An interview on KUOW 94.9 with our good friend Daryle Conners where she discusses her awesome home theatre, screening movies for groups, and two of our favorite movies, Dr. Strangelove and Stingray Sam.
Daryle Conners: Scale Over Fidelity
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Saturday, September 17, 2011
KUOW interview with Daryle Conners: "Scale Over Fidelity"
An interview on KUOW 94.9 with our good friend Daryle Conners where she discusses her awesome home theatre, screening movies for groups, and two of our favorite movies, Dr. Strangelove and Stingray Sam.
Daryle Conners: Scale Over Fidelity
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Friday, September 16, 2011
How to hypnotize a chicken at home
By Jack Brummet
Unexplained Phenomena Editor
Thanks to Jeff Clinton!
OK, it's not technically hypnotizing chickens, but more properly, causing tonic immobility[1]. It is related to snake charming, which you have probably seen in cartoons, or B Movies.
A chicken can be put into a trance/hypnotized/lulled into tonic immobility by holding its head against the ground, and then drawing a line along the ground with a stick or a finger, starting at its beak and then running out in front of the chicken. A chicken hypnotized like this will will sit in a trance for anywhere between between 15 seconds and 30 minutes.
In the The 1985 Old Farmer’s Almanac, Linda Riggins wrote about hypnotized chickens:
[1] From the Wikipedia page on tonic immobility: "Tonic immobility is a natural state of paralysis that animals enter, in most cases when presented with a threat. Some scientists relate it to mating in certain animals like the shark.
"Some sharks can be placed in a tonic state. The shark remains in this state of paralysis for an average of fifteen minutes before it recovers. Scientists have exploited this phenomenon to study shark behaviour. The effects of chemical shark repellent have been studied to test effectiveness and to narrow down dose sizes, concentrations, and time to awaken."
Unexplained Phenomena Editor
Thanks to Jeff Clinton!
An illustration of a hypnotized chicken from an 18th century book by the famous Jesuit scientist Athanasius Kircher
OK, it's not technically hypnotizing chickens, but more properly, causing tonic immobility[1]. It is related to snake charming, which you have probably seen in cartoons, or B Movies.
A chicken can be put into a trance/hypnotized/lulled into tonic immobility by holding its head against the ground, and then drawing a line along the ground with a stick or a finger, starting at its beak and then running out in front of the chicken. A chicken hypnotized like this will will sit in a trance for anywhere between between 15 seconds and 30 minutes.
In the The 1985 Old Farmer’s Almanac, Linda Riggins wrote about hypnotized chickens:
“A bird will stay hypnotized for a couple of seconds, minutes, or hours,” says White, although in her demonstrations they’re “out” for only minutes. Regardless of the method used, a sudden movement or loud noise will bring the chicken out of the hypnotic trance.Interestingly enough, in press briefings, the U.S. military--when trying to avoid divulging information, gives reporters briefings with 20 minutes of intentionally dull PowerPoint presentations and 5 minutes left at the end for questions from anyone who is still awake. Those presentations are called hypnotizing chickens around The Pentagon.
"White adds, 'Pheasants go out faster than any other bird. Wild pheasants are very nervous and high-strung, and usually very easy to hypnotize.' In her demonstrations, she is protective of pheasants, because after they come out of hypnosis, they are likely to hurt themselves unless they are carefully monitored. Noting that domestic birds are more difficult to hypnotize than wild ones, she suggests that one reason may be wild birds are using a survival skill when they submit to hypnosis.
"White has reported the results of her experiments at several New Jersey science conferences and fairs. In one of her studies of 11 birds, the heart and respiration rates, when measured five minutes after hypnosis, were significantly lower than in the pre-hypnotic state. For example, in a Bantam White Cochin cock, the heart rate before hypnosis was 457 beats per minute and after hypnosis 372. The rates for this bird’s respiration were 22 and 20 breaths per minute, respectively. The temperatures of nine of these birds went down or were unchanged in the posthypnotic state."
[1] From the Wikipedia page on tonic immobility: "Tonic immobility is a natural state of paralysis that animals enter, in most cases when presented with a threat. Some scientists relate it to mating in certain animals like the shark.
"Some sharks can be placed in a tonic state. The shark remains in this state of paralysis for an average of fifteen minutes before it recovers. Scientists have exploited this phenomenon to study shark behaviour. The effects of chemical shark repellent have been studied to test effectiveness and to narrow down dose sizes, concentrations, and time to awaken."
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Thursday, September 15, 2011
Poem: The Robot Uprising (with bonus robot painting)
poem and art By Jack Brummet
The bad news for us:
The loss of one member
Is inconsequential--
Just a millisecond diversion
In their march.
A platoon of robots,
Companies of robots
Marching straight ahead
Stepping over broken robots.
A regiment of robots,
Divisions of robots
Executing lines of code.
A corps of robots,
Armies of robots—
Programmed by rogue homo sapiens
To bring it all down.
---o0o---
The bad news for us:
The loss of one member
Is inconsequential--
Just a millisecond diversion
In their march.
A platoon of robots,
Companies of robots
Marching straight ahead
Stepping over broken robots.
A regiment of robots,
Divisions of robots
Executing lines of code.
A corps of robots,
Armies of robots—
Programmed by rogue homo sapiens
To bring it all down.
---o0o---
Poem: The Odds
By Jack Brummet
Simple probability
And statistics
Tell us ineluctably
That the more times
You stick your head
In the lion's mouth,
The more likely it is
That one day
He will close it.
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Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Xochimilco's La Isla de la Muñecas/The Island of the Dolls—the strange story of an island possibly haunted by sentient dolls
By Jack Brummet
Unexplained Phenomena Editor
Thanks to Jeff Clinton for the idea for this story.
South of México Distrito Federal (Mexico City) in the extensive network of Xochimilco canals, is a small island called La Isla de la Muñecas. The Island of the Dolls is a seriously spooky place.
The man who created the island of dolls—Don Julian Santana—often told visitors that he was haunted by the ghost of a little girl who drowned in one of the nearby canals. That haunting, real or imagined, led him to eventually decorate almost every tree growing on the island with old and mutilated dolls. Most people who visit the island say that they have a feeling that they’re constantly being watched.
Although Don Julian was married, he abandoned his family and life and ended up living the last 50 years of his life as a hermit on his island, working on his strange project.
Some people say he would fish the dolls from the water because he though they were real children. In fact, he was collecting and placing them around his home as a shrine and to assuage the spirit/ghost of the little girl that he thought tormented him.
He grew vast amounts of fruit and vegetables in the lush gardens around his house, and, eventually, began to trade his fruit and vegetables for old dolls in hopes the dolls would form vehicles for spirits to keep the deceased girl company and prevent further evil from descending upon the island. He would also often buy dolls and rummage through garbage dumps to find more dolls.
Local legend has it that Santana died under mysterious circumstances—that the spirit-inhabited dolls went Chucky on him. Others people swear they have witnessed the dolls become sentient at night and that the dolls themselves have taken Santana's place as caretaker of their island.
In 2001, Don Julian Santana was found dead by his nephew in the same canal in which the little girl had drowned.
As part of the World Heritage site of the islands and canals of Xochimilco, Santana's Island of the Dolls is now one of the world’s weirdest tourist attractions (visitors often bring more dolls). Some tourists who have visited the island claim that the dolls whisper to you [1], and that you must offer them a gift upon setting foot on the island.
I've visited several World Heritage sites over the years. This is the next one on my list.
[1] This reminds me of another story I wrote about not long ago--the story of Robert The Sentient Doll (which also has a Chucky connection). It is one of the ten most read stories on ATIT. You can find that story here.
Unexplained Phenomena Editor
Thanks to Jeff Clinton for the idea for this story.
South of México Distrito Federal (Mexico City) in the extensive network of Xochimilco canals, is a small island called La Isla de la Muñecas. The Island of the Dolls is a seriously spooky place.
The man who created the island of dolls—Don Julian Santana—often told visitors that he was haunted by the ghost of a little girl who drowned in one of the nearby canals. That haunting, real or imagined, led him to eventually decorate almost every tree growing on the island with old and mutilated dolls. Most people who visit the island say that they have a feeling that they’re constantly being watched.
Although Don Julian was married, he abandoned his family and life and ended up living the last 50 years of his life as a hermit on his island, working on his strange project.
Some people say he would fish the dolls from the water because he though they were real children. In fact, he was collecting and placing them around his home as a shrine and to assuage the spirit/ghost of the little girl that he thought tormented him.
He grew vast amounts of fruit and vegetables in the lush gardens around his house, and, eventually, began to trade his fruit and vegetables for old dolls in hopes the dolls would form vehicles for spirits to keep the deceased girl company and prevent further evil from descending upon the island. He would also often buy dolls and rummage through garbage dumps to find more dolls.
Local legend has it that Santana died under mysterious circumstances—that the spirit-inhabited dolls went Chucky on him. Others people swear they have witnessed the dolls become sentient at night and that the dolls themselves have taken Santana's place as caretaker of their island. In 2001, Don Julian Santana was found dead by his nephew in the same canal in which the little girl had drowned.
As part of the World Heritage site of the islands and canals of Xochimilco, Santana's Island of the Dolls is now one of the world’s weirdest tourist attractions (visitors often bring more dolls). Some tourists who have visited the island claim that the dolls whisper to you [1], and that you must offer them a gift upon setting foot on the island.
I've visited several World Heritage sites over the years. This is the next one on my list.
[1] This reminds me of another story I wrote about not long ago--the story of Robert The Sentient Doll (which also has a Chucky connection). It is one of the ten most read stories on ATIT. You can find that story here.
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"...some men aren't looking for anything logical, like money..." Alfred Pennyworth tells a story to Bruce Wayne
From The Dark Knight script:
Alfred Pennyworth: A long time ago, I was in Burma, my friends and I were working for the local government. They were trying to buy the loyalty of tribal leaders by bribing them with precious stones. But their caravans were being raided in a forest north of Rangoon by a bandit. So we went looking for the stones. But in six months, we never found anyone who traded with him. One day I saw a child playing with a ruby the size of a tangerine. The bandit had been throwing them away.
Bruce Wayne: Then why steal them?
Alfred Pennyworth: Because he thought it was good sport. Because some men aren't looking for anything logical, like money. They can't be bought, bullied, reasoned or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn.
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Monday, September 12, 2011
Map 3: The Hammertoe Strait
Watercolor by Jack Brummet
[water on d'Arches paper with pen, ink, and Sharpie]
[water on d'Arches paper with pen, ink, and Sharpie]
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Sunday, September 11, 2011
Saturday, September 10, 2011
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