Archive for November, 2009
Porn Causes Tsunamis and Earthquakes
The interesting PZ Myers writes on Pharyngula:
Powerful stuff, that porn. The Indonesian Minister of Communication and Information (who must be very smart to have a title like that) has determined that recent natural disasters in his country are a consequence of the ubiquity of pornographic DVDs. His logic is something like this:
1) it is a fact that one can easily buy porn in local markets, and
2) it is a fact that the Padang earthquake killed over a thousand people and that the Aceh tsunami devastated an entire region, therefore
3) it is a fact that the two are causally related.
Well, point 3 is a little shaky, but 1 and 2 are so strong it must make up for the absence of a causal relationship. Right? Right?
Anyway, you must all now unplug the internet and go through your magazines and DVDs and dispose of anything that might stir the wrath of gods.…
What the World’s First ‘Space Station of the Sea’ Will Look Like
From The Daily Mail:
It looks more like the Starship Enterprise sinking in the sea – but this huge vertical vessel could be the future of ocean exploration.
Called the SeaOrbiter, the huge 51m (167ft) structure is set to be the world’s first vertical ship allowing man a revolutionary view of life below the surface.
Although currently only a prototype its inventor Jacques Rougerie thinks his international oceanographic station will soon be setting sail.
Mr Rougerie wants the ship to be a space station for the sea giving scientists an insight into the little-known world under the sea.
‘At the moment, they [oceanographers] can dive only for short periods before they have to be brought back to the surface. It is as though they were taken to study the Amazon jungle and then helicoptered away again after an hour,’ Mr Rougerie told The Times.
‘SeaOrbiter will provide a permanent mobile presence with a window to what…
Leave Churchill Out of Scientology, Says Family
From The Independent:
Fight them on the beaches if you will. But the descendants of Sir Winston Churchill have decided that a more effective way to prevent the Church of Scientology from hijacking the memory of Britain’s wartime leader involves stern cease-and-desist letters and the threat of a costly PR battle.
In an unlikely dispute that pits Sir Winston’s grandchildren against followers of the late L Ron Hubbard – the science-fiction writer who believed, among other things, that mankind descended from aliens who arrived on Earth via spaceships – the controversial church has been asked to remove Churchill’s image and quotations from its fundraising literature.
The literary agency Curtis Brown, which represents several members of the Churchill family, has written to the church’s London branch protesting at a range of advertising leaflets and posters that liken the Allied struggle against Nazi Germany to Scientology’s efforts to recruit new members.
[Read more at The Independent]
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Understanding Our Hollow “Centrists”
From Truthout:
The puzzling thing about politicians of either party who claim to be “centrist” or “moderate” is how much they sometimes sound like party-line right-wing Republicans. Distinguishing among these species of politicians can be almost impossible during the current struggle over health care reform, especially when a senator like Blanche Lambert Lincoln of Arkansas tries to explain herself.
Like so many of the Republicans they try to emulate, the conservative Democrats claim to worry about spending and deficits — except with respect to programs that benefit them, their favorite constituents or the lobbyists who pay their campaign expenses.
Facing re-election and plummeting poll numbers, Lincoln voted to commence debate last weekend. But then she turned around and warned that she would probably join a Republican filibuster against the Democratic health reform bill. Why? Because the Democratic legislation, favored by a clear majority, is likely to include a public option.
[Read more at Truthout]
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Mysterious ‘Saddam Channel’ Hits Iraq TV
LARA JAKES writes on the AP via AOL News:
Turning on their TVs during the long holiday weekend, Iraqis were greeted by a familiar if unexpected face from their brutal past: Saddam Hussein. The late Iraqi dictator is lauded on a mysterious satellite channel that began broadcasting on the Islamic calendar’s anniversary of his 2006 execution.
No one seems to know who is bankrolling the so-called Saddam Channel, although the Iraqi government suspects it’s Baathists whose political party Saddam once led. The Associated Press tracked down a man in Damascus, Syria named Mohammed Jarboua, who claimed to be its chairman.
Viewers of al-Lafeta TV on Saturday saw the phrase “Raise your sword” next to a portrait of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. The channel began broadcasting on Friday, the first day of an important holiday of the Islamic calendar, and the anniversary of Saddam’s execution three years ago.
The Saddam channel, he said, “didn’t…
93% of Soybeans, 80% of Corn Grown from Genetically-Modified Monsanto Seeds
Peter Whoriskey reports in the Washington Post:
For plants designed in a lab a little more than a decade ago, they’ve come a long way: Today, the vast majority of the nation’s two primary crops grow from seeds genetically altered according to Monsanto company patents.
Ninety-three percent of soybeans. Eighty percent of corn.
The seeds represent “probably the most revolutionary event in grain crops over the last 30 years,” said Geno Lowe, a Salisbury, Md., soybean farmer.
But for farmers such as Lowe, prices of the Monsanto-patented seeds have steadily increased, roughly doubling during the past decade, to about $50 for a 50-pound bag of soybean seed, according to seed dealers.
The revolution, and Monsanto’s dominant role in the nation’s agriculture, has not unfolded without complaint. Farmers have decried the price increases, and competitors say the company has ruthlessly stifled competition.
Now Monsanto — like IBM and Google — has drawn scrutiny from U.S. antitrust investigators,…
Michael Moore’s Open Letter To President Obama On Afghanistan
Michael Moore on Huffington Post:
Dear President Obama,
Do you really want to be the new “war president”? If you go to West Point tomorrow night (Tuesday, 8pm) and announce that you are increasing, rather than withdrawing, the troops in Afghanistan, you are the new war president. Pure and simple. And with that you will do the worst possible thing you could do — destroy the hopes and dreams so many millions have placed in you. With just one speech tomorrow night you will turn a multitude of young people who were the backbone of your campaign into disillusioned cynics. You will teach them what they’ve always heard is true — that all politicians are alike. I simply can’t believe you’re about to do what they say you are going to do. Please say it isn’t so.
It is not your job to do what the generals tell you to do. We are…
Blood Gold at Wal-Mart; Five Million Dead in the Congo
One of the most interesting things I found out about in this 60 Minutes story is that Wal-Mart is the largest gold retailer in the United States. Here at Disinfo, we distributed Robert Greenwald’s Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price, and here’s another troubling consequence to add to this idea, that low price doesn’t come without costs that you, the consumer, may not be aware of. Costs that can make you think twice about exactly what you are buying.
Scott Pelley reports on 60 Minutes:
Sitting Now Podcast: Modern Magick with Donald Michael Kraig
Right Where You Are Sitting Now presents:
We continue our occult exploration this week with seminal author Donald Michael Kraig. Donald is the author of the best-selling titles: ‘Modern Magick’ and ‘Modern Sex Magick‘, and has recently authored his first novel ‘The Resurection Murders‘. This is our longest interview to date, kept at its almost full original length because we enjoyed Don’s company so much.
This week we discuss: Being a ‘modern magician’, Sex Magick, Tantra, Initatory orders, Occult novels, secret rituals of certain orders, how a magickal order should survive the information age, and much more.
I am joined this week in the palacial SittingNow studio by new co-hosts Cameron Leonard-Schroff, and Paul Powney.
Dear God, Please Confirm What I Already Believe
Andy Coghlan writes in New Scientist:
God may have created man in his image, but it seems we return the favour. Believers subconsciously endow God with their own beliefs on controversial issues.
“Intuiting God’s beliefs on important issues may not produce an independent guide, but may instead serve as an echo chamber to validate and justify one’s own beliefs,” writes a team led by Nicholas Epley of the University of Chicago in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The researchers started by asking volunteers who said they believe in God to give their own views on controversial topics, such as abortion and the death penalty. They also asked what the volunteers thought were the views of God, average Americans and public figures such as Bill Gates. Volunteers’ own beliefs corresponded most strongly with those they attributed to God.
Next, the team asked another group of volunteers to undertake tasks designed to soften their…
10,000 Albinos In Hiding After Killings In East Africa
via HuffPo:
NAIROBI, Kenya — The mistaken belief that albino body parts have magical powers has driven thousands of Africa’s albinos into hiding, fearful of losing their lives and limbs to unscrupulous dealers who can make up to $75,000 selling a complete dismembered set.
Mary Owido, who lacks pigment that gives color to skin, eyes and hair, says she is only comfortable when at work or at home with her husband and children.
“Wherever I go people start talking about me, saying that my legs and hands can fetch a fortune in Tanzania,” said Owido, 36, a mother of six. “This kind of talk scares me. I am afraid of going out alone.”
Since 2007, 44 albinos have been killed in Tanzania and 14 others have been slain in Burundi, sparking widespread fear among albinos in East Africa.
At least 10,000 have been displaced or gone into hiding since the killings began, according to a…
Global Temperature May Rise By Eleven Degrees This Century
There’s plenty of debate over just how much global temperatures will rise during the twenty-first century due to global warming. The Guardian reports that the latest study suggests an across-the-board temperature increase of 6C (approximately 11 degrees Fahrenheit):
The new study is the most comprehensive analysis to date of how economic changes and shifts in the way people have used the land in the past five decades have affected the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere.
“The global trends we are on with CO2 emissions from fossil fuels suggest that we’re heading towards 6C of global warming,” said Corinne Le Quéré of the University of East Anglia who led the study with colleagues at the British Antarctic Survey.
Iran Election Protestors Sentenced To Death
Remember when young Iranians marched though the streets this past summer to protest Ahmadinejad’s questionable victory in the nation’s presidential election? The U.S. media has lost interest in the topic, but Al Jazeera actually still cares, and reports that some of the protesters are now being sentenced to death:
Iran has sentenced five people to death and 81 others to prison terms of up to 15 years in a mass trial of opposition figures accused of fomenting the unrest that followed June’s disputed presidential election, state television says.
Offenses includ[ed] security violations, agitating against the Islamic Republic, violating law and order, damaging public and private property, and assaulting civilians and security forces.
Obama Makes History By Omitting God
Daniel Florien writes in Unreasonable Faith:
This year was the first year that an American president has omitted a direct reference to God in the Thanksgiving proclamation:
The beneficence shown by God to America is a theme that traditionally defines the Thanksgiving holiday, and this theme is strongly emphasized in the original Thanksgiving Day proclamations and consistently acknowledged even by modern presidents.
Obama’s unprecedented proclamation, however, only makes indirect mention of God by quoting George Washington, stating: “Today, we recall President George Washington, who proclaimed our first national day of public thanksgiving to be observed ‘by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God.’”
The proclamation goes on to call Thanksgiving Day “a unique national tradition we all share” that unites people as “thankful for our common blessings.”
“This is a time for us to renew our bonds with one another, and we can fulfill that commitment by serving our communities and…
Gangs In New York Talk Twitter: Use Tweets To Trash-Talk Rivals, Plan Fights
Is there no stopping the spread of Twitter? Now it’s a tool for gang warfare, at least accoring to tabloid newspaper the New York Daily News:
The city’s street gangs are becoming tweet gangs.
Manhattan’s young thugs have turned to Twitter, and the cops who track them are fast behind, the Daily News has learned.
It’s old-school crime meets new technology: attacks being plotted – and thwarted – 140 characters at a time.
One investigator recently warned parents and teens that the bastion of OMG and LOL has been infiltrated by violent crews waging turf wars.
A boy shot in the leg weeks earlier on Lenox Ave. may have been targeted because of a battle the Original Young Gangsters crew started on Twitter.
“It’s horrible,” NYPD Lt. Kevin O’Connor of Manhattan North’s gang intelligence unit told a forum in Harlem.
A basic search of the social-networking site for OYG or Jeff Mob, the gang based in the…
Military Funds Tiny Flying “Spy Hummingbird”
“It looks like a hummingbird!” But it’s an unmanned military aerial vehicle with a 5-inch wingspan for which DARPA is providing a second round of funding!
The ’spy hummingbird’ weighs just 10 grams (about the weight of two nickels) and can perform “controlled hovering flight” using only an on-board power source and flapping its two wings…
This article appeared in the latest edition of H+ magazine.
Large Hadron Collider Sets World Record
Betsy Mason reports for Wired News:
CERN announced early Monday that the Large Hadron Collider has become the world’s highest-energy particle accelerator. The LHC pushed protons to 1.18 TeV (trillion electron volts), surpassing the previous record of 0.98 TeV held by Fermilab’s Tevatron.
The LHC had a rough start: It suffered a mechanical failure just a week after it fired up for the first time in September 2008. Now, 10 days after it turned on again, scientists are celebrating with their fingers crossed that the machine is safely on its way to the physics experiments they plan to begin next year when the LHC has reached its target energy of 7 TeV.
“We are still coming to terms with just how smoothly the LHC commissioning is going,” said CERN Director General Rolf Heuer in a press release Monday. “However, we are continuing to take it step by step, and there is still a…
Authority to Spy on Americans Unclear as Patriot Act Expires
Why aren’t we hearing more about this chance to rid ourselves of the most unconstitutional piece of legislation in recent memory, the PATRIOT Act? Elizabeth Gorman files this rare report for ABC News:
Rushed into law by Congress just weeks after Sept. 11, 2001 three controversial provisions of the Patriot Act granting officials far-reaching surveillance and seizure powers in the name of national security, are due to expire this New Year’s Eve.
Two differing bills passed by the House and Senate judiciary committees in recent weeks will have to be reconciled in Congress, but only when the Senate isn’t backlogged by health care, Democratic aides told ABC News.
“This critical legislation protects our national security, as well as our civil liberties, and the clock is ticking,” said Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Wisc., an author of President Bush’s 2001 Patriot Act and former chairman of the House Judiciary Committee under the Bush administration.
Sensenbrenner urged the House…
What Kind of Country Arrests Innocent People to Boost its DNA Database?
From The Daily Mail:
Throughout the 12 years since New Labour began its assault upon our civil liberties, the response to those of us who publicly vented our dismay was straightforward: ‘If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear.’
So, by that logic, we were invited to embrace the ugly stacks of CCTV cameras that crawled across our High Streets and which, surprise, surprise, did nothing to reduce general levels of crime and lawlessness.
By the same token, we were encouraged to say ‘Amen’ to the multi-billion-pound ID cards scheme, or ‘entitlement cards’ as Tony Blair’s old flatmate Lord Falconer used soothingly to call them when he was a minister in the Home Office.
This gigantic New Labour bung to foreign-owned IT companies is now discredited, though still being ‘rolled out’ as a voluntary scheme in Manchester to save the Government’s face.
[Read more at The Daily Mail]
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