Clipmarks | SurfingTheTao's clips

Effort to Remove DIA's Blue Mustang Grows

Sun, 08 Feb 2009 03:06:52 GMT

clipped by: SurfingTheTao
clipper's remarks: Weird and creepy like the rest of Denver Airport

Effort To Remove DIA's Blue Mustang Grows

DENVER -- Anyone who has been out to Denver International Airport has seen the "Blue Mustang" sculpture leading to the terminal.

On her Facebook page, Hultin writes, "Is anyone else as mortified and offended by DIA's 32 foot fiendish blue 'Mustang' statue as I am? Does anyone else find it to be the least welcoming public art exhibit imaginable? Are you perturbed by the chilling fact that Luis Jimenez, its creator, was killed by a piece of its torso?"

"Instead of MOVING the big blue horse, why not just paint it to look like a real horse -- ya know, brown, white feet, white streak down nose, black tail, etc.?" writes another viewer.

The Power of Light: Moving Macroscopic Amounts of Matter

Fri, 30 Jan 2009 06:08:58 GMT

clipped by: SurfingTheTao

Clip Source: www.physorg.com

The Power of Light: Moving Macroscopic Amounts of Matter

(PhysOrg.com) -- Since 1970, scientists have been working with “optical tweezers” - lasers that move microscopic amounts of matter using forces originating from the light matter interaction. Now, for the first time, researchers have demonstrated that light-induced forces can move macroscopic amounts of matter, as well.

Tags: technology, physics

World War III

Mon, 29 Sep 2008 09:39:47 GMT

clipped by: SurfingTheTao

Clip Source: www.walesonline.co.uk

World War III

FIGHTER jets, infantry troops, destroyers and submarines will converge on Wales next month for one of the largest military exercises of all time.

The two-week exercise – codenamed Joint Warrior – is designed to recreate a scenario in which Britain and other sovereign nations go to war against a “state-sponsored terrorist movement” – using a vast array of lethal modern weapons.

US generals planning for resource wars

Sun, 28 Sep 2008 23:04:03 GMT

clipped by: SurfingTheTao

Clip Source: www.irishtimes.com

Against this backdrop, the 90 page document sets out the future of international conflict for the next 30 to 40 years - as the US military sees it - and outlines the manner in which the military will sustain its current operations and prepare and "transform" itself for future "persistent" warfare.

The document also describes explicitly the manner in which the earth's orbit is now deemed a legitimate zone for offensive military activity. This extraordinary document describes US strategic doctrine in terms worthy of 20th century science fiction.

The mix of 20th century science fiction and Orwellian perspectives unwittingly contained in the document appear rapidly to be materialising as fact.

Euros, not Dollars

Tue, 12 Feb 2008 03:39:18 GMT

clipped by: SurfingTheTao
clipper's remarks: likely more of this to come, until the Amero at least...

Clip Source: www.reuters.com

In the latest example that the U.S. dollar just ain't what it used to be, some shops in New York City have begun accepting euros and other foreign currency as payment for merchandise.

The increasingly weak U.S. dollar, once considered the king among currencies, has brought waves of European tourists to New York with money to burn and looking to take advantage of hugely favorable exchange rates.

Tenori-On

Sun, 30 Sep 2007 08:55:25 GMT

clipped by: SurfingTheTao
clipper's remarks: Interesting new musical technology

Clip Source: www.global.yamaha.com

Tags: music, technology, musical instrument

Science: Explain it in 60 seconds

Fri, 17 Aug 2007 21:16:25 GMT

clipped by: SurfingTheTao

Clip Source: www.symmetrymagazine.org

String Theory
May 2007
String theory proposes that the fundamental constituents of the universe are one-dimensional "strings" rather than point-like particles.

Dark Matter
Mar 2007
Dark matter is, mildly speaking, a very strange form of matter. Although it has mass, it does not interact with everyday objects and it passes straight through our bodies.

Elementary Particle Physics
Jun/Jul 2006
What rules govern energy, matter, space, and time at the most elementary levels?

Tags: science

Is dark energy lurking in hidden spatial dimensions?

Fri, 17 Aug 2007 21:14:56 GMT

clipped by: SurfingTheTao
clipper's remarks: Ok, so much of this is beyond me, but I am still intrigued.

Clip Source: space.newscientist.com

The mysterious cosmic presence called dark energy, which is accelerating the expansion of the universe, might be lurking in hidden dimensions of space. The idea would explain how these dimensions remain stable – a big problem for the unified scheme of physics called string theory.

Ever since astronomers discovered in the mid-1990s that other galaxies are accelerating away from us, physicists have struggled to explain why.

Even though the vibration is imprisoned in these other dimensions, it can extend its gravitational influence into our space. Its gravity is also repulsive in our space, just like the "ordinary" cosmological constant, so it would cause cosmic acceleration.

If Adelberger's pendulum does start to see gravity grow below 0.01 millimetre, it could be a sign that Greene and Levin are right, and the force that's tearing our universe apart really is an invader from another dimension.

Tags: physics, science

The Other MEDUSA: A Microwave Sound Weapon

Thu, 16 Aug 2007 21:11:51 GMT

clipped by: SurfingTheTao

Clip Source: blog.wired.com

MEDUSA appears to be a popular name for directed energy weapons. There's the MEDUSA I wrote about yesterday, a high-energy beam weapon one company hopes could destroy tanks and planes. And then there's another MEDUSA, a nonlethal microwave weapon that was briefly funded by the Navy that uses "silent audio" (the auditory effect from microwaves). In other words, it makes you hear things in your head:

The idea of the "Voice of God" weapon (a weapon that makes you hear voices in your head) has been around for a while, and this small business contract was but one one modest, and likely unrelated, offshoot of other microwave-auditory effect research. The company stated at the end of "phase one" of this research: "An operating frequency was chosen - Hardware requirements were established (commercial magnetron, high-voltage pulse former) - Hardware was designed and built - Power measurements were taken and the required pulse parameters confirmed - Experimental evidence of MAE was observed."

Tags: military, weapons, acoustic

DOD Stops Plan to send Christian Video Game to Troops

Thu, 16 Aug 2007 21:04:51 GMT

clipped by: SurfingTheTao
clipper's remarks: Not sure what's worse; that they would send such games to the troops, or that they restrict things like video games. The whole thing is strange.

Clip Source: blogs.abcnews.com

Plans by a Christian group to send an evangelical video game to U.S. troops in Iraq were abruptly halted yesterday by the Department of Defense after ABC News inquired about the program.

"Left Behind: Eternal Forces" was inspired by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins' best-selling book series about the battle of Armageddon, in which believers of Jesus Christ fight the Antichrist.

"It's a horrible game," said the Rev. Timothy Simpson of the Christians Alliance for Progress. "You either kill or covert the other side. This is exactly what the Osama bin Ladens of the world have portrayed us."

Troy Lyndon, the producer of the game, said the game's "warfare" is not violent, and that it emphasizes "spiritual battles" over fighting with guns. The game gives incentives to recruit believers instead of killing the forces of the Antichrist, according to Lyndon.

Tags: christian, video games

South Park creators animate Alan Watts

Wed, 15 Aug 2007 20:58:30 GMT

clipped by: SurfingTheTao

Clip Source: souljerky.com

Trey Parker and Matt Stone of South Park infamy have recently (and quietly) been dishing out some ill animation slices that illustrate gems from the archives of Alan Watts. Check 'em out below!—

Also check out this interview at Reason (an entertaining and well-produced anti/spiritual/ist webzine) wherein the animated wonder-kind discuss religion in their households when they were growing up.

Tags: philosophy, video

Pimp My Blimp: Luxury Airship Planned

Tue, 14 Aug 2007 21:02:33 GMT

clipped by: SurfingTheTao

Clip Source: www.livescience.com

It's a blimp. It's a plane. No, it's an airship with 5,000 square feet of living and/or cargo space, according to plans announced by a company that makes surveillance and advertising dirigibles.

It can be finished as a personal yacht, a business commuter craft or cargo carrier, he said.

Tags: aviation, technology

Suspicious Wiki Deletions

Tue, 14 Aug 2007 19:59:57 GMT

clipped by: SurfingTheTao

Clip Source: www.wired.com

On November 17th, 2005, an anonymous Wikipedia user deleted 15 paragraphs from an article on e-voting machine-vendor Diebold, excising an entire section critical of the company's machines.

In this case, the changes came from an IP address reserved for the corporate offices of Diebold itself.

A database of 34.4 million edits, performed by 2.6 million organizations or individuals ranging from the CIA to Microsoft to Congressional offices, now linked to the edits they or someone at their organization's net address has made.

Some of this appears to be transparently self-interested, either adding positive, press release-like material to entries, or deleting whole swaths of critical material.

Tags: wikipedia, conspiracy

Are we living in a computer simulation? - NYT

Tue, 14 Aug 2007 19:36:10 GMT

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Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

if you accept a pretty reasonable assumption of Dr. Bostrom’s, it is almost a mathematical certainty that we are living in someone else’s computer simulation.

in Dr. Bostrom’s notion of reality, you wouldn’t even have a body made of flesh. Your brain would exist only as a network of computer circuits.

It’s unsettling to think of the world being run by a futuristic computer geek, although we might at last dispose of that of classic theological question: How could God allow so much evil in the world? For the same reason there are plagues and earthquakes and battles in games like World of Warcraft. Peace is boring, Dude.

Tags: simulation, technology

Nuances of Eschatology - Chuck Baldwin

Tue, 14 Aug 2007 09:26:16 GMT

clipped by: SurfingTheTao

Clip Source: www.newswithviews.com

Many pastors and Christians embrace the authoritarian policies of one George W. Bush with the same enthusiasm and blind loyalty as Germans did Hitler. For example, according to White House insiders, while publicly embracing conservative Christians, the White House is privately said to have nothing but disdain for Christians. Mr. Bush acknowledged being a member of Skull & Bones, a secret society with a dark history. Others have reported that he is a member of Bohemian Grove, which, according to some, is an occultist society of the most sinister variety. Yet, all of this is rejected out of hand by most Christians today.

Regardless of one's politics or religion, the spirit of Big Brother, the spirit of military aggression, the spirit of occultism, the spirit of a police state mentality, the spirit of deception are all part of the spirit of antichrist.

Tags: christian, eschatology, antichrist, religion