Random News Stories

[hooplala]

Well, she at least has the peace of mind of knowing she was the dominant twin.

Like Dwight K. Shrute says, when referring to his own absorbed twin: "I have the strength of a grown man and a little baby."

[AFK]

Heh, and he is a wise man indeed.   

[Cain]

http://episkoposcain.blogspot.com/2008/05/leaderless-jihad.html

I didn't know this, but Marc Sageman apparently has a new book on Al-Qaeda out, called Leaderless Jihad.

For those of you who don't know who Sageman is, shame on you. He's a former CIA Case Officer and psychiatrist with experience in Pakistan and Afghanistan who has undertaken some very interesting studies on Al-Qaeda.

His previous book, Understanding Terror Networks, is a classic of terrorism literature and has been highly recommended by pretty much every terrorism lecturer and researcher up at the St Andrews. Its a wide-reaching investigation into the background, motivating beliefs and (most importantly) social networks that comprise the nebulous organization called Al-Qaeda. Notes based on this research of 400 Al-Qaeda members can be found here.

These social bonds are the most important factor in recruiting and getting someone into terrorism, which is why I think Sageman's book is so important. If we rely on arguments from religion, personal psychopathy, brainwashing or hatred of 'Western' values, many of which are unproven caricatures as Sageman shows, then we wont be able to carry out the necessary counterterrorism policies - which should be aimed at severing the existing terrorists from a pool of possible recruits, while taking in their current members and working towards a political solution of the underlying factors that led to the emergence of terrorists in the first place.

His new book seemed more focused on what is called the New Wave of Al-Qaeda terrorists. Essentially, these are lone wolf or self-forming cells, who instead of being intensely religious and well educated (the profile of a previous Al-Qaeda member) are younger, probably had more run-ins with the police or a criminal record, and are "bored and looking for thrills".

This seems to be a real possibility. I remember more than a few classes I took with John Horgan where he said the process of radicalization often took place after one made contact with the terrorist group in question. If these "thrillseekers" are looking for jihadist videos, tracts and forums for thrills, sooner or later they are going to be talking with people sympathetic to a jihadist worldview. This taints or affects their thinking into a downward spiral based on the violent and paranoid worldview which could ultimately result in terrorist related activities.

Of course, that's a highly simplified way of putting it, and no doubt the actual processes are much more discrete and subtle. But I think as a simplified and limited explanation, it can work. These people get caught up in a discourse of warriorship, fanatical Islam and martyrdom. "We have always been warriors, we have always fought and been victorious, and now we are weak and persecuted". Its the common theme of too many terrorist group's rhetoric to be just a coincidence.

According to a talk Sageman gave at the New America Foundation "It's more about hero worship than about religion," The vast majority of Sageman's sample had not attended radical madrassas, could speak Arabic and have not read the Koran. Nearly all joined the movement because they knew/are related to someone who's already in it. The age of these terrorists is decreasing too: In Sageman's 2003 sample, the average age was 26; among those arrested after 2006, it was down to about 20. Its more accurate to describe these people as supermepowered, transnational gang members than terrorists.

All of this has very interesting, and worrying implications for policy and society in general. Especially the latter, since media culture and rhetoric has not caught up with Sageman's studies or knowledge. They'd much rather listen to media heads or politicians than soldiers and academics who study terrorism closely, and to be honest, that's a real shame. Because if we don't understand how Al-Qaeda is morphing and evolving, we're going to be throwing around very dangerous charges and allegations at people who may have had little or nothing to do with such attacks, and be concentrating on totally useless avenues of investigation and prevention.

[Cramulus]

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20071228/flatulence_expert_071228/

Flatulence expert defines 'normal' output rate

TORONTO -- So you think your husband's a little too adept at playing the colonic calliope? Wish your sleep wasn't interrupted by a fusillade of flatulence?


Well, if you think you've taken up residence in Beantown but he insists his output is normal, you can both at least take heart from the fact that debates like yours are raging all over.


You both should know this as well: Whether it takes the form of stealth bombers or noisy bottom burps, flatulence is a normal byproduct of the human body. Everybody farts, multiple times throughout the day and night.


But the whens and the hows can turn a basic bodily function into an inconvenient, unpleasant or downright embarrassing occurrence. And that leads some people to question what is normal and whether there's any way to turn down the tap, as it were, on the frequency, noise or odour quotients.


The fact of the matter is that while humankind has learned how to split the atom, manipulate genes and travel to the moon, it doesn't know all that much about how to reduce the production of natural gas.


"I know a lot about gas,'' says Dr. Michael Levitt, the American gastroenterologist who has unravelled much of what is known about human flatulence.


"I really can't treat anybody.''


Levitt is a veritable gas guru, a leading expert on the underappreciated field of flatus -- intestinal gas that escapes via the southern route. He admits his unusual expertise has put his three kids (one of whom is economist and "Freakonomics" co-author Steven Levitt) through expensive universities.


Levitt has gone to extraordinary lengths to plumb the mysteries of flatulence. He's captured farts in specially made Mylar pantaloons, measured the cocktail of gases they contain, even conducted a study devised to get to the bottom of what may be the most contentious question in the field: Which gender emits the smelliest farts?


So what have he and others learned about the fine art of flatulating?


It's a pretty common occurrence. Studies in which volunteers tracked their gas passage suggest people fart 10 to 20 times a day, with some hitting the 30, 40, even 50 mark, says Levitt, who is with the VA Medical Center in Minneapolis, Minn.


An Australian study that followed a group of men and women for a couple of months concluded men let rip on average 10 times a day, while women lag with eight emissions.


But producing less gas may create another problem for women -- and the people around them. Levitt's research suggests women's flatulence is more ... aromatic.


The study was the first ever attempt to provide an objective evaluation of the odour of flatus, Levitt explains. Volunteer judges, blinded to the identity of the generating gender, were asked to rank the potency of the end product.


Volunteer producers -- primed by a diet of pinto beans -- farted into aluminum bags via a rectal tube. The contents of the bags were measured for volume and for sulphur concentration. (Sulphur gases give farts their foul odour.) Syringes full of gas were withdrawn from the bags and wafted by the nostrils of the unfortunate judges.


"Some journal reviewed the worst jobs ever performed in science and this became the number 1,'' Levitt says with a chuckle.


"Now I might say the judges were paid well. Some of them complained of being dizzy and having a headache at the end of session.''


The conclusion: "Women had more sulphur gas and were judged to have more potent odour.''


Sulphur gases make up a tiny fraction of the overall volume of farts, Levitt says. But if that punch is concentrated, well, watch out.


"Individual passage of gas by males is appreciably greater than the individual passage by females -- in volume,'' Levitt explains. "So females could have a higher concentration of sulphur gases but the total amount passed per passage would be about the same.''


But who complains most about a partner's farts? Again, the distaff contingent takes the prize.


"It's often the women who are bringing the husband and saying: 'He's got a problem with gas.' And he says: 'No I don't,''' says Dr. Bruno Salena, a gastroenterologist at McMaster University in Hamilton.


Levitt concurs: "When I go to various parties, etc., I've never had a male complain about the gas passage of his female partner. But I've had so many complaints from the opposite direction it's ridiculous.''


In the main, flatulence is made up of five gases -- nitrogen and oxygen, which are swallowed while talking, chewing or drinking fizzy beverages, and carbon dioxide, hydrogen and methane, which are produced in the gastrointestinal tract during digestion of food.


Gas produced or trapped in the intestine only has three possible routes it can follow. Some will be absorbed into the body. Some will be burped out. And some will pass as flatulence.


People who lack bacteria that break down certain food components -- say lactose, the sugar in milk or some of the sugars in carbohydrates -- may produce more gas when they consume those foods.


That explains the potency of beans. They contain sugars humans can't break down. "So it's automatic that they're delivered to your large intestine, these sugars, where they churn out and make gas," Levitt says.


As for the noise, well, that's a product of restriction and pressure, says Salena, likening the process to whistling.


"Depends on the variables: the volume and pressure and the restriction," he explains.


"It's like making a sound with your lips, blowing air through your lips. And you can make that sound by some restriction and pressure. Similarly it (farting) is a combination of restriction and pressure. So it's a vibration of basically tissue, just like the lips."


As for cutting back on flatulence production, Salena suggests trying to reduce the amount of swallowed gas. Levitt is pessimistic about that option, insisting breaking that habit is hard to do. That's because people who swallow air are generally unaware they are doing it, he says.


Diets with extremely low carbohydrate intake produce little gas, but are hard to live on, Levitt notes. And many of the foods those regimes eschew should be part of a healthy diet, Salena says.


Maybe years of exposure to the subject have inured Levitt, but he says he doesn't give a hoot about the occasional toot.


"I don't worry one bit about gas. And I don't worry one thing about what I eat. I eat everything.''

Some weird factoids about flatulence through the ages:

-----------Blue angels: Only certain people have bacteria in the gastric systems that produce methane, Dr. Levitt says. And only methane-producers can perform the time-honoured frat house trick of igniting a blue flame when they hold a match to an escaping fart.

-----------Musical toots: In the 1800s Frenchman Joseph Pujol apparently became so adept at controlling his flatulence flow he could sound musical notes. Called "le Petomane'' _ the fartiste _ he was reputedly the highest paid performer in France at his prime.

-----------Colonic explosions: In the early days of colonoscopies, attempts to burn off polyps in the colon ignited explosive hydrogen gas in the colon of several unlucky people, sometimes with tragic results. The colon-cleansing preparations people now take the night before a colonoscopy have solved the problem. Says Levitt: "I've never heard of an explosion in someone who's had a decent prep. But until they used these prep solutions, there was a problem with explosions.''

[Triple Zero]

zomg colon explosions 

[Jenne]

FARTS!   

[e]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7401892.stm

At the Erez border crossing in Gaza, Israeli troops opened fire towards [Palestinian] demonstrators.

There was no immediate word of any casualties. There were also clashes between Palestinian protesters and Israeli troops near the Qalandiya refugee camp in the West Bank.

n Jerusalem, Mr Bush received a standing ovation from MPs at the Israeli parliament, the Knesset.

Mr Bush said: "Israel's population may be just over seven million.

"But when you confront terror and evil, you are 307m strong, because the United States of America stands with you."

Israeli PM Ehud Olmert said there should be a different Middle East over the next 60 years that would include a democratic homeland for Palestinians.

He also said he thought the Israeli people and parliament would overwhelmingly back a peace agreement with the Palestinians

At least not everybody in the Israeli government is an asshole.

[Cain]

I sometimes wonder if Bush realizes there are people in Iran and Syria saying the exact same thing.

Lets try it out.

Palestine's population may be just over a million.

"But when you confront terror and evil, you are 200m strong, because the Revolutionary Guard and our allies stand with you.

Yes, it sound just as retarded, whichever way you phrase it. 

[Cain]

http://episkoposcain.blogspot.com/2008/05/scientology-is-cult.html

Kid got arrested in London for holding a sign calling the Co$ a cult.

[LMNO]

What were the charges?

[Cain]

A spokeswoman for City of London Police said they had received complaints about the use of the words "cult" and "scientology kills" and warned protestors their signs breached the Public Order Act.

Chief Supt Rob Bastable said: "City of London Police upholds the right to demonstrate lawfully, but we have to balance that with the right of all sections of community not to be alarmed, harassed or distressed as a result of other people's behaviour."

[Cain]

Also note: my blog is hosted in California, so I can call the Scifags deluded little cultists all I want.  And did so in my post.

[Suu]

That sounds more like a slander issue than a rights issue. They make a big deal over here too about what we can/can't have on signs to avoid complications such as these.

[Cain]

That sounds more like a slander issue than a rights issue. They make a big deal over here too about what we can/can't have on signs to avoid complications such as these.

I don't care if its slander, because its true.

[Cramulus]

A spokeswoman for City of London Police said they had received complaints about the use of the words "cult" and "scientology kills" and warned protestors their signs breached the Public Order Act.

Chief Supt Rob Bastable said: "City of London Police upholds the right to demonstrate lawfully, but we have to balance that with the right of all sections of community not to be alarmed, harassed or distressed as a result of other people's behaviour."

ugh

well I guess it IS the government's job to make sure everyone stays complacent and asleep


ugh nonetheless