Fr. Amorth was asked by Tosatti how he knows Vatican clergy are involved. He answered, “I know from those who have been able to relate it to me because they had a way of knowing directly. And it’s something ‘confessed’ most times by the very demon under obedience during the exorcisms.

“The famous Italian exorcist was also asked if the Pope was aware of Satanic sects in the Vatican, to which Fr. Amorth replied, “Of course, he was informed. But he does what he can. It’s a horrifying thing.”

via Spanish Exorcist Addresses Claims of Satanic Influence in Vatican – Catholic Online.

via Gargi found in Veda, early woman philosoher from India.

Brenda Venus wrote about the filming of this dinner, in her 1986 book Dear, Dear Brenda: The Love Letters of Henry Miller. Although her placement of the anecdote implies that it took place at the end of 1977, Miller says on film that he’s in his “88th year,” which would place the filming year as 1979 [1]. As Venus recounts, two filmmakers had requested to film Henry speaking freely about wine. When they arrived at Henry’s home, he was in “an ill temper” explains Venus, who guessed that he’d had a bad sleep. When dinner time arrived, Henry was asked to “speak frankly and spontaneously.” At first, his comments seemed negatively focused on the meal. It’s unclear who prepared the meal, but Henry does not spare anyone’s feelings by calling it “pitiful” and refusing to eat certain things, or complaining about the order of courses. With some coaxing from Brenda, Henry is finally set on track to various personal commentaries. Although he does offer some comparison between French and American wines, he doesn’t offering any real opinion of the wines set before him, which had been the whole point of the film. “I kept encouraging Henry to say something about the various wines he was sipping,” write Venus, “but he pointedly ignored me while regaling the camera with his powers as a raconteur” [all quotes from Venus, pp. 124-125].

via U B U W E B – Film & Video: Henry Miller – “Dinner With Henry”.

Israeli military called off a raid in Palestinian territory after a soldier posted details, including the time and place, on social networking website Facebook

via Reuters AlertNet – Israeli army nixes raid after Facebook leak -radio.

Directed by James Frost, OK Go and Syyn Labs. Produced by Shirley Moyers. The official video for the recorded version of “This Too Shall Pass” off of the album “Of the Blue Colour of the Sky”. The video was filmed in a two story warehouse, in the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, CA. The “machine” was designed and built by the band, along with members of Synn Labs http://syynlabs.com/ over the course of several months.

via YouTube – OK Go – This Too Shall Pass – RGM version.

basically, what we offer is the option to: Crowdsource funds or talent, use tools and resources we’ll provide through partnerships to develop and produce, and distribute through a two tier system of digital or traditional, depending on the project.

via Revolutionizing online video – Technoccult interviews Hukilau’s Joseph Matheny | Technoccult.

The massive earthquake that struck Chile on Saturday may have shifted the Earth’s axis and created shorter days, scientists at NASA say.

via Chile quake may have tipped Earth’s axis – CNN.com.

Recently there’s been a WordPress hack going around which has been using cloaking to target Google IP addresses. That means, the spammers/hackers are somehow getting into your WordPress blog, and generating a bunch of spam content and links that only Google can see.

This particular hack uses some particularly dirty methods which include inserting spam keywords into your own content, which is probably to control your keyword density.

via Dirty WordPress Hack Going Around, Cloaked to Search Engines | Theme Lab.

also via @JessicaGottlieb

Staff from the local Weber-Morgan Health Department dispatched to the scene seized an envelope containing something that resembled seeds, department spokeswoman Lori Buttars said.

“There was an envelope that appeared to have seeds inside,” Buttars said. “What it was is not known yet.”

via Suspicious substance at Utah IRS office: FBI | Reuters.

MacPebbles put up the fence because he thought the next-door neighbor lady was spying on him. Then he took a can of black paint and sprayed pagan symbols on the side of the fence that she sees. To keep her from peeking in, he hung a tarp with more symbols above the fence … The neighbor lady, who wouldn’t give her name, believes she’s the aggrieved party. “It’s totally wrong what he’s doing to me,” she says. And the ground war continues. MacPebbles has put up a canvas and an $800 surveillance system to keep an eye on the enemy. The enemy points to the camera looking out over her driveway and says who’s spying on whom? She says he’s “torturing” her and turning the neighbors against her. I can’t speak for the torture, but the neighbors I talked with seem to be siding with him. MacPebbles seems like a decent enough guy, even with scary tattoos.

via The Wild Hunt » Update: Graffiti or Religious Expression?.

also via @cole_tucker

The freak phenomena happened not once, but twice, on Thursday and Friday afternoon about 6pm at Lajamanu, about 550km southwest of Katherine, The Northern Territory News reports.

Christine Balmer, who took the photos of the fish on the ground and in a bucket, said she had to pinch herself when she was told “hundreds and hundreds” of small white fish had fallen from the sky.

via It’s raining fish in the Northern Territory – report | News.com.au.

Google has added updates from Facebook Fan Pages to its data source. This allows access to Facebook’s three million Fan Pages, but not to data from all of the social media network’s 400 million active users.

This means that status updates, links, photos and videos shared on Fan Pages are now indexed by Google Real Time Search, making Facebook the latest addition to Google’s real-time initiative that includes Twitter, MySpace, FriendFeed, Jaiku, Indenti.ca, and most recently, of course, Google Buzz.

Comments made on Facebook Fan Pages by non-owners, however, are not included in the search index, nor are updates made on personal pages.

via Google Adds Facebook Fan Pages to Search Index – Website Magazine – Website Magazine.

via mutato nomine.

“Don’t we possess the inalienable right to psychiatric illnesses such as schizophrenia? Why is progress a desirable outcome?”

via Journal of Infictive Research » Close to land for safety.

“It doesn’t mean they have stopped teaching this, it means they are going to do a better job at hiding their purpose. [Meyers] believes in anarchy, pagan worship and that Jesus was just a leader of a small cult and is a real vampire! He advocates radical socialism, limiting families to two children, abortion to term, homosexuality, worshipping the sun instead of a ‘dead Jesus,’ saying that Mary was just an unwed pregnant teenager, and many other socialist political views, just two clicks from the district’s home page. … All this was linked directly from Alpine School District’s Web site.”

via District parents angry over radical Web link.

Several countries, including China and Russia, have called for an alternative to the dollar as a reserve currency and have suggested using the IMF's internal accounting unit.

via Head of IMF Proposes New Reserve Currency – ABC News.

Katherine Gunther, 36, of Lebanon, pierced her left foot with the sword while performing the rite at Oak Hill Cemetery, police said.

Gunther said she was performing the ceremony to give thanks for a recent run of good luck. The ceremony involves the use of candles, incense and driving swords into the ground during the full moon.

via Woman stabs self during Wiccan ritual – Weird news- msnbc.com.

A bill is being proposed in Utah that would criminalize pregnant women who do intentional harm to the fetus. The bill came about after a teenager, probably in response to the difficulty of obtaining a legal abortion in Utah, had someone throttle her stomach in order to stop the pregnancy. Instead of getting this girl some counseling and moving her the hell out of Utah, they attempted to charge her with murder, which fortunately didn’t fly. The next desperate teen may not be so lucky.

via Utah aborts logic and reason, but they weren’t using them anyway | Black Sun Gazette.

Damon Runyon wrote, “One of these days in your travels, a guy is going to come up to you and show you a nice brand-new deck of cards on which the seal is not yet broken, and this guy is going to offer to bet you that he can make the Jack of Spades jump out of the deck and squirt cider in your ear. But, son, do not bet this man, for as sure as you are standing there, you are going to end up with an earful of cider.”

via Ironic Sans: They Don’t Make Computer Manuals Like They Used To.

Optomec has a new Aerosol Jet Display Lab system

via Optomec can now print touch-screen displays « •||•• Edge of Tomorrow ••|||•••.

Confused.com argues that social media services like Foursquare and Buzz can increase the risk of theft by alerting burglars to times when people are out of their homes, thus leading to home insurance hikes.

Confused.com isn’t alone in worrying about the ‘dark side’ of status updates. As we wrote last week, the site ‘PleaseRobMe.com’ was created to make online tell-alls aware of the risks to publicly sharing their location. The site essentially tells the world when Twitter users aren’t at home by aggregating location check-ins posted to the microblogging site.

via Facebook, Twitter Users Could Face Insurance Hikes.

via YouTube – Andrew Lyons from Ultra Knowledge discusses Twitter Wall success.

A compilation of experimental metal, dubstep, and industrial music selected and arranged by KtB / Insidious Clothing.

Download also includes a pdf booklet of best-of Insidious Clothing photos!

via Internet Archive: Free Download: Insidious Clothing – Cybernetic Netherworld Comp.

Dr. Roger K. Leir is a podiatric surgeon, in private practice for the past 43 years and has written numerous books including The Aliens and the Scalpel, UFO Crash in Brazil, and Casebook Alien Implants.

via Kook Science: Advice On Removing Your Alien Implant — From Dr. Roger K. Leir

via U vs Me | The Chris Titan Show.

Nick Pell has been a professional writer for more than half his life. He has written about culture, arts, spirituality, and politics for “Maximumrocknroll,” “Just Out,” “The Hit List,” and “Key 64.” He has also been an editor for Immanion Press and London PA.

via The GSpot: Nick Pell | Alterati: The Inside Scoop on the Outside Culture.

A Wiccan inmate has cancer and the prison guards refuse to transport him to his chemotherapy treatments unless he removes his religious pentacle medallion which they have objections to. He chooses to forgo his chemotherapy and keep his pentacle. A Wiccan inmate has been trying to go to Wiccan services for months, but the guard at her dorm refuses to give her a pass. The guard says it is for the good of the Wiccan inmate’s soul. Another dying Wiccan writes his volunteer chaplain that he needs to see him before he crosses over. The chaplain makes numerous attempts to reach prison staff to receive the necessary clearances, but no one responds. But worse, prison mailroom staff refuse to forward the chaplain’s mail, so that the inmate knows why his chaplain isn’t coming.

via More on Patrick McCollum Case – A Pagan’s Blog.

Rudd’s argument that all too many women are using their further education or their careers as an ”excuse” to avoid having children is wildly problematic.

Why do we assume it is the obligation of all women to reproduce? And why do we label them as selfish when they don’t? We never label career-driven men as selfish.

Women should be seen as more than mere baby incubators who procreate for the benefit of the nation. Despite what some might think, women can contribute in a variety of ways which do not involve their uteruses.

via Kevin Rudd On Why Young Women Should Be Having Babies.

Return to the Wasteland, … midnight EST on Tuesday February 16, 2010. It will be available as a digital download from bandcamp.com – 50 cents per track, or $2.50 for the whole album. It’s being released on a Creative Commons license, so you will be allowed to share it freely… Physical CD copies will be available for sale at the CD release party. Psychetect performs live, along with Soup Purse and Cult of Zir.

via My debut album: release date and shows | Technoccult.

Poet Lucille Clifton, known for mixing humor and profundity in her works, died in Baltimore after a battle with cancer, her sister, Elaine Philip, said.

The Baltimore Sun reported Sunday the former Maryland state poet laureate died of undetermined causes Saturday at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, one day after she had a portion of her colon removed. She was 73.

via Poet Clifton dies after battling cancer – UPI.com.

Fourteen U.S. states now have laws that permit physicians to prescribe marijuana for cancer, chronic pain and a host of other medical conditions, while legislation to permit medical marijuana has been introduced in another 12 states, according to Santa Monica, Calif.-based independent researcher ProCon.org.

New Jersey is the latest state to legalize medical marijuana, under a law that takes effect July 1 (see box, page 20). States with legislation pending as of Jan. 22 were Alabama, Delaware, Illinois, Iowa, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Missouri, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Wisconsin.

via Medical marijuana laws create dilemma for firms | Business Insurance.

Colorado Springs is turning off streetlights. Flipping the switch on about 1/3 of the city’s 24,512 streetlights is expected to save $1.245 million in electricity. But that’s just a down payment on a $28 million budget gap for 2010.

Perhaps the most noticeable change for Colorado Springs’ 400,000 residents will be in parks, where budgets have been slashed by nearly 75 percent.

“We’ve taken all the trash cans out. We’re not going to be doing any litter collections in the parks,” says Larry Small, vice mayor for Colorado Springs. “We’re hoping the citizens will pack it out themselves.”

All the restrooms have been closed. There’ll be very little watering, and crews will mow just once a month instead of weekly.

via Facing Budget Gap, Colorado City Shuts Off Lights : NPR.

Infictive Research – Create battle suits out of broken devices from the scrap yard.

Flickr Photo Download: Air Force Blog Assessment.

Grigsby said the 115th is part of the U.S. Army’s Consequence Management Response Forces, or CCMRF.

Grigsby said CCMRF is designed to support civil authorities after a chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear or high-yield explosive attack.

The group is made up of various military units providing a variety of services, including communications, which the 115th does.

via Maintaining communications | TimesDaily.com | The Times Daily | Florence, AL.

An unfortunate juxtaposition: « Cranky Epistles.

(thx elia!)

Na’vi Live Avatar Role Playing at the Hometree Wisconsin.

via Na’vi LARP, Live Avatar Role Playing.

University spokesman Ray Garner has identified the dead as Gopi Podila, chairman of the biological sciences department; Maria Davis, associate professor of biology; and Adriel Johnson, associate professor of biology.

The injured were Joseph Leahy, associate professor of biology, in critical condition; Luis Cruz-Vera, assistant professor of biology, in stable condition; and Stephanie Monticello, staff assistant, also in stable condition.

via Professor charged with murder in Alabama university shooting – CNN.com.

Thousands, millions, billions, and recently trillions—once reserved for describing cosmic distances of faraway galaxies—have been brought down to Earth in terms of the national deficits we accrue, the bytes of information we clock, and critically, the stuff we consume. But how to wrap one’s head around such unfathomable figures in a meaningful way? In Running the Numbers, photographer Chris Jordan attempts to convey the vastness of modern consumption by breaking down annual statistics into more graspable quantities depicted by clever visualizations made of individual objects or groups of objects that he photographs. The 106,000 aluminum cans consumed in the US every 30 seconds, for instance, become the individual dots of Seurat’s Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte.

via SEEDMAGAZINE.COM § The Age of Impossible Numbers.

Screenjelly records your screen activity with your voice so you can spread it via Twitter or email.

via Screenjelly – What’s on your screen?.

While participating in the workshop on Revisiting Research Ethics in the Facebook Era: Challenges in Emerging CSCW Research, the question arose as to whether it was ethical for researchers to follow and systematically capture public Twitter streams without first obtaining specific, informed consent by the subjects. Many in the room felt that consent was not necessary since the tweets are public, a conscious choice made by the user to allow the whole world see her activity. In short, by not restricting access to one’s account, there is no expectation of privacy.

via Is it Ethical to Harvest Public Twitter Accounts without Consent? | Michael Zimmer.org.

“Coast Guard vessels and aircraft are now collecting data in the area,” Doi said, adding that other ships have been warned to keep their distance.  “It is very dangerous to approach the area as it is impossible to predict further eruptions.”

via Pictures: Undersea Volcano Erupts, May Form New Island.

The body then builds up replacement blood and, shortly before an event, the extra blood is injected back into the body. This method can sometimes be caught by tests that can tell if a persons hemoglobin—the protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen to tissue—is suspiciously high.

But athletes using this version of blood doping have been known to inject blood in the morning, race, then have the blood withdrawn later, thereby reducing their chances of being caught by random tests.

via Vancouver 2010 Games Spur Blood Doping Fears.

Han forteller at de viktigste inspirasjonskildene kanskje har vært romanen Childhood’s end av Arthur C. Clarke, samt de ville ufo-forestillingene til Zecharia Sitchin og Raël-bevegelsen.Clarkes roman utgitt i 1953 handler om at jorda får besøk av romvesener kalt ”Overlords”, og hvordan disse jobber for å få menneskebarn til å slutte seg til en slags intergalaktisk, telepatisk ”overbevissthet”. Det er bare barn med telepatiske evner som kan ta del i denne overbevisstheten. Disse barna, som etterhvert blir fullt tilkoblet overbevisstheten, gjør seg uavhengig av det fysiske. Dermed har de verken bruk for jorda eller sine fysiske kropper. Det hele ender i jordas undergang.

Zecharia Sitchin er en aserbajdsjansk forfatter som mener å finne tegn i gamle sumeriske skrifter for at det finnes en uoppdaget planet – Nibiru – som går i en stor elliptisk bane rundt sola, og at den tangerer jorden med 3600 års mellomrom, alltid med store endetidsaktige konsekvenser. Den neste passeringen er ikke lenge til, overraskende nok. 2012 er det heteste tipset. Sitchin mener forøvrig at det var besøkende vesener fra Nibiru som konstruerte menneskene som slaver for 450.000 år siden, og hevder å finne støtte for denne skapelsesberetningen i inskripsjoner og mytologi fra ulike kulturer.

via Det snører seg sammen og ender i galskap – Fri Tanke.

Flickr Photo Download: Doing The Mowing 93/365.

A facsimile of Irish poet William Butler Yeats’ magickal journal containing diagrams and other information from the Golden Dawn. From the National Library in Dublin.

via W.B. Yeats’ Golden Dawn journal – a set on Flickr.

The suspension came about when Indian government regulators raised questions about whether PayPal’s service was enabling remittences (transfers of money by foreign workers) to Indian citizens.

via Slashdot News Story | India Suspended From PayPal For “At Least a Few Months”.

Leverage, Part 4 . Sri Lanka: CapNet-Lanka helps Plan to boost WES programme . delegates discussed the application of a Sector Information Monitoring System SIMS, . Glad to see you’re online Wes. Now you’re at least partially in your natural . Hi Wes – great to have you back. That’s an interesting story with the . Para finalizar, Bobby Lasley mostr

via Wes Sims.

I ran across this in a google alert

by changing the words at the end of this url  you get different outputs – it doesn’t make much sense, I’m not sure how it’s coming by content, – but it makes for fascinating mashups of text

Two traits sometimes found in AS individuals are mind-blindness (the inability to predict the beliefs and intentions of others) and alexithymia (the inability to identify and interpret emotional signals in oneself or others), which reduce the ability to be empathetically attuned to others.

One motorist who has seen the Fowler Avenue billboard is Yassel Quijano, a massage therapist from Town ‘N Country who practices Wicca.
Quijano said people may not agree with the message, but that’s what’s great about living in a free country.
“People have the right to just express what they want, what they feel,” Quijano said.

via Billboards on Tampa Bay roads duel over existence of God – St. Petersburg Times.

via 19. Trans-Media Narration via Modular Exposure – The Art of Memetics.

Life expectancy worldwide has risen 20 years in the last 50 years – amazing!! This has meant that chronic disease (e.g., Alzheimers, Parkinsons) are now more prevalent and costly than sudden diseases (cancer, heart disease). David Bloom, professor of economics and demography at Harvard noted that, “If progress is built on capital and labor, the aged give neither.” So can societies afford old age? It now appears, according to Bloom, that with birth rates rising in many countries, that there will be enough people in the work force to support the growing groups of aged. And older people will be working longer, further relieving the social support burden.

via George F. Colony’s Blog: The Counterintuitive CEO: Davos 2010.

it was as though she was prowling around the universe like a caged animal looking for a way out

via Ishtar’s Gate • View topic – Nahua Symbolic Art – preamble.

Genetic testing for newborns started in the 1960s with testing for diseases and conditions that, if undetected, could kill a child or cause severe problems, such as mental retardation. Since then, the screening has helped save countless newborns.

Over the years, many other tests were added to the list. Now, states mandate that newborns be tested for anywhere between 28 and 54 different conditions, and the DNA samples are stored in state labs for anywhere from three months to indefinitely, depending on the state.

via The government has your baby’s DNA – CNN.com.

When the owner of the gallery space asked to see a warrant, he was put into a pain-hold, thrown on the ground and arrested. A younger female officer, who was dressed as a civilian with just a badge hanging around her neck, was pushing and shoving people out of the gallery and into the street.

“I was, as I believe everyone else was, completely unprepared for the amount of unnecessary force used,” said San Francisco State University Freshman Carolina Hicks. “It was police storming in on a dance party put together by students for the benefit of other students.”

via Police invade S.F. fundraiser | SocialistWorker.org.

“Views of intercountry adoption vacillate between the positive, in which it is portrayed as a humanitarian act of goodwill benefiting both child and adoptive family, and the negative, in which it is portrayed either as child trafficking or as a neo-colonialist child grab.”

via Helping? Or hindering? The Western World and International Adoption | MetaFilter.

Kinti Holdings will be raising funds to go towards building the third Temple in Jerusalem in strict coordinance with The Temple Institute, Rabbi Hiam Richman and The Palestinian National Interest Committee PNIC and supporting Husam Bajis for President of Palestine. Prince Husam Bajis and the PNIC support our mission to build the Temple and to create a One Israel-Palestine state.

via Kinti Mining Lmtd.’s KMLD Announces Supriem David Rockefeller and the Rebuilding of the 3rd Jewish Temple in Addition to Frank Love Commencing the “Temple Now Project”.

You act as straight and normal as you can as you drive out of there, knowing the store’s high tech cameras will be tracking you. Maybe they’ll even send an alert to other cameras to keep you in sight. You make it home without being pulled over. It was a bold move just buying cold medicine and cold medicine alone. Now you’re downloading instructions on how to make it into meth off of the undernet.

via Infictive Research – Classic infictive tales comics.

One of the suspects, who says she is leader of an Idaho-based charity called New Life Children’s Refuge, denied they had done anything wrong.

The suspects were detained at Malpasse, Haiti’s main border crossing with the Dominican Republic, after Haitian police conducted a routine search of their vehicle.

Authorities said the Americans had no documents to prove they had cleared the adoption of the 33 children — aged 2 months to 12 years — through any embassy and no papers showing they were made orphans by the quake in the impoverished Caribbean country.

via Americans arrested taking children out of Haiti | Reuters.

Sunday, January 31st at 10:45am

via Politics – A Power Governments Cannot Suppress – Book TV.

But this future of digital selves, of copies of copies of copies – all of it’s not just evolution, but a given. The question is how to hasten it, and make the soul as pliable as hot glass. We are who we are made to be – and it will soon be more of a question of what dare we become, lest we are un-made. Then again – this might be a bit hasty – our augmented reality world is lovingly crafted by Disney and Apple – what could possibly go wrong?

Milo, which uses Project Natal for amazing interaction with an on-screen character.

via YouTube – E3 2009: Project Natal Milo demo.

Keiji Inafune was interviewed at TGS 2009 too.

Capcom are the creators of Street Fighter, Resident Evil, Dead Rising, Devil May Cry, Bionic Commando, and Lost Planet, among many other games.

I’m sure you can imagine the potential of some of these games on Project Natal, and let’s hope Capcom can too. He doesn’t say much useful, other than that Natal will allow them to have more complex and detailed game actions by not being limited by the number of buttons on the controller. I’m not sure how he’s going to make videos that are interactive like he says at the end.

via More fighting and zombie games for Project Natal – Blog about Microsoft Project Natal for XBox 360 – XBox: Project Natal Blog.

If you are 100% confident in your belief that a gaming forum is neither the place for religion or politics then put this as your signature.

via Using the drums as a midi input on computer… – Guitar Hero World Tour Message Board for Wii – GameFAQs.

Engineered metamaterials enable remarkably small antennas.

Are we alright? If it’s funny, why don’t I…

the laughter links to an invisible
assumption that we are surrounded,
that others laugh and if we don’t
we’re somehow unconnected

reinforces the mental perspective
we must consume
(deconstructing an effective deception)

the world keeps you & holds you, & leads you there, A farthest image of Hope given pleasures the smokelights drape up

I move like a ghost
when I’m cornered

blink & you’ll miss me
fox tail bounding in the distance

(move like a ghost
lest I’m cornered.)

Always    Know what you’re walking into
especially: Know what to wear.

Right now she’s actually teaching the kitten to shoplift. Here’s her twitter profile:

Salovarov said 204 people required some medical treatment after consuming the water, the source of which was a stagnant lake. He said, however, that it was too early to say what caused the illness.

via 117 Russians in Hospital After Drinking Holy Water – ABC News.

Flurry, a mobile app analytics company, has noticed approximately 50 devices in the Cupertino that match the characteristics of Apple’s tablet device. Flurry claims to have reliably placed these devices on Apple’s Cupertino campus, and are confident that they are “observing a group of pre-release tablets in testing.”

This make sense – as the Apple Tablet has to be tested before it is announced this Wednesday, January 27 in San Francisco. Furthermore, Flurry has been an extremely reliable source on analytics data thus far and don’t often break stories unless they are sure they’ve checked their facts.

They’ve noticed that a large number of the apps downloaded were Games (140 total downloads or launches) and the next group was Entertainment, followed by News and Books. Here’s a chart of the usage data:

via Breaking: Flurry Notices Cupertino-based Users Testing Apps on Apple Tablet.

Illinoize is a free remix tape put together by Montreal-based producer Tor, sampling songs from multi-instrumentalist and indie hero, Sufjan Stevens. Tracks are sampled from his 2005 LP Illinoise, as well as 3 of his other albums, ‘A Sun Came’, ‘Seven Swans’ and ‘Songs for Christmas’, blending Sufjan Steven’s acoustic guitar, piano and horns with MC’s Aesop Rock, Big Daddy Kane, Gift of Gab Blackalicious, C.L. Smooth, Outkast, Brother Ali, and Grand Puba

via Tor / Sufjan Stevens – Illinoize | HOME.

Police charged Jordan Miles, 18, with assault and resisting arrest Jan. 11 because, they said, he fought with the officers who thought a “heavy object” in his coat was a gun. It turned out to be a bottle of Mountain Dew.

Miles said he resisted because he thought the men were trying to abduct him and didn’t identify themselves as police.

Miles’ family and attorney said he was hit with a stun gun and hospitalized after the violent Homewood struggle during which a chunk of his hair was yanked out and a tree branch went through his gums.

via Student: ‘Beating So Bad Thought I Was Going To Die’ – News Story – WPXI Pittsburgh.

Known as phylacteries in English, teffilin contain a brief, hand-lettered prayer, the Shema, that serves as a reminder that there is only one God, and that he led the Jews out of Egypt into Israel. It reads: “Hear, Oh Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One.”

The ancient tradition of wearing teffilin is based on injunctions found in passages within both Exodus and Deuteronomy, two books of the Torah.

Although there are slight variations in the phrasing, the injunction adjures the faithful to “bind them [the words of the Shema] as a sign on your arm, and they shall be as a memorial between your eyes.”

via Prayer ritual item mistaken for bomb, jet lands in Philly | Philadelphia Inquirer | 01/21/2010.

Researchers discovered infants had five distinct, universal yells – regardless of language – indicating whether the tot is hungry, annoyed, tired, stressed or bored.A team led by Dr Antonio Portugal Ramírez, a Spanish paediatrician, devised a program to analyse the sound through the phone’s mic, and display the translation.

via Why tot’s not appy, by iPhone | The Sun |News.

Mr Kuo, who suffered from hypertension, was unconscious when he arrived at the Nan Men General Hospital and a scan showed that his brain was haemorrhaging, emergency room doctor Peng Chin-chih said today.

“It’s likely that the over-excitement from watching the movie triggered his symptoms,” the doctor said.

Mr Kuo died 11 days later from the brain haemorrhage, and the China Times newspaper said it was the first death linked to watching James Cameron’s science-fiction epic Avatar.

via Man died after watching Avatar – doctor | News.com.au.

The decision to go ahead with the visit has divided passengers. The ships carry some food aid, and the cruise line has pledged to donate all proceeds from the visit to help stricken Haitians. But many passengers will stay aboard when they dock; one said he was “sickened”.

“I just can’t see myself sunning on the beach, playing in the water, eating a barbecue, and enjoying a cocktail while [in Port-au-Prince] there are tens of thousands of dead people being piled up on the streets, with the survivors stunned and looking for food and water,” one passenger wrote on the Cruise Critic internet forum.

via Cruise ships still find a Haitian berth | World news | The Guardian.

Geneva-based charity Medecins Sans Frontieres backed his calls saying hundreds of lives were being put at risk as planes carrying vital medical supplies were being turned away by American air traffic controllers.

But US commanders insisted their forces’ focus was on humanitarian work and last night agreed to prioritise aid arrivals to the airport over military flights, after the intervention of the UN.

The diplomatic row came amid heightened frustrations that hundreds of tons of aid was still not getting through. Charities reported violence was also worsening as desperate Haitians took matters into their own hands.

via US accused of ‘occupying’ Haiti as troops flood in – Telegraph.

Malone » Light Graffiti!.

animation to accompany the title piece from Ross Sutherlands solo show ‘The Three Stigmata of Pac-Man’, by A Line and a Dot

via ‘The Three Stigmata of Pac-Man’ on Vimeo.

It is as important to present alternative theories, to challenge them, as it is any conventional theory, because sometimes, just sometimes, the kooks have it right, and the world had it wrong all along.

The challenge of the world is to know the difference, and to resist with our last breaths when we know we’re right.

Even when we’re wrong, because, even when we’re wrong, we’re pushing the world to prove it.

via “Contact established.” | Kook Science Resistance.

On his Twitter feed, Verizon Wireless spokesman Jeffrey Nelson wrote Friday, “Mobile customers have already given $8 million by texting HAITI to 90999. It’s a new paradigm in charity giving!”

But they acknowledge that they can’t easily “front” the money, before customers pay their bills. Mr. Nelson and Jeannie Hornung, a spokeswoman for AT&T Inc., said their companies are trying to find a solution. AT&T wasn’t immediately available to comment on whether it also plans to front pledges.

Wireless companies are working with at least two operations, called the Mobile Giving Foundation in Bellevue, Wash., and the mGive Foundation in Denver. The concept for the programs is similar to that of buying cell-phone ringtones or coupons. The proliferation of social networks and text-messaging helped spur this week’s pledging. A spokeswoman for mGive confirmed that delays can occur. Mobile Giving wasn’t available to comment.

via Haitian Earthquake Victims Get Aid From Texters – WSJ.com.

His family said he was arrested on Tuesday after allegedly using a satellite phone without permission.

The 34-year-old campaigner has been driving a biotruck to highlight the benefits of using low carbon energy.

Since leaving London in September 2009 the campaigner has driven his truck through Europe and the Middle East before reaching India.

via BBC News – Chip fat fuel driver Andy Pag in India terror arrest.

Saturday night, downtown club Bordello temporarily transformed itself into Mos Eisley Cantina for a night of Tatooine-styled shenanigans helmed by Devil’s Playground. Star Wars Burlesque reimagined a host of beloved characters from the film series — from the sexy to the androgynous to the grotesque — as scantily clad female performers, with locals On Blast assuming the role of cantina band.

via Right Where You Are Sitting Now! – Subculture, Counterculture, Alternative, Occult, Underground Music | LA Unveils Star Wars Strip Show.

Apparently, the 5-inch-tall mutt had gotten wet in a nearby ditch. When he tried to jump the 7-inch-tall rail, he got stuck and his icy fur froze to the track.

McLean tried applying warm water and lifting him off. That didn’t work. So he took a knife and carefully cut him off the track.

If the train had come, the dog would never have been able to set himself free, McLean said.

via Puppy rescued from train track, frigid air; gets new home, name | Stories from The Birmingham News – al.com.

At 60, Leclaire became the oldest woman to climb the highest peaks on all seven continents. And last May, she became the second oldest American woman to summit Mount Everest.

For the old pro, climbing the old railroad abutment to rescue the kitten was hardly intimidating.

via Champion climber helps avert cat-astrophe | KOMO News – Breaking News, Sports, Traffic and Weather – Seattle, Washington | Local & Regional.

Under no circumstances should you mail care packages, toys, food or clothes. Don’t even think about sending drugs. The response to prior disasters shows that regardless of your intentions, you will only be making matters worse.

That’s what happened in the aftermath of the December 2004 tsunami. The disaster was followed by an unprecedented outpouring of global generosity. This dramatically facilitated the grisly chore of cleaning up the tens of thousands of bodies left under the tropical sun, and it funded a reconstruction effort that, while far from perfect, provided roofs over the heads of many.

But aid workers joked that the real tsunami was followed by another tsunami — of misguided goodwill. In an effort to help, people shipped boxes, often following the instructions of local television news programs. And so in Aceh, Indonesia amid the trauma, hunger and devastation, care packages piled up containing everything from pajamas and teddy bears to birth control pills and Bibles — a hodgepodge impossible to sort through. There were boxes filled with half-used ointments and prescription drugs, as if do-gooders had cleaned out their medicine cabinets. And some unscrupulous corporations — exploiting tax write-offs for soon-to-be-expired pharmaceuticals — apparently shipped whatever had been lying around the warehouse for too long.

via Haiti earthquake | Help Haiti.

“It never ceases to amaze me that in times of amazing human suffering somebody says something that can be so utterly stupid,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said.

The day after the earthquake, Robertson said Haiti has been “cursed” because of what he called a “pact with the devil” in its history. His spokesman said the comments were based on Voodoo rituals carried out before a slave rebellion against French colonists in 1791.

via White House criticizes evangelist’s Haiti remark – Yahoo! News.

When Google first launched a filtered search engine in China, EFF was one of the first to criticize it; we’d now like to be one of the first to commend Google for its brave and forthright declaration to provide only an uncensored Chinese language version of its search engine.

Our hope is that other tech companies will follow Google’s lead. Too many of them have been willing to comply with Chinese demands that they check their values at the border.

Of course, whatever the reaction from Chinese authorities, this doesn’t mean that Google will vanish from the Chinese Internet. There continue to be many ready means for circumventing China’s censorship schemes, and we hope Google will continue to provide an uncensored Chinese language search engine, from servers outside China if need be.

via Uncensoring China: Bravo Google | Electronic Frontier Foundation.

A mystery object from space is about to whizz close by Earth on Wednesday. It won’t hit our planet, but scientists are stumped by what exactly it is.

Astronomers say it may be space junk or it could be a tiny asteroid, too small to cause damage even if it hit. It’s 33 to 50 feet wide at most.

NASA says that on Wednesday at 7:47 a.m. EST, it will streak by, missing Earth by about 80,000 miles. In the western United States it may be bright enough to be seen with a good amateur telescope.

via Mystery object to whizz by Earth Wednesday – Yahoo! News.

Slaves are not supposed to throw over their masters. That’s Lesson #1.

via Pat Robertson on Haiti.

The Bush administration decided against granting Haitians the temporary status in December 2008, and the Obama administration decided last March to continue deporting Haitians.

Among those calling on Wednesday for the Obama administration to reconsider were Senators Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, both Democrats, and Representatives Lincoln and Mario Diaz-Balart of south Florida, both Republicans, as well as the Roman Catholic Bishops.

“If this is not a slam-dunk case for temporary protected status, I don’t know what is,” said Kevin Appleby, a spokesman for the bishops. He said the status would allow Haitian immigrants here to work here and send money back to relatives in Haiti trying to recover from the quake.

via In Quake Aftermath, Deportations to Haiti Suspended – NYTimes.com.

We were told a UK hotel was once visited in person by a Travelzoo researcher before an offer was verified and on Monday the inside knowledge of a native New Yorker helped one deal through. For Travelzoo producing a diverse range of offers for the Top 20 is just as important as making sure those deals exist. On Monday everything from £1,000 long-haul holidays to domestic coach deals priced in pennies came under scrutiny.

via memwar.god

frustrating, deal or no deal is more like what I write for at btd, a community like digg for travelers.. with enough members, the crowd would be faster and smarter than a handful of people in a room…

“[We] cannot exclude the possibility of a fatal cancer attributable to radiation in a very large population of people exposed to very low doses of radiation.”

Barring solid evidence of the safety of this terahertz-emitting technology, the TSA would be wise to follow the Precautionary Principle which states that we should err on the side of caution when it comes to the roll out of new technologies. Unfortunately, the TSA appears to be erring on the side of stupidity by subjecting the public to an unproven, “experimental” technology with unknown long-term effects on human DNA.

And here’s the real kicker: These full-body scanners do nothing to stop terrorists because they can’t detect powder explosives in the first place.

via Full-body scanners used on air passengers may damage human DNA.

Actor Christopher Lee is to release an album of “symphonic metal”, telling the story of his own direct ancestor, the first Holy Roman Emperor.

“To my surprise and indeed great pleasure, I have suddenly found that there is another string to my bow,” Sir Christopher said in a video message. Due on 15 March, Charlemagne: By the Sword and the Cross features the 87-year-old singing and acting alongside a full orchestra, choir, and a large cast of undisclosed guest vocalists. “There's a lot of characters in this particular album,” Lee explained. “A lot. There's Charlemagne himself of course, which I sing, and then there's young Charlemagne, Charlemagne's father, Charlemagne's brother, … [even] the Pope.”

There's also, er, some heavy-duty headbanging, courtesy of Italian composer Marco Sabiu.

via Christopher Lee to release ’symphonic metal’ album | Music | guardian.co.uk.

But I don’t understand. How can I not be real? SecondLife is about doing things and experiencing sensations that I can’t have in the real world. I love my second life, and I love the difference SecondLife makes in my life and the lives of others. I love that I touch others, and that they touch me. How can that not be real?

via DJ Bine will never get back on faceboo « DJ Bine.

3485574749_e7fcddb49c_o.jpg (JPEG Image, 1249×1015 pixels).

Under the law, which went into effect Friday, a person can be found guilty of blasphemy if “he or she publishes or utters matter that is grossly abusive or insulting in relation to matters held sacred by any religion, thereby causing outrage among a substantial number of the adherents of that religion.”

The penalty is a fine of up to 25,000 euros, or more than $35,000.

In a bid to demonstrate that the law is outdated and largely unenforceable, a group named Atheist Ireland published on its Web site on Friday 25 potentially blasphemous quotations from figures such as Jesus Christ, Muhammad, George Carlin, Pope Benedict XVI and Mark Twain, who opined in 1909: “When the Lord God of Heaven and Earth, adored Father of Man, goes to war, there is no limit. . . . He slays, slays, slays!”

via Atheists challenge Ireland’s new blasphemy law with online postings – washingtonpost.com.

The brainchild of improve comedy troupe Improv Everywhere, the No Pants Subway Ride is happening today in New York City — and already in 16 countries worldwide. In the event, riders gather at pre-selected locations, casually remove their trousers and ride en masse to a central location, all the while acting as if nothing out of the ordinary were taking place.

via FOXNews.com – NYC Readies for No-Pants Subway Ride.

Additional memes;

The Awkward Library – *stealthy memes*
By inomuiro
*stealthy memes*. January 10th, 2010 (06:18 pm). link · Add to Memories ·
Tell a Friend. Oh hi people, what’s up? Stolen from [info] levyrasputin.
Give me a fandom, and I’ll tell… – my holy lovey-dovey: the couple I just
can’t break …
<http://inomuiro.livejournal.com/80768.html>
The Awkward Library
<http://inomuiro.livejournal.com/>

Every Door Closes – Oh, Memes that just aggravate the hell out of me
By cbpotts
And if I am going to remind mindful and make my life function in such a way
that I can actually do something meaningful to mitigate this suffering, I
can not dwell in the land of cut and paste memes, bra color bullshit, and
all of this …
<http://cbpotts.livejournal.com/516083.html>
Every Door Closes
<http://cbpotts.livejournal.com/>

adddictions: To celebrate my homecoming, I bring you
By Dr. William Birkin (Resident Evil)
To celebrate my homecoming, I bring you a meme! You lot know how in Persona
4 and maybe Persona 3 too, god knows I have no fucking clue the kids have
random things they say during battles before they attack and such? …
<http://adddictions.livejournal.com/116911.html>
DDD’s current addictions and Memes
<http://adddictions.livejournal.com/>

Meditations of My Heart: Rainbow Trail for Many Memes
By Dimple
Rainbow Trail for Many Memes. Colors on my ceiling. Colors on my wall.
Colors on my buffet. Colors over all. Rainbow footprints. Leading the way.
Follow the trail. It’s a bright, sunny day! Drop by Color Carnival, Mellow
Yellow Monday, …
<http://idahodimple.blogspot.com/2010/01/rainbow-trail-for-many-memes.html>
Meditations of My Heart
<http://idahodimple.blogspot.com/>

kkoagulaa, the multimedia, multidimensional project formed by ccernn after his departure from Manes, have wrapped up production on their debut full length. The album, titled Aurum Nostrum Non Est Aurum Vulgi, marks a new era of an exponential growth of creativity for the artists involved.

The inception of kkoagulaa continues and furthers the pushing of boundaries that characterized the black metal/avant-garde careers of its core members, kkoagulaa’s art is a kaleidoscopic vortex of dark and light, brilliant, psychedelic colour contrasting haunting, evocative monochrome.

via KKOAGULAA SIGNS WITH AURAL MUSIC « kkoagulaa.

a test-run of a new format podcast

feedback? This will be a music-oriented podcast with additional gibberish thrown in around the edges..

you can download the file directly and contact me at whatever at zenwerewolf.com if you want me to take this file down for some crazy reason and I’ll do so within 24 hours or something

Royal Mail’s classic album covers special stamps go on sale, featuring classic album covers from the last four decades.

Jimmy Page, guitarist of Led Zeppelin, poses with a blown up stamp featuring the artwork from the band’s fourth album.

via BartCop’s most recent rants – Political Humor and Commentary.

6.5 magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Northern California Saturday afternoon, shaking buildings south of the Oregon border and knocking out power in several coastal communities.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake hit at about 4:27 p.m. about 27 miles from Eureka, a city of about 26,000. No injuries have been reported.

via 6.5-Magnitude Quake Reported Near Eureka – cbs13.com.

Though the attack may have caused little physical damage, it will trouble international financial experts monitoring Greece.

Ratings agencies have warned they will downgrade the country’s credit-worthiness again if there is social unrest or if the government fails to persuade the country to accept a programme of cuts.

The bombers’ message could not have been clearer – especially as parliament was sitting at the time – they were saying they could strike with impunity against one of the most heavily guarded buildings in the country.

via BBC News – Small bomb explodes near Greek parliament in Athens.

The method of adding and then polishing the text again for the final version seems to be effective. Funnily I, upon reading the ‘result’ (4), soon felt compelled to put the text in a certain order again, meaning to divide/fragment it, to give it my personal interpretation and structure, so maybe it is a process of crystalization and dispersion- some sort of rhytmical pulsation even?- that I also have encountered with various other magicks. In case you’re interested I will quickly give those divisive segmentations that I ’saw’ in it and that came to me in form of a geographical- and dreamy topology, below.

via Fractal Writing Experiments – EarthSong Forums.

The Maryland research team, as of July, 1972, has reported that their total experience was biased on the psychedelic treatment of sixty cancer patients. Further research, including a controlled study with financial support from the Babcock Foundation, is currently underway. The researchers emphasize the pilot nature of this research and are careful to urge that the results should be considered as indications of the therapeutic effects of psychedelic treatment with terminal cancer patients rather than as conclusive proof.

The unique nature of the LSD session lies in the weeks of preparation and the follow-up of intensive help to the patient in integrating the experience. Viewers of the Sixty Minutes segment could sense the comfortable and secure relationship Kenneth Pugh had with his therapist. Indeed, the LSD session is undertaken only after the therapist has 1 gained intimate knowledge of the patient’s developmental history; 2 established close rapport with the patient, and 3 specifically and comprehensively prepared the patient for the procedure. The therapist attends the patient throughout the entire period of drug action. In the evening of the treatment day, therapy is continued with the family and the patient together. After the LSD day, time is spent with the patient and family for integration of the experience and data collection Richards, et al, 1972.

via A Review of the Research and Theological Implications of the Use of Psychedelic Drugs with Terminal Cancer Patients.

Hammer, listed as one of the top social media users on WeFollow is passionate about social media and entrepreneurship. What makes him so engaging is his deeply personal point of view: everything was related to his own experience with Twitter his blog, and the people he interacts with online.

Hammer’s insights are related to what he’s gained transforming his personal brand into a social personal brand

via Digital Tip » Radical Authenticity: MC Hammer at Social Media Club Sydney:.

Commissioner of Patents imposed another secrecy order. This was against a “phaserphone” voice scrambler invented by four West Coast men originally for use with citizen&apos;s band radios; it would let CB and telephone users who had it chat without being overheard by others. The four estimated that the device could sell for $100 and could have a large commercial market. The leader, Carl R. Nicolai of Seattle, angrily charged that the secrecy order “appears part of a general plan by the NSA to limit the privacy of the American people. “They’ve been bugging people’s telephones for years and now someone comes along with a device that makes this a little harder to do and they oppose this under the guise of national security.”

via Cryptology Goes Public by David Kahn.

View Larger Map

According to Britain’s Department of Transport, air rage incidents on U.K. planes has gone up 30 percent in the past year, to nearly 3,500 cases.

Interestingly enough, a striking number of celebrity air rage incidents involve London’s Heathrow Airport. Is it just because the rich and famous pass through Heathrow so often, or is there something about the prospect of warm beer and driving on the left that gets people agitated?

via Worst celebrity air rage incidents – News- msnbc.com.

The network, owned by the Walt Disney Co., says it will introduce a channel this year that will broadcast live sports events using the technology, starting with the FIFA World Cup soccer match on June 11.

The channel will not operate 24 hours a day, but plans to run at least 85 live events in its first year.

via ESPN to introduce 3-D sports channel.

TSA confiscated young Josh Pitney’s Play-Doh.

“You know all you have to worry about is it getting in the carpet – a small problem to have as opposed to a child who is entertained for half an hour,” said the child’s mother Christy Pitney.”

I had the kids and my husband was there with all our bags, she continued. “Josh and I were sitting, getting our shoes on and, my husband kind of motioned to us and said – they took our Play -Doh.

“Pitney continued, “And the man from TSA was taking every can out at a time and putting it on a table, and Josh saw and he started fussing. I tried to explain that those were the rules, but it turns out it’s not prohibited on the TSA’s website – so apparently those are not the rules.

“Christy was right. Play-Doh is not a prohibited item and it is allowed on board.

via TSA Takes Play-Doh From Child.

via Alchemical Ke¥: Top Secret NSA.

Self-described Radical Elemental Feminist Mary Daly has died.

via R.I.P. Mary Daly | MetaFilter.

anyway, this post is more to alert close-eyed readers to the fact that I’m shifting how I reference blog posts with the @sloppyunruh twitter profile and to test the update – plus it’s hidden from the front page, and I’m testing that as well..

Pride Broken on the wheel

Envy Put in freezing water

Gluttony Forced to eat rats, toads, and snakes

Lust Smothered in fire and brimstone

Anger Dismembered alive

Greed Put in cauldrons of boiling oil

Sloth Thrown in snake pits

via Seven new deadly sins: are you guilty? -Times Online.

‘Those who fell were far from home and close to the enemy, doing the hard work that must be done to protect our country from terrorism. We owe them our deepest gratitude,’ CIA Director Leon Panetta said.

Some CIA officials are angry at being criticised by the White House after Abdulmutallab, 23, was allowed to slip through the security net and board a US-bound flight in Amsterdam despite evidence he was a terror threat.

The president complained that a warning from the former London engineering student’s father and information about an al Qaeda bomb plot involving a Nigerian were not handled properly by the intelligence networks.

But CIA officials say the data was sent to the US National Counterterrorism Centre in Washington, which was set up after the 9/11 attacks as a clearing house where raw data should be analysed.

via Spy chiefs turn on President Obama after seven CIA agents are slaughtered in Afghanistan | Mail Online.

Kevin Pearce was in critical condition Saturday at a Utah hospital after suffering a “severe, traumatic brain injury” in a training accident, one of his doctors said.

Pearce is in the University of Utah Hospital’s intensive care unit in Salt Lake City. Dr. Holly Ledyard said Pearce is stable condition and has not yet needed to undergo surgery.

“Kevin sustained a severe, traumatic brain injury … and is being kept sedated,” Ledyard said in a statement released by the snowboarder’s publicist.

“The focus over the next week will be watching for any swelling in his brain and keeping his brain pressure normal.”

via Snowboarder suffers `traumatic brain injury’ – Yahoo! News.

Scientists have successfully tested a system that translates brain waves into speech, raising the prospect that people left mute by stroke, Lou Gehrig&apos;s disease and other afflictions will one day be able to communicate by synthetic voice.

via Device turns thoughts into speech – Innovation- msnbc.com.

“The web presents us with the largest accumulation of knowledge and information within recorded history. The mass and complexity of this information makes it very difficult to accurately model what is happening in a way that allows us to anticipate the results of publishing new content. Early attempts at managing this complexity rely on “authority” measures such as page rank to filter out information leaving a more reasonably sized subset to analyze. While efficient and useful for displaying relevant results to users this authority measure does nothing to help us understand features of a publication’s content that enhance its effectiveness in capturing the attention of web users. We are still faced with a large degree of uncertainty when trying to define what content will be successful.”

via mutato nomine / mutans.blogspot.com: Social Mining with PersonEngine «Public Individual.

In 1976, Young’s theory of evolution of life on Earth — which attempted to synthesize understandings from geology, biology, anthropology, psychology, and parapsychology — appeared under the title The Reflexive Universe. Young accepted the general “theory of evolution,” but pointed out where he felt the Darwinian theory was insufficient to the facts. The book also incorporates a brief speculative discussion of further human psychological and spiritual growth.

via Arthur M. Young – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

First off, Mr Klug from San Mateo, California, was charged $3.99 for posting and handling.

Mr Klug has posted on the Reddit website links to the Amazon site and confirmation of his purchase.

One Reddit commentatator posted: &apos;This is going to end poorly, I can feel it.&apos;

&apos;Might be a good morning to buy Amazon stock,&apos; wrote another, while a third pointed out that had Mr Klug had Amazon&apos;s Visa three per cent rewards card, thus entitling him to roughly $87million in rewards.

via Man buys $3billion CD-ROM on Amazon – just to see what would happen | Mail Online.

Rules:

1)All tracks must be collaborative with atleast two participants, metafictional suit and replicant collabs are disqualified. The sound must either:

A)have control of the file traded to a 2nd party

or

B)have a request made and fulfilled by an additional party for layers added into sound. You cannot simply sample another participants material unless it is still in the Category:KERNEL – Processing.

Participants may choose whether or not to employ The Avant Glitch Project Manifesto game mechanics to the collaboration process.

2)Submissions should be formatted following this example:Crazy Bruce&apos;s Broken Teeth and as such should include (in sequential order):

a brief description

the track it&apos;s self

“Participants:”

“Season/Year:” of composition

an optional accompanying image.

Add new tracks by searching for their title and creating a page for them in addition to placing them in this category.

3)All tracks must be under 100mb in size to be uploaded to the server.

4)To submit data one must have Narrative Credentials. Apply for them if needed.

5)Incomplete collab material should be placed in the Category:KERNEL – Processing until deemed finished.

6)Any action or sound taken by a party and ruled as inappropriate in any regard by the Elders of The Temple will result in immediate M-Data cluster rewrites, the biorestructed remains of which will be fed to Keeper of the spiders.

7)Noise is the key and the source. As such, both rhythm and BPM are HEAVILY frowned upon.

via Infictive Research – Category:KERNEL.

In addition to national observance, many local areas have their own customs when it comes to celebrating Hogmanay. In the town of Burghead, Moray, an ancient tradition called “burning the clavie” takes place each year on January 11. The clavie is a big bonfire, fueled primarily by split casks. One of these is joined back together with a big nail, filled with flammable material, and lit on fire. Flaming, it&apos;s carried around the village and up to a Roman altar known to residents as the Douro. The bonfire is built around the clavie. When the burnt clavie crumbles, the locals each grab a lit piece to kindle a fire in their own hearth.

In Stonehaven, Kincardineshire, the locals make giant balls of tar, paper and chicken wire. These are attached to several feet of chain or wire, and then set on fire. A designated “swinger” whirls the ball around his head and walks through the village streets to the local harbor. At the end of the festival, any balls still on fire are cast into the water. This is quite an impressive sight in the dark!

The town of Biggar, Lanarkshire, celebrates with a bonfire. In the early 1940s, one or two locals complained about the size of the fire, and celebration organizers agreed to have a smaller fire. This was erected as promised, but before it was lit, the local traditionalists trucked in cartload after cartload if coal and wood, making a giant pyre, which then burned for a whopping five days before running out of fuel!

via Hogmanay: Scotland’s Winter Celebration.

Mr. Croxall calculated that attending the MLA would cost him about $400 out of pocket. (He breaks it down in his post.) He writes: “But once it became apparent that I wasn&apos;t going to be having any interviews, I could no longer justify the outlay of $400 out of a salary that puts me only $1,210 above the 2009 Federal Poverty Guidelines. (And yes, that means I do qualify for food stamps while working a full-time job as a professor!)”

As Mr. Croxall points out, attending the MLA (or any conference) is not just about interviewing for jobs or having nightcaps with friends. It&apos;s a way to plug into new scholarship in one&apos;s field and make connections, professional and intellectual, that propel teachers and scholars forward. A panel Mr. Croxall was on last year produced a book-length collaboration among the panelists, who hadn&apos;t met before.

“When the majority of faculty (who are, again, contingent faculty) cannot attend the MLA (or any other conference), it results in a faculty that cannot advance, that does not, in other words, appear to be doing the things that would warrant their conversion to the tenure track. Our placement as contingent faculty quickly becomes a self-fulfilling event,” Mr. Croxall writes.

via Missing in Action at the MLA: Today’s Teachers of Today’s Students – Teaching – The Chronicle of Higher Education.

‘It went very quick,’ said Mr Schuringa. ‘I grabbed the suspect out of the seat because if he was wearing any more explosives, it would be very dangerous.

‘We took him to first class and stripped him to make sure he had no more weapons, no more bombs.’

Abdulmutallab appeared to be ‘in a trance’, he added.

via Alarm bells that went unheeded: Even Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab’s own father named him as a fanatic | Mail Online.

1. The Need for Custom Parts: Regular circuitry and LEDs are incompatible with regular contact lenses. Every piece of this project must be fabricated from scratch.

2. Physical Constraints: The group must attempt to fit transistors, radio chips, antennas, diffusion resistors, LEDs and photodetectors onto a minuscule polymer disc. Additionally, the team is required to control lens position and light intensity relative to the pupil. And finally, because the lens is so close to the corneal surface, the group must project images away from the cornea using either micro-lenses or lasers.

3. User Safety: In addition to protecting the eye against chemicals, heat and toxins, the lens components must be semi-transparent in order for the wearer to view their surroundings.

“We already see a future in which the humble contact lens becomes a real platform, like the iPhone is today, with lots of developers contributing their ideas and inventions. As far as we&apos;re concerned, the possibilities extend as far as the eye can see.” And you thought the iPhone SDK was a tough nut to crack.

via Your Cyborg Eye Will Talk to You.

Ray Carney talks to Richard Metzger (born October 25, 1965 in Wheeling, West Virginia) who is a television host and author. He was the host of the TV show Disinformation, The Disinformation Company and its website, Disinfo.com. He is currently the host of the online talk show Dangerous Minds.

DOWNLOAD via Ripple: Ray Carney talks to Richard Metzger | Alterati: The GSpot- The Inside Scoop on the Outside Culture.

The sample group was quite large, consisting of responses from 7,000 logged in players. There were many surprises in the results. First, the gaming wasn’t dominated by kids — in fact the average age was 31. More interestingly still, older gamers tended to spend more hours on the game per week.

And female gamers spent, on average, far more hours than their male counterparts. Top female players logged 57 hours a week, while top male players only logged 51 hours a week. And on average, girls logged 29 hours a week versus 25 hours for males.

Age isn’t the only thing women tend to lie about, according to the survey. More women than men responded that they lied to their friends and loved ones about how much time they played.

Other dark elf slayers/professors and grad students that participated in the study included Mia Consalvo, Scott Caplan, and Nick Yee.

via DailyTech – Study: Male Gamers Not as Hardcore as Female Gamers.

A man is walking through the recreation ground of his local park when he notices a huge fight in full fury on the football pitch he is passing.

“What’s going on?” he asks a spectator watching from the side–lines.

The other replies “It′s a match between the Masons and the Knights of Columbus.”

“What’s the score?” asks the first man.

“I don’t know, it′s a secret.”

via Masonic Jokes.

Lynch was nearing the end of a seven year sentence for aggravated burglary when he escaped from the open prison on September 23.

Last week it was revealed that he had bragged about relaxing on a sunbed, eating 12lb steaks and making plans to attend a New Year&apos;s Eve party in Lowestoft, Suffolk.

He boasted about staying one step ahead of police who were monitoring his Facebook page for any clues to his whereabouts.

Lynch revealed that he was planning to go to the Bluewater shopping centre in Kent to take his &apos;little princess&apos; to meet Santa.

Later he updates his site to say that he was walking through the centre with a 4ft tall Winnie The Pooh.

His life on the run has attracted a 1,247 following on Facebook.

via Escaped criminal taunts police on Facebook as he enjoys Christmas on the run | Mail Online.

It might seem odd that Buddhist temples in Japan house the occasional stray mummified demon (oni), but then again it probably makes sense to keep them off the streets and under the watchful eye of a priest.

Zengyōji (善行寺) temple in the city of Kanazawa (Ishikawa prefecture) is home to the mummified head of a three-faced demon. Legend has it that a resident priest discovered the mummy in a temple storage chamber in the early 18th century.

via Monster mummies of Japan ::: Pink Tentacle.

President Barack Obama has abruptly ended a round of golf and sped toward his family’s vacation home for what is being described as a “personal matter.” An ambulance was seen speeding toward their compound.

White House aides said the speedy departure and return to the president’s home was not a matter of national security or because of a threat to Obama’s safety.

via President Obama leaves golf course abruptly, speeds toward vacation home for ‘personal matter’ — latimes.com.

When the soldiers of the future want to communicate, they’ll read each others’ minds. At least, that’s the hope of Pentagon’s mad-science division Darpa, which launched a program to “allow user-to-user communication on the battlefield without the use of vocalized speech through analysis of neural signals.” That’s on top of the $4 million the Army handed out last year to the University of California to investigate the potential for computer-mediated telepathy.

via Secret Drones, Telepathic GIs and ‘Miss Atom’: Your Favorite Posts of 2009 | Danger Room | Wired.com.

Each successive detachment that guards the Rock appears to add its own layer to the legend, which has spread through the Marine units pushing into southern Helmand.

There is talk of members of the Taleban entombed in caves below; the bodies buried on the summit are identified confidently as dead Russian soldiers from the ill-fated Soviet invasion.

Corporal Jacob Lima’s story is the latest addition. One night he was woken by the sound of screaming. It was Corporal Zolik, a Marine who has since been moved to a unit farther south. “He was yelling and begging me to go up to the firing point he was guarding,” Corporal Lima, 22, told the men taking over from him. “When I got there he said that he was sitting there when he heard a voice whisper something in his ear. He said it sounded like Russian. He begged me to stay in there with him till he was relieved from guard duty. After that he really didn’t like standing post up there.”

via Eerie outpost unnerves US Marines with strange lights and whispers in the night – Times Online.

By the Pentagon’s own estimate, as few as 10 percent of sexual assaults are reported, far lower than the percentage reported in the civilian world. Specialist Erica A. Beck, a mechanic and gunner who served in Diyala Province in Iraq this summer, recalled a sexual proposition she called “inappropriate” during her first tour in the country in 2006-7.

“Not necessarily being vulgar, but he, you know, was asking for favors,” she said.She did not report it, she said, because she feared that her commanders would have reacted harshly — toward her.

“It was harassment,” she said. “And because it was a warrant officer, I didn’t say anything. I was just a private.”

via Women at Arms – Another Peril in War Zones – Sexual Abuse by Fellow G.I.’s – Series – NYTimes.com.

It’s fairly well known the iPhone was born from efforts to develop a touchscreen tablet computer that was simply miniaturized, using tech from FingerWorks, a touch interface company Apple bought. The NYT reported Apple’s been working on it since 2003, when they built several prototypes using a battery-slaying PowerPC processor. Our insider said that Apple’s been working on it for 4-6 years, and that the first prototype of the current version was developed in 2008. Steve Jobs killed the PowerPC tablet, according to the NYT, because Jobs asked what tablets were good for besides web surfing while browsing the web. The WSJ reported he’s killed it twice already.

via The Exhaustive Guide to Apple Tablet Rumors – apple islate – Gizmodo.