Google has been getting a lot of flack for its supposed disregard of user privacy. The Google Buzz fiasco is still fresh in everyone’s mind and privacy regulators, especially in Europe, are increasingly critical of Google. But it goes both ways, when it suits them, governments will forget all about user privacy. Google, jus… (read more)
Author: Serkadis
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Google Reveals the Number of Government Data and Removal Requests
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Agriculture Secretary Vilsack Invites Public Comment On Proposed Rules For USDA Renewable Energy Programs
(USDA, April 16, 2010) – Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today invited public comment on several proposed rules designed to increase the production of advanced biofuels and the development of biorefineries. The programs are authorized under the Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008 (The Farm Bill). “We view these proposed rules as part of the strategy to help meet President Obama’s goal to accelerate the commercial production of advanced biofuels and create a viable alternative fuels industry,” Vilsack said. The proposed rules affect the following three renewable energy programs administered by USDA Rural Development: Biorefinery Assistance Program – The proposed rule will establish guaranteed loan regulations to develop and construct commercial-scale biorefineries and to retrofit existing facilities using an eligible technology to develop advanced biofuels. Under the proposed rule, USDA Rural Development proposes a rolling application process for the consideration of loan guarantee requests. The Agency will consider a technology that is being adopted in a viable commercial-scale operation that produces advanced biofuels. Click here to read more… -
Featured State Opportunity – April 22, 2010
Kentucky Enterprise Fund By partnering with the Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development and Department for Commercialization and Innovation, KSTC is able to offer seed capital for promising, science and technology related start-up companies. Companies seeking capital go through a rigorous due diligence process and are judged in terms of industry fit, return on investment, and potential for economic development. Total Grant Funding: up to $30K. Total Investment Funding: up to $750K. Eligibility: Small or medium sized companies developing and commercializing a technology product and must be located in Kentucky.
http://www.startupkentucky.com/3/apply
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Kentucky Rural Innovation Fund
The goal of the Rural Innovation Fund is to assist rural companies with the development and commercialization of technology that will in turn stimulate the growth of high tech jobs across the state. Companies must be categorized in one of the following industry sectors: 1) Biosciences (BIO); 2) Environmental and Energy Technologies (EET); 3) Human Health and Development (HHD); 4) Information Technology and Communications (ITC); 5) Materials Science and Advanced Manufacturing (MSAM). Award Ceiling (grants and investments combined): $780K. Eligibility: Small businesses (50 or fewer employees) developing and commercializing a technology product, process, or service. Company must be located in a rural area of the state.
http://www.startupkentucky.com/17/apply
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Kentucky SBIR-STTR Matching Funds Program
Funds are for additional work tasks and activities that support and are complementary to a Federal Award. Both Kentucky-Based and out-of-state companies who have received either a Phase 1 or Phase 2 SBIR-STTR Federal Grant, including those with a second year Phase 2 Award, or a Fast-Track grant letter dated January 1 or later in 2009, are eligible to apply subject to the program guidelines. Maximum Match Amount: Phase 1: up to 100% of the Federal SBIR-STTR Program Phase 1 Award, not to exceed $100,000; Phase 2: up to 100% of the Federal SBIR-STTR Program Phase 2 Award, not to exceed $500,000. Application Deadline: April 30, 2010.
http://www.kintera.org/site/c.deIDLKOuGrF/b.2857105/?CFID=87925&CFTOKEN=80643768
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Featured Federal Opportunity – April 22, 2010
Marine and Hydrokinetic Technology Readiness Advancement Initiative – DOE is investing in marine and hydrokinetic (MHK) technologies. The opportunity to harness energy from waves, tides, currents, and ocean thermal gradients represents a promising, largely untapped resource that can produce predictable baseload renewable energy that is within close proximity to loads. The mission of DOE’s Water Power Program is to perform and sponsor the necessary research, development, test, evaluation, and demonstration of innovative water power technologies, in order to effectively generate renewable, environmentally responsible, and cost-effective electricity from MHK resources. It is the intent of this FOA to advance the technical and operational readiness of marine and hydrokinetic systems and components across a range of TRLs, with the unified goal of accelerating the development and deployment of these technologies to provide a domestic source of clean, affordable energy that is both economical and ecologically responsible. This FOA seeks applications in the following Topic Areas: Topic Area 1: MHK Technologies Concept Development; and Topic Area 2: MHK Technology Readiness Level Advancement. Funding will be made available in each Topic Area for the advancement of both MHK “systems” and “components” as defined below. MHK Systems: For the purposes of this announcement, a system is defined as a complete device that is capable of capturing and converting hydrokinetic energy (wave, current, or tidal) with the purpose of generating electricity for the grid, either via a single unit or configured in an array. Integrated ocean thermal systems will not be funded under this announcement. All necessary components should be conceptualized, designed, and integrated. These components may include, but not limited, to: nacelle, hydrodynamic, buoys, power-train, power take-off, mooring, and foundation. MHK Component: For the purposes of this announcement, a component is defined as a sub-system of an MHK system that is optimized for an existing MHK system, or has the potential for cross-cutting multiple MHK systems. DOE is also interested in components that maximize commonality across existing and/or future MHK systems. Components may address marine and hydrokinetic energy (wave, current, tidal, and ocean thermal). Examples include optimized rotors, generators, drive-trains, power take-off devices. Total Funding: $15.36M. Eligibility: Industry. Application Due Date: June 7, 2010.Posted Date: April 20, 2010
Funding Opportunity Announcement Number: DE-FOA-0000293
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Movement to Publicly Owned Banks
Ellen Brown has been leading on telling the story of State banking and perhaps it one lone media promoter. At least I have seen no one else jumping on the story unless one counts my shameless cheerleading.It has taken only a few months, but several states have well begun the process of replicating the system established inOnce again it has been shown that lending must first be local for local benefits to emerge. Why would a bank officer making decisions in any distant money center champion a loan to the local hockey rink? It is way more lucrative and easy to write a large loan to Shaky Pete’s restaurant conglomerate in midtown.State banking may not have seemed necessary, but the treasonous destruction of the Nation’s banking system has exposed two serious vulnerabilities.1 Capital may be available locally but be simply removed by a flawed decision made elsewhere.2California is a nightmare of another color but this would contribute to a solution.The Growing Movement for Publicly Owned BanksYES! Magazine / By Ellen BrownWe the people have given away our sovereign money-creating power to private, for-profit lending institutions Some states are moving to take that power back.March 28, 2010“Hundreds of job-creating projects are still on hold becauseMichigan, which has an unemployment rate of 14 percent, has been particularly hard hit by the economic downturn. Virg Bernero, mayor of Lansing, the state’s capital, and a leading Democratic candidate for governor, proposes to relieve the state’s economic ills by opening a state-owned bank. He says the bank could protect consumers by making low-interest loans to those most in need, including students and small businesses; it could also help community banks by buying mortgages off their books and working with them to fund development projects.Bernero joins a growing list of candidates proposing this sensible solution to their states’ fiscal ills. Local economies have collapsed because of the Wall Street credit freeze. To reinvigorate local business,In a recent article for YES! Magazine, I tracked candidates in five states running on a state bank platform and one state (The Independent,The Bank ofThree New Bills Pending for Publicly Owned BanksProposals for publicly owned banks in other states have now progressed beyond the campaign talk of political hopefuls to be drafted into several bills.The Michigan Development BankTheInvesting in the state’s economy is the greatest way to create jobs, and this proposal will provide small businesses and entrepreneurs the funding they need to invest and grow. Our economy has stagnated due in part to stale thinking inSenate Democratic Leader Mike Prusi (D-Ishpeming) stated:Michigan’s economy has been suffering, and working families in the state have had difficulty keeping up with credit card bills, college tuition prices and mortgage payments. Establishing the Michigan Development Bank will keep our hard-earned dollars right here in the state to invest in small business, create good-paying jobs to get people back to work, and help protect the middle class.Also quoted was Senator Hansen Clarke (D-Detroit):With the current state of our economy, every dollar counts, yet we’re depositing our money in other people’s pockets by investing in big corporate banks without seeing much lending in return. It’s time for the Mitten State to lend itself a helping hand and establish a bank that is willing to invest in our small businesses and offer the financial support necessary to see job growth.For start-up capital, the Senate Democrats suggested thatThe State Bank ofA similar bill, HB 3162, was introduced to theImagine financing student aid, infrastructure, industry and community development. Imagine providing access to capital for small businesses, or otherwise leveraging our resources instead of having to do it with tax incentives. Imagine keeping our resources local instead of exporting them as profits, never to be seen again—that’s what this bank could do.Leveraging, rather than taxing, is how private banks have been creating “credit” for centuries. States could do the same thing, cutting the middlemen out of the equation, saving significant sums in interest and fees and generating revenue for the state.A nonpartisan analysis of theThe Community Bank ofA third bill, introduced by Illinois Representative Mary Flowers, is on its way through the legislative process inAn amendment to the initial bill would enable the Community Bank ofA Massachusetts-owned BankOn March 12, the Associated Press reported that a jobs bill sponsored by Massachusetts Senate President Therese Murray also includes a call to study a Massachusetts-owned bank. She told a business group that a state-owned bank has worked inGrandfather of the Concept: The Bank ofAll of these proposals take their inspiration from the Bank of North Dakota, which was founded in 1919 to resolve a credit crisis like that facing other states today. Last year,With the deepening crisis, according to National Public Radio, by January 2010 only two states could still meet their budgets—North Dakota and Montana. On February 8, however, theThat defuses the objection raised in a March 15 editorial in TheThe BND’s 90-year track record of prudent and profitable lending defuses another objection to state-owned banks: that a public agency cannot be trusted to act responsibly in managing public funds. TheThe True Potential of Publicly-owned BanksMoney today is just a ticket, a receipt for work performed and goods delivered. We can fund the work we need done by creating our own credit. The real promise of publicly-owned banks is not that they can bail out subprime borrowers but that they can jumpstart the economy by creating real wealth. They can provide the liquidity to put labor and materials together, allowing the economy to build and grow. Our private, profit-driven banking sector has been bleeding wealth from the rest of the economy. Public-interest banks can transfuse the economy with the credit it needs to flourish and be productive once again.Reprinted from “ -
EPA Solicitations – April 2010
Computational Toxicology: Biologically-Based Multi-Scale Modeling – The EPA, as part of its Science to Achieve Results (STAR) program, is seeking applications for research in developing quantitative, dose-response models to elucidate the associations between environmental agents and toxicity pathways across multiple scales of biological organization. Additionally, this solicitation calls for research into ways in which the data underlying these models can be managed and shared for easier access, interpretation and use by the broader community of researchers and risk assessors. There are two distinct Research Areas covered by this solicitation: (1) Model Development and Model Evaluation; and (2) Data Management. Applications must propose research in one of these research areas to be eligible for funding. These two areas of research shall be conducted concurrently in the following way: the research team funded under the second research area shall collaborate with the research teams funded under the first research area to ensure that the latter conform their modeling data to a shared ontology. Total Funding: $3M. Eligibility: Public and Private Nonprofit Institutions/Organizations (including institutions of higher education and hospitals). Closing Date: July 15, 2010.Posted Date: April 15, 2010
Funding Opportunity Number: EPA-G2010-STAR-C4; EPA-G2010-STAR-C3; EPA-G2010-STAR-C2; EPA-G2010-STAR-C1
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Muslim Bloodlust
As has always been obvious about Islam as a so called religion, which it purports to be, is that its principle method of recruitment is intimidation. No other religion does this.This interview develops the idea and explains its success. We know it is wrong, but we are invited through outright intimidation to acquiesce to outrageous crimes against our own interests. What is missing is a counter strategy.Yet the Rest of the World has one. Not war but confrontation. And let us take this game to the self proclaimed enemies. Call our armies Crusader armies and let them froth about it all.War today is fought with well trained soldiers and special equipment. We have the capacity to stand off and merely glower. Of course we interdict money and supplies to force respect.Make absolutely sure every horny young man knows he is a loser and his death is of no consequence and that unlimited power faces him.Record the exhortations of every living Imam and confront him with his own words. Insist that he meets a higher level of educational attainment should he not meet the standards of civilized discourse.Demand the application of full human rights and twelve years of a modern education for entry into civilized society.Their rhetoric incites violence from not just their people but from us also. If our response is simply violence then they have reduced civilization to their level of barbarism to our loss.We can do better today.
Frontpage Interview’s guest today is David Kupelian, award-winning journalist and managing editor of online news giant WorldNetDaily.com as well as its popular monthly newsmagazine, Whistleblower. A widely read online columnist, he is also the author of the bestselling culture-war classic, The Marketing of Evil: How Radicals, Elitists, and Pseudo-Experts Sell Us Corruption Disguised As Freedom, now in its eleventh printing. His new book, released in February by Simon & Schuster, is How Evil Works: Understanding and Overcoming the Destructive Forces That Are Transforming America.FP: David Kupelian, welcome to Frontpage Interview.Let’s start by talking about the Stockholm syndrome that, as you discuss in your book, is affecting the West right now in its confrontation with Islamic Jihad. Give us your perspective.Kupelian: Jamie, thanks very much for giving me the opportunity to talk about “How Evil Works.” In Chapter 3, “How Terrorism Really Works,” I use the Stockholm syndrome to explain the inexplicable level of weakness and appeasement we continually see in the West toward Islam – for instance, in our disastrous failure to stop Nidal Malik Hasan before he shot dozens of people at Fort Hood, killing 13, even though we knew full well he was a jihadist time bomb waiting to explode.Everyone’s heard of the Stockholm syndrome, named after the Swedish bank robbery when two escaped convicts terrorized four hostages in a bank vault for five and a half days, during which time the hostages grew increasingly sympathetic toward their captors and antagonistic toward the police who were risking their lives to rescue them. The hostages, who had been tied to chairs, had nooses around their necks and guns trained on them day after day, ended up siding with their captors wholeheartedly, later raising money for their defense and refusing to testify against them at trial.The syndrome, which law enforcement psychologists recognized long before it had a name, is pretty simple: When we’re seriously intimidated, in a life-threatening way, some of us start to side with whomever or whatever is intimidating us. I don’t mean just cooperating and “agreeing” with a captor as a survival strategy, which makes perfect sense. Extreme intimidation has a way of sometimes flipping our sympathy and loyalty in favor of the people doing the intimidating. In the news business, we see this in high-profile cases like Patricia Hearst, Elizabeth Smart and Jaycee Dugard.Radical Islam is extremely intimidating – by design. The more crazy it acts, the more powerful it becomes. Just a few weeks ago, inSo the murderous Islamic tantrums we keep hearing about have a certain dark logic to them, in terms of enabling the spread of Islam. Remember the Danish Muhammad cartoons, which resulted in over 50 deaths? Or when Newsweek reported (incorrectly) that someone at Gitmo flushed a Quran down the toilet, which led to at least 15 deaths? Or the Miss World contest in Nigeria, when a single comment by a newspaper columnist about the beauty of contestants led to insane Muslim rioting in which rioters massacred over 200 people with machetes, or beat them to death or burned them alive – all because of a single sentence a newspaper columnist wrote, which wasn’t even offensive?How do we respond to these outrageously demented and murderous tantrums? We refer to terrorist acts as “man-caused disasters.” We proclaim Islam as a “religion of peace.” Burger King recalls thousands of its ice cream cones because someone thought the ice cream swirl logo looked too much like the way the word “Allah” is written in Arabic and was therefore sacrilegious. “The 3 Little Pigs” is repeatedly censored inAmerica, Europe and Britain today, in the way they deal with radical Islam and the terror threat, reveal something very akin to a low-grade, widespread Stockholm syndrome.Bottom line, we don’t want to offend Muslims. Why? Because we’re afraid of them. We’re not afraid of Christians or Jews, because Christians and Jews don’t have tantrums and burn down other religions’ houses of worship and cut of people’s heads and commit terrorist acts. Radical Muslims do. We’re so afraid that, even after theIronically, people in the grip of jihadist fervor have nothing but contempt for our weakness and appeasement, which actually encourages more violence. Their madness is neutralized only by strength. Ronald Reagan knew this, which is why his watchword was “Peace through strength.”FP: David, you mention how just recently, inKupelian: The Obama propaganda ministry – aka the “mainstream press” – is always looking to reinforce the largely phony narrative that “homegrown terrorism” on the right is a major danger to American civilization. Hence the saturation coverage of the “Christian militia” group. The “rightwing terrorism” narrative is necessary for justifying the left’s attacks on normal, hard-working, tea-partying Americans – evident in the growing allegations that speaking honestly about the leftist coup in Washington is “hate speech,” that those opposing Obama are racists, and that tea partiers are one step away from violence.On the other hand, dwelling on Muslims’ blood-lust and widespread massacring of Christians in foreign lands supports the “wrong” narrative (from the media’s point of view) – namely, that Islam is not a religion of peace after all, hasn’t been one for the last 14 centuries and shows no signs of starting. Thus, the murders of 500 innocent people are reported perfunctorily, if at all, and then dropped. The mainstream media are just not interested.FP: You say that, “Bottom line, we don’t want to offend Muslims. Why? Because we’re afraid of them.” Absolutely, we have a pathetic talk show host on the CBC up here in Canada, George Stroumboulopoulos, who makes constant jokes about Jesus, yet you will never hear him make one joke about the “Prophet” Mohammed.Fear, as you state, is definitely a factor. But let’s move a bit further and deeper. I’ve made a life-time study of these people and we know that in the world of the Left, it is unimaginable to criticize an adversary culture or religion, and that it is very chic to slander anything connected to the Judeo-Christian tradition. To poke fun at Islam would threaten these peoples’ whole identity, world vision and social life. Can you comment on this a bit?Kupelian: For one thing, the Left’s very identity and sense of righteousness are tied up in hating America for all its supposed wrongs, arrogance, injustices, exploitations and wars of oppression. And since, as we all know, “the enemy of your enemy is your friend,” cultures that hate and revileFP: Tell us a bit about how people who want to manipulate us often use crises to do so. Explain how this is connected to what Obama and his administration are up to.Kupelian: As all skilled manipulators know, the easiest and surest way to exert control over people is to get them to react emotionally to you. One way to get people to do what they wouldn’t ordinarily do is to create a phony crisis for them to overreact to.For instance, in “How Evil Works” I cite a child-abduction case in which a little girl was approached after school by a man she didn’t know. He claimed her house was burning down, that her parents were busy putting out the fire, and that he was a friend of the parents who had asked him to pick up their daughter and take her to them. The crisis – and the emotional upset the girl experienced over the thought of her house being on fire and her parents in danger – drowned out her normal caution about getting into a car with a stranger. Result: The stranger, a predator who had concocted the lie for the sole purpose of upsetting and tricking the girl into going with him, murdered the little girl. This same routine was portrayed in the film “Changeling” starring Angelina Jolie, a true story that involved a serial child murderer who enticed youngsters into his car using this exact “your-house-is-on-fire” ruse.As I explain in Chapter 1, “Why We Elect Liars as Leaders,” manufactured crisis is the primary modus operandi of the Obama administration. After all, how else could a far-left administration lead a center-right country in such a terrible direction without big-time deception and subterfuge – which is accomplished handily by constantly creating bogeyman crises? For instance:* We heard for 14 months that our healthcare system is desperately broken. In reality, it’s the finest healthcare system in world history. If you’re an illegal alien child molester and you get sick or injured and go to a public hospital, you will, by law, be taken care of whether or not you can pay. That’s not a broken system. And as for the relatively small number of Americans who truly can’t afford health insurance, our government has always been good at creating safety nets. But that was not the intent of Obamacare, which conspicuously bypassed all sensible, market-based reforms – like litigation reform and allowing intrastate purchase of insurance – that would lower costs without degrading quality of care.* Until wave after wave of scandalous fraud revelations proved the global warming “consensus” was a giant hoax,* We’ve been told throughout the age of Obama that· Here’s one most people don’t know about: Last May, just a few days before the World Health Organization classified swine flu as a phase 6 pandemic – the highest, scariest category – the WHO quietly redefined pandemic to eliminate the phrase “enormous numbers of deaths and illness” and substituted wording that said pandemics “can be either mild or severe in the illness and death they cause.” You see, the WHO grows in power and lots of money starts to flow when a phase 6 pandemic is declared. The White House, never one to let a good crisis go to waste, issued a press release saying up to 90,000 Americans would likely die from swine flu. The next day, the head of the CDC, Dr. Thomas Frieden, told Americans to ignore the White House’s wild fear-mongering, saying “Everything we’ve seen in theFundamentally, the whole leftist obsession with power – which promotes ever-increasing dependency of people on government – is, in and of itself, a huge crisis machine. Normal competent adults are able to take care of themselves and their families through their own efforts and through voluntary cooperation with other free individuals. That’sFP: You refer to the “whole leftist obsession with power” in passing. Not everyone might know what you mean. In my own research and study, I know this reality in terms of how the Left lives vicariously through supporting communist dictators like Fidel Castro through what is called “negative affirmation.” But that is another matter (a bit). I know our themes are connected, so can you expand a bit on what you mean?Kupelian: Whole people – that is, people who are internally connected to conscience, to common sense, to God, however you want to put it, and who therefore possess a certain natural reverence for other souls and their autonomy – are not attracted to obtaining power over other people.But people who have become twisted in certain ways – maybe they had a crummy childhood, or were brainwashed in college into embracing some toxic ideology, or simply are really resentful or envious or insecure – sometimes develop a compulsion to control others.Imagine that you just met someone for the first time, and discovered that this person considered himself or herself far superior to others, above the need to be truthful, above the law, willing to break the law, and was arrogant and defiant at every turn. And that furthermore, this person harbored an overwhelming urge to control you, take what’s yours, and exercise power over you. You might understandably conclude this person is not only dangerous, but likely a criminal and/or mentally ill. That’s who we have running the country right now – the inmates are truly running the asylum.These are very sick people we’re talking about: They thrive on crippling others, because the more dysfunctional people there are in the general population, the greater their power. More competent, mature, self-sufficient grownups translate into less power for them, which is why they disdain and malign the tea partiers and other normal, hard-working, tax-paying, independent Americans.For the very egotistical, deluded person, power is like alcoholism. People like Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama are drunk – on power. They don’t think, feel, reason or act in a normal way; they’re in an altered state of consciousness. As we say, “power corrupts,” and the more power we give them, the more absolute that corruption becomes.Also, we need to remember that leftist politicians by definition believe the purpose of government is to ensure, by force, that wealth is evenly distributed. Thus, they look at us like we’re farm animals and they’re the farmers. When some of us have “too much food” and others “don’t have enough,” they come in and take it from us, and scold us for “hording” all that food we don’t need, and give it to the poor, righteous animals with not enough food. The problem is, we’re not animals and we don’t belong to them.FP: How come the West has such a difficult time understanding the conflict we are in? This has much to do with, as is the subject of your work, the difficulty we have in understanding evil. Illuminate this phenomenon for us.Kupelian: In the past 60 years, America as a whole has been conned into abandoning the core Judeo-Christian values that have provided the moral foundation of Western civilization for millennia, and of American civilization for centuries. The fundamental principles of life that previously gave our existence meaning and kept our society unified, safe and strong – belief in God, belief that the Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount were the basis for a good life and a great society, recognition of the sanctity of life (which means you don’t kill babies before they’re born or old people when their care gets too expensive), belief that sex is sacred and reserved for marriage, and so on – have been discarded like yesterday’s newspaper.If we don’t understand that we are created by God and that we live in a moral dimension in which we constantly can choose between good or evil, and that things go really badly when we choose the wrong way – if we don’t recognize this basic reality level of our lives, then it’s very difficult to understand evil, or to understand ourselves for that matter.FP: You refer to the Sermon on the Mount as being the basis for a good life. I always found that one of the most moving parts of the New Testament, but I always saw it mostly as a promise for the next life (i.e. your reward will be great in heaven). Can you expand a bit on what you mean in terms of it being a basis for a good life on earth?Kupelian: The beatitudes (“Blessed are the …”) describe the kind of attitude toward life that leads to genuine happiness or “blessedness” – including the admonition to “let your light shine before men” (which includes speaking the truth even if it’s unpopular) but also to forgive people who attack you for speaking the truth (“Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely”). That’s very reassuring and strengthening.A lot of what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount is practical, for the here and now: He talks about hate and lust and divorce, and how we need to rise above these things. Some of the most transcendent truths that have infused traditional Judeo-Christian culture derive from the Sermon on the Mount, including The Lord’s Prayer; the admonition to “Seek first the kingdom of God” (and all else will be added); the warning to “Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves”; the truth that “a good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit,” and so on. Wisdom for living.FP: Your book deals with the war that is being waged on men and on masculinity in our society. Why is this happening and what are its consequences?Kupelian: In schools today, boys are doing worse than girls by every measure. The vast majority of children with discipline problems, learning disabilities, behavioral disorders, who are put on Ritalin or who drop out of school – 70 to 80 percent – are boys. Three out of five college students today are young women.As boys grow up and get married, two thirds of divorces are initiated by the wives – and it is the wives that almost always get the children during custody proceedings, since the entire family court system is notoriously biased against men.In popular culture, virtually every TV commercial portrays men as idiotic and women as smarter and hipper. Same with sitcoms, and with animated comedies like “The Simpsons” and “Family Guy.” The dad is always the doofus. What happened to “Father Knows Best”?In Chapter 8 of “How Evil Works,” titled “The War on Fathers,” I document how, as an outgrowth of the radical feminist movement of the sixties, today men, boys and masculinity itself are under attack. Our leftist academia harbors a major movement that is so offended by masculinity that it holds workshops on how to “transform” boys, eliminating their aggressiveness, competitiveness and maleness!Remember the radical feminists of the sixties, with their angry denunciations of marriage as “legalized rape” and “slavery for women”? Just as the sixties political radicals are today running the American government, culturally the sixties’ radical feminist hatred of Christianity and the traditional patriarchy that goes with it has infected today’s culture. It manifests as a compulsion to ridicule, diminish and have contempt for men. You can see it everywhere.There is, of course, also a “practical” governmental motivation for breaking up marriages: Tyranny always works better when families are in crisis. Intact, functional families constitute their own universe, one with powerful internal loyalties and transcendent values that compete and sometimes clash with those of despotic government, which therefore strives to separate fathers from their families. In 1918, right after the Russian revolution, Vladimir Lenin passed a radical no-fault divorce law. Realizing that to maintain control of the people the Russian family had to be destroyed, Lenin passed a law whereby you could divorce your spouse simply by mailing or delivering a postcard to the local register without even notifying the spouse being divorced!FP: Final thoughts?Kupelian: Alexander Solzhenitsyn, the great Soviet dissident who exposed the evils of the gulag system to the world, once wrote: “More than half a century ago, while I was still a child, I recall hearing a number of older people offer the following explanation for the great disasters that had befallen Russia: ‘Men have forgotten God; that is why all this has happened.’”Decades later, Solzhenitsyn said that in trying to explain the totalitarian horrors that permeated the 20th century – which he himself endured – he could not improve on the explanation he had heard as a child: “Men have forgotten God.”FP: David Kupelian, thank you for joining Frontpage Interview.I have to tell our readers that How Evil Works is a brilliant book. Buy it!!!! -
Tree Ring Data Release
I am sorry folks, but the purpose of scholarship is all about sharing knowledge. Collecting the data could just as easily be done by a trained technician working on a government contract. That it was done by the scholar actually lends to its acceptability and creditability but it is still data that deserves to be written up and published even if it is on a private site.Keeping it out of the hands of other scholars is usually heard about when it is lost.In fact this data is important and it needs to be available to all able to provide interpretation. That is to sort out discrepancies and the like and to annotate the data.I simply do not think anyone is good enough to get it all right.It is unfortunate that a skeptic needed to actually get a court order. We are now going to have whatever assumptions have crept in brought into question as they should and likely a burst of unwelcome acrimony.Of course, in the real world, most data is at best uncompelling. Welcome to the world of mining exploration.By the by, this is likely important data for mapping the impact of Icelandic eruptions. It needs to be out there and I think anyone would be pleased to be constantly cited.20042010by Fred Pearce The Guardian, Tuesday 20 April 2010The Queen’sAn arch-critic of climate scientists has won a major victory in his campaign to win access to British university data that could reveal details ofIn a landmark ruling, theThis week, the Belfast ecologist who collected most of the data, Professor Mike Baillie, described the ruling as “a staggering injustice … We are the ones who trudged miles over bogs and fields carrying chain saws. We prepared the samples and – using quite a lot of expertise and judgment – we measured the ring patterns. Each ring pattern therefore has strong claims to be our copyright. Now, for the price of a stamp, Keenan feels he is entitled to be given all this data.”Keenan revealed this week that he is launching a new assault. On Monday, he demanded the university also hand over emails that could reveal a three-year conspiracy to block his data request.Keenan has become notorious for pursuing a series of vitriolic disputes with British academics over climate data. Two years ago, he accused Phil Jones of the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia of “fraud” over his analysis of data from weather stations inThe latest ruling comes from Graham Smith, deputy information commissioner, who in January said information requests to CRU from climate sceptics were “not dealt with as they should have been under the legislation.” In theThe case goes back to April 2007, when Keenan asked Queen’s University for all data from tree-ring studies by Baillie and others. The data covers more than 7,000 years. They contain upwards of 1m measurements from 11,000 tree samples, mostly of oak. The university turned down Keenan’s request, citing a range of exemptions allowed under both the Freedom of Information Act and the European Union’s environmental information regulations. Keenan appealed to the information commissioner.more at the GuardianIt will be interesting to see what independent analysis shows. -
LED Lighting
This is an update on LED lighting that is apparently about to enter the consumer market place. I am unsure how acceptable they are as yet except LED has proven itself to be an evolution driven design platform that seems to win out at the end of the day.So I am sure we will be seeing more of these in the near future.In some sense, inventing superior lighting has been a serious technical challenge. The opportunity was well understood decades ago. Serious effort got underway at least twenty five years ago with the first energy crisis. Present developments are children of that long ago initiative. Folks have made a career out of this.This tells us that recent encouraging lab work is unlikely to see the light of day for another generation. So the LED solution is likely to find a market and hold market share for decades as it competitiveness improves.Written by Hank Green on 07/04/10
http://ecogeek.org/images/stories/creemodule.jpgCree, one of the world leaders in LED-for-lighting technology, is bringing a new product to market that could help rapidly increase the adoption of LED lighting. LEDs are complicated, the drivers to control them, the optics to focus them, even the bodies to house them have to be specially designed for heat management. These are all things that the manufacturers of lighting fixtures are not used to thinking about. They just take the light, plug into into a power source, and it’s supposed to work.That’s why Cree is going to be producing the LRM4 line of LED modules. Everything is included, so the folks designing and manufacturing the light fixtures don’t have to be experts in semiconductors to make it work.The LRM4 is also feature Cree’s new “TrueWhite” lighting technology. By combining specially tuned red and yellow LEDs (you can actually see them in the image above) Cree is able to match the warm light from a 65 watt incandescent bulb quite well. Other advantages over fluorescent lights include longer lifespan (over 12 years before the bulb dims more than 70%) full dimming capability and even higher efficiency.Of course, the disadvantage is likely to be the price, which Cree wouldn’t disclose in a recent interview.The lights are directional, so they’re only suitable for directional lighting applications like in-ceiling lighting and desk lamps. The modules will be built into various designs by manufacturers and then those products will be available for sale “soon,” likely first at specialty lighting stores.Finally, I had to ask Cree about traditional bulb applications and whether this high-quality, high-brightness, surprisingly awesome technology might make it’s way into multi-directional,Written by Hank Green on 08/04/10Just yesterday we brought you news of Cree’s new module that will soon be working it’s way into lighting fixtures. We asked when we’d see their technology taking the shape of high-brightness bulbs that could fit in for home use.
The answer was within the next year or two. But today GE announced that they’ll have an LED bulb replacement using Cree’s LEDs available by the end of 2010. Now, let’s be clear, this joint project from Cree and GE isn’t as bright or as technologically advanced as the module we discussed yesterday, but it is a huge step forward for LED technology and I can’t wait to get my hands on one (or a dozen).
These bulbs will fit into any traditional bulb socket and will produce about as much light as a 40 watt bulb. It consumes just 9 watts and lasts up to 17 years. It doesn’t contain any hazardous substances but will cost up to $50.
Of course, over the life of the bulb, it will be cheaper than incandescents, but when you just want a new lightbulb, it’s hard to choose the $50 one over the $0.50 one. -
Uncharted 2 "Siege Expansion" coming tomorrow, double XP event this week
Head’s up, Uncharted fans. In case you forgot, the third multiplayer DLC update for Uncharted 2, known as the “Siege Expansion Pack” pack, will be available tomorrow on PSN.
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GLOBAL WARMING FANATICS BECOMING DESPERATE by Tony Elliott
Article Tags: Opinion
The latest volcano eruption in Iceland is now being used as an example by the Global Warming fanatics of how thinning ice caps can actually cause volcanoes to erupt. The latest is how thinning ice caps in Iceland are releasing pressure on the ground and creating liquid magma. Freysteinn Sigmundsson, a vulcanologist at the University of Iceland, goes on to say that melting ice caused by Global Warming can influence magmatic systems as seen from the increasing volcano activity at the end of the Ice Age 10,000 years ago apparently because as the ice caps melted, the land rose.
Carolina Pagli, a geophysicist at the University of Leeds in England warns of the risk of volcano eruptions in other ice covered areas such as Antarctica and Alaska because the decrease in pressure on the ground from decreasing ice caps can have effects in deep areas where magma is produced.
Pagli and Sigmundsson wrote a 2008 paper in the scientific journal Geophysical Research Letters about possible links between global warming and Icelandic volcanoes.
Their report said that about 10 percent of Iceland’s biggest ice cap, Vatnajokull, has melted since 1890 and the land nearby was rising about 25 millimetres (0.98 inch) a year, bringing shifts in geological stresses.
Source: thecypresstimes.com
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DS homebrew game – Pokemon Battle v0.61
Homebrew coder blabla is back once again to release a quick update for his latest homebrew project, Pokemon Battle, a homebrew RPG game for the Nintendo DS based on the popular anime series. Check out what new
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Climate Science In Denial by Richard Lindzen, Wall Street Journal
Article Tags: Headline Story, Richard Lindzen
In mid-November of 2009 there appeared a file on the Internet containing thousands of emails and other documents from the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia in Great Britain. How this file got into the public domain is still uncertain, but the emails, whose authenticity is no longer in question, provided a view into the world of climate research that was revealing and even startling.
In what has come to be known as “climategate,” one could see unambiguous evidence of the unethical suppression of information and opposing viewpoints, and even data manipulation. The Climatic Research Unit is …
Note this article is by subscription only
Source: online.wsj.com
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Special Report: Networks Hide the Decline in Credibility of Climate Change Science by Julia A. Seymour
Article Tags: ClimateGate, Video Link
ABC, CBS and NBC ignore ClimateGate scandal and still advance left-wing global warming agenda.
It’s been a rough five months for the credibility of many of the “leading” climate scientists.
First, the ClimateGate e-mails appeared to show unethical or illegal behavior of high profile scientists and a potential conspiracy to distort science for political gain. These weren’t just a few renegade scientists; in the following months, damning information came to light about the world’s leading climate alarmists and their work with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the Stern Report, the U.S. National Climate Data Center and even NASA.
Even with the 40th anniversary of Earth Day coming up on April 22, Americans are skeptical about the threat of climate change. A March 2010 Gallup poll found that 48 percent of Americans think the threat of global warming is “generally exaggerated.” That’s the highest in 13 years, according to Gallup.
The public’s receding fear of climate change may be related to the series of scandals and admissions that have been uncovered since Nov. 20 when e-mails from University of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit (CRU) were leaked. Those e-mails provided “ammunition” to climate skeptics about the authenticity and ethics surrounding the CRU’s work on global warming science.
The networks news media were unshaken by the apparent bad behavior on the part of the very climate scientists and organizations whose claims they had pushed for years. Less than 10 percent of stories mentioning global warming or climate change since Nov. 20, 2009, referenced any of the climate science scandals.
Click source to read FULL report with MUST SEE Video Link from Julia A. Seymour,
Source: businessandmedia.org
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Labour, Conservatives and Lib Dems clash over environment policies by Juliette Jowit, The Guardian
Article Tags: UK Election 2010
Ed Miliband accuses of Lib Dems of ‘ducking’ difficult issues at special debate organised by Guardian
Important differences between the major parties on the environment emerged last night, as they clashed over nuclear power, wind farms, expanding flying, and the number of climate change sceptics in their ranks. Despite similar-sounding manifestos, Labour’s climate and energy secretary Ed Miliband and his Conservative and Liberal Democrat shadow spokesmen attacked each other’s policies at a special debate organised by the Guardian.
On the Labour government’s planned expansion of Heathrow airport – which is opposed by the other two parties – Tory spokesman Greg Clark was forced to deny his party wants to expand another airport in the south-east. It is an idea supported by at least one shadow cabinet colleague and the Tory London mayor Boris Johnson. Speaking at the Guardian’s special green hustings, Clark said: “We have no plans to build another runway in the south-east.” Aviation critics, however, pointed out that this did not rule out increasing the use of a smaller airport such as Luton.
While Labour and the Conservatives agreed on new nuclear power stations, Miliband accused the Lib Dems of “ducking” difficult issues, and asked their spokesman Simon Hughes to explain how his party would meet their pledge to cut electricity emissions without it.
Click source to read more
Source: guardian.co.uk
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UK Testing Speed Cameras From Space? Not Exactly, But Still Troubling
Reader btr1701 submitted this story about the UK testing speed cameras that “trap motorists from space.” Although the Telegraph article conjures up images of Big Brother spying on drivers from satellites, the facts are (somewhat) less sinister. The system essentially combines license plate recognition with GPS, taking advantage of the GPS to make the cameras more portable and easy to deploy.
As we’ve discussed before, plate capture technology has been shown to be abused in the UK, so any system that further proliferates the use of these cameras is cause for concern. After all, the main benefit of this new system is that it allows a camera to be quickly deployed virtually anywhere. As a result, those looking to avoid known camera installations will have a harder time, once these become more commonplace. So, while this is not a full blown “Big Brother in space” implementation, it does exacerbate an already troubling situation.
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BBC The Beauty of Maps: Seeing the Art in Cartography
BBC The Beauty of Maps: Seeing the Art in Cartograpy [bbc.co.uk] is yet another example of a BBC television series which focuses on matters concerning data visualization. It is another proof how visualization is becoming an interesting feature in popular press.While the online video clips are restricted to people living in the UK (snif), foreigners are still able to explore a couple of compelling example projects, such as a NASA Map of the dark side of the Moon, Phillippe Bourcier’s map of the movement of data on the Internet, the most complete map of the universe, a map of social conversations on blogs, next to a whole section dedicated to historical maps. The last episode even delves inside the world of political and satirical maps.
People living in the UK are welcome to make the rest of us jealous, and describe the quality of the series in the comments section below.
In the meantime, others have the chance to marvel at YouTube’s surprising top search results of the query “beauty of maps“.
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2K Boston is hiring too
Job openings abound in the gaming industry, folks! After Rocksteady’s posting, we now have word that Irrational Games (under 2K Games, known as 2K Boston), developers of BioShock, is also looking for new hires.
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Rocksteady lists job ad for new Batman: Arkham Asylum DLC
Rocksteady is definitely not resting on their Batman: Arkham Asylum laurels. Despite the fact that it’s earned so much recognition already, and that a sequel is well on its way, they’re still up for delivering some more
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Watch: Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands "Castle Siege" gameplay footage
Ubisoft has unveiled a bunch of brand new gameplay footage Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands. Check out how the Prince uses his acrobatic skills and magical abilities as he tries to infiltrate the besieged castle after
