Thursday, October 21, 2010

The Latest from Boing Boing

The Latest from Boing Boing

Link to Boing Boing

Geek Calendar: nerd-a-month pinups in support of English libel law reform

Posted: 21 Oct 2010 04:58 AM PDT

The Geek Calendar is a cavalcade of British nerdery, posed saucily, month after month, with proceeds going to English libel reform. It's part of the response to the chiropractic association's long attempt to shut down science writer Simon Singh with punishing litigation over his writing about the more outre claims made by some chiropractors.

Keat.Looi sez, "Jonathan Ross in costume in his shrine of comics, toys and gadgets; Professor Brian Cox and Gia Milinovich puzzling over how to fix their toaster; TV comic Chris Addison backstage, dreaming of space travel; tech journalist Aleks Krotoski smouldering in a sea of gadgets; writer Simon Singh reading his baby son a bedtime story of particle physics... These are among the scenes featured in the GEEK CALENDAR. And they are doing it for a very good cause: the reform of English libel laws."

Pictured here: a very winsome Dr Ben "Bad Science" Goldacre.

The Geek Calendar is here! (Thanks, Keat.Looi, via Submitterator)



Derren Brown's Confessions of a Conjuror: funny memoir is also a meditation on attention, theatrics and psychology

Posted: 21 Oct 2010 01:44 AM PDT

Mentalist/magician Derren Brown's new memoir, Confessions of a Conjuror, is a very odd sort of book. Technically, it's a kind of autobiography, but what it really is is a kind of meandering shaggy dog story that presents narrative in the same way that a great conjuror presents a trick.

Brown begins by recounting a night from the start of his career, when he was performing close-up table magic at a restaurant in Bristol. He recounts in eidetic detail his nervous thought processes as he begins his work for the night, conjuring up the scene with language. And then, just as you think he's about to tell you about the trick he performs, he veers off into a meandering story about the effect that the smell of pink industrial soap and blue ink has on him, taking him back to his unhappy school days. This seems to just be a kind of stalling trick, but when Brown returns to the present day, you find that the anaecdote has a purpose, that it explains the way he approaches the performance he is about to give.

The description of the performance inches forward, and then, again, Brown wanders off the road to explore the hedges, more stories about his boyhood, about his personal habits, about the things he hates about himself, about his little compulsions, about his work habits. And so the story inches along, pushing forward just a nudge on the trick in the restaurant, then going for a long stroll around memory lane, and these asides take over the book, and they develop their own asides, in the form of sprawling, multi-page footnotes, and so forth, but each time you pop up one layer through the narrative, you discover that you've been informed of something vital to understanding the layer above it.

Brown is explaining how misdirection, attention, social dynamics, and dexterity combine to make a baffling effect out of a set of finger gymnastics. He's trying to unpick the thing that makes magic work -- and to explain why audiences and conjurors put up with one another, and even seek each other out. Along the way, he is, by turns, funny, gross, embarrassing, informative, thought-provoking, and even infuriating. It's not so much a story as a performance on paper, and it's told with great showman's instincts. What's more, even the most seemingly self-indulgent material (a detailed explanation of Brown's career in nose-picking, for example) pays off eventually.

It's a lovely kind of magic trick in book form -- the kind of thing that shows you exactly how it's done, but manages to amaze, anyway. Brown is one of my favorite magic performers, ranking with Penn and Teller in my view, and the experience of reading Confessions is, improbably and wonderfully, much like going to a Brown stage show.

There's an unabridged audio edition coming out on Oct 28 as well -- read by Brown, which should be a treat, as he has a great stage voice, and I can imagine he'd be great narrating this material.

Confessions of a Conjuror



Squid suit

Posted: 21 Oct 2010 01:39 AM PDT

Canadian gov't scientists protest gag order, go straight to public with own website

Posted: 20 Oct 2010 10:14 PM PDT

Alan sez, "It looks like the Canadian government is making life harder for scientists who want to talk to the media about their work. Presumably the science is inconvenient for those in power. In response, the scientists' union has put up a web site to inform the public directly."

Canada's Tory government is notoriously hostile to science (especially climate science, which poses an existential threat to their power base in the planet-killing tar-sands). But a state-imposed gag-order on scientists, putting their ability to communicate to the press in the hands of petty bureaucrats, is beyond the pale even for them. Why is it that so many "small government neocons" love big government solutions to their embarrassing little problems?


"Federal government scientists work hard to protect Canadians, preserve their environment and ensure our country's prosperity but they face dwindling resources and confusing policy decisions," institute president Gary Corbett said in a release.

The website features interviews with the professionals who do science for the public good, experts who understand the critical importance of this work, and Canadians whose lives have been touched by public science. It is part of a broader campaign to underline the importance of science for the public good and to mobilize scientists and citizens to press politicians to make a clear commitment to policies that support public science.

"Our members are proud of the work that they do as independent and non-partisan scientists and we are going to work with them to tell their stories," Mr. Corbett said. "Their work impacts on the daily lives of Canadians. It is science that is not and cannot be done by industry or by universities."

Federal scientists go public in face of restrictive media rules (Thanks, Alan!)


Virginia school AP History class bans curiousity, independent study, Internet

Posted: 20 Oct 2010 10:08 PM PDT

Fairfax County, VA's Westfield High has a curious set of requirements in three of its AP History class:
"You are only allowed to use your OWN knowledge, your OWN class notes, class handouts, your OWN class homework, or The Earth and Its Peoples textbook to complete assignments and assessments UNLESS specifically informed otherwise by your instructor.''

That was not all. Students could not use anything they found on the Internet. They were not permitted even to discuss their assignments with friends, classmates, neighbors, parents, relatives or siblings.

What about complete strangers? The teachers had thought of that. "You may not discuss/mention/chat/hand signal/smoke signal/Facebook/IM/text/email to a complete stranger ANY answers/ideas/questions/thoughts/opinions/hints/instructions." The words were playful, but the teachers were serious. Any violations, they said, would mean a zero on the assignment and an honor code referral.

Fundamentally, these teachers have prohibited doing any kind of outside work, having any productive discussion with your friends and family that might connect the history you're learning with the world you're living in. They have reduced education to absorbing and regurgitating a specific set of facts, divorcing it from any kind of critical thinking, synthesis, or intellectual rigor.

Parents have complained to the principal, who "will decide soon whether these rules are okay."

Curiosity is banned at Westfield High (Thanks, Promethean Sky, via Submitterator!)



If the nunchucks are rockin', don't come knockin'

Posted: 20 Oct 2010 09:30 PM PDT

All I need to know about the Rent is Too DAMN High Party guy (noted earlier by Rob, and remixed here): "Mr. McMillan declined to show the apartment, saying he feared for his neighbors' safety, and fielded questions from the driver's seat of his parked graphite-colored Honda CR-V, which is also his mobile office. When he travels, he sleeps in it, too; in the back were a sleeping bag, a bottle of Scope Original Mint mouthwash and a pair of nunchucks he keeps in a seat-back pocket." New York Times.

Moment of ad zen: Elvira vs. Christine O'Donnell

Posted: 20 Oct 2010 09:06 PM PDT

Boing Boing reader Walt Stabosz received an oddly contextual ad while reading yesterday's item about Elvira's remake of the Christine O'Donnell "I'm not a witch" ad. We've alerted our ad network partner, by the way, and it should be removed shortly. (via Submitterator)

Robotic sign wavers: $1,595

Posted: 20 Oct 2010 08:57 PM PDT

Sign-Waver

The stuff of nightmares. Be sure to watch the video at the site for full effect.

We offer you a unique, cost effective way of grabbing the attention of passing motorists, bringing you potential customers. Your motorized mannequin will wave your message cheerfully all day, with NO breaks in the action. These fully self-contained mannequins are engineered with industrial products for years of service.

You may select your robot from a variety of standard characters or specify your own mascot or costume. Also available are models with lighting and music or voice messages.

Robotic sign wavers (Thanks, Gary!)

T-shirts of vintage book covers

Posted: 20 Oct 2010 12:49 PM PDT

V Vspfiles Photos B-1018-3T V Vspfiles Photos B-1005-2
Out of Print sells t-shirts emblazoned with iconic or vintage book covers like Death of a Salesman, Animal Farm, Walden, Moby Dick, Fahrenheit 451, and a slew of others. My two faves are above, from the 1936 first edition of Brave New World and the Corgi UK cover of WSB's "The Naked Lunch." For every shirt sold, one book is send to a child in Africa through their charity partner Books For Africa. Out Of Print founder Todd Lawton tells me, "In October 2010, we fully sponsored and sent a 40-foot sea container (560 boxes) of donated text and library books to be distributed to schools and libraries in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania." Shirts are available in men's, women's, and kid's sizes.

Out Of Print clothing

King Arthur Dough Whisk

Posted: 20 Oct 2010 12:57 PM PDT

Dough Whisk -1.jpeg

I've been using this dough whisk for about six months. Bread and biscuits are my favorite things to bake and I try to do as much by hand as possible because it's a nice contrast to my everyday work that's spent in front of a computer.

One part of the job I didn't enjoy was the mixing of the dough, especially at first when it gets all gummed up on the spoon, spatula or anything else you might try to use. Then, after the dough comes together, it doesn't seem as if you're mixing the ingredients so much as pushing a big ball around the inside of the bowl.

I'd seen the dough whisk in the King Arthur catalog for years and never ordered it because I thought the wire part looked a bit fragile. I finally decided to give one a try on the theory I could always send it back if I didn't like it.

I'm never sending it back.

The whisk's wire is extremely stiff and I've yet to encounter a dough that it doesn't slice through with ease. I don't know how much thought went into the twists of the wire, but it's amazingly efficient at bringing a dough together. I did a double batch a couple of weeks ago and I was worried that I might have given it more than it could handle, but it took no more effort than a smaller batch.

Clean up is a breeze. Only a little bit of dough adheres to the wire and that's easy to dislodge with a wipe of the fingers. After I'm finished with it, it goes into the dishwasher.

I have the large model and I'm going to get the smaller one the next time I put in an order so I can use it in smaller mixing bowls. I suspect that once I have the smaller one I'll never have to order another unless it's for a gift.

I ordered mine from the King Arthur catalog because that's where I first saw them and I like the company. I've seen similar-looking items on Amazon for a few dollars less, but I don't know how well they're constructed. The ones from King Arthur have their logo on the wooden handles and feel very, very sturdy.

-- Tom Streeter

King Arthur Dough Whisk
$15

Available from and manufactured by King Arthur

Comment on this at Cool Tools. Or, submit a tool!

Sneak peek at the new MacBook Air (11 and 13-inch models)

Posted: 20 Oct 2010 09:11 PM PDT


Left: the 11-inch model; Right: the 13-inch model.

Xeni's at Apple headquarters in Cupertino today liveblogging today's hardware and software announcements. In this post, an early look at the new, thinner, lighter MacBook Airs. Her snapshots follow, and details on the devices here. (Update: view the snapper in action in photo #11 of this AP photo series.)

The 13-inch model is unibody aluminum housing, and weighs 2.9 lbs. At its thickest point, it's .68 inches; at its thinnest, .11 inches. A 13.3-inch LED backlit display offers 1440 x 900 resolution. No optical hard drive: flash, with virtually instant power-on, speeds said to be up to 2X faster. Battery life 7 hours on with wireless internet on, and a standby duration of 30 days. Two USB ports (prior models had only one), and an SD card reader.

As Steve Jobs said, it has "a little brother"—the new, smaller 11.6-inch model MacBook Air offers 1366 x 768 resolution, weighs 2.3 lbs, and also has two USB ports , but lacks an SD reader.

Pricing: the lowest end of the spectrum is $999 for an 11-inch with 64GB of storage. At the highest end, $1,599 for the 13.3-inch model with 256GB. Both sizes, at various configurations of storage and processor speed, are available today for online orders. Boing Boing's Rob Beschizza attempted to purchase one at an Apple store in person, and was told they wouldn't be available at that Apple location for a few weeks. Your mileage may vary.


The smaller of the two new Airs, stacked on top of the larger of the two models.


Left: the 11-inch model; Right: the 13-inch model.


Detail, showing the narrower edge of both Airs. The 11-inch is stacked on top of the 13-inch.


The smaller of the two new Airs, stacked on top of the larger of the two models.


Left: The 13-inch. Right: the 11-inch.






The 11-inch, in profile.



Both models, side by side.




11-inch Air, showing reflective (non-matte) screen.



13-inch Air, open to the new version of iPhoto.

Small World 2010 photomicrography winners

Posted: 20 Oct 2010 11:56 AM PDT

Images Gallery2010 Fullsize 17961 1 King
Above is a mosquito heart, at a magnification of 100x. Biologist Jonas King, of Vanderbilt University, used fluorescence to make this stunning example of photomicrography. King's photo landed first place this year in Nikon's annual Small World competition. All of the winners are absolutely stunning. Small World gallery, 2010

Robots replacing middle class jobs?

Posted: 20 Oct 2010 01:11 PM PDT

If the middle class is disappearing, who will do all that work? Robots? That's the question posed by GOOD editor Andrew Price in his article titled "Automation Insurance." From GOOD (illustration by Jennifer Daniel):
Posts Post Full 1286994086Middle-Class-Robot Economists will remind you that new technologies create new jobs as they destroy old ones. That's true. When you have robots, you need robotics engineers. But those aren't going to be mid-range jobs.

On the low end of the spectrum, we have physical jobs that we can't automate yet (yard work, for example). On the high end of the spectrum, we have creative and cognitive jobs that we can't automate yet (law and management, for example). But as technology advances, and it certainly will, more people are going to be elbowed out of the workforce.

We may be heading toward a future with plentiful high-end jobs and plentiful low-end jobs, and not much in the middle.

"Automation Insurance: Robots Are Replacing Middle Class Jobs"

Mark Ryden's new lithographic poster for sale tomorrow

Posted: 20 Oct 2010 12:04 PM PDT

Lgview Mark Ryden's masterful "The Tree of Life" painting will be part of "The Artist's Museum: Los Angeles Artists 1980-2010" large group show opening next week at Los Angeles's Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA). In celebration, Mark is releasing a limited lithographic poster of the painting starting tomorrow (10/21) at 8am PT. There are 500 signed, numbered, and embossed 38-1/2" x 26" posters available online for $500/each. I expect that they will be gone faster than you can say Abe Lincoln. Mark Ryden's "The Tree of Life" lithograph

Woman who dumped cat into garbage can is fined

Posted: 20 Oct 2010 10:26 AM PDT


Mary "It's just a cat" Bale who was caught on video dropping a cat into a trash bin received her punishment today in court: a £250 fine. From The Guardian:
Sys-Images Guardian About General 2010 10 19 1287481505716 Mary-Bale-Case-006 Bale, who appeared close to tears in court and admitted a charge of causing unnecessary suffering to an animal, was spared the maximum penalty of six months in prison or a £20,000 fine as the district judge Caroline Goulborn acknowledged the "vilification" she had suffered.

The judge also accepted that Bale was in a "stressful situation" at the time, but said that was "no excuse for what you did".

"It clearly was an irrational and impulsive act that you could not explain and in interview you said that you were mortified. I accept that your remorse is genuine," the judge said. "The media interest in this case has resulted in you being vilified in some quarters and I have taken that into account also."

Bale was fined £250 but was also ordered to pay a victim surcharge and costs, a total of £1,436.04. The RSPCA called it "a very fair decision".

Banned from keeping or owning animals for the next five years, Bale may find her infamy takes as long to fade. After a period signed off work for depression, she has now resigned from her job, unable to face her colleagues again.

"Cat bin woman Mary Bale fined £250"

Apple event: "Back to the Mac" with Lion, iLife refresh, and 2 new MacBook Airs

Posted: 20 Oct 2010 09:18 PM PDT

Xeni's in Cupertino this morning for Apple's "Back to the Mac" press event. Live coverage here, updated as the event progresses. The company is set to reveal the next iteration of its operating system, which is expected to be named "Lion," but what else? Follow the live video feed here.

Related: Sneak peek at the MacBook Airs unveiled today is here (PHOTO GALLERY).

Steve Jobs introduces COO Tim Cook, who discusses growth of Mac market. Mac share in retail in US is now over 20%, he says, meaning that roughly one in 5 PCs sold retail in the US is now a Mac. Cook describes the success of developer base growth, including Valve and Autodesk, and Microsoft. Cook then says that consumer satisfaction is helping to fuel the "Mac Momentum": American Customer Satisfaction index rates Mac #1 in consumer satisfaction, Consumer Reports rates it #1 in customer support. Apple stores sold 2.8 million Macs last year, and 50% of those were new customers. 318 stores in 11 countries. "The momentum on the Macintosh has never been more."

Steve Jobs returns and announces the launch of iLife 11. iPhoto will include new full-scren modes, Facebook and social networking integration, "big leap in books," letterpress cards, other new enhancements.

Phil Schiller, SVP, demos iPhoto 11: walks us through new slideshow features, automated mapping of photos within an album (geotagging images, displaying on map), dropping "postcards" of photos from a collection into an email without leaving the app. Demonstrates Facebook integration: within iPhoto, you can view feedback from your Facebook friends on your photos, and tag Facebook contacts within iPhoto. Schiller shows us how you'll now be able to digitally print your pics from iPhoto in the form of improved physical books and new letterpress cards. "All your projects together in one place," says Steve. (Letterpress for the masses!)

Steve takes the stage to introduce iMovie 11.

"The number one request we got after the last release was for better audio editing." That's in the new edition, along with new features including a "people finder," one-step effects, and movie trailer templates. Demo follows from Randy Ubillos, Chief Architect for video.

Audio editing tools look more sophisticated than the earlier version -- waveforms can be manipulated more precisely, and drag-and-drop audio effects to cheese up your home movies. Easier addition of video effects: formerly complex tasks are reduced to "just a couple of clicks."

Movie trailer template looks fun... create a new project, outline with "Movie" name, cast names, list your directors of photography and casting, pick a studio name and logo style, then it grabs names and creates a trailer that looks like the real Hollywood deal. (Think: Christmas 2011, starring MOM!) "Full symphony behind your movies, we went to Abbey Road studios with a full orchestra."


Rob Beschizza, who's following the live webcast, observes the iMovie demo and says

This stuff is neat. It's funny to see movie making cliches made so 'available' in $100 software. Apple's quest is to make very home video indistinguishable from a 1990s Roland Emmerich blockbuster unless you know about lensess.

People finder is a very interesting addition: as you're selecting clips, you can choose shots based on whether there are people in them. Action, group, or "medium," for instance -- find shots with human beings. Want a close-up shot of Linda? Nicolas? Add a one-person keyword, find a one-shot of that person up close.

Rob:

Welcome to a new era of ghetto shallow depth of field. Tilt shift on the puppy! Speaking of shallow dof, see it on that lady? That footage isn't home video. [snort]. Easy to show this stuff off when your kayaking trip was shot on rented RED.

Jobs returns to introduce Garage Band 11, and hits bullet points on new features: "Flex Time, Groove Matching, more guitar amps and effects, new piano and guitar lessons, including a feature called 'How did i play?" He introduces Xander Soren, Product Marketing.

[Xeni: it better include Auto-Tune.]

Soren walks us through how to use multi-track rhythm correction tools to make a multi-track recording of a bad garage band sound pretty good, aligning rhythm of each track using a "human rhythm," groove matching. "Kind of like an automatic spell-checker for bad rhythm."

If a particular track is too short, let's say a guitar chord that ends abruptly, you can now stretch it out: "Flex Time."

Soren demos music instruction tutorials, starting with a Mozart minuet. The instructor gives you a step-by-step, note-by-note breakdown with what finger to use at what position on the keyboard. When you're ready to play, move to the "play" chapter, and then check out the "how do I play" feature to evaluate your progress.

An engineer named Gerhard plays, against the background of a symphony orchestra from Vienna within the Garage Band 11 app, to demo the "play/evaluate" portions. He deliberately screws up to show us where timing or notes are off. The timeline now shows us in red, green, and yellow bands where he screwed up, and "where he rocked it." Every time you complete a performance, Garage Band keeps track of your history and builds a chart to show your progress over time. Works with piano, but also guitar.

Steve returns. 5 million people now using Garage Band.

Steve: iLife 11 available today, $49 to upgrade.

Next up: FaceTime.

Jobs: Introduced FaceTime in June on the iPhone4, have since shipped 19 million devices with FaceTime. What could be better? Number one request: please, FaceTime between these devices and the Mac. Now, adding that with FaceTime for the Mac. Pick a contact, click on them, and initiate a call. Mac, iPod Touch, iPhone 4. Let's do a demo.


Jobs initiates a call with Phil Schiller from his Mac. Schiller's on his iPhone 4, can switch mode from vertical to landscape easily. Jobs: "Now, tens of millions of Mac users can interface with iPhone 4 users and iPod Touches."


Beta release out today. Go to Apple.com, run it on your Mac, start FaceTime calling with over 19 million users on iPhone 4 and iPod Touch.


"Next up, the entree... where we're going with MacOS10."


We've done 7 releases [Cheetah, Puma, Jaguar, Panther, Tiger, Leopard, Snow Leopard.] Today, we are going to give you a preview of the 8th major version of MacOS10, and we call it Lion.


Jobs: :What we like to do is -- we're inspired by some of the innovations in the iPad and iPhone, and we'd like to bring them back to the Mac. Mac OS10 meets the iPad.


Multitouch gestures are important on the iPad, and we think it can be important on the Mac, too."


"And the App store has revolutionized how people get their app, and how people interact with them, all on the home screen. Full screen apps can be really great, as the iPad showed us. And apps on the iPad auto-save. It's one less thing to worry about. And when you relaunch them, they resume, they automatically come up where you left them. This is how we've been inspired by iOS, and we want to bring that to the Mac."


Touch: "Touch surfaces don't want to be vertical. After an extended period of time, your arm wants to fall off. Touch surfaces want to be horizontal. Hence, pads."


"Our trackpads are the best way we've found to get multitouch on the Notebook. This is how we're going to use multitouch on our Mac products, because this [vertical gesture] does not work."


"The App store has been phenomenally successful: 7 Billion downloads from the app store. As part of Lion, we're going to have a Mac App Store."


"One-click downloads, 70/30 revenue split for developers, free and paid apps, automatic installation and automatic updates. The apps will be licensed for use on all your personal Macs."


"When you get your apps, you're going to have one place to put them: the launch pad."


BUT THERE'S ONE MORE THING...


Mission Control: view everything running on your Mac all at one glance, navigate anywhere. Introduces Craigh Federighi, VP. [Xeni: The Mission Control demo is REALLY fast, wonder if the software is all that great, or if he's using a crazy screaming SSD?]


Steve returns: "App Store, launching apps with Launch PAd, Move between fullscreen apps then moving back to your windows, Mission Control... our plan is to release Lion in Summer of 2011."


"But we've decided we'll put out the Mac App store on Snow Leopard and open it within 90 days. Developers can learn all about it today. Accepting app submissions from developers in November."


Steve recaps: "Macs are a $22 billion dollar business... retail market share tops 20%... we couldn't be happier with our stores, bringing new people into the Mac tent... iLife 11... FaceTime on Mac... Lion...


ONE MORE THING....

BACK TO THE MAC...

Steve references a "virtuous circle" of iOS and Mac OS 10... benefit in hardware, too... "What would happen if a MacBook met an iPad? Instant on... great battery life... amazing standby time..."

"Solid state storage, no optical or hard drives, thinner and lighter, even more mobile... these are great for notebooks. What would happen if a MacBook and an iPad hooked up?"

This is the result. One of the most amazing things we've ever created. MacBook Air. We think it's the future of notebooks.

"It's amazingly thin, at its thickest point it's .68 inches thin, and tapers down to a tenth of an inch. Weighs 2.9 pounds."

"Complete aluminum unibody construction. Fullsize keyboard, full trackpad. 13.3 inch LED backlit display. 1440 x 900 pixels. More pixels than on the 15 inch MBP. Core 2 Duo processor. Great graphics, INVIDIA GeForce320M. FaceTime camera. No Optical Drive. No Hard Drive.

"We have gone to flash storage, complete solid state storage. Why? It's up to 2x faster than hard drives. Much more reliable, especially in a mobile environment. up to 90% smaller and lighter, completely silent operation."

"Apple is the largest user of flash memory in the world. We know a lot about SSD. Battery life: Wireless Web 7 hours, standby time is 30 days."

"It has a younger brother. In addition to the 13.3 inch, an 11.6 inch, even smaller and lighter. 2.3 pounds. "

"We're going to start off the pricing at just $999."

11.6-inch, 1.4GHz + 64 gig = $999

11.6-inch + 128 gig = $1099

13.3-inch 1.4GHz + 128GB = $1299


13.3-inch 1.86 GHz + 256 GB = $1599



All available starting today.

Death holds no sting: new studies on effects of psychedelics

Posted: 20 Oct 2010 10:26 AM PDT

201010200946 After decades consigned to research limbo, scientific studies of the very interesting effects of psychedelics on human consciousness are back in vogue.

On 19 July 2010 the prestigious Journal of Psychopharmacology reported the results of the first randomized controlled trial into the therapeutic potential of the "party drug" Ecstasy for victims of post-traumatic stress disorder. The trial showed the drug to be remarkably effective in treating PTSD. Soon afterwards, on 31 August, 2010, the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies was granted a license by the US Drug Enforcement Administration to conduct a new and extended study in which Ecstasy will be given to war veterans with PTSD. Also around the end of August 2010, Charles Grob MD, a professor of psychiatry at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, reported the results of administering psilocybin -- the active ingredient in magic mushrooms -- to patients suffering from terminal cancers. Grob found that the drug induced a "peaceful and blissful" state of oneness with oneself and the cosmos and notes: "these spiritually oriented altered states ... potentially allow patients to have an abrupt shift of consciousness from being scared about dying and feeling their life is over ... It was quite remarkable to me to see changes in these people who were very anxious and in distress and to see how they got better."

In the 1970s and 1980s the mentality of the "War on Drugs" ensured that no research was done with psychedelics at all. The twenty year hiatus was ended in 1990 by Rick Strassman MD, a professor of psychiatry at the University of New Mexico, who conducted a DEA-approved study administering the powerful hallucinogen DMT (dimethyltryptamine) to human volunteers. At the end of the study, five years later, nearly all the volunteers reported that the DMT sessions had been amongst the most profound experiences of their lives. Intriguingly around 80 per cent also reported that DMT had transported their consciousness to seamlessly convincing parallel realms where they encountered and received teachings from intelligent non-human beings. In a number of cases the beings (sometimes construed as "aliens", sometimes as "spirits", sometimes as "angels", sometimes even as "elves" or fairies") stated they were pleased the volunteers had discovered "this technology" -- i.e. DMT -- since they would now be able to communicate with them more easily!

Strassman admits to being "baffled and nonplussed" during his DMT research by the: "surprising and remarkable consistencies among volunteers' reports of contact with nonmaterial beings ... [in an] 'alien' realm ... or high-technology room. The highly-intelligent beings of this 'other' world are interested in the subject, seemingly ready for his or her arrival and wasting no time in 'getting to work' ... They ... communicated with the volunteers, attempting to convey information by gestures, telepathy, or visual images. The purpose of contact was uncertain, but several subjects felt a benevolent attempt on the beings' part to improve us individually or as a race."

One of the reasons that Strassman eventually stopped his research in 1995 was because he "could not comfortably accept, nor incorporate the remarkably high frequency of being contact." That, however, was precisely what interested me about his discoveries. Indeed, after a career built around writing controversial non-fiction investigations of historical mysteries, I realized that I had finally come upon a subject so extraordinary, and so potentially paradigm-busting that it could only properly be handled in a work of science fiction.

The result is my first novel -- Entangled: The Eater of Souls. The two heroines, Leoni who lives in twenty-first century Los Angeles and Ria who lives twenty-four thousand years ago in the Stone Age, are "entangled" in the quantum physics sense. Brought together in a parallel realm outside the flow of earth time by a supernatural being, the Blue Angel, they are taught to use psychedelics to induce altered states of consciousness, make contact with one another, and ultimately to confront and do battle with a time-traveling demon who seeks to destroy all that is good in humanity.

A prevailing prejudice of modern society, a hangover from the darkest days of the War on Drugs, is that the "hallucinations" induced by psychedelics cannot possibly be "real" or significant experiences in any sense but are mere artifacts of disturbed brain function. However, one of the important lessons I've learnt from the research underlying Entangled is that nothing in science allows us to reduce "hallucinations" to the altered electro-chemistry of the brain that accompanies them -- any more than sightings of distant stars can be reduced to the workings of the telescope used to bring them into focus.

To explain this analogy a little further, it should be obvious that when we focus a telescope physical changes take place in the relationship between the lenses inside its barrel. We would however, be wrong to state that those changes are the star that eventually comes into view. Quite the contrary -- the star is a real object and the physical changes inside the barrel of the telescope simply allow us to see it.

The work of Rick Strassman with DMT, and of Albert Hofmann (the discoverer of LSD), as well as the recent findings with Ecstasy and psilocybin, suggest the need for a new model of how the brain works -- not simply as a generator of consciousness but as a receiver of consciousness. According to this radical new model, but deploying a slightly different analogy, the brain is like a TV set that is "hardwired" into the single "channel" of everyday physical reality -- Rick Strassman calls it "channel normal." What psychedelics may do when used and administered properly is "retune the receiver wavelength of the brain," thus providing us with regular, repeated, reliable access to other levels of reality that surround us at all times but are not normally accessible to our senses. It is even possible that these long-reviled drugs open a secret doorway inside our own minds allowing us to approach the Holy Grail of quantum physics -- freestanding parallel universes and the intelligent beings who inhabit them.

If that is so then the ability of psilocybin to release terminal cancer patients from their fear of death through "an abrupt change of consciousness" makes perfect sense -- for they would know from direct experience that even when the television set is broken the television signal keeps right on broadcasting.

Links:

Buy Entangled on Amazon

Can psychedelic drugs treat depression?

Can the peace drug clean up the war mess?

Ecstasy Shows Promise in Relieving PTSD

A sign even Ian Curtis would find funny

Posted: 20 Oct 2010 11:21 AM PDT

Last week, I posted about a New Order song. OK, I guess, but wouldn't a matrimonial law firm named after the band that yielded New Order be even better? (Hat tip: 33 1/3)

Jacques Vallee's Stating The Obvious: I, Product

Posted: 20 Oct 2010 09:18 AM PDT

Photos Uncategorized 2008 02 21 Barcode 2 You may think of yourself as a user of Google, Facebook or Amazon, but you are actually their product.

Sure, Google will provide you with search results, but they are not in the search business; they are in the advertising business. Their profits come from marketing firms that buy your behavior.

Similarly, Amazon is not in the book business, although they will send you the books you've ordered. They are in the personal information business.

The assets of modern web-based companies are the intimate profiles of those who "use" them, like you and me. Time to forget the nice pronouncements like "Do no evil" that accompany the wholesale destruction of privacy now taking place on the web, or rather within the walled gardens that companies like Facebook, Google and Apple are erecting around us on the web. Compared to them, the Chinese censors re-inventing their Great Wall are a bunch of sissies.

Any smart CEO would kill to have a product like you that doesn't cost anything and keeps renewing itself indefinitely so it can be sold and resold and resold to many different customers.


Well, who cares? Look at what we've gained: We now have access to unprecedented new riches. Movies and songs by the thousands; new "friends" by the hundreds; timely pieces of data by the millions. Our lives have become richer, more intelligent, more interesting.


The world moves on. You may have had privacy rights as a customer or a user but what makes you think you should retain those rights now that you're just a product?


The privacy we once thought was so vital: where we live, who we vote for, what we eat, what God we believe in, who we go to bed with, turns out to have been a myth, an unimportant detail in our lives. Whoever wrote the Constitution in an effort to protect it (a fact now disputed by some legal experts) was sorely out to touch with technology and ignorant of life's true values.


Or was he?


What does it mean to live in a world where the behavior of an entire population can be accurately mapped from minute to minute? A world where Procter & Gamble knows exactly what kind of toothpaste I use (and when I can be expected to run out) but also a world where government planners and politicians can subscribe to data flows from datamining experts to engineer finely-tuned programs of mass manipulation? A world where whole new social, political or religious "memes" can be injected into the culture to mold it into new forms?


People used to be up in arms when local authorities put fluoride into the water supply to strengthen kids' teeth but very few object to intelligence agencies experimenting with massive social engineering intrusions into the flow of ideas on social networks.


On a personal basis, do we really want our lives to be conditioned by an information environment that seems to expand to infinity but actually closes in around us? It closes in because we can only buy songs and "apps" from the censored files of iTunes; because all our relationships with the people we love or engage in business have been posted online for our convenience; because the very smart phone we now carry everywhere is busy filing ads filtered by sophisticated agencies to reflect our tastes; because our bank has shared our financial data with all its "affiliates:" thousands of insurance, real estate, brokerage and media firms. Like good magicians, they have mastered the art of misdirection.


Have you ever tried to "opt out" of that system to find out what lies beyond its boundaries?


In this new world our illusion of freedom is intact but our privacy has been sold out from under us. My phone is already reporting my position to its masters and to anyone who buys the information from them. It will soon "augment my reality" by leading me to restaurants matching my tastes at attractively discounted prices--restaurants where I will meet my "friends" to discuss the ideas we all believe in. How reassuring! How warm and cuddly! How convenient! Everybody knows where you are and what you're thinking about.


I tweet, therefore I am.


Uncertainty has been mastered, volatility reduced, complexity minimized. Isn't that a benefit of advanced technology? Isn't that what business should be all about? Forget 1984 and Brave New World. The men who wrote those books were dangerously naïve and not as prescient as we once believed. Instead of Big Brother looking after us, we're immersed in a dizzily delightful system that cares so much about us that it anticipates our every pleasure, like a giant planetary-class Vegas, an immense, inexhaustible Disney World. All we have to do is to preserve the illusion that we, "the users," have the power: in that ignorance, we can live happily ever after.

Tom the Dancing Bug: Dinkle Tries to Meet a Girl

Posted: 19 Oct 2010 11:34 AM PDT

Enjoy today's Super-Fun-Pak edition of Tom the Dancing Bug, opening with Dinkle Tries to Meet a Girl.

Scary Godmother: delightful, spooky graphic storybook for kids

Posted: 12 Oct 2010 02:50 AM PDT


Jill Thompson's beloved Scary Godmother stories are collected in a new delightful volume from Dark Horse. They relate the adventures of little Hannah Marie, a big-eyed, adorable moppet, and her friends from the "other side" -- the Scary Godmother, and all the monsters, skeletons and vampires and such she keeps company with. Hannah Marie meets them all when her rotten cousin Jimmy sends her into a spooky house on Hallowe'en in a cruel prank that backfires on him. Hannah Marie makes fast friends with all the ghoulies and haints, and in a series of short, comical adventures, she rescues Hallowe'en, helps crash a haunted tea party, and sets up the Scary Godmother with half the monsters in spook-land.

These are just the right length to read as bedtime stories, and they're full of clever rhymes that make for great read-aloud material. The monsters are decidedly the good guys, and their capers are totally harmless and often hilarious. Better than that is Thompson's wonderful artwork -- super-saturated, crazy-angled monsters and creeps and kids that are gonzo and charming at the same time. It's some of the most fun kids' stuff I've seen in a long time, and it's going to be Poesy's bedtime story tonight -- she'll love it.

I haven't seen the animated special adapted from the books, but Thompson's included some of the art from the series and it's quite wonderful

Scary Godmother



"It Gets Better" video from Google employees

Posted: 20 Oct 2010 06:08 AM PDT

This is pretty great. A video contribution to the "It Gets Better" project from employees of Google. Video Link.

Apple press event today, live blog coverage on Boing Boing

Posted: 20 Oct 2010 05:57 AM PDT

A certain company in Cupertino is holding a press event today. Xeni will be there, liveblogging whatever unfolds. Expectations and rumors surrounding Apple's "Back to the Mac" event at 10am PT involve a refocus on the personal computer line: some sort of iLife refresh, maybe a new MacBook Air, and perhaps an additional item at the end that causes everyone to go "oooooh" and clap. The new OS is expected to be named "Lion." I don't know where we got that idea. Maybe the invite.
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

CrunchyTech

Blog Archive