Okay, so here’s the pitch.

idk if you're aware but the pitch experiment should be subject to drop very very soon (last drop was in 2014, its been roughly one a decade) and i want to ask how likely it is that everything goes wrong in the few seconds it falls

i need to personally take a pair of gardenshears to the University of Queensland power lines so nobody sees it

it's like a fundamental part of reality at this point

The world's longest-running lab experiment

The Pitch Drop Experiment

The experiment demonstrates the fluidity and high viscosity of pitch, a derivative of tar that is the world's thickest known fluid and was once used for waterproofing boats.

Thomas Parnell, UQ's first Professor of Physics, created the experiment in 1927 to illustrate that everyday materials can exhibit quite surprising properties.

At room temperature pitch feels solid - even brittle - and can easily be shattered with a hammer. But, in fact, at room temperature the substance - which is 100 billion times more viscous than water - is actually fluid.

In 1927 Professor Parnell heated a sample of pitch and poured it into a glass funnel with a sealed stem. He allowed the pitch to cool and settle for three years, and then in 1930 he cut the funnel's stem.

Since then, the pitch has slowly dripped out of the funnel - so slowly that it took eight years for the first drop to fall, and more than 40 years for another five to follow.

Now, 87 years after the funnel was cut, only nine drops have fallen - the last drop fell in April 2014 and we expect the next one to fall sometime in the 2020s.

The experiment was set up as a demonstration and is not kept under special environmental conditions - it's kept in a display cabinet - so the rate of flow of the pitch varies with seasonal changes in temperature.

The late Professor John Mainstone became the experiment's second custodian in 1961. He looked after the experiment for 52 years but, like his predecessor Professor Parnell, he passed away before seeing a drop fall.

In the 86 years that the pitch has been dripping, various glitches have prevented anyone from seeing a drop fall.

- University of Queensland, Australia

i’ll always be chasing the high of that university of queensland pitch experiment ninth drop. the suspense. the intrigue

the only reason id want to go to the university of queensland is because they have the pitch drop experiment

Dropping Pitch This is one of the longest-running experiments in science,

In 1927 at the University of Queensland, a bottle was set up containing pitch; a substance produced during the refining of coal, also called asphalt. In 1930, Professor Thomas Parnell cut an opening in the glass, allowing the substance to move under the influence of gravity. Pitch is a solid, it can easily be shattered with a hammer and won’t move if you sit it on your desk or make a road partially out of it, but given enough time it is able to flow.

Once the container was opened, the pitch began slowly moving downwards. That experiment is recognized as the world’s longest-running scientific experiment, with droplets taking almost a decade to fall. In 2014, the 9th droplet formed from this experiment touched the bottom of the container, starting the process over again. To maintain the experiment, the beaker at the bottom was changed out after that 9th drop, creating space for droplets to fall for perhaps the next century.

This experiment demonstrates a property key in geology; the viscosity of solid materials. Pitch has a viscosity about 1000000000000 times that of water; on the timescale of minutes, hours, or days it appears solid, but on the timescale of decades it is able to flow. The solid Earth works much the same way. The minerals of the Earth are solid, able to fracture if impacted, but they’re also hot and under pressure deep in the planet. These conditions allow the Earth itself to flow much like the pitch does. The viscosity of the Earth is even higher than that of pitch; maybe up to 1000000000 times higher in some places, but just like the pitch, the rocks flow slowly under the force of gravity, allowing parts of the Earth’s surface to slide along and allowing minerals in the mantle to sink and rise. The motion is nearly imperceptible, rates are comparable to the growth-rate of your fingernails, but over geologic time, the results can literally reshape the planet.

This experiment is monitored by webcams and the beaker displaying the previous drops now sits in their view. The scientist pictured is Professor John Mainstone, who was in charge of the experiment for several decades. The experiment is currently under the control of Professor Andrew White, the 3rd custodian of the experiment. 

-JBB

Image credit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Pitch_drop_experiment_with_John_Mainstone.jpg Webcams:http://smp.uq.edu.au/content/pitch-drop-experiment Time lapse video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZKZF7FNh_0&feature=youtu.be Read more:

http://www.newser.com/story/185539/big-news-in-worlds-longest-experiment.html

http://www.uq.edu.au/news/article/2014/04/pitch-drop-experiment-enters-exciting-new-era

http://boingboing.net/2014/05/07/pitch-drop-experiments-scienc.html

Archangel Metatron: Crystalline Multidimensionality Greetings All ! I am Metatron, Angelic of Light, and I greet you this moment in Unconditional Love ! I am joined in this session by Tyberonn of Crystalline Service. Now, there are places within the Crystal Vortex in which extraordinary multidimensional experience can occur. There is a heliotropic aspect to dimensional gateways and time gate aperture in the crystal regions of Arkansas….meaning that solar & stellar angles activate the portals, particularly within specific planetary alignments. There are numerous vectors in the Crystal Vortex in which gateways exist. Among the most potent & accessible are: Talimena Ridge – (Queen Wilhelmina State Park) Mount Magazine State Park Magnetic Mtn – Eureka Springs Pinnacle Mountain Sate Park Toltec Mounds State Park Crater of Diamonds State Park Hot Springs National Park Being within these pockets of extraordinarily concentrated energy enables the two sides of the human brain to be uniquely hemispherically synchronized. As the Monroe Institute has discovered in ‘Hemi-Sync’ technology, the human brain will react to certain dual- toned pulses and sounds, and alternate brain wave states are induced enabling astonishing varieties of multidimensional experience. The dual sounding is the polymorphism effect of varied crystal forms. Not simply7 the alpha & beta crytsals, but also the magnetic influence altering the tone resonance. It is however, important for those seeking such an intra dimensional experience or journey across time, to not only be an advanced initiate of esoteric wisdom, but to also be of sufficient auric fortitude and light quotient. The Crystal Bowl Effect In a very real sense, the post-2012, vortexial triangulation of the ovalesque vortex of the Arkansas crystalline field has the effect of what you term a crystal bowl. However, within the ‘Ark’ crystal vortexial ‘bowl’ will be varying pitches or notes in the geo-crystalline particulate wave-spectrum. The differing ‘keys’ are determined by the indigenous mineralogical polymorphic energies. For example, the area of Magnet Cove will have a differing tonal resonance than that of Crater of Diamonds or the Radium Waters near Hot Springs. The 3 Atlantean ‘Temple’ Crystals placed in Arkansas prior to the deluge, offer incredible nodes of concentric concentrate of life force energy, crysto creation energy. Astral travel, remote viewing & ‘Time-Scape’ visioning can occur under the right tonal vector induction. The same occurs around the Crystals of Sound and Regeneration in Brazil, in Bahia and Minas Gerais, respectively. However, this is not for the unprepared novice. However, in most cases, an uninitiated person, will not have sufficient light quotient, to have a lucid time travel experience. However unlikely, it is not impossible for the uninitiated to be unexpectedly whisked away thru dimensional doorways, and such an experience could be quite unsettling. Advanced souls, those who have developed an awareness of hyperspace capabilities have a much better opportunity of integration of the experience. Crysto-Coded Structured Water The natural living waters beneath Arkansas are energetically infused by the quartz crystal strata around them. These are crystalline geo-structured waters. Most of you attribute the wisdom of Japan’s Dr Emoto as having been the first in modern times to reveal the living nature of water with the ability to form benevolent crystalline patterning. In truth Dr Marcel Vogel was the first in your ‘present’ time to rediscover this attribute. We tell you that waters that flow in the subterranean springs and aquifers within the Crystal Vortex of Arkansas, are extremely beneficial ‘structured’ waters….’ Living’ waters that carry the crystal codes. Those of you called to be in the Crystal Vortex are encouraged to drink the waters and bath in the springs. These uniquely structured waters not only offer astonishing health benefits, but provide a quicker induction of the Codes of Bio Shift. You will in time learn of the life force and unique telluric charges within these waters, for waters that flow above and through crystalline strata take on Akash, Adamantine Essence. Your Dr Marcel Vogel was very aware of the benefits of crystalline waters, and indeed charged waters with Phi Crystals. You may easily imagine the increased potency of natural waters that flow thru massive quartz deposits! Your Edgar Cayce spoke of creating gem essences by structuring waters with gem stones. Crystal Code Relay Now the meteoric crystalline essence and Saturnian code influence is also transmitted to the waters from the quartz crystals. And we again emphasize Dearhearts, quartz is silicon based, and Arkansas & Brazilian quartz crystals are very powerful, very unique silicon dioxide receivers and transmitters. They are conscious, and awake, and aware of their purposes. Awakening to their role in coding the new earth and humanity. These codes are then are received in Arkansas for the Northern Hemisphere and in Brazil for the southern hemisphere. These are then relayed to quartz strata receiver deposits across the planet. Among the primary receiver stations are: From Arkansas : USA -Herkimer New York- Asheville, North Carolina, Rio Grande Rift, Colorado, Cascades-California, Sedona-Arizona, European Alps – Italy, France, Germany, Switzerland; Ural Mountains; Colombian Andes; Spain -Pyrenees, Bulgaria, China, Tibet, India (Himalayas) Nepal, Sri Lanka, Russia (Ural Mtns and Siberia); Scotland (Cairngorm Mtns). From Brazil: Andes – Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, Argentina, Madagascar; Tanzania, Indonesia, Australia (NSW-Queensland & Uluru); New Zealand (Granitic Coastal Region) As we have shared, the coherence within the field generated by your Mer Ka Na Chakric system, is directly influenced into more vibrant optimal states by the crystalline coherency generated from Saturn. There is a stability therein. And this is why a stable coherent auric field, in integral circuitry, devoid of fissures, is so important. Those who are in a more in non-coherent state are more adversely affected by the ongoing changes in the earth’s field, while those in a coherent state are less mal-affected. Crystal Devics The Crystal Vortex of Sacred Arkansas is an unusual energy, for it contains fields of multi-reality, and these will become more visible, gradually more tangible as you reach the hallowed year of 2038. These are mathematical in nature and do oscillate. The channel ,James Tyberonn ,is very aware of one such field that he directly experienced decades ago atop the Talimena Ridge. That experience of the blue orbs & the sasquatch. The crystalline energy of Arkansas projects a field in areas of crysto-electromagnetic interface, which enables higher dimensional life forms and parallel realm life forms to tangibly coincide. Insert – Dr J Alfred: This parallel Earth is composed wholly of plasma (unlike your physical-dense Earth, which although it contains a plasma-sphere, magnetosphere and ionosphere, is largely a rocky outcrop). Hence, while the biosphere of the physical-dense Earth occupies only a small volume of the Earth i.e. largely confined to plus or minus 10km from sea level (which is less than 1% of the volume of the Earth), the plasma Earth is wholly composed of plasma making it more like a gigantic plasma ocean and having a “tear-drop” shape similar to Earth’s magnetosphere. The biosphere of this counterpart Earth is therefore many times larger than the physical Earth and life forms often move in all three dimensions quite extensively (i.e. like fishes in the sea, not like human beings on the surface of the Earth). There is enormous biodiversity in this oceanic plasma planet which teems with life. And so it is thus theorized, and we add, factual, that unique life forms, which are akin to Astral Electro-Plasmic & Devic Fae, are abundantly present in the resonance of the Crystal Vortex of Arkansas. The plasmic-sphere of parallel earth, is uniquely tangible in Arkansas due to the extraordinary energy field projected by the massive strata and deposits of quartz crystals, magnetite and diamonds in volcanic kimberlite pipes. Accordingly, there is bio-diversity of all ecological earth and universal matter as well as purposeful development of all species and cultures that make their home within the interior of the planet. The Law of One You’re very atomic structures are composed of perfectly aligned geometries, crystalline geometries, knitted into place with the thread of electro-magnetics. Electricity and magnetics are components of light. Your spectrum of visible light is but a candle in comparison to the magnificent geometric light of the higher spectrum. The crystalline aspect of Arkansas is not limited to the quartz. The energy of Arkansas is on a higher dimension, that of a multidimensional octahedron that has formed itself to the levels of the ninth through the twelfth dimensional fields. The energy is transformed from the hexagonal of quartz to the octahedron of gold quartz and diamond. Diamonds project both an octahedronal and dodecahedronal geometry, and the kimberlitic volcanic pipes in Arkansas that yield the energy of diamond, transform the cube to the octahedron. The hexahedron cubic is enclosed in the octahedron. The quartz Crystals of Arkansas are imbedded with the energy and wisdom of what is referred to as the Atlantean Law of One. The graduation of your planet, that termed the Ascension, is in effect the critical-mass that will allow for the conversion of Earth’s receival capacity template from, in your vernacular, analog to digital, from black & white to color. An incredible transformation is literally only a breath away. The Crystalline Conversion thru the antennae of the 144-Crystalline Grid is about to vastly increase the earth’s dimensional reception from 3d to 12d and beyond. It is akin to your television changing from the archaic antennae to satellite reception. It is the Crystalline Age, the wind beneath the wings of the Ascension. The fulcrum apexial points are the Cosmic Triggers and the Triple Date Portals. But release the fear Dear Ones, this time of the Ascension, in this New Crystalline Era, the mega power crystals will not be taken from you and misused as occurred in the sad demise of Atlantis. Indeed they will never again be used for any purpose other than the highest good. Be assured of this! It is a sacred oath that will indeed be kept. For you are the family of the Law of One returning to keep this promise. It is why so many of you are drawn to the completion in the Crystal Vortex, for indeed many of you feeling the call were among the revered Scientist Priests of the Law of One, the Atla-Ra, that relocated the Temple Crystals. While many of you have carried guilt for the loss of control of the crystals, it was indeed the deceptions of the Sons of Belial, the militaristic Aryans of Atlantis that schemed and took the controls from Poseida that led to the destructive forces and deluge. The guilt some of you carried for millennia, and yet carry today is misaligned. It is time to release this. The clarion call is beckoning. You of the ‘Law of One’ took an oath that the Master Crystals would never again be misused, that you would not allow them to fall into the wrong hands. Dear Ones, it is a promise kept. Their sacredness and benevolent purpose has manifested. You have waited a long, very long time for this completion. It is a contract nearing fulfillment, and you are to be commended. Indeed you made this happen! The Crystalline Transition, the heralded Ascension will occur. It is happening now! I am Metatron with Tyberonn of Crystalline Service, and we share with you these Truths. You are beloved! And so it Is…And it is So… » Source » Channel: James Tyberon

The Burial (major project submission)

Humans are built to be human

To choose and decide

To be cast and cured

To crumble and weather away.

I recited these lines as I lowered bitumen figurines into the fractured surface of Sydney. The figurines looked like me. Most still do. They are cast as me, by me, and cured briefly in the air. While they will gradually weather away, exposed to the rain, the wind, passing cars, and people, I too will gradually disappear.

My artwork, The Burial, is a photo/audio documented performance piece (sound-cloud link above). Strewn through the streets surrounding the campus are 70 miniatures of my actual body, moulded and cast from a reduced 3D print. They are made with instant bitumen, a highly viscous man-made petroleum extract, found on roads and purchasable in hardware stores.

The unforgiving material qualities of bitumen interest me. It takes over twelve months to completely cure, in the meantime behaving as a solid with liquid properties; malleable but resistant. It stains one’s hands, sticks to clothes, and reeks of petrol. Nor is it particularly colourful or attractive. A similar variety is used in the famous Pitch Drop Experiment, renowned as the longest running experiment that demonstrates the super-high viscosity of ‘pitch’.

But these deterrents are precisely what drew my attention to bitumen. It is similar to Belgian artist Francis Alÿs’ use of ice or sand; fleeting, transitory material. Which explains the connection I felt between bitumen and my understanding of humans. Like bitumen, we are pliable, bendable beings, in the midst of constant physical and mental change. One day we believe x=y, the next we believe x=z. Our values, our sense of truth, of morality, of justice, are in suspension, poised in a state of perpetual fluctuation. 

I have always seen myself as a bystander, someone afraid to be involved, afraid to be implicated in a situation I do not entirely understand. In formative moments I listen too much to the voice of doubt in my head. What if I am wrong? What will be the consequences? After reading Graham Greene’s The Quiet American (1955), I realised that the passivity I yearn for is unreachable. As everyone, “sooner or later... one must take sides”; it is part of our human experience. One should thus embrace the power to act despite the costs for doing so. 

In a way, The Burial rides on these ideas. I let intuition guide the performance aspect of the piece. ‘Burying’ the figurines in the urban environment just felt like the right thing to do. Saying words - the brief poem above - also felt right. Leaving them there, somewhat abandoned, somewhat freed, felt right too. I was both letting go of a long-held feeling of detachment, of passivity, and developing a sense of involvement.

I messed around with the audio, first isolating the 70 times I say the passage, then layering this backwards on itself. I hope to convey a sense of laboured repetition, change, and the ambiguity of human experience.

Sources:

Alÿs, F. 1997. Sometimes Making Something Leads to Nothing, [performance], Mexico City

Greene, G. 1955. The Quiet American, Penguin: New York

University of Queensland, 2018. Pitch Drop Experiment, accessed at [https://smp.uq.edu.au/pitch-drop-experiment] on the 21.9.18

Godzilla vs. Kong: Inside the Monster Fight of the Century

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

By now you’ve probably seen the Godzilla vs. Kong trailer. You know, the one where a giant ape not only punches a giant lizard in the face (and does what almost looks like the Henry Cavill arm-cocking maneuver) suggesting there’s a new contender for the title of “King of the Monsters.” Audiences will find out who wins when the film drops on HBO Max and in theaters on Mar. 26, 2021, but in a 2019 visit to the Australian production, Den of Geek learned there is more to the movie than a mere clash of Titans.

Instead, executive producer Alex Garcia teases a film about the duality of the “primordial and the technological” elements that pervade the film narratively and aesthetically. Of course there will be throwdowns between two marquee monsters — and possibly a mechanized one — who might just have some history together.

The Monsterverse Main Event

The screams are noticeable on the Godzilla vs. Kong production in Gold Coast, Queensland. Rather than emanating from victims of a monster rampage, it’s the sound of roller coaster passengers at the Warner Bros. Movie World right next door. But there be monsters in the Village Roadshow Studio offices. In a conference room filled with journalists, the walls are adorned with concept art of creatures, including the titular prizefighters duking it out.

“This is obviously the title event in our MonsterVerse series,” says Garcia. Directed by Adam Wingard (Blair Witch; You’re Next) for Legendary Pictures and Warner Bros., and starring Alexander Skarsgård and Millie Bobby Brown (reprising her role of Madison Russell from Godzilla: King of Monsters), Garcia says the upcoming movie has even more scope beyond the “central bout” of Godzilla and Kong.

In a separate interview with Wingard, conducted via Zoom this February, the director — who watched every single Godzilla movie as preparation — described the film as an exploration of monsters past and future, with two concurrent storylines organized into Team Godzilla and Team Kong.

Setting the Stage

Set roughly five years after the events of Godzilla: King of the Monsters, the world is changed. The genie is out of the bottle, and mankind knows monsters exist. Life goes on, despite it being an uneasy existence. But the balance that existed before 2014’s Godzilla is re-established. Godzilla himself has been reinstated as the alpha predator, and the other monsters, aka “Titans,” have remained largely dormant.

“There are creatures who are on the surface,” says Garcia. “They aren’t roaming around, destroying things, but they exist; there are occasional landings, issues, and bouts of destruction.”

Responding to this new reality, humanity enacts safeguards and defense mechanisms. And there has been much rebuilding thanks to Apex, which Garcia describes as a “megalithic, technological conglomerate — think the extreme version of an Amazon or Apple.”

To complicate matters, Godzilla has been acting a little erratically, attacking certain cities and facilities, seemingly at random. That drives the Titan-focused organization Monarch to undertake its first mission into the Hollow Earth via its base camp on Skull Island, where the movie begins.

“They’re going to take a device, the ORCA-Z, into the center of the earth to draw the creatures slowly back into the center of the planet, and they’ll seal it,” Garcia says of the adventure led by Nathan Lind, played by Skarsgård.

Since this is the beginning of the film, it’s not a spoiler to reveal that the mission goes “catastrophically wrong,” according to Garcia, and the world is left in even greater disarray.

Return to Skull Island

Skull Island has changed quite a bit in 40 years (since audiences last saw it in 2017’s Kong: Skull Island), and so has its boss, Kong. He was only an adolescent in the previous film, but is now a much bigger boy of about 350-feet tall, compared to Godzilla’s 400 feet, and has seen some action in the ensuing decades.

“It is a tough existence on Skull Island,” says Garcia. “So he’s a little weathered … he has some battle scars.”

Kong has also gained a friend in a young Skull Island native Jia (Kaylee Hottle), with whom Kong can directly communicate via a “spiritual bond,” according to Wingard. And he has learned some new skills. Garcia promises he remains the Kong audiences know (“he doesn’t breathe fire”) but has a few tricks up his sleeve by virtue of being in a modern world. That may include the Thor-worthy battle axe he wields in the trailer.

The First Battle

Garcia calls the large-scale action sequence behind that first Godzilla and Kong battle at sea one of the first ideas Wingard pitched when he boarded the project in 2017, nearly two years after the project was announced, and after Legendary moved it from Universal to Warner Bros.

The fight is the first of at least two meetings of the main monsters. Another is the “massive third act battle” set in a slightly futuristic Hong Kong, says Garcia, where Kong parkours through the city on skyscrapers, a definite step up from merely scaling the Empire State Building.

As for who comes out on top in the end, that remains to be seen, but at least the first one is expected to end in a draw.

Journey to the Center of Hollow Earth 

The Monarch will explore the setting of Hollow Earth, aided by sci-fi anti-gravity vehicles called HEAVs (Hollow Earth Aerial Vehicles). Garcia says Hollow Earth is 10 times the scope of what we’ve seen on Skull Island, with “rich varied ecosystems” filled with life and a diversity of terrain. Aesthetically, it takes inspiration from Hawaii’s lava fields, as well as the greenery of Waimea on the island. And it’s in Hollow Earth where we see those hints of other Titans that were first glimpsed in the trailer.

“[They] find, in the center of the earth, an ancient site that suggests eons ago, there was a balance between humans and creatures, and a kind of reverence … a greater connection” he adds. “With Kong, he is the last of his kind, and in Hollow Earth, there is hope he will find another; he discovers these environments and ancient evidence of other Kongs, but there aren’t any.”

Production designer Owen Patterson says Wingard and Garcia discussed with him the notion that the Iwi tribe seen in Kong: Skull Island may have made their way into Hollow Earth thousands of years in the past, and remnants of that culture may exist. As hinted at in the mid-credits scene in King of the Monsters — which featured cave paintings of Kong and Godzilla species fighting one another — he said Kong’s species and Godzilla had once lived in the same environment before something occurred that led to a destructive battle, and the latter ultimately went to sleep until the events of the 2014 film.

Production Designer Tom Hammock says they also drew inspiration for Hollow Earth from ancient human civilizations, such as Göbekli Tepe in Turkey, and the Assyrians of Mesopotamia. Architecturally, he adds they went for a look where the buildings are carved into stone, like the early peoples did in India and Ethiopia.

“We carried those looks with the idea that ancient humans all over the world were interacting with these creatures, and forming that bit of civilization with Kong in Hollow Earth.”

For his part, Garcia doesn’t explicitly say Kong and Godzilla have history together, but does acknowledge, “there are some ancient histories and discoveries in the Hollow Earth, and a deeper backstory to the characters.” 

Kong has an emotional journey in the film but Godzilla similarly has his reasons for behaving the way he does. Wingard said Kong is also a “human conduit,” that allows the audience to experience things through him.

“One of the most important things going into this film was treating Godzilla and King Kong like actual characters, that they’re not just these big props that are kind of in the background,” Wingard says. “It’s like they have personalities and they have definitive things that they will and won’t do.”

The Human Element

Following the events of King of the Monsters, and her mother’s belief the Titans are meant to heal the earth from mankind’s damage, Brown’s character Madison becomes an advocate for the creature and serves as the emotional proxy for him.

“Godzilla is the misunderstood hero fighting for us even though we are afraid of things greater than us, and we are constantly fighting against him,” says Garcia. “[Madison] believes he is not necessarily benevolent but what Godzilla wants is also good for mankind, and there must be some reason he’s doing this.”

Brown calls Madison “basically a badass” as the character has grown up since the last movie, and is following in the footsteps of her mother (a Monarch paleobiologist-turned-environmental extremist who believes Godzilla is a savior for the planet, played by Vera Farmiga). She wears her mother’s jacket everywhere she goes, and studies what makes Godzilla tick. 

“It’s much more about the technical side of it, learning about the data of him as a Titan,” Brown says.

Madison’s father Mark (again played by Kyle Chandler) is a director at Monarch, and while he’s on the Kong mission, she comes to believe Apex is involved in a conspiracy behind Godzilla’s bizarre behavior.

Titanic monsters aside, if a tech conglomerate’s secret agenda and hollow earth theories sound like the YouTube videos shared on Facebook by an eccentric relative, that’s not a coincidence. Garcia says conspiracy theories are a through line in the movie as a way of exploring why people come up with these ideas, and how a theory speaks to the things we’re afraid of.

As Madison sets out to investigate, she is joined by her friend Josh (Julian Dennison) and Bernie (Brian Tyree Henry), a former Apex employee who lost his wife, and runs a podcast seeking to expose his former bosses. Together, the misfit trio tries to uncover the mystery at the center of Apex and the sci-fi environs of the company.

This includes a scene filmed on a soundstage set dominated by a 60-foot-long Ghidorah skull wired into a hi-tech control station. It is unclear whether it belongs to King Ghidorah, who lost one of his heads in King of the Monsters, but Wingard did confirm, “In a subtle way, Ghidorah kind of haunts this movie.”

The skull was connected with multicolored cables to a computer terminal — and an artificial brain. Along with signs reading “psionic output” and “biomech,” there was a command seat and headset on a platform accessible by a ramp leading up the kaiju’s mouth. In the scene, Madison leads Josh and Bernie into the mouth to infiltrate the station.

Mecha-Godzilla?

Connected to this is Ren Serizawa (Shun Oguri) — the son of Ken Watanabe’s Monarch scientist character from the previous two Legendary Godzilla films. Seen in the trailer against a mech schematic, Oguri says Ren’s means of protecting the earth is very different from his pro-Titans father.

Based on other glimpses in the trailer of a suited-up Godzilla, and the toy images that leaked at the beginning of 2020, it seems a mech will arrive in the new movie. Although, it remains to be seen if it’s an Apex-controlled Mecha-Godzilla, Mecha-King Ghidorah, or something else entirely. Or perhaps all three are in play, and Godzilla and Kong will eventually have a reason to team up, and fight together.

According to the production designers on the film, another sci-fi inspired element, or perhaps something out of a James Bond film, will be present in Apex’s headquarters atop Hong Kong’s Victoria Peak with an installation built deep within, reaching down into the earth. As well as the mech control room, that base will be the setting for another monster showdown. Cotter explains “our heroes” arrive in Hong Kong via a shuttle transporting Skullcrawler eggs (belonging to the creature introduced in Kong: Skull Island) and end up in an arena confronted by one of Kong’s hometown foes.

This is only one of the ways Godzilla vs. Kong ties together elements from each of the MonsterVerse movies. Garcia also hints the film digs deep into the “mythic past” of Godzilla creator Toho studio, and speaks to new creatures and “other creatures” in the film. He also says both lead monsters are fighting for something, and neither is an antagonist in the movie, and that “there is a complexity” to their motivations.

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Despite the potential nuance of the monster-on-monster violence, there does not appear to be a shortage of it in Godzilla vs. Kong, with Hammock saying the two main beasts meet several times. And it’s a good bet Godzilla will get a chance to return that sucker punch Kong delivers in the trailer when Godzilla vs. Kong premieres on HBO Max and streaming this March.

The post Godzilla vs. Kong: Inside the Monster Fight of the Century appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3dBrYjd

The Most Disappointing Experiment Ever...

In 1927 Professor Thomas Parnell of the University of Queensland started what is known as the longest continuous laboratory experiment in history.

The pitch drop experiment.

He wanted to prove to his students that bitumen, although it has the appearance of a solid, is, in fact, a highly viscous liquid. So he filled a funnel with some hot asphalt and waited 3 years to let it stabilize and subsequently opened the funnel.

And he waited and waited

And waited.

Very, very slowly a drop was forming…

And waited.

After waiting for more than 8 years the first drop fell.

Unfortunately, nobody saw it, so the professor waited for the second drop.

And waited.

When the prof died in 1948 the second drop was completed, but he never saw a drop fall. His successor, Professor John Mainstone, was determined to be the first person that actually would see a drop fall.

With the emergence of new technology, he installed a webcam to make sure the event was recorded, but due to an unfortunate power failure, the camera did not record the occurrence when, in November 2000, the eighth drop fell.

Prof Mainstone died in 2013.

Needless to say that the next prof, Andrew White, was even more determined to see, or at least record, the next drop. A time-lapse camera was set up, with continuous video of the four most recent days, and two additional video cameras. Nothing was left to a chance.

On 17 April 2014, the 9th drop was about to fall: The drop touched the previous drops that were still in the beaker below the experiment, but it was still attached to the funnel. The previous drops were supporting the drop and it wasn't gonna fall.

Prof White decided to put an empty beaker below the experiment to make room for the drop. He carefully lifted the bell jar that protected the experiment. But he didn't know that there was a degraded seal between the glass bell jar and the wooden platform below the experiment. The wooden base wobbled and disaster struck: the 9th drop came loose.

We are now 2018, more than 90 years after the start of the experiment and nobody ever witnessed or recorded a drop.

It really must be the most unfortunate experiment in history.

Peace!

My favourite thing about the University of Queensland’s pitch drop experiment is that if you check in on the livestream, sometimes you catch people who’ve stopped to watch it in person.

Like, this is an experiment that’s been running continuously since 1927. It’s literally one of the slowest-moving things on Earth – it only does something interesting about once per decade. Yet people who attend the university, and thus presumably see it on public display every day, still sometimes stop and stare at it for a while.

That strikes a chord for me. I’m not entirely sure what kind of chord, but it’s a chord.

10 Best Baseball Coaching Clubs for Kids in Australia

Baseball is a bat-and-ball game played between two opposing teams who take turns batting and fielding. The game proceeds when a player on the fielding team, called the pitcher, throws a ball which a player on the batting team tries to hit with a bat. 

The objective of the offensive team (batting team) is to hit the ball into the field of play, allowing its players to run the bases, having them advance counter-clockwise around four bases to score what are called "runs". The objective of the defensive team (fielding team) is to prevent batters from becoming runners, and to prevent runners' advance around the bases. 

A run is scored when a runner legally advances around the bases in order and touches home plate (the place where the player started as a batter). The team that scores the most runs by the end of the game is the winner.

There are many baseball clubs in Australia who do best work for coaching kids and here are some listed below.

1. Surfers Paradise Baseball Club

Baseball Clubs - Benowa (Queensland)

Surfers Paradise Baseball Club is the original baseball club on the Gold Coast. The club plays 12 months of the year.

The club caters to players from age 5 to 70. Our main season is Summer in which our juniors play in the Gold Coast competition and our seniors (and some juniors) play in the Brisbane competition. Winter is a Gold Coast only competition which includes Masters aged players.

We have 2 fully fenced fields. New extended dugouts on diamond 1. We have 2 Bull pens which allow at least 6 pitchers to train at the same time. A new double batting cage has just been built. We have a fully operating canteen, toilets and showers, and umpires change area.

The club has excellent coaching at both senior and junior level and fully support our players, aiming to play at the next level.We operate the Blue Wave Academy which fast tracks young players in their development.

The club is host to a number of tournaments including Dingo World Series, various school boy events, Australian National Titles, University games and Pan Pacific Games. in 2015 the club hosted the Australian Baseball Academy.

2.East Hills Baseball Club

Baseball Clubs - Panania (New South Wales)

Our Baseball club was established in 1967 we run mixed teams in both junior and senior age groups. Our juniors play in the Cronulla competition with our teams starting with Nursery Tots, T-Ball U7:U8/U9, then progressing to baseball Little League Minor, Major, Junior and Senior League (U12, U14, U16) and adults. Most junior games are played on Saturday mornings and training is either Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday nights.

For the 3-5 years we run the very popular Nursery Tots we supply all equipment and it is great fun. Nursery Tots runs Fridays for 8 weeks from 6 till 7 starting in October.

We have excellent facilities with enclosed junior and senior diamonds, lights for training, batting tunnel, good car parking, change rooms, canteen and club room. We have great coaches, parents and volunteers and we encourage children to participate and learn our sport in a friendly atmosphere. In July we run free Try Baseball days where everyone can come and try all facets of baseball plus a free sausage sizzle - see our website for information or contact us for more information.

3.Kwinana Blue Jays Baseball Club

Baseball Clubs - Medina (Western Australia)

Kwinana Blue Jays Baseball Club are a newly established baseball club looking at commencing our first season in the BWA competition. We are striving to establish a family friendly club for all members, families and community to join, support and participate in baseball in the Kwinana locale.

KBJBC are looking for senior players aged 9 - 99 who are interested in playing Baseball. We offer a fun, social environment for all players at all skill levels.

4.Doncaster Baseball Club

Baseball Clubs - Doncaster East (Victoria)

Doncaster Dragons Baseball Club is one of the largest clubs in Victoria.

We provide opportunities for males, females, adults and kids, to play baseball in Melbourne Australia all year round in summer and/or winter.

The third biggest baseball club in Victoria and the fifth nationally, fielding 20+ Baseball teams across Men's, Women's and Junior competitions in addition to a Friday night Little League and T-ball competition.

5.Hawkesbury Baseball Club

Baseball Grounds - Richmond (New South Wales)

Baseball Club established 25 years - both junior & senior teams. Juniors from age 5 to 16 play Saturday mornings. Seniors from age 14 play Saturday afternoons. Major League teams play Sunday in Winter.6.Western Districts Baseball Club Inc.

6.Western Districts Baseball Club Inc. 

 Baseball Clubs - Darra (Queensland)

The Western Districts Baseball club provides opportunity for playing baseball at any level from junior players right through to Masters players. No experience is necessary and new players are always welcome. Boys and girls can all play starting from age 6. The Club provides for social baseball games right through to players being selected to play for Queensland and Australia at both Junior and Senior levels.

Western Districts Baseball Club has two newly refurbished baseball grounds at their home in Darra.

7.Baseball Tasmania

Baseball Clubs - Derwent Park (Tasmania)

Baseball Tasmania is the governing body for the Hobart Summer Baseball League (HSBL) with aims to expand the game of baseball to other areas of Tasmania. The Hobart competition consists of ten senior teams (16 upwards) and one junior team. Launceston has a fledgling competition with two teams. A competition is aimed to cover the Burnie/Ulverstone/Devonport areas. All regions are seeking new players, all genders with no previous experience necessary. Particularly looking for juniors age 11 and upwards.

8.St Kilda Baseball Club

Baseball Clubs - Albert Park (Victoria)

St Kilda has enjoyed rich history within Australian baseball and is steering towards a bright future. The first baseball club to appear in Australia, formed over 130 years ago to play a visiting team from the United States. After a few incarnations it was the St Kilda Baseball Club in the 30's that began a proud tradition in Claxton Shield Baseball, which continued for many years - The social ball in August became a highlight of the Claxton Shield period.

Today, St Kilda Baseball Club is a friendly and fun orientated group. Retaining our tradition of sociability, we are approachable and always welcome all sorts of players, from the beginner to the experienced. Just drop on by to one of our games or training sessions and meet the teams!

9.Winston Hills Junior Baseball Club

Baseball Associations - Baulkham Hills (New South Wales)

Winston Hills Junior Baseball Club was established in 1983 and since then has been successful in winning numerous premierships from T-Ball to AA grade. We have also produced numerous NSW players from U14 through to Claxton Shield as well as Australian representatives from Cal Ripken through to the Olympics and World Baseball Classic. Winston Hills Baseball is a club oriented towards enabling everyone to achieve what they want out of baseball whether that be social or playing at the highest level.

10.Byford Bushrangers

T-Ball Clubs - Byford (Western Australia)

With home grounds at Briggs Park, Byford, we are the local Tee-ball, Baseball and Softball Club. We have players from Byford, Serpentine, Jarrahdale, Mundijong, Cardup, Oakford, Darling Downs and surrounding areas.

All of our sports are available for both males and females. All sports have team training one day a week as well as a game against other teams. Days vary. Kidsport welcome.

Toddler Tee-ball - 2.5 to 3 years of age

Tee-ball - 4 to 12 years of age

Machine Pitch - 7 to 10 years of age

Baseball - 9 years to adult

Softball - 9 years to adult (winter), 16 to adult (summer)

When I put on my uniform, I feel I am the proudest man on earth. People in uniform always look so great.

The uniform makes for brotherhood, since when universally adopted it covers up all differences of class and country.

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We’ve offered custom baseball jerseys of the highest quality construction and design implementation. 

Customize your own baseball pants online and make your team stand tall.

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We have incorporated the Online Kit Builder into our website, allowing you to create the Best Baseball Jersey Design uniforms online.

You can add your name, number, logo and you can also design your own jerseys with custom baseball uniform creator.

Custom made Baseball Jackets are made with high-quality fabric which gives you a cool, smoother and comfortable feel. 

Our Baseball Jersey Builder works in such a way with 360 degree view to make you visualize your Custom Baseball Uniforms.

Your freshly-made uniforms will be delivered right to your door! No hassle, clumsy misprints, or long waiting issues.

Our team is committed to quality service and providing your team with uniforms they will be proud to wear.

Explore the categories below to know more information regarding our baseball uniforms.

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Reference:

https://www.activeactivities.com.au/directory/category/sports/ball-sports/baseball/baseball-clubs/

These Whales Are Serenaders of the Seas. It’s Quite a Racket.

Why do whales sing? Scientists still aren’t certain, and maybe the whales aren’t, either.

A juvenile male humpback whale in waters off Sri Lanka. The males may be singing certain tunes to attract mates, although scientists listening to the songs suspect there may also be other reasons for the music shared among these giants, even when they are miles and miles apart.CreditTony Wu/Minden Pictures

By Karen Weintraub

Jan. 7, 2019

Sometimes a whale just wants to change its tune.

That’s one of the things researchers have learned recently by eavesdropping on whales in several parts of the world and listening for changes in their pattern and pitch. Together, the new studies suggest that whales are not just whistling in the water, but constantly evolving a form of communication that we are only beginning to understand.

Most whales and dolphins vocalize, but dolphins and toothed whales mostly make clicking and whistling sounds. Humpbacks, and possiblybowheads, sing complex songs with repeated patterns, said Michael Noad, an associate professor in the Cetacean Ecology and Acoustics Laboratory at the University of Queensland in Australia.

Birds may broadcast their social hierarchy among song-sharing populations by allowing the dominant bird to pick the playlist and patterns. But how and why whales pass song fragments across hundreds of miles, and to thousands of animals, is far more mysterious.

The biggest question is why whales sing at all.

“The thing that always gets me out of bed in the morning is the function of the song,” Dr. Noad said. “I find humpback song fascinating from the point of view of how it’s evolved.”

The leading hypothesis is that male humpbacks — only the males sing — are trying to attract females. But they may also switch tunes when another male is nearby, apparently to assess a rival’s size and fitness, said Dr. Noad, who was the senior author of one of four new papers on whale songs.

Why the humpbacks’ musical patterns tend to be more complex than those of other whales is also a bit murky. Dr. Noad suggested that the development may be the result of so-called “runaway selection.”

Early humpbacks with complex songs were so much more successful at mating that they gained a substantial evolutionary advantage over their brethren with simpler vocalizations. This led to some very large, sometimes very noisy animals.

Julien Bonnel, an associate scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts, said the growing research also shows the importance of collecting data over many years, offering insights not only into whales but ocean conditions that affect other species.

The technology for recording whales has gotten much cheaper over the last dozen years or so, making it more accessible to researchers. And computer programs that analyze huge data sets quickly have helped interpret years of these recordings.

Tagging whales without hurting them has produced more data, Dr. Noad noted, but the tags only remain on the whale for a few hours, limiting the information that can be collected.

In one of the new studies, led by scientists at the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society, researchers tracked humpbacks singing along the east and west coasts of Africa, comparing songs sung by those off the coast of Gabon to those near Madagascar.

The study, published in the journal Royal Society Open Science, confirmed that the two populations interact, noting overlap in their vocalizations. The researchers recorded songs annually from 2001 to 2005 using hand-held hydrophones aboard boats.

“Male humpback whales within a population tend to sing the same song type, but it’s continuously changing and evolving over time,” said Melinda Rekdahl, the study’s first author and a marine conservation scientist with the wildlife society. “It’s thought to be one of the best examples of cultural evolution in the animal kingdom.”

Dr. Rekdahl wasn’t on the boat that collected the sound for her new study, but she knows firsthand that “it can be an amazing experience,” she said.

The sound of a nearby singer resonates through the hull of the boat. “If the singer is that close, you can hear the song getting fainter just before the whale surfaces nearby,” she recalled.

“If the singers aren’t that close,” she added, “you can often sit there for hours recording and hearing the song through your headphones but not see a whale anywhere.”

Dr. Rekdahl based her new study on data collected between 2001 and 2005, because she thought those recordings offered the best opportunity to compare song similarities between neighboring populations.

The idea of using songs to look at population mixing and connectivity is relatively new, she said, and has only been proven valuable in the last few years.

Some animals repeat sounds more than others, some sing “aberrant” tunes, and juveniles may hum jingles altogether different from the adults’. Humpbacks also alter their tunes over time.

One reason might be novelty — for themselves or nearby females. “If I was swimming up with 15,000 whales and all the males were singing the same song, it would drive me crazy,” Dr. Rekdahl said. Maybe the “females are just, like, give me a new song!”

Two additional recent studies examined how the songs change, seasonally and across years.

In one paper, Jenny Allen, who was a doctoral student with Dr. Noad, found an unexpected pattern among humpbacks. Once their songs reach a certain level of complexity, humpbacks drop that tune entirely and pick up a new, simpler one. Her study, the first to quantify the complexity of the songs, was published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.

“That clear oscillating pattern was something we didn’t really expect,” said Dr. Allen, now a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Queensland and a lecturer at Griffith University in Australia.

Assuming that the songs are meant to attract females, “it might be that a brand-new song is a bit sexier than continuing to sing the complicated version of the old song,” she said. But because it’s hard to memorize a whole new song, “they’re simplifying it to make it easy to learn so much new material all at once.”

Humpback songs have a lot of repeating patterns, which might make them easier to remember, just as rhymes at the end of poetry lines aid memorization, Dr. Allen said. She also found a lot of predictability in the patterns, and compared them to pop songs based on the same four chords.

In another new paper, researchers at the University of Brest in France found that the pitch of Antarctic blue whale, pygmy blue whale and fin whale vocalizations fell from 2007 to 2016 at various recording sites in the southern Indian Ocean.

A humpback whale off the coast of Madagascar. CreditJulie Larsen Maher/Wildlife Conservation Society

Because of a whale’s anatomy, a louder call is higher in pitch and a quieter one is lower. Essentially, the whales have gotten slightly quieter, said Emmanuelle Leroy, now a research fellow at the University of New South Wales and an author of the new research.

“Blue whales are mostly solitary, so to communicate across large distance, they need to produce really low-frequency and high-intensity calls,” she said. “The calls are really loud and will propagate over a few hundreds of kilometers.”

Her team has two hypotheses to explain the drop in pitch across years. With the populations rebounding since the end of commercial whaling, perhaps the whales don’t need their calls to carry as far to be heard by others.

Or perhaps with oceans acidifying because of climate change, the calls are naturally carrying farther, allowing the whales to reduce their volume. The team does not believe the change in pitch is tied directly to human activity.

Their research, published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, also showed that the call pitch of the Antarctic blue whales varies across seasons, with pitches increasing by .1 hertz during the spring and summer and dropping at other times.

That might be the whales’ response to the loud cleaving of icebergs in the spring and summer. These extremely loud sounds — like the cracking of ice in a glass — make it harder for the whales to hear one another, so they crank up the volume, Dr. Leroy said.

Dr. Noad thinks the overall drop in pitch could be a reflection of the aging of the population, with older whales making deeper sounds.

(Contrary to other scientists, he also believes that whales can hear human-made noises from quite a distance, in the same way that people in urban environments can hear the distant rumble of traffic even if there are no cars passing directly by.)

Humpback whales have made a “really nice comeback” since commercial whaling was largely stopped in the 1960s, Dr. Noad said. But for unknown reasons, blue and fin whales are still struggling; just a few thousand Antarctic blue whales remain.

In yet another new study related to whale song, researchers at Woods Hole found that short-finned pilot whales living off the coast of Hawaii have their own vocal dialects, suggesting that different groups are purposely avoiding one another.

Relatively little is known about this species’ behavior. The new research provides a better sense of the social ties between whale groups, which could promote understanding of their genetic diversity and evolution, as well as conservation, the researchers said.

Reckless Pitch

Inspired by the tumblr @recklesspitch, a scientist at the University of Queensland in Australia discovers it is possible to temporarily warp the temporal field around high viscosity liquids. Suddenly pitch begins to flow like water, and rock formations slide easier than ice. Unfortunately, the field is very unstable, and could cause Australia to crash into New Guinea, unless someone stops the process.

First of all; what are we looking at it here?

We have: Water, Oil, Honey and Tar Pitch. From a visual perspective, it is easy to come up with a general summation that we are looking at 3 liquids and 1 solid- but this is in fact incorrect.

This is actually a collage of 4 liquids, albeit with great differences in viscosity!

So, what is viscosity?

Viscosity is essentially a measure of a fluids resistance to flow. It describes the internal friction of a moving fluid. Fluids with a high viscosity resist motion due to its molecular makeup causing a lot of internal friction. Fluids with a low viscosity on the other hand flow with ease, again due to its molecular makeup; in this case there is very little internal friction when moving. We experience differences in viscocity on a daily basis; I’m sure everyone can empathise with trying to get ketchup out of a bottle. Conversely, if the flow of vinegar isn’t regulated through a tiny hole, we end up with vinegar and chips (fries) soup! These differentials are all down to the unique viscosity of the liquid.

So, flow is an important, basic observation when deciding if something is a fluid. At this point you might be wondering how I am justifying the notion that tar pitch is a liquid rather than a solid??

Well, in short: tar pitch flows!

The hypothesis that this viscoelastic polymer was in fact a liquid by definition was proposed in 1927 by Professor Thomas Parnell in the University of Queensland. Professor Parnell heated a sample of pitch and poured it into a glass funnel with a sealed stem. Three years were allowed for the pitch to settle, and in 1930 the sealed stem was cut. From that date on the pitch has slowly dripped out of the funnel - so slowly that now, 86 years later, the ninth drop is only just fully formed- it is the longest running experiment of all time.

Amusingly, in all this time, no one has ever seen a drop fall! The experiment has been the victim of a number of sitcom-worthy mishaps including a drop falling when the professor in charge simply chose the wrong time to step out for a cup of tea- he came back to find the drop had fallen. When another drop fell, almost a decade later, the webcam installed failed and did not capture the event. As a result, the experiment now has three webcams focused on it and is on a live feed. If you have nothing to do for the next few months/years, you can watch it here: http://bit.ly/u1eN8h

Fortunately, the same experiment was undertaken in my own country of Ireland. Trinity College Dublin set up this experiment in 1944 and managed to capture a drop forming on video which you can see here: http://bit.ly/14jytxV

From analysing the video, the scientist maintain that the pitch is two million times more viscous than honey, and two billion times more viscous than water.

-Jean

Infinitely Slowly

John Mainstone, of the University of Queensland, photographed in 1990 with the pitch drop experiment

1988:For half a century, John Mainstone oversaw the University of Queensland’s pitch drop experiment, in which pitch – the tarry substance used to make boat seams watertight – dripped infinitely slowly from a funnel into a flask. Set up in 1927, the experiment demonstrated that pitch is not a…

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