Wednesday, November 30, 2005
Mental illness link to art and sex
Ian Sample, science correspondent
Wednesday November 30, 2005
To create or to procreate ... Pablo Picasso studies the figure of a woman assembled on the floor of his Vallauris studio in 1953. Photograph: AP
A survey comparing mental health and the number of sexual partners among the general population, artists and schizophrenics found that artists are more likely to share key behavioural traits with schizophrenics, and that they have on average twice as many sexual partners as the rest of the population. [...]
Read the whole article here.
An article in Italian on the same research, here.
Tuesday, November 29, 2005
Andrea Mantegna's "Descent to the Limbo"
It appears that the limbo might soon cease to exist.
According to Catholic tradition, the limbo is a place where unbaptised children go: unable to enjoy the 'beatific vision' of God for their not being fully 'cleansed' of the original sin through baptism, and yet not deserving to suffer in Hell or Purgatory, they would go somewhere else.
The International Theological Commission is now expected to reaffirm that the limbo does not exist and that unbaptised children are simply subject to the "divine misericordy", and Pope Pope Benedict XVI will have to definitely pronounce himself on this issue.
Incredible how serious all these gowned theologians get when debating over their fables set in contrived after-death dimensions, inhabited by fanciful beings invented in anciengt times by people with fervid imagination and fraud skills.
The self-complacent fantasy role-play game continues.
Tuesday, November 22, 2005
The sad irony is that the chemical weapons used by the barbarian Saddam are those blithefully employed by American forces to fight "insurgents": white phosphorous, as it can be read in a classified document of the Pentagon. In such a document, white phosphorous is inequivocally defined as "chemical weapon" and not as "incendiary munition".
From Think Progress:
Exclusive: Classified Pentagon Document Described White Phosphorus As ‘Chemical Weapon’
To downplay the political impact of revelations that U.S. forces used deadly white phosphorus rounds against Iraqi insurgents in Falluja last year, Pentagon officials have insisted that phosphorus munitions are legal since they aren’t technically “chemical weapons.”
The media have helped them. For instance, the New York Times ran a piece today on the phosphorus controversy. On at least three occasions, the Times emphasizes that the phosphorus rounds are “incendiary muntions” that have been “incorrectly called chemical weapons.”
But the distinction is a minor one, and arguably political in nature. A formerly classified 1995 Pentagon intelligence document titled “Possible Use of Phosphorous Chemical” describes the use of white phosphorus by Saddam Hussein on Kurdish fighters:
IRAQ HAS POSSIBLY EMPLOYED PHOSPHOROUS CHEMICAL WEAPONS AGAINST THE KURDISH POPULATION IN AREAS ALONG THE IRAQI-TURKISH-IRANIAN BORDERS. […]
Monday, November 21, 2005
1700 Catholic priests involved in sexual "misconduct" in Brazil
The numbers, reports the Brazilian magazine Istoé, are contained in a study of the Vatican:
- 1700 Brazilian priests (10% of the total) are involved in "sexual misconduct", including abuses of women or minors
- 50% of the total number of Brazilian priests are not celibate
- over 200 priests have been sent to psychological clinics in the last 3 years, in order to be "re-educated"
Various priests have been arrested recently for abusing minors. In some cases, before their final arrest, the priests had managed to be transfered to other dioceses for similar allegations, protected by a "policy of silence" of higher hierarchies.
40 priests are currently fugitives.
V.R.D., 10 yo, one of the victims of "Father" Edson Alves (on the right). Picture found in the Brazilian magazine Istoé which reported on the scandal.
"Father" Félix involved in orgies with drugs with young people found in the internet.
According to an Italian newspaper, similar scandals are emerging in other parts of the world, besides the USA and Brazil: England, Ireland, France, Croatia.
Has the time not come yet that people understand that the freaking Roman Catholic Church should be permanently shut off?
There is no doubt it can be considered a factory of disturbed people and abusers.
Vice and corruption are entwined with its very dissociated theology.
Sunday, November 20, 2005
Written and Directed by Dylan Avery, this documentary raises very alarming questions.
Questions have also been raised, amongst the others, by a well-reputed university professor like Steven E. Jones (check his paper here).
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From Prof. Steven E. Jones paper: "North Tower during top-down collapse. Notice mysterious squibs far below pulverization region."
Check also www.911truth.org.
Saturday, November 19, 2005
Vatican Official Refutes Intelligent Design
VATICAN CITY - The Vatican's chief astronomer said Friday that "intelligent design" isn't science and doesn't belong in science classrooms, the latest high-ranking Roman Catholic official to enter the evolution debate in the United States.
The Rev. George Coyne, the Jesuit director of the Vatican Observatory, said placing intelligent design theory alongside that of evolution in school programs was "wrong" and was akin to mixing apples with oranges.
"Intelligent design isn't science even though it pretends to be," the ANSA news agency quoted Coyne as saying on the sidelines of a conference in Florence. "If you want to teach it in schools, intelligent design should be taught when religion or cultural history is taught, not science."
[Read the whol article here.]
COMMENT: At least Rev. Coyne shows he knows the difference between science and non-science. I am not too confident Evangelicals will any time soon.
Date: Tue, 11 Oct 2005 13:34:38 -0700
The article appears in the current issue of Harpers and was written by Lewis H. Lapham
Excerpt:
- The truth is revealed once and only once.
- Parliamentary democracy is by definition rotten because it doesn't represent the voice of the people, which is that of the sublime leader.
- Doctrine outpoints reason, and science is always suspect.
- Critical thought is the province of degenerate intellectuals, who betray the culture and subvert traditional values.
- The national identity is provided by the nation's enemies.
- Argument is tantamount to treason.
- Perpetually at war, the state must govern with the instruments of fear. Citizens do not act; they play the supporting role of "the people" in the grand opera that is the state.
Eco published his essay ten years ago, when it wasn't as easy as it has since become to see the hallmarks of fascist sentiment in the character of an American government. Roosevelt probably wouldn't have been surprised."
Friday, November 18, 2005
Incendiary weapons: The big white lie
US finally admits using white phosphorus in Fallujah - and beyond. Iraqis investigate if civilians were targeted with deadly chemical
Andrew Buncombe in Washington Kim Sengupta in Baghdad and Colin Brown
Published: 17 November 2005
Iraq's acting Human Rights minister, Narmin Othman, said last night that a team would be dispatched to Fallujah to try to ascertain conclusively whether civilians had been killed or injured by the incendiary weapon. The use of white phosphorus (WP) and other incendiary weapons such as napalm against civilians is prohibited.
[Read the whole article here]
The propensity to lie of the Bush administration is becoming disgustingly legendary.
One of the many built-on-the-way, later rationales to justify the war on Iraq which the Bush administration feverishly pursued since day one was that Saddam was a bad guy. "He used chemical weapons against his own people" (never mind that the USA and Britain sold Saddam the technology to build illegal wepons and that Rumsfeld shook hands with Saddam when it was clear that he had used those weapons). And the US, self-appointed rulers of global order, had to do something, they chicken hawks said.
But would the US ever use illegal weapons? In their words, it seems like they never would even when they do (read the whole article above)!
The Bush administration appears to claim a permanent, almost unquestionable, ethical virginity even when it keeps giving examples of blatant disrespect of ethics and international laws.
Where does this attitude of denial come from? How can the Bush administration have the enormous brazen face of claiming purity and ethics when the they attack countries illegally and with false pretences, when they torture, abuse, jail illegally and use chemical weapons that liquefy the human body to the bone (white phosphorous)?
This duplicity, evident even in dealing with domestic affairs (cronyism, corruption, incompetence shown in the case of hurricane Katrina) is typical of power-centric oligarchies which deem any means be allowed to reach an objective (provided it is done in secrecy), in their case the objective being the expansion of political-economical power.
Given the above, not only is it clear that the claim of the US of representing an ethical superpower is grossly unfounded and even pathetic, but the current US administration endangers global peace and the well-being of their own people.
Thursday, November 17, 2005
by Joe London
There is a country in which the testing of chemicals and pesticides on pregnant women and children is banned. Civil, compassionate, human, isn't it?
But wait, in the same country, if children are handicapped or orphaned and "cannot be reasonably consulted", then chemical testing could be performed on them, according to a newly proposed governmental rule, if the institution or guardian in charge of them give their assent. And let's face it, I am sure rich pharmaceutical or chemical companies could find ways to convince those institutions and guardians.
However, still according to the new rule, those same pharmaceutical and chemical companies can poison children at wish for their testings, without any authorization needed, if the children have been neglected or abused, or if the children are not citizens of that great nation we are talking about.
Are we talking about Germany at the time of Nazis, when "experiments" would be performed in concentration camps, but surely not on blonde, blue-eyed, healthy and Aryan Germans?
No, we are talking about the Bush-run United States of America, the exporters of democracy and civilization (and of war, secret prisons, torture, abuse, white phosphorous, depleted uranium). Again the United States of America do not cease to surprise, negatively.
The Bush administration fights against abortion, but appears to be prepared to harm newly born children who, if handicapped or abused or neglected or foreign, could be considered crops of Guinea pigs for chemical testing by fat, greedy corporations (surely contributors of a certain political party, I suppose). .
Read here and take action.
Wednesday, November 16, 2005
GOP senator hits Bush for attacking war critics; Hints Congress endorsing another Vietnam by staying silent
Republican senator Chuck Hagel (R-NE)
Excerpt:
[...] Hagel blasted the Administration for going after Iraq war critics and turning the war into a political cause.
"The Iraq war should not be debated in the United States on a partisan political platform," the Nebraska senator remarked. "This debases our country, trivializes the seriousness of war and cheapens the service and sacrifices of our men and women in uniform. War is not a Republican or Democrat issue. The casualties of war are from both parties. The Bush Administration must understand that each American has a right to question our policies in Iraq and should not be demonized for disagreeing with them. Suggesting that to challenge or criticize policy is undermining and hurting our troops is not democracy nor what this country has stood for, for over 200 years. The Democrats have an obligation to challenge in a serious and responsible manner, offering solutions and alternatives to the Administration’s policies."
"Vietnam was a national tragedy partly because Members of Congress failed their country, remained silent and lacked the courage to challenge the Administrations in power until it was too late," he added. "Some of us who went through that nightmare have an obligation to the 58,000 Americans who died in Vietnam to not let that happen again. To question your government is not unpatriotic – to not question your government is unpatriotic. America owes its men and women in uniform a policy worthy of their sacrifices."
Hagel emphasized the role of international cooperation.
"The international community must now recognize the changed circumstances of a constitutionally-based Iraqi government and join Iraq’s neighbors by investing in Iraq’s future success," he said. [...]
Read the whole article here.
The Slough of happiness
A social experiment in a dull British town may give us the formula for lasting joy
If you were searching for the path to lasting happiness, Slough probably wouldn’t be the place you’d start. But for Richard Stevens, a leading psychologist, the Berkshire town proved the ideal location for a pioneering experiment: take all the theory and speculation about what makes human beings happy and test it over ten weeks on people in an ordinary British town. He believes he now knows what works.
Poor old Slough: it was the running gag in The Office; John Bunyan linked it irrevocably with “despond” in The Pilgrim’s Progress; and Betjeman famously pleaded: “Come, friendly bombs and fall on Slough/It isn’t fit for humans now.” Stuck under a Heathrow flightpath and beset by roundabouts and soulless concrete buildings, it is an emblem of the sadder aspects of modern Britain. But Stevens, along with a team of shrinks, counsellors, an economist and a film crew, found it fertile ground for emotional uplifts.
The team recruited 50 local volunteers, aged from 17 to 78, spanning the racial spectrum, and with occupations from housewives to local councillors and university tutors. [...]
[read the whole article here]
COMMENT
Interesting experiment. The article contains a Happiness Manifesto given to the participants:
THE HAPPINESS MANIFESTO
It does not take much to consider that the above are generally good pieces of advice, despite their sounding an easy, Reader's Digest-like recipe for happiness.
Were we to follow them faithfully, at least most of them, they could plausibly augment the sense of well-being and they would also represent an exercise of freedom (which is ironic if one defined them as "rules"). And it is interesting how well-being could be seen as freedom too, as taking hold of ourselves.
Why do I talk about freedom? Consider how much of ordinary life is enslaving habits we live by every day.
Think of the slavery of living away from the lush natural environment that has surrounded human beings for millions of years. Many of us practically live in blocks of cement and rarely experience a feeling of an all-encompassing nature, and yet we don't often question this form of slavery or we have grown used to it, surely not without detriment of our well-being. Thus at least the vicinity of a plant, suggested by the Manifesto, however pathetic that might sound, could provide some well-being. Hopefully inspiring some hiking on the mountains or in the country too.
And what about the fact of conversing with one's partner? How much of silences and miscommunication is a by-product of the alienating rhythms of the world of production. Deciding to talk, instead, could represent a victory over the grey, numbing aggressor of the modern world.
And physical exercise surely favours a sense of well-being. That too could be seen as reacting to a regime of repetitive movements or no movements at all imposed by the modern world.
Smiling at, or talking to strangers? Surely smiling at or talking to strangers, instead of confining oneself into an expressionless shell, is - at least sometimes - quite a natural thing to do. This is the most Reader's Digest-sounding piece of advice of all, together with the last one. But let's consider: how much in our average day is not work talks/smiles or mere social convenience? How much we have the chance to be exposed to strangers at all, not in a work environment, let alone smile or talk to them?
Cutting your television viewing by half? Less slavery of vulgarity, bad taste, bombarding ads, political propaganda and brainwashing in general. Redemption of one's time. A great piece of advice!
Sunday, November 13, 2005
Found on www.americanscientist.org
Friday, November 11, 2005
From deseretnews.com:
Professor thinks bombs, not planes, toppled WTC
In fact, it's likely that there were "pre-positioned explosives" in all three buildings at ground zero, says Steven E. Jones. [Read the whole article here]
Thursday, November 10, 2005
Tuesday, November 08, 2005
Thanks "God" some news providers still do their job, unveiling the disgusting substance of which the Bush administration is made.
W. and his clique just makes me puke.
Tuesday November 8, 2005 2:31 PM
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - Poet Nadia Anjuman was beaten to death, and her husband and mother have been arrested. The United Nations condemned the killing Tuesday as symptom of continuing violence against Afghan women four years after the fall of the Taliban. [read the article here]
References to the abuse are contained in a letter written on January 16th 1515 by Francesco Vettori, ambassador of Florence at the Vatican and friend of Machiavelli since childhood. Besides referring to the good faith of parents being betrayed by "depraved teachers", Vettori also mentions that the priest would let the young Machiavelli read obscene homoerotic poetry which, Vettori writes, "would wake up even the dead".
You can read an interview with Professor Connell here (in Italian). According to Professor Connell, the experience Machiavelli went through had a big impact on his vision of the Catholic church, highly critical, and the world.
It really looks like the history of the Roman Catholic Church is paved with abuses, molestations and pederasty.
Monday, November 07, 2005
Yeah right, at least shut up!
Excerpt from the article:
"Over White House opposition, the Senate has passed legislation banning torture. With Vice President Dick Cheney as the point man, the administration is seeking an exemption for the CIA. It was recently disclosed that the spy agency maintains a network of prisons in eastern Europe and Asia, where it holds terrorist suspects."
Sunday, November 06, 2005
Los Angeles Times
Nov. 5, 2005 12:00 AM WASHINGTON - Girding for a potential fight with the Bush administration, supporters of a ban on torturing prisoners of war by U.S. interrogators threatened Friday to include the prohibition in nearly every bill the Senate considers until it becomes law. [Read the whole article here]
The Bush administration should stop bragging and their pretension to exporting their democracy: they better import some from some other countries. From Old Europe for instance. And those who share the patronizing and imperialistic vision of PNAC which claims that "American leadership is good both for America and for the world" should shut their gob.
Saturday, November 05, 2005
Kerry says `science under attack' from right-wing `ideologues'
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. --Sen. John Kerry, dedicating a new brain research center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said Friday "science itself is under attack today" by right-wing ideologues and the Bush administration.
The Massachusetts Democrat declared: "We see it in the casual dismissal of Socratic inquiry and peer-reviewed and evidence-driven analysis. We see it in the rigid refusal to listen to what the Earth is trying to tell us about the condition of the air and water and land that surround us and sustain us. We see it in as federal science and research boards are being stacked with partisans and ideologues."
Kerry recalled the story of American scientist Thomas Midgley Jr., who invented leaded gas and discovered chlorofluorocarbons -- both later deemed bad for the environment. Midgley later was stricken by polio, and he developed a harness to get in and out of his bed. He died after strangling in the device.
"Today a group of ideologues are treating science as if it was one great big Midgley experiment," Kerry said. "And the result is a shortsighted period in the American experience where support for science is withheld and facts are ignored and obscured and distorted."
He added: "When so many Americans worry that we have become a nation of moral relativists, there are too few Americans who are worrying that we are becoming a nation of factual relativists."
[Read the whole article here]
Don't you dare call me a journalist
By John Steinberg | RAW STORY COLUMNIST
Excerpt:[...] There is a great line in Zach Braff’s 2004 film “Garden State.” He says that a family is “a group of people who miss the same imaginary place.” When bloggers say they want to be journalists, they are doing the same thing.
The Platonic form of journalism – Edward R. Murrow taking on Joseph McCarthy, Walter Cronkite taking on Lyndon Johnson after the Tet Offensive, Woodward and Bernstein taking on Nixon – is today a fantasy unrecognizable in the flickering phosphors on the walls of our contemporary caves. Perhaps journalists once took risks in order to share dangerous truths with readers and viewers, but that time seems to have passed into history. What passes for journalism in Washington and New York today is in large measure as corrupt and despicable as the subjects it glosses. [...]
[Read the whole article here.]
Friday, November 04, 2005
A new poll by Zogby International has found that a majority of Americans support Congress considering the impeachment of President Bush if he “did not tell the truth about his reasons for going to war with Iraq,” RAW STORY has learned. [Read the article here].
Read this article for a presentation of some of the best ones around.
Arianna Huffington, founder of huffingtonpost.com
