Holyshit, what's going on with my reality?

[Telarus]

I've run into so much whack shit today, it's hard to tell where to start. Cain, if you're out there, I would seriously appreciate any comments you may have.

Hm, ok, I'll start here.... My roommate passed this along:

We all may have caught the 'Russia arrests Greenpeace activists' story. I haven't dug into that plot point too much, but it seems some Dutch citizens sailed into Russian waters and boarded an oil platform (state owned, I believe).They escaped into international waters, but were arrested by Russian "border guards" while still in Russias "area of economic interest". OK, just the Aftermath rolling along, right? The interesting stuff happens next.

http://en.ria.ru/russia/20131008/184000274/Russias-Putin-Demands-Dutch-Apology-Over-Treatment-of-Diplomat.html

"MOSCOW, October 8 (RIA Novosti) – The stand-off between Russian and the Netherlands escalated Tuesday as Moscow angrily demanded a full account of how one its diplomats came to be arrested by the Dutch police over the weekend."

So, apparently, a group of armed men in camo fatigues grabs the Russian diplomat to the Netherlands, and takes him to a "jail" for quite a few hours. A DIPLOMAT, mind you, on apparently trumped up charges regarding his wife crashing a car or something, and child endagerment of his 2 and 4 year olds.

"The Foreign Ministry of the Netherlands on Tuesday confirmed that Dmitry Borodin, deputy to the ambassador at the Russian embassy in the Netherlands, was detained over the weekend and said it would investigate whether the incident had violated any diplomatic rules. Lavrov said the incident was in violation of the Vienna Convention, under which diplomats are granted immunity."

Putin, of course, was PISSED: "Putin, who was attending an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Bali on Tuesday, said earlier in the day that the incident with Borodin was "a crude violation of the Vienna Convention," and demanded "clarifications, apologies and the punishment of those guilty."
Specific details about what led to the detention of Borodin, a senior diplomat previously posted in Belgium, Luxembourg and several African countries, remain murky.
Russian state television Rossiya-24 reported that local police forced their way into Borodin's apartment, assaulted him, and then held him at a police station for several hours without explanation."

This started some "black-ops bs" thoughts in my head, but then THIS happens:

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe/2013/1016/Beaten-diplomats-and-bad-tulips-Russian-Dutch-ties-get-worse

"Onno Elderenbosch, deputy chief of the Dutch mission in Moscow, was attacked by two men posing as electricians after he admitted them to his apartment Tuesday evening, according to Russian media reports. The intruders roughed him up, tied him to a chair, stole nothing but scrawled the term "LGBT" [lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender] on his mirror in lipstick together with a Cupid's heart."

My roommate had dug into this side of it a bit (he used to work for Rand a while ago, habit). The Dutch diplomat to Russia was worked over from the neck down, nothing was stolen, and a "calling card" was left. That's a professional job, false flag lipstick non-withstanding.

So, were those really "environmental activists"? What the hell are these people up to. This is like the SAS strolling into the Argentina embassy and capping Assange in the face, then blaming it on Somali pirates.



Where do we turn next? I've been working killer overtime this week, breaking all the games. I really haven't even had time to _think_ about these stories yet. My time is often filled with four hour chunks of unplugging a wire, plugging it back in, and noting the results.

Oh, here's a one off: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/10/18/dick-cheney-altered-his-defibrilator-to-fight-terrorist-hackers/

*cackle* Ain't nobody hacking the cyborg VP.

But, the more pressing chaos bubbles over there: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-san-francisco-transit-strike-20131018,0,608333.story

And here, the NY Stock Exchange are now letting the 'big boys' practice before trading for really realness: http://money.msn.com/business-news/article.aspx?feed=AP&date=20131018&id=17014169

IBM is starting to break the current computer hardware paradign, with their 'electronic blood system': http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-24571219

Holyshit that's cool. The electrolyte solution carries power into and then carries heat out of the system. It's based on brain design.

There's an Eclipse tonight, for you non-down under folks (sorry spags): http://local.msn.com/lunar-eclipse-friday-where-to-see-it-2?ocid=ansloc11

Oshit, that's right now. BRB.

[Telarus]

Which I didn't see :P

Ooooh, but there's more...

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304384104579141600675336982
Skull Suggests Single Human Species Emerged From Africa, Not Several
Well-Preserved Find 1.8 Million Years Old Drastically Simplifies Evolutionary Picture

The discovery of a 1.8 million-year-old skull has offered evidence that humanity's early ancestors emerged from Africa as a single adventurous species, not several species as believed, drastically simplifying the story of human evolution, an international research team said Thursday.

The skull—the most complete of its kind ever discovered—is "a really extraordinary find," said paleoanthropologist Marcia Ponce de Leon at the University of Zurich's Anthropological Institute and Museum, who helped analyze it. "It is in a perfectly preserved state."

Unearthed at Dmanisi in Georgia, an ancient route in the Caucasus for the first human migrations out of Africa, the skull was found at a spot where partial fossils of four other similar individuals and a scattering of crude stone tools had been found several years ago. They all date from a time when the area was a humid forest where saber-tooth tigers and giant cheetahs prowled. Preserved in siltstone beneath the hilltop ruins of a medieval fortress, the remains are the earliest known human fossils outside Africa, experts said.

Taken together, the finds at Dmanisi are especially important because experts in evolution could analyze the physical differences between individuals living in the same place at the same time almost 2 million years ago, when humankind first emerged from Africa to people the world, according to Yale University anthropologist Andrew Hill.

"It gives you a chance to look at variation for the first time," said Dr. Hill, who was not involved in the discovery.

By comparing these five extinct creatures at Dmanisi to each other, and to other specimens from the same era in Africa, the researchers concluded that all of the primordial peoples of the Homo genus—the root-stock of the modern human family tree—likely belonged to just one species spreading out across the continents, not three or more as many experts have argued.

Their conclusion breaks with recent practice in the scholarly search for human origins. Typically, researchers have highlighted the differences between various human fossils, often assigning each new discovery to a separate species, and not grouping them by physical traits they had in common.

In this analysis, researchers concluded that the fossil remains most likely belonged to a tool-using species called Homo erectus, which existed from about 2 million years ago to about 143,000 years ago. Its fossilized remains have been found in Africa, Spain, Indonesia, India, China and Java. The earliest Homo sapiens, modern humans, emerged about 195,000 years ago.

"They nailed it," said paleoanthropologist Tim D. White at the University of California at Berkeley, who was not involved in the project. "This will cut a lot of dead wood that has accumulated in the family tree that paleontologists love to draw."

Known simply as Skull #5, the fossilized head bones likely belonged to a male, whose brain was about one-third the size of a modern human brain. The skull has a "strange combination of features," Dr. Ponce de Leon said. The face was relatively flat and long, with massive brows, a projecting jaw and big teeth.

The creature had a healed cheek fracture, a touch of arthritis and, by the evidence of wear, used his teeth for gripping things. He stood upright, with relatively modern arms and legs, the researchers said.

The other four fossilized individuals unearthed earlier at Dmanisi included skull fragments belonging to an elderly toothless male, a young female, a second adult male and an adolescent whose gender wasn't known. Although they shared common ground, they died separately, perhaps decades apart.

Using Skull #5 as a benchmark, the researchers compared the five specimens. They examined the variations in skull bones, jaws and teeth traditionally used to sort such fossils into different species.

Through a computer analysis, the researchers determined that the variations among these five early humans were no greater than the differences normally found between members of any single primate species, including chimpanzees, bonobos or modern humankind.

If their analysis proves true, experts will have to reconsider the pattern of early human evolution.

"There are these jaw-dropping moments in the life of a scientist," said neurobiologist Christoph Zollikofer at the University of Zurich, who analyzed the skull and the other Dmanisi fossils. "You can feel in your brain how all these preconceived ideas you had start falling to pieces."


I love that last line.


Has some-one brought this up? http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505263_162-57608201/scientist-calls-out-nuclear-waste-dump-issues-gets-fired/

I can't remember right now.

Oh, this is amazing, go look at this right now:

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/10/mojave-mro-mars/
Stop What You're Doing and Fly Over This Amazing Crater Rim on Mars

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

This is interesting, because one of the things about human evolution that has been fascinating me lately is that Neanderthals inhabited northern Europe and were likely the origin of  the pale skin/hair/eyes mutation that made subsequent waves of Homo Sapiens Sapiens successful in those cold climates. Neanderthals also had larger cranial cavities and therefore likely larger brain mass than Homo Sapiens Sapiens. At the same time, they had smaller cerebral cortices, the part of our brains in which we process long-term consequences.

[Telarus]

That's a great link, thanks! I'll have to think on that a bit. It's all very Shadowrun, with the orks and elves and trolls all just "humans" with adaptations...


Oh, I've found something else I wanted to fly by Cain and the rest of you all.

On Thursday [of last year -thanks Cain], Prince Bandar was appointed Saudi Arabia's spy chief. For anyone who hasn't run into this fact yet, Bandar was the diplomat to Waashingron for 22 years, before being pulled home in 2005.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/20/us-saudi-princebandar-idUSBRE86J12J20120720

Today, this happened.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/18/us-saudi-securitycouncil-idUSBRE99H0FL20131018?feedType=RSS
Saudis reject Security Council seat, angry over Mideast inaction

I wonder if this is tied to the House of Saud running arms to the Syrian rebels.... legal conflicts somewhere if they accepted the seat?


Anyway. Anyone reading, feel free to comment on any topic. We'll all roll with it 

[Cain]

=

[Telarus]

Thanks Cain. I was tired enough to overlook that date, I guess.


The flux is still fucking with me. I mean, even dead Etruscan princes are changing sex on us.

http://www.nbcnews.com/science/oops-etruscan-warrior-prince-was-actually-princess-8C11422309

Instead of using objects found in a grave to interpret the sites, archaeologists should first rely on bone analysis or other sophisticated techniques, Weingarten said.

"Until very recently, and sadly still in some countries, sex determination is based on grave goods. And that, in turn, is based almost entirely on our preconceptions. A clear illustration is jewelry: We associate jewelry with women, but that is nonsense in much of the ancient world," Weingarten said. "Guys liked bling, too."

I like the trend of scientists blowing away preconceived ideas, tho.

The Saudis are worried that American progress in Iranian negotiations will reopen the possibility of the 1970s status quo (Iran as American enforcer in the Middle East, alternative source of oil) being resurrected.  Of course, that would be politically difficult for any American president to accomplish, but that's the fear driving this.

That, and Bandar is butthurt that he's not getting overt American support to crush Assad and put a more pliant regime in place in Damascus.  Well, pliant to the House of Saud, anyway.

Damn, that makes a lot of sense. And we DON'T HEAR THIS in the media... Why?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BO-TyETzNO8

Amber Lyon, a former CNN correspondent, says authoritarian regimes including Bahrain pay CNN to provide favorable coverage and censor parts of its content.

I knew that CNN sold out to Coca-cola, and that our government may have had editorial influence. The reality? Our government uses our taxes to hide information from us, and is totally OK with other governments paying major media organizations to do the same.

Here's a good examination of the events and probabilities:
http://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/15809/did-journalist-amber-lyon-claim-that-the-us-government-paid-cnn-to-control-conte

One of the more interesting commentators included this bit, which I found very interesting:

She does have some issues with the Obama Administration, however, but they have nothing to do with them paying for content or CNN. In her interview with (ahem) Alex Jones, she talks about how she feels the present Administration has made all news outlets afraid of publishing stories that include sources they've deemed as "terrorists".

This, she says, has put the government in control of what gets reported, because journalists don't want to be indicted to reveal their sources. She says the government should not be in control of who is deemed a terrorist, and who is not, and that journalists shouldn't be threatened with indictment to reveal their sources, even if the government considers those sources to be threats to national security. (Source)

I think this is a interesting claim, and it's a shame that this isn't what's being spread around in infographics and overwrought websites.

[Telarus]

Wow, here's another. The mathematics behind mammal urination have been discovered:

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn24425-universal-law-of-urination-found-in-mammals.html#.UmMQjVAqjTq

What the hell is going on, I mean seriously.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Wow, here's another. The mathematics behind mammal urination have been discovered:

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn24425-universal-law-of-urination-found-in-mammals.html#.UmMQjVAqjTq

What the hell is going on, I mean seriously.

New Scientist.

[Kai]

Wow, here's another. The mathematics behind mammal urination have been discovered:

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn24425-universal-law-of-urination-found-in-mammals.html#.UmMQjVAqjTq

What the hell is going on, I mean seriously.

New Scientist.

Also, http://arxiv.org/abs/1310.3737 Something not quite right about that paper. It has only an introduction.

[PopeSlag]

Hello!

I have been to this forum all of twice, and haven't visited this website in ten years, but I signed up today just to say that this post was awesome, and the links were greatly appreciated.

I remain hopeful that Dick Cheney's modified robot heart will become sentient, and to fulfill the mandate of behaving as a human heart will leak state secrets to the public.

-Pope Slag

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Wow, here's another. The mathematics behind mammal urination have been discovered:

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn24425-universal-law-of-urination-found-in-mammals.html#.UmMQjVAqjTq

What the hell is going on, I mean seriously.

New Scientist.

Also, http://arxiv.org/abs/1310.3737 Something not quite right about that paper. It has only an introduction.

Whoa, yeah. Is it a joke paper? Or was there some kind of publishing error? If it was a publishing error, did New Scientist actually see the rest of the paper or did they write their whole article based on the introduction alone?

[MMIX]

It seems to be a real paper but its quite hard to review it before it has been presented. http://meetings.aps.org/Meeting/DFD13/Event/202555
New Scientist are going to be really pissed off if it really is a pisstake paper.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Oh, so it's garbage. Par for the course for New Scientist.

[Telarus]

More craziness, this time from the Vatican.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-24638430
"The Vatican has suspended a senior German Church leader dubbed the "bishop of bling" by the media over his alleged lavish spending. Bishop of Limburg Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst is accused of spending more than 31m euros (£26m; $42m) on renovating his official residence."

[Telarus]

....and some biology craziness:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/rosspomeroy/2013/10/23/money-cant-grow-on-trees-but-gold-can/