Bewildered Ronin

Oh, hey, look! It's exactly what everyone was saying the whole time!

2009-07-03T16:53:00.002-04:00

Everyone with half a brain was saying that Saddam's refusal to allow UN inspectors into Iraq was because he didn't want to appear weak to powerhouse Iran, not because he was secretly hoarding away tons of WMDs. Oh, hey! Looks like that was exactly the case. Go figure.

In 2004, even after being captured by U.S. forces, Saddam Hussein told an FBI interrogator he believed Iran was a greater threat to Iraq than the United States, according to newly released FBI documents.

The FBI interviews took place while Hussein, then identified by the FBI as "High Value Detainee 1" was held captive by U.S. military forces at Baghdad International Airport between February and June of 2004.

Hussein regarded the Iranian threat as so serious that it was the major factor in his decision not to allow United Nations weapons inspectors to return, he said. Citing their shared border and his belief Iran would intend to annex southern Iraq, Hussein said he was more concerned about Iran discovering Iraq's weaknesses than repercussions from the United States and the international community. He believed that the inspectors would have directly identified to the Iranians where to inflict maximum damage to Iraq.

Approximately 100 pages of declassified interview summaries, previously classified as secret, were obtained by the National Security Archive at the George Washington University through a Freedom of Information Act request.

The FBI declined CNN's request to interview special agent George L. Piro, the agent who interviewed Hussein. FBI spokesman Paul Bresson declined to comment on the declassified documents. "As a general rule, the FBI does not discuss FOIA'd documents. We let the information stand on its own," Bresson told CNN.

Piro, an FBI agent fluent in Arabic, conducted the interviews along with another agent whose name has been redacted from the documents. Although Hussein had been a prisoner for months, at one point during an interview he said, "I am not the ex-president of Iraq. I am still the president of Iraq."

Hussein also described al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden as a "zealot" and said he had never met or seen him. He also said the United States used the September 11 attacks as justification to attack Iraq, and that the United States had "lost sight of the cause." Despite Piro citing evidence of Iraq's contacts with al Qaeda, Hussein said, "The Iraqi government did not cooperate with bin Laden" and that the two "did not have the same belief or vision."

The former regime's alleged weapons of mass destruction and alleged ties to al Qaeda were the Bush administration's primary justifications for invading Iraq in March of 2003.

Piro and Hussein spoke extensively about Iraq's chemical weapons during the Iran war, the 1990 invasion of Kuwait and in the years before the second U.S. invasion.

Hussein refused to answer a question about whether Iraq would have lost the war it fought with Iran from 1980 to 1988 if it had not used chemical weapons. He also said neither he nor any other Iraqi officials discussed using chemical weapons during the first Gulf War.

Hussein admitted that Iraq made a mistake by destroying some weapons without U.N. supervision. In his view, the inspectors wanted all of their expenses paid for by Iraq. Instead of waiting for the inspectors and paying the expenses, Iraq began destroying the weapons.

"We destroyed them. We told you, with documents. That's it," Hussein said.

When asked about restrictions he placed on weapons inspectors regarding which locations they could visit, Hussein responded, "By God, if I had such weapons, I would have used them in the fight against the United States."

Hussein commented about the mental state of U.S. soldiers occupying Iraq. "If you asked the American soldier -- who came to Iraq to find weapons of mass destruction, but none could be found, and who came to remove the leaders of the Hussein dictatorship, who are all in jail now, but are replaced with other dictators -- whether he wanted to stay or go, he would say go."

Hussein said he alone gave the orders to fire SCUD missiles at Israel during the first Gulf War, adding, "Everything that happened to us was because of Israel." He said he figured that the United States would stop the war if Israel was "hurt," and he wanted to punish the country he viewed as the source of all his problems.

Hussein recalled a meeting in Switzerland between his foreign minister Tariq Aziz and then-U.S. Secretary of State James Baker in January of 1991 shortly before Operation Desert Storm. According to Hussein, Baker offered no solutions to resolve the Kuwait situation and gave specific steps to Aziz that the United States wanted Iraq to do first, and Baker added "otherwise, we'll take you back to the pre-industrial age."

He also told Piro he wanted to have a relationship with the United States but was not given the opportunity because in his view the United States was not listening to anything Iraq had to say.

Hussein also revealed details about his security measures and movements before and after the second U.S. invasion of Iraq in March of 2003. He says he had only used a telephone on two occasions since March of 1990. He denied ever using body doubles, claiming, "This is movie magic, not reality."

He also said he never saw his sons use body doubles. "Do not think I am getting upset when you mention my sons. I still think about them and the fact that they were martyred. They will be examples to everyone throughout the world," he said.

Hussein also states he was not in the Dora neighborhood of Baghdad on March 19, 2003, when it was bombed by coalition forces in an unsuccessful attempt to kill him. He says he remained in Baghdad until April 10 or 11 of 2003, when it appeared the city was about to fall to coalition forces. Before leaving the city, he said he held one final meeting with the senior Iraqi leadership and told them, "We will struggle in secret."

Shortly after his departure from the capital, Hussein began to gradually disperse his bodyguards, telling them they had completed their duty, so as not to draw attention.

Hussein also admitted that after participating in the failed assassination attempt against then-Iraqi president Gen. Abdul Karim Qasim in 1959, he had stayed at the same farm where he was captured by U.S. forces in December of 2003.
- Source

BioWare and Mythic are merged? This is a good thing.

2009-06-24T20:47:00.003-04:00

My initial kneejerk reaction is to say, "gg EA," and roll my eyes. However, reading into the matter and thinking upon it, it's actually a great move.

If you've played Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning (WAR), then you know that the game falls flat. It's not bad, but it's not exactly all that great either. It feels slow and clunky, especially compared to something as fast-paced as Guild Wars (which, I think, captures the perfect pace for a Player vs Player MMO). The art style and general presentation for the game is great. It looks and feels just like the Warhammer universe. As someone who has dabbled in Warhammer for over 2 years, I think I know the nuances of the style pretty well.

The problem with Warhammer Online comes in the gameplay category. It's just nothing to really keep you interested. The PvP scenarios seem generic and to lack any real strategic depth. I feel like I've done it before, and done it better, in other genres and in other MMOs. The pace, as I said before, seems sluggish, which is antithetical to what one would think of a vicious and brutal PvP-oriented MMO. People have trumpeted that WAR is so much better than World of Warcrafts' PvP. Really, though, that's like saying that eating shit is better than eating vomit covered shit. I'm sure it is, but it's still shit and not exactly something to rave about.

Now, getting into the nitty-gritty: What has happened? Why am I talking about how much I don't like WAR (and I really wanted to like the game)? Because Electronic Arts has decided to merge the much-beloved RPG developer, BioWare (Baldur's Gate 1&2, Mass Effect, Neverwinter Nights, Star Wars: Knights of The Old Republic), with Mythic Entertainment, developers of the aforementioned Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning.

There's several reasons why this is pretty big news. Firstly, BioWare recently opened a new studio in Austin, Texas (their only USA studio (they have 2 in Canada)) to work on the much anticipated Star Wars: The Old Republic MMO. This is BioWare's first MMO, though they do have netcode experience with Neverwinter Nights. BioWare was also bought out by EA, with numerous conditions made to keep BioWare semi-independent. Mythic has well-renowned MMO experience with Dark Age of Camelot and WAR. Both are PvP-based MMOs focusing primarily on Realm vs Realm combat, but that's not really important. What is important is that they have a lot of people who are quite good at doing netcode. Another important tidbit is that Mythic was bought by EA.

The most interesting thing about this somewhat bizarre move is this:

Creating what is effectively a massively multiplayer RPG development juggernaut, EA has tapped Muzyka to become Group General Manager of their new RPG/MMO Group, with fellow BioWare co-founder Greg Zeschuk acting as Group Creative Officer. With the departure of Mythic's Mark Jacobs, Mythic co-founder Rob Denton will step up as the General Manager of Mythic, reporting directly to Muzukya. BioWare's operations will remain unchanged.
- Source

WAR was touted to be a massive success, and it looked like it. Touted on a fantastic and rich IP (Warhammer) and focused on visceral PvP combat, it seemed like a great game. Even after release, many people touted is an excellent game. However, the hype didn't last. It became mundane and routine. The veneer of hype wore off and you were left with a fairly mediocre and somewhat by-the-numbers MMO. Individuals might agree or disagree with that assessment, and I do not claim to hold some certain truth, but the numbers don't lie. The numbers for WAR are bad. Not terrible, mind you, but not good enough. Especially considering how much time and money was put into WAR. When I did the free trial, I saw zero high capacity servers in North America. There was one in Oceania. There was one server that was medium capacity, but all the others were low capacity. And by "all the others" I mean the eight other servers. It's not like there's 30 servers out there. Even at a relatively modest amount of servers, WAR cannot fill them up. That is not good.

Essentially, this taking Ray and Greg (the founders and big-wigs of BioWare) and putting them in charge of Mythic's flagship, WAR. I can only assume in some kind of attempt to salvage the massive investment that EA put into that game. This allows not only for BioWare to borrow from Mythic in resource management and netcode programmers (BioWare also plundered the laid-off Star Wars Galaxies employees to work in their The Old Republic studio in Austin), but this also gives Mythic access to BioWare's fantastic art, sound, and storytelling resources.

Why would Mythic want BioWare's resources? Why wouldn't they! BioWare is the undisputed king of RPGs. Yes, you can point to Square-Enix and tout Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest, and that is certainly valid. However, BioWare is typically regarded in higher standing. This is not a put-down of Square-Enix, as I hold FF7 as one of the best RPGs of all time, but I would be lying if I said that I thought FF7 was better than Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn. BioWare's games are solid. Neverwinter Nights is still regarded as the pinnacle of a new trend in RPG gaming, allowing players to craft their own games using the provided toolset. Knights of The Old Republic is highly heralded as one of the best RPGs during the PS2/XBox generation, and helped push a lot of XBox sales. The Baldur's Gate series is regarded as fantastic and is routinely placed within the top 5 of any RPG fan's list. Mass Effect was received very well and highly regarded. To say that anticipation for Dragon Age is high is a massive understatement. BioWare is an RPG developer that has rarely done wrong and has the strong catalog of high-tier products to prove it.

While I think the merger of BioWare and Mythic is, at face value, quite odd, I also think it makes a lot of sense. Mythic's WAR is floundering, trying desperately to stay afloat. BioWare seems to be growing by leaps and bounds these days, and if anyone can help turn up the quality a notch on WAR, BioWare is an excellent choice. Not only does this allow the two developers to share their vibrantly rich resources, but it makes for a massive juggernaut in the RPG realm, both online and offline. It's never a good thing to see someone who was so integral as Mark Jacobs get canned, but I also cannot think of anyone who could give WAR the truly magnificent makeover that it needs and deserves than Ray Muzukya and Greg Zeschuk.

Holy fuck! Asshole cop tasers 72-year old woman.

2009-06-10T21:27:00.003-04:00

This is incredibly fucked up. This cop is totally gonna lose his job and get sued to hell and back. He'll probably also get the shit kicked out of him after he's fired, too.

^ Raw camera footage ^

^ Fox News coverage ^

nothing after the jump

Store owner converts would-be robber and gives him food?

2009-06-03T00:53:00.002-04:00

Weird, yeah, but pretty amazing. While many probably wouldn't have bothered to give the would-be robber a break, this guy gave him not only a major break, but a bit more.

A potential victim became a compassionate counselor during a recent robbery attempt, changing the would-be criminal's mind -- and apparently his religion.

Storekeeper Mohammad Sohail was closing up his Long Island convenience store just after midnight on May 21 when -- as shown on the store's surveillance video -- a man came in wielding a baseball bat and demanding money.

"He said, 'Hurry up and give me the money, give me the money!' and I said, 'Hold on'," Sohail recalled in a phone interview with CNN on Tuesday, after the store video and his story was carried on local TV.

Sohail said he reached under the counter, grabbed his shotgun and told the robber to drop the bat and get down on his knees.

"He's crying like a baby," Sohail said. "He says, 'Don't call police, don't shoot me, I have no money, I have no food in my house.' "

Amidst the man's apologies and pleas, Sohail said he felt a surge of compassion.

He made the man promise never to rob anyone again and when he agreed, Sohail gave him $40 and a loaf of bread.

"When he gets $40, he's very impressed, he says, 'I want to be a Muslim just like you,' " Sohail said, adding he had the would-be criminal recite an Islamic oath.

"I said 'Congratulations. You are now a Muslim and your name is Nawaz Sharif Zardari.'"

When asked why he chose the hybrid of two Pakistani presidents' names, the Pakistani immigrant laughed and said he had been watching a South Asian news channel moments before the confrontation.

Sohail said the man fled the store when he turned away to get the man some free milk.

He said police might still be looking for the suspect but he doesn't intend to press charges.

"The guy, you know, everybody has a hard time right now, it's too bad for everybody right now in this economy," said the storekeeper.
- Source

And this is why I'm NOT a Republican.

2009-06-02T01:06:00.004-04:00

Really, stop trying to make the GOP seem cool. It's doesn't work. It doesn't even work for the DNC. It just looks stupid and forced.

Two Dartmouth students decided to make a "conservative rap" video and posted it on Youtube. Apparently with such "dope" and "funky fresh" lines as, "Three things taught me conservative love: Jesus, Ronald Reagan plus Atlas Shrugged."

And that's why I don't share a single shred of that "conservative love." I don't give a shit about Jesus, Ronald Reagan was a dumbfuck who the GOP would hate if he were ever to be reincarnated (Reagan was hated by most cultural conservatives during his day because he didn't care about abortion and many other such issues), and Ayn Rand is a mean-spirited brain-dead cunt whose Objectivism philosophy is so patently narcissistic and ego maniacal that it makes Ted Bundy seem like a rather reasonable guy.

By the way, I love that the "related videos" on Youtube are: "Stephen Harper injects LSD into his eye socket" and "How To Shave Your Groin - Shaving Tips From Gillette."

An Internet rap video which claims to reflect true conservative values is quickly becoming a cult success.

"The Young Con Anthem," created by two Dartmouth students, has received more than 115,000 views and has been featured on The Huffington Post, USA Today and a variety of blogs across the political spectrum.

Students David Rufful and Josh Riddle made a rap video which they say was intended to spread the views of the Young Conservatives, a group started by Rufful and Riddle with "a devout mission to spread the love and logic surrounding true conservatism," according the organization's Web site.

Rufful and Riddle, both due to graduate in 2012, came to Dartmouth from the Northfield Mount Hermon School, a private school in Massachusetts.

"We didn't think it would blow up to be this big, but it was kind of a way for us to express a pretty unique view," Riddle said in an interview with The Dartmouth. "We kind of wanted to spread the love that's behind the conservative movement."

In the rap, Rufful and Riddle, who perform under the names Serious C and Stiltz, respectively, discuss the origins of their conservative values, saying: "Three things taught me conservative love / Jesus, Ronald Reagan plus Atlas Shrugged."

"I take the way I want to have relationships and my morals from the Bible and Jesus, the idea of supply side economics from Ronald Reagan and from Atlas Shrugged, "Riddle said in an interview, "obviously, I don't agree with all of [Ayn Rand's] religious philosophies, but it's all about the power of the individual."

Riddle said his views are "more valid" because of the diverse influences that contribute to his conservatism.

The video was meant to start a dialogue about politics, Riddle said, not to offend any group. At one point in song the lyrics say: "Don't matter if you're gay, straight, Christian, Muslim / There's one thing we all hate, it's called socialism."

"I just hope that people understand that in no way are we trying to hate on anybody," Riddle said.

The online response to the video, which currently has a 1.5 out of five rating on YouTube, has varied. One commenter on the conservative blog Hot Air expressed approval for "the message, the messengers and the media."

A commenter on YouTube, however, disagreed.

"And this folks ... is why we become Democrats," the commenter wrote.

Rufful said that there has been "hateful commentary" in response to the video, particularly from liberal bloggers.

"There's been death threats -- waking up to a video of a guy with a skull, that's not really what we were looking for," he said, referring to the YouTube video response from a user named NikolaiRaged.

Scott Johnson, a contributor to the conservative blog Power Line, who graduated from Dartmouth in 1973, praised the video in an interview with The Dartmouth.

"I thought it was heartening to see some very bright young people who have thought about the issues and are reacting to current events trying to communicate in a way that is contemporary and good humored," Johnson said.

Power Line posted the "Young Con Anthem" video on its web site Saturday.

"I certainly appreciated what they had to say, and I couldn't believe how funny it was and how biting it was," Johnson said. "I was just laughing about it all day."

Both Harrison Davies, president of the College Republicans, and Bret Vallacher, president of the College Democrats, said they had not heard about the video until they were asked to comment by The Dartmouth.

"I have to admit, at first I thought it was funny and actually a Colbert-esque satire," Vallacher said after watching the video. "Yet, as this tirade staggers on, it tragically exposes the completely irreconcilable views of modern day neo-conservatism."

Rufful said he came up with his alias, "Serious C" because he is "seriously Christian and conservative," according to the group's Web site. Riddle, who is 6' 9" tall, was called "Stiltz" by his friends because of his height.

"We don't claim to be rappers. We're not pursuing a rap career," Rufful said when asked if the duo had any plans to create other videos. "Spreading the conservative message is more of our goal."
- Source

Wikipedia banhammers Church of $cientology.

2009-06-02T01:00:00.002-04:00

If you've ever read any of Wikipedia's discussion pages for any Church of $cientology, you would totally understand.

In an unprecedented move, Wikipedia has banned edits from an entire religion — the Church of Scientology.

After four months of internal discussion, Wikipedia's top administrators decided Thursday to block Scientology-affiliated computers from changing items on any part of the free online encyclopedia, reports the British tech blog The Register.

Wikipedia famously lets almost anyone make changes to almost any article. Troublesome individuals have been blocked from editing — among them virulently anti-Scientology activists who altered pages relating to the religion — but this is the first time a religious organization has been blocked.

The encyclopedia's administrators found that Scientology computers had been repeatedly changing more than 400 pages related to the Church, deleting negative references and adding positive ones. The volume of changes was overwhelming administrators' ability to reverse them, hence the block.

Representatives of the Church of Scientology did not reply to FOXNews.com's requests for comment.

Wikipedia matches specific Internet Protocol (IP) addresses — every device on the Internet has one — with certain users, and tweaks its servers to prevent those machines gaining edit access. Every IP address linked to the Church of Scientology is now banned from editing.

"All IP addresses owned or operated by the Church of Scientology and its associates, broadly interpreted, are to be blocked," read a statement on Wikipedia, according to WikiNews. "Individual editors may request IP block exemption if they wish to contribute from the blocked IP addresses."
- Source

Now THAT's capital punishment.

2009-06-02T00:56:00.002-04:00

I believe in the death penalty. I understand many don't. One of the reasons I often hear is that the death penalty actually does little to deter violent crime. Which I'm sure is fairly true. Perhaps if we did this, though, people might start to get the message a bit more clearly.

Saudi Arabian officials beheaded and then publicly displayed the body of a convicted killer in Riyadh on Friday, an act that prompted a stiff denunciation by a leading human rights monitor.

The Saudi Interior Ministry said Ahmed Al-Shamlani Al-Anzi was sentenced to death and then "crucifixion" -- having his body displayed in public -- for the kidnapping and killing of an 11-year-old boy and for the killing of the boy's father, according to the official Saudi Press Agency.

Amnesty International issued a statement deploring the punishment, with the group's Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui saying in a statement it is "horrific" that beheadings and crucifixions "still happen."

Even though the word "crucifixion" is used to describe the public display, the act has no connection to Christianity and the crucifixion of Jesus. The bodies are not displayed on crosses, Lamri Chirouf, who researches Saudi Arabian issues for Amnesty, explained.

The Saudi Interior Ministry asserted that Al-Anzi's body was displayed as a warning that those involved in similar crimes would suffer the same fate, the press agency reported.

The ministry said Al-Anzi kidnapped the boy and held him for a "malicious purpose" at a grocery store where he worked. He tied rope around the boy's neck and strangled him to death, the ministry said.

When the boy's father came to the store looking for his son, Al-Anzi axed the father repeatedly until the man died. When police came to arrest Al-Anzi, Al-Anzi resisted arrest by threatening them with a knife.

Police later discovered that Al-Anzi had been previously convicted of other crimes, including possession of pornographic videos and sodomy, the Interior Ministry said.

Chirouf, the Saudi Arabian researcher for Amnesty International, said his understanding of how the Saudi government carries out crucifixion jibed with Saudi Press Agency's account.

Government officials do use crucifixions, or public displays of executed bodies, as a tool to deter people from committing such a crime, he said.

This latest case was classified as an offense of rebellion, one that basically rejected all of the rules of religion and society, he said.

Chirouf said those crucified are beheaded first and then their heads are sewn back on their bodies. Then, the corpse is mounted on a pole or a tree.
- Source

Just because they're a scientist doesn't mean that they're not bat-shit crazy.

2009-06-02T00:51:00.002-04:00

One of the things I love most about people who deny that global climate is getting warmer or that there's no way the Twin Towers could have fallen due to jetliners smashing into them is the "trump card" of pulling out a scientist that agrees with them. All you need is one, right? And, suddenly, POOF! You're theory is valid. Except it's not. There's a thing called consensus. Besides, many scientists are nuts and believe all sorts of crazy shit.

Did a UFO deliberately crash into a meteor to save Earth 100 years ago? That's what one Russian scientist is claiming.

Dr. Yuri Labvin, president of the Tunguska Spatial Phenomenon Foundation, insists that an alien spacecraft sacrificed itself to prevent a gigantic meteor from slamming into the planet above Siberia on June 30, 1908.

The result was was the Tunguska event, a massive blast estimated at 15 megatons that downed 80 million trees over nearly 100 square miles. Eyewitnesses reported a bright light and a huge shock wave, but the area was so sparsely populated no one was killed.

Most scientists think the blast was caused by a meteorite exploding several miles above the surface. But Labvin thinks quartz slabs with strange markings found at the site are remnants of an alien control panel, which fell to the ground after the UFO slammed into the giant rock.

"We don't have any technologies that can print such kind of drawings on crystals," Labvin told the Macedonian International News Agency. "We also found ferrum silicate that can not be produced anywhere, except in space."
- Source

When inciting hate goes beyond just words.

2009-06-01T23:34:00.003-04:00

Frank Schaeffer, former big-wig in the Religious Right movement during the 70's and 80's, was on Rachel Maddow's show discussing the type of language that people like Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, and Mark Levin use to rile up their base. As Schaeffer puts it, all it takes is one person with a screw loose to take things a bit too far, and that these pundits know that. We saw it with the Unitarian Church shooting in Tennessee where the gunman specifically wanted to kill "liberals" because of the type of rhetoric spewed by Hannity and O'Reilly.

Even in this news piece we can see this kind of doublespeak being used, condemning the actual killing, but still promoting the outcome.

Abortion opponents were swift to condemn Tiller's shooting death Sunday during church services in Wichita. Kansans for Life and Operation Rescue, which is also based in Kansas, said 51-year-old Scott Roeder, who is being held without bail one count of first-degree murder and two counts of aggravated assault, did not belong or donate to either group.

'Operation Rescue condemned the killing as vigilantism and "a cowardly act." But its founder, Randall Terry, stressed that the anti-abortion movement should not tone down its rhetoric. He said the gunman was wrong to kill Tiller, 67, but that abortion opponents bear no responsibility for the action.

Tiller was "a mass murderer and horrifically, he reaped what he sowed," Terry told the National Press Club in Washington.
- Source

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Red Bull gives you more than just wings.

2009-05-26T08:46:00.002-04:00

Red Bull has cocaine in it? Apparently. However, it's not enough to actually get you high.

Six German states have told retailers to stop selling Red Bull Cola energy drinks after a test found a trace amount of cocaine.

The bans started Friday after a sample test conducted by authorities in North Rhine-Westphalia state found 0.4 micrograms per liter in the drink.

Five other states also banned it from shops amid concerns over possible narcotics law violations.

Germany's Federal Institute for Risk Assessment said Monday that the cocaine level was too low to pose a health risk. It planned to produce a more detailed report Wednesday.

Red Bull said its cola is "harmless and marketable in both the U.S. and Europe." It said similar coca leaf extracts are used worldwide as flavoring, and a test it commissioned itself found no cocaine traces.
- Source

Duke Nukem Foerever may be gone, but the hollowed out shell of 3D Realms will remain. To do nothing. Ever.

2009-05-19T01:04:00.003-04:00

Seriously, what the shit is this? Okay, so 3D Realms has indeed canned Duke Nukem Forever due to lack of funding, but 3D Realms is still around? To do what? They couldn't even make Prey! It took 10 damn years and they still couldn't finish it so they handed it off to Human Head Studios. Valve spent 9 years doing Team Fortress 2, but in the end Valve actually did make the damn game! (and a mighty fine one at that!)

In light of recent press articles and statements by Take-Two (to the media and in a lawsuit), we want to set the record straight on some issues.

Despite rumors and statements to the contrary, 3D Realms (3DR) has not closed and is not closing. 3DR retains ownership of the Duke Nukem franchise. Due to lack of funding, however, we are saddened to confirm that we let the Duke Nukem Forever (DNF) development team go on May 6th, while we regroup as a company. While 3DR is a much smaller studio now, we will continue to operate as a company and continue to license and co-create games based upon the Duke Nukem franchise.

As some of you may know, Take-Two filed a lawsuit last week containing various accusations and claims against 3DR and the uncompleted DNF game. Take-Two never paid 3DR advances or any signing bonus or any other funds related to DNF, up until July 2008, at which time they paid $2.5m in connection with another agreement for an unannounced game. This is the sum total Take-Two has paid 3DR in connection with DNF. Take-Two claims that they paid $12m to GT Interactive/Infogrames to acquire the publishing rights for the DNF game. To be clear, 3DR was not a party to that transaction and did not receive any money from it. When the DNF game was originally signed with GT Interactive in 1998, GT paid 3DR a $400,000 signing bonus. Up until July 2008, this was the only publisher money we received for the DNF game. Meanwhile, 3DR put over $20m into the production of DNF.

Take-Two retains publishing rights for the DNF game, although 3DR retains certain rights to sell the game directly to the public. Late last year, 3DR began negotiations with Take-Two to provide funding to complete the DNF game. In the meantime, 3DR was hitting mutually-agreed milestones, despite not having a new agreement finalized. Take-Two was well aware that 3DR needed the funding to continue the DNF game development. Suddenly, after months of negotiations, Take-Two materially changed the parameters of the proposed funding agreement. 3DR informed Take-Two that it could not financially afford the changes Take-Two was suggesting and would be forced to release the team if an agreement was not reached. Take-Two made a last minute proposal to acquire the Duke Nukem franchise and the 3DR development team. Take-Two's proposal was unacceptable to 3DR for many reasons, including no upfront money, no guarantee minimum payment, and no guarantee to complete the DNF game. From 3DR's perspective, we viewed Take-Two as trying to acquire the Duke Nukem franchise in a "fire sale." Those negotiations fell through on May 4th, a deal never materialized, and the DNF team was sadly released a few days later.

Less than a week after the DNF team was released, Take-Two filed its lawsuit in New York, seeking immediate temporary injunctive relief. The court denied Take-Two's request for a temporary restraining order. While we cannot comment on the details of the ongoing lawsuit, we believe Take-Two's lawsuit is without merit and merely a bully tactic to obtain ownership of the Duke Nukem franchise. We will vigorously defend ourselves against this publisher.
- Source

Okay, so, 3DR spent $20 million making DNF, but they have no abandoned it. They still plan to make other games based on the Duke Nukem franchise, though. What the fuck kind of stupid shit is this? You ABANDONED a game that you spent $20 million on and spent 12 years making, but now you're going to focus instead on making newer, different games? I'm sorry, but something does not compute with that. Mainly, what fucking games are you going to make? iPhone apps?

Dude, do the honorable thing and just close shop. This is embarrassing and complete bullshit. You guys haven't made a game since 1997. Stop pretending like you have even a semblance of integrity or respect, because you don't. No publisher is goin to want to fund you. It's sad, yes, but it's time to move on.

Why you don't let gamers have whatever they want.

2009-05-18T02:02:00.002-04:00

This dillema has been around for ages. People on forums whine about a game and how awesome it would be to have bigger, better guns, more powers, etc, etc. The problem with these things is that they destroy all semblance of balance and fairness. A game needs to be somewhat challenging or else it will become boring.

It seems that MMO City of Heroes has just learned why you don't let users make their own quests.

Paranoia has gripped the streets amid a government crackdown that’s trampling due process and blurring the line between the innocent and the guilty.

It’s not Myanmar, but Paragon City, the hub of the massively multiplayer online game City of Heroes, where a bizarre McCarthy-like crisis has broken out among the virtual populace. Handed new tools to create their own missions, many of the metropolis’ caped crusaders have rushed to exploit loopholes that allow them to rack up massive experience points with minimal effort. In a desperate bid to restore balance, the game’s creators have threatened to revoke experience points and ban players for abuse without explanation, unleashing a furor of protest.

The future of a world may hang in the balance.

“Newsflash — your idea of fun isn’t everyone esles [sic],” one disgruntled subscriber remarked.

The face-off underscores an iron law of MMO play: Give participants the tools to mold a game into an ideal form, and they’ll quickly use them to generate so-called min-max exploits that produce the fastest possible experience or in-game wealth for the least effort possible.

Free to play the game as they like, players frequently make choices that ruin the fun. It’s an irony that can prove death to game publishers: Far from loving their liberty, players seem to quickly bore of the “ideal” games they’ve created for themselves and quit early.

“It may seem sad that giving the players what they want is detrimental to the player’s overall length of enjoyment of the game, but that’s the truth,” says Eric Heimburg, the lead engineer and producer on Asheron’s Call, and the systems designer for the upcoming Star Trek online MMO. “Once you reached that top of the hill, if there’s nothing left to do or see, players are likely to move on. Length of enjoyment (equals) amount of money earned, so developers have a strong incentive to keep players from gaining power and levels too quickly.”

As more and more game developers allow players to create their own levels, users are harnessing this power to game the system. In Sony’s LittleBigPlanet, for example, players unleashed “trophy farms” — hundreds of user-generated levels that exist only to rack up a player’s PlayStation 3 achievement list with minimal effort.

City of Heroes was originally released in 2004, but its current woes started with the Mission Architect feature released in April. Suddenly, players could design their own missions, and a new class of villain quickly vaulted to power: the Farmer.

With the Mission Architect, players are able to create quests that offer rewards in parity with the standard, developer-created content. Once they’ve played a user-generated mission, they can rate it.

Mission creators with popular levels receive Architect Tickets, which can be cashed in for rewards. This gives architects incentives to crank out the sorts of missions their peers are likely to enjoy. Some gamers want engaging stories, while others want fun challenges.

But the Farmer has something a bit different in mind: laying out hordes of powerful, reward-laden enemies with glaring weaknesses, packed like sheep for the slaughter. Weeks’ worth of tedious labor for experience points could now be completed in mere hours, and the unscrupulous Farmers grew fat off their misdeeds.

“I don’t think any developer should be surprised that people who enjoy these sorts of quests would be drawn to the fastest power-gathering mechanism available,” Heimburg says. “I don’t blame the players one bit for abusing the system.”

Not so the developers at Paragon Studios. Klaxons wailing, they sprang into action, striking down “exploitative” quests and threatening to do the same to players who abused the newly implemented system.

“In order to keep the game fair, balanced, and challenging, we have to maintain a risk/reward ratio,” City of Heroes lead designer Matt “Positron” Miller explained in a missive to the players.

But while the developer is removing missions it deems exploitative, there hasn’t been much information on what constitutes breaking the rules. In fact, according to Miller, such transparency is not likely to be effective and could even backfire.

“If we say that the definition (of abuse) is ‘you gained 4 levels in under 30 minutes’, then someone will make sure that they gain 4 levels in 31 minutes, so they can claim they were within the allowed limits and not abusing,” he wrote.

That’s left players sitting on pins and needles. Says City of Heroes player TaintedAngel: “If you could look at the servers and see 10 percent of people had been spanked somehow, a whole lot of people would be letting out a long-held breath.”

Of course, players could always vote with their wallets.

At the dawn of the MMO genre, EverQuest saw great success despite a penchant for game-balancing changes that flummoxed subscribers. Then the competition arrived, and many left for “fairer” options.

“City of Heroes’ decision to punish players for infractions the players cannot predict is rather unusual,” Heimburg remarks. “When competing superhero-based MMOs become available, that could be a problem.”
- Source

Everyone knows witches hate brooms.

2009-05-18T01:58:00.002-04:00

This is why I hate religion and all other types of superstitious voodoo bullshit.

Christian Eshiett was a rambunctious pre-teen who spent a lot of time cavorting with his friends in southern Nigeria. He would skip school and run away from home for days, frustrating his grandfather, who oversaw the boy's care.

"I beat him severely with canes until they broke, yet he never shed a tear," said Eshiett Nelson Eshiett, 76. "One day, I took a broom to hit him and he started crying. Then I knew he was possessed by demons. ... Nigerian witches are terrified of brooms."

From that day two years ago, Christian, now 14, was branded a witch. The abuse intensified.

"They would take my clothes off, tie me up and beat me," he told CNN in a telephone interview.

The teen is one of the so-called witch children in Eket, a city in oil-rich Akwa Ibom state of Nigeria.

They are blamed for causing illness, death and destruction, prompting some communities to put them through harrowing punishments to "cleanse" them of their supposed magical powers.

"Children accused of witchcraft are often incarcerated in churches for weeks on end and beaten, starved and tortured in order to extract a confession," said Gary Foxcroft, program director of Stepping Stones Nigeria, a nonprofit that helps alleged witch children in the region.

Many of those targeted have traits that make them stand out, including learning disabilities, stubbornness and ailments such as epilepsy, he added.

The issue of "child witches" is soaring in Nigeria and other parts of the world, Foxcroft said.

The states of Akwa Ibom and Cross River have about 15,000 children branded as witches, and most of them end up abandoned and abused on the streets, he said.

Christian ran away from home and wandered around for two years with other children similarly accused. He said they stole, begged for food and performed menial jobs to survive.

The plight of "child witches" is raising concern among aid organizations, including the United Nations.

"It is a growing issue worldwide, among not just African communities, but in countries such as Nepal as well," said Jeff Crisp, head of policy development and evaluation for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. "We are trying to see whether it is a neglected protected issue."

Belief in witchcraft thrives worldwide. About 1,000 people accused of being witches in Gambia were locked in detention centers in March and forced to drink a dangerous hallucinogenic potion, human rights organization Amnesty International said.

In 2005, relatives of an 8-year-old Angolan girl living in England were convicted of torturing her for being a "witch," according to the Times Online.

Pastors have been accused of worsening the problem by claiming to have powers to recognize and exorcise "child witches," sometimes for a fee, aid workers said.

But some are true believers, such as one minister in Lagos, Nigeria. He pinpoints children affected by witchcraft for free, he said.

"Sometimes, we get a dream that shows us a certain person is suffering from witchcraft," said the Rev. Albert Aina, a senior pastor at Four Square Gospel Church. "Sometimes, you have a child who has inexplicable body marks because of struggling in the night. They are easy to identify, but why charge when you have been given a gift by God?" Aina said.

Once a child is branded a witch, the stigma can last forever.

Christian was reunited with his grandfather, a former theater instructor at a university in Nigeria. Eshiett said he let his son's child return home because he loves him and he advocates for youth education.

But, he added, he does not think Christian has been or can be freed from witchcraft.

"When you are possessed, you are possessed; no one can deliver you from Satan," Eshiett said, adding that his grandson is a witch because he still exhibits unruly behavior and does not take education seriously.

Aid organizations acknowledge that the belief is acceptable and popular in some communities.

"It is not the belief in witchcraft that we are concerned about," Foxcroft said. "We acknowledge people's right to hold this belief on the condition that this does not lead to child abuse."

Foxcroft, whose documentary, "Saving Africa's Witch Children," was broadcast last year, spoke to a U.N. panel on the issue in April.

The aid worker said he is planning a global conference in 2010 and public awareness campaigns, including addressing the issue in Nigerian movies. The nation's film industry, dubbed Nollywood, is a popular form of entertainment in African countries.

Government officials also have joined the fight.

Akwa Ibom recently added a clause into the Child Rights Act, saying that anyone found guilty of branding a child a witch would get up to 12 years in prison.

"This is groundbreaking, and Stepping Stones Nigeria applauds the Akwa Ibom state government for this," Foxcroft said.

But, he added, there is more work to be done, and other groups, especially churches, have to team up to resolve the problem.

"The role of the international Christian community in this cannot be underestimated," Foxcroft said. "Unfortunately, the fact remains that this belief system is being spread by so-called Christians."

CNN's attempts to reach Akwa Ibom state officials through phone calls and e-mails were unsuccessful. A Nigerian federal communications official declined to comment.
- Source

Why can't a "mistake" also be a "blessing"?

2009-05-06T13:41:00.004-04:00

Bristol Palin was, apparently on the TODAY show. During her interview she said her son was "not a mistake at all. He’s a blessing."

Okay, we get it. All mothers think their kids are fucking mana from heaven. But why can't it be both? As in, "oops, I just made a mistake and put cayenne pepper in these cheese wafers instead of paprika! Oooh, but it tastes good... what a blessing!"

Believe it or not, getting knocked up most likely was a mistake. Did you plan to get pregnant? Was getting pregnant your end-goal in having sex? Did you actively seek out and prepare to get pregnant? Did you want to get pregnant? If not, then getting pregnant was a mistake. However, just because it was a mistake doesn't mean that it can't be a good, exciting, and beloved experience, or even "a blessing." The two are not mutually exclusive.

Article Here

nothing after the jump

Apple in the game industry? Yeah, that'll go over well.

2009-05-06T11:47:00.003-04:00

So, I saw this piece about how Apple should get into the gaming industry, and the whole thing is juts one giant collage of dumbfuckery. Apple does some things well. The iPod was great. Not because it's better hardware, but because it capitalized on its simple interface. When people want to listen to music in their car or while jogging, they don't want to navigate a lot of menus and stuff. They want to find their music quickly, easily, and be done with it.

Anyways, here's a direct rebuttal and reasons why Apple should not get into the gaming industry. I really do love this shit, playing the devil's advocate against those that really don't know what the fuck they're talking about when it comes ot game development.

Reports are swirling that Apple is considering a move into the gaming market via an acquisition of Electronic Arts (EA). And while those are currently just rumors, what is confirmed is that Apple has recently poached Microsoft's former head of Xbox strategy, Richard Teversham.

Okay, let's look at what Taversham did.

The exiting Microsoft executive, Richard Teversham, most recently ran Microsoft's Xbox business unit in Europe. He worked at Microsoft for 15 years and was senior director of business, insights and strategy for the Xbox business group. Teversham told MCV he will work in some type of "education-related role" at the Apple European office.
- Source

Wow, that's fucking awesome. If I was going to start up a games division I would totally be looking for bean counters first and foremost. Forget that Taversham said he was going into some educational area for Apple's EU division. Even if he were working on a gaming-related division at Apple, he would most likely be pushed into Apple's iPhone department. Considering he's a business guy, aka number crunching, he'd be a good person to look at pricing and sales volume. Not for, you know, the actually important shit like hardware and development-related issues.

1. Apple Is Due: Some of the Cupertino crew's competitors are already well established in the gaming market with their own consoles. Microsoft has the Xbox and Sony has the PlayStation. While Apple has spent much of the last decade remaking the mobile music industry, the time could now be right for a foray into gaming. The brand has exploded in popularity since the release of the iPod in October 2001 (the Microsoft Xbox, as a point of reference, was released in November 2001), and it's not hard to imagine fanboys lining up to purchase an Apple-branded gaming device.

Good fucking grief this is stupid. Okay, let's look at Apple's market share in the PC market. It's between 10%-13%. That's it. Now, if you look at Apple's MP3 market share, it's somewhere in the 40% range, which is good. However, a game console isn't a fucking MP3 player and people aren't going to buy a several hundred dollar console just because. There has to be games and there has to be decent hardware. No one wants to invest in a fucking paperweight console. Ask Atari how well jumping into the game console industry with their Jaguar did. Oh wait, Atari is teetering on the edge of bankruptcy.

2. iTunes Store: Apple already has a well-established and viable way of distributing games to customers via the Internet. Downloading a song or movie through the iTunes Store is becoming a standard skill for many people. An Apple gaming console, then, could function similarly to the Apple TV or Xbox Live store. Droves of people already have accounts, so if Apple can distribute games directly to the console via iTunes, customers wouldn't even need to leave the house to get their game on.

Are you fucking retarded? Do you have any fucking clue as to how big games are? And I don't mean "big" as in popularity, but as in filesize. Try 3-6 GB. To understand that, in "music" size, you're talking 1,000 to 2,000 songs. For one game. Not to mention that people would need to have the proper bandwidth for that, which most do not. The average connection in the USA is about 512 Kb. Which is not KB (KiloyBytes). It's less than that. (one KiloByte = 8 Kilobits)

Also, how well has Apple TV done? Oh, that's right, it fucking tanked because it sucked shit. It was horribly inferior to other products out there and it lacked numerous crucial features. Face it, the only thing Apple has going for it is its iPod.

3. The iPhone And iPod Touch: Apple's mainstay portable devices are already beginning to establish themselves as gaming platforms. A quick look through the Apple App Store reveals a plethora of games that range in price from free to a few dollars. EA, for example, just released "Need For Speed Undercover" for the iPhone, retailing at $10. Apple customers are already playing games on the iPhone and iPod Touch, so why not tie those devices to a gaming console?

Because shitty iPhone games do not equal real games? How well has N4S:U done on the iPhone? Because it got horrible reviews and was widely panned by gaming critics. Most of the Apple iPhone games are pure shit. They are half-assed, bullshit clones of games from the 80's. If you really think playing games on an iPhone is at all comparable to playing on a console, then you're absolutely insane and don't have a clue what you're talking about.

4. Synching Between Console And iPhone: This seems like a no-brainer. iPhone users already sync their smartphones to a laptop for updates and purchases, so why not do the same with a gaming console? Games could be developed with special add-ons designed specifically for the iPhone or iPod touch. That way when a gamer has to leave the house, these side missions can be synched onto the iPhone, expanding Apple's gaming reach. Instead of riding the subway and listening to music or surfing the Web, users could continue to play the game they started back at home.

WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND ABOUT THE iPHONE NOT BEING A FUCKING GAMING CONSOLE!? Do you have any idea how shitty an iPhone game would look on a regular 480x720 resolution TV screen, let alone a 720p one? It would look horrible! The hardware and control limitations between a console and a portable device like the iPhone are so vast that making the assumption that the two could in any way be linked is more than just asinine, it is borderline brain dead. Even if you try to make the link between the iPhone's motion control sand the Wii, it still doesn't fit. The Wii has a much richer control set feature than the iPhone.

This is seriously one of the most idiotic things I've ever heard. It would be like saying that an Etch-A-Sketch could potentially be used to write programming languages. It is so far fetched and unrealistic that it's baffling that anyone would even come up with it, let alone publish an article saying this.

5. Better Talent: An Apple-branded console would attract top-notch talent to develop games for the platform. Just look at the success the company has had with independent developers creating applications for the App Store. Face it, not every game needs to be another installment of the "Call Of Duty" series. Assuming the iTunes Store is used to distribute the games, the process of getting a product listed there should be similar to the existing policy -- perhaps even a little less draconian. For bigger releases, companies such as EA would be facing a tough crowd of Apple fans who would expect nothing but the highest quality in the games on the platform. That would challenge publishers to bring on smarter talent and create better games, further enriching the gaming community.

Holy fucking... Okay, how much money does Apple have? Not much. Really, not much. It's true, whether you want to believe it or not. They don't have shit compared to Microsoft or Sony. Even Microsoft has decided to stop having in-house developers. Sony has an incredibly small handful. The only one I can think of off the top of my head is Polyphony Digital, the makers of Gran Turismo. I don't think this writer understands how much money it takes to make a game, let alone start a whole new development softhouse. Here's a hint: AAA titles typically have budgets between $10-$30 million. That's just for the games. That doesn't include starting up the studios and everything else.

The process that developers go through with the iPhone app store is nothing like what goes on with major developers. The app store process works like this. Some guys makes something, submits it to Apple, Aple approves it or not, and then it's placed for sale or rejected. Major developers require licensing, SDKs, marketing, contractual obligations that actually mean something, and they don't want to sign on for some normalized bullshit that's the same with everyone. Do you think EA gets the same kind of contract that Atari gets? Hell no they don't!

The best part is the complete about-face this article does. So, not every game needs be Call Of Duty (I'm assuming they're referring to CoD4:MW, and not CoD:W@W, which sucked shit), but then says that Apple would require "top talent" that would "further enrich" the gaming industry. So, which one is it? Has he even bothered to look at most of the apps that sell on the iPhone? They're fart apps and stupid bullshit like that. Wow, talk about enrichment. Maybe I can get a "Pull My Finger" game on a console. That's be fucking sweet.

Really, all of this is just pure bullshit. This article has no idea what the fuck goes into gaming, and I didn't even start to bring out a lot of the other hurdles, namely development costs. The PS3 is still losing money on every console sold. MS is just now breaking into the black, and their console is already starting to age. If Apple were to try to get into the game console market, they'd have to be prepared to throw in a few billion dollars and be willing to lose it all.

Not only is the market already highly competitive, but where would Apple carve their niche? The kids market? Yeah fucking right. Nintendo has that on lockdown. The hardcore market? Sony and MS are already very aggressively waging a war in that market, good look trying to topple either one of them.

Finally, Apple would need to develop an SDK, get hardware manufacturers to work on specialty chipsets, amd be able to court third party developers to actually develop for their system. It's not as easy as "build it and they will come" which this article seems to think is the case. Developers already have a hard enough time trying to develop modern games for 4 systems (360, Wii, PS3, and PC), and adding a fifth isn't going to make things any easier. Not only that, but what kind of middleware will Apple sue? OpenGL like OSX? Because OPenGL vs DirectX is why you already see so few games for Mac.

This entire piece is nothing more than a pipe-dream, and not even a well though out one, at that. It has no basis in reality and doesn't even offer up a plan to the slightest bit of scrutiny. If Apple really thinks any of these reasons are why they should get into the gaming business, Apple better be prepared to go bankrupt, again, and pray that Microsoft will bail them out of such bankruptcy, again.

When will smugglers ever learn? Don't always just stuff shit down your pants.

2009-05-06T11:15:00.003-04:00

Why is it that people seem to think, "shit, I gotta smuggle something. I'll stick it down my pants! No one will ever know..." Yeah, because the awkward bulges won't give you away at all. And saying you have elephantiasis of the balls is always a reasonable excuse.

A man was charged Tuesday with smuggling songbirds into the United States by hiding more than a dozen of them in an elaborate, custom-tailored pair of leggings during a flight from Vietnam to Los Angeles.

Sony Dong, 46, was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport in March after an inspector spotted bird feathers and droppings on his socks and tail feathers peeking out from under his pants, prosecutors said.

"He had fashioned these special cloth devices to hold the birds," said U.S. attorney spokesman Thom Mrozek. "They were secured by cloth wrappings and attached to his calves with buttons."

- Source

Good Christians = Torture Supportors?

2009-05-02T04:31:00.003-04:00

According to a recent Pew survey, those who regularly attend church are more likely to support torture techniques. Guess they've been reading a lot of the Old Testament.

More than half of people who attend services at least once a week -- 54 percent -- said the use of torture against suspected terrorists is "often" or "sometimes" justified. Only 42 percent of people who "seldom or never" go to services agreed, according to the analysis released Wednesday by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.

White evangelical Protestants were the religious group most likely to say torture is often or sometimes justified -- more than six in 10 supported it. People unaffiliated with any religious organization were least likely to back it. Only four in 10 of them did.

The analysis is based on a Pew Research Center survey of 742 American adults conducted April 14-21. It did not include analysis of groups other than white evangelicals, white non-Hispanic Catholics, white mainline Protestants and the religiously unaffiliated, because the sample size was too small.

The president of the National Association of Evangelicals, Leith Anderson, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The survey asked: "Do you think the use of torture against suspected terrorists in order to gain important information can often be justified, sometimes be justified, rarely be justified, or never be justified?"

Roughly half of all respondents -- 49 percent -- said it is often or sometimes justified. A quarter said it never is.

The religious group most likely to say torture is never justified was Protestant denominations -- such as Episcopalians, Lutherans and Presbyterians -- categorized as "mainline" Protestants, in contrast to evangelicals. Just over three in 10 of them said torture is never justified. A quarter of the religiously unaffiliated said the same, compared with two in 10 white non-Hispanic Catholics and one in eight evangelicals.
- Source

The final stand at the Texas schoolboard meeting.

2009-04-06T00:41:00.004-04:00

By way of Andrew Sullivan's magnificent blog I was brought aware of a Newsweek article from his good friend, and one of my favorite debaters, Christopher Hitchens. Hitchens makes some great points. The evangelical community is a huge liability for the GOP. Do you really want a party linked to crackpot wackos that think, the basic equivalent of, the Earth being flat? I can't think of a better way to disengage the enlightened and thoughtful of your party than to interject the most drastically ignorant fringe that one could imagine.

Mention the name "Texas" and the word "schoolbook" to many people of a certain age (such as my own) and the resulting free association will come up with the word "depository" and the image of Lee Harvey Oswald crouching on its sixth floor. In Dallas for the Christian Book Expo recently, I had a view of Dealey Plaza and its most famous building from my hotel room, so the suggestion was never far from my mind.

But last week Texas and schoolbooks meant something else altogether when the state Board of Education, in a muddled decision, rejected a state science curriculum that required teachers to discuss the "strengths and weaknesses" of the theory of evolution. Instead, the board allowed "all sides" of scientific theories to be taught. The vote was watched as something more than a local or bookish curiosity. Just as the Christian Book Expo is one of the largest events on the nation's publishing calendar, so the Lone Star State commands such a big share of the American textbook market that many publishers adapt to the standards that it sets, and sell the resulting books to non-Texans as well.

In many ways, this battle can be seen as the last stand of the Protestant evangelicals with whom I was mingling and debating. It's been a rather dismal time for them lately. In the last election they barely had a candidate after Mike Huckabee dropped out and, some would say, not much of one before that. Many Republicans now see them as more of a liability than an asset. As a proportion of the population they are shrinking, and in ethical terms they find themselves more and more in the wilderness of what some of them morosely called, in conversation with me, a "post-Christian society." Perhaps more than any one thing, the resounding courtroom defeat that they suffered in December 2005 in the conservative district of Dover, Pa., where the "intelligent design" plaintiffs were all but accused of fraud by a Republican judge, has placed them on the defensive. Thus, even if the Texas board had defiantly voted to declare evolution to be questionable and debatable, its decision could still have spelled the end of a movement rather than the revival of one.

Yet I find myself somewhat drawn in by the quixotic idea that we should "teach the argument." I am not a scientist, and all that I knew as an undergraduate about the evolution debate came from the study of two critical confrontations. The first was between Thomas Huxley (Darwin's understudy, ancestor of Aldous and coiner of the term "agnostic") and Bishop Samuel Wilberforce (third son of the great Christian emancipator William) at the Oxford University Museum in 1860. The second was the "Monkey Trial" in Dayton, Tenn., in 1925, which pitted the giant of Protestant fundamentalism, William Jennings Bryan, against Clarence Darrow and H. L. Mencken. Every educated person should know the arguments that were made in these transatlantic venues.

So by all means let's "be honest with the kids," as Dr. Don McLeroy, the chairman of the Texas education board, wants us to be. The problem is that he is urging that the argument be taught, not in a history or in a civics class, but in a biology class. And one of his supporters on the board, Ken Mercer, has said that evolution is disproved by the absence of any transitional forms between dogs and cats. If any state in the American union gave equal time in science class to such claims, it would certainly make itself unique in the world (perhaps no shame in that). But it would also set a precedent for the sharing of the astronomy period with the teaching of astrology, or indeed of equal time as between chemistry and alchemy. Less boring perhaps, but also much less scientific and less educational.

The Texas anti-Darwin stalwarts also might want to beware of what they wish for. The last times that evangelical Protestantism won cultural/ political victories—by banning the sale of alcohol, prohibiting the teaching of evolution and restricting immigration from Catholic countries—the triumphs all turned out to be Pyrrhic. There are some successes that are simply not survivable. If by any combination of luck and coincidence any religious coalition ever did succeed in criminalizing abortion, say, or mandating school prayer, it would swiftly become the victim of a backlash that would make it rue the day. This will apply with redoubled force to any initiative that asks the United States to trade its hard-won scientific preeminence against its private and unofficial pieties. This country is so constituted that no one group, and certainly no one confessional group, is able to dictate its own standards to the others. There are days when I almost wish the fundamentalists could get their own way, just so that they would find out what would happen to them.
- Source

Trucker hat = Serial killer hat?

2009-04-06T00:38:00.002-04:00

Uh oh. I live near a truck stop...

The FBI suspects there's a link between long-haul truckers and serial killers, and runs a national program to track murders along popular trucking routes, according to a newspaper report.

The Los Angeles Times reports that federal authorities first made the connection five years ago while investigating a string of unsolved killings along Interstate 40 in Oklahoma and several other states.

After patterns started emerging, the FBI launched the Highway Serial Killings Initiative to track suspicious slayings and suspect truckers.

A computer database now includes more than 500 female murder victims whose bodies were discarded at truck stops, motels and other locations.
- Source

nothing after the jump

You can lead an Islamic horse to water...

2009-04-06T00:31:00.002-04:00

SO, this is what the men and women of the armed services have died for? Great. Awesome. IF this is what democracy in the Islamic world means, what the fuck is the point? Why not just let the Taliban rule? It would basically have the same result.

What am I talking about? A recent Afghanistan law that states that a woman is required to have sex with her husband every fourth night if he so desires.

As first lady, senator and then Democratic candidate for president, Hillary Clinton was vocal in her fight for the rights of women in Afghanistan.

But, as President Obama's secretary of state, Clinton now finds herself in the uncomfortable position of watching as the U.S.-backed Afghan president signs a law that critics say gives Shiite men the right to rape their wives.

International criticism pressure forced President Hamid Karzai to say Saturday that the law is under review, and he has spoken to Clinton about it.

The developments come as Obama seeks NATO support in Europe for his plan to ramp up the war against terrorists in Afghanistan. Back at home in Washington, administration officials have struggled this week with how to respond to Karzai's signing of the so-called Shia Family Law without debate in the Afghan parliament. The law's most controversial provisions address sexual intercourse in marriage.

"As long as the husband is not traveling, he has the right to have sexual intercourse with his wife every fourth night," Article 132 of the law says. "Unless the wife is ill or has any kind of illness that intercourse could aggravate, the wife is bound to give a positive response to the sexual desires of her husband."
- Source

Yea! for progress!

Penn Jillette on counterintuition and the Obama economic recovery plan.

2009-04-03T15:17:00.004-04:00

Just hit the jump and read it.

Counterintuitive action makes a fellow feel smart. When I first got my driver's license, I took my old Ford Falcon into the Greenfield Public High School parking lot when it was freshly covered with fresh powder on top of wet slippery Western Massachusetts snow and ice. I turned fast, gunned it and lost control of the car in a skid.

I turned into the skid and instantly gained control of my car. Telling someone to turn into a skid, that's crazy talk. It seems so wrong, but my Dad knew it worked. Dad suggested I do it over and over in the parking lot, so I would conquer my intuition to be ready when a real emergency arose on a real road. Counterintuitive actions prove we can trust real knowledge and do the opposite of what we feel makes sense.

I'm a fire-eater. There is some technique to fire-eating, but most of the practice goes into learning that one's mouth is wet enough, most of the heat goes up enough, and cutting the oxygen leg off the fire triangle (it's now a fire tetrahedron, but I learned fire-eating a long time ago) with one's mouth really does put the fire out.

It took watching a professional whom I trusted do it -- a lot of trust and a lot of practice -- before my first reaction, when my mouth started to burn from the lit torch in my mouth, was to put the torch deeper in my mouth, close my mouth around the torch and put it out.

Handling fire seems like a superpower. There are whole seminars and self-help jive centered on fire-walking, which is hustled as "mind over matter," or "empowerment" but is really just counterintuitive physics. As long as the fire walk is set up right and you keep moving, you can even hope and pray to be burned, while yelling counter-self-help slogans such as "I do not have any power to do this" and "universe, please burn my little piggies," and you'll be fine.

Whether it's fire walking or knowing that the Earth is round, everyone seems to dig counterintuitive thinking. Many dig it when our president explains we're going to spend our way out of debt. That's way against all the intuition we've developed in our adult lives. Spending our way out of debt doesn't work often, does it? It's crazy talk. Didn't a lot of people try that spending out of debt thing?

I live in Vegas, and I see people by the side of the road with cardboard signs who seem like they might have tried that spending their way out of debt thing. Or maybe they tried the all too intuitive "crack will make me feel healthy again" thing. I don't know.

Didn't lots of people try piling up debt on credit cards and buying houses they couldn't afford in hopes of solving all their financial problems? I've tried spending more than I was going to earn (remember, I was carny trash, that's why I know how to eat fire), and it way didn't work. Spending more money than I had to spend put me more in debt, just like my silly intuition warned me.

President Obama is so damn smart. He just drips smart. He clearly understands stuff that we could never understand. He's trustworthy. If Obama were teaching fire-eating, we would all learn fast. If he told you that the burns would be minor and the fire would go out when you closed your mouth, you'd believe him. If I weren't twice his weight, I'd fall back with my eyes closed into his caring arms in one of those cheesy '70s church trust exercises. He could talk me into anything.

Obama tells us that we can spend our way out of debt. He tells us that even though the government had control over the banks and did nothing to stop the bad that's going on, if we give them more control over more other bank-like things, then they can make sure bad stuff doesn't happen ever again. He says we can get out of all those big wars President Bush caused by sending more troops into Afghanistan. And I don't know. I really don't know.

I trusted my Dad that turning into a skid would work. I trusted my carny mentor, Doc Swan, that closing my mouth around a burning torch would put it out. They were right. Maybe the United States borrowing more money than I could imagine in a billion years with a billion computers and a billion monkeys typing on them, will get us out of financial trouble. I really don't know. It's certainly true that many counterintuitive things are true, and when you have the guts to do something counterintuitive that works, it's really cool. It's a superpower under our yellow sun.

But there are some things that are just intuitive. Did you know, that if you're going 100 mph, directly at a very, very thick, reinforced concrete wall, and you speed up, so you're accelerating right when you hit the wall that the accident you have is going to be much worse than if you'd jammed on the brakes as soon as you saw the wall at the end of the street? Did you know that? It's exactly what everything you know and feel would tell you, and it's exactly true. Most times when you're driving, or playing with fire, or handling money, the thing that makes sense to you is also true.

I way hope we're turning into a skid and not accelerating into a concrete wall.

Note: Reading this article does not give you the information you need to really eat fire, fire walk or even turn into a skid. Do not try any of it. You really need a trained professional to teach you, and most important you need to sign something that says Penn Jillette and CNN are not in any way responsible for your inevitable injuries.
- Source

CDs killed the record label.

2009-04-03T15:09:00.002-04:00

Well, I partly agree with the idea put forth, but I think it glosses over a few things. Namely, the price scheme. I remember when CDs were first emerging and the line was touted that, as the prevelance of CDs grew and the medium got cheaper, albums would cost $10. They never did. You can find some new albums for $15, but most are $20 or more.

Anyways, the notion that cheap CDs and shoddy album compilations is what really caused such massive revenue loss for record companies is interesting.

Traditionally, the majors blame the internet for devaluing music, but the most forward-thinking in the business are starting to reverse this equation. “In a way, the CD is what destroyed the music business,” says Joe Mardin, a musician, producer, arranger, and engineer. Mardin grew up in the music business; his father was Ardiff Mardin, the legendary producer of Hall & Oats, Norah Jones, Aretha Franklin, and others. “People were buying millions of CDs to replace their catalog," says Mardin, explaining how industry greed ended up killing the Golden Goose. “There was this imperative that started to emerge: 'You must fill up a CD with as much music as possible,’” Mardin says. “The rest was filler. You ended up with albums that were one or two hits and a bunch of wanna-be hits.” The record industry itself killed the album, trying to maximize profits.

"The very concept of the album itself, a consecutive body of work designed by the artist to be experienced in its entirety, has been lost," explains Caraeff. And as a result, the traditional labels are contracting radically, morphing into a much humbler business. "The labels will survive," Mardin predicts, "but with much smaller margins and sales." And that might not be such a bad thing for music—or musicians.

After the current contraction, a few artists, like Lil' Wayne, will still be able to rake in large sums. But the top-heavy shape of the industry as a whole will change. There will never be another 100-million-selling album, there may not ever be another 20-million-selling album. “The profits were just gloriously obscene,” says Bob Sherwood, who was head of marketing for Columbia when Faith was released, and has had top positions at Mercury Records, CBS Records, and Sony. “You can’t do that today.”

Yet there will always be fans, always be musicians, and—of course—there will always be money. “If you find 100,000 fans who are willing to contribute $15 a year for your music, that’s one and a half million dollars," says Goldberg, doing a back-of-the-envelope calculation. "If you can find a way to get your music to them efficiently and for them to get that money to you efficiently, you can make a very nice living.” It's the internet, not the labels, that connects musicians to their audience. What's gone is the major-label hit-making machinery. “The top is going to come down," says Goldberg, "but the middle class is going to grow."
- Source

Keith Olbermann is on fire.

2009-03-01T23:00:00.004-05:00

I know most people consider Keith Olbermann to be liberal jerk-off material, but this is really is so spot on.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

^ Keith Olbermann and Eugene Robinson roast Joe The Plumber.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

^ Tom DeLay wants Obama to fail.

As an aside, it's nice that someone is finally saying it. Reagan didn't decrease the size of government. He didn't decrease government spending. For all of the bullshit aggrandizing of Reagan and searching for a "new Reagan"; if the GOP were to meet the actual Ronald Reagan, freshly resurrected from the grave like Jesus, they would pass him up as being "not Reagan enough." That's because the Reagan that the GOP harps so much about NEVER existed.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

^ Is Michelle Bachmann really that stupid? Moreover, is the audience really that dumb to believe her?

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

^ How is it that this kind of massive fraud against our troops and against our nation has gone so unmitigated? That is unpatriotic.

Bobby Jindal caught in a spindle. That was bad wasn't it?

2009-03-01T19:37:00.002-05:00

Oh, Bobby Jindal. Not only did many of the GOP think your speech sucked, but it turns out that you lied your ass off about your retelling of events in Katrina.

It looks like Bobby Jindal's staff has been trying to do some damage limitation on that phony Katrina story -- with some help from Politico. But it's blowing up in their faces.

Picking up on an earlier post at Daily Kos, we wrote a post yesterday that raised questions about a key anecdote in Bobby Jindal's big Tuesday night speech.

You can watch the key excerpt here, but here's the transcript:
During Katrina, I visited Sheriff Harry Lee, a Democrat and a good friend of mine. When I walked into his makeshift office I'd never seen him so angry. He was yelling into the phone: 'Well, I'm the Sheriff and if you don't like it you can come and arrest me!' I asked him: 'Sheriff, what's got you so mad?' He told me that he had put out a call for volunteers to come with their boats to rescue people who were trapped on their rooftops by the floodwaters. The boats were all lined up ready to go - when some bureaucrat showed up and told them they couldn't go out on the water unless they had proof of insurance and registration. I told him, 'Sheriff, that's ridiculous.' And before I knew it, he was yelling into the phone: 'Congressman Jindal is here, and he says you can come and arrest him too!' Harry just told the boaters to ignore the bureaucrats and start rescuing people.

In our post, we reported -- among other red flags -- that we couldn't find any news reports that put Jindal on the ground in the affected area during the time when a boat rescue would have been needed. As we noted, we called Jindal's office twice before posting to ask them to verify the incident, but heard nothing back.

This morning, Politico's Ben Smith, noting that we and others had raised questions about Jindal's story, posted a response from the governor's chief of staff, Timmy Teepell:
It was in the days following the storm. Sheriff Lee was a hero who worked tirelessly to rescue those in danger, and he didn't take kindly to bureaucrats getting in his way.

That didn't really seem to clear things up either way -- indeed it admitted that it wasn't "during Katrina" as Jindal had originally said. Still, the headline of Smith's post characterized the statement as "stand[ing] by" the anecdote.

Team Jindal probably would have been wise to leave things there.

Instead, they went back to Smith, now telling him, in Smith's words, that Jindal "didn't imply" on Tuesday that the story "took place during the heat of a fight to release rescue boats." (Take 30 seconds to read Jindal's actual words, and you'll see that's flatly untrue -- but no matter.) Rather, Jindal spokeswoman Melissa Sellers told Smith, "It was days later .. Sheriff Lee was on the phone and the governor came down to visit him. It wasn't that they were standing right down there with the boats."

Smith added:
She said she thought Lee, who died in 2007, "was doing an interview" about the incident with the boats when the governor described him yelling into the phone.

In other words, Jindal only heard from Lee later that this had happened. He didn't actually see it happening and played no role in it himself. We posted a few hours ago, noting that Jindal's office had admitted the story was false.

But then things got weirder: Jindal's people went back for yet more.

Smith soon posted an update explaining that he had misunderstood Sellers earlier. According to Teepell, Smith now wrote, rescue efforts were in fact still underway when Jindal met with Lee. And Jindal overheard Lee yelling on the phone to justify a decision he had previously made, not giving an interview about the episode, as Sellers' earlier version had had it.

In fact, that whole thing about Jindal overhearing Lee giving an interview? It's now gone from Smith's post (though, thanks to the dangers of syndication, it remains here) as if Jindal's office never said it.

There's more. Amazingly, Sellers then argued to Smith that there is no difference between Jindal's original story as told Tuesday night, and the one her office finally settled on this afternoon. And even more amazingly, Smith added another update in which he transcribed that argument without comment, as if it were reasonable.

Then the capper: With Jindal's office now satisfied with the third iteration of its story -- a version that clearly acknowledged that the first version, told Tuesday night to millions, was false -- Teepell went back to Smith with the following comment:
"This is liberal blogger B.S. The story is clear."

And Smith, in yet another update, published it.

Good work all round!
- Source

Glenn Beck debating marijuana legalization.

2009-03-01T19:36:00.005-05:00

You probably know that Glenn Beck is insane as a shit-house rat. But maybe you don't know that Glenn used to do a lot of drugs. I don't know if he "chased the dragon", but he did do cocaine, pot, and was a huge drunk.

Anyways, here's a little vid of Glenn debating Rob Kampia of the Marijuana Policy Project. I don't know what the fuck Glenn was/is on, but he should cut it out. It's making him act like a weirdo. I also like that Glenn can't come up with any arguments against ending marijuana prohibition, but he's still against it anyways. Why the harping of "they shouldn't do it juts to raise money!" Did it ever occur to Glenn that maybe it's not just the money, but actually because of all the reasons why Kampia mentioned?

nothing after the jump

GOP oreinted, social conservative, Christian states have higher porn consumption.

2009-03-01T19:33:00.003-05:00

From Andrew Sullivan's blog:

Surprise! There's a significant correlation between consumption of online porn and Christianism:
Eight of the top 10 pornography consuming states gave their electoral votes to John McCain in last year's presidential election – Florida and Hawaii were the exceptions. While six out of the lowest 10 favoured Barack Obama. Residents of 27 states that passed laws banning gay marriages boasted 11% more porn subscribers than states that don't explicitly restrict gay marriage...

States where a majority of residents agreed with the statement "I have old-fashioned values about family and marriage," bought 3.6 more subscriptions per thousand people than states where a majority disagreed. A similar difference emerged for the statement "AIDS might be God's punishment for immoral sexual behaviour."

Utah is the country's single biggest consumer of online porn. You've got to love those Mormons.
- Source

nothing after the jump

That asshole clerk might have once been a CEO.

2009-03-01T18:30:00.002-05:00

Saw this on the Consumerist and thought it a rather interesting read. Next time you're at a gas station and the cashier's being a huge dick with an inflated sense of self-importance, it may be because they actually were important once.

Meet John Eller. Five years ago, he was a Sprint executive earning $150,000 for managing 7,000 employees at 13 call centers. Today, he's a grocery store baker making $10 an hour. The Times tells us he's not the only former executive now working for minimum wage.
nterviews with more than two dozen laid-off professionals across the country, including architects, former sales managers and executives who have taken on lower-paying, stop-gap jobs to help make ends meet, found that they were working for places like U.P.S., a Verizon Wireless call center and a liquor store. For many of the workers, the psychological adjustment was just as difficult as the financial one, with their sense of identity and self-worth upended.

"It has been like peeling back the layers of a bad onion," said Ame Arlt, 53, who recently accepted a position as a customer-service representative at an online insurance-leads referral service in Franklin, Tenn., after 20 years of working in executive jobs. "With every layer you peel back, you discover something else about yourself. You have to make an adjustment."

Some people had exhausted their jobless benefits, or were ineligible; others said it was impossible for them to live on their unemployment checks alone, or said it was a matter of pride, or sanity, that drove them to find a job, any job.

In just one illustration of the demand for low-wage work, a spokesman for U.P.S. said the company saw the number of applicants this last holiday season for jobs sorting and delivering packages almost triple to 1.4 million from the 500,000 it normally receives.

It's nothing new, but it shows just how far anyone can fall. Something to keep in mind next time you're talking to a customer service representative.

"It has been the hardest thing in my life," said Arlt. "It has been harder than my divorce from my husband. It has really been even worse than the death of my mother."
- Source

Washington state approves doctor assisted suicide.

2009-03-01T18:07:00.002-05:00

Finally. I really don't understand why its such a big deal that people cannot choose to end their lives. Especially for those that are suffering. "No! You can't end your life! You must sit and suffer the pain until the very end. It's only inhumane thing to do..."

Terminally ill patients with less than six months to live will soon be able to ask their doctors to prescribe them lethal medication in Washington state.

But even though the "Death with Dignity" law takes effect Thursday, people who might seek the life-ending prescriptions could find their doctors conflicted or not willing to write them.

Many doctors are hesitant to talk publicly about where they stand on the issue, said Dr. Tom Preston, a retired cardiologist and board member of Compassion & Choices, the group that campaigned for and supports the law.

"There are a lot of doctors, who in principle, would approve or don't mind this, but for a lot of social or professional reasons, they don't want to be involved," he said.

But Preston said discussions about end-of-life issues between doctor and patient will increase because of the new law, and he thinks that as time goes on more and more doctors who don't have a religious or philosophical opposition will be open to participating.

"It will be a cultural shift," he said.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2006 that it was up to states to regulate medical practice, including assisted suicide, and Washington's Initiative 1000 was passed by nearly 60 percent of state voters in November.

It became the second state, behind Oregon, to have a voter-approved measure allowing assisted suicide.

[...]

Under the Oregon and Washington laws, physicians and pharmacists are not required to write or fill lethal prescriptions if they are opposed to the law. Some Washington hospitals are opting out of participation, which precludes their doctors from participating on hospital property.

Dr. Stu Farber, director of the palliative care consult service at the University of Washington Medical Center, voted against the measure and doesn't plan to prescribe lethal medication to his patients for now.

"I am not here to tell people how they should either live their life or the end of their life," Farber said. "There's possibly a story out there, in the future, that's so compelling that maybe I would write a prescription."

Farber said he would refer patients to Compassion & Choices of Washington, the state's largest aid-in-dying advocacy group, after talking about how they came to their decision.

The advocacy group is compiling a directory of physicians who aren't opting out of the law, as well as pharmacies willing to fill the prescriptions, said executive director Robb Miller.

"Physicians don't understand yet exactly how the law works," Miller said. "Whenever there's lack of understanding, there tends to be some reluctance."

Dr. Robert Thompson, an internist and cardiologist at Swedish Medical Center in Seattle who voted for the measure, said that in his 32 years of practice he has treated patients who would have benefited from this law.

"I believe for the sake of compassion, and for a person's own individual rights, that this should be an option for them," he said.

[...]

Under the Washington law, any patient requesting fatal medication must be at least 18 years old, declared competent and a state resident. The patient would have to make two oral requests, 15 days apart, and submit a written request witnessed by two people, one of which must not be a relative, heir, attending doctor, or connected with a health facility where the requester lives.

[...]

Two doctors must certify that the patient has a terminal condition and six months or less to live.

Some doctors who opposed the measure have argued that a six-month terminal diagnosis is never a sure thing.

"There is no question in my mind that, if this is too easy of a task, people will die prematurely," said Dr. Linda Wrede-Seaman, a family physician and palliative care specialist in Yakima.

[...]

That decision was made easier by the law's clear option that physicians could opt out if they wanted to, said Dr. Larry Robinson, vice dean for clinical affairs at the UW School of Medicine.

"We're not forcing anyone to do anything," he said.
- Source

Robotic arms controlled by human brain.

2009-03-01T18:04:00.002-05:00

This is so fucking cool.

A wheelchair-mounted robotic arm controlled by thought alone has been created by scientists at the University of South Florida.

The device could give people with amytrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) or full body paralysis the ability to perform simple day to day functions that would otherwise be impossible.

"We aren't reading people's thoughts," said Redwan Alqasemi, a scientist at the University of South Florida who, along with Rajiv Dubey and Emanuel Donchin of USF, helped develop the software and hardware. "This is the first time a person with severe disabilities like ALS can perform daily activities for themselves."

Over time, patients with ALS slowly lose control over their muscle movement, losing the ability to move their arms, legs and eventually all muscles except those around the eye. Patients with ALS have fully functional brains, but have no way to express their thoughts.

EEG scans offer one way for patients with ALS to communicate with the outside world. By fitting patients with a head cap equipped with electrodes and filled with an electrically conductive gel, scientists can monitor particular kinds of electrical impulses coursing through the brain.

In this case, the scientists monitor a particular brain wave called P300, so-called because it lasts about one-third of a second. Reading P300 waves is basically like reading a person's thoughts, but only in the most coarse kind of way.

For the wheelchair-mounted robotic arm, the person in the wheelchair looks at directional arrows flashing across a small screen. When the arrow points in the direction that they want to go, their brain lights up on the EEG, and the wheelchair or robotic arm moves accordingly.

This doesn't happen at the speed of thought, however. Turning the wheelchair or moving the robotic arm takes about seven seconds as the arrows cycle across the screen. The wheel chair or arm continues in that direction until it receives a new command.

The wheelchair or arm could move faster, but it might not move as accurately, said Alaqsemi. The next step for the USF scientists is to refine the model's hardware and software, to increase speed and reliability while cutting down on weight.

"Every pound you take off the robotic arm is another pound of payload that can be lifted," said Alqasemi.

Right now the robotic arm can lift about four pounds, about the weight of a gallon of milk. In the next version Alqasemi hopes to double the payload.

Lifting a door handle or moving a gallon of milk may seem like simple tasks, but according to Jonathan Wolpaw, who builds brain computer interfaces at the Wadsworth Center in New York, using thought-controlled devices is harder than simply just thinking.

"Our normal muscle movements require practiced skill and control," said Walpaw. "Controlling brain activity is also a skill that requires practice."

Reading P300 brain waves is a good system, argues Walpaw, because it doesn't take a lot of practice to train the brain. With only one WMRA built so far and no current plans to commercialize the design, not many people will get the chance for their brain to learn the new skill. But when commercial models appear in several years, even slow brain computer interfaces could make the impossible, possible.

"It would allow patients with severe disabilities the ability to control their own environment and have some form of independent mobility," said William Heetderks, Director of the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering. "It would be very valuable to these individuals."
- Source

KKK state trooper fired.

2009-03-01T17:52:00.002-05:00

This fucking asshole was a state trooper for 18 fucking years? Well, there's a good reason to never pull over in the state of Nebraska. Actually, the guy was fired a while back, but the issue of his firing was taken up as a court matter.

Robert Henderson maintained that his firing violated his First Amendment rights of free speech. The Nebraska Supreme Court disagrees, and maintains Henderson's firing was perfectly legit.

The Nebraska Supreme Court on Friday upheld the firing of a State Patrol trooper for his ties to the Ku Klux Klan.

Justice John Gerrard wrote that Robert Henderson voluntarily associated with an organization that uses violence and terror to oppose the state's founding principles of equality and tolerance.

Henderson, a trooper for 18 years, was dismissed in 2006 after the patrol discovered he had joined a racist group. He told an investigator he joined the Knights Party — which has described itself as the most active Klan organization in the United States — in June 2004.

An arbitrator said Henderson's firing violated his First Amendment rights, among other things, but Lancaster County District Judge Jeffre Cheuvront overturned that decision.

Henderson's attorney, Vincent Valentino, had argued to the high court that arbitrators, not judges, have the final say. He said Friday that an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court was possible, based on "everything from due process to freedom of speech and freedom of association." A due process argument, he added, would refer to violation of Henderson's rights under the union contract.

Gerrard wrote that while it's not the role of a court, generally, to set aside an arbitrator's decision, it is permissible for a court to "refuse to enforce an arbitration award that is contrary to a public policy that is explicit, well defined, and dominant."

Justice Kenneth Stephan wrote in a dissenting opinion that the courts overstepped their bounds by overturning the arbitrator. Stephan said Henderson had kept his beliefs well hidden while on the job and there was no evidence they interfered with his impartial enforcement of the law.

But Gerrard noted that the state's admission to the Union in 1867, two years after the Civil War ended, was dependent on a "fundamental public policy" that Nebraska would adhere to the principle that "laws should be enforced without regard to race."

"It is beyond dispute that (Henderson) willingly joined the Knights Party, knowing that he was effectively joining the Ku Klux Klan," Gerrard wrote. "In joining, he endorsed a point of view that is completely antithetical to the principles of Nebraska law that he was bound by oath to enforce."

To associate with the KKK is to associate with a legacy of hatred, bigotry, violence and terror, and keeping Henderson in the force would reduce public confidence in law enforcement, Gerrard wrote.

"One cannot simultaneously wear the badge of the Nebraska State Patrol and the robe of a Klansman without degrading what that badge represents when worn by any officer."

In his ruling, arbitrator Paul Caffera ordered the patrol to reinstate Henderson within 60 days and pay him his back wages. He said Henderson was entitled to his First Amendment rights of free speech and that the state violated the troopers' contract.

But the state appealed that decision and won in Lancaster County District Court.

Henderson told an investigator that he joined the Knights Party to vent his frustrations after his wife left him for a Hispanic man. Henderson posted four messages to the Knights' Web site, according to the investigator's report.

Valentino said his client now works part-time for private security firms.
- Source

Oh, well, that makes perfect sense. Instead of just going to a normal website for recently divorced people, or a counselor, or something else of the sort, he joined a white supremacy group to vent his frustrations regarding Hispanics. Seriously though, that is some stupid-as-fuck shit. Good riddance to this piece of shit.

Am I high? DEA to stop raiding medical marijuana clubs.

2009-03-01T17:40:00.002-05:00

Holy shit. Am I high? Really, am I? I don't think so... I did drink a pint of Sierra Nevada's Bigfoot barleywine, but I don't think that would make me loopy enough to start seeing things. Apparently Eric Holder has called for a halt on the DEA raids for state-recognized medical marijuana clubs.

Supporters of programs to provide legal marijuana to patients with painful medical conditions are celebrating Attorney General Eric Holder’s statement this week that the Drug Enforcement Administration would end its raids on state-approved marijuana dispensaries.

Federal raids on medical marijuana distributors continued at least into the second week of Barack Obama’s presidency, when federal agents shut down at least two dispensaries in California on Feb. 3.

Holder was asked about those raids Wednesday in Santa Ana, Calif., at a news conference that was called to announce the arrests of 755 people in a nationwide crackdown on the U.S. operations of Mexican drug cartels. He said such operations would no longer be conducted.

“What the president said during the campaign ... will be consistent with what we will be doing here in law enforcement,” he said. “What (Obama) said during the campaign ... is now American policy.”

Obama indicated during the presidential campaign that he supported the controlled use of marijuana for medical purposes, saying he saw no difference between medical marijuana and other pain-control drugs.

“My attitude is if the science and the doctors suggest that the best palliative care and the way to relieve pain and suffering is medical marijuana, then that’s something I’m open to,” Obama said in November 2007 at a campaign stop in Audubon, Iowa. “There’s no difference between that and morphine when it comes to just giving people relief from pain.”

White House spokesman Nick Shapiro hinted at the policy shift shortly after the California raids, telling The Washington Times that the dispensaries were legal in California and that the Obama administration’s stance was that “federal resources should not be used to circumvent state laws.”
- Source

So, with Obama pledging to cut the deficit and taking a strong stance on state's rights, does that mean he's more conservative than Bush?

Want more Futurama? Buy the DVDs.

2009-03-01T16:16:00.002-05:00

And more stuff from Matt Groening.

Sometimes it's a chuckle of uncertainty, as when he talks about the fact that his weekly comic strip, "Life in Hell," is being dropped by its flagship newspaper, LA Weekly, after 22 years. Sometimes it's a snort of mischief, as when he describes working with "Family Guy" creator Seth MacFarlane, with whom he allegedly has a feud.

But mostly it's a big, rollicking guffaw, the sound of a man who still can't quite believe how much fun he gets to have at work -- work that includes "The Simpsons," still going strong after 20 years, "Life in Hell" and "Futurama."

It's the latter that's the ostensible reason for a phone interview with Groening. "Futurama," which aired on Fox from 1999-2003, then in reruns on Cartoon Network and Comedy Central, has apparently concluded its run with a new DVD movie, "Into the Wild Green Yonder" (Fox Home Entertainment), which came out Tuesday.

As with the three previous "Futurama" DVD films -- "Bender's Big Score," "The Beast with a Billion Backs" and "Bender's Game" -- "Yonder" will be split into four parts and aired on Comedy Central, which has the rights to the series. But Groening's not willing to say goodbye -- yet.

"We have a great relationship with Comedy Central and we would love to do more episodes for them, but I don't know. Maybe," he said. "I think one of the factors will be how well this DVD sells, because of these troubled times where everybody's gnashing their teeth and biting their nails."

Along with "Futurama," Groening ("rhymes with 'complaining,' " as he's often pointed out) also talked about "Life in Hell," "The Simpsons," MacFarlane and pretty much anything that tickled his fancy. The following is an edited version of the interview, with some laughs included.

CNN: I feel like Comic Book Guy talking to Jack Kirby -- or perhaps Jack Davis.

Matt Groening: (huge laugh) Well, I've met both of them -- Jack Kirby and Jack Davis! They're both heroes of mine. So I can relate. They're definitely part of my pantheon of great artists.

CNN: Let's move over to "Futurama." Is this the end?

Groening: We hope not. If it is, we feel we're offering an emotionally satisfying conclusion to this epic science fiction saga. But we did leave the door open just a bit in case we get renewed. iReport: Tell us your favorite "Futurama" moments

CNN: Is that in the offing?

Groening: We're having discussions and there is some enthusiasm but I can't tell if it's just me. (laughs)

CNN: With all the insider references in your work, do you still think of yourself as a subversive in an industry that doesn't exactly prize subversiveness?

Groening: I don't know how subversive you can be when you've been on the air as long as we have. But we try to sneak some stuff in here and there, and gladden the hearts of sensitive viewers. ...

I always thought that television was the way to go in my goal to invade pop culture (laughs) because it got to towns in which there were no bookstores. That's how I used to think of it: How do I reach kids who not only don't read but probably have no access to much in the way of books?

And "The Simpsons" basically -- and "Futurama" -- are really smart shows. They're kind of disguised as these goofy animated sitcoms, but the references within the shows, if you're paying attention, are pretty smart and pretty sophisticated. And if you don't get it, it's OK -- you have a nice entertainment experience -- but if you've gone to college and seen a few movies, you can appreciate the shows on a much more satisfying level. Listen to Groening talk about his recent favorite films

CNN: How did the plot to this film come together?

Groening: The set of four movies were done by the core writers of "Futurama" headed by David X. Cohen ... [who's been] my partner on "Futurama" from the very beginning. We [planned] these four movies -- one was time travel, next was sword-and-sorcery, third was a space monster movie and the last one is a grand ecological science fiction epic which also has some emotional payoffs for the characters if you've been following the series from the beginning. ...

In a way there was a checklist component to this -- well, let's do this, we haven't done that yet -- and then just great ideas. Ken Keeler, who wrote the script, is very, very smart, and very rarely will concede a factual point, even if it means that we (laughs) postpone getting work done for hours. (laughs) And when you have writers as smart as the "Futurama" writers, you can waste two days on scientific tangents. Listen to Groening talk about the writers' cleverness

CNN: Seth MacFarlane has a role in this.

Groening: Oh yes! That was a real treat to work with Seth and confound the people who want to believe there's some kind of feud between Seth and myself.

CNN: How do you feel about the children of "The Simpsons" -- MacFarlane's "Family Guy," "South Park"?

Groening: I'm a fan of animation and so, the more stuff that doesn't look like the other stuff that's out there, I'm in favor.

There's a staggering array of completely wild animation on TV now ... Adult Swim on the Cartoon Network is unbelievable. And "South Park" continues to do great stuff. And "Family Guy" and the various other Seth MacFarlane projects are amazing.

And I want more. Good! Cartoons! Cartoons that don't look like anything else. Very good. Listen to Groening talk about the animation boom

CNN: To the root of animation, cartooning: You're still doing "Life in Hell," correct?

Groening: Um, yes, but ... well, I feel like the floodwaters are rising.

CNN: Really?

Groening: Yeah, the alternative newsweeklies are really struggling. In fact, this coming week will be my final week after 22 years in the LA Weekly. I and all the other cartoonists are being dismissed because they can't afford to pay.

We'll see. I'm still in a bunch of other papers, so I may continue to do my strip, but it doesn't look good. Listen to Groening talk about the poor treatment of comics

CNN: Have you considered just doing it online?

Groening: Yes! Yes, I'm toying with that. But it's very strange. I've been doing the weekly comic strip for 29 years, "The Simpsons" weekly for 20 years, the "Futurama" weekly for five years and then a little break and then the four movies, and then the "Simpsons" movie, ... so I have a series of ongoing deadlines. So the idea of establishing a Web presence that I'll have to feed on an ongoing basis doesn't give me a lot of pep. (laughs) One more treadmill.

CNN: Let me finish with the traditional "Simpsons" question: Is it going to continue for the foreseeable future?

Groening: Yes. I'll be surprised if we close up anytime soon. I don't see it. The popularity of the show all over the world continues and it is gratifying, and the show's still fun to do. That's always been my ultimate deciding factor: Is it still fun? And it is. ... I get to go in and listen to these brilliant actors make funny lines written by geniuses even funnier. It's a totally entertaining experience from my point of view -- in the middle of it.
- Source

Netflix to offer streaming-only subscription plan.

2009-03-01T14:53:00.004-05:00

While I like the idea, I wonder about how feasible it is. America is woefully low-tech for such goals. We don't have a solid fiber-optics network to provide such massive bandwidth that so many entrepreneurs want to use for business models. Streaming TV sounds nice, but it's going to take a huge toll on ISPs. And don't plan on doing any online gaming or browsing while downloading these movies. It will most likely take 30 minutes to an hour plus to download a movie, and that's using up all of your bandwidth. Also, there is only a very small percentage of Netflix's movies that even available for streaming. The good news is, this plan may help to boost the volume of available streaming movies.

Netflix Chief Financial Officer Barry McCarthy said on Wednesday it plans to offer its online streaming service on a stand-alone basis.

"We're likely to do that in the foreseeable future," McCarthy said at the Jefferies 5th annual Internet and Media conference in New York.

Netflix customers currently pay a fixed monthly subscription fee for access to the company's popular by-mail DVD service, with about 100,000 titles, as well as its online streaming service, with more than 12,000 titles available for viewing.

Netflix recently said it had hit 10 million subscribers, and said last month its stronger-than-expected quarterly results were propelled by growth in its Web video streaming service.

The Watch Instantly streaming service was first available only on personal computers, but is now offered through various devices, including the Roku set-top boxes, Microsoft Corp's Xbox, and LG Electronics Inc products.

McCarthy stressed the company still remains focused on providing a bundled offering, but said he understands that some viewers will find a stand-alone streaming service to be compelling, particularly as more compatible devices become prevalent.
- Source

Don't put your dick in these holes! Don't put your dick in these holes!

2009-03-01T14:43:00.004-05:00

I've seen stories about people fucking puppies, goats, cows, there's even the infamous Mr. Hands who was killed when the horse that was fucking him in the ass went too deep and ruptured his colon. But this, this... Well, it just takes the cake.

A Saginaw County man has pleaded no contest to indecent exposure after police say he was arrested for performing a sex act with a car wash vacuum.

The Saginaw News reports 29-year-old Jason Leroy Savage of Swan Creek Township entered the plea Wednesday in Saginaw County Circuit Court.

A no-contest plea is not an admission of guilt but will be treated as one at sentencing on March 25.

Police say Savage was arrested after a resident called officers early on Oct. 16 to report suspicious activity at a car wash in Thomas Township, about 90 miles northwest of Detroit.

Defense attorney Philip Alexander Sturtz had no immediate comment Thursday.
- Source

^ Mr. Show's "The Farm House Musical"

Really? Pouring gasoline on your head?

2009-03-01T14:39:00.003-05:00

Evansville, Ind., police say a teenager who soaked her hair in gasoline to try to kill head lice was critically burned when the gas fumes ignited and set her head ablaze.

Eighteen-year-old Jessica Brooks is in serious condition at the burn unit at University Hospital in Louisville, Ky., following Sunday night's fire at her Evansville apartment.

Police say Brooks was in her apartment's bathroom letting her hair soak in gasoline just before a pilot light from a water heater ignited the gas fumes and her hair.

Brooks' roommate told the Evansville Courier & Press that Brooks was in a medically induced coma.

Brooks and her fiance, Ronald Young, had planned to wed in May. Young suffered burns on his arms trying to extinguish the flames.
- Source

nothing after the jump

Moral of the story: never help anyone.

2009-03-01T14:32:00.002-05:00

Next time you see someone about to get hit by a car, just let them get hit. Lest you be given a jaywalking ticket for your good deed.

A good Samaritan who helped push three people out of the path of a pickup truck before being struck and injured has gotten a strange reward for his good deed: A jaywalking ticket.

Family members said 58-year-old bus driver Jim Moffett and another man were helping two elderly women cross a busy Denver street in a snowstorm when he was hit Friday night.

Moffett suffered bleeding in the brain, broken bones, a dislocated shoulder and a possible ruptured spleen. He was in serious but stable condition Wednesday.

The Colorado State Patrol issued the citation. Trooper Ryan Sullivan said that despite Moffett's intentions, jaywalking contributed to the accident.

Moffett had been driving his bus when the two women got off. In the interest of safety, he got out and, together with another passenger, helped the ladies cross.

Moffett's stepson, Ken McDonald, said the driver of the pickup plowed into his stepfather, but not before Moffett pushed the two women out of the way.

When he awoke in intensive care, he learned of the ticket. "His reaction was dazed and confused. I was a little angry," said McDonald.

The other man also was cited for jaywalking, while the pickup driver was cited with careless driving that led to injury. Sullivan said the two elderly women haven't been cited but the investigation is ongoing.
- Source

Chavez ramps up his control, seizes rice processing plants.

2009-03-01T14:23:00.003-05:00

I remember whan Chavez was first elected. Oh, how people wooned over him. Look at how progressive and fair he is! Look at how much he is helping the poor! What a savior he is! Except each and every day he is further showing that he is nothing more than a power-hungry despot.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has ordered troops to immediately take over rice-processing plants in his country, accusing some businesses of ignoring prices set by the government.

"What are some of the sectors of the agricultural industry doing? They buy rice from producers, and they don't want to produce regulated rice," Chavez said in a televised address Saturday.

"Well, I've ordered the intervention, starting right now, of all those sectors of the agricultural industry."

Chavez did not say how long the takeover will last, but warned that some companies could be nationalized if they tried to interrupt supplies.

U.S.-owned Cargill, with 2,000 employees spread among 22 locations in Venezuela, is among the major rice processors in the country.
advertisement

Since winning re-election in 2006, Chavez launched a campaign to nationalize strategic segments of Venezuela's economy, including cement companies, a steel mill and oil ventures.

Last month, Venezuelans approved a Chavez-backed constitutional referendum that allows him to run for a third six-year term in 2012.
- Source

Some might say, "surely, this isn't a bad thing. He is trying to regulate rice costs for his people." That's not the real issue. What he is doing is seizing the rice processing plants in a power-grab. By controlling the rice plants, he can subsidize the poor with rice, all but cinching his re-election. The poor will be happy because, hell, at least they have food. Meanwhile, Chavez will simply gain more power until the entire country is within his grasp. It's an obvious move towards dictatorship.

I remember when he first got elected and began outlining and enacting his policies, I said that he would try to negate election term limits. I was right. He has said if the people vote him out, then he will leave. What makes you think that he will fairly count those votes? What makes you think that it will even be a fair election? Instead, Chavez will continue to drive towards being a dictator while posing under the guise as being democratically elected.

Take back the country. One dead liberal at a time.

2009-03-01T12:03:00.005-05:00

Rush Limbaugh gave a roaring and invigorating speech yesterday. Calling, numerously, on his creed that Obama wants socialism and to destroy capitalism. He called for caonservatives to "take back" America and defended his remarks desiring Obama to fail with more asinine assertions.

"We conservatives have not done a good enough job of just laying out basically who we are, because we make the mistake of assuming that people know. What they know is largely incorrect, based on the way we're portrayed in pop culture, in the drive-by media, by the Democrat party," the conservative talk show host told a mostly young crowd of energized supporters.

"We want every American to be the best he or she chooses to be. We recognize that we are all individuals. We love and revere our founding documents, the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. We believe that the preamble of the Constitution contains an inarguable truth, that we are all endowed by our creator with certain inalienable rights, among them life, liberty, freedom -- and the pursuit of happiness," he said, pausing several times for enthusiastic applause.

Really? Then why the attempts to mar the constitution by injecting religious dogma into its foundations? Why has he defended Bush's curtailing the law of the United States by issuing warrant-less wiretaps on American civilians? Also, why is he citing the Declaration of Independence while talking about the Constitution?

Limbaugh used his self-described "first national address," which ran more than an hour longer than his allotted 20 minutes, to accuse President Obama of inspiring fear in Americans in order to push a liberal agenda of "big government."

"He wants people in fear, angst and crisis, fearing the worst each and every day, because that clears the decks for President Obama and his pals to come in with the answers, which are abject failures, historically shown and demonstrated. Doesn't matter. They'll have control of it when it's all over. And that's what they want," Limbaugh said.

What the the fuck has Rush been smoking? What has been the GOP modus operandi for the entire Bush administration? Fear mongering. Fear mongering over bogeymen and that they are coming for you in the night. Obama, on the other hand, is talking realistically about a very real disaster that is unfolding right in front of our eyes: economic collapse. Is it fear mongering to tell a frostbite victim that they may very well lose an extremity, or is it simply addressing the realities of a dire situation? Apparently, Rush can't distinguish the two, so he simply goes into rhetoric attack mode.

Limbaugh praised Obama as one of the most gifted politicians he has seen, but said, "It just breaks my heart that he does not use these extraordinary talents and gifts to motivate and inspire the American people to be the best they can be. He's doing just the opposite."

Yeah, really. What an asshole Obama is. Trying to inspire people to volunteer to help their communities, to conserve resources, to fix their failing infrastructure and strengthen the country as a whole. What a bunch of bullshit. Why doesn't he inspire us to be the best that we can be, like Bush did. Y'know, where he tells us to go out and shop till we drop so the terrorists don't win. Or maybe Rudy Giuliani who openly mocked (to much applause) community organizers that take active roles in trying to better their community.

Limbaugh's rollicking speech came the day after Obama supporters put out a political ad implying that the conservative radio host has become the de facto head of the Republican Party in the absence of a clear GOP leader.

The ad argues that the Republican leadership in Congress is following Limbaugh's lead in opposing the Obama administration's stimulus package.

"So who are Republican leaders listening to?" the announcer asks, before the 30-second ad cuts abruptly to footage of Limbaugh saying, "I want him [Obama] to fail."

It was paid for by Americans United for Change and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union, two groups that supported Obama during the election and are advocating for his agenda.

Limbaugh doesn't speak for all Republicans or conservatives. Copies of the American Conservative magazine with the headline "How radio wrecks the right" were distributed to CPAC attendees, Preston said.

"There is some criticism of Rush Limbaugh. Some people think he is a reactionary," Preston said.

Well, no shit. All he does is piss and moan about how liberals are destroying everything. Even when a matter is clearly the fault of the GOP, Rush will still spin it as created by liberal agendas and ideals. It's like during the very beginning of Obama's term, Limbaugh constantly deduced that falling stock prices was because of Obama. Yeah, because it's not like we were in a recession with dozens of banks falling, a housing bubble run amok collapsing, and record high unemployment continuing to escalate. None of that mattered. It's all because of Obama.

Limbaugh defended his remark about wanting Obama to fail, comparing it to his desire to see the Arizona Cardinals "fail" in this year's Super Bowl game against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

"This notion that I want the president to fail, folks, this shows you a sign of the problem we've got," he said.

"What is so strange about being honest and saying, I want Barack Obama to fail if his mission is to restructure and reform this country so that capitalism and individual liberty are not its foundation? Why would I want that to succeed?" he said, bringing the crowd once again to its feet.

"Did the Democrats want the war in Iraq to fail? Well, they certainly did. And they not only wanted the war in Iraq to fail, they proclaimed it a failure."
- Source

Except that's not at all how it was. Those of us on the left didn't want Iraq to fail, we feared that it would. We feared that the monetary and human life costs would not be worth the outcome and that it would only further destabilize the region. Guess who the fuck was right? I'll give you a hint: Cheney said we would be greeted as liberators.

Those on the Left wanted Hans Blix and the UN to finish their assessment. The Right wanted to go rushing on in the Iraq and kick some ass. Hans Blix was prematurely pulled from Iraq, not allowed to finish his inquiry, and troops were soon dispatched. The notion that anyone on the Left wanted Iraq to fail simply isn't true. Instead, that was the tagline used by Rush Limbaugh to demonize liberals as hating our troops and despising America. He uses his own twisted logic to justify further twisted logic.

If this really is the path of the GOP - by listening to the sheer amount of GOP senators that go onto and then harp the words of Hannity and Limbaugh, I can only deduce that it is - then the nation should brace for even more instances like the shooting death of Arkansas DNC Chairman, Bill Gwatney.

The chairman of the Arkansas Democratic Party died Wednesday, about four hours after a shooting at the party's headquarters, police said.

Chairman Bill Gwatney died at 3:59 Wednesday afternoon after a gunman entered his Little Rock office and shot him several times in the upper body, Little Rock Police Lt. Terry Hastings said.
- Source

It was never clearly concluded what the motivation was, as the shooter was later killed by police after a high speed chase.

Johnson's relatives could offer no insight. A sister said he normally voted Democratic.
- Source

Except that turns out to be absolute bullshit.

Is there any chance political passion played a role? It is far too early to say. But, for the record, we obtained Johnson's voting record in White County. He was a regular voter, casting ballots 13 times since November 2000. He voted Republican more often than not in primary balloting. He voted Republican in 2002 and 2004 primaries and the 2008 presidential primary. He voted in the Democratic primary and Democratic runoff primary in 2006. There was no record of a vote in this year's May primary on either side.
- Source

Voting in Democratic Primaries doesn't mean the guy was a "mixed voter." Limbaugh and many in the GOP (as well some for the DNC, such as pinhead extraordinaire Markos Moulitsas of Daily Kos) have called for voting in opposition primaries to beef up votes for the weaker candidate. However, it seems that we will never know exactly. what the motivation was, but it does seem odd that he stormed into the DNC headquarters and shot Gwatney for no apparent reason.

Then there is the more direct and clearly motivated attack on the Tennessee Unitarian Church.

It was a simple plan, he wrote, borne out of hopelessness but rooted in patriotism.

“The future looks bleak,” the ex-soldier lamented. “I’m absolutely fed up! So I thought I’d do something good for this country — kill Democrats ‘til (sic) the cops kill me.”

With what he believed to be his last pen strokes, Jim David Adkisson urged other suicidal soldiers against the “liberalism that’s destroying America” to leave their own trail of carnage behind.

“I’d like to encourage other like-minded people to do what I’ve done,” Adkisson wrote. “If life ain’t worth living anymore, don’t just kill yourself. Do something for your country before you go. Go kill liberals.”

[...]

n his manifesto, Adkisson deemed his rampage part “political protest” and part “symbolic killing.”

“This was a hate crime,” he wrote. “Liberals are a pest like termites, millions of them … the only way we can rid ourselves of this evil is kill them in the streets, kill them where they gather.”
- Source

Police found right-wing political books, brass knuckles, empty shotgun shell boxes and a handgun in the Powell home of a man who said he attacked a church in order to kill liberals "who are ruining the country," court records show.

[...]

Inside the house, officers found "Liberalism is a Mental Health Disorder" by radio talk show host Michael Savage, "Let Freedom Ring" by talk show host Sean Hannity, and "The O'Reilly Factor," by television talk show host Bill O'Reilly.
- Source

So, what exactly do the nation's favorite mainstream conservative casters say that could spur such attacks?

“My only regret with Timothy McVeigh is he did not go to the New York Times Building.”

Vester: You say you’d rather not talk to liberals at all?

Coulter: I think a baseball bat is the most effective way these days.

So for those of you who haven’t read any of my five best-selling books: Liberals are driven by Satan and lie constantly.

“I’d say something about John Edwards, but if you use the word ‘faggot’, you have to go to rehab.”

“We need somebody to put rat poisoning in Justice Stevens’ creme brulee. … That’s just a joke, for you in the media.”

“Patriotic Americans don’t have to become dangerous psychotics like liberals, but they could at least act like men. “

“I don’t know if he’s [Bill Clinton] gay. But [former Vice President] Al Gore — total fag.”

They say there's a word of truth behind every joke. The fact that Coulter thinks beating our political leaders and those with differing points of view is "funny" shows how much of a fucking lunatic she is. But why stop there, there's plenty more to choose from.

Ruch Limbaugh:

“They are 12 percent of the population. Who the hell cares?” [To a caller who said black people need to be heard.]

“…If you want to know what America used to be — and a lot of people wish it still were — then you listen to Strom Thurmond.”

“I tell people don’t kill all the liberals. Leave enough so we can have two on every campus — living fossils — so we will never forget what these people stood for.”

“Because we are sympathetic, we are compassionate people, we have responded by letting our government literally feed these people to the point of obesity. At least here in America, didn’t teach them how to fish, we gave them the fish. Didn’t teach them how to butcher a — slaughter a cow to get the butter, we gave them the butter. The real bloat here, as we know, is in — is in government.”

You have to slaughter cows to get butter?

Pat Robertson (founder of the Christian Coalition with over 1.7 million members)

“How can there be peace when drunkards, drug dealers, communists, atheists, New Age worshippers of Satan, secular humanists, oppressive dictators, greedy money changers, revolutionary assassins, adulterers, and homosexuals are on top?”

“When lawlessness is abroad in the land, the same thing will happen here that happened in Nazi Germany. Many of those people involved with Adolph Hitler were Satanists, many of them were homosexuals–the two things seem to go together.”

“Feminism encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism, and become lesbians.”

“Maybe we need a very small nuke thrown off on Foggy Bottom to shake things up.” [Speaking about bombing the State Department]

Michael Savage:

“I can guarantee you [liberals], you wouldn’t be in business too long. I can guarantee you you’d be arrested for sedition within six months of my taking power. I’d have you people licking lead paint, what you did to this country.”

“Carl Levin and Ted Kennedy and Hillary Clinton, The New Yorker, CBS have destroyed the war effort against terror. And if, God forbid, a suitcase bomb goes off you’ll know who to blame. I’m — hey I’m not going to mince words, there’s no grey zone here. It’s black and white, it’s them versus us and the enemy within on their side.”

“My fear is that if the Democrats win [in the November midterm elections], and I’m afraid that they might, you’re going to see America melt down faster that you could ever imagine. It will happen overnight, and it could lead to the breakup of the United States of America, the way the Soviet Union broke up.”

Bill O'Reilly:

“Everybody got it? Dissent, fine; undermining, you’re a traitor. Got it? So, all those clowns over at the liberal radio network, we could incarcerate them immediately. Will you have that done, please? Send over the FBI and just put them in chains, because they, you know, they’re undermining everything and they don’t care, couldn’t care less.”

“Americans will respect your beliefs if you just keep them private.“

“You want to have two guys making out in front of your 4-year-old? It’s OK with them. A guy smoking a joint, blowing the smoke into your little kid’s face? OK with them. And I’m not exaggerating here. This is exactly what the secular movement stands for.”

“Conservative people tend to see the world in black and white terms, good and evil. Liberals see grays. In any talk format, you have to pound home a strong point of view. If you’re not providing controversy and excitement, people won’t listen, or watch.”

Fitness trainer gets fat, slims down to show clientele it can be done.

2009-02-25T15:21:00.002-05:00

While I have to wonder about the health benefits with so rapidly gaining and losing this weight, I think it's overall a good idea. We'll see how well it works and, who knows, maybe he'll learn a lot from this endeavor. It is a nice prospect, trying to understand your clientele by walking in their shoes, so to speak, to gain better insight to the trials and tribulations they face. Still, the rapid weight onset is a bit misleading, as most people don't get fat in a matter of a few months, but instead over a period of years. Nonetheless, if anything, it's a good publicity stunt.

Fitness trainer Paul James wanted to understand his overweight clients better, so he decided to pack on a few pounds himself.

Well, not just a few pounds. The once svelte 32-year-old has ballooned from 212 pounds to 263 pounds and says he won’t stop until he weighs 340 pounds.

The Australian has cut down on his daily exercise regimens and has even started drinking beer at night.

^ Paul James before

^ Paul James currently

“It was difficult to relate to overweight gym members so I’m experiencing life as an overweight person,” James said.

In order to expand his waistline, James has been indulging on pasta, cream sauces, chocolate and carbohydrates.

James hopes to reach his target weight of 340 pounds by March and then eventually lose the weight by October to show his clients it can be done.
- Source

Express your inner Neo-Nazi with iTunes.

2009-02-25T15:01:00.004-05:00

You ever wanted to just rock out and scream "white is right!" along with your favorite tunes? Wish there was an easier way to get your racist-jam fix than having to drudge your way on out to your favorite, obscure supremacy music store? Well, worry no more. You can get all the white power you need right on iTunes.

You're unlikely to find CDs by groups like Skrewdriver and Brutal Attack sold alongside the latest hits from Rihanna and the Jonas Brothers at your local retailer.

But the white-power punk bands' ballads are just a click away online.

With song titles like "Skinhead Superstar" and "White Warriors," white-power bands and other hate-music recording artists have found a home in places like Apple's iTunes and Amazon.com.

And with nothing more than a credit card, users can purchase — among other offerings — CDs by the proudly racist country singer Johnny Rebel, with songs such as the catchy little ditty "Coon Town."

Critics of hate music are appalled to see lyrics such as Skrewdriver's:

Are we gonna sit and let them come?
Have they got the White man on the run?
Multi-racial society is a mess
We ain't gonna take much more of this
What do we need?

or Johnny Rebel's:

Roses are red and violets are blue,
And n——-s are black.
You know thats true.
But they dont mind, cause What the heck?!
You gotta be black to get a welfare check!

But there is a market for it — which leads to the question of whether online music retailers should screen what they sell, or if it should be up to the buyer to decide what's suitable.

"There's always somebody out there who thinks something is politically incorrect," said Jeff Schoep, head of the National Socialist Movement and its affiliated record label, NSM88 Records. "But this is America. We have freedom of speech and expression. If people want to express political messages in song, they should be able to do that."

Schoep, who said his label has seen a recent "uptick" in sales despite a worsening economy, said the songs distributed by his label are no different from those of more popular acts like Rage Against the Machine.

"If you're going to be able to carry that hard-core Marxist stuff, what is the problem with someone saying, 'White pride, worldwide?'" Schoep asked.

"You can't have a double standard. If pro-white voices can't be heard, what about rap artists who say it's time to kill cops and drag them through the streets?"

Patti Smyth, a spokeswoman for Amazon.com, said the offensive tracks were offered by unidentified third-party companies.

She declined to elaborate and did not return repeated requests for comment on any plans to limit sales of objectionable music.

Apple declined comment.

Nora Flanagan, a spokeswoman for the activist group Turn It Down, which lobbies against objectionable music, said the companies have every right — and a social obligation — to remove the songs from being sold on their sites.

Citing a "tag system" on the retail sites that links them to mainstream bands like U2 and Motorhead, she said the purveyors of hate music have benefitted greatly from their online exposure.

"The racist right is really taking advantage of the room Amazon is giving them," Flanagan said. "We're not talking about a First Amendment issue here. They're a business and they have a right not to sell whatever they want. It's a business decision they're making ...

"It's absolutely their right to sell it," she said, "but it could be their choice not to — if they wanted to take a stand on it."

Schoep, who claims pro-white music is "going more mainstream," said removing bands like Skrewdriver and Brutal Attack would be "un-American" and would amount to outright censorship.

"The minute they start censoring, then we're not living in America anymore," he told FOXNews.com. "If people don't like it, don't listen to it, or don't buy it. But some people out there want it."

Chris Kennedy, director of the Cato Institute's Project on Criminal Justice, said the term censorship is "thrown around" too loosely.

"Censorship should only be applied when the government tries to censor someone," he said. "Otherwise, we're just talking about the choices that entrepreneurs and businesses make in a free society. When [companies] decide they're not going to accept their product, that's not censorship — that's just choices that they make."
- Source

At first, I thought this hard to believe. So, I checked both the iTunes store and Amazon. Amazon's claim that they do not directly sell racist music, like Skrewdriver's, is complete bullshit. You can even get Amazon to gift wrap it for you. And it's there on Apple's iTunes store, too. Shit, you can even find Skrewdriver at Microsoft's Zune site. Nice to know that you no longer have to go to your out-of-the-way Neo-Nazi record store to get this shit, you can just download it from your favorite mainstream music provider.

The future of marijuana legalization.

2009-02-25T11:07:00.002-05:00

According to some interesting figures over at FiveThirtyEight.com, it may not be too long before marijuana becomes legalized. Figures overwhelmingly show a massive shift towards support of marijuana-lenient policies.

We all know that Michael Phelps was on something. But perhaps he was also onto something. Three recent polls show that Americans are more sympathetic to the idea of legalizing marijuana than ever before.

The first poll, conducted last week by Rasmussen Reports, has 40 percent of Americans in support of legalizing the drug and 46 percent opposed. The second, conducted in January by CBS News, has 41 percent in favor of legalization and 52 percent against. And a third poll, conducted by Zogby on behalf of the marijuana-rights advocacy group NORML, has 44 percent of Americans in support of legalized pot and 52 percent opposed.

That all three polls show support for legalization passing through the 40 percent barrier may be significant. I compiled a database of every past poll I could find on this subject, including a series of Gallup polls and results from the General Social Survey, and could never before find more than 36 percent of the population (Gallup in October, 2005) stating a position in favor of legalization:

Several cautions and caveats apply, however. Firstly, although support for legalization has grown, it remains the minority position. Secondly, although there has been a long, slow-moving upward trend in favor of legalization since roughly 1992, there is no guarantee that public sentiment will continue to move in that direction: support for legalization had grown to about 30 percent in the mid 1970s before dropping significantly during the Just Say No years of the 1980s.

Still, the position no longer holds the stigma that it once did. About as many Americans now support legalizing marijuana as do de-legalizing abortion. The past three Presidents have admitted, more or less, to marijuana use. Thirteen states have some form of decriminalization on the books, while fourteen permit medical use of the drug, although it is not clear how robust those provisions are as they are superseded by federal law.

The pro-legalization position may have some generational momentum as well. According to an AARP poll conducted several years ago, while just 8 percent of Americans aged 70 or older had ever tried pot, lifetime usage rates grow to 58 percent among 45-49 year olds.

This is probably not one of those issues, however, where Washington is liable to be on the vanguard. When Barney Frank introduced a bill last year to decriminalize pot, it got only eight co-sponsors, one of whom subsequently withdrew her name. And President Obama has steered clear of any suggestion that he might move to legalize or decriminalize pot, in spite of some earlier statements on his record to the contrary.

My guess is that we'll need to see a supermajority of Americans in favor of decriminalizing pot before the federal government would dare to take action on it. If the upward trend since 1990 holds (and recall my earlier caution: it might not), then legalization would achieve 60 percent support at some point in 2022 or 2023. About then is when things might get interesting. But I'd guess we'll see other some other once-unthinkable things like legalized gay marriage first.
- Source

Michael Steele really is batshit crazy.

2009-02-25T11:04:00.001-05:00

As Andrew Sullivan notes:

It is "crazy" to discuss civil unions; the GOP needs to have more "hip-hop" appeal; and any Republican senator who wants to cooperate with a Democratic president at a time of extreme national peril will be penalized. This is the face of Republican moderation? What would the face of extremism look like?
- Source

My guess is, the face of Michael Steele.

nothing after the jump

Omega 3-rich diet may help you live longer.

2009-02-25T10:24:00.004-05:00

This is a rather long article, even though I've slimmed it down considerably. Still, it's very informative and incredibly interesting.

At the end of a residential cul-de-sac in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, a driveway winds up a hill to the headquarters of Ocean Nutrition, a complex of buildings of mid-century vintage overlooking the tall-masted schooners and gray-hulled Canadian Navy destroyers in Halifax Harbour.

Down the road, semi-trailers loaded with drums of oily yellow liquid pull up outside a newly built factory. Inside cavernous galvanized-steel hangars, the oil is blended with deionized water in 6,500-gallon tanks. The resulting slurry of micro-encapsulated oil is then pumped through a five-story spray-drier to remove the moisture.

The final product is a fine-grained beige substance that looks like flour but is, in fact, a triumph of technology: smelly fish oil, transformed by industry into a tasteless, odorless powder. It will be used to spike everything from infant formula in China to the Wonder Bread and Tropicana orange juice on our supermarket shelves.

After seven years and $50 million of research, the company's 45 technicians and 14 Ph.D.s have found a high-tech way of getting a crucial set of nutrients back into our bodies — compounds that, thanks to the industrialization of agriculture over the past half century, have been thoroughly stripped from our food supply without, until recently, it being realized by anyone.

Now, an ever-growing body of research is showing that the epidemic of diseases associated with the Western diet — cancer, heart disease, depression, and much more — might be curtailed simply by restoring something we never should have removed from our diets in the first place: omega-3 fatty acids.

[...]

Omega-3 molecules are a by-product of the happy meeting of sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide in the chloroplasts of terrestrial plants and marine algae. Not long ago, these fatty acids were an inescapable component of our diet. Back in the early 1900s — long before the arrival of bovine growth hormone and patented transgenic seeds — American family farms were perfect factories for producing omega-3s.

Bucolic, sun-drenched pastures supported a complex array of grasses, and cattle used their sensitive tongues to pick and choose the ripest patches of clover, millet, and sweet grass; their rumens then turned the cellulose that humans can't digest into foods that we can: milk, butter, cheese, and, eventually, beef, all of them rich in omega-3s. Cattle used to spend four to five carefree years grazing on grass, but now they are fattened on grain in feedlots and reach slaughter weight in about a year, all the while pumped full of antibiotics to fight off the diseases caused by the close quarters of factory farms.

Likewise, a few generations ago, chickens roamed those same farms, foraging on grasses, purslane, and grubs, providing humans with drumsticks, breasts, and eggs that were rich in grass-derived omega-3s. Today, most American chickens are now a single hybrid breed — the Cornish — and are raised in cages, treated with antibiotics, and stuffed full of corn.

Our animal fats were once derived from leafy greens, and now our livestock are fattened with corn, soybeans, and other seed oils. (Even the majority of the salmon, catfish, and shrimp in our supermarkets are raised on farms and fattened with soy-enriched pellets.) So not only have good fats been stricken from our diets, but these cheap, widely available seed oils are the source of another, far less healthy family of fatty acids called omega-6s, which compete with omega-3s for space in our cell membranes. Omega-6s are essentially more rigid fatty acids that give our cells structure, while omega-3s are more fluid and help our bodies fight inflammation. Our ancestors ate a ratio of dietary omega-6s to omega-3s of approximately 1:1. The Western diet (the modern American and European eating pattern characterized by high intakes of red meat, sugar, and refined carbohydrates) has a ratio of about 20:1.

"The shift from a food chain with green plants at its base to one based on seeds may be the most far reaching of all," writes Michael Pollan in his prescriptive manifesto In Defense of Food. "From leaves to seeds: It's almost, if not quite, A Theory of Everything."

[...]

Okinawans, of Japan, once had the longest life expectancy in the world. But with postwar American administration, which didn't end until 1972, residents of the Japanese prefecture switched to a Western diet rich in meat and seed-based vegetable oils (think Spam, McDonald's hamburgers, and margarine). As a result, they experienced a precipitous rise in cancer, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases. Western eating habits proved hard to shake, and 47 percent of Okinawan men are still considered obese, twice the rate of the rest of Japan.

According to a 2003 study published in the World Review of Nutrition and Dietetics, urban Indians who have adopted seed-oil-rich diets succumb to heart disease and chronic illnesses at a much higher rate than village dwellers who eat a "poor man's diet" that is high in mustard oil, which is relatively high in omega-3s. It is believed that, in the 1960s, Israelis enthusiastically adopted an ostensibly heart-healthy diet rich in polyunsaturated fats from vegetable oils; now heart disease, high blood pressure, and diabetes are ubiquitous, and rates of cancer are higher than in the United States.

In 1970, intrigued by reports that Eskimos rarely die from heart disease, two Danish scientists flew to Greenland and charmed blood samples from 130 volunteers. Hans Olaf Bang and Jørn Dyerberg discovered that the Inuit people still got most of their calories from fish, seal, and whale meat. Despite their high cholesterol intake, the Inuit had a death rate from coronary disease that was one-tenth that of the Danes, enthusiastic pork eaters who have been known to butter even their cheese. And diabetes was almost non-existent among the Inuit.

[...]

Among the Japanese, who each eat an average of 145 pounds of fish a year, rates of depression and homicide are strikingly low. Meanwhile, men who live in landlocked nations such as Austria and Hungary, where fish consumption is respectively 25 pounds and nine pounds per capita, top the global charts in suicide and depression. Despite the fact that the Japanese smoke like fiends, struggle with high blood pressure, and eat a hundred more cholesterol-rich eggs a year per person than Americans do, they boast enviably low rates of cardiovascular disease, as well as the longest life span on the planet, an average of 81 years... three years longer than that of Americans.

And while it's true that the Japanese consume soy in the form of tofu, miso, and soy sauce, the way it is prepared — precipitated or fermented — is far healthier than the raw, mineral-blocking phytate estrogen and omega-6-rich versions consumed by Americans.

Dr. Hibbeln is convinced that the key to the average Japanese citizen's longevity is omega-3 fatty acids; levels in Japanese bloodstreams average 60 percent of all polyunsaturates. After half a century of favoring seed-based vegetable oils, the level of omega-3s in American bloodstreams has fallen to 20 percent of polyunsaturates. "We have changed the composition of people's bodies and brains," says Dr. Hibbeln. "A very interesting question, to which we don't yet know the answer, is to what degree has the dietary change altered overall behavior in our society?"

Lately, the answers have been coming in thick and fast. In one study of 231 inmates medicated with fish oil in a British prison, assaults dropped by a third. Comparing homicide rates in five countries, Dr. Hibbeln found that the rising consumption of omega-6 fatty acids correlated with a hundredfold increase in death by homicide, even though access to firearms went down in all the countries surveyed except the United States. A paper published in the Journal of the American Medical Association concluded that even a modest increase in the consumption of omega-3-rich fish reduced the risk of coronary death by 36 percent. A 2007 study by the National Institutes of Health found a positive correlation between mothers' consumption of omega-3s during pregnancy and the fine motor skills and verbal IQs of their children.

[...]

"Men in their forties and fifties can nearly reverse their risk of dying from sudden cardiac death by eating fish at least three times a week," says Dr. Hibbeln. "And if they want to live longer and happier lives, there's substantial data that they should increase their body composition of omega-3s." Your family doctor can test your ratio of omega-6 to omega-3, or you can do it yourself. (Your Future Health sells test kits on its Web site, yourfuturehealth.com.)

How could a simple change in dietary fat have such a huge impact on so many aspects of our health? The answer lies in the nature of two specific forms of omega-3s, docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), which are especially rich in seafood.

Not all omega-3 fatty acids, it turns out, are created equal.

[...]

While it's true that terrestrial plants are good sources of omega-3s, the fatty acid most present in land-based species is alpha-linolenic acid (ALA). Essential for good health, ALA can be found in fruits, vegetables, and some seeds, among them lettuce, leeks, purslane, kale, broccoli, blueberries, hemp, chia, and flaxseed. ALA is especially rich in plants that grow in intense light, and the fatty acid is thought to help the plants recover from sun damage. Though the human body is capable of turning ALA into DHA and EPA through a series of enzymatic reactions, it is not particularly good at it: Less than 1 percent of the ALA we get from vegetable sources ultimately becomes DHA and EPA. The ocean is the world's richest source of DHA and EPA, particularly from plankton-eating oily fish such as sardines, mackerel, and herring.

Recently discovered archaeological evidence suggests that around 2 million years ago, early hominids, the ancestors of modern humans, left the forests to live on the wooded edges of huge brackish lakes and estuaries in what is now Africa's Rift Valley. Prehistoric middens found in Kenya and Zaire are filled with shells and headless catfish skeletons, evidence that these proto-humans were taking full advantage of the easily gathered protein — and, incidentally, omega-3 fatty acids — at one of the world's first all-you-can-eat seafood buffets. Around the same time, hominid brains began to grow, swelling more than twofold from 650 grams in Homo habilis, the first tool-using hominid, to 1,490 grams in the early ancestors of Homo sapiens. "Anthropologists usually point to things such as the rise of language and tool making to explain the massive expansion of early hominid brains," says Cunnane. "But this is a catch-22. Something had to start the process of brain expansion, and I think it was early humans eating clams, frogs, bird eggs, and fish from shoreline environments."

[...]

Cunnane shows me a photo of an image carved into buff-colored sandstone. "This was found in a cave in France. It must have been one of the Sistine Chapels of the drawing world at the time." It is a highly naturalistic rendition of a salmon, down to gill flaps and hooked mandible. Evidence of early fish eating, jaw-dropping in its technical sophistication, the image is 22,000 years old. An interesting footnote to Cunnane's theory is that our seafood-eating Cro-Magnon ancestors, including the master sculptor responsible for this bas-relief, might well have been smarter than we are. Fossil evidence shows that the Cro-Magnons, though their bodies were smaller than those of Neanderthals, had brains about 200 grams heavier than modern humans'. Humanity's relatively recent creep away from seafood-rich shorelines, Cunnane believes, explains everything from the 20 percent of American women who are iron deficient to the dangling goiters of people living in mountainous regions. (If iodine hadn't been added to table salt 80 years ago, cretinism, a deficiency typified by severely stunted mental growth, would be endemic in most developed countries.)

Until the American Revolution, 98 percent of the population lived along rivers and oceans. Leaving the coasts might be a slow-motion public-health disaster. Deficiencies of DHA and the brain-selective minerals abundant on shorelines, speculates Cunnane, affect the performance of the modern human brain and, uncorrected, might eventually cause brains to shrink.

[...]

Colin Barrow, PhD, Ocean Nutrition's vice president of research and development, has any number of ways of getting omega-3s into his diet. He could, he points out, spread specially formulated Becel margarine onto DHA- and EPA-spiked Wonder Bread and wash it down with omega-3 supplemented Danone liquid yogurt. Instead, he prefers to take his omega-3s neat: He stirs a tablespoon of pure powdered fish oil into his morning juice.

A tall, soft-spoken New Zealander with a ginger beard and a long-toothed smile, Barrow has used the expertise gained from a PhD in chemistry and marine natural products to develop the process that allowed Ocean Nutrition to reintroduce omega-3s into packaged foods.

"The process is called microencapsulation," says Barrow, "and it was originally used for delivering ink in the cartridges of ink-jet printers." If you increased the size of a grain of Ocean Nutrition's microencapsulated powder to that of a basketball, it would be filled with Ping-Pong-ball-size agglomerations of oil encased in gelatin. Each particle is like a microscopic fish-oil capsule, allowing the powder to be added to food without changing the food's taste. Without a protective coating to prevent oxidation, the omega-3 in a glass of orange juice would stink like a sardine tin left out in the sun. Ocean Nutrition has taken any hint of fishiness out of fish oil — an essential move in the notoriously seafood-averse North American market.

The source of Ocean Nutrition's meticulously deodorized oil is, ultimately, a fish. Namely, Engraulis ringens, the Peruvian anchoveta, a small schooling species that lives in the relatively unpolluted waters off the west coast of South America. The process starts when fishing boats encircle the vast schools with purse-seine nets and bring the catch back to barges. Under the close supervision of rabbis, who are there to ensure that no squid, shellfish, or other nonkosher species remain in the nets, billions of fish are sucked through a pipe to onshore processing plants. There, the anchoveta are heated to 85 degrees Celsius, ground with an auger, and pulverized with a hydraulic screw to extract the oil. The oil is then distilled and filtered through clay to eliminate all traces of mercury, dioxins, and other persistent organic pollutants, those nasty toxins that can cause developmental and long-term neurological problems in consumers of tuna and farmed salmon. Transported by container ship through the Panama Canal, the oil arrives in Nova Scotia, where it is further concentrated and refined. Some of the oil ends up on the shelves of Walmart, Walgreens, and other major retailers that package it in their house-brand capsules. The rest, in powdered form, goes to the likes of PepsiCo and Unilever, who mix it into packaged foods. Ocean Nutrition now supplies 60 percent of the North American fish-oil market.

For anybody concerned about the future of the oceans, Ocean Nutrition's sourcing policies are good news. With big predatory species such as tuna, sharks, and swordfish already fished to 10 percent of their former abundance, and marine ecologists predicting the collapse of most major fisheries by the year 2048, conservationists have expressed concern about what kind of impact the widespread use of omega-3 supplements could have on the world's remaining fish stocks. Fortunately, the Peruvian anchoveta fishery — one of the world's largest — is in no imminent danger of collapse.

"These fish have been harvested in a highly regulated way, in very pristine waters, for more than 50 years," says Ian Lucas, Ocean Nutrition's executive vice president of marketing, "and the biomass is actually expanding." Fish oil is an industrial by-product of the fish-meal industry, which supplies feed for livestock and farmed shrimp and salmon. "It's going to take a long, long time before the fish-oil industry actually causes more fishing to happen," says Lucas. But according to Daniel Pauly, PhD, a leading authority on the decline of the world's fisheries at the Fisheries Centre at Vancouver's University of British Columbia, stocks of Peruvian anchoveta can fluctuate wildly; there was a temporary collapse in the 1970s and again in the 1980s. To forestall future problems, Pauly believes the fishery needs to be even more strictly monitored and regulated than it is today.

As word spreads of omega-3's benefits, so does fish-oil consumption. Lucas says that the share of omega-3 fatty acids in the supplement market has been growing by 30 percent a year for the past five years. Though alternative sources of fish oils exist, some are clearly more ecologically questionable than Peruvian anchoveta. A Virginia-based company called Omega Protein nets a schooling fish called menhaden off the mid-Atlantic coast; its -menhaden-based fish oil may now be added to 29 different categories of food. The fishery has been criticized because menhaden is a keystone species in the food chain of the East Coast; the fish feed by filtering algae from the water, and, in their absence, microscopic plankton have proliferated, creating the harmful algae blooms and dead zones that plague places such as Chesapeake Bay.

Barrow escorts me into a lab and shows me a 10-liter glass fermentation tank bristling with hoses and filled with a cloudy, swirling, foam-topped liquid. In its search for alternative sources of omega-3s, Ocean Nutrition has gathered a DHA-rich alga from an undisclosed location in Canada. In the United States, a company called Martek has already patented its own DHA-producing alga called Crypthecodinium cohnii, which is grown in massive multistory tanks in South Carolina; much of the infant formula in North America is now supplemented with Martek's patented Life's DHA.

"The product is good," says Barrow, "but it's really expensive, and they can't get their microorganisms to produce EPA. Our organism is a really good producer; we can get it to express about 8 percent EPA." This may be the future of omega-3s: an essential nutrient grown in tanks, sparing the world's fish stocks from overharvesting.

[...]

And now, full disclosure: As part of the research for a book I was writing about the sustainability of seafood in our world's oceans, I have radically increased my intake of omega-3s over the past two years. I've been taking three fish-oil capsules a day (a combined total of 1,800 milligrams of DHA and EPA), and having at least four fish meals a week. Early on, I saw a marked change in my alertness and capacity for sustained attention. But it wasn't until I started diminishing the amount of omega-6s in my diet that I started to lose weight. In the past year, I've shed five pounds and reversed the first swellings of a nascent potbelly.

The goal is not to "nix the six" completely, as the writer of one diet book puts it; after all, omega-6s are essential to good health. But getting an adequate supply is hardly a challenge; they are omnipresent in our food, and we would all be better off if our diets were closer to the 1:1 omega-6 to omega-3 ratio of our hunter-gatherer ancestors.

[...]

Omega-3s aren't a quick fix like Advil, or even, for that matter, Prozac, which takes several weeks to change brain chemistry. Omega-3s take at least three months to harness themselves into heart cells, for example. I can't be certain about improvements in my cardiovascular health, but since I started loading up on DHA and EPA, I feel as if I've upgraded my brain. My energy is high, and I feel strangely unflappable, like I've gained some kind of unbeatable equilibrium. My body feels different too, as though my fat and muscle have been redistributed to more useful places. Navigating among the omega-6-fattened hordes, I feel lean and swift, like a tuna darting among sea cows.

So, by all means, keep swallowing those omega-3 capsules. But here's an even better idea: Seek out grass-fed beef, free-range chickens and their eggs, the best olive oil, canola oil, and butter you can find, and lots of fish and shellfish, preferably small wild-caught species from clean waters. In other words, if you are looking for a guiding principle, keep it simple and eat like your ancestors ate.
- Source

Chemicals in food packaging and shampoos may cause infertility.

2009-02-25T10:18:00.003-05:00

I've held the belief for quite some time that the high spikes in cancer rates and other diseases is probably going to wind up being attributed to all of the bizarre preservatives and other synthetic chemicals put into foods and various products. Seems that one could add infertility to that list as well.

Food packaging, shampoo, clothes, and other household products contain chemicals that may make it harder for some women to get pregnant, suggests the first study on the subject.

It's still too early to recommend that women who want to conceive try to avoid these products, said lead researcher Chunyuan Fei, a Ph.D. student in epidemiology at the University of California, Los Angeles. But her results are concerning enough to warrant further work.

"This is quite a new topic and lots of things are unknown," Fei said. "Because these chemicals are widespread, I think it's important to conduct more study."

The chemicals Fei and colleagues looked at belong to a group called perfluorinated chemicals, or PFCs, which appear in a variety of common products, from upholstery to pesticides. In particular, the researchers focused on perfluorooctane sulfonate and perfluorooctanoate, which are respectively called PFOS and PFOA.

Studies have linked PFOS and PFOA to toxic effects in the livers, immune systems, and reproductive systems of animals. In people, Fei and colleagues previously found that women with many children had lower blood levels of PFOS and PFOA than did women with fewer children.

In turn, the scientists wondered if these chemicals might affect fertility. Eight percent of women in the United States have visited their doctors for infertility-related reasons, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

To investigate, the team collected blood and surveyed more than 1,200 newly pregnant women who are taking part in the Danish National Birth Cohort, a long-term health study. All of the women had become pregnant on purpose.

About 30 percent of women tried for more than six months before conceiving, results showed. Half of those tried for more than a year.

There was an equally big range in chemical levels in the women's blood — with more than 40 times more PFOA in some women than others and more than 16 times more PFOS from the lowest to highest concentrations.

For analysis, the researchers divided the women into groups of high and low chemical levels. Their calculations showed that women with the most PFOS in their blood were up to 134 percent more likely to have needed six months or more to get pregnant. Women with the most PFOA were up to 154 percent more likely to have trouble conceiving.

The findings are important, said epidemiologist David Savitz, because PFOS and PFOA are virtually impossible to avoid. We all have at least low levels of them in our bodies. Yet, they haven't been studied extensively.

"That leaves them in the 'Who knows what we'll find' category," said Savitz, director of the Disease Prevention and Public Health Institute at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York.

But he's not ready to jump to conclusions until further research comes along to support or refute it.

"It's well done but it still kind of sits there more or less in isolation," he said, adding that many companies are in the process of phasing out PFOS and PFOA anyway. "I would certainly urge suspending judgment or making any sort of behavioral response other than staying tuned."
- Source

New species of frogfish approved, has "human-like" features?

2009-02-25T10:12:00.005-05:00

Well, it certainly is clumsy, that's for sure. And it does somewhat resemble a human face. Still, pretty cool looking, and it's "psychedelica" name is certainly warranted.

Most fish have eyes on the sides of their heads, but a scientist now has confirmed a new and elusive species of carnivorous frogfish with eyes that face forward, like ours. The creature also has a fleshy chin and cheeks, adding to its strange appearance.

The bizarre new species, Histiophryne psychedelica, made a brief splash a year ago when sport divers about 30 feet offshore of Ambon Island, Indonesia, photographed a shallow-water fish not seen before in 20 years of diving there.
- Source

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

^ Frogfish video

Square-Enix coming to Steam.

2009-02-25T09:51:00.002-05:00

I'm not sure exactly what this means, as Square-Enix hasn't exactly brought many titles to the PC. Maybe this means that more will be coming to the PC, though?

Adding to their ever-expanding list of publishers, Valve today announced a deal with Square Enix to bring their PC games to download service Steam.

Beginning April 9, The Last Remnant will be available for purchase via Steam. After the action role-playing game hits the service Square will continue to add to its roster of games on Steam. Prices will be announced down the line.

"We are excited to offer the millions of Steam customers online access to Square Enix titles beginning with our major action RPG, THE LAST REMNANT," said John Yamamoto, president and chief executive officer of Square Enix Inc. and Square Enix Ltd. "Square Enix is committed to delivering the best quality titles to PC gamers and distribution on Steam is one of the many steps we are taking to increase accessibility for fans in North America and PAL territories."

"Square Enix is a fantastic addition to the Steam lineup," said Jason Holtman, director of business development at Valve. "We are thrilled that Square Enix chose to bring its diverse portfolio of titles to Steam and know that our customers will be ecstatic to hear this news."

Seriously Microsoft, just ditch Games For Windows Live and go with Steam already. It's inevitable.
- Source

I couldn't agree with that last statement more. There is no need for Games For Windows Live. It took them forever to make it even slightly worthwhile, and even then it's still not very good. Paying for a Gold subscription was a joke at the very onset, and it took MS forever to realize that and reverse their decision. The only thing that I do like about GFWL is the interface. It's much more polished looking than Steam's interface, which is kind of baffling. I mean, all Steam needs is some people to get cracking on making some decent skins in Photoshop. It's not hard to do, and their current skins look like fucking Win98 shit. Other than that, Steam has GFWL so beat that it almost makes me want to call the cops. There is honestly nothing that GFWL delivers that Steam does not have. Honestly, MS, just give up the ghost and accept that Steam has you completely whipped.

I don't even drink coffee, but I'd go to this cafe.

2009-02-25T09:47:00.003-05:00

Topless cafe? Sure, why not.

VASSALBORO, Maine — Cup size has more than one meaning at a new central Maine coffeehouse.

Servers are topless at the Grand View Topless Coffee Shop, which opened its doors Monday on a busy road in Vassalboro. A sign outside says, "Over 18 only." Another says, "No cameras, no touching, cash only."

On Tuesday, two men sipped coffee at a booth while three topless waitresses and a bare-chested waiter stood nearby. Topless waitress Susie Wiley said men, women and couples have stopped by.

The coffee shop raised the ire of dozens of residents when it went before the town planning board last month. Town officials said the coffee shop met the letter of the law.

- Source

Take that you fucking puritan bastards!

Google throws in on EU Microsoft anti-trust suit.

2009-02-25T09:30:00.002-05:00

Personally, I think this is massive bullshit. No one uses Opera because it fucking sucks. Seriously, it fucking sucks donkey balls. A lot of people use Internet Explorer because it's a robust browser. It's not as bad as many claim it is, but I personally don't use. I'm a big fan of Firefox. I tried Google's Chrome browser, and I found it very "meh." Sure, it's usable, but it's not quite as rich as Firefox 3. Safari, is okay, but I would never recommend it due to its lack of phishing filters. Maybe the upcoming Safari 4 will include phishing filters, but I'm not entirely sure. Besides, after dealing with the massive amount of bloat that iTunes is, I'm not sure I'm willing to give Apple much a chance on Windows apps.

I still don't really get what the fuss is about. How in the fucking hell does Google think they're instantly get massive market penetration when they roll out a mediocre browser that is already being hotly competed by Firefox and Internet Explorer? And Opera needs to shut the fuck up and sit down. They haven't been relevant since the days of Prodigy.

Google Inc. has added its voice to the case against Microsoft Corp. as the European Commission probes antitrust charges related to the software giant's Internet Explorer browser.

"Google believes that the browser market is still largely uncompetitive, which holds back innovation for users," Sundar Pichai, Google vice president product manager, wrote in a blog post on Tuesday.

Google (GOOG, Fortune 500) introduced the Chrome browser last year, which has taken little market share.

The Internet company joins the Mozilla foundation, producer of the Firefox Web browser, and Norway's Opera, a privately held company. Google adds the voice of a significant and well-financed player in the case against Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500).

In January, European regulators brought formal charges against Microsoft for abusing its dominant market position by bundling its Internet Explorer Web browser with its Windows operating system, which is used in 95% of the world's personal computers.

If the preliminary views expressed in the EC's Statement of Objections are confirmed, Microsoft could be subject to a fine and an order requiring it to cease bundling its browser and operating system.

In 2007, European Union courts upheld the European Commission's finding that Microsoft violated antitrust law by bundling its Windows Media player with the Windows operating system. It also found Microsoft used illegal tactics against RealNetworks (RNWK) real player.

The company has been fined more than $2 billion for its violations and for failing to carry out remedies imposed by the Commission.

In 2000, a U.S. judge decided that Microsoft had broken the law after it combined its Internet Explorer browser and the Windows operating system.
- Source

So, can someone tell me why Apple isn't getting in hot shit? They don't bundle any non-Apple apps with their OS, just like MS doesn't bundle any non-MS apps with theirs. And if MS were to bundle non-MS apps, you would just hear more people whine and complain that installation takes too long, there's too many menus, it's too complicated, too bloated, etc, etc.

Again, if we're going to be fair about this, if MS is to be forced to include 3rd party apps with their OS install, so should Apple.

Hang 'em high and stuff their throats with asbestos.

2009-02-23T20:35:00.003-05:00

I've made my pro-death stance clear. And y'know, after watching Bill Maher's New Rules segment last weekend, I can't help but agree with him again.

In China, if the heads of this company were caught, they would be put to death. And they should be. Poisoning and killing hundreds and sickening thousands? How in the fuck are they only getting 15 years?

A federal prosecutor told jurors Monday that a chemical company knew for years that its mining operation in a small Montana town exposed residents to asbestos, but it hid the risks from workers and government regulators.

W.R. Grace & Co. "and individual executives chose profits at the expense of people's health and chose avoiding liability over disclosing health hazards to the government," prosecutor Kris McLean told a U.S. District Court jury in Missoula in an opening statement.

Grace and five retired executives are charged with violating the federal Clean Air Act and obstructing an EPA investigation into the asbestos contamination. All face up to 15 years in prison and fines totaling millions of dollars.

The company mined vermiculite in the northwestern Montana town of Libby, but the mine was contaminated with naturally occurring asbestos mineral fibers, which can be inhaled and can cause mesothelioma, asbestosis and lung cancer.

Lawyers for area residents contend asbestos exposure killed more than 200 people and sickened some 2,000.

McLean said the company did its own research and learned that even low levels of asbestos in the vermiculite became dangerous when disturbed. Even so, Grace donated dangerous mine waste to Libby schools for use in building tracks for runners, he said.

"They endangered the health of hundreds, if not thousands," McLean told jurors. "This case is about holding this company and these executives accountable for very serious wrongs."

The legal issue is whether Grace, which bought the mine in 1963, and its co-defendants knew of the health risks associated with the mine for years before federal regulators arrived. The government contends the company and some of its managers conspired to hide health risks from its workers.

Lawyers for Grace, based in Columbia, Md., deny there was any conspiracy to knowingly release asbestos, and also contend that most of the releases occurred years before an applicable law was passed in 1990.

Grace lawyers were to give the jury opening statements later Monday.

After news reports of health problems, the Environmental Protection Agency in 1999 sent an emergency team to Libby to collect information about asbestos contamination, and the town was declared a Superfund cleanup site in 2002.

McLean said Libby suffers 40 to 80 times the national average in its rate of death from asbestosis, and lung-cancer mortality is 30 percent higher than health officials would expect the town to experience.

The trial is expected to last several months.
- Source

^ Bill Maher's New Rules: "Death to Moochy"

Deep sea fish are crazy looking.

2009-02-23T20:13:00.003-05:00

I love deep sea fish. Sure, some look hella creepy, like the anglerfish (which gave me nightmares as a kid), but some are little more harmless looking. However, just because they don't have massive spikey teeth and such doesn't mean they're any less weird.

A bizarre deep-water fish called the barreleye has a transparent head and tubular eyes. Since the fish's discovery in 1939, biologists have known the eyes were very good at collecting light. But their shape seemed to leave the fish with tunnel vision.

Now scientists say the eyes rotate, allowing the barreleye to see directly forward or look upward through its transparent head .

The barreleye (Macropinna microstoma) is adapted for life in a pitch-black environment of the deep sea , where sunlight does not reach. They use their ultra-sensitive tubular eyes to search for the faint silhouettes of prey overhead.

Scientists had thought the eyes were fixed in an upward gaze, however. This would make it impossible for the fish to see what was directly in front of them, and very difficult for them to capture prey with their small, pointed mouths.

Bruce Robison and Kim Reisenbichler of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute use videos from the institute's remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) to study barreleyes off Central California. At depths of 2,000 to 2,600 feet (600 to 800 meters), the ROV cameras typically showed these fish hanging motionless in the water, their eyes glowing a vivid green in the ROV's bright lights. The video also revealed a previously undescribed feature of these fish — its eyes are surrounded by a transparent, fluid-filled shield that covers the top of the fish's head.

Most existing descriptions and illustrations of this fish do not show its fluid-filled shield, probably because this fragile structure was destroyed when the fish were brought up from the deep in nets.

Robison and Reisenbichler were fortunate to bring a net-caught barreleye to the surface alive. Over several hours in an aquarium on the ship, they were able to confirm that the fish rotated its tubular eyes as it turned its body from a horizontal to a vertical position.

Barreleyes are thought to eat small fishes and jellyfish. The green pigments in their eyes may filter out sunlight coming directly from the sea surface, helping the barreleye spot the bioluminescent glow of jellies or other animals directly overhead. When it spots prey (such as a drifting jelly), a barreleye rotates its eyes forward and swims upward, in feeding mode.

The findings were detailed recently in the journal Copeia.
- Source

Boy with the cat eyes.

2009-02-23T20:08:00.001-05:00

This is just weird.

A Chinese boy who has eyes that glow in the dark has stunned doctors with his ability to see and read in complete darkness.

Doctors have studied Nong Youhui’s eyesight ever since his father took him to a hospital in Dahua, which is located in southern China.

Tests conducted in complete darkness concluded Nong can read perfectly without any light and can see as clearly as most people do during the daytime.

Experts believe the boy was born with a rare condition called leukordermia, which has left his eyes with less protective pigment and made them more sensitive to light.
- Source

nothing after the jump

Why scientists don't care to debate "Intelligent Design."

2009-02-23T19:51:00.003-05:00

In a bit of intellectual smacktalk, Nicholas Gotelli, a Biology professor at University of Vermont, delivered a scathing rebuttal to a request for him to debate at the Discovery Institute. The DI is a conservative think tank (and I use the term "think" very liberally here) that is ardently seeking to institute creationism into the science curriculum of public schools. Gotelli explains why he, and many others in the scientific community, have no interest in such a public fiasco.

Dear Professor Gotelli,

I saw your op-ed in the Burlington Free Press and appreciated your support of free speech at UVM. In light of that, I wonder if you would be open to finding a way to provide a campus forum for a debate about evolutionary science and intelligent design. The Discovery Institute, where I work, has a local sponsor in Burlington who is enthusiastic to find a way to make this happen. But we need a partner on campus. If not the biology department, then perhaps you can suggest an alternative.

Ben Stein may not be the best person to single-handedly represent the ID side. As you're aware, he's known mainly as an entertainer. A more appropriate alternative or addition might be our senior fellows David Berlinski or Stephen Meyer, respectively a mathematician and a philosopher of science. I'll copy links to their bios below. Wherever one comes down in the Darwin debate, I think we can all agree that it is healthy for students to be exposed to different views--in precisely the spirit of inviting controversial speakers to campus, as you write in your op-ed.

I'm hoping that you would be willing to give a critique of ID at such an event, and participate in the debate in whatever role you feel comfortable with.

A good scientific backdrop to the discussion might be Dr. Meyer's book that comes out in June from HarperCollins, "Signature in the Cell: DNA and the Evidence for Intelligent Design."

On the other hand, Dr. Belinski may be a good choice since he is a critic of both ID and Darwinian theory.

Would it be possible for us to talk more about this by phone sometime soon?

With best wishes,
David Klinghoffer
Discovery Institute

Dear Dr. Klinghoffer:

Thank you for this interesting and courteous invitation to set up a debate about evolution and creationism (which includes its more recent relabeling as "intelligent design") with a speaker from the Discovery Institute. Your invitation is quite surprising, given the sneering coverage of my recent newspaper editorial that you yourself posted on the Discovery Institute's website:

http://www.evolutionnews.org/2009/02/

However, this kind of two-faced dishonesty is what the scientific community has come to expect from the creationists.

Academic debate on controversial topics is fine, but those topics need to have a basis in reality. I would not invite a creationist to a debate on campus for the same reason that I would not invite an alchemist, a flat-earther, an astrologer, a psychic, or a Holocaust revisionist. These ideas have no scientific support, and that is why they have all been discarded by credible scholars. Creationism is in the same category.

Instead of spending time on public debates, why aren't members of your institute publishing their ideas in prominent peer-reviewed journals such as Science, Nature, or the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences? If you want to be taken seriously by scientists and scholars, this is where you need to publish. Academic publishing is an intellectual free market, where ideas that have credible empirical support are carefully and thoroughly explored. Nothing could possibly be more exciting and electrifying to biology than scientific disproof of evolutionary theory or scientific proof of the existence of a god. That would be Nobel Prize winning work, and it would be eagerly published by any of the prominent mainstream journals.

"Conspiracy" is the predictable response by Ben Stein and the frustrated creationists. But conspiracy theories are a joke, because science places a high premium on intellectual honesty and on new empirical studies that overturn previously established principles. Creationism doesn't live up to these standards, so its proponents are relegated to the sidelines, publishing in books, blogs, websites, and obscure journals that don't maintain scientific standards.

Finally, isn't it sort of pathetic that your large, well-funded institute must scrape around, panhandling for a seminar invitation at a little university in northern New England? Practicing scientists receive frequent invitations to speak in science departments around the world, often on controversial and novel topics. If creationists actually published some legitimate science, they would receive such invitations as well.

So, I hope you understand why I am declining your offer. I will wait patiently to read about the work of creationists in the pages of Nature and Science. But until it appears there, it isn't science and doesn't merit an invitation.

In closing, I do want to thank you sincerely for this invitation and for your posting on the Discovery Institute Website. As an evolutionary biologist, I can't tell you what a badge of honor this is. My colleagues will be envious.

Sincerely yours,

Nick Gotelli

P.S. I hope you will forgive me if I do not respond to any further e-mails from you or from the Discovery Institute. This has been entertaining, but it interferes with my research and teaching.
- Source

Matt Hazard: worthy of a comeback?

2009-02-23T10:32:00.001-05:00

If you haven't heard of Matt Hazard yet, then shame on you! Matt Hazard has a been a hilarious romp of fictitious parodies as the press releases have been slowly romping up for the launch of Eat Lead: The Rise and Fall of Matt Hazard. The "Unofficial" webpage for Matt Hazard is hilariously low-tech, reminiscent of how nearly every webpage looked back in late 90s. Once you begin looking at the boxart for Hazard's previous works, the nostalgia begins setting in. At least, it should. The Doom parody, Mario Kart, Duke Nukem 3D... Even if the nostalgia factor isn't enough to draw people in, the announcement that Matt Hazard will be voiced by Will Arnett from Arrested Development and the villain will be voiced by none other than Neil fucking Patrick motherfucking Harris should be able to win a few people over.

If you haven't heard anything about the game, I suggest you hit the jump and check some of the vids to get yourself acquainted. Eat Lead: The Rise and Fall of Matt Hazard comes out March 3rd.

^ Early gameplay footage. Is that a Wolf3D level and Nazi guards? Yes. Yes, it is. :)

^ Behind The Games trailer.

Making sure to keep with the entire cheeky experience, even the achievements are hilarious.

I'm still not entirely sold on the Eat Lead (as I haven't really seen it running), but there's a humor to the game's achievements that I can certainly appreciate. Xbox360Achievements has posted up a list, and here are a few that jumped out at me...

It's HAZARD TIME! - Start your first game. - 15 points
Take 5. - Pause the game for the first time. - 5 points
...Where Credit Is Due - Watch the credits from beginning to end. - 60 points

It's worth noting that aside from a secret 100 point achievement, that 60 pointer for the credits is the highest-scoring achievement in the game. That's pretty good. It'd be really funny, though, if that achievement was practically impossible to get. Like, maybe the credits are six hours long. Or maybe there's some stupid-hard gameplay associated with the credits. I'd be way into that.
- Source

I am somewhat disappointed that this isn't coming to the PC, especially considering that many of the parodied games are PC-centric titles. It is coming out on the 360 and PS3, so owners of the 2 "hardcore" consoles can get a taste of Matt Hazard. Maybe the PC will eventually get a port, but I suppose that's mainly going to rely on whether the console versions sell at all. While we'll have to wait to see if the game is actually any good, it contains enough goofy elements and nostalgia moments that it seems at least worth a rental.

Andrew Sullivan on Mo Hassan and honor killings.

2009-02-23T06:35:00.007-05:00

Andrew Sullivan hit the nail on the head. While many are trying to say that Hassan's beheading of his wife, while atrocious, was not an honor killing or had nothing to do with Islam, I and several others disagree. I see Andrew Sullivan, writer for The Atlantic, agrees on this matter.

Reading Sullivan's blog post on the matter, seems he has dug up some additional dirt about Hassan's hard-lined Islamic views against women.

The founder of a television station dedicated to showing how Islam is a religion of peace reacts to his wife's decision to divorce him by beheading her, and calling the cops to inform them. I learned of the case for the first time on Bill Maher, which means the MSM must have been doing a very good job suppressing it. Now the AP has provided a basic story of reaction; and the NYT's blog has a useful piece. It may be an honor killing, reacting to the disgrace of being divorced; but it's more likely just one last atrocity by a man who has terrorized every woman he has lived with:

Asma Firfirey, the sister of the deceased, stated Aasiya suffered last year from injuries that required nearly $3,000 of medical bills – allegedly the result of spousal abuse.

According to Zerqa Abid, first cousin of Hassan's first wife, "Both of his earlier wives filed divorce on the same grounds of severe domestic violence and abuses … it took [my cousin] several years to get rid of the fear of living with a man in marriage."

Attempts to deny any connection between this kind of behavior and the brutal misogyny of much Islamic culture seem bizarre to me. Obviously, the abuse of women is no community's or religion's exclusive sin. Chris Brown, anyone? My own church maintains a completely irrational and blanket discrimination against women in the priesthood. But the cultural and religious norms that facilitate brutal and often violent patriarchy in Islam make it easier for men to abuse and harder for women to resist. And the woman was beheaded. Moreover, the man had the usual misogyny widely accepted in many Muslim countries:
Nancy Sanders, the television station's news director for 2 1/2 years, remembers him asking her to move her feet during her job interview so he would not see her legs. She was wearing a skirt and stockings. He also would not let women enter his office unless his wife was there, and he blocked the station from airing a story about the first Muslim woman to win the title of Miss England in 2005, Sanders said.

- Source

Bioshock-esque case mod is huge! And awesome!

2009-02-22T18:22:00.004-05:00

Apparently this thing is over 8 feet tall. That's a bit bigger than I'd want to ever have my computer case be, but if I was running a server rack I'd totally case it in this thing. It looks like something out of Bioshock with its abundant use of copper coils and old-timey gauges. And if all that by itself isn't cool enough, it has a bunch of green LEDs to glow in the dark!

Despite being a bit impractical due to its huge size, this case mod is still abso-freaking-lutely amazing.

Pics after the jump.

Great. So the terrorists have submarines now?

2009-02-22T18:13:00.002-05:00

According to Jane's Defence, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam had small submersibles. Looking at the picture, it is obviously home-made and low tech, but still.

A construction facility containing four underwater vehicles has been discovered by the Sri Lanka Army following the capture of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam's (LTTE's) final urban stronghold of Mullaittivu on 28 January.

An armour-plated submersible, measuring about 35 ft (10.7 m) in length, and three smaller vessels were found at an LTTE base in Udayarkattukulam.

The smaller craft were "pedal-type suicide boats", according to the Sri Lanka Media Centre of National Security (MCNS). It is unclear whether the submersibles were used in operations. The Sri Lanka Navy lost two vessels to underwater explosions in 2008.
- Source

Fixin' the glory days.

2009-02-22T10:10:00.013-05:00

The good old days of the NES. Remember 'em? Sure you do! Curled up, playing away at Super Mario Bros. Those were the times. Remember the almost OCD-like rituals people would go through to get their NES games to work? Everyone had a different technique, but nearly every single one of them involved huffing a pressurized stream of air into the cartridges and/or the console. Sometimes it would work. If it didn't... well, you'd just keep on doing it until it eventually did work. Another popular technique was to rapidly push the cart caddy up and and down and then power it back up.

None of these little tricks actually ever fixed the real root cause of the flashing red light of despair, though. Often, people would think that it was dust inside the NES that was causing all of these problems. That is rarely ever the case.

The real culprit? There's a 72-pin connector inside the NES. This connector has loose, springy pins in it that make contact with the cartridges chipboard. You might remember how, when you first got your NES, the games would almost snap in there. A few years later, after heavy use, the games would loosely slide in and out with ease. That is the problem.

After a while, these pins would become depressed. No, not "sad" depressed, but bent down. These pins relied on having a bit of spring in them so that they would make a proper connection with the contacts on the cartridge chipboard. Over time, much like any kind of spring, these pins would get pushed down so often that they would lose their proper position and would no longer make solid connections with the cart contacts.

Now, there's a few solutions to this.

Send your system into a place like The Nintendo Repair Shop, who will go ahead and repair your old NES and get it working like brand-spanking new.
The slightly more DIY route and order a 72-pin connector from (once again) a place like The Nintendo Repair Shop or from ebay. They should run you roughly $8-$10.
Go all-out DIY and fix the pins yourself. This isn't all that hard to do, as you just need to push the pins up slightly so they form a more narrow slit for the cartridges to fit into.

I'm not going to give you a rundown on how to do the final two solutions, as there is already a very well done video that can guide you through the whole process. If you have ever put RAM into your computer or even built an entire computer, then you'll be right at home. Even if you haven't done either of those, replacing the 72-pin connector is really easy to do. You just have to remove some screws, pop off the pin connector, pop on the new one, and then put the case back together. Just watch the below vid and you'll see.

^ Macrogeek tells you how to repair and replace the 72-pin connector and how to clean your carts!

One of the things you might encounter while putting your NES back together is accidentally locking the caddy. What I mean is, the caddy that slides up and down will either get locked in the up position and not lock in place when pushed down, or it will be locked down and will not slide up. This is because you have tightened the screws too tight. The screws you need to look for if this happens to you are the two front screws of the caddy where you insert the cartridge. See the pic below if you're confused as to which screws I'm referring to.

^ click for full scale image ^

If you wanted to get your NES back in action but kept getting the dreaded flashing red power button, hopefully this will help you solve your problem and get you back to enjoying some of those games of yore. Keep in mind that lifting the pins on the connector will only go but so far. Eventually they will get bent back down again, and will eventually just wear out altogether. When that happens, you'll have to get a replacement. However, in most cases the only problem is the pins being bent down from prolonged use. To help keep your system healthy and keep grime from building up on the connectors, I highly recommend you clean your games before playing them. I also recommend storing them inside those little black sleeves. These can be bought at places like the aforementioned Nintendo Repair Shop.

If you're looking to buy some old NES games, JJGames is a great place to order from. They have cheap prices, their games list tells you the condition, whether it has rental stickers on it, and if it includes the box and/or manual. Shipping is free if you order $25 or more worth of games, which is a nice bargain. They are kind of small, so their selection isn't as big as some of the others out there. If you're looking for a bigger selection, Videogame Central has a great stock of titles as does 8-Track Shack. My only personal experience is with JJGames, so I can't attest to the other mentioned two. However, they do have great ratings on Google Shopping. They are also highly regarded and came recommended to me by many retro gamers. Just remember, don't take their word that the carts are clean. Go ahead and clean it yourself before playing just to make sure. It only takes a second, is easy to do, and it'll help keep you from wondering what's wrong with your system.

More Penny Arcade D&D. Now with Wil Wheaton!

2009-02-22T09:52:00.005-05:00

Penny Arcade did a D&D podcast a while back and they're back at it again. Gabe, Tycho, and Scott Kurtz (of PvP) are joined this time by Wil Wheaton. Y'know, Stand By Me and stuff.

Anyways, Part 1 is up.

nothing after the jump

If you believe in the death penalty, then you should be forced to see this.

2009-02-21T10:43:00.001-05:00

Personally, I do believe in the death penalty. I'm also for abortion rights. I'm pro doctor-assisted suicide. I borrow Bill Maher's joke on the matter, as he holds the same views, saying I'm essentially "pro death." The difference between being "pro death" and pro-war, you're either killing yourself or being killed directly because of your own actions. With war, it's innocent men and women dying for the sins of others. Although, one could argue that non are without sin, but I don't believe in original sin and only use the word "sin" loosely as synonymous with mean-spirited or evil ways. Actual biblical sin is a different. But I digress.

Often, many who support the death penalty are actually quite squeamish about death. They like the idea of being "tough on crime", but fold under the reality of just how damn depressing it is to someone afraid to die being forced to. A good example is a recent execution in Virginia.

An inmate declared his innocence Thursday after he was forcibly carried into Virginia's death chamber, where he was executed for gunning down a police officer.

Edward Nathaniel Bell, who was convicted of killing the officer during a foot chase a decade ago, was pronounced dead at 9:11 p.m. Thursday at the Greensville Correctional Center.

When the door between Bell's cell and the death chamber opened, the inmate thrust his hips backward and wouldn't step toward to the gurney where the lethal injection was administered. Six stocky corrections officers pulled him through the doorway and lifted him onto the gurney.

"To the Timbrook family, you definitely have the wrong person," Bell said in the death chamber, addressing the victim's family. "The truth will come out one day. This here, killing me, there's no justice about it."

Bell's lawyer, who also witnessed the execution, said a sedative the inmate was given made it difficult for him to walk.

"Eddie's case is an example of how the system does not catch and correct errors," said attorney James G. Connell III.

Bell, 43, was condemned for shooting Winchester police Sgt. Ricky Timbrook as the officer chased him down a dark alley on Oct. 29, 1999. Gov. Timothy M. Kaine denied Bell's request for clemency earlier Thursday.

At least 10 current and former Winchester police officers witnessed the execution, including Winchester Sheriff Lenny Millholland.

"I can't say it's closure but it's another chapter in the life of Ricky Timbrook and it ends the chapter that included Eddy Bell," said the sheriff, who was on the police force in 1999 and investigated Timbrook's death.

Bell maintained that he did not shoot Timbrook, a 32-year-old popular police officer, SWAT Team Member and DARE instructor. Prosecutors, however, say Bell was a flashy drug dealer who held a grudge against Timbrook for arresting him two years earlier for possessing a concealed weapon.

Bell initially was scheduled to be executed last year, but Kaine pushed that back while the U.S. Supreme Court considered a Kentucky case challenging the constitutionality of lethal injections. The court upheld the method in April.
- Source

Jazz cat, Socks, dead at 18.

2009-02-21T09:42:00.003-05:00

We bow our heads to remember the Presidential feline, Socks. Socks died at the ripe old age of 18. His exact cause of death is unknown, but he had been battling cancer for a little over a year.

Socks, the White House cat during the Clinton administration who waged war on Buddy the pup, has died. He was around 18.

Socks had lived with Bill Clinton's secretary, Betty Currie, in Hollywood, Md., since the Clintons left the White House in early 2001.

Currie confirmed Socks' death Friday evening and said she was "heartbroken." She did not give details, referring calls to the Clinton Foundation office.
The foundation released a statement from the Clintons:

"Socks brought much happiness to Chelsea and us over the years, and enjoyment to kids and cat lovers everywhere. We're grateful for those memories, and we especially want to thank our good friend, Betty Currie, for taking such loving care of Socks for so many years."

Socks had reached his late teens -- an advanced age for a cat -- when reports surfaced in late 2008 that he had cancer and Currie had ruled out invasive efforts to prolong his life.

"It's not a happy prognosis," presidential historian Barry Landau, a friend of Currie's, said at the time.

Socks was what feline-lovers call a tuxedo cat -- mostly black with white down the front and belly and on his feet, suggesting a fashionable dandy in a black satin evening jacket with a snowy shirt peeping out. He had markings that looked a bit like a mustache and goatee.

Chelsea Clinton's pet first appeared in the news in November 1992 after then-Gov. Bill Clinton won the presidency and the family was the still in the governor's mansion in Little Rock, Ark. Socks became an early symbol of privacy-vs.-media in the Clinton era when photographers got a little aggressive as he took a stroll outside.

Life changed for Socks in the White House, when his easy access to the out-of-doors was necessarily curtailed. One official conceded that, yes, Socks was on a leash while outside.

Things took a turn for the worse in late 1997, when then-puppy Buddy, a chocolate retriever, arrived. Relations between Socks and Buddy were cool from the beginning.

"I'm trying to work that out," Clinton joked at the time. "It's going to take a while. It's kind of like peace in Ireland or the Middle East."

A few weeks later, in early 1998, the two pets had an encounter on the South Lawn. "A very agitated Buddy approached the cat and began barking as the president restrained him with a green leash," The Associated Press reported. "Socks, hair raised high, stood his ground until Clinton and Buddy made their exit to the Oval Office."

But their pairing enchanted pet lovers, especially children. In 1998, then-first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton put out a book of children's letters to the two pets in "Dear Socks, Dear Buddy."

"Can you please send me a picture and a paw print," one youngster wrote Socks. "Do you have fleas? I think my cat has fleas."

In the book, the first lady wrote she had been taking daughter Chelsea to a piano lesson in spring 1991 when they spotted two kittens in the music teacher's front yard. "The black one with white paws -- Socks -- jumped right into (Chelsea's) arms," she wrote.

After the Clintons left in early 2001, Socks moved in with Currie. Buddy, meanwhile, made the move with the Clintons to Chappaqua, N.Y., but he was struck and killed by a car the following year.

Socks continued to live quietly with Currie, sometimes making appearances at programs held by pet welfare groups. Landau said Socks enjoyed sitting in the sun and that Currie doted on him, cooking him special chicken dinners.
- Source

Y'know, oddly, I remember Clinton getting a lot of flack from cat-lovers when he gave Sock to Currie. I didn't know Buddy was struck and killed by a car, but, in hindsight, maybe it was a good thing that the Clintons gave socks to Currie. I mean, he did get to have some delicious home-cooked chicken dinners. As a cat, who can beat that!?

Suicide: You're doing it wrong.

2009-02-21T08:01:00.001-05:00

That has to suck. Life's a bitch and so you decide to off yourself. In the end, you're such a fuck-up that you can't even do that right. What's even worse is when these people fuck up and manage to not only not kill themselves, but accidentally kill someone else. So is the case for a New Brunswick, NJ man who wound up killing a father of three.

A man who allegedly tried to commit suicide last year by plowing his car into another vehicle — killing the other driver — has been indicted on murder charges.

Steven Osadacz of Spotswood, who survived the crash, also was charged Friday with causing death by auto in the Nov. 10 crash in East Brunswick that killed 46-year-old Stephen Fagbewesa of Old Bridge.

Authorities have said Fagbewesa — a married father of three young children — was stopped at a three-way intersection when Osadacz's sport utility vehicle hit the driver's side of his car. They also say Osadacz — driving on a suspended license — had been drinking and was speeding.

Osadacz remains jailed $1 million bail. It wasn't known if he has retained a lawyer.
- Source

Way to go, moron. If you're going to kill yourself, buy a fucking gun. You can get them at Wal Mart. Can't afford that, then jump off a tall building. Can't stand heights, then take a bunch of pills.

Trying to kill yourself by crashing your car into something has to be dumbest fucking way possible to kill yourself. Maybe I need to do what Tender Branson did in Palahniuk's Survivor did and put up suicide prevention stickers with my number on it.

Tonight, a girl calls me from inside a pounding dance club. Her only words I can make out are "behind."

She says, "asshole."

She says what could be "muffin" or "nothing." The fact of the matter is you can't begin to fill in the blanks so I'm in the kitchen, alone and yelling to be heard over the dance mix wherever. She sounds young and worn out, so I ask if she'll trust me. Is she tired of hurting? I ask if there's only one way to end her pain, will she do it?

My goldfish is swimming around all excited inside the fishbowl on the fridge so I reach up and drop a Valium in its water.

I'm yelling at this girl: has she had enough?

I'm yelling: I'm not going to stand here and listen to her complain.

To stand here and try to fix her life is just a big waste of time. People don't want their lives fixed. Nobody wants their problems solved. Their dramas. Their distractions. Their stories resolved. Their messes cleaned up. Because what would they have left? Just the big scary unknown.

Most people who call me already know what they want. Some want to die but are just looking for my permission. Some want to die and just need a little encouragement. A little push. Someone bent on suicide won't have much sense of humor left. One wrong word, and they're an obituary the next week. Most of the calls I get, I'm only half listening anyway. Most of the people, I decide who lives and who dies just by the tone of their voice.

This is getting nowhere with the girl at the dance club so I tell her, Kill yourself.

She's saying, "What?"

Kill yourself.

She's saying, "What?"

Try barbiturates and alcohol with your head inside a dry cleaning bag.

She says, "What?"

You cannot bread a veal cutlet and do a good job with only one hand so I tell her, now or never. Pull the trigger or don't. I'm with her right now. She's not going to die alone, but I don't have all night.
- Source

Gabe Newell's DICE keynote address.

2009-02-21T07:41:00.001-05:00

Ah Gabe Newell. Smart man. I'm not a 100% fan of Valve, I never really liked Half Life all that much and didn't really care that much for Half Life 2 either. I do like Steam, though. It's a great service, definitely the best Digital Distribution Service (DDS) out there, and it's wonderful feature list just keeps expanding. (a web browser while playing games? oh hell yeah!) I also highly applaud Valve's long-term patching and free DLC support for their games like Team Fortress 2.

Back to the topic on hand, Gabe Newell was scheduled to give a keynote address at this year's Design Innovate Communicate Entertain (DICE) conference in Las Vegas. The address was entitled, "Entertainment as a Service" and dealt with a lot of great elements regarding piracy, which has been a very big issue with the widespread availability of high-speed internet access.

Keep in mind this was done by G4 as a moment-by-moment posting, so that's why it may seem kind of odd and unprofessional.

Gabe beileves the old way of entertainment: Indirect customer relationships, product orientation. The new way of entertainment now: Direct customer relationships, service orientation. Valve aims to touch its customers in some way every three weeks, not every three years when a new game is shipped.

Through this perspective, Gabe and Valve have observed the following:

30-year old songs with a little service (Rock Band, Guitar Hero) generate huge profits
Pirates are ahead not just on price, but on service
DRM appears to increase, not decrease piracy
Privacy and transparency
Shrinking distance to customer empowers content creators

Gabe doesn't believe that pirates are really seeking to get things for free. They are people that spend thousands on their PC's and Internet service. He believes that pirates are beating companies on service. He cites TV shows not available in certain parts of the world. Pirates have TV shows up on the Web minutes after they have aired.

DRM decreases service value for customers. It also makes pirated copies of games look more appealing. Anecdotal evidence appears to suggest that DRM is increasing and not decreasing piracy.

As far as privacy goes, Gabe believes that people are willing to give up system and personal information if they feel it's being used to get a better service. Steam's hardware survey is an example of this. Rather than spying on users for nefarious reasons, Gabe believes things like its hardware survey helps with better sales of products and service. As long as companies are transparent, he feels that customers will accept this.

As far as the shrinking distance between Valve and its customers, Valve didn't find any service in existence so it made its own: Steam.

Steam stats time:

20 million people connected
All major PC publishers on board
350+ of the best PC games
Worldwide in 21 languages
100% Year-over-year growth since 2004

There are competitors, but they are all trying to do the same thing. These include services like Games for Windows Live, Direct2Drive, iPhone App Store, Stardock Impulse. Gabe was very modest , not mentioning that Steam is wildly more successful than any of the other services. But that's why he's giving the keynote. No need to brag.

From a customer's perspective, they want things like portability of content and files, anti-cheating, auto-updating & version control, new games, old games, indie games, 24/7 availability, and community tools. Yep, Steam has all of those. I still think the groups need an upgrade, but they are definitely functional enough to get the job done.

From a business perspective, developers and publishers want piracy protection, keeping customers current with the latest version, direct communication to customers for marketing and promotion, instant sales and promotional performance data, and being able to take advantage of new business models like DLC, subscriptions, and micro-transactions.

With Team Fortress 2, Valve shipped the game as a service and not a product. Valve uses "updates" to create more value for its customers. Updates can be bug fixes, new achievements, maps, and unlocks. There have been 63 updates to Team Fortress 2 since its release. This is also why the PC version is so much better than the Xbox 360 version.

Gabe now speaks about how important Web content creators and blog writers are for the future of games. It brings a tear to my eye! They'll be able to help market products with authority and knowledge.

Gabe brings up an excellent point that successful entertainment companies will realize that fans of properties like the property, not the specific product. They are Harry Potter fans, not just fans of the books. The team that's making the TF2 character videos (which are awesome!) are going to be working on comics.

He's now going showing the Sniper short film. Yay, I get to laugh all over again!

"It works because the people that built that [video] are the same people that built the game."

Valve has been using its existing customers to gain new customers. "There's no way to go into Circuit City to pick on the dead" and get a free weekend. Ouch, Gabe. Ouch.

Valve has seen a great turnaround rate on guest passes. Friends invite their friends to play a game they already own. Game invites that also walk a gamer through a purchase process are also effective.

Time to look at the sales of Team Fortress 2 to see the impact of the updates on revenue. Holy s#!%. The sales spike by huge amounts everytime there's a sale or major update. Steam sales went up 106% after a free update. Player minutes went up by 105%. Gifting has thrown a 71% sales increase. Surprisingly, sales from retail stores also went up by 28%. Finally, it saw 75% increase in new users. Knock knock. Who's there? Steam. Steam who? Steam is so successful it hurts.

Price changes in the retail world don't allow for much freedom. Steam and other services offer flexability. In fact, users apparently respond to pricing discounts within five minutes.

Valve was afraid that too many price changes would "confuse and anger" customers. It isn't the case.

Last weekend, Valve decided to do an experiment with Left 4 Dead. Last weekend's sale resulted in a 3000% increase over relatively flat numbers. It sold more last weekend than when it launched the game. WOW. That is unheard of in this industry. Valve beat its launch sales. Also, it snagged a 1600% increase in new customers to Steam over the baseline.

Worried retailers, fear not. The weekend sale didn't canabalize sales from retail. In fact, they remained constant. Well, constant isn't a 3000% increase, but it's still pretty good, right?

Looking at a third-party game, it saw increases of 36,000% with a weekend sale. Oh. Em. Gee. Okay, Gabe is starting to convince me that PC at retail is going to die very soon.

Oh, more data. I'm such a data nerd. Here's some data!

During the Holiday sales:
10% sale = 35% increase in sales (real dollars, not units shipped)
25% sale = 245% increase in sales
50% sale = 320% increase in sales
75% sale = 1470% increase in sales

At 75% off, they are making 15% more money than they were at full price.
- Source

Quake Live open beta coming soon.

2009-02-21T07:04:00.003-05:00

How soon? Real soon. Like, Feb 24th soon.

In case you don't know, Quake Live is basically just Quake 3: Arena that runs in a browser. Well, sort of. You have to download the client, and it uses your browser as an interface to launch the matches. Since it's basically just Quake 3, it should be able to run great on just about any machine, even some of the old clunkers out there. Still, you may want to check the specs just to make sure.

I've been in the closed beta for a few weeks now, and it's pretty fun. It's weird because I keep having flashbacks to old Quake 3 maps. While the maps for Quake Live are similar, they are also slightly different. The jump pads look different and the layouts are tweaked a bit. Overall, though, it plays just like good old Quake 3.

Quake Live is completely free and the open beta is just what it means. A beta that is open to the public. Servers that I saw were available in Virginia, Washington state, Texas, New York, Chicago, and California. Which is good, because it means that you'll be able to find servers with good pings pretty much no matter where you live. So, go ahead, create an account and get fragging!

QAUKE LIVE

nothing after the jump

Giant snake photo obviously 'shopped.

2009-02-21T03:30:00.003-05:00

Dude, this is so obviously Photoshopped. I mean, if you can spot some of the more obscure fakeries over at the fantastic Photoshop Disasters blog, then you can obviously figure out what is wrong with this photo.

Is it a giant mystery river snake — or just a Photoshop job?

London's Daily Telegraph greeted readers Friday morning with photos of what appeared to be a gigantic serpent wending its way down a tropical river, said to be somewhere on the Southeast Asian island of Borneo, "sparking great concern among local communities."

But the rival Guardian refrained from jumping on the story — and instead declared it to be a fake that looked as if it had been "drawn by a pre-school child with their first green felt tip."

The Telegraph said only that the snake had been seen in the Baleh River, which is in the Malaysian state of Sarawak. It didn't mention who took the photo, or where and when it was taken.

We'll let you decide.
- Source

Oh, come the fuck on!

For starters, according to the scale of that image, the snake must be roughly a 1,000 feet long. See those wave crests in the snake's wake? In order to make those, that snake must be moving about as fast as a speed boat. Also, to harp on the waves some more, they're at an improper angle. And to harp even more, the second set of waves shouldn't eve be there. They're not residual waves and that section of the snake is clearly underwater. Lastly, the water crests don't even look right. They look like Gaussian blurred white lines with a little bit of transparency tweaking.

Give me a fucking break. "Let you decide"? This has to be one of the shittiest Photoshop jobs I've seen. And I've seen some really shitty ones.

We're in the shit now. Beer no longer recession-proof.

2009-02-20T09:35:00.001-05:00

People thought the video game industry was recession-proof. Well, they were wrong as shit about that one. Game studios have been closing down left and right and larger developers and publishers have been trimming jobs in the tunes of hundreds.

According to FiveThirtyEight.com, which gained national prominence for being incredibly accurate in its guess of the 2008 Presidential Election (actually being the most accurate to a nearly uncanny degree), beer sales are declining. Beyond just being very politically savvy, FiveThirtyEight.com obviously has good taste. As they ponder some of the reason's for the decline, they make note and mention of both ThreeFloyd's Alpha King and of famed Maryland brewery, Dogfish Head. And not just mention, but hotlinks as well. Huzzah! While I prefer ThreeFloyd's Robert The Bruce scotch ale, Alpha King is a damn good beer for any hop-lover.

Beer, it seems, is no longer what's for dinner.

The chart that follows details the quarterly change in alcohol purchased for home consumption, adjusted for inflation and dating all the way back to 1959. We can compare this against the quarterly change in real GDP:

As you can see, there has generally not been much of a relationship between alcohol purchases and changes in GDP -- the correlation is essentially zero. Nor have alcohol purchases historically been any kind of lagging or leading indicator.

But something was very, very different in the fourth quarter of 2008. Sales of alcohol for off-premises consumption were down by 9.3 percent from the previous quarter, according to the Commerce Department. This is absolutely unprecedented: the largest previous drop had been just 3.7 percent, between the third and fourth quarters of 1991.

Beer accounts for almost all of the decrease, with revenues off by almost 14 percent. Wine and spirits were much more stable, with sales volumes declining by 1.6 percent and 0.9 percent respectively.

Now, there are several plausible explanations for this. Alcohol sales -- but particularly beer -- had been on something of a hot streak prior to the 4Q, so perhaps there was some reversion to the mean. Perhaps people are substituting Michelob and Coors for more expensive microbrews like Alpha King and Dogfish Head. (This is unpatriotic, by the way, since all the macrobrews are now owned by foreign-based multinational conglomerates. Stimulate your country -- and your tastebuds!).

Perhaps retailers are discounting their prices, or brewers are passing along cost savings to their consumers (there had been a hops shortage for much of 2007-08). All of these are probably factors to some extent or another.

Nevertheless, it's absolutely startling to see a major consumer staple experience a sales decline like this.
- Source

FiveThiryEight also notes that both gambling and jewelry/watches are down too, but I couldn't care less about that. I don't wear jewelry nor watches, as the societal norm of wearing a watch on your left wrist feels awkward against my nerve-deadened scar (which basically feels like permanent local anaesthesia), and Virginia doesn't have gambling. And, no, the lotto doesn't count. I mean good, fun gambling, like blackjack and poker.

Famed atheist, Christopher Hitchens, beaten in Lebanon.

2009-02-20T09:13:00.001-05:00

Found this on Andrew Sullivan's delightful blog, and thought I'd go ahead a repost it here. Seems that Christopher Hitchens, famed drunken atheist and writer of God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything was roughed up some thugs outside of a watering hole in Lebanon. I agree with Sullivan that it could have been worse. Much worse.

For those that don't know, the SSNP is a radical nationalist organization, previously tightly linked to Baathist party. In short, they're basically Syrian fascists.

At the invitation of Hariri-Saudi group, Hitchens is visiting Lebanon. A source sent me this: "I dont know if you find this as news worthy or not, but Christopher Hitchens is currently in Beirut sponsored by the same group that owns that crap NOW Lebanon. He got in a few nights ago and surprisingly went out drinking. On his way out of the bar he saw an SSNP poster and wrote on it "Fuck the SSNP". There just happened to be some SSNP thugs near by--most likely asking people for their ID, and most likely to no avail--and saw him write on the poster and kicked his ass. He is still walking with a limp."
- Source

"Surprisingly"? Come on, this is Hitchens we're talking about. I don't think I've ever seen an interview where he didn't have scotch in hand or just within hands reach. Of course he's going to go out for a drink!

This story has now been confirmed. Look, it's widely known that since the May 2008 events the SSNP guys have behaved like thugs in Hamra (where the ass-kicking took place). But seriously, would you roll into East L.A. and start writing over gang signs? I mean, is that smart? C'mon, Brother Hitchens, we're rootin' for you, but have a little walkin' around sense. He was probably at De Prague. Where the wait staff is, like, 90% SSNP. Abu Muqawama's Top Three West Beirut Watering Holes: 1. Barometre (cheap arak, great fattoush); 2. Captain's Cabin; 3. Danny's. (In response to a reader, the great Chez Andre closed sometime a little over a year ago. That hole-in-the-wall was great.)
- Source

NY noping to stymie rise of DIY medical treatment.

2009-02-20T09:02:00.003-05:00

Think you could set your own broken bone? That's what some of the millions of uninsured people in America end up doing when they need medical care.

I can personally attest to as to why you should not do this, but obviously some people have to resort to this kind of thing when they can't afford the hospital bills or don't have insurance. And the numbers of those people is most lively increasing in these hardened economic times. At least, it certainly is getting talked about more often.

They borrow leftover prescription drugs from friends, attempt to self-diagnose ailments online, stretch their diabetes and asthma medicines for as long as possible and set their own broken bones. When emergencies strike, they rarely can afford the bills that follow.

“My first reaction was to start laughing — I just kept saying, ‘No way, no way,’ ” Alanna Boyd, a 28-year-old receptionist, recalled of the $17,398 — including $13 for the use of a television — that she was charged after spending 46 hours in October at Beth Israel Medical Center in Manhattan with diverticulitis, a digestive illness. “I could have gone to a major university for a year. Instead, I went to the hospital for two days.”

In the parlance of the health care industry, Ms. Boyd, whose case remains unresolved, is among the “young invincibles” — people in their 20s who shun insurance either because their age makes them feel invulnerable or because expensive policies are out of reach. Young adults are the nation’s largest group of uninsured — there were 13.2 million of them nationally in 2007, or 29 percent, according to the latest figures from the Commonwealth Fund, a nonprofit research group in New York.

Gov. David A. Paterson of New York has proposed allowing parents to claim these young adults as dependents for insurance purposes up to age 29, as more than two dozen other states have done in the past decade. Community Catalyst, a Boston-based health care consumer advocacy group, released a report this month urging states to ease eligibility requirements to allow adult children access to their parents’ coverage.
- Source

The consumerist has a bit of good advice for those seeking insurance.

The good news is that by joining a group like Freelancer's Union you can get access to affordable health care, provided your industry meets the eligibility requirements. It's certainly better than the alternative, putting a $17,000 hospital bill on credit cards, or tying a split with one hand while turning the pages of a battlefield medic manual with the other.
- Source

Seems the problem is, you got 35 pounds of pot cloggin' up your tank.

2009-02-20T08:58:00.004-05:00

35 pounds of pot. That's a lot of cheeba. Especially to be found, just by chance, hidden away in your newly bought car's gas tank. The real kicker is that this car wasn't bought at a police auction, which occasionally does sell confiscated cars which have not always had all the drugs located and removed. Just remember, if you want o increase the likelihood of your bought used car containing a hidden stash of drugs, buy from police and federal confiscation auctions. The downside is, you might wind up with a stash of something that you want nothing to do with, such as heroin. But, hey, that's the way the dice roll.

A man who brought his newly bought car in to see why the gas gauge always read half full got quite a surprise: a stash of marijuana hidden inside.

A mechanic in Sandy who took a look at the gas tank discovered about 35 pounds of pot, which Sandy police say is worth about $35,000. The packages of drugs were wrapped in plastic and could have been in the tank for several months.

The Nissan Armada had several different owners and was once a rental car. Police are trying to figure out who stashed the drugs in the tank. Police say the current owner is not a suspect.
- Source

Poor, poor Alfie. This shit is going to turn the kid celibate for life.

2009-02-20T08:47:00.002-05:00

It seemed that the other boys who came forward to say they also knocked boots with Chantelle Stedman, the 15-year old British girl who was (supposedly) knocked up by, then 12-years old, Alfie Patten, were only seeking some media attention at their 15 minutes in the spotlight. As to why someone would want to be made infamous for that, I don't know, but people are weird, stupid beasts.

Anyways, it turns out that it may actually have been Chantelle's parents that originally wanted the 15 minutes of scorn, I mean, "fame."

A friend of the family of a 15-year-old British teen, who recently gave birth and claimed a 13-year-old boy was the father, claims the boy was scammed by his girlfriend's parents who wanted to cash in on the sensational story, the Daily Mail reports.

Clive Sim, 39, a close friend of Chantelle Stedman's parents, says they forced their daughter to keep quiet about the other boys she had slept with in order to make some money off the media attention given to Alfie Patten, who looks much younger than his 13 years.

It has been suggested that there may be as many as six other potential fathers to Stedman's newborn daughter, Maisie, although Stedman is said to be distraught by the allegations, the Daily Mail reported.

Patten has requested a paternity test in order to prove that he is the father, according to the Daily Mail.

"It's all pretty sordid," the Mail quotes Sim. "Alfie may not be an angel and nor is Chantelle. But at the end of the day they are only children and it is the adults around them making bad decisions based on money, not their welfare."
- Source

Well, good on the 13-year old's part that he's getting a paternity test. If all of this turns to be the truth, that Chantelle's parents did cook up this scheme, I hope they are arrested. It may suck for the 15-year old girl to be placed into foster care, but no matter how bad foster care is, it'd be a much better choice than staying with her parents. What kind of twisted fucks knowingly and willingly let a carnival parade of young boys come in to bang away at their daughter? Six, yes SIX different boys might be the father. That makes me wonder how many other boys probably aren't the father.

"Success! And now the child doesn't want to swear!"

2009-02-20T08:20:00.003-05:00

Remember that scene in South Park: Bigger Longer, and Uncut where Cartman has the V-Chip device that shocks him whenever he cusses? A new type of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder treatment might seem eerily similar, but it's actually rather different. It doesn't deliver a shock to prevent these behaviors, instead it delivers a steady stream of impulses to the brain, targeting at quelling abnormal brain signals.

Personally, I wonder about something like this. We don't actually know that much about the brain, and I can't help but wonder what types of complications and side effects may occur. Still, the FDA has approved it, so you know it's safe, right? Oh... wait. Never mind.

Patients suffering from obsessive, distressing thoughts have a new treatment option: a pacemaker-like device that relieves anxiety with electrical jolts to the brain.

The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday approved Medtronic's Reclaim Deep Brain Stimulator device as the first implant to treat obsessive-compulsive disorder, which causes uncontrollable worries, such as fear of germs or dirt.

Patients suffering from the disorder try to relieve their anxiety with obsessive behavior, such as washing their hands or checking locks repeatedly.

"These are obtrusive thoughts that take control of people's lives to the point that they lose their jobs, can't have relationships and in many cases, can't even leave their homes," said Dr. Hooman Azmi of Hackensack University Medical Center.

While about 2.2 million Americans have the disorder, the new device would only be available to a small group of patients who don't respond to other treatments, such as antidepressant drugs and therapy.

The FDA approved the device under a program reserved for conditions that effect fewer than 4,000 people each year.

The FDA's director for devices stressed that Reclaim provides some relief, but patients likely will have to continue taking medications as well.

"Reclaim is not a cure," Dr. Daniel Schultz said in a statement. "Individual results will vary and patients implanted with the device are likely to continue to have some mild to moderate impairment."

Shaped like a pacemaker, the Reclaim device is implanted under the skin of the chest and then connected to four electrodes in the brain. The electrodes deliver steady pulses of electricity that block abnormal brain signals.

Similar devices have been used since the 1990s to treat movement disorders like Parkinson's disease and tremors. But where prior devices target areas of the brain that deal with movement, Medtronic said its product delivers electrical signals to areas that control mood and anxiety.

"What deep brain stimulation does is modulate those circuits that we believe are hyperactive in patients with obsessive compulsive disorder," said Paul Stypulkowski, the company's senior director of research.

Medtronic Inc., the world's largest medical device maker, also is studying the use of the technology in patients with severe depression.

In 2005, rival Cyberonics became the first company to win FDA approval for a device to treat depression. However, the company's Vagus Nerve Stimulator has been plagued by questions of effectiveness.

Members of Congress and consumer watchdog groups campaigned against the Cyberonics device, citing research that some patients who have received it had worsening depression. A number of insurers, including the government's Medicare program, have refused to pay for the device in depression patients.

Medtronic representatives point out that their technology differs from that used by Houston-based Cyberonics, which delivers an electrical signal to nerves in the neck. Medtronic's devices stimulate the brain directly.
- Source

Sub Pop article on CNN Money? Yep. Sub Pop's still going strong.

2009-02-19T13:52:00.003-05:00

I was pretty shocked to see an article about Sub Pop on CNN. Let alone a business article about the indie label. It is a pretty interesting read, especially where they talk about how Nirvana is what has essentially kept the label afloat, and not just because of sales from Bleach.

By any reasonable standard, Sub Pop should no longer be in business.

The iconic label, which celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2008, made its name nearly two decades ago with such classic albums as Nirvana's Bleach and Mudhoney's Superfuzz Bigmuff, but its brand of off-kilter, rib cagerattling independent rock eventually fell out of vogue.

Yet despite self-destructive impulses and changing trends in the music scene, Sub Pop survives. The company declines to disclose revenues but says 2008 was a good year, with a surge in digital sales (which now account for 37% of its business) and strong releases from both the Seattle band Fleet Foxes and the HBO-connected Flight of the Conchords.

In 1988, Jonathan Poneman and Bruce Pavitt quit their day jobs (Poneman at Kinko's, Pavitt at Muzak) and joined forces to parlay Pavitt's underground music compilations into a real record company. Thanks to local bands like Mudhoney and Nirvana, Sub Pop had an auspicious launch. Within two years, annual sales volume grew from a few hundred records to tens of thousands.

But as Megan Jasper, a Sub Pop receptionist at the time, recalls, "The problem was that you didn't have businesspeople working there. It was all music lovers. And people who love music aren't necessarily great at running a business."

Mudhoney singer Mark Arm adds, "We were all just making stuff up on the spot."

The label nearly tanked, but it survived with some unexpected help from Cobain and Co. When Nirvana left for big-league Geffen Records in 1991, Sub Pop was awarded points, or a percentage of sales, on the group's Geffen albums, resulting in millions of dollars in new revenue. Sales of Bleach, Nirvana's only Sub Pop album, skyrocketed; to date the company has moved 1.7 million CDs, a massive number for any indie release. In 1995, at the height of the grunge era, the Warner Music Group (WMG) paid $20 million for a 49% stake in Sub Pop.

Now playing in the big leagues, Poneman overspent on recording budgets and videos, squandering Sub Pop's good fortune. Early this decade, however, business began to improve. Sub Pop released buzz-worthy debut albums by The Shins and The Postal Service, while Poneman built a leaner, meaner organization.

"We try to make our money go as far as it possibly can," says Jasper, who returned to Sub Pop in 1998 and is now executive vice president. There are 27 employees, down from as many as 60 in past years, and the label makes a profit of about $5 a CD.

"It sounds obvious," Poneman reflects, "but it took some tricky navigation to get us back to our original mission: putting out great records by great artists. We felt like we'd become music impresarios, when in fact we were just dirtbags from Seattle."
- Source

Bristol Palin agrees that "abstinence only" education is unrelastic.

2009-02-19T13:32:00.002-05:00

Abstinence-only sex eduction is a completely idiotic idea. Bristol gets it, why can't Sarah?

In her first interview since giving birth, the teenage daughter of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin said having a child is not "glamorous," and that telling young people to be abstinent is "not realistic at all."

"It's just, like, I'm not living for myself anymore. It's, like, for another person, so it's different," Bristol Palin told Fox News' Greta Van Susteren. "And just you're up all night. And it's not glamorous at all," she said. "Like, your whole priorities change after having a baby."

The 18-year-old, who gave birth in late December, said she is being helped tremendously by her mother, grandmother, cousins and other family members. She is engaged to teen father Levi Johnston, who is now working for his father and trying to complete school, but said she wishes that she waited another 10 years to have a baby.

[...]

an Susteren was delicate with the teenager but pointedly asked if "contraception is an issue here."

"Is that something that you were just lazy about or not interested, or do you have philosophical or religious opposition to it," Van Susteren asked.

Bristol quickly answered that she didn't want to get into specifics. The best option is abstinence, the teen said, but added that she didn't think that was "realistic."

[...]

The network interview was Bristol's idea, the teen said. And she apparently sprung the news to her parents that she was going to speak publicly the day before the network taping. The teen said she wanted to tell her story so that other young people might think twice about having sex.

"I'd love to [be] an advocate to prevent teen pregnancy because it's not, like, a situation that you would want to strive for, I guess," Bristol said.
- Source

And... that's where you lose me. So, Bristol thinks that abstinence is completely unrealistic, but she wants to advocate not having sex instead of use of contraception? What the hell? She's directly contradicting herself. Obviously this kid still has a lot on her mind, but make a choice. You can't reasonably say that abstinence doesn't work, but that is what people need to follow. You're basically saying that the best way is to follow a failed strategy.

Obviously, she has a lot of other things on her mind, but I suggest that, if she is serious about being a teen pregnancy prevention advocate, she think long and hard about the role of proper access to contraception.

Say what? I couldn't hear you through my 10 inch ear hair.

2009-02-19T13:24:00.002-05:00

He may look like a freak, but at least he got a Guinness World Record out of it. Radhakant Baijpai, of Uttar Pradesh, India, has some massive ear chops. Or locks, or whatever.

Radhakant Baijpai has no intention of ever cutting the hair in his ears, which he has been growing since he was 18-years-old.

In fact, the Indian grocer, 58, has let his hair grow so long, it measures 9.8 inches in each ear. He was recognized in the Guinness Book of World Records as having the longest ear hair in 2003, London’s Daily Mail reported Tuesday.

Baijpai, who lives in Uttar Pradesh, India, said he considers the long ear hair a sign of luck and prosperity.

Baijpai’s wife did not always think her husband’s look was sexy, he said.

“She has always been asking me to cut my ear hair, but since the official record was confirmed by Guinness, she has allowed me to keep it because it is a source of pride to me,” said Baijpai, who uses an herbal shampoo to clean the hair.

Baijpai said his son, who is 25, has started growing out his ear hair.

Although everyone has some amount of ear hair, lengthy hair such as Baijpai’s is often the result of genetics.
- Source

I love how he has normally trimmed hair on his head, but has those weird werewolf-like tufts jutting out of his ears. But, hey, if he thinks it brings luck and prosperity, more power to him.

Paranoid Palin having a rough time back in Alaska.

2009-02-19T12:31:00.004-05:00

MSNBC had a pretty big piece about Palin, detailing hoe she is being perceived back in her home state of Alaska. I'm not going to post the whole thing, but there some really great tidbits. Mostly, it seems that Palin has become paranoid about media scrutiny. It also goes into how other legislators are reacting to her new-found socially ultra-conservative mantle.

A couple of weeks before the Alaska legislature began this year's session, a bipartisan group of state senators on a retreat a few hours from here invited Gov. Sarah Palin to join them. Accompanied by a retinue of advisers, she took a seat at one end of a conference table and listened passively as Gary Stevens, the president of the Alaska Senate, a former college history professor and a low-key Republican with a reputation for congeniality, expressed delight at her presence.

Would the governor, a smiling Stevens asked, like to share some of her plans and proposals for the coming legislative session?

Palin looked around the room and paused, according to several senators present. "I feel like you guys are always trying to put me on the spot," she said finally, as the room became silent.

Gone was the self-assurance that Alaska had come to know in its young Republican governor, well before her life and career were transformed by Sen. John McCain's selection of her as his vice presidential running mate. "She looked ill at ease, more defensive than we've been accustomed to seeing her," said one legislator who was there and spoke on the condition of anonymity because he said he might need to work with Palin.

Personally, I see this as a good thing. Palin came across as an obnoxious twit. Her attitude and bravado smacked of high-school elitism, and it didn't help that she obviously didn't really understand the issues that she talked about. It's one thing to be self-confident and to have the knowledge to back that confidence up. It is another to be arrogant and cocky, masking one's complete lack of understanding the fundamentals of an issue.

While her once sky-high job approval ratings in her home state have dropped a little, Palin is still liked by more than 60 percent of the Alaskan electorate, the sort of number that most politicians can only dream about. Still, the anonymous sniping that portrayed her during the campaign as a flighty and demanding running mate continues to resonate with some legislators. Among both Republicans and Democrats, the view persists that she and those closest to her have overstepped their authority on occasion.

Most recently, her appointed state attorney general, Talis Colberg, attempted to block subpoenas issued by the legislature to Palin administration officials during an investigation of "Troopergate" -- an inquiry into a string of events that began with Palin's effort to have her sister's ex-husband dismissed from his job as a state trooper. Colberg's moves culminated with his resignation last week.

[...]

Early in her term, her staunchest allies on state ethics reform and pivotal energy issues included several liberal Democrats. Alaska's current House Democratic leader, Beth Kerttula, joined Palin in successfully arguing for the adoption of a controversial oil tax increase that the industry resisted. "She was . . . completely a pragmatist," Kerttula recalls. "She knew she had to work with Democrats."

Now, two abortion-related bills that Palin had made little effort to promote have been reintroduced, and another Republican legislator has pushed for the state's adoption of a death penalty, something last seen in Alaska during its territorial days. Palin has voiced support for all three bills, but there have been no signs yet of any hard push from the governor's office.

Some Alaska Democrats and Republicans wonder whether Palin, given her new stature among social conservatives who are urging her to run for president, will feel compelled to invest more political capital in the two abortion-related measures.

If Palin does try and play to the ultra-conservative "down with evolution" crowd, then I suggest she get used to losing and being made fun. Her views might be able to fly or be viewed sympathetically in her state, but the rest of the nation regards those ideals and horrendously dense and foreboding of an onset of Dark Ages mentality towards the sciences.

Not everyone is sympathetic. "There are few political performers in her league, in her ability to draw crowds and stand in front of 10,000, 20,000 people and excite them," said one prominent GOP strategist who spoke on the condition of anonymity. "But the campaign also demonstrated that there is a lack of gravity to her that has hurt. She needs to mitigate her weaknesses. She needs to prepare more, know more. She should try to disappear for a while and be an indisputably effective governor."

Palin's greatest problems in Alaska, as in the rest of the country, seem to be with her fellow Republicans. "What did I say about her during the campaign when somebody asked me if she was qualified?" asked state Rep. John Harris, taking a moment to ponder his own question, smiling. "Oh, I said something like 'She's old enough and a registered voter.' " Another smile.

[...]

Asked how Palin deals with the perception that months of ridicule have irreversibly turned her into what one Alaskan GOP legislator calls "Dan Quayle with a ponytail," Balash confidently responds that she displays political skills that no other Republican on the national scene has shown an ability to match. "She walks into a room, and things change," he said. "She just has that 'it' -- whatever that 'it' is."
- Source

Bangkok Dangerous isn't as deadly as advertised.

2009-02-18T10:50:00.004-05:00

I will admit to being a sucker for Nicholas Cage films. The first if which that I can remember being Raising Arizona. As much as people try and typecast Nick Cage as a hack and star of shitty movies, when you analyze the entirety of his work, it just doesn't hold weight. He did Leaving Las Vegas, which was phenomenal. Even some of his more mediocre fare such as Matchstick Men wasn't as bad many detractors made it out to be. The guy has chops. Of course, I'm not oblivious to the complete shit-fests that he's done, like Ghostrider. Still, I'm willing to give a fair shake.

Bangkok Dangerous, for all it's positive story elements, just doesn't hold together, leaving Nick Cage's performance shallow and fundamentally underwhelming.

It's not so much that it's a bad film. It does fall prey to a lot cliches, such as washed-out and muted coloring brought on by the use of green filters. This isn't bad in itself, except the intensity in which it is applied falls flatter with the heavier applications.

The story is 100% solid. It is entertaining, but may be considered slow for those looking for a pure action film. While I don't want to delve into specifics, it involves the cliche of the seasoned veteran assassin compromising the values that have kept him safe. This includes teaching his ways to a young upstart, as well as falling in love with a random girl he meets by pure happenstance. Naturally, these things cannot go well, and all of these actions are predicated on this mission (well, series of missions) being his last before he cashes in and retires. There are some good scenes, but the whole underlying plot is incredibly shallow and feels like something that an old NES game would be built off of rather than a AAA feature film.

The main problem with the film lies specifically in Nick Cage. He comes across as a character we've seen way too many times before with nothing at all new to bring to the table. Which could be fine, except that his performance is just very underwhelming. When he's is supposed to be jaded he looks mildly miffed, when he's supposed to be angry he only looks annoyed. It is as if Cage is purposefully notching down the emotions of his character. In the end, it just comes across as Cage "doing another job", which is what his character, but not he himself, is supposed to be doing. Towards the latter part of the film the character springs a little bit more to life, but by this time you're either committed to seeing the film through to the end or have already stopped watching. By the finale, the film is simply flaccid and so run dry that it leaves little to no impact.

The directions is "by the books" and there's not much to really talk about. Nothing phenomenal nor nothing truly detracting. It's a solid enough job, but it leaves you wishing there was at least some kind of flair or a sense of unique style. Actually, there a scant few scenes that do leave you on the edge of your seat, but they are too few and to far between. The action scenes are well done, at least for a film that is meant to be more suspense-spy oriented, but the sometime deviate into almost Bond-like over the top bits that quickly slink back into the range of stealth assassin. At times the time-line seemingly jerks quickly and you're left with a void of character development and interaction that can be detracting, but is eventually made up elsewhere. It leaves these montages, unfortunately, ringing hollow. However, when the scenes do work, they work incredibly well and are rather invigorating. Which is good, but during the down moments, it rings all too hollow. This is rung especially true during the final moments of the film where it leaves the viewer feeling as if the writers and director didn't know where to go, so they thought to do a cheap rip off of The Professional, but it winds up completely lacking the emotional depth and backstory that made Jean Reno's performance so memorable.

In the end, Bangkok Dangerous isn't a bad film, but not a good one. I can't see myself ever actually buying the film, though I do think it is decent enough for a rental. Much the same way as Wesley Snipe's Rising Sun was worth a rental, but worthy of mocking if actually purchased for repeated viewing. If you don't hate Nick Cage and you're okay with slow-paced sniper/action movies, you won't be horribly disappointed. However, if you're trying to compare this to something high caliber (pun intended) like The Professional, you will be horribly let down by this cheap knockoff.

"Wha? This no karaoke!?"

2009-02-18T10:15:00.000-05:00

Oh, Japan. Even though your finance minister shows up drunk, we still love you. In fact, we love you long time.

Japan's finance minister abruptly resigned Tuesday over allegations he made a drunken appearance at a G-7 news conference, shaking Prime Minister Taro Aso's already deeply unpopular government.

Nakagawa has been under fire over allegations he appeared to be drunk at a news conference following the G-7 finance ministers meeting in Rome over the weekend. TV footage showed him slurring his speech and looking drowsy and confused.

Nakagawa has said he took cold medicine, which, along with jet lag, made him groggy.
- Source

Ah, yes. The "cold medicine" made him act all loopy. We get ya. *wink, wink* It's okay, dude. Those meetings must be boring as shit. I would sneak some grog in too. Though, not if I was going to have to give a speech.

Prepare for anti-Obama spin on Mohammad al-Awfi.

2009-02-18T09:44:00.007-05:00

According to late breaking news, Abu Hareth Muhammad al-Awfi was apprehended by Yemen officials. Abu Hareth Muhammad al-Awfi was a responsible for an attack on US embassy. Look for FOX News and other conservative bullshitters to spin this as a direct result of Obama closing Guantanamo Bay. The problem wiht that is, it simply isn't true.

Hit the jump for the posts.

Yemen authorities have arrested and extradited a Saudi man who rejoined al Qaeda after he was released from the U.S. military's detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Yemen's embassy in the United States announced the arrest of Mohammad al-Awfi on Tuesday. Its state-run news agency reported Wednesday that al-Awfi has been extradited to Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia recently asked for Interpol's help in apprehending al-Awfi and 84 other wanted al Qaeda suspects. It was a rare admission by the kingdom that some of its most wanted terrorists are on the loose, and it needs help in finding them.

Al-Awfi goes by several names, including Mazin Salih Musaid Awfi, Abu Hareth Awfi, and Muhammad Ateeq Uwaidh al-Aufi.

Last month, he appeared in a video along with another Guantanamo detainee, Saeed Shihri, who is believed to have been responsible for an attack on the U.S. Embassy in Yemen that killed nearly a dozen people last September.

The attack came barely a year after both men were released from Guantanamo to the custody of Saudi Arabia. Shihri is one of al Qaeda's top leaders in Yemen, and al-Awfi is the group's field commander.

Interpol issued a rare global security alert for the men last week. Interpol Secretary General Ronald Noble said it was the first time the international police organization has "been asked to alert the world about so many dangerous fugitives at one time."

President Obama last month ordered the Guantanamo detention facility closed within a year. Where the almost 250 detainees now in Guantanamo will be moved to has not been determined.
- Source

Delightfully vague as to when Muhammad al-Awfi's release was, no?

Al-Qaeda video includes former Guantánamo inmates

A video has been released by a Yemeni branch of al-Qaeda showing two former inmates of Guantánamo Bay identifying themselves by their names and detainee numbers. Said Ali al-Shihri and Abu Hareth Muhammad al-Awfi were both released from the prison camp in November 2007 and went on to a Saudi Arabian rehabilitation program for jihadists which, according to the Saudi government, has provided a model for other programs. Until now, none of the program graduates had returned to terrorism. It has been confirmed that Ali al-Shihri is now deputy leader of al-Qaeda in Yemen, and it is thought that he took part in the fatal attack on the country's American embassy in September 2008. This news could have an impact on the US government's decision to close Guantánamo Bay, as Obama announced his desire for the facility to be shut within the next year,
- Source

Now, if Obama does fuck up, I want to know about it. I think we all do. We should know when our president fucks up. But this is going to get spun to high heaven as Obama closing Gitmo and terrorists being let loose amongst the populace at large, only to attack us again. And it simply isn't true.

Looking at the Open Democracy report, it is plainly obvious that the administration that released Muhammad al-Awfi was none other than the Bush administration. In November 2007. So, if you see anyone trying to pin this as "see what Obama's doing? He's releasing terrorists!" go ahead and correct them.

Muhammad al-Awfi was released under president Bush's administration back in 2007. Still, don't expect things like "facts" to get in the way of people like Dick Morris, Sean Hsnnity, and Rush Limbaugh. They'll be spinning this and lying their asses off as much as they possibly can.

-edit-

Apparently, Muhammad al-Awfi has a Wikipedia page. Seriously. Check it out.

Drunk man gets shit-ton of money. Jurors are fucking morons.

2009-02-18T08:58:00.005-05:00

I don't... Honestly... I can't... This is... FUCK!

This is why trial by jury is fucking stupid. A trial by your "peers" who are made up of fucking complete morons is absolute bullshit. Sure, trial by a jury of your peers sounds great, but it's not. It is so horrendously flawed that the entire concept is beyond just bullshit and falls into the dumb beyond fucking belief category. Proof?

A Brooklyn man who was drunk when he fell into the path of a subway train and lost part of his leg has been awarded $2.3 million by a jury.

Dustin Dibble has admitted that he was so drunk he doesn't even remember the incident at the Union Square subway station in April 2006.

But Dibble's lawyer argued in court that the motorman had time to stop the train when he saw the 25-year-old lying on the tracks 180 feet away — and the jury agreed, assigning most of the blame to New York City Transit.
- Source

Obviously, none of these fucking retards understands how a train works. HINT: It's a big fucking heavy piece of equipment that takes a lot of time to slow down, let alone stop.

Fuck do I hate the shit out of society.

UPDATE: Facebook turns about-face on ToU changes.

2009-02-18T04:41:00.003-05:00

Seems that facebook has changed its mind about their addition. This wasn't done altruistically, either. It was done after a lot of pissed off people got, well, really pissed off. And who could blame them. Despite saying that they would never ever, ever do anything shady with anyone's content, they eventually felt it necessary to revers their update.

After the jump are the stages of anger, pleading, and finally reconciliation.

ANGER

Tens of thousands of Facebook users are protesting new policies that they say grant the social-networking site the ability to control their information forever, even after they cancel their accounts.

Facebook's new terms of use, updated Feb. 4, largely went unnoticed until the popular consumer rights advocacy blog Consumerist.com pointed out the changes Sunday.

That prompted a clarification from Facebook's founder, Mark Zuckerberg, although the new terms remain in force. Zuckerberg told users in a blog post Monday that "on Facebook, people own their information and control who they share it with."
- Source

PLEADING

Just trust us.

That's what Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg told the estimated 175 million users of his social-networking Web site Monday afternoon after the company had stepped into yet another bad-publicity mess of its own creation.

Basically, Zuckerberg told Facebook devotees that he'd never, ever do anything bad with their posted content — even though the user agreement says he's perfectly entitled to do so.

"The trust you place in us as a safe place to share information is the most important part of what makes Facebook work," he wrote in a reassuring-sounding message on the official Facebook blog. "Our goal is to build great products and to communicate clearly to help people share more information in this trusted environment."
- Source

RECONCILIATION

Under fire from tens of thousands of users, the social networking site Facebook said early Wednesday it is reverting to its old policy on user information -- for now.

The site posted a brief message on users' home pages that said it was returning to its previous "Terms of Use" policy "while we resolve the issues that people have raised."
- Source

Producer who fought Islamic stereotypes commits stereotypical Islamic killing.

2009-02-16T22:29:00.003-05:00

This isn't mean to be amusing, but oh the irony of it all! A producer who started an Islamic TV station with the intent of battling Islamic stereotypes becomes, himself, a horrendous stereotype of Islamic psychopaths. Not to say all Muslims are crazy, like this guy is, but the typical fear-mongering image of hard-lined Islamic followers beheading or otherwise killing their wives, termed "honor killings", is a fairly common theme. It was, after all, the central premise of the very infamous Law & Order: SVU episode, Honor.

The founder of an Islamic television station in upstate New York aimed at countering Muslim stereotypes has confessed to beheading his wife, authorities said.

Muzzammil Hassan was charged with second-degree murder after police found the decapitated body of his wife, Aasiya Hassan, at the Bridges TV station in the Buffalo suburb of Orchard Park, said Andrew Benz, Orchard Park's police chief.

Hassan was arrested Thursday.

His wife filed for divorce January 6, and police had responded to several domestic violence calls at the couple's home, Benz said.

Hassan went directly to the police station after his wife's death and confessed to killing her, Benz told CNN. Benz declined to give further details.

Attempts to reach an attorney for Hassan were unsuccessful, and his family didn't return calls from CNN.

He had two children, 4 and 6, with his wife. He had two other children, 17 and 18, from his previous marriage.

He launched Bridges TV, billed as the first English-language cable channel targeting Muslims inside the United States, in 2004. At the time, Hassan said he hoped the network would balance negative portrayals of Muslims following the attacks of September 11, 2001.

The station's staff is "deeply shocked and saddened by the murder of Aasiya Hassan and the subsequent arrest of Muzzammil Hassan," a statement from Bridges TV said.

"Our deepest condolences and prayers go out to the families of the victim," the statement said.
- Source

On a different, but somewhat related note, Bil Maher's Religulous comes out on DVD tomorrow, the 17th. Pick up a copy and mock the types of religious fundamentalist assholes that are so much like Mr. Hassan. And to continue with Bill Maher plugs, Real Time with Bill Maher begins airing again Feb. 20th. Catch it on HBO or look on your favorite torrent site.

You're fucking FIRED, dumbass!

2009-02-16T22:15:00.002-05:00

Oh, Donald Trump. You love to talk a lot of shit, act tough, and pretend like you're some super savvy business prodigy, but in reality you're an idiotic hack who has repeatedly lost billions. Remember when you tried to trademark the phrase, "you're fired"? Yeah, that was funny because it fell flat on its face. And now, Trump, you're going bankrupt. Again. For the third time. You are FIRED, you bloviating fucktard! Try and trademark that.

Trump Entertainment Resorts Inc, Donald Trump's casino group, is expected to file Tuesday for bankruptcy, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The company's board was scheduled to meet late Monday night to decide whether to authorize the filing, the newspaper reported in its online edition. Otherwise, the casino operator would be forced into bankruptcy involuntarily by creditors, the newspaper said.

Such a filing would mark the third appearance in bankruptcy court for Trump Entertainment, which most recently emerged from bankruptcy proceedings in 2005, the newspaper said.
- Source

Oh, and your casinos fucking suck balls.

Israel really doesn't get it, do they?

2009-02-16T21:29:00.003-05:00

Why is it that Palestinians fire rockets into Israel? Is it because they're a bunch of crazy assholes, as Israel claims? Or is it because they're legitimately pissed that they aren't a recognized nation and because Israel keeps going back on their word to occupy more land? Honestly, I think it's a nice mixture of the two. And if Israel thinks that their recent action isn't going to draw more rocket fire, they're just as fucking crazy.

Plans to expand a West Bank settlement by up to 2,500 homes drew Palestinian condemnation Monday and presented an early test for President Barack Obama, whose Mideast envoy is well known for opposing such construction.

Israel opened the way for possible expansion of the Efrat settlement by taking control of a nearby West Bank hill of 423 acres. The rocky plot was recently designated state land and is part of a master plan that envisions the settlement growing from 9,000 to 30,000 residents, Efrat Mayor Oded Revivi said.

Israeli officials said any new construction would require several years more of planning and stages of approval.
- Source

That's great. So, they do a land-grab, plan to build there, and then sit on it for several months to possibly a year or more? Makes me wonder how much more land they will illegally grab, like what was exposed when word leaked of their secret settlement database.

A classified database of construction compiled by the ministry was leaked to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

It suggests most construction took place without the right permits, and more than 30 settlements were built in part on land owned by Palestinians.

Settlements are a contentious issue in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The defence ministry has not commented on the report, which appears to contradict Israel's official position that it does not requisition private land for settlements.

The internationally-backed "road map" peace plan also calls on Israel to halt all settlement activity.

The database - compiled over about two years - was leaked to Haaretz by the Israeli human rights group Yesh Din.

It focuses not only on some 100 unauthorised settler outposts, but also on about 120 settlements officially authorised since Israel captured the territory in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.

An analysis of the data shows a big majority - about 75% - of construction in settlements was carried out without the right permit or in contravention of permits issued, Haaretz reported.

In more than 30 settlements, buildings including schools, synagogues and police stations, had been built on private Palestinian land.

The newspaper said Defence Minister Ehud Barak blocked publication of the data, arguing it could endanger state security or harm Israel's foreign relations.
- Source

Yeah, I would think that intentionally, knowingly, and secretly violating peace accords would strain foreign relations. Zionist reclamation detractors will argue that such views are fundamentally anti-Semitic, which is bullshit. I don't care if you're fucking Hindu, this kind of action makes you a dick. Why is the US still giving aid to Israel?

Begala takes the piss out of stimulus detractors.

2009-02-16T21:20:00.003-05:00

There's been much bally-hooing by the GOP over the recent stimulus package put forth by Obama. The GOP apparently just plans to sit there, thumbs firmly affixed up their asses, and shout, "no, no, no, no, no..." until the economy slides down the shitter some more. Then they'll pop right up and proclaim, in a chorus, "see! I told ya so!"

Seesm that the recent grandstanding has really hit a nerve with Paul Begala, and he squarely takes aim at South Carolina Governor, Mark Sanford.

Gov. Mark Sanford of South Carolina took umbrage at my writing that his approach to the economic crisis is to do nothing. I'll deal with his "ideas" in a moment, but first let me make a modest proposal:

If Republican politicians are so deeply opposed to President Obama's economic recovery plan, they should refuse to take the money. After all, if you think all that federal spending is damaging, there are easy ways to reduce it: Don't take federal money.

Gov. Sanford can lead the way. South Carolina should decline to accept any federal funds for transportation, education, health care, clean energy or any of the other ideas President Obama is advocating to fix the economy. And the rest of the GOP can follow suit.

Justice Louis Brandeis famously called states "laboratories of democracy." So let's experiment. Gov. Sanford can be the guinea pig. His Palmetto State already gets $1.35 back from Washington for every dollar it pays in federal taxes, according to 2005 numbers, the latest calculated by the Tax Foundation, a nonprofit tax research group.

South Carolina is a ward of the federal government. It's been on welfare for years. If Gov. Sanford is so all-fired opposed to federal spending, let's start by cutting federal spending in South Carolina. Otherwise, he's got about as much credibility on fiscal conservatism as A-Rod has on steroids.

Under the Bush-Sanford economic theories, South Carolina's unemployment rate has reached 9.5 percent -- among the highest in the nation. But if Gov. Sanford wants to continue those policies, good luck to him.

Make no mistake about it, Republicans like Gov. Sanford want to go back to the bad old days of George W. Bush. In his CNN.com column, Gov. Sanford expends 605 words attacking President Obama's plan to turn the country around after eight years of Bush-Republican-Sanford economics.

That is his right, but attacking President Obama's plan is not itself an alternative plan. Nor is dredging up hoary old gripes about the New Deal. Nor, indeed, is deriding neighborhood electric vehicles -- which create jobs, save money and reduce pollution -- as "streamlined golf carts." But that is what Gov. Sanford offers us. iReport.com: Share your thoughts on the stimulus plan

Then Gov. Sanford turns to his ideas (keep in mind he was responding to my charge that he favors doing nothing). He devotes precisely one half of one sentence to his plan to save the world economy; 24 words that will create millions of jobs, restore liquidity to capital markets, protect investors and consumers, regenerate stagnant demand and restore the capitalist system. Here they are:

"... cutting the payroll tax, opening foreign markets through an expansion of our trade agreements, and reducing our corporate tax, which is among the highest worldwide."

Wow. As we say in the South, I've got the vapors. So cutting taxes and cutting trade deals will get us out of this mess? That's all we need to do?

We don't need to extend unemployment insurance, or update health information technology, or move to renewable energy or repair roads or rebuild bridges or modernize the power grid or prevent states and cities from laying off teachers and cops or any of the other myriad proposals in President Obama's plan?

To be sure, President Obama's plan includes tax cuts -- mostly for middle-class families. But cutting taxes on corporate profits is of little utility when there are no corporate profits to tax. And precisely with whom would Gov. Sanford cut these miraculous trade deals? In case he hasn't been watching CNN, the entire world economy is in the tank.

If cutting taxes for the rich and for big corporations and promoting foreign trade alone could energize the economy, we wouldn't be in this mess. But maybe Gov. Sanford is right. Let's keep our federal money -- give it to states where the governors will actually put it to good use. We'll let Gov. Sanford try his plan, we'll try President Obama's plan.

Something tells me Gov. Sanford won't take that gamble. Because for all his rhetoric about hating federal spending, he can't wait to get his hands on our money.
- Source

Better soldiering through chemistry.

2009-02-16T21:09:00.003-05:00

Some soldiers can hack it, some can't. This is often referred to as "battle sense." These soldiers are able to respond to high-stress combat situations, think clearly, and act appropriately. As to why this was, no one was specifically sure. Turns out, it's a neuro-chemical thing.

Soldiers who perform best under extreme stress have higher levels of chemicals that dampen the fear response, a finding that could lead to new drugs or training strategies to help others cope better, a U.S. researcher said.

"There are certain individuals who just don't get as stressed. Their stress hormones are actually lower," Deane Aikins of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, told reporters Sunday at the American American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Chicago.

Aikins and colleagues at Yale study stress hormone levels of soldiers undergoing survival training, which includes mock prisoner of war experiences.

Blood samples taken from soldiers in the training programs showed those who fared best under extreme stress had lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol and higher levels of neuropeptide y, a chemical that dampens the body's stress response.

"All of the recovery hormone systems, all of the systems that turn it down, really kick in for these resilient individuals," Aikins said.

"The question is how do you get folks who aren't as cool in stress trained up?"

Aikins and colleagues now are studying whether giving other soldiers a dose of this stress-dampening neuropeptide might help people fare better in combat situations.

He said mental training exercises such as meditation also might help improve the performance of soldiers under stress.
- Source

So, the plan is to give soldiers experimental drugs that will help them in battle? Y'know, last time we did that, it didn't turn out so well.

Don't be a doucher.

2009-02-16T21:00:00.003-05:00

While the evidence may not be concrete, researchers have found that douching may increase the risk of contracting STDs. Seems that trying to make one's snatch smell like a meadow after a fresh spring rain may have a significant downside. However, I have to wonder what the correlation here really is. Logic would dictate that if a girl is regularly douching, then she's probably also fucking on a higher frequency than her non-douched peers. Apparently the real issue has to do with douche washing away beneficial micro-organisms that help keep STIs from taking hold.

Results of a study provide "convincing evidence," researchers say, that douching increases the risk of sexually transmitted diseases.

Among a group of sexually active adolescent girls, those who said they always practiced vaginal douching were nearly two times more likely to have a sexually transmitted disease (STD) than girls who said they never douched, the researchers found.

"Douching is a harmful activity because it disrupts the healthy vaginal microorganisms and enables STIs to take hold," Dr. Sten H. Vermund of Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, Tennessee, told Reuters Health.

"Overwhelming evidence from biomedical research suggests that douching is harmful for women's health," Vermund added.

He and his colleagues studied the douching habits over 3 years of 368 sexually active girls who were nearly 17 years old on average.

During follow-up assessments, 88 of the girls never reported douching. Compared with this group, as well as the girls who intermittently reported douching, the 50 girls who reported always douching had a shorter time to acquiring a sexually transmitted infection.

When the investigators allowed for other factors associated with STDs, including race and age, as well as HIV status and baseline sexual history, the risk for STD was nearly twofold greater for girls who always douched compared with those who never douched.

In the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, the investigators note that this study is the first to follow girls over time, and to ensure that douching practices preceded incident STDs. Previous studies that suggested douching as a risk factor for STDs could not determine if douching was practiced in response to the STD symptoms.

Vermund concludes, based on this study and others, that "adolescents and women should be discouraged from douching unless guided to do so by a doctor."
- Source

So, moral of the story: if you're gonna be skanky, let your natural skank shine forth instead of covering it up with douche.

UPDATE: 13-year old might not be a father after all.

2009-02-16T20:39:00.002-05:00

As if it wasn't fucked enough that the 13-year old Alfie Patten might be a father, now it turns out he'll have to take a paternity test to find out if he actually is the father. Man, what the hell? He's only 13 and he'd already having to take a paternity test? It is in his best interest, as two other young boys have come forward and admitted to having sex with Chantelle roughly around the same time that she would have become pregnant. Chantelle has denied the allegations, but still... BBC, fellas. Bitches Be Crazy.

Alfie Patten, 13, was first reported to be the father of Chantelle Steadman's week-old daughter Maisie, and didn't doubt he was until now, the U.K.'s Telegraph newspaper reported.

"Now that is in his mind and I'm not happy," his mother Nicola Patten, 43, told the newspaper. "I don't know where they get this from. I mean, that's my son, that's his baby."

Alfie, then 12, and Chantelle routinely were allowed to share a bed, but others, including 14-year-old Tyler Barker and 16-year-old Richard Goodsell, also claim they had sex with the girl.

"I slept with Chantelle in her bed about nine months ago and I'm really worried I could be the father," Barker told The Telegraph.

Max Clifford, a publicist representing Alfie and his family, said they've decided a DNA test is the best way to resolve the paternity issue.

"It is inevitable there are going to be doubts, particularly with the number of boys who've come forward claiming to have had sex with Chantelle," Clifford told the paper.

Chantelle and her family insist Alfie is the only boyfriend she had, and that the other boys are lying, The Telegraph reported.
- Source

Australia arsonist charge with... kiddie porn?

2009-02-16T17:42:00.000-05:00

This guy is so fucked. Unless you've been living in a bubble, you've probably heard about the massive wildfires that have sweeping across the Melbourne region of Australia. Over 1,800 homes have been destroyed and nearly 200 have been people killed as a direct result of the fire.

The suspect, whose identity was banned from publication by a magistrate because of the risk of reprisal attacks against him or his family, was formally charged with one count of arson causing death, one of intentionally lighting a wildfire, and one of possessing child pornography, Victoria police said.

Detectives arrested the man Friday and questioned him for several hours in Morwell, 75 miles (120 kilometers) east of the state capital Melbourne, police said. He was charged in a magistrate's court, but did not appear in the courtroom, the Australian Broadcasting Corp. reported.

He was ordered held in custody and to undergo psychiatric evaluation, ABC said. He was taken to Melbourne, where another hearing was set for Monday.

[...]

If found guilty, the man faces a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison for the deadly arson charge, and a maximum of 15 years on the second arson charge. Five years in prison is the maximum penalty for possessing child porn.

The arson charges were connected to a fire near the town of Churchill, about 125 miles southeast of Melbourne, that killed at least 21 people. It was one of hundreds of fires that blackened 1,500 square miles of forests and farms in Victoria state.

Experts say arson can be hard to prove. Physical evidence usually goes up in smoke or is taken away by arsonists, said Thomas Fee, a former president of the U.S. International Association of Arson Investigators.

Even more difficult to prove is murder by arson. Wildfires often join one another, making it tough to link a fire set by an arsonist with the blaze that eventually kills people, said Damon Muller, who has researched arsonists for the Australian Institute of Criminology.

The scale of the disaster became clearer Friday, when the state government said it had reached a more thorough tally of homes destroyed and put that number at 1,831 — more than double its earlier figure of 762. The number of people left homeless or who fled their homes and have not returned also rose to 7,000, from 5,000.

Police say they believe at least one other fire — the one that all but destroyed the town of Marysville, about 60 miles north of Melbourne — resulted from foul play.

Marysville is believed to have the biggest toll of any place — up to 100 people killed in a population of 500.
- Source

The man's identity has since been exposed. His name, a photo, and his address has appeared on several Facebook sites created by those outraged by the horrible events.

At least three Facebook groups have been created to name the alleged arsonist, who it has emerged was a volunteer firefighter.

At a Victoria court hearing today, magistrate John Klestadt lifted the suppression order on Brendan Sokaluk's name but ordered that his photograph and address should not be released.

[...]

Sokaluk's lawyer, Helen Spowart, urged the court to continue the suppression of his name amid serious concerns for his safety and that of his family.

"This is an extraordinary case," she said. "The level of emotion and anger and disgust that the alleged offences have aroused in the community is unprecedented ... he remains in risk while in custody."

It was also revealed Sokaluk joined the Churchill brigade of the country fire authority in the late 80s before the service introduced stringent screening and police checks of volunteers.

He left the brigade in the 90s, trying to rejoin twice but being rejected, the Melbourne Age reported.

On his MySpace page, Sokaluk describes himself as a "young happy male" who wants to meet a woman and get married.

"My interest are to enjoy life to the fallest [sic]," he writes. He lists "mother earth" as his hero because "without her we all would be dead".

Kieran Walshe, the Victoria deputy police commissioner announced that the death toll from the fires had risen to 189.
- Source

Child porn, of course, is the least of this guy's problems, but I think it gives a bit of insight of how truly fucked in the head this guy most likely is.

An encyclopedic collection of ignorance.

2009-02-16T16:37:00.000-05:00

There is more than just one wiki out there. The format of Wikipedia has been used for many things. World of Warcraft, Fallout, D&D, and many other things. It's a useful template to use for any information-based web-compilation. There is even a conservative Wikipedia called, Conservapedia.

Now, I'm not against conservatism, but I am gainst the idea of a "conservative" wikipedia. Primarily because such a thing is not fact-based, but pure propaganda. A circle-jerk for idiots that like to think that hating fags makes them conservatise, when in all reality it just makes them bigots. These are the types of folks that George Will and Buckley Jr. despised and would maintain were merely fringe elements. Well, Palin showed that those "fringe elements" are running the fucking show nowadays.

Looking at Conservapedia, I saw this in their "News" section:

The Conservapedia evolution article has sprinted past the 500,000 view mark! This is bad news for the dogmatic evolutionists who are aware that in 2006, the prestigious science journal Science reported concerning the United States: "The percentage of people in the country who accept the idea of evolution has declined from 45 in 1985 to 40 in 2005. Meanwhile the fraction of Americans unsure about evolution has soared from 7 per cent in 1985 to 21 per cent last year."[9] Watch the internet continue to grind down evolutionism!
- Source

Asides from nearly having my eyes roll into the back of my head, I think I almost had a seizure. "Watch the internet continue to grind down evolutionism!" That can be better put: "watch the internet continue to increase ignorance!"

Bless Oghma, I think I need to stop reading shit like this or else I'll surely be dead before I turn 30.

Krugman: USA hs had zero wealth creation in the 21st century.

2009-02-16T10:15:00.001-05:00

This isn't merely just Paul Krugman's opinion, although his Nobel Prize winning opinion does carry a lot of weight. This is evident from a Federal Reserve report showing savings amongst US citizens has plummeted drastically and that wealth creation has remained static for many or declined. This is not good news.

By now everyone knows the sad tale of Bernard Madoff’s duped investors. They looked at their statements and thought they were rich. But then, one day, they discovered to their horror that their supposed wealth was a figment of someone else’s imagination.

Unfortunately, that’s a pretty good metaphor for what happened to America as a whole in the first decade of the 21st century.

Last week the Federal Reserve released the results of the latest Survey of Consumer Finances, a triennial report on the assets and liabilities of American households. The bottom line is that there has been basically no wealth creation at all since the turn of the millennium: the net worth of the average American household, adjusted for inflation, is lower now than it was in 2001.

At one level this should come as no surprise. For most of the last decade America was a nation of borrowers and spenders, not savers. The personal savings rate dropped from 9 percent in the 1980s to 5 percent in the 1990s, to just 0.6 percent from 2005 to 2007, and household debt grew much faster than personal income. Why should we have expected our net worth to go up?

Yet until very recently Americans believed they were getting richer, because they received statements saying that their houses and stock portfolios were appreciating in value faster than their debts were increasing. And if the belief of many Americans that they could count on capital gains forever sounds naïve, it’s worth remembering just how many influential voices — notably in right-leaning publications like The Wall Street Journal, Forbes and National Review — promoted that belief, and ridiculed those who worried about low savings and high levels of debt.

Then reality struck, and it turned out that the worriers had been right all along. The surge in asset values had been an illusion — but the surge in debt had been all too real.

So now we’re in trouble — deeper trouble, I think, than most people realize even now. And I’m not just talking about the dwindling band of forecasters who still insist that the economy will snap back any day now.

For this is a broad-based mess. Everyone talks about the problems of the banks, which are indeed in even worse shape than the rest of the system. But the banks aren’t the only players with too much debt and too few assets; the same description applies to the private sector as a whole.

And as the great American economist Irving Fisher pointed out in the 1930s, the things people and companies do when they realize they have too much debt tend to be self-defeating when everyone tries to do them at the same time. Attempts to sell assets and pay off debt deepen the plunge in asset prices, further reducing net worth. Attempts to save more translate into a collapse of consumer demand, deepening the economic slump.

Are policy makers ready to do what it takes to break this vicious circle? In principle, yes. Government officials understand the issue: we need to “contain what is a very damaging and potentially deflationary spiral,” says Lawrence Summers, a top Obama economic adviser.

In practice, however, the policies currently on offer don’t look adequate to the challenge. The fiscal stimulus plan, while it will certainly help, probably won’t do more than mitigate the economic side effects of debt deflation. And the much-awaited announcement of the bank rescue plan left everyone confused rather than reassured.

There’s hope that the bank rescue will eventually turn into something stronger. It has been interesting to watch the idea of temporary bank nationalization move from the fringe to mainstream acceptance, with even Republicans like Senator Lindsey Graham conceding that it may be necessary. But even if we eventually do what’s needed on the bank front, that will solve only part of the problem.

If you want to see what it really takes to boot the economy out of a debt trap, look at the large public works program, otherwise known as World War II, that ended the Great Depression. The war didn’t just lead to full employment. It also led to rapidly rising incomes and substantial inflation, all with virtually no borrowing by the private sector. By 1945 the government’s debt had soared, but the ratio of private-sector debt to G.D.P. was only half what it had been in 1940. And this low level of private debt helped set the stage for the great postwar boom.

Since nothing like that is on the table, or seems likely to get on the table any time soon, it will take years for families and firms to work off the debt they ran up so blithely. The odds are that the legacy of our time of illusion — our decade at Bernie’s — will be a long, painful slump.
- Source

WTF is with all the breeding?

2009-02-16T07:24:00.007-05:00

There was the psycho bitch with the octuplets, Nadya Suleman. Asides from already having six children, an receiving food stamps, she decided to shit out some more kids. She hit the jackpot and crapped out a might fine litter of eight. Thus bringing the total brood count to 14. Fan-fucking-tastic that she's on food stamps and her current plan seems to soliciting donations from a website she has set up.

As if that wasn't enough, the same fertility doctor that helped Nadya Suleman become a freakish fetus-shitter has helped a 49-year old woman become pregnant with quadruplets.

The Los Angeles Times is reporting that Dr. Michael Kamrava treated another patient at his Beverly Hills clinic, and she is pregnant with quadruplets.

Kamrava reportedly transferred at least seven embryos, made from donor eggs, into the unnamed 49-year-old woman.

She already has three adult children from a previous marriage and reportedly wanted one more child with her second husband, who is in his 30s.

The woman is currently five months pregnant and is hospitalized at the Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center, according to the report.

She originally arrived at Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles for unspecified treatment but was transferred last week to the county medical center because she is uninsured, the Times reported.
- Source

Great. So this woman doesn't even have enough money for fucking insurance, yet she's gearing up to give birth to 4 children. Wonderful. I'm sure things will go over great. Maybe she can start a website for donations, too.

As if to not be outdone, some 13-year old kid is a father. Yep, a 13-year old.

Baby-faced Alfie, who is 13 but looks more like eight, became a father four days ago when his girlfriend Chantelle Steadman gave birth to 7lb 3oz Maisie Roxanne.

He told how he and Chantelle, 15, decided against an abortion after discovering she was pregnant.

The shy lad, whose voice has not yet broken, said: “I thought it would be good to have a baby.

“I didn’t think about how we would afford it. I don’t really get pocket money. My dad sometimes gives me £10.”

^ 13-year old Alfie, 15-year old Chantelle, and Maisie Roxanne.

Alfie’s dad Dennis yesterday told how the lad does not really understand the enormity of his situation — but seemed desperate to be a devoted and responsible father.

He wanted to be the first to hold Maisie after the hospital birth. He tenderly kisses the baby and gives her a bottle.

And Dennis, 45, said: “He could have shrugged his shoulders and sat at home on his Playstation. But he has been at the hospital every day.”

Maisie was conceived after Chantelle and Alfie — just 12 at the time — had a single night of unprotected sex.

[...]

Chantelle admitted she and Alfie — who are both being supported by their parents — would be accused of being grossly irresponsible. She said: “We know we made a mistake but I wouldn’t change it now. We will be good loving parents.

“I have started a church course and I am going to do work experience helping other young mums.

“I’ll be a great mum and Alfie will be a great dad.”

[...]

Britain’s youngest known father is Sean Stewart. He became a dad at 12 when the girl next door, 15-year-old Emma Webster, gave birth in Sharnbrook, Bedford, in 1998. They split six months later.
- Source

I am reminded of the lyrics from the Harvey Danger song, Flagpole Sitter.

been around the world and found
that only stupid people are breeding
the cretins cloning and feeding

Harvey Danger Flagpole Sitter

^ Remember this music video? ^