SALT LAKE TRIBUNE– On April 4, 1949, FBI agents in Utah sent a cable marked “urgent” to FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover. It said an Army guard at the Ogden Supply Depot, a Logan policeman and a Utah Highway Patrol officer in Mantua each saw from miles apart a UFO — which they said exploded over Utah.

Under the title “Flying Discs,” the cable said they “saw a silver colored object high up approaching the mountains at Sardine Canyon” that “appeared to explode in a rash of fire. Several residents at Trenton … [reported] seeing what appeared to be two aerial explosions followed by falling object.”

That and other documents show the FBI was investigating whether UFOs were real, and it figured they could be. Such documents are now available in “The Vault,” vault.fbi.gov, a revamped FBI website for documents that have been released through the Freedom of Information Act and have been recently or often requested.

Besides talking about Utah UFOs, other Utah-related documents on the website look at such things as FBI snooping into whether the Salt Lake City NAACP had been infiltrated by communists; a death threat in Utah against Lady Bird Johnson; and Hoover lambasting W. Cleon Skousen — a Utahn who has become an icon of the tea party movement.

Read full article about New FBI ‘Vault’ Discusses UFOs.

Check out full section from The Vault about Unexplained Phenomenon.

© Copyright Salt Lake Tribune, 2011

Photo by flickr user Dnewman8

SCIENCE DAILY– We all know that people at opposite ends of the political spectrum often really can’t see eye to eye. Now, a new report published online on April 7th in Current Biology, reveals that those differences in political orientation are tied to differences in the very structures of our brains.

Individuals who call themselves liberal tend to have larger anterior cingulate cortexes, while those who call themselves conservative have larger amygdalas. Based on what is known about the functions of those two brain regions, the structural differences are consistent with reports showing a greater ability of liberals to cope with conflicting information and a greater ability of conservatives to recognize a threat, the researchers say.

“Previously, some psychological traits were known to be predictive of an individual’s political orientation,” said Ryota Kanai of the University College London. “Our study now links such personality traits with specific brain structure.”

Kanai said his study was prompted by reports from others showing greater anterior cingulate cortex response to conflicting information among liberals. “That was the first neuroscientific evidence for biological differences between liberals and conservatives,” he explained.

Read full article on how Political Views Are Reflected in Brain Structure.

© Copyright Science Daily, 2011

Photo by flickr user Blatant Truth

MEDIA ROOTS– As the mainstream media failed abysmally in their role as public watchdogs during the Bush administration, the Daily Show and Colbert Report, although comedy based, seemed like two of the last bastions of a semi fourth estate.

Although their shows still propped up the establishment, Stewart didn’t hold back on calling out Republican rhetoric and hypocrisy. Now, despite a few joking jabs about the Obama administration, Jon Stewart’s overall performance and critique of government since Obama got elected has been disappointing at best.

On the night of Barack Obama’s inauguration, Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart actually cried tears of joy during a live broadcast of the Daily Show. After that, I didn’t have much hope for the show to maintain the same ingenuity and credibility.

However, Stewart has been making some scathing criticisms leveled towards Obama lately that have been on point (can’t say the same for Colbert after he went all Army on us and shaved his head for the troops).

The most recent critique was on last night’s show pointing out how ridiculous it is for Obama to win an award for “transparency” while at the same time shrouding the acceptance of the award in secrecy. Stewart also accurately points out that Obama has gone after whistle blowers more aggressively than any President since Nixon.

Abby

Photo by flikr user Joint Chief of Staff

GUARDIAN– The United States said Monday it is “deeply concerned” about the rising trend of disappearances and arrests of human rights activists in China after one of the country’s most famous artists was detained.

Ai Weiwei, 53, an avant-garde artist who helped design the futuristic Bird’s Nest stadium at the Beijing Olympics, has been missing since he was stopped Sunday while preparing to fly to Hong Kong. Police also raided his Beijing studio.

Dozens of Chinese lawyers and activists have vanished, been detained or held under house arrest since February when online calls for protests similar to the pro-democracy uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa started cropping up. At least three people have been indicted for subversion. No major public protests have taken place in China.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Mark Toner called for the immediate release of Ai, an outspoken government critic who has been keeping an informal tally of the detentions on Twitter, where he has more than 70,000 followers.

Read full article at Concerns Grow Over Rising China Detentions.

© Guardian News and Media Limited 2011

Photo by flickr user Gary Lerude