Tesla-powered rock band

Click on this link to view a video about a band that uses huge tesla coils to spark its performances.

3 books chart the rise of "state capitalism" over democracy

Click on this link to read a Washington Post review (5-30-10) of 3 books that, in different ways, describe how the triumphant free market globalization of a couple of decades ago has given way to autocratic forms of "state capitalism" (think China, Singapore).  And no one seems to mind.  Here's an excerpt from the review that comments on John Kampfner's book, Freedom for Sale:

"To John Kampfner, the differences between the two economic approaches hardly seem the point anymore. Both systems are dedicated to creating wealth -- and over the past 20 years have done so with remarkable success. The result, Kampfner writes in "Freedom for Sale," is a "narrowing of the gap between democracies and autocracies." What has emerged, he contends, is populations dedicated to amassing wealth and material comforts, even at the expense of their individual liberties. In Kampfner's telling, consumers now pursue the same goals no matter whether they live under authoritarian regimes in Singapore, China, Russia or the United Arab Emirates, or in democratic societies of the United States, United Kingdom or Italy. In all cases, he argues, these consumer societies have produced docile, disengaged citizens who have formed a pact with their governments: The people will overlook an infringement of liberties so long as they are permitted the freedom to pursue a lifestyle of designer clothes, sports cars and holiday travel. The loss of liberties is obvious in the authoritarian countries. But Kampfner, the former editor of the New Statesman, also identifies subtle encroachments in Britain, for example, where authorities spy on citizens using a fifth of the world's closed-circuit television cameras, and in Italy, where Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has systematically eroded the independence of the Parliament, media and courts, and in the United States, where the war on terror brought covert surveillance of citizens, expanded the government's powers of detention of noncitizens and gave the Treasury increased power to investigate bank dealings."

Are electronic devices on planes dangerous? Ask the flight attendants using them!

Click on this link to read a Washington Post story about a Southwest Airlines passenger who spotted a flight attendant texting while passengers were forbidden from using electronic devices.  The article explores the much-debated question of whether such devices present any real dangers and describes how the prohibition is causing increasing friction with passengers.  Do you believe the prohibition is unreasonable?

Nurse online encourages suicides

Click on this link to read a Sarasota Herald-Tribune story about a nurse who gave out medical advice online about how to commit suicide.  While this would seem to be a blatant violation of the Hippocratic Oath to "do no harm," some would argue that such information could be beneficial to those suffering from terminal illnesses.  Do you believe the nurse's actions were dangerous?  Illegal?  Unethical?  Or not so?

Cellphones used more but not for talking

Click on this link to read a Sarasota Herald-Tribune story about how use of cellphones for purposes other than conversations has, for the first time, exceeded voice calls.  The article offers some interesting observations about what this says about the change in lifestyles and schedules.

New study reveals most children unrepentant psychopaths

This link is to a story that proves Hobbes was right, even about children!  OK, so it was in the Onion...

Using Volcano Updrafts to Fly into Outer Space

This is a link to a Washington Post article about David Bigelow.  Bigelow pioneered a form of aviation technology using gliders to catch the violent updrafts from volcanoes to fly into the upper atmosphere/edge of outer space.  He died in one of his attempts but the technology is being reconsidered as an energy-efficient way to travel to the edges of the earth's atmosphere.

Power and Light in developing countires.

In Worldchanging, on pages 167-168, there is an excerpt titled Power and Light in the Developing World. Personally I thought this was a pretty interesting read because it talks about bringing a form of electricity under developed countries. Basically 1/3 of the world still has no form of electricity to light up there homes at night. What is being done by the Light up the World Foundation is installing LEDs into these homes which can be powered by foot cranked generator, wind turbine, or solar panel. The good thing is the of energy amount it would take to power one normal incandescent light bulb can instead power 100 homes with LEDs in each. It has been tested in roughly 26 different countries and maybe it can be implemented into more. Its kind of hard to imagine anyone not really having electricity in this day and age. Most people especially in this country tend to waste electricity without even thinking twice about it. Hopefully this becomes something that is implemented in more countries and help people a little more in their daily lives.

When does an alternative lifestyle cross the line? (NAMBLA)

Our discussion on Tuesday dealt with acceptance of alternative lifestyles that happen within the global cultural pattern—lifestyles which increasingly challenge society's moral tolerance, and are a product of an era of globalization and homogenization of culture.

Here's an example of a lifestyle that crosses many boundaries. NAMBLA (North American Man Boy Love Association) is an overt organization that aims to legitimize and de-stigmatize sexual and affectionate relationships between adult men and young boys (as young as pre-teen.) South Park rightfully parodied this organization and is where I first heard about it (to my disbelief.)

This is unfortunately not a joke. See for yourself: www.nambla.org, and more on wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nambla

SARCOS Military Exoskeleton

Editorial Published in 56 Newspapers Urges Action in Copenhagen

The editors at 56 newspapers in 45 countries decided to publish the same editorial out of concern that "humanity faces a profound emergency" and the hope that the gathering in the Danish capital can begin to address climate change in a serious way. The editorial, which was mostly published in front pages, strikes out at the United States for its "obstructionism" throughout the years and notes that the world distressingly "finds itself at the mercy of American domestic politics." Still, it emphasizes that no one is safe from climate change, so it "must be solved by everyone," including rich countries that are going to have to help poorer countries adapt to a changing climate and developing countries that will have to step up to the plate and "pledge meaningful and quantifiable action of their own."

Project Natal

Project Natal enables users to control and interact with the Xbox 360 without the need to touch a game controller through a natural user interface using gestures, commands. The project is aimed at broadening the Xbox 360's audience beyond its typically hardcore base.

Video

Do Babies Automatically go to Heaven?

Do Babies Automatically go to Heaven?

by K.B Naplier

link

Food sprinkles that make you lose weight!

"Real weight loss without diet and exercise - too good to be true"

An interesting article about a new diet supplement that is odorless and tasteless. You simply sprinkle it on your food and your brain no longer tells your stomach to over-eat.
Because consuming food in a reasonable manner is evidently not an option.

Americans Are Fat... But Is This Really Necessary?

College's too-fat-to-graduate rule under fire

By Elizabeth Landau, CNN

November 30, 2009 10:28 a.m. EST

(CNN) -- Most college students expect to receive their diplomas on the basis of grades, but at a Pennsylvania school, physical fitness matters too.

Students at Lincoln University with a body mass index of 30 or above, reflective of obesity, must take a fitness course that meets three hours per week. Those who are assigned to the class but do not complete it cannot graduate.

Now that the first class to have this requirement imposed is nearing graduation day -- students who entered in the fall of 2006 -- the school faces criticism from both students and outsiders about the fitness class policy.

One of those students is Tiana Lawson, 21, whose recent editorial in the student paper has drawn national attention to the issue. Lawson wrote in The Lincolnian that she would be more understanding if the requirement applied to everyone. She thinks all students, not just those with a high BMI, should have to take the class.

"I didn't come to Lincoln to be told that my weight is not in an acceptable range," Lawson wrote. "I came here to get an education which, as a three-time honor student, is something I have been doing quite well, despite the fact that I have a slightly high Body Mass Index."

Lawson, who told CNN she had been putting off getting her BMI tested until this year, recently found out she would have to take the class. At first angry, Lawson said she is now more "confused" about the requirement.

Read Entire Article Here:

http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/11/30/lincoln.fitness.overweight/index.html

Huge $10 billion collider resumes hunt for 'God particle'

* The LHC will circulate a beam around the tunnel in November, CERN scientists say
    * An electrical failure caused a major shut-down of the collider in September 2008
    * The full scientific program for the LHC wil probably last more than 20 years
    * The LHC will look for the Higgs boson, quarks, gluons and other small particles

(CNN) -- Is the Large Hadron Collider being sabotaged from the future? Or merely by birds?

The LHC, the world's largest particle accelerator, has been under repair for more than a year because of an electrical failure in September 2008.

Now, excitement and mysticism are building again around the $10 billion machine as the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) gears up to circulate a high-energy proton beam around the collider's 17-mile tunnel. The event should take place this month, said Steve Myers, CERN's Director for Accelerators and Technology.

The collider made headlines last week when a bird apparently dropped a "bit of baguette" into the accelerator, making the machine shut down. The incident was similar in effect to a standard power cut, said spokeswoman Katie Yurkewicz. Had the machine been going, there would have been no damage, but beams would have been stopped until the machine could be cooled back down to operating temperatures, she said.
Video: Search for 'God particle'

As it begins to run at full energy, greater than any machine of its kind, the LHC will help scientists explore important questions about the universe. The ambitious project also has attracted its share of doubters.

Some alarmists expressed fear last year that the accelerator could produce a black hole that might swallow the universe -- a theory that LHC physicists, including Myers, dismiss as science fiction.

Another fringe theory holds that the LHC will never function properly because it is under "influence from the future," according to physicists Holger Bech Nielsen and Masao Ninomiya. They suggest in recent papers that no supercolliders that could produce the Higgs boson, an as-yet-unseen particle that would help answer fundamental questions about matter in the universe, will work because something in the future stops them.

This also explains the "negative miracle" of Congress canceling the Superconducting Supercollider project in Texas in 1993, Nielsen wrote in a paper on arXiv.org, a site where math and science scholars post academic papers.

"One could even almost say that we have a model for God," one who "hates the Higgs particles," Nielsen wrote.

But bizarre ideas about the LHC -- and in particular the debunked black hole theory -- have gotten more people interested in the whole project, said Joseph Incandela, professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He will be in the position of deputy spokesperson for the CMS experiment, one of the two general-purpose experiments at the LHC, as of January.

Although physicists such as Incandela have been working on the same questions and building accelerator experiments for decades, no one has paid much attention before now, he said. There were people who followed the topic, but not the broad audience that emerged in the past year or two, he said.

"Maybe it's just captured people's imaginations," he said. "It's really a wonder of science and technology to build such a large accelerator, a 27km-long machine that works at the precision of a fraction of the diameter of your hair," he said.

The results of the LHC experiments may help resolve fundamental problems such as the disconnect between Albert Einstein's theory of relativity, which describes the world on a large scale, and quantum mechanics, the laws of matter on a scale too small to see.

The LHC, located underground on the border of Switzerland and France, passed a proton beam halfway around the circular tunnel Saturday, undeterred by the bird incident earlier in the week.

The full-circle beam event scheduled to happen this month also took place last year on September 10 amid much celebration.

But just nine days later, the operation was set back when one of the 25,000 joints that connect magnets in the LHC came loose, and the resulting current melted or burned some important components of the machine, Myers said. The faulty joint has a cross-section of a mere two-thirds of an inch by two-thirds of an inch.

"There was certainly frustration and almost sorrow when we had the accident," he said. Now, "people are feeling a lot better because we know we've done so much work in the last year."

Even physicists who are not on the ground at CERN, awaiting for news from the LHC abroad, haven't given up.
When push comes to shove, the name of the game is 'what is nature,' and we're not going to know until our experimental colleagues tell us,"
--Mark Wise, professor of physics at Caltech

Anti-Islam T-Shirts Banned in Florida School

Anti-Islam shirts draw suit

excerpt from the Gainsville Sun website
UPDATE at 4:15 p.m. -- The American Civil Liberties Union has sued a central Florida school district. The lawsuit claims the Alachua County School District violated students' rights by not allowing them to wear T-shirts with an anti-Islamic message.

Jackie Johnson, school district spokeswoman, said they have not seen the lawsuit yet.
"We still stand by our decision to enforce our dress code to prevent students from wearing items that are distracting or disruptive to the learning environment," Johnson said.

Read the rest of the news article here:
http://www.gainesville.com/article/20091123/ARTICLES/911239937/1118?Title=Anti-Islam-shirts-draw-suit-
Do you guys think this has political/religious/opinionated undertones? Are freedom of speech rights being oppressed? Is religious discrimination at foot? Could the offensive T-shirts be a from of hate crime? I thought it was an interesting, local article that might interest the class.

Canadian woman loses benefits over Facebook photo

Sun Nov 22, 1:20 pm ET
BROMONT, Quebec – A Canadian woman on long-term sick leave for depression says she lost her benefits because her insurance agent found photos of her on Facebook in which she appeared to be having fun.
Nathalie Blanchard has been on leave from her job at IBM in Bromont, Quebec, for the last year.
The Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reported Saturday she was diagnosed with major depression and was receiving monthly sick-leave benefits from insurance giant Manulife.
But the payments dried up this fall and when Blanchard called Manulife, she says she was told she was available to work because of Facebook.
She said her insurance agent described several pictures Blanchard posted on Facebook, including ones showing her having a good time at a Chippendales bar show, at her birthday party and on a sun holiday.
Blanchard said Manulife told her it's evidence she is no longer depressed. She's fighting to get her benefits reinstated and says her lawyer is exploring what the next step should be.
Blanchard told the CBC that on her doctor's advice, she tried to have fun, including nights out at her local bar with friends and short getaways to sun destinations, as a way to forget her problems.
Manulife wouldn't comment on Blanchard's case, but did say they would not deny or terminate a claim solely based on information published on Web sites such as Facebook.

Killing people for fat

Peruvian Gang Killed People For Fat

Four people have been arrested for killing what could be dozens of people in order to drain their fat and tissue to sell it to cosmetic companies in Europe. They would apparently lure people to remote areas of Peru before killing them. Two suspects were arrested carrying liquid human fat and they told police it was worth $60,000 a gallon. Medical experts said they were skeptical there is a huge market for human fat, even if it does have limited cosmetic applications. Still, the police showed reporters two bottles of fat that were taken from the suspects and a picture of "the rotting head" of one of the victims. Police said the gang would cut off the "victims' heads, arms and legs, removed the organs, then suspended the torsos from hooks above candles that warmed the flesh as fat dripped into tubs below," explains the Associated Press.

Read original story in The Associated Press | Friday, Nov. 20, 2009

More on texting, driving, and walking

This link connects to a Washington Post article from 11/16 that reports on a new study of texting and driving (primarily by teens). It shows a pretty shocking number of people who do this and raises concerns about the high accident rate (worse than drunk driving). There's also a link to a British video about this on YouTube. For another take on this, click on this link to read a scan of an article about people banging into things (telephone poles, walls, etc.) while walking and texting. Apparently, emergency rooms are seeing a big uptake on people with injuries because of these accidents. Ouch!

Water on the Moon

I'm sure you've all heard about it in some way or another. It's important, however, to know what is really going on. A CNN article is good for general things, but NASA is a better place to read about it.

Many people think this mission threw an explosive at the moon, which just isn't true. Others think tinkering with the moon will destroy us - everything from messing up the tides to tossing Earth out of orbit. These people obviously have no clue as to how big the moon really is - and how throwing an object as small as LCROSS at it will change nothing..

Except our knowledge of water existing on the moon. A previous mission in India found the possibility of water there, and with the combined forces of them and NASA, discovered that there is more water on the moon than one would think.

This water is not like the water you know. It primarily exists in the moon's poles (which is why astronauts who went there did not find any; they did not go to the poles) as ice and water molecules. So it's not huge glaciers or bodies of water, but it is water nonetheless. Lots of CNN article commentators flip out about it - one side will warn humanity that we shouldn't touch the moon, and others say this could lead to huge developments for our species.

The people who say such NASA missions are a waste of time, effort, and money obviously don't use cell phones, calculators, satellite television, Velcro, ultrasound, and pacemakers - and don't drink Tang or cook on Teflon.

Terrorists in Illinois? What??

Gitmo in the Heartland?

This weekend President Obama's administration announced that it was looking at possible moving Guantanamo Bay prison detainees to a high security prison in Illinois. It makes sense to relocate some prisoners due to the over crowding of facilities in Gitmo, but is moving them into the middle of American Turf a smart Idea? High Security prisons are nothing new in Illinois, the state has several, but some people have the opinion that placing a high number of Al-Qaeda inmates in Illinois would raise the threat of terrorism considerably. It is not to far from Chicago, which is already at risk because it is a large metropolis city.

Personally, it concerns me a bit because it is only about 100 miles away from my hometown. A few years back there were many incidents of large jail breaks in Illinois. One advantage of housing the terrorists in the Thompson Correctional Center is that it would create many jobs in the area..... Historically towns housing prisons have depended on the facilities to drive the local economy. When they are vaccant or closed down, the town all but dies and people move away.

But is it worth the risk?
No matter where the detainees are transferred to, some town in the U.S. is going to have the risk, burden and pressure of housing such dangerous criminals. Here is a small excerpt from the article:

U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk, R-Illinois, whose district covers suburban Chicago, circulated a letter addressed to President Obama to Illinois leaders Saturday, opposing the possible transfer of detainees. The letter says that doing so would turn metropolitan Chicago into "ground zero for Jihadist terrorist plots, recruitment and radicalization."

As home to Chicago's Willis (formerly Sears) Tower -- the nation's tallest building -- "we should not invite Al Qaeda to make Illinois its number one target," said the statement by Kirk, who is running for the same Senate seat once held by Obama.

"The United States spent more than $50 million to build the Guantanamo Bay detention facility to keep terrorists away from U.S. soil. Al Qaeda terrorists should stay where they cannot endanger American citizens."

Here is a link to the Chicago Tribune's Article:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-gitmo-illinois-15-nov15,0,247250.story
Here is a link to the article on CNN:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/11/14/illinois.prison.gitmo/index.html

What Are Your Opinions????

Murderers sue Wikipedia

German Killers Sue Wikipedia

It's privacy rights vs. free speech in a legal showdown between Wikipedia and two German murderers who say they've paid their debt to society. According to German law, they have. Having already served their prison sentences, German law requires that their full names or images no longer appear in mentions of the 1990 murder of an actor. The editors of the German-language Wikipedia entry on the murder have already removed their full names, but they appear in the English version, and the two men have sued to have the English changed. Wikipedia officials say it will take a court order to get them to change the entry. Wikipedia's general counsel said the site, which includes 12 million articles and is run by staff of about 30, "doesn't edit content at all."

Read original story in The New York Times | Friday, Nov. 13, 2009

Porn in public places?

This link is to a Washington Post article about people watching porn in public (on subways trains, on plane flights, in Starbucks, etc.).  Apparently, as WiFi and 3G become more available, people are using it to download and watch porn while out in public.  Families with kids are having to ask people to stop watching it or complain to flight attendants or managers.  Federal law forbids downloading porn in public libraries, but there are no such laws preventing this in other places.  Do you think there should be?

Do You Believe in Global Warming???

In the past few months there has been hot debate over the Environment Treaty that is being proposed to be signed this coming December by various leaders of the world at the
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The writers and supporters of this treaty claim that if signed, it will lead to a greener, cleaner earth..... but at what cost? What are the actual economic, social, and political issues at stake here besides the "environment?"

Here is one side's view on the situation. The below video features
Lord Christopher Monckton speaking on the possible rammifications for the United States specifically if this treaty is signed.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMe5dOgbu40

What Are Your Opinions?

Here is a link to a pdf version of the treaty:
(I warn you, it's almost 200 pages long!)
http://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/un-fccc-copenhagen-2009.pdf


Here are Excerpts from the Treaty Draft
(They Are At the Middle-Bottom of the Page)
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/10/03/the-copenhagen-treaty-draft-wealth-transfer-defined-now-with-dignity-penalty/

And finally, here is a link to the official United Nations site:
http://unfccc.int/2860.php

Prof. condemns his cheating students to Hell

This link will take you to an article about a Tennessee faculty member who made his students sign a pledge that they would go to Hell if they cheated in his class.

Online Virus Frames Victims for Child Porn

From Slate

A new computer virus may give credibility to people like the Florida man who recently blamed his cat for his child pornography stash. According to the Associated Press, a growing number of people have been framed by an Internet virus that secretly deposits child pornography on victims' computers. In some cases, the legal costs of fighting pedophilia charges have bankrupted victims and cost them their jobs, not to mention their reputations. In 2007, a Massachusetts man spent more than $250,000 on legal fees after his work computer was found to contain a folder full of child porn. Eventually, analysts determined that his computer had been programmed by hackers to visit more than 40 child porn sites a minute. While experts say that it's difficult to tell whether the virus was deliberately installed on a computer, it's easy to tell when somebody is falsely using the virus as an excuse. "We call it the SODDI defense: Some Other Dude Did It," a federal prosecutor remarked.

Read original story in Associated Press | Monday, Nov. 9, 2009

Cell Phones = Cancer

Many of us are cell phone users and this may be a danger to our health.  Studies show that people who had used cell phones 10 years or longer tended to find the strongest risk of tumors. Researchers found that cell phone users had a 10 percent to 30 percent higher risk than people who barely, if ever, used this technology.

Frank Zappa in rock lyrics censorship debate

This link, contributed by Andrew, will take you to a remarkable YouTube video about rock lyric censorship.  It's a Crossfire episode filmed during the "culture wars" of the 1980s and features Frank Zappa going toe to toe with several conservatives.  What do you think about Zappa's repeated claim that the whole debate is "just about seven words"?

Video nasty: Blockbuster employee 'stabbed himself in the leg to avoid working nightshift'

Aaron Siebers, 29, stabbed himself in the leg and told colleagues at Blockbuster he had been robbed in a bid to avoid working a night shift

I heard this one on the radio the other day. I know Blockbuster is going out of business (an inevitable layoff for this guy) but how stressful are minimum wage jobs really?!

New Motivation Poster Idea for High School Guidance Counselor Walls:
Stay in school, get a better job that doesn't lead you to empale yourself.


link to story

The swine flu has put a scare among most of us.

And I feel as if the media has projected this fear on us.

Most of us wont even need need a swine flu shot.

We have to consider what news we have been given

and consider the truth among the topic ourselves.

This person might have not needed a flu shot and

due to the media and society putting that person on the individual

the decision was for to be safer and healthier unfortunately

it turned out to be a catastrophic effect.

Outer Space Copyrights

Signing Away Rights to the Whole Galaxy

As entertainment companies try to get money from amateurs, their lawyers are trying to make sure they don't miss a single bit of future revenue stream that could exist. And that often means including language about holding onto rights "throughout the universe" and the like. With the rapid proliferation of new outlets, lawyers just want to make sure they don't lose out if there's any revenue to be made beaming America's Got Talent to undiscovered planets. While it might be most common in entertainment, this kind of language is hardly exclusive to the arts field. Some say the whole thing is overkill, but one law professor says it could very well be "a stroke of brilliant foresight." After all, someday people might otherwise kick themselves and wonder, "What were they thinking? Why didn't they get the Mars rights?"

Read original story in The Wall Street Journal | Thursday, Oct. 29, 2009

Huge Confederate Flag Flies over I-75

If any of you have driven to tampa or north on I-75 lately, chances are some of you may have seen this GIANT Confederate flag flying overhead. It touts the title of the World's "Largest Confederate Flag." It is at the sight of a Confederate Veteren's Memorial. There is a lot of controversy over this flag. The families of the Confederate Veteran's say that the flag honors their fallen ancestors. Opposing groups and Civil Rights activists cry out against the flag, saying that it is insensitive and a sign of racism and white power. Below are two links to articles on the topic.
What do you think?

http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0804/p03s02-ussc.html

http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=4978568&page=1

Bye Bye Meat

This morning I saw a video on CNN trying to convince people to "go Vegetarian & Save The Planet." Their argument is that cows and other "meat" animals produce large amounts of greenhouse gasses, and eliminating them from our diet is the only way to slow global warming. What do you guys think of the video's argument???

Here is a link:
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/tech/2009/10/27/martel.climate.change.meat.itn

Aww... how cute! Wait... what?

Prussian Blue

Someone made a comment referring to Prussian Blue in class today so I thought I would post and elaborate on them, because they are a great topic for what we are discussing right now.
Prussian Blue is a white nationalist pop teen duo formed in early 2003 by Lynx Vaughan Gaede and Lamb Lennon Gaede, fraternal twin girls born on June 30, 1992 in Bakersfield, California.
In short, they are outwardly two adorable blonde haired blue eyed twin girls BUT they sing about aryan pride and associated matters.
This definitely seems like it falls in the "dangerous" category... especially since they started when they were very young (because of course they were singing everything on their own... mom and dad didn't feed these thoughts to them at all...)

Here is one of their early music videos entitled "Victory Day", what do you think about it?

World Changing 2: Hug Shirt

Here's a strange thing I came across in World Changing. It's called a Hug Shirt. It's a shirt with many tiny micro sensors that generate the sensation of being hugged. the embedded sensors pick up body temperature and heartbeat from a loved one over the phone. then the sensors create pressure that mimic the sensation of being hugged.

For me, this might be fun as a novelty item. These days, so many interactions seem to be replaced by electronics, and I feel, some things should be preserved for face to face interactions.

"Maus: A Survivor's Tale" Holocaust Graphic Novel

For anyone not already familiar with Art Spiegelman's graphic novel "Maus: A Survivor's Tale," check it out! It's a biographical approach of the author telling his father's story, who was a Polish Jew that lived through the Holocaust. This novel has won a bunch of awards and should be on every-one's to-read list if they haven't checked it out already. It makes for an easier read of a tough subject.

Here is a link to a pdf version of part one that I found while searching the internet. If you want to read the rest of it, I think that the school library may have a copy of it, or it can be purchased in the bookstore.
http://fliiby.com/file/24067/it3z0zjuvd.html

Were My Jams Used To Torture?

Dozens of musicians, including members of Pearl Jam and R.E.M., have joined a Freedom of Information request that is seeking to declassify all records about what music was played during interrogations. They also protested the use of music as torture. Musicians are speaking out as part of a new campaign to pressure the White House to close Guantanamo. The White House insists music isn't used as part of interrogation techniques, but human rights activists hope that using high-profile musicians to spread the message will shed light on the practice and prevent it from being used in the future. The use of loud music on prisoners violates the U.N. Convention Against Torture, and it was a tool that was often applied on terrorism suspects. According to an NYU music professor who has interviewed several former detainees, the music that was most often played was heavy metal, rap, and country.

Read original story in The Washington Post | Thursday, Oct. 22, 2009

World Changing-Space Elevator

There was a small section in World Changing about a space elevator. This would be built in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and would travel up to space to transport supplies, satellites, and people. It would take around $50 billion for a country to build it, but would reduce costs of going into space from $22,000 to $400, each time. It seems wild to think that in the near future, the cost of going into space would cost less than traveling to Europe. Do you think an easier access to space it a helpful thing? or can it bring harm?

Watching the watchmen

We're all aware of the "Big Brother" factor in our lives. Surveillance cameras are found in many spaces we visit through our day, i.e. banks, stores, schools, hospitals; and in some cities, even streets and parks.
According to an article on WorldChanging, "In 2004, NYC police arrested nearly 2,000 people during demonstrations around the Republican National Convention." Footage from the city's many cameras were used to prosecute those arrested. But the police weren't the only ones armed with video cameras. Footage filmed by those on the street, unaffiliated with authorities, were used to successfully defend unfair charges. "It turned out that prosecutors selectively edited the official video record to prove their cases, and police officers repeatedly misrepresented the protest events at trial. 91% of the charges were dropped or with not guilty verdicts."
Today, video cameras are affordable for many, and the power of recorded actions can be used in favor of fair treatment of people. Even cell phones are capable of recording good-quality footage that can help us fight oppressive law enforcement. In what other ways can affordable video help our society? (other than cats playing pianos on YouTube.)