Who you gonna call?

Ghostbusters have gone ex-directory? Troubled by noisy spirits?

You need a pocket GhostRadar. I wish I had thought of it.

www.ghostradar.co.uk/

Singing Sand Dunes!!

It has come to my attention, that sand dunes sing, apparently. For some time, it has been known that masses of sand in deserts, sometimes make low rumbling noises, but we have been unsure as to why.

Now, not only have scientists figured out the secret, they have managed to reproduce the sounds in a lab, and you can buy the CD!

Listen here :

Songs of the sand!

New Scientist article

Through the Square Window

Part of my "abandoned factory complex" series :

Big LASERs in Space - revisited

Yes, once again, the Americans would like to cement their global hegemony by mounting offensive weaponry in orbit around the planet, the goal being to be able to strike at anybody and anything, anywhere, at anytime and without fear of retaliation.

This is not science-fiction; much of the necessary technology to do so has existed for decades, as has the will to implement it. It is bad enough trying to install a "missile defence" shield, which would be largely ineffective against any kind of real nuclear assault, and would only serve to antagonise other nations. Attempting to put offensive weapons in space is far worse, and would start a whole new, potentially more dangerous arms race.

I strongly recommend the following links :

Comprehensive Overview by the Rand Corporation
www.globalissues.org - Arms Control and Space
MIRACL - Mid Infrared Chemical Laser
Recent military laser successes
More anti-satellite lasers
Popular Mechanics article
Airborne laser experiments

HamsterMIDI - Rodent Music Sequencing

A clever young man at an American university has constructed a remarkable device, which "intelligently" creates pseudo-random music, based on the interpreted movements of 6 hamsters in tubes. Incredible.

For more details, including a video of the hamsters at work, and clips of the tunes, follow this link :

HamsterMIDI controller

Amusing diversions.

The Bush Video Game
Mr T vs Everything
Films re-enacted in 30 seconds using rabbits

Frog levitation

http://www.hfml.science.ru.nl/froglev.html

Click on the image for movies :


Not a lot to say about this, except that the University of Nijmegen High Field Magnet Laboratory have learnt how to make frogs (amongst other things) levitate. I won't pretend to be a world authority on physics, so I will let them explain.

I Am Canadian.

Actually, I'm not, but I wouldn't mind living there some day. This is Canadian nationalism best expressed in the form of a beer advert :

Molson "Beaver" advert.

Pure genius.

'Murka

Boston, MA, USA. Jan 6th, 2005. Very pretty.