There’s no justice for famous chubby directors, or it seems now, the thirsty on airplanes. Huffington Post reports:

It’s not just famous directors who are getting kicked off planes for bizarre reasons.

A New York doctor claims that he was booted from a Spirit Airlines flight for asking for water for his pregnant wife on Sunday.

Mitchell Roslin, the Chief of Obesity Surgery at Manhattan’s Lenox Hill Hospital, says that after being grounded at LaGuardia Airport for two hours in a hot plane his attempts to get water for his 7-month pregnant wife were repeatedly refused.

Roslin informed the New York Post that flight attendants told him that it was “against corporate policy” to give him water before the plane was in the air.

Meg Kissinger reports in the Journal Sentinel:

U.S. Food and Drug Administration officials say they are powerless to regulate BPA, although they have declared the chemical to be a safety concern for fetuses, babies and young children.

A quirk in the rules allows BPA makers to skirt federal regulation.

“We may have to go after legislation to change it,” Joshua Sharfstein, the FDA’s principal deputy director, told the Journal Sentinel. The newspaper has been investigating the government’s lack of regulation regarding BPA for three years.

FDA officials announced Friday that they had reversed their position that bisphenol A is safe. The chemical, used to line most food and beverage cans, has been found in the urine of 93% of Americans tested.

The agency now considers BPA to be of some concern for effects on the…

The recent cuts to NASA’s budget, including the axing of the upcoming lunar missions, the Ares Rocket System, and the Orion Spacecraft, have left many of us quite scared for the future of the U.S. space program. This classic article from Alex Burns examines those that question whether or not NASA even got to the moon in the first place. Are we afraid to go back, or to go there at all?

Lunargate by Alex Burns

In a now infamous 1961 speech, US President John F. Kennedy pledged that America’s space program would “place a man on the moon before the decade’s close.” At the heart of cold war battles for geopolitical supremacy, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs also became the vehicle for inculcating domestic populations with American values and belief systems.

NASA’s growing power, its protection by the Kennedy administration, and the rise of the Right Stuff astronaut as celebrity hid the steady growth of the Military-Industrial Complex that Eisenhower had warned about.

These anxieties — of monolithic social institutions controlling information, and the decline of US global empires — are the core of conspiracy theories claiming the historic Apollo moon landings were elaborately faked. The world was hoaxed.

From New Scientist:

The UK’s science minister, Paul Drayson, gave a speech in Oxford on the future of science in the UK a few days ago. It is worth taking stock of his central message, one which has been made since the days of Margaret Thatcher: how can we make money out of science?

He is a real science minister, clearly not rolling over in front of the discredited economic rent-a-wizards who think the best way out of a downturn is to pay more bonuses and cut investment in science and education. Unlike his opposite number, he is yet to promise major cuts in science.

Drayson outlines the intimate links between some great science and various industries, including the business in which he made his fortune. He points out how addressing practical problems benefits…

Gerald Celente on Engineer.netwe can still become the strong and productive nation that we were in the past

Smart is going to be the keyword says Gerald Celente talking with the engineers at www.engineer.net , necessity is the mother of invention , we do not need stadiums that collapse bridges that last 50 years , engineering in this country has gone low quality with so many other things …This is a new era only the greatest are going to be able to make it ,  quality is going to rise to the top , people are going to be forced to be using their brains rather than thinking about the bottom line , this is going to be a glorious future a renaissance ‘Alla Roma Antica ‘

Gerald Celente is a respected media commentator on business and consumer trends in the US, and publisher of The Trends Journal. His presentation aims to help exporters understand the key global niche markets they should be designing new products and services for, and signal what the key business and consumer trends will be. The Trends Research Institute is on record as accurately forecasting many major social, economic and political trends. such as the dot.com crash, the rise of gourmet coffees and organic foods. They are currently predicting a rise in ‘simplicity hip’ for the average US family with downsizing in cars,houses and extravagances but a strong requirement for quality products that reflect personal styles and which are simple, reliable and can be repaired – not trashed – when broken.
Trends Expert Gerald Celente is also known as Dr Doom and the Nostradamus of Modern Times  , Gerald Celente is regarded as one of the foremost trend predictors in the world. This author of Trends 2000 and Trend Tracking, and publisher of The Trends Journal, is frequently a guest on television news and talk show programs. The New York Post said “if Nostradamus were alive today, he’d have a hard time keeping up with Gerald Celente.” Subscribe to the Trends Journal >>>

Following are Gerald Celente’s Forecasts for 2010: · The Crash of 2010: The Bailout Bubble is about to burst. Be prepared for the onset of the Greatest Depression.  · Depression Uplift: The pursuit of elegance and affordable sophistication will raise spirits and profits.  · Terrorism 2010: Years of war in Afghanistan and Iraq ­ and now Pakistan ­ have intensified anti-American sentiment. 2010 will be the year of the lone-wolf, self-radicalized gunman.   · Neo-Survivalism: A new breed of survivalist is devising ingenious stratagems to beat the crumbling system. And, they’re not all heading for the hills with AK-47’s and pork & beans.   · Not Welcome Here: Fueled by fear and resentment, a global anti-immigration trend will gather force and serve as a major plank in building a new political party in the US.  · TB or Not TB: With two-thirds of Americans Too Big (TB) for their own good (and everyone else’s), 2010 will mark the outbreak of a “War on Fat,” providing a ton of business opportunities.   · Mothers of Invention: Taking off with the speed of the Internet revolution, “Technology for the Poor” will be a major trend in 2010, providing products and services for newly downscaled Western consumers and impoverished consumers everywhere.   · Not Made In China: A “Buy Local,” “My Country First” protectionist backlash will deliver a big “No” to unrestrained globalism and open solid niches for local and domestic manufacturers.  · The Next Big Thing: Just as the traditional print media (newspapers/magazines) were scooped by Internet competition, so too will new communication technologies herald the end of the TV networks as we know them.

From the Village Voice:

Now that Indiana Senator Evan Bayh is out of the picture, some people are pushing for John Mellencamp, aka John Cougar, aka John Camp Cougar Mellencamp, to run on the Democratic line for his seat.

Mellencamp is from Indiana, where he was born in a small town, and lives in Bloomington, which he asserts is a small town; he also predicts that he will prob’ly die in a small town. He has previously been nominated to replace Simon Cowell on American Idol.

Katrina Vanden Heuvel, editor of The Nation, has suggested a Mellencamp candidacy, as has Roger Ebert. A Facebook page has been put up for that purpose, with 238 members at present.

[Read more at the Village Voice]

From the AP:

Georgia Power still plans to increase rates next year to finance two new nuclear reactors at Plant Vogtle despite billions of dollars in federal loan guarantees announced Tuesday by the Obama administration.Georgia Power spokesman Jeff Wilson said any savings the utility will see from the federal loan backing won’t occur until January 2012. That means ratepayers will see their electric bills rise by an average of $1.30 a month in 2011 as planned, he said.

The Obama administration said the nuclear plant near Augusta had been selected to receive more than $8 billion in federal loan guarantees. The expansion at Vogtle will mark the first nuclear power plant construction in the United States in nearly three decades.

The two new reactors are scheduled to be completed in 2017 at a…

By Sahil Kapur for Raw Story:

Imagine being forced to skip your senior year of high school. Or having the option.

If you live in Utah, that could become a reality. In an effort to bridge a $700 million budget shortfall, Republican state Sen. Chris Buttars has put forth a plan to eliminate 12th grade in high school, the Los Angeles Times reports.

Facing a wealth of criticism from parents, teachers and students alike, Buttars defended a scaled down version of the idea wherein students simply had the option to exit before their final year, claiming the proposal could save the state about $60 million…

[continues at Raw Story]

The legal adviser to the family of a disabled woman who claims she was abused by a paedophile ring as a child was arrested yesterday as he made his way to the centre of Aberdeen to hand out leaflets.

Via Disinformation

I’ve just returned from the International Conference on Ancient Studies in Dubai. By the time I left I was almost deliriously tired, enough perhaps to find a passionate and fiery exchange between two wonderful speakers from the conference, Ahmed Osman and Andrew Collins, debating who or what killed Egypt’s King Tut as we drove […]

Google has sensationally banned all sales through its shopping merchant of a DVD critical of the Obama administration under the terms of its program policy which bars any material deemed to be “advocating against a protected group”. Apparently, Google considers the government to be a “protected group,” and immune from criticism.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Tuesday that Iran’s arch-foe Israel was mulling starting a war “next spring or summer” but has yet to make a final decision.

The New York Times: The video was edited by the Dubai police and includes titles that explain their interpretation of the movements of the 11 suspects before, during and after the assassination.

An Afghan Taliban spokesman has denied a U.S. report that its military commander was arrested by U.S. and Pakistani forces in a secret operation.

France used soldiers as guinea pigs in nuclear tests in the 1960s, deliberately exposing them to radiation from atomic blasts to test the effects, according to a report revealed on Tuesday.

Via UFO news

MUFON Case # 21903
Event Date:    2010-02-16 14:37
Location: Honiton, GB
Longitude:    -2.0
Latitude:    54.0
Shape:    Disc,Star-like
(Click on images for larger view.)
Report:
I was checking out the recent local hot spot and i caught this on camera. Here’s what happened, i was on the top of roundball hill checking the area when i saw a light in the distant […]

Recently my wife & I rented 2 Sea-Doo watercraft to enjoy some time on the Colorado River near Laughlin, Nevada. I boated into a buoyed to beach the watercraft & stretch a bit when a man approached on the beach dressed in swim trunks and flip flops.

As soon as I entered the driveway I saw a Selma police cruiser, followed by a second. They lit me up before I could approach the rest facility. I got the treatment.

FAMILY TRIO: The ‘dead man’ Lakitha Zokufa, with his cousin Nongadlela Zokufa and grandfather Mlandeli Zokufa.dispatch – Two families in Transkei are fighting over a psychiatric patient they both say is their son following claims last year that the…

Danny Schechter, director of the forthcoming disinformation® documentary Plunder: The Crime of our Time, dissects the failure of the Haiti relief efforts, which have been slow and sluggish from the start: