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MonthMay 2008

Update in Florida “wizardry” fiasco – school administrator denies accusations

May 20, 2008 /

In fact, assistant superintendent Renalia DuBose told the St. Petersburg Times, it wasn’t the magic trick at all. Rather, the district had written reports from the principal and a teacher at Rushe Middle School detailing Piculas’ use of profane language, his inability to control the class and his decision to put a student in charge – something the student’s parent complained about.

But those details got drowned out as the tale bounced from blog to blog. It was the wizardry angle, with all its Harry Potter imagery, that grabbed the spotlight.

Full Story: St. Petersberg Times

(via OVO)

It will be interesting to see if this story circulates as widely as the last one. Somehow I doubt it.

Previously: Florida substitute teacher fired for wizardry

Update: Another update with more details

The Anima Project

May 20, 2008 /

“The Anima Project promises to finally end the debate of whether certain paranormal phenomena exist. The site, launched April 10, 2008, is currently gathering data from the internet community in preparation for a definitive mathematical analysis of clairvoyance and precognition, bringing such realms under the lens of rigorous science for the first time in history.

Though scientific in nature, the Anima Project is still accessible to the general public. All that is necessary is to enter the website, register, and play a simple card-guessing game. Once enough data is gathered in this way, various mathematical tools will be used to compare the overall user results to what is expected by chance and thereby determine the veracity of paranormal phenomena. The Anima Project is unique in that it “plies the scientific method to a field commonly derided as pseudo-science, establishing a protocol for legitimate and reproducible analysis of the occult”, says project administrator and creator Keith Comito. Unlike previous parapsychology studies, the Anima Project eliminates human error and bias during data acquisition and employs sophisticated statistical techniques such as goodness-of-fit testing and runs analysis to interpret that data in a meaningful and significant manner.

As word of the website spreads, the Anima Project is sure to draw the notice of believers and skeptics alike; the resolution to this hotly debated topic has been sought for ages by both sides. Welcoming this resolution, Comito is currently in negotiations with noted skeptic James Randi over the project’s entry into his famous “Million Dollar Challenge”.

(The Anima Project via Unexplained Mysteries)

Virtual Paranoia

May 20, 2008 /

“The Royal College of Psychiatrists podcast has a fascinating interview with psychologist Daniel Freeman who discusses his recent study that used virtual reality to study paranoid thinking.Freeman has pioneered the use of VR in studying paranoia to try and understand how individual psychological differences contribute to suspiciousness and fear.

Of course, it’s possible to use real life environments to see how exposure relates to paranoid thinking. In fact, the same research group has studied how patients with paranoid delusions react to urban environments. Those familiar with South East London might be interested to know that stressful urban stimulus in this experiment was a walk down Camberwell High Street (as a resident of Camberwell it is disconcerting, although not entirely surprising, to find out I’m living in an experimental condition used to induce paranoid reactions).

For a scientific point of view, one difficulty with using real-life environments to study paranoia is that they are constantly changing and reactive. This latter point is important because people who are very paranoid might, for instance, behave in a manner that other people find strange and that attracts attention, or in a way that sparks hostility in others. One way of getting round this is to expose all participants to a virtual reality environment programmed to be identical, so any differences in paranoid thinking between individuals are almost certainly related to how they interpret the situation and not how the environment reacts to them.”

(via Mind Hacks)

Researcher Pushes Enormous Floating Solar Islands

May 20, 2008 /

solar islands

Creating cheap, clean energy is a huge problem.

So, how’s this for a big solution: Swiss researcher Thomas Hinderling wants to build solar islands several miles across that he claims can produce hundreds of megawatts of relatively inexpensive power.

He’s the CEO of the Centre Suisse d’Electronique et de Microtechnique, a privately held R&D company, and he’s already received $5 million from the Ras al Khaimah emirate of the United Arab Emirates to start construction on a prototype facility in that country.

full Story: Wired

Casulo: entire living room furniture set that fits in a single box

May 20, 2008 /

All of that fits into this:

casulo modular furniture

More info: Tree Hugger

See also: Birth of the Nuppie

This is apparently only a prototype, they are not available commercially yet. And I expect them to be rather expensive when they do become available. So how might we be able to build our own compact living solutions?

Update: Here’s a video of “unboxing” Casulo.

Pay Pal Founder Makes Down Payment on Libertarian Ocean Colonies

May 19, 2008 /

seastanding

Tired of the United States and the other 190-odd nations on Earth?

If a small team of Silicon Valley millionaires get their way, in a few years, you could have a new option for global citizenship: A permanent, quasi-sovereign nation floating in international waters.

With a $500,000 donation from PayPal founder Peter Thiel, a Google engineer and a former Sun Microsystems programmer have launched The Seasteading Institute, an organization dedicated to creating experimental ocean communities “with diverse social, political, and legal systems.”

“Decades from now, those looking back at the start of the century will understand that Seasteading was an obvious step towards encouraging the development of more efficient, practical public-sector models around the world,” Thiel said in a statement.

Full Story: Wired

Applying the punk rock/DIY ethic to science

May 19, 2008 /

So how can we further change the world through D-I-Y? Well, for more than thirty years Punk’s ‘Do-It-Yourself’ signified (to me, at least) Doing It Yourself – but pretty much restricted to the ‘Arts.’ But for the first time we attended last weekend’s Maker Faire and realized that: Why shouldn’t D-I-Y also apply to Science and Technology? (Now, we had ALMOST thought that, years ago, when Survival Research Laboratories began, but – we’re dense.)

In other words, for thirty years the underlying message of all my publications has remained: ‘Everyone Is An Artist.’ But, now I want to add an additional message: ‘Everyone Is A Scientist’ – or, ‘Everyone is an Artist/Scientist.’ Because, who doesn’t want to figure out how things work? Who doesn’t want to learn the principles of using a power drill correctly, or how to fix a sticky drawer, or hang a poster on a wall, or – taking things a bit further, learning how to solder, weld, plane wood, fix a sagging porch or roof … the list goes on and on. In other words: PUNK SCIENCE. D-I-Y SCIENCE. Make your own airplane at home – I remember an old ‘Popular Science’ magazine (or was it ‘Popular Mechanics’?) had an article on just that.

Full Story: RE/Search

900 Feet Up With Nowhere to Go but Down

May 19, 2008 /


“He had learned this extreme form of tightrope walking from a homeless man who wrote books on quantum physics. But that was years ago, while goofing around on a flexible piece of nylon webbing tied close to the ground between a tree and the bumper of a Chevy van.

This was something else entirely for Dean Potter, one of the world’s best climbers, barefoot in the dying sun last Friday, walking between ledges of a U-shaped rim above Hell Roaring Canyon, a 400-foot sheer sandstone wall on his right, a 900-foot drop to a dry riverbed on his left. No leash tethered him to the rope. Nothing attached him to earth but the grip of his size-14 feet and the confident belief that, if needed, his parachute would open quickly and cleanly and not slam him into the canyon wall.

At 6 feet 5 inches and 180 pounds, wirily strong, Potter dressed in jeans and blue T-shirt emblazoned with a hawk. He wore a wide headband over unruly hair, gaining the appearance of a less gaunt and reckless Keith Richards as Alpine daredevil. As Potter stepped onto the 180-foot rope – a strand of iridescent blue against desiccated canyon shades of brick and tan and coppery green – he was believed to be the first person to combine the adventure sports of highlining and BASE-jumping.”

(via New York Times. Dean Potter’s Vlog via Aerialist )

(Video of Dean Potter’s solo on El Capitan via Google)

(Interview with Dean Potter via Buildering. net)

Icelandic Museum Offers Long and Short of Male Organ

May 18, 2008 /

“Sigurdur Hjartarson is missing a human penis. But he’s not worried: four men have promised to donate theirs to him when they die. Hjartarson is founder and owner of the Icelandic Phallological Museum, which offers visitors from around the world a close-up look at the long and the short of the male reproductive organ.

His collection, which began in 1974 with a single bull’s penis that looked something like a riding crop, now boasts 261 preserved members from 90 species. The largest, from a sperm whale, is 70 kg (154 lb) and 1.7 meters (5.58 ft) long. The smallest, a hamster penis bone, is just 2 mm and must be viewed through a magnifying glass.

One species conspicuous by its absence is homo sapiens, but that may soon be rectified since a German, an American, an Icelander and a Briton have promised to donate their organs after death, according to certificates on display.”

(via Reuters)

Conyers’ Letter to the DEA and Medical Marijuana Trojan Horses

May 18, 2008 /

“Representative John Conyers, Chair of the House Committee on the Judiciary, sent a letter to the DEA inquiring about the “paramilitary style enforcement raids” conducted against medical marijuana distributors in California. In case anyone hasn’t been following this story the state of California permits the use of marijuana for medical purposes. Since the federal government does not and the current Federal apparatuses’ have chosen not to look the other way in respect of State’s rights, there have been Federally motivated enforcement actions against people and businesses that are legally permitted by the State but not the Federal government.

Ed Brayton observes:

All of this can be blamed entirely on the Supreme Court, which issued one of the most indefensible rulings in its history in Gonzales v Raich. And yes, this one you can lay directly at the feet of the liberals on the court. Stevens, Souter, Ginsburg and Breyer were all in the majority in ruling that the federal government has the authority to overrule state medical marijuana laws.

I ran across something specific related to this Conyers’ letter that ties back to some previous comments I had about drug advocates trying to Trojan Horse recreational use under cover of medicinal use.”

(via Drug Monkey)

(see also: spider webs made by spiders on drugs via Cannabis.net. h/t: Reality Carnival)

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