Super sundial

Just saw this interesting little piece over on The Daily Grail. Apparently a researcher from New Zealand was visiting the Pantheon in Rome, when he discovered that the entire building could be used as a giant sundial.


According to this article in the New Scientist,
"...the Pantheon may have been more than just a temple. During the six months of winter, the light of the noon sun traces a path across the inside of the domed roof. During summer, with the sun higher in the sky, the shaft shines onto the lower walls and floor. At the two equinoxes, in March and September, the sunlight coming in through the hole strikes the junction between the roof and wall, above the Pantheon's grand northern doorway. A grille above the door allows a sliver of light through to the front courtyard - the only moment in the year that it sees sunlight if its main doors are closed."


While it might seem a little far-fetched that an entire temple was oriented so that a single part of it was illuminated at noon on one day of the year, it's still pretty cool. Plus it reminds me of this, from Indiana Jones:


Damn that was an awesome movie.

Brain hacks

Over at Neatorama, they've posted this great little diagram of the various ways you can trick your mind into doing weird things:


Click the image for a closer look.

The most interesting of these techniques is the one in the upper left corner. It's called the Ganzfeld Procedure, a method for tricking the mind into seeing images through sensory deprivation. Wikipedia has this to say about it:

A ganzfeld experiment (from the German for “entire field”) is a technique used in the field of parapsychology to test individuals for extra-sensory perception (ESP). It uses homogeneous and unpatterned sensory stimulation to produce an effect similar to sensory deprivation. The deprivation of patterned sensory input is said to be conducive to inwardly-generated impressions. The technique was devised by Wolfgang Metzger in the 1930s as part of his investigation into the gestalt theory.

Parapsychologists such as Dean Radin and Daryl J. Bem say that ganzfeld experiments have yielded results that deviate from randomness to a significant degree, and that these results present some of the strongest quantifiable evidence for telepathy to date. Critics such as Susan Blackmore and Ray Hyman say that the results are inconclusive, and call for further study before such results can be scientifically accepted.

Pretty awesome if you ask me. I'm going to try it out tonight, I'll post the results tomorrow...

Bosnian pyramid?

Saw this over at Boing Boing. Sure, it could just be an oddly-shaped mountain, but it does look slightly man-made. Check the link for more info..

Submarine Stonehenge

Just saw this link on Jason Kottke's site. The article regards the possible discovery of a structure similar to Stonehenge deep underwater in Lake Michigan.


This is a top-down view of the structure, taken by an underwater camera. Apparently one of the stones has a carving of a mastodon on it, although I'm not sure how they picked that one out. If genuine, the stones could be up to 10,000 years old. Here's a link to the original post. I'm always fascinated by this sort of stuff. I guess it goes back to the fact that Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade was my favourite movie as a kid.