Wednesday, October 31st
Processed meat causes more cancer than smoking
The World Cancer Research Fund study found strong evidence that eating red meat and processed meats such as pastrami, salami, and frankfurters can cause bowel cancer.
It also found a direct link between obesity and alcohol intake and the likelihood of falling victim to cancer.
"With smoking, we know that if you smoke you increase your risk, but most smokers in the end don't get cancer, so it's not a one-to-one relation," study author Sir Michael Marmot explained.
[ But processed, anti-biotic stuffed, hormone-fed, prion-nourished meat is cheaper and so makes higher profits. We don't want enough, we want more, when earning money's the issue. ]
news on 10.31.07 @ 11:44 PM CST [more..]
"News" is often paid advertising
The Toronto Star ran a huge advertising section promoting "anti-counterfeiting legislation" that attacks Canada's generic drugs and serves as a back door for DRM laws and Draconian copyright penalties -- but they ran it as news, even though they were "sponsored" by the Canadian Anti-Counterfeiting Network.The claims in the "article" were one-sided and ignored the rebuttals that the paper's own Michael Geist had published.
[ The mainstream media is a giant advertising funnel that labels itself "news entertainment" and has no real pretense of being serious news, except for its underpaid underlings, who justify being underpaid nobodies with the illusion that they're doing "serious journalism." Corporate bosses nod and smile, light another Cuban cigar. ]
news on 10.31.07 @ 11:42 PM CST [more..]
Moderate KKK rising in influence
Ken Mier, who described himself as an investigator for the Alabama Ku Klux Klan and the national office of the Ku Klux Klan LLC, said in an e-mail to The Cullman Times that his group is against the tactics of the National Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, which held an anti-immigration protest last month in Athens.
"We are opposed to the ignorance and stupidity as displayed by the individuals that thumbed their nose at the area churches by continuing to use racial slurs, threats and avoided Christian deportment," he said.
[ Most people who take what they're doing seriously are sick of the hatred, bigotry, racial slurs and roadhouse behavior. We want people who have a whole plan, not just a hankerin' for racial warfare. We don't want to hurt anyone, but we know that unfettered liberalism, capitalism and multiculturalism/globalism will destroy us. These violent, slur-tossing bigots just get in the way and convince most people there's no hope down the path of nationalism. ]
news on 10.31.07 @ 11:40 PM CST [more..]
Insane paranoia normal in American society
About 40 million Americans suffer from anxiety disorders, according to the National Institute of Mental Health. A Harvard Medical School study estimated the annual cost to the U.S. economy in 1999 at roughly $42 billion.
[ What a comforting, sane, balanced society this must be! ROFL ]
news on 10.31.07 @ 11:37 PM CST [more..]
The sexual revolution, tolerance brought us AIDS
The AIDS virus invaded the United States in about 1969 from Haiti, carried most likely by a single infected immigrant who set the stage for it to sweep the world in a tragic epidemic, scientists said on Monday.
They found that HIV was brought to Haiti by an infected person from central Africa in about 1966, which matches earlier estimates, and then came to the United States in about 1969.
[ Awesome import. ]
news on 10.31.07 @ 11:36 PM CST [more..]
China buys top-secret US tech, courts won't prosecute
The Justice Department has dropped all criminal charges against a Chinese national accused of selling technology made by his Silicon Valley employer to a Chinese cruise missile laboratory, court records show.
Data Physics in May settled civil charges brought by the Commerce Department that it sold technology to China for military purposes, agreeing to pay a $55,000 fine and adhere to a five-year ban on exporting to China.
[ In the new global economy, we don't have enemies until they use our technology against us. The Chinese have their act together: keep capitalism out as much as possible, keep culture from getting corrupt, encourage national identity and bide their time until the West collapses. ]
news on 10.31.07 @ 11:34 PM CST [more..]
Mercury poisoning rampant in industrialized world
As many as 600,000 babies may be born in the USA each year with irreversible brain damage because pregnant mothers ate mercury-contaminated fish, the Environmental Protection Agency says. Medical researchers are just beginning to explore such mercury exposure in adults, which can leave some people struggling through life in a disorienting "fish fog." Nationwide, more than 8,000 lakes, rivers and bays are compromised by mercury's toxic effects.
A partial answer can be found in the nearly 500 coal-burning power plants that supply half the nation's electricity. The $298-billion-a-year electric utility industry is the nation's largest source of mercury air emissions and the latest target of federal and state clean-air regulations.
[ That sounds like terrible government to me, that allows this! Maybe the "fish fog" got them first? ]
news on 10.31.07 @ 11:31 PM CST [more..]
Exercise makes healthy brains
A new study reports that children who play vigorously for 20 to 40 minutes a day may be better able to organize schoolwork, do class projects and learn mathematics.
[ Our non-news news rediscovers the obvious. ]
news on 10.31.07 @ 11:30 PM CST [more..]
Capitalist competition prevents good inventions
Goodwin's experiments point to a radically cleaner and cheaper future for the American car. The numbers are simple: With a $5,000 bolt-on kit he co-engineered--the poor man's version of a Goodwin conversion--he can immediately transform any diesel vehicle to burn 50% less fuel and produce 80% fewer emissions.
[ Some random guy can do this, and Detroit couldn't? What gives with that? I thought capitalism and capitalist competition ensured us the best products ever! ]
news on 10.31.07 @ 11:28 PM CST [more..]
Pranks prohibited by PC, fear of terrorism
For better or worse, the days of prank-first, question-later are gone. In an open letter to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology student body, which, like Caltech, has a longstanding history of pranks, Chancellor Phillip Clay wrote earlier this month, "We cannot deny the fact that what was tolerated in the past, and may even have been celebrated, is now viewed differently."
In the mid-'80s, for example, MIT students hacked the elevator system in a campus building. When passengers pushed a button, the car delivered them to a random floor. While the prank, or hack, as they're called at MIT, has attained legendary status, Kirk Kolenbrander, vice president for institute affairs, says that now such a stunt would likely make waves.
"That's clever, but at the same time our society today would say that there are real safety issues if that elevator is needed in an emergency," says Mr. Kolenbrander. "Our world has a different patience for those issues than it once did."
[ In the name of good things, our society has not only become unfun but downright WIMPY. Come on people, back to reality. ]
news on 10.31.07 @ 11:25 PM CST [more..]
University forces students to agree that "all whites are racist"
A mandatory University of Delaware program requires residence hall students to acknowledge that "all whites are racist" and offers them "treatment" for any incorrect attitudes regarding class, gender, religion, culture or sexuality they might hold upon entering the school, according to a civil rights group.
"A RACIST: A racist is one who is both privileged and socialized on the basis of race by a white supremacist (racist) system. 'The term applies to all white people (i.e., people of European descent) living in the United States, regardless of class, gender, religion, culture or sexuality. By this definition, people of color cannot be racists, because as peoples within the U.S. system, they do not have the power to back up their prejudices, hostilities, or acts of discrimination..'"
[ We see anti-racism for what it is: revenge against those who have anything more than the bearded, basement-dwelling, toenail-recycling leftist "activist." Hate disguised as love - what a novel concept! 
]
news on 10.31.07 @ 11:23 PM CST [more..]
People are neurotic and overburdened
Almost everybody I know -- whether they're wealthy or struggling to make ends meet, whether they're bachelor girls or celebrating their 25th anniversary, whether their kids are grown or toddlers or nonexistent --everyone seems to be suffering from some sort of culturally induced ADD. Our brains are swamped and our bodies are tired. Blood pressures are up, serotonin levels are down, tempers are short, to-do lists are long, and nerves are shot.
[ This humor column is surprisingly accurate. ]
news on 10.31.07 @ 11:21 PM CST [more..]
A SCHOOL was yesterday accused of MAKING teachers dress up as Asians for a day—to celebrate a Muslim festival.
Yesterday a relative of one of the 39 others said: “Staff have got to go along with it—or let’s face it, they would be branded racist. Who would put their job on the line? They have been told they have to embrace the day to show their diversity."
“It’s all part of a diversity project to promote multi-culturalism.”
[ Multiculturalism is the doctrine whereby puny people get to pretend they are kings, and can give away an empire magnimoniously, oblivious to how much this impacts others and themselves. ]
news on 10.31.07 @ 10:00 PM CST [more..]
Monoculturalism goes left
[M]ono-culturalism is swinging left. Having decisively vanquished traditional Christians in the culture wars, feminists, gay activists and other progressives are no longer willing to risk their winnings by pledging multicultural solidarity with traditional Muslims, Hasidic Jews and other socially conservative immigrant groups.
This is a new phenomenon in Canada, but it’s been going on for years in Europe. The old face of nativism used to be Jean-Marie Le Pen, a right-wing Gaullist and old-school bigot who complains crankily about Jews and Blacks. Le Pen is still around. (His National Front party got 10% of the vote in this year’s French presidential election.) But today’s young voters are drawn more to those cast in the mold of Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn.
When Fortuyn was assassinated in 2002, he was described in the Western media as a “right-wing” politician because of his scathing remarks about Muslims. But the label never fit: Fortuyn was a lusty, openly gay populist who championed euthanasia, liberal drug policies and same-sex marriage. He opposed traditional Muslim culture precisely because it conflicted with the Netherlands’ any-thing-goes ethos.
In other words, muscular monoculturalism is no longer the purview of the right. Having been liberated from the odour of racism, it’s becoming a mainstream ideology, even a fashionable one, on the left.
[ Common sense knows neither right nor left. The left is destructive mainly because they have no goal, so focus on tearing up what we've got and redistributing it in an effort to be noble through egalitarianism -- essentially, trying to become a pseudo-aristocracy like the Kennedys. ]
news on 10.31.07 @ 09:58 PM CST [more..]
Monday, October 29th
BadScience.net commits bad science
Oliver has perhaps not been to Brazil, where black African, white European, and Amerindian have lived side by side and bred together for many centuries. The Brazilians have not gone coffee coloured, they in fact still show a wide range of skin pigmentation, from black to tan. This is because skin pigmentation seems to be coded for by a fairly small number of genes and probably doesn.t blend and even out as Oliver - a political theorist, not a scientist - suggests.
http://www.badscience.net/?p=316
Skin reflectance was measured on the inner upper arm and forehead of a sample of 209 Mestizos ranging in age from 2 to 64 years living in the town of Lamas in the Eastern Peruvian Lowlands. The sample consisted of 43 father-son, 42 father-daughter, 62 mother-son, and 70 mother-daughter pairs. The sample also consisted of 57 brother-brother, 60 sister-sister and 139 brother-sister pairs. The reflectance measurements were made with a Photovolt Reflection Meter, model 670. Stepwise polynomial regression techniques were used to derive standardized residual values. Then using these residual values parent-offspring, sibling intraclass correlations and components of the phenotypic expression of skin reflectance were calculated. The study indicates that 1) the parent-offspring and sibling correlation coefficients conformed with the theoretical correlations expected assuming polygenic inheritance; 2) the husband-wife correlations indicate a high degree of assortative mating for skin color, but despite this effect the parent-offspring and sibling correlation coefficients are lower than the values expected under the influence of autosomal genes; 3) estimates of heritability and components of phenotypic expression indicate that about 55% of the total variability in skin reflectance could be attributed to the influence of additive genetic factors; and 4) there is no evidence of X-linkage in the inheritance of skin color.
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/abstract/110483224/ABSTRACT?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0
[ Skin color is mostly determined by degree of mixture, in contrast to what the bad science guy says. Further, the bad science guy's assumption is that ethnic mixing was mathematically uniform, for which there's no evidence and plenty of counter-evidence, given the "racism" (preference for breeding among one's genetic proximates) we hear decried in Brazil. ]
news on 10.29.07 @ 10:04 PM CST [link]
Humans may have evolved longer ago than thought
An extraordinary advance in human origins research reveals evidence of the emergence of the upright human body plan over 15 million years earlier than most experts have believed. More dramatically, the study confirms preliminary evidence that many early hominoid apes were most likely upright bipedal walkers sharing the basic body form of modern humans.
A bizarre birth defect in what may have been the first direct human ancestor led to the "transposition" of the septum to a position behind the spinal cord in the lumbar region. Oddly enough, this configuration is more typical of invertebrates.
The mechanical effect of the transposition was to make horizontal or quadrupedal stance inefficient. "Any mammal with this set of changes would only be comfortable standing upright. I would envision this malformed young hominiform – the first true ancestral human – as standing upright from a young age while its siblings walked around on all fours."
The earliest example of the transformed hominiform type of lumbar spine is found in Morotopithecus bishopi an extinct hominoid species that lived in Uganda more than 21 million years ago. "From a number of points of view," Filler says, "humanity can be redefined as having its origin with Morotopithecus. This greatly demotes the importance of the bipedalism of Australopithecus species such as Lucy (Australopithecus afarensis) since we now know of four upright bipedal species that precede her, found from various time periods on out to Morotopithecus in the Early Miocene."
[ The plot thickens regarding human origins. ]
news on 10.29.07 @ 10:00 PM CST [more..]
Promiscuity is de-evolutionary
In a theoretical study published in the October 17, 2007 issue of Nature they demonstrate that sexual conflict can establish novel sex-determining genes and sex chromosomes. The proposed mechanism extends the established theory on the origin of sex chromosomes, and it explains how sex determination can move from an ancestral sex chromosome to an autosome, a non-sex-chromosome, that then invades to become a new sex chromosome.
The mechanism suggested by these authors begins with an autosome that carries two genes with particular features. One of these two genes is under sexually antagonistic selection. This means that some versions of the gene (alleles) are more beneficial in males than in females, while other alleles are more beneficial for females.
[ What made apes into humans? We were more sexually selective, which forced faster evolution. Promiscuity has the opposite effect and increases devolution.
news on 10.29.07 @ 09:42 PM CST [more..]
Tough immigration law goes into force in Oklahoma
One of the toughest state laws targeting illegal immigrants takes effect Thursday in Oklahoma, prompting efforts by immigrants trying to block it and work by state agencies to comply.
The law makes it a felony to transport or shelter illegal immigrants. Businesses, which are barred by federal law from hiring illegal immigrants, can be sued by a legal worker who is displaced by an illegal one.
[ They got away with it, that is, making profit off cheap immigrant labor and passing the cost on to you. But that's changing as people realize what mass immigration is going to mean for their futures, and those of their children. ]
news on 10.29.07 @ 09:31 PM CST [more..]
Truth of immigration hidden by democratic politics
Mass immigration is another case in point. The British people have never been consulted and, more importantly, have frequently been deliberately misled about the massive demographic change of the past ten years.
For example, when Poland and other Eastern European states joined the EU three years ago, ministers blithely said that the impact of immigration from these new member states on this country would merely amount to somewhere between 5,000 and 13,000 people a year.
For good measure, they denounced as racist those who warned that this was an absurd underestimate.
Of course, as is now well-known, the numbers arriving here from Poland alone has amounted to at least 150,000 a year, and the true figure is probably far bigger. Yet we have yet to receive an apology for this egregious act of public deception.
[ Our leaders are liars. Great. I think that needs fixing, if anyone with a functional brain is still listening. ]
news on 10.29.07 @ 09:29 PM CST [more..]
Doom imminent, official sources now agree
The United Nations Environment Program has released the Global Environment Outlook: environment for development (GEO-4) report, and it doesn't make for happy reading.
The seas, studies show, are rapidly being depleted of fish stocks by overfishing. At the same time, warming temperatures are eradicating the coral reefs, sources of massive biodiversity, and agricultural run-off is creating enormous dead zones of deoxygenated water, devoid of life. Consumption of sea food tripled in the 40 years following 1961, and subsidies for fishing fleets have created a huge excess capacity. Many fish stocks have been depleted to the point where they will never recover.
The oceans aren't our only water problem. Fresh water, an absolute necessity, is also in trouble. Water supplies are increasingly polluted; contaminated water is the leading cause of death worldwide. The report points out that 70 percent of all fresh water is used for irrigation, but meeting the food needs of our ever expanding global population would require doubling current output over the next five decades. With precipitation changes already being seen thanks to climate change, that's a bleak prospect. Industrial pollutants, from heavy metals to organic compounds, abound in the biosphere, and that means they abound in our food supply. While all of these problems disproportionately affect the poorer regions of the planet, the industrialized world is hardly exempt.
According to studies, our use of natural resources is unsustainable. We currently use a third more than the planet has to offer, and that's with less than a 6th of the global population living in industrialized countries. Despite the rapid development of China and India, the resources simply do not exist to allow their billions of citizens to enjoy the same lifestyles seen in the US or Europe.
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20071027-new-un-environmental-report-paints-a-very-bleak-future-for-humanity.html
Oil supplies peaked in 2006, say analysts, furthermore future shortages could mean mass unrest around the globe
http://environment.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=mg19626273.900&feedId=online-news_rss20
[ It doesn't look like anything resembling a "plan" has occurred here. Humanity is out of control. ]
news on 10.29.07 @ 09:27 PM CST [more..]
If we sent illegals home, what would happen?
But what would happen if all 20 million or more vacated America?
* In California, if 3.5 million illegal aliens moved back to Mexico, it would leave an extra $10.2 billion to spend on overloaded school systems, bankrupted hospitals and overrun prisons. It would leave highways cleaner, safer and less congested. Everyone could understand one another as English became the dominate language again.
* In Colorado, 500,000 illegal migrants, plus their 300,000 kids and grand-kids—would move back “home,” mostly to Mexico. That would save Coloradans an estimated $2 billion (other experts say $7 BIL) annually in taxes that pay for schooling, medical, social-services and incarceration costs. It means 12,000 gang members would vanish out of Denver alone.
* Colorado would save more than $20 million in prison costs, and the terror that those 7,300 alien criminals set upon local citizens. Denver Officer Don Young and hundreds of Colorado victims would not have suffered death, accidents, rapes and other crimes by illegals.
* Denver Public Schools would not suffer a 67 percent drop out/flunk out rate via thousands of illegal alien students speaking 41 different languages. At least 200,000 vehicles would vanish from our gridlocked cities in Colorado. Denver’s four percent unemployment rate would vanish as our working poor would gain jobs at a living wage.
[ We might also add: the Mexican economy and national spirit would improve, and we would be closer to being a nation of consensus again. ]
news on 10.29.07 @ 09:25 PM CST [more..]
Homosexuality is genetic
Using genetic manipulation, U.S. scientists altered the brains of nematode worms, causing them to become attracted to wrigglers of the same sex.
[ Excluding child abuse cases, who often become bisexual, homosexuals are created by nature. This is yet another "issue" that has sidetracked conservatism and has nothing to do with the major issues that face us. ]
news on 10.29.07 @ 09:23 PM CST [more..]
Most students cheat
Recent survey results from the Educational Testing Service and the Ad Council suggest that 75 percent to 98 percent of students cheat in high school, compared to just 20 percent of students during the 1940s. Indications are that just as many students cheat in college and graduate school too.
[ Over-competitive impulses, and constant crops of new clueless people, provide firm ground for cheating. What kind of dishonest generations are we raising? ]
news on 10.29.07 @ 09:22 PM CST [more..]
Saturday, October 27th
Water for most US states threatened
The government projects that at least 36 states will face water shortages within five years because of a combination of rising temperatures, drought, population growth, urban sprawl, waste and excess.
"Unfortunately, there's just not going to be any more cheap water," said Randy Brown, Pompano Beach's utilities director.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a United Nations network of scientists, said this year that by 2050 up to 2 billion people worldwide could be facing major water shortages.
[ More quality "thinking ahead" from our witless society. ]
news on 10.27.07 @ 05:07 PM CST [more..]
Maine makes public documents English-only
The state of Maine announced on Wednesday that testing materials for anyone seeking a driver's license would only be provided in English.
Census Bureau statistics show that about 64,000 Maine residents speak French as their primary language and 10,000 speak Spanish.
[ The French do not appear to be complaining. ]
news on 10.27.07 @ 02:28 PM CST [more..]
Commerce creating split in human species
The human race will one day split into two separate species, an attractive, intelligent ruling elite and an underclass of dim-witted, ugly goblin-like creatures, according to a top scientist.
100,000 years into the future, sexual selection will mean that two distinct breeds of human will have developed.
The alarming prediction comes from evolutionary theorist Oliver Curry from the London School of Economics, who says that the human race will have reached its physical peak by the year 3000.
[ The vicious elites will be descendants of greedy businessmen and their stripper wives, and the rest will be anyone who wasn't cruel enough and fixated on money enough to get rich. This is what will replace an aristocracy of geniuses. Good "thinking"! ]
news on 10.27.07 @ 01:03 PM CST [more..]
Anti-Nazi laws provide for universal gov't eavesdropping
On November 9th, the German parliament will most likely vote in favour of a law which will make logging of all connections, be they over Internet, landline or cellular phone, mandatory (German source). As an added bonus, the Cybercrime Convention of the European Union will ensure that a total of 52 countries will have access to this data without review by a judge, restriction of commensurability or even a mandatory expiration date for the prosecution of any and all actions that are against the law in the requesting country. This list includes countries with long-standing records in human rights like Azerbaijan, Russia or Moldova.
[ No one will say this, but this law is enacted to help them crack down on "extremist groups." So in the name of a few Muslim terrorists and white neo-Nazis, everyone gets observed by the Stalinist Nanny State. Good thinking! ]
news on 10.27.07 @ 01:00 PM CST [more..]
Humans fail sustainability audit
With its Geo-4 report, the United Nations tells us that most aspects of the Earth's natural environment are in decline; and that the decline will affect us, the planet's human inhabitants, in some pretty important ways.
From over-fishing and pollution in the oceans to climate-changing emissions in the atmosphere, it concludes that pretty much everything is going downhill.
More greenhouse gases, more widespread pollution, declining availability of fresh water, deforestation, degradation of farmland, ocean acidification - it is hard to come up with a more comprehensive and, frankly, a more depressing list.
Yet humans are living longer; and in most parts of the world, living standards are higher. Unep calculates that per-capita GDP has gone up from close to $6,000 to just over $8,000 over the last 20 years.
Humans might be living longer and richer lives now, this implies; but environmental degradation must at some point curb or even reverse the trend.
[ It's been unpopular for years to think about this, so we haven't. Now we see that we are living beyond our means, and a balancing is coming. If there are too many humans, that balancing means unnecessary death and suffering, which we created in the name of ending death and suffering. Very smart, these simians. ]
news on 10.27.07 @ 12:58 PM CST [more..]
Media expert suggests anti-consumerist values
"Why wouldn't a personal paradise become addictive?" he asked the audience, but pointed out that he was old enough to remember similar worries over movies, video games, and the web. Though just about any human activity can give rise to addictive behavior, Puttnam doesn't see why virtual worlds would prove to be any more harmful than other forms of media, but he wants to see more research done in this area.
"Do we really want them to think of themselves as not that much more than consumers?" His alternative was using virtual worlds to "encourage [kids] to exercise those same values and skills we wish to see them exercise in the real world."
[ We're training kids to become obedient little conquerors or slaves, all for money. Does this select the best? Evidence says no. Yet we persist, because it's easy and just maybe we'll get really rich from it, or the lottery. ]
news on 10.27.07 @ 12:56 PM CST [more..]
Outsiders, uncommercialized, represent last truthful art
Outsider art is art that sits outside any known idiom. It is art created from an entirely new language. It is not for sale. And it is marked by obsession.
To some who are weary of the increasing commercialisation of art, outsider works are unpolished jewels, and the people who make them are the purest artists of all.
[ I don't know if this newspaper reporter noticed and couldn't talk about it, but the "art" our society endorses sucks. It's either populist trash from Hollywood, or weird and useless art objects from a snooty and detached art community. Die Hard 4, or Piss Christ? Outsider art doesn't bow to commercial or populist demands. ]
news on 10.27.07 @ 12:53 PM CST [more..]
US steps up border enforcement in Texas
The U.S. Border Patrol plans to announce today a "zero tolerance" operation to prosecute, jail and deport all illegal immigrants caught in the bustling Laredo area, marking a significant tightening of immigration enforcement along a key U.S. border corridor.
This stepped-up effort is an expansion of the Border Patrol's "Operation Streamline" project in the Del Rio and Yuma, Ariz., sectors, which sharply reduced illegal entries. That is being expanded to the sprawling Laredo sector beginning Wednesday, officials confirmed.
[ Responding belatedly to the wishes of those who give this country direction, but still responding: thumbs up. ]
news on 10.27.07 @ 12:50 PM CST [more..]
Americans are religiously delusional
About eight-in-ten Americans say that they have no doubt that God exists, that prayer is an important part of their lives, and that "we will all be called before God at the Judgment Day to answer for our sins." But the intensity of agreement with these indicators of religiosity has shown a modest decline in recent years, after increasing through much of the 1990s. While overall agreement with the three statements has remained fairly stable, the number of people who completely agree with each statement rose during the 1990s and has declined more recently. For example, the percentage completely agreeing that "we will all be called before God at the Judgment Day" rose from 52% in 1987 to more than 60% in the 1990s. It now stands at 54%, down 7 points from 1999 and five points from 2003.
[ This isn't an anti-religion rant. God wants you to do good things in this world and treat this world, his gift to you, as you would treat your own home. God may or may not exist, but if he does exist, he doesn't intervene in this world, so we're in the driver's seat and it's up to us to make sense of it. People can get religious about Jesus, science, politics, civil rights, or many other things. Being religious in this sense means putting your total trust in it like a neo-Stalinist pact, and figuring that if you just keep bleating the liberal/conservative/white supremacist dogma, EveryThing Will Turn Out Just Fine. That's a crock of lies. We have to make our own path and the universe and God will still be smiling if we exterminate ourselves. Back to reality, kids. ]
news on 10.27.07 @ 12:46 PM CST [more..]
Parasites act like single organism
That view has been receding under the weight of results that suggest that bacteria can act as a multicellular collective, organizing biofilms and identifying the number of fellow species-members through quorum-sensing signaling molecules. A paper in Science takes this sort of behavior to the next level, suggesting that bacteria can coordinate cellular suicide.
So, not only do bacteria engage in cell suicide, but they do so on the basis of signals from their fellow bacteria.it all sounds suspiciously like a multicellular organism, as the authors themselves note. The logic behind it also seems very similar to that which explains altruistic behavior in multicellular animals. In a dense, rapidly growing culture, most of the bacteria would be expected to be genetically related. When a source of stress, such as a virus or antibiotic, starts harming cells, the most efficient way to preserve their shared inheritance may be for some of the cells to sacrifice themselves.
[ Sounds a lot like how human populations interact. But wait, the free will myth is our founding precept... OMG we'll have to go into denial, because denial's where the money's at. ]
news on 10.27.07 @ 12:43 PM CST [more..]
People seek balanced minds, society seeks distraction
Psychiatrists may need to approach the treatment of psychiatric patients from a new direction -- by understanding that such individuals' behavior and decision-making are based on an attempt to reach an inner equilibrium. A brain in balance, rather than the promise of pain or pleasure, may form basis of decision-making for psychiatric patients.
[ But our genius society motivates people through reward and punishment, so this means we're... on the wrong track, but it's not profitable to say that, so back to work plz! ]
news on 10.27.07 @ 12:41 PM CST [more..]
Most Virginians see illegal immigration as an urgent local problem
Three-quarters of likely voters in Virginia said immigration is important to their votes in the election for state and local offices, while just a year ago, immigration ranked seventh of 10 listed issues in a Post poll before the U.S. Senate race. Since then, the percentage of Virginia voters calling immigration “extremely” or “very” important to their vote has jumped 15 points.
A majority of Virginians, 53 percent, said they want state and local governments to do “a lot” to deal with illegal immigration; an additional third said they want “some” action.
Nearly seven in 10 Virginians polled said the federal government has not done enough to deal with the issue. But many also see illegal immigration as a state and local issue—and not one that the federal government alone should address.
Fifty-one percent of those surveyed said illegal immigration is a problem where they live, including 20 percent who said it is a “very serious problem.”
[ Our culture and society are being converted into cultureless status. Yep, that's a problem. ]
news on 10.27.07 @ 12:34 PM CST [more..]
Americans moving closer to forests, litter proliferates
Americans are moving farther and farther away from city centers and closer and closer to national forests. As a result, housing density is increasing on more than one-half million acres of land adjacent to over 10 national forests according to a recent study.
[ Our cities are nightmares. Let's consume the rest of nature. Burp! ]
news on 10.27.07 @ 12:31 PM CST [more..]
Caring for people requires ethnic nationalism
Altruistic and warlike aspects of human nature may have a common origin. Altruism--benefiting fellow group members at a cost to oneself--and parochialism--hostility toward individuals not of one's own ethnic, racial, or other group--are common to human nature, but we don't immediately think of them as working together hand in hand. In fact the unexpected combination of these two behaviors may have enabled the survival of each trait according to new research.
[ Atomized modern people have nothing in common. Under a nationalist society, everyone is an extended family, so cooperation can occur. ]
news on 10.27.07 @ 12:29 PM CST [more..]
Thursday, October 25th
Nooses keep appearing in humorous places
The Tupac Amaru Shakur Center for the Arts in Georgia has been vandalized and a noose found tied around the neck of a statue of the slain rap idol.
Early Saturday morning, vandals defaced the building and left a noose around the neck of the bronze statue of Shakur located in the center's peace garden.
Later in the weekend, the statue was plastered with handbills covered in rants including references to Sept. 11, 2001, and Hurricane Katrina, as well as vague threats against various record companies and rappers, the foundation said.
[ Most people who were hung, or enslaved, were white. Whites are getting sick of the guilt and being lied to with media circuses like the Jena 6. ]
news on 10.25.07 @ 11:59 PM CST [more..]
Peak oil has arrived, says study
The world has reached the point of maximum oil output and production levels will halve by 2030 -- a situation that will eventually lead to war and disaster, a report claims.
The German-based Energy Watch Group released a report Tuesday saying the world's oil production peaked in 2006 and from now on will drop by around 3 percent a year. It says that by as early as 2030, the global availability of oil will be half of what it was at its peak.
"It's a very serious result," said Hans-Josef Fell, a German lawmaker from the environmentalist Green Party who commissioned the report. "I fear the world will come into a big economic crisis in the coming years."
[ Bad economy, declining energy, rising disease and environmental toxicity, climate out of control, political instability... yep, modern society's doing a great job... if it works for Satan! (or religious bad guy of your choice, my preference is Silver Surfer)
news on 10.25.07 @ 11:57 PM CST [more..]
US censorware helps Burma censor its internet
During Burma's short-lived uprising late last month, young dissidents risked their lives to smuggle news of their peaceful protest to the outside world. They may have been up against Internet censorship software designed in America, if a connection found to exist in 2005 still holds.
[ We're inventing censorware? But we're "free," we don't need that... except to censor the enemies of "freedom"! ]
news on 10.25.07 @ 11:55 PM CST [more..]
America's marriage crisis
Various studies show that at least half of all marriages in the United States will end in divorce, and if you remarry, those figures grow exponentially. For some reason, Americans are either getting married for the wrong reasons or are not making the effort to spend more time working on their marriages to save them, and instead, run to divorce court at the first sign of trouble.
[ Perceptive African-American columnist gets it right. Failed marriages means failed homes means alienated, angry, dumb kids. ]
news on 10.25.07 @ 11:53 PM CST [more..]
Fiery apocalypse forces transcendental introspection
In nearby Escondido, Susan Healey returned after two days with friends to a house unscathed except for heavy soot in the swimming pool.
"I don't think after something like this you're ever not different," the middle-school teacher said. "I had two days to think about, what are the most important things in my house? And they all fit in my car. I realize now how much junk I have."
[ This is why national socialism emphasizes struggle. It's not the stuff you own, but the state of your soul and what you accomplish in life that's real. Most of what we do in our society is push paper around and buy stuff. ]
news on 10.25.07 @ 11:52 PM CST [more..]
Modern culture is garbage, slavery to billionaires
"New York is a city for the rich by the rich, and all of us work at the mercy of rich people and their projects," says Choire Sicha, Gawker's top editor.
"If you work at any publication in this town, you work for a millionaire or billionaire. In some ways, that.s functional, and it works as a feudal society. But what's happened now, related to that, is that culture has dried up and blown away: The Weimar-resurgence baloney is hideous; the rock-band scene is completely unexciting; the young artists have a little more juice, but they're just bleak intellectual kids; and I am really dissatisfied with young fiction writers."
It's an inevitable consequence of living in today's New York: Youthful anxiety and generational angst about having been completely cheated out of ownership of Manhattan, and only sporadically gaining it in Brooklyn and Queens, has fostered a bloodlust for the heads of the douchebags who stole the city. It's that old story of haves and have-nots, rewritten once again.
[ But I thought civil rights got us "freedom" and solved that, but instead it empowered it. Wait, what? ]
news on 10.25.07 @ 11:46 PM CST [more..]
Lower calories leads to a longer life
Severely restricting calories leads to a longer life, scientists have proved. New research now has shown for the first time that such a diet also can maintain physical fitness into advanced age, slowing the seemingly inevitable progression to physical disability and loss of independence.
[ Remember all that garbage they told you about how people in ancient times were starving and died young? Lies: those who were from decent stock lived long, productive lives. ]
news on 10.25.07 @ 11:43 PM CST [more..]
One third of Americans stressed, smoky, fat
Worries about work and money are causing one-third of Americans to suffer from extreme stress, driving them to overeat, drink, and smoke.
[ But we're "free"! Better get two jobs so you can afford "freedom" and not end up in the ghetto! ]
news on 10.25.07 @ 11:42 PM CST [more..]
Environmental toxins change the DNA of embryos
Changes in gene expression patterns in zebrafish embryos resulting from exposure to environmental toxins can identify the individual toxins at work, according to new research. The genetic response of zebrafish to each toxin can be read like a barcode, offering researchers a potential method for identifying the effects of the toxin on developing vertebrate embryos.
[ Same is true of humans. All those exhaust pipes, decaying plastics, and intense factories are making your children mutant idiot criminals. Awesome. ]
news on 10.25.07 @ 11:40 PM CST [more..]
Industrial poisons may make us insane criminals
Even low levels of lead can cause brain damage, increasing the likelihood of behavioral and cognitive traits such as impulsivity, aggressiveness, and low IQ that are strongly linked with criminal behavior. The NYTimes has a story on how the phasing out of leaded gasoline starting with the Clean Air Act in 1973 may have led to a 56% drop in violent crime in the US in the 1990s. An economics professor at Amherst College, Jessica Wolpaw Reyes, discovered the connection and wrote a paper comparing the reduction of lead from gasoline between states (PDF) and the reduction of violent crime. She constructed a table linking crime rates in every state to childhood lead exposure in that state 20 or 30 years earlier.
[ Other factors are important as well, but we'd be idiots to discount the influence of toxic substances. ]
news on 10.25.07 @ 11:39 PM CST [more..]
Children detach from natural world to explore virtual ones
“I’d rather be at the mall because you can enjoy yourself walking around looking at stuff as opposed to the woods,” Nguyen said from the comfort of the Westfield San Francisco Centre mall.
In Yosemite and other parks, he said, furrowing his brow to emphasize the absurdly lopsided comparison, “the only thing you look at is the trees, grass and sky.”
The notion of going on a hike, camping, fishing or backpacking is foreign to a growing number of young people in cities and suburbs around the nation, according to several polls and studies.
The lack of outdoor activity is more pronounced in California’s minority and lower-income communities. Latino parents, for example, were twice as likely as white parents to say their child never participated in an outdoor nature activity and three times more likely to say their child did not go to a park, playground or beach this past summer, according to the Public Policy Institute poll.
[ Without culture to bind us to nature, we become lost servants of technocrats and insane religiously-interpreted dogmas. ]
news on 10.25.07 @ 11:37 PM CST [more..]
NPR discusses racial differences
DNA pioneer James Watson caused a furor recently after saying Africans were intellectually inferior to Westerners. Farai Chideya talks about why the conversation of race and intelligence persists with Phil Rushton, a professor of psychology at the University of Western Ontario.
Like Watson, Rushton says people of African descent have a lower IQ and smaller brain size, which he says is "50 percent genetic and 50 percent cultural."
[ I never thought I'd see this notoriously leftist-biased radio program cover this topic in my lifetime. ]
news on 10.25.07 @ 11:35 PM CST [more..]
Mainstream media "falsified" Jena 6 story
There’s just one problem: The media got most of the basics wrong. In fact, I have never before witnessed such a disgrace in professional journalism. Myths replaced facts, and journalists abdicated their solemn duty to investigate every claim because they were seduced by a powerfully appealing but false narrative of racial injustice.
I should know. I live in Jena. My wife has taught at Jena High School for many years. And most important, I am probably the only reporter who has covered these events from the very beginning.
Myth 2: Nooses a Signal to Black Students. An investigation by school officials, police, and an FBI agent revealed the true motivation behind the placing of two nooses in the tree the day after the assembly. According to the expulsion committee, the crudely constructed nooses were not aimed at black students. Instead, they were understood to be a prank by three white students aimed at their fellow white friends, members of the school rodeo team. (The students apparently got the idea from watching episodes of “Lonesome Dove.”
[ Read on for the debunking of the rest of this Hollywood fantasy. ]
news on 10.25.07 @ 11:34 PM CST [more..]
Small town thwarts multiculturalism and thrives
Nine months ago, when this tiny village in central Quebec adopted a code of conduct that banned the stoning of women and informed newcomers “at the end of every year we decorate a tree with balls and tinsel and some lights,” there were snickers from some quarters.
“They don’t laugh anymore,” Herouxville resident Bernard Thompson said yesterday.
Mr. Dumont was the first to tap into Quebec’s identity crisis last year when he suggested public authorities were going too far in accommodating religious minorities. While Mr. Charest and then-PQ leader Andre Boisclair downplayed the Herouxville initiative, Mr. Dumont called it “a heartfelt cry” and made the issue central to his election campaign. More recently he has said Quebec needs to cap its immigration levels because it is not successfully integrating new arrivals.
[ Multiculturalism doesn't work. It makes society paranoid. End multiculturalism, end most of that problem and motivate people toward culture. ]
news on 10.25.07 @ 11:33 PM CST [more..]
Liberal democracies become hopelessly corrupt
Elected officials are sent to Washington to govern but not to rule. This may sound like a question of semantics or at best a fine distinction. But rulership isn't a legitimate part of democracy. When a governing class develops in a democratic society, it loses contact with the people who elect it. In many ways America is burdened with such a class, which has amassed power over the past fifty years, until it arrived at a place where its right to rule goes almost unchallenged.
Who belongs to the ruling class? One might start with the wealthy lawyers who form an inordinate percentage of senators and congressmen, then move on to the corporations whose lobbyists write the very laws that are supposed to regulate corporations. Working hand in hand, these two blocs form a privileged class that feels free to ignore what the American people actually want.
An unexpected benefit of the Bush years is that the ruling class may have gone too far. A culture of corruption binds Congress and lobbyists to an unheard of degree. Bill after bill, earmark after earmark, has blatantly served special interests. Both parties are guilty of kowtowing to money and the corporations that dispense it with shameless abandon -- the buying and selling of political favors has never been so outrageous. Influence peddling, once a crime, has become the norm.
[ When all you have to do is convince people that you mean to give them the world, but the world you give is imaginary, you can swindle the voter and take power as people from both parties have done. Surprised? They belong to the same elites. ]
news on 10.25.07 @ 11:30 PM CST [more..]
Why technology is addictive and misleading
Microsoft may be suffering from engineers' syndrome, something you run into all the time. This is quite amusing, even to engineers, who see it occurring in other engineers but never see it in themselves.
The idea is that once you learn engineering disciplines, you project them onto endeavors other than engineering, since everything you ever do in life is actually some sort of engineering. While there is some modicum of truth to this notion, it's the leap of faith that pushes the idea into the absurd. What happens with engineers' syndrome is this: You start believing that since you're an excellent engineer in one specialty, then you're a friggin' genius in everything you do, because it's all the same, really.
[ This describes our approach to problems. We can never look at our internal deficiencies and fix them because we're used to manipulating external resources. ]
news on 10.25.07 @ 11:28 PM CST [more..]
Author says women don't belong in military
Kingsley Browne, law professor at Wayne State University in Michigan, is used to being called a male chauvinist. In a previous book he argued that biological differences between the sexes—rather than injustice—explain the existence of the glass ceiling. His new book, "Co-Ed Combat: The New Evidence That Women Shouldn't Fight the Nation's Wars," due out Nov. 8, argues that women are not physically and psychologically suited for combat. His contention: their presence on the front lines even endangers the military itself. Browne explained his views to NEWSWEEK's Martha Brant.
[ I'd rather go to fight so they women I know don't have to. Same way I go to a job every day so they don't have to. Homemaking is more important than some stupid job, and any of the stupid wars we've fought. I think men are biologically unsuitable for it as well. What's so hard about complementary gender roles? ]
news on 10.25.07 @ 11:26 PM CST [more..]
Nigerian echoes Watson's sentiments
Since then, some of us cannot hear anything else but the outrage of black people who feel demeaned by what Watson has said. So many people have called the man names. To be expected, some have said he is a racist.
Why are we blacks becoming so reactive, so sensitive to any remarks, no matter how well-meaning, about our failure as a race? Why are we becoming like the Jews who see every accusation as a manifestation of anti-Semitism? I do not know what constitutes intelligence. I leave that to our so-called scholars. But I do know that in terms of organising society for the benefit of the people living in it, we blacks have not shown any intelligence in that direction at all. I am so ashamed of this and sometimes feel that I ought to have belonged to another race.
[ The problem in Africa is the same as elsewhere: the smart people like this guy aren't in control because what they're saying isn't popular. The LNSG believes in nationalism not out of a desire to style blacks as inferior, but because we want to live according to European standards and heritage for the sake of completing what our ancestors started. It's a different way of doing things, and vive le difference! Scorn and racism are not nationalism. ]
news on 10.25.07 @ 11:22 PM CST [more..]
Monday, October 22nd
Modern products poison us from within
Most Americans haven't heard of body burden testing, but it's a hot topic among environmentalists and public health experts who warn that the industrial chemicals we come into contact with every day are accumulating in our bodies and endangering our health in ways we have yet to understand.
Michelle Hammond and Jeremiah Holland took part in a cutting-edge study to measure the industrial chemicals in their bodies. Tests revealed that their children -- Rowan, then 18 months, and Mikaela, then 5 -- had chemical exposure levels up to seven times those of their parents.
"[Rowan's] been on this planet for 18 months, and he's loaded with a chemical I've never heard of," Holland said. "He had two to three times the level of flame retardants in his body that's been known to cause thyroid dysfunction in lab rats."
[ Again, this was obvious to National Socialists, but the rest of the world is in denial. Why? ]
news on 10.22.07 @ 07:56 PM CST [more..]
Pollution accumulates faster than thought
Nitrogen oxides, the noxious byproduct of burning fossil fuels that can return to Earth in rain and snow as harmful nitrate, could taint urban water supplies and roadside waterways more than scientists and regulators realize, according to new research in the journal Environmental Science and Technology.
[ The timid scientists are finally getting brave enough to state some of the obvious. Good work! ]
news on 10.22.07 @ 07:54 PM CST [more..]
Drought dooms humans after reckless growth
A report by the National Academies on the Colorado River basin had recently concluded that the combination of limited Colorado River water supplies, increasing demands, warmer temperatures and the prospect of recurrent droughts "point to a future in which the potential for conflict" among those who use the river will be ever-present.
Over the past few decades, the driest states in the United States have become some of our fastest-growing; meanwhile, an ongoing drought has brought the flow of the Colorado to its lowest levels since measurements at Lee.s Ferry began 85 years ago. At the Senate hearing, Udall stated that the Colorado River basin is already two degrees warmer than it was in 1976 and that it is foolhardy to imagine that the next 50 years will resemble the last 50.
[ No intelligent leaders pointed out that we were overburdening the land? Some people did, but they weren't popular enough to become leaders. ]
news on 10.22.07 @ 07:53 PM CST [more..]
Russia a decaying criminal state that hates the West
Russian hackers became something akin to national heroes last spring when a wave of Internet attacks was launched from Russia against Web sites in Estonia, the former Soviet republic. The incidents began after the Estonians angered the Kremlin by moving a Soviet-era war monument.
VeriSign, the Internet services company, considers Russian hackers to be the worst, in part because they tend to have ties to organized crime outfits that embezzle money with stolen bank and credit card information.
This penchant has not stayed rooted to Russian soil. In the United States, a center for health care fraud is Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, which has one of the nation's largest concentrations of Russian immigrants.
Russia has only 28 million Internet users, according to rough estimates, compared with 210 million in the United States and 150 million in China, meaning that Russia has a higher percentage of scammers.
On a Livejournal Russian forum last week, The New York Times asked participants why Russians have a reputation for Internet crime.
"As for the West? - You are getting what you deserve," said one by the name of Lightwatch.
[ They hate you, Western man. ]
news on 10.22.07 @ 07:52 PM CST [more..]
Understanding white people
It's hard to grasp the intricacies of white culture when your only contact with white people is what you see on TV and when they wait on you at a department store or restaurant.
Because I was sent to mostly white private schools starting in the fifth grade, I learned early how to cope. How to deal with being a minority of one or two. How to parry prejudices of others without drowning in frustration.
It took me months to realize white folks would agree to do things they absolutely detested just to be polite.
[ He's got us nailed. It's part of the impulse to higher civilization, but it has misfired somewhat. ]
news on 10.22.07 @ 07:47 PM CST [more..]
White men are abandoning liberalism
Ignore the fact that white men are demographic losers, composing just 33-36% of the US electorate, and quickly being overtaken by the burgeoning population of college-educated single women and people of color, both groups that prefer the Democratic party. To Kuhn, the white man is the “standard” American voter; or, as he put it in the Politico last week: “White men matter most.”
Once upon a time, Kuhn writes in his new book, The Neglected Voter: White Men and the Democratic Dilemma, white men voted for Democrats because they understood the importance of progressive economic policies. But since 1980 no more than 38% of white males have voted for a Democratic presidential candidate. The problem? As civil rights and women’s liberation became part of the Democratic platform in the 1960s and 1970s, white men, “Like the rejected husband … walked out on liberalism for good.” The suggestion is that uppity women and minorities drove their white male providers away.
[ Liberalism wants to replace leaders with followers. Leaders want to do something else instead. Not news. ]
news on 10.22.07 @ 07:44 PM CST [more..]
Difference in racial attitudes toward happiness
University of Virginia psychology professor Shigehiro Oishi and colleagues at three other institutions found that, on average, European-Americans claim to be happy in general—more happy than Asian-Americans or Koreans or Japanese—but are more easily made less happy by negative events, and recover at a slower rate from negative events, than their counterparts in Asia or with an Asian ancestry. On the other hand, Koreans, Japanese, and to a lesser extent, Asian-Americans, are less happy in general, but recover their emotional equilibrium more readily after a setback than European-Americans.
[ Differences are profound, and you can see why: these different approaches guarantee that someone will succeed when humanity faces obstacles. ]
news on 10.22.07 @ 07:43 PM CST [more..]
Lack of intermarriage in Iraq war confuses mass media
What's striking about this conflict is not that Americans and Iraqis have met on the battlefield and fallen in love and married. It's that so few have.
State Department records show that after more than four years of occupation, only about 2,400 visas have been granted to Iraqi spouses and fiancées. Many of those may be marriages to Iraqi-Americans. (Neither the State Department nor the Pentagon breaks down the figures in detail.)
[ Ethnic consciousness is at an all-time high as America fragments. ]
news on 10.22.07 @ 07:41 PM CST [more..]
Sunday, October 21st
Halloween costumes for kids getting sluttier
The traditional Halloween scare fare is taking a back seat to the ever burgeoning array of ultra-sexy styles -- and not for adults only. Teens and even younger girls are buying into sexy, from belly-baring pirates, cheerleaders and divas, to sultry angels, flirty devils and racy witches. There's even a naughty Hermione, Harry Potter's sidekick.
The costume trend has gone from scary to "skanky," says Halloween guru Kurt Perron, and it's definitely creeped down to the tween and teen set.
[ And we wonder why they are so many pedophiles. ]
news on 10.21.07 @ 05:51 PM CST [more..]
Modern humans were smart long before thought
In one of the earliest hints of "modern" living, humans 164,000 years ago put on primitive makeup and hit the seashore for steaming mussels, new archaeological finds show.
Instead of undergoing a revolution into modern living about 40,000 to 70,000 years ago, as commonly thought, man may have become modern in stuttering fits and starts, or through a long slow march that began even earlier. At least that's the case being made in a study appearing in the journal Nature on Thursday.
[ Science is too heavily politicized to make sense of this. ]
news on 10.21.07 @ 05:33 PM CST [more..]
Soy food sterilizes men
Just half a serving of soya products a day dramatically reduced men's sperm counts in a new fertility study - contradicting previous findings.
[ But I thought it was healthy. That's what the TV, newspaper and magazines said. ]
news on 10.21.07 @ 05:31 PM CST [more..]
Mice races exterminated by human expansion
Biologists report a rapid change of morphology and mitochondrial genes in a mouse common to a Chicago-area conservation area, with an older, established genotype of the mouse being pushed out by another type over a recent five-year period as nearby human suburban development progressed.
[ Silent genocide. Could happen to whites, blacks and Asians if we're all bred into one Grey Race that has no culture or heritage except what it gets from its televisions. ]
news on 10.21.07 @ 05:28 PM CST [more..]
Brazilians desire authoritarian police force
The film "BOPE: Tropa de Elite" is rocking Brazil right now. Despite leaking to the internet and (more importantly) to Brazil's vast network of street DVD dealers weeks before, it hit theaters nationwide this past weekend and is breaking records.
The film's explosive success and the way it resonates with practically everybody in all corners of Brazilian society make it certain to have a profound influence on the subject it tackles: society's response to corruption, crime, and drug use.
Since BOPE's protagonists are elite Rio police who shoot drug dealers, kill for revenge, summarily execute corrupt police and freely use torture--sometimes on children--this is a very scary possibility.
[ People are tired of disorder. Anarchy leads to Democracy leads to Oligarchy which leads to Authoritarianism which leads to Anarchy, an eternal cycle. ]
news on 10.21.07 @ 05:24 PM CST [more..]
Trying to protect all children makes life unfun
We pamper our kids, over-schedule them, overemphasize fairness in competition (the score ends in a tie ... again!) and keep them indoors too much, to the point that we're doing them a huge disservice. Kids aren't learning how to get hurt, lose, fend for themselves, find their balance and discover minor dangers on their own - all important parts of growing up.
"Parents and children must not be frightened about venturing outside," he told the London Times in a June article. "When children spend time in the great outdoors, getting muddy, getting wet, getting stung by nettles, they learn important lessons - what hurts, what is slippery, what you can trip over or fall from. We need to try to break down the perceived safety barriers to playing outside."
[ The mentality of equality tries to prevent idiots from getting hurt, so makes all of us behave like sheep. ]
news on 10.21.07 @ 05:14 PM CST [more..]
American news stories are bribed
One of the reasons mainstream tech magazines like PC Magazine are so boring is because they're completely dependent on early access to new hardware and software, so companies like Microsoft and Apple use this carrot to keep them from being too critical. They've become product catalogs, which is one reason people look to blogs for a more candid and free-wheeling assessment of new products. While magazines were running cover after cover singing the praises of Windows Vista earlier this year, bloggers were putting up danger signs about upgrading to the new OS on existing PCs.
[ Same is true of mainstream media: no positive story, no interview in the future. ]
news on 10.21.07 @ 05:11 PM CST [more..]
American journalists jailed for reporting on gov't
The leaders of an alternative newspaper chain were arrested after running a story about grand jury subpoenas they received seeking reporters' notes and information on who visits their Phoenix weekly's Web site.
The subpoenas also seek online profiles of anyone who read four specific articles about Arpaio and profiles of anyone who visited the paper's Web site since Jan. 1, 2004. Also sought was information on what Web users did while on the site, the story said.
[ "Freedom." LOL ]
news on 10.21.07 @ 05:07 PM CST [more..]
Liberal president botched US-Russian relations
In some respects, the current crisis in Russian-U.S. relations is reminiscent of the October 1962 Cuban missile crisis, when the Soviet Union had deployed nuclear-tipped missiles in the immediate proximity of the U.S. borders.
[ After the Soviet Union fell, a strong leader could have stepped in and ensured that Russia's future was decided correctly. Instead, the American President Bill Clinton blew it off and allowed this mess to fester. ]
news on 10.21.07 @ 05:01 PM CST [more..]
Multiculturalism threatens liberal democracy, rabbi warns
Multiculturalism promotes segregation, stifles free speech and threatens liberal democracy, Britain's top Jewish official warned in extracts from his book published Saturday.
Jonathan Sacks, Britain's chief rabbi, defined multiculturalism as an attempt to affirm Britain's diverse communities and make ethnic and religious minorities more appreciated and respected. But in his book, "The Home We Build Together: Recreating Society," he said the movement had run its course.
[ He's right. Multiculturalism doesn't work. It promotes alienation and creates a slave-caste of mixed-heritage people without culture, except their TVs of course. ]
news on 10.21.07 @ 04:51 PM CST [more..]
Monogamous males live longer
Scientists compared monogamous species with polygynous species, in which each male mates with many females. Males in monogamous species, such as the barnacle goose or the dwarf mongoose, naturally compete less over females than ones in polygynous species, such as the red-winged blackbird or the savannah baboon.
After investigating about 20 different vertebrate species, researchers Tim Clutton-Brock and Kavita Isvaran at the University of Cambridge in England found the more polygynous a species was, the more likely their males were to age faster and die earlier than females.
[ It's easy to be a slut. Be monogamous, and you prosper for being more selective. Young slutty white men and women should pay attention. ]
news on 10.21.07 @ 04:49 PM CST [more..]
African-American humorist urges black renovation
Cosby's new book, "Come on People," co-authored by Harvard psychiatrist Dr. Alvin Poussaint, has already been featured on Oprah, Larry King and an extraordinary full hour on NBC's "Meet the Press." It's destined for a slot on the best seller lists.
"A house without a father is a challenge. A neighborhood without fathers is a catastrophe, and that's just about what we have today," write Cosby and Poussaint, citing startling statistics:
Of about 16,000 murders in this country each year, more than half are committed by black men.
Young black men are twice as likely to be unemployed as other American men.
Although black people are just 12% of the general population, they are some 44% of prison inmates.
Cosby's path through this jungle of endless debate is to encourage individuals to build up themselves and their families - not as a substitute for political activity, but as the glue that creates politically powerful communities.
[ These same rules apply to any community. Build yourselves up, weed out the bad behavior and promote those who behave well. That's natural selection, human style. White people should listen to him as well. ]
news on 10.21.07 @ 04:48 PM CST [more..]
Black police chief calls for stopping more blacks
Keith Jarrett, outgoing president of the National Black Police Association (NBPA), is expected to press for police to use a stop and search approach with people from black communities in a speech at the NBPA's annual conference in Bristol this Wednesday.
Though Mr Jarrett's remarks are opposed to the NBPA's official stance, he said: "The black community is telling me we have to… look at this", reports the Observer.
[ Multiculturalism fails black people too, and they're tired of living in violent ghettoes where once nice neighborhoods stood. ]
news on 10.21.07 @ 04:45 PM CST [more..]
National Socialism spreading worldwide
Neo-Nazi activity is rising around the world, as incidents in September and early October were reported in Europe, Southeast Asia and the U.S.
[ People are realizing that multiculturalism doesn't work and our current type of civilization is failing us. Let's celebrate that people are finally waking up! ]
news on 10.21.07 @ 04:44 PM CST [more..]
150,000 Jews served under Hitler
Cambridge University researcher Bryan Rigg has traced the Jewish ancestry of more than 1,200 of Hitler's soldiers, including two field marshals and fifteen generals (two full generals, eight lieutenant generals, five major generals), "men commanding up to 100,000 troops."
Jews also served in the Nazi police and security forces as ghetto police (Ordnungdienst) and concentration camp guards (kapos).
Rigg demonstrates that the actual number was much higher than previously thought--perhaps as many as 150,000 men, including decorated veterans and high-ranking officers, even generals and admirals.
Numerous "exemptions" were made in order to allow a soldier to stay within the ranks or to spare a soldier's parent, spouse, or other relative from incarceration or far worse. (Hitler's own signature can be found on many of these "exemption" orders.)
[ Hitler wasn't a kneejerk moron. He knew that many people who were Jewish were fine people, and would support his Germany, so he welcomed them into the effort. His goal was a healthy Germany.
Many Jews also supported him because they supported German values. They wanted to keep being Jews, but they saw in the Jewish establishment something that had gone off-track from what it was to be Jewish, or German. They loved their adopted land and wanted to fight for it -- and they did fight and die for it.
The removal of Jews was mostly a removal of criminals who were also Jewish. They, by the values they had demonstrated, were corrupt and sick and needed to be banished. It wasn't a witch-hunt per se. ]
news on 10.21.07 @ 04:43 PM CST [more..]
Respect scientist points out racial differences, provokes furor
The Nobel Prize-winning DNA pioneer James Watson has been suspended by his research institution in the US.
"Skin colour as a surrogate for race is a social concept not a scientific one," Dr Venter said. "There is no basis in scientific fact or in the human genetic code for the notion that skin colour will be predictive of intelligence."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7052416.stm
[ Venter sidesteps the issue. Skin color isn't race, nor did Watson claim it was. He did claim that African races were not as smart as Europeans. ]
Meanwhile, in an article for The Independent newspaper, Watson writes: "We do not yet adequately understand the way in which the different environments in the world have selected over time the genes which determine our capacity to do different things. The overwhelming desire of society today is to assume that equal powers of reason are a universal heritage of humanity.
"It may well be. But simply wanting this to be the case is not enough. This is not science. To question this is not to give in to racism. This is not a discussion about superiority or inferiority, it is about seeking to understand differences, about why some of us are great musicians and others great engineers."
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/10/19/watson_suspended/
[ He is correct: science has no taboos. But our science is politicized, so we are prohibited from exploring certain things that may be true. Truth is not the goal of modern science. ]
Comedy aside, a comment by Oxford University's Dr Jan Schnupp concisely sums up the facts: "Watson's comments make it very clear that he is an expert on genetics, NOT on intelligence". IQ tests, as a rule, don't just measure a person's innate intelligence; indeed, intelligence researchers don't have a clear idea what that means. Rather, the tests are skewed by a person's socio-economic status, whether they were malnourished as a child, the quality of their education, whether they perceive the test as a threat, and how much experience they have of similar tests.
Black people, even in western countries, tend to be less well-off than white people. It's therefore not surprising that, as a group, they do worse on these tests. If you take these confounding factors into account, the differences in IQ shrink to insignificance.
http://www.newscientist.com/blog/shortsharpscience/2007/10/james-watson-master-of-scientific-gaffe.html
[ These new scientist answers aren't very scientific. First, they sidestep the issue - "IQ tests, as a rule, don't just measure a person's innate intelligence; indeed, intelligence researchers don't have a clear idea what that means." - if researchers don't know what intelligence is, they also cannot say that IQ tests do not measure it. They have opted out of a politically-sensitive subject. No one has yet come forward to claim that people who score 105 on an IQ test are routinely smarter than those who score 120 on the same test, nor have they shown us what "bias" is inherent in the test other than lack of knowledge of some common words. The IQ test samples response time, memory, and spatial logic, and the only time socioeconomic factors come into play is in reading the instructions. Those who have trouble with that are unable to read a newspaper, which with the free public education in this country, just about anyone can. ]
news on 10.21.07 @ 04:33 PM CST [link]
Wednesday, October 17th
37% of older Germans say NSDAP had good points
A quarter of Germans believe there were at least some positive aspects to Nazi rule, a poll showed today.
Germans were asked whether National Socialism had some “good sides (such as) the construction of the highway system, the elimination of unemployment, the low criminality rate (and) the encouragement of the family”.
A quarter of those who responded said “yes” – but 70% said “no”.
[ Among those 60 and older, 37% answered yes, with the highest percentage answering no being the generation born directly after the war. Those who lived under it knew its benefits, but those who came later know only the TV propaganda. ]
news on 10.17.07 @ 10:55 PM CST [more..]
People's Encyclopedia in decline
Since early this year, and for the first extended period in Wikipedia's history, the activity rate of the Wikipedia community has been declining. This can be seen in the rate of editing articles (-17%), the rate of new account registration (-25%), blocks (-30%), protections (-30%), uploads (-10%), article deletions (-25%), etc. Some exceptions are the article creation rate (+25%) and image deletions (+80%), but overall the community appears to be doing less now than it was 6 months ago.
[ 5% of their audience did all the work and then saw it get edited by fools. So it declines, because it was a terrible idea in the first place. ]
news on 10.17.07 @ 10:32 PM CST [more..]
Genetic breakdown causes more social behavior
Wired: In Musicophilia, you describe a camp for children with a genetic disorder called Williams syndrome. Many of the kids there have impaired intellectual skills, but they're also extremely chatty and social, and have heightened musical abilities. Is this correspondence of social and musical abilities just a coincidence?
Sacks: People with Williams are helplessly empathic . they starve if they don't get both human and musical contact. The emotional parts of their brains, like the amygdala, may be unusually large, as well as areas in the temporal lobes concerned with hearing, speech, and music. For people with Williams, the human, musical, and conversational abilities all seem to go together.
[ We see the same thing in communities that have declined. The smart people go away, replaced by the socially savvy people. They don't compose great symphonies. They make "unique" rock music and chat a lot, and do nothing of consequence. ]
news on 10.17.07 @ 10:30 PM CST [more..]
A wealthy elite controls the world
These 9.6 million families, comprising 0.7 percent of world's households, now control some $33.2 trillion, the BCG study found. About half are located in the United States and Canada, a quarter in Europe and a fifth in the Asia-Pacific region, it said.
[ And what about the good people in the middle? They get to become labor while the elites inbreed into oblivion. ]
news on 10.17.07 @ 10:29 PM CST [more..]
Americans will pay more to reduce global climate change
Nearly three-quarters of Americans are willing to pay more in taxes and other expenses to support local government-led initiatives designed to reduce global warming, according to a first-of-its kind survey. Seventy-two percent said they would support local subsidies encouraging homeowners to install electricity-generating solar panels on existing homes, even if it would cost households an extra $5 per month in increased property taxes, because of the potential savings in energy and money on utility bills.
[ Survival: it's an important instinct. ]
news on 10.17.07 @ 10:28 PM CST [more..]
Small genetic variances more important than thought
A study by Yale researchers offers a new view of what causes the greatest genetic variability among individuals -- suggesting that it is due less to single point mutations than to the presence of structural changes that cause extended segments of the human genome to be missing, rearranged, or present in extra copies.
[ And races are 10% different. ]
news on 10.17.07 @ 10:27 PM CST [more..]
How fast do species grow?
Harvard University scientists have identified a virtual "speed limit" on the rate of molecular evolution in organisms, and the magic number appears to be 6 mutations per genome per generation -- a level beyond which species run the strong risk of extinction as their genomes lose stability.
[ It took a long time to get human groups this distinct. ]
news on 10.17.07 @ 10:26 PM CST [more..]
How Hitler reformed an economy
Or so it seemed. Hitler and the National Socialists, who came to power in 1933, thwarted the international banking cartel by issuing their own money. In this they took their cue from Abraham Lincoln, who funded the American Civil War with government-issued paper money called "Greenbacks." Hitler began his national credit program by devising a plan of public works.
news on 10.17.07 @ 10:24 PM CST [more..]
USA announces official corruption prices
On the heels of media reports that required funding for presidential candidates would top $3 billion dollars this year, a sum inaccessible to anyone resembling the "common man," the United States dropped its pretense and issued official lobbying and corruption prices to the world at large.
news on 10.17.07 @ 10:23 PM CST [more..]
"Green construction" is a corrupt racket
The electrician installs this stuff, the inspector signs off on it, and then the electrician swaps it all out for the stuff the homeowner wanted to begin with.
Who do you think makes money off these "green" devices that end up in the garbage?
Is the green movement really the greed movement in disguise?
And finally, are we going green or just faking it?
[ Image over reality, to please the proles, part 4,832,941. ]
news on 10.17.07 @ 10:19 PM CST [more..]
USA too weak to manufacture own toys
That's because 80% of all toys sold in the USA are made in China. Some internal toy-industry estimates show only about 10% are actually made here.
[ Not signs of a healthy country. ]
news on 10.17.07 @ 10:19 PM CST [more..]
Jobs make teenagers smoke
Fourteen to 18-year-old adolescents are at an increased risk to initiate smoking when they start to work, according to researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Investigators found that adolescents who worked more than 10 hours per week also started smoking at an earlier age than their peers.
[ People hate jobs. Adolf Hitler hated smoking. ]
news on 10.17.07 @ 10:18 PM CST [more..]
Basque nationalists rounded up and arrested
Spanish police have arrested 23 leaders of an outlawed Basque pro-independence party on suspicion of aiding the armed separatist group ETA, a judicial source told CNN.
[ Nationalism is the one true threat to the profit-based state. ]
news on 10.17.07 @ 10:16 PM CST [more..]
Feds fail to enforce immigration, so local gov't steps in
Local and state law enforcement agencies throughout the country are taking unprecedented steps to police illegal immigration, a responsibility historically reserved for the federal government.
Meanwhile, the void of immigration reform in Washington, D.C., has prompted eight states to enact a dozen laws relating to immigration enforcement this year. The laws were among the 182 immigration-related bills passed in 43 states, more than double the number enacted in 2006.
''It is definitely a trend, and the major reason is the obvious one — federal inaction on the issue," said Ann Morse, director of the immigration policy project at the National Council of State Legislatures.
[ The responsible people in America are realizing that multiculturalism is destructive. The government, paid for by lobbyists and people with easy jobs and broken hearts, is ignoring them. ]
news on 10.17.07 @ 10:15 PM CST [more..]
Black leader's speech cancelled for Israeli fear
A speech by Archbishop Desmond Tutu was canceled after local Jews expressed concern about his views on Israel.
The spring visit to Minnesota's University of St. Thomas was canceled because local Jewish groups were upset by comparisons Tutu had made between Israel and Hitler, according to a report in City Pages, a Minneapolis alternative weekly.
[ Multiculturalism is comedy of failure, as usual. ]
news on 10.17.07 @ 10:07 PM CST [more..]
Modern people are insane solipsists
One reason for this is that we tend to misinterpret positive e-mail messages as more neutral, and neutral ones as more negative, than the sender intended. Even jokes are rated as less funny by recipients than by senders.
We fail to realize this largely because of egocentricity, according to a 2005 article in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
[ When society rewards egomania, people become locked in themselves and cannot appreciate anything that requires them to read context. Are we become nations of autistic people? ]
news on 10.17.07 @ 10:06 PM CST [more..]
Government approves dangerous poisons for cash
Methyl iodide, also known as iodomethane, will be allowed to control soil pests "under highly restrictive provisions governing its use," the EPA said in a statement.
Last week, however, a group of 54 scientists, including six Nobel Prize winners, sent a letter to EPA urging that the pesticide not be registered for use because of the potential danger to pregnant women and children, the elderly and farmworkers.
news on 10.17.07 @ 10:04 PM CST [more..]
Cosmetics poison our women
THE average woman absorbs two kilograms of chemicals from cosmetics a year - from cancer-causing compounds in face cream to arsenic in eyeshadow.
[ Image over reality, causes slow death. How about that. ]
news on 10.17.07 @ 10:03 PM CST [more..]
Belgium rejects nation-state, goes nationalist
Nearly four months after holding general elections, Belgium's squabbling political parties still have not put a government together due to a deadlock over demands for more self-rule in Dutch-speaking Flanders and Francophone Wallonia.
The political stalemate has led to media and public speculation that Belgium might be better off breaking up, prompting Foreign Minister Karel de Gucht to offer "useful talking points" to embassy staffs meant to reassure Belgium's political and business partners worldwide.
[ Some quality thinking going on over there. Nation-states represent Commerce and Control, not the People -- or nature. ]
news on 10.17.07 @ 10:02 PM CST [more..]
Humanity outpaces earth's supplies
Reuters report that the world moved into "ecological overdraft" on Saturday, the point at which human consumption exceeds the ability of the earth to sustain it in any year and goes into the red, the New Economics Foundation think-tank said. Seen on Educated World."
[ That's totally apocalyptic... why didn't I hear much of this in our "free" media? It was as if it was unimportant compared to the civil rights struggle in Jena, Britney Spears's new tattoo, the war in Iraq, and Hilary Clinton's haircut. You'd think it would be more important. Sure is odd. ]
news on 10.17.07 @ 10:01 PM CST [more..]
White-black cancer differences due to patient behavior
A new study finds that white women more frequently take more of the life-prolonging supplemental therapies used to treat breast cancer than African-American women. African-Americans whose cancer had spread to the lymph nodes were less likely to have adjuvant cancer therapy than white women, the study showed. Adjuvant therapy is treatment given to kill remaining cancer cells, in addition to the primary therapy. Studies suggest adjuvant therapy may increase the chances of long-term survival.
[ White people seek therapy more. This explains better results, and less susceptibility to certain cancers. The disparity was not caused by racism. ]
news on 10.17.07 @ 10:00 PM CST [more..]
The masses as authors are a failure
But here's a contrasting viewpoint. Novelist William Burroughs met playwright Samuel Beckett, and after some small talk, Beckett looked directly at Burroughs and said, propitiously, "You're a writer." Burroughs instantly understood that Beckett was welcoming him into a very tiny and exclusive club . that there are only a few writers alive at any one time in human history. Beckett was saying that Burroughs was one of them. Everybody writes. Not everybody is a writer. Or at least, that's what some of us think...
Now the web . and its democratizing impact . has spread for over a decade. Over a billion people can deliver their text to a very broad public. It's a fantastic thing which gives a global voice to dissidents in various regions, makes people less lonely by connecting other people with similar interests and problems, ad infinitum.
[ Not everyone can be a writer. I am incompetent at hockey, pastry cooking, French grammar, driving and probably home repair. But those who are good at those things can rarely write. We each have specialties and to try to make the Crowd into an author of repute gets you millions of pages of uninspired, unexceptional, irrelevant blather, not millions of quality authors. You can't train people to be talened! ]
news on 10.17.07 @ 09:58 PM CST [more..]
Pollution kills, maims, study proves
Canadians are awash in toxic chemicals -- and it is costing our health care system up to $9.1 billion and 1.5 million hospital days annually, according to a new study. The research is the first to measure the magnitude of adverse health effects caused by exposure to environmental hazards such as air pollution, pesticides, dioxins, heavy metals, flame retardants and other persistent organic pollutants (POPs) for Canada. The study estimates that environmental pollutants cause as many as 25,000 deaths, 24,000 new cases of cancer and 2,500 low birth-weight babies in Canada every year.
[ But it's more profitable to cut necessary costs. Oh wait... then we collectively doom ourselves. Not smart. And pollution is just getting worse, year after year. ]
news on 10.17.07 @ 09:57 PM CST [more..]
Hidden costs of industrialization
A case study of the world's largest open-pit coal mine reveals the hidden costs of coal from Colombia, in particular the effects on indigenous and Afro-Colombian villages. Opened in 1983, the continual expansion of the Cerrejon mine - at the rate of about 1,482 acres a year - has led to the forced displacement of indigenous Wayuu and Afro-Colombian communities. Some assessments have been made of the environmental effects on ground water, marine life and air quality - all of which affect the rural and fishing communities.
[ It's not limited to those communities. It's going to hit all of us. In fact, it already is, but people are too oblivious to notice. ]
news on 10.17.07 @ 09:52 PM CST [more..]
Rosy-visions propaganda ignores fact
A new United Nations report called "State of the Future" concludes: "People around the world are becoming healthier, wealthier, better educated, more peaceful, more connected, and they are living longer."
Although global warming is said to be getting worse and income disparities are widening, the joyous trends in health and wealth documented in the report indicate a gigantic leap forward for humanity. World-wide illiteracy rates have fallen by half since 1970 and now stand at an all-time low of 18%. More people live in free countries than ever before. The average human being today will live 50% longer in 2025 than one born in 1955.
Free trade is rightly recognized as the engine of global prosperity in recent years. In 1981, 40% of the world's population lived on less than $1 a day. Now that percentage is only 25%, adjusted for inflation. And at current rates of growth, "world poverty will be cut in half between 2000 and 2015"--which is arguably one of the greatest triumphs in human history.
[ We've focused all our energy on equality, but we do not yet see that equality -- it, like eternal life, is promised for the future with no penalty for getting it wrong or lying. We do not produce great art, architecture, learning, or music... we produce technology, and more people who aren't in dire poverty anymore but aren't doing anything productive either. In short, if you look at the propaganda like the above, everything seems rosy, but if you look at the structure of our civilization, it is failing. ]
news on 10.17.07 @ 09:50 PM CST [more..]
93% of people instinctively form racial prejudices
U.S. researchers found just 7 percent of respondents do not have the usual human tendency to favor one's own group and not form racial prejudices.
Their study, published in the journal Psychological Science, found the 7 percent of people that showed no racial bias differed from biased individuals in a fundamental way -- they also were less likely to form
negative emotional associations in general.
[ I like having negative emotional associations about negative things. Racial bias is a scientific shorthand for "recognizes that multiculturalism doesn't work, gains us nothing, and is destructive to many good things." ]
news on 10.17.07 @ 09:47 PM CST [more..]
America awash with insane people
Commitment statutes were once lax and arbitrary; essentially, anyone suffering from a mental illness could be forced into treatment, regardless of imminent danger. As a result, in 1955 there were more than 500,000 people in state mental wards.or 339 for every 100,000 Americans. (By way of contrast, there were only 59,400 psychiatric inmates as of December 2000.or 22 per 100,000.) This state of affairs led both liberals and libertarians to call for reform. Liberals argued that the civil rights of the mentally ill were being curtailed, and libertarians wanted to downsize state-owned hospitals by shifting the burden of responsibility onto community centers.
[ Undoubtedly some abuses occurred, but it's unlikely it was the majority. Instead, those insane people are out there getting jobs and making your life worse. Nature isn't perfect, and every generation has its near-misses. That doesn't mean we want them destroying those that were hits as well. ]
news on 10.17.07 @ 09:45 PM CST [more..]
Jobs create cycle of abuse and tedium
Employees with difficult bosses checked out in the following ways:
30 percent slowed down or purposely made errors, compared with 6 percent of those not reporting abuse.
27 percent purposely hid from the boss, compared with 4 percent of those not abused.
33 percent confessed to not putting in maximum effort, compared with 9 percent of those not abused.
29 percent took sick time off even when not ill, compared with 4 percent of those not abused.
25 percent took more or longer breaks, compared with 7 percent of those not abused.
However, it is clear that employee-employer relations are at one of the lowest points in history,. researcher Wayne Hochwarter said.
[ People have less to work for. Life costs more because there are more parasites, and is less safe and pleasant. Their jobs have nothing to do with making life better for anyone important. ]
news on 10.17.07 @ 09:44 PM CST [more..]
Study hides that private schools outscore public schools
Students at independent private schools and most parochial schools scored the same on 12th-grade achievement tests in core academic subjects as those in traditional public high schools when income and other family characteristics were taken into account, according to the study by the nonpartisan Center on Education Policy.
[ You can make any two groups "equal" by weighting the scores of one until it matches the other, but that doesn't mean the weighting is accurate or even needed. Private school students outscore public school students, and for some reason, that idea is unpopular. ]
news on 10.17.07 @ 09:43 PM CST [more..]
USA blocks ability of employers to filter illegals
A federal judge has blocked a proposed rule requiring employers to fire workers whose names don't match their Social Security numbers, dealing a major blow to the Bush administration's crackdown on illegal immigration.
U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer's temporary injunction, issued Wednesday, stopped the Department of Homeland Security proposal from going into effect, at least temporarily.
Breyer said the proposal would likely impose hardships on businesses and their workers.
[ A well-placed bribe, or praise for those who refuse to act in the name of sense, goes a long way. ]
news on 10.17.07 @ 09:38 PM CST [more..]
Right whales near extinction
Scientists searching for what is likely the world's most endangered whale came up empty-handed this summer during a one-month tour of an area in the Bering Sea where Pacific right whales like to feed.
[ We can't get them back. Death is death. Maybe we should change what we're doing. ]
news on 10.17.07 @ 09:37 PM CST [more..]
Indian college students think Hitler is a good role model
And an earlier Times of India survey found significant numbers of Indian college students rated Hitler as an ideal model for an Indian leader.
[ Smart kids. They're less imbued in guilt, television, movies, and personal drama and are thinking more clearly than their Western counterparts. ]
news on 10.17.07 @ 09:35 PM CST [more..]
Swedish city exists without fossil fuels
When this quiet city in southern Sweden decided in 1996 to wean itself off fossil fuels, most people doubted the ambitious goal would have any impact beyond the town limits. A few melting glaciers later, Vaxjo is attracting a green pilgrimage of politicians, scientists and business leaders from as far afield as the United States and North Korea seeking inspiration from a city program that has allowed it to cut CO2 emissions 30 percent since 1993.
Vaxjo is a pioneer in a growing movement in dozens of European cities, large and small, that aren't waiting for national or international measures to curb global warming.
[ Despite what all those popular voices say, it can be done. Amazing. ]
news on 10.17.07 @ 09:34 PM CST [more..]
Americans depressed as country collapses
According to Rasmussen polls, just 21% of Americans believe the country is on the right track, a figure that has fallen by more than a half since the presidential election of 2004. Meanwhile only a third think the country's best days are yet to come, as opposed to 43% who believe they have come and gone - again a steep decline on three years ago. These are not one-offs. In the past 18 months almost every poll that has asked Americans about their country's direction has produced among the most pessimistic responses on record - a more extended period than anyone can remember since Watergate.
America, in short, is in a deep funk. Far from feeling hopeful, it appears fearful of the outside world and despondent about its own future. Not only do most believe tomorrow will be worse than today, they also feel that there is little that can be done about it.
[ Your media barons want you to believe that the conservative president did this, so voting liberal will fix the solution. It won't. It will make more long-term problems. Neither party is going to help you. You will have to think outside of the box. Your nation-state is in its last throes. ]
news on 10.17.07 @ 09:33 PM CST [more..]
Capitalism destroying Asian culture
Determined to restore tea to its exalted status in Asia, tea lovers are trying to repackage tea as a funky new-age brew to a young generation more inclined to slurp down a can of artificially-flavoured tea than to sip the real thing.
"Consumption of traditional tea is declining because it's not being passed down," said Yang, who teaches tea brewing classes to a handful of students such as Liu, who sign up mostly because of the coffee-making section in the course.
"Basically there's no one promoting it."
[ Asia without tea makes no sense. But it's profitable, and people do what they see others doing on TV. No one is thinking about what might be lost forever, which we might want. ]
news on 10.17.07 @ 09:32 PM CST [more..]
The political divide
Dallas and Los Angeles represent two distinct models for successful American cities, which both reflect and reinforce different cultural and political attitudes. One model fosters a family-oriented, middle-class lifestyle.the proverbial home-centered .balanced life.. The other rewards highly productive, work-driven people with a yen for stimulating public activities, for arts venues, world-class universities, luxury shopping, restaurants that aren.t kid-friendly. One makes room for a wide range of incomes, offering most working people a comfortable life.
The other, over time, becomes an enclave for the rich. Since day-to-day experience shapes people's sense of what is typical and normal, these differences in turn lead to contrasting perceptions of economic and social reality. It.s easy to believe the middle class is vanishing when you live in Los Angeles, much harder in Dallas. These differences also reinforce different norms and values.different ideas of what it means to live a good life. Real estate may be as important as religion in explaining the infamous gap between red and blue states.
[ In short, liberals are the city people who never experience the things they talk volubly about with a smug "progressive" outlook. Conservatives tend to be people who live in the mess, and want to fix it without having to move to a city. Neither group has addressed the roots of these problems, but Libertarian National Socialist Green Party theory does. ]
news on 10.17.07 @ 09:30 PM CST [more..]
American economy is Ponzi scheme
The question of consumer behavior is enormously important because more than 70% of U.S. economic activity is consumer spending. Most companies thus depend on our buying, which means that most of the valuation of the U.S. stock market depends on it also.
[ We're just selling stuff to each other, depending on constant new markets to keep alive. That's why multiculturalism is here. The system is unstable and needs to be fixed. ]
news on 10.17.07 @ 09:28 PM CST [more..]
Cartoonist in hiding after Muhammed mockery
[ Cartoonist makes provocative cartoon, a fatwa is called out on him, and he spends much of his time in hiding. Two inspirational quotes. ]
"That's a way of expressing things. If you don't like it, don't look at it. And if you look at it, don't take it too seriously. No harm done, really," he says.
"No one actually loves the truth, but someone has to say it," he says.
news on 10.17.07 @ 09:26 PM CST [more..]
African-American leader encourages nationalism, separatism
In a rare public appearance, Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan urged black Americans to separate from mainstream culture to establish and support their own community.
Nearly eight months after delivering what was thought to be his farewell speech, a smiling Farrakhan strode onstage Tuesday night at the Atlanta Civic Center to an applauding and cheering audience of nearly 5,000. He warned the crowd not to be distracted by the successes of recent decades.
"We have to come out of the thinking of a slave and come into the thinking and acting of free men and women," Farrakhan said. "We cannot depend on others for what the horrible condition of our people demands now that we do for ourselves."
[ All races should follow this advice. Turn off the TV, ignore the economy, and do what's right. It's the last brave or heroic act possible. ]
news on 10.17.07 @ 09:18 PM CST [more..]
Immigrants uninspired to learn new language
Only around half of the immigrants entitled to attend SFI actually start the education. Of these only a third actually finish the course the same year. A number of international studies have shown that although language skills are very good among native Swedes, they are poor among many immigrants. An international survey of 12 different OECD countries has for example shown, with data up to 1998, that fully 20-30 percent of immigrants in Sweden lack basic reading skills.
[ They want to retain ethnic identity, not be assimilated. Multiculturalism still doesn't work. ]
news on 10.17.07 @ 09:16 PM CST [more..]
Younger generations amotivated, self-fixated
In May, Britain's HSBC banking group released a global study on the future of retirement, which found that in nearly all of the 21 countries they studied, senior citizens--those who in times past would have been cared for by their grown children--gave more money to their offspring than they received. In total, almost a quarter of baby boomers had provided financial support to grown children at least once in the previous six months.
Regional studies yield more specific data: in America 28 percent of 22-to-29-year-olds rely on money from their parents to fund "major expenses." In Britain half of people under 30 get help from their parents for first-home deposits--up from just 10 percent a decade ago. "Lots of baby boomers are deciding not to retire and using their money to lift their kids out of falling into the lower brackets of society," says Richard Jones, deputy head of HSBC's retirement businesses.
[ Tell them they're special, then show them a dysfunctional world, and they too become dysfunctional because they have no one to trust. They aren't bad people. They are lost people as a result of their lost culture. ]
news on 10.17.07 @ 09:14 PM CST [more..]
Parents distrust vaccinations, "scientific" establishment
Sabrina Rahim doesn't practice any particular faith, but she had no problem signing a letter declaring that because of her deeply held religious beliefs, her 4-year-old son should be exempt from the vaccinations required to enter preschool.
She is among a small but growing number of parents around the country who are claiming religious exemptions to avoid vaccinating their children when the real reason may be skepticism of the shots or concern they can cause other illnesses. Some of these parents say they are being forced to lie because of the way the vaccination laws are written in their states.
[ Experts say vaccines are safe, but people are accustomed to experts having taken bribes, so now their word is worthless. ]
news on 10.17.07 @ 09:13 PM CST [more..]
Police stop drug crackdown for fear of being "racist"
A police crackdown on cannabis factories run by Vietnamese drug barons has been scrapped after officers were warned their actions might be racist.
There are now three million cannabis users in the UK and more than 60 per cent of what they use is produced here, compared to just 11 per cent ten years ago.
[ If people can't be both minorities AND guilty, we exempt all of them from guilt and will get no convictions. Yet in the past, minorities arrested for crimes, even when guilty, have felt discriminated against. Lesson - minorities are criminals? No: multiculturalism makes everyone feel paranoid and suspicious. It doesn't work. Multiculturalism does not work. ]
news on 10.17.07 @ 09:11 PM CST [more..]
Hispanic gangs attempt to ethnically "cleanse" African-Americans
Federal prosecutors today charged members of the Latino Florencia 13 street gang with racially motivated crimes against African Americans, including several attempted homicides.
Authorities said the gang specifically tried to eliminate rival African American gangs in South L.A. and the Florence-Firestone area in an effort to “cleanse” the neighborhood. In doing so, they mistakenly harassed and attacked innocent African American residents, according to the indictment.
[ Multiculturalism doesn't work for anyone. The end of competition is a ruse. ]
news on 10.17.07 @ 09:09 PM CST [more..]
Sunday, October 14th
African-American beats Jewish-American, panic results
The beating of Mordechai Moskowitz, reportedly at the hands of a black man, has put residents on edge in Lakewood, a diverse city of 70,000 near the Jersey Shore that is home to a large Orthodox Jewish population, as well as black and Hispanic communities.
Some Jewish residents said Thursday they feared the latest attack would exacerbate long-standing tensions between ethnic groups in the town. "People are going to Israel, where people are blowing up buses," Spira said.
[ Multiculturalism doesn't work, and ethnic tensions always rise. ]
news on 10.14.07 @ 04:04 PM CST [more..]
Life is more complex than you thought
Because convergent systems are tremendously complex--both to create and potentially to use. The trick is to hide that complexity to the user so that it appears easy. Doing that requires huge amounts of work and difficult choices and, yes, paying attention to seemingly small details. Cumulatively these small details add up to either ease the use of the system or to hinder it.
[ This is how you do anything successful. Very few people know this. This is why most products are garbage, most leaders are morons, and your entertainment could bore a horse. ]
news on 10.14.07 @ 09:53 AM CST [more..]
Monogamy raises your testosterone
Supporting a growing body of research, the study reveals that even married men who are considered aloof spouses and provide minimal parenting have much lower testosterone levels than single, unmarried men. Surprisingly, men with more than one wife have lower levels than monogamously married men.
[ What they probably won't put in, because it's politically unacceptable, is that casual sex greatly reduces your testosterone and can lead to erectile dysfunction. After a while, it does become mechanical, that sex thing, when you do it randomly. ]
news on 10.14.07 @ 09:51 AM CST [more..]
Conventional right-wing fears actual right-wingers
Right Wing News emailed more than 225 right-of-center bloggers and asked them to send us a list of whom they considered to be their "Least Favorite People On The Right."
2) Pat Buchanan (18)
1) Ron Paul (23)
[ The "right wing" has been convinced that if it plays the liberal equality game, it can get to share in the power, and it has swindled its supporters into believing the same. The truth is that people want an option to the ongoing liberalization of society that has brought misery and degradation, and they are not so much likely to be "right-wing" as to be "anti-liberal." That's the silent majority. They don't care about emotional but destructive "progressive reforms." That's your real audience, you idiots. ]
news on 10.14.07 @ 09:50 AM CST [more..]
"Scientists" are often useless sheep
The New York Times has this nice writeup recounting the history of how low-fat diets became the overwhelming scientific consensus. The problem is that the science never supported the claim. Only a few scientists were willing to speak truth to people like Senator McGovern. McGovern once questioned Dr. Edward H. Ahrens Jr., a lipids researcher who spoke out against the McGovern committee report that recommended a low-fat diet. Mr. McGovern asked him at a hearing to reconcile his skepticism with a survey showing that the low-fat recommendations were endorsed by 92 percent of "the world's leading doctors."
[ "Scientist" means you got a degree in science. It doesn't mean you're not as lost, short-sighted, and easy manipulated for money as the rest of the people you know. ]
news on 10.14.07 @ 09:48 AM CST [more..]
Pollution reducing European lifespan, life quality
Poor air and water quality, and environmental changes blamed on global warming, have cut Europeans' life expectancy by nearly a year, Europe's environmental agency warned Wednesday.
More must be done "fast" to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to improve air and water quality, the European Environment Agency said in a 400-page report presented at a ministerial conference held in Serbia.
Hundreds of thousands of people across Europe are dying prematurely because of air pollution, it said. "The estimated annual loss of life is significantly greater than that due to car accidents," the report said.
[ Only in a screwed up society such as ours is this news. In a sane society, people expect that dumping chemicals and waste into the environment causes repercussions. We're in denial because of our greed, paranoia and hatred of nature, which is unequal and so probably racist. ]
news on 10.14.07 @ 09:47 AM CST [more..]
Nationalists destroy faux art
Around 3:30, half an hour before closing, four vandals wearing black masks stormed into a space known as the Kulturen Gallery while shouting in Swedish, "We don't support this," plus an expletive. They pushed visitors aside, entered a darkened room where some of the photographs were displayed and began smashing the glass protecting the photographs and then hacking away at the prints...
The show consists of photographs, made in 1995 and 1996, of various sex acts, including a depiction of a naked woman fondling a stallion. The vandals went to the black room, where (show curator Viveca) Ohlsson said the photographs were a bit racier.
[ For decades, the "art community" has churned out art that makes no one's life more informed, or better, or more beautiful. What it does do is support parasitic artists and degrade our expectations of life. Some citizens decided to fix this situation. ]
news on 10.14.07 @ 09:46 AM CST [more..]
Neanderthals role debated
The sequencing of Neanderthal nuclear DNA from fossil bone held promise for finally answering the question of whether the Neanderthals are ancestors of ours. However, two recent studies came to very different conclusions regarding the ancestral role of Neanderthals.
[ Science is some guy staring through a pinhole at history and trying to find irrefutable proof that it was simpler, easier and more profitable than we'd guessed before. ]
news on 10.14.07 @ 09:43 AM CST [more..]
World ignores another extinction, reaches for cheeseburger
A rare bird that breeds in a remote Russian province is facing extinction, conservationists warned Friday, after a survey found that the numbers of the spoon-billed sandpiper had dropped dramatically.
[ Another species gets snuffed. We don't change our ways. In healthy times, that would be considered pathological behavior. ]
news on 10.14.07 @ 09:41 AM CST [more..]
Yeast are classist, racist, probably sexist
In a molecular tour de force, researchers have provided an exquisitely detailed picture of natural selection as it occurs at the genetic level. Over many generations, a single yeast gene divides in two and parses its responsibilities to be a more efficient denizen of its environment, they show. The work illustrates, at the most basic level, the driving force of evolution.
[ Natural selection implies inequality. Ban yeast now. ]
news on 10.14.07 @ 09:40 AM CST [more..]
The invisible costs of industrialization
A case study of the world's largest open-pit coal mine reveals the hidden costs of coal from Colombia, in particular the effects on indigenous and Afro-Colombian villages. Opened in 1983, the continual expansion of the Cerrejon mine - at the rate of about 1,482 acres a year - has led to the forced displacement of indigenous Wayuu and Afro-Colombian communities. Some assessments have been made of the environmental effects on ground water, marine life and air quality - all of which affect the rural and fishing communities.
[ They never show you this in the commercials! Why not? Because the name of the game is to take the money and run, not worry about what consequences other people -- little people -- pay for. ]
news on 10.14.07 @ 09:39 AM CST [more..]
US backs down on immigration rules
Technology firms in the US just won a last-minute reprieve from a fusillade of new, and potentially devastating, immigration rules.
[ Now they can import more workers, which weakens their own people even more, and adds population that encourages third-world overbreeding and increases the environmental crisis. ]
news on 10.14.07 @ 09:38 AM CST [more..]
Canadian study: pollution causes health risk, high cost
Canadians are awash in toxic chemicals -- and it is costing our health care system up to $9.1 billion and 1.5 million hospital days annually, according to a new study. The research is the first to measure the magnitude of adverse health effects caused by exposure to environmental hazards such as air pollution, pesticides, dioxins, heavy metals, flame retardants and other persistent organic pollutants (POPs) for Canada. The study estimates that environmental pollutants cause as many as 25,000 deaths, 24,000 new cases of cancer and 2,500 low birth-weight babies in Canada every year.
[ This would be obvious in any world that wasn't brainwashed. ]
news on 10.14.07 @ 09:31 AM CST [more..]
Free admission for "light-skinned black women"
A Detroit DJ and promoter is backing down from plans to sponsor a party at a local club that would allow “light skinned” black women into the bash for free, according to a report in The Detroit News.
Promoter Ulysses “DJ Lish” Barnes cancelled the event at Detroit’s Club APT after word of the party spread on the Internet, triggering a flood of angry emails and phone calls from around the country and highlighting tensions that sometimes flare between darker-skinned and lighter-skinned African-Americans.
[ Guess racial tensions are even high within ethnic groups, which you can see in whites any time you have a busy group of office workers talking about rural people. ]
news on 10.14.07 @ 09:08 AM CST [more..]
Tuesday, October 9th
Third world economies will ensure global warming
A climate-change expert says that spiraling economic growth has accelerated greenhouse gas emissions to a threshold not expected for at least another decade, and that its potential effects are devastating.
[ All those people who couldn't invent technology, but had it taken to them from a mixture of pity and desire for new markets, are now wanting to live like American suburbanites. They outnumber us 8 to 1. That's how much bigger global warming is going to get. Stop foreign aid and multiculturalism now! ]
news on 10.09.07 @ 09:18 PM CST [more..]
Pesticides cause breast cancer
High levels of the primary component of DDT, in women exposed before mid-adolescence, were found to be predict a five-fold increase in breast cancer risk. Many American women heavily exposed to DDT in childhood have not yet reached 50 years of age, therefore the public health significance of DDT exposure in early life may be large.
[ But it was profitable... ]
news on 10.09.07 @ 09:16 PM CST [more..]
Cities reward those with low standards
A new study using a phylogenetically controlled, global comparison of birds species demonstrates that generalist organisms are better able to tolerate urbanization.
From the Story: "The urban habitat is usually more severe than the habitats these birds historically occupied," said study team member John Wingfield of the University of Washington. "Urban habitats aren't easy, so the birds have to have developed coping mechanisms."
One of those coping mechanisms is a more flexible lifestyle.
[ In nature, it is good to be adaptible -- to a point. If you're too flexible, you lose control of your destiny, and get bred back into the lower primate stage. We're seeing this with generalist species like sparrows, pigeons, rats, squirrels and cockroaches. They don't care what they eat. They don't need much space. They don't do anything particularly impressive. They just exist and, if they could, they'd vote and watch TV just like modern humans do. ]
news on 10.09.07 @ 09:15 PM CST [more..]
Sexual revolution leads to misery in later years
More than a third of Americans over 50 are divorced, widowed, separated or have never married, according to a tally of statistics released in 2006 by the U.S. Census Bureau.
"We are not aiming for great changes in the second half of life, but looking for fulfillment in who we are now," says Sharon Romm, a Seattle-based psychiatrist and author of "Dating After 50: Negotiating the Minefields of Midlife Romance."
"Not everyone wants another marriage. Someone might want a companion for going to concerts on Saturday night and not much more. Others might absolutely want -- or not want -- sex as part of another relationship."
[ A wasteland littered with failed lives and insincere solutions. Did sexual liberation make you happier, or just less likely to have the "burden" and "obligation" of taking care of a family? Now that you're all alone, and your beauty is gone and you have no children who aren't ruined products of divorce, was it worth it? Answer honestly - most of you can't. ]
news on 10.09.07 @ 09:13 PM CST [more..]
Liberal attitudes toward race are racist
Gunnar Myrdal's An American Dilemma was published by the Carnegie Foundation fifty-three years ago and is considered the most important book published on race relations in America. In fact, one could argue that it is the single most important study of American society published in the 20th Century. Myrdal was from Sweden, a mono-racial country where black-white relations were never a problem. Essentially, Myrdal argued that the problem with American black culture was pathological. The cause of this condition was simple: discrimination. Blacks were disadvantaged because whites would not allow blacks to participate fully in American life. Since the cause was simple the solution was equally simple: end discrimination. The origins and logic of the mores of the existing society were unimportant; it is not just (said the world-renowned egalitarian socialist) therefore it must be changed.
Some strongly disagreed with Myrdal's diagnosis of pathology, including influential blacks in favour of change; but their criticisms went unheeded. For example, the black intellectual, Ralph Ellison, wrote a solicited review of An American Dilemma for The Antioch Review, but they refused to publish it because of its antagonistic approach. Ellison thought it absurd that anyone would believe that his black culture was created by discrimination. He wrote:
"Can a people live and develop for over 300 years simply by reacting? Are American Negroes simply the creation of white man, or have they at least helped to create themselves out of what they found around them? Men have made a way of life in caves and upon cliffs, why cannot Negroes have made a life upon the horns of the white man's dilemma?"
Does Race Matter?
White liberals frown on independent thinking by minorities. Some of them claimed that Thomas was pulling up the ladder behind him and so they pulled the rug out from under him. These are the folks who claim credit for the success of those minorities they agree with while trying to discredit those with whom they disagree.
That reminds me. One popular misconception is that African-Americans who gravitate toward the Republican Party do so because they agree with the GOP on the issues, perhaps in support of tax cuts or in opposition to same-sex marriage. But, from my dealings with black conservatives, I can tell you that -- for many of them -- their rightward drift began as a reaction to the condescension on the left.
[ The second commentator, a reasonably astute Hispanic writer, points out the ugly truth of modern liberals: they want pets, not multiculturalism. The corporate overlords see this and take advantage of it with some well-placed lobbying. Neurotic people who talk about race always want to treat minorities like broken children, so they have something to love that owes them something. It's a yucky psychology. ]
news on 10.09.07 @ 09:10 PM CST [more..]
USA cracks down on criminal illegal aliens
Over 1,300 illegal immigrants have been arrested in the US over the past two weeks, in the government's largest crackdown of its kind.
The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency said Wednesday, that its Fugitive Operations Teams targeted illegal immigrants who committed violent crimes, or those who ignored deportation orders.
[ It's not hard to get people out of your country. Stop paying them and giving them welfare and they will depart. ]
news on 10.09.07 @ 09:04 PM CST [more..]
81% of Israelis want a nationalist/racist state
Of those questioned, 81 percent said Israel should maintain the original wording of the Law of Return, which states that anyone with at least one Jewish parent or grandparent, as well as spouses of the aforementioned, are entitled to citizenship.
Only 15% of respondents said it was time for Israel to create new criteria for citizenship based on characteristics such as professional training and family status.
[ Zionism has always been sanity. It has helped save the Jewish people from many threats. White groups should adopt the same rational outlook and become National Socialists. ]
news on 10.09.07 @ 09:03 PM CST [more..]
The Inconvenient Science of Racial DNA Profiling
Based on an FBI profile and a confident eyewitness, the Multi-Agency Homicide Task Force futilely upended South Louisiana in search of a young white man who drove a white pick-up truck. They interrogated possible suspects, knocked on hundreds of doors, held frequent press conferences and sorted through thousands of tips.
In early March, 2003, investigators turned to Tony Frudakis, a molecular biologist who said he could determine the killer’s race by analyzing his DNA. They were unsure about the science, so, before giving him the go-ahead, the task force sent Frudakis DNA swabs taken from 20 people whose race they knew and asked him to determine their races through blind testing. He nailed every single one.
“Your guy has substantial African ancestry,” said Frudakis. “He could be Afro-Caribbean or African American but there is no chance that this is a Caucasian. No chance at all.” There was a prolonged, stunned silence. The task force followed Frudakis’ advice and, two months later, the killer was in custody.
[ I heard from our media that race is a social construct, that race doesn't exist, that only ignorant people believe in race, that race isn't science, that we shouldn't think about race, that even considering race to exist is racist. Yet science proves them all wrong. Why would they tell us something they knew was wrong? ]
news on 10.09.07 @ 08:36 PM CST [more..]
Wednesday, October 3rd
Cameras proliferate as civility declines
[ October 19, 2005 ]
On Nov. 1, five Houston-area intersections will get stoplight cameras. However, officials would not disclose which intersections would be first to get the technology.
[ September 30, 2007 ]
Red light cameras are installed at the following intersections, according to the Houston Police Department.
news on 10.03.07 @ 09:46 PM CST [more..]
Hispanic growth impoverishing African-Americans
In America, the nation's largest minority group carries significant weight. It's sort of like being the daddy at the dinner table -- you get the biggest piece of chicken or the largest slice of cake.
Political power means jobs and resources. And the one group with the most power wants to benefit their own, and sacrifice everyone else.
Today, we see that spilling over into every area, even business. African-American ad agencies, and media outlets, complain that the dollars set aside for blacks has been savagely reduced and shifted to Hispanic media.
[ Multiculturalism isn't about fairness to darker people. It's about using them and us to enrich oligarchs in the new global economy. ]
I heard plenty of racist comments -- and most of them came from self-identified black callers and were aimed at Latinos. It's not that Latinos can't be racist toward blacks. They can be. But, with Latinos under siege in the immigration debate, maybe they were too busy defending themselves to take shots at African-Americans.
In 2001, while I was writing for the Dallas Morning News, a videotape surfaced showing African-American City Council candidate Dwayne Caraway delivering a warning to black business leaders: "You better wake up and look at your next-door neighbor," Caraway told the audience. "Because now, your next-door neighbor is Hispanic. And they're moving in. And they're taking over. And they're pushing us out."
African-Americans are frustrated because they think they're losing jobs to illegal immigrants. Latinos are frustrated that African-Americans -- of all people -- can't detect the racism that poisons this debate.
[ It's not racism, you are lowering the pay scale, forcing them into other jobs, and obliterating their culture. Multiculturalism is bad for everyone, white black brown yellow or other! ]
news on 10.03.07 @ 09:39 PM CST [more..]
Science barely scratching the surface of ancient history
Neanderthals, the stocky kin of modern humans, were far more widespread geographically than previously thought, with some trekking into southern Siberia before vanishing about 30,000 years ago, scientists said on Monday.
[ Hindus, Norsemen and Asians all recall a lengthier history than this admits. Could it be that modern science is, far from being infallible, but a series of conjectures that are proven wrong only a few years later and replaced with something equally partially true? ]
news on 10.03.07 @ 09:37 PM CST [more..]
American states want to secede from dying nation
In an unlikely marriage of desire to secede from the United States, two advocacy groups from opposite political traditions . New England and the South . are sitting down to talk.
Tired of foreign wars and what they consider right-wing courts, the Middlebury Institute wants liberal states like Vermont to be able to secede peacefully.
That sounds just fine to the League of the South, a conservative group that refuses to give up on Southern independence.
"We believe that an independent South, or Hawaii, Alaska, or Vermont would be better able to serve the interest of everybody, regardless of race or ethnicity," said Michael Hill of Killen, Ala., president of the League of the South.
[ As Thomas Chittum suggested would happen, people in the USA have so little in common that many of them are agitating to secede. ]
news on 10.03.07 @ 09:28 PM CST [more..]
Car ad causes furor for Hispanics
A car dealership issued an apology and fired a sales manager over the distribution of an e-mail advertisement that included a derogatory term for Hispanics.
The Mac Haik Ford Lincoln Mercury dealership ad was headlined "Tired of the Wet Backs????" It then listed promotions for vehicles with air-conditioned seats.
[ Who thought that was a good idea? ]
news on 10.03.07 @ 09:26 PM CST [more..]
Irish artist condemns urban living
A lot of noise is made about the fact that half of the world's population now lives in cities. There may well be, however, a lot left to examine about patterns of inhabitation and activity in the countryside, and it probably has a lot to do with the future and the survival of civilization.
In *R**ural*, dominic stevens, who left Dublin 8 years ago, reflects on the forces that shape our rural environment and lifestyle. Sociology, economics, politics, farming, culture are all examined. Carefully studying behaviours of old and candidly questioning present-day absurdities, the author explores
many avenues that may well offer a more exciting, dynamic and lasting future for rural areas, and society at large.
[ Stevens was on the radio this morning talking about this book. His ideas are very interesting and extremely sensible. He suggests reforming our way of life to be more rural, decentralised & community-sufficient; less dependent on the quick commodities, global produce and car-commuting that are ruining
the planet.
He advocates a return to older ways of doing things as an answer to the problems created by the growing shortage of fossil fuels.
The reception he recieved was less than welcoming. The host struggled to remain neutral whilst two other guests, a Cork farmer and a journalist, laughed at Stevens, calling him naiive and idealistic. One outright stating "My children can't be expected to live without their ipods!", the other
saying what remarkable progress it was that enabled rural people to go clubbing. ]
news on 10.03.07 @ 09:24 PM CST [more..]
Pollution causes heart disease and other terrible things
Research at Northwestern University demonstrates in an animal model how air pollution can contribute to blood clots, which cause heart disease and strokes.
[ It's common sense that you can't put a lot of particulate junk in the air without hurting something. Now we know one of the things it hurts. ]
news on 10.03.07 @ 09:22 PM CST [more..]
Purpose-driven people escape some diseases
A surprising study of elderly people suggests that those who see themselves as self-disciplined, organized achievers have a lower risk for developing Alzheimer's disease than people who are less conscientious.
A purposeful personality may somehow protect the brain, perhaps by increasing neural connections that can act as a reserve against mental decline, said study co-author Robert Wilson of Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, Illinois.
Astoundingly, the brains of some of the dutiful people in the study were examined after their deaths and were found to have lesions that would meet accepted criteria for Alzheimer's -- even though these people had shown no signs of dementia.
[ When you think of something beyond yourself, you find fulfilment in life and are always reaching for something greater. Otherwise, you stagnate, because even TV isn't fascinating enough to keep you occupied for life. Then your unused brain rots and your children pay for your excess in visit guilt, boredom and medical costs. ]
news on 10.03.07 @ 09:20 PM CST [more..]
Judge blocks proposal to verify legal status of US employees
Judge Charles Breyer of the U.S. District Court for Northern Californiais blocking efforts by the Department of Homeland Security to crack down on those who hire illegal immigrants. The suit challenging the government was brought by the American Civil Liberties Union, the AFL-CIO and several San Francisco labor groups.
Here's how the DHS program would work: If an employer finds out an employee's information doesn't match Social Security records and the employee can't clarify the issue within 90 days, the employer would have to fire that person or risk being prosecuted. In other words, if the employee obtained his job under false pretenses and was working for the company illegally, he would be fired.
[ Judge Breyer is probably reacting to his fear of being singled out as not part of the dominant paradigm, since he is from a Jewish family that probably remembers the Holocaust. The appropriate response however is to strengthen Israel, not attempt to weaken goyim. ]
news on 10.03.07 @ 09:17 PM CST [more..]
USS Liberty attack revealed in Chicago Tribune
Lockwood was aboard the USS Liberty, a super-secret spy ship on station in the eastern Mediterranean, when four Israeli fighter jets flew out of the afternoon sun to strafe and bomb the virtually defenseless vessel on June 8, 1967, the fourth day of what would become known as the Six-Day War.
For Lockwood and many other survivors, the anger is mixed with incredulity: that Israel would attack an important ally, then attribute the attack to a case of mistaken identity by Israeli pilots who had confused the U.S. Navy's most distinctive ship with an Egyptian horse-cavalry transport that was half its size and had a dissimilar profile. And they're also incredulous that, for years, their own government would reject their calls for a thorough investigation.
Theodore Arfsten, a quartermaster, remembered watching a Jewish officer cry when he saw the blue Star of David on the planes' fuselages.
[ The official record is often manipulated, and then it becomes taboo to question it. I'm not sure what happened with this attack, but the handling of it is suspect. I will not, however, blame Israel. The USA covered it up and that is where the real failing is here. ]
news on 10.03.07 @ 09:00 PM CST [more..]