Best of the Web:


Vader

Best of the Web: Europeans Criticize Fierce U.S. Response to Leaks

Steve Erlanger
New York Times
Thu, 09 Dec 2010 22:00 UTC
Image
© Guardian
Paris - For many Europeans, Washington's fierce reaction to the flood of secret diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks displays imperial arrogance and hypocrisy, indicating a post-9/11 obsession with secrecy that contradicts American principles.

While the Obama administration has done nothing in the courts to block the publication of any of the leaked documents, or even, as of yet, tried to indict the WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, for any crime, American officials and politicians have been widely condemned in the European news media for calling the leaks everything from "terrorism" (Representative Peter T. King, Republican of New York) to "an attack against the international community" (Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton). Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates called the arrest of Mr. Assange on separate rape charges "good news." Sarah Palin called for him to be hunted as an "anti-American operative with blood on his hands," and Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor and Republican presidential candidate, said that whoever leaked the cables should be executed.
Read More...
Eye 1

Best of the Web: "Out of sight, out of mind" mentality and cognitive bias of the authoritarian personality: Liberals and conservatives perceive the world in different ways


University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Thu, 09 Dec 2010 16:26 UTC
eyes
© Unknown
It goes without saying that conservatives and liberals don't see the world in the same way. Now, research from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln suggests that is exactly, and quite literally, the case.

In a new study, UNL researchers measured both liberals' and conservatives' reaction to "gaze cues" - a person's tendency to shift attention in a direction consistent with another person's eye movements, even if it's irrelevant to their current task - and found big differences between the two groups.

Liberals responded strongly to the prompts, consistently moving their attention in the direction suggested to them by a face on a computer screen. Conservatives, on the other hand, did not.

Why? Researchers suggested that conservatives' value on personal autonomy might make them less likely to be influenced by others, and therefore less responsive to the visual prompts.

"We thought that political temperament may moderate the magnitude of gaze-cuing effects, but we did not expect conservatives to be completely immune to these cues," said Michael Dodd, a UNL assistant professor of psychology and the lead author of the study.

Liberals may have followed the "gaze cues," meanwhile, because they tend to be more responsive to others, the study suggests.
Read More...
Igloo

Best of the Web: Army moves in, fuel runs out in Scotland and East Anglia, coldest December for 100 years


Dailymail.co.uk
Thu, 09 Dec 2010 14:15 UTC
Image
© Scotimage.comSoldiers on the streets: Troops help to clear away ice and snow in Edinburgh today as Britain headed towards its coldest December for 100 years.
The Army was called in today to help clear away ice and snow as Britain headed towards its coldest December for 100 years.

As temperatures plunged to -15c (5f) David Cameron ordered the military to step in and help the UK's beleaguered local councils.

The Prime Minister also revealed Cobra-style emergency meetings of senior officials and Ministers had been held to discuss the Government's response to the big freeze.

Edinburgh City Council was the first local authority to ask for help. Officials have held talks with the Ministry of Defence and the Scottish government to allow soldiers to remove built up snow and ice from roads and pavements.

The Scottish capital has seen the worst snowfall since 1963, leaving some of its most vulnerable residents unable to leave their homes. Up to 30ins of snow has fallen in parts of the city.

Under the plans, soldiers will be helping residents from the hardest hit areas of Edinburgh, as well as those who need to get access to medical help.
Read More...
Sherlock

Best of the Web: Julian Assange in the Honey Trap: Now Truth is on Trial

Justin Raimondo
AntiWar.com
Wed, 08 Dec 2010 15:31 UTC
Anyone who doubts the unmitigated evil of the US government and its international enablers has only to look at the disgraceful persecution of Julian Assange to see Washington's brazen malevolence in full flower. As the WikiLeaks web site continues to release daily examples of US incompetence, bullying, venality, and corruption, the response from the Imperial City has been a coordinated campaign of lies, smears, and what can only be described as utter filth.

This outpouring of satanic bile has been disgorged onto the front pages of the world's newspapers in retaliation for the "crime" of revealing the everyday machinations and cynical maneuverings of the US government as it rampages, loots, and murders its way across the face of the earth. In doing so, Assange and WikiLeaks have violated the first principle of the new world order, which is that they (the governments of the world) have every right to know what we're saying in the privacy of our own homes: in our emails, our phone conversations, and anywhere else we (falsely) believe we're free from prying eyes and ears. However, we have no right to know what they are doing, in our name - with our tax dollars - and to believe otherwise is "treason."

Comment: SOTT.net is collecting these articles because they are important for keeping track of what may be going on behind the scenes as well as in the court of public opinion. SOTT's official view can be found here. SOTT supports Julian Assange and Wikileaks fully, and hopes to see his legal troubles come to an end and the future of global leaking of evil secrets assured.

Read More...
Blackbox

Best of the Web: Massive dark object 'lurking on edge of solar system hurling comets at Earth'


Daily Mail
Wed, 08 Dec 2010 15:12 UTC
solar system/oort cloud
© Donald K. Yeoman/NASA, JPLA Nasa graphic which illustrates how the Oort Cloud surrounds our solar system. Scientists believe that an object with a huge mass may be pushing comets towards Earth from the cloud
A massive dark object may be lurking on the edge of our solar system, according to scientists.

Most comets that fly into the inner solar system seem to come from the outer region of the Oort cloud - a region of icy dust and debris left over from the birth of the solar system.

The cloud starts from a point about 93 billion miles from the Sun and stretches for around three light years and contains billions of comets, most of them small and hidden.

Now new calculations suggest a large object that is up to four times as big as Jupiter could be responsible for sending them in our direction.

The scientists have analysed the comets in the Oort cloud and deduced that 25 per-cent of them would need a nudge by a body of at least Jupiter size before they changed orbit.

Astrophysicists John Matese and Daniel Whitmire at the University of Louisiana came up with theory said that "something smaller than a Jovian mass would not be strong enough to perform the task".
Read More...
Igloo

Best of the Web: I Keep Telling You It's Getting Colder

Dr. Mark Sircus
Climate Change
Mon, 06 Dec 2010 14:02 UTC
Image
© Unknown
It's not supposed to be so cold and snowy so early in the winter when the world is thought to be warming. Eminent scientists are not supposed to turn their backs on the lying press and government to tell us it's getting colder, not warmer. The entire discussion has us in the Twilight Zone with the global warmers and coolers still in heated conversation. The press's most recent broadside entitled "World warmer, short-term trends need study: report"stated:
The global average temperature has increased over the past 160 years, but short-term trends in temperature and sea ice seem to be at odds with each other and need more research, the UK Met Office's Hadley Center said. In a report on long- and short-term climate trends, the Hadley Center found several factors that indicate a warming world and said 2010 has been one of the warmest years on record. The report drew on the work of more than 20 institutions worldwide and used a range of measurements from satellites, weather balloons, weather stations, ocean buoys, ships, and field surveys.
One of the warmest years on record - are we to believe this? If global warming was such a slam dunk, why are they now tipping their hands mentioning the colder short-term trend? How can they define what is going on as a short-term trend when the future is not written yet?
Read More...
Vader

Best of the Web: Wikleaks and Imperial Mobilization - The CIA's "Mighty Wurlitzer"

Zahir Ebrahim
Project Humanbeingsfirst
Fri, 03 Dec 2010 20:46 UTC
Assange
© UnknownJulian Assange

In order to comprehend the ostensibly bizarre Wikileaks phenomena that is continually in the news these days, it is essential to first comprehend the concept of the 'Mighty Wurlitzer'.

It used to be the honorific of Frank Wisner, the first chief of political warfare for the Central Intelligence Agency, used to describe the C.I.A.'s plethora of front organizations and news media stooges that he was capable of playing (like a great organ with many keyboards) for synthesizing any propaganda tune that was needed for the day. More details may be gleaned in the disclosures of Operation Mockingbird.

The fact that such an omnipresent Message-Machine is not ancient history but very much current affairs, is underscored by this NYT headline Behind TV Analysts, Pentagon's Hidden Hand, Sunday, April 20, 2008.

Therefore, today, I use the term 'Mighty Wurlitzer' as a metaphor to pluralistically refer to the same message-machine, i.e., the intelligence apparatus for manufacturing consent and controlling dissent, and its concomitant conscious manipulation of peoples' thoughts, feelings, actions and in-actions, in order to serve the primacy interests of the ruling-elite. The latter are, invariably, also the de facto owners of the complete messaging-system now even more globally ubiquitous than when Frank Wisner played the world for a fool.

Comment: For more on this topic see:

Wiki-Leaks and Plausible Lies - Where Have All The Critical Thinkers Gone?

Read More...
People

Best of the Web: Helpless

Linh Dinh
Sott.net
Fri, 03 Dec 2010 00:00 UTC
Image
Concepcion Picciotto has maintained an anti-war camp outside the White House for 29 years
"A man, without force, is without the essential dignity of humanity. Human nature is so constituted, that it cannot honor a helpless man, although it can pity him; and even this it cannot do long, if the signs of power do not arise."
- Frederick Douglass
The strong act. The weak react. Protest is a tool of the weak. The main aim of any protest is to draw attention to an injustice. It appeals, broadcasts and seeks to impress you with its number. So many of us are feeling this way. You are few, we are many, etc. After each mass protest, there is always a disagreement over the size of the crowd, with the estimate of the organizers usually doubling that of the authority, i.e., the target of the protest.

Even without number, even when the protest is made up of a few quixotic weirdos, or just one, it can still have meaning. The sight of a lonely protester on a city street, ignored by the crowd, is basically pathetic, if not comic, but if he happens to make some sense, then his very isolation can become an indictment of this crowd. Concepcion Picciotto, born 1945, has been encamped across the White House for twenty-nine years, since 1981. She lives in a tent, surrounded by signs denouncing U.S. militarism and its support for Israel. When Picciotto began, Carter was the President who had gotten us involved in Afghanistan. In 2010, Obama is fighting the same mujahideen armed by Carter. As long as the guns sell, it's all good. A lonely protester is not unlike Jonah ranting away in Nineveh, except Jonah got results. Folks actually heard him and changed their ways.
Read More...
Ambulance

Best of the Web: Is the Mainstream Media Helping or Hindering? MMS on The One Show

TheBigRMeister
YouTube
Thu, 25 Nov 2010 00:00 UTC
The One Show is a news magazine program that airs on the BBC network in England. They recently decided to spotlight MMS.


Comment: For more information about the current Humble situation, see this Sott article:

MMS: Miracle Mineral Solution or Trojan Horse? Your Body and DNA Decide

Read More...
Bad Guys

Best of the Web: Documentary: Psychopath


Top Documentary Films
Sun, 28 Nov 2010 00:00 UTC
There are many psychopaths in society, that actually, we virtually know nothing about. These are the psychopaths who don't necessarily commit homicide, commit serious violence, or even come to the attention of the police. They may be successful businessmen. They may be successful politicians. They may be successful academics. They may be successful priests. They exist in all areas of society. There is a growing awareness that psychopathic behavior is around us in all walks of life.


According to popular wisdom, psychopaths are crazed and bloodthirsty serial killers. The reality is not so simple. While many psychopaths do commit violent crimes, not all psychopaths are criminals and not all criminals are psychopathic. Psychopaths are found in many walks of life and are often successful in competitive professions. However they are also ruthless, manipulative and destructive. Equinox reports on techniques developed by psychologists to work out whether a person is psychopathic and shows how brain scientists are coming close to mapping the malfunctions in the brain that cause a person to be a psychopath. In Britain one person in 200 is likely to be a psychopath. However psychopaths are thought to be responsible for half of all reported crimes and to make up between 15% and 20% of the prison population.
Read More...