Mercury was Painted Black

The planet Mercury reflects much less light compared to our own moon, which is about the same size. This had scientist bewildered for a long time. Scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Brown University and the Planetary Sciences Institute say they may have found the solution. Megan Bruck Syal, a postdoctoral researcher at Lawrence Livermore, said that it was "effectively painted black".

Mercury is the planet that is closest to the sun. Compared to the moon, there is are much more carbon dust flung off from comets close to the sun. The researchers say Mercury is surrounded by 50 times the amount of carbon dust than our moon. For ages scientist believes that microscopic meteorites spawned from carbon-rich comets may have contributed enough dark-hued carbon to reduce the amount of reflected light.

Tests using a big NASA gun made to simulate planetary impacts on a small-scale seem to show the theory is plausible, the authors say. "We show that carbon acts like a stealth darkening agent," said Peter Schultz, a professor emeritus of geological sciences at Brown University. "From the standpoint of spectral analysis, it's like an invisible paint," the CNN reported on 31 March 2015.

Anything Under the Sun: Gambling Requires Skills

REBLOG>Anything Under the Sun: Gambling Requires Skills

SavySeph's Original Blog

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I tried to convince my readers that gambling requires skill. There are tons of researches that would conclude otherwise. In a recent (2012) study Professor Gerhard Meyer, of the University of Bremen's Institute of Psychology and Cognition Research, suggested that poker was chiefly a game of chance. There were 300 participants in Prof Meyer's research. They played 60 hands poker each, on tables of six. The players were classified as 'expert' and 'average' players based on their ability to make money from good, bad and average hands. The research found that 'expert' players lost less money on bad hands, but did no better than 'average' players on mediocre hands - and made slightly less on good ones. Prof Meyer concluded that 'poker players overestimate the skill factor in their play'.

A research studied 456 million hands of poker from a year's worth of online game. In just a few hands the better-performing players fared better half the time. Their success rate gradually increased until they played 1,471 hands. Given that frequency, they could do better at least 75 per cent of the time. Dr Dennie van Dolder, of the University of Nottingham's School of Economics, said the study showed 'skilled players will consistently outperform less skilled players if enough hands...are played.'

Researchers from the University of Nottingham, working with colleagues from Erasmus University Rotterdam and VU University Amsterdam, also noted that players who finished in the top one per cent in the first half of the year were 12 times more likely than others to repeat the feat in the second half. Writer and TV presenter Victoria Coren Mitchell, one of Britain's top professional players, has won more than £1.5m - including £400,000 at a single event. Dr van Dolder said, "It's up to legislators to decide whether the role of chance diminishes fast enough for poker to be considered a game of skill," the Daily Mail reported on 25 March 2015.

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Jack Omnitrade's Comments

I guess Professor Gerhard Meyer study did not include a larger sample size (more games). If Professor Meyer went up to 1471 hands would the result had been the same with Dr Dennie van Dolder?

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My Comments

Including more games in the study is giving poker player more chances to prove that skills are vital.

The Great FireWall of China

Today China can be deemed as successful in their massive internet surveillance and content control task. The Great FireWall of China had managed to keep out any content that do not go in tandem with government policies. Although VPNs, or Virtual Private Networks had been used to get around the firewall, recent crackdown by the authorities had shut them down. Roseann Rife, the East Asia research director of Amnesty International, anticipated that the success of the Chinese model will attract buyers from countries like Russia or Egypt.

Back in Jan 1999, MIT Media Lab founder and technology pundit Nicholas Negroponte declared that a "healthy disrespect for authority" was required for any successful Internet industry. A year later, then-U.S. President Bill Clinton announced that "liberty will spread by cell phone and cable modem" and that any attempt to control the Internet in China would be "like trying to nail Jell-O to the wall." Things certainly had changed now, the CNN on 25 March 2015.

While Napoleon Bonaparte was wise not to awake the "Sleeping Giant", arrogant Bill Clinton certainly did not learn for it. Where there is a will, there will be ways and China should not be underestimated. With one-third of the world's population, China had more web users than the population of the United States. What they had is human capital and given time they will find a solution.

Time Is a Thief: The Ancient Tentacle Erotica

REBLOG> Time Is a Thief: The Ancient Tentacle Erotica

Amenda Steels' Original Blog

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Tentacle erotica is a type of pornography that integrates traditional pornography with some elements of bestiality. They come under hentai titles with tentacle creatures having sexual intercourse with female characters. Fantasy, horror, or science-fiction themes were used to provide the storyline. Creatures with tentacles in erotic setting existed before animated pornography. The famous woodblock print by Hokusai Katsushika appeared in 1920. It was entitled “the Dream of the Fisherman's Wife”.

Shunga or erotic art were seen as sexual guidance for young couple during Hokusai’s times. It was the Japanese Karma Sutra enjoyed by men and women of all classes and superstitions and customs supports this claim. Samurai used shunga as an amulet against death. Merchant treat them as talisman to protect their warehouse from fire. [Source Wikipedia]. Shunga is literally translated as spring art. For Japanese spring refer to the blossom period and it was traditional to present a bride with ukiyo-e depicting erotic scenes from the Tale of Genji.

The picture was rated third sexiest works of art ever by the Guardian. Pablo Picasso was took second place in the Guardian's rating.Ironically Picasso was greatly influence by Hokusai. Picasso painted his own version in 1903 that has been shown next to Hokusai's original in exhibits on the influence of 19th-century Japanese art on Picasso's work [Source Wikipedia].

Western critics such as Edmond de Goncourt and Jack Hillier interpreted the work as a rape scene. Based on the text above the image, the woman and the creatures express their mutual sexual pleasure from the encounter. Scholar Danielle Talerico is in the opinion that de Goncourt and Hillier would have seen it apart from the Kinoe no Komatsu collection and without understanding the text and visual references, depriving it of its original context.

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Guerrilla Gamblers' Comments

Fascinating, Shunga is the Japanese Karma Sutra. It’s a pity that Shunga was not complied and treasure like the Karma Sutra. It seem to me like every author gets to express their piece without a chief editor to compile them. With contemporary players, Shunga was gradually transformed into Hentai.

From this picture alone, I conclude that Shunga is imaginative while Karma Sutra is specific. Since this is a sex manual for couples, I believe Hokusai is telling his audience to image that their man had the hands of an octopus so that he can be all over you. Likewise he is telling the male readers to pleasure their partners as if they had the hands of an octopus. In contrast, the Karma Sutra draws out specifically the position of the male and female accompanied by written instruction on movements.

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My Comments

I like Guerrilla Gamblers’ comment on Shunga to Hentai. I makes me wonder about Japanese shift from accepting erotic images in the Edo era to rejecting pornography in the present day. I look up Wikipedia and found that post World War II had been a catalyst in imposing European Victorian value on the Japanese. Here are some interesting quotes from the Wikipedia page.

“At present, ‘obscenity’ is still prohibited. How this term is interpreted has not remained constant. While exposed genitalia (and until recently pubic hair) are illegal…Leaders within the tentacle porn industry have stated that much of their work was initially directed at circumventing this policy. The animator Toshio Maeda stated: “At that time pre-Urotsuki Doji, it was illegal to create a sensual scene in bed. I thought I should do something to avoid drawing such a normal sensual scene. So I just created a creature. His tentacle is not a penis as a pretext. I could say, as an excuse, this is not a penis; this is just a part of the creature. You know, the creatures, they don't have a gender. A creature is a creature. So it is not obscene - not illegal.”

Rent a Husband Service in Moscow

Russia is using a sexist term for an old service. A handyman's service is repackaged as "a husband for an hour" by Moscow's city administration. According to local news reports Moscow's struggling residents could use a new social service. The service will be offered free for low-income households and charged a modest fee will for others, the Guardian reported on 10 March 2015.

Since the DIY trend had not caught on with women, advertisement were aimed at gender inequality roles. One online advertisement reads "You've just spent a long time in a store selecting a new light fixture for your hallway to perfectly match your new decor but you're a beautiful woman with a killer manicure, and you're not ready to get intimate with a buzzing and horribly vibrating drill. Who can come to your aid?"

With a solution that read, "Assertive men, who'll call themselves your husband for an hour, are on their way to your home", the service is most popular among young families or the elderly. I get the impression that Moscow ladies feel more secure with a person they can treat as husband.

Seeking Enlightenment: The Silk Road

REBLOG> Seeking Enlightenment: The Silk Road:
Sophia Logica's Original Blog

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The Silk Road's Recent Development

China's proposals to build a modern-day trading route on the skeleton of the ancient traders' trail, known as the silk road, have been welcomed by its neighbor. The China Daily reported on 9 March 2015 that the project had led to misunderstanding and criticism. Oppositions fear this ambitious and long term project would be derailed. The Polish were supportive of the project and pledge to be part of the project. First secretary of the Polish embassy in Beijing, Wojciech Jakobiec, said "for us, the Silk Road Economic Belt is an especially important project, and we would like to participate in it."

Europeans Understanding of the Silk Road

Based on UNESCO's understanding, silk road was a recent term. They traced it to German geologist, Baron Ferdinand von Richthofen. He called the trade and communication network Die Seidenstrasse (the Silk Road). The silk road is sometimes used in the plural term because the network extend to a web of sea and land routes.

Baron Coining Silk Road Don't Jive

With due respect to the UNESCO, I do not think that the silk road is a recent term. The Baron lived from 5 May 1833 – 6 October 1905. UNESCO had established that silk was a monopoly of China and found its way to Rome "at some point during the first century". Such and important route could not have been named in 1877 [see Wikipedia] by the baron. I believe it had some reference to it since if was even in existence until the 17th century.

China Reference to the Silk Road

The Chinese had referred to the silk road as "silu" form as far as the recording of their chronicles existed. That goes back to the time that the prominent Chinese diplomat Zhang Qian of the Han Dynasty (206BC—220AD). The UNESCO article also concur with this date. Since this is not about conquest there was not much to hide. The Chinese account had not been inconsistent with the accounts of those they had traded with.

The Meaning of Silu

Out of curiosity, I looked up the translation for "silu". Actually I was not surprised it meant silk road. Si is the word for silk while lu is the Chinese word for road. It is whimsical to think that such a simple name is coined up in 1877 when people who traveled the road to buy or sell silk for ages would refer to it as silk road for simplicity.

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Su Daji's Comments

I found UNESCO’s passage on silk control inconsistent. If silk was reserved for the exclusive usage of the Chinese imperial court then trading it would be a crime.

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My Comments

The production depends on silk cocoon population bread for silk farming. Silk is worn by the nobility because they can afford it. Likewise it is sold to outsiders who could pay the price. In those day silk has a magical touch because color dyed to it glitters.

Filling Bottles: Put Yourself in Her Shoes

REBLOG> Filling Bottles: Put Yourself in Her Shoes:
Sue Daji's Original Blog

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International Women's Day Celebration

Men across China sprinted with high heels in a race on 8 March 2015. This nationwide activity took the metaphor literally. The event was organized in good spirit as men would not acquired an empathy by wearing heels. The event managed to gather some participation from gutsy man who show up in good sport. One particular mall throw in some obstacles on the race track to make it more fun.

Source China Daily

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My Comments

They should make men do house chores for one day next year.