Barackobamun and Manhattanhenge

Well, a couple eagle-eye readers pointed me to this little gem on Space.com:

For 15 minutes around sunset on two days this summer, the sun will set in exact alignment with the cross streets of Manhattan's street grid, making the city's towering buildings function something like a modern-day Stonehenge. They call it Manhattanhenge.

The first Manhattanhenge opportunity comes this weekend: On Saturday (May 30) at 8:17 p.m. EDT the ball of the sun will be half above the horizon, half below if you look west down a major cross-street (34th Street and 42nd Street are good viewing locations). On Sunday, May 31, the entire solar sphere will be visible just above the horizon at 8:17 p.m. EDT.

Strangely enough I was in Manhattan yesterday. My first destination was the West Village, just a hop, skip and jump from where Barackobamun was supping with the missus at Blue Hill.


How curious he picked this "Manhattanhenge" day for his first trip to NYC. The Obamas took in a play, alas not on 42nd St. I had him beat as far as cross-streets go- I was on 23rd St most of the evening (long after 8:17, however).

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Hanks and Howard talk Illuminati

Tom Hanks and Ron Howard sugarcoat the history of the Illuminati for this Angels & Demons puff-piece. Pretty silly, but interesting in a subtextual sense given the career arc of these two characters. They fail to mention that secret sects and authoritarian religious institutions are identical in spirit - they are ego-based constructions ultimately dedicated to the total control of we, the "Unenlightened" and/or "Unsaved." It's all about using fear to keep us trapped in a reactionary, determinist mindset, what Philip K. Dick called the "Black Iron Prison."

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Where did the future go?

CNN takes stock of yesteryear's sci-fi promises and today's dystopian reality. Where are the jet packs and the food synthesizers? Where are the hovercrafts and the virtual reality units?

The problem with progressive futurism is that futurists tend to see Technology as innately benign, not realizing that as a race we are still barely out of the chimp stage. Whereas the circles that futurists travel will look at a piece of technology and see a tool, those in positions of influence see a weapon. Money quote:

Mark Verheiden, a Battlestar writer, says the show's writers pay attention to current events when plotting their story lines. The contemporary world is filled with the unintended consequences of technology, he says.

"There are so many things you can't anticipate when you create a new technology," he says. "Who would have predicted that the Internet would be taking down shopping malls and wiping out newspapers?''

In Battlestar's finale, human beings abandon their faith in technology's ability to improve the future. They destroy their fancy machines and start again as simple hunter-gatherers.

"At some point, you can't expect a miracle to come in the form of technology to save us," Verheiden says. "At some point, the miracle has to come from a change in attitude and a new outlook."

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The 17 Year: Jay Leno

From The Daily Beast:

At 17, most kids pack up and leave home. Tonight, after 17 years as host of The Tonight Show, Jay Leno heads off into the sunset—well, to a ten o'clock time slot. But still, for 17 years, Leno has been sitting behind the legendary Tonight Show desk and bringing late night comedy to America.

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Tasting the Sound of Purple

Acidheads everywhere are owed an apology:

We are all capable of "hearing" shapes and sizes and perhaps even "tasting" sounds, according to researchers.

This blending of sensory experiences, or synaesthesia, they say, influences our perception and helps us make sense of a jumble of simultaneous sensations. Oxford University scientists found that people associate lower-pitched sounds with larger and more rounded shapes.

One of the team is now working with chef Heston Blumenthal to incorporate words into a new dining experience. Synaesthesia itself is a rare and unusual condition thought to affect less than 1% of the population.- BBC

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The inevitable result of theocracy

Authoritarianism breeds silence in response to horror, and does so intentionally. It's only when its stranglehold is released that the truth comes out. How many similar stories can be told in churches, mosques and synagogues today, but are hiding behind a wall of fear?

We must evolve past all of this. We have to outgrow these twisted control paradigms and find new ways to make our lives meaningful. The damage done by these abusers effects not just their victims but the world at large in very real and tangible ways. And it's all the worse when the abusers are people in positions of trust, people who have the absolute gall to dictate morality to the rest of us.

More in the NY Times, if you can stomach it.

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Superbrain or bust

The New York Times writes on AIs and Singularity hype

Today, artificial intelligence, once the preserve of science fiction writers and eccentric computer prodigies, is back in fashion and getting serious attention from NASA and from Silicon Valley companies like Google as well as a new round of start-ups that are designing everything from next-generation search engines to machines that listen or that are capable of walking around in the world.

Despite the ongoing nerdgasm promoted by people like Kurzweil, some are more skeptical:

The computer designer and venture capitalist William Joy, for example, wrote a pessimistic essay in Wired in 2000 that argued that humans are more likely to destroy themselves with their technology than create a utopia assisted by superintelligent machines.

Maybe- just maybe- we should try to better understand our own organic supercomputers (and where they originate) rather than creating technology which will inevitably be put to mischievous ends.

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Soundless Steve is Surfing the Apocalypse

Synchromystic founding father Steve Willner is chewing the fat with Ezra in the new Surfing the Apocalypse podcast (aka the podcast formerly known as Balmy Weather). Here are the program notes:

Steve Willner and Ezra Sandzer-Bell come together on Saturday Night for a fireside chat... Topics discussed include fractal geometry, transhumanism, demonic entities residing in 1st dimensional KurBala, Temple of the Black Light, occult symbolism in album art, Satanic sects which permeated the psychedelic rock movement during the 60's, extra terrestrials, gnosticism, ascension from a zero-dimensional source into the coming fourth dimensional space called Angal... Making sense of dreams and nightmares through playful discourse with friends.

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Glowing green monkeys

This is interesting, to say the least:

Scientists have genetically modified primates to make them glow green and pass on the change to their children.

Though primates modified to generate a glowing protein have been created before, these are the first to keep the change in their bloodlines. - BBC

Hmm, genetically-engineered primates, passing down these modifications through their bloodlines.

Sound familiar to anyone?

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Lost in 1947...

Lost in Space is pure kitsch, but this particularly episode caught my eye. The Jupiter II lands back on Earth, but due to a time warp the landing date is October 17, 1947.

Interesting year for a flying saucer to show up in rural America, no? This time it's Michigan where the close encounter takes place, but still. I wonder if the writer was processing another UFO encounter (of sorts) from that year...

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OK, this looks pretty awesome...

Remake of V, airing on ABC. The 80s version was just a bit too cheeseball for me, even if it did spawn the whole Reptilian conspiracy subculture.

Cheers to Sydney for the link.

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The 17 Year

Amazing how many 17s are popping up in significant ways in relation to the economic crisis. Reader James Ratte has been cataloging many of these in the comments section here and on The Secret Sun (for instance, James pointed out that the last two seasons of Lost will have 17 episodes apiece). Here's the latest, fresh off of the always dependable Yahoo News:

DETROIT – General Motors Corp. will give the United Auto Workers union 17.5 percent of its common stock, $6.5 billion of preferred shares and a $2.5 billion note to fund a trust that will take over retiree health care costs starting next year.

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"Essential to profiting from globalization"

There's a fascinating piece in Rupert Murdoch's Times of London entitled "God is back: How Ned Flanders won the evangelical crusade." There's some very good news for American Evangelicals worried about globalism as well as the threat of secularization in this country: American-style Christianity is becoming the new one world religion, rapidly taking over the non-Muslim parts of the developing world. In other words, America is exporting its religion - along with its jobs - to the Third World:

Virtually everywhere in the developing world fiery preachers are preaching a faith that would appeal to Ned Flanders: live your life according to God's law, read the Bible as the literal word of Truth, treat your neighbour as yourself. And everywhere they are thriving. In 1900, 80 per cent of the world's Christians lived in Europe and the United States; today, 60 per cent of them live in the developing world.

Who's at the forefront of this burgeoning one world religion? None other than the World Economic Forum's favorite evangelist:

Rick Warren points out that churches have one of the world's greatest infrastructures: there are “a million villages around the world that don't have a school, a clinic, a hospital, a fire department or a post office ... but have got a church.”

We'll soon see that very same situation in parts of this country as well. But here's what the authors are truly excited about:

In the Chinese house church, religion is seen as an essential guide to profiting from globalisation. The bookshops in megachurches in the developing world are stocked with books on management and self-help.

There you have it: Christianity is essential to "profiting from globalisation." And you'd better believe it, too- this is coming straight from the City of London horse's mouth:

John Micklethwait is Editor-in-Chief of The Economist; Adrian Wooldridge is its Washington correspondent. They are the authors of God is Back: How the Global Revival of Faith is Changing the World

Congratulations to America's Evangelicals: your tithes - and your votes - made this all happen. In these troubled economic times I'm sure it's a comfort to know the person who has your old job is "saved" and that your faith is such an important tool for the Globalist agenda.

PS- It's interesting to note that Evangelicalism rose in America with the mass exodus of blue collar and clerical jobs from the North to the South in the 60s and 70s, and that the center of Evangelical power is now migrating from the US, right along with those very same factories and jobs.

Funny how that works.

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The Secret Right trailer

A lot of what's in this trailer isn't exactly news, but fascinating nonetheless.

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Disclosure Project press conference

Thanks to Sergio for the link.

Walk-In into Roswell

The missus found an old VHS cassette of Roswell, the 1994 HBO movie starring Kyle MacLachlan (Dune, Twin Peaks) and Martin Sheen, at the library book swap. The tape was a little worse for wear, but the film itself is well worth checking out. Fascinating dramatization of the events, with some heavy doses of MJ-12 conspiracy theory and AAT thrown in to boot.



MacLachlan should be high on your weirdness-resonator list. Aside from making his debut in David Lynch's adaptation of Frank Herbert's Templar/Jesuit allegory, he also starred in this forgotten gem, pitting two alien walk-ins (of a sort) in a battle to the death with some ubiquitous 80s music pounding away throughout. Another big influence on the Mighty X, to boot.

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Knowle UFO

An office worker was left spooked after recording this incredible video of a UFO flying over Bristol. - The Sun

Terrified Andy Hadlington witnessed the mysterious triangular-shaped object silently hovering above a residential neighbourhood in the West Country city on Sunday evening.

The video shows the spinning grey object gliding around the village of Knowle — without making a sound.

Link courtesy of Tommy of Kozmikon- and a Synclink to boot- me and Mrs. Knowle just got finished watching Roswell (the movie, not the TV series) a couple of minutes ago.

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High weirdness in Canis Major

Reader Arc points us to this bizarre story:

"...using infrared light, astronomers have just found a small galaxy of about a billion stars in the constellation Canis Major, that is, astonishingly, only about 25,000 light years away from the Sun. That's closer to us than the center of our own Milky Way! The Canis Major dwarf galaxy is not faring well in its gravitational battle with the Milky Way, and there are streamers of stars being pulled off the smaller galaxy onto the disk of our own.

Some of these cannibalized stars are drifting down to become part of the Milky Way's disk, and others are even heading in the direction of the Sun. It's a pretty weird thought that some of the stars around us may not come from our galaxy at all, but were pulled off the Canis Major dwarf galaxy many millions of years ago. But maybe that's not as strange as it sounds. If the Milky Way is currently engulfing two smaller galaxies, how many has it swallowed in its many billion-year history? Is that, in fact, how large galaxies like the Milky Way come into being, by pulling in and eating any smaller galaxies that get too close?"

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Get Rael

Rael's terrifying "Angels"

I don't know what your opinion on the Raelians is (personally, I find them highly entertaining) but reasonable people can agree they have the right to practice their beliefs, right?

Ah, who are we kidding?

"Brigitte McCann spent nine months undercover as a member of the Raelian sect in 2003, the resulting articles caused a stir in Quebec and won her the province's top journalism prize. Her Journal de Montreal reports revealed a darker side of a group generally dismissed as UFO-believing clowns: Its leader believes he has been targeted for assassination by the CIA, he demands generous contributions from his 55,000 followers and his entourage includes "angels" prepared to die to protect him."

First off, Rael's suspicions are probably not entirely unfounded. Second, not only do churches and mosques and synagogues demand generous contributions from their own followers, they also demand them from the taxpayers, to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars a year in tax breaks and faith-based kickbacks (which Obama is expanding). Third, being "prepared to die to protect" a religious leader is usually a positive thing in media-approved religions.

No, Rael's crime is the worst imaginable in this day and age- he's the leader of a minority religious sect. We see much, much worse crimes committed by monotheistic sects that usually never make the national media in the US or Canada.


But at least one judge believes in equal protection under the law:

But in a decision that one lawyer says further restricts the media's freedom in Quebec, a judge has ruled that the Journal's "clandestine" investigation went too far. He has ordered its parent company, Sun Media Corp., to pay $9,000 in damages to two Raelians who sued for invasion of privacy.

In his decision the judge stated:

"If the activities of a group or organization are legal and of a private nature, what can justify the use of so-called clandestine investigation methods in the name of the public right to information?" Judge Grenier asked.

That judge must be getting ready to retire or something. Look at how the neoconservative National Post spins the Raelian's reaction to the verdict:

The publicity-hungry Raelians celebrated the decision with a news release yesterday calling it "a great victory for human rights and freedoms in Quebec."

Can you imagine an established religious group ever being dismissed as "publicity hungry?"

Don't get me wrong- I'm not holding a brief for the Raelians. I don't really care for those kinds of sects, to be honest. No, the point here is that the media has a ferocious double-standard when it comes to minority belief systems - or dissenting ideas themselves.

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What are they looking for?

With Star Trek in theaters and the Atlantis up in space fixing the Hubble we hear the ESA is sending more Eye-in-the-Sky hardware up there. What is so important to justify all of this expense?

While astronomical and cosmological knowledge of the universe has grown by leaps and bounds in the past few decades, some details remain beyond the grasp of current space- and ground-based telescopes — but not for long.

Two space telescopes, Herschel and Planck, are set to be launched in tandem by the European Space Agency (ESA) on May 14. They will peer deeper into space and time than any telescope in history.

NASA gets most of the attention when it comes to space telescopes, with the Hubble Space Telescope leading the way (Hubble is however a joint project with ESA). But that could soon change.

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Rumors of Dubai's death exaggerated

Now the Arab Atlantis is building a new Colossus. Check out these specs:

The statue can move its arms and head; this demands an articulate joint between the elevators and the floors on these critical points. the joints are similar in function to those seen in joint buses, and will guarantee an uninterrupted movement inside of the statue, even if he slightly tilts his head.


The arms and head movement is controlled by computers and can mimic a prerecording of an actor for example. the rigid parts of the statue are made out of a steel frame structure with a cover of sheets of steel. the movable parts must be flexible, thus a material like rubber or silicon with a coating that mimic the glossiness of the steel is preferable.

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Atlantis launch today...

...and there's a graphic for you. This mission goes to the Eye in the Sky...

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Yahooccultism: Alien dreaming edition

Thought this was timely, given what we've been looking at on The Secret Sun lately...

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Obama goes to Egypt

Next month, for policy address...

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Rebuilding the Wall

Military to begin takeover of British schools. Note the controversy isn't over the programs existence, it's whether the Brown government will actually follow through with it.

'I hope this is just the beginning of an even closer relationship between our Armed Forces and schools, particularly with providing boarding facilities for those families who are often on the move and in garrison town communities.'

However, David Laws, Liberal Democrat Education spokesman, called the policy 'yet another Labour gimmick'.

'While many schools would no doubt benefit from a dose of Army discipline, there is real doubt as to whether this is a clear policy or just another Gordon Brown gimmick,' he said.

Order out of Chaos, kiddies.

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17, 33, yadda yadda

Find the 33, and then yawn.

Ten of America's largest 19 banks need a combined $74.6bn (=17) of extra funds to boost their cash reserves.

That is the main finding of the so-called "stress tests" to see if the banks have sufficient capital to cope should the recession worsen.

Bank of America is the most at risk, needing an additional $33.9bn. - BBC

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Obama Trek (update)

Salon.

Further reading here.

UPDATE: Barahkobamun calls for $17 billion to be cut from budget.

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How Poly caught Mono

Here's an interesting essay called "Who Created God?" tracing the evolution of monotheism among the ancient Hebrews:

The Hebrew god YHWH is actually an amalgam of gods and goddesses; deities of the Mesopotamians and Hittites, the Syrians and Phoenicians, the Egyptians, and most notably, the Canaanites. Titles, powers and attributes of these deities were eventually conferred on the sky-god, YHWH-Elohim when he became the one god of the Hebrews.

Hebrew prophets and psalmists were as uninterested in the polytheistic origins of their god as the Hebrew priests (kohenim) were about practicing "heathen" rituals or using heathen temples in YHWH's service.

The early Hebrews were polytheists. They worshiped many powers, with Baal (Baalzebub) and Astaroth (Astarte, Ishtar) as their major male/female deity. Baal-zebub and Astaroth were effectively demonized, as you may have read in the Bible.

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Now they tell us...

The warp drive, one of Star Trek's hallmark inventions, could someday become science instead of science fiction.

Some physicists say the faster-than-light travel technology may one day enable humans to jet between stars for weekend getaways. Clearly it won't be an easy task. The science is complex, but not strictly impossible, according to some researchers studying how to make it happen.

The trick seems to be to find some other means of propulsion besides rockets, which would never be able to accelerate a ship to velocities faster than that of light, the fundamental speed limit set by Einstein's General Relativity.- Yahoo

Well, if we can conceive it, perhaps someone else has already achieved it.

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Anybody up on their Sacred Geometry?

If so, let me know what you make of this. Click to enlarge.

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Great movie...

...disturbing poster.

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15 years late, but OK

Periodical publishers fiddled while their bedrooms burned, but now all of a sudden they see the appeal of digital readers (which they scoffed at previously, but whatever).

Unlike tiny mobile phones and devices like the Kindle that are made to display text from books, these new gadgets, with screens roughly the size of a standard sheet of paper, could present much of the editorial and advertising content of traditional periodicals in generally the same format as they appear in print. And they might be a way to get readers to pay for those periodicals — something they have been reluctant to do on the Web.

Such e-reading devices are due in the next year from a range of companies, including the News Corporation, the magazine publisher Hearst and Plastic Logic, a well-financed start-up company that expects to start making digital newspaper readers by the end of the year at a plant in Dresden, Germany.

Somewhere, millions of lifeforms in the world's forests are breathing a bit easier...

Starchild skull saga continues

Link courtesy of Red Ice.

Stormy Weather is back (?)

Mysteries revealed or revelations mystified? You be the judge...

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Indras lands the scoop of the month!

A police dog named Sirius died on 9/11? Go check out this incredible story!

Also, regular reader Sub Specie riffs on the Stairway to Sirius in a thread on Above Top Secret. Interesting stuff and interesting comments as well from other users. Check it out.

Bonus factoid: Sirius Jr. was born at the Seeing Eye in Morristown.

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Time to Pretend

Chimps in Space

I've been thinking chimps a lot, especially in relation to Intervention Theory. Were our ancestors genetically modified chimps? I've also been thinking about how we love to dress chimps up as humans and make all sorts of hilarity out of it, never realizing what horrible, cannibalistic bastards they are. Now there's this- two famous astronauts pay tribute to space chimps at a preserve in Florida:

The two NASA heroes came to acknowledge the contributions of a group of chimpanzees known as the "space chimps."

In the 1950s and early 1960s, the space program, very much in its infancy, used monkeys and chimpanzees to test how space flight would affect the human body. Before Alan Shepard Jr. made his famed first American space flight in 1961, a chimpanzee named Ham completed a successful suborbital flight in a Mercury capsule.

Astronauts and chimps- there's a fascinating allegory in there somewhere.

I'm thinking of starting my own charity. It's called "Screw the Chimps, Save the Gorillas."

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Yet another Transformers trailer

Transformers trailer in HD

This is going to sound really stupid but sometimes when I close my eyes I see symbols like that. I chalk it up to 10 trillion viewings of the AAT XF eps. But they organize themselves in circular patterns like in this trailer. My wife says I should try writing them down but they vanish when I try to concentrate on them.

All that being said, I rue the day Megan Fox got implants.

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