Archive for August, 2010
Laughing Burns 400 Calories Per Hour (Among Other Benefits)
Forbes report on Laughter Yoga, in which they reveal that in the U.S. there are over 3,000 certified instructors, 400+ Laughter clubs, and 1,000 private classes per week. To learn more about this check out the new disinformation documentary Laughology.
DEA Hiring Ebonics Translators
In the ‘you can’t make this stuff up’ category, via CNN:
Wanted by the Drug Enforcement Administration: Ebonics translators.
It might sound like a punch line, as “Ebonics” — the common name for what linguists call African-American English — has long been the butt of jokes, as well as the subject of controversy.
But the agency is serious about needing nine people to translate conversations picked up on wiretaps during investigations, Special Agent Michael Sanders said Tuesday. A solicitation was sent to contractors as part of a request to companies to provide hundreds of translators in 114 languages.
“DEA’s position is, it’s a language form we have a need for,” Sanders said. “I think it’s a language form that DEA recognizes a need to have someone versed in to conduct investigations.”
The translators, being hired in the agency’s Southeast Region — which includes Atlanta, Georgia; Washington; New Orleans, Louisiana; Miami, Florida; and the Caribbean —…
Sci-Fi Private Jets Of The World’s Dictators
British photographer Nick Gleis specializes in documenting the elaborate private jets that belong to African dictators and other heads of state. The Telegraph has a slideshow of his photos of plane interiors that resemble science fiction rendered in real life. I’m guessing, your leader’s having one of these insanely-ornate luxury jets probably corresponds with living in a country that’s not in great shape.
Police Use Software To Predict Criminals – Before They Commit Crimes
Big Brother beckons … report from ABC News:
New crime prediction software being rolled out in the nation’s capital should reduce not only the murder rate, but the rate of many other crimes as well.
Developed by Richard Berk, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, the software is already used in Baltimore and Philadelphia to predict which individuals on probation or parole are most likely to murder and to be murdered.
In his latest version, the one being implemented in D.C., Berk goes even further, identifying the individuals most likely to commit crimes other than murder.
If the software proves successful, it could influence sentencing recommendations and bail amounts.
“When a person goes on probation or parole they are supervised by an officer. The question that officer has to answer is ‘what level of supervision do you provide?’” said Berk.
It used to be that parole officers used the person’s criminal record, and their good…
School Enlists All Ninth Grade Freshmen In JROTC
From The Sun News in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina:
Welcome to high school. Now drop and give me 50.
The entire freshman class at Carvers Bay High School has been automatically enrolled in the Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps, a military-sponsored program that trains high school students in military discipline and concepts. Principal Richard Neal, a Navy veteran, said the school’s Marine Corps JROTC class is fulfilling the student’s physical education requirement and is part of the school’s Ninth Grade Academy.
But Charles Holloway, the parent of a freshman student at Carvers Bay, said he did not want his son in that program and when he asked that his son be taken out, his son was put in a class by himself. Holloway said he feels his son was being punished for not wanting to take part in that class…
[continues at The Sun News]
Coast to Coast AM 9/11 debate with Richard Gage and Dave Thomas
On Saturday August 21st, 2010, Richard Gage, AIA from Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth, and Dave Thomas a physicist from New Mexicans for Science and Reason, joined Ian Punnett on Coast to Coast AM for the entire program of 4 hours to debate how the World Trade Center buildings collapsed on September 11, 2001.
Physicist Kim Johnson and chemist Niels Harrit joined the discussion in hour three. Visit World for 911 Truth for links to the remainder of the interview.
Who – Or What – Killed Mozart? 118 Theories
Mozart circa 1780, by Johann Nepomuk della Croce.
Daniel J. Wakin reviews the latest theories on the causes of death of our greatest musical composer, for the New York Times:
Direct medical evidence? None. Autopsy? Not performed. Medical records? Nowhere to be found. Corpse? Disappeared.
Yet according to a recent article in an academic journal, researchers have posited at least 118 causes of death for Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
A modest industry of medical speculation has grown up around the subject, evidence of our fascination with what cut down great creative artists in history. In Mozart’s case published speculation began within a month of his death in 1791, and musicologists, physicians and medical scholars have regularly joined the fray ever since.
Dr. William J. Dawson, a retired orthopedic surgeon who is the bibliographer for the Performing Arts Medical Association, decided to organize the theories. He examined most of the 136 entries in the association’s database dedicated…
Planet Earth As Seen From Planet Mercury
If the closest planet in the Solar System to the Sun was able to support life (as we understand it) this is what our homeworld would look like to them — a double planetary system (or more likely as perceived, a binary star) — from even our closest approach to them, 48 million miles away. So according to Mercurians, we are not a pale blue dot but instead a nearby, very bright, double-dotted neighbor. Ray Villard writes on Discovery News:
I never cease to be humbled and amazed when I see our Planet Earth reduced to a pinpoint when photographed from elsewhere in the solar system. So far, our planet-roaming spacecraft have taken tourist snapshots of Earth as seen from Mars, Saturn, and beyond Pluto’s obit.
But this latest view from NASA’s MESSENGER (MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry and Ranging) spacecraft is a jaw-dropper. For the first time we see Earth — in…
Fox News, Rupert Murdoch and the ‘Terror Mosque’
Thanks to Andrew Lander for sending this little bit of Fox News hypocrisy our way, from Yahoo News:
The opponents of the proposed Cordoba Initiative Islamic center planned for Lower Manhattan are fond of suggesting, by way of lengthy and often confusing chains of causation and association, that its principal planner, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, is connected to terrorism. “The imam has been tied to some shady characters,” Fox Business Channel’s Eric Bolling recently said, “so should we worry that terror dollars could be funding the project?” Blogger Pamela Geller, who has become a regular talking head on cable-news channels to denounce the mosque, has noted Rauf’s involvement with a Malaysian peace group that funded the group that organized the Gaza flotilla under the headline, “Ground Zero Imam Rauf’s ‘Charity’ Funded Genocide Mission.”
On last night’s “Daily Show,” Jon Stewart skewered these antics as a “dangerous game of guilt by association you can play with almost anybody,” and proceeded to tie Fox News to al-Qaida…
Legendary Showman Turns Shaman
Psychomagic is the newest book by the legendary surrealist filmmaker, comics author, Tarot expert and therapist, Alejandro Jodorowsky.
Psychomagic: The Transformative Power of Shamanic Psychotherapy is the brand new English translation of Jodorowsky’s poetic-action therapy techniques. The book first appeared in Spanish in 2008. It’s published by Inner Traditions and was released on June 18, 2010.
The book is separated into 3 sections, keeping Jodorowsky’s wide-ranging ramblings carefully collected. Writer Gilles Farcet interacts with the author in the book’s first chapters which are written in a Q&A format.
An introductory essay by Farcet makes it clear that their “interview” consisted of his enduring an expansive, multi-layered monologue from Jodorowsky which was only later recast in the Q&A structure. The “knowing teacher vs. baffled student” feel of this section is absolutely delightful, and the disarming approach allows the deeper implications of Jodorowsky’s ideas to take the reader by surprise. In…
Glasses-Free 3D Television Set In Production
It seems that every big blockbuster to hit box offices lately have been in 3-D. From Avatar to Alice In Wonderland, and currently Despicable Me, 3-D is used as common as computer animation. Now television companies are working on bringing the life-like effects into your home. TechNews World reports:
Toshiba has reportedly confirmed it is working on technology for a 3-D television set that won’t require viewers to use special glasses.
However, details are scant, and the company declined to say when such TVs will hit the market.
Toshiba isn’t alone in working on technology that will let viewers watch 3D TV without glasses.
“Every major manufacturer will be working on auto-stereo, or glasses-free, 3D TV,” David Mercer, a vice president and principal analyst at Strategy Analytics, told TechNewsWorld.
Technology that lets people watch 3D images without glasses already exists. For example, Nintendo is using it in its 3DS handheld video game device, which it demonstrated…
Remembering the Fifth Anniversary of Hurricane Katrina Through Film
Moviefone heralds a Snag Films mini-fest including disinformation’s Greg Palast film Big Easy To Big Empty: The Untold Story Of The Drowning Of New Orleans:
With the release of Spike Lee’s ‘If God Is Willing and da Creek Don’t Rise,’ the follow-up to 2006’s essential ‘When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts,’ the city of New Orleans is revisited five years after Hurricane Katrina to examine the progress and stagnancy of rejuvenating a still-ailing city.
Yet on the fifth anniversary of one of the most devastating natural disasters in U.S. history, Lee’s film is one of a number of documentaries to spotlight various facets of the disaster. Our friends at SnagFilms present five movies on Katrina, each looking at a different aspect of the tragedy. As we remember a government that failed and a city destroyed, these films stand as a vital testament to the city’s character, culture and resilience.
Wyclef Jean Ineligible For Presidency, Or Is He?
Wyclef Jean has been singing about “If I Were President,” but Haiti’s electoral board says he is ineligible. Could the rapper’s position as roving ambassador override his lack of residency in Haiti? BBC reports:
Haitian hip-hop star Wyclef Jean has said he will appeal against a ruling that he cannot run in Haiti’s presidential election.
Haiti’s electoral commission said that Mr Jean was ineligible to stand as the Haitian constitution requires candidates to have lived in the country for five years prior to an election.
The 40-year-old singer lives in the US.
But he argues that his role as a roving ambassador for Haiti since 2007 exempts him from the residency requirement.
The country is still recovering from January’s earthquake, which killed an estimated 230,000 people and left more than one million homeless.
Following the ruling on Friday, Mr Jean issued a statement saying he respectfully disagreed with the electoral panel’s decision, but accepted it and urged…
Using Psychedelics To Treat Depression
Ecstasy (MDMA)
It’s been a long struggle, more or less since the days of Timothy Leary and Albert Hofmann in the ’60s, but doctors and scientists are finally being allowed to treat depression with some of the most effective drugs known to them: psychedelics. Anne Harding reports for CNN/Health.com:
Pamela Sakuda, 57, was anxious and depressed. After two years of intensive chemotherapy for late-stage colon cancer, and having outlived her prognosis by several months, she’d finally lost hope. She was living in fear and was worried how her impending death would affect her husband.
Sakuda’s doctor prescribed antidepressants, but they didn’t do any good. So, at her wits’ end and feeling that she had nothing to lose, Sakuda volunteered for an experimental depression treatment being studied at UCLA.
In January 2005, with a pair of trained therapists at her side, Sakuda took a pill of psilocybin — a hallucinogen better known as the active…
The Great Typo Hunt
Hot on the heels of the North Carolina road marking spelled “SHCOOL,” the Typo Eradication Advancement League has started the Great Typo Hunt, as reported by Reuters:
If you’re confused about the difference between “it’s” and “its”, or unsure how to spell “cemetery”, you’re not alone, and there’s plenty of evidence to prove it.
That’s the conclusion of two young Americans who took it upon themselves to correct public typos during a three-month road trip across the country. They have written about the trip in a book that exposes deficits in both public education and attention to detail.
“The Great Typo Hunt” describes a nationwide mission by Jeff Deck and Benjamin D. Herson, both 30, to rid America of signs that add an extra “n” to “dining”, or insist that “shipping” is spelled with one “p”…
Want To Lose Weight? Simple – Drink Water!
Photo: Matthew Bowden (www.digitallyrefreshing.com)
Can it really be this easy? It certainly won’t cost much to try it out (just don’t use bottled water!). From Business Week:
Close the diet books and skip the pills. The latest weight-loss trick may be as simple as gulping a couple of glasses of water before you eat.
A new study found that middle-aged and older adults who drank two cups of water before each meal consumed fewer calories and lost more weight than those who skipped drinking water.
Researchers divided two groups of overweight and obese men and women aged 55 to 75 into two groups: one group was told to follow a low-fat, low-calorie diet; the other group was told to follow the same diet and to drink two cups of water before breakfast, lunch and dinner.
After 12 weeks, those who drank water before meals had lost 15.5 pounds, compared to 11 pounds for the non-water…
Minneapolis Pays Zombies To Settle Undead Lawsuit
I always expected zombie attacks to be deadly, not informative. These Twin Cities zombies roamed the streets making a statement about the physical aspect of interaction that has been lost with the digital age and the culture of consumerism. Not only did their statement get heard, they profited from it too. Star Tribune reports:
The Minneapolis city attorney’s office has decided to pay seven zombies and their attorney $165,000.
The payout, approved by the City Council on Friday, settles a federal lawsuit the seven filed after they were arrested and jailed for two days for dressing up like zombies in downtown Minneapolis on July 22, 2006, to protest “mindless” consumerism.
When arrested at the intersection of Hennepin Avenue and 6th Street N., most of them had thick white powder and fake blood on their faces and dark makeup around their eyes. They were walking in a stiff, lurching fashion and carrying four bags of…
Before There Was Oil, There Was Water: Harry Shearer’s ‘The Big Uneasy’ (Video)
Here’s Harry Shearer (of Spinal Tap and Simpsons fame) being interviewed by Michael Smerconish about his new documentary The Big Uneasy on Hardball with Chris Matthews below. Here’s a bit about the documentary:
Almost five years ago, a disaster struck New Orleans. The media said it was a natural disaster primarily affecting poor black people. On both counts, the media was wrong.
In The Big Uneasy, humorist and New Orleans resident Harry Shearer gets the inside story of a disaster that could have been prevented from the people who were there. As we approach the fifth anniversary of the flooding of New Orleans, Shearer speaks to the investigators who poked through the muck as the water receded and a whistleblower from the Army Corps of Engineers, revealing that some of the same flawed methods responsible for the levee failure during Katrina are being used to rebuild the system expected to protect the new New Orleans from future peril.
Are Oyster Herpes the Latest Symptom of Global Warming?
OK if it’s not global warming related (a very contentious issue on disinfo.com), what the hell has been f#cking these oysters? Rachel Kaufman writes on National Geographic News:
New strain can kill 80 percent of an oyster bed in a week, experts say. Don’t worry — oyster herpes isn’t a new side effect of eating “the food of love.”
The incurable, deadly virus is, however, alarming fishing communities in Europe, where oyster herpes seems to be spreading — and could go on spreading as seas continue to warm, experts say.
In July lab testing of farmed oysters detected the first known United Kingdom cases of herpes in the shellfish. The virus has already killed between 20 to 100 percent of breeding Pacific oysters in some French beds in 2008, 2009, and 2010, according to the French Research Institute for Exploitation of the Sea.
