Caraccioli

Yeah, but the founders of the church though that too. So ennui created by the imminency of the coming of Christ would go all the way back to 1 and 2 A.D. The dark ages didn't start until around 500 AD.

Close...but not quite. What's really important about this (at least to this crowd) is who wore it.

Look no further than the church...

Ok, some of you should find this one easy (I hope). What is this? (Besides, "A Bear or something"?) [Edit: Since I split this out or the Random Topics thread and made it into a game, I guess whomever guesses this item correctly (which does NOT have the name of the item in the picture in its title) should post the next picture of an item to be guessed. Like the movie game, please don't post a photo of an item until you've guessed the current item correctly. Otherwise the thread becomes a giant pain in the arse to follow.]

Yah, I thought of that, but I had already posted it onto my site and was too lazy to change the name. I don't think most people would have thought to do what you did, though. (I just liked the idea that the "beautiful" butterflies are actually sort of creepy looking when you can't see their wings. )

Two companies are working on making caps that will allow you to control games using your mind, possibly within the next year! Cool. Soon we may be able to control our computers using brain waves (to some degree). I don't think we'll be able to think text and have the computer type it up for us any time soon (if ever), but...it's still pretty neat. This is all from an article I read in the March 17th The Economist. (You can actually read the whole article on-line as the The Economist is one of those strange publications that thinks giving away everything for free on the net will help their bottom line. The article can be viewed here: http://www.economist.com/science/displayst...tory_id=8847846 ) Some excerpts: "...Emotiv Systems and NeuroSky, two young companies based in California, that plan to transport the measurement of brain waves from the medical sphere into the realm of computer games. If all goes well, their first products should be on the market next year. People will then be able to tell a computer what they want it to do just by thinking about it. Tedious fiddling about with mice and joysticks will become irritants of the past." "Emotiv recently unveiled a prototype headset that has a mere 18 electrodes. Moreover, no gel is needed for these electrodes to make a good contact with the headset-wearer's scalp. Emotiv claims that its system can detect brain signals associated with facial expressions such as smiles and winks, different emotional states such as excitement and calmness, and even conscious thoughts such as the desire to move a particular object. It will not say precisely how this trick is done, but it seems to work well enough to make a virtual character in a game mimic a player's own facial expression, as well as permitting that player to move things around just by thinking about it." "For Stanley Yang, the boss of NeuroSky, even 18 sensors seems too clunky. His firm's technology has reduced the brainwave pickup to the minimum specification imaginable—a single electrode. Existing versions of this electrode are small enough to fit into a mobile phone and Mr Yang claims they will soon be shrunk to the size of a thumbnail, enabling people to wear them without noticing. Reducing the mind-reader to this bare minimum makes it cheap—about $20, compared with several hundred for Emotiv's headset—though it is not as precise. But that lack of precision may not matter. According to Klaus-Robert Müller, a computer scientist at the Fraunhofer Institute in Berlin who has been studying the problem for years, a single well-placed electrode is sufficient to gather meaningful information from brain waves. On the other hand, Dr Müller and his team have been unable, as yet, to produce a device that works well outside the cosseted environment of a laboratory. "

Hmm. You come in, post one thing that is a sales job with a link to some site that I daren't follow because you raised the specter of spam... I'd say yes; all this looks sort of like spam to me. If you'd been around the site participating in the posting elsewhere and posting things other than potential ads, I'd be a bit less cynical. But you haven't.

Really? That's too bad. Next to the A-Team, McGuyver was my favorite on-the-spot engineer. You know what didn't age well at all? Speed Racer. I loved that show when I was a kid, but boy...it sure looks stupid to me now! I suppose that's how The Wiggles will appear to the youth of today. ("I liked that?!")

Hogan's Heroes inspired your re-enacting interest? I'd be curious to hear about that one. (Was it Newkirk dressed as an old fraulein with a Cockney-German accent? ) Hey, I hear they're going to release season 2 of F-Troop. Hooray! Season 1 must have sold well. I'm looking forward to it. BTW, I mentioned Tales of the Gold Monkey in a previous post and I notice that Amazon has a sort of waiting list going where they'll email you when it comes out on DVD. I suspect this is actually an interest gage for releasing the show to DVD... If anyone has the power to get it released, I suppose Amazon would be one of the top 2 or 3 entities. So if you, like me, would like to see it released, sign up for the waiting list and they'll supposedly email you when it comes out. It's a show about a pilot of a Grumman Goose in the 30s in the South Pacific with a sort of Indiana Jones flair. It even has a pirate dog. (Come to think of it, I may just change my avatar...sorry Tuco.) Anyhow, if it interests you, check it out at Amazon here.

I just received a notification that Firefox wants to update itself and It reminded me that I switched from Windows Explorer to Firefox about 3 months ago after over a year of subtle nagging from a friend of mine. I should have switched that year ago instead of resisting. No more banner ads! Yay! (Sorry if I sound like a advertisement, but it really seems to be every bit as good as Explorer in most ways and significantly better in others.) My only gripes are that you have to download a bunch of add on programs to make certain things work (like removal of banner ads - which, so far, appears to be almost flawlessly executed) and that certain things just flat don't work. For example, I can't get my UPS label printer to connect properly to our on-line account, so I always have to go back to Explorer for that. Overall, though - a much better experience. Plus I like their Tabs better than Explorer's, although I can't pinpoint exactly why.

There are a lot of words like that and there's a word for them, although, ironically enough, it escapes me at the moment. Viscosity reminds me of another word which (to me) sounds nothing like what it actually means. In fact, it's meaning is related to elegiac - which also sounds nothing like what it means to me: lugubrious (lu·gu·bri·ous) adj - Mournful, dismal, or gloomy, especially to an exaggerated or ludicrous degree. It sounds like something viscous and it is clearly not.

I think my grounding in the old series makes it doubly interesting for me. I was never a huge fan of the original series or anything, but I was a SW geek at the age where the old BSG sort of thing was a pretty watchable alternative (or at least reasonable filler). This new series appears to have layers of complexity that are beyond the original series and even beyond most other series'. Usually shows with characters of this much depth focus on a few (2-4) of them. But this show seems to have lots of characters to look at. It appears to have borrowed some good ideas from Firefly, though. The large ensemble cast and pretend swear words come to mind. Starbuck is just cool. She's a tough ESTP chick whom I'll bet will be revealed to have a soft side that we'll only see rarely when the drama is most poignant. And Baltar...what a hoot. I suspect he's going to be one of those villains that you like as much as you hate. Sometimes I find that irritating, but they seem to have found just the right tightrope to walk with him. The Cylon memory implant chick really helps shunt your dislike of him away and funnel it into her character (even though you know she's right about him most of the time...that line from Raider's comes to mind... "It would only take a nudge to make you like me, to push you out of the light." And I've already gone on and on about how much I like Olmos. I've always thought he hit just the right notes in his characterizations, even back in the Miami Vice days. He underplays his roles perfectly - makes you want to know more. The only fly in the ointment will be how much they can get from the situation before it becomes stale. I mean, floating in space looking for something they don't believe even exists can lose its edge after awhile. It did in the original series. The interplay of the characters will really be the sink or swim factor. It looks like swim to me. They've spent some time thinking this out. You guys and gals are gonna bring me back to the sci-fi fold yet.

Well! Apparently my Insects of the Moment thread was deleted last year! I'm tellin' ya'... it just ain't fair! In lieu of posting there and in honor of the sad passing of a really idiotic thread (but it was my idiotic thread), here is the insect of the moment. Guess what it is.

Dragging this one up from the depths...

elegiac, adj. - Of, relating to, or involving elegy or mourning or expressing sorrow for that which is irrecoverably past. I thought of this word today while driving about. For some reason, I thought it meant "very readable" or even "well written." So I figured I'd better share my new found knowledge with everyone before you used it incorrectly like I almost did.

I watched the rest of the BSG: The Miniseries last night (3+ hours long!). That ending sequence where they're all making the jump to light speed with cover fire from the Gallactica is probably one of the best space battle sequences I can recall. George Lucas, for all his adding of ships and background to the space sequences to the new SW movies didn't capture what I perceive as the chaotic nature of dogfight battles interspersed with cover fire from capital ships as well as they did in this little mini-series. (Although the opening scenes of Episode 3 were pretty good.) Plus the tribal drums with minimalist musical touches really made it stand out for some reason. You wouldn't think primal drums would make any sense at all in a space battle, but it just seemed to work. We also got another cool insight into Starbuck's character. I think she alone would make this series interesting to watch for me. Add Olmos and the Baltar character and it looks to be a worthwhile waste of time.

I went back and watched Serenity again. It made slightly more sense, I guess, but it pretty well made sense the first time. Two minor things... First, didn't they imply that Earth had been destroyed in the series? ("Earth that was") In the movie, they just indicate that everyone left because of overpopulation. Second, why did Mal decide to bring River as one of the five people on the mule? He had never shown much interest in her before when she could have been used in the capacity. (Like when they went on the drifting ship that had been attacked by the Reavers - she came with them, but of her own volition.) I also watched a lot of the BSG show I rented from Netflix. I really like the way they set that one up. Zoe should have been intro'd the way Starbuck was. You know right away who Starbuck is and have a pretty good idea about where she is going in the series. In fact, all of the character intros were well done IMO. Plus it's always nice to see Edward James Olmos in a good role. (Commander Adammit). They seem to have incorporated most of the characters from the old show, but re-characterized many of them and subtly shaded their pasts and interconnections for added plot possibilities. (Tell me the Daggit shows up eventually. They have to have the stupid Daggit, right?) Plus Gaius Baltar and the sublimated subconscious 6 is an interesting character. It's a pretty neat idea. (Although, why does she change clothes? She's a projected image, right? Gaius needs variety in his subconsciously chip-programmed projected image? You wouldn't think Cylons would be all that concerned with clothing to begin with.) The use of the old technology from the old TV show is also well integrated. Very cool. They even give a nod (well, several nods) to the old Cylon Centurians. It uses stuff from the old show without making fun of it (like recent Brady Bunch movies) or being cloying (like the Starsky & Hutch movie) while at the same time not being slavishly devoted to it, allowing for the incorporation of technology that didn't exist when the original series was run. It is quite adult, as I remembered from catching bits and pieces when I had TV reception. I don't exactly recall the tension between the military and civilians on the original show, but perhaps I just didn't notice it. It looks to be quite good - multi-faceted characters and multi-level plot possibilities. Thanks for the tip, Blackjohn.

I so wish they hadn't patched that stupid ending on that track. It has such promise otherwise...(grumble) (Say, maybe they'll find a way to expand it in POTC 3!)

Well whaddaya know? The Ultimate Sandbox is still available here. (I bought it from an ad in a space exploration magazine I briefly subscribed to.) That would fit right in with those Victorian pieces on auction at Christies. I'm surprised it wasn't included...

Oh, ah. Very nice. I've always liked broad landscapes as well. Mostly for viewing, though, not for my walls. There are two oils here at the DIA of a huge waterfall in the Catskill Mountains (one from the top and one from the foot) that I have always been partial to. I cut classes one day (Statistics lab, ironically enough) to go and gaze at them. Oh, for the halcyon daze of my youth...) Speaking of the DIA, there is an Ansel Adams show going on here in Detroit at the DIA. I'll bet that would be up your alley, Jill.

For the lazy, click here. Colors were so muted in the 18th and 19th century. Thank God we got Technicolor in the 20th. I'm a bit more partial to this one myself. That would look nice in my library. (It has an engineering theme. Actually, it contains a picture of a little girl in a pink space suit building sandcastles on the moon and another with a cat in a spacesuit clawing the moon's surface. They're called The Ultimate Sandbox and The Ultimate Litterbox, respectively. One of these days I have to get some photos of that room and post them on my site. Yep, one of these days...) Here's one that reminds me of Blackjohn.

For an absurdly long list of about 1000 different pirates by name, sorted by nationality and last name (but without bios), look no further than this very website in Captain Twill: Pirate Nationalities (Origins) Sources are given, although some may not provide you with much biographical info. In fact, some of them are from library papers and court documents that were submitted by posters on another site.

This one sounds good, too: False Alarm: The Truth about the Epidemic of Fear by Marc MD Siegel "Life today for citizens of the developed world is safer, easier, and healthier than for any other people in history thanks to modern medicine, science, technology, and intelligence. So why is an epidemic of fear sweeping America? The answer, according to nationally renowned health commentator Dr. Marc Siegel, is that we live in an artificially created culture of fear. In False Alarm, Siegel identifies three major catalysts of the culture of fear—government, the media, and big pharma. With fascinating, blow-by-blow analyses of the most sensational false alarms of the past few years, he shows how these fearmongers manipulate our most primitive instincts—often without our even realizing it. False Alarm shows us how to look behind the hype and hysteria, inoculate ourselves against fear tactics, and develop the emotional and intellectual skills needed to take back our lives."

Is that from the back of a cereal box? I'm sure I remember that particular scene from the back of a cereal box... Those paints really sucked if I remember it correctly.

Well there is a real mix of clothing styles in the various external world mise-en-scènes that suggests that more than just the US and China are still culturally prominent. Info in the extras state that the Chinese translations include more than just swearing and that some of it is quite humorous. It sounds kinda' like learning what it is Popeye is saying when he mumbles in the old Fleischer cartoons... The extras also state that the US culture is dominant (as the majority of the language suggests) while Chinese is spoken by everyone, including the lowest, er, caste (I guess). So that would suggest the US had "won" whatever there was to win when Earth gets destroyed. (Say, this reminds me of a JP quote. Not quite finished with my umpteenth re-reading yet, though.) "You think you can destroy the planet? My, what intoxicating power you must have. You can't destroy this planet. You can't even come close... "Let me tell you about our planet. Our planet is four and a half billion years old. There has been life on this planet for nearly that long. Three point eight billion years. The first bacteria. And, later, the first multicellular animals, then the first complex creatures, in the sea, on the land. Then the great sweeping ages of animals - the amphibians, the dinosaurs, the mammals, each lasting millions upon millions of years. Great dynasties of creatures arising, flourishing, dying away. All this happening against a background of continuous and violent upheaval, mountain ranges thrust up and eroded away, cometary impacts, volcanic eruptions, oceans rising and falling, whole continents moving....Endless, constant and violent change...Even today the greatest geographic features on the planet comes from two great continents colliding, buckling to make the Himalayan mountain range over millions of years. The planet has survived everything in its time. It will certainly survive us..." "Suppose there was [a radioactive accident]. Let's say we had a bad one, and all the plants and animals died and the earth was clicking hot for a hundred thousand years. Life would survive somewhere - under the soil, or perhaps frozen in Arctic ice. And after all those years, when the planet was no longer inhospitable, life would again spread over the planet. The evolutionary process would begin again. It might take a few billion year for life to regain its present variety. And of course it would be very different from what it is now. But the earth would survive our folly. Life would survive our folly. Only we think it wouldn't.. "My point is that life on earth can take care of itself. In the thinking of a human being, a hundred years is a long time......But to the earth a hundred years is nothing. A million years is nothing. This planet lives and breathes on a much vaster scale. We can't imagine its slow and powerful rhythms , and we haven't got the humility to try. We have been residents here for the blink of an eye. If we were gone tomorrow the earth won't miss us..." "Lets be clear. The planet is not in jeopardy. We are in jeopardy. We haven't got the power to destroy the planet - or to save it. But we might have the power to save ourselves." -Ian Malcolm, excerpted, Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton