Current Events – Page 37

Analysis, Current Events, Globalism, Historical Perspectives, Latest News, New Discoveries

Kepler Spacecraft Finds 2 Planets Sharing Same Orbit

March 2, 2011

A new planetary anomaly has been spotted.

To date, the telescope on the Kepler spacecraft has detected 1,235 planet candidates, and while Earth-bound telescopes are trying to determine if 54 of those planets may have conditions that could harbor life, one unique planetary system may have been uncovered.

Unique because it’s the first time scientists have discovered what may be two planets sharing the same orbit of their home sun, New Scientist reports…

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Current Events, Globalism, Health & Fitness, Historical Perspectives, Hot Issues, Internet, Latest News, People Making a Difference

WikiLeaks Is Up for a Nobel Peace Prize

March 1, 2011

WikiLeaks could win a Nobel Peace Prize this year.

WikiLeaks is among the 241 Nobel Peace Prize nominees this year. The nominees come from 53 organizations and are greater in number than in any previous year.

Other nominees include the European Union, former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, Cuban dissident Oswaldo Paya Sardinas, Russian rights group Memorial, Afghan rights advocate Sima Samar and the Internet. That’s right — the Internet as a whole has been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize…

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Analysis, Culture, Current Events, Entertainment, Historical Perspectives, Latest News, New Discoveries

The Top 20 Rudest Cities According To Foursquare

March 1, 2011

A lot of valuable information can be gleaned from location-based service Foursquare. Foursquare’s engineers have compiled this list of the cities with the highest percentage of tips containing curse words. So is it rude to say your service was fucking incredible?!

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Analysis, Big Problems, Current Events, Globalism, Health & Fitness, Historical Perspectives, Hot Issues, Latest News

Europe Proposes Seven New Chemical Substances of Very High Concern

February 27, 2011

Some chemicals are more detrimental than others.

This week Europe proposed to add seven more chemicals to the list of substances of very high concern (SVHC). The addition of a chemical to the SVHC list enables European regulators to ban the chemical from the market unless it is proven that the risks are adequately controlled, or there is not a feasible substitute and the socio-economic benefits justify the risk. The proposal contains more of the usual suspects such as phthalates, glycol ethers, and a chromate (the “Erin Brockovich chemical”), as well as some potentially difficult to replace chemicals like a widely used reducing agent and a common universal solvent…

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Current Events, Entertainment, facebook, Historical Perspectives, Latest News

Facebook Writes Its Privacy Policy in a Language Humans Can Read

February 26, 2011

Facebook’s privacy policy is changing.

Facebook rolled out a new way for users to read and understand its privacy policy. Although none of the terms of the privacy policy have changed, the new site and policy outlines has been rewritten, reformatted and reorganized in a way that makes it easy for non-lawyers to understand…

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Current Events, Globalism, government, Historical Perspectives, Internet, Latest News

China’s Internet Censors Don’t Like the Smell of “Jasmine”

February 26, 2011

Jasmine Flower

China’s state Internet censors have ratcheted up web filters, and security officers are harassing and detaining bloggers and activists as an online appeal for a “Jasmine Revolution” spreads in China.

The apparent crackdown came in advance of two top legislative meetings, the National People’s Congress and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, scheduled for March.

Censors blocked the word “jasmine” after overseas dissident-run news website Boxun and Chinese Twitter users broadcast calls on February 19 to mobilize street protests modeled on recent unrest in the Middle East, according to international news reports…

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Big Problems, Breakthrough Thinking, Current Events, Health & Fitness, Historical Perspectives, Hot Issues

Alaska State Rep Refuses TSA Grope of Her Mastectomy Scars, Drives Herself Home from Seattle

March 2, 2011

Sharon Cissna

Alaska State Rep Sharon Cissna, a breast cancer survivor who has had a mastectomy, was barred from flying home to Juneau from Seattle by the TSA when she refused to allow a screener to touch the scars from her operation. She drove home instead. Apparently she is always selected for an invasive “hand screening” because the “irregularities” presented by her prosthesis when viewed through the pornoscanner raise the TSA’s suspicions. As others have observed, the War on Terror is really a War on the Unusual — it’s the systematic erosion of rights for people with nonstandard appearance, health, itineraries, and beliefs, without regard to whether those “irregularities” are correlated with terrorist activity. It’s as though the TSAhas said, “All terrorists are engaged in something unusual, therefore all unusual occurrences should be viewed as potential terrorism.”

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Breakthrough Thinking, Crazy Stuff, Culture, Current Events, facebook, Globalism, Historical Perspectives, Human Behavior

Egyptian Names His Baby ‘Facebook’ after the Revolution

February 21, 2011

Baby Facebook has been born!

An Egyptian man who wanted to show his gratitude to Facebook for its role in the January 25 protests has named his baby Facebook. Here’s the article from the Egyptian paper Al-Ahram, as translated by TechCrunch:

Man Names His Newborn Girl Facebook

A young man in his twenties wanted to express his gratitude about the victories the youth of 25th of January have achieved and chose to express it in the form of naming his firstborn girl “Facebook” Jamal Ibrahim (his name.)

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Big Problems, Crazy Stuff, Current Events, government, Health & Fitness, Hot Issues, Human Behavior, Latest News

TSA Screeners Stole Over $200K From Fliers’ Baggage

February 18, 2011

And to think the TSA is ‘protecting’ us.

Two TSA screeners from New York’s Kennedy airport were busted for stealing over $200,000 in cash from fliers. They targetted people they thought were drug dealers, since they didn’t think their victims would complain…

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Breakthrough Thinking, Corporate Manipulation, Crazy Stuff, Culture, Current Events, Historical Perspectives, Human Behavior

Harlequin Attempts to Patent the Kiss

February 16, 2011

Diagram a kiss.

Talk about lip service: Harlequin Enterprises, renowned publisher of pulp romance novels, has applied for a patent on the romantic kiss.

The application, if granted, leaves open the possibility that we may one day have to pay a licensing fee to lock lips with the ones we covet…

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Animals, Breakthrough Thinking, Current Events, Entertainment, Human Behavior

For Valentine’s Day, Name a Roach After Your Loved One

February 14, 2011

A Valentine’s Day To Remember.

“Flowers wilt. Chocolates melt. Roaches are forever.”

That’s the advice offered by the Bronx Zoo in conjunction with their limited-time Valentine’s Day offer:

How better to express your appreciation for that special someone than to name a Madagascar hissing cockroach after them?

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64-Year Old Man First to Cross the Atlantic in a Kayak Nonstop

February 12, 2011

Kayaking to the beat of a different paddle.

Aleksander Doba, 64, crossed the Atlantic Ocean from Dakar, Senegal to Acaraú, Brazil in almost a hundred days. He’s the first person to do so nonstop:

After 98 days, 23 hours, 42 minutes at sea, Doba and his custom 23-foot-long, 39-inch-wide human-powered kayak landed at Acaraú, a city on Brazil’s northeast coast. The trip covered some 3,320 miles in all, and Doba became only the fourth known person to accomplish such a feat, and the very first to do it nonstop…

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