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Weird News From Around the World

Tower of Babel Rebuilt: Structural Experts Promise “It Will Work This Time”

[www.npr.org]

Oh, sorry. That’s not the Tower of Babel, it’s just the $9 billion,17-mile-long particle accelerator called the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in underground Switzerland. Physicists from around the world – who have undoubtedly done this sort of thing before and would never subject the world to any sort of danger [cough] Chernobyl [cough] – plan to use the accelerator to collide subatomic particles at or near the speed of light. To allay public fears that the accelerator might produce “small black holes” – you read that right: SMALL BLACK HOLES – that could swallow the earth, the researchers tell us that the black holes, if they were to appear, would be short lived …they think. Wow, I feel better already!

            As of this writing, they have only tested the machine by sending particles around the 17-mile loop in one direction in low power – about the equivalent of cranking your Marshall amp up to “1.” The Big Bang – excuse the pun – is scheduled to occur on September 21^st as these mavericks of the space-time continuum will collide their first particles at high speed – the accelerator equivalent of cranking your Marshall up to “11” and hitting the first note in “War Pigs.”

            But golly-gee, Brad, aren’t you being a little unreasonable in your fears here? You’re right, it’s not like we’re talking about the fundamental laws of physics which hold our Universe together. Oh, that’s right, it is. Well, look on the bright side, if you’re reading this that means they haven’t destroyed the earth with a miniature, lab-created black hole…yet. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for discovery, but the history of mankind has been nothing short of a long comedy of errors, each seemingly more hilarious than the last. At every turn there are examples how our scientific achievements and “progress” have either backfired in our faces or been used in ways that would make Lex Luther blush. Even geniuses like Albert Einstein were wrong occasionally (most famously about quantum mechanics) and I believe it’s always a safe and healthy bet to question the wisdom and judgment of anyone sharing the title of “human being.”

            With any luck my fears will prove unfounded, and in a few years the scientists will either have all the information they need to create a unified field theory and become inter-dimensional god beings, or create a weapon that will make the fusion bomb look like primitive child’s play, then we can all go about our little comedy of errors relatively unscathed. Let’s just hope these jokers don’t end up making us all walk the “Planck.” (For anyone who has read as many astrophysics books as I have, that pun should be hilarious.)

Towns Create Own Currencies to Beat Bad Economy

[www.dailymail.co.uk / www.money.co.uk]

Local currencies have long been a way for townships to declare a measure of economic independence, self-sufficiency, and sovereignty in hard or oppressive times. They were used by the Israelites in ancient times in attempts to break the tyranny of Roman rule. They were used extensively during the Great Depression to hedge against national inflation. Now British newspapers have reported some small English towns are hedging against the current economic downturn by creating their own currencies. One town in East Sussex named Lewes has created the “Lewes Pound,” that are each exchangeable for £1, and will “help increase a sense of pride in the community, help cut CO2 emissions and boost economic resilience amid the economic downturn,” according to the currency’s originators. There are about 30 businesses in town that have agreed to take the notes as payment for goods and services, and the local Barclays bank branch has agreed to honor them for exchange, but how this is supposed to do any of the things suggested, particularly when the currency is tied to an inflationary fiat currency like the pound is unclear.

            Lewes is by no means the first or only town to try such an arrangement. Other English towns, including Totnes and Brixton, are doing the same thing. American towns such as Berkshire, MA are too, but they are giving some incentive. Nine Federal Reserve Notes (FRN) will buy you ten “Berkshares,” which can then be spent locally at fully FRN value. This supposedly encourages local spending, but does little to curb the affects of inflation as prices will rise equally among the currencies. Another Massachusetts town, Provincetown, is creating a purely barter-based currency that isn’t at all tied to FRNs, but instead creates “dunebloons” that people simply agree to exchange for goods and services amongst themselves. This sounds great also, until you consider that the originators of the currency could just print a ton of it for themselves.

            The most successful schemes have been based on real gold or silver backing, because the real amount of the commodities cannot be inflated. In fact, one such silver and gold backed currency, The Liberty Dollar, is based here in Evansville. Unfortunately, such currencies that exist completely outside the control of authorities, particularly those authorities who like to keep track of your earnings so they can tax you, don’t think highly of gold or silver backed currencies. The Liberty Dollar was raided by the FBI and Secret Service late last year, and all their gold and silver was confiscated. Still, I see nothing to stop Evansville from trading in pre-1965 silver quarters, dimes, and half dollars, or .999 pure bullion on a voluntary barter basis. I, for one, would wholeheartedly participate. Heck, I might run for mayor on that platform.

Credit Card Companies Gag Myth Busters Episode?

[consumerist.com]

Adam Savage, co-host of the Discovery Channel’s Mythbusters program recently stated at a hacker’s conference that an intended episode on the security vulnerabilities of RFID-enabled credit cards was squelched by the major credit card companies and their lawyers. The controversy has stemmed from the 2005 success of a group of SoCal twenty-year-olds from Flexilis who were able to transmit data to and from a passive RFID chip over a distance of 69 feet.

            Savage explained: “Texas Instruments comes on along with chief legal counsel for American Express, Visa, Discover, and everybody else... They were way, way outgunned and they absolutely made it really clear to Discovery that they were not going to air this episode talking about how hackable this stuff was, and Discovery backed way down being a large corporation that depends upon the revenue of the advertisers. Now it's on Discovery's radar and they won't let us go near it.”
            Savage has since retracted that statement saying the decision not to go forward with the episode came from their production company, not The Discovery Channel.