This is the original 1969 version and 'video' (short film) for David Bowie's classic song A Space Oddity.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
And I Quote
"A CNN poll finds 79% of Americans approve of Obama's performance
so far during transition, with just 18% disapproving. ."
~ Political Wire, Link
when the public rallies around a leader after a national disaster.
To many Americans, the Bush administration was a national disaster."
~ CNN's Bill Schneider, Link
Leap second to be added to the official world time
On December 31, at 23:59:59 UTC, a leap second will be added to the official timekeeping clocks of the world. That's because the timescales of atomic clocks and the earth's rotation aren't perfectly in sync. The last leap second was added in 2005.
From Smithsonian:
From Smithsonian:
Earth’s rotation is the traditional form of timekeeping. It is what defines a day. However, while we call a day 86,400 seconds, it is really 86,400.02 seconds. All those .02 seconds add up over time. In addition, the earth’s rotation is not constant (it has been slightly slowing, and 900 million years ago a day was only 18 of our hours). Time as we know it changes.
Talk about stupid ...
His career in shreds, Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich clung defiantly to power Wednesday, ignoring a call to step down from President Barack Obama and a warning that Senate Democrats will not let him appoint a new senator from the state.
UK TV station plans airing man's death
A British television channel plans to show a film about an American man who commits assisted suicide at a Swiss clinic, reigniting debate over an issue that strongly divides opinion in Britain.
Opponents called the broadcast a ratings-grabbing stunt.Feelings about the issue ran so high Wednesday that Prime Minister Gordon Brown was asked about the program in Parliament.
The 2006 suicide of 59-year-old Craig Ewert was to be shown Wednesday evening in a documentary on the Sky Real Lives digital channel.
Ewert had degenerative motor neuron disease and died at a clinic in Zurich run by the assisted suicide group Dignitas, with his wife Mary at his side.
Assisted suicide is legal in Switzerland in some circumstances and organizations there provide suicide services.
This is a wee bit too far. Showing this man's death for entertainment is not a 'cool' thing to do.
Opponents called the broadcast a ratings-grabbing stunt.Feelings about the issue ran so high Wednesday that Prime Minister Gordon Brown was asked about the program in Parliament.
The 2006 suicide of 59-year-old Craig Ewert was to be shown Wednesday evening in a documentary on the Sky Real Lives digital channel.
Ewert had degenerative motor neuron disease and died at a clinic in Zurich run by the assisted suicide group Dignitas, with his wife Mary at his side.
Assisted suicide is legal in Switzerland in some circumstances and organizations there provide suicide services.
*****
This is a wee bit too far. Showing this man's death for entertainment is not a 'cool' thing to do.
Defending cognition-enhancing drugs
A commentary in this week's issue of the journal Nature argues that cognitive performance-enhancing drugs should be made widely available, and sets out an ethical and legal framework for doing so in a way that maximizes the social good of being able to choose what state of mind you're in.
Contributors to the article include a Stanford law prof, a Cambridge research psychiatrist, a Harvard med-school prof, and other distinguished personages.
To wit:
Contributors to the article include a Stanford law prof, a Cambridge research psychiatrist, a Harvard med-school prof, and other distinguished personages.
To wit:
Human ingenuity has given us means of enhancing our brains through inventions such as written language, printing and the Internet. Most authors of this Commentary are teachers and strive to enhance the minds of their students, both by adding substantive information and by showing them new and better ways to process that information. And we are all aware of the abilities to enhance our brains with adequate exercise, nutrition and sleep. The drugs just reviewed, along with newer technologies such as brain stimulation and prosthetic brain chips, should be viewed in the same general category as education, good health habits, and information technology — ways that our uniquely innovative species tries to improve itself.Of course, no two enhancements are equivalent in every way, and some of the differences have moral relevance. For example, the benefits of education require some effort at self-improvement whereas the benefits of sleep do not. Enhancing by nutrition involves changing what we ingest and is therefore invasive in a way that reading is not. The opportunity to benefit from Internet access is less equitably distributed than the opportunity to benefit from exercise. Cognitive-enhancing drugs require relatively little effort, are invasive and for the time being are not equitably distributed, but none of these provides reasonable grounds for prohibition. Drugs may seem distinctive among enhancements in that they bring about their effects by altering brain function, but in reality so does any intervention that enhances cognition. Recent research has identified beneficial neural changes engendered by exercise10, nutrition11 and sleep12, as well as instruction13 and reading14. In short, cognitive-enhancing drugs seem morally equivalent to other, more familiar, enhancements.
Many people have doubts about the moral status of enhancement drugs for reasons ranging from the pragmatic to the philosophical, including concerns about short-circuiting personal agency and undermining the value of human effort15. Kass16, for example, has written of the subtle but, in his view, important differences between human enhancement through biotechnology and through more traditional means. Such arguments have been persuasively rejected (for example, ref. 17). Three arguments against the use of cognitive enhancement by the healthy quickly bubble to the surface in most discussions: that it is cheating, that it is unnatural and that it amounts to drug abuse.
Stem-cell trachea transplant was endangered by EasyJet: "your cell culture is a security risk"
"... your cell culture is a security risk ..."
Do you remember the woman who got a new trachea grown from her own stem cells?
Well, she almost didn't -- because the discount airline EasyJet decided that flying with stem cells presented a "security risk" and wouldn't let the scientists carrying them onto the plane.
"On arrival they said it couldn't go on because it would be a security risk - but I had been talking to people on a regular basis," he said."I was so furious, trying to explain months of work.
"The clock was ticking. We'd taken the cells out of their culture media an hour before.
"We thought about driving to Barcelona, but that would have taken too long..."
The professor paid the 14,000 pounds it cost to charter a private jet out of his own pocket, though the cost was later reimbursed by Bristol University.
A spokesman for EasyJet said: "We do not have any record of the passenger's request to carry medical materials on board the flight.
"However as a gesture of goodwill EasyJet has refunded the passenger for the cost of his flight."
Pakistanis confirm Mumbai arrests
Pakistan has detained a second alleged mastermind of the Mumbai terrorist attacks, the prime minister said Wednesday, apparently making good on pledges to pursue the perpetrators.
The announcement of the arrest of Zarrar Shah - following Sunday's detention of another alleged Mumbai plotter, Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi and other alleged militants - could deflect intense U.S. and Indian pressure on Pakistan following the attack.
But much will now depend on whether Pakistan's young civilian government keeps up the pressure on the militant groups that are believed to have been fostered by the country's powerful security agencies.
Pakistan has targeted militants in the past, detaining some leaders only to quietly release them later, bolstering critics who claim Islamabad is not serious about fighting extremists.
The announcement of the arrest of Zarrar Shah - following Sunday's detention of another alleged Mumbai plotter, Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi and other alleged militants - could deflect intense U.S. and Indian pressure on Pakistan following the attack.
But much will now depend on whether Pakistan's young civilian government keeps up the pressure on the militant groups that are believed to have been fostered by the country's powerful security agencies.
Pakistan has targeted militants in the past, detaining some leaders only to quietly release them later, bolstering critics who claim Islamabad is not serious about fighting extremists.
Drowning, other accidents kill 800,000 kids a year
Simple things like seat belts, childproof medicine caps and fences around pools could help prevent up to half of the 2,000 accidental deaths of children that happen each day around the world, according to UN officials.
More than 800,000 children die each year from burns, drowning, car accidents, falls, poisoning and other accidents, with the vast majority of those deaths occurring in developing countries, according to experts and a report by the World Health Organization and UNICEF.
Tens of millions more suffer injuries that often leave them disabled for life, said the report which was launched at a meeting of global health experts in Hanoi.
The World Report on Child Injury Prevention 2008 does not include injuries caused by domestic violence.
The problem is most acute in Africa and Southeast Asia, but no country is immune, conference participants said, issuing an urgent call for action.
More than 800,000 children die each year from burns, drowning, car accidents, falls, poisoning and other accidents, with the vast majority of those deaths occurring in developing countries, according to experts and a report by the World Health Organization and UNICEF.
Tens of millions more suffer injuries that often leave them disabled for life, said the report which was launched at a meeting of global health experts in Hanoi.
The World Report on Child Injury Prevention 2008 does not include injuries caused by domestic violence.
The problem is most acute in Africa and Southeast Asia, but no country is immune, conference participants said, issuing an urgent call for action.
Officials arrest 23 in Las Vegas ID theft scheme
State and federal authorities said Tuesday they arrested nearly two dozen people, many with ties to Eastern Europe, in a credit card fraud and identity theft scheme that cost Las Vegas businesses and consumers about $1.5 million.
Greg Brower, U.S. attorney for Nevada, said 13 people were arrested on federal charges Monday in southern Nevada and Los Angeles.
Las Vegas police said 10 were arrested on state charges, including forgery, credit card fraud and weapons and drug possession.
The arrests were the first for a Eurasian organized crime task force based in Las Vegas.
The task force was formed two years ago in response to "the influx and influence and activity of Eurasian-based gang-type criminals" in southern Nevada, Brower said.
Greg Brower, U.S. attorney for Nevada, said 13 people were arrested on federal charges Monday in southern Nevada and Los Angeles.
Las Vegas police said 10 were arrested on state charges, including forgery, credit card fraud and weapons and drug possession.
The arrests were the first for a Eurasian organized crime task force based in Las Vegas.
The task force was formed two years ago in response to "the influx and influence and activity of Eurasian-based gang-type criminals" in southern Nevada, Brower said.
Workers win a big round in Chicago factory sit-in
The creditor of a Chicago plant where laid-off employees are conducting a sit-in to demand severance pay said Tuesday it would extend loans to the factory so it could resolve the dispute, but the workers declared their protest unfinished.
A resolution seemed nearer as Bank of America, which yanked the plant's financing last week, announced it sent a letter to Republic Windows and Doors offering "a limited amount of additional loans" to resolve its employee claims.
About 200 of the 240 laid-off workers had responded to their three days' notice of the plant closing by staging a sit-in and vowing to stay put until assurances they would get severance and accrued vacation pay.
Lawmakers have criticized Bank of America for cutting off money to the plant after it exhausted its credit line, even though the Charlotte, N.C.-based bank itself received $25 billion from the government's financial bailout package.
A resolution seemed nearer as Bank of America, which yanked the plant's financing last week, announced it sent a letter to Republic Windows and Doors offering "a limited amount of additional loans" to resolve its employee claims.
About 200 of the 240 laid-off workers had responded to their three days' notice of the plant closing by staging a sit-in and vowing to stay put until assurances they would get severance and accrued vacation pay.
Lawmakers have criticized Bank of America for cutting off money to the plant after it exhausted its credit line, even though the Charlotte, N.C.-based bank itself received $25 billion from the government's financial bailout package.
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Malaysia frees 3 militant suspects
Officials say the Malaysian government has freed three alleged Islamic militants held without trial since 2002, including a former army captain accused of helping the Sept. 11 hijackers.
Human rights activist Nalini Elumalai says the three men were released separately from a northern prison camp between Nov. 24 and Dec. 2.
The most prominent among them is Yazid Sufaat, an ex-army captain who allegedly let several senior al-Qaida operatives, including two eventual Sept. 11 hijackers, use an apartment he owned for meetings in Malaysia in January 2000.
Home Minister Syed Hamid Albar confirmed the release and said Wednesday that the men were no "longer a threat."
Human rights activist Nalini Elumalai says the three men were released separately from a northern prison camp between Nov. 24 and Dec. 2.
The most prominent among them is Yazid Sufaat, an ex-army captain who allegedly let several senior al-Qaida operatives, including two eventual Sept. 11 hijackers, use an apartment he owned for meetings in Malaysia in January 2000.
Home Minister Syed Hamid Albar confirmed the release and said Wednesday that the men were no "longer a threat."
Search of 32 graves ordered at Florida reform school
Florida Gov. Charlie Crist has ordered an investigation to determine whether the remains of 32 students were buried decades ago in shallow graves on the grounds of a former reform school for boys. 
Authorities are investigating whether boys were beaten decades ago in this building, known as the White House.
The governor's action came at the urging of four former residents of what was known as the Florida School for Boys. The four alleged that students were abused and killed by guards decades ago at the school in Marianna, Florida, just south of the Georgia border.
In a letter Crist asked the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to investigate the graves and determine whether any crimes were committed.
Read the rest at here.
Trampled Wal-Mart Employee's Family Sues Company
The family of 34-year-old Jdimytai Damour is suing Wal-Mart for creating the unsafe atmosphere in which he was trampled to death by a crowd of shoppers on Black Friday.
Police arrest man on 'mission' in bathroom ceiling
Yes ... it's in Arkansas. Surprised?
Bare footprints on a toilet seat led sheriff's deputies to find a man hidden away inside a Baxter County gas station ceiling, apparently "on a mission" to steal, officials said Tuesday.
Jeremy J. Fleming, 34, of Midway, initially refused to offer his name to sheriff's deputies after his arrest early Tuesday morning, Sgt. Bob Bushbacher said. Fleming later told deputies his name was "Jason Solo," though fingerprints later gave his identity away, Bushbacher said.
Fleming entered the Triangle Citgo Mini-Mart in Midway barefoot around 1:30 a.m. and walked into the women's bathroom, Bushbacher said. After 20 minutes, Fleming walked into the employee's bathroom and later returned to the women's.
An hour passed and an employee decided to check on Fleming. The bathroom was empty, but the employee found footprints on the toilet seat and a ceiling tile torn down, Bushbacher said. The employee called police after hearing rustling into the gas station's ceiling.
A sheriff's deputy arrived and called out to Fleming, asking him to come down from the ceiling. Fleming initially refused, but crawled out of the ceiling in the men's room 30 minutes later, Bushbacher said.
When asked what he was doing, Fleming told the deputy he was "on a mission" to steal, Bushbacher said. Though he acted irrational, Fleming did not have an odor of alcohol about him at the time of his arrest, the sergeant said.
"The officer this morning said that the guy was somewhat irrational," Bushbacher said. "Well, yeah. The guy comes into a business at 1:30 in the morning with no shoes on and is going from bathroom to bathroom crawling around in the ceiling. I can see how you could classify that as irrational or somewhat unusual behavior."
Fleming faces criminal mischief and criminal trespassing charges. He was being held Tuesday at the Baxter County Jail on $710 bond.
Panthers-Giants game moved to Sunday night on NBC
The Panthers' game on Dec. 21 against the New York Giants has been moved to the NFL's Sunday night time slot on NBC. The league considers the Sunday night game its premiere matchup each week -- even ahead of Monday Night Football on ESPN (where the Panthers just beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 38-23).
The game, with an 8:15PM kickoff at Giants Stadium, will feature the teams with currently the NFC's two best records -- the defending Super Bowl champ Giants at 11-2 and the Panthers at 10-3 -- and will likely have huge ramifications for home-field advantage in the playoffs.
The game was originally scheduled for 1 p.m., but the league has the flexibility to change attractive late-season games with playoff implications to more optimum TV times.
The Panthers' home game this Sunday against the Denver Broncos has already been changed from 1PM to 4:15PM.North Carolina to lose 96,000 jobs
For the first time in five years, North Carolina will see a loss in total jobs this year – more than 58,000, according to an economic forecast released today.
The state will lose almost 38,000 more jobs in 2009, the forecast said, with the biggest employment declines coming in construction, manufacturing and the finance, insurance and real estate industries.
John Connaughton, a UNC Charlotte economist, presented the forecast to business leaders in uptown Charlotte. After several years of growth – including 2.4 percent in 2007 – the N.C. economy will decline by 0.2 percent this year, Connaughton said.
The economy should start to recover in the late spring, he said, making the current recession longer than recessions that started in 1990 and 2001. But Connaughton said he didn't think this recession would be as devastating as the one in 1981-82.
N.C. unemployment likely will hit 7.1 percent this month, he said, and peak at 7.6 percent next December, even though the recovery is expected to start about six months earlier.
“Jobs and job growth don't come back right away,” Connaughton said.
Canadians being screwed
From breadwithcircus.com
All hell, or at least a little part of it, has broken loose in Ottawa and Canadians are all riled up. We’re hearing our Prime Minister go into full attack mode, manufacturing a unity crisis where there need not be one. There is a lot of noise and bluster, but I think that we’ve lost sight of the issue that put us here.
Ignore the red herrings. The issue is that the Conservative Party has lost its mandate to govern.
A little reminder now about the way things are supposed to work. When Canadians vote, they vote to elect a local MP, not the broader government. Add all 308 MP’s together and you’ve got a House of Commons. Whichever political party or collection of political parties has the support of the majority of MP’s in the House makes up the government, because in order to pass legislation, you have to win votes. The issue at hand is that Stephen Harper’s Conservatives have lost the confidence of the House of Commons. They can’t win a vote, which means that they can’t pass legislation, which means that they can’t be the government.
The Prime Minister’s rhetoric is designed to get you all worked up emotionally. By talking about treason and sedition, invoking the image of evil separatists legislating the breakup of the country, or evil socialists running the treasury, Harper is obfuscating the real issue and playing the fear card. This is cynical, divisive, and shameful.
In order to survive, Harper needs to make a deal with one of the other parties. This has worked for him in the past. In the previous session of parliament, Harper passed legislation with the support of the same separatist bloc that he is now demonizing. Harper is going to need their support again if he is to govern, but given the way that he has burned all his bridges, that seems very unlikely to happen. In the last election, just eight weeks or so ago, Canadians elected a minority parliament. A minority parliament is dependent upon a coalition (at least informally) among different parties in order to function. What we need is a block of MP’s capable of getting 155 votes on any given issue. They can “prorogue” or delay parliament from taking any votes but that is a measure designed solely to buy time for the Conservative propaganda machine to try to scare the hell out of you. Don’t forget what the real issue is here. The Conservatives are incapable of governing. We really ought to see if any other combination of elected MP’s is up to the task.
Wonder how our brothers to the north are feeling about that stinging sensation in their anal cavities about now?! Because they are feeling the hot poker up the arse we have had for the last eight years
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