Friday, December 28, 2012

Japan to turn into one giant roller coaster

 Courtesy: Pravda.Ru
  Japan to turn into one giant roller coaster. 48840.jpeg








Japanese engineers have developed a new type of transport that runs on gravity power. Engineers decided to use the idea inherent in roller coasters - a train car with passengers accelerating downhill and gathering energy for the next rise. These trains will have no engines and transmissions, which will greatly reduce their weight.
Japan has rather complex terrain, and is experiencing a significant power shortage, especially after the government decided to phase out the use of nuclear power plants. The combination of these two factors prompted a group of designers working under the guidance of the Mr. Yoshihiro Suda with the Institute of Industrial Research, University of Tokyo, to develop a commuter train that would be moved by the force of gravity (and weight of passengers). The new development will be cost-effective and fast. More...
Japan to turn into one giant roller coaster - English pravda.ru

Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Estonians on track for free public transport - Video

Estonians in the capital city of Talinn are soon to benefit from the arrival of free public transport.
It is the first EU capital to make the shift and is part of a green platform adopted by Talinn's mayor, Edgar Savisaar.
However, not everyone thinks the move will get cars off the road. The opposition fume that the idea is less about a clean environment and more about political opportunism.

Sunday, December 16, 2012

Belo Horizonte: The City That Beat Hunger - Video

This is a short film (12 minutes) that shows how Belo Horizonte, a city of 2.5 million, in Minas Gerais, Brasil developed a food policy to ensure that no citizen went hungry.
Back in 1993, the newly elected city government of Belo Horizonte, Brazil declared that food was a right of citizenship. At that time, the city of 2.5 million had 275,000 people living in absolute poverty, and close to 20 percent of its children were going hungry.
The new mayor, Patrus Ananias—now leader of the federal anti-hunger effort—began by creating a city agency, which included assembling a 20-member council of citizen, labor, business, and church representatives to advise in the design and implementation of a new food system. The city already involved regular citizens directly in allocating municipal resources—the “participatory budgeting”.
It offered local family farmers dozens of choice spots of public space on which to sell to urban consumers, essentially redistributing retailer mark-ups on produce—which often reached 100 percent—to consumers and the farmers. Farmers’ profits grew, since there was no wholesaler taking a cut. And poor people got access to fresh, healthy food.
In addition to the farmer-run stands, the city makes good food available by offering entrepreneurs the opportunity to bid on the right to use well-trafficked plots of city land for “ABC” markets, from the Portuguese acronym for “food at low prices.” Today there are 34 such markets where the city determines a set price—about two-thirds of the market price—of about twenty healthy items.
Another product of food-as-a-right thinking is three large, airy “People’s Restaurants” (Restaurante Popular), plus a few smaller venues, that daily serve 12,000 or more people using mostly locally grown food for the equivalent of less than 50 cents a meal.
In just a decade Belo Horizonte cut its infant death rate—widely used as evidence of hunger—by more than half, and today these initiatives benefit almost 40 percent of the city’s 2.5 million population. One six-month period in 1999 saw infant malnutrition in a sample group reduced by 50 percent. And between 1993 and 2002 Belo Horizonte was the only locality in which consumption of fruits and vegetables went up.
The cost of these efforts?
Around $10 million annually, or less than 2 percent of the city budget. That’s about a penny a day per Belo resident.
(Excerpts drawn from http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/food-for-everyone/the-city-that-ended-hunger)

Friday, December 14, 2012

GANESH VERSUS THE THIRD REICH: Promo Video

A BACK TO BACK THEATRE PRODUCTION.

Ganesh Versus the Third Reich is poignant, beautiful, disarming, full of vulnerability and sly transparency.
The story begins with the elephant-headed god Ganesh travelling through Nazi Germany to reclaim the Swastika, an ancient Hindu symbol. As this intrepid hero embarks on his journey a second narrative is revealed: the actors themselves begin to feel the weighty responsibility of storytellers and question the ethics of cultural appropriation.

Devised and performed by Australian company Back to Back Theatre, an ensemble of actors with physical and learning disabilities led by director Bruce Gladwin, it fearlessly interrogated prejudice and abuses of power by questioning its own right to represent a Hindu god and the Holocaust on stage.

GANESH VERSUS THE THIRD REICH: Promo from Back to Back Theatre on Vimeo.

Friday, December 7, 2012

Samsara (2012) - Official Trailer [HD]

SAMSARA is a Sanskrit word that means “the ever turning wheel of life” and is the point of departure for the filmmakers as they search for the elusive current of interconnection that runs through our lives. Filmed over a period of almost five years and in twenty-five countries, SAMSARA transports us to sacred grounds, disaster zones, industrial sites, and natural wonders. By dispensing with dialogue and descriptive text, SAMSARA subverts our expectations of a traditional documentary, instead encouraging our own inner interpretations inspired by images and music that infuses the ancient with the modern. The crew, comprised of Ron Fricke (director), Mark Magidson (producer), JC Earle (associate producer), and Myles Connolly (line producer) traveled together to each location throughout the course of filming. SAMSARA is one of only a handful of feature films, including its predecessor Baraka, to be shot in the 70mm format in the last forty years.




SAMSARA Theatrical Trailer from Baraka & Samsara on Vimeo.

Monday, November 26, 2012

Animals are already dissolving in Southern Ocean acid


In a small patch of the Southern Ocean, the shells of sea snails are dissolving. The finding is the first evidence that marine life is already suffering as a result of man-made ocean acidification. More..
Animals are already dissolving in Southern Ocean acid - environment - 25 November 2012 - New Scientist

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

These women can't read ... and they are solar engineers - Video

(Courtesy: Avaaz)
These women come from the poorest communities in the world, they can't read, and often have no schooling. So how have they become solar engineers in six months? Meet the Solar Mamas of Barefoot College. For more than 30 years the Barefoot College has been working to improve the quality of life of the rural poor. They've found that trained men often leave their villages with their newfound skills, looking for better opportunities, but women stick around and improve life for their families, neighbours and the entire community.

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

U.S. Businessman Russ George Conducts Massive and ‘Illegal’ Ocean Fertilization Experiment Off Canada’s West Coast




U.S. Businessman Conducts Massive and ‘Illegal’ Ocean Fertilization Experiment Off Canada’s West Coast (via Planetsave)

[UPDATED: Oct. 18, 2012; see below] Geoengineering theories and  experiments have received much attention in recent years, with one recent experiment in “ocean (iron) fertilization” successfully conducted off the coast of Antarctica by a German scientific research team. Past experiments of this…

Sunday, October 28, 2012

Sweden to Import Garbage as Trash Supplies Run Dry

Source: Stephen Messenger @ treehugger.com

As other nations throughout the world struggle to cut the amount of waste piling up in their landfills and marring the landscape, Sweden is facing an entirely different sort of challenge -- they've run out of trash. Now they're forced to import some more.

Swedes, you see, are among the planet's least wasteful people, on average recycling around 96 percent of the garbage they produce. And with what's left, they've found a way to use, having implemented a world-class waste-to-energy incineration program capable of providing electricity sufficient to power hundreds of thousands of homes.

But their hyper-efficiency has led to a unique problem: a trash shortage that could threaten the energy production capacity.

So, what is Sweden to do? Well, according to Swedish officials, the notoriously tidy nation will begin importing garbage from their neighbor Norway -- about 800,000 tons of it annually, in fact, to fulfill their energy needs.

Perhaps the best part of all is that, in solving their problem, Swedes actually stand to profit from this endeavor; the Norwegians are going to pay them to take their waste, proving quite succinctly that one nation's trash can truly be another's treasure trove.

http://www.treehugger.com/energy-efficiency/sweden-import-garbage-trash-supply-runs-dry.html

Saturday, October 20, 2012

Mansa Musa I of Mali - the richest human being in all history


When we think of the world’s all-time richest people, names like Bill Gates, Warren Buffet and John D Rockefeller immediately come to mind. But few would have thought, or even heard of, Mansa Musa I of Mali – the obscure 14th century African king who was today named the richest person in all history. With an inflation adjusted fortune of $400 billion, Mansa Musa I would have been considerably richer than the world’s current richest man, Carlos Slim, who ranks in 22nd place with a relatively paltry $68 billion. More...
Mansa Musa I of Mali – the richest human being in all history - World news, News - Belfasttelegraph.co.uk

Thursday, September 27, 2012

Lithopanspermia, Microorganisms From Distant Planets May Have Seeded Life On Earth, Study Says




Lithopanspermia, Microorganisms From Distant Planets May Have Seeded Life On Earth, Study Says (via Planetsave)

Life on this planet may have been seeded by microorganisms embedded in the fragments of distant planets that have crashed to Earth, according to new research from Princeton University, the University of Arizona and the Centro de Astrobiología (CAB) in Spain. The new research, just published in the…

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

What is this thing called love? Mere chemical trickery

In the past two decades social neuroscientists have been diligently working to unravel the mysteries of love - including the phenomena of attraction, monogamy and the parent-child bond - using techniques such as brain imaging, genome-wide association studies and transgenic animal models. In The Chemistry Between Us, Larry Young, the director of Emory University's Center for Translational Social Neuroscience, and journalist Brian Alexander offer a novel take on many of those findings. More..
CultureLab: What is this thing called love? Mere chemical trickery

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

New Zealand Grants Rights of Personhood to Whanganui River

New Zealand made history only days ago by giving the rights of a person to the Whanganui River. Under the preliminary agreement, that means the river will be considered a legal entity and have a legal voice. While the river can’t exactly celebrate the win, we’re sure the Whanganui River iwi, an indigenous community who fought for the rights of the river and who will now have a legal say on its behalf, are ecstatic. More..
New Zealand Grants Rights of Personhood to Whanganui River

Saturday, September 8, 2012

'Video Painting Europe': Breathtaking Projection-Mapped Video Graffiti Transforms European Cities

Part interactive installation, part urban performance art, Video Painting Europe documents a kind of glow-in-the-dark graffiti that leaves no trace. Art collective Sweatshoppe uses ingenious infrared tracking to smear digital video over concrete surfaces with paint rollers. In this Vimeo Award-winning video, they travel to European cities like Paris, Belgrade, London, and more to paste their "video collages" on different architectural structures including the Berlin Wall. The duo behind the collective are Blake Shaw and Bruno Levy.

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Gangnam Style, Dissected: The Subversive Message Within South Korea's Music Video Sensation

(Source: The Atlantic)
Park Jaesang is an unlikely poster boy for South Korea's youth-obsessed, highly lucrative, and famously vacuous pop music. Park, who performs as Psy (short for psycho), is a relatively ancient 34, has been busted for marijuana and for avoiding the country's mandatory military service, and is not particularly good-looking. His first album got him fined for "inappropriate content" and the second was banned. He's mainstream in the way that South Korea's monolithically corporate media demands of its stars, who typically appear regularly on TV variety and even game shows, but as a harlequin, a performer known for his parodies, outrageous costumes, and jokey concerts. Still, there's a long history of fools and court jesters as society's most cutting social critics, and he might be one of them. More..
Gangnam Style, Dissected: The Subversive Message Within South Korea's Music Video Sensation - The Atlantic

Saturday, August 11, 2012

SLICE : A Freaky Visual Journey Through a Human Body

After a series of medical tests, Christopher Powers, a software engineer and filmmaker, decided to transform the resulting series of 2-D and 3-D scans of his body into an experimental film -- an eerie anatomical self-portrait.

Slice II from Christopher Powers on Vimeo.

Sunday, July 29, 2012

Belarus Teddybear Airdrop - Video

Belarus has finally confirmed that an airplane "invaded" its territory earlier in July to drop a payload of teddy bears holding signs promoting free speech, infuriating a regime often known as "Europe's last dictatorship".
Chartered by Studio Total, which bills itself as "northern Scandinavia's most notorious ad agency", the single-engine aircraft - piloted by a co-founder of Studio Total - crossed over the Lithuanian border on July 4, dropping 876 teddy bears on the capital Minsk and the small town of Ivyanets.

Kanaksi Khimji : The only Hindu Sheikh of Arab World

The world’s only Hindu sheikh happens to be an uncompromising vegetarian, his devotion is anchored to Lord Shreenathji, and though his admired entrepreneurship branches out across the globe, his roots lie in Gujarat. If that isn't enough, the Sultan of Oman offered his yacht Lo'Lo' to this NRI for developing tourism business in the Sultanate.

Kanaksi Khimji, the head of Khimji Ramdas Group of Companies, was conferred the title of sheikh by the Sultan of Oman. Khimji Ramdas and M/s V. Ships Leisure have also been appointed the ship managers of the yacht. Khimji, a practising Gujarati Vaishnav, was born in 1936 in Muscat; and he completed his matriculation in Mumbai. Later, he became one of the very few Indians to be offered Omani citizenship.

Generations ago, Khimji's grandfather, Ramdas Thackersey, had set sail for Oman from Mandvi, in Kutch. Today, dressed in a flowing full-length robe and wearing the kaffiyeh, the cloth that covers the head, Khimji easily passes off as an Omani. When he married in 1960, Khimji was presented with a silver jug by Sultan Said Taimur Bin Faisal. The queen mother, Bibi Mahezun, had given him two of her photographs, a privilege accorded to only a few.

The former president of India, Shankar Dayal Sharma, had called Khimji 'the real ambassador of India to the Gulf countries'. Chandrakant Chothani, one of the founding members of the Muscat Gujarati Samaj said, "Kanaksibhai has not only earned the respect of the Indian community but also of the citizens of Oman." Khimji was one of the NRIs to receive the Centre's Bhartiya Pravasi Award, in 2003.

Indeed, Khimji's 'Bhartiya' persona is reflected in his spiritual practices. He has an idol of Lord Shreenathji installed in a temple at his home. He does not touch non-vegetarian food; his office kitchen serves delicacies like rotla and chaas that keep everybody's palate satisfied with wholesome, and vegetarian, Gujarati delicacies. Khimji has contributed considerably to the public sphere in Oman as well as in India. In 1975, under Khimji's leadership, the Indian merchants’ body in Oman established the first-ever English medium school in Muscat.

Source: http://sawaibhatia.blogspot.in/2010/08/kanaksinh-khimji-only-hindu-sheikh-of.html

Monday, July 23, 2012

London Double-Decker Bus doing Push Ups for Olympics - Video

A Czech artist has re-modelled a traditional London double-decker bus into a mechanical sculpture of an athlete doing push-ups to celebrate the Olympic Games opening in the British capital on Friday. David Cerny, whose past works have enraged European politicians and sought to poke fun at rival artists, has installed the bus outside the Czech Olympic House in London's Islington neighbourhood. Cerny bought the 1957 bus from an owner in the Netherlands, attached two huge arms, an electrical engine and a lot of wiring and suspension tools to make it into a piece of art named "London Boosted".

Sunday, July 22, 2012

New Egyptian TV Channel operated exclusively by veiled women - Video

A new satellite TV channel is being launched in Egypt, but unlike other channels the female presenters will all be wearing the niqab, the traditional Muslim face-covering. The TV channel is called Maraya after one of the prophet Mohammad's wives who was a freed Egyptian Coptic slave and is set to start broadcasting on 20 July, coinciding with the start of Ramadan - the Islamic month of fasting. The programme aims to teach Muslim women more about religion.

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Singapore develops stunning structure to fill its skyline- SUPERTREES - Video

What is new in Singapore's modern skyline are super trees --- high tech organic shapes that stretch way up into the sky. The super trees are built to mimic real trees. And, they provide shade during the day, plants grow and crawl up the sides and their branches reach out, cross over and form intricate canopies.

Saturday, July 7, 2012

Scientists generate electricity with a virus

Ouija board helps psychologists probe the subconscious

Beloved of spiritualists and bored teenagers on a dare, the Ouija board has long been a source of entertainment, mystery and sometimes downright spookiness. Now it could shine a light on the secrets of the unconscious mind.

The Ouija, also known as a talking board, is a wooden plaque marked with the words, "yes", "no" and the letters of the alphabet. Typically a group of users place their hands on a movable pointer , or "planchette", and ask questions out loud. Sometimes the planchette signals an answer, even when no one admits to moving it deliberately.

Believers think the answer comes through from the spirit world. In fact, all the evidence points to the real cause being the ideomotor effect, small muscle movements we generate unconsciously.

That's why the Ouija board has attracted the attention of psychologists at the University of British Columbia in Canada. Growing evidence suggests the unconscious plays a role in cognitive functions we usually consider the preserve of the conscious mind. More..
Short Sharp Science: Ouija board helps psychologists probe the subconscious

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Painting Fool is no idiot - Video

The Painting Fool, a computer program which has been taught to recognize human emotion, has been building a reputation as an accomplished artist over the past decade. Its creator Simon Colton believes the Fool's future is as bright as some of the abstract artwork created by the program. He has big plans to extend the program into the area of literature.

Finns fight stress at brain gym - Video

A fitness center for the brain opens in the Finnish capital, offering smells, sounds and light effects for enhanced and instant recreation of overloaded human brains.

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Jetovator, Flying, water-powered bike

Introducing the most thrilling new aerial water vehicle; the Jetovator! Turn your standard high output personal watercraft into a power source for your Jetovator and get ready to reach heights up to 30 feet, speeds up to 25mph, dives down to 10 feet, and insane aerial tricks like 360 degree barrel rolls, and back flips. To get more info on the Jetovator visit www.jetovator.com.

Monday, June 18, 2012

Goodbye welfare, hello workfare

You lose your job. You claim welfare and are offered a job almost immediately. But the job does not pay wages (despite being with a company which can afford to pay them) and if you refuse to accept this ‘opportunity’, your welfare payments are stopped and you therefore face destitution. Welcome to a life on workfare, which is now the reality for millions of people across the world. More...
Goodbye welfare, hello workfare -- New Internationalist

Friday, June 15, 2012

Debtocracy : Documentary (International Version) [Multi-Subs]

A documentary film on Greece debt crisis called "Debtocracy International Version (Greece, 2011)", with multilingual subtitles (closed caption). This film is distributed as Creative Commons-licensed.

Friday, June 8, 2012

W. H. Auden - Tell Me The Truth About Love (documentary)

Documentary film looking at the poetry of W H Auden, revealing how it came not just from inspiration but from a rigorous scientific analysis of love itself. When he died in 1973, he left behind some of the greatest love poems of the 20th century. Most of his unpublished material was destroyed, apart from two short journals and a series of jottings, containing diagrams and notes about the nature of love.

Sacred Economics with Charles Eisenstein - A Short Film

Sacred Economics traces the history of money from ancient gift economies to modern capitalism, revealing how the money system has contributed to alienation, competition, and scarcity, destroyed community, and necessitated endless growth. Today, these trends have reached their extreme - but in the wake of their collapse, we may find great opportunity to transition to a more connected, ecological, and sustainable way of being.

Sunday, June 3, 2012

Montreal Pots And Pans Video Of Protest Against Bill 78 Goes Viral

This beautiful black and white film shows protesters of all ages taking to the streets to protest the emergency law Bill 78 in Canada.Bill 78 is being called a draconian attempt to quell massive student protests that have taken over Quebec streets for more than 100 days. The bill limits the ability to protest by requiring groups to get police approval for demonstrations and restricting where they can take place, among other provisions.

Thursday, May 31, 2012

Face-reading software to judge the mood of the masses

IF THE computers we stare at all day could read our faces, they would probably know us better than anyone.

That vision may not be so far off. Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab are developing software that can read the feelings behind facial expressions. In some cases, the computers outperform people. The software could lead to empathetic devices and is being used to evaluate and develop better adverts.

But the commercial uses are just "the low-hanging fruit", says Rana el Kaliouby, a member of the Media Lab's Affective Computing group. The software is getting so good and so easy to use that it could collate millions of peoples' reactions to an event as they sit watching it at home, potentially replacing opinion polls, influencing elections and perhaps fuelling revolutions. More..

Face-reading software to judge the mood of the masses - tech - 28 May 2012 - New Scientist

Sunday, May 20, 2012

Inside Norway's 'luxury' prison

Halden prison smells of freshly brewed coffee. It hits you in the workshop areas, lingers in the games rooms and in the communal apartment-style areas where prisoners live together in groups of eight. Halden is one of Norway's highest-security jails, holding rapists, murderers and paedophiles. Since it opened two years ago, it has acquired a reputation as the world's most humane prison. It is the flagship of the Norwegian justice system, where the focus is on rehabilitation rather than punishment. More..

Thursday, May 17, 2012

2-minute Pulitzer-winner video: ‘Austerity’ a debt/death spiral for fools

Pulitzer-winner Mark Fiore’s two-minute animation shows what is self-evident: anything done within a system that creates and uses debt as a so-called “monetary system” can only produce increasing aggregate debt.

Thursday, May 10, 2012

The most cultured flash mob in the world: Copenhagen Philharmonic strike up on busy train

In April 2012 Copenhagen Phil (Sjællands Symfoniorkester) surprised the passengers in the Copenhagen Metro by playing Griegs Peer Gynt. The flash mob was created in collaboration with Radio Klassisk http://radioklassisk.dk/. All music was performed and recorded in the metro.

Saturday, May 5, 2012

TeleHuman:Life-Size Hologram-Like Telepods Revolutionize Videoconferencing

A Queen's University researcher has created a Star Trek-like human-scale 3D videoconferencing pod that allows people in different locations to video conference as if they are standing in front of each other. "Why skype when you can talk to a life-size 3D holographic image of another person?"

The Man Who Quit Money

Daniel Suelo is 51 years old and broke. Happily broke. Consciously, deliberately, blessedly broke.

Not only does he not have debt, a mortgage or rent, he does not earn a salary. Nor does he buy food or clothes, or own any product with an "i" before it. Home is a cave on public land outside Moab, Utah. He scavenges for food from the garbage or off the land (fried grasshoppers, anyone?). He has been known to carve up and boil fresh road kill. He bathes, without soap, in the creek. More..
Utah Caveman Quits Money - ABC News

Thursday, May 3, 2012

Human Genes In Rice: Opening up Pandora's Box?

Rice engineered to contain human genes will be grown for the first time outdoors instead of in a laboratory, bringing it one step closer to commercial production, according to The Washington Post. The genes that the California-based biotechnology company Ventria Bioscience has infused into rice enable the plant to produce bacteria-fighting proteins found in human breast milk and saliva. "We can really help children with diarrhea get better faster," Scott E. Deeter, the company's president and chief executive, explained of the product.

But many consumer groups are worried the engineered rice will do more harm than good. Genetically modified (GM) plants have a history of migrating out of their target plots and contaminating other plants, critics note, and it would be difficult to control the doses of human proteins that people purposely or inadvertently take in. "This is not a product that everyone would want to consume," Jane Rissler of the Union of Concerned Scientists told the Post. "It is unwise to produce drugs in plants outdoors."  More..


Human Genes In Rice: Opening up Pandora's Box? -- Science & Technology -- Sott.net: http://www.sott.net/articles/show/244927-Human-Genes-In-Rice-Opening-up-Pandora-s-Box-

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Forget WiFi and Radio Waves, LiFi Uses Lightbulbs to Connect to the Internet

Whether you're using wireless internet in a coffee shop, stealing it from the guy next door, or competing for bandwidth at a conference, you've probably gotten frustrated at the slow speeds you face when more than one device is tapped into the network. As more and more people - and their many devices - access wireless internet, clogged airwaves are going to make it increasingly difficult to latch onto a reliable signal.


One German physicist, Harald Haas, has come up with a solution he calls "data through illumination" - taking the fiber out of fiber optics by sending data through an LED lightbulb that varies in intensity faster than the human eye can follow. It's the same idea behind infrared remote controls, but far more powerful. More..

Forget WiFi and Radio Waves, LiFi Uses Lightbulbs to Connect to the Internet -- Science & Technology -- Sott.net: http://www.sott.net/articles/show/244434-Forget-WiFi-and-Radio-Waves-LiFi-Uses-Lightbulbs-to-Connect-to-the-Internet

University of Texas researchers design chip allowing mobile devices to see through walls

As unbelievable as it sounds, researchers at the University of Texas at Dallas have created an imager chip for mobile devices which would turn an ordinary cell phone into something which can see through walls, wood, plastics, paper, skin and other objects.

Using the terahertz (THz) band of the electromagnetic spectrum, the wavelengths of which fall between the microwave and infrared bands, the chip could signify a revolution in the surveillance capabilities of mobile phones along with new chips like Broadcom’s BCM4752 which is capable of providing ultra-precise location data.

Combine this with citizen spying applications and the techniques which gently push people to conduct surveillance without them knowing what they’re actually doing, patents from Google which would allow them to collect the data from such chips and the National Security Agency’s (NSA’s) new data center and you have the penultimate surveillance state. More..


University of Texas researchers design chip allowing mobile devices to see through walls - BlackListedNews.com

Thursday, April 5, 2012

The Student Loan Debt Time Bomb

Student debt is growing at an alarming rate. At the end of 2011, total student loan debt crossed the $1 trillion mark, a level that is higher than the sum of all credit card debt in the United States. Already, this category of debt has been likened to the subprime crisis, raising worries that a potential delinquency crisis could find its way into the wider economy. More...


The Student Loan Debt Time Bomb | Economy Watch

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Essay written by Barack Obama while he was a student at Columbia University.

Obama published an article in a school magazine called the Sundial. It was published in the issue dated March 10, 1983. Written just months before Obama graduated, this is not exactly his best work, but it offers a new glimpse of his very conventional campus liberalism of the time. The article is a warm review of two campus groups, Arms Race Alternatives and Students Against Militarism. CLICK on the TITLE to view the full article originally published in politico.com....

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Quants: The Alchemists of Wall Street

Quants are the math wizards and computer programmers in the engine room of our global financial system who designed the financial products that almost crashed Wall st. The credit crunch has shown how the global financial system has become increasingly dependent on mathematical models trying to quantify human (economic) behaviour. Now the quants are at the heart of yet another technological revolution in finance: trading at the speed of light. What are the risks of treating the economy and its markets as a complex machine? Will we be able to keep control of this model-based financial system, or have we created a monster? A story about greed, fear and randomness from the insides of Wall Street. Director: Marije Meerman Research: Gerko Wessel

Thursday, March 22, 2012

'Pendulum,' Japanese Animation, Is A Viral Tearjerker (VIDEO)

Japanese comedian Takefumi Kurashina, better known as Tekken (after the video game), recently released an emotional stop-motion animation, "Pendulum." In the four days it's been on YouTube, it's reached nearly 1.5 million hits.

Friday, March 9, 2012

Young Obama Protesting at Harvard in 1991 - Video

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

EUTHANASIA ROLLER COASTER:' IT THRILLS YOU, THEN KILLS YOU' - VIDEO

Iran is top of the world in science growth

Which country's scientific output rose 18-fold between 1996 and 2008, from 736 published papers to 13,238? The answer – Iran – might surprise many people, especially in the western nations used to leading science. Iran has the fastest rate of increase in scientific publication in the world.More... Iran is top of the world in science growth - science-in-society - 28 March 2011 - New Scientist

Saturday, February 25, 2012

ElliptiGO 8S - The World's First Elliptical Bike: A low impact alternative to outdoor running : video

Friday, February 17, 2012

DOG TV MANUAL - Nicholas Dodman

Friday, February 10, 2012

Capitalism and Loneliness: Why Pornography Is a Multibillion-Dollar Industry | Truthout

Pornography precedes capitalism. However, capitalists have now marketed pornography on a whole new level. Pornography has now become a pastime for billions of men and an addiction for millions. Forty million adults in the United States regularly visit pornography sites. Of those 40 million, 87 percent are men.More.. Capitalism and Loneliness: Why Pornography Is a Multibillion-Dollar Industry | Truthout

Sunday, February 5, 2012

Why Is a Farmer Who Sells Extra Milk From His One Cow to Neighbors Being Sued By the State of Maine?

The lawsuit, filed in Maine Superior Court earlier this month by State of Maine's Agriculture Commissioner Walt Whitcomb, accuses local farmer Dan Brown of "unlicensed distribution and sale of milk and food products." But Brown, far from operating a mega-dairy or even distributing milk to retailers, milks one cow. After he and his family provide for their own needs, the remaining milk is sold from their farm stand. Brown said in a speech to supporters, "I'm not a milk distributor. I'm a farmer. That's all I've ever wanted to be, it's all I've ever done." More.... Why Is a Farmer Who Sells Extra Milk From His One Cow to Neighbors Being Sued By the State of Maine? | Food | AlterNet

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Jake Reilly's 'Amish Project:' 90 Days Without a Cell Phone, Email and Social Media

Burqini to be named Australia’s Word of the Year - Bikya Masr

Muslim women who veil still enjoy their time on the beach, donning a full-length swimming dress called the Burqini. Macquarie Dictionary of Australia on Friday announced that the word was to be named Australia’s Word of the Year. More..
Burqini to be named Australia’s Word of the Year - Bikya Masr

Sunday, January 29, 2012

M-PESA mobile money transfer service is changing lives in Kenya

Friday, January 27, 2012

The Last of the Aryans | OPEN Magazine

Nobody knows of their real origin or if they are indeed Aryans. But, regarded as long-lost members of a purebred ‘Master Race’ settled in the Himalayas, Brokpas attract curious visitors, some of who try to satisfy their fantasy of having pure Aryan babies. More.. The Last of the Aryans | OPEN Magazine

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Pina - Official 3D Trailer 2011 (HD): feature length dance film

Sunday, January 8, 2012

French farmers will have to pay to use their own seeds - One News Page [UK] World

French farmers will have to pay to use their own seeds - One News Page [UK] World