Excavation on Syrian-Turkish border echoes wars of the past
As if to demonstrate the endless cycles of war that human beings are prone to, one of the most important archaeological sites in Turkey lies on their border with Syria and also happens to have been the site of a famous Biblical battle. The site is called Karkemish, a rich tapestry of temples, palaces and carvings depicting the world as it was dozens of centuries in the past. And for one reason or another, it has been quite the task for archaeologists to finally get the site unearthed.
The first record of war in this area comes in the defeat of Assyrian and Egyptian armies at the hands of the Babylonians, more than 5000 years ago. From there, the history of the region is mostly unrecorded, until it was found once more and set for excavation.
The world famous T.E. Lawrence (better known as Lawrence of Arabia) was part of one of the original attempts to clear away the earth from the location, though that attempt was stopped by war as well - World War I to be precise. When workers went back, again they were stopped, this time by a conflict between the Turks and French in the region.
The message behind Karkemish seems to be that war will always repeat itself. For thousands of years people have been killing each other, and that’s only what we know from recorded history. Today, it’s Syrians doing the killing, bringing their own echoes of the past. It is ironic that this important battle site is being consistently halted by war, as if to remind us of something.
Excavators hope to have the site open so that the public can view it by the year 2014, though the presence of the Syrian Civil War makes that timeline questionable. A fair portion of the site is on the Turkish site and is already being overrun by settlers there. Not to mention the possibility of war coming to the area.
Hopefully, none of the site will end up more damaged than it already has been over the last century. And maybe human beings will learn something from this - that war leads to little more than destruction and that we must learn the lessons of the past in order to have a better future.
Richie Hawtin's CNTRL tour educates and entertains
Electronic dance music veteran Richie Hawtin wants to teach fans about the history of the genre. As the electronic dance music gains even more ground with the masses, he thinks that it is important to educate fans as well as to entertain them. The fact is that most of the people now listening to EDM are new to the genre and ignorant of its past.
To eliminate that ignorance, the Canadian-born DJ has launched his CNTRL tour, with friend Loco Dice, another DJ/producer. Together the two will travel to 17 college campuses across the U.S., teaching students about the roots of EDM and introducing them to the artists who built the genre, like Carl Craig, Josh Wink and Tiga among others. It is also about getting new people interested in the music and drawing them in.
Hawtin grew up in Windsor, Ontario and under various aliases like “Plastikman,” has been producing minimalist techno since the 1990s. He is also a co-founder of a record label called Plus 8. Yassine ben Achour, otherwise known as Loco Dice comes from a Tunisian family, but grew up in Germany.
According to Hawtin, what is happening now with the EDM scene in the U.S. is similar to what occurred in the 1990s with raves. It appeared that EDM was going to be a permanently popular genre, but it did not work out that way. This tour appears to be about helping the genre to be more than just a passing fad.
Aside from Hawtin’s lectures on EDM’s history, topics will include Loco Dice lecturing on the use of old school DJ techniques with the technology available today, as well as Johannes Kramer (Hawtin’s sound technician) lecturing on the value of having good sound quality. The tour began in late October and is presently underway.
Ingress
Recently Google rolled out "Ingress," an augmented reality based MMO that is played in the REAL world via an Android app, which makes the whole thing a pretty big win in my book. I don't know the mechanics yet as I’m waiting on my invite, but anything that opens up a new level of interaction is always a welcome sight.
The basic concept to the game's plot is based on a mysterious energy that was discovered by European scientists and is theorized to be influencing the way humans think and develop. From this, two factions are born: the enlightened and the resistance.
One seeking to embrace the power, the other to stop it and preserve our way of life. How you actually play it comes though the use of an Android device. This will let you find and tap into these mysterious energy hot spots. You pick up items and new technology as you try to capture and control territory for your faction, becoming allies with, or rivals against other people.
Though I'm still "waiting," I'm actually pretty excited to see how this whole game plays out. My hopes are that this more serious stab at IRL-based augmented realities will eventually lead to new innovations in the gaming industry and further more applications for augmented reality.
There have been more than a few stabs at it. There's a man in Japan who created his VR girlfriend via home brewed Augmented reality glasses, as well as Google flirting with a similar concept for future versions of Android powered VR/AR glasses. May make dealing with spam bots and such IRL a little more tricky though. I'm pretty sure real world powers would frown on taking an ax to spammers and wow babies.
The Paradox: A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away.
Common geek debate: “A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away.” How long and how far? When did the stories from Star Wars play out in pace with our own history and how far and what galaxy are they in? Thanks to some pseudo sci-fi, science there could be an answer to that and it's all because of E.T.
On of the trademarked lines for E.T. was “Three million light years in the making.” This would leave E.T.'s point of origin as the far edge of the Andromeda Galaxy as the only real place he could have come from. With Andromeda itself being 2.5 million light years away, that half a million light years would cover the expanse of the monster Galaxy.
Now remember, E.T. is a canon Star Wars species, going by their given “people of the green planet.” On all known Star Wars Galaxy maps, the "PotGP" live on the edges near the unknown regions (or Galactic Northwest for you SW geeks).
During the Clone War, E.T.'s people were able to get funding from the Republic and the Techno-union to fund an extra galactic exploration. The psudo math comes in with the idea that a standard hyper drive could cover 120,000 light years in a few hours by playing with the different classes of hyper-drive, etc. Now go back to E.T. and his arrival in the early '80s on Earth. (Rremember he Saw the kid in the Yoda costume and called for home).
One date I've heard as to “when” sets the battle of Yavin (from New Hope) as not so long ago- suggesting that it happened in 2002. WTF?! So there is now a paradox because by the time E.T. was on Earth, there was already a film made about the Battle of Yavin, and even the battle of Hoth (as seen by the Yoda costume) to which were still over 10 years away from happening! Math people, fix this for me; my brain hurts.
It's the most obnoxious time of the year
I don't care for your ears. It's the most obnoxious time of the year! Alright, I got that out of my system. Mostly. I'm still humming it though. I know, I know, what is this person babbling about? I'll tell you what: holiday season. I'm not the biggest holiday fan really; I think that's clear by now. It's not the holidays themselves I'm ranting about right now. It's the prep work involved.
Where I live, we have very short autumns. Winter comes in fast. There is a very, very small window of "potentially" nice fall weather in which to get up onto the roof to put up Christmas lights before it's covered in half a foot of snow and ice and daytime temperatures drop below the freezing mark as a “very warm high temperature.”
That means I need to do everything sooner than I would like to. It feels odd too, having Christmas decorations set up so early. It's made worse by the ever-so-simple cat that they also will not come back down until late March or early April when enough snow has melted to be able to safely use a massive hook and slide them off without causing a major avalanche.
I do like that I get to make ice lanterns, however. That is always something to look forward to. Another perk is an excuse to stay inside and work on art projects more and potentially finish them. Or, at least start them. The little perk does not take away me dreading the remainder of days from now until mid January being more or less booked solid with things dedicated to holidays that hold zero meaning here other than "habit."
Twinkies CAN die after all
It's widely known by now: Hostess is going under thanks to slumping sales and a trade union strike that says "no deals made," leading the creator of empty calorie goodness to file for bankruptcy. Now I'm not going to get into the business end of this or one's opinion on corporations vs. unions etc.
Though I find it funny that when a company says “We need to cut wages OR lay people off to stay afloat" and the union tries to call their bluff, saying it's BS, but then the company goes under. It IS sort of an epic fail moment. Now, instead of making slightly less they all are making none (moreover, the people who were on the lower end and NOT part of the union). That is as far into this as I'll get because it is not the important part.
What is REALLY important is the loss of Twinkies! FINE, I admit I didn’t really like them. I liked Zingers better. They were colorful, but I WAS planning on making a fortress out of them one day and test just how well they would fare against canon fire. This also means no Ding Dongs. That is also a shame.
Those I could enjoy eating, but I also enjoyed throwing them onto the ice at hockey games. It really is pretty heartbreaking to see such an iconic company go down, even if they did nothing but aid to a fatter world, though I don't think they will be gone for good. True, they will never be the same Hostess, but brands and identities can be sold. The Twinkie kid may yet ride again someday.
SWTOR: Where is the love?
It's been some time now since it was mentioned. Actually the inclusion of same gendered romances in Star Wars, the Old Republic have been known about since the game was developed. Now drawing closer and closer to the one-year making since launch and we still don't have it, much worse, nobody is saying anything about it.
It was stated at launch that it had to be held out of the initial launch because of budget and time issues, further stated by “ then” lead writer Daniel Erickson (last March) that they also wanted to completely re-write new stories for companions you could romance. Ever since then, there has been a virtual blackout on ANY information regarding this.
The only glimpses came from Principal Lead PvP Designer Gabe Amatangelo who in an interview stated he “thought” it was going to come in the “MakeB" update, which has no ETA as of now. Current Lead Writer Hall Hood then tweeted and stated "Here's the official word, folks." The tweet was then oddly and suddenly removed. We assume this large story based patch that was mentioned during a guild summit over would hold the SGR content. “This year” in business terms can differ greatly from what's on our calendars, so who knows.
What's more frustrating is that every other subject seems to be acknowledged and talked about by developers, except this issue. When they host weekly Q&A and some 80 percent of the questions are about this very issue? You think they would say something. They don't. People don't want spoilers; we want to at least know we're still people too, despite shoving the topic into the back rooms of the forum.
There are technical questions. Many people want to know what to do with their companions. Do they go ahead and keep building affection with them? Is there a point where they are “cut off” from being able to pursue a relationship? Will they be able to still start one even late in the game? Many people are on their 4th or 5th level 50 character by now. It would be nice to hear SOMETHING from the company whom just recently won an award for being the most LGBT friendly company to work for.
Little hint though: play a Female smuggler or Female bounty hunter. You will find two same-sex "flings" with female quest givers. Let's not even get started on the lack of not only missing same sex “[Flirt]” option, but how female characters get screwed in that department in general.
Another happy ending
A couple of weeks ago, I blogged about a kitten I adopted that was dumped at the barn where I board my horses. At the time the momma cat hadn't been seen in a while, so we assumed she was dead or gone. Then I started hearing reports of her being seen, and set out to catch her.
It took a week or two, but we finally caught the cat -- only it wasn't the mother. It was an adult spayed female, and we aren't sure whether the momma ever was dumped with the kittens, or whether this cat showed up at about the same time and everyone assumed she was the momma.
What was perfectly clear, though, was that this cat had no business being an outdoor cat at all, let alone a barn cat: She was declawed. I really don't know what her previous owners were thinking when they dumped her, since without claws she was defenseless -- not that claws would have done much good against a coyote, but at least it might have helped -- not to mention she would have a hard time catching mice and rabbits (the entire point of a barn cat, last I checked).
My mom, who is planning on keeping her as long as she gets along with the other cats, took the cat to the vet and she is in surprisingly good health for having been dumped about a month ago. She is probably two or three years old, the vet said. I suspect that she has been an indoor cat all her life, until her previous owners decided they couldn't keep her, and dumped her at the barn -- and, never having been outside before, she freaked out and stayed hidden.
We think she was living under a small building at the barn, since that's where she was always seen. I also suspect that someone was feeding her (even before I started leaving food out in an effort to catch her), and that's why she isn't skinny from her ordeal. Despite being very affectionate, she is scared by pretty much everything, and I don't think she would have lasted much longer if we hadn't caught her, especially with winter coming on.
The extreme selfishness of people never fails to amaze me -- to declaw this poor cat, and then to decide they don't want it anymore, and instead of taking it to a shelter where she will hopefully find a good home, dumping her in an environment where survival is tricky at best even for a cat with claws! What were her previous owners thinking? ****
Blogging success
Blogging can be one of the best things you can do to make money online in small amounts. However, some people like to blog for fun and need to keep some people interested in coming back to their blog on a regular basis. Here are two things you can do to keep the traffic coming to your blog on a regular basis.
Fresh produce for Thanksgiving dinner
Thanksgiving is just around the corner and many Americans will start to look at fresh produce in their local grocery stores. To help people get the best looking produce though, they need to have some information on what they should be looking for in the produce to ensure they are selecting the proper varieties. Once people know what to look for, it is simple to select the highest quality produce around.