Riemann's Cut: November 2012

The Swastika is like the word "Cock"

A 1972 Japanese dance performance, incorporating the Buddhist "Ura Manji" Symbol. [flickr]

The swastika: A powerful shape, even without context. In the West, it's irreversibly linked to the Third Reich and racial German National Socialism. Other peoples, particularly in Asia, have a different view of it though. It's use there has not been sullied by notions of one human breed feeling superior over the next.

In this sense, the swastika is a lot like the word "cock". Cock, has many meanings. It can be a noun for a male bird, or a verb describing a type of movement. Cock can also be a vulgarism for the penis. It's the same word, spelled and pronounced exactly the same way, but depending on context, it's meaning and effect can change drastically. One can quite freely write "cock" in a popular publication, or mention it in dialogue, even to a child, as long as one means it in the sense of a male bird.

The swastika used to adorn nearly every building in Germany back in the 1930's and 40's, but you will be glad to know that, these days, you can be jailed for up to 3 years for brandishing an image of the symbol in public. The same also goes for raising your right arm. We can all be thankful that fascism has long since left Germany...

Have you ever Wondered what Anne Hathaway's Skull looks like.

Before our main feature, please enjoy watching as a wax-flesh head melts in the heat of an oven. Listen as Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring" plays.. Marvel at the derp face ending.

Anne Hathaway has very unusual ratios for facial features, even her fans must admit this. I sometimes wonder what her skull looks like; it must be fascinating.

I recently I caught myself searching for "Anne Hathaway head MRI scan". I had to have a lie down, I was getting carried away thinking that the Internet was like some magic box. You can't say it's all that strange though, considering we live in a voyeuristic era, where celebs love showing off every intimate aspect of their personal lives, even x-rays of their buttocks [riemanns cut]. I'm sure I'm not the first one to search for it, or search for "Tom Cruise's colostomy video".

I hope that they put Hathaway's skull on display at some point in the future. Perhaps in a thousand years, they will dig her up and put it in a museum, like we do now with bog-bodies and Egyptian pharaohs.

An Attractive Portrait, by CRW Nevinson

This chalk pastel caught my eye, when I was searching around for works by Nevinson, earlier this month. Nevinson is probably most well known for his depictions of World War 1, but does have a substantial body of work that is unrelated to war. This piece was sold at Bonhams auctioneers last year, for £14,400 [bonhams.com].

Gothe's "Faust" (Illustrated by Harry Clarke)

A nice HTML presentation of "Faust" (which I discussed recently [riemanns cut]). This version includes the illustrations made by Irish artist, Harry Clarke, that were included in the first edition of Bayard Taylor's 1911 translation of Goethe's work. It is missing the 8 colour plates however.

via [archive.org]

Exposed CT Scanner

The Digital Millennium

The Great Zion Dance-Off

Now that Israel is lobbing bombs at itself once again, it's time to bring up the topic of Zionism, and what better way to settle this debate than by having two Christian clerics do battle through dance.

In the left corner, we have Ireland's pride, (ex) priest, Neal Horan [wiki]. Noted for destroying Olympic Marathons, and Formula One races, he also manages to bring an impressive level of subliminal-transexuality to his dance routines. Having written many books on the topic of how "the children of Israel will be the salvation of mankind", he is representing the pro-Zionism side.

In the other corner, representing anti-Zionism, with have Jew turned Orthodox brother, Nathanael Kapner [brothernathanaelfoundation.org]. Once described by a correspondent as "The Orthodox Max Keiser", Brother Nathanael likes to produce charismatic Youtube videos telling us how the Jews are in control of everything, and that only Vladamir Putin can save us from the tyranny of Zion.

Since we are deciding the great Zion debate by dance alone, we had better dissect each dancers moves. Horan gives us a feeble attempt at some Irish dancing. Dressed in a dirty orange tennis skirt, he hopes to win pervert points by giving us glimpses of his green underpants... nil point from all judges. His routine and technique are equally atrocious. He looks like a man trying to inflate a tyre while standing on a greasy merry-go-round. Brother Nathanael on the other hand pulls out all kinds of freestyle moves, which are described by Irish youths in the video, as the "Matrix shit". The brother also looks an impressive sight with his black robes, Christian props, and clip-on flashing lights. He looks like he's on his way to an apocalyptic rave party.

There is no doubt about it, on dance alone, anti-Zionism wins the day. Zion fans shouldn't fret though, the next contest will involve proficiency of surgical air-strikes, and Israel is already in fine form. One of the most impressive strikes I've ever seen [youtube].

A Big Bag of Money Would Unleash the Traktor Terror

Typical Swedish plöjare. Video via [joannecasey]

"Tractor racing" is nothing new of course, but the video above is a lot of fun, and has reminded of the typical conversations you'd have with people, revolving around the "what would you do if you won the lotto" theme. Depending on the person, my answer would be greeted with some surprise: "I'd buy a tractor" I tell them. Not just any old tractor though, a luxury tractor. A Lamborghini R8 [lamborghini-tractors.com] or similar. A big huge obnoxious monster of a tractor, but with air conditioning and a drinks holder. And it would never see a field. No, this would be my city "run-a-bout" car.

The top speed is electronically limited to 50 km/h but that's easily fixed, and if not, no matter. Get too close to the back of me and the length of flailing steel and chain that I welded onto the pto-shaft will have a word with the front of your car.

Parked up on Patrick Street, Cork.

Pedestrians would be no match for me either. Step out when the lights are green? Expect no mercy. Pushing your sprog out from between two cars? You, it, and the buggy will be greeted by the holocaust of a two foot wide front tire. Mashed and pulped! And then I'd go to jail.

This is why I don't do the lottery, to be honest.

Images via [#] [#] [#]

Орлан MK

Using a mirror located on left wrist, to help position and connect the main umbilical cord to suit.

The Орлан (Orlan) MK, as worn here by Italian astronaut, Samantha Cristoforetti, is a current spacesuit developed for and used by the Russian space agency [wiki]. The MK model is one of a lineage of Орлан suits, with a new MKS design scheduled for introduction in 2015.

Checking the bladders and tubing of the cooling system

Stepping into the Орлан

Practising translation manoeuvres

There is a suggestion that retired space suits could be turned into short-term satellites. The suit could be filled with electronic equipment, fitted with solar panels, and then sent into orbit, where they would stay for about 6 months, before burning up in the earth's atmosphere. One such experiment has already been carried out, under the name of SuitSat-1 [wiki].

SuitSat-1 shortly after being jettisoned from the ISS. Note the antenna on the helmet.

Images via Samantha Cristoforetti [google+]
More images at original resolutions here [flickr]

Angela Merkel und der kleine Kobold

Ancient Aliens: Debunked (2012)

I watched 3 hours of this film, which debunked many of the common theories held about aliens coming to earth and interacting with ancient civilisations, only for me to feel like a sucker during the last 10 minutes. For it was these last 10 minutes that the insidious agenda was spelled out by the film maker. You see, the reason we know for sure aliens never visited Earth, is because it's not outlined in the Bible, and because angels really do exist!

So we might like to laugh and scoff at the idea that there's intelligent life on other planets, but hell no, don't think that Noah's Ark isn't real, no sir, that there is fact! Ironically, in the end, the film maker made such an effort to highlight that angels are not spiritual but in fact, flesh and blood, that he began to sound like a man who believes in extra-terrestrial visitation, and just doesn't realise it.

There are some interesting pieces of information in this film, as well as dissections of crazy alien theories that are so nonsensical that they really didn't need the effort put towards them, but because of that, "don't swallow their shit; swallow ours", thing at the end, it makes this film a complete and utter failure.

Something I've always wondered about these Ancient Alien believers: is there a form of Eurocentric White-Man chauvinism at play here? The notion that "Those savages are so primitive, how could they possible do what we can do. Aliens!" I don't know why it's so hard to believe that a group humans, no matter where they're located, are able to come up with solutions to problems facing them. It's not as if they had something else to do with their time, like wasting three hours watching crypto-religious film making.

Beautifully Horrifying

The Hysterotome, or Metrotome, was a late 19th Century medical device for amputating the cervix during a hysterectomy. The bluing on the handles makes it quite attractive. What a beautiful device for such a horrific procedure, it plays right into my love for David Cronenberg's "Dead Ringers" (1988) [imdb].

Image via [surgicaltechnologists.net]

It came from the Twitter

Lets play a game: "Porn music or video-nasty soundtrack" box.com/s/8uyyh1xzy7vh… I'll give you a clue: people are munching on body parts...
— Gammagoblin (@Ygoblin) November 9, 2012

John McGuirk Blows; Obama Wipes

It's been a good two weeks for those wishing to hear the infamous "Ahmadinejad mis-quote". In fact, the mis-quote itself ended up being mis-quoted! It's like some horrible case of political Chinese Whispers.

First we have US' President, Barak Obama, using it in this year's final Presidential Debate...

"and they [Iran] have said, they wanna' see Israel wiped off the map"

Then some days later on Irish television, political pundit (actually, I don't know what he does) John McGuirk, improvises over the misquote that Obama used above....

"With regard to Iran, you have a country, whose president has stated that it is his aim to blow the nation of Israel off the face of the Earth."

A few people got hot and bothered about Obama propagating the "wipe Israel off the map" meme but really, it's nothing to get worked up over. He's the American President; it's his job to disinform. And if he's not lying, that's probably worse, because it means he doesn't have a clue what's going on in the world, and that's the kind of thing usually left for the Prime Minister of Ireland to take care of.

The John McGuirk rap really took the biscuit though, it was so crazy I just had to blog about it. It was clear that he was drowning, and desperately trying out hyperbole to evoke support for his "Obama is evil" angle. He was fighting a losing battle from the beginning of his speech, when he outlined that all the signs pointed towards a clear victory for Romney in the election. Even though some of the things he said about Obama were true, he "blew it" when he brought up crazy quotes about Iran and delusional talk about Obama's defeat.

And for those that haven't seen it, here's the Ahmeddinijad quote that both were referencing:

“The Imam said this regime occupying Jerusalem must vanish from the page of time”.

As you can see, it's not quite as sexy as "we gonna' nuke them Jews!" You can find it's full context and discussion here [filmsforaction.org]. The only country that will be "blown from the face of the earth" is Iran, if they even light a fart near Israel. Everyone knows this, but still the disinformation continues.