Listen to the Sky 188
disposable60 writes "Sky Ear will be a one-night event in which a glowing "cloud" of mobile phones and helium balloons is released into the air so that people can dial into the cloud and listen to the sounds of the sky."
But the question is... (Score:5, Funny)
The answer is... (Score:1, Funny)
Re:But the question is... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:But the question is... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:But the question is... (Score:2)
Re:But the question is... (Score:3, Funny)
Why? What is the point? (Score:1, Insightful)
Just out of interest, who is putting up the money for this? They sound like they are spending other people's money with no comeback
Re:Why? What is the point? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Why? What is the point? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Why? What is the point? (Score:5, Funny)
Answer here [haque.co.uk]
Presumably they will just hear a few wind noises as it blows past the microphones?
I found a pretty good explanation here. [haque.co.uk]
Just out of interest, who is putting up the money for this?
I think if you dig around, you might find out here. [haque.co.uk]
They sound like they are spending other people's money with no comeback
Science had known to occasionally be funded by someone for one reason or another. I would recommend reading this page [haque.co.uk] to learn about the experiment.
Or you could just RTFA.
Ce n'est pas la science. (Score:3, Insightful)
This is clearly not science, it is art. There are no untested hypotheses, there is no rigorous data being collected that may tell us more about EM in a deductive way...
It is no more science than a painting of a cat is a cat. Ceci n'est pas une pipe, right?
This is a moving demonstration of how complex the sky's environment is, and how much we can't see. Since people still have no clue about radiation, it will be a littl
Re:Why? What is the point? (Score:1)
Re:Why? What is the point? (Score:1)
Weird, all I can hear is 50 ringing phones
Re:Why? What is the point? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Why? What is the point? (Score:2)
Re:Why? What is the point? (Score:2)
Indeed. Conceptual art either wows you -- or is stupid. Maybe I'm wowed by the stupidity of this one.
Re:Why? What is the point? (Score:2)
If you're listening to a microphone aboard a balloon and you hear wind noises, you can conclude that the balloon has burst.
rj
Neat (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Neat (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Neat (Score:5, Funny)
I personally like calling stupid people to hear the echo of my voice in their empty head.
Re:Neat (Score:2)
Sound of ringtones (Score:5, Funny)
*imagines the sound of mission impossible theme over an earpiece*
Re:Sound of ringtones (Score:2, Funny)
That's incredible (Score:1)
Re:That's incredible (Score:1, Flamebait)
I think this is one of the most stupid experiments I've ever heard...
People sometimes fail to have a little bit of common sense and a bit of scientific knowledge to be able to predict the outcome of certain kinds of experiments without actually performing them.
Re:That's incredible (Score:1)
what if there's a storm? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:what if there's a storm? (Score:1)
Roaming (Score:5, Funny)
It would be interesting to listen to during a storm or tornado.
25M? 60M? miles? meters? (Score:5, Funny)
Or a 25 meter net at a height of 60 meters?
The first seems ridiculous; the second is not very high.
Re:25M? 60M? miles? meters? (Score:2, Informative)
It does seem like they aren't really in the sky at 60 meters.
Re:25M? 60M? miles? meters? (Score:1, Informative)
Re:25M? 60M? miles? meters? (Score:1)
The atmosphere is only 12M (Score:3, Funny)
If this was an asteroid impact... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:The atmosphere is only 12M (Score:3, Informative)
Although you're right in the sense that it's the troposphere where the "weather" happens, so to speak.
Free phone, no contract required (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Free phone, no contract required (Score:5, Funny)
Wouldn't be much more than I get now doing tech support. And for all intents and purposes, to them I am.
Re:Free phone, no contract required (Score:5, Funny)
ELF (Score:5, Interesting)
Check out vlf.it [www.vlf.it] for some interesting stuff on VLF/ELF radio.
Re:ELF (Score:3, Interesting)
Schumann resonance-lightning from around the world (Score:5, Interesting)
You're probably referring to the Schumann resonance [www.vlf.it], the resonance of the earth-ionosphere resonant cavity. Energy from lightning around the world excites this resonance, which then rings--much as hitting a bell with a hammer causes the bell to ring.
Also like an acoustic bell, there is a fundamental frequency of resonance and many overtones that grow fainter as you go up in frequency. The fundamental Schumann resonance is approximately 7.8 Hz; the first few overtones are usually given as 13.8, 19.7, 25.7, and 31.7 Hz. There is a slight variation [berkeley.edu] in the frequencies involved over long periods of time, as the ionosphere changes in response to solar activity.
Re:Schumann resonance-lightning from around the wo (Score:4, Interesting)
Thanks for the information and links!
Re:Schumann resonance (Score:2)
I'm confused (Score:5, Funny)
Re:I'm confused (Score:2)
In the UK, every day is April Fool's Day.
I for one... (Score:1, Redundant)
Re:I for one... (Score:2)
As was demonstrated in a previous post [slashdot.org] you CANNOT say "I for one" without mentioning the infamous Kent Brockman [wikipedia.org] newscast!
To quote the aforementioned post:
Here, I'll give you some examples:
There, now hopefully you will not make the same mistake. I have seen the light, I hope you have too.
Are the real logisitics of this being considered? (Score:5, Insightful)
Why not use higher-fidelity equipment, and make a recording available for download afterwards? I think the quality and value of that model would be much more attractive.
Additionally, there will be issues with either 1) there being too few cellphones to meet the demand, and no one being able to get on them and listen, or 2) there will be too many cellphones, necessary to meed the demand, that will occupy all the access points/lines at the cell tower sites, and interfere with each other due to ambient RF from the phones being packed so close.
I hope these folks are bright enough to have considered and addressed these issues.
Re:Are the real logisitics of this being considere (Score:1)
Re:Are the real logisitics of this being considere (Score:2, Flamebait)
Re:Are the real logisitics of this being considere (Score:1, Interesting)
There's something absurdist and poetic about 'calling the sky,' but I do hope that a) there'll be a VLF radio onboard patched into said phones (erm, and the phones' own RF will indeed play hob with it, to the point it'd be unlikely to hear natural
Re:Are the real logisitics of this being considere (Score:1)
Re:Are the real logisitics of this being considere (Score:1)
Maybe you should read the article first before commenting. It is not just the wind they are interested in. They also 'listen' to radio frequencies.
From the article: Using mobile phones people will be able to listen to the actual sounds up high, the electromagnetic sounds of the sky as well as streams of "whistlers" and "spherics" (atmospheric
Re:Are the real logisitics of this being considere (Score:3, Insightful)
Dude... (Score:5, Funny)
(Seriously, how high were the people behind this event when they thought of the idea?)
Re:Dude... (Score:2)
RTFA, it says 60 meters up. Wow, the colours...
I want to call the phone... (Score:5, Funny)
It talks to me (Score:5, Funny)
It tells me to burn things.
Re:It talks to me (Score:2)
ObSimpsons: That's where I saw the Leprchaun. He tells me to burn things! [humorsphere.com]
This is art...not science... (Score:5, Insightful)
(begin flame...NOW!)
(no, I'm not a hippie...but I HAVE been to Burning Man, and am going back this year as well){
Re:This is art...not science... (Score:1)
No, wait, better yet, send them up in the air so my inner-child can shoot them down and watch the phone shrapnel scatter onto the onlookers.
Ummmm... (Score:2)
-psy
Stupid question (Score:1)
How do they answer the phones?
And yes I started to read the article but was t/o/oo/wo lazy t/o/oo/wo click the More Details [haque.co.uk] link.
But personally... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:But personally... (Score:3, Funny)
"It wasn't ball lighting or Venus, sir, that was a massive bunch of flying cellphones and balloons..."
Yeah, right. Let the conspiracy theories abound!
Re:But personally... (Score:2)
Re:But personally... (Score:2)
They're here, they're phoning home, and everyone thinks it's a bunch of silly Brits!
amazing (Score:4, Insightful)
Well, there's an amazing waste of time and money. But hey, it's their money, not mine.
I'm tempted to call for a minute or two, even if it's an international call. It'll break the monotony of office conversation.
"Ya last night I called a cell phone in England, hanging from a balloon. What did you do?"
Re:amazing (Score:2)
Reminds me of an old movie I saw last night. 1979's "Hardcore [imdb.com]". God that had to be one of the worst movies I've ever seen. I watched the whole thing out of morbid curiousity.
Maybe I have a slightly skewed perspective, working so long in it, but through most of it I was like "what the fuck?"
Re:amazing (Score:2)
I'd like to see the balloons though. Well, assuming it works the way they e
spoiler (Score:2)
Uh little problem... (Score:2, Interesting)
I know that we could use a midget, but if you're going to send up a midget, you may as well just send a weather balloon with a microphone. You never think your midget friends are useful until you actually need them :)
Northern Lights. (Score:1)
If I whistle through the receiver we should get one hell of a show!
Northern Lights? (Score:2)
(The kind you smoke.)
- A.P.
Hey, what's your number? (Score:1)
I for one welcome our new inevitable bad pickup line overlords.
Imagine a Beowulf cluster of these.
Okay... I'm geeked out. End transmission.
Re:Hey, what's your number? (Score:2)
867-5309
Lame project (Score:1)
Hmmm (Score:2)
I wonder if you'll be able to hear people shouting into the other phones. If some phones are close enough, it could turn into an impromptu conference call.
Re:Hmmm (Score:2)
No phones in the ballons.... (Score:2)
Uhm... speakers on the ground might have been a cheaper idea to use...
Drugs are bad (Score:2, Funny)
At least that was MY first thought when I saw this story.
All I can say is... (Score:1, Redundant)
Cool, but... (Score:3, Funny)
And in other news.... (Score:5, Funny)
dumbest (Score:1)
I hope they're not GSM phones... (Score:3, Interesting)
Thus, if you phone up these balloons, the sound you hear has been generated by the phone you are holding next to your ear!
Sponsored by... (Score:2)
Am I cynical, or does this just seem to be a way to get people to burn airtime? I mean, horrible sound
quality (compared to dedicated microphones), fighting for a connection, it seems like this is
even less useful than a bicycle with square wheels (in the real world, anyway).
I imagine in addition to ringtones you'll hear a lot of tinny voices yelling "Hello!? Hello?!"
What do they hope to learn... (Score:2, Funny)
Not again.... (Score:2)
Re:So where do all these phones land? (Score:5, Informative)
-Mike-
Re:So where do all these phones land? (Score:3, Informative)
"The balloons will be enclosed in a carbon fibre and net structure 25m in diameter tethered to the ground by 6 cables and held aloft at a height of 60m where it will remain for several hours."
They are not free floating balloons, so presumably they will rise in the net and come down in the net
Re:So where do all these phones land? (Score:1)
Re:Using mobile phones at altitude? (Score:2)
Re:Using mobile phones at altitude? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Using mobile phones at altitude? (Score:5, Informative)
No, that's a true reason why the FCC prohibits the use of cell phones while in an airplane.
Within each providers allocated slot of bandwidth, they subdivide that space into a number of channels, and assign each tower on their network a channel. If you're using your phone while in motion, when the signal from the tower you're actively talking falls below the acceptable line, it moves you over to the channel on which you are getting the strongest signal, because that's most likely coming from the tower you've moved closer too. Of course, for this to work, at no place should you be able to get two towers on the same channel... that'd be real confusing, and could lead to calls being assigned to the wrong tower. In practice, that's no big deal, that signal will just weaken quickly and you'll pick again until you get it right.
However, somebody in a high-altitude plane is in just that ugly situation.... they can see far too many towers from that height with no hills in the way. As proven on 9/11/01, such a call works if done in small numbers... the call will end up bouncing around from tower to tower a lot of times, but since those handoffs are invisible to the user, nothing really bad happens to the call. However, if everybody did that... there'd be far too many transfers for the system to keep up with, and the whole system would bog down. That's one reason why they tell you not to do that.
The FAA also prohibits the use of cell phones due to a possible risk of interference to the airplane navigation systems. However, this is distinct from the FCC's ban. Even if the FAA were to lighten up on this one, the FCC's ban would be unaffected.
Re:Using mobile phones at altitude? (Score:2)
Re:Using mobile phones at altitude? (Score:4, Informative)
It's one of these conceptual art bollocks and just an idiot at the helm.
One think I wondered about is how did they get these baloons which change colour according to the magnetic radiation. The gas is filled with helium so that's inert. I haven't heard of any material which changes colour with radiation.
Re:Using mobile phones at altitude? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:ET (Score:1)