Politics

Its not breaking science, but its pretty.

For all the ridiculous comparisons people make between American Christian evangelists and the traditional vein of imams, I wonder why no one ever mentions men like Amr Khaled, someone who actually engages in televangelism, has diversified his message with appeals to young Muslims to stay fit, develop hobbies and an interest in bettering their communities, and all without the cosmopolitan learnedness typical of the Islamic and...yes, left-leaning Christian clergy?

Well, a new report explains what you should do: http://pewresearch.org/social/pack.php?PackID=1 From the Boingboing coverage: "Would you like to be happier? Become a rich, married, religious, Republican, white person from the Sunbelt, says this Pew research report." This is why I'm glad to say that pursuing my own personal happiness is not my most important life goal (although I suppose it can be argued that my pursuits are vicariously for my own happiness) Ultimately, underpinning all of my beautiful, teleological, goal-directed pattern seeking nature is atheistic existentialism. From this the core of my belief can be summed up as: I'm a random f…

http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20060318/bob10.asp Can light pollution from our urban centers be effected the environment more than we originally realised? A series of photographs, taken by Chad Moore, suggests that light from cities is penetrating further into 'nature' then we realized. This causes a potential for concern due to the high sensitivity of nocturnal animals to light. This excess light may cause changes in the cyclic patterns of nature's wildlife, effectively altering the ecosystem. In some places, the effect of light pollution are so dramatic, especially near large cities such as Los Angelos, that the stars are being completely obscured…

A new plastic which could rival silicon is currently being developed. The plastic is an organic polymer which has been previously used to make flexible display screens (by Philips) and LEDs (by Cambridge Display Technology). A new semi-conducting polythiophene with a modified molecular structure is hoped to have significant advantages over silicon, which previous semi-conducting plastics have not. This means that semiconductor chips could be produced more cheaply and with better quality than before. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4825388.stm

hello was viewing the yahoo news site when i saw in the entertainment section a report on 'v for vendetta' taking the top box office spot in america for the week. how is this politically amusing? well click on the report and near the bottom is a button that says 'discuss' go their to be amused. perhaps ideas do have the power to threaten. strange thoughts mr d

ND is something I'm quite passionate about (a passion which only intensified after visiting the Hiroshima Peace Park). I suppose it stems from the whole Singularitarianism thing and worrying about existential risks, i.e. ways humanity can annihilate itself. Nuclear weapons are definitely on the top of the list for now. On this thread revprez asked me why I dislike the administration's stance on Pakistan, believing my thoughts to stem from the actions of A.Q. Khan. And they certainly do: in addition to selling centrifuge designs and components to North Korea and Iran, Khan was the father of Pakistan's atomic bomb. Non-proliferation agreements have limited "legal…

The Oxford Research Group was critical of Bush's war plans and was commissioned by ABC, BBC and Der Spiegle: Here are some selected findings: 70.6% said "very good" or "quite good" when asked: "Overall, how would you say things are going in your life these days – very good, quite good, quite bad, or very bad?" 51.5% said "much better" or "somewhat better" when asked: "Compared to the time before the war in Spring 2003, are things overall in your life much better now, somewhat better, about the same, somewhat worse or much worse?" 64.2% said "much better" or "somewhat better" when asked: "What is your expectation for how things overall in your life will …

A study of nearly 350 patients has found that high doses of a new statin drug, rosuvastatin, could break up fatty deposits in arteries and therefore "reverse" heart disease. The researchers studied the patients over a two-year period and found that the number of deposits in the arteries decreased, although they cautiously note that they have not proven this to lower heart attack rates. This is good news for people with high cholesterol - the drug also cut levels of "bad" LDL cholesterol by 50%. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4800772.stm

Researchers at Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center have discovered a new cell in mice that acts as both a killer and a messenger in the immune system. Usually, one specific type of cell will attack an invading virus or bacteria, releasing a chemical that attracts "messenger" cells that spread the word to other immune system cells. However, 1/10 of the cells in the spleen of mice seemed to do both of the roles at once. When researchers injected an anti-cancer drug that acts as both a protein-blocker for cancer cells and a growth factor for the abnormal immune cells, the immune cells were "lured" towards the cancer and shrunk the tumor. In mice that did not display t…

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11856589/ This blew me away! I thought this had been settled in the nineties. Funny, half of the course would be "not-sex" education. When I had sex ed, it was like a one day thing. Abstinence: Not doing it. There's not much to it than that. I just don't understand how they could spend a full school quarter on it!

For years, no long-term studies have been undertaken to determine if marijuana actually has long-term side effects. Many users have claimed that there are no side effects to marijuana smoking. Now those users have been proven wrong. A study of marijuana users vs. a control group found that use of marijuana gradually lowers learning abilities and impairs memory. The effects aren't drastic, but they were enough to make one of the reasearchers state, "It definitely fogs your brain." http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn8839

This would be funny if it weren't so serious.

Most right-wing man in history: Ghengis Khan. Most left-wing man in history: Jesus of Nazareth. Discuss.

Scientists have recently discovered a large, 19 mile (31 kilometer) crater in Egypt. The astroid that made the crater was probably about 3/4 of a mile wide. An impact like that would have destroyed everything in hundreds of miles. For comparison, the Chicxlub crater that was left by the asteroid that may have killed the dinosaurs is about 100 to 150 miles (160 to 240 kilometers) wide. The crater was discovered in satellite images by Boston University and researchers Forouk El-Baz and Eman Ghoneim. El-Baz named the crater Kebira which means "large" in Arabic. http://space.com/scienceastronomy/060303_big_crater.html I find it amazing that we are still discoveri…

I find this curious. The Democratic Party will not even get behind sanctions for Iran and North Korea, obvious enemies in the global war on terror. But they will rally around the political lynching of Middle Eastern allies like Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and UAE--their principle defense being that no Iranians, Iraqis or North Koreans were onboard the four aircraft that slammed into the WTC and Pentagon on 9/11. In short, I can't think of a single openly hostile nation the Democrats have considered more worthy of their muscular "anti-Islamism" than those with governments actually aiding American efforts. In the unlikely event that Democrats ever again gain the reigns of…

You've just got to laugh if this story is true. Instead of a "gang of eight" being briefed, we would have a seven member "terrorist surveillance subcommittee." This controversy was always about legislators throwing their weight around in the only remaining sphere in which they are capable of bipartisan unity - preserving their own power. Now, let's see how many leaks occur....

How's that for a subject line? Made it up myself! Bill Frist won a straw poll amongst Republican activists on Saturday which is considered to be a kind of bell weather for the presidential race. One interesting twist was that McCain was campaigning for voters to write in President Bush, ostensibly as a show of support. I can't help but wonder if maybe that was an anti-Frist move, though. Perhaps McCain's presidential hopes are closer to the surface than he would like for us to think? http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11782578/ Another interesting tidbit in the above article is that Frist is apparently taking credit for ending the Democratic filibuster over Ali…

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has successfully entered orbit around Mars, a planet known for swallowing up many of the probes that try to visit it. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) is on a mission to find out if water has existed on Mars for a long period of time (and in what form), armed with six instruments to help detect signs of water, and signs of the previous existence of water. NASA scientists hope the MRO will be able to definitively tell us if life could have ever existed on Mars - opening the door for future missions that search for signs of this life. http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-031006mars_lat,0,4816328.story?coll=la-home-headlines

Scientists believe that they discovered water on one of the Saturn's icy moons. This discovery was made by the Cassini spacecraft, and shows evidence of liquid water resources that erupt from natural hot springs on Saturn's moon Enceladus. http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=scienceNews&storyID=2006-03-09T221913Z_01_N09208250_RTRUKOC_0_US-SPACE-SATURN.xml

So, I really wonder: Does Bush not remember when Congress gave Clinton line-item veto power, and the Supreme Court struck it down? And how much sense does this request make considering Bush is the only president in history to have never vetoed a bill? http://www.newswatch50.com/news/national/story.aspx?content_id=BBE62577-345B-446B-B250-072223B4A544

More here. And here are the briefs. It strikes me that a test relying on Hurley v. IGLB might be relevant in establishment clause case law. Discussion?

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/03/09/port.security/index.html How interesting is this.. I hope this is a major bitch slap to all the paranoid people in congress.

A surprising new discovery shows that certain plants, such as tobacco, "eavesdrop" to help themselves survive. When sagebrush is attacked by insects, the plant gives off odors to warn other plants of the coming danger. Other sagebrush plants detect these odors and prepare by releasing chemical defenses. It turns out that tobacco "eavesdrops" on the sagebrush, and detects these odors. It then waits to give off arsenal until the insects attack, thus saving vital energy for important tasks. http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/200603...YwN5bmN hdA--

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/03/20060307-5.html I'm really having trouble discerning what exactly this is about, but as I read it, I can't help but feel Bush is violating the Establishment Clause here, especially as I read portions such as: I'm reminded of the Everson v. Ewing decision: http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?navby=search&court=US&case=/us/000/u10270.html