Category: Life

Anti-government anger spurs 9/11 conspiracy belief

newsPolls.org: Anti-government anger spurs 9/11 conspiracy belief
The level of suspicion of U.S. official involvement in a 9/11 conspiracy was only slightly behind the 40 percent who suspect “officials in the federal government were directly responsible for the assassination of President Kennedy” and the 38 percent who believe “the federal government is withholding proof of the existence of intelligent life from other planets.”

The poll found that a majority of young adults give at least some credence to a 9/11 conspiracy compared to less than a fourth of people 65 or older. Members of racial and ethnic minorities, people with only a high school education and Democrats were especially likely to suspect federal involvement in 9/11.

And here is a video created to debunk the popular internet conspiracy video “loose Change”

Cell phone makers fight resales

Cell phone makers fight resales
The middlemen indicate an apparently insatiable hunger for the phones, with profits in some cases of 100 percent for a handset that retails for as little as $20.

The phones are so cheap because TracFone and other providers of prepaid cellular service sell them at a loss to create a market for their real profit maker, selling customers more call time.

A lawsuit filed in January by Nokia Corp. accuses Pan Ocean Communications of Pompano Beach, Fla., of buying $20 cell phones from Wal-Mart, Sam’s Club and Target Corp. stores, disabling their software, then reselling them for $39 as legitimate Nokia handsets. The company sold them to distributors, wholesalers, exporters and flea market booth operators, the lawsuit said.

Destinations have changed over the years, from Singapore in the past to Mexico today, said John Walls, a spokesman for CTIA, a cellular industry trade association that opposes the practice.

Why the iPod is losing its cool

The Observer | UK News | Why the iPod is losing its cool
‘Panellists cite that the batteries are not replaceable, so when they die the entire player must be replaced,’ she said. ‘We have heard from some conspiracy theorists that the batteries are made to die soon after the warranty ends.

‘Other complaints are that iTunes [Apple’s online music store] is overpriced and the format is not easily transferred on to other players. In our ethnography interviews, some long-time iPod-users told us that they have stopped updating their iPods because it’s too much work, while other consumers who had bought iPods more recently had not even taken theirs out of the package to set it up.’

She added that the iPod is in danger of becoming a victim of its own success: ‘Some backlash is against the ubiquity of the iPod – everyone has those white headphones on the train.’

9/11 Phone Messages

OpinionJournal – Peggy Noonan
It has been noted that there is no record of anyone calling to say, “I never liked you,” or, “You hurt my feelings.” No one negotiated past grievances or said, “Vote for Smith.” Amazingly –or not–there is no record of anyone damning the terrorists or saying “I hate them.”

No one said anything unneeded, extraneous or small. Crisis is a great editor. When you read the transcripts that have been released over the years its all so clear.

Flight 93 flight attendant Ceecee Lyles, 33 years old, in an answering-machine message to her husband: “Please tell my children that I love them very much. Im sorry, baby. I wish I could see your face again.” Continue reading “9/11 Phone Messages”

Verizon Wireless: Miami customers call the most

Verizon Wireless: Miami customers call the most – South Florida Business Journal:
Verizon Wireless said it found Miami customers made and received an average of 298 calls a month – nine to 10 calls daily. Customers from Los Angeles ranked second, averaging 260 calls a month, or fewer than nine calls a day.

Detroit ranked third, followed by El Paso and then Las Vegas, where Verizon Wireless said its customers averaged more than 235 calls a month.

Beyoncé Knowles, freedom fighter

Beyoncé Knowles, freedom fighter | Salon.com
This month, Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s “Déjà vu” is No. 1 on the top 40 of the biggest Muslim nation in the world, Indonesia. Nine of the top 10 songs on the United Arab Emirates singles chart are hip-hop or R&B. Earlier this year Egyptian rappers MTM — whose hit song “Ummi Musafra” (“My Mother’s Away”) is about a teenager who holds a dance party while his mother is away on holiday — were voted best modern Arab act at the first Arabian Music Awards. Several journalists have reported on the vast Iranian black market in Western music and movies of all sorts. And everyone seems to agree that youth in Iran are engaged in widespread rebellion against Islamic sharia law. Tattoos, sneakers, platform shoes, belly rings, and public displays of affection are ubiquitous in the most militantly Islamic republic.

Online Video Clips – The Internet TV Charts

Online Video Clips – The Internet TV Charts

Thanks to Randy for helping us to find the best videos to spend even more time on-line with “the-best-of”.
The Internet TV charts features the most popular online video clips each week from four leading Internet TV sites. All the best video clips, on one page.

Crabs in a Bucket

Anecdotal story from a letter to a USVI web-site:

    Nature has parodies that mimic human social structures. If you have ever gone to the shore to gather a tasty of dinner of crabs you have seen crabs in a bucket with no lid, but they do not escape. As soon as a crab gains a claw-hold, on the edge of the bucket it is pulled back in by the weight of others who hang on. Two or three smart crabs working together get things done and are able to crawl out of the bucket together. They are like little Ninjas. One crab gets a hold of the edge of the bucket, another one, gets up under him and pushes with all his might. The third crab seeing the idea decides, to position himself under the second crab and they push the top guy up and over to freedom. The key is to hold on tight and the momentum of the top little guy falling into the abyss of freedom pulls the other two up and over the edge of the bucket. I think I have actually seen theses little guys scurry to the water laughing and never looking back at the other fools stuck in the bucket. That is how the best and brightest leave closed societies

Amputee Vets Prove They Can Surf

Guardian Unlimited  Amputee Vets Prove They Can Surf
PISMO BEACH, Calif. (AP) – As a child of 1970s California, Derek McGinnis felt that riding waves was like a birthright, and losing his left leg to a suicide bomber in Iraq wasn’t going to stop him from surfing again.

So, he rallied nearly a dozen other wounded-in-action amputees he met in a military hospital and brought them to one of California’s last old-fashioned beach towns.