Archive for February, 2011
The American Military’s New Fiefdom: Egypt
With the American military as its greatest benefactor, the Egyptian military has assumed control of the day-to-day functions of government, but which direction will this force take and who under whose auspices are members of the Egyptian military operating?
FMF funds totalled 1.8 B in FY 2009, who do you think is in charge?
Is this move towards military rule a remnant of the previous administration’s new domino theory in the middle east or the first decisive step in the new administration’s new “plan” for the region? The Project for the New American Century spent many years strong-arming an already pliant Bush administration into increasing military aid to regions like the middle east, but only to regimes it could “work with“.
Consider this excerpt from diplomatic cables addressed to a General Schwartz from 2009:
Your visit will fall on the anniversary of the April 6, 2008 nation-wide strike protesting political and economic conditions. At least one…
Experts Determine The Age of A Book That ‘Nobody Can Read’ — The Voynich Manuscript
Really fascinating. I think the conventional wisdom is the book is a prank, but a truly elaborate one. Daniel Stolte writes on PhysORG:
While enthusiasts across the world pored over the Voynich manuscript, one of the most mysterious writings ever found — penned by an unknown author in a language no one understands — a research team at the UA solved one of its biggest mysteries: When was the book made?
University of Arizona researchers have cracked one of the puzzles surrounding what has been called “the world’s most mysterious manuscript” — the Voynich manuscript, a book filled with drawings and writings nobody has been able to make sense of to this day.
Using radiocarbon dating, a team led by Greg Hodgins in the UA’s department of physics has found the manuscript’s parchment pages date back to the early 15th century, making the book a century older than scholars had previously thought.
This tome…
Giant Rodents Lead Scientists To Discover Ancient Face Carvings In East Timor
Face carving found in Lene Hara Cave. Photo: John Brush
CSIRO News reports:
Ancient stone faces carved into the walls of a well-known limestone cave in East Timor have been discovered by a team searching for fossils of extinct giant rats.
The team of archaeologists and palaeontologists were working in Lene Hara Cave on the northeast tip of East Timor.
“Looking up from the cave floor at a colleague sitting on a ledge, my head torch shone on what seemed to be a weathered carving,” CSIRO’s Dr Ken Aplin said.
“I shone the torch around and saw a whole panel of engraved prehistoric human faces on the wall of the cave.
“The local landowners with whom we were working were stunned by the findings. They said the faces had chosen that day to reveal themselves because they were pleased by the field work we were doing.”
The Lene Hara carvings, or petroglyphs, are frontal, stylised faces each…
Pictures From The Secret STASI Archives
German artist Simon Menner has a bundle of photos taken by East Germany’s secret police during Cold War. Offering a glimpse into the small absurdities of life as a Communist spy, included are snap shots of suspicious household objects, agents modeling their “normal civilian” disguises, and West German spies who knew they were themselves being spied on, et cetera:
East Germany, until it ceased to exist in 1989/90, had one of the most advanced surveillance system ever in operation, the Ministerium für Staatssicherheit (Department of State Security) or STASI. In terms of number of agents per capita it even outranked the Russian KGB by far.
Soon after the fall of the Berlin Wall, it was decided that most of its archive should be made accessible to the public and for historic research. Even though the access is restricted, this was very much in contrast to what most of the other nations of the…
Is United States No Longer The Fattest Nation?
This doesn’t mean that Americans are curbing their appetite or exercising more, the rest of the world is just getting fatter. Peter Smith at Good Magazine writes:
It’s not exactly good news, but the United States is no longer the world’s fattest nation. It turns out that the rest of the world is gaining on us, putting on more weight at a faster pace. This is especially true in Pacific island nations and in the Middle East, where the United Arab Emirates Kuwait now represents the world’s fattest industrialized nation. Both regions seem to be struggling to adapt to modern, sedentary lifestyles over a rather short period of time.
The most recent data comes from an exhaustive country-by-country report on obesity from the Imperial College London, Harvard University, and the World Health Organization, which was published in The Lancet. A Body Mass Index (shown on the x and y axis above) is a measure of body fat based…
Does Eating Junk Food Make Children Dumber?
Tragically, when kids are fed junk food, their developing brains may suffer as a result. (Thus producing dim-minded adults who gobble more junk food, in an endless cycle?)
After controlling for every socioeconomic factor they could think of, researchers found that young children with diets heavy in processed foods grew to have lower IQs than similar children who ate more healthily, The Week writes:
Researchers at England’s University of Bristol found that a child’s eating habits at age 3 may influence his cognitive abilities at age 8. Toddler diets high in fat and sugar were associated with lower IQ scores, while healthier eating was tied to higher scores. The report, which appears in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, is being billed as “the first study to suggest a direct link between the diet of young children and their brainpower” years later.
The researchers examined data on nearly 4,000 children born in the…
‘Buy This Satellite’ Initiative Plans To Bring ‘Free Internet For All’
[disinfo ed.'s note: Kosta Grammatis is working with disinformation friend and collaborator Rob Spence on his infamous Eyeborg project.]
Discovery News reports:
Despite the fact that you’re reading this now on your computer and/or have an iPhone or a some other smart phone that allows you web access day and night, 7 out 10 people around the world have no access to the Internet. That’s about 5 billion people, according to the charity group, A Human Right, whose mission is “to improve the human condition by advocating for and safeguarding global access to information as a human right.”
To address the discrepancy, founder Kosta Grammatis wants to buy a TerreStar-1 communications satellite from TerreStar, which filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2010.
The effort is called Buy This Satellite and it has 3 phases: In phase 1, the group wants to raise US $150,000 in order to finalize a business plan, get legally organized to submit a bid…
Egypt And The Shaping Of A New World Order
Mark LeVine writes at Al Jazeera:
A most modern and insane revolt
The following description, I believe, sums up what Egypt faces today as well as, if not better, than most:
“It is not a revolution, not in the literal sense of the term, not a way of standing up and straightening things out. It is the insurrection of men with bare hands who want to lift the fearful weight, the weight of the entire world order that bears down on each of us — but more specifically on them, these … workers and peasants at the frontiers of empires. It is perhaps the first great insurrection against global systems, the form of revolt that is the most modern and the most insane.
One can understand the difficulties facing the politicians. They outline solutions, which are easier to find than people say … All of them are based on the elimination of the [president].…
How Congress Created Socialized Medicine — In 1798
Is Obamacare a communism-flavored slap-in-the-face to our Founding Fathers? No, it isn’t — Forbes points out that the wigged ones were closet socialists. In 1798, Congress created the first taxpayer-funded, government-run hospital, and mandated health insurance for all sailors — moves that seemed to predict health care in Europe and Canada today:
In July of 1798, Congress passed – and President John Adams signed – “An Act for the Relief of Sick and Disabled Seamen.” The law authorized the creation of a government operated marine hospital service and mandated that privately employed sailors be required to purchase health care insurance.
Keep in mind that the 5th Congress did not really need to struggle over the intentions of the drafters of the Constitutions in creating this Act as many of its members were the drafters of the Constitution.
And when the Bill came to the desk of President John Adams for signature, I think it’s…
Edgar Allan Poe Vs. Nico
It’s one of Edgar Allan Poe’s spookiest poem’s — and it’s even spookier when it’s recited by Nico.
In a strange 10-minute video, the Velvet Underground singer recites a disturbing poem about walking on a dark October night, on the one-year anniversary of the death of the lost Ulalume. Someone’s spliced together the audio with eerie footage from a Kenneth Anger movie.
And there’s also a lost last verse to the poem. (Poe originally wrote Ulalume as an elocution exercise, then decided it was also a hauntingly beautiful poem!)
Who Wants To Kill Julian Assange?
Who believes that WikiLeaks’ revealing of classified information warrants a penalty of death for the leakers? Surprisingly (or not), many of our leaders and political pundits do. PeopleOKWithMurderingAssange.com collects quotes from mainstream sources calling for the killing of Julian Assange, suggesting that the assassination of whistle blowers has become a respectable thing to endorse:
“This fellow Anwar al-Awlaki, a joint U.S. citizen hiding out in Yemen, is on a ‘kill list’. Mr. Assange should be put on the same list.” — G. Gordon Liddy (Former White House Adviser, talk show host)
“I’d like to ask a simple question: Why isn’t Julian Assange dead? Why wasn’t Assange garroted in his hotel room years ago?” — Jonah Goldberg (Editor-at-large of National Review Online)
“Julian Assange should be targeted like the Taliban.” — Sarah Palin
Will San Francisco Ban Circumcision Via The Male Genital Mutilation (MGM) Bill?
Photo: Franco Folini (CC)
Jennifer Lance writing for the Eco Child’s Play blog:
According to the San Francisco Male Genital Mutilation (MGM) bill, 90% of baby borns born in the city leave the hospital intact. Lloyd Schofield would like to raise that figure to 100% by putting a bill on the November 2011 ballot. The initiative language, which would make circumcision a misdemeanor offense, includes:
ARTICLE 50: GENITAL CUTTING OF MALE MINORS
SEC. 5001. PROHIBITION OF GENITAL CUTTING OF MALE MINORS.
Except as provided in SEC. 5002, it is unlawful to circumcise, excise, cut, or mutilate the whole or any part of the foreskin, testicles, or penis of another person who has not attained the age of 18 years…
Jennifer goes on to say “Our little boys deserve the same protection as our little girls!”
Reality Is Broken: Who Needs Reality When We Have Video Games
A new book explores how gaming fulfills many human needs and how gaming may be utilized to solve the world’s problems.Psychology Today reports:
It may be time to stop thinking that what goes down in a game world like Azeroth has no impact on the “real world.”
Azeroth, the fictional location of the epic-scale events in World of Warcraft (WoW), the popular online role-playing game, may as well be a monster-thronged baseball diamond. In WoW, being part of a raid to defeat a nasty boss (powerful enemy) is an experience as “real,” emotionally rich and memorable, as winning a high school championship game. Twelve million rabid players will attest to this.Time spent with digital gaming is no longer considered an escapist pastime for a geek minority, but as integrated into our routines as our morning commutes. According to the Entertainment Software Association, almost 70 percent of all heads of household and 97 percent…
Brain Development May Begin With Faulty Wiring
Photo: Ranveig
Via Live Science:
Very early in life, neurons in the brain begin forming connections with one another. But it turns out that during normal development, a startling number can link up to the wrong cells and must be pushed back in the right direction, according to a new study on baby mice.
The finding, detailed Feb. 8 in the journal PLoS Biology, could shed light on brain disorders such as autism, according to one researcher. Mice are often used as a model for human biology, and the researchers think a similar phenomenon occurs in humans.
An international research team made their discovery by observing the development of the cerebellum – a region of the brain responsible for motor control and also linked with attention, language and emotion in humans. During the first three weeks after a mouse is born, the neurons of the cerebellum connect to one another by forming synapses.
[Continues at Live…
Mubarak Refuses To Leave – Can Egypt Avoid Coup Or Violent Revolution?
Tahrir Square, Feb. 10, 2011.
All of Egypt was at fever pitch in anticipation that President Hosni Mubarak would resign in a televised speech this evening. Instead he refused to move and set himself up for massive conflict with a broad mass of Egyptians who want a real democracy in this large, civilized, educated but desperately poor country. What happens next is anyone’s guess. Al Jazeera continues to have the best coverage of any media service; here’s their latest report:
Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian president, has refused to step down from his post, saying that he will not bow to “foreign pressure” in a televised address to the nation.
Mubarak announced that he had put into place a framework that would lead to the amendment of six constitutional articles in the address late on Thursday night.
“I can not and will not accept to be dictated orders from outside, no matter what the source is,”…
Millions Of ‘Mentally Ill’ People Missing From National Gun Check System
Photo: Lukáš Lahoda (CC)
Just in case a convicted felon can’t get a gun on the black market, he may have a chance to obtain it legally. Raw Story reports:
The issue of gun control leapt back into the national discourse in the wake of January’s Tucson massacre.
But one of the most shocking gaps in the effort to prevent people prohibited by law from purchasing firearms continues to fly beneath the radar. Records of at least two million dangerously mentally ill individuals whose names should already be in the nation’s criminal background check system remain missing.
Tens of thousands of people’s records that would fall into other legally disqualifying categories in the background check system are also missing, with convicted felons high on the list. Yet Raw Story confirmed with experts on gun control that records of those whose mental illness has been legally determined to be a danger to themselves or others far…
40% Of Iowan Republicans Agree: Obama Is A Muslim
I bet these people believe the U.S. found WMDs in Iraq, too.
The Power To Control Information And Culture Itself
Seems Bank of America was so nervous about what Wikileaks would be revealing about them, that they went on the attack, and now we have some of the details about this, ironically thanks to both Wikileaks and a similar organization, Crowdleaks.
A very interesting anonymous post on this matter was made over at the Slashdot website:
Three information security consultancies with links to US spy agencies cooked up a dirty tricks campaign late last year to destroy Wikileaks by exploiting its perceived weaknesses, reads a presentation released by the whistleblowers’ (pdf) organization that it claimed to be from the conspirators. Consultants at US defense contractors Palantir Technologies, Berico Technologies and HBGary proposed to lawyers for a desperate Bank of America an alliance that would work to discredit the whistleblowers’ website using a divide and conquer approach. Since the plan was hatched, disgruntled volunteers mentioned in the PDF broke away from Wikileaks, financial…
The Occult Symbolism of the Los Angeles Central Library
Thanks to veteran disinfonaut Nimrod Erez for sending us along this story from Vigilant Citizen:
Throughout the history of Western Civilization, libraries have been the repositories of nations’ accumulated knowledge and the epicenters of their culture. Central libraries, more than being big buildings containing books, are important landmarks designed with impressive architecture and filled with symbolic art. The Los Angeles Central Library is certainly no exception. An in-depth look at the art found at the Library is quite a revealing one: It describes the occult philosophy of those in power. We will look at the Central Library’s history and the hidden meaning of its architecture.
Built in 1926, the Central Library is an important landmark of downtown Los Angeles. It is the central piece of one of the largest publicly funded library systems in the world, the Los Angeles Public Library (LAPL). Most touristic pamphlets describe the building’s design to be inspired by…
