Monthly Archive for November, 2004

Karl Rove’s White House ” Murder, Inc.”

Published
by
billycuts
on November 30, 2004
in Big Brother
. 0 Comments

NOV., 2004- o?n September 15, 2001, just four days after the 9-11 attacks,
CIA Director George Tenet provided President [sic] Bush with a Top Secret
“Worldwide Attack Matrix”-a virtual license to kill targets deemed to be a
threat to the United States in some 80 countries around the world. The Tenet
plan, which was subsequently approved by Bush, essentially reversed the
executive orders of four previous U.S. administrations that expressly
prohibited political assassinations.

From Memes.Org

Read the full post "Karl Rove’s White House ” Murder, Inc.”" (1712 words, estimated 6:51 mins reading time)

Artificial Gravity: A New Spin on an Old Idea

Published
by
billycuts
on November 30, 2004
in Physics and Space
. 0 Comments

Keeping an astronaut crew in tip-top shape during lengthy treks to and from distant Mars may demand portable gravity.

There?s need for long-duration space travelers to counter such debilitating effects as muscle atrophy, bone loss, cardiovascular deconditioning and balance disorders—effects seen in humans as they cope with stints in microgravity.

Over the decades, artificial gravity research has been an on-again, off-again proposition. But in the last few years, and propelled by NASA?s new Moon, Mars and beyond exploration mandate, artificial gravity studies are now being developed, this time with a new spin.

From Space.Com

Read the full post "Artificial Gravity: A New Spin on an Old Idea" (1234 words, estimated 4:56 mins reading time)

The Geometry of The Universe

Published
by
billycuts
on November 30, 2004
in Consciousness/Psych/Brain, Mathematics, Organization/Systems/Chaos and Space
. 0 Comments

A paradigm shift is said to have occurred when the prevailing way of thinking takes a radical change. o?ne such shift occurred in ancient Greece when it was first understood that the Earth is not flat as it appears, but shaped like a ball. Another shift occurred when Galileo turned his telescope toward the heavens and opened a new-era of ever expanding horizons. Yet another shift occurred when we realized that it is not just our horizons, but the universe itself is expanding. If the Earth, planets and the Sun are like gigantic balls, what is the shape of the universe? Another huge ball?

From Memes.Org

Read the full post "The Geometry of The Universe" (1886 words, estimated 7:33 mins reading time)

Passport Privacy Protection? Nope

Published
by
billycuts
on November 30, 2004
in Big Brother
. 0 Comments

WASHINGTON—The Bush administration opposed security measures for new microchip-equipped passports that privacy advocates contended were needed to prevent identity theft, government snooping or a terror attack, according to State Department documents released Friday.

From Wired

Read the full post "Passport Privacy Protection? Nope" (583 words, estimated 2:20 mins reading time)

Scientists Achieve Self-assembly Of Spider Silk Fiber In Insect Cells

Published
by
billycuts
on November 30, 2004
in Nanotechnology, Organization/Systems/Chaos, Physics and Technology
. 0 Comments

For the first time anywhere, scientists from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and from Germany have succeeded in producing self-assembled spider web fibers under laboratory conditions, outside of the bodies of spiders. This fiber is significantly stronger than the silk fiber made by silkworms.

From Science Daily

Read the full post "Scientists Achieve Self-assembly Of Spider Silk Fiber In Insect Cells" (820 words, estimated 3:17 mins reading time)

Device to probe limits of physics

Published
by
billycuts
on November 30, 2004
in Physics
. 0 Comments

UK physicists have completed the first crucial element of an experimental device designed to probe the forces that shape our Universe.

From BBC News

Read the full post "Device to probe limits of physics" (767 words, estimated 3:04 mins reading time)

Justices Doubtful About Medical Marijuana

Published
by
billycuts
on November 30, 2004
in Cannabis
. 0 Comments

WASHINGTON—Liberal and conservative Supreme Court justices expressed doubt Monday that sick patients should be allowed to use doctor-recommended marijuana to relieve pain.

From Red Nova

Read the full post "Justices Doubtful About Medical Marijuana" (618 words, estimated 2:28 mins reading time)

The Magical Mystery Tour

Published
by
billycuts
on November 30, 2004
in Entheogens/Psychedelics
. 0 Comments

Drug and alcohol addicts are going abroad in search of the purported miracle treatment called ibogaine. But will the drug industry embrace a substance that causes a hallucinatory high?

From LA Times

Read the full post "The Magical Mystery Tour" (3513 words, estimated 14:03 mins reading time)

Published
by
billycuts
on November 30, 2004
in Law
. 0 Comments

The founding fathers envisioned a simple head count when they decreed that the country would conduct a census once every 10 years for the purpose of apportioning representation in Congress. Over the centuries, the question of who lives where has become more complicated. The census already has to determine where retirees with two homes live or how to count people who live in one city and work in another. It should be simpler counting prisoners.

From Drug Policy Alliance

Read the full post "" (490 words, estimated 1:58 mins reading time)

Study finds benefits in GM crops

Published
by
billycuts
on November 30, 2004
in Environmental/Nature
. 0 Comments

GM crops are no more harmful to the environment than conventional plant varieties, a major UK study has found.

From BBC News

Read the full post "Study finds benefits in GM crops" (737 words, estimated 2:57 mins reading time)

More on the buying of electoral fraud by the Bush campaign

Published
by
billycuts
on November 30, 2004
in Political
. 0 Comments

November 26, 2004?Additional information on the buying of vote riggers with Saudi and former Enron funds has been obtained. The epicenter for the vote rigging operation is Dallas, Texas, and the operation may involve retired FBI agents who used a well-established “good ole boy” network to arrange for access to polling precincts by electronic voting machine technicians who took advantage of various November 2 security “lockdowns” to illegally alter the tabulation of votes in favor of Bush. Some of the retired agents may have used courtesy credentials issued upon retirement to fool unsuspecting polling place workers.

From Online Journal

Read the full post "More on the buying of electoral fraud by the Bush campaign" (461 words, estimated 1:51 mins reading time)

A Thanks Giving Prayer by William S. Burroughs

Published
by
DrQuickbeam
on November 28, 2004
in Literature/Poetry
. 0 Comments

Thanks for the wild turkey and
the passenger pigeons, destined
to be shit out through wholesome
American guts.

Thanks for a continent to despoil
and poison.

Thanks for Indians to provide a
modicum of challenge and
danger.

Thanks for vast herds of bison to
kill and skin leaving the
carcasses to rot.

Thanks for bounties on wolves
and coyotes.

Thanks for the American dream,
To vulgarize and to falsify until
the bare lies shine through.

Thanks for the KKK.

For nigger-killin’ lawmen,
feelin’ their notches.

For decent church-goin’ women,
with their mean, pinched, bitter,
evil faces.

Thanks for “Kill a Queer for
Christ” stickers.

Thanks for laboratory AIDS.

Thanks for Prohibition and the
war against drugs.

Thanks for a country where
nobody’s allowed to mind the
own business.

Thanks for a nation of finks.

Read the full post "A Thanks Giving Prayer by William S. Burroughs" (173 words, estimated 42 secs reading time)

Pigeons ‘sense magnetic field’

Published
by
DrQuickbeam
on November 28, 2004
in Biology
. 0 Comments

_40561667_pigeon1_bbc_203.jpg
Homing pigeons use the Earth’s magnetic field to navigate their way home over long distances, scientists writing in Nature magazine claim.

The pigeons probably use tiny magnetic particles in their beaks to sense our planet’s magnetic field, scientists say

From BBC

Read the full post "Pigeons ‘sense magnetic field’" (347 words and 1 image, estimated 1:23 mins reading time)

‘Suicide tree’ toxin is ‘perfect’ murder weapon

Published
by
DrQuickbeam
on November 28, 2004
in Ethnobotany/Botany
. 1 Comment

A plant dubbed the suicide tree kills many more people in Indian communities than was previously thought. The warning comes from forensic toxicologists in India and France who have conducted a review of deaths caused by plant-derived poisons.

From New Scientist

Read the full post "‘Suicide tree’ toxin is ‘perfect’ murder weapon" (378 words, estimated 1:31 mins reading time)

Worse than the world bank?! Export Credit Agencies–The Secret Engine of Globalization

Published
by
DrQuickbeam
on November 26, 2004
in Economics
. 0 Comments


Worse Than the World Bank? Export Credit Agencies—The Secret Engine of Globalization
The amount of investment that export credit agencies (ECA) support
worldwide is significantly greater than the total amount of lending
from the World Bank, IMF and all other multilateral institutions
combined. ECA’s account for the single biggest component of developing country debt and half of all new greenhouse gas-emitting industrial projects in developing countries have some sort of ECA support.

Investments in places like Guatemala, South Africa, Pakistan, Chile [PDF], have had unacceptable social, environmental and economic consequences.

Administered or backed by a government, an ECA uses taxpayer money to make it cheaper and less risky for domestic corporations to export or invest overseas.

ECAs privatize the profit and socialize the risk while negatively impacting indigenous cultures and enironments, all with little or no governmental oversight or public awareness of the matter.

Read the full post "Worse than the world bank?! Export Credit Agencies–The Secret Engine of Globalization" (157 words, estimated 38 secs reading time)