The Truth About Obama
-The Flint Journal
You know why that sentence, or any of its variants, should not be used when covering biotech foods? Because it’s bullshit.
Thought you should know.
July 23, 2008
July 22, 2008
To investigate whether someone like Bruce Wayne could physically transform himself into a one-man wrecking crew, ScientificAmerican.com turned to E. Paul Zehr, associate professor of kinesiology and neuroscience at the University of Victoria in British Columbia and a 26-year practitioner of Chito-Ryu karate-do. Zehr’s book, Becoming Batman: The Possibility of a Superhero (The Johns Hopkins University Press), due out in October, tackles our very question….
Wouldn’t fighting Gotham’s thugs every night take its toll?
The biggest unreal part of the way Batman’s portrayed is the nature of his injuries. Most of the time, in the comics and in the movies, even when he wins, he usually winds up taking a pretty good beating. There’s a real failure to show the cumulative effect of that. The next day he’s shown out there doing the same thing again. He’d likely be quite tired and injured.Is there any indication in the comics of how long Batman’s career lasts?
The comics are really vague on this, of course. In Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns, he deliberately shows an aging Batman coming back after he’s retired, and he highlights him being tired and weaker. Somewhere around age 50 to 55, he should probably retire. His performance is going down. He’s always facing younger adversaries. That is well at the end of when he’s going to be able to defend himself and be able to not have to deal that lethal force. This was actually shown in an animated series called Batman Beyond.
Interview here.
Below- Scene from end of Kingdom Come where an aged Bruce Wayne confers with Supes and Diana. Note Wayne’s exoskeleton, required by a lifetime of constant injury.
This elephant is a freaking expressionist.
The elusive Dr. Vallee speaks here.
July 21, 2008
Next lesson: The Ventures- Live in Japan, 1965. Only about 124 years ahead of their time. I can’t even imagine what it would have been like to see them in a small club back then. This is the kind of music that will never go out of style. Can it be that it was all so simple then?
Charges of scientific misconduct. Or is this a case of run the heretics out of town…?
July 20, 2008
July 19, 2008
July 18, 2008
Magnetic Fields=Eye Candy
Over the last decade, you have surely heard many views as to why you should worry about carbon and climate change.But the chances are you’re not worrying about nitrogen.
In fact, there is a global nitrogen threat out there, yet the world seems not to notice!
It’s an issue that has recently been highlighted by two reviews in the journal Science.
In many regions of the world, humans are producing too much nitrogen, creating a host of different environmental threats.
July 17, 2008
This is THE mainstream voice of modern psychiatry - people you’d really, really expect to not be crazy or stupid. But turns out they are both:
It seemed an ideal marriage, a scientific partnership that would attack mental illness from all sides. Psychiatrists would bring to the union their expertise and clinical experience, drug makers would provide their products and the money to run rigorous studies, and patients would get better medications, faster.
Yeah, what could go wrong with that?
But now the profession itself is under attack in Congress, accused of allowing this relationship to become too cozy.
Oh.
You mean to tell me no one in this organization of smart rich brain doctors could have foreseen something like this? This is pretty basic stuff, for crying out loud…
An analysis of Minnesota data by The New York Times last year found that on average, psychiatrists who received at least $5,000 from makers of newer-generation antipsychotic drugs appear to have written three times as many prescriptions to children for the drugs as psychiatrists who received less money or none. The drugs are not approved for most uses in children, who appear to be especially susceptible to the side effects, including rapid weight gain.
Not a very goddamn scientific approach. There’s a term for people like these psychiatrists: corrupt assholes.
July 16, 2008
Five years without fishing around Lundy Island off the coast of Devon have brought a significant revival in sea life, scientists report.
Lobsters are seven times more abundant within the protected zone than outside.
The eastern coast of Lundy is the UK’s only “no-take” zone, where fishing is completely prohibited.
Simply shocking.
July 15, 2008
July 14, 2008
July 13, 2008
I’ve always hated that positively Velikovskian theory anyway:
US scientists have found evidence that water was held in the Moon’s interior, challenging some elements of the theory of how Earth’s satellite formed.
The Moon is thought to have been created in a violent collision between Earth and another planet-sized object.
Scientists thought the heat from this impact had vaporised all the water.
But a new study in Nature magazine shows water was delivered to the lunar surface from the interior in volcanic eruptions three billion years ago.
This suggests that water has been a part of the Moon since its early existence.
Tom Van Flandern has been arguing against the conventional theory of moon formation for years. In his view, rocky planets fission off single moons as a natural result of “overspinning” during their formation, which pinches off a piece of the parent body. It’s a bit technical but it’s not nearly as shamefully Velikovskian as the conventional collision-with-a planet-sized-body theory:
First consider the case that the rotating body is solid or has substantial material strength, as for the Earth-Moon system. Then just the weaker of the two globules at either end of the prolate major axis would fission, and the rest of the body would snap back to a smaller, rounder shape with a slower spin. … So only a single moon results. This would apparently be generally true – gaseous or liquid parent bodies would produce pairs of moons by fissioning, whereas solid bodies would produce singlet moons.
The BBC article about the setback for the conventional theory quotes a scientist (Erik Hauri of the Carnegie Institution) who helped make the finding:
We were really surprised …. It suggests the intriguing possibility that the Moon’s interior might have had as much water as the Earth’s upper mantle.
Uh, dude? They have the same amount of water because they are from the SAME BODY. And Tom Van Flandern IS NOT SURPRISED. Talk to him and find out why his theory is so much more fruitful than yours, and then get on the right side of history.
July 12, 2008
Old news, but never hurts to visit.
The most obvious theory was that something on the spacecraft themselves created a braking force–leaking gas or heat radiation, perhaps. Over the years, however, researchers increasingly viewed this hypothesis as less likely, and some physicists began to explore possible flaws in Newton’s laws and relativity. Others posited that dark matter was the culprit: it might exert a gravitational or drag force. A third theory embraces the idea that a minute acceleration exists in the velocity of light, which might result in the appearance that the probes are slowing down: if light travels faster, telemetry signals arrive faster, and the craft seem to be closer.
Steady State constant creation models seem to fit this perfectly, if everything is gaining mass around us all the time. Seems a likely explanation for a spacecraft that is evenly slowing down, yet isn’t even mentioned in the piece.
I gotta hand it to Cracked. Those guys really know how to surf the internet and consolidate weird shit. Below: The Motherfreaking Rods From God.
July 11, 2008
July 10, 2008
Ending of Seven as Re-enacted By Stuffed Animals
Priceless exchange between Authentic Journo Al Giordano and some other guy.
All text guaranteed verbatim and unabridged!
From Glenn Greenwald (who I don’t believe I’ve ever met or spoken with before, but who writes for Salon.com), 7:11 a.m.:
Someone just sent me a link to this claim you made yesterday:Yes, this is already going on but not illegally! Here’s how. All communications between the US and Mexico (and any other US ally) are being vacuumed up already by the Mexican-owned telecom companies and turned over to US agencies, with the full blessing of the Mexican state. The same goes for every other country in the hemisphere save Cuba and maybe Venezuela and/or Bolivia. Nothing illegal about it, because it’s done with the imprimatur of those governments that have jurisdiction.
What’s your basis for stating that every country in the hemisphere other than the three you mentioned turns over all communications involving a U.S. citizen to the U.S. Government?
Glenn Greenwald
My response, 8:42 a.m.:
Glen,My newspaper, Narco News, has reported for more than eight years now on the subjects of the drug war, social movements, money laundering, and other sensitive topics in the American hemisphere. In 2001, the New York Supreme Court issued a landmark ruling, after the National Bank of Mexico (now Citibank) sued us for what it termed defamation (libel) in eight of those reports. From the December, 5, 2001 court decision:
“Narco News, its website, and the writers who post information, are entitled to all the First Amendment protections accorded a newspaper-magazine or journalist… Furthermore, the nature of the articles printed on the website and Mr. Giordano’s statements at Columbia University constitute matters of public concern because the information disseminated relates to the drug trade and its affect on people living in this hemisphere…”
That ruling, by the way, protects you and your work, too.
In this work, we have cultivated many sources and whistleblowers inside US and foreign intelligence and police agencies. The reports of journalist Bill Conroy and I, among others, frequently consult with those sources, including in Homeland Security, ICE, DEA, FBI, and others, and including their counterparts in Mexico and other lands. If you’ve dealt much with security and intelligence agents, you’d be familiar with their smug disregard for the US Constitution and their enthusiasm for finding loopholes and ways around it when it comes to wiretapping and surveillance. They’re part of their own very special subculture that plays by its own rules.
The rest.
July 9, 2008
Ancient stone tablet dated to decades before Christ’s birth …
suggests that the story of his death and resurrection was not unique but part of a recognized Jewish tradition at the time.
One might also say the death/resurrection motif is not unique because it’s part of ancient Egyptian tradition (Osiris) and ancient Greek tradition (Orpheus).
I can’t believe it even has to be said. You know what would help fix the situation? A mandatory “History of Religion” course in kindergarten. I’m serious.
Get Your Science On: The Elements Song
Bonus: Freaky Isotope Spirograph
July 8, 2008
Courtesy of Cracked
May be a step forward for expanding Earth theories. If one planet can shrink due to core activity, another should likely be able to expand from the same mechanisms. Obviously 1 mile isn’t drastic, but Mercury hasn’t had as active of a core as Earth has/does…
Data from a flyby of Mercury in January 2008 show the planet has contracted by more than one mile (1.5km) in diameter over its geological history.
Scientists believe the shrinkage is due to the planet’s core slowly cooling
Evidence for ancient life stretches back in time to at least 3.5 billion years ago, in the form of single-celled organisms that did not require oxygen. The discovery of light carbon in the Jack Hills crystals raises the question – did a simple life form exist on Earth 700 million years earlier than previously thought?
July 7, 2008
Excellent documentary about the RBGH (bovine growth hormone) in a glass of milk near you.
Got this in the mail recently - spread the word, gentle readers. If anyone wants to suggest other media that might help get the word out, the comments are open. Thanks.
I am helping researchers at Johns Hopkins University recruit volunteers for a study on psilocybin and cancer. However, recruiting volunteers for this trial has been very challenging so we are asking for assistance with getting the word out.
Can you help us by posting a brief note about the study and a link to our recruitment page?
You already posted a story on July 1st with the title “The Long-Term Positive Effects of Psychedelic Drug Use”.
The new study is unique because we are enrolling volunteers both with a past or present diagnosis of cancer. This clinical trial is very important because it follows up on recently published research that demonstrated long-term well being after taking psilocybin in a structured setting. According to Roland Griffiths Ph.D.; “the primary mystical experience might fundamentally change the perception of disease and perhaps quality of life in people distressed by life-threatening diagnoses of cancer.”
Sincerely,
Martin Polanco, M.D.
Seed Newsvine
My StumbleUpon Page
