Archive for December, 2009
Moyers, Moore and Maddow: Alternet Ranks the Most Influential Progressives
Interesting survey from our friends at Alternet. Congratulations to Robert Greenwald of Brave New Films for landing in the top 15, as many of you know, Disinformation has distributed several of his documentaries over the years, starting with Uncovered: The Whole Truth About the Iraq War back in 2004 up to his latest Rethink Afghanistan. The Disinformation Podcast crew recently interviewed Greenwald about his latest film (Listen here).
Don Hazen writes on Alternet:
The three M’s — Bill Moyers, Michael Moore and Rachel Maddow — scored highest in a recent AlterNet survey* asking more than 5,000 readers to rate the most influential progressive media figures. Moyers, who scored 67.5, and Moore, with a 66.2 score, were very close. Maddow was a tad behind at 63.5.
It’s no surprise that Moyers, the moral sage, and Moore, the rabble-rouser, are ranked at the top. They have been popular with AlterNet readers for years. Moyers’ current show, “Bill…
Icelandic Elf Sex (Video)
From The Vice Guide to Sex:
Iceland is a country where the majority of people believe so firmly in elves extreme measures are taken to avoid upsetting them. Sometimes that means changing a road’s path to avoid elven territory, for Hallgerdur Hallgrímsdóttir, it means boning them. Hallgerdur claims many Icelanders have been doing elves in secret for centuries. There’s even a myth covering the inter-hominid couplings. Hallgerdur receives a lot of flack from her countrymen for spilling the beans on elf sex, so we hope you appreciate her act of smutty treason. Although Hallgerdur has a boyfriend now, she recently claimed that “sex with humans is boring”.
In her blog she goes into great detail about her experience sexing it up with elves. Here’s an excerpt: “Elf sex is possibly the safest sex on earth. They don’t carry sexually transmitted diseases and you cant get pregnant or make an Elverine pregnant unless you both want to, which is not unheard of. And YES there are female elves, elverines. And they’re HOT HOT HOT, even to girls. That reminds me: All elves are bisexual, but guys and girls not ready for some same sex action don’t worry, no elf will do anything you don’t want to. They can sense your longings and not-longings.”
HP Computers Are Racist
This YouTube video is becoming a worldwide sensation with news headlines like “HP Cams Can’t See Black Faces.” The official blurb from the YouTube page:
The face tracking feature of the HP web cam will not recognize or track black faces. You have to watch this video. It is hilarious!
Alzheimer’s May Stave Off Cancer, and Vice Versa
Amanda Gardner reports in Business Week:
Researchers have uncovered a bittersweet relationship between two major illnesses: cancer and Alzheimer’s disease.
People who have had cancer are less likely to get Alzheimer’s disease, just as having Alzheimer’s disease reduces the risk for cancer, their study found.
“Alzheimer’s was associated with a rather dramatic reduction in cancer risk,” said Dr. Richard Lipton, an attending neurologist at Montefiore Medical Center and professor of neurology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City. “From my perspective, the strengths of the findings are very striking and somewhat unexpected.”
There was no link between Alzheimer’s and vascular dementia, however, suggesting that the association has to do with neurodegenerative factors. Vascular dementia is attributed to damage to the brain’s blood supply…
[continues in Business Week]
Political Power Couple Susan Sarandon & Tim Robbins Split
On Zennie Abraham’s SF Gate blog:
When I read that Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins separated after 23 years together, my thoughts immediately turned to their two decades of liberal political activism. The Democratic power couple was particularly active during the 2008 Presidential Campaign.
Here’s Susan Sarandon talking about Sarah Palin at Boston University in September 2008, when she says that Palin’s views are “worrying” and would set the woman’s movement back. She also quoted actor Ed Harris, who said Palin “would be a really large footnote in the annals of moose hunting”. Saradon also expresses her thoughts on the media’s coverage of politics.
Tim Robbins was no less involved in political commentary and activism. In this video originally provided by CrooksandLiars.com, Robbins appears on Real Time with Bill Maher and really gets after Steve Hayes, who tried to claim a connection between al-Queda and Saddam Hussein…
Will The Next Illegal Drug Be “Neurostim”?
“The same neurostim device that uses electric impulses from a brain implant to treat people with Parkinsons Disease can be tweaked by a few millimeters and pulse rates to make cocaine addicts feel like they are high all the time…”
The editor of “Dose Nation” describes the current mass market for “cognitive enhancement” products – and argues there’s real black market potential for pleasure-inducing neurostim products.
“Modern consumers have embraced taking whatever pill or procedure their doctors recommend, so all perspective next-gen neurotechnology should take a page from Big Pharmas playbook and pressure MDs to prescribe invasive cognitive solutions to patients for cosmetic and off-label purposes (and pressure insurance companies to cover the costs)!”
“Mix the glamour of surgical self-improvement with the geekiness of high-tech gadget fetishism and you have a niche cosmetic neurostim market waiting to be tapped…”
Darth Vader Opens Wall Street
Gee, anything think this might not be the best photo-op for Wall Street right now?
Disinformation Interviews Rethink Afghanistan’s Robert Greenwald
Disinformation: The Podcast – Rethink Afghanistan
iTunes • Direct Download • RSS
This episode features an interview with Robert Greenwald, head of Brave New Films and the director of the new Disinformation-distributed documentary Rethink Afghanistan. We also discuss Robert’s previous films, including Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism, Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price, and Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers.
Disinformation Podcast T-shirts available here!
Is the Google Phone an Unauthorized Replicant?
Stories about Philip K. Dick’s daughter taking aim at Google’s deep-pockets for naming the “Google Phone” Nexus One have been all over tech blogs during the last week or so. Now that it seems the phone is truly about to come to market, maybe they’ll have to take her seriously. This summary story in the New York Times captures the issues fairly well:
Motorola tugged at the hearts of science-fiction fans everywhere when it announced that its first smartphone using Google’s Android software would be called Droid, the name given to the lovable robots in “Star Wars.”
Google appears to be trying the same tactic with its own soon-to-be-released Android phone. The device is called Nexus One in at least two government filings.
As many bloggers have noted, the name Nexus One seems to be a reference to the cyborgs in the dystopian movie “Blade Runner,” which in turn was based on the novel “Do…
The Desposyni and the Rex Deus – The Black Fridays
The Black Fridays – Episode 3: Tim Wallace-Murphy
Website • iTunes • Direct Download • RSS
In this episode, Wes and Stacy speak with Tim Wallace Murphy. 
Tim is a noted and renowned expert in the Rex Deus and the Desposyni. We discuss theories of the Bloodline of Christ. Mr. Murphy has authored numerous book on the subjects of the Bloodline, the Knights Templar, and the Freemasons.
Talkin’ UFOs with Smiles Lewis – The Black Fridays
The Black Fridays – Episode 2: Smiles Lewis
Website • iTunes • Direct Download • RSS
Stacy and Wes welcome Smiles Lewis to the show. Smiles talks about the basics of UFOlogy and some of the current theories of the field. SMiles Lewis has had a lifelong interest in all things anomalous. An early age proclivity at recalling his nightly dreams as well as several personal experiences with ESP, precognition and dream switching bolstered his interest in the paranormal.
The Green Technology That Matters: Condoms
From Green Technology Daily an article arguing that global access to birth control is the most effect and essential “green technology”:
Are condoms and birth control pills more cost effective than windmills and solar panels as tools to curb global warming?
Yes, and by a wide margin, contends a recent study from the London School of Economics asserting that family planning is nearly five times more cost effective in mitigating global warming emissions than green energy technologies like wind and solar power.
Each $7 spent on basic family planning over the next four decades would reduce global CO2 emissions by more than a ton. To achieve the same result with low-carbon technologies would cost a minimum of $32. The UN estimates that 40 percent of all pregnancies worldwide are unintended.
Sweden’s Bizarre Donald Duck Christmas Obsession
Slate has a report on Sweden’s bizarre Christmas tradition: watching Donald Duck cartoons.
Every December 25th, approximately half of the nation sits down in front of the television to watch Kalle Anka och hans vänner önskar God Jul (”Donald Duck and his friends wish you a Merry Christmas”). The special has been aired on TV1, Sweden’s main public television channel, each Christmas Eve since 1959 without commercial interruption:
The show’s cultural significance cannot be [over]stated. You do not tape or DVR Kalle Anka for later viewing. You do not eat or prepare dinner while watching Kalle Anka. Age does not matter—every member of the family is expected to sit quietly together and watch a program that generations of Swedes have been watching for 50 years. Most families plan their entire Christmas around Kalle Anka.
Christian Story of Jesus’s Birth Is a Myth Born of Politics
From Alternet:
The Advent season is a fun time. For many Christians, it is the happiest season of the year. The joy comes from the anticipation: “Joy to the world, the Lord has come. Let earth receive her king.”
I do not desire to dim the lights of Christmas, but it might be helpful to some to hear what the stories of Jesus birth are really about.
There are four versions of the life of Jesus. We call them the Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Only two of the versions say anything about the birth of Jesus.
Mark, the first of the Gospels, begins the Jesus story with Jesus as an adult. John, the last Gospel written, likewise says nothing about the birth of Jesus. Matthew tells the birth story in only a few short paragraphs. Luke’s version of the beginnings of Jesus is four times as long as that of Matthew.
Those two…
Helen Caldicott Slams Environmental Groups on Climate Bill, Nuclear Concessions
From Truthout:
Dr. Helen Caldicott, the pioneering Australian antinuclear activist and pediatrician who spearheaded the global nuclear freeze movement of the 1980s and co-founded Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR), has joined with left-leaning environmental groups here in an uphill fight to halt nuclear power as a “solution” to the global warming crisis. “Global warming is the greatest gift the nuclear industry has ever received,” Dr. Caldicott told Truthout.
The growing rush to nuclear power was only enhanced, experts say, by the weak climate deal at the Copenhagen 15 climate conference. The prospects for passage of a climate bill in Congress – virtually all versions are pro-nuclear – were enhanced, most analysts say, because it offered the promise that China might voluntarily agree to verify its carbon reductions and it could reassure senators worried about American manufacturers being undermined by polluters overseas. But at the two-week international confab that didn’t produce any binding agreements to do anything,…
Obamacare Slaps $15,000 Annual Fee on Middle Class Families
Terry Jeffrey at Townhall.com:
The Congressional Budget Office’s analysis of the final Senate health care bill indicates it would slap a mandatory annual fee of about $15,000 on middle-class families that earn an annual income greater than 400 percent of the federal poverty level ($88,200 for a family of four) and are not provided with health insurance by their employer.
On Dec. 19, the CBO sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., analyzing the fiscal impact of the bill the Senate is poised to vote on before Christmas.
The CBO analysis cites five basic facts about the bill that acting together would deal a devastating financial blow to many middle-class families if the bill is enacted and enforced as written…
[continues at Townhall.com]
Escaped Prisoner Taunts Police on Facebook
From The Telegraph:
An escaped prisoner, Craig Lynch, has set up a Facebook page and is using it to taunt police by posting messages about his whereabouts.
Craig “Lazie” Lynch vanished from Hollesley Bay Prison in Suffolk in September this year close to the end of a seven-year sentence for aggravated burglary.
Instead of hiding away from police Lynch has set up a Facebook account complete with a photograph sticking his middle finger up and boasts about eating 12lb steaks and his home being so warm it feels like the Caribbean.
The burglar has become prolific Facebooker with 199 friends and has even posted when he is going round to friend’s homes and attending parties and events.
In a status update via mobile phone on Monday, Lynch said: “Craig ‘Lazie’ Lynch just had bundles of fun on the ice in me motor. Pure a— out action, but well controlled.”
In another at the weekend he said: “Craig ‘Lazie’…
Spending on Lobbying Could Break Record in 2009
From CBS:
Last year, $3.30 billion was spent on federal lobbying, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. That was the highest figure ever calculated.
This year it could go even higher.
CFR has calculated that in the first three quarters of 2009, $2.50 billion was spent to lobby Congress and federal agencies. If the average throughout the year holds, $3.33 billion will be spent this year. And there are indications that it could go higher.
“We would expect…an above-average fourth quarter just because of all the legislation that was in play,” CFR spokesman Dave Levinthal told Hotsheet. He said he would be “not at all surprised if it was a very, very big fourth quarter.”
There are more than a thousand fewer lobbyists registered in 2009 (13,426) than there were last year (14,808), though the total number of registered lobbyists this year will likely increase slightly when the final quarter is factored in.
Still, the…
Rupert Murdoch and the Art of War
As the distributors of the classic Robert Greenwald documentary Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch’s War On Journalism, we’re always happy to see the liberal media giving Mr. Murdoch yet another battering, but I have to say that I’m starting to wonder if they won’t be lining up for jobs with him soon, as the last newspaper tycoon standing. The latest assault, in New York Magazine:
This month, with the announcement that The Wall Street Journal would be expanding the scope of its coverage out of New York, Rupert Murdoch opens his most direct assault yet against his longstanding foe, the New York Times. But the Times launched a preemptive strike when its media critic, David Carr, casted [sic] aspersions on the Journal’s journalistic integrity a year into its ownership by Murdoch’s News Corporation. Carr reported on how its news pages have tilted rightward, much as one might expect from the owner of Fox News and the New…
