Vertigo World, is a place where we discover the balance or unbalanced world. You for sure need kaleidoscope eyes to see the cellophane flowers of yellow and green. And the more you read into Vertigo World, you feel like rocking horse people eating marshmallow pies!
Thursday, April 30, 2015
10 Weapons of the Near Future
10. Wolf-2
Historically speaking, Russia has always counted on cheap and reliable weapons. The T-34 tank of WWII is considered by many to be a perfect balance of firepower, armor and speed, making it the most mass produced tank of the war with more than 57,000 being built. There’s also, of course, the Russian designed AK-47 rifle, the most common gun in the world today. With increasing tensions between Russia and the West, Russia has decided to boost the number of its unmanned vehicles significantly. The Wolf-2 is just one of many Russian prototypes — it’s the size of a small car and fitted with a 12.7 mm heavy machine gun. This unmanned vehicle can move all on its own, while the remote human operator can select up to 10 targets for the Wolf to fire on.9. Insect Drones
If information is power, information gathered while the enemy is unaware is even greater power. The United States has been developing small scale drones in order to better survey areas. Ranging in size from as big as the palm of your hand to the size of your fingertip, these drones can take the inconspicuous shape of birds and insects. Their main purpose will be to infiltrate hard to reach places, and in addition to military use they can be used by firefighters to assess the situation inside a burning building. These drones can reach speeds of up to 45 mph, and can navigate a maze of rooms and avoid detection without the need for remote human piloting or pre-planned GPS way points. The main concern will be personal privacy, as these robots will be extremely hard to detect. And while the technology isn’t quite there yet, it’s speculated that these tiny drones will one day be able to retrieve DNA samples or leave behind RAFID tracking nanotechnology on someone’s skin.8. The Eclipse
The Eclipse is a an unmanned surface vessel, a 36 foot craft capable of reaching speeds of up to 60 mph and loitering in water for up to 10 days without the need to refuel. The design of the Eclipse helps it remain undetected by enemy radar, and it’s controlled by a human operator via radio or satellite links. This vessel’s purpose is to survey the coastline, fight against piracy and rescue survivors, all while eliminating the need to put a human crew in harm’s way. Thanks to its infrared cameras it can see in the dark, but it can also detect chemical and radiological matter and underwater mines, and can even scan the seabed. The boat can be outfitted with a high-powered fire hose, a net firing cannon that tangles and stops propellers and, of course, a .50 caliber machine gun.7. Autonomous Rotorcraft Sniper System
The ARSS is, as the name suggests, an unmanned sniper helicopter. At only 1100 pounds, the ARSS can travel at speeds of up to 135 mph for nine hours straight and at altitudes of up to 13,000 feet. It can also carry weights of about 380 pounds, which is fortunate since it’s usually fitted with a heavy duty rifle. The rifle can fire about 10 well placed shots per minute, and it can take out a car engine with a single bullet. The autopilot system can fly the helicopter to its destination and keep it stabilized while a human operator aims and shoots. All of this is done with a laptop and an Xbox 360 controller 20 miles away from the action. The ARSS can wield a variety of other weapons, including a xenon strobe light that causes nausea and disorientation.6. Extreme Accuracy Tasked Ordnance
A sniper has the advantage of being hundreds of yards away from the battle, but it’s not as easy as it sounds. A sniper must always take into account wind velocity, rain, dust and even the rotation of the Earth itself, not to mention the fact that the target is usually on the move. If he misses he risks discovery, and more often than not there’s no one out there to help them. To cut down on missed shots, DARPA has come up with a special .50 caliber bullet capable of changing direction in mid-flight. They’re vague when it comes to explaining the exact technology in play, but we do know that it uses a real-time optical guidance system via a laser beam, making the EXACTO bullet home in on a target regardless of the weather or movement. Small fins are used to change the trajectory of the projectile up to 30 times a second, which will enable snipers to increase both their accuracy and effective distance. Just imagine the possibilities if combined with the ARSS (and the jokes that will be made about an EXACTO ARSS).5. The Electromagnetic Railgun
The US Navy is about to add the Electromagnetic Railgun to its arsenal, which can launch projectiles towards targets on the mainland some 100 miles away. The difference between it and a regular cannon is that this gun doesn’t use any explosives to fire its payload. By harnessing a combination of electric and magnetic forces, the railgun can expel a round of ammunition with speeds exceeding Mach 6. That’s around 4500 mph! The round doesn’t have any explosives, because the force of the impact alone is enough to do the job. That means the price drops significantly — around $25,000 a pop compared to $500,000.4. Hydra
Like the mythological creature of ancient times, Hydra will be able to strike an enemy from several hidden locations at once. Waterproof containers that can hold several air and waterborne drones will be placed on the seabed, and they’ll be capable of waiting for further instructions for months at a time. This will allow for a highly coordinated operation, and they can also be called upon in case of unforeseen circumstances like piracy or surprise attacks. Hydra is intended to be deployed in international waters, and predictions say that by 2018 Hydra will be operational all around the planet.3. X-47B
The X-47B unmanned combat drone is an $813 million milestone in UAV development. Back in 2013 and 2014 a series of tests demonstrated that this was the first drone that could take off from and land on a carrier vessel. A simple miscalculation could have spelled disaster, resulting in the X-47B crashing onto the landing pad, into another jet, or a crew-member. The first series of tests were done on a cleared deck, but in August 2014 the X-47B, accompanied by a F-18 jet, made a series of take offs and landings where all other jets were in their proper place, simulating normal conditions. The aim was to see if UAVs can accompany the Navy without disturbing the normal rhythm on-board the vessel. So far these tests have proven to be a success, and the next phase will be to test the drone’s refueling capabilities in mid-flight. The drone itself is capable of flying at over 40,000 feet for a distance of 2100 nautical miles on a single tank of gas and at speeds close to the sound barrier. It can also carry up to 4500 pounds in its weapons bay, and its wings can fold upwards so it can fit into a tightly packed carrier hangar.2. GXV-T Tank
Tanks, even modern ones, aren’t exactly known for their agility. All in all, they’re still armored metal boxes on tracks which fire a big cannon. DARPA is planning to change that with the GXV-T Tank. The aim is to make a tank faster and smarter rather than bulky and heavily armored. Normal armor can’t withstand more than a few shots anyways, so it’s no use trying to add more of it — especially if it slows the tank even further. DARPA’s goal is for their new vehicle to avoid detection as much as possible and dodge incoming missiles by ducking or raising the entire tank through an advanced suspension system. Another option will be to have access to a sudden burst of acceleration to take the vehicle out of harm’s way. If all else fails, the GXV-T will also be equipped with a series of armored plates that can rapidly change position on the tank and take the blow. All of this will be done autonomously by the vehicle itself. This type of tank will be far better suited for a larger variety of environments and scenarios. Being smaller than a standard tank, the GXV-T can sprint through city streets or heavily wooded areas, all the while avoiding detection from infrared, electromagnetic and acoustic detectors.1. Counter-Electronics High Power Microwave Advanced Missile Project
Boeing, in collaboration with the US Air Force Research Laboratory, have designed and successfully tested their CHAMP project. We don’t know much about how it’s deployed or what the missile looks like, but we do know that the device is capable of taking out any electronics it sets its sights on. It can disable several targets at once, and does no other damage beyond leaving you in the dark. This will come in especially handy against passive radar technology that can, to some degree, detect stealth aircraft. CHAMP program manager Keith Coleman said, “This technology marks a new era in modern-day warfare” and that “In the near future this technology may be used to render an enemy’s electronic and data systems useless even before the first troops or aircraft arrive.”
Wednesday, April 29, 2015
Top 10 Historically Important Notebooks
10. Beethoven’s ‘conversation notebooks’
Beethoven is notorious for always having carried around a notebook (as well as being an acclaimed composer, obviously). In fact, paintings of him usually had him holding one of his notebooks. They were just published in full by Walter Nohl of Munich, after being the most prized possession of the Berlin State Library’s Music Department. He used them to compose music, of course, but also to write down quotations of significance to him – things like ‘Tis said, that art is long, and life but fleeting:—Nay; life is long, and brief the span of art; If e’re her breath vouchsafes with gods a meeting, A moment’s favor ’tis of which we’ve had a part.’ He called his notebooks ‘conversation notebooks’. As he was entirely deaf for the last 12 years of his life, Beethoven handed these to his conversation partners whenever he wished to talk. He usually replied orally. Topics included in his notebooks were worries about indigestion and his eye trouble, food, writing paper and the search for a good apartment – something many of us have experienced!9. Hemingway’s notebooks
Hemingway is so famous for his love of notebooks that Moleskine boasts about being ‘the heir and successor to the legendary notebook used by artists and thinkers over the past two centuries: among them Vincent van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, Ernest Hemingway’. Hemingway himself said ‘I belong to this notebook and this pencil.’ He was seldom seen without a notebook. He often wrote in little black notebooks, the predecessors to Moleskines, in Parisian cafés. He was a passionate devotee to a pencil and pocket notebook. In fact, he brought them almost everywhere, not just to cafés – on trains and to bullfights, for example, for note-taking. He also used them to jot down expenses and even to record his wife’s menstrual cycles. He has been described by Slate as being ‘what we would now call a neurotic’, and keeping records in notebooks helped him organize his thoughts.8. The Fairchild notebooks
The Fairchild patent notebooks were crucial to our computerised world today. Their contents revolutionized the science and manufacture of microelectronics and launched the incredible growth of Silicon Valley. Ideas including modern semiconductor manufacture, integrated circuits, the technology that lets us power portable digital devices (like the phone or tablet you might be holding right now) and semiconductor memory all came from these notebooks. The engineering notebooks were kept by prominent people like Gordon Moore and Bob Noyce (founders of Intel), Jean Hoerni, Julius Blank, Eugene Kleiner, Victor Grinich, Jay Last, and Sheldon Roberts. Incidentally, the notebooks also paved the way for Moore’s Law, the so-far-accurate idea that computer processing power would double roughly every two years. A conservation project was started for them at the Computer History Museum two years ago when Texas Instruments donated the notebooks to the museum. Kathleen Orlenko assessed over 1,000 of the notebooks, dating from 1957 through the 70s.7. Thomas Edison’s notebooks
Thomas Edison amassed approximately five million pages of writing in his sixty-year career as an inventor. He used notebooks to organize notes on his inventions and innovations. A note at the end of his pocket notebook for October 1870 says ‘all new inventions I will here after keep a full record’. These notebooks were used by him and his colleagues. The Thomas Edison National Historical Park has more than 3,000 of these notebooks, each with around 280 pages. It’s believed that his prolific writing and experimenting may have stretched up to 3,500 notebooks. He received the most US patents ever awarded to one person (1,093). These included the light bulb, alkaline battery, phonograph and motion picture camera. Keeping notebooks was a life-long habit of his that helped him structure his ideas from conception to execution – tremendously important for our world today. He used them for everything, from brainstorming to recording results, and they helped him pursue his goal of making one minor invention every 10 days and one major one every six months. Not only did they help him in his incredible productivity, the notebooks are also a highly valuable tool for modern-day historians trying to get an insight into his mind.6. Heidegger’s black notebooks
German philosopher Martin Heidegger’s black notebooks sparked controversy when they were published in March 2014. He was widely viewed as a seminal thinker in the Continental tradition (a branch of philosophy that includes existentialism, German idealism, psychoanalytic theory and French feminism and the rejection of science as the ultimate method of understanding phenomena, among others). He became professor of philosophy at Freiburg. He was the most important Continental philosopher of the 20th century. His book Being and Time is a seminal work in the Continental tradition and he is widely considered the father of modern atheistic existentialism. He also made a difference outside philosophy, in areas as varied as architecture and theology. He was involved in Nazism, but it was thought that this was a personal matter, not one that had leaked into his philosophical thinking – until, that is, the publication of his Black Notebooks. Heidegger wrote a kind of philosophical diary in little black-covered notebooks over forty years. They show that he actually incorporate anti-Semitic ideas into his philosophy, like when he wrote ‘the Jews, with their marked gift for calculating, live, already for the longest time, according to the principle of race, which is why they are resisting its consistent application with utmost violence.’ This has led to people wondering whether all of his highly influential ideas were contaminated by Nazism. As his writings inspired some of the most important thinkers of the modern era, these notebooks cast their reliability into doubt.5. Sartre’s notebooks
Works published during philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre’s life showed that he agreed with Hegel that humans struggle against one another to win recognition but rejected some other aspects of Hegel’s philosophy. However, notebooks published after his death, titled Notebooks for an Ethics, displayed a dramatic about-turn in his thinking on the matter. The notebooks said that he now agreed with Hegel that the master/slave dynamic can be transcended through relations of mutual recognition – basically, the notebooks revealed a very different philosophy. His work Existentialism is a Humanism presented arguments similar to Kant’s, which led to many scholars saying Sartre’s ideas came from Kant. However, in his notebooks he dismisses this idea and rejects Kantian ethics as a form of ‘slave morality’ and an ‘ethics of demands’. Ouch! Sartre’s original ideas on freedom were widely criticized, and in the notebooks he too became critical of his early view. Thus, the notebooks are a very important tool for understanding the philosophy of a key figure in the study of existentialism.4. Charles Darwin’s notebooks
Darwin kept diaries in notebooks throughout the Beagle voyage that would lead him to think of the theory of evolution. He took fourteen of them on his trips to the shore. During the voyage he kept field notes on his observations. As the voyage drew to a close, he also used one (his Red notebook) for theoretical speculations on subjects like geology and the formation of coral reefs. After the voyage he started a new series of notebooks for his thoughts on transmutation (evolution) and metaphysical enquiries. The notebooks give a detailed account of his research, speculation and gradual understanding of where species come from. In his Notebook on Transmutation of Species (1837) he drew the first tree of descent with modification, or natural selection – more commonly known as an evolutionary tree. This sketch has become famous. The notebooks were mostly completed by the 1840s. These notebooks were essential to the development to the widely accepted and hugely important theory of natural selection, and the precursor to The Origin of Species.3. Albert Einstein’s notebooks
Like Thomas Edison and many other eminent scientists and inventors, Einstein kept a notebook to record his calculations and ideas. In March 2012, 80,000 documents written by or addressed to Einstein were published online by Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Einstein Papers Project (EPP) at Caltech. This collection includes Einstein’s notebooks, which show the thought process of a revolutionary genius. One of these is the Zurich notebook, written in the winter of 1912/13. This notebook shows how Einstein came by his theory of relativity, complete with notes and calculations. Other notebooks show lecture notes. The notebooks and letter show that he didn’t work alone, but actually exchanged ideas with many other scientists. The Zurich notebook shows light-hearted sketches by Einstein, include mathematical puzzles of the day – so even he liked to have fun. The rest of the notebook has serious physics, including electrodynamics in four dimensions, the line element of general relativity, motion in curved surfaces, gravitation, invariants and the Riemann Tensor. The notebooks give a valuable insight into the day-to-day workings of a brilliant mind.2. The Prison Notebooks
The Prison notebooks are a series of notebooks written by Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci while he was imprisoned in 1926 by the Fascist regime for being the founder and leader of the Communist party. Gramsci was a philosopher, politician and political theorist. He wrote more than 30 notebooks with 3000 pages of history and analysis while he was imprisoned. The Prison Notebooks are thought of as a highly important and original contribution to 20th century political theory. Gramsci’s writings pre-prison had been more specifically political, but The Prison Notebooks are relatively theoretical. Topics covered included education, intellectuals, fascism, hegemony and Marxism. He wrote these under the surveillance of a Fascist jailer, so he had to be careful about what he wrote. Because of this, his writings are disorganized and at times ambiguous. He was isolated from the events occurring outside prison, especially Stalinism and the victory of German fascism. The notebooks were smuggled out of prison in the 1930s and published twenty years later.1. Leonardo da Vinci’s notebooks
Leonardo da Vinci’s notebooks are famous for having been written in mirror script, from right to left. Some say this was to make them harder to decipher, but it may just have been because da Vinci was left-handed and wanted to avoid smudging the paper. He wrote in his notebooks daily, finishing with about 13,000 pages of work. The notebooks record the many interests and endeavors of this all-round Renaissance man, from maths to art to flying machines and diving suits. He wasn’t picky about what he put in his notebook, which is lucky, as it has given historians a precious resource. Leonardo made an inventory of his clothes in a notebook now held in Madrid, while in others he adds little memos to himself and shopping lists – all alongside complex mechanical notes and studies of human anatomy. These notebooks have had a huge cultural influence. Even today, modern inventions like tanks and water pumps can be traced back to those notebooks.
Tuesday, April 28, 2015
Top 10 Well Known Books With Little Known Histories
10. Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling
9. Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter
Beginning this list is one of the more famous and well-known examples of a book going through publishing hell before making it onto the bookshelves. With seven books in the series, movies filmed, and theme parks springing up based around the boy wizard, it’s easy to assume that J.K. Rowling struck gold, and everyone realised it when she tried to get her first book published. The publishing world didn’t seem to agree, however. Not only did she receive 12 rejections, the only reason she managed to score a deal in the first place was due to the daughter of a Bloomsbury chairman demanding to read the rest of the submitted manuscript. Even with the spouse’s recommendation and an editor’s acceptance, J.K. Rowling was told that she was not destined to be a children’s book author, and advised not to quit the day job. Little did they know that a day job would be the last thing J.K. Rowling would ever need.
9. Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter
The charming tales of Peter Rabbit captured the imaginations of children across the world. The process of getting the book out into the hands of said children, however, was not as easy as author Beatrix Potter would like. Beatrix Potter had difficulties trying to get herself out into the public. Her first attempt to get her book published turned into six different rejections. Stalwart, she decided to take the matters into her own hands. She decided to make the books and sell them herself, matching the vision she had for the books she wanted to make. This, too, was met with resistance, with one publisher telling her it was a bad idea. In those days, women were regarded as unable to perform business whatsoever. Regardless, she persisted, creating 250 copies of the book. She ended up doing so well, one of the six publishers that initially rejected her proposal agreed to take up the book. Now, the Peter Rabbit books sell two million units worldwide.8. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
Not all books receive resistance during the publishing process; some of them receive flak after they finally hit the shelves. This was the case for Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, which made some unusual enemies after it was published in 1865. What problems did people have with it? The Woodsville High School in New Hampshire banned the book due to the book referencing ‘sexual fantasies’. Then, in 1931, it was banned in China for its inclusion of talking animals, with the Governor of the Hunan Province stating “Animals should not use human language, and that it was disastrous to put animals and human beings on the same level”. If they could see that a gecko would be selling car insurance in today’s world, who knows what they would have thought?7. And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street by Dr. Seuss
It’s hard to believe that people did not respond well to the charming words of Dr. Seuss himself. His publication of his first ever book was very tough; in fact, it was so tough that the world was very close to never seeing the name ‘Dr. Seuss’ on the front of a book. Dr. Seuss’ first hurdle was, surprisingly, the style we all know and love today. Back in the 1930s, picture books were not made to be fun and silly; they were designed to carry very serious messages for the children to learn from. When Dr. Seuss approached publishers, he was told that his book was too silly to be published. It was rejected 27 times. Dr. Seuss was convinced that his book would never sell. Manuscript in hand, he walked home with the full intent of burning it and forgetting he ever wrote it. It was here that he met with a friend and told him of his plans. The friend told him that he had recently been employed by Vanguard Press as a children’s book editor, and he needed something to publish. Being new to the scene, he was (thankfully) unaware of the current trends of the children’s scene, and accepted Dr. Seuss’ stories on the merit of them being a fun read. This one breakthrough leads the path for another 43 books to be written.6. Carrie by Stephen King
Carrie had a very rough past. Written by a very poor Stephen King, it was inspired when he read an article that, if telekinesis did actually exist, it would be strongest in adolescent girls. This, combined with his experience as a school janitor, inspired him to pen the novel. Writing the book was a big enough problem as it is; with little knowledge of the female scene in a high school, he based the characters off of two girls he knew from his own school years. During writing, both girls had passed away due to health conditions, making the story even harder to write for Stephen King. He eventually lost faith in his novel, throwing the three pages into the waste and giving up. If Stephen King’s wife Tabby had not emptied the bin and rescued the manuscript, we would perhaps not have seen the story come to light. Even after the book was finished, it took 30 rejections from publishers before he finally broke through with Doubleday Publishing, beginning the career of one of the wealthiest authors ever to exist.5. Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne
A lovely tale of a bear and his love for honey. Surely, a book like this didn’t receive much flak? Unfortunately, it did, and in the most bizarre way possible; it was getting banned in multiple places for a wide spectrum of different reasons. The list of strikes against Winnie the Pooh is both hilarious and somewhat worrying. It was banned in a school within the United Kingdom in fear it might offend Muslims with its Piglet character, to which the Muslim Council of Britain stepped forwards to say that it wouldn’t be offensive. A television station in Turkey banned the television show for the same reason, but the talking piglet didn’t get off so easily over there; while efforts were made to totally erase Piglet from the show, it was eventually seen as too much effort and scrapped altogether. Winnie the Pooh also saw similar flak for the same reasons that Alice in Wonderland was banned in China, from an entirely different group of people. This time, it’s a parent group from Kansas detesting the talking animals because doing so is an ‘insult to God’. And if that wasn’t bad enough, Winnie the Pooh ended up being tied to nothing more than Nazi Germany. In 2009 in Russia, a political extremist’s possessions contained Winnie the Pooh wearing a swastika. This, in the mind of the Justice Ministry at the time, meant that Winnie the Pooh was becoming a symbol of Nazism, and so the innocent bear’s adventures in Hundred Acre Wood was labelled as ‘Pro-Nazi’ and listed as ‘politically subversive’. Oh, bother.4. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Some novels face near annihilation by either rejection or desperation; sometimes the story almost never gets written because the author just gets annoyed with it. To Kill a Mockingbird is a story that is often used in school curriculums as both a literary example and an insight into racial tension in society. The book almost never made it as far as the agent who published it, let alone the schools. It’s said that the author got so angry with the manuscript, that they threw it out of the window and into the snow. The only reason we have a book to read in this day and age is due to their agent convincing the author that throwing works in progress out of the window doesn’t do much for sales. The author, presumably begrudgingly, picked up the manuscript and kept going.3. Ultramarine by Malcolm Lowry
Of all the ways a piece of fiction has its progress stalled, one of the smaller and rarer cases is when the manuscript for the story is outright stolen. This was the case for Ultramarine, a book that was published in 1933. Fortunately, at the point of losing the manuscript, Malcolm had managed to find a publisher for his work. Unfortunately, said publisher had left the manuscript in a briefcase in their car, and a passing thief decided to take their chances and see what was inside. The original manuscript wasn’t retrieved, and what happened next seems to have two different stories. One story is the author stating he had to rewrite the entire story from scratch, while another says a friend of his retrieved a carbon copy that Malcolm had otherwise thrown away.2. Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery
The story of this novel began in 1900, when Montgomery read a newspaper article about a couple who applied to adopt a boy, but received a girl instead. During 1905, she had the basic idea of a story down, and decided to write it. Then, she submitted to five publishers. Each one rejected it. Writers often respond to rejection in one of two ways; they see it as a sign that their skills are not good enough, or they see it as a step forwards to finding a home for their work. Montgomery took neither route, as she must have figured that the time was not right and left it in her hat box. For three years. When she finally got around to wanting to submit it again, she scored a publishing deal with L.C. Page, and sold 19,000 copies in her first five months.1. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Being rejected is one thing; being cruelly rejected is another story altogether. Critics are not usually the type to hold their tongue, and this was the case for Golding while trying to sell Lord of the Flies to a publisher. Not only did his book originally get rejected from publisher Faber & Faber, it got rejected with a little added scorn thrown in. The professional reader over at Faber & Faber had this to say about Golding’s work: “Time: the Future. Absurd & uninteresting fantasy about the explosion of an atom bomb on the Colonies. A group of children who land in jungle-country near New Guinea. Rubbish & dull. Pointless.” It was only when a new employee at Faber & Faber decided that it would work (with editorial changes that he suggested) that the company decided to give it a shot; even then, they decided to skirt it under the current literary advisor at the time, who eventually discovered the book was being published, read it, and supported it. S.E. Batt is a humor writer. He writes freelance non-fiction for various websites, and moonlights as a fiction writer when he finds the space to do so. He enjoys cats, keyboards, and tea, but not all at the same time.
Monday, April 27, 2015
10 Common Foods You Didn’t Know Were Genetically Modified
10. Honey
It’s hard to picture honey as a GMO since it’s the product of bee regurgitation. But the bees have to get their pollen from somewhere, and in the United States pollen is gathered indiscriminately from GMO plants as well as those that are natural. Most often the plant is corn, which already has a problem with pollen drift and contamination. Bees all over the world collect pollen from various crops, and it’s becoming increasingly difficult for honeybee farmers to guarantee that their products are non-GMO. Aside from the obvious consumption of honey itself, honey finds its way into honey-sweetened cereals, snack bars, bakery products, marmalades and jams, dried fruits, nuts, ice cream and various beverages. Scientists are also working to genetically modify bees themselves. This is being done for a number of reasons and transgenic bees aren’t currently being used to produce honey, but it could happen soon.9. Soy
Some health-conscious folks steer away from red meats and towards soy products. Why not? They can make a soy bean into a turkey, or so they say. The United States’ soybean crop is 93% GMO. These crops are predominantly herbicide-tolerant, which allows farmers to spray their crops to eradicate weeds while allowing their commodity to remain unscathed. You may not think that soy makes up a large part of your diet, but it’s actually the second-most grown crop in the United States and it finds its way into a lot of different products. Soy and soy-derived oil is found in all kinds of chips, whole wheat breads, crackers, cookies, frozen pizzas, cereal bars, condiments such as mayonnaise, granola bars, and the obvious choices such as soy milk, soy sauce and tofu. Given that only 7% of soybeans grown and harvested in the United States are non-GMO, the chances that you’re ingesting GMO soy are very high.8. Sugar
Many sugars are derived from GMO — most predominantly, the sugar beet and sugar cane that’s farmed in the United States are GMOs. In 2010, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) deregulated the growing of the “Roundup Ready” variety of sugar beet. This has allowed farmers across the United States to switch to this herbicide-resistant species of sugar beet created by the Monsanto Corporation. As of 2012, GMO sugar beets made up approximately 90% of all sugar beet growth in the United States, which means that any sugars derived from those beets and placed into your favorite products contain GMOs. It’s difficult to isolate all of the products that use granulated sugar, the type of sugar derived from both sugarcane and sugar beets. If a product lists sugar instead of the more popular high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS), there’s a 90% chance that it’s derived from a crop of GM sugar beets.7. Cotton
We know what you’re thinking — you don’t eat cotton. Well, you shouldn’t be eating cotton balls or nibbling on your shirts, but cotton does have other uses. GM cotton makes up approximately 90% of all cotton planted in the United States, and those crops yield both the white, fluffy stuff and cottonseed. Cottonseed is used to make cottonseed oil, an extract that’s been added to the food you eat for well over a century. In the United States, it’s primarily used in salad or cooking oil, which makes up about 56% of all cottonseed usage in the nation. An additional 36% is used for frying foods, like French fries and potato chips. If you think that you’re avoiding foods made with cottonseed oil, you may be mistaken. In the United States, the following products contain cottonseed oil more often than not: crackers, pretzels, chips, sunflower seeds, graham crackers, pancake mixes and even some forms of cosmetics. Not that you should be eating those.6. Canola Oil
If it’s fried, it’s possibly been bathed in boiling-hot GMOs. Canola oil, the choice of most restaurants these days, is based on a GM crop. The thoughtfully named rapeseed that provides canola oil to markets in the United States consists of crops that are 90% GMO. GM rapeseed is so widely used it’s contaminated the wild in parts of North Dakota. This has become a problem for those farmers whose 10% of crops are not GMOs. Since the wild strain of the plant has been invaded by the GMO version, the two have begun to compete and cross-pollination has resulted. This allows for the crop to evolve in the wild, away from the eyes of scientists. Since most GMO crops are regulated in some way, this can create problems. There are a lot of products that use canola oil, and by extension almost certainly contain GM rapeseed: peanut butter, frozen potatoes (French fries, hash browns, etc.), salad dressing, chocolate syrup, rye bread, citrus-flavored sodas, pretzels, mayonnaise, salsa, some cereals, chips, crackers, granola and cereal bars, margarine and movie theater popcorn.5. Potatoes
In 2014, the USDA approved a new form of GM potato for the American market that reduces the amount of acrylamide when the tuber is fried. Acrylamide is a chemical that’s believed to contribute to cancer that’s formed during the frying process. Additionally, the new spuds are bruise-resistant, which makes them more profitable in the long run. The product is intended for the fried potato market of French fries and potato chips. The interesting thing about these GM potatoes is that they’ve been modified with the genes from other species of potatoes, not from other organisms altogether. This type of genetic modification is intended to appeal to people who would prefer to avoid GMOs altogether by bridging the gap between the so-called “Frankenstein crops” and cross-pollinated ones. These aren’t the first GM potatoes to hit the market, but they are the first that have appeal to the public in both the United States and possibly the European Union as well due to its potential cancer-fighting trait.4. Papayas
In the case of the papaya, genetic modification may have saved the species from eventual extinction. The papayas you’re eating, if it was grown in Hawaii, is almost certainly a GMO. Throughout most of the twentieth century, papaya trees were severely affected by papaya ringspot virus (PRSV), and by 1960 almost all papaya production had to move from the island of Oahu to Puna to escape the disease. Unfortunately, by 1992 PRSV had caught up with the plants in Puna and the crops were severely threatened. By that time a resistant strain of papaya had been cultivated in a lab, but it hadn’t been introduced in Puna until it was too late. By the late 1990s, the newly-manufactured GM crop of papaya had undergone extensive testing and had proven to survive and yield enough fruit to be profitable, and thus the papaya was saved.3. Yeast
Most people who aren’t involved in baking things don’t think about yeast much, but it’s very prevalent in our lives. Even if you abstain from eating bread, yeast is a necessary ingredient in the creation of alcohol via malolactic fermentation. The Wine Institute provided a statement that GMO wine yeast, called ML01, shouldn’t be used in making wine, but the Wine Institute isn’t a governing body and can only make suggestions to the industry. Because it isn’t regulated, ML01 is probably used to make the wine you might enjoy sipping, or guzzling from a box (we don’t judge). According to an article in the Vancouver Sun, “If you drink red wine from the United States or Canada, there’s a good chance you’ve tried ML01 wine already.” Scientists at the University of British Colombia created ML01 to help people with migraines and hypertension. Many people get headaches from drinking red wine, and the aim of the new organism is to put an end to that. The most interesting aspect of the research and development of ML01 is that unlike other GMOs it’s designed to directly benefit the consumers and not the producers, although those categories can overlap.2. Tobacco
Let’s be realistic here — smoking is terrible for your health. You know it. We know it. Regardless, it has been and remains one of the biggest cash crops in America, and about 90% of the tobacco grown in the United States is genetically modified. Tobacco suffers from some very deadly pests, so scientists and farmers have been working to create a pesticide-resistant form of the plant for a long time. The most dangerous bug for the crop is the tobacco budworm, which lays its eggs inside the plant and makes it difficult to kill the larvae. To modify the plants, “Scientists in labs are injecting or infusing the genes of bacteria from other living things into the seeds of the tobacco plant you are smoking. GMO tobacco has ‘built in’ pesticides and herbicides, built right into the DNA of the plant.”1. Dairy Products
In 2010, scientists successfully modified cows so they could produce milk that would be safer for children to consume. Approximately 2-3% of infants are allergic to cow’s milk, which is the base of most infant formulas. Allergic reactions in milk have been linked to the existence of beta-lactoglobulin (BLG), which has been isolated from a single tailless cow found in New Zealand. Through the use of cloning, researchers were able to inject cow ovum with the genetic code of the tailless cow, making the future offspring hypoallergenic as well. If you think that’s something, scientists are working hard to create cattle that produce milk more like that of a human! These ideas aren’t on the market yet — the GM cows and cow-derived products you’re eating are coming from animals treated with a genetically engineered recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBHG), which is used in dairy farming in the United States to increase a cow’s milk production by approximately 10%. The use of rBHG is common throughout the dairy industry, so pretty much anything dairy has a bit of GMO in it somewhere. That means that butter, milk, ice cream, cheese, and everything else lactose-tolerant people love is likely filled with GMOs.
Friday, April 24, 2015
Top 10 Overlooked Dystopian Novels You Should Read
10. One by David Karp (1953)
“One”, also published as “Escape To Nowhere”, is another dystopian novel which explores the theme of stringent control of a police state over its citizens. The State purports itself of being benevolent and seeker of perfection, and routinely adheres to control its people through malevolent practices of surveillance, re-education, and brainwashing. Professor Burden, who regards himself as a loyal citizen of the state, is named a “heretic” and the plot revolves around his reeducation by the state to make him a truehearted citizen once again. Not being as political as “1984”, the book instead focuses on the thought processes of the torturers and the tortured.9. The Foundation Pit by Andrey Platonov (1987, English Edition)
Russian writers are the masters of black humor. Even in a totally melancholy work such as “The Gulag Archipelago”, Solzhenitsyn did not fail to include certain events – which although tragic in nature – that showed his dry Russian wit. Platanov’s satirical “The Foundation Pit” is a short novel set in the early Soviet Union period and follows a group of workers who are attempting to dig an immense foundation pit, on the base of which a gigantic house will be built for the proletarians, where everyone will live happily and ‘in silence’ (of course). The book is chock-filled with allegories, with subtle and not-so-subtle anti-communist remarks and with the tragic-comic motivations and misgivings of all the characters who try to justify their life and work under the Communist rule of 1920’s. Although this book might be well-known to ardent fans of Soviet literature, “The Foundation Pit” remains criminally under-read among the broader audience.8. Kallocain by Karin Boye (1940)
Karin Boye is one of Sweden’s most celebrated writers, but unfortunately her works remain almost unknown to the rest of the modern world. Published 9 years before “Nineteen Eighty-Four”, “Kallocain” is a dystopian novel written as the diary of an idealistic scientist and the anti-hero, Leo Kall, who invents a truth-serum named Kallocain which is used to detect individual acts and thoughts of rebellion in people. Filled with chilling social commentary and criticism, the main theme of the book is that it is impossible to eradicate individualism and people will always dream of something that will not conform to the rules slated by the state. Although having been translated into more than 10 languages and even being adopted into a television miniseries in 1981, Kallocain, like many novels on this list, has succumbed into obscurity over the years.7. Vurt by Jeff Noon (1993)
“Neuromancer” still sits at the top of cyberpunk sub-genre, but fans of psychedelic cyberpunk novels would not be unaware of Jeff Noon’s “Vurt”. Winner of 1994 Arthur C. Clarke award, “Vurt” takes the reader through the drug-riddled streets of future Manchester, England, where society has been shaped by Vurt, a hallucinogenic drug/shared alternate reality, accessed by sucking on color-coded feathers. It follows a group, the Stash Riders, and its leader, Scribble, who is searching for his missing sister-lover (yes, you read that right), Desdemona, who has been replaced by a blob-like creature that might be from another dimension. All crazy things are possible in “Vurt”, you can grow your hair to enormous lengths, you can eat aliens, anything; you just have to choose the right feather to tickle your senses. Although “Vurt” achieved critical and commercial success at the time of its publication, it has been overshadowed over the years by other champions of the genre.6. Camp Concentration by Thomas M. Disch (1968)
We are sure most of you have read “Flowers for Algernon” or the movie based on the book. But few readers would be aware about a grimmer version of that book, “Camp Concentration”. Written by one of the most under-rated writers of our times, Thomas M. Disch, “Camp Concentration” shares some of its basic idea with “Flowers For Algernon” where the protagonist, Louis Sacchetti, a poet as well as pacifist, is imprisoned for refusing to enlist in the war against Third World guerillas (the book was published at the time of Vietnam War). Sacchetti along with other inmates is used in deplorable scientific experiments worthy of Josef Mangele by the military, and is infected with a syphilis causing germ that raises intelligence to unprecedented levels. But there is a catch; the germ gradually causes decay and death is imminent within 9 months. As in “Flowers for Algernon”, the book is written by the protagonist, Louis Sacchetti, in a diary format, when Sacchetti is assigned to report on the project from a literary perspective. Filled with scathing black humor and more polished than Algernon, Disch’s book deserves more recognition than it is getting in the modern times.5. The Mount by Carol Emshwiller (2002)
Even the plot of “The Mount” is intriguing enough to send you searching for the book right away. Winner of the Philip K. Dick Award in 2002, “The Mount” is a science fantasy novel by Carol Emshwiller, where earth is dominated by an alien race, Hoots, who use humans as their riding mounts, not unlike horses. The herbivorous Hoots have developed a master-slave relationship with the humans as they have very weak leg muscles (but stronger arms), so they need human mounts to move about. The book is narrated by a human mount, Charley, who curiously enough, is faithful to his alien rider (future leader of the Hoots) and whose only desire is to be well-fed and groomed so that he can grow into the strongest breed considered for a mount, a Seattle. But rebellion is brewing among the mounts and Charlie (or Smiley, as called by his Hoots masters), must decide whose side he wants to take when time for the reckoning comes.4. This Perfect Day by Ira Levin (1970)
Better known for his works like “Rosemary’s Baby” and “The Stepford Wives”, Ira Levin created a relatively lesser known but chilling technocratic dystopia in “This Perfect Day” in which a central computer known as UniComp manages all facets of lives of everyone on earth. People are mandatorily drugged every month in the name of treatments to keep their individual urges in check. UniComp decides everything for the people, including marriage, procreation, and type of their jobs. Even natural phenomena like rain is state controlled. Everyone is given a numbered badge which is to be worn at all the times through which they are tracked constantly and are allowed to wander only in a personally designated area. The plot follows the protagonist Li RM35M4419, also called Chip, who at the start is as docile as anybody else but eventually starts acting a bit seditiously, which attracts the attention of an underground nonconformist group. He falls in love with a female member of the group, Lilac, and together they dream to escape to some islands where – supposedly – the state does not have any control over the lives of its occupants. There are lots of twists in the book, which keeps the reader guessing about the possible outcome right till the end. The writing feels choppy in the latter half of the book and to some, even the ending of the novel might feel a bit rushed, but the fact remains that “This Perfect Day” deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as the other classics of the genre like “Nineteen Eighty-Four” and “Brave New World”.3. Make Room! Make Room! by Harry Harrison (1966)
Overpopulation was a recurring theme in the dystopias written in 1960’s and 1970’s. One book that would immediately come to the mind of many readers would the multiple awards winner “Stand On Zanzibar” by John Brunner. “Stand On Zanzibar” is an exceptional book, but it’s a tragedy that it completely overshadows another good book written on the same theme of overpopulated earth; “Make Room! Make Room!” by Harry Harrison (which was also the basis of the movie “Soylent Green”). But if you think that you don’t need to read “Make Room! Make Room!” because you have already seen the movie, think again. While the movie is a classic of the genre, its plot is completely different from the book. The book surpasses it on almost every level as it creates a terrific sense of environment through cleverly placed stochastic details about life in future overpopulated New York. The book manages to induce dreariness of life seamlessly into its narrative without burdening a reader’s mind with incessant info dump. “Make Room! Make Room!” follows the life of police detective Andy Rusch who lives in an overpopulated New York City in the year 1999. The primary plot follows Andy’s investigation of a murder of a rich racketeer named “Big Mike.” While Rusch is investigating his case, Harrison creates an absolute mesmerizing background atmosphere where reader is introduced to things such as food riots, dreary foodstuffs made from plankton (yummy?), soy bean and lentil steaks, and to the ever increasing prices of commodities, water shortages, and debates about birth control. Most of the characters suffer from physical ailments resulting from mal-nutrition. For such a relatively short book, world-building in “Make Room! Make Room!” is second to none in the genre which is bound to compel the reader to read the book in one sitting.2. Where Late The Sweet Birds Sang by Kate Wilhelm (1976)
Perhaps the most well-known book on this list and winner of Hugo, Nebula and Locus awards, “Where Late The Sweet Birds Sang” is a bit different from other books on this list as it covers both post-apocalyptic and dystopian scenarios. Civilization has collapsed due to large-scale pollution which has devastated the planet’s environment. The population declines at an alarming rate as incurable diseases affect the masses. Meanwhile, a wealthy family builds an isolated community for themselves for survival where they discover that they have become infertile. So, they adhere to the last possible option for their survival, cloning, thinking that they might become fertile after a few generations. But eventually when the clones grow-up, they prefer the idea of further cloning over natural reproduction, and their actions eliminate any individual thoughts from the society over a passage of time. But amongst them is a kid named Mark, who is a natural-born human who has abilities to survive on his own, unlike the clones. Mark is portrayed as an arrogant kid who doesn’t think much of his cloned relatives and often makes cruel jokes of them, but he has one quality which the clones lack for other human beings outside of their community – empathy. And as being empathetic and acting like a jerk are some of the special human traits, the book’s core aim is to explore the concept of individuality and what it means to be human.1. Mockingbird by Walter Tevis (1980)
Walter Tevis is better known for his novels like “The Hustler” and “The Colour of Money” which were adopted for the screen resulting in creation of some all-time great movies. But he also wrote a dystopian novel called “Mockingbird” in 1980, which ironically, is often overlooked by most readers in predisposition to Tevis’s own aforementioned more famous works. Man is an endangered species in “Mockingbird”. But unlike the book from which the first sentence is borrowed, “Mockingbird” is a highly interesting novel which manages to avoid all the standard clichés of dystopian fiction. Robots do all the toiling for humans – be it cooking, cleaning, or driving. Perpetually stoned, suicidal, illiterate, and inevitably moving towards extinction, humanity’s only salvation rests with an android named Spofforth who himself has no desire to live (but was designed in such a way that he couldn’t commit suicide), and with a man named Paul Bentley and a woman named Mary Lou, who must rekindle the human desire to live through love. Set in a dilapidating 25th century New York, the book follows a university professor Paul Bentley, who himself doesn’t know how to read. Comically enough, while watching old silent movies, he notices the subtitles at the bottom of the screen and it dawns on him that it represents what is actually being said in the movie. Eventually, he starts learning basic words of English language by watching numerous movies. A clash of motives happens between the human and the android when Bentley expresses his desire to teach other human beings to read to Spufford, because the android considers reading a crime as it deviates from the norm of the society.
Thursday, April 23, 2015
10 Formally Dead Rockers That are Still Alive and Kicking
10. Aaron Lazar
Just when the Giraffes were about to break out from the underground in 2005, frontman Aaron Lazar had a heart attack at age 27. And not just any old heart attack, but sudden cardiac death. A quick thinking girlfriend flagged down some paramedics who brought Lazar back to life with a defibrillator. When discharged from the hospital, Lazar found himself on the receiving end of an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator permanently installed in his chest. Warned to avoid over-stimulation, Lazar went right back on stage and kept on rockin’. Only three months later, Lazar’s defibrillator kicked on in the middle of a Giraffes set while Lazar kept playing. The Giraffes self-titled effort followed that same year, but the traction seemed to be lost for the band as a whole. The Giraffes soldiered on for a couple more years and a couple more albums until Lazar left the band in 2011. At the time of writing they’re giving it another go — hopefully they’ll find the success that has eluded them for the past decade.9. Don Powell
Between the Beatles of the late ’60s and Queen in the early ’80s, it can be argued that Slade was the most popular rock band in Great Britain in the ’70s. With 12 Top Five UK singles in the early ’70s, Slade was on top of the world (well, on top of Britain, having never scored a Top 10 hit in the United States) when their drummer Don Powell had a serious car accident that took the life of his girlfriend. Powell’s heart stopped beating twice immediately following the accident and he suffered such severe head trauma that he was in a six day coma with memory problems that linger to this day. So, what do you do to mark the 40 year anniversary of the death of your girlfriend and the accident that changed your life? You release an autobiography outlining the events in graphic detail and call it Look Wot I Dun – My Life in Slade.8. Josh Homme
Josh Homme, the lead singer of Queens of the Stone Age, was an underground hero when they broke through to the mainstream in 2002. Soon after, trouble found him in the form of fighting as he was sentenced to three years of probation and a stint in rehab for assaulting the lead singer of the Dwarves in 2004. As opposed to the controversy seeking Dwarves, the Queens of the Stone Age are a fairly straightforward, talented rock band, having been nominated for multiple Grammy Awards. When not fronting Queens of the Stone Age, Homme is known for his time in the bands Kyruss, Eagles of Death Metal and Them Crooked Vultures. More known for staying busy than getting into trouble, it was shocking news to learn that Homme had died in 2010. As opposed to many others on the list, Homme’s death stemmed from a poorly executed knee surgery. Medical malpractice isn’t exactly sex, drugs, and booze, and luckily Homme was revived on the operating table.7. Dave Mustaine
As the original lead guitarist of Metallica, Dave Mustaine was kicked out of the band in 1983 for drinking too much. Getting kicked out of Metallica for drinking too much is quite the feat, but Mustaine went on to a successful career with his own project, Megadeth, for 30 more years. During those years he drank, did a ton of drugs, became a hero of thrash metal, and then became a born again Christian. Wait, what? The complicated and ever evolving Mustaine, who by some accounts has gone through rehab over a dozen times, revealed in his 2011 autobiography Mustaine: A Heavy Metal Memoir that he had indeed died and then returned to the land of the living. Details of his brief interlude into the afterlife are vague, and interestingly enough that wasn’t the tipping point that led Mustaine to a conversion to Christianity. That came with a brush with losing the use of his arm, without which he couldn’t play the music that helps give his life meaning.6. Slash
We could have been lazy and basically said the original lineup of Guns N’ Roses — Steven Adler has cheated death a number of times with his reward being stints on the reality show Celebrity Rehab, Izzy Stradlin put himself in a three day coma and Duff McKagan’s brush with pancreatitis was described as grave. But it was Saul Hudson, a.k.a. Slash, who took his addictions up to the very edge. Slash was such a hardcore drug user that he overdosed, died, then checked himself out of the hospital on the very same day. Since then Slash has stayed busy, forming Slash’s Snakepit, selling tons of units with Velvet Revolver, and is now on tour with his third solo effort. Want a more detailed description of Slash’s years of addiction? Try his 2007 autobiography simply called Slash.5. Phil Anselmo
Primarily known as the lead singer of the immensely influential metal band Pantera, Phil Anselmo is yet another victim of substance abuse. We almost had to use the word was, because in 1996 Anselmo overdosed after a show and was dead for five minutes before being resuscitated. Tensions in the band continued to escalate afterwards and the group blew apart at the start of the new millennium. Vinnie Paul and Dimebag Darrell went on to form the band Damageplan and Anselmo focused on his other band, Down, where bass player Rex Brown would later join him. Anselmo is currently promoting Down’s latest album IV Part II and is also known for the defunct Superjoint Ritual, a solo effort, and for being in a slew of other obscure metal bands. Of course there is a book, this time coming from Rex Brown, who documents the rise and fall of Pantera in the pages of 2013’s Official Truth 101 Proof.4. Dave Gahan
Going from one end of the musical spectrum to the other, Dave Gahan has been the lead singer and driving force behind the pop band Depeche Mode for nearly 35 years. Depeche Mode is one of the most popular bands in western Europe, putting 50 singles and a dozen albums on the UK charts alone. In 1996 Gahan overdosed on heroin and cocaine and for two minutes was dead. His recollection of his death? He saw only darkness and “it scared the (crap) out of me.” With the usual stories of addiction rounding out Gahan’s biography, including one where paramedics nicknamed him “the Cat” because they had gone to his house so many times they gave him the gratuitous nine lives moniker, Gahan also tried multiple times to clean up, putting out solo efforts and staying prolific with Depeche Mode, never going more than four years without a release. Today Gahan’s health problems are those of the run-of-the-mill 50 year old: torn muscles and gastroenteritis.3. Ozzy Osbourne
When you think of obscene amounts of drug abuse across a lifetime, the first two names that probably pop into your head are Ozzy Osbourne and Keith Richards. Guess what? Ozzy Osbourne did die in 2003 due to… an ATV accident? The story is that Ozzy was horsing around on an ATV when it flipped up and landed on him, breaking eight of his ribs amongst other injuries. Ozzy recovered to do yet another stint at Ozzfest. Staying busy touring to promote new solo efforts and even re-uniting with Black Sabbath to release 13, it seems like Ozzy is never far from the spotlight. Ozzy posted online during 2013 that he had lapsed back into drug and alcohol habits. Now that Ozzy is 65, maybe he should settle on moderation as opposed to quitting. Besides his reality TV show The Osbournes, Ozzy wrote an autobiography in 2009 titled I Am Ozzy and the ghost writer said there was so much material left out that there was probably going to be an I Am Ozzy 2. And don’t forget Ozzy’s documentary God Bless Ozzy.2. Nikki Sixx
Bassist and songwriter Nikki Sixx of Motley Crüe fame was once more well known for ingesting copious amounts of drugs than his work with the Crüe. As outlined in his 2007 autobiography The Heroin Diaries: A Year in the Life of a Shattered Rock Star, Sixx died in the clutches of addiction in 1987, only to be revived by two adrenaline shots. Instead of hiding from this fact, Sixx wrote the Grammy-nominated “Kickstart My Heart” a year later. Not only does it seem like “Kickstart” is more popular today than when it was written, but Sixx is on a two year farewell tour with Motley Crüe, started his own successful band Sixx AM, has his own clothing line, has his own radio show, and still writes and produces material for other artists. What’s even more amazing is that Denis Leary once said “you could lock Motley Crüe in a room with two tons of (drugs) and they’d come out half an hour later, goin’ ‘Rock on Man.’” Sure enough, all four original members are circling the globe as you read this.1. Al Jourgensen
When promoting his excellent book Ministry: The Lost Gospels According to Al Jourgensen, Jourgensen admitted that he, in fact, died three times across the span of his lifetime. Seemingly each time he came back to life he hated George Bush and Ministry bandmate Paul Barker more, and became more prolific at releasing material. Despite a high water mark in the early ’90s Ministry never went away, spewing industrial music to a loyal fanbase. All Jourgensen’s deaths were substance abuse related, and even though his friend and bandmate Mike Scaccia died in 2012, Jourgensen plans on touring in support of 2013’s From Beer to Eternity release. When discussing rock biographies, it’s hard to top The Lost Gospels when it comes to amazing stories, whether it’s Jourgensen’s unlikely friendship with fellow junkie and author William S. Burroughs, where Jourgensen happened to be the night River Phoenix died, or even his encounter with aliens as a child. He uses brutal candor when talking about the quality of some of his releases, the 13 proper Ministry albums, the half-dozen live albums, the remixes, the side projects, the compilations, producer credits, and the time he dated Aimee Mann from ‘Til Tuesday. Oh, and he seems to have a healthy disdain for music writers. It’s a safe bet that he would hate this article.
Wednesday, April 22, 2015
Top 10 Ways Babies Are Really Weird
10. Some babies are really, really big.
Most babies will weigh between 5.5 and 10lbs, but some will truly tip the scales. The Guinness Book of World Records reports that Sig. Carmelina Fedele had a baby boy in Italy who weighed 22lbs and 8 oz. in September 1955. More recently, in 2013 a 16-pound baby was born in California to Mom Sosefina Tagalu. Sammy was the biggest baby born ever in California. Jealous your kid didn’t show up super-sized? You might want to reconsider: Sammie’s mom gained 110lbs during her pregnancy and at birth he was too big to wear any of the diapers the hospital had. Amazingly, also born in California was Andrew Jacob Cervantez. The bouncing baby boy weighed 15 pounds, 2 ounces on his January 2014 birthday. The most startling fact? He was almost half the size of his mother, who was a petite woman at 5 foot and 1 inch tall.9. Babies may (or may not) dream.
What is sweeter than the sight of a sleeping baby? Especially for worn out new parents! Many wonder, “What does our baby dream about?” There are differing opinions on the subject. Quite likely because the subjects are unable to communicate verbally about their dreams with the researchers once they have woken up. Jodi Mindell, Ph.D., the associate director of the Sleep Center at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia thinks that baby’s dreams are for the most part silent. It is also thought that babies spend nearly 50% of their time in REM sleep, whereas adults spend 25% of their time in it. So therefore, their dreams may be longer than Mom and Dad’s are. However, psychologist David Foulkes, a well-known expert on pediatric dreaming states that babies don’t dream. Foulkes and others think that babies are dreamless for the first few years of their life. We can’t ask the babies themselves and we aren’t going to ask you which expert to choose. As new parents, simply smile and be happy that your child is sleeping. For now!8. Some babies are born with teeth.
One in 3 thousand of all babies is born with teeth. It’s perfectly normal, but can certainly come as a shock to anyone. Getting a sweet smile for that next pic on Instagram is ideal, but no new parent expects to see a toothy grin! Neonatal teeth can put any Mom’s thoughts of breastfeeding on hold, but otherwise the tiny teeth are simply part of life and it is recommended that they stay in as long as they can. Sometimes they have to be removed. These newborn baby teeth are often a bit wobbly. They certainly make any baby’s smile look more unique, as they will be one of very few with these teeth!7. Love that blonde hair? It could be different pretty soon!
If family and friends compliment your sweet baby’s hair color or adorable curls, accept that it may all change in 6 months or so. This can be hard if the hair that comes in looks “just like” your Mother-in-Law and everyone has starting remarking on the great resemblance, so just be prepared. The hair a newborn baby has doesn’t always represent the color they will have as they grow. Sometimes the color can change drastically – from blonde to bright red or from dark brown to blonde. It may seem odd, but your baby can also have sweet curls and these can change as well. Have a few cute hats handy, as hair may likely fall out during the process of changing color or a different hair texture.6. One of every 2,500 babies is born with webbed fingers or toes
When a baby has webbing in their digits, it is also known as “syndactyly.” This makes a great Scrabble word, ideal for a triple word score by the way. It is thought to run in families. In a medical study of 3,000 patients, about 40% had family members who also had webbing in their hands or feet. Webbed fingers and toes may come as a bit of a surprise but are simply something which occur due to inherited family genes. It happens during the sixth or seventh week of pregnancy, when typically the hand would start to form fingers and instead becomes webbed. Webbed fingers and toes can be treated with surgery if needed.5. Babies poop a lot and in many, many different colors!
Everyone knows that babies poop. Not everyone expects them to poop a lot, though. Get ready to change diapers up to 8 to 10 times a day! It also comes in a wide spectrum of colors that seems a bit odd at first glance but is pretty normal most of the time. As a newborn, poops are usually dark green, because they are releasing built up substances from being in the womb. If your baby is breastfed or on formula will determine quite a bit what their poop looks like. Breastfed babies usually have yellow poop which has little seed-like specs in it. If your baby takes formula then peeking into the diaper might reveal yellow poop, but also could also be tan or even greenish colored poop. Babies can also surprise you by not pooping for 24 to 48 hours, but as long as they are eating, most often it is not a cause for any worries. So we hope we’ve answered some questions about baby poop you didn’t realize you had yet!4. When you say “No” they understand you but pretend they don’t
Ahh parenthood! You bring home this adorable, bundle of joy from the hospital and everyone coos and compliments your new blessing. Then he or she starts to get a little mischievous or simply too active. You say “No” and those big, doe eyes look at you but they keep doing whatever they were doing before. Do they understand you? It’s not going to seem odd at all to your parents – they actually can understand you at about 6 months, and choose to listen to you only when they reach ages 12 to 18 months. This is the type of odd fact that makes grandparents smile, knowing you finally understand what parenting is all about. But will babies listen? Experts say to use words to describe what you don’t want them to do, that they are listening to the tone in your voice and will respond to that more than the word “No.” Be sure not to laugh when they do something you don’t want them to do – even if spaghetti on the dog is totally adorable but really, really messy. They will pick up on the laughter and may try to repeat what they’ve done. Hopefully all of this will work, we have a feeling these same lessons will come in handy when they turn 16 too!3. More of them are picky eaters than you realize
It’s an exciting day for new Moms and Dads when their kids graduate to solid food. But when they discover they’ve got a picky eater on their hands, it is a whole new set of challenges to face. About 20 to 50% of children are picky eaters, according to their frustrated parents. Babies can be picky eaters for a variety of very valid reasons. Your baby may have a food allergy, be teething or have an infection. It can be a symptom of an immature digestive system, or your baby may not be quite ready for solid foods – some parents may have to wait to play “choo choo” train with the strained apricots. But if your baby is simply being choosy about what they eat – and there are no signs of teething or other issues – try introducing other, similar foods they might enjoy. So if the pears were a big hit, try another sweet fruit, like applesauce or mango.2. Breastfeeding zones your baby out, and more
This fact is both odd and amazing: by breastfeeding your baby they will often become sleepy and feel comforted. Any new parent is going to smile at the thought of having the power to soothe their young child, right at their err, finger, tips. If you want your baby to drift off to sleep, breastfeeding them a bit can be helpful. It is not just the act of being held by your Mom, but also hormones that are transferred through the breast milk. When babies are sick or fussy, they often will cry for breastfeeding. Babies instinctually know that breastfeeding is soothing and a safe, secure time with the person who loves them the most, their Mom. But not only does the baby know this is a special time, so does their Mom. This is because a large amount of ‘love hormone’ called oxytocin is released into a woman’s brain as she breastfeeds. A study in the journal Public Library of Science Computational Biology found that as the baby nurses, the mother’s brain’s neurons send out this hormone. Typically these neurons receive information, instead of sending it out – which is pretty amazing. It may seem a little odd how happy and blissed-out your baby can become simply by breastfeeding them. Mom does too while she does it!1. A few are born with a caul
The odds are against it but it does happen: 1 in 80 thousand babies is born with a caul. When a baby is born with a caul, they have part of the birth membrane on their head. It sounds a little messy and it is, but for those with a caul they were pleased that is made an appearance. In some cultures this is considered to be a good luck sign, such as Poland and Russia. During medieval times, it meant not only good luck but that this baby was meant for great things during their lifetime. While being born with a caul is rare, it is considered to be harmless and not something to worry about.
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