Archive for March, 2010
The Georgia Guidestones: Waiting for the End of the World
Co-Hosts of the Disinformation Podcasts, Raymond Wiley and Joe McFall, at the Georgia Guidestones
R. C. Christian is dead! The Georgia Guidestones are one of the most interesting mysteries I have ever come across. After all my interest in conspiracy theories and the occult side of things, I do not believe that there is anything wrong with this monument.
It is sad to hear that R. C. Christian has died and that people want to limit his free speech by defacing this work of great craftsmanship. From CNN:
In the beginning, there was the stone.The blue-gray vein of granite that courses through northeastern Georgia spawned jobs in the quarries and finishing sheds of Elberton, where generations of stonecutters have turned slabs of rock the size of refrigerators into statues, tombstones and tile.
And one day, it brought a visitor who gifted the town with a landmark that leaves visitors scratching their heads decades later.
The nearly…
New Supernova Discovered By A 14 Year Old
From ScienceBlogs:
There is no age restriction on the chance to make a significant contribution to our understanding of the universe. Caroline Moore, a 14-year-old from Warwick, NY, has made such a mark on astronomy with the discovery of Supernova 2008ha. Not only is she the youngest person to discover a supernova, but this particular supernova has been identified as a different type of stellar explosion.
Could McDonald’s Replace Beef Burgers With Seitan? Would Anyone Notice?
Nick Aster writes on triplepundit:
I sometimes like to write harebrained posts postulating some kind of zany idea. So here’s today’s:
I ate at an airport McDonald’s the other day for the first time in ages. It was at once delicious and disturbing. I looked at the beef. Was it really beef? I mean, seriously, it was definitely some kind of beef-flavored-matter, and the advertisement did say 100% beef. But as I walked off with that greasy post-McDonald’s flavor (that lasts for hours) in the mouth, I got to thinking: that patty was almost no different than the wheat or soy-based stuff used to make vegan food (seitan and so on).
I walked away 100% convinced that McDonald’s could replace all its beef with beef-flavored seitan and NO ONE would notice the difference. McDonald’s would save a fortune, health would be improved, and the carbon and resource footprint of McDonald’s would be massively slashed.
Does…
There Is a Naked-Networking Club in Washington, D.C.
"Care for a Massa massage, Glenn?"
Chris Rovzar writes in New York:
After Eric Massa told the world about the time a naked Rahm Emanuel accosted him in the congressional locker rooms, we had to wonder: “Is there naked deal-making that goes on in D.C., or was that just a fantasy that Eric Massa concocted — which in his mind ended in a playful, ticklish snorkeling expedition?”
Initially, that seemed to be the case — but after sliding a few rungs down on the Beltway power ladder, the Washington Post managed to find a group of D.C. “insiders” who like to get naked and sweat together.
There is, apparently, a gang of mid-level lobbyists and bureaucrats who hang out in the big, scorching hot sauna at the Finnish Embassy. (It’s twice as hot as the one at the Swedish embassy).
Read More in New York
The Key to the Secret of the Universe
By Robert Singer
[Note: I really like you guys at disinfo.com. And although a number of you think my writing might be “under the influence”, there is no question you read and have thought about my essays. Therefore, I have selected disinfo.com to preview and get some constructive comments about, according to me, The Key to the Secret of the Universe.]
I found, according to me, the key to the secret of universe while “wandering into a spiritual area, where I had little knowledge.”
I wrote an essay based on a book by Ian Gurney, the Cassandra Prophesy: “Is Jesus Christ Coming Back to Earth in XXXXIII (2023)?”.
I claim the key to the secret can be found by identifying “the abomination of the desolation” as spoken of by the prophet Daniel in the Greatest Book of Disinformation ever written (The Bible):
But when ye shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel…
Google China Search Engine Killed
This is potentially a big deal, for a big country, via Gizmodo:
If you head to Google.cn, you’ll be re-directed to Google.com.hk with a message saying “Welcome to the new home of Google China search.” So that’s that, I guess.
Google is officially no longer censoring search results for China, sending all searchers to its uncensored Chinese-language Hong Kong site instead. Just as Google said it would do after it discovered some pretty serious corporate espionage hackery coming from what turned out to be government-related sources in China, they’re pulling out much of its business in the country. Google isn’t closing down all of its Chinese offices, keeping some sales and R&D staff on board there, but clearly they’ll be making some serious cutbacks to staff.
It’s a big victory to free speech advocates, who were never happy with Google’s decision to self-censor its search results in order to do business in the country. But it’s not great news for people inside China, especially scientists, who are used to relying on Google daily.
Does This Headline Know You’re Reading It?
“Not yet, but it could…. Imagine how annoying pop up ads could be if they were triggered when you looked at them.”
German artificial intelligence researchers are combining web technology with eye-tracking hardware to create “text 2.0,” which “infers user intentions.” …
Indian Military to Weaponize World’s Hottest Chili
WASBIR HUSSAIN writes on the Associated Press:
GAUHATI, India — The Indian military has a new weapon against terrorism: the world’s hottest chili.
After conducting tests, the military has decided to use the thumb-sized “bhut jolokia,” or “ghost chili,” to make tear gas-like hand grenades to immobilize suspects, defense officials said Tuesday.
The bhut jolokia was accepted by Guinness World Records in 2007 as the world’s spiciest chili. It is grown and eaten in India’s northeast for its taste, as a cure for stomach troubles and a way to fight the crippling summer heat.
It has more than 1,000,000 Scoville units, the scientific measurement of a chili’s spiciness. Classic Tabasco sauce ranges from 2,500 to 5,000 Scoville units, while jalapeno peppers measure anywhere from 2,500 to 8,000.
New Counter Surveillance Camera Watches the Watchers
Via gizmag.com:
The sniper is without doubt the most fearsome of opponents – capable of taking your life from great distance. Current anti-sniper counter measures depend on the sight or sound of the initial shot, and by that time, it may be too late. Now a new device which uses the same “red-eye” effect of flash cameras and projects it hundreds of meters, can identify binoculars, sniper scopes, cameras and even human eyeballs that are staring at you. It is hence the first machine that can offer 24/7 warning that you are being watched or targeted, BEFORE a shot is fired.
The CS300K™ Long Range Counter Surveillance Camera is the brainchild of high tech surveillance equipment manufacturer JETprotect, and will be a welcome addition to the armory of those who currently spend a lot of money on trained guards watching CCTV monitors.
We’ve Super-Sized The Last Supper
This is certainly one way to highlight the perils of overeating, perhaps intended to appeal to the dwindling but still large number of Christians remaining in the United States, reported by Reuters:
We’ve been overeating our way through ever-larger portions over the past 1,000 years, a U.S. study revealed after studying more than 50 paintings of the Biblical Last Supper.
The study, by a Cornell University professor and his brother who is a Presbyterian minister and a religious studies professor, showed that the sizes of the portions and plates in the artworks, which were painted over the past millennium, have gradually grown by between 23 and 69 percent.
This finding suggests that the phenomenon of serving bigger portions on bigger plates, which pushes people to overeat, has also occurred gradually over the same time period, said Brian Wansink, director of the Cornell Food and Brand Lab.
“The last thousand years have witnessed dramatic increases…
Western Scientists Explain Why Acupuncture Works
I can attest to the effectiveness of acupuncture, as well as the incredible, happy endorphin rush it can cause. But why? The Wall Street Journal says western scientists can now explain it:
Acupuncture has long baffled medical experts and no wonder: It holds that an invisible life force called qi (pronounced chee) travels up and down the body in 14 meridians. Illness and pain are due to blockages and imbalances in qi. Inserting thin needles into the body at precise points can unblock the meridians, practitioners believe, and treat everything from arthritis and asthma to anxiety, acne and infertility.
As fanciful as that seems, acupuncture does have real effects on the human body, which scientists are documenting using high-tech tools. Neuroimaging studies show that it seems to calm areas of the brain…
Stunning New Mars Ice Wall Photo
The Daily Mail has published an incredible photo from our sister planet Mars, but it raises questions regarding NASA’s manipulation of the image – if they are going to “enhance” this one, how about others like the infamous “face”?:
It looks like a filmmaker’s apocalyptic vision of Earth following a devastating natural disaster. But this colossal ice formation is actually a portion of the wall terraces of a huge crater on Mars.
Approximately 37 miles in diameter, a section of the Mojave Crater in the planet’s Xanthe Terra region has been digitally mapped by Nasa scientists. The result is this digital terrain model that was generated from a stereo pair of images and offers a synthesized, oblique view…
The Novelist You Can’t Read On Your Kindle
Kindle 2. Photo: Jon 'ShakataGaNai' Davis (CC)
A new blog about the Kindle Wireless Reading Device posts an appreciation for one of the great 1940s novelists whose works you can’t read on your Kindle.
And there’s a fascinating secret second story about his life. The same year he won a Pulitzer Prize — which he declined — he was writing these lyrics with the man who created “Alvin and the Chipmunks.”
“Come on-a my house, my house a come on
Come on-a my house, my house a come on
Come on-a my house, my house I’m gonna give a you
Peach and pear and I love your hair ah
Come on-a my house, my house a come on
Come on-a my house, my house a come on
Come on-a my house, my house, I’m gonna give you Easta-egg”
British Boy Becomes First in the World to Have Stem Cell Transplant
If President Bush’s outdated theology hadn’t prevented government research with embryonic stem cells, I wonder how much further along we’d be. Pretty incredible story. Rebecca Smith writes in the Telegraph:
A ten-year-old British boy has become the first child in the world to undergo a revolutionary windpipe transplant, it has been announced.
The landmark operation involved injecting the scaffold of a windpipe, taken from a dead donor, with stem cells from the boy before implanting it in his throat.
The stem cells were removed from the boy’s bone marrow and were ready for use just four hours later.
The cells trigger regrowth to create a normal windpipe without any of the risks of normal transplantation such as the organ being rejected by the body.
The operation took place at Great Ormond Street Hospital, in London, on Monday and the boy is breathing by himself and able to speak normally.
Read More in the Telegraph
…
How America Became a Surveillance State
Alexandra Silver interviews author Shane Harris in TIME magazine:
It reads like a spy novel, but in The Watchers: The Rise of America’s Surveillance State, author Shane Harris lays out the U.S. government’s real-life efforts to see and hear more in the face of growing terrorist threats. He pays particular attention to Total Information Awareness (TIA), a post-9/11 research project spearheaded by John Poindexter, once President Reagan’s National Security Adviser. Harris, a reporter for National Journal, spoke to TIME about Poindexter, the fate of TIA and the state of surveillance in America. He didn’t object, mind you, to being recorded.
Your book has an ominous title, but you’re very sympathetic to many of the characters. Do you feel we can trust the “watchers”?
What did Reagan say — “Trust but verify”? I’ve yet to meet anybody in this particular space who I thought had nefarious intentions or was out to violate people’s privacy or anything…
Newly Discovered Planet Corot-9b Has Earth-Like Temperatures
Do Vulcans live here? Planetary temperatures range from -20 °C to 160 °C (-68 °F to 320 °F). Steve Connor writes on the Independent:
The first planet with a “temperate” climate to orbit a distant star has been discovered by astronomers, who claim that the techniques used to study it will be critical in the search for Earth-like worlds beyond our own solar system.
Corot-9b, as the planet is called, is one of more than 400 “exoplanets” found to be orbiting other stars, but it is the first one with a near-normal temperature range that can be studied as it moves across (or “transits”) the sun it orbits. “This is a normal, temperate exoplanet just like dozens we already know, but this is the first whose properties we can study in depth,” said Claire Moutou, one of the team of astronomers at the European Southern Observatory who made the discovery. “It is…
How Many Mexican Drug War Deaths Can We Attribute to U.S. Pot Laws?
OK, with the progress made (debatable of course) with Obama’s campaign promise of health care reform, I think Paul Armentano of NORML raises a good point here. Given the political capital expended on health care “reform” this is feeling like a “second term” issue for the Prez, if that happens …
One of the first things President Roosevelt did upon assuming office, when the economy was way worse in the dumps than now, was to keep a campaign promise and push to repeal Prohibition. Just sayin’ … Paul Armentano writes on Alternet:
It’s time to remove the production and distribution of marijuana out of the hands of violent criminal enterprises and into the hands of licensed businesses.It was less than one year ago when acting U.S. DEA administrator Michelle Leonhart publicly declared that the escalating violence on the U.S./Mexico border should be viewed as a sign of the “success” of America’s drug war strategies.
“Our view is that the violence we have been seeing is a signpost of the success our very courageous Mexican counterparts are having,” said Michele Leonhart, who was recently nominated by President Obama to be the agency’s full time director. “The cartels are acting out like caged animals, because they are caged animals.”
For Sale: Plum Island
Breezy, secluded lair for an evil scientist, or professional couple. Pets OK!
via theday.com
The federal government will study the potential environmental impacts of selling Plum Island to a private owner for redevelopment or keeping the 840-acre island in federal hands after the research lab for highly infectious animal diseases is moved to Manhattan, Kan.
In a notice published Thursday in the Federal Register, the General Services Administration announced that it would undertake an Environmental Impact Statement to guide the anticipated sale of Plum Island and a 9.5-acre support facility in Orient Point, N.Y.
The island, located in Long Island Sound about 1.5 miles from Orient Point, has been the site of the high-security Plum Island Animal Disease Center since 1954. It is the only national lab for research into foot-and-mouth virus, which is highly contagious to livestock, as well as classical swine fever, vesicular stomatitis virus and foreign animal diseases. It was run by the U.S. Department of Agriculture until 2003, when it was transferred to the Department of Homeland Security.
Paula Santangelo, spokeswoman for the General Services Administration, said the labs at the facility are still operating at full capacity. The Homeland Security Department states on its Web site that the target date for the opening of the Kansas lab is 2014.
Leprecheun Killed In Shootout With Police After St. Patrick’s Day Bank Robbery In Tennessee
A man dressed as a leprechaun was killed by police after robbing a Nashville-area bank on St. Patrick’s Day. Oddly enough, it was in Nashville that a gun-toting Santa Claus committed a bank robbery this past Christmas Eve.
