Saturday, November 29, 2008

Capitalism at its finest.

I'm sure you've already seen this. It's pretty fucked up.

Three violent deaths in two stores marred the opening of the Christmas shopping season Friday.

In the first, a temporary Wal-Mart employee was trampled to death in a rush of thousands of early morning shoppers as he and other employees attempted to unlock the doors of a Long Island, New York, store at 5 a.m., police said.

In the second, unrelated incident, two men were shot dead in a Toys "R" Us in Palm Desert, California, after they argued in the store, police said.


The Wal-Mart worker, whom authorities did not identify, was 34 and lived in Queens, said Nassau County police Detective Lt. Michael Fleming.

"This was utter chaos as these men tried to open the door this morning," Fleming said.

Video showed as many as a dozen people knocked to the floor in the stampede of people trying to get into the Wal-Mart store, Fleming said.

The employee was "stepped on by hundreds of people" as other workers attempted to fight their way through the crowd, Fleming said.

"Several minutes" passed before others were able to clear space around the man and attempt to render aid. Police arrived, and "as they were giving first aid, those police officers were also jostled and pushed," he said.

"Shoppers ... were on a full-out run into the store," he said.

The crowd had begun forming outside the store by 9 p.m. Thursday, Fleming said. By 5 a.m. Friday, when the doors were unlocked, there were 2,000 or so shoppers, many of whom "surged forward," breaking the doors, he said.

The man was taken by ambulance to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Others in the crowd sustained minor injuries such as sprained ankles, Fleming said.

A 28-year-old pregnant woman was taken to a hospital, but "the baby is going to be OK," Fleming said. She was to be released later in the day, he said.









The California shootings occurred about 11:30 a.m. (2:30 p.m. ET), authorities said.

By the time police arrived, two men were dead from gunshot wounds, Riverside County sheriff's Sgt. Dennis Gutierrez said. He said authorities are not seeking any other suspects.

Gutierrez said that the men did not appear to be store employees and that the dispute appeared unrelated to shopping.

"There was a confrontation inside of the store. But over a toy? I don't think that is accurate," he said.

Two handguns were found near the men's bodies, Gutierrez said.

In a written statement, Toys "R" Us spokeswoman Kathleen Waugh said the shooting appeared unrelated to the heavy shopping day.

"Our understanding is that this act seems to have been the result of a personal dispute between the individuals involved," she said.

She said company officials were "outraged" by the shooting and were working with authorities to find out what happened.

Gutierrez said no one else in the store was injured. Gutierrez said no one else in the store was injured. The store remained closed Friday afternoon but was expected to open as usual Saturday.

He said authorities would not release the men's names until their families have been notified.

Daniel Watson said he was at home with his children when his wife called from the Toys "R" Us store, where she and her mother were shopping.

"All I could hear was gunshots in the back," he said. "She said, 'They're in here shooting.' I told her to run and hide, stay down and hide."

He said his wife did just that, ducking under a clothes rack until the threat was over. Watson said neither woman was hurt.









Asked about the possibility of criminal charges in the Wal-Mart death, Fleming said he would not rule it out but noted that charges would be "very difficult," as it would be "almost impossible" to identify people in the crowd from the video, and those in the front of the crowd were pushed by those behind them.

Hundreds of people may have lined up in an orderly fashion but got caught up in the rush, he said.

Wal-Mart spokesman Kelly Cheeseman issued a statement saying, "We are saddened to report that a gentleman who was working for a temporary agency on our behalf died at the store and a few other customers were injured. Our thoughts and prayers are with their families at this difficult time."

The company is investigating the incident, the statement said.

Officers patrolling the shopping center overnight had had concerns about the size of the crowd, Fleming said, and had tried to get those in line better organized. Wal-Mart security officers were also present overnight, but he said he did not know how many.

"I don't know what it's worth to Wal-Mart or to any of these stores that run these sales events," Fleming said, "but it has become common knowledge that large crowds do gather on the Friday after Thanksgiving in response to these sales and in an effort to do their holiday shopping at the cheapest prices.

"I think it is incumbent upon the commercial establishments to recognize that this has the potential to occur at any store. Today, it happened to be Wal-Mart. It could have been any other store where hundreds and hundreds of people gather."

Asked whether the security had been adequate, Fleming said, "In light of the outcome, in hindsight, the answer is obviously no. ... This crowd was out of control."

- Source




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Friday, November 28, 2008

North vs South: Dinosaur Edition.

I don't know if this guy from Natural Bridge, Virginia (hey! that's right near me!) was a fan of the fairly obscure comic, Cadillacs & Dinosaurs, but regardless of his comic book savvy, his exhibit is awesome.


^ Dinosaurs @ 0:35 ^

The bit preceeding the dino exhibit is pretty funny too.


nothing after the jump.




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Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Internet the cause of suicide? Sure, why not.

In a move that reminded me somewhat of Brandon Vedas, a Florida man broadcast his suicidal overdose.

Police in Florida are investigating the role of Web site moderators and discussion board members in a live streaming video of a teen's suicide last week.

Nineteen-year-old Abraham Biggs Jr. wrote that he intended to kill himself with a combination of prescription drugs, offered a link to his Web cam, and invited people to watch. Members of a discussion board commented on the event as it unfolded.


Some expressed shock, while others laughed or encouraged Biggs to die. Some members uncovered Biggs' identity, phone number, and address, and at least one online community member called police. Twelve hours after Biggs posted the note and a link to Justin.tv through a discussion board on bodybuilding.com, police found his lifeless body while the suicide video continued to stream online.


Vedas' overdose was also met with a large deal of skepticism and a few who tried in vain to reach his parents, poison control, or to at least found out where he was. The thing that most people don't seem to realize is that it isn't exactly all that simple to rectify a situation like this. Sure, you can get their IP address, but that's only going to give you a very vague idea of their location, showing where the users subscriber servers are located.

Some of the disturbing comments occurred after Biggs had lost consciousness or died. Justin.tv, the forum where Biggs streamed the incident, deleted the video and the related string of comments, so it is unclear whether taunts were made before Biggs lost consciousness or took the pills.

Biggs' father told The Associated Press that he believes his son's post was a cry for help and that he is appalled that no one responded before it was too late. The Pembroke Pines Police Department confirmed in an interview over the weekend that they are looking into what role, if any, Web site moderators and online community members played in the situation.


I'm shocked that the father seems to levy this so heavily on random people on the internet. Biggs had made such threats or given indications of severe depression and/or suicidal thoughts before. Why was this not acted upon by his friends and family? You know, the people that actually see him in the real world all the fucking time. But surely their inactivity wasn't the problem. The problem was the random people who had no idea of the veracity of Biggs' suicidal urges. If it wasn't that site that Biggs broadcasted his suicide on, it would have been another site. If he didn't have a webcam, it easily could have been a regular camcorder. Biggs was going to commit suicide whether some random fucktards urged him on or not. I seriously doubt the website was what pushed him over the edge.

People who claimed to have witnessed the event said in online postings that they tried to get help from Web site moderators who did not take the situation seriously and respond until members made several pleas for help. Several people also said it was difficult to determine whether the footage was real and whether Bigg's threat was serious because they claim he had made similar threats before.

The Web sites' operators have not commented on the investigation, but Justin.tv CEO Michael Seibel issued a statement.

"We regret that this has occurred and want to respect the privacy of the broadcaster and his family during this time," he said.

Other people have streamed their suicides and plotted suicide with others online. Suicide is illegal in many places and those who attempt it but fail can face prosecution.

Posting video of a suicide is not generally a criminal offense, although it violates terms of use on sites like Justin.tv, which ban inappropriate and violent content. However, that site, and others like it, rely on users to report inappropriate content, making it impossible in some cases to prevent live footage.

In New York State, anyone who advises someone to commit suicide can be charged with manslaughter.

- Source


Was it mean-spirited to mock and encourage his suicide? Yeah, sure it was. People saying mean shit on the internet? Never heard of it before. Irregardless, I wonder how likely Biggs suicide would have been prevented if no posts had been made to encourage him. My bet, if he didn't kill himself then, he would have later. And if his family and friends didn't notice or proactively seek help for his behaviour already, it makes me wonder if they would have had Biggs been talked down. This idea that someone has to be at fault, someone other than the individual who committed the act, is complete bullshit.



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Monday, November 24, 2008

Sentence diagramming Axl Rose.

Heard this the other day and thought it pretty funny.

This is a huge weekend, an historical weekend, if you're a fan of Guns N' Roses. The new album, Chinese Democracy, is being released. It's an album some 16 years in the making. Lead singer Axl Rose, the only original member remaining from the band's late 80's glory days, has been writing, rewriting, recording, tweaking, and fussing with this record since before the first Clinton administration. In other words, he's been editing. As any writer knows, it's the editing process that can really slow things down. See, back in those glory days, Guns N' Roses were raw energy. Young, fresh. Don't think about it, just rock it. That was the era of classics like Welcome to the Jungle and Paradise City. I wonder what would have happened if Axl Rose had hired an editor back then. What would that editor say about perhaps the band's most popular hit of all time, "Sweet Child O' Mine"?





Hi Axl,

Just got your manuscript and demo for the song "Sweet Child O' (sic) Mine." I think we need to talk. As your editor, I am responsible for making your songs as cogent as possible, for helping them reach the high editorial standards your public has come to expect. With this one, I am certainly earning my keep. After several attempts to reach you by phone, I am sending along my notes. Please make appropriate fixes as soon as possible, at which point I can send them to copy editing and proofreading in time for your upcoming studio session.

"She's got a smile that, it seems to me" -- Why equivocate? You weaken your point by framing this as a mere personal observation instead of a fact.

"Reminds me of childhood memories" -- Redundant. You either have a memory or you're reminded of something. You're not reminded of a memory. Heavy-metal fans won't stand for such writing, my friend.

"Where everything was as fresh as a bright blue sky" -- I asked around the office and no one is sure a blue sky is "fresh." You could have a blue sky at the end of a long, sweaty day and there would be nothing fresh about it. And she reminds you of a time when things were fresh? Fond reminiscences of freshness are no foundation for love. Fix.

"Now and then when I see her face it takes me away to that special place" -- Again, you're weakening your own argument. Why does the sight of her face transport you only periodically? And is it just her smile or her entire face that does this to you? Because you've already said both. Consistency, Axl!

"And if I stared too long, I'd probably break down and cry" -- Why would you do that? Because you miss the freshness you described earlier? I think the whole "fresh" thing is really tripping you up. Also, crying? Wimpy.

OK, on to the second verse.

"She's got eyes of the bluest skies" -- See, this is just getting worse. Now her eyes are made of sky? Nice imagery, but you just got done saying her smile reminded you of memories of sky. Is this verse actually supposed to be a second draft of the first verse? Am I just confused on formatting? Help!

"As if they thought of rain" -- Axl, eyes can't think of rain. And even if they could, which they can't, why would bluest skies think of rain? Perhaps less imagery of thinking eyes made of sky and more direct exploration of your feelings?

"I hate to look into those eyes and see an ounce of pain" -- Well, hell. I guess in your special Axl World anything is possible. Eyes can be made of sky, ponder the weather, and exhibit pain in amounts that can be weighed.

"Her hair reminds me of a warm safe place where as a child I'd hide" -- Delete. Fix. Do something. You'd hide in a place that reminded you of hair? Never show me such phrases again.

"And pray for the thunder and the rain to quietly pass me by" -- Whew. OK, listen to me now: Thunder can't quietly do anything. It's thunder. And, more importantly, do you really want to come across as a wuss who's constantly on the verge of weeping and skittering into hair caves to escape from rain? Is this a song about love or climatic anxiety? You need to work these things out.

Finally, Axl, I think we might have had a misunderstanding regarding my previous notes. When I wrote in colored pencil "Where do we go now?" I wasn't offering that as a lyric. I was simply observing that, in narrative terms, the song needed to progress in some way. You love the girl, she's helping you work through some issues, whatever. So where do we go now? But instead of providing a satisfactory conclusion, you simply took my note and repeated it over and over again before ultimately just stating the title of the song. This is unacceptable. Don't ask us, the listeners, where we go. That's up to you as the writer! Tell us where we go now!

Again, let's try to fix these things soon and get "Sweet Child of Mine" ("My Sweet Child"?) into your fans' hands as quickly as possible. Because, frankly, if it should ever hit the street in its current form, the song would be a colossal failure.

Talk soon!

Your Editor

- Source


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Friday, November 21, 2008

America: The Book on C-Span's BookTV

While looking for the Malcolm Gladwell appearance that I saw on BookTV for another post, my search on C-Span Archives gave me, somehow, America (The Book): A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction by Jon Stewart and others. And, yes, the appearance does have Stewart himself reading from the book.

If you got the time (it's a little over an hour long), give it a go.

nothing after the jump






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Malcolm Gladwell on Obama and "change."

I love Malcolm Gladwell. I'm not a fan of The New Yorker, but I do love Gladwell's books and was first turned onto him by this BookTV appearance promoting Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking. If you haven't read Blink, you really should.

Anyways, Gladwell was on Rachel Maddow's MSNBC show talking about Obama, "change", and why we are seeing former Clinton administration appointees as Obama's cabinet choices. Even if you don't like Maddow, you should give this a view just because of Gladwell. His explanation of the 10,000 Hour Rule is incredibly enlightening.

Vid after the jump.


^ Gladwell @ 2:40 ^



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No heart? No problem!

D'Zhana Simmons says she felt like a "fake person" for 118 days when she had no heart beating in her chest.

"But I know that I really was here," the 14-year-old said, "and I did live without a heart."


As she was being released Wednesday from a Miami hospital, the shy teen seemed in awe of what she's endured. Since July, she's had two heart transplants and survived with artificial heart pumps — but no heart — for four months between the transplants.

Last spring D'Zhana and her parents learned she had an enlarged heart that was too weak to sufficiently pump blood. They traveled from their home in Clinton, S.C. to Holtz Children's Hospital in Miami for a heart transplant.

But her new heart didn't work properly and could have ruptured so surgeons removed it two days later.

And they did something unusual, especially for a young patient: They replaced the heart with a pair of artificial pumping devices that kept blood flowing through her body until she could have a second transplant.

Dr. Peter Wearden, a cardiothoracic surgeon at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh who works with the kind of pumps used in this case, said what the Miami medical team managed to do "is a big deal."

"For (more than) 100 days, there was no heart in this girl's body? That is pretty amazing," Wearden said.


Damn right that's a big deal! That's awesome! I can't wait until people can be preserved as detached heads in jars.


"Welcome! To the world of tomorrow!"

However, it's not quite as easy and simple to live without a heart as one might have hoped.

Although artificial hearts have been approved for adults, none has been federally approved for use in children. In general, there are fewer options for pediatric patients. That's because it's rarer for them to have these life-threatening conditions, so companies don't invest as much into technology that could help them, said Dr. Marco Ricci, director of pediatric cardiac surgery at the University of Miami.

He said this case demonstrates that doctors now have one more option.

"In the past, this situation could have been lethal," Ricci said.

And it nearly was. During the almost four months between her two transplants, D'Zhana wasn't able to breathe on her own half the time. She also had kidney and liver failure and gastrointestinal bleeding.

Taking a short stroll — when she felt up for it — required the help of four people, at least one of whom would steer the photocopier-sized machine that was the external part of the pumping devices.

- Source


Eentually the technology will get smaller. I can only hope that one day, when someone asks, "have you no heart?" I can safely reply, "actually, no. I don't."



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Copernicus found.

It's crazy to think that Copernicus, one of the godfathers of astrology, has been in an unknown grave for all these years. Copernicus is the first known to have challenged the Catholic Church's notion that the sun revolves around the Earth, as was supported by biblical interpretations. This revolutionary theory laid the groundwork for many future astrologists. His findings were later published, De revolutionibus orbium coelestium, as he lay upon his death bed. Story has it that as the first printing was laid upon his bed, Copernicus woke from a coma, read the manuscript, and then passed. Copernicus was later buried somewhere within the Cathedral of Frauenburg.

Archeologists over the years have searched to find Copernicus' final resting place, and now it is thoroughly believed that they have found the body of Copernicus.


Researchers said Thursday they have identified the remains of Nicolaus Copernicus by comparing DNA from a skeleton and hair retrieved from one of the 16th-century astronomer's books.

Polish archaeologist Jerzy Gassowski told a news conference that forensic facial reconstruction of the skull that his team found in 2005 buried in a Roman Catholic Cathedral in Frombork, Poland, bears striking resemblance to existing portraits of Copernicus.

The reconstruction shows a broken nose and other features that resemble a self-portrait of Copernicus, and the skull bears a cut mark above the left eye that corresponds with a scar shown in the painting.

Moreover, the skull belonged to a man aged around 70 — Copernicus's age when he died in 1543.

In addition, Swedish genetics expert Marie Allen found that DNA from a tooth and femur bone matched that taken from two hairs retrieved from a book that the 16th-century Polish astronomer owned, which is kept at a library of Sweden's Uppsala University where Allen works.

- Source




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Thursday, November 20, 2008

George Will bemoans grooming Palin for 2012.

I know it's beating a dead horse, but Palin really has turned out to be the Giving Tree of political jokes. Like the Energizer Bunny, she just keeps going and going. All the while completely oblivious to how droll and inept she appears. Many think she can be groomed, others, such as George Will, don't quite agree.

When asked whether he touhgt Palin coul or would be the new face of the GOP, George Will had this to say.


"Instead of going to ground, if she went to Princeton and studied with Paul [Krugman] and some other, after four years she would be half as ready as Paul Ryan and some other already are. Why are we starting with her?"

- Source @ -0:45




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Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Yeah, that sounds about right.

Saw this a little bit ago and found it hilarious.

The GOP is as junk-sick as Jeff Conaway, the chief head case on VH1's Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew.

In this reality TV nightmare world, starpower is measured by the number of times a celebrity can be caught on camera puking into a wastebasket during detox and the degree to which drug use has hampered an actor's ability to speak — can he utter a complete and coherent sentence or only communicate in slurred gurgles and zonked-out cries? If he can do the latter, he's an A-Lister. If the former, he's a has-been.

The Republican Party is an awful lot like that. On second thought, the GOP is worse. It needs an intervention, right here, right now.

Here's what should happen:

The GOP needs to break all ties with Sarah Palin. She is not its leader. She is not its candidate in 2012. At best she is a future television host, all perkiness and smiles and well-scripted ah-shucks-isms. At worst, she's a dangerously inept Alaskan hillbilly with a penchant for end-times theology and the intellectual curiosity of brain cancer.

So, with Sarah plain and intolerant out of the way, who's the leader of the Republican Party? Well, nobody. At least at the moment. But there is a movement going on, one that might reshape the GOP the way Barry Goldwater's ideas gradually transformed the party. And it's centered around Texas Congressman Ron Paul, a man the current GOP won't even let into its national convention.

That said, Paul isn't the guy the GOP needs to turn to. Aside from his opposition to the Iraq War, a novel move for a member of the current GOP, Paul's beliefs are too tied to the past — he's an isolationist who wants the U.S. out of NATO and the U.N., a proponent of dismantling the Federal Reserve and ending the income tax, and a believer in the guns-and-God platform that has supported the Republican Party over the last eight years. With Ron Paul, it'll be one step forward, 12 steps back.

Which brings us to this next bit of advice: quit kowtowing to evangelicals. They don't speak for the majority of Americans, nor do they speak for the majority of Christians. Yes, most Americans want God in their lives, but they don't want Him involved in foreign policy matters, high school display cases, or license plate designs. God knows who's naughty and who's nice. He doesn't need an "I Believe" license plate or two Ten Commandments tablets next to the state basketball championship trophy to figure that out. Go for somebody quietly religious. You know, the way Republicans used to be, back when they were more concerned about balancing budgets than thumping Bibles.

Speaking of religion, it's time to get rid of the false prophets — men like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Mark Levin. This unholy trinity has abandoned all objectivity in favor of blind, spit-spewing support of the GOP — right, wrong, or just plain retarded. If the Republicans hope to win back the middle-of-the-roaders they just lost, they're going to have to be willing to openly criticize the party itself. People expect the GOP's leading thinkers to disagree, not to march in lockstep. But the Republican Party loses credibility every single time Hannity goes on a rant about why the "Democrat" Party is hell-bent on destroying America and why the GOP is an example of all that is good and holy. It's fine to be partisan. It's fine to argue a point of view. But for Siddhartha's sake, the intellectually dishonest discourse has to stop.

If they ever hope to regain power, the leaders of the GOP must also be careful never to listen to Dick Morris or Bill Kristol ever again. Up until the bitter end, Morris was proclaiming with a straight face that McCain would win; at some point Republicans need to consider the possibility that Morris is a double agent whose loyalties still lie with the Clintons. As for Kristol, the GOP should never forget that The Weekly Standard editor and the chairman of the Project for the New American Century is one of the chief architects of the neoconservative movement. Look where that got us. His dreams of a Benevolent Global Hegemony turned out to be a malicious worldwide clusterfuck.

Most importantly, the GOP needs to be honest about why John McCain lost in 2008. Don't be like Sen. Jim DeMint and lie to yourself. According to the Upstate senator, the American public turned against McCain because he wanted amnesty for illegal immigrants, supported anti-global warming initiatives, and embraced the Wall Street bailout. Um, I hate to break this to you, Minty, but on those issues McCain and Obama weren't much different, and we know who won there.

Last but not least, the most important step of all: Ditch Dutch. Yes, say good-bye to the Gipper. Trickle-down economics doesn't work, and deficit spending has nearly destroyed our economy. And all that good-versus-evil foreign-policy talk that Ronnie was so fond of? Well, it was really just talk; he didn't believe it, and neither should today's GOP.

One day, a new conservative leader will emerge to take the reins of the GOP and win the hearts and minds of the American public. But the road to recovery will either be a 28-day stay at a rehab program or a long, hard, self-destructive slog to the grave, the fate that awaits every user who just can't get off the junk.

- Source




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Gingrich: Fighting gay secular facism for the American Way.

Besides Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich's name is another consistently occurring for a potential 2012 GOP run. If the GOP thinks Newt will go over any better than Palin did, they might want to actually try and do some vetting this time around.

On a recent O'Reilly Factor appearance Newt had this to say:

"Look, I think there is a gay and secular fascism in this country that wants to impose its will on the rest of us, is prepared to use violence, to use harassment. I think it is prepared to use the government if it can get control of it. I think that it is a very dangerous threat to anybody who believes in traditional religion. And I think if you believe in historic Christianity, you have to confront the fact. And, frank — for that matter, if you believe in the historic version of Islam or the historic version of Judaism, you have to confront the reality that these secular extremists are determined to impose on you acceptance of a series of values that are antithetical, they're the opposite, of what you're taught in Sunday school."
- Source


Honestly, if Gingrich was a halfway viable candidate he would have been run back when he was still a hot name and well known for being Speaker of The House. Also, as Mike Barnicle points out, Newt is the one that lead the GOP down this Christian Fundamentalist, highly partisan, rhetoric instead of ideas route.


"There's Newt, the firebug..." ^



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Jonestown was some crazy shit.

My faux-guild in Guild Wars (I was the only member) was named the "Jim Jone Fun Aid Fan Club." I know about Jonestown, but it seems such a detached experience. Perhaps because I was not alive at the time to actually see the news reports.

Rachel Maddow talks with Fred Francis, the first reporter to discover the Jonestown massacre.


^ Maddow with Francis ^

Just say "NO!" to cults.


*small note: Despite popular belief, Kool Aid was not used to dispense cyanide at Jonestown. It was actually a generic Kool Aid alternative called Fun Aid.


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Real life Furbies!?!?

A primate species that looks like a living, breathing version of the Furby electronic toy has been found alive in the forested highlands of an Indonesian island for the first time in more than 70 years, scientists announced Tuesday.





Three specimens of the pygmy tarsier, a nocturnal creature about the size of a small mouse, were trapped and tracked this summer on Mount Rorekatimbo in Lore Lindu National Park in Central Sulawesi, Texas A&M University reported.

Texas A&M anthropologist Sharon Gursky-Doyen, leader of the expedition, said the tarsiers were found on mountainsides above 6,000 feet (1,800 meters) in elevation, amid damp, dangerous terrain. "I actually broke my fibula walking around there," she told msnbc.com.

Pygmy tarsiers rank among the rarest of the many tarsier species in Asia and the Pacific — and in fact some primatologists had written them off as extinct.

There are plenty of questions to be answered: For example, unlike nearly all other primate species, pygmy tarsiers have claws instead of nails on their fingers. Other clawed primates, such as marmosets and tamarins, are thought to have adapted to grip onto trees or dig out insects for food. Why did pygmy tarsiers follow a similar evolutionary path?

Unlike other tarsier species — including the species that live farther down the mountainside — the pygmy tarsiers don't seem to call to each other or mark their territory with a musky scent. "How are pygmy tarsiers communicating with one another if they're not doing it through vocalizations or scent marking?" Gursky-Doyen asked.

One clue came when the scientists saw a tarsier open its mouth in the wild. "It looked like it might be vocalizing, but I couldn't hear anything," Gursky-Doyen said. She speculated that the creature might have been calling in frequencies that couldn't be heard by humans, but were well-suited to cut through the cacophony of forest rainfall.

Gursky-Doyen said she hoped the latest find would put added pressure on government officials to protect habitat within the national park.

"At present, the national park is over 2,000 square kilometers [in area], but there are 60 villages of people living within that park," she explained. She said some of those settlements are closing in on the mountain habitat frequented by the reclusive tarsiers and other, yet-to-be-discovered species.

"As the villages get closer and closer, there's going to be more disruption," she said.

Gursky-Doyen’s research was funded by the National Geographic Society, the Conservation International Primate Action Fund, Primate Conservation Inc. and Texas A&M.

- Source




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Is Obama being naive about Lieberman?

Democrat-turned-independent Sen. Joe Lieberman managed to keep his Senate committee chairmanship in part because President-elect Barack Obama didn't want to punish him for supporting Sen. John McCain, Lieberman said Tuesday


The Senate Democratic caucus, following a lengthy and often heated debate, voted 42-13 Tuesday to let Lieberman continue chairing the Senate Homeland Security Committee.

The caucus did, however, strip Lieberman of his spot on the Environment and Public Works Committee.

A Democrat in the Senate for 18 years before going independent, Lieberman criticized Obama, the Democratic nominee, during the race for the White House.

"I know that my colleagues in the Senate Democratic caucus were moved not only that Sen. [Harry] Reid said about my longtime record, but by the appeal from President-elect Obama himself that the nation unite now to confront our very serious problems," Lieberman said in the Capitol as those colleagues nodded in agreement behind him.

Democrats were angered by Lieberman's speech to the Republican National Convention, where he praised his longtime friend McCain and criticized Obama for not reaching across the aisle to work with Republicans during his time in the Senate.

Reid, the Senate majority leader, said Lieberman's criticism of the Democratic nominee had angered him.

"I would defy anyone to be more angry than I was," he said Tuesday. "But I also believe that if you look at the problems we face as a nation, is this a time we walk out of here saying, 'Boy did we get even'?"

Obama urged Reid privately to let bygones be bygones, sources said.

- Source


That's all well and good, but I agree more with Rachel Maddow.


^^ Maddow: The dems have already lost Lieberman. ^^



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Irate Christians want to stop PBS funding.

A new PBS documentary entitled "The Bible's Buried Secrets" examines some of the more recent findings that both support and dispute the accuracy of the Bible.

"The Bible's Buried Secrets," premiering tonight on PBS, presents archaeological findings that will annoy believers as well as skeptics - which suggests the TV documentary just might be on the right track.

At least that's the view of William Dever, a world-renowned archaeologist who worked on the show and calls it "the first honest film that's been made" about the first books of the Bible. For Jews, those books make up the Torah and other early scriptures, while Christians would call them the early part of the Old Testament.

The two-hour show has already stirred up a backlash among some believers. For example, the program airs archaeologists' assertions that:

* The Bible's first books have been traced back to multiple authors writing over a span of centuries.

* There's no evidence for the actual existence of patriarchs such as the biblical Abraham.

* Some ancient adherents of Yahweh also worshiped his "wife," a fertility goddess named Asherah.

* The Exodus appears to have involved just a small segment of the Jewish population rather than all Jews.

* The Land of Canaan was not taken over by conquest - rather, the Israelites actually might have been Canaanites who migrated into the highlands and created a new identity for themselves. "Joshua really didn't fight the Battle of Jericho," Dever said.

[...]

Disbelievers may be discomfited as well: "The Bible's Buried Secrets" includes a segment highlighting the work of the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary's Ron Tappy, who is part of a team studying an inscription at Israel's Tel Zayit archaeological site. The inscription hints that a well-organized state was functioning in the 10th century B.C., with Jerusalem as its seat.

Yet another inscription at Tel Dan, from the ninth century B.C., appears to refer to the "House of David" - although that interpretation is disputed. Such evidence suggests that King David and King Solomon were historical figures who matched up with the biblical accounts.

The funny thing is, it's only the bible literalists that have freaked out and are now submitting an online petition to remove all federal funding for PBS.
[T]he American Family Association [has started] up an online petition urging Congress to cut off federal funding for PBS.
- Source

According to the AFA's website,
Take Action

Sign the petition urging Congress to stop using tax dollars to fund PBS. Let PBS operate like every other non-commercial network, raising its own money from its viewers instead of using tax money.

Petition Text

TO MEMBERS OF CONGRESS

In light of PBS's decision to air "The Bible's Buried Secrets," I ask that you vote to stop funding PBS with tax dollars.

PBS is knowingly choosing to insult and attack Christianity by airing a program that declares the Bible "isn't true and a bunch of stories that never happened."

PBS should raise its own money. I should not be forced to help pay for its programs.

- Source

Keep in mind that PBS does pay for over 50% of its operating costs itself through contributions. And, yeah, fuck Sesame Street, Reading Rainbow and all the other educational programing on PBS.

Keep in mind this is the AFA that believes Jews control the world's media, that profane content on TV is directly because of Jews who push for an anti-family agenda, whose members have openly and physically attacked lesbians and gays, who CBS's Senior Vice President, Gene Mater, said, "we look upon [AFA founder] Wildmon's efforts as the greatest frontal assault on intellectual freedom this country has ever faced." - Source

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Monday, November 17, 2008

Mortal Kombat vs D.C. Universe - Superman has infinite cheese.

MK vs DCU has finally come out, and it seems that Superman is just as invincible as his comic book character. How so? Thanks to shitty game testing a horrendous flaw in game mechanics, Superman can simply perform a ground-pound move that causes the ground to shake, sending his opponents tumbling off their feet. This might not seem bad, but there is no distance limiter. You can deal damage anywhere as long as the opponent is touching the ground. Superman's recovery time from this move is so quick that he can then immediately execute the move again before his opponent has time to react, sending them tumbling to the ground again and have the move repeated ad nauseum.

Check the YouTube vid after the jump.


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Thursday, November 6, 2008

Palin in 2012? Bring it!

As I was listening to Limbaugh on my way to school, I got to hear some of his infamous tripe about Obama's election to be President. Such as:

"The Dow Jones plummeted today even though The Anointed One (Obama) is now President. What does that tell you?" It tells me that the Dow is continuing a downward trend that has been occurring for over a month now. Someone should tell Limbaugh that the Dow Jones is determined by more than just who won the election. Current economic climates would matter more, I would think. Also, Obama isn't President yet. George Bush is. Obama is President Elect.

And here's what was the best one:

"You want to know why McCain's staff is attacking Palin? It's because she's a conservative." Yep. It's not because Palin is a backstabbing, spiteful, mean-spirited, spotlight hogging compulsive liar that was trumped up in a desperate last-ditch attempt to rally the base. It's because McCain's a faggy liberal douche.

And if you think we've seen the last of Palin, many who agree with Limbaugh that Palin is the new face of the GOP are pushing hard for all those so-called "Georgetown Conservatives" to begrudgingly accept the notion. Expect this to drive a huge schism in the GOP.

On one hand you have Limbaugh, Hannity, and the rest of the nutball group that want Palin. Why do they want Palin? Because she's so much like Dubya. Short on substance, full of lies, but perfectly willing to be a complete tool and say whatever is need to win over and over and she winks while she does it. She's proudly ignorant and doesn't bother to read any news publications, which makes controlling her information pool all the easier. The problem is that, on the other hand, the older "blue blood" conservatives detest Palin, citing her as ignorant, uneducated, and unable to grasp complicated concepts that the President must be able to properly address. It seems the only conservatives that do like Palin are the hard-lined Christian Fundamentalists.

So, what you are left with is a party where a very vocal segment wants to go further to the right, further along religious fundamentalism, and further into transforming the USA into a theocracy. The others want a return to intellectual conservatism and original principles, such as less government intervention, smaller federal government, and stronger state rights. It must be an infuriating time to be a David Brooks, David Frum or a George Will. Good thing Buckley died when he did. Otherwise, I imagine he'd be repeatedly smacking his forehead at the notion of a Palin 2012 run.

Go ahead. Run a Sarah Palin candidacy in 2012. Watch as she mumbles in about 200 "and also" run on sentences. Watch as Mitt Romney and other intellectual conservatives chew her up and spit out all the dumb shit she's so filled to the brim with. Watch as the GOP turns from one of principled minimal government to one of Christian Dominionism and far-right intrusion, always watching over your shoulder to make sure you're following God's Law. Watch as the GOP steeps further into McCarthy-esque Nationalism witch-hunting as they selectively decide who and what is Really American. Watch as all of the vile, disgusting, and deplorable things that came about from the GOP during the final two months of this last election become increasingly magnified and transformed into the core principles of the New GOP.

And if you think I'm blowing a bunch of smoke about this...


^ Shepard Smith saying McCain's numbers tanked after Couric's interview with Palin

Palin in 2012? Bring it on, suckas!

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