You talkin' to me? - Galaxy fires powerful particle beam at neighbour

North American Union - Part II

North American Union, the price of everything in London, winter is coming, but I don't care. I'm happy, amazed, wondering, wandering through this melting pot of a city, laughing quietly at the loyal Indians that, despite the chilly evening, stroll around in sandals and thin saris. Yeah man. They really stick to it. No "life is a river" kind of babble for them.

I think this mood I'm in is partly because I don't read the papers anymore. Ordered The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards and Java for Dummies and now I wake up and rush to the front door to see if I can soon start being a drawing geek. I'm gonna draw and program until the S.W.A.T. storm in through the window (cool!) requesting an accurate list of previous residencies. I can't remember!! For fuck sake!

They will go through my stuff for evidence to find a pile of weird shit, and amongst it all, my most recent favourite: Why Cats Paint: A Theory of Feline Aesthetics. They will yell "weirdo!" and I'll yell "sheep!" and they will jump out of the window into a wicked army green helicopter and fly away. I'll stare at their bums and think "nice outfit".

If that's not the sort of thing you add after "North American Union", I would say you're heading the wrong way.

Let us make them obsolete.

North American Union???

Speed of light barrier broken - Arrive before you leave

If zooming beyond the local speed limit is punishable by law, then some scientists may have a gargantuan speeding ticket to pay.

In a controversial experiment reported in this weeks journal Nature, scientists at the NEC Research Institute in Princeton, New Jersey claim to have broken the ultimate speed limit -- the speed of light. Though hotly contested, some say this achievement could dramatically increase the speeds at which we can send and receive information.

Taught in physics classes the world over, Albert Einsteins theory of special relativity holds that no object or information can move faster than the speed of light in a vacuum, or 186,000 miles (300,000 kilometers) per second. But NECs Lijun Wang says he created an experiment in which a light beam raced through a gas-filled chamber so quickly, it exceeded the speed of light by a factor of 300. Whats more, the light pulse appears to have left the confines of the chamber before it even entered a seemingly impossible occurrence according to theories of causality, which predict that causes must always precede their effects.

"It sounds crazy, but this can actually occur," said Raymond Chiao, a physicist at the University of California at Berkeley. Chiao, one of a group of researchers who have been working to break the speed-of-light limit, explained that although a common object such as a baseball could never be flung faster than the speed of light, pulses of energy with certain complex properties have been known to bend the rules.

[...]most scientists agree that even if such a beam can be proved speedier than light, it would probably not be able to carry any information. Such a feat could conceivably allow data to be sent back in time, thus violating laws of causality and sending quantum physics into disrepair.

More on http://www.space.com

Or BBC News Sci/Tech

8 for eternity

If you went outside at exactly the same time every day and took a picture that included the Sun, how would the Sun appear to move? With great planning and effort, such a series of images can be taken. The figure-8 path the Sun follows over the course of a year is called an analemma. With even greater planning and effort, the series can include a total eclipse of the Sun as one of the images. Pictured is such a total solar eclipse analemma or Tutulemma - a term coined by the photographers based on the Turkish word for eclipse. The composite image sequence was recorded from Turkey starting in 2005. The base image for the sequence is from the total phase of a solar eclipse as viewed from Side, Turkey on 2006 March 29. Venus was also visible during totality, toward the lower right.

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Some people hang out on the Beach in Turkey recording analemmas. Lovely.

Have you got a lighter, please?

At about 100 meters from the cargo bay of the space shuttle Challenger, Bruce McCandless II was further out than anyone had ever been before. Guided by a Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU), astronaut McCandless, pictured above, was floating free in space. McCandless and fellow NASA astronaut Robert Stewart were the first to experience such an "untethered space walk" during Space Shuttle mission 41-B in 1984. The MMU works by shooting jets of nitrogen and has since been used to help deploy and retrieve satellites. With a mass over 140 kilograms, an MMU is heavy on Earth, but, like everything, is weightless when drifting in orbit. The MMU was replaced with the SAFER backpack propulsion unit.

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Party!

I'm looking forward to saturday the 22nd. It's the official Sanford Party!! We're having it large again over here, and I'm playing at midnight, the witches' time. :) I would love you to come.

To get in the mood for the party, here's what I think it's going to be the number one hit:

Lady Bug - Bumblebee Unlimited

Bless...

For you to sleep as nicely as I will tonight.

Prefuse 73 - Perverted Undertone

mmmm... Berries!

I lived most of my childhood in a house with a garden in the Italian suburbs of Sao Paulo. No no. Rephrase that. As a child, I spent most of my days up a mango tree in my back garden. Mangoes, I had loads. Looking at old pictures with my mum one day, I spotted a huge tree that obviously wasn’t there anymore. Why did you cut it, Mama? I asked. She said it was an old blackberry tree and it was cut because it would cover the sun and stain the clothes drying underneath it. I felt bad. I really like berries and would love to have had a close relationship with them as I had with mangoes. I grew fonder of berries.

Berries are expensive in Sao Paulo. They come in little boxes that cost nearly 10 pounds! Some days I would refrain from buying New Kids on the Block posters to eat berries. I once gave up my religious Saturday visit to a club (yes, I used to go to clubs when I was11) just to sit in the park and eat berries.

But then I turned 18 and started experimenting with illegal substances/boys/weirder clubs and forgot about berries, as one would. Berries would come to my mind, sometimes in-between clubs, in the queue for the loo or waiting for a drink, those rare moments of clarity, but I wasn't really listening to my inner fruit.

That lifestyle was harming me so much (too much fun is bad for you) I had to come to London (haha), and to my surprise, berries are not that expensive here! I eat berries everyday. If a bad Karma takes me to Oxford Street I buy huge boxes of all types of berries in one of those fruit stalls that sometimes only sell berries (!!!), sit in Soho Square and press them against my face, laughing hysterically.

My most extraordinary berry moment was when I went to Finland with Mike Camel and hand picked wild berries in the forest. Free berries!!! I would roll in the grass and cry, shake the little berry bushes over my head with my mouth open until I swallowed a caterpillar a stopped being silly. Mike's Grandma would make fresh berry pies every night and I confess I felt sick of berries for a day or two. But that's past. I still love berries.

I wonder if I had the blackberry tree in my garden, would I still frenetically buy then everyday? I think I would. My friend T says we want what we can't have, and when we get it we value it much more, or find something else to crave for. She told me to play hard to get like berries in Brazil to make guys falls for me. I find this idea very distressing; I don’t need it, but recognize the pattern. I caused me serious problems. I tend to let people know how I feel about them, so if I like someone I kiss, hug, massage them and tell them how amazing they are from the very beginning. I did make some run away, fucking larval humans, and deeply regret it later. Don't call me anymore, hahaha. Brainwashed larvals on automatic pilot must perish.

The other way around is even worse. I say I’m not interested and they think I'm playing hard. I don't return their calls and they think it's cute. Fucking hell, people. You’re deranged! I'd rather play Pac Man!

We can't do much about "human nature". Let it be. But as I said to my friend T, I won't treat people badly in order to keep them near. That seems sick to me. I think you misinterpret the message. Everyone loves someone who's got a life. If you take time to reply the message or return a phone call to someone you like, it's because you were running between meetings, gym, work, cinema, and when you get home you do it calmly, in your own time. That's sexy. You can't spend more time with the loved one because you're working on a dream project. That's hot! That's what we want!

Playing games, to me, it's like simulating a busy, interesting life when you haven't got it. Got it?

I kept on being me. I'm all over my boyfriend. No games between us, I say. If I can't answer the phone it's because I've got my mouth full of berries.

"The Matrix" on the news

E-Prime

"If a foolish man is associated with a wise man, even all his life, the foolish man will understand truth as little as a spoon understands the taste of soup." (Buddha)

My friend K called me to ask if I was ok after reading my last 2 depressing posts. You know, the flypaper one and the by the pond one. She's so lovely, little K. Don't worry K. I wrote the second one by the sea, watching my workmates commenting on gossip magazines, boats passing by, sun shinning. It's fiction, with a touch of reality, K. Just a touch. But thanks for calling.

I'm not blogging as often. Lots of funny things happened and they would fill this space gloriously if it wasn't for my foolish attempt to write in E-Prime. It is not easy to eliminate the verb "to be" from our writing, ladies and gentleman, but apparently it restructures the way we think, and obviously the way we sound. But it takes time to get used to it, and it sounds weird as fuck, for instance, to substitute "Portishead is better than Shakira" for "In my mixed state of musical education and ignorance Portishead seems better than Shakira to me". Or even, "the phone is ringing" replaced by "The phone registers as ringing to my human ears".

So now I spend my time translating my once flowing writing to E-Prime, and sometimes it sounds so hilarious I just give up and laugh. It will definitely make me even more weird, especially if I get very good at it and start speaking in E-Prime. And I will. Fuck Aristotelian logic.

Ecover loses green backing over 'animal tests' on a 0.2mm flea

The world's biggest supplier of environmentally friendly cleaning products is embroiled in a bizarre row over 'animal-testing' - on tiny water fleas.

Products by Ecover, which the company says are not tested on animals, carry the prized Vegan Society mark. They fill shelves of British supermarkets and help the Belgian-based firm achieve a £30million annual turnover. But the Vegan Society is to refuse permission for its trademark to be used when the endorsement comes up for renewal later this month.

The move follows a tip-off that Ecover uses the water fleas - between 0.2mm and 5mm long - to test the effects of detergents on aquatic life. According to Ecover, the microscopic crustacean - scientific name Daphnia - found in rivers, streams, lakes and ponds, isn't actually an animal. Certainly it's not covered by EU animal-testing rules which are limited to vertebrates past a specified embryonic stage. But the Vegan Society members consider water fleas - named for their jumping style of swimming - as "part of the animal kingdom".

Chief executive Nigel Winter said: "We have mutually agreed with Ecover to withdraw our registration because they are not meeting our criteria."

More at the Daily Mail website

Ok, today I'll make an effort. We sit by the pond and he tells me of his life, cup of tea in his hand. He tells me of his loves, his dreams, his job, and jokes. I think of socks and where the socks go. Where do the socks go?

I think socks are cool things. They are revolutionary beings, constantly asking themselves: How do I feel? How's my life? What do I want? Am I getting what I want? If not, why not? Then they fuck off somewhere nice, far away from our washing machines and drawers. They don't fool themselves with a sense of purpose in sacrifice, suffering and submission to our feet. They have seen it all.

In their quiet demeanor resides pure wisdom. As you walk to the washing machine carrying your dirty clothes, thinking about how you feel about your shoes, socks stare into the detergents eyes. Socks know detergents say they have compassion for your hands, but they just crack grease molecules and infect the water, just like Jesus loves you. Before Jesus was, socks are.

Socks! I scream quietly inside my mind. How can I generalize so unjustly! Some socks think for themselves, but not all. As I notice the tendency to absolutism, I mentally run away and bang my head into a huge cynicism. Ouch!

I must be crazy. Where's the middle way, please? My eyes focus outwards again and he's still sitting by my side, half way through his cup of tea, tapping his foot, talking. I hear him saying David Hasselhoff and it makes me laugh hysterically. He smiles, and says half mumbling: You know what, Debbie? It was really good to open my heart to you. ☺ It doesn’t always happen, you know. You are a good listener.

Shame on me, somewhere else all the time. I smile back, and sadness creeps in. I try thinking of socks again but now they're just a garment. My phone rings. Perfect excuse to leave. Bye! Gone. I switch off the phone and walk fast towards my house. Two girls giggle loudly in the front garden. I pass by smiling and overhear the conversation. They're talking about big brother. I want to die.

My house seems miles away. My legs feel short. My head hurts. I have nothing in common with anyone. My room walks towards me and embraces me with love. I’m safe in my loneliness.

Six ways to increase intelligence:

Increase the diversity of input (varieties of sensory perceptions)
Increase the diversity of transformations (multiple meanings/interpreations/metaphors)
Increase the diversity of output (expression/application)
Improve the conditions of the physical support systems (body, environment)
Remove or reduce the environmental factors which inhibit intelligence (labels, bureaucracies, etc.)
Increase the environmental factors which support intelligence (trust, communities, unpredictability, communication technologies, etc.)
Bureaucracies are designed to reduce intelligence by limiting information (input) and conditioning pre-defined interpretations of value, authority and procedures (transformations) while increasing obedience and efficiency (output). Fixed hierarchies remain fixed through force (or threat of force = terrorism).

Natural hierarchies reflect the intelligence of a system by constantly changing, emerging and dissipating relative to the needs of specific situations.

Communities are designed to increase intelligence by presenting new information (input), discussing new perspectives (transformations) and offering new actions and tools for sharing, participating and fellowship (output).

http://www.increasingintelligence.com/

Flypaper

I never really thought about that flypaper. It was there, full of dead flies, a few passing away, some seemed to shiver, some endured their faith with honour. And I did look at it, sometimes for more than a minute, but this creepy vision never reached my real inner mind. Why don't we use lemon plant? We'll buy a lemon plant to keep them away, and this action will send ripples all across the world.

We are changing our behaviour, but never ever sweeping under the carpet our first attempt to kill the flies with torture. I sit in the garden ripping the grass, thinking obscure thoughts, body and mind as one. I wanna kill it, and kill myself. I wanna destroy. 13th day without cigarettes. I read Quantum Psychology for the 10th time wondering if I ever gonna really apply it fully.

I'll let the grass grow, the flies fly away, and use flypaper with him, to see if he will endure it, or shiver and cry. He talks about himself all the time, and I listen, truly interested in everything he says. I love his ideas. I tell him about my own things and his mind slips away, entangled in his own foolishness. Why have I fallen in love so deeply? He's so selfish.

I called him yesterday and said something really stupid that will keep him away for a long time, I hope. It has to be this way, like an old band-aid. You have to pull it quick otherwise you'll feel every hair being pulled out. Oh, God, it hurts.

I used to pull band-aids slowly, haha. But now I know the trick. I am that selfish cunt. I will wake up every morning thinking about him until the day I truly understand I'm outrageously selfish too. Selfish and fickle.

When I say hey, thou shalt not say ho!

We're having it large!

Safe Now

http://www.safenow.org/

Cure for Hiccups

Same job today. I'm still picking the devil's teeth with poison in my guts, thinking anytime I want I can fart and kill it. I'm wrong, obviously. Devil senses something weird in his mouth, take me out of it and glance at me with charm. Sometimes I feel like fucking the Devil, but then my shift is over and I go back home. And wank.

Thinking if I split myself into 3, I would still get jobs for all 3 of them.

My workmate taught me something amazing today. If you hiccup, someone is talking about you. To make it stop, say the name of people you think is talking about you. When you say the right name, the hiccups stop. It worked twice!!
I'm going to an Indian to test the hiccup thing.

Carmina Burana - Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi

1.O Fortuna (O Fortune) - with Audio

O Fortuna, O Fortune,
velut luna, like the moon
statu variabilis, you are changeable,
semper crescis, ever waxing
aut decrescis; and waning;
vita detestabilis, hateful life
nunc obdurat, first oppresses
et tunc curat, and then soothes
ludo mentis aciem, as fancy takes it;
egestatem, poverty
potestatem, and power
dissolvit ut glaciem. it melts them like ice.

Sors immanis, Fate monstrous
et inanis, and empty,
rota tu volubilis, you whirling wheel,
status malus, you are malevolent,
vana salus, well-being is in vain
semper dissolubilis, and always fades to nothing,
obumbrata, shadowed
et velata, and veiled
michi quoque niteris; you plague me too;
nunc per ludum, now through the game
dorsum nudum, I bring my bare back
fero tui sceleris. to your villainy.

Sors salutis, Fate is against me
et virtutis, in health
michi nunc contraria, and virtue,
est affectus, driven on
et defectus, and weighted down,
semper in angaria. always enslaved.
Hac in hora, So at this hour
sine mora, without delay
corde pulsum tangite; pluck the vibrating strings;
quod per sortem, since Fate
sternit fortem, strikes down the strong man,
mecum omnes plangite! everybody weep with me!

2. Fortune plango vulnera (I bemoan the wounds of Fortune)


Fortune plango vulnera I bemoan the wounds of Fortune
stillantibus ocellis with weeping eyes,
quod sua michi munera for the gifts she made me
subtrahit rebellis. she perversely takes away.
Verum est, quod legitur, It is written in truth,
fronte capillata, that she has a fine head of hair,
sed plerumque sequitur but, when it comes to seizing an opportunity
Occasio calvata. she is bald.

In Fortune solio On Fortune's throne
sederam elatus, I used to sit raised up,
prosperitatis vario crowned with
flore coronatus; the many-coloured flowers of prosperity;
quicquid enim florui though I may have flourished
felix et beatus, happy and blessed,
nunc a summo corrui now I fall from the peak
gloria privatus. deprived of glory.

Fortune rota volvitur: The wheel of Fortune turns;
descendo minoratus; I go down, demeaned;
alter in altum tollitur; another is raised up;
nimis exaltatus, far too high up
rex sedet in vertice, sits the king at the summit -
caveat ruinam! let him fear ruin!
nam sub axe legimus, for under the axis is written
Hecubam reginam. Queen Hecuba.

Carmina@Wiki

Carmina@Classical.net