The Height of Movie Hype, Starring bin Laden
by Mike Nizza
New York Times Blog
December 5, 2007

The internet rumor mill won’t turn for just anything, and one of its latest products has several qualifications to its credit:

Add that up and post to a few well-read movie blogs, and out comes a slew of headlines titled “Did Morgan Spurlock Find Osama bin Laden?”

On its face, it’s unbelievable. Why would an American filmmaker succeed where the United States government has failed? (more…)

Here’s an interesting, controversial and challenging hour and 51 minute film produced in 2006 by Aaron Russo (1943-2007).

From the Conscious Movie Network:

“Determined to find the law that requires Americans to pay income tax, Aaron Russo (The Rose, Trading Places) sets out on a journey. Neither left- nor right-wing, this startling examination exposes the systematic erosion of civil liberties in America. Through interviews with US Congressmen, a former IRS Commissioner, former IRS and FBI agents, tax attorneys and authors, Russo connects the dots between money creation, federal income tax, voter fraud, the national identity card (becoming law in May 2008) and the implementation of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology to track citizens. A striking case about the evolving police state in America.”

However, David Cay Johnston wrote an article in the New York Times, July 31, 2006, refuting some of the filmmaker’s assertions about American income tax laws. This is none-the-less a very compelling story.

Links of interest:

Thanks Brian Truskey. Photo: Mikkelina’s Thoughts.

Mr. Spock and Reverend Jen have pioneered pointed ears for years. Now comes New York plastic surgeon Dr. Lajos Nagy who has created a surgical procedure to make human ears pointed, like a mythological creature. From his Website:

“A newfangled extravagance is spreading amongst the music-lover youngsters of New York, which, after invading America, is sure to conquer the whole world. Ears becoming pointed as a result of plastic surgery not only enhance the attractiveness of the face, but also improve the experience of listening to music.”

Scientific Background from Dr. Lajos Nagy’s Website: (more…)

Artist implants ‘third ear’ on his own arm
The Daily Mail
October 11, 2007

Performance artists are known for pushing the bounderies, but one Australian has astonished his contemporaries by having a third ear implanted onto his arm.

The Cypriot-born eccentric Stelios Arcadious spent 10 years searching for a surgeon willing to perform the controversial operation.

Artist Stelios Arcadiou has had the ear created in a lab from cells and implanted into his skin

He got his wish after working as a Research Fellow at Nottingham Trent University’s Digital Research Unit. The ear was grown in a lab from cells and implanted into the 61-year-olds left forearm in 2006.

Mr Arcadious said he thought art “should be more than simply illustrating ideas.” Once the ear has fully developed he hopes to get a microphone implanted as well. (more…)

Dragonfly or Insect Spy? Scientists at Work on Robobugs
by Rick Weiss
Washington Post
October 9, 2007

Vanessa Alarcon saw them while working at an antiwar rally in Lafayette Square last month.

“I heard someone say, ‘Oh my god, look at those,’ ” the college senior from New York recalled. “I look up and I’m like, ‘What the hell is that?’ They looked kind of like dragonflies or little helicopters. But I mean, those are not insects.”

Out in the crowd, Bernard Crane saw them, too.

“I’d never seen anything like it in my life,” the Washington lawyer said. “They were large for dragonflies. I thought, ‘Is that mechanical, or is that alive?’ ”

That is just one of the questions hovering over a handful of similar sightings at political events in Washington and New York. Some suspect the insectlike drones are high-tech surveillance tools, perhaps deployed by the Department of Homeland Security. (more…)

Survivor Duck: 15 Years and 17,000 Miles Later
Wierd Asia News
September 4, 2007

For 15 years there have been thousands of “Made in China” bathtime ducks floating halfway around the world’s oceans. Just recently the armada of yellow rubber friends started to arrive in Clyde, England and are about to begin showing up in the Glasgow river.

The mass of yellow ducks, blue turtles, and green frogs broke free from a container in Pacific ocean due to bad weather 15 years ago. (more…)

Has a Mythical Beast Turned Up in Texas?
by Elizabeth White
September 1, 2007

Cuero, Texas (AP) — Phylis Canion lived in Africa for four years. She’s been a hunter all her life and has the mounted heads of a zebra and other exotic animals in her house to prove it. But the roadkill she found last month outside her ranch was a new one even for her, worth putting in a freezer hidden from curious onlookers: Canion believes she may have the head of the mythical, bloodsucking chupacabra.

“It is one ugly creature,” Canion said, holding the head of the mammal, which has big ears, large fanged teeth and grayish-blue, mostly hairless skin. (more…)

Cat pooh coffee costs a lot
Sonia Legg reports
Reuters
August 19, 2007

A rare type of coffee made from the droppings of the civet cat is wowing coffee connoisseurs around the world.

Enzymes in the cats’ stomach break down the proteins that give coffee its bitter taste, thus enhancing its flavour and creating a brew many consider superb. A cup of the special civet cat or luwak coffee sells for as much as 50 Australian dollars in trendy cafes Downunder while hip New Yorkers pay around 75 U.S. dollars for a quarter pound.

Check out the video here.

via Linkfilter

Editor’s Note: A similar story appeared in the Telegraph.co.uk in 2004. In 2003, the SARS virus was traced to the endangered civet cat and eating this culinary delicacy was thought to have been a possible point of origin for the fatal virus. Civet cats are also the source of a high-valued musk which can induce vomiting in humans in strong amounts. This makes drinking coffee made with civet poo an even greater adventure, or more accurately, folly.

In the Spring of 2000 an Austrian art group called Gelitin either did or did not remove a window from their 91st floor art studio space in the World Trade Center; did or did not place a balcony outside; and did or did not stand on it for photographs taken from a hired helicopter.

Following is a New York Times article dated August 18, 2001 about this mystery. Whether or not they actually did this project [look especially at #12 and #16 at this link], they could not have known that their project would be woven into the complex tapestry of a conspiracy theory about what really happened on September 11, 2001 to the World Trade Center. (more…)

Editor’s Note: Although this may be a real business, it brings to mind the Cathouse for Dogs hoax perpetrated by Joey Skaggs in 1976, where for $50.00 you could get Fido sexually gratified.

Company Sinks Teeth Into Dog Time Shares
by Lisa Leff
Philly.com
July 29, 2007

San Francisco (AP) — From the state that popularized purse puppies, drive-thru dog washes and gourmet dog food delivery comes the latest in canine convenience - a company that contracts out dogs by the day to urbanites without the time or space to care for a pet full-time.

Marlena Cervantes, founder of FlexPetz, bristles when people refer to her five-month-old business as a rent-a-pet service. She prefers the term “shared pet ownership,” explaining the concept is more akin to a vacation time share or a gym membership than a trip to the video store.

“Our members are responsible in that they realize full-time ownership is not an option for them and would be unfair to the dog,” said Cervantes, 32, a behavioral therapist who got the idea while working with pets and autistic children. “It prevents dogs from being adopted and then returned to the shelter by people who realize it wasn’t a good fit.”

FlexPetz is currently available in Los Angeles and San Diego, where Cervantes lives. She plans to open new locations in San Francisco next month, New York in September and London by the end of the year. (more…)

A US cat that is reportedly able to sense when a nursing home’s residents are about to die is baffling doctors.

US cat ‘predicts patient deaths’
BBC
July 26, 2007

Oscar has a habit of curling up next to patients at the home in Providence, Rhode Island, in their final hours.

According to the author of a study in the New England Journal of Medicine, the two-year-old cat has been observed to be correct in 25 cases so far.

Staff now alert the families of residents when he sits down next to their ailing loved one.

“He doesn’t make many mistakes. He seems to understand when patients are about to die,” David Dosa, a professor at Brown University who carried out the research, told the Associated Press news agency. Read the rest of the story here.

UFO sightings bring town to a standstill
Daily Mail
July 25, 2007

A crowd of 100 stunned stargazers brought a town centre to a standstill when five mysterious UFOs were spotted hovering in the sky.

Drinkers spilled out of pubs, motorists stopped to gawp and camera phones were aimed upwards as the five orbs, in a seeming formation, hovered above Stratford-Upon-Avon for half an hour.

The unidentified flying objects lit up the otherwise clear night sky above Shakespeare’s birthplace in Warwickshire on Saturday.

Although Air Traffic Control reported no unusual activity, some witnesses were convinced they were witnessing an extra-terrestrial spectacle. (more…)

From Charlie Sorrel, Wired Blogs Gadget Lab, July 06, 2007:

Surprise! Perpetual Machine Demo Cancelled

The world changing technology/art project/prank known as Orbo has taken a rain check. The demonstration of the magnetic free energy machine was due to start a couple days ago, but various delays caused by “hot lights” meant that nobody has seen either the exhibit or the live, streaming video feeds. Steorn, the people behind Orbo, have packed up and gone back home to Ireland.

From the Steorn press release:

Attempts to replace those parts affected by the heat led to further failures and as a result we have to postpone the public demonstration until a future date. We apologise for the inconvenience caused to all the people who had made arrangements to visit the demonstration or were planning on viewing the demonstration online.

Some of our fine readers took me to task for being too cynical in our previous coverage. Not cynical, just skeptical. And this latest incident doesn’t add to my confidence.

Update from the Yes Men:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 28, 2007

Exxon Hacks the Yes Men
Contact: people@theyesmen.org

One day after the Yes Men made a joke announcement that ExxonMobil plans to turn billions of climate-change victims into a brand-new fuel called Vivoleum,

the Yes Men’s upstream internet service provider shut down Vivoleum.com, the Yes Men’s spoof website, and cut off the Yes Men’s email service, in reaction to a complaint whose source they will not identify. The provider, Broadview Networks, also made the Yes Men remove all mention of Exxon from TheYesMen.org before they’d restore the Yes Men’s email service.

The Yes Men assume the complainant was Exxon. (more…)