Click here for savage, New York, D train dialogue
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Friday, October 30, 2009
BLOW-BAT
Oh my. When the awesome Valerie sent the following (and also the image) what could I do (once again) but post the entire package? Especially on a busy and chaotic Friday in the world.
“Female short-nosed fruit bats have been observed performing fellatio on their partners during copulation. Mating pairs spent more time copulating if the female did so.
Cynopterus sphinx live in south-east Asia. The males often roost with small groups of females. Min Tan of the Guangdong Entomological Institute in Guangzhou, China, and colleagues captured 30 male and 30 female short-nosed fruit bats in Yuexiu Park in Guangzhou City and observed their mating behaviour in enclosures.
The bats copulate dorso-ventrally, with the male mounting the female from behind. During mating, the females reached over to lick the base of the male's penis in 14 of the 20 pairs that copulated. The tip of the penis had already penetrated the female's vagina, and the males did not withdraw when the female licked the base of the penis.
Both the duration of an individual copulation, and the overall time a mating pair spent copulating, were increased if the female performed fellatio.” Click here although I guess I should repeat the warning – "the video is sexually explicit and was edited and soundtracked by the researchers.”
The secret word has to be Head
“Female short-nosed fruit bats have been observed performing fellatio on their partners during copulation. Mating pairs spent more time copulating if the female did so.
Cynopterus sphinx live in south-east Asia. The males often roost with small groups of females. Min Tan of the Guangdong Entomological Institute in Guangzhou, China, and colleagues captured 30 male and 30 female short-nosed fruit bats in Yuexiu Park in Guangzhou City and observed their mating behaviour in enclosures.
The bats copulate dorso-ventrally, with the male mounting the female from behind. During mating, the females reached over to lick the base of the male's penis in 14 of the 20 pairs that copulated. The tip of the penis had already penetrated the female's vagina, and the males did not withdraw when the female licked the base of the penis.
Both the duration of an individual copulation, and the overall time a mating pair spent copulating, were increased if the female performed fellatio.” Click here although I guess I should repeat the warning – "the video is sexually explicit and was edited and soundtracked by the researchers.”
The secret word has to be Head
SPACE OPERA de luxe
I guess one might reason that this is Pre-Raphaelite science fiction following in wake of steampunk. (But should I devise a fantasy series about Dante Gabriel XX901?) The pic was sent by the grand HCB.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
JUST WHEN YOU STOP WORRYING…
Just when you stop worrying that an asteroid will hit the Earth, one does exactly that.
"The New Scientist website reports the dramatic explosion over South Sulawesi, Indonesia, on October 8 underscores how blind humanity is to the danger of giant space rocks. NASA estimated the explosion was the equivalent to 50,000 tons of TNT, making it one of the largest asteroid explosions ever observed. However, this time we were lucky - the blast caused no damage on the ground because it occurred at high altitude, 15 to 20km above Earth's surface. While the explosion was heard by witnesses in Indonesia and picked up by international nuclear explosion detectors, the asteroid only became visible after it exploded. Video images of the sky following the event showed a dust trail characteristic of an exploding asteroid, according to the New Scientist. Researchers believe the asteroid was about 10 metres wide - too small for even our most powerful telescopes to spot. But Tim Spahr, director of the Minor Planet Center, in the US state of Massachusetts, warns even an asteroid of this size could cause a lot of damage on the ground."
DOGGONE
Dog snorts speed? How could I not post this?
"A German shepherd K-9 in Ventura County should be eligible for a bump in hazard pay (read: more treats) after having a seizure that may be drug-related. Officials say K-9 Balu may have inhaled some loose methamphetamine Monday during a narcotics search in Moorpark, the Ventura County Star reported: The deputies believed they saw the suspect toss two bags of drugs, and they recovered one torn bag of methamphetamine, (Balu's partner Senior Deputy Dean Worthy) said. While he was searching for more drugs, Balu went to the area where the first bag was tossed and alerted Worthy, said the senior deputy. Balu got close enough to the spilled drugs that Worthy worried his K-9 partner might have sniffed some of it up, but there were no remnants of drugs on the dog's face, and he was acting fine." (Click here for more.)
The secret word is Arf!
"A German shepherd K-9 in Ventura County should be eligible for a bump in hazard pay (read: more treats) after having a seizure that may be drug-related. Officials say K-9 Balu may have inhaled some loose methamphetamine Monday during a narcotics search in Moorpark, the Ventura County Star reported: The deputies believed they saw the suspect toss two bags of drugs, and they recovered one torn bag of methamphetamine, (Balu's partner Senior Deputy Dean Worthy) said. While he was searching for more drugs, Balu went to the area where the first bag was tossed and alerted Worthy, said the senior deputy. Balu got close enough to the spilled drugs that Worthy worried his K-9 partner might have sniffed some of it up, but there were no remnants of drugs on the dog's face, and he was acting fine." (Click here for more.)
The secret word is Arf!
OUR WHACKY AUNT AYN
Aunt Ayn is confident that traffic lights are only for the huddled masses of the stupid.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
LONG AGO AND FAR AWAY, A GALAXY TURNED UGLY
Our pal hipspinster sent me a link to some new Dr Who fan anime, but along the way I was sidetracked by a squib for a new Joe Schreiber novel called Death Troopers that seems to be set in a reality where Star Wars meets the Saw series. It had to start me wondering if this was a true sign of the times, or just the 21st century vision of corporate publishing. I think I’m glad I’m too old and cranky to need any longer to consider doing such things.
“The storyline for Death Troopers is pretty simple, really — an Imperial prison barge, during the years right before the original Star Wars movie, runs into some engine trouble. Good thing they find a Star Destroyer in the middle of nowhere, which they can cannibalize for parts. Unfortunately, the Star Destroyer has some kind of weird virus on board, which kills everyone it comes into contact with... and the people who die don't stay dead. And that's about it. The survivors from the prison barge have to run a gauntlet of Imperial zombies and try to escape in one piece, while facing their own personal traumas and uncovering a sinister biological weapons program that comes straight from Lord Vader himself.
Among others, we meet a sadistic prison guard, Sartoris, an idealistic prison doctor, Cody, and the Longo brothers, the two sons of Trig Longo, a smuggler whom Sartoris murdered. Everybody gets a nice story arc in between (and during) zombie attacks.
It's a quick read, and there's a lot of chasing around dark corridors and crawlspaces and the holds of abandoned spaceships." Click here for the whole story and a neat promo video.
The secret word is Nasty
“The storyline for Death Troopers is pretty simple, really — an Imperial prison barge, during the years right before the original Star Wars movie, runs into some engine trouble. Good thing they find a Star Destroyer in the middle of nowhere, which they can cannibalize for parts. Unfortunately, the Star Destroyer has some kind of weird virus on board, which kills everyone it comes into contact with... and the people who die don't stay dead. And that's about it. The survivors from the prison barge have to run a gauntlet of Imperial zombies and try to escape in one piece, while facing their own personal traumas and uncovering a sinister biological weapons program that comes straight from Lord Vader himself.
Among others, we meet a sadistic prison guard, Sartoris, an idealistic prison doctor, Cody, and the Longo brothers, the two sons of Trig Longo, a smuggler whom Sartoris murdered. Everybody gets a nice story arc in between (and during) zombie attacks.
It's a quick read, and there's a lot of chasing around dark corridors and crawlspaces and the holds of abandoned spaceships." Click here for the whole story and a neat promo video.
The secret word is Nasty
Monday, October 26, 2009
OK DAY
No, it hasn’t been an okay day. It’s been a rotten day. Nothing apocalyptic, just the routine grind-down and the LA heat came back. I would probably be hiding under the bed, surly and with nothing to say except that I felt I had to remind all you good people that today is the 128th anniversary of The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, when the Earp brothers and Doc Holliday (my favorite gunfighter) faced down Ike Clanton and his crew. As Wikipedia tells it…
“The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral was a gunfight that occurred at about 3 P.M. on Wednesday, October 26, 1881, in Tombstone, Arizona. The famous gunfight did not actually occur at the O.K. Corral. It occurred in a fifteen- to twenty-foot space between Fly's Lodging House and photographic studio, and the MacDonald assay house west of it. The end of the gunfight took place in Fremont Street. Some of the fighting was in Fremont Street in front of the vacant lot. About thirty shots were fired in thirty seconds. Although only three men were killed during the gunfight, it is generally regarded as the most famous gunfight in the history of the Old West, even though many other gunfights of the period resulted in more people killed. The gunfight at the O.K. Corral has been portrayed in numerous Western films. It has come to symbolize the struggle between law-and-order and open-banditry.”
Click here to play the theme.
The secret word is Huckleberry
Sunday, October 25, 2009
A DECADENT SUNDAY
The doctor poured cognac into the prisoner’s balloon glass. The gesture was superficially expansive, but did nothing to disguise the cold underlying hostility. “So much of what you say is hardly plausible.”
The prisoner swirled the brandy in the ostentatious glass. He inhaled the alcohol vapor. He hadn’t eaten in so long, the fumes alone were capable of making him drunk. “If you had seen what I had seen, you would not be so reluctant to believe me.”
“If I had seen what you had seen I would not be required to believe you. I would be you.”
“But if you were me, who would I be?”
“Word games? Juvenile existentialism? Isn’t this all a little pointless?”
“I didn’t ask to be here.”
The doctor leaned back in his chair. “That is something I do believe.”
“That’s something you know for a fact. Belief or disbelief don’t even signify. I didn’t ask to be here, I actively resisted coming here, and I’m being held against my will. You actively facilitated my captivity. It is something that cannot be called into question.”
The doctor carefully pressed his fingertips together. “Whatever you think is being done to you is ultimately for your own good.”
“Bullshit.”
The doctor smiled. “Now who’s unwilling to believe?”
The prisoner sighed. “I’m willing to believe. Tell me anything. I’ll believe it. Just watch me.”
The prisoner swirled the brandy in the ostentatious glass. He inhaled the alcohol vapor. He hadn’t eaten in so long, the fumes alone were capable of making him drunk. “If you had seen what I had seen, you would not be so reluctant to believe me.”
“If I had seen what you had seen I would not be required to believe you. I would be you.”
“But if you were me, who would I be?”
“Word games? Juvenile existentialism? Isn’t this all a little pointless?”
“I didn’t ask to be here.”
The doctor leaned back in his chair. “That is something I do believe.”
“That’s something you know for a fact. Belief or disbelief don’t even signify. I didn’t ask to be here, I actively resisted coming here, and I’m being held against my will. You actively facilitated my captivity. It is something that cannot be called into question.”
The doctor carefully pressed his fingertips together. “Whatever you think is being done to you is ultimately for your own good.”
“Bullshit.”
The doctor smiled. “Now who’s unwilling to believe?”
The prisoner sighed. “I’m willing to believe. Tell me anything. I’ll believe it. Just watch me.”
WITH FUNNIES…
Even among 1960s comic book artists Jeff Jones was a little strange, but also a hell of draughtsman.
Saturday, October 24, 2009
THE SCUM TAKES THE MONEY
Our pal Faux Smoke sent over this unpleasant piece of news with the comment “this old bastard is still out there, lobbying against anything so long as he's getting paid.” And let’s not forget that while the senile old fool was running for president, he courted dunce-cred by positively boasting how he had no idea how even to send an email.
“U.S. Senator John McCain has introduced legislation that would block the U.S. Federal Communications Commission from creating new net neutrality rules, on the same day that the FCC took the first step toward doing so.
McCain on Thursday introduced the Internet Freedom Act, which would keep the FCC from enacting rules prohibiting broadband providers from selectively blocking or slowing Internet content and applications. Net neutrality rules would create "onerous federal regulation," McCain said in a written statement.
The FCC on Thursday voted to begin a rulemaking process to formalize net neutrality rules. The rules, as proposed, would allow Web users to run the legal applications and access the legal Web sites of their choice. Providers could use "reasonable" network management to reduce congestion and maintain quality of service, but the rules would require them to be transparent with consumers about their efforts.
The new rules would formalize a set of net neutrality principles in place at the FCC since 2005." Click here for the whole story.
The secret word is Bribery
“U.S. Senator John McCain has introduced legislation that would block the U.S. Federal Communications Commission from creating new net neutrality rules, on the same day that the FCC took the first step toward doing so.
McCain on Thursday introduced the Internet Freedom Act, which would keep the FCC from enacting rules prohibiting broadband providers from selectively blocking or slowing Internet content and applications. Net neutrality rules would create "onerous federal regulation," McCain said in a written statement.
The FCC on Thursday voted to begin a rulemaking process to formalize net neutrality rules. The rules, as proposed, would allow Web users to run the legal applications and access the legal Web sites of their choice. Providers could use "reasonable" network management to reduce congestion and maintain quality of service, but the rules would require them to be transparent with consumers about their efforts.
The new rules would formalize a set of net neutrality principles in place at the FCC since 2005." Click here for the whole story.
The secret word is Bribery
Friday, October 23, 2009
BOOK ‘EM, DANNO!
I found the following on Common Dreams and figured I should pass it along…
“In Louis Jordan’s classic song, “Saturday Night Fish Fry,” which recounts a riotous party on Rampart Street eventually raided by the police, the hapless protagonist is nabbed by the cops and “booked on suspicion.” Anyone who remembers TV cop shows, like Dragnet and Highway Patrol, recalls dozens of bad guys hauled up “on suspicion” by Sgt. Joe Friday or Chief Dan Matthews. When I was a kid absorbing all this jurisprudence, I had no idea that “suspicion” was not an actual crime that could send you up the river. Even today, I don’t know if “suspicion” was the authentic argot of real cops in those innocent days.Regardless of the era, if the police say they’re arresting a guy on “suspicion of burglary” or some such pretext, they still have to muster enough evidence for a real arraignment. This rule applied to even pre-Miranda cops like Joe Friday. Without a charge, the suspect, no matter how suspicious he looked, had to be cut loose. American justice has always been exceptionally clear on this point: Suspicion by the forces of law and order against an individual implies no guilt whatsoever. Official suspicion confers on the State no right to accuse, pursue, arrest, detain or imprison. Anyone. This principle survived two centuries of challenge, ‘til September 11, 2001.”
Click here for the whole thing.
“In Louis Jordan’s classic song, “Saturday Night Fish Fry,” which recounts a riotous party on Rampart Street eventually raided by the police, the hapless protagonist is nabbed by the cops and “booked on suspicion.” Anyone who remembers TV cop shows, like Dragnet and Highway Patrol, recalls dozens of bad guys hauled up “on suspicion” by Sgt. Joe Friday or Chief Dan Matthews. When I was a kid absorbing all this jurisprudence, I had no idea that “suspicion” was not an actual crime that could send you up the river. Even today, I don’t know if “suspicion” was the authentic argot of real cops in those innocent days.Regardless of the era, if the police say they’re arresting a guy on “suspicion of burglary” or some such pretext, they still have to muster enough evidence for a real arraignment. This rule applied to even pre-Miranda cops like Joe Friday. Without a charge, the suspect, no matter how suspicious he looked, had to be cut loose. American justice has always been exceptionally clear on this point: Suspicion by the forces of law and order against an individual implies no guilt whatsoever. Official suspicion confers on the State no right to accuse, pursue, arrest, detain or imprison. Anyone. This principle survived two centuries of challenge, ‘til September 11, 2001.”
Click here for the whole thing.
SCREW THE DOW AND THE TEN THOUSAND POINTS IT RODE IN ON
Twenty-three states reported unemployment-rate increases in September, with three registering record job losses, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' monthly employment summary – Nevada (at 13.3%), Rhode Island (at 13.0%), and Florida (11.0%) all posted their highest unemployment rates since 1976, when the BLS began monitoring the rates.
The secret word is Disgust
The secret word is Disgust
Thursday, October 22, 2009
HOW DOES IT FEEL?
“Did you know OnStar has the ability to shut off your engine, deflate your tires and listen to what you are saying inside your car?? It's true. They never used to use this technology, though it has been available- but now that the government is running GM, apparently they have decided to go ahead with it. Did we miss that press release? At the very least, it should concern you…with this kind of technology in the wrong hands.”
Those of you who watch Countdown with Keith Olbermann will already know Fox News’ house psychotic Glenn Beck has been howling how the OnStar system that provides drivers with GPS enabled navigation, remote diagnostics, and on-board security services will help the "government" to "know where you are in your car all the time" and even put a "microphone" in your car to broadcast socialist propaganda! But, hey, just click here for whole extended audio mania. And – while we’re at it – let’s not forget how, if the rumors are true, the optional voice of OnStar may be that ancient and vicious totalitarian commissar Bob (pictured above) Dylan
Those of you who watch Countdown with Keith Olbermann will already know Fox News’ house psychotic Glenn Beck has been howling how the OnStar system that provides drivers with GPS enabled navigation, remote diagnostics, and on-board security services will help the "government" to "know where you are in your car all the time" and even put a "microphone" in your car to broadcast socialist propaganda! But, hey, just click here for whole extended audio mania. And – while we’re at it – let’s not forget how, if the rumors are true, the optional voice of OnStar may be that ancient and vicious totalitarian commissar Bob (pictured above) Dylan
GRATUITOUS GENTRY (or is this just too retro-weird?)
I have always had this strange attraction to Bobbie Gentry’s “Ode To Billie Joe”. If memory serves, I think I once suggested to the rest of The Deviants that we should perform it in a manner that was part Dylan’s “Ballad Of Hollis Brown” and part The Stooges “We Will Fall.” They looked at me as though I was wholly and barking crazy and the idea was never mentioned again, but I continue to this day to find the song hauntingly eerie, slightly creepy and an example of genuine country gothic of a kind that Nick Cave could only seek to emulate. Click here for the clip I found.
The secret word is Tallahatchie
The secret word is Tallahatchie
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
LET THE MIDNIGHT SPECIAL...
But why don’t we take all this a stage further? The last time I heard a number quoted, it was that a tad more than 80% of the hideously massive US prison population was locked up for crimes that had, at very least, an indirect connection with the sale and use of recreational drugs. Clearly the nation – whether it admits it or not – is conducting a radical rethink of the War on Drugs. Here in LA we have a de facto decriminalization of marijuana and pot shops are opening up on what seems to be every goddamned corner (although still they are still charging prohibition prices – but that’s another story.) What’s annoying me in this instance is that while middle class stoners who can afford the doctor’s $100 fee for a medical marijuana card talk smugly about the joys of their Purple Urkle, the poor bastards who were criminalized in the bad old days still rot in the slam. (Some for long stretches under the mandatory minimums of yesteryear.) And that fucking sucks.
HALF PRICE DRINKS
Still basking in a degree of dubious glory, here’s the guys – (l to r) Russell Hunter, yours truly, our great friend Yukiko Akagawa, and Duncan Sanderson – doing a little preshow drinking before our recent Brighton reunion. Plus you can click here for another clip from Rich of the band doing the song “Half Price Drinks.” Sadly the sound is camcorder lousy but word has just come from our pal Gregg the Theremin Guy from the band Paradise 9. “Spoke to Tim earlier. (Rundall, that is, playing guitar in the cowboy hat) He's been talking to Roy who did the sound and recorded the night. I believe they're gonna get together, and either Roy do a mix down of the night and/or Tim has a guy who can do a mix n'all. My mate Philip also video'd the night along with a couple others, so he's gonna get me a copy to pass on and maybe if the quality is ok, maybe a vid may work...but that maybe iffy given the awful lighting that night!”
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Tuesday, October 20, 2009
DO WE NEED TO BOYCOTT BUD?
The following came in from MoveOn.org. There are times when I find MoveOn and their constant demands for money kind of irritating, but this does need to be addressed, especially as I rather tend to drink Budweiser by default and because it’s always there….
“Why would a company like Anheuser-Busch oppose solutions to global warming?
Anheuser-Busch is a prominent member of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which just launched a $100 million campaign described as a "declaration of war on the White House." The Chamber is pouring millions into killing clean energy as well as health care reform. Recently, an uprising of companies fighting back against the Chamber of Commerce has begun, led by companies like Apple, Nike, Johnson & Johnson, and GE. But Anheuser-Busch continues to help fund the Chamber's anti-climate agenda through their Chamber dues. Can you call Anheuser-Busch and urge them to quit the Chamber of Commerce? If you're a customer of Anheuser-Busch, be sure to mention it when you call. Here's the info: Anheuser-Busch (202) 293-9494”
“Why would a company like Anheuser-Busch oppose solutions to global warming?
Anheuser-Busch is a prominent member of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which just launched a $100 million campaign described as a "declaration of war on the White House." The Chamber is pouring millions into killing clean energy as well as health care reform. Recently, an uprising of companies fighting back against the Chamber of Commerce has begun, led by companies like Apple, Nike, Johnson & Johnson, and GE. But Anheuser-Busch continues to help fund the Chamber's anti-climate agenda through their Chamber dues. Can you call Anheuser-Busch and urge them to quit the Chamber of Commerce? If you're a customer of Anheuser-Busch, be sure to mention it when you call. Here's the info: Anheuser-Busch (202) 293-9494”
WHEN WILL THIS SHIT STOP?
“Hoping to stigmatize, criminalize and otherwise terrorize women seeking abortions, the wise and compassionate legislators of Oklahoma have passed a law that mandates recording and publishing on a website the details of each abortion performed there. No names, but more than enough facts - date, county, age, marital status etc - to out any woman in a small community. Fighting the bill are two lawyers and the Center for Reproductive Rights, which earlier helped defeat a proposed law requiring doctors to describe the ultrasound image of her fetus to any woman seeking an abortion.”
Monday, October 19, 2009
GOOD NEWS BEARS
The following arrived in the morning email, and it might be described as winning one for our furry friends.
Dear Mick,
I have some very exciting news to share with you. Yielding to pressure from conservationists, including more than 50,000 NRDC Members and online activists, the Obama Administration has just announced that it will support an upgrade in international protection for polar bears. This is extremely important, because if the world agrees to increase the polar bear's protection under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), it would help end trophy hunting and stop the global trade in polar bear body parts. Please take a moment to celebrate this announcement with me, because it would never have happened without the activism of NRDC supporters like you! And let's give credit where credit is due: I encourage you to send a message now to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar -- to thank him for doing the right thing for the sake of polar bear survival. But please don't think this battle is over. Between now and March 2010, when the next CITES treaty talks take place, we will have to expand our campaign to make sure that other key nations line up with America's pro-polar-bear position
Frances Beinecke
Dear Mick,
I have some very exciting news to share with you. Yielding to pressure from conservationists, including more than 50,000 NRDC Members and online activists, the Obama Administration has just announced that it will support an upgrade in international protection for polar bears. This is extremely important, because if the world agrees to increase the polar bear's protection under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), it would help end trophy hunting and stop the global trade in polar bear body parts. Please take a moment to celebrate this announcement with me, because it would never have happened without the activism of NRDC supporters like you! And let's give credit where credit is due: I encourage you to send a message now to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar -- to thank him for doing the right thing for the sake of polar bear survival. But please don't think this battle is over. Between now and March 2010, when the next CITES treaty talks take place, we will have to expand our campaign to make sure that other key nations line up with America's pro-polar-bear position
Frances Beinecke
President Natural Resources Defense Council
CAN TIME LORDS COME BACK AND BITE US ON THE ASS?
I should have posted this piece by Dennis Overbye that Munz culled from The New York Times while I was away, but better late then never. As it stands it’s long, but truly fascinating to one of my warped perspectives, and also, when you click the link, the NYT wants you to register and – at Doc40 – we don’t like that so here it is complete.
“More than a year after an explosion of sparks, soot and frigid helium shut it down, the world’s biggest and most expensive physics experiment, known as the Large Haldron Collider is to start up again. In December, if all goes well, protons will start smashing together in an underground racetrack outside Geneva in a search for forces and particles that reigned during the first trillionth of a second of the Big Bang.
Then it will be time to test one of the most bizarre and revolutionary theories in science. I’m not talking about extra dimensions of space-time, dark matter or even black holes that eat the Earth. No, I’m talking about the notion that the troubled collider is being sabotaged by its own future. A pair of otherwise distinguished physicists have suggested that the hypothesized Higgs boson, which physicists hope to produce with the collider, might be so abhorrent to nature that its creation would ripple backward through time and stop the collider before it could make one, like a time traveler who goes back in time to kill his grandfather.
Holger Bech Nielsen, of the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen, and Masao Ninomiya of the Yukawa Institute for Theoretical Physics in Kyoto, Japan, put this idea forward in a series of papers with titles like “Test of Effect From Future in Large Hadron Collider: a Proposal” and “Search for Future Influence From LHC,” posted on the physics Web site arXiv.org in the last year and a half.
According to the so-called Standard Model that rules almost all physics, the Higgs is responsible for imbuing other elementary particles with mass.
“It must be our prediction that all Higgs producing machines shall have bad luck,” Dr. Nielsen said in an e-mail message. In an unpublished essay, Dr. Nielson said of the theory, “Well, one could even almost say that we have a model for God.” It is their guess, he went on, “that He rather hates Higgs particles, and attempts to avoid them.”
This malign influence from the future, they argue, could explain why the United States Superconducting Supercollider, also designed to find the Higgs, was canceled in 1993 after billions of dollars had already been spent, an event so unlikely that Dr. Nielsen calls it an “anti-miracle.”
You might think that the appearance of this theory is further proof that people have had ample time — perhaps too much time — to think about what will come out of the collider, which has been 15 years and $9 billion in the making.
The collider was built by CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, to accelerate protons to energies of seven trillion electron volts around an 18-mile underground racetrack and then crash them together into primordial fireballs.
For the record, as of the middle of September, CERN engineers hope to begin to collide protons at the so-called injection energy of 450 billion electron volts in December and then ramp up the energy until the protons have 3.5 trillion electron volts of energy apiece and then, after a short Christmas break, real physics can begin.
Maybe.
Dr. Nielsen and Dr. Ninomiya started laying out their case for doom in the spring of 2008. It was later that fall, of course, after the CERN collider was turned on, that a connection between two magnets vaporized, shutting down the collider for more than a year.
Dr. Nielsen called that “a funny thing that could make us to believe in the theory of ours.”
He agreed that skepticism would be in order. After all, most big science projects, including the Hubble Space Telescope, have gone through a period of seeming jinxed. At CERN, the beat goes on: Last weekend the French police arrested a particle physicist who works on one of the collider experiments, on suspicion of conspiracy with a North African wing of Al Qaeda.
Dr. Nielsen and Dr. Ninomiya have proposed a kind of test: that CERN engage in a game of chance, a “card-drawing” exercise using perhaps a random-number generator, in order to discern bad luck from the future. If the outcome was sufficiently unlikely, say drawing the one spade in a deck with 100 million hearts, the machine would either not run at all, or only at low energies unlikely to find the Higgs.
Sure, it’s crazy, and CERN should not and is not about to mortgage its investment to a coin toss. But craziness has a fine history in a physics that talks routinely about cats being dead and alive at the same time and about anti-gravity puffing out the universe.
As Niels Bohr, Dr. Nielsen’s late countryman and one of the founders of quantum theory, once told a colleague: “We are all agreed that your theory is crazy. The question that divides us is whether it is crazy enough to have a chance of being correct.”
Dr. Nielsen is well-qualified in this tradition. He is known in physics as one of the founders of string theory and a deep and original thinker, “one of those extremely smart people that is willing to chase crazy ideas pretty far,” in the words of Sean Carroll, a Caltech physicist and author of a coming book about time, “From Eternity to Here.”
Another of Dr. Nielsen’s projects is an effort to show how the universe as we know it, with all its apparent regularity, could arise from pure randomness, a subject he calls “random dynamics.”
Dr. Nielsen admits that he and Dr. Ninomiya’s new theory smacks of time travel, a longtime interest, which has become a respectable research subject in recent years. While it is a paradox to go back in time and kill your grandfather, physicists agree there is no paradox if you go back in time and save him from being hit by a bus. In the case of the Higgs and the collider, it is as if something is going back in time to keep the universe from being hit by a bus. Although just why the Higgs would be a catastrophe is not clear. If we knew, presumably, we wouldn’t be trying to make one.
We always assume that the past influences the future. But that is not necessarily true in the physics of Newton or Einstein. According to physicists, all you really need to know, mathematically, to describe what happens to an apple or the 100 billion galaxies of the universe over all time are the laws that describe how things change and a statement of where things start. The latter are the so-called boundary conditions — the apple five feet over your head, or the Big Bang.
The equations work just as well, Dr. Nielsen and others point out, if the boundary conditions specify a condition in the future (the apple on your head) instead of in the past, as long as the fundamental laws of physics are reversible, which most physicists believe they are.
“For those of us who believe in physics,” Einstein once wrote to a friend, “this separation between past, present and future is only an illusion.”
In Kurt Vonnegut’s novel “Sirens of Titan,” all of human history turns out to be reduced to delivering a piece of metal roughly the size and shape of a beer-can opener to an alien marooned on Saturn’s moon so he can repair his spaceship and go home.”
The secret word is Tardis
“More than a year after an explosion of sparks, soot and frigid helium shut it down, the world’s biggest and most expensive physics experiment, known as the Large Haldron Collider is to start up again. In December, if all goes well, protons will start smashing together in an underground racetrack outside Geneva in a search for forces and particles that reigned during the first trillionth of a second of the Big Bang.
Then it will be time to test one of the most bizarre and revolutionary theories in science. I’m not talking about extra dimensions of space-time, dark matter or even black holes that eat the Earth. No, I’m talking about the notion that the troubled collider is being sabotaged by its own future. A pair of otherwise distinguished physicists have suggested that the hypothesized Higgs boson, which physicists hope to produce with the collider, might be so abhorrent to nature that its creation would ripple backward through time and stop the collider before it could make one, like a time traveler who goes back in time to kill his grandfather.
Holger Bech Nielsen, of the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen, and Masao Ninomiya of the Yukawa Institute for Theoretical Physics in Kyoto, Japan, put this idea forward in a series of papers with titles like “Test of Effect From Future in Large Hadron Collider: a Proposal” and “Search for Future Influence From LHC,” posted on the physics Web site arXiv.org in the last year and a half.
According to the so-called Standard Model that rules almost all physics, the Higgs is responsible for imbuing other elementary particles with mass.
“It must be our prediction that all Higgs producing machines shall have bad luck,” Dr. Nielsen said in an e-mail message. In an unpublished essay, Dr. Nielson said of the theory, “Well, one could even almost say that we have a model for God.” It is their guess, he went on, “that He rather hates Higgs particles, and attempts to avoid them.”
This malign influence from the future, they argue, could explain why the United States Superconducting Supercollider, also designed to find the Higgs, was canceled in 1993 after billions of dollars had already been spent, an event so unlikely that Dr. Nielsen calls it an “anti-miracle.”
You might think that the appearance of this theory is further proof that people have had ample time — perhaps too much time — to think about what will come out of the collider, which has been 15 years and $9 billion in the making.
The collider was built by CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, to accelerate protons to energies of seven trillion electron volts around an 18-mile underground racetrack and then crash them together into primordial fireballs.
For the record, as of the middle of September, CERN engineers hope to begin to collide protons at the so-called injection energy of 450 billion electron volts in December and then ramp up the energy until the protons have 3.5 trillion electron volts of energy apiece and then, after a short Christmas break, real physics can begin.
Maybe.
Dr. Nielsen and Dr. Ninomiya started laying out their case for doom in the spring of 2008. It was later that fall, of course, after the CERN collider was turned on, that a connection between two magnets vaporized, shutting down the collider for more than a year.
Dr. Nielsen called that “a funny thing that could make us to believe in the theory of ours.”
He agreed that skepticism would be in order. After all, most big science projects, including the Hubble Space Telescope, have gone through a period of seeming jinxed. At CERN, the beat goes on: Last weekend the French police arrested a particle physicist who works on one of the collider experiments, on suspicion of conspiracy with a North African wing of Al Qaeda.
Dr. Nielsen and Dr. Ninomiya have proposed a kind of test: that CERN engage in a game of chance, a “card-drawing” exercise using perhaps a random-number generator, in order to discern bad luck from the future. If the outcome was sufficiently unlikely, say drawing the one spade in a deck with 100 million hearts, the machine would either not run at all, or only at low energies unlikely to find the Higgs.
Sure, it’s crazy, and CERN should not and is not about to mortgage its investment to a coin toss. But craziness has a fine history in a physics that talks routinely about cats being dead and alive at the same time and about anti-gravity puffing out the universe.
As Niels Bohr, Dr. Nielsen’s late countryman and one of the founders of quantum theory, once told a colleague: “We are all agreed that your theory is crazy. The question that divides us is whether it is crazy enough to have a chance of being correct.”
Dr. Nielsen is well-qualified in this tradition. He is known in physics as one of the founders of string theory and a deep and original thinker, “one of those extremely smart people that is willing to chase crazy ideas pretty far,” in the words of Sean Carroll, a Caltech physicist and author of a coming book about time, “From Eternity to Here.”
Another of Dr. Nielsen’s projects is an effort to show how the universe as we know it, with all its apparent regularity, could arise from pure randomness, a subject he calls “random dynamics.”
Dr. Nielsen admits that he and Dr. Ninomiya’s new theory smacks of time travel, a longtime interest, which has become a respectable research subject in recent years. While it is a paradox to go back in time and kill your grandfather, physicists agree there is no paradox if you go back in time and save him from being hit by a bus. In the case of the Higgs and the collider, it is as if something is going back in time to keep the universe from being hit by a bus. Although just why the Higgs would be a catastrophe is not clear. If we knew, presumably, we wouldn’t be trying to make one.
We always assume that the past influences the future. But that is not necessarily true in the physics of Newton or Einstein. According to physicists, all you really need to know, mathematically, to describe what happens to an apple or the 100 billion galaxies of the universe over all time are the laws that describe how things change and a statement of where things start. The latter are the so-called boundary conditions — the apple five feet over your head, or the Big Bang.
The equations work just as well, Dr. Nielsen and others point out, if the boundary conditions specify a condition in the future (the apple on your head) instead of in the past, as long as the fundamental laws of physics are reversible, which most physicists believe they are.
“For those of us who believe in physics,” Einstein once wrote to a friend, “this separation between past, present and future is only an illusion.”
In Kurt Vonnegut’s novel “Sirens of Titan,” all of human history turns out to be reduced to delivering a piece of metal roughly the size and shape of a beer-can opener to an alien marooned on Saturn’s moon so he can repair his spaceship and go home.”
The secret word is Tardis
Saturday, October 17, 2009
YOU CAN’T TELL A BOOK BY LOOKING AT THE COVER (But sometimes it helps)
I have never been terribly adept at the kind of self-promotion that sends millions of people out to purchase millions of units of one’s product and makes one rich, famous, beloved by all in the process. On the other hand, not to repeat the modest suggestion that a few more of you might just like to order a copy or two of Zones Of Chaos – my brand-new collection of my poetry and short prose – would be self effacing to the point of absurdity. So, for those of you who haven’t done so already, here’s the basic how-to-get-it information…"Available now: ZONES OF CHAOS, a maelstrom of poetry, prose, essays, lyrics, commentary and fiction from the legendary Mick Farren, featuring an introduction by Michael Moorcock! The book is $14.95, with free shipping in the US (and reduced cost shipping to the UK at $4 per copy). Contact Borderlands Books, toll-free 888 893-4008, or via email at orders@borderlands-books.com . When you order, they'll just need to know the address you'd like the book sent to, the number of copies you'd like, and how you would like to pay for your order. For payment, you can call, fax, or email your Visa or Mastercard information (card number, expiration date and three-digit security code to orders@borderlands-books.com ), or you can send a check or money order made out to Borderlands Books to the address below. Don't miss this mind-blowing collection, which includes a previously unpublished Victor Renquist story. Order now and you'll receive your copy signed by the Dark Prince of Pop Fiction (that's Mick) himself. (For wholesale enquiries or other questions, email office@borderlands-books.com.)"
The secret word is Acquire
The secret word is Acquire
“I MIGHT ORDER YOUR BOOK BUT I THINK YOUR STUPID BAND IS LOUD AND UNCOUTH.”
I would, however, point out to Bikini Barbie that, strictly speaking, it wasn’t actually my stupid band, but an ad hoc assemblage of well-respected, veteran psychedelic pickers hell-bent on blowing the roof off an innocent English Saturday night club, and the clip I posted earlier in the week was the last no-prisoners finale, and I’m hoping that others might have created audio or video records of some of the other tunes that were played earlier in the night – maybe “Half Price Drinks” or “When The World Was Young” – when matters we minimally more modulated. Any offers?
Friday, October 16, 2009
THE OLD WEST PIER
These are the somewhat steampunk ruins of the old West Pier in the town of Brighton where I was recently disporting myself as the alleged Mad Poet of Rock & Roll. The construct of twisted iron stands a few hundred feet out in the deep water of the English Channel, surviving on the promise that, on some unspecified day, it will be rebuilt and restored to it former glory.
Built back in 1866 by marine engineer Eugenius Birch, the West Pier was always secondary – at least in my day, when the Mods and Rockers flourished – to the more easterly Palace Pier, that had much more to offered in the way of fun, frolic, slot machines, alcohol, bumper cars, and girls who shrieked and giggled as the sea-breeze lifted their skirts.
The West Pier also was dogged by far more than it’s share of misfortune. As Wikipedia tells it…
“The West Pier had been cut off from the shore (partly deliberately, for safety reasons) since 1975, but the West Pier trust offered regular tours of it until the structure suffered a serious partial collapse during a storm on December 29, 2002, when a walkway connecting the concert hall and pavilion fell into the sea. On January 20, 2003 a further collapse saw the destruction of the concert hall in the middle of the pier. On 28 March, 2003 the pavilion at the end of the pier caught fire. Firefighters were unable to save the building from destruction because the collapsed walkway prevented them from reaching it. The cause of the fire remains unknown. On May 11, 2003, another fire broke out, consuming most of what was left of the concert hall. The Fire re-ignited on May 12. Arson was suspected: the West Pier Trust refers to the fires as the work of "professional arsonists". On June 23, 2004 high winds caused the middle of the pier to collapse completely.”
I would not only regularly see the old West Pier as I recently roved around the town, but a painting of its black iron at sunset dominated one wall of my hotel room at the cutely named Motel-Schmotel, and I started to wonder – especially amid the mixed emotions of leaving – whether I was indentifying with the ruin a little too intimately. If I really did venture a return to the haunts of my youth, and go back where I was so recently welcomed, will I really be able to cut as some ancient but surviving force with whom to be reckoned still, or would I be nothing more a short-lived relic, briefly lauded but then forgotten? I know, as I write, I am definitely suffering from that post-adventure, let-down, sadness, and am also understandably tired, and I don’t doubt that I will cowboy up soon enough and all will be well. But what would be the point of this forum if I didn’t, now and then, voice a fear of misgiving?
The secret word is Trepidation
Built back in 1866 by marine engineer Eugenius Birch, the West Pier was always secondary – at least in my day, when the Mods and Rockers flourished – to the more easterly Palace Pier, that had much more to offered in the way of fun, frolic, slot machines, alcohol, bumper cars, and girls who shrieked and giggled as the sea-breeze lifted their skirts.
The West Pier also was dogged by far more than it’s share of misfortune. As Wikipedia tells it…
“The West Pier had been cut off from the shore (partly deliberately, for safety reasons) since 1975, but the West Pier trust offered regular tours of it until the structure suffered a serious partial collapse during a storm on December 29, 2002, when a walkway connecting the concert hall and pavilion fell into the sea. On January 20, 2003 a further collapse saw the destruction of the concert hall in the middle of the pier. On 28 March, 2003 the pavilion at the end of the pier caught fire. Firefighters were unable to save the building from destruction because the collapsed walkway prevented them from reaching it. The cause of the fire remains unknown. On May 11, 2003, another fire broke out, consuming most of what was left of the concert hall. The Fire re-ignited on May 12. Arson was suspected: the West Pier Trust refers to the fires as the work of "professional arsonists". On June 23, 2004 high winds caused the middle of the pier to collapse completely.”
I would not only regularly see the old West Pier as I recently roved around the town, but a painting of its black iron at sunset dominated one wall of my hotel room at the cutely named Motel-Schmotel, and I started to wonder – especially amid the mixed emotions of leaving – whether I was indentifying with the ruin a little too intimately. If I really did venture a return to the haunts of my youth, and go back where I was so recently welcomed, will I really be able to cut as some ancient but surviving force with whom to be reckoned still, or would I be nothing more a short-lived relic, briefly lauded but then forgotten? I know, as I write, I am definitely suffering from that post-adventure, let-down, sadness, and am also understandably tired, and I don’t doubt that I will cowboy up soon enough and all will be well. But what would be the point of this forum if I didn’t, now and then, voice a fear of misgiving?
The secret word is Trepidation
Thursday, October 15, 2009
THE FAR SIDE OF DULCET
Well neighbors, I have finally landed in LA and my arms actually are tired, so I will probably be writing more later, but, in the meantime click here for the very first very ragged and very cacophonous video of our recent UK musical reunion, courtesy of our pal Rich on Facebook. Shown here are Russell Hunter on drums, Duncan Sanderson on bass, Slim Tim Slide on guitar, Judge Trev on guitar, Gregg McKella on clarinet and effects, Jaki Windmill on percussion and Honkin' Stu on blues harp. The ensemble is performing Song of the Hired Guns – the grand, nine-minute, everyone-thrash-away-while-I-rant-poetry finale -- and I rather regret the sound being considerably less dulcet that beating on a bucket, although I rather recall it being slightly more organised on the night. I hope other versions surface and maybe bear this out. If it helps any, here are the lyrics to the piece. (Which are also featured in my new collection of writings – Zones Of Chaos. (Scroll back to September 14th for deatails.)
WE HAVE TAKEN IT TO THE EDGE OF GRAVITY'S DEFILE
WE HAVE SHOT OUT RAINBOWS WITH OUR CANNON
WE HAVE WALKED WITH SPURS AND HARD NAILS
OVER THE CURVATURE OF PLANETS
AND MADE OUR MARK ON IRON MOUNTAINS
SO TELL US QUICKLY GREAT HERO
AND MAN WITH NO NAME
WHAT THE FUCK ARE WE SUPPOSED TO DO NOW?
WE HAVE MATCHED POCHEEN
AND DOUBLE SHOTS OF RAILROAD GIN
WITH NAZGUL OF THE NINTH INTERNATIONAL
AND TAKEN ABUSE
TO THE UPPER ECHELONS OF NAKED ART
WE HAVE BEEN AND SEEN
AND SPURNED THE DESIGN
ABANDONED THE PLAN
AND REJECTED THE PLEA BARGAIN
SO DO NOT LEAVE US HANGING
HERE IN THE DISCOLORED DARKNESS, DON VITO
FOR ARE WE NOT YOUR CHOSEN MEN?
WHAT THE FUCK ARE WE SUPPOSED TO DO NOW?
FROM SEWER AND CESSPOOL
TRAILER PARK AND HALF CROWN KNOCKING SHOP
FERAL AND FASTIDIOUS
WITH ONLY A BOTTLE OF PILLS BETWEEN US
SHARP SWORDS AND A FISTFUL OF DYNAMITE
SONGS OF VICTORY AND EXECUTION
WE HAVE DONE THE BIDDING OF ALL
AND THE WILL OF NONE
WE HAVE SACKED AND PILLAGED
IN THE CITIES OF THE RAVAGED NIGHT
BUT NEVER EXCEPT IDLY AND TEMPORARILY PROFITED
AND IT'S THE TIME TO CLUE US IN
DIVINE MARQUIS
FOR WE NEED TO KNOW
WHAT THE FUCK ARE WE SUPPOSED TO DO NOW?
WHAT THE FUCK ARE WE SUPPOSED TO DO NOW?
The secret word is Din
WE HAVE TAKEN IT TO THE EDGE OF GRAVITY'S DEFILE
WE HAVE SHOT OUT RAINBOWS WITH OUR CANNON
WE HAVE WALKED WITH SPURS AND HARD NAILS
OVER THE CURVATURE OF PLANETS
AND MADE OUR MARK ON IRON MOUNTAINS
SO TELL US QUICKLY GREAT HERO
AND MAN WITH NO NAME
WHAT THE FUCK ARE WE SUPPOSED TO DO NOW?
WE HAVE MATCHED POCHEEN
AND DOUBLE SHOTS OF RAILROAD GIN
WITH NAZGUL OF THE NINTH INTERNATIONAL
AND TAKEN ABUSE
TO THE UPPER ECHELONS OF NAKED ART
WE HAVE BEEN AND SEEN
AND SPURNED THE DESIGN
ABANDONED THE PLAN
AND REJECTED THE PLEA BARGAIN
SO DO NOT LEAVE US HANGING
HERE IN THE DISCOLORED DARKNESS, DON VITO
FOR ARE WE NOT YOUR CHOSEN MEN?
WHAT THE FUCK ARE WE SUPPOSED TO DO NOW?
FROM SEWER AND CESSPOOL
TRAILER PARK AND HALF CROWN KNOCKING SHOP
FERAL AND FASTIDIOUS
WITH ONLY A BOTTLE OF PILLS BETWEEN US
SHARP SWORDS AND A FISTFUL OF DYNAMITE
SONGS OF VICTORY AND EXECUTION
WE HAVE DONE THE BIDDING OF ALL
AND THE WILL OF NONE
WE HAVE SACKED AND PILLAGED
IN THE CITIES OF THE RAVAGED NIGHT
BUT NEVER EXCEPT IDLY AND TEMPORARILY PROFITED
AND IT'S THE TIME TO CLUE US IN
DIVINE MARQUIS
FOR WE NEED TO KNOW
WHAT THE FUCK ARE WE SUPPOSED TO DO NOW?
WHAT THE FUCK ARE WE SUPPOSED TO DO NOW?
The secret word is Din
Tuesday, October 06, 2009
IT’S SATURDAY NIGHT…
...and even though I say it myself, we rocked at this jam-packed, sold-out club in Brighton -- we being the legendary rythm section of Russell Hunter and Duncan Sanderson, the fine Tim Rundall on guitars, plus Judge Trev from the extended Hawkwind family, Jackie Windmill on extra percussion, Greg the electonics wiz and Steve on tenor. I understand that video and audio recordings will follow.
The secret word is Triumph
Sunday, September 27, 2009
OFF ON THE ROAD AGAIN
Yes, friends, I seem to be on my travels again and Doc40 may be a tad irregular for the next two weeks, although I will endeavor to send bulletins from my laptop as I go. There will also be a live poetry and music performance in Brighton, England on Saturday, October 3rd, with, I believe, some Pink Fairies and other homeboys joining me. I don't quite have the exact details of location and stuff, but maybe someone could post them as a comment, or I'll fill in the blanks later.
The secret words are Be Seeing You
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