Thursday, January 28, 2010
Alito is not an impartial justice, he is a political hack!
From Glenn Greenwald:
It was clear from Sam Alito's confirmation hearing and his record of appellate opinions that he is a dogmatic, state-revering, right-wing judge. But last night, he unmasked himself as a politicized and intemperate Republican as well. Much of the public will view his future "judicial" and "legal" conclusions -- and those of his fellow Court members -- with an even greater degree of cynicism. And justifiably so. Whatever impulses led him to behave that way last night, they have nothing to do with sober judicial reasoning or apolitical restraint.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
I know a political party who will probably lose their majority in the 2010 elections
Democrats Put Lower Priority on Health Bill
With no clear path forward on major health care legislation, Democratic leaders in Congress effectively slammed the brakes on President Obama’s top domestic priority on Tuesday, saying they no longer felt pressure to move quickly on a health bill after eight months of setting deadlines and missing them.The Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada, deflected questions about health care. “We’re not on health care now,” Mr. Reid said. “We’ve talked a lot about it in the past.”
Well, good riddance. Maybe we will finally get more progressives elected.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Dr. Norman Finkelstein at the University of Waterloo
This clip is from American Radical: The Trials of Norman Finkelstein.
In it, he stands up against [Jewish?] students who try to play the Holocaust card against him. He's just about one of the last persons that would work on.
Extremely powerful!
In it, he stands up against [Jewish?] students who try to play the Holocaust card against him. He's just about one of the last persons that would work on.
Extremely powerful!
Internal Power
Graphic: Christine Daniloff
The geniuses at MIT have a very interesting idea for capturing abundant and clean energy straight from our mother's cracks:
Everywhere on Earth, a few miles below the surface, the bedrock is hot, and the deeper you go the hotter it gets. In some places, water heated by this hot rock comes naturally to the surface or close to it, where it can be easily tapped to drive a turbine and generate electricity.
But where naturally heated water is not available at or near the surface, this process can be recreated by drilling one very deep well to inject water into the ground, and another well nearby to pump that water back to the surface after it has been heated by passing through cracks in the hot rock. Such systems are known as Engineered Geothermal Systems, or EGS.
Monday, January 25, 2010
Friday, January 22, 2010
Animal Farm Friday - Fat Cat
In honor of the Supreme Court ruling in favor of the Fat Cats, allowing corporations to pump unlimited amounts of cash into our political system, I present to you this:
It's not funny, nor is the Supreme court ruling.
It's not funny, nor is the Supreme court ruling.
Unit 731 - Japanese worse than Nazis
I think I could have gone my whole life without knowing this, and it would have been for the better. No wonder the Chinese and Koreans hate the Japanese so much!
Juxtaposed against the Japanese whalers, and the Japanese that slaughter the Taiji dolphins, I am liking the Japanese less and less every day. I know it's wrong to generalize in such a way, but it's hard not to.
From brainz.org:While the Nazis were doing their horrific work in Germany, the Japanese outdid them in mainland Asia, undertaking a regime of ruthless experimentation the likes of which are too disturbing to imagine. Everyone knows about Nazi experimentation, but the story of Unit 731 is far less known, and all the more horrific for it. Unit 731 was a research base in Northeast China, and the home of more than 10,000 deaths by experiment. The patients were vivisected without anesthesia after infection with diseases; pregnant women were vivisected and the fetus removed; limbs amputated to study blood loss; said limbs re-attached to the opposite side of the body; extremities were frozen by repeated immersion in water while left in icy conditions, then amputated or thawed to study gangrene; prisoners had their stomachs removed, and their esophagus attached to their intestine directly; live humans were used to test grenades at various ranges and positions; flamethrowers; chemical and biological agents including plague, cholera, smallpox, botulism, syphilis and gonorrhea; being hung upside down until they choked to death; air injected into their arteries to cause embolism; horse urine injected in their kidneys; deprived of food and water till death; placed in high pressure chambers till death; being exposed to extreme cold; burned to see how well they could survive different degrees of burns; spun until death on a centrifuge; animal blood injections; lethal radiation doses; injected with sea water to see if it could be substituted for saline; and buried alive. A laundry list of human atrocities.
While many of the Nazi doctors were at least brought to justice for their crimes, Unit 731 merely disbanded and General MacArthur gave immunity to its doctors in exchange for information on biological warfare, and the majority got off scott free. However, Russia brought war crimes proceedings against a number of the perpetrators, and sentenced them to hard labor in Siberia. I can't help but think they got off light.
Juxtaposed against the Japanese whalers, and the Japanese that slaughter the Taiji dolphins, I am liking the Japanese less and less every day. I know it's wrong to generalize in such a way, but it's hard not to.
That's one way to prove a point...
As a rationalist, I like the idea of proving the falsehoods of homeopathic medicine, but this seems like an extreme way to do it.
I can't wait to see what happens on January 31.
In what is being billed as "rationalism's Kool-Aid moment", a mass "overdose" is being planned next week in protest at the marketing of homoeopathic medicines.
More than 300 people who style themselves as "homoeopathy sceptics" will each swallow an entire bottle of homoeopathic pills in protest at the continued marketing of homoeopathic medicines by Boots, the high street chemist chain.
The protest is due to take place at 10.23am on Saturday 30 January. It is organised by the "10.23 Group", who take their name from Avogadro's constant, which they claim proves that homoeopathy cannot work.
I can't wait to see what happens on January 31.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
The Known Universe - Video
This video by the American Museum of Natural History is one of the more fascinating and beautiful examples of the known universe I've seen. (In an exhibit at the actual museum in NYC, there's an even more incredible video, but that has to be experienced in person!)
Friday, January 15, 2010
Monday, January 11, 2010
Norway 2009
This video edited (and shot?) by Brendan Nicholson is one of the more beautiful BASE videos I've seen.
Norway 2009 from brendan nicholson on Vimeo.
Animal Farm Friday on Monday - Planimal?
This is way too cool to wait on! Dig it, an animal that is part plant!
Shaped like a leaf itself, the slug Elysia chlorotica already has a reputation for kidnapping the photosynthesizing organelles and some genes from algae. Now it turns out that the slug has acquired enough stolen goods to make an entire plant chemical-making pathway work inside an animal body, says Sidney K. Pierce of the University of South Florida in Tampa.
Read more...
Friday, January 8, 2010
Animal Farm Friday - Twofer
Over at Wired, I spotted this WWF video of a wildlife-activated camera spotting a rare Sumatran tigress and her cubs. First time ever for this type of footage apparently.
Tiger cubs sniff WWF camera trap from WWF on Vimeo.
Thursday, January 7, 2010
The High Price of India's Gas
I picked up on this odd little story because it had to do with a helicopter crash. But the helicopter is the least interesting part of it.
Read on, indeed!
What does the mysterious helicopter crash that killed one of India’s most popular politicians have to do with White House economic czar Larry Summers? Read on…
Read on, indeed!
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
For Japanese whalers, it's open season on humans now too
Since it appears that Japanese whalers are no longer concerned for human life, maybe it's time the Sea Shepherds ramp things up a bit.
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
reddit Interviews Hitch
Some good stuff here, the sort of stuff that comes from a thoughtful person of letters. Take the time to watch it all if you can.
Monday, December 28, 2009
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Monday, December 14, 2009
Monday Kickstarter
We've seen static images of planetary size comparisons, but this video is wicked, and makes a much grander point. I love this stuff!!!
Friday, December 11, 2009
Quote of the Day
"The tea party nation announced that Sarah Palin will headline what is being called the first national tea party convention in February. It is expected to be the nation's largest ever gathering of misspelled signs." –Seth
It's the media, stupid.
I've been thinking quite a bit lately about all of those Obama supporters who have been so disappointed in him since the election, especially yours truly. Then it occurred to me that the same very reason why George W. Bush was able to get away with so much bullshit is exactly why Obama gets so much shit.
It's the media, stupid.
I've ranted plenty about the Mainstream Media (MSM, or Corporate-run media as I prefer to call them. It should have been immediately obvious what was going on. The bottom line is that the media - and not just Fox News - has been doing all the negative reporting on Obama that they can. This is in stark contrast to how the media bent over muscle-snapping backwards to do positive reporting on W and do as little negative reporting as possible until it just became unavoidable.
The majority of media outlets are owned and operated by huge corporate interests, we all know that. Large corporate interests are as anti-liberal and anti-progressive as can be. They are, at their core, in deep opposition to any politician that is not conservative. It only stands to reason that they would do their best to undermine politicians - and most importantly a President - who are not conservative. Obama may not be a liberal, but he is also not a conservative, er go, the media will do as much as it can to whittle away at Obama in a "death by a thousand cuts" effort to ruin his standing among his supporters, and the fencesitters.
The evidence is all around you, and often right in front of our faces. The Corporate-run media doesn't do the type of negative reporting that panders to right-wngers and tea-baggers, those people are already in the bag. No, the Corporate-run media targets their reporting to the aforementioned Obama supporters, and fencesitters. Often times, the reports may not start out negative, but frequently, buried in the reports are little jabs and swipes that serve to discredit Obama.
But don't take my word for it. Just keep your eyes fully open when reading articles, or columns, or listen to reports on TV or the radio, especially anything from the Associated Press. Keep track of all the little asides, swipes, jabs, and barbs. You'll see the pattern emerge clearly.
Then, eventually, you'll realize - like me - that you've been played like a fiddle. Once that happens, you can choose to not be played by the media, ad you can stop being a sucker for their bullshit games.
It's the media, stupid.
I've ranted plenty about the Mainstream Media (MSM, or Corporate-run media as I prefer to call them. It should have been immediately obvious what was going on. The bottom line is that the media - and not just Fox News - has been doing all the negative reporting on Obama that they can. This is in stark contrast to how the media bent over muscle-snapping backwards to do positive reporting on W and do as little negative reporting as possible until it just became unavoidable.
The majority of media outlets are owned and operated by huge corporate interests, we all know that. Large corporate interests are as anti-liberal and anti-progressive as can be. They are, at their core, in deep opposition to any politician that is not conservative. It only stands to reason that they would do their best to undermine politicians - and most importantly a President - who are not conservative. Obama may not be a liberal, but he is also not a conservative, er go, the media will do as much as it can to whittle away at Obama in a "death by a thousand cuts" effort to ruin his standing among his supporters, and the fencesitters.
The evidence is all around you, and often right in front of our faces. The Corporate-run media doesn't do the type of negative reporting that panders to right-wngers and tea-baggers, those people are already in the bag. No, the Corporate-run media targets their reporting to the aforementioned Obama supporters, and fencesitters. Often times, the reports may not start out negative, but frequently, buried in the reports are little jabs and swipes that serve to discredit Obama.
But don't take my word for it. Just keep your eyes fully open when reading articles, or columns, or listen to reports on TV or the radio, especially anything from the Associated Press. Keep track of all the little asides, swipes, jabs, and barbs. You'll see the pattern emerge clearly.
Then, eventually, you'll realize - like me - that you've been played like a fiddle. Once that happens, you can choose to not be played by the media, ad you can stop being a sucker for their bullshit games.
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Rachel's Courage
Glenn Greenwald has a great post about Rachel Maddow's courageous Tuesday night demolishing of so-called "formerly gay" Richard Cohen. My favorite part is where he subtly - and rightly - implies that other Beltway media stars just don't match up to her intellectual capacity:
If you haven't watched Rachel go to work on that fraud, you can watch it here:
It really gets good here:
Rachel's guest last night was modestly smart, coy and well-prepared, and pinning him down this way was not an easy task. Rachel was able to demolish his statements only because she is extremely smart, intellectually quick and dexterous, and able to think critically on the spot. To put it as politely as possible, people like David Gregory or, say, Brian Williams and John King don't exactly have those instruments at their disposal. That deprivation is a major reason why they're selected for those positions. (Emphasis mine.)
If you haven't watched Rachel go to work on that fraud, you can watch it here:
It really gets good here:
Cohen: "You're taking it out of context..."
Rachel: "I'm reading it from your book, dude."
Young-earth creationist Kent Hovind's doctoral dissertation
From WikiLeaks:
Get your copy here:
Released December 9, 2009
SummaryYoung-earth creationist Kent E. Hovind's doctoral dissertation.
"Hello, my name is Kent Hovind. I am a creation/science evangelist. I live in Pensacola, Florida. I have been a high school science teacher since 1976. I've been very active in the creation/evolution controversy for quite some time."
Kent Kovind Hovind is a well-known "young-earth" biblical creationist. As such the strength of his dissertation is of broad interest.
According to our source, contrary to accepted practices in academia where doctoral dissertations are available to the public. Kent. Hovind, along with his alma mater, Patriot Bible University, has consistently refused to allow his dissertation to be offered for public reprint or scholarly inquiry.
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Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Hitch on Palin
Christopher Hitchens has a deliciously prosaic post at Slate on the gloriously stupid Sarah Palin, and how it is that she manages to continue being insinuated into "polite circles", despite being such a political fraud:
What price the courageous frontier huntress now—an empty-headed echo chamber for rumor-mongers and freaks who shoots from ambush and then runs away? Some condescending right-wing intellectuals are calling her style "populist" and comparing it with Andrew Jackson and William Jennings Bryan. The true name for it is demagogy, descending from Joseph McCarthy, Robert Welch, and the nastier elements of the old Nixon gang—people to whom slander and defamation was second nature.
US+Israel+Iran=Depressing
Andrew Sullivan has an illuminating post about a recently war-gamed scenario at Harvard by some highly experienced foreign policy experts. The end result was far more depressing than anyone anticipated:
The fact that it was seasoned veterans of the policy process playing these roles makes it even more significant. The lesson was not so much that Iran could “win” this [game of Israel choosing to attack Iran without US approval] so easily; it was that the US and its allies were unable even to imagine any alternatives.
...the outcome was simply depressing!
Monday, December 7, 2009
Monday Kickstarter 2 - Ukraine's Got Talent!
I can't get enough of these sand animation videos. I wouldn't even know where to begin. Very inspiring!
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