Archive for February, 2009
Fox News Predicts Second Civil War To Come Soon
Will a coming right-wing militia movement declare war on the Obama-led federal government and plunge the United States into civil war? Fox News is calling it first.
Last week on the show “War Games,” Glen Beck convened a panel that includes former CIA officer Michael Scheuer and Ret. U.S. Army Sgt. Major Tim Strong to discuss the possibility of American citizens rebelling against tax increases and socialist policies (which will bring about hyperinflation, depression, looting, chaos, and martial law) from the Obama adminstration. Beck says he “believes we’re on this road” to a domestic uprising — and the panel contemplates whether the U.S. military would follow the President’s orders to subdue civil unrest or would instead join with “the people” in defense of their Constitutional rights against the Government. (They agree that the U.S. military would be with “the people.”)
Nuke it! Google Map
This mapplet shows the thermal damage caused by a nuclear explosion.
Search for a place, pick a suitable weapon and press “Nuke It!”
Pretty cool that you can choose the type of bomb. Asteroid impact is by far the worst!
The concentric circles of different colors mean different physical effects. The center of the circle is conflagration, where most people would die within 24 hours. The purple circle means 3rd degree burns, requiring medical care. The pink circle means 2nd degree burns, like burns from boiling water. And the yellow outermost circle means 1st degree burns, like a sunburn.
Ouch.
Did Y’all Take the SATs? This Graph Shows What Kind of Music You Like Based on Your Scores
How Will Obama’s Presidency Change Hip-hop ?
Hip-hop fantasies of a black executive have popped up throughout the genre’s history, visions of empowerment that speak to a real-life condition of powerlessness. In this sense, they’re merely a loftier version of the standard hip-hop fantasies of potency, whether it’s sexual domination, VIP access, or street-corner supremacy.
With Obama’s win , this dynamic stands to change.
Hulu is At It Again! They’re Telling Us What They’re Doing … Please Unplug!
If you have not already seen our original post on Hulu’s new ad campaign please watch it here. Now they have another Hollywood actor telling you what the deal is and yet we still keep plugging in…are we mindless slaves to the entertainment industry?
Date Set For Final Harry Potter film
The eighth (and the last) movie from the Harry Potter novels will be released on July 15, 2011. For film purposes, the final book in the series (”Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows“) is being split in two.
Part I is scheduled for release by Warner Brothers on Nov. 19, 2010. In the meantime, film No. 6, “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” should be in theaters on July, 17, 2009.
And then it’s only four months till the next mega-hit novel-turned-film arrives. “The Twilight Saga’s New Moon,” based on “New Moon,” the second book in Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series, is scheduled to hit theaters on Nov. 20, 2009.
What Did You Eat Last Week?
Photographer Joao Batista has done a fascinating series of photos titled “The People and the Food They Consume in a Week.” He took snaps of families in countries around the world (including the U.S., Egypt, Poland, Chad, Mongolia, Greenland, Bhutan, and France) posing in their homes with the food they consume in a typical week. A Facebook login is needed for the fantastic full set.
The Casales family of Cuernavaca, Mexico
Pennsylvania Judges Jailed Teens For Cash
MSNBC reports:
For years, the juvenile court system in Wilkes-Barre operated like a conveyor belt: Youngsters were brought before judges without a lawyer, given hearings that lasted only a minute or two, and then sent off to juvenile prison for months for minor offenses.
The explanation, prosecutors say, was corruption on the bench. In one of the most shocking cases of courtroom graft on record, two Pennsylvania judges have been charged with taking millions of dollars in kickbacks to send teenagers to two privately run youth detention centers.
Judge Michael Conahan shut down the county-run juvenile prison in Luzerne County in 2002 and helped the privately-run PA Child Care LLC and a sister company, Western PA Child Care LLC secure rich contracts worth tens of millions of dollars, at least some of that dependent on how many juveniles were locked up.
Among the crimes [for which teens received jail sentences of several months]…
R.U. Sirius Talks Up Second Edition Of H+ Magazine
Has the future been canceled?
Rising up out of the gloom of early 2009, the second edition of h+ magazine sends a message of hope to weary changesurfers. With articles like:
“Space Solar: Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun” by Howard Bloom; “The Global Financial Crisis: A Hiccup on the Path to Superintelligent Financial Markets?” by Ben Goertzel; “Singularity 101 with Vernor Vinge”; and “First Steps Toward Post Scarcity or Why It’s the End of the World as We Know it and You Should Feel Fine” by Jason Stoddard.
h+ #2 takes on the mess in front of us and then catapults us further on and further out. And for those of you who prefer your futurism gritty, we have John Shirley on Cyberpunk for the 21st Century and Paul McEnery talking to “BioGunk” SF writer Peter Watts.
Watchmen: First Reviews Are In
Finally unleashed from a much-publicized rights dispute between Fox and Warner Bros., “Watchmen” is less a fully realized comicbook epic than a sturdy feat of dramatic compression. Fans of Alan Moore’s landmark graphic novel, concerning a ring of Gotham superheroes brought out of retirement by an impending nuclear threat, will thrill to every pulpy line of dialogue and bloody act of retribution retained in director Zack Snyder’s slavishly faithful adaptation. But auds unfamiliar with Moore’s brilliantly bleak, psychologically subversive fiction may get lost amid all the sinewy exposition and multiple flashbacks. After a victorious opening weekend, the pic’s B.O. future looks promising but less certain.
Only illustrator Dave Gibbons is credited onscreen with authorship of the 12-part novel, first published in single issues by DC Comics from 1986-87. As with previous adaptations of his work (including “From Hell,” “The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen” and “V for Vendetta”), Moore, no friend to…
Man, 28, Dies from Viagra Overdose During Orgy
A Russian man collapsed and died from an overdose of Viagra after betting two women he could satisfy them for 12 hours.
Remembering Bill Hicks: 15 Years Ago This Day
From Wikipedia:
William Melvin (Bill) Hicks (December 16, 1961–February 26, 1994) was an American stand-up comedian in the 1980s and early 1990s. He challenged mainstream beliefs, aiming to “enlighten people to think for themselves.” Hicks used a ribald approach to express his material, describing himself as “Chomsky with dick jokes.”
Here is a classic Bill Hicks’ bit on JFK and more:
‘Child Robot’ on Show in UK
A robot called the iCub, claimed to be the most advanced humanoid robot in Europe, has gone on display in Manchester.
Scientists have designed the robot to mimic the actions of a child — their findings could lead to the development of humanoid robots which learn, think and talk.
Is Obama the Antichrist or Hitler’s Twin? ‘The Daily Show’ Finds Out
Jason Jones on The Daily Show: There are a few raising concerns that Obama is the Beast and also the twin of Hitler, and it’s getting the mainstream media’s attention.
What do you make of the accusations and the media response?
Pol-arch-y in the UK!!!
Reading this post on disinfo.com I’m wondering, when will they update this song? (Can’t update a classic, let’s call it a “sequel”.)
Here’s the broadcast premiere of the Sex Pistols’ classic “Anarchy In The UK” on August 28, 1976 on “So It Goes” presented by the late Tony Wilson:
Polygamy in the UK
This special Mail investigation reveals how thousands of men are milking the benefits system to support several wives By Sue Reid:
He cut a smart figure in his grey suit and crisply ironed shirt. The 6ft tall Somalian bowed to the judge, calling him ‘Sir’, before begging for his wife, Fatima, and their teenage son to be allowed to stay in Britain.
Fatima, with a black khimar veil covering her hair and shoulders, sat quietly next to her husband. In her late 30s and wearing open sandals, she lowered her dark eyes as the details of the unconventional life she and her husband, Abdi, led in the West London suburb of Shepherd’s Bush unfolded at a busy immigration court.
The judge listened in silence. Perhaps he knew from past experience what was coming next. Abdi went on to reveal that Fatima was not his only wife. Indeed, he was a self-confessed bigamist who had…
26/11 Attackers’ Phones Traced to Italy and USA
Reuters (Rome): Militants behind last year’s attacks on Mumbai used cell phones that were activated in the United States and paid for with funds sent from Italy, an Italian newspaper reported on Tuesday.
Corriere della Sera daily said India sent the intelligence information to Italy and other countries so anti-terrorism investigators could attempt to expose any ties to the network behind the November assault that killed at least 179 people.
Islamabad acknowledged for the first time this month that the November assault was launched from, and partly planned in, Pakistan. Corriere said Italian authorities were investigating a wire transfer sent to the United States from the northern Italian city of Brescia by a Pakistani-born suspect.
The suspect, named Javaid Iqbal, sent the funds via Western Union to pay for five cell phones with Austrian country codes — three of which were used by the attackers, Corriere said, citing the Indian dossier.
…
DOE Welcomes the U.S. Army into Nine NYC Public High Schools, More Likely to Follow
The New York Post and Newsday today brought us the disturbing news that nine NYC public high schools plus a tenth school in New Jersey will be partnering with the U.S. Army to learn “life skills.” As the Post states, “…students will be drilled by soldiers in setting goals,” adding later the preposterous assertion from military officials that “the project is not a recruitment tool.”
The program will be overseen through the DOE’s Public School Athletic League (PSAL), but the true coordinating body is a nonprofit organization called Academics in Motion (AIM) that already operates in all ten of those schools under a five-year, $1 million contract from the DOE. While their program until now appears to have been a positive one in motivating students through athletics, this new arrangement calls their presence and their contract with DOE into question and raises serious civil liberties concerns regarding campus access to and…
Who is the Real Dictator?
Earlier this week, Erin Einhorn, the fearless City Hall reporter for the Daily News, tried to ask Mayor Bloomberg about whether he should have allowed the public to vote on extending term limits, as did Hugo Chavez, the president of Venezuela. As you can see, the Mayor brushed her aside:
Q: Mayor, it’s hard to compare New York City to Venezuela but as you know, Hugo Chavez did his second effort — this time sucessful — to extend term limits. You chose to go through City Council. Do you have any second thoughts about this? Do you wish you should have had a chance to take to the…
A: I don’t understand your question. What on Earth do we have to do with Hugo Chavez?
Q: Well, like you, he wanted to extend his term.
A: if you wanted to ask Hugo Chavez, call him up! Maybe he’ll take your call. My suspicion is…
