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1. QWERTY Typewriter: The true story.
“Giant white alligators live in the sewers of New York City, the progeny of pet alligators flushed away when they grew too large for city apartments.”
– They don’t.
“Water spins down drains clockwise north of the equator; counterclockwise south of the equator.”
– It doesn’t.
“Computer keyboards are laid out with the letters QWERTY on the top row, because other arrangements allow typists to type so fast that typewriters would jam.”
– Nope.
Perhaps not as common as the first two examples of urban mythology, the question as to why we are cursed with an illogical, inefficient, and painful keyboard layout should be of interest to anyone who works with computers. And since we’ve just completed a set of reviews of learn-to-type software, we thought it would be fitting to examine the history of the keyboard.
Read more here: http://www.superkids.com/aweb/pages/features/qwerty/qwerty.shtml
2. Hikikomori
One morning when he was 15, Takeshi shut the door to his bedroom, and for the next four years he did not come out. He didn’t go to school. He didn’t have a job. He didn’t have friends. Month after month, he spent 23 hours a day in a room no bigger than a king-size mattress, where he ate dumplings, rice and other leftovers that his mother had cooked, watched TV game shows and listened to Radiohead and Nirvana. “Anything,” he said, “that was dark and sounded desperate.”
I met Takeshi outside Tokyo not long ago, shortly after he finally left his parents’ house to join a job-training program called New Start. He was wiry, with a delicate face, tousled, dyed auburn hair and the intensity of a hungry college freshman. “Don’t laugh, but musicians really helped me, especially Radiohead,” he told me through an interpreter, before scribbling some lyrics in English in my notebook. “That’s what encouraged me to leave my room.”
Read more here: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/15/magazine/15japanese.html?ei=5090&en=7a1fdac3eb790b32&ex=1294981200
3. Giant crystals
April 9, 2007—Geologist Juan Manuel García-Ruiz calls it “the Sistine Chapel of crystals,” but Superman could call it home.
A sort of south-of-the-border Fortress of Solitude, Mexico’s Cueva de los Cristales (Cave of Crystals) contains some of the world’s largest known natural crystals—translucent beams of gypsum as long as 36 feet (11 meters).
How did the crystals reach such superheroic proportions?
In the new issue of the journal Geology, García-Ruiz reports that for millennia the crystals thrived in the cave’s extremely rare and stable natural environment. Temperatures hovered consistently around a steamy 136 degrees Fahrenheit (58 degrees Celsius), and the cave was filled with mineral-rich water that drove the crystals’ growth.
Modern-day mining operations exposed the natural wonder by pumping water out of the 30-by-90-foot (10-by-30-meter) cave, which was found in 2000 near the town of Delicias (Chihuahua state map). Now García-Ruiz is advising the mining company to preserve the caves.
“There is no other place on the planet,” García-Ruiz said, “where the mineral world reveals itself in such beauty.”
Read the full story of the new discovery.
4. The rise of the darker winged moths
With the Industrial revolution in Britain the streets of London becoming increasing polluting giving rise to a dirty dusty climate that has been written about by Charles Dickens, Engels, Marx to name but a few commentators on that period in History. A little known or forgotten tidbit of that period in history comes in the form of the rise of darker winged moths. Until the early 19th century it was more common to see white moths, you know those cabbage moths you see flying around in spring and which you’re dad curse for chewing the leaves of the cabbage and ruining their crisp hard edges with their little nibbly holes. Yeah well that kinda moth would fly around all over London city. Well until the streets became darker and gritty and then slowly they became prey for birds what with their wings sticking out all over the shop. Thus the darker winged moth became more popular around the traps and so it still exists to today.
5. Copenhagen riots
Some 3,000 people demonstrated Saturday in Copenhagen against the closure of a disputed youth center as police braced themselves for more violence following two nights of riots that turned parts of the Danish capital into a battlefield.
Authorities said 207 people were arrested early Saturday following overnight clashes in which angry demonstrators pelted police with cobblestones and set fire to cars.
More than 500 people were arrested, including scores of foreigners, since the riots started Thursday after an anti-terror squad evicted squatters from the so-called “Youth House” in the Noerrebro district.
On Saturday afternoon, demonstrators marched peacefully toward the four-story building that for years has served as a popular cultural center for anarchists, punk rockers and left-wing groups.
Read more here: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/03/03/world/main2533538.shtml
Or check out these two videos to see the beauty of burning cars:
6. Coltan
“As you crawl through the tiny hole, using your arms and fingers to scratch, there’s not enough space to dig properly and you get badly grazed all over. And then, when you do finally come back out with the cassiterite, the soldiers are waiting to grab it at gunpoint. Which means you have nothing to buy food with. So we’re always hungry.”
That’s how Muhanga Kawaya, a miner in the remote northeastern province of North Kivu in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), described his job to reporter Jonathan Miller of Britain’s Channel 4 last year. Cassiterite, or tin oxide, is the most important source of the metallic element tin, and the DRC is home to fully one-third of the world’s reserves. Some cassiterite miners work on sites operated directly by the country’s military or other armed groups. Working in the same area are “artisanal” miners who are theoretically independent, like prospectors in America’s Old West. But the cassiterite they extract is heavily taxed by the soldiers — when it’s not just stolen outright.
Read more here: https://www.corpwatch.org/article/africa-war-murder-rape-all-your-cell
7. What’s the time?
ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) – The countdown has started on a flickering billboard high above a roundabout in Ethiopia’s capital, blinking out recently in red and gold letters: only 209 days, 15 hours, 22 minutes and 22 seconds to the Millennium. People walk past a billboard counting down to the Millennium in Ethiopia’s capital February 13, 2007. REUTERS/Andrew Heavens
Seven years after much of the world marked the beginning of the 21st century, Ethiopia is finally approaching the year 2000, thanks to a unique and ancient system of measuring time.
A variation on the archaic Julian calendar — which started disappearing from the West in the 16th century — means Ethiopia will not enter the year 2000 until September 12 this year.
“When everyone else celebrated their millennium, they said all sorts of things were going to happen, but nothing happened,” Addis Ababa-based film director Tatek Tadesse said.
“Now all the prophecies they made about 2000 will happen this time round on the true Millennium. It will be a new age for Ethiopia,” said Tatek who is putting the final touches to a film inspired by the historic event.
Unlike the Gregorian calendar used widely in the West, Ethiopia’s version squeezes 13 months into every year — 12 months comprising 30 days each and a final month made up of just five or six days depending on whether it is a leap year.
Read more here: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/jul/26/ethiopia-millennium
8. Autonomedia
Autonomedia is an autonomous zone for arts radicals in both old and new media. We publish books on radical media, politics and the arts that seek to transcend party lines, bottom lines and straight lines. We also maintain the Interactivist Info Exchange, an online forum for discourse and debate on themes relevant to the books we publish. It’s published books by Hakim Bey, Michael Muhammad Knight and collections on protests against the G8 in Scotland and compilations of underground digital activists and theorists.
Check out the site here: http://www.autonomedia.org
9. Barrup Penisula
Long long long ago, over six months now, I left a comment on this blog about doing a day on the Indigenous art of Australia. As I endeavoured to start this day I become bogged down by my usual fears and anxiety around the written word and the merit of the day. Fears that I’m struggling with and fretting with as the day morphs and develops ever so slowly. Originally it was to be a day showcasing 40 000 years of Indigenous Australian art, then it developed into two one of pre 1901 art and the other of post 1901. That is in historical terms of Australia one before federation and the other post federation. The day is still in the making and developing along at the snail pace I have dipping into it when I have the time and whenever I don’t get overwhelmed by other more pressing concerns or anxiety.
Anyway as I researched the day I came to learn that there are over a 100 000 rock art sites in Australia of which the Barrup Penisula is the most densely populated one. Not only is the Barrup Penisula the most densely populated site in Australia it is also the most densely populated (concentrated) site in the world with over 10 000 rock engravings existing in it’s 26 square kilometre. At the moment this site is under threat from Woodside Petroleum who want to destroy a major component of the land to mine more gas. There is a petition that is being circulated and a court case happening in the high court at the moment trying to get the site protected. If you could sign the petition below that’d be great.
Sign the petition here: http://www.getup.org.au/campaign.asp?campaign_id=76
Read more here: https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Environment_and_Communications/BurrupPeninusla
See some photographs here: https://www.gettyimages.fr/photos/burrup-peninsula
10. Brokenpencil
I’m a zine junkie from way back there’s something beautiful about holding one in your hand. The typed pages, the white out ink, the grainy pixels, the collages, the intimacy of sitting in a room with paper and scissors and glue and just cut cut cutting until you’ve got the pages you want. The photocopying of it, the joy of scamming a free photocopy or two, the smell of the paper as the ink is emersed onto it. Ah, yes there’s something about zines that will never go from me and that’s why places like brokenpencil are so great. Here you can access the best bits of (mainly) Canadian zinesters. It’s not the same but from here in Melbourne it’s a nice way of getting an introduction to that world.
11. The Earth From Above
The Earth From Above was an exhibit that was recently held in Melbourne. The exhibition put together by Yann Authus-Bertrand featured over 100 images of photos taken of the earth from above. These included landscapes and cities and everything in between. The photos were accompanied by texts about sustainability and environmental issues. You can check out the photographs (with extras that weren’t included in the exhibition) at the link below.
Earth from above: https://www.yannarthusbertrandphoto.com/categorie-produit/from-above/
12. The worst mistake in the history of the human race
by Jared Diamond
“To science we owe dramatic changes in our smug self-image. Astronomy taught us that our earth isn’t the center of the universe but merely one of billions of heavenly bodies. From biology we learned that we weren’t specially created by God but evolved along with millions of other species. Now archaeology is demolishing another sacred belief: that human history over the past million years has been a long tale of progress. In particular, recent discoveries suggest that the adoption of agriculture, supposedly our most decisive step toward a better life, was in many ways a catastrophe from which we have never recovered. With agriculture came the gross social and sexual inequality, the disease and despotism, that curse our existence.
At first, the evidence against this revisionist interpretation will strike twentieth century Americans as irrefutable. We’re better off in almost every respect than people of the Middle Ages, who in turn had it easier than cavemen, who in turn were better off than apes. Just count our advantages. We enjoy the most abundant and varied foods, the best tools and material goods, some of the longest and healthiest lives, in history. Most of us are safe from starvation and predators. We get our energy from oil and machines, not from our sweat. What neo-Luddite among us would trade his life for that of a medieval peasant, a caveman, or an ape?”
Read the rest here: https://www.discovermagazine.com/planet-earth/the-worst-mistake-in-the-history-of-the-human-race
13 Easter Island
Easter Island is over 2,000 miles from the nearest population center, (Tahiti and Chile), making it one of the most isolated places on Earth. A triangle of volcanic rock in the South Pacific – it is best known for the giant stone monoliths, known as Moai, that dot the coastline. The early settlers called the island “Te Pito O Te Henua” (Navel of The World). Admiral Roggeveen, who came upon the island on Easter Day in 1722, named it Easter Island. Today, the land, people and language are all referred to locally as Rapa Nui.
There has been much controversy and confusion concerning the origins of the Easter Islanders. Thor Heyerdahl proposed that the people who built the statues were of Peruvian descent, due to a similarity between Rapa Nui and Incan stonework. Some have suggested that Easter Island is the remnant of a lost continent, or the result of an extra-terrestrial influence . Archaeological evidence, however, indicates discovery of the island by Polynesians at about 400 AD – led, according to legend, by Hotu Matua. Upon their arrival, an impressive and enigmatic culture began to develop. In addition to the statues, the islanders possessed the Rongorongo script; the only written language in Oceania. The island is also home to many petroglyphs (rock carvings), as well as traditional wood carvings, tapa (barkcloth) crafts, tattooing, string figures, dance and music.
The population of Easter Island reached its peak at perhaps more than 10,000, far exceeding the capabilities of the small island’s ecosystem. Resources became scarce, and the once lush palm forests were destroyed – cleared for agriculture and moving the massive stone Moai. In this regard, Easter Island has become, for many, a metaphor for ecological disaster.
Thereafter, a thriving and advanced social order began to decline into bloody civil war and, evidently, cannibalism. Eventually, all of the Moai standing along the coast were torn down by the islanders themselves. All of the statues now erected around the island are the result of recent archaeological efforts.
Contacts with western “civilization” proved even more disastrous for the island population which, through slavery and disease, had decreased to approximately 110 by the turn of the century. Following the annexation by Chile in 1888, however, it has risen to more than 2,000, with other Rapanui living in Chile, Tahiti and North America. Despite a growing Chilean presence, the island’s Polynesian identity is still quite strong .
Sample of Rapa Nui Music
For a virtual tour through Easter Island here: http://www.mysteriousplaces.com/easter_island/
14. Bad Boy Bubby
Bad Boy Bubby is Rolf De Heer first film (his other films are Alexanders Project, The tracker and Ten Canoes). Staring Hugo Weaving lookalike Nicholas Hope the film is about a Bad Boy named Bubby who for his thirty-five years has lived locked up in the flat he shares with his mother. After a visit from Bubby’s enstranged father Bubby finds himself thrown into the outer world that is Adelaide. Surrealist, Absurd, Violent, Pretensious, Parodic, Schizoprhenic, this film follows Bubby’s encounter with the outside world that is Adelaide.
A chunk of it:
15. Diogenes of Sinope
“The art of being a slave is to rule one’s master.” Diogenes of Sinope
“No man is hurt but by himself” Diogenes of Sinope
“Why not whip the teacher when the pupil misbehaves?” Diogenes of Sinope
“The Cynic from Sinope who Lived in a Tub…
For all we do here at this site to combat hunger and poverty and raise awareness of the present-day hunger and poverty epidemics, this site wouldn’t be complete without a page dedicated to my number one hero Diogenes (412 BC – 323 BC), the wise social critic who gave up possessions and chose to live in poverty. -Scott Hughes
A Socrates Gone Mad
The people of ancient Greece knew the philosopher Diogenes by many nick names. Plato called Diogenes “a Socrates gone mad”. Most often the Greeks called Diogenes “the dog”. The Greek word for dog was “cynic”. In fact, Diogenes teacher Antisthenes – pupil of Socrates – founded the Greek school of cynicism, and Diogenes was and is the most notorious cynic.
Now you know the etymology of the word cynic.
The story of how Diogenes and Antisthenes came together is an interesting one. Attracted by the ascetic teaching of Antisthenes, Diogenes came to be his student. Antisthenes struck Diogenes with his staff when Diogenes first came to the doors of the cynic school, but Diogenes refused to leave and said “Strike me, Antisthenes, but you will never find a stick sufficiently hard to remove me from your presence, while you speak anything worth hearing.” Then, Diogenes became a student of Antisthenes.
Read the rest here: https://millionsofmouths.com/diogenes.html
Read Diogenes wiki page here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diogenes_of_Sinope
16. Tawqacore
Tawqacore is a termed first phrased by novelist, writer and Muslim! Wake up Journalist Mike Muhammad Knight. The phrase itself comes from the novel of the same name. Originally published in a self bounded copy the book is the story of a fictious muslim punk band from Buffalo, New York. The characters include a straightedge Sunni muslim, a drunken mohawked drunken mohawk-wearing Sufi punk, burqa-wearing riot grrl and Shi’a skinhead. In 2004 the book was picked up Jello Biafra Alternative Tentacles label. Since the publication of the book Tawqacore has come into existence a musical genre and style in itself with boston band the Kominas being the most famous example of this, having had articles written about them in the boston press and thousands of hits on there myspace. The name itself is a portmanteu of hardcore and the Arabic word Tawqa, which is usually translated as piety or the quality of being “God fearing”, and thus roughly denotes fear and love of the divine.
Read an excerpt from novel here: http://www.veronahotel.net/it/muslimwakeupcom/
For more about Mike Muhammad Knight read his wiki page here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Muhammad_Knight
Tawqacore itself the kominas: https://twitter.com/therealkominas?lang=en
Photoessay: https://issuu.com/pangeamagazine
Purchase it here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003OUX58M/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1
17. Bob Flanagan’s Cough
Cough
“Called my doctor, trying to find out why I’m up coughing all night. Coughing a lot. Very congested. Still coughing. Going to bed. A little short of breath but no coughing, not tonight. Woke up with that tickle again and sweaty legs. Cough and runny nose which I hope won’t last all night. I want to go back to sleep. Great fuck last night after a good dinner, no coughing – well, a little – but I slept well. The doctor said I’m “doing too damn much” and gave me some antibiotics. Tickle in my chest. Lungs feel itchy. Quiet night without much coughing. Had a dream about the Manson Family. Feel almost human. Horrible time breathing today. Christ! Still up, rolling around in this damn bed. Leg cramps. Coughing. Stuffy nose. The sweats. Too tired to read and too awake and uncomfortable to sleep. Woke up coughing and I haven’t stopped yet. Hope I can stop long enough to get back to sleep. Sitting around, sweating, trying to breathe, pulling my pants down to play with myself. Wheezing won’t let me sleep. Creaking in my lungs. Congested and tight chested. Slight sore throat. Chest still hurts. Hope I’m not coming down with something – at least I think I hope I’m not. Can hardly breathe.”
Read more here: http://www.altx.com/profiles/archives/bodyparts/cough.html
For a transcript of Sick: The life and Death of Bob Flanagan Supermasochist go here: http://www.script-o-rama.com/movie_scripts/s/sick-bob-flanagan-supermasochist-script.html
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p.s. Hey. ** David, Cool beans. Wow, a black bath. I’m a shower guy, but that does give the idea of cleansing myself whilst lying down more pizazz. Man, you are singlehandedly keeping the sounds of the 1980s alive. Well, I know you’re not the only one, but still, you deserve a heavily festooned medal or something. Sweet. I have hopes for today, but we shall see, won’t we? Enjoy your 24. ** Dominik, Hi!!! I think a Nancy Grossman mask would definitely have lost Anita her job for better or worse. Or maybe gotten her raise? I like the mental image of a bored TikTok content maker making boring content while a bored TikTok consumer stares bored at the screen. It’s like perfect love or something. That’s funny ‘cos I just found a slave the other day who’s thing is wanting men to shove a bar of soap in his mouth. Any brand of soap, but, in his case, especially if it’s Irish Spring. So your love has a bff out there. Love magically transforming every staircase in the world into an escalator, G. ** _Black_Acrylic, Cool, glad you liked her stuff, pal. ** T, Hi, T. I think probably if you slipped the person at the gallery’s front desk a 20 euro bill they’d look the other way. Heads are pretty important to sexual attractiveness, no? Maybe I’m old fashioned. Although it’s true a nice hood can work wonders. Oh, I don’t know. Right, about your landlady. Humans are so adjustable. It’s nice. Ha, thank you for adding the better plumbing part. Hope your day bends over backwards in its effort to please you. xo. ** Steve Erickson, Your new song doesn’t sound very Xmas-y by your description, but, what the heck, I’ll make an exception in its case. Everyone, Mr. Erickson’s latest musical gift all and sundry is a new song called ‘Oil Slick’. Head here. Yow, your computer is a bitch. (‘bitch’ got auto-corrected to ‘butch’, which also works). ** geymm, Hi. I’m still pondering how to use geymm in conversation. I almost sprung it on Gisele yesterday, but I wasn’t quite confident enough. Is ‘Crack Wars’ out of print?! Psst, zLibrary doesn’t have ‘CrackWars’, but they have a bunch of her other books downloadable for free if you don’t mind reading pdf/scans. Here. Paris really should leave the Xmas stuff up until my birthday, but they don’t, the bastards. I understand about your Xmas ennui. I’m lucky ‘cos I just like the look and tone of Xmas, and it doesn’t have any meaning to me. Glasgow, though, that’s cool. Might be kind of chilly up there. Bring sufficient garb. Yeah, I think I’ll be in Paris and nowhere else through the holidays unless Zac and I can get to Phantasialand in Germany for a little theme park joyfulness, but I’m not sure we’ll make it there in time. The honey spoon buche is ordered, and we will eat it on the 19th! Whoo!! ** David Ehrenstein, Happy you enjoyed it, sir. ** Okay. Today you get a restored post from a long time ago, 13 years ago to be exact, by a long lost distinguished local of this blog from Australia named Paradigm. Good, rangy stuff. Have at it please. See you tomorrow.
Now available in North America 