Archive for October, 2010
Bill Maher Interviews Richard Dawkins on How to Explain Evolution to Idiots
They discuss the affairs of the day and Dawkins’ recent book The Greatest Show on Earth:
The 33 (Formerly) Trapped Chilean Miners Have A Contract to Stop Any Individual From Profiting at the Expense of the Group
Interesting way to deal with a horrible situation that these fellas found themselves into. Glad to see the rescue operation is going well, Godspeed. Fiona Govan writes in the Telegraph:
The 33 trapped Chilean miners have moved to stop any individual from profiting at the expense of the group, drawing up a legal contract to share the proceeds from the story of their ordeal.
The men have called in a lawyer to draw up a contract ensuring they will equally profit from the lucrative media deals they expect to secure for sharing the story of their two month survival in the hope that they never have to work again.
The group have already rejected requests for interviews and have instead made plans to jointly write a book about the days spent trapped below the Atacama Desert following the mine collapse on August 5.
The details of the discussions between the men were disclosed in…
Prison Interview with Glenn Beck-Inspired Gunman
In 2008 a Unitarian congregation in Tennessee was fired upon by a reported devotee of Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity and Michael Savage. In the shadow of last summer’s “ground-zero mosque” controversy, a NYC cab driver’s throat was slashed after he identified himself as a Muslim.
Were these the acts of disturbed individuals, already predisposed toward violence, or the natural outcome of so much inflammatory rhetoric being injected into the national discourse? Are hateful demagogues in any way responsible for the criminality of those who take them seriously?
John Hamilton of Media Matters raises these questions in a new piece, in which he interviews Byron Williams, a jailed gunman who credits Glenn Beck and Fox for inspiring his ill-fated insurrection against the Tides Foundation and ACLU.
The Story of Delaware Senate Hopeful Christine O’Donnell (Animated)
Thank you, thank you, thank you Next Media Animation popularized here in the U.S. by Apple Daily. As described:
A Tea Party insurgency has left rancor and discord within the GOP’s big tent. Led by Sarah Palin, Tea Party candidates have scored several primary upsets against establishment candidates. The latest victor is Christine O’Donnell.
The anti-masturbation candidate has won the Republican senate nomination in Delaware, causing strategist Karl Rove to self-immolate on national television.
The Democrats, believing the Tea Party cannot win in a general election, are predictably happy with Tea Party’s primary success. But are the Democrat’s underestimating the strength of this populist movement?
Those Damn Yanks! Are Americans Intent on Destroying Football Around the Globe?
If the U.S. earning a draw with England wasn’t bad enough for the Brits, here comes another blow. Another Yankee is trying to purchase one of their beloved football teams Liverpool. Alex Massie writes in the Daily Beast:
If Red Sox owner John Henry’s purchase of Liverpool soccer club goes through, he’ll have to clean up the mess left by its current owner, former Texas Rangers chief Tom Hicks.
This week, John Henry and the New England Sports Ventures consortium made great strides in their attempts to purchase Liverpool football club. For once, an American takeover of a great English institution is being welcomed — but only because it means running the previous American owners out of town. Better the wealthy Americans you don’t know than the ones you do.
That’s because owners of American sports teams have a history of running English football clubs into the ground. Liverpool, the most successful football…
‘Medal of Honor’ Brings The Battles in Afghanistan Home
Ever wanted to fight against the Taliban? Ever wanted to fight on the side of the Taliban? Thanks to the realistic first-person shooter game Medal of Honor, it’s possible. That is, until the controversy it raised cause the game to be debuted with Taliban being referred to simply as “opposing forces.” USA Today reports:
Electronic Arts faces an uphill battle when it comes to first-person shooter Medal of Honor. Formerly entrenched in World War II, the franchise is trying to reinvent itself by switching to the present day. But it enters a crowded battlefield with juggernauts Call of Duty and Battlefield: Bad Company 2 owning most players’ online time.
The revamped Medal of Honor marks a relatively smooth transition from battlefronts in Germany and Japan to modern-day Afghanistan. However, those hoping for a powerful competitor to Call of Duty might want to temper their enthusiasm.
Medal of Honor focuses on United States Special Forces — specificially elite soldiers called…
Oregon County Decriminalizes Heroin, Meth and Shoplifting
District Attorney Mike Schrunk
When criminal laws and justice are pushed to aside because of insufficient funds, should we start questioning the laws or those who enforce them? Multnomah County’s DA has decided that those who commit “small crimes” (such as possession of meth or heroin, hit-and-run accidents, and shoplifting) are better off with receiving a fine instead of being arrested. The Oregonian reports:
After years of budget cuts, Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schrunk says he’s had no choice but to stop prosecuting dozens of illegal acts as crimes.
Among them, most addicts caught with small amounts of drugs such as heroin, cocaine or meth; first- or second-time shoplifters caught stealing anything worth less than $250; suspects who resist arrest, or who run away from police officers; drivers who hit and run, as long as they have insurance when they are caught.
Multnomah County is treating those offenses as violations — similar to being…
Scientists Create Artificial Ovary
Another portion of “the miracle of life” mastered by scientists? Science Daily reports:
Researchers at Brown University and Women & Infants Hospital have invented the first artificial human ovary, an advance that provides a potentially powerful new means for conducting fertility research and could also yield infertility treatments for cancer patients. The team has already used the lab-grown organ to mature human eggs.
“An ovary is composed of three main cell types, and this is the first time that anyone has created a 3-D tissue structure with triple cell line,” said Sandra Carson, professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University and director of the Division of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility at Women & Infants Hospital.
Carson said that the ovary not only provides a living laboratory for investigating fundamental questions about how healthy ovaries work, but also can act as a testbed for seeing how problems, such…
War as Righteous Rape and Purification
Lloyd deMause
From the sixth chapter of Lloyd deMause’s The Emotional Life Of Nations:
THE CLINICAL STUDY OF HUMAN VIOLENCE
Because those societies which have the harshest child-rearing practices have been shown to produce low-esteem adults who have the highest incidence of murder, suicide and war, the study of human violence can most fruitfully begin with examining the findings of clinicians who have closely interviewed murderers and determined their motives.
Most of what we usually believe about interpersonal violence is unconfirmed by statistics. Homicide is not regularly higher in big cities; cross-cultural studies find there is “no significant associations between community size and homicide or assault.” Nor do men assault their spouses more often than women do; studies in various countries show “wives hit their husbands at least as often as husbands hit their wives,” although men do more damage with their assaults. When war is counted as violence, men constitute at least 75…
Graham Greene And Other Great Authors Were British Spies
Among the eyebrow-raising tidbits in the first authorized book on the history of the MI6 (Britain’s secret service) is the acknowledgment that the United Kingdom used some of its most celebrated authors as spies, among them Graham Greene and Somerset Maugham. The reason being that they could visit exotic places without suspicion, and write reports filled with pithy witticisms, the Guardian reports:
The authors Graham Greene, Arthur Ransome, Somerset Maugham, Compton Mackenzie and Malcolm Muggeridge, and the philosopher AJ “Freddie” Ayer, all worked for MI6, Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service admitted for the first time today . They are among the many exotic characters who agreed to spy for Britain, mainly during wartime, who appear in a the first authorized history of MI6.
Greene, Mackenzie, Muggeridge and others who have written about their secret work make it clear they were reluctant spies approached by MI6 because of their access and knowledge of exotic parts…
NZ TV Host Resigns After Ridiculing Sheila Dikshit
Sheila Dikshit. Photo: Jackbandjack (CC)
No doubt he and his mates thought he was being really funny — right up until he got fired! From Reuters:
A New Zealand television host has quit after sparking a diplomatic row when he ridiculed the name of Sheila Dikshit, the chief minister of the Indian capital, New Delhi.
Television station TVNZ came under heavy criticism after its “Breakfast” show host Paul Henry mispronounced Dikshit, despite being told by the lead anchor that it is pronounced “Dixit.”
India summoned New Zealand’s high commissioner on Thursday to formally protest against what it said were “racial remarks” involving Dikshit who was asked last month to take charge of the floundering Commonwealth Games preparations.
New Zealand Prime Minister John Key said on Monday that Henry had resigned after several hundred complaints to the broadcaster regarding his Dikshit comments and questioning whether the nation’s Governor-General Sir Anand Satyanand, who is of Indian descent,…
Attack of the Scrapers
Sounds ominous right? Rightly so, perhaps, as large corporations scrape the web for information about you. Julia Angwin and Steve Stecklow investigate for the Wall Street Journal:
At 1 a.m. on May 7, the website PatientsLikeMe.com noticed suspicious activity on its “Mood” discussion board. There, people exchange highly personal stories about their emotional disorders, ranging from bipolar disease to a desire to cut themselves.
It was a break-in. A new member of the site, using sophisticated software, was “scraping,” or copying, every single message off PatientsLikeMe’s private online forums…
Vatican’s Chief Exorcist Publishes His ‘Confessions’
By Lounge Daddy at Dateline Zero:
A new book is out from Fr. Gabriele Amorth, the Vatican’s chief exorcist. The title is Confessions of an Exorcist.
It’s in paperback, and … in French. This is a bummer; but I hope it’s only a temporary bummer. (Of course it’s in Italian as well, titled Memoirs of an Exorcist.)
For now the lucky French have this latest book to go alongside the first two Fr. Amorth titles that record his experiences with, and thoughts on exorcism. Good for them, those jerks.
However, I’ll be anxiously awaiting an English translation. If it sounds like I am committing the sin of envy, it is because I am.
This newest title is in an interview format; which sets it apart from the other two; which are more short essays, stories, and commentary on various points regarding his experience. (As I understand it however, this book is not in a Q&A…
Google Price Index Shows Deflation In U.S.
The U.S. federal government has long been accused of fudging its consumer price index (CPI) to show more or less growth or decline in prices, depending on political expediencies of the moment. Perhaps this new Google price index will help keep our government a bit more honest. Reported in the Financial Times via CNBC:
Google is using its vast database of web shopping data to construct the ‘Google Price Index’ – a daily measure of inflation that could one day provide an alternative to official statistics.
The work by Google’s chief economist, Hal Varian, highlights how economic data can be gathered far more rapidly using online sources. The official Consumer Price Index data are collected by hand from shops, and only published monthly with a time lag of several weeks.
At the National Association of Business Economists conference in Denver, Colorado, Mr Varian said that the GPI was a work in progress and…
British Intelligence Used “Bodily Fluids” as Invisible Ink
In case you missed this one, brings a whole new light to “Bond, James Bond” … Note the name of the person of charge of this operation in the article below. Via the Telegraph:
A diary entry belonging to a senior member of the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) has revealed that during the First World War it was discovered that the bodily fluid could act as an effective invisible ink.
In June 1915, Walter Kirke, deputy head of military intelligence at GHQ France, wrote in his diary that Mansfield Cumming, the first chief (or C) of the SIS was “making enquiries for invisible inks at the London University”.
In October he noted that he “heard from C that the best invisible ink is semen”, which did not react to the main methods of detection. Furthermore it had the advantage of being readily available.
A member of staff close to “C”, Frank Stagg, said that…
Mexican Island Inhabited by Creepy Dolls
Delana at Web Urbanist reports on Mexico’s Island of Misfit Toys:
On a dark and creepy island in the canals of Xochimico near Mexico City sits what might be the world’s strangest and scariest tourist attraction ever. However, this sad island was never meant to be a stop on tourists’ holiday itineraries. The Island of the Dolls was dedicated to the lost soul of a poor little girl who met her fate too soon.
The Island of the Dolls (Isla de las Munecas) sits in the canals south of Mexico City and is the current home of hundreds of terrifying, mutilated dolls. Their severed limbs, decapitated heads, and blank eyes adorn trees, fences and nearly every available surface. The dolls appear menacing even in the bright light of midday, but in the dark they are particularly haunting.
Not surprisingly, the island’s origins lie in tragedy. The story goes that the island’s only inhabitant, Don Julian…
How the BP Gulf Coast Oil Spill Mirrors the 2008 Financial Crisis
Interesting article from Neil King Jr. and Keith Johnson in the Wall Street Journal:
Congress was still convulsed over the Exxon-Valdez oil spill on Dec. 6, 1989, when Shell Oil flashed an announcement that would revolutionize American energy policy: The Anglo-Dutch giant had hit oil — a lot of oil — nearly 3,000 feet below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico.
The bulletin on the Auger Field discovery marked the start of a rush into the Gulf’s deep waters. At the time it looked as if the Gulf might be a magic-bullet solution to America’s energy and national-security needs.
It made nearly everyone giddy. Politicians in both parties offered incentives to boost offshore production. Regulators — especially under President Bill Clinton — eased rules to support the boom. And oil companies, deploying ever more complex drilling technology, barreled ahead, leaving four administrations scrambling to keep pace.
While environmentalists fought fiercely to prevent offshore…
The Library After Dark: The Seedy World of Document Fetishism
Cathy Alter writes in McSweeney’s:
Psychoanalysts sometimes speak of the epistemophilic instinct, an unbridled love of learning that grips scholars like fingernails in their backs. But when a reader at London’s Public Record Office literally ingested The Abortive Treaty of 1604 (after first ordering the Treaty of Union with Scotland as an appetizer), that was taking the passion for primary sources a little too far. And, according to Helen Wood, who recently received her Masters of Archive Administration and Records Management from the University of Liverpool, this sort of conduct takes place in archives all the time. Forget the tales of sexual politics in the faculty lounge — the kinkiest stuff occurs between the sheaves at your local library.
Wood’s dissertation, “The Fetish of the Document: An Exploration of Attitudes Towards Archives,” gives new meaning to Special Collections. Her essay centers around the participatory role the archivist has in creating and influencing…
Banksy, Fox and The Simpsons Video
Thanks to Alexia Tsotsis at TechCrunch [go there for full commentary] for showing us how megamedia corporations are conveniently using copyright law to promote their intellectual property:
In case you haven’t been reading Twitter at all in the past day or so, last night “Banksy” was both the sixth search term on Google Trends and the number six trending topic on Twitter (where it remains to this morning), all because of the elusive street artist’s unbelievably dark and meta storyboarding of the animated series’ infamous intro, which Fox just removed from YouTube for copyright violations.
Before Fox pulled it down, the YouTube video had currently amassed 42,305 views, and it’d be safe to say that almost none of us actually watched it on TV…
