News in Notes: March 10, 2011 (Charlie Sheen Free)

• This spring, the United Arab Emirates is expected to close a deal for $7 billion dollars’ worth of Patriot Missiles which will be built by American prisoners making 23 cents an hour. Nothing like the time honored tradition of using cheap labor to turn a profit.

• Speaking of prison, the US government doesn’t protect inmates from instances of sexual abuse by other inmates and guards.

• Departing members of the House of Representatives awarded 6.7 million dollars in extra pay to aides as they closed down their offices, according to lawmakers’ spending records. The cash would’ve otherwise been returned to the U.S. Treasury.

• The Wall Street Journal discusses a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report that uncovers billions of dollars in wasteful spending by the U.S. government due to duplicate work done by dozens of agencies. Currently we have five different agencies overseeing food-safety laws, more than 20 separate programs to help the homeless and 80 programs for economic development.

• Speaking of the GAO, they also recently said replacing the U.S. $1 note with a coin could save the government around $5.5 billion over 30 years.

• WikiLeaks exposes sex parties and drug usage among The Saudi Royals who run an authoritative regime with religious police. Somehow an American energy drink company was involved in all of this. I hope it was Four Loko.

• Peter Wilby of the Guardian believes education alone won’t stop the West getting poorer because skilled jobs will go to the lowest bidder worldwide.

• The Pentagon has poured millions of dollars into the development of tiny spy drones that look like hummingbirds and other animals.

• President Barack Obama’s promise to increase oversight of wiretapping practices has been put on hold after Congress passed a one-year extension of the Patriot Act that made no changes to the law.

• Speaking of Obama he recently signed an Executive Order which, as The Washington Post described it, “will create a formal system of indefinite detention for those held at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay” and “all but cements Guantanamo Bay’s continuing role in U.S. counterterrorism policy.” While running for office Candiate Obama had a very different view on this matter. More coverage here.

• The US Government has secret plans to arm Libya’s rebels by asking Saudis to airlift weapons into Benghazi.

• A suspected British intelligence and special forces unit was caught sneaking Libya by rebels.

• “Libya no-fly zone an option”: Obama gives strongest indication yet U.S. forces may be deployed in Middle East rebellion.

• Some Libyan rebels say, “If the Americans come, they would steal our Revolution.”

• Hugo Chavez said U.S. distorting situation in Libya “to justify an invasion.”

• Patriots QB Tom Brady can’t dance at all.

• Just in case the low pay, lack of benefits and bad work environment wasn’t enough to deter you from working at Wal-Mart, watch this.

• Oil from the BP spill remains stuck on the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, according to a top scientist’s video and slides.

• New York Times raises concerns about hydrofracking. Hydrofracking or hydraulic fracturing is relatively new way of drilling for natural gas that breaks apart underground rock formations and poses a threat to our water supply.  Learn more here. Watch a trailer for a documentary about hydrofracking entitled Gasland here

Watch: How TV Ruined Your Life

According to BBC 2:

Ever wondered why life doesn’t measure up to those youthful lofty expectations?

From love and money to fear and progress, Charlie Brooker explores a different universal theme each week as this six-part series attempts to explain where it all went wrong and just how wildly the TV and movie ideal differs from life’s grim reality.

Marking the point where the mad daydreams of TV and the sorry reality of real life collide, the series employs a mixture of archive footage, sketches and interviews that will have you wiping away tears of laughter while nodding in recognition, which means you’ll probably have your eye out if you’re not careful.

The first episode’s theme is “Fear”, an emotion we Americans know all too well. Watch it below. Links to the other episodes are at the bottom of this post.

Episode #2: “The Lifecycle”, watch part 1 and part 2

Episode #3: “Aspiration”, watch part 1 and part 2

Episode #4: “Love”, watch part 1 and part 2

Episode #5: “Progress” comes out March 1, 2011.

Watch: “The Thomas Beale Cipher” – A Short Film

Synopsis:

Using pioneering animation techniques to create a look never seen on film before, this 10-minute award-winning film tells the true legend of history’s most challenging cipher. Professor White, cryptographer extraordinaire, is on the trail of the notoriously uncrackable Thomas Beale cipher—a century-old riddle hiding the location of a fortune in gold that has tormented its pursuers since inception. But White is not alone—shadowy forces are tight on his tail.

The film contains 16 hidden messages that hold clues to the characters’ secrets. Eight are fairly easy and require only a close eye. Six are moderately difficult using various encryption methods. Two are extremely difficult and will require a genius mind to decrypt.

Learn more about film here

Watch: 300 Years of Fossil Fuels in 300 Seconds

Whether you agree or not with the notion we are going to run out of oil soon and we are unprepared for that reality one still has to respect the animation work in this video by the Post Carbon Institute.

Watch: Nzambi

In 1982, Harvard ethnobotanist Wade Davis (author The Serpent and The Rainbow) traveled to Port-Au-Prince to investigate the ethno-biological base of the Haitian zombie. Davis left the island convinced that zombies were not fictional creations, but in fact real monsters that roamed the rural villages of Haiti. Inspired by Davis’ work, VBS correspondent Hamilton traveled to the Haitian capital last year to conduct his own zombie investigation under the guidance of a man who survived fourteen bullets to the face.

In this short film Hamilton explores a countryside rife with voodoo culture, meeting sorcerers and collecting and self-applying samples of poisons associated with the local zombies.

These are the first two installments of the six part documentary, look for the remaining in the coming days via Hamiliton’s Pharmacopeia.