Fire and Knowledge

I’m shocked at this:

Protesters here in Minneapolis have been targeted by a series of highly intimidating, sweeping police raids across the city, involving teams of 25-30 officers in riot gear, with semi-automatic weapons drawn, entering homes of those suspected of planning protests, handcuffing and forcing them to lay on the floor, while law enforcement officers searched the homes, seizing computers, journals, and political pamphlets. Last night, members of the St. Paul police department and the Ramsey County sheriff’s department handcuffed, photographed and detained dozens of people meeting at a public venue to plan a demonstration, charging them with no crime other than “fire code violations,” and early this morning, the Sheriff’s department sent teams of officers into at least four Minneapolis area homes where suspected protesters were staying.

Since when is protesting a crime? The Republicans would be having a fit if this was being done to pro-life protesters. This seems unconstitutional to me. I’d expect this in some kind of police-state, but in the US?

(via PZ)

The NY Times has a good comparison guide on Obama and McCain on various election issues. What I found most helpful is it has quotes from the candidates, so you hear where they stand from their own words.

For those wanting more information on the Georgia-Russia conflict, the NY Times has an interesting article on the history of the situation.

It’s really sad that people kill each other over border disputes. I can see the appeal of a one-world government — imagine if the entire world was allied like the United States. We don’t go to war with different states, and I hope we never do.

I doubt a one-world government is possible — patriotism is too strong, fundamentalist Christians would oppose such a “beast,” and fundamentalist Muslims would only want it if was a theocracy and they were in charge.

Maybe it wouldn’t even solve things, but it could. What’s the other alternative? Certainly not everyone in the world is going to convert to Christianity or Islam and create a theocracy. We need a real-world, secular solution that people of all faiths and nations can support.

Any other ideas?

The struggle against Islamic-based terrorism will be not simply a military campaign but a battle for public opinion in the Islamic world, among our allies, and in the United States. Osama bin Laden understands that he cannot defeat or even incapacitate the United States in a conventional war.

What he and his allies can do is inflict enough pain to provoke a reaction of the sort we’ve seen in Iraq—a botched and ill-advised U.S. military incursion into a Muslim country, which in turn spurs on insurgencies based on religious sentiment and nationalist pride, which in turn leads to an escalating death toll on the part of U.S. troops and the local civilian population. All of this fans anti-American sentiment among Muslims, increases the pool of potential terrorist recruits, and prompts the American public to question not only the war but also those policies that project us into the Islamic world in the first place.

That’s the plan for winning a war from a cave, and so far, at least, we are playing to script.

—Barack Obama, The Audacity of Hope (2006), pp. 307-308

I just found out that there are more people in slavery now than at any other time in human history:

In its 400 years, the transatlantic slave trade is estimated to have shipped up to 12 million Africans to various colonies in the West. Free the Slaves estimates that the number of people in slavery today is at least 27 million…. Three out of four slavery victims are women and that half of all modern-day slaves are children.

And if you think it’s just “out there” and not in the US, think again:

Estimates by the US State Department suggest up to 17,500 slaves are brought into the US every year, with 50,000 of those working as prostitutes, farm workers or domestic servants.

According to the CIA, more than 1,000,000 people are enslaved in the US today. Thousands of cases go undetected each year and many are difficult to take to court as it can be difficult to prove force or legal coercion.

This is crazy:

A senior government official with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has expressed great interest in a so-called safety bracelet that would serve as a stun device, similar to that of a police Taser®. According to this promotional video found at the Lamperd Less Lethal website, the bracelet would be worn by all airline passengers.

This bracelet would:

* take the place of an airline boarding pass
* contain personal information about the traveler
* be able to monitor the whereabouts of each passenger and his/her luggage
* shock the wearer on command, completely immobilizing him/her for several minutes

The Electronic ID Bracelet, as it’s referred to as, would be worn by every traveler “until they disembark the flight at their destination.” Yes, you read that correctly. Every airline passenger would be tracked by a government-funded GPS, containing personal, private and confidential information, and that it would shock the customer worse than an electronic dog collar if he/she got out of line?

I’d hate to see what happens when the collar or central device malfunctions…

From Engadget:

Like the beginning of every great science fiction movie, experts claim that they’ve discovered a cure for our fuel-dependency woes that only requires an army of genetically modified bacteria… that eat wheat straw and excrete crude oil. You read that right: scientists have created bugs which are able to snack on woodchips or sugar cane and produce waste in the form of easily malleable oil. Not only are the buggers capable of creating a byproduct which can quickly be refined into fuel for vehicles, but scientists say the process is carbon-negative — it outputs less carbon than is required to produce it. Director of the project — dubbed LS9 — Greg Pal says that barrel prices could run as low as $50, and that the company plans to have a commercial facility producing the crude in 2011.

It’s strange living in a world where you can’t discern fact from fiction.

According to the Energy Information Administration, in 1922, gasoline cost the current-day equivalent of $3.11. Today, according to the EIA, gasoline is selling for about $3.77 per gallon, only about 20 percent more than 86 years ago….

American gasoline is also dirt-cheap compared with gas in other countries. British motorists are currently paying about $8.38 per gallon for gasoline. In Norway, a major oil exporter, drivers are paying $8.73.

—Robert Bryce, “Gasoline Is Cheap“