» Bob Barr Files Lawsuit Against TSA Over ‘Drudge’ Controversy Alex Jones Federal agency refused to comply with Freedom of Information Act request Paul Joseph Watson Infowars.com Friday, March 16, 2012 Former Congressman Bob Barr’s Liberty Guard organization has filed a lawsuit against the TSA after the federal agency refused to comply with a Freedom of Information Act request that sought to discover whether or not the TSA temporarily amended its security policies for political reasons during the height of the national opt out day protest in late 2010. Watch an interview with Bob Barr from yesterday’s Alex Jones Show in which he discusses the lawsuit. The lawsuit seeks to discover if there was internal TSA discussion of individuals and websites that promoted the national opt out day, including prominent critics of the TSA like Matt Drudge and Alex Jones. As we documented at the time, body scanners at major airports like Newark International were roped off and sat idle for the day, preventing people from being able to join the protest by opting out. Historic!
Three New Planets and a Mystery Object Discovered Outside Our Solar System Click on image for high-resolution file. Three planets -- each orbiting its own giant, dying star -- have been discovered by an international research team led by Alex Wolszczan, an Evan Pugh Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics at Penn State, using the Hobby-Eberly Telescope. Penn State is a major partner in the design, construciton, and operation of this telescope, which is one of the largest in the world. 26 October 2011 — Three planets -- each orbiting its own giant, dying star -- have been discovered by an international research team led by a Penn State University astronomer. The three newly-discovered planetary systems are more evolved than our own solar system. The three dying stars and their accompanying planets have been particularly useful to the research team because they have helped to illuminate such ongoing mysteries as how dying stars behave depending on their metallicity. [ Katrina Voss ]
Warren Buffet versus Ayn Rand The bitter, unresolved partisan struggle over our national debt, culminating in a near-default and an historic credit downgrade by the ratings agency Standard & Poors, is above all a struggle over competing visions of fairness - and ultimately a battle for the soul of this country. In the rancorous, down-to-the-wire "negotiations" [sic] between the Republicans and the Democrats, the two sides advanced radically different visions of what would be a fair outcome. President Obama called for "shared sacrifice" - everyone doing a part to deal with our anemic economy and our deepening national debt problem, including some "revenue enhancements." The Republicans claimed that any increase in taxes would hurt the "creative class" and undercut job creation. ("What job creation?" one might ask.) More important, though more muted, was the moral claim on the right that taxing the rich - especially to support the unemployed and the poor - is unfair. Warren Buffet disagrees.
1920's Automobiles The rapidly growing automobile industry led by Henry Ford and the Ford Motor Company produced new and better models every year to supply the insatiable public demand. Increased wages and lower cost vehicles made possible through mass production meant that cars became increasingly affordable, although 3 out of 4 cars were bought on installment plans. Roads that had been designed for horse transport began to deteriorate under the steadily increasing load of traffic. In 1906 local governments supplied 96 per cent. of the road funding. In 1927 the State governments supplied about 37 per cent., the Federal Government 10 per cent., and the local governments 53 per cent. The funding problem for building and maintaining roads suitable for motor cars was largely solved by the introduction of a tax on gas. The car enabled people to travel much further afield than foot or horse had permitted. Car advertisements became more sophisticated as psychology was employed by copywriters. Vintage Car Clubs
As Occupy Arrestees Arraigned, Iris Scans Affect Bail The first of the more than 70 Occupy Wall Street protesters arrested Saturday afternoon and evening were arraigned yesterday in Manhattan Criminal Court. Exhausted by a night and day in jail and shaken by the violence of the police response to Occupy Wall Street's six-month anniversary celebration, many burst into tears of relief when they were finally released to the friendly welcome of the movement's Jail Support team. Unlike many of the other defendants with whom they shared cells, the protesters could feel confident that they would soon be released -- Occupy posts bail for those arrested during movement actions. But protesters and their legal advisers were surprised yesterday to learn that the size of their bail was being affected by whether defendants were willing to have the distinctive patterns of their irises photographed and logged into a database. Police and courts have been photographing irises since 2010, once at booking and once on arraignment. That appears to be changing.
Peak Everything -- Why Everything Costs More Peak Oil -- No Longer the Right Question A Shell Oil geologist named M. King Hubbert predicted in 1956 that U.S. oil production would peak in the early 1970s. When it did, Hubbert became the geologist equivalent of a rock star and gave the young environmental movement evidence for something it was seeking: a limit to growth. When is -- or was -- peak world oil production? The iconic Peak Oil example has inspired parlor-game questions about other resources. Peak Uranium -- Nuclear Risk Declines Post-Fukushima "Peak uranium" entered the lexicon with peak oil, coal and natural gas in 1956, when Shell Oil geologist Hubbert sketched out his famous resource bell curves. The world reached a uranium production peak in the 1980s, even as consumption climbed. The Fukushima Daiichi disaster in Japan last year scaled back global nuclear ambition dramatically and raised questions about nuclear power's future. Peak Population -- Driving the Race for Materials International quotas are ignored each year.
The Vice Guide to Congo | VICE News By Jason Mojica Photos by Tim Freccia A member of the Mai Mai militia patrols his camp. Legend has it that the Mai Mai are shape-shifters who can fly and that bullets pass through them as if their bodies are made of water. Walking through the jungle in the dead of night with a group of Rwandan rebels best known for their expertise at rape and murder wasn’t exactly what we had planned for our first trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo. All we wanted was to make a little film about the controversy surrounding the so-called conflict minerals that make our cell phones work, drop a couple Conrad references, and drink a Primus. A week earlier, our team landed at N’Djili International Airport in the capital of Kinshasa, formerly Leopoldville. We’d come to Congo to try to find out more about the developed world’s thirst for coltan, cassiterite, and the other colorfully named minerals that make the electronics industry go round. In Africa, you have to be careful what you ask for.
DNA seen through the eyes of a coder DNA seen through the eyes of a coder or If you are a hammer, everything looks like a nail This is just some rambling by a computer programmer about DNA. I'm not a molecular geneticist. If you spot the inevitable mistakes, please mail me (bert hubert) at ahu@ds9a.nl. I'm not trying to force my view unto the DNA - each observation here is quite 'uncramped'. Quick links: The source code, Position Independent Code, Conditional compilation, Epigenetics, Dead code, bloat, comments ('junk dna'), fork() and fork bombs ('tumors'), Mirroring, failover, Cluttered APIs, dependency hell, Viruses, worms, Central Dogma, Binary patching aka 'Gene therapy', Bug Regression, Reed-Solomon codes: 'Forward Error Correction', Holy Code, Framing errors: start and stop bits, Massive multiprocessing: each cell is a universe, Self hosting & bootstrapping, The Makefile, Further reading. Updates 24th of February 2013: Added a bit on epigenetics, updated the font, small updates here and there. The source code Is here.
Why I Don’t Support “KONY 2012″ | Laci Green Off topic. I have been getting a shit-ton of email about “Kony 2012″. In 3 days, “KONY 2012“, a production of Invisible Children, has gained nearly 40M views on YouTube. I heard about Invisible Children a long time ago when it became popular amongst my friends in high school. Something felt strange about IC, and while I couldn’t really articulate it then, I didn’t get into their cause. When this viral video came out, it had FISHY written all over it. Since it hit, I have been investigating Invisible Children, the film, and all the resources around it. By my current research, Invisible Children and “Kony 2012″ are doing more harm than good. (1) Violent Intervention A statement by Invisible Children’s Director of Communications has indicated that Invisible Children is now working with the Ugandan Army and Sudan People’s Liberation Army, both of which are violent forms of intervention. Here is a picture of the founders of IC posing with weapons and the SPLA. Nice one, IC…. (2) Ugandan Protest
Arms and Armor—Common Misconceptions and Frequently Asked Questions | Thematic Essay Parrying dagger (pugnale bolognese), ca. 1550–75 Italian Partly gilt steel, brass, and wood; Wt. 15 oz. (425 g) Gift of Jean Jacques Reubell, in memory of his mother, Julia C. Coster, and of his wife, Adeline E. Post, both of New York City, 1926 (26.145.94) The field of arms and armor is beset with romantic legends, gory myths, and widely held misconceptions. Perhaps the most infamous example is the notion that "knights had to be hoisted into their saddles with a crane," which is as absurd as it is persistent even among many historians. The following text will attempt to correct some of the most popular misconceptions, and to answer some of the questions most frequently asked by the public during guided tours of the Museum's arms and armor galleries. Misconceptions and Related Questions Relating Armor Misconceptions and Related Questions Relating Edged Weapons 1. Second, it is wrong to assume that every nobleman was a knight. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
Uganda Welcomes Oil, but Fears Graft It Attracts Despite Ugandans’ dreams of industrialization, the country’s most lucrative export is coffee, and fish is second. Nearly 40 percent of the population survives on less than $1.25 a day, according to the World Bank. But when oil starts pumping within the next several years, the expected revenue of up to $2 billion a year could propel Uganda into the strata of middle-income countries, where few sub-Saharan African countries rank. A refinery will be built; infrastructure is promised. Yet there are growing worries that the oil may prove to be more of a curse than a gift, similar to the fates of other countries in sub-Saharan Africa that have joined the petroleum bonanza. The web of scandals may delay the much-anticipated starting date of oil production, adding to the already volatile politics in Uganda, which has recently been the scene of one of the most active protest movements in sub-Saharan Africa. Mr. “I have never let Uganda down,” Mr.
Lincoln and the Civil War | Connections | The Metropolitan Museum of Art Harold Holzer1280852 Abraham Lincoln | 1863, printed 1901 | Alexander Gardner (American) | Gelatin silver print | Warner Communications Inc. Purchase Fund, 1976 (1976.627.1)8561024 Abraham Lincoln | 1863, printed 1901 | Alexander Gardner (American) | Gelatin silver print | Warner Communications Inc. Purchase Fund, 1976 (1976.627.1)1126820 Life Mask of Abraham Lincoln | 1860, cast 1886 | Leonard Wells Volk (American) and Augustus Saint-Gaudens (American) | Bronze | Purchase, Jonathan L. Cohen and Allison B. Morrow Gift and Friends of the American Wing Fund, 2007 (2007.185.2)8761024 Life Mask of Abraham Lincoln | 1860, cast 1886 | Leonard Wells Volk (American) and Augustus Saint-Gaudens (American) | Bronze | Purchase, Jonathan L. Harold Holzer1280852 I'm Harold Holzer, I'm the Senior Vice President for External Affairs at the Met, and I also write books about Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War.