Knowledge Brings Fear

Science Update

Neural Impulse Actuator
What a nifty name, eh?

Essentially this is a biofeedback device for gaming. Supposedly you can train your brain rhythms to control a game via this device. The more you train, the better you get.

In theory, it would give you better gaming reflexes, as you'd no longer have to communicate down the nerves to your hand.

In practice, if it works at all, it will probably just look frikkin awesome.

Plus I suppose there could be all sorts of medical uses for paralyzed people, but nobody seems to consider that in the article.

Source: Overclock 3D

HIV
New research isolating a gene that, if turned on, keeps HIV from replicating successfully.

Neat.

A cure for AIDS it probably isn't, though, because this gene is already *supposed* to be turned on by immune cells when they sense the virus. So HIV probably has a way around it.

Still, the researcher hopes to get drugs or what not to mimic the effect. Maybe the virus just moves too fast, and we can zap people better with gene therapy to turn it on, like a vaccine or preemptively.

Source: Express News

Spanking
A series of studies show that spanking children leads to violent behavior as adults.

New research by a University of New Hampshire domestic abuse expert says spanking children affects their sex lives as adults. Professor Murray Straus concludes that children who are spanked are more likely as adults to coerce partners to have sex, to have unprotected sex and to have masochistic sex.

Gee, what a surprise that physically dominating someone teaches them that they can physically dominate someone else.

Source: Raw Story

CERN Has Been Busy
So the last big piece of Europe's mega-supercollider has been put into place. They will soon fire the thing up and try to explore the early universe.

Of course there is a very, very slight chance they'll rip a hole in the vaccuum energy state of the universe and kill every living thing.

Very small.

GENEVA (Reuters) - A 100-tonne wheel, the last piece of an ambitious experiment that scientists hope will help unlock the secrets of the universe, was successfully lowered into an underground cavern on Friday.

It is the final major element in the ATLAS particle detector, the largest of four detectors being hooked up to the world's most powerful particle accelerator which the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) hopes to start up around the middle of 2008.

"This last piece completes this gigantic puzzle," CERN said in a statement.

The wheel was lowered down a 100-metre shaft and aligned within a millimeter of other detectors at CERN, the world's leading centre for particle research located at a sprawling complex along the Swiss-French border.

The ATLAS detector will measure particles called muons expected to be produced in particle collisions in the accelerator, known as the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).

Take that, Muons!

Source: Raw Story

Reality TV Lies To Us?
So it turns out that your average internet sicko isn't the type to land on Dateline, but in fact, stupid teenagers are a large part of the problem. Also, MySpace isn't to blame.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - The typical online sexual predator is not someone posing as a teen to lure unsuspecting victims into face-to-face meetings that result in violent rapes, U.S. researchers said on Monday.



Rather, they tend to be adults who make their intentions of a sexual encounter quite plain to vulnerable young teens who often believe they are in love with the predator, they said.

And contrary to the concerns of parents and state attorneys general, they found social networking sites such as Facebook or MySpace do not appear to expose teens to greater risks.

...

Wolak said teens who engaged in risky online behaviors -- having buddy lists that included strangers, discussing sex online with strangers, being rude online -- were much more likely to be targeted.

"One of the big factors we found is that offenders target kids who are willing to talk to them online. Most kids are not," Wolak said.

U.S. state attorneys general have been working with privately held Facebook and NewsCorp's MySpace to protect users from registered sex offenders.

But Wolak said it is important for parents and children to have a clear picture of who these predators are.

"If everybody is looking for violent predators lurking in the bushes, kids who are involved in these relationships aren't going to be seeing what is happening to them as a crime," she said.

I can't believe the media would sensationalize an old, old issue (teenagers sleeping with adults) and turn it into a melodrama while blaming anything they can find on the interwebs!

Shocking!

I do have to wonder about the definition of 'being rude online', though. I've always been very rude online. What, was I not good enough to be targeted by some hillbilly with a modem?

*Sniff*

My glory days are behind me now. I feel so old.

Source: Raw Story

More Superbugs
So the UK is rapidly becoming ground zero for the superbacteria epidemic. This time there's a new culprit, a normally harmless stomach bacterium that goes berserk.

Deaths from the hospital superbug C. diff have soared to record levels in a damning indictment of hygiene levels in the Health Service.

The Clostridium difficile stomach bug killed or hastened the death of almost 6,500 patients in 2006 - a staggering 72 per cent rise on the previous year.

And since 1990 the number of people infected by the bug has risen almost 50-fold. It is a bigger killer than MRSA.

Patients' representatives and politicians said the figures highlighted the failure of numerous Government drives to halt the rise of the bug, which thrives in filthy conditions and can be combated with simple soap and water.

...

Infection experts say the soaring number of C. diff deaths is partly due to the emergence of a superdeadly strain which is particularly resistant to detergents. Since taking grip in the UK three years ago, it now accounts for more than half of cases.

C. diff exists naturally in the stomachs of many healthy adults, where it is kept under control by 'friendly bacteria'.

The problems start if the balance of bacteria is disturbed, perhaps by administering antibiotics for another infection.

Once the "friendly" bacteria are killed off, the C. diff are able to multiply and produce poisons which cause diarrhoea and, in the worst cases, a potentially fatal infection.

Well, that does indeed suck.

Maybe probiotics could help? They helped me out when I was recovering from a bad gut culture.

Source: The Daily Mail

More Proof That Florida Sucks
Why can't we just let them slide into the ocean?

(CNN) -- Preliminary results of an investigation show that Tuesday's massive power outage in Florida was caused by human error, Florida Power and Light President Armando Olivera said Friday.

A field engineer was diagnosing a switch that had malfunctioned at FPL's Flagami substation in west Miami.

Without authorization, the engineer disabled two levels of relay protection, Olivera said.

"This was done contrary to FPL's standard procedures and established practices," he said.

Standard procedures do not allow the simultaneous removal of both levels of protection.

"We don't know why the employee took it upon himself to disable both sets of relays," he added.

I suppose I should amend my earlier rant about Florida. It turns out that they do not, in fact, think it's a great idea to shut down power plants in response to overly high demand for power. Rather, they think it's a great idea to hire incompetent morons who cut the power to half a state by accident for unfathomable reasons.

Is that better? If so, how?

Source: CNN.com

American Civilization

An Excellent Idea

Bleg
Yes, this is a post about a bleg. (Begging on a Blog == Bleg). Yes, there are about a thousand of these and most of them have worthy causes.

I think this is indicative of a far larger problem though.

She was only 14 years old when she was an eighth grader, a cheerleader, a young, vibrant girl with her whole life ahead of her. She was only 14 years old, when she enjoyed her last year of life as a normal, healthy girl.

She was only 15 years old, when she started chemotherapy for Ewing's Sarcoma, a rare form of childhood cancer that attacks the bones. She lost her hair, had the cancerous bone in her pelvis removed, and then her lungs started to deteriorate.

She lived through her 16th year with an oxygen bottle her closest companion, as her lung function approached a mere 20% of normal capacity.

In May of 2007, she was only 17 years old, when she finally had a double lung transplant, to replace lungs killed by interstices lung disease, brought on by the chemotherapy which saved her from the bone cancer.

When her health insurance is canceled later this year, it will be canceled with the simple explanation that she has reached her "lifetime maximum benefits."

Maximum Lifetime Benefits, another of the charming euphemisms come up with by our healthcare for profit system.

It might as well be called 'Maximum Lifespan Benefits'.

UPDATE II - Insurance companies are constantly canceling insurance for the people who need it most, like Brittani. And then the insurance they are able to get to replace their canceled policy is usually terrible, restricting care, curtailing choice, and ultimately subject to cancellation, or "rescission," to use the industry term, once the insured person starts to make actual use of the policy.

"Blue Cross is one of several California insurers that have come under fire for issuing policies without checking applications and then canceling coverage after individuals incur major medical costs. The practice of canceling coverage, known in the industry as rescission, is under scrutiny by state regulators, lawmakers and the courts.
. . . .

Victims of cancer and other serious medical problems often are unable to get new coverage once their insurance has been rescinded and they may go without treatment when they need it most. Suddenly swamped by medical debt, some people have lost homes and businesses. -- Source, L.A. Times"

Honestly, why couldn't we have a Democrat with a spine, who would simply go out on stage at a debate and say, "You want to know a difference between myself and my opponents? I'm going to kill private health insurance. That's right. I'm going to make a single payer system and nationalize Aetna, Blue Cross, etc. There's not a damn thing they can do about it."

People hate their health insurance providers so much, that mythical candidate with a backbone would win by 30 points, guaranteed.

I guess the lobbyist checkbooks are just too hefty.

Source: Justice For None

A Shocker
This one shocked me, that's for sure. The Supreme Court ruled unanimously, on the side of workers -- and the Bush administration wanted it that way.

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that individual participants in the most common type of retirement plan can sue under a pension protection law to recover their losses.

The unanimous decision has implications for 50 million workers with $2.7 trillion invested in 401(k) retirement plans.

James LaRue of Southlake, Texas, said the value of his stock market holdings plunged $150,000 when administrators at his retirement plan failed to follow his instructions to switch to safer investments.

The issue in the LaRue case was whether the Employee Retirement Income Security Act permits an individual account holder to sue plan administrators for breaching their fiduciary duties.

The language of the law refers to recovering money for the "plan" rather than for an individual, raising the question of whether a participant can sue solely for himself.

Justice John Paul Stevens, in his opinion for the court, said that such lawsuits are allowed. "Fiduciary misconduct need not threaten the solvency of the entire plan to reduce benefits below the amount that participants would otherwise receive," Stevens said.

In other words, if someone is negligent with your money, you can sue to recover it. SHOCKING

Employers were of course opposed to this, but, eh, who cares.

Source: Yahoo News

Military-Idiot Complex, the Moron Triangle
So the Seattle Times has been doing some stories about how, gee, campaign contributions lead to disgusting political favors.

Big surprise there.

Heath and military affairs specialist Hal Bernton found a disturbing trend in awards that representatives in the Pacific Northwest were handing out: Money was going towards manufacturing products that would never be used, or that nobody asked for to begin with.

One such product was Microvision Corporation's "Nomad," a helmet with a mounted computer display, meant to flash maps and relevant data to a soldier in combat. In 2001, Senator Slade Gorton (R-WA), who would later join Microvision's board, earmarked $8 million for the development of the "Nomad."

Democratic Senator Patty Murray, his successor, would appropriate a total of $11.5 million more to buy the helmets.

"Junk," one Army commander called the helmets, which have never seen combat; a contractor called Rockwell Collins was awarded the contract instead, but Senator Murray awarded Microvision $6 million for the purchase of their product anyway.

Ahh, bipartisanship! It sure gets things done.

Source: Raw Story

Florida Sucks
Seriously. They still qualify as a state?

A small fire took out the electrical grid for most of the state, including several nuclear reactors!

MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- Florida authorities are investigating how a small fire and a switch failure at an electrical substation outside Miami triggered a power failure that affected millions of people.

When a nuclear power plant sensed the disruption, it shut down. In turn, the state's power grid triggered rolling blackouts Tuesday across the state.

More than 2 million people lost power at the peak of the outages, but electricity quickly was restored to most parts of the state.

Authorities said no injuries were reported.

Morons!

Olivera said Turkey Point's two nuclear reactors and a natural gas-powered generation unit automatically shut down when the plant's systems detected a fluctuation in the power grid.

"In a fraction of a second, the demand was far greater than the power plants that were online generating electricity could handle," he said. "When you have that kind of imbalance, we have a system that kicks in and it starts turning people's lights off, essentially balancing the demand with what's available."

So the official Floridian solution to demand exceeding supply (because a short is dumping all the current on a small line into the ground) is to CUT PRODUCTION, THUS CAUSING A BIGGER DEFICIT IN SUPPLY, THUS CAUSING THEM TO CUT SUPPLY, THUS CAUSING A BIGGER DEFICIT...

Yeesh. We're lucky this process didn't continue all the way back through time, until they were hunting and gathering for berries.

Source: CNN.com

More Mad Cow
It's baaaaaaaaack....

Canadian officials confirmed a new case of mad cow disease Tuesday, the second such case in two months and the 12th since the disease was first discovered in Canada in 2003.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency said no part of the carcass entered the human food or animal feed chains. The cow was detected in Alberta under a national monitoring program that targets cattle most at risk for the disease, also known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy.

...


U.S. Department of Agriculture Deputy Secretary Chuck Conner said Canada's latest case would not affect trade with the U.S. "This is no cause for concern," Conner said.

Right, unless you really want to AVOID dying in one of the most horrifying manners imaginable.

Source: Raw Story

Science! Update

(Also) Researching the Cure For Boredom

Flu Season! Rabbit Season! Flu Season!
So it turns out the prognosticators who create the annual flu vaccine, making guesses on what will be the dominant strains the next year, did a really poor job this time around.

ATLANTA, Georgia (AP) -- The flu season is getting worse, and U.S. health officials say it's partly because the flu vaccine doesn't protect against most of the spreading flu bugs.

The flu shot is a good match for only about 40 percent of this year's flu viruses, officials at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday.

The situation has even deteriorated since last week when the CDC said the vaccine was protective against roughly half the circulating strains. In good years, the vaccine can fend off 70 to 90 percent of flu bugs.

Infections from an unexpected strain have been booming, and now are the main agent behind most of the nation's lab-confirmed flu cases, said Dr. Joe Bresee, the CDC's chief of influenza epidemiology.

It's too soon to know whether this will prove to be a bad flu season overall, but it's fair to say a lot of people are suffering at the moment. "Every area of the country is experiencing lots of flu right now," Bresee said.

Oops.

Source: CNN.com

Nano Nano! Art! (Use Mork Voice on title)
Here you go, this will cheer you up a bit. Art made using electron microscopes of various sorts.

Source: Wired

Proteomics
You've probably heard of Genomics, the scientific analysis of the total information content of a living organism's genome.

There's a related field dealing with the total information content of a living organism's protein, which is a far larger amount of data (because proteins can be coded the exact same way but have many different shapes.... the mad cow disease agent is a protein that is, content wise, basically identical to one you're SUPPOSED to have, but wound up differently... think of it like those magnet word puzzle things on front of fridges. You can spell out 'Purple Monkey Dishwasher' in a straight line, or a curve, or a circle, square, etc... the 'data' is the same, but the shape can be wildly varying, and in a protein, shape determines a lot of how it works.)

Anywhoo, proteomic study of the protein content of brains with and without MS has lead to the discovery of two new proteins that, when damaged, may contribute to the symptoms of the disease.

US researchers have found two potential targets for treating multiple sclerosis after an extensive trawl through proteins in the brain.

Comparison of 2,538 proteins from MS patients with those from healthy brains showed damage in two proteins not before linked to the disease.

In mice blocking the effects of the proteins led to reversal of symptoms, the study in Nature reported.

It appears the science is coming of age, in fact.

Professor Neil Scolding, from the University of Bristol Institute of Clinical Neurosciences, said: "From the scientific perspective, the exciting thing is that it's pretty much the first time that proteomics has directly yielded a candidate molecule that is both unexpected and novel on the one hand and has therapeutic potential.

"From the clinical perspective, showing that treatment approaches predicted by this proteomic interrogation of MS tissue do have a clear impact in experimental models of MS is extremely promising.

Ahh, science. Is there anything you can't do better than superstition?

Source: BBC News

Laser Jet Spy
So apparently, in an effort to combat counterfeiting, the US government has convinced many printer manufacturers to install spy mechanisms in their laserjets. A tiny code of yellow dots is printed on color laserjet pages that codes for a unique printer ID number that can be tracked back to you, the printer.. printer.

Imagine that every time you printed a document, it automatically included a secret code that could be used to identify the printer - and potentially, the person who used it. Sounds like something from an episode of "Alias," right?

Unfortunately, the scenario isn't fictional. In a purported effort to identify counterfeiters, the US government has succeeded in persuading some color laser printer manufacturers to encode each page with identifying information. That means that without your knowledge or consent, an act you assume is private could become public. A communication tool you're using in everyday life could become a tool for government surveillance. And what's worse, there are no laws to prevent abuse.

The ACLU recently issued a report revealing that the FBI has amassed more than 1,100 pages of documents on the organization since 2001, as well as documents concerning other non-violent groups, including Greenpeace and United for Peace and Justice. In the current political climate, it's not hard to imagine the government using the ability to determine who may have printed what document for purposes other than identifying counterfeiters.

Yet there are no laws to stop the Secret Service from using printer codes to secretly trace the origin of non-currency documents; only the privacy policy of your printer manufacturer currently protects you (if indeed such a policy exists). And no law regulates what sort of documents the Secret Service or any other domestic or foreign government agency is permitted to request for identification, not to mention how such a forensics tool could be developed and implemented in printers in the first place.

With no laws on the books, there's nothing to stop the privacy violations this technology enables. For this reason, EFF is gathering information about what printers are revealing and how - a necessary precursor to any legal challenge or new legislation to protect your privacy.

Unfortunately, it's the EFF we're talking about here, not the ACLU. These guys are infamous for losing in court.

Sigh.

Source: Electronic Frontier Foundation

Aral Sea
Big somewhat hippy blogpost on the Aral sea. Lots of pictures. More than a little breathless, but still probably worth a read.

Source: Naked Man in the Tree (yes, that is really the title of the blog)

Consumer News

Marketplace Powers, Activate!

Tampering
So it seems that Greenpeace has taken to tampering with Kleenex in order to get their message out.

The battle over the environment has found a new front: the inside of a Kleenex box.

"Wiping away ancient forests," warned a note found inside a box bought recently at a drug store in New York by a stuffy-nosed reporter. "Here's a little secret that Kimberly-Clark, the largest tissue maker in the world and parent company of Kleenex, does not want you to know."

I'm sorry, but this is too far. Tampering with consumer goods is low-grade terrorism. What's next, slipping white powders into Kleenex boxes?

Yeesh.

Source: The Washington Post

Gunz
So it turns out the same gun dealer sold equipment to both of the recent campus whacko shootings.

The online gun dealer who sold a weapon to the Virginia Tech shooter said it was an unnerving coincidence that he also sold handgun accessories to the man who killed five students at Northern Illinois University.



Eric Thompson said his Web site, http://www.topglock.com, sold two empty 9 mm Glock magazines and a Glock holster to Steven Kazmierczak on Feb. 4, just 10 days before the 27-year-old opened fire in a classroom and killed five before committing suicide.

...

"I'm still blown away by the coincidences," Thompson said Friday. "I'm shaking. I can't believe somebody would order from us again and do this."

...

Thompson said he checked his sales records after the name of the shooter was made public Friday. The records show $105.62 in items were shipped to an apartment in Champaign and signed for by someone other than Kazmierczak.

Ok, now, I won't jump on the blame bandwagon for the Virginia Tech shooting, because that was VIRGINIA's fault. Their law said that you could pass a background check despite having been recently committed against your will as a threat to other people.

This guy had no way to know that the V-Tech shooter was a whacko. He's not to blame there.

Here though, I kinda wonder.. I mean, you're shipping high-capacity magazines on short notice, directly to private addresses?

You don't, you know, wonder what they might be used for?

Source: Raw Story

Commercial Real Estate
So it seems that in a rush to keep their abnormal rate of construction going, the industry shifted from residential to commercial properties as the banking fraud scandal started to gear up.

One problem: building far more commercial space than people need will not, in fact, induce them to fill it.

So now huge amounts of square footage goes vacant, and the construction industry is starting to falter on commercial real estate as well. Charming.

Source: Sacramento Real Estate Statistics

Largest Beef Recall In U.S. History
So one of those charming huge volume meatpackers/processors has issued a recall for the largest amount of beef in U.S. history. The reason? They were grinding up cows so sick and diseased they could no longer stand. Which is a no-no after the Mad Cow disease thing.

The amount of beef -- 143 million pounds -- is roughly enough for two hamburgers for each man, woman and child in the United States.

The largest U.S. meat recall before Sunday came in 1999, when about 35 million pounds of product possibly contaminated with listeria were ordered off shelves. USDA officials said that was Class I recall, involving a known risk to human health.

Sunday's action was a Class II recall, under which authorities say there is little risk of illness.

Raymond said cattle that had lost the ability to walk since passing pre-processing inspections were slaughtered without an inspector having examined them for chronic illness -- a practice he said violated federal regulations and had been going on for at least two years.

Federal regulations are aimed at preventing the spread of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE -- the scientific name for "mad cow" disease.

It's important to keep downed cattle out of the food supply because they also may pose a higher risk of contamination from E. coli or salmonella because the animals tend to wallow in feces and have weaker immune systems, according to AP.

One big problem: the USDA waited so long, or fell asleep at the switch so long, that most of the bad beef has already been eaten or sold.

About 37 million pounds of the meat went to school lunch programs and other federal nutrition programs since October 2006, said Ron Vogel, of the USDA's Food and Nutrition Service.

The recall dates back to February 1, 2006, and Raymond said "the great majority" of the meat has probably been eaten already. USDA officials have begun tracing the products covered by the recall, he said.

"A lot of this is fresh, raw product and with ground beef, etcetera, that has a very short shelf life and refrigerator life," he said.

Joy! Thank you, incompetent regulators!

So who do we have to thank for uncovering this despicable fraud and criminal activity on behalf of Big Agribusiness? PETA?

Wrong.

In January, the Humane Society of the United States accused Hallmark/Westland of abusing "downed" cattle, releasing video that showed workers kicking cows, jabbing them near their eyes, ramming them with a forklift and shooting high-intensity water up their noses in an effort to force them to their feet for slaughter.

Federal inspectors halted operations at the plant earlier this month after finding "clear violations" of USDA regulations.

California prosecutors on Friday announced animal cruelty charges against two former employees of the plant.

I was just talking to a friend last week about how we needed a better animal-health/"rights" lobby, and that the Humane Society would be my organizational pick to head it.

Nice to see they were way ahead of me on that one.

Source: CNN.com

Buzz Off
In case you haven't heard (no pun intended), there's an age-discriminate sonic weapon that's being sold in the UK to drive kids away from the front of stores with a painful/annoying sound that older people are deaf to, due to aging in the inner ear.

The UK government looks to be stepping up to ban the device, on the grounds that, surprise, blasting loud, painful sounds at random crowds of people legally congregating on public streets might be illegal! Even if you don't like them hanging around in front of your house/store!

The creators of a pioneering device that uses high-frequency sound to stop teenagers congregating outside shops, schools and railway stations reacted angrily today to news that the government-appointed Children's Commissioner wants to see it banned.

The £500 Mosquito device has been installed at some 3,500 locations across the country since it first went on sale in January 2006. It emits an irritating, high-pitched sound that can only be heard by children and young people up into their early twenties, forcing them to move on.

But Sir Albert Aynsley-Green, the Children's Commissioner for England appointed to represent the views of the country’s 11 million children, has set up a campaign – called Buzz Off – that is calling for the Mosquito to be banned on grounds that it infringes the rights of young people.

“These devices are indiscriminate and target all children and young people, including babies, regardless of whether they are behaving or misbehaving,” Sir Al told the BBC. “The use of measures such as these are simply demonising children and young people, creating a dangerous and widening divide between the young and the old.”

He added: "This device is a quick fix. It's not tackling the root of the problem and it's indiscriminate."

The campaign has won the support of human rights groups including Liberty, whose director, Shami Chakrabarti, described it as a "sonic weapon directed against children and young people".

What is this world coming to, when you can't fire weapons randomly into crowds of innocent people?

Source: Times Online

The Human Condition

In Sickness and In Health

Heath Ledgerdemain
Well, it looks like Heath Ledger died of Teh Stupid.

The actor Heath Ledger died from an accidental overdose of six different drugs — painkillers and sedatives — the medical examiner said Wednesday, leading doctors to warn of the dangers of mixing prescription drugs.

That's right, Heath lovers. He was taking six different prescriptions for downers simultaneously.

Then he died. What. A. Shocker.

The medical examiner cited oxycodone, hydrocodone, diazepam, temazepam, alprazolam and doxylamine as causing the actor's death. There was no mention of alcohol or illegal drugs.

That wasn't all, of course.

Ledger, nominated for an Oscar for his role as cowboy Ennis del Mar in "Brokeback Mountain," had returned to New York from London, where he had been making a Terry Gilliam film, days before his death. He told The New York Times in November that his most recent completed roles in the Batman movie "The Dark Knight" and Bob Dylan biopic "I'm Not There" had taken a toll and caused him to lose sleep.

"Last week I probably slept an average of two hours a night," Ledger told the Times. "I couldn't stop thinking. My body was exhausted, and my mind was still going." He said he had taken two Ambien pills, which only gave him an hour of sleep.

Dude, if you have such a high tolerance to these drugs, or are already on so many, that Ambien has no effect... you are in seriously bad shape.

Oh well. Rack another one up for the Darwin Awards.

Source: Raw Story

Oh China, Is There Anything You Won't Poison?
The assault on food safety moves to Japan!

A deal to combine the frozen food businesses of Japan Tobacco and Nissin Food Products has been done in by tainted dumplings.

Ten people in Japan fell ill after eating the pesticide-laced dumplings, called gyoza, which were imported from China by a unit of Japan Tobacco. Nissin, known as a pioneer of instant noodles, then scrapped the merger, citing “differences on the issue of safety.”

Somebody must have seen Count Rudy on tv though, because they've come up with a convenient scapegoat.

A Chinese food safety official said that the dumplings may have been deliberately contaminated by “a small group who do not wish development of Sino-Japanese friendship.” The Japanese health minister has also raised the possibility of intentional dumpling poisoning, and Japanese police are investigating the case on suspicion of attempted murder.

Yes, that's it. It's not that the Chinese food industry has all the safeguards of a Ford Pinto in a demolition derby, or that this Japanese company did business on the cheap, dirty, quick side, and got into trouble; it's TERRORISTS.

DUH DUH DUH.

Source: Reuters

Theocracy Alliance
I always suspected that one day the religious nuts would realize they have a common enemy (me) and band together.

The head of the Anglican church said Thursday the adoption of parts of sharia law in Britain looked "unavoidable", calling for "constructive accommodation" over issues like resolving marriage disputes.

...

Williams went on to say it would be "quite wrong" to sanction a system which gave people no right of appeal.

"But there are ways of looking at marital disputes, for example, which provide an alternative to the divorce courts as we understand them."

He added: "It seems unavoidable and, as a matter of fact, certain conditions of sharia are already recognised in our society".

I can think of a pretty easy way to avoid it. When religious people tell you that their church should get to run the government, tell them to go fuck themselves. If they insist, make sure to shoot first, Solo-style.

Easy-peasy.

Source: Raw Story

Hey Constitution! DART IN YOUR NECK
Sealab reference. Suffice it to say, Mukasey has turned out to be the complete scumbag you would expect of a Bush appointee and Giuliani acquaintance.

Attorney General Michael Mukasey is back on the Hill today, testifying to the House Judiciary Committee. Paul Kiel is covering it at TPMmuckraker.

So far, he's dropped two big bombshells. DOJ will not be investigating:

(1) whether the waterboarding, now admitted to by the White House, was a crime; or

(2) whether the Administration's warrantless wiretapping was illegal.

His rationale? Both programs had been signed off on in advance as legal by the Justice Department.

So, we won't get any investigation of illegal wiretaps, illegal torture, etc, from the JUSTICE DEPARTMENT.

Meanwhile they block all civil suits by saying it's a State Secret. So you have no recourse to the law anymore, as Floyd would say.

Not really that big a surprise, as I said. But it still hurts to swallow it down officially.

Source: Talking Points Memo

Sickness
So the Bushies are looking to spindle the Family and Medical Leave Act for their corporate masters.

Amongst other delightful provisions being proposed:

--You have to schedule your medical problems in advance, unless they're 'emergencies'. No points for guessing who gets to define an emergency.

--Your employer can discriminate against you for taking the guaranteed sick time, denying you bonuses and what not.

Ahh, America. Don't get sick. Ever.

Source: Raw Story

Technology News

Technobabble

Kosher Phone Calls?
So it seems that in the name of religion, any form of marketing is possible.

TEL AVIV (Reuters) - Bezeq Israel Telecom, the country's dominant phone company, on Sunday launched a service that would block calls to porn and other "improper" destinations in a bid to attract ultra-Orthodox customers.

I guess that also includes Gerry the Gentile's Pork and Shellfish Emporium.

Source: Reuters

Silence Tears
Sounds like a Japanese horror movie, huh?

Basically, the story is this: recently a genomic technology called Gene Silencing was developed. Brilliant idea to help figure out what all those pesky genes DO, once you've mapped them. Simply put, it can use, I think it's a form of RNA, to turn any gene you want *off*. Then you see what the creature without that gene is like.

Some scientists have used it to create onions that won't make you cry.

Scientists in New Zealand and Japan have created a "tear-free" onion using biotechnology to switch off the gene behind the enzyme that makes us cry, one of the leading researchers said Friday.

...

"Here in New Zealand we had the ability to insert DNA into onions, using gene-silencing technology developed by Australian scientists.

"The technology creates a sequence that switches off the tear-inducing gene in the onion so it doesn't produce the enzyme. So when you slice the vegetable, it doesn't produce tears."

This was in turn based on Japanese researchers who had identified the tear-provoking enzyme's gene, and so forth.

Now, see, here's a GM food that everyone should be able to agree upon. It doesn't produce anything new, or novel, or different than a regular onion, just something less. No worries about transgene escape, about super-wild onions, etc; or about the tear-free onion causing people to, I dunno, implode.

Now if only we could silence my roommate's punching genes...

Source: Raw Story

Sniffles
As they said on Mythbusters, science isn't always nice. The Brits, in an attempt to cure some of the Common Cold, have engineered mice that can catch a kind of it they had previously been immune to.

Scientists at Imperial College London created a genetically engineered mouse susceptible to the virus causing most colds, which normally only infects humans and chimpanzees.

The breakthrough means that it should now be easier to test new cold remedies as well as treatments for other respiratory conditions like asthma and bronchitis, potentially speeding up the discovery of cures.

...

Rhinoviruses, which cause most colds, were discovered 50 years ago but studying them without being able to experiment on mice has proved difficult.

This will no doubt lead to a round of protests, but if anyone starts calling their protest image mouse Sniffles, I want a cut of the action, baby.

Source: Raw Story

Jaw
In slightly cheerier biotech news, a Finnish group has used a patient's own stem cells to grow him a new upper jaw.

HELSINKI (Reuters) - Scientists in Finland said they had replaced a 65-year-old patient's upper jaw with a bone transplant cultivated from stem cells isolated from his own fatty tissue and grown inside his abdomen.

...

Suuronen and her colleagues -- the project was run jointly with the Helsinki University Central Hospital -- isolated stem cells from the patient's fat and grew them for two weeks in a specially formulated nutritious soup that included the patient's own blood serum.

In this case they identified and pulled out cells called mesenchymal stem cells -- immature cells than can give rise to bone, muscle or blood vessels.

When they had enough cells to work with, they attached them to a scaffold made out of a calcium phosphate biomaterial and then put it inside the patient's abdomen to grow for nine months. The cells turned into a variety of tissues and even produced blood vessels, the researchers said.

Ahh, it's nice to see the Europeans doing all the cool biotech research and leaving us in the cold, isn't it, America?

Thanks El Presidente!

Source: Reuters

PS: Just in case I get some troll who insists that none of these experiments would be banned or inhibited by the Bush administration's anti-science agenda, the very existence of said agenda and the cuts in funding to basic research that goes along with it is driving a ton of work overseas, to countries not, in fact, run by religious loonies. That, and of course, our crumbling economy, non-existent infrastructure, hyperdevalued currency, etc.

Romania is the New Nigeria
So apparently, Ebay fraud is a big business in rural Romania.

They actually seem kind of proud of the phenomenon.

HUNDREDS of people in the poor Romanian town of Dragasani have grown rich by conning eBay online auction customers with deals that seem too good to be true - and often are.

The scammers have even put the new town hall up for sale on eBay, the mayor admitted last week. “I mean, who would want it?” he asked.

Despite growing concern about online frauds, the European Union has poured £150,000 into computer training courses in Dragasani over the past three years in “special recognition” of its IT skills.

“I heard about another offer on eBay selling a MiG fighter jet. There was a photo and a very good price as the customer was only being asked to pay for the fuel to fly it. One guy paid $2,000!” the mayor, Gheorghe Iordache, exclaimed.

“The victims are mainly Americans because they are on the internet most often and they’re naive,” he added. “I’ve heard about local guys who have suddenly bought apartments in Bucharest, Germany, Holland, but haven’t a job. Others have BMWs, Mercedes, Porsches and they don’t work. So where do they get the money from?”

Ahh, it's funny when global commerce is brought to a screeching, stuttering halt and honest people lose their money!

Ok, some of them are stupid. Almost all of them. But still.

Ebay should probably look into blacklisting whole blocs of Romanian IP addies until they decide to, you know, address this problem a bit more seriously.

Source: The Times Online

More Random News

Let me show you..

..how much I care.

Polite Society Means Not Discussing Politics At Dinner
Even if you're the President, it seems.

President Bush followed up a mild lecture about expanding democracy among the Mideast's comfortable dynasties with an opulent picnic at the desert playground of one of the region's wealthy leaders.

Bush traded his suit for a casual jacket and took a helicopter as close as he could get to this remote encampment where Abu Dhabi's crown prince, Sheik Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, raises horses and prize falcons.

...

Bush has avoided any direct criticism of human rights or political freedoms in the governments hosting him in the Persian Gulf and elsewhere in the Arab world, although U.S. allies surely knew who he meant when he decried the treatment of opposition political candidates and dissidents in the region.

Yeah, he meant 'Those people that you can round up and shoot for all I care, so long as there's seconds on that tasty lamb.'

Source: Raw Story

Drug Resistance Spreads
While Bush dines at his rich oil patrons' expense, we have some rather serious emerging problems here at home that a less anti-science administration might be tempted to deal with.

First, a new, tougher and quite nastily contagious strain of MRSA, or Multiply Resistant Staphyloococcus, has emerged, centered on the gay community in San Francisco. So expect to hear a lot more of that special right-wing gay bashing rhetoric we get with regard to AIDS (you know, the 'gay plague' stuff).

Source: BBC News

Meanwhile, a much more dangerous and agressive form of an Adenovirus, the wimpy little common cold bugs, has broken out, hitting the military community amongst others. It causes a nasty form of pnuemonia, and has led to a few deaths already. Since adenoviruses are normally so non-threatening, there really isn't anything medicine can do to treat it if it gets out of hand. We're not talking Captain Trips here, of course... but, you know, two serious disease outbreaks might prompt attention from a slightly more competent government. Instead, we have Bush trying to appoint a rabidly anti-gay minister as the Surgeon General. So it goes.

Source: CNN.com

The War on Terror Never Comes Home
So we're committed to fighting terrorists, world-wide, whenever they rear their ugly heads, right El Presidente?

Unless of course, they're Cuban terrorists plotting to overthrow Castro.

Tristam Korten and Kirk Nielsen, writing for Salon.com, profile a group of Cuban exiles who are believed to have plotted attacks against Cuba and continue to operate in Florida with virtual impunity.

"[O]ther than an occasional federal gun charge, nothing much seems to happen to most of these would-be revolutionaries. They are allowed to train nearly unimpeded despite making explicit plans to violate the 70-year-old U.S. Neutrality Act and overthrow a sovereign country's government," they write.

"In Greater Miami, home to the majority of the nation's 1.5 million Cuban-Americans, the presence of what could credibly be described as a terrorist training camp has become an accepted norm during the half-century of the anti-Castro Cuban diaspora, Alpha 66 and numerous other paramilitary groups -- Comandos F4, Brigade 2506, Accion Cubana -- are so common they've taken on the benign patina of Rotary Clubs with weapons."

Ahh, Miami. What a cesspit.

The article also brings up the long-running outrage that is the U.S. giving sanctuary to an anti-Castro terrorist by the name of Posada Carriles, who is wanted for a series of hotel bombings and the downing of a plane in 1976 that killed 76 people. He's also implicated in an assassination attempt in Panama, and was tied up with our gun running in Central America during Iran-Contra. He recently fled into this country to avoid prosecution, and the Americans fudged Venezuela's extradition request so that he can stay here, indefinitely. He won't even be prosecuted for that pesky illegal immigration.

Border fence? Only for the dirty Mexicans, not bloodthirsty bombers.

Source: Raw Story (from a Salon article)

Thin is In
So Apple has a new laptop in the works that is about three quarters of an inch thick at the thickest point. It's absurdly slim, weighs 3 lbs, and costs about 2 grand.

Think of it as the extremely high-priced cousin of the EEE PC from Asus, or, alternately, the laptop so thin you have to worry about breaking it in half all day long.

Either or.

Source: Macworld

Ahh Fox, Is There Any Corporation Not Your Master?
Except for GE of course, because they let that mean old Olbermann on the air.

This time it's Fox Noise berating John Edwards, Nurses, and humanity in general for being too hard on Cigna, who denied a woman the liver transplant she needed and her doctors wanted, until of course, she died.

I'd wonder how they sleep at night, but I suspect they don't get much rest, as they're all on day-leave from Hell.

Source: Raw Story

Autism Conspiracy Freaks: Shut the Fuck Up

So for the longest time, desperately searching for someone, anyone, to blame, a lot of parents of autistic children have been blaming the mercury based preservative thimersol for childhood autism.

Nevermind that every reputable, scientific study on the subject has said there is no link; nevermind that when the preservative was phased out in Europe, autism rates went UP, not down. Still they wail, they gnash their teeth, they moan, it MUST be the mercury.

Color me cynical, but perhaps this is a guilt crazed buck pass sort of deal, since the predominant theory in the medical community is that autism is a genetic disorder with an unknown environmental trigger or triggers. People never want to think it's THEM, because then it's their fault, even though in this case that's a bit silly too.

Well, thimerosol has been phased out in the US too, and the results are in from California: autism rates here, too, went UP.

Researchers from the state Department of Public Health found the autism rate in children rose continuously during the 12-year study period from 1995 to 2007. The preservative thimerosal hasn't been used in childhood vaccines since 2001, but is used in some flu shots.

Doctors say the latest study adds to existing evidence refuting a link between thimerosal exposure and autism risk and should reassure parents that the disorder is not caused by vaccinations. If there was a risk, they said, autism rates should have dropped between 2004 and 2007.

So all the crazy conspiracy nuts who claimed that it was a massive coverup by the CDC, that there was no doubt that it was thimersol, despite the fact that you get a far larger dose of mercury from coal power plants and seafood? Will they be apologizing soon, for their decade long crusade of insanity and threats against legitimate researchers?

Of course not. These doctors must be in on it too. They must be in with THEM.

Once again: I Hate Americans.

Source: Raw Story

100th Post Take Two

Note the (hopefully) working new format, which makes linking to sub-sections easier. Wheee.

Fungi From Yuggoth

So it seems that there's a fungal infection, commonly called Valley Fever, that has long afflicted the Southwest, from Texas to California. The spores live in the soil, so it's best not to disturb the dusty, arid wastes if you can help it. Even so, the vast majority of people who catch it have no real problem, and then get lifelong immunity. For a couple percent, though, it's a pretty gruesome death.

However, things are a bit different in the 'Gee This Sounds Like a Horror Movie Locale' town of Pleasant Valley. There, the disease has always been rampant, and a prison in the area has been crippled with the fever.

(We discussed this a bit at Atomic Age with some friendly fellow down from Indy in search of a Rocky Horror show, who had stumbled upon our gathering instead. Basically, if you want certain death, you name your town something idyllic and peaceful. Pleasant Valley, Crystal Lake, you know the type. So we proposed that, in the name of public safety, you should name towns things like 'Reeks of Open Sewer', 'Pedophile Town', or the Pratchettian 'Don'tgonearthe Town')

At any rate, despite being a soil born illness, it's spreading and sickening larger numbers. Arizona had to declare it an epidemic, and the range overall is expanding. Nobody knows why, though new construction might be to blame.

So, yeah. The fungi from yuggoth are here to kill us all.

Source: The New York Times

50 Worst People

An interesting list of people to despise. Though I imagine they might get misunderstood for their item on 'The Troops'. From context it's pretty clear they mean the mythological, monolithic block that a Republican is always referring to... "We've got to make sure The Troops get what they need", "We've got to support The Troops", and the like.

The Republicans obviously don't mean real soldiers; if they did, we wouldn't be slashing their benefits, warehousing them in shitty barrack housing while they wait for VA care, denying them treatment for their mental illnesses after they get home, and the like. No, it's all for these Troop fellows, which I think is their point as well.

Whoever those jerks are, they should stop mooching from our Veterans.

Source: The Beast<

The Huckabeast
So Huckabee says that homosexuality is a 'choice', that his faith defines him, and that he'd be ok with atheists in his cabinet.

Good luck finding one who'll work for you, bible-thump. Though some people can swallow almost anything for money; you might try to find an atheist streetwalker.

Source: Raw Story

Hungry in America
Here's a story to turn your stomach, no pun intended.

There's a little girl named Hannah Devane who is allergic to pretty much all food. She has a rare immune condition that causes part of her immune system to attack her esophagus whenever it detects food that she's allergic to. Which is unfortunately just about all food. The damage from these attacks is progressive and cumulative, so it's best to avoid any food that would cause them.

Fortunately there is a process, though agonizing, to find safe foods to eat. There is also a hypo-allergenic foodstuff/fluid that is safe for such people to eat in the meantime.

Unfortunately, her insurance won't cover it. They'd rather she starve.

But the insurance program that covers her family through her father's job as a New York City police lieutenant has stopped paying for the formula, which costs $1,200 a month. Food supplements and other over-the-counter items are not covered under the family's insurance, the prescription plan administrator said.

It's nice that a paper pusher gets to make our medical decisions for us, isn't it?

Dr. Barry Wershil, a pediatric gastroenterologist at The Children's Hospital at Montefiore in the Bronx, doesn't hide his indignation over the insurance hurdle.

"This kid can't eat food," he said. "This formula is her only source of nutrition. The insurance (provider) saying they will not cover it is a travesty. It's like telling a diabetic they can't take insulin."

I say to you all: Hell is too good for these insurance people.

Source: Lower Hudson Online

Pink Floyd Was Right

So the Children's Minister in England has put out a report telling teachers to mellow out when little boys want to play with toy guns or lightsabers, that it's not the apocalypse if a kid wants to be a little rambunctious.

The teachers groups are responding with outrage at this assault on their never-ending battle to snuff out all joy and happiness in their charges.

Hey, teachers, leave them kids alone!

Source: The Guardian

Getting It Out of the Way

Gee, one big assassination and all the regular news goes on the back burner...

Let's try to go on with our news. It's, err, what she would have wanted.

With a Name Like Huckabee..
See, cause it sounds like Huckster... oh forget it.

Basically, Mike Huckabee is continuing to collect big money speaking fees while he's campaigning for President. This is generally seen as a big no-no, as it's both crass and potentially shady. I mean, are you paying to hear the guy speak, or The Guy Who Might Be President speak? A bit dodgy, which is why nobody does it. Well, except for the Huckster.

Compounding the issue is the fact that he gives most of his speeches on his 'signature issue' of personal weight loss. First of all, that's what our wannabe Preznit thinks is a pressing issue to deal with on the national stage at the moment. Secondly, his recipe of 'pray, exercise, and await miracles' for better health has struck more than a few doctors as suspicious.

In fact, it seems quite likely that his entire weight loss platform is a complete and total sham. There is a body of anecdotal evidence and medical conjecture, along with a suspicious timeline, to suggest that in fact his much vaunted weight loss had nothing to do with prayer, and everything to do with a Gastic Bypass surgery.

He then wrote a bestselling book and made a career out of fleecing people on how to lose weight the good old Baptist way. In other words, a classic snake-oil salesman.

Ahh, Republicans. Find a low, and they'll stoop to it.

Sources: Politico.com
Firedoglake

Ohio Again Innovates In Vote-Fraud
So Ohio has decided to remove their shame-of-the-nation touch screen voting machines. Good on them. Unfortunately, they plan to replace them with a system that takes hand-scored ballots to a central location and then optically scans then. Your ballot can't be read? They *say* it can't be read?

Too bad.

The ACLU is on this one, fortunately. If it was another state I might be less suspicious, but this is Ohio we're talking about here.

Source: Raw Story

What the Holy Fuck is Wrong With You People?
Sweeney Todd is fifth at the box office for the weekend, despite starting on Friday when I'm pretty sure some of the others only started on Christmas.

Seriously. More people by far went to see GODDAMNED NATIONAL TREASURE TWO than Sweeney.

What was it that turned you people off? The quality acting? The gorgeous cinematography? The classic story and musical adaptation?

Are people just that in love with Nicolas Cage's hamfisted acting? Is Family Friendly all that matters anymore?

I Am Legend did three times Sweeney's business, despite being a week old AND having terrible word of mouth. In a sure sign of the Apocalypse, ALVIN AND THE GOAT RAPING CHIPMUNKS did huge gross.

Even a little known political movie, admittedly staring Tom Hanks, did better money.

Sweeney only showed on half as many screens as some of the others and did a very nice per theatre take, but still. This is just wrong.

Source: The Associated Press

Bush Is a Complete Moron, Part 8930 of an Endless Series
I stole that title joke from The Rude Pundit. I'm in a hurry here, so call it an homage.

So anyway, it turns out that our national stem cell 'policy', the non-research research position that will surely slow medical progress and condemn millions to horrible premature deaths, was concocted after a right wing idiot read Bush a passage from a 1932 science fiction novel.

First, our 'President' has to have story time and be read to like a goddamned child. I wonder if he has a sippy box of juice on the floor of the Oval Office before naptime too.

Second, he's basing his real world science policy on decades old sci-fi. Admittedly, in this case it's A Brave New World, but still. Take a gander.

In a new piece in Commentary magazine, Jay Lefkowitz — who advised Bush on stem cells — reveals how the President formulated his 2001 policy. While Bush heard from a variety of groups on both sides of the issue, the turning point appeared to come when Lefkowitz read from Aldous Huxley’s fictional novel, Brave New World, and scared Bush:

A few days later, I brought into the Oval Office my copy of Brave New World, Aldous Huxley’s 1932 anti-utopian novel, and as I read passages aloud imagining a future in which humans would be bred in hatcheries, a chill came over the room.

“We’re tinkering with the boundaries of life here,” Bush said when I finished. “We’re on the edge of a cliff. And if we take a step off the cliff, there’s no going back. Perhaps we should only take one step at a time.”

It’s unclear what passage Lefkowitz read, but Brave New World opens with a scene at the Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre, where embryos are turned into full human beings — often dozens of pairs of “identical twins” to ensure “social stability.”

Which of course has nothing to do with what we're actually doing in the field of stem cell research. Clone armies are strictly confined to the Star Wars universe, you right-wing pinheads.

This story made me want to vomit in my mouth.

Source: Think Progress

PS: For a truly delightful interpretation one need only look to the first comment on that page.

Apparently no one has taken a copy of “1984″ into the oval office.

-G

Comment by GSD — December 26, 2007 @ 8:27 pm

Well said.

At Least They Look Nifty
So apparently the NYPD is looking to phase out their fossil fuel scooters in favor of an electric model. Quiet, sneaky and cleaner. All well and good, I suppose, if they work.

It took forever, but I found a site with pictures of the vehicle in question. Shockingly, it doesn't have the usual POS electric vehicle aesthetic. The photos look a tad touched up for dramatic effect though. Either a blur filter or someone has need of a tripod.

Then when I went to find the original story I found a CNN.com article with a picture. Sigh.

It turns out, not shabby at all, though.

Sources: Greener Machine
CNN.com

Monday Clear Out the Tabs News

Opera, Opera, sing to me... sing of news...

Lost World, Giant Rat
Another expedition into Indonesia's virtually unexplored jungle, another series of bizarre and adorable animals.

In particular, in the picture slideshow, note the pygmy possum and the unnamed, but GIANT rat. It's the size of a cat. A pretty big cat. And completely docile, it seems.

Source: AOL News

Sovereignty is Another 'Quaint' Concept
The U.S. Border Patrol has been firing tear gas and pepper spray into Mexico in response to stone throwing mobs, or just because they feel like it.

Innocent people live in perfectly legal housing in the area. The border people just don't care. They're shelling a sovereign foreign power, and they just. don't. care.

Technically folks, that's a declaration of war on Mexico.

Source: Raw Story

Insert Witty Human Interest Title
A reporter/news anchor with vitiligo, the disease that kills off pigmentation cells in the skin but is otherwise harmless, is telling his story and writing a book. The contrast between the man with and without his work makeup is astonishing, I have to say. I can't even blend a halloween mask in decently.

Nice of him to go public. I can see how a disease like that would be humiliating, and in his line of work it's a real economic issue too. I hope they find out how the disease works, if for no other reason than that it'd be useful science. Kind of curious, an autoimmune, or seemingly so, disease that has such a mild effect.

Source: USA Today

Curses
So they've been making an effort to actually sift through all the archaeologically useful trash the Romans left in their wake in England, of late. In particular, it seems, the Romans had a custom of inscribing a person's name in lead and throwing it in the hot springs at Bath to curse them.

A recent rare find shows that someone did something like that to an Emperor by stamping his face, via a coin printed with his likeness, into some lead.

The Romans were kind of odd.

Source: The Guardian

Maybe This Means the Daily Show Will Return Soon
So various deals are being cut with the WGA to get late night shows back on the air without strikebreaking or scabs. Letterman in particular, as he owns his show, rather than CBS, seems ready to tell his parent network to shove it and agree to the new terms to get back on the air full steam. Leno and Conan are having to settle for skeleton crews.

Still, the networks are obviously starting to lose their bargaining strength.

Source: Firedoglake

Historical Irony Department
While the U.S. considers requiring an internal passport to fly from one American city to another, Eastern Europe moves into the travel paper free EU zone.

It's like bizarro-land when your former communist states are acting so much freer and more open than America, but there you go.

Source: Raw Story

Human Strain of the Endless War Against Eastasia
A story in the Army Times about the toll new tactics in particular are taking on already exhausted units in Iraq, and how one 'rebelled' by following mental health advice and medicating themselves out of a murderous frenzy.

The article is noteworthy to my mind for three things. One: The military continues to ignore its own mental health professionals, dealing with post-trauamtic stress as cowardice. Two: a unit that had lost, in rapid succession, something like a quarter of its men to attacks and suicide, is still expected to serve in active duty. Three: the insurgents in Iraq have already adapted to our new heavier personnel vehicles by using massive under-the-road bombs (500 lbs of explosives) that flip the vehicles on their backs like turtles, where they burn with everyone trapped inside.

Fourth-generational war, folks. There's no way known to win one. Welcome to the 21st century, where your billion dollar bombers and heavy armor don't mean jack.

Source: The Army Times

God Fucking Damn It

Terry Pratchett has announced that he has a form of early-onset Alzheimers. He hopes to complete at least two more books, but...

Goddamn it all to hell.

Vonnegut dies, Pratchett gets this monstrosity, but the smirking chimp goes on with his song and dance. Granted it looks like he's aged 25 years over his so-called Presidency, but still.

And that fucker Cheney? What does it take for that man to die? Six heart attacks by my count now. SIX. What. the. fuck.

On a purely selfish personal note, none of the planned books are in the Witches cycle, indeed the next two are not Discworld at all, so I'll probably never get the end story for Granny Weatherwax that I've been craving for a decade now. It might say something positive about an author, though, that their death, or severe, terminal illness, hits you in such a personal place that it feels like you, yourself, have been robbed of something material, the same feeling you might get from being mugged or burglarized.

I know of course Pratchett owes me nothing, and I hope nothing but the best for him... but days like this you could be forgiven for thinking the universe owes you a break. Owes him a break.  Of course, it never gives breaks.  It's a bleak, cold expanse of almost-nothingness and the only joy or meaning that could possibly exist is what we make for ourselves.

Pratchett made a lot of joy for me.  

This. Fucking. Sucks.

Source: The Register