Sewers of Babel : braineel

Virgin Galactic flights are expected to cost $190,000(£100,000) for a short flight to a sub-orbital height above the earth.

More on private space pursuits can be found here.

Also check out Cold Hard Flash a site dedicated to flash animations, the site has not only wonderful taste but also an eye to the developement of the flash medium.

Central to Himalayan religious beliefs is human transformation from negativity – nourished by ignorance, egotism and other personal demons – to spiritual liberation. Demonic Divine explores the ferocious deities believed to aid us in that journey, with over 50 works of art that span 600 years in one of Asia’s most remote cultural enclaves.

The exhibition also consists of the works of contemporary artists. Some of them have already gained recognition and their works can be found in decorative art museums and private collections. A few of the presented artists belong to artistic dynasties of Palekh and Kholui. They continue within their family traditions while searching for new expressive means and individual style. Thematically, the presented collection covers Russian fairy tales, both taken from the folk tradition and those written by such famous writers as Pushkin, Ershov, and Aksakov, epics, historical events, and religious motifs. In each of these literary translations, there is an almost magical ability of the artists to convey a story—whether simple or more complex—through narrative images that resonate with the viewer’s sense of beauty and poetic feeling.

I watched Chávez’s speech in the office of a public building. The secretaries were all cheering Chávez as he spoke the words. Later, a respected lawyer told me he didn’t see any difference between Bush’s designating countries and their leaders as part of the “axis of evil” and Chávez’s calling Bush a devil. A labor leader felt the talk was excellent and necessary.

Massive changes in where our hits are coming from due to our readers efforts we thank you. Here are some of the changes in who is reading Sewers of Babel:
I asked for more hits from Russia, we got that. I was very pleased to see regular traffic from Moscow, the spiritual center of that great nation. Tyumen, greetings, Izhevsk hello. The coastal regions of the U.S. have improved, and there has been some spread to the midwest. Hail to our new friends in Colorado Springs. Hail to everyone in the Great Lakes region. Hail to our growing readership in Pheonix, welcome. El Paso, Houston and New Orleans, we love you. We now have a regular reader in Beverly Hills, glad to have you. South American hits have become more regular as well, Santiago and Sao Paulo are new and have been consistent readers, welcome. Southeast Asia too have been rock solid for us with new and old hits coming from the region Jakarta Hello, Shanghai Hello, Beijing Hello Singapore hi hi, Hanoi hello. To our Australian and New Zealand audience a hearty wave. To all those I have not meantioned by name welcome welcome welcome. Portland folks holla.

I earnestly thank everyone who helped with this spread of the sewers meme now due to the wonderful gains, I am going to ask that everyone, our new veiwers included continue with this. I will make the analytics a regular part of my posts. So the challenge will continue and I will keep reporting on the spread of the sewers by the force of its viewers. Next Thursday I will post the map again. the challenge now is this look at the current map look for holes, think of where you have friends that migh appreciate what we do here that coincide with holes on today's map, notably Canada, Alaska, Iceland, Greenland (there has to be a researcher or two there), Egypt, spain, and the list goes on if you know people in these places send them our link and I will post the map again next thursday to see how we did.

I would Also like to say here that Sewers is an open dialogue site, share your thoughts or just give us a hello back. Comment on the articles or send us links you would like to see up interact. The world is troubled often by conversations that should but do not happen. Let us know about you

Good Night World.

Special thanks to all the folks over at Planeshift for your patronage

As Virtual worlds take more and more of the world's imagination blogs like this will more and more entertain and amuse us. [GM]Dave is a wry high horse type with an acerbic wit:

[GM]Dave>> Uh oh, sir.
[GM]Dave>> They're asking for another server?
Supervisor>> What for?
[GM]Dave>> They want a roleplaying-only server.
Supervisor>> It's a roleplaying game.
Supervisor>> They're all roleplaying servers.
[GM]Dave>> But, sir, you don't understand the gravity of the situation.
[GM]Dave>> They're making FORUM POSTS!
Supervisor>> Oh Christ.
Supervisor>> We'd better go to Best Buy right away.

Enjoy and Thanks to Karyuu for the link.

Blogging in China is increasing rapidly.

BEIJING, China (Reuters) -- The number of blog sites in China reached 34 million in August, a 30-fold increase from four years ago, state media said on Tuesday, despite a series of curbs on media and dissent.

China has more than 17 million people writing blogs (short for Web logs) and more than 75 million people reading them, Xinhua news agency said.

Here are some blogs on China by people from elsewhere. Here is a sight on business in china. Censorship in China is a major hurdle for anyone who would speak out against the Communist Party. But despite the many trials Chinese bloggers face They are pretty good at it.

Xu Jing Lei's Blog displaced Boing Boing a few months back from its long maintained hold on the #1 slot on Technorati, before Technorati was blocked by what is called the Great Firewall of China.

As I have said before, Learn Chinese.

According to a new study by NASA climatologists:

The study appears in the current issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, authored by James Hansen of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, N.Y. and colleagues from Columbia University, Sigma Space Partners, Inc., and the University of California at Santa Barbara (-UCSB-). The study concludes that, because of a rapid warming trend over the past 30 years, the Earth is now reaching and passing through the warmest levels in the current interglacial period, which has lasted nearly 12,000 years. This warming is forcing a migration of plant and animal species toward the poles.

Testimony given this month before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science, Subcommittee on Energy Hearing: The U.S. Department of Energy’s Plan for Climate Change Technology Programs includes:

Global climate change is real and likely caused mostly by human activities. While uncertainties remain, they cannot be used as an excuse for inaction.

Previously I commented on CNN's coverage of Chavez's speech. I was further saddened by Lou Dobbs' adding himself to the dissmissive diatribe against the statements of Chavez concerning imperialism and devil-like qualities of the W. Here is Chavez:

I'm quoting [George W. Bush], "Anywhere you look, you hear extremists telling you can escape from poverty and recover your dignity through violence, terror and martyrdom." Wherever he looks, he sees extremists. And you, my brother—he looks at your color, and he says, oh, there's an extremist. Evo Morales, the worthy president of Bolivia, looks like an extremist to him. The imperialists see extremists everywhere. It's not that we are extremists. It's that the world is waking up. It's waking up all over. And people are standing up.

What Chaves said in relation to Bush at the U.N. General Assembly strikes me as a moment of audacity that should be investigated and not dismissed out of hand. It is not as if Hugo Chavez does not have the power and capacity to effect the lives of the average U.S. citezen. A renegade president who dismisses the U.N. and undermines it at every turn would do well to hear the laughter on the floor, every person in the west should be aware that only an oblique reference to the devil elicited thoughts of George W. Bush. Our future ought be determined by dialogue, summarily dismissing an influential leader of a growing block of countries seems irresponsible to me. Bring everyone back to the table, discuss. Make deals, make peace. The same types of compromises that make the U.S. Constitution a viable excercise, need be thought of at this moment in history. Dialogue must be broadened across the spectrum, polemic is no longer acceptable. Perhaps I expect too much of Chavez and the rest of humanity, but I think I could work it out with a good talk. Chavez too is guilty of being incindiary and abrassive, alas. CNN Inform us why these people make these statements, tell us who laughed, and ask them why they did, report that.

In the latest study conducted by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, over 700 technology experts were asked to evaluate an assortment of scenarios in an attempt to determine potential trends for the year 2020. With responses from representatives of the World Wide Web Consortium, ICANN, the Association of Internet Researchers, and major corporations like Google and IBM, the report reflects the perceptions of "Internet pioneers," more than half of whom "were online before 1993."

notes on Self Reliance

There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better, for worse, as his portion; that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till.

Do not think the youth has no force, because he cannot speak to you and me. Hark! in the next room his voice is sufficiently clear and emphatic. It seems he knows how to speak to his contemporaries. Bashful or bold, then, he will know how to make us seniors very unnecessary.

my friend suggested, — "But these impulses may be from below, not from above." I replied, "They do not seem to me to be such; but if I am the Devil's child, I will live then from the Devil." No law can be sacred to me but that of my nature. Good and bad are but names very readily transferable to that or this; the only right is what is after my constitution, the only wrong what is against it. A man is to carry himself in the presence of all opposition, as if every thing were titular and ephemeral but he.

If I know your sect, I anticipate your argument. I hear a preacher announce for his text and topic the expediency of one of the institutions of his church. Do I not know beforehand that not possibly can he say a new and spontaneous word? Do I not know that, with all this ostentation of examining the grounds of the institution, he will do no such thing? Do I not know that he is pledged to himself not to look but at one side, — the permitted side, not as a man, but as a parish minister? He is a retained attorney, and these airs of the bench are the emptiest affectation. Well, most men have bound their eyes with one or another handkerchief, and attached themselves to some one of these communities of opinion. This conformity makes them not false in a few particulars, authors of a few lies, but false in all particulars.

I enjoy reminding myself to shake off whatever albatrosses I have hung around my neck once in a while; Emerson is handy for that.

Often working with larger than life sculptures of human models as well as perfectly scaled smaller than realistic human models his empathy driven works jar the eye and are quite moving. Ron Muecks is the son of toy-makers is australia and went on to work on human models for films, later moving to fine art.

Untitled (Head of a Baby)
Silicone, fibreglass resin, and mixed media

Opera In bed

Only by returning to the moon to carry out new scientific exploration can we hope to close the gaps in understanding and learn the secrets that the moon alone has kept for eons

Untitled, 2005

wanna see how big you will get?

“The Americans are masters at gathering intelligence, but they don’t know what to do with it”

Another great spy lost to eternity . . .

Some women were raped. We heard about this, but only those who are not married can talk about it. We believe that nobody can become pregnant when raped, because you cannot have a child from unwanted sex. The women in the camps in Darfur, those whom they rape day and night—they might become pregnant. Then only Allah can help the child to look like the mother. If an Arab child is born, this cannot be accepted.

It is cheap to get married now. You are lucky if you find somebody for your daughter to marry. And the age of the girls is going down—they are very young now. The families are happy to get rid of their daughters, especially in a refugee camp, where there is no control over the girls. Girls are more difficult because you have to take care of their honor, and they are more expensive. For boys you need only soap.
—M., a male refugee from Kenyu

For more quotes from refugees follow the title link.

Facebook caused a stir recently among its members by adding its "newsfeeds" feature. The link is to a wired article on the topic.

Unfortunately, Facebook can change the rules whenever it wants. Its Privacy Policy is 2,800 words long, and ends with a notice that it can change at any time. How many members ever read that policy, let alone read it regularly and check for changes?

Techdirt covers the potential sale of facebook at a whopping 1 billion

Wikipedia has some very damning facts on facebook too.

for fans of facebook:

The ULTIMATE Facebook guide

The dots are where we are currently getting daily hits and they are on the rise. Meme warrior that I am, I would very much like to see some hits coming from areas not currently covered. If you are currently one of our viewers I ask that you accept this challenge: Send the link for sewersofbabel.com to any friends you have in the areas we are not currently getting hits in. Canada, North Africa, Russia, Greenland, Alaska, South America, Hawaii and others. In one weeks time I will repost the map to show the results. Comment if you have ways to Improve traffic or just want to add your two cents.

I would like to express my dissappointment with CNN's coverage of the recent speeches made by the leaders of Iran and Venezuela. I am an absolute media whore, I am watching or have watched every major series put out by major media outlets for the last couple of years and watching CNN is a kind of perverse pleasure I have allowed myself for some time. My friends Kerinth included have expressed some alarm at the amount of time I give to CNN despite its looping repetition.

Tonight I was more dissappointed than I have ever been at CNN and specifically their coverage of today's speeches. while Bolton is calling Hugo Chavez's comments "comic book," and Condoleeza Rice concurs, what anyone on the floor of the U.N.(or listening to CNN's broadcast)can hear, Chavez's comments about the President of the United States elicited laughter from the general assembly. The fact that Chavez clearly struck a chord with the assembly by refering to Bush as the devil is evident in the fact that laughter errupted from the crowd, and that they knew of whom he was speaking before he said so points to a realistic and growing concern of Americans, that President Bush has undermined the U.N. and more certainly, the role of the U.S. in the U.N.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in his speech was largely concilliatory and avoided major points of contention yes when Anderson Cooper (son of Gloria Vanderbuilt) Interviewed him he focused on the fact that Ahmadinejad has stated that he diputes the veracity of the holocaust as a means of undermining him. Ahmadinejad made the rational argument that regarless of the holocaust the displacement of five million Palestinians was and is unjust. Cooper switched gears and moved to the next question. Wolf Blitzer too was dismissive of Ahmadinejad and Chavez, and followed the republican party line closely.

By way of comparison, Bill Clinton's views on Chavez's speech made more sense, he took a more moderate position and expressed his reservations about Chavez's speech in terms of regret that Chavez was not more cautious seeing Chavez's comments as unfortunate rather than comical. Clinton was not dismissive regardless.

If we were all to honestly weigh Bush's calling Iran and North Korea among others an, "Axis of Evil" or calling the conflict in the world now a "Crusade," (yes he apologized, but as we see with the current issue with the Pope, apologies are often not enough and no simple statement replaces a dialogue) how bad is it really that Bush should be called the devil in a relatively lighthearted fashion? Yes Chavez followed his jokes with some expected critique of the U.S. but then, was it irrational for him to do so?

To Wolf Blitzer and Anderson Cooper, I ask that you not be so overwhelmed by the magnitude of a day's guests that you lose focus, as I see it there are few media outlets even striving for objectivity today and seeing both of you mimic the dismissive response of Rice and Bolton saddens me. Some of what these human beings are saying is worth listening to. There is nothing wrong with Ahmadinejad calling for a debate with Bush, it is a conversation that might truly benifit the Middleeast and U.S. interests there. Isn't it possible the leaders here might like to see some engagement in person (and not perpetually through secondary agents) with the U.S. President?

North Korea and Iran pursuing nuclear programs, regarless of their statements {Seoul as a sea of flames, or Israel wiped of the map) concerning their neighbors in thier respective regions, are not irrational positions for their countries. Isn't it the case that nations seeking nuclear programs are really just seeking a seat at the adult's table in world affairs?

Generally I have been and will remain a fan of CNN and both Blitzer and Cooper, but this was not in my opinion your best night gentlemen.

I want it known I am a patriot and if that was not so I would not care enough to raise my voice at all.

The drawings section is wonderful, enjoy.

Free Art tool.

Absurd video game realeased by the Global Islamic Media Front.

I found this interesting too:

http://gamenews.wordpress.com/2006/09/16/%20%20%20
night-of-bush-capturing%20%20%20-%20%20%20
-a-computer-shooting-game-from-the-global-islamic-media-front/

Take a close look at that url, does it appear that this might have been shut down by wordpress? If you know comment.

What is a VNR? Do I watch them?

A video news release is:

A video news release (VNR) is a public relations whereby a video or radio program is produced, edited and distributed to various media outlets, with the intent to shape public opinion, or to promote and publicize individuals, commercial products and service; VNRs advocate a particular point of view, but give the impression of being objective, accountable news reporting and thus have also come to be known as "faux news" or "fake news", and is sometimes called a "propaganda technique".

The title of this article links to a recent report on the use of VNRs in regular news programming. It is much easier to produce these as news than to actually produce news stories.

Yes, if you watch television you watch VNRs, the problem is you are seldom informed you are watching them.

A 10-month study of just 36 video news releases turns up "98 separate instances" in which television newscasts used the publicity footage "without disclosure to viewers." Proof is provided of how 77 stations—which "collectively... reach more than half of the U.S. population"—broadcast VNRs

Along with product placement and various desperate measures the inundation of advertising is growing grotesque.

The Title link leads to a completely searchable online Shakespeare wonderful for those who must write about the Bard.

{links to technologynewsdaily)

AOL released user data recently and rapidly did a backstep and attempted to undo their mistake, far too late, as it had already become the meme of the day and got around quite well in interwebia:

Like one of the forest fires that each summer consumes a major chunk of California real estate, the AOL data release scandal has quickly exploded from a campfire into an inferno. Giving the search history of 650,000 users to researchers seemed like a good idea when Abdur Chowdhury first posted it, but the move quickly claimed Dr. Chowdhury's job, as well as that of a supervisor. Maureen Govern, the company's CTO, also resigned the same day.

Now the flames of controversy have spread into academia, where researchers desperately want to use the new data set but feel caught in an ethical dilemma. Given that AOL has already pulled the data, and given that it can be used to uniquely identify some individuals, should researchers refuse to use the data for their work?

Debate the Issue

FORT EUSTIS -- Months before the United States invaded Iraq in 2003, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld forbade military strategists from developing plans for securing a post-war Iraq, the retiring commander of the Army Transportation Corps said Thursday.

Officials from Cuba, North Korea, Iran, Syria, Venezuela, and 100 or more other countries are to meet in Cuba. Their reason for gatehering is to further define the term terrorism, and very likely to implicate U.S. foriegn policy as a major cause of the perpetuity of terrorist attacks. From the title link:

"I would not say that the draft has very strong elements ... They are simply the NAM principles of international law, principles contained in the UN Charter," Deputy Foreign Minister Moreno said this week. In a clear reference to the US, Moreno added that anyone who considers the draft too strong disagrees with the principles of international law.

Weighing in at this meeting:

North Korea

Kim Jong-il

Correction: Kim Jong Il sent a representative.

Iran

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Venezuela

Hugo Chavez

Syria

President Assad

Cuba

Fidel Castro

The “10 Most Challenged Books of 2005” reflect a range of themes. The books are:

* “It's Perfectly Normal” for homosexuality, nudity, sex education, religious viewpoint, abortion and being unsuited to age group;
* “Forever” by Judy Blume for sexual content and offensive language;
* “The Catcher in the Rye” by J.D. Salinger for sexual content, offensive language and being unsuited to age group;
* “The Chocolate War” by Robert Cormier for sexual content and offensive language;
* “Whale Talk” by Chris Crutcher for racism and offensive language;
* “Detour for Emmy” by Marilyn Reynolds for sexual content;
* “What My Mother Doesn't Know” by Sonya Sones for sexual content and being unsuited to age group;
* Captain Underpants series by Dav Pilkey for anti-family content, being unsuited to age group and violence;
* “Crazy Lady!” by Jane Leslie Conly for offensive language; and
* “It's So Amazing! A Book about Eggs, Sperm, Birth, Babies, and Families” by Robie H. Harris for sex education and sexual content.

The Pic is from Herbinator

The article asserts the truth that one can cook an egg with a cell phone. Howerver, In the link in the title leads to techdirt's article:

Over the past week, Slashdot, BoingBoing, Digg, and many others have posted a link to a article detailing how to cook an egg using two mobile phones. This story is a hoax. Over at Gelf Magazine, I talked with the article's author[. . .]

Hmmmm.

catch it in its infancy . . .

This is the work of Troy Paiva many many wonderful visions to be found on this site and his flickr

Believe it or not it has!

The face of the devil has changed.

The handsome well dressed devil of the past is no more. The devil is individuated in the devilish ability to shift forms according to one source:

Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.

To wit:

The devil of today wears the mask of a fool or a priest, but is neither. You will know the devil; you will tell the devil apart. The devil will wield intangible worms. Numbstruck minds will siphon raw image data repetition ad infinitum in the presence of the All Infectious meme of the powers of the air. Like Christ you will believe in the devil without touching the devil. There will be no room for doubt of the devil; the devil will be guarded always and need only wave a hand to obsfucate at will. The devil's many faces will fit awkwardly or righteously, but the devil will wield power over life and death. A higher purpose will follow the devil like a stink. A joke, or a cuteness, or a fall, will humanize the devil, but the devil stumbles not. This devil need not wear a certain garb, but must always posture.

The devil will be no great diplomat, but machination makers will press the devil; grave words will echo in all the mountains and valleys. The devil need not conspire to sin, but is sin itself. Fantastic acts of destruction will follow the devil, and rumors of even more fantastic ills will pervade. The devil will defy reason, and will not shrink in the presence of the objects of faith, niether will the devil recoil from graven images, nay the devil will weild them, moved or unmoved in the symbol's cause, the devil will reek of misplaced faith. The devil will reign nations to rise and draw the sun across the sky by the power of peoples, and ever will burn all on which the devil's eyes shall rest. The devil IS whether or not the devil thinks. The devil needs no gender or class or species or life form, but is and is and is. The devil needs only a vessel, absorb, or exist.

Link originally Via Lifehacker