The Unfolding of Language: An Evolutionary Tour of Mankind's Greatest Invention:
 Quote: >Language is mankind's greatest invention-except, of course, that it was never invented." So begins linguist Guy Deutscher's enthralling investigation into the genesis and evolution of language. If we started off with rudimentary utterances on the level of "man throw spear," how did we end up with sophisticated grammars, enormous vocabularies, and intricately nuanced degrees of meaning?< Link Hirohito and History: Japanese and American Perspectives on the Emperor and World War II in Asia.
Link Bruce Wayne, Defendant: "Batman Begins"? The entire movie could be a "spot-the-issues" law school exam. And not just the easy ones, like Bruce Wayne getting prosecuted for arson for allegedly burning down his mansion.
Link Pilgrims flock to image of Jesus on Bosnian tree: Christians are flocking to a northwestern Bosnian town to view an image of Jesus Christ that allegedly appeared in a section of a cut tree branch two days ago, Bosnian media reported on Friday.
Link Santa and little helper seen beyond Pluto: Two sets of astronomers have spotted a new planetoid in the outskirts of our Solar System. It is the brightest object in the region after Pluto, and it has its own small moon.
Link monochrom info service // Funeral: Prof. Georg Paul Thomann: On July 21, 2005 Austrian artist and writer Prof. Georg Paul Thomann died in a tragic accident at the tender age of 60.
 Here are the first pictures of his funeral (July 29, 2005). Thanks Esel for the wonderful photo documentation. Slideshow / Link Psychic Vibrations: Tsunami Conspiracies and Hollow Moons: Intro: "Almost as soon as the scope of the destruction became clear from the recent tragic tsunami that devastated much of coastal southern Asia, claims began to surface of strange events associated with it. Humans are pattern-seekers, and to many it seems impossible that an event so awesome and destructive could occur without at least some violation of the natural order, no matter how small."
Link Atomic bomb chemist Ray Crist dies: Ray Crist, a chemist who helped produce the atomic bomb as a member of the Manhattan Project, died this week at the age of 105.
Link Conservatism: Burke, Nozick, Bush, Blair? By Ted Honderich. Intro: "What follows here is the first chapter, 'Change and Reform', of a book that inquires into the distinctions and rationale of the political tradition of conservatism. The book, now much enlarged and revised, was originally Conservatism, published in 1989 as a contribution to an election. Now, in particular, each chapter ends with a sizeable section on what replaced the Labour Party in Britain, the New Labour Party. For good measure, the final section of the second chapter, partly on something known as The Third Way, is added to the final section of the first chapter below. To the book's progress towards finding the rationale of the tradition of conservatism, as you will anticipate, is added progress towards deciding on the nature of New Labour. An actual analysis of the ideology and reality of the tradition of conservatism is of use in deciding whether New Labour is in it, and maybe a start towards answering the question of New Labour's place in history. The other chapters, after the first one on change and reform: Theory, Other Thinking, Incentives; Human Nature, Dealing With It; Freedoms; Government; Societies; Equalities; Desert, Conclusions. The book is published by the estimable Pluto Press."
Link Much Ado About Consciousness: Philosophy of Mind is a very exciting area in modern philosophy. One of those stirring up the dust is David Chalmers, an Australian philosopher who says that consciousness is a fundamental component of the universe, like space, time and mass. Andrew Chrucky asked the questions.
Link Face Off anyone: A team led by Dr. Siemionow is planning to undertake what may be the most shocking medical procedure to occur in decades: a face transplant.
Link  The Cracked Ambience: new and recommended sounds for your personal space
 AOKI TAKAMASA + TUJIKO NORIKO - 28 (Fat Cat) TOTAL SHUTDOWN / XBXRX - split (Rock is Hell) GRAM PARSONS - grievous angel TOM WAITS - rain dogs (Island) JERRY COLBURN - smell the love (Stripmall of sound) Vixen Creations Invents New Type of Synthetik Skin: Quote: "Looks like there's a new competitor to Cyberskin out on the market, and from the gossip on the street (yes, the street where everyone talks about dildos), it's supposed to be extra.... fleshy? Vixen Creations is releasing a new line of toys using a material they've discovered called VixSkin, claiming to be the closest thing to real skin that can't say no without legal consequences. The fact that they've named their first toy after everyone's favorite typesetting software is just icing on the cake." (via Slashdong)
Link Europe's inflexible bank: The European Central Bank seems accountable to no one and yet imposes punitive financial regimes on both old and new members of the EU. This has done nothing for growth or employment.
Link Taking Lula's Measure: Contested by popular movements from Buenos Aires to La Paz, the neoliberal model's fate in South America's most populous country. Emir Sader presents a balance sheet of the Lula government as it approaches the final year of its mandate amid continuing social iniquities, corruption allegations and comfort for finance.
Link Privacy Guru Locks Down VOIP: Phil Zimmermann, the man behind the Pretty Good Privacy encryption program for e-mail, is launching a new program that aims to provide the same security for internet phone calls.
Link Japan plans mind-boggling number-cruncher: The staggeringly powerful 10-petaflop supercomputer is expected to be a hybrid design, featuring several distinct types of processor.
Link Mystery AIDS Strain 'Patient Zero' Found: Doctors have identified the patient who is the source of a mystery strain of human immunodeficiency virus that sent waves of alarm through the AIDS community last February.
Link Russia’s Biggest Spammer Brutally Murdered in Apartment: Vardan Kushnir, notorious for sending spam to each and every citizen of Russia who appeared to have an e-mail, was found dead in his Moscow apartment on Sunday, Interfax reported Monday. He died after suffering repeated blows to the head.
Link The Skeptic's Dictionary:
 DaddyD writes: "Are you the type if person who just can't get friendly with tiny sugar balls and essence of flowers? Who starts giggling at people who call a massage energy work? If you do , then you might like the Skeptic's Dictionary. It features roughly 400 essays, descriptions and arguments on occult topics from acupuncture to zombies. Even if you aren't into the mythbusting thing, or proudly count yourself among the superstitious, this site has a lot of information that might be interesting. If nothing else, it's always good to know what the other side thinks. Right?" Link Feel Like A Stranger or, Why I Almost Wore a Skirt for the Grateful Dead: Why Matt Goldberg put on a skirt for The Greatful Dead. Intro: >In the beginning, before I'd seen sixty Grateful Dead shows in four countries, before my hair had grown halfway down my back and sported beaded and string-wrapped dreadlocks-before the Grizzly Adams beard, the multiple earrings, the Winnie the Pooh T-shirts and the clown pants , all I knew was that the lifestyle of the authentic Head was the only one for me. So in 1988, when I left home for college, still a clean-cut kid sporting short hair and a pair of Nikes, I set out to imitate the look and style exhibited by the charismatic young Heads who lit up the campus-and the parking lots outside the shows I'd been attending more and more frequently-with their flowing Day Glo garb and their seeming lack of any inhibitions or hang-ups. Taking inspiration from David Crosby's "Almost Cut My Hair," I decided to grow a flying freak flag of my own. Things kind of escalated from there, until one day I found myself standing in front of a full-length mirror, earnestly trying on dresses. Skirts really, since I was testing them out as part of an overall look that didn't call for a shirt. Or shoes for that matter. Just the thin, Batik-drenched, vaguely subcontinental skirts worn by approximately half of the women Heads one might meet on tour. You see, the kind of Heads to whom I initially looked for model behavior—the ones who went on tour four times a year and were always immediately identifiable as hippie types—opt for all the widely-known, politically correct sensitivities as a matter of course. Nonjudgmentalism, or, more accurately, a knee-jerk respect for difference, is a holy precept for Touring Heads. The Gaia-centric worldview, with a firm yet forgiving Earth Mother at its core, has no room for cocksure young bucks prancing about the fairgrounds being, well... cocksure. Which is why Touring Heads, particularly Touring female Heads, hold a special place in their hearts for those men among them who manage to transcend the bourgeois gender roles ingrained during their cookie-cutter suburban upbringings-by wearing skirts. For the chance to get laid more, if for no other reason, it seemed worth a try.<
Link Is There Anyone Out There ...Yes, 15,000 Times, Yes: The Ministry of Defence has examined the reports of more than 15,000 alleged UFO sightings over Britain since 1959 and is still keeping an open mind on the existence of aliens.
Link Zombies of the World, Unite: Excellent review of Romero's "Land of the Dead". Quote: "[I]f you're going to stick with authorial intent, you have to be content with some strong though not doctrinaire lefty politics. I say if you're going to do an anti-market screed, this is the way to do it. [...] I have to admit, Land of the Dead reminded me of how invigorating full-throated lefty agitprop can be in an entertaining movie."
Link Dustiest Star Could Harbor A Young Earth: A relatively young star located about 300 light-years away is greatly improving our understanding of the formation of Earth-like planets. The star, going by the unassuming name of BD +20 307, is shrouded by the dustiest environment ever seen so close to a Sun-like star well after its formation. The warm dust is believed to be from recent collisions of rocky bodies at distances from the star comparable to that of the Earth from the Sun.
Link Ace Auto Dismantling: Laughing Squid reports that Ace Auto Dismantling in San Francisco now has it’s own website. Ace Auto Dismantling is not just any junkyard. monochrom info service // Obituary: Prof. Georg Paul Thomann: On July 21, 2005 Austrian artist and writer Prof. Georg Paul Thomann died in a tragic accident at the tender age of 60.
Born 1945 in the Vorarlberg region of Austria. Thomann started to study arts in Vienna in 1963 where he carried out his first artistic projects. Between 1964-1980 he lived and worked in Berlin, Paris, Munich, Palo Alto/California, New York, London. In 1980 he returned to his beloved Vienna. Upon his return he carried out various projects as a conceptual artist. He time was spent divided between being a painter, performer, photographer, video artist, musician, etc. A true renascence man with an undying love for Austria. He frequently received prizes and grants in recognition of his various amazing talents. In 1988 he was awarded the Professor h. c. title by the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. He was an honored lecturer on contemporary art at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. In 2002 he was Austria’s national representative at the Sao Paulo Biennial where he was received with great fanfare. He also wrote various books on artistic and sociopolitical topics (last publication: "Die Konflikt-Masche", edition selene, Vienna 1999). The funeral will take place on Friday, July 29 in Hall in Tirol/Austria. (Thanks to Jake Appelbaum for help with translation; original OTS/APA press release in German language) Link / Thomann biography Welcome to Google Moon:
 Quote: "In honor of the first manned Moon landing, which took place on July 20, 1969, we’ve added some NASA imagery to the Google Maps interface to help you pay your own visit to our celestial neighbor. Happy lunar surfing." Link "Kosovo": A couple of moronic Norwegian soldiers (on a peace mission in Kosovo) filmed a Beach Boys spoof video. Instead of doing their job they got bored and turned "Kokomo" into "Kosovo". The Norwegian Ministry for Foreign Affairs is already trying to calm down the situation.
Link Iron Maiden now hold 9 of the Top 10 albums in the Swedish catalogue albums chart - a feat unequalled in chart history.
Link Babies With Beards:
 "Welcome, and thank you for joining us! We are parents, teachers, educators, and caretakers of bearded babies. It is with pride and enthusiasm that we introduce you this site. Babies With Beards is your window to the world of bearded babies! Enjoy your stay, and please come back soon." Link Seafloor survey buoys Atlantis claim: Earthquake debris shores up evidence for lost city. Quote: "In a recent paper in Geology, Marc-Andre Gutscher of the European Institute for Marine Studies in Plouzané gives details of one candidate for the lost city: the submerged island of Spartel, west of the Straits of Gibraltar. The top of this isle lies some 60 metres beneath the surface in the Gulf of Cadiz, having plunged beneath the waves at the end of the most recent ice age as melting glaciers caused the sea level to rise. Geological evidence has shown that a large earthquake and a tsunami hit this island some 12,000 years ago, at roughly the location and time indicated in Plato's writings. Gutscher has surveyed this island in detail, using sound waves reflected off the sea floor to map its contours1. His results bring mixed news to Atlantis hunters."
Link All roads lead to Rove: A report shows Karl Rove may have lied to federal agents, a federal crime, during October 2003 testimony into CIA agent leak.
Link Graffiti Archaeology: Quote: "Graffiti Archaeology is the study of graffiti-covered walls as they change over time. The grafarc.org project is a timelapse collage, made of photos of graffiti taken at the same location by many different photographers over a span of several years. Most of the photos are from San Francisco, over a timespan from the late 1990's to the present. Using the grafarc explorer, you can visit some classic graffiti spots, see what they looked like in the past, and explore how they have changed over the years."
Link The Myth of Cyber-Terrorism: Why bin Laden != /bin/laden: Summary: "In this post-9/11 world, security is seemingly at the fore of every national and political agenda. But how much of this agenda is grounded in reality and how much is simply buzzword-compliant sound bites? This presentation addresses why the issue of "cyber-terrorism" is based more on hysterical theatrics than genuine threat analysis. Also addressed is how and why the hype does more harm than good to security efforts overall."
Link The Next Secular Revolution? Article by Austin Dacey. Intro: >March 15, 2005. Tehran. Somewhere, a Qur'an is burning. It is Tchahr Shanbe Souri, the traditional Persian fire festival, and in major cities throughout the country Iranians are turning the celebration-denounced as pagan by the ruling clerics-into a protest. There are reports of revelers chanting "Down with the Islamic Republic" and casting Islamist literature and even scripture into bonfires.1 Government militia respond brutally, and violent clashes with demonstrators continue into the night.
The episode is not isolated but appears to be part of a trend in which large numbers of Iranians are taking to the streets, as they did in July 1999, October 2001, November 2002, and July 2003. During the fire festival of 2000, so many bushes were set ablaze that the pilot of an Air France plane attempting to land in Tehran changed course, thinking that a revolution had begun in Iran. The pilot may have been right.
Twenty-six years ago, 98 percent of Iranians voted in favor of Ayatollah Khomeini's referendum calling for an Islamic republic. Today, half the population is between the ages of fourteen and twenty-five. They were not even born at the time of the revolution. An August 2002 telephone public-opinion poll found that only 19 percent of Iranians supported a politically active clergy, while 68 percent said their family's financial situation had gotten worse since the Islamic Revolution of 1979.2 An overwhelming majority favor a new referendum, which asks simply: theocracy or democracy?<
Link Students Steer A Blimp To Test Near Space Military Technology: Using a 17-foot-long helium-filled blimp, four propellers and sophisticated electronics, three Johns Hopkins undergraduates have built a model airship that will aid professional engineers who are designing a military craft to conduct surveillance at the outer edge of the Earth's atmosphere. The similar but much larger unmanned airship is being developed by engineers at Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md., to provide visual and communications support from an altitude of about 100,000 feet above sea level.
Link Napoleon Dynamite: A Comedy of Nihilism.
 Continuing a tradition of 'entertainment' that began with Gummo. Link Robotic Modelling Reveals Ancient Hominid Stride: An ancient human ancestor once thought to have shuffled its way across the plains of Africa in fact walked upright much like modern man, a study of robotic models has revealed.
Link monochrom tour update // Experience The Experience Of 1 Baud: July 22, 5 PM, meeting point @ RxGallery/San Francisco.
 Link monochrom tour update // Experience The Experience Of 1 Baud // Workshop: July 20, 7:30 PM, meeting point @ Dorkbot @ RxGallery/San Francisco.
Link monochrom tour update // Experience The Experience Of Catapulting Wirless Devices: July 16, 2 PM, meeting point @ RxGallery/San Francisco.
 Link Nite Caps: Fiction by Tom Bradley. Quote: "During the greater part of my fourteenth year, I was obliged to pay regular visits to a certain loved one in the loony bin. I was the only person in the family who could spend time in the locked ward without acting too cheerful."
Link Titan's Big Smile: "The Smile" is a peculiar semi-circular feature seen on Titan during Cassini's recent pass near Saturn's largest moon. The 345 mile Smile is the brightest spot on Titan's surface and may correspond to icy upland areas.
Link monochrom tour update // Experience The Experience Of Growing Money: July 14, 8 PM @ RxGallery/San Francisco.
 Link The Myths We Live By by Mary Midgley: Bob Sharpe applauds Mary Midgley’s exposé of some modern myths.
Link Manhattan on Film: Walking Tours of Hollywood's Fabled Front Lot: This book offers 18 of the best walking tours you'd ever want to take of the greatest venues of movie scenes in New York City. In one volume, Katz updates the two best-selling Limelight Editions guidebooks, Manhattan on Film and Manhattan on Film 2 to include films released over the past six years as well as changes to New York City neighborhoods, especially lower Manhattan. Each tour is illustrated with photos from each film shot along its route and includes maps and travel tips. No tour takes more than two hours. A list of the films, with page references, provides an easy guide for those who want to quickly look up their favorite movies.
Link Family Trees by Blood or Tongue? Whether the genetic relationships between African populations are better predicted by geographical or linguistic distances has not been clarified by research so far. A new study in the current issue of European Journal of Human Genetics, however, throws light on the historic patterns to the genetic make-up of Africa.
Link 'Human-Brained' Monkeys: Scientists have been warned that their latest experiments may accidently produce monkeys with brains more human than animal.
Link The Fifth Nail: A convicted sex offender spent months on the Internet documenting his internal struggle with right and wrong. Then, four days before two children he is accused of kidnapping disappeared, he wrote, "The demons have taken over."
[...] The authorities maintain that the 42-year-old blogger, Joseph E. Duncan III of Fargo, N.D., took Dylan Groene, 9, and Dylan's sister, Shasta, 8, from their rural Idaho home shortly before their 13-year-old brother, their mother and her boyfriend were found bludgeoned to death on May 16. The police say Mr. Duncan is a suspect in those killings, and a body believed to be that of Dylan has been found in Montana and is awaiting positive identification. "God has shown me the right choice, but my demons have me tied to a spit and the fire has already been lit," Mr. Duncan wrote on April 24, after he had jumped bail in Minnesota on charges of molesting a 6-year-old boy in a playground. His last entry on the Web log was on May 13, three days before Dylan and Shasta vanished. "As far as 'taking people with me,' well, I don't know if that is right or wrong," he wrote then. "In fact, I don't know much anymore what right and wrong even is." [...] The site www.fifthnail.com has been taken down, of course. Link World's oldest creature alive and well in Scotland: The world's oldest creature is still alive and well. Most believed the tadpole shrimp, dating from the Triassic period, had gone the way of the dinosaurs, but it was, literally, just being a stick-in-the-mud in a pond near Dumfries.
Link Erotic Health Day: Mark your calendar because Saturday (Nov. 13) is the first ever "Erotic Health Day" -- at least in San Francisco.
Link NRL Study Finds Shuttle Exhaust Is Source Of Mysterious Clouds In Antarctica: A new study, funded in part by the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) reports that exhaust from the space shuttle can create high-altitude clouds over Antarctica mere days following launch, providing valuable insight to global transport processes in the lower thermosphere. The same study also finds that the shuttle's main engine exhaust plume carries small quantities of iron that can be observed from the ground, half a world away.
Link The many mysteries of the female orgasm: Researchers still don't know much about women's sexual satisfaction.
Link EU commission proposes reform on internet music licencing: "The principle that a right-holders' choice of a single EU rights manager should be exercised irrespective of residence or nationality of either the rights-manager or the right-holder."
Link MagneCote - the first magnetic paper: "We've combined Sterling Ultra with proprietary magnetic coating to create a paper that can be perforated, die-cut and laminated, and can run on sheet-fed, flexo, and most HP Indigo presses. Magnecote delivers high quality printing with excellent color reproduction, superior ink adhesion and long shelf-life. In other words, it's everything you want in top shelf paper - and yet, is magnetic."
Don't miss out on telling the sales-rep what you find attractive. Try "flowers", "telephone poles", "beer" or even "lesbians" for reaction. Link monochrom content update // Gastro-Art: In gastronomical enterprises the management frequently elects to present art as a form of extraordinary room decoration. Some time ago we at monochrom have decided to dedicate a page to the breathtaking world of 'gastro-art'. And there are some excellent new gastro-art picture submissions.
 Link Kaali Crater: Still Having an Impact: The Kaali meteor crater site on Estonia's largest island, Saaremaa, is the stuff of legends and weird science.
Link European parliament rejects software patent law: The proposed law pitted big technology companies against small firms and open source programmers who claimed it would stifle innovation.
Link When Taste Politics Meet Terror: The Critical Art Ensemble on Trial. Comment by Joan Hawkins. She is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication and Culture at Indiana University Bloomington. She is the author of Cutting Edge: Art Horror and the Horrific Avant-garde.
Link Bells on Sunday: A weekly BBC radio broadcast featuring recordings of church bells from across England.
 "Oranges and Lemons" say the bells of St. Clemens "I owe you five farthings" say the bells of St. Martens, "When will you pay me?" say the bells of Shore Daily "When I grow rich!" say the bells of Shore Ditch Here comes a candle to light you to bed and here comes the 'chopper' to chop off your head! Found via music thing. Link Medical Student Portraiture (Wih Cadavers):
 "This online exhibit features part of our collection of approximately two hundred dissection images. Most of these intriguing photographs feature a group of students gathered around the cadaver, either actively dissecting or just posing, often wearing their best suits. " Found via we make money, not art. Link Simon's Photo Archive of Pregnant Animals:
 Quote: "Welcome to my site! My name is Simon 'Skunky' Morrison, and I very love animals. Probably it looks bizarre, but I very much like to see pregnant animals. I very much love to look at their huge, distended bellys. I have female dog named Marta, and each year she becomes pregnant, and I very like to observe her and touch her inflated belly. It's great!" Link Astrologist sues NASA over comet crash: A Russian astrologist who says NASA has altered her horoscope by crashing a spacecraft into a comet is suing the U.S. space agency for damages of $300 million, local media reported Monday.
Link Call for Papers: Fight Club and Philosophy: metaphilm call for papers for a forthcoming book on Fight Club and Philosophy over on their Writer's Blog. Academic and popular writing both welcome.
Sixth Declaration of the Selva Lacandona: By Subcomandante Marcos. Originally published in Spanish by the Zapatista Army of National Liberation. Intro: "This is our simple word which seeks to touch the hearts of humble and simple people like ourselves, but people who are also, like ourselves, dignified and rebel. This is our simple word for recounting what our path has been and where we are now, in order to explain how we see the world and our country, in order to say what we are thinking of doing and how we are thinking of doing it, and in order to invite other persons to walk with us in something very great which is called Mexico and something greater which is called the world. This is our simple word in order to inform all honest and noble hearts what it is we want in Mexico and the world. This is our simple word, because it is our idea to call on those who are like us and to join together with them, everywhere they are living and struggling."
Link 40,000-Year-Old Footprint of First Americans: A plastic replica of a 40,000-year-old, size eight foot has shattered previous theories of the identity of the first humans to walk in the Americas.
Link Happy Independence Day to the Land of the Free: Statistics on imprisonment in the USA: The USA has 5% of the world's population, but has 25% of the world's prison population. "If recent incarceration rates remain unchanged in the USA, an estimated 1 in every 19 Americans will be incarcerated during their lifetime."
via indymedia Link Vancouver Special: From wikipedia: "Vancouver Special is an architectural style to describe houses built in the 1970s in Vancouver. They are characterised by their box-like structure gobbling up much of the lot, almost flat roofs, full balconies across the front of the house, and brick or stucco finishes. In many cases the builders never hired architects so Vancouver Specials have similar floor plans with the main living quarters on the upper floor and secondary bedrooms on the bottom, making them ideal for secondary suites. These homes were favoured by immigrants for their spaciousness and were often times a first house purchase."
 A photo index that categorizes the buildings by location and varying physical characteristics. Link Beijing Clinic Treats Web Addicts: The first official clinic for internet addiction is dedicated to helping kids who have suffered health and emotional problems as a result of their obsessive computer use.
Link The Tao of Tetris: Article by Seamus Sweeney. Quote: "I can still pinpoint the exact moment when I realised that pub games could be the path to inner peace, deep contentedness, spiritual fulfilment, and all that sort of thing."
Link Science And Theatre: A Multifaceted Relationship Between Pedagogical Purpose And Artistic Expression: Essay by Silvana Barbacci. Abstract: >This article offers an analysis of the relationship between science and theatre. Such a connection can be twofold: either theatre is used primarily as a means for conveying scientific concepts and ideas, or it borrows its contents from science while maintaining its own features as an artistic expression. I will focus on the second form of "scientific theatre", i.e. when theatre preserves its artistic and aesthetic characteristics, thus enhancing the scientific imagination for the public.<
Link Researchers Create First Nanofluidic Transistor, The Basis Of Future Chemical Processors:
 University of California, Berkeley, researchers have invented a variation on the standard electronic transistor, creating the first "nanofluidic" transistor that allows them to control the movement of ions through sub-microscopic, water-filled channels. The researchers - a chemist and a mechanical engineer - predict that, just as the electronic transistor became the main component of microprocessors and integrated circuits, so will nanofluidic transistors anchor molecular processors, allowing microscopic chemical plants on a chip that operate without moving parts. Link Feline Medical Curiosities:
 A gallery of deformed cats including conjoined kittens, double heads, and anopthalmia (those born with no eyes - only empty sockets). Link Making Movies from the Mind:
 "Using cats selected for their sharp vision, in 1999 Garret Stanley and his team recorded signals from a total of 177 cells in the lateral geniculate nucleus - a part of the brain’s thalamus [the thalamus integrates all of the brains sensory input and forms the base of the seven-layered thalamocortical loop with the six layered neocortex] - as they played 16 second digitized (64 by 64 pixels) movies of indoor and outdoor scenes. Using simple mathematical filters, the Stanley and his buddies decoded the signals to generate movies of what the cats actually saw. Though the reconstructed movies lacked color and resolution and could not be recorded in real-time [the experimenters could only record from 10 neurons at a time and thus had to make several different recording runs, showing the same video] they turned out to be amazingly faithful to the original." Link Falling Woman:
 Animation of a bikini clad figure falling (and flipping) through an endless world of bubbles. Gross but strangely mesmerizing. Link Land of the Dead: America at Large.
 It's a liberal's nightmare: a whole nation of zombies questing for the American dream. Link Entering a dark age of innovation: It may seem like we are living in a technological nirvana, but the rate of technological innovation has been falling for 100 years, a new study reveals.
Link Ukrainian Vampire Drugged Children And Drank Their Blood: Diana Semenuha, 29, believed that drinking blood could fend off a muscle-wasting condition.
Link Freedom Ship:
 Quote: >Envision an ideal place to live or run a business, a friendly, safe and secure community with large areas of open space and extensive entertainment and recreational facilities. Finally, picture this community continually moving around the world. You are beginning to understand the Freedom Ship concept of a massive ocean-going vessel. With a design length of 4,500 feet, a width of 750 feet, and a height of 350 feet, Freedom Ship would be more than 4 times longer than the Queen Mary. The design concepts include a mobile modern city featuring luxurious living, an extensive duty-free international shopping mall, and a full 1.7 million square foot floor set aside for various companies to showcase their products. Freedom Ship would not be a cruise ship, it is proposed to be a unique place to live, work, retire, vacation, or visit. The proposed voyage would continuously circle the globe, covering most of the world's coastal regions. Its large fleet of commuter aircraft and hydrofoils would ferry residents and visitors to and from shore. The airport on the ship's top deck would serve private and small commercial aircraft (up to about 40 passengers each). The proposed vessel's superstructure, rising twenty-five stories above its broad main deck, would house residential space, a library, schools, and a first-class hospital in addition to retail and wholesale shops, banks, hotels, restaurants, entertainment facilities, casinos, offices, warehouses, and light manufacturing and assembly enterprises. Finally, this concept would include a wide array of recreational and athletic facilities, worthy of a world-class resort, making Freedom Ship a veritable "Community on the Sea."< Link 1 Link 2 Sandia Develops Secure Wireless Technology: Sandia National Laboratories in cooperation with Time Domain Corporation and KoolSpan Inc. has developed a secure wireless Ultra Wideband (UWB) data communication network that can be used to help sensors monitor U.S. Air Force bases and DOE nuclear facilities and wirelessly control remotely operated weapon systems.
Link Big Babies: File under 'bizarre'.
 Galleries of grown men dressed wearing nappies and sucking dummies. Link monochrom tour update // Experience The Experience Of Being Buried Alive: Due to huge demand we provide a couple of additional premature burials on Saturday, July 2, 4 PM @ Contemporary Art Gallery/Vancouver.
 Link Needies:
 Needies are interactive plush dolls inspired by codependent, high-maintenance relationships. Totally attention-starved, they compete with each other for human affection -- or, getting touch, as they like to say. When you give Needies touch (by hugging and squeezing them), they will return your kindness with songs and shameless flattery. But remember that Needies always know when other Needies are getting touch! If one Needie is getting touch while others are neglected, the unloved Needies will conspire to take its place. Link [The Archives] 
. . . . . |
. . monochrom is an art-technology-philosophy group having its seat in Vienna and Zeta Draconis. monochrom is an unpeculiar mixture of proto-aesthetic fringe work, pop attitude, subcultural science, context hacking and political activism. Our mission is conducted everywhere, but first and foremost in culture-archeological digs into the seats (and pockets) of ideology and entertainment. monochrom has existed in this (and almost every other) form since 1993.
[more] Booking monochrom: [Europe] [USA] External monochrom links: [monochrom Wikipedia] [monochrom Flickr] [monochrom blip.tv] [monochrom GV] [monochrom Youtube] [monochrom Facebook] [monochrom iTunes] [monochrom Twitter] 
[ P r o j e c t s ] Soviet Unterzoegersdorf / Sector 2 / The Adventure Game Krach der Roboter: Hello World! Slacking is killing the DIY industry (T-Shirt) Carefully Selected Moments / CD, LP Freedom is a whore of a word (T-Shirt) International Year of Polytheism 2007 Santa Claus Vs. Christkindl: A Mobster Battle Kiki and Bubu and The Shift / Short film Kiki and Bubu and The Privilege / Short film Kiki and Bubu and The Self / Short film Kiki and Bubu and The Good Plan / Short film Kiki and Bubu and The Feelings / Short film / Short film Soviet Unterzoegersdorf / Sector 1 / The Adventure Game I was a copyright infringement in a previous life (T-Shirt) Firing Squad Euro2008 Intervention I can count every star in the heavens above -- The image of computers in popular music All Tomorrow's Condensations / Puppet show The Redro Loitzl Story / Short film Law and Second Order (T-Shirt) They really kicked you out of the Situationist International? When I was asked to write about new economy Arse Elektronika 2007, 2008, 2009 etc. The Void's Foaming Ebb / Short film The Charcoal Burner / Short film Fieldrecording in Sankt Wechselberg / Short film Campaign For The Abolition Of Personal Pronouns Entertainment (Unterhaltung) / Short film Nicholas Negroponte Memorial Cable Experience the Experience! (West Coast USA/Canada Tour 2005) A Holiday in Soviet Unterzoegersdorf Massive Multiplayer Thumb-Wrestling Network Soviet Unterzoegersdorf Metroblogging Every Five Seconds an Inkjet Printer Dies Somewhere 452 x 157 cm² global durability Blattoptera / Art for Cockroaches An attempt to emulate an attempt The Department for Criticism against Globalisation Disney vs. Chrusov / Short film Turning Threshold Countries Into Plows Roböxotica // Festival for Cocktail-Robotics Cracked Foundation For The Fine Arts Oh my God, they use a history which repeats itself! (T-Shirt) Administrating:  . . . . . |
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