Hoax Forum

To fur, or not to fur…..

2009-11-21T03:20:18-08:00

The sub-text reads: “There’s Livejournal drama between those who want to wear human suits over fursuits and those who just take off the fursuits.”

Vintage Avatars

2009-11-20T13:58:43-08:00

They are so cool!

Old magazines, books, and ad spots are cropped and scaled for avatar use. The lady who runs the site says she has several more boxes of books and whatnot to get through, so updates are expected, but not regular.

We are doomed: IBM makes supercomputer significantly smarter than cat

2009-11-19T08:15:14-08:00

IBM has announced a software simulation of a mammalian cerebral cortex that’s significantly more complex than the cortex of a cat. And, just like the actual brain that it simulates, they still have to figure out how it works.

Source: Ars Technica

Pictured below, a typical…

Make-up with a human touch

2009-11-19T19:41:00-08:00

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8369674.stm

‘Fat for cosmetics’ murder suspects arrested in Peru

Four people have been arrested in Peru on suspicion of killing dozens of people in order to sell their fat and tissue for cosmetic uses in Europe.

The gang allegedly targeted people on remote roads, luring them with fake job offers before extracting their fat to sell it for $15,000 (£9,000) a litre.

Other suspected gang members, including two Italian nationals, remain at large.

Police said the gang could be behind the disappearances of up to 60 people in the region.

At a news conference in the capital, police showed reporters two bottles containing human body fat and images of one of the alleged victims.

One of the alleged killings is reported to have taken place in mid-September, with the person’s body tissue removed for sale.

Cmdr Angel Toledo told Reuters some of the suspects had “declared and stated how they murdered people with the aim being to extract their fat in rudimentary labs and sell it”.

Police said they suspect the fat was sold to cosmetics and pharmaceutical companies in Europe, but have not confirmed any such connection.

‘Detailed confession’

Gen Felix Burga, head of Peru’s police criminal division, said there were indications that “an international network trafficking human fat” was operating from Peru.

The first person was arrested earlier this month in a bus station in Lima, carrying a shipment of the fat.

The Associated Press news agency quoted Col Jorge Mejia as saying one of the suspects had described to police in detail how the victims were killed and their fat removed.

The suspect said the fat was then sold to intermediaries in Lima and that the gang’s leader, Hilario Cudena, had been carrying out such murders for decades, AP reported.

The alleged buyers of the fat are also being hunted by police.

The gang has been referred to as the Pishtacos, after an ancient Peruvian legend of killers who attack people on lonely roads and murder them for their fat.

Cop uses Taser on ‘unruly’ 10-year-old

2009-11-19T05:42:33-08:00

Story at news.com.au

By staff writers news.com.au November 19, 2009 03:12pm

-Girl, 10, Tasered in her home
-She wouldn’t take a shower
-Mum gave permission

A US police officer used a Taser stun gun to subdue a “combative” 10-year-old girl in her own home because she refused to take a shower.

I couldn’t give a flying F*** who gave permission, even if it was her mother. I don’t for one second see any excuse for using a taser on this 10 year old girl. Presumably the police officer involved is a grown adult who’s had training in dealing with people in difficult situations.

I actually believe that tasers should be banned. They appear to be open to abusive use by police officers who see them as a convenient way to subdue people without getting their own clothes dirty.

The Prophet Muhammad, not showing at a theater near you!

2009-11-02T12:38:52-08:00

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/8337721.stm

Epic Muhammad movie in pipeline

An epic movie about Islam’s Prophet Muhammad is in the pipeline, backed by a producer of the Lord of the Rings.

American Barrie Osborne, who also produced The Matrix, told Reuters the film would be an “international epic” aimed at “bridging cultures”.

In accordance with Islamic rules, the Prophet cannot be depicted on screen. Images of the Prophet are considered blasphemous by Muslims.

The $150m (£91m) English language film should go into production in 2011.

2010 talks

Qatari media company Alnoor Holdings, which is behind the plans, said it wanted to attract the “best international talent” for the film.

“The film will educate people about the true meaning of Islam,” Osborne said.

Raja Sharif, vice president of international projects at Alnoor, told Reuters he expected to conclude deals next year.

I’m really curious as to how they’ll have a movie about somebody, yet not have that person shown in it. I can think of three ways right offhand:

1) Have it filmed as though literally seen through Muhammad’s eyes. Unless there’s a mirror or something like that, then there would never be any representation of Muhammad himself.

2) Always have Muhammad just offscreen, with perhaps only occasionally his shadow or a bit of his robe or something entering view.

3) Blur out the image.

I think that any approach would be a bit of a challenge.

Funny or odd names.

2005-09-12T01:43:10-08:00

I’m putting this topic here, because I reckon it’s nearest to the theme.
Anybody culled any funny (and non-fictional) names from TV, books or films recently?
Or, even better, do you know anybody with a funny name?

I found ‘Googy Gress’ in the credits for ‘Charmed’.
Best name I’ve heard in ages.

Hubble instruments sent to museum

2009-11-20T10:43:51-08:00

Two instruments that served more than 15 years aboard the Hubble telescope have gone on display in the US.

Washington DC’s National Air and Space Museum is the new home for the WFPC-2 and Costar, which once served as the telescope’s eyes and its spectacles.

The two instruments were replaced during a servicing mission in May.

They will depart in December for a brief tour of California before returning permanently to the museum in March 2010.

The Corrective Optics Space Telescope Axial Replacement, or Costar, was a suite of optics providing the fix for a manufacturing fault that initially stymied Hubble’s mission.

A tiny flaw in the curvature of the telescope’s main mirror meant its first images were blurred.

In 1993, Costar was installed to act as “spectacles” to correct the images for a range of Hubble’s instruments and cameras. In addition, the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC-2) was installed, which already had the optical fix built into it.

The rejuvenated telescope then began to produce some of the most stunning images astronomers - and the public - have ever seen.

The WFPC-2 was responsible for the ubiquitous image of the Eagle Nebula, dubbed the “Pillars of Creation”, among 135,000 others during its 15 years in space.

The two instruments were removed in the final Hubble servicing mission in May and returned to Earth.

“This was the camera that saved Hubble,” said Dr Ed Weiler, associate administrator for Nasa’s science mission directorate.

“I have looked forward for a long time to stand in front of this very instrument while on display to the public.”

The Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum holds thousands of artefacts from the history of aviation and spaceflight.

Source: BBC News

National Archives To CSI-ify Haldeman’s Paper Notes In Search Of Watergate’s Lost 18 Minutes

2009-11-20T09:10:57-08:00

Stymied in its digital effort to fill in the mysterious 18 ½-minute gap in the Watergate tapes, the government will apply high technology to the paper trail to try to answer the scandal’s most intriguing question: What did President Richard M. Nixon know, and when did he know it?

The National Archives and Records Administration said Wednesday that it was convening a team of forensic document examiners to study two pages of handwritten notes taken by H. R. Haldeman, Nixon’s chief of staff, during a meeting between them on June 20, 1972, at the Old Executive Office Building, next to the White House. Eighteen and a half minutes of conversation were erased from the tape of that meeting before it and other Watergate tapes were surrendered by Nixon to a special prosecutor.

Haldeman’s notes, preserved at the National Archives, are believed to be the only existing record of the meeting, which occurred three days after Nixon campaign operatives were arrested for breaking into the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee, at the Watergate office complex in Washington.

The forensic team will try to determine, among other things, whether any additional notes were taken by Haldeman or anyone else at the meeting, and whether the two pages were doctored to remove or add notes afterward, presumably in an effort to protect the president. The ink and paper will be subjected to tests to detect variations in light invisible to the naked eye and to find any indentations from writing on other pages. The tests can also determine whether carbon copies were made.

The tests will be conducted by the preservation research and testing division of the Library of Congress and by forensic investigators from the Treasury inspector general for tax administration and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The results are expected to be available early next year.

In 2003, the National Archives said it had given up trying to retrieve the missing conversation from the tape itself, which, like Haldeman’s notes, is preserved in a climate-controlled vault. Experts appointed in 1973 by a federal judge, John J. Sirica, concluded that the conversation had been deliberately erased.

On the audible portion of the tape, Nixon says of the Democratic headquarters, “My God, the committee isn’t worth bugging, in my opinion. That’s my public line” — suggesting, perhaps, that his private line differed.

In his 1978 memoir, Haldeman wrote that he could not remember details of the conversation. But his diaries, published soon after his death in 1993, suggest that he and Nixon may have plotted to impede the F.B.I.’s inquiry into the break-in.

New York Times

Future colliders: Beyond the LHC

2009-11-20T08:56:42-08:00

The Large Hadron Collider is by no means the last of the particle smashers. A group at CERN recently explored the various scenarios that might emerge from the atomic debris in Geneva – and how they would shape what colliders we build next. We draw out the key points about each of the scenarios.

What will detecting a Higgs boson mean?

If the characteristics of the Higgs fit with the predictions of the standard model of particle physics, it should be found within three years. The discovery would confirm that a Higgs “field” permeates the universe, lending all other particles their mass. If it is a Higgs that does not conform to the standard model, it may turn up even earlier, because it would likely be lighter and so more commonly produced in collisions than heavier particles.

What next?

The Super LHC will have more collisions per second and be more accurate than the LHC, and would be able to start to explore the properties of a Higgs. Its high energy would be especially useful if the Higgs turns out to be heavy, though a linear collider would be more precise. The Compact Linear Collider would have an advantage over the International Linear Collider with its higher collision energy.
No Higgs

What will failing to detect a Higgs mean?

If no Higgs is detected after three years of the LHC running at full energy, then this points to a more complicated Higgs field. It could be because the Higgs decays to known particles that are difficult to detect at the LHC or it decays to invisible particles - ones that don’t interact with the detector.

Failure could also be a sign of a non-standard model Higgs - which would mean it could be lighter or heavier than expected and thus harder to find. Or it could indicate a more exotic Higgs field - perhaps with several different Higgs bosons interacting in a way not yet fully understood.

What next?

Other mechanisms for endowing particles with mass will be seriously considered. For example, when two W bosons collide, they are thought to produce a Higgs. If no Higgs exists, however, whatever else is produced by W boson scattering would be the obvious next place to look for what endows matter with mass. The process could be examined extensively with the Super LHC.

No detection at the LHC could be bad news for the International Linear Collider, because it has a lower energy than the LHC and so couldn’t look for a potentially heavy Higgs. The Compact Linear Collider would be the better option.
Supersymmetry

What will evidence of supersymmetry mean?

Supersymmetry (SUSY) is a theory positing that all the known particles in the standard model have partners. Unlike a Higgs, the particles would not show themselves directly. In some models, the particles pass through the detector without interacting with it. Their presence in a collision can be inferred from the imbalance of the total momentum - or in other words, the energy missing from the collision. In the most likely version of SUSY, the lightest particles should show up via this approach within the first year at the LHC. The lightest SUSY particle is a possible candidate for dark matter.

What next?

The Super LHC could start measuring the mass and spin of most SUSY particles and could detect unexpectedly heavy particles out of reach of the LHC. However, to study SUSY in detail, a linear collider would be far superior, because the initial energy of the colliding electrons and positrons is exactly known. At the LHC and the sLHC, the energy of the quarks and gluons inside the colliding protons is not known so it is harder to keep track of the overall energy and momentum. What’s more, most models predict that the SUSY particles are below 0.5 teraelectronvolts, which makes the ILC the ideal machine to explore these particles.
New physics

What are the implications of new physics?

New physics refers to anything that lies beyond the standard model. Aside from supersymmetry (see above), this includes gravitons or particles associated with extra dimensions. If light enough, these could be seen fairly early on at the LHC. Likewise a next generation of the standard model could be discovered or excluded. More exotic suggestions include “unparticles”, an entirely unrecognisable type of matter that could be detected by missing collision energy.

What next?

Once a new phenomenon is found, it will be necessary to flesh out the underlying theory. For example, supersymmetry or models with extra dimensions are the first steps towards confirming string theory. The Super LHC would collect vastly more data on any new physics than the LHC, and could discover processes too rare to be detected by its predecessor. Eventually, a linear collider will be necessary to complete the job - the best of the two proposed linear colliders would depend on the energy of the new phenomenon discovered.
The next generation

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