Archive for February, 2011
Glenn Beck: “Don’t Use Google” Because They Are “Deeply In Bed With The Government” (Video)
The Joy of Beck. Via Media Matters:
Coca-Cola’s Secret Recipe Finally Revealed
Well, no surprise there’s no cocaine in it (it hasn’t had that “health elixir” for quite some time) but interesting to note there’s one ingredient only Coca-Cola can get — fluid extract of coca (the leaves stripped of cocaine) — due to a deal with the DEA. Casey Chan writes on Gizmodo:
The secret recipe of Coke has been hidden and locked down for 125 years. But apparently, not anymore. This American Life says they’ve found the ingredients that make up the delicious bubbly cola and have revealed it to our delight.
The story starts with John Pemberton, a Civil War veteran who’s credited with inventing Coca-Cola. His original recipe was written down in a recipe book of various ointments and medicines that was passed down from generation to generation.
A photograph of that recipe, from that very recipe book, was taken in the Feb. 18, 1979, edition of the Atlanta-Journal Constitution and only…
Mass Arrest Of Muslims In Malaysia For Celebrating Valentine’s Day
For everyone who hates Valentine’s Day for its consumerist tradition, be glad you have the choice whether or not to celebrate. Large groups of Muslims in Malaysia were arrested yesterday for trying to give their unmarried counterparts heart-shaped candy and a special night. BBC News reports:
Islamic morality police in Malaysia have arrested more than 80 Muslims in an operation to stop them celebrating Valentine’s Day.
Officers raided budget hotels in the central state of Selangor and capital, Kuala Lumpur, detaining unmarried Muslim couples who were sharing rooms.
The religious authorities in Malaysia say Valentine’s Day is synonymous with immoral activities.
Those arrested could be jailed for up to two years if convicted.
The anti-Valentine’s Day campaign by the country’s Islamic authorities goes back to a fatwa issued in 2005.
[Continues at BBC News]
Colbert’s Reasoning For The Riots In Egypt
Comedy Central’s February 14, 2011 broadcast of The Colbert Report, ridicules Glenn Beck’s reasoning behind the riots in Egypt. Instead, Colbert links the uprising to King Tut’s missing penis.
How To Get DIY Internet Access When The Government Shuts It Down
In the past few weeks, we’ve seen a number of national governments shut off internet access in attempts to quash dissent. PC World has a guide on how to access the web when the powers that be are blocking it, or post-apocalypse, when telecommunation networks are in shambles. Supposedly antiquated devices such as dial-up modems may someday be direly important amid the smoking ruins of post-America:
These days, no popular movement goes without an Internet presence of some kind, whether it’s organizing on Facebook or spreading the word through Twitter. And as we’ve seen in Egypt, that means that your Internet connection can be the first to go. Whether you’re trying to check in with your family, contact your friends, or simply spread the word, here are a few ways to build some basic network connectivity when you can’t rely on your cellular or landline Internet connections.
Even if you’ve managed to find…
Police Officer Threatens To Taser Man’s Genitals
Toronto police officer gets aggressive with his Taser against a handcuffed suspect (did he watch The Hangover the night before?):
Top 10 Logical Fallacies in Politics
Aristotle.
And all this time I thought politicians just spoke a different language that only sounded like English. E. Magill writes in Open Salon:
The human brain is wired all wrong. Those not versed in logic are blissfully unaware of how much our brain messes up the most basic of arguments, leading to the mess of random thoughts, non-sequiturs, cognitive dissonance, white lies, misinformation, and syntax errors that we call consciousness. Luckily, there is one place where all of these logical misteps can be exemplified: politics. What follows is a crash course in some of the most prevelant fallacies we all make, as they appear in modern American politics. And though I consider these the “top 10″ logical fallacies in politics, they are not in order, for reasons that should become clear rather quickly.
#1.
IGNORATIO ELENCHI
The man who invented Western philosophy, Aristotle, considered ignoratio elenchi, which roughly translates to “irrelevant thesis,” an umbrella term…
Seven Arrested Over Plot to Sell Drugs to Arm Taliban
Taliban flag
Selling drugs to finance arms purchases — why does that sound so familiar? The New York Times reports:
A group of men agreed to assist the Taliban in a conspiracy to ship narcotics through West Africa to the United States and with the proceeds buy weapons for use against American forces in Afghanistan, federal prosecutors in Manhattan announced on Monday.
The charges stemmed from a sting operation run by the Drug Enforcement Administration, in which paid informants posed as representatives of the Taliban and discussed arrangements for the proposed drugs and weapons deals with the accused conspirators in meetings in West Africa and Eastern Europe.
One conspirator told the confidential informants that they could obtain heat-seeking surface-to-air missiles, antitank missiles, grenade launchers, night vision equipment, sniper rifles and AK-47 assault rifles, according to a criminal complaint unsealed in Federal District Court in Manhattan.
The defendants included two Americans, who were both accused of conspiring…
History’s Most Successful Non-Human Politicians
Cracked has a brilliant historical list of politicians who held office despite being animals or inanimate objects, beginning with Incitatus (right), a horse who served as a senator in ancient Rome. Best is the canister of foot powder that rose to mayoral prominence in Ecuador. Let yourself be inspired:
Sure, none of those mayors may have been human, but at least they’ve been some kind of living organisms. So the town of Picoaza, Ecuador, has them all beat, since it elected a brand of foot powder mayor in 1967.
Since it was election time, the manufacturer of the foot powder Pulvapies decided to make some tongue-in-cheek election-themed ads with the slogan: “Vote for any candidate, but if you want well-being and hygiene, vote for Pulvapies.” Picoaza took this literally, and Pulvapies won the election as a write-in candidate.
San Diego Official’s ‘Weapons of Mass Effect’ Comment Raises Questions
Something of concern? Or just more “Fox Noise”? Fox News reports, you decide:
A San Diego official’s acknowledgment to a local TV reporter that “weapons of mass effect” were found in the city has local and federal authorities scrambling to explain the comment.
San Diego. Photo: Rufustelestrat (CC)
San Diego assistant port director Al Hallor, an officer with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, told ABC affiliate KGTV that authorities have uncovered “weapons of mass effect” in an interview that aired Feb. 11.
“Yes,” Hallor said when asked by a reporter if such weapons had ever been found in San Diego.
Hallor declined to indicate where, exactly, the weapons were located, saying only that they had not been found at the port of San Diego. Hallor also did not go into detail about what the weapons consisted of or when they were found.
“At the airport, seaport, at our port of entry we have not this past fiscal…
New York Publishes Official Apocalypse Survival Plan
Do the civil servants who run New York State’s legal and public health bureaucracy know something the rest of us don’t? Just in time for the next popular end times date in 2012, the state has published a doomsday book of sorts. William Glaberson analyzes its contents for the New York Times:
Major disasters like terrorist attacks and mass epidemics raise confounding issues for rescuers, doctors and government officials. They also pose bewildering legal questions, including some that may be painful to consider, like how the courts would decide who gets life-saving medicine if there are more victims than supplies.
But courts, like fire departments and homicide detectives, exist in part for gruesome what-ifs. So this month, an official state legal manual was published in New York to serve as a guide for judges and lawyers who could face grim questions in another terrorist attack, a major radiological or chemical contamination or a…
Stephen Colbert and Harvard Philosophy Professor Sean D. Kelly Agree: Jesus is God
What’s to be done about our culture’s loss of a notion of what’s sacred? From the Colbert Report:
US Approves First 3D Mammography Device
U.S. Navy photo by Ensign Ann-Marie Al Noad
Movies aren’t the only industry jumping on the 3D bandwagon. Now breast cancer screening images can be seen in the third dimension. Via Bloomberg:
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved on Friday the first X-ray mammography device that provides three-dimensional images of the breast for cancer screening and diagnosis.
The Selenia Dimensions System, an upgrade to Massachusetts-based Hologic Inc.’s FDA-approved two-dimensional system, can provide 2-D and 3-D X-ray images of the breasts. The 3-D images may help physicians more accurately detect and diagnose breast cancer, the FDA said in a news release.
“Physicians can now access this unique and innovative 3-D technology that could significantly enhance existing diagnosis and treatment approaches,” said Dr. Jeffrey Shuren, director of the FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health.
[Continues at Bloomberg Business Week]
‘Do Not Track Me Online’ Privacy Bill Introduced
Photo: Nokia Releases (CC)
Tired of spam e-mails and unwanted pop-ups? This bill will create regulations as to how marketers obtain information about you without your knowledge. The bill still allows web users the option to be tracked by advertisers, just in case you enjoy having marketing companies target you. Los Angeles Times reports:
The first “do not track” legislation was introduced in Congress on Friday, raising the possibility that Web users will be able to prevent advertisers from recording their online behavior for marketing purposes, similar to the Do Not Call Registry created in 2003.
The bill, called the “Do Not Track Me Online Act of 2011,” would give the Federal Trade Commission the right to create regulations that would force online marketers to respect the wishes of users who did not want to be tracked.
“Failure to do so would be considered an unfair or deceptive act punishable by law,” noted a statement from the…
Chevron Fined $8 Billion For Polluting Amazon
It’s taken decades but finally the Amazonian Indians whose environment was despoiled by Texaco have won their lengthy court battle with successor corporation Chevron. Mind you, it’s an Ecuadorian court and no doubt the plaintiffs will have a tough time enforcing the judgment in the United States and actually collecting the money. Look forward to years more litigation while the people of the Amazon suffer for the oil giant’s wreckess conduct. BBC News reports on the judgment:
A court in Ecuador has fined US oil giant Chevron a reported $8bn (£5bn) for polluting a large part of the country’s Amazon region.
The oil firm Texaco, which merged with Chevron in 2001, was accused of dumping billions of gallons of toxic materials into unlined pits and Amazon rivers.
Campaigners say crops were damaged and farm animals killed, and that local cancer rates increased.
Condemning the ruling as fraudulent, Chevron said it would appeal.
The lawsuit was brought…
Is The New ‘Normal’ Unemployment Rate Above 5%?
The Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, in its Economic Letter entitled “What Is the New Normal Unemployment Rate?” states:
“Recent labor markets developments, including mismatches in the skills of workers and jobs, extended unemployment benefits, and very high rates of long-term joblessness, may be impeding the return to “normal” unemployment rates of around 5%. An examination of alternative measures of labor market conditions suggests that the “normal” unemployment rate may have risen as much as 1.7 percentage points to about 6.7%, although much of this increase is likely to prove temporary. Even with such an increase, sizable labor market slack is expected to persist for years.”
Their conclusion? “As the recovery proceeds, we should develop a clearer picture of the new normal rate of unemployment.”
The question becomes, what happens to that ‘extra’ 1.7% of US population? Are they unjustifiably unemployed, if we assume that 5% is truly normal for a super-rich society…
Teenager Builds His Own Homemade ‘Death-Ray’ (Video)
What a great hobby for the budding comic book super-villain. Could Lex Luthor do this in his youth? Nice work. Via Eric Jacqmain’s YouTube:
The R5800 is my latest and greatest solar creation. Made from an ordinary fiberglass satellite dish, it is covered in about 5800 3/8″ (~1 cm) mirror tiles. When properly aligned, it can generate a spot the size of a dime with an intensity of 5000 times normal daylight. This intensity of light is more than enough to melt steel, vaporize aluminum, boil concrete, turn dirt into lava, and obliterate any organic material in an instant. It stands at 5′9″ and is 42″ across.
Preparing America For ‘See Something, Say Something’
The “If You See Something, Say Something” campaign that’s so familiar to New Yorkers is going where no New Yorker can: Walmart. Scaring the crap out of middle America appears to be a priority for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, reaching into formerly safe havens such as the Mall of America.
With that in mind, a group of independent filmmakers from New York have created a short film entitled Terminal Night that should help get the rest of America in the mood for the constant vigilance demanded of them by Janet Napoletano and the gang at DOHS.
Inside Scientology: Brainwashing, Violence, And Slave Labor
No, the above isn’t hyperbole. The New Yorker has a fascinating and authoritative exposé on Scientology. The experiences of Hollywood director and ex-Scientologist Paul Haggis are the starting point, but the piece hits upon everything from the cult’s origins to its use of violence and child labor to John Travolta magically healing Marlon Brando’s leg via touch:
In December, 2009, Tricia Whitehill, a special agent from the Los Angeles office, flew to Florida to interview former members of the church in the F.B.I.’s office in downtown Clearwater, which happens to be directly across the street from Scientology’s spiritual headquarters.
Whitehill and Valerie Venegas, the lead agent on the case, also interviewed former Sea Org members in California. One of them was Gary Morehead, who had been the head of security at the Gold Base; he left the church in 1996. In February, 2010, he spoke to Whitehill and told her that he had…
