Welcome! Hi. This is the blog of Xeno, a slightly-mad scientist.
Xenophilia.com and this blog contain years of stuff I found interesting: Science, Music, Art, News, Strange Creatures UFOs, etc.
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6/17/2005 Earth / Paranoia (googlenews) Four California Quakes in One Week? Ready for "The Big One"? Time to buy a boat?
Level 1: Know where to be duing the quake.
Level 2:
Be prepared with food, water, flashlights, etc.
Level 3: Have a personal floatation device, life raft, flare gun, water filter and food rations within arms reach at all times. You never know when California will fall into the ocean. Read this offical USGS site's comment about California falling into the ocean. Will it really take
about 15 million years
until
Los Angeles is a suburb of San Francisco, or might it happen faster?
Of course there is no truth to the rumor that what is really going on is Earthquake weapon warfare beteen the US and a certain unnamed foreign entity. Claims that the quakes this week are caused by scalar energy weapons which have been quickly defused by the super secret US Earth Weapons Defense Team (EWDT) are pure science fiction.
6/15/2005 Strange Happenings (yahoo) Fish-Toting Bald Eagle Crashes Into Alaska Home
"KETCHIKAN, Alaska - A bald eagle crashed through a window of a home and landed in the living room, scattering broken glass, feathers and a salmon carcass across the floor. "It just grenaded that window," Haskin said. "The window didn't even slow it down." But the jolt apparently shook the fish and some feathers free. A moment later, the eagle popped out the hole where the window had been. "It was only about four or five seconds, then it must have gathered its wits and flew back out ..." - more...
6/15/2005 Politics / 9-11 (washingtontimes). Ex-Bush Labor Chief & Criminal Justice Center Director: collapse of the WTC is "bogus", controlled demolition shows case for an 'inside job' and a government attack on America.
"A former Bush team member during his first administration is now voicing serious doubts about the collapse of the World Trade Center on 9-11. Former chief economist for the
Department of Labor during President George W. Bush's first term Morgan Reynolds comments that the official story about the collapse of the WTC is "bogus" and that it is more likely that a controlled demolition destroyed the Twin Towers and adjacent Building No. 7. Reynolds, who also served as director of the Criminal Justice Center at the National Center for Policy Analysis in Dallas and is now professor emeritus at Texas A&M University said, "If demolition destroyed three steel skyscrapers at the World Trade Center on 9/11, then the case for an 'inside job' and a government attack on America would be compelling." Reynolds commented from his Texas A&M office, "It is hard to exaggerate the importance of a scientific debate over the cause of the collapse of the twin towers and building 7. If the official wisdom on the collapses is wrong, as I believe it is, then policy based on such erroneous engineering analysis is not likely to be correct either. The government's collapse theory is highly vulnerable on its own terms. Only professional demolition appears to account for the full range of facts associated with the collapse of the three buildings." - washingtontimes
This is in the Washington Times ... and on blogs for years now. Firemen heard and saw a series of explosions one floor after another as in a controlled demolition. There was also Larry Silverstein's "pull it" comment. We also know that burning jet fuel can't soften steel in a matter of minutes. According to Underwriters Laboratories (UL), the steel was only heated to about 500F (250C). To soften steel for the purposes of forging, temperatures need pass 2012F (1100C). Un-fireproofed steel will not melt until reaching red-hot temperatures of nearly 3000F (1648C). Thermite bombs fit the facts best. Believe Bush, deny reality? See Popular Mechanics for how far people go. PM shows a distant picture of the Pentagon hole and asks us to believe that "What was left of the plane flowed into the structure in a state closer to a liquid than a solid mass." If true, where are the large wings?
As one clear thinking person put it, "When airplanes crash in other locations, every piece of the plane can be found, even if it is in small pieces. Pieces of the passengers and their luggage can also be found. How is it that when a plane hits the Pentagon, everything suddenly changes and the plane is liquefied?"
Makes you wonder... More than that, it should make you scream, "Impeach! Impeach!"
6/14/2005 Strange Happenings (bbc). 31-year-old serial impostor passed himself off for a whole month as a schoolboy - aged 15.
Frederic Bourdin, nicknamed "the Chameleon", is being questioned by police in France. ... A teacher unmasked him last week after having watched a television programme about his exploits. ... The school head was quoted as saying Bourdin "appeared a bit older than his pals - two or three years at most". France's Le Figaro newspaper reports that Bourdin is an excellent actor who dresses as a teenager, uses depilatory face creams and adopts a convincing youthful walk. He is said to have assumed numerous other identities.
Bourdin was jailed in the US in 1997 for posing as a couple's long-lost son. The Texas couple's 14-year-old blue-eyed son had disappeared three years earlier and they travelled to the US embassy in Spain to meet "Nicholas Barclay". Bourdin convinced them that he was their son, despite his brown eyes and strong French accent. He lived with them for three months before his deception was exposed by a journalist and confirmed by a DNA test. He was jailed for six years.
6/14/2005 Strange Happenings (yahoo). Spontaneous Auto Combustion.
"Peugeot Denmark confirmed that seven 307 cars have caught on fire or partially melted for unknown reasons while parked with the engine off. ... "take precautions: do not leave children or pets in the car for an extended period."
6/13/2005 Politics. Sacramento: Stop Vote Fraud, Demand a Paper Trail!
If you can, be at the the Voting Systems and Procedures Panel (VSPP) meeting at the Secretary of State's office on Thursday, June 16th at 10 AM to support democracy.
Thursday, June 16th, starting at 10 AM
Office of the Secretary of State
1500 11th Street 1st Floor – Auditorium
Sacramento, California 95814
Much more info and a map are here: sacramentofordemocracy.org/?q=node/view/3018
You can also read this editorial from the Sacramento News & Review by Sacramento's own, Jim March of www.BlackBoxVoting.org
Democracy, not Dieboldocracy sacramentofordemocracy.org/?q=node/view/3032
6/13/2005 Neat Inventions. Cheap Home Made Air Conditioning.
I may try it for kicks. Looks easy. You still have to pay for electricity to run the fan. Next we need a mechanical way to power the fan.I'm a student, with limited funds and a cheap house without air conditioning. To avoid dying this summer, I've built a primitive air conditioner. It's a basic heat pump, using water as the
medium.
You'll probably need to fiddle a bit with the dimensions of the supplies based on your resources and preferences. Materials: Salvage from around the house a: large fan, garbage can. Grab from Home Depot:
- 25 feet of 1/8 inch outer diameter (OD) copper tubing (~ $14)
- 20 feet of 1/8 inch inner diameter (ID) vinyl tubing (~ $6)
- a package of zipties (~ $3)
- 2 small hose clamps (~ $1)
Here's the basic setup. The garbage can is filled with ice water, which is then fed by gravity (a siphon) through the copper tubing coiled along the back of the fan.
The hot air passing through the tubing warms the cold water, cooling the air.
Waste warm water is then pumped outside. The system will cool an average room to a comfortable level in approximately 15-20 minutes.
Depending on flow rate, a full bucket of water will last approximately 1-3 hours. It doesn't rip quite as hard as central air, but for less than $30 CAD I'm not complaining.
6/13/2005 Education. Expanding supply of high-quality science, math teachers
Much needed!! I might not like everything our Govenator is up to, but this is great."On May 31, UC announced a new partnership with Governor Schwarzenegger, corporate supporters, and the California State University system to expand the number of high-quality
science and math teachers for California's public schools.
Under the program, UC will quadruple its annual production of science and math teachers. In addition, UC undergraduates will be able to achieve, in four years including one summer, both a bachelor's degree in science, mathematics, or engineering and the preparation needed to become a secondary-school science or math teacher."
"... In 2002-03, nearly 1,500 mathematics and 800 science classes in California high schools were taught
by teachers with no teaching credential."More information is at www.universityofcalifornia.edu/academics/1000teachers/.
6/13/2005 Archaeology (indep | scots). Europe's Oldest Civilization Found.
"More than 150 gigantic monuments have been located beneath the fields and cities of modern-day Germany, Austria and Slovakia. They were built 7,000 years ago, between 4800BC and 4600BC. Their discovery, revealed today by The Independent, will revolutionise
the study of prehistoric Europe, where an appetite for monumental architecture was thought to have developed later than in Mesopotamia and Egypt.
In all, more than 150 temples have been identified. Constructed of earth and wood, they had ramparts and palisades that stretched for up to half a mile. They were built by a religious people who lived in communal longhouses up to 50 metres long, grouped around substantial villages. Evidence suggests their economy was based on cattle, sheep, goat and pig farming."
.... Archaeologists are now beginning to suspect that hundreds of these very early monumental religious centres, each up to 150 metres across, were constructed across a 400-mile swath of land in what is now Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and eastern Germany.
Harald Staeuble, (is) the person directing the archaeological investigations "
I hope they find writings in these 7,000-year-old temples
of Nickern which supposedly pre-date the great pyramids of Egypt by 2000 years. One of the first known complete stories is the Epic of Gilgamesh. (Which flood story was first? Read this for some fair thoughts.) The original comes from 
Ancient Sumeria. Sumer was in southern Mesopotamia the geographical area that is today called Iraq. The 12 clay tablets in cuneiform script describe the adventures of the historical King of Uruk who lived around 2750 and 2500 BCE. So much has been lost or destroyed.
"The Dresden Codex, one of the few Mayan hieroglyphic manuscripts that survived the book-burnings by Spanish invaders, documents astronomical calculations of the planed Venus. Large numbers of codices were compiled by the Mayan priests to record religious rites and astronomical facts. (Sachsische Landesbibliothek, Dresden, East Germany.)" aol
The Dresden Codex "totals 74 pages in length, (and is) painted with extraordinary care and clarity using a very fine brush. The artist used both sides of all but four of the pages of the codices." It "contains (among other things) astronomical calculations of exceptional accuracy" and is the basis for the Mayan calendar which starts on August 13th, 3114 B.C and which says the end of the present world will be December 21st, 2012 A.C . This find of Europe's oldest temples seems to predate the start of the Mayan Calendar by 1600 years. This may be a sign that life on Earth will continue after 12/21/2012.6/13/2005 Biology / Cryptozoology. Of Ligers and Tigons.
"The 10ft Liger who's still growing... He looks like something from a prehistoric age or a fantastic
creation from Hollywood. But Hercules is very much living flesh and blood - as he proves every time he opens his gigantic mouth to roar. Part lion, part tiger, he is not just a big cat but a huge one,standing 10ft tall on his back legs. Called a liger, in reference to his crossbreed parentage, he is the largest of all the cat species. On a typical day he will devour 20lb of meat, usually beef or chicken, and is capable of eating 100lb at a single setting. At just three years old, Hercules already weighs half a ton."
He is the accidental result of two enormous big cats living close together at the Institute of Greatly Endangered and Rare Species, in Miami, Florida, and already dwarfs both his parents. "Ligers are not something we planned on having," said institute owner Dr Bhagavan Antle. "We have lions and tigers living together in large enclosures and at first we had no idea how well one of the lion boys was getting along with a tiger girl, then lo and behold we had a liger."
50mph runner... Not only that, but he likes to swim, a feat unheard of among water-fearing lions. In the wild it is virtually impossible for lions and tigers to mate. Not only are they enemies likely to kill one another, but most lions are in Africa and most tigers in Asia. But incredible though he is, Hercules is not unique. Ligers have been bred in captivity, deliberately and accidentally, since shortly before World War II.
Today there are believed to be a handful of ligers around the world and a similar number of tigons, the product of a tiger father and lion mother. Tigons are smaller than ligers and take on more physical
characteristics of the tiger.
6/10/2005 Music. Free Download / Free Song: Warlord Zang (840K mp3) (right click, save as..)
This is a quick mix recorded last night in my friend's apartment studio. Lyrics here. John is an excellent engineer who has a sweet moble rig. He is also a walking music encyclopedia and he has run sound for, among others, our music friend Jason Mraz. John and I had a lot of fun finding odd things to make nose with last night, at one time borrowing his dog's food bin as our kick drum.
This song is my small contribution to the local trash movie being made by our friends at the Trash Film Orgy. The song was originally written and performed by Xenophilia for the I Can't Believe It's Not Comedy shows, where our hot friend Amber (my favorite local actress) played an evil cartoon-like male villan. More about the movie here:
"Written 5/28/05: You should be getting pumped to see the TFO movie this summer! With over 40 actors and more than 11 intricately designed sets, this movie is EPIC!" - TFO Movie Update
6/10/2005 Politics. Sign This Petition to Get Bush to Answer Questions.
Do it and tell a friend. This is a nice first step on a long overdue impeachment of Bush and co. Read about the "Downing Street Memo" which seems to prove intelligence was manipulated to get the US into a war with Iraq on false pretenses.6/10/2005 Space / Blog / Satire. Earth (the USA, that is) Plans Attack on Comet for Independence Day.
When the Deep Impact probe fired a missile at the Tempel 1 comet in the early hours of July 3, 2005, we were on an innocent mission of exploration. Unfortunately, the Galactic Council viewed our attack on a harmless comet and the peaceful intelligent Comacians inside as an aggressive first strike. They therefore directed a large lifeless meteor at the Earth as a mild slap on the wrist. I guess that is why there were no humans left on the planet in the year 2006, son.
"A direct hit from the 800lb projectile could blow a crater the size of a football stadium into the 3.7-mile comet nucleus, throwing out clouds of debris. The mother ship will watch the collision from 300 miles away as its instruments analyse the cosmic smash for insights into the structure and composition of comets." - timesonline
6/7/2005 Health / Biology (seattlepi). Startling study on toxins' harm: Findings show that disorders can be passed on without genetic mutations.
The findings prompt serious and, in some cases, disturbing questions about a number of basic assumptions in biology. ...
The standard view of heritable disease is that for any disorder or disease to be inherited, a gene must go bad (mutate) and that gene must get passed on to the offspring.
What Skinner and his colleagues did is show that exposing a pregnant rat to high doses of a class of pesticides known as "endocrine disruptors" causes an inherited reproductive disorder in male rats that is passed on without any genetic mutation. ...
"It's not a change in the DNA sequence," Skinner explained. "It's a chemical modification of the DNA. ... a toxin-induced attachment of methyl groups to DNA in the mother rat was being passed on to offspring. ...
"In human terms, this would mean if your great grandmother was exposed to an environmental toxin at a critical point in her pregnancy, you may have inherited the disease," Skinner said. ... The findings also suggest a reconsideration of one of the basic tenets of evolutionary biology -- that evolution proceeds by random genetic change. ... Epigenetics may be just as important as genetics in evolution".
6/7/2005 Music. Amy Anne Solo Project!
Hello friends. Check out amyanne.com the new home of my long time music partner, the stunningly musical Amy Anne. Downloadable song too.
6/3/2005 Magic. Meet Mentalist JASON SCOTT, He Knows Your Thoughts.
"Most people seem to like when I bend their coins, but my favorite effects are when I predict people's thoughts. I like to give people souvenirs. One way I do that is by taking their pocket change and seemingly making it melt with just my mind. Another fun thing I do is say out loud what people are just thinking. ... People scream all the time. The craziest reaction was when this guy thought I had some evil power, could control minds and punched me. But, no one has ever fainted, not yet anyway … " - 944
Disclosure: Jason Scott is a member of my extended family, although we have never met in person. Jason is "a frequent performer at "A list" celebrity events and private, underground parties, from Las Vegas to Los Angeles."
6/1/2005 Art. Computer Generated Art. Some neat stuff. Getting better all the time. Click to view.
" ... according to Pliny the Elder, a Greek artist named Zeuxis created a painting of grapes that looked so real that birds started pecking at them."
6/1/2005 Music / Science Fiction / Gigs. Xenophilia to Play Sci Fi Event. New Promotional Flyer.
"Fantastic Frontiers NorCal Sci-Fi/Fantasy Social Club (www.fantasticfrontiers.com) and Hidden Passage Book Store (Placerville) are pleased to present "Star Struck: Out of this World," a muti-media, multi-genre fan convention to be held July 9, 2005 at the Scottish Rite Temple Auditorum in Sacramento!
"This special event is intended to raise funds for the science program at ARCOHE SCHOOL, (... Herald, CA ... ), a local rural elementary, and to to promote the educational literacy program READING FOR THE FUTURE, www.readingforfuture.com, while expanding and connecting the large Sacramento speculative fiction community."
Something missing?
Items here are moved to the various topics pages whenever I feel like it. See the index.