Archive for September, 2011
Learning Lessons From Occupy Wall Street
Photo: David Shankbone (CC)
Aaron Cynic writes at Diatribe Media:
I dropped in on the Occupy Chicago demonstrators on Tuesday to check on their morale after spending mostof my Saturday with them last weekend. As the occupation of Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park begins to enter its third week, the small but spirited occupation of the corner of Jackson and LaSalle, mere feet in front of the doors to the federal reserve, enters its second.
Most of the people I found in front of the Fed were new, showing up in solidarity after hearing about the movement on Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook or what little major media coverage has trickled out. The newer occupiers blended perfectly well with the ones who had been taking part since Friday morning, providing a much needed energy boost to a rain soaked and weary core in need of a good night’s sleep and a fully charged cell phone.
Despite five days of…
It’s Time to Get Money Out of Politics
Via GetMoneyOut.com:
Bailouts. War. Unemployment. Our government is bought, and we’re angry. Now, we’re turning our anger into positive action. By signing this petition, you are joining our campaign to get money out of politics. Our politicians won’t do this. But we will. We will become an unrelenting, organized wave advocating a constitutional amendment to get money out of politics.
As the petition grows, we can use on The Dylan Ratigan Show on MSNBC as a platform to force this issue to the center of the 2012 elections. From our former Washington lobbyist, Jimmy Williams, here is a DRAFT of our constitutional amendment:
“No person, corporation or business entity of any type, domestic or foreign, shall be allowed to contribute money, directly or indirectly, to any candidate for federal office or to contribute money on behalf of or opposed to any type of campaign for federal office. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, campaign…
Photos Of Child Slaves, 1863
Via How To Be A Retronaut, scans of a series of collectible cards, sold to raise awareness of the anti-slavery cause, with photos of slave children whom abolitionists had brought North and freed. It’s an interesting glimpse into how widely “blackness” could be defined in the slave-era South:
‘Slave children, freed and brought North by abolitionists to emphasize the plight of slaves. The proceeds from sale of the photographs were to be used to educate freed slaves who had come under the jurisdiction of the Union Army in the New Orleans area. A caption on one of these photographs points out that the children had been turned out of a hotel in Philadelphia because of their “color.”’
Company Hires Adults With Autism to Test Software
Via the Associated Press:
The software testers at Aspiritech are a collection of characters. Katie Levin talks nonstop. Brian Tozzo hates driving. Jamie Specht is bothered by bright lights, vacuum cleaners and the feel of carpeting against her skin. Rider Hallenstein draws cartoons of himself as a DeLorean sports car. Rick Alexander finds it unnerving to sit near other people.This is the unusual workforce of a U.S. startup that specializes in finding software bugs by harnessing the talents of young adults with autism.
Traits that make great software testers — intense focus, comfort with repetition, memory for detail — also happen to be characteristics of autism. People with Asperger’s syndrome, a mild form of autism, have normal to high intelligence and often are highly skilled with computers.
Aspiritech, a nonprofit in Highland Park, Ill., nurtures these skills while forgiving the quirks that can make adults with autism unemployable: social awkwardness, poor eye contact,…
Poll: Is Tim Geithner A Fatal Liability for Obama?
The past few weeks have not been good ones for Tim Geithner, Obama’s Treasury Secretary. On Tuesday, Ron Suskind’s book, “Confidence Men: Wall Street, Washington and the Education of a President”, came out detailing behavior that could be most generously interpreted as gross insubordination, if not an outright unconstitutional usurpation of executive power by an political appointee.
Nor did Geithner do himself any favors by openly proclaiming before European finance ministers: “He [Obama] ’s not in charge; I am”.
Has this rendered Geithner a political “toxic asset”? Should he be given his walking papers immediately? Should Geithner be let free when soldiers refusing to serve 2nd, 3rd or even 4th tours of duty in Afghanistan are jailed for years? In deciding a response, which is most important to you: enforcement of the United States constitution, Obama’s personal reputation, the Democratic Party’s electoral viability for 2012 or polemical use of the issue to further Republican partisan aims? …
Study: A Single Magic Mushroom Trip Causes Long-Term Positive Changes To Personality
In a John Hopkins study, a majority of people who took a single dose of psilocybin were more imaginative, sensitive, and tolerant towards others for months afterward. In other words, psilocybin needs to remain illegal because it’s a threat to society. Via MedPage Today:
Many individuals who took a single dose of psilocybin — the active ingredient in what the drug culture calls “magic mushrooms” — showed alterations in personality characteristics, largely for the better, that persisted for more than a year, a prospective scientific study showed.
Participant…tended to show increases in the personality dimension known as openness, according to Katherine A. MacLean, PhD, and colleagues at Johns Hopkins University. Openness is generally considered a positive characteristic and includes such traits as aesthetic appreciation and sensitivity, imagination, intellectual engagement, and awareness of feelings in themselves and others.
The findings were consistent with previous studies and anecdotal reports from psilocybin users, who have said…
Longest-Living Two-Headed Janus Cat Turns Twelve
A household pet that deserves to be worshiped as a god. Via the Worcester Telegram & Gazette:
He has earned a spot as the longest lived Janus cat in the new edition of the Guinness World Records. The cat’s owner is a Worcester woman named Marty Stevens who has owned Frank and Louie since a local breeder brought him into Tufts Veterinary Clinic to be euthanized when he was a day old.
Janus cats, named after the Roman god with two faces, are extremely rare and seldom live more than a few days after being born. Often they die within hours. But under Marty’s dedicated care Frank and Louie flourished. He turned 12 years old on Sept. 8.
Frank and Louie has two mouths, two noses and two normal eyes with one larger non-functioning eye in the center. The cat has two faces, but only one head and brain, so the faces react…
Vancouver Protesters Call for Dick Cheney’s Arrest for War Crimes (Video)
Anthony J. Hall’s interview with a reporter for Canada’s CTV in front of the Vancouver Club on September 26, 2011. The subject of both the discussion and of the protest rally is the failure of Canadian officials to enforce domestic and international law by arresting former U.S. Vice-President Dick Cheney. Cheney clearly fills all the criteria of a person who should have been charged under the terms of the Canadian Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act of 2000.
Unpaid ‘Black Swan’ Interns Sue For Having To Make Coffee
Is Anderson Cooper right? Should interns be paid if they are doing menial jobs?
Al-Qaeda Tells Iran: Stop Spreading 9/11 Conspiracy Theories
In its commemorative ten-year-anniversary 9/11 issue, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula’s Inspire magazine attacks Iran for spreading doubt and conspiracy theories regarding the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. (Also: I think al-Qaeda uses the same stock photo services as pharmaceutical websites.) Posted via Public Intelligence.
There have been plenty of conspiracy theories surrounding the events of 9/11. These conspiracy theorists believe that the U.S. government manufactured the attacks while others believe that it was the Israeli Mossad who was behind them. They site claims such as the Pentagon was not hit by a plane but by a rocket, and that the World Trade center building number seven was brought down by a controlled demolition. The prescribers to these theories have been some scattered individuals here and there who do not posses the research capabilities and capacities that are only available to governments. However, there has been one exception: the government of…
The Truth About The National Debt
A picture being worth a thousand words, ‘n all that…
[Thanks to Aaron Cohen]
Crop Circles In The Year 1678?
The phenomenon of “crop circles” became widely known in the 1980s, but the eerie Old Crop Circles site collects similar reports and references from earlier periods — in some cases, far earlier. The oldest is a woodcut news pamphlet titled “The Mowing Devil”, from Hertfordshire, England, 1678. It tells how a farmer refused to pay a laborer to tend his field, and swore that he would rather have the Devil himself mow it. The following morning, a strange, large-scale pattern had been cut into his field:
The artifact pictured left is a pamphlet dated August 22, 1678, entitled The Mowing-Devil: Or Strange NEWS out of Hertford-shire. It takes the form of a primitive news report, which started life as a woodcut — a type of early printing plate created by carving into a wooden block and then inking it.
The image depicts a demon, scythe in hand, felling crop stems in what seems…
Do You Speak Christianese?
John Blake reveals the doublespeak code words and phrases that Christians use to convey hidden meanings to one another, for CNN:
Can you speak Christian?
Have you told anyone “I’m born again?” Have you “walked the aisle” to “pray the prayer?”
Did you ever “name and claim” something and, after getting it, announce, “I’m highly blessed and favored?”
Many Americans are bilingual. They speak a secular language of sports talk, celebrity gossip and current events. But mention religion and some become armchair preachers who pepper their conversations with popular Christian words and trendy theological phrases…
Bob Dylan, Plagiarist
It’s hard to believe that Dylan would so naively copy other people’s work and pass it off as his own, but that appears to be exactly what he’s done. From ARTINFO:
Time and time again folk rock legend Bob Dylan has blatantly borrowed for his lyrics. Christie’s auction house acknowledged in 2009 that a handwritten Dylan poem that was up for sale really consisted of words from a song by country crooner Hank Snow. Director Martin Scorsese showed in his 2005 documentary, “No Direction Home,” how Dylan stole the line “Go away from my window…” — the immortal opener of his 1964 song “It Ain’t Me, Babe” — from singer John Jacob Niles. Dylan also purloined text from Japanese writer Junichi Saga’s novel “Confessions of a Yakuza” for his 2001 album “Love and Theft.” And that’s not the only thing Dylan lifted from Asia.
Bob Dylan's "Opium," (2009) next to a photograph by Léon Busy, taken in Vietnam in 1915. Credits:…
Life and Living
The Infinite and the Beyond — Episode #22 — Life and Living
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In the latest episode 
of The Infinite and the Beyond, we talk about late Llewellyn author Scott Cunningham in A Corner in the Occult. Many Pagans and or Wiccans often find Scott’s books on their journey as Pagans. Many find his books on magick and religion uplifting and at times pertinent to their growing views on life and existence.
We also look into the idea of human flourishing and happiness and how to create it in one’s life. Are you happy? Are you flourishing? How would you define and list your values and virtues? Would you say that they are serving you and your life beneficially? Learn about virtue and Eudaimonia and how your life lives up to the teachings of Aristotle and other philosophers. See how some of the new virtue systems found in modern Paganism stand in comparison to a tried and true system which comes from Plato as we find an elementary way to update it for modern use.
“We Belong Here” – A Day With Occupy Chicago
Aaron Cynic writes at Chicagoist:
They may be leaderless, but the lack of a central authority figure does not make those participating in Occupy Chicago goalless. On Friday, a small group of spirited individuals took to the streets to demonstrate, educate and occupy the space in front of the federal reserve, in solidarity with similar actions happening on Wall Street in New York City.
Since Sept. 17, activists have occupied the street, demanding some pretty big changes. As of today, occupy movements have sprung up in dozens of cities throughout the country, and though they face the rolling eyes of a public that’s seen many a movement spark and burn out, they’re not so easily dissuaded.
“I want my vote to count more than the amount of money I spend. For my fellow citizens and I, I want our opinions to matter more than a giant conglomerate.” They may seem lofty and idealistic, but…
‘X’ Now A Gender Option In Australian Passports
A forward-thinking move, as the gender-ambiguous can now classify themselves as ‘X’. Still no “android” or “monkey-man” passport options, though. Associated Press reports:
Australian passports will now have three gender options – male, female and indeterminate – under new guidelines to remove discrimination against transgender and intersex people, the government said Thursday. Intersex people, who are biologically not entirely male or female, will be able to list their gender on passports as “X.”
Previously, gender was a choice of only male or female, and people were not allowed to change their gender on their passport without having had a sex-change operation. The U.S. dropped the surgery prerequisite for transgender people’s passports last year.
Any country that complies with the International Civil Aviation Organization’s specifications for machine-readable passports can choose to introduce a gender “X.”
“‘X’ is really quite important because there are people who are indeed genetically ambiguous and were probably arbitrarily assigned as one…
One Word @ #OccupyWallStreet (Video)
Sunday morning at 4 a.m. on September 24, 2011 we made anyone willing to be interviewed at Occupy Wall Street say one word to why they were there, we took those answers and made it into a sentence. This is the sentence:
