Archive for February, 2009
Top Ten Conspiracy Theories
Benjamin Radford LiveScience’s Bad Science:
Conspiracy. Just saying the word in conversation can make people politely edge away, looking for someone who won’t corner them with wild theories about how Elvis, John F. Kennedy, and Bigfoot are cryogenically frozen in an underground bunker. Yet conspiracies do exist. In the corporate world, major companies we buy products from everyday have been found guilty of conspiring to fix prices and reduce competition. Just about any planned criminal act committed by more than one person could be considered a conspiracy, from simple murder-for-hire to the Watergate break-in.
Many conspiracy theorists go much further, though, and see a hidden hand behind the world’s major events. While some of the theories have a grain of truth to them, conspiracy theories are impossible to disprove, because the hardcore believers will find some way to rationalize away evidence that contradicts their beliefs. Eyewitnesses who dispute their conclusions are mistaken —…
Most Wars Occur in Biodiversity Hotspots
More than 80 percent of the world’s major armed conflicts from 1950-2000 occurred in regions identified as the most biologically diverse and threatened places on Earth.
Scientists compared major conflict zones with the Earth’s 34 biodiversity hotspots identified by Conservation International (CI). The hotspots are considered top conservation priorities because they contain the entire populations of more than half of all plant species and at least 42 percent of all vertebrates, and are highly threatened.
“This astounding conclusion — that the richest storehouses of life on Earth are also the regions of the most human conflict — tells us that these areas are essential for both biodiversity conservation and human well-being,” said Russell A. Mittermeier, president of Conservation International (CI) and an author of the study.
“Millions of the world’s poorest people live in hotspots and depend on healthy ecosystems for their survival, so there is a moral obligation — as well as…
Boy Killed Anally When Office Chair Explodes
Adam Frucci, Gizmodo: Well, stories don’t get much worse than this. A 14-year-old boy in China was killed when his chair exploded, sending chunks of metal into his rectum. The bleeding this caused killed him.
The alleged explosion came from the gas cylinder that was in the base of the chair, the part that allowed the user to adjust the seat up and down. The canister gets compressed when you sit on it, but can it actually create enough energy to make the seat cushion explode like that and kill a man? I doubt it, but this is what people are reporting.
In other news, I am working from a beanbag from now on. Sweet merciful crap.
Would You Save Jesus From Murder? A Baffling Dilemma
BGH on Uniform Velocity:
I am known around the workplace as “the heathen” (one of a few actually), we also have “the preacher”. I have written about this particular individual before and while he is a generally nice man, he does have his annoying qualities. One of which is to periodically approach me with a theological ‘challenge’ as he is convinced that one day I will come into the ‘fold’.
I have never really believed in god despite being raised in a catholic home. I claimed I did for most of my childhood and adolescence but there was a never a complete cognitive ‘belief’ time where I can honestly say I was a Christian.
When my colleague approaches me with assertions of my future conversion that he can “see” coming, many times I will reply with the same, saying that one day I see him losing his faith. He doesn’t like this counterpoint…
What was Michael Phelps smoking?
How could law enforecement even ave contemplated pressing charges against someone based upon a picture? How do they know what was in the bong? I assume the rules of evidence were abolished somewhere along the line.(Check with Bush’s folks). Where’s the smokin pot? I guess they all assumed he was too smart to harm his athletic body with tobacco so it had to be pot??
Group Counters Stimulus with Jesus in TV Ad
JONATHAN MARTIN | Politico: After watching liberal allies of President Barack Obama flood the airwaves in support of the stimulus bill, a conservative third-party group is countering with a provocative new commercial using Jesus Christ to emphasize the scale of the $787 billion package.
The American Issues Project, which briefly aired a TV spot in last year’s presidential race, will go up on Friday with a TV spot that marks the dollars spent with the passage of time. “Suppose you spent $1 million every single day starting from the day Jesus was born — and kept spending through today,” says the announcer as an image of the three wise men flashes on the screen. “A million dollars a day for more than 2,000 years. You would still have spent less money than Congress just did.”
Smoke This Recession
Mark Morford, SF Gate: It’s simple: First we tax the booze. Then we legalize the pot. Done.
It is a time of strange bedfellows and bizarre contortions and extraordinary responses to extreme situations, all overslathered with gobs of panic and dread and oh my God, I might have to sell the Range Rover. In other words, it is a time — like you don’t already know — of plentiful alarmist rhetoric, resulting in weird outbursts of ingenuity and wanton ethics-loosening, all in a desperate effort to suck up some much-needed cash.
Translation: Money’s tight, baby. City’s in trouble. State’s deep in the hole. Nation’s broke. Solution? Upend the system. Think differently. Get creative. Demolish Ye Olde Ways. And maybe get a really nice buzz on while you’re at it.
Where to begin? How can the city/state refill their empty coffers and further gouge the populace to make ends meet? Increased bridge tolls? A…
Ron Paul on Bill Maher: The Fed Caused Economic Crisis, Bring the Troops Home, End the Drug War
Ron Paul: The 1921 depression ended in a year. The 1929 depression didn’t because the government and monetary authorities chose to intervene. The present depression will last 15 years and the Federal Reserve is responsible for it. End the Empire. Bring the troops home. End the Drug War. Don’t listen to Keynesian economists; they are wrong. Republicans have no credibility because they didn’t practice what they preached. Democrats have made a bad beginning and they will lose their credibility too.
And to think that this is the man that elite, media, and grass-roots Republicans alike rejected in favor of John McCain even as they were plunging into credit-inflated chaos. All I can say is that Republicans richly deserve the contempt in which I and so many other individuals on both the Left and Right hold them.
Scientist Looks to Weaponize Ball Lightning
David Hambling, Wired: Two hundred years ago this week, the warship HMS Warren Hastings was struck by a weird phenomenon: “Three distinct balls of fire” fell from the heavens, striking the ship and killing two crewmen, leaving behind “a nauseous, sulfurous smell,” according to the Times of London.
Ball lightning has been the subject of much scientific scrutiny over the years. And, as with many powerful natural phenomena, the question arises: “Can we turn it into a weapon?” Peculiar as it may seem, that’s exactly what some researchers are working on — even though it hasn’t even been properly replicated in the laboratory yet.
The exact cause and nature of ball lighting has yet to be determined; there may be several different types, confusing matters further. But generally it manifests as a grapefruit-sized sphere of light moving slowly through the air which may end by fizzling out or exploding.
In the mid-’60s, the U.S. military…
Google Earth Shows U.S. Drones at Pakistani Base?
Noah Shachtman, Wired: Don’t take a Senator’s word for it. Old Google Earth satellite photos, dug up by the News of Pakistan, show U.S. drones, parked on a Pakistani runway, back in 2006.
The paper ID’s the robotic planes as massive Global Hawk drones — unlikely, the shape’s all wrong. More likely, the aircraft found at coordinates 27 degrees 51 minutes North, 65 degrees and 10 minutes East are Predator drones.
Google Earth no longer shows the planes at the airfield, “built by Arab sheiks for falconry trips,” according to the Times of London. But the 2009-edition images do show several new buildings — including what appears to be a hangar, big enough for several Predators.
Pakistani blogger Teeth Maestro, for one, is not at all pleased by what he sees. His latest headline: “Drones parked in our own backyard, to Bomb our own People.”
…
Top Conan Moments: Gonzo Television
TIME Magazine: When Hunter S. Thompson tells you to do something, you do it. So when the famously unhinged author countered Late Night’s invitation to appear on the show with his own invitation to shoot guns in upstate New York, Conan had to say yes. A few shots of whiskey and several semi-automatic weapons later, the literary giant and pasty television host discovered that they had much in common: social awkwardness, a sense of humor, and the desire to blow up stuffed animals.
Watch for Thompson’s freak-out when he misplaces his cigarettes. The inventor of gonzo journalism starts screaming like an overtired toddler while Conan addresses the camera: “That man was holding a machine gun about 15 minutes ago.”
Another Bay Area Police Execution
Indymedia, San Jose: San Jose Sees Sixth Victim of Death by Taser
Relatives say that 28-year-old Richard Lua was simply trying to enter his home on February 11th when we was shocked with a stun gun by police, went into medical distress, and died. Two San Jose police officers chased Lua from a location near his residence, clubbed him with batons and jolted him with a taser. Richard Lua’s death brings the total of deaths following the use of tasers by police in San Jose to six since the city’s Police Department deleted its rules limiting taser use in June 2004.
The San Jose Police department is now under investigation and the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office is monitoring the case. The Santa Clara County medical examiner has not released the cause of Lua’s death but the the victim’s family reports that he had no known medical conditions that would have…
Obama’s New BFF: Huffington Post
How did Huffington Post, a Web site featuring bloggers who lean overtly to the left, become President Barack Obama’s new best friend in the media?
At a recent press conference, Obama shook up the print, television and radio establishment when he called on Huffington Post reporter Sam Stein to ask a question, which for the record, focused on how the president stood on a proposal to prosecute members of the Bush administration.
Was it an example of Obama recognizing a scrappy beacon of the increasingly prominent Internet journalism community? Or was it a way to thank to an organization that was in his corner when he ran against Republican Sen. John McCain?
With one swift gesture, Obama placed Huffington Post on the nation’s big stage, right alongside the New York Times, the Washington Post and the television networks. It was a clear indication that this White House, which has vowed to be all-inclusive,…
A Chicago Tea Party: Rick Santelli’s Rant
CNBC’s Rick Santelli and the traders on the floor of the CME Group express outrage over the notion they may have to pay their neighbor’s mortgage, particularly if they bought far more house than they could actually afford:
Man Buys Coffin, Jumps In, Shoots Self
A Montenegrin man made an unsuccessful suicide attempt in front of shocked funeral home staffers after he purchased a coffin, climbed in and shot himself.
Cities Hurt Your Brain
Scientists have been studying the effects of urban settings on the human brain and the results are not good. Apparently, just being in an urban environment impairs our basic mental processes–after even a few minutes of exposure to a crowded, stimulating, complex urban setting, the brain is less able to hold things in memory, and suffers from reduced self-control (suggesting a reason for why so many people wig out on the subway). The brain has to expend valuable computing power making sense of (or filtering out) the various stimuli in an urban place, resulting in weakened cognitive performance, an inability to pay attention, and a lessening of willpower and control over one’s own actions. With the majority of the world’s population now (for the first time ever) living in cities, will we become a world of over-stimulated urbo-zombies?
GL1TCHG0R3’s ‘Gearball’ Music Video
GL1TCHG0R3 (glitch-gore) was born out of an experiment to create a new sound somewhere in the twilight zone between hip-hop, improvisational jazz-rock fusion, noise, IDM and glitch.
Stumped at how to proceed with this task, they invoked Eris the goddess of chaos through song, art, insanity and an organ donation. The Mother of mechanized muses was indeed pleased — so pleased that she plucked out her right eye, and created the most terrifying weapon of mass destruction in the universe to take its place among us.
Thus Gearball, also known affectionately as Mister Twinkles, came to earth and became the band’s whimsical cyclopean mascot. Travel with Mister Twinkles and his friends through a wild acoustic romp into the depths of cosmic chaos. And if you listen closely, betwixt undead mayhem and alien tribal rhythms, you’ll hear the dancing laugher of Eris grinding away between the humming rotors of creation… http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=52514783
Hair Weave Saves Woman from Killer Bullet!
A 20-year-old Missouri woman avoided being struck by a killer bullet Wednesday with the help of her hair weave.
Madoff Victim, 90, Is Back In “The Market”
(CBS) At the supermarket in Ben Lomond, California, the newest employee is also the oldest – though you might not believe just how old.
“I’m 90, and I’ll be 91 in May and, uh, so what!” says Ian Thiermann.
At 90, after 30 years of retirement, Thiermann is back at work for $10 an hour, handing out the weekly specials, reports CBS News correspondent John Blackstone.
Thiermann is here because he lost, big time, when Bernie Madoff was arrested for running his Ponzi scheme and Thiermann’s investment manager called to say: “I have lost everything! You have lost everything. And he just almost fainted on the phone,” Thiermann recalls.
