Archive for December, 2010
Save The Date: Jesus Returns May 21, 2011!
Bob Smietana writes in the Tennessean:
That’s the message on 40 billboards around Nashville, proclaiming May 21, 2011, as the date of the Rapture. Billboards are up in eight other U.S. cities, too.
Fans of Family Radio Inc., a nationwide Christian network, paid for the billboards. Family Radio’s founder, Harold Camping, predicted the May date for the Rapture.
Their message is simple — “He Is Coming Again” — and their aim is to get unbelievers to turn around quickly. But critics say the billboards are a waste of time, one more failed attempt to predict the end of the world.
Wealth: When Will The 98% Tell The 2%, Enough Is Enough?
Gilbert Mercier writes on News Junkie Post:
Congress has passed, a two year renewal of the Bush tax cuts. The bill is a nice extra Christmas bonus for the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans, and it will only amplify the monumental US budget deficit.
The logic behind the bill goes against, not only common sense but also against the global trend, notably in Europe, to cut spending and increase taxation in order to address a spreading budget crisis.
The governments of countries such as Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Spain are pushing for unpopular austerity measures, and richer countries such as the UK and France are trying to implement the same type of economic policies often by cutting social benefits and programs.
If austerity is the trend in Europe, it is certainly not the case in the United States. The US political and financial ruling class, which can be credited for starting the global financial…
TSA Allows GIs To Carry Guns On Plane – But Not Nail Clippers
Thanks to disinformation reader Synapse for sending us this story about the TSA’s treatment of armed soldiers returning from Afghanistan, from Redstate, a portion of which is shown below:
[Update: with thanks to commenter King-gonad, the TSA says this story is false]
…This is probably another good time to remind you all that all of us were carrying actual assault rifles, and some of us were also carrying pistols.
So we’re in line, going through one at a time. One of our Soldiers had his Gerber multi-tool. TSA confiscated it. Kind of ridiculous, but it gets better. A few minutes later, a guy empties his pockets and has a pair of nail clippers. Nail clippers. TSA informs the Soldier that they’re going to confiscate his nail clippers. The conversation went something like this:
TSA Guy: You can’t take those on the plane.
Soldier: What? I’ve had them since we left country.
TSA Guy: You’re not suppose to…
Kanye West “Power”: Illuminati Overkill
disinformation reader Niall sent us a note saying:
Here’s an article I wrote about Kanye West’s latest video “Power” and how I think he is basically trolling the internets and conspiracy theorists with it. It’s from our music blog Shallow Rave — we don’t normally cover esoteric stuff, but it’s a personal interest of mine, and when the two subjects collide it’s too good an opportunity not to miss!
Here’s Kanye’s video and below the story from Shallow Rave:
So, have you sen the video for Kanye West’s “Power”? And did you notice all the occult symbolism there-in? Come on, let’s be honest here – you’d have to be a total fucking idiot not to.
I have commented on this kind of thing before (most notably Lady Gaga), but if you are new to the modern trend to read everything in pop music as being controlled by the Illuminati, then start here…
Christmas Gift In the 1890s: Edison’s Talking “Monster” Doll
Photo: Robin & Jean Rolfs
Via GE Reports:
While we may never know what the ‘must have’ Christmas gift was in 1890, we do know that it most assuredly wasn’t Thomas Edison’s talking doll.
Using miniature phonographs embedded inside, these “talking” baby dolls were toy manufacturers’ first attempt at using sound technology in toys. They marked a collaboration between Edison and William Jacques and Lowell Briggs, who worked to miniaturize the phonograph starting in 1878.
Unfortunately, production delays, poor recording technology, high production costs, and damages during distribution all combined to create toys that were a complete disaster, terrifying children and costing their parents nearly a month’s pay.
Edison would later refer to the dolls as his “little monsters.” The recording below is of “Little Jack Horner” and comes from one of the actual dolls, courtesy of the Thomas Edison National Historical Park.
[Continues with sound clip of recording at GE Reports]
…
Gold-Dispensing ATMs Arrive In The United States
The immensely popular gold-dispensing ATMs have made their way to American shores, popping up at a mall in Florida. Will gold be a “parallel currency” in a few years? From Yahoo News:
A German company installed the machine Friday at an upscale mall in Boca Raton, a South Florida paradise of palm trees, pink buildings and wealthy retirees.
Thomas Geissler, CEO of Ex Oriente Lux and inventor of the Gold To Go machines, says the majority of buyers will be walk-ups enamored by the novelty. But he says they’re also convenient for more serious investors looking to bypass the hassle of buying gold at pawn shops and over the Internet.
“Instead of buying flowers or chocolates, which is gone after two or three minutes, this will stay for the next few hundreds years,” Geissler told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.
The company installed its first machine at Abu Dhabi’s Emirates Palace hotel in May…
China Bans English Words In Media
English words and abbreviations are making the Chinese language “impure” and concerns are raised of it’s “adverse social impacts,” according to China’s state press. I would ask how the Chinese feel “Chinglish” is impacting their cultural jargon, but they probably wouldn’t be allowed to read this. BBC reports:
China has banned newspapers, publishers and website-owners from using foreign words – particularly English ones.
China’s state press and publishing body said such words were sullying the purity of the Chinese language.
It said standardised Chinese should be the norm: the press should avoid foreign abbreviations and acronyms, as well as “Chinglish” – which is a mix of English and Chinese.
The order also extends existing warnings that applied to radio and TV.
[Continues at BBC]
400,000 Baby Chicks Killed By Bankrupt Poultry Farm
Photo: Dmitry Noskoff
Stephen Messenger writes in treehugger:
Poultry workers reportedly wept as they carried out their grim task — overseeing the death of about 400 thousand newborn chicks by drowning them in water or simply dumping them in rusty barrels outside where they would succumb to the freezing winter air. Around 600,000 more birds, housed at Russia’s Krasnaya Polyana poultry farm have died of malnutrition, and the lives of 3 million others await a similar fate. A $190,000 tax debt, says the farm, has forced them to declare bankruptcy, leading to this killing of chickens on a horrific scale.
The poultry farm, located in the region of Kursk, is owned by Russian parliament member Alexander Chetverikov — and he says declaring bankruptcy, which has forced the deaths of about 1 million chickens, was his only recourse after he became the target of a political conspiracy aimed at putting him in financial ruin.
Chetverikov,…
Apple Removes WikiLeaks App From App Store
Looks like Apple has joined the club of not wanting to touch WikiLeaks with a ten-foot pole. Alexia Tsotsis writes on TechCrunch:
Looks like an unofficial iPhone and iPad app that let you view WikiLeaks site content and follow the WikiLeaks Twitter account on the go has been removed from the App app store earlier today. The app used to be available here (here’s the Google cache).
From the WikiLeaks App’s description: “The Wikileaks app gives instant access to the world’s most documented leakage of top secret memos and other confidential government documents.”
Basically the paid app was selling WikiLeaks content (available for free) for $1.99. Its entry into the app store on December 17th was actually surprising, as Apple is usually quite strict and somewhat vague about its app approval standards. WikiLeaks and founder Julian Assange are quite controversial, to put it lightly but I’m not sure if the app directly violated anything in Apple’s TOS.
In the…
BMW Ad Uses Afterimage To Burn Logo Into Watchers’ Brains
A BMV commercial shown in German movie theaters uses a powerful photo flash to literally brand the corporation’s logo into viewers’ skulls, so that they see the logo upon closing their eyes. Surely other companies will soon follow suit with this cool advertising technique, and by cool, I mean awful:
“What do we see when we look straight at the sun and then close our eyes? That’s right, a bright moving disk that lasts several seconds. Every child knows this afterimage effect. We use the afterimage effect for a completely new brand experience.”
FCC OK’s Net Neutrality Rules
Our beloved Federal Communications Commission has approved the highly controversial net neutrality rules, albeit in slightly watered-down form from those originally proposed.
In case you need a reminder as to why this is NOT a good thing, Al Franken lays it out for you:
9/11 Health Bill May Pass After All
It looks like New York’s Democrat Senators have finally convinced enough of their Republican companions in the Senate to vote for the 9/11 health legislation sorely needed for sick first responders (but not without knocking $1.2 billion off the price). From New York Magazine’s Daily Intel:
Don’t look now, but the Democrats are starting to rack up a pretty sizable number of successes in what was at one time expected to be a quiet and largely uneventful lame-duck session. There was the tax-cut deal, which included an extension of unemployment benefits, then the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” and soon, it appears, even the long-stalled James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act. And yes, it is strange that guaranteeing medical assistance for first responders sickened by the toxic dust of the destroyed World Trade Center is a specifically Democratic issue.
Republicans have maintained that they don’t have anything against the heroes of…
United States Saves Money By Executing Fewer People
You know the U.S. is in trouble when it cuts back on one of it’s world-beating businesses — executions. Reuters reports:
The United States executed fewer people this year, in part because there is a shortage of the drug used in lethal injections and because executions are too expensive in tough economic times, a report released on Tuesday said.
The Death Penalty Information Center said in its annual report that executions decreased 12 percent this year and new death sentences stayed near the lowest level since capital punishment was reinstated in 1976.
Texas led the nation with 17 of the 46 executions carried out this year in the United States. The total is down from 52 in 2009 and less than half the number put to death in 1999.
“Whether it’s concerns about the high costs of the death penalty at a time when budgets are being slashed, the risks of executing the innocent, unfairness, or…
You Are What You Read: Sarah Palin
The Wall Street Journal curiously allows Christian film company Walden Media’s president and co-founder Micheal Flaherty to write an article in defense of Sarah Palin’s newfound love of the novels of C.S. Lewis, some of which Walden has adapted into the Chronicles of Narnia series of movies. Well actually it’s not curious at all because the Journal is a division of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, which not so coincidentally owns 20th Century Fox Films, distributor of the latest Narnia movie, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Not that you’d know that unless you did the research for yourself, because there is no such disclosure at the head or tail of the article, sampled below:
Since Katie Couric first asked the question a couple of years back, journalists continue to pepper Sarah Palin with that classic ice-breaker: “So, what are you reading?” The subject came up again in a recent profile in the New York…
The Day The Sun Stood Still (With Full Moon Eclipse)
Today is the winter solstice; the solar nadir in the northern hemisphere. This temporal event in Spaceship Earth’s rotations finds the sun take its lowest path through our sky and the daytime hours are fewest; the axis of light flips; a planetary New Year. This is an event that many wise people have encouraged us to recognise as the origin of our ‘modern’ festive experience. The word solstice derives from the Latin ‘Sol’ meaning Sun and ’sistere’ which means to stand still, because this is exactly what it appears to do. Our sun, having clambered ever lower over the horizon since midsummer, seems to be disappearing, perhaps eternally, an experience which was no doubt a source of unquestionable anxiety to early peoples. When the sun was henceforth ‘reborn’ from the horizon, into a fresh cycle of light, there was much rapture and hedonistic release. It is not hard to recognise…
Man Runs Red Light, Gets Busted For 500 Pounds Of Marijuana
This guy really should have bought disinformation’s DVD Never Get Busted Again: Vol 1 Traffic Stops! Reuters reports from New York City:
Police stopped a driver for running a red light and discovered more than 500 pounds of marijuana inside his minivan, authorities said on Monday.
Clement Hunter, 30, was awaiting arraignment on Monday following his arrest on drug charges, authorities said.
Hunter ran a red traffic light in the city’s Queens borough early on Sunday morning and tried to evade police for several blocks, police said.
When he was pulled over, the 513 pounds of marijuana…
The Real 12 Stages of A Lunar Eclipse
John Rennie writes on PLoS:
Skywatchers are excitedly awaiting the total lunar eclipse that will occur tonight between 2:41 a.m. and 3:53 a.m. EST, and if you intend to stay awake to watch this amazing sight, then by all means read the Space.com description of the 12 stages of the eclipse. Joe Rao’s article thoughtfully explains what you will see as the moon transits through different portions of the earth’s shadow. I wholeheartedly recommend it — if you want to wallow in astronomical nonsense.
Oh, I’m sure Joe Rao’s piece is backed up by an abundance of scientific facts and observations, if you care to put your faith in such things. But those of us well-versed in the ancient wisdoms know that the real 12 stages of a lunar eclipse are as follows:
1. Faint penumbral dimming of the moon’s disk.
2. Pervasive creeping sensations of unease.
3. Howling of wolves.
4. Unclean things walk the earth; Dick Cheney rises from the grave.
5. Contortion of the zodiac.
6. Intrusion of strange dimensions.
7. Universal gibbering madness.
8. Cthulhu.
9. A glimmer of sanity in the chaos.
10. Restoration of Euclidean geometry.
11. Fungal Mi-go from Yuggoth return captive brains to their rightful owners.
12. Applause, followed by waffles for breakfast.
The Battle Over Austerity Measures Moves From The Suites To The Streets
Greek protests turned riots. Photo: Jesse Garcia (CC)
William Shakespeare put a key question this way: “To Be Or Not To Be?” Today’s economists and policy makers pose a different choice: to spend or not to spend.
Governments throughout the west are in a panic as debt mounts and economies contract. Their solution is cut, cut, cut, in the name of a doctrine called austerity. They are slashing budgets, trimming public payrolls and arguing fatalistically in the spirit of Margaret Thatcher’s philosophy, “There Is No Alternative.” (TINA.)
Austerity is the other name for it, Confronting massive deficits fearful of losing investor confidence. European governments are pulverizing budgets and shutting down public services. The plan by England’s new Tory government is considered among the most painful, if not draconian. It is justified as absolutely necessary.
This view is being challenged in the realm of the ideas and with a growing spasm of street protests rocking European…
