| The voices in your head might be real |
[Dec. 8th, 2007|11:29 pm] |
There's been talk about devices that can beam sound specifically to an individual for years - Fortean Times ran articles on it at least five years back - but an actual (non-classified) gizmo is now revealed:
' After years of reading puff pieces about the coming of the “Hypersonic Soundbeam,” a device designed to send targeted blasts of sound waves that can be heard only be selected recipients in an audio environment, it has apparently made its debut in the public sphere, right here in New York. As part of a billboard marketing campaign for a television show. A&E has placed a billboard (on Prince St. between Mulberry and Mott) that shoots sound waves designed to resonate against your head, giving the passerby a distinct feeling that the advertisement is arising from within their skull. '
Just think of the fun covert ops teams could have with this. Or governments. Hell, the fact that the first aboveground use is for advertising is bad enough. |
|
|
| The LeGuin thing... |
[Nov. 25th, 2007|09:53 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | death, fortean | ] |
| [ | mood |
| | puzzled | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Drone Zone: Atmospheric ambient space music. Serve Best Chilled. Safe with most medications. [SomaFM] | ] |
... continues to be interesting.
(The story so far is here.)
The original poster has confirmed that they didn't mistake LeGuin for L'Engle or anyone else - they're a long-time fan and know the difference. And they're still sure they heard/read reports of LeGuin's death.
This does not of course necessarily mean there was, as has been suggested, been a collapse of two or more parallel universes! But it's still an interesting tale and I'll keep you informed as it develops. And if anyone *did* hear any fake or mistaken eulogies for Ursula, do let me know. |
|
|
| Reports of Ursula LeGuin's death are greatly exaggerated? |
[Nov. 24th, 2007|11:52 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | death, fortean | ] |
| [ | mood |
| |  curious | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Space Station Soma: Tune in, turn on, space out. Ambient and mid-tempo electroni | ] |
Not quite back full-time yet, but this is so odd/interesting I'm flagging it now.
Fortean blogger Tim Boucher received a message from a reader thus:
"okay, something really weird has happened in my household. we all distinctly remember ursula k le guin dying. it was headline yahoo news, cnn, death date on wikipedia, many myspace bulletins of people lamenting, on many forums around
the internet, etc. now…she is not dead. there are three of us in the household who remember this, one who doesn’t.
do you remember hearing about her death? this would’ve been a month or two ago."
Anyone heard any such rumour? Google has nothing and I've not heard such from usual sources (fandom gossip, Ansible etc)?
This nudges me particularly as I've heard similar tales in the past about dead/not dead celebrities - and I don't just mean the 'Robert Anton Wilson is dead' flap of 1994...
EDIT - smart suggestions from ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) drjon and wyldraven in comments - that the OP mistook another similarly named genre writer (I'd guess Madeleine L'Engle) or they saw LeGuin's interview in Death Ray magazine and misread. I'll send these on to Tim and see what results.
fragiletender suggests Octavia Butler as a candidate. More will likely be added.
If this flap shows to be mundane in explanation, I'm still curious if anyone else you know of ever had the sure feeling of hearing of a celebrity death and the it not being agreed by the rest of consensus reality.
(Oh, and if you're not reading Tim regularly, he's worth a look. Done some splendid posts recently and is always seeking answers, never quite giving up when he thinks he's found one.) |
|
|
| Systempunkt - by squirrels |
[Nov. 6th, 2007|12:12 am] |
| [ | Tags | | | fortean, squirrels, war | ] |
| [ | mood |
| | I for one welcome our new squi | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Weird Fishes/Arpeggi-Radiohead-In Rainbows | ] |
(If you don't know what a systempunkt is, go read John Robb for a while, m'kay?)
' A major power outage in Auburn Friday morning brought many businesses to a standstill, including the Journal.
"We sat down and we ate until it came back on," said Jodie Luckett, owner of Cheryl's Clothes Closet on Palm Avenue. "We had a calculator and were still able to let people shop."
Power was cut to 6,752 Auburn-area customers at 8:45 a.m. Friday and restored by 11 a.m., said Jennifer Ramp, spokeswoman for PG&E.
"We had a squirrel that got into our Placer substation (on Blocker Drive) and caused the outage," Ramp said.
Luckett said she planned to take the dark moments as an opportunity to catch up on other business.
"I couldn't go on eBay and couldn't go to the post office, they were closed too," she said. "We are too reliant on electricity." ' |
|
|
| Best. Psi. Experiment. Evar. |
[Oct. 8th, 2007|09:39 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | fortean, psi | ] |
| [ | mood |
| | Mmm... chocolate... | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Space Station Soma: Tune in, turn on, space out. Ambient and mid-tempo electronica. [SomaFM] | ] |
"Chocolate Intentions: A Tasty PK-Related Study
Many of us have a sweet tooth, and our particular passion might be for chocolate. Chocolate is known to have mild, short-lived effects on our mood, and this is not only due to its creamy texture, rich aroma, and sweet taste. Certain alkaloid stimulants, such as theobromine (which dilates the arteries) and caffeine, are found in chocolate, which can get the body going (Smit & Blackburn, 2005; Smit et al., 2004). Aside from chemical stimulants, could it be possible to slightly enhance chocolate’s effect on mood by exposing it to human mental intention?
...The statistically significant results of this study argue against pure chance being a factor in the mood changes of the participants. One might also argue that since chocolate has stimulatory properties, then what the participants who ate the intention pieces may have been experiencing was a placebo effect of expectation, similar to that seen in ill patients who respond positively to suggestive medical treatment (Brown, 1998). If that was so, then would we expect participants who ate the control pieces to also show significantly improved mood, which they did not. The design of the study was such that participants (nor the experimenters) did not know whether they were eating intention chocolate or control chocolate, thereby controlling for the expectation variable." |
|
|
| Andromeda Strain or Dawn fo the Dead? 'Meteorite' strike causing illness in Peru |
[Sep. 19th, 2007|12:18 am] |
| [ | Tags | | | fortean | ] |
| [ | mood |
| |  tired | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Doomed: Dark music for tortured souls [SomaFM] | ] |
At least malabar isn't anywhere near this one (again):
"Some 600 people in Peru have required treatment after an object from space - said to be a meteorite - plummeted to Earth in a remote area, officials say.
They say the object left a deep crater after crashing down over the weekend near the town of Carancas in the Andes.
People who have visited scene have been complaining of headaches, vomiting and nausea after inhaling gases.
A team of scientists is on its way to the site to collect samples and verify whether it was indeed a meteorite." |
|
|
| Your wacky conspiracy post for the day |
[Sep. 3rd, 2007|11:40 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | entities, fortean | ] |
| [ | mood |
| | interested | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Doomed: Dark music for tortured souls [SomaFM] | ] |
From Signs of Witness (who appear to get even odder email than I do professionally), comes a post from an alleged Black Science worker. Though this could be (and likely is) a mere prank, certain details seem quite plausible in my own experience. Others seem more like a fanboy who's read too much CS Lewis, HP Lovecraft and PK Dick (and also seen the B5 episodes about the Soul Hunters).
I offer it here for consideration. And I may well nick the acronym UCEs!
Excerpt:
' There are various scientists, some in black-budget government labs, some funded by private foundations (like ours), who work in a branch of physics familiarly called Secret Science, which is the science of using certain familiar electronic, computational and high-energy-physics equipment to observe and document UCEs, or “unconventionally physical entities.” (CS Lewis knew about this science and alluded to it, in other terms, in his novel “That Hideous Strength”). These entities were sometimes sensed by gifted people, in the past, and called “Angels” and “Demons” and “imps” and “Fairies”. Some of them are extremely long lived and made of a material rather like a super-organized form of plasma.
UCEs are usually invisible, and have various levels of intelligence. Some are quite cunning, others are transcendently intelligent. Some work for (or are an extension of) a being for whom we have borrowed a name, VALIS–borrowed from the science fiction writer Philip Dick. This is the Vast Active Living Intelligence System. Some call this enigmatic but relatively benign being, “God”. Our equipment can detect this “ultimate UCE” but we are unable to measure its actual size which seems to extend over six dimensions and most of our universe. Other smaller UCEs work for a powerful predatory being which we call Negative Prime. One variety of servants working for (or perhaps just created by) Negative Prime are “SubEntity 676″ also known as “imps”. When an apocalyptic event is about to happen, these UCEs start to gather in advance to wait for the suffering caused by the grand event (eg, the bombing of Hiroshima, and 9/11), on which they feed. We have been tracking the imps since 1944, when we first gained the ability. They were the first ones we could track. These imps have come to Earth, according to our detection equipment, in great numbers lately, greater than ever before. Huge numbers! ' |
|
|
| navigation |
| [ |
viewing |
| |
most recent entries |
] |
| |
|
|
nervous