Intelligent Teens a Thing of the Past?

Bright teenagers are a disappearing breed, an alarming new study has revealed.

The intellectual ability of the country’s cleverest youngsters has declined radically, almost certainly due to the rise of TV and computer games and over-testing in schools. Read more

See Internet Through China’s Firewall

It’s no secret that the Chinese government censors web content, but what’s it like to actually be a citizen trapped inside the Great Firewall of China? A new FireFox plugin called China Channel can show you. It reroutes your IP through China, allowing you to look like any other digital Chinese citizen from anywhere in the world. Click on a banned site and BAM! You lose your browsing privileges for 15 minutes. But luckily, in this version, you can just reopen the browser with a newly assigned IP. To see an example clip that walks you through installation and browsing, read on.

Obama Assassination Plot Stopped

Two white supremacists allegedly plotted to go on a national killing spree, shooting and decapitating black people and ultimately targeting Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, federal authorities said Monday.

In all, the two men whom officials described as neo-Nazi skinheads planned to kill 88 people _ 14 by beheading, according to documents unsealed in U.S. District Court in Jackson, Tenn. The numbers 88 and 14 are symbolic in the white supremacist community. Read more

Science Shows that Suicide linked to Brain Changes

The brains of people who commit suicide are chemically different to those who die from other causes, a Canadian study has suggested.

Researchers analysed brain tissue from 20 dead people and, in those who killed themselves, they found a higher rate of a process that affects behaviour. Read more

Ted Stevens Found Guilty on Corruption Charges

Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens vowed to fight his Monday conviction on federal corruption charges, a verdict he attributed to “repeated instances of prosecutorial misconduct.”

“I will fight this unjust verdict with every ounce of energy I have,” the 84-year-old Stevens, the Senate’s longest-serving Republican, said in a written statement after the jury came back Monday afternoon. “I am innocent.” Read more

Child Dies After Shooting Himself with an Uzi

An 8-year-old boy died after accidentally shooting himself in the head while firing an Uzi submachine gun under adult supervision at a gun fair.

The boy lost control of the weapon while firing it Sunday at the Machine Gun Shoot and Firearms Expo at the Westfield Sportsman’s Club, police Lt. Lawrence Valliere said. Read more

Magic Johnson Accused of Faking AIDS

Magic Johnson says he’s outraged that a pair of Minneapolis talk radio hosts accused him of faking AIDS.

KTLK’s Chris Baker and Langdon Perry made the remarks during Baker’s conservative talk show on Wednesday.

The context for the remarks wasn’t clear. According to a partial transcript and audio clip posted on a media watchdog site, mediamatters.org, the remarks came after a caller complained about demands on workers. Perry responded by asking about treatable diseases that a person can live with for a long time “if you just get some basic drugs.”

Baker responded, “Like Magic Johnson?”

Perry replied, “Like Magic with his faked AIDS. Magic faked AIDS.”

Baker said, “You think Magic faked AIDS for sympathy?”

Perry replied, “I’m convinced that Magic faked AIDS.”

“Me too,” Baker said.

Johnson issued a statement Thursday saying he was “outraged that Chris Baker and Langdon Perry would minimize such a serious and deadly issue.”

“Millions are dying from HIV/AIDS, and the fact that they would make jokes about my status is unbelievable,” Johnson said. “Chris, Langdon and KTLK should use their power in a more positive light by encouraging people to get tested for this disease instead of making up such ridiculous lies.”

Johnson was diagnosed with HIV in 1991 and retired from the NBA at 32.A KTLK program director didn’t immediately return a call seeking comment Friday.

Cancelling the Election? Might be a possibility..

Thank heavens for the Internet; it’s put the surprise back in October Surprise.

Here is the latest big-picture conspiracy theory, which has been gathering strength on the blogosphere the way a hurricane feeds on Caribbean waters: It is widely believed, both online and, increasingly, offline, that the Bush administration intends to declare martial law and postpone next month’s elections. To prevent Barack Obama’s inevitable ascension to the Oval Office, obviously.

This theory/rumor/delusion dates back almost a year and a half, with the appearance on the White House website of National Security Presidential Directive 51, which outlined a policy for “continuity of government” in the event of a national emergency. Such emergency is defined as “any incident . . . that results in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption severely affecting the US population, infrastructure, environment, economy, or government functions.”

White House spokesman Scott Stanzel says the new directive supplants a Cold War-era emergency memorandum that is no longer valid in the post-9/11 world, with the country at risk of a “no-notice terrorist attack.” But on websites with names such as justanothercoverup.com and abovetopsecret.com, the public document - often described as “secret” - was read quite differently. “FEMA Official States Bush Is Planning to Implement Martial Law,” is a headline from justanothercoverup. “Pelosi Declared Martial Law Last Night,” was a September headline from abovetopsecret.

Like a much-awaited Messiah (I am channeling the famous sociological text “When Prophecy Fails”), the date of the martial law takeover keeps moving forward. This spring it was to coincide with the bombing of Iran, this summer with the devastation wrought by Hurricane Ike. In the minds of conspiracy theorists, the current economic crisis seems like a propitious moment for the suspension of the November election.

The martial law paranoia has an engaging adjunct: the “FEMA coffins” story. If you Google those words, you will find pictures, videos, and reams of text explaining that the Federal Emergency Management Agency has stockpiled 30,000 - or is it 50,000? - coffins (or are they coffin liners? or . . . boxes?) in anticipation of a vast civil disturbance, presumably triggered by the imposition of martial law. “We do not have FEMA coffins,” says spokeswoman Debbie Wing.

On the one hand you say, OK, this is Internet madness. On the other hand, you note that Ireland’s largest bookmaker, Paddy Power, is laying 20-1 odds that the American election will be postponed. When I first checked that site on Tuesday, the odds were 40-1.

We’ve seen this movie before, right? Writer Ron Rosenbaum remembers a 1972 story averring that Richard Nixon asked the RAND Corporation to study whether he could postpone that election, which he won, handily. University of California historian Kathryn Olmsted, author of the forthcoming “Real Enemies: Conspiracy Theories and American Democracy, World War I to 9/11″ notes that Franklin Roosevelt’s many enemies were convinced that he would assume dictatorial powers and cancel the election of 1944, which he won handily.

United States Un-Blacklists North Korea

The Bush administration plans to remove North Korea from a terrorism blacklist on Saturday after getting assurances the Stalinist nation has agreed to a plan to inspect its nuclear facilities, the Associated Press has learned.

President Bush signed off on the move on Friday in a bid to salvage a faltering accord aimed at getting the North to abandon atomic weapons, according to diplomats briefed on the matter.

The removal is provisional and North Korea will be put back on the State Department’s “state sponsors of terrorism” list if it doesn’t comply with the inspections, they said. The diplomats spoke on condition of anonymity because the administration has not yet announced the step.

The expected delisting comes as North Korea moves to restart a disabled nuclear reactor and takes other provocative actions, including expelling U.N. inspectors and test firing missiles, that have heightened tensions and threaten the shaky disarmament agreement.

It also follows days of intense internal debate in Washington and consultations with U.S. negotiating partners China, South Korea, Russia and Japan. Japan had balked at the move because the North has not yet resolved issues related to its abduction of Japanese citizens.

Neither the White House nor the State Department would comment on the decision, which has been in the works since chief U.S. negotiator Christopher Hill returned from a trip to North Korea late last week.

But earlier Friday, U.S. officials said they were trying to build consensus among negotiating partners on the step as well as the inspection regime that Washington insists must accompany the delisting.

“We’re continuing to work with our six-party partners,” White House press secretary Dana Perino said, referring to China, Japan, Russia and South Korea, which along with the United States and North Korea make up the group of countries working on the deal.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice spoke on Friday with the foreign ministers of China, South Korea and Japan and was trying to reach her Russian counterpart, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters.

“The point where we’re at now is making sure everybody agrees,” he said.

At issue was whether tentative arrangements worked out last week between Hill and the North Koreans were acceptable to the others. Under those terms, the U.S. would provisionally remove North Korea from the terror list once the North agrees to the inspections.

McCormack dismissed suggestions the United States was trying to force an agreement on its partners and declined to say which, if any, countries were preventing a consensus.

However, Japan had been resistant, arguing that North Korea should not be taken off the list until the cases of Japanese citizens abducted by Pyongyang in the 1970s and ’80s are resolved.

In Tokyo on Friday, Japanese Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone said his country could accept a U.S. move to remove North Korea from the list but only if it was reasonable.

“We still don’t know when and what kind of decision the United States makes, but I expect they will consult us before making a final decision,” he said. “If the decision is something that is also satisfactory to our country, that’s all we ask for.”

And in Washington, Japanese Finance Minister Shoichi Nakagawa used a meeting of the world’s top economies to urge the United States to keep in mind Japanese unease over the threat of North Korean nuclear weapons and missiles and about its past kidnapping of Japanese citizens.

It was not immediately clear how or if Japan was swayed, although a senior U.S. official said the administration was working urgently to meet Japanese concerns amid fears the entire denuclearization deal would collapse.

Under the 2007 disarmament deal, the North was to have disabled its main nuclear facility and the United States was to have removed it from the terrorism list. But after the Yongbyon reactor was disabled in June, the U.S. said it would not delist the country until it agreed to an intrusive verification regime.

But under a face-saving compromise proposed by Hill, the agreement could be deposited with the Chinese hosts of the six-nation talks and announced at the same time as the delisting.

When that point is reached, McCormack said North Korea would be required to halt and reverse its recent actions.

“We would hope and expect that if the process is going to move forward, that they take active steps to reverse what they have done over the past month,” he said.Source: USAToday.com

Up Close with Crocodiles with New Attraction

It would strike terror into the hearts of most sane people but Australia’s newest tourist attraction involves coming face to face underwater with giant saltwater crocodiles.

The newly-opened attraction, Crocosaurus Cove in Darwin, offers the chance to be lowered into a tank full of crocs, among them suspected man-eaters, wearing nothing more than a mask, snorkel and swimsuit or trunks.

The ‘Cage of Death’ is said to be “perfect for serious adrenalin junkies” who have perhaps become jaded with swimming with dolphins or cage diving among great white sharks.

The cage is hexagonal-shaped to stop the crocodiles from getting a grip on it with their fearsome teeth.

It enables tourists to come within a few feet of several ’salties’ measuring more than 16ft long, some of the largest in captivity in the world.

A maximum of two tourists at a time climb into the purpose-built acrylic cage which is then lowered into one of four separate crocodile enclosures.

The cage stops just short of full immersion so that the visitors can still come up for air.

But they are free to dive down to the bottom of the 15ft-high enclosure, where the crocs are barely an arm’s length away.

The big crocs include Burt, the 15ft long star of the first Crocodile Dundee film, Chopper, who lost his front teeth in a vicious fight with a rival and Snowy, an albino crocodile which was trapped and removed from a river in the Northern Territory on suspicion of having killed and eaten a man.

Although the cage is meant to be croc-proof, visitors have to sign an indemnity form which warns of the risks of panic attacks, hyperventilation, nervous shock and even cardiac arrest which might occur on coming face to face with one of nature’s most deadly predators.

Before taking the plunge, nervous participants would do well to avoid talking to Crocosaurus Cove’s keepers, who claim that crocodiles have the most powerful bite force of any animal, stronger than lions, hyenas and great white sharks.

The jaws of a 15ft long saltie exert two tons of pressure - enough to punch through plate metal.

Crocosaurus Cove, in the centre of Darwin, is a three-storey attraction which boasts eight big adult crocs and 200 juveniles.

A large aquarium contains animals native to the waters of northern Australia, including turtles, stingrays and barramundi, a fish species popular with anglers.

Australia is home to an estimated 140,000 wild saltwater crocodiles, of which more than half are found in the Northern Territory.

This week the suspected remains of a British man, Arthur Brooker, 62, were found inside a crocodile after it was trapped by rangers in the Endeavour River of northern Queensland.

Mr Booker, who was originally from Scotland and served with Australian forces in the Vietnam War, vanished from the banks of the crocodile-infested river on the Cape York peninsula last week while checking pots used to catch crabs.Source: Telegraph.co.uk

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