Slashdot

It is comical to me that in the past decade, I've seen the headlines purchased by oil company spin doctors go from:

Global Warming: Fact or Fiction?

to

Global Warming: Are We Causing It?

to

Global Warming: What Can We Do About It?

to

Antarctica: The New Hawaii

It's about fucking time those damn penguins get what they deserve.

davidwr writes "LiveScience reports that the socially awkward make better husbands than the debonair studs that grace the covers of Gentleman's Quarterly. On the downside they tend to miss out on promotions and the other socially desirable benefits of being a "social chameleon." So, all of you Rodney McKays out there, there is hope. You just have to get past the first date. Just don't go asking for "me time" until after you tie the knot."

Back in the midsts of time, when I was a lad and gopher was the height of information retrieval I read The Anarchist's Cookbook in one huge text file. Now it appears the UK government considers possession of the book an offence under the Terrorism Act 2000 and is prosecuting a 17 year old boy, in part, for having a copy of the book.

Scientific American is reporting on scientific work done to map the euphoric religious feelings with the areas of the brain responsible for producing those experiences. As a result, it's now quite possible to experience proximity to God (or Universe for those in the audience who stick to atheism) via a special helmet: "In a series of studies conducted over the past several decades, Persinger and his team have trained their device on the temporal lobes of hundreds of people. In doing so, the researchers induced in most of them the experience of a sensed presence — a feeling that someone (or a spirit) is in the room when no one, in fact, is — or of a profound state of cosmic bliss that reveals a universal truth. During the three-minute bursts of stimulation, the affected subjects translated this perception of the divine into their own cultural and religious language — terming it God, Buddha, a benevolent presence or the wonder of the universe."
http://www.sciam.com/print_version.cfm?articleID=434D7C62-E7F2-99DF-37CC9814533B90D7

fistfullast33l writes "A fight is brewing in Kearny, New Jersey a 16 year old student and his school district over the teachings of the student's history teacher. According to the NY Times, the student did not think the teacher's lectures in class were relevant to the subject matter, so he started recording the teacher in class. On the tapes, "Mr. Paszkiewicz is heard telling the class that there were dinosaurs aboard Noah's ark and that there is no scientific basis for evolution or the Big Bang theory of the origin of the universe." Matthew LaClair, the student, was reprimanded by the school for turning the tapes in (apparently students aren't allowed to secretly record lectures) and has been harassed by students. He has threatened to sue the school district. According to WNBC in NY, the teacher claims "he was merely answering a question posed to him in a question-and-answer session, according to Demetrios Stratis, a Fair Lawn lawyer who said he represented the teacher.""

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/02/13/browser_vulns/

theodp writes "A vicious Mexican drug gang war has moved onto YouTube, where rivals taunt each other with blood-soaked slideshows and film of their murder victims. A spokesperson said YouTube 'does not allow videos showing dangerous or illegal acts,' although videos on the site include footage of a man being shot in the head in a murder attributed to The Zetas. It has been viewed more than 280,000 times."

Entertainment blogger David Poland recently attended a Publicists' Guild luncheon which George Lucas attended. Lucas was present to give an award to Sid Ganis, the in-house publicist for Empire. Lucas credits Sid for creating the aura around Empire as the best of the three original Star Wars films, when, according to Lucas, "it was actually the worst one."

blue234 writes "On Iran's nuclear ambitions, some have suggested an approach which mirrors our policy vis-a-vis N. Korea. In other words, if they really insist on the need for a peaceful nuclear infrastructure, then the world should help them build nuclear power plants which do not produce the kind of nuclear byproduct which can be used to produce nuclear weapons. The trouble is N. Korea and Iran clearly have ambitions of possessing nuclear weapons. In fact, most experts believe Pyongyang already has several such weapons in its inventory. This approach, nonetheless, may be worth pursuing with Iran — if only to call Tehran's bluff. So far, however, the U.S. and Europeans continue to pursue this issue in the UN context. url: http://www.abcarticledirectory.com/Article/Nuclear -Power-and-Iran-Today/31163"

mknewman writes to tell us that NASA recently announced plans to build a permanent base on the moon by 2024. The (still tentative) plans call for building the base on one of the moon's poles, which constantly receive light from the sun and have less temperature fluctuation. This base will start small in 2020 and grow over time with the hopes of eventually supporting 180-day stays and providing a jumping-off point to Mars."