2005/01/31

Politics and Movies
Russia has always been a fertile place for cinema and politics mixing. It all dates back to the heady days of the October Revolution. Sergei Eisenstein and company pretty much laid the tracks down for a synergy of cinema and politics which as been, for better or worse the model for how politics and cinema can work together. Of course it's not a strictly 'Left Wing Ideology' thing as we can see in the case of Leni Riefenstahl and Adolf Hitler.

Today, I bring you Francis Ford Coppola and ValidmirPutin in a mutual-ego-fellating number.

"In Russia your works are well known and highly valued," Putin told Coppola during a televised portion of the meeting Saturday. He said he was not just referring to "The Godfather" — which is extremely popular in Russia — but also to films "that so accurately tell of the horrors of war."

Coppola, in turn, lauded Putin's speech marking the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz by Soviet troops, during which Putin said he was ashamed of anti-Semitism's existence in Russia.

"Excellent speech," Coppola said. "But in person you look much younger than you did on TV." Coppola was in Moscow to receive a Golden Eagle award from Russia's National Academy of Cinematic Arts and Sciences for his contribution to world cinematography. Coppola gave Putin a DVD of "Lost in Translation," for which his daughter, Sofia Coppola, who won an Oscar for best original screenplay in 2004.

Coppola told Putin that both he and his daughter had won their first Oscar at age 32, and the Russian president responded, "Now your granddaughter must do it."


Kind of sad, really, but there you go.

Shuttles Come-back Update
Speaking of sad, here's the Update.

In the past few weeks, two special deliveries have boosted morale among shuttle workers and provided tangible evidence they are rounding the corner.

One is a special tool to inspect the next shuttle while in orbit for any damage to its thermal-protective skin. The other is a brand new fuel tank guaranteed by NASA not to shed big chunks of foam insulation that could harm the shuttle.

Those are two of the biggest technical changes resulting from a lengthy review of what destroyed Columbia and killed seven astronauts on that still painfully vivid Saturday morning, Feb. 1, 2003.


Err, yeah. Still doesn't raise my confidence in these birds, but it's better than naught.

Sound Quality Versus Musical Quality
Team Manager of Alsorans has returned from India and forwarded this page. It's an article about the state of music in the context of developing recording technology, which aslo operates within the context of a music industry. I had a lot to say about it, but blogger swallowed up my previous post on it. If nothing else, it's a good little read.
Marshall McLuhan: "The incomplete form invites participation." Converserly, the complete form- the "perfect" form, by our estimation of the word- says "sit back bub, we got it covered." The less conscious participation there is, the more our ability to do so atrophies. The world appears increasingly cut and dried- think about that phrase for a moment. It means something is dead and preserved.

Yep.

- Art Neuro
Iraq Election

Here is an account of the election from what is probably one of the most difficult places in Iraq.

It's hard to say exactly what will happen next. It looks like about 25%-30% of the population voted, so the elected government doesn't seem to have a particularly strong mandate. Civil war between Sunnis and Shiites seems likely, although it depends a lot on what the government does.

I don't think that the US will get the Quisling government that it wants. However I think giving the Shiites a legitimate political voice is a step forwards. It could backfire if they ask the US to leave, which the leader of the main Shiite party has said he will do.

It's also possible that granting the Kurds a political identity will create tensions with Turkey. The Kurds are now one step closer to having a state of their own.

The Sunnis are alienated from the political process, and this is going to be a problem. It will most likely be the central problem of post-election Iraq. They have no interest in being part of a strong functioning state, and will not support it. They can be brought back into the process, but this will be difficult if the Shiites are perceived to act against the Sunnis. If the Iraqi army helps the Americans in combat against Sunnis, the problem of alienation will swiftly escalate.

It's certain there will be "interesting times" in Iraq for some time to come.

2005/01/29

Back To The Shuttle Flights
Apparently the overseeing committee cannot see any problems with the re-launching of the shuttle in May or June. So here we go again with NASA Roulette. :)

Discovery's seven astronauts will have a hole-repair kit, although it is uncertified and rudimentary. If unable to return to Earth, they also would have the option of moving into the orbiting space station to await rescue by shuttle Atlantis in a month's time.

NASA still needs to fulfill eight of 15 recommendations made by the Columbia accident investigators, Friday's report said. Unfinished items include preventing the shedding of debris and hardening the orbiter.

But NASA is close to completing several of those recommendations and should be able to complete them before the launch window, Covey said.


I can see a problem with that plan: what happens if Atlantis develops a problem that makes it impossible for them to return as well? Send up Endeavour? And if Endeavour develops similar problems as well, what are they going to do? Bring Enterprise out from mothballs? There's something still very structurally unsound with resuming shuttle flights, but I guess they've got way too much invested in them, so here we go again.
I can't bear to watch any more lest something terrible happens.

Eyes Wide Shut
In a clear case of if you don't like something, there's no obligation for you to keep looking...
I only inculde this article today because well, it includes telescopes and binoculars.

OTTAWA (Reuters) - A Canadian who masturbated at a window in his house won his appeal against a conviction for indecency on Thursday after Canada's top court ruled there was no evidence of intent to commit an indecent act, and a home was not a public place.

The Supreme Court of Canada noted that British Columbian, Daryl Clark, had agreed it was an indecent act to have masturbated "in an illuminated room near an uncovered window visible to neighbors."

But Justice Morris Fish, writing the 9-0 decision, said such acts have to be done in public places to be a crime -- and a home was not a public place. The law also says indecent acts are only crimes in every location if the person intends to give offense. Clark was convicted of an indecent act in a public place and given a four-month sentence after a prosecution that followed complaints from his neighbor, named in court documents only as Mrs. S.

The woman said she spotted Clark while she was watching television with her two young daughters in their family room. She alerted her husband, and the couple observed Clark from their darkened bedroom for 10 or 15 minutes -- also using binoculars and a telescope -- before summoning the police, who said the upper part of Clark's body was visible from just below the navel.

"In my respectful view, the trial judge ... erred in concluding that the appellant's living room had been converted by him into a public place simply because he could be seen through his living room window and, though he did not know this, was being watched by Mr. and Mrs. S. from the privacy of their own bedroom 90 to 150 feet away," Fish wrote.


With binoculars and telescopes! Why were they watching? Why? Is Ottawa that boring? Somebody, enlighten me... ah, fuggeddaboudit.

- Art Neuro

2005/01/28

Code Red in G'itmo - Can You Handle The Truth?
This is disturbing and yet strangely titilating at the same time. Female Interrogators in tight tee-shirts, short skirts and thong bikini underwear sexually humiliating the terror suspect detainees in Guantanamo Bay. Whoa! Here's the complete AP report:

By PAISLEY DODDS, Associated Press Writer
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - Female interrogators tried to break Muslim detainees at the U.S. prison camp in Guantanamo Bay by sexual touching, wearing a miniskirt and thong underwear and in one case smearing a Saudi man's face with fake menstrual blood, according to an insider's written account.

A draft manuscript obtained by The Associated Press is classified as secret pending a Pentagon review for a planned book that details ways the U.S. military used women as part of tougher physical and psychological interrogation tactics to get terror suspects to talk. It's the most revealing account so far of interrogations at the secretive detention camp, where officials say they have halted some controversial techniques.

"I have really struggled with this because the detainees, their families and much of the world will think this is a religious war based on some of the techniques used, even though it is not the case," the author, former Army Sgt. Erik R. Saar, 29, told AP. Saar didn't provide the manuscript or approach AP, but confirmed the authenticity of nine draft pages AP obtained. He requested his hometown remain private so he couldn't be harassed. Saar, who is neither Muslim nor of Arab descent, worked as an Arabic translator at the U.S. camp in eastern Cuba from December 2002 to June 2003. At the time, it was under the command of Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller, who had a mandate to get better intelligence from prisoners, including alleged al-Qaida members caught in Afghanistan.

Saar said he witnessed about 20 interrogations and about three months after his arrival at the remote U.S. base he started noticing "disturbing" practices. One female civilian contractor used a special outfit that included a miniskirt, thong underwear and a bra during late-night interrogations with prisoners, mostly Muslim men who consider it taboo to have close contact with women who aren't their wives.

Beginning in April 2003, "there hung a short skirt and thong underwear on the hook on the back of the door" of one interrogation team's office, he writes. "Later I learned that this outfit was used for interrogations by one of the female civilian contractors ... on a team which conducted interrogations in the middle of the night on Saudi men who were refusing to talk."

Some Guantanamo prisoners who have been released say they were tormented by "prostitutes." In another case, Saar describes a female military interrogator questioning an uncooperative 21-year-old Saudi detainee who allegedly had taken flying lessons in Arizona before the Sept. 11 terror attacks. Suspected Sept. 11 hijacker Hani Hanjour received pilot instruction for three months in 1996 and in December 1997 at a flight school in Scottsdale, Ariz.

"His female interrogator decided that she needed to turn up the heat," Saar writes, saying she repeatedly asked the detainee who had sent him to Arizona, telling him he could "cooperate" or "have no hope whatsoever of ever leaving this place or talking to a lawyer.'" The man closed his eyes and began to pray, Saar writes.

The female interrogator wanted to "break him," Saar adds, describing how she removed her uniform top to expose a tight-fitting T-shirt and began taunting the detainee, touching her breasts, rubbing them against the prisoner's back and commenting on his apparent erection.

The detainee looked up and spat in her face, the manuscript recounts. The interrogator left the room to ask a Muslim linguist how she could break the prisoner's reliance on God. The linguist told her to tell the detainee that she was menstruating, touch him, then make sure to turn off the water in his cell so he couldn't wash. Strict interpretation of Islamic law forbids physical contact with women other than a man's wife or family, and with any menstruating women, who are considered unclean.

"The concept was to make the detainee feel that after talking to her he was unclean and was unable to go before his God in prayer and gain strength," says the draft, stamped "Secret."
The interrogator used ink from a red pen to fool the detainee, Saar writes.

"She then started to place her hands in her pants as she walked behind the detainee," he says. "As she circled around him he could see that she was taking her hand out of her pants. When it became visible the detainee saw what appeared to be red blood on her hand. She said, 'Who sent you to Arizona?'

He then glared at her with a piercing look of hatred. "She then wiped the red ink on his face. He shouted at the top of his lungs, spat at her and lunged forward" — so fiercely that he broke loose from one ankle shackle. "He began to cry like a baby," the draft says, noting the interrogator left saying, "Have a fun night in your cell without any water to clean yourself."

Events Saar describes resemble two previous reports of abusive female interrogation tactics, although it wasn't possible to independently verify his account. In November, in response to an AP request, the military described an April 2003 incident in which a female interrogator took off her uniform top, exposed her brown T-shirt, ran her fingers through a detainee's hair and sat on his lap. That session was immediately ended by a supervisor and that interrogator received a written reprimand and additional training, the military said.

In another incident, the military reported that in early 2003 a different female interrogator "wiped dye from red magic marker on detainees' shirt after detainee spit (cq) on her," telling the detainee it was blood. She was verbally reprimanded, the military said.

Sexual tactics used by female interrogators have been criticized by the FBI, which complained in a letter obtained by AP last month that U.S. defense officials hadn't acted on complaints by FBI observers of "highly aggressive" interrogation techniques, including one in which a female interrogator grabbed a detainee's genitals.

About 20 percent of the guards at Guantanamo are women, said Lt. Col. James Marshall, a spokesman for U.S. Southern Command. He wouldn't say how many of the interrogators were female. Marshall wouldn't address whether the U.S. military had a specific strategy to use women.

"U.S. forces treat all detainees and conduct all interrogations, wherever they may occur, humanely and consistent with U.S. legal obligations, and in particular with legal obligations prohibiting torture," Marshall said late Wednesday.

But some officials at the U.S. Southern Command have questioned the formation of an all-female team as one of Guantanamo's "Immediate Reaction Force" units that subdue troublesome male prisoners in their cells, according to a document classified as secret and obtained by AP.

In one incident, dated June 19, 2004, "The detainee appears to be genuinely traumatized by a female escort securing the detainee's leg irons," according to the document, a U.S. Southern Command summary of videotapes shot when the teams were used.

The summary warned that anyone outside Department of Defense channels should be prepared to address allegations that women were used intentionally with Muslim men. At Guantanamo, Saar said, "Interrogators were given a lot of latitude under Miller," the commander who went from the prison in Cuba to overseeing prisons in Iraq, where the Abu Ghraib scandal shocked the world with pictures revealing sexual humiliation of naked prisoners.

Several female troops have been charged in the Abu Ghraib scandal. Saar said he volunteered to go to Guantanamo because "I really believed in the mission," but then he became disillusioned during his six months at the prison. After leaving the Army with more than four years service, Saar worked as a contractor briefly for the FBI.

The Department of Defense has censored parts of his draft, mainly blacking out people's names, said Saar, who hired Washington attorney Mark S. Zaid to represent him. Saar needed permission to publish because he signed a disclosure statement before going to Guantanamo.

The book, which Saar titled "Inside the Wire," is due out this year with Penguin Press. Guantanamo has about 545 prisoners from some 40 countries, many held more than three years without charge or access to lawyers and many suspected of links to al-Qaida or Afghanistan's ousted Taliban regime, which harbored the terrorist network.
___
EDITOR'S NOTE: Paisley Dodds is an Associated Press reporter based in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and has been covering the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, since it opened in 2002.


Hmmm. Interesting to say the least. Female interrogators in tight brown tee-shirts, short skirts and thong bikini underwear taunting you with her breasts and grabbing your genitals, smearing you with fake menstrual blood. Yeah, right. Sort of like a cross between Marquis de Sade's 'Justine' and George Orwell's '1984'. A guy could learn to enjoy something like that, no? To think the Evil Terrorists (TM) are getting this luxury-brothel treatment with tax payer's money for 3 years while some of us go un-laid... The travesty of it all! :)

- Art Neuro

2005/01/27

Billy Beane Is My Kind Of GM
Part 3 is Here. :)
Lovely stuff.

Blez: That's why you can't go into the snap judgment as soon as a deal is made.

BB: Right, and that's what is interesting about these trades. And that's what I love, for lack of a better word, about the blogger's world. There is a tendency to really analyze things in detail. Ultimately, because there is so much conversation and investigation on a site like yours, people may not ultimately agree with it, but they stumble onto what you're trying to do. Someone emailed me something written on a Cardinals' blog, and they had nailed all the things we were talking about. The economic reasons, the personnel reasons and the reasons we made the exchange. The world of a Web log will lend itself to a lot of investigation. And you will often stumble across the answer more than someone who has to write in two hours to meet deadline just to make sure something is out in the paper the next day.


George Clooney as Billy Beane? Sure, I'd watch that if somebody called. Then again, I wish, I was making that film. :)

- Art Neuro

Robotic Arm Goes On
The robotic arm assembly of the ISS was mounted, and in the process the crew discovered some gunk in the vents which might explain why they keep having problems.

Spacewalkers Leroy Chiao and Salizhan Sharipov did not make all of the electrical connections on the experimental mini-arm tight enough and had to redo part of the job, but managed to get full power flowing with just minutes remaining in their 5 1/2-hour outing.

"Everything's perfect," Mission Control radioed.
"Well, thank God, thank God," came the reply. Before going back inside, they were advised: "Take a breather."

During their 225-mile-high excursion, the spacewalkers also inspected the station's vents and found a large patch of dark, oily residue and a white, honeycombed substance. It was not immediately known what the substances were.

The space station's Russian oxygen generator has broken down repeatedly, and engineers have speculated its vent might be clogged or corroded. The air-cleansing equipment also has a history of malfunctions.


Fascinating to find that space might be full of stuff that clogs vents. :)

SMART-1 Gives Us A Smart One
The ESA's SMART-1 craft has returned images of the moon.What's truly interesting is the engine that got it there, the Ion Engine. Like, as in the TIE (Twin Ion Engine) Fighters in Star Wars, but this on of course is a lot slower.

SMART-1, Europe's first Moon mission, used a high-tech ion engine to gradually escape Earth's gravity after launch on Sept. 27, 2003. The slow-and-steady propulsion system makes for a cheaper mission compared to conventional rocketry.

The craft spiraled outward for months, then entered a wide lunar orbit on Nov. 15 after the longest trip to the Moon ever made. It has been circling closer and closer to the Moon the past two months.

The ion engine was turned off around the end of the year so science observations could begin. Then the craft's Asteroid-Moon Imager Experiment (AMIE) device took the close-up images released today. They were taken from between 620 and 3,100 miles (1,000-5,000 kilometers) above the Moon.

One of the new images shows the good-sized impact craters Brianchon and Pascal, along with several smaller craters. "This image was the first proof that the AMIE camera is still working well in lunar orbit," said AMIE Principal Investigator Jean-Luc Josset of Space-X.

SMART-1 will not land. But its observations are expected to increase understanding of the Moon's composition. Success of the ion drive could lead to a similar mission to Mercury. Among AMIE's tasks is to settle a longstanding debate over whether there are significant deposits of water ice at the lunar poles. Settling the question would inform any possible decisions about whether and where to send humans. SMART-1 will also map the Moon in infrared, helping scientists better grasp the distribution of minerals and the whole evolution of the Earth-Moon system.


More news to come on that one.

Not A Fashion Statement
The time of the bulky spacesuits might be of the past. The boffins at MIT are working on something more lighter. This is a bloody good story, so do read on.
It's naughty, but here's the Space.com article in full:

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Future explorers on the Moon and Mars could be outfitted in lightweight, high-tech spacesuits that offer far more flexibility than the bulky suits that have been used for spacewalks in the 1960s.

Research is under way at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) on a Bio-Suit System that incorporates a suit designed to augment a person's biological skin by providing mechanical counter-pressure. The epidermis of such a second skin could be applied in spray-on fashion in the form of an organic, biodegradable layer.

This coating would protect an astronaut conducting a spacewalk in extremely dusty planetary environments. Incorporated into that second skin would be electrically actuated artificial muscle fibers to enhance human strength and stamina. The Bio-Suit System could embody communications equipment, biosensors, computers, even climbing gear for spacewalks or what NASA calls an Extra Vehicular Activity (EVA).

When we get back to the Moon and on Mars, we're not going there to stay in a habitat, said Dava Newman, professor in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics and Engineering Systems here at MIT. EVA becomes a primary function, she said.

Newman is leading the Bio-Suit System work, assisted by researchers Kristen Bethke, Christopher Carr, Nicole Jordan, and Liang Sim in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics and Engineering Systems. The study is multi-pronged and is intended to better calibrate astronaut performance, explore improvements to current spacesuit designs and generate novel ideas for a new generation of space exploration suits. The NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts, headquartered in Atlanta, is sponsoring the Bio-Suit System effort.

We need to shrink-wrap the astronaut, Newman said. It would be like wearing a second skin. The Bio-Suit System, Newman said, would provide life support through mechanical counter pressure where pressure is applied to the entire body through a tight-fitting suit with a pressurized helmet for the head. Ongoing research is targeted at understanding, simulating, and predicting capabilities of suited astronauts in a variety of scenarios — be they performing simple motions or more complex movement, such as overhead or cross-body reach, stepping up, or trudging across an exotic landscape.

The scenario envisioned by Newman and her associates is an astronaut first donning his or her customized elastic Bio-Suit layer. Then a hard torso shell would be slipped on, sealed via couplings located at the hips. A portable life support system is then attached mechanically to the hard torso shell and provides gas counter pressure. Gas pressure would flow freely into the wearer's helmet and down tubes on the bio-suit layer to the gloves and boots.

Newman said that the spacesuits of today are very limited in terms of mobility. In addition, the current weight or mass of EVA suits is another limiting factor. In the microgravity environment those limitations are not show-stoppers. But for an advanced exploration spacesuit for the Moon or Mars, unlimited mobility and a very low mass spacesuit are paramount, Newman told SPACE.com.

There are several advances in technology that Newman and her MIT colleagues consider key in turning their work into a practical, suitable suit for human space explorers. We're looking into cutting edge materials, development and modeling capabilities to turn our Bio-Suit concepts in to working prototypes implementing mechanical counter-pressure, Newman advised.

Newman said Bio-Suit relies on advances in fabrication and application of open cell foam, smart materials like advanced muscle wire technologies, and electrospinlacing. All of these have seen vast improvements in the last few years, she said. The MIT group has investigated unique modeling techniques, such as taking 3D laser scans of a person. Then, using mathematical modeling and mechanics techniques, a stress- strain field calculation is performed for the entire human body.

The modeling allows us to prescribe a minimum energy suit that literally could be 'painted on' to provide maximum mobility for extreme exploration required on the Moon or Mars, Newman said. Lightweight and easy to don and doff, the bio-suit layer would be custom fitted to each astronaut — made possible by a laser scanning/electrospinlacing process. That method stems from work at the U.S. Army Soldier Systems Center in Natick, Mass. where researchers there are tapping into science and technology for 21st century combat uniforms, as well as police officer garb able to thwart chemical or biological agents.

In addition, the MIT Bio-Suit System team is working with Mid Technology Corp. of Medford, Mass. to adopt such items as micro-actuators and smart (active) materials in their designs.

Among other collaborations, Bio-Suit System researchers are also drawing upon the Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies, an interdepartmental research center at MIT. The ultimate goal of that institute is to create a 21st century battlesuit that combines high-tech capabilities with light weight and comfort.

The roadmap that the president and NASA have established involves spiral development and multiple destinations and operating environments over a relatively short period of time. With the very real budget pressures we will all face, I think the most critical element for success will be the early creation of an effective, modular EVA system architecture, said Edward Hodgson, a Technical Fellow at Hamilton Sundstrand Space Systems International in Windsor Locks, Conn. Hodgson said an evolutionary approach will permit changes in response to altering mission needs, and also to infuse new technology as it develops with a minimum of system level redesign and recertification.

Hodgson has also received support from the NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts to study a Chameleon Suit. The name reflects the fact that walls of the suit change in
response to variations in the environment or in the wearer's need for cooling. The ultimate goal of this concept is a symbiotic interaction of astronaut and spacesuit like that between humans and terrestrial plants in which the astronaut's waste carbon dioxide and water vapor are converted back into respirable oxygen in the suit walls using environmental energy sources.

Technologies under study, Hodgson noted, include shape change polymers and electro-emissive materials to modify heat transfer characteristics of the spacesuit skin so it is similar to that found in natural biological systems.


Sort of makes you wonder why a company like Nike won't just go and sponsor one fewer super-athlete and spend that 40 million helping out with this. After all, it's closer to the Gernsback/Space Opera vision of spacesuits that have danced across our imagination for years. An apparel company could to a lot worse than invest in space suits :)

- Art Neuro

2005/01/25

Talkin' Moneyball
The famed General Manager of the Oakland Athletics is interviewed by a lowly blogger.

Here's Part 1
Here's Part 2
Part 3 will presumably be up sometime soon. :)

Blez: This may be a loaded question, but has George Steinbrenner gone completely mad? $200 million dollars? When you look at the Red Sox and the Yankees, they seem to be the only two teams that can play on that level in the American League. They're in a different stratosphere because of their inflated budgets. Is there a problem in baseball with that?

BB: It seems like I have that question or some derivative of that question every year. First of all, you can never criticize because they've been a very successful franchise and they're spending what they have available to them. Good for them. At some point, situations like that create opportunities for clubs like ours. It might sound crazy, but they, teams like us are still playing with 25 men on the roster. Sometimes they need to move very good players off their roster and it creates very good opportunities for us. This isn't a high profile situation, but because of that, we were able to get a great pitcher who was very effective for us last season, Chris Hammond, and he cost us 15 cents on the dollar. An opportunity was created because of the situation in New York. I don't view it as frustrating as many fans do, I view it as something that will create an opportunity somewhere along the line if you look for it. Instead of looking at it as an excuse and complaining about it, I look for the opportunities it creates for us.


So says the man who plays 'moneyball'. The man is legit. It makes for fantastic reading.
Even for a Yankee fan, his perspective is inspiring. I dare say, the A's are my other favourite team.

A Growing Trend
Some days ago, we related that there was a robbery of a sex shop in Italy. Now we find this from Reuters:

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Reuters) - Police were on the search on Friday for a thief who made off with three "male appendages" from a Vancouver-area sex-toy store and may now be looking for batteries.

A clerk discovered the man stuffing the fake body parts into his clothes and asked "if he was going to need batteries for these three objects," the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said in a news release.

"The male calmly stated 'no' and then panicked and fled, running out of the store with the three objects, minus batteries," the police statement said.

The Porn Store Bandits are on the loose.
Yep, it's a growing trend.

- Art Neuro

Huygens Update
Here's the latest that's up.

A week's analysis of the 350 photos and other data received from the Huygens descent probe confirmed many of the suppositions made about Titan and whetted scientists' appetite for a follow-on mission.

"We can now dream seriously of sending rovers to Titan," said Huygens project manager Jean-Pierre Lebreton of the European Space Agency (ESA). "All we need is the money."

It took NASA's Cassini satellite seven years to reach Saturn orbit, and then release Huygens. With no Huygens revisits currently scheduled, it will be at least a decade before Huygens' data is complemented by another descent probe or lander.

Meanwhile, the Cassini orbiter will be using Huygens data to help in measuring Titan from orbit. "Huygens has provided ground truth for Cassini," Lebreton said. As captivated as they were by what Huygens discovered in a 3.5-hour descent
and landing on Titan on Jan. 14, Huygens scientists cautioned against generalizing about what Huygens' [sic] surface looks like.

"We sent three spacecraft to Mars and they all went to the most boring places" before other satellites discovered the most interesting features of Mars, said Toby Owen of the Institute for Astronomy in Honolulu. Owen is a principle investigator for studying Huygens' atmospheric sensors. Huygens images, he said, "come from one single place in a very different world."

Huygens landed on a solid surface that post-mission analysis suggests resembles a sandy area covered by a thin crust, according to John C. Zarnecki, lead scientists for Huygens' Surface Science Package instruments.

Martin G. Tomasko of the University of Arizona at Tucson, principal investigator for Huygens' camera system, said the 350 images taken by Huygens and relayed by Cassini to Earth suggest it had rained liquid methane recently before Huygens 'arrival. The rain washes off the water-icemountain peaks of the hydrocarbon particles that settle on them, he added. Tomasko described the scenes showing lighter colors on the mountain tops and darker colors in the drainage areas as "an Earth-like process, if you like, but with very exotic materials."

Surface temperatures on Titan were measured at -179 degrees Celsius (94 degrees Kelvin or -290 degrees Fahrenheit), which is about what scientists had expected. Little sunlit penetrates the dense hydrocarbon atmosphere, a fact that was only partly offset by Huygens' 20-watt lamp, which enabled the probe to deliver relatively clear pictures even on the surface. Tomasko described the process as "taking pictures of an asphalt parking lot at dusk."

Awesome stuff. Although I did laugh at "All we need is the money". It seems scientists have the same problem as artists even unto this day. :)

An Unkind Cut
Well, the White House obviously doesn't think much of the Hubble Telescope in the scheme of things:

WASHINGTON - The White House has eliminated funding for a mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope from its 2006 budget request and directed NASA to focus solely on de-orbiting the popular spacecraft at the end of its life, according to government and industry sources.

NASA is debating when and how to announce the change of plans. Sources told Space News that outgoing NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe likely will make the announcement Feb. 7 during the public presentation of the U.S. space agency's 2006 budget request.

That budget request, according to government and industry sources, will not include any money for Hubble servicing but will include some money for a mission to attach a propulsion module to Hubble needed to safely de-orbit the spacecraft with a controlled re-entry into the Pacific Ocean. NASA would not need to launch such a mission before the end of the decade to guide the massive telescope safely into the ocean.

Sources said O'Keefe received his marching orders on Hubble Jan. 13 during a meeting with White House officials to finalize the agency's 2006 budget request. With both robotic and shuttle-based servicing options expected to cost well in excess of $1 billion, sources said, NASA was told it simply could not afford to save Hubble given everything else NASA has on its agenda, including preparing the shuttle fleet to fly again.

NASA has not yet informed key congressional committees with jurisdiction over the space agency. But congressional sources told Space News they had been hearing since late last week that significant changes were afoot for Hubble.

These same sources, however, said they had not ruled out that the White House and NASA might be canceling the Hubble servicing mission as the opening gambit in the annual struggle that goes on every budget year, fully expecting that Congress will add money to the agency's budget over the course of the year to pay for a mission that has strong public support.

Regardless of NASA's intent, one Senate source predicted that the decision would go over like a lead balloon for many lawmakers. A House source concurred. It's going to really upset the Hubble crowd and that includes some members of Congress, the House source said.

In December, after the National Academy of Sciences issued a report calling on NASA to reinstate a space shuttle mission to refurbish Hubble, Congress followed up by directing NASA to spend $291 million this year preparing for some type of Hubble Servicing mission. NASA's initial operating plan for 2005, sent to Congress late last year for its review, only set aside $175 million of that amount for Hubble, with the rest of the money allocated to other agency priorities:
Recommended
Hubble Repair Mission Gets Measured Response from Congress

Report:
NASA Should Use Space Shuttle to Service Hubble

Experts
Calculate Risk of Uncontrolled Hubble Re-entry


Uh-huh. So let's not blame Bush for this for a moment, while it would be easy as hitting the side of the barn. The money simply ain't there for everything. Fair enough. One could argue the money would be there if it weren't for the war in Iraq, but let's just skip Bush and all that palaver for a moment.

NASA is saying, given the choice, it's the shuttle fleet and not Hubble; even though there are cheap options available to fix Hubble; a Canadian company has already won the tender; and the cost of said mission is less than a shuttle flight. Why can't they push one shuttle flight back into the next financial year and keep the Hubble Telescope?
What's the big rush to get the shuttle up at th cost of Hubble?
It's this kind of prioritisation for which NASA draws fire.

- Art Neuro

2005/01/23

For Your Amusement...
From the AP, we find that Arnie hasn't made himself popular back in his Fatherland Austria with his governorship of California. Here's a report from the AP. To quote in full:

By WILLIAM J. KOLE, Associated Press Writer
VIENNA, Austria -
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger should be stripped of citizenship in his native Austria for approving the execution of a convicted killer, a leading Austrian politician said Saturday.

The demand, by a top official from the environmentalist Green Party, had little chance for success, but it underscores how Schwarzenegger has lost popularity in his homeland over his support for the death penalty. Most Austrians — and many other Europeans — abhor capital punishment as cruel and inhumane.

Peter Pilz said Schwarzenegger broke the law in Austria — where capital punishment is illegal — and is no longer worthy of citizenship because he allowed the execution of Donald Beardslee's execution to go ahead last week. "Schwarzenegger is possibly the most prominent Austrian abroad, and he shapes the picture of Austria," Pilz said. "I don't want that picture shaped by someone who commits state murder. That does not correspond to the political culture of this country."

Pilz told Austrian media he sent the Interior Ministry a letter formally requesting that the government begin the process of terminating Schwarzenegger's citizenship.
Calls to the Interior Ministry seeking comment went unanswered Saturday. It appeared unlikely that the Greens, a leftist opposition party which holds just a handful of seats in parliament, would persuade Austria's conservative government to revoke Schwarzenegger's citizenship.

Rarely, if ever, has Austria taken the extraordinary step of stripping someone of citizenship. Not even Kurt Waldheim, the former Austrian president and U.N. secretary-general linked to Nazi war crimes, had his citizenship revoked. Pilz insists there are sufficient legal grounds to strip Schwarzenegger of his citizenship: specifically, a clause in Austria's nationality law stipulating that citizenship can be revoked if an Austrian "in the service of another country substantially damages the interests or reputation of the republic by his or her behavior."

"Capital punishment is unacceptable in Austria and in Europe, and no Austrian citizen may take part in it or arrange it," he said. Beardslee, 61, convicted of killing two women over a drug deal almost a quarter-century ago, became the first inmate put to death by California in three years when he was given a lethal injection at San Quentin State Prison on Wednesday.

The execution came hours after Schwarzenegger rejected a clemency petition seeking to commute the death sentence to life without parole, and the California Supreme Court rejected two last-minute appeals. In Vienna, it triggered a small but spirited protest outside the U.S. Embassy.

The death penalty has eroded Austrians' affection for the local bodybuilder who emigrated to the United States and made it big. In a straw vote held earlier in the week in the western province of Upper Austria, fewer than 25 percent said they considered Schwarzenegger fit to run the province.

It was a stark difference from six months ago, when Austria's post office giddily issued a new "Arnie" stamp and Austrian newspaper commentators urged Americans to amend the constitution to let foreign-born citizens like Schwarzenegger run for president.

Pilz's Green Party has been especially riled by the governor's pro-death penalty stance. In the southern city of Graz, near Schwarzenegger's birthplace, the Greens have led a drive to rename Schwarzenegger Stadium, a 15,350-seat soccer venue.

Schwarzenegger was born in 1947 in the village of Thal just outside Graz, where he began his bodybuilding career. He emigrated to the United States in 1968 and became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1984, but has retained his Austrian citizenship.


You gotta laugh. I love the bit that some Austrian is claiming with a straight face that it's not in their political culture to kill people. Then why did the Von Trapps have to traipse across the Alps?
(irony alert!) From the strident tone you'd think that Arnie started a concentration death camp to exterminate rapists and murderers. :)

- Art Neuro

2005/01/21

Cretaceous Duck
The old big bang theory of animal evolution pegged the appearance of birds at the end of the Cretaceous. That is to say, the 'new' animals such as birds and mammals were able to evolve into great diversity only after the dinoaurs had their big death. A new fossil from the Creatceous is contesting that classic theory.

The partial skeleton, found on Vega Island, western Antarctica, in 1992, is clearly a waterfowl and is "most closely related to Anatidae," a bird classification which includes modern ducks, they say.

That requires a rethink of the "big bang" bird theory, for it implies that the forerunners of modern ducks, chickens, ostriches and emus were around during the Cretaceous, authors say in a study published on Thursday in Nature, the weekly British journal.

"At least duck, chicken and ratite bird relatives were co-extant with non-avian dinosaurs," the authors believe. The find has been baptized Vegavis iaii. The first word is an amalgam of Vega and avis, the Latin for bird, while iaii is taken from the initials for the Argentine Antarctica Institute (IAA) whose members collected the specimen.


If Bugs and Duffy ever want to dispute whether Rabbit seaosn or Duck season came first, Daffy would have a better case.
Talk about an early peak for the peeking duck... b'boom.

Global Warming Redux (re-ducks?)
While it seems rather neurotic to worry about th end of the world that won't happen in one's own lifetime, it is clearly un-sentient of a species not to consider the previous deaths of earlier species. Especially a Great Death that befell the mighty dinosaurs. So in the spirit, here's an article claiming that it wasn't an asteroid hit, it was global warming that did it.

There has been recent evidence that a big asteroid or meteor hit the Earth and triggered the catastrophe, but researchers say they now have evidence that something much more long-term -- global warming -- was the culprit.

Kliti Grice of Curtin University of Technology in Perth, Australia, and colleagues studied sediment cores drilled off the coasts of Australia and China and found evidence the ocean was lacking oxygen and full of sulfur-loving bacteria at that time.
This finding would be consistent with an atmosphere low in oxygen and poisoned by hot, sulfurous, volcanic emissions, they wrote in a report published in the journal Science.

A second team led by Peter Ward at the University of Washington looked at fossil evidence in South Africa and found little evidence of a catastrophe and instead signs of a gradual die-off. They examined 126 reptile and amphibian skulls from the Karoo Basin in South Africa, where there is an exposed piece of dried sediment from the end of the Permian Era and the beginning of the Triassic, 250 million years ago.

They found two patterns, one showing gradual extinction over about 10 million years leading up to the time of the extinction, and then a spike in extinction rates that lasted another 5 million years, Ward's team reported.

"Animals and plants both on land and in the sea were dying at the same time, and apparently from the same causes -- too much heat and too little oxygen," Ward said in a statement. Ward also believes mass volcanic eruptions may have pumped greenhouse gases into the air, which would have trapped heat in the atmosphere
and raised temperatures.

"I think temperatures rose to a critical point. It got hotter and hotter until it reached a critical point and everything died," Ward said. "It was a double-whammy of warmer temperatures and low oxygen, and most life couldn't deal with it."

But ducks could. Go mighty ducks.

- Art Neuro
Making A Comeback
In a time when there is much gloom about the ecology of this planet, here's a bit of good news fluff piece about conservation efforts in China.

The number of giant pandas, one of the world's most endangered species, increased by 40 percent to 1,596 over the number recorded before 2000, Zhou said, referring to the latest SFA survey. The number of crested ibis, a bird related to the heron of which there were only seven known in the world at one point, had leapt to 740, said Lei Jiafu, SFA's deputy director.

Thanks to protective efforts, the number of Eld's deer, found only in south China's Hainan island, also rose to 1,600 last year from just 26 in 1975, China Daily said. Ecosystem protection programs have also helped to replenish China's flora. Of China's 189 rare and extremely endangered species of wild plants, 71 percent have been stabilized, Zhou said.

Arborvitae, an endangered species of plant which has tailed off for more than 100 years, has been rediscovered in the remote Daba Mountains in southwest China's Chongqing municipality. So far, forestry authorities have put the distribution areas of 130 wild plants and the habitats for more than 300 wild animals under protection, according to statistics released by the SFA, the paper said.

So for those worried that it was all downslope into extinction, some of the endangered species' population numbers have stabilised.

Don't Get Too Excited Now, Buddy
A man robbed a sex shop for an inflatable doll and a leather outfit.
From AP in MIlan:

Police are searching for a pistol-wielding robber who stole female leather bondage gear and an inflatable sex doll from an erotica store in Milan Wednesday.

The clerk at the "Night Shop" speculated that the kinky crook might have been unsatisfied with the payout of his hold-up, which only yielded him about 60 euros ($78).

"There was just a little cash," the clerk, who declined to be named, told Reuters by telephone. "Then he took some stuff ... an inflatable doll and a leather outfit for a woman," he said.

In one of the early episodes of 'The Office', the character Tim gets a plastic inflatable penis for his 30th birthday, much to the mirth of his office co-workers. "Oh great, a platsic inflatable penis, just what I wanted," moans Tim.
He is asked, "Would you have preferred to have just gotten some money" he replies, "Oh no, I would've just blown the money on a plastic inflatable penis anyway."
I don't know what it is with inflatable sex toys that make for such good comedy.

- Art Neuro
Brown Dwarf
Measuring Brown Dwarfs have given rise to questions about these failed stars and planet discoveries.

The brown dwarf is named AB Dor C. It orbits the star AB Doradus A (also called AB Dor A) at a little more than twice the distance between the Earth and the Sun. Brown dwarfs, especially when they are young, give off heat, which can be detected as infrared radiation. But AB Dor C is 120 times fainter than its host star even in the near-infrared. Close and his European colleagues developed a high-contrast camera on the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope in Chile. The setup uses adaptive optics, which corrects for the blurring effects of Earth's atmosphere to sift through the glare of the main star.

The companion's exact location, along with the star's known wobble, were used to accurately determine the brown dwarf's mass, said team member Jose Guirado of the University of Valencia in Spain.

"Theory predicts that this low-mass, cool object would be about 50 Jupiter masses," Close said. "But theory is incorrect: This object is between 88-98 Jupiter masses. This discovery will force astronomers to rethink what masses of the smallest objects produced in nature really are."

Though just a single observation, the result could have "wide potential ramifications" if other studies yield similar findings, said I. Neill Reid, an astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore.

"The supposed objects of 1-2 Jupiter masses might in fact exceed 15-20 Jupiter masses," said Reid, who wrote an analysis of the finding for the journal.


Makes yer think, don't it? :)

Chew It
Speaking of Failed Stars... What is it about Leyton Hewitt that inspires so little love? Is he Australia's least favourite Tennis star? Could it be possible that he is liked even less than Mark Phillippoussis? It's probably because he does shit like this.

At 7-7, and having already saved a set point, Hewitt produced a superb volleyed lob that left Blake stranded at the net, a shot so perfectly executed the American could merely stand paralysed and clap his hand on his racquet. And there Blake stayed, standing and clapping for what seemed like minutes, waiting for Hewitt to respond - to put up a hand, flash a smile or simply acknowledge he was part of a great match with a worthy opponent.

But Hewitt had already turned his back and was engaged in his traditional fist waving, heart-thumping orgy of self-congratulation. He turned not to Blake but to the salivating Fanatics occupying the 14 seats Hewitt had provided for them. And so an instant when two athletes could have acknowledged each other's contribution to a special moment became another piece of cheap, jingoistic theatre.


Australian tennis might be 50 years behind according to Pat Cash, but I thought that might have been a good thing when it came to sportsmanship. The above description is just embarrrassing. Not that such moments really amount to much in the record books, but it's just awful to know that people witnesed it. You wouldn't want your kids behaving like that in any sport.

- Art Neuro

2005/01/20

Mars Rover Finds Meteorite
It's been confirmed, it's a meteroite.

Initial looks at the rock stirred considerable speculation that the object could
be a meteorite - speculation now confirmed. Opportunity's Mini-Thermal Emission Spectrometer (Mini-TES) was suggestive that the find was metal in nature.

Last week, Squyres took a wait-and-see mode, eagerly awaiting tell-tale data recorded by Opportunity to be transmitted to Earth last weekend. The rover's Mssbauer Spectrometer was moved into position over the suspect meteorite, to determine the composition and abundance of iron-bearing minerals.

Earlier last week, Laurie Leshin, Director of the Center for Meteorite Studies at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona was tempted by the images to conclude that the object was, indeed, a meteorite.


Took long enough. :)

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter a.k.a. 'Mr. O'
Here's the next stage of Mars observation.

Less than two years from now, MRO is tasked to start a series of global mapping, regional survey and targeted observations from a near-polar, low-altitude Mars orbit. It will fly closer to the martian surface than any other orbiter has ever gone. MRO is equipped with six primary instruments: the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment, Context Camera, Mars Color Imager, Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars, Mars Climate Sounder and Shallow Radar. The orbiter will also carry a telecommunications relay package and two engineering demonstrations.

The road to Mars for MRO has not been without difficulty. "The development of the instrumentsthey are all state-of-the-art," Graf said. "They are brand new instruments. So that has been one of the biggest challenges."

Graf said that MRO is an unprecedented workhorse of a spacecraft. Given its memory storage and computer smarts, as well as the probe's telecommunications package and power capability, "it's the cornerstone of the future Mars program," he said. MRO carries a large set of solar arrays and a huge high gain antenna. "It's wonderful isn't it," Graf said, pointing to the dish antenna that measures some 10 feet (3 meters) in diameter -- hardware that will enable the craft to pump out enormous streams of information back to Earth from Mars orbit.

"We're going to be awash in data. There's no doubt about it," Graf added. "Let's get intensestart an investigation of the planet in a mode that's entirely different than anything we've done before."


It's all good news.

- Art Neuro

2005/01/18

Randy Johnson on The Letterman Show
Couple of great jokes. One saying Carlos Beltran got 119million dollars from the Mets and gets to sit out Octobers.

NEW YORK -- Randy Johnson wrapped up his tumultous two-day introduction as a Yankee -- and to New York City -- by visiting with the quintessential New Yorker on Tuesday night. And he indeed was admonished by David Letterman. Not for giving his big right hand and some lip to a local cameraman in a Monday morning incident -- but for apologizing for the altercation.

"(Johnson) has to do three things," the host of "Late Show with David Letterman" said during his opening monologue. "Win as many games as he can, sign autographs and visit kids in the hospital. "That's all. Just because some clown thinks, 'Oh, here's a baseball player, I'm going to climb on his shoulder and take his picture.' ... he shouldn't have to apologize."


Gets better...

Invariably, Letterman brought their conversation back to the incident with
the cameraman. "You made the mistake of sticking your face out of your hotel," the host said.

"Coming from the small markets where I've played, like Montreal, Seattle and Arizona, I'm not used to photographers jumping out of the bushes," Johnson said. "I was wrong."

"Please!" Letterman protested. "You didn't do anything wrong. That guy should apologize to you."

Letterman, who continued to refer to the cameraman in question in quite unflattering terms, gradually wore away at Johnson's contrition, eventually eliciting a wide smile from him.

"OK," Johnson finally relented, "I didn't do anything wrong."

"Do me a favor," Letterman said at the end of the pitcher's stint. "Call me before you apologize to anyone again."


Way to go David Letterman! Welcome to the Yankees Universe, Randy Johnson.

- Art Neuro
Redundancy Report on the Huygens Probe
The Huygens report temporarily lost contact with the Cassini probe, thanks to a 'glitch' in the ESA's programming.

"It was an ESA responsibility," ESA Science Director said at Huygens mission control here. "We should have redundancy at all levels [of the mission], including the ability to send commands."

The communications failure occurred on Cassini, not Huygens, and was caused by an error "as simple as throwing a switch to, 'On.' We did not set the Cassini software to 'On' and it's our fault," said Jacques Louet, head of science projects at ESA. "Space does not forgive stupid mistakes, and we made a stupid mistake. I take full responsibility."

Louet said a Huygens Mission Operations Plan sent by ESA to Cassini managers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory contained improperly written and confusing information. "JPL executed the instructions we gave them," Louet said. "One lesson we hopefully will draw from this is that you need independent reviews of all systems. It's a classic example of the most-simple things escaping review because they are simple."


That must have been embarrassing.

Putting SETI Back On The Adult's Table
Okay, I confess, I snicker at the thought of a career spent trying to listen into aliens exchanging joke emails. But thatis obviously reductio ad absurdum. Here's an article saying that perhaps it's not as dumb as we thought.

"The dismissal has several causes, all reinforcing each other," Haisch responded. "Most of the observations are probably misinterpretations, delusions and hoaxes. I have seen people get confused by Venus or even Sirius when it is flashing colors low in the sky under the right conditions. Having been turned off by this, most scientists never bother to look any further, and so are simply blissfully ignorant that there may be more to it," he said.

Deardorff, the lead author of the JBIS article, points out in a press statement: "It would take some humility for the scientific community to suspend its judgment and take at least some of the high quality reports seriously enough to investigatebut I hope we can bring ourselves to do that."

According to Haisch, there is a motivation not just for scientific tolerance of the UFO issue, but a strong scientific prediction that there ought to be some genuine ET signature in the data. "This potentially changes the relationship of the UFO phenomenon to science in a significant way. It takes away the 'not invented here' prejudice, pointing out that a 'yes' to ET visitation is exactly what side our current physics and astrophysics theories would come down on as the most likely situation," Haisch concluded.


Well, it may be worth re-considering the case for SETI as being the most important project of them all. I for one can see that on the day SETI strikes gold, the dividends would be enormous.

- Art Neuro
Ian Chandler (1942-2004 ), Artist
Last week I spoke to one of my best buddies from my film school days, production designer Brett Chandler. I used to play tennis regularly with Brett until he moved back to Adelaide where he grew up. I've met all his family and I really miss having him, his wife and kids in Sydney.

It turns out that his father, and artist Ian Chandler passed away in November last year. While Brett is a very calm, level-headed man, it did come over the phone to me that he only found the energy to call me about it once he had somehow managed to process some of his enormous grief.

Mr. Ian Chandler was felled by cancer. According to Brett, he went in for a check up for something else and it was only then that it was discovered that he had advanced cancer of the pancreas. Given only months to live, Mr. Chandler brought forward the date of his final exhibition and managed to complete his final painting for the event. In a way, as Brett told it, he went out having completed his work.

I've met the late Mr. Chandler a couple of times and On the occasions I met Mr. Chandler he was a bon vivant, with a impish wit. He played tennis with us, and he was an elegant hitter of the ball, replete with the classic Australian technique; reminiscent of Ken Rosewall and Lew Hoad and those kinds of hitters of the ball. No top-spin forehands or backhands; a seasoned grasscourt player with beautifully sliced backhands executed with bent knee, and right-angled wrist. We talked a fair bit about hitting techniques and how they changed with the advent of composite-material racquets. In my recollection, I think we talked about Jazz and fusion music as well when we went out to a Japanese restaurant in Crows Nest.

Brett used to tell me about his work methods which sounded like something that crossed Nick Nolte's wild-man act in 'New York Stories' with the minutiae-obsession of a dental surgeon. I was always interested in the large scale works he undertook, but never got around to seeing even one of them, much to my shame and embarrassment.

In fact I never really managed to discuss art or the creative process with him either. It always seemed to me that it would happen at some future date where by I would visit Adelaide and as I caught up with Brett and his family, that maybe the discussion would turn to such interesting waters. No such luck, and the lesson to be learnt is that you really shouldn't leave to tomorrow what you can do today.

Since the news I've been thinking about it quite a bit, trawling the internet for what I could find about his work and its place in Australian art and reflecting on the brief points of encounter and the (in retrospect) rather mundane conversation we had; and in wish I had a more profound interaction with the man.

NEITHER IAN CHANDLER nor his art school contemporaries in the early 1960s could have foreseen the way his art would unfold over the subsequent 40 years of studio work. For a brief time, it looked as though Chandler (along with other hard-edge, colour-shape artists working in Adelaide in the late-1960s) would always be gliding down the face of a glassy style-wave which never looked like breaking.

But about the early 1970s, everything bottomed out. In a politicised art world in the aftermath of the Vietnam War, painting as a privileged art form lost traction. This was particularly evident within small art communities such as Adelaide, where studio painters became marginalised by the relocation of alternative forms of art practice, such as performance, photography and video, into the hot zone of social relevance.

Chandler however, against the run of play, just kept stretching another canvas and
applying the paint. But the resonances of this volatile period saw changes emerge within his art; first the introduction of more natural elements, sourced from the Australian (Adelaide Hills) bush.

When historians write about SA painting in, say, 30 years’ time, I imagine it will be Chandler’s canvases of the 1990s, and into the new millennium, which will be singled out. Here lies the heartland of Chandlers’ art, a passionate commitment to both social concerns and to painting. In this sense his art has always been at once surface and symbol.

This most recent body of works sustained these high energy levels but the thematic location, in Turkey, somehow anchored this body of work in deeper, silent waters. There was an elegiac note of introspection and repose in images dominated by trademark Chandler logos, in this instance calligraphic monograms and, in one work, a prayer rug.

One senses that at one level, Chandler’s art which began as a journey into minimalist meta space has begun to turn slowly back to this source, symbolised perhaps by the Long Slow Simmer, as a work title suggests of a traditional Tajine, issuing billowing clouds of rhythmical lines across a richly decorated field.

The introduction also of what appears to be an ancient, carved figurine as repeat motif had the effect of connecting, or perhaps re-connecting Chandler’s iconography with an almost forgotten genre of post-war British art (as exemplified by Henry Moore and others) which, in a previous era of global uncertainty and existential angst, called upon mysteries of ritual and form to somehow speak for a common humanity and future.


He is sorely, sorely missed; not just by his immediate family and friends.

- Art Neuro

2005/01/17

More News From Titan
More images are being beamed back from Titan. Naturally, the excitement in the scientific community is palpable.

"The closest analogues are wet sand or clay," said John Zarnecki, in charge of instruments analyzing Titan's surface. Scientists at the European Space
Agency were clearly excited about the success of the mission, which had confirmed some long-held theories and produced startling surprises.

"I have to say I was blown away by what I saw," lead scientist David Southwood said at the agency's headquarters in Darmstadt. "It was an extraordinary experience to look at some of the stuff."

Images taken on descent, from about 12 miles right down to the surface, suggest the presence of liquid, possibly flowing through channels or washing over larger areas, said Marty Tomasko of the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory at the University of Arizona in Tucson.

"It is almost impossible to resist speculating that the flat, dark material is some kind of drainage channel, that we are seeing some kind of a shoreline. We don't know if it still has liquid in it."

A thick layer of cloud or fog that obscures the planet was found to be hanging at about 12 miles from the surface, but absent closer to the ground. The clouds are most likely methane and dark areas on the surface are "a reservoir" of liquid methane, said project scientist Shushiel Atreya. A boom mike extended from the 705-pound Huygens probe has captured a loud, rushing sound. Mission scientists did not immediately say what it might mean, but instruments on the probe have detected winds of about 15 mph.

Titan is the first moon other than the Earth's to be explored. Scientists believe its atmosphere may be similar to that of the primordial Earth and studying it could provide clues to how life began on our planet.


Other than that, it was just nother regular day on Planet Earth. :)

Fertility Goddesses
Two bits of news sspring out today. One is about a women's group in the USA trying to organise for easier access to the notorious 'Morning After Pill' a.k.a. RU-468.
Supporters argue that easier access to Plan B would reduce the number of
abortions by helping more women get the pills in time. Opponents counter that
easier availability would promote promiscuity and sexually transmitted diseases,
particularly among teen-agers.

I don't want to sound like a prude, but by the time you need the MA pill, isn't it already an abortion? And if there was yet another way to have an abortion, how much sexier do you feel tonight? Can't say I believe either side of the argument is arguing a sensible line. Clearly, the pill has its uses; clearly it has its abuses. It ain't the pills fault, so regulation is a must. The ultimate form of regulation is to ban it (which I'm not against) but if abother country legalises it, then the demand for it will simply shift to that nation. Then the USA must apply pressure on the other nations not to legalise it... which is essentially the history of heroin.
However, that is another discussion.

I'll leave my two cents at this: as long as it has been invented, somebody will try to get use-value out of it, somewhere alng the way. Why not regulate it and keep it in sight, rather than push it underground and make it open to abuse?

Meanwhile, there's this lady giving birth at 66.

Adriana Iliescu, a university professor and author of children's books, had been pregnant with twin girls. One died in the womb and doctors decided to perform a cesarean section in the 33rd week of pregnancy to save the other.

"We wanted to wait until the 34th week of pregnancy, when the children's lungs would have reached full maturity, but we noticed Saturday that the heart of one of the little girls had stopped beating," Dr. Bogdan Marinescu, chief of the Giulesti maternity hospital in Bucharest, told a news conference.

"We decided to proceed with the operation to save the second girl," Marinescu added. Marinescu said both the mother and the child, who weighs 3.1 pounds and whose name is Eliza-Maria, were in stable condition but the little girl would have to spend up to six weeks in hospital to reach two kg in weight. Iliescu, who will be 67 in May, became pregnant via in vitro fertilization and doctors said this was her third attempt at carrying a pregnancy to term.

He said the eggs and sperm used had come from "healthy young people." "From a biological point of view, Ms Iliescu proved that she can carry a pregnancy to the end," Marinescu said. "We managed to solve a case which made us all very nervous."

I bet.
Of course the quesiton that begs to be answered why, at 66 would you do this? When the Girl is ready to go to Highschool the mother will be 80. Is she g0ing to be up to combating her teenage daughter in her 80s? What is she thinking? Can't say I support that quest in any way.

So there you go, some people progressive folks want to have more, easier means to terminate pregnancies while other progressive people want to have a baby so bad, they'll try pregnancy at 66.

- Art Neuro

2005/01/16

Friends Abroad
I have avoided making any remarks about the recent Tsunami mainly because I had a substantial number of good friends old and new, in the parts of the world affected by the recent tragedy. In fact, one of them was missing until yesterday and I didn't get confirmation of his safety until this morning.

It seemed a little too glib and irresponsible to comment on what is a momentous tragedy of historic proportions. The only reason I am saying anything about it is because I guess I can happily report that my extended circle that was affected by it were all safe.

Some of my friends who were in India were clearly safe as they were either on the *wrong* (Western) coast, or were sufficiently inland. However, 'Key Psycho' sound man Terry P was scheduled to be in Phuket at the time the tsunami hit and had the rest of us in the cast and crew worried witless until today. It's great to hear he and his girlfriend are alive and well and happened to be far away on that day the tsunami hit.

Anyway, I just want to report everybody in my circle involved at the time, are safe and sound. Thank you to everybody who gave emotional support the last few weeks.

- Art Neuro

2005/01/15


Surface of Titan
There was much speculation as to what kind of landing surface would be there on Titan, but it seems they've landed on solid ground. I'm sure there will be more pictures to come in the following weeks that surveys the area, but for now it seems they landed squarely on solid ground. Excitement mounts!
- Art Neuro

Approach To Titan
The deep cuts in the landscape suggest some kind of fluid movement, according to the ESA.
- Art Neuro
Huygens Probe Arrives
After all the hoopla, the Probe has landed on Titan.
Pictures will be up shortly.

"It challenges all our preconceptions that all these planets are static places. Seeing a planet emerge that has dynamics and complexity to it is just amazing," he added.

Huygens was spun off from the Cassini mother ship on Dec. 24 before its descent by parachute to the surface of Titan on Friday, capping a seven-year journey. "I'm shocked. It's remarkable," said Carolyn Porco, of the Cassini Imaging Center. "There are river channels. There are channels cut by something ... a fluid of some sort is my best guess."

"This mission has been like a fantasy come true," she told CNN. "It's a great moment not only for science but for humankind."

David Southwood, the European Space Agency's science director, announced earlier that the probe had relayed scientific data — expected to include pictures and atmospheric measurements — to the mother ship and the information had been transmitted back to Earth.

Applause erupted at mission control in Darmstadt in western Germany at news of the data transmission. The data are expected to shed light on what Titan's atmosphere and surface are made of — and possibly on the origins of life on Earth.


It's all excellent except of course some guy out there is going to complain that the probe has an ALP bias in its findings on Titan and therefore the data is corrupt and is therefore not to be trusted. :)

- Art Neuro

2005/01/14

About Frickin' Time
The MLB and MLBPA finally agreed on 'tougher measures' against steroid abuse.

A first positive test would result in a penalty of 10 days, a second positive test in a 30-day ban, a third positive in a 60-day penalty, and a fourth positive test in a one-year ban — all without pay. A player who tests positive a fifth time would be subject to discipline determined by the commissioner.

"It's more for our protection than anything else," Boston pitcher Tim Wakefield said.
Under the previous agreement, a first positive test resulted only in treatment, and a second positive test was subject to a 15-day suspension. Only with a fifth positive test would a player subject to a one-year ban.

No player was suspended for steroid use in 2004, the first season of testing with penalties. "We're acting today to help restore the confidence of our fans," Selig said.


I know it's not much and hardly the sort of tough measures you'd expect. Heck, Shane Warne copped it tougher for his diuretic faux pas.
However it's a start. Give people credit where it's due.

Bud Selig is not a popular man, but I understand he has been pretty serious about such measures since long before the 1994 strike. I give him full credit for that alone. I think he is much maligned and I think that in spite of the massive issues of conflicting interest, he should be remembered for the first step in stopping steroid abuse in the Major Leagues.

LA Moneyball Confidential
At the beginning of 2004, Paul DePodesta (who featured heavily in 'Moneyball') was hired by Frank McCourt to GM that fabled franchise. A year later, the LA Dodgers are retooling for their 2005 campaign; much in the manner one would expect from Paul DePodesta, which seems to rub sports journalists the wrong way.

The last Dodger lineup that won a game — on Oct. 9 — hit 161 home runs in the regular season. Forty-eight of them came from Beltre (they screwed up). The next Dodger lineup — coming April 5 — hit 147 home runs last season, assuming Choi at first base and David Ross at catcher. Or, in strict "Moneyball" terms, the new lineup drew 432 walks to the old one's 403. Stricter still, the average player's on-base plus slugging percentage in October's lineup was .774, against April player's .791. We have no idea what that means for April 5 against the San Francisco Giants, other than that none of it will replace Beltre, standing on one good ankle, carrying everybody on the barrel of his bat.

So, it cost the Dodgers Beltre. In some ninth inning in the near future, it will cost Jim Tracy his defensive replacement and, perhaps, Eric Gagne a save. It cost Shawn Green, a wonderful, caring guy not worth $16 million, but whose contract brought Lowe.

In the moments before he'd leave for the owners' meetings in Phoenix on Wednesday, McCourt stood for photos with Lowe, then slowly walked a high-ceilinged corridor to the left-field corner. In their first full off-season together, his general manager had overhauled the 25-man roster, primped the farm system and bargained to the final nickel with the manager and his coaching staff. And McCourt had raised ticket prices for the best seats, started construction on better seats, and stood against the squall as first Beltre and then Green departed.


I remember the 1977-1979 Dodgers who were built on their deep farm system; something that as a young Yankee fan, I secretly envied. I wanted to be able to say, "yeah, our guys came up through the farm system too." It took until the 1995-2000 Yankee to be able to say that stuff.
"You think Derek Jeter is something? Well, he's homegrown too!"
It's way cool to be able to say that stuff. Couldn't say that about Catfish Hunter or Reggie Jackson.

Some of DePodesta's moves have obviously not been popular with their long-time fans in LA. The Dodgers have a deep farm system, with a very intelligent, astute man running trades and roster management. I do think that the Dodgers are likely to emerge as the NL West powerhouse in years to come.

- Art Neuro
Opportunity Rocks
Mars Rover Opportunity has stumbled across something interesting. It may even be a meteorite sitting there in the open.

Opportunity has been busy at work inspecting entry debris -- hardware that fell to Mars during the robot's entry, descent, and landing over a year ago.

Not too distant from the debris field, the odd-looking rock sits alone atop the sandy terrain. Squyres cautioned that it is too early to identify the rock as a meteorite.

The next step by rover scientists is to carefully examine the object with Opportunity's Instrument Deployment Device, or IDD. This robot arm is tipped with scientific instruments.

Once extended out to the object, the arm-mounted devices can study the object's structure in great detail. The instruments on the IDD are the Microscopic Imager, the Mssbauer Spectrometer, the Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer, and a Rock Abrasion Tool.


Of course it might be a black monolith left by an ancient star-faring civilization... but most probably not. :)

- Art Neuro

2005/01/12

Deep Impact Project Update
It was reported some months ago that they were going to slam some probes into a comet.

Deep Impact is currently scheduled for a 1:47 p.m. EST (1847 GMT) liftoff from Launch Pad 17B at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. If all goes well, the mission's two spacecraft will tag team Comet Tempel 1 on July 4, with Impactor set to slam into the icy wanderer while Flyby looks on.

Built for NASA by Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp., Deep Impact is designed to give researchers their first glimpse of the inner workings of a comet. By crashing Impactor into Tempel 1, thought to be a rather typical example of comets, researchers hope to glimpse pristine material that have not changed since the formation of the solar system.

"The interesting part of this mission is that we don't really know what to expect," said Don Yeomans, a senior research scientist with the Deep Impact mission at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). "But no matter what happens, we'll observe the phenomena."


It's a bit more like Armageddon than Deep Impact, but what the heck.

Rising Water
For years we've been in denial about it but the Greenhouse Effect is kicking in as the sea level rises. This creates a few more problems for people living at sea level. So...

Leaders of 37 small island states meet in Mauritius this week to discuss an early warning system to protect against tsunamis and a creeping rise in ocean levels, blamed widely on global warming.

Rising sea levels, now about 0.08 inch a year, could swamp low-lying countries like Tuvalu in the Pacific or the Maldives in the Indian Ocean if temperatures keep rising. They could also lead to hugely expensive damage worldwide.

"It's often presented as a problem only for developing nations," said Mike MacCracken, chief scientist for climate change programs at the Climate Institute, a Washington think-tank. "(But) developed countries will be very much at risk because so much infrastructure is at sea level."

To read more, click here.

- Art Neuro

2005/01/11

Well, That Didn't Take Too Long
Randy Johnson, the private and surly man with a 98mph Slider was on his way to his physical check up with the Yankees when he had his first dust-up with the New York media.

``Get out of my face, that's all I ask,'' Johnson said, according to a video of what occurred, which was posted on the station's Web site. ``No cameras,'' Laveroni said.

``Don't get in my face,'' Johnson then said. ``I don't care who you are. Don't get in my face.''
``I'm just taking a picture,'' said the cameraman, identified by the station as Vinny Everett. Responded Johnson: ``Don't get in my face, and don't talk back to me, all right.''

This is most unfortunate, yet hilarious. I love the bit where he said, "don't talk back to me, all right."
All right. Just strike out 300+ guys again this year Randy, win the World Series and all is forgiven. :)

- Art Neuro

2005/01/09

Space and Music and Trek Don't Mix?
Think again. Here's a really cool interview with William Shatner who has recently released his first record in 36 years, his first since 'the Transformed Man'.
Check it out.
SHATNER: I’d sit down and write a thought that I’ve had or used in other writings or something that’s just occurred to me. I’ll give you two examples. I’ve been near people dying. Parents and loved ones have died in my lifetime. I’ve become fascinated and in the throes of the idea of death and what happens. But that’s too heavy to put into a musical thing. So, I wanted to do it in a lighter way and attempted to do that with “You’ll Have Time.” Another instance is when I was once on my way to Nashville and read a tabloid in an airplane and I see the term “has been” referring to me. I’ve always gone off on that term. It’s such a stupid thing used by these stupid people as a pejorative. The truth of the matter is somebody’s been somebody and like a flower, you spring out, flower and then ultimately, the petals fall off one way or another in some time or another. It happens to all living things. To call a flower a has been is as idiotic as calling a great artist who hasn’t done anything in the last while a has been. So, I went off on that and it became the title of the album.

I think Nichelle Nicholls described his autobiography as more a work that should be placed under 'science fiction'; 'The Transformed Man' has given rise to hours of mirth with my good friend Doc Musgrave. All the same, I think there's always been a serious artist in the man who played Captain James T. Kirk for all those years.

- Art Neuro
Well Of Course You'd Say That
Here's a report that says the astronauts are confident that the Space Shuttle is safe.

"There has been so much testing done that our confidence has gone way up," said Air Force Col. Eileen Collins, commander of the mission aboard Discovery. She noted that she and her crew have been "very, very heavily involved" in the day-to-day flight preparations and decision-making.

"I am confident enough that we're not going to have a hole the size of what Columbia had" because of improvements to the fuel tank to prevent foam shedding, she said. "If that does happen, we will know it. In fact, if we have a very small hole or a very small crack, we'll know that, too, and if that happens, we have the potential repair
techniques."

The seven astronauts will also have the international space station as a haven, if their shuttle is damaged beyond repair by fuel-tank debris. Collins, the only woman to command a space shuttle flight, said: "It's time for us to go fly."


I pray she is right when she says they have repair techniques. The failrue to repair is another seven dead astronauts.

Bush Plan To Boost Private Space Industry
I know some people think we are critical of the current Bush presidency across all fronts. This is demonstrably not true. Bush has been very progressive when it comes to space policy, and while we have objections to some of the details in the plan, on the whole we see his presidency as being space-exploration friendly.

His administration is now seeking to increase commercial markets for the fledgling private space industry.

In a policy statement released on Thursday, the White House said a big decline in the market for commercial launches had weakened the U.S. space-transportation industry. Major changes were needed in the government's role to ensure America's access to space and protect vital security and economic interests.

"The U.S. government must capitalize on the entrepreneurial spirit of the U.S. private sector, which offers...opportunities to open new commercial markets, including public space travel," it said. The new policy comes only months after the
world's first privately funded manned spacecraft soared into space while the space shuttle program remains grounded after the Columbia disaster in 2003.

In the new policy, Bush directed the secretaries of Commerce and Transportation to "encourage, facilitate and promote" commercial space transportation including human space flight. The policy calls on the government to use American-made launch vehicles and other commercial services when possible and would limit the use of surplus military missiles in space launches. It would allow private companies to compete for government missions.


This seems totally appropriate given the current state of affairs. Tick!

- Art Neuro

2005/01/08

86 years, A World Series Win and... No Ball
Doug Mientkiewicz (meent-kay-vitch) was the defensive replacement first baseman who caught the ball for the final out of the 2004 World Series. he kept the ball as a souvenir. Now the Red Sox want it back. The situation is a little cloudier than simply, "it's our team you were on, give us the ball." You see, Doug Mientkiewicz played for only the last 3 months for the Red Sox and was stiffed out of playing as a regular; and he is now on the trading block. He might not feel well-disposed towards the Red Sox brass who have a nasty habit of making tense situations into full-blown exchanges of hostility.
It's a laugh.
It couldn't have happened to a better team. :)

Meanwhile, Randy Is Coming To New York, Carlos Beltran May not
After many months of trying, the Yankees finally got their man. Is this good? Yes. The question now is: why aren't they going for Carlos Beltran? It is only now that we're finding out that the Yankees had a limit after all. Yowza. Who'd a' thunk it?

- Art Neuro
The Great Argument
The Great Argument between Knowledge of Performance and Knowledge of Results has been the centrepiece of baseball scouting for some years now. As you know, anything to do with 'Moneyball' is of interest to this blog, so I think it prudent to bring to you a round table disucssion of people who make their living out of assessing respectively, KP and KR.
It's a very good article and I'd love to quote it all, but shouldn't. This bit is kind of funny:
ALAN SCHWARZ: One thing that Eddie and Gary, you might not be aware of, is that a few years ago Voros came up with something called Defense Independent Pitching Stats, which . . .
EDDIE BANE: Alan, you said, "You guys may not be aware." That's one of the things we're battling. We are aware. I read these guys' stuff all the time.
ALAN SCHWARZ: I said, "May not be aware." Gary, have you ever heard of DIPS?
GARY HUGHES: No.
ALAN SCHWARZ: OK then! (Laughter)
EDDIE BANE: But I'm going to read everything I can, and on top of that have Gary Hughes in the ballpark to see what the guy does. We're trying to dispel these things. It's not like when we're drafting we spit tobacco at the board, and whatever name we hit is the guy we take. I've read this stuff.
GARY HUGHES: Is that what DIPS is? Tobacco? (Laughter)
EDDIE BANE: But someone who works with Gary has read this stuff.
ALAN SCHWARZ: OK, but Gary hasn't, so just explain to it quickly for him and the people who will be reading this later, it's a method where, essentially, looking mainly at a pitcher's strikeouts, walks and home runs allowed per inning does a better job of predicting ERA than even ERA does. It's very counterintuitive to see that singles and doubles allowed don't matter a whole lot moving forward. This shook up the statistics community and has become pretty widespread among stat-minded major league
executives as they evaluate talent markets. I'm curious, Gary (Hughes), how do you form opinions on which major league pitchers you might want to pursue and which ones you won't?
GARY HUGHES: History--you've got a long, long list of times to evaluate this guy. The numbers are somewhat important. I think the longer history you have with seeing a guy, you solidify the feeling you have. The first time I see him I have a feeling, five years from now I'm going to have a different feeling. There are so many darned factors that go into it.
EDDIE BANE: I will have read this (statistics) stuff before I go

It's interesting how the scouts feel victimised by the rise of quantitative analysis, and yet the only thing they can ever go on is intuitive qualitative, subjective understanding of performance; and to their horror, this stuff is incredibly hard to articulate.

And then ther'es this bit:
EDDIE BANE: That doesn't surprise me, but I don't believe it. I won 15 games in Triple-A two years in a row. I won seven games total in the major leagues. The level of play is completely different. We weren't into DIPS in '73 but I led the league in ERA both years. I wasn't good enough to pitch in the major leagues. You get up there and you lose the confidence level. David Newhan bounced around, he finally got an opportunity to play, he's all right. But where was he going to play for the Anaheim Angels other than on the bench? When it comes to the stats, I want to know who he's playing against, where he's playing at and who's he's hitting these balls against. I want Moose Stubing to find Brendan Donnelly (in the minors) because of how he saw Brendan Donnelly throw, not because of the statistical edge he might have had.
VOROS McCRACKEN: His statistics were excellent.
GARY HUCKABAY: Donnelly and Newhan were people we were screaming about for years.
EDDIE BANE: But the thing I'd like to hear--I know you guys work for two clubs - but it's easy to bring up Newhan and Donnelly. Scream about someone who's going to do it next year, or that we should be on. Right now. Because I'd like to know. Write it down and give it to Alan, and we'll look at it a year from now.
VOROS McCRACKEN: It's funny, I can't say the guy's name, but someone was just claimed from your organization that I was very interested in.
EDDIE BANE: Steven Andrade by the (Blue Jays) organization--we'll see how
that works.
VOROS McCRACKEN: His stats are great stats. They're flat-out great stats. I've never even seen him pitch. And even if I had, I'm not a scout. I wouldn't know what to look for. All I know is he's got great stats that very few other relief pitchers in the minor leaguers have.

Steven Andrade, scouted out of Annaheim Angels by the Toronto Blue Jays. Book that name and we'll come back to in a year.

- Art Neuro

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