Archive for January, 2011
Congress Passes Landmark Community Radio Act
A leftover nugget of good news from before the holiday: Congress passed legislation allowing for the creation of hundreds or thousands of new independent, community-based, non-commercial radio stations on American airwaves. Here’s to the “outdated” medium of AM/FM radio becoming a surprise bulwark against the trend of corporate media consolidation. Pitchfork writes:
Yesterday, on the same day that Don’t Ask Don’t Tell was repealed, another significant bill was passed by both the House and Senate: the Local Community Radio Act.
This is a major victory for those aspiring to become community broadcasters, and an extremely exciting development for community-driven radio nationwide. Pitchfork very much looks forward to reporting on and supporting these new stations as they appear.
As the Huffington Post reports, this legislation allows for the creation of new non-commercial stations on American airwaves– a number that could reach to the hundreds or even thousands. In a press release, the Future of Music…
U.S. Justice System Rampant With ‘Bad Science’
Every year, convictions for serious crimes occur based on debunked pseudo-science such as forensic dentistry and arson science. Add in poor usage of police lineups and fingerprinting, and the potential for finding innocent people guilty is immense. All in all, our courts are scientifically impaired to a degree that’s a menace to justice. Via Yahoo News:
The story of an American man cleared of a rape and robbery conviction by DNA evidence after spending 30 years in jail made headlines across the world on Tuesday.
But despite advances in science and technology, such exonerations are rare, and experts say the US criminal justice system remains riddled with problems that arise from outdated practices and, quite simply, bad science.
Perhaps the worst offender is the police lineup. Research shows that 75 percent of all wrongful convictions that are later cleared by DNA evidence start with eyewitness mistakes.
That was the case for Cornelius Dupree, who…
2012: Science or Superstition
NASA has named 2012 the ‘most absurd science fiction film of all time,’ but what would you expect from the Hollywood director known as “the master of disaster”? For a ‘definitive guide to the doomsday phenomenon,’ Disinformation’s 2012: Science or Superstition, by Alexandra Bruce, presents a connection between religious, cultural and scientific research which explains the end result of how these ideas create the apocalyptic theory of 2012. An excerpt of Alexandra Bruce’s book on the correlation to Mayan myth and scientific reasoning:
The Last Apocalypse: Correlating Myth With Earth Science
“Among the Maya groups that left behind written testimonies … we find different accounts that revolve around the existence of a flood that wiped out the previous world and allowed for the creation of a new cosmological order.”
Given these Maya accounts, it is only natural to suspect that the early days of the current 13-b ’ak ’tun cycle might recall an actual, historical period of…
The American Dream: The Greatest Theft In Human History
For anyone still wondering why it is that fat cat bankers are buying up the country while the rest of us are complaining that “the rent’s too damn high,” filmmakers Tad Lumpkin and Harold Uhl spell it out in a fantastic thirty minute animated documentary film, The American Dream. Well worth your time watching – Parts 1 and 2 are below:
Christians Are Being Violently Pushed Out Of Middle East
Coptic cross. Author: Sagredo (CC)
In the wake of the suicide bomb attack on the Coptic Christians in Egypt and the deadly October massacre at a Christian church in Iraq, Paul McGeough writes in the Sydney Morning Herald that Christians are rapidly leaving the Middle East altogether:
…A century ago, they accounted for 20 per cent of the population in the Middle East – today the Vatican estimates that proportion to be 5 per cent and falling in a region in which most regimes impose limits and restrictions on Christian rituals.
Iran has recently been rounding up Christian missionaries and deadly Christian-Muslim violence has erupted again in Nigeria.
“If this phenomenon continues, Christianity in the Middle East will disappear,” the Reverend Khalil Samir, an Egyptian Jesuit in Beirut, told reporters on the eve of a Vatican conference that discussed the crisis last year. “This is not an unreal hypothesis – Turkey went from 20 per…
Cocaine Vaccine Could Make Drug Addiction a Distant Memory
Interesting find from Alasdair Wilkins on io9.com:
The first ever vaccine for drug addiction has just been created. By combining a cocaine-like molecule with part of the common cold virus, you get a vaccine that turns the immune system against cocaine, keeping it away from the brain.
So far, the vaccine has only been tested on mice, but the results are extraordinary. Mice given the vaccine no longer exhibited any of the hyperactive signs of a cocaine high when they were next given the drug.
The vaccine was created by taking just the part of the cold virus that alerts the body’s immune system to its presence, and then researchers connected the signalling mechanism to a more stable version of the cocaine molecule.
Saudi Arabia Captures Israeli ‘Spy Vulture’
Via the Telegraph:
The large bird, which was carrying a GPS transmitter and a tag bearing the identification code R65 from Tel Aviv University, strayed into rural Saudi Arabian territory at some point last week, according to a report in the Israeli daily Ma’ariv.
Residents and local reporters told Saudi Arabia’s Al-Weeam newspaper that the matter seemed to be linked to a “Zionist plot” and swiftly alerted security services.
The bird has since been placed under arrest. The accusations went viral, according to the Israeli Ha’aretz newspaper, with hundreds of posts on Arabic-language websites and forums claiming that the “Zionists” had trained the birds for espionage.
The incident comes amid growing paranoia among Israel’s neighbours over the nation’s growing military might.
Birther Disrupts Congressional Reading of The Constitution of the United States (Video)
David Weigel writes on Slate:
During the reading of Article II, Section I of the Constitution — the clause that requires the president of the United States to be a “natural born citizen,” an unidentified woman in the gallery screamed “Except Obama! Except Obama!” Politico’s Marin Cogan adds that the woman yelled, “Help us, Jesus!” She was removed immediately.
UPDATE: I’m told that the woman who made the disruption was Theresa Cao, a birther activist and supporter of court-martialed birther Lt. Col. Terry Lakin. On December 16, she told WorldNetDaily that she was “taking his message to the White House and Congress.” She maintains a blog here.
Observatory 1.5 Miles Deep Under Antarctic Ice
Photo: The National Geographic
Some secrets of the universe may be found by looking underground. Under the South Pole to be exact. There, under the ice, is the world’s largest neutrino observatory used to find clues to cosmic mysteries and subatomic particles that can travel through almost any matter. Via The National Geographic:
An IceCube sensor is dropped into 1 of 86 holes drilled into the Antarctic ice in a December 2010 picture.
To reach the icy depths, scientists designed and built the Enhanced Hot Water Drill, which can penetrate more than 1.2 miles (2 kilometers) of ice in less than two days. The team then fed the IceCube detector—86 cable strings that each contain 60 neutrino sensors—into the holes.
Each cable is equipped with another four sensors at the surface, which together make up one IceCube array. The detector and arrays combine to make the IceCube Neutrino Observatory.
Situated at the geographic South Pole,…
15,000 Gallons of Animal Fat Clog the Houston Ship Channel
What spills threaten to contaminate our waters? Well, I bet beef fat wasn’t your first guess. 2010 ended with 100,000 gallons of raw sewage leaked into the Buffalo Bayou which was estimated to take three weeks to repair. 2011 brings animal fat. NPR reports:
Workers with the U.S. Coast Guard and the Texas General Land Office used pitchforks on Wednesday to pierce and remove chunks of beef fat clogging the Houston Ship Channel, shutting down nearly a mile of one of the nation’s busiest marine arteries.
No ship traffic is delayed, however, because the spill occurred at the end of the waterway, said Richard Brahms, a spokesman with the Coast Guard.
Some 15,000 gallons of animal fat poured into the channel through a storm drain on Tuesday after an onshore storage tank owned by agricultural company Jacob Sterns and Sons leaked 250,000 gallons of the greasy substance, Brahms said.
Real-Life Superhero Prevents Seattle Carjacking
A dorky but effective way to fight crime? A Seattle-area man was being carjacked when a local “superhero” named Phoenix Jones intervened to chase off the criminal. Jones is a part of a crime-fighting unit called the Rain City Superheros and keeps his true identity hidden, transforming into his alter-ego each night in the back of a comic store.
More Than A Quarter Of U.S. Children Are On Prescription Drugs
High blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, trouble sleeping, depression, hyperactivity: it’s hard being a kid. Over a quarter of our country’s children are now on long-term prescription drug regimens, and the percentage will only continue to increase. The Wall Street Journal reports:
Gage Martindale, who is 8 years old, has been taking a blood-pressure drug since he was a toddler. “I want to be healthy, and I don’t want things in my heart to go wrong,” he says.
And, of course, his mom is always there to check Gage’s blood pressure regularly with a home monitor, and to make sure the second-grader doesn’t skip a dose of his once-a-day enalapril.
These days, the medicine cabinet is truly a family affair. More than a quarter of U.S. kids and teens are taking a medication on a chronic basis, according to Medco Health Solutions Inc., the biggest U.S. pharmacy-benefit manager with around 65 million members. Nearly…
2010 Was The Year Of ‘The Crumble’
The tenth year of the 21st Century has left us behind, and it can’t be too soon.
It was a year of the crumble.
The economy continued to crumble for ordinary people with little hope for a quick turnaround even as some markets surged. The hopes of the jobless for employment crumbled. The faith of the so many homeowners that they will find a way to stay in their homes facing foreclosure crumbled.
And so have the hopes of so many of us that our new Change Is Coming president would fight for us, would end the wars, would close Gitmo, would abandon torture, would make healthcare more affordable, would give us a government we could believe in; that, too, has crumbled.
Look back at the devastation of the year gone by its ugly election, bought and paid for by US Supreme Court sanctioned special interests, oil spilled by the Gulf-ful, wars escalated, climate…
Can Heckling Change The World? Let’s Find Out
A big molte grazie goes out to the folks at Disinformation. Their media aggregation board is always a real thought provoker. As discussed below, I got a big kick out of their recent repost of a Reuters report about the “job surge.”
The nation owes a big debt of gratitude to wise ass m*f*’s like Jon Stewart who finally shamed the ra-ra, flag wavin’ hypocrites of the Republican party into finally voting to support 911 First Responders. But while we correctly applaud the righteousness of Mr. Stewart and the Daily Show team who made this possible, we should perhaps be mindful of a broader principle: The Truth shall not only set us free, it is also fucking hillarious.
However, we shouldn’t just passively rely on television comedians to do all the heavy lifting for us. Indeed, although many contemporary comedians seem to have a firm grasp on this fact*, others do not. Remember Dennis Miller**? Time…
Wall Street Fat-Cats Flip Public Service Workers the Bird
If you believe the mainstream media, the economy is recovering, jobless claims are down and things are looking up in 2011. Don’t Believe The Hype! Activist filmmaker Robert Greenwald and the team and Brave New Foundation lay bare the reality of the hardships still facing the millions of victims of the plunder of Main Street by Wall Street:
U.S. Army Has A ‘Spiritual Fitness’ Test
Thanks to Will C. for sending us this latest bit of “separation of church and state” hypocrisy, reported by Jason Leopold at TruthOut:
An experimental, Army mental-health, fitness initiative designed by the same psychologist whose work heavily influenced the psychological aspects of the Bush administration’s torture program is under fire by civil rights groups and hundreds of active-duty soldiers. They say it unconstitutionally requires enlistees to believe in God or a “higher power” in order to be deemed “spiritually fit” to serve in the Army.
Comprehensive Soldier Fitness (CSF) is a $125 million “holistic fitness program” unveiled in late 2009 and aimed at reducing the number of suicides and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) cases, which have reached epidemic proportions over the past year due to multiple deployments to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the substandard care soldiers have received when they return from combat. The Army states that it can accomplish…
Catholic Church To Launch Exorcism Reality TV Series
Giotto's depiction of St. Francis exorcising demons.
The Catholic Church must be truly desperate in its quest to engage young people — it’s now resorting to creating a low-brow reality TV show in which its priests perform exorcisms. I promise I’m not making this up — here’s the story from Entertainment Weekly:
Discovery Channel is teaming with the Vatican for an unprecedented new series hunting the deadliest catch of all: Demons.
The Exorcist Files will recreate stories of real-life hauntings and demonic possession, based on cases investigated by the Catholic Church. The project includes access into the Vatican’s case files, as well as interviews with the organization’s top exorcists — religious experts who are rarely seen on television.
“The Vatican is an extraordinarily hard place to get access to, but we explained we’re not going to try to tell people what to think,” says Discovery president and GM Clark Bunting.
Bunting says the investigators believe…
Scientist Proves ESP Is Real
Professor Daryl J. Bem
A serious story about Extra Sensory Perception on page A1 of the New York Times — unusual to say the least — but is the Times just setting up the lead researcher, Professor Daryl J. Bem?
One of psychology’s most respected journals has agreed to publish a paper presenting what its author describes as strong evidence for extrasensory perception, the ability to sense future events.
The decision may delight believers in so-called paranormal events, but it is already mortifying scientists. Advance copies of the paper, to be published this year in The Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, have circulated widely among psychological researchers in recent weeks and have generated a mixture of amusement and scorn.
The paper describes nine unusual lab experiments performed over the past decade by its author, Daryl J. Bem, an emeritus professor at Cornell, testing the ability of college students to accurately sense random events, like whether…
