Month: April 2007

Verio to Shut Off Controversial Web Site

PC World – Verio to Shut Off Controversial Web Site
Cryptome.org, a Web site that sometimes posts documents about government policy and intelligence, received a short letter from its ISP (Internet service provider), Verio, indicating that the site would be terminated on Friday. Verio, owned by NTT Communications Corp., said the termination is due to violation of its acceptable use policy.

Cryptome.org has run afoul of Verio’s policy before but historically the ISP has allowed the site to rectify the violation either by removing a document or proving that posting the document doesn’t breach any laws. This time, Verio hasn’t offered Cryptome.org that opportunity and also hasn’t specified how exactly the site violates the rules, said John Young, Cryptome.org’s founder, in a note on the site.

Reformists prepare to take on Ahmadinejad and his militias

Reformists prepare to take on Ahmadinejad and his militias | Iran | Guardian Unlimited
The legislature, the Majlis, voted last week to trim Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s term and hold the next presidential and parliamentary polls simultaneously next year. The change, it is argued, will be cost efficient and will reduce the potential for fraud – a reason, critics say, why the government opposes the move.

Mr Atrianfar claimed that despite the positive impression created by the president’s “stage-managed” provincial tours and financial handouts, most Iranians no longer supported him. “Everyone says he talks bullshit,” he said. “Even in parliament, out of 290 MPs, about 210 supported him. Now more than 200 disagree with him, including many fundamentalists. If the Supreme Leader [Ayatollah Ali Khamenei] stopped backing him, parliament would impeach him in a week. He’s not dangerous. He’s just a little man with an IQ below zero.”

If You Want to Know if Spot Loves You So, It’s in His Tail

If You Want to Know if Spot Loves You So, It’s in His Tail – New York Times
Every dog lover knows how a pooch expresses its feelings.

Ears close to the head, tense posture, and tail straight out from the body means “don’t mess with me.” Ears perked up, wriggly body and vigorously wagging tail means “I am sooo happy to see you!”

But there is another, newly discovered, feature of dog body language that may surprise attentive pet owners and experts in canine behavior. When dogs feel fundamentally positive about something or someone, their tails wag more to the right side of their rumps. When they have negative feelings, their tail wagging is biased to the left

Could black holes be portals to other universes?

Could black holes be portals to other universes? – space – 27 April 2007 – New Scientist Space
The objects scientists think are black holes could instead be wormholes leading to other universes, a new study says. If so, it would help resolve a quantum conundrum known as the black hole information paradox, but critics say it would also raise new problems, such as how the wormholes would form in the first place.

Wormholes are warps in the fabric of space-time that connect one place to another. If you imagine the universe as a two-dimensional sheet, you can picture a wormhole as a “throat” connecting our sheet to another one. In this scenario, the other sheet could be a universe of its own, with its own stars, galaxies and planets.

Vegan Eateries Not Just for Hippies

Vegan Eateries Not Just for Hippies – Forbes.com
Once a network of grungy, obscure cafes, the vegetarian and vegan experience in some cities has blossomed on par with its carnivorous counterparts, complete with Zagat ratings and celebrity clienteles.

There are between 1,000 and 1,200 vegetarian restaurants in the U.S., almost double the number seven years ago.  Find them at http://www.vegdining.com

‘I wanted to show how niceness evolves’

‘I wanted to show how niceness evolves’ | Life | Guardian Unlimited

Since 54 per cent of adults in the US believe we did not evolve from earlier species, this scientist’s research “…completely turns creationism on its head. It says there is a scientific explanation for creationism.”.
David Sloan Wilson says plankton can tell us a lot about God and human morality. Continue reading “‘I wanted to show how niceness evolves’”

Child Soldiers – The Scourge of Africa

Child Soldiers – Africa – Guerilla Warfare – Kenya – Mozambique – Somalia – Uganda – New York Times
IN the early 1980s, in the lowlands of Mozambique, a new technology of warfare emerged that would sweep across Africa and soon the rest of the world: the child soldier.

Rebel commanders had constructed a four-foot tall killing machine that cut its way through village after village and nearly overran the government. Its trail was smoking huts and sawed off ears.

The Mozambicans learned that children were the perfect weapon: easily manipulated, intensely loyal, fearless and, most important, in endless supply.

Raising Alexandria

Raising Alexandria
More than 2,000 years after Alexander the Great founded the city, archaeologists are discovering its fabled remains, from the likely site of Cleopatra’s palace to pieces of an astonishing lighthouse that was one of the Seven Wonders of the World. What may be the world’s oldest surviving university complex has come to light, along with one of the Seven Wonders of the World, the Pharos, the 440-foot-high lighthouse that guided ships safely into the Great Harbour for nearly two millennia. And researchers in wet suits probing the harbor floor are mapping the old quays and the fabled royal quarter, including, just possibly, the palace of that most beguiling of all Alexandrians, Cleopatra. The discoveries are transforming vague legends about Alexandria into proof of its profound influence on the ancient world.

The Climate Engineers

The Climate Engineers
Beyond the security checkpoint at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Ames Research Center at the southern end of San Francisco Bay, a small group gathered in November for a conference on the innocuous topic of “managing solar radiation.” The real subject was much bigger: how to save the planet from the effects of global warming. There was little talk among the two dozen scientists and other specialists about carbon taxes, alternative energy sources, or the other usual remedies. Many of the scientists were impatient with such schemes. Some were simply contemptuous of calls for international cooperation and the policies and lifestyle changes needed to curb greenhouse-gas emissions; others had concluded that the world’s politicians and bureaucrats are not up to the job of agreeing on such reforms or that global warming will come more rapidly, and with more catastrophic consequences, than many models predict. Now, they believe, it is time to consider radical measures: a technological quick fix for global ­warming. Continue reading “The Climate Engineers”