Wired has this photo gallery from a new book called An American Index of the Hidden and Unfamiliar. The photographer gets access to areas not normally open to the public and gets some interesting photos. Two that I liked are shown below.

These are “stainless-steel nuclear waste capsules” in a pool of water. There are almost 2000 capsules at this site in Washington State and the blue light is a kind of radiation.

And this is an “avian quarantine facility” in New York. All imported birds must be kept here for 30 days in order to prevent bird flu from getting into the country.

Here is an interesting set of photos showing the dunes reclaiming a little ghost town in Namibia. Abandoned since the 50’s the sand dunes have started shifting back through the town. Random, but beautiful.

I recently heard about a place called the Body Farm. It’s a 2.5-acre research area in the Tennessee where forensic anthropologists study the decomposition of human bodies. They have 150 corpses in various circumstances and stages of decay.

We have clothed and unclothed bodies, in the sun and the shade, in water. They’re in automobiles, trunks of cars, houses. What we’ve tried to do is reconstruct as many situations in which police find skeletal remains as possible.

They use the information in order to better deal with real crime scenes. Makes sense, but what a strange (and smelly) place to work. The image above shows a couple of bodies decomposing in a cage that prevents animals from getting at them.

Wired has an interview with the founder.

Here is a link to a few spoofed images of biblical events as if they were in Google Earth - what the artists call a God’s eye view. They are very well done so it makes for an interesting effect.

Here is the Crucifixion - I would have thought there would be more people around.

Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden - look carefully, they’re in there.

Moses and company escaping through the Red Sea.

I have an unhealthy fascination with Mount Everest. For some reason (which I can’t really explain) I am really drawn to it. I have literally dreamed of climbing it on several occasions. I would just love to go there. Maybe it has something to do with a drive to achieve something so amazing.

However, Everest is an extremely dangerous place. Extreme cold, lack of oxygen, unpredictable weather, dangerous terrain, avalanches, falling rocks - it is easy to die on Everest. My wise fiancé has already told me that any attempt to climb Everest will result in immediate divorce. It is just too expensive and risky to actually do.

For instance, last year (2007) was a pretty good year on Everest: 600+ people made it up and only 6 died. That is a 1% death-summit ratio which is well below the historic 10% ratio. If someone made me an offer - you can spend $60,000 and several months, you might make it to the top, but there is a 1% chance you will die… I just don’t think a rational person can really take that.

Anyway, another largely unknown thing about Everest is that the dead normally stay up there. The effort to get the bodies down is not feasible so apparently there are several corpses along the way which climbers must move past. National Geographic have this little video about an Australian climber and photographer who got the picture above.

Worth a look - especially for those of us who feel strongly drawn to Everest.

National Geographic has this article on several strange amphibians which have been added to an endangered list. They are weird creatures.

This is a Chinese giant salamander which can grow to be man sized. So this is a small one!

The (hopefully former) head of police in South Africa is a crook. As the Economist reports he has “admitted to being a friend of Glen Agliotti, a drug trafficker who was implicated in the murder in 2005 of a shady mining magnate”. Now there are new (well-founded) allegations that “as well as handing out bags of cash to Mr Selebi, Mr Agliotti also paid for some of the police chief’s shopping. In return, Mr Selebi protected Mr Agliotti’s friends and shared confidential documents with him”.

Unfortunately out of loyalty Thabo Mbeki has been protecting Selebi from prosecution - I always complain about the ANC being more concerned with loyalty than competence.

We are now left in a crazy situation:

• The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) are trying to nail Selebi as the crook he is - this is their job
• Mbeki made sure that the head of the NPA was fired in September for going after Selebi
• Now the NPA have followed through and are going to charge Selebi anyway
• In retaliation the police arrested the NPA investigator on trumped up charges

This stuff is crazy. We need a new government. The ANC have done some things well, but at the moment they are doing a lot of things particularly badly. This is the last paragraph from the Economist:

This murky sort of business would scandalise any country. But in one plagued by some of the highest levels of violent crime in the world, it is tragic that South Africa’s law-enforcement officials should expend so much energy fighting each other rather than the criminals. The police judged that they needed no fewer than 20 armed officers to arrest Mr Nel at his home. On the hopeful side, the charges against Mr Selebi show that no one yet is above the law. But if they turn out to be true, it will further reduce confidence in a police force that is often perceived, at best, as merely incompetent.

Simple one from xkcd today:

Here is a link to some more of these scientology videos about and from Tom Cruise. From what I can make out, they are deadly serious clips from the Scientology awards where Tom Cruise was awarded the “IAS Freedom Medal of Valor”. I can see why he likes this stuff so much. Basically, he believes that he above all others sees the world for what it really is and is going to save us all.

In the first clip there is some ramble from the presenter who then introduces Tom Cruise. He talks about how the world is going down hill because the masses are so deluded. How the government is covering all this up to keep the masses down. And then: “But there’s someone on the other side of the global arena. Someone advancing Scientology on a truly epic scale - to a very different future. And he is Class 4, OT7, Platinum Meritorious and IAS Freedom Medal of Valor winner - Tom Cruise, the greatest movie star in the world.”

Thank God for Tom Cruise!

Part 2 talks about how Tom Cruise personally saved firefighters and police at ground zero after 9-11. He realized that there was a “deadly toxin” in the air (which the government was covering up). So he personally organized a “purification program” which saved the lives of those exposed to the toxin. From the video it looks like the “victims” got free saunas.

Thank you Tom. You are a true hero.

From clip 3: “Night after night, city by city, through 18 and 20 hour days, Tom Cruise travels this world meeting with ministers, ambassadors and the American State Department. Advancing LRH technology straight into the corridors of power. His presence alone opens the door for [Scientology's] expansion.”

We love you Tom.

Then there is a clip of him accepting his Freedon Medal of Valor: “I think you know that I am there for you. And I do care so very, very much! So what do you say? Do you want to clean this place up?”

Thank you for caring Tom. Please clean this world up for us with your superior knowledge and abilities. Katie must be so proud.

Seriously though - I was left thinking that although completely deluded, Cruise really thinks he is helping people. The thing is that he is actually just selling Scientology to the world. I’m not sure if he does any real good - he just sells his crazy cult.

Scientology is a strange and secretive cult/religion/business invented by a science fiction writer, L. Ron Hubbard, in the 50’s. These guys have some seriously wacky beliefs about spirits, psychiatry, medicine, etc. They are also very rich and they play hardball with their critics.

The cult also makes a lot of money. You have to pay to get the different “courses” (which can cost more than $20,000). You have to pay for your membership. Worse than that - you get paid to recruit more members. It’s basically a pyramid scheme.

In fact, there are several witnesses and people who knew Hubbard who claim that he stated on several occasions that the best way to make money is to start a religion.

Anyway, this stuff is crazy and the most famous of the nuts is Tom Cruise. An “indoctrination” video featuring Tom Cruise has been leaked onto the net in which he basically rambles on about how:

• Only scientologists really know the truth and only they can save the world
• Scientologists should be completely committed or thrown out. No “spectators”

Basically he, Tom Cruise, is going to use is power to save the rest of us. He would love to go on holiday - but there is so much to do

Just watch his expressions. The way he laughs and rambles so intensely. You can see that he believes these things - and that he is nuts.