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News Briefs 08-03-06

By Jameskeon

Why should solar storms get so much worse? Is the sun suffering from global warming?

  • Still evolving, human genes tell a new story.
  • Scientists predict stronger solar storms in the next 11 years.
  • Conspiracy theories pollute mainstream media. Is that not new reality then?
  • Ancient war goddess statues unearthed in Egypt.
  • Tsunami study forces rethink on giant earthquake theory.
  • Naples may be a Pompeii in waiting.
  • Antarctica melt will lead to sea level rise.
  • Psych drugs used to manufacture insanity.
  • Pupils write with both hands simultaneously. I would be impressed if they were taught to think for themselves. Or is that too much to ask from schools?
  • Controversial historian banned from speaking to press.
  • Why the holocaust must be questioned.
  • The missing library of Iona.
  • Bubble fusion: silencing the hype.
  • Magnetic therapy on the NHS?
  • Lunar craters: a failed theory.

Quote of the Day:

The basis of optimism is sheer terror.

Oscar Wilde

Jameske
Related

32 Comments

  1. Writing with both hands
    The link now works for the article on writing with both hands simultaneously.

    Well, it’s not as impressive as being able to write with both hands on different subjects and in different languages, but I can write English with both hands simultaneously, producing with my left hand a mirror image of whatever I write with my right. Or I can write in mirror-image with my left hand alone. But I can’t write forward in the normal manor with my left hand, and with my right, I can’t write in mirror-image.

    A couple of years back, for several months I wrote a personal journal in mirror-image with my left hand as a casual experiment to see if it might make me more creative. I wonder if that’s the point of teaching something similar to these school kids, and if so, I wonder if it’s working? I also wonder if this skill will generalize to other areas, such as being able to listen to and understand two conversations simultaneously?

    And btw, if you need to login for the nytimes article on human genes, just enter, user: ‘dailygrail’ and password: ‘article’.

    Kat

    1. I can write in mirror image too!
      When the trading was slow on the stock options floor I worked on during the 80’s we’d do stupid people tricks now and then for amusment. Mine was mirror image writing. Would set up a big board and have 2 magic marker. Was always fun to do, and I still do now and then.
      I’v also found I can write and cartoon with my left hand. Just not as well or defined as the right. Got that going for me if I stroke.
      Now if I was a politician I could talked out of both sides of my mouth!

      1. stupid human tricks
        Bladerunner, do you write in mirror-image with your dominant hand, non-dominant hand, or both? Can you write the same thing normally with your dominant hand and in mirror-image with your non-dominant hand simultaneously? If you’ve never tried it, pick a word and have a go; then tell us what you experienced. 😉

        Viewing it in a mirror, my left-handed mirror-image handwriting is remarkably similar to my dominant handwriting. It slants the same way, the letters are shaped the same way, and the spacing between words is the same. Although it isn’t quite as ‘polished’ as my normal handwriting (what can you expect, if you rarely practice?), it’s easily readable, even though I occasionally forget to dot my i’s and cross my t’s.

        It’s weird that I can write almost as fluidly and as fast left-handed mirror-image as I normally write, but when I try to write forward with my left hand, it’s a slow and almost painful process; and when I’m done, I can barely read it. I find it fascinating that my brain seems to feel, in a tactile sense, the same fluidity with the mirror-image writing that it does with normal dominant-hand writing, even though the usual visual cues are lacking in that I can’t read what I’m writing as I write it. But writing forward with my left hand feels entirely alien, as if I’m stuggling with the unfamiliar controls to a robot, even though I can see what I’m doing.

        It all makes me wonder what other reverse hidden talents might be lurking in our noggins, unexplored.

        Kat

        1. Stupid Human Tricks
          I write with both hands at the same time. The mirror image with my non-dominate hand. I can write mirror only this way, as far as I know. I can also read print upside down(helps in meetings). Writing with my left side is just takes a little more, the muscles are not use to that work and have not been “trained” as the right side has.
          When growing up my brothers and I played word games all the time sentences and words backward was one. I can come up with new lyrics to a song just as fast as I can sing the song. And can pun and ryhme for hours. My brothers also are the same. Its just something we did for amusement, and to drive our parents and teachers mad.

  3. Why would you question the Holocaust?
    I presume in this case it is because Jameske is Irish and the Irish were on Hitler’s side in WW2.
    Has anyone noticed that Rense has gone from posting weird unusual stories to a totally antisemitic site?
    The Holocaust happened.
    Auschwitz was a death camp.

    Is there anyone out there with more energy than I have at present who can compile a list of reading for the more intellectually-challenged amongst us who, without any prior education on the issue, believe that the Holocaust did not happen?

    shadows

    1. erm..no…
      Your presumption is incorrect.

      As a matter of historical irony – it is not entirely clear what being on Hitler’s side actually meant or means. From one point of view he was responsible for destroying Germany. That certainly doesn’t put him on the side of the Germans.

      As for questioning the holocaust, and challenging either all of it or aspects of it, that is, the nuances and finer points of the history – either you believe in freedom of speech for those opinions or beliefs or facts you hate and despise or believe to be wrong, or you don’t believe in freedom of speech at all. The Nazis were all in favour of speech they approved of, the Stalinists were all in favour of speech they approved of, in fact every oppressor whether from a democratic or non-democratic regime favours the freedom to speak speech they approve of. It is the speech they don’t like that they censor.

      1. As it turns out, Shadows is not incorrect;
        it is in fact your reasoning that leaves something to be desired. There is in the first place not a lot of doubt as to what it meant to be on Hitler’s side: he was, from the first day of his rise to power until his last day in Berlin, a cancerous growth on the spirit of Man, a virulent little creature whose hatred, spite and anger persist in many forms until this day and probably for a long time to come. To support him, even tacitly, is to share in the evil and insanity that he set loose. You touch upon this, inadvertently, I would think, at the end of your first paragraph, with your rather curious comment about how he was not on the side of the Germans…he led to disaster the country he wanted to rule the world and he tried wholesale extermination of a number of groups as a way of furthering his aims; that doesn’t put him on the side of Germany, it doesn’t put him on anyone’s side because he was evil and insane and not on anyone’s side but his own.

        As to the rest of your post, I have to ask: What do you think you’re trying to accomplish? Freedom of speech is not an absolute right; try yelling “Fire!” in a crowded movie theater some night when there really is no fire and if some unfortunate gets trampled to death in the ensuing stampede see if a judge will buy your free-speech argument that you can say anything you want. It’s one thing for someone to objectively examine facts and the spin put on them, it’s quite another to utter statements whose sole purpose is to promote hatred, which is what the Rense piece is doing, however reasonable the author tries to sound in the doing of it. In fact, it might be helpful if you would consider that people of goodwill, Shadows, myself, others, can object to certain forms of expression without being nazis or stalinists or any other sort of oppressor.

        The facts of the situation are apparent to anyone with the will to not deny them. The German people haven’t been carrying a national sense of guilt and shame because the Holocaust didn’t happen; if it hadn’t happened the German people en masse would be the first to let people know. I’m the first of my family not to be born in Germany and I feel a sense of shame for what happened; my parents, dead now, were haunted by it to the end of their days, my elder siblings feel it too…know why? It’s because very few people who were there at the time, non-jews, didn’t personally know someone who got herded away, never to be seen again. The shame of the people who carried out that heinous act is self-evident, the shame of those who didn’t try to stop it is too and the only shame the jews bear is in not having believed that such a thing could really be happening.

        I would like to think that pretty much anything can be discussed in a rational manner. The Rense piece isn’t rational discussion, it’s hate-mongering, written by someone who would feel insulted by mention of the millions of names gathered at Yad Vashem, to put it in his own words. It’s a rambling complaint, made up of half-truths, inappropriate references and outright bullshit and it’s aimed at one thing: blaming the victim. Personally I can’t see it as being substanially different in intent from what Hitler and his cronies did to get the ball rolling before WW II.

        I freely admit that I may have taken you up all wrong and if you can show me that I’ve done so I will earnestly ask your pardon; for the moment it looks rather as though you’re defending what can’t be defended. If the Holocaust can be denied or even diminished then similar behavior directed at other groups or at the jews again just became more likely…something I would hope that rational people of good will would want to avoid, not to mention the insult it does to the dead and those who survive them.

        Good night.

        1. OK
          I was being humourous about Hitler and Germany, and thank Yah Weh that Mel Brooks also has been or I expect to be accused of being an anti-semite next.

          But I didn’t suggest Shadows was a Nazi or a Stalinist, I just said that they believed in freedom of speech only for those things they approved of, and you seem to and Shadows seems to. That does not make you or her Nazis or communists, but it does mean you have fallen into a similar trap. I don’t happen to share the opinion of some people in the world that the holocaust never happened. But I do share the viewpoint that it is questionable, and that there are very likely to be inaccuracies in the finer points of the history of the holocaust, such as numbers of deaths and who knew what and when.

          Just to provide an example: on this site, it appears that alternative history is approved of if Jesus got married and produced offspring, something that would offend millions of Christians, my Grandmother included, not that anyone really takes any notice of them or her (note to Shadows: I’ll admit there were times I have also wished to strangle my Grandmother, but didn’t do it, and I was too young to rape my Grandfather, he died when I was 5 years old. My Grandmother one Christmas received a copy of the Da Vinci Code, a book which arguably blurs fact and fiction – sounds a bit like the problems encountered with WW2 history and propaganda after some time has passed), but alternative history is not OK, if it might be the case that the current showers at Aushwitz weren’t the original ones where the murder of thousands of people took place – a nuanced historical question, and one which does not deny that the murders took place.

          1. Holographic Holocaust
            Pssst … the Da Vinci Code is fiction, J. 😉

            As for David Irving’s freedom of speech argument — yes, he has the right to freedom of speech, but there’s no such thing as a freedom to distort history, or a freedom to lie (even if certain politicians and religious authorities think otherwise!). Irving’s dangerous, in that he convinces the gullible. There is no difference between Irving and, say, BushCo or Kim Jong II (North Korea) or Osama Bin-Laden or … I could list names all night.

            I hear Irving is working on a sequel, claiming that Japan never massacred tens of thousands of Chinese, Tibet agreed to join China, Pol Pot was just misunderstood, Stalin was a benevolent ruler, and Sarajevo was a party that just got a bit out of hand.

            It’s a pity Jeffrey Archer is no longer in jail — imagine if Brown, Irving and Archer all shared the same cell!

            Jokes aside, I think anyone who supports David Irving is making a mockery of freedom of speech. With freedom of speech comes responsibility. Irving abused that. I don’t think he deserves jail, but his book does deserve to be pulped. Imagine all those beautiful trees ….

          2. Irving: Is that a Jewish name?
            There is no such thing as a mockery of freedom of speech. And yes, I know the Da Vinci Code was a book of fiction. But obviously it was drawn upon an alternative history or otherwise there wouldn’t eben be a court case about the subject 😉

          3. Irving: Is that a Jewish name?
            There is no such thing as a mockery of freedom of speech unless it is someone trying to claim belief in it and yet not really supposrt it by supporting the right to voice opinions they despise. And yes, I know the Da Vinci Code was a book of fiction. But obviously it was drawn upon an alternative history or otherwise there wouldn’t eben be a court case about the subject 😉

          4. blurr…………..
            just a quick note here…..the records and numbers as well as film and the likes are very accurate. All the trials of war criminals are on film…..records are written and they all exist.
            There are many films taken by Russian as well as American and British as they rescued people from consintration camps.

            How the hell could this dark part of our history be blurred !!!!!

            It seems to be a concerted effort to dull us of the truth now that most of the people that were there are comming to the end of their lives.

            Even the Germans had well made films of their death camps…they still exist to!

      2. You’re breaking my heart Jameske
        There is freedom of speech and “freedom of speech”.

        If someone printed in the paper day after day after day that you were an arsehole because you strangled your mother and raped your father, you would wonder at the freedom that person had to say such things.

        You can say it.
        Finish.
        Someone tells you that you are wrong.
        You stop saying it.
        End of story.
        Otherwise you show proof that Jameske really did strangle his mother and rape his father.

        Where is the proof these people claim to have that the Holocaust did not happen.
        Or are you like the batty woman who wanted the bodies in Auschwitz disinterred to prove a point.
        The point being that there are no bodies as they were all cremated.

        Get real Jameske and stop peddling this filth.
        Or show me the real reason why you are doing it.

        shadows

        1. OK
          Once again, I reiterate, either you believe in freedom of speech for the things you most despise or you do not believe in freedom of speech. And it looks like you do not believe in freedom of speech – a popular viewpoint, you shall never be alone in that, even though the history of believers in such a viewpoint is rather checkered.

          The real reason I put this stuff on is that I think that there is a point to it. I do think the holocaust happened but I also happen to think there is enough historical doubt as to the finer points and nuances of it, like number of deaths, like who knew what and when and so forth. If I find something interesting regarding it I will post it. Just as I do when I see something with 911 or with any other questioning of what passes for the orthodox position on history.

          As for strangling my mother, I’ve often wanted to (how did you know?), and I think my father liked it so I wouldn’t call it rape, and he didn’t press charges anyway.

        2. The Holocaust Religion
          What is wrong with challenging parts of the holocaust story? What makes the jewish story so special that as a nation they can turn around and kill people in the country next store. Never again! Well that didn’t last long.
          The holocaust is an industry, it is a religion, it is a pain in the butt. I’m not saying it did not happen, but not what we are feed and rammed down our throats. The jewish story is not the first or only one. And kids its happening right now. So maybe if the jewish people stop killing their cousins next door and spend some time energy and money on others, I be willing to listen.

          1. apples and oranges, blade
            Just because the Jews are now behaving irresponsibly does not negate the Holocaust.
            I do not like what is happening in the Middle East, and yes I agree that the Jews have a lot to answer for.
            But that has absolutely nothing to do with people denying the Holocaust.
            The Holocaust may be the reason the Jews in Israel have become so ratty,but it does not excuse their behaviour.
            At the same time, to say that their behaviour now gives reason to question that the Holocaust happened is illogical.

            The Holocaust may be a pain in the butt to you but I can assure you that it was not a pain in the butt to all those people who suffered and died there and watched their families suffer and die in the most hideous manner.
            It was far worse than a pain in the butt.
            I am surprised that you who seem to be such a sincere and thinking person would say such a thing.
            There are people who have used the Holocaust to their advantage but to belittle it by calling it a pain in the butt, in fact, belittles you.

            shadows

          2. Re: The Holocaust Religion
            [quote=bladerunner] What makes the jewish story so special … [/quote]

            Ah, so it’s all about jealousy.

            That’s so petty, Bladerunner, but thank you for making it all clear. It’s all about hating Jews, and painting them all to be lying, murderous bastards. In this, you are no different to BushCo. Different enemy and blame-game, but same attitude and thinking.

            So Right-Wing Jews are oppressing Palestinians today? That doesn’t make what happened to Jews in Germany and Poland sixty years ago any less worse.

            Rewriting the Holocaust seems to be motivated by current Leftist ideologies, especially opposition to the Israeli occupation of the West Bank. Irving and those who support him aren’t motivated by exposing the truth — they’re motivated by undermining contemporary Israel. You and many others fantasise that the world’s problems are caused by Israel and America. By rewriting the Holocaust as an overhyped myth you’re fulfilling your fantasy that Israel and America are in cahoots with the Illuminati and Bilderbergers to oppress the entire world. You’ve clearly been brainwashed by extreme Leftist propaganda exactly as millions of American voters were conned by BushCo.

            NOTE: I do NOT support the Right-Wing. I just believe BushCo’s polar opposite, such as Jeff Rense, David Irving and extreme Leftists, are just as wrong. May the Gods help us all if either extreme gains control of our world and its histories. From your post (and BushCo’s re-election), I’m very worried.

          3. If it makes you feel special.
            Please don’t put words into my mouth, you went on a regular rant there about subjects I had not even written about! Nor have I ever written that I have ever supported GW or believe in several conspiricy theories you were barking about. What I did write about is. It seems wrong and even evil minded to use the holocaust to support the zionist agenda and then at the same time suppress and destroy anouther nation which was created at the same time and by the same UN. You don’t make your point with me by doing that. It is indefensible.
            Petty, petty is what you have implied about myself. The worlds problems are caused by people like yourself going off and name calling. Name calling is not a position, it just shows ignorance. What have you done today to help anouther person, to save the world from itself? By me you have done nothing but scream and name call.

          4. It doesn’t make me feel anything
            I didn’t “scream”. I just made my point. If we had a video-link, you’d see I’m quite calm and easy-going. Perhaps I should have added a bemused “rolls-eyes” smiley face in my post.

            I don’t feel special at all, I just feel bewildered that so many people can be conned by David Irving. Maybe because it fits their fantasy that Israel is an evil entity hell-bent on twisting the facts and ruling the world. Sounds a bit like BushCo’s opinion of Islam, doesn’t it?

            I stand by my original point in that Irving’s revisionist theory is being used as a weapon to undermine contemporary Israel. Conspiracy nuts are lapping it up, and it’s turning their brains to mush. People who read and believe Irving’s books are no different to BushCo voters who watch Fox news.

          5. Dear Rico
            I have never read David Irving , I stand for his freedom of speech his freedom to have a different point of view. That is not a crime. Your own theory about him being used as a weapon to undermine Israel, could be a crazy conspiracy theory! You may be calm and thoughtful in person. But when you defend the holocaust your writing sounnds very nasty and rabid.

          6. point of view…hhmmmm
            having a different point of view is fine but not when it goes completely against all FACT.

            No one is defending the holocaust……it is a part of RECENT history that should not be forgotten or dulled……with this in mind we may not have a repeat.

            Poll Pot is another that must be remembered factually…..to remember these very dark parts of RECENT history may remind us not to do the same again.

          7. Recent History
            The resent history I see is the genocide of the Palestinians by the Jews of Israel. It seems that their own history has not reminded them of anything, because we’re never suppose to forget. But what ever they do is allright?

          8. no
            what they are doing is wrong! But I would hardly call what they are doing “genocide”. The jews actually have done much worse things in the past. I do not condone violence in any way. But the holocaust was a much larger scale.

            If the Palestinians did not retaliate in any form…..they would have the overall surport of the rest of the world. But, alas, they choose to suicide bomb innocent people ramdemly. Meanwhile, the Jewish soldiers shoot kids going to school because they have a backpack on.

            The people who created this problem in the first place are doing nothing to stop it……

            Lest we forget……..

          9. Look out Rick!
            Your erudition is showing.
            Well done my little friend.You are coming along beautifully, like a River Red Gum with a growth spurt.Soon you will be above the rest.

            shadows

  4. David Irving
    Jeez Jameske, you’re really into this stuff aren’t you!

    For a start, if the history that Irving is writing never happened then I hardly think he can be called a historian.
    A historian is someone who writes the TRUTH as it happened.
    Irving does not do this.
    No, I don’t think he should be in jail but surely he could at least suffer the pain of toothpicks inserted under his toenails,or even, and this is just a suggestion,maybe have his teeth drilled without anaesthetic.

    I did like the link about Antarctica though and the ice melting.I hope I am alive when it happens as I will then have a waterfront property.
    It is obvious even to blind Freddy that there is global warming but as no one wants to admit it, let alone DO anything about it, we all might as well sit back and see what advantages we will have when the ocean levels rise.
    I figure that the water will come to my back steps and I will be able to fish from there.I have a little landing but I might even put in a jetty for my friends to sit on while we fish.
    I will have morning dips in the ocean and midday dips as well and at night I will probably have a dip before I go to bed.
    Bring it on, I say.

    shadows

  5. OK Jameske, let’s sort this out
    In my humble opinion there is freedom of speech and then there is hate speech.
    Now what Irving and Rense are doing is hate speech.
    I am sure you applauded when a short while ago a certain imam in London was jailed for hate speech.
    He was trying to get people to believe that every non-Muslim person in the world is evil.
    Irving and Rense are saying ( for the only logical reason I can see, antisemitism) that Hitler did not do certain things which he most certainly did do.
    That will bring hatred against the Jews for supposedly lying and so is hate speech.

    I request that you DO NOT maintain that I don’t believe in free speech.
    FREE speech means that you have a right to an opinion.It does not mean that you have a right to introduce blatant lies to people and tell them it is the truth.

    You are on a bandwagon here Jameske and it does not make you look very attractive at all.
    I know you like to stir.
    This is beyond stirring.
    This is being in collusion with people who are openly and selectively lying for their own agendas.
    This is not free speech, this is hate speech.

    shadows

    1. Actually…
      I think hate speech is just a form of freedom of speech. Personally, I don’t hate anyone. But I don’t think you can try and divide hate speech from freedom of speech. Hate is a common feeling in this world, and I think it is OK to hate if that is what you feel. Governments use the concept hate speech to try and subvert freedom of speech. Of course, hate still happens, but it is driven underground. In the very same way, it was normal for the Nazis to hate Jews. The result: people were enouraged to hate Jews. And if you did not, then you were not normal. So, if you voiced support for the Jews you ended up being viewed as a sympathizerr. Why? Well, because the Nazis only supported freedom of speech for the viewpoints they approved of. No one has yet been able to tackle this point.

      Hate speech is still within the bounds of freedom of speech. Just because certain aspects are made illegal doesn’t make hate speech wrong. Next up: love is wrong…

      1. You’ve put the cart before the horse Jameske
        I suppose your excuse is that you are Irish.Well the half of me that isn’t German is Irish so I am a match for you.

        The Nazis didn’t need to encourage people to hate the Jews.They already hated them.
        What the Nazis did was use that hatred to convince the people that the Jews needed to be totally annihilated.
        And they succeeded very well.
        But of course it was not only the Jews who were hated in that very Right-wing closed-minded society.
        They hated homosexuals and gypsies, Poles and Czechs,political agitators and people with genetic disabilities.
        Anyone who disagreed with the Nazis eventually found their way to one of the death camps.

        So its OK Jameske if I do a blog about you strangling your mother and raping your father even though you were not charged for it?
        I agree that it is very hard to differentiate between free speech and hate speech.
        Sometimes hate speech comes to us disguised as patriotism.
        Sometimes as religion.
        This is why I think Irving should not have been jailed.But there should be some way of proving to the world that he is a liar.

        shadows

    2. Actually…
      I think hate speech is just a form of freedom of speech. Personally, I don’t hate anyone. But I don’t think you can try and divide hate speech from freedom of speech. Hate is a common feeling in this world, and I think it is OK to hate if that is what you feel. Governments use the concept hate speech to try and subvert freedom of speech. Of course, hate still happens, but it is driven underground. In the very same way, it was normal for the Nazis to hate Jews. The result: people were enouraged to hate Jews. And if you did not, then you were not normal. So, if you voiced support for the Jews you ended up being viewed as a sympathizerr. Why? Well, because the Nazis only supported freedom of speech for the viewpoints they approved of. No one has yet been able to tackle this point.

      Hate speech is still within the bounds of freedom of speech. Just because certain aspects are made illegal doesn’t make hate speech wrong. Next up: love is wrong…

    3. Actually…
      I think hate speech is just a form of freedom of speech. Personally, I don’t hate anyone. But I don’t think you can try and divide hate speech from freedom of speech. Hate is a common feeling in this world, and I think it is OK to hate if that is what you feel. Governments use the concept hate speech to try and subvert freedom of speech. Of course, hate still happens, but it is driven underground. In the very same way, it was normal for the Nazis to hate Jews. The result: people were enouraged to hate Jews. And if you did not, then you were not normal. So, if you voiced support for the Jews you ended up being viewed as a sympathizerr. Why? Well, because the Nazis only supported freedom of speech for the viewpoints they approved of. No one has yet been able to tackle this point.

      Hate speech is still within the bounds of freedom of speech. Just because certain aspects are made illegal doesn’t make hate speech wrong. Next up: love is wrong…

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