Politics

Do you think it is too early to say that, "Human destiny in the 20th century was largely pre-determined by 3 things, give or take a little. These 3 things being 75mm guns, 105mm guns, and 155mm guns."? aguy2

A new red spot has begun to grow on Jupiter. This new storm, “Oval BA,” also known as “Red Jr.” first appeared in the year 2000, and has recently started to change colors. In November, Oval BA was white. Slowly, the storm turned brown in December, and in the last few weeks the storm has become red. Oval BA is about half the size of the Great Red Spot, and almost the exact same color. Nobody knows exactly why the spot is red, but a popular theory is that the storm dredges material from deep beneath the cloud tops to high altitudes, where a chemical reaction between ultraviolet radiation and the material occurs. If this theory is correct, Oval BA is most likely…

As a libertarian I'm appalled by this story... http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002112639_diss08.html In a nutshell: Is this not diametrically opposed to the idea of the First Amendment? I think it is blatantly unconstitutional to have any government oversight of what written works are being published. What was the government's response? So once again, we're getting the "We need to take away your freedom to keep you safe" line. Is anyone else getting tired of this? Give me liberty or give me death...

President Bush recently visited both India and Pakistan to discuss a number of issues, including each nation's nuclear armaments. While in the past the U.S. position has been staunch opposition to either nuclear program, now Bush has declared the Indian program legitimate, and even made the two countries strategic partners in developing civilian nuclear programs. Pakistan, however, received no such commendation, being told essentially that they are not responsible enough to have a nuclear program. Personally, I think he has a point. I trust India far more than Pakistan, based on their respective histories. But does that make this kind of thing a good idea? After all, …

NASA has confirmed that it has canceled the Dawn mission to study two of the largest known asteroids in the solar system. The mission had been in development for four years, and was already 20% over budget, with major technical problems yet to be solved. This comes as a major setback to scientists, as NASA has no other asteroid-studying missions planned (though one proposal is due on April 5th). However, NASA hopes to salvage parts out of the half-completed spacecraft for other missions, so it is not a total waste. Scientists, however, will have to wait even longer to get their asteroid mission. http://www.newscientistspace.com/article.ns?id=dn8805

I was reading the following Batroc Z Leaper http://groups.google.com.au/group/alt.troll/msg/41eb3621851f2260 If it more likely that women will quit and raise babies, this will only make discrimination more tempting, especially for jobs of high importance. Imagine 80% of females quit and have babies. If you were hiring someone to be CEO and thought about a highly qualitifed female, you would think, "There is an 80% chance this female will quit and have children. The replacement costs would be high if she decides to quit. Perhaps I should hire a man instead." A female's decision to quit and have children, therefore, can hurt other females. I think this is really sad becau…

http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20060224/sc_space/planetspopulationtohit65billionsaturday Wow, 6.5 billion people! What are we going to about overpopulation?

the regular Christmas lectures from the Royal Institute will be on Channel 5 in the Evening this year at 7:15 starting on Boxing Day, instead of the usual midday slot around 12 as has been in the past. this years topic is the "Gourmet Ape" and hosted by Professor John Krebs (former chairman of the Food Standards Agency).

The United States Military is currently developing a "robotic pack mule," which walks on four legs and displays amazing reflexes and walking abilities. The robot can withstand a strong kick to the side without falling over, and can navigate rocky ground without tipping over. It's an amazing display of abilities for a robot, and the military hopes to develop it further. The possibilities are endless, and it could possibly replace human roles in certain dangerous tasks and other menial ones, like transporting large containers or doing medical evacuations. In any case, it's a major achievement for the robotics industry. http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn880…

Researchers funded by the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency have figured out how to literally control a fish's movement through the water. Using a system of electrodes implanted in a dogfish, they have stimulated the fish's brain to fool it into thinking it smells something in one particular direction, so it turns that direction to see what it is. This works remarkably well, so the Navy is hoping that it can expand the technology further. One has to wonder about the implications of this. Could it be expanded to work on other animals--even humans? We'll have to see. http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=mg18925416.300

http://zogby.com/news/ReadNews.dbm?ID=1075 Kind of puts a different spin on the whole "Support the Troops" thing, doesn't it?

Devastating if authentic: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/01/international/middleeast/01saddam.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin

I've been reading Milton Friedman's Free to Choose and a general idea I get from this book is that economic freedom is a prerequisite for social freedom. E.g. in China the idea is that as the people get more and more prosperous their power increases relative to the government's and with this power they are more able to express their rights. Looking at today's political spectrum of Left versus Right, we see that the Left is socially liberal (e.g. porn is allowed) and economically authoritarian (e.g. protection from outsourcing) while the Right is socially conservative (bans on evolution and abortion, etc) and economically liberal (free trade, free markets, pro-business…

Average salary for a player in the NFL: Median salary for an NBA player: Average salary for a college professor: Average salary for special education teachers: Some of the most expendable and unimportant members of society the most overpaid, and the most important ones are paid so little. Even the lowest paid NFL player inexplicably earns 5x more than the highest paid college professor, and that makes absolutely no sense to me. Are we just masochistic?

I heard about this project on the Radio today, so just out of interest I thought I`de share this Test with you all: https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/ it`s the Implicit Association Test, and can be VERY! revealing about your feelings, conscious or not. now, you don`t HAVE TO post your results here but feel free to if you wish there are several test catagories, take your pick!

It seems that chocolate lovers are finally vindicated. In a Dutch study of elderly men, those found to consume the most amount of cocoa were half as likely to die of a heart attack than those with the least cocoa - even when other risk factors were taken into account. Unfortunately for chocolate lovers, scientists still don't recommend eating chocolate in large amounts to prevent disease. It's a compromise. http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn8780

Livingstone, the Mayor of London, has been suspended on full pay for 4 weeks for calling a reporter a 'concentration camp guard'. Given the recent discussions we have had on inciting racial/religious hatred, what do people think of this. Ken made an interesting comment himself I thought: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/4746016.stm Hmm... I wonder if I could get suspended on full pay for 4 weeks if I make an offensive comment....

George Deutsch was a junior staffer in NASA's public affairs office. He resigned in the midst of an uproar kicked off by a memo he wrote dictating content for a PA website. So one of the larger issues in play pertains to the appropriate role of public affairs in Big Science--the community of institutions, researchers, policymakers and implementers associated with large government and corporate scientific enterprises. Keep in mind that the stakes here often involve public or private investment beyond anything reseachers over a century ago might've considered attainable. And given the broad scope of the aims and resources attached, Big Science may attract greater non…

Though I act as though im exposing a big secret. From what i gather in the academic community, this fairly simple concept doesnt seem to be very well understood. Forewarning, I don’t believe any of this to be provable truth it is simply a novice’s speculation from a bit of personal research. After the Great Depression FDR took the financial security of Americans into his hands and took America off the gold standard. Previously, each dollar was backed up by a specific amount of gold to be held in Fort Knox. It was a portion of his New Deal to remove this stipulation and create the Federal Reserve Board whose sole concerns were to monitor interest rates and the am…

I do not believe a thread has been posted for this topic. I heard on a radio show that the U.S governement is selling six of their ports to the United Arab Emirates. From what Ive heard the UAE is or was associated with the Taliban. That sounds absolutely outrageous and very dumb. Here<s an article on the topic: http://www.tcsdaily.com/article.aspx?id=022206D and Bush responding to America: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,185799,00.html I live in canada so this is not a big issue, in fact nobody has heard of this. I was wondering if it is having a big impact over in the US.

the folks I mean are friends and relations, people we think are generally nice, or resemble us in most ways. when one of them gets war fever and starts calling for war against Islam, and gives reasons-----like the way the Taliban treated women in Afghanistan or some other moral absolute-----like that suicide bombers kill noncombatants (many of them women and children like those the Dresden fire consumed, like those consumed in Hiroshima)----when the tone of voice starts to get really punitive, self-righteous, and vindictive, what can we learn? I think by listening carefully we can probably learn something about ourselves. and maybe there is something to learn…

I've linked below a fascinating op/ed piece by a Washington lobbyist that I think everyone should read. Of course you want to read this with a grain of salt -- his position is self-serving, no doubt about it. But he is producing an alternate opinion that you will read in very few other places. What you're mostly hearing these days is that the problem with lobbyists is the practice of "earmarking". But, and I've heard this in a couple of places recently, there is a murmuring undercurrent that says that the real problem is not earmarking, but rather the fact that it's the lobbyists that, increasingly, are what get congresscritters re-elected. The fundraisers they h…

I am not a great watcher of current events and don't know the details about this, of if it has already been discussed here. But maybe it is interesting. Severian called my attention to a Wikipedia article about a proposed law in the UK to make it criminal to INCITE RELIGIOUS HATRED http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incitement_to_religious_hatred Since I don't know the legal definitions as stated in the proposed law, I have only a superficial reaction. perhaps someone can correct any misapprehensions. This seems like a strange law to me. I do not approve of religious hatred but don't people have a RIGHT to it? Like suppose I have this deepseated loathing…

http://www.aip.org/pnu/2005/split/757-1.html the American Institute of Physics online "Physics News Update" publishes an annual list of top physics stories, with links. quite a few these links have further links to graphics/animations like if you check out the "molecules that walk" story http://www.aip.org/pnu/2005/split/751-2.html it gives a movie link at the bottom http://www.chem.ucr.edu/groups/bartels/ this year PNU has about 20 top stories.

Any thoughts on appropriate responses to an 'asymmetric warfare' situation? aguy2