ultraforge September 27th 1969 (Age 42) Male Missouri It's quite simple: I'm just another random guy on the internet. Smart enough to know that internet verification is meaningless but still mentally unsound enough to maintain a weblog on BlogDrive and several other places.
This journal deals with my life, my interests, my creative writing, my photography, local events, politics, the arts, the sciences, and just about anything else of note that I stumble across. In other words, it's not a very thematic journal. However, I will endeavor to keep it as interesting as possible for the casual reader.
Harry Potter's Invisibility Cloak Is Possible, Studies Say
The creation of an invisibility cloak like the one used by Harry Potter in J.K. Rowling's books is theoretically possible, scientists said in two studies published by the online Science Express journal.
The key to making an object invisible is to surround it with a cloak made of ``metamaterials'' that are engineered to bend light around an object, continuing on the other side in the same direction as before, Ulf Leonhardt, author of one of the studies, said in a telephone interview. Sound waves, which have a longer wavelength than light, can be distorted in such a way, and light bends naturally in mirages, for instance, he said.
``All one has to do is enhance this bending effect and control it better,'' said Leonhardt, Professor of theoretical physics at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. ``We've given recipes of how to do this. You have to control structures that are smaller than the wavelength of light -- less than half a micrometer,'' he said. A micrometer is a millionth of a meter.
The authors of the papers set out mathematical requirements for a theoretical metamaterial, that could achieve invisibility. Applications include protecting structures from vibrations, sound and seismic waves, improving wireless communications, seeing through obstructions, and hiding objects, David Schurig, a scientist at Duke University, North Carolina, and co-author of the second paper, said in a statement.
``The cloak would act like you've opened up a hole in space,'' another co-author, David Smith, professor of electrical and computer engineering at Duke, said in the statement. ``All light or other electromagnetic waves are swept around the area, guided by the metamaterial to emerge on the other side as if they had passed through an empty volume of space.''
`Broadband Cloak'
The cloaking device posited by the Duke scientists and the paper's third co-author, Professor John Pendry at Imperial College London, would cover the entire light spectrum and other lines of force, such as magnetic fields, Imperial said in an online statement.
``Ours would be a broadband cloak,'' Pendry said in the statement. ``There would be no communication between the object that is cloaked and the outside world.''
Translating the math into a metamaterial that works isn't easy, Leonhardt said, describing his proposal as more ``modest'' than Pendry's.
``If you relax the requirement of perfection in the invisibility, we can have much more modest requirements of the material,'' he said. ``If you're happy with a slight haze, or even things you can't really perceive with the naked eye, but you can with instruments,'' then it's easier to make, he said.
`Spacewarp'
The two Duke scientists are now working on building the proposed material, and the first device would be a few millimeters across, according to Imperial College. When built, a final theoretical device would have just the same effects as the magical cloak in J.K. Rowling's books, the British school said.
``Just as in the Harry Potter film, nobody would be able to see an object if it was cloaked, as it's in a spacewarp, and that's exactly what our stuff would do,'' Pendry said.
The two papers, ``Controlling Electromagnetic Fields'' by Pendry, Schurig and Smith, and ``Optical Conformal Mapping,'' by Leonhardt, were published yesterday by Science Express, the online advance publication of the journal Science. The Duke/Imperial research was supported by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
A couple of things:
1) Do I even need to expound on the abuses this technology will be put to when(not if...when. Always remember that!) it falls into the wrong hands?
2) For the love of God, somebody please put one of these things on David Hasselhoff and every single member of Courtney Love, and every single member of Aqua so sane people can finally forget such evil exists in the world.
I once had a pet potato. Bad choice. Let me explain why.
You see, the potato is stupid. You can't teach it to do anything. I tried teaching Bruce (that was my potato's name) how to roll over. Nothing. He'd just sit there looking at me like, "What?" Since that didn't work I tried teaching him to fetch. He just sat there once again looking at me with that blank expression potatos always have on their faces.
Teach him to guard the house? Nope.
Teach him to kill mice? Nada.
Teach him to scratch on the door when he wanted to go outside? No. He's just sit there peeing an pooping on the carpet.
He was abysmally stupid, kind of like David Hasselhoff or 50 Cent. Yes, the potato is definitely the least intelligent member of the berry family by far. I should have got a turnip or a coconut instead. They're far more intelligent than potatoes. Some of them even hold high public positions in government or the psychiatric field. Some turnips and cocnuts have even gone on to become famous actors, actresses, and singers who distinguish themselves by becoming spokespeople for Scientology.
Anyway, Bruce was about as sharp as a koosh ball. So what else could I do? I killed him, cut him up, fried him in a pan, and ultimately ate him. He was delicious.
Oh, look. You're getting all judgmental with me now. You're probably a member of People For The Ethical Treatment of Berries or some shit like that. Well, screw you and your sissyfied emo hand-wringing. Bruce was too stupid to care what was happening to him. Besides, I see you self-righteous bastards sneaking off to McDonalds when you think nobody's looking. Freakin' hypocrites. Who are you to criticize?
Bruce was stupid, ugly, and useless. He deserved to die.
This psychotic episode has been brought you by the fine folks who make Lithium™.
I love urban legends and conspiracy theories. I'm not saying I believe them. I'm just saying that I find them amusing. In fact, the bigger the amount of bullshit contained in a conspiracy theory/urban legend, the more amusing it is to me.
In its initial stages, The Babalon Working was intended to attract an elemental to serve as a partner for Parsons elaborate sex magick rituals. The method employed was that of the solo VIII Degree working of the O.T.O, the quasi-Masonic organization reformulated by Crowley in the earlier part of the century in accordance with his Do What Thou Wilt mythos of Thelema. Parsons used his magickal wand to whip up a vortex of energy so the elemental would be summoned. Translated into plain English, Parsons jerked off in the name of spiritual advancement whilst Hubbard (referred to as The Scribe in the diary of the event) scanned the astral plane for signs and visions.
Apparently, it worked. In a letter to Crowley dated February 23, 1946, Parsons exclaimed, "I have my elemental! She turned up one night after the conclusion of the Operation, and has been with me since."
The elemental was a green-eyed, flaming redhead named Marjorie Cameron, (later of Kenneth Anger's Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome film, an artist of some reknown and a primary force in the New Age Goddess movement). Cameron was only too happy to participate in Parsons' sex magick and now Parsons could get down to the real business of the Babalon Working: the birthing of a moonchild or homunculus. The operation was formulated to open an interdimensional doorway, rolling out the red carpet for the appearance of the goddess Babalon in human form, employing the Enochian Calls [angelic language] of Elizabethan magus John Dee and the attraction of the sex force of the duo's copulation to this end.
As Paul Rydeen points out in his extended essay Jack Parsons and the Fall of Babalon: "The purpose of Parsons' operation has been underemphasized. He sought to produce a magickal child who would be a product of her environment rather than of her heredity. Crowley himself describes the Moonchild in just these terms. The Babalon Working itself was preparation for what was to come: a Thelemic messiah. To wit: Babalon incarnate as a living female, the Scarlet Woman as consort to the Antichrist, bride of the Beast 666. In effect, Parsons also claimed the mantle of Antichrist for himself, as the magickal heir of Crowley prophesied in Liber AL: 'The child of thy bowels, he shall behold them [the mysteries of the Apocalypse]. Expect him not from the East, nor from the West, for from no expected house cometh that child.'"
Without the Scarlet Woman, the Antichrist cannot make his manifestation, the eschatological formula must first be complete. In whiter words, with the magickal rites of the Babalon Working, it was Parsons' goal to bring on the Apocalypse.
I have no doubt that they actually attempted this "Babalon Working" ritual even if I doubt that it actually produced a "Moonchild". But one thing is clear: Hubbard and his cohorts were trying to summon an extradimensional entity to this plane of existence and were using the occult teachings of Aleister Crowley as their template.
These events were probably the basis for a completely bullshit legend: The legend that Hubbard and Parsons used a sorcerous ritual to summon up the UFOs that people report seeing from time to time.
The story goes that Hubbard and Parsons went out into the Southwestern Desert at the behest of the JPL. Their goal was to perform a series of incantations that would open up a nexus to another dimension. Supposedly the incantations worked and a "dimensional portal" opened up in mid air before them. Something flew through. In some versions of the legend, the thing that entered our world was "The Third Book of the Law" or some such nonsense. In other versions, it was a flying saucer. The beings within cut a deal with the JPL. In exchange for liscence to come an go within our dimension and do whatever they wished, they would share vital technological and esoteric secrets with the U.S. government. Those who believe this legend also tend to believe that many technological advances from the internet to Tang were handed down to us by metaterrestrial sorceror-scientists to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and from there to the rest of the world.
Some even expand the legend further. They say that the extradimensional beings worked with another government before they worked with the United States: Nazi Germany. They hold that the Thule Society had used magic(k)al riuals to contact the metaterrestrials in a similar manner to the way Hubbard and Parsons would a few short years later. However, the aliens abandoned the Nazis at some point for unguessable reasons precipitating the downfall of the Third Reich.
And so that's the way the legend goes. Complete and utter bullshit? Of course. Amusing and fascinating in an odd way nontheless? Absolutely.
But this piece is probably the most skeptical opinion I've seen to date about China's long term economic strength. It gives more weight to Idia:
To begin with, you have to be careful about return on capital. These are accounting returns and very dependent on management discretion. I always take them with a grain of salt. Let us face it — nobody has made money in China.
That is the reality. People are investing in China on promise that there will be returns in future.
In a sense, there are two sets of rules. They viewed India as a conventional investment. They decided that they would invest more in India only if the original investment made money. For China they set aside those rules. They invest in China because of the potential. To put it differently, investing in China is viewed as an Option. The advantage in being viewed as an `option' is that more uncertainty feeds into its value. In conventional budgeting, more uncertainty reduces value. There again we have to see if there is a transition and companies can start thinking that we can no longer afford to view China as an Option.
The pundit may be somewhat biased due to his Indian roots. But what if he isn't?
Time for a look at my little corner of the space-time continuum. These photos were snapped outside of work recently.
We see two police cruisers having stopped someone in what appears to be a late model Piece of Shit. The first car to do the actual pullover was a K-9 car. Police Dog smells something and starts barking like Armageddon is on the horizon. Within minutes the second car shows up and they let the dog out to do a search.
They were unable to find any contraband. Weird, yes?
So, they let him go. Then they stay in the parking lot and talk for several minutes. Probably about how they're going to get 'em next time.
What's funny to me about this picture? Look at the neon sign in the upper right hand corner.
Actress Terri Hatcher of Desperate Housewives fame has revealed a secret from her childhood and sent a child molestor to prison as a result:
Santa Clara County prosecutors say Terri Hatcher helped convict molester
NEW YORK Santa Clara County prosecutors are acknowledging that one of the stars of the television show "Desperate Housewives" help put a Sunnyvale child molester behind bars.
In the upcoming issue of Vanity Fair, Terri Hatcher tells the magazine that her uncle -- Richard Hayes Stone -- sexually molested her when she was five-years-old.
The 41-year-old actress says she learned in 2002 that a 14-year-old victim of her uncle had committed suicide.
Concerned that he would escape charges of molestation, Hatcher went to Santa Clara County prosecutors.
After Hatcher came forward -- Stone -- who was then 64-years-old, pleaded guilty to four counts of child molestation in the case of the 14-year-old victim.
Here is an interesting article concerning foreign animation in China:
Who Framed Roger Rabbit could be out of the picture in China - along with many other cartoon favorites. China has announced a ban on TV shows and movies that blend animated elements with live-action actors, a move aimed at nurturing local animators and apparently curbing the use of foreign cartoons.
Besides Roger Rabbit, the 1988 feature film in which actor Bob Hoskins performed beside several animated characters, popular children's TV shows featuring human hosts and animated elements such as Blue's Clues from the United States and Britain's Teletubbies could be included in the ban. And Space Jam, the 1996 film featuring basketball great Michael Jordan alongside Bugs Bunny, Elmer Fudd and Daffy Duck could also be shelved.
The government's main television and film regulator sent notice Feb. 15 to broadcasters and theaters that such films and shows could no longer be shown and that violators would be punished. It did not say what the penalties would be.
It also did not give examples of banned programs but described them as "so-called cartoons that mainly feature real people and only occasionally have computer-generated elements." Communist authorities are eager to expand the country's animation industry and also are worried about the influence of foreign pop culture on Chinese children.
The cartoon ban is intended to "promote the development and prosperity of the cartoon industry in China," said the statement issued by the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television.
The broadcast administration's statement said it planned to review programs that had previously been granted licenses to make sure none of the banned programming is aired.
Phone calls to the administration's main office on Thursday weren't answered.
Japanese and Western animated programs have gained a foothold in China but the government wants to develop its own industry.
China already limits foreign cartoons on television to 40 percent of all cartoons broadcast. It has said it might ban all foreign cartoons from prime-time television once the quantity and quality of domestic productions is considered adequate.
Yet foreign cartoons dubbed into Chinese are a staple on late afternoon and weekend television.
Chinese studios have taken advantage of low labor costs to build a growing business handling the labor-intensive animation of cartoons for foreign studios.
But they've had little luck building up their own brands.
There are few Chinese-made cartoons aside from a handful of traditional tales such as Journey to the West and some government-financed titles.
Socialist protectionism of the cartoon industry? Now I've seen everything.
Note: The story that follows is a work of short fiction and also a horror story with some subtly disturbing overtones. It also contains a moral if you are adept enough to spot it. However, please read at your own discretion.-Ultraforge
"All your pomp has been brought down to the grave, along with the noise of your harps; maggots are spread out beneath you and worms cover you."-Isaiah 14:11
I have fallen through a crack in the cosmic egg into a blackest abyss of utmost isolation, save for the company of my unthinking "companions"...of which I now have thousands upon thousands to spend a cold eternity with. I cannot move a single thread of my body. No, not even to blink. Visions flash through my head of the world I left behind. The cities are on fire. People run to and fro screaming in stark horror at the fate of everything they know.
It is a fate that I brought down on them in my foolish arrogance.
I am slowly going mad in my cold dark impotent horror. I have lost much of the memory of who I was. Psychic oblivion will soon overtake me. Did I say soon? Time seems relative where I am now. One minute might as well be tens of thousands of years here.
But I do remember a few things. I am...was...a wealthy sybarite born into a "noveau riche" family. Rather than teach me the difference between right and wrong, my parents spoiled me and indulged my every whim. To make matters worse, I was an only child. I grew up thinking that I was the only "real" person in existence; the absolute center of my perceived universe. I never so much as shed a tear when I hired those "professionals" to murder my parents and make it look like an accident. Inulgence wasn't enough. I had to have all of their money.
I never knew what happiness really was. In it's place I craved "excitement" instead. I was young, rich, and utterly solipsistic. Happiness and and excitement aren't the same thing, you see. I wish I knew then what I know now.
Being nothing more than a young thrill-seeker, I explored every sort of vice and perversion I could stomach...and then some. Some of what I did was highly illegal. But money talks, especially in some of the darker places I haunted.
Eventually, all this manic depravity grew stale. I was utterly...utterly bored. There was only one other avenue that could catch my attention and offer new vistas of exitement, thrills, and even danger that I craved. In no time at all, I started down the path of the occult. The dark arts. Black magic and nigromancy. I joined cults and secret socities. I studied with evil men and women who taught me much of what they knew. I crafted spells and talismans, chants and curses, and invoked the names of entities long since forgtten to a sane society. All of my old pervesions and vices resurfaced but they now had the dark flourish of sorcerous ritual to lend them esoteric gravitas. I grew very proficient in these arcane pursuits. I was falling down a black spiral with an unknown destination. I even began to think of myself as a god. I had only to find the means of a necromantic apotheosis. My motto was, "The absolute truth...is that there is no such thing as an absolute truth!"
My quest for dread divinity had begun.
I spent much of my wealth seeking out ancient tomes and grimoires that even my former mentors warned me against. I laughed and paid them no heed. I traveled far and wide in search of this horrid knowledge. Cairo. Istanbul. Spain. Even Hollywood. But it was in my native England that I finally found the final piece of my puzzle: The Arcanum Infernum penned by one Count Brindisi, a 17th century Italian nobleman who mocked God himself as his enraged subjects dragged him from his ancestral home and burned him at the stake.
The Arcanum Infernum contained formulae involving the dread Abominari. These genii were demons most ancient and foul according to some, dark gods who would smash the throne of the "Divine Pretender" according to others. I used my newfound knowledge to construct a ritual that would give these Abominari licence to enter our world. I thought I could control such forces in my arrogance and demand my rightful ascenion to godhood from them. After all, had I not already successfully invoked scores of genii and bent them to my will?
Financially destitute from my countless searches, I returned to my ancestral manor outside of London. Where Count Brinidisi had failed, I would succeed or so I thought. It was in the family graveyard on a dark and stormy night during a specific planetary alignment that I began my ritual. First, I prepared myself by performing unspeakable and blasphemous acts. Then I rose, covered in blood and gore and began my incantation.
"Nommos, Turos, Cathrata! Lazem badar agnosticus yarva demonicus! EARDRE ABOMINARI!!! EARDRE ABOMINARI!!!", I screamed to the black sky over and over until I thought my vocal cords would burst.
Finally, my invocations were met with a result. The graves and tombs all started to...open. The inhabitants...those dread worm-eaten rotters bested by time arose from the resting places. Then dark inhuman shapes erupted out of cracks in the earth. Foul indescribable beings started to materialize. I stared in awe and delight for a bit. The Abominari had gifted me with an army of the dead and the damned to do my bidding! I howled in triumph and ordered them to follow me!
But, no. I looked into their eyes and saw a look of such...hatred...as no mortal was capable of. I knew then that they were not mine to command. I panicked at the realization and ran from them into the night in blind shock and horror.
I remember nothing more save finding myself in this dark isolated abyss, unable to move. Visions of all the dread things that should not be rising to destroy the world I was once a part of. Oh, what an arrogant shortsighted fool I was! If only I had known, I would have led a lifetime of solemn piety and saintly virtue!
My stillness is no mere paralysis. Not only do I fail to move, I fail to breathe, as well. And my new companions? I can feel them inside of me. Buzzing around me. Laying eggs on my cold and pallid flesh. And still these stygian visions of a world overrun by horrid things torment me. But the worst vision of all is one of myself among that awful assemblage out of Giger's worst nightmares as the evil spreads to graves and cemeteries all over the world. My mind is here! But my physical body is there!Leading that army of damnation and ruin!
And the look in my former body's eyes is the most inhuman of all...
