Prototype For New Understanding #1

... by Brian Jungen. Currently at the Martian Museum of Terrestrial Art exhibition at the Barbican Art Gallery.

Not So Harmless

The folks over at Creation Science Evangelism are coming up with answers to some of those awkward questions that arise when you believe the bible is the word of God that must be taken literally.

So. How did marsupials get to Australia? Well, according to CSE, once Noah released the animals on Mount Ararat, natural instincts and climatic conditions determined how the redistribution of the animal population took place. An immediate consequence of the worldwide flood was a brief but severe ice age which locked ocean water into vast ice fields. This lowered ocean levels and created a land bridge to Australia.

Okaaaaaaaay... let me say a few things about the Koala. They are not travelling animals. The Koala has an unusually small brain. It rests motionless for about 18 to 20 hours a day, sleeping most of that time and lives almost entirely on eucalyptus leaves. And if things get a bit stressful they get chlamydia.

They did not hop off the ark in Northern Turkey and roam to New South Wales in a small herd eating a convenient trail of long-disappeared eucalyptus. With cock pox.

Here they are offering advice for someone with concern for her young niece being taught evolution in school:

Help, my niece is being taught evolution!

There are essentially two things that you can do from here. You can encourage the isolation of your niece, and get her out of that environment, or you can insulate her and prepare her for that environment. Isolation can be done through private Christian schooling, or even home schooling. Ministries like ours exist to help you insulate your children. Our desire is to get them ready to face this world and the things it will confront them with.

The CSE ministry was established in 1989 by Kent Hovind. In 2001 Hovind started Dinosaur Adventure Land, a young earth creationist theme park in Pensacola, Florida. The park depicts humans and dinosaurs co-existing in the last 4,000-6,000 years. According to the IRS, Hovind's theme park and merchandise sales earned more than $5 million USD from 1999 to March 2004.

Hovind is currently serving a ten-year term in Edgefield Federal Correctional Institution, South Carolina for 58 tax offenses, obstructing federal agents and related charges.

Phun

Ripping off of BoingBoing is only done in extreme circumstances -

Blistering Barnacles

Here's Charles Darwin in October 1852 coming to the end of his seven year study into the Barnacle:

I am at work at the second volume of the Cirripedia, of which creatures I am wonderully tired. I hate a Barnacle as no man ever did before...

If you happen to be about to purchase his first volume of the Cirripedia, beware:

My first volume is out; the only part worth looking at is on the sexes of Ibla and Scalpellum.

You have been warned.

Can you believe I walked past a shop offering a framed print of the above Tintin rocket. With the right amount of red wine, I'd say it's the greatest thing ever.

Sheep Worrier

If you've become a bit of a city boy or city girl I can recommend getting back to nature once in a while. You'll need to find a pub in the middle of nowhere with a total lack of street lighting. Roll up to the pub after a mile trek from wherever you're staying. After some drinks sitting outside you'll be driven inside by the insects. Roll out a good few pints later and it is dark. Pitch black outside.

Back in the city you could see the moon in the night sky. On the walk home from country pub you'll see the Milky Way. I think it's like this... our galaxy is a fried egg. From where we're at, look out at the kitchen ceiling and you're not going to see too many stars. Look into the yoke in the middle and you're going to be looking at a lot of stars. The upshot is, you get a band of stars across the sky.

Have a nice walk home. Hope you remembered your torch and don't worry any of the local farm animals... speaking of which, this laser will target over 10km, beam divergence 4 inches at 1km. Apparently.

Cosmic Motors

Daniel Simon now has a trailer for his Cosmic Motors book.

Genius Logo

2600: The Hacker Quarterly magazine's name comes from the discovery in the '60s that a plastic toy whistle that was given away free in boxes of Cap'n Crunch cereal could emit a tone at precisely 2600 hertz, the same frequency that was used by AT&T long lines to indicate that a trunk line was ready and available to route a new call. This would effectively disconnect one end of the trunk, allowing the still-connected side to enter an operator mode.

Anyway CCC2007 had a nice banner design, don't you think?

Mikrokopter

Check out this amazing video. The music is... different. Play it through your stereo at full volume in a dark room and flicker a desk lamp pointed at your face on and off. Well that's what it was like when I turned up to a Klaxons gig and saw Simian Mobile Disco when I was tired and sober.

Anyway, these are Mikrokopters - radio controlled quadrotors. They make use of 3-axis accelerometers and gyros to stabilized flight, and I2C serial bus motor control so it can respond quickly enough that it all works beautifully. The guys there have made it all open source and even provide a shop to buy the bits from.

Colour Coding

This is the Droid Sans Mono font and a Vibrant Ink colour scheme in Visual Studio. Makes me want to finish all the stupid programs I've started to write in C#. More info here.

It looks like they've come to the same setup that trillions of pounds spend on flight display systems has reached:

London 3D

Some nice work on a 3D London Tube map here.

Specialized Gone Sticker Crazy

For your viewing pleasure.

Survival Skills

Remember. When finding yourself in a survival situation, panic kills. Stop and think. The beer bottle opener is on the end there.

Whatever

Star Wars vs Liam Lynch mashup can be found in volume 6 here.

HDR

High Dynamic Range images involve taking more than one photo with different exposures. You combine them in a kind of best-bits-of-each way. Some results are breathtaking.

Biathlon News

Biathletes try to reduce their breathing and heart rate when shooting. Well, you can practise that skill right now.

Nowt for 5 Months. This Had Better Be Good.

Just too much to post. What could it be then? World's first artificial life form a step closer? No. It's... more carbon-laden bike stuff. Not particularly new either. There'll probably be some lycra clad lovely along soon.

Nothing changes you know.