The Ministry of Reshelving is a collaborative political prank / game in which participants move copies of books, such as George Orwell’s 1984, to non-fiction sections, such as US History or True Crime — via BoingBoing
Last year, the US Air Force dropped US$25k on a Teleportation Physics Study to examine whether it might be possible to beam people and objects from one place to another. The report [pdf] was written by Eric W Davis who holds a PhD in astrophysics. Not mentioned in the article is that Davis apparently has also been affiliated with the National Institute for Discovery Science, a private research organisation that studies aerial phenomena, animal mutilations, and other related anomalous phenomena
— via BoingBoing
The tibetan sky burial involves the body being fed to vultures. Once the spirit leaves the body there is no longer any need for the body. The body (wrapped in white cloth) is placed on a platform of stones (in a fenced off area designated as a burial site). It is then unwrapped and sliced up with huge cleavers by a butcher (the Tomden), to expose flesh and bone. The butchers are often monks who specialise in the task of butchery. The butchers work methodically and professionally. Vultures are attracted by juniper smoke and the exposed flesh and begin to eat the body. The Tomden then returns to the body cutting off arms and legs and feeding it to the vultures.
The Tomden may work with other Tomden and throw pieces of flesh to the vultures. He also smashes and pulverises bones (with rock or sledgehammer), including the skull, feeding the brain (after it has been mixed with flour) and marrow to the crows and other birds, until nothing is left. The Tomden may also create skull bowls or thigh bone trumpets from the remains.
Eventually, nothing is left of the body. This act of giving one’s body is the last generous act of the deceased to living beings — via Paul Mellen
Xtreme Alternative Defense Systems claims it has developed a nonlethal weapon that shoots lightning bolts; Lightning guns, heat rays, weapons that can make you hear the voice of God. This is what happens when the war on terror meets the entrepreneurial spirit
Mark Forman, a podcaster, is reading Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom on his podcast with regular, chapter-by-chapter readings, mixed in with music — via boingboing
Australias pay more for their home telephone services than anywhere else in the developed world, apart from Hungary. The Paris-based OECD estimates that a typical set of home telephone services, including calls to mobiles and international numbers, costs the equivalent of $975 a year in Australia. That is 50% more than is paid in Britain and 25% higher than the OECD average
iiNet today started offering its long-awaited Voice over Internet Protocol service to the public, billing it as a free second phone line
An old polymer may be the spaceship material of the future [podcast]. Polyethylene is in household garbage bags, and it is also an effective solar radiation shield. Polyethylene is used in the sleeping quarters on current orbiting space vehicles, but now NASA has developed a way to toughen the polymer into a product they call RXF1 which is even stronger and lighter than aluminum
. Radiation in space is currently a major obstacle to manned missions outside of the Earth’s magnetic field, so better radiation shielding is essential to planned manned missions to Mars and beyond
Scientists in the United States seem to have discovered a gene which controls aging. By stimulating this gene, which when malfunctioning causes premature aging, researchers have managed to prolong the average life span of lab mice from 2 to 3 years. Because a very similar gene is present in humans it is quite possible it will do the same thing for people But there may be downsides with Klotho. The long-lived mice in the new experiments tend to be less fertile. And the gene may also predispose people to diabetes. The trick for researchers will be to find ways of getting the life-enhancing results of Klotho while avoiding the drawbacks
The DVD of Sin City came without any director’s commentary, so the Spoilers, a podcast of podcasters, made their own and released it as an MP3 intended to be played simultaneous with the movie. You could even load it onto an MP3 player and wear noise-cancelling headphones to the cinema and get their commentary instead of the film’s audio — via boingboing
Owner Mike Taitt lost sight of Archie at Inverurie Station near Aberdeen in eastern Scotland and was hoping someone would spot the dog’s tag and return the much-loved mutt. He is a very intelligent dog,
Mr Taitt said. When he could not find me, he simply took the right train home. He’s been on that train before. I am convinced he knew it was the right one. But who knows?
Closed-circuit television footage shows the dog waiting for his master at the station before watching the Aberdeen to Inverness train pull in. Unable to find his owner, the black labrador decided to avoid a long walk home by nipping aboard the 20:38
The BBC views the piracy of a Doctor Who episode before its broadcast date earlier this year as a wake-up call about the demand for new technology
, in a refreshing change of opinion from most media/broadcasting corporations, who would damn this piracy without hesitation. They are forming plans to simulcast the television channels BBC1 and BBC2 on the web, as well as allowing users (only in the UK to start with, unfortunately) access to shows for a week after the broadcast date. Other BBC3 comedies are due to follow suit and become available on the internet first
Ruben Latang Jr, one of the suspects in the grisly murder of a villager in Glan, Sarangani whose flesh was eaten and his blood drank by a cannibal gang, has been taken into custody. The cannibal gang has sown terror in the far-flung villages at the borders of Glan, Sarangani and Jose Abad Santos in Davao del Sur — via Warren Ellis
Wang Ying, 73, has been practicing Kung Fu, especially the study of Qi, since he was just eight-years-old. But his studies took a new direction after a 5cm long tumour grew on his forehead. Doctors told him they could not operate on the tumour because of its location. So Wang has incorporated it into his Qi routine, using his horn to lift bricks — via Warren Ellis
16-year-old Peter Ash, of Lawford, Somerset, attached a generator to his hamster’s exercise wheel and connected it to his phone charger. He came up with the idea after his sister Sarah complained that Elvis was keeping her awake at night by playing for hours on his exercise wheel.
I thought the wheel could be made to do something useful so I connected a system of gears and a turbine,
he said.
Every two minutes Elvis spends on his wheel gives me about thirty minutes talk time on my phone
— via boingboing
As recently as this time last year, a podcast — a digital audio program that lives on the Internet — would have meant very little to most people. But today there are thousands of web sites devoted to the technology; major media outlets have started releasing some of their broadcasts via podcast; and even cult favorite Neil Gaiman has posted the first few chapters of the audio version of his Anansi Boys on his blog.
Scott Sigler‘s podcasting got him a deal with the publisher Dragon Moon Press after the publisher heard his audio version of EarthCore. And a new site, Podiobooks.com, has launched, with five titles already available for download. Its co-founder, Evo Terra, a podcaster for the online talk show The Dragon Page, notes that, as of this writing, 19 new authors have signed on to release free audio versions of their books through the site — via boingboing
25 year old Christopher William Smith, considered one of the worlds biggest spammers by the Spamhaus Project, is now sitting in a jail without bond. Smith allegedly had a doctor issue 72,000 prescriptions in the space of one year in conjunction with orders obtained through spamming. The doctor, Philip Mach, had a license to practice medicine in New Jersey but he provided prescriptions to people throughout the United States without ever evaluating them, both of which are big no-no’s. Federal authorities have already seized over $3 million in cash, luxury cars, and houses
NSW will become the first Australian state to outlaw unauthorised surveillance of employees using technologies including video cameras, e-mail and tracking devices, when the Workplace Surveillance Bill 2005 comes into effect at the beginning of October
Internet security firm SurfControl says that Spammers have started using Microsoft’s MSN blogging service to host malicious content used during spam and virus onslaughts
Upgraded to the shiny new version of MovableType tonight. Possibly the smoothest upgrade so far and now it looks like it will be a matter of poking things to see if I’ve lost any plugin compatibility in the transition.
Hit a minor bug with a new entry not being posted, but it turned out this was due to the static files directory now needing to be explicitly named. Did that and damn, the backend of the system is so pretty.
Love the added ability to search through everything, including comments. Now all I need is integrated author profiles, instead of my current hacked version and threaded comments that don’t require me to do horrible things to the database.
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