Archive for April, 2010
Michael Specter: The Danger of Science Denial
GrrlScientist writes on ScienceBlogs:
Vaccine-autism claims, “Frankenfood” bans, the herbal cure craze: All point to the public’s growing fear (and, often, outright denial) of science and reason, says Michael Specter. He warns the trend spells disaster for human progress.
Serial Hoaxer Daniel Hammond Claimed He Was Raped by Whale
From News.com.au:
A brazen prankster claimed he was raped by a whale and gave his name as Ben Dover during one of many hoax calls to the emergency services.
Daniel Hammond made nuisance calls for eight months, telling busy emergency operators he lived in Doctor Who’s TARDIS.
On one occasion, he reported that his manhood fell off because he smoked too much weed and was struggling to have sex.
Another time, the lanky 21-year-old impersonated Saddam Hussein and claimed he hid a bomb on a train, a court in Sevenoaks, England, was told.
Prosecutor James Nichols said Hammond enjoyed the thrill of wasting the emergency services’ time with his bizarre and persistent tales.
The court was told that Hammond was caught when he called to report threats he claimed he was receiving, and police recognised his mobile phone number.
Time Traveler Caught in 1940 Photo?
Mori writes on forgetomori:
Reopening of the South Fork Bridge after flood, November 1940
It’s the short description for the photograph shown at the virtual Bralorne Pioneer Museum, from British Columbia, Canada. The image can be seen specifically on this page (scroll down to see), among other items of the online exhibit. Did you notice anything out of place? Or perhaps, out of time?
The man with what appears to be very modern sunglasses seems to be wearing a stamped T-shirt with a nice sweater, all the while holding a portable compact camera!
Internet people reached to the obvious conclusion: it’s a time traveller caught on camera on 1940! Finally, we have proof!
If the story seems straight out of a movie and the photo is in itself a great funny find, the most amusing thing i came up with while looking into this — as an Internet person, on the Internet — was the…
Double Down by the Numbers:
Unhealthiest Sandwich Ever?
Congratulations Double Down, you are now the sandwich against which all others will be judged. Via fivethirtyeight:
KFC’s Double Down Sandwich, an in-your-face collection of bacon, cheese and something called Colonel’s Sauce betwixt two fried chicken “buns”, is making waves for its unapologetic gluttony, compelling reviews out of everyone from the New York Times’s Sam Sifton to the Onion’s Nathan Rabin.
But is it really the caloric monstrosity that it appears?
Let’s start with the Double Down’s calorie count: 540 calories for the crispy “Original Recipe” version and 460 for a grilled variant. Those seem like big numbers, but by fast food standards, they’re pretty mild: the Burger King Chicken Tendercrisp weighs in at 800 calories, for instance, and Jack-in-the-Box’s Ranch Chicken Club will set you back 700. Calorie counts for burgers are even higher: 1,320 for a Hardee’s Monster Thickburger, and 1,350 for a Wendy’s Triple Baconator. Even the humble Big Mac, a lightweight by modern standards, contains 540 calories, exactly the same number as the Double Down.
Nicolas Cage Builds Pyramid To Rest In Peace
I think this guy has finally gone ’round the bend. via death+taxes:
In a move not seen since the ostentatious days of Egyptian Pharoahs, sane actor Nicolas Cage has done what, to anyone else, appears unreasonable, nay, unthinkable. Despite recently being hit by the IRS, the star of the National Treasure series, among other cinematic treasures Raising Arizona and Leaving Las Vegas, purchased a plot within a historical New Orleans cemetery and constructed a 9-foot pyramid to hold his bodily remains. Many things remain uncertain at this time regarding the Great Pyramid of Louisiana, such as, will Cage be disemboweled and mummified?
Scientists Find 95-Million-Year-Old Bugs In African Amber
Scientists have found amber containing perfectly-preserved 95-million-year-old bugs. From Wired Science:
Suspended in the stream of time were ancestors of modern spiders, wasps and ferns, but the prize is a wingless ant (above) that challenges current notions about the origins of that globe-spanning insect family.
The amber, which is formed when plant resin fossilizes, preserving flora and fauna trapped within, was found in what is now northwest Ethiopia. Ninety-five million years ago, it was part of a disintegrating Gondwana, one of two vast land masses that spawned the seven modern continents.
While it will take years to interpret the ecological tales trapped in the new amber, one important story is already suggested. Inside the Ethiopian amber is an ant that looks nothing like ants found in Cretaceous amber from France and Burma. Those deposits had placed the origin of ants in Laurasia. That’s no longer certain.
Read more at Wired Science
…
Pasta Recipe Containing ‘Salt And Freshly Ground Black People’
As book publishers, the gang at disinformation® understand typos happen to everyone, but this one wins a prize for Penguin Australia: their Pasta Bible contains a recipe calling for “salt and freshly ground black people.” What clinches the prize for Penguin is it’s executive’s statement that “why anyone would be offended, we don’t know” (via the Sydney Morning Herald):
Penguin Group Australia turns over $120 million a year from printing words but a one-word misprint has cost it dearly.
The publishing company was forced to pulp and reprint 7000 copies of Pasta Bible last week after a recipe called for ‘’salt and freshly ground black people” – instead of pepper – to be added to the spelt tagliatelle with sardines and prosciutto.
The exercise will cost Penguin $20,000, the head of publishing, Bob Sessions, said. At $3300 a letter, it’s a pricey typo.
Stock will not be recalled from bookshops because it would be ”extremely…
Is Christian Terrorism Growing In The United States?
Writing for Religion Dispatches, Mark Juergensmeyer claims that a violent Christian extremist movement is growing in the United States. (The murder of Kansas abortion doctor George Tiller and the Hutaree militia’s pipe bomb plot would be two examples.) Is his argument legitimate?
At the extreme right wing of Dominion Theology is a relatively obscure theological movement that Mike Bray found particularly appealing: Reconstruction Theology, whose exponents long to create a Christian theocratic state. Bray had studied their writings extensively and possessed a shelf of books written by Reconstruction authors. The convicted anti-abortion killer Paul Hill cited Reconstruction theologians in his own writings and once studied with a founder of the movement, Greg Bahnsen, at Reformed Theological Seminary in Jackson, Mississippi.
Rev. Paul Hill, Rev. Michael Bray, and other Reconstructionists—along with Dominion theologians such as the American politician and television host Pat Robertson and many other right-wing Christian activists today—are postmillenialists. Hence they…
The Video Game Lives of Future Consumerism
Big Brother, Video Game Psychology & Obedient Humans living inside Skinner Boxes. This was a presentation at the recent DICE 2010 Summit.
Going After Goldman: A Crackdown On Financial Crime Or A Kabuki Play Maneuver To Avoid Bringing Criminal Charges?
Fox Business News was engrossed in interviewing a blonder than thou reality TV bimbo when the news that the Securities And Exchange Commission was filing fraud charges against Goldman Sachs broke on Friday afternoon.
The breaking news bulletins were already flying through cyberspace before the Fox Means Business network got around to moving from a snickering interview with a starlet confessing to commodifying and monetizing her appeal to the biggest story in months on the Street beat. Corporate fraud allegations seem to make free market boosters nervous.
At last, the mightiest of investment bank, described as a “giant squid on the face of humanity” by Matt Taibbi in a much-read diatribe, appeared to be in deep trouble. Taibbi himself was not convinced that the Government has the goods on Goldman.
He commented, “…What’s interesting is that I heard whiffs of this story going back as far as a year and you know I’m…
Yoga As A Political Movement
The return of yogis to political life? From the New York Times:
HARIDWAR, India — The sun slumbered well beneath the horizon, but Swami Ramdev had been up for hours. Swathed in a saffron loincloth, he led his charges, a few hundred devotees in this holy city on the Ganges River and tens of millions more watching on television, through a rapid-fire series of yoga poses.
“If you sweat this much in the morning, you will never get old,” he shouted, the Chiclet-white dazzle of his smile undimmed by the wild bush of his beard. His own 50-ish body, lithe and supple as it whipped through the poses, underscored the point.
Without skipping a beat, Swami Ramdev, who as one of India’s most popular and influential gurus has reintroduced yoga to India’s masses, segued seamlessly into his latest passion: politics.
“We clean up our bodies,” he cried. “Then we will clean up our democracy!”
Swami…
NASA’s Robonauts Ready To Launch Wearing Corporate Sponsor Shirts
Robonaut 2. Photo: NASA
What I really like about this picture from NASA is the sponsor logo right slap in the center of the Robonaut’s chest, just like it was playing center forward for Manchester United or Real Madrid, except they decided that the sponsor should be one of the bankrupt companies that the U.S. government bailed out in the increasingly suspect financial crisis, General Motors (actually, Manchester United’s sponsor is another one of those companies, AIG). Here’s the story from PopSci:
Later this year, NASA’s R2 will become the first humanoid robot resident of the International Space Station. The launch of the handsome android, which until now had not been firmly scheduled, has now been fast-tracked to happen this September.
Before the bot goes up, it has to be tested in conditions of vacuum, low gravity, high radiation, and trained sensitivity to the unusual practices on board the ISS.
NASA has released a…
How Frank Luntz Led Health Care ‘Reform’ Opposition
The reason I am sharing this is not because I think the so-called health care “reform” that passed actually qualified as such, but to point out one of the maestros (or Dark Lord of the Sith, depending on your take) behind the scenes of the opposition to such legislation.
Know who Frank Luntz is. He manages to influence the public discourse in the United States, on a regular basis:
P.S. It took the Democrats until April 15th to come up with this video? And you wonder why it took over a year to pass bullshit “reform”…
Books on Text Messaging Teens Were the Most Challenged Books of 2009
Interesting development, and always good to know that the classics which predate texting by decades still make the list. The good folks at the American Library Association note:
Lauren Myracle’s best-selling young adult novel series ttyl, the first-ever novels written entirely in the style of instant messaging, tops the American Library Association’s (ALA) Top Ten list of the Most Frequently Challenged Books of 2009:
1. ttyl, ttfn, l8r, g8r (series), by Lauren Myracle
Reasons: Nudity, Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group, Drugs2. And Tango Makes Three by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson
Reasons: Homosexuality3. The Perks of Being A Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky
Reasons: Homosexuality, Sexually Explicit, Anti-Family, Offensive Language, Religious Viewpoint, Unsuited to Age Group, Drugs, Suicide4. To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
Reasons: Racism, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group5. Twilight (series) by Stephenie Meyer
Reasons: Sexually Explicit, Religious Viewpoint, Unsuited to Age Group6. Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger
Reasons: Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group7.…
Confessions of a Counterculture
Lenticular Cloud. Source: NOAA
Author’s note: What follows is a (perhaps) pessimistic rumination on 2012. It is the first of two essays, the second intending toward optimism.
There are these rumors—perhaps you have heard them—rumors of ancient Mayan calendars and galactic cycles, lots of loose talk about sunspots and geomagnetisms, wide-eyed whispers about aliens and dimethyltryptamine, knowing nods concerning crop circles and conspiracies. An emergent and presumptive science of rapture heralds an onrushing apocalypse, and shadows cast backward through time are already stretching toward our sunset.
A feathered and snakeskin gauntlet has been thrown down, it seems, by a counterculture of psychedelic cognoscenti. Don’t tell Jesus, in other words, but Quetzalcoatl is coming. An omega point looms in 2012, a transcendental object at the end of time that echoes throughout the labyrinth of human history as it draws us inexorably toward itself, or as the Tennyson inscription declares above the History statue in…
Mysterious Radio Waves Emitted From Nearby Galaxy
Stephen Battersby writes on New Scientist:
There is something strange in the cosmic neighbourhood. An unknown object in the nearby galaxy M82 has started sending out radio waves, and the emission does not look like anything seen anywhere in the universe before.
“We don’t know what it is,” says co-discoverer Tom Muxlow of Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics near Macclesfield, UK.
The thing appeared in May last year, while Muxlow and his colleagues were monitoring an unrelated stellar explosion in M82 using the MERLIN network of radio telescopes in the UK. A bright spot of radio emission emerged over only a few days, quite rapidly in astronomical terms. Since then it has done very little except baffle astrophysicists.
It certainly does not fit the pattern of radio emissions from supernovae: they usually get brighter…
Zubaydah’s Torture, Detention Subject of Senate Intelligence Inquiry
From Truthout:
The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence has launched an investigation into Abu Zubaydah, the “high-value” detainee captured in March 2002 that the Bush administration wrongly claimed was one of the planners of 9/11 and a top al-Qaeda operative, according to several Capitol Hill sources.
The investigation of Zubaydah, who was tortured at a secret black site prison in Thailand, will be conducted alongside the committee’s ongoing probe of the Bush administration’s interrogation and detention policies. Zubdaydah has been detained at Guantanamo since 2006.
The panel will scrutinize thousands of pages of highly classified documents related to Zubaydah’s detention and torture to determine, among other things, whether the “enhanced interrogation techniques” he was subjected to was accurately reflected in CIA cable traffic sent back to Langley, whether he ever provided actionable intelligence to his torturers, and how the CIA and other government agencies came to rely on flawed intelligence that led the…
YouTube: A History
From the Telegraph:
YouTube, the online video site, marks its fifth year this week. Here are some of the key staging posts in its history.
February 2005: YouTube founders, Chad Hurley, Steve Chen and Jawed Karim begin work on a video sharing site — they all met at PayPal.
April 2005: First video uploaded to YouTube — a video of Jawed at San Diego Zoo
November 2005: YouTube secures first round of funding with Sequoia Capital for $3.5m
December 2005: Official Launch (8m videos watched a day)
February 2006: 15m videos watched a day; 20,000 uploaded a day
May 2006: Mobile video uploads released
July 2006: 65,000 new videos uploaded every day, site passes 100m video views per day
Israel’s Ban of the iPad Flaps On
I wonder if we’ll ever know the real deal here. It’s hard to imagine security concerns are not involved, especially if there’s a chance of interfering with the army’s communication frequencies. But in the interest of commerce, I think something will be worked out. Batsheva Sobelman writes on the LA Times’ Babylon & Beyond:
Israel’s Ministry of Communications has banned import of iPads on the grounds that they are not compatible with the country’s Wi-Fi standards. The device isn’t sold in Israel commercially yet.
Few were aware of any problem until the media reported that iPads were being held up at customs at the instruction of the Ministry of Communications until they were declared compatible with Israeli standards. Until the tablets are officially commercially imported, Israeli officials say, responsibility for ensuring that personally imported items of any kind are compatible with Israeli standards resides with customers, who wouldn’t, for example, bring home a…
