A Good Year for the Leonids?

I love the Leonids, at least when I can be somewhere far enough away from city lights.

Something Ran Into Jupiter.

Insert your own 2010 quote here.

How night owls are cleverer and richer than people who rise early

 

Yeah, it's 2am.  

Read it at the Daily Mail.

Happy Birthday to Project MK-ULTRA!

 From Wikipedia:

Project MK-ULTRA, or MKULTRA, was the code name for a covert CIA mind-control and chemical interrogation research program, run by the Office of Scientific Intelligence. The program began in the early 1950s, continuing at least through the late 1960s, and it used United States citizens as its test subjects. The published evidence indicates that Project MK-ULTRA involved the surreptitious use of many types of drugs, as well as other methods, to manipulate individual mental states and to alter brain function.

Headed by Dr. Sidney Gottlieb, the MK-ULTRA project was started on the order of CIA director Allen Dulles on April 13, 1953, largely in response to Soviet, Chinese, and North Korean use of mind-control techniques on U.S. prisoners of war in Korea. The CIA wanted to use similar methods on their own captives. The CIA was also interested in being able to manipulate foreign leaders with such techniques, and would later invent several schemes to drug Fidel Castro.

Experiments included administering LSD to CIA employees, military personnel, doctors, other government agents, prostitutes, mentally ill patients, and members of the general public in order to study their reactions. LSD and other drugs were usually administered without the subject's knowledge and informed consent, a violation of the Nuremberg Code that the U.S. agreed to follow after World War II.

Efforts to "recruit" subjects were often illegal, even discounting the fact that drugs were being administered (though actual use of LSD, for example, was legal in the United States until October 6, 1966). In Operation Midnight Climax, the CIA set up several brothels to obtain a selection of men who would be too embarrassed to talk about the events. The men were dosed with LSD, and the brothels were equipped with one-way mirrors and the "sessions" were filmed for later viewing and study.
Some subjects' participation was consensual, and in many of these cases, the subjects appeared to be singled out for even more extreme experiments. In one case, volunteers were given LSD for 77 consecutive days.

Another technique investigated was connecting a barbiturate IV into one arm and an amphetamine IV into the other. The barbiturates were released into the subject first, and as soon as the subject began to fall asleep, the amphetamines were released. The subject would begin babbling incoherently at this point, and it was sometimes possible to ask questions and get useful answers.
Other experiments involved heroin, morphine, temazepam (used under code name MK-SEARCH), mescaline, psilocybin, scopolamine, marijuana, alcohol, and sodium pentothal.

 Forty-four American colleges or universities, 15 research foundations or chemical or pharmaceutical companies and the like including Sandoz (currently Novartis) and Eli Lilly & Co., 12 hospitals or clinics (in addition to those associated with universities), and 3 prisons are known to have participated in MK-ULTRA.

A considerable amount of credible circumstantial evidence suggests that Theodore Kaczynski, also known as the Unabomber, participated in CIA-sponsored MK-ULTRA experiments conducted at Harvard University from the fall of 1959 through the spring of 1962. During World War II, Henry Murray, the lead researcher in the Harvard experiments, served with the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), which was a forerunner of the CIA. Murray applied for a grant funded by the United States Navy, and his Harvard stress experiments strongly resembled those run by the OSS. Beginning at the age of sixteen, Kaczynski participated along with twenty-one other undergraduate students in the Harvard experiments, which have been described as "disturbing" and "ethically indefensible."

Merry Prankster Ken Kesey, author of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, volunteered for MK-ULTRA experiments while he was a student at Stanford University. Kesey's ingestion of LSD during these experiments led directly to his widespread promotion of the drug and the subsequent development of hippie culture.

Because most MK-ULTRA records were deliberately destroyed in 1973 by order of then CIA Director Richard Helms, it has been difficult, if not impossible, for investigators to gain a complete understanding of the more than 150 individually funded research sub-projects sponsored by MK-ULTRA and related CIA programs.

Alan McGee on why people want the Stone Roses to reform

We should all just face it, it's never going to happen. I don't think it should either. Of course, if I could get my hands on a ticket, my opinion would probably change.

John Squire re-iterates his position.

http://www.johnsquire.com/

The Stone Roses to reunite? (part xxxvii)

I'm not sure why I'm even posting this. According to the article, John's talked Ian into a 21-date tour of the UK and the USA.

Update - Ian says no.
Update 2 - John agrees, no.

Hamster Power? Yes!

That's right, hamster power.  See the  jacket on this little guy?  It's been sewn together using threads made out of science. 
Read the Discover article.

Paul Harvey (1918-2009)

TRAGIC FORESHADOWING

Happy 40th birthday to the computer mouse!

 

So I guess it's been some 39.9 years since the first time somebody had to de-cheese their mouse...

Steak smells like space!

After asking people who knew, people who wondered figured out that steak and space smell the same, except one also smells like welding a motorbike.

the caipirinha diaries, part 2

...aaannnnd we're back.
Ok, so, since I last wrote, there has been a Pelourinho and an island village involved.
The Pelourinho

This district in Salvador is very old, and thus historical. Much meanness was brought by the slave trade, and those who practiced it. That was a long time ago, and now it's an interesting place to take an elevator to. Most of the buildings date back 500 or so years. There's lots of dogs and cats laying around. I think someone should airlift them milk-bones and pounce. There's dudes wanting money, sometimes just because, but sometimes in exchange for goods and/or services that you can't really get at the mall. There are lots of stores & things. We went into a cachaça bar & had a few shots of there homemade infusions. We had clove, cinnamon, orange peel and ginger.

We did other stuff too.

About this island village

It is called Morro de Sao Paulo. We spent the last 3 nights there, and was never more than 200 yards away from the ocean.

Took a boat and a bus and a boat. Got there and walked up and down several hills. Some were dirt, some concrete, all were a little steeper than I'd prefer. Lots of water, all of it wet. Little blue crabs that scramble into their tunnels when you approach. Sentence fragments thicker than Mrs. Butterworth. Large yummy shrimp, hamburgers spelled hambuerger or something like that, photo ops galore, salty salty sea, with all the tides and extra buoyancy that you'd expect, little monkeys chasing each other around the front yard, all that.

Today we took a boat (just one, no bus) back to Salvador, had a fine lunch, a nap, and a fine dinner.
Here's one of the many views from our hotel:

Tomorrow, it's north. There's a river and other stuff involved.
Also, I'm having a laundry crisis!

the caipirinha diaries, part 1

Here's a link to a google map showing where I'm.
The following was written at the end of a long, full day. There is nothing linear or even cohesive about what you may be about to read.
This is an awesome place. All of the food has been good. They've got Cuban cigars (as do I, a Montecristo). Traffic here makes me long for the comfort and safety of riding in a car through Manhattan. Everyone I've met has been great. I'm not doing so well with the language, but I'm getting by.
Two things that ended up happening on the first night included watching an American blues band and going to a house that was tuned to the American Fox tv rerun channel. Never saw nip/tuck before. Not entirely sure if I ever will again.
The mall was nice. Not too incredibly foreign (other than aforementioned languaga barrier). Bought some fancy-ass sunglasses & had a $2 beer at the Kalzone, I think it was called. Home of the AmeriKalzone. For real.
At the mall, I really wanted a cheap am/fm radio. The only one I could find was part of the Xuxa line of fine electronics.
There's a lot more to write about, butI'll have to do that later, hopefully tomorrow and hopefully with some pics.
I'll probably be mentioning such things as trying not to be too paranoid about standing under huge coconuts that would surely kill and how some of the buildings in the area are all gutted out & rotting on the inside and make me think of Half-Life 2.

Yeah. It's 2am. Feels kinda like 4. Back in my time zone, it's midnight. Hoping to maybe wake up in time for breakfast tomorrow. I hear there's these amazing tapioca crepes...

How Northern Lights Happen

Science, in its infinite quest for things scientific, have figured out how northern lights do what they do.  It involves plasma, solar wind and science all coming together at a distance equal to 1/3 of the distance to the moon, a hard part of space also known for having lots of science on.

Here's the NASA article.
Here's a nice little gallery.
This one's the THEMIS mission page.

Bill Ripken "error" card

The 267 Tapes in Delia's Attic

A hidden hoard of recordings made by Delia Derbyshire, the electronic music pioneer behind the Doctor Who theme has been revealed - including a dance track 20 years ahead of its time.

 

 

Puppy born without front legs can now make it on his own.

Thanks to space-age plastic, and some model airplane wheels, your front-legless puppy can go from this:

to this:

For the whole story, including some cute legless puppy video, click here.

Oh, I have to throw this in:

Freestyle Battle!!!

Who will win???