RealityCarnival

RealityCarnival.Com

"News that shatters the ice of our unconscious!"
"The nature of reality is this:
It is hidden, and it is hidden, and it is hidden."
--Rumi, 13th-century Sufi mystic


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Headlines: December 31, 2002

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PETA hates live sushi
(Source: Peta.com)
People now enjoy eating lobsters with the front half of the still-living lobster watching as the customer eats the freshly severed tail. Some like live flounder. To prepare this "dish," the chef removes the flesh, seasons it, and returns the flesh to the fish's skeleton. The flounder must be pinned down with wooden skewers. Restaurants across the country are starting to dish up this "live sushi." One chef insists that sliced and diced sea animals don't feel any pain. The fish only die because they are kept out of water. PETA says, "You'd better believe they feel plenty when large chunks of their body are being carved off." (Read more...)


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Psychedelic patterns mesmerize viewers
(Source: Pickover.com)
Gaze in awe and wonderment. Point your cursor at the moving image on this web page to create a penetration into the higher-dimensional world. How does your own pocket universe evolve after several minutes? If anyone observes this page while in an altered state, are the graphics more mesmerizing? What other web sites can you find with psychedelic graphics? (Read more...)


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"Can you escape?" (On the Cylinder)
(Source: RealityCarnival.Com)
You wake up one morning to find yourself on top of a mile-high telephone pole that has a 12-foot radius. With you is a German Shepherd dog, a can of unopened chicken soup, a tube of very strong epoxy and a half-mile long rope. Is there any way you can reach the ground safely? (The telephone pole consists only of a smooth, cylindrical column. It has no additional structures.) [If you post your own solution here, the RealityCarnival editor will trade you by e-mailing his own personal solutions to you.]

Headlines: December 30, 2002

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Bizarre recipes: trilobite cookies and beyond
(Source: RealityCarnival.Com)
The Web contains recipes for producing a startling array of delicious foods and artworks. Here are some favorites: Trilobite cookies, Origami Spiders made from dollar bills, Crackers and Cheese Dip with Candied Crickets, Star Trek fan goes nuts with legos, LEGO mathematics sculptures, LEGO Rubik's cube solver, Origami creatures, Mojoworld generator for creating gorgeous universes, exotic ink recipes and cooking on lava. Last but not least is the Business Card Menger Sponge Project. The primary goal of the project is to build "a depth 3 approximation to Menger's Sponge, out of 66,048 business cards." What are your favorite "recipes" on the web?


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Man eats psychoactive worm intestines to see new universes
(Source: E.B. Britton, Erowind.org)
Can the US government illegalize worm eating? Will people raise hallucinogenic "bamboo worms" to explore altered realities? In this aticle, a man ate grubs he found in flowering bamboos. He broke open the creature and carefully removed the head and intestinal tube, and sucked out the soft whitish substance which remained in the skin. This strange food has an extremely agreeable flavour which recalled that of the most delicate cream. The narcotic property of the bicho de tacuara resides solely in the intestinal tube." (Read more...)

Headlines: December 29, 2002

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Bush's movie poster: fact or fiction
(Source: Theforce.net)
Dr. Condoleezza Rice, George Bush, and Saddam Hussein, in astounding movie poster. (Read more...)


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Does God sanction genocide?
(Source: RealityCarnival.Com)
Are you ever disappointed or confused when the Bible indicates that God sanctions genocide or the giving of virgins to God? For example, God told Saul to attack the Amalekites and destroy them completely -- "men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys." (1 Samuel 15:3) (Read more...) In the book of Numbers, we find that of 32,000 captured virgin women were to be given to soldiers, and 32 of the women God wanted for Himself: "Moses and Eleazar the priest did as the Lord commanded Moses. The plunder remaining from the spoils that the soldiers took was 675,000 sheep, 72,000 cattle, 61,000 donkeys and 32,000 women who had never slept with a man.... And the half, the portion of those who had gone out to war, was.... 16,000 people, of which the tribute for the Lord was 32." (Numbers 31:31-40) How should we best understand passages like these? (Read more...)


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Go Google!
(Source: Pickover)
People continually invent new games to play with Google and Amazon.com to find curious content and exercise the system. First there was Google Whacking (here and here). Then there was Google fighting, Google sets, Google image whacking, Google Bombing, Google Grokking, Amazon whacking, and Google poetry. What similar games have you played, invented, or enjoyed?


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"Subtle" sex ad causes buzz in Europe
(Source: Katja Street)
The author writes, "Thought you might appreciate the subtlety of this ad, done by a Brazilian ad agency, for a lubricating gel (K-Y equivalent) targeting the French market. They were trying to come up with an ad that is not offensive or tasteless. The picture looks completely innocent until you notice the details... Apparently, it has created quite a buzz in Europe." (See Image...)

Headlines: December 28, 2002

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Letter from Reality Carnival to Bush on cloning, abortion, and stem cell reseach
(Source: RealityCarnival.Com)
Dear President Bush, if I were your science advisor, I would ask you to keep an open mind and foster a liberal attitude with respect to a woman's option of having an abortion and with respect to embryonic stem cell research, which you have limited. The notion that an embryo or fertilized egg should be considered human is certainly open for debate. As reported in Science magazine, "zygotic personhood" (the idea that a fertilized egg is a person) is a recent concept. For example, before 1869, the Catholic church believed that the embryo was not a person until it was 40 days old. If we can overcome the fallacy of zygotic personhood, we can then ease restrictions on human embryonic stem cell research, which has the potential to help people with Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and diabetes. Although nonembryonic stem cells (such as multipotent adult progenitor cells) may eventually be suitable substitutes for embryonic cells, we should not restrict stem cell research now. Similarly, those who hope to ban cloning because it may entail the discarding of zygotes might rethink their position. Very few people today believe in gametic personhood (the idea that sperm and eggs are people) or homuncular personhood (the 18th-century idea that the entire human organism -- the homunculus -- is contained in the spermatozoa); similarly, the notion of zygotic personhood may someday fade from the world scene. I believe that our first steps should be to loosen the restrictions on embryonic stem cell research and also considering the appointment of individuals -- both to the judiciary and to positions of policy making -- who have not taken extreme positions in opposition to abortion or embryonic stem cell research. Sincerely, Dr. Cliff Pickover (See full letter...)


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What is Evil?
(Source: Pickover)
What is Evil? The question of evil has fascinated humans since the dawn of humanity, and today the topic is of increasing relevance. Consider a page on African evil, a discussion of the Top 10 Evil people of all time, and a compelling page on the seemingly evil acts perpetuated by Americans. What are your views on evil?


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What are all those mysterious background Windows tasks?
(Source: Answersthatwork.com)
I have so many (excuse the expression) "crap" programs running in the background of Windows, that I always wondered what was important in Windows and what was not. These programs use resources and slow the Windows boot. Here is a web page that is useful in figuring out what some of these processes are. Note that often Windows problems are caused by programs running in the background, programs which in most cases start at the same time as Windows. Sometimes these programs are useful and need to be there; quite often, however, they are not needed or cause problems. (Read more...)

Headlines: December 27, 2002

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Why Jews are geniuses
(Source: Gregory Cochran via jerrypournelle.com)
Ever wonder why Jews are so smart? ("Ashkenazi Jews" have a higher average IQ than any other group, something like 110-115.) There is a good chance that an odd cluster of hereditary neurological diseases among the Ashkenazi Jews is a side-effect of strong selection for increased intelligence, according to Gregory Cochran. The following neurological diseases are very common in Ashkenazi Jews: Tay-Sachs, Niemann-Pick, Gaucher's, mucolipidosis type IV Canavan disease, Familial dysautonomia, Torsion dystonia and others. These mutations modify molecules that control the central nervous system. These diseases can caused increased dendritic and axonal growth. Scientists know that torsion dystonia increases IQ. These mutations may accelerate some brain system tied to cognitive functioning -- nearly redlines it, leaves it vulnerable to common insults. You might compare this to overclocking a chip. Sometimes you get away with it, sometimes you don't. Would you take a pill that increased your IQ by 20 points that also had a 10% chance of putting you in a wheel chair? (Read more...)


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Site lists the most disturbing auction items
(Source: Disturbingauctions.com)
A lot of people have discovered that they can make a little extra money by auctioning off on the internet those extra knick-knacks they have lying around. After all, as the saying goes, one person's trash is another's treasure. But sometimes, trash is just trash. This site is dedicated to the research and study of the most bizarre items found for sale on internet auction sites. Not the obviously fake auctions, like the infamous human kidney, but truly tacky stuff that people really, honestly, believed that someone would (and in some cases did) buy. (Read more...)


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Koran says Israel should exist
(Source: Dougherty, Cabala.org)
A Moslem scholar admits that a Jewish homeland is promoted and described in the Koran. "And thereafter We said to the Children of Israel: 'Dwell securely in the Promised Land. And when the last warning will come to pass, we will gather you together in a mingled crowd,'" the Koran says in 17:104, The Night Journey. "Israel not only has a right to exist as a nation in the region, but such a right is even described in the Koran, the Muslim holy book describing the origins of Islam much like the Bible describes the origins and manifestations of Christianity." (Read more...)


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Jackson baby-dangling spawns Web games
(Source: CNN)
BERLIN, Germany (CNN) -- The controversy over Michael Jackson's decision to dangle his baby son out of a window has started to subside in the media. But Web surfers are just starting to have fun with it, particularly with a handful of Flash-animation games. One such game features Jackson dropping kids out of the window with players having to maneuver baskets below to catch the kids before they hit the pavement. See, for example, this game featuring baby drops. (Read more...)

Headlines: December 26, 2002

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Penis cannibal uses Internet
(Source: The Sun)
A MAN was killed and eaten by a real-life Hannibal Lecter � after answering an advert for cannibal victims. Computer expert Bernd Juergen Brandes agreed to be scoffed by the maniac who placed an internet ad for �young, well-built men to slaughter�. Brandes, 42, became obsessed with being devoured after watching Sir Anthony Hopkins play cannibal Lecter in hit movie The Silence of the Lambs. He even helped cut off his own privates with a carpet knife and hacksaw. (Read more...)


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Cats Painted in Progression of Psychosis of a Schizophrenic Artist
(Source: Neuroscience Art Gallery)
The progressive escape of reality towards delusion is expressed in pictures by Louis Wain, a European artist. Wain loved to draw cats. At age 57, he was affected by schizophrenia, which overtook his life as well his art. His cats paintings started to change and to show startling images. Quite revealing of his psychotic condition were the cat's eyes. (Read more...)


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Do we use 10% of our brains?
(Source: Chudler)
Do we use 10% of our brains? The 10% statement may have been started with a misquote of Albert Einstein or the misinterpretation of the work of Pierre Flourens in the 1800s. It may have been William James who wrote in 1908: "We are making use of only a small part of our possible mental and physical resources". Perhaps it was the work of Karl Lashley in the 1920s that started it. Lashley removed large areas of the cerebral cortex in rats and found that these animals could still relearn specific tasks. (Read more...)


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Mathematics unravels optimum way of shoe lacing
(Source: New Scientist)
The knotty problem of choosing the optimum way of lacing up shoes has been solved by a new mathematical proof. There are many millions of different possibilities but, reassuringly, the proof shows that centuries of human trial and error has already selected out the strongest lacing patterns. However, the pattern using the least amount of lace possible, the decorative "bowtie" lacing, is usually only seen in shoe shop displays. (Read more...)


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Evangecube (Rubik's Cube for Christians)
(Source: KBC)
Looking for an evangelism tool that's fast, fun and focused? Check out Evangecube! Reminiscent of the Rubik's Cube, the Evangecube will help you walk friends through the Gospel presentation using pictures. Flip one way, and show man's separation from God. Flip again, and you'll see Jesus stepping from the tomb. (Read more...)


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Bears going bald, look like 'large rats'
(Source: AZcentral.com)
OCALA NATIONAL FOREST, Fla. - Many black bears in central Florida are going bald. A veterinarian says bears with a unique type of mange are losing their hair and wind up looking "like a large, bald rat." Biologists say more than half the black bears living in Marion County forests have the illness. Biologists say it's the only place in the country to report such a large proportion of balding bears. (Read more...)


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Monkey looking for love attacks 23 women
(Source: SFGate.com)
TOKYO (AP) -- A rogue monkey believed to be searching for a mate has attacked 23 women in a northern Japan town, police said Tuesday. About a dozen police and 30 town officials were searching for the monkey, said Shigeru Arai, deputy chief of police in Suwa town, about 100 miles northwest of Tokyo. (Read more...)


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Xeni
(Source: Xeni.com)
Xeni travels extensively, and has studied over a dozen languages including Maohi (Tahitian), Quich� and Kakchikel Maya (Guatemala), Nahuatl (an indigenous language of Mexico), Mandarin Chinese, and Yoruba (Nigeria). Her popular web page attracts many thousands. (Read more...)


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Adventures in Extreme Eating
(Source: Innes, Fairfield Weekly)
Until then, I'd never been certain whether the point of live sushi was that the food is live up to the last moment and therefore uncompromisingly fresh, which most Americans would find defensible, or that the food is live even as you eat it, which most Americans would find ghoulish. Any sushi aficionado has encountered live clam or scallop, the muscle still twitching (reflexively, I hope) even as one devours the slippery treat. (Read more...)


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Insect art
(Source: Pickover)
Who would guess that art and insects and spiders can go hand in hand? As mentioned in a previous article, we have art made using insect larvae, mygalomorph patterns, fractal insects, cool insects for sale, virtual insect art, and insect and spider stamps. Microscopic images and Chalmers photos are also pretty cool. What's you favorite insect art?

Headlines: December 25, 2002

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The hypnagogic state: where visions & insights greet us
(Source: Fortean Times)
The brief transition between wakefulness and sleep we experience each night has been known by many names: the �borderland state�, the �half-dream state�, the �pre-dream condition�. Its technical name is the hypnagogic state and, along with dreaming, it is one of the most fascinating altered states of consciousness we can experience without the use of drugs. In the hypnagogic state, visions, voices, weird insights and unusual sensations greet us as we drift out of consciousness. We may feel we are floating, or that our body has grown to enormous proportions, or that we have suddenly grasped the answer to the riddle of the Universe.(Read more...)


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Ontario author says he knows where UFOs come from
(Source: Gazzar, DailyBulletin.Com)
ONTARIO -- Author C.A. Honey of Ontario calls himself a skeptic. Many others, he says casually, think he's a wacko. Honey, 74, has spent the last 45 years of his life seeking the truth about UFOs and "space people.' Honey, a television repairman and a former design engineering supervisor at Hughes Aircraft Co. in Fullerton, wrote a book because he needed the money and wanted to promote his agenda, he said.(Read more...)


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Tesla doom weapons & Aum Shinrikyo
(Source: Deepblacklies)
When it comes to Aum Shinrikyo - the sinister Japanese cult said to be responsible for the Tokyo subway Sarin attack in 1995 - almost anything is possible. New evidence focuses on claims that Aum were intimately involved in the development of futuristic doomsday weapons that make today�s nuclear missiles look like children�s toys. These weapons are so advanced that they don�t �officially� exist in the armouries of the major powers. These involve the use of Tesla Electromagnetic pulse, earthquake inducing and Plasma weapons being covertly tested in remote regions of the world. (Read more...)


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The Emergence of Silicon-Based Consciousness
(Source: Christopher Altman)
The study of consciousness has experienced radical breakthroughs with the advent of emerging technologies in the field of neuroscience. The inner workings of the brain have undergone profound illuminations made possible by rapid advances in the computing industry, coupled with insights gleaned through medical science. New technologies such as MRI scanning have enabled scientists to understand the neurological correlates of mental processes in ever finer detail, allowing them to glimpse the interior of a fully-functioning brain in real-time. However, even with these advances, the arising of consciousness remains a mystery. The most important scientific discovery of our time will be when this problem is resolved. (Read more...)


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Play with my eye
(Source: Arseiam.com)
Interactive fun. Play with an eyeball in real time. (Read more...)


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Laptop burns man's penis (Source: The Sydney Morning Herald)
Doctors are warning that laptop computers may inflict a burn even through clothed skin, after the bizarre case of a Swedish scientist who scorched his penis and testicles while writing a report in his armchair. (Read more...)


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Dr. Lyn Tumlin Pierce
(Source: Pierce)
I am interested in designing protocols that can be used to build Byzantine fault-resistant replicated data services, i.e. services that not only tolerate Byzantine faults, but also police themselves to detect and eliminate them. Specifically, I am adapting the concept of quorum systems to improve the semantics of the shared data, include fault detection and identification algorithms, and dynamically reorganize in response to the resulting information. (Read more...)


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Sushi photo of the week
(Source: Damon Wischik)
Enjoy. (Read more...)


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Fun gifts
(Source: Pickover)
The Season for Giving is upon us. The web contains a colorful collection of odd but interesting gifts. Some particular favorites include: sushi jewelry, Klein bottle hats and glassware, Zanti Misfits, and Homer Simpson's Rubik's cubes. (Not for sale yet is the ever-popular Matrioshka Brain.) What fun and strange gifts have you found in your peripatetic searches of the web? What fun gift would you most like to receive?

Headlines: December 24, 2002

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Human Immortality: A Scientific Reality?
(Source: Viewzone)
If you're alive in 20 years, you may be able to live forever. Statistics say that a newborn child can expect to live an average of 76 years. However, in 1796, life expectancy was 24 years. A hundred years later it doubled to 48. Right now, it's 76. "Over half the baby boomers here in America are going to see their hundredth birthday and beyond in excellent health," says Dr. Ronald Klatz. "We're looking at life spans for the baby boomers and the generation after the baby boomers of 120 to 150 years of age." (Read more...)


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LSD-infused lick-and-stick tattoo transfers scare parents
(Source: Dave Gross)
The "Blue Star" LSD tattoo warning is a classic urban legend - it has been frightening parents, fooling journalists, bewildering authorities and delighting urban legend researchers for at least twenty years. In a typical outbreak, a school, hospital, or police station will get a copy of a photocopied flyer warning that LSD-infused lick-and-stick tattoo transfers are being given to unwitting children in local schoolyards. Interest in this legend explodes on the Internet. (Read more...)


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Physicist says time is an illusion
(Source: Brockman's Edge)
Julian Barbour, a theoretical physicist, has worked on foundational issues in physics for 35 years. He is responsible for a radical notion of "time capsules which explain how the powerful impression of the passage of time can arise in a timeless world". He lives on a farm north of Oxford village and for the past 30 years he has made a living translating Russian while pursuing his interests in physics. In a profile in The Sunday Times (October, 1998), Steve Farrar wrote: "Barbour argues that we live in a universe which has neither past nor future. A strange new world in which we are alive and dead in the same instant. In this eternal present, our sense of the passage of time is nothing more than a giant cosmic illusion. (Read more...)


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Are aliens described in the Bible?
(Source: The Net Net)
The basic premise of this book is that there is no "God". "God" is instead the metaphor by which a primitive tribe identified the interference in their life by a group of well-meaning extraterrestials. Genesis is the tale of the "terraforming" of the Earth, followed by the attempts of humans forcibly evolved from the primates being driven from a state of paradise by their alien masters. The burning bush that appeared to Moses in the desert and the appearance of God on Mt. Sinai were spacecrafts whose exhaust fumes confused tribesmen into believing in an omnipotent God. (Read more...)


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Internet spammer can't take what he dishes out
(Source: Detroit Free Press)
West Bloomfield bulk e-mailer Alan Ralsky, who just may be the world's biggest sender of Internet spam, is getting a taste of his own medicine. Ever since I wrote a story on him a couple of weeks ago (www.freep.com/money/tech/mwend22_20021122.htm), he says he's been inundated with ads, catalogs and brochures delivered by the U.S. Postal Service to his brand-new $740,000 home. It's all the result of a well-organized campaign by the anti-spam community, and Ralsky doesn't find it funny. "They've signed me up for every advertising campaign and mailing list there is," he told me. "These people are out of their minds. They're harassing me." (Read more...)


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"Bad Sex" award draws attention to books with bad sex descriptions
(Source: BBC)
An author nominated for a prestigious Whitbread prize has found himself on the less coveted shortlist of Bad Sex in Fiction Award. Hari Kunzru's The Impressionist was named as a contender of the Whitbread best first novel award which carries a prize of �5,000. The Bad Sex award just draws attention to a book carrying one of the worst descriptions of a sex act in a modern novel. The aim of the prize is "to draw attention to the crude, tasteless, often perfunctory use of redundant passages of sexual description in the modern novel, and to discourage it". (Read more...)


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Tatiana Georgieva Plachkinova, Professional Chessplayer
(Source: Chessgoddesses.com)
"A well-played chess game, like a beautiful woman, is music to the soul. I am pleased to introduce Tania to you." The goal of "A Day In the Life of ..." is to give you an idea of what it means firsthand to be a professional chessplayer, travelling the never-ending circuit of tournaments in the quest for chess excellence and prize money. Tania was born and raised in Bulgaria. (Read more...)


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Sushi clocks a big hit
(Source: Sushiclock.com)
In 1993, Noriko Kuwabara, started making sushi clocks. It usually takes him three weeks to make 20 clocks. He uses polymer clay for basic shapes, paints with acrylics and puts varnish on at the end. (Read more...)

Headlines: December 23, 2002

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Goggles allows researchers to control dreams
(Source: Lucidity.com)
Become a lucid dreamer. The NovaDreamer�, by lucid dreaming researcher Stephen LaBerge, Ph.D., brings the lucid dream state within reach of everyone. The NovaDreamer detects when you�re in REM sleep, then gives you a cue (flashing lights or sounds) to remind you to recognize you're dreaming. Cues enter your dream, becoming incorporated just like an alarm will sometimes work its way into a dream. One NovaDreamer users reported: "I see a beautiful pattern of gold and yellow diamonds and I'm surrounded by afterimages of orange circles, and I press the button. I must be dreaming!" (Read more...)


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Internet Encyclopedia of Hoaxes
(Source: Pickover)
Hoaxes perpetuated in the name of science come in various flavors. On the one hand, there is the April's fool joke or urban legend in which someone tells a funny tale about alligators living in sewers. On the other hand, a more serious hoax can destroy an entire line of scholarship or provide an ineffective medical "cure" until the deceit inevitably comes to light. (Read more...)


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Patent granted for hyper-light-speed antenna
(Source: Delphion.com)
"US6025810: Hyper-light-speed antenna" is a patent that describes a a method to transmit and receive electromagnetic waves and generating a communications signals at a speed faster than light. (Read more...)


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Freeman Dyson talks about science and religion
(Source: Dyson at Brockman's Edge)
I do not make any clear distinction between mind and God. God is what mind becomes when it has passed beyond the scale of our comprehension. God may be either a world-soul or a collection of world-souls. So I am thinking that atoms and humans and God may have minds that differ in degree but not in kind. (Read more...)


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The MegaPenny Project
(Source: Kokogiak Media)
Visualizing huge numbers can be very difficult. People regularly talk about millions of miles, billions of bytes, or trillions of dollars, yet it's still hard to grasp just how much a "billion" really is. The MegaPenny Project aims to help by taking one small everyday item, the U.S. penny, and building on that to answer the question: "What would a billion (or a trillion) pennies look like?" (Read more...)


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World's smartest porn star: 150+ IQ
(Source: AsiaCarrera.com)
Asia Carrera is best known for her career as a porn star. But did you know she has a 150+ IQ and plays Unreal Tournament? Not only that, she runs her own UT servers, and has designed and built her website. Unreal Tournament 2003 is a parallel universe in which warriors face off to determine the ultimate combatant. (Read more...)


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Chinese insane over pet piranhas
(Source: ABC News)
The deadly piranha fish, which strips its prey to the bone in seconds, has appeared at Chinese pet markets and even in an amusement park, flustering officials. Although the name of the piranha in Chinese - "man-eating fish" - should be a warning in itself, it has been snapped up at pet markets from Guangzhou in the south to Shenyang in the north, China Daily reports. It is unclear how the fish, which kills 1,200 head of cattle every year in Brazil, was introduced to China and achieved its popularity. (Read more...)

Headlines: December 22, 2002

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Resurgence of psychedelic compounds as instruments of spiritual & scientific exploration
(Source: Brockman's Edge)
The story that has gripped me is the quiet resurgence of psychedelic compounds as instruments of both spiritual and scientific exploration. This trend is unfolding worldwide. I just attended a conference in Switzerland at which scholars studied psilocybin, LSD and MDMA (Ecstasy). An American chemist synthesized a new compound that induces transcendent experiences as reliably as LSD does but with a greatly reduced risks. (Read more...)


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Indigo Children have attention deficit disorder
(Source: Carroll's Skeptic's Dictionary)
The main thesis of The Indigo Children is that many children diagnosed as having attention deficit disorder (ADD) or ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) are actually space aliens. These children don't need drugs like Ritalin, but special care and training. The book consists of dozens of articles by authors from many walks of life. (Read more...)


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Dearborn teens create antigravity machine
(Source: WDHS Radio)
Dearborn Highschool video/computer students are the first high school students in the world to build an "antigravity" machine for 2002-2003 Metro-Detroit Science Fair. Yes, you can say impossible. Yes, you can say it defies Newton's 3rd law of gravity. Yes, you can say it's done with smoke and mirrors. Nevertheless three teenage Dearborn High students, Luke Duncan, 16, Ethan Rein, 17, and Jim Bergren, 16, built and flew an "antigravity" aircraft last Sunday in the school video/computer studio. (Read more...)


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Ken Schei founds "Atheists for Jesus"
(Source: Shei's Atheist for Jesus)
My name is Ken Schei, I'm the founder and President of "Atheists for Jesus". And yes, as the name implies, I am an atheist for Jesus. Now, I'm sure that at least some of you (perhaps it would be more accurate to say all of you) are asking: "Just what in the heck is an Atheist for Jesus?" Fair enough! I realize that this may well appear to be a contradiction of terms, so I'd best start out with an explanation of just what I mean by my use of the terms. (Read more...)


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Artist coaxes insect larva to make art
(Source: Duprat and Besson, Leonardo)
Since the early 1980s, artist Hubert Duprat has been utilizing insects to construct some of his "sculptures." By removing caddis fly larvae from their natural habitat and providing them with precious materials, he prompts them to manufacture cases that resemble jewelers' creations. The worms are prompted by the "noise"---beads, pearls and 18-karat gold pieces---introduced by the artist into the insect's environment. (Read more...)


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More extramarital flings means happier marriage
(Source: Weekly World News)
TURIN, Italy -- Thou shalt not commit adultery . . . unless you want a stronger marriage! According to a new study, husbands and wives who cheat on each other are more likely to stay together. Dr. Lucielle Ostertag from the Italian Institute of Social Sciences conducted the controversial research. "I started the analysis project to discover how damaging infidelity was to marriages," says Dr. Ostertag. "I was as surprised as everyone when the numbers proved that cheating on your spouse is actually good for your marriage." (Read more...)


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Natasha Vita More
(Source: Natasha Vita More)
CREATE/RECREATE: The 3rd Millennial Culture by Natasha Vita-More covers the presently emerging culture by casting a light on the escalating memes, emerging art of creativity, and our possible and quixotic future. It gives a cogent history of the beginnings of transhumanist ideas. The book's "Transhuman Timeline" brings to light the biological, communication, technological, memetic evolution of transhuman ideas and FM-2030's definition of transhuman (Read more...)


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People eat living, moving sushi. Why?
(Source: MyInky)
LOS ANGELES - You order sweet shrimp at Haneda Sushi & Seafood restaurant in Koreatown and the chef nods his acknowledgment. On the television above the bar, ESPN is blasting baseball highlights. After a moment, the chef hands you your dish: two shrimp tails wrapped around two heads. You take the plate and the antennae start to wiggle. It's as if they're waving hello, or, more appropriately, goodbye. (Read more...)


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People with strange brains
(Source: Pickover)
The strange range of human behavior continues to draw us like moths to a flame. Consider Amanda Fielding who continually performed self-surgery on her braincase, Catharina Geisslerin, the woman who vomited frogs, and the Collyer brothers, who collected so much junk that it crushed them in their own home. Samuel Johnson, compiler of the first dictionary of the English language, was compelled to whirl, twist, and make highly ritualized hand motions when going through doors. Recent research suggests that obsessive-compulsive child behaviors can be caused by strep infection. Who do you think are the most interesting, eccentric, and compulsive personalities? Here is a book that tells of my favorite strange brains and genius.

Headlines: December 21, 2002

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World's most frightening and mysterious tombstone
(Source: Tombstone Traveller's Guide Home)
Mr. Maloney has had this intriguing photo in his possession for many years but has very little information about it. This headstone is located in a cemetery somewhere in Switzerland. It was created by an artist called "G. Pepe," who "currently resides several feet below it." Pepe, whose signature is carved on the side of the stone, sculpted it for use as his own headstone. (Read more...)


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The world's longest tongue found in schoolgirl
(Source: BBC)
Here's a world record to set tongues wagging. German schoolgirl Annika Irmler has licked her way into the Guinness Book of Records with her whopping seven centimetre tongue. "My friends always said I had an incredibly long tongue - I could make lots of money with it one day," said Annika. (Read more...)


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Parallel universes in science fiction and science
(Source: IncuBLOGula)
Alternate universes may exist besides our own in some ghostly manner. Various science-fiction series explore parallel universes, but what do serious physicists think? Hugh Everett III's doctoral thesis outlines a controversial theory in which the universe at every instant branches into countless parallel worlds. Physicist Andrei Linde's theory of self-reproducing universes implies that new universes are being created all the time through a budding process. Stephen Hawking's quantum cosmology also suggests the possibility of other universes connected by wormholes. (Read more...)


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Are Science and Religion Compatible?
(Source: Kurtz, CSICOP)
We need separations between religion and science, ethics, and the state. But there is an appropriate domain for religion, and in this sense science and religion are not necessarily incompatible. That domain is evocative, expressive, emotive. Religion presents moral poetry, aesthetic inspiration, and dramatic expressions of existential hope and yearnings. (Read more...)


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Britney Spears to speak at MIT
(Source: MIT News)
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Britney Spears visited the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to deliver a major address on the history of western music, broadcast live in the United States and around the world. Guests included notable national personalities, including former President Bill Clinton and Nobel Laureate Professor Paul Samuelson. MIT President Charles M. Vest commented, "I am very pleased that Britney Spears will visit MIT and share her thoughts with us. We are very fortunate to host the nation's revolutionaries from time to time." (Read more...)


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Spencer Tunick has naked people lie on road
(Source: Something is Burning)
Spencer Tunick, Williamsburg Bridge, NYC. "Sometimes I feel like I am an explorer, sometimes I feel like I am a criminal, sometimes I feel like I am an artist. I create my work under very stressful conditions." (Read more...)


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Susannah Breslin
(Source: Via BoingBoing)
Porn connoisseur, intellectual, and sex-culture critic Susannah Breslin is an L.A.-based writer whose work explores sexuality and technology, among other things. She's also a photographer and a comics artist. Her Reverse Cowgirl's Blog, in which she "attempts to justify the enormity of her porn collection" is presently being transformed into a TV pilot for A Big Network (Read more...)


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Sushi boat photo of the week
(Source: Kai)
Sushi boats delight the eye. (Read more...)


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Science and humor
(Source: Pickover)
Consider funny science cartoons appeal to many of us, like this one or this. Whacky patents also delight the mind and tickle the funny bone. Absurd humor makes us wonder what the heck is going on. And what the hell is Cindogu really all about? What are you favorite science sites with humor or absurdity?

Headlines: December 20, 2002

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Police hunt hallucinogenic toad thief
(Source: Lycos)
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Dutch police are investigating whether drug addicts raided a pet shop and stole three exotic toads whose warty skin can induce hallucinations when licked. The animals were snatched from a pet shop near a drug addicts' center in the city of Leeuwarden in the northeast of the Netherlands on Wednesday. "There has been quite a bit of trouble with junkies and there is a drugs crisis center near the shop, so it is quite possible, naturally we are looking in that direction too," police spokesman Harry Oenema told Reuters. (Read more...)


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Beware the skinwalkers
(Source: Knapp, Los Vegas Mercury)
But run-of-the-mill UFO events don't begin to describe the rich array of unusual phenomena in this area. The Ute Indian tribe has been here far longer than white settlers. Tribal leaders are reluctant to speak to outsiders, but their oral history is replete with examples of strange creatures and sightings. Indian lore refers to some of these beings as Skinwalkers. (Read more...)


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Researchers create their own mathematical spider art
(Source: Pickover)
Consider a race of spider-beings named Mygalomorphs who spend their days spinning webs upon circular frames. Status in their society is based on the beauty of their webs. To create the web patterns, the spiders string a straight piece of web from one point on the circle to another. Usually the patterns are dull and uninspiring, and therefore most spiders are relegated to lower societal classes. (Read more...)


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Eye-popping discovery of Elizabeth Targ, M.D.
(Source: Bronson, Wired)
Astonishing story of doctor who subjected faith to rigors of science and then became a test subject herself. In July 1995, back when AIDS was still a death sentence, psychiatrist Elisabeth Targ and her co-researchers enrolled 20 patients with advanced AIDS in a randomized, double-blind pilot study at the UC San Francisco Medical Center. All patients received standard care, but psychic healers prayed for the 10 in the treatment group. All 10 who were prayed for were still alive. (Read more...)


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Weird woman has a taste for harboring frogs in her bod!
(Source: Pickover)
In 1642, Mrs. Catharina Geisslerin was widely known as "the toad-vomiting woman of Germany." She told people that she had swallowed tadpoles in swamp water, and that frogs were thriving in her intestinal tract. Whenever she drank milk, the frogs would hop about madly. Despite initial skepticism, she convinced physicians that amphibians were in her digestive system -- especially after she vomited fully-grown frogs (sometimes living) for two years in front of famous professors and medical consultants (Read more...)


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42 Percent Of Office Drones Have Sex At Work
(Source: NCBuy)
CHICAGO (Wireless Flash) -- It's amazing any work gets done at the office because 42 percent of Americans say they've had sex on the job. According to a new sex survey in the upcoming "Playboy" magazine, 38 percent of men and 48 percent of women have been working their bodies on company time. However, when it comes to workplace whoopee, the ladies have the men beat. -- 46 percent of women have bedded their boss compared to only 18 percent of men. -- 45 percent of women have had sex on their desk, compared to only 33 percent of guys. -- Finally, 20 percent of ladies will gladly sleep with interns compared to only 12 percent of men. (Read more...)


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Dr. Kushnareva Yulia Efimovna
(Source: Aeiveos Research Library)
Research Interest: Life extension. Mechanisms of longevity and the role of mitochondria in aging process. Education: Department of Biophysics, Biology Faculty, Moscow State University. Graduate Student in Department of Biophysics, Biology Faculty, Moscow State University December 17, 1990 PhD in Biophysics, (Biology Faculty, Moscow State University) Dissertation: Regulation of ion permeability of mitochondria under conditions of free-radical reactions. (Read more...)


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Sushi Jewlery
(Source: Kai)
Sushi necklace contains various sushi; nigiri, maki and temaki. It also includes pickled ginger and wasabi. (Read more...)


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Art from Physics
(Source: Pickover)
Art from physics: it's a groovy gas. It's transonic flight. It's a pi-muon death cycle. It's a dark matter detector. It's a Super-Kamiokande with 9000 neutrino eyes. Dream on!

Headlines: December 19, 2002

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People near death see a silver cord
(Source: Near-death.com)
NDE researchers have documented experiences of people who leave their physical body at death and see a "silver cord" connecting their physical body to their spirit body. This silver cord seen at death operates in a similar function to the umbilical cord seen at birth. The existence of this silver cord can even be found in the Bible: "Remember him, before the silver cord is severed ... and the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it." (Eccl. 12:6-7) (Read more...)


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Bigfoot is dead
(Source: MSNBC)
This is a 1977 still photo made from a 16mm film reportedly showing the legendary Bigfoot cavorting in northern California. The man who launched the "Bigfoot" legend has died, and family members say they can now reveal the truth: Ray L. Wallace was the Bigfoot in the movie. Was �Bigfoot� hoax meant to scare thieves? (Read more...)


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Google Search patterns, trends, and surprises
(Source: Google)
2002 Year-End Zeitgeist offers a unique perspective on the year's major events and hottest trends based on more than 55 billion searches conducted over the past year by Google users from around the world. Whether you are tracking the global progression of the "Las Ketchup" craze or finding out who really is the queen of the Internet, the 2002 Year-End Zeitgeist enables you to look at the past year through the collective eyes of the world on the Internet: 1. spiderman, 2. shakira... (Read more...)


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Isaac Asimov, Ronald Regan, and God
(Source: Positive Atheism)
Some time ago, Ronald Reagan pointed out that one couldn't trust the Soviet government because the Soviets didn't believe in God or in an afterlife and therefore had no reason to behave honorably, but would be willing to lie and cheat and do all sorts of wicked things to aid their cause. Naturally, I firmly believe that the president of the United States knows what he is talking about, so I've done my very best to puzzle out the meaning of that statement. (Read more...)


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Bloody teeth boost memory
(Source: Nature)
Watching a gory tooth extraction helps people remember unrelated facts, brain researchers have shown. Excitement, they suggest, aids memory formation - students or the elderly could capitalize on this to improve their recall. Kristy Nielson of Marquette University in Milwaukee says that a flood of emotion boosts people's memories for totally unrelated events. (Read more...)


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Women More Likely to Sleep with Interns?
(Source: Reuters)
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Women are more likely than men to have sex with an intern at work, according to a Playboy magazine poll that also found that two-thirds of female respondents had slept with a co-worker. Among male respondents, half had slept with co-workers, said Playboy, which polled more than 10,000 men and women in an online survey in August. (Read more...)


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Dr. Fiorella Terenzi
(Source: Fiorella.com)
Described by Time Magazine as "a cross between Carl Sagan and Madonna", astrophysicist, author and recording artist Dr. Fiorella Terenzi received her doctorate in physics, has studied opera and composition at Conservatory G. Verdi, and taught mathematics and physics. In research at the Computer Audio Research Laboratory, University of California, she developed techniques to convert radio waves from galaxies into sound - on her acclaimed CD "Music from the Galaxies". She also recently created a line of jewelry based on astrophysical phenomenon. (Read more...)


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Fugu: The World's Most Deadly Feast?
(Source: About.com)
Fugu is a fish which contains deadly poison in the organs. Despite the risk, fugu dishes remain as special feasts in Japan. Even the milt is considered as a great delicacy. It's reported that about 40 kinds of fugu are caught and cultured in Japan and that 10000 tons of fugu are consumed each year. Shimonoseki-city, in Yamaguchi, is known as fugu city and supplies a large amount of fugu. (Read more...)


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