Archive for October, 2009
Dark Matter ‘Wrecking Ball’ May Have Hit Milky Way
Dan Vergano writes in USA TODAY:
Darth Vader’s Death Star? Ming the Merciless and his war rockets? The awesome power of Chuck Norris?
Piffle, suggests one astrophysicist, at least when it comes to explaining what force could have permanently bent a ring in our Milky Way Galaxy within the last 60 million years. The real explanation may be the power of an invisible wrecking ball made of dark matter — a cloud of the enigmatic physics particles born in the fiery aftermath of the Big Bang and weighing as much as 10 million suns.
Left behind by this “Dark Matter Clump” cataclysm was a tilted swirl of newborn stars circling within the galaxy called the ” Gould Belt,” which incidentally may have sent comets hurtling towards Earth, suggests astrophysicist Kenji Bekki of Australia’s University of New South Wales in a recent Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society journal.
More in USA TODAY
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25 of the Scariest Science Experiments Ever Conducted
Annalee Newitz writes on io9.com:
While science has the power to improve our lives and cure disease, it can also be used to torture, murder, and brainwash. Here are 25 scary experiments that destroyed lives, or have the potential to unleash doomsday.
Russians re-attaching dog heads: This infamous propaganda film from 1940 shows Soviet Dr Sergei S. Bryukhonenko removing the head of dogs, and keeping them alive on a heart-lung machine. While possibly a Soviet fake, it produced a major stir in the west. (Source: Time Magazine)
More on io9.com
Why Do Some People See Ghosts And Others Don’t?
Science Blog writes:
People seeing ghosts? There may be a genuine mind-body foundation for such anomalous perceptions, according to two researchers, Michael Jawer and Marc Micozzi, MD, PhD. Their book, The Spiritual Anatomy of Emotion, suggests that sensing a presence, seeing an apparition, or feeling energy around a person or place may be related to the workings of the limbic system — the “emotional brain” — as well as a personality type that rapidly registers feelings.
As surveys consistently show that anywhere from one-third to two-thirds of the public say they’ve had an extra-sensory experience — with nearly 25% of respondents stating they’ve actually seen or felt a ghost — anomalous perceptions are nothing to shrug off. “People have had these experiences down the ages and across all cultures,” comments Micozzi, a physician and anthropologist. “They’re quite universal. What we’ve begun to document is that there’s a certain type of person most likely…
Madoff Explains How He Concealed Fraud
CBS News correspondent Randall Pinkston reports:
In a wide-ranging jailhouse interview with SEC Inspector General David Kotz, convicted swindler Bernard Madoff explained how he managed to conceal his multi-billion-dollar fraud operation.
“It never entered the SEC’s mind that it was a Ponzi scheme,” Madoff said, because of “the reputation I had.”
“They thought the likelihood of Madoff being a big criminal was probably not something that was realistic,” said Paul Atkins, a former SEC Commissioner.
At the height of his career, Madoff was regarded as a financial genius, he even served as chairman of NASDAQ.
In 2003, Madoff was sure he would be caught and was surprised when investigators did not check his accounts to see if he had actually traded stocks – which he had not.
It is accounting 101, Madoff told the inspector general, to look at DTC – Depositor Trust Commission – to discover a Ponzi scheme.
“With one phone call they could have brought the…
Atheism’s Own Fundamentalists Lead ‘Religion’ of ‘Not’
Cathy Lynn Grossman writes in USA Today:
By ReutersForget God, let’s talk about arrogance.
That’s not exactly the way Rice University humanities professor Anthony Pinn, in an article for the online magazine Religion Dispatches, describes the monotone of mockery at the Atheist Alliance International convention, but it gets you to Pinn’s key points pretty quickly.
The convention, starring the atheist band’s Mick Jagger, Richard Dawkins, promoting his book on evolution, The Greatest Show on Earth, and some backup singers like TV host Bill Maher, was held in Burbank, Calif., earlier this month.
Pinn found the main idea at the event, is that religion is
… the single most dangerous human creation.
The welfare of humanity, it was argued, depends on the dismantling of religion and all of its delusions. The possibility of collaboration, of compromise, of any shared ethical commitments between theists and non-theists, was not on the table.
Pinn, who…
How the Economic Crisis Changed Us
A new PARADE survey shows just how dramatically Americans’ dreams and relationships have been transformed by the current economic crisis:
Nearly four out of five respondents (79%) say that they’ve felt the impact of the financial downturn, with one-third saying that the turmoil has had a big impact on their lives. Most respondents haven’t had to turn on the TV to appreciate the scope of the declining economy—they’ve registered its toll in their own faces or those of friends, family members, and neighbors. Sixty-nine percent have lost a job, suffered a reduction in pay, or know someone who has experienced one of these. Close to half have had difficulty making their mortgage or rent payments or know someone who has.
As a result, many Americans have made significant financial adjustments in their daily lives. Eighty percent say that they’ve been “forced to do more with less,” 73% have had to make unexpected changes,…
Top 5 Halloween Movies
From Nick P at Black Sun Gazette
While you’re all going to be out drinking until you piss yourselves tomorrow I’m going to be working hard for the money picking up plastic glasses and trying to keep dumb fucks from driving home shitfaced. Still, when you find yourself in the witching hour on All Hallow’s Eve, lights off, candles lit, sweetheart dressed up like a sexy barista, you’re going to want some phantasmagoria to get her jumping into your arms every few seconds. Here are some recommendations for gore, schlock, schlocky gore, and gory schlock to waste your time and kill brain cells to on what is everyone’s favorite holiday.
Meatless Mondays
Glenn Beck makes fun of “Meatless Mondays” while rubbishing global warming:
How Gun Possession For Defense Backfires
Think that carrying a handgun could help protect you in a high-crime area, if, god forbid, someone attempts to rob or assault you? In fact the opposite could be true.
The American Journal of Public Health discusses a new study from the University of Pennsylvania which shows that in cases of assault, victims who are in possession of a gun at the time are a whopping 4.5 times more likely to get shot than victims who are unarmed. And, “In cases where the victim had at least some chance to resist, this adjusted odds ratio increased to 5.45.”
The conclusion, obviously, it that the idea of walking around with a concealed firearm for the purpose of self-defense is nonsensical. Not that this is going to change many gun owners’ minds.
Last Surviving Member of Hitler’s Inner Circle Dies
The Telegraph reports on the death of Fritz Darges, who died last Saturday at age 96:
Darges was the last surviving member of Hitler’s inner circle and was present for all major conferences, social engagements and policy announcements for four years of the war.
Much of his time after 1942 was either spent at Hitler’s eastern headquarters the ‘Wolf’s Lair’ at Rastenburg, East Prussia, or at his holiday home, the Berghof, on a mountain in Berchtesgaden, Bavaria.
“We all dreamed of a greater German empire,” he said. “That is why I served him and would do it all again now,” said the man who had a career after the war selling cars.
Cult Busters: How Governments Decide Whether a Religion is Real or Not
From Slate:
A French court fined the Church of Scientology $888,000 on Tuesday after a couple claimed they’d been manipulated into buying between $30,000 and $73,000 worth of church products. The verdict is “a historical turning point for the fight against cult abuses,” said the leader of France’s “government cult-fighting unit.” How does this special cult-busting unit distinguish between cults and bona fide religions?
Vaguely. French law doesn’t define the term “cult.” Rather, it uses the expression “cultlike movements” to describe groups that demand unreasonable financial contributions, encourage nonparticipation in elections, promote anti-social behavior, or cut members off from their families. It’s easier to target bad behavior, the thinking goes, than to get into a semantic debate over what is and isn’t a cult. The French government has, however, tried to define the term in the past. In 1995, a special parliamentary commission compiled a list of 10 cultish characteristics, including the indoctrination…
I Live Without Cash – and I Manage Just Fine
From the Guardian:
Armed with a caravan, solar laptop and toothpaste made from washed-up cuttlefish bones, Mark Boyle gave up using cash.
In six years of studying economics, not once did I hear the word “ecology”. So if it hadn’t have been for the chance purchase of a video called Gandhi in the final term of my degree, I’d probably have ended up earning a fine living in a very respectable job persuading Indian farmers to go GM, or something useful like that. The little chap in the loincloth taught me one huge lesson – to be the change I wanted to see in the world. Trouble was, I had no idea back then what that change was.
After managing a couple of organic food companies made me realise that even “ethical business” would never be quite enough, an afternoon’s philosophising with a mate changed everything. We were looking at the world’s issues –…
Obama: The Pot President
Michael Wolff is calling Mr. Obama “the Pot President.” He explains why in Newser:
Wow. Pot. Just like that, on its way to being legalized. Well, just like that after 50 years or so.
In order to save itself from financial oblivion, the state of California seems inclined to just do it. Just say yes. To become Amsterdam.
It may be the biggest thing to come out of the financial meltdown. We won’t get meaningful reform of the banking system, but we’re going to get legalized pot.
This is partly because the Justice Department has just issued new guidelines to prosecutors telling them not to override state laws about medicinal marijuana use. And because California’s governor (a pot smoker from way back) is gently encouraging the legalization movement to help him out of his terrible financial mess. And because everybody in California already smokes pot anyway.
All right, it is not yet a done deal. The…
Spammer Ordered To Pay Facebook $711,000,000
Reuters is reporting what sounds like a great victory for everyone who hates those fake Facebook emails, but of course it probably won’t change anything!
Social networking website Facebook was awarded $711.2 million in damages relating to an anti-spam case against Internet marketer Sanford Wallace, court documents show.
Wallace did not oppose the motion or appear at the hearing on September 18, 2009, according to a filing on Thursday in a San Jose, California federal court.
The site filed an anti-spamming case against Wallace in February for accessing people’s Facebook accounts without their permission and sending phony mail and posts to the individuals’ public message wall, the company said in a blog post.
“While we don’t expect to receive the vast majority of the award, we hope that this will act as a continued deterrent,” Facebook said in a blog post.
Switzerland Tries To Stop Suicide Tourism
Roger Boyes writes for The Times:
Switzerland announced plans yesterday to crack down on “suicide tourism”, signalling that it might close the Dignitas clinic that has helped hundreds of terminally ill people to take their lives.
The plans — in the form of two draft Bills that will be offered for public debate — are likely to set off a rush of patients from Britain and elsewhere in Europe since Switzerland has become the main destination for those seeking assisted suicide.
Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf, the Justice Minister, said that two options would be presented to parliament. Either clinics such as Dignitas and Exit, which deals chiefly with Swiss patients, will have to accept much stricter regulation or they will be closed down.
The tightening of the rules would require patients to present two medical opinions declaring their disease incurable, that death is expected within months and that they have made their decision of sound mind…
Obama Secrecy Watch: Don’t Trench on My ‘Executive Prerogatives’
Newsweek reports in its Declassified blog:
As we previously noted, our colleague Weston Kosova gave the Obama administration some much-needed grief on Friday for refusing a federal judge’s recent order to turn over documents showing how big telecommunications firms lobbied to get immunity for their participation in President Bush’s warrantless wiretapping program.
But that is actually only one of many examples of how Obama appointees are standing up for Bush-era secrecy.
In just the last few days, virtually unnoticed by most of the news media, administration officials have:
* Rejected a new Freedom of Information request for White House visitor logs (despite their announced intention to start making such documents public).
* Appealed, yet again, to invoke “state secrets” to block a lawsuit that might shed light on the CIA’s extraordinary rendition of terror suspects to countries that practice torture.
* Gotten Congress to pass legislation that would prevent graphic photographs of detainee abuse by the U.S.…
‘Paranormal’ Now the Most Profitable Film Ever
Daniel Frankel writes in The Wrap:
“This will definitely echo around the halls of Viacom in New York,” said Don Harris, executive VP of distribution for Paramount on Sunday, shortly after it was announced that “Paranormal Activity” would lead the weekend box office with $22 million.
Harris’ jubilation was understandable.
Set to further expand its run this weekend from 1,945 locations to around 2,400, and having grossed $65.1 million through Wednesday on a sub-$15,000 production budget, “Paranormal” has already exceeded the film it is most often compared to, “The Blair Witch Project,” as the most profitable movie of all time.
“Blair Witch’s” $248.6 million worldwide haul a decade ago – juxtaposed against its $60,000 production costs – represented an almost unthinkable 414,233 percent return on investment.
Doing the same basic ROI math on “Paranormal” (65.1 million minus 15,000 divided by 15,000 times 100) yields an equally unfathomable result of 433,900 percent…
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A Beginner’s Guide to Fascism, Part I
From Chris M. at Black Sun Gazette
Fascism is complex and sometimes contradictory ideology. While it may be fun to call Bush Hitler and Obama Stalin, it doesn’t make it so, they are both capitalists. Democrats and Republicans have been playing good cop, bad cop for the capitalist system for well over a hundred years now. This doesn’t mean fascism can’t happen here in the good old USA. We should examine where fascism came from, what is it, and how it works. By knowing these things we can figure out what fascism might look like in America and how we can fight it.
Father Threatens Daughter With Immortal Robot Brain
For Halloween, humor writer Hank Hyena offers a real-life story called “Hey Kids, Don’t Forget to Take My Brain Out of the Freezer!”
He threatens to have himself cryogenically frozen, telling his young daughters then he can “boss them around forever.” (”I only have enough money for the iced brain, unless I spend your college fund.”)
He suggests he could use the brain to control a new robot body, but his nine-year-old remained skeptical of his next prediction. (”People can’t make robots smarter than us. And if they did, the robots would kill us.”) But it ends when the geek dad asks, “Just don’t forget me, okay? Don’t forget to get my brain out of the freezer.”
They pinky-promise, and give him a hug.
