bcultral

"One of the best skydiving vids" - bcultral from Bookmarklet

"Forty-nine states, every one but Oklahoma, as well as federal regulators will participate in a foreclosure fraud settlement that will release the five biggest banks (Wells Fargo, Citi, Ally/GMAC, JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America) and their mortgage servicing units from liability for robo-signing and other forms of servicer abuse, in exchange for $25 billion in funding for legal aid, refinancing, short sales, restitution for wrongful foreclosures and principal reduction for underwater borrowers." - bcultral from Bookmarklet

"Forget Greece; what would you do about Iran? Behind the 'Eurosis' that currently churns the news-cycle, foreign policy experts are divided and fearful about a lurking problem that could arguably displace the Euro as the most pressing Western headache of 2012." - bcultral from Bookmarklet

"This historical review raises an important issue: Is the Pentagon seeking to trigger military confrontation in the Persian Gulf with a view to providing a pretext and a justification to waging an all out war on the Islamic Republic of Iran?" - bcultral from Bookmarklet

"Though America's wealthy are supposed to pay a higher tax rate than the poor (what's known as a "progressive tax code"), they now benefit from so many loopholes that the tax code has, in practice, become increasingly regressive (the Gini Index is a common measure of income inequality):" - bcultral from Bookmarklet

"The year 2011 will go down in history as the year in which citizens used their collective power to make economic justice part of the national conversation and force the media to focus on real issues rather than the manufactured deficit crisis." - bcultral from Bookmarklet

"A French court on Monday declared U.S. biotech giant Monsanto guilty of chemical poisoning of a French farmer, a judgment that could lend weight to other health claims against pesticides." - bcultral from Bookmarklet

"The security and surveillance state has a vast arsenal and array of tools at its disposal. It operates in secret. It dissembles and lies. It hides behind phony organizations and individuals who use false histories and false names. It has millions of dollars to spend, the capacity to deny not only its activities but also its existence. Its physical assets honeycomb the country. It can wiretap, eavesdrop and monitor every form of communication. It can hire informants, send in clandestine agents, recruit members within the movement by offering legal immunity, churn out a steady stream of divisive propaganda and amass huge databases and clandestine operations centers. And it is authorized to use deadly force. How do we fight back? We do not have the tools or the wealth of the state. We cannot beat it at its own game. We cannot ferret out infiltrators. The legal system is almost always on the state’s side. If we attempt to replicate the elaborate security apparatus of our oppressors, even... more... - bcultral from Bookmarklet

"Scientists have long known that butterfly wings produce their iridescent colors by bouncing light around and between tiny ridges in structures made of chitin. More recently they’ve discovered that the chitin material in their wings also expands when struck by infrared radiation which causes a change in its refraction index, converting it to visible light. Now, by adding a layer of carbon nanotubes to the wing material, the researchers have found they are able to increase the amount of heat absorbed. This discovery, the team writes in their paper published in Nature Photonics, could lead to new kinds of thermal imaging systems." - bcultral from Bookmarklet

"Scientists have developed a "biological computer" made entirely from biomolecules that is capable of deciphering images encrypted on DNA chips." - bcultral from Bookmarklet

"It could be lurking in the foods you eat every single day and you would never even know it. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has declared that one of Monsanto's latest creations, a synthetic sweetener chemical known as neotame, does not have to be labeled in food products, including even in organic food products. A modified version of aspartame with even more added toxicity, neotame received quiet and unassuming FDA approval back in 2002," - bcultral from Bookmarklet

"Hey, it's man made, it must have been thoroughly tested and found safe!" ARG! - Heather

"brings together cognitive neuroscientists, anthropologists, religious studies scholars, psychologists and psychiatrists to discuss different ways of understanding ‘revelatory experiences’." - bcultral from Bookmarklet

"highlights the military's interest in neuroscience, particularly the potential for "neural interface systems" (NIS) that could control weapons with the human mind." - bcultral from Bookmarklet

"Will robotic servants be common a century from now?" - bcultral from Bookmarklet

"A bureaucracy is the absolute worst kind of monopoly because it is a monopoly with a limitless bankroll.  Therefore, it doesn’t matter how unproductive and unpopular it is, there will always be funding for it.  In fact, there is actually far more incentive for bureaucrats to do a poor job with the task at hand, than to provide meaningful services to the community.  Why is that you ask?  Because bureaucrats actually get paid more money when they do a poor job, and they even run the risk of becoming unemployed if they complete the stated mission of their department.  I know it sounds crazy, but this is actually the way things work." - bcultral from Bookmarklet

"It's bad enough that drones have been welcomed by Congress into American skies, as well as already being used around the planet to conduct surveillance and bomb select countries from remote locations." - bcultral from Bookmarklet

"Machine-brain interfacing is almost solely geared toward the aims of warfare and control, with positive developments such as ending paralysis and motor impairments only being used as a marketing method for their introduction and acceptance. The Singularity movement itself holds no improvements in the quality of life of mankind, only the possibility (and indeed probability) of a vastly increased level of centralized control over every human being." - bcultral from Bookmarklet

This is extraordinary - mina_sydney

"Do you love America?  Are you against a one world economy and a one world government?  Do you deeply love individual liberty?  Do you believe in conspiracy theories?  If you answered any of those questions affirmatively, then you are a potential terrorist according to a brand new Department of Homeland Security report that was just released in January 2012." - bcultral from Bookmarklet