Archive for June, 2009
Conan O’Brien on the Iranian Election
Note: The man debating Ahmadinejad is not Moussavi, the candidate with hundreds of thousands of supporters currently demonstrating in Iran. But he also has a sweet beard.
Can Researchers Really Develop Anti-Aging Therapies?
Human clinical trials show plant extracts can raise the body’s levels of an enzyme which fights the dangerous free radicals responsible for many age-related diseases! “The oxygen that sustains us is also responsible for the aging process itself,” explains this science magazine, since converting oxygen to energy produces most of the body’s free radicals. The S.O.D. enzyme fights this process, but the body’s production of S.O.D. drops with age. The hope is this “programmed” aging process can be chemically shut off!
Since 1984, researchers have known of an internally-produced enzyme which fights the body’s free radicals. One researcher spent 30 years trying to synthesize it, while another using a plant database discovered its production can be stimulated using the right combination of herbs!
U.S. State Department Told Twitter To Maintain Service During Iranian Election Protests
Damien McElroy, Telegraph: Twitter, the social networking website, postponed a scheduled
maintenance shutdown after a US State Department request that
it keep publishing during the Iran election protests.
“We highlighted to them that this was an important form of communication,” said a State Department official, referring to a conversation the department had with Twitter executives at the time of the disputed Iranian election.
Iranians have used social networking sites to send information, videos and pictures to update the outside world on the progress of demonstrations and other events.
The State Department official told reporters on the condition of anonymity that the Twitter service was a key form of communication after Tehran shut down websites, mobile phones and newspapers during the protests.
“One of the areas where people are able to get out the word is through Twitter,” the official said. “They announced they were going to shut down their system for maintenance and we asked them…
March of the Killer Robots
Noel Sharkey, Telegraph: It’s the most realistic shoot-’em-up game ever. The player has a choice of two planes: a Predator with two Hellfire missiles, or a Reaper with 14. The action takes place in the Middle East, where you can attack villages and kill the inhabitants with impunity. But don’t bother looking for it in the shops: to play this deadly game, you’ll have to travel to Creech Air Force base in the Nevada desert. That’s because the planes are real, and so are the casualties.
The first time a Predator made a kill was in Yemen, in 2002, when the CIA used it to destroy a vehicle carrying an al-Qaeda leader and five of his associates. The fleet now stands at around 200 craft, which have flown more than 400,000 combat hours. The company that makes them, General Atomics, can’t keep up with the demand. The bigger, badder version –…
My First Microchip
Sarah Hope Williams, io9.com: In the late 1970’s, the toy industry embraced technology as never before and contributed to the children of the 70’s and 80’s becoming a tech-savvy, science- (and science-fiction-) loving populace. Do you remember your first microchip?
Toys that talked, walked, and lit up like a disco floor dominated the toy chests of this era and shaped the ways in which kids interacted with the world. Saturday morning cartoons blared advertisements populated by talking Teddy bears, cyborg Barbies, and home video-game systems that paved the way for the tech toys of today.
One of my most frightening childhood memories is of a sleepover, when late at night, curled up in the bottom bunk, I heard a voice from the closet imploring me “Let’s be friends!” over and over… until the batteries finally wore out. This was before Furby, but not long after Gremlins, and I was petrified that some…
My Language of Mathematics
I’m working on the third series for The Language of Mathematics, so I figured it would be a good idea to finally put together torrents for Series I and II. This is the first time that I’m creating a torrent and as far as I can figure it out everything works, so please seed.
The videos are the same quality as the ones that have already been shared. As soon as I upgrade my hardware and software, figure out what I’m going to do about the music that I’ve sampled, finish a conversation that I‘ve started about the state of the world, and take care of a few other technicalities, higher resolution videos will be provided. Hopefully I will be able to time this with the release of a DVD in conjunction with going live with a website specifically dedicated to The Language of Mathematics.
Until then, I hope you enjoy, and…
101 Pounds of Khat Does Not Compute
Philadelphia – Many personal computer consumers don’t know exactly what’s inside their computer’s hard drive, but Customs and Border Protection officers at the Philadelphia international air mail facility may. Would you believe Khat?
Neither did they.
CBP officers selected a shipment of five computer hard drives for inspection on Tuesday. Condensation on the hard drive exteriors and the part’s unusual weight tipped officers off that something was amiss. An X-ray revealed anomalies.
Turned out each hard drive was stuffed with about 20 pounds of the amphetamine-like, green leafy plant typically grown in the Arabian Peninsula. The hard drives arrived from London and were destined to locations in Virginia and Minnesota. Instead all 101 pounds, with a street value of about $14,000, will be destroyed.
Khat, which is chewed for its stimulant effect, retains its potency up to 48 hours after being harvested. Consequently, smugglers ship them in international air mail to reach their customers while…
On Behalf of Young Sluts
David Letterman gives in to Sarah Palin’s demands and apologizes; hell subsequently freezes over.
Companies Jockey For Piece Of $30 Billion Spy Market
L-3 Communication Holdings Inc. and Hawker Beechcraft Corp. on Tuesday unveiled an exportable version of their King Air 350, which already is being used by the U.S. military for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance in Afghanistan.
The move, announced at the Paris Air Show, seeks to tap into one of the few growth markets for aviation during the global recession.
L-3 and Hawker Beechcraft said they expect to sell 150 of the surveillance planes over the next 10 years for about $2.5 billion, including after-market services. In the United States, the market could demand as many as 75 planes for a total of $1.3 billion.
The two companies already have signed an agreement with the U.S. Defense Department to supply the military with 37 planes for about $1 billion. The first ISR King Air 350 for the United States entered service last week in Afghanistan.
The turboprop plane is equipped with L-3 intelligence, surveillance and…
The Coming Insurrection Starts In Union Square NYC
They arrived at the Barnes & Noble at Union Square in small groups on Sunday afternoon, proceeding two and three at a time to the fourth floor, where they browsed among shelves holding books by authors like Jacques Derrida and Martin Heidegger.
By 5 o’clock a crowd of more than 100 had gathered. Their purpose: to celebrate the publication of an English translation of a book called “The Coming Insurrection,” which was written two years ago by an anonymous group of French authors who call themselves the Invisible Committee. More recently, the volume has been at the center of an unusual criminal investigation in France that has become something of a cause célèbre among leftists and civil libertarians.
The book, which predicts the imminent collapse of capitalist culture, was inspired by disruptive demonstrations that took place over the last few years in France and Greece. It was influenced stylistically by Guy Debord, a…
Iraq’s New Death Squad
Shane Bauer, The Nation: The Iraq Special Operations Forces (ISOF) is probably the largest special forces outfit ever built by the United States, and it is free of many of the controls that most governments employ to rein in such lethal forces. The project started in the deserts of Jordan just after the Americans took Baghdad in April 2003. There, the Army’s Special Forces, or Green Berets, trained mostly 18-year-old Iraqis with no prior military experience. The resulting brigade was a Green Beret’s dream come true: a deadly, elite, covert unit, fully fitted with American equipment, that would operate for years under US command and be unaccountable to Iraqi ministries and the normal political process.
“All these guys want to do is go out and kill bad guys all day,” laughs retired Lt. Col. Roger Carstens. “These guys are shit hot. They are just as good as we are. We trained ‘em.…
Russia, China, Others Urge Diverse Monetary System
YEKATERINBURG, Russia – Brazil, Russia, India and China on Tuesday called for a more diversified international monetary system, but wrapped up their first full-fledged summit by avoiding any explicit criticism of the world’s dominant currency, the U.S. dollar.
The statement issued by the leaders from the so-called BRIC nations contained no reference to developing new reserve currencies to complement the dollar, which Russia had called for at a separate event earlier in the day. Instead, the cautious wording appeared to reflect China’s concerns that any anti-dollar statements could erode the value of its currency reserves.
“There is a strong need for a stable, predictable and more diversified international monetary system,” the final statement said.
A reformed financial and economic architecture should be based on “democratic and transparent decision-making and implementation process at the international financial organizations,” it said.
The BRIC nations urged the international community to keep the multilateral trading system stable, curb trade protectionism…
Mom Takes On Public Schools Singlehandedly In Fight Against Junk Food
Interesting article about Meme Roth, who is featured in the Disinformation doc about obesity, Killer At Large:
MeMe Roth, a publicist and an Upper West Side mother of two, is getting really, really mad — “and I do not mean angry,” she clarified. “I mean mad, like crazy.” Ms. Roth is being driven mad by Public School 9, where her children are in second and fourth grades, and it seems that P.S. 9, in turn, is being driven mad by Ms. Roth.
Ms. Roth, who runs a group called National Action Against Obesity, has no problem with the school lunches provided at the highly regarded elementary school on Columbus Avenue and 84th Street. What sets her off is the junk food served on special occasions: the cupcakes that come out for every birthday, the doughnuts her children were once given in gym, the sugary “Fun-Dip” packets that some parent provided the whole class…
Warning: This Post Contains Hate Speech
What is the most offensive word in the English language?
Federal Reserve Makes Power Grab
The Federal Reserve, already arguably the most powerful agency in the U.S. government, will get sweeping new authority to regulate any company whose failure could endanger the U.S. economy and markets under the Obama administration’s regulatory overhaul plan.
The final plan due to be released on Wednesday — which originally aimed to streamline and consolidate banking and securities regulation in one or two agencies — now is expected to sidestep most jurisdictional disputes and simply impose across the board standards to be applied by all financial regulators, according to administration and industry sources.
Scientologists Had Me Fired, Claims Fox Journalist
In a conspiracy as contorted as the plot of one of their action movies, Tom Cruise and John Travolta have been accused of persuading Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News to sack an influential entertainment journalist who had a history of criticising the Church of Scientology.
Roger Friedman, who was dismissed in April after a decade covering the TV channel’s Hollywood beat, announced yesterday that he intended to sue his former employer for wrongful termination, claiming that they fired him so that Cruise and Travolta would sign on to future Fox movie projects.
Watch Out for Flying Syringes, GMO Food Vaccines, and Forced Vaccinations
NaturalNews: A Japanese Research team is working on genetically engineering mosquitoes to deliver vaccines. These are the flying vaccines of the future. Far fetched? Bill Gates doesn’t think so. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in 2008 allotted a $100,000 grant to this research team for just that project. This is from the Association of Fund Raising Professionals, Washington Chapter website.
GMO’s Enable Trojan Horse Vaccinations
Edible vaccines, as GMO foods, are in the future as well. Meat and Poultry, a business journal for meat and poultry processors, reports in a May 5, 2009 article , by Bryan Salvage, that researchers at Iowa State University are working on creating a method to install vaccines into corn crops.
“We’re trying to figure out which genes from the swine influenza virus to incorporate into corn”, stated Hank Harris, a researcher on the project. “If a swine flu virus breaks out, the corn could be shipped…
