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News Briefs 22-01-2009

“Ding Dong! The witch is dead…”

  • How to fight Racial bias: Integration? that—obviously—takes too long. How about a lab-based shortcut? As long as they have plenty of eye drops, fine by me!
  • Inauguration Day, from Kang & Kodos’ POV.
  • ‘Closing Guantanamo’ is definitely at the top of the ObaMAN’s list; but dealing with elusive space aliens? Probably not.
  • …And speaking of Guantanamo, the new threat to this Administration might not come from the Islamist world, but from the ‘Contactism’ world.
  • The saga of the turbine-shagging UFOs continues.
  • UFOs: Physical, Dimensional, or Holographic? How about ‘all of the above’?
  • The summer of 1967 seemed filled with endless possibilities… including an Alien Invasion (video).
  • In 2012 the sh*t is NOT going to hit the fan. It’s gonna stay inside your toilet… Forever!
  • There’s NO Global Warming, and proof of it is that Antarctica has retained its freezing temperatures, right? Right??
  • Sorry Gwedd, a human marksman is no match for a Spitting Cobra 😉
  • Studying the jaw of a 410-million-year-old fish makes scientists’ own jaws to drop.
  • You know who’s REALLY behind the extinction of frogs? French chefs.
  • Clean air equals longer life, study says—Well, Duh!!
  • Acupuncture really works to cure migraines… because it’s all in your head anyway.
  • Scientists might have found a way to remove heavy metals from our blood, but they’ll never. Ever! remove it from our heartsRight, Greg? 😛
  • Russia says old nuclear satellite poses no threat… this from the people that gave us those wonderful fireworks show 22 years ago 🙁
  • NASA to air high definition video tour of recent ISS additions. Is NASA seeking a sponsorship from Samsung?
  • Name that Rover: What do you think the next robotic explorer to Mars should be called? My own proposal: MFW (Martian Flatulence Whiffer, Whiffy for short).
  • Here ya go, my Caprican brothers: Everything you were afraid to ask about “Battlestar Galactica”.
  • Historical Re-enactment is the safest way to avoid humping your great-grandmother, killing your father, or other nasty Chrono-paradoxes.
  • The 5 Most Terrifying Civilizations In The History of the World, brought to you by the immaturely hilarious folks of Cracked.com.
  • Israel’s new weapon of choice against Hamas: Youtube.

Thanks, Kat. Hope you find your way back to Kansas 🙂

Quote of the Day:

“Son–they say there isn’t any royalty in this country, but do you want me to tell you how to be king of the United States of America? Just fall through the hole in a privy and come out smelling like a rose.”

Kurt Vonnegut—’Sirens of Titan’

    1. Sorry
      Couldn’t resist. The idea popped into my head Wednesday morning and I’ve learned to follow the orders of my subconscious.

      Anyway, we little people extend our witch funeral festivities for AT LEAST a month 😛

      —–
      It’s not the depth of the rabbit hole that bugs me…
      It’s all the rabbit SH*T you stumble over on your way down!!!

      Red Pill Junkie

  1. Thanks, Yip!
    “Ding Dong, The Witch Is Dead!”

    Lyricist Yip Harburg’s son was interviewed by Amy Goodman on Democracy Now! a couple of years ago, and DN! re-ran the show on Xmas Day.

    Yip was a dyed-in-the-wool socialist who got his message across with wit and skill, and who endured the Blacklist to be recognized as one of America’s greatest artists.

    Ernie Harburg recounts how “Ding Dong” became a send-off song for deposed tyrants…

    http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/25/a_tribute_to_yip_harburg_the

      1. Sheesh
        Can’t a guy make a joke without including 😉 or 🙂 so people get it’s all meant to be sarcasm??

        I’m not saying a giant flare is going to send us all to Hell; all I’m saying is that some people think somehow the Sun will be involved with what’s SUPPOSED to happen in 2012 (I admit that sometimes I’m part of that crowd)—according to SOME people’s interpretation of the SO CALLED Mayan prophecies. And after reading the article linked, it struck me as very interesting—and SCARY—how ill prepared our infrastructures are to something like a powerful solar flare and subsequent geomagnetic storm. Something that has already happened several times in the XIXth and XXth century—maybe even not so long ago; remember all those crazy fires in Italy that no one could explain?

        So, MAYBE if we scare people just a bit, we might start to think how to insure our collective butt so that we might still enjoy the comfort of the greatest invention in the modern history of mankind:

        The toilet 🙂 <------------------- (observe) ----- It's not the depth of the rabbit hole that bugs me... It's all the rabbit SH*T you stumble over on your way down!!! Red Pill Junkie

        1. Sorry ’bout that…did’n mean to offend
          I should of followed my : / with a 🙂

          Sorry if you took it the wrong way…

          Cheers

          PS: Still too much hype about 2012 though… 🙂

          1. That depends…
            …on one’s point of view. 🙂

            I suppose a dishwasher would be a helpful in cleaning the chamber pots and a shower is good if one of those chamber pots were too full to carry and splashed.

            However, having a toilet in the first place…

            Cheers

          2. Toilet
            Modern sanitation is one of the things that have had a deeper impact in the way we plan our cities (the other one would be automobiles).

            It has also been one of the greatest aids in fighting disease. Back in the old days everybody tossed their waste out of the windows directly to the streets; later those wastes would dry and pulverize, and would be carried out by the wind directly to the citizens lungs. Is it any wonder that with the arrival of the toilet there was a clear reduction on infant mortality?

            All praise the white porcelain marvel! 🙂

            —–
            It’s not the depth of the rabbit hole that bugs me…
            It’s all the rabbit SH*T you stumble over on your way down!!!

            Red Pill Junkie

          3. Yes, All Hail Our Pocelain Masters
            [quote]…everybody tossed their waste out of the windows directly to the streets… [/quote]

            To some extent this still happens in some places in China. Maybe not “night soil” but everything else. My wife worked in the Chinese city Wenzhou, in the industrial area.

            Her first day there she noticed the smell and the rubbish on the streets – which people were picking through and others were cleaning.

            She went to dinner in the company apartment there and afterwards was looking for a rubbish bin for the dinner scraps and her co-workers told her don’t be silly and promptly tossed it out the window.

            Of course when she got back and told me I didn’t believe her until we moved apartments – one of which live many Wenzhounese. One day I found fried rice and vegs on the window sill – we were on the 24th floor so this was from one of the 8 floors above us. Later my wife pointed out a sign in the apartment lobby (in Chinese) directed to Wenzhounese to NOT through rubbish out of the windows.

            This was only 5 years ago…maybe now they use bins.

            Cheers

          4. @_@
            …Words fail me.

            How long have you lived in China?

            —–
            It’s not the depth of the rabbit hole that bugs me…
            It’s all the rabbit SH*T you stumble over on your way down!!!

            Red Pill Junkie

          5. trash
            this reminds me…

            In this part of Canada we know when trash day is. 1 day a week we put out trash, separated between recycling stuff and real trash, out on the street, neatly packaged in trash cans or bags or some other containers. There is a schedule for these things.

            In Germany, they have differently colored trash containers for different kinds of stuff. Last time I was there, I could not figure out what goes where. I phoned the city, and they said something like – the stuff that goes in the grey things, you put that in the grey container.

            In Romania, they apparently put neatly bagged trash on the street any day they want, and it gets picked up by some unseen forces. At least unseen by me, the stuff was not there the next day.

            When I owned a house some years ago, our dogs got very upset when the trash collectors came ans stole our garbage. probably the dogs believed that there was some sweet smelling food in there 🙂

            —-
            It is not how fast you go
            it is when you get there.

          6. Me too
            Words fail me too often here with what I see from time to time which I call “National Geographic Moments”.

            As you asked I have been in China three times 1993 for one year, 2001 to 2005 and 2006 to present – collectively about 7 years. No, I cannot speak Chinese apart from some important swear words. It’s the tones used in Chinese to change the meaning of words I can’t master therefore my pronunciation sucks.

            Ironically I should not have to learn Chinese because the last 10~15 years each and every Chinese person has to study English from primary school through high school and to graduate from university must pass an intermediate level English proficiency exam CET Band 4. The operative word is study not learn as one is hard pressed to find anyone who can string together even a few words together in English – and that’s in Shanghai, forget about anywhere else!

            There is a well known saying in China: High Score, Low Ability”. Chinese learn how to take and pass tests without ever having learned the subject. This permeates Chinese society including Chinese businesses who proudly display their ISO 9001:2000 QA certificate which is a meaningless piece of paper on their wall. We have all seen examples of Chinese attitudes to QA; Chinese milk, lead paint, pet food and so on – so imagine what the smaller companies do…better yet, don’t. 🙂

            Its amusing to me when people comment how China has become so international – it hasn’t, it just looks that way in certain cities like Shanghai. To the vast majority of Chinese there is only China, Chinese culture and Chinese food which they think is the best. It will take about 50~100 years for this to change – if ever.

            Cheers

          7. Mile wide, Inch deep
            Hi tihz_ho,

            I’ve spent several weeks in the latter half of the ’90s in China and had many similar experiences. The last time we finally made it to Beijing when they were well on the way to the makeover for the Olympics. It was such a scam to see how thin the veil was that hid the ‘real’ China down any side street.

            It took the Japanese 20-25 years to achieve the modern competance we now take for granted with the brilliant help of Deming. I think the Chinese need at least another 20 years to reach the same point. The main reason is that I think the kids need to grow up in a natural ‘quality’ environment so they don’t even have to think about what that means.

            The bright, young engineers I worked with had a lot of potential, but just couldn’t see the forest for the trees because it wasn’t something they could be taught in class.

            Cheers,
            X_O

          1. Yeah I know
            I suppose I overreacted out of my anger with the Academy for not nominating Dark Knight 🙂

            —–
            It’s not the depth of the rabbit hole that bugs me…
            It’s all the rabbit SH*T you stumble over on your way down!!!

            Red Pill Junkie

          2. Academy
            I think the Academy take themselves too seriously. After all, they are in the business of faking it.

            —-
            It is not how fast you go
            it is when you get there.

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