I haven't broken out the Terraform software (a terrain editor and generator) in years...I did this river and valley in about ten minutes.
click to enlarge
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Friday, September 30, 2011
Terraform
By Jack Brummet, Software Editor
I haven't broken out the Terraform software (a terrain editor and generator) in years...I did this river and valley in about ten minutes.
I haven't broken out the Terraform software (a terrain editor and generator) in years...I did this river and valley in about ten minutes.
Those wacky monkeys typing away at Shakespeare may actually succeed one of these days
By Jack Brummet, Poetry Editor
Maureen O'Connor just wrote an article titled "Monkeys on Typewriters ‘Close to Reproducing Shakespeare." We've written about the Shakespeare/Monkey theorem a few times before, and a few years ago we participated in a crowd-sourced/distributed computing project that put virtual monkeys typing away on thousands of peoples computers in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. I think we came up with a couple of lines from two or three plays.
"As a fun side project," Jesse Anderson created millions of small computer programs that generate "random sequences of nine characters." As each sequence is created, it is compared to Shakespeare's oeuvre; if it matches anywhere, it gets checked off a list. The monkeys have been typing for 35 days, and most recently completed "A Lover's Complaint."
"Those monkeys are typing Shakespeare in order, so monkey-literature-ologists aren't sure if it should "count."
As it turns out, the one time someone actually went out and hired real monkeys to do the mashing, the sequences weren't even random, according to an article in the Daily Telegraph:
Maureen O'Connor just wrote an article titled "Monkeys on Typewriters ‘Close to Reproducing Shakespeare." We've written about the Shakespeare/Monkey theorem a few times before, and a few years ago we participated in a crowd-sourced/distributed computing project that put virtual monkeys typing away on thousands of peoples computers in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. I think we came up with a couple of lines from two or three plays.
"A computer programmer testing the "Infinite Monkey Theorem"—that, with enough time, a monkey randomly mashing a typewriter would eventually type the complete works of Shakespeare—says his virtual monkeys will soon complete the works, way ahead of their infinity deadline!"
According to another article by Nick Collins in The Telegraph: "The monkeys, which started typing on August 21, have already completed more than five trillion of the 5.5 trillion possible nine-letter combinations, but have so far only finished one whole work. But the experiment is an imperfect reproduction of the infinite monkey theorem because it saves correct sections of text while discarding future wrong guesses, experts said."
According to another article by Nick Collins in The Telegraph: "The monkeys, which started typing on August 21, have already completed more than five trillion of the 5.5 trillion possible nine-letter combinations, but have so far only finished one whole work. But the experiment is an imperfect reproduction of the infinite monkey theorem because it saves correct sections of text while discarding future wrong guesses, experts said."
"As a fun side project," Jesse Anderson created millions of small computer programs that generate "random sequences of nine characters." As each sequence is created, it is compared to Shakespeare's oeuvre; if it matches anywhere, it gets checked off a list. The monkeys have been typing for 35 days, and most recently completed "A Lover's Complaint."
"Those monkeys are typing Shakespeare in order, so monkey-literature-ologists aren't sure if it should "count."
As it turns out, the one time someone actually went out and hired real monkeys to do the mashing, the sequences weren't even random, according to an article in the Daily Telegraph:
"In 2003 the Arts Council for England paid £2,000 for a real-life test of the theorem involving six Sulawesi crested macaques, but the trial was abandoned after a month.
The monkeys produced five pages of text, mainly composed of the letter S, but failed to type anything close to a word of English, broke the computer and used the keyboard as a lavatory."
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Thursday, September 29, 2011
Robert Plutchik's "Wheel of Emotions"
By Mona Goldwater
Psychology and behavioral sciences editor
Thirty years ago, Robert Plutchik created a wheel of emotions. He believed there were eight primary/bipolar emotions: joy versus sadness; anger versus fear; trust versus disgust; and surprise versus anticipation. His model also connects the idea of an emotion circle and a color wheel. The primary emotions can be expressed just like colors at different intensities and you can mix with one with the other to form different emotions.
Psychology and behavioral sciences editor
Thirty years ago, Robert Plutchik created a wheel of emotions. He believed there were eight primary/bipolar emotions: joy versus sadness; anger versus fear; trust versus disgust; and surprise versus anticipation. His model also connects the idea of an emotion circle and a color wheel. The primary emotions can be expressed just like colors at different intensities and you can mix with one with the other to form different emotions.
| Human Feelings (The results of Emotions) | Feelings | Opposite |
|---|---|---|
| Optimism | Anticipation + Joy | Disapproval |
| Love | Joy + Trust | Remorse |
| Submission | Trust + Fear | Contempt |
| Awe | Fear + Surprise | Aggression |
| Disappointment | Surprise + Sadness | Optimism |
| Remorse | Sadness + Disgust | Love |
| Contempt | Disgust + Anger | Submission |
| Aggression | Anger + Anticipation | Awe |
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Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Eric Schulman's "History of the Universe in 200 Words or Less"
By Jack Brummet
Unexplained Phenomena Editor
This is Eric Schulman's "History of the Universe in 200 Words or Less." I have been been grokking on this one for a couple of weeks (and looking up the words and phrases I didn't understand). Wow.
These 200 words inspired A Briefer History of Time which also led to the Annals of Improbable Research Universal History Translation Project. Reprinted from the AIR, Volume III, Number 1, January/February 1997, page 27.
Unexplained Phenomena Editor
This is Eric Schulman's "History of the Universe in 200 Words or Less." I have been been grokking on this one for a couple of weeks (and looking up the words and phrases I didn't understand). Wow.
These 200 words inspired A Briefer History of Time which also led to the Annals of Improbable Research Universal History Translation Project. Reprinted from the AIR, Volume III, Number 1, January/February 1997, page 27.
Quantum fluctuation. Inflation. Expansion. Strong nuclear interaction. Particle-antiparticle annihilation. Deuterium and helium production. Density perturbations. Recombination. Blackbody radiation. Local contraction. Cluster formation. Reionization? Violent relaxation. Virialization. Biased galaxy formation? Turbulent fragmentation. Contraction. Ionization. Compression. Opaque hydrogen. Massive star formation. Deuterium ignition. Hydrogen fusion. Hydrogen depletion. Core contraction. Envelope expansion. Helium fusion. Carbon, oxygen, and silicon fusion. Iron production. Implosion. Supernova explosion. Metals injection. Star formation. Supernova explosions. Star formation. Condensation. Planetesimal accretion. Planetary differentiation. Crust solidification. Volatile gas expulsion. Water condensation. Water dissociation. Ozone production. Ultraviolet absorption. Photosynthetic unicellular organisms. Oxidation. Mutation. Natural selection and evolution. Respiration. Cell differentiation. Sexual reproduction. Fossilization. Land exploration. Dinosaur extinction. Mammal expansion. Glaciation. Homo sapiens manifestation. Animal domestication. Food surplus production. Civilization! Innovation. Exploration. Religion. Warring nations. Empire creation and destruction. Exploration. Colonization. Taxation without representation. Revolution. Constitution. Election. Expansion. Industrialization. Rebellion. Emancipation Proclamation. Invention. Mass production. Urbanization. Immigration. World conflagration. League of Nations. Suffrage extension. Depression. World conflagration. Fission explosions. United Nations. Space exploration. Assassinations. Lunar excursions. Resignation. Computerization. World Trade Organization. Terrorism. Internet expansion. Reunification. Dissolution. World-Wide Web creation. Composition. Extrapolation?
Copyright 1996-1997 by Eric Schulman.
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Copyright 1996-1997 by Eric Schulman.
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Alien Lore No. 216 - Our Message In A Bottle, Lobbed Into The Cosmos
By Jack Brummet, Alien Lore Editor
For the last forty years or so, we've beamed messages into the cosmos in hopes of contacting our cousins—if we actually have cousins—way Out There. We take our best guess and fire off something we hope they're smart enough to decode or understand. Some of this stuff is pretty strange, to say the least.
photo courtesy of Nasa/Jet Propulsion Lab
The Pioneer Plaques are identical, gold-plated plaques attached to the Pioneer 10 and 11 spacecraft. The plaques contain a picture of the solar system (which they would presumably understand), a picture of the Pioneer, and a picture of "a hyperfine transition of neutral hydrogen," we were sure that whoever was smart enough to recover our spacecraft would Get It.
The Pioneer Plaque attached to Voyager 10, photo courtesy of Nasa/Jet Propulsion Lab
According to NASA, The Pioneer Plaque "is designed to show scientifically educated inhabitants of some other star system, who might intercept it millions of years from now, when Pioneer was launched, from where, and by what kind of beings. (With the hope that they would not invade Earth.) The design is etched into a 6 inch by 9 inch gold-anodized aluminum plate, attached to the spacecraft's antenna support struts in a position to help shield it from erosion by interstellar dust. The radiating lines at left represents the positions of 14 pulsars, a cosmic source of radio energy, arranged to indicate our sun as the home star of our civilization. The "1-" symbols at the ends of the lines are binary numbers that represent the frequencies of these pulsars at the time of launch of Pioneer F relative of that to the hydrogen atom shown at the upper left with a "1" unity symbol. The hydrogen atom is thus used as a "universal clock," and the regular decrease in the frequencies of the pulsars will enable another civilization to determine the time that has elapsed since Pioneer F was launched. The hydrogen is also used as a "universal yardstick" for sizing the human figures and outline of the spacecraft shown on the right. The hydrogen wavelength, about 8 inches, multiplied by the binary number representing "8" shown next to the woman gives her height, 64 inches. The figures represent the type of creature that created Pioneer. The man's hand is raised in a gesture of good will. Across the bottom are the planets, ranging outward from the Sun, with the spacecraft trajectory arching away from Earth, passing Mars, and swinging by Jupiter."
The Voyager Record, is literally a metal record...an LP...a long-player. It even includes Chuck Berry's "Johnny B. Goode."
Photograph of the Voyager Record photo courtesy of Nasa/Jet Propulsion Lab
The 12 inch gold-plated copper discs contain "greetings in 60 languages, samples of music from different cultures and eras, and natural and man-made sounds from Earth. They also contain electronic information that an advanced technological civilization could convert into diagrams and photographs. Currently, both Voyager probes are sailing adrift in the black sea of interplanetary space, having left our solar system years ago."
The Arecibo Image is a short binary message beamed into space. When decoded, it creates an image that looks similar to an 80's video game:
Dr. Frank Drake, of Cornell University, wrote the message, with help from Carl Sagan, and others. The encoded message has seven parts:
1) the numbers one (1) through ten (10);
2) the atomic numbers of the elements hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and phosphorus which make up DNA;
3) the formulas for the sugars and bases in the nucleotides of DNA/the number of nucleotides in DNA;
4) a graphic of the double helix structure of DNA;
5) a graphic figure of a man, the dimension (physical height) of an average man, and the human population of Earth ;
6) a graphic of Earth's solar system;
7) a graphic of the Arecibo radio telescope and the dimension (the physical diameter) of the transmitting antenna dish.
[Ed's note: Arecibo in Puerto Rico sends messages to the universe, and is the site where SETI attempts to track blips in the universe and link them to other intelligent beings.]
It will take 25,000 years for the message to reach its target of of stars (and, presumably, an additional 25,000 years for the return trip for any reply). Interestingly, the stars the message is aimed at will no longer be there when it arrives. According to a Cornell News press release of Nov. 12, 1999, the real purpose of the message was not to make contact, but to demonstrate the capabilities of newly installed equipment.
The Teenage Message was beamed into space in 2001. It starts with some radio-transmission Doppler-tuning and then segues into theremin music, and ends with more binary images, including a logo for the Teenage Message program itself.
According to SETI, in 2001, "a group of Russian teens from Moscow, Kaluga, Voronezh, and Zheleznogorsk participated directly and via the Internet in composing a Teen-Age Message (TAM) to extraterrestrial intelligence, and in the selection of target stars. Their message was transmitted in the Autumn of that year, from the Evpatoria Deep Space Center."
"Two previous interstellar radio messages (IRM), one transmitted from Arecibo in 1974 and the one from Evpatoria in 1999, had digital format and represented binary scans of one (Are) or 23 (Evp) black-and-white stylized images. But one might suppose that transmission of analog IRMs is also possible. So, before composing the message's content (as well as trying to decode future signals from ETI), let us try to determine such a message's possible format and structure."
Television Signals are a longstanding science fiction trope in which greys, or "Martians," or aliens intercept television shows and are so impressed with a show that it becomes the basis for their entire civilization. You may have seen some variation of this story on The Twilight Zone. If our TV signals really do become extraterrestrial messages, who wouldn't love to see the results?
I'd like to see the Hee Haw or the Andy Griffith Show as the basis of a civilization, or maybe Celebrity Boxing, F Troop, The Sopranos, My Mother The Car, or maybe even Cop Rock.
For the last forty years or so, we've beamed messages into the cosmos in hopes of contacting our cousins—if we actually have cousins—way Out There. We take our best guess and fire off something we hope they're smart enough to decode or understand. Some of this stuff is pretty strange, to say the least.
photo courtesy of Nasa/Jet Propulsion Lab
The Pioneer Plaques are identical, gold-plated plaques attached to the Pioneer 10 and 11 spacecraft. The plaques contain a picture of the solar system (which they would presumably understand), a picture of the Pioneer, and a picture of "a hyperfine transition of neutral hydrogen," we were sure that whoever was smart enough to recover our spacecraft would Get It.
The Pioneer Plaque attached to Voyager 10, photo courtesy of Nasa/Jet Propulsion Lab
According to NASA, The Pioneer Plaque "is designed to show scientifically educated inhabitants of some other star system, who might intercept it millions of years from now, when Pioneer was launched, from where, and by what kind of beings. (With the hope that they would not invade Earth.) The design is etched into a 6 inch by 9 inch gold-anodized aluminum plate, attached to the spacecraft's antenna support struts in a position to help shield it from erosion by interstellar dust. The radiating lines at left represents the positions of 14 pulsars, a cosmic source of radio energy, arranged to indicate our sun as the home star of our civilization. The "1-" symbols at the ends of the lines are binary numbers that represent the frequencies of these pulsars at the time of launch of Pioneer F relative of that to the hydrogen atom shown at the upper left with a "1" unity symbol. The hydrogen atom is thus used as a "universal clock," and the regular decrease in the frequencies of the pulsars will enable another civilization to determine the time that has elapsed since Pioneer F was launched. The hydrogen is also used as a "universal yardstick" for sizing the human figures and outline of the spacecraft shown on the right. The hydrogen wavelength, about 8 inches, multiplied by the binary number representing "8" shown next to the woman gives her height, 64 inches. The figures represent the type of creature that created Pioneer. The man's hand is raised in a gesture of good will. Across the bottom are the planets, ranging outward from the Sun, with the spacecraft trajectory arching away from Earth, passing Mars, and swinging by Jupiter."
The Voyager Record, is literally a metal record...an LP...a long-player. It even includes Chuck Berry's "Johnny B. Goode."
Photograph of the Voyager Record photo courtesy of Nasa/Jet Propulsion Lab
The 12 inch gold-plated copper discs contain "greetings in 60 languages, samples of music from different cultures and eras, and natural and man-made sounds from Earth. They also contain electronic information that an advanced technological civilization could convert into diagrams and photographs. Currently, both Voyager probes are sailing adrift in the black sea of interplanetary space, having left our solar system years ago."
The Arecibo Image is a short binary message beamed into space. When decoded, it creates an image that looks similar to an 80's video game:
Dr. Frank Drake, of Cornell University, wrote the message, with help from Carl Sagan, and others. The encoded message has seven parts:
1) the numbers one (1) through ten (10);
2) the atomic numbers of the elements hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and phosphorus which make up DNA;
3) the formulas for the sugars and bases in the nucleotides of DNA/the number of nucleotides in DNA;
4) a graphic of the double helix structure of DNA;
5) a graphic figure of a man, the dimension (physical height) of an average man, and the human population of Earth ;
6) a graphic of Earth's solar system;
7) a graphic of the Arecibo radio telescope and the dimension (the physical diameter) of the transmitting antenna dish.
[Ed's note: Arecibo in Puerto Rico sends messages to the universe, and is the site where SETI attempts to track blips in the universe and link them to other intelligent beings.]
It will take 25,000 years for the message to reach its target of of stars (and, presumably, an additional 25,000 years for the return trip for any reply). Interestingly, the stars the message is aimed at will no longer be there when it arrives. According to a Cornell News press release of Nov. 12, 1999, the real purpose of the message was not to make contact, but to demonstrate the capabilities of newly installed equipment.
The Teenage Message was beamed into space in 2001. It starts with some radio-transmission Doppler-tuning and then segues into theremin music, and ends with more binary images, including a logo for the Teenage Message program itself.
According to SETI, in 2001, "a group of Russian teens from Moscow, Kaluga, Voronezh, and Zheleznogorsk participated directly and via the Internet in composing a Teen-Age Message (TAM) to extraterrestrial intelligence, and in the selection of target stars. Their message was transmitted in the Autumn of that year, from the Evpatoria Deep Space Center."
"Two previous interstellar radio messages (IRM), one transmitted from Arecibo in 1974 and the one from Evpatoria in 1999, had digital format and represented binary scans of one (Are) or 23 (Evp) black-and-white stylized images. But one might suppose that transmission of analog IRMs is also possible. So, before composing the message's content (as well as trying to decode future signals from ETI), let us try to determine such a message's possible format and structure."
Television Signals are a longstanding science fiction trope in which greys, or "Martians," or aliens intercept television shows and are so impressed with a show that it becomes the basis for their entire civilization. You may have seen some variation of this story on The Twilight Zone. If our TV signals really do become extraterrestrial messages, who wouldn't love to see the results?
I'd like to see the Hee Haw or the Andy Griffith Show as the basis of a civilization, or maybe Celebrity Boxing, F Troop, The Sopranos, My Mother The Car, or maybe even Cop Rock.
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The National Debt—apportioning blame from RWR down to BHO
By Pablo Fanque, National Affairs Editor
illustration by Jack Brummet
This is an interesting chart, and you can poke a lot of holes in it in various spots, but it is more or less correct. And while the s***-storm began coming down during President George W. Bush's last year in office, and may indeed have been aggravated by his actions and policies, we all know, ineluctably, that the bulk of the blame is apportioned—whether it makes sense or not—on the President upon whose watch said s***-storm finally came down, whether he really he had anything to do with it or not.
President Obama is on track to raise about $1 billion dollars in campaign contributions. It will be interesting to see if even that war chest can deflect the ugly mood out there in America.
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illustration by Jack Brummet
This is an interesting chart, and you can poke a lot of holes in it in various spots, but it is more or less correct. And while the s***-storm began coming down during President George W. Bush's last year in office, and may indeed have been aggravated by his actions and policies, we all know, ineluctably, that the bulk of the blame is apportioned—whether it makes sense or not—on the President upon whose watch said s***-storm finally came down, whether he really he had anything to do with it or not.
President Obama is on track to raise about $1 billion dollars in campaign contributions. It will be interesting to see if even that war chest can deflect the ugly mood out there in America.---o0o---
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Monday, September 26, 2011
Alan Lomax portraits of Stavin' Chain and Wayne Perry performing, Lafayette, La.
Courtesy of the Library of Congress Prints and
Photographs Division, Alan Lomax Collection
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Breakin' rocks in the hot sun: two photographs from Alan Lomax
click to enlarge - photos courtesy of
the Library of Congress, Alan Lomax Collection
click to enlarge - photos courtesy of
the Library of Congress, Alan Lomax Collection
Prisoners breaking rocks at a prison camp. The exact date of these photographs is unknown, but they were taken between 1934 and 1950. From Alan Lomax, the national treasure and incredible ethnomusicologist and folklorist.
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An 1855 Daguerreotype
click to enlarge - Courtesy of the Library of Congress, Daguerreotype collection
An unidentified man and woman, seated, facing front, by Francis Grice, 1855.
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