Archive for February, 2011
‘Atlas Shrugged’ Trailer Has a Bunch of People Yelling About the Railroad Industry (Video)
Yes, Ayn Rand’s book has been turned into a movie. As Cyriaque Lamar writes on io9.com:
Whatever your feelings happen to be about Objectivism, this isn’t a particularly effective trailer. Sure, it’s jam-packed with lines that ooze significance if you’ve soldiered through the book’s 90,000 pages, but for those audience members who don’t know Ayn Rand from Emo Phillips, it’s a movie about a bunch of randoms angry about Amtrak or yammering about metallurgy or something.
What’s your verdict? Can anything be salvaged here, or will this be an objective stinker?
Rachel Maddow Reveals the Hidden Truth Behind the Wisconsin Protests (Video)
Says Rachel Maddow:
Wisconsin is on track to have a budget surplus this year. I am not kidding. I’m quoting their own version of the congressional budget office, the state’s own nonpartisan assess the state’s finances agency. That agency said the month that the new Republican governor of Wisconsin was sworn in, last month, that the state was on track to have a $120 million budget surplus this year. So then why exactly does Wisconsin look like this right now? Why is there a revolt in the American Midwest tonight?
The main headline that you are seeing right now about this remarkable thing — look at these images — this remarkable thing that’s going on in the American Midwest, the headlines you are seeing about this are mostly wrong, because what’s going on right now in the American Midwest is about Republicans versus Democrats. It is about politics. It is about who wins the next election and the elections after that. That’s what’s going on right now in Wisconsin. This is about the survival of the Democratic Party. There are parts of the story that actually don’t make any sense unless you understand that.
What’s happening in Wisconsin right now is not about a budget. This is about elections. This is about the Republican Party going after the institutions that make it possible for Democrats to win elections in America.
Why Is the Military Creating an Army of Fake People on the Internet?
Adrian Chen commenting on a pretty amazing Daily Kos story on Gizmodo:
Here’s a slight glimpse into the Air Force’s cyber warfare efforts: a request for bids from last summer for “Persona Management Software,” which would allow one person to command an army of fake online people.
From the request, posted on the Federal Business Opportunities website:
Software will allow 10 personas per user, replete with background , history, supporting details, and cyber presences that are technically, culturally and geographacilly consistent. Individual applications will enable an operator to exercise a number of different online persons from the same workstation and without fear of being discovered by sophisticated adversaries. Personas must be able to appear to originate in nearly any part of the world and can interact through conventional online services and social media platforms.
The request was for 50 licenses, which means the Air Force hoped to create up to 500 fake Internet people. The request…
The GOP Vs. Sesame Street
Via Fox News:
The Muppets are finding Capitol Hill isn’t quite as friendly as Sesame Street.
After being thrust into the political spotlight Wednesday at a Democratic-held press conference to defend funding for public broadcasting, the Muppets are now the target of Republican Sen. Jim DeMint, who accuses the PBS stars of being “political animals.”
In a blog entitled “The Muppet Lobby,” the South Carolina conservative — who like the rest of his party wants to end taxpayer funding for public media — pointed to Elmo’s testimony before Congress about the need for more arts funding, his participation in other press conferences to increase spending on public broadcasting and his appearances on the lecture circuit last year with Federal Communications Chairman Julius Genochowski to promote federal broadband Internet.
“At this rate, Americas can expect Big Bird to start filming commercials to hype ObamaCare,” he wrote on his blog. “If the FCC can borrow Elmo from…
Bahrain’s Army Deliberately Kills Peaceful Protesters with Automatic Weapons (Video)
Warning. This video is graphic (click image to view).
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February 19: The Death Day of Bon Scott
Joseph Allen raises a toast to Australia’s finest young man at RockStarMartyr.net:
A man’s testes are many things to many people. They are objects of affection to be delicately caressed, vulnerable targets for an enemy’s swift boot, or bulging fashion statements in designer briefs. These throbbing organs generate a man’s ultimate purpose — they fuel aggression, propel the pleasure principle, and bestow a masculine pronoun. If his aim is true, future generations will revere his potent orbs as the very wellspring of Life itself.
AC/DC’s greatest frontman, Bon Scott, was extremely proud of his balls. He wore high-waisted skinny jeans to accentuate their curvature, and described them to his wife-to-be as “two hard-boiled eggs and a sausage.” He even wrote a song about them, tastefully entitled, “Big Balls.”
That’s just how Australians are, mate. It isn’t hard to find a bourbon-swilling brawler ready to prove his pair in the land down under. How…
What’s In Your State’s Water Supply?
Russell McLendon’s investigation for Mother Nature Network reveals just which toxins are in your state’s drinking water:
…The U.S. government had virtually no oversight of drinking-water quality before the 1970s, leaving the job to a patchwork of local laws that were often weakly enforced and widely ignored…
Dissecting Wicca
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In the latest episode of The Infinite and the Beyond, we dissect and learn about the contemporary pagan religion known of as Wicca. We speculate about some of its primary roots and influences and go into more depth than most books on subject ever seem to go. Find out what makes Wicca what it is and what makes a Wiccan a Wiccan in this break down of the religion of Wicca.
We learn about Doreen Valiente in this episode’s edition of A Corner in the Occult. The famed Mother of Modern Witchcraft played a crucial role in the existence and development of Wicca throughout the entirety of the twentieth century. Doreen was one of Gerald Gardners early High Priestesses and later authored of several well respected texts on witchcraft and became the Patron of the Center for Pagan Studies in 1995.
In the Essence of Magick we look into the idea, practice, and significance of ritual initiation and the role it plays in groups and in religions such as Wicca. We even discuss the idea behind the popular modern Wiccan practice of self-initiation and…
Chemtrails And Solar Flares
Has anybody else noticed unusual chemtrail activity recently? Being that much of the radiation from Monday’s solar flare was set to impact the Earth today, those who believe that chemtrails have something to do with Stratospheric Aerosol Geoengineering hopefully were looking to the sky. I would imagine that today would be perfect to spray substances which would reflect the large amounts of heat and radiation currently bombarding the planet. Surely enough upon glancing up above my university in upstate NY, I witnessed an unusual amount of chemtrails filling the skies.
I attempted to record them, however the scene was filmed with a cellphone camera so please pardon the quality and length…
The Race To Built A Computer That Acts Perfectly Human
Computers may now be able to win on Jeopardy, but they still cannot quite trick us into thinking that they are flesh and blood. Writing for the The Atlantic, Brian Christian discusses taking part in the annual Turing Test, the goal of which is to design a computer that thinks and talks as a human does, and to fool judges into believing that they are chatting with a living person:
Each year for the past two decades, the artificial-intelligence community has convened for the field’s most anticipated and controversial event—a meeting to confer the Loebner Prize on the winner of a competition called the Turing Test. The test is named for the British mathematician Alan Turing, one of the founders of computer science, who in 1950 attempted to answer one of the field’s earliest questions: can machines think? That is, would it ever be possible to construct a computer so sophisticated…
Media Roots Radio: Wikileaks, Bradley Manning & False Memory Research
In this episode of Media Roots Radio, Robbie and Abby Martin discuss Wikileaks, Bradley Manning and the inhumane conditions of his detention.
Media Roots Radio- Wikileaks, Bradley Manning, False Memories with Guest Researcher Steven Frenda by Media Roots
During the second half of the show, guest Steven Frenda talks about his studies and research in the field of human memory: manipulated and false memories, coerced confessions, and how they relate to the legal system…
Wheelchair Controlled By Brain Signals And Prosthetics That ‘Feel’
Photo: Petty Officer 2nd Class Greg Mitchell
Unveiled at the science conference in Washington, bionics introduced thought-controlled wheelchairs could create new opportunities for paralyzed patients. BBC News reports:
Thought-controlled wheelchairs and nerve-controlled prosthetic arms are some of the latest innovations in bionics being discussed at a science conference in Washington.
The wheelchair can be directed by brain signals detected using a cap fitted to the user and is the work of scientists at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne in Switzerland (EPFL).
It is part of efforts to control machines directly via brain signals, which could lead to new devices for the paralysed and disabled.
The main focus of bionics to date has been on providing prosthetics for amputees. Prosthetic arms can now be controlled by nerve signals in the remaining arm, which can be picked up by electric sensors on the skin.
Those with arms amputated above the elbow, where important nerves have been severed, can…
How Monsanto And Evangelical Christian Organizations Hijacked The Taxpayer Money Intended For Haiti
The Awl has an infuriating exposé detailing how Billy Graham’s evangelical organizations are sucking up U.S. tax dollars intended for Haiti. With the country in tatters and foreign aid flowing, Christian groups such as Graham’s are on a mission to “Christianize” Haiti and wipe out Haitian voodoo culture. Agribusiness behemoth Monsanto is another private player taking advantage of the crisis to expand their empire:
Overall, Haiti has become one of the greatest money laundering operations in history, an island engine turning public funds into private profits.
What’s more, U.S. taxpayer dollars are, against Presidential directive, being funneled from the United States Agency for International Development to Billy Graham’s charities for use in Christian proselytizing—all while building Sarah Palin’s 2012 campaign army.
“At that time, they were not open to the Gospel, and now they are,” said “Festival of Hope” director Sherman Barnette, of the difference in Haiti before and after the earthquake. Our research…
Caravaggio Exposed As Violent Murderer
Caravaggio's 'Judith Beheading Holofernes' 1598-1599. Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica, Rome.
The BBC’s David Willey reveals that Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571 – 1610) was more rock ‘n roll than any modern-day artist:
Four hundred years after his death, Caravaggio is a 21st Century superstar among old master painters. His stark, dramatically lit, super-realistic paintings strike a modern chord – but his police record is more shocking than any modern bad boy rock star’s.
An exhibition of documents at Rome’s State Archives throws vivid light on his tumultuous life here at the end of the 16th and the beginning of the 17th centuries.
Caravaggio’s friendships, daily life and frequent brawls – including the one which brought him a death sentence from Pope Paul V – are described in handwritten police logs, legal and court parchments all bound together in heavy tomes – and carefully preserved in this unique repository of Rome’s history during the Renaissance…
Yale Scientists Unveil ‘Anti-Laser’ Technology
Devin Powell reports for Discovery News:
A new antilaser device absorbs laser beams so well that barely a scrap of energy escapes. But if its whimsical name conjures up Star Wars–style visions of laser armor, curb your enthusiasm.
Photo: Yidong Chong/Yale University
“This is the worst laser shield you could ever invent,” says Douglas Stone, a physicist and member of the Yale team that describes the device in the Feb. 18 Science. Because the antilaser soaks up energy, “R2-D2 would melt into a puddle if protected by our device.”
Instead, the prototype antilaser — which absorbs only a narrow range of infrared wavelengths — may be useful for designing light-based devices integrated into electronic computer chips.
Other researchers have created similar devices, called coherent perfect absorbers, by repeatedly bouncing light between a mirror and a piece of absorbing material. What’s new, Stone says, is the discovery of the fundamental principle that makes these devices work: time…
Day Of Rage: Americans Finally Reacting To Economic Rape?
Undoubtedly, many are wondering if the unrest in Africa and the Middle East would spark any movements in the United States. What comparisons can be drawn from the protests in Wisconsin to the other protests seen around the world?
Paul Joseph Watson of InfoWars offers his perspective:
Last month we speculated how long it would take for the scenes on the streets of Cairo to be repeated in America. After all, Americans are facing similar levels of economic rape to those that prompted Egyptians to rise up and overthrow 30 year dictator Hosni Mubarak.
Now Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan (R) is making similar comparisons after protesters massed in the hallways of the Wisconsin state Capitol this morning as part of what Matt Drudge dubbed a “day of rage”…
Justin Bieber Gets Shot and Killed on TV’s ‘CSI’ (Video)
Sorry folks, I could not resist. When Bieber gets the cover of Rolling Stone and gets a blank check to express his vapid, ill-formed, teenage opinions, I thought some people out there might enjoy this…
Caramel Coloring In Coke Causes Cancer
Photo Credit: Jorge Bach, CSPI
A few days ago it was revealed that diet soda can trigger strokes in regular drinkers of the sweet fizzy beverages. Now the Center for Science in the Public Interest is petitioning the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to prohibit what it says is carcinogenic “caramel coloring” (that is, not real caramel but synthetic, chemical “caramel”):
The “caramel coloring” used in Coca-Cola, Pepsi, and other foods is contaminated with two cancer-causing chemicals and should be banned, according to a regulatory petition filed today by the Center for Science in the Public Interest.
In contrast to the caramel one might make at home by melting sugar in a saucepan, the artificial brown coloring in colas and some other products is made by reacting sugars with ammonia and sulfites under high pressure and temperatures. Chemical reactions result in the formation of 2-methylimidazole and 4 methylimidazole, which in government-conducted studies caused lung, liver,…
Texas Rep. Michael McCaul Declares, ‘There Is A War On Our Nation’s Doorstep’
Following the killing of a US ICE agent in Mexico yesterday, supporters for border security say this is a “game changer” and call for offensive against Mexican drug cartels. Fox News reports:
Advocates for stronger border security on Wednesday called for stepping up the U.S. offensive to stop murderous drug cartels terrorizing Mexico after an Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agent was killed a day earlier.
“This tragic event is a game changer. The United States will not tolerate acts of violence against its citizens or law enforcement and I believe we must respond forcefully.
This should be a long overdue wake-up call for the Obama administration that there is a war on our nation’s doorstep,” said Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas.
McCaul’s comments came after Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Attorney General Holder announced they are establishing a joint task force to be led by the Federal Bureau of Investigation to help Mexico track down…
