Archive for October, 2009
Did Glenn Beck and Alex Jones Team Up to Fight World Peace?
Let us know what you think. John V. Santore writes for Media Matters:
In his response to the announcement that President Obama had been awarded the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize, Glenn Beck sounded at times like conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, all while continuing to willfully ignore the currents of racially motivated violence flowing within the 9-12 “movement” he is working to build.
BECK: These progressives are extraordinarily powerful. And this campaign of Barack Obama, this global campaign for Barack Obama, is done by global interests that have extraordinary power. They’re very well connected.
Point taken, Glenn. Everyone knows that the Nobel Committee has been in the pocket of the Tri-Lateral Commission and the Council on Foreign Relations for years. It’s all part of the New World Order.
But here was where Beck really showed his disregard for reality:
BECK: The Nobel Peace Prize should be turned down by Barack Obama and given — you ready for…
What Happened to Global Warming?
The BBC asks:
This headline may come as a bit of a surprise, so too might that fact that the warmest year recorded globally was not in 2008 or 2007, but in 1998.
But it is true. For the last 11 years we have not observed any increase in global temperatures. And our climate models did not forecast it, even though man-made carbon dioxide, the gas thought to be responsible for warming our planet, has continued to rise.
So what on Earth is going on?
Climate change sceptics, who passionately and consistently argue that man’s influence on our climate is overstated, say they saw it coming.
They argue that there are natural cycles, over which we have no control, that dictate how warm the planet is. But what is the evidence for this?
During the last few decades of the 20th Century, our planet did warm quickly.
Recent research has ruled out solar influences on temperature increases
Sceptics…
Jupiter’s Moon, Europa, Could Support Complex Life: Science Fiction Come to Life?
Is this straight outta Arthur C. Clarke’s 2010? Both the book and film versions ended with a message:
ALL THESE WORLDS ARE YOURS EXCEPT EUROPA. ATTEMPT NO LANDINGS THERE.
and Jupiter turning into a second solar sun. Irene Klotz reports on Discovery News:
Jupiter’s moon Europa should have enough oxygen-rich water to support not only simple micro-organisms but also complex life, according to a University of Arizona researcher who studies ice flows on the frozen moon.
Judging by how quickly Europa’s surface ice is replenished, Richard Greenberg estimates that enough oxygen reaches the subterranean ocean to sustain “macrofauna” — more complex, animal-like organisms. Assuming Europa life forms would need as much oxygen as Earth-like fish, Greenberg estimates the moon’s ocean has enough oxygen to support 6.6 billion pounds of macrofauna. (More on Discovery News)
Here’s the film ending of 2010, released in 1984:
Yahoo Didn’t Sentence 200,000 Iranians to Death, and Other Misadventures in Online Journalism
Paul Carr writes on Techcrunch:
In one of those wonderful ironies of scheduling that make columnists weep with joy, Larry Dignan spent yesterday at a Yahoo! hack day in New York.
This is the same Larry Dignan who is Editor in Chief of ZDNet, which is the same ZDNet that yesterday published a blog post accusing Yahoo of passing the names and email addresses of thousands — sorry, hundreds of thousands – of bloggers to the Iranian authorities during the country’s recent election.
Poor old Larry. One can only imagine the warmth with which he was greeted when he arrived at Yahoo’s event. “Hey Larry!” his hosts may perhaps have said “go fuck yourself.” And their suggestion wouldn’t be entirely unfair, given that the story — written by ‘lawyer and technology writer’ Richard Koman, was a steaming pile of horseshit.
How much horseshit? Let’s break it down, just for giggles. Koman’s unnamed source for the…
Forget Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize on October 9th, It’s Leif Erikson Day, People!
When I first read this article, didn’t quite understand the “conspiracy” theory at work here until I caught this line on Wikipedia: “It is also unclear why [the Swedish] Nobel wished the Peace Prize to be administered in Norway.” More interesting to me is that Leif Erikson Day occurs around the Columbus Day holiday weekend (no federal holiday for the Viking, sorry Leif):
Robin Abcarian writes in the LA Times:
Far be it from us to advance a completely unfounded conspiracy theory, but is it at all possible that the Swedes have something against the Norse? Otherwise, how to account for the fact that the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to President Obama on Leif Erikson Day.
Erikson, as many will remember from their world history classes, was the first European to set foot on North American soil (well, Canada, actually), beating out Christopher Columbus by nearly 500 years.
The discovery went unnoticed, apparently, because…
Machines Designed to Change Humans
I remember how my mom used to yell at my dad because he was always trying to explain how we’re being farmed.
The Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab creates insight into how computing products — from websites to mobile phone software — can be designed to change what people believe and what they do.
Yes, this can be a scary topic: machines designed to influence human beliefs and behaviors. But there’s good news. We believe that much like human persuaders, persuasive technologies can bring about positive changes in many domains, including health, business, safety, and education. We also believe that new advances in technology can help promote world peace in 30 years. With such positive ends in mind, we are creating a body of expertise in the design, theory, and analysis of persuasive technologies, an area called “captology.”
By arriving at this page, you’ve reached the main website for our research lab, directed by Dr.…
Blind Children Can Learn Daredevil’s Echolocation
Lauren Davis writes on io9.com:
Blind superhero Daredevil could identify his surroundings by listening to sounds as they bounced off objects. Now a blind boy in Britain has learned to use echolocation himself, a technique that can be taught to others.
Seven-year old Lucas Murray has learned to “see” objects around him by clicking his tongue against the roof of his mouth and listening to the sounds that come back to him. Although he may not get the full Daredevil effect, he can identify the distance, shape, density and position of objects around him, as well as whether an object or person is coming or going. Being able to identify objects in this way is a great boon to his independence, and he can navigate a room or a playground — and even shoot a basketball into a hoop unaided.
Although Murray is reportedly the first person in the UK to use this technique…
Homegrown Pot Threatens Mexican Cartels
Steve Fainaru and William Booth report for The Washington Post:
Stiff competition from thousands of mom-and-pop marijuana farmers in the United States threatens the bottom line for powerful Mexican drug organizations in a way that decades of arrests and seizures have not, according to law enforcement officials and pot growers in the United States and Mexico.
Illicit pot production in the United States has been increasing steadily for decades. But recent changes in state laws that allow the use and cultivation of marijuana for medical purposes are giving U.S. growers a competitive advantage, challenging the traditional dominance of the Mexican traffickers, who once made brands such as Acapulco Gold the standard for quality.
Almost all of the marijuana consumed in the multibillion-dollar U.S. market once came from Mexico or Colombia. Now as much as half is produced domestically, often by small-scale operators who painstakingly tend greenhouses and indoor gardens to produce the…
Nuclear Engineer from CERN lab arrested for Al-Qaeda links
Adam Sage reports for The Times:
Fears that al-Qaeda is planning an attack on the nuclear industry in Europe were renewed yesterday after French secret agents arrested a physicist working at an atomic research centre.
The 32-year-old man, who was detained with his brother, 25, is suspected of providing a list of terrorist targets to North African Islamic radicals. He worked for the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva, Switzerland, according to French police sources.
Agents were said to have intercepted messages in which the physicist, a Frenchman of Algerian origin, had suggested targets in France.
He is believed to have been in contact with members of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, an Algerian-based terror organisation that joined Osama bin Laden’s network in 2007.
Man Regrows New Skull After 50 Years
BBC News reports:
The severely damaged skull of a Northumberland man involved in a car crash 50 years ago has regenerated itself, a process thought to be rare. Doctors operated to treat an infection in Gordon Moore’s head and found the bone had grown back beneath the metal plate inserted after the accident.
This would not be unusual in a child, whose bones are growing, but there are very few documented cases in adults. Doctors said it was particularly remarkable given the size of the area. Mr Moore, from Ridsdale, made headlines previously by becoming among the first tourists to visit Iraq and Afghanistan.
The former postmaster flipped his car while driving near Berwick in 1955. The metal plate which was inserted was itself dented three years later in a subsequent car crash. His new skull reportedly follows the contours of this dent.
Mr Moore said the plate had never bothered him, but he was…
Ay Carumba! Marge Simpson Is On Playboy Cover
Sure it’s a marketing stunt for The Simpsons‘ 20 years on the sir, but an interesting reflection on the damage done by the internet to print media. Mike Bruno writes in EW’s PopWatch:
Big news for fans of animated nudity (and there are more than you may think): America’s sweetheart Marge Simpson will be showing a whole lotta yellow in the new issue of Playboy to commemorate The Simpsons’ 20th anniversary. The issue on stands Oct. 16 has the blue-haired beauty gracing its cover as well as a three-page spread featuring “implied nudity.” New Playboy CEO Scott Flanders (Aha, Flanders … there’s the connection) says he’s trying to appeal to readers younger than the mag’s 35-year-old average. Clearly, Flanders succeeded in getting his magazine on people’s minds — for a day or two, anyway — and helping spread the word that, Hey, this ain’t your granddaddy’s Playboy. But interesting Alec Baldwin interviews aside, Playboy will always live and die by its naked ladies, and I’m not sure a cartoon stunt can change the fact that Playboy’s airbrushed centerfold spreads have been supplanted by the Internet’s ability to offer every flavor of naked lady known to man (as well as fetish flavors unknown to most men) in both photo and video form.
Here’s an AP video story about it:
20 Tattoos You Don’t Want To Get (If You’re A Guy)
You really have to visit Comedy.com to appreciate just how bad some of these tats are. As they say:
We’re not sure why guys get elaborate, over-the-top tattoos (like these 5 Crazy Ronald Regan Tattoos). We just know the people who get them have serious issues we don’t even want to know about (especially, if you got this Patrick Swayze tattoo). That reminds us, we should call our parents. Check out the 20 Tattoos You Don’t Want To Get (If You’re A Guy).
Nobel Price Farce
From Nick P at Black Sun Gazette
I don’t really need to get into why this is insane, Orwellian, and farcical. But I’m going to anyway. The refusal to dawn down troops in Afghanistan, the continued threads against Iran, the expansion of the War on Terror Truth into Pakistan (using tactics at home in Pinochet’s Chile) and Somalia (while simultaneously cutting food aid), continuing Bush-era police state operations, defending Bush-era torturers while leaving the framework of their policies in place, attacking health care for working class Americans, offering no relief to unemployed workers while giving the bankers who caused the crisis whatever they want at the expense of you and me, and generally fiddling while Rome burns.
Yeah. Dude is really doing his bit to increase the peace.
In My Life: Robert Hilburn’s ‘Corn Flakes With John Lennon’
Robert Hilburn was pop music critic for the Los Angeles Times for 35 years, from the psychedelic era to the emergence of the iPod. He witnessed many of rock ‘n’ roll’s seminal moments and interviewed virtually every major pop figure of the period. All of this is chronicled in his memoir, Corn Flakes with John Lennon (and Other Tales From a Rock ‘n’ Roll Life). In this abridged excerpt, Hilburn explores his relationship with Lennon after the Beatles’ breakup and explains the book’s title:
John Lennon raced into Yoko Ono’s home office in the mammoth old Dakota building with a copy of Donna Summer’s new single, “The Wanderer.” “Listen!” he shouted to us as he put the 45 on the record player. “She’s doing Elvis!” I didn’t know what he was talking about at first. The arrangement felt more like rock than the singer’s usual electro-disco approach, but the opening vocal sure sounded like…
CIA Places Climate Change On Its Agenda
Interesting report today in Marketwatch (a Rupert Murdoch/Dow Jones site) about CIA getting involved in climate change, global warming and other Al Gore-like topics. The article’s focus is on whether or not it’s appropriate for CIA to be doing this as opposed to countering terrorism, but it made me wonder if CIA is trying to propagate what some are calling the global warming myth. I certainly know some New World Order conspiracy theory types who would find a hidden agenda in this announcement. From the report:
The Central Intelligence Agency is opening a Center on Climate Change. Its mission is to examine the national security impact of phenomena such as desertification, rising sea levels, population shifts and heightened competition for natural resources.
Such a mission is certainly needed. Many of the world’s conflicts begin as natural-resource disputes. The genocide in Darfur, Sudan, began as a fight over water between farmers and ranchers; the…
How to Make People Believe in Telepathy
Psyblog reports:
Have you ever been thinking about someone and then moments later they’ve called you? Is that random coincidence or something more?
People love to believe in supernatural powers like telepathy. At least one-third of Americans report a belief in extra-sensory perception (ESP), with a further 40% refusing to rule out the possibility. Surveys in Europe reveal similar figures with one study finding that almost two-thirds of people believe in some form of ESP (further figures on the NSF website).
Psychologists are particularly interested in why people have these sorts of beliefs. One common explanation is that people’s natural desire to make sense of what is a fundamentally random and confusing world is so strong that patterns are seen where there are none. It’s like when we look at a visual illusion or watch a good magician: we’re easily tricked.
So what kinds of situations make us more prone to this magical thinking?…
A.I. Researcher Offers 11 Singularity Survival Tips
A.I. researcher Ben Goertzel reports back from the 2009 Singularity Summit in New York. Stephen Wolfram discussed Wolfram|Alpha, an IBM researcher described brain emulation, and Intel CTO Justin Rattner spoke “on his firm’s potential role in the Singularity.”
But in this follow-up article, Ben Goertzel describes what he learned in a day-long workshop/discussion group on averting catastrophic outcomes after a humanity-altering technological breakthrough.
For example, his list of “11 ways to avoid a bad Singularity” suggests that humanity should simply refrain from building any artificial intelligences that are autonomous…
Fnord! President Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize
Man, the Norwegians must be really, really happy Bush is gone. Wojciech Moskwa and Matt Spetalnick report for Reuters:
U.S. President Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for offering the world hope and striving for nuclear disarmament in a surprise award that drew both warm praise and sharp criticism.
The bestowal of one of the world’s top accolades on a president less than nine months in office, who has yet to score a major foreign policy success, was greeted with gasps of astonishment from journalists at the announcement in Oslo.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee praised Obama for “his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.”
Critics — some in parts of the Arab and Muslim world — called the committee decision premature….
Social media an inviting target for cybercriminals
Steve Almasy writes for CNN:
It’s your birthday. And thanks to your Facebook profile, everybody knows that. Your wall fills up with well wishes from hundreds of “friends.”
Sure, it’s nice to be noticed. But security experts are skeptical about whether sharing information, such as birthdays, with a broad audience is a bright idea.
“It’s all about providing the bad guy with intelligence,” said Robert Siciliano, CEO of IDtheftsecurity.com. “Back in the day, spy organizations planted someone on the inside to get proprietary data. Social media is the man on the inside. We’re giving away all the intelligence for free.”
Many people use their birthdate in passwords and personal identification numbers, and security questions often ask for it to resend a lost password. So broadcasting a birthdate could help cybercriminals pose as others as they log on to various Web sites, experts warned.
The same goes for pet names and the names of children. If…
