U.S. torture by proxy

the use of offshore torture for political ends is not new for Washington. but after Sept. 11, the number of people shipped to offshore locations to extract information by means that are banned in the U.S. ("rendition" as it is known in American intelligence circles) appears to have increased, and is now common practice, although the secrecy surrounding the practice has prevented rights organizations from monitoring exact figures.

The most frequently used offshore torture depots are Jordan, Syria, Egypt and Morocco, human rights groups say.

Syria, according to the latest report, commonly uses such methods as "pulling out fingernails, forcing objects into the rectum, using a chair that bends backwards to asphyxiate the victim or fracture the spine."

In Egypt, meanwhile, the State Department noted that suspects are "stripped and blindfolded, suspended from a ceiling or door frame with feet just touching the floor, beaten with fists, whips, metal rods, subjected to electric shocks."

In Morocco, an Amnesty International report released this week cites testimony of victims who were "strung up and beaten with metal poles or wooden rods to extract confessions ..."

While there are numerous reports of suspects transported and tortured in Mideastern countries, there are also allegations of severe mistreatment of Al Qaeda suspects at the American detention centre of Guantanamo Bay.
(via news insider)

World Organisation Against Torture

vore
A vorarephile is someone who has intense interest in or is sexually aroused by one creature eating another.
vore clips
vore.net
voraphile.com

embroidery
Karen Reimer's embroideries are laboriously produced copies of pieces of text taken from sources ranging from great books to candy wrappers.

plus lollies by Meredith Allen

judith scott
Judith Scott, a fifty-five year old woman with Down's syndrome, has spent the last ten years producing a series of sculptural objects. As well as her learning disability, Judith cannot hear or speak, and she has little concept of language.  There is no way of asking her what she is doing.

animation: G.I. Joe mashups
Eric Fensler has remixed and overdubbed old G.I. Joe public service announcements to create some strange and funny short films.
(via my analog life)

  'Corrective rape makes you an African woman'

Lesbians are being raped, assaulted and victimised "every day" in the townships, in an attempt to force a change in their sexual orientation. Since January this year, 33 black lesbians have come forward with their stories of rape, assault, sexual assault and verbal abuse to organisations fighting hate crimes in Johannesburg townships.
(via jaded)

Robot Personal Space
Software that gives robots personal space has been developed to prevent them from smacking into objects and people.

Simple bumper systems that stop robots when they hit something are insufficient because they don't account for the movement of surrounding objects.

While Sony's AIBO and other existing mobile robots aren't going to hurt anyone, larger robots are poised to soon be working in everything from fast food joints to nursing homes, and must be more aware of their surroundings.

Nanoscale Bumps Make Better Artificial Body Parts
Traditional titanium alloys used in hip and knee replacements are relatively smooth, unlike natural bone and other tissues that have rougher surfaces.

The body reacts to the smooth artificial parts by covering them with a fibrous tissue intended to remove unwanted material.

This tissue interferes with prosthetic devices and damaged body parts, preventing prostheses from making adequate contact with body parts in which they are implanted and consequently interfering with proper functioning.

The discovery that bone cells attach better to metals that have nanometer-scale bumps could lead to longer lasting artificial joints.

Sony's Micro Vault with Fingerprint Access, a device the length of a key and width of a highlighter pen, has 128MB of storage capacity and a sensor for reading fingerprints.

The product can store ID and password information for a number of Web sites. When attached to a PC, and when a user goes to one of the sites, a touch of the sensor will provide access, according to Sony. There is also a screen saver "lock" that protects against unauthorized computer access, the company said.

Wounded soldier
U.S. Army Pvt. 1st Class Tristan Wyatt, 21, was hit by a light anti-tank weapon in Fallujah, west of Baghdad. the weapon had enough power to pierce the 4-inch armor of his combat engineering squad's armored personnel carrier and sever his leg and the legs of two of his squad members.

His new artificial limb attaches with a powerful suction system that, once the residual leg is healed and toughened from use, will allow him to walk normally and do many other things that would have been impossible in the past, he said.

Computer analysis of his left leg's motion was fed to a computer housed in the artificial leg's knee. The prosthetic leg mimics that motion.

As of Nov 2nd, 20 to 30 wounded soldiers were arriving each day at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C from both Iraq and Afghanistan, Pvt. Wyatt said.

nutrigenomics
Tailoring diets to people's genetic makeup could improve health and social equity, ethicists say In a report entitled "Nutrition and Genes: Science, Society and the Supermarket."

New finger and toe joints have been successfully grown in people who have rheumatoid arthritis, an approach that could reduce immobility and pain associated with the disease.

cloning
The United Nations has blocked moves to impose a global ban on research into
all forms of human cloning.

Unbreakable Quantum Encryption
Relying on the laws of quantum physics, quantum cryptography uses photons to send secret encryption keys. The advantage over traditional key exchange methods is that by encoding the encryption key photon by photon it is impossible for anyone to eavesdrop on a key exchange without being detected.

Brain-machine Interface
A US company has announced plans to test a device that would allow paralyzed people to control a computer directly with their brain.

Genetically Altered Skin Implant Pumps Medicine
A drug delivery system called a Biopump that uses a person's genetically altered skin to deliver therapeutic proteins is entering clinical trials for the treatment of anemia.