A small group of Occupy Wall Street activists engaged in a near-successful corrida against the Wall Street Bull.
The incident began when two clowns, Hannah Morgan and Louis Jargow, scaled the steel barricades protecting the landmark. The clowns began spanking and climbing the beast, traditional ways of coaxing a bull into anger in preparation for a Castilian corrida, or bullfight.
Within seconds, police officers grabbed both clowns by their colorful shirts and wrestled one of them (Jargow) to the ground. The other (Morgan) continued to play the harmonica until an officer removed it from her mouth.
With the officers thus occupied, a matador in full traje de luces leapt onto the hood of the patrol vehicle parked in front of the bull and boldly presented his blood-red cape to the beast.
"I wondered whether I, neophyte matador, could bring down this behemoth, world-famous for charging towards profit while trampling underfoot the average worker," said the OWS activist/torero whose first fight this was. "Come what may, I knew I must try."
Police officers took no notice of the matador, occupied as they were with the clowns.
"This bull has ruined millions of lives!" wailed clown Jargow as he lay on the ground face-down. "Yet he and his accomplices have been rewarded with billions of our tax dollars—and we, here to put a stop to it all, are thrown to the ground. ˇUn escándalo!"
Both clowns were charged with disorderly conduct and released an hour later; they returned to Zuccotti Park to great fanfare. The Wall Street bull continues to rage.
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A spectacular piece of news reached the Wall Street occupation on Friday morning: the private owner of Zuccotti Park, which has been the homebase of the movement since the occupation began on September 17, decided to postpone a scheduled cleaning operation of the square. Protesters, who had been bracing for an NYPD-inflicted bloodbath all night, let off an ecstatic cheer upon receiving the news.
Many protesters believe the planned cleaning operation was just a ploy to kick protesters out of the park. If they had left, they would not have been allowed to return with sleeping bags and other camping gear, presumably for feigned reasons of public health and sanitation. In order to counter any claims about the camp’s hygienic situation, the protesters spent most of the night cleaning and tidying up the square.
The private owners of the park, Brookfield Properties, released a statement saying they believed an arrangement could be made with the protesters — and that they were simply too many to be safely removed. Upon hearing the news of the clear-up order, 5,000 protesters had flocked into Zuccotti Park — renamed Liberty Square by the movement — to defend it in case of eviction. All night, debates were held and instructions given on how to peacefully resist eviction.
Upon hearing the news, a small group of ecstatic protesters went on a victory lap towards Wall Street. When they failed to stay on the sidewalks, police moved in with force, deliberately escalating the situation and arresting 14 protesters. When police tried to split up the crowd using scooters, one officerran overa legal observer — and subsequently beat up him with a nightstick and arrested the innocent and injured man. As the East Vilagereported:
The man was struck with a baton and arrested moments later as witnesses called out, “You ran over his foot” and chanted, “The whole world is watching.” One bystander hurled a bag of trash at police officers as they pushed protestors back onto the sidewalk.
The question, now, is what the next trick of authorities against the movement will be. It is clear that Mayor Bloomberg, who made a fortune selling computer systems to Wall Street, is growing increasingly antsy about the budding anti-capitalist movement at the heart of his capitalist bastion. So while the protesters may have won another battle, the fate of their war still remains undecided.
This section contains Volleyball Live Streaming Video links:
Tentatively scheduled bouts are included on boxing schedule, so all information is - as always - subject to change.
Friday, October 14 -- at Buenos Aires, Argentina WBA World featherweight title: Jonathan Barros vs. Celestino Caballero
Saturday, October 15 -- at Los Angeles, CA (HBO-PPV) WBC light heavyweight title: Bernard Hopkins vs. Chad Dawson Vacant WBC lightweight title: Antonio DeMarco vs. Jorge Linares Danny Garcia vs. Kendall Holt Paul Malignaggi vs. Orlando Lora Luis Collazo vs. Freddy Hernandez
Saturday, October 15 -- at Almaty, Kazakhstan WBA World middleweight title: Gennady Golovkin vs. Lajuan Simon
Friday, October 21 -- at Bangkok, Thailand WBC flyweight title: Pongsaklek Wonjongkam vs. Edgar Sosa
Saturday, October 22 -- at New York, NY (HBO) WBC/WBO bantamweight titles: Nonito Donaire vs. Omar Narvaez Miguel Garcia vs. Juan Martinez
Saturday, October 22 -- at Ludwigsburg, Germany WBO cruiserweight title: Marco Huck vs. Rogelio Rossi
Friday, October 28 -- at Atlantic City, NJ (Showtime) Tony Thompson vs. Eddie Chambers
Saturday, October 29 -- at Atlantic City, NJ (Showtime) WBA/WBC super middleweight titles: Andre Ward vs. Carl Froch Michael Oliveira vs. Milton Nunez
Friday, November 4 -- at Moscow, Russia Denis Lebedev vs. James Toney Ismayl Sillakh vs. Chris Henry
Saturday, November 5 -- at Quebec, Canada (Showtime) IBF super middleweight title: Lucian Bute vs. Glen Johnson
Saturday, November 5 -- at Copenhagen, Denmark WBO super middleweight title: Robert Stieglitz vs. Mikkel Kessler
Saturday, November 5 -- at Cancun, Mexico (HBO) Alfredo Angulo vs. James Kirkland
Saturday, November 12 -- at Las Vegas, NV (HBO-PPV) WBO welterweight title: Manny Pacquiao vs. Juan Manuel Marquez WBA lightweight title: Brandon Rios vs. TBA
Saturday, November 12 -- at London, United Kingdom Interim WBO lightweight title: Ricky Burns vs. Michael Katsidis
Saturday, November 19 -- at Houston, TX (HBO) Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. vs. Peter Manfredo Jr.
Wednesday, November 30 -- at Mt. Claremont, Australia WBC cruiserweight title: Danny Green vs. Krzysztof Wlodarczyk WBA featherweight title: Chris John vs. Daniel Iannazzo
Friday, December 2 -- at Mannheim, Germany WBA middleweight title: Felix Sturm vs. Martin Murray
Saturday, December 3 -- at New York, NY (PPV) WBA light middleweight title: Miguel Cotto vs. Antonio Margarito WBA super bantamweight title: Rico Ramos vs. Guillermo Rigondeaux Mike Jones vs. Sebastian Lujan
Saturday, December 3 -- at Anaheim, CA (Showtime) IBF bantamweight title: Abner Mares vs. Joseph Agbeko WBA bantamweight title: Anselmo Moreno vs. Vic Darchinyan
Saturday, December 10 -- at TBA, USA (HBO) WBA/IBF light welterweight titles: Amir Khan vs. Lamont Peterson
Saturday, December 10 -- at Düsseldorf, Germany WBA/IBF/WBO heavyweight titles: Wladimir Klitschko VS. Jean Marc Mormeck
Saturday, December 10 -- at Quebec City, Canada Jean Pascal vs. TBA
Saturday, December 17 -- at Zurich, Switzerland WBA heavyweight title: Alexander Povetkin vs. Evander Holyfield
In a study published the 1st of July 2011, in IOP Publishing's journal Nonlinearity, researchers have captured high speed images of the dynamics of fluid-filled Tibetan bowls and quantified how droplets are propelled from the water's surface as the bowls are excited.
The first of five videos demonstrating the intriguing dynamics can be seen below:
A Tibetan bowl, generally made from a bronze alloy containing copper, tin, zinc, iron, silver, gold and nickel, is a type of standing bell played by striking or rubbing its rim with a wooden or leather-wrapped mallet. This excitation causes the sides and rim of the bowl to vibrate, producing a rich sound.
The unique singing properties of Tibetan bowls were utilised as a way of investigating a liquid's interaction with solid materials – a situation that arises in many engineering applications such as the wind-loading of bridges and buildings.
When a fluid-filled Tibetan bowl is rubbed, the slight changes in the bowl's shape disturb the surface at the water's edge, generating waves. Moreover, when these changes are sufficiently large, the waves break, leading to the ejection of droplets.
The new findings could benefit processes such as fuel injectors and perfume sprays where droplet generation plays an important role.
The high-speed videos allowed the researchers, from Université de Liège and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, to quantify how the droplets were formed, ejected, accelerated, and bounced on the surface of the fluid.
A similar phenomenon exists when rubbing the edge of a wine glass, which inspired the design of the glass harmonica by Benjamin Franklin. However, the Tibetan singing bowl is easier to excite than the wine glass, since its resonant frequency is much smaller.
In order to generate the waves and resultant droplets, a loudspeaker was set up adjacent to the bowls, which emitted sound at specific frequencies. Once the sound hit the resonant frequency of the bowl—a sound wave vibrating in phase with the natural vibration of the bowl—the waves would be generated.
A high speed camera was used to capture images of the droplets, from which measurements could be taken.
Senior author Professor John Bush said, "Although our system represents an example of fluid-solid interactions, it was motivated more by curiosity than engineering applications.
"We are satisfied with the results of our investigation, which we feel has elucidated the basic physics of the system. Nevertheless, one might find further surprises by changing the bowl or fluid properties."
One theory of the origin of AIDS is that it developed from contaminated vaccines used in the world's first mass immunisation for polio. There are a number of reasons why this theory is plausible enough to be worthy of further investigation.
The location coincides dramatically. The earliest known cases of AIDS occurred in central Africa, in the same regions where Koprowski's polio vaccine was given to over a million people in 1957-1960.
The timing coincides. There is no documented case of HIV infection or AIDS before 1959. Centuries of the slave trade and European exploitation of Africa exposed Africans and others to all other diseases then known; it is implausible that HIV could have been present and spreading in Africa without being recognised.
Polio vaccines are grown (cultured) on monkey kidneys which could have been contaminated by SIVs. Polio vaccines could not be screened for SIV contamination before 1985.
Another monkey virus, SV-40, is known to have been passed to humans through polio vaccines. A specific pool of Koprowski's vaccine was later shown to have been contaminated by an unknown virus.
In order for a virus to infect a different species, it is helpful to reduce the resistance of the new host's immune system. Koprowski's polio vaccine was given to many children less than one month old, before their immune systems were fully developed. Indeed, in one trial, infants were given 15 times the standard dose in order to ensure effective immunisation.
If this theory is correct, it has serious ethical, health and policy implications. In particular, it points to the danger of interspecies transfer of material through vaccinations, organ transplants, etc., which could lead to new variants of AIDS as well as other new diseases. As well, studying the theory may lead to insights about responding to AIDS and preventing new diseases.
On several occasions, critics have claimed that the theory has been refuted. The Wistar Committee in 1992 said the death of a British sailor in 1959, whose tissues later tested positive for HIV, made the theory implausible. However, several years later, more sensitive tests showed no HIV in the tissues.
In 2001, reports were published that polio vaccine samples held in Philadelphia from the 1950s showed no immunodeficiency viruses. This was trumpeted as a refutation of the theory. Edward Hooper later produced evidence that US-produced vaccines had been amplified in Africa using chimpanzees as a substrate, thus showing the theory could be correct.
Scientists have spent a lot of effort trying to refute the polio-vaccine theory of the origin of AIDS, but very little trying to refute the conventional view, that blood from an SIV-infected chimpanzee got into humans via hunting or eating. There is very little direct evidence to support the conventional view, which explains neither the timing nor the location of the origin.
Scientific journals have been reluctant to publish articles about the polio-vaccine theory. For example,Naturehas received substantial submissions about the theory from at least six scholars but has not published any of them. Opponents of the theory have used defamation threats and legal actions to discourage publication. The result is that editorial prerogative and legal action have given the false impression that critics of the theory have been unanswered.
To help rectify this situation, key documents presenting the theory and commenting on it are provided here. Also given is a list of publications about the theory. This material is provided byBrian Martinwho as a social scientist has been following the origins debate since 1991. It is part of a page onsuppression of dissent. Comments and additional contributions are welcome.
Some key publications about the theory (in reverse chronological order)
BOOKS
Edward Hooper,The River: A Journey Back to the Source of HIV and AIDS(Harmondsworth: Penguin; Boston: Little, Brown, 1999; revised edition, Penguin, 2000). This is an enormous but highly readable scientific blockbuster, providing the most detailed examination of the polio vaccine theory yet available, including many new findings. It has generated widespread discussion and debate and has established the polio-vaccine theory of the origin of AIDS as by far the strongest contender to the cut-hunter orthodoxy.
Omar Bagasra,HIV and Molecular Immunity: Prospects for the AIDS Vaccine(Natick, MA: Biotechniques Books, 1999). This technical scientific book presents a new theory of molecular immunity for the origin and history of HIV-1, which, it is argued, most likely derived from polio vaccinations in Africa. Kiley R. Prillimanreviews the bookin the prestigious journalCell.Julian Cribb has providedinsightful comments on the bookfor nonspecialists. The author, Omar Bagasra, can be contacted atomarb@sc.rr.com. The book is available fromEaton Publishing, 154 East Central Street, Natick MA 01760, USA, phone 508-653 6272, fax 508-653 2706.
Julian Cribb,The White Death(Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1996). An engaging book focussing on both the polio-vaccine-AIDS theory and its reception by the scientific community.Full text available.
New material about the origin of AIDSpublished in November 2005 inNarrow Roads of Gene Land: The Collected Papers of W. D. Hamilton, Volume 3: Last Words,edited by Mark Ridley, Oxford University Press.
Stanley A. Plotkin,"Chimpanzees and journalists"(editorial),Vaccine,Vol. 22, 2004, pp. 1829-1830. Introduction to Osterrieth's article.
Paul Osterrieth,"Oral polio vaccine: fact versus fiction",Vaccine,Vol. 22, 2004, pp. 1831-1835. Denial of Hooper's claims about production of polio vaccine in Africa.
Lincei meeting papers Origin of HIV and Emerging Persistent Viruses, Rome, 28-29 September 2001 Published asAtti dei Convegni Lincei,2003, Vol. 187, ISBN 88-218-0885-8
Edward Hooper,"Dephlogistication, Imperial Display, Apes, Angels, and the Return of Monsieur Émile Zola", pp. 27-230. This massive paper is a response to criticisms ofThe River,plus new evidence.
2.The Marx/Drucker theoryof iatrogenic spread through unsterile needles, and the recent intervention by Professor David Gisselquist, who claims that most HIV infections in Africa are caused through this same route
Royal Society Discussion Meeting(and subsequent events) Origins of HIV and the AIDS Epidemic, London, 11-12 September 2000 Papers, press releases, media stories and responses
Blaine F. Elswood and Raphael B. Stricker,"Polio vaccines and the origins of AIDS",Medical Hypotheses, vol. 42, 1994, pp. 347-354 and Correspondence, vol. 44, 1995, p. 226. This is the first major paper in the scientific literature presenting the theory. Blaine Elswood can be contacted atBlaine.Elswood@snow.edu.
W. D. Hamilton,unpublished letter toScience, 27 January 1994. Hamilton attempted to publish a letter inScienceresponding to Koprowski's 1992 letter. Included here is both the letter itself and Hamilton's correspondence withScience.
Rolling Stone,"'Origin of AIDS' update", 9 December 1993, p. 39. Publication of this "Clarification" was part of the settlement of Koprowski's defamation action againstRolling Stoneand Tom Curtis.
B. F. Elswood and R. B. Stricker,"Polio vaccines and the origin of AIDS",Research in Virology, vol. 144, 1993, pp. 175-177. A letter to the editor presenting the theory plus a critical reply from the editorial board. Blaine Elswood can be contacted atBlaine.Elswood@snow.edu.
Tom Curtis,unpublished letter toScience, 30 September 1992. This letter rejected bySciencewas a response to Koprowski's letter inScienceattacking the polio-vaccine theory.
Claudio Basilico et al.,Report from the AIDS/Poliovirus Advisory Committee, 18 September 1992. Stimulated by Curtis's article inRolling Stone, the Wistar Institute set up an independent committee to examine the theory. This is its report, which was never formally published.
Hilary Koprowski,"AIDS and the polio vaccine"(letter),Science, vol. 257, 21 August 1992, pp. 1024, 1026-1027; correction, 11 September 1992, p. 1463. This is a reply to Tom Curtis's article inRolling Stoneand is one of the few published critiques of the theory.
Tom Curtis,"The origin of AIDS",Rolling Stone, Issue 626, 19 March 1992, pp. 54-59, 61, 106, 108. This article gave the theory its first wide visibility. Based on a version of the theory developed independently by Blaine Elswood, it was investigated and reported on by Tom Curtis. Tom Curtis can be contacted attcurtis@utmb.edu.
Louis Pascal,"What happens when science goes bad", Science and Technology Analysis Working Paper #9, University of Wollongong, December 1991. This was the first major published account of the theory. Hard copies are available free from Brian Martin,bmartin@uow.edu.au, on request. Please include your postal address.
The Trap: What Happened to Our Dream of Freedom is a BBC documentary series by English filmmaker Adam Curtis, well known for other documentaries including The Century of the Self and The Power of Nightmares. It began airing in the United Kingdom on BBC Two on 11 March 2007.
The series consists of three one-hour programmes which explore the concept and definition of freedom, specifically, "how a simplistic model of human beings as self-seeking, almost robotic, creatures led to today's idea of freedom."
The series was originally entitled Cold Cold Heart and was scheduled for transmission in Autumn 2006. Although it is not known what caused the delay in transmission, nor the change in title, it is known that the DVD release of Curtis's previous series The Power of Nightmares had been delayed due to problems with copyright clearance, caused by the high volume of archive soundtrack and film used in Curtis's characteristic montage technique.
Another documentary series based on very similar lines—"examining the world economy during the 1990s"—was to have been Curtis's first BBC TV project on moving to the BBC's Current Affairs Unit in 2002, shortly after producing Century of the Self.
Il documentario racconta la storia della marijuana in America. La marijuana è la più grande coltura da reddito negli Stati Uniti, con una somma di entrate pari a 36 miliardi di dollari all’anno. Mentre molti pensano alla marijuana come una droga leggera, altri la considerano una droga che può facilmente aprire la strada all’uso di sostanze più forti. La politica del governo statunitense in merito alla marijuana può sembrare un paradosso. Infatti, sono stati spesi più di cento miliardi di dollari per combatterne l’importazione, la vendita e la distribuzione; ma, allo stesso tempo, in 14 stati ne è stato legalizzato l’utilizzo per fini medici e curativi. Gli spettatori scopriranno i cambiamenti sociali e legali della marijuana in un modo nuovo, fresco e interessante.
INFOWEB
La marijuana (spagnolo), o cannabis (latino) o hemp (inglese) è una pianta che si potrebbe definire miracolosa, ed ha una storia lunga almeno quanto quella dell'umanità. Unica pianta che si può coltivare a qualunque latitudine, dall'Equatore alla Scandinavia, ha molteplici proprietà curative, cresce veloce, costa pochissimo da mantenere, offre un olio di ottima qualità (molto digeribile), ed ha fornito, dalle più antiche civiltà fino agli inizi del secolo scorso, circa l'80 per cento di ogni tipo di carta, di fibra tessile, e di combustibile di cui l'umanità abbia mai fatto uso. E poi, cosa è successo? E' successo che in quel periodo è avvenuto il clamoroso sorpasso dell’industria ai danni dell'agricultura, e di questo sorpasso la cannabis è stata chiaramente la vittima numero uno. I nascenti gruppi industriali americani puntavano soprattutto allo sfruttamento del petrolio per l’energia (Standard Oil - Rockefeller), delle risorse boschive per la carta (editore Hearst), e delle fibre artificiali per l’abbigliamento (Dupont) – tutti settori nei quali avevano investito grandi quantità di denaro. Ma avevano di fronte, ciascuno sul proprio terreno, questo avversario potentissimo, e si unirono così per formare un'alleanza sufficientemente forte per batterlo. L'unica soluzione per poter tagliare di netto le gambe ad un colosso di quelle dimensioni risultò la messa al bando totale. L’illegalità. Partì quindi un'operazione mediatica di demonizzazione, rapida, estesa ed efficace ("droga del diavolo", "erba maledetta" ecc. ), grazie agli stessi giornali di Hearst (è il famoso personaggio di Citizen Kane/Quarto Potere, di O. Wells), il quale ne aveva uno praticamente in ogni grande città. Sensibile al denaro, e sempre alla ricerca di temi di facile presa popolare, Hollywood si accodò volentieri alla manovra, contribuendo in maniera determinante a porre il sigillo alla bara della cannabis . La condanna morale viaggiava rapida e incontrastata da costa a costa (non c’era la controinformazione!), e di lì a far varare una legge che mettesse la cannabis fuori legge fu un gioco da ragazzi. Anche perchè pare che i tre quarti dei senatori che approvarono il famoso "Marijuana Tax Act" del 1937, tutt'ora in vigore, non sapevano che marijuana e cannabis fossero la stessa cosa: sarebbe stato il genio di Hearst ad introdurre il nomignolo, mescolando le carte per l'occasione.
THOUGHTS ON CANNABIS
"How many murders, suicides, robberies, criminal assaults, holdups, burglaries and deeds of maniacal insanity it causes each year, especially among the young, can only be conjectured...No one knows, when he places a marijuana ciga-rette to his lips, whether he will become a joyous reveller in a musical heaven, a mad insensate, a calm philosopher, or a murderer..."
"Quanti omicidi, suicidi, furti, aggressioni criminali, rapine, scassi e gesti di follia maniacale provochi ogni anno, lo si può solo indovinare. Nessuno sa, nel mettere ad altri fra le labbra una sigaretta di marijuana, se ne faranno un allegro visitatore di paradisi musicali, un folle delirante, un tranquillo pensatore, o un assassino..."
HARRY J ANSLINGER . Commissioner of the US Bureau of Narcotics 1930-1962
Fatto sta che a partire da quel momento Dupont inondava il mercato con le sue fibre sintetiche (nylon, teflon, lycra, kevlar, sono tutti marchi originali Dupont), il mercato dell'automobile si indirizzava definitivamente all'uso del motore a benzina (il primo motore costruito da Diesel funzionava con carburante vegetale), e Hearst iniziava la devastazione sistematica delle foreste del Sudamerica, dal cui legno trasse in poco tempo la carta sufficiente per mettere in ginocchio quel poco che era rimasto della concorrenza. Al coro di benefattori si univa in seguito il consorzio tabaccai, che generosamente si offriva di porre rimedio all'improvviso “vuoto di mercato” con un prodotto cento volte più dannoso della cannabis stessa. E le "multinazionali" di oggi, che influenzano fortemente tutti i maggiori governi occidentali, non sono che le discendenti dirette di quella storica alleanza, nata negli anni '30, fra le grandi famiglie industriali. (Nel caso qualcuno si domandasse perchè mai la cannabis non viene legalizzata nemmeno per uso medico, nonostante gli innegabili riscontri positivi in quel senso). Come prodotto tessile, la cannabis è circa quattro volte più morbida del cotone, quattro volte più calda, ne ha tre volte la resistenza allo strappo, dura infinitamente di più, ha proprietà ignifughe, e non necessita di alcun pesticida per la coltivazione. Come carburante, a parità di rendimento, costa circa un quinto, e come supporto per la stampa circa un decimo. Abbiamo fatto l'affare del secolo.
It might seem a little ironic, but automotive traffic could be the next source of green energy. A bill for a pilot program that will harness road vibration and convert it to energy passed 6-1 in the California State Assembly's Natural Resources Committee yesterday. It will move to the Assembly Transportation Committee for voting next week.
California Assemblyman Mike Gatto (D-Los Angeles) first introduced bill AB 306 in February.
Piezoelectric generation captures energy that cars, trains, or people generate as they move across surfaces and cause vibrations. These vibrations can be harnessed and converted to energy using piezoelectric materials underneath surfaces. Electricity stored in roadside batteries could power traffic signs and signals, or on a larger scale, be fed directly into the power grid.
A .6 mile single-lane stretch of roadway can generate up to 44 megawatts of electricity in a year, enough to power 30,800 homes. And one of the good things about this energy strategy is that rush hour typically coincides with peak energy usage.
A rendering of Innowattech piezoelectric sensors installed under a highway. (Credit: Innowattech)
Israel is already using piezoelectric generation on its highways, and Italy has plans to install the technology in a stretch of the Venice-to-Trieste Autostrada. Funding for this test project in Northern and Southern California would come from existing funds already set aside by California's Alternative and Renewable Fuel and Vehicle Technology Program.
Although a spokesperson familiar with the bill said the sensors built by Israeli technology company Innowattech or Michigan-based PowerLeap are inexpensive, no figures on the technology or installation cost could be given. However, a $50 billion backlog of road maintenance means there is ample opportunity to install piezoelectric sensors without needing to dig up roads. Determining whether or not it's cost effective to replace broken sensors before regularly schedule road maintenance is one of the pilot program's objectives.
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