A friend sent me this YouTube clip and though it looked awesome I immediately thought it must be a hoax. Then I came across this article. Wow. (More info here)
But this was quite a shocker and sober realisation of the obvious inherent risks this sport has. And of course the military is already in on the act…
Media Lens is a great source of journalism which delights me every time I receive one of their Media Alerts in my inbox. With all the mainstream sources of news all but pandering to the interests of the elite and the corporate shareholders, good journalism truly is a rare beast.
You can find the latest Media Alert here - SELLING THE FIREBALL - GEORGE BUSH AND IRAN.
UPDATE: In response to the article mentioned above News International has threatened Media Lens with legal and police action. This is another example of the utterly unjust British libel laws in action. See this piece by George Monbiot for more info on this topic.
This latest study may go some way to explain why I’ve been feeling utterly crap as of late. And I wonder what effect the pole shift will then have on us in the future? But I somehow doubt that this is the most likely scenario. Very creative though. Might have to keep an eye on this kid in the meantime…
Has anybody seen this holos?
The Holocene epoch is a geological period, which began approximately 11,550 calendar years BP (about 9600 BCE). According to traditional geological thinking, the Holocene continues to the present. However, recently there have been papers that propose that the Holocene ended about 300 BP (1700 CE) with the start of the Anthropocene. The Holocene is part of the Neogene and Quaternary periods. Its name comes from the Greek words ὅλος (holos, whole or entire) and καινός (kainos, new), meaning “entirely recent”. It has been identified with MIS 1 and can be considered an interglacial in the current ice age.
This is definitely the holos nine yards, but not completely my scene. I’m more of an Anthropocene kinda guy myself:
The term Anthropocene is used by some scientists to describe the most recent period in the Earth’s history, starting in the 19th century when the activities of the humans first began to have a significant global impact on the Earth’s climate and ecosystems. The term was coined in 2000 by the Nobel Prize winning scientist Paul Crutzen, who regards the influence of human behavior on the Earth in recent centuries as so significant as to constitute a new geological era.
Use of this concept as an official geological concept gained new support in early 2008, with publication of two new papers supporting this idea.
I can not wait for the Large Hadron Collider to be turned on. We should hopefully unlock revolutionary new secrets about the universe. Or we might just end up with the number 42 blinking on a massive screen. How big an impact this is going to have on our every day lives is anyone’s guess, but these guys are clearly anxious about the whole thing:
Campaigners in the US are attempting to delay the start-up of the world’s most powerful particle smasher with a lawsuit claiming it could spawn dangerous particles or mini black holes that will destroy the entire Earth.
I just wonder how long it will be before we have the appearance of pro-Armageddon campaigner groups to give a voice to the other side.
For great in-depth coverage on the Collider definitely see this page in The Guardian. And throw in a timeless punk classic or ten while you’re at it…
I came across this very interesting and emotional article the other day. I am sure not many people have heard this story before and they assume Robert Mugabe has always been the monster he is today. It’s a sad tale if one looks at what is currently happening in Zimbabwe.
As I was thinking of this piece in the days after I read it, I realised there is a well-known character in popular culture which closely resembles Robert Mugabe’s life story on many fronts. Does the name Anakin Skywalker ring a bell?
And for some bitter irony, how about this quote from the man himself in a 1987 Foreign Affairs article talking about Apartheid in South Africa and and its impact on the larger Southern African region:
The decision to fight for independence is not a phenomenon peculiar to southern Africa. Nor is the decision to fight for a nonracial society. Americans, more than most, must be aware of this, and also Europeans, who fought only 45 years ago to free their countries from Nazi occupation. Independence and the right of the majority to decide their destiny is, or should be, a sacred principle to all of us.
Bob Marley & The Wailers said it all with this song, played live in Zim in 1980 by invitation from the government to celebrate their independence from British rule.
