Omni - where are they now? (June 1991)

Previous entries in the series: 1985: [May] 1989: [Jan] [Feb] 1990: [Jan] 1992: [July] [Aug] [Sept]

Two more Continuum articles:

• Cubism Illuminated: a new lightbulb from researchers at Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico, that uses no electricity and lasts for 20 years. It's power source: radioactive tritium.

  Lee Leonard, the research manager says that these lights are ten times brighter than earlier tritium-powered lights and far hardier. He goes on to say that:

  They're so much more robust, you could put a bullet through them and only the the bullet hole itself would go dark.

  Hmm. Yes Lee, but what about the radiation? How much is it, and where would that go?

  The article states that a prototype of the light cube should be commercially available next year (1992).

  So is this the next paradigm shift for light sources in our homes?

  Seems there have been several commercial products based on this light source. Things like Traser Glowrings (a glow-in-the-dark keyring) for example, or Exit signs.

  What's slightly worrying is this report on results of testing tritium based light products from SRB Technologies Inc. Reports such as this suggest that this will never be a replacement for the light bulbs found in our homes.

• The Signature of Suicide: the body's natural opiates perform a host of functions, from numbing pain to producing euphoria. But they may also play a part in severe depression, helping to identify patients at risk of committing suicide.

  Neurobiologists Anat Biegon and Ruth Gross-Isserof tallied the number of opiate receptors in the brains of 12 suicide victims and those of 12 people who dies of natural causes. The result: suicide victims sported up to nine times more opiate receptors than normal, with the highest concentration found in the sensory-motor region of the brain.

  Diagnostic equipment can already detect changes in the number of opiate receptors so a quantitative test for identifying suicide-prone patients may not be far away.

  In googling around to try to find out if any progress has been made in this field, I was only able to find the original paper by Biegon and Gross-Isserof.

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( Dec 06 2004, 01:28:10 AM PST ) [Listen] Permalink

Omni - where are they now? (February 1989)

Previous entries in the series: 1985: [May] 1989: [Jan] 1990: [Jan] 1992: [July] [Aug] [Sept]

Two Continuum articles this time:

• Court Call: a piece about Accu-Call, a new electronic tennis line-calling system devised by Nova Scotia inventor John van Auken.

  Basically, Accu-Call consists of a mesh laced with electronic circuits that's laid out over the lines of a tennis court, as well as along the top of the net. A special ball has conducting fibers in its covering., and when it lands on or inside a critical circuit along the outside of the line, it sends a signal to a computer, which in turn whispers "In" through an earpiece worn by the umpire. If the ball's outside the line, the signal activates an electronic voice that yells "Out!" for all to hear.

  Following up, it looks like there is no "standard" for electronic umpiring of tennis matches yet, but Acc-Call is still one of the contenders, although by my reckoning a couple of the others are less intrusive and easier to use.

• Superwood: a new wood called Parallam, which was "designed" by Derek Barnes and Mark Churchland.

  Parallam is made by peeling a conventional log into sheets, then cutting the sheets into strands two to three metres long and one and a half centimeters wide. The strands are lined up and glued together with resin, then cured by microwaves.

  Because of the number of strands (more than 1000 of them in a 3.5 by 14 inch cross-section, these two Canadians have developed a new type of superwood that's cheaper than steel but will do the same job.

  Looks like this has become a great success. Here's a Specifier's Guide for Parallam PSL, and here's a nice gallery of various turnings made in Parallam.

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( Nov 30 2004, 06:51:43 AM PST ) [Listen] Permalink

Omni - where are they now? (August 1992)

Previous entries in the series: [May 1985] [Jan 1989] [Jan 1990] [July 1992] [Sept 1992]

This time I followed up on two non-Continuum articles.

• A Modern Riddle of the Sphinx: this piece by Robert M. Schoch is about the Great Sphinx in Egypt, and his belief that it was built about 5000 B.C., rather than 2500 B.C., which was the commonly held belief at that time. Read the full article for more details.

  Schoch's conclusions were met with total disbelief by mainstream egyptologists.

  It seems the debate still goes on. A 1999 conference paper by Associate-Professor Robert Schoch discusses exactly the same thing as the Omni article.

  Other Theories abound to try to counter those raised by Schoch. No definitive answers yet.

• Stonehenge in New Jersey: a 57-acre garbage dump in northern New Jersey is about to be turned into a modern day Stonehenge. Nancy Holt has been asked to reclaim the site in the form of a work of art called Sky Mound. Why is this a modern day Stonehenge? It's planned that just like the original in England, this site will serve as a "celestial observatory":

  "The extreme positions of the moon will be framed through the methane pipe loops, and the rising and setting of the stars Sirius and Vega will be marked by tunnels and stairways" explained Holt.

  Sounds fascinating. I could hardly wait to google to find out what it looks like now, over twelve years on. My first hit tells a sorry tale:

  The Sky Mound project was to be built in two stages. The first stage begun in 1984, and completed in 1991, included sealing the landfill and cost nearly $11 million, paid by the state of New Jersey. Stage two includes nonfunctional sculptural sections and was to be funded by NEA, the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, and a New Jersey state environmental bond. Funding was stopped in 1991 to conduct a technological study at the site, and currently construction remains postponed.

  It seemed strange to me that an article from an August 1992 magazine would raise this again if the project was on hold.

  Another report described the real reason for the delay:

  Apparently the site is still settling and is not yet stable enough for Holt's constructions.

  I found nothing newer to change this. Hopefully the matter will be settled in a few more years.

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( Nov 24 2004, 01:53:54 AM PST ) [Listen] Permalink

Omni - where are they now? (Jan 1990)

Previous entries in the series: May 1985 Jan 1989 July 1992 Sept 1992

Two Continuum articles:

• The Snakes of Wrath: the island of Guam is inundated with snakes. They drop onto power lines, electrocuting themselves and causing blackouts. They've eaten the local birds, their favorite prey, into near extinction. Now they are closing in on civilisation, eating rodents, biting people.

  There is a real concern about this epidemic spreading to nearby islands, including the snake-free Hawaiian islands.

  What's happening now? The Wikipedia entry for Guam says:

  The island is also known as a prominent example for the disastrous effects of bioinvasion: A stowaway on US troop transport ships at the end of World War II, the slightly venomous, but rather harmless, brown tree snake (Boiga irregularis) came from the Philippines to Guam and killed almost the entire native bird population on the previously snake-free island. This snake has no natural predators on the island; nowadays, Guam is one of the areas with the highest snake density in the world (an estimated 2,000 snakes per square kilometre).

  This USDA report gives more details, including what to do if you find a snake. Personally I would have used the word "when" rather than "if" with that kind of snake population. Just like in The Hitch-hikers Guide to the Galaxy, be sure to have a towel handy.

  From a press release by CGAPS (Coordinating Group on Alien Pest Species), there is still a clear and present danger.

• Ant Misbehavin': harvester ants have been digging up radioactive material, buried in the late 1950's by the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory, when it was disposing of its nuclear waste. These ants have been digging down to depths of ten feet and incorporating the buried radioactive material in their above ground mounds.

  "The amount of radiation in the mounds is about two to three times higher than levels you would expect to find", James Johnson, an entomologist from the University of Idaho notes. He emphasizes that the anthills however contain relatively low levels of radiation. "It doesn't seem to be affecting the ants. They look happy and healthy and are reproducing successfully".

  The first thought that went through my mind was how on earth can you tell what a happy ant looks like? This guy is spending way too much time with ants if he can do this. The second one was I wonder how badly they've mutated by now, almost fifteen years on.

  Top hit from google on "idaho "harvester ants" radio-active" returns an article from the High Country News archives for Nuclear/Waste from June 13, 1994 entitled "Low-tech ants give a high-tech Idaho lab fits".

  Seems scientiest James "Ding" Johnson is in the news again. He and his colleague Paul Blorn are in the second year of a three-year study of "biobarriers" against harvester ants.

  Finding just the right substance or the exact combination of materials is proving to be a challenge because the scientists must design the biobarrier with other creatures in mind. In the southern desert of Idaho where INEL is located, rodents are also digging.

  The article doesn't draw any conclusions. I've been unable to find any more recent conclusive references. My advice is, just to be on the safe side and don't stand too long next to any ant mounds in Idaho.

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( Nov 20 2004, 06:04:53 AM PST ) [Listen] Permalink

Omni - where are they now? (Sept 1992)

Previous entries in the series: [May 1985] [Jan 1989] [July 1992]

What really struck me with this issue of Omni was that the page count is now down to 88, and the glossy feel is less. For example, the Continuum column is no longer on silver paper, which is fine by me. I can now read it without eye strain.

• Gurgle Once if You Can Hear This: a Continuum article discussing a new breakthrough in trying to detect hearing problems with new born babies. Up until this point, such hearing tests were expensive and sometimes inaccurate. Now along comes the portable Algo 1-Plus Infant-Hearing Screener from Natus Medical in Foster City, California.

  The machine uses analog-to-digital conversion chips, a microprocessor and pattern recognition technology to detect changes in infants electrical brain waves. The device sends a series of whisper-like 35 decibel sounds through foam-cushioned headphones placed over newborn babies ears. "Their ear drums vibrate, the neurons fire, and most of them sleep right through it".

  What's happening with this now? I found a report from 1996 validating the use of the hearing screener. My next search found a Natus Algo 1-Plus at the Scientific Equipment Liquidators. Uh oh. That's not good. But it looks like Natus Medical Inc. is still around, and selling a newer generation of their product (which is even more portable).

• Mealtime for Microbes: another Continuum article discussing how to deal with oil spills at sea using a new way of helping oil-eating microbes to digest the oil. The problem in the past was that a vast oil slick tends to "smother such oxygen-breathing microbes, slowing their progress drastically or rendering them altogether useless".

  Scientists at Lockheed Missile and Space Marine Systems Division in Sunnyvale, California, think they've solved this.

  The process called Prestine Sea uses an oil eating microbe called Marine-D, a fertilizer to supply nutrients not found in the oil, and a clay called Petro-Lock. The clay causes the oil slicks to curdle into chunky cakes, allowing the microbes to get to the surface oxygen to breath.

  Oil slicks treated with Prestine Sea become a solid rather than a liquid, making cleanup much more managable.

  So, what's happening now. Searching for "Prestine Sea" found nothing, but looking for "Marine-D" turned up the original Lockheed press release from January 1992, and a company called Elastec AmericanMarine selling a Hydraulic Operated Pressure Washer (HOP) using Marine D-10 (perhaps a 10th generative derivative of the original microbe?). Searching for "Petro-Lock" turned up a product of that name from Safetec of America.

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( Nov 13 2004, 07:26:10 AM PST ) [Listen] Permalink Comments [2]

Omni - where are they now? (January 1989)

Another in the series of posts trying to find out what happened to the things described in interesting articles in old editions of the Omni magazine. (Previous posts: [1], [2]).

• Skycycle: This described a 306 pound, kit-assembled personal gyroplane, the Daki 530Z/IKENGA, which could cruise at 93 mph, climb 1,400 feet per minute to a ceiling of 14,500 feet and had a range of 315 nautical miles. Options included two-seater, full-body enclosure and equipment pods, just in case you had some crops you'd like to spray. It sold (in 1989) for $10,000.

  The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum has an article on what happened to it.

• Teeltotaler Cars: "A new electronic device will prevent drunk drivers from turning on their cars. Called the Guardian Interlock Ignition System, the instrument links a hand-held breath analyser to a sensor and microcomputer wired to the car's ignition system. To start the car, a driver must first breathe into the analyser. If their blood alcohol level is above the legal limit, the car won't start".

  Looks like this has been a big success and Guardian Interlock are still around.

  This approach though reminds me of that Jack in the Box commercial. You know the one; "Dude, can you score me some coleslaw?" I have visions of drunk people asking sober passers-by to start their cars for them. "Dude, can you blow into this for me?"

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( Nov 07 2004, 03:32:54 AM PST ) [Listen] Permalink Comments [2]

Omni - where are they now? (July 1992)

I smell a series coming on. In a similar style to a recent posting, I read the July 1992 edition of Omni magazine this week, and thought I'd try to followup on a couple of interesting articles, to see where they are now.

• Plane with a moveable wing: Octave Chanute was an inventor in America around the time that the Wright brothers were doing their first flight at Kittyhawk in 1903. He suggested to them that they should use a moveable or "rocking" wing, rather than a fixed wing, as it would have resulted in a safer and smoother flight. Unfortunately, they didn't happen, and the rest is history. That is until a modern plane called the freewing took up where Chanute left off. Here's the full article.

  So where is the freewing now? Is the world of aeronautics about to have a paradigm shift? Appartently not. I found the website for Freewing Aerial Robotics Corp., a company in Maryland that has the patents on this technology. The corporate profile write about a lot of potential, but it all seems to be unfulfilled. The last entries appear to be dated about 2000.

  I did find some discussion about its use as a UCAV (Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle) here, but it appears to be speculation.

  My guess is that if anything is going to come out of this, it'll be a long time before we see it, particularily in the commercial arena.

• A Grisly Death for a Grisly Insect: This piece, in the Continuum column, describes a baited chamber lined with a fungus that infects insects like pests like cockroaches and devours their internal organs. A company called Ecoscience of Worcester, Massachusetts employs a microbe that occurs naturally in soil and produces a fungus called Metarhizium anisopliae.

  The unsuspecting roach creeps into a chamber covered with the stuff, which rubs off on its body. Twelve hours later it penetrates the bug's cuticle, spreads through the body and begins consuming internal tissue.

  Sound lovely. The theory is that the cockroach could spread the fungus through a whole colony simply by crawling over and nesting with other roaches.

  The plan was to get EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) approval and make a product available to professional exterminators and the general public after that.

  So did everything go to plan? Here's the EPA ruling, but I couldn't find any product announcements based on this. Only on pesticides with other "ingredients", such as this one. I'm no expert at reading EPA rulings, but I'm wondering whether the amendments to the petition, made the final ruling too restrictive.

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( Oct 31 2004, 05:00:16 AM PST ) [Listen] Permalink Comments [1]

Omni - where are they now? (May 1985)

Earlier in the week, I mentioned that there were several things of interest in the May 1985 edition of the Omni magazine I'd been reading, and I wanted to investigate what ever became of them.

• Vocabulary and Guilt: This was in the Continuum column and described a method devised by Professor Ronald Carpenter, a linguist at the University of Florida, for determining whether a person is lying when giving testimony, by counting the number of different words they used. The theory is that when you talk normally without stress, you tend to repeat words fairly often. Carpenter analysed Richard Nixon's Checkers speech, and found that the former president "jumped way up the scale" as he lied about his wife's birthdate and maiden name.

  Interesting. So what's happening in this field now? Anybody using this technique nowadays? I've no idea. I couldn't find anything on this. Professor Carpenter seems to have a Lawyering Skills Program available which is very popular though. Perhaps I should just email him and ask.

• Ear Bubbles: Another Continuum column offering:

  It's a clear plastic bubble -- the size of the end of a man's thumb -- with a pencil thin hole in it. Stick it in a partially deaf ear and it may work better than a $500 electronic aid.

  The bubble was designed by Richard L. Goode , professor of surgery at Stanford University, and was just beginning to be sold by the name of Innovaid 600 by a company called Innovative Hearing Corporation in San Jose, California for $90.

  What about now? Googling around for the commercial product, the company name and "ear bubble" came up with nothing related to this. It looks like hearing aid technology has advanced in other directions since then.

• Drugs for Speed Learning: In a previous Delphic Poll questionaire, readers were asked to predict when certain things might happen. Their answers were then compared with those from experts in that field. Lots of fascinating speculations. What interested me was the one on speed learning. One reader in five agreed with the experts. This would happen before 2000 - but even they were too cautious. Drugs that can boost learning and memory already exist. For example, there is a potent memory aid, a hormone called vasopressin, now available by prescription (don't forget, this is an article from 1985).

  So what's happened since then? I found this article from 1993. The FDA hadn't approved it at that time as a memory and learning enhancement. Then I found this article which seems to sum up the state of play currently. I think I'll stick to caffiene for now.

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( Oct 21 2004, 07:29:20 AM PDT ) [Listen] Permalink Comments [1]

Omni magazine

Just over a week ago, I bought about 30 Omni magazines at the Palo Alto library book sale for 5 cents each. They are from the late 80's and early 90's, when the magazine was at it's height. I remember buying a copy of the first Omni magazine in England when it came out in October 1978, but I don't remember much about it. Since then, I've rarely looked inside the covers - maybe once or twice when I'd been browsing the magazine stands at an airport before boarding a long flight.

So it was with fresh eyes that I picked up the first one from the pile this weekend (the May 1985 edition), and read it from cover to cover. I've already blogged about an interesting article on the way that science fiction authors treat language.

But for now, let's write in general terms. What else is there in an Omni magazine, assuming this is a typical one?

First of all, did you know that the man who started it all, for reasons of his own, (and who was its editor-in-chief) was Bob Guccione, the man behind Penthouse magazine? It's clear that he heavily influenced Omni's style. The magazine feels just a little too glossy, with too many columns, fancy art work and heavy advertising. Of course, this also describes Wired magazine nowadays, so maybe its the way to sell magazines.

It also feels a little "out there" in some of its articles, especially when it reported on the paranormal. Amongst other things, there was speculative fiction from Barry N. Malzberg, Karl Hansen and Kate Wilheim. There was a very good interview with Murray Gell-Mann, a couple of interesting diversions from Scot Morris in the Games column, an article on mind nutrients, and several pieces on new ideas, inventions and technologies.

I'm probably going to do another post following up on some of the things that were discussed for the first time between these covers, to see where they are now after almost twenty years, but I'll leave that for another day.

Some of the advertising is dated. Too many adverts for different brands of cigarette and car radios. An advert for a typewriter, even though there was another ad for the AT&T PC. An advert for fireworks you could send away for (that I suspect wouldn't be published nowadays). Sure wish I could get some of the Hawaii vacation prices now though.

Omni magazine is no more (although I was unable to track down the date of the final publication). I understand that Guccione's empire crashed and burned. I also noticed that the Omni magazine web site http://www.omnimag.com/ is no longer responding (according to this site this has been so since 1st July 2004). Getting your Omni hit nowadays just got a little harder. I did find an Omni fiction index online.

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( Oct 19 2004, 07:01:25 AM PDT ) [Listen] Permalink Comments [5]