Thermal Depolymerization

“Unlike other solid-to-liquid-fuel processes such as cornstarch into ethanol, this one will accept almost any carbon-based feedstock. If a 175-pound man fell into one end, he would come out the other end as 38 pounds of oil, 7 pounds of gas, and 7 pounds of minerals, as well as 123 pounds of sterilized water.”

And the process produces energy!

More info from Wikipedia here.

Good links with more info (among other the PDF to the article from Discover Magazine) here.

The Discover Magazine page here, but you have to be a member.


With this, we won't have to wonder if we shall cremate or burry people :)
As long as we don't kill them on purpose in the first place!


Posted in: _Sciences

QOTD

"A billion here, a billion there, pretty soon it adds up to real money."

- Senator Everett Dirksen

Norwegian Oil Bourse, in Euros?

Now I have to wonder how the Neocons will make Norway into a part of the Axis of Evil :)

Norway (together with Iran and others) starts to say that pricing oil in Euros would be more efficient.
This would bring big trouble to the USD!


Posted in: _Economy , _Geopolitics

Unconstitutional

A documentary that investigates the ways in which the civil liberties of American citizens and immigrants have been rolled back since the September 11 and the Patriot Act.

Scary!
Martial law on US soil for US citizens.
The government puts itself above the US law. They can declare anybody a enemy combatant, and these don't have rights and can be detained indefinitely.


Posted in: _Democracy , _USA

QOTD

"With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion."

- Steven Weinberg

Who's reading me?

Hello my dear readers! :)

I am kindly asking you to let me know if you are following this blog, either by checking it regularly or because you subscribed to the RSS feed.
I think I have a rough idea about how many people follow it but I would like to check how far off I am :)

Please post a comment with a way for me to recognize you, and some more general comments if you have/feel like it.

I know I post a lot about the USA. I am trying hard to broaden my subjects :)
But about the USA posts, are they too specific (i.e. not interesting for you because it doesn't really concern you) or simply uninteresting?

I would like to point out that I also use this blog to keep track of good info when I get across some so I can find it again easily if needs be.

Thanks for helping me here! :)


Posted in: _General

Chavez threatens to cut off oil to U.S.

So Chavez is playing tough with the USA...

Who will back down, or be removed first? Chavez or the USA?
More to come soon :)


Posted in: _Geopolitics

Criticisms of the 9/11 Commission Report

Wikipedia has a nice little page on the 9/11 commission report.

I have to admit that the whole 9/11 stuff and the official explanations behind it sounds very fishy to me. We have been lied to that is for sure, things have been covered up (National Security is a reason that comes into mind).
But by how much?
What are the dark secrets behind it? How much was the Bush administration involved and why would they not try to control the outcome of the commission?

More info on Wikipedia, and many other places if you care to search...


Posted in: _911

Winter in Russia

Living in Russia doesn't to be a special nice experience, especially if you are a foreigner.
Russia is getting richer, but still has a long way to go to reach western standards.
Corruption, abuse of power and carelessness can cost you your life!

But faced with a rapid population decline, Russia might have to reform its practices fast...


Posted in: _Society

Weapon of Mass Deception

An April 2004 poll by the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland found that almost half of the American public still believed Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction before the invasion of Iraq and 57% believe Hussein gave substantial support to Al Qaeda. There's no known documentary or physical evidence to date that these statements are true. So why do Americans believe this?

Weapon of Mass Deception is a very interesting documentary. It shows how the facts were always show in a special way in order to influence you to think in a pre-determined way, the administration way.
I have to admit that the Pentagone and the administration did a very good job, and that the journalists failed their pledge which is to research the facts, not simply to report the scoops.
It shows very well that today's society is all about bread and circus, not so much about Truth.
But has it ever been otherwise?

Find it and watch it :)


Posted in: _IraqWar , _USA

Israel/Palestine debate

What happens when a former Israeli Foreign Minister debates a scholar known as one of the world's foremost critics of Israeli policy? The answer is not what you may expect. We spend the hour with Shlomo Ben Ami, author of "Scars of War, Wounds of Peace," and Norman Finkelstein, author of "Beyond Chutzpah".

Interesting debate if you care about the subject.


Posted in: _Palestine

History of CIA Interrogation

Once again, very good report from democracynow.org!

"We now take a look at what lies behind the shocking images of torture at Abu Ghraib prison by turning to the history of the CIA and torture techniques. Professor Alfred McCoy talks about his book 'A Question of Torture'”, a startling expose of the CIA development of psychological torture from the Cold War to Abu Ghraib."


Mr McCoy tells us that the techniques used in Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo have been developed by the CIA in order to get the most efficient results during interrogation sessions.
These techniques are the results of decades of research and didn't end up in Iraq just because some bad apples were bored during the night shift.

Worse, the new law championed by Senator McCain won't really change a thing since Bush kept the following 3 powers:

• The Commander in Chief, in a time of war, can authorize anything he sees fit to ensure National Security
• CIA agents are allowed to torture if they do it for vital information
• Guantanamo isn't part of the USA, hence USA law doesn't apply there.

This is madness, there is no law anymore!!! The military does as it pleases!
So guys, just pray you will never be taken in extraordinary rendition...


Posted in: _IraqWar , _Sciences

Hunting in a post 9-11 world

Hilarious! :)

Jon Stewart: “I’m joined now by our own vice-presidential firearms mishap analyst, Rob Corddry. Rob, obviously a very unfortunate situation. How is the vice president handling it?
Rob Corddry: “Jon, tonight the vice president is standing by his decision to shoot Harry Wittington. According to the best intelligence available, there were quail hidden in the brush. Everyone believed at the time there were quail in the brush.
“And while the quail turned out to be a 78-year-old man, even knowing that today, Mr. Cheney insists he still would have shot Mr. Whittington in the face. He believes the world is a better place for his spreading buckshot throughout the entire region of Mr. Whittington’s face.”
Jon Stewart: “But why, Rob? If he had known Mr. Whittington was not a bird, why would he still have shot him?”
Rob Corddry: “Jon, in a post-9-11 world, the American people expect their leaders to be decisive. To not have shot his friend in the face would have sent a message to the quail that America is weak.”
Jon Stewart: “That’s horrible.”
Rob Corddry: “Look, the mere fact that we’re even talking about how the vice president drives up with his rich friends in cars to shoot farm-raised wingless quail-tards is letting the quail know ‘how’ we’re hunting them. I’m sure right now those birds are laughing at us in that little ‘covey’ of theirs.
Jon Stewart: “I’m not sure birds can laugh, Rob.”
Rob Corddry: “Well, whatever it is they do … coo .. they’re cooing at us right now, Jon, because here we are talking openly about our plans to hunt them. Jig is up. Quails one, America zero.
Jon Stewart: “Okay, well, on a purely human level, is the vice president at least sorry?”
Rob Corddry: “Jon, what difference does it make? The bullets are already in this man’s face. Let’s move forward across party lines as a people … to get him some sort of mask.”

Video here.


Posted in: _Fun

The hard truth about oil

If CNN starts to finally understand that the only way out of the oil addiction is efficiency, then maybe the US consumers will finally understand that the American Way of Life needs serious changes to cope with today's realities.

But I think it is still too soon to hope :)


Posted in: _PeakOil

Rummy's Wish List

Here is the new budget for the US army!

This should make people wonder what kind of world we are building for ourselves...

With China being the only mighty enough military power to stand up to the US army, and a budget gone from $300 Billions in 2001 to over $550 (!) Billions today, you start to wonder when, not whether, WW4 is going to destroy the planet.

This is INSANE!!


Posted in: _USA , _Geopolitics

Politics Update

Very good entry on Miguel De Icaza's bog.

About secret wiretaps and no-fly lists.

I don't know exactly what the current administration is doing but it stinks!!!


Posted in: _Geopolitics

Funny Stuff

Click on the pictures to get the big version :)


Posted in: _Fun

China’s Stranglehold on the Dollar

So China has the second biggest reserve of USD and seems willing to diversify...

If they start to sell USDs, it will be interesting indeed to see how much this affects the value of the dollar.

So stay tuned and have a look at the USD/EUR exchange rate!


Posted in: _Economy

Best Bush imitation ever

Since I am reporting really funny stuff, I have to talk about this one!

Not only it is funny but the guy manages to mimic Bush's voice so well that it simply sound exactly like him!

Here is the video.
And I have a copy on my web server here.


Posted in: _Fun

You are Welcome by Colbert

Stephen Colbert is a great entertainer (as I wrote 3 posts ago)!

But I think this piece gets the cake!!
This is his best piece so far.

I recommend you watch it.
Hilarious :)

Link for Windows.
Link for all (site really bloated hence slow but it works for Linux. If you have a better one, let me know! I am also interested if you have a file version)


Posted in: _Fun

Freedom of Speech

I don't know what you guys (the few of you reading my blog :P) think about all this, but I am a bit amazed by the proportion these Mohammed cartoons are taking.
There has been dead people over this!

I am completely in favor of freedom of speech. It doesn't mean that it is clever to say or draw stupid things, but people should have the right nonetheless. If people really go too far, they will be put on the side by the mainstream anyway.
But I have to admit that giving a big kick the beehive of islamism was not very subtle.

But come on! All these Muslim people are going way to far!
You don't burn embassies over that. At the most you can boycott a country, or a union. You can express your disagreement in a more constructive way.

All this comfort me in the belief that religion is not a good thing. It make people focus too much on the symbols and dogmas and not enough on the spirituality behind it.


Posted in: _Democracy , _Society

$700 million corruption in Palestine

That is not quite going to help the Fatah movement...

And this corruption problem really has to go away if the Palestinians want to build their own nation in peace with Israel.
Hamas being seen as not corrupt, it might be one of the reasons why people voted for them recently...


Posted in: _Palestine

Comedy Central

Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert are just too good comics. They both have this ability to make you fall on the floor laughing using the stupidity of the media and the politicians!

Here is a good article about Colbert.

I recommend the videos of their shows available on the Net.
The Daily Show.
The Colbert Report.


And have fun :)


Posted in: _Fun

SOTU: Krugman comments

Another reaction to the SOTU 2006.

I watched the SOTU and I have to admit that all this nice sentences and fine words usually leave me very puzzled (and the ones standing up and applauding every 2 minutes because the greatness of the USA has been mention are plainly irritating, borderline stupid).
Where things start to get a bit more interesting is when people comment on the SOTU and show you how much bullsh*t there really was in it.
Paul has some good input for this :)

Bush: "Replace more than 75 percent of our oil imports from the Middle East."
Paul: "The administration has actually been scaling back the very research that Mr. Bush hyped Tuesday night: the National Renewable Energy Laboratory is about to lay off staff because of budget cuts."

More stuff in the piece from Mr Krugman.


Posted in: _USA , _Geopolitics

Why some smoke more than others

This short but interesting article answers this question.

According to some research, the answer is in the genes.
Some people have a natural ability to get rid of the nicotine in their brain quickly (which is good because nicotine is toxic). But these people also get rid of the pleasure quickly, hence they tend to smoke more to compensate.
As they say at the end of the article, what natural selection has favoured as healthy may end up killing you faster :)


Posted in: _Sciences

QOTD

"Since we cannot know all that there is to be known about anything, we ought to know a little about everything."

- Blaise Pascal


Posted in: _QOTD

SOTU, SOTW 2006

State Of The Union, State Of The World.

Nice interview from DemocracyNow.org with journalists from 3 different backgrounds (arab, EU, South America) and their reactions to the SOTU 2006 Bush just delivered some days ago, but also about what is going on in the world right now.
Very good counter point to traditional media.


Posted in: _USA , _Geopolitics

Iran Nuclear Resolution

Dispute Over Israel Delays Vote on Iran Nuclear Resolution

The 35-nation board of the International Atomic Energy Agency delayed a vote on a landmark resolution on Iran's nuclear program today largely because of American opposition to a clause indirectly criticizing Israel's nuclear weapons status, according to several diplomats.

Double standards anyone?
No I guess I am wrong... It is the USA we are talking about here, a nation known for its compassion, its fairness, its willingness to share world ressources and to treat all world citizens as equals...


Posted in: _Geopolitics

Europe's solution to global warming

Funny, but nonetheless related to the truth, article about global warming.

I am actually really curious when the water level will start rising in a noticeable manner and who will be the first victims (except from those little atolls in the pacific).
Will this happen in our life time?
Probably...

So don't buy a house at sea level :)


Posted in: _Sciences