"I love the Pope. I love seeing him in his Pope-Mobile, his three feet of bullet proof plexi-glass. That's faith in action..." - Bill Hicks

Photo: TimN (Station St. Fairfield, Melbourne)

British Humanist Association Reacts to Pope's first remarks on state visit

WTF??? Hitler Youth pope aligns atheists with nazis!!!

"...Even in our own lifetime, we can recall how Britain and her leaders stood against a Nazi tyranny that wished to eradicate God from society and denied our common humanity to many, especially the Jews, who were thought unfit to live. I also recall the regime’s attitude to Christian pastors and religious who spoke the truth in love, opposed the Nazis and paid for that opposition with their lives. As we reflect on the sobering lessons of the atheist extremism of the twentieth century, let us never forget how the exclusion of God, religion and virtue from public life leads ultimately to a truncated vision of man and of society and thus to a “reductive vision of the person and his destiny” (Caritas in Veritate, 29).,,"

Last Poets with Pharoah Sanders

Foul-Mouthed Design Website Spits Out Advice Automatically

Think of this as a potty-mouth, @AngryPaulRand take on Brian Eno’s Oblique Strategies. ‘Good Fucking Design Advice’ is a website that randomly dishes out design guidance for free, all given with a healthy dose of the word, “Fuck”.

Created by two graphic designers, Brian Buirge and Jason Bacher, the site is more for a laugh than anything else.
Each page refresh will generate a new ‘inspirational’ line; and sample ones includes “Learn to take some fucking criticism”, and “make it fucking smaller”, so it’s not completely useless.
Our favorite? “Use fucking Helvetica.”

@'TAXI'

The music industry’s new business model

Braingasm: Sex and Your Synapses

The Shilohs EP

This album is available for free download. You can listen to it in its entirety on this page, but since Bandcamp recently stopped allowing unlimited free downloads, you can download a V0 (best quality-small size) mp3 version for FREE here:

hotfile.com/dl/69422800/021a2dc/CTD002_v0.rar.html

Formed in September 2008, The Shilohs (Dan Colussi, Ben Frey, Mike Komaszczuk and Johnny Payne) present their first EP, recorded on Steve Bays’ (Hot Hot Heat’s front man) Vancouver studio, Tugboat Place.

The result of those sessions is displayed on The Shilohs, their selftitled debut EP: a collection of beautifully crafted pop songs, evoking the late 60s/early 70s golden years of American pop rock, from straight rock and roll catchy melodies to slow, pleasant ballads and sing along friendly pop songs.

The Shilohs are currently recording their first full length with producers JCDC (Destroyer, The New Pornographers, Tegan & Sara).

HERE

Russell Crowe to team with Wu-Tang Clan's RZA for kung fu film

Why can't you listen to music?

Home of Ice Giants thaws, shows pre Viking hunts

Climate change is exposing reindeer hunting gear used by the Vikings' ancestors faster than archaeologists can collect it from ice thawing in northern Europe's highest mountains.

A 3,400-year-old leather shoe found in the mountains of south Norway after a record melt of ice, apparently linked to climate change is seen in this 2006 handout photo.

"It's like a time machine...the ice has not been this small for many, many centuries," said Lars Piloe, a Danish scientist heading a team of "snow patch archaeologists" on newly bare ground 1,850 meters (6,070 ft) above sea level in mid-Norway.

Specialized hunting sticks, bows and arrows and even a 3,400-year-old leather shoe have been among finds since 2006 from a melt in the Jotunheimen mountains, the home of the "Ice Giants" of Norse mythology.

As water streams off the Juvfonna ice field, Piloe and two other archaeologists -- working in a science opening up due to climate change -- collect "scare sticks" they reckon were set up 1,500 years ago in rows to drive reindeer toward archers.

But time is short as the Ice Giants' stronghold shrinks.

"Our main focus is the rescue part," Piloe said on newly exposed rocks by the ice. "There are many ice patches. We can only cover a few...We know we are losing artefacts everywhere."

Freed from an ancient freeze, wood rots in a few years. And rarer feathers used on arrows, wool or leather crumble to dust in days unless taken to a laboratory and stored in a freezer.

Jotunheimen is unusual because so many finds are turning up at the same time -- 600 artefacts at Juvfonna alone.

Other finds have been made in glaciers or permafrost from Alaska to Siberia. Italy's iceman "Otzi," killed by an arrow wound 5,000 years ago, was found in an Alpine glacier in 1991. "Ice Mummies" have been discovered in the Andes.

RESCUE

Patrick Hunt, of Stanford University in California who is trying to discover where Carthaginian general Hannibal invaded Italy in 218 BC with an army and elephants, said there was an "alarming rate" of thaw in the Alps.

"This is the first summer since 1994 when we began our Alpine field excavations above 8,000 ft that we have not been inundated by even one day of rain, sleet and snow flurries," he said.

"I expect we will see more 'ice patch archaeology discoveries'," he said. Hannibal found snow on the Alpine pass he crossed in autumn, according to ancient writers.

Glaciers are in retreat from the Andes to the Alps, as a likely side-effect of global warming caused by human emissions of greenhouse gases, the U.N. panel of climate experts says.

The panel's credibility has suffered since its 2007 report exaggerated a thaw by saying Himalayan glaciers might vanish by 2035. It has stuck to its main conclusion that it is "very likely" that human activities are to blame for global warming.

"Over the past 150 years we have had a worldwide trend of glacial retreat," said Michael Zemp, director of the Swiss-based World Glacier Monitoring Service. While many factors were at play, he said "the main driver is global warming."

In Norway, "some ice fields are at their minimum for at least 3,000 years," said Rune Strand Oedegaard, a glacier and permafrost expert from Norway's Gjoevik University College.

The front edge of Jovfunna has retreated about 18 meters (60 ft) over the past year, exposing a band of artefacts probably from the Iron Age 1,500 years ago, according to radiocarbon dating. Others may be from Viking times 1,000 years ago.

Juvfonna, about 1 km across on the flank of Norway's highest peak, Galdhoepiggen, at 2,469 meters, also went through a less drastic shrinking period in the 1930s, Oedegaard said.

REINDEER

Inside the Juvfonna ice, experts have carved a cave to expose layers of ice dating back 6,000 years. Some dark patches turned out to be ancient reindeer droppings -- giving off a pungent smell when thawed out.

Ice fields like Juvfonna differ from glaciers in that they do not slide much downhill. That means artefacts may be where they were left, giving an insight into hunting techniques.

On Juvfonna, most finds are "scare sticks" about a meter long. Each has a separate, flapping piece of wood some 30 cm long that was originally tied at the top. The connecting thread is rarely found since it disintegrates within days of exposure.

"It's a strange feeling to be tying a string around this stick just as someone else did maybe 1,500 years ago," said Elling Utvik Wammer, a archaeologist on Piloe's team knotting a tag to a stick before storing it in a box for later study.

All the finds are also logged with a GPS satellite marker before being taken to the lab for examination.

The archaeologists reckon they were set up about two meters apart to drive reindeer toward hunters. In summer, reindeer often go onto snow patches to escape parasitic flies.

Such a hunt would require 15 to 20 people, Piloe said, indicating that Norway had an organized society around the start of the Dark Ages, 1,500 years ago. Hunters probably needed to get within 20 meters of a reindeer to use an iron-tipped arrow.

"You can nearly feel the hunter here," Piloe said, standing by a makeshift wall of rocks exposed in recent weeks and probably built by an ancient archer as a hideaway.

@'Archaeology Daily News'

Around the Solar System

On Sept. 8, 2010, a C3-class solar flare erupts from the Sun. Just as a sunspot was turning away from Earth on Sept. 8, the active region erupted, producing a solar flare and a fantastic prominence. The eruption also hurled a bright coronal mass ejection into space. (NASA/SDO)

A setting last quarter crescent moon and the thin line of Earth's atmosphere are photographed by an Expedition 24 crew member as the International Space Station passes over central Asia on Sept. 4th, 2010. (NASA)

Aurora Australis seen above the Earth in this image taken by a member of the ISS Expedition 23 crew on May 29, 2010. (NASA/JSC)

@'The Big Picture'

Gotryke Mix Vol 1: DJ 3000

The Gotryke Mix Series debut with the right kind of pedigree from DJ 3000, a musically-inclined car connoiseur.
“Motech’s vision was born from the dust and destruction of the automobile industry in the Motor City,” said Frankie Juncaj, who records as DJ 3000. “Once a booming industry that influenced the world, it was reduced to shambles in one fell swoop and left a permanent residue on the city it once inhabited. Drawing from the never ending influence that Detroit had to offer, we began looking back to our ethnic roots. What eventually emerged was a unique blend of Detroit electronic rhythm combined with the sounds and textures of generations long past.”

The name is a play on Motown and techno, but also references an automotive trade school in Detroit from the 1980s. Falling in love with cars was natural for Juncaj, who grew up in Detroit. His father and most of his relatives worked at Chrysler and he hung out at his next door neighbor’s whose who built race cars for fun. Juncaj is into classic Chevrolet muscle cars and slick styled Euro- rides. “If I could buy one classic Chevy it would be a ’67 Chevy Camaro because to me it screams classic American muscle. I grew up seeing that car in my neighborhood. Yes, I know my dad worked at Chrysler but he even had a Chevy Monte Carlo.”
Juncaj relocated to Amsterdam, but if he moves back to Detroit he’ll buy a used 2004 Audi RS4. “Its fast and looks slick and without looking loud so this is the perfect car for me. I plan to buy one in the future….I hope!”