Archive for January 4th, 2008

Is the United States Economy Heading Into a Recession?

Is the American economy heading toward a recession? ABC World News business correspondent Betsy Stark talks about the disappointing report that the nation only added 18,000 jobs last month.

Bill Blakemore: Betsy, is 18,000 far off the mark of what is considered healthy?

Betsy Stark: Oh, it’s way off the mark of what’s considered healthy. You need about 100,000 jobs to just absorb all the new people who come into the job market every month looking for work. So this really is a bleak number. And the other thing that happened was there was a 3/10th of a percent jump in the unemployment rate to 5%. So put those two things together and it’s really flashing recession.

Housing slump, credit crunch, pricey oil – I’d be surprised if we’re not going into a recession …

Link | ABC World News Webcast homepage

Do you think we’re heading into a recession? and why?

Comment (23)    Permalink   Please share:  email this

---

Neatorama Shop » Toy & Games » Action Figures
Cryptozoological Play Set	Glow in the Dark Zombies Play Set	Evolving Darwin Play Set
See more Action Figures »

---

World's Heaviest Woman that Underwent Gastric Bypass Surgery Died

Several years ago, Renee Williams was left bedridden after a car accident and over the years, her weight ballooned to over 800-lb.

In February 2007, the Texas woman and mother of two underwent a gastric bypass surgery, but died 12 days later of from a heart attack. Before her death, Renee let the cameras into her home to raise awareness of the dangers of obesity.

Here’s her tragic story:

Renee’s daughter Mirina, 13, said: "I don’t know why my mum ate. They told me this has been going on since she was a child. She used to hide food in her closet.

"She ate everything. There was nothing that she didn’t like. Her eating habits were getting worse and worse. She wouldn’t stop until her stomach started hurting.

"She’d go to McDonalds and get eight burgers from the dollar menu and eat all those."

Link, with larger pic (Image: Splash News / Channel4)

Comment (24)    Permalink   Please share:  email this

---

Miss Doolittle Talks Only to Animals

Her parents thought that four-year-old Rose Willcocks was mute because of an extremely unusual genetic condition. But they were surprised to find out that Rose indeed can talk – but only to animals!

Here’s an interesting story about the little girl – nicknamed Miss Doolittle after the storybook doctor that can talk to animals:

Rose has a chromosome defect which has left her with a floppy voicebox and windpipe. She also has learning difficulties and autism. [...]

"We went to see the cows," Mrs Willcocks said. "Suddenly, Rose perked up. I did a double-take as I struggled to take in what I was hearing. She wasn’t actually saying words but there were no two ways about it – she was talking to a cow."

"There was something about animals that made Rosie connect. We could barely get her to make eye contact or moan or groan but here she was, chatting like an old friend to the cows and horses."

Link

Comment (5)    Permalink   Please share:  email this

---

This Guide Dog Can Do the Laundry

Cavendish, is no regular six-year-old guide dog … he can assist his master around the house and even do the laundry!

Apparently, he can empty the washing machine and also fetch the phone.

Link

Comment (5)    Permalink   Please share:  email this

---

Indian Sweet Child O' Mine

And now, let’s pause for this Indian version of Sweet Child O’ Mine by Guns ‘N Roses, played with electric sitars. It’s an ad for Channel V television. They should make a longer version.

Hit play or go to Link [YouTube]

Comment (9)    Permalink   Please share:  email this

---

Neatorama Shop » Custom Bobble Heads & Cake Toppers
Turn yourself or your loved ones into a hand-crafted, custom bobble head and cake topper. Commemorate a graduation, celebrate a wedding or simply make a Mini-Me of yourself - with over 109 body types to choose from, this bobble head is the perfect custom gift!
	See more Bobble Heads »

---

Rock Radio Station Offers FREE Air Guitars!

A radio station in Glasgow City Center, Scotland, came up with a brilliant way to promote their launch! An empty guitar stand invited people to help themselves to an air guitar to be played while listening to their station, of course!

via Direct Daily

Comment (6)    Permalink   Please share:  email this

---

100 Million Year Old Turtle Remains Found

In China’s Henan province, a local resident found the remains of a turtle that is belived to be around 100 million years old according to an expert from a local institute. Reports also says that the organic remains were discovered in a river in Jiaxian, located in Pingdingshan City.

The turtle organic remains are around 15 centimeters long and seven centimeters wide, and weigh one kilogram. The fossil still has all four limbs and its tail, but lacks a head.

Source: english.cri.cn

Comment (7)    Permalink   Please share:  email this

---

Vertical Limit Champagne Storage Rack

Champagne maker Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin commissioned Porsche Design to create this eye-catching storage rack called "Vertical Limit." The 6-feet tall cabinet holds 12 magnums of Clicquot champagnes and keeps them chilled at 12° celcius – the same climate as the company’s cellar in Reims, France.

Only 15 Vertical Limits were produced. If you want it, it’ll set you back $70,000!

Cool Hunting has more: Link – Thanks mikolka!

Comment (3)    Permalink   Please share:  email this

---

It's Raining Iguanas in Florida!

The extreme cold weather in South Florida brought about an unexpected phenomenon: iguanas were dropping out of the trees en masse!

When the temperature falls below a certain level, the large green lizards drop out of the trees and litter the ground. [...]

It was raining iguanas at Bill Baggs Thursday morning. There were a couple underneath buttonwood trees and a third beneath a sea grape. All were about 30 yards from the beach, in the coastal hammock.

”We have found dozens on the bike path after a major cold snap,” said Yero. “When they warm up in the sun, they come back to life.”

Link – Thanks Rian Fike!

Comment (4)    Permalink   Please share:  email this

---

Scary Clown Parade Float Warned You To "Walk Wisely, Don't Be a Clown!"

The Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, California, was a few days ago, but we can still enjoy Azrael Brown’s scans of old photographs of the Parade (from the 1960s).

This one’s my favorite, a float from the National Safety Council. The float, which featured a scary clown, commanded you to "Walk Wisely, Don’t Be a Clown."

Link – Thanks Azrael!

Comment (4)    Permalink   Please share:  email this

---

Neatorama Shop » By Artist » Mike Jacobsen T-Shirts
The Dangers of Teleportation	Bad Chewie	The Good News of an Alien Facehugger Attack
See more T-Shirts by Mike Jacobsen »

---

Urinal Cake Candle

No girly French Vanilla candle here at Hotwicks … only man-candles, like this one:

THE URINAL CAKE CANDLE — Bring the industrial chemical freshness of a public restroom right to your home.

We’re often asked if THE URINAL CAKE CANDLE smells like pee. It doesn’t. It’s a cinnamony floral smell that’s modeled after a urinal cake our founder once relieved himself on at the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas. This candle covers both number 1 and number 2 odors and has become a regular contributor in the HOTWICKS world headquarters bathroom. This is the perfect gift for anyone that likes tacos, asparagus, and really hot chicken wings.

Link – Thanks Dutch!

Oh, wait – it has a cinnamony floral smell. Never mind!

Comment (3)    Permalink   Please share:  email this

---

What If God Had a Myspace

[YouTube Link]

An amusing and poignant music video by Bradley Bandara. Based upon the Eric Bazilian song One of Us, which was a 1996 hit when sung by Joan Osbourne. It features a badly-costumed supreme deity accepting and rejecting friend requests, responding to prayers in the form of messages, and being barraged with IM attempts. 5 minutes, 4 seconds long.

Comment (12)    Permalink   Please share:  email this

---

The Three-Hare Window of Paderborn.

The Paderborn cathedral is primarily a 13th century structure, but the Dreihasenfenster (the Three-Hare Window) was added in the 16th century. Notice that each hare has two ears, but altogether there is only one ear per hare. Here’s a poem that goes with it:

"Der Hasen und der Löffel drei,
    und doch hat jeder Hase zwei."
    [The hares and ears are three,
    and yet each hare has two[, you see].]

Via David Singmaster’s The Three Rabbits and Similar Puzzles

Comment (8)    Permalink   Please share:  email this

---

Window Washer Survives 47-Story Fall

Window washer Alcides Moreno fell 47 stories outside the Solow Residences in New York City on December 7th. He broke bones in his arms, legs, back, and ribs. His brother, who was working with him, was killed. Since then, Moreno has undergone 14 operations and required 24 pints of blood. But after being in a coma for weeks, Moreno is awake and talking, and is likely to walk again! From the same page:

Fell 47 stories – roughly 500 feet. Only 50% of people survive a fall from three stories.

Doctors said the highest fall they’ve seen someone survive in New York City was when a person under the influence of drugs survived a 19-story plunge.

Link -via YesButNoButYes

Comment (4)    Permalink   Please share:  email this

---

Plunger Pro

(YouTube link)
From the German TV show Wetten, dass..? {wiki}, here’s a guy throwing toilet plungers at a line of backs. I hope those guys got paid decently. -via Grow-A-Brain

Comment (5)    Permalink   Please share:  email this

---

Japanese Bug Fights

Japanese Bug Fights is a website that showcases videos of different species of bugs in battle, including both insects and arachnids. Users are invited to submit videos. The rules:

1. Two Bugs to a fight
2. Bug fights go on as long as they have to
3. No outside weapons in Bug Fights

Link -via Gorilla Mask

Comment (61)    Permalink   Please share:  email this

---

Soviet Icon Surprises Polar Scientists

A Norwegian-US science expedition to the South Pole of Inaccessibility found a bust of Vladimir Lenin waiting for them. The South Pole of Inaccessibility is the point in Antarctica that is furthest from the coasts, and rarely visited. A Soviet team had visited the area in 1958 and built a cabin. They perched a bust of Lenin on top of the chimney before they left several weeks later.

“Today the bust is clearly visible from many kilometres away, and remains as they left it on the chimney, although the cabin itself is buried under the snow,” the explorers say.

The actual South Pole is 878 kilometers from the Inaccessibility Pole. Since a moving glacier covers Antarctica, the location of the South Pole is recalibrated and moved every few years. Link -via Fark

Comment (6)    Permalink   Please share:  email this

---

19th Century Neurosurgical Instruments

This German neurosurgical set is dated to the early 19th century, when brain surgery meant boring holes with hand drills and slicing parts of the brain that doctors didn’t quite understand.

Around the central trepanning brace there are two fixed hand held trephines, two detachable handles and trephines attachments, a scalpel, Hey saw, elevator, brush, scissor handled spreaders, a starter trephine and two raspatories.

If it wasn’t labelled, I would have guessed this was a set of instruments of torture. Link -via Retrospectacle

Comment (11)    Permalink   Please share:  email this

---

Amazing World Record Motorcycle Jump

Daredevil Robbie Maddison made this incredible 322-foot jump on New Year’s Eve.

Link [YouTube] – via ebr303

Comment (4)    Permalink   Please share:  email this

---

The Ultimate Geeks Compilation

A video clip showing a bunch of pictures of geeky weddings and couples. You’ll probably be able to spot most of them in the poster from the 56 Geeks entry.

Link [YouTube] – via Uber Review

Comment (3)    Permalink   Please share:  email this

---

Neatorama Shop » Neatorama T-Shirts
Neatorama LOLcats	See more Neatorama T-Shirts »

---

Iowa Caucus Vs. New Hampshire Primary: Which is the Better Predictor?

The Iowa Caucus has come and gone – Barack Obama won the Democratic Caucus, whereas Mike Huckabee won the Republican side.

But exactly how useful are the results from Iowa? Let’s take a quick and dirty look at the numbers from 1976 to 2004:

IOWA CAUCUS

Democratic Winners

	Won the Caucus	Won the Party Nomination	Won the Election
1976	"Uncommitted"	Jimmy Carter	Jimmy Carter
1980	Jimmy Carter	Jimmy Carter	Ronald Reagan
1984	Walter Mondale	Walter Mondale	Ronald Reagan
1988	Dick Gephart	Michael Dukakis	George H.W. Bush
1992	Tom Harkin	Bill Clinton	Bill Clinton
1996	Bill Clinton (unopposed)	Bill Clinton	Bill Clinton
2000	Al Gore	Al Gore	George W. Bush
2004	John Kerry	John Kerry	George W. Bush

Percentage of Democratic candidates that win the Iowa Caucus and subsequently the party’s nomination: 62.5% ( 5 out of 8 )

Percentage of Democratic candidates that win the Iowa Caucus and subsequently win the Election: 12.5% ( 1 out of 8 )

Republication Winners

	Won the Caucus	Won the Party Nomination	Won the Election
1976	Gerald Ford	Gerald Ford	Jimmy Carter
1980	George H.W. Bush	Ronald Reagan	Ronald Reagan
1984	Ronald Reagan (unopposed)	Ronald Reagan	Ronald Reagan
1988	Bob Dole	George H.W. Bush	George H.W. Bush
1992	George H.W. Bush (unopposed)	George H.W. Bush	Bill Clinton
1996	Bob Dole	Bob Dole	Bill Clinton
2000	George W. Bush	George W. Bush	George W. Bush
2004	George W. Bush (unopposed)	George W. Bush	George W. Bush

Percentage of Republican candidates that win the Iowa Caucus and subsequently the party’s nomination: 75% ( 6 out of 8 )

Percentage of Republican candidates that win the Iowa Caucus and subsequently win the Election: 37.5% ( 3 out of 8 )

NEW HAMPSHIRE PRIMARY

Democratic Winners

	Won the Primary	Won the Party Nomination	Won the Election
1976	Jimmy Carter	Jimmy Carter	Jimmy Carter
1980	Jimmy Carter	Jimmy Carter	Ronald Reagan
1984	Gary Hart	Walter Mondale	Ronald Reagan
1988	Michael Dukakis	Michael Dukakis	George H.W. Bush
1992	Paul Tsongas	Bill Clinton	Bill Clinton
1996	Bill Clinton (unopposed)	Bill Clinton	Bill Clinton
2000	Al Gore	Al Gore	George W. Bush
2004	John Kerry	John Kerry	George W. Bush

Percentage of Democratic candidates that win the New Hampshire Primary and subsequently the party’s nomination: 75% ( 6 out of 8 )

Percentage of Democratic candidates that win the New Hampshire Primary and subsequently win the Election: 25% ( 2 out of 8 )

Republican Winners

	Won the Primary	Won the Party Nomination	Won the Election
1976	Gerald Ford	Gerald Ford	Jimmy Carter
1980	Ronald Reagan	Ronald Reagan	Ronald Reagan
1984	Ronald Reagan (unopposed)	Ronald Reagan	Ronald Reagan
1988	George H.W. Bush	George H.W. Bush	George H.W. Bush
1992	George H.W. Bush	George H.W. Bush	Bill Clinton
1996	Pat Buchanan	Bob Dole	Bill Clinton
2000	John McCain	George W. Bush	George W. Bush
2004	George W. Bush (unopposed)	George W. Bush	George W. Bush

Percentage of Republican candidates that win the New Hampshire Primary and subsequently the party’s nomination: 75% ( 6 out of 8 )

Percentage of Republican candidates that win the New Hampshire Primary and subsequently win the Election: 50% ( 4 out of 8 )

COMPARING THE TWO

From 1976 to 2000	Won the Primary & Party Nomination	Won the Primary & the Election
Iowa
Democrats	62.5%	12.5%
Republicans	75%	37.5%
New Hampshire
Democrats	75%	25%
Republicans	75%	50%

Conclusion

It seems that the Iowa Caucus is more effective in determining who the party nomination will be for Republicans than Democrats ( 75% vs. 62.5% ). The New Hampshire Primary does a slightly better job in determining the nomination from both parties.

In case of winning the election, New Hampshire is better at predicting the Election winners for both Democrats and Republican than the Iowa Caucus. This is especially true for the Republicans (as they’ve won 5 out of the last 8 elections). Another way to say it is, if a Republican won the Presidential Election, then it’s more likely that candidate won the New Hampshire Primary than the Iowa Caucus.

Source: Iowa Caucus [wiki] | New Hampshire Primary [wiki]

Comment (14)    Permalink   Please share:  email this

---

Whiskey Business: The Many Myths of Jack Daniel

In Lynchburg, Tennessee, tales of Jack Daniel are taller than Paul Bunyan on a step stool. The question is, are any of them true? The legend of Jack Daniel reaches all the way back to the moment he was born. Unfortunately, nobody knows exactly when that was. Some records show that Jasper Newton "Jack" Daniel came into the world on September 5, 1846. His tombstone, however, says 1850. Strange, because his mother died in 1847. All of this might not normally matter, but Jacks birth date is important to his overall legend, which proudly proclaims him "the boy distiller." So perhaps it’s best we begin when Jack was first introduced to whiskey, which we know was early in life. Leaving home at a young age, Jack struck out on his own with nothing more than a handful of items valued at $9. He ended up at the home of Dan Call, a preacher at a nearby Lutheran church and the owner of a general store. There, Reverend Call also happened to sell whiskey that he distilled himself. Jack quickly became determined to learn the craft. In fact, many storytellers claim the boy wonder bought the still from Call and began pursuing the business full-time at the ripe age of 16. If that legend is true, then Jack began selling his own Tennessee whiskey only three years later; the famous black labels on the company bottles proudly pronounce, "Established and Registered in 1866." In reality, no documents support that myth. Jack may have been a teenage moonshiner, but he didn’t register his business with the federal government until 1875. And by then, Jack would have been more booze-appropriate age of 29. THE MAKER MAKES HIS MARK Whatever legend exist, one thing is certain: Jack Daniel had a brilliant mind for marketing. Even as a youngster, Jack understood that if people remembered him, they would remember his whiskey. To that end, he decked himself out in a formal knee-length coat, a vest, a tie, and a wide-brim planter’s hat, and was never caught out of "uniform" again. Jack also established the Jack Daniel’s Silver Cornet Band – a 10-member outfit solely devoted to promoting his whiskey across the countryside. With uniforms and instruments from the Sears & Roebuck catalog and a specially designed wagon for traveling, Jack made sure the band played every saloon opening, Fourth of July celebration, and political rally around. The original Silver Cornet Band (c. 1908) Photo: Silver Cornet Band History But perhaps Jack’s most brilliant decision concerned how to present his whiskey. From the beginning, Jack had been one of the first sellers to stencil his distillery name on his whiskey jugs. Next, he upgraded to round, custom-embossed bottles. But when a glass salesman showed him a prototype square bottle in 1895, Jack realized he’d stumbled upon something unique. The new bottles not only stood out from the crowd, but also had a shape that would prevent them from rolling around and breaking during transport. In addition, the square look reinforced the idea that Jack was a square dealer who put honest work and high standards first. (Image: Cocktail Times) Whatever effort Jack Daniel put into his marketing, he never let quality slip. In 1904, the distiller decided on a whim to enter his whiskey in the taste competition at the St. Louis World’s Fair. It came as little surprise when he won. LUCKY NO.7 Perhaps Jacks’ greatest coup was the name he gave his product – Old No. 7. Naturally, nobody seems to know why. The official historian at the Jack Daniel Distillery today says it’s the most oft-asked question on factory tours. As you might imagine, many theories have been advanced. Jack had seven girlfriends. Jack believed that the number seven was lucky. Jack was honoring a merchant friend who owned seven stores that distributed Jack’s liquor. Jack misplaced a batch of whiskey for seven years and, upon finding it, labeled it "Old No. 7." None of these stories, however, makes as much sense as the less-than-sexy explanation from Jack Daniel biographer Peter Krass. Simply put, Jack was originally assigned a district tax assessment number of 7. But when the IRS consolidated districts within Tennessee, they arbitrarily assigned him the number 16. Jack didn’t want to confuse his loyal consumers and he certainly didn’t want to bend to the government, so he began labeling his bottles "Old No. 7." More than 125 years later, this act of defiance still makes his label stand out. JACK WITHOUT JILL Jack Daniel never married. Some say it’s because he was married to his work; others say it’s because he never found a girl who measured up to his high standards. Or perhaps it’s just that he was too busy catering to the greater Lynchburg population – throwing elaborate Christmas feasts, hosting exquisite costume parties in his second-story ballroom, and donating money to every church in Moore County. But by all accounts, Jack was quite a ladies’ man. He was a perfect dance partner, a polite conversationalist, and a fantastic gift-giver. Unfortunately, he also gravitated toward girls young enough to be his daughter (or even granddaughter). Once, Jack even asked for a woman’s hand in marriage, but her father denied him – partly because Jack enjoyed keeping his own legend alive and always hesitated to reveal his true birth date. When Jack proposed, her father made it clear that any man unwilling to disclose his age was "a little too old for such a young girl." THE EARLY BIRD GETS THE GANGRENE Hard as it might be to believe, in the end, the great distiller actually died from getting to work too early. As the story goes, one morning in 1906, Jack arrived at his office before anyone else. He tried to access the company safe, but had a terrible time remembering the code. After a few frustrating minutes, he kicked the safe as hard as he could. He badly bruised his left foot and immediately began to walk with a limp. The limp only grew worse with time, and he later discovered the injury had led to blood poisoning. Then came gangrene, then amputation, and then five years later, death. It’s not the happiest ending for the story, or the clearest cut, but it is the best, because it adds to the mystery and mystique of Jack Daniel. As they say, where facts cannot be found, legends fill the empty space – and that’s perfectly fine for the keepers of the company flame. After all, as Jack himself believed, the more memorable his image, the memorable his whiskey.

The article above, written by Eric Furman, appeared in theSpinning the Globe section of the Nov – Dec 2007 issue of mental_floss magazine (the excellent "Golden Lobe Awards" issue!). It is reprinted here with permission. Don’t forget to feed your brain by subscribing to the magazine and visiting mental_floss‘ extremely entertaining website and blog today!

Comment (2)    Permalink   Please share:  email this

---

The Human Calendar

The concept behind The Human Calendar is darned simple, but very clever: make a calendar out of photographs of people holding a placard. The date is the guy or girl that everyone’s looking at!

Link

Comment (10)    Permalink   Please share:  email this

---

Guerilla Gardening

Guerilla Gardening, like its name suggest, is an illicit act of planting and cultivation of greeneries in neglected urgan areas. Well, mostly that – there is also a little bit of subversion going on, as exemplified by the piece above:

Portland, Oregon, USA:
As she walked past America’s oldest Mercedes dealership Sandy could not help but accidentally confuse their three pointed star logo for the similar shaped fork logo of the international peace movement (designed by Gerald Holtom in 1958 for the Campaign For Nuclear Disarmament.) So she decided to turn her imagination into reality by doing some guerrilla gardening Matching the box hedge (Buxus semperviren) she added in an extra row late on Sunday 18 March 2007 which happened to be almost four years since the US invasion of Iraq.

Her intervention remained in front of the car show room for three weeks until a gardener removed it. Sandy found where her bush had been dumped and put it back, where it lasted for another fortnight. Eventually Mercedes had enough of it and cleared it away, and Sandy decided she had made her point. The image … show the logo before and after the dig.

Link

Comment (14)    Permalink   Please share:  email this

---

DNA as Seen Through the Eyes of a Computer Programmer

A while ago, Bert Huber wrote an article about DNA as seen through the eyes of a computer programmer.

In it, he takes various aspects of DNA, usually written in the mambo jumbo of biology and translates them into computing terms! For example, here’s his section on Junk DNA:

The genome is littered with old copies of genes and experiments that went wrong somewhere in the recent past – say, the last half a million years. This code is there but inactive. These are called the ‘pseudo genes’.

Furthermore, 97% of your DNA is commented out. DNA is linear and read from start to end. The parts that should not be decoded are marked very clearly, much like C comments. The 3% that is used directly form the so called ‘exons’. The comments, that come ‘inbetween’ are called ‘introns’.

These comments are fascinating in their own right. Like C comments they have a start marker, like /*, and a stop marker, like */. But they have some more structure. Remember that DNA is like a tape – the comments need to be snipped out physically! The start of a comment is almost always indicated by the letters ‘GT’, which thus corresponds to /*, the end is signalled by ‘AG’, which is then like */.

However because of the snipping, some glue is needed to connect the code before the comment to the code after, which makes the comments more like html comments, which are longer: ‘<!–’ signifies the start, ‘–>’ the end.

Molecular biologists may nitpick over some parts of the article, but the whole thing is definitely worth a read: Link – via reddit

Comment (1)    Permalink   Please share:  email this

---

The Greatest Innovator of Torture is Democracy Not Dictatorship

Various forms of torture employed by federal troops in the 19th century

When we think of torture, we usually think of brutal methods as being invented by dictators, but in this Boston Globe article, Darius Rejali argues that the opposite is true: the modern torture is mainly a democratic invention!

We think torture is mainly the province of dictators and juntas – the kind of thing that happens behind the iron doors of repressive regimes. In a democracy, with open courts and a free press, torture should be a relic. In the words of an American World War II poster, torture is "the method of the enemy."

But a closer look at the modern history of torture suggests that exactly the opposite is true. Torture isn’t an alien force invading our democracy from the benighted realms of dictatorships. In fact, it is the democracies that have been the real innovators in 20th-century torture. Britain, France, and the United States were perfecting new forms of torture long before the CIA even existed. It might make Americans uncomfortable, but the modern repertoire of torture is mainly a democratic innovation.

In one instance after another, democracies developed new torture techniques, refined them, and then exported them to more authoritarian regimes. Americans didn’t just develop electric power; they invented the first electrotorture devices and used them in police stations from Arkansas to Seattle. Magneto torture, a technique favored by the Nazis involving a portable generator, was actually developed and spread by the French. Waterboarding and forced standing owe their wide use to the Americans and British.

Link

Comment (9)    Permalink   Please share:  email this

---

Iowa Caucus Exit Poll Statistics

The results of the Iowa caucus are in: Barack Obama won the Democratic presidential nomination race and Mike Huckabee won the Republican side.

The story’s all over the Internet, but I found some interesting exit poll statistics on MSNBC on the breakdown of the Iowa Republican and Democratic caucus goers.

For instance:

AGE	% Total (Democratic)	% Total (Republican)
17-24 25-29 30-44 45-59 …	17 6 18 29	9 3 15 35

So it is not entirely true that young people are apathetic about politics. 23% of the Democratic and 14% of the Republican caucus goers are under 30. It’s interesting how the turnout for the 25-29 is actually lower than the 17-24, though this is consistent across party lines.

When did they decide whom to vote for?	% Total (Democratic)	% Total (Republican)
Just today In the last 3 days Sometime last week In the last month Before that	11 9 7 24 49	17 13 10 31 28

27% of the Democrats and a whopping 40% of Republicans decided whom to support just in the last week before the caucus.

Which issue is the most important?	% Total (Democratic)	% Total (Republican)
The economy The war in Iraq Healthcare Illegal immigration Terrorism	35 35 27 - -	26 17 - 33 21

Big difference here: the war in Iraq is a big issue for the Dems, whereas the Republicans are more concerned over illegal immigration.

Finally, two interesting observations are that:
• 60% of all Republicans who attended are born-again or evangelical Christian
• for 57% of the Democrats, this was their first caucus

Links: Democrat and Republican Exit Polls

Comment (8)    Permalink   Please share:  email this

---

Bookmark | RSS | | Login or Register

Lijit Search

---

CATEGORIES

Advertising Animal Architecture Arts & Crafts Baby & Kids Blog & Internet Book & Lit Car & Vehicle Cartoon, Comic Crime Fashion Flash Games

Food & Drink Funny Gadgets Home & Garden Medicine Money & Finance Movie & SciFi Music Neatorama Only Paranormal Pictures Politics

Religion Science & Tech Sports Tattoo, Etc. Toy & Games Travel & Places Video Clips Weapon & War World Records Misc. Archives

COLLABORATIONS

Bizarro Comic Bathroom Reader

Caption Monkey mental_floss

VideoSift What is It?

---

BROWSE BY DATE


BROWSE BY TAGS
animals animation Arts & Crafts Arts & Crafts Cat cats China Christmas crafts Cute design diy dog dogs economic crisis Food Funny halloween History japan mental floss movies Music Photography quiz robot science sculpture Space star trek Star Wars tv Video videos weird