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Manned Cloud

Flying hotel by French designer Jean-Marie Massaud.

Lucid Dimensions

Lucid Dimensions is a start up company out of Boulder with a innovative approach to detecting and tracking signal sources in three dimensions.

I am excited about Lucid, but not because of their primary applications, Navigation & Guidance, Battlefield Reconnaissance, even life saving Search and Rescue and Fire Monitoring.

What personally excites me is the visual allure of representing data in 3 dimensions, and Lucid does this with a unique artistry. I see applications in art, print & movies for Lucid visuals, and am keeping Lucid on my 3D radar.

http://www.luciddimensions.com/index.php

Barney Moran
Grateful Word

Someone close Dies. You don't know, but had a feeling.

Gareth, on his One Fewer God blog, posted back in August of this year about the phenomenon of premonition and death of a loved one. Gareth theorizes how our minds retrofit the memory pre-knowledge of someone's death at the time of the death, to come to the belief we did indeed, have a premonition.

When I was 18 years old, in April 1981, I was out late with my friend Chris Lanier. We were at college together, and decided at around 2am to stroll down the hills of Middletown, CT, to the river front  where the Connecticut River cuts through the town's lowland. We had had some drinks and possibly assorted paraphernalia earlier, but the breeze and the late hours made us pretty clear headed and awake, and we walked the boardwalk in the brooding quiet of a sleeping Middletown.

Suddenly, one of us noticed moving orange lights above us. They were almost organic, spinning and hovering above us. They were so far up and lit with an orange glow, they must be flying craft. But the grace of the patterns they spun above us were beyond the ability of any craft of our science.

We were uniformly stunned. We looked at each other, and the realization we were being visited by extra terrestrials slammed against us like a fighters punch to the gut. We literally could not suck in air as the lights continued to swirl. We continued expecting them to vanish and allow us to begin the process of writing the sight off, but they remained. Those moments almost 30 years ago remain one of the most powerful and vivid in my memory. I know I am not retrofitting the memory, because over the years Chris has confirmed this for himself.

The Lights left, and we stood there wondering who would believe us,  if anyone else saw them, if the world was being visited everywhere that night. Would we awake to a new era of humanity and another race, from another world aware of each other?

But minutes later, the lights returned, this time coming in much lower and we saw: They were white geese! Their white undersides had picked up the light of the town and glowed orange. It was all just a trick of nature and man-made light. However the 'gut punch' we felt was very, very real.

When I got back to my dorm room, around 4am, the phone rang. It had never rang this early before. I thought maybe it was Chris. It was my parents. My older brother Barry, had died that night in a car accident, the same hour Chris and I saw lights over the Connecticut River.

Barney Moran

Grateful Word

Image Credit: Cool Notions

World Aids Day - And The Beat Goes On

This is my post from last year on World AIDS day with a few changes. This will be the 20th World AIDS day, come Dec 1 2007. It seems fitting to deja vu a post on AIDS as more things seem to stay the same. As long as we moralize the disease and monetize the cure and treatment, this will never end. The only thing that might save us is if people of faith start acting like their Gods, rather than playing them.

December 1st is World AIDS day. As a Gen X'er I have pretty much grown up under the specter of this disease. No free love, or swinging, or love the one your with (or whoever keys you fish out of the bowl) for my peers and myself. I remember hearing about AIDS for the first time as "GRID." Dan Rather looked somber and they had one of the medical charts that shows a heart rate. The tie in on that was always a bit hazy for me, since the end all, be all, do all result of this disease seemed to be NO heart beat. I remember the gay bashing and the bigotry that came with it. I remember the hysteria over things like drinking fountains.

I remember Ryan White, I remember Rock Hudson, I remember Bobby Campbell. I remember the sick feeling I had watching people protesting with signs saying they were "dying of red tape." I remember being very proud of the people in Act Up for the Wall Street demonstrations. I remember a rather unpleasant dinner conversation with an uncle who worked for Burroughs Welcome.

And I remember the faces of the people I took care of who were dying of AIDS.

From 1989-1991 I worked in an inner city hospital on the medical floor as a CNA. The hospital was located in a trendy area popular with Gen X'ers, artists, young families with children looking for a more urban lifestyle, and the gay and lesbian community. It also had a large housebound geriatric population and a growing homeless population. I was 20 when I started working there. You could say it had a profound affect on me.

In 17 months, I saw faces from each of these groups die of AIDS. The drag queens, the artists, the elderly, and the children were all represented. I remember the grandmother who beat cancer but died a year later at 83 from the blood transfusions she received. I remember the street people who died. At times, we didn't even know their real names. I remember the hemophiliac kids who were still fighting the disease when I left. I remember the street kids - teenagers- and their combative attitudes when given their diagnosis. It seemed impossible to them that they were 16 and would probably die before they reached legal drinking age. Can you blame them?

I remember Tony, who's family would have nothing to do with him. In their minds, AIDS was gods punishments for gays. Tony was a sweetheart. He was a stylist. His last words to me were some heartfelt advice on my hair and it's complete lack of style. Had he been able to give me the "do" he had in mind, I am sure I would have conquered the world. We were the same age. He was 22 when he died. **Update - Kidlet just found me a picture of his quilt in the Names Project online. It has been nearly 20 years since he died and not enough has changed. But the numbers keep going up, and the tears keep falling, don't they?

I remember Ollie and his love of Haagen Daz blueberry and cream swirl ice cream. I remember his love of papaya. I remember nearly falling over when he came back to visit us before his final relapse. He was back from Hawaii with papayas in hand. He was gorgeous. The last time I saw him he weighed a bit over 90 pounds while standing over 6 feet tall. I could carry him like I did my daughter. When she was two.

I remember Robert and the amazing bead work he did despite the fact that AIDS left him blind. He made the most intricate Indian moccasins. I remember walking in the AIDS walk the year he died. It was dedicated to his memory.

Most of all I remember Neal. And his cigarettes and how he nearly burned his bed down trying to smoke one. I remember the bags of Hershey's kisses he'd have his SO bring me every time I was scheduled to work. I remember his love of clear high heel pumps with the goldfish in the heels. That man could make me laugh like no one else. I miss you, Neal.

I remember the 20+ funerals I attended. I remember holding the hands of men with no families present. I remember both comforting and being comforted by life partners when death finally came. I remember the kind woman who was volunteering at the Names Project who was there with a hug and a box of tissues when I found the quilts of three of my patients and burst into tears looking at the ordinary reminders of lives that were gone and people who were no more.

I remember when the AIDS death total finally exceeded that of the Vietnam War. Over 58,000 dead from the virus. That was then.

Today, AIDS has killed over 25 million people and there are over 33 million living with it. In developing nations people are dying for lack of medicines that cost less than the average candy bar. TWIX or death?

Our politicians are only as good as we make them be. Hold them accountable. If enough people stand up and demand they do something about AIDS and all the stupid poverty related deaths that could be avoided, they will. Remind them that it's not about charity, it's about justice.

The changes we need may not happen tomorrow, or next month, or next year. But if we keep making noise, they will happen, and maybe today's kids will not have to live in a world where a child dies every three seconds from AIDS and poverty. Make noise for these people. Make noise for my kid and her friends. Make noise for your kids or the children in your family.

Please visit One.org and sign the declaration.

HIV: Key Facts and Dates

1981 First documented case of AIDS (then referred to as GRID)
1982 AIDS first used as a term and is detected on five continents
1985 Rock Hudson first public figure to be known to have died of AIDS
1986 Needle exchanges first piloted in the UK
1987 Don’t Die of Ignorance campaign
1987 Photographs of Princess Diana holding the hand of an AIDS patient broadcast around the world
1987 First form of anti-retro viral treatment available (AZT) in the US
1987 National AIDS Trust founded
1987 First successful form of HIV ‘anti-body’ tests widely available in the UK
1988 First World AIDS Day held
1989 First HIV awareness materials targeted at gay men produced by Health Education Authority
1990 Mark Fowler diagnosed HIV positive on Eastenders
1991 Half of the 500,000 people living with HIV in the West had died
1991 Freddie Mercury died
1991 Red ribbon becomes the international symbol of HIV
1991 Princess Diana becomes patron of the National AIDS Trust
1991 Number of people infected with HIV worldwide reaches 10 million
1995 The film Philadelphia screened
1995 First combination therapy treatment available in the US dramatically improving the life chances of people living with HIV
1996 UNAIDS established
1999 90% of all people living with HIV are in the developing world
2001 Pharmaceutical companies abandon court case against South Africa’s Treatment Access Campaign, allowing generic production of anti-retrovirals for the first time
2002 Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB and Malaria set up to increase funding to fight the world’s biggest killer diseases. As of 2007 Only 28% of people with AIDS in developing countries are getting the medicines they need

Today 33.2 million people with AIDS worldwide. 25 million have died. There are 12 million AIDS orphans.

After 20 months, (RED) Products have funnelled over 50 million dollars into the Global Fund. Shop Smart. Shop RED Smart.

by Starrlight via Here Comes A Storm

--We Missed December 1 World Aids Day and are as guilty as many American's who have filed away AID's as last Centuries minor setback, no longer on our radar. Thanks to Starrlight and her Here Comes a Storm blog for this.-- Grateful Web Editors

Thomas Robey on the Dennis Lindberg Death

The Atheist and Religious communities are on fire in the Blog World.

Any topic from last century verboten for family get together’s to prevent fights is now on fire in the blog world. For in blogging, we don’t get spit on our faces as we yell at each other.

As a supporter for Lijit’s network search wijit for blogs, I work with many religious and atheist publishers. Some from both sides are virulent and angry. The exchanges between these two worlds are often heated and break down into angry stilettos instead of discourse. There is a lot of catching up to do, remember we could not talk about this stuff over stuffing and turkey last century. Now the walls are down and we are in one big buffet people.

When I come across Publishers who make sense, even if I personally do not agree with every perspective they have, I consider them gems. The more vitriolic the topic, the more valuable Publishers who moderate with reason and persuasive logic.

Thomas Robey, on his Hope for Pandora Blog, tackles the Dennis Lindberg story, 'Witnessing Evil?'. Fourteen year old Dennis,  child of Jehovah Witnesses and himself a proclaimed believer, died after he refused treatment for leukemia. Specifically, a blood transfusion. The Atheist Blog world is having a field day with this true story. Robey takes their points head on and delivers the best argument I have found for Dennis's decision. Read past Robey's post and the comments from Atheists and you see the value of Robey's writing. There is a coming  together and some finding of middle ground at Hope for Pandora.

I do not agree with Robey on all points. But it is possible we can ‘demand science’ too far, and in our demand become as fundamental as the fundamentalism we seek to end. We all live here together. Publishers like Robey make it all the more  possible to do it  in peace.

 

Barney Moran

Grateful Word

Image : AP

UPDATE: I got some emails from people who don't want to wade into the debate itself, but a common theme was "Where are these arguments?" Here is a good example running on Middle Aged Vampiress Atheist:

http://middle-aged-atheist.blogspot.com/2007/11/pope-benedict-and-crusade-against.html

 

Halloween

by George Moromisato

Grateful Web has already visited George Moromisato's Neurohack on an earlier post.

George is as comfortable with the colloquialness of America's Halloween as creating photo programs to generate or enhance galaxies.

We are reminded if our science does land us one day on a planet with sentient beings, that day just may be their "Halloween."

Keep an open mind & happy Halloween from Grateful Web!

Image Copyright © 1999-2007 by George Moromisato. All Rights Reserved.

Can You Hear What I Hear? Charlie Gower

I love music and sound, probably more than anything else. I find it fascinating when people start finding other uses for sounds and music or creating sounds and music from unexpected places.
I recently heard the sound (recorded by satellite) of one of Jupiter's moons, (created by the interaction of the varying magnetic fields). Who would have thought we would be listening to planets!

(Fig 1)

I started noticing some new interesting uses for sound a while back when corner shop owners (in the UK) were broadcasting high frequency tones as a deterrent to kids loitering around their shops. Younger children apparently have a broader hearing range to adults.  Some kids caught onto this and recorded the sound being broadcast. They then used it for ringtones and text message alert tones in school classes, which of course their teachers couldn't hear. Nice adaptation of technology.

(Fig 2)

I remember hearing many a recorded dog bark in my youth, from houses wishing to seem protected. In Kenya, farmers are considering broadcasting the sound of bees swarming as elephants (sensibly) run away from it. The farmers want to use this to control the elephants 'roaming nature', as they frequently cause a great deal of damage to property and subsequently farmers livelihood.

In Tacoma, Washington State, USA the council were having problems with people drug dealing by the bus stations. This was disturbing locals and nearby shoppers. So to combat this, they started broadcasting Seattle's Classical station - King FM to dissuade pushers from using the area. Apparently it has worked a treat! I wonder how King Fm feels about this?

Everyone knows that music affects behavior. Do depressives listen to Suicide? Are they told not to? Should they just be listening to Abba? Although that might make them worse!
It looks like we're starting to find other uses for music in social scenarios. I could certainly do without all the Euro-House that shops pipe in to make you shop faster.

Let's just hope our new uses for sound aren't simply weapons based. Submarine communications are allegedly beaching whales (due to disorientation) and killing the odd scuba diver as well, and that's accidentally, allegedly!

Fig 1 from The Audio Pages
Fig 2 from Dirac Delta

-- Charlie Gower

Read More Charlie Gower on his Tantramar Blog

George Moromisato: Renaissance Human

Try visiting George Moromisato's Neurohack website for his free game, Transcendence, and not be swept away by the breadth and depth of his interests.

I've been meaning to bring my daughters up to speed with humanity, and A Very Short History of Humanity does this nicely. In fact everything George does is nicely.

Image Copyright © 1999-2007 by George Moromisato. All Rights Reserved.

Gender Genie

I ran my most recent blog post Into the WIld into Gender Genie, and it said I was a woman, by double the score. Concerned, I ran my "I am not GAY" post through Gender Genie. It said I was a woman, by double the score.

Possibilites:

1) I AM a woman.
2) Gender Genie is a sham.
3) I am a smart guy, and smart guys communicate like women.
4) I could keep taking the damn test till it says I'm a guy. I could run Kung Fu Blogging through it even.

Decide for yourself. Gender Genie.

Lucian Freud, Woman Holding Her Thumb, 1992. The Collection Lambrecht-Schadeberg / Rubens Prize of the City of Siegen. Site Image Credit: Museum fuer gegenwartskunst siegen

The Coordinate

Forget Type "A" and Type "B", and consider the left and right halves of your own brain, and which if either is at the wheel, and when. Then add working with others with different mindsets. James Cockerille attempts exactly this with his new blog, The Coordinate.