Today's Photo Friday theme is Faith.
Hmm... What to photograph. I suspect I'd choose something like Flipdingo. Something found in nature, most likely a rainbow or other beautiful wonder. Oh, I know what to use!
9/12/03 7:19 am
did I mention yesterday that I now have a cell phone? For when I'm on call... Truth be told, I don't need it. Simply forwarding the calls to my home is fine, but I suppose the records are more easily documented with the handheld phone. I'll be on call tues / wed / thurs this week, while the big kahuna is going to be in Ohio.
Points: 34.3 Adj: 0 Act: 0.0 Rem: -0.3
Bank: 23.7 Adj: 0
Bank Max: 35 Point: 0 Act: 0
Bank Method: Start on Monday
Vitamins: Yes
Breakfast: 8.0 points
8.0: Croissan'wich w/ Egg & Cheese
Lunch: 9.6 points
3.1: Rice; white; glutinous; cooked
0.0: Mixed veggies
3.5: Oil; peanut; salad or cooking
3.0: Tempura bite cheesecake
Dinner: 4.7 points
1.1: Boca burger
1.1: Boca burger
1.1: Boca burger
1.4: Peas sweet; 1 can; solids & liquids
Snack: 12.0 points
2.5: Cereals; cocoa puffs 1 cup
2.5: Cereals; cocoa puffs 1 cup
3.5: Goldfish
3.5: Goldfish
Soundless Music Shown to Produce Weird Sensations
"Mysteriously snuffed out candles, weird sensations and shivers down the spine may not be due to the presence of ghosts in haunted houses but to very low frequency sound that is inaudible to humans."
British scientists have shown in a controlled experiment that the extreme bass sound known as infrasound produces a range of bizarre effects in people including anxiety, extreme sorrow and chills -- supporting popular suggestions of a link between infrasound and strange sensations.
"Normally you can't hear it," Dr Richard Lord, an acoustic scientist at the National Physical Laboratory in England who worked on the project, said Monday.
Lord and his colleagues, who produced infrasound with a seven meter (yard) pipe and tested its impact on 750 people at a concert, said infrasound is also generated by natural phenomena.
"Some scientists have suggested that this level of sound may be present at some allegedly haunted sites and so cause people to have odd sensations that they attribute to a ghost -- our findings support these ideas," said Professor Richard Wiseman, a psychologist at the University of Hertfordshire in southern England.
In the first controlled experiment of infrasound, Lord and Wiseman played four contemporary pieces of live music, including some laced with infrasound, at a London concert hall and asked the audience to describe their reactions to the music.
The audience did not know which pieces included infrasound but 22 percent reported more unusual experiences when it was present in the music.
Their unusual experiences included feeling uneasy or sorrowful, getting chills down the spine or nervous feelings of revulsion or fear.
"These results suggest that low frequency sound can cause people to have unusual experiences even though they cannot consciously detect infrasound," said Wiseman, who presented his findings to the British Association science conference.
Infrasound is also produced by storms, seasonal winds and weather patterns and some types of earthquakes. Animals such as elephants also use infrasound to communicate over long distances or as weapons to repel foes.
"So much has been said about infrasound -- it's been associated with just about everything from beam weapons to bad driving. It's wonderful to be able to examine the evidence," said Sarah Angliss, a composer and engineer who worked on the project.
Organ music 'instills religious feelings'
"People who experience a sense of spirituality in church may be reacting to the extreme bass sound produced by some organ pipes."
Many churches and cathedrals have organ pipes that are so long they emit infrasound which at a frequency lower than 20 Hertz is largely inaudible to the human ear.
But in a controlled experiment in which infrasound was pumped into a concert hall, UK scientists found they could instill strange feelings in the audience at will.
These included an extreme sense of sorrow, coldness, anxiety and even shivers down the spine.
Infrasound has become the subject of intense study in recent years. Researchers have found that some animals, such as elephants, can communicate with low-frequency calls.
Infrasound can be detected at volcanoes and may provide a way to predict eruptions.
INFRASOUND STUDY
To test the impact on an audience of extreme bass notes from an organ pipe, researchers constructed a seven-meter-long "infrasonic cannon" which they placed at the back of the Purcell Room, a concert hall in South London.
They then invited 750 people to report their feelings after listening to pieces of contemporary music intermittently laced sound from the cannon, played a 17 Hz at levels of 6-8 decibels.
The results showed that odd sensations in the audience increased by an average of 22% when the extreme bass was present.
"It has been suggested that because some organ pipes in churches and cathedrals produce infrasound this could lead to people having weird experiences which they attribute to God," said Professor Richard Wiseman, a psychologist from University of Hertfordshire.
"Some of the experiences in our audience included 'shivering on my wrist', 'an odd feeling in my stomach', 'increased heart rate', 'feeling very anxious', and 'a sudden memory of emotional loss'.
"This was an experiment done under controlled conditions and it shows infrasound does have an impact, and that has implications... in a religious context and some of the unusual experiences people may be having in certain churches."
Sarah Angliss, an engineer and composer in charge of the project, added: "Organ players have been adding infrasound to the mix for 500 years so maybe we're not the first generation to be 'addicted to bass'."
Details of the organ infrasound study are being presented to the British Association's annual science festival, which this year is in Salford, Greater Manchester.
Miami PBS station films skunk ape-seeking expedition
"David Shealy is once again ready for his close-up."
As Collier County's resident — and most high profile — expert on the mysterious skunk ape, Shealy will appear on "New Florida," a multiple Emmy award-winning public television news and lifestyle program, in late October.
Shealy will relate his tale of Southwest Florida's most pungent primate puzzle as part of the show's Halloween episode. Other Florida phenomena scheduled to be profiled for the show are a haunted ship in St. Augustine and the Cassadaga spiritualist community in Central Florida.
"It's a little more lighthearted than our typical weekly show," said Gabriela Vignolo, a publicist for Channel 2 WPBT in Miami, which produces "New Florida."
To the 40-year-old Shealy, though, the skunk ape is serious fare.
For years, he has appeared on TV shows such as "Unsolved Mysteries," "Inside Edition" and Comedy Central's "The Daily Show." He has made radio appearances. Soon, he hopes to be featured on a Los Angeles TV program hosted by comedian Steve Harvey.
Through these engagements, he aims to bring exposure to the legendary skunk ape.
"We've got an endangered species on our hands here, and people need to know about it," Shealy said.
Because it is a public television-produced show and Emmy award-winner, "New Florida" has a level of credibility Shealy finds appealing, he said.
"This is the quality-type stuff I like to do," Shealy said.
Frank Eberling, a "New Florida" contributing producer, remembers hearing of the skunk ape in the early 1970s, when he was working in West Palm Beach. There had been some alleged sightings in that area, and the skunk ape buzz was building.
When one of the senior producers at Channel 2 asked him to film a segment on the skunk ape, he was thrilled to comply, Eberling said.
"I like to do stories about people who are passionate about whatever they're doing, and Dave seems to fit that bill," Eberling said. "It's the old quest theme."
On Friday, Shealy took Eberling and Eberling's video camera into the mist and mire behind his Ochopee campground to search for the elusive 7-foot, reddish-brown skunk ape. Joining the pair was Michelle Maynard, a marine biologist and the first Miss Skunk Ape, crowned in June.
After trudging through the tall grass and mud, Shealy paused for Eberling to record the details of his boyhood brush with the beast.
He was just 10 years old, and out hunting with his brother, Jack, when they saw it.
"It didn't even cross our minds once to take a shot at it," Shealy recalled.
For a second take, Shealy fleshed out his memories even more. He described the surprise he and his brother felt at the sight, and their flight to escape. Later, he spoke about his 1999 attempt to receive money from tourist taxes to pay for his skunk ape research and promotion.
"Some people were skeptical about it," Shealy said. "I decided I was going to try and take those people who were skeptical and turn them into believers."
Dressed in faded jeans, a camouflage rain jacket, a black cowboy hat with a gator-tooth band and a gold gator necklace, Shealy looked every inch the backwoods adventurer for his interview.
And not an adventurer whose journey is near ending.
"There's no turning back now," Shealy said. "Collier County's got a skunk ape, whether they like it or not."
While skunk ape skeptics abound, Eberling said the purpose of the "New Florida" program isn't to be exploitative or controversial. It isn't to make believers or nonbelievers.
It's simply to share a South Florida story that has circulated for decades, he said.
"We're just going to present Dave's story and people can draw their own conclusions," Eberling said.
Collier Time-Warner Cable customers can make those conclusions next month by watching WPBT's "New Florida" on channel 14. Check local listings for times and availability. WPBT is not carried by Comcast Cable.
Search is on for Abominable Snowman
"Over the next six weeks, a group of Japanese explorers hopes to solve one of the last great mysteries of the animal world and provide proof that the legendary yeti, or Abominable Snowman, does indeed exist."
The seven-member expedition, supported by The Asahi Shimbun, is spending 40 days to find the creature, which supposedly is hairy and ape-like.
The team, led by alpinist Yoshiteru Takahashi, 60, is concentrating the search around Nepal's 8,172-meter Dhaulagiri, the world's seventh highest peak. Four members are veteran climbers of the Himalayas.
The adventurers set up their base camp on a grassy plateau about 4,300 meters above sea level, according to reports reaching The Asahi Shimbun on Friday. The camp is just southeast of the 6,273-meter Myagdi Matha peak. The area is dotted with white, blue and yellow alpine plants.
The team set off for base camp with 140 guides and porters on Aug. 17, and initially was scheduled to arrive on Aug. 23. Progress was hampered by continuous rain and steep cliffs in the jungle, adding six days to the journey.
There have been numerous yeti sightings in the area.
Some say the creature walks on two legs, has long arms and dark hair, either red or gray.
The team has set up 17 infrared cameras at points along trails they believe yeti use.
Rather than try to follow a yeti to its lair, team members will lie in wait, hoping to photograph the creature. They also plan to set up two other observation camps, which will be equipped with telescopes.
In Tibetan, the word yeti means "magical creature.''
Two more babies! Join my vampire flock! See if you can hit 1000 pints by Halloween! I wonder if I can get the clan to 100 blood suckers by then?
You are sire to 48 other vampires, including: LdySaphyre (6707 pints), Liliana (2443 pints), MissV (2321 pints), mixedresults (1246 pints), gilbella (1166 pints), Morgoth (399 pints), Sierina (190 pints), phenrill (131 pints), Blade-Killer (118 pints), DEATHBEAR (112 pints)
Hmm... What to photograph. I suspect I'd choose something like Flipdingo. Something found in nature, most likely a rainbow or other beautiful wonder. Oh, I know what to use!
9/12/03 7:19 am
did I mention yesterday that I now have a cell phone? For when I'm on call... Truth be told, I don't need it. Simply forwarding the calls to my home is fine, but I suppose the records are more easily documented with the handheld phone. I'll be on call tues / wed / thurs this week, while the big kahuna is going to be in Ohio.
Points: 34.3 Adj: 0 Act: 0.0 Rem: -0.3
Bank: 23.7 Adj: 0
Bank Max: 35 Point: 0 Act: 0
Bank Method: Start on Monday
Vitamins: Yes
Breakfast: 8.0 points
8.0: Croissan'wich w/ Egg & Cheese
Lunch: 9.6 points
3.1: Rice; white; glutinous; cooked
0.0: Mixed veggies
3.5: Oil; peanut; salad or cooking
3.0: Tempura bite cheesecake
Dinner: 4.7 points
1.1: Boca burger
1.1: Boca burger
1.1: Boca burger
1.4: Peas sweet; 1 can; solids & liquids
Snack: 12.0 points
2.5: Cereals; cocoa puffs 1 cup
2.5: Cereals; cocoa puffs 1 cup
3.5: Goldfish
3.5: Goldfish
Soundless Music Shown to Produce Weird Sensations
"Mysteriously snuffed out candles, weird sensations and shivers down the spine may not be due to the presence of ghosts in haunted houses but to very low frequency sound that is inaudible to humans."
British scientists have shown in a controlled experiment that the extreme bass sound known as infrasound produces a range of bizarre effects in people including anxiety, extreme sorrow and chills -- supporting popular suggestions of a link between infrasound and strange sensations.
"Normally you can't hear it," Dr Richard Lord, an acoustic scientist at the National Physical Laboratory in England who worked on the project, said Monday.
Lord and his colleagues, who produced infrasound with a seven meter (yard) pipe and tested its impact on 750 people at a concert, said infrasound is also generated by natural phenomena.
"Some scientists have suggested that this level of sound may be present at some allegedly haunted sites and so cause people to have odd sensations that they attribute to a ghost -- our findings support these ideas," said Professor Richard Wiseman, a psychologist at the University of Hertfordshire in southern England.
In the first controlled experiment of infrasound, Lord and Wiseman played four contemporary pieces of live music, including some laced with infrasound, at a London concert hall and asked the audience to describe their reactions to the music.
The audience did not know which pieces included infrasound but 22 percent reported more unusual experiences when it was present in the music.
Their unusual experiences included feeling uneasy or sorrowful, getting chills down the spine or nervous feelings of revulsion or fear.
"These results suggest that low frequency sound can cause people to have unusual experiences even though they cannot consciously detect infrasound," said Wiseman, who presented his findings to the British Association science conference.
Infrasound is also produced by storms, seasonal winds and weather patterns and some types of earthquakes. Animals such as elephants also use infrasound to communicate over long distances or as weapons to repel foes.
"So much has been said about infrasound -- it's been associated with just about everything from beam weapons to bad driving. It's wonderful to be able to examine the evidence," said Sarah Angliss, a composer and engineer who worked on the project.
Organ music 'instills religious feelings'
"People who experience a sense of spirituality in church may be reacting to the extreme bass sound produced by some organ pipes."
Many churches and cathedrals have organ pipes that are so long they emit infrasound which at a frequency lower than 20 Hertz is largely inaudible to the human ear.
But in a controlled experiment in which infrasound was pumped into a concert hall, UK scientists found they could instill strange feelings in the audience at will.
These included an extreme sense of sorrow, coldness, anxiety and even shivers down the spine.
Infrasound has become the subject of intense study in recent years. Researchers have found that some animals, such as elephants, can communicate with low-frequency calls.
Infrasound can be detected at volcanoes and may provide a way to predict eruptions.
INFRASOUND STUDY
- Lies in the range 10-20 Hz
- On the cusp of our hearing
- Can vibrate internal organs
- Volcanoes emit infrasound
- Elephants and whales use it
To test the impact on an audience of extreme bass notes from an organ pipe, researchers constructed a seven-meter-long "infrasonic cannon" which they placed at the back of the Purcell Room, a concert hall in South London.
They then invited 750 people to report their feelings after listening to pieces of contemporary music intermittently laced sound from the cannon, played a 17 Hz at levels of 6-8 decibels.
The results showed that odd sensations in the audience increased by an average of 22% when the extreme bass was present.
"It has been suggested that because some organ pipes in churches and cathedrals produce infrasound this could lead to people having weird experiences which they attribute to God," said Professor Richard Wiseman, a psychologist from University of Hertfordshire.
"Some of the experiences in our audience included 'shivering on my wrist', 'an odd feeling in my stomach', 'increased heart rate', 'feeling very anxious', and 'a sudden memory of emotional loss'.
"This was an experiment done under controlled conditions and it shows infrasound does have an impact, and that has implications... in a religious context and some of the unusual experiences people may be having in certain churches."
Sarah Angliss, an engineer and composer in charge of the project, added: "Organ players have been adding infrasound to the mix for 500 years so maybe we're not the first generation to be 'addicted to bass'."
Details of the organ infrasound study are being presented to the British Association's annual science festival, which this year is in Salford, Greater Manchester.
Miami PBS station films skunk ape-seeking expedition
"David Shealy is once again ready for his close-up."
As Collier County's resident — and most high profile — expert on the mysterious skunk ape, Shealy will appear on "New Florida," a multiple Emmy award-winning public television news and lifestyle program, in late October.
Shealy will relate his tale of Southwest Florida's most pungent primate puzzle as part of the show's Halloween episode. Other Florida phenomena scheduled to be profiled for the show are a haunted ship in St. Augustine and the Cassadaga spiritualist community in Central Florida.
"It's a little more lighthearted than our typical weekly show," said Gabriela Vignolo, a publicist for Channel 2 WPBT in Miami, which produces "New Florida."
To the 40-year-old Shealy, though, the skunk ape is serious fare.
For years, he has appeared on TV shows such as "Unsolved Mysteries," "Inside Edition" and Comedy Central's "The Daily Show." He has made radio appearances. Soon, he hopes to be featured on a Los Angeles TV program hosted by comedian Steve Harvey.
Through these engagements, he aims to bring exposure to the legendary skunk ape.
"We've got an endangered species on our hands here, and people need to know about it," Shealy said.
Because it is a public television-produced show and Emmy award-winner, "New Florida" has a level of credibility Shealy finds appealing, he said.
"This is the quality-type stuff I like to do," Shealy said.
Frank Eberling, a "New Florida" contributing producer, remembers hearing of the skunk ape in the early 1970s, when he was working in West Palm Beach. There had been some alleged sightings in that area, and the skunk ape buzz was building.
When one of the senior producers at Channel 2 asked him to film a segment on the skunk ape, he was thrilled to comply, Eberling said.
"I like to do stories about people who are passionate about whatever they're doing, and Dave seems to fit that bill," Eberling said. "It's the old quest theme."
On Friday, Shealy took Eberling and Eberling's video camera into the mist and mire behind his Ochopee campground to search for the elusive 7-foot, reddish-brown skunk ape. Joining the pair was Michelle Maynard, a marine biologist and the first Miss Skunk Ape, crowned in June.
After trudging through the tall grass and mud, Shealy paused for Eberling to record the details of his boyhood brush with the beast.
He was just 10 years old, and out hunting with his brother, Jack, when they saw it.
"It didn't even cross our minds once to take a shot at it," Shealy recalled.
For a second take, Shealy fleshed out his memories even more. He described the surprise he and his brother felt at the sight, and their flight to escape. Later, he spoke about his 1999 attempt to receive money from tourist taxes to pay for his skunk ape research and promotion.
"Some people were skeptical about it," Shealy said. "I decided I was going to try and take those people who were skeptical and turn them into believers."
Dressed in faded jeans, a camouflage rain jacket, a black cowboy hat with a gator-tooth band and a gold gator necklace, Shealy looked every inch the backwoods adventurer for his interview.
And not an adventurer whose journey is near ending.
"There's no turning back now," Shealy said. "Collier County's got a skunk ape, whether they like it or not."
While skunk ape skeptics abound, Eberling said the purpose of the "New Florida" program isn't to be exploitative or controversial. It isn't to make believers or nonbelievers.
It's simply to share a South Florida story that has circulated for decades, he said.
"We're just going to present Dave's story and people can draw their own conclusions," Eberling said.
Collier Time-Warner Cable customers can make those conclusions next month by watching WPBT's "New Florida" on channel 14. Check local listings for times and availability. WPBT is not carried by Comcast Cable.
Search is on for Abominable Snowman
"Over the next six weeks, a group of Japanese explorers hopes to solve one of the last great mysteries of the animal world and provide proof that the legendary yeti, or Abominable Snowman, does indeed exist."
The seven-member expedition, supported by The Asahi Shimbun, is spending 40 days to find the creature, which supposedly is hairy and ape-like.
The team, led by alpinist Yoshiteru Takahashi, 60, is concentrating the search around Nepal's 8,172-meter Dhaulagiri, the world's seventh highest peak. Four members are veteran climbers of the Himalayas.
The adventurers set up their base camp on a grassy plateau about 4,300 meters above sea level, according to reports reaching The Asahi Shimbun on Friday. The camp is just southeast of the 6,273-meter Myagdi Matha peak. The area is dotted with white, blue and yellow alpine plants.
The team set off for base camp with 140 guides and porters on Aug. 17, and initially was scheduled to arrive on Aug. 23. Progress was hampered by continuous rain and steep cliffs in the jungle, adding six days to the journey.
There have been numerous yeti sightings in the area.
Some say the creature walks on two legs, has long arms and dark hair, either red or gray.
The team has set up 17 infrared cameras at points along trails they believe yeti use.
Rather than try to follow a yeti to its lair, team members will lie in wait, hoping to photograph the creature. They also plan to set up two other observation camps, which will be equipped with telescopes.
In Tibetan, the word yeti means "magical creature.''
Two more babies! Join my vampire flock! See if you can hit 1000 pints by Halloween! I wonder if I can get the clan to 100 blood suckers by then?
You are sire to 48 other vampires, including: LdySaphyre (6707 pints), Liliana (2443 pints), MissV (2321 pints), mixedresults (1246 pints), gilbella (1166 pints), Morgoth (399 pints), Sierina (190 pints), phenrill (131 pints), Blade-Killer (118 pints), DEATHBEAR (112 pints)
posted by Scottobear at
4:04:00 PM
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