Ragg It

Paper makes the sounds. People make the music.

"Paper Music is the making of music from paper sound sources. That is: all the
sounds originate from paper. In its purest form, Paper Music does not attempt to
replicate the sounds of conventional musical instruments, but explores the
potential of paper as an accoustic medium."

http://www.papersonics.com/define.htm

A tranquil cloud on Mars

http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA09170

Extinct

"Extinct - Surveys suggest last known individual has died"

Marooning

Marooning is leaving someone behind on purpose in an uninhabited area, such as a uninhabited island. The word appears in writing approximately 1709, and is derived from maroon, a fugitive slave. It could be a corruption of Spanish cimarrón, meaning "wild". The practice was a penalty for crewmen, or for captains at the hands of a crew. A marooned man was set on a deserted island, often no more than a sand bar. He would be given some food, a container of water, and a loaded pistol so he could commit suicide if he desired. The outcome of marooning was usually fatal, but William Greenaway and some men loyal to him survived being marooned, as did pirate captain Edward England.

The chief practitioners of marooning were 17th and 18th century pirates, to such a degree that they were frequently referred to as "marooners." The pirate articles of captains Bartholomew Roberts and John Phillips specify marooning as a punishment for cheating one's fellow pirates or other offenses. In this context, to be marooned is euphemistically to be "made governor of an island," a phrase later popularized by the Disney movie trilogy Pirates of the Caribbean.

During the late 18th century in the American South, "marooning" took on a humorous additional meaning describing an extended camping-out picnic over a period of several days (Oxford English Dictionary).

http://www.artandpopularculture.com/Marooning

http://www.heritagepress.polperro.org/marooned.html

http://www.geocities.com/cptblood_1999/page17.html#Marooning

See also The Solitude of Alexander Selkirk:
http://www.damninteresting.com/?p=912

The bird mistook the plastics for food

http://www.mindfully.org/Plastic/Ocean/Moore-Trashed-PacificNov03.htm
http://www.mindfully.org/Plastic/Ocean/Moore-Trashed-PacificNov03a.jpg

"Bottle caps and other plastic objects are visible inside the decomposed carcass of this Laysan albatross on Kure Atoll, which lies in a remote and virtually uninhabited region of the North Pacific. The bird probably mistook the plastics for food and ingested them while foraging for prey."

W.G. Sebald

Austerlitz:
Only at Liverpool Street station, where he waited with me in MacDonald's until my train left, and after a casual remark about the glaring light which, so he said, allowed not a hint of a shadow and perpetuated the momentary terror of a lightning flash - only at Liverpool Street did he resume his story.

From "The Emergence of Memory, conversations with W. G. Sebald":
WGS: Well, yes, writing, as I said before ... you make something out of nothing. It is a con trick.
JC: But there seems to be quite a preoccupation with making what is written true.
WGS: That's the paradox. You have this string of lies, and by this detour you arrive at a form of truth which is more precise, one hopes, than something which is strictly provable. That's the challenge.

"I think how little we can hold in mind," he writes after a visit to a Belgian prison used by the Nazis, "how everything is constantly lapsing into oblivion with every extinguished life, how the world is, as it were, draining itself, in that the history of countless places and objects which themselves have no power of memory is never heard, never described or passed on."

I am reminded of Sebald's account of an experiment that intrigued him: "They put a rat in a cylinder that is full of water and the rat swims around for about a minute until it sees that it can't get out and then it dies of cardiac arrest," he told me. A second rat is placed in a similar cylinder, except that this cylinder has a ladder, which enables the rat to climb out. "Then, if you put this rat in another cylinder and don't offer him a ladder, it will keep swimming until it dies of exhaustion," he explained. "You're given something - a holiday to Tenerife or you meet a nice person - and so you carry on, even though it's quite hopeless. That may tell you everything you need to know."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._G._Sebald

The Back-Up

http://www.the-backup.com/buy/commercial.php

- What is The Back Up?
The Back Up is a rack that allows you to keep you shotgun or other defense weapon in easy reach. A number of people keeps their guns on a bed stand, under the bed, in the closet or standing in the corner. This is neither safe nor gives you easy access to your defensive tool when you really need it. Protection is effective only when it is easily available and easy to use. The Back Up unique patented design, gives you the quick and easy access to your protective device, while not getting in the way when getting in and out of bed.

- Why would I use back up with a shotgun rather than a handgun.
There are several reasons why a shotgun is better than a handgun.
A. For one it is safer for people in an adjoining room. You miss you shot with a handgun, the bullet goes though the wall. Since a shotgun using ?shot? which stop any intruder, but not penetrate completely through a wall.
B. A shotgun is visible and intimidating. You may be able to scare off an intruder without firing a shot.
C. A shot gun has a spread pattern. A handgun uses a single bullet. You are less like to miss your target with a shotgun when you are under the stress of a home intruder.

- I sleep on the right side of the bed. Can I use it there?
Because of the Back Ups unique patented design, you can adjust to fit on either side of the bed and place it where it is handy for you. If fact we suggest you have Back Ups on both sides of the bed.

http://www.home-backup-protection.com/buy/faq.php

Katrina

http://pdnedu.blogs.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/2007/08/27/nytmagnocovertm_4.jpg

Fallen Astronaut

"Fallen Astronaut is an 8.5cm (slightly over 3 inches) aluminium sculpture of an astronaut in a spacesuit. It is currently at Hadley Rille on the Moon, having been placed there by the crew of Apollo 15."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallen_Astronaut

Which so moved her judges that they acquitted her

From Phryné before the Areopagus:

Phryne (Φρύνη) was a famous hetaera (courtesan) of Ancient Greece (4th century BC) who adjusted her prices for customers depending upon how she felt about them emotionally. As accounts portray her, she always had her price, and if the customer met it, she would uphold her end of the bargain.

When accused of profaning the Eleusinian mysteries, she was defended by the orator Hypereides, one of her lovers. When it seemed as if the verdict would be unfavourable, he tore open her robe and displayed her breasts, which so moved her judges that they acquitted her. According to others, she herself removed her clothing. The judges' change of heart was not simply because they were overcome by the beauty of her nude body, but because physical beauty was often seen as a facet of divinity or a mark of divine favor during those times.

The scene was depicted Phryne before the Areopagus, a 1861 painting by Jean-Léon Gérôme:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d0/Fryne_przed_areopagiem.jpg

We'll be prepared for anything that happens.

http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/34362/113/

Exeter (NH) - Space aliens beware because Rudy Giuliani will be prepared for your attack. At a town hall meeting in Exeter, New Hampshire over the weekend the presidential candidate answered a rather strange question from a young boy, “If something living on another planet and it's bad and it comes over here, what would you do?” After the laughter settled down in the audience, Giuliani came up with a seemingly serious answer.

The former New York mayor who led the city through the September 11 terrorist attacks grinned and said that was the first time he’s ever been asked about an alien attack and added, “Of all the things that can happen in this world, we'll be prepared for that, yes we will. We'll be prepared for anything that happens.”

Afterwards, Giuliani complemented the boy saying, “This could be the new Steven Spielberg.” He also asked if he wanted to be a science fiction writer or a scientist when he grows up.”

But the boy got the last laugh by saying he wanted to be a sculptor.

There is a part of my life that is so repulsive and dark...

But on November 5, in a statement Haggard said, "I am a deceiver and a liar. The fact is I am guilty of sexual immorality...There is a part of my life that is so repulsive and dark that I've been warring against it all of my adult life. ... Please forgive my accuser ... actually thank God for him. He didn't violate you; I did."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Haggard

A Minor History of Giant Spheres

http://www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/27/foer.php

A juggling interpretation of Steve Reich's Clapping Music

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXhBti625_s

Carte de Tendre

"Tendre est le nom du pays ainsi que de ses trois villes capitales. Tendre a un fleuve, Inclination, rejoint à son embouchure par deux rivières, Estime et Reconnaissance. Les trois villes de Tendre, Tendre-sur-Inclination, Tendre-sur-Estime et Tendre-sur-Reconnaissance sont situées sur ces trois cours d’eau différents. Pour aller de Nouvelle-Amitié à Tendre-sur-Estime, il faut passer par le lieu de Grand-Esprit auquel succèdent les agréables villages de Jolis-vers, Billet-galant et Billet-doux. Dans cette sorte de géographie amoureuse, le fleuve Inclination coule tranquillement car il est domestiqué tandis que la Mer est dangereuse car elle représente les passions. La seule Passion positive est celle qui la source de nobles sentiments que l’homme peut éprouver. Le lac d’Indifférence représente l’ennui."

http://jahsonic.tumblr.com/post/330351569/carte-du-tendre-the-carte-de-tendre-map-of

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carte_de_Tendre

Fantastic Planet (1973)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgCxCZNkQ9E

By Roland Topor et al. - Part 1 of 8...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ys8AkwMRvgo&feature=related

ART OF MONEY GETTING by P. T. Barnum

The grandfather of all Get-Rich books:
http://www.fourmilab.ch/etexts/www/barnum/moneygetting/moneygetting.html

Haxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages (1921)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DHHH2gWASE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNzsvJcZOd8&NR=1

New! ZX81 Personal Computer.

http://wotsit.thingy.com/haj/ads-images/size2/zx81-july81.jpg

This is promising... Yes it is!

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisW8x6Se2GlgJLmiSlJ0m9qTFJetwinpEZuyUu8Jf0KIIoDZJKxXh1AtGVRzDjh1HqnnZ3wHSB3dtQvI6xOaDlmUDdC0wJOgX7CrRuaRf9ieMY7H-s6CtbH4W4kfLXzxDiX6COpQ/s1600-h/00277.jpg

Excavations have yielded

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7264856.stm

Houston,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vc_tnxA7uhQ

The insanity of the human race

"At the end of the cycle the door won't open for a minute or so. There's no water in the machine. Why exactly do we need to be protected from lukewarm damp stationary items of clothing? The mind boggles...."

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Mntp8vFKVj0

Nick Brandt

http://www.younggalleryphoto.com/photography/brandt/brandt.html

The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism

http://www.naomiklein.org/main

Elephant intelligence

Elephant altruism

Elephants are thought to be highly altruistic animals that will even aid other species, including humans, in distress. In India, an elephant was helping locals lift logs by following a truck and placing the logs in pre-dug holes when the Mahout (elephant trainer) told him to. At a certain hole, the elephant refused to lower the log. The mahout came to investigate the hold up and noticed a dog sleeping in the hole. The elephant only lowered the log when the dog was gone[19].

Cynthia Moss has often seen elephants going out of their way to avoid hurting or killing a human, even when it was difficult for them (such as having to walk backwards to avoid a person).

Joyce Poole documented an encounter told to her by Colin Francombe on Kuki Gallman’s Laikipia Ranch. A ranch herder was out on his own with camels when he came across a family of elephants. The matriarch charged at him and knocked him over with her trunk, breaking one of his legs. In the evening, when he didn’t return, a search party was sent in a truck to find him . When the party discovered him, he was being guarded by an elephant. The animal charged the truck, so they shot over her and scared her away. The herdsman later told them that when he couldn’t stand up, the elephant used her trunk to lift him under the shade of a tree. She guarded him for the day and would gently touch him with her trunk[10].

Death ritual

Elephants show a keen interest in the bones of their own kind (even unrelated elephants that have died long ago). They are often seen gently investigating the bones with their trunks and feet, and remaining very quiet. They also bury their dead, a behavior demonstrated with no other species, save humans. Sometimes elephants that are completely unrelated to the deceased will still visit their graves[21]. When an elephant is hurt, other elephants (also even if they are unrelated) will aid them[10].

Martin Meredith recalls an occurrence in her book about a typical elephant death ritual that was witnessed by Anthony Martin-Hall, a South African biologist who had studied elephants in Addo, South Africa for over 8 years. The entire family of a dead matriarch, including her young calf were all gently touching her body with their trunks and tried to lift her. The elephant herd were all rumbling loudly. The calf was observed to be weeping and made sounds that sounded like a scream but then the entire herd fell incredibly silent. They then began to throw leaves and dirt over the body and broke off tree branches to cover her. They spent the next 2 days quietly standing over her body. They sometimes had to leave to get water or food, but they would always return[22]. Occurrences of elephants behaving this way around human beings are common through Africa. Why they seem to treat humans the same as their own kind is unknown. On many occasions, they have buried dead or sleeping humans or aided them when they were hurt[10]. Meredith also recalls an event told to her by George Adamson, a Kenyan Game Warden regarding an old Turkana woman who fell asleep under a tree after losing her way home. When she woke up, there was an elephant standing over her, gently touching her. She kept very still because she was very frightened. As other elephants arrived, they began to scream loudly and buried her under branches. She was found the next morning by the local herdsmen, unharmed[22].

George Adamson also recalls when he shot a Bull elephant from a herd that kept breaking into the Government gardens of Northern Kenya. George gave the elephant’s meat to local Turkana Tribesmen and then dragged the rest of the carcass half a mile away. That night, the other elephants found the body and took the shoulder blade and leg bone and returned the bones to the exact spot the elephant was killed[23]. Scientists often argue the extent that elephants feel emotion. A large variety of animals display what appears to be ‘sorrow’ through body language, posture, movement and actions but seeing elephants standing over a body, burying them, refusing to leave and their trunks being observed hanging limp certainly seems evidence that perhaps much deeper and complex emotions are involved[23].

Full Wikipedia article here