Archive for October, 2009
Fidel Castro’s Sister Says She Worked With CIA While in Cuba
Juan O. Tamayo reports in the Miami Herald:
Juanita Castro, sister of Cuban rulers Fidel and Raúl Castro, cooperated with the CIA in the 1960s — a time when the U.S. agency was plotting to assassinate Fidel and overthrow his revolution — according to an exclusive Univisión-Noticias 23 report on her newly published book.
The report also revealed that Juanita, who broke with her brothers’ revolution in 1964, hid government opponents in her home; that Fidel refused to visit her because the house was “surrounded by worms;” and that their mother often intervened with Raúl to help Castro critics, jailed or fugitive.
Described as the Castro family’s best-kept secret in the weeks that preceded the release of her book Monday, Juanita’s revelation of her link with the CIA came as a short teaser at the end of a Univisión-Noticias 23 report on the book broadcast at 11 p.m. Sunday.
Juanita told the program that…
Where Are They Now? G.W. Bush Edition
What does one do after holding the U.S. presidency? Work on fighting AIDS in Africa? Find a peaceful solution to the Israeli-Palestinian crisis? In the case of George W. Bush, he is now speaking at $19 motivational seminars.
The Get Motivated seminar is, according to its website, “world famous for its energizing, action-packed, star-studded, fun-filled, spectacular stage show.” The all-day event will be held next week at the Fort Worth Convention Center Arena. Besides Bush, speakers include Rudy Giuliani (”America’s mayor”), Terry Bradshaw (”legendary NFL Hall of Fame quarterback), Rick Belluzzo (”legendary president of Microsoft”) and Tamara Lowe (”top sales expert and author of Get Motivated!”). Get yer tix now.
Leech Blood DNA Match Solves Crime
Leeches have been invaluable societal tools for centuries. And they are still proving to have use today; the The Daily Mail reports on how a decade-old crime in Australia was solved after police found a leech with the suspect’s blood:
An armed robber has been caught after his DNA was matched with blood from a leech found at the scene of the crime he committed eight years ago.
The creature was the only piece of evidence recovered from a farmhouse ransacked by Peter Cannon and an accomplice. But it was only when Cannon was arrested for a separate crime last year that the DNA match was discovered by Australian police.
It is the oddest way of convicting anyone I have ever been involved in,’ Detective Inspector Mick Johnston said. ‘I have not been able to find any similar cases anywhere in the world – nothing like this at all.’
…
Nine Words You Might Think Came from Science but Which Are Really from Science Fiction
From Jeff Prucher of Oxford University Press:
1. Robotics. This is probably the most well-known of these, since Isaac Asimov is famous for (among many other things) his three laws of robotics. Even so, I include it because it is one of the only actual sciences to have been first named in a science fiction story (”Liar!”, 1941). Asimov also named the related occupation (roboticist) and the adjective robotic.
2. Genetic engineering. The other science that received its name from a science fiction story, in this case Jack Williamson’s novel Dragon’s Island, which was coincidentally published in the same year as “Liar!” The occupation of genetic engineer took a few more years to be named, this time by Poul Anderson.
3. Zero-gravity/zero-g. A defining feature of life in outer space (sans artificial gravity, of course). The first known use of “zero-gravity” is from Jack Binder (better known for his work as an artist) in 1938,…
Madoff Friend, Jeffry Picower Found Dead At Bottom Of Pool
Sound a little fishy?
from AP:
PALM BEACH, Fla. — Jeffry Picower, a philanthropist accused of profiting more than $7 billion from the investment schemes of his longtime friend Bernard Madoff, was found at the bottom of the pool at his oceanside mansion and died Sunday, police said. He was 67.
Picower’s wife, Barbara, discovered his body and pulled him from the water with help from a housekeeper, authorities said. He was pronounced dead at Good Samaritan Medical Center at about 1:30 p.m.
Palm Beach police are investigating the death as a drowning, but have not ruled out anything on the cause of death.
Send Lawyers, Guns, and Money
Daniel Gross suggests that anti-Obama paranoia is good for at least one business, writing in Salon.com:
In recent months, there has been a lot of talk about what historian Richard Hofstadter called the “the paranoid style in American politics.” To believe the Glenn Becks of the world, the Democrats and their Commie, tree-hugging comrades are going to take away Americans’ guns, confiscate private property, enslave free thinkers, and generally destroy the nation. Of course, most sophisticates don’t give much currency to such arguments. But that hasn’t stopped them from trying to monetize the phenomenon. Fox News Channel has boosted audiences by narrowcasting to birthers and tea partiers, and it has seen an increase in ads from gold companies (the metal is thought to be a good hedge against Obama destroying the dollar). HarperCollins, another New York-based component of the Murdoch empire, has ordered up a huge printing of Sarah Palin’s memoir…
Kiefer Sutherland & ‘24′ Are Back (New Season 8 Video Promos)
Well we’ve had a change in the occupancy of the White House since the last season of the TV drama ‘24′ was filmed, but Jack Bauer & friends are still trying to make America a safe place for “the ends justify the means”-style War on Terror tactics, as popularized by Rumsfeld, Cheney and their neo-con friends in the Bush administration. Just leaked, the latest promos for Season 8, coming in January 2010, show it’s business as usual for Mr. Bauer:
Britons Start To Fight Back Against the Surveillance State
Having grown up in Britain, pre-surveillance state, it’s amazing to me that during the last twenty years the British have just meekly accepted the ever-increasing and encroaching surveillance powers used by all levels of government in the U.K. But at long last there’s some resistance, at least at the local level, as reported by the New York Times:
Poole, England — It has become commonplace to call Britain a “surveillance society,” a place where security cameras lurk at every corner, giant databases keep track of intimate personal details and the government has extraordinary powers to intrude into citizens’ lives.
A report in 2007 by the lobbying group Privacy International placed Britain in the bottom five countries for its record on privacy and surveillance, on a par with Singapore.
But the intrusions visited on Jenny Paton, a 40-year-old mother of three, were startling just the same. Suspecting Ms. Paton of falsifying her address to…
2013: Or, What to Do When the Apocalypse Doesn’t Arrive
Gary Lachman is the author of several well-respected occult-themed books (including the Disinformation book Turn Off Your Mind: The Mystic Sixties and the Dark Side of the Age of Aquarius). He asked us to run his take on the 2012 phenomenenon (the essay was originally published in EnlightenNext Magazine):
The belief in a coming end of the world as we know it may seem understandable to people living in the first decade of the twenty-first century, but a look at history shows that it has been part of Western psychology from the beginning.
The central figure of Western religion, Jesus Christ, told his followers that the end was nigh, and most people who accepted Jesus believed that the cosmic last call would come in their lifetime. Yet Jesus worked within an age-old Jewish tradition that looked to the coming of the Messiah, a religious and political leader who would set the world…
Researcher Breeds Evolving Swarm Intelligence
Swiss researchers simulated evolution with multiple generations of food-seeking robots in a new study of artificial swarm intellgence, and “Under some conditions, sophisticated communication evolved,” says one researcher.
And in a more recent study, the swarms of bots didn’t just evolve cooperative strategies they also evolved the ability to deceive. (”Forget zombies,” joked one commenter. “This is the real threat.”)
“The study of artificial swarm intelligence provides insight into the nature of intelligence in general, and offers an interesting perspective on the nature of Darwinian selection, competition, and cooperation.”
And there’s also some cool video of the bots in action:
Nuke the Moon: 5 Certifiably Insane Cold War Projects
Some fun mad science from Cracked.com:
The upcoming movie The Men Who Stare at Goats tells the story of a military operation that attempted to create Jedi warriors who could teleport through walls and kill goats by staring at them. It all sounds pretty far-fetched … until you realize that it’s based on a true story, and it’s just one of many bizarre operations Cold War-era militaries pursued seriously.
See, the Cold War was never really about physical combat. It was more like telling stories around a campfire: Whoever had the scariest idea, wins. And killing goats with your eyes was just the tip of the pant-crappingly crazy iceberg.
#5.
Project A119In the years before the first lunar landing, the United States was lagging behind a bit in the space race. The Soviets had both the first satellite and the first human being in space, while the United States had two thumbs and an asshole…
New Study Says Mobile Phones Really Do Cause Brain Tumors
The Sunday Express reports:
Long-term mobile phone users could face a higher risk of developing cancer in later life, according to a decade-long study.
The report, to be published later this year, has reportedly found that heavy mobile use is linked to brain tumours.
The survey of 12,800 people in 13 countries has been overseen by the World Health Organisation.
Preliminary results of the inquiry, which is looking at whether mobile phone exposure is linked to three types of brain tumour and a tumour of the salivary gland, have been sent to a scientific journal.
The findings are expected to put pressure on the British Government – which has insisted that mobile phones are safe – to issue stronger warnings to users.
Rethinking Relativity: Is Time Out of Joint?
Rachel Courtland asks a deep question in New Scientist:
Ever since Arthur Eddington travelled to the island of Príncipe off Africa to measure starlight bending around the sun during a 1919 eclipse, evidence for Einstein’s theory of general relativity has only become stronger. Could it now be that starlight from distant galaxies is illuminating cracks in the theory’s foundation?
Everything from the concept of the black hole to GPS timing owes a debt to the theory of general relativity, which describes how gravity arises from the geometry of space and time. The sun’s gravitational field, for instance, bends starlight passing nearby because its mass is warping the surrounding space-time. This theory has held up to precision tests in the solar system and beyond, and has explained everything from the odd orbit of Mercury to the way pairs of neutron stars perform their pas de deux.
Yet it is still not clear how well…
That Old Black Magick
The Infinite and the Beyond — Podcast: Episode #008 — That Old Black Magick
Website • iTunes • Direct Download • RSS
In this episode of The Infinite and the Beyond, we eplore the darker aspects of occult history by tracing the origins of the black magick tradition to the ancient grimoires and the early years of the Catholic Church in A Corner in the Occult.
We take a personal stab and hopefully kill the concepts of good and evil as we study how they are understood and often applied in one’s life. We have some fun with a capital W which addresses a long standing concern of mine.
In our journey through The Kybalion, we look into the Principle of Polarity which addresses polaric concepts and their empty dependence on each other and their illusionary, if not typically superficial, professed separatness.
I read listener email and announce a contest for this episode. I play a variety of show promos in support of the podkin and other podcasts I enjoy. All this and more as we address the controversial idea and existence of black magick from a traditional as well as from a philosophical perspective throughout the entirety of the show.
To message the show please go here.
Fake Obama Thesis Story Goes Viral, Because Of Stupidity
Jason Linkins in Huffington Post:
Okay, let’s get you up to speed on the incredibly true story about how a bunch of right-wingers got taken in by some satiric blog post on Barack Obama’s college thesis, written ages ago, and frantically presented it as real.
Months ago, some blogger crafted a fake news story about how Time Magazine’s Joe Klein had obtained ten pages of a thesis written by Barack Obama, in which he wrote about how the Constitution was “inherently flawed.”
In the paper, in which only the first ten pages were given to the general media, Obama decries the plight of the poor: “I see poverty in every place I walk. In Los Angeles and New York, the poor reach to me with bleary eyes and all I can do is sigh.”
In part, the future President blames this on the current economic system: “There are many who will defend the ‘free market.’ But who…
The Audacity of ‘Precious’
Is America ready for a movie about an obese Harlem girl raped and impregnated by her abusive father? Lynn Hirschberg tells us in the cover story of this week’s New York Times Magazine:
At the Cannes International Film Festival in May, in the loud, chaotic bar at the Martinez Hotel, Lee Daniels seemed, as he often does, both ecstatic and nervous. He jumped, he slumped, his mood changing from giddy to anxious. He was the only black man in the crowded bar, a fact that he mentioned and then brushed away. He was dressed unremarkably in a loose, untucked shirt and slouchy khaki pants, but his hair, an electric corona of six-inch fusilli-like spirals, demanded notice. Although Daniels will be 50 this year, he has the bouncy, mercurial energy of a child. The previous night, at the gala screening of his movie “Precious,” which he directed and helped produce, he greeted…
Companies Reap the Swine Flu Windfall
Healthcare companies are reaping the benefits of a global swine flu pandemic, brightening what might otherwise have been a dismal third quarter and bringing new focus on the market for vaccines.
Two Important Articles: The Collapse of Communism / “Unions”
From Black Sun Gazette
I wanted to recommend two articles to my readership from my most favorite news source, the World Socialist Web Site. I consider this website to be nothing short of the New York Times or The Economist for working class socialists. The two articles I am about to refer people to here express quite succinctly why I consider their analysis to be head and shoulders above anything else on the phony left. In addition, I believe that these two articles really cut to the heart of two problems that plague the fake left. Namely, anti-communism and toadying for the “union” bureaucracy.
The Conspiracy Show (video)
Hot on the heels of the AboveTopSecret.com video news show, ATS News, Canada’s Richard Syrett has launched The Conspiracy Show an exciting new weekly one hour TV series about conspiracy theories, paranormal events, unexplained mysteries, secret archaeology & suppressed science. Here’s the trailer:
