Archive for October, 2010
Private Stoner and the Drugged-Out GI Death Squad in Afghanistan
This is an appalling story of soldiers gone amok, yet the fact that a Private Stoner is the lead character in this New York Times report is unintentionally hilarious. Sample quote: “Private Stoner told investigators, the hash-smoking in his room was ‘to the point where the smoke was lingering in the air and the smell was impossible to get rid of.’ And “In an interview, Private Stoner was described by Specialist Winfield’s lawyer, Eric Montalvo, as the platoon’s effective drug dealer. Private Stoner told investigators that he had never used illegal substances himself, a claim investigators discarded.”
Soldiers in an American Army platoon accused of murdering Afghan civilians for sport say they took orders from a ringleader who collected body parts as war trophies, were threatened with death if they spoke up and smoked hashish on their base almost daily.
Now family members and the military are asking a central question: How could…
Discover The Lost History of ‘Hidden Wisdom’
Here’s author and Freemason Tim Wallace-Murphy speaking at the Chancellor Robert R. Livingston Masonic Library of the Grand Lodge of New York in May 2010. This presentation is based on his book Hidden Wisdom: Secrets of the Western Esoteric Tradition.
Bob Dylan & Google Instant: It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue?
I’m far from a Luddite when it comes to technology, but kinda of amazed to see this video as a Google ad.
(Really should never from now on be surprised since there was a Beatles song for Nike ad, which I consider unforgivable.) Your thoughts?
You must leave now, take what you need, you think will last
But whatever you wish to keep, you better grab it fast
Yonder stands your orphan with his gun
Crying like a fire in the sun
Look out the saints are comin’ through
And it’s all over now, Baby Blue
“Take Me Out” by Atomic Tom, Performed Live with iPhones on NYC Subway
Via YouTube: “I saw Atomic Tom perform on the B train today… at first i thought they were going to bomb the train, but then they started playing and i was like ‘i love new york!’ liked them so much, i asked a stranger for the band name.” – Brittany Tucker
This video was filmed unannounced on Friday, October 8, 2010 aboard the New York City B Train, over the Manhattan Bridge into Brooklyn and edited from 3 iPhone cameras. All footage is performed 100% live and executed in one take.
Children of the Victorian Era, Post-Mortem
If you notice a sleeping or vacantly-staring figure in an antique photograph, it might not strike you to wonder if the subject is even alive. In the 21st century, we rarely see photographs of the dead that are not connected with crime scenes or accidents; dead relatives are instantly removed to funeral homes, where their bodies are embalmed by well-paid specialists. The Victorians, however, were not so disconnected from death, and a common practice was to have portraits taken of the recently-deceased. In these post-mortem photographs, the dead may appear in coffins, but were also quite frequently arranged among family in lifelike poses. As it was a period of extremely high child mortality, images like the ones in this video were often the only keepsakes 19th century families had by which to remember their short-lived sons and daughters:
Gimme Pizza! This Slow Motion Olsen Twins Video Is Creepy…
Via Urlesque:
[Here's] a slow motion version of the Olsen Twins “Gimme Pizza?” Yes, folks, 2010 seems to be the year the internet discovered that slowing things down makes them over 9000 times better.
The slow version of Gimme Pizza is so creepy that you won’t be able to look away. The Olsens’ repetitive dance — seriously, they’re doing the same thing in every shot — is weird enough, but it’s their friends who really steal the show. I’ll be having nightmares about the “whipped cream pouring like waterfalls” kid for a week.
Biometric Identification: More Flawed Than You Think
Dreaming of a future in which you unlock your iPod with a retina scan? The Economist examines the weaknesses of biometric authentication (that is, IDing individuals by bodily traits such as their iris, fingerprint, etc.) Contrary to what many people assume, these methods of identifying people are quite fallible, here’s why:
Thanks to gangster movies, cop shows and spy thrillers, people have come to think of fingerprints and other biometric means of identifying evildoers as being completely foolproof. In reality, they are not and never have been, and few engineers who design such screening tools have ever claimed them to be so.
Authentication of a person is usually based on one of three things: something the person knows, such as a password; something physical the person possesses, like an actual key or token; or something about the person’s appearance or behavior. Biometric authentication relies on the third approach. Its advantage is that, unlike a…
Official: Keith Hates Mick
You sort of knew it right? The Glimmer Twins can’t stand each other but still tour together because there’s so much money in it. From the New York Post:
Legendary Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards revealed Friday the exotic highs and jealous lows of his half-century collaboration with Mick Jagger.
The bond between two of The Rolling Stones’ founder members was now so strained, Richards said he has not set foot in Jagger’s dressing room in 20 years. He added he misses the friend with whom he forged one of music’s most successful writing partnerships.
In his much anticipated autobiography, “Life,” to be serialized exclusively in The (London) Times from Saturday, Richards describes in frank detail what sounds like a long and particularly explosive marriage, complete with love rivalries, drug taking, epic arguments and jaw-dropping insults.
His relationship with Jagger has continued to be turbulent. Richards, 66, confirmed that his nickname for Jagger is…
Whom Would You Tolerate As Your Neighbor? Global Edition
The Globe and Mail has an intriguing survey of levels of tolerance in countries around the world. Specifically, people in various nations were polled on whether they would dislike having neighbors who were of a different race, a different religion, spoke another language, were gay, etc. In most categories, the United States falls into the middle region between very tolerant and intolerant locales, suggesting we’re not as open-minded and live-and-let-live as one would expect of a “nation of immigrants.”
Below, places where the most citizens say they would object to having a neighbor of another race:
The Cult Of Indoor Weed
Female cannabis flower. Photo: Alapoet (CC)
Is marijuana grown indoors really worth double the cost of plants grown outside? Sam Quinones reports for the Los Angeles Times from Arcata, California:
About the time the wholesale price of pot hit $4,000 a pound, Tony Sasso bought a bulldozer and an excavator and dug a massive hole on his ranch in eastern Mendocino County.
Then he bought four metal shipping containers and buried them in the hole. Inside the containers, Sasso installed 32 1,000-watt lights, a ventilation system and plumbing – all of it powered by a 60-kilowatt generator. His subterranean plantation produced 60 pounds of pot every 56 days, the time it took to turn a crop. They were popular strains, with names like Blueberry, Herojuana, White Widow and Big Red.
He’d begun growing pot as a teenager in the mid-1980s, when police helicopters forced growers to hide their plants indoors. Going underground was the next…
Canada Declares BPA Toxic. Is the U.S. Next?
3D chemical structure of bisphenol A. Author: Edgar181
Bryan Walsh writing for the Ecocentric Blog at Time Magazine:
It’s used almost everywhere. It’s in almost all of us. It does weird things to rodents and it may be doing weird things to us—but it’s tough to be certain. Bisphenol-A (BPA) has become a litmus test for how people view environmental health and the risks of common household chemicals—as I wrote in a long story for TIME earlier this year. The chemical has countless industrial uses, most often in the epoxy liner of cans and in plastic bottles. But BPA is also an endocrine disruptor, meaning that it has the capacity to mess with our hormones and potentially impact health—especially in developing fetuses—even at relatively low doses. (Because they can mimic hormones—which cause enormous changes in our bodies even at relatively low amounts—the dose-response relationship used to evaluate traditional toxins like lead may not work with…
Tea Party to America: Y’Alls Have TOO MANY Rights!
Infuriated by the notions of popular democracy, millionaires paying income tax or a colorblind society? Some Tea Partiers are, too. David Knowles from AOL News writes about it in his article “8 Candidates Who Want to Amend the U.S. Constitution”:
Does the U.S. Constitution grant Americans citizens too many rights?
That seems to be the conclusion reached by some tea party activists and the candidates they have helped propel to victory. While in years past, a scattered number of political aspirants have spoken about scaling back the Constitution so that it more closely resembles the original version, this year’s rise of the tea party has resulted in a slew of candidates who view the revered document as bloated.
Surge Desk has a roundup of the politicians who believe that, when it comes to the number of amendments tacked on to the Constitution, less will mean more.
THE 17th AMENDMENT
Before the 17th Amendment was ratified in 1913,…
Why Do Metal Bands Believe In Reptilian Aliens?
io9’s Phil Freeman brings up the old chestnut of reptoid aliens secretly controlling our world, reminding me, at least, of the Montauk Project and David Icke’s Royal Family…
Why are these metal bands convinced that the world is secretly ruled by extraterrestrials called reptoids who are breeding with humans in their hidden caves?
If you believe reptoid “expert” David Icke, our planet is secretly ruled by extraterrestrials who walk on two legs, appear human, and live in tunnels and caves…when they’re not crossbreeding with humans to produce leaders like the Egyptian pharaohs, every U.S. president, and the Queen of England. Icke believes the reptoids are the same race, the Anunnaki, discussed in Babylonian creation mythology, and they are prominently featured in his books The Biggest Secret, Children of the Matrix, Tales From the Time Loop and Infinite Love is the Only Truth, all of which are sold as nonfiction.
This wouldn’t interest me in the slightest…
New Species Found On Easter Island
The new insect. Photo: Jut Wynne, Northern Arizona University
Last year disinformation undertook an investigative expedition to Easter Island with geologist Dr. Robert Schoch, of MIT. You can review Robert’s initial findings here (includes video). One of the focuses of the expedition was exploring caves for fossil remains. Now the caves have supplied another amazing finding, reported by Clara Moskowitz for LiveScience:
Scientists recently uncovered a new species of tiny insect in a cave on Easter Island. The find is exciting because most of the island’s native life has gone extinct, researchers said.
The still-unnamed insect was discovered in a cave within the Roiho lava flow in west-central Easter Island (also known as Rapa Nui) in the South Pacific Ocean. The species – roughly the size of a grain of rice – is a type of book louse, in the order Psocoptera, the family Lepidopsocidae and the genus Cyptophania.
“This could be very important for piecing…
Dennis Miller and Jesse Ventura Debate 9/11
So who do you think wins this argument? It’s Miller’s show, so he has home field advantage, but former Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura gives him a run for his money…
The Vanishing Qinling Village and Mysterious UFOs
[disinfo ed.'s note: take this story with a large grain of salt -- we're running it for its weirdness quotient!]
Translated from Yahoo China News Original Report:
(Xinhua Ji Nan) 10 13, one on “the end of the Qinling Mountains to a village to disappear overnight,” the post pass crazy on the network, especially in the micro-Bo was crazy reserved. After many journalists confirmed that the network confirmed rumors of the news department…
‘The View’ Hosts Walk Out On Bill O’Reilly
‘The View’s’ Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar demonstrate how best to deal with Bill O’Reilly when you disagree: walk away. The Washington Post reports:
Joy Behar and Whoopi Goldberg made it clear on today’s “The View”: They are not fans of Bill O’Reilly. During his visit to their show today, the conversation turned to the Park51 community center. O’Reilly staunchly attacked President Obama for not commenting on the “appropriateness” of the location.
Continues at The Washington Post …
I’m Homeless and This Is Why I Have an iPad
Image: Sam Spratt / Gizmodo
This is really interesting, it’s not what you’d expect. Homeless in Paris writes on Gizmodo:
I’m homeless, very homeless, dirt broke and all, but I still own an iPad and a MSI Wind u130 netbook. These, I feel, are essential tools … Being without a home is not that big a deal in today’s world, but having connections to the rest of the world is pretty important.
Choice: I am homeless by choice, I gave away and sold all my belongings in Los Angeles and moved to Paris. My tourist visa is expired. I’m definitely not allowed to be here, but I still work when I want, and tend to pretty much live the life of Riley. But when I need to get in contact with someone, from a friend to the Paris transportation authority to complain about a misfared ticket, it’s hard to work without McDonald’s Wi-Fi.
The laptop…
