April 4, 2002
A KINDER, GENTLER MACHINE GUN HAND
The Colombian army has unveiled a
10-foot tall inflatable soldier as its new mascot in order to encourage
locals to rat out rebel activities to the authorities. The perpetually
grinning mascot, powered by a real soldier inside, and dressed in an army
camouflage uniform, has been waddling around the countryside, hugging and
waving at locals. The mascot is accompanied by a regular soldier who hands
out leaflets with a 24-hour number to which people can call and give any
information about rebel activity. (BBC)
GET WHITEY
A former law student has filed a lawsuit on behalf of 35
million African-Americans, seeking financial reparations from U.S.
corporations linked to the slave trade. "These are corporations that
benefited from stealing people, from stealing
labor, from forced breeding, from torture, from committing numerous
horrendous acts, and there's no reason why they should be able to hold
onto assets they acquired through such horrendous acts," said Deadria
Farmer-Paellmann, the main plaintiff in the lawsuit. Lawyers estimate that
around $40 million worth of unpaid labour was performed by slaves between
1790 and 1860, and that the current value of that labour could be as high
as $1.4 trillion. (CNN)
.
PRACTICING SAFE SEX (ON ANIMALS)
The National Societies for the
Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in South Africa is trying to stem an
epidemic of boys and young men having sex with goats in order to avoid
sexually transmitted diseases. "We know about AIDS and we are very afraid
of it," said one grade 11 student, "that is why we are having sex with
these goats. Goats don't have AIDS." As well as concern over the
well-being of the animals, others are concerned about the effect on goat
farming in the area. One goat owner admitted, " people don't want to be
associated with these goats. No one wants anything to do with their meat
or milk. I'm going to have to destroy my goats." (worldonline-co.za)
HELPING TO END THE PLAGUE OF BAD MUSIC
Professor James Kellaris of the
University of Cincinnati has embarked on a study of "Stuck Tune Syndrome,"
which is his phrase for when some annoyingly repetitive piece of music
gets stuck in your brain and refuses to leave. His leading theory so far
is that certain types of music creates a "cognitive itch" in the brain,
which can only be "scratched" by replaying the tune in your mind. The more
the brain scratches, he says, the worse the itch gets. His ultimate goal
is to find a way to end the horror of Stuck Tune Syndrome; remarkably, he
feels the easiest way to remove a song from your head might be to pass it
on to someone else, either by humming the melody, or by simply telling a
person about the song stuck in your head. Then, magically, the tune will
stop bothering you. (LA Times)
100 PER CENT CHANCE OF WEATHER
Meterologists claim that a new
supercomputer which is 10 times faster than the one currently used,
hooked up to a new atmosphere simulator which calculates the movement of
individual parcels of air will enable them to be able to predict the
chance of rain to withing 500 meters of any location. (New Scientist)
LIKE A PUNCH IN THE FACE FROM YOUR OLDER BROTHER WHEN YOU BEAT HIM AT
CHECKERS
A new computer game designed by a couple of German masochists
allows players to shock and burn their opponents. Painstation is based on
the old game Pong, and zaps players with randomly administered pain in the
form of heat, jolts and shocks if the player misses the ball. The winner
is the person who can withstand pain the longest. (Wired)
RAT DREAMS
Scientist at MIT have discovered that rats have dreams that
may be as complex as the dreams of humans. By monitoring brain activity
while the rats were awake and running through a maze, and comparing the
brain activity to that produced while the rats were in REM sleep, the
researchers concluded that the rats were dreaming about events from their
waking life. (Ananova)
GAMES PSYCHOS PLAY
The National Alliance, an American neo-nazi
"religion," has put out a video game called Ethnic Cleansing, in which
players dressed as skinheads or in KKK robes roam the streets of New York
murdering "predatory sub-humans" (blacks and Latinos) and their "masters"
(Jews). This game is merely the most recent of a string of racist games
available from neo-nazi websites. Perhaps the most offensive is SA Mann, a
spin-off of PacMan, which is called a "concentration camp rat hunt," in
which players shoot Jewish "rats" inside Auschwitz. (rense.com)
Go to:
Copyright 2002 by Andreas Ohrt
Email:aohrt@hotmail.com
Website:www.curioustimes.com
