March 2008 | Page 11 of 19

MonthMarch 2008

The Cost of Superstition

“A word of warning to those who believe in lucky numbers, auspicious colors and star-crossed dates: Beware. The Ides of March are upon us. Only those familiar with history or William Shakespeare’s play “Julius Caesar” readily may recognize the reference to March 15, the day of Caesar’s assassination in 44 B.C. The Roman calendar designated monthly Ides, or midpoint, days that fell either on the 13th or 15th day, depending on the month.

After Caesar’s untimely exit, superstitious Romans well may have avoided launching a business, marriage or other important venture on a date so cloaked in doom it eventually entered the lexicon as a metaphor for impending catastrophe. Despite vast advances in knowledge and technology over the last 2,000 years, it turns out people today aren’t so different from the ancients when it comes to superstition and the way it affects decision-making and the economy, according to new research.”

(via The Chicago Tribune)

Take lessons from Joe Rogan

March 15, 2008 / Fell

I’m drunk, but Joe Rogan makes me giddy with glee.

I can’t find a embeddable video, and I am too lazy at this point to keep looking. But here is a gooder. Joe Rogan talking to the Holy Spirit. Worth a watch.

Joeshow – Episode 6: The Holy Hooker

Goal: Everyone out there with a webcam or video camera or whatever, start recording some shit, interviews, ideas, and just post it. Once I get my shit together, I’ll get some stuff together. I think Klint’s been kicking around the idea, too.

YAY REALITY!

links for 2008-03-14

March 14, 2008 / Klint Finley

What do tougher detention policies mean for illegal immigrant families?

(tags: prison immigration policestate)
Laugh it up fuckers

(tags: politics)

Brian Jungen: Nike Shoes turn Mythical

March 14, 2008 / TiamatsVision

“I am fascinated by Canadian sculptor Brian Jungen’s remarkable work, using Nike sneakers and human hair to create these stunning mythic masks (very reminiscent of Pacific Northwest Indian art). The black, white, and red Air Jordons share the same bold palette as many Native American artifacts. Jungen is particularly intriqued by the way meaning is layered when a familiar object is repositioned to evoke something entirely different. “

(via The Journal of Mythic Arts: News and Reviews. Brian Jungen’s work via the Catriona Jeffries Gallery)

Jane McGonigal’s new alternative reality game, The Lost Ring

March 14, 2008 / Fell

Jane McGonigal, the creator of alternate reality games I Love Bees and World Without Oil, has just launched a new global ARG for the 2008 Summer Olympics. The plot of the game, called The Lost Ring, revolves around a fictional Olympic sport that vanished 2,000 years and five athletes who have reappeared in the present. via Boing Boing

http://www.thelostring.com/

More drug war casualties

March 14, 2008 / Klint Finley

This past January that scenario played out at the Chesapeake, Va., home of 28-year-old Ryan Frederick, a slight man of little more than 100 pounds. According to interviews since the incident, Frederick says when he looked toward his front door, he saw an intruder trying to enter through one of the lower door panels. So Frederick fired his gun.

The intruders were from the Chesapeake Police Department. They had come to serve a drug warrant. Frederick’s bullet struck Detective Jarrod Shivers in the side, killing him. Frederick was arrested and has spent the last six weeks in a Chesapeake jail.

He has been charged with first degree murder. Paul Ebert, the special prosecutor assigned to the case, has indicated he may elevate the charge to capital murder, which would enable the state to seek the death penalty.

[…]

The raid in Chesapeake bears a striking resemblance to another that ended in a fatality. Last week, New Hanover County, N.C., agreed to pay $4.25 million to the parents of college student Peyton Stickland, who was killed when a deputy participating in a raid mistook the sound of a SWAT battering ram for a gunshot and fired through the door as Strickland came to answer it.

So in the raid where a citizen mistakenly shot a police officer, the citizen is facing a murder charge; in the raid where a police officer shot a citizen, prosecutors declined to press charges.

Full Story: Fox News.

And: GoDaddy silences police watchdog site.

GoDaddy silences police watchdog site

March 14, 2008 / Klint Finley

A new web service that lets users rate and comment on the uniformed police officers in their community is scrambling to restore service Tuesday, after hosting company GoDaddy unceremonious pulled-the-plug on the site in the wake of outrage from criticism-leery cops.

Visitors to RateMyCop.com on Tuesday were redirected to a GoDaddy page reading, “Oops!!!”, which urged the site owner to contact GoDaddy to find out why the company pulled the plug.

RateMyCop founder Gino Sesto says he was given no notice of the suspension. When he called GoDaddy, the company told him that he’d been shut down for “suspicious activity.”

Full Story: Wired.

Radley Balko sums it up nicely:

So even as police departments across the country are setting up sex offender registries, drug offender registries, and posting the mugs and names of suspected johns online, they also took a great deal umbrage early this month when Gino Sesto set up a site called RateMyCop.com.

I’ve been thinking about moving to a new web host, and had been considering GoDaddy. Well forget that. And I was just getting to the point where I was willing to forgive this.

Meet the Fire God: He Cooks With His Hands

March 14, 2008 / TiamatsVision

“I tell you, Chinese men are precious. They wont’s leave you starving even when a kitchen is not nearby. “The power of mind” can have a very realistic meaning in the case of He Tieheng, a mystic Chinese who does not need to keep a cooking machine in the house. That’s because the cooking machine is himself: he can cook food only using his mind power. The auto-denominated Fire God explains his unusual deeds through the use of the Qigong technique for focusing his psychopneumatological brainwaves on the food.

In front of a theater audience of 7,000, Tieheng made the fish start smoking and change color within a minute of holding it between his hands. “Afterwards he had black soot on his hands where the fish was singed,” said Mei Lee, 29, who witnessed this at The Lark Theater in Guangzhou (southern China). “I once cooked a carp thinking about a gas range belting out 1,000oC heat,” said Tieheng.”

(via Softpedia)

Make Money for Charity Debating Fundamentalists, Part I: The Games

March 14, 2008 / TiamatsVision

Good guidelines for an ethical debate on just about any subject.

“Have you been frustrated, friends? Have you tried to talk to a fundamentalist about science? You’re frustrated, because you know that good social policy, violence prevention, social welfare, and our environment depend on ethical application of scientific thought. The stakes are high, but you can’t get through to them. Political and superstitious social policy pertaining to mental health have been disastrous. The drug war, the sorry state of mental health services, and the killing of fifteen year old Lawrence King exemplify this harm. What can you do?

Allow me to offer two suggestions that will keep you from wasting time on the people who will not engage you in a sincere way, and that might even win over some folks to your way of thinking. Each of the following is a betting game. Bet enough to make it spicy. If you can, get others to bet as people do in an office pool. This will hold people’s interest. The money won can go to a charity of the winner’s choice. Is $5 too much? Is $100 too little? Have a trusted third party hold the cash.

When you challenge the person to one of these games, if they refuse, then you would have been wasting your time having a discussion. I have never seen anything come of a discussion with a person who fades out when some accountability is introduced into the discussion. Also, if they refuse, it makes a statement about their credibility to anyone present, so make the challenge very publicly.”

(via Brain Blogger. Part 2: The 10 Ethical Debating Rules. Part 3: More Ideas)