Defeat is victory. Death is life

Article from Robert Fisk, discussing the unfolding horror that has been Iraq over the last two years - he mentions Rumsfeld as the man who was most responsible for getting 'shock and awe' up and screaming, and has a go at Bush for being more obsessed with spying on his own countrymen, rather than bothering to spend time trying to comprehend other peoples and their cultures.

Rumsfeld meanwhile, is apparently on a tour of northern Africa, meeting and greeting what are described as some of the nastiest dictators on that continent, seemingly content to let his 100,000 US troops in Iraq try to make the best of the intractable situation in which they now find themselves.

The Creation of Smarter Than Human Intelligence � Quantum Biocommunication

More musings on the coming Singularity, defined here as the creation of intelligence that is smarter than humans, and one that will create a closed loop wherein smarter minds create ever more smarter minds ad infinitum.

This new intelligent being would be part machine and part organic, leaving flesh and bone humans as we are today, far behind in a disappearing past. Future technology would design the minds of the future, in ways and for purposes that are probably beyond our current imagination, as our perceptions will still only be those of un-enhanced humans.

The author goes on to propose that there should be an increase in human brainpower of at least a million times, leading him to surmise that a single subjective year would pass in 31 seconds, and all recorded history from the time of Socrates would take a little less than 22 hours.

He further suggests that the true impact of the Singularity will not be when AI catches and matches human intelligence, but shortly after when it becomes twice or four times as great in a very short space of time. And from there no-one has the faintest idea what might then befall Homo sapiens, as by then we will have disappeared far over the event horizon.

The Singularity

Fro countless thousands of years, our ancestors lived in a world that technologically and culturally hardly changed from one generation to the next - one band of people would have known that their children and grandchildren would lead essentially the same lives as they themselves had led.

Nothing could be further from that situation today - at least in the first and to some extent the second worlds - unfortunately third world nations continue to struggle to stay alive on a daily basis, even if technology around them does to some extent change.

Today we have progress that multiplies by factors of ten, rather than by adding values of ten in a linear way, meaning that future changes will be so vast and so powerful that humans will have evolved into a markedly different creature that will bear little resemblance to ourselves today.

As we have seen, computers are rapidly becoming ever faster and more agile, although advances in biotech and nanotechnology will combine to make us more or less immortal, immune from all illness and able to live for as long as we wish. This last point is crucial, because if no-one ever chooses to die, populations that are already surging ahead will simply explode, forcing us off this planet and into the wide black yonder.

Due to population pressures alone, it's unlikely that people will be allowed to live more than a few hundred years at a time - one day a letter will arrive in the post advising cryo-customers to put their affairs in order as they are about to be discontinued sometime in the near future, although they can opt to be revived if their lucky numbers come up in what will then be the national lottery.

China warns Taiwan of 'disaster'

If there is war between the US and Iran, it's likely that China will take the opportunity to invade Taiwan, as there will be little the US will be able to do, other than make loud protestation after the event.

For its part, Taiwan is pushing ahead with plans for full independence from China, a move that can only hasten the opening of hostilities between them to a greater extent that at any time since 1949. There are as yet no details of what China means by 'disaster', but anything short of ominous intent is unlikely to be what they intend, and a military incursion now looks odds on, any time soon.

Iran forges ahead with enrichment

According to the Russian Information Agency, Novosti, Iran is maintaining a peaceful nuclear strategy, although this BBC article starts off by stating that what Iran is doing could be used for both war and peaceful purposes.

There is a generally pessimistic tone to the comments of other nations, with both the Russians and Americans saying that no deal had been reached, and was unlikely to happen before March 6th meeting of the IAEA.

Scientists 'can predict memories'

Slightly misleading headline, that should have reflected more before writing itself. What the experiments actually demonstrated was how well we are likely to remember something even before that data has been transmitted - basically if the brain is in the right frame of mind it will be more likely to have total recall.

What they omitted was any mention of when people are not only likely to remember something, but predict the question before it is given, and whether there is any link between that and the brain's state of preparedness when it is expecting to be set a problem to solve.

Record £53m stolen in depot raid

Here on Earth news of the recent cash robbery continues to dominate, with the official figures released to day that confirms more than £50m was taken - so far just over £1m has been recovered from a van found in a car park. Although there have been plenty of reported arrests, seemingly none of those so far detained appear to have been directly implicated in the robbery, leading to speculation that those responsible have quietly vanished from sight.

The New Tourist's Guide to the Milky Way

A plethora of new data has been gathered on this galaxy, as well as the other 50 nearby, which together make up the Local Group.

NASA - New Map of Milky Way Reveals Millions of Unseen Objects

There may be hundred times as many objects in our galaxy than previously thought, and there's photographic evidence to show this. Most of these new discoveries are dead stars known as white dwarfs, and stars with unusually strong and active coronas.

Bronze Age Sky Disc Deciphered

The 3,600 year-old sky disc of Nebra, Germany, may have been deciphered by scientists investigating its astronomical applications. They believe it may have been used to calculate when to add a thirteenth lunar month to keep their calendars corresponding to the passing of the seasons.

However, it was in use for about 400 years, and because of extra ornament that was added to it, the scientists believe that the original knowledge may have been lost, with the disc becoming a cult object. It is still unknown where from where this astronomical knowlege originated, as it is normally assumed that the Middle East led the rest of the world in this regard, but whoever knew would have comprised a very small group of people.

Hobbits made good use of tiny brains

Quite a readable account of a recent lecture by Dean Falk , Professor of Anthropology at Florida State, discussing the miniature people whose fossilised remains were discovered on Flores, Indonesia a couple of years back.

The most startling aspect of the discovery was the implication that people with brains only a third the size of our own could have made stone tools and controlled the use of fire - the explanation so far seems to be that the way the brain is wired up might be more important than actual size. The brains in question were more developed at the front in an area known as Brodmann's Area 10, thought to be linked to forward planning and interaction with the outside world.

The so-called hobbits also had unusually large shoulders, which apparently indicates they may have spent much of their lives in trees, which Falk proposed could have provided an accidental means of transport from one island to another during a storm - indicating an alternative to the theory that they had made use of water craft to navigate the open seas.

Towards the end of the article there is mention that there are around 40,000 islands in that area, and there may be an extremely small chance that there may be more of these creatures still alive, as yet still hidden from an inquisitive external world.

Iran-USA, beginning of a major world crisis

Alarmist article that predicts the world will be plunged into an unprecedented economic and possibly armed crisis, some time between March 20 and March 26, the like of which hasn't been seen since the Iron Curtain came down, or the crisis of 1929.

Two main reasons are cited, the first being that the US dollar will no longer be the sole currency of the international oil trade, as the Euro will be made available as an alternative currency, when Iran opens the Euro exchange toward the end of March.

The other is that the US will apparently cease to report on figures that estimate the total amount of dollars in circulation around the world - the report alleges that new Fed President Ben Bernanke is keen on printing money, which should lead to further devaluation of the dollar, were those figures to be published.

From this information the authors then propose there will be a crisis of confidence in the US dollar leading to a financial meltdown that will trigger an oil crisis, leading to political problems with the US leadership, mirrored by similar problems im the Middle East, and eventually leading to European and global crises.

It remains to be seen what effect the Euro bourse will have when it opens, but it's unlkely to plunge the world into such a catastrophic and sudden crisis as envisaged here, but the long-term problems could well upset the current global balance, excacerbated by the ongoing nuclear arguments bubbling away between the west and Iran.

They conclude by saying that the various crises can be avoided if concerted action is taken to avoid armed conflict, although it would appear that both sides would sooner or later prefer the arguments to be settled in this way.

NASA's Next Leap in Mars Exploration Nears Arrival

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is about to rendezvous with Mars on March 10, when what's described as a mission-critical engine burn will allow the MRO to be grabbed my Martian gravity and hence into orbit - they will then lose touch for half an hour as the craft disappears round the other side of the planet, but assuming everything remains up and squeaking, the other parts of th emission should start to kick in.

From the heights of the atmosphere to subterranean layers, including the most powerful telescope ever to be sent ot another planet, the data recovery from this mission will be unlike anything seen before, with a special dish able to transmit at ten times the rate of any previous craft - we will even be able to get daily weather reports for the entire planet.

But the most important part of this mission will be the selection of future landing locations for the first manned missions to Mars, although as has been stated elsewhere, the place that should be top of everyone's list should be Cydonia, image attached. How it is we haven't yet sent manned missions there is to be regretted, as is the long delay into the future before any such mission gets off the ground, but at least it's another part of the initiation process.

Mobile tracking devices on trial

Tales of what the mobile phone companies have been up to on our behalf, and depending on your attitude, you may wish to keep your mobile/cell even closer to hand, or alternatively chuck it into the nearest skip and vanish off the map.

The author of the linked article was able to follow his friend around London simply by signing up for the service without his friend's prior knowledge or consent, and from what we learn, other loopholes could exist that would allow others to do the same to you, probably without your knowledge, far less your consent.

But even if you ditch the phone, they'll still be onto you via your credit card, travel card, driving your car or any number of new and exciting ways currently being developed to spy on everyone all the time.

image spyder spying via www.neilgaiman.com

See it Now: New Comet Brightens Rapidly

Although traditional opinions of comets place them in the doom and disaster section of our collective psyche, they can be good to look at, and if you get up early or stay up late enough, this one can be seen in the dawn sky over the next few days.

image Comet Pojmansk map

“Backward evolution” spawns ape-like people

As evolution itself cannot be adequately demonstrated, it's unlikely that so-called backward evolution can exist either, but it is curious that humans should want to walk around on all fours.

The article opens by saying that this takes humans back more than a million years, but this goes against the evidence that hominins have been bipedal for 7 million years and possibly longer, during which time the body has changed many times, making it very difficult for a bipedal animal able to lead a quadruped life - in conclusion, whatever is wrong with these people has nothing to do with earlier versions of our ancestors.

It is to be hoped that this condition doesn't spread into the wider population, as the world's back probelems would multiply exponentially, not too useful when considering flying to the stars in search of pastures anew, with our postures askew.

Quantum-based computer made

Link to article describing a computer program that can produce an answer even when it's not running. However, there is no word yet on what the question was - something along the lines of 'are you running or not' answer 'no I'm not running', which would be both the correct and incorrect answers.

Humans are also able to achieve this 'superposition' every time we theoretically reincarnate, becoming both alive and dead at the same time, meaning in effect that we are all quantum ghosts, as further evidenced by the dream state, wherein we exist in two dimensions simultaneously. This in turn relates to an earlier story of why it is often best to sleep on a complex problem before coming to a decision on what action to take - the solution is quite often produced when the brain is suppopsedly switched 'off'.

image the dream rousseau 1910

Air Force Plan: Hack Your Nervous System

It's reassuring to know that as we sleep soundly in our beds, someone out there across the rooftops is busily making the world a more painful, but safer place. In reality such research is the product of idle minded people who should have better things to think about other than researching new and exciting ways to frazzle people's brains into sterilized carbon dust, before pulling the plug on their life-style support systems.

image west side rooftops james kimak

Planet's Population to Hit 6.5 Billion Saturday

If you're not keen on being surrounded by increasing numbers of people on a daily basis, it might be time to start considering other worlds to go and populate.

In the year 1,000 AD, the entire population of the word was just 310 million, and by 2050 it will be a staggering 9 billion, meaning that the current figure of 261 births a minute looks set to spiral upwards.

However in Europe there is something of a 'birth dearth', which corresponds with people chosing to have smaller families as well as leaving such plans later in life, set against developing countries with exploding birth rates - one way or another, there will problems in the future, especially as the world's climate in in the primary stages of going absolutely haywire.

Democrats fail to find a message

Although the tone of this article is light-hearted, it underlines the problems both here and in the States that democracy is going through, namely that the two-party system is almost defunct, and the experiment known as democracy is nearly at an end.

In both countries, the ruling administrations are deeply unpopular, largely because of the way they have promised much but screwed up even more, but in both cases feel themselves to be secure because there is no effective political opposition to oust them.

We might still continue to go through the motions of voting at elections, assuming of course that the results are real and not scammed, but when there is really only one party that can win, we are well on the road to totalitarianism, something the West fought so hard to overcome during the years of the Cold War.

US conducts subcritical nuclear test

While the rest of the world is worrying about Iran's potential nuclear capability, the US and Britain have been quietly conducting underground tests of their own.

Critics maintain that such actions go against the spirit of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty of 1992, but as this is the ninth such test, it appears that these will continue into the future.

The US says that as no chain reaction is created, no nuclear detonation takes place, meaning that they consider themselves to be well within the law, although concern still remains that new weapons are under development.

NASA to divert cash from science into shuttle

This article makes for fairly depressing reading, as it spells out the carnage wreaked on NASA by the recent re-allocation of $2 billion to pay for cost overruns on getting the Space Station up and creaking, as well as heading back to the Moon.

The Terrestrial Planet Finder mission is on indefinite hold, a star mapping mission, the 'Beyond Einstein' programme, as well as a host of other blown chances to get this planet off up into Space.

It's of paramount importance that we begin the migration of humanity to other worlds, because time is running out for us on this one - drowning in seas of our pollution, and getting nearer every day to wiping each other out in the coming World Peace Wars.

New kind of space blast seen not far from Earth

Astronomers working at NASA's Swift telescope have just looked back in time at an event that happened some 440 million years ago, namely a gamma ray burst. Unlike most such blasts that typically last a mere few thousandths of a second, this one kept on exploding for a massive 33 minutes, although it was much dimmer than expected.

image by ESA

How to Create an Instant Bestselling Novel

Worthwhile look by Cliff Pickover at some of the tactics and methods required to write a good book, see it published and become rich and famous to boot. If any of that appeals to you, good luck, and let us know how you get on.

UK rapped on data retention law

The excuse for the London bombings of last July is the lame excuse dragged out by the UK government, as they proceed in their venture to spy on the public morning, noon and night, solely because there are a lot of extremely nosey people about who intend to keep us under total surveillance.

Service providers, who will have to pay for the privilege of grassing up their customers to prying officials, are understandably increasingly concerned at this latest erosion of our rights to privacy.

But it's not just the UK where this is slated to happen - because it's Britain's term of Presidency at the EU, they are trying to use that position of power to bully the other member states into doing the same.

It will be good to see those responsible for this idea getting roundly defeated by other the other nations voting against these proposals, although that in itself will probably not stop this happening over the long term.

Is our universe about to be mangled?

Over at New Scientist, they're expressing concern that we might be eaten by another universe, though if it happened it might be too quick for us to even notice - we'd all just be a disappearing blip on the quantum radar.

Can we stop the bloggers?

Nice article from Bill Thompson extolling the virtues of blogging, which as we are all aware, is one of mankind's greatest ever inventions.

MI6 pays out over secret LSD mind control tests

Although the alleged incidents took place between 1953 and '54, it has taken 50 years for the former servicemen to be recompensed by MI6, although it seems to have taken an accusation of assault to get their case won. As it was, the people involved were unaware of the nature of the experiments on mind expanding hallucinogens, with one of them describing Dali-like scenes and peoples' faces cracking open - probably pretty terrifying to someone experiencing this for the first time, with no preconceived terms of reference by which to judge a new and distorted reality

Money found after Securitas raid

More on the recent £50m robbery, with news that some of the cash has been recovered - it's probably all the new crispy notes whose serial numbers can be traced that has been dumped, as spending it probably wasn't an option. That might still leave them with £25m in used notes, though what we don't know is how many gang members that amount will have to split between them.

Assuming there were between five and ten people involved, it's probable most of them could walk with upwards of 2.5m each, which sounds a lot, but then again we don't know how they plan to invest their new found wealth - they might find it better to stick together and pool their resources.

It's unknown what odds the bookies are calling on the robbers' capture, who by now will be hoping to put their feet up for a quiet weekend, after such a busy weekday schedule.

image 25m year-old air bubbles in amber

Kennewick Man yields more secrets

Finally, we are beginning to see the results of analysis of the bones of Kennewick Man, whose 9,200 year-old body was recovered back in 1996.

It has been learned for example that he was deliberately buried, lying on his back, legs extended, arms down by his sides with the palms of his hands facing downwards, indicating that some care, and maybe even a ceremonial rite, accompanied his funeral.

It was also revealed that a spear wound in his hip had completely healed, meaning he didn't suffer from chronic infection, although it's quite possible the old wound caused him pain and discomfort, particularly because he had it for about 20 years. It's thought he died in his mid-thirties, and suffered the wound sometime between the ages of 15 and 20. The team was even able to construct a 3-D replica of the spear point, which had been thrust into him from the front with sufficient force to knock him off his feet.

But the real mystery still waiting to be solved is where he came from - skull measurements have been shown not to match those of native Americans, and there is some conjecture he may have originated elsewhere on the Pacific Rim, and migrated to near Seattle earlier in his life.

70 Ways to Increase Your Brain Power

From time to time we lose the ability to think clearly or achieve mental tasks, so here's a long list of ways to enhance your mental prowess.

Most are just common sense - excerise is good, too much fat is not, learning a new language is great, hours spent glued to the TV are not going to get you into a sharpened thinking mode, unless what you watching is data rich.

Various plant extracts are also recommended, but it's better to get independent verification, as not everything will work for everyody, although sniffing basil while listening to Mozart should be relatively safe. I'm glad to see drinking coffee is also on the list, as it tells me I'm at least doing something right.

Go-ahead for Europe ice mission

The decision by ESA to re-launch Cryosat is good news for Professor Duncan Wingham, and probably for the world at large, as the mission will investigate how the Earth's ice sheets are responding to changing climate.

The previous mission which crashed into the Arctic Ocean, took 1,000 man years and a few hundred scientists who watched all their hard work go up in smoke just four minutes after launch, and it's good to know all that work hopefully won't go to waste, as we wish them all the luck they need to make Cryostat-2 a success.

Can the robbers launder the money?

Following the recent robbery here in the UK that could have been as much as £50m in cash, speculation about how that money can be got rid of, is rife.

As this is being written, there is news that two arrests have already been made, so the question might already be irrelevant, but that's no reason not to indulge in some fond imagining.

Looking at the post below, the thought briefly occurred that the robbers might be the people who've already blown £32m on the ID card fiasco, but of course being the government they never have to pay anything back, so why would they bother.

But whoever took the money must have had very specific reasons for taking so much - it has been pointed out that had they only taken around 5m, they could have walked away scot free, as such an amount of money is relatively easy to launder.

But £50m in notes is a different matter, especially as about half of them were new, meaning their serial numbers would be known and instantly recognised - the other half of the cash was in used notes, much easier to get rid of, except in such high volumes.

So what would they be spending £50m on? An expensive painting maybe, buying a low budget football team with no great ambition, or maybe enough plutonium to power their rocket to the Moon, which they intend to claim for their own. Can't wait to find out.

image Money-Changer and his Wife Reymerswale 1539

ID cards have already cost taxpayers £32m

More indications that the ID card will become compulsory in Britain - £32m is a disgraceful amount of money to have squandered, meaning that to save face and credibility, the public will once again be coerced into handing over large amounts of money in order to once again be ripped off.

The main function of a governemnt is collect money through taxation, and the spend that income running, not ruining, the country. This current shower must be getting through barrow-loads of the stuff, judging by all the extra revenue they've been screwing out of the public - soaring Council Tax bills, congestion charges which have had little effect on traffic, and exorbitant public transport prices that has seen many taking to foot or bicycle as they simply cannot afford to pay to get on a bus or a tube - and that's just London, never mind the rest of the UK.

One of the more dishonest tricks was an attempt to get people out of cars by charging them money to drive into central London, which on the face of it is all very laudable. However, instead of making it easier for people to use public transport, which was supposedly a prime aim, fares have more or less doubled in a very few years, while the general level of service remains as lamentable as ever.

Of course the government would like to assure us that ID cards will make us safer, and help them in tracking down terrorists, which as we all know is arrant nonsense. All ID cards will do is further intrude into the privacy of citizens going about their daily lives, all for the benefit of a bunch of paranoid control freaks who recognise a good scam when they see one. It would be better if such projects were paid for directly by those responsible for their implementation, rather than mis-spending public money on projects dreamt up by a bunch of scheming n'er-do-wells.

image The Tax Collector Reymerswale 1542
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SpaceWeather.com

Although we're currently in a solar wind stream, the Sun itself looks pretty tranquil, with not a single sunpsot blemishing its beaming face, and not much evidence of solar flaring, but as we know, the Sun is a very dynamic body, and could vent its spleen at any time.

As this blog resides too far to the south, images such as the one attached are all that's likely to be seen of any aurora - maybe that's one reason why the British Isles have been so sought after over thousands of years, as travellers journeyed in from Europe to see the lights in the night sky for themselves, in the far northern reaches of Scotland and beyond.

Elswehere on the linked page is a picture of the Space Station crossing part of the Moon, including a gallery containing more aurora images.

Handcuffed to the memory of Hitler

This is probably the last post on David Irving, but this particular article goes a great deal further in considering some of the wider issues of this tawdry tale.

More than 60 years after the last world war ended, the exploitsof the Third Reich are shown daily on TV, assuming you get cable, and the wroter considers two possibilities of why this should be so. One reaosn is because we are able to justify our own liberalist lives set against a black-and-white grainy backdrop of flame-thrower and jack-boot, or more ominously, to persuade audiences that the supposed glamour attached to groups like the SS might be acceptable in future circumstances. Either way, Adolf Hitler is alive and well every tea-time, no matter how many times we hear of the insanities proliferated by him - and in a sense, Nazism could be viewed as Capitalism's response to Communism, which itself killed tens of millions.

On that subject we hear very little - occasional documentaries feature Stalin's Russia, but never with the same degree of intensity given over to reflecting on the fight with the Fascists. There is also scant mention of the role the Vatican played throughout the war, and their supposed involvement after the it, by helping various wanted people disappear from view, to reappear across the other side of the world in exotic destinations such as South America.

The article also makes mention of the so-called 'Holocaust industry' and the various factions within it that argue about whether the extermination of gypsies and homosexuals by Germany, deserve the same sympathy and compensation offered to the Jewish community.

It concludes by suggesting we get over our obsessions with the Nazis, and leave the whole sorry episode behind us, but that in itself won't rid us of our fascination of looking to the past genocidal misdeeds and minds of the evil men that dreamt them up. We like to kid ourselves that history is consigned to the past, but when that past becomes part of present day TV reality, our future might yet conjure up more hellish visions of hate and intolerance than we could imagine or endure by watching the History Channel.

Radiocarbon review rewrites European pre-history

It has long been a matter of amazement to me that anthropologist Paul Mellars manages to retain gainful employment in his chosen field. His main problem is hbis seeming dislike and contempt for all things Neanderthal - if they hadn't already become extinct, he'd be doing his best to tell us they weren't really there

In his latest foray, he's redated the incursion of moderns into Europe, which he says happened between 46,000 and 41,000 years bp, against previous estimates of between 43,000 and 36,000 years.

Nothing wrong with that, but he then equates this with the quick annihilation of the Neanderthal population, which according to him, just rolled over and died, there and then, insinuating they became extinct around 40,000 years bp.

However, we know that they lived on until 25,000 years bp, meaning they co-existed with the moderns for a good 15,000 years, until vanishing from sight ever since. Climate is also claimed as a reason they disappeared, which is odd because they had developed such hardy bodies to cope with the extreme cold, but were ousted by others with bodies adapted for life in the tropics.

Secret Service agents say Cheney was drunk when he shot lawyer

For a man with a dicky heart, Dick Cheney shows little regard for his own welfare, let alone that of others. According to the link article, the Vice President had been seen to be drinking considerably more than the one beer he had previously claimed to have consumed.

It's further stated that if he was drunk when he shot his friend, he could be charged with committing a felony, but that seems very unlikely to happen.

The more interesting details of this story recount how the local Sherrif's Department did not gain access to the ranch for a further day and a half, allegedly because those inside wanted time to allow those involved to sober up, which under the circumstances was very thoughtful of them.

There are many people languishing inside jails today who wished they too could have asked the local sherrif to stay away for a couple of days while they sorted out the unfortunate effects of their misdeeds, but lacking friends in extremely high places, they are instead condemned to their fate.