March 2010
35 posts
Obama, Canada's Harper bet beer on ice hockey
President Barack Obama and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper
unwittingly provided support for the popular belief that politicians
cannot organize a booze-up in a brewery when they mixed up a simple
wager on the outcome of Sunday’s Olympic ice hockey final.
With their two countries playing each other in the gold medal match, the
two leaders agreed to raise the stakes and wage a...
February 2010
41 posts
Top 10 most expensive video games budgets ever
digitalbattle.com - Video games are quickly approaching Hollywood movies in terms of
budget size, and often surpass then altogether. In the early 90s, video
game budgets were around $100,000 — when Doom was released in 1993 it
had cost $200,000 and was touted as one of the most expensive games at
the time. Today, that barely covers one month worth of production. Here
are the top 10 most...
Liberalism, atheism, male sexual exclusivity...
Political, religious and sexual behaviors may be reflections of
intelligence, a new study finds. Evolutionary psychologist
Satoshi Kanazawa at the the London School of Economics and Political
Science correlated data on these behaviors with IQ from a large national
U.S. sample and found that, on average, people who identified as
liberal and atheist had higher IQs. This applied also to sexual...
Birds of a feather strung together
Some say it sounds like a Sonic Youth album. Others have likened the guitar noise to a rock concert soundcheck.
But this particular band is made up of 40 zebra finches jamming on electric guitars and cymbals at the Barbican, in London.
The walk-through orchestra-come-aviary by French artist Celeste Boursier-Mougenot is the latest installation in The Curve, the centre’s visual art space.
...
Intel and Yahoo! spawn open-source 'Tashi' cluster
Backed by Yahoo!, HP, and Intel, the computer science mavens at Carnegie Mellon University have added a new compute cluster to the worldwide Open Cirrus test bed, a collection of clusters designed to explorer the frontiers of interwebs-scale distributed computing. The test bed now spans ten clusters at locations across the globe. Open Cirrus was launched in 2006 by Yahoo!, HP, and Intel to...
US government rescinds 'leave internet alone'...
The US government’s policy of leaving the Internet alone is over, according to Obama’s top official at the Department of Commerce. Instead, an “Internet Policy 3.0” approach will see policy discussions between government agencies, foreign governments, and key Internet constituencies, according to Assistant Secretary Larry Strickling, with those discussions covering issues such as privacy, ...
Jim Babka, Unplugged - "DC Downsizers Are Heroic"
A PERSONAL MESSAGE FROM DOWNSIZE DC PRESIDENT, JIM
BABKA.
Dear DC Downsizer,
I’m going to break the most important rule of
marketing! And that rule is …
Speak only about your reader’s interests, needs,
and desires, not your needs and desires
I can transgress this salesman’s edict because our
needs and desires match. But until now, it’s possible you may not...
Mammoth iceberg could alter ocean circulation:...
An iceberg the size of Luxembourg knocked loose from the Antarctic continent earlier this month could disrupt the ocean currents driving weather patterns around the globe, researchers said Thursday.
While the impact would not be felt for decades or longer, a slowdown in the production of colder, dense water could result in less temperate winters in the north Atlantic, they said.
The 2550...
Ron Paul thinks you may be bailing out Greece
In his latest column, Representative Ron Paul,
sponsor of the Audit the Fed bill, asked the question, “Are US Taxpayers
Bailing Out Greece?” We’ve edited that column as today’s
Downsizer-Dispatch. You
can read the full, original statement at his website.
Here are the highlights …
The Greek government is the latest to come close
to default on their massive...
The Berlin-Dubai-Tehran Axis
Matthias Kuntzel — Although
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ordered the increase of uranium
enrichment to 20%—bringing Tehran much closer to weapons-grade nuclear
material—China still opposes new United Nations sanctions. The
responsibility for stopping the Iranian bomb thus rests with a
“coalition of the willing.” The attitude of Germany—Iran’s most
important...
US to build new eco-friendly embassy in London
The US has unveiled the design of its new embassy in London - a “carbon neutral” glass cube described as a manifestation of the “core beliefs of our democracy - transparency, openness, and equality”.
Philadelphia architects KieranTimberlake are at the helm of the £650m project, destined to land in Nine Elms, Wandsworth, in 2017. Embassy staff will up sticks from...
Drugs You Shouldn't Do While Driving - Video →
Do you have a right to be anonymous?
Quote of the Day: “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” — Voltaire (attributed)
Subject: Do you have a right to be anonymous?
We need your help to file another brief with the Supreme Court. This time we want to protect your right to speak and act anonymously.
This message will explain …
* Why the right to anonymity is...
Singing 'rewires' damaged brain
By Victoria Gill
By singing, patients use a different area of the brain from the area involved in speech.
If a person’s “speech centre” is damaged by a stroke, they can learn to use their “singing centre” instead.
Researchers presented these findings at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in San Diego.
An ...
Rep. Ron Paul surprise winner of presidential...
U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, a stalwart foe of government spending, won a blowout victory Saturday in the annual Conservative Political Action Conference presidential straw poll.
With participants naming “reducing the size of federal government” as their top issue, the 74-year old libertarian hero captured 31 percent of the 2,400 votes cast in the annual contest, usually seen as a...
Computer games can teach schools some lessons
Some parents might see video games as an impediment to children keeping up with their schoolwork. James Gee, however, thinks video games are some of the best learning environments around. He says that if schools adopted some of the strategies that games use, they could educate children more effectively. “Commercial video games, the ones that make a lot of money,...
Police Capture Escaped Zebra in Downtown Atlanta
Rush hour traffic in Atlanta came to a standstill Thursday afternoon
when an escaped circus zebra galloped along a busy section of highway.
The animal was first spotted around 4:30 p.m. in downtown Atlanta, said
Georgia Department of Transportation spokeswoman Monica Luck. The
animal made its way through downtown to the interstate highway that cuts
through the center of the city. Police...
Pennsylvania schools spying on students using...
A suburban Philadelphia school district remotely activates the cameras
in school-provided laptops to spy on students in their homes, a lawsuit
filed in federal court Tuesday alleged.
According to the lawsuit filed by a high school student and his
parents, the Lower Merion School District of Ardmore, Pa. has spied on
students and families by “indiscriminate use of and ability to...
Seven Crimes to Consider Before Music Piracy
1. Steal Music? No! Steal a child, preferably from a recording artist. That’s right, the fine for regular old, Class 4 Felony child abduction is $25,000. It can also include one to three years in prison. So, if you get spanked as hard as possible after ganking a silly named celebrity child, you’ll be down $175,699.
2. Steal the actual CD. Damn, that new Black Eyed Peas song is...
Nothing should be off the table
Last week, Congress passed PAYGO, a bill that requires SOME new
spending to be offset by other spending cuts or tax hikes.
It doesn’t go nearly far enough. We
must tell Congress that the ENTIRE budget should be subject to spending
cuts.
You may borrow from or copy this letter …
Congress passed a PAYGO bill (H.J. Res. 45) that … http://www.gop.gov/bill/111/1/hjres45
*...
Solved: the puzzle of how cells age
We now know how and why living cells age. The finding simultaneously suggests new ways to tackle age-related diseases and downplays an alternative process long implicated in ageing - the shortening of chromosomal caps called telomeres. According to the British newspaper Financial Times, researchers at the University of Newcastle in the UK and the University of Ulm in Germany used a...
Vaccines in sugar film could save millions
Scientists at Oxford University in the United Kingdom and Nova Bio-Pharma Technologies have developed a method of preserving vaccines very similar to the process used to make candied fruit peel. The sugared vaccines are stable for months at a time even at tropical temperatures, which could be crucial breakthrough for vaccination efforts long hampered by the need for refrigeration.
...
Protect yourself from an unconstitutional money...
Last week we launched our campaign for the new and
improved Free Competition in Currency Act. Today,
please continue educating Congress about this bill.
You may copy or borrow from this letter …
Supporting this bill will enable you to honor your
oath of office. The 10th Amendment to the Constitution limits federal
powers to only those functions the Constitution specifically...
More evidence that you're having an impact
Last Friday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid killed a bi-partisan “jobs” bill because his colleagues didn’t want a bill “stuffed with unrelated provisions sought by lobbyists for business groups and doctors.”
Your efforts on behalf of DownsizeDC.org’s One Subject At A Time Act (OSTA) are making a difference! Congress is getting tired of hearing your...
Should the U.S. Sell Its Gold?
The U.S. has the world’s largest gold reserve—more than 8000 metric tons. That’s far more than Germany’s, which comes in second with 3400. At current prices, our reserve is worth an estimated $288 billion. Since the U.S. government could certainly use the funds, why not sell this valuable commodity? Does our country need to keep all of that gold? “The gold reserve is a remnant of the monetary...
China's fears of rich nation 'climate conspiracy'...
Rich nations furthered their “conspiracy to divide the developing world” at December’s UN climate summit in Copenhagen, while Canada “connived” and the EU acted “to please the United States”, according to an internal document from a Chinese government thinktank obtained by the Guardian.
The document, which was written in the immediate aftermath of...
EU to US: Hands off our bank accounts
The European Parliament has rejected a proposed interim agreement on SWIFT - under which the US gets access to European bank transactions. The wholesale export of all our bank statements began after 2001 in the name of the war on terror. The Parliament rejected the agreement by 378 votes to 196 with 31 abstentions. A proposal to delay the vote was rejected by 290 votes to 305 with 14...
Franco-German bailout of Athens expected to avert...
Germany and France are tomorrow expected to move to guarantee Greek solvency and to shore up the euro against assault from gamblers on the financial markets.
At a summit of EU leaders in Brussels which looks like being overwhelmed by the implications of Greece’s debt and deficit emergency, Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Nicolas Sarkozy, said senior EU sources, should deliver a...
How to split up the US
As I’ve been digging deeper into the data I’ve gathered on 210 million public Facebook profiles, I’ve been fascinated by some of the patterns that have emerged. My latest visualization shows the information by location, with connections drawn between places that share friends. For example, a lot of people in LA have friends in San Francisco, so there’s a line between...
Sex Robot Initially Designed as a Health Aid
“I thought this was actually going to be a business call,” says Douglas Hines when Discovery News Tech called him late last week. You’ll have to forgive the TrueCompanion founder for being a bit absent-minded. After all, Hines caused an uproar of disbelief and excitement in January when he unveiled Roxxxy, “the world’s first sex robot,” at the Las Vegas’ Adult Entertainment Expo....
VICTORY! NAIS is Dead
For four years DC Downsizers joined with other
organizations and countless farmers to oppose the National Animal
Identification System (NAIS).
Finally, the USDA saw the writing on the wall. It is scrapping NAIS!
The USDA still has plans for an animal tracing
system, but it is to apply only to animals moving in interstate
commerce, meaning …
* animal owners won’t have to file a...
Spray-on liquid glass is about to revolutionize...
The liquid glass spray (technically termed “SiO2 ultra-thin layering”) consists of almost pure silicon dioxide (silica, the normal compound in glass) extracted from quartz sand. Water or ethanol is added, depending on the type of surface to be coated. There are no additives, and the nano-scale glass coating bonds to the surface because of the quantum forces involved. According to the...
Ron Paul Introduces Free Competition in Currency...
A few weeks ago, Ron Paul introduced one of the Downsize DC Agenda bills.
Throughout 2009, DC Downsizers ALONE called for Congressman Paul to re-introduce the three “Honest Money” bills using our “End the Inflation Tax” campaign. We had specifically called for the Congressman not only to resubmit these highly important levers to destroy the government’s...
Airplane panel falls on Miami mall lot
MIAMI - A panel from a cargo plane fell outside a Miami mall on Friday but no one was hurt, authorities said.
The Federal Aviation Administration said the piece fell from an Atlas Air flight en route to Miami from Santiago, Chile.
Christina Baguer, a spokeswoman for the city of Doral, said the debris is about 17 feet long and landed in front of Dillard’s department store at the Miami...
Tea Partiers Urge Unity as Rifts Show
Tea party leaders called for unity and action on Saturday, the
closing day of their national convention, as rifts within the
conservative movement continued to show.
Convention organizers and many participants have tried to zero in on
fiscal responsibility as their hallmark issue, one they hope has the
power to win elections in November. But others — including theorists
who...
The Orangutan and the Hound →
Poll (read when you've got the time)
After reading the entire log, do you think the logic for user 1989! is flawed? Post your thoughts on the comment section below.
[03Feb10 13:56:57][1989!] i mention the opposite to your throat because i feel like you are too one sided [03Feb10 13:57:50][1989!] my word and your word is the word of god. in between the opposing word exchange is the message [03Feb10 14:00:47][1989!]...
Radiohead / Bullet Proof… I Wish I Was
...
US military urges repeal of gay ban
Senior Pentagon officials have been testifying
before the US Congress on reviewing a policy that prohibits openly gay
men and women from serving in the armed forces.
Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, announced
on Tuesday plans to loosen enforcement rules involving the “don’t ask,
don’t tell” policy...
Microsoft net profit hits record 6.66 billion...
(AFP) - Microsoft said Thursday that second-quarter net profit hit a record 6.66 billion dollars on unprecedented revenue driven by demand for the new Windows 7 operating system. Microsoft reported that its revenue surged 14 percent to 19.02 billion dollars in the fiscal quarter that ended December 31. “We saw record revenue and record profit, driven by strong demand for Windows 7 and...
High, not flat: nanowires for a new chip...
Nowadays, a myriad of silicon transistors are responsible to pass on the information on a microchip. The transistors are arranged in a planar array, i.e. lying flat next to each other, and have shrunk down already to a size of only about 50 nanometers. Further miniaturization of transistors with a planar structure will soon come to an end due to fundamental physical limits. Still, even smaller...