Archive for February, 2010
Resurrected Man Claimed by Two Families
Chris Capps writes on Unexplainable.net:
A man who has allegedly come back from the dead after being murdered is being fought over by two families, each claiming him as their own son in Transkei. The man is being called Siviwe Ntwalana, a man who was murdered five years ago and also Lakitha Zokufa after another deceased son who allegedly came back from the dead. The story is too strange for fiction.
The man in dispute is currently residing at Mthatha General Hospital Mental Clinic under the name Lakitha Zokufa.
Apparently the man with two names’ testimony, when present, is not applicable in this situation, but it seems he isn’t particularly sure himself which of the families is correct. Interestingly, there is no real gain for either family financially for getting their son back, and both are convinced enough by their son’s presence that they are willing to pay for the otherwise strange man’s…
Natural Harvest: A Collection of Semen-Based Recipes
Fotie Photenhauer, author of Natural Harvest, describes this book as:
Semen is not only nutritious, but it also has a wonderful texture and amazing cooking properties. Like fine wine and cheeses, the taste of semen is complex and dynamic. Semen is inexpensive to produce and is commonly available in many, if not most, homes and restaurants. Despite all of these positive qualities, semen remains neglected as a food.
This book hopes to change that.
Once you overcome any initial hesitation, you will be surprised to learn how wonderful semen is in the kitchen. Semen is an exciting ingredient that can give every dish you make an interesting twist. If you are a passionate cook and are not afraid to experiment with new ingredients — you will love this cook book!
Bigfoot Threw a Rock at My Face: Eerie Radio Interviews Disinformation Podcast Hosts Joe McFall and Raymond Wiley
Bigfoot Threw a Rock at My Face – Eerie Radio: Episode 143
Website • iTunes • Direct Download • RSS
In this episode we speak with Raymond Wiley and Joe McFall about Jesus, Rocks, and Bigfoot. Raymond Wiley and Joe McFall are the former co-hosts of Out There Radio, a 50-episode podcast of interviews and discussions covering topics related to the occult, conspiracy theory and the paranormal.
Raymond and Joe have been in podcasting since 2005, having started Out There Radio shortly after they met and realized their shared interest in fringe topics. The are currently the hosts of Disinformation: The Podcast and Disinformation World News.
Austin Suicide Bomber Featured in Music Videos
From The Raw Story:
Joe Stack, the 53-year-old software engineer who allegedly flew a single engine aircraft into an Austin-based IRS office on Thursday morning, was more than just a criminal or possible domestic terrorist.He was also a musician who played the bass and accordion in a band that once crooned about how the world just isn’t made for autistic people.
They are the Billy Eli Band, according to CBS News, fronted by Texas singer/songwriter Billy Eli, featuring Joe Stack, Ric Furley and Jim Hemphill.
The “Band” section of their Web site does not mention Stack, however a domain search for his name turned up numerous results.
Caring for Pets Left Behind by the Rapture
From Business Week:
For a fee, this service will place your dog or cat in the home of a caring atheist on Judgment Day.
Many people in the U.S.—perhaps 20 million to 40 million—believe there will be a Second Coming in their lifetimes, followed by the Rapture . In this event, they say, the righteous will be spirited away to a better place while the godless remain on Earth. But what will become of all the pets?Bart Centre, 61, a retired retail executive in New Hampshire, says many people are troubled by this question, and he wants to help. He started a service called Eternal Earth-Bound Pets that promises to rescue and care for animals left behind by the saved.
Promoted on the Web as “the next best thing to pet salvation in a Post Rapture World,” the service has attracted more than 100 clients, who pay $110 for a 10-year contract ($15…
Was That Colorado Pot Grower Complying With State Law? Does It Matter?
From Reason.com:
Yesterday Radley Balko noted that on Friday the Drug Enforcement Administration busted Chris Bartkowicz, a medical marijuana grower in Highlands Ranch, Colorado, despite the Justice Department’s announcement that it would stop prosecuting such individuals if they are complying with state law. Did Bartkowicz’s operation comply with state law? The short answer is “probably,” at least as the law is currently understood. But that is not good enough to qualify him for the Justice Department’s newfound tolerance, which applies only to “individuals whose actions are in clear and unambiguous compliance with existing state laws providing for the medical use of marijuana.”
Colorado’s law, like California’s, allows patients or their “primary caregivers” to grow and possess marijuana for medical use. The general limit is two ounces of pot and six plants per patient at any given time. The law defines a “primary caregiver” as “a person, other than the patient and the…
Elton John: Jesus Was Gay
Flamboyant British pop icon Elton John is making headlines for a controversial interview in, of all places, Parade, the (usually) boring Sunday newspaper magazine. Some choice samples:
“I think Jesus was a compassionate, super-intelligent gay man who understood human problems. On the cross, he forgave the people who crucified him. Jesus wanted us to be loving and forgiving. I don’t know what makes people so cruel. Try being a gay woman in the Middle East — you’re as good as dead.”
“Just about every relationship I ever had was involved with drugs. It never works. But I always had to be with someone, good or bad, otherwise I didn’t feel fulfilled. I’d lost the plot.”
“For some people a gram of cocaine can last a month. Not me. I have to do the lot, and then I want more. At the end of the day, all it led to was heartache.”
“Princess Diana, Gianni…
Disgruntled Americans are the New Terrorists
By Stacie Adams at The Smirking Chimp:
Joe Stack, the man who recently flew a plane into an IRS building in Texas, has been described as everything from a true American hero to a ‘lone wolf’ style domestic extremist. However, most are reluctant to brand him with the label of terrorist, although that is the most apt description of Stack and his activities.
I saw a segment on the news this morning where some talking head was going to great pains to distinguish the difference between an act of terrorism and a so called ’spectacle murder’, which sounds like something he just made up in the green room before he came on.
Apparently Stack’s crime is not considered terrorism because he only meant to call attention to his plight, not terrorize people into changing their lifestyles. Never mind that just seconds before the anchor offered this profundity an excerpt from Stack’s manifesto basically…
Psychetect: Return to the Wasteland
You may know Klint Finley as the editor of Technoccult or the co-founder of EsoZone. You might not know that Klint has also been a noise artist since before you ever heard of him.
His debut full-length album RETURN TO THE WASTELAND, a collection of dark ambient soundscapes and simultateously soothing and haunting drones, may conjure up vague memories or invoke a sense of deja vu in listeners as it takes them on a journey through mental spaces most people would rather forget.
World’s Top Firms Cause $2.2 Trillion of Environmental Damage
From the Guardian:
Report for the UN into the activities of the world’s 3,000 biggest companies estimates one-third of profits would be lost if firms were forced to pay for use, loss and damage of environment.
The cost of pollution and other damage to the natural environment caused by the world’s biggest companies would wipe out more than one-third of their profits if they were held financially accountable, a major unpublished study for the United Nations has found.
The report comes amid growing concern that no one is made to pay for most of the use, loss and damage of the environment, which is reaching crisis proportions in the form of pollution and the rapid loss of freshwater, fisheries and fertile soils.
Later this year, another huge UN study – dubbed the “Stern for nature” after the influential report on the economics of climate change by Sir Nicholas Stern – will attempt to put a price on such…
Nick Pell on the Gspot
Nick Pell
Frequent Disinfo contributor Nick P is on the Gspot in conversation with Joseph Matheny. Via Alterati:
Nick Pell has been a professional writer for more than half his life. He has written about culture, arts, spirituality, and politics for “Maximumrocknroll,” “Just Out,” “The Hit List,” and “Key 64.” He has also been an editor for Immanion Press and London PA.
William Shatner in ‘Shit My Dad Says’
William Shatner. Photo by Jerry Avenaim
From the Hollywood Reporter:
Twitter sensation Shit My Dad Says is becoming a TV pilot with William Shatner set to play the larger-than-life dad at the center of it.
The casting of Shatner lifts the contingency on CBS’ multicamera family comedy project based on the Twitter account, which has enlisted more than 1.17 million followers since launching in August and has made its creator, Justin Halpern, an Internet star.
The pilot, executive produced by “Will & Grace” creators David Kohan and Max Mutchnick, was originally set up at CBS with a script commitment in November. Now, with Shatner on board, it has been greenlighted to pilot.
Halpern co-penned the script with Patrick Schumacker. Halpern and Schumacker co-exec produce the Warner Bros. TV-produced project.
Halpern, 29, had moved back in with his parents in San Diego, and on Aug. 3 he launched Shit My Dad Says, a Twitter feed featuring colorful —…
Women Being Conned About Breast Cancer Screening
Ethan A. Huff for Natural News:
Western medicine relies heavily on convincing people that they need some sort of drug or surgery to remedy their ills and gain health. Studies often contain manipulated facts and skewed statistics that paint a favorable picture of some new procedure or treatment while shrouding the truth about the risks involved. The alleged benefits of breast cancer screenings are no exception as women are continually tricked into believing that mammograms will greatly benefit them when the facts show that they are largely ineffective.
Using an approach called mismatched framing, cancer studies will present side effects in absolute terms while exaggerating benefits in relative terms. When two different metric systems are used to present one set of findings, the results are deceptive albeit technically true.
One statistic says that regular breast cancer screenings reduce the number of breast cancer deaths by 25 percent. While this sounds like a…
High School Spied On Students At Home Via Their Laptops
Wow, can this be true? Truly a situation in which “Big Brother” comparisons are no exaggeration. It’s being reported that the Lower Merion School District, in a wealthy suburb of Philadelphia, is being sued for spying on its students at home, after issuing the students laptops with webcams that could be covertly activated by school administrators for surveillance, writes Boing Boing:
The issue came to light when the Robbins’s child was disciplined for “improper behavior in his home” and the Vice Principal used a photo taken by the webcam as evidence. The suit is a class action, brought on behalf of all students issued with these machines.
Update: The school district admits that student laptops were shipped with software for covertly activating their webcams, but denies wrongdoing.
Campbell Soup’s Neuromarketing
Who knew neuromarketing even existed? I won’t be buying any Campbell’s soup for a while, that’s for sure. From the Wall Street Journal:
The bowls are getting bigger and steamier, but the soup spoons are going away.
Those are among the biggest changes Campbell Soup Co. is making in decades to the iconic labels and shelf displays of its condensed soups—the company’s biggest single business, with more than $1 billion in sales.
The changes—expected to be announced Wednesday—will culminate a two-year effort by Campbell to figure out how to get consumers to buy more soup. Condensed soup has been a slow-growing category in which budget-conscious consumers have little tolerance for price increases.
In the hunt for a better connection with consumers, Campbell Soup Co. is relying on new neuromarketing studies to guide the redesign of its condensed-soup packaging. The research looks at psysiological responses — such as perspiration and increased heart rate — to marketing…
America’s Most Miserable Cities
Cleveland photo by Lisa Chamberlain (CC)
Cleveland leads a slew of Midwestern towns on Forbes’ annual list, but thanks to high taxes New York and Chicago make it too:
The city of Cleveland has had a colorful history. The Cuyahoga River, which runs through the city, famously caught fire in 1969 thanks to rampant pollution, and it wasn’t the first time. In 1978 it became the first U.S. city to default on its debts since the Great Depression. Cleveland sports fans have had to endure more anguish than those in any other city. The city has been dubbed with a less than endearing nickname: the Mistake by the Lake.
This year Cleveland takes the top spot in our third annual ranking of America’s Most Miserable Cities. Cleveland secured the position thanks to its high unemployment, high taxes, lousy weather, corruption by public officials and crummy sports teams (Cavaliers of the NBA excepted).
Misery was on…
How Robbers Did Their Dirty Deeds Before Foursquare
Stan Schroeder writing on Mashable:
There’s a very easy way to find out if someone is home or not: you phone their fixed phone number. If no one answers, chances are the house is empty. If you really want to make sure, you can simply check if the lights are on.
And yes, robbers actually used these tactics to rob people’s house for ages; this is why, ahead of summer vacations, you’ll see advice in magazines to have a friend periodically visit your house, turn the lights on and generally create the impression the house is not abandoned.
Faced with criticism that their service is helping robbers find empty houses, the folks at Foursquare point out that there are other ways of finding out someone’s location: a cleverly designed Twitter or Facebook search will do the trick just as well….
[continues at Mashable]
Archbishop Tutu’s DNA Helps Show African Diversity
By Malcolm Ritter for AP via comcast.net News:
Scientists who decoded the DNA of some southern Africans have found striking new evidence of the genetic diversity on that continent, and uncovered a surprise about the ancestry of Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
They found, for example, that any two Bushmen in their study who spoke different languages were more different genetically than a European compared to an Asian. That was true even if the Bushmen lived within walking distance of each other.
“If we really want to understand human diversity, we need to go to (southern) Africa and we need to study those people,” said Stephan Schuster of Pennsylvania State University. He’s an author of the study, which appears in Thursday’s issue of the journal Nature.
The study also found 1.3 million tiny variations that hadn’t been observed before in any human DNA. That should help scientists sort out whether particular genes promote certain diseases or…
How a Spider Robot Leads a Student to Intel
Intel is now discussing a dancing humanoid robot project with the Arizona college student who built the famous dancing hexapod “spider” robot!
It got him an “A” in his cognitive robotics class — and 100,000 hits on YouTube — but in a new interview, Matt Bunting explains how he’s culminating a lifelong fascination with robots…
