Archive for September, 2009
Witch bottle is uncorked to discover spellbinding content
Take a small heart-shaped piece of leather, a handful of iron nails, eight brass pins, a lock of hair, some nail clippings, a pinch of navel fluff and place them in a bottle. Then add a pint of urine, seal the bottle and bury it by your front door — this is the recipe for warding off a witch’s curse.
An analysis of the contents of the first witch bottle to be found with its cork intact has cast light on the fear of witchcraft in the 17th century.
The theory behind the witch bottle was that by placing the items and bodily fluids in a bottle, the evil spell could not only be diverted but would also rebound on the witch.
The bottle, which was found at a building site in Greenwich, southeast London, in 2004, was the first of more than 200 witch bottles discovered that still had its contents intact.
It…
‘Christian’ Leaders Mum on Torture
Who but the cowardly crew leading the “Christian” churches can be held responsible for the fact that many of their flock believe in torture?
Anyone harboring doubts that the institutional Church is riding shotgun for the system, even regarding heinous sin like torture, should be chastened by the results of a recent survey by the Pew Research Center.
Who but the cowardly crew leading the “Christian” churches can be held responsible for the fact that many of their flock believe torture of suspected terrorists is “justified?”
Those polled were white non-Hispanic Catholics, white Evangelicals, and white mainline Protestants. A majority (54 percent) of those who attend church regularly said torture could be “justified,” while a majority of those not attending church regularly responded that torture was rarely or never justified.
I am not a psychologist or sociologist. But I recall that one of the first things Hitler did on assuming power was to…
RIAA’s in-school propaganda
The RIAA has updated its Music Rules! school program — which contains blatant falsehoods about copyright. The new version asks kids to act as unpaid PR staff: “Take your campaign a step further by contacting the editor of your community newspaper or the director of your community cable television station to see if you can submit an article or video about your campaign.”
Last week, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) announced an update to Music-Rules!, its flagship “curriculum” for teaching copyright law to schoolkids.
We wrote about Music-Rules! and similar industry propaganda efforts in May, outlining some of their falsehoods and biases. For instance, the RIAA tells kids, “Never copy someone else’s creative work without permission from the copyright holder” — omitting the important right to make creative fair use of existing content. It also coins a misleading term, “songlifting,” (which the curriculum says is “just as bad as shoplifting”)…
Marijuana Advocates Celebrate Gains
There was not a cloud in the sky over the Boston Common yesterday during the 20th annual Boston Freedom Rally, but there was plenty of smoke.
It was the first time the pro-marijuana rally organized by the Massachusetts Cannabis Reform Coalition had been held since the November election, when voters passed Proposition 2. The ballot initiative made possession of less than an ounce of marijuana a civil offense rather than a crime.
The changed law gave the large crowds in attendance yesterday a new reason to celebrate and one less reason to get arrested — an outcome that organizers said is a welcome change. The event has caused controversy over the years because of many arrests and battles with the city over permit issues. This year, as in the past, many people smoked marijuana openly as an act of civil disobedience.
“After years of helplessly watching Boston Police bag harmless stoners, it will…
Richard Dawkins: Libel Laws Silence Scientists
It is a lamentable observation that because of the way our laws are skewed toward the plaintiff, London has become the libel capital of the world. Litigants are coming to England from another country to sue people who live in a third country over a book that was published in a fourth country – the excuse being that a handful of books were sold here too. A nice little round-the-world jaunt for lawyers it may be, but sensible or liberal it is not. Nor is it just.
Of course there must be redress if you are maliciously attacked in a way that damages you. But if such a law is cast too wide it has disastrous consequences on the public interest, not least in the area of science and medicine where the stakes are high, profits and reputations are guarded jealously, and the vulnerable need to be protected from unproven or…
The Yes Men Strike Again, This Time With Fake New York Post
Early this morning, nearly a million New Yorkers were stunned by the appearance of a “special edition” New York Post blaring headlines that their city could face deadly heat waves, extreme flooding, and other lethal effects of global warming within the next few decades. The most alarming thing about it: the news came from an official City report.
Distributed by over 2000 volunteers throughout New York City, the paper has been created by The Yes Men and a coalition of activists as a wake-up call to action on climate change. It appears one day before a UN summit where Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon will push 100 world leaders to make serious commitments to reduce carbon emissions in the lead-up to the Copenhagen climate conference in December. Ban has said that the world has “less than 10 years to halt (the) global rise in greenhouse gas emissions if we are to avoid catastrophic…
The Holy Grail of the Unconscious
This is a story about a nearly 100-year-old book, bound in red leather, which has spent the last quarter century secreted away in a bank vault in Switzerland. The book is big and heavy and its spine is etched with gold letters that say “Liber Novus,” which is Latin for “New Book.” Its pages are made from thick cream-colored parchment and filled with paintings of otherworldly creatures and handwritten dialogues with gods and devils. If you didn’t know the book’s vintage, you might confuse it for a lost medieval tome.
And yet between the book’s heavy covers, a very modern story unfolds. It goes as follows: Man skids into midlife and loses his soul. Man goes looking for soul. After a lot of instructive hardship and adventure — taking place entirely in his head — he finds it again.
Some people feel that nobody should read the book, and some feel that…
NASA Launches Rocket, Dozens Report Strange Lights
WALLOPS ISLAND, Va. — NASA says it successfully launched a rocket in Virginia as part of an experiment, and the blast may have caused dozens of people to report seeing strange lights in the sky.
The space agency said it launched the Black Brant XII on Saturday evening to gather data on the highest clouds in the Earth’s atmosphere. About the time of the launch, dozens of people in the Northeast started calling local television stations to report seeing strange lights.
Could We Upload Our Minds?
An artificial intelligence professor predicts prosthetic brain device that speed thoughts, enhance thoughts, and maybe even allow us to upload our minds….
Noting that the brain only holds as much data as a PC hard disk circa 1990, Bruce Katz predicts “a broad neuro-revolution” where biochemistry and technology overcome the limits of human memory, saying neural subtrates could artificially recreate the one-in a-million combination of high IQ and creativity.
He suggests we plan ahead with “a comprehensive freedom of thought initiative, ideally enshrined as a constitutional amendment.”
(This article will appear in H+ magazine when it hits newsstands next week — but the magazine’s free digital edition is already online!)
US assassination in Somalia
United States commandos from the Pentagon’s Joint Special Operations Command launched a helicopter raid last week in Somalia, close to the border with Kenya, and killed a key Islamist suspect.
Some reports state that four helicopter gunships, others say it was six, took off shortly after noon from a US Navy warship offshore. Less than an hour later the helicopters strafed a small group of four-wheel drives carrying Islamist militants linked to al Shabaab, which Washington accuses of being Al Qaeda’s proxy in Somalia.
Iranian opposition demonstrates under pro-imperialist slogans
Anti-government protests in Iran on Friday confirmed the openly right-wing character of the opposition movement led by defeated presidential candidate Mir Hossein Moussavi. Thousands of Moussavi’s supporters, festooned in their trade mark colour of green, took advantage of official Quds Day demonstrations to take to the streets in Tehran and other Iranian cities to demand the resignation of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Quds Day (Quds is Arabic for Jerusalem) is an annual event staged by the Iranian regime as a show of support for the Palestinians. Exploiting the occasion, Moussavi’s supporters took to the streets with their own slogans. In opposition to the official support for Iran’s allies, Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, the anti-government protesters shouted “No to Gaza and Lebanon, I will give my life for Iran.” They countered pro-government chants of “Death to Israel” with the slogan “Death to Russia”.
In Sunday television interviews Obama seeks to defuse opposition on healthcare, Afghanistan
In a Sunday morning media blitz, Barack Obama appeared on interview programs on the three major television networks and two cable channels to discuss his proposed healthcare restructuring program as well as the escalating US war in Afghanistan.
The programs were taped back-to-back on Friday afternoon, with interviewers from ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN and the Spanish-language Univision queuing up at the White House. (The right-wing Fox television did not participate). The wall-to-wall appearances, unprecedented for a US president, were arranged by the Obama administration in response to growing public concern over its most important domestic and foreign policy initiatives.
MFWN: Despise You / Dr. Loomis / Crom / Trash Talk
Last night it was my pleasure to see my favorite band from high school, Despise You, along with the inventors of barbarian metal, Crom, bro-core stalwarts total fucking douchebags Trash Talk, and Portland’s finest young kid thrash band, Dr. Loomis. The show was at Satyricon and part of Music Fest Northwest.
Bummer! Some Get $100 Tickets at Boston Pro-Pot Rally
There was something different in the air today at the 20th annual Boston Freedom Rally at the Boston Common. And it wasn’t just the clouds of pungent marijuana smoke.
It was the first time the rally organized by the Massachusetts Cannabis Reform Coailition had been held since voters passed Proposition 2 last November, which decriminalized possession of small amounts of marijuana.
Obama Endorses ACORN Investigation
President Barack Obama says there should be an investigation into the hidden-camera video involving employees at the activist group ACORN and a couple posing as a prostitute and her pimp.
The two ACORN workers are seen apparently advising the couple to lie about her profession and launder her earnings to get housing aid.
Fox News Producer Caught Rallying 912 Protest Behind The Scenes
A Fox News Channel producer has been caught in a behind-the-scenes video rallying the crowd during last weekend’s 9/12 protest in Washington.
The Huffington Post has confirmed that the woman in the below video — seen raising her arms to rally the crowd behind Griff Jenkins, who was reporting from the scene for Fox News — is Fox News producer Heidi Noonan.
Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/19/fox-news-producer-caught_n_292529.html
Everything You Have To Know About Dangerous Genetically Modified Foods
Jeffrey M. Smith entertains a wildly appreciative audience with shocking facts about how genetically modified organisms (GMOs) entered our lives. Smith links GMO to toxins, allergies, infertility, infant mortality, immune dysfunction, stunted growth, and death. Whistleblowers were fired, threatened, and gagged, and warnings by FDA scientists were ignored. Start today to protect yourself by joining the Campaign for Healthier Eating in America— a plan that gives the consumer the power to end the genetic engineering of our food supply.
The Gumball 3000 and The Cannonball Run
The Gumball 3000 is a semi-legal international street race that has been happening every year since 1999. It’s wikipedia page goes out of it’s way to make the race sound legal, and if one were to only see their start and finish lines that would certainly appear to be true. Watch the videos though, and you’ll see things getting fantastically criminal in-between.
This is amazing.
(Even KITT from Knight Rider has participated in the rally.)
Perry on Recession: “We’re in one?”
Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R), facing a tough primary challenge from Sen. Kay Baily Hutchison (R), left many puzzled when he declared his state was recession proof.
Said Perry: “As a matter of fact … someone had put a report out that the first state that’s coming out of the recession is going to be the state of Texas … I said, ‘We’re in one?’”
