Proposed Law Could Be a Cold Shower for YouPorn

That could mean every adult who wants to upload a naughty picture to a social network would have to submit a photo ID and state their full name, date of birth and other personal information. The network would have to maintain that record for as long as the picture exists -- likely in perpetuity throughout the universe -- and ensure the record is available without question to The Authorities for 20 hours a week, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Porn studios already have a hard time complying with all the ins and outs of recordkeeping laws. And while adult social networking sites do seem to try to keep illegal material off their servers, I think it would be impossible for a social networking site to comply with the proposed changes.

What if users submit false information -- who gets punished? Who verifies IDs? A studio production assistant can check performer IDs in person; would social networks have to open offices all over the country to verify prospective members in person? Good luck with that one.

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But if the proposed changes come to pass, I hope we'll see a much overdue surge of patriotism and protest. After all, this isn't the administration blatantly tucking the Bill of Rights into the back of a storage closet -- our personal sex lives are at stake!

Read the rest.

Atheists aren't a bad lot

This has complicated the issue considerably because now everyone knows a few atheists who are not lying, thieving, murderous wretches. They work. They pay taxes. They have kids and don't beat them or sell them for medical experiments. How can this be?

An answer comes from the godless science of evolutionary psychology. "People have gut feelings that give them emphatic moral convictions," writes Harvard cognitive psychologist Steven Pinker, "and they struggle to rationalize the convictions after the fact." Those "gut feelings" are not the result of what we learned in Sunday school. "They arise from the neurobiological and evolutionary design of the organs we call moral emotions."

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So it's no surprise to learn that atheists can be perfectly decent people. They are human, after all.

This has led believers to a subtler attack. "People who don't believe in God can be good," writes Reginald Bibby, a theist and University of Lethbridge sociologist. "But people who believe in God are more likely to value being good, enhancing the chances that they will be good."

Read more.

Comcast really does block BitTorrent traffic after all

Thanks to tests reported Friday by the Associated Press, however, it's clear that Comcast is actively interfering with peer-to-peer networks even if relatively small files are being transferred.

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US 'to build 14 permanent bases in Iraq'

A Finnish lawmaker has revealed that the US is planning to stay in Iraq by building as many as fourteen permanent bases in the country.

You only thought we were leaving.

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Getting married saps your testosterone

The finding provides a social and evolutionary explanation for the decrease in testosterone, rather than an age-related one.

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Clinton bucks the trend and rakes in cash from the US weapons industry

The US arms industry is backing Hillary Clinton for President and has all but abandoned its traditional allies in the Republican party. Mrs Clinton has also emerged as Wall Street's favourite. Investment bankers have opened their wallets in unprecedented numbers for the New York senator over the past three months and, in the process, dumped their earlier favourite, Barack Obama.

And that action speaks volumes.

Read more.

US defends its harsh treatment of an American citizen

US officials did not violate any clearly established constitutional rights when they held a US citizen in isolated military detention without charge for nearly four years and subjected him to harsh interrogation techniques.

That's the legal position staked out by Justice Department lawyers who are urging a federal judge in Charleston, S.C., to dismiss a lawsuit filed on behalf of Jose Padilla against former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and nine other current or former US officials. Mr. Padilla was held in military custody from 2002 to 2006 as a suspected Al Qaeda operative and enemy combatant.

The 55-page motion, filed this week, offers the first detailed defense of the government's aggressive treatment of Padilla during his three years and seven months in military custody. Padilla's suit says he endured isolation, stress positions, extreme cold, sleep deprivation, and reportedly was subjected to five months of severe sensory deprivation, including near total isolation from human contact.

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Government lawyers made no reference to Padilla's diagnosed psychological problems. They told US District Judge Henry Floyd that such a lawsuit, if allowed to progress, would interfere with military decisionmaking, aid the enemy, and make the US more vulnerable to terrorist attack.

Bullshit.

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Chinese growth 'to overtake US'

For the first time in modern history, China will next year contribute more to global economic growth than the United States.

The landmark moment was predicted yesterday by the International Monetary Fund and is the latest illustration of the fast-growing Asian country's importance to the world economy.

While China's economy is still far smaller than America's, it has overtaken the UK as the world's fourth biggest economy. With the IMF projecting 10pc growth this year, the country will pump more new money into the global system next year than the US, which is expected to grow by just 1.9pc.

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Why, Even If You Have Nothing To Hide, Government Surveillance Threatens Your Freedom

"I've got nothing to hide, so electronic surveillance doesn't bother me. To the contrary, I'm delighted that the Bush Administration is monitoring calls and electronic traffic on a massive scale, because catching terrorists is far more important that worrying about the government's listening to my phone calls, or reading my emails." So the argument goes. It is a powerful one that has seduced too many people.

Millions of Americans buy this logic, and in accepting it, believe they are doing the right thing for themselves, their family, and their friends, neighbors, community and country. They are sadly wrong. If you accept this argument, you have been badly fooled.

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Neo-Cons Push for Hillary’s Nomination

It would not shift the political center of gravity, nor upset the current power structure where conservatives have flourished. In his October 12 column for the Washington Post, neo-conservative Charles Krauthammer lauded Hillary Clinton’s candidacy – calling her the “Great Navigator.” Never mind the rhetoric that she currently gives to win the primary, he said, for Hillary’s “liberalism is redeemed by her ambition; her ideology subordinate to her political needs.” While many liberals currently support Clinton, the right understands that – in a year where Democrats will probably win the Presidency – Hillary is the best that they can hope for.

Same smell, different shit.

Don't vote for Hillary.

Academic Freedom is at Risk in America

"Academic colleagues, get used to it," warned the pro-Israel activist Martin Kramer in March 2004. "Yes, you are being watched. Those obscure articles in campus newspapers are now available on the Internet, and they will be harvested. Your syllabi, which you've also posted, will be scrutinized. Your Web sites will be visited late at night."

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This attack, intended to shield Israel from criticism, not only threatens academic privileges on college campuses, it jeopardizes our capacity to evaluate our foreign policy. With a potentially catastrophic clash with Iran on the horizon and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict spiraling out of control, Americans urgently need to be able to think clearly about our commitments and intentions in the Middle East. And yet we are being prevented from doing so by a longstanding campaign of intimidation that has terminated careers, stymied debate and shut down dialogue.

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The Secret History of the Impending War with Iran That the White House Doesn't Want You to Know

In the years after 9/11, Flynt Leverett and Hillary Mann worked at the highest levels of the Bush administration as Middle East policy experts for the National Security Council. Mann conducted secret negotiations with Iran. Leverett traveled with Colin Powell and advised Condoleezza Rice. They each played crucial roles in formulating policy for the region leading up to the war in Iraq. But when they left the White House, they left with a growing sense of alarm -- not only was the Bush administration headed straight for war with Iran, it had been set on this course for years. That was what people didn't realize. It was just like Iraq, when the White House was so eager for war it couldn't wait for the UN inspectors to leave. The steps have been many and steady and all in the same direction. And now things are getting much worse. We are getting closer and closer to the tripline, they say.

Read more.

The fish that can survive for months in a tree

It's one of the golden rules of the natural world – birds live in trees, fish live in water.

The trouble is, no one bothered to tell the mangrove killifish.

Scientists have discovered that it spends several months of every year out of the water and living inside trees.

Hidden away inside rotten branches and trunks, the remarkable creatures temporarily alter their biological makeup so they can breathe air.

Biologists studying the killifish say they astonished it can cope for so long out of its natural habitat.

Learn more.

Nuclear-armed Iran risks 'World War III,' Bush says

President George W. Bush said Wednesday that he thought Russia still wanted to stop Iran from developing a nuclear weapon. But stepping up his own rhetoric, the president warned that for Tehran to possess such a weapon raised the risk of a "World War III."

Madmen run the world.

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Sex, Nazi, burrito and Viagra: Who Googles what?

Internet users in Egypt, India and Turkey are the world's most frequent searchers for Web sites using the keyword "sex" on Google search engines, according to statistics provided by Google Inc.

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The top searchers for other keywords were as follows (in order from first to third place):

Check 'em out.

Oakland Restricts Smoking In Outdoor Areas

The Oakland City Council unanimously approved an ordinance Tuesday that makes it illegal to smoke in outdoor dining areas, ATM lines, parks and bus stops.

Smoking will also be banned in child care centers and municipal golf courses.

Read more.

Study Seeks DNA Clues on Homosexuality

While initial results aren't expected until next year — and won't provide a final answer — skeptics are already attacking the methods and disputing the presumed results.

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Dr. Alan Sanders of Evanston Northwestern Healthcare Research Institute, the lead researcher of the new study, said he suspects there isn't one so-called "gay gene."

It is more likely there are several genes that interact with nongenetic factors, including psychological and social influences, to determine sexual orientation, said Sanders, a psychiatrist.

Still, he said, "If there's one gene that makes a sizable contribution, we have a pretty good chance" of finding it.

But...

Many gays fear that if gay genes are identified, it could result in discrimination, prenatal testing and even abortions to eliminate homosexuals, said Joel Ginsberg of the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association.

However, he added, "If we confirm that sexual orientation is an immutable characteristic, we are much more likely to get the courts to rule against discrimination."

Read more.

Man jailed in anti-gay row

A CAMPAIGNER against gay rights was locked in a police cell for eight hours after he refused to be served by a homosexual librarian.

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Now he has been banned from his local library after telling a gay employee he wanted to be served by a different member of staff because he was opposed to same-sex `marriage'.

What a fucking idiot.

Read more.

Student Loses Battle Over Long Locks

The Leakey School Board on Monday night voted unanimously against allowing a high school senior to keep his long hair.

Ben Jamin Daly, 18, says he is growing his long locks because his religion, Rastafarianism, prohibits him from cutting it.

First off, his hair isn't long. Second, I don't think the religion card needed to be played because it's fucking hair, people! Why must so many fucking people believe they have the right to oppress others? And don't comment to me about "dress codes". They are outdated and tyrannical.

Read more.

'Coral triangle' brewing with diverse sea life

Scientists exploring a deep ocean basin in search of species isolated for millions of years found marine life believed to be previously undiscovered, including a tentacled orange worm and an unusual black jellyfish.

Learn more.

Blogs as reliable as mainstream media - ACCC

CONSUMERS who get their news from the internet are likely to trust a blog for reliability as much as a mainstream media site, the competition watchdog said today.

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Brain-computer interface for controlling Second Life avatars

Researchers from the Biomedical Engineering Laboratory at Keio University in Japan have developed a brain-computer interface that enables users to control the movements of Second Life avatars without moving a muscle.

Read more.

Cheney and Obama are distant cousins: Mrs. Cheney

Mrs. Cheney told MSNBC on Tuesday that it was "an amazing American story that one ancestor ... could be responsible down the family line for lives that have taken such different and varied paths."

Read more.

Swearing at work boosts team spirt, morale: research

Regular swearing at work can help boost team spirit among staff, allowing them to express better their feelings as well as develop social relationships, according to a study by researchers.

Can you believe that shit?

Read more.

CDC: Drug-resistant staph deaths may surpass AIDS toll

More than 90,000 Americans get potentially deadly infections each year from a drug-resistant staph "superbug," the government reported Tuesday in its first overall estimate of invasive disease caused by the germ.

Read more.

Clinton would use violence against Tehran

Hillary Clinton today moved to secure her position as the most hawkish Democrat in the 2008 presidential race, saying she would consider the use of force to compel Iran to abandon its nuclear programme.

And that's just another reason why she should not be President.

Any country that does not have nuclear weapons is at the mercy of those countries that do. So, unfortunately, it's in the best interest of countries to have a nuclear program.

Read more.

"Mom" and "Dad" banned in California Schools

""Mom and Dad" as well as "husband and wife" have been banned from California schools under a bill signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who with his signature also ordered public schools to allow boys to use girls restrooms and locker rooms, and vice versa, if they choose."

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The bills include SB777, which bans anything in public schools that could be interpreted as "negative" toward homosexuality, bisexuality and other "alternative lifestyle choices." There are no similar protections for students with traditional or conservative lifestyles and beliefs, however.

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45 REPUBLICAN PEDOPHILES

This is horrendous, but something we've known for a while. It's just nice to see a list like this to show to those that would deny it. Remember, this is only pedophiles. Larry Craig isn't even on this list nor are the countless cases of "anti-gay" closet-cases in the Republican Party. Guns, God and Gays? Sounds like a description of the party rather than just a set of wedge issues now.

Read more.

New face of vandalism?

A 6-year-old Park Slope girl is facing a $300 fine from the city for doing what city kids have been doing for decades: drawing a pretty picture with common sidewalk chalk.

Obviously not all of Natalie Shea’s 10th Street neighbors thought her blue chalk splotch was her best work — a neighbor called 311 to report the “graffiti,” and the Department of Sanitation quickly sent a standard letter to Natalie’s mom, Jen Pepperman.

Can somebody stop these bureaucrats before they Kafka again?

WTF?

Read more.

Africans are less intelligent than Westerners, says DNA pioneer

The newly formed Equality and Human Rights Commission, successor to the Commission for Racial Equality, saidit was studying Dr Watson's remarks "in full". Dr Watson told The Sunday Times that he was "inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa" because "all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours – whereas all the testing says not really". He said there was a natural desire that all human beings should be equal but "people who have to deal with black employees find this not true".

Read more.

What could we do with $700 billion?

I spent my life in the military, worked with some of the finest men and women in uniform and benefited from the best military technology in the history of the world. But I understand that our national security involves far more than unrealistic defense spending. I also know firsthand how a military bureaucracy will demand more and more resources at the expense of other priorities.

There will always be a fancier fighter plane or a sleeker ship. But how many more hundreds of billions of dollars will it take before we step back and say, "Enough"?

Read more.

RIAA accused of ‘Failure to Warn’

"I explained to them what I believe is right, that the principle is that stealing music is stealing music. Frankly, right is right and wrong is wrong, particularly when a parent is talking to a child. A bright line around moral responsibility is very important. I can assure you they no longer do that."

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[The above quote is] from Warner Music boss Edgar Bronfman jr who admits his seven children have shared music online.

So, will they, too, be publicly hounded and humiliated by Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG’s RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America)’?

Not a chance. They’ve been punished. But all they had to suffer was a ludicrous lecture on ‘bright shining lines’.

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“In what has to be one of the most outrageous verdicts ever recorded in America, without a shred of hard evidence, judge Michael J. Davis virtually instructed the jury to find Jamie Thomas guilty of copyright infringement, saying she must pay close to a quarter of a million dollars,” p2pnet said recently, and the case continues to generate headlines around the world.

But she, Michelle and Bobby are fighting back and as they do so, the members of the multi-billion-dollar organised music cartel, Vivendi Universal (France), Sony BMG (Japan and Germany), EMI (Britain), and Warner Music (US), are slowly but steadily haemorrhaging what little credibility they had in their claims that they’re being “devastated” (the word they use) by file sharers.

Read more.

NZ women most promiscuous: survey

New Zealand women have the most sexual partners in the world, according to a global sex survey reported on Saturday.

They have an average of 20.4 sexual partners, according to a survey by condom-maker Durex - well above the global average of 7.3.

Time to visit New Zealand!

Read more.

Girls Forced To Leave Football Game Over Painted Bodies

Two girls at a Florida high school were booted from a football game for painting their bodies to show school spirit, even though boys with painted bodies were allowed to stay.

Pathetic. There is nothing wrong with the way they look.

Check out the picture.

Dying DRM Means More Freedom for Music Fans

Tech pundits and music columnists have predicted for years that digital rights management would die, record labels would crumble and artists would sell music directly to fans.

Read more.

A Nation of Christians Is Not a Christian Nation

The only acknowledgment of God in the original Constitution is a utilitarian one: the document is dated “in the year of our Lord 1787.” Even the religion clause of the First Amendment is framed dryly and without reference to any particular faith.

Read more.

Athiests put less value on love than believers: study

A new Canadian survey has found that believers are more likely than atheists to place a higher value on love, patience and friendship, in findings the researcher says could be a warning that Canadians need a religious basis to retain civility in society.

No comment.

Read more.

Priest 'only pretending to be gay'

A Vatican official suspended after being caught on hidden camera making advances to a young man said in an interview published Sunday that he is not gay and was only pretending to be gay as part of his work.

Jesus Christ.

He said that he pretended to be gay in order to gather information about "those who damage the image of the Church with homosexual activity."

Vatican teaching holds that homosexual activity is a sin.

Whatever.

Read the rest of this crap.

Ron Paul Stings Hillary Clinton on Iraq War, Warns of Draft

Sounding like a candidate that can win his party’s nomination, Paul said, “She voted for the war now she says she can’t get the troops out until 2013 and she won’t rule out a military first strike against Iran.”

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Paul warned “there’s a lot of behind the scene agitation for reviving the draft”. Ron Paul then hammered Selective Service, “Selective Service is the government saying it owns a group of people”. His harshest words, “The military draft of young people is a sign of a totalitarian government” Paul said.

Read more.

Freedom is Sexy

American Tears

In Boulder, two days ago, a rosy-cheeked thirtysomething mother of two small children, in soft yoga velours, started to tear up when she said to me: "I want to take action but I am so scared. I look at my kids and I am scared. How do you deal with fear? Is it safer for them if I act or stay quiet? I don't want to get on a list." In D.C., before that, a beefy, handsome civil servant, a government department head -- probably a Republican -- confides in a lowered voice that he is scared to sign the new ID requirement for all government employees, that exposes all his most personal information to the State -- but he is scared not to sign it: "If I don't, I lose my job, my house. It's like the German National ID card," he said quietly. This morning in Denver I talked for almost an hour to a brave, much-decorated high-level military man who is not only on the watch list for his criticism of the administration -- his family is now on the list. His elderly mother is on the list. His teenage son is on the list. He has flown many dangerous combat missions over the course of his military career, but his voice cracks when he talks about the possibility that he is exposing his children to harassment.

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It is clear from this inundation of personal stories of abuse and retribution against ordinary Americans that a network of criminal behavior and intention is catching up more and more mainstream citizens in its grasp. It is clear that this is not democracy as usual -- or even the corruption of democracy as usual. It is clear that we will need more drastic action than emails to Congress.

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It is clear yet that violent retribution, torture or maybe worse, seems to go right up this chain of command? Is it clear yet that these people are capable of anything? Is it obvious yet that criminals are at the helm of the nation and need to be not only ousted but held accountable for their crimes?

Is it treason yet?

You should be pissed off.

A Ron Paul Supporter's Open Reply to Mr. Wastler's Open Letter to the Ron Paul Faithful

I read your explanation for taking down the Ron Paul poll and I must say I was taken aback.

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The evidence presented by Ron Paul’s fundraising, the volunteerism of his supporters, the people on the street when you talk to them, the signs spontaneously going up, the videos online, the meetup groups, the songs, all these things are evidence of a grassroots movement the likes of which haven’t been seen in this country since 1776. You, sir, as the general manager of CNBC.com should not be worried about the results of a poll so much as you should be making sure that everyone has fair access to that poll. You should not be in the business of suggesting to me what to think so much as you should be in the business of presenting the results and letting me decide for myself what to think. I can make up my own mind, thank you very much.

Read the rest.

Dragonfly or Insect Spy? Scientists at Work on Robobugs.

No agency admits to having deployed insect-size spy drones. But a number of U.S. government and private entities acknowledge they are trying. Some federally funded teams are even growing live insects with computer chips in them, with the goal of mounting spyware on their bodies and controlling their flight muscles remotely.

Read more.

Boot camp defendants not guilty

Six jurors cleared the seven former Bay County juvenile boot camp drill instructors and a camp nurse not responsible for the 14-year-old boy's death. They were seen on a video kicking, kneeing and punching the boy, but the defense proved he died from a benign blood disorder, sickle-cell trait, not by the guards' actions.

The case has been racially charged since five of the defendants were white, two black and one Asian.

Read more.

Income-Inequality Gap Widens

The wealthiest 1% of Americans earned 21.2% of all income in 2005, according to new data from the Internal Revenue Service.

Read more.

Pets Hurled Off Bridge in Puerto Rico

Animal control workers seized dozens of dogs and cats from housing projects in the town of Barceloneta and hurled them from a bridge to their deaths, authorities and witnesses said Friday. Mayor Sol Luis Fontanez blamed a contractor hired to take the animals to a shelter.

Humans are the lowest form of life on this fucking planet.

Read more.

Blogs target jihadis online

Ordinary Americans are tracking down U.S. Web sites used by al Qaeda and jihadi sympathizers and then using the Internet to persuade the service providers to snuff out the sites.

Read more.

'Storm worm' exploits YouTube

Spammers are exploiting YouTube's "invite your friends" function to send spam containing a variant of the "Storm worm."

Read more.

RIAA Eyes Next Possible Targets: CD Burners, Radio Listeners

Pariser believes in a very broad definition of stealing that is echoed by many supporters in the RIAA. She believes that users who buy songs are entitled to one, and only one copy. Burning CDs is just another name for stealing, in her mind. "When an individual makes a copy of a song for himself, I suppose we can say he stole a song." Making "a copy" of a purchased song is just "a nice way of saying 'steals just one copy'."

Such logic has been a driving force behind efforts to "rights manage" music including the current DRM found on Apple's iTunes files and Microsoft's DRM, which is also widespread.

While it seems unlikely that the RIAA would be able to effectively identify "burners", such litigation remains a legal possibility for the RIAA and major music labels, in the minds of their lawyers.

I dream for the day when there are no music labels and no RIAA.

Read more.

We'll Sue You If You Don't Takedown Your Opinion Of Our Game!

Left Behind Games, makers of (somewhat controversial) religiously themed real-time strategy games based apparently isn't happy that its video games were reviewed negatively across the blogworld. So, they did what any video game company would do: they improved their game. Oh... no, they didn't. As pointed out by reader Grey, they simply pulled out the lawyers and threatened to sue a bunch of bloggers for posting "false and misleading" content about the games. Of course, opinions can't be either false or misleading, so they'll have quite a case on their hands. In the meantime, perhaps this was merely an attempt at a reverse "Streisand Effect" as the attempt to take down those negative reviews is simply getting a lot more attention on those negative reviews. Whether or not that leads to sales is another story...

Read more.

THERE ARE NO MORE COUNTRIES, ONLY MULTINATIONAL CORPORATIONS

This isn't an article... it's not even going to be much of a comment... it's just the hard, sad truth as I see it right now.

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These people don't need any more money. They don't need anymore power. They already have everything they could possibly need. Why are they continuing to foment wars?

And since they KNOW there are NO more countries, who or what are they going to declare war on.

RELIGIONS!

Read more.

Barbie Teaches Credit Cards 101: "You Never Run Out Of Money!"

Fashion Fever Shopping Boutique, the correctly named Barbie toy, features a built-in credit card swiper and a life-size credit card for young children to use when buying outfits for their dolls. According to the Amazon website, "Once the balance hits zero, it will reset so you can continue to shop."

WTF?

Who's brilliant fucking idea was this?

Check out the commercial below.



Read more.

Blood pressure and weight predict heart failure

Higher blood pressure and body mass index (BMI) in mid-life appear to increase the risk of heart failure in later life, according to findings published in the medical journal Hypertension.

Read more.

Pill helps alcoholics taper off drinking

A migraine pill seems to help alcoholics taper off their drinking without detox treatment, researchers report, offering a potential option for a hard-to-treat problem.

Read more.

First Radiohead...now Nine Inch Nails bids adieu to music label

Two well-known bands taking to the Internet to sell their own albums is not yet a trend, but it certainly must be a cause for concern in the halls of the four major music companies. The question raised by the defections is whether well-established performers need big music conglomerates in the digital age.

It costs relatively little to distribute songs over the Web. So why can't bands do it themselves from their own Web sites?

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One thing is for sure: the numbers of performers dissatisfied with the current music-industry business model is not abating.

Read more.

House may ban Net taxes for another four years

Under mounting pressure from their Republican colleagues, the Democrats on a U.S. House of Representatives panel have finally scheduled a vote on a bill that would extend by four years a soon-to-expire federal ban on Internet access taxes.

Read more.

Democrats Seem Ready to Extend Wiretap Powers

Two months after insisting that they would roll back broad eavesdropping powers won by the Bush administration, Democrats in Congress appear ready to make concessions that could extend some crucial powers given to the National Security Agency.

Administration officials say they are confident they will win approval of the broadened authority that they secured temporarily in August as Congress rushed toward recess. Some Democratic officials concede that they may not come up with enough votes to stop approval.

And we let them get away with doing this shit.

Read more.

What If Cold Fusion Is Real?

It was the most notorious scientific experiment in recent memory - in 1989, the two men who claimed to have discovered the energy of the future were condemned as imposters and exiled by their peers. Can it possibly make sense to reopen the cold fusion investigation? A surprising number of researchers already have.

Read more.

Boot camp boy died under 'routine' control

Charles Helms, a former army drill instructor, and six other guards at Bay County boot camp, Florida, are charged with aggravated manslaughter in connection with the death of Martin Lee Anderson in January last year.

A 30-minute surveillance video shows them hitting, kneeing and dragging the limp boy in the exercise yard as Kristin Schmidt, a nurse from the now-closed camp, looked on. The child died the following day. Ms Schmidt has also been charged.

Read more.

The appendix does have a use - re-booting the gut

The US scientists found that the appendix acted as a "good safe house" for bacteria essential for healthy digestion, in effect re-booting the digestive system after the host has contracted diseases such as amoebic dysentery or cholera, which kill off helpful germs and purge the gut.

Learn more.

Following Honeybee Disappearance, Bumblebees Begin Vanishing Act

He fears that the species — Franklin's bumblebee — has gone extinct before anyone could even propose it for the endangered species list. To make matters worse, two other bumblebee species — one on the East coast, one on the West — have gone from common to rare.

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Warning over vodka snorting fad

Some drinkers are snorting vodka through the nose to get drunk more quickly in a fad that alcohol health workers say could be dangerous.

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Officials have warned the activity can lead to long-term health damage.

Bar staff said some people were "in tears" after trying the trend, while others reacted so quickly they were seen falling to the floor as a result of snorting the alcohol.

The things humans do.

Chimps choose more rationally than humans

German researchers have demonstrated chimpanzees make choices that protect their self-interest more consistently than do humans.

Hence, chimps did not vote for Bush.

Learn more.

Orwell in 2007

In “1984,” the Party barrages citizens with psychological stimuli designed to overwhelm the mind. The giant telescreen in every room monitors behavior. People are continuously reminded of government’s surveillance, especially by omnipresent signs reading, “BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU.” Individuals are encouraged to spy on each other, even children on their parents, and report any instance of disloyalty to the Party — i.e., government.

“1984″ is happening in 2007.

Signs along interstate highways urge citizens, “Report Suspicious Behavior.” Cameras mounted at strategic locations monitor our everyday movement (just as in the novel). Red, orange and yellow are no longer just bright, pretty colors: They now represent levels of national security alerts. Intelligence agencies now define “chatter” as “terrorist speak.”

Read more.

Blessed be cheerleaders for they will be vilified

League executives sent a memo recently to its 32 teams, warning them to control their cheerleaders. There's growing concern that some home teams are using these ladies for a competitive advantage, telling them to warm up in front of the opponents, hoping their beauty will steer players away from their pregame preparation.

If the NFL were any more paranoid, commissioner Roger Goodell would need to dead bolt his sock drawer.

Pathetic.

Read more.

The positive side of atheism

Atheist attacks on the politically correct notion that religion should not be criticized provokes the ire of believers. The Pew Research Center found that half of all Americans dislike atheists, with the University of Minnesota adding that atheists are America's most distrusted minority.

We see this dislike reflected in common stereotypes. Atheists are negative. They're angry. They're immoral. They're communists. They want to take your children away from you. William F. Buckley wrote that Saddam Hussein was an atheist, and Bill O'Reilly says the same about Adolph Hitler. All these claims are false.

...

Most atheists, though, are politically mainstream. Further, atheists are less prejudiced and less authoritarian than their religious counterparts. Most atheists want their children to decide religious matters independently. And although most fundamentalist Christians want public schools to teach Christianity, few atheists want atheism taught in school.

The atheist outlook is that people should make up their minds on religious matters without compulsion.

But why would someone choose to be an atheist? Is it because something bad happened to them? Because they're angry and too arrogant to submit to authority? Maybe atheists want to rock 'n roll all night and party every day?

Unfortunately, the reality is quite dull. Most atheists had a secular upbringing. Although a quarter were raised religious, the undramatic reason most disbelieve is that religious doctrines don't make sense to them.

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Three philosophical concepts are central to understanding the atheist thought process.

First, one cannot prove a negative. Atheism is not a scientific position, because most atheists do not claim they can disprove gods. But atheists think this does not justify belief in gods, anymore than the inability to disprove leprechauns justifies belief in Irish legends.

Second, one can prove a positive, such as gods exist, but the claim's advocate holds the burden of proof. A skeptic has no burden of disproof.

Third, an atheist only counts testable ideas as evidence. This rules out revelation or personal experience, which is the primary evidence religion offers. Thus, atheism is a philosophical position that values scientific standards.

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On Torture and American Values

Once upon a time, it was the United States that urged all nations to obey the letter and the spirit of international treaties and protect human rights and liberties. American leaders denounced secret prisons where people were held without charges, tortured and killed. And the people in much of the world, if not their governments, respected the United States for its values.

The Bush administration has dishonored that history and squandered that respect. As an article on this newspaper’s front page last week laid out in disturbing detail, President Bush and his aides have not only condoned torture and abuse at secret prisons, but they have conducted a systematic campaign to mislead Congress, the American people and the world about those policies.

And yet, these people remain in office.

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Bush: All religions pray to 'same God'

"Well, first of all, I believe in an Almighty God, and I believe that all the world, whether they be Muslim, Christian, or any other religion, prays to the same God. That's what I believe. I believe that Islam is a great religion that preaches peace. And I believe people who murder the innocent to achieve political objectives aren't religious people, whether they be a Christian who does that – we had a person blow up our – blow up a federal building in Oklahoma City who professed to be a Christian, but that's not a Christian act to kill innocent people.

"And I just simply don't subscribe to the idea that murdering innocent men, women and children – particularly Muslim men, women and children in the Middle East – is an act of somebody who is a religious person.

Look in the mirror, Georgie.

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Bush’s torturers follow where the Nazis led

From almost the beginning of the war, it is now indisputable, the Bush administration made a strong and formative decision: in the absence of good intelligence on the Islamist terror threat after 9/11, it would do what no American administration had done before. It would torture detainees to get information.

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They redefined torture solely as something that would be equivalent to the loss of major organs or leading to imminent death. Everything else was what was first called “coercive interrogation”, subsequently amended to “enhanced interrogation”. These terms were deployed in order for the president to be able to say that he didn’t support “torture”. We were through the looking glass.

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The argument was that stripping a chained detainee naked, pouring water over him while keeping room temperatures cold enough to induce repeated episodes of dangerous hypothermia, was not “cruel, inhuman or degrading”. We have a log of such a technique being used at Guantanamo. The victim had to be rushed to hospital, brought back from death, then submitted once again to “enhanced interrogation”.

George Orwell would have been impressed by the phrase “enhanced interrogation technique”. By relying on it, the White House spokesman last week was able to say with a straight face that the administration strongly opposed torture and that “any procedures they use are tough, safe, necessary and lawful”.

So is “enhanced interrogation” torture? One way to answer this question is to examine history. The phrase has a lineage. Verschärfte Verneh-mung, enhanced or intensified interrogation, was the exact term innovated by the Gestapo to describe what became known as the “third degree”. It left no marks. It included hypothermia, stress positions and long-time sleep deprivation.

The United States prosecuted it as a war crime in Norway in 1948. The victims were not in uniform – they were part of the Norwegian insurgency against the German occupation – and the Nazis argued, just as Cheney has done, that this put them outside base-line protections (subsequently formalised by the Geneva conventions).

The Nazis even argued that “the acts of torture in no case resulted in death. Most of the injuries inflicted were slight and did not result in permanent disablement”. This argument is almost verbatim that made by John Yoo, the Bush administration’s house lawyer, who now sits comfortably at the Washington think tank, the American Enterprise Institute.

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The definition of torture remains the infliction of “severe mental or physical pain or suffering” with the intent of procuring intelligence. In 1948, in other words, America rejected the semantics of the current president and his aides. The penalty for those who were found guilty was death. This is how far we’ve come. And this fateful, profound decision to change what America stands for was made in secret. The president kept it from Congress and from many parts of his own administration.

Read the rest.

Teenager facing terror charges for possession of "Anarchists' Cookbook"

It is alleged he had a copy of the "Anarchists' Cookbook", containing instructions on how to make home-made explosives.

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The teenager faces two charges under the Terrorism Act 2000.

The first charge relates to the possession of material for terrorist purposes in October last year.

The second relates to the collection or possession of information useful in the preparation of an act of terrorism.

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Babies for sale: The scandal of China's brutal single child policy

Under China's strict birth-control laws, Wai Ling, 19, and her boyfriend, 21, are too young to get married - and without being married they can't register their daughter's birth.

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The alternative of a court appearance and swingeing fine for having an illegal child would be equally ruinous - so Wai Ling feels she has little choice but to sell her newborn baby to a child trafficker.

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Embrace digital or die, EMI told

Many record label bosses believe it is the duty of successful bands to stick with the companies that nurtured them so that their earnings can subsidise new talent. However, bands complain that too much of their money is used to subsidise lavish lifestyles for label bosses.

Hands is understood to have been surprised at the size of salaries paid to second-tier executives. On Friday he warned that unless there was a major cultural change, more established bands could follow Radiohead's lead, choosing to cut the label out of the loop and distribute their music directly to consumers.

And that's what they all should do! Make a creative video for YouTube etc. in order to generate some "publicity," then distribute your music directly to the consumers.

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Obama: GOP doesn't own faith and values

After speaking to an evangelical church on Sunday in this traditionally conservative South Carolina city, Sen. Barack Obama said that Republicans no longer have a firm grip on religion in political discourse.

And just for the record, faith and values are not synonymous.

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Chaste Home, Alabama, Where You Can't Buy a Dildo

It's easy to scoff. We can roll our eyes at those weird Southern states and joke that you can marry your teenage sister but not buy a Fleshlight to tide you over until she gets older. But in all the laughter, we risk missing the implications, such as: 1) Women are too fragile to be trusted in retail stores that sell products designed to promote sexual response and pleasure. 2) Parents are not to be trusted to keep their underage kids out of such stores. 3) Business owners cannot be relied upon to follow the rules about covering up windows to prevent passersby from seeing anything that might offend them.

If that's not the message of this law, what is?

Read more, but you can only use your hands.

Bush denies approving torture

President Bush said yesterday that aggressive interrogation measures he authorized in classified memos do not constitute torture and have prevented terrorist attacks on America.

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The New York Times, citing two secret 2005 Justice Department memos, reported that Mr. Bush signed off on "enhanced" interrogation techniques, including the use of painful physical and psychological methods, such as head slaps, freezing temperatures and simulated drownings known as waterboarding, in combination.

Don't be tortured by GWB here.

The Problem with Atheism

My concern with the use of the term “atheism” is both philosophical and strategic. I’m speaking from a somewhat unusual and perhaps paradoxical position because, while I am now one of the public voices of atheism, I never thought of myself as an atheist before being inducted to speak as one. I didn’t even use the term in The End of Faith, which remains my most substantial criticism of religion. And, as I argued briefly in Letter to a Christian Nation, I think that “atheist” is a term that we do not need, in the same way that we don’t need a word for someone who rejects astrology. We simply do not call people “non-astrologers.” All we need are words like “reason” and “evidence” and “common sense” and “bullshit” to put astrologers in their place, and so it could be with religion.

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So, let me make my somewhat seditious proposal explicit: We should not call ourselves “atheists.” We should not call ourselves “secularists.” We should not call ourselves “humanists,” or “secular humanists,” or “naturalists,” or “skeptics,” or “anti-theists,” or “rationalists,” or “freethinkers,” or “brights.” We should not call ourselves anything. We should go under the radar—for the rest of our lives. And while there, we should be decent, responsible people who destroy bad ideas wherever we find them.

Now, it just so happens that religion has more than its fair share of bad ideas. And it remains the only system of thought, where the process of maintaining bad ideas in perpetual immunity from criticism is considered a sacred act. This is the act of faith. And I remain convinced that religious faith is one of the most perverse misuses of intelligence we have ever devised. So we will, inevitably, continue to criticize religious thinking. But we should not define ourselves and name ourselves in opposition to such thinking.

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McCain: No Muslim president, U.S. better with Christian one

"I admire the Islam. There's a lot of good principles in it," he said. "But I just have to say in all candor that since this nation was founded primarily on Christian principles, personally, I prefer someone who I know who has a solid grounding in my faith."

Shut up, John. When you talk out of both sides of your mouth like this, you show your ignorance and prejudice.

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Split court says candidates can lie

Government has no business trying to stop political candidates from deliberately lying about each other in campaign ads, a divided state Supreme Court ruled Thursday.

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Radiohead album bets on fast release, open pricing

The release of popular rock group Radiohead's new album next week is the latest wake-up call for a music industry still struggling to deal with the advent of digital music, experts say.

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I am creating artificial life, declares US gene pioneer

Craig Venter, the controversial DNA researcher involved in the race to decipher the human genetic code, has built a synthetic chromosome out of laboratory chemicals and is poised to announce the creation of the first new artificial life form on Earth.

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Chilly reception for debate offer

The issue is a bit more complicated than that. What Bast wants is for Gore to debate one of three authorities who dispute the former vice president's assertion that global warming is a crisis that requires an immediate, hugely expensive response potentially damaging to the U.S. and world economies.

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Secret U.S. Endorsement of Severe Interrogations

When the Justice Department publicly declared torture “abhorrent” in a legal opinion in December 2004, the Bush administration appeared to have abandoned its assertion of nearly unlimited presidential authority to order brutal interrogations.

But soon after Alberto R. Gonzales’s arrival as attorney general in February 2005, the Justice Department issued another opinion, this one in secret. It was a very different document, according to officials briefed on it, an expansive endorsement of the harshest interrogation techniques ever used by the Central Intelligence Agency.

The new opinion, the officials said, for the first time provided explicit authorization to barrage terror suspects with a combination of painful physical and psychological tactics, including head-slapping, simulated drowning and frigid temperatures.

The path you never thought your country would travel.

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Verizon Can Charge You$175 If They Cancel Your Service "For Good Cause"

We're all very familiar with the idea that a consumer has to pay an early termination fee if they drop service before their contract is over, but this clause comes as somewhat of a surprise: "An early termination fee will apply...if we terminate [your service] early for good cause."

WTF?

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To end the war in Iraq; whatever happened to Senate Rule 22?

I just want to add that middle-income voters, are tapped out and do not have that two percent the Democrats want. Do the above mentioned congress members want to see a copy of our property tax bills, our utility bills, and our food bills? We should gladly supply them with these copies. To every voter who voted for this change and are shaking their head at this tax surcharge to fund the war, start making copies of your bills and send them onto your congressional member. As for wealthier Americans, their accountants will go into overdrive to avoid this tax surcharge.

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Several States Are Discussing Secession From The United States

When you read the headline of this brief story, it’s reminiscent of what occurred prior to the beginning of the Civil War. The news came as a surprise to me, as I wasn’t aware there was a “Secessionist” movement in the United States, but there it is, right before your eyes. What’s even more startling are the reasons the states wish to dissolve their partnership with the Union, and some of it actually makes sense:

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An Analysis of the Presidents Who Are Responsible for the Borrowing

There is no question and a lot of mathematical proof that the steepest upward rises in debt since the end of World War II, started with President Reagan and continued with other so called Neo-Conservatives. (See red in Figure 1 below. For larger views of any graph in this paper just put your mouse pointer over the graph and click on it).

Make sure to check out the graphs.

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Search prototype gets the picture

Researchers at Purdue University have developed a search engine that retrieves results based on an image or a sketch. Draw a picture of a wing nut, and the engine will search a database and retrieve all the images that match the drawing.

Learn more.

Californian cities vote on smoking ban in apartments

Two California cities are pushing anti-smoking legislation to previously unseen limits by banning tenants from lighting up inside apartment buildings.

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24 illegal song downloads cost US woman 220,000 dollars

In the first US trial to challenge the illegal downloading of music on the Internet, a single mother from Minnesota was ordered Thursday to pay 220,000 dollars for sharing 24 songs online.

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The GOP Plot to Defeat Ron Paul

It is not enough that seemingly every state that can is desperately moving up primary contest dates to as close to January 1, 2008 as possible in the hopes of derailing the momentum that presidential candidate Ron Paul (R-Tex) will derive from a good New Hampshire finish. Now the GOP in many states has apparently taken to shutting down the possibility that Independents or Democrats can vote for Ron Paul in the GOP primary.

Read more.

Court Leaves Ala. Sex Toy Ban Intact

The U.S. Supreme Court declined Monday to hear a challenge to Alabama's ban on the sale of sex toys, ending a nine-year legal battle and sending a warning to store owners to clean off their shelves.

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The law does not ban the possession of sex toys, and it doesn't regulate other items, including condoms or virility drugs. Residents may legally purchase sex toys out of state for use in Alabama, or they may buy sexual devices in Alabama that have a "bona fide medical" purpose.

Read more and make sure to declare your "horniness" a medical condition if you live in Alabama.

Making the case for telework

Why do most companies still resist the idea of letting employees work outside of the home office?

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Part of the explanation simply might be the historical mindset that employees must be physically present to be considered truly on the job. Indeed, some employers might be worried that out of sight also will be out of mind--meaning less productive if not kept under the watchful eye of supervisors.

This doesn't necessarily hold up to closer scrutiny.

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Do we need NASA?

Space, by contrast, until recently has remained the domain of NASA. Burt Rutan, the aerospace engineer famous for building a suborbital rocket plane that won the Ansari X Prize, believes NASA is crowding out private efforts. "Taxpayer-funded NASA should only fund research and not development," Rutan said during a recent panel discussion at the California Institute of Technology. "When you spend hundreds of billions of dollars to build a manned spacecraft, you're...dumbing down a generation of new, young engineers (by saying), 'No, you can't take new approaches, you have to use this old technology.'"

Rutan and his fellow pilots, venture capitalists and entrepreneurs have undertaken a formidable task: To demonstrate to the public that space travel need not be synonymous with government programs. In fact, many of them say NASA has become more of a hindrance than a help.

Read more.

Secessionists meeting in Tennessee

In an unlikely marriage of desire to secede from the United States, two advocacy groups from opposite political traditions — New England and the South — are sitting down to talk.

Tired of foreign wars and what they consider right-wing courts, the Middlebury Institute wants liberal states like Vermont to be able to secede peacefully.

That sounds just fine to the League of the South, a conservative group that refuses to give up on Southern independence.

Read more.

Radiohead Spokesperson: Fans Paying Close to Retail for Pricing-Optional Album

Fans can pre-order the digital version of Radiohead's upcoming In Rainbows album for any price they want, but most of them have ponied up an amount similar to what would be charged at a retailer, according to band spokesperson Murray Chalmers, who spoke with the BBC: "Although the idea is that you can decide what you want to pay, most people are deciding on a normal retail price with very few trying to buy it for a penny."

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Radiohead took a huge risk in releasing their album this way, but judging from this early indication (which, granted, comes from their publicist), the risk seems to be paying off, not only in terms of press coverage, but also by generating advance sales -- of a high-priced album package, no less. Surely, there's a lesson to other bands and labels floating around here somewhere: increase anticipation for your album, treat fans with respect, give them options and offer something truly attractive to the hardcore following, and the world will beat a path to your server -- which will then require an upgrade, as the operators of Radiohead.com found out yesterday.

Yeah for Radiohead.

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Top Democrats propose war surtax

The surtax would be "a percentage of your tax bill," said House Appropriations Committee Chairman Dave Obey, D-Wisconsin. "And if you don't like the cost, then shut down the war."

We've been trying to shut down the fucking war!

So let me get this straight: Rather than ending the war machine as they were put into office to do, the "top Democrats" want to tax us in order to keep the war machine going? They think this will stop the war? Don't be such wimps! Don't keep trying to put it off on us! You were voted in to office, you freakin' morons, to do one thing: end the war. And you can't even do that. In fact, many of you support killing more Iraqis and Arabs in general. Which really just proves that this country does not have two parties (a flaw in the system anyway) as both the Republicans and Democrats are interchangeable pawns in the machine.

I'll stop ranting now.

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Coming soon to kindergarten class: antipiracy ed

Tired of their antipiracy messages being ignored by the teen- and college-age set, the entertainment industry is attempting to indoctrinate far younger disciples.

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"In the 15- to 24-year-old (range), reaching that demographic with morality-based messages is an impossible proposition...which is why we have really focused our efforts on elementary school children," said Ric Hirsch, the ESA's senior vice president of intellectual property enforcement. "At those ages, children are open to receiving messages, guidelines, rules of the road, if you will, with respect to intellectual property."

"Morality-based messages"? Did he really say that? The entertainment industry should not be lecturing anyone on morality. They are all in this because their outdated business models are losing money and rather than actually come up with a new and innovative business model, they would rather spend their time and money trying to indoctrinate elementary school kids. I think the solution is what Radiohead is doing. Artists, forget the labels, they are no longer needed. Make your art available to the masses, if it is good, you'll get your money.

I kept reading:

The ESA has gone so far as to develop a copyright education curriculum geared toward the kindergarten through fifth-grade set. Since 2005, the organization has been trying to find ways to get teachers to incorporate its tenets into their everyday lessons, although Hirsch did not say how successful that effort has been. The components, which include charts, teachers guides, lesson plans and a wall poster imploring students to "Join the © Team," are also now available online.

Because reading, writing, mathematics, and sciences are really not all that important, thus, time can be taken away from teaching those boring topics in order to indoctrinate our students with "morality-based messages" on antipiracy.

I had to stop reading. Too pissed off.

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THE MESSAGE: Hip Hop Is The New Apple Pie

Now, unable to do anything useful about our catastrophe in Iraq, Congress moves on to a more manageable mortal threat — rap lyrics.

And we let them get away with this shit.

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Congress raises limit again as U.S. debt nears $10 trillion

According to the folks who follow this stuff closely, the national debt has been rising by an average of $1.36 billion per day since September of last year.

And each citizen now has a share of nearly $30,000.

But Congress has an easy solution to deal with the mounting red ink. Instead of fretting over it, members simply allow the government to borrow more money, much to the consternation of some critics.

And this will be the downfall of America.

Read more, but demand more financial responsibility from your representatives.

Online Videos May Be Conduits for Viruses

Online videos aren't just for bloopers and rants - some might also be conduits for malicious code that can infect your computer.

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