Joshua Milton Blahyi (born September 30, 1971), better known by his nom de guerre General Butt Naked, is a former leader for the Liberian warlord Roosevelt Johnson[1] in the First Liberian Civil War known for his fierce, violent, and eccentric measures in the first years of the 1990s. He was originally a tribal priest, and since the war he has converted to Christianity and become a preacher.
One of these cars gets more than 2,000 miles to the gallon.
Feeling hopeless about humanity’s prospects for surviving another century? The annual Shell Eco-Marathon is a balm for the jaded environmentalist’s soul. The competition, held this year in Houston, Texas, challenged high school and college students to “build a vehicle that could go the farthest using the least amount of energy through the streets of downtown Houston.” There were 14 first place winners in two categories: one-seater prototype vehicles and four-wheeled fuel economy vehicles that look like what’s on the road today. One high school team performed the impressive feat of getting 2,188 miles per gallon out of a gasoline-powered vehicle. Click the photos to take a look at all the winners, culled from 113 total vehicles. If you’re having trouble seeing the captions, try scrolling down, they’re probably just hiding.
ARIEL SCHWARTZ
Ariel Schwartz is a Senior Editor at Co.Exist. She has contributed to SF Weekly, Popular Science, Inhabitat, Greenbiz, NBC Bay Area, GOOD Magazine and more. Continued
The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act now has more than 105 co-sponsors, and some fear the bill could go further than SOPA and PIPA in threatening online privacy. SOPA and PIPA were finally discarded earlier this year after resounding online protest changed the debate, but the same doesn’t yet appear to be the case with CISPA.
According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, H.R. 3523 “would let companies spy on users and share private information with the federal government and other companies with near-total immunity from civil and criminal liability. It effectively creates a ‘cybersecurity’ exemption to all existing laws.”
The bill could sneak through Congress quickly once it’s back in session, so be sure totrack its progress.
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Right now, over 100 Members of the US Congress are trying to sneak through a bill that would let them spy on every Internet user without a warrant. CISPA is their third attempt to rebrand their attack on global Internet freedom.Our massive outcry helped beat SOPA and PIPA, let’s save the Internet again:
Right now, the US Congress is sneaking in a new law that gives them big brother spy powers over the entire web — and they’re hoping the world won’t notice. We helped stop their Net attack last time, let’s do it again.
Over 100 Members of Congress are backing a bill (CISPA) that would give private companies and the US government the right to spy on any of us at any time for as long as they want without a warrant. This is the third time the US Congress has tried to attack our Internet freedom. But we helped beat SOPA, and PIPA — and now we can beat this new Big Brother law.
Our global outcry has played a leading role in protecting the Internet from governments eager to monitor and control what we do online. Let’s stand together once again — and beat this law for good. Sign the petition then forward to everyone who uses the Internet:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/stop_cispa/?vl
Under the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA), if a cyber threat is even suspected, companies we use to access the Internet will have the right to collect information on our activities, share that with the government, refuse to notify us that we are being watched and then use a blanket immunity clause to protect themselves from being sued for violation of privacy or any other illegal action. It’s a crazy destruction of the privacy we all rely on in our everyday emails, Skype chats, web searches and more.
But we know that the US Congress is afraid of the world’s response. This is the third time they have tried to rebrand their attempt to attack our Internet freedom and push it through under the radar, each time changing the law’s name and hoping citizens would be asleep at the wheel. Already, Internet rights groups like the Electronic Frontier Foundation have condemned the bill for its interference with basic privacy rights — now it’s time for us to speak out.
Sign the petition to Congress opposing CISPA. When we reach 250,000 signers our call will be delivered to each of the 100 US Representatives backing the bill:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/stop_cispa/?vl
Internet freedom faces threats everyday from governments around the world — but the US is best placed to attack the rights of Internet users because so much of the Net’s infrastructure is located there. Our movement has, time and time again, proven that global public opinion can help beat back US threats to our Net. Let’s do it again.
More information
Move over SOPA & PIPA: Here comes CISPA — Internet censorship (Digital Journal)
http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/322396
CISPA: Congressional plan to censor Internet concerns critics (Examiner)
http://www.examiner.com/progressive-in-portland/cispa-congressional-plan-to-censor-internet-concerns-critics
Good freedom, bad freedom: Irony of cybersecurity (RT)
http://rt.com/usa/news/usa-internet-cybersecurity-cispa-299/
Internet SOPA/PIPA Revolt: Don’t Declare Victory Yet (Wired)
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/01/internet-revolt-follow/
H.R. 3523: Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act of 2011
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/112/hr3523
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Syrian President Bashar Assad’s wife Asma to Jordanian queen Rania (on the occassion of Jordan’s Queen call to express concern over violence in Syria).
Asma Assad (L) and Jordan’s Queen Rania (Photos: EPA, AFP) |
The device
Bangkok authorities reveal photos of $27 portable radios used by Iranian hit squad to hide explosives intended for Israeli targets in Thai capital
Airing exclusive photos of one of the bombs discovered, the network showed the inside of the radio, packed with tiny ball bearings and six magnets. According to explosive experts, the device’s design indicates that the bomb was meant to be attached to the side of a vehicle. According to the report, a surveillance photo of one of the suspects in the case, an Iranian national named Saeid Moradi, shows him holding a radio in each hand. Moradi is accused of wounding four bystanders with one explosive device and attempting to throw another at traffic. The latter incident caused the device to detonate and he lost both of his legs. He was arrested following the incident and remains in custody in Thailand. Bangkok authorities said that they recovered more than a pound of military-grade explosives from just one of the bombs. The device Israeli authorities and US bomb experts, who analyzed the photos, said that the bomb in the photos “is strikingly similar” the devices used in the attacks on the Israeli missions in Georgia and India. It is believed that the devices were either slipped through airport security or smuggled into Thailand in diplomatic pouches. Iran has denied any connection with the attacks on the Israeli missions in Tbilisi and New Delhi, and the arrests in Bangkok.
Prototype burger will cost £220,000 to produce
Tasty: A small sample of the lab-grown ‘meat’ which Dutch stem cell scientist Dr Mark Post believes everyone will want to eat
More…
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IronicTimes.com
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Dear Car Owner,
You may have noticed the dent on the left side of your car. If not, allow me to draw your attention to it now. As you can see, it is there, and so is this note, and now two and two are getting put together in your head. Allow me to confirm your suspicions: The dent and note are connected. I have dented your car and wish to apologize for it.
Got it pretty good there, didn’t I? You get that kind of denting action from your core muscles; that’s where the power is.
One question you’re certainly asking by now is, “How can this note be so long?” Or perhaps, “How can this fucking note be so long?” depending on your level of anger. The note’s length is due to the fact that this is not just a simple note of apology, nor an offer to pay for the damages, nor an attempt to identify myself, nor really an endeavor to do anything concrete about this situation at all. Those are simple matters, briefly explained. I’ve got different motives, which I’ll get in to in due time, but first and foremost, I guess I just wanted to explain myself so that you don’t hate me forever. I have this thing where I can’t be hated. Who likes being hated? I bet you don’t. You see? We already have something in common.
(I also like puppies and chocolate ice cream and vaginal sex. See? More things we have in common. These things forming right now? They’re called bonds. They may be awkward, uncomfortable bonds, like an uncle hugging you from behind, but they’re real. Don’t try to struggle.)
Where was I? Oh right, the dent. That actually has a funny story, and I encourage you to sit down while reading it, if only to brace yourself for the deluge of mirth that’s about to spray all over your face like a dirty mouthwash commercial. Sit down in the car, maybe put the seat back a couple of notches and relax. Also put the key in the ignition and have a look at the gas gauge. How’s that look? Please keep relaxing, it’s critical to keep relaxing; that deluge of mirth will shatter you if you remain tense.
That’s funny. You don’t remember pushing your car to work this morning.
Some gas is missing, isn’t it? Previously I have noticed that your car was parked here unattended for hours every day, I guess because you work nearby. Congratulations! In this economy, having steady work is good news. I certainly don’t have that luxury, as you may have gathered by my ability to stake out parked cars for entire days. Truly, you are one of the lucky ones, and I hope you remember your fortune throughout this, as your dent is repaired, and your gas tank is refilled, and your car is seized by the police.
About that coming seizure: Having noticed the car was available from late morning throughout the early afternoon every weekday, I decided to borrow it. You might say that I stole it, and the courts would probably agree, but with the car back in your possession (not withstanding the fact that the police will shortly be seizing it from you), I think that morally what I did can’t be considered stealing. “Nah, he’s OK,” I imagine Jesus saying, with a dismissive hand wave.
“Relax.”
So, having not stolen your car, I proceeded to drive it into the deep woods, where my cousin makes bootleg Louis Vuitton goods out of this massive roll of LV-branded leather he bought off a shady Chinese guy a few months ago. We distribute these fine, cheap goods through a network of dealers who are, as you can imagine, all incredibly unethical. You try getting a Corporate Social Responsibility report from a guy whose entire operation is a blanket and a fast pair of shoes. That’s why I needed your car in the first place. Given the absolute surety I have that my distribution chain will snitch on me the second they’re busted — which they are, at an amusingly high rate — I have to disguise my identity using borrowed cars and a variety of not-borrowed wigs. I can’t really return the wigs for hygiene reasons, and if I’m being honest, that probably should have stopped me from stealing the wigs in the first place as well.
“Ewwwwwwwgh.”
Anyway, after loading up the trunk with Louis Vuitton Slankets and codpieces and car bras, I left the deep woods and returned back to civilization, or at least the kind of civilization that buys fake LV Slankets and codpieces and car bras.
So many regrettable things in this picture, and amazingly, GM was responsible for only one of them.
But just as I completed my last delivery, flashing lights filled the rearview mirror. I presumed at the time that the cops had finally gotten wind of me, but now I wonder if they were looking for your car specifically. Is it possible you are yourself a wanted felon? You might not even know; I kind of just fell into felony myself. Have you perjured yourself, perhaps? That’s an easy one to miss.
The resulting chase was fantastic, and if you are at all curious what your car can do at the edges of its performance envelope, I highly encourage you to check out the evening news tonight. Big dirty old four-wheel drifts around hairpins, and bootleg turns, and this one insane jump off of one of those car-transporting trucks over a school bus full of clapping children. You will shit, as will, I suppose, your insurance company.
Seconds later, alt.sex.slashpics.flo.poop is created …
The dent! I almost forgot about the dent, that beautiful dent that started this whole note-reading journey. Well, after my escape, I returned the car here, unmolested. And then deliberately smashed the door with a tire iron. “Fuck you, door,” I said, meaning every word of it.
You see, I needed some visible damage to the car, something beyond the horrendous but unseen suspension damage I’d already caused. I needed something you’d notice, something to make you angry, and something to make you read the note under your windshield. The entire note. Including the longer words that you probably had to read twice. I’m guessing it took you between three to five minutes to read this, which turns out to be the average response time for our city’s finest for high-priority calls. If I’ve timed this right — and I’ve put in a lot of effort on this point — then you should be hearing the sirens now, coming to arrest the faux-couture Slanket deliveryman who, thanks to a lot of evidence I’ve left in the trunk, they will think is you. It turns out that I’ve actually been watching you this whole time — Hi there! — waiting for you to find the note, before I called the po-po.
Why would I do such a thing, you ask? Because of the dent, man, because of the dent. Not this dent. The first dent. The dent that YOU made six months ago, when you levered your enormous ass out of your tiny car, smashing the door into the side of MY car. It took me that long to hunt you down, that long to set up a fake designer leather goods racket, that long to save up for and attend a three-day stunt driving school. That long to concoct just the right delay in a batch of disappearing ink. Are the words getting fainter now? Well hopefully you’ll have just enough time to read this last sentence, a homily of sorts, admonishing you to leave a fucking note the next time you dent someone’s car.
____________________
For more life lessons from Bucholz, check out How to Win a Fight Against 20 Children and How to Take Naked Pictures of People.
Read more: Greatest Note Ever Left On a Dented Car | Cracked.com http://www.cracked.com/blog/greatest-note-ever-left-dented-car/#ixzz1maMXLUDo
![Tiny Reptile: Found on an islet just off of Madagascar’s main island, the Brookesia micra — or Madagascar Miniature Chameleon — is one of the smallest vertebrates ever discovered.
According to Frank Glaw, who led the team of scientist responsible for the diminutive reptile’s discovery, the adult B. micra is scarcely larger than half an inch from nose to bottom.
“Maybe there’s a potential for a smaller species,” says Glaw, who is returning to Madagascar this November to seek out new species. “I’m sure there are many surprises awaiting discovery.”
[msnbc.]](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lzevovt07W1qzpwi0o1_500.jpg)
Tiny Reptile: Found on an islet just off of Madagascar’s main island, the Brookesia micra — or Madagascar Miniature Chameleon — is one of the smallest vertebrates ever discovered.
According to Frank Glaw, who led the team of scientist responsible for the diminutive reptile’s discovery, the adult B. micra is scarcely larger than half an inch from nose to bottom.
“Maybe there’s a potential for a smaller species,” says Glaw, who is returning to Madagascar this November to seek out new species. “I’m sure there are many surprises awaiting discovery.”
[msnbc.]
Love acronyms? Then this post is for you! SOPA is the Stop Online Piracy Act, a bill sponsored by Rep. Lamar Smith to prevent theft of American-produced content (and, notionally, other nations’ content) via any of the classic means of accessing paid movies, music, and so on online—without paying for it. PIPA is the Protect IP Act, a bill designed to have a slightly broader sweep than SOPA with the intention of protecting goods that are copied by counterfeiters—anything from drugs to handbags. Both are massively controversial, hence the online protests today from names as big as Google and Wikipedia.
Detractors point out that there are Constitutional issues at play here, and there is already provision under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to prevent, and criminalize, this kind of piracy and counterfeiting. And also that U.S. law, as it stands, allows for seizure of online domain names that are connected to piracy—something that ICE has done many times already, sometimes wrongly (and perhaps illegally). In other words, SOPA and PIPA are moves to prevent piracy that are above and beyond existing measures—and are so sweeping in power they may “break the Internet” for billions of users inside and outside the U.S.
Here are some of the sites taking part in today’s protest, to greater or lesser extents. It may be the largest online protest ever (assuming some of the lesser-known names taking part aren’t simply gunning for positive PR):
- Wikipedia (mostly inaccessible)
- Google (logo censored for U.S. visitors, link to protest info for everyone)
- BoingBoing (inaccessible)
- Flickr
- WordPress
- EFF
- MineCraft
- Wired
- ICanHasCheezburger
A fuller list can be viewed via SOPAStrike’s website.
Math in a Minute: How a tortoise can win a race. By Caitlin Stier
Move over Achilles, a tortoise could outrun the Greek hero given a head start. This animation from The Open University explores the paradox proposed by the Greek philosopher Zeno of Elea. Suppose Achilles and the tortoise run at a constant speed with the slow tortoise given a slight advantage. While Achilles can cover the lead quickly, by the time he reaches his competitor’s starting line the tortoise has lumbered forward a short distance. While this advantage narrows as the race goes on, Achilles will always have further to go at any point the tortoise has passed. Considered further, the puzzle even discredits movement itself. The gap between the contenders is divided an infinite number of intervals, which Zeno argued is impossible to overtake. The puzzle perplexed mathematicians for centauries until Georg Cantor’s work on infinite series helped unravel it.
Betty White
