'Brien avslöjar: mindre våld i nya GTA!
Del 2

TGIF

´
Samhain - Archangel
Tack Hjalmar för tipset!

Hoffmann död

Albert Hoffmann, mannen som av en slump uppfann LSD, är död.

Albert Hofmann, who first synthesized Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), has passed away. He was 102 years-old.

"I believe that if people would learn to use LSD's vision-inducing capability more wisely, under suitable conditions, in medical practice and in conjunction with meditation, then in the future this problem child could become a wonderchild." -- Albert Hofmann (1906-2008)

BoingBoing

Kleopatras och Marcus Antonius grav ska grävas ut

Egypten planerar att gräva ut graven som innehåller Kleopatra och Marcus Antonius:

Cairo, 24 April(AKI) - Archaeologists have revealed plans to uncover the 2000 year-old tomb of ancient Egypt's most famous lovers, Cleopatra and the Roman general Mark Antony later this year.

Zahi Hawass, prominent archaeologist and director of Egypt's superior council for antiquities announced a proposal to test the theory that the couple were buried together.

He discussed the project in Cairo at a media conference about the ancient pharaohs.

Hawass said that the remains of the legendary Egyptian queen and her Roman lover, Mark Antony, were inside a temple called Tabusiris Magna, 30 kilometres from the port city of Alexandria in northern Egypt.

Until recently access to the tomb has been hindered because it is under water, but archaeologists plan to drain the site so they can begin excavation in November.

ADNKronos

TGIF

Current 93 - Since Yesterday

Dum robottävling

The Stupid Robot Contest is an annual show held by Meiwa Electronics to determine whose robot is the silliest. There are just three criteria that a robot must meet in order to be entered in this contest:

1. It must be mechanical
2. It must be completely useless from a societal point of view.
3. It must make people laugh.

Pictured above is Papa Robopucho, a disfigured little box bot that plays the red-flag-white-flag game by himself, and then occasionally topples over and cries for help.

Some of the other contestants last year were a chorus of pregnant wife robots, a child robot that did push-ups, and and a "moe" robot dressed like a maid from a maid cafe.

TokyoMango

Om nom nom

Japaner har byggt robot som ska hämta döda från olycksplatser. Stilpoäng för att den ser ut som att den äter folk.

Owned by the Tokyo Fire Department and controlled by remote control Robokiyu uses two movable arms to drag a person’s body up the slide located in the front of the machine.

Don’t worry if you happen to be presumed dead and picked up by Robokiyu, he has fresh oxygen pumping through him at all times for your convenience.

Robokiyu is also not above apology and will happily pour you a drink to say sorry.

Weird Asia News

Din reklam i Watchmen

Fans uppmanas komma upp med fejkad reklam som ska vara med i Watchmenfilmen:

Calling all Watchmen fans and aspiring auteurs! Here's your chance to go down in comic book history.

Zack Snyder, director of the upcoming movie adaptation of the wildly popular comic, is inviting you to create a advertisement for a fake product -- if it's good enough, it could make its way into the movie.

Contenders just need to shoot their videos and upload 'em; YouTubers will vote on the submissions to narrow down the pool.

As many as twenty home-brewed commerical could appear in the feature film, earning each creator a thousand dollars. Watch the clip right for a personal call for entries from Snyder.

Wired

Bioniskt öga

Bioniskt öga ger hopp om bot för vissa typer av blindhet:

A 'bionic eye' may hold the key to returning sight to people left blind by a hereditary disease, experts believe.

A team at London's Moorfields Eye Hospital have carried out the treatment on the UK's first patients as part of a clinical study into the therapy.

The artificial eye, connected to a camera on a pair of glasses, has been developed by US firm Second Sight.

(...)

The bionic eye, known as Argus II, works via the camera which transmits a wireless signal to an ultra-thin electronic receiver and electrode panel that are implanted in the eye and attached to the retina.

The electrodes stimulate the remaining retinal nerves allowing a signal to be passed along the optic nerve to the brain.

David Head, chief executive of the British Retinitis Pigmentosa Society, said: "This treatment is very exciting, but it is still early days.

"There is currently no treatment for patients so this device and research into stem cells therapies offers the best hope."

BBC

Hawking: Tiodubbla rymdbudgeten!

Stephen Hawking called for a massive investment in establishing colonies on the Moon and Mars in a lecture in honour of NASA's 50th anniversary. He argued that the world should devote about 10 times as much as NASA's current budget – or 0.25% of the world's financial resources – to space.

The renowned University of Cambridge physicist has previously spoken in favour of colonising space as an insurance policy against the possibility of humanity being wiped out by catastrophes like nuclear war and climate change. He argues that humanity should eventually expand to other solar systems.

But in a speech in Washington, DC, US, delivered in honour of NASA's 50th anniversary in 2008, Hawking focused on near-term possibilities, backing the space agency's goals of returning astronauts to the Moon by 2020 and sending humans to Mars soon after that.

The Moon is a good place to start because it is "close by and relatively easy to reach", Hawking said. "The Moon could be a base for travel to the rest of the solar system," he added. Mars would be "the obvious next target", with its abundant supplies of frozen water, and the tantalising possibility that life may have been present there in the past.

New Scientist Space

Evolutionsmyter

New Scientist reder ut begreppen kring evolution, många missförstånd cirkulerar även bland anhängarna till teorin:

Shared misconceptions:

Everything is an adaptation produced by natural selection

Natural selection is the only means of evolution

Natural selection leads to ever-greater complexity

Evolution produces creatures perfectly adapted to their environment

Evolution always promotes the survival of species

It doesn't matter if people do not understand evolution

"Survival of the fittest" justifies "everyone for themselves"

Evolution is limitlessly creative

Evolution cannot explain traits such as homosexuality

Creationism provides a coherent alternative to evolution

New Scientist

TGIF

Robert Palmer - Simply Irresistible

Sista krisen i DCU?

Grant Morrison ska skriva ett nytt "Crisis"-epos för DC Comics, denna gången ska det bli något i hästväg som heter "Final Crisis".

With the who's who of sequential art descending upon the Big Apple this weekend for New York Comic Con, CBR News tracked down one of the event's guests of honor, Grant Morrison, to discuss the superstar writer's work at DC Comics and to help fans get geared up for all of the weekend's fun and festivities.

We begin our three-part presentation of ALL STAR GRANT MORRISON with a conversation about "Final Crisis," and follow-up tomorrow with a discussion of "Batman" and "All Star Superman" and a little "Seaguy" on Thursday.

Asked right out the gates if "Final Crisis" was truly DC's final "Crisis," Morrison told CBR News, "There are still all kinds of words to put in front of 'Crisis.' There's 'Constant Crisis', 'Future Crisis', 'Mid-Life Crisis.' But please don't say that to them [DC]. Really, don't even hint that there could be more crises

"I mean, it's certainly a big one for me," Morrison continued from his home in Scotland. "I can't take responsibility for what DC management decides to do in the future. But the idea is this isThe Final Crisis, yes. I'm taking it seriously. So if they are going to have a big event after this, they are going to have to use a different word."

Comic Book Resources

From Rave to the Grave

Hammer Films återuppstår från de döda! De släpper nu filmen Beyond The Rave, i samarbete med MySpaceTV (faktiskt!). Filmen ska först släppas i 20 delar som man kan se på MySpace, sedan ut på DVD. Vampyrer, knark, techno och kroksablar utlovas.

We can now confirm that the exciting new Hammer production, Beyond the Rave will launch via partners Myspace on April 17th.

Beyond the Rave will be released as a 20 part serial exclusively through social networking site myspace, and was produced by Hammer and Pure Grass Films.

Beyond The Rave
Hammer Films

David Byrne skriver låt åt robot

David Byrne ska komponera musik som ska framföras av sjungande robot:

I’m in Dallas — or more accurately, Richardson, a silicon suburb north of the city — to meet with David Hanson, a maker of realistic (i.e. human) looking robots.

We’re collaborating on a piece that, if all goes well, will be part of a group show at The Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid this summer. Some time ago, the curators invited me to be part of a tech-oriented art show, and I suggested approaching Hanson to make a singing robot for which I would write and record a song.

Hanson’s robots flirt with the uncanny and test our notions of what it means to be human. They have rubbery flesh made of what he calls frubber, with tiny wires on the inside that pull the “skin” to mimic human facial expressions (to an extent). Some of them can also make eye contact and some can carry on a weird dialogue, adding to their profoundly disturbing nature. Part of what makes this human likeness so creepy is our instinctive desire to empathize with the robots and to ascribe to their behavior human motivations and even emotions.

DavidByrne.com

Skolpojke räknade fel!

En av dagens stora stories var att en tysk 13-åring räknat ut att NASAs odds för att asteroiden Apophis skulle träffa jorden var fel; han "visade" att oddsen var 1 på 450 istället för 1 på 45000. Rapporterades ex här.

Nu visar det sig, föga överraskande, att NASA hade räknat rätt.
The Register

För övrigt rapporteras att rymdsonden Cassini får förlängd anställning och ska flyga runt i två år till med beräknade 60 var kring Saturnus.

NASA is extending the international Cassini-Huygens mission by two years. The historic spacecraft's stunning discoveries and images have revolutionized our knowledge of Saturn and its moons. Cassini's mission originally had been scheduled to end in July 2008.

The newly-announced two-year extension will include 60 additional orbits of Saturn and more flybys of its exotic moons. These will include 26 flybys of Titan, seven of Enceladus, and one each of Dione, Rhea and Helene. The extension also includes studies of Saturn's rings, its complex magnetosphere, and the planet itself.

Saturn Daily

Chtulhufilm

Cast A Deadly Spell is the best Lovecraftian film adaptation to date, anyone that argues that point with you either hasn’t seen it or is an imbecile unworthy of your time. The film centers around Phillip J. Lovecraft, a detective in a 1940’s Hollywood where magic and monsters are not only real, but common. Everyone, from housewives to CEO’s use magic, everyone except Phillip J. Lovecraft that is. It is my dubious honor to present you with the film, a favorite of mine for years, in its entirety, for today’s Cthursday thanks to the piratical inclinations of some benevolent soul. Don’t say we never gave you anything.

Ectoplasmosis

Bränn Repet

You Have To Burn The Rope, världens kanske mest... koncisa spel.
Mazapán

TGIF

David Allan Coe - Take This Job And Shove It

This Is Your Brain On Drugs

Var femte vetenskapsman i undersökning knarkare:

Nature released the results of an online survey in which 20 percent of respondents, largely drawn from the scientific community, admitted to using brain-enhancing drugs like Ritalin (methylphenidate) and Provigil (modafinil).

Sixty-two percent of the scientists who had taken drugs used Ritalin while 44 percent reported using Provigil and only 14 percent had tried beta blockers like propranolol.

The 1,427-person survey was launched after a duo of articles this winter touched off a storm of questions about widespread neuroenhancer use by the scientific community. Jonathan Eisen of UC-Davis, an evolutionary biologist, even successfully spread an April Fools' rumor that the National Institutes of Health were planning to regulate the use of brain "steroids" as a condition of funding scientists.

Wired

PKD + Disney = Sant

Disney ska tydligen filmatisera en Philip K. Dick-story. Tyvärr inte "The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch", det är något som heter "King of the Elves".

Ain't It Cool News

"But how does it smell?" "Awful."

Lunglös groda upptäckt:

The first lungless frog has been discovered lurking in the jungles of Borneo.

The enigmatic amphibian, dubbed Barbourula kalimantanensis, apparently gets all the oxygen it needs through its skin.

Scientists first saw one of these frogs 30 years ago, but due to their rarity, just one other specimen had been collected since then and neither had been dissected.

"No one thought to open them up — there was no real reason to believe that they could be lungless," said researcher David Bickford, an evolutionary biologist at the National University of Singapore. "Because these specimens were so rare, they had never been dissected. If you have just one specimen in your museum, you don't want to rip it open!"

LiveScience

Bläckisnytt

The cephalopod biomass is now greater than the human biomass.

Mule Design

Varning

Som ett litet ljus i måndagsmörkret: nytolkade varningsskyltar från lantbruksredskap på
HolyJuan

TGIF

Morphine - Super Sex

Immortals nya sound

Bläckisnyheter

Blanket octopus:

As most people know, many octopuses release ink as a strategy to evade predator. The strange blanket octopus, however, in the genus Tremoctopus, uses a very different technique. When threatened, the blanket octopus releases a giant cape-like webbing. I think most of you land-lubbers will find this to be quite an unusual sight.

Amazing Incredible

Humboldtbläckfiskar invaderar Kalifornien:

A mysterious sea creature up to 7 feet long, with 10 arms, a sharp beak and a ravenous appetite, has invaded ocean waters off Northern California. Packs of fierce Humboldt Squid attack nearly everything they see, from fish to scuba divers. Marine biologists are working to discover why they've headed north from their traditional homes off South America.

BoingBoing (inkl video)

Nya bläckfiskar upptäckta i Antarktis:

An Antarctic octopus found at 3,280 feet (1,000 meters) in southern Antarctica's Ross Sea was one of about 18 octopus species recorded during a survey conducted in early 2008.

New Zealand scientists estimate they also collected 88 species of fish—8 of which are new species—as well as 8 species of squid on the 50-day journey.

National Geographic

"Even monsters liked him."

Jack Handey fejkar sin egen dödsruna i The New Yorker.

He has asked that no shrines be built to him. But he pointed out that this did not mean he didn’t like Shriners. According to our scientists, with their electronic soul trackers, Jack is in Heaven now. And not just regular Heaven, which any jerk can get into, but special secret Heaven, which even some angels don’t know about.

So let us celebrate his death, and not mourn. However, those who appear to be a little too happy will be asked to leave.

The New Yorker

Spelteve med tevespel

TV7 ska nu förvandlas till en bred underhållningskanal med fokus på dator- och tv-spel.

- Det är den största och snabbast växande underhållningssektorn i världen. Det finns ett antal kanaler runt om i världen med det här innehållet, och de går som tåget.

C4 Partners tv-produktionsbolag Xover, som är inriktat på gaming, ska leverera svenska program till det nya TV7. Dessutom ska kanalen köpa in dator- och tv-spelsprogram från utlandet.

Aftonbladet TV, som tidigare drev TV7, har namnändrats till Games Network Sweden. Det bolaget ägs i sin tur av bolaget Broadcast Management Sweden.

Äntligen. Aftonbladets TV var det Sämsta. Med stor bokstav.
Dagensmedia

Invikningsbilder

NY Times har en avdelning med "interaktiva" invikningsbilder av MADs Al Jaffee! Righteous!

NY Times

Reportage om Jaffee i NY Times

via
BoingBoing

TGIF

Smog - Dress Sexy At My Funeral (live 2003)