Archive for December, 2009
Thank You, Professor, That Was Putrid
Ben Ratliff focuses on Black Metal for the New York Times:
The bald, beefy moderator, Niall Scott of the University of Central Lancashire, approached the podium in darkness. “It is my revolting pleasure,” he susurrated, pulling on his long goatee, “to introduce Professor Erik Butler, who will present his paper ‘The Counter-Reformation in Stone and Metal: Spiritual Substances.’ ”
And Mr. Butler, an assistant professor of German studies at Emory University, talked about black-metal music — in its second-wave, largely Norwegian form — as a cryptic expression of Roman Catholicism. He started with the 16th-century Council of Trent and the early modern church. He quoted lyrics from the face-painted, early-1990s Norwegian black-metal bands Gorgoroth and Immortal; he framed black metal as respecting some of rock’s orthodoxies, as opposed to the heresies of disco and punk; and he spoke of black metal’s preoccupation with “the abiding and transcendent: stone, mountain, moon.”
You can imagine…
Bigfoot in the Minnesota Northwoods?
Looks like a classic Bigfoot “sighting”. Loping gait, partially obscured, grainy image. Whoever set this up might just be paying homage.
Via TwinCities.com:
Tim Kedrowski and his sons, Peter and Casey, are not pushovers for Bigfoot stories, but a frame on a game trail camera set up on their hunting land north of Remer has left them in a quandary.
“To us, it’s very hard because we lean toward the skeptical type,” Kedrowski said in a telephone interview from his Rice, Minn., home.
But after checking with neighbors and any other hunters who might have been walking through the dense woods at 7:20 p.m. on the rainy night of Oct. 24, he said they couldn’t imagine what else the image could be. Tim said he considered ideas from a bear to a bow hunter in a fuzzy suit. But the arm and hand couldn’t be a bear’s, or its upright gait. And there is…
Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid of Obama’s Latest Big Brother Plan
Before all you loyal disinfo.com visitors get all up in arms about my posting this, please remember that our goal from the time of our founding in 1996 was always to expose multiple points of view on any given issue, and more than anything to highlight media bias. It’s no secret that Fox News Channel has a very conservative tilt, thoroughly exposed by Robert Greenwald in Outfoxed, so take this opinion piece by FNC’s Bradley Blakeman for what it is: an attempt to cast President Obama as an Orwellian Socialist:
The Obama administration seeks to empower a very powerful government agency you have probably never heard of with new and expanded powers that will have a direct consequence on every American if they are successful in their efforts to implement national health care reforms.
The Obama White House is also drunk with power and is seeking to expand the powers of government agencies…
Secret Document Exposes Iran’s Nuclear Trigger
Catherine Philp in Washington reports for the Times:
Confidential intelligence documents obtained by The Times show that Iran is working on testing a key final component of a nuclear bomb.
The notes, from Iran’s most sensitive military nuclear project, describe a four-year plan to test a neutron initiator, the component of a nuclear bomb that triggers an explosion. Foreign intelligence agencies date them to early 2007, four years after Iran was thought to have suspended its weapons programme.
An Asian intelligence source last week confirmed to The Times that his country also believed that weapons work was being carried out as recently as 2007 — specifically, work on a neutron initiator.
The technical document describes the use of a neutron source, uranium deuteride, which independent experts confirm has no possible civilian or military use other than in a nuclear weapon. Uranium deuteride is the material used in Pakistan’s bomb, from where Iran obtained its…
Copenhagen Spoof Shames Canada; Climate Debt No Joke
COPENHAGEN, Denmark – “Canada is ‘red-faced’!” (Globe and Mail) “Copenhagen spoof shames Canada!” (Guardian) “Hoax slices through Canadian spin on warming!” (The Toronto Star) “A childish prank!” (Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada)
What at first looked like the flip-flop of the century has been revealed as a sophisticated ruse by a coalition of African, North American, and European activists. The purpose: to highlight the most powerful nations’ obstruction of meaningful progress in Copenhagen, to push for just climate debt reparations, and to call out Canada in particular for its terrible climate policy.
The elaborate intercontinental operation was spearheaded by a group of concerned Canadian citizens, the “Climate Debt Agents” from ActionAid, and The Yes Men. It involved the creation of a best-case scenario in which Canadian government representatives unleashed a bold new initiative to curb emissions and spearhead a “Climate Debt Mechanism” for the developing world…
Buy Your Very Own Robot Doppelganger!
That man’s robot doppelganger looks very confused … Good god, man! What have you done to him?! Posted on Pink Tenacle, (creepy…):
Department store operator Sogo & Seibu has announced plans to sell two humanoid robots custom-built to look like the people who purchase them.
Dr. Hiroshi Ishiguro with his robot double — Roboticist Hiroshi Ishiguro already got his.
The mechanical doppelgangers are available for a limited time as part of a special New Year’s promotional sale at Sogo, Seibu, and Robinson’s department stores. They will be built by Japanese robotics firm Kokoro, which is perhaps best known for its line of Actroid receptionist humanoids.
In addition to providing the robot with the owner’s face, body, hair, eyes and eyelashes, Kokoro will model the robot’s facial expressions and upper body movements after the buyer. The robot’s speech will be based on recordings of the owner’s voice.
Read More: Pink Tenacle
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Found! 22 Million Missing E-mails From Bush White House
PETE YOST writes on Huffington Post:
WASHINGTON — Computer technicians have found 22 million missing White House e-mails from the administration of President George W. Bush and the Obama administration is searching for dozens more days’ worth of potentially lost e-mail from the Bush years, according to two groups that filed suit over the failure by the Bush White House to install an electronic record keeping system.
The two private groups – Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and the National Security Archive – said Monday they were settling the lawsuits they filed against the Executive Office of the President in 2007.
It will be years before the public sees any of the recovered e-mails because they will now go through the National Archives’ process for releasing presidential and agency records. Presidential records of the Bush administration won’t be available until 2014 at the earliest.
Read More: Huffington Post
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‘Indefinite,’ ‘Hiatus,’ ‘Infidelity’: Tiger Woods Gives America Vocabulary Lesson
I find this kinda amazing, I guess the media obsession has a bright light. Michael David Smith writes on Fanhouse:
Tiger Woods isn’t just America’s greatest golfer, and he isn’t just America’s greatest philanderer. He’s also America’s greatest vocabulary teacher.
Woods hasn’t yet spoken publicly in the two weeks since his mysterious car accident led to a media feeding frenzy about his sex life. But he has issued a couple of public statements on TigerWoods.com, and in those statements he showed a grasp of the English language that was apparently too difficult for some.
Financial Reform Bill Highlights the Need for Real Reform
Mark Trumbull writes in the Christian Science Monitor:
The US House of Representatives on Friday passed a bill aimed at preventing a repeat of the financial crisis that shook the global economy in the fall of 2008. The sweeping measure would transform the regulatory landscape for banks and other financial firms.
Although it drew immediate praise from the Obama administration and consumer groups, some financial experts warn that the economy will remain exposed to the risk of bubbles, busts, and firms that are “too big to fail.”
It’s what this bill cannot do that should be of concern to all Americans:
Economists are wary of saying that even a well-designed bill will prevent financial crises, which have occurred periodically before and after the modern era of central banking.
Simon Johnson, a finance expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, recently praised Obama for pushing the idea of a new consumer protection agency for financial products. But, in recent testimony to the Congressional Oversight Panel on bank bailouts, he said Washington policymakers aren’t doing enough to rein in the economic and political power of large financial firms.
“The power of the financial sector [is based] on an ideology according to which the interests of big finance and the [supposed] interests of the American people are naturally aligned,” he said. “This ideology is increasingly … dangerous to the economy.”
Why Aren’t You Building Your Own UFO Yet?
Charlie Jane Anders writes on io9.com:
Do you know why Richard Branson was in such a hurry to unveil SpaceShipTwo last week? It’s not because he loves cool toys — it’s because he was worried an inventor who’s created a personal UFO would steal his thunder.
Or at least, that’s what a new press release from UFO guru Luke Fortune claims. Fortune, an inventor, has put the plans and patents to allow you to build your own laser-fusion-powered UFO online for free.
The prototype will cost $60,000 for you to build, but don’t worry — soon, building your own UFO will be dirt cheap, and everybody on the planet will be flying them, according to Fortune’s press release. And this will transform the world’s economy.
Action Camus, the Superman of Nihilism
Was reading Boldtype’s “10 Awesome Books to Give Your Nonreading Friends” where I came across the work of cartoonist R. Sikoryak. Here’a an article about him from The New Yorker:
For twenty years, the cartoonist R. Sikoryak has been creating parody strips of literary masterpieces, casting familiar cartoon characters in classic roles — Little Lulu as Pearl Prynne, Little Nemo as Dorian Gray, Charlie Brown as Gregor Samsa. If you’re like me, and you sometimes like your serious literature with a side of Beavis and Butthead (see Sikoryak’s take on “Waiting for Godot”), you will probably laugh out loud over Masterpiece Comics, a collection of thirteen of these strips, just out from Drawn & Quarterly.
Here is R. Sikoryak’s take on an existentialist superhero:
Check out the The New Yorker link for a Kafkaesque Charlie Brown tale.
Merry Mayhem: Rampaging Santas Take to the Streets for SantaCon
Just happened this past Saturday in NYC, according to Santarchy it’s actually worldwide:
Every December for the last 16 years, Cacophonous Santas have been visiting cities around the world, engaging in a bit of Santarchy as part of the annual Santacon events.
It all started back in 1994 when several dozen Cheap Suit Santas paid a visit to downtown San Francisco for a night of Kringle Kaos. Things have reached Critical Xmas and Santarchy is now a global phenomenon.
Enjoy the pics:
Now, Vodka That Comes In A Pill
Good news for vodka lovers as you can consume your favourite drink just like any other solid food without the hassle of carrying heavy glass bottles.
Russian professor Evgeny Moskalev of Saint Petersburg Technological University has evolved a technique that allows turning alcohol into powder and packing it in pills. The new technique can solidify any kind of alcohol, including whisky, cognac, wine and beer.
“Dry” vodka can be wrapped in paper and carried around in a pocket or a bag. Vodka in form of a pill would come handy at parties when “consumers” would be able to calculate their exact required dosage.
Sleazy Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi Punched
Sure, violence should never be used to express political opinions, but in the case of notorious right-wing-a-hole Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, it somehow seems appropriate (from the New York Times):
An attacker hurled a statuette at Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi, striking the leader in the face at the end of a rally Sunday and leaving the stunned 73-year-old media mogul with a broken nose and bloodied mouth.
Berlusconi had just finished delivering a long, vigorous speech at the rally to thousands of applauding supporters from his Freedom People party in the square outside the cathedral at about 6:30 p.m.
The attack occurred at a time when Berlusconi, one of Italy’s wealthiest men, is embroiled in a sex scandal, a divorce case with his wife and public protests demanding his resignation.
On Dec. 5, tens of thousands of Italians fed up with the premier marched peacefully through Rome to demand [that Berlusconi step down].
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‘Comatose’ Man Was Actually Awake For 23 Years
This is a pretty horrifying fate…reminds me of the video for the Metallica song ‘One.’ From the Telegraph:
A Belgian man diagnosed as being in a coma for 23 years was actually conscious the whole time. Rom Houbens was simply paralysed and had no way to let doctors caring for him what he was suffering.
“I dreamt myself away,” says Houben, now 46, who was misdiagnosed as being in a persistent vegetative state after a car crash. Doctors and nurses in Zolder deemed him a hopeless case whereby his consciousness was considered “extinct.”
When he woke up after the accident he had lost control of his body, “I screamed, but there was nothing to hear,” he says.
Lithium in the Water Supply
The New York Times Magazine’s annual Year In Ideas issue is well worth reviewing. Here’s what I thought was the scariest idea of 2009 … subduing the population by putting lithium in public water systems (as if fluoride wasn’t bad enough, which of course the Times does not acknowledge, stating exactly the opposite):
America has been adding fluoride to its public water supplies for decades, based on overwhelming evidence that even low levels of the substance can significantly reduce tooth decay, with no major side effects. Now research from Japan suggests expanding the list of aqueous additives — namely, to lithium.
Lithium often occurs naturally, in trace amounts, in water supplies, particularly in areas with a high concentration of granite. In The British Journal of Psychiatry earlier this year, the neuropsychiatrist Takeshi Terao and other researchers showed that communities in Japan’s Oita Prefecture with higher levels of naturally occurring lithium in their water…
The List of Lists 2009
As a Manhattan resident I subscribe to the peerless daily email newsletter Manhattan Users Guide, edited by Charlie Suisman. Today he published an excellent list of year end lists. Check ‘em all out here, but for now here’s a taste:
100 Best Albums of the Decade [Rolling Stone]
Corruption Perceptions Index 2009 [Transparency International]
The Worst and Strangest Collectible Statues of 2009 [Comics Alliance]
Pictures of the Year 2009 [Reuters]
The 10 Best Books of 2009 [NY Times Book Review]
Top 10 Endangered Exports [Time]
The Worst Gifts on Earth [Esquire]
20 Rising Star Chefs 2009 [Food & Wine]
The 2009 Good Gift Games [The Morning News]
Top 10 News Stories of 2009 [Slate]
The Worst Album Covers of 2009 [Pitchfork]
Classics Off The Beaten Path in 2009 [NPR]
The Top 10 Stories You Missed in 2009 [Foreign Policy]
The 10 Dumbest Banker Quotes of All Time [The Motley Fool]
…
Swine Flu Conspiracies with Dr. Christopher “Kit” Green
ATS News presents an exclusive interview with the esteemed forensic scientist, Dr. Christopher “Kit” Green, on several concerns and conspiracies related to swine flu. In part one, we provide you with Dr. Green’s unedited “stream of consciousness” about his concerns with how the government and the medical industry has handled the swine flu outbreak from his point of view as a physician and scientist. This first part will be of particular interest for those who have a general concern about the flu, and want to hear some pragmatic opinions and advice.
The Stupid Show
One of the more interesting documentary films released this year was The Age of Stupid. Director Franny Armstrong has put together a large group of climate change activists to promote the film and of course they are currently in Copenhagen. They’ve been broadcasting a daily show called, naturally, The Stupid Show. Tonight’s guest is George Monbiot, who she says is “the world’s cleverest climate chap.”
That’s tonight … here’s the previous show, which Franny describes as:
with In The Diner With Achim Steiner as the big rhyming interview (following hot on the heels of Friday’s On My Head With Ed), Andrew Simms from NEF being really quite convincing that a low-carbon future is going to be happier and top climate scientist Richard Betts from the MET office laughing at my attempt to draw the history of the world in one minute. Shame his homemade joke went down like a lead balloon on the laugh-o-meter…
