Sep 13, 2007

Sep 8, 2007

Fighter Jet Hits Building



holy shit, it goes right through it.

Aug 24, 2007

Scientists recreate out-of-body experiences in lab




Scientists recreate out-of-body experiences (no drugs)


For centuries, people have claimed to have had out-of-body experiences but now scientists have recreated the sensation without using drugs in the first experiments of their kind, a study said Thursday.

As many as one in 10 people say they have experienced the sensation of being awake and seeing their own body from another location, according to the study published in the journal Science.

"Out-of-body experiences have fascinated mankind for millennia. Their existence has raised fundamental questions about the relationship between human consciousness and the body," said Henrik Ehrsson, a neuroscientist formerly of University College London, and now at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden.

Now neuroscientists have manipulated a group of perfectly healthy volunteers into thinking they had moved outside their bodies by distorting their perception of reality.

Using virtual reality goggles to mix up the sensory signals reaching the brain, they induced the volunteers into projecting their awareness into a virtual body. Participants confirmed they had experienced sitting behind their physical body and looking at it.

The illusion was so strong that the volunteers reacted with a palpable sense of fear when their virtual selves were threatened with physical force.

The findings suggest there may be a scientific explanation for these types of out-of-body experiences, which are often thought of as delusional or paranormal, and the scientists believe their research could have important applications.

"The invention of this illusion is important because it reveals the basic mechanism that produces the feeling of being inside the physical body," said Ehrsson.

"This represents a significant advance because the experience of one's own body as the center of awareness is a fundamental aspect of self-consciousness."

And inducing people to have out-of-body experiences could have wide-ranging uses, he believes.

"This is essentially a means of projecting yourself, a form of teleportation. If we can project people into a virtual character, so they feel and respond as if they were really in a virtual version of themselves, just imagine the implications.

"The experience of video games could reach a whole new level, but it could go much beyond that. For example, a surgeon could perform remote surgery, by controlling their virtual self from a different location."

But scientists still don't know exactly what causes such experiences which have often been associated with traumatic experiences such as car accidents and linked to compromised brain function in epileptics, drug addicts and stroke victims.

"Brain dysfunctions that interfere with interpreting sensory signals may be responsible for clinical cases of out-of-body experiences," said Ehrsson.

"Though, whether all out-of-body experiences arise from the same causes is still an open question."

link to sauce, yahoo

Aug 23, 2007

Pet Pride Cat Food tainted with acetaminophen?


Yesterday i got my cat a bag of Pet Pride Beef & Liver dry cat food. He ate one bowl of it, and immediately starting acting lethargic. Soon after that, he started vomiting blood, and had loose, runny, bloody stool. I called the 800 number on the bag, and talked to a representative about what was going on. She sounded like she didn't care AT ALL about the situation, and tried to blow me off by telling me that my cat was sick because i changed cat food brands. I hadn't changed brands at all. She took my name, address, and phone number. I am supposed to hear something from them, but haven't yet.

After some googling, this is what I found:

Acetaminophen In Two Pet Pride Varieties—Pet Food Recall



Cat Owner Files Legal Action Against FDA in Pet Food Deaths

Symptoms of Acetaminophen Toxicity in pets

This is a known issue, and the person I spoke to on the phone made no mention of it. Pet Pride doesn't give a shit, the FDA doesn't give a shit, and Menu Foods doesn't give a shit...but I do.

Samples of the pet food in question are being tested now. Pet Pride, my lawyer will be in contact soon.

I'll be updating with images of the cat food bag, and the test results when I get them.

Aug 20, 2007

Service problems disable Wells Fargo ATMs


The Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO --
Service problems disabled ATMs and online accounts at Wells Fargo & Co. for at least 24 hours starting Sunday afternoon, leaving some customers of the nation's fifth largest bank unable to get cash or use debit cards to pay for goods.

San Francisco-based Wells Fargo would not say how many customers or machines were affected but acknowledged that services were down throughout the company - from personal banking Web sites and ATMs to the processing of mortgage and student loans.

"Customers may continue to experience transaction difficulties or delays in our stores, at ATMs and at the point-of-sale ... and processing for some mortgage, home equity, student loans and remittances," Wells Fargo spokeswoman Julia S. Tunis said. "Our systems teams are working to fix those problems and we hope to have all channels fully available soon."

Angry customers complained Monday at many of the bank's 6,000 branches nationwide. Customers could get cash if they went into a branch and talked to a teller - but they had no way of getting cash after-hours.

SAUCE