Archive for July, 2009
Your Chance To Be A Part Of The Simpsons
“Simpsons” fans who have been watching Homer, Bart, Lisa and Maggie on TV for the last 20 years may finally get the chance to become a part of the animated family.
Morgan Spurlock, director of the Academy Award-nominated documentary “Super Size Me,” is headed to San Diego’s Comic-Con this weekend to track down “Simpsons” super-fans for Fox’s “Simpsons 20th Anniversary Special — In 3-D! On Ice!”
Spurlock will produce and direct the special, which will take a look at the impact the longest-running comedy in TV history has had on American pop culture.
Fans chosen for the special will talk about what the show has meant to them and why they’re such big supporters of “The Simpsons.”
Giant Clawed Dinosaur Discovered
Discovery reports:
A team of scientists this week reports the discovery of a giant new dinosaur in Utah, Nothronychus graffami, which stood 13 feet tall and had nine-inch-long hand claws that looked like scythes.
Its skeleton represents the most complete remains ever excavated of a therizinosaur, meaning “reaper lizard.” It is one of only three such dinosaurs ever found in North America.
“Their bellies are proportionally enormous, supporting large guts,” said lead author Lindsay Zanno,who is a researcher in the Department of Geology at The Field Museum. “They have greatly enlarged claws on their hands, short legs and tails, and four-toed feet.”
Oakland Voters Pass Landmark Pot Tax To Boost City Coffers
OAKLAND, Calif. — Oakland residents overwhelmingly voted Tuesday to approve a first-of-its kind tax on medical marijuana sold at the city’s four cannabis dispensaries.
Preliminary election results showed the measure passing with 80 percent of the vote, according to the Alameda County Registrar of Voters.
The dispensary tax was one of four measures in a vote-by-mail special election aimed at raising money for the cash-strapped city. All four measures won, but Measure F had the highest level of support.
Scheduled to take effect on New Year’s Day, the measure created a special business tax rate for the pot clubs, which now pay the same $1.20 for every $1,000 in gross sales applied to all retail businesses. The new rate will be $18.
Oakland’s auditor estimates that based on annual sales of $17.5 million for the four clubs, it will generate an estimated $294,000 for city coffers in its first year.
Pot club owners, who openly…
Babes Of The British National Party
The United Kingdom’s British National Party, dedicated to working towards a whites-only society, has attempted to reposition itself as a mainstream political party in recent years. Its ranks are not solely comprised of tattooed skinheads in thick-soled boots; Vice investigated and found the young, pretty face of British racism for a “Babes of the BNP” series.
A bunch of cute white-supremacist girls are profiled, and share answers to personal, pop culture, and political questions. Here’s a few:
Morrissey or Eric Clapton?
Morrissey.
Jesus Jones or Jesus Christ?
Jesus Christ.
What’s the best thing about living in Britain today?
I hate Britain, and I want to move to Spain in the next couple of years, ‘cos our country’s not England anymore.
So what nationality would you most like to be waited-on by as a servant class?
Oh God, there’s a few. There’s a couple I would, but I can’t really pinpoint one. Chinese maybe?
…
White House Taps Goldman Sachs Executive for State Post
By Jay Solomon of the Wall Street Journal
WASHINGTON – The Obama administration picked Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Vice Chairman Robert Hormats to be the State Department’s undersecretary for economic, energy and agricultural affairs, the White House announced Friday.
Mr. Hormats, if confirmed by the Senate, will buttress Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s campaign to use economic, trade and environmental issues to redefine Washington’s relationship with nations such as China, India and Russia, said administration officials.
Mr. Hormats also will play a central role in managing Washington’s “strategic and economic dialogue” with Beijing, a diplomatic exchange overseen by Mrs. Clinton and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. The first Obama administration U.S. – China dialogue is slated for this month in Washington, according to the State Department.
Mr. Hormats “will be key in Secretary Clinton’s efforts to bring more visibility to the work of the department on economic matters,” a senior U.S. official said Friday.
Mr. Hormats…
Fish Are Shrinking Due To Global Warming
Fish have lost half their average body mass and smaller species are making up a larger proportion of European fish stocks as a result of global warming, a study published Monday has found.
“It’s huge,” said study author Martin Daufresne of the Cemagref Public Agricultural and Environmental Research Institute in Lyon, France.
“Size is a fundamental characteristic that is linked to a number of biological functions, such as fecundity — the capacity to reproduce.”
Smaller fish tend to produce fewer eggs. They also provide less sustenance for predators – including humans – which could have significant implications for the food chain and ecosystem.
The Pirate Bay: Distributing the World’s Entertainment for $3,000 a Month
Much has been written in recent weeks about the future of The Pirate Bay, as well as about BitTorrent piracy in general. The sale of the site spooked some, while others are hoping to transform the new Pirate Bay into a legitimate, multimillion-dollar business. One aspect that has been largely overlooked is that the current Pirate Bay, due to the nature of P2P, is actually a relatively small and cost-efficient operation. The site’s trackers facilitate countless downloads of Hollywood blockbusters and music albums, but according to an insider, running these trackers could cost as little as $3,000 per month.
The implications of a number like that are huge. Not only does it mean that anyone with a medium-sized checkbook could replicate The Pirate Bay’s infrastructure in a heartbeat, but it also casts shadows over the hopes of anyone thinking about selling digital content online. Music fans were not longer willing to…
BeyondTalk.net
The Yes Men are at it again. You can help them, and the world…
Tired of hearing about climate change? Then do something. Now.
December 7-18, 2009, the world’s leaders will meet in Copenhagen to decide what to do about climate change.
If this meeting were held today, it would produce an agreement – but it wouldn’t be strong enough to do much good.
In order to bring global CO2 back to the safe zone, we need to make massive emissions cuts now. There’s only one way we can achieve that: we need to turn the political heat way up.
Beer Consumption Map
Where in the United States does alcoholism run most rampant? This handy map charts per capita annual beer consumption in our 50 states.
The most teetotaling states are Utah, home to strict Mormonism-dictated statures, and, strangely, New York. And, America’s most booze-addled state? That would be Montana. What is going on up there?
Vanity Fair Edits Sarah Palin’s Farewell Speech
Just how poorly constructed was Sarah Palin’s resignation speech? The literary, research, and copy editors at Vanity Fair decided to review a transcript of the farewell address and make the necessary changes to mold it into a coherent, factual, and print-worthy shape. Even with a team of highly-paid speechwriters, this speech was a misleading, rambling disaster, perhaps a fitting a goodbye.
U.S. Car Dealer Offers Free Kalashnikov With Every Purchase
Mark Muller, the president of Max Motors in Missouri, is offering a gift certificate for a Kalashnikov AK-47 rifle to anyone who purchases a pick-up truck. Muller, whose business slogan is “God, Guns, Guts, and American Pick-Up Trucks,” said the response to the offer has been very strong. “There is a lot of worry about crime, we have a methamphetamine problem around here and people just want to protect themselves,” said Muller.
Sex and Drugs with Senator Al Franken
As a young man, future-Senator Al Franken was strip-searched for drugs at the Canadian border. And Franken once asked future-President Ronald Reagan about decriminalizing marijuana. (At a 2004 book-signing, Bill Clinton greeted Franken by saying “”My hero’s here.”)
These funny “Secrets of Al Franken” include the fact that he lights a joint in the 1986 movie “One More Saturday Night.” (Franken’s movie about a Minnesota town was filmed entirely in Illinois, after Minnesota’s Film Board deemed its script too obscene…) “I’m gonna get laid! I’m gonna get laid.” sings the future Senator. (”Hey, I can’t help it,” he explains. “I’m a lesbian trapped inside a man’s body.”)
The Grateful Dead’s Jerry Garcia produced some of the movie’s music — and it ends with Franken’s character taking Percodan and Demerol for a punch in the jaw!
Science Fiction Writers React to Moon Walk Anniversary
This magazine collected responses from NASA and other scientists — plus some science fiction writers — on the 40th anniversary of the first walk on the moon walk.
There’s some fun quotes from Timothy Leary’s archivist, and science fiction writer Chris Nakashima-Brown describes the moonwalk’s “convergence of Nazi technology, American pulp, and Cold War geopolitics in the toolmaking hands and fevered imagination of the nomadic naked ape.”
And Bruce Sterling laughs at the 13 people in orbit right now on the International Space Station, saying it’s “just as mixed-up and globalized as any subway car in London, Paris, Munich, Moscow or New York.” He argues “That polyglot crew of space techies doesn’t seem to quite know what they’re doing up there. They have no visible purpose and no business model.
“Then again, down here on Earth, neither do we. Looks like everybody gets the space heroes they deserve.”
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Trail Of Carrot Bombs Across Sweden
A Swedish artist has spent months on a mega-project involving the public installation of faux-bombs, made of carrots, alarm clocks, red and blue cables, metal wire and tape, in the Göteborg area of Sweden. Called “Bunny Project,” the concept is “rabbit as symbol for subversive activities, activities outside the reach of the control system. The rabbit has an almost unmatched ability to reproduce and spread uncontrollably and given the right conditions it can be almost impossible to stop.” The carrot bombs have caused panic and disruption at golf courses, parking garages, and public speeches by government officials. I think they’re kind of adorable.
Worshipping The Saint Of Death
GlobalPost has a fascinating photo series documenting the popular worship of St. Death in Mexico’s toughest barrios. A mixture of Catholic and Aztec religious elements, Santa Muerte, often depicted as a skeletal reaper cloaked in a tunic, has an increasingly large religious following in Mexico. The nation’s most famous St. Death alter is found in Tepito, a portion of Mexico City ruled by drug cartels that control who enters or leaves the neighborhood, including the police. Gang members and ordinary citizens pray at the alter, and worshipers will crawl for miles on bloodied knees before breaking into tears upon reaching it. Tales abound of reformed former gang members who renounced their lives of crime in order to devote themselves to Death worship.
Top Ten Cruelest Anti-Homeless Cities in the U.S.
The National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty (NLCHP) has a released a report detailing a growing trend in U.S. cities: the criminalization of homelessness. How do places make life (more) miserable for the shelter-less? Via “quality of life” laws making it illegal to sleep, eat, or sit in public spaces. Even as the ranks of the homeless have swelled over the last year or so of recession and foreclosures, the number of anti-loitering regulations in U.S. cities has shot upwards. Of course, people often don’t have a choice about sleeping or wandering outside; most cities and towns don’t have adequate shelter space or affordable housing to meet demand.
So, where are America’s most homeless-hostile cities? Seven out of the top ten are located in California or Florida, with Los Angeles taking the number one spot, followed by St. Petersburg and Orlando, FL; Atlanta; and Gainesville, FL. So, if you’re…
An Iranian Perspective: What You Need to Know About Iran So That You Can Filter Out The Noise
It is crucial to know the following facts about Iran to be able to understand its relationship with the United States and its significance on the geopolitical landscape, as well as being able to engage in any productive discussion about the current situation:
1) In 2007 US Congress approved $400 million for the CIA to destabilize Iran — “Late last year (2007), Congress agreed to a request from President Bush to fund a major escalation of covert operations against Iran, according to current and former military, intelligence, and congressional sources. These operations, for which the President sought up to four hundred million dollars, were described in a Presidential Finding signed by Bush, and are designed to destabilize the country’s religious leadership. The covert activities involve support of the minority Ahwazi Arab and Baluchi groups and other dissident organizations. They also include gathering intelligence about Iran’s suspected nuclear-weapons program.”
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