Archive for March, 2010
Woman’s Growth of a 6 centimeter Horn on Forehead Baffles Village
MSN reports:
A woman has alarmed her small village in China after growing a 6cm horn on her forehead in less than a year.
Zhang Ruifang, 101, says she is also concerned about the appearance of a second mark on the other side of her forehead.
“We didn’t pay too much attention to it [at first] … but as time went on a horn grew out of her head,” said Mrs Zhang’s son Zhang Guozheng.
Scientists Have Discovered Booze That Won’t Give You A Hangover
Tim Barribeau writes on io9.com:
Booze, for all its magical wonder, still has big drawbacks: You can’t sober up quickly, and you often get a hangover. Now Korean researchers have found a way of tweaking booze to limit the fallout — without cutting its strength.
Doctors Kwang-il Kwon and Hye Gwang Jeong of Chungnam National University studied the properties of oxygenated alcohol — booze with oxygen bubbles added — which is a popular concoction in their country. In these drinks, oxygen is added the way carbonation is usually added to soda, and the scientists wanted to know if these oxygenated beverages affected people differently than non-oxygenated ones. The answer was a resounding yes.
They ran three experiments using 19.5% alcohol drinks, and measured the speed at which people’s blood alcohol dropped to 0.000%. In other words: How fast did they sober up?
Read More on io9.com
Water Found in Apollo Moon Rocks
From National Geographic:
Recently NASA crashed two spacecraft into the moon and orbiters scanned the lunar surface for telltale light signatures—all to confirm the rocky body isn’t bone dry after all.
But, it turns out, solid evidence for water on the moon was under our noses the whole time.
Tiny amounts of water have been found in some of the famous moon rocks brought back to Earth by the Apollo astronauts, scientists announced last Wednesday. (Related: “Apollo 11 at 40: Facts, Myths, Photos, and More.”)
The water levels detected in Apollo moon rocks and volcanic glasses are in the thousands of parts per million, at most—which explains why analyses of the samples in the late 1960s and early 1970s concluded that the moon was absolutely arid.
“Only in the last decade have instruments become sensitive enough to even analyze water at those kinds of concentrations,” said Gary Lofgren, the lunar curator at NASA’s Johnson Space…
Report: Californians Consume 16 Million Ounces of Pot a Year
This humble Disinfonaut believes that the numbers on these sorts of reports are always too low. I would imagine that the real amount is many, many times higher. From the Sacramento Bee:
So how much pot do Californians smoke?
According to a recent state board of equalization report prepared for the legislature, it’s 16 million ounces a year. That’s a little less than one-half an ounce for each resident in California, in case you’re counting every man, woman and child.
The analysis was prepared for legislation by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco), that seeks to legalize, tax and regulate marijuana for use by California adults 21 and over.
Some other findings:
- California is America’s top pot producing state, with an annual yield of 8.6 million pounds of weed valued at $13.8 billion. That’s more than one-third of the cultivation across the U.S.
[Read more at the Sacramento Bee]
Voodoo Practitioners Shrug Off Blame for Haitian Quake
From the Telegraph:
In a whirl of limbs and with eyes bulging, the woman is helped to a squat in the ramshackle shed and starts cackling maniacally like a terrified chicken.
“Kaaaa! Ka-ka-ka-ka-ka-ka,” she screams and stutters, her right arm bent in front of her.Around her, the other Voodoo worshippers look on, unsurprised but expectant as their ceremony reaches its climactic mid-point. Someone ties a red cloth to her arm, which stops shaking.
In their eyes, she is possessed by a spirit of the dead – one of the 220,000 estimated to have perished in Haiti’s January quake perhaps – and is thus, in a way, blessed.
When she picks up a rusty knife and swings clockwise around the room, gulping from a bottle of cherry-flavored alcohol, they do not draw away.
Instead they embrace her, even kiss her. And in that way they are blessed, too.
But for all the fervor and favor being shared…
Electronic Musician HipGnosis Talks About Mind-Altering Music
Electronic musician HipGnosis talks about his techniqiues for making consciousness altering music. Via Technoccult:
I know you use binaural beats and other methods to enhance your music by making it consciousness altering. Can you describe some of the methods you use?
Well, much of my music is a sort of “hypersigil” imbued with specific frequencies designed to induce altered states. When combined with psychedelics, it can be intense. I have done much research on cymatics/sound healing/binaurual tones.
I started making acid house as the first electonic music i did, and binaurals were first introduced to that music. I am heavily influenced by Coil, who also did much work w/ frequencies to transmit information/altered states-specific qualities. Psychic TV is an early influence as well, which was less about traditional sound-mind altering, but more about raw feeling/energy.
And as a raver since the early 90’s UK hardcore/jungle/garage, “techno” and old-school “trance” play huge roles in the type…
Working For Walmart
Outside the Wal-Mart in Orland Hills, IL, by Clean Wal-Mart.
Kevin Robinson writes on Chicagoist:
As part of our on-going coverage of Wal-Mart’s attempt to break into the Chicago retail market, we take a look this week at the company’s employment practices in the Chicago metropolitan area. Chicagoist met up with three Wal-Mart employees to talk to them about their jobs, company policy, and why they work there.
Roslyn Lindfair also knows what it’s like to be hurt on the job at Wal-Mart. She worked at the Cary, Illinois store for five years as a cashier before she was fired after her arm got caught in a turnstile.
“It was maybe about 7:30, I was ringing up a customer, and she was turning the turnstile one way, and I was turning another way. And it hit me in my arm. It hurt, and I just kinda waited a while, and I noticed my arm…
Splitting the Sky on Trial in Canada for Attempting to Arrest President Bush
Via YouTube:
A man named Splitting the Sky, tried to arrest former President George W. Bush for war crimes. He crossed police lines on one of President Bush’s visits to Canada and was arrested. He now faces criminal charges in court, the trial began today.
Waterboarding For Dummies
MARK BENJAMIN writes on Salon:
Self-proclaimed waterboarding fan Dick Cheney called it a no-brainer in a 2006 radio interview: Terror suspects should get a “a dunk in the water.” But recently released internal documents reveal the controversial “enhanced interrogation” practice was far more brutal on detainees than Cheney’s description sounds, and was administered with meticulous cruelty.
Interrogators pumped detainees full of so much water that the CIA turned to a special saline solution to minimize the risk of death, the documents show. The agency used a gurney “specially designed” to tilt backwards at a perfect angle to maximize the water entering the prisoner’s nose and mouth, intensifying the sense of choking — and to be lifted upright quickly in the event that a prisoner stopped breathing.
The documents also lay out, in chilling detail, exactly what should occur in each two-hour waterboarding “session.” Interrogators were instructed to start pouring water right after a…
Only Some Conspiracy Theories Welcome at Huffington Post
Have to agree, the Huffington Post loves to embrace all sort of crazy pseudoscientific theories about your health, but has a problem with this post from Jesse Ventura. (You can read the Ventura post on InfoWars.) Alex Pareene writes on Gawker:
The Huffington Post removed a 9/11 “Truther” post from former Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura. According to their editor’s note, “The Huffington Post’s editorial policy, laid out in our blogger guidelines, prohibits the promotion and promulgation of conspiracy theories….” Oh, really?
Because today, the very same Huffington Post published this wonderful post from dangerous nutcase Jenny McCarthy about how autism is caused by vaccines and can be cured with experimental treatments that the established medical community doesn’t want you to know about. We can only assume that as soon as the editors discover this conspiratorial nonsense, they will promptly remove it.
The fun thing about Jenny McCarthy’s conspiracy is that if it catches on enough, it will literally lead to the death of children. Trutherism just makes you really annoying!
It’s not only Huffington Post who gives the former Playboy playmate lip service, ABC News was willing to seek a medical opinion from her. Even if you disagree with Ventura’s claims on 9/11 (and I am in that camp), Ventura is not saying he is qualified to dispense an engineering analysis, or even claiming he is 100% right about his conclusions.
For more on Jenny McCarthy’s lunatic crusade, check out Jenny McCarthy Body Count.
Yes Men Dupe Utah With Call For Gay “Final Solution”
Pranksters the Yes Men held a bogus press conference in Salt Lake City, posing as an organization called “Patriots for a Moral Utah,” and called for a “Final Solution” of the forced removal of gays and lesbians of Utah. Amazingly, the event seemed believable enough for local reporters…Utah’s ABC 4 reports:
The so-called press conference was held at the Utah State Capitol at 1:00 p.m. Monday.
The woman claimed that…Utahns should get behind the initiative that would force homosexuals to relocate to New York City, Portland or San Francisco. According to the woman, who claimed to be Nora Young, homosexuals who chose not to relocate who be forced to undergo therapy that would “rehabilitate” them from homosexuality.
Republicans’ Internal Documents Call For Strategy Of “Fear”
The politics of fear, laid out in PowerPoint. From Politico:
The Republican National Committee plans to raise money this election cycle through an aggressive campaign capitalizing on “fear” of President Barack Obama and a promise to “save the country from trending toward socialism.”
The strategy was detailed in a confidential party fundraising presentation, obtained by POLITICO, which also outlines how “ego-driven” wealthy donors can be tapped with offers of access and “tchochkes.”
The presentation was delivered by RNC Finance Director Rob Bickhart to top donors and fundraisers at a party retreat in Boca Grande, Florida on February 18, a source at the gathering said.
‘Jihad Jane’: American Woman’s Plot To Kill Swedish Cartoonist
‘Jihad Jane,’ as Pennsylvania woman Colleen LaRose dubbed herself, was indicted Tuesday for helping recruit a network for suicide attacks and plotting to kill a Swedish cartoonist. Seven Muslims were arrested in Ireland in connection with the alleged plot. Jonathan Adams reports for the Christian Science Monitor:
Authorities unsealed charges in the US against a woman dubbed “Jihad Jane” and arrested seven Muslims in Ireland Tuesday for their alleged involvement in a plot to kill a Swedish cartoonist.
The allegations highlight the ongoing sensitivity of cartoon renderings of the prophet Mohammad, and are a rare example of a white American woman becoming involved in global jihad over the Internet.
U.S. National Biometric ID Cards Coming Soon
A dream of governments worldwide has long been to make people carry identification papers or cards, but the United States has always rejected direct attempts to institute such a program. That may be about to change, according to the Wall Street Journal:
Lawmakers working to craft a new comprehensive immigration bill have settled on a way to prevent employers from hiring illegal immigrants: a national biometric identification card all American workers would eventually be required to obtain.
Under the potentially controversial plan still taking shape in the Senate, all legal U.S. workers, including citizens and immigrants, would be issued an ID card with embedded information, such as fingerprints, to tie the card to the worker…
Surprise? Old Men Have More Sex Than Old Women
From Time:
Spring is coming, and a young man’s thoughts turn to … you know. Apparently, old men’s thoughts turn to the same subject. According to an article to be published Wednesday in the journal BMJ (British Medical Journal), 67% of men ages 65 to 74 said they had been sexually active in the past year, compared with just 40% of women in that age group. Everyone knows young men think constantly about sex, but many guys remain interested in sex until they are almost dead: more than one-third of men ages 75 to 85 said they had sex in the past 12 months, compared with just 17% of women in that age group.
Some of this surely has to do with Viagra, which makes it easier for older men to be interested in sex. But the disparity in sexual activity between older men and older women isn’t entirely explained by the…
Can We Build Robotic Eyes?
Geeks are now discussing the topic of “computer vision”, and this article includes a video showing how robots are taught to perceive images. (”For robots, the choice of eyes varies, from single light-dependant resistors to high-resolution video cameras…)
But interestingly, researchers have already determined that the state-of-the-art machine vision systems are all outperformed by systems based on human biology.
9/11 Truthers Could Be Locked Up For Life Under Proposed U.S. Law
A new bill quietly introduced by Congress last week is causing quite a stir among civil liberties groups. The brainchild of senators John McCain and Joe Lieberman, the bill would give the United States government the power to indefinitely detain terror suspects without charge or trial. It would also allow the government to interrogate them for the intelligence value and it doesn’t make a distinction between U.S. citizens and non-citizens.
Internet Freedom: Beyond Circumvention
From Worldchanging.com:
Secretary Clinton’s recent speech on Internet Freedom has signaled a strong interest from the US State Department in promoting the use of the internet to promote political reforms in closed societies. It makes sense that the State Department would look to support existing projects to circumvent internet censorship. The New York Times reports that a group of senators is urging the Secretary to apply existing funding to support the development and expansion of censorship circumvention programs, including Tor, Psiphon and Freegate.
I’ve spent a good part of the last couple of years studying internet circumvention systems. My colleagues Hal Roberts, John Palfrey and I released a study last year that compared the strengths and weaknesses of different circumvention tools. Some of my work at Berkman is funded by a US state department grant that focuses on continuing to study and evaluate these sorts of tools and I spend a lot of time trying to…
Pentagon Shooting Yet Another Sign of Boiling Anti-Government Sentiment
From Alternet:
The media are trying to find political affiliations for the Pentagon shooter, but they’re missing the big picture.
Another day, another violent anti-government kamikaze act. As the feds recover from Joseph Stack flying his airplane into an IRS building in Austin on Feb. 18 — leaving one dead and 13 injured — the media and government have another dead man to worry about.
Thursday night, after having driven cross-country from California to Washington, John Patrick Bedell walked up to a screening area at the Pentagon and starting firing his two semiautomatic weapons. In less than a minute, he’d wounded two police offers and received gunshot injuries that would later kill him.
Like Stack, Bedell was well-educated and left behind comprehensive material that outlined his longtime anger at the U.S. government. But his grievances are different from Stack’s.
While the deeply tortured manifesto Stack wrote detailed his frustrations with the tax system, it also centered…
