Tag Archives | Superpower

Is the US in Terminal Decline?

By majestic on May 5, 2013 in News 48

You might very well think that, but I couldn’t possibly comment. BBC News‘ North America editor Mark Mardell has some interesting thoughts, however:

It is eerie to walk so close to a weapon of mass destruction.

The B-52 bomber is one of the ultimate expressions of American power. If the president decides to drop a nuclear bomb, this is the sort of aircraft that would do it.

I am careful not to step over the red line around the plane. A sign painted on the ground warns lethal force can be used against those who cross it without authorisation.

I’ve come to Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota, filming for the new BBC One programme The Editors.

The programme aims to get the BBC’s on-air editors to explore – and hopefully answer – a big question. My chosen subject is the decline of American power.

There’s little evidence of it at the base, where the sign above the gate reads: “Only the best come North”.

… Read the rest

What It’s Like To Have Ultraviolet Vision

By JacobSloan on June 12, 2012 in News 0

Engineer and self described nerd Alek Komarnitsky describes how post cataract surgery, he now sees an expanded color spectrum. What could the lilac glow beyond violet be — auras, pet spirits, Venus rays? Via Komar:

Numerous people who have also had their natural lens removed have written me saying they see similar to what I describe below. I’ve been very happy so far with the Crystals implant for cataract surgery. But one unexpected/interesting aspect is I see a violet glow that others do not … I’m seeing Ultraviolet light!

An eye surgeon recently wrote about blue-violet color changes after Crystalens implants and his experience is that only 3% of patients have experienced (or mentioned!) this phenomena … but some people may just have more sensitive photoreceptors, so the vast majority of the patients would not see this.

Some related interesting tidbits include during WWII, the British used aphakics for signaling using UV lights … since only they could see it.

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Ninel Kulagina Moving Objects With Her Mind

By JacobSloan on February 23, 2012 in News 18

Less heralded but more legit than famed/controversial spoon-bender Uri Geller? Paranormala on the alleged telekinetic abilities of Soviet soldier Ninel Kulagina:

Psychokinesis, or the ability to manipulate objects with the mind, is a notoriously difficult to prove ability. Defiant against attempts to debunk, is the case of Ninel Kulagina. A female soldier in the Soviet Red Army, Kulagina found that whenever she became angry poltergeist activity would manifest in the room around her. With practice, she learned how to focus her power and move objects at will. Scientist Edward Naumov was among the first to test her claims by spreading a box of matches on a table.

Boy’s Eyes Glow In The Dark, See In Night Vision

By JacobSloan on January 25, 2012 in News 56

Is he a “starchild”? Part-alien DNA seems like the most rational explanation for this:

A boy has stunned medics with his ability to see in pitch black with eyes that glow in the dark. Doctors have studied Nong Youhui’s amazing eyesight since his dad took him to hospital in Dahua, southern China, concerned over his bright blue eyes.

Dad Ling said: “They told me he would grow out of it and that his eyes would stop glowing and turn black like most Chinese people but they never did.” Medical tests conducted in complete darkness show Youhui can read perfectly without any light and sees as clearly as most people do during the day.

How Private Warmongers and the U.S. Military Infiltrated American Universities

By DrLechter on December 17, 2011 in News 8

Steve Horn and Allen Ruff recently reported in Truthout:

A matrix of closely tied university-based strategic studies ventures, the so-called Grand Strategy Programs (GSP), have cropped up on a number of elite campuses around the country, where they function to serve the national security warfare state.

In tandem with allied institutes and think tanks across the country, these programs, centered at Yale University, Duke University, the University of Texas at Austin, Columbia University, Temple University and, until recently, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, illustrate the increasingly influential role of a new breed of warrior academics in the post-9/11 United States. The network marks the ascent and influence of what might be called the “Long War University.”

Ostensibly created to train an up-and-coming elite to see a global “big picture,” this grand strategy network has brought together scores of foreign policy wonks heavily invested — literally and figuratively — in an unending quest to maintain US global supremacy, a campaign which they increasingly refer to as the Long War.

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Metal Objects Stick To Brazil’s ‘Magnet Boy’

By JacobSloan on July 12, 2011 in News 29

Miracle or hoax? An 11-year-old Brazilian boy’s boy attracts metal household objects, and there are reports of a similar child in Croatia. Perhaps most baffling is the comment from his doctor: “It is not completely out of the ordinary.”

Scientists Create Living Cells That Can Shoot Lasers

By JacobSloan on June 14, 2011 in News 25

No, the above is not an exaggeration. I’m fine with nixing flying hovercars so long as we get this. Discovery writes:

The researchers report that they were able to create bright laser pulses that lasted a few nanoseconds with a single cell. Amazingly the cells were not damaged during the production of the laser light but were able to withstand hundreds of pulses.

The project took place at the Wellman Center for Photomedicine in Massachusetts. The key to this breakthrough involved the use of the widely studied protein known as green fluorescent protein. This protein, which was first discovered in jellyfish, has (as the name implies) the property of generating light.

Although there are no immediate plans to use this technology, the erosion of the barrier between optical technologies and biology could open many doors in therapy and research.

… Read the rest