Star Treks 46th!!

From GaijinPot on FaceBook

Only the dull and stupid fight head on....

Nihil timedum est

So over you is the greatest enemy a man can have and that is fear. I know some of you are afraid to listen to the truth - you have been raised on fear and lies. But I am going to preach to you the truth until you are free of that fear…
- Malcolm X

Our human brain has been designed to believe itself, wired so that prejudices feel like facts, opinions are indistinguishable from that actual sensation. If we think a wine is cheap, it will taste cheap. And actual sensation. If we are tasting a grand Cru, then we will taste a Grand Cru. Our senses are vague in their instructions, and we parse their suggestions based on whatever other knowledge we can summon to the surface.

Jonah Lehrer’s Proust was a Neuroscientist

Sol Robeson:

The Ancient Japanese considered the Go board to be a microcosm of the universe. Although when it is empty it appears to be simple and ordered, in fact, the possibilities of gameplay are endless. They say that no two Go games have ever been alike. Just like snowflakes. So, the Go board actually represents an extremely complex and chaotic universe.

Inspiration does not come via coded messages, but by visible personality.

This is the way for men who want to learn my strategy:

1. Do not think dishonestly.
 
2. The Way is in training.
 
3. Become acquainted with every art.
 
4. Know the Ways of all professions.
 
5. Distinguish between gain and loss in worldly matters.
 
6. Develop intuitive judgment and understanding for everything.
 
7. Perceive those things which cannot be seen.
 
8. Pay attention even to trifles.
 
9. Do nothing which is of no use.
 
 
Miyamoto Musashi’s The Book of Five Rings

Patton, on History

"We disregard the lessons of history.

I am convinced that more emphasis should be placed on history. The purpose of history is to learn how human beings react when exposed to the danger of wounds or death, and how high ranking individuals react when submitted to the onerous responsibility of conducting war or the preparation of war."

Don't hold back.

Taoist proverb “A clever merchant hides his goods and pretends to have nothing.

-Are you someone who hides knowledge and hordes wisdom for your own benefit?

Sung-dynasty Chinese Zen master said “Those who have no real virtue within buy outwardly rely on flowery cleverness are like leaky boat brightly painted. One they go ito the water the wind and waves, are they not in danger?”

2010, Year of the Metal Tiger

In case you did'nt know. I think this year will be just as wonderfully ferocious!

Nearly 3 years to the day!

But we are back since our last blog, so much has changed, so much done and so much for us to talk about.

“Its nothing personal”

“Its nothing personal” is an excuse used by the weak and fearful to veil their emotions because every time the phrase is used, it has been preceded by hubristic emotion.

Life is personal, and whom ever thinks their interactions in life are anything otherwise should be ashamed, because they try to accuse you and make you feel guilty, they talk about justice and morality to gain an advantage over you.

Use these following fundamentals

-Look at things as they are, not as your emotions color them

-Judge people by their actions: There are those who act friendly and agreeable, but who sabotage us behind the scenes, using the group to promote their own agenda. Others play more subtle games of passive aggression and this type will avoid direct contact in favor of indirection and subtle maneuver, making their manipulations like figment, hard to trace and quantify, all the while trying to maintain a peaceful exterior.

-Depend on yourself (listen to your instincts)

-Spiritualize your Way: The greatest challenge is with yourself,-your weakness, emotions, and lack of resolution.

“Life is one long battle; we have to fight at every step; and Voltaire very rightly says that if we succeed, it is at the point of the sword, and that we die with the weapon in out hand.”

-Arthur Schopenhauer, Counsels and Maxims, 1851

Bad things happen to good people.

Brain waves...music...maybe this explains the phenom about music...abit

Our brain is made up of billions of brain cells called neurons, which use electricity to communicate with each other.The combination of millions of neurons sending signals at once produces an enormous amount of electrical activity in the brain, which can be detected using sensitive medical equipment (such as an EEG), measuring electricity levels over areas of the scalp.The combination of electrical activity of the brain is commonly called a BrainWave pattern, because of its cyclic, "wave-like" nature.With the discovery of brainwaves came the discovery that electrical activity in the brain will change depending on what the person is doing.For instance, the brainwaves of a sleeping person are vastly different than the brainwaves of someone wide awake.Over the years, more sensitive equipment has brought us closer to figuring out exactly what brainwaves represent and with that, what they mean about a person's health and state of mind.Brainwave Entrainment refers to the brain's electrical response to rhythmic sensory stimulation, such as pulses of sound or light.When the brain is given a stimulus, through the ears, eyes or other senses, it emits an electrical charge in response, called a Cortical Evoked Response. These electrical responses travel throughout the brain to become what you "see and hear". This activity can be measured using sensitive electrodes attached to the scalp.When the brain is presented with a rhythmic stimulus, such as a drum beat for example, the rhythm is reproduced in the brain in the form of these electrical impulses. If the rhythm becomes fast and consistent enough, it can start to resemble the natural internal rhythms of the brain, called brainwaves. When this happens, the brain responds by synchronizing its own electric cycles to the same rhythm.This is commonly called the Frequency Following Response (or FFR):FFR can be useful because brainwaves are very much related to mental state.For example, a 4 Hz brainwave is associated with sleep, so a 4 Hz sound pattern would help reproduce the sleep state in your brain.The same concept can be applied to nearly all mental states, including concentration, creativity and many others.It can even act as a gateway to exotic or extraordinary experiences, such as deep meditation or "lucid dreaming" type states.
Brainwave Entrainment's usefulness is not limited to relaxation and enhancing academic performance. It can also be used for reducing headaches, insomnia, stress and even enhancing athletic performance.

Dawn in the woods.

HIFANA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2QclFMoxhE

My favorite Madcow pic on the net.

my special thanks to "httpnopaper.netspaceThe+Farm"

Audi Dominates!

As expected Audi won Le Mans this year with its new R10 diesel powered racer. So far this year in American Le Mans Series it has continued unbeaten. See my SpeedArena.com for the latest news.

See this movie!

Dont get the chance to see movies much anymore. But I had the chance to see my first film here in a Japanese theater. So you must see this one. As usual of a Micheal Mann movie it is a wonderful audio visual experience.

This one bears repeating.

BBC Coming to -- (Wait For it!) -- Xbox!

Near the bottom of a bland "Memorandum of Understanding" press release issued yesterday by the British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC) and Microsoft, was a line that almost made me spray my beverage. BBC Director of New Media and Technology Ashley Highfield was quoted as saying, "Microsoft is... a key gateway to audiences that the BBC needs to reach through... hardware such as Xbox..." WTF?

Another Robot Suit Rises From Slab

Japanese scientists unveiled another ROBOT SUIT PROJECT -- actually a second generation of its Stand-Alone Power Assist Suit (SAPAS) -- designed to give the wearer SUPER STRENGTH. The battery-operated garment uses tiny body sensors to detect when the wearer's muscles are flexing and air pumps to augment the work of the wearer. SAPAS is envisioned as something nurses would wear to carry old people from one place to another. Other robotic exoskeleton projects include the Berkeley Lower Extremity Exoskeleton (BLEEX), the Yobotics project, Robotics and Energetic Systems Group's "Human-Amplifying Machines," University of Tsukuba's Cyberdyne, Inc. Cybernetics projects, and the University of Michigan's pneumatically powered lower limb exoskeletons,

Well, I guess this may not really be all that far away...

Now these two articals make me go "Hmmmm", on ther other hand maybe the author has this apology thing going on.

Apologies Accepted? It Depends on the Offense
By Shankar VedantamWashington Post Staff WriterMonday, September 25, 2006; A02
When freedom fighters in India inspired by Mahatma Gandhi turned violent in a clash with police in 1922, the nonviolent leader took personal responsibility, called off nationwide protests and starved himself for five days in a penitential fast. Gandhi was nearly alone in thinking an apology of such magnitude was called for.
Nowadays, people offended by public leaders rarely feel that the apologies they receive are sufficient. In recent days, the Islamic world has rejected the pope's repeated apologies for quotations linking Islam with violence. In recent weeks, Democrats and many people of color have skeptically received the apologies of Sen. George Allen (R-Va.) for using the term "macaca" to describe a member of his opponent's staff. And Republicans have termed President Bill Clinton's apologies for the Monica S. Lewinsky scandal inadequate.
Apologies, which are supposed to come from the heart, have been turned into an art form. We now have advisers who craft apologies, commentators who analyze apologies and a distrustful public that weighs apologies for accuracy, completeness and sincerity. This has caused the phenomenon of the ratcheted apology, where public officials go from denial to groveling in a matter of weeks. Nearly everyone is upset by the end: Supporters of the officials feel that minor transgressions have been blown out of proportion for political gain, while those who are offended feel pacified rather than healed.
Experts say all this is merely an outgrowth of our natural predilections. Human beings seem hard-wired to trade in apologies, which lubricate the cogs of human relationships like engine grease.
Children as young as 3 seem able to understand that an apology can rebuild trust. By the time they are 8, children are rapidly learning the role of mitigating factors and the complex calculus by which we find a balance between the extent of a wrong and the extent of the apology needed to rectify it.
People seem to have an astonishing ability to keep track of who has done what to whom. A bump into someone merits an "excuse me." When another driver cuts us off on the road without a backward glance, we are furious; studies have shown that more florid apologies are needed to rectify such serious misdeeds.
A growing body of research has unearthed fascinating new insights into the nature of apologies. Contrary to the popular view that honesty is always the best policy when it comes to making amends for wrongdoing, experiments show that apologies for only certain kinds of offenses lead to a repair of trust.
The research speaks to a central paradox of the apology: People who apologize are confirming they did something wrong, and therefore should be trusted less. But the fact that they are coming clean means they should be trusted more.
Apologies can take confessors in either direction, said Peter Kim, an organizational psychologist at the University of Southern California who has studied which apologies increase trust and which ones do not. Much seems to depend not on the error, but on what is seen to be the motive behind it.
In a series of experiments, Kim and his colleagues found that when errors are presented as incompetence, apologies are accepted and trust can be restored. When an accountant makes an error in a calculation or a baseball player makes an error that loses a game, such lapses are not seen as deliberate. We tell ourselves that the accountant and the athlete can do better next time.
But when lapses are seen as intentional, an apology can become grounds for mistrust, because deep down we believe that deliberate wrongdoing reflects a flaw in character and that such flaws are permanent. We see the accountant who knowingly falsifies his numbers or the ballplayer who accepts a bribe as lacking in integrity. Although many people who do bad things can mend their ways, our brains seem programmed to see such people differently.
This is why public officials nowadays try to frame their lapses as incompetence -- and why their critics frame errors as matters of integrity. Both the pope and Allen, for instance, said they meant no offense; had they known how their comments would be perceived, they said, they would never have said such things.
When Arnold Schwarzenegger was accused of sexual harassment on the eve of the 2003 California gubernatorial election, Kim said, the candidate successfully turned a concern over integrity into a question of incompetence: "He said, 'I had no idea. I thought we were just playing around. Had I realized [it was wrong], I would never have done it.' "
"He was claiming social ineptitude," Kim said.
Kim has also found that officials who come clean and apologize for deliberate wrongdoing are seen as no better than officials who deny such crimes but then recant when the allegations prove true. So if people are unhappy with the way public officials apologize, Kim argues, at least part of the problem lies with the public.
"If we want people who perform nefarious acts to apologize, we need to create the incentive to do that," he said. "But here we ask them for their apology, and they apologize, and then we hate them just as much."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/24/AR2006092400765_pf.html



Sorry, Jane, Apology Not Accepted
by Allan H. RyskindPosted Apr 08, 2005
Jane Fonda wants the country to forgive her for her trip to Hanoi during the Vietnam war. But I say, "not yet." The reason: she's not really sorry! Read her new book, My Life So Far. Here's what she says about her terrible visit to the enemy's camp in July of 1972, when Richard Nixon had already begun pulling American troops out of South Vietnam and was trying to get the South Vietnamese to take over the fighting and working to bring our prisoners of war home: " . . .I do not regret that I went. My only regret about the trip was that I was photographed sitting in a North Vietnamese antiaircraft gun site." (See page 291.) Well, if she doesn't regret making that trip, how can anyone forgive her? She admits that the photograph made it look as if she were merrily willing to gun down American pilots. And she's "sorry" for the disturbing, but supposedly false, impression it gave. Her only objective, she insists, was to meet with the North Vietnamese to help end the war. But this excuse is nothing new, as the media are suggesting. She's been saying virtually the same thing since her "20/20" interview with Barbara Walters in June of 1988. (See HUMAN EVENTS, July 2, 1988, issue.) But that picture--dreadful as it was--was hardly the only appalling thing about that trip and the truth is she probably was ready and willing to shoot down American pilots. At the time she was in Hanoi, Fonda, for all practical purposes, was a Communist herself. She was certainly rooting for Ho Chi Minh's military to defeat the "imperialist" United States of America involved in the supposedly "criminal" war against that lovely Red regime in the north. She fully embraced Communists, communism and revolutionaries in 1972 and way beyond that date. Her heroes were Black Panther thugs such as Huey Newton and Red dictators such as Fidel Castro. We know of her revolutionary ardor because she used to run off at the mouth about her views. The Detroit Free Press, for instance, quotes her as saying in a Nov. 22,1969, Michigan State University speech: "I would think that if you understood what communism was, you would hope, you would pray on your knees that we would someday become Communist." That statement has been quoted for years (in HUMAN EVENTS among other places) and has never been denied and is certainly not apologized for (or explained away) in her new memoir. Here's another Fonda gem. On July 18, 1970, the People's World, the West Coast's Communist Party publication, carried a telephone interview with Fonda in which she said: "To make the revolution in the United States is a slow day by day job that requires patience and discipline. It is the only way to make it. . . . All I know is that despite the fact that I am one of the people who benefit from a capitalist society, I find that any system which exploits other people cannot and should not exist." Karen Elliott in the Dec. 11, 1971, Dallas Morning News reported that Fonda said at the University of Texas: "We've got to establish a Socialist economic structure that will limit private profit-oriented businesses. Whether the transition is peaceful depends on the way our present governmental leaders react. We must commit our lives to this transition. . . . We should be very proud of our new breed of soldier. It's not organized but it's mutiny, and they have every right." (Emphasis added.) Her broadcasts from Hanoi to U.S. and South Vietnamese soldiers were not designed to "end the war," as she pretends, but to give the Communist North Vietnamese a sweeping victory. She didn't care a fig about the American soldiers or our POWs, as she now insists. In fact, she hurled the most venomous kinds of attacks upon her own country and threatened American GIs with war crime trials and executions if they tried to shield the South Vietnamese from a Communist takeover. We know this because the House Internal Security Committee (HISC) compiled her 1972 broadcasts to U.S. and South Vietnamese servicemen. (That compilation and other Fonda statements can be found in Henry Mark and Erika Holzer's well documented 2002 book, Aid and Comfort: Jane Fonda in North Vietnam.) Here's just a small sampling of her Leninist polemics against America:To South Vietnamese soldiers she said: "We understand that Nixon's aggression against Vietnam is a racist aggression, that the American war in Vietnam is a racist war, a white man's war. . . " And then: "We deplore that you are being used as cannon fodder for U.S. imperialism."To Saigon students: "A growing number of people in the United States not only demand an end to the war, an end to the bombing, a withdrawal of all--all U.S. troops and--an end to the support of the Thieu clique, but we identify with the struggle of your people. We have understood that we have a common enemy: U.S. imperialism. We have understood that we have a common struggle and that your victory will be the victory of the American people and all peace-loving people around the world."Again, to the students: "As an American woman, I would like to tell you that the forces that you are fighting against go far beyond the bombs and the technology. In our country, people are very unhappy, People have no reason for living."To U.S. servicemen: "I don't know what your officers tell you that you are dropping on this country. I don't know what your officers tell you, you are loading, those of you who load the bombs on the planes. But, one thing that you should know is that these weapons are illegal and that's not, that's not just rhetoric. They are outlawed, these kinds of weapons, by several conventions of which the United States was a signatory. . . . And the use of these bombs or the condoning the use of these bombs makes one a war criminal. "The men who are ordering you to use these weapons are war criminals, according to international law, and, in the past, in Germany and in Japan, men who were guilty of these kinds of crimes were tried and executed."Jane Fonda tapes were played repeatedly to our POWs, many of whom expressed their outrage to the Holzers for having been branded "war criminals" and accused of "gratuitously killing innocent civilians." "It's difficult to put into words," one ex-POW told the authors, "how terrible it is to hear that siren song that is so absolutely rotten and wrong."Having examined the content of her remarks, the late Brig. Gen. S. L.A. Marshall informed the HCIS: "There is no question about the intent of the Fonda broadcasts. The evidence prima facie is that the purpose is to demoralize and discourage, stir dissent and stimulate desertion." Does Fonda express regret for any of this? Not in her book. Nor in her April 3 interview with Leslie Stahl on CBS's "60 Minutes." Did she have a "lapse of judgment," Stahl wanted to know, in meeting with seven POWS in North Vietnam, "giving the appearance of a staged event at their expense?" Fonda: "No." Nor, said Stahl, "does she apologize for making broadcasts on Radio Hanoi."She also does not honestly address the immense human tragedy that took place after the North Vietnamese took over South Vietnam and Pol Pot conquered Cambodia. Other anti-war activists had been bothered by what happened. Singer Joan Baez took out full-page newspaper ads in May1979, condemning Vietnam's Communist rulers in the harshest language, urging them to "end the imprisonment and torture" of innocent men, women and children in the South. In addition to the ads, Baez sent out special packets to reporters detailing the horrors that had been documented in such publications as Le Monde and Le Figaro.When this reporter asked Peter Necarsulmer, a Baez publicist, whether Fonda had been contacted on the mater, Necarsulmer said that Baez had twice tried to reach her by letter, one a "long and detailed" report explaining the situation. Unfortunately, said Necarsulmer, Jane never did respond. This incident, of course, is not even mentioned in Fonda's book, let alone apologized for.In short, Jane Fonda hasn't really shown she's sorry for anything, other than being "caught on camera" in a pose she almost certainly intended as an act of defiance against her own country.
Mr. Ryskind, HUMAN EVENTS Editor at large, is writing a book on Communism in Hollywood
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=7093

18 Tricks to Teach Your Body

Madcow...sometimes I wonder where people come up with this stuff...I think some magazines write these articals just to get peoples attention. I am going to try this one just to see if its all just a bunch of crap. So here it goes...


Lovingly stolen from Mens’ Health to preserve it.By: Kate Dailey, Photographs by: Michael Cogliantry, Illustrations by: Headcase Design & Zohar LazarPosted on 10/24/2005


1. If your throat tickles, scratch your ear!
When you were 9, playing your armpit was a cool trick. Now, as an adult, you can still appreciate a good body-based feat, but you’re more discriminating. Take that tickle in your throat; it’s not worth gagging over. Here’s a better way to scratch your itch: “When the nerves in the ear are stimulated, it creates a reflex in the throat that can cause a muscle spasm,” says Scott Schaffer, M.D., president of an ear, nose, and throat specialty center in Gibbsboro, New Jersey. “This spasm relieves the tickle.”
2. Experience supersonic hearing!
If you’re stuck chatting up a mumbler at a cocktail party, lean in with your right ear. It’s better than your left at following the rapid rhythms of speech, according to researchers at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine. If, on the other hand, you’re trying to identify that song playing softly in the elevator, turn your left ear toward the sound. The left ear is better at picking up music tones.
3. Overcome your most primal urge!
Need to pee? No bathroom nearby? Fantasize about Jessica Simpson. Thinking about sex preoccupies your brain, so you won’t feel as much discomfort, says Larry Lipshultz, M.D., chief of male reproductive medicine at the Baylor College of Medicine. For best results, try Simpson’s “These Boots Are Made for Walking” video.
4. Feel no pain!
German researchers have discovered that coughing during an injection can lessen the pain of the needle stick. According to Taras Usichenko, author of a study on the phenomenon, the trick causes a sudden, temporary rise in pressure in the chest and spinal canal, inhibiting the pain-conducting structures of the spinal cord.
5. Clear your stuffed nose!
Forget Sudafed. An easier, quicker, and cheaper way to relieve sinus pressure is by alternately thrusting your tongue against the roof of your mouth, then pressing between your eyebrows with one finger. This causes the vomer bone, which runs through the nasal passages to the mouth, to rock back and forth, says Lisa DeStefano, D.O., an assistant professor at the Michigan State University college of osteopathic medicine. The motion loosens congestion; after 20 seconds, you’ll feel your sinuses start to drain.
6. Fight fire without water!
Worried those wings will repeat on you tonight? “Sleep on your left side,” says Anthony A. Starpoli, M.D., a New York City gastroenterologist and assistant professor of medicine at New York Medical College. Studies have shown that patients who sleep on their left sides are less likely to suffer from acid reflux. The esophagus and stomach connect at an angle. When you sleep on your right, the stomach is higher than the esophagus, allowing food and stomach acid to slide up your throat. When you’re on your left, the stomach is lower than the esophagus, so gravity’s in your favor.
7. Cure your toothache without opening your mouth!
Just rub ice on the back of your hand, on the V-shaped webbed area between your thumb and index finger. A Canadian study found that this technique reduces toothache pain by as much as 50 percent compared with using no ice. The nerve pathways at the base of that V stimulate an area of the brain that blocks pain signals from the face and hands.
8. Make burns disappear!
When you accidentally singe your finger on the stove, clean the skin and apply light pressure with the finger pads of your unmarred hand. Ice will relieve your pain more quickly, Dr. DeStefano says, but since the natual method brings the burned skin back to a normal temperature, the skin is less likely to blister.
9. Stop the world from spinning!
One too many drinks left you dizzy? Put your hand on something stable. The part of your ear responsible for balance — the cupula — floats in a fluid of the same density as blood. “As alcohol dilutes blood in the cupula, the cupula becomes less dense and rises,” says Dr. Schaffer. This confuses your brain. The tactile input from a stable object gives the brain a second opinion, and you feel more in balance. Because the nerves in the hand are so sensitive, this works better than the conventional foot-on-the-floor wisdom.
10. Unstitch your side!
If you’re like most people, when you run, you exhale as your right foot hits the ground. This puts downward pressure on your liver (which lives on your right side), which then tugs at the diaphragm and creates a side stitch, according to The Doctors Book of Home Remedies for Men. The fix: Exhale as your left foot strikes the ground.
11. Stanch blood with a single finger!
Pinching your nose and leaning back is a great way to stop a nosebleed — if you don’t mind choking on your own O positive. A more civil approach: Put some cotton on your upper gums — just behind that small dent below your nose — and press against it, hard. “Most bleeds come from the front of the septum, the cartilage wall that divides the nose,” says Peter Desmarais, M.D., an ear, nose, and throat specialist at Entabeni Hospital, in Durban, South Africa. “Pressing here helps stop them.”
12. Make your heart stand still!
Trying to quell first-date jitters? Blow on your thumb. The vagus nerve, which governs heart rate, can be controlled through breathing, says Ben Abo, an emergency medical- services specialist at the University of Pittsburgh. It’ll get your heart rate back to normal.
13. Thaw your brain!
Too much Chipwich too fast will freeze the brains of lesser men. As for you, press your tongue flat against the roof of your mouth, covering as much as you can. “Since the nerves in the roof of your mouth get extremely cold, your body thinks your brain is freezing, too,” says Abo. “In compensating, it overheats, causing an ice-cream headache.” The more pressure you apply to the roof of your mouth, the faster your headache will subside.
14. Prevent near-sightedness!
Poor distance vision is rarely caused by genetics, says Anne Barber, O.D., an optometrist in Tacoma, Washington. “It’s usually caused by near-point stress.” In other words, staring at your computer screen for too long. So flex your way to 20/20 vision. Every few hours during the day, close your eyes, tense your body, take a deep breath, and, after a few seconds, release your breath and muscles at the same time. Tightening and releasing muscles such as the biceps and glutes can trick involuntary muscles — like the eyes — into relaxing as well.
15. Wake the dead!
If your hand falls asleep while you’re driving or sitting in an odd position, rock your head from side to side. It’ll painlessly banish your pins and needles in less than a minute, says Dr. DeStefano. A tingly hand or arm is often the result of compression in the bundle of nerves in your neck; loosening your neck muscles releases the pressure. Compressed nerves lower in the body govern the feet, so don’t let your sleeping dogs lie. Stand up and walk around.
16. Impress your friends!
Next time you’re at a party, try this trick: Have a person hold one arm straight out to the side, palm down, and instruct him to maintain this position. Then place two fingers on his wrist and push down. He’ll resist. Now have him put one foot on a surface that’s a half inch higher (a few magazines) and repeat. This time his arm will cave like the French. By misaligning his hips, you’ve offset his spine, says Rachel Cosgrove, C.S.C.S., co-owner of Results Fitness, in Santa Clarita, California. Your brain senses that the spine is vulnerable, so it shuts down the body’s ability to resist.
17. Breathe underwater!
If you’re dying to retrieve that quarter from the bottom of the pool, take several short breaths first — essentially, hyperventilate. When you’re underwater, it’s not a lack of oxygen that makes you desperate for a breath; it’s the buildup of carbon dioxide, which makes your blood acidic, which signals your brain that somethin’ ain’t right. “When you hyperventilate, the influx of oxygen lowers blood acidity,” says Jonathan Armbruster, Ph.D., an associate professor of biology at Auburn University. “This tricks your brain into thinking it has more oxygen.” It’ll buy you up to 10 seconds.
18. Read minds!
Your own! “If you’re giving a speech the next day, review it before falling asleep,” says Candi Heimgartner, an instructor of biological sciences at the University of Idaho. Since most memory consolidation happens during sleep, anything you read right before bed is more likely to be encoded as long-term memory.

Quantum computer works best switched off

22 February 2006
From New Scientist Print Edition. Subscribe and get 4 free issues


Even for the crazy world of quantum mechanics, this one is twisted. A quantum computer program has produced an answer without actually running.
The idea behind the feat, first proposed in 1998, is to put a quantum computer into a “superposition”, a state in which it is both running and not running. It is as if you asked Schrödinger's cat to hit "Run".
With the right set-up, the theory suggested, the computer would sometimes get an answer out of the computer even though the program did not run. And now researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have improved on the original design and built a non-running quantum computer that really works.
They send a photon into a system of mirrors and other optical devices, which included a set of components that run a simple database search by changing the properties of the photon.
The new design includes a quantum trick called the Zeno effect. Repeated measurements stop the photon from entering the actual program, but allow its quantum nature to flirt with the program's components - so it can become gradually altered even though it never actually passes through.
"It is very bizarre that you know your computer has not run but you also know what the answer is," says team member Onur Hosten.
This scheme could have an advantage over straightforward quantum computing. "A non-running computer produces fewer errors," says Hosten. That sentiment should have technophobes nodding enthusiastically.
Journal reference: Nature (vol 439, p 949)
From issue 2540 of New Scientist magazine, 22 February 2006, page 21

Invasion breeds more Terrorism?! Oh my, no!

What was it last week maybe? There was this big thing running around the media about some study? What ever it was, it said that the American invasion of Iraq actually spawned more terrorism and threat...my reaction?

Well duh!

I get the impression that this never occurred to anyone before. Maybe since it was some kind of official study the media took it more like it was some kind of admission and decided to make a big thing about it.

Ya know, I sometimes think that the only people listening to the media, may be themselves.

Another example in leadership

I just read this article about some lady that is part of the United States Army's Kentucky National Guard. Apparently this lady found it in her self to have all sorts of photo's taken of her in various stages of her uniform mostly without (naked!...Oh shocking) of course. Sometimes there were weapons involved in the posing...Though they never say what she is doing with all this falic weaponry? So it seems that some "232" of these photo's floated around her unit on a CD-ROM. There also seems to be some allusions that maybe other women of this unit may have had been photographed as well. All this happen not to long before they were supposed to deploy to you know where....I'm just upset that I didn't get to see these photo's myself. Oh! This article was done by someone that is too scared to put their name to their work Associated Press.

Ok...So what I am upset about is the very second paragraph in the article...

"This is not the kind of activity condoned by the command leadership of the Kentucky National guard." ...Well duh! My first reaction to this was "Its not our fault!". Yes I know I may be taking a bit out of context. Maybe the reporter asked "Do you or the Command Leadership of the National guard of Kentucky's condone this?"....though I find it doubtful. Still just the fact that it is said tells me they are doing the classic "its not me, don't blame me" line.

It irk's me.

It really surprises me what some people really think...

It still amazes me, no matter what happens people still think that eveything's a conspiracy. I just recently visited one of my favorite blogs. There was post for a moment of 9/11 silence. From there it turned into "how do we have a moment of silence online?" and a bunch of crap about how its all about oil and big business...the usual conspiracy thumping crap...then there was something about war is not diplomacy?

Anyway, thinking I'm going to contact the owner and ask permission to republish the post and comments here. I will then go so far as to contact everyone who made the comments and invite them on over. Who knows, maybe we might get some fireworks...or maybe eduma'cation.

Standby...

Hiatus...

...almost over, standby for news!

Are you ready?

Quantum computers: March of the qubits

25 March 2006
Dan Cho
Magazine issue 2544

The biggest obstacle to quantum computing appears to be solved - and the machines are on their way
THEY said it couldn't be done. They said it would never be practical. They were wrong, says David Deutsch.
He is referring to the quest to build a quantum computer. This machine would exploit the weird properties of quantum mechanics to perform tasks millions of times faster than today's most powerful supercomputers. Such a device - if we can build one - would overturn the field of cryptography and revolutionise the computer industry. Yet despite this glittering prize, researchers have so far only coaxed quantum systems into solving mathematics problems that children can do in their heads.
Deutsch, a University of Oxford physicist who drew up the first blueprint for a quantum computer in 1985, thought we were still 20 years away from a useful device - until last summer. That was when theorist Simon Benjamin, also at Oxford, told him about cluster states, an approach that Benjamin believed could ...

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg18925441.500.html

Read this…

Because perhaps hundreds of Japanese Yakuza gangsters are nearing retirement age, the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare has drafted rules for the former gambling, loan shark, and protection workers to qualify for benefits, according to a March dispatch from Tokyo in The Times of London. Since organized crime leaves no employment paper trail, ex-mobsters must supply a letter of retirement from their crime boss in order to sign up, although local governments are expected to accept as partial proof gang tattoos, criminal records, demonstrations of missing finger tips (the sign of traditional Yakuza punishment for mistakes).[The Times (London), 3-3-06]

http://www.militantplatypus.com/blog/

Now, one thing that I just cannot stand anymore, it’s the fact that so many people make excuses for everyone’s bad behavior (to put it lightly)…we make social excuses for morally repressible behavior. This article (if it’s true) is now a state sanctioned version of that “oh its not his fault” attitude that allows people to continue to get away with committing crimes.

Gotta poo before this flight

Our good old man Tyler was right about air travel…what did he call it quick friendship something crap? Have to look it up. Today I had the Korean something Food hobby kit. I had sea weed soup with that. (this moron over here, Italy, so beuitifull and they the people are so nice, and they all speak English…he says they love tourists…well gee I wonder why? Cuase you are just hitting the tourist hot spots, and no ones wants to actually get out and see anything else…god I hate Americans. Oh well gotta luv’em since they brought us the internet.

Here is really something I have seen in my great travels that really gets me. All these fucking people that kjust don’t shut up. They seem to talk just for the sake uf sucking doewn more oxygen. They don’t listen theyre just waiting to continue talking again…damn what did tyler call them? Any way, in this form of observation you really get to see just how vain people are, yes you do get to see how friendly and helpful people are, and even how loving…maeks me think of that scene in dogma when their in the airport whats his mellon points out how of out of a happy couple cheated on ther other while they were apart…Aw the evil startbucks coffee since…see he just had to say something to me…well, best coffee had in a long time. But what kind of place is this, walking down the concourse to the gate and whoa starbucks, must have cappacino. I get mine and then Im on my way. Fucking less then 20 yards later I see a Burger King/Starbucks. Lewis Black said it was the end of the world when he saw one starbucks right across the street from…hold on to this one, another fucking starbucks. So, I guess there is some evil conspiracy going or something.

Was it short order freinds?

Oh yeah, vanity. My favorite are…hell don’t know what to call em, business men types. I often seem to get stuck around the group that is always braggin about travels and exploits. They feel like they have flown and conquered the world or something. Ans all they do is ( more then likely just getting a rental or a cab and staying in a hotel. Sometimes I just wanna punch them, in the face and tell them to shut the fuck up cuase they havnet had done or seen shit! “France?! Man, come and see me when you have been someplace interesting”…PUNCH…

Lets see what else is bugging me today…rude fuckers that can see you have been waiting to get out of the isle for ever but don’t wanna stop to let you out…no they like to do the ignore thing…fuck em be a dick and just jump out there.

Why do people not like other people that talk on a cell phone in public? I can understand while driving, that is dangerouse. But they are in public place and are keeping a decent volume, then whats the big deal…I think it stems from jealously…thinking they are trying to make a show “look at me I got a cell phone, Im cool and can talk on the phone”

People that drive car with one are stretched strait out, hand clasped to the top of the wheel, propped all the way back. If they spin or have to swerve or loose control then they are fucked cuase they cant control the vehicle cuase they cant get their arms around the wheel fast enough cuase they are to far away from it…look at race care driver, they practically sit on top of the damn thing…sheesh.

Well maybe that’s it for now…oh yeah the fuckers that like to beat the shit out of seat back, when they know damn well its bugg’in the shit out of ya. Those kind of people just need a good slap. Well couldn’t get any sleep on the way over here, its like 3 or 4 in the morning to me…damn interactive personel tv with video games on that Korean air jet. By the way if you are ever going to stop in or stay the night at the inchon airport in soule ROK…I hightly recommend the Hyatt, get you backs at the bottom level and head to gate 13 aand go outside to the curb, find the sign for the Hyatt and wiat for the buss, 3 minutes later you will be in a the best hotel I have ever stayed in, I have stayed in 4 and 5 star hotels and every major continent except south America…this one took the cake.

Here is antoher neat thing about airtravel. You can get off the plane in any given country and with in minutes or the first hour, you can pretty much identify the latest fashion trends. I remember I got inot the Venice airport in italy. That was the first time I saw those gay ass flat square toed shoes…you wanna talk metro sexual, you talk an Italian male…what was they say don’t drink expresso during the day cuase its not manly?? Man, most of them loklike some day mothers anyway.

What think is really neat, most American flight crews, or at least the flight attendnets or service types…well its seems a great contrast to the service you will get on foreign carriers. Especailly from asian carriers, they are so polite and nice. They actually act like want to help you and not cause they are getting paid for it. American carriers almost always have one or two not so nice people on every trip I make through the states.

Ok what else got some batt. Time still left here. Well maybe that’s it.

Just finished Blink. That was good, gonna have to re read it soon. But got more to say about it and also a tie in with the new I just started “CELL” from my man Stephen King.

All right that’s it I gotta go poo before this flight.

‘Cause I’m so evil I want one of these…

New $150 software called FlexiSPY lets you completely INVADE THE PRIVACY of anyone that has it installed. The software lets you listen in on conversations, read SMS messages and even use the phone's built-in microphone to eavesdrop on people when they're not using the phone. (props to Gizmodo)

And just cause I’m a prick I want one of these too!

New Portable Cell Phone Jammer Hits

Nice. Now you can surround yourself by a half-mile communication-free zone. The CJAM 1000 is a powerful battery-operated device that JAMS all nearby cell phone, pager, Wi-Fi and microwave communication. Turn it off when YOU want to make a call. Fingerprint ID provides security. The CJAM is not for sale to individuals -- only government types and is sold primarily to block cell-phone detonated bombs. Know anyone in the government? I want one. (props to The Red Ferret Journal)

Customizable Soda Hits

A company called Ipifini has come up with an idea for a CUSTOMIZABLE SODA. The bottle is filled with carbonated sugar water. Several buttons on the bottle, when pressed by the consumer, release flavors, fragrances or colors -- up to 32 possible soda choices in a single bottle.
http://www.therawfeed.com/

The Warriors flaw...

"A general’s greatest flaw has nothing to do with his ability to wage war. That is only triumphed equally by his monumental failure in his inability to avoid the need of going to war; this is where his fundamental flaw is ultimately expressed…"

This is the ultimate expression of leadership, in the military sense. I have this obsession with leadership. I primarily study the military form of leadership because its example in the most wide practice. To date I have yet to think of the civilian or corporate form of leadership as a useful example.

Even in the military as the greatest practitioner of leadership, they are; at the same time the ones with the most delusions of its actual implementation. You have two very distinct groups in any modern military, the enlisted corp. and the officer corp. Some countries have conscript enlisted corp. some don’t. Some forces have their actual educated and vetted professionals only in the officer corp., on the other hand you may find the opposite in other forces such as those in the majority of NATO military community. Much of this I will expound on at other times. But what often seems to be the flaw in modern professional forces is that the officer corp. will often be referred as the leadership, much in the same way as that the civilian corporate world has its “management” blue collar force as its leadership.

Right now I will leave it at that for the time being, back the flaw. I think of the this flaw in leadership, and I wonder about the picture of the "Warrior Statesmen"...certain prominence comes to mind, Washington, Teddy Roosevelt, Churchill, Eisenhower. These were all men with both military and statesmanship backgrounds.

When a nation goes to war, or is put upon the path, is it not best to have a leader that has been both of these substantive qualities? I have this obscure thought that only a general can avoid war, not a statesman alone. In modern times in "civilized" nations, the generals have no say. They are told and they do. A general knows all about war (by the time one achieves the rank of general, you can literally say they have at least earned a true Doctorate in warfare) and wouldn’t you think a professional of that caliber would be the best in finding a solution for peace in lieu of war?

This leads me to my notion; to eliminate the flaw, should every Prime Minister or President have the prerequisite of a Generals Doctoral degree? Much like the Kings of old (as bad as this example really is) that were raised and educated in both warfare and statehood. Is a (and this is a very obscure thought so far) democratic monarchy of sorts, the solution?

This week in Wikipedia, "Wow Mustafa is a real place."

Mustafa Taj Colony

Mustafa Taj Colony is one of the neighborhoods of Korangi Town in Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan.
There are several ethnic groups in Korangi including Urdu speakers, Punjabis, Sindhis, Kashmiris, Seraikis, Pakhtuns, Balochs, Memons, Bohras, Ismailis. Over 99% of the population is Muslim. The population of Korangi is estimated to be nearly one million.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mustafa_Taj_Colony

You pirate'in mothef@&ker

I am sitting in a room full of strangers in a public place right now, we’re all pounding away on our laptops taking advantage of the free wifi. One stranger asks another stranger, “How do I download the music from LimeWire onto my Ipod?”

...You have no idea how much I had to restrain myself from saying “Well first you shoot yourself for buying an Ipod in first place! (you pirate'in mothef@&ker)!!” I can’t stand Ipods. You would think that Apple computers had just invented the MP3 player. All these retards with their freak’in Ipods…all they are doing is giving into the hype.

See?...Look at them as they all drive thier SUV's into oblivion, fat dumb and happy while they sip on thier crappacino halfmoccahalflatte...nonfa... ubergrande withwhipsandprinkels...and a scone, while they listen to their Ipod thats plugged into the dash right next to the OnStar!!!! OnStar will be the downfall of humanity, becuase of them we lose all our survival instincts....but I digress "Oh, well I can put 30 Gigs of bad musical taste on this thing." Well good for you dumb f@$ker! I got my MP3 player, cheaper, smaller and its a whole lot more versatile, oh yeah I don’t have an ass load of memory, but ya know what? You really don’t need it…and I am not going to waste my life trying to explain to you why!

So take that pinky stick’in out, Ipod hold’in ass thing'y and stick it up your BUTT!

I am Jacks bad attitude

I would have told him to take that brain cloud and shove it right up his tight wound a$$!! Hell if John Candy can do? Then so the hell can I!!

Someday I am going to have my own business. If I have a store or something, I am going to have some retarded hours, I am going to open up at 8:05 in the a.m. …no that’s too even, it should be an odd number to be really retarded, how about 8:07, something like that…ya know it was a business man that invented the clock? And thus time itself, an invention that spawned the whole concept of time management. I swear to the good lord himself, if I could go back in time I would murder the living s&!t out of that motherf@$ker! Does anyone realize that he (I think he was a factory owner in like the 1800’s? some kind of European sweatshop I think) may have been the only human that has in one way or the other single handedly changed the world in such a way that it has progressively touched every human being since then…in a very significant way.

Blink : The Power of Thinking Without Thinking

Been reading this book called Blink, by Malcom Gladwell, who also authored “The Tipping Point”. In the book he makes light of something we have all done, he calls it “thin slicing”, or the subconscious act of your brain supercomputing a situation or an observation and taking the vast reservoirs of your mind to give you that Light bulb effect or that sudden insight or snap decision. He goes further to show how this thin slicing often seems to be the best way of thinking or decision making as opposed to studying the subject in question at great lengths. I am about 2/3 of the way into the book and I tell ya, it is really something, and in some ways it may change the way I look at and encounter situations and events. So far, it also goes onto demonstrate even further the untapped ability of the human mind…

So this has drawn me to other thoughts. In the book Mr. Gladwell brings to light, two interesting exercises, first is a priming experiment that is done through a scrambled sentence test. In the “test” are keys words that are placed to work on the sub conscious (adaptive unconscious). Done right this test will affect the behavior of a person through these key words that are put into these tests. Thus, a person can be “primed” through these key words. This was shown to work to make one rude and inpatient, and others to perform in the opposite direction of polite and…patient. This is done entirely with out the person even being aware they have been primed.

Now, I can’t help but think that through properly placed words in a conversational construct you could conceivably achieve the same effect. In turn if you can interpret someone’s thoughts /or state of mind from their physical actions/reactions then couldn’t you possibly effect someone’s (prime them) unconscious with your physical action or movement?

This actually helps with thoughts I have had since having read Frank Herbert’s Dune books. In those books he describes a religious type of sect that over 10,000 years has been studying and manipulating both humanity and its genetic lines . Known as the Bene Gesserit, a sect made entirely of women. Among many super natural abilities they have perfected the power of “voice”. Its kind of the ability to speak in tones and inflections and sounds that are literally able to control another human. They also seem to be able to manipulate others by the use of keys words. Words that have a meaning in a sub conscious level…a level that has meaning and is associated with other thoughts and feelings on a sub conscious level.

There is also this part where a doctor creates a diagnoses tree for determining a heart attack by its signs. While creating this tree he uses an algorithm to help make a determination. Have you ever seen the movie Pi? One of the many ideas that you can get out of that is, that numbers, math, is everywhere and in everything. Everything can be quantified and determined with and through numbers. I realize this is a bit off subject, but then again isn’t our brain a big computer? Is it a number cruncher? I don’t know.

The second test that is described is called the Implicit Association Test IAT. This test is said to hit you over the head with its conclusions because of the test takers strong prior associations or the lack there of. What seems to come out of an IAT is that through this test, your mental association with certain words or the ideas behind them become evident. I almost don’t want to let the cat our of the bag on this one. Go this web site http://www.implicit.harvard.edu/ and take some of the tests and see for yourself.

Here an interesting quote before you go…it goes along the lines about what this test will do. “The disturbing thing about the test is that it shows s that our unconscious attitudes may be utterly incompatible with our stated conscious values.”

“Introspection destroyed people’s ability to solve insight problems. By making people think, it turned them into idiots.”

“Blink is a book about rapid cognition” from the site geekswithblogs.net/bbrelsford/archive/2005/02/13/22927.aspx

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blink_(book)

http://www.gladwell.com/blink/

Ya know that this whole Blink thing, I think…the concept, or act of “Thin Slicing” I think a true attribute of a leader. Yes Gladwell gives the example of Napoleon and Patton and the perfect General Thin Slicer’s of the battlefield. But a real leader, decision maker and leader of men I think has to have that thin slicing ability weather the stress is on or not.

Im sorry, and your questions is?

Well our time's comin', and we're gonna have to anty up and kick in like men... LIKE MEN!

YEAH! Here is what i think of the Ipod! And ya know where you can put that little freakin pinky!

Scum, damn damn scum

{Post edit 20060322, just came back to look at this post today, as much as I dont wanna change since it speaks well of state of mind when your really tired and cant sleep...at the very least I am going to edit out the {BAD} words youll get the idea}

A weird trip in a hotel room in korea, a long thin room like a wide hall. Paper thin walls and strange little toilet with a hair trigger for a flushing mechanism, with the power a an aircraft vacuum power flush behind the thing…scared the s{poop}t out of me when I flushed it the first time…and whats up with these large f{@%}king neaderthal feet on the other side if the room…this is like bad HST story with no drugs, I think. “Fear and Loathing in what the fuck am I doing here”, and go figure there is a war going on on the TV…then the heat, god the fucking heat in here! Man! There is a war going on man, people aredying man! I need another beer, and a cigarette would be nice. Sleep, preciouse sleep should come soon.


I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.

What the helll am I doing here? Christ this room is so long I feel like am inside I feel like in a cathedral, hell the door is so far away…if there was fire I don’t think I could conveivably make it to the door with out running out of breath. And thelights lord these damnd lights, two of them floresent ones that are so bright you almost think they were the eyes of God himself peeking in on us! They give new meaning to wearing sunglasses in doors!

Damn Im cold, where did my cloths go? Cool, groovy, hip and square…groooovvvy, I wish that fan in the bathroom would just shut up! My head just meer a foot or two from the monster vacuum toilet. God help me I going to be trapped here until next frieday at least. Before I leave idont think murder will be entirely out of the question (picture me belting down the door on theother side of the bathroom, foam at the mouth, the stink of beer on my bare chest…crazy laugh while I weild a large and rather sharp hunting knife…or maybe picture the knife between my teeth while I pull myself onto the other bed, crazed madnees in my eyes while I plot my satisfaction on the sleeping heap in the bed…for some reason I have to pull meself along by my arms cuase I have lost the function of my legs). I wonder if I can leave this place with out getting caught. Would international laws apply in that case? I wonder if Japan has some kind of extridtion treaty with Korea…maybe mexico would be better, to avoid arrest that is? Look at this I cant even spell im so freakin tired, screw it gonna post anyway

I wonder if the American dream is sleeping somewhere in Iraq? Maybe someone else is dreaming it now, cause Idont think we dream much anymore, what with all the multitasking, and ADD and 500 channels, hell most Americans don’t get enough sleep anyway, so why the should we?…that’s what they say on news anyway.

F{@%}k im horny

Its 1155 in thepm, so why the hell is someone taking a shower this time of night! Mother of God what the hell am Idoing here? 1.43 weeks, 10 days, 240.2 hours, 14,400.99 Minutes, there goes that f{@%}king toilet again, 864,059.11 Seconds…scum. Damn scum…

And what the hell is with the intense urge for a cigarette?! Damn nicotine. What is up with that anyway, “Im going to breath in some smoke and wow I feel so good” its so stupid, don’t tell me its not good for you, your breathing in smoke for the Christ sake. A by product of fire!

I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.

There ya go, now I have gone and missed the point of this….maybe I have missed the point of a lot of things.

Sydney Harbor

Black holes: The ultimate quantum computers?

10:17 13 March 2006, NewScientist.com news service, Maggie McKee

Nearly all of the information that falls into a black hole escapes back out, a controversial new study argues. The work suggests that black holes could one day be used as incredibly accurate quantum computers – if enormous theoretical and practical hurdles can first be overcome.
Black holes are thought to destroy anything that crosses a point of no return around them called an "event horizon". But in the 1970s, Stephen Hawking used quantum mechanics to show black holes do emit radiation, which eventually evaporates them away completely.
Originally, he argued that this "Hawking radiation" is so random that it could carry no information out about what had fallen into the black hole. But this conflicted with quantum mechanics, which states that quantum information can never be lost. Eventually, Hawking changed his mind and in 2004 famously conceded a bet, admitting that black holes do not destroy information.
But the issue is far from settled, says Daniel Gottesman of the Perimeter Institute in Waterloo, Canada. "Hawking has changed his mind, but a lot of other people haven't," he told New Scientist. "There are still a lot of questions about what's really going on."
Quantum entanglement
Now, Seth Lloyd of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the US, has used a controversial quantum model called final-state projection to try to solve the paradox. The model holds that under certain extreme circumstances – such as the intense gravitational field of a black hole, objects that would ordinarily have several options for their behaviour have only one. For example, a black hole could cause a coin thrown into it to always come up "heads".
This allows information to escape from a black hole without any ambiguity about how to interpret it. The information escapes through a quantum process called entanglement, in which objects are not independent if they have interacted with each other or come into being through the same process. They become linked, or entangled, such that changing one invariably affects the other, no matter how far apart they are.
In black holes, Hawking radiation arises just inside the event horizon and has two components – one that leaves the black hole and another that falls towards the point-like singularity that is the black hole itself.
These components are entangled, so when matter that has been sucked into the black hole interacts with the infalling Hawking radiation at the singularity, the interaction instantaneously produces a change in the Hawking radiation that has escaped the black hole. Because the final-state projection model forces this interaction to behave in only one way, this radiation therefore carries information about material inside the black hole.
Smooshed up
Gottesman and colleague John Preskill of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, US, found that previous calculations by other researchers using this model allowed information to escape for only certain interactions between the infalling matter and the infalling Hawking radiation. Now, Lloyd has calculated that the process is quite robust – the random nature of these interactions means the system is almost perfectly entangled.
That suggests the outgoing Hawking radiation carries away nearly all of the information of the matter – such as a spaceship – that falls into the black hole. According to Lloyd, the most that could be lost is half a quantum unit of information, or 0.5 qubit.
"Passengers on a spaceship would like some guarantee that when they fall into this black hole and get smooshed into the singularity, they can be recreated as it evaporates," Lloyd told New Scientist. "With a few simple precautions, the travellers would be almost exactly the same, with less than an atom of difference."
Lloyd also says the work suggests black holes could be used as quantum computers. "We might be able to figure out a way to essentially program the black hole by putting in the right collection of matter," he says.
Mission implausible
But both applications would require an understanding of the properties of specific black holes, says Gottesman. "And you'd have to collect every little piece of Hawking radiation because the spaceship would get spread out with everything that fell into the black hole – ever," Gottesman says. "So you'd have to sort out which bits were the spaceship and which bits were other things. It's implausible."
Lloyd agrees. Understanding how to decode the outgoing Hawking radiation will require researchers to weave together quantum physics and general relativity into a seamless theory of quantum gravity – a goal that has so far proved elusive. "Until we understand quantum gravity, we're not going to be running Linux on a black hole," he jokes.
But beyond the practical difficulties, Gottesman says the work has a more serious theoretical flaw. Despite the fact that just half a qubit of information is lost, "from a fundamental point of view, there is no real difference between a little bit of information being lost and a lot being lost," he says.
"In standard quantum mechanics, no information is ever lost, so if he is right, quantum mechanics would have to be revised to allow information loss. We have no real idea of what theory could take its place."
Journal reference: Physical Review Letters (vol 96, no 061302)


Related Articles
Quantum foam blows away naked singularity
07 February 2006
Black holes, but not as we know them
22 January 2005
Exotic black holes spawn new universal law
23 March 2005

Here comes another one for "Big Brother"

The Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co Ltd (SEL) and TDK Corp, both of Japan, have jointly developed the world's first bendable 8-bit microcontroller (Fig 1) with an onboard radio circuit.

This week in Wikipedia

Val-Dieu Abbey
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search


Val-Dieu abbey
Val-Dieu abbey is a Cistercian monastery in the Berwinne valley in the present province of Liège, Belgium, near Aubel.
[edit]
History
In 1216 a few monks from Hocht, near Maastricht, settled in the uninhabited valley which was part of the border between the duchy of Limburg and the county of Dalhem; they called their settlement Vallis Dei.
The abbey's original church was destroyed in 1287 during the succession war involving the duchy of Limburg. The rebuilt churches would be razed three more times: in 1574 during the Eighty Years' War, in 1683 by the armies of Louis XIV, and the last time during the French Revolution.
After the French Revolution, the abbey was left empty for years; only in 1844 it became inhabited again by the last living monk from the pre-revolution era together with four monks of the Bornem abbey.


The abbey's golden years were during the jurisdiction of abbot Jean Dubois, from 1711 until 1749. The last three monks left the abbey in 2001, and since 1 January 2002 it is inhabited by a few lay families headed by rector Jean-Pierre Schenkelaars, under supervision of the regional clerical authorities and associated with the Cistercian order. Since 1997 the abbey's farm houses the Brasserie de l'Abbaye du Val-Dieu, where the abbey brews a recognized abbey beer following the century old tradition of the Val-Dieu monks.

ITS JUST LITTLE F$*KIN LATE NOW!!!!

The first left-handed mouse - shaped, cordless, laser, US$60
March 9, 2006 Roughly 13% of the population is left-handed, meaning there are around 850 million people on planet earth with a preference for using their left hand for a variety of tasks, including throwing, pointing, catching and presumably, using a computer. Astonishingly, there has never been a mouse designed just for left handed computer users until Logitech announced its MX610 left-hand Laser Cordless Mouse at CeBIT today. Until now, most left-handed computer users have only had the choice of navigating with an ambidextrous-shaped mouse or unnaturally using their right hand to scroll, point and click.

SQEEZE MY NOSE!!!......is it wet?

Thank the Daily HAHA for this jewel!

Looks like they found rabbit in the alice hole...

Physicists announced Thursday that they now have the smoking gun that shows the universe went through extremely rapid expansion in the moments after the big bang, growing from the size of a marble to a volume larger than all of observable space in less than a trillion-trillionth of a second.

Latest crap from the email stack...

An American freind of mine got this in her email the other day, could help but put it up all of those people that never visit this site to come and see it.


The lady who wrote this letter is Pam Foster of Pamela Foster and Associates in Atlanta. She recently wrote a letter to a family member serving in Iraq...... Please Read It! "WHAT'S ALL THE FUSS? "Are we fighting a war on terror or aren't we? Was it or was it not started by Islamic people who brought it to our shores on September 11, 2001? Were people from all over the world, mostly Americans, not brutally murdered that day, in downtown Manhattan, across the Potomac from our nation's capitol and in a field in Pennsylvania? Did nearly three thousand men, women and children die a horrible, burning or crushing death that day, or didn't they? And I'm supposed to care that a copy of the Koran was "desecrated" when an overworked American soldier kicked it or got it wet? Well, I don't. I don't care at all. I'll start caring when Osama bin Laden turns himself in and repents for incinerating all those innocent people on 9/11. I'll care about the Koran when the fanatics in the Middle East start caring about the Holy Bible, the mere possession of which is a crime in Saudi Arabia. I'll care when Abu Musab al-Zarqawi tells the world he is sorry for hacking off Nick Berg's head while Berg screamed through his gurgling slashed throat. I'll care when the cowardly so-called "insurgents" in Iraq come out and fight like men instead of disrespecting their own religion by hiding in mosques. I'll care when the mindless zealots who blow themselves up in search of nirvana care about the innocent children within range of their suicide bombs. I'll care when the American media stops pretending that their First Amendment liberties are somehow derived from international law instead of the United States Constitution's Bill of Rights. In the meantime, when I hear a story about a brave marine roughing up an Iraqi terrorist to obtain information, know this: I don't care. When I see a fuzzy photo of a pile of naked Iraqi prisoners who have been humiliated in what amounts to a college hazing incident, rest assured that I don't care. When I see a wounded terrorist get shot in the head when he is told not to move because he might be booby-trapped, you can take it to the bank that I don't care. When I hear that a prisoner, who was issued a Koran and a prayer mat, and fed "special" food that is paid for by my tax dollars, is complaining that his holy book is being "mishandled," you can absolutely believe in your heart of hearts that I don't care. And oh, by the way, I've noticed that sometimes it's spelled "Koran" and other times "Quran." Well, Jimmy Crack Corn and ---- you guessed it - - - I don't care ! ! ! ! ! If you agree with this view point, pass this on to all your e-mail friends. Sooner or later, it'll get to the people responsible for this ridiculous behavior! If you don't agree, then by all means hit the delete button. Should you choose the latter, then please don't complain when more atrocities committed by radical Muslims happen here in our great country. I am not deleting this, I am sending it on, but only after I add: ME, TOO!"

Wow she sounds pissed...I wonder if (stirring the pot) all Americans feel this way???

BLAHHHHH!

Thanks to http://nopaper.net/space/The+Farm for the best Madcow I have seen yet.

Free Music! Weird, but free

30 DAYS

This album was created in thirty days by thirty different artists, in a sort of chain-collaboration where one finished at midnight and passed it on to the next to continue the set, an idea inspired by Soulseek Records. With all the different time zones and last minute scheduling issues the project was quite the challenge, and I think that added to the feel of it, these musicians pulled off quite the feat as it actually turned out listenable.

If Tyler were alive…

Are we in need of Tyler now more then ever? With drugs like “Modafinil” that can allow you to stay awake and alert for up to 40 hours? Even with no side effects can this really be healthy? I don’t care what they think, you know that stuff will sell like hotcakes, and even then you there will be people that will use the hell out of it. Read the article…now imagine some taking it, sleeping it off and then taking it again, and repeat, and repeat…you people will do it. Now imagine what the time passing while doing this, even if your busy…do you think it is healthy, mentally speaking, to go though this. Can a human deal with such a warp in the perception of time? How out of place would you feel?

Read the article http://www.gizmag.co.uk/go/3574/

Then…

I come across this…

Boyfriend Arm Pillow a sales success
September 3, 2004 The Boyfriend Arm Pillow is a Japanese
product aimed at Japanese who like sleeping with their head on their partner's chest but don't have a partner to do it with, or have given up on the standard model and are trying to reconstruct a better boyfriend.
http://www.gizmag.co.uk/go/3123/



…First off, hey…if there is someone out there that really needs one of these, then I guess I cant argue with that. BUT, what kind of world have we created that has driven us to such things? Are we no longer strong enough to not be able to deal with separation and loneliness? Were “we” even that strong to begin with?

I don’t know, maybe its just me but I see these kind of things, and my first reaction is “this is the downward spiral that is our society? Did we create this with our enlightenment, and technology? Was it always like this only now we are just more willing to deal with or accept our weaknesses as individuals and communities?

I don’t know maybe I’m wrong, maybe it’s a Greek tragedy...I'm just another Space Monkey.

“This is a must see, very funny”

http://www.magicdonnie.com/themuppetmatrix.html

“That’s it! The world must be coming to an end, just tell me when the meteor hits”

Solar Minimum has Arrived Something's happening on the sun: all the sunspots have vanished. Solar physicists say this is a sign that solar minimum has arrived. + Read More + Listen to Story
http://science.nasa.gov/default.htm

“Well that’s it, never gonna go to red lobster again!”

Hairy lobster
From http://www.newscientist.com/blog/shortsharpscience/
Its silky blond hair looks pretty seductive – until you see the very large claws sticking out at the end. The good news is that the weird beast couldn’t catch you if it wanted to – it is blind.The new lobster is in fact so strange that it has been given its own family and genus - Kiwa hirsuta. The 15-cm-long (6 inch) beast was found 2300 metres (7540 feet) under the South Pacific, 900 miles south of Easter Island. Many new species are plucked from the ocean each year, but scientists say it is unusual to find one in need of a new family name, or indeed a haircut.You can explore the mysteries of the deep sea, or become an instant expert on this murky world, or just watch videos of broody squid carrying their eggs in their arms or sea lilies creeping away from trouble. (Image: Ifremer/A Fifis)

This one funny if you read the doc a lot of them say “just press 0 repeatedly”, well duh!!

A new web site called the Gethuman Database, lists a bunch of major companies, and tells you how to use special phone numbers and secret codes to BYPASS interactive voice response (IVR) and automated button-pushing systems to get straight to a customer service human being for resolving your problem. The site also has tips and a nice blog.

WTC, spring 2003 pt 2

WTC, spring 2003

Sunset

Sunrise

Lost word of wisdom of the B4B0

Let's be hypothetical and say you believe as I do, as you really are, that you are oppressed, but feel that we are merely pawns, or cogs in the system. Let's look at history, all great movements had to start somewhere. Individuals have made great change this world such as Ghandi, Malcom-X, Nelson Mandella, or to the other extreme, Hitler. I say change is possible, but only possible if your willing to try even in the face of certain defeat.

By Silvio Cesare (c) 2000 The B4B0 Party Programme

SUPERNOVA

NASA's Swift observed a peculiar explosion about 440 million light years away from Earth on 18 February 2006. The Sloan Digital Sky Survey captured a "before" picture (left). Swift took the "after" image (right), which shows the exploding star overwhelming its host galaxy.

Coming soon

String theory,

An Elegant Universe...
But What the Bleep do we know brings us inexorably, to Pi

GATE!

Why can't the people in the media come up with something more creative? Just because of the first real mass conscious conspiracy (in the US)...You know the one that broke the psyche of generations, the one that had a perfect name that fit right. There were plenty of other names. Richard Nixon, the Republican party…why didn’t they use those? Things would be a bit different, Travel Nixon…or…Travel party. Maybe our info media isn’t really all that creative (heh, or maybe they just cant think for themselves) to come up with something else. Maybe the name “Clinton White House travel office that has been spending lots of money and been in cahoots with not so good people…scandal” just didn’t have the same catch to it…Just hearing all this gate crap really gets to me. “PoopyGate”, the great Chinese toilet bowl manufacturing conspiracy to undermine the American toilet bowl manufacturing workers and their companies…so that the great Chinese Communist country can further its goal to rule the world (mad scientist laugh) HA HA HA HA! See what I mean?

For Rini

Is there any such thing as a real rebel in modern times?

Do people have the power...social power?

Something I have realized here recently. Among a group of people some people stand out for one reason or another. Some naturally, some through deliberate acts...lets call them the one with balls. Those with balls, or through just a plain force of personality seem to come out above their prospective crowd.

So, maybe not all inclusive but there are some good examples. Now, in many business and purposeful organizations, there is always some structure of leadership/command. Now that we have laid that foundation, lets lay the ground for my rant. Again almost every major organization has two groups, labor and management. Each is broken into a stratified system of command. Now what happens when you have a young and still very green management person trying to force their will upon the senior members of the labor group?

Maybe this is where the proverbial balls come in. Even if the green manager has been given the authority. What if they are not necessarily "right" about their action or words? Should the senior labor just say "no" ?? If they do have the "balls" and are therefore able the sway this green manager to their will...then who is the leader in this scenario? Does this really mean that managers are really leaders? Your not a leader because people do what you say just to keep their job, which I think is often the case.

You see often who has the power in a social situation as well. In a group of people someone may say or something that no one in the group agrees with. How often will anyone actually say anything? I notice they don’t say anything because they are afraid to rock the boat...often seems they are ultimately afraid losing certain (selfishly) relationships. Now I have seen this same behavior even in the professional environment as well. Some say they know what their place is...but if you are seeing something that wrong, then rock the hell out of that boat! I like to think, or I like to try to live in a black and white world. if I see something wrong I Iam going to say or do something about it.

Neuschwanstein, Hohenschangau castle's

the one in the foreground (Hohens) was built by the father king of bavaria, the one in the backround (Neu) was built by his son

First few pics in my tribute to Germany

This is the firsts in a series of pic found on the web

good times

The Speech

"Be seated."
Men, this stuff that some sources sling around about America wanting out of this war, not wanting to fight, is a crock of bullshit. Americans love to fight, traditionally. All real Americans love the sting and clash of battle.
You are here today for three reasons. First, because you are here to defend your homes and your loved ones. Second, you are here for your own self respect, because you would not want to be anywhere else. Third, you are here because you are real men and all real men like to fight. When you, here, every one of you, were kids, you all admired the champion marble player, the fastest runner, the toughest boxer, the big league ball players, and the All-American football players. Americans love a winner. Americans will not tolerate a loser. Americans despise cowards. Americans play to win all of the time. I wouldn't give a hoot in hell for a man who lost and laughed. That's why Americans have never lost nor will ever lose a war; for the very idea of losing is hateful to an American.
You are not all going to die. Only two percent of you right here today would die in a major battle. Death must not be feared. Death, in time, comes to all men. Yes, every man is scared in his first battle. If he says he's not, he's a liar. Some men are cowards but they fight the same as the brave men or they get the hell slammed out of them watching men fight who are just as scared as they are. The real hero is the man who fights even though he is scared. Some men get over their fright in a minute under fire. For some, it takes an hour. For some, it takes days. But a real man will never let his fear of death overpower his honor, his sense of duty to his country, and his innate manhood. Battle is the most magnificent competition in which a human being can indulge. It brings out all that is best and it removes all that is base. Americans pride themselves on being He Men and they ARE He Men.
Remember that the enemy is just as frightened as you are, and probably more so. They are not supermen. All through your Army careers, you men have bitched about what you call "chicken shit drilling." That, like everything else in this Army, has a definite purpose. That purpose is alertness. Alertness must be bred into every soldier. I don't give a fuck for a man who's not always on his toes.
You men are veterans or you wouldn't be here. You are ready for what's to come. A man must be alert at all times if he expects to stay alive. If you're not alert, sometime, a German son-of-an-asshole-bitch is going to sneak up behind you and beat you to death with a sockful of shit! There are four hundred neatly marked graves somewhere in Sicily, all because one man went to sleep on the job. But they are German graves, because we caught the bastard asleep before they did.
An Army is a team. It lives, sleeps, eats, and fights as a team. This individual heroic stuff is pure horseshit. The bilious bastards who write that kind of stuff for the Saturday Evening Post don't know any more about real fighting under fire than they know about fucking! We have the finest food, the finest equipment, the best spirit, and the best men in the world. Why, by God, I actually pity those poor sons-of-bitches we're going up against. By God, I do.
My men don't surrender, and I don't want to hear of any soldier under my command being captured unless he has been hit. Even if you are hit, you can still fight back. That's not just bull shit either. The kind of man that I want in my command is just like the lieutenant in Libya, who, with a Luger against his chest, jerked off his helmet, swept the gun aside with one hand, and busted the hell out of the Kraut with his helmet. Then he jumped on the gun and went out and killed another German before they knew what the hell was coming off. And, all of that time, this man had a bullet through a lung. There was a real man!
All of the real heroes are not storybook combat fighters, either. Every single man in this Army plays a vital role. Don't ever let up. Don't ever think that your job is unimportant. Every man has a job to do and he must do it. Every man is a vital link in the great chain. What if every truck driver suddenly decided that he didn't like the whine of those shells overhead, turned yellow, and jumped headlong into a ditch? The cowardly bastard could say, 'Hell, they won't miss me, just one man in thousands.' But, what if every man thought that way? Where in the hell would we be now? What would our country, our loved ones, our homes, even the world, be like? No, Goddamnit, Americans don't think like that. Every man does his job. Every man serves the whole. Every department, every unit, is important in the vast scheme of this war. The ordnance men are needed to supply the guns and machinery of war to keep us rolling. The Quartermaster is needed to bring up food and clothes because where we are going there isn't a hell of a lot to steal. Every last man on K.P. has a job to do, even the one who heats our water to keep us from getting the 'G.I. Shits'.
Each man must not think only of himself, but also of his buddy fighting beside him. We don't want yellow cowards in this Army. They should be killed off like rats. If not, they will go home after this war and breed more cowards. The brave men will breed more brave men. Kill off the Goddamned cowards and we will have a nation of brave men. One of the bravest men that I ever saw was a fellow on top of a telegraph pole in the midst of a furious fire fight in Tunisia. I stopped and asked what the hell he was doing up there at a time like that. He answered, 'Fixing the wire, Sir.' I asked, 'Isn't that a little unhealthy right about now?' He answered, 'Yes Sir, but the Goddamned wire has to be fixed.' I asked, 'Don't those planes strafing the road bother you?' And he answered, 'No, Sir, but you sure as hell do!'
Now, there was a real man. A real soldier. There was a man who devoted all he had to his duty, no matter how seemingly insignificant his duty might appear at the time, no matter how great the odds. And you should have seen those trucks on the rode to Tunisia. Those drivers were magnificent. All day and all night they rolled over those son-of-a-bitching roads, never stopping, never faltering from their course, with shells bursting all around them all of the time. We got through on good old American guts.
Many of those men drove for over forty consecutive hours. These men weren't combat men, but they were soldiers with a job to do. They did it, and in one hell of a way they did it. They were part of a team. Without team effort, without them, the fight would have been lost. All of the links in the chain pulled together and the chain became unbreakable.
Don't forget, you men don't know that I'm here. No mention of that fact is to be made in any letters. The world is not supposed to know what the hell happened to me. I'm not supposed to be commanding this Army. I'm not even supposed to be here in England. Let the first bastards to find out be the Goddamned Germans. Someday I want to see them raise up on their piss-soaked hind legs and howl, 'Jesus Christ, it's the Goddamned Third Army again and that son-of-a-fucking-bitch Patton.' We want to get the hell over there." The quicker we clean up this Goddamned mess, the quicker we can take a little jaunt against the purple pissing Japs and clean out their nest, too. Before the Goddamned Marines get all of the credit.
Sure, we want to go home. We want this war over with. The quickest way to get it over with is to go get the bastards who started it. The quicker they are whipped, the quicker we can go home. The shortest way home is through Berlin and Tokyo. And when we get to Berlin, I am personally going to shoot that paper hanging son-of-a-bitch Hitler. Just like I'd shoot a snake!
When a man is lying in a shell hole, if he just stays there all day, a German will get to him eventually. The hell with that idea. The hell with taking it. My men don't dig foxholes. I don't want them to. Foxholes only slow up an offensive. Keep moving. And don't give the enemy time to dig one either. We'll win this war, but we'll win it only by fighting and by showing the Germans that we've got more guts than they have; or ever will have. We're not going to just shoot the sons-of-bitches, we're going to rip out their living Goddamned guts and use them to grease the treads of our tanks. We're going to murder those lousy Hun cock suckers by the bushel-fucking-basket.
War is a bloody, killing business. You've got to spill their blood, or they will spill yours. Rip them up the belly. Shoot them in the guts. When shells are hitting all around you and you wipe the dirt off your face and realize that instead of dirt it's the blood and guts of what once was your best friend beside you, you'll know what to do!
I don't want to get any messages saying, 'I am holding my position.' We are not holding a Goddamned thing. Let the Germans do that. We are advancing constantly and we are not interested in holding onto anything, except the enemy's balls. We are going to twist his balls and kick the living shit out of him all of the time. Our basic plan of operation is to advance and to keep on advancing regardless of whether we have to go over, under, or through the enemy. We are going to go through him like crap through a goose; like shit through a tin horn!
From time to time there will be some complaints that we are pushing our people too hard. I don't give a good Goddamn about such complaints. I believe in the old and sound rule that an ounce of sweat will save a gallon of blood. The harder WE push, the more Germans we will kill. The more Germans we kill, the fewer of our men will be killed. Pushing means fewer casualties. I want you all to remember that.
There is one great thing that you men will all be able to say after this war is over and you are home once again. You may be thankful that twenty years from now when you are sitting by the fireplace with your grandson on your knee and he asks you what you did in the great World War II, you WON'T have to cough, shift him to the other knee and say, 'Well, your Granddaddy shoveled shit in Louisiana.' No, Sir, you can look him straight in the eye and say, 'Son, your Granddaddy rode with the Great Third Army and a Son-of-a-Goddamned-Bitch named Georgie Patton!' "That is all."