Archive for September, 2010
Grab A Can Of Spray-On Clothing
Don’t have time to deal with negotiating tricky sleeves? Just pick up a Fabrican aerosol and spray a t-shirt onto your torso. In all seriousness, the spray-able fabric has all sorts of applications (spray-on bandages, for instance), but I like the idea that in the future, this is how we will get dressed.
Do Americans Have a Chance of Having A (Former) Witch in the U.S. Senate?
Another great thing coming out of the recent Real Time With Bill Maher besides the deserved knock on the Democrats’ “rebranding” is that Bill Maher mentioned he had Delaware Senate hopeful Christine O’Donnell on his old show Politically Incorrect 22 times!
So we get to find out fun things like Tea Party favorite Christine O’Donnell dabbled in witchcraft and believes it’s wrong to tell a lie under any circumstances (that certainly won’t work for her in the Senate).
Man, do I like Maher’s proposed strategy to try to get Candidate O’Donnell on his new show:
Frank Zappa Day
Zappa Photo: Jean-Luc (CC)
Richard Simon reports from Baltimore, for the LA Times:
You’re, like, totally not going to believe this but Baltimore declared Sunday ” Frank Zappa Day,” dedicating a bust in his honor.
Grody to the max.
Seventeen years after the rocker’s death in Los Angeles, Zappa drew a large, fittingly eclectic crowd to a ceremony in the city where he was born.
“It’s about time he got the recognition he deserves,” said Greg Stinson, 50, accompanied by his 16-year-old son Matthew, also a Zappa fan.
The festivities included a concert by Zappa’s son Dweezil and his band, Zappa Plays Zappa; a library exhibit, “Zappa’s Baltimore: Rebels and Iconoclasts in the Land of the Free and Home of the Brave”; and a temporary name for the street in front of the library, “Frank Zappa Way.”
“The spirit of Frank Zappa is alive and well in Baltimore,” Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said.
The bronze bust of the mustachioed…
Wanted: Wall Street Snitches
What do you think the chances of this catching on are? From the New York Post:
Wanna get rich? Snitch.
That’s the new money-making mantra for folks with access to confidential information on Wall Street.
With the release of Oliver Stone’s new movie, “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps” in mind, Stuart Meissner, a securities lawyer based in Midtown, is tweaking a message made famous by the first “Wall Street”: that greed is good for people standing on the right side of the law, too.
Uncle Sam recently started offering rich bounties to folks who help put away bad guys — like Gordon Gekko, the central character of Stone’s film, played by Michael Douglas, who goes to jail for insider trading.
Meissner came up with the idea to advertise for snitches who know of illegal activity at their firm. His in-theater ads and fliers will recruit whistleblowers with the promise of riches to come.
“Having the ad…
McDonald’s Food Is Immortal!
Photographer Sally Davies has stirred up a lot of interest in the weird science that goes into making McDonald’s “food” resistant to decay. She has an amazing series of photos at her flickr site where you can see daily progress, or lack thereof, of an ageing McDonald’s Happy Meal (example below).
Photo: (c) Sally Davies (www.sallydaviesphoto.com)
According to New York Magazine’s Grub Street blog, Davies plans to keep the experiment going “until something happens, but she’d better be ready for a long haul: A twelve-year-old McD’s burger surfaced a few years ago looking shockingly well-preserved”!
Do Telecommuting and Online Shopping Actually Increase Pollution?
British researchers have reached a startling conclusion. Unless online shoppers order 25 items at a time, they’re polluting more than if they shopped at their local mall. And telecommuting was actually found to increase home energy use by 30 percent, which also increases emissions of environmentally dangerous gases.
According to the study, an environmental benefit only occurs “if online shopping replaces 3.5 traditional shopping trips, or if 25 orders are delivered at the same time, or, if the distance traveled to where the purchase is made is more than 50 kilometers. Shopping online does not offer net environmental benefits unless these criteria are met.”
The study was conducted by Newcastle University’s Institution of Engineering and Technology, which blames the environmental impact of transportation, warning that “policy makers must do their homework to ensure that rebound effects do not negate the positive benefits of their policy initiatives…” But one technology site notes the…
Is the FDA Hiding the Ingredients of Your Food?
Genetically altered salmon. Source: AquaBounty
Not only won’t the FDA require genetically modified food be labeled as such, they’re apparently making it harder for non-GM foods to be labeled as such. From the Washington Post:
The labeling matter is further complicated because the FDA has maintained a tough stance for food makers who don’t use genetically engineered ingredients and want to promote their products as an alternative. The agency allows manufacturers to label their products as not genetically engineered as long as those labels are accurate and do not imply that the products are therefore more healthful.
The agency warned the dairy industry in 1994 that it could not use “Hormone Free” labeling on milk from cows that are not given engineered hormones, because all milk contains some hormones.
It has sent a flurry of enforcement letters to food makers, including B&G Foods, which was told it could not use the phrase “GMO-free” on…
The Book the Pentagon Wants to Stop, Pregnant Nuns Selling Ice Cream and Spaceship Moon?
For your viewing and continued commenting pleasure, here’s the 23 most (dis)informing stories disinfo.com visitors were checking out over the last week. If you’re interested in contributing to disinfo.com please contact us here. Enjoy and keep contributing!
Despite six announced visits by U.S. astronauts between 1969 and 1972, the Moon remains a riddle to scientists in many regards. The solutions to these riddles could indicate an alien aspect of our familiar Moon…
Pentagon Tries To Stop Book By Buying All Copies
Thanks to Isaac Hils for this. As publishers, this story definitely appeals to us at disinformation: Authors with books the Pentagon wants to stop, take note! From the Guardian…
Relentless Views of The Pope And His Opinions
In a letter to the Guardian, harsh words were written towards the pope’s visit to the country. Disagreeing with his religious and political actions, and lack of actions, the pope is presented in an…
Charles Bronson for President
Via the First Church of Mutterhals:
I’ve been watching the Death Wish movies all week on AMC. Quake loves them dearly for the wet explosions and hand cannons. I am amazed that these films ever saw the light of day.
The story goes as follows: Paul Kersey (Charles Bronson) is forced into violence by so many thugs and cretins, who run roughshod over New York city like a band of vikings. Kersey never really wants to spill blood, it’s just that the aforementioned thugs will not stop killing and raping his loved ones. The cops are no help either. They are either woefully incompetent or believe Kersey to be just as bad as those he hunts. Paul Kersey has to be the unluckiest man in the history of film.
These are laughably bad films and in no way do they represent reality. But something about them struck me as being fairly accurate, and that…
Warren In Office But Not In Power As Banksters Cheer Tepid Rules On Anniversary Of Lehman’s Fall
“This sounds so bleak when I say it, but we need some delusions to keep us going.”—Woody Allen in the New York Times
“The former chairman of Lazard in London who is now chairman of Barclays, once said that the only two things that would survive a nuclear war were cockroaches and Lazard. On the evidence of the past few years, he underestimated the tenacity of the rest of the investment banking industry”—William Wright, Editor, Financial News, London
Hooray, Elizabeth Warren is to become a Special Assistant to President Obama in charge of setting up the Consumer Protection Bureau that she conceived. Alas, it is not to be the independent agency she wanted but a bureau within the Federal Reserve Bank, a branch of government that is really run by big banks which and did virtually nothing to protect consumers when they needed help the most.
For the Obamacrats, this is a good…
California Cult Members Were Headed For Apocalyptic Event
It’s a been a while since one of these came along! From ABC News:
Thirteen members of a Southern California religious sect, including children as young as 3, who went missing this weekend were found alive and well at a California park today.
Steve Whitmore, the spokesman for the LA Sherriff’s Dept., announced the news this afternoon that the group was found at 11:55 a.m. at Jackie Robinson Park in Palmdale, Calif.
Believed to be led by Reyna Marisol Chicas, a 32-year-old woman from Palmdale, the group left behind cell phones, identification, deeds to property and disturbing letters before disappearing on Saturday, according to Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Captain Mike Parker. Authorities said it appeared they had gone off to await an apocalyptic event…
Joy Division Documentary Now Online
Last night I discovered a documentary about the band Joy Division. In a recent post about the post-punk chronicle Totally Wired, I mentioned the films 24-Hour Party People and Control. Both movies cover the rise and fall of Joy Division and their troubled leader Ian Curtis. While both films have their virtues, it seems the strange tale of Joy Division is best met head on, and this exhaustive doc does the trick.
(Joy Division cover the Velvet Underground’s “Sister Ray”.)
Mysterious Force Influencing NASA Probe in Deep Space
This is bizarre but cool that it was/is happening (feel free to mention updates on this research). Robert Matthews writes in the Telegraph:
Researchers say Pioneer 10, which took the first close-up pictures of Jupiter before leaving our solar system in 1983, is being pulled back to the sun by an unknown force. The effect shows no sign of getting weaker as the spacecraft travels deeper into space, and scientists are considering the possibility that the probe has revealed a new force of nature.
Dr Philip Laing, a member of the research team tracking the craft, said: “We have examined every mechanism and theory we can think of and so far nothing works. “If the effect is real, it will have a big impact on cosmology and spacecraft navigation,” said Dr Laing, of the Aerospace Corporation of California.
Pioneer 10 was launched by Nasa on March 2 1972, and with Pioneer 11, its…
Set Music Free: Orchestra to Record Copyright-Free Classical Music
An online music site has raised over $68,000 to hire a full orchestra to record royalty-free classical music. (”Although the actual symphonies are long out of copyright, there is separate protection for every individual performance by an orchestra,” notes one technology site.”)
MusOpen has reached their fundraising goal for both the orchestra and a recording facility, and will now record the complete symphonies of Beethoven, Brahms, Sibelius and Tchaikovsky. For every additional $1,000 raised, they’ve promised to add additional recordings.
Evolver the Podcast: Sacred Psychedelics and Their Transformative Power
Chris Hopkins writes on Alterati:
In this episode of Evolver the Podcast we have discussions with two amazing individuals about their journey and transformation with psychedelics.
First up we have Evolver co-founder Jonathan Talat Phillips interviewing Reality Sandwich contributor Adam Elenbaas about his new book, Fishers of Men: The Gospel of an Ayahuasca Vision Quest. Adam discusses his journey from being a “hell-damning” fundamentalist Christian to recovering from drug addiction and healing himself and his family line through ayahuasca ceremonies in the Amazon. He shares his encounters with mystical beings and inter-dimensional creatures during his adventures with this shamanic brew, as well as his thoughts on why Jesus was the social activist version of the Buddha, how there is nothing to fear in the entire cosmos, and ways we might redeem modern Christianity.
Next up I interviewed Isabella Stoloff who is the Evolver Regional coordinator for Evolver Orange County. She is also a practicing Shaman and heads up…
Fighting For You (Up To A Point): Bill Maher Gives Democrats Slogans To Go With Their New Logo (Video)
I think Bill Maher’s on the money again. Kudos also to Mad Men’s Jon Hamm for his off-camera observation on the recent Real Time. Frances Martel writes on Mediate:
Whenever a major political party tries to “rebrand” itself, aesthetically, it inevitably ends in disaster. Last time it was GOP.com, but to prove the graphic failure is bipartisan, the Democrats have come up with a new logo, and a new slogan (“change that matters”). An exasperated Bill Maher tried to help out the party by offering some new slogans, like “fighting for you (to a point)” and “we got Lisa Ling’s sister out of Korea.”
The logo (which, it should be noted, The Atlantic has already called out for plagiarism from a Midwestern pizza place), is a small “D” in a blue circle. The hours spent thinking up this complex design must be incalculable. Maher presents it without comment, though his face says it all, and to add insult to injury, Jon Hamm of all people deadpans from off-camera, “Radiates power, doesn’t it?”
Hundreds of Thousands of Centenarians Go Missing in Japan
Jenna Fisher writes in the Christian Science Monitor:
More than 230,000 Japanese citizens over the age of 100 have gone missing, according to a government survey released Friday, highlighting poor record-keeping practices and sharp changes in Japanese attitudes about family ties.
In August, the Monitor reported that Japan’s Health Ministry was investigating cases involving some 840 missing people over the age of 85 in connection with potentially fraudulent pension claims. At that time, 75 centenarians were unaccounted for in 19 of the country’s 47 prefectures.
The search began ahead of a national holiday held every September to show respect for the elderly. It was fueled in part by the discovery that Tokyo’s oldest resident – listed as 113 years old – had not been seen for more than 20 years. When welfare officials attempted to contact Fusa Furuya at her home, her 79-year-old daughter told them she hadn’t been seen since around 1986.
Officials were directed…
