* * IDEABANK: IDEA05.BNK (Article Ideas) * * DATE: 19980303 * * * NUMBER OF ARTICLE IDEAS: 16 * (The hope is that this number will get smaller and smaller...) * * * * I101 -- Colours And The Brain * I102 -- E-Mail Burn Out * I103 -- E-Mail Hoax * I104 -- Faking UFOs On Photos * I105 -- Faking UFOs On Film * I106 -- History Of Project Galactic Guide, The * I107 -- How Are You Doing Today? * I108 -- Ideas For PGG Articles, Getting * I109 -- Information, How To Deal With * I110 -- Jewelry * I111 -- Lyonesse * I112 -- Rock Festivals * I113 -- Sense, The Unknown * I114 -- String Theory, The * I115 -- Television Series Characters * I116 -- Time And Humans * * %t Colours And The Brain %n I101 S %s Everyone Likes The Same Colours %a Roel van der Meulen (vdmeulen@strw.leidenuniv.nl) %d 19960129 %d 19970620 %e "Taste in colour" is one of those widespread misunderstandings the world is full of. Everyone is said to have a different taste in colours, which gives rise to numerous quarrels, especially if two of those people decide to go and live together, and start decorating their house. These different tastes actually arise from the fact that every brain has a different interpretation of the same colour. That means that if you were to look through my collection of synapses, you would be astounded by a completely chaotic world [1], with all colours wrong! I would even like to go further, and suggest that everyone has _exactly_ the same taste in colours, and colour combinations. The part of the brain that holds this set of instructions is the same in every human; it's only the wiring of the nerves to the eyes that are different. ------ Comment: Does the above make any sense? It is completely wrong of course, and I don't think it's funny at all. Weird, yes, and maybe giving a different view to ordinary things, but still I'm not quite happy with it. Does anybody know how to make it better? If it's any help, here is a previous version of the article: ------ It is time again to shed some light on one of those widespread misunderstandings the world is full of. This time you will learn what is really behind one aspect of 'taste', the variaty of likes and dislikes about colours amongst the inhabitants of Earth. Numerous are the quarrels that result from different tastes in colour. Need I remind you what happened when you and your partner decorated the livingroom? Well, this dissimilarity is often, if not always, accepted as such, a different taste. But I'm afraid that's just not true! *Everyone* likes exactly the same colours and colour combinations! What about the quarrels then? Easy, easy, let me first tell you a bit about how colours work in our brain. Our eyes register photons of different frequencies (over a very limited range, basically constrained by the apparatus we have to our disposal; it's no coincidence that we don't walk around with eyes in the shape of saucers, but that's a different story) which are converted into electrical currents which carry along the optic synapses that connect the eyes to the brain. In the brain there is a section that deals with colours. What most people don't know, is that this section contains information about which colours are nice to look at and which are shit (brown), and about what combinations of colours are most harmonic. The content of this section is the same for any human. But now comes the difference. The wiring of the eyes to the section of the brain is what differs from human to human. These connectors are formed during early childhood, and actually do not change after that. It has to do with all the different experiences we have in the womb, all those concerned aunts feeling the belly of our mothers and all the activities she does, that sort of thing. And we get stuck with it. And that is why everybody experiences that particular dark shade of blue differently. Your girlfriend could have such a weird seet of connections compared to you, that certain combinations of colours that seem chaotic to her, make perfect sense to you. So get off my back, okay!! [2] If only all people had the same connections, then there wouldn't be so much strife about taste. And the world would be a *very* boring place. [1] This may or may not have anything to do with the argument I'm trying to make. [2] Sad detail: I don't have one. So get off my back, okay!! %e *EOA* %t E-Mail Burn Out %n I102 R %s Why Bother %a Roel van der Meulen (vdmeulen@strw.leidenuniv.nl) %d 19970424 %x Chain Mail %e After being able to e-mail for a couple of years, after doing so to many friends, after receiving more and more e-mail from complete strangers wanting to sell you things or wanting your comments on things you wrote about on web pages or newsgroups, after receiving those chain mails again and again, _everyone_ sometimes gets tired of e-mailing. The longer you are on-line, the longer those periods get. In the end you delete about everything that comes in right away; some mails from people you know are read and thrown away or very briefly replied to. Why bother? Then suddenly you start mailing like frantic again, wanting more and more attenting. It looks like an electronic analogue of manic depression. It is called "E-mail burn out". There is no cure. %e *EOA* %t E-Mail Hoax %n I103 %s Virus Warning; It Is Already Too Late * Kinda recruited by Roel van der Meulen (vdmeulen@strw.leidenuniv.nl) %d 19970425 %e Hi Everybody, Today I received two e-mails with a request to circulate them as widely as possible. One was about the sad case of little JESSICA MYDEK dying from cancer. The other one was about the AOL4FREE virus, warning for the possibility of an e-mail message wiping out your hard drive. BOTH ARE KNOWN E-MAIL HOAXES. Please, if you receive e-mail message asking you to redistribute the warning/plea/thread contained in it, take your time to find out a little more about them. In these two cases the first references by Alta-Vista told me straight away that they were hoaxes. The joke of course is, that one definition of a computer virus is that it is a self-replicating piece of computer-data. Although they need a little active assistance from their hosts both these e-mails do replicate. In that sense the AOL4FREE warning is a virus itself. Cheers, Roeland rengelin@strw.LeidenUniv.nl %e *EOA* %t Faking UFOs On Photos %n I104 R %a Roel van der Meulen (vdmeulen@strw.leidenuniv.nl) %d 19970311 %x Faking UFOs %e Thanks to my Faking UFOs article, wcw_fan@hotmail.com (or reid@ucs.indiana.edu?) wrote to me (on 19980226): > Hi. Can you help me? I want to fake a U.F.O. picture and I need some > ideas. I was told to cut out ufo shapes using paper and tape them to a > window and photgraph that. Any ideas or help would greatly be appreciated! > If it helps, I'll be using a color polaroid camera I bought 2 years ago. > Thanks in advance. Well, the best place to look for information on this, is where 'regular' UFO photos are discussed. Discover how the photos are routinely checked for the most obvious signs of mistakes, and try to find some more clues as to what make UFO pictures false. If I remember correctly, shadows in the wrong direction are an easy giveaway; reflections of surroundings of/or the photographer, or the absence of them, can point towards hoaxes. Consistent sharpness of the image is also good. Strings, however fine, and obvious frisbees are bad. Your idea seems to me to hold to not too close scrutiny. Take good care not to use a flash and to avoid ANY reflections. Make sure the focus of the camera is to something a little bit further, say a tree outside (make sure it is not behind the UFO! ;), so that the close UFO is slightly unsharp, as a distant one would also be. But caution: I've never faked one myself, so I'm only going on common sense here. Professional investigators are a much better source of information than me - if you know how to disprove them, then you also know how to make them... ------ Who likes to dive in the world of UFO pictures??? %e *EOA* %t Faking UFOs On Film %n I105 R %a Roel van der Meulen (vdmeulen@strw.leidenuniv.nl) %d 19970311 %x Faking UFOs *EOA* %t History Of Project Galactic Guide, The %n I106 R %s Going Through The Fossile Records %a Roel van der Meulen (vdmeulen@strw.leidenuniv.nl) %d 19970103 *EOA* %t How Are You Doing Today? %n I107 R %s Disrupting Etiquette %a Roel van der Meulen (vdmeulen@strw.leidenuniv.nl) %d 19970311 %e Maybe the subtitle and title should be interchanged. Some examples of interesting replies to questions people really don't want an answer to. %e *EOA* %t Ideas For PGG Articles, Getting %n I108 R %s How To Cook Up Ideas For Project Galactic Guide Articles %a Roel van der Meulen (vdmeulen@rulrol.Leidenuniv.nl) %d 19940808 %e Let spelling mistakes be an inspiration. Read newsgroups for ideas Always have a notebook and pen with you. Every time you notice something interesting or think of something weird, write it down immediately, or you will forget it. Never wait! Clip interesting stories from magazines and newspapers. When someone says something and begins a train of thought in your mind... walkman... internal walkman.. you invent funny words. Spread it out into an article. Use reverse logic, throw away ockhams razor.. explain things more complicated. Or revolutionary simplifications. Weird explanations for things you have never questioned... Question them and come up with a weird but valid answer.. improbable Describe things (oa bad ones) and see all the good sides of them I can't give a definite recipe. You have to have this luminous idea by yourself. But I can describe situations where ideas erupt in my mind. Some background on my state of mind might help some too, but don't be tempted to recreate that in your mind.. everyone has their own unique way of thinking and you should try to find out how you can put yours to use for writing articles best. Take a look in the IdeaBank(tm) at the PGG Mothership. You can get lots of ideas there. %e *EOA* %t Information, How To Deal With %n I109 R %s Information Overload %a Roel van der Meulen (vdmeulen@strw.leidenuniv.nl) %d 1996? %i Info %x Ignorance * Sources: volkskrant (16-10-96) * %x Memory, Article II %e In this day and age of heavy information technology, the way we deal with information has changed tremendously from the past decades and centuries. Where the gathering of as much information as possible was difficult enough to make it the sole goal, information is now so abundant that the remembering of all facts, tidbits and trivia has become impossible. The trick now is knowing how to access that information and how to compare little bits of information with other bits. The storage place of information nowadays is the "human encyclopedia" called Internet, and the way to search for information simplifies by the minute, because of the continuous creation and development of ever more intelligent search engines. %e *EOA* %t Jewelry %n I110 R %s S&M And Flesh Tearing %a Roel van der Meulen (vdmeulen@strw.leidenuniv.nl) %d 19970616 %e I am always amazed that a lot more than half of the population of this planet dresses themselves with signs of submission, seemingly making this world some kind of large S&M party. Chains around the neck, around the fingers, around the wrists, sometimes also around ankles and bellies. Even more amazing are the piercings, mostly through ears, but nowadays through every extremity, correction, every imaginable part of the body, that support different kinds of objects that can get caught and cause tearings of flesh (torn out ears, noses etc. etc.) Can someone tell me what is the fun? %e *EOA* %t Lyonesse %n I111 U %s A Mythical Submerged Land %a Roel van der Meulen (vdmeulen@strw.leidenuniv.nl) %d 19961003 * %k Vance, Jack %e All the text below I found on a website, but I don't remember where. If you want to turn this idea into an article, don't copy the text, just use it as a first source.. ----------------- There are many legends of towns and countries submerged beneath the waves,but the legend of the lost land of Lyonesse is possibly the most famous. Lyonesse, we are told, was once a country beyond Land's End that boasted fine cities and 140 churches; then, on November 11th 1099 a great storm blew up and the marauding sea swept over it,drowning the luckless inhabitants and submerging the kingdom beneath the waves, until all that remained to view were the mountain peaks to the west,known to us now as the Isles of Scilly. Only one man survived. His name was Trevilian and he rode a white horse up to high ground at Perranuthnoe before the waves could overwhelm him. A 16th century writer tells us that Land's End once stretched far to the west with a watchtower at the farthest point to guide sailors. The rocks known as the Seven Stones were believed to be the remains of a great city,called "The Town" by sailors, who told of dragging up window, doors and other domestic items in their nets. They also related how they had heard the church bells of Lyonesse ringing beneath the waves. As late as the 1930's a journalist from the News Chronicle, Stanley Baron, was awoken in the night by the muffled ringing of bells and was told by his hosts that he had heard the bells of Lyonesse. A former mayor of Wilton, Edith Oliver, claimed she had twice seen towers, domes, spires and battlements beneath the waves whilst standing on the cliffs at Lands End. It is a rough and rocky sea and many a mariner has met his doom there, so it is not hard to believe that,like most legends, there is an element of truth in it. I wonder what that truth is. Jack Vance wrote some interesting fantasy books about it (Suldrun's Garden, The Green Pearl, Madouc) %e *EOA* %t Rock Festivals %n I112 R %s Things To Know When You're Not Intoxicated %a Roel van der Meulen (vdmeulen@strw.leidenuniv.nl) %d 19970707 %x Mud %x Headbanging %x Progressive Rock %x Country Music %x Country Music, A Guide To * %x Music %e What (Not) To Bring =================== Locations To Listen/Dance ========================= There are various zones in the field in front of the stage. Very far in the back, the only thing you can see on stage are little dots, coloured or non-coloured, moving or static. Those are the performers. You can hear them somewhat, but some sounds get lost. Especially if you're standing close to vending points, which means it will still be reasonably crowded. A bit closer to the stage there are less people, and most of them are sitting down (depending on the amount of mud). The dots on stage begin to become elongated, and you can distinguish most of the sound. The music is reasonably balanced between high tones and low tones. Still closer, most people are standing up to see as much as possible. The artists are discernable now, although facial expressions are mostly lost. The bass-tones are beginning to dominate, and you feel pushed and pulled by the air moved by those low tones. Some people dance or shake their head. We are now almost at the stage. The crowd is crushed together, and people are pushing through from the back in an attempt to reach critical density. Somehow they always manage to slip through to the end zone. Some people attempt to begin crowd surfing at this point. The end zone. Just before the stage, during particularly heavy music, although little is needed to drive the spectators to go wild, there is the place of the human . When the music reaches a certain level, they start to pogo (jump up and down, throwing themselves and their elbows about without consideration for anyone else) and crowd surf. Although the density of people is already near critical, there always seems to be room for more people. You hear mostly the very low tones, and can actually not see much of what's going on on stage. The heads are in the way. The dead zone. This is the row right at the front. The pogoing masses crush you against the fence, and eventually drive you through it, giving a supply of mince-meat for the vendors. While your eyes still work, this is the best place to see artists playing. The last two zones are difficult to reach, unless you like the game of trying to slip through. You stand a better chance on planning two hours ahead. Crowd Surfing ------------- In the pogo area, it is possible to heave yourself onto the crowd and let their hands carry you in any direction, mainly forwards. There are several things that can happen. One of your heavy boots can hit an unsuspecting [1] spectator below. This can lead to serious injuries, both to you and the spectator. Injuries to you are brought about by furious people below you, who will shred you to bits. When many people below you get furious, they will drop you, which means two meters down without support. You _will_ get hurt. Actually, a furious mass isn't necessary to drop you, it can also happen spontaneously. Before you attempt this activity, make sure you know what happen with you when you've reached the front. There are people there to catch you, but where do they bring you to? It is often the case that you end up outside the festival terrain, and need to get in again. Do you still have your tag and stamp? If not: forget it. [1] The more to the front of the crowd you are, the more chance you have of crowd surfers flying over, the less unsuspecting you should be. %e *EOA* %t Sense, The Unknown %n I113 U? %s The Sixth Sense And Beyond %a Roel van der Meulen (vdmeulen@strw.leidenuniv.nl) %d 19970822 %x Gravity %e The senses that first come to mind when asked what senses we actually have, are sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch (tactile sense). With a little imagination the sense of temperature is added. However, there are more. Little know/realised are the sense of balance (what is the orientation of our body in a field of gravity), and something called proprioception, which is the sense of how our limbs are oriented. You might think that we have an idea of what it must be like to loose one of these senses, like being blind, or not being able to smell because you've got a cold, or to be dizzy for whatever reason. But loosing proprioception is harder to imagine; it would feel like you didn't have a body, and your limbs would have a will of their own. You would only be able to control them by sight. These examples are still relatively mild. you can also, through some accident or because you had a stroke, loose the memory of a sense altogether! Imagine loosing eyesight and any memory of being able to visualize anything! How could you build up a picture of the world around you? [1] People with these ailments sometimes manage to regain memory of their lost sense, or they learn to live with it by partly compensating with their other senses. People who know what sense was lost can try to find ways to let these victims understand what it was (and don't realize) that they lost, making use of the remaining senses. But now imagine this: there being another sense, one that we never use, that no one has ever taught us to use, that we don't have any memory of to regain, and that not ever _has_ been used [2], but which lies dormant in our bodies. Let's continue abstractly reasoning about this hidden sense before we try to fill it in with possible candidates. How can we learn about this sense? We'll try an analogy: how do people regain their lost (but to others known) sense? It can happen spontaneously, or because their emotional state was right; they had a shock (of the brain) or came into a situation where, to avoid serious harm, the sense is required (like remembering how to use your arm when you suddenly fall over). Maybe certain drugs/medicines can give or mimick the effect of the hidden sense (don't try this at home, folks!). If you have the sense, how can you let people believe you have this sense, or explain to them what you experience? You can't. You can only approximate it with feeble descriptions, after which only the gullible will believe it. People will want scientific proof, which may be impossible with this kind of sense (I believe you can test _everything_), or will want to experience it themselves (although they might still not believe its real and not drugs or something like that). Popular SF senses are telepathy, precognition (sense of the future or probabilities of world-lines). People staring at you behind your back. Sense of orientation in an electromagnetic field (now why should we have developed that?) or of slight electromagnetic variations: ley lines, Aardstralen, electrical appliences in homes, high voltage cables. There is a whole industry that makes money on people worrying about the effects of weak electric fields, but there is no scientific proof. Sense of air pressure (=better sense of what weather it will be... isn't it just the tactile sense and old war wounds? [1] A stranger, and not completely related example: imagine loosing the ability to grasp the concept of depth, and thus effectively loosing one dimension. You would be astonished when you put your spoon in your soup: part of it would just disappear from existence! [2] Maybe some have used it, but haven't told us about it and kept it a secret, haven't been able to explain, or have been put away as lunatics. [10] ------------old stuff down here--------------------------------- The known senses: sight, hearing, smell, feeling, temperature, precopriopatation??, orientation (dizziness), taste. There is another sense, but I cannot describe it. Similar to explaining to people who have been blind all their life what colour is. We have no idea what this sense should encompass. The fact that no one in the whole world (although, you never know if some people have experienced it, and after trying to explain it in words have been deemed lunatics) knows what this sense is, and can try to explain it, give examples or otherwise manipulate anyone into using it, it is highly uncertain that we will ever develop this sense. Some people claim that this sense is the reading of thoughts, or the manipulation (feeling with your mind) of inanimate objects, but I'm not sure at all. Experiencing it seems the best way to prove it to yourself, although the brain is easily fooled. Some kind of solid scientific evidence would convince more, but it may not be possible with this kind of phenomenon. Try reading some books by Oliver Sacks to get an idea of how strange a new sense can be to people who haven't ever experienced it, or who have forgotten how to. [1] Source and inspiration for this article was the book _The man who thought his wife was a hat_ by Oliver Sacks. %e *EOA* %t String Theory, The %n I114 S %s A Ten-Dimensional Universe %a Roel van der Meulen (vdmeulen@strw.leidenuniv.nl) %d 19971007 %e The String Theory states that the universe is a manifestation of vibrating strings. The strings exist in 10-dimensional space. In daily life we only experience four dimensions; the remaining six are nicely rolled together and tucked in the back of sofas. (did I make this joke myself?) %e *EOA* %t Television Series Characters %n I115 R %s One Way Friends %a Roel van der Meulen (vdmeulen@strw.leidenuniv.nl) %d 19970206 %x X-Files %e When meeting a star of a television series, you are confronted with two estranging situations: 1) If the series has been long, and the persona have had character developments, they seem like your personal friends, who you know better than several other of your friends. However, they don't know you at all (only the archetypal fan). 2) Their characters are different from what you see on screen, which, whether you thought about it or not, is always a surprize. In short, the television characters are one way friends, who don't even really exist. (any actors like to comment?) %e *EOA* %t Time And Humans %n I116 U %s Time To Stop Thinking %a Roel van der Meulen (vdmeulen@strw.leidenuniv.nl) %d 19970707 %i Tempering With Time, The Impossibility Of %i Thinking About Time %x Hyper-Cerebral Electrosis %x Time Travel %x Light, Space, Time, And Imagination %x Time, Space, And Fathers %x Time %k Head Ache %e Time is resistant to tempering by humans. Thinking about time induces head aches, which grow severer the closer you get to the nature of it. Time travel requires an almost complete understanding, and would already have been possible if the researchers' heads hadn't exploded. I can't write more than this now; gotta get some aspirin... _Blotch!_ %e *EOA* * * End of file: IDEA05.BNK *