Word of the Day- Ringxiety

. Ringxiety is described as the sensation and the false belief that one can hear his or her mobile phone ringing or feel it vibrating, when in fact the telephone is not doing so. Other terms for this concept include phantom ring effect and fauxcellarm. (via @boyoperatedcoin)

Ringxiety
Wed, 05 Aug 2009 10:00:00 GMT

Personal Supercomputers Promise Teraflops on Your Desk

Image by Argonne National Laboratory via Flickr

 

Personal supercomputers that lash together a stack of graphics processing units and can sit on a desktop are becoming popular with researchers. These machines can be used to run calculations by the desk instead of waiting for time on one of the national supercomputers.

Personal Supercomputers Promise Teraflops on Your Desk
Priya Ganapati
Mon, 03 Aug 2009 17:00:00 GMT

She should sue because 70,000 dollars later, she's still ignorant.

 

Jobless College Graduate Sues Because She's Still Jobless A recent college graduate is suing her alma mater for $72,000 -- the full cost of her tuition and then some -- because she cannot find a job.

Goldman Sachs, the lords of time

 

Forget about the beauty of space. The goal of "rocket scientists" in the United States in the 21st century is to develop market-data machines tuned to the microsecond, to help Goldman Sachs dominate the world of finance - and to avoid, if possible, the long arm of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Has investment that benefits only the few ever been so esoteric and glorious? - Julian Delasantellis (Aug 4, '09)

Goldman Sachs, the lords of time

Big Ideas: Television for Passionate Thinkers

Image via Wikipedia

 

Umberto Eco: An Illustrated Presentation on the History of Beauty and Ugliness (running time: 52:42); Salman Akhtar: The Trauma of Geophysical Dislocation (51:55); Ronald Wright: America's Ideals and the Realities (34:52); Norman Doidge: Altered States of Mind (55:21); Lewis Lapham: The American Education System and the Gradual Disappearance of Historical Consciousness (44:09); Leo Panitch: Still a Marxist After All: Lessons and Insights for our Time (43:24); Hazel Carby: Belonging to Britain—the Historic Relationship between England and Jamaica (46:35); Gabor Mate: Close Encounters with Addiction (54:17); and Jordan Peterson: The nature of Evil and its Distinction from Tragedy (42:35) are some of the video lectures available from the Big Ideas TV show that is broadcast on TVOntario. Here's the full list of videos, and many more, but not all, episodes are available as audio downloads.

Big Ideas: Television for Passionate Thinkers
Jasper Friendly Bear
Sun, 02 Aug 2009 17:39:21 GMT

Bombshell: Bin Laden Worked for US Until 9/11

Former FBI translator Sibel Edmonds dropped a bombshell on the Mike Malloy radio show, guest-hosted by Brad Friedman (audio, partial transcript).

In the interview, Sibel says that the US maintained 'intimate relations' with Bin Laden, and the Taliban, "all the way until that day of September 11."

These 'intimate relations' included using Bin Laden for 'operations' in Central Asia, including Xinjiang, China.

For more details, please click on the link to read the article.

Bombshell: Bin Laden Worked for US Until 9/11
Sat, 01 Aug 2009 11:05:00 GMT

Viva la Evolucion

A new Latin America is emerging on the global political stage. A two part video from Al Jazeera analysing how the Obama administration may deal with Latin America and what the relations will mean on a global level.
Viva la Evolucion - - Part 1 & Part 2
Featuring an exclusive interview with Noam Chomsky, and panel Dr Celia Szusterman, Associate fellow, Chatham House; Prof Roberto Mangabeira Unger, Harvard University and former Brazilian strategic affairs minister; and Dr Andres Mejia Acosta

Viva la Evolucion

Fossil Fuels without the Fossils?

Image by fake is the new real via Flickr

this theory has been floating around for a while...

A theory long on the fringes of petroleum science gained some support from new research this week, but it is probably not enough to launch the concept into the mainstream.

[More]

Pentagon's 21st Century Counterinsurgency Wars: Latin America and South Asia

Rick Rozoff presents a chilling look at the new turn in the military operations in Afghanistan/Pakistan and the worrying news coming out of Latin America.

More than half a year after the departure of the George W. Bush administration the United States is embroiled in its largest combat operation since the second attack on Fallujah in November of 2004 and the most extensive and lengthy offensive in its nearly eight-year-old war in Afghanistan.

It has also announced plans to intensify its involvement in the 45-year counterinsurgency war in Colombia with deployments of 1,400 additional soldiers and contractors to five more military bases the

Pentagon's 21st Century Counterinsurgency Wars: Latin America and South Asia

Canadians vow mass-mooning of US spy-blimp

from the boys and girls at boingboing. a good site to link to if you don't already.

70+ Canadians in Sarnia, Ontario have committed to dropping their pants and mooning a spy balloon that a US company is launching to surveil the border, including their town.

In a letter to the PM Thursday, Mike Bradley said the camera hovering over Port Huron, Mich. is scanning Sarnia's waterfront, which includes many homes, private businesses and government offices.

'Moon the Balloon' protest grows, mayor writes PM (Thanks, Gord!)

British Foreign Secretary: Clinton Threatened to Cut-Off Intelligence-Sharing if Torture Evidence is Disclosed

There's something very smelly in Denmark and it smells like war crimes.

by Glenn Greenwald

I've written several times before about the amazing quest of Binyam Mohamed -- a British resident released from Guantanamo in February, 2009 after seven years in captivity -- to compel public disclosure of information in the possession of the British Government proving he was tortured while in U.S.

read more

Obama’s empire

Major article on the extent of US military bases worldwide. Author Catherine Lutz is the author of Bases of Empire.

The 44th president of the United States was elected amid hopes that he would roll back his country’s global dominance. Today, he is commander-in-chief of an unprecedented network of military bases that is still expanding.

New Statesman - Obama’s empire

GMO Scandal: The Long Term Effects of Genetically Modified Food on Humans

by F. William Engdahl

One of the great mysteries surrounding the spread of GMO plants around the world since the first commercial crops were released in the early 1990’s in the USA and Argentina has been the absence of independent scientific studies of possible long-term effects of a diet of GMO plants on humans or even rats. Now it has come to light the real reason. The GMO agribusiness companies like Monsanto, BASF, Pioneer, Syngenta and others prohibit independent research.

GMO Scandal: The Long Term Effects of Genetically Modified Food on Humans

Monsanto, Dow stack up the genes

The prairies of North America will be planted next year with genetically engineered corn from Monsanto and Dow AgroSciences that will carry an unprecedented eight novel genes. Yet critics say the potential health and environmental risks have not been independently investigated, while US regulations do not require any such assessments.

• Any studies on safety and nutrition

  

  done by Monsanto and Dow do not have to be made public or shown to regulators, who are entitled only to a summary. Moreover, no independent studies can be done without the companies' permission.

• "It is illegal for a farmer to give researchers seeds to test without the companies' permission," he said.

  
  

Monsanto, Dow stack up the genes

Bombing for a Juster World?: The Problem With the "Responsibility to Protect"

... this flows out of a discussion on the idea that took place at the UN last week which somehow I ended up watching most of.

By JEAN BRICMONT - July 28, 2009

...{T]he main obstacle to the implementation of a genuine [Responsibility to Protect] are precisely the policies and the attitudes of the countries that are most enthusiastic about this doctrine, namely the Western countries, and in particular the US...[I]f a "new norm" is introduced, within the context of the current relationship of political and military forces, it will not save anyone anywhere, unless the United States sees fit to intervene, from its own perspective.

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