Archive for November, 2009
If Marijuana Production Were Legal: Projected Tax Revenues, by State
A great chart from SloshSpot:
Egyptian Official at the Great Pyramid: Beyonce Is A “Stupid Person”
Bikya Masr reports on the rude behavior of Zahi Hawass, a man who has often tangled with anyone daring to challenge his “official” opinions on the Giza Pyramids or any other aspect of ancient Egypt:
CAIRO: In a shocking display of poor diplomacy, Egypt’s chief Egyptologist Zahi Hawass allegedly called American pop-star Beyonce a “stupid person” during her brief tour of the Giza pyramids earlier this week. Writing in al-Shorouk newspaper, Summer al-Gamal said that Hawass became fed up with the pop star’s attitude after she did not show the interest Hawass felt was deserved of the pyramids.
According to Gamal, during Hawass’ self-guided tour, he said “I showed her the Sphinx and I gave her a book on King Tutankhamen,” but then his anger and frustration made its way to the forefront.
“Then he stopped being diplomatic and said in anger, ’she’s a stupid person and she doesn’t understand a thing and she…
Weather Channel Founder to Sue Al Gore for Global Warming Fraud
Climate change denier John Coleman has come up with his best publicity stunt so far, aided and abetted by, who else, Fox News Channel:
As the Rudes Get Ruder, the Scolds Get Scoldier
Does this story belong in “the paper of record” (for those who forgot, that was the New York Times once upon a time)? It’s hardly news, but now that very few people wait for a printed newspaper to learn what’s happening in their world, perhaps this is the type of story we should expect from the dino-media:
Amy Alkon, a syndicated advice columnist and self-described “manners psycho,” certainly thinks so. Just ask “Barry,” a loud cellphone talker she encountered recently at a Starbucks in Santa Monica, Calif.
“He just blatantly took over the whole place with his conversation, streaming his dull life into everybody’s brain,” Ms. Alkon recalled in a telephone interview.
Among the personal details Barry shared that day — errands to run, plans for the evening — was his phone number, which Ms. Alkon jotted down.
“I called him that night and said, ‘Just calling to let you know, Barry, that if you’d…
United States Has Highest Rates of Sex Diseases In Developed World
Maggie Fox reports on the continuing spread of sexually transmitted diseases in the United States for Reuters:
American squeamishness about talking about sex has helped keep common sexually transmitted infections far too common, especially among vulnerable teens, U.S. researchers reported Monday.
Latest statistics on chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis show the three highly treatable infections continue to spread in the United States.
“Chlamydia and gonorrhea are stable at unacceptably high levels and syphilis is resurgent after almost being eliminated,” said John Douglas, director of the division of sexually transmitted diseases at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“We have among the highest rates of STDs of any developed country in the world,” Douglas added in a telephone interview…
Are We Closer To Robotic Superpowers?
The disabled are already combining cutting-edge technology with robotics and bionics, according to this article. The video at the end of the article shows a TED presentation by Aimee Mullins, who argues “It is no longer a conversation about overcoming deficiencies. It’s a conversation about augmentation…about potential,” adding artificial limbs “can stand as a symbol that the wearer has the power to create whatever it is that they want to create in that space.”
There’s also a video of a new robotic hand wired to existing nerve endings that can literally feel using 40 sensors linked directly to the brain. (”Perfectly good nerve endings remain at the stem of a severed limb… Our team is building the interface between the device and the nerves in the arm, connecting cognitive neuroscience with state-of-the-art information technologies.”) Plus a very moving story about the prosthetic “Luke” arm designed by Segway inventor Dean Kamen.
“Frederick Downs,…
Six Things The New ‘Prisoner’ Changed For The Worse
I managed to catch the first two hours of the Prisoner remake on AMC and am hoping the next four (it’s a six-hour mini-series) really picks up and does something remarkable. Curious to know what all you fans of the original series think (which can be viewed on AMC’s site here).
No spoilers here, but Number 6 is now played by Jim Caviezel (photo right) of The Passion of the Christ fame and Number 2 by actor extraordinaire, Ian McKellen. (Please note, some spoilers are below):
Charlie Jane Anders writes on io9.com:
The Prisoner used its premise of a spy trapped in an idyllic, but oppressive, village to ask questions about individuality in a conformist, overly processed society. Here are six ways last night’s remake throws away that rich premise…
USDA: Number of Americans Going Hungry Increases
By HENRY C. JACKSON, Associated Press via Google News:
More than one in seven American households struggled to put enough food on the table in 2008, the highest rate since the Agriculture Department began tracking food security levels in 1995.
That’s about 49 million people, or 14.6 percent of U.S. households. The numbers are a significant increase from 2007, when 11.1 percent of U.S. households suffered from what USDA classifies as “food insecurity” — not having enough food for an active, healthy lifestyle.
Researchers blamed the increase in hunger on a lack of money and other resources.
Read more: Associated Press via Google News
Bees Fight to Death Over Females
By Matt Walker of BBC Earth News:
It is rare for any species of animal to regularly kill its own in combat. However, male Dawson’s bees, one of the world’s largest bee species, are so aggressive that they kill each other en masse in a bid to mate with females.
The bees enter a frenzy of fighting, and by the time their deadly combat is over, every male bee is either killed or has perished. The extreme behaviour, which can lead to even females being killed, is caught on film by a BBC natural history crew.
Video on BBC Earth News
Occult America with Mitch Horowitz
After a pretty lengthy break from the world of podcasting, Ken Eakins (Sitting Now) and Raymond Wiley (disinformation) return with a real 90 minute treat!
This weeks guest, Mitch Horowitz, is the author of the excellent new book Occult America: How Mysticism Shaped our Nation. Mitch has held a lifelong interest in the Occult and Supernatural, and after pursuing the subject for as long, naturally, became the editor of one of the largest publishers of Occult and Supernatural works Tarcher/Penguin.
In this weeks episodes we discuss: Freemasons, Mesmirism, Theosophy, Astrology and the dark side of American occultism…
‘60 Minutes’ Still Says Hackers Caused Brazilian Blackout, Ignores Other Evidence
I’m one of those strange non-senior citizens who watches 60 Minutes on a regular basis (having a TiVo helps). So due to the controversy over a 2007 electrical blackout in Brazil that affected over 3 million people, I was expecting an update from 60 Minutes this week. They are sticking with their original story, still calling it “cyberwar”, and no mention that it might be due to poorly-maintained infrastructure, as WIRED and other sources say. My favorite part of the WIRED story is that the Brazilian government says their electric control systems aren’t connected to the internet.
Here’s the counter-story from Marcelo Soares at WIRED:
A massive 2007 electrical blackout in Brazil has been newly blamed on computer hackers, but was actually the result of a utility company’s negligent maintenance of high voltage insulators on two transmission lines. That’s according to reports from government regulators and others who investigated the incident for more than a year.
In a broadcast Sunday night, the CBS newsmagazine 60 Minutes cited unnamed sources in making the extraordinary claim that a two-day outage in the Atlantic state of Espirito Santo was triggered by hackers targeting a utility company’s control systems. The blackout affected 3 million people. Hackers also caused another, smaller blackout north of Rio de Janeiro in January 2005, the network claimed…
Moon Water: Will Lunar-Base Humans Be Able to Drink It?
Rebecca Sato writes on the Daily Galaxy:
Scientists recently solved some longstanding lunar mysteries, including how the Moon is producing its own water.
While it turns out that the Moon is not made out of Swiss cheese (disappointing, I know—that would have been a food source for lunar explorers), it does act like a big sponge of sorts. The lunar surface is a loose collection of irregular dust grains, known as regolith. Basically, the regolith absorbs electrically charged particles given out by the Sun. These electrically charged particles interact with molecules of oxygen that are already present in lunar dust, and voila, you have H2O…
French Scientists Working to Create Swine-Bird Superflu
Lauren Davis writes on io9.com:
Looking toward the worst case scenario for the swine flu pandemic, virologists in Lyon are attempting to create a virus as contagious as swine flu and as deadly as avian flu. Is it time to call in Bruce Willis yet?
Researchers at the Jean Mérieux/INSERM facility in Lyon, France, are working with the highly contagious H1N1 virus and its more lethal relation H5N1, better known as the avian flu. The scientists are attempting to determine if H1N1 could reassort with H5N1, blending their genetic material, and whether a resulting virus could have the worst traits of the original viruses.
More on io9.com
The Money That Is Sold Abroad Is YOU!
It is not dollars, treasuries, bonds and debt that is being sold by your government. Text and references: Freedomain Radio
About Half in U.S. Would Pay for Online News, Study Finds
Would you pay to read this article in the New York Times? Would you pay to read the news, views, and opinions at disinfo.com? Is there any online news source you couldn’t substitute for free?
Right, I thought so … so is this story just wishful thinking by the mainstream media?
Americans, it turns out, are less willing than people in many other Western countries to pay for their online news, according to a new study by the Boston Consulting Group.
Among regular Internet users in the United States, 48 percent said in the survey, conducted in October, that they would pay to read news online, including on mobile devices. That result tied with Britain for the lowest figure among nine countries where Boston Consulting commissioned surveys. In several Western European countries, more than 60 percent said they would pay.
When asked how much they would pay, Americans averaged just $3 a month, tied with…
Japan Creates Legal Waist Limit
Are you too fat for Japan? The Global Post writes on the nation’s new national waist limits: 33.5 inches for men and 35.4 inches for women.
In the world’s slimmest industrialized nation, those whose bellies expand beyond the legal limit may be subject to therapy and exercise classes (no jail time as of now).
The goal of the new regulations is to head off metabolic syndrome, or “metabo,” a combination of health risks, including stomach flab, high blood pressure and high cholesterol, that can lead to cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Companies are offering discounted gym memberships and developing diet plans for workers, and citizens are buying new metabo-fighting products, such as a $1,400 machine called the Joba that imitates a bucking bronco.
Strong Leonid Meteor Shower Peaks Early Tuesday Morning
By Robert Roy Britt for Space.com:
One of the best annual meteor showers will peak in the pre-dawn hours Tuesday, and for some skywatchers the show could be quite impressive.
The best seats are in Asia, but North American observers should be treated to an above average performance of the Leonid meteor shower, weather permitting. The trick for all observers is to head outside in the wee hours of the morning – between 1 a.m. and dawn – regardless where you live.
The Leonids put on a solid show every year, if skies are clear and moonlight does not interfere. This year the moon is near its new phase, and not a factor. For anyone in the Northern Hemisphere with dark skies, away from urban and suburban lighting, the show should be worth getting up early to see.
“We’re predicting 20 to 30 meteors per hour over the Americas, and as many as 200…
Venezuela Plans To Artificially Change Weather
From Reuters via AlertNet:
Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez says he will join a team of Cuban scientists on flights to “bomb clouds” to create rain amid a severe drought that has aroused public anger due to water and electricity rationing.
Chavez, who has asked Venezuelans to take three-minute showers to save water, said the Cubans had arrived in Venezuela and were preparing to fly specially equipped aircraft above the Orinoco river.
“I’m going in a plane; any cloud that crosses me, I’ll zap it so that it rains,” Chavez said at a ceremony late on Saturday with family members of five Cubans convicted of spying in the United States.
Many countries have programs aimed at altering weather patterns, commonly known as cloud seeding, although the effectiveness of such techniques is disputed.
Firing silver iodine at clouds is one common method. China uses rockets loaded with the chemical to spur rainfall in arid regions. Chavez did…
The New (Gringo) Face Of Day Labor
The Las Vegas Sun has an article of the recent trend of U.S. citizens’ joining the ranks of immigrants who stand in store parking lots, hoping to be picked up for work:
It sounds like a George Lopez joke: “Times are so bad that I saw an Anglo day laborer standing outside Home Depot the other day.”
Except it’s true…In the latest sign of the Las Vegas Valley’s economic free fall, U.S. citizens are starting to show up in the early mornings outside home improvement stores and plant nurseries across the Las Vegas Valley, jostling with illegal immigrants for a shot at a few hours of work.
