Poet And Musician is dead at 62: ‘Gil Scott-Heron died Friday afternoon in New York, his book publisher reported. He was 62. The influential poet and musician is often credited with being one of the progenitors of hip-hop, and is best known for the spoken-word piece “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.” ‘ (via NPR)
You Can Adopt a War Dog
“According to the AP, 300 WAR DOGS go up for adoption each year after they finish their duties overseas. They may be 10 years old, and costs upwards of $2000 to have shipped back to the U.S., but people are rushing to get their hands on one.” (via Gizmodo)
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How to Write a Rapture Letter
“Isn’t this thoughtful? Those demented bawbags who are waiting for the Rapture this weekend have prepared a letter to help explain where they and “millions and millions” of the faithful have disappeared to.” (via Dangerous Minds). Anyone know anyone who was raptured this weekend? I’m not sure if the Rapture didn’t happen or if I just don’t know any of the righteous. I did brush my teeth and put on fresh underwear yesterday morning just in case.
For Starters…
One hundred best first lines from novels. (via American Book Review ).
From those which you have not read, which are the first lines that entice you?
First AIDS ‘cure’ in history
“Timothy Ray Brown, a 45-year-old San Francisco man previously known to the medical community as “the Berlin patient,” has become the first person to ever be cured of AIDS.
After a stem cell bone marrow transplant, doctors say his HIV, the infection which causes AIDS, was eradicated.
His bone marrow donor was one of a very small percentage of people who are immune to HIV.” (via Raw Replay).
You Bug Me
Now Science Explains Why: “…There are so many things in the world that are just
You bug me
downright annoying.But what makes them annoying? It’s the question that NPR Science Correspondent Joe Palca and Science Friday‘s Flora Lichtman set out to answer in their new book, Annoying: The Science of What Bugs Us. For instance, why is hearing someone else’s phone call more irritating than just overhearing a normal conversation?” (via NPR)
Wal-Mart Gift Receipt Ripoff
Mounting evidence that, when you try to return a gift with a gift receipt (which does not document the purchase price), Wal-Mart refunds you less than the gift buyer paid at purchase. As if you needed another reason to hate Wal-Mart. (via CBS Philly).
You can go play with those cubs after all
“A sweeping study chronicling more than a century’s worth of deadly encounters with black bears in Canada and the United States is …dispelling the widely held notion that a sow protecting her cubs is the prime danger.
… the vast majority of the confrontations weren’t the result of chance meetings in the woods, but the outcome of predatory behaviour, nearly always by lone male black bears. Surprisingly, only 8 per cent of the deadly attacks were attributed to mother bears.
Even the world’s foremost bear-attack expert, study leader Stephen Herrero, was taken aback by this finding…” (via The Globe and Mail)
Sad Little Outlaw
Tied to the tree, as I was, while my brother galloped
through the backyard, straddling a broom,
a plastic six-shooter in his hand.
I was always being left behind
in the mud, a bandage around my eyes,
until he reached out
just enough so that our fingers slipped apart
and he could ride away, calling out my name as the posse
advanced.
But it wasn’t really my name
with its biblical limitations, no, he called out Johnny!!!
Johnny, that all-American from Kansas and Iowa, that Johnny
from New Jersey and Queens, a boy
people will beat their chests for as the flag is being folded
into its triangle of pity.
I was a sad little outlaw for so long!
Knowing my brother would have to live
without me. That he would be alone
in our room at night, a sheriff’s badge
pinned to his chest like a silver flower
blooming above his heart.
— Matthew Dickman
(via Narrative Magazine; thanks, Julia!).
Blackwater Founder Forms Secret Army for UAE
“In outsourcing critical parts of their defense to mercenaries — the soldiers of choice for medieval kings, Italian Renaissance dukes and African dictators — the Emiratis have begun a new era in the boom in wartime contracting that began after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. And by relying on a force largely created by Americans, they have introduced a volatile element in an already combustible region where the United States is widely viewed with suspicion.
The United Arab Emirates — an autocracy with the sheen of a progressive, modern state — are closely allied with the United States, and American officials indicated that the battalion program had some support in Washington.” (via NYTimes).
The Poor Quality of an Undergraduate Education
“…[S]tudents are taught by fewer full-time tenured faculty members while being looked after by a greatly expanded number of counselors who serve an array of social and personal needs. At the same time, many schools are investing in deluxe dormitory rooms, elaborate student centers and expensive gyms. Simply put: academic investments are a lower priority.
The situation reflects a larger cultural change in the relationship between students and colleges. The authority of educators has diminished, and students are increasingly thought of, by themselves and their colleges, as “clients” or “consumers.” When 18-year-olds are emboldened to see themselves in this manner, many look for ways to attain an educational credential effortlessly and comfortably. And they are catered to accordingly. The customer is always right…” (via NYTimes)
I think, however, it is a mistake to look at such short term trends. The real issue is that our culture is anti-intellectual, yet since the latter half of the 20th century a college “education” has become the key to opportunity. Arguably, these need to be decoupled and a college education restricted to those with the interest in learning for its own sake and the capacity for scholarship, much like postgraduate education is now.
Fukushima update
Fuel rods may have melted: I’ve been distressed, but not surprised given the fickle way the media operate, that it has been hard to find ongoing followup on the Japanese nuclear plant crisis. Here is an update from New Scientist. Also not surprising that there is further confirmation that there has likely been a partial meltdown.
Could Gorillas Go Extinct?
“Federal lawmakers are planning to cut vital funding for international conservation programs that save gorillas’ lives and protect their habitats.The tragedy is that these cuts are too small to make a difference in the federal budget, but large enough to completely cripple efforts to save gorillas.Send a letter to your members of Congress right now and urge them to stand up for Africa’s gorillas.” (via Wildlife Conservation Society).
Bob Dylan’s Words Find Place In Legal Writings
Alex Long, a law professor at the University of Tennessee, has researched the prevalence of quotations from popular song lyrics in legal opinions and briefs. What was originally a hobbyist’s casual diversion became a painstaking obsession; he apparently did a tabulation of the entire body of legal literature for a single year, 2007.
Bob Dylan was the most quoted lyricist by a landslide and, although considered to be left-leaning, attracted citations from both sides of the political spectrum, including Supreme Court Justices Scalia and Roberts. The most used Dylan lyric is, of course, “You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.” Can you guess , as Robert Siegel of NPR’s All Things Considered found easy to do in interviewing the professor, which Rolling Stones lyrics is the most cited line from that band?
I was happy to hear that Long had heard from a San Francisco
lawyer who tries to incorporate Grateful Dead lyrics into his legal
opinions. I suppose the most a propos would be, “Well, I ain’t often right but I’ve never been wrong. (Seldom works out the way it does in the
song…)” I wonder, in contrast to legal writings, how often one might
find quoted song lyrics in the medical literature or in particular that of my own field, psychiatry. I may just have to look into that if I have any free time… (via NPR).
Study Shows Salty Diet Good, Heart Group Disagrees
Scientists could be months away from discovering antigravity
“Scientists at CERN have announced that theyve been able to trap 309 atoms of antihydrogen for over 15 minutes. This is long enough that soon, theyll be able to figure out whether antimatter obeys the law of gravity, or whether its repelled by normal matter and falls “up” instead. It would be antigravity, for real.” (via DVICE).
“Al Qaeda is over” — Zakaria
Fareed Zakaria
Fareed Zakaria argues that those reminding us that al Qaeda does not live or die with bin Laden are merely being cautious. He agrees with me that al Qaeda is a virtual organization held together by its “message and the inspiration it provided”. Where we disagree is his assertion “the central organizing ideology that presented an existential seduction to the Muslim world and an existential threat to the Western world is damaged beyond repair” with his death. He asserts, without substantiation, that bin Laden’s inspirational status will be any less now that he is gone. This is far from clear. Ideologies often survive the passing of their founders or figureheads. People can fight in his name or his memory as well after his death, in fact perhaps even more emboldened by his martyrdom. Sure, as Zakaria points out, loosely affiliated groups of terrorist thugs have always existed, but they have not always been in a pitched battle against the American Shaitan.
The other component of Zakaria’s argument is that the ‘Arab spring’ undercuts the rationale for al Qaeda, the idea that oppressive Middle Eastern regimes were propped up by the West and that the only was to achieve change was by terrorist acts against the US and its Allies. Zakaria notes that, “(i)n the past few months, we have seen democratic, peaceful, non-Islamic revolutions transform Egypt and Tunisia. We are seeing these forces changing almost every government in the Arab world. Al Qaeda is not in the picture.” The verdict is not in on this assertion. Already it is starting to seem naive to some to see Egypt as a power-to-the-people scenario, the role of Islamic fundamentalists in the upheavals is far from determined, and the uprisings in different countries are heterogeneous. (Think for instance of the recent revelation that one of the released Guantanamo detainees is now training Libyan resistance fighters.) In any case, my guess is that the wind will not be so easily taken out of the sails of the anti-Americans. (via Global Public Square – CNN.com Blogs)
Lack of Sleep May Lead to Brain Aging
“British researchers said that middle-aged adults who get less than the ideal amount of sleep at night may be at risk for declined brain function, or in simple terms, it causes the brain to age.” (via Your Daily News Fix).
Why I’m Not Jubilant
Although there was no tone of triumphalism in Pres. Obama’s announcement of bin Laden’s killing, there certainly was in the rejoicing in the streets. Very much like I saw in the streets around here after the Red Sox won the World Series or the Patriots the Super Bowl. But there’s no blowback for gloating then; all that we have done in concluding this chapter in this manner has been to perpetuate the arrogant unilateral projection of power for which 9-11 was blowback in the first place.
There does not seem to be any indication that there was an attempt to take bin Laden into custody alive and bring him to justice rather than assassinating him. In fact, indications are that Pres. Obama considered bombing the compound rather than storming it and that the decision hinged only on the capability of recovering bin Laden’s body.
What is at stake in how we react to this is the perpetuation of our use of the war on terror as an excuse to continue to do whatever we want in the world. There has been much talk about the potential short-term risk of retaliation.But can’t you imagine that this confirmation of American hegemonism may in fact lead to a long-term exacerbation rather than an alleviation of terrorist activity?
Bin Laden’s death has very little strategic significance but is rather being played for its symbolic value. He was not germane to the conduct of most terrorist actions around the world. Al Qaeda has never been a structured organization so much as a cluster of affiliates operating independently, without central planning, united only by sharing jihadist ends.
The rejoicing in the streets reminded me of nothing so much as the
barbarity of anti-American mob scenes that have perennially graced the
evening news reports, including the scenes of jubilation at various places around the world when the Twin Towers came down.
The Neurobiology of Revenge
Jonah Lehrer
“Why does revenge taste so sweet? Why do we feel the need to chant in the streets after the death of a hated man? The answer returns us to the brain, and to the fascinating ways in which those three pounds of meat mirror the ideals of game theory.” (via Wired)
Where to Live to Avoid a Natural Disaster
“Weather disasters and quakes: who’s most at risk? The analysis below, by Sperling’s Best Places, a publisher of city rankings, is an attempt to assess a combination of those risks in 379 American metro areas…” (via NYTimes)
Al Qaeda leader bin Laden dead: U.S. officials
(Reuters).But is it “cutting the head off the snake” or supreme anticlimax, coming many years after he ceased to be relevant?
Race and ‘Game of Thrones’
“As a sci-fi and fantasy genre fan, this new HBO show based on a popular book series initially appealed to me. I easily stomached plotlines involving incest, attempted murder of a child, and gory beheadings. But nothing prepared me for the appearance of a nomadic race called the Dothraki.
Unlike the other alabaster-colored, civilized characters on the show, every single one of them is a shade of brown. Blacks, Latinos and actors of Indian descent make up the part of the cast that engages in fireside orgies, random disembowelments and feasts of raw meat. One could argue that, yes, nomadic people would bronze in the sun, but the Dothraki are well beyond bronze…” (via redeyechicago.com).
Nature’s Living Tape Recorders
“Many birds can mimic sounds but lyrebirds are the masters. They are nature’s living tape recorders, and sometimes their songs can be troubling.
For example, when the BBC’s David Attenborough ran into a lyrebird deep in the Australian woods, the bird not only sang the songs of 20 other forest birds, it also did a perfect imitation of foresters and their chainsaws, who apparently were getting closer. That same bird made the sound of a car alarm.
These birds were, in effect, recording the sounds of their own habitat destruction. And they were doing this, ironically, inside their mating songs.”
An incredible Youtube video is embedded in the article (via Krulwich Wonders… : NPR).
Memoirs of an Entomophage
New York Entomological Society logo
“My reputation in some circles as a person who eats bugs has been blown out of proportion. Yes, I have knowingly and voluntarily eaten insects, but I wish people wouldn’t pluck out that historical detail to epitomize me (“You remember, I’ve told you about John—he’s the bug-eater!”). It was so out of character for me. As a boy, I was fastidious to the point of annoying priggishness; other children would probably have enjoyed making me eat insects had the idea occurred to them, but I wouldn’t have chosen to do so myself. Bug eating was something I matured into, and performed as a professional duty, even a public service.
Here’s how it happened…”
— John Rennie, former editor of Scientific American (via Retort).
The Plot to Turn On the World: The Leary/Ginsberg Acid Conspiracy
Steve Silberman interviews Peter Connors:
“The spectacular rise and fall of Leary and Ginsberg’s plot to turn on the world is the subject of a new book by Peter Conners called White Hand Society, published by City Lights Books. I knew Ginsberg well for 20 years and was his teaching assistant at Naropa, a Buddhist university in Colorado, yet I learned a lot about Ginsberg’s role in helping to create Leary’s public identity by reading the book, which is based mostly on the lively correspondence between the two men. (For more detailed analysis of White Hand Society, see this insightful review by poet, Buddhist student, and Ginsberg scholar Marc Olmsted.) I spoke with Conners when he came through San Francisco on his book tour…” (via NeuroTribes)
How to Disappear Dept.
(via work.com)
R.I.P. Sathya Sai Baba
Sathya Sai Baba
The most famous Hindu guru you’ve probably never heard of, revered by millions worldwide but also mired in controversy, died Sunday near his ashram in Puttaparthi, India. He was 84. (NYTimes obituary).
What the Hell Happened to Hell?
Is Gandhi in hell? Is Tony Soprano? (Ross Douthat, A Case for Hell – NYTimes op ed).
The Sad, Beautiful Fact That We’re All Going To Miss Almost Everything
What does it mean to be culturally literate if, “statistically speaking, you will die having missed almost everything.”? (via NPR).
Major terrorist threat averted by swift TSA action!
China Bans Time Travel in TV Shows, Movies
Image via Wikipedia
‘China doesn’t want to go back to the future or the past: The Chinese government has banned any depiction of time travel in TV shows and films because the plot element “disrespects history.”
In a statement on March 31, China’s State Administration for Radio, Film Television said that fictional time-traveling in programs “casually make up myths, have monstrous and weird plots, use absurd tactics, and even promote feudalism, superstition, fatalism and reincarnation.” ‘ (via TVGuide)
Rent the country of Liechtenstein
$70,000/night, two-night minimum. (via AirBNB).
Memewatch
Annals of Depravity Dept. (cont’d)
One more in an occasional series:
“Twin Houston men were charged Tuesday with the murder of their 89-year-old mother after police say the pair allowed her to die on the floor in their foyer after she fell, then lived for three months with her decomposing, bug-infested corpse…
The twins later told police they lived with their mother and cared for her. On Jan. 10, Edwin Berndt said he and his brother were watching the BCS Championship football game when their mother “came in ranting and raving and she then fell down and did not get up.” He said they decided to leave her on the floor because they didn’t have money to provide her with medical treatment.
For the first day, Sybil Berndt was conscious and able to speak, but did not ask for any help, Edwin Berndt said. His brother said they didn’t give her any food or water while she lay on the floor.” (via Seattle Times).
Psychologist Who Cleared Death Row Inmates Is Reprimanded
“A psychologist who examined 14 inmates who are now on Texas’ Death Row — and two others who were subsequently executed — and found them intellectually competent enough to face the death penalty, agreed on Thursday never to perform such evaluations again. Lawyers for the 14 inmates hope the agreement will help their clients, who they argue are mentally handicapped, to escape lethal injection.
As part of a settlement, the Texas State Board of Examiners of Psychologists issued a reprimand against Dr. George Denkowski, whose testing methods have been sharply criticized by other psychologists and defense lawyers as unscientific. Dr. Denkowski agreed not to conduct intellectual disability evaluations in future criminal cases and to pay a fine of $5,500. In return, the board dismissed the complaints against him.
Texas defense lawyers and forensic psychologists across the nation have watched the case closely. Although Dr. Denkowski admitted no wrongdoing and defends his practice, those critical of his methods said the settlement could give those inmates still on death row an important appellate opportunity.
“It really suggests that he screwed up,” said Dick Burr, a lawyer who represents Steven Butler, a death row inmate, and who filed one of the complaints against Dr. Denkowski.
The United States Supreme Court ruled in 2002 that states cannot execute mentally handicapped people. But the court did not provide guidelines for determining whether a person is mentally handicapped, leaving it up to the states to create criteria.” (via NYTimes.com)
As far as I am concerned, his reprimand should not be a matter of whether his methodology met standards or not. A “caregiver” is inherently ethically compromised when acting in the service of the taking of a life.
FermiLab Physicists May Have Found New Particle
‘Physicists at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory are planning to announce Wednesday that they have found found a suspicious bump in their data that could be evidence of a new elementary particle or even, some say, a new force of nature.
…“Nobody knows what this is,” said Christopher Hill, a theorist at Fermilab who was not part of the team. “If it is real, it would be the most significant discovery in physics in half a century.” ‘ (viaNYTimes.com).
How Japan’s Tsunami Massive Debris Plume Will Hit California and Hawaii
“If you live in Hawaii, California, British Columbia, Alaska or Baja California, here is some bad news: According to computer models made by scientists at the International Pacific Research Center, University of Hawaii at Manoa, all the debris washed out by the Japan tsunami is coming your way.
This is how the trash will spread through the Pacific and hit the West Coast of the United States, Canada and Mexico…” (via Gizmodo).
The Möbius Gear
Computer-fabricated prototype of an amazing one-sided gear assembly reminiscent of M.C. Escher. (via robotics.eecs.berkeley.edu, with thanks to Boing Boing)
Is The “Paleolithic Diet” Really Better?
GOOD Asks the Experts: A roundtable discussion among four anthropologists (who know what they are talking about with respect to our Paleolithic ancestors). Did our evolutionary forebears evolve eating alot of meat? Should we?
“Leonard: Although there’s an extraordinary range of variation, based on the climate and the environment, hunter-gatherers get a fair amount of meat in their diet. We require a diet that is more energy-dense than other primates and historically, we may have reached that point by incorporating more meat. It’s reflected in evolutionary changes in our face, our teeth, and in our gastrointestinal tract. Indeed, the GI tract of modern humans looks more like a carnivore’s than a large primate’s. Because early humans increasingly used tools to hunt, we don’t show the same kinds of dental adaptations as modern carnivores…” (via GOOD).
Contamination in Goiânia
Horrifying and poignant story of the 1987 contamination of a central Brazilian town by radioactive cesium chloride. Japanese cesium-137 measurements have been climbing since the Fukushima Daiichi disaster. (via The Last Word On Nothing)
What to Do When Your Pilot Gets Sucked Out the Plane Window
In light of the recent Southwest decompression incident:
“It was a routine day at the Birmingham, England airport in 1990. The British Airways crew had gotten up early to prepare for a trip to Malaga, Spain. About 13 minutes into the flight, flight attendant Nigel Ogden walked into the cockpit to offer the captain Tim Lancaster and co-captain Alistair Atcheson a cup of tea. As he was walking out, the plane was rocked by an explosion. He turned around and this is what he saw, as he told it to the Sydney Morning Herald‘s Julia Llewellyn Smith.” (via The Atlantic).
Mysterious Cosmic Blast Keeps on Going
‘Astronomers have witnessed a cosmic explosion so strange they don’t even know what to call it. Although the blowup, discovered with NASA’s Swift satellite on March 28, emits high-energy radiation like a gamma-ray burst would, the event has now lasted for 11 days. Gamma-ray bursts last for an average of about 30 seconds.
Also unlike a gamma-ray burst, the explosion has faded and brightened, emitting staccato pulses of energetic radiation lasting for hundreds of seconds.
Also unlike a gamma-ray burst, the explosion has faded and brightened, emitting staccato pulses of energetic radiation lasting for hundreds of seconds.
“It’s either a phenomenon we’ve never seen before or a familiar event that we’ve never viewed in this way before,” says Andrew Fruchter of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore…’ (Wired)
Related:
- Baffling blowup in distant galaxy (sciencenews.org)
- Nasa Left ‘Puzzled’ By Mystery Cosmic Blast (news.sky.com)
- Mysterious cosmic blast a hungry black hole? (holykaw.alltop.com)
Top Doctors Opt Out of Airport Security Scans
“The choice is yours, follow the lead of the top cancer specialists in the world and get the pat down, or go with the take of televisons talking head doctors and radiate yourself.” (via EconomicPolicy Journal).
Five best April Fool pranks online
Be very skeptical of what you read on the Internet today… [including this?] (via Triangle Business Journal).
The Neuroscience of Humor
“What makes an April Fools’ prank hilarious? A cognitive scientist’s (actually funny) new book shows how the brain breaks down the elements of a joke and why we laugh.” (via The Daily Beast).
Paralyzed woman conducts orchestra with her mind
“A British woman with locked-in syndrome has been able to conduct an orchestra using just the power of her thoughts.The woman is only able to make eye, facial and slight head movements orllowing a stroke which left her paralyzed.But, monitored using electroencephalography EEG, she wore a cap with electrodes which picked up different patterns in her brainwaves depending on what she was looking at on a screen – in this case objects flickering at different frequencies.This ‘frequency-following’ effect was then adapted so that the different frequencies related to different musical instruments which the patient operated with her eyes. After a couple of hours of the trial, the patient was able to play a mini orchestra solo, just by brainpower alone.” (via TG Daily)
Sendai Earthquake Map
Image by Kevin Krejci via Flickr
“On the 11th of March 2011, the world’s media reported a massive earthquake off the East coast of Japan. It turned out to hit magnitude 9 on the Richter scale, and caused a devastating tsunami; the region’s nuclear power facilities have been experiencing major difficulties since the earthquake and tsunami triggered a series of events leading to massive overheating.
The Japan Quake Map on this website presents a time-lapse visualisation of the Sendai earthquake and its aftershocks, primarily to help those outside the affected area understand what the people of Japan are experiencing. It plots earthquake data from USGS on a map using the Google Maps API, with the size of the circle denoting the magnitude (the higher the magnitude, the larger the circle) and the colour showing the focal depth (see the legend below the map).” (Japan Quake Map)
American Red Cross response to “Triangle of Life”
The Horrible Libya Hypocrisies
Image via Wikipedia
“Neocons and liberal interventionists stampeded Obama into imposing a no-fly zone against Libya—despite the absence of vital U.S. interests there. Leslie H. Gelb on the hypocrisy among world leaders and how the experts abuse historical analogies.” (via The Daily Beast)
Related:
- He Does Have One Point…: (brothersjuddblog.com)
- Let Libya’s Neighbors Fix It (thedailybeast.com)
- If Libya’s Neighbors Really Want A No-Fly Zone, They Should Impose It Themselves (businessinsider.com)
- Imperial Hypocrisy: The Libyan Crusade [Zahir shamsery] (ecademy.com)
Where to Go During an Earthquake
“Remember that stuff about hiding under a table or standing in a doorway? Well, forget it! This is a real eye opener. It could save your life someday.” — Doug Copp (via Northwestpassage2011, thanks to Lloyd).
Related:
- Earthquakes, What to do, and it’s not what you have been told!!! (cindyfletcher.wordpress.com)
- Cat Who Survives Earthquake/Tsunami Found Safe (annem040359.wordpress.com)
- Are huge earthquakes linked? (ritholtz.com)
Happy Ostara
Spring arrived in the northern hemisphere last night, in the neopagan wheel of the year characterized by the sabbat of Ostara. “In terms of Wiccan ditheism, this festival is characterized by the rejoining of the Mother Goddess and her lover-consort-son, who spent the winter months in death.[10] Other variations include the young God regaining strength in his youth after being born at Yule, and the Goddess returning to her Maiden aspect.” (via Wheel of the Year – Wikipedia)
What’s Killing NPR?
“It’s not the conservative attacks. It’s the network’s complete lack of a strategy to save itself.” (via Newsweek)
Rush Limbaugh Mocks Japan Quake Refugees
Image via Wikipedia
‘Rush Limbaugh laughed about Japanese refugees recycling after the earthquake that struck the country on his Tuesday show.
A caller asked Limbaugh, “If these are the people that invented the Prius, have mastered public transportation, recycling, why did Mother Earth, Gaia if you will, hit them with this disaster?”
Limbaugh called this an “interesting question,” and played a clip of ABC’s Diane Sawyer reporting from a shelter in Japan. In the clip, Sawyer is surprised that the refugees in the shelter have maintained a recycling program. Limbaugh first mocked Sawyer, doing an impression of her and saying that “she sounds like she saw her husband for the first time in six months.” He then turned to his caller’s question.
“He’s right,” Limbaugh said. “They’ve given us the Prius. Even now, refugees are recycling their garbage.” Here, he began to laugh, continuing, “and yet, Gaia levels them! Just wipes them out!” ‘ (via HuffPo).
“Supermoon” Tonight: Biggest Full Moon in 18 Years
“..(T)onight the moon will make its closest approach to Earth in 18 years—making the so-called supermoon the biggest full moon in years.
And despite Internet rumors, the impending phenomenon had no influence on the March 11 Japan earthquake and tsunami…” (via National Geographic)
Is space just like a chessboard?
“An electron’s spin might arise because space at very small distances is not smooth, but rather segmented , like a chessboard…” (via Hindustan Times).
Frauenfelder Interview with Maryn McKenna, author of Superbug
The Fatal Menace of MRSA: “MRSA (Methicillin Resistant Staphyoloccus Aureus) kills more people every year than AIDS. In the US alone 19,000 die from it each year, and another 369,000 are hospitalized because of it. The World Health Organization calls MRSA the most important health issue of the 21st century.
I interviewed McKenna about her book and MRSA. You can read it below. You can also listen to the audio recording of my interview.” (via Boing Boing)
Crack in the NYT Paywall
“The Times scheme allows readers 20 free stories per month before they have to pay. However, if you come in via Twitter or Facebook, reading the story doesn’t count against your total. So, cheapskates, meet @freenyt, a three-hour old Twitter feed that intends to tweet all the Times stories.” (via The Daily Dish)
Cooling resumes at two of the Fukushima reactors
Lessons from the long tail of improbable disaster
Steven Pearlstein writes:“If it seems that the frequency and size of calamities have been picking up in recent years, it’s only because they probably have.” (via The Washington Post).
We continually underestimate the frequency and severity of so-called ‘low-probability high-impact events’, or ‘black swans’ (in the words of Nassim Nicholas Taleb), to our peril. Taleb, whose book I was uncannily reading when Japanese events unfolded, would go further, saying they drive human history. It is hubris to continue to make predictions based on what we know, when what we do not know may be more determinative.
FInally, a Fly-By of Mercury
“On March 17th, NASA’s MESSENGER probe will become the first spacecraft to orbit Mercury. It’s a seminal moment in planetary exploration. Researchers can finally take a good long look at a rocky world that is both akin to Earth and shockingly alien.” (via NASA Science).
What’s happened at Fukushima?
A compendium post written by members of MIT’s Dept. of Nuclear Science and Engineering describes the fundamentls of plant construction, the nature of the fission reaction, and what is known about the accident. (via MIT NSE Nuclear Information Hub (http://web.mit.edu/nse/).
NHK World TV
NHK’s 24-hour live news stream in English. NHK, for those who are not familiar with it, is Japan’s national public broadcasting system. Japanese friends have told me that this news stream is the best way to get English-language coverage of Japanese news. “It’s much less sensational than CNN and it is for the English speaking people who actually live in Japan…” as one described it.
R.I.P. Jack Hardy
Folk Singer and Keeper of the Flame, Dies at 63: ‘Jack Hardy, a folk singer and folk music promoter whose Greenwich Village recordings and songwriting workshops kept alive the neighborhood tradition of counterculture troubadours, died on Friday in Manhattan. He was 63.The cause was complications of lung cancer, his son, Malcolm, said.
Mr. Hardy wrote hundreds of songs — protest songs, political talking songs and romantic ballads — his lyrics often consciously literary, his music tinged with a Celtic sound. With a singing voice raspy and yearning, he performed in clubs and coffeehouses in New York and elsewhere and recorded more than a dozen albums, many of them self-produced, though two boxed sets of his work were released by a small, independent label in 2000.
“I’m undoubtedly the least famous person with a boxed set,” he boasted in an interview that year.
Perhaps he wasn’t famous, but he was, in his way, influential.
In the early 1980s, after Bob Dylan had gone electric and folk music had been shunted aside by disco and punk, Mr. Hardy helped found a musical cooperative for like-minded folkies. It established a performance space and made more than 1,000 low-budget recordings of local performers and distributed them to subscribers and radio stations, along with a newsletter, under the rubric the Fast Folk Musical Magazine.
Lyle Lovett, Suzanne Vega, Tracy Chapman and Shawn Colvin all recorded first for Fast Folk, according to the Smithsonian Institution, which holds tapes of the original recordings and the magazine archives. (A two-CD set is available from the institution’s nonprofit record label, Smithsonian Folkways.) Mr. Hardy’s song “St. Clare” was covered by Ms. Vega and appears on her 2001 album “Songs in Red and Gray.” ‘ (via NYTimes obit).
R.I.P. Owsley Stanley
Artisan of Acid Is Dead at 76: ‘Owsley Stanley (left, with Jerry Garcia), the prodigiously gifted applied chemist to the stars, who made LSD in quantity for the Grateful Dead, the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Ken Kesey and other avatars of the psychedelic ’60s, died on Sunday in a car accident in Australia. He was 76 and lived in the bush near Cairns, in the Australian state of Queensland
His car swerved off a highway and down an embankment before hitting trees near Mareeba, a town in Queensland, The Associated Press reported. Mr. Stanley’s wife, Sheilah, was injured in the accident.
Mr. Stanley, the Dead’s former financial backer, pharmaceutical supplier and sound engineer, was in recent decades a reclusive, almost mythically enigmatic figure. He moved to Australia in the 1980s, as he explained in his rare interviews, so he might survive what he believed to be a coming Ice Age that would annihilate the Northern Hemisphere.
Once renowned as an artisan of acid, Mr. Stanley turned out LSD said to be purer and finer than any other. He was also among the first individuals (in many accounts, the very first) to mass-produce the drug; its resulting wide availability provided the chemical underpinnings of an era of love, music, grooviness and much else. Conservatively tallied, Mr. Stanley’s career output was more than a million doses, in some estimates more than five million.
His was the acid behind the Acid Tests conducted by the novelist Ken Kesey and his Merry Pranksters, the group of psychedelic adherents whose exploits were chronicled by Tom Wolfe in his 1968 book The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test.The music world immortalized Mr. Stanley in a host of songs, including the Dead’s “Alice D. Millionaire” (a play on a newspaper headline, describing one of his several arrests, that called him an “LSD Millionaire”) and Steely Dan’s “Kid Charlemagne.” ‘ (via NYTimes.com obit)
Japan Before and After Tsunami
Overwhelming: satellite photos show how much of Japanese coastal towns were swept away by the tsunami. (Interactive Feature – NYTimes)
What Pi sounds like.
(via YouTube.). In honor of the upcoming Pi Day.(thanks, noah)
A drug that could make you grow sensory whiskers (and penis spines)
Image via Wikipedia
“Only a few molecules separate you from having sensory whiskers and a penis spine. That’s right – evolution has cheated you out of those whiskers that make your cat a super-sensor and the spines that, well, make your penis super-sensitive. A study published today in Nature reveals that human DNA still bears traces of genes that could, if tinkered with slightly, cause the next generation of Homo sapiens to have new sensory organs. And penis spines. How would that work?” (via Gizmodo).
Related:
- Why Men Don’t Have Sensory Whiskers and Spiny Genitals (science.slashdot.org)
- Why man had to lose the spines on his penis in order to enjoy sex for longer (and the whiskers had to go too) (dailymail.co.uk)
- Which Made us Human, Losing Penis Spines or Gaining Brain? (psychologytoday.com)
- Like your big brain & non-spiny penis? Thank “junk” DNA. (boingboing.net)
- Lost DNA led to spineless penis, big brains (cbc.ca)
Illinois abolishes death penalty
Gov. Pat Quinn
Quinn signs death penalty ban, commutes 15 death row sentences to life: “Gov. Pat Quinn today signed into law a historic ban on the death penalty in Illinois and commuted the sentences of 15 death row inmates to life without parole.
The governor said he followed his conscience. He said he believed in signing the bill he also should “abolish the death penalty for everyone,” including those already on death row.” (via Chicago Tribune)
Take Action to Protect Wolves:
Image by Arrr! via Flickr
“Tomorrow the Senate will take up its Continuing Resolution (CR) to fund the federal government for the next 7 months. This spending bill must be kept clean from any language attempting to hurt our environment and endangered species. Tell your Senator to pass a CR that is free of anti-environmental policy provisions (riders) before it is too late.
Unfortunately, the Senate CR unveiled on Friday is being used as a vehicle to delist wolves in the Northern Rockies from the Endangered Species Act. Meanwhile, the House-passed version of the CR was loaded up with nearly two dozen anti-environmental riders that threaten our air, water and wildlife.
The bill produced by the Senate Appropriations Committee is being used to delist wolves from the Endangered Species Act in Montana, Idaho, Utah, Oregon and Washington by reversing a federal court ruling in2009. Using a federal spending bill to overturn court rulings and strip Endangered Species Act protections would allow politicians not wildlife experts to decide the fate of a species. If signed into law this would be the first time that Congress has ever acted to delist an endangered species. Such a precedent opens the door to the next “inconvenient” species that powerful industries want the politicians they support to remove from the Endangered Species Act.
Passing a Senate CR containing a wolf rider also makes it far more difficult for the White House and the Senate to say no to the all of the harmful anti-environmental policy riders that have been included in the House-passed CR when it gets down to negotiating a final spending bill that would go to the President’s desk.
Please tell the Senate the CR must be kept clean. Please tell your Senator to vote NO on H.R. 1 and pass a clean CR out of the Senate.” (via Earthjustice)
Related:
- Senate includes wolf delisting bill in must-pass funding package (yubanet.com)
- With Wolves Under Attack in Congress, We Need Your Help (switchboard.nrdc.org)
- Urgent Action: Senate Weighs Anti-Wolf Bills (ynative77.wordpress.com)
- Senate Democrats Sell Out ESA and Wolves! Start Calling Senators!! (howlingforjustice.wordpress.com)
- Wolves in the crosshairs once again: Politicians attempt to sidestep the Endangered Species Act (psychologytoday.com)
The Disposable Woman
Don’t let’s be entertained by this supreme misogynist: “Even now — after Mr. Sheen began carpet-bombing his bosses in radio rants, prompting CBS to shut down production on the show — observers still seem more entertained than outraged, tuning in to see him appear on every talk show on the planet and coming up with creative Internet memes based on his most colorful statements. And while his self-abuses are endlessly discussed, his abuse of women is barely broached.
Our inertia is not for lack of evidence. In 1990, he accidentally shot his fiancée at the time, the actress Kelly Preston, in the arm. (The engagement ended soon after.) In 1994 he was sued by a college student who alleged that he struck her in the head after she declined to have sex with him. (The case was settled out of court.) Two years later, a sex film actress, Brittany Ashland, said she had been thrown to the floor of Mr. Sheen’s Los Angeles house during a fight. (He pleaded no contest and paid a fine.)
In 2006, his wife at the time, the actress Denise Richards, filed a restraining order against him, saying Mr. Sheen had shoved and threatened to kill her. In December 2009, Mr. Sheen’s third wife, Brooke Mueller, a real-estate executive, called 911 after Mr. Sheen held a knife to her throat. (He pleaded guilty and was placed on probation.) Last October, another actress in sex films, Capri Anderson, locked herself in a Plaza Hotel bathroom after Mr. Sheen went on a rampage. (Ms. Anderson filed a criminal complaint but no arrest was made.) And on Tuesday, Ms. Mueller requested a temporary restraining order against her former husband, alleging that he had threatened to cut her head off, “put it in a box and send it to your mom.” (The order was granted, and the couple’s twin sons were quickly removed from his home.) “Lies,” Mr. Sheen told People magazine.
The privilege afforded wealthy white men like Charlie Sheen may not be a particularly new point, but it’s an important one nonetheless. Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears are endlessly derided for their extracurricular meltdowns and lack of professionalism on set; the R&B star Chris Brown was made a veritable pariah after beating up his equally, if not more, famous girlfriend, the singer Rihanna. Their careers have all suffered, and understandably so.
This hasn’t been the case with Mr. Sheen, whose behavior has been repeatedly and affectionately dismissed as the antics of a “bad boy” (see: any news article in the past 20 years), a “rock star” (see: Piers Morgan, again) and a “rebel” (see: Andrea Canning’s “20/20” interview on Tuesday). He has in essence, achieved a sort of folk-hero status; on Wednesday, his just-created Twitter account hit a million followers, setting a Guinness World Record.” (writer Anna Holmes via NYTimes op-ed).
A virus so large it gets viruses
Image by Getty Images via @daylife
“Last year, researchers uncovered the largest virus yet discovered. With a genome that is over 700,000 base pairs long, the CroV virus has more DNA than some bacteria. Fortunately, it infects a small, unicellular organism that’s very distantly related to humans. Now, the same research team is back, this time announcing that they’ve discovered a virus that attacks CroV, and may just have given rise to all transposable elements, sometimes known as jumping genes.” (via Nobel Intent)
Survey of Unhealthy Sleep-Related Behaviors 2009
“… among 74,571 adult respondents in 12 states, 35.3% reported having <7 hours of sleep on average during a 24-hour period, 48.0% reported snoring, 37.9% reported unintentionally falling asleep during the day at least 1 day in the preceding 30 days, and 4.7% reported nodding off or falling asleep while driving in the preceding 30 days…” (via CDC)
I Dare You…
…not to be delighted by this (YouTube).
R.I.P. Suze Rotolo
No More Land Wars in Asia?
“In my opinion, any future defense secretary who advises the president to again send a big American land army into Asia or into the Middle East or Africa should ‘have his head examined,’ as General MacArthur so delicately put it.” — Defense Secretary Robert Gates, in a speech to West Point cadets Friday (via The Atlantic Wire)
Seattle eatery is a no-fly zone for TSA agents
‘KC McLawson works for a cafe near Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, and since the body-scan and patdown controversy last November, she says her boss has taken extraordinary measures to ensure the TSA knows of his displeasure.
“We have posted signs on our doors basically saying that they aren’t allowed to come into our business,” she says. “We have the right to refuse service to anyone.”
…McLawson (an apparent pseudonym) explains:
My boss flies quite a bit and he has an amazing ability to remember faces. If he sees a TSA agent come in we turn our backs and completely ignore them, and tell them to leave.
Their kind aren’t welcomed in our establishment.
A large majority of our customers — over 90 percent — agree with our stance and stand by our decision.
We even have the police on our side and they have helped us escort TSA agents out of our cafe. Until TSA agents start treating us with the respect and dignity that we deserve, then things will change for them in the private sector.’ (via elliott.org.
First robot marathon
“Five knee-high androids have crossed the starting line in the world’s first marathon for two-legged robots.The contest is being held in the Japanese city of Osaka.The contestants are expected to take four days to complete the course, which involves 423 laps of an indoor track.Operators are allowed to change the robots’ batteries and motors but if the machines fall over they must get up by themselves.” (via BBC News)
Obama: US Will No Longer Defend the Defense of Marriage Act
Same-Sex Marriage in the US
‘President Obama, in a striking legal and political shift, has determined that the Defense of Marriage Act — the 1996 law that bars federal recognition of same-sex marriages — is unconstitutional, and has directed the Justice Department to stop defending the law in court, the administration said Wednesday.
Advocates of same-sex marriage hailed the president’s decision; critics called it a politicization of the Justice Department.
Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. announced the decision in a letter to members of Congress. In it, he said the administration was taking the extraordinary step of refusing to defend the law, despite having done so during Mr. Obama’s first two years in the White House.’ (via NYTimes)
THE INVISIBLE MAN
“Liu Bolin‘s body art began when he lost his house in Beijing for the city’s preparations for the 2008 Olympics Games. He used his body to camouflage in his surroundings as a sign of protest.”
Telempathy
A future of socially networked neurons? ‘World Wide Mind by Michael Chorost argues that we will soon be able to wire our brains directly to one another. But would you want to?’
Glenn Beck agrees he is ignorant
Apologizes for Reform Judaism remarks.‘On the radio this morning, Glenn Beck lead his show with an apology for comments he made Tuesday about rabbis of Reform Judaism. “It’s almost like Islam … radicalized Islam in a way,” said Beck. “Radicalized Islam is less about religion than it is about politics. When you look at the Reform Judaism, it is more about politics.”
Beck called it one of the “worst analogies of all time.”
“I was wrong on this … and I apologize for it,” said Beck. “In this case I did not do enough homework.”
“Somebody has called me ignorant for what I said on Tuesday, and I think that’s a pretty good description of what I said.”‘ (via TVNewser).
How to leave your body
“Leave your body and shake hands with yourself, gain an extra limb or change into a robot for a while. Swedish neuroscientist Henrik Ehrsson has demonstrated that the brain’s image of the body is negotiable.” (via Phys.Org).
Which is Easier to Understand?
Image via Wikipedia
‘Quantum Mechanics or Relativity? It Depends on What “Understand” Means’ (via Uncertain Principles)
Related:
- Is Relativity Hard? (blogs.discovermagazine.com)
- There’s Just One Mystery…: (brothersjuddblog.com)
- Dorky Poll: Usage Question [Uncertain Principles] (scienceblogs.com)
- Writing Relativity vs. Writing Quantum [Uncertain Principles] (scienceblogs.com)
Can we build it? Yes we can!
Image via Wikipedia
“...a pair of papers in the journal Energy Policy by Stanford’s Mark Z. Jacobson and UC Davis’ Mark A. Delucchi, … “Providing all global energy with wind, water, and solar power:” Part 1 deals with the physical issues and Part 2 the economics. The conclusion of their exhaustive research is that is it entirely possible to run the entire world on wind, water (hydro-electricity) and solar power (both PV and concentrated thermal) by 2050. And they aren’t restricting themselves to the electrical grid. This includes replacing all fossil fuels with batteries and fuel cells… [Emphasis added — FmH]
How will we build it? Well, the numbers at first look daunting…. But given how rapidly a modern industrial nation can build things like tanks and airplanes — as the American experience during the Second World War proves — the author’s argument that we DO have the technology is pretty convincing.” (via Class M}.
Related:
- We can run the entire world on wind, water and solar power by 2050 (3quarksdaily.com)
- Alternative energy can power the world in 20-40 years (news.stanford.edu)
- Mark Jacobson and Mark Delucchi: Wind, Water and Solar (peopleandplace.net)
“Well, Actually…”
Miguel de Icaza
“As a child, I wondered why my sister could make friends and keep them so easily, while I could not. It would take me years to discover this. And now, as a public service I am sharing with you, my fellow geek friends, what I learned.” (via Miguel de Icaza).
A tour of the multiverses
“Arcane yet exciting physics, wrapped up in effortless prose. Yes, Brian Greene has done it again. His new book, The Hidden Reality, does for multiverses what his bestseller The Elegant Universe did for string theory: it provides the general reader with a thorough, engaging survey of the subject that manages to make highly abstract ideas sound implausibly comprehensible.” (via New Scientist CultureLab).
Auto-corrected text leads to killing
“Those who created predictive text software for cell phones might never have predicted this.” (via Technically Incorrect – CNET News).
Mubarak ordered Tiananmen-style massacre of demonstrators, Army refused
“Buried in this Robert Fisk report for The Independent is a startling account of the Egyptian army refusing to move with tanks against the Tahrir Square protesters on January 30. If this is true, it must be the defining moment in the history of the movement that toppled Hosni Mubarak’s 30-year reign…” (via AMERICAblog News)
More on the Gelwan graffiti
Image via Wikipedia
This is fascinating to me. I asked a Swedish friend of mine if he knew anyone fluent in Danish who could give me an accurate English rendering of the passage. He said that a Swedish-speaker can read Danish. (His translation of the passage is below.) He commented further:
“If you consider the variations existing within the “English” language such as Cockney, deep southern black drawl, Jamaican, Liverpool accents, Australian dialects some of those variations are probably of the same order of magnitude as exists between Swedish, Danish and Norwegian. When it comes to a dialogue with a Norwegian both of us can converse in our own languages and be understood 95% of the time. If you know to avoid certain words that have similar sounds but different meanings in the two languages you will do even better. My best friend in Sweden and my brother (were) …both married to Norwegian women with whom I could easily carry on a conversation. When it comes to Danish the written language is fairly easy for me to understand. The spoken language to the ears of the Swede sounds very guttural. (A Swedish joke is that if you want to speak Danish try to speak Swedish with a hot potato in your mouth.) For that reason I have a harder time understanding spoken Danish. The Norwegian actually does better with that than the Swede. So, yes they are distinct languages but they share a common origin in Old Norse (the language of the Vikings) and have not traveled very far from one another. Icelandic (which I cannot understand either in the spoken or written version) is even closer to Old Norse and I have been told that they can still read the medieval sagas that were written pretty much in the language of the Vikings.”
Here is his translation of the Ekstra Bladet article:
“Gelwan E : Can You Solve The Code?
During the weekend unknown perpetrators have painted graffiti on what is known as Denmark’s baptismal certificate, the Jelling stone. The word was: Gelwan E.
25 cm high letters with the word ‘Gelwan E’ were written on the largest of the old stones that were erected about 965 by Harold Bluetooth. In addition a smaller stone, Gorm’s [father of King Harald Bluetooth] stone, an iron cross that stands next to these monuments and the church door to the Jelling church have been sprayed.
Lack of Respect
“It is clear that when we speak of our common historical monuments we take extra efforts to find our way to the perpetrators. It is a decidedly idiotic act and I don’t believe at all that it is the type of act that will gain respect in the graffiti world. On the contrary it is lacking in respect” says police Detective Hans Hoffensetz who is the section leader in the investigation unit at Vejle Police which Jelling belongs to.
What? Who?
But what does “Gelwan E” mean or is it perhaps “Gelwane”? IF you search on the internet you immediately get a number of very peripheral answers – there is several people named Gelwane on Facebook but it does not seem as if any of those could have anything to do with these actions?
During the weekend unknown perpetrators have painted graffiti on what is known as Denmark’s baptismal certificate, the Jelling stone. The word was: Gelwan E.
25 cm high letters with the word ‘Gelwan E’ were written on the largest of the old stones that were erected about 965 by Harold Bluetooth. In addition a smaller stone, Gorm’s [father of King Harald Bluetooth] stone, an iron cross that stands next to these monuments and the church door to the Jelling church have been sprayed.
Lack of Respect
“It is clear that when we speak of our common historical monuments we take extra efforts to find our way to the perpetrators. It is a decidedly idiotic act and I don’t believe at all that it is the type of act that will gain respect in the graffiti world. On the contrary it is lacking in respect” says police Detective Hans Hoffensetz who is the section leader in the investigation unit at Vejle Police which Jelling belongs to.
What? Who?
But what does “Gelwan E” mean or is it perhaps “Gelwane”? IF you search on the internet you immediately get a number of very peripheral answers – there is several people named Gelwane on Facebook but it does not seem as if any of those could have anything to do with these actions?
Who or what is Gelwane? Do you know anything? Do you have a clue? Drop us a line!”
(Thank you, Sten)
Ekstra Bladet – ‘Gelwan E’: Kan du løse koden?
![[Image 'er er Jellingestenen i computeranimeret original - FØR grafitti-hærværket. ' cannot be displayed]](http://multimedia.ekstrabladet.dk/archive/00544/weekend-6sp-jelling_544065d.jpg "er er Jellingestenen i computeranimeret original - FØR grafitti-hærværket.")
Do I have any readers who are fluent in Danish? This came to my attention today. The (very imperfect) Google translation seems to say something about the words ‘Gelwan E’ defacing a historic monument:
“‘Gelwan E’: can you resolve code? At the weekend, unknown perpetrators painted grafitti on the so-called Denmark’s appear, Jellingestenen. The word was: Gelwan E11:49, 14. feb 2011 | anders Kjærulffadvertisementhere is Jellingestenen in computeranimeret original – before grafitti-consider. Here is Jellingestenen in computeranimeret original – before grafitti-consider. *LAST of the nation*Valentines-day? Is there a new kind beer?15:27*’Gelwan E’: can you resolve code?11:49*the red must live with lokum in gården11:02*Birthe Rønn suffers from an even had the effrontery syge15:19*roll – the shot on the Taliban 4:51 PM*Hesteslagteren ask for more penge16:23*klamt: great hair-tot in arla-kartonen15:20*Muslim: sin of you who do not understand moskeer14:09*Father Rescued unemployed søn13:33*Pyha – must still keep her tasker16:17*Birthe Rønn went cold on direct TV13:32*NEW DR: Storbarmede vejrpiger11:19*Sexarbejder: I will also pay skat10:42*harsh criticism of Læsper Grønkjær10:19*has Wilbek Flattened delight in landsholdsfodbold? 10:04ADVERTISEMENT56KommentarerKommentérarticle here! Part of Messengerpart onMessenger! 25 CM HIGH letters by the word ‘GELWAN E’ was written in the largest of the old Stone around year 965 was raised by Harald Blåtand. The less stone, Gorms stone, a jernkors, which are at site, as well as kirkedøren to Jelling Church was there sprayet. Disrespectful- it is clear that in the case of our all historic monuments, then we will do us extra effort to find the perpetrators. This is an utter IDIOTIC action, and I think that even, that the sort will win respect in after-circles. On the contrary. It is all, says Commissioner his Hoffensetz, which is head of section of fraud in leads police force, which Jelling. What? Whom? But what does Gelwan E – or perhaps Gelwane? We are trying to the network will be applicable remote reply – there are several called Gelwane on Facebook, but they do not work as someone who could have something to consider that do? Who or what is Gelwan E? By du something? Have you a guess? Write including!”
I have an obvious curiosity about this and would appreciate anyone who could shed any light on this for me. Can you give me a more reasonable translation from the Danish? Thanks.
Longtime FmH readers may know, from past postings here, of my intermittent interest in searching out other “Gelwans”, it being a very rare name. This incident and the post above raises an angle I had never considered; could “Gelwan” also have some relationship with “Gelwane“, a better-represented surname on the web?
Addendum: a slightly better translation from the Microsoft translation service:
” ‘ Gelwan ‘ E: Can you fix the code?
Over the weekend have unknown perpetrators painted graffiti on what are known as Denmark’s birthright, Jellingestenen. The word was: Gelwan E
Here is Jellingestenen in the computer-animated original-BEFORE graffiti-desecration.
25 cm high letters with the words: ‘ GELWAN E ‘ was written on the largest of the old stones, which around the year 965 was raised by Harald I of Denmark.
Also the smaller stones, Gorms stone, a jernkors, standing by the monuments, as well as the Church of Jelling Church, there were sprayet on.
Disrespectful
-It is clear that in the case of our historical monuments belongs to, so we make us extra due diligence to identify perpetrators. It is a culture of idiotic action, and I think not even that the kind of want to win respect in graffiti-circles. On The Contrary. It is disruptive, says politikommissær His Hoffensetz, there is a section head in should be strengthened in Vejle police, who Jelling is subject.
What? Whom?
But what does the Gelwan E-or maybe Gelwane? To search on the net you get immediately very peripheral response-there are several named Gelwane on Facebook, but they don’t work as any that might have something to do with the desecration?
Who or what is Gelwan E? Do you know something? Do you have a guess? Type including!”
Man killed by cockfighting rooster
Creeping sickness: Our epidemic of diagnosis
Hypochondriacs have never had it so good: “In Overdiagnosed, H. Gilbert Welch, Lisa Schwartz and Steven Woloshin argue that as definitions of diseases broaden, so do the risks to healthy people…” (via New Scientist) .
The internet’s dark heart
“The Offensive Internet, a collection of powerful academic essays, weighs the case that the internet offends as much as it empowers…
This is not a book for those already “living online”, many of whom may see feminism as a spent force and total exposure as harmless, even good. But it is for those who care how the internet has complicated privacy, speech and reputation, and for those who may have to rescue it from itself.” (via New Scientist).
Happy Lunar New Year, 2011
“The Lunar New Year, or more accurately the lunisolar new year, began February 4 and in most countries that celebrate it ushered in the Year of the Rabbit according to the Chinese zodiac. In China Lunar New Year is the most important date on the calendar and triggers over a month of holiday travel which is often described as the largest annual human migration in the world. Hundreds of millions tax the transport system. The new year also marks the beginning of the Spring Festival in China which continues until the Lantern Festival on the fifteenth day. Lunar New Year is celebrated in many countries, with many different traditions as well. Gathered here are pictures of China’s travel wave and celebrations, as well as pictures from other countries’ Lunar New Year observations.” (via The Big Picture – Boston.com.)
Four in 10 Americans Believe in Strict Creationism
Gallup Poll: “Four in 10 Americans, slightly fewer today than in years past, believe God created humans in their present form about 10,000 years ago. Thirty-eight percent believe God guided a process by which humans developed over millions of years from less advanced life forms, while 16%, up slightly from years past, believe humans developed over millions of years, without God’s involvement.”
Quantum Entanglement Could Stretch Across Time
“In the weird world of quantum physics, two linked particles can share a single fate, even when they’re miles apart.
Now, two physicists have mathematically described how this spooky effect, called entanglement, could also bind particles across time.
…
“You can send your quantum state into the future without traversing the middle time,” said quantum physicist S. Jay Olson of Australia’s University of Queensland, lead author of the new study.” (via Wired).
The article discusses some of the surprising implications, even using a Star Trek analogy.
Canine Tumor Draws Energy From Host, Report Says
People may be familiar with the transmissible facial tumor that is decimating the Tasmanian Devil population. One unfortunate animal contracts it when bitten by another affected individual. This New York Times story describes another infectious malignancy, the Canine Transmissible Venereal Tumor (CTVT) (thanks to Steve Silberman).
Survivor of 6-mile freefall
Vesna Vulović, … a former Serbian flight attendant, …holds the world record, according to the Guinness Book of Records, for surviving the highest fall without a parachute: 10,160 meters (33,330 feet).
…
She suffered a fractured skull, three broken vertebrae (one crushed completely) that left her temporarily paralyzed from the waist down and two broken legs. She was in a coma for 27 days. In an interview she commented that, according to the man who found her, “…I was in the middle part of the plane. I was found with my head down and my colleague on top of me. One part of my body with my leg was in the plane and my head was out of the plane. A catering trolley was pinned against my spine and kept me in the plane. The man who found me, says I was very lucky. He was in the German Army as a medic during World War two. He knew how to treat me at the site of the accident.” (via Wikipedia)
Earth may soon have a second sun
.
“The red supergiant star Betelgeuse is getting ready to go supernova, and when it does Earth will have a front-row seat. The explosion will be so bright that Earth will briefly seem to have two suns in the sky.
The star is located in the Orion constellation, about 640 light-years away from Earth… In stellar terms, it’s predicted to explode in the very near future. Of course, the conversion from stellar to human terms is pretty extreme, as Betelgeuse is predicted to explode anytime in the next million years.
But still, whether the explosion occurs in 2011 or 1002011 (give or take 640 years for the light to reach Earth), it’s going to make for one of the most unforgettable light shows in our planet’s history.” (via io9)
