Foucault’s Pendulum—the original one used by French scientist Leon Foucault to demonstrate the rotation of the Earth—has been damaged beyond repair in an accident at the Musee des Arts et Metiers in Paris.

Foucault’s theory behind the instrument was to set a large, carefully calibrated pendulum swinging back and forth. If the earth was stationary, the pendulum would swing forever. Because the earth spins, the pendulum’s plane of rotation changed. In 24 hours, the rotation of the pendulum would change 180 degrees. When then pendulum’s wire cable snapped and the brass sphere hit the ground, it was dented in three places and will not be able to be fixed.

From the Times Higher Education:

In 1851, Foucault used the pendulum to perform a sensational demonstration in the Paris Pantheon, proving to Napoleon III and the Parisian elite that the Earth revolved around its axis. Such was its success that the experiment was replicated throughout Europe.

Thierry Lalande, the museum’s ancient scientific instruments curator, said that the pendulum’s brass bob had been badly damaged in three places and could not be restored.

“It’s not a loss, because the pendulum is still there, but it’s a failure because we were unable to protect it,” he said. The circumstances surrounding the accident have raised eyebrows in France.

The museum regularly hosts cocktail parties in the chapel that houses the pendulum, and Mr Lalande admitted that several alarming incidents had occurred over the past year. In May 2009, for example, a partygoer grabbed the 28kg instrument and swung it into a security barrier.

Amir D. Aczel, research Fellow in the history of science at Boston University, described the news of the accident as “saddening”.

“It is certainly one of the most important historical instruments of all time. It’s a bit like hearing that one of the statues at the Vatican has been broken,” he said.

Foucault’s experiment involved releasing a pendulum and watching the Earth rotate under its oscillation frame. Dr Aczel said that it brought “closure for Galileo” and led the Church to accept the rotation of the Earth.

 
Foucault’s pendulum is sent crashing to Earth (Times Higher Education)

Newly discovered photo of Allen Ginsberg (sans beard), Cherry Valley NY, 1980. By Cliff Fyman.

(via Steve Silberman)

 
Ken Goffman, R.U. Sirius, also know as Ken Goffman was the editor/co-founder of Mondo 2000, one of the most visionary and influential publications of late 1980s and ’90s. He’s looking to use Kickstarter to finance a “collective memory project” about the magazine and its history, for posterity. It’s certainly a worthy subject to my mind. Goffman’s project would take the form of a physical book and possibly become a documentary, too. Kickstarter has a podcast interview about the project and the history of Mondo 2000.

This project stemmed from your original desire to do a memoir, but seems to have become something much more.

Originally, I had the idea that I could work with the idea of memory and perception in the context of writing a memoir. I probably didn’t remember my life that accurately, and perhaps not that interestingly, but if I made my memoir open-source and brought people who had their own memories of interacting with me in their own lives — during the late ’60s/’70s and the period when I was doing Mondo 2000 and earlier magazines — then something really interesting would come of that. It’d be a literary experiment and an exploration of memory and psychology.  That’s where it started.

On one level it seemed really self-indulgent; in another way, it seemed like a fairly original project.  There’ve been a lot of books where it’s “as told to,” starting with a book called Edie by George Plympton, where they go around and talk to a whole lot of different people and quote them verbatim about some person’s life and what they witnessed.

My feeling was this would dig a little bit deeper, more interactive and more probing. Eventually, largely as a result of thinking about raising capital to get started on Kickstarter, trying to get the equivalent of the small amount book companies give for an advance, I decided I needed to narrow my focus.  People would be interested in doing this just with Mondo 2000 and the magazines that preceded it.  So it was narrowed down to a period from 1984-1997, starting with a magazine called High Frontiers that mutated into Reality Hackers and then Mondo 2000.

Mondo 1995: Up and Down With the Next Millennium’s First Magazine by Jack Boulware (SF Weekly)

 
In his new autobiography, The Nine Levels between Heaven and Earth, Yang Liwei (above), the Chinese commander of ‘03’s Shenzhou Five spacecraft, revealed some of the dining habits of highly effective astronauts:

A local proverb in the south of China is that “Huajiang dog is better for you than ginseng,” referring to the medicinal root that plays a vital role in traditional Chinese medicine.

He added that the diet had been specially drawn up for the astronauts by Chinese nutritionists and that the food had been purchased from special suppliers in Beijing.  Dog is widely eaten in northern China, where it is believed to help battle the winter cold.  The menu was still in use last year, when Chinese astronauts conducted their first ever spacewalk.  China has plans to land a man on the moon by 2020.

The revelation drew an angry rebuke from animal rights campaigners, who said Mr. Yang was setting a bad example to his millions of fans.

Intake of nutrients aside, Yang Liwei has less kind things to say about their elimination.  When asked about his experience aboard the Shenzhou Five he said, “Better not to piss in diaper…baby doesn’t like it, neither does an adult.”
 
Dog on the menu for Chinese astronauts

 
Why does there seem to be some sort of cultural amnesia about the pre-disco era music of the Bee Gees? In America at least, most people do not seem to be aware of all of the absolutely amazing music made by the Brothers Gibb before Saturday Night Fever. The Bee Gees started having hit records in Australia in 1967. By 1968 they were #1 in the charts the world over and getting compared to the Beatles. They had tons of amazing songs. I’d easily grab a Bee Gees box set for a desert island stay, but I’d prefer one that was half pre-disco ear and half after. I’m partial to all eras of the Bee Gees, even the more recent material is fantastic.

Barry Gibb is a musical genius. If all you know about the Bee Gees is Stayin’ Alive and You Should Be Dancin’, there are some really classic Barry Gibb songs for you still to discover. Just listen to him sing the plaintive love song Words below. How awesome is this clip?
 

 
Click here to listen to the incredible song the Bee Gees wrote and produced for Barbara Streisand, Woman in Love. I had not heard this song in years and it was on the radio the other day. Overwhelming! Everything about this song is pop perfection! She holds a note for twelve seconds. Twelve seconds!

designed by Egidio Bonfante for the Olivetti Valentine - 1970
 

designed by Giovanni Pintori - 1949
 

designed by Ettore Sottsass for the Olivetti Tekne 3 - 1964
 
Loads of delightful images here.
 
Graphic Design for Olivetti

 
When I was poking around trying to find a good image to go with the Michael Alig post, I happened across a few items related to the club where Michael and the Club Kids infamously held court, The Limelight. Opened in late 1983 by Canadian businessman Peter Gatien, the Limelight was one of the mega-clubs that followed in the wake of Studio 54. The club operated in a deconsecrated church which had been given historically “preserved” status by the city of New York. It was the scene of some epic debauchery, that club. Believe me when I tell you because I worked there for a little less than a year (when I was still three years shy of legal drinking age, I might add) during 1985.

But now, the legendary magnet for sinners is… a retail outlet? Yup, the site of some seriously fucked up shit—and many memories of my own ill-spent youth—now houses 50 small retailers including handmade chocolatiers, Le Sportsac and shoe stores. There is even a food court. Oh my, oh my.

The other news is that the one-time mega-promoter of gay NYC nightlife, Marc Berkley passed away in April. Marc got his career started at the Limelight with his Sunday night parties and went on to become one of the most powerful club promoters in New York. I recall him fondly, a quick-witted, sharp-tongued James Coco-type, who always seemed right out of a sitcom to me.  The manager of the club, a tall, taciturn fellow named Tom Buckley, also recently passed away.
 

Photo: Marc Berkley and friends.
 

 
Australia’s 21.C, edited by Ashley Crawford, was probably the best magazine of the ‘90s—it was my favorite at least—and to be profiled in its pages and later to contribute to it, was an lot of fun for me.

21.C was the most unabashedly intellectual and forward-thinking journal that I have ever seen, anywhere. And it was a striking and beautifully designed product to hold in your hands. Each issue was finely crafted, I must say. To have my own writing published alongside the likes of Erik Davis, Mark Dery, Greil Marcus, Hakim Bey, Rudy Rucker, Bruce Sterling, R.U. Sirius and Kathy Acker was an honor. I also met Alex Burns via Ashley and Alex, of course, went on to edit the Disinformation website for many years.(I wrote about art for 21.C’s sister publication—also edited by Ashley Crawford—the quarterly glossy World Art. I know that I wrote an article about the product design of the Japanese pop combo Pizzicato 5, but I can’t remember what else.)

Now 21.C is back as an online magazine. There’s also a lot of still interesting archival pieces on subjects such as William Burroughs, Timothy Leary, Terence McKenna and Robert Anton Wilson that readers of this blog will find very interesting, I’m sure. There’s an interview with me from 1996 conducted by R.U. Sirius where I tell the nutty story of how Disinformation was started. Welcome back 21.C!
 

 

An interview with Dr. Nell Irvin Painter, the eminent American historian and retired Princeton University professor, discussing her fascinating new book The History of White People. The conversation begins with the answer to the question “What does Caucasian really mean?” As some who has been white my entire life, I admit that I didn’t know. Do you? I think many of you will find this conversation quite interesting.

 
Very interesting looking upcoming doc about the history of South African punk rock. The newer bands look like a snooze but it’s probably worth watching to learn about the once completely illegal apartheid era groups.