Bush's Body Language Says "I'm Afraid"

This is from Daily Kos. More info on the 'Psychology' if you follow the link. 

Sometimes, non-verbal communication--that aspect of how we talk that does not involve words--carries the most meaning in a given situation.  

Such was the case during President Bush's recent press conference in Amman, Jordan.  Having read the transcript of this press conference to analyze the President's repetition of the word "success,"  I then went over to C-SPAN  to watch the video footage.  What I saw in that footage took me by surprise, adding an entirely unexpected dimension to my  thinking about the way President Bush attempted to frame Iraq.  With his words, Bush said, "Success, success, success!"  But with every other aspect of his being--his gestures, his tone, his disposition, his glances--President Bush was saying:  I'm afraid.

The President of the United States was the very image of fear in this Amman press conference.   And that image of fear was more revealing than any words coming out of President Bush's mouth, today.

Source: Daily Kos: Frameshop: Bush's Body Language Says "I'm Afraid"

 

Technorati Tags: Politics - Interesting

Impossibly Possible Scientific Breakthroughs

 

In the past year several scientific claims that apparently contradict "known" physical laws have been making headline news. Some are so contradictory to personal experience that their application would seem like "magic" if we were not already in an age of remarkable discoveries.

Scientific history is full of such botched predictions, though when a scientist of rank and experience says, "it will never work", they are frequently right. When new scientific claims seem to contradict "known" physical laws objectivity is difficult to maintain, even for the best trained scientists.

In 2007 three of these breakthrough discoveries and claims could either make it into demonstrable prototypes or be confirmed by other research labs. Some of the claims are already experimentally confirmed, some are unconfirmed but from credible sources, and some are scientifically unsubstantiated but just too bold to ignore. If confirmed they would be a "hat trick" of remarkable advances that seemingly contradict everyday physical laws. In colloquial terms they are: invisibility, anti-gravity and perpetual motion.

Source: The Coming Era of Magical Physics - OhmyNews International

 

Technorati Tags: Interesting - Useful - Science - Energy

Calling Bullshit On The Main Stream Media

 Yep!

What is it about Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert that makes them so refreshing and attractive to a wide variety of viewers (including those so-important younger ones)? I would argue that, more than anything else, it is that they enthusiastically call bullshit.

Calling bullshit, of course, used to be central to journalism as well as to comedy. And we happen to be in a period in our history in which the substance in question is running particularly deep. The relentless spinning is enough to make anyone dizzy, and some of our most important political battles are about competing views of reality more than they are about policy choices. Calling bullshit has never been more vital to our democracy.

It also resonates with readers and viewers a lot more than passionless stenography. I’m convinced that my enthusiasm for calling bullshit is the main reason for the considerable success of my White House Briefing column, which has turned into a significant traffic-driver for The Washington Post’s Web site.

I’m not sure why calling bullshit has gone out of vogue in so many newsrooms — why, in fact, it’s so often consciously avoided. There are lots of possible reasons. There’s the increased corporate stultification of our industry, to the point where rocking the boat is seen as threatening rather than invigorating. There’s the intense pressure to maintain access to insider sources, even as those sources become ridiculously unrevealing and oversensitive. There’s the fear of being labeled partisan if one’s bullshit-calling isn’t meted out in precisely equal increments along the political spectrum.

The return of Democrats to political power and relevancy gives us the opportunity to call bullshit in a more bipartisan manner, which is certainly healthy. But there are different kinds of bullshit. Republican political leaders these past six years have built up a massive, unprecedented credibility deficit, such that even their most straightforward assertions invite close bullshit inspection. By contrast, Democratic bullshit tends to center more around hypocrisy and political cowardice. Trying to find equivalency between the two would still be a mistake – and could lead to catty, inside-baseball gotcha journalism rather than genuine bullshit-calling.

Source: Watchdog Blog » Blog Archive » On Calling Bullshit

 

Technorati Tags: Politics - Media

The Future Of Home Wind Power?

 It's not the prettiest turbine, but it is quite efficient (43%) and only requires a three mile per hour wind speed to start.

1. Loopwing Wind Turbine is a well balanced, quiet wind turbine that has globe-rotating trajectory image.
2. The principle of operation is the conventional propeller theory, of which the basic performance is already proved.

• A wind tunnel experiment further proved low noise and high performance at a low rotation speed while delivering high torque.
• Capability to self-start with a natural breeze, air brake, and automatic deflector protecting from over-speeding were also proved.

1. Loopwing's excellence also lies in its appeal of artistic design. It can serve as a work of art, itself.

Source: LOOPWING -PRIDE ON THE SKY -

 

Technorati Tags: Energy - Interesting - New Product

Inject Spit, Pop Spit, Drink Spit. Oh Glorious Spit!

Mother nature at her best again, but as soon as it's synthesized and OK' d for humans were going to have to pay royalties to some major drug company, or spend time in court, or jail for illegally manufacturing and/or ingesting SPIT!

Saliva from humans has yielded a natural painkiller up to six times more powerful than morphine, researchers say.

The substance, dubbed opiorphin, may spawn a new generation of natural painkillers that relieve pain as well as morphine but without the addictive and psychological side effects of the traditional drug.

When the researchers injected a pain-inducing chemical into rats’ paws, 1 milligram of opiorphin per kilogram of body weight achieved the same painkilling effect as 3 milligrams of morphine.

The substance was so successful at blocking pain that, in a test involving a platform of upended pins, the rats needed six times as much morphine as opiorphin to render them oblivious to the pain of standing on the needle points.

Anti-depressive angle

“Its pain-suppressive effect is like that of morphine,” says Catherine Rougeot at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, France, who led the research. “But we have to test its side effects as it is not a pure painkiller,” she says. “It may also be an anti-depressive molecule.”

Rougeot and colleagues discovered that opiorphin works in nerve cells of the spine by stopping the usual destruction of natural pain-killing opiates there, called enkephalins.

Source: Natural-born painkiller found in human saliva - health - 13 November 2006 - New Scientist Tech

 

Technorati Tags: Interesting - Health - Medicine - Drugs - Natural

40 Amazing Facts About Sleep

Here's five of them in no particular order of importance. 

- It's impossible to tell if someone is really awake without close medical supervision. People can take cat naps with their eyes open without even being aware of it.

- Anything less than five minutes to fall asleep at night means you're sleep deprived. The ideal is between 10 and 15 minutes, meaning you're still tired enough to sleep deeply, but not so exhausted you feel sleepy by day.

- A new baby typically results in 400-750 hours lost sleep for parents in the first year

- One of the best predictors of insomnia later in life is the development of bad habits from having sleep disturbed by young children.

- The continuous brain recordings that led to the discovery of REM (rapid eye-movement) sleep were not done until 1953, partly because the scientists involved were concerned about wasting paper.

Source: The National Sleep Research Project - 40 amazing facts about sleep

 

Technorati Tags: Useful - Interesting - Health

Meet Keith, The Sewer Snake

Always turn the bathroom light on at night. 

The boa constrictor, named Keith, is thought to have been abandoned after the resident was evicted owing £5,500 in rent to his landlord.

It has been slithering out of toilet bowls thoughout the flats in Manchester since August.

In the wild the snake lives close to rivers or swamps.

The creature has been spotted on several occasions and homeowners have put bricks on toilet seats in a bid to keep the beast from popping out of the pan.

Previous sightings of the animal were treated with scepticism but firefighters were called to the block of flats on Clyde Road, West Didsbury, Manchester after it confronted a resident going to the toilet in the middle of the night.

Source: BBC NEWS | UK | England | Manchester | Snake hiding in sewers is caught

 

Technorati Tags: Animals - Interesting - Odd News

Roller Toaster

This is great, now you can butter your toast before it is finished. 

Link to Jaren Goh Design

 

Technorati Tags: Interesting - Useful - Kitchen - Cooking

Crazy Republicans!.....No!..Really!

No wonder the 'Big Pharma' get along so well with them. 

Lohse, a social work master’s student at Southern Connecticut State University, says he has proven what many progressives have probably suspected for years: a direct link between mental illness and support for President Bush.
Lohse says his study is no joke. The thesis draws on a survey of 69 psychiatric outpatients in three Connecticut locations during the 2004 presidential election. Lohse’s study, backed by SCSU Psychology professor Jaak Rakfeldt and statistician Misty Ginacola, found a correlation between the severity of a person’s psychosis and their preferences for president: The more psychotic the voter, the more likely they were to vote for Bush.
But before you go thinking all your conservative friends are psychotic, listen to Lohse’s explanation.
“Our study shows that psychotic patients prefer an authoritative leader,” Lohse says. “If your world is very mixed up, there’s something very comforting about someone telling you, ‘This is how it’s going to be.’”
The study was an advocacy project of sorts, designed to register mentally ill voters and encourage them to go to the polls, Lohse explains. The Bush trend was revealed later on.

--------------

 

Lohse says the trend isn’t unique to Bush: A 1977 study by Frumkin & Ibrahim found psychiatric patients preferred Nixon over McGovern in the 1972 election.
Rakfeldt says the study was legitimate, though not intended to show what it did.

Source: NEW HAVEN ADVOCATE - NEW HAVEN ADVOCATE

 

Technorati Tags: Interesting - Politics - Health

Iranian Presidents Letter To The American People

In English 

Link to يادداشت هاي شخصي احمدي نژاد

 

Technorati Tags: Politics - Useful - Interesting

Read This Before It's Erased!

 Excerpt is roughly the last paragraph of a very telling article. I won't say anymore.

The media is trying to bury this story. They are spiking it, erasing it from their web sites in a chilling real-life Orwellian rewriting of history.

 
The actions of the US media are those of people trying to protect this spy ring and those that the spy ring worked for. "While I agree with you, if I say anything about US geopolitical interests with Israel, I might as well clean off my desk."
-- Unnamed reporter as quoted in American Media Censorship and Israel

 
The actions of the US media are those of traitors to the American people.

Source: Down the Memory Hole: Carl Cameron's TV story about 9-11 Israeli Spy Ring in U.S.

 

Technorati Tags: Politics - Interesting

What Different Cultures Eat In A Week

This link is pretty interesting. It's five gages of pictures showing what families from around the world eat in one week. It's worth a look. 

Link to Peter Menzel Photography:Recent Stories

 

Technorati Tags: Interesting

Damn!... What Are They Planning To Screw Up Now!

 Good thing I haven't run out of towels...Yet!

CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - The United States warned people to stockpile food, water and medicine in Venezuela in case a vote on Sunday sparks public disorder as anti-U.S. President Hugo Chavez seeks reelection.

In a warning to Americans living in Venezuela, which provides about 12 percent of U.S. oil imports, the U.S. Embassy said on Tuesday it had no information Venezuela would slip into lawlessness.

But it warned on its Web site (http://Caracas.usembassy.gov/wwwh2848.html) that the measures would be a sensible precaution in a polarized nation where politics often stokes violent street protests and strikes.

Source: The Raw Story

 

Technorati Tags: Politics

Why Patriots Fight

Because they're rational, Intelligent, legitimate and if that's not enough, realistic. 

At a private reception held at the White House with newly elected lawmakers shortly after the election, Bush asked Webb how his son, a Marine lance corporal serving in Iraq, was doing.

Webb responded that he really wanted to see his son brought back home, said a person who heard about the exchange from Webb.

“I didn’t ask you that, I asked how he’s doing,” Bush retorted, according to the source.

Webb confessed that he was so angered by this that he was tempted to slug the commander-in-chief, reported the source, but of course didn’t. It’s safe to say, however, that Bush and Webb won’t be taking any overseas trips together anytime soon.

Source: Son also rises in testy Webb-Bush exchange

 

Technorati Tags: Politics - Interesting

I Smell A Tech Revolution

 

A professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has created a computer system that uses positioning lasers, micro-current air measurements, radar speed sensors, and other instruments to measure 27 different variables when a coin is flipped in the air. It can correctly call heads-or-tails nearly 50 percent of the time.

 

Via: Gullible Information

 

Technorati Tags: Interesting - Technology - Computers - Humor

No Child Left Behind Explained For Sports Fans

 A couple more important rules after the jump.

l. All teams must make the state playoffs, and all will win the championship. If a team does not win the championship, they will be on probation until they are the champions, and coaches will be held accountable.

2. All kids will be expected to have the same football skills at the same time and in the same conditions. No exceptions will be made for interest in football, a desire to perform athletically, or genetic abilities or disabilities. ALL KIDS WILL PLAY FOOTBALL AT A PROFICIENT LEVEL

3. Talented players will be asked to work out on their own without instruction. This is because the coaches will be using all their instructional time with the athletes who aren't interested in football, have limited athletic ability, or whose parents don't like football.

Source: No Child Left Behind: The Football Version

 

Technorati Tags: Useful - Education - Kids - Sports - Football - Politics

The Corporate Vote In U.S. Elections

I'll probably get in trouble for this, but I posted the article in full (because it's important to know, and to inform the lazy). If need be I'll claim 'Fair Use'. 

From 1776 to 1953, "We, The People" said that only voters - human citizens - have the right to influence elections and legislation

"There can be no effective control of corporations while their political activity remains."
-- Theodore Roosevelt, speech, August 31, 1910

Below is the exact and full text of an old Wisconsin law constraining corporations from participating in politics (they can't vote, the logic went - what the heck are they doing in politics?). 

It's typical of laws that virtually every state in the USA carried until Supreme Court decisions based on the 1886 Santa Clara mistake were used to strike them down. Here's the old Wisconsin law:

Political contributions by corporations. No corporation doing business in this state shall pay or contribute, or offer consent or agree to pay or contribute, directly or indirectly, any money, property, free service of its officers or employees or thing of value to any political party, organization, committee or individual for any political purpose whatsoever, or for the purpose of influencing legislation of any kind, or to promote or defeat the candidacy of any person for nomination, appointment or election to any political office.

Penalty. Any officer, employee, agent or attorney or other representative of any corporation, acting for and in behalf of such corporation, who shall violate this act, shall be punished upon conviction by a fine of not less than one hundred nor more than five thousand dollars, or by imprisonment in the state prison for a period of not less than one nor more than five years, or by both such fine and imprisonment in the discretion of the court or judge before whom such conviction is had and if the corporation shall be subject to a penalty then by forfeiture in double the amount of any fine and if a domestic corporation it may be dissolved, if after a proper proceeding upon quo warranto, in either the circuit or supreme court of the state to be prosecuted by the attorney general of the state, the court shall find and give judgment that section 1 of this act has been violated as charged, and if a foreign or non-resident corporation its right to do business in this state may be declared forfeited. (Emphasis added.)

Until the doctrine that corporations are "persons" with "rights" is changed back to the way US laws were from the American Revolution until recently - so corporations will again, like unions still are today, become "artificial entities" with "privileges" determinde by We, The People - our democracy will continue to be in peril.

(The Wisconsin law was from SECTION 4479a [Sec. 1, ch. 492, 1905] and this law was only struck down in Wisconsin in 1953.)

Source: Wisconsin's Law on Campaign Contributions  Via Thom Hartmann

 

Technorati Tags: Politics - Useful - Interesting

Aching back Sitting up straight could be the culprit

But...No slouching! 

“We were not created to sit down for long hours, but somehow modern life requires the vast majority of the global population to work in a seated position,” Dr. Bashir said. “This made our search for the optimal sitting position all the more important.”
The researchers studied 22 healthy volunteers with no history of back pain or surgery. A “positional” MRI machine was used, which allows patients freedom of motion—such as sitting or standing—during imaging. Traditional scanners have required patients to lie flat, which may mask causes of pain that stem from different movements or postures.
The patients assumed three different sitting positions: a slouching position, in which the body is hunched forward (e.g., hunched over a desk or slouched over in front of a video game console); an upright 90-degree sitting position; and a “relaxed” position where the patient reclines backward 135 degrees while the feet remain on the floor. Measurements were taken of spinal angles and spinal disk height and movement across the different positions.

Source: Aching back Sitting up straight could be the culprit

 

Technorati Tags: Useful

How to use "Furoshiki"

 

A new way to do Christmas, or Birthdays or any gift giving occasion.

Source: In Focus: How to use "Furoshiki" [MOE]

North American Union exposed during Senate Debate

 

This is a must watch video from the Montana State Senate.

Source: YouTube - North American Union exposed during Senate Debate

No Excuse Now

This item would be very handy for one of my readers...Wink! Wink! 

Stick the cute starfish to the side of your bath at the top with the attached suction cups - it beeps loudly when the water reaches it, so no more flooding the bathroom by mistake (own up, we've all done it!) In addition, it monitors the temperature for you

Source: Starfish Bath Alert @ Gadget Storm

 

Technorati Tags: Useful

Sidewalk Chalk Drawings

The link below will take you to all of this artist's masterpieces. 

Anamorphic illusions drawn in a special distortion in order to create an impression of 3 dimensions when seen from one particular viewpoint.

Source: Julian Beever's pavement drawings

Civil War 'Official' In Iraq?

 It's all over now.

"I got four phone calls from friends telling me to change the channel to Iraqiya and see what's happening," said Mohamed Othman, 27, a Sunni resident of Ameriya, one of the districts mentioned in the program. "I think this is an official declaration of civil war against Sunnis. They're going to push us to join al-Qaida to protect ourselves."

Source: McClatchy Washington Bureau | 11/25/2006 | Al-Sadr loyalists take over Iraqi television station

 

Technorati Tags: Politics