Bandarískur 21. aldar fasismi

We Now Live in a Fascist State

Summary:

An impressive beginning, in line with what the world has come to expect from the innovative Americans, but we can do better. The early twentieth-century fascisms didn’t enter their golden age until the proletariat in the countries that gave them birth had been reduced to abject poverty. The music and the marching songs rose with the cry of eagles from the wreckage of the domestic economy. On the evidence of the wonderful work currently being done by the Bush Administration with respect to the trade deficit and the national debt – to say nothing of expanding the markets for global terrorism – I think we can look forward with confidence to character-building bankruptcies, picturesque bread riots, thrilling cavalcades of splendidly costumed motorcycle police.

Runni Leyndó

Bush's Veil Over History

SECRECY has been perhaps the most consistent trait of the George W. Bush presidency. Whether it involves refusing to provide the names of oil executives who advised Vice President Dick Cheney on energy policy, prohibiting photographs of flag-draped coffins returning from Iraq, or forbidding the release of files pertaining to Chief Justice John Roberts's tenure in the Justice Department, President Bush seems determined to control what the public is permitted to know. And he has been spectacularly effective, making Richard Nixon look almost transparent.

But perhaps the most egregious example occurred on Nov. 1, 2001, when President Bush signed Executive Order 13233, under which a former president's private papers can be released only with the approval of both that former president (or his heirs) and the current one.

Meira hér.

Minningar og heilasellur

One Face, One Neuron - Storing Halle Berry in a single brain cell

Exactly how the human brain works to record and remember an image is the subject of much debate and speculation. In previous decades, two extreme views have emerged. One says that millions of neurons work in concert, piecing together various bits of information into one coherent picture, whereas the other states that the brain contains a separate neuron to recognize each individual object and person. In the 1960s neurobiologist Jerome Lettvin named the latter idea the "grandmother cell" theory, meaning that the brain has a neuron devoted just for recognizing each family member. Lose that neuron, and you no longer recognize grandma.

Imbakassinn

Watching TV may damage children's brain development, leading to increased anti-social behaviour, new research claims.

There is also a correlation between the amount of TV children watch and the degree of educational damage they suffer, according to the report by Aric Sigman, an associate fellow of the British Psychological Society.

And significant long-term damage occurs even at so-called modest levels of viewing - between one and two hours a day - the report, Remotely Controlled, says.

Children now spend more time watching a TV screen than they spend in school, but viewing even a moderate amount can dramatically increase their risk of myopia, slow down their metabolic rate and may trigger premature puberty, according to Dr Sigman.

It was also found to lead to a "significantly elevated risk" of sleep problems in adulthood, causing hormone changes, which in turn directly increase appetite and body fat production and damage the immune system. leading to a greater vulnerability to cancer.

While the average Briton watches four hours of TV a day, children aged 11-15 spend seven-and-a-half hours a day watching TV and computers - an increase of 40 per cent in a decade - the scientist claims.

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The idiot box