Archive for September, 2009
Manson Murderer Susan Atkins Dies
Elaine Woo, Los Angeles Times: Susan Atkins, who committed one of modern history’s most notorious crimes when she joined Charles Manson and his gang for a 1969 killing spree that terrorized Los Angeles and put her in prison for the rest of her life, has died. She was 61.
Atkins died at the Central California Women’s facility in Chowchilla on Thursday night, said Terry Thornton, spokeswoman for the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
…Convicted of eight murders, Atkins served 38 years of a life sentence, which made her the longest-serving prisoner among women currently held in the state’s penitentiaries, said Thornton. That distinction now falls to Patrcia Krenwinkle, who was convicted along with Atkins for the Tate-LaBianca murders
No Longer for Display in the U.S. Capitol: George Washington Zeus
From Wikipedia (Image at right: Photo by Mark Pellegrini via Creation Commons 2.5):
The Congress of the United States commissioned Horatio Greenough to create this statue for display in the Capitol Rotunda. When the marble statue arrived in the Washington, D.C. in 1841, however, it immediately generated controversy and criticism.
Many found the sight of a half-naked Washington offensive, even comical. The statue was relocated to the east lawn of the Capitol in 1843. Disapproval continued and some joked that Washington was desperately reaching for his clothes, then on exhibit at the Patent Office several blocks to the north.
In 1908, Washington was finally brought back indoors when Congress transferred it to the Smithsonian Institution.
It remained at the Smithsonian Castle until 1964, when it was moved to the new Museum of History and Technology (now the National Museum of American History). The marble Washington has been exhibited on the second floor of that building since…
Is Jesus Christ the Greatest Rock Star Who Ever Lived?
Not bad, in terms how I generally feel about a MUSICAL. Somehow, I am waiting for the Hollywood casting call to remake this one, the role to beat is the gentlemen who plays Judas, Carl Anderson. He truly does steal the show, unlike in the Biblical account…
Australia’s Red Dust Storm Looks Like the Apocalypse, Even When Seen From Space
Stephen Goldmeier writes on io9.com:
Earlier today, a giant dust storm swept over all of eastern Australia, the worst the area has seen in 70 years. The storm also brought hail and strong winds. And it’s a menacing cloud even when seen from space.
This image is from NASA’s Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the Terra satellite. In the image, you can see the dust rising and heading east in plumes. The plumes then gather into the giant wall of dust that ravaged the east coast of Australia.
Australian news sources report that the dust reached concentrations of 15,000 micrograms per cubic meter in New South Wales. Normally, the particle concentration averages somewhere between 10 and 20 micrograms per cubic meter. It’s not surprising, then, that this huge storm so greatly affected people.
Why Is Mars Red? Some Think It’s Wind, Not Water…
Mars is red now (left), but it may have looked charcoal (right) in the past (Image: NASA/ESA/Hubble Team)
Ker Than writes in the New Scientist:
Mars’s distinctive red hue may be the result of thousands of years of wind-borne sand particles colliding with one another – and not rust, a new study argues.
Scientists generally agree that Mars’s red colour is caused when a dark form of iron called magnetite oxidises into a reddish-orange form called haematite.
Just how the transformation came about is a matter of debate. Many researchers say water caused the oxidation. But some argue that hydrogen peroxide and ozone, which might be created when ultraviolet light breaks down carbon dioxide and oxygen in the Martian atmosphere, could be to blame.
Now, planetary scientist Jonathan Merrison of Aarhus University in Denmark and colleagues say the trigger may be wind.
Passive-Aggressive Aliens Want to Steal Your Gravel
Lauren Davis, io9.com: In the latest issue of The New Yorker, an alien civilization announces its intentions to visit our planet. But they’re not a benevolent race out to share their technology; they’re actually quite passive aggressive and have designs on our gravel.
Television writer Paul Simms’ piece “Attention, People of Earth” imagines the first extraterrestrial missive to Earth, if the extraterrestrials in question were the sorts of creatures who read The New Yorker and want to assure us that they don’t intend to steal our vast reserves of gravel…
Vaccine Prevents AIDS Infection For The First Time Ever
For the first time ever, a vaccine for the AIDS virus has protected a significant number of people against infection.
The study was conducted in Thailand, where 16,402 volunteers were given six doses of the vaccine, or a placebo, in 2006. Three years later, 74 people who had received the placebo had acquired AIDS, while only 51 of those who got the vaccines did. The difference is small, but significant, experts say, suggesting that the vaccine is 31.2 percent effective.
Scientists are not completely sure why the vaccine worked. The most confusing aspect of the trial was that everyone who did become infected developed roughly the same amount of virus in their blood whether they got the vaccine or a placebo.
Whatever the vaccine does, he said, it does not seem to mimic the defenses of the rare individuals known to AIDS doctors as “long-term nonprogressors,” who do not get sick…
Census Worker Found Hanged With ‘Fed’ Scrawled Across Chest
Huffington Post writes:
MANCHESTER, Ky. — A U.S. Census worker found hanged from a tree near a Kentucky cemetery had the word “fed” scrawled on his chest, a law enforcement official said Wednesday, and the FBI is investigating whether he was a victim of anti-government sentiment.
Bill Sparkman, a 51-year-old part-time Census field worker and teacher, was found Sept. 12 in a remote patch of the Daniel Boone National Forest in rural southeast Kentucky.
Gilbert Acciardo, a retired Kentucky state trooper who directs an after-school program at the elementary school where Sparkman was a frequent substitute teacher, said he had warned Sparkman to be careful when he did his Census work.
“I told him on more than one occasion, based on my years in the state police, ‘Mr. Sparkman, when you go into those counties, be careful because people are going to perceive you different than they do elsewhere,’” Acciardo said.
…
Obama’s Money
A big hat tip to Ralph Bernardo over at Disinfo for posting this.
For those of you who are mouse click impaired, it’s a list of Barack Obama’s top twenty campaign contributors. Leading the list is notorious defense researcher University of California.
Wall Street is represented in force, with such leading lights of the financial industry as Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Swiss bank UBS, J.P. Morgan Chase, and Morgan Stanley.
But don’t forget corporate America’s most trusted legal advisors, Sidley Austin, WilmerHale, Skadden Arps (called by Forbes “Wall Street’s most powerful law firm” and touted by Fortune as number on in “Who Represents Corporate America”), and Latham and Watkins. And, of course, some of America’s favorite media conglomerates, including war profiteers who are also in the news business. Rounding out the list are a couple more elite private universities, tech giants helping to snuff out free speech in China, and notorious Holocaust and Iraq War profiteer, IBM.
…
Largest-Ever Anglo-Saxon Gold Hoard Unearthed In England
LONDON, England (CNN) — A man using a metal detector in a rural English field has uncovered the largest Anglo-Saxon gold hoard ever found — an “unprecedented” treasure that sheds new light on history, archaeologists said Thursday.
The hoard includes 5 kilograms (11 pounds) of gold and 2.5 kilograms (5.5 pounds) of silver. That is more than three times the amount of gold found at Sutton Hoo, one of Britain’s most important Anglo-Saxon sites, said the local council in Staffordshire where the latest haul was found.
It’s an “incredible collection of material — absolutely unprecedented,” said Kevin Leahy, an archaeologist with the Portable Antiquities Scheme, a voluntary group that records finds made by members of the public. “We’ve moved into new ground with this material.”
Because the find is so large and important, experts haven’t been able to say yet how much it is worth. They hope to make a valuation within 13…
“Surrogates” author describes deleted SciFi hooker scene
In a new interview titled “Love Thy Surrogate Self,” Robert Venditti describes a deleted scene from his “Surrogates” graphic novel where Detective Greer (Bruce Willis’s character) requests a “skin job” from a virtual prostitute — that is, real-life body-to-body contact. “The prostitute rebuffs him, offended that he’d think she was that kind of girl.”
Greer also plays surrogate sex games with his wife in a newly-released prequel, and visits a surrogate sex club called Gandy Land. (”When you’re feeling randy, go Gandy.” But in the interview, author Venditti finally answers the question of whether he’d ever use a surrogate himself.
“I’d like to think that I wouldn’t… But technology can be a very seductive thing, which is probably why we all welcome it into our lives without really thinking about what its ramifications are going to be. So as much as I want to believe that I’d eschew the surrogate lifestyle, the iPhone/TiVO/computer…
Labour government in Britain increases state control of the Internet
The Labour government is proposing draconian new measures on Internet usage. If implemented, the state would be given sweeping powers over what can be accessed and by whom.
Under the guise of protecting the UK’s creative and digital industries, the government is steamrolling through legislation that could have far-reaching implications for individual liberties and the right to privacy, as well as freedom of the press and communication.
No agreement between major powers on carbon emissions
On Tuesday, government leaders representing about 100 nations gathered at the United Nations in New York to discuss global warming. The meeting was billed as an attempt to jump-start negotiations in advance of a December summit in Copenhagen at which a global treaty governing greenhouse gas emissions is to be produced.
Instead, the New York conference only served to highlight the impossibility of realizing even the most limited environmental reforms in a world order dominated by rival capitalist nation states.
On eve of G20 summit: Economic danger signs
One year after the onset of the financial crisis and on the eve of the G20 summit this weekend, the political establishment is proclaiming imminent recovery from the greatest economic crisis since the Second World War.
“From a technical perspective, the recession is very likely over,” Ben Bernanke, US Federal Reserve Chairman, said last week. He argued that the collapse of the financial system has stabilized, bringing with it a rally in equity prices and a slowing of the rate of increase of unemployment.
Obama gives Israel carte blanche on settlement construction
Tuesday’s meeting in New York between Barack Obama, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas was widely regarded as little more than a photo opportunity before it began, as well as something of a political embarrassment for the US president.
It was both these things. But it also confirmed the degree to which the Obama administration is prepared to back Netanyahu’s settlement construction programme on the West Bank and East Jerusalem and to dictate terms to the Palestinians.
At UN general assembly, Obama urges international support for US wars
On Wednesday, President Barack Obama used his first address to the United Nations General Assembly to defend US wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and reiterate the American right to act unilaterally. At the same time, Obama implicitly appealed to foreign capitals to subordinate themselves to US geostrategic objectives.
In a generally vacuous and hypocritical speech, Obama also threatened Iran, and declared Israel to be a “Jewish state.”
Massive police buildup for Pittsburgh G20 summit
A massive police buildup is well underway in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, as thousands of police, National Guard, FBI, secret service and other law enforcement officials flood into the city in preparation for the G20 summit Thursday and Friday.
Sixty police departments from across Pennsylvania and the region have sent officers to the city. Pittsburgh officials have not revealed how many have actually come, but the city said it needed 4,000 police to provide security for the two-day event. Pittsburgh’s 900 police officers have been put on 12-hour shifts, and all vacation and leave have been canceled.
US troops out of Afghanistan
The Pentagon announced Wednesday that Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the commander of US-NATO forces in Afghanistan, will formally submit his request that tens of thousands more American troops be sent into the eight-year-old colonial-style war.
This request follows on the heels of a report written by McChrystal—and leaked from the Pentagon—warning that Washington faces defeat in Afghanistan unless it follows his prescription for a “properly resourced” escalation of a counterinsurgency campaign aimed at breaking the resistance of the Afghan people to foreign occupation.
Great power conflicts overhang G20 summit in Pittsburgh
As political leaders and central bankers gather for the Group of 20 summit of major economies, to be held today and Friday in Pittsburgh, they face the task of papering over increasingly open and embittered conflicts over policies to revive the world economy and prevent another financial disaster.
One year after the near-collapse of the global financial system, mutual pledges of multi-lateral coordination and rejection of protectionist policies proclaimed at last November’s G20 summit in Washington and the April summit in London are being overshadowed by divisions over economic policy. These differences correspond to the national interests of the ruling elites of the US, Europe and rising economic powers in Asia and Latin America—above all, China.
