Archive for January, 2011
Cataloging Extraterrestrials
Not since Men In Black has such a comprehensive collection of extraterrestrials been seen on Earth! Pat Lee (of Transformers, DC and Marvel fame) and a select group of 12 artists and writers have cataloged 90 extraterrestrial life-forms in a forthcoming book, The Extraterrestrial Compendium. Pat offered disinformation an exclusive preview of two of the entries in the book, the Acturians and the Ciakar Draconian Reptilians:
Arcturian
Arcturians
AKA: The Arcturian Confederation
Origins: The star Arcturus in the Constellation of Bootes, approximately
36 light-years from Earth.
Attitude Toward Humans: BenevolentGeneral Description: There are widely-differing views on what this race looks like. Some believe Arcturians are about the size of children, standing 3 to 4 feet tall with pale green or blue skin, large dark almond-shaped eyes, and only three fingers on each hand. They may have large craniums and highly-developed telepathic and telekinetic capabilities. Perhaps they also require minimal sleep, and their life-span may range up
to a few hundred years.Arcturians…
Tom DeLay Sentenced To Three Years In Prison
Tom DeLay in happier times.
If he hadn’t received a prison sentence it would have been a travesty of justice, but one that many of us half expected. DeLay, the target of the critical disinformation documentary The Big Buy: Tom DeLay’s Stolen Congress, will be serving three long years in the big house according to the Houston Chronicle:
AUSTIN – Former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay today was sentenced to three years in prison for his conviction on a charge of conspiracy to commit political money laundering. He also was sentenced to five years in prison on a money laundering conviction, but the judge probated that to 10 years of community supervision.
DeLay was taken into custody by Travis County deputies, but will be released on $10,000 bail pending appeal.
DeLay pleaded for himself before visiting District Judge Pat Priest.
“I don’t feel remorseful for something I don’t think I did,” DeLay told the judge…
[continues in…
Warning: All 640,000+ @WikiLeaks Followers Now Subject to U.S. Government Subpoena Of Twitter
Zack Whittaker writes on ZDNet:
The US government has subpoenaed Twitter in a bid to support an ongoing criminal investigation into whether Wikileaks and people involved or connected to Wikileaks, including an Icelandic member of parliament, broke the law.
According to Wikileaks lawyer Mark Stephens live on the BBC News a short time ago, it is believed Facebook and Google (see here) have also been contacted regarding Wikileaks members and potential whistleblowers.
Update (12:20am GMT): Mark Stephens on the BBC News also makes clear that the court order will also cover the “600,000 odd followers that Wikileaks has on Twitter“.
The order asks specifically for names of those attached to selected accounts, user and screen names, and any registered mailing or postal addresses. It also asks for email addresses, credit card details where possible, and even content relating to connected mobile phones.
The server logs which could identify the computer and geographical location of where even private messages were sent from have also…
Activists Hijack North Korean Tweets
It seems North Korea’s internet borders are the only ones capable of being breached. Via BBC News:
Hackers have taken over social media sites associated with the North Korean regime, to make derogatory posts.
On 8 January, a Twitter account affiliated to the North’s regime began posting messages calling for an uprising.
Meanwhile a video appeared on the regime’s YouTube channel, depicting heir-apparent Kim Jong-un driving his sports car into women and children.
Users of a popular South Korean website have claimed responsibility.
The attacks coincided with Jong-un’s birthday.
[Continues at BBC News]
The Sordid History Of Product Placement In Cinema
Did you know that product placement in movies began in 1919, during the silent era? Ultimately, that paved the way for last year, when Michael Bay broke his own record by promoting products from 49 corporations within a single film (the blockbuster Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen). Conceived by FilmDrunk:
BU ACLU: ‘When Criticizing Rhetoric, Remember Freedom of Speech’
Today I received an interesting email from the Boston University ACLU (text below). It’s also on their Facebook Page:
Jared Lee Loughner, charged with Saturday’s shootings, has invoked his right to silence, leaving us ignorant of his motives. Sources disagree on his politics — an acquaintance calls him an “extreme” liberal; a government memo links him to a “racial-realist” journal (one that denies any ties to him). His online writings point to an unhinged mind. But though much remains unclear, people are withdrawing some of their first theories, which rashly labeled the shootings a Tea Party / Republican plot.
Replacing those accusations is a broader look at how the shooter may have responded to intense political rhetoric. Critics again blame the right-wing, mainly Sarah Palin, whose PAC last year produced an image with crosshairs on congressional seats such as Giffords’. It was only a slight escalation from the usual manner of treating politics…
Knowsley Safari Park Makes Changes After Photographs of Carcasses Were Released
Photographer Penny Boyd released photos of carcasses to the council and animal charities
What happens to animals that perish in a safari park? One ex-employee of Knowsley Safari Park took photos making the public aware of how the carcasses were disposed of. BBC News reports:
A Merseyside safari park was told to change the way it dealt with dead animals after an ex-employee released images of carcasses left in the open.
Knowsley Safari Park photographer Penny Boyd complained to the local council over what she believed was unnecessary killing of animals and their disposal.
An investigation by Knowsley Council found a breach of animal by-products regulations, which the park addressed.
In a statement, it said “robust new procedures” were now in place.
[Continues at BBC News]
Where Have All The Serial Killers Gone?
Will the age of antidepressants render the serial murderer a figment of the past?
In a slice of good news, serial killing sprees occur far less frequently than at their peak twenty years ago and no longer produce iconic American monsters along the lines of John Wayne Gacy, Jeffrey Dahmer, or Ted Bundy, all of who seemed to personify people’s worst fears about society. (That said, to many, the horrific massacre in Tucson this past weekend symbolizes the escalation of violent political rhetoric.) Slate looks back at the “golden age of serial murderers”:
Serial killers just aren’t the sensation they used to be. They haven’t disappeared, of course. But the number of serial murders seems to be dwindling, as does the public’s fascination with them.
Statistics on serial murder are hard to come by—the FBI doesn’t keep numbers, according to a spokeswoman—but the data we do have suggests serial murders peaked in the…
Loughner Being Cast As Occultist
Source: Daily News
There’s all sorts of speculation about the motivations of gunman Jared Loughner, with guesses ranging widely to extremes of the political spectrum. The most bizarre claim is from the Daily News, which has what it terms “exclusive” photographic evidence that he worshiped at an “occultist shrine”:
A sinister shrine reveals a chilling occult dimension in the mind of the deranged gunman accused of shooting a member of Congress and 19 others.
Hidden within a camouflage tent behind Jared Lee Loughner’s home sits an alarming altar with a skull sitting atop a pot filled with shriveled oranges.
A row of ceremonial candles and a bag of potting soil lay nearby, photos reveal.
Experts on Sunday said the elements are featured in the ceremonies of a number of occult groups.
Investigators have focused on Loughner’s online anti-government ramblings as the chief motivation for the shooting Saturday of U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.).
The discovery of the…
Jared Loughner Pre-Planned Assassination Of Rep. Giffords
T
he only story that matters as we start the week is the Giffords shooting, for which a nationwide moment of silence is about to begin as I post this story. The New York Times is reporting that the attack was premeditated:
TUCSON — Prosecutors charged Jared L. Loughner, a troubled 22-year-old college dropout, with five federal counts on Sunday, including the attempted assassination of a member of Congress, in connection with a shooting rampage on Saturday morning that left six people dead and 14 wounded.
Evidence seized from Mr. Loughner’s home, about five miles from the shooting, indicated that he had planned to kill Representative Gabrielle Giffords, Democrat of Arizona, according to documents filed in Federal District Court in Phoenix.
Special Agent Tony M. Taylor Jr. of the F.B.I. said in an affidavit that an envelope found in a safe in the home bore these handwritten words: “I planned ahead,” “My assassination” and “Giffords.”
Mr.…
Disinformation: Facebook Will Shut Down On March 15
Why would anyone believe this, right after Goldman Sachs et al invested $500 Million in Facebook? Especially when the source is the less than reliable but often amusing Weekly World News? As ABC News reports, the rumor is going viral on the web, despite its preposterous nature:
Rumors that Facebook will be shutting down on March 15 have gone viral across the web, causing users to question what will happen to their photos and other content that they have shared on the world’s largest social networking site.
The flurry of online chatter that the Palo Alto, Calif.-based company would shut down its servers comes just days after it had been valued at $50 billion after a $500 million infusion of cash by investment bank Goldman-Sachs.
The story seems to have been perpetuated by supermarket tabloid the Weekly World News, which Saturday published an article headlined “Facebook Will End March 15th!”
“Facebook has gotten out of…
Gregg Gillis A/K/A Girl Talk: Making Mashup Mainstream
Gregg Gillis a/k/a Girl Talk. Photo: Tom Purves (CC)
Profiled in 2009’s disinformation documentary Rip: A Remix Manifesto, Gregg Gillis, better known as Girl Talk, is getting the “next big thing” treatment in the New York Times Magazine (incidentally, his new album is slamming and *free* at Illegal-art.net):
Imagine old, bald Pete Townshend shuffling gingerly onstage as a synth burbles up behind him — “Let My Love Open the Door.” Now imagine the rapper Pimp C already on that stage, in a white fur suit and hat, holding up four fingers to show off his bling. A kick line of girls in black minishorts walks it out for DJ Unk, who’s rapping about a kick line of girls, then Levon Helm appears on a drum riser to chirp out “The Weight.” Also onstage: Jay-Z, Black Sabbath, Rick Springfield, Kesha, Bruce Springsteen, Miley Cyrus, the Ramones and Tupac and Biggie Smalls (both back from the…
Don’t Wake Up. It’s Not Worth It.
Grim Blogger reviews horror author Thomas Ligotti’s nonfiction The Conspiracy Against the Human Race:
The Conspiracy Against the Human Race: A Contrivance of Horror is many things, but it is definitely well worth the wait. It emanates a black power longtime readers of Ligotti’s fiction will recognize, yet it is not an old comforting horror story. Instead, the book is a history, a philosophy, and a V.I.P. pass to the backstage of Ligotti’s many talented puppet shows. On the way to get behind the curtain, though, you find yourself trapped in a dimly lit elevator. Rather than the fireside chat with Thomas Ligotti you expected, you end up listening to his dark observations about this universe and about your existence–many of which make you want to scream and cry and laugh at once–as they pour in over a piercing intercom.
In Conspiracy, Thomas Ligotti successfully balances the multiple authorial roles integral to the book. There…
Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords Shot By Gunman
Via NPR:
Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was shot in the head by a gunman at a public event in Tucson on Saturday. There are conflicting reports about whether she was killed.
The Pima County, Ariz., sheriff’s office told member station KJZZ the 40-year-old Democrat was killed. A hospital spokeswoman said Giffords was in critical condition and undergoing surgery.
At least eight other people, including members of her staff, were injured. There also were conflicting reports on the number of deaths at the scene, but President Obama, in a statement, said “we know that some have passed away” and that Giffords was “gravely wounded.”
Giffords, who was re-elected to a third term in November, was hosting a “Congress on Your Corner” event at a Safeway in northwest Tucson when a gunman ran up and started shooting, according to Peter Michaels, news director of Arizona Public Media.
The suspect fired indiscriminately from about four feet away, Michaels said. A…
The Demise Of Facebook
Douglas Rushkoff called the impending doom of AOL when it’s hapless merger with Time Warner was announced. Now he says Facebook is cashing out and it’s the beginning of its demise, in an opinion piece at CNN:
All signs for Facebook appear to be pointing up.
Mark Zuckerberg is Time’s Man of the Year, the movie about him seems likely to be an Oscar winner, and now Goldman Sachs is raising $1.5 billion from its favorite investors on behalf of the social networking company.
At the very same moment, Facebook’s only real competitor –NewsCorps’ waning social networking site, MySpace — is shedding employees and expenses, most likely in hopes of a fire sale.
But appearances can be deceiving. In fact, as I read the situation, we are witnessing the beginning of the end of Facebook. These aren’t the symptoms of a company that is winning, but one that is cashing out.
Indeed, 11 years ago…
U.S. Wants to Reduce Fluoride in Drinking Water
Source: LearnAnatomy (CC)
I almost couldn’t believe this headline from WebMD. Turns out that the government’s motivation for wanting to reduce fluoride levels in water is not actually due to the many deleterious health effects of ingesting fluoride, but still, it’s a start!
The recommended level of fluoride in U.S. drinking water supplies should be lowered to prevent dental problems, according to a joint announcement today by officials from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
The HHS is recommending that water supplies contain 0.7 milligrams of fluoride per liter of water, replacing the current recommended range of 0.7 to 1.2 milligrams.
That recommendation won’t go into effect immediately. It will be published in the Federal Register, followed by a period of comment from the public and others for 30 days. [disinfo ed.'s note: go to the HHS site to find out more.]
In other action today, the EPA…
NASA Reveals That Moon Has Liquid Core
Could it really be that sensors placed on the Moon by Apollo astronauts in 1971 only just revealed this information about the structure of the Moon, or has NASA been holding information back? The Daily Mail reports:
It’s an unlikely marriage between state-of-the-art and 40-year-old technology that has yielded extraordinary results.
Signals from seismic sensors left on the lunar surface by Apollo astronauts in 1971 have revealed that the Moon has a liquid core similar to Earth’s.
Scientists at Nasa applied contemporary seismological techniques to the data being emitted from sensors placed by their colleagues during the U.S. space program’s heyday.
The new research suggests the Moon possesses a solid, iron-rich inner core with a radius of nearly 150 miles and a fluid, primarily liquid-iron outer core with a radius of roughly 205 miles.
Where it differs from Earth is a partially molten boundary layer around the core estimated to have a radius of nearly 300…
Sinking Ship or Art Piece?
Do you rescue the passenger or applaud him? French artist, Julien Berthier, designed the Love Love boat. A boat designed to look like it’s sinking. Using a 21 foot yacht, Berthier cut the boat in half and fixed a new keel and motor to allow a functioning, sinking ship.
More photos at Gizmag
‘Coffins’ Built to Scare Crows
What’s the best way to get rid of crows? Build them a coffin. It seems scarecrows aren’t enough anymore, now the birds need to be reminded or their mortality to be scared off. The Connecticut Post reports:
The crows are back in Cedar Rapids.
Thousands have been congregating at night in Green Square Park downtown. They’ve been roosting in park trees for years in winter, leaving their droppings underneath. The birds are believed to be attracted by a relatively warm downtown microclimate.
The Gazette of Cedar Rapids says the city is preparing its usual — and unusual — arsenal to fight back: “crow coffins.”
The oddly devised scarecrows were invented by veterinarian Russell Anthony in 2006. City officials say the crow coffins are the only thing that’s frightened away the birds.
The coffins are two dead crows attached to boards that are placed in the park’s trees, 10-15 feet below the treetops.
