Ridley Scott to produce miniseries on rocket scientist, occultist Jack Parsons - Boing Boing: "Parsons championed the then derided idea of rocketry. After establishing an off-hours collaboration at Caltech, Parsons worked to create liquid fueled rockets which he launched from Pasadena's Arroyo Seco. The group won a wartime government contract to invent jet assisted take off (JATO), which would enable airplanes to launch from aircraft carriers using shorter runways. Parsons's creation of a solid fueled engine with uniform burn properties was key to the project's success. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory was established in the Arroyo shortly thereafter...
While Parsons as the passionate outsider driving technological advancement is in itself a compelling story, the plot twists of his personal life make it truly fascinating. As was the case for many intellectuals in the 1930's Parsons frequented communist gatherings, though he never joined the Party. His quest for alternative viewpoints led him to attend a Gnostic Mass at Hollywood's Agape Lodge of the Ordo Templi Orientis, run by followers of Aleister Crowley. Parsons came to join and eventually lead the Lodge. He moved it to Pasadena, in a residence whose rooms he rented to other lodge members, including L. Ron Hubbard. The Lodge was the scene not only of many occult rituals, but also hedonistic parties involving alcohol and orgies. Hubbard would soon seduce Parson's girlfriend, convince him to invest in the new couple's sham yacht transporting business, and use those funds to found the Church of Scientology."
Mission creep always happens/continued erosion of the 4th Amendment.
'Sneak and Peek' Warrants Intended for Terrorism Mostly Used in Drug Cases - Hit & Run : Reason.com: "When the security state types pushed for passage of the Patriot Act, one of the measures on which they insisted was the inclusion of "sneak and peek" warrants. In the war against terrorism, they absolutely had to be able to go searching first, and provide notice to suspects later. Of course, it didn't take long for law enforcement to discover this security state tool and start putting it to very different use—mostly in the enforcement of drug prohibition. In fact, that's mostly how sneak and peeks are now used."
So Much Facepalm.
You Look Too Calm. What Are You, a Terrorist? Now You Look Nervous, Terrorist. - Hit & Run : Reason.com: "Look too calm, you're suspicious. Look too nervous, you're suspicious. These contradictory assumptions are just several transportation guidelines on "reporting suspicious activity," revealed by an American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. They comes from an employee document for Amtrak, which is publicly funded. These are signs that you should be paranoid of your fellow Americans, and call the police on them"
When does Amy Poehler watch porn? Whenever she can.: "Stern asked Poehler if she’s ever watched lesbian porn, to which she replied, “Yeah. But that’s not really my thing.” Regarding her taste, she revealed, “It’s not too crazy. I like my porn like my comedy: Done by professionals, women who are at the top of their game. So, I like professional ladies who are enjoying themselves. I’m not an amateur person. I want everybody to look good and be good at their jobs.” When does she watch porn? “Whenever I can,” she joked. “Whenever I find the time.” “Oh my god! I just remembered my dad’s listening to this! Sorry, dad!” Poehler laughed. “I just called him this morning and was like, ‘I’m gonna be on Stern this morning!’ Shit! Sorry, dad! Love you, pop!”"
Did Western Aid Create the Breeding Ground for Ebola? - Reason.com: "Ebola is an awful disease... Preventing its spread requires not sophisticated equipment or know-how that developing countries don't have—but quick and aggressive steps to isolate, track, and monitor patients, all of which is common knowledge in African public health circles. This is precisely what Nigerian authorities did when an infected Liberian-American man collapsed in Lagos airport. They quickly isolated him once his condition was diagnosed. They also mounted an immediate campaign to track down and monitor about 900 people who came in contact with him. They tapped staff from the country's polio-eradication program to help run an emergency operations center. Ultimately, despite its dense population, Nigeria kept its outbreak to a grand total of 19 cases with only seven casualties—a mortality rate of 37 percent.
Liberia, however, is another story. Unlike Nigeria, Liberia's immediate reaction was not to marshal its domestic resources but to hold press conferences and appeal for international aid, points out Johannesburg-based Yale World Fellow Sisonke Msimang. Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, a Nobel peace laureate, even penned an open letter to the "world" this week, plaintively crying that Ebola wasn't a domestic problem but a global one that "governments to international organizations, financial institutions to NGOs, politicians to ordinary people in the street in every corner of the world" had a "duty" to combat through "emergency funds, medical supplies, or clinical capacity."
But the "world" has been supplying all of this and more to Liberia in spades. Indeed, Liberia is among the largest aid recipients on the continent, with about 75 percent of its budget supplied by aid agencies. It receives $139 per capita in loans and grants, according to World Bank figures, compared with Nigeria's $11 per capita. Liberia's capital, Monrovia, where 305 new Ebola cases were reported last week alone, is practically crawling with NGOs and aid workers. More stunningly, the U.N. is already spending $500 million to maintain a peacekeeping force. "The virus has managed to escape from a country that has one of the largest concentration of 'helpers' in the world," Msimang writes. This might seem surprising, but it is actually perfectly predictable. Western aid, though aimed at helping Liberia recover from decades of brutal civil wars, has created a hopelessly dependent political class that stays in business by ignoring good governance and appealing to its Western benefactors.
Liberian authorities therefore have neither the wherewithal nor the trust of their citizens to mobilize an action plan. In fact, Monrovians in a slum initially attacked crisis responders who approached them about the disease because they believed that Ebola was a government ploy to shake down international agencies for more aid. Efforts to cordon off affected slums have resulted in deadly clashes with authorities by locals who fear that far from helping them, the government will consign them to certain death. "They were saying, in no uncertain terms, that the hand that feeds them is also the hand that pinches them," notes Msimang."
Adama gets it.
