Habitué à négliger les détails

Habitué à négliger les détails et à ne regarder que les cimes, il passait de l'une à l'autre avec une promptitude surprenante et les faits qu'il découvrait se groupant d'eux-mêmes autour de leur centre étaient instantanément et automatiquement classés dans sa mémoire.*

Jules Henri Poincaré (April 29, 1854 – July 17, 1912) (IPA: [pwɛ̃kaˈʀe][1]) was one of France's greatest mathematicians and theoretical physicists, and a philosopher of science. Poincaré is often described as a polymath, and in mathematics as 'The Last Universalist', since he excelled in all fields of the discipline as it existed during his lifetime.

This is the first time I remember hearing of this fellow. It was from a Wikipedia piece about Marcel Duchamp who was interested in his work.

"The things themselves are not what science can reach..., but only the relations between things. Outside of these relations there is no knowable reality," -Poincaré

He also was essential for work on the Three Body Problem.

More at Wikipedia.

*He neglected details and jumped from idea to idea, the facts gathered from each idea would then come together and solve the problem. - Belliver, 1956

Electronics Tutorial

Here's a basic, no nonsense, and easy to understand tutorial/guide for the electronics beginner. I haven't gone all the way through it, but it looks as if it focuses on low voltage circuits rather than wiring the home (higher voltage AC). We should all master tech before it masters us.

• Electronics Tutorial by Alex Pounds

Talkin' to your shoes

As usual, Boing Boing's tipped me off to something exceedingly important.

Navy Researching Vomit Beam

You never know what's going to land in your mailbox. Last night, I found a weapon that shoots an invisible wall-penetrating beam that makes people so dizzy they fall over. (It can make them puke, too, but I'll get to that in a moment.)

Now we're talking.

Invocon, Inc., one of dozens of companies expected to showcase their wares at the forum, says it'll be there to display its "non-lethal, stand-off weapon for military and law enforcement personnel that could ultimately work through walls and other non-metallic structures."

More at Wired's Danger Room
And you know Those schematics are going to eventually have an open source equivalent.

BTW...here's a list of many of our favorite names for driving the porcelain bus.

To the Tardis!

Ronald L. Mallett, Ph.D

For the strong gravitational field of a circulating cylinder of light, I have found new exact solutions of the Einstein field equations for the exterior and interior gravitational fields of the light cylinder. The exterior gravitational field is shown to contain closed timelike lines.

The presence of closed timelike lines indicates the possibility of time travel into the past. This creates the foundation for a time machine based on a circulating cylinder of light. (Ronald Mallett, "The gravitational field of a circulating light beam", Foundations of Physics 33, 1307 (2003))

For those that are a little more mathematically inclined
The Gravitational Field of a Circulating Light Beam
Ronald L. Mallett (PDF link)

And now there's apparently a search for funding by the University of Connecticut Foundation. Check out the Space-Time Twisting by Light (STL) page.

But before anyone starts packing their bags, there are questions and debates about parts of the work. What I find interesting though, is that it's about parts of the work and not the work as a whole. This makes me think that Dr. Mallett may be on to something and it might only be a matter of time (no pun intended).

Build your own universe!

Michael Frayn speaks with Tom Ashbrook about his book "The Human Touch: Our Part in the Creation of the Universe" which discusses how our individual interpretations of what we perceive creates a universe that we understand.

• NPR's On Point

Tip from Blank Maxine

Autodidacticism

Autodidacticism (also autodidactism) is self-education or self-directed learning. An autodidact, also known as an automath, is a mostly self-taught person — typically someone who has an enthusiasm for self-education and a high degree of self-motivation. (Wikipedia)

It's that damn self motivation part...

But then there's John Hutchison and the Hutchinson Effect.

Hutchison claims that in the 1980s he worked for the American and Canadian military, investigating various alleged phenomena. He refers to several of these phenomena as "the Hutchison effect".Even the most broad-minded scientists seem to doubt the reality of these phenomena. In a recent posting to sci.physics.research, Marc Millis, who ran the now defunct Breakthrough Propulsion Physics Program for NASA, wrote:

[The] Hutchison Effect has been claimed for years, without any independent verification - ever. In fact, its originator can't even replicate it on demand. This has been investigated more than once, been part of documentaries on the discovery channel, but still never seems to pass critical muster. This is in the category of folklore. In general, the "American Antigravity" web site caters to such folklore and its enthusiasts. – Marc G. Millis

Here's a link to an article and some pretty good Hutchinson resources.
John Hutchison, The Wild Scientist From Vancouver.
And a link to American Antigravity.

My take? Hutchinson is sincere, but goofy. I tend to think his effect was fabricated not faked, as faked implies a more willful and /or malicious thought process. I tend to believe his effects are possible, even though I don't think he's necessarily discovered how to create them himself.

Check out related ideas and experimentation at ZPEnergy or zero point energy. From their mission statement:

ZPEnergy is a news portal devoted to experimental research/applications in new revolutionary energy technologies . It aims to connect together people who have the same pragmatic goal: bring to the public amazing devices which can tap a seemingly unlimited supply of energy that fills the universe, the so called "Zero Point Energy" (ZPE).

tDCS

transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is the application of very weak electrical currents (1-2 mA) to modulate the activity of neurons in the brain. (Wikipedia)

I was right!!!
I at least suspected it. Well, I just liked the idea of doing something where I got to hide in my basement and put electrodes on my head. I'm not crazy, but I like the thought of it. I mean have you seen all the "normal" fuckers out there? With their pent up neurosis, their constant chasing the elusive image of the American Dream® (and I use image quite deliberately), all bundled up in a warm, fuzzy blanket of false security brought to you by the folks at Haliburton.
But I digress. This is great...the idea of sending electricity through your head isn't necessarily bad for you, in fact it might even be good for you.
I'm just pissed I got beat on the story.

Brain-O-Matic
By PAGAN KENNEDY
February 7, 2007
Can a jolt from a nine-volt battery make you smarter? Happier? Medical researchers revive a discarded technology and set the stage for the ‘brain pod’. (More...)

Here's some discussion at Make about tDCS with a link to a podcast.

More screwing around with your own head
Along these lines, one device I've tried and I like is the Brainwave Generator which operates aurally. I had a headache for a couple of days. Not a rager, but it was incessant. I downloaded the software, put on the head phones, and set it to Headache treatment (circular). Ten minutes, the headache was gone.
The concept behind it is entrainment or brainwave entrainment, which is to put it simply, the natural tendency for frequencies to want to agree. Now certain overall states of the brain produce a certain overall frequency, which many of us have heard of as Alpha, Beta, Delta, or Theta wave states.
Now should you be in a state that you don't like, such as Alpha when you're trying to get to sleep (the deepest sleep state being Theta), you place your headphones on, select the preset you want (Sleep) and let the program walk your brainwaves down to lower frequencies with not unpleasant tones.
This process is essentially what one does using other techniques such a meditation or biofeedback, except that one doesn't have to spend a lot of time practicing until one learns who to adjust themselves. With the software, one frequency or the other has a tendency to want to give. The programs aren't responsive, which leaves your brain as the one to have to adjust.
It all made a lot of sense to me. I've used it on and off for a couple of years now and found the effects top be subtle but noticeable. Nothing was as profound as the headache treatment, but I particularly like to use the relaxation or meditation settings as I run. I figure that exercise is meant to calm and relax and if I associate those qualities with the activity it'll make the activity all the more desirable. I usually adjust the volume settings on the program so I can play it under music or a podcast as I workout.
The program is free, but after a month you'll get a ten second nag. Paying for it also unlocks forums where people discuss their experiences and discoveries as they try different settings. There are also other programs/devices out there which I haven't tried, but look promising. Search around a bit.
The point is that there are more ways than just the digestive system (eg. caffeine) to hack your brain.

• Brainwave Generator

Purpose

My muse is not with me today, so this is going to be a bit terse and matter of fact.
Complex 39 (look it up) is a place where I (Snag) can organize my dispatches regarding the state of the world. "Why the fuck would anyone want to read this, when there's so many other sources of information?" one might ask.
Well, I'm operating on a few principles I think might be unique:

• Complex 39 is an attempt to blend Art, Journalism, and Commentary in a multitude of media types.
• Complex 39 isn't an attempt for the absolute truth. As A. Korzybski has said "The map is not the territory." This is only a map. However, this map is an attempt to rip off the routine of daily existence that have dulled our senses and see the seething, froth of humanity as we apes interface with technology. Hopefully a closer look at the pornography of violence, the ever pervasive agents of social control, the transmogrification of civilization, the underground technological pirates...
• Complex 39's stylistically somewhere between Post-war America and cyberpunk.

So who the hell is Snag?
Hopefully that will be fleshed out overtime. Here's a quick run down to this point:
Born in the industrial north of the U.S. just before Armstrong, Aldrin, and Collins made contact with another planet. Born shortly after the Kennedy assassination and cover-up. Born shortly before the Neo-Con's first major criminal enterprise known as the Nixon administration and subsequently Watergate.
I grew up nomadically, moving every couple of years across the U.S. My single mother was always searching for something unknown. Intellectual challenges I suppose. Spiritual quests maybe?
My brother is a drummer in a band and a pretty cool guy. He majored in Art History and works for a prestigious museum in Boston. He would like to move into curations.
I've done everything from roofing to working in an industrial laundry to managing a restaurant to salvaging demolition sites.
I spent 11 years in the U.S. Army. Most of it part-time. First as a medic, then administration, then intelligence/security management. For six years I was an intelligence sergeant with the military police. I was adept at the M16, M60, and grenades. While I served these things happened:

1. The Tanker War - "Operation Earnest Will"
2. U.S. Invasion of Panama
3. Second Persian Gulf War - "Operation Desert Storm"
4. "No-Fly Zone" War
5. U.S. Intervention in Somalia
6. NATO Intervention in Bosnia - "Operation Deliberate Force"
7. U.S. Occupation of Haiti
8. U.S. Embassy bombings and strikes on Afghanistan and Sudan (The bin Laden War)

I've built and raced a 1963 Fairlane 500 with a modified 315 cubic inch "Windsor" motor. I'm self-taught. I'm interested in grease cars. My good friend and the lead singer of the Kings of Nuthin', Torr, has been a big help in my automotive knowledge.
I was a punk rocker/bootboy in my adolescence. I was a fan of Fear, Black Flag, The Exploited, and Dead Kennedys. I drank beer with Colin of G.B.H. around a fire, in a corn field, at a show in Kansas. I spent many years hanging out in a place called the Outhouse.
Along with Schroedinger, Feynman, Heisenberg, et al, Joe Strummer and Johnny Cash are my spiritual advisers.
I'm currently a criminal investigator in the private sector. I'm good at understanding intention from behavior. I can beat people up. I'm good at investigating financial based crimes. I think it's odd and a little depressing that THEY (society...the law...the corporate powers...) allow me to hurt people if needed in the course of my job.
My gal Blank Maxine of twenty years is a brilliant photojournalist (that's her work in sidebar).

Out for now...