Blog Heap o'Links for December 2008

The body of Wang Diange, from the Chinese province of Inner Mongolia, was found in the wreckage of a house where he had been overseeing the wake of a previous family funeral, after mourners felt a loud explosion which took off half the roof. ... Inquiries revealed that the rainfall on the day of the original disaster was triggered by the local weather bureau, which had been firing shells into the atmosphere to break up hail in order to protect the local tobacco crop. Inside the shells were silver iodide, a chemical that helps to break up hail into rain. Their own investigators concluded that one shell must have failed to explode, hit the house, and lodged in Mr Wang's body. There it passed unnoticed because of his extensive injuries, according to local newspaper reports. [Courtesy of Chuck's News of the Weird Universe]

STRIPED rabbits, bright pink millipedes laced with cyanide and a spider bigger than a dinner plate are among a host of new species discovered in a remote wildlife hotspot. ... A huntsman spider, named Heteropoda maxima, measured 30cm across and was found in caves in Laos. It was described as the "most remarkable" of 88 new species of spider located in Laos, Thailand and the Yunnan province of China. ...

Majel Barrett final exit graphic

This concrete will work as a thermal mass to exchange the heat into the actual house portion of your dog's domicile/home.

In terms of heating a dog house, here are some suggestions arranged in order of increasing expense and complexity.

Basically a messy job of removing a type a paint. A methylene chloride chemical stripper works best.

Fourteen suspected al-Qaeda terrorists were detained in Brussels today before Gordon Brown was due to meet EU leaders. The sweep came just hours before a summit brought together the heads of the 27 EU countries in Brussels. One of the suspects is believed to be a suicide bomber mounting an operation "from which he was not expected to come back".

Most people would not think porn and religion were a match made in heaven. But Playboy appear to believe they're a winning combination and has put the Virgin Mary nude on its cover to celebrate Christmas.

Mexican Playboy Chrismas Mary cover image

Google this week admitted that its staff will pick and choose what appears in its search results. It's a historic statement - and nobody has yet grasped its significance. Not so very long ago, Google disclaimed responsibility for its search results by explaining that these were chosen by a computer algorithm. ... A few years ago, Google's apparently unimpeachable objectivity got some people very excited, and technology utopians began to herald Google as the conduit for a new form of democracy. Google was only too pleased to encourage this view. ... what was once Googlewashing by a select few now has Google's active participation.

Amsterdam unveiled plans Saturday to close brothels, sex shops and marijuana cafes in its ancient city center as part of a major effort to drive organized crime out of the tourist haven. The city is targeting businesses that "generate criminality," including gambling parlors, and the so-called "coffee shops" where marijuana is sold openly. Also targeted are peep shows, massage parlors and souvenir shops used by drug dealers for money-laundering. "I think that the new reality will be more in line with our image as a tolerant and crazy place, rather than a free zone for criminals" said Lodewijk Asscher, a city council member and one of the main proponents of the plan.

I have never believed that there is a secret United Nations plot to take over the US. I have never seen black helicopters hovering in the sky above Montana. But, for the first time in my life, I think the formation of some sort of world government is plausible. A "world government" would involve much more than co-operation between nations. It would be an entity with state-like characteristics, backed by a body of laws. The European Union has already set up a continental government for 27 countries, which could be a model. The EU has a supreme court, a currency, thousands of pages of law, a large civil service and the ability to deploy military force. [Um, How about we use the U.S. Constitution as a model rather than a mess like the EU? Good idea, in some distant millenium when humanity is civilized.]

Medical marijuana became legal in Michigan on Thursday, but smoking a joint could still get patients arrested because the regulations needed to protect them won't be ready for months.

Last week saw the 75th anniversary of the repeal of Prohibition. In Washington, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) - a group of former cops and drug-war veterans who have soured on America's war on drugs - gathered to celebrate the anniversary, and to argue for an end to America's current prohibition on marijuana and more serious drugs. Essentially, they believe that the war on drugs creates criminals. Richard Van Wickler, a onetime New Hampshire county corrections superintendent, noted during a LEAP conference call last week that despite America's drug laws, 114 million Americans (out of more than 300 million) have used illegal drugs, 35 million of them in the last year. The law is not much of a deterrent.

A document expert contends the "Certification of Live Birth" Barack Obama's campaign posted online to rebut charges the president-elect fails the Constitution's natural-born citizen requirement is criminally fraudulent.

He is said to have told officers the cell was to seek out 'white targets, preferably British and American'. The terrorists thought they would come out alive and had an escape route... He revealed that the ten terrorists, who were highly trained in marine assault and crept into the city by boat, had planned to blow up the Taj Mahal Palace hotel after first executing British and American tourists and then taking hostages. He then added that their intention was to kill 5,000 people. ... As it is, their deadly attacks have left close to 200 confirmed dead, with the toll expected to rise to nearly 300 once the hotel has been fully searched by security forces.... 'I have done right,' he told investigators. 'I have no regrets.'

The country's broadcasters were summoned Friday by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to deal with charges that the live saturation coverage had helped the terrorists. At the same time, however, traditional media were criticized as too slow and inaccurate by legions of "citizen journalists" using Internet services such as Twitter and photo site Flickr. The deputy commissioner of police argued that the terrorists, who were holed up in two major hotels and became involved in floor-by-floor firefights with police, were gaining tactical information from TV. Using powers under Section 19 of the country's Cable Television Networks Act, he ordered a blackout of TV news channels.

By 2010 the US will have invested $4 billion in a research programme into "autonomous systems", the military jargon for robots, on the basis that they would not succumb to fear or the desire for vengeance that afflicts frontline soldiers. A British robotics expert has been recruited by the US Navy to advise them on building robots that do not violate the Geneva Conventions. [Anything that can be programmed can be hacked and re-programmed. And no program can encompass every moral possibility.]

"People can cultivate ways of communicating in online contexts that are equally as effective as those used offline," they write. "The degree to which … individuals develop unique conventions in the medium will determine their ability to communicate effectively." ... "People innovate in response to the challenges of a new context for the communication of essential elements of language...."

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - A husband and wife have been charged with torture and other counts after a bruised, terrified 17-year-old showed up at a gym with a chain locked to his ankle, claiming he had just fled his captors

Globally every year, obese people waste billions of pounds on food products that 'imply' that they aid weight loss, but are totally ineffective

Acupuncture works - but it works equally well with or without needle penetration. ... 109 received traditional acupuncture, with needles penetrating the skin in particular points. According to ancient Chinese tradition, the needle is twisted until a certain 'needle sensation' arises. The other 106 patients received a simulated acupuncture instead, with a telescopic, blunt placebo needle that merely touches the skin.

Bone growth is controlled in the gut through serotonin, the same naturally present chemical used by the brain to influence mood, appetite and sleep... could transform how osteoporosis is treated in the future by giving doctors a way to increase bone mass, not just slow its loss....

Faint magnetic signals from brain activity in children with autism show that those children process sound and language differently from non-autistic children. Identifying and classifying these brain response patterns may allow researchers to more accurately diagnose autism and possibly aid in developing more effective treatments for the developmental disorder.

SEDALIA, Mo. — A Sedalia hunter bagged a big buck on the second day of firearms season, but the kill caused him a lot of pain. Forty-nine-year-old Randy Goodman said he thought two well-placed shots with his .270-caliber rifle had killed the buck on Nov. 19. Goodman said the deer looked dead to him, but seconds later the nine-point, 240-pound animal came to life.

The U.S. military expects to have 20,000 uniformed troops inside the United States by 2011 trained to help state and local officials respond to a nuclear terrorist attack or other domestic catastrophe, according to Pentagon officials. The long-planned shift in the Defense Department's role in homeland security was recently backed with funding and troop commitments after years of prodding by Congress and outside experts, defense analysts said. There are critics of the change, in the military and among civil liberties groups and libertarians who express concern that the new homeland emphasis threatens to strain the military and possibly undermine the Posse Comitatus Act, a 130-year-old federal law restricting the military's role in domestic law enforcement.

"It's funny when I get recognized on the train. People either say 'I love your show, dude' or 'Hey, where do you buy good weed?'"

&hellp;it does indeed seem like the cannabis found in a Chinese tomb going back 2,700 years is legit. But this is what struck me: The substance has been found in two of the 500 Gushi tombs excavated so far in northwestern China, indicating that cannabis was either restricted for use by a few individuals or was administered as a medicine to others through shamans

The program also looks at spinoff businesses, including an Internet seed catalogue that offers brands such as White Rhino, Wonder Woman and Haze. Bongs as long as bazookas, and one that looks like an octopus, are also available to aficionados.

Now, Ruth has launched Chia Goodness, a gluten-free breakfast cereal product made with just four ingredients: Chia, buckwheat, hemp seeds and Celtic Sea Salt.