Archive for September, 2009
Obama Keeps Bush Rules On Indefinite Detention
Ari Shapiro in conversation with Guy Raz on NPR’s All Things Considered:
The Obama administration has decided not to ask Congress for a new law that would allow terrorism detainees to be held indefinitely — in other words, it’ll stay with the rules set up right after the Sept. 11 attacks by the Bush administration. What does this decision say about Obama as president?
Want To See Climate Change In Action? Google It
Graeme McMillan writes on io9.com:
Wondering how you too can warn people about the dangers of global warning? Google have created a way to make all of us into mini-Al Gores, by adding an Estimated Climate Change option to Google Earth.
According to Google’s official blog,
In collaboration with the Danish government and others, we are launching a series of Google Earth layers and tours to allow you to explore the potential impacts of climate change on our planet and the solutions for managing it. Working with data from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), we show on Google Earth the range of expected temperature and precipitation changes under different global emissions scenarios that could occur throughout the century.
The first tour, “Confronting Climate Change,” was launched this week on YouTube:
Polanski Arrested for ’70s Sex Charge
En route to the Zurich Film Festival — where he was to enjoy a celebration of his achievements in cinema — infamous movie director Roman Polanski was arrested in connection to a decades old charge that has kept him from entering the U.S. since the 1970’s. (ITN Video)
Polanski famously fled the states following his trial for the statutory rape of a 13 year old girl in 1977. The incident occurred in his friend Jack Nicholson’s home during a time when Polanski’s friends found the director to be suffering from a deep, chronic depression following the murder of his then-wife Sharon Tate and their unborn child at the hands of The Manson Family.
Polanski famously accepted his 2003 Academy Award for The Pianist via satellite as his returning to the United States would mean an automatic arrest.
As of this time it is unclear whether or not he will be extradited to America.
…
‘Nazca Lines’ Discovered in Kazakhstan
Michael Cohen writes on All News Web:
Media outlets as well as the official government website in Kazakhstan are reporting the surprise discovery of local geoglyphs or ‘Nazca Lines’. Geoglyphs are drawings created on the ground by arranging stones or removing the top layers of earth. These designs typically cover large areas. The most famous geoglyphs are those found in the Nazca desert in Peru. These show hummingbirds, spiders, monkeys, fish, sharks, llamas, and lizards.
The Kazakhstan Geoglyphs (photo right, thanks to photojournalist N. Dorogov) appear to depict a humanoid figure wedgedbetween two unusual structures. The drawings are located in the remote Karatau Mountains in South Kazakhstan.
Geoglyphs are of interest to UFO researchers, some of whom believe they might be messages or markers created by ancient people for the benefit of visiting extraterrestrials. It is alleged by these UFO scholars that in times of distress these were a way of asking ‘Star Gods’ to return and Assist these…
Man Sues the Bank of America for “1,784 Billion, Trillion Dollars”
Joe Rauch of Reuters writes:
Dalton Chiscolm is unhappy about Bank of America’s customer service — really, really unhappy.
Chiscolm in August sued the largest U.S. bank and its board, demanding that “1,784 billion, trillion dollars” be deposited into his account the next day. He also demanded an additional $200,164,000, court papers show.
Attempts to reach Chiscolm were unsuccessful. A Bank of America spokesman declined to comment.
“Incomprehensible,” U.S. District Judge Denny Chin said in a brief order released Thursday in Manhattan federal court.
“He seems to be complaining that he placed a series of calls to the bank in New York and received inconsistent information from a ‘Spanish womn,’” the judge wrote. “He apparently alleges that checks have been rejected because of incomplete routing numbers.”
Chin has experience with big numbers. He’s the judge who sentenced Bernard Madoff to a 150-year prison sentence for what the government called a $65 billion Ponzi scheme.
Bank of America Corp…
Brain Scans Will Reveal What You’ve Seen
Brandon Keim writes in Wired Science:
Scientists are one step closer to knowing what you’ve seen by reading your mind.
Having modeled how images are represented in the brain, the researchers translated recorded patterns of neural activity into pictures of what test subjects had seen.
Though practical applications are decades away, the research could someday lead to dream-readers and thought-controlled computers.
“It’s what you would actually use if you were going to build a functional brain-reading device,” said Jack Gallant, a University of California, Berkeley neuroscientist.
The research, led by Gallant and Berkeley postdoctoral researcher Thomas Naselaris, builds on earlier work in which they used neural patterns to identify pictures from within a limited set of options.
The current approach, described Wednesday in Neuron, uses a more complete view of the brain’s visual centers. Its results are closer to reconstruction than identification, which Gallant likened to “the magician’s card trick where you pick a card from a…
David Cronenberg Will ‘Fly’ Again
Steven Zeitchik writes on Risky Biz Blog:
David Cronenberg is again buzzing with “The Fly.”
The auteur is in talks to develop a reboot of the 1986 classic with Fox, the studio that released that film, writing and potentially directing the new pic.
The move marks an about-face for the Canadian director, who in the past has said he did not want to be involved on a remake of the film. Cronenberg did work on an opera version of “The Fly” that was staged first in Paris and then in Los Angeles.
The 1986 title, itself a remake of Kurt Neumann’s 1958 sci-fi classic, starred Jeff Goldblum and became a huge hit for Fox, earning $40 million and turning into a phenomenon. It centered on Seth Brundle (Goldblum), an eccentric scientist who, after an experiment with teleportation goes awry, is transformed into a fly. Geena Davis starred as Goldblum’s love interest and partner, Veronica.
A…
Disinfo’s Gary Baddeley Talks 2012 On CBS News, Tries ‘Yes Men’ Survivaball
I was invited up to the GM Building where CBS News stages its Early Show. They wanted to talk about 2012 and host Cali Carlin and producer Rick Borutta did a great job of featuring our film 2012: Science or Superstition and our new website 2012sos.net. Unfortunately they also invited my old friend Andy Bichlbaum from The Yes Men, who brought along his latest creation, the Survivaball.
Andy actually got arrested and jailed for over 24 hours while wearing one earlier in the week, so I suppose my 10 minutes or so wearing one weren’t bad in comparison. Still, it isn’t the most flattering thing I’ll ever wear. Check it out for a laugh here:
Do You Want to Know Why Iran has a Nuclear Program?
By chycho:
I had an American friend tell me that she was fascinated with Iran, and wanted to know my opinion regarding Iran’s nuclear program, especially since a so-called new plant was just announced, or “revealed”, depending on your perspective and source of information.
Below you will find my reply to her question, and a re-post of the first article. Please note that these articles were written over the last few years so there is some repetition between them. Facts do not disappear over time, so I believe it’s always a good idea to repeat some of the important points.
Just to make sure that the most recent US accusations at the UN regarding Iran’s nuclear program are put into context, it’s important to know that CNN has revealed that “The United States was aware of Iran’s unfinished uranium enrichment site for several years.”
My email reply, links to previous posts, and a re-post…
Wha’ Happened? Special Message to Our Loyal Contributors and Visitors
As you can see, we’ve moved to a new site platform. For those of you returning from our previous incarnation, all your previous posts are still here. We hope you enjoy the new blogging platform, and if you have questions or concerns with the new site, please feel free to email me directly at feedback [at] disinfo.com.
The new site is a work in progress but looking forward to hearing your thoughts and ideas on the site.
Ralph Bernardo
Managing Editor, Disinformation
Police Using Intimidation Techniques, Military Weapons To Break Up Peaceful Protests
By Steve Watson, at Infowars:
Video footage is pouring onto Youtube that clearly shows riot police in Pittsburgh using intimidation tactics and military weapons to disperse peaceful assemblies in the vicinity of the G20 summit.
In the first video an officer appears on the scene where protesters are peacefully gathered and immediately tells them to leave the area, threatening everyone with arrest should they not comply.
The in a scene that looks as if it took place in Communist China, riot officers form a line parallel to the protesters, extending to both ends of the street, and slowly walk towards them, noisily and simultaneously marching and beating their shields with their batons.
This is a clear intimidation tactic to cause fear and psychologically effect the peaceful protesters in an effort to herd them and get them to disperse.
What Happened When I Had Sex With Married Women I Met on a Website for Cheaters
By Jack Harrison at Alternet
Experiment: To attempt to have affairs with married women via AshleyMadison.com. (Hey, back off — they’re clearly not getting the good stuff at home!)
Hypothesis: There are married women out there; they want me; I want them, and Ashley Madison will bring us together for illicit amoral roistering.
Materials:
• Sense of guilt, shelved
• Loyalty to my fellow men, abandoned
• Ashley Madison account
• Wedded women
Background and a disclaimer: by nature I’m a one-woman man. Yes, right now I’m actually in an open relationship, but whenever I’ve been in something serious and monogamous, I didn’t have any problems staying true. That said, I’m not a hardliner about other people cheating, especially if the cheater in question isn’t getting any loving from their partner but can’t leave him or her for economic reasons or because of the kids or for a number of other legitimate factors. Under those circumstances, I feel…
Decoding Jackson Pollock
It was my wife, Marianne Berardi, who first saw the letters.
We were looking at a reproduction of Jackson Pollock’s breakthrough work, Mural, an 8-by 20-foot canvas bursting with physical energy that, in 1943, was unlike anything seen before.
The critic Clement Greenberg, Pollock’s principal champion, said he took one look at the painting and realized that “Jackson was the greatest painter this country has produced.” A Museum of Modern Art curator, the late Kirk Varnedoe, said Mural established Jackson Pollock as the world’s premier modern painter.
Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/Decoding-Jackson-Pollock.html#ixzz0S9OBlgMn
19-Pound Baby Born In Indonesia
An unnamed baby boy who weighs nineteen pounds and is two feet long has been born in Indonesia. “He’s got strong appetite, every minute, it’s almost non-stop feeding,” says the doctor who helped deliver him. “This baby boy is extraordinary, the way he’s crying is not like a usual baby. It’s really loud.”
The infant’s gigantic size is being linked with the fact that his mother has diabetes. When a diabetic mother’s glucose level is high during pregnancy, the baby can receive too much glucose and grow too large.
Amazingly, there is a larger baby on record: a 23-pound child was born to Anna Bates of Canada in 1879. It died soon after birth.
Expect More Propaganda Now That the Bankers Have Bought More Media
Here’s a discussion on ZeroHedge of Goldman Sachs’ and J. P. Morgan’s recent love affair with buying ownership stakes in radio, television, and newspaper outlets:
One wonders why Goldman and JPM were so eager to provide “rescue” financings to virtually the entire distressed media space: both companies knew too well that sooner or later they would end up with full equity control over essentially the most coveted industry: thousands of TV stations, radio channels, newspaper and magazines. If you thought the media propaganda was unbearable now, just wait.
Mayans ‘Played’ Pyramids To Make Music For Rain God
Linda Geddes, New Scientist: Sit on the steps of Mexico’s El Castillo pyramid in Chichen Itza and you may hear a confusing sound. As other visitors climb the colossal staircase their footsteps begin to sound like raindrops falling into a bucket of water as they near the top. Were the Mayan temple builders trying to communicate with their gods?
The discovery of the raindrop “music” in another pyramid suggests that at least some of Mexico’s pyramids were deliberately built for this purpose. Some of the structures consist of a combination of steps and platforms, while others, like El Castillo, resemble the more even-stepped Egyptian pyramids.
Researchers were familiar with the raindrop sounds made by footsteps on El Castillo – a hollow pyramid on the Yucatán Peninsula. But why the steps should sound like this and whether the effect was intentional remained unclear.
To investigate further, Jorge Cruz of the Professional School of Mechanical…
Military Arrest Civilian At G20 Protests
An arrest that was made occurred on a side street near Baum Ave & S Millvale Ave.
Project ‘Gaydar’
Carolyn Y. Johnson, Boston Globe: At MIT, an experiment identifies which students are gay, raising new questions about online privacy.
It started as a simple term project for an MIT class on ethics and law on the electronic frontier.
Two students partnered up to take on the latest Internet fad: the online social networks that were exploding into the mainstream. With people signing up in droves to reconnect with classmates and old crushes from high school, and even becoming online “friends” with their family members, the two wondered what the online masses were unknowingly telling the world about themselves. The pair weren’t interested in the embarrassing photos or overripe profiles that attract so much consternation from parents and potential employers. Instead, they wondered whether the basic currency of interactions on a social network – the simple act of “friending” someone online – might reveal something a person might rather keep hidden.
