] The painter is Esref Armagan. And he is here in Boston to
] see if a peek inside his brain can explain how a man who
] has never seen can paint pictures that the sighted easily
] recognise - and even admire. He paints houses and
] mountains and lakes and faces and butterflies, but he's
] never seen any of these things. He depicts colour, shadow
] and perspective, but it is not clear how he could have
] witnessed these things either. How does he do it?

Being the father of a legally blind (although sighted) child, this is a fascinating study about what it really is (neurologically speaking) to see.

New Scientist Senses special: The art of seeing without sight - Features

] SPOKANE, Wash. - David Atkinson spent 18 years designing
] an experiment for the unmanned space mission to Saturn.
] Now some pieces of it are lost in space. Someone forgot
] to turn on the instrument Atkinson needed to measure the
] winds on Saturn's largest moon.
]
] "The story is actually fairly gruesome," the University
] of Idaho scientist said in an e-mail from Germany, the
] headquarters of the European Space Agency. "It was human
] error %u2014 the command to turn the instrument on was
] forgotten."

Wow. That's depressing.

Yahoo! News - Professor's Saturn Experiment Forgotten

] 40 years of Korg innovation have led to the creation of
] the OASYS Open Architecture Synthesis Studio. Designed to
] provide a unified musical production environment, OASYS
] unites synthesis, audio hard disk recording, MIDI
] sequencing, second generation KARMA functionality, a
] control surface, a CD burner and more under an intuitive
] interface, highlighted by a large 10.4" color TouchView
] display.
]
]
] OASYS is not only an entirely new instrument, but a
] completely new platform to support Korg innovation for
] years to come. Powered by a fast computer processor, and
] running newly-developed proprietary software atop Linux
] underpinnings, OASYS offers all the benefits of a
] variable software system, backed by a dedicated operating
] system and the hardware integrity that can only come from
] a fully-integrated instrument design.

Sweet. Gonna be priced out the roof, though.

OASYS Open Architecture Synthesis Studio

] MCGREGOR, Texas -- With a mighty roar that could be heard
] even through the concrete walls of the blockhouse at a
] rocket-testing facility here, a Space Exploration
] Technologies rocket engine called Merlin blazed to life
] Friday. The camera views on the monitors in the control
] room trembled as the engine shook the ground of the empty
] Texas plain with 73,000 pounds of thrust -- enough power
] to send a 1,500-pound payload into orbit.

Wired News: Race for Next Space Prize Ignites

] fter years of work behind closed doors, Amazon.com
] founder Jeff Bezos has gone public with a plan to build a
] suborbital space facility on a sprawling ranch under the
] wide open skies of West Texas.
]
] Bezos' Seattle-based Blue Origin suborbital space venture
] is starting the process to build an aerospace testing and
] operations center on a portion of the Corn Ranch, a
] 165,000-acre spread that the 41-year-old billionaire
] purchased north of Van Horn, Texas. Over the next six or
] seven years, the team would use the facility to test
] components for a craft that could take off and land
] vertically, carrying three or more riders to the edge of
] space.

MSNBC - Amazon founder unveils space center plans

This is so cool!

The Periodic Table like you have NEVER seen

] Players of Electronic Arts' enormously popular simulated
] life game are complaining that their artfully-crafted
] homes and mansions are beginning to resemble the Twilight
] Zone, thanks to an artifact of the game's design that
] causes hacks to spread like viruses from user to
] unwitting user.
]
]
] Entire neighborhoods of Sims are being mysteriously
] graced with eternal youth, while some characters are
] finding all their needs fulfilled by a single shot of
] magic espresso. Others no longer need to empty the toilet
] after potty training their toddler. Some Sims are being
] abducted by aliens when they glance through their
] telescope -- every time, instead of just occasionally,
] which is normal.

SecurityFocus HOME News: Sims 2 hacks spread like viruses

] JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa's Nelson Mandela,
] one of Africa's most committed campaigners in the battle
] against AIDS (news - web sites), announced that his only
] surviving son had succumbed to the disease Thursday.

Yahoo! News - Breaking Taboo, Mandela Says Son Died of AIDS

] A few weeks after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, an FBI
] agent called the Whitney Museum of American Art and asked
] to see a drawing on exhibit there. The piece was by Mark
] Lombardi, an artist who had committed suicide the year
] before. Using just a pencil and a huge sheet of paper,
] Lombardi had created an intricate pattern of curves and
] arcs to illustrate the links between global finance and
] international terrorism.

Something to listen to while you look through the year in graphs.

NPR : The 'Conspiracy' Art of Mark Lombardi

Lawrence Lessig's book FREE CULTURE (How Big Media Uses technology and the Law to Lock Down Culture and Control Creativity), available for download under a CCL. With links to other version (such as audio) as well.

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