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http://jlassen.livejournal.com/589918.h
"Russia has invaded a sovereign neighbouring state.... Such an action is unacceptable in the 21st century.... We have no doubts about it. This is a deliberate attempt to destroy an entire country and change the regime." -G. W. Bush, August 11, 2008
Half a Million Plastic Coffins?
http://www.prisonplanet.com/half-a-mill
Why coffins? Why in the middle of Georgia? Well, apparently the Government is expecting a half million people to die relatively soon, and the Atlanta Airport is a major airline traffic hub, probably the biggest in the country, which means Georgia is a prime base to conduct military operations and coordination. It is also the home of the CDC, the Center for Disease Control. I don't want to alarm anyone, but usually you don't buy 500,000 plastic coffins "just in case something happens," you buy them because you know something is going to happen. These air tight seal containers would be perfect to bury victims of plague or biological warfare in, wouldn't they?
Author claims White House knew Iraq had no WMD
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/2603057
Journalist Ron Suskind says Bush ordered forgery linking Saddam, al-Qaeda
Book says White House ordered forgery
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/08
A new book by the author Ron Suskind claims that the White House ordered the CIA to forge a back-dated, handwritten letter from the head of Iraqi intelligence to Saddam Hussein.
Why isn't Obama Leading by More?
http://gmskarka.livejournal.com/424
...why is Obama only leading by 5% or so in the polls? Why can't he open up a bigger lead? The next time somebody says this -- point out the following. Historically, a 5% lead in the popular vote equals a LANDSLIDE in the electoral college.
The PATRIOT Act's War on Charity
http://www.truthout.org/article/the-pat
The law grants the government broad new surveillance privileges and access to private property, and protests and demonstrations have been heavily monitored and contained in the wake of 9/11. But according to a new report, the worst effects on nonprofit organizations have garnered little attention. New powers granted to the Treasury Department currently allow the government to shut down charities based on unfounded claims; to bar nonprofits from operating in some international disaster zones, and to freeze the assets of "designated" charities, leaving large sums of money intended for humanitarian causes to fester indefinitely in Treasury vaults...
So Much for One Person, One Vote
http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2
We live in a democratic society where each adult (except for some felons) gets one vote for president. Except for Oprah. She gets one million votes.
On the murder of Tarika Wilson
http://www.feministing.com/archives/010
Officers bashed in the front door and entered with guns drawn... Moments later, the police opened fire, killing Ms. Wilson, 26, and wounding her 14-month-old son, Sincere... On August 4th an all-white jury acquitted Sgt. Joseph Chavalia. Chavalia's attorney said in response: "What kind of world would it be if we didn't have police officers...Joe was doing his duty"... I didn't realize that killing a woman holding her baby was in the... Police handbook. The fact that Chavalia was acquitted speaks volumes. His actions were sanctioned by the jury. The take away message is that it's okay to shoot a black woman holding her child.
Surveillance Camera Policing Leads To Wrongful Arrest Of Two Innocent Men For Rape, Graffiti
http://theorstrahyun.blogspot.com/2
The right thing to do would be to go to the local police station and try to have the mistaken identity situation cleared up. Right?
Peak energy and limits to growth
http://econews.org.au/peak-energy-and-l
...when I predict that within as little as four or five years we may not be able to buy any fuel at all, at any price, people of course think I'm a complete nut case...
GetUp!'s Ad gets pulled - Channel Seven needs to explain
http://www.getup.org.au/blogs/view.p
Our Tibet ad - which was booked and paid for - was not screened by Channel 7 in the scheduled slots last Friday night and Saturday morning. The 30-second TV advertisement, which we made with the Australia Tibet Council, was supposed to air before and after the event on the 7 network in five Australian capital cities and regional centres across the country. The ad was pulled at the last minute. It seems to us that in highlighting free speech issues in Tibet, we've run up against some serious ones of our own at home...
Rape victim payout cuts spark anger
http://ukpress.google.com/article/ALeqM
Anti-rape campaigners reacted with anger after it emerged some victims had compensation cut because they had been drinking... One woman, who believes she was raped four years ago after having her drink spiked, successfully overturned a decision by the CICA to award her less money because she had been drinking... "When I read the CICA letter I just had no words; I could not take it in. It was like going back to the '70s, saying 'she was asking for it'"...
CERN to Start Up the Large Hadron Collider. Now Here's How It Plans to Stop It
http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/aug08/6
How the LHC stops a proton beam that can melt a half ton of copper
Librarians livid over rejected visas
http://www.thestar.com/News/GTA/art
The theme is "Libraries Without Borders" but at least four overseas presenters failed to get visas for the International Federation of Library Associations conference in Quebec starting today...
Public Libraries: There when you need them - and you might
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2
Over the years we've forgotten about our libraries. If we thought about them at all, we thought they were anachronisms, unimportant, and irrelevant. We were wrong. What I learned from my experience was that when you're at the bottom, there is someplace you can go to remain connected, to learn, and even get some entertainment to take your mind off your troubles. No matter how little money you have, you can afford it. It's free. It's your local public library. It's still relevant, and that's something to remember when times are tough. They're going to play an important role to many people in the coming year.
Playwright welcomes messages of hate
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/serv
While protesters plan to picket show that mocks their church's anti-gay teachings, both sides embrace the extra publicity... one group will arrive to take in a stage show that satirizes the hard-line anti-gay teachings of Pastor Fred Phelps and his Kansas Westboro church, while another, comprised of seven members of Mr. Phelps's very flock, plans to greet them in protest...
Lab chimps show same stress symptoms as tortured humans
http://news.scotsman.com/scitech/Lab-ch
CHIMPANZEES subjected to laboratory experiments suffer similar levels of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as humans who have been tortured, according to a new study...
Complete Neandertal mitochondrial genome sequenced from 38,000-year-old bone
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_relea
A study reported in the August 8th issue of the journal Cell, a Cell Press publication, reveals the complete mitochondrial genome of a 38,000-year-old Neandertal. The findings open a window into the Neandertals' past and helps answer lingering questions about our relationship to them... Analysis of the new sequence confirms that the mitochondria of Neandertal's falls outside the variation found in humans today, offering no evidence of admixture between the two lineages although it remains a possibility. It also shows that the last common ancestor of Neandertals and humans lived about 660,000 years ago, give or take 140,000 years.
No Neanderthal In You, Says Ancient DNA
http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2
Scientists who sequenced the mitochondrial DNA of a 38,000-year-old Neanderthal returned no evidence of ancestral interbreeding with our long-lost cousins... Because mitochondrial DNA is passed directly from mother to child without mixing with a father's genetic material, it gives evolutionary anthropologists a well-marked trail into the past...
(Either a deceptive or a speciesist title/conclusion: as I understand it, a negative mitochondrial DNA result doesn't preclude a male Neanderthal in-cross to H.sapiens...--ED)
Spooky Physics: Signals Seem to Travel Faster Than Light
http://www.livescience.com/strangen
Strange events that Einstein himself called "spooky" might happen at least 10,000 times the speed of light, according to the latest attempt to understand them.
Banned nude still scandalises
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.u
An oil painting of a nude woman went back on show yesterday more than 60 years after it was banned for being "too brazen" -- only to receive complaints about it because she is smoking.
Police Say "Thank God" Youth Are Throwing Down Illegal Drugs Instead Of Alcohol
http://theorstrahyun.blogspot.com/2
"We're at the point where we're saying thank God 80 per cent of them are using an illegal drug rather than alcohol... we just couldn't deal with that many people affected by alcohol." ...It's so very, very rare that we hear police talking honestly about drug use in society. We need more of it.
Drug prohibition -- an untenable hypocrisy
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentis
Julian Critchley has come out and said what those in charge of UK drug policy won't admit: prohibition doesn't work
Father And Son Bonding Amidst The Road's Cannibals and Crazies
http://io9.com/5034079/father-and-son-b
In The Road a father and son make their way through a burned out America heading to the coast with only a push cart and the clothes on their backs. The vision of a world of nothing is inescapable in these grim stills from the movie. Viggo Mortensen, cast as the father, promises a gritty clinging-to-the-coattails-of-survival performance the likes of which we've never seen.
(Babycart Assassin, anyone?...--ED)
Montauk Monster Hoax Claim A Hoax
http://www.cryptomundo.com/cryptozoo-ne
The Montauk Monster is a mundane little body that's become a weekend wonder. The rush is on now, with this wee Montauk marvel, to be the first to say "they told you so" that this thing was a hoax or that they actually are part of the hoax. It has been incredible to watch...
Dinosaurs Spotted In Papua New Guinea?
http://dreamlandfive.blogspot.com/2
Since the 1990s, a large 'reptilian' creature has been sighted occasionally on Umbungi Island in West New Britain, Papua New Guinea...
Paparazzi in the Woods
http://www.slate.com/id/2197504/
Hidden surveillance cameras are making the wilderness less wild.
(There are no links here to the ongoing-but-prolly-bogus Georgia Bigfoot saga. What's of interest, however, is the above. In the past, if a Bigfoot body was going to be found, it would have happened like the Georgia incident. But increasingly, with woodland surveillance, if good evidence for a Bigfoot creature is likely to turn up, it's going to turn up on a trailcam...--ED)
First Particle Beam to Shoot Through the Large Hadron Collider Tomorrow
http://io9.com/5034820/first-particle-b
Let's see what happens? You mean, like whether it produces tiny black holes that last longer than a nanosecond? Awesome.
(We all died on the weekend, swallowed by a black hole! Hooray!..--ED)
LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT - LOST LON CHANEY FILM FOUND!
http://thehorrordrunx.yuku.com/topic/75
(Then lost again...--ED)
Scientist Defends UFO Phenomenon (Greg Bishop)
http://posthumanblues.blogspot.com/2
"I always thought that the "extraordinary evidence" argument was not only unfair, but unscientific as well. The extraordinary evidence may have been staring us in the face for the last 60 years, but since it doesn't fit in the protocols we have established for learning about the world and universe around us, perhaps the protocols need to be evolved." ...who reserves the privilege of defining "simple" in a universe that, in many respects, remains humiliatingly enigmatic?
The Mugging of Stanton Friedman
http://brane-space.blogspot.com/200
For those who may not know, Stanton Friedman is a nuclear physicist and one of the most articulate voices for the reality of UFOs as extraterrestrial craft. Two nights ago, he appeared on the 'Larry King' show which also featured skeptic Bill Nye ('the Science Guy' and member of the Skeptic Society) and an astronomer involved with SETI work... As a person who has taught critical thinking myself, I was absolutely ashamed of the act the two skeptics put on. It distracted from what could have been a serious discussion, and ended as more of a row than anything meaningful...
Last Ice Age happened in less than year say scientists
http://news.scotsman.com/world/Last-I
THE last ice age 13,000 years ago took hold in just one year, more than ten times quicker than previously believed, scientists have warned.
Incest victims lawyer threatens with legal action against charity CD project
http://austriantimes.at/index.php?id=77
The best friend in school of Austrian Elisabeth Fritzl has been threatened with legal action unless she stops selling a charity CD she recorded to raise cash for her friend.
(It looks like the parasites have well and truly latched into Fritzl's head, now...--ED)
Ask a U.F.C. Fighter
http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2
The Ultimate Fighting Championship (a mixed martial arts organization) began in the early 1990's with the motto "There Are No Rules!" but a variety of fouls have since been established...
Dark Knight's Phantom Clowns: Jokawild and Beyond
http://www.cryptomundo.com/cryptozoo-ne
The spooky links to the decapitation death of Tim McLean, who was beheaded on the Greyhound bus, continue to be found...
7 Deadly Glasses
http://www.kacperhamilton.com/Kacper_Ha
These red wine glasses are based on the seven deadly sins. Each glass encapsulates a sin, which is revealed through the ritual of drinking. The '7 Deadly Glasses' are about celebrating passion and encouraging the user to be sinful in a theatrical fashion...
mama merit badges
http://www.mamameritbadges.com/shop/
...started as a response to the dearth of authentic recognition for the very hard work of mothering. Overly sentimentalized depictions of motherhood belie the actual daily duties that alternately feel like drudgery, brave political acts, and absurd performance art. This irreverent award system invites public dialogue about and visual recognition for the unpaid and often ignored labor that is parenting.
and Boy Scout Spoof Merit Badges
http://www.boyscoutstore.com/store/Scri
Are we really from different planets or are we all just plain crazy?
http://www.cahootsmagazine.com/index.ph
So anyway, now, my attitude is simple: Men are from earth. Women are from earth. We're all bloody crazy. Deal with it.
The Parallel Universe Film Guide
http://www.parallelfilmguide.com/in
"A very funny guide to movies that isn't quite like any other." - Leonard Maltin
Data-Driven Enhancement of Facial Attractiveness
http://www.cs.tau.ac.il/~tommer/beautif
The key component in our approach is an automatic facial attractiveness engine trained on datasets of faces with accompanying facial attractiveness ratings collected from groups of human raters...
The Little ARG That Failed
http://io9.com/5033833/the-little-arg-t
Alternative Reality Games are not grassroots. They are not about community, or word-of-mouth. They really are about saturating the market with brands in order to generate interest in something, just the way old-fashioned advertising is. I don't mean to disparage the cleverness of ARGs -- a lot of them are terrifically fun. But the ARGs that get noticed at a media event like Comic-Con are always going to be the ones with lots of resources behind them. To create a "grassroots feeling," you need to have a top-down corporation with wads of cash. So when you play an ARG associated with a commercial property, you are in some sense being deceived. You're being made to feel as if you've discovered something, as if you're part of a community spontaneously coming together to play at something, when in fact you've been targeted by an extremely well-funded marketing campaign.
Tanzania: MPs - Act On Albino Killings Now
http://allafrica.com/stories/2008080602
Members of Parliament yesterday demanded that the Government urgently address the persistent problem of albino killings in the country. Their demands come amid reports that more than 20 albinos were killed between June and now, in bizarre incidents blamed on witchcraft and sorcery. Most killings have of late occurred in the Lake Zone region, especially in Mwanza, Shinyanga and Mara, where the albinos are mostly concentrated. Tanzania's first albino MP Al-Shymaa Kwegyir said time was up for the government to make an official statement on the killings that has put their lives at risk.
Styrofoam dome homes
http://www.pinktentacle.com/2008/08/sty
While styrofoam may be most commonly associated with disposable coffee cups, meat trays and packaging, prefab home manufacturer Japan Dome House Co., Ltd. uses it to construct easy-to-assemble modular kit homes...
Scientists Discover Virus that Infects Other Viruses
http://www.dailytech.com/Scientists+Dis
... a new piece of evidence supporting that viruses may be somewhat "alive" has been added -- viruses can catch a virus.
'Virophage' suggests viruses are alive
http://www.nature.com/news/2008/080
The discovery of a giant virus that falls ill through infection by another virus is fuelling the debate about whether viruses are alive...
Big pharma limits birth control options for men
http://www.feministing.com/archives/010
With the cost of new-drug development hovering in the hundreds of millions of dollars, the pharmaceutical industry decided there wasn't enough of a market to make male hormonal contraceptives worthwhile...
Girl finds rocket launcher ammunition in Mpls. park
http://kstp.com/article/stories/S53
An 8-year-old girl made an unusual discovery in a Minneapolis park Monday night. Aurelie Burston found a round of ammunition for a bazooka rocket launcher near a tree in Columbia Park on the city's northeast side... Her older brother, Lucian, quickly offered to buy it from her... Aurelie agreed to the deal and sold it to him for $4. The children took it home and showed their grandmother... She looked it up on the internet and learned it was a two-foot, nine-pound dummy rocket head for a super bazooka rocket launcher...
Vietnam War Era Ephemera Collection
http://content.lib.washington.edu/prote
This database contains leaflets and newspapers that were distributed on the University of Washington campus during the decades of the 1960s and 1970s. They reflect the social environment and political activities of the youth movement in Seattle during that period.
Orson Scott Card Has Always Been an Asshat
http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2005/5/2
As I write this there are enormous threads... about This article by Orson Scott Card. Card is known to most people for his science fiction, including one of the most popular SF novels of the late 20th century, Ender's Game. Many people are astonished to learn that the man who wrote about "that poor little boy" is such a rabid Fascist. But Card has always been a rabid Fascist, as well as several other species of asshat, and none of his works demonstrate that better than the sad tale of Ender Wiggin itself...
Percy Fawcett and The Lost City of Z
http://ty.rannosaur.us/percy-fawcett-an
In 1925, through funding from a group of supporters called "The Glove", Fawcett set off to find Z with his son and a friend of his son's. Fawcett hoped to set up a Theosophist commune where his son would be worshipped as a god when he discovered Z. Even though the small expedition was sick and badly equipped before they entered uncharted territories he was optimistic about what he would find. It was the last time he was seen or heard from.
Pre-Raphaelite drama for BBC Two
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainmen
The story of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood group of 19th century British painters is to be made into a TV drama, the BBC has announced.
Internet Memes Timeline
http://www.dipity.com/user/tatercakes/t
Have brush, will travel
http://www.mhuddy.blogspot.com/
I'm a watercolor landscape painter. I work in a studio in the Torpedo Factory Art Center, the premier art center in the US, in Alexandria, VA. I also love to paint "en plein air" anywhere in the world.
Honky Want A Cracker?: A Look at the Myth of Reverse Racism
http://2xconsciousness.blogspot.com/200
Recently, when speaking to a group of high school students, I was asked why I only seemed to be concerned about white racism towards people of color. We had been discussing racial slurs, and a number of white students wondered why I didn't get as upset about blacks using terms like "honky" or "cracker," as I did about whites using words like "nigger"...
FAQ: What is male privilege?
http://finallyfeminism101.wordpress.c
Before discussing "male privilege" it is first important to define what privilege means in an anti-oppression setting. Privilege, at its core, is the advantages that people benefit from based solely on their social status. It is a status that is conferred by society to certain groups, not seized by individuals, which is why it can be difficult sometimes to see one's own privilege...
(So, which surname does a married feminist use? The surname given her by her husband, or her father? Or maybe her mother's father..--ED)
googledrive
http://www.phatfusion.net/googledrive/
drive around google maps
Exposed in Pictures: The Final Downfall of Spiderman
http://www.purpleslinky.com/Humor/Satir
It's a shame when once proud and upstanding superheroes fall from grace. Here, in exclusive pictures, we show you the steady decline and final downfall of Spider-Man, from the good times to the final humiliation.
My Collection of Recorded 78 RPM Records [cache | archive]
http://78records.cdbpdx.com/
The following is a list titles recorded from my collection of 78 rpm records. All of them are linked to MP3 files and will play what was recorded. No sound enhancement, just what was recorded. Right now, there are 3,739 titles on this page linked to mp3's...
I'm disgusted... By best-selling author Terry Pratchett
http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/news/ar
I can get Viagra on the NHS, but nothing for my Alzhemier's
Ayahuasca, Power and Dreams
http://www.oneworldmagazine.org/tales/a
When I got into the ayahuasca, I had asked to understand the oneness. I looked up in the trees that were over this jungle garden that we were in and I saw animals up there and I saw images of people and plants in the trees...
Library of Dust
http://bldgblog.blogspot.com/2008/08/li
In 1913... an Oregon state psychiatric institution (...the same hospital, it turns out, where they once filmed One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest...) began to cremate the remains of its unclaimed patients. Their ashes were then stored inside individual copper canisters and moved into a small room... Over time, however, the canisters have begun to react chemically with the human ashes held inside them; this has thus created mold-like mineral outgrowths on the exterior surfaces of these otherwise gleaming cylinders...
Qtpfsgui
http://qtpfsgui.sourceforge.net/about.p
an open source graphical user interface application that aims to provide a workflow for HDR imaging.
Review of V for Vendetta
http://glycon.livejournal.com/8840.h
Put simply, V for Vendetta is quite possibly the best film I've ever seen. Its impact on me when I first saw it was such that I found myself in tears almost continually from beginning to end. On the other hand, I can give you a very good argument as to why the film should never have been made in the first place.
Man Almost Loses P3n1s Humping Steel Bench
http://tinyurl.com/6l3j9c
The Procrastination Flow Chart
http://www.mymilliondollaryear.com/b
Now with more procrastination!
and The Ladybird Book of The Policeman
http://seorant.ath.cx/police/ladybird.h
Sometimes policemen get together to compare their notes. They don't want to get anything wrong. If they get anything wrong, then the suspect may not go to gaol. If you knew a criminal was guilty--what would you do?
August 19 2008, 11:13:14 UTC 3 years ago
Do like magi and deed poll their own new name?
Qtpfsgui Based on a damn fine toolkit, if I do say so myself ;)