Archive for March, 2010
Pepsi Scientists Solve Obesity Crisis With Potato Chips
Now here’s corporate thinking to believe in, gotta please those shareholders. As the author of the article says, eating fewer chips potato chips is not an option. Hamilton Nolan writes on Gawker:
Health food manufacturer and exponentially dimensionalized fulcrum of universal gravity PepsiCo is investing hundreds of millions of dollars in an effort to make America healthier, with things like “designer” salt crystals for Lay’s potato chips. What else could they do?
Because of inherent concern about the health of you, the consumer, PepsiCo spent more than $400 million in product development costs last year, all with an eye towards developing products that will kill Americans more slowly. “What we want to do with our ‘fun for you’ products is to make them the healthiest ‘fun for you’ products,” said PepsiCo chairman Indra Nooyi, emphasizing PepsiCo’s dual commitment to health and to providing a nonstop party in your mouth.
The latest corporate success:…
Russian TV-Watching Cows
Via English Russia:
One Russian farmer decided to equip his cow barn with … LED TVs.
He has got from somewhere the information that cows get more happy and productive if they watch the movies with the juicy green fields. So he got a non-stop loop of world’s recognized green Swiss Alpine fields and got the most slim LCD TVs on market in Russia and then called the team of workers to install that all.
Now they go into statistics to measure the outcomes. They compare the results from two groups of cows, one is watching TV another is deprived of this humanity most spread entertainment thing.
Belgium Becomes First European Country To Ban Muslim Veils
BBC News reports on Belgium’s banning of face-covering Islamic veils for women, making the nation the first in Europe to do so. Similar laws may be on the way in other places:
A Belgian parliamentary committee has voted to ban face-covering Islamic veils from being worn in public. France is also considering restricting face-covering veils.
There are several types of headscarves and veils for Muslim women – those that cover the face being the niqab and the burka. The BBC’s Dominic Hughes reports from Brussels that there are about 500,000 Muslims in Belgium, and the Belgian Muslim Council says only a couple of dozen wear full-face veils.
Denis Ducarme, from the Belgian centre-right Reformist Movement that proposed the bill, said he was “proud that Belgium would be the first country in Europe which dares to legislate on this sensitive matter.”
But the proposal has alarmed some who see it as an attack on civil liberties.…
Hot New Cosmetic Surgery Trend: Eye Whitening
Down in the dumps? Stuck in a rut? It might be because your eyes aren’t white enough, making you unattractive and unlovable. Luckily, there’s a serious medical procedure to fix this; ABC reports on the growing popularity of eye-whitening surgery. It costs $3,000 to $5,000 (that’s per eye), possible side effects include dry eyes, scarring, and infection, and it’s almost as effective as using eye drops:
As a lawyer Steven Smith works long hours and reads a lot of fine print. But he blames years of sun exposure for making his eyes red.
It irritates him when people tell him how tired he looks. So when his ophthalmologist, Dr. Brian Boxer Wachler, described the new eye-whitening procedure called I-BRITE, Smith decided to give it a try. I-BRITE is basically a procedure called conjunctivoplasty, a procedure that’s been around for decades. Surgeons use this to remove pterygium, or growths in the eyes.
But taking away…
Chechen Rebel Says He Ordered Moscow Metro Attacks
From BBC News:
Chechen rebel leader Doku Umarov has said his group was behind Monday’s double suicide bombings on the Moscow Metro, which left 39 people dead.
In a video message posted on a Chechen rebel website, he said he had personally ordered the attacks.
He said they were carried out in retaliation for the killings of “poor Chechen and Ingush residents” by the Russian security forces in February. Doku Umarov also warned Russia to prepare for more attacks.
Russian investigators have said they believe two female suicide bombers were linked to militants in the North Caucasus. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has called on the security forces to “scrape from the sewers” those responsible for the Moscow attacks.
Campaign to Legalize Marijuana to Launch Radio Ad
Reports KFSN-TV:
It’s been less than a week since an initiative to legalize marijuana and tax it was put on the November ballot. And campaign organizers are not wasting any time gaining supporters, and financial backing.The campaign to legalize marijuana has relied steadily on the internet and word of mouth. Now, organizers are launching a radio ad.
But, opponents say the entire campaign is a waste of time.
With an initiative to legalize the recreational use of marijuana now on California’s November ballot, the campaign to get it passed is gaining momentum. A web page is dedicated to the effort and the campaign’s Facebook page has more than 43,000 fans.
Pacman Eats The Death Star!
From Universe Today:
Mimas has drawn a fair amount of attention with its “Death Star”-like appearance, but with new images from the Cassini spacecraft, this icy moon of Saturn has just gotten a lot more interesting. The highest-resolution-yet temperature map and images of Mimas reveal surprising patterns on the surface of the small moon, including unexpected hot regions that resemble “Pac-Man” eating the Death Star crater (officially known as Herschel Crater), as well as striking bands of light and dark in crater walls.
“After much deliberation, we have concluded: Mimas is NOT boring,” said Carolyn Porco, Cassini imaging team leader, in an e-mail about the new images. “Who knew?!” And best of all, Porco added, “be sure you have a pair of red/green glasses handy ’cause you won’t want to miss peering into gigantic Herschel crater in 3D!”
Cassini collected the data on Feb. 13, and Porco said the team has spent some…
Say Hello To Your Little Friends: ‘Scarface’ Portrayed With Child Actors (Video)
How cute. They use popcorn instead of cocaine.
Don’t be too alarmed parents of small children … I’ve already read this wasn’t a real school play.
It’s a music producer’s (strange) sense of humor at work with professional child actors.
Media Fail: The U.S. Gov’t Making An $8 Billion Dollar Profit Off Its Bailed-Out CitiGroup ‘Investment’ … Is Complete BullSh*t
Headlines like “U.S. to sell entire stake in Citi at hefty profit” are complete BS. Dylan Ratigan explains in the first part of this clip below how we, the taxpayers, gave a total of $23.7 trillion to these banksters. $8.8 billion hardly makes a dent.
The greatest transfer (”theft”) of wealth to bankers in the history of the world has happened, and the beneficiaries are in the heart of Manhattan. It’s great for those folks, but has damaged the lives of many people living outside of that city across the country…
Cigarettes May Contain Pigs Blood
The Daily Telegraph reports:
Cigarettes may contain traces of pig’s blood, an Australian academic says with a warning that religious groups could find its undisclosed presence “very offensive”.
University of Sydney Professor Simon Chapman points to recent Dutch research which identified 185 different industrial uses of a pig — including the use of its hemoglobin in cigarette filters.
Prof Chapman said the research offered an insight into the otherwise secretive world of cigarette manufacture, and it was likely to raise concerns for devout Muslims and Jews. Religious texts at the core of both of these faiths specifically ban the consumption of pork.
“I think that there would be some particularly devout groups who would find the idea that there were pig products in cigarettes to be very offensive,” Prof Chapman said.
Face of Evil: The Priest Who Abused Over 100 Deaf Boys For 24 Years
Andy McSmith reports on the Independent:
Father Lawrence Murphy was a man with charm and social skills. Small of stature, he was a lively, sociable, charismatic Irishman, who also had the rare ability to communicate fluently in sign language. Watching him conduct a service with his hands is said to have been more moving than if words had been spoken.
He was the mentor and spiritual guide to hundreds of vulnerable boys — and one thing they learnt from him is that there are some disgusting individuals in the adult world who gratify their sleazy appetites without a thought for others. Father Murphy was a predatory paedophile whose crimes were all the more revolting for the helplessness of his victims. The pupils at St John’s School, St Francis city, Wisconsin, were deaf. This was a boarding school, so there was no escape at nights from the vile priest who had power over them.
Anyway,…
Is There An International Crime Ring Involving Robbers Wearing Spider-Man Masks?
Charlie Jane Anders asks the tough question on io9.com: Was J. Jonah Jameson right all along?
Yesterday, a weirdly polite criminal dressed in a Spider-Man mask and armed with a screwdriver robbed a video store near Sydney, Australia. This is just the latest in a long string of Spidey-masked crimes around the world. What gives?
No criminals ever put on Batman’s cowl before going out on a crime spree — maybe because it doesn’t cover their full faces, or maybe because they are cowardly and superstitious. We did news searches for all the major superheroes, plus things like “Klingon” and “Stormtrooper,” and no dice. When evildoers want to seem like a threat or a menace, they don a Spidey mask. Could J. Jonah Jameson have been right all along?
Consider the evidence on io9.com. Here’s just one example from Chattanooga, Tennessee:
Militia Planned To Murder Officer, Attack Funeral
From CNN:
“Captain Hutaree,” his wife and two sons planned with other militia members to kill a law enforcement official to draw the officer’s colleagues to the funeral, authorities say. Then, according to an indictment unsealed Monday, the militia planned to attack the funeral procession to kick off its war against the U.S. government.
Members of the Hutaree militia — whose Web site says it is preparing for end times to “keep the testimony of Jesus Christ alive” — have been indicted on five counts, including seditious conspiracy and attempting to use weapons of mass destruction…
Big Pharma Wins Big With Health Care Reform Bill
Alan Fram writes on Huffington Post:
Chalk one up for the pharmaceutical lobby. The U.S. drug industry fended off price curbs and other hefty restrictions in President Barack Obama’s health care law even as it prepares for plenty of new business when an estimated 32 million uninsured Americans gain health coverage.
To be sure, the law also levies taxes and imposes other costs on pharmaceutical companies, leaving its final impact on the industry’s bottom line uncertain. A recent analysis by Goldman Sachs suggests the overhaul could mean “a manageable hit” of tens of billions of dollars over the coming decade while bolstering the value of drug-company stocks. Others expect profits, not losses, of the same magnitude.
Either way, pharmaceutical lobbyists won new federal policies they coveted and set a trajectory for long-term industry growth. Privately, several of them say their biggest triumph was heading off Democrats led by Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., who…
Letters of Note: Jack Kerouac ‘Burroughs Has Gone Insane’
On the always fascinating site Letters of Note:
Early 1957, Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg travelled to Tangier to join William Burroughs; their mission to assemble and edit Burroughs’ many fragments of work to form a ‘readable’ Naked Lunch manuscript. Kerouac arrived early and, during a break from socialising with Burroughs, the ‘old familiar lunatic’, wrote to Lucien Carr and his wife Francesca in order to update them on the project’s progress. That handwritten letter — essentially a fascinating account of Burroughs’ behaviour in his prime — can be seen [here].
For related material — including other correspondence, manuscript pages and photographs — I very highly recommend visiting Columbia University’s online exhibition, “Naked Lunch”: The First Fifty Years.
Transcript here:
Dear Lucien & Cessa — Writing to you by candlelight from the mysterious Casbah — have a magnificent room overlooking the beach & the bay & the sea & can see Gibraltar — patio to sun on, room maid, $20 a month — feel great but Burroughs has gone insane as, — he keeps saying he’s going to erupt into some unspeakable atrocity such as waving his dingdong at an Embassy part & such or slaughtering an Arab boy to see what his beautiful insides look like …
Universe Expansion ‘is Speeding Up’
This article brings up a question of philosophy. If there is a some vast, dark force at the center of the universe which is speeding us toward oblivion, what does that say about “God?”
From The Hindu:
Astronomers have claimed that the expansion of the universe is accelerating, after studying thousands of galaxies using the Hubble Space Telescope.
In its research, an international team has analyzed nearly 446,000 galaxies to map the matter distribution and the expansion history of the universe, proving again that Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity is indeed correct.
And the astronomers clearly found that the universe was indeed growing faster and faster with time, as predicted by Einstein.
“Our results confirmed that there is an unknown source of energy in universe which is causing the cosmic expansion to speed up, stretching the dark matter further apart exactly as predicted by Einstein’s theory,” lead astronomer Ludovic Van Waerbeke of Leiden University in…
Art of the Steal: On the Trail of World’s Most Ingenious Thief
Joshuah Bearman writes in Wired:
The plane slowed and leveled out about a mile above ground. Up ahead, the Viennese castle glowed like a fairy tale palace. When the pilot gave the thumbs-up, Gerald Blanchard looked down, checked his parachute straps, and jumped into the darkness. He plummeted for a second, then
pulled his cord, slowing to a nice descent toward the tiled roof. It was early June 1998, and the evening wind was warm. If it kept cooperating, Blanchard would touch down directly above the room that held the Koechert Diamond Pearl. He steered his parachute toward his target.
A couple of days earlier, Blanchard had appeared to be just another twentysomething on vacation with his wife and her wealthy father. The three of them were taking a six-month grand European tour: London, Rome, Barcelona, the French Riviera, Vienna. When they stopped at the Schloss Schönbrunn, the Austrian equivalent of Versailles, his father-in-law’s VIP status granted them a special preview peek at a highly prized piece from a private collection. And there it was: In a cavernous room, in an alarmed case, behind bulletproof glass, on a weight-sensitive pedestal — a delicate but dazzling 10-pointed star of diamonds fanned around one monstrous pearl. Five seconds after laying eyes on it, Blanchard knew he would try to take it.
Scientists Discover How to ‘Turn Off’ Brain’s Morality Center
From The Raw Story:
People’s moral judgment can be altered by disrupting part of the brain, a study published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows.Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) disrupted activity in the right temporo-parietal junction, or TPJ, which is above and behind the right ear and is usually highly active when we think about what we believe the outcome of a particular act will be.
The researchers disrupted the TPJ by inducing a current in the brain using a magnetic field applied to the scalp and got study participants to read a series of scenarios posing moral conundrums.
In one scenario, a person called Grace and her friend are taking a tour of a chemical plant when Grace stops at the coffee machine.
Grace’s friend asks her to get her a coffee with sugar.
[Read more at The Raw Story]
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It’s Over: MPs Say the Special Relationship with US is Dead
From the Times Online:
Britain’s special relationship with the US — forged by Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt in the second world war — no longer exists, says a committee of influential MPs.
Instead, America’s relationship with Britain is no more special than with its other main allies, according to a report by the Commons foreign affairs committee published today.
The report also warns that the perception of the UK after the Iraq war as America’s “subservient poodle” has been highly damaging to Britain’s reputation and interests around the world. The MPs conclude that British prime ministers have to learn to be less deferential to US presidents and be “willing to say no” to America.
The report, entitled Global Security: UK-US Relations, says Britain’s relationship with America is “extremely close and valuable” in a number of areas, particularly intelligence co-operation. However, it adds that the use of the phrase special relationship, in its historical…
