Into the Earth: Illustrated Article from 1969 Japanese Magazine
Ein paar sehr schön illustrierte Seiten aus einem japanischen Magazin von 1969, offensichtlich zum Thema „Reise zum Erdkern“ mit Motiven aus Jules Vernes „Journey to the Center of the Earth“ und Sir Arthur Conan Doyles „The Lost World“: 1969 Into the Earth (via Thats Eurobeat). Mehr Bilder nach dem Klick. Und falls jemand japanisch kann: Ich wäre unendlich dankbar, wenn mir jemand die Texte auf den Magazinseiten übersetzen könnte, zumindest grob. Wie bereits angekündigt: Ich hab’ noch massenweise von dem Kram.
Geology of the Mountains of Madness
Toller Artikel von Scientific American über Geologie in Lovecrafts Werk:
Lovecraft apparently was fascinated by the theory of continental drift as proposed by Wegener in the 1920s, as he describes the discovery of an ancient topographic map of unknown origin in a dead city, showing the slow movement of the continents on the surface of earth.
“As I have said, the hypothesis of Taylor, Wegener, and Joly that all continents are fragments of an original Antarctic land mass which cracked from centrifugal force and drifted apart over a technically viscous lower surface- an hypothesis suggested by such things as the complementary outlines of Africa and South America, and the way the great mountain chains are rolled and shoved up-receives striking support from this uncanny source.“
For Lovecraft the geology and the detailed description of the discovered fossils is an essential part to present the idea of deep time, especially the pre-Cambrian, when according to the knowledge of his time no life existed on earth. However the expedition of Dyer discovered in rocks dated to this ancient period the traces of highly evolved creatures, referred only as Elder Ones. They are far superior in their culture, technology and abilities to our civilization, most important they are immeasurable older than humans and Lovecraft’s tale ends with a warning: compared to the almost unimaginably vastness of the age of earth (and these creatures) we should feel quite humble (and afraid).
The strange Tunnels of Bavaria
Schöner Artikel auf spOnline-International, der am Wochenende an mir vorbeiging, über uralte, hunderte sogar tausend Jahre alte Tunnelsysteme unter Bayern und Österreich, in denen der Legende nach Erdgeister gehaust haben sollen.
At least 700 of these chambers have been found in Bavaria alone, along with about 500 in Austria. In the local vernacular, they have fanciful names such as “Schrazelloch” (“goblin hole”) or “Alraunenhöhle” (“mandrake cave”). They were supposedly built by elves, and legend has it that gnomes lived inside. According to some sagas, they were parts of long escape tunnels from castles.
In reality, the tunnels are often only 20 to 50 meters long. The larger passageways are big enough so that people can walk through them in a hunched position, but some tunnels are so small that explorers have to get down on all fours. The tiniest passageways, known as “Schlupfe” (“slips”), are barely 40 centimeters (16 inches) in diameter.
The ground beneath the southern German state of Bavaria is literally perforated with these underground mazes — and no one knows why.
Hideouts or Sacred Spaces? – Experts Baffled by Mysterious Underground Chambers, hier auf deutsch: Archäologie – Irrgärten der Unterwelt (via Boing Boing)
PlayStation Move Hacked to detect Earths Rotation:
Hier hat jemand mit PlayStations Move und einem alten Plattenspieler einen Apparat gebaut, mit dem sich die Erdrotation messen lässt: Homodyne measurement of Earth’s rotation with a motion-sensing videogame controller and a record player (via Gizmo)
Caves!:
Caves: „There’s a jungle inside Vietnam’s mammoth cavern. A skyscraper could fit too. And the end is out of sight.“ Caves, Caves, Caves, Caves, Caves! (via Geekosystem)
Laserscanning the Nottingham Caves
Unter Nottingham existiert ein über tausend Jahre altes System aus menschengemachten Höhlen, das grade im Rahmen der Nottingham Caves Survey mit einem Laser gescannt und in einem 3D-Modell dargestellt wird. Von Wikipedia:
Beneath the houses, shops and offices of Nottingham lie hundreds of caves. Few people in Nottingham are aware of this labyrinth, which exists underneath the city streets, and fewer still have visited them. Nottingham has more man-made caves than anywhere else in Britain. People have worked and lived in them for over 1,000 years.
Superfaszinierend, Snip von der Website zum Projekt:
All caves that can be physically accessed will be surveyed with a 3D laser scanner, producing a full measured record of the caves in three dimensions. This ‘point cloud’ of millions of individual survey points can be cut and sliced into plans and sections, ‘flown through’ in short videos, and examined in great detail either on the web through the TruView Internet Explorer plug-in or on a fixed PC with suitable software.
Unbedingt auch Youtube-Channel voller Videos mit Flügen um und durch das Höhlensystem ansehen, superinteressanter Kram. (via BLDGBLOG)
