Why Does Earth's Magnetic Field Flip? Quote: "Earth's magnetic field has flipped many times over the last billion years, according to the geologic record. But only in the past decade have scientists developed and evolved a computer model to demonstrate how these reversals occur."
Link The Crusade Against Evolution: In the beginning there was Darwin. And then there was intelligent design. How the next generation of 'creation science' is invading America's classrooms.
Link Astronomers Track "Perfect Cosmic Storm": Quote: >Astronomers using the XMM-Newton Observatory have witnessed the most powerful collision of galaxies yet seen that sent 100-million-degree gas spewing through space. With an energy output that is second only to the big bang, the event has been dubbed the "perfect cosmic storm." “What was once two distinct but smaller galaxy clusters 300 million years ago is now one massive cluster in turmoil,” remarks team leader Patrick Henry of the University of Hawaii.<
Link Horse Head Pillow: Quote: "This is our little contribution to the Godfather legacy. A custom severed horse head pillow that is actually quite comfortable to sleep on, albeit a tad on the south side of morbid. A great conversation piece for the film buff who has everything and whose wife won't let them own a revolver. Same effect without the mess. Fans of the Godfather can now unite and rest comfortably, if not uneasily."
Link Xtreme weather meets Xtreme media bubble: Quote: >When it comes to weather news, it's been all-hurricane-all-the-time -- and under the pressure of storm after storm, news language has escalated. "Bizarre" and "strange" have been two recent words of choice in describing Florida's weather disasters. Yesterday, I heard a CBS radio announcer complain that "Mother Nature's piling on"; while the "chief meteorologist" for a local Florida TV station recently wrote, "But I think I echo the sentiment of many when I say, 'Come on, Mother Nature, you are out of control!'"<
Link Jörg Piringer: Jörg is dealing with language art, good ol’ neo-cut-up, kleptopoetry, time based literature and audiovisual interactive poetry stuff. But to quote Jörg: "You don't have to call it poetry if the term shocks you." Additionally, Jörg is part of the first Vienna Vegetable Orchestra.
Link Zero by Zero: Quote: "Our society seems to be very technologically advanced. Looks like everything has been thoroughly studied but the depths of the oceans. Our mathematics is so advanced that it's mind boggling to many people. We have built buildings way high in the sky. Bridges longer than many cities. Obviously we are capable of great technological know how. And yet it saddens me to bring this topic up at such a late stage in the game. Yes the old division by zero problem. [...]"
Yeiks. What an interesting leisure time activity.
Link "Painting as Ogress": Séamus Kealy is a Canadian artist and curator. I first met him last summer when he was artist in residence at the Museumsquartier Vienna, where we happen to have our monochrom office. What can I say? Kealy's paintings are not antimodern nor postmodern. They function as a side step of the modern, a hybrid. But see for yourself ...
Link Is Grammer and Foremat Important? "If you look illiterate, does your screenplay suffer? Or, why you need to have rules before you can break them." A Metaphilm feature by Paul N. Lazarus.
Link Nietzsche: The Problem of Autumn: A photo-tour of Europe in the footsteps of Friedrich Nietzsche (by David Farrell Krell and Donald L. Bates).
Link The spoils of another war: NATO's Kosovo privatizations: Article by Neil Clark. Intro: >'Wars, conflict - it's all business," sighs Monsieur Verdoux in Charlie Chaplin's 1947 film of the same name. Many will not need to be convinced of the link between US corporations now busily helping themselves to Iraqi state assets and the military machine that prised Iraq open for global business. But what is less widely known is that a similar process is already well under way in a part of the world where B52s were not so long ago dropping bombs in another "liberation" mission. The trigger for the US-led bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999 was, according to the standard western version of history, the failure of the Serbian delegation to sign up to the Rambouillet peace agreement. But that holds little more water than the tale that has Iraq responsible for last year's invasion by not cooperating with weapons inspectors.<
Link Doom and Gloom by 2100: Unleashed viruses, environmental disaster, gray goo--astronomer Sir Martin Rees calculates that civilization has only a 50-50 chance of making it to the 22nd century.
Link Scientists Discover New Marine Habitat In Alaska: While researchers in Alaska this summer used high-tech submersibles and huge ships to plumb the deep-ocean depths in search of new species, a team of scuba diving scientists working from an Alaska fishing boat has discovered an entirely new marine habitat just a stone's throw from shore.
Link "In Bed, No One Can Hear You Scream": Quote: "These days it’s sometimes hard to talk seriously about the ethics of sex. That’s where the Alien movies come in. Of course, with four directors, figuring out what they’ve got to say is another story." (one more Metaphilm comment)
Link The Phase Diagram of Water: A phase diagram shows the preferred physical states of matter at different temperatures and pressure.
Link The Connection Between Militarism and Violence Against Women: "With no end in sight to the horribly misguided and damaging 'War on Terrorism', it is increasingly urgent to recognize the effects of war on women. There can be no true peace while the pandemic of violence against women continues, a pandemic that is greatly exacerbated by militarism." (Marshall)
Link The City of Disney Book VII: Augustine of Epcot and his scribe. Article by Daniel White (Professor of Philosophy and the Humanities at the Honors College of Florida Atlantic University) on ctheory.
Link Preference, Satisfaction and the Good: Michael Philips (a professor of philosophy at Portland State University in Portland, Oregon) wonders what you really, really want.
Link Network: This is an animated map of how long a "Ping" takes from Berlin to a number of cities. The globe is distorted according to the duration of the Ping. As you mouse-over a city-name the corresponding (sp)line is highlighted.
Link The Dvorak keyboard layout is a control panel option on almost every current computer. It is a vastly more comfortable and efficient alternative to the standard "QWERTY" pattern, which was designed in the 1800s with no effective attempt at typing comfort.
Link Conduct, Misconduct, and Cargo Cult Science: Scientific paper by James R. Wilson. Wilson is quoting Richard Feynman: "In the South Seas there is a cargo cult of people. During the war they saw airplanes land with lots of good materials, and they want the same thing to happen now. So they've arranged to make things like runways, to put fires along the sides of the runways, to make a wooden hut for a man to sit in, with two wooden pieces on his head like headphones and bars of bamboo sticking out like antennas--he's the controller--and they wait for the airplanes to land. They're doing everything right. The form is perfect. It looks exactly the way it looked before. But it doesn't work. No airplanes land. So I call these things cargo cult science, because they follow all the apparent precepts and forms of scientific investigation, but they're missing something essential, because the planes don't land. [...]"
Link From Vulnerability to Virtuosity: Buddhist Reflections on Responding to Terrorism and Tragedy. Peter D. Hershock's article in the 'Jounal of Buddhist Ethics'.
Link Dog Water: That's the essence of capitalism. Selling water especially for dogs. Quote: "[...] The world s first vitamin fortified bottled water specifically formulated to provide your dog with essential vitamins that contribute to overall good health and provide the hydration your dog needs. Our water can be enjoyed in four of the flavors dogs enjoy most: chicken, beef, liver and lamb. [...]"
Link Russia says combined efforts needed to meet "dirty bomb" threat: Quote: "Vienna, 20 September: The creation of "a dirty atomic bomb" may only be prevented by the combined efforts of the global community, the head of Russia's Federal Atomic Energy Agency, Aleksandr Rumyantsev, said ahead of the 48th session of the general conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency [IAEA] in Vienna."
Link Avocado vs Leafy Greens: Article by Howard Switzer. Quote: "The Green Party has been described as being made up of two factions, the realo and the fundi greens. Being jargon that I am not familiar with, and don't quite understand, I won't attempt to explain them to you. Instead I've come up with my own view of the two, shall I say, visions of the Green Party. One is the Avocado Green which Peter Camejo has described as being green on the outside and green on the inside. The other is the Leafy Green, also green inside and out. Bare with me, I'll try and explain the difference."
Link Ox's Natural Mosquito Repellant Synthesized in Lab: An Asian wild ox is helping scientists in the fight against pesky mosquitoes. Researchers have succeeded in determining the exact structure of a compound that gaurs excrete as a mosquito deterrent and synthesizing it in the laboratory. The results could help control the spread of mosquitoes that carry tropical diseases, such as yellow fever and malaria.
Link The Giants of Anime are Coming: The three titans of Japanese animation are all about to unleash monster new films. Watch your back, Shrek.
Link Hiding the elephant: Review by John-Ivan Palmer. "Houdini vanished the elephant, but modernity vanished magic."
Link Radioactivity gets fast-forward: A radioactive element's rate of decay has been speeded up. Scientists in Japan have persuaded a radioactive material to decay significantly faster than normal. Question: Could we neutralize radioactive waste more quickly?
Link Strings Of Shadowy Rings Drape Saturn: Saturn's ring shadows appear wrapped in a harmonious symphony with the planet in this color view from the Cassini spacecraft.
Link Animal Vegetable Video: Pursuing the Art and Science of Capturing Animal and Plant Perspectives. That means: some guys strap cameras to tarantulas, alligators, buffalos, frogs, tumbleweed, etc.
Link NASA Works to Salvage Genesis Samples: Quote: >The return of the Genesis spacecraft to Earth on September 8 did not go according to plan. The vessel, which spent 27 months collecting data and samples of the solar wind, entered Earth's atmosphere as scheduled on Wednesday morning, but its parachutes failed to deploy and the capsule crashed into the Utah desert. Though discouraged by the setback, NASA scientists were still hopeful that some of the samples could be recovered. Now early results have proved promising. “We are bouncing back from a hard landing and spirits are picking up again,” reports NASA's Orlando Figueroa.<
Link Vampire Problem page: Quote: >I am 17 years old and a recently awakened vampire. Wow, it was really hard for me to admit that because, for a long time now, I have denied it to myself. The incident that broke the camel’s back was when my mom was making dinner and the uncooked steak was just sitting there on the counter, dripping precious life blood. Oh how sweet it was! I felt the uncontrollable urge to lap it all up like Campbell’s chicken soup. When my mom left the kitchen I ran over and sopped the juicy blood up with a piece of bread. Then, thinking it was a little weird, I spread peanut butter on another piece of bread and made myself a peanut-butter-and-blood sandwich. It was pretty good. Sometimes when my parents yell at me about not washing the dishes, I just want to scream, ‘OK, YOU TRY BEING A VAMPIRE!!!’<
Link Foreskin Restorer: Quote: "The surface of the glans (the head of the penis) is not skin, but naturally moist mucous membrane. Without the foreskin, the glans becomes dried, toughened and insensitive. The slack skin possessed by the ‘intact’ makes intercourse better for both partners. Skin growth is achieved by gently tensioning the penile shaft skin. In one to three years, most restorers have enough skin to fully cover their glans when flaccid. That’s a commitment, but 100,000 men find it worth the effort." [...] "There are many ways to pull on the skin – some involving messy adhesive tapes – but none is as easy, effective and comfortable as our Tapeless Conical TLC TUGGER™. Wear it discretely under slacks during the day, and to bed at night. It stays put even during exercise, but removes in seconds for urination or intimacy." [...] "Lest you think it’s just the lucky circumcised American male who has access to this fashionable item, TLC TUGGER would like you to know they offer FREE shipping to Israel, Muslim states, and third-world nations."
Link Gibson’s Sublime Passion: In Defense of the Violence: Why do we watch tragedies and horror movies? Philosopher Bill Irwin suggests that our answer can help explain why Gibson made The Passion of the Christ the way he did. It’s a matter of aesthetics, and there’s a distinction to be made between the beautiful and the sublime. A Metaphilm online exclusive.
Link Tempest for Eliza is a Program that uses your computer monitor to send out AM radio signals. You can then hear computer generated music in your radio.
Link monochrom Update // UDO 77, our Udo Proksch Musical: Sorry for posting only a few entries during the last days. Our musical "UDO 77" had its premiere on Wednesday. You're not from Austria? You don't know anything about Udo Proksch? Here's some info: In 1977 the ship 'Lucona' sank in the Pacific Ocean after an explosion killing 6 people. Udo Proksch, the owner of the cargo, also the owner of a famous Viennese confectioners', claimed 20 million US dollars from his insurance saying it was loaded with expensive uranium tilling machines. Investigations started and fraud was suspected. The investigations were obstructed by politicians with important functions who were private friends of Proksch. Finally several (ex-)ministers got sentenced. The ex-minister of Foreign Affairs was sentenced for making false documents (in cooperation with the Rumanian embassy) proving the authenticity of the cargo. Two other ministers were dismissed for obstructing the investigations. The minister of Defense, shareholder in the Proksch firm, had given permission to deliver explosives to sabotage the ship and committed suicide when that came clear.
Quite a nice topic for a musical, we thought.
If you're German speaking and you're in Vienna, please visit the show at the Rabenhof Theater.
Link Mapping the evolution of a virus: A University of California scientist working at Los Alamos National Laboratory with collaborators from the University of Cambridge (England) and the World Health Organization National Influenza Center at Erasmus Medical Center, (Rotterdam, Netherlands) have developed a computer modeling method for mapping the evolution of the influenza virus. The method could soon help medical researchers worldwide develop a better understanding of certain mutations in influenza and other viruses that allow diseases to dodge the human immune system.
Link NASA A 'Go' For Midair Capture Of Samples From The Sun: NASA's Genesis spacecraft crossed the orbit of the Moon early Monday, Sept. 6, on its way to the mission's dramatic finale over the skies of west-central Utah tomorrow. Genesis, bringing back samples of the solar wind, is NASA's first sample return mission since Apollo 17 returned the last of America's lunar samples to Earth in December 1972.
Link Al-Qaeda: The true story of radical Islam: Article by Noel Rooney. Intro: "The mythographers have been busy: Osama bin Laden is presently morphing into a modern old man of the mountains, his assassins spoken of with the same awe as their famously obscure forebears. This iconic levitation was never likely to bear much relation to fact; bin Laden's cult status is the result of a potent mix of demonisation and adulation, a literary sub-genre and an internet bubble. So it's first of all a plain relief to read a level-headed and informed analysis of al-Qaeda and its place in the diversity of islamisms (Burke settles on the judicious catch-all 'jihadist Salafis') staking a claim on the vanguard of Moslem militancy. After vanloads of invective passing itself as analysis, anything resembling common sense and objectivity should be grasped with gratitude."
Link Why is life expectancy longer for women than it is for men? Bertrand Desjardins, a researcher in the demography department of the University of Montreal, explains.
Link The physics of high heels: Scientists calculate how high heels can go. The formula? h = Q•(12+3s /8)
Link monochrom sighting // Anti Republican Convention Demonstration in New York: Someone wore one of our tshirts at the Anti Republican Convention Demonstration in New York. What an honour! Have look. It's picture #59.
Link Scaled-Up Darkness: Could a single dark matter particle be light-years wide? Qute: "In 1996 Discover magazine ran an April Fools' story about giant particles called "bigons" that could be responsible for all sorts of inexplicable phenomena. Now, in a case of life imitating art, some physicists are proposing that the universe's mysterious dark matter consists of great big particles, light-years or more across. Amid the jostling of these titanic particles, ordinary matter ekes out its existence like shrews scurrying about the feet of the dinosaurs."
Link The Digital Death Rattle of the American Middle Class: A Cautionary Tale by Dion Dennis (Assistant Professor of Sociology and Criminal Justice at Bridgewater State College). Published on ctheory.
Link Fair cake-cutting procedure: NY University professor Steven Brams and his team developed a political-economic theory for efficiently sharing out a cake.
Link The Mumford Time Machine: "The Mumford Time Machine is a programmable controller and intervalometer for special photographic effects. It allows you to trip the shutter of your camera or fire an electronic flash at specific intervals or in response to events. These trigger events can be sound, light, motion, or electrical signals."
Link Repetition: The Ring and the Diabolical Imaginary: Matthew Sharpe's elaborate analysis of the Japanese and English movie versions of 'The Ring' (on Cinetext).
Link Aspertame and Gulf War Syndrome: Quote: "Aspartame contains 10% methanol. That caught my attention! I know that methanol (wood alcohol) is a poisonous substance, which on ingestion causes blindness and death; two teaspoons full are considered lethal. [...] [M]ethanol destroys the brain, albeit a little at a time, and that effects are cumulative. Depending on a person's physical state and tolerance level, immediate effects can either be severe (resulting in epileptic seizures, including grand mal, blindness, chest palpitations), or less noticeable (causing blurred vision, bright flashes, tunnel vision, ringing or buzzing in ears, migraine headaches, dizziness, loss of equilibrium, lip and mourth reactions); less noticeable effects might be passed off as temporary or caused by something else. But everyone is affected in one way or another, since methanol causes toxic reactions, not just allergic ones in a few unfortunates." (via Catscam)
Link Ten ways of thinking about deconstruction: What does one have to do or say in order to be a deconstructivist? Nice intro by Willy Maley.
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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