August 2008 | Page 6 of 8

MonthAugust 2008

“But getting back to John Edwards’ penis…”

August 10, 2008 / Klint Finley

I have nothing to add to what Radley Balko writes:

A commentator desperately tries to get Fox News host Gregg Jarrett to talk about Russia’s attempt to goad the West into a global war. Jarrett stubbornly insists on sticking with the real story of the day–who John Edwards has been fucking.

I have no love for John Edwards. It’s always been apparent to me that Senator Handsome is a sleaze. But he’s no longer running for office. He doesn’t hold any office. Exactly how and why is this a story? It’s pretty nauseating to watch people like Mickey Kaus triumphantly celebrating their role in humiliating and embarrassing a dying woman. Good for you, Mickey. Top-notch journamalizing, there. The world’s a better place for your dogged pursuit of The Truth.

Web delivers new worry for parents: Digital drugs

August 10, 2008 / Klint Finley

Parents, more reason to be afraid:

Websites are targeting your children with so-called digital drugs. These are audio files designed to induce drug-like effects.

All your child needs is a music player and headphones. […]

There are different slang terms for digital drugs. They’re often called “idozers” or “idosers.” All rely on the concept of binaural beats. […]

Other sites offer therapeutic binaural beats. They help you relax or meditate. Some allegedly help you overcome addiction or anxiety. Others purport to help you lose weight or eliminate gray hair.

However, most sites are more sinister. They sell audio files (“doses”) that supposedly mimic the effects of alcohol and marijuana.

But it doesn’t end there. You’ll find doses that purportedly mimic the effects of LSD, crack, heroin and other hard drugs. There are also doses of a sexual nature. I even found ones that supposedly simulate heaven and hell.

Full Story: USA Today

(Thanks Telarus!)

I can’t wait til this hits Fox News

Sublime & Sensual Smoke Art

August 9, 2008 / Klint Finley

smoke art

More pics: Dark Roasted Blend

Weird looking solar powered aircraft

August 9, 2008 / Klint Finley

zwing

Aurora Flight Sciences has revealed the design of the aircraft it hopes will achieve the ambitious goals set out in DARPA’s ambitious Vulture program: sustained uninterrupted flight for over five years at altitudes of 60,000-90,000 feet. Known as Odysseus, the solar-powered concept aircraft is as radical as the mission it is designed to accomplish, combining three self-sufficient ‘constituent aircraft’ in a unique Z wing configuration that spans almost 500 feet (150 meters). The modular design provides several advantages – the shape of the aircraft can be adjusted to maximize the solar collection properties during the day and spread flat for aerodynamic efficiency at night-time, when energy stored in onboard batteries is used to drive the aircraft’s electric motors http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_motor . Because each of the constituent vehicles is capable of autonomously docking at altitude, the design also facilitates the replacement of one section of the plane whilst it is still aloft, meaning continuous flight can be maintained even if something goes awry.

Full Story: Gizmag

(via Bruce Sterling)

Predictions on The Beijing Olympic Games

August 8, 2008 / TiamatsVision

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I predict an interesting week in China. Seeing that this is the Chinese “Year of The Rat”, I also predict an interesting election day in November. Here are some interesting astrological and numerological predictions for the week ahead from various sources on the net [picture via Reporters Without Borders]:

“Beijing Olympics Set to Open” via Modern Vedic Astrology

“The Beijing Olympics: Bad Timing” via Matthew The Astrologer

“All Eyes on the Beijing Olympics” via Astrology Mundo

“Olympics- Wear Ox Pendant To Avoid Rat Clashes, Leaders” via News Daily

“8/8/08: The Lucky Number Olympics” via Astrologists.asia

“Yet Another Portent of Doom in Year of Olympic Bad Luck” via Independent Bangladesh

Dead dog’s owner creates FIVE cloned puppies of her beloved pet

August 8, 2008 / Klint Finley

Five pit bull terrier puppies have been born in the world’s first cloning of a pet dog for a paying customer.

They are the genetic doubles of Booger, a pit bull whose death from cancer two years ago left his owner Bernann McKinney so bereft that she sold her house to raise the ?25,000 needed to – in her eyes – bring him back to life. […]

RNL Bio, the Seoul cloning company, said the process was so straightforward it could clone 300 dogs a year for bereaved pet owners around the world.

Duplicate camels for Middle Eastern customers also figure in RNL Bio’s plans.
Animal charities last night condemned the practice as ?abhorrent’

Full Story: Daily Mail

(via Robot Wisdom)

No Neanderthal In You, Says Ancient DNA

August 8, 2008 / Klint Finley

Scientists who sequenced the mitochondrial DNA of a 38,000-year-old Neanderthal returned no evidence of ancestral interbreeding with our long-lost cousins.

That mild disappointment aside, the study, published today in Cell, is an impressive technical achievement.

“For the first time, we’ve built a sequence from ancient DNA that is essentially without error,” said study co-author Richard Green, a Max-Planck Institute anthropologist, in a press release.

They could do so in part because the mitochondrial genome, housed in cell-powering mitochondria rather than cell nuclei, contains just 37 genes. (The full human genome contains about 25,000 genes.) The researchers sequenced their sample no fewer than 37 times.

Because mitochondrial DNA is passed directly from mother to child without mixing with a father’s genetic material, it gives evolutionary anthropologists a well-marked trail into the past.

Scientists eventually hope to sequence a full Neanderthal genome.

From: Wired

Interview with first Buckminster Fuller Challenge winner

August 7, 2008 / Klint Finley

Metropolis Magazine interviews John Todd, who recently won the first annual Buckminster Fuller Challenge prize for his proposal to “transform strip-mined lands in Appalachia into a self-sustaining community”:

One of the things that Bucky Fuller said, which has always been a bit of an inspiration for me, is, ‘I don’t imitate nature. I try and understand her operating principles.’ What I have dedicated my life to doing is to try and understand just exactly how nature works, and how those processes might be applied to the design of systems to support the human community. I’ve been inventing and developing living technologies called ‘eco-machines,’ which use living organisms to do the work, everything from the bacteria to the ancient cyanobacteria to the protozoa, to the funghi, to the higher plants, to the animals. The eco-machines have different ecological elements within them that kind of communicate with each other, to create what I call ‘ecological meta intelligence.’ They can self-organize, self-design, and self-repair themselves. The human ecological engineer directs the system towards a particular goal.

Full Story: Metropolis Magazine

(via Bruce Sterling)

NASA: Martian soil may be more alien than first thought

August 7, 2008 / Klint Finley

A little over a month after NASA scientists announced that they were finding more familiar elements than alien ones in the soil on Mars from test results sent back by the Lander, researchers now have discovered evidence that that might not be the case after all. They’re also double-checking to make sure that the Earth-like elements found by Phoenix on the northern pole of Mars weren’t actually brought from Earth and deposited there when the Lander touched down.

“We are committed to following a rigorous scientific process. While we have not completed our process on these soil samples, we have very interesting intermediate results,” Peter Smith, Phoenix’s principal investigator, said in a written statement released today. Smith, who is a senior research scientist at the University of Arizona, added that while the initial analyses from the wet chemistry laboratory onboard Phoenix suggested that Martian soil was like that of Earth, “further analysis has revealed un-Earthlike aspects of the soil chemistry.”

Full Story: Computer world

(via dysnomia.us)