Archive for April, 2011
Bradley Manning Supporters Heckle Obama During Fundraiser
Reuters reports:
Protesters interrupted President Barack Obama at a campaign fund-raiser on Thursday to complain about the treatment in detention of a U.S. soldier accused of leaking documents that appeared on the WikiLeaks website.
Obama’s administration has been criticized for Bradley Manning’s treatment, although the president says the Pentagon has assured him the soldier is not being ill-treated while he is awaiting trial.
Obama was addressing a room of about 200 people — many of whom paid as much as $35,800 to see him — when a woman in a white suit stood up and announced that she and nine others sitting at her table had written a song for him.
Despite Obama’s protestations, they then broke into a song that called for the 23-year-old soldier’s release. They passed out “Free Bradley Manning” signs and the woman took off her jacket to reveal a black T-shirt with Manning’s image.
“Now, where was I?” the somewhat flustered…
Asshole Economics 101: Bulldoze Foreclosed Homes, Bulldoze Excess Supply
Solid proof we’re going to hell in a hand basket. Via CNBC:
Charles Manson Breaks Silence: Discussing President Obama, Global Warming And His Followers
After twenty years of silence Charles Manson speaks … about the environment. Discussing topics such as President Obama and Wall Street, he emphasizes his concerns for global warming. Manson has gathered yet another group of followers, this time agreeing with his thoughts towards saving the environment, our ‘one world.’ ABC News reports:
What Japan’s Disaster Tells Us About Peak Oil
Explosion and fire at Cosmo refinery following the March earthquake. Photo: Cranky5 (CC)
From the Guardian:
For large parts of eastern Japan that were not directly hit by the tsunami on 11 March 2011, including the nation’s capital, the current state of affairs feels very much like a dry-run for peak oil.
This is not to belittle the tragic loss of life and the dire situation facing many survivors left without homes and livelihoods.
Rather, the aim here is to reflect upon the post-disaster events and compare them with those normally associated with the worst-case scenarios for peak oil.
The earthquake and tsunami affected six of the 28 oil refineries in Japan and immediately petrol rationing was introduced with a maximum of 20 litres per car (in some instances as low as 5 litres).
On 14 March, the government allowed the oil industry to release 3 days’ worth of oil from stockpiles and on 22 March an additional 22…
Army & Navy Add Citizenship Option To Boot Camp
140 US Sailors & Marines from 45 different countries take the Oath of Citizenship aboard a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier.
Legal immigrants to the US have been allowed to gain citizenship after joining the military. By allowing citizenship to be approved while in boot camp, there’s less bureaucratic paperwork during deployment and a ‘well-deserved break’ before being shipped to war. From AP via The Bellingham Herald:
Military service has long been one route to U.S. citizenship. Now the Army and Navy, in need of specialists and language skills in wartime, are speeding things up by allowing recruits to wrap up the process while they’re still in basic training.
It means a change in a no-visitors policy during boot camp, to allow federal immigration officers access to the recruits. But military officials say it’s a well-deserved break for volunteers who otherwise would have to slog through the bureaucratic ordeal during deployments around the world, often…
Conan O’Brien Unveils The New ‘Nicolas Cage’ Terror Alert System (Video)
Man, yes, that Wicker Man remake was a crime against nature.
9/11 Truthers Angry At Charlie Sheen For Not Spreading Their Crackpot Theories
This is exactly what’s wrong with “Truthers” of any kind … just because Charlie Sheen drank the kool aid once, does not mean he has to use every opportunity to expose these theories. Making him do what you think is the very definition of fascism. Via New York Magazine:
You just cannot make everyone happy! The 9/11 Truth Movement’s Mark Dice tells TMZ that Charlie Sheen — who has, in the past, publicly stated his support for the organization — is losing his conspiracy-theorist base because he’s not “asking hard questions about what happened on 9/11 and the resulting wars” at his live show. (Which is something he should be doing instead of “bragging about smoking crack and sleeping with hookers.”) Also, says Dice, the Q&A formatting needs tweaking.
Richard Gage Explains 9/11 Truth On Fox 2 Detroit
Richard Gage, the architect at the forefront of the activist group Architects & Engineers For 9/11 Truth, is given some rare mainstream TV airtime, garnering an interview with Detroit’s FOX 2. Somewhat surprisingly, anchor Huel Perkins actually lets him talk at some length:
Technology Addiction Taking Its Toll
After getting a smart phone last year, I too feel the effects of technology addiction. It snuck up on me. I now feel like I spend a large portion of my day moving from one of three screens: my television, laptop, and cellphone. I find myself checking my collection of news sites and blogs, as well as my social networks quite often throughout the day. I’d say at least once an hour, if not more. While it has opened up many doors to knowledge and communication it also makes me wonder what exactly the implications of such a lifestyle change will have on my generation’s future mentality and health. Keeping a phone in my pocket right next to my…sensitive areas? We’re the guinea pigs to the virtual future.
Anybody else a little cautious about the 21st Century level of connectedness? Share your views down in the comments. Discovery News reports:
Many young Asians…
Who Owns The Tea Party?
Tea Party-ism is built around praising the virtues of the free-market capitalist impulse, so it’s not surprising that that the movement’s leaders realize what an immense money-making opportunity they have on their hands. Mother Jones reports on “the bizarre fight to trademark a movement”, an increasingly tangled legal battle for the right to sell Tea Party-branded tee shirts and golf towels and cigars:
In April 2009, Barry Cole attended the Tax Day Tea Party in his hometown of Wichita, Kansas. An entrepreneur whose ventures include a company that calibrates police radar guns, he immediately “saw there’s a potential market developing here.” Within a week, he’d applied for a trademark (PDF) for the name “Teaparty Patriot” and arranged to sell T-shirts, flags, pins, license plates, and other gear on eBay and another website.
Eight months later, he got a cease-and-desist letter from a lawyer representing Tea Party Patriots—a group that now claims to be…
China Outlaws Advertisements Promoting Luxury Goods And Lifestyles
In an effort to contain class resentment stemming from a growing wealth gap, China has outlawed public ads that extol luxurious or ‘high end’ things. Are they onto something? Partial Objects takes note:
The clean up means commercials posted or aired in public can no longer include words like “supreme”, “royal”, “luxury” or “high class”, all of which frequently appear in Chinese promotions for real estate developments, vehicles and wines.
This move is designed to deal with the growing resentment about the wealth gap that exists between (some) urban and rural Chinese.
But note that they aren’t banning the wealth itself, or taxing it to oblivion; but managing the appearance of wealth, the description of wealth. It’s still okay to sell high end real estate, just don’t describe it as “elite” or “luxury.”
The Chinese government is fighting a linguistic battle, not an economic one. Anyone who sees a nice car may want one, but it…
If It Flies, Floats Or Fornicates, Always Rent It
He may be plugging his new book, but Felix Dennis has some pretty perceptive things to say about rich people, himself included. Robert Frank profiles him for the Wall Street Journal:
Felix Dennis, the shaggy British publishing tycoon, poet and author, always seems to have wise words about getting and being rich.
In his first book, “How to Get Rich,” Dennis posited that anyone with $2 million to $4 million in assets is merely “comfortably poor.” For him, it takes $150 million to be truly rich.
He also delivered some memorable (and very true) one-liners like: “the richer you are and the more financial advisers you employ, the less likelihood there is that you can ever discover what you are really worth.”
Of spending, he wrote: “If it flies, floats or fornicates, always rent it.”
Dennis has a new book, called “The Narrow Road: A Brief Guide to the Getting of Money,” which is more…
What’s Your Gut Type?
You are one of three types of people according to your gut. Scientific American’s Katherine Harmon explains:
The diverse wilderness of life inside of our bodies is just starting to gain the attention of scientists. The human gut alone typically holds some 100,000 billion bitty bacteria, and with no two people’s microbiomes being the same, classifying these crucial organisms has been challenging.
A new study, published online April 20 in Nature, proposes a simple schematic for profiling people’s gut microbiota, breaking down these helpful hangers-on into three overarching categories (Scientific American is part of Nature Publishing Group).
“The three gut types can explain why the uptake of medicines and nutrients varies from person to person,” Jeroen Raes, a bioinformatician at Vrije University in Brussels and coauthor of the new study, said in a prepared statement. “This knowledge could form the basis of personalized therapies,” by basing treatments on the known metabolic tendencies of a…
20 Signs That A ‘Horrific’ Global Food Crisis Is Coming
Zero Hedge writes via The Economic Collapse Blog:
In case you haven’t noticed, the world is on the verge of a horrific global food crisis. At some point, this crisis will affect you and your family. It may not be today, and it may not be tomorrow, but it is going to happen.
Crazy weather and horrifying natural disasters have played havoc with agricultural production in many areas of the globe over the past couple of years. Meanwhile, the price of oil has begun to skyrocket. The entire global economy is predicated on the ability to use massive amounts of inexpensive oil to cheaply produce food and other goods and transport them over vast distances. Without cheap oil the whole game changes.
Topsoil is being depleted at a staggering rate and key aquifers all over the world are being drained at an alarming pace. Global food prices are already at an all-time high and…
Jerry Seinfeld on Royal Wedding: ‘Let’s Pretend These Are Special People’ (Video)
Here could have said whatever he felt like, so I’m glad he called it like it is:
The iPhone Tracks Your Location Without Your Consent
Charles Arthur writes in the Guardian:
Security researchers have discovered that Apple’s iPhone keeps track of where you go – and saves every detail of it to a secret file on the device which is then copied to the owner’s computer when the two are synchronised.
The file contains the latitude and longitude of the phone’s recorded coordinates along with a timestamp, meaning that anyone who stole the phone or the computer could discover details about the owner’s movements using a simple program.
For some phones, there could be almost a year’s worth of data stored, as the recording of data seems to have started with Apple’s iOS 4 update to the phone’s operating system, released in June 2010.
“Apple has made it possible for almost anybody – a jealous spouse, a private detective – with access to your phone or computer to get detailed information about where you’ve been,” said Pete Warden, one…
Killing the Unborn … With Radiation
Via Washington’s Blog:
Preface: I am not against all nuclear power, solely the unsafe type we have today.
The harmful affect of radiation on fetuses has been known for decades.
As nuclear expert Robert Alvarez — a senior U.S. Department of Energy official during the Clinton administration — and journalists Harvey Wasserman and Norman Solomon wrote in 1982 in a book called Killing Our Own:
In recent years controversy has arisen over the particular vulnerability of infants in utero and small children to the ill-effects of radiation. Exposure of the fetus to radiation during all stages of pregnancy increases the chances of developing leukemia and childhood cancers. Because their cells are dividing so rapidly, and because there are relatively so few of them involved in the vital functions of the body in the early stages, embryos are most vulnerable to radiation in the first trimester — particularly in the first two weeks after conception. This…
Bill Hicks: Why Is Nature Against the Law? (Video)
As a Bill Hicks fan, I’d figure I’d share this before my end of the day:
U.S. Homeland Security Changes Color Coded Terror Alert
From Peter Fedynsky at Voice Of America:
The United States is adopting a new terror alert system to replace the color-coded one put into place after the 2001 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano made the announcement Wednesday in New York’s Grand Central railway station. The new system is set to go into effect on April 26.
Secretary Napolitano told reporters that most Americans have ignored current alert system, while some have lived in fear because of it.
“We don’t want people to live in fear; we want people to live in a state of alertness and awareness,” said Secretary Napolitano. “And we want people to know how they can help themselves, how they can assist their community. One way to do that is to provide people with more information.”
Napolitano noted that the new National Threat Advisory System minimizes, but does not eliminate, the risk of terrorist attacks…
