|
 CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) – Venezuelan
President Hugo Chavez on Thursday accused U.S. President George W. Bush
of trying to destabilize his government by engineering an opposition
boycott of a December 4 legislative vote.
"Another conspiracy has been activated against Venezuela and I am
not going to blame the dogs but the masters, the government of the United
States," Chavez
said.
"The one responsible for this conspiracy is the head of the empire:
Mr. Danger. To give him his proper name, Mr. George W. Bush," he said
in a late-night address.
How cool is that? The Dowbrigade wishes that someone
important would call HIM Mr. Danger. The only cool nickname we ever had
was "Captain Blood" and that only lasted until the guy who called us
that got arrested, went into rehab, and became a Hare Krishna.
But our curiosity was piqued. Where did Chavez come
up with the name? Did he use the Spanish "Se?or Peligro" or did
he sprinkle his speech with the language of imperialism?
Turns out there is a long-standing historical precendent
to the nickname. According to DICK J. REAVIS at Counterpunch.com:
"Mr.
Danger is a long-standing figure in Venezuelan life, a character in a 1929
work, many times republished, by the novelist R
glasscastle - December 4, 2005 @ 8:08 am
· Wacky News
|
 TORONTO (Reuters) – The Canadian province
of Ontario plans to review a court decision that acquitted a man of sexual
assault charges because he suffers from "sexsomnia" and was
asleep at the time of the incident.
Jan Luedecke, 33, was acquitted of sexual assault charges on Tuesday because
he said he was asleep during the attack.
A sleep expert testified that Luedecke suffers from a disorder that causes
sexsomnia — involuntary sexual behavior during sleep — which he had experienced
before.
The court heard that Luedecke and the female victim met at a party. She
testified she fell asleep and woke up to find Luedecke having sex with
her. She pushed him away and called the police.
Luedecke confessed to police after he discovered was still wearing a condom
and realized he had had sex.
Canadian media reported that the victim left the courtroom in tears when
the verdict was read, and said she would take the case to the highest court
possible.
If they were BOTH asleep, whose idea was it to use a condom?
And were one or both of them dreaming of flying?
from Reuters
|
glasscastle - December 3, 2005 @ 8:35 am
· Weird Science
 LYON,
France, Dec. 2 – The world’s first person to wear a new face awoke in
the northern city of Amiens, France,
on Monday – 24 hours after doctors put her to sleep – and looked in the
mirror.
The swollen nose, lips and chin she saw there were not her own – those
had been ripped from her head by her pet Labrador retriever in May -
but they were a blessing for a woman whose face had become a lipless
grimace.
She took a pen and paper and wrote for the doctors, "Merci."
Those doctors on Friday defended their rush to give the woman a new face,
despite the enormous risks of death and psychological difficulties posed
by the procedure, just months after her disfigurement. They dismissed assertions
that they were bent on glory at the patient’s expense.
from the
New York Times
As the accompanying diagram clearly shows, the mania
for transplants has reached the point where virtually every part of the
body is theoretically available for transplant replacement. A scary thought…
The problem is not the tricky surgical techniques necessary
to effect such operations. With nano-technology, computer-assisted
scalpels and imaging, and fantastic new anti-rejection drugs (the Dowbrigade
has been using those since high school) the reality is that if anything
goes – it can be replaced.
No, the problem is where all of the replacement
parts are going to come from. We had this debate – human cloning
for replacement parts – in class last week, and the conclusion was that
it
was a great idea, as long as you could grow the clones as a sort of brainless
sack of organs – no mind, no awareness, no soul, just a meat locker of
spare parts.
At the same time, we know that somewhere, in a magnificently
equipped bleeding edge high-tech laboratory buried under a mountain or
in a super-secure bunker on a black op military base in some third world
dictatorship, there is a crack team of transplant specialists working
on effecting the ultimate transplant – the Brain Transplant.
This is the Big Kahuna – the final frontier in transplant
technology. Swapping brains – or complete heads – has been a science-fiction
fantasy since the times of the Greeks. Who would want a head transplant?
Well, duh – just every egomaniacal multi-Billionaire
who
is afraid of
dying,
wants
to
live forever, and is willing to spend every last ill-gotten dime accumulated
over a lifetime of avarice, manipulation and extortion to the cause of
cheating the big "D".
Imagine being able to grow unlimited replacement bodies,
young, strong and strapping, fit as fiddles and ready for action. One
complicated but scientifically feasible operation to swap the brainpans,
and you would be good to go – for another 40 or 50 years, easy. Who wouldn’t
want to live forever in a young, healthy, handsome body?
Unscrupulous and locally omnipotent leaders would not
even have to wait 16 years to grow a replacement body from their own
cloned cells – they could recruit prime physical "volunteers" from within
their
populations
and get them to swap bodies "for the good of the Republic." Benevolent
dictators might give the unfortunate donors a few short, sweet years
of continued existence in the leader’s old, worn-out bodies – complete
with 40 Virgins (which they probably won’t be able to do anything with
in those decrepit, used-up shells), unlimited luxury, medals and honors,
and the best pain-killing drugs.
Given the surfeit of suicide bombers, can anyone doubt
the potential availability of patriotic body donors?
This is the logical and inevitable endpoint of all of
the advances in transplant techniques over the past 60 years. It may
have already been attempted, or even perfected, although the parties
involved would understandably want to keep things under wraps until modern
morality catches up with medical advances. But think of the possibilities. We
might still be dealing with President Bush in the 23rd century. Now that’s
a scary thought indeed….
|
glasscastle - December 3, 2005 @ 7:31 am
· Serious News
|
 Washington D.C. (AHN) – On March 2, the
first of 800 million redesigned $500 bills will begin popping up at cash
registers and ATM machines across the country.
Government officials announced Thursday they have picked the March date
to begin distributing the colorful bills, which will feature shades of
red, yellow and orange added to the traditional green.
The new $500 note will feature the nation’s first Treasury secretary, Alexander
Hamilton, on one side, and astronomical symbols on the other.
Those two images will be joined by the Statue of Liberty’s torch, with
the phrase "We the People" written in red, with small yellow
10′s and a subtle orange background. All these changes are designed to
make counterfeiting tougher.
The new design was unveiled during a September ceremony in New York.
from All
Headline News
|
glasscastle - December 3, 2005 @ 7:17 am
· Serious News
|
 TOKYO – Coin importer Taisei Coins Corp
and Sanrio Co said Wednesday that they will jointly sell three euro coins
with images of the latter’s "Hello Kitty" character on them,
beginning on Dec 5.
A 1-ounce gold coin with a face value of 50 euros will cost 168,000 yen.
A quarter-ounce, 10-euro gold coin will cost 52,500 yen, and a 1.5-euro
silver coin will cost 8,400 yen. Images on the coins, made by the Monnaie
de Paris minting authority in France, depict "Hello Kitty" characters
enjoying life in Paris.
As economists have often noted, the preeminent position
of the dollar as a currency for international trade is a main factor
in the continued dominance of the US economy in the world economic system. Isn’t
it just like those sneaky Europeans to woo our little Asian brothers
from beneath our protective economic embrace by such an insidious tactic
as PUTTING A JAPANESE CULTURAL ICON ON EUROPEAN MONEY!
Look for the US to retaliate with "Great Wall of
China" fifties and a new Saudi King Abdullah thousand dollar bill. Actually,
for the latest redesign of US currency, see the very next story…
from Japan Today
|
glasscastle - December 3, 2005 @ 12:25 am
· Wacky News
|
 Temperatures never rise above freezing
and there is a fresh sprinkling of snow every day, but step outside and
you will find a sunbaked desert.
Complete with Alpine-style chalets, fir trees, chairlifts and ski runs
graded from green to black, the world’s largest indoor snow resort has
opened its doors in the Gulf emirate of Dubai.
Ski Dubai is the country’s latest extraordinary no-expense-spared project.
The emirate already has manmade islands shaped like a map of the world
and is building the world’s tallest tower. Beneath the Gulf it is building
the world’s first underwater hotel, with underwater opera.Article continues
Ski Dubai has more than 6,000 tonnes of snow. It boasts ski runs up to
400 metres long with a fall of more than 60 metres. A day pass costs 220
dirhams ($60).
Skiing in traditional Arab robes is not allowed. The snow – created by
spraying water under high pressure – is just the latest demand on scarce
water resources. Swimming pools, gardens and golf courses are others.
Whatever happened to the plan to tow icebergs from Antarctica to the Middle
East? 80% of the fresh water on the WORLD is frozen in the icecaps. They
could ski right on the iceberg en route, fly in on helicopters and start making
money before the berg even gets there! Now all we need to do is to interest
some venture capitalists…..
from the
Guardian
|
glasscastle - December 2, 2005 @ 8:22 am
· Blogging
|
 The Hubble Space Telescope has caught
the most detailed view of the Crab Nebula, revealing the intricate epitaph
of a long-dead star.
The nebula spans a patch of space six light-years across and has proved
an attractive target for professional and amateur astronomers alike. One
light-year is the distance light travels in one year, about 5.8 trillion
miles (9.7 trillion kilometers).
Wispy filaments, primarily of hydrogen, weave through the Crab Nebula,
at the center of which sits a neutron star that spins 30 times per second.
The only fixed remains of the supernova explosion – the rest of the original
star stuff has blown outward – the neutron star acts as a beacon, spitting
twin beams of radiation from its poles as it rotates.
The dense, city-sized object powers the Crab Nebula’s
bluish glow, which is generated by electrons that follow the neutron
star’s magnetic field lines, astronomers said. The elemental composition
of the nebula can be picked apart by color, with blue areas indicating
neutral oxygen, green regions showing singly ionized sulfur and red portions
denoting doubly ionized oxygen, they added.
from Space.com
|
glasscastle - December 1, 2005 @ 11:38 pm
· Serious News
|
 BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (Reuters) –
Sightseers in Buenos Aires got a shock Thursday when the city’s most
famous landmark, the obelisk, was covered with a giant pink condom on
World AIDS Day.
City officials used cranes to unfurl shiny pink cloth over the monolith
in a campaign promoting condom use to prevent infection with the HIV virus
that causes AIDS.
"It seemed like we could have the biggest impact by putting a condom
on the most important symbol of the city," said Sandra Castillo, an
organizer of the campaign.
The obelisk, which is identical to the Washington Monument but smaller
at 220 feet (67 meters) tall, is a popular tourist site.
Think we could get the Washington Monument to wear a
rubber?
from CNN
|
|
Saw some footage on CBS Evening
The
The
