“It will be the policy of my administration to reverse our dependence on foreign oil while building a new energy economy that will create millions of jobs”
–Barack Obama
“To keep our economy growing, we also need reliable supplies of affordable, environmentally responsible energy. Nearly four years ago, I submitted a comprehensive energy strategy that encourages conservation, alternative sources, a modernized electricity grid, and more production here at home, including safe, clean nuclear energy. My Clear Skies legislation will cut power plant pollution and improve the health of our citizens. And my budget provides strong funding for leading-edge technology — from hydrogen-fueled cars, to clean coal, to renewable sources such as ethanol. Four years of debate is enough — I urge Congress to pass legislation that makes America more secure and less dependent on foreign energy.”
–George W. Bush
“Beginning this moment, this nation will never use more foreign oil than we did in 1977, never.”
–Jimmy Carter
“We will never again permit any foreign nation to have Uncle Sam over a barrel of oil.”
–Gerald Ford.
“Let this be our national goal: At the end of this decade, in the year 1980, the United States will not be dependent on any other country for the energy we need to provide our jobs, to heat our homes, and to keep our transportation moving.”
–Richard Nixon
MonthJanuary 2009
“President Barack Obama is a nerd. A geek. A dork.
Last March, he said:
I grew up on Star Trek. I believe in the final frontier.
Obama fulfilled the fanboy fantasy of flashing Leonard Nimoy the Vulcan salute, and on his now defunct official Senate web page, he posted an image of himself posing with the statue of Superman in Metropolis, Illinois. As a kid, he copied pictures of Spider-Man and Batman out of a friend’s comic books and he even uses geek speak while decked out in formalwear. Obama’s such a Spider-Man fandork that Marvel Comics made him a character this month in Amazing Spider-Man # 583. Marvel’s Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada said: “A Spider-Man fan moving into the Oval Office is an event that must be commemorated in the pages of Amazing Spider-Man.”
So, at the dawn of his presidency, SG would like to offer Mr. Obama a few important political lessons that can be learned from the adventures of everyone’s favorite wall-crawler.”
(via Suicide Girls)
But as it turns out, the HFCS industry has been hiding some major skeletons in its closet — according to the IATP study (pdf), over 30% of products containing the substance tested positive for mercury.
What makes this news truly shocking is not just that the manufacturers of high fructose corn syrup would put consumers’ health at risk, but that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) knew about the mercury in the syrup, and has been sitting on this information since 2005.
Here’s the connection, according to the IATP press release (pdf): The IATP study comes on the heels of another study, conducted in 2005 but only recently published by the scientific journal, Environmental Health, which revealed that nearly 50 percent of commercial HFCS samples tested positive for the heavy metal. Renee Dufault, who was working for the FDA at the time, was among the 2005 study’s authors. In spite of Dufault’s involvement in the study, the FDA sat silent on this one for three years, and in fact last August, allowed manufacturers to call the sweetener “natural.”
(Thanks Biohabit)
Update: a representative from the corn syrup lobby has weighed in with a response (As far as I can tell the comment from “FT” is real).
Brazilian scientists have rejected claims that the Nazi doctor Josef Mengele – notorious for his experiments at Auschwitz – was responsible for creating a tribe of twins in a small town near the border with Argentina.
In his book, Mengele: The Angel Of Death In South America, Argentine historian Jorge Camarasa claims that Mengele made regular trips to Linha São Pedro, a small and predominantly German settlement near the city of Cândido Godói in Brazil, during the 1960s. Shortly afterwards, the birth rate of twins began to spiral, he says.
However, Ursula Matte of the medical genetics unit at Porto Alegre Hospital in Brazil and her colleagues reject any notion that Mengele was responsible for the phenomenon. Her team was invited to Linha São Pedro during 1994 to investigate reports of a higher than average number of twin births in the town.
See also: Josef Mengele responsible for high instance of twins in small Brazil town, historian says
A University of Tokyo research team led by professor/computer graphic artist Yoichiro Kawaguchi is developing robots designed to imitate primitive life forms. Mockups have been put on display at a Shinto shrine in Tokyo, and working versions of the robots are scheduled for completion in two years.
According to the researchers, these robots are being developed as a way to explore artificial life and gain insights into how living things survive in a world governed by the law of the jungle.
More pics: Robot Watch
Friedman and his followers are not the first band of wide-eyed dreamers to want to build floating utopias. For decades, an assortment of romantics and whack jobs have fantasized about fleeing the oppressive strictures of modern government and creating a laissez-faire society on the high seas. Over the decades, they’ve tried everything from fortified sandbars to mammoth cruise ships. Nearly all have been disasters. But the would-be nation builders assembled here are not intimidated by that record of failure. After all, their plans are inspired by the ethos of the modern tech industry, where grand quixotic visions are as common as BlackBerrys, and they see their task not as a holy mission but as something like a startup. A couple of software engineers came up with an innovative concept, then outsourced it to a community and let the wisdom of the crowd improve on it. They scored financing from a top-tier venture capitalist and assembled a board of directors. They will be transparent, blogging their progress. If they fail—which, let’s face it, is the most likely outcome—they will do so quickly, in time-honored Valley fashion. But if they succeed, they have one hell of an exit strategy.
Seven diners in northern Japan fell ill and three remained hospitalized Tuesday after eating blowfish testicles prepared in a restaurant not authorized to serve the poisonous delicacy.
The owner of the restaurant in Tsuruoka city, who is also the chef, had no license to serve blowfish and was being questioned on suspicion of professional negligence, police official Yoshihito Iwase said.
Blowfish, while extremely poisonous if not prepared properly, is considered a delicacy in Japan and is consumed by thrill-seeking gourmets.
(via Clifford Pickover)
President orders air strikes on villages in tribal area
* Ewen MacAskill in Washington
* The Guardian, Saturday 24 January 2009
* Article historyVillagers demonstrate in in Laghman province as president Hamid Karzai condems Sunday’s military operation and says 16 civilians were killed Link to this video
Barack Obama gave the go-ahead for his first military action yesterday, missile strikes against suspected militants in Pakistan which killed at least 18 people.
Four days after assuming the presidency, he was consulted by US commanders before they launched the two attacks. Although Obama has abandoned many of the “war on terror” policies of George Bush while he was president, he is not retreating from the hunt for Osama bin Laden and other al-Qaida leaders.
The US believes they are hiding in the tribal areas along the border with Afghanistan, and made 30 strikes last year in which more than 200 people were killed. In the election, Obama hinted at increased operations in Pakistan, saying he thought Bush had made a mistake in switching to Iraq before completing the job against al-Qaida in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
(Thanks Nick)
Related External Links
From Wikipedia’s entry on the Findhorn Foundation:
The Findhorn Foundation is a Scottish charitable trust registered in 1972, formed by the spiritual community at the Findhorn Ecovillage, one of the largest of the communes in Britain, has been home to thousands of residents from more than 40 countries. The Foundation runs various educational programmes for the Findhorn community; it also houses about 40 community businesses like the Findhorn Press, and an alternative medicine centre.
But it’s a bit weirder than that:
The Findhorn garden grew from a rich compost and it is apt that Findhorn spirituality should also sprout from its own steamy mix, a fecund blend of positive thinking, psychism, esotericism, and — less often acknowledged — evangelical Christianity. The twentieth century may have given us the term “personal transformation,” but the same purpose was an item on the agenda for nineteenth-century Christians. Among them was John George Govan.
Read all about it at Kheper.net
(Thanks to Trevor Blake for the heads up on this one!)
The web site actually says “weirdest” but they’re really aren’t that weird (of course, I may have an elevated standard of weirdness). Some of my favorites:
Magic, Witchcraft, and the Spirit World: You’ll learn all about the spiritual, magical, and “occult” aspects of human behavior in this course. [MIT]
Street-Fighting Mathematics: This course will teach you the art of guessing and solving problems without doing proofs or exact calculations. [MIT]
The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil: This course examines the roots of depravity and cruelty. [MIT]
Democratizing Innovation: This resource examines the trend of user-centered innovation and what that means for the future. [MIT]
Full Story: Online Best Colleges
See also: Can Ivy League education be provided for $20 a month?
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