Meets The Weird » Weird Science

CERN Scientists Occupy Relativity, Faster Than Light Neutrinos Not Slowing Down

John D — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 16:19:00 +0000

It seems that those plucky scientists at CERN were not about to take the “debunking” of their Earth-shattering discovery that faster than light travel was possible lying down. Amid claims that their original experiment was flawed, the CERN team designed an improved version of their experiment that addressed the alleged shortcomings in the previous tests. Even after addressing “concerns” raised by the scientific community, the CERN team is continuing to observe neutrinos traveling faster than the speed of light. Once again, it would seem that Einstein was wrong when he set a universal speed limit.

If they are indeed correct, the CERN team may have made one of the most important discoveries in the history of man kind. A discovery that has the potential to usher in a new era in our history and take our species into the stars. Unfortunately, the powers-that-be are not fond of change and view anything that could potentially upset their precious status quo as a threat. Previously, we mused that the “debunking” of the original experiments might be the result of a conspiracy to suppress the truth about faster than light travel. If this is correct, the CERN team will no-doubt face increasing attacks on their work that seek to keep faster than light travel in the realm of science fiction and out of the realm of science fact.

Neutrino experiment repeat at Cern finds same result

Are Amateur Rockets The Next Big Thing For Ufology?

John D — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 18:26:38 +0000

The footage you are watching was captured during a Carmack Prize attempt by team Qu8k. (More footage is available at the end of the post.) While the simple fact that this video was recorded by amateurs who managed to send a rocket through 99% of our atmosphere to an altitude of 22 miles is absolutely amazing, what I find exhilarating is what private launches like this can mean for ufology. Presently, when it comes to searching for UFOs outside of our atmosphere, we are stuck either peering through telescopes or searching through NASA footage. While we can be in full control of our telescopes, the problem with NASA footage is that NASA decides what footage they release and it doesn’t seem that they are keen on sharing any UFO evidence with the public. This means ufologists are stuck looking for scraps missed by NASA’s censors.

However, amateur rocketry gives us another option. As you can see from these videos, private citizens are now capable of recording incredibly high quality video from space (more or less). While this launch didn’t catch anything “interesting”, we can see that if something was there the rocket’s cameras would have recorded it. Each private launch gives us a chance to collect incredible evidence that otherwise would be unavailable to UFO researchers. As the technology developes, launches like this will become a possibility for more and more people. We will no longer dependent on governments or large corporations to let us look beyond our own planet. I really think we are at the precipice of something amazing. What do you think?

22 miles straight up in 90 seconds

Angry Fish? Your Aquarium May Be To Blame

John D — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 14:20:54 +0000

Your aquarium is pissing off your fish, at least according to a new study by Ronald Oldfield at Case Western Reserve University published in the Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science. For the study Oldfield observed Midas cichlid in a variety of environments ranging from their natural habitat to home aquariums. Oldfield found that as the size and complexity of the habitat was reduced, the fish behaved with more aggression. Responses ranged from angrily flaring fins to murder. That’s right, a poorly thought out aquarium can drive a fish to murder. While your average goldfish probably isn’t a threat to you, do you really want to take the chance when some extra plastic plants and ceramic castles could help calm the savage beast?

Angry Fish Inhabit Most Home Aquariums

Scientists Reconstruct What Person Sees Using Brain Scans

John D — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 14:40:57 +0000

In what can only be called a groundbreaking experiment, scientist at UC Berkley have managed to record video of what a person is seeing by using functional MRI. After showing subjects a set of baseline images and recording the corresponding brain activity, the researchers were able to create composite images that reflected, quite eerily, what the test subjects saw. As you can see from the video above, the images being produced are blurry, though I would imagine early photographs looked similar as the technique was being developed. Currently the researchers are only able to reproduce images that the subject is seeing, though they hope to be able to extend the technology to allow the viewing of dreams and possibly even memories.

While from a scientific standpoint this is amazing, I can’t help but feel a little creeped out by it on a personal level. This really is the stuff of science fiction (not the fun, happy utopia kind either) and while now researchers can only see what you are seeing using a huge machine where will the technology be in 10 or 20 years, especially if they are able to refine the technology to view memories and dreams? The US government already ignores the 4th Amendment wholesale, how long until they ignore the 5th? I can imagine there are some very excited people at Homeland Security imagining setting up scanning stations to pick out people thinking about committing a crime or act of terrorism.

Scientists use brain imaging to reveal the movies in our mind [via Engadget Alt]

Could Long Hair Be The Key To Enhanced Perception?

John D — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 18:15:38 +0000

Could having long hair be linked to having increased perception? According to one anecdote uncovered by Scott McMan on Ghost Theory it may very well be, at least that is supposedly what the US Army thought during Viet Nam.

The story goes that faced with fighting in inhospitable terrain that was familiar to their foe, the US Army turned to Native American trackers to help find the enemy. Undercover recruitment teams were sent to reservations across the country to find the best trackers available, and they did. There was only one problem. Once enlisted, the trackers seemed to lose their ability to track. When questioned about their failure to perform, the recruits replied that their intuition was no longer reliable after receiving their military hair cuts. With no other possible explanation for why expert trackers suddenly were useless, the Army performed a series of tests. Trackers were separated into pairs and one member of the team received a short military cut, while the other retained their long hair. Consistently the tracker with short hair failed to perform while the other excelled at every test. Based on the results of this testing, the Army required all Native trackers to have long hair. While I can’t say if this is true or not, it does make you think.

Interestingly enough, according to Wikipedia, throughout history short hair has been used to control. In fact, prior to World War One longer hair and beards were far more common among western men. During the war (and the Second World War) much of the male population was indoctrinated the vary disciplined and controlled military life. With this subservience came shorter hair. These global conflicts spawned today’s military industrial complex which many claim controls the world. One could postulate that there is a vested interest in keeping the population’s hair shorter to make it easier to control. Even women’s hair styles seem to be growing shorter on average. If longer hair is linked to enhanced perception then it would make sense that it would be easier to control a group by limiting their awareness (think blinders on horses).

What do you think? Is our ability to be aware of the world around us helped or hampered depending on the length of our hair? Is modern fashion being manipulated to create a more submissive population? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Supernatural Science: It’s in the Hair

Researchers Communicating With Dolphins Through An iPad

John D — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 16:56:01 +0000

photo courtesy SpeakDolphin

With some estimating Apple has sold over 2 million iPads, there is no disputing that the device is currently the hottest gadget on the planet. If researchers with SpeakDolphin are successful in their quest to build a language interface allowing cross species communication, Apple may have an entirely new user base. Currently the project is in its infancy, but the researchers hope that by using touch screen technology they will be able to build a system that will allow dolphins to communicate fully with humans. While they are still evaluating other touchscreen devices to use in their program, researchers have begun to introduce the iPad to the dolphins at their Puerto Aventuras facility. To acclimate the creatures to the touch pad, the SpeakDolphin team show a real object to the dolphin and then ask it to touch photos of the same object on the screen. According to dolphin researcher Jack Kassewitz, “This is an easy task for a dolphin, but it is a necessary building block towards our goal of a complete language interface between humans and dolphins.”

Dolphin Uses iPad To Communicate (PDF Link) [via BoingBoing]

Man becomes first human ‘infected’ with a computer virus

John D — Wed, 26 May 2010 19:07:05 +0000

photo by Wammes Waggel

Dr Mark Gasson of the University of Reading in the UK says that he is the first human being to be infected by a computer virus. Fortunately for the rest of us, the infection was voluntary and is not catching (at least for humans). Dr. Gasson had an RFID tag, like those used in access control systems or to identify pets, implanted into his hand. Prior to the insertion, the chip was contaminated with a computer virus that targets the access control systems that read the chip. While harmless to its willing host, the virus was able to successfully infect the readers that Dr. Gasson tested. Had other chips been read by the system, they would have also been infected by the virus which would then have been passed on to other reader that scan the newly infected chip. While this was only a proof of concept, it is easy to see the threat posed by this sort of attack in a world where RFID chips are being used in credit cards, passports, our pets and even our own bodies.

Imagine, if you will, the havoc that could be cause by a single criminal using an infected credit card to inject a virus into a cash register that sends him all the credit cards put through the machine and infects any RFID cards used at it with the same virus so it could be spread to other terminals. The losses from an attack of this nature could be staggering. Scarier still is the fact that the criminal need not infect the first terminal himself. Using readily available, inexpensive technology, an attacker could build a device to infect any RFID chip that came within range. A simple stroll through a busy airport could easily start a world wide crime spree. If implanted chips that carry medical or other personal information become common place, as many predict they will, mass identity theft could become as easy as a trip to the mall if solutions are not found to the major threat uncovered by Dr. Gasson.

First human ‘infected with computer virus’ [via UFO Evolution]

Toyota Develops New Flowers To Combat Factory Emissions

John D — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 00:48:43 +0000

According to Drive.com.au, two new flower species have been developed by Toyota with the aim of reducing harmful emissions at its Toyota City, Japan factory where it assembles the popular Prius hybrid. Derived from the cherry sage, one of the new species absorbs harmful nitrogen oxides from the air. The other, based on the gardenia, releases water vapor into the air that lowers the surface temperature around the assembly plant, reducing the facility’s cooling needs. These exciting new plants were developed as part of an ongoing program to reduce the environmental impact of Prius production that has already seen emissions at the plant cut by 55%. They will join other green technologies already in place at the factory such as solar power, photocatalytic paint that removes harmful gasses from the air, and especially slow growing grass that only has to be cut once a year as Toyota strives to make the Prius one of the most environmentally friendly cars on the market.

Car maker develops its own flower species [via Gizmodo]

Could the world share one consciousness?

John D — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 20:08:32 +0000

A MiniREG used GCP network to monitor
for signs of a global consiousness.

This is exactly the question that scientists with Princeton’s Global Consciousness Project are trying to answer. Their research is an extension of a study done at the now defunct Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research (PEAR) lab that showed that through directed concentration, the human mind can have a small but noticeable effect on noise based random event generators (REGs). While the PEAR experiments focused on collecting data from a single generator, the Global Consciousness Project uses a network of 60-65 generators spread around the world to monitor for fluctuations in the random data that may indicate a global consciousness that reflects the emotions and attentions of every person on the planet.

Such fluctuations have already been seen during catastrophic events such as the September 11th attacks and worldwide celebrations like New Years Eve. Interestingly, the projects data shows that human generated events, such as a terror attack, generate stronger fluctuations than a natural disaster. This has led some researchers to speculate that the world as a whole accepts some disasters as a normal part of the natural order where others, like a bombing, disrupt that order causing a deeper psychological effect.

While the project is very much in it’s infancy and right now it is often very hard to separate fluctuations from the natural randomness in the data (something the project’s detractors are quick to point out), as the technology and research mature, we may be able to get a clearer picture of how the world feels and possibly how we are all connected to each other.

Global Consciousness Project

Could Long Hair Be The Key To Enhanced Perception?