But wait, there’s more…
Divers around the area where the Antikythera Mechanism was found have discovered what they believe to be another piece of it. In fact, there have been continuous diving expeditions to the wreck site, official and otherwise, and all sorts of interesting things have come out of the water (though nothing as spectacular as this).
To refresh: in 1909, Greek sponge divers brought found a bunch of things on a 2,000 year old wreck near the island of Antikythera, including an unremarkable chunk of crap. Many years later, someone thought to x-ray the chunk of crap and discovered it was the corroded remains of a small, incredibly complex gear-driven analogue celestial computer.
The image above is an exploded view via computer model of what they think it looked like. Some of the structure is speculative, but quite a lot of it has been confirmed to be present and to work.
From the first link above (which is a very interesting article; you should read it):
The Mechanism could do not only basic math: with dozens of exquisitely worked cogwheels, it could calculate the movements of the sun and moon, predict eclipses and equinoxes, and could be used to track the solar system planets, the constellations, and much more.
We may never know how many cogwheels the original Antikythera Mechanism had. Assessments based on its functions in predicting the behavior of the cosmos range from 37 to over 70. For comparison, the most advanced Swiss watches have four cogwheels.
They don’t know exactly what the new bit is. It looks like a backplate of some kind. Under x-ray, there’s an etched image of a bull, so it may have something to do with the constellation of Taurus. It may not even be part of the famous mechanism, but it is metallurgically similar. Was there more than one?
There were all kinds of other things on the wreck I hadn’t heard of before; it was a huge ship. Like 50 life-sized statues of Homeric figures, and the wreck happened at a time when they think Homer had gone out of style. Antiques Roadshow, Ancient Greek Edition? Who knows?
And don’t tell me the Mechanism was the one and only calculating machine they had. Complex technologies don’t spring out of nowhere as a one-off. How much mind-blowing stuff has been completely lost to history…?
November 14, 2018 — 8:35 pm
Comments: 9
Kind of expensive, but way cool
The thing on the left is actually the thing on the right. They reclaimed the image using a freaking particle accelerator.
It’s a daguerrotype and it sounds this particular technique (or variant of the technique) only works with daguerrotypes, because the images were developed using a mercury vapor. The machine finds and maps the mercury. Though I don’t see why it couldn’t be done with silver or platinum or any other photographic emulsion. On the other hand, I’m not a partical physicist.
It is, as you might expect, REALLY EXPENSIVE to rent a particle accelerator and it took eight hours per square centimeter. So, you know, don’t go digging out grandma’s daguerrotypes just yet.
Here’s the item in Science News. And here is a heavier, boringer version in Nature.
I used to subscribe to Science News. I loved that rag. It was a tiny weekly — a dozen pages, maybe? — with short, interesting but not dumbed-down science items. Then they disappeared up their own assholes with globular warming and gender studies.
SJW’s — is there no wholesome thing they cannot pervert?
Have a good weekend, y’all!
July 13, 2018 — 10:20 pm
Comments: 13
The things you find on eBay
Introducing the FCD MK5.2 Ghost Box Spirt Box Portal All wood design Paranormal ghost hunting. I’m sure he means ‘spirit’ – it’s a ghost detector.
His picture really sells this thing, doesn’t it?
FCD MK5.2 GHOST BOX PORTAL (New for 2018!)
This is the all new wooden case FCD ghost box device. I have been working on this new design for a while now and I believe this unit has one of the clearest and loudest sound systems in such a handy portable case.Features: All wood case, loud clear sounds, individual tone and bass controls, continuous sweep, digital display, sound to light indicator, Aux In to play your apps through the box, Aux out to record and attach effects boxes, adjustable multi-directional antenna, uses 5 volts batteries or at home usb, carry handle and rubber feet.
The device is lovely to behold and incorporates the 5th Element crystal too. All hand made from the ground up. Watch the video for a demo of how it sounds and operates before you buy.
Made to order, £110. For a hand crafted, polished wood box incorporating a fifth element crystal, I think that’s quite the bargain. There’s video on his auction listing. It sounds to me as though it picks up (slightly disturbing) snippets of stray radio signal, and it would be easy to attach meaning to them.
Now, I won’t have Nigel savaged, please. I think he’s perfectly charming.
June 25, 2018 — 8:21 pm
Comments: 25
Oh, I don’t like that…
Eh, I just did a Google search on my sad old machine upstairs and for the very first time, at the bottom of the search screen, it said something like “based on your search history, your location is THE LITTLE TEENY VILLAGE POPULATED MOSTLY BY SHEEP THAT YOU ACTUALLY LIVE IN(!!!)“. Substitute the real village name for the phrase in italics, obvsly.
Usually, the closest it gets is a largish town at least twenty miles away. When I use Opera, with its built-in VPN, it defaults to Amsterdam (which sometimes plays havoc with authentication).
I was sure I turned off location services on all my devices, but they have a bad habit of turning themselves back on after just about any software update. So the question is, who ratted me out — my phone? My Kindle? One of my three tablets? My desktop machine? The wheezy old thumper upstairs?
One thing’s for sure, it won’t be Uncle B’s machine. Dude is crazy paranoid.
So…what are you doing to keep Google out of your panties? Are you using a VPN? Are you paying for it? I…really don’t like this.
April 18, 2018 — 9:32 pm
Comments: 22
Toys
We may be out in the boonies, but we’re along the flight path to the Continent (just ask that nice Mr Hitler). Traffic is high and lately I feel sure we’ve heard an uptick.
Enter Uncle B, who’s a bit of a plane geek. He turned me on to a site called Flight Radar 24. It tracks every plane in the sky. Click one, and it tells you the registration, the destination, all sorts of neat flight information.
If you hear one go over and it ain’t on the map, that’s military. We get a lot of that, too.
When you hit that link, if the map isn’t showing your part of the world, drag the screen until it is. Next time, it will remember.
I love the flight arc of planes flying the Atlantic. They always go up and over, like somebody throwing darts.
March 22, 2018 — 10:15 pm
Comments: 29
It finally happened to me
I thought it would never happen to me. I’m not one of those people who takes her phone to the loo and watches Gone with the Wind on the throne. I didn’t even remember the silly thing was in my pocket until I heard it >plonk< into the swirling waters of Flushing Stream.
It’s…okay. I peeled off the case and the seal and put the whole lot on the radiator for a few hours. Works okay. Looks kind of wonky.
The video is sort of de-interlaced and I have a spooky purple vignette around the edges of the screen, but only sometimes. I don’t know, is that residual moisture or actual damage? Doesn’t matter. I’m not due for a new phone yet and I’m kind of attached to this one.
Also, I just now tried to update my plugins so y’all can preview comments again, and the preview plugin broke the blog. I nuked the plugin from the control panel and it’s working again, but you still can’t preview. But I think you can edit! Will that do?
March 12, 2018 — 10:45 pm
Comments: 15
Babby’s first blackmail
I received this charming email at work this morning.
Subject: [Nothing personal, do not take to heart
Hello,
If you were more careful while caress yourself, I wouldn't worry you.
I don't think that playing with yourself is really awful, but when all
your friends, relatives, сolleagues receive video of it- it is
definitely for you.
I adjusted malisious soft on a porn site which was visited by you.
When the object press on a play button, device begins recording the
screen and all cameras on ur device begins working.
Moreover, my virus makes a remote desktop supplied with key logger
function from your system , so I could save all contacts from ya
e-mail, messengers and other social networks. I've chosen dis e-mail
because It's your corporate address, so u must read it.
I suppose that 300 usd is pretty enough for this little misstep. I
made a split screen video(records from screen (u have interesting
tastes ) and camera ohh... its funny AF)
So its your choice, if u want me to erase this сompromising evidence
use my bitcоin wallеt аddrеss: [redacted]
You have one day after opening my message, I put the special tracking
pixel in it, so when you will open it I will see.If ya want me to
share proofs with ya, reply on this letter and I will send my creation
to five contacts that I've got from ur device.
P.S... U can try to complain to police, but I don't think that they
can solve ur problem, the inquisition will last for several months-
I'm from Latvia - so I dgf LOL
I detect the fine literary influence of Google Translate.
Poking around the internet, I found more about this one. It’s a common scam, but this is the first time it’s hit the UK. It arrived in a number of inboxes just today, always to a business address. Slightly different bitcoin accounts, slightly different amounts demanded, slightly different wording and claiming to be from different (but always Eastern European) countries. There was no tracking pixel.
I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that I felt not the slightest twinge of anxiety when I read this, for the obvious reason. That’s right – my computer doesn’t have a camera! ha HA!
But I wonder how many English butt-cheeks slammed shut over coffee this morning.
February 20, 2018 — 8:52 pm
Comments: 23
Nerdling
Hey, lady, what’re you doing Friday night?
Backing up, of course!
I’m really awful at backups, but my computer refused to boot three times this morning and I think I need to face the fact it’s probably on its way out. No complaints, it’s nearly eight years old, but it took Windows 10 pretty hard.
I always buy as much computer as I can possibly afford, so this one’s going to hurt. Just hang on until after Christmas please, honey.
Good weekend, folx!
December 8, 2017 — 9:27 pm
Comments: 12
Feh!
I rolled out of bed this morning, made a cup of joe, sat down and switched on my computer monitor and…watched the screen fade to white. Like, totally white.
I did the usual cable-rattling, multi-booting and Googling without much luck (looks like a common problem with laptops, though).
As demonstrated by this crappy photo I stole off the net, my graphics card’s main plug is the one in the middle, the DVI. It doesn’t have the top one, the old VGA, but it does have several variations on HDMI. My monitor has VGA and DVI. BUT! I have an HDMI to VGA adapter thingie (huh! Wonder how that happened). Trust me: this paragraph made sense.
So I’ve got my monitor plugged into the HDMI-to-VGA. It works. Everything looks wrong and shit, but it works. (Hence probably no shiny new monitor for weasel, boo!).
So! Is the HDMI cable screwed? Is the HDMI port on the card screwed, or the one on the monitor? Do I just need to take it all apart, give it a good shake and a clean, and put it together again? Who cares? I’ve brought a shit-ton of work home this weekend and I don’t have time to mess with it!
Hope yours goes better…see you after the weekend.
July 21, 2017 — 9:12 pm
Comments: 18
POOP. Also BUTT.
This cartoon is from a serious article on fecal transplants, part of my course on gut bacteria. Also, it says POOP and BUTT a lot, hee hee!
As horrifying as the very idea of fecal transplants might be, it’s one of the most promising treatments to come along in ages, particularly for dealing with Clostridium difficile. C. diff, as I devoutly hope none of us knows from experience, is a truly nasty bacterial infection of the gut and highly resistant to antibiotics, even the stupid expensive new ones. From the article:
A study published in The New England Journal of Medicine in January of this year [2013] found that 13 out of 16 people treated with fecal transplants were cured of C. diff. Two of the remaining three were cured with a second transplant. The results were so impressive that the researchers found it unethical to continue the other study group on antibiotics, and they received transplants as well.
When it works, it works overnight. Word.
So why aren’t fecal transplants the first line of defense against C. diff? Simple: money, honey. Drug companies can do little to capitalize on or patent human feces. It’s highly unlikely that, without an opportunity to make money, transplants will get the research funding they deserve. Without more research, they remain controversial — a lot of doctors won’t perform them, and some C. diff sufferers resort to at-home transplants [ack! – Weasel]. To further complicate things, the FDA tried earlier this year to regulate transplants by classifying human stool as a biologic drug. That means doctors would have to get an IND (Investigational New Drug) application before performing a transplant, slowing down the process and delaying life-saving treatment. Thankfully the FDA backed off, but it’s possible they’ll attempt regulation again in the future.
This lady was completely cured of her C. diff after a single transplant from her (horribly embarrassed) nine-year-old niece. I should add, though, she still has a nasty, lifelong dose of inflammatory bowel disease, so it ain’t everything. Still.
I used to think blaming drug companies for not following up unprofitable treatments was a bit unfair. Well, actually, I still think it’s unfair — it costs bzillions to research a new drug and carry it through to approval, so of course they don’t follow up on things they can’t patent. It would be a dereliction of duty to their shareholders to do otherwise. Now I blame medical research for not stepping up just a little better. And the regulatory state for getting in the way, of course.
So that’s Week 4 of 6 – two weeks of POOP and BUTT studies yet to come!
June 7, 2017 — 8:47 pm
Comments: 20