CASHLESSNESS

Technologies That Don't Know They're Dead

Cash only exists by the grace of banks and the government, and it's a major hassle for both of them. Printing, maintaining, actually having to physically move the stuff around in order to charge you for doing so? Your bank has already made it clear that they'll charge you for whatever they feel like, so pretending to exchange that for an actual service is becoming kind of a drag.
The web has shown that virtual money can function perfectly well with the added advantage that they always know exactly what you criminal thieving unpatriots are doing with it. In the UK credit card spending has already overtaken cash.

If only there was some kind of widely accepted, eminently trackable ID that was already legally protected, which they could force everyone to use instead. (Hint: it's your credit card, and you can count yourself lucky they haven't already jammed your social security number on there and called it a day, citizen.)

SPACE RACE II

A rendering of Eve Branson as the “Galactic Girl” used on the ships.
Eve is Richard Branson's mother.

Virgin boss Richard Branson's new heights, reached with Eve

British tycoon Richard Branson unveiled a futuristic aircraft that will ferry tourists to the edge of the heavens as part of Virgin Galactic's much-anticipated space program.
The aircraft - WhiteKnightTwo - is a high-altitude aircraft, named Eve after Branson's mother, will act as the mothership for the spacecraft Spaceship Two, which in turn will launch in midair and send two crew and six passengers hurtling into space.

BACKWARD THINKING

Howard government warned on carbon scheme delay

THE Howard government was warned that delaying the start of a carbon trading scheme could force electricity prices up by 25 per cent, or $3.5 billion.

As the Coalition prepares for a fiery battle on climate change today, a confidential report by consultants ACIL Tasman appears to undermine a Liberal-National Party push to drag out the start-up date for the scheme.

And, as Brendan Nelson puts his leadership on the line at today's shadow Cabinet meeting, a new Galaxy poll suggests voters want firm action -- in line with Kevin Rudd's 2010 plan.

The poll, commissioned by environmental campaigners the Climate Institute, shows at least half of Australians support an emissions trading scheme starting in 2010.

FACING THE MUSIC

Plan for Customs officers to search iPods for pirated music

MUSIC fans might soon have their iPods searched by Customs officers at airport checks - and face jail if pirated music is found on them.
The push for the unprecedented searches of travellers’ laptops and MP3 players has been revealed in a leaked discussion paper relating to a treaty being negotiated by the Federal Government.

[How long will it be before your digital camera and phone are the subject of similar searches?]

TRUTH BE TOLD

Aliens exist, but NASA covers them up says astronaut

Dr Edgar Mitchell, said he was aware of several UFO visits during his career, but each one had been covered up.

The 77-year-old, who was a crew member of the Apollo 14 mission, said sources at the space agency had described aliens as resembling "little people who look strange to us".

"I happen to have been privileged enough to be in on the fact that we've been visited on this planet and the UFO phenomena is real.

"It's been well covered up by all our governments for the last 60 years or so, but slowly it's leaked out and some of us have been privileged to have been briefed on some of it.

"I've been in military and intelligence circles, who know that beneath the surface of what has been public knowledge, yes – we have been visited.

WATCH these videos - many of them taken by ordinary Australians and tourists - which claim to be UFO sightings over the Sydney region and the rest of the country then you decide: real or fake.

Embedded Video

UFO spotted in NSW&squo;s South Coast in past month claim

LIGHT MOLECULE

Does DNA Have Telepathic Properties?

DNA has been found to have a bizarre ability to put itself together, even at a distance, when according to known science it shouldn't be able to. Explanation: None, at least not yet.

Scientists are reporting evidence that contrary to our current beliefs about what is possible, intact double-stranded DNA has the “amazing” ability to recognize similarities in other DNA strands from a distance. Somehow they are able to identify one another, and the tiny bits of genetic material tend to congregate with similar DNA.

The recognition of similar sequences in DNA’s chemical subunits, occurs in a way unrecognized by science. There is no known reason why the DNA is able to combine the way it does, and from a current theoretical standpoint this feat should be chemically impossible.

DEEP SHIT

500 Billion Tons of Prehistoric Organic Matter May Massively Accelerate ‘Global Warming’

For thousands of years animal waste, and other organic matter left behind on the Arctic tundra, have been sealed off from the environment by permafrost.
Now climate change is melting the permafrost and freeing mass quantities of prehistoric “ooze” from its state of suspended animation.
Russian scientist, Sergei Zimov, after studying climate change in Russia's Arctic for 30 years now, is worried that "This will lead to a type of global warming which will be impossible to stop".

OUR ALIEN MASTERS

Court Confirms President's Dictatorial Powers

On July 15, the Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled by 5 votes to 4 in the case of Al-Marri v. Pucciarelli [.pdf]
that the president can arrest U.S. citizens and legal residents inside
the United States and imprison them indefinitely, without charge or
trial, based solely on his assertion that they are "enemy combatants."
Have a little think about it, and you'll see that the Fourth Circuit
judges have just endorsed dictatorial powers.

DISSIDENT VOICE

Torture As Official US Policy

On December 28, 2001, Deputy Assistant Attorney Generals, Patrick Philbin and John Yoo, sent a Memorandum to General Counsel, Department of Defense, William Haynes II titled: “Possible Habeas Jurisdiction over Aliens Held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.” It said federal courts have no jurisdiction and cannot review Guantanamo detainee mistreatment or mistaken arrest cases. It further stated that international laws don’t apply in the “war on terror.” This laid the groundwork for abuses in all US torture prisons.

On January 18, 2002, Bush issued a “finding” stating that prisoners suspected of being al Qaeda or Taliban members are “enemy combatants” and unprotected by the Third Geneva Convention. They were to be denied all rights and treated “to the extent… consistent with military necessity.” Torture was thus authorized. The 2006 Military Commissions Act (aka the “torture authorization act”) later created the Geneva-superseded category of “unlawful enemy combatant” to deny them any chance for judicial fairness.

FEMME FATALE

Baby stolen from dead mum's womb

Pittsburgh woman Kia Johnson, 18, was bound and gagged and her near-full term baby cut from her stomach last week.
Andrea Curry-Demus, 38, had been charged with homicide, unlawful restraint and kidnapping, the Associated Press reported.

WAVE POWER

Wave-powered Boat Journeys from Japan to Hawaii

Ken-ichi Horie's travelled 7400km on a three-ton wave-powered boat.

Made from recycled aluminum alloy, the Suntory Mermaid II catamaran generated a “push-like” power to propel the boast forward.
The boat has  two adjacent fins beneath the bow, which  moved up and down with the waves. They generated thrust, absorbed the energy of the waves and gave the vessel stability and energy.

The Suntory Mermaid II is an eco-sailor's dream: electricity comes from eight solar panels that produce 560 watts (for the navigation lights) and it has a satellite phone, a PC and navigation light.
Small waves and opposing currents slowed the journey considerably, but Kenichi persevered and is now the first person to have traversed the Western Pacific on a boat powered by waves.

PALESTINE IN CRISIS

Tell-Tale Map

INFLATED EGOS

Enough to buy a sausage ... this week

This is the fourth set of high denomination notes to be issued this year, the first being in January when a 10 million dollar note was put into circulation. The next was on April 2 when a 50 million dollar note came into being before the 100 and 250 million dollar notes were introduced on May 2.
But how it can be useful?
We can't purchase even three packs of bread from it.

Zimbabwe has the worst inflation rate in the world. Almost 80% of the nation is unemployed. The Zimbabwean central bank has introduced $500 million bearer cheques (or currency notes) for the public, and $5 billion, $25 billion, $50 billion agro-cheques for farmers. Just last fortnight the nation had introduced $250 million bearer cheques.

A sausage sandwich sells for Zimbabwean $50 million. A 15-kg bag of potatoes cost Zimbabwean $260 million. But then, Zimbabwean $50 million is roughly equal to US$ 1!

PROOF READER

Now for some quite glorious proof that machines can’t be trusted with snubbing out errors ... This gem of an entry from the brilliant Regret the Error blog explains that the over-cautious chiefs over at OneNewsNow didn’t ever want to use the word ‘gay’ when referring to a homos-xual. How best to achieve this small detail? Simple: Use a machine to change it automatically! Genius! Genius, that is, until a rapid young chap named Tyson Gay won a race...

SUBPRIME PRIMER

THE QUICKENING

Wilkins ice shelf at risk of breaking from Antarctica

Scientists are growing increasingly concerned for the future of the huge Wilkins ice shelf that joins on to the Antarctic coast.

The latest satellite images suggest the ice shelf is disintegrating rapidly, and is now connected to the Antarctic mainland by a fairly small bridge of ice.

However, the images show that the bridge itself is about to go, with cracks appearing and ice floes breaking off.

LEGLESS DINOSAUR

Matora, or "bull eater




Colonel Rene van Lierde, above, was piloting his helicopter over the Katanga province of the Belgian Congo. Suddenly a gigantic snake reared up as if to attack his helicopter. He lifted up and took several photos of the snake and continued his journey.
His estimate of the size of the snake was about 40-50 feet, and that is the same estimation made by zoologists who later examined the photo.
Even still, the largest scientifically measured snake was a 32 foot long reticulated python killed in Indonesia as the world's longest snake. Until one of these magnificent creatures is brought in, dead or alive, the Sucuriju will always be known as a cryptid.

TORTURED TRUTH

Author Hitchens catches his breath after undergoing his first waterboarding session.

Believe Me, It's Torture:

What more can be added to the debate over U.S. interrogation methods, and whether waterboarding is torture?
Try firsthand experience. The author undergoes the controversial drowning technique, at the hands of men who once trained American soldiers to resist - not inflict - it.

GIRL SAYS

art porn. « debauchette

That is to say, in the beginning, which was not very long ago, the term ‘pornography’ referred to written (-graph) descriptions of prostitution (porno-) and all the dirty dirty acts that prostitution entails (the sucking of cock, the fucking of ass). Since I’m here, I should mention that the term and concept of pornography is a nineteenth-century invention, though what we now call pornographic is as old as sex itself.

Eventually ‘pornography’ came to refer to salacious written and visual material, or, if we follow the legal definition in obscenity statutes, pornography is devoid of artistic value and serves only to stimulate us sexually. Unfortunately, for some of us, it’s the artistic value that makes us wet.

Or hard.

THE QUICKENING

Perito Morena glacier colapses

Argentine TV has captured the spectacular collapse of part of the Perito Morena glacier, the landmark's first winter rupture since 1917.

BLOW UP

Photographed girl defends nude magazine cover

A girl who posed nude as a six-year-old is defending the use of the photograph on the front cover of an arts magazine.
Now 11 years old, Olympia Nelson says she has no problems with the photo her mother, Melbourne photographer Polixeni Papapetrou, took of her when she was six.
The photo is on the front cover of this month's Art Monthly magazine, and the New South Wales Government is referring the magazine to the Classification Board.

The picture has reignited public debate about the use of children in art, after controversy in May when artist Bill Henson's photographs of a naked prepubescent girl in a Sydney gallery were confiscated by police.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has said he cannot stand the picture and Federal Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson says he will ask the Federal Police to investigate.

But the model Olympia Nelson has taken umbrage at those comments.
"I think that the picture my mum took of me has nothing to do with being abused," she said.
"I'm really, really offended by what Kevin Rudd said about this picture."

ART ATTACK

Artists defend magazine's nude child cover

Australian artists are defending the controversial decision of Art Monthly magazine to run a photograph of a naked child on its front cover.

The front cover of the magazine features Melbourne photographer Polixeni Papapetrou's 2003 photo of her naked daughter, who was six at the time.
The Prime Minister has said he cannot stand the picture and federal Arts Minister Peter Garrett has said the magazine was being needlessly provocative.
"There's never been any study that suggests that there's a link between paedophilia and art," he said.
"Unfortunately we're working without any science; people are just making these assertions about protecting children, which is unarguable - I mean why would you not want to [protect them]?
"But no-one's really explained - protect them from what?"

LAWNCHAIR LARRY II

Armchair flier enjoys 400km of 'serenity'

A man from the US state of Oregon has succeeded on his third attempt to fly nearly 400 kilometres eastwards to Idaho in an armchair supported by helium-filled party balloons.
The man, Kent Couch, took an airgun and blowpipe with him, so that he could shoot some of the 150 large balloons to make sure he didn't fly too high.
Speaking before take-off, Mr Couch said he loves the peace up in the air.

Lawnchair Larry, the man who soared to 16,000 Feet attached to weather balloons

Mr Couch's adventure recreates that of Larry Walters who in In 1982 did pretty much the same thing.



The

COLD CHARITY

Give to beggars and cop jail time, says Indonesian city

Residents in one Indonesian city who give in to the tug of guilt could face three months in jail under a law which criminalises giving money to beggars and street children, the city's mayor said.
The new regulation approved last month by the legislative council in Makassar, South Sulawesi, is aimed at reducing the city's swelling population of beggars, Mayor Ilham Arif Sirajuddin said.

XTREME NERDS

Knights in the ring as chess boxers slug it out

Rarely do brains and brawn come together in this way. A Russian has been crowned world champion in the novelty sport of chess boxing that requires equal skill at moving pawns and throwing punches.
Mathematics student Nikolai Sazhin, 19, competing under the name "The President" knocked out 37-year-old German policeman, Frank Stoldt, who until recently was serving as a peacekeeper in Kosovo.
The loser said he was simply too punch drunk to fend off checkmate.

OUR SOLAR SYSTEM

Earth-sized planet predicted beyond Pluto

Japanese scientists believe another planet, up to two-thirds the size of Earth, is orbiting in the far reaches of the Solar System.
The researchers at Kobe University in western Japan said calculations using computer simulations led them to conclude it was only a matter of time before the mysterious, new "Planet X" was found.

OUR SOLAR SYSTEM

An outer planet beyond pluto

Researchers from Kobe University propose that the orbital history of an outer planet can explain the trans-Neptunian belt orbital structure.
This massive body was likely scattered by one of the giant planets, which then stirred the primordial planetesimal disk to the levels observed at 40-50 AU and truncated it at about 48 AU before planet migration.
The outer planet later acquired an inclined stable orbit (≥100 AU; 20-40°) because of a resonant interaction with Neptune, guaranteeing the stability of the trans-Neptunian belt.
They say their model consistently reproduces the main features of each dynamical class with unprecedented detail; it also satisfies other constraints such as the current small total mass of the trans-Neptunian belt and Neptune's current orbit at 30.1 AU.
Observationally testable predictions are also proposed.

OZY AUSSIE

Olympic Underwear Relay

With this escort around him, the runner made his way through the streets all the way to the Sydney Town Hall. He bounded up the steps and handed the torch to the waiting mayor who graciously accepted it and turned to begin his prepared speech.
Then someone whispered in the mayor’s ear, “That’s not the torch.” Suddenly the mayor realized what he was holding. Held proudly in his hand was not the majestic Olympic flame.

Instead he was gripping a wooden chair leg topped by a plum pudding can inside of which a pair of kerosene-soaked underwear was burning with a greasy flame.

The mayor looked around for the runner, but the man had already disappeared, melting away into the surrounding crowd.

The identity of the rogue runner was only publicly revealed years later. It was Barry Larkin, a veterinary science student at Sydney University’s St. Johns College. He had dreamed up the prank in collusion with eight other students.
Their intention was to poke fun at the torch relay because they felt it was being treated with too much reverence considering the tradition’s dubious past. It traced its origins back to the 1936 Berlin games organized by the Nazis.

CRAZY TALK

Professor Plimer hits carbon dioxide doomsayers at Paydirt confab

The University of Adelaide Professor of Mining Geology said: "Humans have adapted to life on earth ranging from ice sheets to mountains to tropics and have survived far warmer and far colder climates than currently being experienced or forecast by the climate doomists.

[Survived as a species, perhaps, but the catastrophe that whittles our  numbers down will be painful.]

Professor urges icing on yellowcake for SA

SOUTH Australia could be the Saudi Arabia of the energy world with a "cradle-to-grave" uranium industry, a professor says.
Professor of mining geology at Adelaide University Ian Plimer said South Australia could do more than just export uranium. "I think it is an absolute no-brainer that we should look at a cradle-to-grave uranium industry," he said at a uranium conference in Adelaide.

[Saudi Arabia! Apart from images of despotic excess, it also absurdly implies that the  Saudis are taking back all the carbon resultant from their oil burning.]

SKY LIGHTS

Mysterious lights have been reported in the skies above WA this (Monday) morning.

Mystery lights seen over WA

“There’s been reports from white to green to yellow and they are all saying they are coming down from the sky,” the spokesman said. “It’s space junk probably or something like a meteorite.”
The spokesman said that the lights were not distress flares which were a distinctive bright red or pink colour and floated in sky for about 45 seconds before coming down.

FALLON HERO

Admiral William "Fox" Fallon: intelligent military.

Demise of a man who spoke his mind

Why would America's most senior military commander in the most volatile part of the world suddenly resign - well before his tour was over?

• In an Esquire article, titled The Man Between War and Peace, Admiral William "Fox" Fallon hardly comes across as a cheerleader of the Bush administration's policies in the region.
• In comments to Al-Jazeera (not the White House's favourite television station) last autumn, he said: "This constant drumbeat of conflict... is not helpful and not useful."
• Last September, the Washington Post reported sources saying that Adm Fallon believed the surge in Iraq "was not working".
• This February, the New York Times reported that Adm Fallon had spoken in favour of a "resumption" of US troop withdrawals in Iraq

US Defence Secretary Robert Gates claimed that their "differences" were more about "misperception" than reality or substance but was probably being more frank when he dismissed as "ridiculous" the suggestion in Esquire that Fallon's early departure would signal the build-up to war in Iran.

President George W Bush is a man who values loyalty above all else.
Admiral William "Fox" Fallon is a military man, apt to speak his mind.

Profile: William Fallon

As head of the US Central Command (CentCom), Adm Fallon oversaw US strategy in the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia. The 63-year-old admiral, known as Fox - his call sign when he was a Navy fighter pilot - is highly regarded as an astute commander.

MORE NEWDS

Miley Cyrus' topless controversy

Talking publicly about his daughter Miley Cyrus' Vanity Fair photo shoot for the first time, country music star Billy Ray Cyrus said he wasn’t there when the most controversial shot was taken.

"I didn't know they were gonna strip her down and wrap her in a blanket," Cyrus said, referring to the shot of his 15-year-old daughter taken by photographer Annie Leibovitz.

In the photo, the "Hannah Montana" star appeared to be topless, covered only by a sheet she clutched to her chest.

Though Cyrus doesn't approve of the photograph, which Leibovitz defended as "a simple, classic portrait, shot with very little makeup," he said that heeded his dad's advice on the situation.
"My dad always told me the more you stomp in poop, the more it stinks," Billy Ray said. "So I was just, 'OK, this happened. We got to deal with it'."

NUDE AND PRUDE

GET UP! GARNAUT

OUR ALIEN MASTERS

Your Government is your friend

According to secret and long-hidden documents, the Joint Chiefs of Staff drew up and approved plans for what may be the most corrupt plan ever created by the U.S. government - a fake terrorist attack on citizens.

Code named Operation Northwoods, the plan, which had the written approval of the Chairman and every member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, called for innocent people to be shot on American streets; for boats carrying refugees fleeing Cuba to be sunk on the high seas; for a wave of violent terrorism to be launched in Washington, D.C., Miami, and elsewhere.

People would be framed for bombings they did not commit; planes would be hijacked.

Using phony evidence, all of it would be blamed on Castro, thus giving Lemnitzer and his cabal the excuse, as well as the public and international backing, they needed to launch their war.

PAPAL BULL

Police investigate WYD queer kiss-in

Gay groups say police are unnecessarily scrutinising them over activities planned for Sydney's World Youth Day, as civil libertarians rile at new police powers for this month's week-long event.

This week, it was revealed NSW Police had been given the power to arrest anyone who they believe causes annoyance or inconvenience to pilgrims during World Youth Day. Offenders risk fines of up to $5,500.
"What they did suggest that we do though is that anything we are proposing to do, such as slogans on a T-shirt or banners or posters or whatever, that we run it past them first so they can check it," he said.

COSMIC CONNECTION

Fire in the sky: Tunguska at 100

Some 80 million trees were flattened over an area of 2,000 square km (800 square miles) near the Tunguska River.
The blast was 1,000 times more powerful than the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and generated a shock wave that knocked people to the ground 60km from the epicentre.
The cause was an asteroid or comet just a few tens of metres across which detonated 5-10km above the ground, 100 years ago today.