Nosy Eurocrats

I just came across reports of a big scientific study in Belgium (I know, who knew they did scientific studies in Belgium? not yours truly, that's for sure). For sixteen months, they studied 226 patients who came to doctors for nose jobs - that's rhinoplasty in medical-speak.

I didn't see anything that told what the split was between the sexes, but these folks were all sixteen or older. 

What they found was this: 

• If the patient came for functional rhinoplasty, meaning to make the nose work better for breathing and so forth, then they were rational and/or sane in 98% of the cases
• If the patient came for cosmetic rhinoplasty, meaning to make the nose look better, then they were mentally ill in 43% of the cases.

So these Belgian Eurocrats are telling their serfs, “If you want to breathe through your nose, that's fine. If you’re just not crazy about your nose, it’s because you are just crazy. Period.”

The study’s authors pinned a diagnosis of BDD – Body Dysmorphic Disorder – on those seeking cosmetic help. BDD is defined as "a condition marked by excessive concern over minor or imagined flaws in one’s appearance." Good grief, folks, why else would anyone get a cosmetic nose job? It's just because she doesn't like the way her nose looks, OK? No big deal.

I'm guessing these Eurocrats' mothers never taught then that “beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” so now they've decided that it's up to them to tell everyone how they should look. 

In other words, there is no room for individual taste or style in the coming Eurocracy. What will the fashion houses of Italy do? What indeed?

Posted by Lewis Cannon

Parsing Pelosi

Pelosi tweet: What we’re trying to do is save the world from the Republican budget..We’re trying to save life on this planet as we know it today.

As has recently been the case, this tweet takes very little parsing.
"Life on this planet as we know it today," for Pelosi is simply the life of taxing and distributing money (read "granting fiefs" if you will) in order to gain perpetual reelection.
Should any real spending reform come to pass, life as 'Representative' Pelosi has come to know it would most definitely come to an end. Frankly, I'm not sure who - apart from those directly affected in the DC-tocracy - would mourn that end.

Pay attention to what they actually say, and definitely not just to which words they mouth.

Posted by Pygmalion 56

Travels in Space and Time

Professor Du Shengwang at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology claims proof that a single photon obeys Einstein's theory of General Relativity. Expanding on this claim, Prof. Du asserts that this proves that time travel is impossible.

In essence, the good professor's claim is that the quantum behavior of light which his team has observed also confirms the wave behavior of light. He further asserts that because a photon cannot move faster than a photon, then neither can anything else.

First, it's clear that Prof. Du is only addressing time travel to the past with this claim, as we all travel through time at 60 sec/minute, absent any particular acceleration frame.
Secondly, it's also clear that Prof. Du is overreaching in his application of this "discovery" that photons move at the speed of light.

Consider the familiar twins paradox, where one is accelerated to a significant proper fraction of the speed of light and the other remains stationary during his twin's travels. When they are reunited, the returning twin will find that he has moved into his own future - more time will have elapsed on Earth (we'll assume that's the locale) than will have for him in his ship.
Observed, however, from the opposite viewpoint, the stationary twin - in a very real sense - will have traveled to his own past, as represented by his now-younger twin.
According to Einstein, it's all one which frame of reference we choose, so there's no real reason, other than convention, to choose only the future-ward time dilation.

We believe that at Groom Lake, government physicists are currently experimenting with just this sort of reference-frame reversal scenario in order to develop a faster than light drive.
If nothing else, there is always the Warp Drive outlined at Baylor University which addresses this precise thought experiment: they force the "ship" to remain stationary while forcing space itself to flow past at ftl speeds.

Posted by Procrustes 17

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Who Is Using All That Water?

1. The European Space Agency's Herschel Space Observatory has detected water being transferred to Saturn from its 6th largest moon, Enceladus.
2. The water vapor ring is about ten times the radius of Saturn itself.
3. The water can no longer be observed once it gets below the upper atmosphere of the planet.

This raises the obvious question - a question which is neither acknowledged nor answered by the European scientists in their reports: Who is using that water, and for what?

Why won't the European science bureaucrats even let us know that they're investigating this question?

Why won't they reveal what they already know?

When will full disclosure of the water cycle and usage on Saturn, Enceladus, and Titan be realized?

We will report here when more information is available. Stay tuned!

Posted by Listener 43

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CERN to Hide Higgs Boson

The scientists at CERN are up to it again. Last week we reported on their active refusal to report the results of their experiments regarding cosmic rays and climate change. This week's apparent outrage seems even more insidious than their last.
It appears that the folks at CERN's Large Hadron Collider are steering the rest of the particle-accelerator world away from particular energy levels as they all seek the Higgs Boson. By telling their colleagues that they've ruled out certain energy ranges, they've essentially assured themselves of exclusivity in those precise ranges.

We once again have to be concerned that CERN - with that worlds' largest particle accelerator - are looking to reap the benefits of proving the existence of the Higgs Boson. Until they have submitted all these results to the normal process of peer-review, we can only assume the worst - that they've found this elusive particle, and are working on proprietary ways to harness it for their own gain, scientific, financial, or other.

Until CERN is forthcoming with details of their discovery, rather than throwing elementary particle red herrings into the world's tokamaks, we have little chance of proving or disproving this dire suspicion. We can only hope that the powers that be at CERN will realize the responsibility that comes with high energy physics domination.

Posted by Procrustes 17

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Radiation and Antibiotics

They Know What's Good For Us?!?!?

Just in case you thought that the Eurocrats in Brussels were the only governmentals who have decided that they know what's best for their serfs, I ran across another eye opening pseudo-scientific brouhaha from the UK - the last even partial bastion of freedom left in Europe as far as I can tell.
In spite of the fact that there are tons of studies that show that moderate drinking is good for you, the British Medical Association has decided that alcohol is bad for everyone in all circumstances at all times and that there's no reason to take facts into account when they have the chance to tell people how to live their lives with the authority that comes with those MD and BMA letters.

The mere fact that moderate drinkers are 30% less likely to develop coronary heart disease than are teetotallers has no bearing on the Medical Association's prescriptions for their largely undiscerning victims. After all, it's more important that people live the lives the BMA wants for them than that they have happy and healthy lives.
I will admit that there is one positive thing that I found here, and it's that there's some kind of review going on to see if the BMA makes recommendations that are in line with and based on actual science instead of their Nanny State bureaucratic wanna-be-ism as it really seems to be. Now we can just hope that this will be coming to a medical association near you - actual medical advice based on science instead of political correctness - or worse, on political correction.

Wake up and Stand up, America!

Posted by Lewis Cannon

The Earth's Rotation Is At Risk

1. Nepal accepts a height of 8,484m (29,029') for Mount Everest based on a 1955 Indian survey.
2. China claims its height is only 8,844m - a claim based on the height of the rock, rather than on the snow on top of the rock at the peak.
3. Nepal will mount a high tech effort to measure the height, using triangulated GPS signals.
4. The US National Geographic did the same thing in 1999 - measuring it at 8,850m.

Further investigation indicates that this was not simply a correction in the height of the mountain. Rather, Everest is rising as continental plates shift. By the time Nepal can correct China's recalcitrance, the mountain will likely be several millimeters taller than their measurement will indicate.

Why won't the National Geographic report the constant shift of the Earth's mass from its current, relatively even distribution to its future shape with a large bulge in the Himalayas?
What can be done to combat the coming instability of the Earth's rotation?
Will day and night have different lengths, based on the wobbling to come?

We will report back as more details become available!

Posted by Listener 43

H2O and USB

1. Vitamin Water is offering USB ports to charge mobile devices in bus shelters in various US cities.
2. This is in support of their "ad positioning" as an alternative energy source.
3. There is supposed to be nothing but electrical power being supplied by these ports.

While the pseudo-altruism of free electricity is somewhat appealing, and perhaps borderline clever as well, it is quite apparent that there is more here than meets the eye. It would be nearly incredible if for every USB session initiated by electron-hungry consumers, there weren't some kind of Trojan, Worm, or Virus being initiated and/or installed.
As we've known for most of recorded history, tanstaafl - There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch - and there ain't no such thing as a free charge either.

Just who is behind the applications being installed, and to whom will data be delivered? We'll have updates here as soon as more data becomes available.

Posted by Listener 43

CERN, Cosmic Rays, and Cover-Ups

"I have asked the colleagues to present the results clearly, but not to interpret them, as that would go immediately into the highly political arena of the climate change debate. One has to make clear that cosmic radiation is only one of many parameters." - CERN Director General Rolf-Dieter Heuer, regarding the latest experiment concerning cosmic rays and atmospheric cloud formation.

While the director general of CERN has carefully cloaked his language, making it appear that he is concerned about his scientists' entering the anthropogenic climate change controversy, it seems clear that he is actually working to divert attention from the real results of this experiment.

As reported here last week, the radiation from microwave ovens has been implicated in the development of antibiotic- and pesticide- resistant micro- and macro- organisms. There is further some previously unreported concern regarding the source of the increase in brain cancer, as there seems to be no link with mobile phone usage.
We have to be concerned that CERN, with the world's largest particle accelerator, has been experimenting with cosmic rays with energies far beyond those found in the very center of an industrial strength microwave. It seems obvious - but we won't jump to any unwarranted conclusions - that this may be nothing more than a cover for the electrical appliance industry world-wide.

Until CERN is forthcoming with full details of why they refuse to publish studies correlating sea-level ozone concentrations and brain tumor incidence with microwave oven usage, there is little chance of our finding the truth in the peer-reviewed journals.
Indeed, until that time, this blog may be your only source of analysis of this near-criminally under-reported topic.

Posted by Procrustes 17

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Parsing the Prez #2

"I mean, if the basic proposition is it's my way or the highway, then we're probably not going to get something done..." -- president 0bama

"I will not sign a 30-day or a 60-day or a 90-day extension. That is just not an acceptable approach." -- president 0bama

“Eric, don’t call my bluff,” president 0bama (to Rep. Eric Cantor)

0bama told Cantor that he would either have to agree to tax increases or give up on his demand that the debt hike be matched dollar-to-dollar to the cuts — that is, $2.5 trillion in deficit-reduction over 10 years in exchange for a $2.5 trillion hike in the debt ceiling.

So, the president is saying that when Republicans insist on their way, it's obstructionism, but when he insists on his way, it's negotiation.  Hard to parse that series of statements out any other way.

It's also interesting to see that he's admitted that he's bluffing ("don't call my bluff"), although the republicans seem unable to even post a rejoinder (such as "Oh, so you're bluffing, are you?").

Quite disheartening, but quite clear.  Also clear is that the feds are still telling us that the only way to get out of debt is to borrow more money. They need help.

Posted by Pygmalion 56

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Dynamite and Denial

1. In Bolungarvik, Iceland avalanches are a problem.
2. The town council elected to build an avalanche barrier, using dynamite to blast through some rock in the area.
3. The town was then pummeled with hand-sized rocks, damaging several houses.
4. Locals understood this to be retaliation by the local elves (or huldufolk) for the unwanted destruction of their lands.

The town council refused all reasonable requests to mollify the elves, claiming they knew better the reasons for the attack, so the local citizens were forced to organize their own impromptu apology session - much as Icelanders have often done when building roads, highways, and other construction activities in the elves habitat.
Once again, we find the powers that be refusing to acknowledge what is commonly known - as if by denying the truth they can make it go away.

We know better - the truth may need some help from time to time, but the truth will out. Stay tuned for more reports from Iceland as details become available.

Posted by Listener 43

Raise Taxes Or The Old Lady Gets It!

Listening to president 0bama brings back thoughts of FDR and National Lampoon, because I can remember that National Lampoon had a cover where they were threatening to shoot a dog if you didn't buy a copy of the magazine and then I also remember that FDR said the only thing we had to fear was fear itself. It's kind of amazing that from one Democrat president telling us not to be afraid of anything we moved on to another Democrat president telling us we'd better be afraid of pretty much everything and give him what he wants or else he'll take away our parents and grandparents by not giving them money and medicine from the feds.

Good grief, people, are you even thinking out there? Here's the man who said he was going to fundamentally transform America and he's doing it right in front of our faces in ways no thinking person can possibly think is good, nice, American, or Constitutional and we're not doing anything other than saying that John Boehner better not cave and we hope he doesn't cry about it but that doesn't really amount to much of a hill of beans in the final analysis since the president seems to think he can do whatever he wants by bureaucratic fiat or by executive orders and he's got some tame senators who don't understand that giving the Executive Branch the powers that are clearly reserved to the Legislative Branch would be a bad idea and so it's time for someone other than just yours truly to stand up and say I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it any more, just like Howard what's-his-name in that movie from a pretty long time ago.

Posted by Lewis Cannon

News of the World - Update!!!

Have The Mighty Fallen, Or Were They Pushed?

To recap:

1. News of the World broke into private voicemail accounts.
2. News of the World used the information they got there to make a load of cash by breaking stories no one else could get.
3. News International - NotW's parent company - is in big trouble with the British Government in relation to these activities (generally being reported as "hacking" - see our teammate Gyro Gearloose's post on this topic for a quick yet powerful debunking of this notion).
4. Rupert Murdoch may not be allowed to buy the rest of BSkyB as a result of this brouhaha, much to his chagrin.

What's that? They may not be allowed to buy the rest of BSkyB? It appears that News International has withdrawn its bid; but why?
Clearly it was to avoid the inevitable slap by the British Government, which was poised to say "NO" to the deal based on the immense furor over the badly mis-named hacking controversy by the now-defunct News of the World newspaper.


Why was the British Government - their equivalent of our Federal Government here in the USofA - so interested in this clearly distasteful and now-financially-ruinous behavior? and why are they still not forthcoming regarding the real reasons for their intense interests here?
The reasons are clear, feds of any nationality don't want anyone else poking around in other people's business - that's their job, and they don't like competition, and they just made a big clear expensive example of Murdoch and his brood.

Stay tuned for more!

Posted by Procrustes 17

Radiation and Antibiotics

Since 1954, and especially since 1967:

1. There has been a marked increase in antibiotic-resistant strains of many types of bacteria.
2. There has been a significant growth in the number of insect species which are resistant to the various insecticides being used in homes, in agriculture, and in other commercial activities.
3. There has been a widespread increase in the incidence of childhood asthma and many previously-unknown food allergies.

What is special about those dates is that in 1954, the Raytheon folks started marketing commercial microwave ovens, and in 1967 Amana introduced the home model of the Radar Range.
As scientists will tell you, there is a major difference between ionizing and non-ionizing radiation as far as their abilities to cause "radiation sickness" symptoms.
As our government scientists at the CDC and NIH won't tell you, since we've been irradiating the microbes and insects which accidentally find themselves in our microwaves, the problem of drug- and chemical- resistant pests has grown at nearly exponential rates.
Why won't our governments tell us what's really going on? Stay tuned as we continue to investigate this potentially deadly threat.

Posted by Procrustes 17

News of the World

1. News of the World broke into private voicemail accounts.
2. News of the World used the information they got there to make a load of cash by breaking stories no one else could get.
3. News International - NotW's parent company - is in big trouble with the British Government in relation to these activities (generally being reported as "hacking" - see our teammate Gyro Gearloose's post on this topic for a quick yet powerful debunking of this notion).
4. Rupert Murdoch may not be allowed to buy the rest of BSkyB as a result of this brouhaha, much to his chagrin.

Why is the British Government - their equivalent of our Federal Government here in the USofA - so interested in this clearly distasteful and now-financially-ruinous behavior? and why won't they be forthcoming regarding the real reasons for their intense interests here?
The reasons are clear, feds of any nationality don't want anyone else poking around in other people's business - that's their job, and they don't like competition.

Posted by Procrustes 17

That's NOT Hacking!

Oh great, another old-line traditional media company gets in trouble for breaking the law and the rest of the oldsters writing it up call it "hacking" because they don't know any better and they figure everyone knows that hackers are all criminals and bad guys, so we might as well paint these guys with that same broad brush, right?

Paying a corrupt cop or security guard for phone numbers isn't hacking.
Guessing someone's voicemail password isn't hacking.
Deleting voicemails from someone else's voicemail isn't hacking.

Good grief, people, at least learn what the words mean before you use them! Don't they teach anything in journalism school any more? Did they ever teach anything in journalism schools?

What a bunch of chumps reporters must be - including the supposed reporters at NotW!

Posted by Gyro Gearloose