For the first time, scientists have been able to send a simple mental message from one person to another without any contact between the two, thousands of miles apart in India and France.
Research led by experts at Harvard University shows technology can be used to transmit information from one person's brain to another's even, as in this case, if they are thousands of miles away.
"It is kind of technological realization of the dream of telepathy, but it is definitely not magical," Giulio Ruffini, a theoretical physicist and co-author of the research, told AFP by phone from Barcelona.
"We are using technology to interact electromagnetically with the brain."
For the experiment, one person wearing a wireless, Internet-linked electroencephalogram or EEG would think a simple greeting, like "hola," or "ciao."
A computer translated the words into digital binary code, presented by a series of 1s or 0s.
Then, this message was emailed from India to France, and delivered via robot to the receiver, who through non-invasive brain stimulation could see flashes of light in their peripheral vision.
The subjects receiving the message did not hear or see the words themselves, but were correctly able to report the flashes of light that corresponded to the message.
Many Internet users love the fact that they can speak out about certain issues under the blanket of Anonymity. Being able to secretively leave remarks online may soon be a thing of the past if New York lawmakers get their way and the notion is supposed to help thwart cyber-bullying going on online.So should we have the right to say what we want on the web without disclosing our personal information? News commentator T.J. Walker joins us to help answer that question.
DemocracyNow.org - More than 400,000 filled the streets of Montreal this week as a protest over a 75 percent increase in tuition has grown into a full-blown political crisis. After three months of sustained protests and class boycotts that have come to be known around the world as the "Maple Spring," the dispute exploded when the Quebec government passed an emergency law known as Bill 78, which suspends the current academic term, requires demonstrators to inform police of any protest route involving 50 or more people, and threatens student associations with fines of up to $125,000 if they disobey. The strike has received growing international attention as the standoff grows, striking a chord with young people across the globe amid growing discontent over austerity measures, bleak economies and crushing student debt. We're joined by Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, spokesperson for CLASSE, the main coalition of student unions involved in the student strikes in Quebec; and Anna Kruzynski, assistant professor at the School of Community and Public Affairs at Concordia University in Montreal. She has been involved in the student strike as a member of the group, "Professors Against the Hike."
WWW, October 2011 - Reefer madness in the Netherlands continues as the right-wing minority coalition of the country announced it will label Cannabis products with a THC level higher than 15% as "hard drugs".
The controversial decision has been made without parliamental approval and is already in effect.
The decree is part of a government crack-down on the legendary Dutch tolerance policy towards Cannabis and will affect Coffee Shops and it's owners.
Secretary of "security and justice" Ivo Opstelten announced that police will raid coffee shops in search of the so-called "hard drugs".
Should Cannabis with a THC level above 15% be found, coffee shop owners will be persecuted as hard drug dealers.
WWW, October 7 2011 - Dutch News Media just reported that the Dutch cabinet is indeed doing what has been rumoured for a while: hashish and ganja with a THC level above 15% is scheduled to be treated as a hard drug instead of a soft drugs. Minister of justice Ivo Opstelten announced today that the police will check the levels of cannabis in the Dutch coffeeshops and when it is found that the products are above 15%, coffeeshops will be closed and coffeeshop owners will be persecuted as hard drugs dealers.
The Babylon Observer will keep you posted about this breaking news in the days to come.
Damn it or fear it, the forbidden truth is an insurrection in Britain
18 August 2011
On a warm spring day, strolling in south London, I heard demanding voices behind me. A police van disgorged a posse of six or more, who waved me aside. They surrounded a young black man who, like me, was ambling along. They appropriated him; they rifled his pockets, looked in his shoes, inspected his teeth. Their thuggery affirmed, they let him go with the barked warning there would be a next time.
For the young at the bottom of the pyramid of wealth and patronage and poverty that is modern Britain, mostly the black, the marginalised and resentful, the envious and hopeless, there is never surprise. Their relationship with authority is integral to their obsolescence as young adults. Half of all black British youth between the ages of 18 and 24 are unemployed, the result of deliberate policies since Margaret Thatcher oversaw the greatest transfer of wealth from the bottom to the top in British history. Forget plasma TVs, this was panoramic looting.
Such is the truth of David Cameron's "sick society", notably its sickest, most criminal, most feral "pocket": the square mile of the City of London where, with political approval, the banks and super-rich have trashed the British economy and the lives of millions. This is fast becoming unmentionable as we succumb to propaganda once described by the American black leader Malcolm X thus: "If you're not careful the newspapers will have you hating the oppressed and loving the people doing the oppressing."
As they lined up to bay their class bigotry and hypocrisy in parliament, barely a handful of MPs spoke this truth. Heirs to Edmund Burke's 18th century rants against the "mob rule" of a "swinish multitude", not one referred to previous rebellions in Brixton, Tottenham and Liverpool in the 1980s when Lord Scarman reported that "complex political, social and economic factors" had caused a "disposition towards violent protest" and recommended urgent remedial action. Instead, Labour and Liberal bravehearts called for water cannon and everything draconian: among them the Labour MP Hazel Blears. Remember her notorious expenses? None made the obvious connection between the greatest inequality since records were kept, a police force that routinely abuses a section of the population and kills with impunity and a permanent state of colonial warfare with an arms trade to match: the apogee of violence.
It hardly seemed coincidental that on the day before Cameron raged against "phony human rights", NATO aircraft - which include British bombers sent by him - killed a reported 85 civilians in a peaceful Libyan town. These were people in their homes, children in their schools. Watch the BBC's man on the spot trying his best to dispute the evidence of his eyes, just as the political and media class sought to discredit the evidence of a civilian bloodbath in Iraq as epic as the Rwanda genocide. Who are the criminals?
This is not in any way to excuse the violence of the rioters, many of whom were opportunistic, mean, cruel, nihilistic and often vicious in their glee: an authentic reflection of a system of greed and self-interest to which scores of parasitic money-movers, "entrepreneurs", Murdochites, corrupt MPs and bent coppers have devoted themselves.
On 4 August, the BBC's Fiona Armstrong - aka Lady MacGregor of MacGregor - interviewed the writer Darcus Howe, who dared use the forbidden word, "insurrection".
Armstrong: "Mr. Howe, you say you are not shocked [by the riots]? Does this mean you condone what happened?"
Howe: "Of course not ... what I am concerned about is a young man Mark Duggan ... the police blew his head off."
Armstrong: "Mr. Howe, we have to wait for the official enquiry to say things like that. We don't know what happened to Mr. Duggan. We have to wait for the police report."
On 8 August, the Independent Police Complaints Commission acknowledged there was "no evidence" that Duggan had fired a shot at police. Duggan was shot in the face on 4 August by a police officer with a Heckler and Koch MP5 sub-machine gun - the same weapon supplied by Britain to dictatorships that use them against their own people. I saw the result in East Timor where Indonesian troops also blew the heads off people with these state-of-the-art weapons supplied by both Tory and Labour governments.
An eyewitness to Duggan's killing told the Evening Standard, "About three or four police officers had [him] pinned on the ground at gunpoint. They were really big guns and then I heard four loud shots. The police shot him on the floor."
This is how the Metropolitan Police shot dead Jean Charles de Menezes on the floor of a London Underground train. And there was Robert Stanley and Ian Tomlinson, and many more. The police lied about Duggan's killing as they have lied about the others. Since 1998, more than 330 people have died in police custody and not one officer has been convicted. Where is the political and media outrage about this "culture of fear"?
"Funny, too," noted the journalist Melanie MacFadyean, "that the police did nothing while some serious looting went on - surely not because they wanted everyone to see that cutting the police force meant more crime?"
Still, the brooms have arrived. In an age of public relations as news, the clean-up campaign, however well-meant by many people, can also serve the government's and media goal of sweeping inequality and hopelessness under gentrified carpets, with cheery volunteers armed with their brand new brooms and pointedly described as "Londoners" as if the rest are aliens. The otherwise absent Boris Johnson waved his new broom. Another Etonian, the former PR man to an asset stripper and current prime minister up to his neck in Hackgate, would surely approve.
REEFER MADNESS IN THE NETHERLANDS 2011 FAR RIGHT-WING ADMINISTRATION CONSIDERING PUTTING STRONG WEED ON HARD DRUGS LIST
WWW, June 24 2011 - A commission to advice the Dutch administration concerning the nation's drugs policy claims that cannabis with over 15% THC should be considered hard drugs in Dutch criminal law.
In interviews with Dutch public TV, the ministers of Health and Justice respond positively as they enter the parliament building to officially receive the advice from the commission.
When the advice is brought into law, this would bring the Netherlands back to the days of Reefer Madness as the world famous Dutch tolerance policy towards Cannabis would de facto end.
An Open Letter to Judge James Moody Regarding Sentencing for Buju Banton
By: Natasha Von Castle
CANADA - As you are well aware, Buju Banton faces sentencing on June 23rd for his conviction on the charge conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute.
We cannot change the conviction, however, our collective voices can influence the Judge to reduce the suggestion of a 15 year sentence.
Below is my open letter to the judge. If it is within you, add your voice and let the Judge know how you feel regarding the amount of time Buju serves. My letter is included below.
The Honourable James S. Moody Jr. United States District Judge Tampa Division 801 North Florida Avenue Tampa, Florida 33602
Dear Judge Moody;
In your many years within the justice system as a lawyer and Judge, I am sure you have come across cases that have either touched you, or touched the community which you represent. A touch could be a personal understanding of one or some of the components in a case, just as a touch can be pride in knowing that the justice system worked (the way it’s supposed to) in making sure the right people receive the right punishment according to their crime(s).
Your honor, I am writing this letter with the belief that I, on behalf of the community I represent, can appeal to you on a ‘touch’ level.
Before your court is the matter of Mr. Mark ‘Buju Banton’ Myrie who is due to be sentenced on June 23rd by you, for the conviction he received on the charge of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute. I appeal to you to reduce Buju’s sentence from the recommended 15 years.
Buju is not like any man you will ever meet. He is a friend, a father, a husband and one of the pillars in the Caribbean community; not just Jamaica, but every Caribbean community in every city around the world.
As one of our pillars, he has given the community songs which nourish the soul. This nourishment has turned youths away from crime, has strengthened families and healed those who were not well.
How do we know this is true? The testimony of countless of which I am one. He spoke for me when he sang ‘I wanna go ahead without turning back / and now I see myself heading for the trap / I wanna break free but I feel trapped / a voice inside me saying don’t stop ….’ Those words were taken from the song “Optimistic Soul” which encouraged listeners to not give up, no matter how daunting the situation looks. Those were Buju’s words from 2010. If we go back 10 years before that, we have ‘there was good and evil / we chose good ….’
When an announcement is made that Buju will be performing, the show(s) sell out. Tickets are purchased by people who want a live touch of Buju’s nourishing words. Fans leave the concerts fulfilled and refocused on the right path.
We, the community, need Buju, and we need you to understand his importance to us. Because of these needs, I ask you to not sentence Buju to 15 years in prison. I ask that you consider his humanitarian works with the children of his homeland Jamaica and I ask that you consider his impact on the Caribbean community around the world. Once you’ve considered these, I ask that you set a sentence that will not see Buju away from us for a lengthy period of time.
Thank you,
Natasha Von Castle Chief Executive Officer and President L3 Group of Companies Toronto, ON Canada
Dutch Coffeeshops Under Siege By Right Wing Government
WWW, May 2011 - The right-wing minority administration of the Netherlands launched a major attack on one of the nation's best known cultural features: the coffee shop. The administration wants to introduce a club pass for the coffee shops, which can only be obtained by local residents. Tourists and other foreigners will no longer have legal entrance into the coffee shops, which will re-introduce street sales.
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