A Miss. teen barely had time to unfurl his banner before Tiananmen Square police sprang into action.
Also: 
Monday, November 22, 2010
Paris Rising
Photo: CFuga under a Creative Commons license.
One of the striking things about Paris is that, for a major city whose metropolitan area includes nearly 12 million people, there are very few buildings more than five or six stories tall. Since 1977, soon after the construction of the 689 foot tall Tour Montparnasse, a building that sticks out like a sore thumb and is widely disliked by Parisians, there has been a height limit of 121 feet on all new buildings. (The Eiffel Tower, at 1,063 feet, is by far the tallest structure in the city.) But on Tuesday, Le Monde reported, the Paris City Council voted to raise the height limit to a revolutionary 590 feet, meaning that in the next few years, the Paris skyline will have a growth spurt.Article continues: Newly Freed from Height Limits, Paris Skyline Ready to Rise
Twelve Abandoned Skyscrapers
See twelve such empty buildings at Web Urbanist.
What guests won't tell you
If a neighbor has a blinking light display, put up blackout shades so guests can sleep.
Also: How to save $100 a month
Two frugal experts reveal how to shave 15 percent off your monthly utility bills.
Also: World's best places to retire
Some locales off the beaten path — like Nicaragua — are scenic and ultra-affordable.
Also: Best jobs for working alone
If you prefer working alone, these seven fields offer the best opportunities.
Also: Most dangerous U.S. cities
A controversial study names America's most crime-ridden areas, leading locals to cry foul.
Also: America's priciest suburbs
Families often flee the city in search of cheaper housing, but that's not the case here.
Also: 'Salad Spinner' house for sale
A Beverly Hills mansion turns heads for its unique architecture — and its whopping price tag.
Also: Culinary DeLites
Cooking with Thermite
Oh no! The family will be here anytime and you forgot to cook the turkey! What to do? I don’t think the Butterball hotline has the solution you’re looking for. What heats up faster than a microwave? Thermite! No, we don’t advocate trying this, but you can watch the magic of thermite cook a turkey in under thirty seconds in this video.And yes, they eat it.
If your turkey is still frozen, you'll defrost the bird faster by soaking it in a cold bath.
Also: 
Bad Cops
Oregon mom sues police and school district after her third-grade son is allegedly knocked to the ground and handcuffed by cops
Georgia police officer charged with felony theft by taking
Kansas city to pay $925,000 to man injured during 2006 arrest
Fired Indiana cop gets 15-year sentence on child porn charge
Colorado police officer gets probation in road rage incident
The farce that is the TSA
It would help if TSA's "fact vs myth" didn't include a myth of its own
From TSA's blog (it's not entirely clear to me why the TSA has a "blog," but whatever):Myth: Pat downs for certain individuals are limited to the head and neck.Well that's utterly and completely untrue. And even more untrue.
Fact(Myth): No one is exempt. Everyone is subject to the same screening. TSA is sensitive to religious and cultural needs, but everyone must be screened effectively. Administrator Pistole echoed those sentiments on MSNBC’s Hardball recently.
TSA removes shirt of young boy during 'pat down'
You will notice the TSA wearing the blue shirts (the current uniform) so this is recent enough. If the purpose of this "enhanced pat down" is to make people feel safer during their travels, maybe stripping down a young boy in front of others is not going to help.
Post-9/11 public goodwill has vanished as increasingly invasive airport searches enrage travelers.
Also: Amputee forced to remove prosthesis, expose residual limb, be separated from 4yo son
These stories just keep getting worse and worse. And this incident apparently took place earlier this year, before the "enhanced" procedures went into place:
"I had just been put in the Plexiglas screening booth," said Peggy. "My 4-year-old son was made to sit across from me, crying because they would not let him touch me. Everyone was looking at us. Then the TSA agent asked for my prosthetic leg. I knew they could wand my leg, but he insisted on taking it from me. And if that wasn't humiliating enough, he asked for the liner sock that covers my residual limb, saying I had to give it to him. I felt pressured to give him my liner even though it is critical to keep it sanitary. I was embarrassed to have my residual limb exposed in public."
2 million mile air traveler says TSA pat downs are 'blatant sexual harassment'
Isn't it surprising that she doesn't want to sacrifice her privacy so someone who never flies can have the illusion of air safety? As someone who has flown to fifty countries and six continents, I'm with her."This past weekend I was in Phoenix, the weekend before I was in Las Vegas, the weekend before I was in Vancouver," she said. "I do not fly for pleasure at all, pleasure is staying home."And credit should be also given to Senator George LeMieux who said he would never want his wife to be touched the way the TSA is touching people. It's about time everyone in Congress and the White House (including the Cabinet) goes through both procedures.
Briles has two double knee implants, so she always "rings" at the metal detector. After a few recent trips, the TSA, she feels, is intimately familiar with her. She has been checked several times recently by the TSA, and one of those times was a private session.
"I really don't know who marked the box and said, 'Yes, now let's really touch them.' Let's turn from feeling where they would go on the back of their hand and going down - now they're doing full frontal, where they run their hands over your breasts, they will cup your breast, they're going inside your collar," Briles said. "If anyone pulled what TSA is doing, they would be sued and fired for just blatant sexual harassment."
Teabaggers and and other repugicans now claiming Thanksgiving is a lesson in socialism
You know who else used to rewrite history to their own political advantage?
The Soviets.
These guys are amazing.
And of course, as always, the historians say they're completely wrong.
And it's not just the Teabaggers, it's Dick Armey, their patron, and Lush Dimbulb.
It's modern wingnuttery that passing this lie.
From the NYT:
The Soviets.
These guys are amazing.
And of course, as always, the historians say they're completely wrong.
And it's not just the Teabaggers, it's Dick Armey, their patron, and Lush Dimbulb.
It's modern wingnuttery that passing this lie.
From the NYT:
In the Tea Party view of the holiday, the first settlers were actually early socialists. They realized the error of their collectivist ways and embraced capitalism, producing a bumper year, upon which they decided that it was only right to celebrate the glory of the free market and private property.
Historians quibble with this interpretation.
Bradford did get rid of the common course — but it was in 1623, after the first Thanksgiving, and not because the system wasn’t working. The Pilgrims just didn’t like it. In the accounts of colonists, Mr. Pickering said, “there was griping and groaning.”They're not just idiots. These people are dangerous.
“Bachelors didn’t want to feed the wives of married men, and women don’t want to do the laundry of the bachelors,” he said.
The real reason agriculture became more profitable over the years, Mr. Pickering said, is that the Pilgrims were getting better at farming crops like corn that had been unknown to them in England.
As for Jamestown, there was famine. But historians dispute the characterization of the colony as a collectivist society. “To call it socialism is wildly inaccurate,” said Karen Ordahl Kupperman, a historian at New York University and the author of “The Jamestown Project.” “It was a contracted company, and everybody worked for the company. I mean, is Halliburton a socialist scheme?”
Faux has donated $40 million in air time to repugican presidential candidates
As always, fair and balanced for the repugican side.
More from Media Matters:
Between January 1 and October 31 of this year, five potential repugican presidential candidates -- Newt Gingrich, Mike Huckabee, Sarah Palin, John Bolton, and Rick Santorum -- who also serve as Faux News contributors or hosts have appeared on the network for a combined total of nearly 66 hours. Media Matters for America estimates this time to be worth at least $40 million in advertising costs.
World's First Rock-and-Roll Song Identified
- "That’s All Right Mama" by Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup is the song that launched a genre, according to one historian.
Lady in New Zealand sells her depression for $155
A depression sufferer has sold her illness for $155 on Trade Me. In the listing Emma, 29, said she suffered from depression since age 14. "My depression won't let you down. It will rear its ugly head at regular intervals. You can call it the Black Dog if you like," the listing said. "At its severest, you won't be able to get out of bed to shower, change your underwear or clean your teeth."
She estimates the monthly cost of keeping depression "under wraps" was around $500, not including taking time off work. Acquiring depression isn't guaranteed, but the winning bidder did get a transfer of ownership form, with the $155 going to the Movember Foundation. The listing had more than 10,700 page views and a long tail of comments, some commending her and others sharing similar stories about depression. "I tried chucking mine out the window but it didn't work," one post said.
Clinical psychologist Duncan Thomson says the auction shows the value in being open, and even humorous, about mental health, and the impact it can have on people's lives. "The concept that you can sell your depression is pure irony," he says. "She is actually making the really useful point that depression is something that is often managed - rather than cured in the medical sense - in all kinds of different ways, often with a combination of therapy, drugs and things that are generally positive for wellbeing like exercise, diet and meditation."
Thomson says there is a trend toward being more open about depression and that can only be good. "It reduces the stigma associated with the mental illness, makes people feel less alone and helps people seek help," he says. Movember Foundation country manager Jim Slattery says the foundation fully supported Emma's auction. "I hope whoever bought it casts it out to sea."
She estimates the monthly cost of keeping depression "under wraps" was around $500, not including taking time off work. Acquiring depression isn't guaranteed, but the winning bidder did get a transfer of ownership form, with the $155 going to the Movember Foundation. The listing had more than 10,700 page views and a long tail of comments, some commending her and others sharing similar stories about depression. "I tried chucking mine out the window but it didn't work," one post said.
Clinical psychologist Duncan Thomson says the auction shows the value in being open, and even humorous, about mental health, and the impact it can have on people's lives. "The concept that you can sell your depression is pure irony," he says. "She is actually making the really useful point that depression is something that is often managed - rather than cured in the medical sense - in all kinds of different ways, often with a combination of therapy, drugs and things that are generally positive for wellbeing like exercise, diet and meditation."
Thomson says there is a trend toward being more open about depression and that can only be good. "It reduces the stigma associated with the mental illness, makes people feel less alone and helps people seek help," he says. Movember Foundation country manager Jim Slattery says the foundation fully supported Emma's auction. "I hope whoever bought it casts it out to sea."
Woman accused in pizza shop video pleads guilty
A North Carolina woman accused of appearing in a gross video at a Domino's Pizza kitchen that was posted on the Internet last year has pleaded guilty to charges stemming from the video.
Would You Travel One-Way to Mars?
Article continues: Would You Travel One-Way to Mars?
Reasons Geeks Can't Sleep
11. Not because of caffeine. Just can't stop thinking about coffee.10. Converting MP3 collection to OGG taking longer than you thought.
9. Dorito crumbs on sheets cause unbearable itching.
8. Borg costume needed redesigning because it just wasn't realistic enough.
7. Had to keep checking the torrent to make sure it was still downloading.
6. Too scared to sleep after watching "Hackers" and knowing they can make more movies like it.
5. MMORPG withdrawal causing uncontrolable shaking.
4. Removed your bed to make room for the server rack.
3. Years of living underground have made your eyelids translucent.
2. Watched special edition of Star Wars and still pissed off over Greedo shooting first.
1. Had to sell bed to buy new graphics card.
A Computer Chip the Size of a Molecule
The governments of Singapore and the European Union are trying to develop a computer chip the size of a single molecule. From Singapore’s press release on the subject:A*STAR’s IMRE and 10 EU research organizations are working together to build what is essentially a single molecule processor chip. As a comparison, a thousand of such molecular chips could fit into one of today’s microchips, the core device that determines computational speed. The ambitious project, termed Atomic Scale and Single Molecule Logic Gate Technologies (ATMOL), will establish a new process for making a complete molecular chip. This means that computing power can be increased significantly but take up only a small fraction of the space that is required by today’s standards.
The fabrication process involves the use of three unique ultra high vacuum (UHV) atomic scale interconnection machines which build the chip atom-by-atom. These machines physically move atoms into place one at a time at cryogenic temperatures. One of these machines is located in A*STAR’s IMRE.
Man to Travel 200 Miles in Solar-Powered Wheelchair
Photo via The National
Chances are, you haven't heard of Haidar Taleb yet, but he's on a mission to inspire the world. On Monday, the disabled 47-year-old from the UAE is set to embark on a record-breaking 200 mile voyage across the desert in a solar-powered wheelchair he designed and built himself. "With this journey I hope to raise awareness of disability and sustainability as well as what we can achieve as individuals if we have the courage and determination to try," he says.Article continues: Man to Travel 200 Miles in Solar-Powered Wheelchair
New Airplane Design Mimics a Seagull
Airplanes took off when humans stopped trying to mimic birds, but a new design unintentionally evoked a seagull.
The Pride Of The Valley Sculpture Park
Churt is a tiny village in the English county of Surrey and has most of the features you would expect from a centuries long established village in this part of the country - as well as something entirely unexpected.
Just outside the village boundaries lies the Pride of the Valley Sculpture Park, a place of unanticipated arty pleasure.
The Ellora Caves In India
The Ellora Caves are an impressive complex of Buddhist, Hindu and Jain cave temples near the ancient Indian village of Ellora. The caves have a slightly less dramatic setting than those at Ajanta, but more exquisite sculptures. Ellora is a World Heritage Site and the most visited ancient monument in Maharashtra State.
The 34 Ellora caves - actually structures excavated out of the vertical face of the Charanandri hills - were built between the 6th and the 10th century. The 12 Buddhist, 17 Hindu, and 5 Jain caves, built in proximity, demonstrate the religious harmony prevalent during this period of Indian history.
Secret chamber in National Library
The the Archaeological Survey of India discovered a mysterious hidden room while restoring the Indian National Library in Alipore. They know the room is large, around 1000 square feet, but can't find a way in. What's inside? Theories so far include skeletons (it was common practice among the British to 'wall up' offenders in 'death chambers' - lovely) or hidden treasures (the British were known to hide treasures in so called 'blind chambers').
"We've searched every inch of the first floor area that forms the ceiling of this enclosure for a possible trap door. But found nothing. Restoration of the building will remain incomplete if we are not able to assess what lies inside this enclosure," said deputy superintending archaeologist of ASI, Tapan Bhattacharya. "We've come across an arch on one side of the enclosure that had been walled up. Naturally speculations are rife," said another archaeologist. Was it used as a punishment room by Hastings or one of the Lt Governors who succeeded him? It was common practice among the British to "wall up" offenders in "death chambers". Some sources say this enclosure has exactly the same look and feel. The British were also known to hide riches in blind chambers as this.
"It could be just about anything. Skeletons and treasure chests are the two things that top our speculations because it is not natural for a building to have such a huge enclosure that has no opening. We cannot break down a wall, considering the importance of the building. So we have decided to bore a hole through the wall to peer inside with a searchlight," said D V Sharma, regional director, ASI.
Five Famous Scientists Dismissed as Morons in Their Time
Anthony Jurado and Nessa B. Wilson of Cracked wrote an article about five scientists who are respected today, but were considered fools in their own time. These include the physician Ignaz Semmelweis, who suggested that doctors should wash their hands after handling dead bodies in order to resist spreading infections:Semmelweis didn’t just have the disregard of his contemporaries, he had their flat-out scorn. Maybe it was because he didn’t get around to explaining himself on paper right away, so no one understood what hand-washing had to do with keeping people alive. Some doctors were actually insulted that he was accusing Viennese medical students being dirty enough to kill people.
Within 14 years of his groundbreaking discovery, Semmelweis just stopped giving a [redacted -- ed.]. He got drunk all the time and called all his detractors “ignoramuses” and “murderers.” He started chilling with prostitutes and lashing out at family. That last part proved to be a bad move, because in 1865 they had him committed to an insane asylum, where he was promptly beat up and stuck in a dark cellar.
He died two weeks later. It took another 20 years and Louis Pasteur’s germ theory for the rest of the world to come around to the concept of washing your hands to keep from getting sick.
Extinction date for tigers
Experts announce a startlingly imminent year for when they think the big cats will disappear from the wild.
Also: Sunday, November 21, 2010
The Daily Drift
The Daily Drift
Today's horoscope says:Although it's not easy to surprise you, today will prove the exception to that rule.
There's at least one major surprise en route in the department of communications.
Routine conversations and encounters won't be quite so routine right about now.
That goes for any conversation, whether it's in person or via phone, email or snail mail.
If you expect it to turn out one way, it could quite possibly end up in an entirely different direction.
Ready or not, here it comes!
Some of our readers today have been in:
Perth, Western Australia, Australia
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Rotterdam, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands
Rio De Janeiro, Rio, De Janeiro, Brazil
Duisburg, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany
Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Paris, Ile-De-France, France
Edithvale, Victoria, Australia
Berlin, Berlin, Germany
Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, Netherlands
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
Male, Kaafu, Maldives
Sittard, Limburg, Netherlands
Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand
Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Rostock, Mecklenburg-Vorpommen, Germany
Cavite City, Cavite, Philippines
Bilbao, Pais Vasco, Spain
Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany
as well as Japan, Lithuania, Turkey, Romania, Belgium, Switzerland, India, South Africa and in cities across the United States such as Downey, New York, Cape Coral, Berkeley and more.
Today is:
Today is Sunday, November 21, the 325th day of 2010.
There are 40 days left in the year.
North Carolina became the 12th state to ratify the US Constitution in 1789 on November 21st.
Today's unusual holiday or celebration is:
World Hello Day.
Don't forget to visit our sister blog!
TSA Bullshit
Boehner and Congress exempt from TSA procedures
Let them go through the porno-scans and groping. All of them, plus their spouse and kids. Then let's see how long it takes for the security theater to change.Representative John A. Boehner, soon to be the Speaker of the House, has pledged to fly commercial airlines back to his home district in Ohio. But that does not mean that he will be subjected to the hassles of ordinary passengers, including the controversial security pat-downs.
As he left Washington on Friday, Mr. Boehner headed across the Potomac River to Reagan National Airport, which was bustling with afternoon travelers. But there was no waiting in line for Mr. Boehner, who was escorted around the metal detectors and body scanners, and taken directly to the gate.
TSA security groping leaves 61-year-old bladder cancer survivor soaked in own urine
61-year-old Thomas Sawyer is a retired special education teacher, and a survivor of bladder cancer. He says he was "absolutely humiliated," broke down in tears and soaked in his own urine, after a degrading and invasive TSA "pat-down" at Detroit Metropolitan Airport on November 7 caused his urostomy bag to rupture.From MSNBC:
Sawyer was forced to walk through the airport drenched in his own urine, then board his plane and wait until after takeoff before he could clean himself up in the plane's toilet.Due to his medical condition, Sawyer asked to be screened in private. "One officer looked at another, rolled his eyes and said that they really didn't have any place to take me," said Sawyer. "After I said again that I'd like privacy, they took me to an office."
Sawyer wears pants two sizes too large in order to accommodate the medical equipment he wears. He'd taken off his belt to go through the scanner and once in the office with security personnel, his pants fell down around his ankles. "I had to ask twice if it was OK to pull up my shorts," said Sawyer, "And every time I tried to tell them about my medical condition, they said they didn't need to know about that."
Before starting the enhanced pat-down procedure, a security officer did tell him what they were going to do and how they were going to it, but Sawyer said it wasn't until they asked him to remove his sweatshirt and saw his urostomy bag that they asked any questions about his medical condition.
"One agent watched as the other used his flat hand to go slowly down my chest. I tried to warn him that he would hit the bag and break the seal on my bag, but he ignored me. Sure enough, the seal was broken and urine started dribbling down my shirt and my leg and into my pants."
More TSA Bullshit
This thanksgiving could get expensive for those folks flying who refuse to be felt up and groped by the TSA.
....the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is warning that any would-be commercial airline passenger who enters an airport checkpoint and then refuses to undergo the method of inspection designated by tsa will not be allowed to fly and also will not be permitted to simply leave the airport.Wrong, you have the right to refuse to be sexually battered and to leave at your convenience regardless what the buffoons at the TSA say. Also the threat of 'fines' is illegal and they know it - this is in response to the call for a boycott of the TSA and their checkpoints on Wednesday November 24th (the day before Thanksgiving). And if anyone were to be arrested it would be the TSA agents for sexual battery.
That person will have to remain on the premises to be questioned by the tsa and possibly by local law enforcement. anyone refusing faces fines up to $11,000 and possible arrest. -
Judge orders Gawker to remove Sarah Palin book excerpts
Gawker received, published and criticized excerpts from Sarah Palin's new book, America By Heart. Though a perfect example of fair use (a limitation on copyright that explicitly allows for reportage and criticism) her publisher has other ideas.
Even after Palin publicized leaked excerpts at supporters' sites, HarperCollins filed a copyright lawsuit against Gawker yesterday. U.S. District Judge Thomas P. Griesa ordered Gawker to remove the passages today, despite the small size of the excerpts and writer Maureen O'Connor's substantial fair-usey criticisms.
Gawker complied. Google's cache, however, republishes the post in full.
It seems a bit shrill to suggest that HarperCollins would have done this to get rid of Gawker's deflating pre-publication criticisms. Its toleration of identical 'infringements' in Palin-Friendly venues can speak for itself.
Policeman on vacation spots stolen art treasures in window of art gallery
Two ancient statues stolen in the 1980s from Italian museums, including a bronze statue of the Greek god Zeus, have been returned home. The Zeus statue and a marble female torso, both dating from the 1st century, had ended up in the hands of a dealer and a collector in New York, officials told a news conference on Friday in Rome.
The torso, from a small museum in Terracina, south of Rome, was on display in a Madison Ave. art gallery when Michele Speranza, a member of the Italian Carabinieri art squad that hunts down stolen artifacts, strolled by when on holiday last year. "I stopped to look at the gallery window and I recognized the statue," Mr Speranza, 38, said. "I thought I had seen it among the photos in our databank" of missing art, said the officer, who took a photo of the work with his cell phone and did some research when he returned to his job in Rome.
"The statue had been given up for lost" after it being stolen in 1988, said Gen. Pasquale Muggeo, head of the Carabinieri art division renowned for tracking down art treasures and artifacts stolen or illegally excavated from Italian soil. The bronze and the torso are each valued at €500,000 (£428,000), authorities said.
The Zeus was stolen from the National Museum in Rome near the capital's main train station in 1980, and was tracked to a New York collector after a photo of it appeared in a Sotheby's auction catalog in 2006. The art squad methodically studies catalogs of major auction houses. No arrests have been made in either theft. Authorities said those who owned the statues were unaware of their illegal provenance.
The torso, from a small museum in Terracina, south of Rome, was on display in a Madison Ave. art gallery when Michele Speranza, a member of the Italian Carabinieri art squad that hunts down stolen artifacts, strolled by when on holiday last year. "I stopped to look at the gallery window and I recognized the statue," Mr Speranza, 38, said. "I thought I had seen it among the photos in our databank" of missing art, said the officer, who took a photo of the work with his cell phone and did some research when he returned to his job in Rome.
"The statue had been given up for lost" after it being stolen in 1988, said Gen. Pasquale Muggeo, head of the Carabinieri art division renowned for tracking down art treasures and artifacts stolen or illegally excavated from Italian soil. The bronze and the torso are each valued at €500,000 (£428,000), authorities said.
The Zeus was stolen from the National Museum in Rome near the capital's main train station in 1980, and was tracked to a New York collector after a photo of it appeared in a Sotheby's auction catalog in 2006. The art squad methodically studies catalogs of major auction houses. No arrests have been made in either theft. Authorities said those who owned the statues were unaware of their illegal provenance.
Bold career swap pays off
Marina Marchese was afraid of bees before meeting the residents of her neighbor's hives.
Also: Save The Words
Save the Words features arcane words that are well on their way out of use. Many are no longer found in dictionaries. Site visitors can 'adopt' these words and pledge to revive them by using them as frequently as possible in conversation and in correspondence. Words like avunculize which means to act as an uncle. Or foppotee which is a simple-minded person.
Save the Words is a project of an advertising agency. Young and Rubicam in Kuala Lampur, Malaysia, was hired to promote the print version of the Oxford English Dictionary.
Unusual 'blue' moon coming
November's full moon may look ordinary, but a bizarre old rule makes it extremely rare.
Also: T. Rex Tail Built for Speed
Tyrannosaurus rex was one of the world's fastest moving hunters thanks to its powerful tail.
Just Found: The Planet From Another Galaxy
Scientists have discovered the first planet from another galaxy, sort of. While some 500 planets have been identified in other parts of our galaxy - the Milky Way - none has been reported in other galaxies.
Upping the cute factor
Three sleepy kitties are enjoying their nap when they realize they are not alone.
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