Archive for January, 2011
Six Easy Theses – Tools for Cosmological Discussion
Enjoy as I have the recent posts concerning God and the New Atheists (great band name btw), and there is nothing as comical to me as reading atheists argue for the futility of engaging in these arguments, I do think that the ground needs a little clarifying so that these discussions, that I believe have value in the platonic sense, can gain some traction given a few tools to help the language.
The dichotomy between theism and atheism is perhaps a step of generality too far, and leads one to engage in those kinds of circular arguments that both sides find frustrating. So I propose the following terms, in order to help us identify our beliefs, or non-beliefs, in a way that fosters informed discussion.
1. There are at least 2 types of atheists. One I will call the Micro-Atheist, that type of person who approaches the cosmos without the need to…
Haitians Mark One Year Anniversary Of Earthquake
The Haitian National Palace after the earthquake on January 12, 2010
A year after tragedy hit Haiti, survivors are marking the anniversary of the devastating earthquake. A year later and hundreds of thousands of people are living in shelters, communities are slowly being rebuilt and there is a constant battle against cholera. BBC News reports:
Haitians are preparing to mark the anniversary of the earthquake that devastated their country and left some 250,000 of their fellow citizens dead.
Church services are due to be held around the nation, including at the ruined cathedral in Port-au-Prince.
There will also be a minute’s silence at 4.53pm (2153 GMT) – the exact moment when the 7.0 magnitude quake hit.
Traffic stopped as the streets of Port-au-Prince turned quiet and businesses were closed.
People walked in solemn processions to prayer services marking the anniversary of the worst natural disaster in the nation’s history. Many people wore white, a colour associated with…
Rep. Proposes Enclosing Congress Within Plexiglas Bubble
No, it’s not an Onion headline. Indiana Republican Dan Burton wants to encase the House of Representatives within impenetrable Plexiglas for protection from the outside world. CBS News writes:
An aide to Rep. Dan Burton (R-Ind.) tells CBS News that the Indiana Republican plans to introduce legislation next week that would encase the House Gallery in “a transparent and substantial material” such as Plexiglas that would keep members of the public from being able to throw explosives or make other attacks on members on the House floor.
Burton has introduced similar legislation in the past. It reads in part, “The Architect of the Capitol shall enclose the visitors’ galleries of the House of Representatives with a transparent and substantial material, and shall install equipment so that the proceedings on the floor of the House of Representatives will be clearly audible in the galleries.”
A past version of the legislation, which will be reintroduced in the…
Creative Drug Trend: Snorting Bath Salts
Authorities in Louisiana and Utah (below) are attempting to crack down on the growing practice of ingesting therapeutic bath salts for the purpose of achieving an amphetamine-like high. Supposedly intended for pampering the skin, the mineral packets’ contents are smoked or snorted like cocaine, and are so popular that they are now sold at smoke shops. If you see a line of teenagers waiting for Bed Bath & Beyond to open, the trend may have reached your town.
Sarah Palin Calls Criticism “Blood Libel”
Sarah Palin has posted a video statement about the shootings in Arizona by Jared Loughner, entitled “America’s Enduring Strength,” on her new Vimeo Channel. She accuses journalists of a “Blood Libel” against her, calling it “reprehensible”:
[UPDATE from disinfo ed.: Presumably realizing how awful she sounds, Mrs. Palin has since made the Vimeo stream "private" so we have replaced it with a YouTube stream, but don't be surprised if she has it taken down.]
Thunderstorms Generate Antimatter Beams
Antimatter Cloud (NASA)
It sounds like the stuff of science fiction, but scientists are reporting that they have seen antimatter beams emitted from thunderstorms. Jonathan Palmer has the story at BBC News:
A space telescope has accidentally spotted thunderstorms on Earth producing beams of antimatter.
Such storms have long been known to give rise to fleeting sparks of light called terrestrial gamma-ray flashes. But results from the Fermi telescope show they also give out streams of electrons and their antimatter counterparts, positrons.
The surprise result was presented by researchers at the American Astronomical Society meeting in the US.
It deepens a mystery about terrestrial gamma-ray flashes, or TGFs — sparks of light that are estimated to occur 500 times a day in thunderstorms on Earth. They are a complex interplay of light and matter whose origin is poorly understood.
Thunderstorms are known to create tremendously high electric fields — evidenced by lightning strikes. Electrons in storm…
Mass Animal Deaths Tracked By Google Maps
From Jennifer Viegas at Discovery News:
The recent mass deaths of birds, fish, crabs, manatees, penguins and other animals are now being tracked by Google Maps.
“Aflockalypse,” as the Washington Post and other news outlets are calling the bird die offs, can now be studied, along with the other animal deaths, online at the single Google webpage.
The events appear to all date from December 2010 to the present — likely a choice of the map’s creators, since previous events could have also been documented. The majority of the events are shown to have occurred in the United States, but the map also charts the following:
- “100 tons of fish” dead in South America
- “Hundreds of snapper” perished in New Zealand
- “Thousands of fish” were found floating dead in the Philippines
- “150 tons of red tilapias” died in Thailand
- “Scores of dead fish” in Haiti
- 50-100 Jackdaws dead in Norway
- Over 300 doves dead in Italy
and several more.
The question has been asked:…
Canada’s Goldstream River Turned Fluorescent Green
Via Utica Daily News:
The river, which runs through the city of Langford, British Columbia, turned a fluorescent green on Dec. 30, when a passer-by captured stunning video of the verdant waterway.
At first it wasn’t clear what caused the river — and the water in a nearby fountain — to change color. But investigators now believe that the green hue was caused by the addition of fluorescein, a synthetic organic compound that is often used as a dye, or a “fluorescent tracer,” in the testing of water systems.
[Continues at Utica Daily News]
The Dark World Of Honey Laundering
As domestic bee colonies collapse in droves, the United States is being flooded with cheap, perhaps dangerous, Chinese honey in “the largest case of food fraud in history.” The Globe and Mail reports:
As crime sagas go, a scheme rigged by a sophisticated cartel of global traders has all the right blockbuster elements: clandestine movements of illegal substances through a network of co-operatives in Asia, a German conglomerate, jet-setting executives, doctored laboratory reports, high-profile takedowns and fearful turncoats.
What makes this worldwide drama unusual, other than being regarded as part of the largest food fraud in U.S. history, is the fact that honey, nature’s benign golden sweetener, is the lucrative contraband.
What consumers don’t know is that honey doesn’t usually come straight – or pure – from the hive. Giant steel drums of honey bound for grocery store shelves and the food processors that crank out your cereal are in constant flow through the…
Jon Stewart Reacts To The Arizona Shootings
Jon Stewart takes a moment to have a heart-to-heart with his viewers on the cycle of craziness and patriotism after the Arizona tragedy. As he stumbles through trying to make sense of the incident he reminds us that whether politics or visual violence was a factor behind the motivation of the killings, “you cannot out smart crazy.”
People Joe Klein Thinks Are Stupid: Ed Schultz and YOU
The irrepressible Robert Greenwald explains why Joe Klein is the stupid one in the debate about taking our troops out of Afghanistan, at Huffington Post:
…Let’s talk about stupid for a minute.
The U.S. has increased troop levels in Afghanistan every year since the initial invasion, and every year we’ve seen an increased level of violence in Afghanistan. President Obama and General Petraeus promised–twice!–that huge troop increases would help “protect the population” of Afghanistan and break Taliban momentum…
Republican Peter King To Introduce Legislation Banning Firearms Within 1,000 Feet Of A Government Official
Will it soon be a crime to be armed in the presence of a government official? A strict new gun-control measure is slated to be introduced in Congress by a surprising proponent, Huffington Post writes:
Rep. Peter King, a Republican from New York, is planning to introduce legislation that would make it illegal to bring a gun within 1,000 feet of a government official, according to a person familiar with the congressman’s intentions.
King is chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee. The proposed law follows the Saturday shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) and a federal judge that left six dead, including the judge, and 14 wounded.
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, one of the nation’s most outspoken gun-control advocates, is backing King’s measure and is expected to put the weight of his pro-gun-control organization behind it.
It is already illegal in the U.S. to carry a gun within 1,000 feet of a school.…
Would You Have Sold Bullets to Jared Loughner?
I am sure this post will spark, the perennial “Guns Kill People” Vs. “People Kill People” debate we have in the United States, and my interest is to further the discourse, not draw an opinion in this debate as related to what happened in Tucson yet. Here are some things I’ve noticed reported by the media:
- The Wall Street Journal has revealed Arizona shooting suspect Jared Loughner was actually turned away at one Wal-Mart but able to buy bullets at another Wal-Mart just hours before the attack. To the right is his mugshot, released from the Pima County Sheriff’s Office.
- There is also some debate as to whether the Federal Assault Weapons Ban that expired in 2004 would have prevented (or lessened the number of victims in) the shooting.
- Furthermore, it’s a bit of a mystery how Loughner was able to buy an expensive pistol in the first place.
Thanks for your thoughts.
Helen Thomas Awaits Another Big Diss From Fellow Journalists
Helen Thomas. Photo: rachaelvoorhees (CC)
The Society For Professional Journalists [SPJ] is preparing to jump on the “kick Helen Thomas when she is down” campaign by retiring a lifetime achievement award that honors this great American journalist. She is being sanctioned for speaking out against Israel in a manner that offended some, despite her clarification.
This new, knee-jerk, self-righteous “look how responsible we are” capitulation to outside pressure must be resisted.
A fellow Detroiter, former editor and media executive, Lloyd H. Weston, is challenging his fellow SPJ members to support Helen and has backed her in a letter to Editor & Publisher magazine. He wrote the following to SPJ’s Executive Committee, which has now postponed its decision for ten days by referring the decision to their whole board. He writes in part:
“Distinguished Members of the Executive Committee:
Allow me to introduce myself in the context of this serious, important and, to me, disturbing issue that is…
Laugh For Long Life
Lee Berk. Source: Loma Linda Univ.
Anyone who has seen Albert Nerenberg’s film Laughology knows that there are health benefits to laughing as much and as often as possible. Further scientific proof of the merits of Laughter Yoga, Laughtercize and just plain old laughing is reported by Discover Magazine:
Researchers have long known that laughter boosts the immune system, lowers cholesterol and blood pressure, and reduces stress. In a preliminary new study, psychoneuro-immunologist Lee Berk and his team at Loma Linda University in California show that the parallels between laughing and exercise go even further: Shifts in appetite hormones following a case of the giggles resemble the effects of a moderate session at the gym.
Berk measured blood levels of ghrelin, a hunger-regulating hormone, before and after 14 study participants watched 20 minutes of humorous TV (selected from a menu including Saturday Night Live, Bill Cosby’s stand-up, and Seinfeld). He then compared the data with…
Brad Meltzer, Red Cell Secret Agent
Brad Meltzer. Photo: Jackie Merri Meyer (CC)
There must be a new editor at the Daily News these days as the crazy stories keep flowing. This one’s authored by novelist and putative History Channel TV star Brad Meltzer, with a healthy dose of sensationalism no doubt timed to promote his new novel, The Inner Circle:
I was a real-life secret agent. I didn’t have the hand-grenade cuff links or the poison-dart pen, but in 2004 I was recruited by the Department of Homeland Security for its Red Cell program.
As they described it – and as The Washington Post later reported – Red Cell was the government’s way of trying to anticipate how terrorists would next attack the United States. To do that, the government brought together what they called “out-of-the-box thinkers.”
As a novelist who writes thrillers with scenes that take place in the underground tunnel below the White House, I was somehow identified as one of…
Wife of White House Aide Found Dead in Burning Car
Dan Turton with President Obama.
Assassination attempts against congressional representatives, former officials dumped in landfills, and now Christopher Weber from Politics Daily at AOL says that the wife of a White House aide has been found dead in a burning car. If this is frigid, sleepy January, I shudder to think what the crazy heat of July is going to bring:
Ashley Turton, wife of the Obama administration’s House of Representatives liaison, Dan Turton, was found dead in a burning car Monday morning, Roll Call and other news outlets are reporting.
Fire officials said it appeared the car crashed as it was pulling in or out of the garage behind a rowhouse in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Washington, D.C., at about 5 a.m. Neighbors dialed 911 after spotting the fire.
The body was discovered after fire crews doused the blaze. The fire also charred part of the garage. Nobody in the house was injured, fire officials…
Media Roots Radio – The Anthrax Attacks, From The Memory Hole
Media Roots Radio — The Anthrax Attacks, From The Memory Hole by Media Roots
This is a special episode of Media Roots Radio about the events of 9/11 & Anthrax. In this edition, Abby and Robbie Martin continue the discussion from the previous 9/11 episode, and break apart the official government and corporate media narrative of both attacks by discussing the foreknowledge, government complicity, and gross inconsistencies regarding every aspect of the events…
First Wikileaks UFO “Revelation” Not So Revealing
Aaron Cynic writes at Diatribe Media:
Anyone who even slightly believes there may be more life in the universe than just planet Earth perked their ears slightly when Wikileak’s founder Julian Assange said in an interview with the Guardian “it is worth noting that in yet-to-be-published parts of the cablegate archive there are indeed references to UFOs.” More speculative parts of the internet believed that the Cablegate archives could contain the smoking gun in a UFO coverup. The New Zealand Defense Force even got a little spooked and released thousands of files on reported UFO sightings.
Unfortunately, the first UFO Wikileak fell short of anything remotely interesting or even unknown. In a 2007 diplomatic cable from Minsk, an official is asked why his department no longer “investigates paranormal phenomena.” He responds: “Unlike during the USSR, the department is not engaged in studying paranormal phenomena. [Back then], we had greater means and opportunities which we could spend…
