Sunday 16 August 2015

Entertainment stuff from the week 10-16/8/15


Hi tax-avoiding linguistic letter-systems,


In other news:

The alphabet's about to get a reshuffle. It's being patented by Google, LOL. Soon, 'Google' will stop being the host company's name, and instead Google will be called 'Alphabet'. The subsidiary companies will be: Calico, Sidewalk, Nest, Fiber, Google Ventures and Google Capital, as well as some assorted others. It's hypothesised that the point of the reshuffle is simply an attempt by Google's CFO Ruth Porat, to avoid tax. You see - these female CFOs and CEOs are completely different to the "straight, white males" who used to run the shop, by cruel masculine rules of profit or else <s>. The battles between Google and the EU, over market dominance abuse, and Google and France over tax, have been long and arduous, and mostly not-blogged by me. Oh, btw, the Alphabet's already been banned in China :-D
http://phys.org/news/2015-08-alphabet-success-google.html

Science acceptance, and endless ritualised sex - what's not to like about Raelianism? Well, maybe the factionalised psychosis, which leads to a totalitarian drive to denounce others and declare superiority, that all religious (and otherwise) factions do, when they think they can get away with it. It wasn't long ago that we heard about the Raelians' new bid for an 'extraterrestrial welcome centre', but now they've issued a decree that "the Jews have been officially replaced and are ordered to leave the Holy Land". Honestly - Jews must go to an arbitrary part of the world; Jews must leave an arbitrary part of the world - when are you humans going to make up your minds? Oy vey! Raelianism isn't the first to adopt this attitude, of course - Christianity's done it, Islam's done it, and of course, Judaism's done it. That's where the Israeli-Palestinian-Jewy-Muzzy conflict has come from - the Jewish desire to displace Gentiles from their chosen centre of operations. Huge numbers of arabs have been deported, for the sake of Mother Israel's purity. The US-and-UK-Judaists-funded Elad Foundation is devoted to 'uncovering' archaeology that 'supports' this social cleansing operation. No superstitious faction is free from this motive to establish verisimilitude through power. All i can say is: a pox on all your houses!
http://doubtfulnews.com/2015/08/oh-those-crazy-raelians-part-jew/

Did you see that picture of a light fitting, in Wyoming, this week? No? More than 1.8 million people saw it on imgur! Oh, all right, light fittings and Wyoming are boring. How about we call it a UFO, over Australia. Did you see that one? Well, no, of course you didn't, because it was a light fitting in Wyoming, but it's the claims of UFOyness that seem to have attracted the hits, LOL. Have a look for yourself :-D
http://doubtfulnews.com/2015/08/fake-ufo-on-fakebook-in-wrong-part-of-the-world/

They didn't start the fire; no they didn't light it; but they tried to fight it. Or maybe they did start it. A meteorite certainly didn't. The vision of a meteor scorching its way through the atmosphere does not continue to be true, all the way to the ground. By then, the slowed meteor has been cooled by windchill, and could barely warm a neglected cup of tea. That means something/someone else must have started it.
http://doubtfulnews.com/2015/08/meteorite-didnt-start-the-fire-in-portland/

Has Nazi gold been discovered, in the
Königssee (lake), in Switzerland? Well, considering that it was minted in 1953... probably not. But whomever owned it in the past, it's estimated to be worth ~£11,000. Nazi Gold is the subject of many conspiracy 'theories' but i think gold-hunters will be searching for more regardless, in the Alpine lake, now that this has been brought up!
http://doubtfulnews.com/2015/08/kid-finds-gold-bar-in-german-alpine-lake/

Australia's Minister for Indigenous Affairs has taken flack, this week, for suggesting that Vegemite could be used to brew alcohol, in 'marginalised' communities. To cut a long story short: although yeast is used to make Vegemite (the Ozzie version of Marmite) none of it survives the manufacture process. Vegemite could only be used to flavour the resultant beverage. And i don't think anyone wants that. But what's important about this subject are two things: prohibition, and racism. The fermentability of Vegemite has only been called into question, because of the still-uneradicated perception of 'Australians' and 'Abos' (people with continental ancestry) not because they're 'proper' Australians, but because they're 'different'. The non-documentary 'Rabbit Proof Fence' does an unnervingly good job of presenting this racist history. The very existence of a 'Minister for Indigenous Affairs' is a consequence of the perception that a big black fence line can be drawn between 'Abos' and 'Australians', the way lines can be drawn between 'blacks' and 'whites' and 'vaishyas' and 'shudras'. Where Prohibition comes in, is the perception that psychoactive drugs, like ethanol, create miscreant people (criminals), and so the 'criminal classes' must be denied access to alcohol. Sure, Australia's laws on alcohol consumption are stricter for everyone - the blood-alcohol limit for driving is zero, for example - but there has been no federal imposition on home-brewing since 1972. The fear of the Abo and his Alco is not a rational one, but it is an unsurprising one, when a country sees fit to have a whole different Department, for a population defined only by having local ancestors. It's true that they're less likely to stay in education; less likely to own their own home; less likely to engage in government; more likely to have mental health troubles; more likely to suffer chronic illness; and more likely to commit crimes and do jail time. But any decent sociologist knows that crime is mostly the product of environment - of poverty, and ill health - not of an innate property of criminalness. And of course they're more reticent to engage in 'White' things, like governance - the shunning is mutual! The only way to solve the problem, is to break the barriers down, and to help people on the bases for which they need it - not to treat them as if they're 'different' and give them 'their own' MP. All of the MPs are their own MPs! How many times does this lesson have to be learned, humanity? How many times?
http://phys.org/news/2015-08-alcohol-vegemite.html

St John's College, University of Cambridge, has announced that it is to make public, business papers belonging to William Philip Perrin - an 18th century Jamaican sugar-plantation owner, whose documents contain similar dispassion to traded slaves, as modern corporates devote to 'labour costs'. A note in the collection, described as "a list of Mr John Broomfield's negroes, with their age and valuation" catalogues 35 men and 19 women, as well as children as young as 14, who had been valued for sale as slaves. Men such as William Wilberforce and Thomas Clarkson, who made it their responsibility to push for the Abolition Bill in 1807, were fighting against capitalist interests, in perpetuating the perception of people as property - objects to be fed and kept, but treated with little more regard than that. It's an attitude to living, feeling organisms that perpetuates, to this day, and it's why it's necessary for Workplace Rights, Trade Unions, etc, to exist. Distancing customers from the moral impacts of their businesses, is the key to keeping them going, and to keeping the money rolling in. It's a generic phenomenon, for organisations to want to control their image, for profit's sake, and one that can, and has in the past had, terrifying consequences.
http://phys.org/news/2015-08-documents-reveal-price-britain-slave.html

New nicotine-eating bacteria could exacerbate the harm to tobacco-smoke suckers. Yay! <s> No wait, that can't be right, because the paper's titled 'A New Strategy for Smoking Cessation: Characterization of a Bacterial Enzyme for the Degradation of Nicotine'. Hmmm.... considering that nicotine is what nicotine addicts need, to feel satiated, and will continue to suck smoke until they are satiated, surely reducing the nicotine's effect on the brain, or the amount that reaches the brain, will just lead them to smoke more, to get the satiety they need. Huh? #addictionfail. This is fascinating research; but it sounds, to me, like the researchers've been encouraged by the PR department, to find some way to market it, and they came up with something that's completely backwards! If you want people to smoke less, you should increase their sensitivity to the ingredient that compels them to smoke. Duh! Or, try to wean them off that ingredient. Otherwise, the harm from all the other ingredients can only go up. I'm not surprised that they're described as 'chemists' and not as 'addiction experts' or something like that. If they were, however, that would be plain dishonest. Cool research; risible marketing.
http://phys.org/news/2015-08-nicotine-eating-bacteria-day-smokers-habit.html

It's not Fox News, but it is Fox 6 Now. And it thinks it's seen a woman on Mars. LOL. "UFO Sightings Daily has brought attention to the picture, saying that the shape “looks like a woman partly cloaked.” In a YouTube video, it also points out images in that same picture that “may” or “may not be” a dwelling and/or a vehicle and tracks." I'm struggling to see any of that! It's just a rocky terrain. The powers of pareidolia must be weak with me, today :-D
http://doubtfulnews.com/2015/08/curiositys-photos-reveal-not-woman-on-mars-but-how-silly-news-sites-can-be/

This, however, is a real observation. Valles Marineris, as can be seen in the picture, contains streaks of water ice, that flow downhill, every Martian Spring, carving the observed linear channels. It's not known how pure the water might be, however, but if relatively clean, it would be an invaluable source of H2O for any human who visited. Most Martian water is locked in ice, at the poles, so equatorial liquid water would be highly valuable to anyone who went there.
http://phys.org/news/2015-08-image-seasonal-mars-valles-marineris.html

Which are better: cats or dogs? Well, evolutionarily, it seems cats have had the upper hand, as the extinction rate of canids in North America, over the last 40 million years, has been surprisingly high. The researchers suggest that competition pressure from felines might be responsible for this. But what about the extinction rates of cats? A race isn't a race, without comparison.
http://phys.org/news/2015-08-competition-ancestors-cats-drove-extinction.html

Who are the girls on the negatives? I have no idea, but maybe you can pitch in...
http://phys.org/news/2015-08-thrift-yields-astronomical-mystery.html

------------------------------------------------------ contemporary stuff

'Bioresonance - Where Quackery And Religion Cross (SZ#348)' (my upload)
https://youtu.be/eHmQx-gj-EE

{By coincidence, the USA's Department of Defence has recently pledged money to 'test' some other of the claims of Scientology: to treat Gulf War PTSD victims. It turns out they're just 'detox' tricks, which can be highly dangerous}

'European Heatwave MELTED MY GALLIUM!'
https://youtu.be/k8YF_TZL8Vk

'China explosion could have OBLITERATED Yankee stadium!'
https://youtu.be/_hcwMwFbJKc

'Your periodic table is probably WRONG'
https://youtu.be/l-USbaS_LLA

'Counting Flamingos'
https://youtu.be/HAnrlLAWelc

'M25 and measuring the distance to stars - Deep Sky Videos'
https://youtu.be/R59JHIohXYQ

'Unique octopus sex caught on camera'
https://youtu.be/HbUKu1lz9pQ
http://phys.org/news/2015-08-octopus-unique-social-sexual-behavior.html

'The London Humanist Choir sing 'From so simple', inspired by Darwin's Origin of Species'
https://youtu.be/pbxB9eRUtUs

'Myanmar inundated'
http://phys.org/news/2015-08-image-myanmar-inundated.html

'Good morning from the International Space Station'
http://phys.org/news/2015-08-image-good-morning-international-space.html

'Rosetta's big day in the sun'
http://phys.org/news/2015-08-rosetta-big-day-sun.html

'Dad³ Vlogs! The Bridge!'
https://youtu.be/Zp_buSKqHfg

------------------------------------------------------ of the weeks

Word Of The Week: carbuncular -- having the properties of, or relating to: a semi-precious stone; or a painful localized bacterial infection of the skin and subcutaneous tissue that usually has several openings through which pus is discharged.

Quote Of The Week: "Death is not an energy drink" - Simon Pegg

Article Title Of The Week: 'Teddy bear shot in drive-by shooting'

------------------------------------------------------ non-contemporary stuff


'Excerpts from the Harry Hill Show 1'

http://youtu.be/NA0eUViTYak

'Excerpts from the Harry Hill Show 2'
http://youtu.be/1HUUHv_mvrA


'Spitting Image The Charity Song, 1990'
http://youtu.be/N43AOtI_g98
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