Mussolini’s Brain “Stolen for Sale on eBay”
From the Telegraph:
Benito Mussolini’s granddaughter demanded a police investigation on Friday after the late Italian dictator’s blood and brain were reportedly offered for sale on eBay, the online auction website.
Alessandra Mussolini, a right-wing MP, said she was outraged and upset when she heard reports that the remains of her grandfather were being sold online.
The initial asking price was 15,000 euros, or £13,000, but nobody had had a chance to bid, eBay said.
The online auctioneer does not permit the sale of body parts on its website and removed the listing hours after it was posted.
Miss Mussolini said the remains, which were reportedly contained in three glass vials, could have been stolen from a hospital in Milan where an autopsy was carried out on the dictator’s body after he was killed and…
Museum Finds Astronomer Galileo’s Lost Body Parts
From BBC News
Two fingers and a tooth belonging to famed astronomer Galileo Galilei have been found more than 100 years after going missing, a museum in Italy says.
A collector bought the items, lost since 1905, at auction and gave them to Florence’s History of Science Museum.
The museum said it had no doubt about the authenticity of the items.
Scientists cut the parts – plus another finger and a vertebrae – from Galileo’s body in 1737, almost 100 years after he died.
Galileo, who lived from 1564 to 1642, was a hugely influential physicist and astronomer who helped develop the telescope.
He was branded a heretic by Italian authorities for supporting Copernicus’s discovery that the Earth rotated around the Sun.
The body parts were removed from him 95 years after his death, when Church authorities…
Hackers target leading climate research unit
From BBC News:
The e-mail system of one of the world’s leading climate research units has been breached by hackers.
E-mails reportedly from the University of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit (CRU), including personal exchanges, appeared on the internet on Thursday.
A university spokesman confirmed the email system had been hacked and that information was taken and published without permission.
An investigation was underway and the police had been informed, he added.
“We are aware that information from a server used for research information in one area of the university has been made available on public websites,” the spokesman stated.
“Because of the volume of this information we cannot currently confirm that all of this material is genuine.
“This information has been obtained and published without our permission and we took immediate action to remove the server…
Digital Forensics Expert: Controversial Lee Harvey Oswald Photo is Not A Fake
MELANIE PLENDA writes in the Union Leader:
Kennedy conspiracy theorists appear to have one less bullet in their arsenal. Hany Farid, a computer science professor and expert in digital forensics at Dartmouth College, spent two months evaluating a photograph of John F. Kennedy shooter Lee Harvey Oswald.
“You can’t really authenticate a photo in all honesty,” Farid said of the image, which shows Oswald holding a Marxist newspaper and a rifle. “But I can say pretty definitively that the things that people thought made the photo a fake, well, those people are wrong. And it doesn’t make them stupid. I was wrong too. But that photo is not the proof they think it is.”
It’s long been the contention of conspiracy theorists that photos of Oswald were doctored as part of an elaborate…
Frankenstein Gets The Moody Teen Film He Deserves
The Twilighters are missing some classic movie monsters (from Saturday Night Live):
Arrests Made in Peruvian Ring That Sold Human Fat
On CNN:
Peruvian authorities say they have arrested four members of a gang that specialized in selling to European labs fat obtained from dead humans.
Officials are investigating the disappearance of at last 60 people they believe were killed by gang members in two mountainous states in central Peru, lead prosecutor Jorge Sanz Quiroz said Friday.
The four suspects have been charged with murder in the September slaying of a Peruvian man, the prosecutor said.
“They killed to obtain human fat because there were European laboratories that would pay them,” Sanz Quiroz said.
The suspects told authorities they were paid $15,000 for a liter (about 1 quart) of human fat.
Read more: CNN
Climate Sceptics Claim Leaked Emails are Evidence of Collusion Among Scientists
Leo Hickman and James Randerson on the Guardian:
Hundreds of private emails and documents allegedly exchanged between some of the world’s leading climate scientists during the past 13 years have been stolen by hackers and leaked online, it emerged today.
The computer files were apparently accessed earlier this week from servers at the University of East Anglia’s Climate Research Unit, a world-renowned centre focused on the study of natural and anthropogenic climate change.
Climate change sceptics who have studied the emails allege they provide “smoking gun” evidence that some of the climatologists colluded in manipulating data to support the widely held view that climate change is real, and is being largely caused by the actions of mankind.
The veracity of the emails has not been confirmed and the scientists involved have declined to comment…
We Don’t Want Your Swine Flu Vaccinations (Music Video)
Check out this music vid from Steve Phillips where he lays out many of the arguments against the H1N1 vaccine. He also tells us:
I believe this is an extremely important issue. Because it’s not possible to present all the information in a short song, I sincerely hope that those who have not already done so will look into this matter more deeply.
Here are some links to get you started:http://www.theshotheardroundtheworld….
http://www.davidicke.com/content/blog…
http://www.wholetruthcoalition.org/
Michael Moore: Democrats’ Health Care Bill Is A Gift To Insurance Companies
From Prison Planet, Michael Moore says that the Democrats’ health care bill is a scam:
In a speech broadcast on Canadian television Tuesday, Michael Moore savaged the Democrats’ healthcare bill, calling it a gift to the health insurance industry, which he argues will make $70 billion more as a result of mandated health insurance.
“The health insurance companies are going to make an extra $70 billion dollars as a result of Americans being forced to buy their health insurance,” Moore quipped. “What company wouldn’t love this bill?”
Stoned Journalist Reports On Marijuana (Video)
There may be hope for the dinosaur media after all if this clip represents the future of reporting at the LA Times:
Can We Really Control the Weather?
From The Independent:
Recently both Russia and China have claimed to be able to use cloud seeding to increase rainfall and snowfall, or change the location of where it falls. In the past, snow-making experiments have been carried out in North American ski resorts in the past with little evidence of success. So how have the Russian and Chinese scientists achieved this feat and what evidence is there that it is in fact due to cloud seeding?
The seeding method used is to add tiny particles of silver iodide to the clouds and there is solid science behind this method. At temperatures a few degrees below zero degrees centigrade, clouds consist mainly of supercooled water droplets. These clouds can be quite stable, but silver iodide has an ice-like structure and it will…
Alcohol “Protects Men’s Hearts”
From BBC News:
Drinking alcohol every day cuts the risk of heart disease in men by more than a third, a major study suggests.
The Spanish research involving more than 15,500 men and 26,000 women found large quantities of alcohol could be even more beneficial for men.
Female drinkers did not benefit to the same extent, the study in Heart found.
Experts are critical, warning heavy drinking can increase the risk of other diseases, with alcohol responsible for 1.8 million deaths globally per year.
The study was conducted in Spain, a country with relatively high rates of alcohol consumption and low rates of coronary heart disease.
The research involved men and women aged between 29 and 69, who were asked to document their lifetime drinking habits and followed for 10 years.
Crucially the research team claim to…
Obama’s Approval Rating Falls Below 50 Percent For First Time
AFP reports that Obama’s leadership no longer is favored by the majority of Americans:
President Barack Obama’s job approval rating has dipped below 50 percent nationally for the first time, as Americans worry about the war in Afghanistan, a new poll released Wednesday found.
The Quinnipiac University poll showed 48 percent of Americans approve of the way Obama is handling his job as president, compared to 42 percent who disapprove. The president also scored low marks from Americans on his handling of the situation in Afghanistan, with just 38 percent saying they approved of his approach.
