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Blackwater: The Christian Right's Private Army

Thu, 25 Oct 2007 10:45:52 GMT

clipped by: kmcolo
clipper's remarks: The shock troops of Armageddon

You could not miss Erik Prince this week. The founder and top gun of Blackwater usually keeps a low media profile. But there he was all over the place, in a carefully orchestrated campaign to put the best face on a bad situation.

General Petraeus himself has been guarded by private contractors in Iraq.

it sends a message that the United States military is essentially a subservient player to a corporate army in Iraq.

When Hillary Clinton's husband was in the White House, he was an aggressive supporter of the privatization of the war machine.

what I think is more interesting is Erik Prince's connection to radical religious right organizations.

I believe that Erik Prince is an ideological foot soldier. And I do believe that he's a Christian supremacist.

I believe that these men do have an agenda that very closely reflects adherence to a sort of Crusader doctrine.

Tags: moyers, podcast, christian conservatives, military

Flaming kamikaze squirrel torches car

Wed, 24 Oct 2007 15:18:43 GMT

clipped by: rwatuny
clipper's remarks: Weird, funny and sad at the same time.

Clip Source: www.theregister.co.uk

A New Jersey woman's Toyota Camry last week suffered a sciurine kamikaze attack during which a flaming squirrel fell onto the vehicle, slid into the engine compartment and provoked an explosion which destroyed the parked vehicle, the Jersey Journal reports.

Lindsey Millar, 23, and bruv Tony, 22, were at home in Bayonne last Wednesday lunchtime when the incident occurred. The animal had apparently decided it was a really good move to chew through overhead powerlines directly above the motor, and was duly fried for its trouble.

Tony Millar explained: "The squirrel chewed through the wire, was set on fire, fell down directly to where the car was. The squirrel, on fire, slid into the engine compartment and blew up the car."

Tags: weird, squirrel, kamikaze, sad, funny

Images: Caught in the MOMENT

Wed, 24 Oct 2007 09:35:56 GMT

clipped by: righthand
clipper's remarks: from LittleRedRidingHood
Photographs by Martin Waugh.

Clip Source: haha.nu

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by Martin Waugh

“Liquid Sculpture is the process of creating shapes by dropping and splashing water, or other liquids. These sculptures are then photographed, since they last only a few thousandths of a second”

Tags: images, 2006

Humans and monkeys share Machiavellian intelligence

Wed, 24 Oct 2007 22:18:58 GMT

clipped by: Djiezes
clipper's remarks:

Pressure to find Machiavellian solutions to social problems may also have led to the evolution of larger human brains.

Clip Source: www.physorg.com

Humans and monkeys share Machiavellian intelligence

“After humans, rhesus macaques are one of the most successful primate species on our planet; our Machiavellian intelligence may be one of the reasons for our success” wrote Maestripieri in his new book Macachiavellian Intelligence: How Rhesus Macaques and Humans Have Conquered the World.

Rhesus macaques live in complex societies with strong dominance hierarchies and long-lasting social bonds between female relatives. Individuals constantly compete for high social status and the power that comes with it using ruthless aggression, nepotism, and complex political alliances. Sex, too, can be used for political purposes. The tactics used by monkeys to increase or maintain their power are not much different from those Machiavelli suggested political leaders use during the Renaissance.

Every drop of xenophobia in rhesus blood is transformed into fuel for battle,” Maestripieri wrote.

Tags: humans, monkey, rhesus macaque, animals, society, politics, humanity, science, machiavelli, evolution

Bomb's Away!

Thu, 25 Oct 2007 16:26:45 GMT

clipped by: debbyski
clipper's remarks: "So where would the military use a stealth bomber armed with a 30,000-pound bomb like this? Defense analysts say the most likely target for this bomb would be Iran's flagship nuclear facility in Natanz, which is both heavily fortified and deeply buried."

Clip Source: abcnews.go.com

Tucked inside the White House's $196 billion emergency funding request for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is an item that has some people wondering whether the administration is preparing for military action against Iran.

The item: $88 million to modify B-2 stealth bombers so they can carry a newly developed 30,000-pound bomb called the massive ordnance penetrator, or, in military-speak, the MOP.

The MOP is the the military's largest conventional bomb, a super "bunker-buster" capable of destroying hardened targets deep underground. The one-line explanation for the request said it is in response to "an urgent operational need from theater commanders."

What urgent need? The Pentagon referred questions on this to Central Command.

ABC News called CENTCOM to ask what the "urgent operational need" is. CENTCOM spokesman Maj. Todd White said he would look into it, but, so far, no answer.

Tags: mark, it, on, your, calendar, ppl

The World's Smartest Tree Grows Brain

Tue, 23 Oct 2007 23:34:24 GMT

clipped by: mmcnatt

Clip Source: www.thesneeze.com

The World's Smartest Tree

I walked outside today to discover this monstrosity growing on the tree in front of our house. My wife says it's a fungus. God, Vassar girls kill me. She thinks she's so smart.

Clearly the tree is growing its own brain because it wants to communicate with me.

What you see is the fruiting (the mushroom) of the resident fungal organism, the mycelium, which invisibly skulks around year-round inside the tree digesting parts of it. Once a year it fruits a mushroom to reproduce, which it does by dropping lots of spores that can each start a new mycelium.

A Shocking Twist

Last year, I said right here that we were dealing with the smartest tree in the world.

The tree has proven me right.

yesterday I happened to walk around the other side of the tree, and guess what I found growing out of its theoretical ass. The new brain

I've been publicly humiliated by a tree.

Tags: humor