Archive for September, 2010
Ben & Jerrys Is Not ‘All Natural’
I recently crossed Häagen-Dazs off my list of favorite ice creams due to its use of rBGH milk. In this disinfo story we quoted author John Robbins:
Ben & Jerry’s gets all their milk from dairies that have pledged not to inject their cows with genetically engineered bovine growth hormone (rBGH). Why, then, can’t Haagen Dazs, Breyers and Baskin-Robbins do the same?
OK, so there was still Ben & Jerry’s which is fairly easy to find, at least where I live. But wait, now it turns out that some of their ice cream isn’t natural after all! Story from NPR:
Indie ice cream pioneer Ben & Jerry’s will be dropping the phrase “All Natural” from some of its ice cream and frozen yogurt cartons, it announced today.
The flavors containing alkalized cocoa, corn syrup, and partially hydrogenated soybean oil particularly irked the folks over at the Center for the Science in the Public Interest, who had…
The Fox News Party’s Lineup For The Primaries
How much longer will Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes pretend that their Fox News Channel is anything other than the Republican Party’s TV megaphone? This Politico story demonstrates that the conjugal relationship between GOP and FNC is clear for all to see, and yet they continue to deny sharing the same bed:
With Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum and Mike Huckabee all making moves indicating they may run for president, their common employer is facing a question that hasn’t been asked before: How does a news organization cover White House hopefuls when so many are on the payroll?
The answer is a complicated one for Fox News.
As Fox’s popularity grows among conservatives, the presence of four potentially serious Republican candidates as paid contributors is beginning to frustrate competitors of the network, figures within its own news division and rivals of what some GOP insiders have begun calling “the Fox candidates.”
With the exception…
Segway Tycoon Dies In Segway Accident
Let’s overlook the irony that the man who owned the Segway scooter business, Jimi Heselden, has died in a Segway accident. However, there has been some speculation that it was not an accident. While the police suspect no foul play, the lesson to be learned here is that Segways are not for off-roading. The Independent reports:
A millionaire businessman who died when a Segway scooter built by his own company plunged over a cliff and into a river was a “much-loved father and husband”, his family said today.
Jimi Heselden, 62, was found in the River Wharfe at Boston Spa, near Wetherby, yesterday morning and died at the scene.
It appeared Mr Heselden, whose company builds and markets the Segway upright scooter, accidentally drove over a cliff into the river. It is understood one of the machines was found nearby.
Members of his family, many of whom paid an emotional visit to the scene of…
New York Unveils Transit Surveillance “Ring Of Steel”
New York City has just enabled an advanced new underground surveillance network modeled on London’s Ring of Steel. Camera footage will enter a database searchable by objects, colors, and individuals’ physical features. The system a huge step forward from the previous camera network, which I’ve dubbed the Crumbled Paper Bag. Gothamist reports:
500 new surveillance cameras went live yesterday inside the Times Square, Penn Station and Grand Central subway station, and 500 more are on the way. Mayor Bloomberg and NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly unveiled the new surveillance system, which provides real-time video images to the command center, and can analyze thousands of images to find a particular item. “If we’re looking for a person in a red jacket, we can call up all the red jackets filmed in the last 30 days,” Kelly told reporters. “We’re beginning to use software that can identify suspicious objects or behaviors.”
The $200 million system is…
Da Vinci’s Ornithopter Finally Takes Flight
Photo: Todd Reichert, University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies
That Leonardo, he was something, eh? Reuters reports that Todd Reichert a 28-year-old studying engineering at the University of Toronto, has finally realized Da Vinci’s dream of flying like a bird:
Centuries after the Renaissance inventor sketched a human-powered flying machine, Canadian engineering students say they have flown an engineless aircraft that stays aloft by flapping its wings like a bird.
International aviation officials are expected to certify next month that the Snowbird has made the world’s first successful, sustained flight of a human-powered ornithopter, according to the University of Toronto.
The Snowbird sustained both altitude and airspeed for 19.3 seconds, in an August 2 test flight near Toronto that was witnessed by an official of the Federation Aeronautique Internationale, the university announced. A video of the flight was shown on news programs on Wednesday.
Others have claimed to have built machines that flew like a…
Tea Party Comics
Editorial cartoonist Ward Sutton gave the Boston Globe’s comics page a tea-party-friendly makeover; “There’s a growing concern among a certain segment of the country that the comics page is out of step with mainstream values.” Check out the patriotic versions of strips such as Calvin and Hobbes:
Poverty Affects the Mental Health of Children
A 2006 report from ScienceDaily, still relevant today:
Children in low-income families start off with higher levels of antisocial behaviour than children from more advantaged households. And if the home remains poor as the children grow up, antisocial behaviour becomes much worse over time compared to children living in households that are never poor or later move out of poverty, says new University of Alberta research.
“In other words, the lowest levels of antisocial behaviour are found in kids whose parents start and stay in the highest income bracket while their kids grow up,” says Dr. Lisa Strohschein, author of the study and sociologist at the U of A.
While the findings show that the effects of low income at an early age on antisocial behaviour–conduct such as bullying, being cruel, breaking things, cheating or telling lies–persist as kids get older, depression seems to have the opposite effect. The effects of starting off…
Oliver Stone’s New ‘Wall Street’ Is Heavy On Atmosphere, Light On Anger
The lead headline in the New York Times is “EXTENSIVE FRAUD APPEARS TO MAR AFGHAN ELECTION.” The line below, “A BLOW TO CREDIBILITY,” as if anyone who follows Afghanistan, a country known for blatant and notorious corruption was at all surprised by this latest “blow.”
Today’s “blow” followed an earlier “blow” a few weeks back with the disclosure of the crash of the Kabul Bank with $300 billion still unaccounted for.
In America, another fraud: CNN reported the next morning that the pathetic blonde beauty-celebrity Lindsay Lohan put up $300,000 to get out of jail. That’s the kind of story American media considers worthy of constant “Breaking News” attention.
When will we see the headlines like “EXTENSIVE FRAUD APPEARS TO MAR ECONOMIC RECOVERY” or “EXTENSIVE FRAUD LED TO FINANCIAL COLLAPSE?’
I ask this question, sort of knowing the answer, after two recent back-to-back film experiences.
On Thursday night, I spoke at a packed screening of my…
20% of Gay Men Are HIV-Positive
Wow – that’s really high. Worse, half of them don’t know it, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control in this report from TIME:
Recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show that 1 in 5 sexually active gay and bisexual men in America are HIV-positive but that 44% of them don’t know it.
More than 8,000 self-identifying gay and bisexual men (or, as the researchers call them, MSM, for men who have sex with men) were tested by CDC workers in the 21 American cities with the highest infection rates. The gay population in Baltimore had the highest rates of HIV infection, at 38%, while Atlanta scored lowest, at 6%.
The highest absolute number of infections occurred in white MSM…
U.S. Supreme Court Takes On Westboro Baptist Church Hate Case
Jess Bravin reviews the upcoming docket of the U.S. Supreme Court, starting with a case relating to the Westboro Baptist Church, infamous for its “God Hates” placards, for the Wall Street Journal:
Free speech stands front and center in the Supreme Court term beginning next week, in a pair of cases testing the First Amendment’s reach in the digital age.
On Oct. 6, the justices will weigh whether the First Amendment protects a Kansas church’s campaign to publicize its beliefs by picketing military funerals with vulgar placards and insulting fallen soldiers’ survivors in online screeds.
The father of a fallen Marine is seeking damages for emotional distress from the church, which believes that God is killing American soldiers to punish the U.S. for its tolerance of homosexuality.
A month later , the court is to consider whether states can bar minors from buying violent videogames, on the theory that these games cause damage to…
Obama Wants To Wiretap The Internet
Photo: David Drexler (CC)
This report from the New York Times is spreading like wildfire, especially amongst the conservative media like Fox News.
Federal law enforcement and national security officials are preparing to seek sweeping new regulations for the Internet, arguing that their ability to wiretap criminal and terrorism suspects is “going dark” as people increasingly communicate online instead of by telephone.
Essentially, officials want Congress to require all services that enable communications — including encrypted e-mail transmitters like BlackBerry, social networking Web sites like Facebook and software that allows direct “peer to peer” messaging like Skype — to be technically capable of complying if served with a wiretap order. The mandate would include being able to intercept and unscramble encrypted messages.
The bill, which the Obama administration plans to submit to lawmakers next year, raises fresh questions about how to balance security needs with protecting privacy and fostering innovation. And because security services around…
Here’s a True “Profile in Courage”: Richard Tillman Speaks Out on His Brother, Pat Tillman’s, Death
Here is a man who I say deserves a true Profile in Courage Award.
Bill Maher interviews Richard Tillman, brother of Pat Tillman, on the recent Real Time.
Any person, dealing with grief over their sibling’s death, that manages to stand up for what their lost loved one truly believed in light of a media circus, is A-OK in my book.
This is speaking “Truth to Power” in its finest sense. Anyone willing to call out these opportunistic politicians who showed up at this brother’s funeral, and co-opt what he (Pat Tillman) believe against their own self-interest…
I agree with Bill Maher. I’d be happy to share a beer with Richard Tillman any day of the week…
Does Sexual Dysfunction in America Require Divine Intervention?
Via the First Church of Mutterhals:
I’m not very altruistic, as most of you already know. I’m of the opinion that it’s every man for himself, whether you like it or not. You can’t really expect other people to take care of you and security is just coping mechanism. No one is really secure.
However, I do find the sexual dysfunction of many Americans troubling enough to warrant intervention. You have a vast number of women who are downright latently asexual, you have shit-load of straight men who are terrified of the implication that they might be gay, you have teens and young adults being told in one ear that abstinence and chastity are the only way, while in the other ear streams the most vulgar and perverse sexuality in the form of festering silicone tits and hooker culture, which celebrates coldly detached sex acts but shies away from real sensuality and…
Pirate Radio Cranks Up the Volume for Documentary
Via Joe Nolan’s Insomnia:
Hello friends. This weekend I discovered an entertaining and eye-opening pirate radio documentary online: Pirate Radio USA.
Given the post-Clinton legalization of media monopolies, the subject of pirate radio has once again become a hot-button topic. Pirate radio broadcasters use homemade technologies to take over radio frequencies, broadcasting without licenses, outside of FCC rules and regulations.
Pirate radio has become a form of civil disobedience. The various subjects of the documentary fight directly against the corporate media by simply “stealing” FM bandwidth to broadcast their radical, rocking messages. Of course, the irony is that the airwaves above the United States are owned exclusively by the public.
How can you steal what you already own?
President Obama Featured in Video Games
From Kotaku comes an interesting piece on President Obama appearing in video games. Owen Good writes:
In two weeks, President Obama will appear in a video game for the second time in two months. Is he being paid for that? Is the White House cutting deals with sports game makers? Not likely.
Obama appears in a special cinematic added this year to Madden NFL 11’s Super Bowl presentation mode. Win it all, and your team gets a White House visit with the POTUS, just like in real life. NBA 2K11 this week revealed it will have the same type of ceremony when your franchise takes home the title in its Association mode.
American society enjoys the most robust entertainment culture — and, it seems, civil litigation market – in the world, so most folks are aware that when someone shows up in a commercial work, he has to give his permission, and often is compensated.…
Facebook is Building an Android-Based Smartphone
Reports are surfacing of a Facebook-backed smartphone running Google’s Android system, built by INQ (who also manufactures a phone for Skype). GigaOm’s Om Malik says he’s been aware of the project “for quite some time,” and Bloomberg News reported that Facebook Inc. will release two AT&T smartphones in 2011, first in Europe and then in America. (Adding that 25% of Facebook users access the social networking site with their wireless devices.)
“Like some people would love to have a Hello Kitty phone or a Batman phone, there are undoubtedly buyers waiting with bated breath for a phone that says Facebook on it…” notes one technology blog. “The buying public seems to be entranced with the idea of the phrase ‘Facebook phone’ so rumors persist.”
“Manufacturing Dissent”: The Anti-Globalization Movement is Funded by the Corporate Elites
Photo: Herder3 (CC)
Michel Chossudovsky writes on Global Research:
How is the process of manufacturing dissent achieved?
Essentially by “funding dissent”, namely by channelling financial resources from those who are the object of the protest movement to those who are involved in organizing the protest movement.
Co-optation is not limited to buying the favors of politicians. The economic elites — which control major foundations — also oversee the funding of numerous NGOs and civil society organizations, which historically have been involved in the protest movement against the established economic and social order. The programs of many NGOs and people’s movements rely heavily on both public as well as private funding agencies including the Ford, Rockefeller, McCarthy foundations, among others.
The anti-globalization movement is opposed to Wall Street and the Texas oil giants controlled by Rockefeller, et al. Yet the foundations and charities of Rockefeller et al will generously fund progressive anti-capitalist networks as well as…
Is Civilization Psychologically Damaging, or Just American Culture?
From ScienceDaily:
Three new studies led by Notre Dame Psychology Professor Darcia Narvaez show a relationship between child rearing practices common in foraging hunter-gatherer societies (how we humans have spent about 99 percent of our history) and better mental health, greater empathy and conscience development, and higher intelligence in children.
“Our research shows that the roots of moral functioning form early in life, in infancy, and depend on the affective quality of family and community support,” says Narvaez, who specializes in the moral and character development of children.
The three studies include an observational study of the practices of parents of three-year-olds, a longitudinal study of how certain child rearing practices relate to child outcomes in a national child abuse prevention project, and a comparison study of parenting practices between mothers in the U.S. and China. The longitudinal study examined data from the research of another Notre Dame psychologist, John Borkowski, who specializes…
UN to Appoint Earth Ambassador for Aliens
Via News.Com.Au:
The United Nations was set today to appoint an obscure Malaysian astrophysicist to act as Earth’s first contact for any aliens that may come visiting.
Mazlan Othman, the head of the UN’s little-known Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA), is to describe her potential new role next week at a scientific conference at the Royal Society’s Kavli conference centre in Buckinghamshire.
She is scheduled to tell delegates that the recent discovery of hundreds of planets around other stars has made the detection of extraterrestrial life more likely than ever before — and that means the UN must be ready to coordinate humanity’s response to any “first contact”.
During a talk Othman gave recently to fellow scientists, she said: “The continued search for extraterrestrial communication, by several entities, sustains the hope that some day humankind will receive signals from extraterrestrials.
“When we do, we should have in place a coordinated response that takes into…
