Anna points out that this picture is edited because it’s cropped. It’s true. So maybe it would be better to call this, Jeff Cropped. But it’s up to you. Oh, I almost forgot to mention, I just got my haircut. What do you think?

Canada’s Federal Court has ruled that the Canadian Recording Industry Association was not able to prove copyright infringement by the uploaders it sued. The judge also said that under our country’s copyright law, downloading is not illegal.

A couple of days ago I received the following email. Those interested in my backmasking page might find this interesting.

Your site really got me interested in looking up information about this and I took a lot of what I already knew and compared it to the things I learned to get a pretty good idea about these backward messages.

Here’s someone else’s lyrics for the whole song…
http://web.stargate.net/zeppelin/
features/sth-reversed/index.html
Interesting how if you read the part where it says
“And all the evil, it was there, they made our souls must have Satan” and you listen to it, I still sounds like this is correct, but if you read your version it does too, I heard ’sad satan’ before I read your lyrics

I listened to your part of the clip before reading the lyrics and I could hear some key things in it (666,sad satan,oh satan )but the other parts were very tough to interpret. Once someone reads the lyrics and sees them as one thing, it is hard for your mind to view as anything else until you see it a different way.

Link from http://www.popex.com/ — if you go here it explains that it really doesn’t have to be satanic, and probably isn’t. The forward version says “yes there are two paths you can go by, but in the long run there’s still time to change the road you’re on.” It basically says that this guy believes that he’s saying the path to satin will make you said, he also proposes the idea that satan may be a metaphor for all sadness and suffering.

If you go to http://www.reversespeech.com/
Simple_Examples.htm it will give you many examples of things people said that say something else backwards. The guy on this site studies it.
I read partially from this site but mostly from some other site that the subconscious mind can interpret things backwards, and understands it as fact. However conscious decision making skills can override your subconscious mind. I learned before this that your instinct is based on facts you have gather. According to some, the more times you have heard those messages played backward, the more you get in your head to do these thing till it becomes a point where your instinct tells you to do something.

You should also check out Queen’s “another one bites the dust” backwards if you haven’t heard about it already. I won’t tell you what it says backwards, because I think your view may change on what it says but it was pretty clear to me, even before I heard what the lyrics were. However I read from some biased article (with no actual proof) that 80% of people who hear “another one bites the dust” backwards didn’t know what it was until given the lyrics where 100% said they thought that was correct.

Another freaky thing is the pokemon rap where it says “gotta catch em all” backwards says “oh satan, oh satan” sounds freaky, it can be found here, with many other clips of songs that appear to say something backward.
http://www.undergroundnoize.com/

I have really let my homework add up. I don’t want this to come off whiney because, number 1 there isn’t really THAT much that I have to do, and number 2 it’s my own fault for not doing these assignments sooner, but for the record this is what I have to do in the next couple days/week. I have 5 abstracts (short one page papers) for New Media Seminar to do, a 10 page Art History paper with a ton of specifications (like 5 sources and a million citations), 2 three page long concert reviews to write, and 2 concerts to attend (so that I have something to review). I wonder if my Music History Prof. would count the BareNaked Ladies concert? After all, the songs from “Gordon” are getting old enough to be classics.

Time to replace your old Periodic Table. …a joint American-Russian team has found two new elements—numbers 113 and 115 on the periodic table—hinting at an impending breakthrough in creating novel forms of matter that will test our understanding of atomic behavior.

Penny Arcade forums presents Bohemian Rhapsody for the Deaf. But in the event that you are not deaf, I recommend playing it in the background while you translate it.

Update: It appears this link has been removed from Penny Arcade. I don’t know of any mirrors - sorry.

A little while ago I blogged about the ghost town of Pripyat. There is an interesting article about a woman that drives her motorcycle through the dead zone that I wanted to link to, but her site was down. It’s now back up, updated with pictures from spring of 2004, and it is a tremendously facinating look at the Chernobyl area 18 years later.

In Ukrainian language Chernobyl is a name for a grass, wormwood (absinth) This word scares holly bejesus out of people here. If I tell someone that I am heading in a “dead zone”… you know, what I hear.. In best case- “are you nuts?” My dad used to say that people afraid of a thing which they can not see, can not feel, can not smell and that kills. Dad is nuclear physicist and he also says that of all dangerous things in my life, he can only think about one, which is riding my bike on fifth or sixth gear. In any way, dad and their team work in “dead zone” for last 18 years. They doing researches from the day when nuclear disaster happened. The rest of guys in a team are microbiologists, doctors, botanists.. etc. I was 7 years old back in 1986 and in a few hours after accident happened dad sent us with sister off with the train to Grandmother. Granny lives 800 kms from here and dad wasn’t sure if it was far enough for us to stay away of troubles. Communists kept silence about this accident. In Kiev, they forced people to take part in their stupid labor day parade and then people start learning about accident from foreign radio, from relatives of those who died and real panic began in 7-10 days after accident. Dad says, that in those first 10 days exposure to radiation was the most powerful and can not even be compared with what we have now.

Update (April 30, 2004): The Author is no longer hosting the site. She made this statement:

“‘Ghost Town’ site that was linked to this page ended existance. My purpose to show people Chernobyl is achieved. Site was viewed more then 3 million times within 2 month. I am no longer able to pay for this traffic and I had no other choice as to close this site.

For some it became weapon, for others the subject for speculations. I am out of this.., I just wanted to show people Chernobyl. I did this for free, for no fame and I did this with love for my country. If someone do not like my story, then write a better one and do not try to damp others..

Site was mirrored and copied by many people and it must be somewhere on the internet. Time will show if this is one day popularity or if it has value in itself..

I am no longer able to control or update those sites. A big thanks to people who maintain it after I quit. Also, thanks to Richard Wilson and Leonid Pankratov the authors of some photos. I got permission for using their photos on my site.

I am not involved in any commerce. Anyone who would attempt to profit from this tragedy, and those people who tried to this using my name and my site as tool to make money should be ashamed of themselves.”

Although it should be noted that I found someone has copied her site and is hosting it at: http://www.kiddofspeed.com/. I think it is safe to assume she is not the recipient of any pay pal donations to this site.

Update (May 22, 2004):Apparently the solo motocycle part was a hoax, but everything else was true.

Another Update (December 20, 2005): Her site is back up with some additional photos from new trips through the dead zone. See my post on the Land of the Wolves.

Aerogel will be used on the STARDUST spacecraft to capture comet particles from Comet Wild 2. The pics are amazing. They look fake, but they come from the NASA web site.

To collect particles without damaging them, Stardust uses an extraordinary substance called aerogel. This is a silicon-based solid with a porous, sponge-like structure in which 99.8 percent of the volume is empty space. By comparison, aerogel is 1,000 times less dense than glass, which is another silicon-based solid. When a particle hits the aerogel, it buries itself in the material, creating a carrot-shaped track up to 200 times its own length. This slows it down and brings the sample to a relatively gradual stop. Since aerogel is mostly transparent - with a distinctive smoky blue cast - scientists will use these tracks to find the tiny particles.

I can’t say I’m ready to publish my blog, but when I am I will think of Blogbinder.com. “Blogbinders.com helps you turn your blog into a bound book—great as a gift, an archive, or even to sell to your readers!”

War Rationale: Version 10.0 - In the year since the invasion of Iraq, the Bush administration has repeatedly shifted its justification for going to war and constantly changed its story on the ‘imminent threat’ of Saddam Hussein, weapons of mass destruction, intelligence, Iraqi connections with al Qaeda, the United Nations, political transition, democracy in Iraq, and the cost to the American taxpayer. We all know (almost) everything about it by now, but if you can hold back the tears long enough to laugh, you might find this account hilarious.

I think the best thing the people in charge of Star Trek could do is Bring Back Kirk.

Fans of Star Trek have put together a nine minute trailer of a fictional movie that reunites all the characters from all the Star Trek series. It’s easily the best fan produced video I’ve ever seen.

My new favorite site at which I like to hang. It’s a collaborative flash site that allows users to paint with their mouse’s in a shared space. Click on expand chat to see the artwork.

Update (August 1st, 2005): It appears the site is down.

Update: It’s back.

Here is a great summer activity, probably the biggest thing to hit the UK since Marmite.

“Q: What do you think happens when you throw a slice of processed cheese (without removing the plastic wrapping) onto a lit barbeque?” The answer? Cheese Racing!

Check out the incredible videos of a table saw that can tell the difference between wood and skin. It’s something you have to see to believe; I recommend both the regular and super high speed videos.

The SawStop system works by recognizing the difference in the electrical properties of wood and a user. The system induces a high-frequency electrical signal on the blade of a table saw and monitors this signal for changes caused by contact between the blade and a user’s body. The signal remains unchanged when the blade cuts wood because of the relatively small inherent electrical capacitance and conductivity of wood. However, when a user contacts the blade while the saw is operating, the electrical signal changes because of the relatively large inherent capacitance of the user’s body.

In the videos, the saw blade is rotating at 4000 rpm. The blade is stopped in less than 5 milliseconds. It can make the difference between needing a Band-Aid or a hand surgeon.

Old Sailor sent me a plastic message in response to the unofficial trading card I made about him.

Thanks, friend.

Your card reminds me of when I was a lad, trading driftwood paintings of our favorite nautical heroes.

So happy sails to you, and take it from this old sailor, a fair greeting is as rare as a Berlin pearl fish, and half again as long.

Yours,
Old Sailor