Quote:LONDON — It’s around the year 1480, and a wandering English bard walks into a bar. What does he say to the crowd of drunken peasants gathered inside?

A series of irreverent jokes about incontinence, killer rabbits and binge drinking, according to new literary research. The study, published in the Review of English Studies on Wednesday, found that a medieval tome known as the Heege manuscript is no ordinary notebook: It actually includes the comedy script of an unnamed traveling entertainer, otherwise known as a minstrel. The revelation means the manuscript provides, perhaps for the first time, a direct glimpse into the long-forgotten oral tradition of English minstrel acts.

These comedy routines are the medieval equivalent of late-night talk shows, said James Wade, the Cambridge University expert behind the study. The manuscript was probably transcribed around 1480 in England’s Midlands region by Richard Heege, a family tutor; literary experts previously considered its contents to be of uncertain origin.
“It gives us a glimpse into live comedy and entertainment in the Middle Ages that would otherwise be lost,” Wade said, noting some of the similarities between the minstrel’s jokey style and comedy that remains popular today.

The performer’s jokes paint a lively picture of late-medieval English humor, inverting everyday scenes for comic effect and frequently showing peasants and kings being stung by their own stupidity or greed.
In one pamphlet, titled “The Hounding of the Hare,” dimwitted peasants set out to hunt rabbits. In the chaos and confusion of the chase, the hunters end up preying on each other instead. The scene is so topsy-turvy that one of the peasants becomes terrified that the rabbit will murder him, rather than the other way around.

At one point, the tale goes like this (all stories here translated by Wade from Middle English):

Quote:As part of a telephone survey afterwards, participants were asked to provide two or three words describing the experience. Of the 78 total words provided, 21 were the same adjective: ‘frustrating’. Participants had trouble signing on to the system and experienced unpredictable failures, ‘irrelevant output’ and, most of all, not knowing ‘what words to use in a search’. Yet they also found the system intriguing and exciting (‘fun’, ‘thorough’, ‘I dig computers’), and 94 per cent said they would use SUPARS (the Syracuse University Psychological Abstracts Retrieval Service) again if it were available. Several offered to keep the experiment running past its deadline by asking their departments to contribute funding to the project.

This group of academic guinea pigs, mostly graduate students in education, psychology and librarianship, were part of a radical online search experiment run by the Syracuse University School of Library Science. SUPARS was one of many ambitious information-retrieval studies that took place between the late 1960s and mid-1970s on US university campuses. A number of factors led to the surge in this research. Developments in computer-processing capability for speed and storage had allowed academic databases and catalogues to be digitised and moved online. Computer terminals were newly modular and could be placed around campuses for decentralised access to mainframes. And military and industry funding for computer-based research was more abundant than it had ever been. Given the opportunity, academic librarians took advantage of the chance to explore this expensive new technology. In turn, universities offered unclassified environments for collaborations with corporate technology firms and military groups; SUPARS was sponsored by the Rome Air Development Center, the laboratory arm of the US Air Force.
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SUPARS was designed by a librarian named Pauline Atherton (who goes by the name of Pauline Atherton Cochrane today). In 1960, aged 30 and early in her library career, she had been the cross-reference editor of that year’s revision of the World Book Encyclopedia, ensuring thorough and accurate cross-linking between different articles. By 1966, she was working at the Syracuse University libraries and in the library school, where in 1968 she demonstrated the first use of an online decimal classification file to aid in search (AUDACIOUS). That same year, she established the first computer-based teaching lab that integrated online search into regular classroom teaching at the library school (LEEP). (In the context of the world before the internet, ‘online’ meant establishing a networked, real-time connection between a mainframe computer and some other remote device, such as a terminal.)

For example, one of the most celebrated figures in this history is Joseph Carl Robnett ‘Lick’ Licklider, whose idea of a universal network directly inspired the invention of ARPANET, often described as ‘the first internet’. (Licklider was also deeply involved with similar 1960s and ’70s campus experiments for online search; he both funded and advised on several studies at MIT libraries that ran during the same period as SUPARS.)

In 1968, the year before SUPARS was designed, Licklider’s paper ‘The Computer as a Communication Device’ declared that: ‘In a few years, men will be able to communicate more effectively through a machine than face to face’ and described a rewarding, blissful society mediated by human computer interactions. Licklider predicted that ‘life will be happier for the on-line individual’ and that ‘communication will be more effective and productive, and therefore more enjoyable’. Licklider’s essay is typically both predictive and rosy for this futuristic genre about the potential of information technology.
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In 2022 and 2023, as the first generative AI search engines, including academic search engines such as Elicit and Consensus, were introduced to a wide set of users to both great excitement and scepticism, it is similarly useful to analyse what will be lost when researchers come to rely on these tools. When we can simply enter research questions to create instantaneous literature reviews, for example, there will not be merely a great positive leap forward. This new technology will create a lack of grounding and context, even as incredible new discoveries are made – a different loss than what Atherton saw, but similarly both intangible and deeply consequential. Being able to predict these consequences in advance, not mourning them as Luddites but actively considering how to help researchers overcome them, is a lesson we can learn from the SUPARS team.

Ingenious librarians

Quote:The Space Rapid Capabilities Office, a direct reporting unit of the U.S. Space Force, has a specialized, restricted and unique mission. Space RCO is a relatively small office filled with people who love what they do in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Delivering space capabilities quickly and effectively requires a strong core culture and mindset.  Our short chain of command, direct connection to senior leadership and key operating principles cultivate speed to meet warfighter needs in operationally relevant timelines.

Mission

The Space RCO mission is to develop and deliver operationally dominant space capabilities at the speed of warfighting relevance.  We expedite delivery and deployment of space capabilities in response to the Commander, US Space Command requirements as assigned by our Board of Directors.

The Space Rapid Capabilities Office | Space Force Mil site

Quote:The US government allegedly "killed and covered up" a 13-foot giant with red hair and six-finger hands who lived in the Afghanistan highlands.

In a deleted YouTube clip, a witness claimed that he saw the horrifying incident.

In August 2016, YouTuber Marzulli posted a lengthy interview with Mr. K, a military contractor, on the internet video sharing platform. During the conversation, Mr. K stated that he was a member of the crew who ruthlessly executed the Kandahar giant.

US Government Denies Claim

When Snopes asked about the "Kandahar Giant incident" in 2016, the Department of Defense said, "We do not have any record or information about a special forces member killed by a giant in Kandahar."

Furthermore, neither the website nor the news release said that a "special forces troop" had gone missing in Afghanistan or that a giant had killed one of their men.

13-Foot Tall Red Haired Giant of Kandahar Allegedly Killed by US Soldiers in Afghanistan [CLAIM]

1. The National Military Command Center (NMCC) in the Pentagon
   
2. The Alternate National Military Command Center (ANMCC) in the Raven Rock Mountain
   
3. The military communications center in the White House
   
4. An unknown location in the State Department (probably on the 7th floor in Hillary's wunderland bathroom)
   

Quote:The establishment of a direct link between Washington and Moscow caused some diplomatic upheaval in western nations, specifically the United Kingdom. Since the physical line between the two capitals ran through London, the British proposed that they be allowed access to any conversation taking place on it. They could then consult with Washington, instead of being informed of disagreements after they had been settled. While this would have gone a long way towards strengthening the special relationship that exists between London and Washington, the administration of President Kennedy believed that a three-way conversation in times of crisis might be counter-productive. It was also obvious that if London were given access to the hotline, other NATO member nations would want the same thing. The tension that arose was abated, however, when both the Soviets and the Americans made it clear that the line was only to be used in the event of an emergency where the failure to communicate directly might lead to an all-out war. It would not be used for situations that called for regular diplomatic channels.
Matt's Blog

Quote:During World War II, troop trains stopped in Reno and many a serviceman was introduced to legalized gambling.

After the war, the Smith family started the first nationwide advertising campaign for Nevada gambling. Signs sprung up along major highways, proclaiming "Harold's Club Or Bust," or "You May Lose Your Pants But You Will Have a Barrel of Fun, Harold's Club."

The casino was sold in June 1970 to Howard Hughes, who dropped the apostrophe from the name. "It went down hill then," said Powers. Winnings from Harolds, he said, were siphoned off to help the other Hughes casinos in Las Vegas.

Quote:Stockton Rush is Chief Executive Officer and Founder (2009) of OceanGate Inc. Rush oversees OceanGate’s financial and engineering strategies and provides a clear vision for development of 4,000 meter (13,123 feet) and 6,000 meter (19,685 feet) capable crewed submersibles and their partner launch and recovery platforms which make OceanGate Inc the leading provider of crewed submersibles for charter and scientific research.

Rush became the youngest jet transport rated pilot in the world when he obtained his DC-8 Type/Captain’s rating at the United Airlines Jet Training Institute in 1981 at the age of 19. He served as a DC-8 first officer during college summers, flying out of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia for Overseas National Airways under a subcontract from Saudi Arabian Airlines. Over the course of three summers, Rush flew to locations such as Cairo, Damascus, Bombay, London, Zurich, and Khartoum. In 1984, Rush joined the McDonnell Douglas Corporation as a Flight Test Engineer on the F-15 program. During this time, he spent two years at Edwards Air Force Base on the APG-63 radar test program and then on the Anti-Satellite Missile Program as the sole full-time representative of McDonnell Douglas.

Quote:Town Car Diplomacy

Brezhnev wanted to go for a ride.

Nixon recorded the scene in his Memoirs:

    He got behind the wheel and motioned me into the passenger seat. The head of my Secret Service detail went pale as I climbed in and we took off down one of the narrow roads that run around the perimeter of Camp David….

    At one point there is a very steep slope with a sign at the top reading, ‘Slow, dangerous curve’….

    Brezhnev was driving more than 50 miles an hour as we approached the slope. I reached over and said, ‘Slow down, slow down,’ but he paid no attention. When we reached the bottom there was a squeal of rubber as he slammed on the breaks and made the turn….

    ‘You are an excellent driver,’ I replied. ‘I would never have been able to make that turn at the speed at which we were traveling.’

    Diplomacy is not always an easy art.

A film clip of the day’s events here shows Nixon presenting the car to Brezhnev as the two speed off.

Quote:Russians test a gun that turns people into zombies

It's been widely speculated that the U.S. military has been developing weapons with the capacity to scramble brain activity and basically turn your mind into mush. If so, we might be seeing a new kind of arms race as a new report claims that the Russia government has been testing a gun that does exactly that.

The weapon in question uses electromagnetic technology, such as microwave beams, to disrupt the central nervous system. Indeed, previous research has shown that certain kinds of low-frequency radiation can cause "a sensation of buzzing, clicking or hissing in the head," according to a report by MSNBC. So along that line of logic, taking it up a few notches would lead to weapons that can potentially fry eyeballs, stop the heart from beating and even turn people into zombies.

Right now there's no indication that anyone's perfected anything close to an actual "zombie gun," although the Australian publication The Herald Sun reports that Russia's main man, President Vladimir Putin, plans to have them ready within a decade as a defensive measure against enemies of the state or unruly dissidents, such as protesters.

According to their report:

Quote:
    Plans to introduce the super-weapons were announced by Russian defence minister Anatoly Serdyukov. While the technology has been around for some time, Mr. Tsyganok said the guns were recently tested for crowd control purposes.

    “When it was used for dispersing a crowd and it was focused on a man, his body temperature went up immediately as if he was thrown into a hot frying pan," Mr Tsyganok said. "Still, we know very little about this weapon and even special forces guys can hardly cope with it,'' he said.

But the effort to come up with something that can enable bona fide mind control has proven immensely challenging, despite decades of work by some of the brightest mad scientists. For instance, while the U.S. military has harnessed similar technology to produce a heat ray that creates a burning sensation hot enough to break up crowds, it still takes hours to power up and is a lot less effective when it rains.

MSNBC's science editor Alan Boyle says he's skeptical of Russia's claims and that we probably shouldn't expect a brain-frying gun for a very long time:

Quote:The bottom line is that Russia certainly seems to be on track to set up its own DARPA-like "Department of Mad Scientists,"working on heat rays, mind-altering electromagnetic beams and heaven knows what else. But there's nothing in the comments from Putin and Serdyukov to suggest that the Russians are anywhere close to having psychotronic weapons. In fact, Putin makes it sound as if the next frontier in warfare won't be the zombie ray gun but the coordinated cyber-attack. And that's scary enough for me.