Archive for March, 2011
Is This The Absolute Dumbest Thing Ever Posted To YouTube? (Video)
Alexandra Wallace’s “Asians in the Library” rant:
Why Do White People Stink On Twitter?
Paul Carr asks the question that most Twitter followers have been pondering all day (at TechCrunch):
“What Does It Say About The Wisdom Of The Crowd That “White People Stink” Has Been Trending On Twitter For Almost 24 Hours?”
And helpfully supplies the answer:
“Everything.”
How Multinational Companies Benefit From Offshore Tax Havens
NPR’s daily show, Fresh Air, Jesse Drucker from Bloomber News engaged in an interesting discussion yesterday about the multinational companies that save billions in taxes by using other countries with lower corporate income tax. What does this mean for the country’s economy, both that of the US and the offshore tax havens? From WHYY on NPR:
The top corporate income tax level in the United States is 35 percent. In the United Kingdom, it’s 28 percent. But in Ireland, it’s only 12.5 percent, and in Bermuda there’s no corporate income tax at all. That means multinational companies that shift their earnings through Ireland or Bermuda can save billions of dollars in taxes each year.
On today’s Fresh Air, Bloomberg News reporter Jesse Drucker, who has written extensively about corporate tax-dodging, explains how companies like Google, Pfizer, Lilly, Oracle, Facebook and Microsoft have managed to reduce their tax rates by hundreds of millions — and…
Pennsylvania Woman Hides 54 Bags of Heroin Inside Herself
Denis J. O’Malley writes in the Times-Tribune:
After crashing her car Sunday, police said a Scranton woman suspected of burglarizing the Dunmore Inn was found to have a sizeable stash of drugs and money hidden in an unlikely location. According to a criminal complaint:
Dunmore police Officer Anthony Cali asked Scranton police Officer Nancy Baumann to detain Karin Mackaliunas, 27, 1609 Mulberry St., at the scene of a crash at the North Seventh Avenue off-ramp Sunday evening…
After searching her for weapons, Officer Baumann found three bags of heroin in Ms. Mackaliunas’ jacket. But as the officer drove her to Scranton police headquarters to charge her for drug possession, Officer Baumann noticed Ms. Mackaliunas fidgeting in the backseat of the cruiser…
A search of Ms. Mackaliunas by a doctor at Community Medical Center turned up 54 bags of heroin, 31 empty bags used to package heroin, 8.5 prescription pills and $51.22.
A Secret Look Into The City Of Pyongyang, North Korea
TIME offers an interesting look into a trip to Pyongyang, North Korea via a ’secret video’ taken by photographer Steve Gong. With constant military surveillance in North Korea very little images of everyday life are released to the global public. Using a Canan 5D hanging around his neck, Steve Gong brings the world Pyongyang:
Pyongyang Style from Steve Gong on Vimeo.
Singularity May Be Real, But Kurzweil’s Still A Jerk
Ray Kurzweil. Photo: Michael Lutch.
SYSTEM ALERT: Don’t listen to Ray Kurzweil!
He is dead wrong … just not how you think he is. If anything, his seemingly crackpot notion of Singularity — namely, that man and machine will be indistinguishable no later than 2045 — is so prescient and precise, to borrow a term from Battlestar Galactica, it’s frakin’ scary.
Look around you; we’re awful close as it is. From insulin pumps to robotic limbs to the chips embedded in Parkinson’s patients, an albeit fledgling Singularity is already here. And with IBM’s Watson having bested both Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter at Jeopardy!, this inert, bipartisan Mr. Smith came to Washington earlier this month and quickly disposed of Reps. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Nan Hayworth (R-NY), Jared Polis (D-CO), former Rhodes Scholar Jim Himes (D-CT) and trained nuclear physicist Rush Holt (D-NJ). For heaven’s sake, we’ve got robots in Japan, right now, that can…
Churkey: The Neck Of A Turkey And The Body Of A Chicken
The Churkey, also known as a turken or naked neck chicken, has a unique genetic modification which gives the bird its unusual look. Scientists believe this species could help in understanding the evolutionary progression of such birds as the vulture. Also, with it’s featherless neck, the bird proves potential for underdeveloped countries in hot climates. BBC reports:
The “churkey” owes its distinctive look to a complex genetic mutation, according to scientists.
Experts at Edinburgh University set out to discover how the Transylvanian naked neck chicken came by its appearance.
The bird, which has also been dubbed the turken, has the neck of a turkey and the body of a chicken.
The scientists said the effects of the genetic mutation were enhanced by a vitamin A-derived substance produced around the bird’s neck.
This causes a protein, BMP12, to be produced, suppressing feather growth and causing the bird to have its bald neck, according to researchers at the…
Is U.S. West Coast About To Experience The Next Great Quake?
disinfo reader Aleph Omega sent along this video from Fox News’s Cavuto show, saying:
The geologist [Jim Berkland] who predicted 1989 SF earthquake within 4 days is predicting an earthquake on the west coast within the next month, but more likely between 3.19.11 through 3.26.11. His telltale signs are: rare closeness of the moon to earth (full moon is tomorrow), equinoctial tides on the 20th, earth and groundwater tides — all of which loosen pressure in the earth. Also, massive fish kills in Redondo Beach and whale beaching.
Experimental Philosophy And The Problem of Free Will
Plato & Aristotle (Portait by Raffaello Sanzio)
ScienceDaily reports:
Philosophers have argued for centuries, millennia actually, about whether our lives are guided by our own free will or are predetermined as the result of a continuous chain of events over which we have no control.On the one hand, it seems like everything that happens has come kind of causal explanation; on the other hand, when we make decisions, it seems to us like we have the free will to make different decisions.
Most people seem to favor free will, and while many, across a range of cultures, reject what is referred to as determinism, they remain conflicted over the role of personal responsibility in situations that require moral judgements, said Shaun Nichols, a professor of philosophy and cognitive science at the University of Arizona.
Nichols is part of a growing number of researchers who are gaining insights into this philosophical dilemma by applying experimental methods…
A Glowing Report On Radiation
While manufactured “arguments” continue to wage about topics such as climate change and evolution, Anne Coulter has stepped up the game, adding the benefits of radiation to the pot:
As The New York Times science section reported in 2001, an increasing number of scientists believe that at some level — much higher than the minimums set by the U.S. government — radiation is good for you. “They theorize,” the Times said, that “these doses protect against cancer by activating cells’ natural defense mechanisms.”
Among the studies mentioned by the Times was one in Canada finding that tuberculosis patients subjected to multiple chest X-rays had much lower rates of breast cancer than the general population.
And there are lots more!
A $10 million Department of Energy study from 1991 examined 10 years of epidemiological research by the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health on 700,000 shipyard workers, some of whom had been exposed to 10 times…
U.S. Military Using Fake Social Media Identities To Spread Propaganda
The Guardian’s Nick Fielding and Ian Cobain report that the United States military’s “sock puppet” software creates fake online identities to spread pro-American propaganda:
The US military is developing software that will let it secretly manipulate social media sites by using fake online personas to influence internet conversations and spread pro-American propaganda.
A Californian corporation has been awarded a contract with United States Central Command (Centcom), which oversees US armed operations in the Middle East and Central Asia, to develop what is described as an “online persona management service” that will allow one US serviceman or woman to control up to 10 separate identities based all over the world.
The project has been likened by web experts to China’s attempts to control and restrict free speech on the internet. Critics are likely to complain that it will allow the US military to create a false consensus in online conversations, crowd out unwelcome opinions…
The Fitness Revolution And America’s Class Struggle
Mickey Z
Some 35 years ago—during the pre-Stairmaster days of yore when your standard gym looked more like a cave than Studio 54—Arnold may have already been Mr. Olympia several times over but there probably weren’t more than a couple of dozen people who could pronounce “Schwarzenegger” on the first try.
Let’s face it, when Bobby Fischer was the nation’s athletic ideal, it was clearly time for a fitness revolution.
Fast-forward to the twenty-first century and a health club on every corner. This time around the revolution was televised and joining a gym has become a post-modern rite of passage. You plunk down the plastic and get introduced to a “personal trainer.”
Welcome to my world…
An upscale health club is one place where the different classes meet and mingle. Any personal trainer worth his or her supplements craves an elite clientele. Conversely, their well-heeled customers dream of wielding their buff buns and ripped deltoids…
Fake ‘Radiation’ Text Messages And E-mails
Fukushima Nuclear Reactors 1-4. Photo: National Land Image Information (Color Aerial Photographs, Ministry of Land, Infastructure, Transport and Tourism
Many citizens across Asia have been warned about faux messages being sent, such as this e-mail: “Japan Government confirms radiation leak at Fukushima nuclear plants. Asian countries should take necessary precautions. If rain comes, remain indoors first 24 hours. Close doors and windows. Swab neck skin with betadine where thyroid area is, radiation hits thyroid first. Take extra precautions. Radiation may hit Philippine at around 4 pm today. If it rains today or in the next few days in Hong Kong. Do not go under the rain. If you get caught out, use an umbrella or raincoat, even if it is only a drizzle. Radioactive particles, which may cause burns, alopecia or even cancer, may be in the rain.” BBC reports:
A fake text message warning people that radiation from the Fukushima nuclear plant…
The Neuroscience Of Enlightenment
[Excerpted from the new book Power Up Your Brain: The Neuroscience of Enlightenment by David Perlmutter,
M.D., F.A.C.N. and Alberto Villoldo, Ph.D., courtesy of the authors and their publisher, Hay House.]
Can neuroscience deliver on the promises presented by religion: freedom from suffering, violence, scarcity, and disease? Can neuroscience deliver us into a life where health, peace, and abundance reign?
The pledges of the world’s religions are so universal that it’s likely the longing for joy, inner peace, and well-being are hardwired into the human brain and have become a social instinct as powerful as the drive to procreate. The Bible, the Koran, and Buddhist and Hindu scriptures all teach that we can be delivered into a paradisiacal state, whether after death, at the end of time, following many reincarnations, or as a result of personal effort and merit. This state of liberation is called grace or Heaven by Christian religions, Paradise by Muslims, while Eastern traditions refer to it as awakening or enlightenment…
Analysis: Science Of Predicting Change Enjoys Fertile Times
Armenian presidential election protests at Liberty Square in Yerevan. Photo: Serouj (CC)
An interesting analysis from Kate Kelland via Reuters:
Times of change can be drastic — revolutions topple dictators, extreme weather kills tens of thousands and market crashes plunge people into poverty — but for scientists studying complex systems they are fertile ground.
“Complex systems can include societies, financial markets ecosystems like lakes or coral reefs, and even the brain,” said Marten Scheffer of the University of Wageningen in The Netherlands.
Few would want to predict the outcome of uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa, or of financial crises or natural disasters, but scientists say there are common traits in seemingly diverse systems that point to “tipping points.”
Identifying and analyzing these, they say, can help people see the risks inherent in an interdependent world more clearly and take action to mitigate them.
“Complex systems can include societies, financial markets ecosystems like lakes…
The British And Their Bizarre Nazi Book Craze
Growing up in 1970s Britain, it was a given that classic World War II movies like Where Eagles Dare and The Battle of Britain would play over and over again on our handful of channels, and WWII comics were ubiquitous among kids, usually with German soldiers spouting ridiculous phrases like “Achtung! Englischer Schweinhunds!” in most every panel.
I thought those days had passed, though, as the long shadow of that war gradually faded. Apparently not: Clive Anderson details the strange and continuing British fascination with the Nazis for the BBC News Magazine:
The late Alan Coren famously published a collection of humorous pieces in book form, called Golfing for Cats. And he put a swastika on the front cover. He had noticed the most popular titles in Britain in those days were about cats, golf and Nazis.
That was in 1975. Thirty-six years on – and now more than 60 years since the end of World…
How To Boycott The Koch Brothers
As Jane Mayer’s New Yorker Magazine piece argues, the Koch brothers prefer to stay in the shadows because they do not want the products they manufacture to become widely associated with their controversial and self-serving political agenda. With recent protests in Madison spotlighting their war on workers and the middle class, however, many people have found themselves wondering if any of the products they buy have been bankrolling these corporate douchbags.
Here is a list, compiled at the DailyKos:
Georgia Pacific Products: Angel Soft toilet paper • Brawny paper towels • Dixie plates, bowls, napkins and cups • Mardi Gras napkins and towels • Quilted Northern toilet paper • Soft ‘n Gentle toilet paper • Sparkle napkins • Vanity fair napkins • Zee napkins • Georgia-Pacific paper products and envelopes
Georgia Pacific Building Products: Dense Armor Drywall and Decking • ToughArmor Gypsum board • Georgia pacific Plytanium Plywood • Flexrock • Densglass sheathing • G/P…
42% Of American Millionaires Say They Aren’t Rich
Do you feel sorry for these people? Reuters reports on the millionaires who need more money to feel rich:
More than four out of ten American millionaires say they do not feel rich. Indeed many would need to have at least $7.5 million in order to feel they were truly rich, according to a Fidelity Investments survey.
Some 42 percent of the more than 1,000 millionaires surveyed by Fidelity said they did not feel wealthy. Respondents had at least $1 million in investable assets, excluding any real estate or retirement accounts.
“Every person in the survey is wealthy,” said Sanjiv Mirchandani…
