Archive for June, 2009
Murder in the White House — Fly Widow Interview
Stephen Colbert interviews the wife and 93 children of the fly that President Obama killed:
June 18, 1178: Monks They See, But Monks They Do?
Tony Long, Wired: 1178: Just after sunset, according to the English monk and chronicler Gervase of Canterbury, five monks watch the moon explode into flames.
Gervase said the observers were looking at a new crescent moon when the upper part “suddenly split in two. From the midpoint of this division a flaming torch sprang up, spewing out … fire, hot coals and sparks … The body of the moon, which was below, writhed … throbbed like a wounded snake.”
Since the timing appears to have been about right, what they may have seen — according to at least one astronomer — was the asteroid impact that led to the creation of the lunar crater Giordano Bruno. Others doubt this theory, because there is no historical record of the subsequent meteor shower that would have been visible following a collision of this kind.
What the monks may have actually seen, the current thinking goes,…
Stephen Colbert Discusses Bohemian Grove
No, it’s not Alex Jones discussing Bohemian Grove, it’s Stephen Colbert in the context the criticism of Sonia Sotomayor’s women’s-only club. Check out what Nixon had to say about the place…
The Brand New ‘2012′ Trailer Presented By ‘Master Of Disaster’ Roland Emmerich
Well you have to hand it to him, he does it with some style. The only stuff about the Maya is at the beginning, in passing. Aside from that, it’s Independence Day on steroids…
Don’t forget to check out our own 2012: Science or Superstition for the real scoop on what 2012’s all about.
New ‘2012′ Trailer Released
Mike Sampson, JoBlo: The new trailer for 2012 is online and I want to say a few things about it. 1) It’s too bad Roland Emmerich’s movies suck because he really knows how to make a good trailer. 2) Roland Emmerich seriously hates the White House. 3) This movie is literally Independence Day plus The Day The Earth Stood Still.
The movie isn’t going to win any awards (do Razzies count as awards) but if you like watching famous landmarks crumble, explode or get otherwise destroyed, you’ll probably be able to sit through this movie without wanting to slit your own throat. Though if John Cusack somehow uploads a virus into the Earth’s core that stops the apocalypse, I’m gonna really be pissed. Check out the trailer below or head to Yahoo! Movies.
Amateur ‘MacGyver’ Biologists Are Performing DIY Creature Building
Falling costs and garage tinkering are creating a grass roots movement of amateur biologists whose research is more transparent than that of government researchers or academia. “I isolated chickpea DNA using non-iodized salt, shampoo, meat tenderizer, and a salad-spinner for a centrifuge,” says one…
And while building lab equipment using common household items and even synthesizing new organisms, their grass roots ethic allows the social pressure which creates a more ethical research. They’re not only forming co-ops for large lab equipment, but also debating important issues. (Would it be ethical to release a homegrown symbiote that cures scurvy in hundreds of thousands of people?)
This movement could someday lead to remedies for disease, fuel-generating microbes, or a social-networked disease-tracking epidemiology. “In much the same way that homebrew computer science built the world we live in today, garage biology can affect the future we make for ourselves,” argues h+ magazine, which featured the…
Amateur ‘MacGyver’ biologists are performing DIY creature building
Falling costs and garage tinkering are creating a grass roots movement of amateur biologists whose research is more transparent than that of government researchers or academia. “I isolated chickpea DNA using non-iodized salt, shampoo, meat tenderizer, and a salad-spinner for a centrifuge,” says one…
And while building lab equipment using common household items and even synthesizing new organisms, their grass roots ethic allows the social pressure which creates a more ethical research. They’re not only forming co-ops for large lab equipment, but also debating important issues. (Would it be ethical to release a homegrown symbiote that cures scurvy in hundreds of thousands of people?)
This movement could someday lead to remedies for disease, fuel-generating microbes, or a social-networked
disease-tracking epidemiology. “In much the same way that homebrew computer science built the world we live in
today, garage biology can affect the future we make for ourselves,” argues h+ magazine, which featured the article…
Find Out How Old Your Body Is: Scientists Can Measure Your Actual Molecular Age
Stephen Goldmeier, io9.com: You might know your chronological age, but do you know your “molecular age”? A newly found chemical in the human body could indicate how old your body actually feels, acting as a marker for aging in the body.
Researchers at the University of North Carolina have found a protein, called p16INK4a, that is tied to aging. In a forthcoming article in Aging Cell, the team describes this protein’s presence in the human blood stream. Higher amounts of the protein are also tied to tobacco use and inactivity. Interestingly, the study found that inactivity contributed more to this aging marker than a high body mass index, which seems to show that activity slows down aging more than preventing obesity does.
The research team says that this discovery could help with stabilizing organ transplants, recovery from surgery, or cancer treatment. As of now, it’s a way to see just how far…
Introducing The Warpship
Ian O’Neill, Discovery: Until now, there has been little idea about what a spaceship propelled by a warp drive (or a warpship) would look like. Would it resemble the sleek Starship Enterprise? Or will it be like nothing we’ve seen before?
After speaking with Dr. Richard Obousy, he shared his concept for a futuristic, yet scientifically accurate, warpship design.
The physics behind the warpship is purely theoretical, however. ‘Dark energy’ needs to be understood and harnessed, plus vast amounts of energy needs to be generated, meaning the warpship is a technology that could only be conceived in the far future. That said, Dr. Obousy’s warpship design uses our current knowledge of spacetime and superstring theory to arrive at this futuristic concept.
So here’s your exclusive look at what could be the future warp drive propulsion…
Report: 90% Of Waking Hours Spent Staring At Glowing Rectangles
The Onion (PALO ALTO, CA)— A new report published this week by researchers at Stanford University suggests that Americans spend the vast majority of each day staring at, interacting with, and deriving satisfaction from glowing rectangles.
“From the moment they wake up in the morning, to the moment they lose consciousness at night, Americans
are in near-constant visual contact with bright, pulsating rectangles,” said Dr. Richard Menken, lead author of the report, looking up briefly from the gleaming quadrangle that sits on his desk. “In fact, it’s hard to find a single minute during which the American public is not completely captivated by these shining…these dazzling…”
“I’m sorry,” Menken continued. “What were we
discussing again?”
According to the report, staring blankly at luminescent rectangles is an increasingly central part of modern life. At work, special information rectangles help men and women silently complete any number of business-related tasks, while entertainment rectangles—larger and louder and often placed…
Messages from the Ouija Board
For those of you following on freeduhm you know its been over 7 weeks since the last post…the reason is that among lots of reading and personal matters I have been torn about continuing the site in the direction it had been going. Myself and Morpheus had discussed the impact of being another site that just posted conspiracy theories. While I definitely think that they have there place we have chosen to take this blog in another direction towards spirituality.
Iran: Election Clashes Mount as West Escalates Pressure
Bill Van Auken: This was followed by a statement from President Barack Obama. “I think that the democratic process, free speech, the ability for folks to peacefully dissent, all those are universal values and need to be respected,” he said. “Whenever I see violence perpetrated on people who are peacefully dissenting, and whenever the American people see that, I think they’re rightfully troubled.”
No such qualms were expressed by Washington when the troops of the US-backed Shah shot down demonstrators by the thousands in 1978 and 1979. At the height of this bloodbath, then-US National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski told the Shah that the US would “back him to the hilt.” Brzezinski has re-emerged as a prominent foreign policy adviser to the Obama administration.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, meanwhile, condemned the use of “completely unacceptable” force against demonstrators. “We believe there should be a transparent evaluation of the election result,” she added.…
Jay Mundy calls Williamsburg, Brooklyn the “sick, deranged mecca of far-left hipsters” on the radio
Dear Mr. Mundy,
Thanks for the laughs. But please go back to the 1950’s where you can be safe from all the scary hippies.
Michael Moore Jumps The Shark
So Michael Moore has decided to take on the biggest issue of his career: the implosion of the world financial system. Come October, millions of us will shell out 12 bucks to be illuminated (in about 90 minutes) by the populist guru’s take on the economic meltdown. The film does not yet have a title, but at the recent Cannes film festival, Moore offered a glimpse at the plot: “The wealthy,” explained history’s most successful nonfiction filmmaker, “at some point decided they didn’t have enough wealth. They wanted more—a lot more. So they systematically set about to fleece the American people out of their hard-earned money. Now, why would they do this? That is what I seek to discover in this movie.”
That Moore, who is so skilled at luring in the evildoers and catching them on tape (though not quite as skilled as Sacha Baron Cohen, whose next movie addresses…
Man Who Impersonated Dead Mom Is Creepier Than You Thought
The story of the Park Slope man who dressed like his dead mother for six years to cash her Social Security checks and collect other benefits has captivated the world, with Google showing the Thomas Prusik-Parkin Psycho tale popping up as far afield as Turkey and Russia.
Perhaps there’s something about the story that resonates with humanity’s deep-seated Oedipal urges—or maybe Prusik-Parkin has just tapped into our universal fantasy to live on the dole without our moms’ nagging us to get a job. Either way, it gets creepier: the Daily News reports that Prusik-Parkin kept a casket in his living room.
Investigators say it’s unclear why Prusik-Parkin kept the casket,
so we can only assume it facilitated some kind of bizarre incestuous-necrophiliac-autoerotic asphyxiation fetish.
We’ll have to wait for the Kevin Spacey biopic (or Billy Bob Thorton?) to really see what it was used for, but in the meantime, Prusik-Parkin and his accomplice, Mhilton Rimolo—who posed…
Orthodox Church To Unveil Ark of the Covenant?
The Orthodox Patriarch, Abuno Paulos, wants to reveal the millennial secret, and in an exclusive interview with Adnkronos said, “The time is ripe to tell the truth.” A museum for the sacred symbol will be built in Axum.
This was said in an exclusive interview with Adnkronos by the Patriarch of the Orthodox Church of Ethiopia, Abuna Paulos, in Italy for a “G8 of religions,” who tomorrow will meet for the first time with Pope Benedict XVI, to whom, “if he asks,” continued the Patriarch, “I will tell all of the entire situation regarding the Ark of the Covenant.”
The Yes Men Do It Again: Heads Of State Agree Historic Climate-Saving Deal
In a front-page ad in today’s International Herald Tribune, the leaders of the European Union thank the European public for having engaged in months of civil disobedience leading up to the Copenhagen climate conference that will be held this December. “It was only thanks to your massive pressure over the past six months that we could so dramatically shift our climate-change policies…. To those who were arrested, we thank you.”
There was only one catch: the paper was fake.
Looking exactly like the real thing, but dated December 19th, 2009, a million copies of the fake paper were distributed worldwide by thousands of volunteers in order to show what could be achieved at the Copenhagen climate conference that is scheduled for Dec. 7-18, 2009. (At the
moment, the conference is aiming for much more modest cuts, dismissed by leading climate scientists as too little, too late to stave off runaway processes that will…
‘You Did Not Become Champions Today – You Became Eternal’
Ahmadinejad: ‘Iran is going to the 2010 World Cup, the evidence is readily available’ This was the jibe tweet at Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s contested re-election and what some may well see as his gall to call himself the elected President of Iran despite the ‘readily available’ evidence.
Iran’s football team was in Seoul on Wednesday for a World Cup qualifier game against South Korea. The game ended in a 1-1 draw and Iran failed to qualify for the World Cup. In recent days Iran, gripped by a political crisis, has seen protests on a scale unprecedented since the 1979 revolution that created the Islamic Republic. For a couple of hours today the demonstrations seemed relatively smaller, leading some to even predict that the protests may well have lost their momentum. But then the World Cup qualifier transmitted live on Iranian television ended and the people started pouring on the streets.
Climate Report: U.K. Could Soon Look Like Spain
British summers could soon be like those in the drought-ridden Mediterranean, and the winters characterized by severe flooding, according to a new report on climate change.
U.K. Climate Impacts Report predicts extremes of temperature will hit the U.K. if global temperatures continue to rise.
The report is the Met Office’s most comprehensive assessment yet of what might happen by the middle to end of the century.
