8.13.05 - "The Mother of All Articles"

Relax the Ego. Face yourself and know yourself. Identify your Ego and learn to relax it. The most powerful magic that can be done on earth.

There are clues to recognizing the Ego. You know that avatar of you on WoW, that level 43 orc warrior? Well, if technology keeps up, Teamspeak is just the very tip of the iceberg. Full immersion into a computer game. That avatar has more than just your voice, you can see through its eyes, move its body, be it.

Now step back. You’re playing a game. That avatar isn’t you, is it? Well, in a way it is – it has your voice, and it acts as you desire it. So maybe it is you. Maybe you get lost playing, forget you are playing at all . . .

Step back again. That person reading this – that’s your Ego. Just a step back from an avatar.

Want to project/phase/explore infinty? Well, then let’s step back . . .

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6.23.04 - "Polar Shift"

The pole was located for the first time in 1831 by James Ross in the arctic (during which his ship was stuck in the ice for four years). No one returned until 1904 when Roald Amundsen found the pole again and also that it had moved at least 50 km since Ross's time. The pole kept moving throughout the 20th century, going north at an average speed of 10 km per year, but accelerating to 40 km per year. So far during the last century it has moved 1100 km. At this rate, it will reach Siberia in about 50 years. Compass needles in Africa are drifting about 1 degree per decade. Globally, the magnetic field has weakened 10 percent since the 19th century.

This leads to the issue of complete pole reversals.

According to the magnetism of ancient rocks, pole reversals are unpredictable. Their intervals of occurrence average about 700,000 years between them. The last reversal happened 780,000 years ago. There have been over 400 reversals in the last 300 million years. When the poles reverse, however, the magnetic field does not vanish. The magnetic lines of force will become more twisted and tangled, and magnetic poles might pop up in unusual places, but the field will still protect the earth from solar radiation.

Is the current activity unusual? No. The magnetic field is increasing or decreasing all the time. Even if the present trend continues, the poles will not be mid-way through a complete reversal (during which time the magnetic field will be reduced 10% - 25%) for about 1,500 years (with a possibility ranging between 8,000 and 1,000 years). Many researchers believe that the poles will not reverse at all, but re-stabilize (as it has many times in the past).

What about the strength of the magnetic field? Is it growing weaker? Yes. But also consider this: the present-day magnetic field is much stronger than normal (8 × 1022 amps × m2), which is twice the million-year average.

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3.24.04 - "Best Video Game Ever!"

Guest Writer: Brian Bair

My favorite video game, by far, is, and always will be, the original Star Wars ... the sit-down cockpit version ... not the upright version. I can just hear Obi-wan saying "The force will be with you ... always" as you plunked your quarter in the slot. It wasn't long before you could feel the force controlling your every move of the flight yoke.

However, Marvel vs. Capcom is my favorite modern video game. Here is a wonderful little cheat code you can use to play the game as Orange Hulk and smash your opponents into a few million pieces in a few seconds: At the character select screen, move the cursor to Chun Li, then press R, R, D, D, L, L, R, R, D, D, L, L, U, U, U, U, D, D, R, R, U, U, D, D, D, D, U, U, U, U, L, U and Orange Hulk should appear above Ryu. He has the speed of Wolverine, and is stronger than regular Hulk.

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8.19.03 - "Falcons Vs. Tortoises"

If you looked in a fact book, chances are it would list the peregrine falcon as the world's fastest animal. A falcon can dive at 200 mph - but this isn't actually flying, it's folding wings and dropping. Moreover, a tasty pigeon can out fly a falcon in level flight, and only becomes prey when hit from above. Now consider another bird, a golden eagle which eats tortoises. It gets through the tortoise shell by picking up the tortoise and then dropping it. Granted, the diving tortoise has more wind resistance than a falcon, but even so, for the brief moment before getting shattered, isn't it fair to call the tortoise the world's fastest reptile? If a dive counts, yes.

This isn't a real article, no, but this space has been empty too long - and aren't you outraged that a falcon be given a title it doesn't deserve?

Then again, does trivia really matter? How could it when it sounds so much like "trivial"? Ultimately, isn't the bizarre bobbing and curly feather twitching, the odd twittering of the male quail standing on the picnic table, sentry to warn the female, which suddenly comes rushing out on whirling little legs, isn't that what we all wanted to have something mentioned about? Isn't that what really matters?

all content ©2003 by Dave McCombs. Website created in Linux using Emacs.