Space Part Twelve

Build your own Lost in Space Robot!

Or just buy one, that'd be sooooo Dr. Smith of you.

Billy Mummy has his own site. Are you surprised? Rock on astrodude!

More Lost in Space Links than you thought was humanly possible.

Space Part Eleven

Attilio Mineo: Man in Space
"This is the holy grail of Space Age Pop Music."

And it's available for download as part of Planet Xtabay's top 10 exotica albums...
But you probably already read Planet Xtabay, so I don't know why I'm bothering to tell you this...

Space Part Ten

John Hersey is probably best remembered for Hiroshima, a harrowing oral retelling of that city's atomic bombing, which famously took up an entire issue of the New Yorker in 1945. Ever the consumate craftsman, Hersey's sharp eye and razor-precise writing style won him a considerable amount of recognition over the course of his 50 year career. His brillance was not confined to one style or genre; not only did he reinvent journalism with Hiroshima, he also won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction for his World War II tale A Bell for Adano and helped introduce modern true-crime reporting with the Algiers Hotel Incident.

In 1974, Hersey tried his hand at speculative fiction, the results of which became My Petition for More Space. A taut distopian tale, the novel imagines a future world ground to a near standstill by the twin forces of overpopulation and beuracracy. Each citizen is alloted a mere 8X12 foot area of personal space, and the last remnant of open space can only be viewed through a window after hours in line. Although politically a true product of its time (why don't we pay attention to overpopulation anymore?) the novel's unconventional narrative (the entire book takes place while the main character waits in line) remains compelling.

My Petition for More Space

John Hersey

Space Part Nine

Few people realize in these days when satellite dishes are found on every other rooftop that, back in the early sixties somewhere in the hilltops near the northern italian city of Turin, two young italian brothers were prying into the most guarded secrets of the mighty Soviet Union. The space race was in full swing, providing the battleground for a vital propaganda confrontation between East and West, in the midst of the cold war.
The Judica-Cordiglia brothers, sons of one of Europe's foremost pathologists, set up a listening post which probed the cosmos and successfully tracked all the early american and soviet unmanned satellites.
The geographical location of their station proved particularly suitable for the reception of soviet space vehicles, which regularly overflew Northern Italy during their approach to the soviet tracking centers in the Caucasus.
Using an array of advanced equipment, the two young italians soon learned which radio frequencies to monitor and how to predict the overfly times of the various space probes.
One day in early 1961, weeks before Yuri Gagarin's epic space flight, instead of the usual beeping tones which they had become accustomed to hear, they were startled by a sound which signaled a new chapter in the history of mankind: there, in the listening center of "Torre Bert", these two young students heard, clearly and unequivocally, the beat of a failing heart and the last gasping breaths of a dying cosmonaut.

from The Lost Cosmonauts

Phantom Cosmonauts

Bonus!

Space Helmet and Goggles: $1.99!

Chance Meeting on the Internet

Ever since it was included in the Chance Meeting on a Dissecting Table of a Sewing Machine and an Umbrella LP in 1979, Nurse With Wound's list of obscure psychedelic, prog and otherwise experimental artists has been the Holy Grail for obsessed acid-addled record collector nerds. Luckily, with the advent of the internet, us nerds no longer have to go into the world (a scary place where we are often mocked for our poor hygiene and allegiance to black tshirts) to hear these compiled musical wonders. Instead, thanks to a high-speed internet connection, aural oddities and bent musical visions are but a mouse click away...

Adventures in the NWW List
WFMU's William Berger has been providing an overview of the list. He's up to part five.

Insect & Individual
A new blog offering full album downloads of artists from the list. Ladies & gentlemen, charge up yr rapid share accounts.

The List

The Official NWW site

Space Part Eight

Zolar X, a Los Angeles glitter rock band circa 1972 to 1981, were never out of character. Their various costumes included antennas, wing-like shoulder pads, Brian Jones hairdos, space-boots, and skintight body suits. They conversed ceaselessly in an alien dialect of their own invention - entertaining, but sometimes infuriating the public at large.

Zolar X’s saga began in the late 60's/early 70's, with Ygarr Ygarrist (Steven Della Bosca) and bassist Zany Zatovian (Bruce Courtois) dreaming of a space-age concept band. Influences included The Who, Bowie, The Beatles, Bernard Hermann and Wendy Carlos.

In the early 70's, singer Zory Zenith (Billy McCartney) drummed in LA's first glam-rock band Shady Lady. Inspired by Bowie, Billy cut his hair in a space-like fashion, but he soon ran into Zany and Ygarr who had similar haircuts. Fate interviened, Shady Lady folded and Zolar X was born.

This brief history was excerpted from the article Moonage Daydreams, A Personality Crisis, and The Gospel of Zolar X by Chuck Nolan - 2004.

Zolar X -L.A.'s first glam rock band

Zolar X mp3s at Alternative Tentacles

Space Part Seven

SAN FRANCISCO ( AP ) - The late astronomer and author Carl Sagan was a secret but avid marijuana smoker, crediting it with inspiring essays and scientific insight, according to Sagan's biographer.

Using the pseudonym "Mr. X'', Sagan wrote about his pot smoking in an essay published in the 1971 book "Reconsidering Marijuana.'' The book's editor, Lester Grinspoon, recently disclosed the secret to Sagan's biographer, Keay Davidson.

Davidson, a writer for the San Francisco Examiner, revealed the marijuana use in an article published in the newspaper's magazine Sunday. "Carl Sagan: A Life'' is due out in October.

"I find that today a single joint is enough to get me high ... in one movie theater recently I found I could get high just by inhaling the cannabis smoke which permeated the theater,'' wrote Sagan, who authored popular science books such as "Cosmos,'' "Contact,'' and "The Dragons of Eden.''

In the essay, Sagan said marijuana inspired some of his intellectual work.

"I can remember one occasion, taking a shower with my wife while high, in which I had an idea on the origins and invalidities of racism in terms of gaussian distribution curves,'' wrote the former Cornell University professor. "I wrote the curves in soap on the shower wall, and went to write the idea down.

Sagan also wrote that pot enhanced his experience of food, particularly potatoes, music and sex.

Carl Sagan's Baloney Detection Kit

You Get Dick

Was it Phil's fault God talked to him or was it God's?

Confessions of a Crap Artist on BBC Radio 4

The Religious Experience of Philip K Dick by R Crumb

Space Part Six

As a five year old in Monaco, Didier MAROUANI began his classical music studies in piano, notation and harmonics. At the age of fifteen, he entered the Paris Conservatoire and was to graduate with a second prize in Piano and a first in music notation. Didier began composing songs at the early age of ten to have his first recorded song two years later.

1975 :
First LP as an acclaimed singer in France. He also went on tours with JOHNNY HALLYDAY, JOE DASSIN and CLAUDE FRANÇOIS.

1977 :
More interested by composition than singing and looking for international recognition, he formed the group SPACE, composing all its music under the pseudonym : ECAMA.It was propelled to the top of all Hit-Parades. MAGIC FLY became number one in the world (N° 1 in record sales, as well as radio and club hit parades in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Scandinavia, South America, England, the Soviet Union, reaching the number one spot in the United Sates National Disco charts. A contract was signed with Casablanca Records, where the band's third album was to rank number 45 in Billboard's record sales).
The song « CARRY ON TURN ME ON » was the first French song to reach n° 1 in the Billboard dance charts.
In all, the three SPACE albums sold more than 10 million records. The French Foreign Trade Minister André Rossi awarded Didier many golden records for having achieved one of the most important successes within the French record industry..

Listen to Space (Real Media)

Space Part Five

Our aim is to build the world's largest scale model of the Solar System, in the UK. The Sun will be located at the world-famous Jodrell Bank Observatory in Cheshire, with six of its attendant planets dotted around the North West of England ...

* An exciting fusion of Science, Technology and Art
* 18 'artistic installations' will represent the Sun, planets, Halley's comet asteroids and Kuiper Belt objects
* Models to be sited within school grounds and sites of astronomical interest
* A scale of 1:15 million will embrace the whole UK, from Cornwall to the Shetland Isles
* Major involvement of school pupils and local communities
* A unique national resource for education and public outreach
* Nine installations to be completed by Spring 2005


You'll be interested to know that Uranus (represented by the sculpture pictured above) is located in Bath. It is in the exact spot where Uranus was discovered in 1781. I had no idea that we've known about Uranus for that long. I also wonder: is this the first time Uranus has been in (a) bath?

The Spaced Out Project

verdantPIGS

Big Deal. I've been green and glow-in-the-dark for years...yet I don't get a mention on BoingBoing.

The Glow-in-the-Dark Green Pigs of Taiwan

Space Part Four

"I am Semjase. I come from the Pleiades - the seven sisters. There are many people who have made claims that what they have written are my words. Sometimes this is factual. Other times it is the fanciful ideas from persons minds. Some of my words have been spoken and written truthfully, yet on most occasion they are added to, deleted from, or interpreted in such a way that the final message is diluted compared to the original.

I am here to clarify the misconceptions surrounding the messages that are spoken and written concerning my words to varying peoples of Earth. Foremost, I am often depicted as someone else, and photographic images of earth females have been used as an example of what I look like. Any photographic images appearing from this author are not of my own image, but are comparable to my image. I desire not fraudulent claims, and am disappointed that some peoples have made such fraudulent claims concerning photographic images bearing a resemblence to my own image.

I clarify to you that I am obedient to the will of the Creator - the one whom you call "God." God has also had many misconceptions, and has been portrayed by many images, but the truth is that God cannot be portrayed by any image created by mortal beings of any world or realm.

I travel through space and time by dimensional shifting in what you consider the spirit-realm outside of the dimension you exist in. In this manner I can be perceived and channeled, but many who have connected with my essence have added their own interpretation to their experience. These things should not be - I wish they not to be so, but they have nonetheless been done."

Semjasebluestar

Space Part Three

The books and charts by Clarence Larkin have been extremely helpful to Christians since they were first published over 75 years ago. They have passed into the public domain and we are making some of the charts available here as an aid to Bible study. Larkin's charts are well thought out and Scriptually sound. Some of the more detailed are books in themselves. They reveal Larkin's vast knowledge of the Scriptures and phenomenal grasp of prophecy. Practically all of the prophecy teachers today got their basic prophecy knowledge directly or indirectly from Larkin and C. I. Scolfield. Larkin's works, as well as Scolfield's, are definitive, works that will endure until Christ's return. No other book since their publishing over 75 years ago has much improved on them.

Bible Charts by Clarence Larkin

Link courtesy Godlorica

Space Part Two

A new infrared mosaic from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope offers a stunning view of the stellar hustle and bustle that takes place at our Milky Way galaxy's center. The picture shows throngs of mostly old stars, on the order of hundreds of thousands, amid fantastically detailed clouds of glowing dust lit up by younger, massive stars.

Spitzer Captures Our Galaxy's Bustling Center

Everybody down the rabbit hole....

"LSD spoke to me," Mr. Hofmann said with an amused, animated smile. "He came to me and said, 'You must find me.' He told me, 'Don't give me to the pharmacologist, he won't find anything.' "

Happy Birthday Albert Hofman

In more acid news...

Historical Acid Films

Psychedelic Light Show

Links courtesy the always trippy Grow-a-Brain

That's right...I played the zither-uh...

Excuse me...Didn't you used to be in the Fall?

Space Part One

Is the universe spatially infinite or spatially finite? If it is spatially infinite, what are the consequences of this? For example, are there an infinite number of stars and planets, with an infinite number of civilizations – including an infinite number of civilizations like ours?

There is a good amount of evidence for the hypothesis that the space is infinite. For example, empirical measurements of the global curvature of spacetime suggest that spacetime is globally flat, which entails that the universe is spatially infinite. (See for example Bahcall et. al. 1999 for details.) Also, the basic theory of inflationary cosmology is now widely accepted, and inflationary cosmology strongly suggests that the universe is spatially infinite. (See for example Guth 2000, p. 571 or Garriga and Vilenkin 2001 for details.) But how compelling is this evidence? To what extent is this evidence compatible with the hypothesis that the spacetime is almost flat? (In an almost flat universe, if one kept going in one direction, one could eventually come back to one’s spatial starting point, but the path travelled would be very long.)

Assuming that space is infinite, one could argue that what exists in distant, unobserved regions of space is not substantially different from what exists in this region of space, and hence one could infer that stars and planets exist in those regions of space as well. With an infinite number of planets, as long as the range of initial conditions varies sufficiently across the different planets, one would fully expect life to exist in an infinite number of locations. (For discussion of this point, see for example Ellis and Brundrit 1979.) How many civilizations would be a lot like ours? How many civilizations would be exactly like ours?

From 'Is Space Infinite?' by Bradley Monton

International Society for the Advanced Study of Spacetime