A Stelar padlock and a 40mm walmart padlock picked using various methods: disc detainer pick; regular pick and tension wrench; comb pick and skeleton key.
The first is the Stelar disc detainer padlock.
Those locks were fun and easy...ribbit!
Friday, October 30, 2020
Monday, October 12, 2020
American Padlock Sparrows Bypass Driver
The Sparrows Padlock Bypass Driver is $7.99 as of 2020. The
one named “Sparrows” is actually for American Padlock Company locks.
Specifically for the 700 and 1100 series. This is the
Generation 2 version which is slightly better at also opening Series 10 locks.
The video shows how to use it to open a Series 40 lock!
With the pins at the bottom, insert the bypass with the “golf
club head” pointing upwards. Right down the center of the keyway. It actually
goes through the entire mechanism (bypasses it). Then if you angle the handle
downward ever so slightly you can turn the driver clock-wise and the lock will
spring open.
Newer American Padlocks have a disc/wafer thing at the end
of the keyway that prevents a bypass driver from getting to the mechanism. You
just have to try and see what you’ve got.
You can buy 10 of those bypass-prevention discs for like $6—and
it’s worth it. These padlocks are great! They’re heavy, and are chock-full of serrated
pins.
Speaking of hard to pick padlocks: the "Best" padlocks are extremely similar. I finally gave up, found a key that fit into it (but couldn't unlock it) and bumo keyed it.
Once I put a rubber o-ring on tbe key and put it into the lock I tapped the key sort of hard while tensioning it. Tap, tap, tap and it turned, turned, turned and the lock popped open.
I have another unpickable Best padlock. I'll hunt down a key that fits inside and bimp that one too.
They make specific keys that make bumping easier, but the key I used for this padlock was just some random key! That's a good reason to keep keys you don't have locks for (bump keys) and also locks you don't have keys for (picking, shimming, bypassing and bumping practice).
Monday, September 21, 2020
Video on Oscilloscope (Easy!)
Video on Oscilloscope (Easy!)
Here is the easiest way to put video on an old analog oscilloscope that has "Z axis" inputs (usually on the back of the scope:
It uses an LM1881 integrated chip and nine other little components to display live video on an oscilloscope screen.
You'll need the following:
(3) 0.1uF caps
(1) 4.7Uf cap
(1) 1000pF cap
(1) 680k resistor
(2) 100k resistors
(1) LM1881 chip
(2) IN4148 diodes
Plus: an oscilloscope with a Z input; a video camera with a composite video out (usually a yellow RCA plug); two thin wires to go to Z input; a DC power supply that can be adjustable to +5vDC (you'll probably need around 3-4vDC); a composite RCA cable to run from camera to circuit; a breadboard or soldering iron; breadboard jumper cables; wires from power supply.
Here's my version on a breadboard. It's only 10 components but I used a lot of jumper cables to keep things simpler for me to see.
You'll see nothing until you hook up the wires to the Z axis (intensity) of the oscilloscope. The picture was black and green, upside down and mirror-image flipped. I pointed the video camera at a TV set. Here is a Voltoren medicine commercial.
User caveats:
1. Use XY mode on the oscilloscope.
2. The black (negative) bands of the diodes should be closer to the LM1881 in the circuit path.
3. Z axis are not reversed, like other versions of this circuit in books. Z Axis + goes to the center pin tip of the RCA plug. Z Axis - goes to the ring/barrel/negative/ground of the RCA plug. When I reversed them I got no picture.
4. The camera (mine was a 1980s JVC) had to be "zoomed in" for this to work. I don't know why! If I zoomed out to wide-angle the circuit stopped working.
5. You only get a small portion of the video that the video camera sees!
6. I set the video camera exposure control to "+" for a brighter image.
7. With 3.6vDC to 4.1vDC I had much less noise in the video than running at 5vDC. Fiddle with the voltage.
8. The oscilloscope probes I used are newer ones that have 1x and 10x. Use the 1x setting, it got a much better signal for this usage. If your probes don't have a switch on them--they're probably 1x anyway.
Some random shots of my self-assembled Elenco kit power supply (from Amazon or eBay). My $5 HP analog oscilloscope from an antiques store/resale shop. The settings on the scope aren't exactly what I ended up using, but they're in the ballpark. As you can see my X and Y are actually A and B on the scope! There's also an unused horizontal input. The "Z axis" is in the back of this scope: so I ran two wires to the two screws in the back and have them wrapped around the front handle for easy access (instead of reaching behind this super heavy scope all the time).
In the end I realized my dream of watching an episode of Columbo in Black and Green on an oscilloscope. My bucket list (other buying a new 2021 Ford Bronco) is pretty much complete.
This is one of the chickens that rampaged all over the neighborhood:
Delicious!
Thursday, September 17, 2020
STRANGE ATTRACTORS + BASIC CODING
More fun with BASIC and Strange Attractors...
This combines two things I’ve been playing with: Strange
Attractors (previously via oscilloscopes and oscillating circuits); and BASIC
computer language (via a download of Rob Hagemans’ awaesome PC-BASIC emulator,
which loaded on my 2020 HP Prodesk just fine: https://robhagemans.github.io/pcbasic/
).
The first program, which comes from Julien Sprott’s “Strange
Attractors” book (1993) wouldn’t work at all for me, because it had no callouts
in the BASIC programming for video display. I solved that by FINALLY figuring
out/remembering I needed to set the display to something my modern computer
could use while using an emulator.
If you run this program and get an error code about line
1350 make sure to set your video to something the emulator can deal with. So,
run the program. Did you get the error
code? Type in “SCREEN 9” which
will change the screen resolution in the BASIC emulator and all of a sudden it
works! You can try lower numbers than 9.
If you find a number that works you could actually add it to
the program AFTER line 1010. So it would be like “1011 SCREEN 9”. I didn’t add
it to the program below so you could play around and see what video mode works
for your setup. I tried adding it before the DEFDBL A-Z statement and it didn’t
work (make it a number after 1010 but before 1020).
Remember, after cutting and pasting the code into your
emulator (using ctrl+c to copy off of here, but using F11+V to paste in the emulator) you must type SCREEN 9 if you get a “1350 error”. Then just type "run" again.
1010 DEFDBL A-Z
1020 DIM XS(499)
1030 SM% = 12
1040 PREV% = 2
1050 NMAX = 11000
1160 RANDOMIZE TIMER
1190 GOSUB 1300
1200 GOSUB 1500
1210 GOSUB 1700
1220 GOSUB 2100
1230 GOSUB 2400
1240 ON T% GOTO 1190, 1200, 1210
1250 CLS
1260 END
1300 REM INITIALIZE
1350 WINDOW (-.1, -.1)-(1.1, 1.1)
1360 CLS : LOCATE 13, 44: PRINT "MIKE LOGUSZ"
1420 RETURN
1500 REM SET PARAMETERS
1510 X = .05
1560 R = 4
1570 T% = 3
1580 P% = 0
1590 LINE (-.1, -.1)-(1.1, 1.1),,B
1630 RETURN
1700 REM ITERATE EQUATIONS
1720 XNEW = R * X * (1 - X)
2030 RETURN
2100 REM DISPLAY RESULTS
2210 XS(P%) = X
2220 P% = (P% + 1) MOD 500
2230 I% = (P% + 500 - PREV%) MOD 500
2300 PSET (XS(I%), XNEW)
2320 RETURN
2400 REM TEST RESULTS
2490 IF LEN (INKEY$) THEN T% = O
2510 X = XNEW
2550 RETURN
The 1040 PREV% = 2 line is the iterations (humps) in the
wave. You can use 1-10. Starting here is 2, you should try 5 next. The higher
you go the slower everything is. It gets boring. The photo shows line 1040 set to "5".
In the program above I've already made changes that incorporate the following caveats from author Julein Sprott:
"Line 1010: Be sure your version of BASIC supports double-precision (four-byte) floating-point variables. If it doesn't you may omit this line but you will then probably have to change the 4 in line 1560 to 3.99999 to avoid overflow resulting from round-off errors. With modern versions of BASIC and a computer with a math coprocessor there is no penalty and considerable advantage in using double precision. Because of the finite precision of computer arithmetic all cases will eventually repeat but with double precision the average number of iterations required before this happens is acceptably large.
Line 1320: Either your version of BASIC doesn't require this command or your computer or compiler doesn't support VGA graphics. Try reducing the 12 in line 1030 to a lower number until you find one that works. If none work try eliminating line 1320 altogether.
Line 1350: The WINDOW command defines the coordinates of the lower-left and upper-right corners of the graphics window for subsequent PSET and LINE commands. If your version of BASIC doesn't support this command you will have to delete this line and convert all the parameters in the PSET and LINE commands to address screen pixels. In such a case try replacing line 2300 with PSET (200 * X 200 - 200 * XNEW). One advantage of using the WINDOW command is that when a version of BASIC comes along that supports higher screen resolutions the program can be easily recompiled to take advantage of it."
You can do/undo these if you wish. Search "Strange Attractors" by Sprott for a cool author's website with html, word Doc and PDF versions of the book for free! Ebay also has copies of this book with the original (floppy) discs included--that also has other versions besides BASIC! Or just check out the word Doc from the author's site. The html has scanning errors/omissions and the PDF might too. I found fixes at the Word Doc versions. Check all three!
In the above I've done program 1 + program 2 + the fixes + my own little fix to the book's coding. Program 1 would give you just a single parabola instead of awesome chaos without the iterations of the 1040 line (introduced as program 2).
More Chaos!!! Even Stranger Attractors!!!!
Here is the program for up to fourth-dimension attractors
with colors and different map surfaces (plane, sphere, torus, etc.). It seems
to work just fine graphically without having to mess with anything like SCREEN
9 because the 1020 line is better and works with other lines of code to make
the screen OK, at least in my emulator on my machine.
1010 DEFDBL
A-Z
'Use double precision
1020 DIM XS(499), YS(499), ZS(499), WS(499), A(504),
V(99), XY(4), XN(4), COLR%(15)
1030 SM% =
12
'Assume VGA graphics
1040 PREV% =
5
'Plot versus fifth previous iterate
1050 NMAX =
11000
'Maximum number of iterations
1060 OMAX% =
5
'Maximum order of polynomial
1070 D% =
2
'Dimension of system
1080 EPS =
.1
'Step size for ODE
1090 ODE% =
0
'System is map
1100 SND% =
0
'Turn sound off
1110 PJT% =
0
'Projection is planar
1120 TRD% =
1
'Display third dimension as shadow
1130 FTH% =
2
'Display fourth dimension as colors
1140 SAV% =
0
'Don't save any data
1150 TWOPI = 6.28318530717959# 'A useful constant (2
pi)
1160 RANDOMIZE
TIMER 'Reseed
random number generator
1170 GOSUB
4200
'Display menu screen
1180 IF Q$ = "X" THEN GOTO 1250 'Exit
immediately on command
1190 GOSUB 1300
'Initialize
1200 GOSUB
1500
'Set parameters
1210 GOSUB
1700
'Iterate equations
1220 GOSUB
2100
'Display results
1230 GOSUB
2400
'Test results
1240 ON T% GOTO 1190, 1200, 1210
1250 CLS
1260 END
1300 REM Initialize
1310 ON ERROR GOTO
6600 'Find legal graphics mode
1320 SCREEN
SM%
'Set graphics mode
1330 ON ERROR GOTO
0 'Resume
default error trapping
1340 DEF SEG = 64: WID% = PEEK(74) 'Number of text
columns
1350 WINDOW (-.1, -.1)-(1.1, 1.1)
1360 CLS : LOCATE 13, WID% / 2 - 6: PRINT "Searching
Logusz..."
1370 GOSUB
5600
'Set colors
1380 IF QM% <> 2 THEN GOTO 1420
1390 NE = 0: CLOSE
1400 OPEN "SA.DIC" FOR APPEND
AS #1: CLOSE
1410 OPEN "SA.DIC" FOR INPUT
AS #1
1420 RETURN
1500 REM Set parameters
1510 X =
.05
'Initial condition
1520 Y = .05
1530 Z = .05
1540 W = .05
1550 XE = X + .000001: YE = Y: ZE = Z: WE = W
1560 GOSUB
2600
'Get coefficients
1570 T% = 3
1580 P% = 0: LSUM = 0: N = 0: NL = 0: N1 = 0: N2 = 0
1590 XMIN = 1000000!: XMAX = -XMIN: YMIN = XMIN: YMAX =
XMAX
1600 ZMIN = XMIN: ZMAX = XMAX
1610 WMIN = XMIN: WMAX = XMAX
1620 TWOD% = 2 ^ D%
1630 RETURN
1700 REM Iterate equations
1710 IF ODE% > 1 THEN GOSUB 6200: GOTO
2020 'Special function
1720 M% = 1: XY(1) = X: XY(2) = Y: XY(3) = Z: XY(4) = W
1730 FOR I% = 1 TO D%
1740 XN(I%) = A(M%)
1750 M% = M% + 1
1760 FOR I1% = 1 TO D%
1770 XN(I%) = XN(I%) + A(M%) * XY(I1%)
1780 M% = M% + 1
1790 FOR I2% = I1% TO D%
1800 XN(I%) = XN(I%) + A(M%) * XY(I1%) * XY(I2%)
1810 M% = M% + 1
1820 IF O% = 2 THEN GOTO 1970
1830 FOR I3% = I2% TO D%
1840 XN(I%) = XN(I%) + A(M%) * XY(I1%) * XY(I2%) * XY(I3%)
1850 M% = M% + 1
1860 IF O% = 3 THEN GOTO 1960
1870 FOR I4% = I3% TO D%
1880 XN(I%) = XN(I%) + A(M%) * XY(I1%) * XY(I2%) * XY(I3%)
* XY(I4%)
1890 M% = M% + 1
1900 IF O% = 4 THEN GOTO 1950
1910 FOR I5% = I4% TO D%
1920 XN(I%) = XN(I%) + A(M%) * XY(I1%) * XY(I2%) * XY(I3%)
* XY(I4%) * XY(I5%)
1930 M% = M% + 1
1940 NEXT I5%
1950 NEXT I4%
1960 NEXT I3%
1970 NEXT I2%
1980 NEXT I1%
1990 IF ODE% = 1 THEN XN(I%) = XY(I%) + EPS * XN(I%)
2000 NEXT I%
2010 M% = M% - 1: XNEW = XN(1): YNEW = XN(2): ZNEW =
XN(3): WNEW = XN(4)
2020 N = N + 1
2030 RETURN
2100 REM Display results
2110 IF N < 100 OR N > 1000 THEN GOTO 2200
2120 IF X < XMIN THEN XMIN = X
2130 IF X > XMAX THEN XMAX = X
2140 IF Y < YMIN THEN YMIN = Y
2150 IF Y > YMAX THEN YMAX = Y
2160 IF Z < ZMIN THEN ZMIN = Z
2170 IF Z > ZMAX THEN ZMAX = Z
2180 IF W < WMIN THEN WMIN = W
2190 IF W > WMAX THEN WMAX = W
2200 IF N = 1000 THEN GOSUB
3100 'Resize the screen
2210 XS(P%) = X: YS(P%) = Y: ZS(P%) = Z: WS(P%) = W
2220 P% = (P% + 1) MOD 500
2230 I% = (P% + 500 - PREV%) MOD 500
2240 IF D% = 1 THEN XP = XS(I%): YP = XNEW ELSE XP = X: YP
= Y
2250 IF N < 1000 OR XP <= XL OR XP >= XH OR YP
<= YL OR YP >= YH THEN GOTO 2320
2260 IF PJT% = 1 THEN GOSUB
4100 'Project onto a sphere
2270 IF PJT% = 2 THEN GOSUB
6700 'Project onto a horizontal cylinder
2280 IF PJT% = 3 THEN GOSUB
6800 'Project onto a vertical cylinder
2290 IF PJT% = 4 THEN GOSUB
6900 'Project onto a torus
2300 GOSUB
5000
'Plot point on screen
2310 IF SND% = 1 THEN GOSUB
3500 'Produce sound
2320 RETURN
2400 REM Test results
2410 IF ABS(XNEW) + ABS(YNEW) + ABS(ZNEW) + ABS(WNEW) >
1000000! THEN T% = 2
2420 IF QM% = 2 THEN GOTO 2490 'Speed up evaluation
mode
2430 GOSUB
2900
'Calculate Lyapunov exponent
2440 GOSUB
3900
'Calculate fractal dimension
2450 IF QM% > 0 THEN GOTO 2490 'Skip tests when
not in search mode
2460 IF N >= NMAX THEN T% = 2: GOSUB 4900
'Strange attractor found
2470 IF ABS(XNEW - X) + ABS(YNEW - Y) + ABS(ZNEW - Z) +
ABS(WNEW - W) < .000001 THEN T% = 2
2480 IF N > 100 AND L < .005 THEN T% =
2 'Limit cycle
2490 Q$ = INKEY$: IF LEN(Q$) THEN GOSUB
3600 'Respond to user command
2500 IF SAV% > 0 THEN IF N > 1000 AND N < 17001
THEN GOSUB 7000 'Save data
2510 X =
XNEW
'Update value of X
2520 Y = YNEW
2530 Z = ZNEW
2540 W = WNEW
2550 RETURN
2600 REM Get coefficients
2610 IF QM% <> 2 THEN GOTO 2640 'Not in evaluate
mode
2620 IF EOF(1) THEN QM% = 0: GOSUB 6000:
GOTO 2640
2630 IF EOF(1) = 0 THEN LINE INPUT #1,
CODE$: GOSUB 4700: GOSUB 5600
2640 IF QM% > 0 THEN GOTO 2730 'Not in search
mode
2650 O% = 2 + INT((OMAX% - 1) * RND)
2660 CODE$ = CHR$(59 + 4 * D% + O% + 8 *
ODE%)
2670 IF ODE% > 1 THEN CODE$ = CHR$(87
+ ODE%)
2680 GOSUB
4700
'Get value of M%
2690 FOR I% = 1 TO
M% 'Construct CODE$
2700 GOSUB
2800 'Shuffle random
numbers
2710 CODE$ =
CODE$ + CHR$(65 + INT(25 * RAN))
2720 NEXT I%
2730 FOR I% = 1 TO M%
'Convert CODE$ to coefficient values
2740 A(I%) = (ASC(MID$(CODE$, I% + 1,
1)) - 77) / 10
2750 NEXT I%
2760 RETURN
2800 REM Shuffle random numbers
2810 IF V(0) = 0 THEN FOR J% = 0 TO 99: V(J%) = RND: NEXT
J%
2820 J% = INT(100 * RAN)
2830 RAN = V(J%)
2840 V(J%) = RND
2850 RETURN
2900 REM Calculate Lyapunov exponent
2910 XSAVE = XNEW: YSAVE = YNEW: ZSAVE = ZNEW: WSAVE =
WNEW
2920 X = XE: Y = YE: Z = ZE: W = WE: N = N - 1
2930 GOSUB
1700
'Reiterate equations
2940 DLX = XNEW - XSAVE: DLY = YNEW - YSAVE
2950 DLZ = ZNEW - ZSAVE: DLW = WNEW - WSAVE
2960 DL2 = DLX * DLX + DLY * DLY + DLZ * DLZ + DLW * DLW
2970 IF CSNG(DL2) <= 0 THEN GOTO
3070 'Don't divide by zero
2980 DF = 1000000000000# * DL2
2990 RS = 1 / SQR(DF)
3000 XE = XSAVE + RS * (XNEW - XSAVE):
YE = YSAVE + RS * (YNEW - YSAVE)
3010 ZE = ZSAVE + RS * (ZNEW - ZSAVE):
WE = WSAVE + RS * (WNEW - WSAVE)
3020 XNEW = XSAVE: YNEW = YSAVE: ZNEW =
ZSAVE: WNEW = WSAVE
3030 LSUM = LSUM + LOG(DF): NL = NL + 1
3040 L = .721347 * LSUM / NL
3050 IF ODE% = 1 OR ODE% = 7 THEN L = L
/ EPS
3060 IF N > 1000 AND N MOD 10 = 0
THEN LOCATE 1, WID% - 4: PRINT USING "##.##"; L;
3070 RETURN
3100 REM Resize the screen
3110 IF D% = 1 THEN YMIN = XMIN: YMAX = XMAX
3120 IF XMAX - XMIN < .000001 THEN XMIN = XMIN -
.0000005: XMAX = XMAX + .0000005
3130 IF YMAX - YMIN < .000001 THEN YMIN = YMIN -
.0000005: YMAX = YMAX + .0000005
3140 IF ZMAX - ZMIN < .000001 THEN ZMIN = ZMIN -
.0000005: ZMAX = ZMAX + .0000005
3150 IF WMAX - WMIN < .000001 THEN WMIN = WMIN -
.0000005: WMAX = WMAX + .0000005
3160 MX = .1 * (XMAX - XMIN): MY = .1 * (YMAX - YMIN)
3170 XL = XMIN - MX: XH = XMAX + MX: YL = YMIN - MY: YH =
YMAX + 1.5 * MY
3180 WINDOW (XL, YL)-(XH, YH): CLS
3190 YH = YH - .5 * MY
3200 XA = (XL + XH) / 2: YA = (YL + YH) / 2
3210 IF D% < 3 THEN GOTO 3310
3220 ZA = (ZMAX + ZMIN) / 2
3230 IF TRD% = 1 THEN LINE (XL, YL)-(XH,
YH), COLR%(1), BF: GOSUB 5400
3240 IF TRD% = 4 THEN LINE (XL, YL)-(XH,
YH), WH%, BF
3250 IF TRD% = 5 THEN LINE (XA, YL)-(XA,
YH)
3260 IF TRD% <> 6 THEN GOTO 3310
3270 FOR I% = 1
TO 3
3280
XP = XL + I% * (XH - XL) / 4: LINE (XP, YL)-(XP, YH)
3290
YP = YL + I% * (YH - YL) / 4: LINE (XL, YP)-(XH, YP)
3300 NEXT I%
3310 IF PJT% <> 1 THEN LINE (XL, YL)-(XH, YH), , B
3320 IF PJT% = 1 AND TRD% < 5 THEN CIRCLE (XA, YA), .36
* (XH - XL)
3330 TT = 3.1416 / (XMAX - XMIN): PT = 3.1416 / (YMAX -
YMIN)
3340 IF QM% <> 2 THEN GOTO
3400 'Not in evaluate mode
3350 LOCATE 1, 1: PRINT "<Space
Bar>: Discard <Enter>: Save";
3360 IF WID% < 80 THEN GOTO 3390
3370 LOCATE 1, 49: PRINT
"<Esc>: Exit";
3380 LOCATE 1, 69: PRINT CINT((LOF(1) -
128 * LOC(1)) / 1024); "K left";
3390 GOTO 3430
3400 LOCATE 1, 1: IF LEN(CODE$) < WID% - 18 THEN PRINT
CODE$
3410 IF LEN(CODE$) >= WID% - 18 THEN PRINT LEFT$(CODE$,
WID% - 23) + "..."
3420 LOCATE 1, WID% - 17: PRINT "F =": LOCATE 1,
WID% - 7: PRINT "L ="
3430 TIA =
.05
'Tangent of illumination angle
3440 XZ = -TIA * (XMAX - XMIN) / (ZMAX - ZMIN)
3450 YZ = TIA * (YMAX - YMIN) / (ZMAX - ZMIN)
3460 RETURN
3500 REM Produce sound
3510 FREQ% = 220 * 2 ^ (CINT(36 * (XNEW - XL) / (XH - XL))
/ 12)
3520 DUR = 1
3530 IF D% > 1 THEN DUR = 2 ^ INT(.5 * (YH - YL) / (YNEW
- 9 * YL / 8 + YH / 8))
3540 SOUND FREQ%, DUR: IF PLAY(0) THEN PLAY "MF"
3550 RETURN
3600 REM Respond to user command
3610 IF ASC(Q$) > 96 THEN Q$ = CHR$(ASC(Q$) -
32) 'Convert to upper case
3620 IF QM% = 2 THEN GOSUB 5800
'Process
evaluation command
3630 IF INSTR("ACDEHINPRSVX", Q$) = 0 THEN GOSUB
4200 'Display menu screen
3640 IF Q$ = "A" THEN T% = 1: QM% = 0
3650 IF ODE% > 1 THEN D% = ODE% + 5
3660 IF ODE% = 1 THEN D% = D% + 2
3670 IF Q$ = "C" THEN IF N > 999 THEN N = 999
3680 IF Q$ = "D" THEN D% = 1 + (D% MOD 12): T% =
1
3690 IF D% > 6 THEN ODE% = D% - 5: D% = 4: GOTO 3710
3700 IF D% > 4 THEN ODE% = 1: D% = D% - 2 ELSE ODE% = 0
3710 IF Q$ = "E" THEN T% = 1: QM% = 2
3720 IF Q$ = "H" THEN FTH% = (FTH% + 1) MOD 3:
T% = 3: IF N > 999 THEN N = 999: GOSUB 5600
3730 IF Q$ = "I" THEN IF T% <> 1 THEN
SCREEN 0: WIDTH 80: COLOR 15, 1: CLS : LINE INPUT "Code? "; CODE$: IF
CODE$ = "" THEN Q$ = " ": CLS : ELSE T% = 1: QM% = 1:
GOSUB 4700
3740 IF Q$ = "N" THEN NMAX = 10 * (NMAX - 1000)
+ 1000: IF NMAX > 10 ^ 10 THEN NMAX = 2000
3750 IF Q$ = "P" THEN PJT% = (PJT% + 1) MOD 5:
T% = 3: IF N > 999 THEN N = 999
3760 IF Q$ = "R" THEN TRD% = (TRD% + 1) MOD 7:
T% = 3: IF N > 999 THEN N = 999: GOSUB 5600
3770 IF Q$ = "S" THEN SND% = (SND% + 1) MOD 2:
T% = 3
3780 IF Q$ = "V" THEN SAV% = (SAV% + 1) MOD 5:
FAV$ = CHR$(87 + SAV% MOD 4): T% = 3: IF N > 999 THEN N = 999
3790 IF Q$ = "X" THEN T% = 0
3800 RETURN
3900 REM Calculate fractal dimension
3910 IF N < 1000 THEN GOTO
4010 'Wait for transient to settle
3920 IF N = 1000 THEN D2MAX = (XMAX - XMIN) ^ 2 + (YMAX -
YMIN) ^ 2 + (ZMAX - ZMIN) ^ 2 + (WMAX - WMIN) ^ 2
3930 J% = (P% + 1 + INT(480 * RND)) MOD 500
3940 DX = XNEW - XS(J%): DY = YNEW - YS(J%): DZ = ZNEW -
ZS(J%): DW = WNEW - WS(J%)
3950 D2 = DX * DX + DY * DY + DZ * DZ + DW * DW
3960 IF D2 < .001 * TWOD% * D2MAX THEN N2 = N2 + 1
3970 IF D2 > .00001 * TWOD% * D2MAX THEN GOTO 4010
3980 N1 = N1 + 1
3990 F = .434294 * LOG(N2 / (N1 - .5))
4000 LOCATE 1, WID% - 14: PRINT USING
"##.##"; F;
4010 RETURN
4100 REM Project onto a sphere
4110 TH = TT * (XMAX - XP)
4120 PH = PT * (YMAX - YP)
4130 XP = XA + .36 * (XH - XL) * COS(TH) * SIN(PH)
4140 YP = YA + .5 * (YH - YL) * COS(PH)
4150 RETURN
4200 REM Display menu screen
4210 SCREEN 0: WIDTH 80: COLOR 15, 1: CLS
4220 WHILE Q$ = "" OR INSTR("AEIX",
Q$) = 0
4230 LOCATE 1, 27: PRINT "STRANGE
ATTRACTOR PROGRAM"
4240 PRINT TAB(27); "IBM PC BASIC
Version 2.0"
4250 PRINT TAB(27); "(c) 1993 by J.
C. Sprott"
4260 PRINT : PRINT
4270 PRINT TAB(27); "A: Search for
attractors"
4280 PRINT TAB(27); "C: Clear
screen and restart"
4290 IF ODE% > 1 THEN PRINT TAB(27);
"D: System is 4-D special map "; CHR$(87 + ODE%); " ": GOTO
4320
4300 PRINT TAB(27); "D: System
is"; STR$(D%); "-D polynomial ";
4310 IF ODE% = 1 THEN PRINT
"ODE" ELSE PRINT "map"
4320 PRINT TAB(27); "E: Evaluate
attractors"
4330 PRINT TAB(27); "H: Fourth
dimension is ";
4340 IF FTH% = 0
THEN PRINT "projection"
4350 IF FTH% = 1
THEN PRINT "bands "
4360 IF FTH% = 2
THEN PRINT "colors "
4370 PRINT TAB(27); "I: Input code
from keyboard"
4380 PRINT TAB(27); "N: Number of
iterations is 10^";
4390 PRINT USING "#";
CINT(LOG(NMAX - 1000) / LOG(10))
4400 PRINT TAB(27); "P: Projection
is ";
4410 IF PJT% = 0
THEN PRINT "planar "
4420 IF PJT% = 1
THEN PRINT "spherical"
4430 IF PJT% = 2
THEN PRINT "horiz cyl"
4440 IF PJT% = 3
THEN PRINT "vert cyl "
4450 IF PJT% = 4
THEN PRINT "toroidal "
4460 PRINT TAB(27); "R: Third
dimension is ";
4470 IF TRD% = 0
THEN PRINT "projection"
4480 IF TRD% = 1
THEN PRINT "shadow "
4490 IF TRD% = 2
THEN PRINT "bands "
4500 IF TRD% = 3
THEN PRINT "colors "
4510 IF TRD% = 4
THEN PRINT "anaglyph "
4520 IF TRD% = 5
THEN PRINT "stereogram"
4530 IF TRD% = 6
THEN PRINT "slices "
4540 PRINT TAB(27); "S: Sound is
";
4550 IF SND% = 0
THEN PRINT "off"
4560 IF SND% = 1
THEN PRINT "on "
4570 PRINT TAB(27); "V: ";
4580 IF SAV% = 0
THEN PRINT "No data will be saved
"
4590 IF SAV%
> 0 THEN PRINT FAV$; " will be saved in "; FAV$;
"DATA.DAT"
4600 PRINT TAB(27); "X: Exit
program"
4610 Q$ = INKEY$
4620 IF Q$ <> "" THEN
GOSUB 3600 'Respond to user command
4630 WEND
4640 RETURN
4700 REM Get dimension and order
4710 D% = 1 + INT((ASC(LEFT$(CODE$, 1)) - 65) / 4)
4720 IF D% > 6 THEN ODE% = ASC(LEFT$(CODE$, 1)) - 87:
D% = 4: GOSUB 6200: GOTO 4770
4730 IF D% > 4 THEN D% = D% - 2: ODE% = 1 ELSE ODE% = 0
4740 O% = 2 + (ASC(LEFT$(CODE$, 1)) - 65) MOD 4
4750 M% = 1: FOR I% = 1 TO D%: M% = M% * (O% + I%): NEXT
I%
4760 IF D% > 2 THEN FOR I% = 3 TO D%: M% = M% / (I% -
1): NEXT I%
4770 IF LEN(CODE$) = M% + 1 OR QM% <> 1 THEN GOTO
4810
4780
BEEP 'Illegal code warning
4790 WHILE LEN(CODE$) < M% + 1: CODE$
= CODE$ + "M": WEND
4800 IF LEN(CODE$) > M% + 1 THEN
CODE$ = LEFT$(CODE$, M% + 1)
4810 RETURN
4900 REM Save attractor to disk file SA.DIC
4910 OPEN "SA.DIC" FOR APPEND AS #1
4920 PRINT #1, CODE$; : PRINT #1, USING "##.##";
F; L
4930 CLOSE #1
4940 RETURN
5000 REM Plot point on screen
5010 C4% = WH%
5020 IF D% < 4 THEN GOTO 5050
5030 IF FTH% = 1 THEN IF INT(30 * (W -
WMIN) / (WMAX - WMIN)) MOD 2 THEN GOTO 5330
5040 IF FTH% = 2 THEN C4% = 1 + INT(NC%
* (W - WMIN) / (WMAX - WMIN) + NC%) MOD NC%
5050 IF D% < 3 THEN PSET (XP, YP): GOTO
5330 'Skip 3-D stuff
5060 IF TRD% = 0 THEN PSET (XP, YP), C4%
5070 IF TRD% <> 1 THEN GOTO 5130
5080 IF D% > 3 AND FTH% = 2 THEN PSET
(XP, YP), C4%: GOTO 5110
5090 C% = POINT(XP, YP)
5100 IF C% = COLR%(2) THEN PSET (XP,
YP), COLR%(3) ELSE IF C% <> COLR%(3) THEN PSET (XP, YP), COLR%(2)
5110 XP = XP - XZ * (Z - ZMIN): YP = YP
- YZ * (Z - ZMIN)
5120 IF POINT(XP, YP) = COLR%(1) THEN
PSET (XP, YP), 0
5130 IF TRD% <> 2 THEN GOTO 5160
5140 IF D% > 3 AND FTH% = 2 AND
(INT(15 * (Z - ZMIN) / (ZMAX - ZMIN) + 2) MOD 2) = 1 THEN PSET (XP, YP), C4%
5150 IF D% < 4 OR FTH% <> 2
THEN C% = COLR%(INT(60 * (Z - ZMIN) / (ZMAX - ZMIN) + 4) MOD 4): PSET (XP, YP),
C%
5160 IF TRD% = 3 THEN PSET (XP, YP), COLR%(INT(NC% * (Z -
ZMIN) / (ZMAX - ZMIN) + NC%) MOD NC%)
5170 IF TRD% <> 4 THEN GOTO 5240
5180 XRT = XP + XZ * (Z - ZA): C% =
POINT(XRT, YP)
5190 IF C% = WH% THEN PSET (XRT, YP),
RD%
5200 IF C% = CY% THEN PSET (XRT, YP),
BK%
5210 XLT = XP - XZ * (Z - ZA): C% =
POINT(XLT, YP)
5220 IF C% = WH% THEN PSET (XLT, YP),
CY%
5230 IF C% = RD% THEN PSET (XLT, YP),
BK%
5240 IF TRD% <> 5 THEN GOTO 5280
5250 HSF =
2
'Horizontal scale factor
5260 XRT = XA + (XP + XZ * (Z - ZA) -
XL) / HSF: PSET (XRT, YP), C4%
5270 XLT = XA + (XP - XZ * (Z - ZA) -
XH) / HSF: PSET (XLT, YP), C4%
5280 IF TRD% <> 6 THEN GOTO 5330
5290 DZ = (15 * (Z - ZMIN) / (ZMAX -
ZMIN) + .5) / 16
5300 XP = (XP - XL + (INT(16 * DZ) MOD
4) * (XH - XL)) / 4 + XL
5310 YP = (YP - YL + (3 - INT(4 * DZ)
MOD 4) * (YH - YL)) / 4 + YL
5320 PSET (XP, YP), C4%
5330 RETURN
5400 REM Plot background grid
5410 FOR I% = 0 TO
15 'Draw 15
vertical grid lines
5420 XP = XMIN + I% * (XMAX - XMIN) / 15
5430 LINE (XP, YMIN)-(XP, YMAX), 0
5440 NEXT I%
5450 FOR I% = 0 TO
10 'Draw 10
horizontal grid lines
5460 YP = YMIN + I% * (YMAX - YMIN) / 10
5470 LINE (XMIN, YP)-(XMAX, YP), 0
5480 NEXT I%
5490 RETURN
5600 REM Set colors
5610 NC% =
15
'Number of colors
5620 COLR%(0) = 0: COLR%(1) = 8: COLR%(2) = 7: COLR%(3) =
15
5630 IF TRD% = 3 OR (D% > 3 AND FTH% = 2 AND TRD%
<> 1) THEN FOR I% = 0 TO NC%: COLR%(I%) = I% + 1: NEXT I%
5640 WH% = 15: BK% = 8: RD% = 12: CY% = 11
5650 IF SM% > 2 THEN GOTO 5720 'Not in CGA mode
5660 WID% = 80: IF D% < 3 THEN SCREEN
2: GOTO 5720
5670 IF (TRD% = 0 OR TRD% > 4) AND
(D% = 3 OR FTH% <> 2) THEN SCREEN 2: GOTO 5720
5680 WID% = 40: SCREEN 1
5690 COLR%(0) = 0: COLR%(1) = 2:
COLR%(2) = 1: COLR%(3) = 3
5700 WH% = 3: BK% = 0: RD% = 2: CY% = 1
5710 FOR I% = 4 TO NC%: COLR%(I%) =
COLR%(I% MOD 4 + 1): NEXT I%
5720 RETURN
5800 REM Process evaluation command
5810 IF Q$ = " " THEN T% = 2: NE = NE + 1: CLS
5820 IF Q$ = CHR$(13) THEN T% = 2: NE = NE + 1: CLS :
GOSUB 5900
5830 IF Q$ = CHR$(27) THEN CLS : GOSUB 6000: Q$ = "
": QM% = 0: GOTO 5850
5840 IF Q$ <> CHR$(27) AND
INSTR("CHNPRVS", Q$) = 0 THEN Q$ = ""
5850 RETURN
5900 REM Save favorite attractors to disk file
FAVORITE.DIC
5910 OPEN "FAVORITE.DIC" FOR APPEND AS #2
5920 PRINT #2, CODE$
5930 CLOSE #2
5940 RETURN
6000 REM Update SA.DIC file
6010 LOCATE 11, 9: PRINT "Evaluation complete"
6020 LOCATE 12, 8: PRINT NE; "cases evaluated"
6030 OPEN "SATEMP.DIC" FOR OUTPUT AS #2
6040 IF QM% = 2 THEN PRINT #2, CODE$
6050 WHILE NOT EOF(1): LINE INPUT #1, CODE$: PRINT #2,
CODE$: WEND
6060 CLOSE
6070 KILL "SA.DIC"
6080 NAME "SATEMP.DIC" AS "SA.DIC"
6090 RETURN
6200 REM Special function definitions
6210 ZNEW = X * X + Y * Y
'Default 3rd and 4th dimension
6220 WNEW = (N - 100) / 900: IF N > 1000 THEN WNEW = (N
- 1000) / (NMAX - 1000)
6230 IF ODE% <> 2 THEN GOTO 6270
6240 M% = 10
6250 XNEW = A(1) + A(2) * X + A(3) * Y +
A(4) * ABS(X) + A(5) * ABS(Y)
6260 YNEW = A(6) + A(7) * X + A(8) * Y +
A(9) * ABS(X) + A(10) * ABS(Y)
6270 IF ODE% <> 3 THEN GOTO 6310
6280 M% = 14
6290 XNEW = A(1) + A(2) * X + A(3) * Y +
(CINT(A(4) * X) AND CINT(A(5) * Y)) + (CINT(A(6) * X) OR CINT(A(7) * Y))
6300 YNEW = A(8) + A(9) * X + A(10) * Y
+ (CINT(A(11) * X) AND CINT(A(12) * Y)) + (CINT(A(13) * X) OR CINT(A(14) * Y))
6310 IF ODE% <> 4 THEN GOTO 6350
6320 M% = 14
6330 XNEW = A(1) + A(2) * X + A(3) * Y +
A(4) * ABS(X) ^ A(5) + A(6) * ABS(Y) ^ A(7)
6340 YNEW = A(8) + A(9) * X + A(10) * Y
+ A(11) * ABS(X) ^ A(12) + A(13) * ABS(Y) ^ A(14)
6350 IF ODE% <> 5 THEN GOTO 6390
6360 M% = 18
6370 XNEW = A(1) + A(2) * X + A(3) * Y +
A(4) * SIN(A(5) * X + A(6)) + A(7) * SIN(A(8) * Y + A(9))
6380 YNEW = A(10) + A(11) * X + A(12) *
Y + A(13) * SIN(A(14) * X + A(15)) + A(16) * SIN(A(17) * Y + A(18))
6390 IF ODE% <> 6 THEN GOTO 6450
6400 M% = 6
6410 IF N < 2 THEN AL = TWOPI / (13 +
10 * A(6)): SINAL = SIN(AL): COSAL = COS(AL)
6420 DUM = X + A(2) * SIN(A(3) * Y +
A(4))
6430 XNEW = 10 * A(1) + DUM * COSAL + Y
* SINAL
6440 YNEW = 10 * A(5) - DUM * SINAL + Y
* COSAL
6450 IF ODE% <> 7 THEN GOTO 6500
6460 M% = 9
6470 XNEW = X + EPS * A(1) * Y
6480 YNEW = Y + EPS * (A(2) * X + A(3) *
X * X * X + A(4) * X * X * Y + A(5) * X * Y * Y + A(6) * Y + A(7) * Y * Y * Y +
A(8) * SIN(Z))
6490 ZNEW = Z + EPS * (A(9) + 1.3): IF
ZNEW > TWOPI THEN ZNEW = ZNEW - TWOPI
6500 RETURN
6600 REM Find legal graphics mode
6610 SM% = SM% - 1
6620 IF SM% = 0 THEN PRINT "This program requires a
graphics monitor": STOP
6630 RESUME
6700 REM Project onto a horizontal cylinder
6710 PH = PT * (YMAX - YP)
6720 YP = YA + .5 * (YH - YL) * COS(PH)
6730 RETURN
6800 REM Project onto a vertical cylinder
6810 TH = TT * (XMAX - XP)
6820 XP = XA + .5 * (XH - XL) * COS(TH)
6830 RETURN
6900 REM Project onto a torus (unity aspect ratio)
6910 TH = TT * (XMAX - XP)
6920 PH = 2 * PT * (YMAX - YP)
6930 XP = XA + .18 * (XH - XL) * (1 + COS(TH)) * SIN(PH)
6940 YP = YA + .25 * (YH - YL) * (1 + COS(TH)) * COS(PH)
6950 RETURN
7000 REM Save data
7010 IF N = 1001 THEN CLOSE #3: OPEN FAV$ +
"DATA.DAT" FOR OUTPUT AS #3
7020 IF SAV% = 1 THEN DUM = XNEW
7030 IF SAV% = 2 THEN DUM = YNEW
7040 IF SAV% = 3 THEN DUM = ZNEW
7050 IF SAV% = 4 THEN DUM = WNEW
7060 PRINT #3, CSNG(DUM)
7070 RETURN
Tuesday, August 18, 2020
Leibniz Wrong About Dice!
Leibniz Wrong About Dice!
I was reading a book about Leibniz called “Selections” and
then “I, Claudius” by Robert Graves. Emperor Claudius wrote a small pamphlet
about throwing dice. Leibniz had a small section about dice odds—that he was
using to illustrate some other matter.
Two dice references in two different books got me thinking.
Leibniz got something wrong! He wrote about someone throwing
two six-sided dice and rolling an “11”, and he wrote that there was only one
way to roll an “11”.
Technically, there are two ways to roll and “11”: you can
either roll 5 & 6…but you can also roll 6 & 5. Each die has a different
outcome.
TWO SIX-SIDED DICE WAYS TO THROW EACH NUMBER
2 = 1+1
3 = 1+2 or 2+1
4 = 1 +3 or 3+1 or 2+2
5 = 1+4 or 4+1 or 2+3 or 3+2
6 = 1+5 or 5+1 or 2+4 or 4+2 or 3+3
7 = 1+6 or 6+1 or 2+5 or 5+2 or 3+4 or 4+3
8 = 2+6 or 6+2 or 3+5 or 5+3 or 4+4
9 = 3+6 or 6+3 or 4+5 or 5+4
10 = 4+6 or 6+4 or 5+5
11 = 5+6 or 6+5
12 = 6+6
As you can see, there are more ways (easier) to roll a “7” than any other number. Lucky Seven!
When Leibniz made his error, he stated
there was only one way to roll an “11”. But as you see, there are two ways,
which makes “11” easier to roll and “2” or “12”—and the same odds as rolling a “3”.
That’s a pretty significant difference-that makes the chances or rolling an “11”
5.56% instead of only 2.78% which is double the odds.
Scribbled notes on an old library catalog card I was using as a bookmark:
Claudius was never as dumb as he pretended to be.
Tuesday, May 26, 2020
Sacred Monster! A Zapotec Bat-God.
Sacred Monster! A Zapotec Bat-God.
PRE-COLUMBIAN BAT GOD TERRACOTTA FIGURE [MDL206.700.00]
4.75" (12 cm) high x 2.5” (6.3 cm) wide x 1.25” (3.1 cm) depth.
Zapotec, Monte Alban area, Mexico from the Oaxaca Valley.
400 A.D - 600 A.D. (city of Monte Alban Phase 3 200 A.D-900 A.D.)
Mold-made terracotta standing figure of the Zapotec Bat God.
Perforated eyes, belted loincloth, crest atop head, moderately concave back.
This piece
traces its provenance to the prestigious Sotheby Parke Bernet NYC Galleries. Listed
in auction catalog PB84 Sale Number 523, December 7th, 1976 “Pre-Columbian,
African, Oceanic and American Indian Ethnographic Art and Antiquities. Various
owners including property from the private collection of Helen S. Wilbur”.
Listed as “Item 41. Zapotec Terra Cotta Figure of the Bat God, C./400-600 A.D.
1976.”
The Zapotecs
of the Oaxaca Valleys area of what is now southern Mexico got their start
around 700 B.C. A little afterwards a large settlement called Monte Alban was
constructed above the valleys. The Zapotec called themselves “the cloud people”.
There are still a few hundred-thousand speakers of various Zapotec dialects.
A little
(not yet fully cited) background on this little beast. It’s a bat. Although,
many times Zapotec and Mayan jaguars turn out to be bats. But since there are
indications of blood and sacrificial themes (see below) we’re calling this a
bat. Like 95% sure. Similar items include holes and mouthpieces so the figure
could be used as a whistle—this one is not a whistle. Extremely similar to
Zapotec funerary urns—both there’s no bowl or urn on its back.
WHERE
The
Mesoamerican bat god entity took a few different forms. Of interest to this
piece is the bat god Camazotz (cama-death, zotz-bat in the K’iche’
language). Camazotz is the god of night, death and sacrifice. Kʼicheʼ (or
Quiché) is a Maya language of Guatemala that to this day the second most widely
used language in Guatemala after Spanish. According to Sotheby’s Parke Bernet
Gallery this piece originates a little farther north, from the Monte Alban
area (six miles from modern-day Oaxaca City) of the Oaxaca Central Valleys
region.
SACRIFICE
Although a
Zapotec god, this piece shows later Mayan glyph on its chest denoting “blood”
in the stylized form of a blood droplet. On either side of the mouth are glyphs
that may denote the heart glyph, meaning “sacrifice”, in particular
sacrifice via decapitation and/or the cutting of the victim and the removal of
the still beating heart. In the Oaxaca Valley area of southern Mexico bats are
found on Zapotec funerary urns [Caso & Bernal 1952: 67-68]. Bats of the
divine/sacrificial kind are commonly portrayed with facial designs denoting
sacrifice on their cheeks and/or temples [Thompson 182].
THE
ONE TRUE BAT GOD CAMAZOTZ?
One popular
legend has Camazotz tricking two hero brothers into a journey through the
underworld. While hiding, one brother sticks out his head which is immediately ripped
off by Camazotz and taken to be used in the “ball game” of the gods. Real
humans (generally prisoners of war) were forced to play this ball game, with
the losers being sacrificed and decapitated. Although this bat may have
been a different bat than Camazotz.
NOT ALWAYS
CAMAZOTZ!
Early research
led to any and every bat being identified as a death-bat-god, whereas recent
research suggests that bats can symbolize: messengers (similar to winged
Mercury), vegetation and agricultural fertility, or even personifying diseases [Brady
2016, 227-237]. The proper interpretation of the (single) story of hero twins
portrays the bats as numerous—the underworld (Xibalba) contained a “house of
bats” where the decapitation took place. Bats—plural!
Bats among
the Pre-Columbian Mesoamericans could be just bats; bats symbolizing things;
divine or at least supernatural bats symbolizing things; humans with bat wings
and/or heads; various gods; or even the bat-god himself “Camazotz”. In fact, it
was a messenger bat working on behalf of the god Tohil (a weather and fire
divinity) that demanded bloody sacrifice in exchange for giving fire to mankind—not
Camazotz.
The fourth
month (out of eighteen) in the Mayan calendar is “Zotz”. Twenty-year time periods,
called Katuns, where separated in Mayan calendar writings with an upside-down
bat glyph. This use of the bat glyph appears to have started being used in the
late 700s A.D. [Berlin 1964: 1-7].
BLOOD
God “Q” of
the Maya has been associated with the number 10, bats, death and was the god of
human sacrifice. Bat glyphs appear with the “cauc” symbol of circles or bunches
of grapes, which alone usually stands for storms, rain, gods, the divine. When
used with the bat it may confer divinity (Camazotz himself) or possibly a rain
of blood (very bloody human sacrifice). A harvester of blood? Or maybe agriculture?
The extreme bloodiness
in the form of self-mutilation and blood-letting itself was a specific goal. Mayan
priests/royalty would pierce their tongues or earlobes to draw blood. The bat
god appears on the pyramid of Acanceh twice with symbology mimicking the god of
rain [Blaffer 1972: 60-61]. Again, raining blood? Maybe not, here it could be
the agricultural aspect of the bat—often depicted with a hummingbird—that is being
shown. Ruling elites would practice bloodletting, let the blood fall on bark
paper and then burn it as an offering to the gods, who themselves shed blood to
create man. Men and women are shown piercing themselves or drawing a barbed
rope through their earlobes or tongues to shed their own blood—lots of it!
Bats are commonly
depicted with a prominent leaf-nose that imitates an obsidian sacrificial
dagger. Often the bat is wielding an identical dagger, holding a victim by the
hair or even ripping out a human heart. Generally only prestigious prisoners of
war were used for direct sacrifice via knife. It is said that the armpit-to-waist
area of humans belong to the gods, meaning the area cut open to remove the sacrificial
victim’s heart. Even today, with anesthesia and modern pain killer, a thoracotomy
(for removing portions of cancerous lungs) is considered one of the most severe
medical procedures in terms of post-operative pain. It was a quick, but not at
all pleasant way to die.
RANDOM
The Mayan
metaphor zutz atax I wut reads as “heavy-faced or bat-faced” meaning
someone who is so tired their head is nodding forward, like a bat sleeping hanging
upside-down [Aulie, 1951].
There is the
oft cited story of the Zotzil Mayans living in Chiapas along the modern Mexican-Guatemala border who found a
bat statue and worshiped it as a god, adding it to their other divinities [Ximenez
1929-31: Vol. 2, Ch. 48).
TERRACOTTA AND MAGNETS
So, is this a cast metal statue? Well, if it where are ferric metal like cast iron or steel the magnet would have crushed my fingers against the statue. Also, the statue is way too light in weight to be those. How about aluminum? Well, magnets don't stick to aluminum, but if there are enough impurities (like in some beer cans) and you use a strong enough magnet (like rare earth magnets) you can get the mostly aluminum item to react. However: the statue doesn't feel the correct weight to be aluminum; it has a very glass/pottery like sound when tapping on it; it flakes and powders when an extremely fine blade tip is poked into it. In fact, this is basically how ceramic (non-metallic) magnets are now made in factories every day.
Also, Mesoamericans have been found to use magnetic "lightening stones" in their statues. Some rocks become magnetic after being struck by lightening. I found a citation (but lost it at the moment) that records Mayan clay effigies with small magnetic stones embedded in them. Particularly the facial areas. Where does this bat-god react the most? Right in his cute little snout! Also near the bottom edge of the loincloth. A series of large pot belly head statues made by the earlier Olmec peoples that taken from Monte Alto and moved to the city of La Democracia in Guatemala have been found to contain magnetic areas--a team from Harvard has been mapping out their magnetic fields. Here's a nice link directly to Harvard so you know this isn't a conspiracy theory: https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2019/07/harvard-study-reveals-ancient-mesoamericans-knowledge-about-earths-magnetism/
The magnetism of the pot belly statues is focused around the cheeks and belly. Although, much like our bat-god here, that could just be the sharp edges of the statues being more magnet--rather than a conscious effort to localize magnetic materials by the original makers. Also, it could just be naturally occurring in the original materials.
Later on the Maya were still playing around with magnetic materials in the form of iron-ore mirrors made of lodestone, iron pyrite, etc.
Gamma Spectrometer Fun
Two different sets of gamma spec run. One gave me a spike at the Protactinium line. Protactinium is in soil, loam and clays. So the clay was made from clay. Learned nothing.
The other run with different voltages, calibration and probe showed Manganese. The Central Tlacolula area has clay low in Manganese; the Western Valle Grande area is relatively high. However, my system isn't in the same league (or calibration) so this also tells me nothing.
The hints of cobalt didn't illuminate matters either.
CITATIONS
(NOT COMPLETE-ROUGH DRAFT)
Aulie, E.
& Aulie, W. 1951. Palencano Chol-English Vocabulary. Ms. Mexico: Instituto
Linguistico de Verano.
Berlin, H.
1964. El glifo ‘zotz invertido’. Antrop. Hist. Guatemala 16, 1-7.
Brady, James
E. Bats and the Camazotz: Correcting a Century of Mistaken Identity. Latin
American Antiquity. Volume 27, Issue 2, 2016.
Thompson, J.
Eric S. Maya hieroglyphs of the bat as metaphorgrams.
Ximenez, F.
1929-31. History de la Provincia de San Vicente de Chiapa y Guatemala de la Orden
de Predicadores. 3 volumes. Guatemala: Soc. Geog. E History.
Rrrrrr...if I gnaw a couple of my arms off I'll look like a bat too!
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