Archive for February, 2011
‘Bible of Futuristic Culinary Art’ Contains Cheeseburger Made Of Liquid Nitrogen
Everyone thought futuristic meals would be in pill form. Turns out, liquid nitrogen burgers and ultrasound fries are the way of the future. AlterNet reports:
The gastronomic world is readying for a futurist revolution with the hotly anticipated release of Nathan Myhrvold’s . An innovative exploration of how science and food interact, the 2,438-page, six-volume tome is causing a major stir.
Top Asian cuisine chef and restaurateur David Chang has called the bible of futuristic culinary art, which has recipes for cheeseburgers made with liquid nitrogen, french fries fried in ultrasound and pea soup prepared in a centrifuge, “the cookbook to end all cookbooks”.
Along with the headline-grabbing recipes, Myhrvold, a 51-year-old scientist and millionaire inventor also seems to have created – along with his Seattle-based Cooking Lab – what could be the definitive practical study of what humans eat.
[Continues at AlterNet]
The Neo-Nazis of Jamel, Germany
Via the Huffington Post:
JAMEL, Germany — This is a town taken over by neo-Nazis.
Wooden signposts by the main road point to Vienna, Paris, and Braunau am Inn – the birthplace of Adolf Hitler. A far-right leader runs his demolition company from home, its logo featuring a man smashing a Star of David with a sledgehammer.
Every few months, townsfolk host outdoor parties where guests sing “Hitler is my Fuehrer” to chants of “Heil” around a massive bonfire.
Jamel is the most extreme manifestation of a chilling phenomenon in the former communist East Germany: a creeping encroachment of neo-Nazism that makes Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania one of only two states where Germany’s biggest far-right party, the National Democratic Party, or NPD, sits in parliament.
The extreme-right is believed to be behind some 40 attacks in the state over the past year, including stones thrown through windows of political parties and fireworks blown up in a prosecutor’s…
Catholic Church Approves iPhone Confessions
Original Photo: Jean-Pol Grandmont
You can now reach God via your iPhone. BBC News reports:
The Catholic Church has approved an iPhone app that helps guide worshippers through confession.
The Confession program has gone on sale through iTunes for £1.19 ($1.99).
Described as “the perfect aid for every penitent”, it offers users tips and guidelines to help them with the sacrament.
Now senior church officials in both the UK and US have given it their seal of approval, in what is thought to be a first.
The app takes users through the sacrament – in which Catholics admit their wrongdoings – and allows them to keep track of their sins.
It also allows them to examine their conscience based on personalised factors such as age, sex and marital status – but it is not intended to replace traditional confession entirely.
[Continues BBC News]
USAF Legal Office: Family Members Could Be Prosecuted For Accessing WikiLeaks
Who ever thought nothing bad could come from reading has never been part of the US Air Force. Or related to someone who is. A recent document from the Air Force Material Command issued that “if a family member of an Air Force employee accesses WikiLeaks on a home computer, the family member may be subject to prosecution for espionage under U.S. Code Title 18 Section 793.” Via Raw Story:
Almost anyone in the United States, and especially soldiers or the families of US Air Force members, could be under the threat of prosecution by the military, according to a recent “guidance” document issued by the Air Force Materiel Command (AFMC) public affairs office.
The advisory took on new significance Monday as Julian Assange, founder of the secrets peddling website, was in a British court to argue against his extradition to Sweden, where he was wanted for questioning in relation to allegations…
‘Super Pack’ of 400 Wolves Terrorize Remote Russian Town
Photo: Daniel Mott (CC)
The Daily Mail Reports:
A ’super pack’ of wolves has been terrifying a town after leaving more than 30 horses dead in just four days.
Four hundred bloodthirsty wolves have been spotted prowling around the edges of Verkhoyansk, in Russia, attacking livestock at will.
Twenty four teams of hunters have been put together to get rid of the wolves, with a bounty of £210 for every wolf skin brought to officials.
Stepan Rozhin, an administration official for the Verkhoyansk district in Russia, said: ‘To protect the town we are creating 24 teams of armed hunters, who will patrol the neighbourhood on snowmobiles and set wolf traps.
‘But we need more people. Once the daylight increases, the hunters will start shooting predators from helicopters.’
A pack of wolves this size is unheard of, with the animals usually preferring to hunt in smaller groups of just six or seven.
The massive group is believed to be made…
Ronald McDonald Kidnapped – Ransom Demanded
A group calling themselves the Food Liberation Army has kidnapped Ronald McDonald and has a list of demands from McDonald’s. If the fast food megacorp fails to meet the demands god only knows what the ruthless Finns will do to him…
We are the Food Liberation Army, and we hope that this extreme action will take us towards a better and safer food future.
Two days ago we kidnapped Ronald McDonald from a McDonald’s Restaurant. If you do not answer all the questions we will execute Ronald on Friday February 11, 2011 at 6:30PM EET.
We love burgers, fries and McDonald’s, but we can no longer watch silent when the food we love is being destroyed and brought to shame because of greed and indifference. Because of your short-sightedness your burgers have become nearly inedible…
‘Headless Monk’ Forces UK Theme Park To Relocate Water Slide
The Daily Mail reports:
A headless monk, a sudden chill, objects moving of own accord.
A new ride at an amusement park? No, the strange, seemingly paranormal, behaviour was experienced by workmen building a water ride at Thorpe Park, one of the country’s biggest theme parks.
There were reports of workers feeling like someone was watching over their shoulder and sudden cold feelings being experienced.
As a result of the ghostly sightings, and fears that an ancient burial ground has been disturbed, the project was moved to another site.
A paranormal detection agency was then called in to the park in Chertsey, Surrey, to carry out tests and found that a burial ground or settlement could have been disturbed.
Managers at the park decided to relocate the ride to another area of the park and also called in a forensic team to carry out further investigations.
The 64ft-tall water ride, Storm Surge, was originally planned for an area…
‘Anonymous’ Hackers Hit U.S. Security Firm
BBC News reports:
Online activist group Anonymous has targeted an American security firm that claimed to know the identities of its leaders.
The secretive organisation is being investigated in several countries over strikes on Visa, PayPal and others.
Over the weekend Aaron Barr, head of HBGary Federal, said he had discovered the names of its most senior figures.
The group retaliated overnight by breaking into the company’s website and hijacking his Twitter account.
Anonymous, known for being a loosely-knit group, has been involved in a number of high profile online protests and attacks in recent months.
In December, the group launched a campaign in support of Wikileaks that disrupted services at MasterCard, Visa and other companies that had withdrawn support the whistle-blowing website.
The strike led to police investigations around the world, and a number of arrests in Britain and the Netherlands.
Although the individuals who make up the collective claim they do not have a traditional hierarchy, Mr…
‘Skin Gun’ Heals Wounds By Spraying Living Skin Cells
Via National Geographic, an in-action look at an experimental “skin gun” that can heal burn victims in minutes. The device sprays skin cells in airbrush-like fashion, allowing for new layers of skin to be painted on. In a few decades, will this be a standard device in any emergency technician’s toolbelt?
For Second Straight Year, Military Suicides Outnumber Combat Deaths
The U.S. military continues to experience a disturbingly high suicide rate, arguably the deadliest hazard that troops now face. Via Congress.org:
For the second year in a row, the U.S. military has lost more troops to suicide than it has to combat in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The reasons are complicated and the accounting uncertain — for instance, should returning soldiers who take their own lives after being mustered out be included? But the suicide rate is a further indication of the stress that military personnel live under after nearly a decade of war.
Overall, the services reported 434 suicides by personnel on active duty, significantly more than the 381 suicides by active-duty personnel reported in 2009. The 2010 total is below the 462 deaths in combat, excluding accidents and illness. In 2009, active-duty suicides exceeded deaths in battle.
Last week’s figures, though, understate the problem of military suicides because the services do not report…
Egyptian Google Exec Released After Unlawful Arrest
Photo: Jerry Jackson (CC)
After Amnesty raised concerns that the Egyptian executive of Google was being held without reason, he was released today, 10 days after his disappearance. CNN reports:
Google executive Wael Ghonim was released Monday in Egypt, the company announced.
“Huge relief — Wael Ghonim has been released. Our love to him and his family,” the company tweeted shortly after 8 p.m. in Cairo (1 p.m. ET).
Ghonim’s Twitter account, which had not had a posting since he went missing January 28, carried a tweet around the same time.
“Freedom is a bless (sic) that deserves fighting for it,” the tweet said, ending with the hashtag “#Jan25,” a reference to the Egypt protests.
Minutes later, Ghonim added this tweet: “Gave my 2 cents to Dr. Hosam Badrawy. who was reason why I am out today. Asked him resign cause that’s the only way I’ll respect him.”
Hossam Badrawi, often described as a relatively liberal politician,…
Brazil To Provide Free Diabetes and High Blood Pressure Medications
President Rousseff Photo: Roberto Stuckert Filho/Presidência da República
BBC News reports:
Brazil is to provide free medicines for everyone suffering from high blood pressure or diabetes.
The drugs will be distributed through a nationwide network of budget pharmacies, where many medicines are already heavily subsidised.
President Dilma Rousseff said the measure was part of her campaign to end extreme poverty in Brazil.
About 33 million Brazilians have high blood pressure, and more than seven million have diabetes.
The free medicines will be available to all Brazilians who have a doctor’s prescription, but the authorities say they expect the offer to be taken up mainly by poorer people who use the public health system.
They will be distributed through 15,000 chemist shops that belong to the “Popular Pharmacies” network, where many drugs are already sold at a 90% discount.
[Continues at BBC News]
Flu Vaccine Could Treat All Strands Of The Virus
Kazakstan students during 2009 swine flu outbreak. Photo: Nikolay Olkhovoy
Good bye flu shot, hello cure! The Guardian reports:
Scientists at Oxford University have successfully tested a universal flu vaccine that could work against all known strains of the illness, taking a significant step in the fight against a disease that affects billions of people each year.
The treatment – using a new technique and tested for the first time on humans infected with flu – targets a different part of the flu virus to traditional vaccines, meaning it does not need expensive reformulation every year to match the most prevalent virus that is circulating the world.
Developed by a team led by Dr Sarah Gilbert at Oxford’s Jenner Institute, the vaccine targets proteins inside the flu virus that are common across all strains, instead of those that sit on the virus’s external coat, which are liable to mutate.
If used widely a universal flu vaccine…
Mummies And Dummies: Leave Or Stay, The Egyptian Crisis Will Only Get Deeper With No Quick Fix Likely
The African journalist Nathanial Manheru chose a quote from French icon Andre Malraux’s Anti-Memoirs to understand current events in Egypt: “It is in Egypt that we are reminded that (man) invented the tomb.”
The tomb may be the appropriate metaphor not only for wannabe President for forever Hosni Mubarak but also for the 30 plus year neo-colonial economic system that he has presided over. Not surprisingly Frank Wisner Jr., the former U.S. Ambassador and son of a CIA dirty trickster, wants the President to stick around—in the country’s interest, of course.
Battle of the Pyramids by Francois Watteau, 1798-1799.
And Western countries are now aligning with the people in the suites—not the streets. So much for the bottom-up democracy that President Obama has appeared to support. We want freedom there—but we can wait!
What’s next for Egypt?
The 82 year old President seems stuck in the final stages of his own mummification. At the same time…
Rand Paul’s ‘Modest, $500 Billion Proposal’
Rand Paul. Photo: Gage Skidmore (CC)
Senator Rand Paul, extreme tea partier from Kentucky, has a controversial opinion piece in today’s Wall Street Journal, claiming that his spending cuts would keep 85% of government funding and not touch Social Security or Medicare:
After Republicans swept into office in 1994, Bill Clinton famously said in his State of the Union address that the era of big government was over. Nearly $10 trillion of federal debt later, the era of big government is at its zenith.
According to the Congressional Budget Office, this will be the third consecutive year in which the federal government is running a deficit near or greater than $1 trillion. The solution to the government’s fiscal crisis must begin by cutting spending in all areas, particularly in those that can be better run at the state or local level. Last month I introduced legislation to do just that. And though it…
Lawrence Wright’s Amazing ‘New Yorker’ Feature On Scientology
Paul Haggis. Photo: David Shankbone (CC)
Lawrence Wright’s forthcoming tell-all book about the Hollywood uber-cult Scientology (The Heretic of Hollywood: Paul Haggis vs.The Church of Scientology) has been in the news often the past few weeks, mostly concerning speculation about whether or not award-winning scribe Paul Haggis “officially” collaborated with Wright.
The book still hasn’t been scheduled for publication and considering the cult’s propensity for litigation it might face considerable delays. For those who can’t wait, Wright has contributed a fascinating and lengthy essay on the topic to the current issue of the New Yorker.
It’s a must-read for anyone interested in the cult of Scientology. Here’s the beginning:
On August 19, 2009, Tommy Davis, the chief spokesperson for the Church of Scientology International, received a letter from the film director and screenwriter Paul Haggis. “For ten months now I have been writing to ask you to make a public statement denouncing the actions of the…
Ronald Reagan Could Be Added To Mt. Rushmore
Photo: TK (Fred J. Eckert/Ambassador Eckert Images)
It might just be a neocon’s wet dream today, but if Sarah Palin is elected President of the United States next year, I’d say the odds suddenly change in favor of adding Reagan’s ugly mug to Rushmore … ABC News reports on a serious campaign to make it happen:
Ask the most passionate admirers of former President Ronald Reagan to rate the greatness of his legacy, and they’ll likely put him in the company of Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and Roosevelt.
While Congress debated and ultimately rejected that idea in 1999, the concept still tickles conservatives, who see the question — should Reagan be on Rushmore? — as an entree to discussing the former president’s clout.
“Is he of that stature? The answer is yes,” said Grover Norquist, chairman of the Reagan Legacy Project. “Reagan was the most successful president of the twentieth century. He took a country that…
Fake Steak, Not-Much-Meat Tacos, And More On Chain Food Menus
The lawsuit against Taco Bell for selling meat tacos that contain only 35% beef has opened up, excuse the expression, a can of worms in the kitchens of chain restaurants. ABC News’s Alan Farnham finds that’s only the beginning of the deceptions being perpetrated by corporate purveyors of “meat”:
…Kantha Shelke, chief science officer of Corvus Blue LLC, a Chicago food science and nutrition research firm, says it’s frankly impossible for a consumer to know how much meat is in a food item at Taco Bell, McDonalds, Burger King or any other fast food restaurant. That’s because such disclosure is not required. Even when an item is touted as being “all-beef,” it may be only 70 percent meat and not run afoul of regulations.
Non-meat ingredients in meat items include ones that add flavor or promote consistency, and binders. “American consumers think they’re being cheated out of their money when they hear that…
