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Posts
PIA23497: Preparing Pioneer 4 for the Moon
4 years ago
Friday, 26 November 2010
Saturday, 20 November 2010
Migration.
Adult sign picture]
This post is about moving to different places, whether preparing for the move, deciding to move, planning a move, or being part of a cycle which has not been learnt yet. The relevance to all movement is it's direction, for many different applications life is a wondrous thing, it is a blessing to be given the opportunity to experience reality for what it is, what we could make it, help it become, for what we experience from others, how we differentiate from others who seem to be a part of our reality... These days are an extremely wealthy gift to us, for me, this post is before the word humble...
Gorillaz / Sunshine in a bag
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yaSzcXZKIQ
Oath of genuine]
Snoop Dogg / Gangbangin'101 featuring the game
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4ZoaWDSDfo/
blonde picture]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:MeanMonthlyP.gif
http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2010/pdf/2010-25102.pdf
access to space options picture]
star trek starfleet picture]
Picture of chinese woman]
Ice cube / It was a good day
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWfbGGZE07M/
x-34 picture]
NASA moves X-34s out of storage, considers return to flight status
DATE:19/11/10
Two X-planes parked in storage by NASA for nearly 10 years have been moved to a new facility to be inspected for a possible return to flying status, the agency says.
Orbital Sciences Corp will determine whether the X-34s are still viable as technology demonstrators for reusable space vehicles.
Both X-34s have been stored at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center near Palmdale, California since the hypersonic spaceflight programme was cancelled in 2001.
Neither aircraft was flown under its own power before being moved into storage, although one vehicle completed three captive carry tests from an Orbital Sciences-owned Lockheed L-1011.
A NASA contractor moved both X-34's overnight on 16 November, trucking the aircraft with their vertical tails removed from Dryden to a hangar owned by the National Test Pilot school in Mojave, California.
Orbital Sciences X-34 spacecraft arrives in Mojave, California, on 16 November after being moved out of storage at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Centre picture]
Maroon 5 / She will be loved
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBM_srNAOk8
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:US_states_by_date_of_statehood3.gif
Entrance picture]
extra solar water worlds picture]
Sonar Inspired by Dolphins: New Kind of Underwater Device Can Detect Objects Through Bubble Clouds
(Nov. 18, 2010) — Scientists at the University of Southampton have developed a new kind of underwater sonar device that can detect objects through bubble clouds that would effectively blind standard sonar.
Just as ultrasound is used in medical imaging, conventional sonar 'sees' with sound. It uses differences between emitted sound pulses and their echoes to detect and identify targets. These include submerged structures such as reefs and wrecks, and objects, including submarines and fish shoals.
However, standard sonar does not cope well with bubble clouds resulting from breaking waves or other causes, which scatter sound and clutter the sonar image.
Professor Timothy Leighton of the University of Southampton's Institute of Soundand Vibration Research (ISVR), who led the research, explained:
"Cold War sonar was developed mainly for use in deep water where bubbles are not much of a problem, but many of today's applications involve shallow waters. Better detection and classification of targets in bubbly waters are key goals of shallow-water sonar."
Leighton and his colleagues have developed a new sonar concept called twin inverted pulse sonar (TWIPS). TWIPS exploits the way that bubbles pulsate in sound fields, which affects the characteristics of sonar echoes.
"To catch prey, some dolphins make bubble nets in which the best man-made sonar would not work. It occurred to me that either dolphins were blinding their sonar when making such nets, or else they have a better sonar system. There were no recordings of the type of sonar that dolphins use in bubble nets, so instead of producing a bio-inspired sonar by copying dolphin signals, I sat down and worked out what pulse I would use if I were a dolphin," said Leighton.
As its name suggests, TWIPS uses trains of twinned pairs of sound pulses. The first pulse of each pair has a waveform that is an inverted replica of that of its twin. The first pulse is emitted a fraction of a second before its inverted twin.
Leighton's team first showed theoretically that TWIPS might be able to enhance scatter from the target while simultaneously suppressing clutter from bubbles. In principle, it could therefore be used to distinguish echoes from bubble clouds and objects that would otherwise remain hidden.
In their latest study, the researchers set out to see whether TWIPS would work in practice. Using a large testing tank, they showed experimentally that TWIPS outperformed standard sonar at detecting a small steel disc under bubbly conditions resembling those found under oceanic breaking waves.
Encouraged by their findings, they next conducted trials at sea aboard the University of Southampton's coastal research vessel the RV Bill Conway. They compared the ability of TWIPS and standard sonar to discern the seabed in Southampton Water, which handles seven per cent of the UK's entire seaborne trade. The seabed in this area varies in depth between 10 and 20 metres.
"TWIPS outperformed standard sonar in the wake of large vessels such as passenger ferries," said co-author Dr Justin Dix of the University of Southampton's School of Ocean and Earth Science (SOES) based at the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton.
Possible future marine applications for TWIPS include harbour protection and the detection of bubbles in marine sediments and manufacturing. Technologies based on the same basic principles could be used in medical ultrasound imaging, which was already using pairs of inverted pulses to enhance (rather than suppress) contrast agents injected into the body. The TWIPS principle would work with other sensors such as in Magnetic resonance imaging(MRI), and Leighton has proposed TWIPR (Twin Inverted Pulse Radar) for the detection of improvised explosive devices or covert circuitry.
But what about the original inspiration for the research -- do dolphins and other echolocating animals use TWIPS?
"Key ingredients of a TWIPS system appear in separate species but they have never been found all together in a single species," said Leighton. "There is currently no evidence that dolphins use TWIPS processing, although no-one has yet taken recordings of the signals from animals hunting with bubble nets in the wild. How they successfully detect prey in bubbly water remains a mystery that we are working to solve. I have to pay credit to the team -- students Daniel Finfer and Gim-Hwa Chua of ISVR, and Paul White (ISVR) and Justin Dix of SOES. Our applications for funding this work were repeatedly turned down, and it took real grit and determination to keep going for the five years it took us to get this far."
http://www.let.leidenuniv.nl/history/migration/chapter52.html
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Brazil responds to infrastructure challenge
DATE:19/11/10
Brazil plans to address its growing airport infrastructure challenge as the country's domestic market continues to expand rapidly.
The president of Brazil's civil aviation authority ANAC, Solange Paiva, told the 2010 ALTA Airline Leadership Forum the Brazilian government is "concerned about infrastructure and airports" and "in the first quarter of next year we need to make some kind of decision".
Paiva says the recent private concession to construct a new airport in Natal may be used as the model going forward to pursue other airport projects throughout Brazil. She says Brazil seeks to open up the airport sector to new players "so there's no monopoly or abuse" at existing operators and "so there's no barriers to enter the market".
Paiva pointed out the current infrastructure challenge was driven by deregulating the Brazilian market after Varig's collapse. Brazil's domestic market has since recorded some of the fastest growth figures in the world, including 19% RPK growth in 2009 and 25% RPK growth through the first 10 months of 2010. "This is the great challenge we have in aviation in Brazil - infrastructure," Pavia acknowledges.
TAM CEO Libano Barroso agrees, telling the same panel at the forum that "demand is growing fast and infrastructure is lagging that". But Barroso says the current infrastructure challenge is "a good problem to solve" given the profitable growth at Brazil's carriers.
Speaking to ATI and Flightglobal after speaking at the forum, Gol chief executive Constantino de Oliveira Junior says Brazil will need nine to ten new airports the size of Sao Paulo Guarulhos over the next 20 years "We need much more investment in airports and air traffic control to accommodate the growth," he says.
Oliveira expects the Brazilian government will start to focus on the issue as Brazil plans to host the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics. "That will be the chance for Brazil to give the world a good impression," he says.
In the meantime Oliveira says Gol is planning to focus growth outside Sao Paulo with "overflights" and expansion at other hubs such as Belo Horizonte's Confins airport. "At Confins, Brasilia and even Rio de Janeiro Gaeleao there's still room for growth," he says.
In Sao Paulo Oliveira believes a proposal to build a fourth airport after Guarulhos Congonhas and Campinas is not necessary as there is room to grow Campinas, where fast-growing low-cost carrier Azul is based and where Gol is also expanding. "In my opinion Campinas development is the right choice," Oliveira says, pointing out in addition to new terminals the alternative airport is slated to get a high-speed rail connection to downtown Sao Paulo.
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Krs one / Loves gonna getcha
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VRZq3J0uz4/
The need for sensible policing of space is easily shown with the modern day video example shown. Heaven knows that with our families in the heavens, there will be no escape for ancestors and ultimately, descendants.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SW1ZDIXiuS4
Ferrofluid Magnet picture]
Fleetwood mac / Albatross
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8scHKFwr0og&feature=related/
Blonde picture]
Listeners' Brains Respond More to Native Accent Speakers; Imaging Study Suggests Accents Are Subtle 'Insider' or 'Outsider' Signal to the Brain
(Nov. 18, 2010) — The brains of Scots responded differently when they listened to speakers with Scottish accents than to speakers with American or British accents, a new study has found. Understanding how our brains respond to other accents may explain one way in which people have an unconscious bias against outsiders.
The research was presented at Neuroscience 2010, the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, held in San Diego.
"Many positive and negative social attributes are inferred from accents, and it's important to find the underlying cognitive mechanisms of how people perceive them," said lead author Patricia Bestelmeyer, PhD. "Accents affect perceptions of competence or trustworthiness, important attributes for salesmen and jobseekers alike."
Research conducted at the University of Glasgow suggests that people process words spoken with their own accent more quickly and effortlessly than other accents. In the study, 20 Scots listened to recordings of nine female speakers (three American, three British, and three Scottish) while their brain activity was measured with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The authors suspected that brain activity in an area associated with accent processing would decrease as accented words were repeated and the brain became accustomed to them. However, they found this occurred only when the Scots listened to American or British accents, and not to Scottish accents, suggesting the listeners had to adapt to outsiders' accents, but not their own.
"The pattern of neural activity differed strikingly in response to their own specific accent compared with other English accents," Bestelmeyer said. "The initial results suggest that such vocal samples somehow reflect group membership or social identity, so that 'in-group' voices are processed differently from the 'out-group.'"
Research was supported by the U.K. Economic and Social Research Council and the U.K. Medical Research Council.
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My friends, truelly, there are those who were born to watch...
Some perhaps learned to fly away...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Am8R2u_Wri4&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UeOdqjB_7k&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bG6EsuerGDY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLkDt7B4EuU&feature=fvw
At the start of my twenties, like many other younger men I wanted to discipline my body because I did not practice football at a serious level anymore, of course, learning to stretch ones body to perform precision movement is certainly consuming... Perhaps for many it cannot be a longevity seeking physical practice because of 'time restraints' placed upon the body. For the 2 years I trained two or three times per week at a Mugendo club I really enjoyed martial arts, previous of a British championship competition I tore muscles in my buttocks while stretching, I have not been back to training since because of my acknowledgment that some things are not meant to be for some people, 190 degree leg stretches are not everyones idea of good exercise.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1d7haCbjJFk
I've been looking for videos of my sensae who is and was a world champion kick boxer, I trained just a five minute walk from the world mugendo university, many of the students who I am still good friends with, but, I did prefer the more refined atmosphere of my sensaes own clubs, probably because the majority of my sensaes students had been my school friends.
Krishna picture]
love is my religion picture]
blonde picture]
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KRS one / step into the world
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnydK0phSqM
blonde picture]
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Tai chi is a very common practice among Chinese people, it is a listening healing that brings balance to the human body and the knowledge that is a part of it, many chinese people practice tai chi everyday at the local park, actually many many town squares and community spaces are specifically for practicing tai chi.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9SRS_z67nI&NR=1
http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=bbc+astronomy+videos&docid=1124069081748&FORM=VIRE3#
BBC programme ''the sky at night''...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/check/science/space/realmedia/skyatnight_nov07?size=16x9&bgc=000000&nbram=1&bbram=1#
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Resolved Question
Pigeons where DO they all go????
(Nov. 13, 2010) — Many imminent problems facing the world today, such as deforestation, overfishing, or climate change, can be described as 'commons problems.' The solution to these problems requires cooperation from hundreds and thousands of people. Such large scale cooperation, however, is plagued by the infamous cooperation dilemma. According to the standard prediction, in which each individual follows only his own interests, large-scale cooperation is impossible because free-riders enjoy common benefits without bearing the cost of their provision. Yet, extensive field evidence indicates that many communities are able to manage their commons, albeit with varying degrees of success.
How do we explain this variation in management outcomes? How do different levels of cooperation emerge and what contributes to their success? The economist Prof. Michael Kosfeld examined these questions together with his colleagues Devesh Rustagi and Prof. Stefanie Engel from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich. The answer: The degree of voluntary cooperation together with the monitoring of free-riders plays a key role in the success of commons management.
In their field study, details of which are published in the November 12 issue of the journal Science, the researchers analyzed a major forest commons management program launched to save the biodiversity rich Afro-montane ecosystem and the livelihood of the Bale Oromo pastoralists in Ethiopia. The team was particularly interested in the degree of conditional cooperation in a group. This means that group members are willing to cooperate voluntarily provided that others cooperate as well. Numerous behavioral experiments with student participants have shown that conditional cooperation plays a significant role in solving the dilemma of cooperation. However, so far no evidence exists which corroborates the relevance of conditional cooperation in the field with actual commons users. The researchers' objective was to provide exactly this evidence.
The economists conducted behavioral cooperation-experiments with 679 members from 49 different forest user groups in which they elicited the group members' willingness to cooperate voluntarily. They found that groups differ widely in their share of conditional cooperators, from 0 % to 88 %. In groups with lower share of conditional cooperators, free-rider share was high. To examine how this impacts forest management success, the team ran a variety of statistical analyses which showed that groups with larger share of conditional cooperators were much more successful in managing their forests. The success of a group was determined by the number of trees of intermediate height per hectare. Trees of this kind are vital for the sustainable growth of the forest.
But why are groups with larger share of conditional cooperators more successful at forest management? To entangle this puzzle, the trio looked at the time spent by group members in monitoring their forest. They found that groups with higher share of conditional cooperators not only cooperate more but also monitor more by conducting patrols through the forest. Such patrols are important for the detection and deterrence of free-riding. A group with 60 % conditional cooperators was likely to spend on average 14 hours more per month in monitoring than a group without any conditional cooperators. Devesh Rustagi, a post-doc at the Institute for Environmental Decisions, says "this finding is interesting, as it shows that conditional cooperators are willing to spend resources to detect individuals who free-ride at their expense. It provides a behavioral link in explaining monitoring as a success mechanism in commons management."
"The results of our study provide first-time evidence that conditional cooperation which has been identified in many laboratory experiments before plays a key role in a concrete case of commons management in the field," explains Michael Kosfeld, Director of the Frankfurt Laboratory of Experimental Economics at Goethe-University. "Our findings fill a long-standing gap between field and laboratory studies on human cooperation."
The results also shed light on the evolution of human cooperation. They show a positive co-variation between conditional cooperation and costly monitoring. This is in line with the theory of gene-culture evolution, which predicts higher cooperation in groups where enforcement of cooperation is prevalent.
"The results yield important policy implications for the governance of human collective action," explains Rustagi. "Because humans differ in their motivation to cooperate, an effective solution to commons problems should not be based on incentives for purely self-regarding individuals alone but needs to explicitly take into account the complex interplay of heterogeneous motivations and behavioral norms to cooperate voluntarily."
Prof. Stefanie Engel from the Institute for Environmental Decisions at ETH Zurich concludes: "Given that the UN has declared 2010 as the year of biodiversity and 2011 the year of forests, the results may in fact open new doors to find solutions to commons problems, which house nearly 18% of the world's forests and a large share of biodiversity."
Krs one / A friend
waterdroplet picture]
Refractive index picture]
Refractive index picture]
Refractive index picture]
Refractive index picture]
Refractive index picture]
Refractive index picture]
Refractive index picture]
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Enigma of Missing Stars in Local Group of Galaxies May Be Solved
Sport is a sure winner for space exploration and space colonisation schedule, for thousands of years villagers practiced and watched sport to solve arguements initially, then becoming a regular testoterone thrashing exercise, it would be a wonderful experience to practice on different gravity planets that perhaps pose different challenges for discipline and test of dexterity, for sure, hopefully the fairplay and gentleman rule accompanies what is probably the greatest invention of our races history. Hopefully everyone is at the right place at the right time to practice something they have genuinely earnt the entitlement to do.
http://video.uk.msn.com/browse/news/week-in-video?VideoID=1j4jjdy12&PlayerSize=Small&from=homepage_slideshow
whoa sign picture]
wizard of oz cartoon drawing picture]
Acoustic Archaeology Yielding Mind-Tripping Tricks
Recently uncovered sound effects include a clapping echo that sounds like a jungle bird.
Tue Nov 16, 2010 08:00 AM ET
THE GIST
Acoustic archaeology is an emerging field that melds acoustical analysis and old-fashioned bone-hunting.
Ancient people created fun house-like temples that featured scary sound effects.
Some of the sites were likely built by people who took sensory-altering drugs.
Chavin stone art in the shape of a head, housed at the Museo De La Nacion in Lima, Peru. The 3,000 year-old Chavin culture produced tunnels and mazes with eerie sound effects.
Researchers are uncovering the secrets of ancient civilizations who built fun house-like temples that may have scared the pants off worshipers with scary sound effects, light shows and perhaps drug-induced psychedelic trips.
The emerging field of acoustic archaeology is a marriage of high-tech acoustic analysis and old-fashioned bone-hunting. The results of this scientific collaboration is a new understanding of cultures who used sound effects as entertainment, religion and a form of political control.
Miriam Kolar, a researcher at Stanford University's Center for Computer Research and Acoustics, has been studying the 3,000 year-old Chavin culture in the high plains of Peru. Kolar and her colleagues have been mapping a maze of underground tunnels, drains and hallways in which echoes don't sound like echoes.
"The structures could be physically disorienting and the acoustic environment is very different than the natural world," Kolar said. Ancient drawings from the Chavin culture show a people who were fascinated with sensory experiences -- ancient hippies if you will.
"The iconography shows people mixed with animal features in altered states of being," said Kolar, who is presenting her recent work at a conference in Cancun, Mexico this week. "There is peyote and mucus trails out of the nose indicative of people using psychoactive plant substances. They were taking drugs and having a hallucinogenic experience."
If that wasn't enough, the mazes at Chavin de Huantar also include air ducts that use sunlight to produce distorted shadows of the maze's human participants. And sound waves from giant marine shells found in the maze in 2001 may have produced a frequency that actually rattled the eyeballs of those peyote-using ancients, Kolar said.
"We consider sound to be important," said Kolar. "We've gathered a lot of data and we're finally starting to publish it."
The Chavin de Huantar site in Peru isn't the only place where sound played an important role. The Mayan rulers at Chichen Itza in the Yucatan also figured out how to use sound for crowd control. David Lubman, an acoustic engineer who has spent the past 12 years studying the Mayan site, says a strange bird-like echo from the Kukulkan temple was actually constructed on purpose.
"It's sort of spooky," Lubman said from Irvine, Calif. "It's not an ordinary echo."
Lubman's analysis compared the acoustic soundprint of the quetzal bird, which was revered by Mayans, to the sound of the echo at Chichen Itza. The two sounds matched.
Lublin said the secret is in the acoustic properties of the steep staircase on the temple's front.
Other new research presented at this week's Acoustical Society of America conference in Cancun shows that Mayan rulers figured out how to build a public address system in the site's giant ball court. That allowed kings to address hundreds of warriors and subjects without screaming.
In England, British researchers are using modern tools of acoustics to figure out what drumming noises may have sounded like to ancient visitors to Stonehenge.
Andromeda and the milky way picture]
blonde picture]
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Snoop Dogg / Ain't no fun
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Th0V-fxo9CE
Marilyn Monroe picture]
This post is about moving to different places, whether preparing for the move, deciding to move, planning a move, or being part of a cycle which has not been learnt yet. The relevance to all movement is it's direction, for many different applications life is a wondrous thing, it is a blessing to be given the opportunity to experience reality for what it is, what we could make it, help it become, for what we experience from others, how we differentiate from others who seem to be a part of our reality... These days are an extremely wealthy gift to us, for me, this post is before the word humble...
Gorillaz / Sunshine in a bag
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yaSzcXZKIQ
Oath of genuine]
Snoop Dogg / Gangbangin'101 featuring the game
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4ZoaWDSDfo/
blonde picture]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:MeanMonthlyP.gif
http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2010/pdf/2010-25102.pdf
access to space options picture]
star trek starfleet picture]
Picture of chinese woman]
Ice cube / It was a good day
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWfbGGZE07M/
x-34 picture]
NASA moves X-34s out of storage, considers return to flight status
DATE:19/11/10
Two X-planes parked in storage by NASA for nearly 10 years have been moved to a new facility to be inspected for a possible return to flying status, the agency says.
Orbital Sciences Corp will determine whether the X-34s are still viable as technology demonstrators for reusable space vehicles.
Both X-34s have been stored at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center near Palmdale, California since the hypersonic spaceflight programme was cancelled in 2001.
Neither aircraft was flown under its own power before being moved into storage, although one vehicle completed three captive carry tests from an Orbital Sciences-owned Lockheed L-1011.
A NASA contractor moved both X-34's overnight on 16 November, trucking the aircraft with their vertical tails removed from Dryden to a hangar owned by the National Test Pilot school in Mojave, California.
Orbital Sciences X-34 spacecraft arrives in Mojave, California, on 16 November after being moved out of storage at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Centre picture]
Maroon 5 / She will be loved
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBM_srNAOk8
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:US_states_by_date_of_statehood3.gif
Entrance picture]
extra solar water worlds picture]
Sonar Inspired by Dolphins: New Kind of Underwater Device Can Detect Objects Through Bubble Clouds
(Nov. 18, 2010) — Scientists at the University of Southampton have developed a new kind of underwater sonar device that can detect objects through bubble clouds that would effectively blind standard sonar.
Just as ultrasound is used in medical imaging, conventional sonar 'sees' with sound. It uses differences between emitted sound pulses and their echoes to detect and identify targets. These include submerged structures such as reefs and wrecks, and objects, including submarines and fish shoals.
However, standard sonar does not cope well with bubble clouds resulting from breaking waves or other causes, which scatter sound and clutter the sonar image.
Professor Timothy Leighton of the University of Southampton's Institute of Soundand Vibration Research (ISVR), who led the research, explained:
"Cold War sonar was developed mainly for use in deep water where bubbles are not much of a problem, but many of today's applications involve shallow waters. Better detection and classification of targets in bubbly waters are key goals of shallow-water sonar."
Leighton and his colleagues have developed a new sonar concept called twin inverted pulse sonar (TWIPS). TWIPS exploits the way that bubbles pulsate in sound fields, which affects the characteristics of sonar echoes.
"To catch prey, some dolphins make bubble nets in which the best man-made sonar would not work. It occurred to me that either dolphins were blinding their sonar when making such nets, or else they have a better sonar system. There were no recordings of the type of sonar that dolphins use in bubble nets, so instead of producing a bio-inspired sonar by copying dolphin signals, I sat down and worked out what pulse I would use if I were a dolphin," said Leighton.
As its name suggests, TWIPS uses trains of twinned pairs of sound pulses. The first pulse of each pair has a waveform that is an inverted replica of that of its twin. The first pulse is emitted a fraction of a second before its inverted twin.
Leighton's team first showed theoretically that TWIPS might be able to enhance scatter from the target while simultaneously suppressing clutter from bubbles. In principle, it could therefore be used to distinguish echoes from bubble clouds and objects that would otherwise remain hidden.
In their latest study, the researchers set out to see whether TWIPS would work in practice. Using a large testing tank, they showed experimentally that TWIPS outperformed standard sonar at detecting a small steel disc under bubbly conditions resembling those found under oceanic breaking waves.
Encouraged by their findings, they next conducted trials at sea aboard the University of Southampton's coastal research vessel the RV Bill Conway. They compared the ability of TWIPS and standard sonar to discern the seabed in Southampton Water, which handles seven per cent of the UK's entire seaborne trade. The seabed in this area varies in depth between 10 and 20 metres.
"TWIPS outperformed standard sonar in the wake of large vessels such as passenger ferries," said co-author Dr Justin Dix of the University of Southampton's School of Ocean and Earth Science (SOES) based at the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton.
Possible future marine applications for TWIPS include harbour protection and the detection of bubbles in marine sediments and manufacturing. Technologies based on the same basic principles could be used in medical ultrasound imaging, which was already using pairs of inverted pulses to enhance (rather than suppress) contrast agents injected into the body. The TWIPS principle would work with other sensors such as in Magnetic resonance imaging(MRI), and Leighton has proposed TWIPR (Twin Inverted Pulse Radar) for the detection of improvised explosive devices or covert circuitry.
But what about the original inspiration for the research -- do dolphins and other echolocating animals use TWIPS?
"Key ingredients of a TWIPS system appear in separate species but they have never been found all together in a single species," said Leighton. "There is currently no evidence that dolphins use TWIPS processing, although no-one has yet taken recordings of the signals from animals hunting with bubble nets in the wild. How they successfully detect prey in bubbly water remains a mystery that we are working to solve. I have to pay credit to the team -- students Daniel Finfer and Gim-Hwa Chua of ISVR, and Paul White (ISVR) and Justin Dix of SOES. Our applications for funding this work were repeatedly turned down, and it took real grit and determination to keep going for the five years it took us to get this far."
http://www.let.leidenuniv.nl/history/migration/chapter52.html
blonde picture]
blonde picture]
blonde picture]
blonde picture]
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Brazil responds to infrastructure challenge
DATE:19/11/10
Brazil plans to address its growing airport infrastructure challenge as the country's domestic market continues to expand rapidly.
The president of Brazil's civil aviation authority ANAC, Solange Paiva, told the 2010 ALTA Airline Leadership Forum the Brazilian government is "concerned about infrastructure and airports" and "in the first quarter of next year we need to make some kind of decision".
Paiva says the recent private concession to construct a new airport in Natal may be used as the model going forward to pursue other airport projects throughout Brazil. She says Brazil seeks to open up the airport sector to new players "so there's no monopoly or abuse" at existing operators and "so there's no barriers to enter the market".
Paiva pointed out the current infrastructure challenge was driven by deregulating the Brazilian market after Varig's collapse. Brazil's domestic market has since recorded some of the fastest growth figures in the world, including 19% RPK growth in 2009 and 25% RPK growth through the first 10 months of 2010. "This is the great challenge we have in aviation in Brazil - infrastructure," Pavia acknowledges.
TAM CEO Libano Barroso agrees, telling the same panel at the forum that "demand is growing fast and infrastructure is lagging that". But Barroso says the current infrastructure challenge is "a good problem to solve" given the profitable growth at Brazil's carriers.
Speaking to ATI and Flightglobal after speaking at the forum, Gol chief executive Constantino de Oliveira Junior says Brazil will need nine to ten new airports the size of Sao Paulo Guarulhos over the next 20 years "We need much more investment in airports and air traffic control to accommodate the growth," he says.
Oliveira expects the Brazilian government will start to focus on the issue as Brazil plans to host the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics. "That will be the chance for Brazil to give the world a good impression," he says.
In the meantime Oliveira says Gol is planning to focus growth outside Sao Paulo with "overflights" and expansion at other hubs such as Belo Horizonte's Confins airport. "At Confins, Brasilia and even Rio de Janeiro Gaeleao there's still room for growth," he says.
In Sao Paulo Oliveira believes a proposal to build a fourth airport after Guarulhos Congonhas and Campinas is not necessary as there is room to grow Campinas, where fast-growing low-cost carrier Azul is based and where Gol is also expanding. "In my opinion Campinas development is the right choice," Oliveira says, pointing out in addition to new terminals the alternative airport is slated to get a high-speed rail connection to downtown Sao Paulo.
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Krs one / Loves gonna getcha
Krs one / Sound of the police
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VRZq3J0uz4/
The need for sensible policing of space is easily shown with the modern day video example shown. Heaven knows that with our families in the heavens, there will be no escape for ancestors and ultimately, descendants.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SW1ZDIXiuS4
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Fleetwood mac / Albatross
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8scHKFwr0og&feature=related/
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Listeners' Brains Respond More to Native Accent Speakers; Imaging Study Suggests Accents Are Subtle 'Insider' or 'Outsider' Signal to the Brain
(Nov. 18, 2010) — The brains of Scots responded differently when they listened to speakers with Scottish accents than to speakers with American or British accents, a new study has found. Understanding how our brains respond to other accents may explain one way in which people have an unconscious bias against outsiders.
The research was presented at Neuroscience 2010, the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, held in San Diego.
"Many positive and negative social attributes are inferred from accents, and it's important to find the underlying cognitive mechanisms of how people perceive them," said lead author Patricia Bestelmeyer, PhD. "Accents affect perceptions of competence or trustworthiness, important attributes for salesmen and jobseekers alike."
Research conducted at the University of Glasgow suggests that people process words spoken with their own accent more quickly and effortlessly than other accents. In the study, 20 Scots listened to recordings of nine female speakers (three American, three British, and three Scottish) while their brain activity was measured with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The authors suspected that brain activity in an area associated with accent processing would decrease as accented words were repeated and the brain became accustomed to them. However, they found this occurred only when the Scots listened to American or British accents, and not to Scottish accents, suggesting the listeners had to adapt to outsiders' accents, but not their own.
"The pattern of neural activity differed strikingly in response to their own specific accent compared with other English accents," Bestelmeyer said. "The initial results suggest that such vocal samples somehow reflect group membership or social identity, so that 'in-group' voices are processed differently from the 'out-group.'"
Research was supported by the U.K. Economic and Social Research Council and the U.K. Medical Research Council.
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My friends, truelly, there are those who were born to watch...
Some perhaps learned to fly away...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Am8R2u_Wri4&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UeOdqjB_7k&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bG6EsuerGDY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLkDt7B4EuU&feature=fvw
At the start of my twenties, like many other younger men I wanted to discipline my body because I did not practice football at a serious level anymore, of course, learning to stretch ones body to perform precision movement is certainly consuming... Perhaps for many it cannot be a longevity seeking physical practice because of 'time restraints' placed upon the body. For the 2 years I trained two or three times per week at a Mugendo club I really enjoyed martial arts, previous of a British championship competition I tore muscles in my buttocks while stretching, I have not been back to training since because of my acknowledgment that some things are not meant to be for some people, 190 degree leg stretches are not everyones idea of good exercise.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1d7haCbjJFk
I've been looking for videos of my sensae who is and was a world champion kick boxer, I trained just a five minute walk from the world mugendo university, many of the students who I am still good friends with, but, I did prefer the more refined atmosphere of my sensaes own clubs, probably because the majority of my sensaes students had been my school friends.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVUJsUOTkbY&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGjOkNxqXhk&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ah-k3YDge8&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xuf0HZhDLr8&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGjOkNxqXhk&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ah-k3YDge8&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xuf0HZhDLr8&feature=related
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KRS one / step into the world
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnydK0phSqM
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Tai chi is a very common practice among Chinese people, it is a listening healing that brings balance to the human body and the knowledge that is a part of it, many chinese people practice tai chi everyday at the local park, actually many many town squares and community spaces are specifically for practicing tai chi.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9SRS_z67nI&NR=1
http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=bbc+astronomy+videos&docid=1124069081748&FORM=VIRE3#
BBC programme ''the sky at night''...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/check/science/space/realmedia/skyatnight_nov07?size=16x9&bgc=000000&nbram=1&bbram=1#
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Resolved Question
Pigeons where DO they all go????
London and the home counties are full of them-yet the streets aren't littered with dead birds-its a bit like all the odd socks in the world-WHERE do all the dead pigeons go?
Best Answer - Chosen by Voters
A lot will die where they roost - in abandoned factories etc.
Although, believe it or not, some people start work in the early hours with the sole purpose of removing dead animals from the streets and roads.
Many people that travel learn that people move at different paces according to different observation, hopefully our legal administration have the opportunity to maintain a good knowledge of the evolving atmosphere and it's modern standard of data affiliation.
[Flightcrewmember duty and rest requirements]
http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2010/pdf/2010-26142.pdf
[Crew member requirements when passengers are on board]
http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2010/pdf/2010-28056.pdf
Ritchie Valens / Sleepwalk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbW1Mu0eJD8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Sqq6FJGhk0
A leonardo Da vinci embryo sketch picture]
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It seems for a lot of us moving through life and learning about people is difficult, relationships with people that we don't ethically, morally, primitively or basically don't understand produces a feeling of loneliness, and often is the situation for people who are estranged from life situations.
As man at the verge of space travel it is imperitive that we continue to add and maintain our knowledge of evolution. As we have seen it is considerably difficult to survey the speed at which species evolve and develope intelligence, we have shown atomic and molecular ability to traverse spacial territories.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/check/science/space/realmedia/skyatnight_dec06?size=16x9&bgc=000000&nbram=1&bbram=1
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http://www.biznet1.com/water/Bovis.htm
http://www.biznet1.com/water/spin.htm
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Overcoming the 'Tragedy of the Commons': Conditonal Cooperation Helps in Forest Preservation
Best Answer - Chosen by Voters
A lot will die where they roost - in abandoned factories etc.
Although, believe it or not, some people start work in the early hours with the sole purpose of removing dead animals from the streets and roads.
Many people that travel learn that people move at different paces according to different observation, hopefully our legal administration have the opportunity to maintain a good knowledge of the evolving atmosphere and it's modern standard of data affiliation.
[Flightcrewmember duty and rest requirements]
http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2010/pdf/2010-26142.pdf
[Crew member requirements when passengers are on board]
http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2010/pdf/2010-28056.pdf
Ritchie Valens / Sleepwalk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbW1Mu0eJD8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Sqq6FJGhk0
A leonardo Da vinci embryo sketch picture]
blonde picture]
It seems for a lot of us moving through life and learning about people is difficult, relationships with people that we don't ethically, morally, primitively or basically don't understand produces a feeling of loneliness, and often is the situation for people who are estranged from life situations.
As man at the verge of space travel it is imperitive that we continue to add and maintain our knowledge of evolution. As we have seen it is considerably difficult to survey the speed at which species evolve and develope intelligence, we have shown atomic and molecular ability to traverse spacial territories.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/check/science/space/realmedia/skyatnight_dec06?size=16x9&bgc=000000&nbram=1&bbram=1
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http://www.biznet1.com/water/Bovis.htm
http://www.biznet1.com/water/spin.htm
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Overcoming the 'Tragedy of the Commons': Conditonal Cooperation Helps in Forest Preservation
(Nov. 13, 2010) — Many imminent problems facing the world today, such as deforestation, overfishing, or climate change, can be described as 'commons problems.' The solution to these problems requires cooperation from hundreds and thousands of people. Such large scale cooperation, however, is plagued by the infamous cooperation dilemma. According to the standard prediction, in which each individual follows only his own interests, large-scale cooperation is impossible because free-riders enjoy common benefits without bearing the cost of their provision. Yet, extensive field evidence indicates that many communities are able to manage their commons, albeit with varying degrees of success.
How do we explain this variation in management outcomes? How do different levels of cooperation emerge and what contributes to their success? The economist Prof. Michael Kosfeld examined these questions together with his colleagues Devesh Rustagi and Prof. Stefanie Engel from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich. The answer: The degree of voluntary cooperation together with the monitoring of free-riders plays a key role in the success of commons management.
In their field study, details of which are published in the November 12 issue of the journal Science, the researchers analyzed a major forest commons management program launched to save the biodiversity rich Afro-montane ecosystem and the livelihood of the Bale Oromo pastoralists in Ethiopia. The team was particularly interested in the degree of conditional cooperation in a group. This means that group members are willing to cooperate voluntarily provided that others cooperate as well. Numerous behavioral experiments with student participants have shown that conditional cooperation plays a significant role in solving the dilemma of cooperation. However, so far no evidence exists which corroborates the relevance of conditional cooperation in the field with actual commons users. The researchers' objective was to provide exactly this evidence.
The economists conducted behavioral cooperation-experiments with 679 members from 49 different forest user groups in which they elicited the group members' willingness to cooperate voluntarily. They found that groups differ widely in their share of conditional cooperators, from 0 % to 88 %. In groups with lower share of conditional cooperators, free-rider share was high. To examine how this impacts forest management success, the team ran a variety of statistical analyses which showed that groups with larger share of conditional cooperators were much more successful in managing their forests. The success of a group was determined by the number of trees of intermediate height per hectare. Trees of this kind are vital for the sustainable growth of the forest.
But why are groups with larger share of conditional cooperators more successful at forest management? To entangle this puzzle, the trio looked at the time spent by group members in monitoring their forest. They found that groups with higher share of conditional cooperators not only cooperate more but also monitor more by conducting patrols through the forest. Such patrols are important for the detection and deterrence of free-riding. A group with 60 % conditional cooperators was likely to spend on average 14 hours more per month in monitoring than a group without any conditional cooperators. Devesh Rustagi, a post-doc at the Institute for Environmental Decisions, says "this finding is interesting, as it shows that conditional cooperators are willing to spend resources to detect individuals who free-ride at their expense. It provides a behavioral link in explaining monitoring as a success mechanism in commons management."
"The results of our study provide first-time evidence that conditional cooperation which has been identified in many laboratory experiments before plays a key role in a concrete case of commons management in the field," explains Michael Kosfeld, Director of the Frankfurt Laboratory of Experimental Economics at Goethe-University. "Our findings fill a long-standing gap between field and laboratory studies on human cooperation."
The results also shed light on the evolution of human cooperation. They show a positive co-variation between conditional cooperation and costly monitoring. This is in line with the theory of gene-culture evolution, which predicts higher cooperation in groups where enforcement of cooperation is prevalent.
"The results yield important policy implications for the governance of human collective action," explains Rustagi. "Because humans differ in their motivation to cooperate, an effective solution to commons problems should not be based on incentives for purely self-regarding individuals alone but needs to explicitly take into account the complex interplay of heterogeneous motivations and behavioral norms to cooperate voluntarily."
Prof. Stefanie Engel from the Institute for Environmental Decisions at ETH Zurich concludes: "Given that the UN has declared 2010 as the year of biodiversity and 2011 the year of forests, the results may in fact open new doors to find solutions to commons problems, which house nearly 18% of the world's forests and a large share of biodiversity."
Krs one / A friend
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Enigma of Missing Stars in Local Group of Galaxies May Be Solved
(Nov. 19, 2010) — In the local group of galaxies that also includes the Andromeda Nebula and our Milky Way, there are about 100 billion stars. According to astronomers' calculations, there should be many more. Now, physicists from the University of Bonn and the University of St. Andrews in Scotland may have found an explanation for this discrepancy.
Their study will appear in the upcoming issue of the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
New stars are born in the Universe around the clock -- on the Milky Way, currently about ten per year. From the birth rate in the past, we can generally calculate how populated space should actually be. But the problem is that the results of such calculations do not match our actual observations. "There should actually be a lot more stars that we can see," says Dr. Jan Pflamm-Altenburg, astrophysicist at the Argelander-Institut für Astronomie of the University of Bonn.
So, where are those stars?
For years, astronomers worldwide have been looking for a plausible explanation for this discrepancy. In cooperation with Dr. Carsten Weidner from St. Andrews University, Dr. Pflamm-Altenburg and Professor Dr. Pavel Kroupa, Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Bonn, may now have found the solution. It seems that so far, the birth rate has simply been overestimated. But this answer is not quite as simple as it sounds. Apparently, the error of estimation only occurs during periods of particularly high star production.
The reason for this lies in the manner in which astronomers calculate the birth rate. "For the local Universe -- i.e., the Milky Way as our home and the adjacent galaxies -- it is relatively simple," explains Professor Kroupa. "Here we are able to count the young stars one by one, using huge telescopes."
The problem with this method is that it only works for our immediate vicinity. But many galaxies are so distant that even the best telescope simply overlooks their small stars. As luck would have it, however, occasionally there is an especially large whopper among the newbie's in the sky. Such a star will, even if it cannot be directly discovered as an individual star, leave its traces in the light of even the farthest galaxies. The number of large whoppers then determines the strength of this trace.
In our immediate vicinity, these large whoppers occur with a fixed probability. There are always about 300 lightweights to one "big star baby." This numerical ratio seemed to be universal. So it was sufficient for astronomers to know the number of the large whoppers, for this allowed them to determine the number of new-born stars by simply multiplying the former number by a factor of 300.
Population explosion in space
Recently, however, some Bonn astronomers around Professor Kroupa began doubting the fixed ratio. Their hypothesis is that at times when the galactic nurseries are booming, they generate a considerably higher number of stellar heavies than normal. The reason for this, according to this theory, is so-called stellar crowding. For stars are not single children; they are born in groups, as so-called star clusters. At birth, these clusters are always of a similar size -- no matter whether they contain 100 star embryos -- or 100,000.
Consequently, at times of a high birth rate, space can be at a premium in star clusters. Astronomers call such galaxies that are particularly rich in mass "ultra-compact dwarf galaxies," or UCD's for short. In these, things are so tight that some of the young stars fuse during formation. Thus, more stars rich in mass than normal emerge. The "small to large" ratio is then only about 50 to 1. "In other words, we used to estimate the number of newly formed small stars by far too high," explains Dr. Carsten Weidner.
The researchers from Bonn and St. Andrews have now corrected the birth rates according to the projections of the stellar crowding theory. With an encouraging result -- they actually arrived at the number of stars that can be seen today.
Their study will appear in the upcoming issue of the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
New stars are born in the Universe around the clock -- on the Milky Way, currently about ten per year. From the birth rate in the past, we can generally calculate how populated space should actually be. But the problem is that the results of such calculations do not match our actual observations. "There should actually be a lot more stars that we can see," says Dr. Jan Pflamm-Altenburg, astrophysicist at the Argelander-Institut für Astronomie of the University of Bonn.
So, where are those stars?
For years, astronomers worldwide have been looking for a plausible explanation for this discrepancy. In cooperation with Dr. Carsten Weidner from St. Andrews University, Dr. Pflamm-Altenburg and Professor Dr. Pavel Kroupa, Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Bonn, may now have found the solution. It seems that so far, the birth rate has simply been overestimated. But this answer is not quite as simple as it sounds. Apparently, the error of estimation only occurs during periods of particularly high star production.
The reason for this lies in the manner in which astronomers calculate the birth rate. "For the local Universe -- i.e., the Milky Way as our home and the adjacent galaxies -- it is relatively simple," explains Professor Kroupa. "Here we are able to count the young stars one by one, using huge telescopes."
The problem with this method is that it only works for our immediate vicinity. But many galaxies are so distant that even the best telescope simply overlooks their small stars. As luck would have it, however, occasionally there is an especially large whopper among the newbie's in the sky. Such a star will, even if it cannot be directly discovered as an individual star, leave its traces in the light of even the farthest galaxies. The number of large whoppers then determines the strength of this trace.
In our immediate vicinity, these large whoppers occur with a fixed probability. There are always about 300 lightweights to one "big star baby." This numerical ratio seemed to be universal. So it was sufficient for astronomers to know the number of the large whoppers, for this allowed them to determine the number of new-born stars by simply multiplying the former number by a factor of 300.
Population explosion in space
Recently, however, some Bonn astronomers around Professor Kroupa began doubting the fixed ratio. Their hypothesis is that at times when the galactic nurseries are booming, they generate a considerably higher number of stellar heavies than normal. The reason for this, according to this theory, is so-called stellar crowding. For stars are not single children; they are born in groups, as so-called star clusters. At birth, these clusters are always of a similar size -- no matter whether they contain 100 star embryos -- or 100,000.
Consequently, at times of a high birth rate, space can be at a premium in star clusters. Astronomers call such galaxies that are particularly rich in mass "ultra-compact dwarf galaxies," or UCD's for short. In these, things are so tight that some of the young stars fuse during formation. Thus, more stars rich in mass than normal emerge. The "small to large" ratio is then only about 50 to 1. "In other words, we used to estimate the number of newly formed small stars by far too high," explains Dr. Carsten Weidner.
The researchers from Bonn and St. Andrews have now corrected the birth rates according to the projections of the stellar crowding theory. With an encouraging result -- they actually arrived at the number of stars that can be seen today.
Sport is a sure winner for space exploration and space colonisation schedule, for thousands of years villagers practiced and watched sport to solve arguements initially, then becoming a regular testoterone thrashing exercise, it would be a wonderful experience to practice on different gravity planets that perhaps pose different challenges for discipline and test of dexterity, for sure, hopefully the fairplay and gentleman rule accompanies what is probably the greatest invention of our races history. Hopefully everyone is at the right place at the right time to practice something they have genuinely earnt the entitlement to do.
http://video.uk.msn.com/browse/news/week-in-video?VideoID=1j4jjdy12&PlayerSize=Small&from=homepage_slideshow
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Acoustic Archaeology Yielding Mind-Tripping Tricks
Recently uncovered sound effects include a clapping echo that sounds like a jungle bird.
Tue Nov 16, 2010 08:00 AM ET
THE GIST
Acoustic archaeology is an emerging field that melds acoustical analysis and old-fashioned bone-hunting.
Ancient people created fun house-like temples that featured scary sound effects.
Some of the sites were likely built by people who took sensory-altering drugs.
Chavin stone art in the shape of a head, housed at the Museo De La Nacion in Lima, Peru. The 3,000 year-old Chavin culture produced tunnels and mazes with eerie sound effects.
Researchers are uncovering the secrets of ancient civilizations who built fun house-like temples that may have scared the pants off worshipers with scary sound effects, light shows and perhaps drug-induced psychedelic trips.
The emerging field of acoustic archaeology is a marriage of high-tech acoustic analysis and old-fashioned bone-hunting. The results of this scientific collaboration is a new understanding of cultures who used sound effects as entertainment, religion and a form of political control.
Miriam Kolar, a researcher at Stanford University's Center for Computer Research and Acoustics, has been studying the 3,000 year-old Chavin culture in the high plains of Peru. Kolar and her colleagues have been mapping a maze of underground tunnels, drains and hallways in which echoes don't sound like echoes.
"The structures could be physically disorienting and the acoustic environment is very different than the natural world," Kolar said. Ancient drawings from the Chavin culture show a people who were fascinated with sensory experiences -- ancient hippies if you will.
"The iconography shows people mixed with animal features in altered states of being," said Kolar, who is presenting her recent work at a conference in Cancun, Mexico this week. "There is peyote and mucus trails out of the nose indicative of people using psychoactive plant substances. They were taking drugs and having a hallucinogenic experience."
If that wasn't enough, the mazes at Chavin de Huantar also include air ducts that use sunlight to produce distorted shadows of the maze's human participants. And sound waves from giant marine shells found in the maze in 2001 may have produced a frequency that actually rattled the eyeballs of those peyote-using ancients, Kolar said.
"We consider sound to be important," said Kolar. "We've gathered a lot of data and we're finally starting to publish it."
The Chavin de Huantar site in Peru isn't the only place where sound played an important role. The Mayan rulers at Chichen Itza in the Yucatan also figured out how to use sound for crowd control. David Lubman, an acoustic engineer who has spent the past 12 years studying the Mayan site, says a strange bird-like echo from the Kukulkan temple was actually constructed on purpose.
"It's sort of spooky," Lubman said from Irvine, Calif. "It's not an ordinary echo."
Lubman's analysis compared the acoustic soundprint of the quetzal bird, which was revered by Mayans, to the sound of the echo at Chichen Itza. The two sounds matched.
Lublin said the secret is in the acoustic properties of the steep staircase on the temple's front.
Other new research presented at this week's Acoustical Society of America conference in Cancun shows that Mayan rulers figured out how to build a public address system in the site's giant ball court. That allowed kings to address hundreds of warriors and subjects without screaming.
In England, British researchers are using modern tools of acoustics to figure out what drumming noises may have sounded like to ancient visitors to Stonehenge.
In time, we all know whats right, we all know what a good existance is, it is the opportunity to breathe fresh good air, to watch beautiful women wearing tight skirts, to feel love, to touch, to have the opportunity to smell many different fragrances that create imagination, stories... Stories must be stories...
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Snoop Dogg / Ain't no fun
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Th0V-fxo9CE
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