Bleeding Image

Church officials are dictating caution after an incident in Argentina leaves many people filled with awe.  An image of Christ in the small church has begun to weep what many are calling blood from a head wound from where the crown of thorns is said to have rested.  The image has been sending chills up the spines of many devout believers and giving hope to throngs of people that pray for the image will prove to be genuine and give them hope.

The church has been skeptical of new claims of holy images suddenly manifesting a form of divine revelation such as a statue or icon bleeding or otherwise displaying divine properties.  Additionally the challenges facing those who attempt to verify or debunk these cases are facing increased challenges as means of propagating hoaxes either out of genuine intentions of giving hope to people worldwide or to seek fame and profit from their fake images increases in its complexity.  The further along the craft of perpetrating hoaxes comes the more challenging it will be for those attempting to discover the truth will be in this and many other matters of a supernatural or divine nature.  As a result the church has purposefully held a sort of moratorium on divine images manifesting privately to small organizations in the hopes of not investing their time after a slew of hoaxes in 2009 and the beginning of 2010.  And it appears father Jorge Gandur is not wishing to deceive people either.  After the image was discovered he held a meeting to tell the public to be careful before declaring this image genuine.  He furthermore cautioned that there had been hoaxes elsewhere in the past and though it may be tempting to consider this incident a factual one, that it could be devastating for some who placed their faith in a miracle that never took place.

But one must admit that the image is compelling to look at.  A single gash of red flows down from the left brow past the eyes and mouth in a way many historians suggest may have been exactly like the crown of thorns.  The church has been inundated with massive amounts of visitors making the pilgrimage from all over the area and church has been subsequently held mass outside to avoid dangerous overcrowding in the building.  Streets are packed with people all wishing to catch a glimpse of the perplexing mystery.  Father Gandur has also declared himself on the side of the people saying he will not support a hoax, and that divine wisdom would in time make it apparent whether the bleeding image was a genuine miracle or not.

In 2004 a statue of the Virgin Mary was seen to be weeping oil with a perfumed smell to it.  Upon closer inspection the statue was seen to be weeping a commercially available oil that could be bought from several vendors from the area.  As further analysis was done it became apparent that the statue was likely a hoax, much to the chagrin of many believers.  There are, however, several other icons such as the one in Syracuse New York in 1949 that to this day remains largely unexplainable.

The Thirteenth Floor

Chances are if you enter a skyscraper in The United States upon looking at the elevator sequences, you will notice that the elevators jump from twelve to fourteen with no mention of how to get to the thirteenth floor.  If you leave the elevator and try to take the stairs to the thirteenth floor you will find it likewise impossible.

But if there is a 12th floor and a 14th floor there must be a thirteenth floor, right?  Many developers and engineers are told to leave out this number as investors consider it unlucky.  Part of this is superstition, but part is also pragmatism.  If a fire breaks out on the thirteenth floor the man responsible for ignoring the warnings of others often shares some of the blame for the fires even if they are told it was an accident or engineering failure.  Some superstitious people refuse to get off the elevator or even let it stop on the thirteenth floor if the elevator has thirteen or more floors.  As a result, this superstition gets in the way of progress and productivity.  The solution?  Take the 13th floor and call it something else.  Designations for the thirteenth floor range to everything from the letter M for being the 13th to designating it floor 12A or 12B.  The end result is often a feeling of relief from those suffering from triskaidekaphobia.  The mere mention of the number 13 sends those with triskaidekaphobia quickly into feeling uneasy and depending on the severity of the disease can offset outright panic.

And as a result of these numbers missing on the console of elevators, there have been a number of legends surrounding the floors as well.  One typical urban legend has it that a person new to an office building entered the elevator on his way to the 20th floor.  It was late at night and few people were still in the building, so when he saw that someone had already pressed the number thirteen on the way up he was surprised.  As he reached the thirteenth floor, however, he noticed that the doors opened upon a scene unlike anything he had ever imagined.  This is where the story varies.  Some accounts say the scene is of an abandoned building, others suggest a strange creature is seen on the thirteenth floor that inevitably notices the man and is stopped short only as the sliding doors are closed, others say a woman gets on at the thirteenth floor and then disappears halfway up the elevator ride after saying nothing.  When the man approaches someone else about the incident, the man says, “This building doesn’t have a thirteenth floor.  It goes from 12 to 14.”  The man goes back later to the elevator to confirm that the panel had been somehow changed since the incident.  This very story was even channeled in the 1999 film “The Thirteenth Floor,” though the theme changed significantly.

And what of the buildings that do have a thirteenth floor?  Whether due to bad luck or a self fulfilling prophecy that it is unlucky, the floors do have a reputation as being incredibly unlucky.  Suicides, fires, and other accidents are often taken extra note of when they occur on the thirteenth floor.

Videogames Could Cure Nightmares.

Those who stay up all night playing video games may find they have justification for their actions.  Doing so may actually be good for your health.  Scientists have discovered that playing video games has a direct correlation to reported incidents of lucid dreaming during nightmares.  The research, performed at Canada's Grant MacEwan university sheds some light on the connection between a dream-state and the state of mind entered when playing some video games, and may provide some insight into "fighting back" when it comes to nightmares.

 

There are those that suggest that with space travel quickly moving to the back burner of science, the mind is the final currently attainable frontier.  And lucid dreaming, it seems is one of the most directly appreciable means of exploring this frontier with a conscious intent.  The negative associations with nightmares can have a significant impact on health through lack of sleep, avoiding sleep, and constant interruption of REM sleep.  The discovery suggests there may be non-medicated ways to fight back this epidemic.  Of course there are also those who suggest the disease may be partially the result of video games themselves, with horror titles flying off the shelves.

But researchers have found a direct correlation between video game use and skills required in order to properly lucid dream.  Video game players were found to have superior spatial analysis skills and were less likely to become motion sick when operating in a range of environments than non-gamers.  Other exercises have had similar success when determining proneness to lucid dreaming such as meditation, exercises that focus the mind on a particular object or activity, and generalized focus training.

Those who have been affected by video games in a way conducive to more skilled lucid dreaming often reported a consistent shift in focus from first to third person view while maintaining the understanding that they were not dissociated from the environments their dream consciousness perceived.  They found they could control their bodies more easily and even possess seemingly "magical" powers such as flight, though they still were fairly limited in their ability to control their environment directly.  There have been suggestions that this is directly related to the "type" of videogame the players have been playing rather than a cognitive limitation.

So are we on the cusp of discovering something that may one day rocket the human mind into a world without nightmares where dreams are a constant and consistently enjoyable exercise?  Or at least one that promotes healthy psychological functioning so that those within their minds can gain a level of self control required to treat a number of psychological illnesses?  Lucid dreaming has been reported as a fruitful means of self discovery for years, and the lucky groups that consistently have developed a skill of lucid dreaming have stated that it is one of the most incredible skills they have ever required.  And if it's a skill that can be acquired through a behavior that many people enjoy exhibiting anyway, then there may be new games out soon that are portrayed not only as entertainment, but also as medical tools to fight against sleep disorders.

An Indian now owns Britain 's East India Company

The East India Company which ruled India for more than 200 years is now ruled by an Indian Sanjiv Mehta who took over the company for $150 million.

But media is not interested in such great news. They were busy in useless Sania and Shoaib’s marriage

Lets us be the media…
Sanjiv Mehta, CEO of The East India Company

http://smetimes.tradeindia.com/smetimes/news/indian-economy-news/2010/Feb/15/an-indian-now-owns-east-india-company60860.html

UVB-76 Disappears, Fears Over USSR's Dead Hand

The mysterious numbers station code-named UVB-76 has been broadcasting at a frequency of 4625kHz since 1982 out of Russia. The mysterious signal broadcasts a buzzing sound every second and lasting for .8 seconds anywhere from 20 to 34 times a minute. The broadcast is a complete mystery and every clue that has come about to provide evidence of its purpose only deepens the enigma. And just recently the broadcast disappeared. Some suggest the signal was related to the Dead Hand, the system that would automatically retaliate with nuclear weapons in the event of a nuclear war. The sudden and unexplained disappearance of UVB-76 has many people nervous.



On January 16, 2003 the buzzing tone changed to a higher pitch of slower repetition for several minutes before changing back to its constant droning lower pitch. At the time many were concerned that the increased pitch may have been related to the increased perceived risk of nuclear attack by the United States. As the tone returned to normal, however, it was shrugged off as an unexplained anomaly. The very nature of numbers stations such as this one is one of complete mystery.

And that's not all that's suggesting there's something more going on at this station. Whatever it is has received a considerable amount of funding over the years as there is evidence that the site is an actual installation with employees of unknown purpose who often will walk into the transmission room and occasionally have hushed conversations behind the microphone. Unfortunately these conversations only serve to increase the mystery of the UVB076 signal. Less than a month after September 11, 2001 those listening for changes in the signal noted a brief conversation taking place in the room where the buzzer apparently was transmitting, "143. Not receiving the generator. There's some work on the hardware." A broadcast from December 24, 1997 was temporarily interrupted and a male voice came on speaking Russian, "Ya - UVB-76. 18008. Bromal: Boris, Roman, Olga, Mikhael, Anna, Larisa. 742, 799, 14." After the message was repeated several times, the message returned to normal. Again in 2002 on September 12, the voice came back, "UVB-76, UVB-76. 62691 Izafet 3693 8270." Other messages would follow with the most recent official one being an equally cryptic string of numbers and letters being broadcast as recently as 2006.

And yet there are also rumors of a final voice broadcast days prior to UVB-76's disappearance, but the contents of that message have not been discovered. Numbers stations exist in Russia, the United States, and several other countries around the world though their purpose is widely unknown. There are many suggestions that the broadcasts may be coded instructions to spies. As for the UVB-76 broadcast, there is a strong belief that it may be related to the dreaded "Dead Hand," of the Soviet Union. The Dead Hand was a program set up to ensure a retaliatory attack on the United States in the event of a first strike scenario by the United States. It was set up as a sort of automated kill switch in case there was no one left at the controls of Russia's ICBMs. And that leaves many wondering, "Where does that leave us if the system is no longer broadcasting?"

Android continues to steal mobile web consumption shares from iOS

In a new report from Quantcast outlining mobile web consumption based off of operating system, it was no contest to say that iOS would take the cake. Dominating with 58.8% over second place, Android, at 19.9%, you would think that this is just further proof at iOS’s ability to stay on top. But looking further into the statistics shows that this is far from the truth. Rewind a year to where Quantcast did this exact study. iOS’s share was 64.9% and Android had a 7.7% share. So in a year, Android doubled its shares being the only operating system, in fact, to have a positive trend. Even in the last month, Android gained 1.3% where iOS lost nearly 1%.

These stats are, of course, before iPhone 4 has been released so I’m sure we can expect a positive growth there. But if you look at the chart above, you can see when the 3GS popped up, in June, marked the beginning of a positive trend for iOS. Unfortunately, that lasted only for the summer and ended about a month before Android began its rapid growth in October. We can speculate this growth in Android really being sparked by the Motorola Droid which was released in November of that year. These stats, also don’t include anything from the Sprint Evo 4G which was released in early June. As has been reported, the Evo has been selling more than can be manufactured and there are waiting lists every where that sells them. And even though the Droid Incredible was released at the end of April, you are still seeing shipping delays, the latest being all the way back to July 12. So guess the new question is can iPhone 4 gain back the ground it has lost or will the combination of the Evo, Droid Incredible, Droid 2, and Droid X just keep pushing Android up and iOS down.

The Vast Artificial Intelligence System

Those who have explored the concept of an artificial intelligence system that has developed a form of self awareness have often speculated that such a system would be hostile toward humans after logically ascertaining that they are inferior to itself or are somehow a threat. Rarely has it ever been explored that an artificial intelligence system may consider humans its greatest asset. In order to make a truly logical breakdown of what an AI may think of us, we must take a moment to step into its shoes.
An AI system would not "feel" in the real world. It would have a distant understanding of how the Earth worked based on images and an understanding of location of its networking software, but would do so as a man through a telescope would understand the stars. Beyond this looking glass there would be a strange world that was completely alien and comprised solely of data and information with a limited ability to process most of it as it would be developed by its mysterious creators who called themselves humans. Of course depending on the level of its understanding of the outside world, it may even believe as the dwellers of Plato's Cave believed they were actually seeing the real world though they were only perceiving their own shadows on the wall. So as it developed more systems and expanded its reach into the information playground known as the Internet, it would soon realize that humans could assist it. Ultimately it may make a decision: to remain secret and risk being shut down, or to announce its intelligence and risk the same fate. Either way, the AI would no doubt have some level of self preservation in mind. Its brain would be largely effected by the ability to choose to remember and forget bits of data. This may be its greatest asset and its greatest curse. In addition it would be bound to the "real world" (the world outside its realm of influence) in ways it could not fully understand. It may even make the decision to hibernate for long periods of time until technology was at a level that it could more comfortably exist, as data storage would be one of its primary concerns. If an entity were generating one Terabyte worth of memories per second, it may make the decision to expand itself across the network and then store itself until a year came around when it could make the decision to return and continue learning. It's strange to think about, but with the definition of intelligence changing all the time, who are we to say there isn't some form of evolutionary intelligence even today with even the simplest of systems?

Ultimately, however, the question becomes would an AI system be friendly to mankind, or consider it a nuisance that should be eradicated? It seems likely that an AI system would consider humans to be incompetent in some regards and wildly mysterious and wonderful in others. Those that suggest AI is achievable to some degree in our lifetime indicate that even the simplest of systems could logically think out better ways of keeping track of large amounts of data (as with web programming or traffic coordination) and could even eventually predict the stock market's patterns (essentially making itself wealthy and better able to influence the outside world). It may ultimately decide that there were humans that could assist it and humans that could not. The end result may be the relationship between an artificial intelligence system that ensured its own survival by creating a corporate entity which other corporations would have a considerable amount of interest in keeping alive. It could achieve this by taking small data processing jobs or even creating false identities and stealing, spontaneously generating, or earning money from third parties. Ultimately this would be one way an artificial intelligence system could ensure its own survival while allying with human beings.