n honor of Will Smith's apparently imminent conversion to Scientology, I present this link to the full text of Russell Miller's biography Bare-Faced Messiah: The True Story of L. Ron Hubbard. Those who have read The Gospel According to Science Fiction may have wondered why I didn't discuss Scientology, and the short answer is that I don't really have anything to say about it that Miller didn't say first. He details Hubbard's pathological lies about his life and the dubious ethics with which he ran his church, exploring both the wacky and the downright sinister tales spun by one of the greatest con men in history. One of my favorite bits is the story in chapter 14 in which Hubbard poses as a "revolutionary horticultural scientist," proving that plants can feel pain by hooking them up to an E-meter.

Be sure to also read "Suppressive Persons," which describes the Church's attempts to suppress Miller's book. The Church's tactics are the same now as then: they're rumored to be filing a $100 million lawsuit against St. Martin's Press, publishers of Andrew Morton's forthcoming Tom Cruise: An Unauthorized Biography, which claims that Cruise is one of the Church's top leaders).

Say what you will about Scientology. If nothing else, its the only way to keep bi-polar people being creative yet functional, which is still ahead of the field of medicine. If you're not bi-polar though, I'm really not sure why anyone else would want to be a scientologist.

SF Gospel: Bare-Faced Messiah: The True Story of L. Ron Hubbard

Kumar and his colleagues from Harvard Medical School have developed a potentially revolutionary drug delivery method, taking advantage of a known master infiltrator of the brain: the virus responsible for rabies, also known as the rhabdovirus. Rabies viruses travel from the site of infection (a local wound bite) to the nerves, through which it gains access to the brain. It is one of the few viruses known to be nearly 100% deadly to mankind, when vaccination has not been administrated. Kumar and colleagues took advantage of the virus’ neurotropic ability by isolating a protein from the viral outer layer used to bind to the brain cells. They then attached an experimental drug to the purified fragment of protein, a small-interfering RNA. This RNA-peptide complex showed highly specific ability to access neurons in the brain that expressed receptors to the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. This high specificity of drug action was demonstrated to only occur in the brain, and not in other tissues of the body.

Rabies Virus Helps Deliver Drugs into the Brain | GNIF Brain Blogger

Really neat game

Cursor*10 (nekogames)

His antics at Oxford University would shock people in Pakistan awaiting Bilawal Bhutto Zardari's return to take over the political dream shaped by his murdered mother Benazir.

The 19-year-old's preparation for his role in one of the world's strictest Muslim states has certainly been unconventional.

Orthodox Muslims will be surprised to see the new leader of the Pakistani People's Party with his arms slung casually around two girls, one of whom declares herself as "bisexual" on a social networking website.

Free alcohol, hangovers, bisexual friends and a girl called Boozie Suzie ... inside the student life of Bilawal Bhutto Zardari | the Daily Mail

The case for: 'We track cars, so why not people?'

The Government is struggling to keep track of thousands of offenders in the community and is troubled by an overcrowded prison system close to bursting. Internal tagging offers a solution that could impose curfews more effectively than at present, and extend the system by keeping sex offenders out of "forbidden areas". "If we are prepared to track cars, why don't we track people?" said Ken Jones, president of the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo).

Prisoners 'to be chipped like dogs' - Independent Online Edition - UK Politics

Add thermostats to the list of private property the government would like to regulate as the state of California looks to require that residents install remotely monitored temperature controls in their homes next year.

The government is seeking to limit rolling blackouts and free up electric and natural gas resources by mandating that every new heating and cooling system include a "non-removable" FM receiver. The thermostat is also capable of controlling other appliances in the house, such as electric water heaters, refrigerators, pool pumps, computers and lights in response to signals from utility companies. If contractors and residents refuse to comply with the mandate, their building permits will be denied.

WorldNetDaily: Big Brother to control thermostats in homes?

<img src="http://i10.ebayimg.com/07/i/000/d0/01/43c2_3.JPG>
<blockquote>Please see here for your consideration the very last Sky Commuter Prototype test craft that remains in existence today.

The development of this advanced technology and project started back in the mid 1980's. Design and engineering was created by Boeing engineer's in Arlington Washington. Some 60 investors and well over $6,000.000.00 in R&D and production yielded only (3) concept test ships before the plant was shut down for reasons not listed here. The sad end was all and anything that was in the hangar was taken and or destroyed. This sole example of this technology, Advancements and investments are present and was saved in this single craft. The ship was not at the base location at the time or it to would have been destroyed.

This is the only registered aircraft with the FAA as a VTOL class and carries the correct tail number of N2001C. All aircraft materials and built by the finest. The craft is 14 feet long and 8 foot wide at the front Canard winglets and the rear outer fan rims.</blockquote>

eBay Motors: The last Concept Sky Commuter aircraft in Existence (item 220188946461 end time Jan-14-08 07:51:56 PST)

Louis the octopus clearly thinks two heads are better than one when it comes to toys.

The 1.8m-wide (6ft) creature is so attached to Mr Potato Head that he turns aggressive when aquarium staff try to remove it from his tank.

The octopus who loves his Mr Potato Head | Metro.co.uk

86% Mike Gravel

82% Dennis Kucinich

69% John Edwards

66% Chris Dodd

66% Bill Richardson

63% Barack Obama

63% Hillary Clinton

62% Joe Biden

44% Ron Paul

35% Rudy Giuliani

32% John McCain

31% Mike Huckabee

28% Mitt Romney

25% Tom Tancredo

22% Fred Thompson

2008 Presidential Candidate Matching Quiz

Results: Presidential Candidate Matching for 2008

The frustration of proving one's age to buy things like alcohol and tobacco does not end when you reach the appropriate legal age. Those of us who are fortunate enough to have a youthful appearance are forever burdened with having to carry a state-issued ID card to every place where we might want to buy alcohol or tobacco. Over the past few years, we've been gradually subjected to another, more intrusive ID-related hassle -- that of electronic drivers license scanning. It's one thing when a government representative scans your driver's license; it's another thing entirely when a restaurant does it, and records your personal information in the process. Is this legal? Ethical? Secure? In order to find out, I contacted an electronic security and privacy expert, and the American Civil Liberties Union.
The incident at Houstons

It was August of 2006, and I decided to take my girlfriend out to a nice dinner. She's particularly fond of the veggie burger at Houstons, a regional restaurant chain owned and operated by the Los Angeles-based Hillstone Restaurant Group, which also controls the Gulfstream, Bandera, Rutherford Grill, Palm Beach Grill, Cherry Creek Grill, Los Altos Grill, and Cafe R&D restaurants.

We sat down and ordered drinks. I was, of course, asked for my driver's license, which I presented to the waitress. My girlfriend was not asked for her ID, which she found somewhat insulting, being that she is of an age to be insulted by the assumption that she looks over 30. The waitress thanked me for handing over my Florida driver's license, then hurried away before I could both recognize the fact that she'd walked off with my ID, and organize some kind of protest. She returned a few minutes later with our drinks, and handed me my ID card. "Why did you need to take my license?" I asked. "Oh, we had to verify it," she replied. "Out of curiosity, what do you do to verify it?" "We scan it through a machine that makes sure it's real," she said cheerfully.

A farewell to the era of anonymous drinking - The Jem Report