Politics

Scientific American has an interesting article from their September 2002 issue on how building a time machine could be made possible. I myself have Doc Brown on my side, and Marty McFly at the wheel. Wouldn't it be interesting though if we really could go Back to the Future?

This is why I love reading the WSJ's opinion page. As ideological (partisan-right) as they are, they have an impeccable history of inviting intelligent and insightful counterpoint. This is a perfect example. Ted Olsen was solicitor general under the Bush administration until last summer (argued the 2000 election before the Supreme Court, IIRC), and has every reason in the world to hate "activist judges". But look at what he has to say. http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110006597 It's a registration deal, so I've taken the liberty of quoting a couple of the more potent passages.

I think it would help our civilization if dead beat dads were castrated. I don't have a dead beat dad, but I have known alot of people who have had dead beat dads, and if we just castrated them all, it would solve alot of problems. If someone can't take care of one child, then someone probably can't take care of two. It would also be nice if this were done to rapist, however, I think that since girls can call rape when they actually haven't, a more reversible treatment should be imposed. They should still be made incapable of reproduction, don't get me wrong, just, they should be able to, if they are proven innocent, to keep their genitalia. What do yall …

Ion Wind research: Click Here. I found this after doing some research, and I think it shows some potential. We could use Ion Wind to make space craft move up to 300,000 ft. and then the space craft could switch to the normal solid fuel rocket engines. It would be sort of like a "hybrid" space craft....and that would leave a lot more energy to reach higher speeds in space... Tell me what you think.

I know it's a little early for this type of thing, but Im just wondering about your thoughts on the (US) Election in a few years. Who do you think the front runners will be? What sort of issues do you think will be deciding? This will be the first election in which I'm allowed to vote, so you can imagine my interest.

If you get a chance to catch this, be sure and do so. It's an interesting new documentary movie that takes a look at the Enron disaster and what brought it about. My one complaint about it would have to be the way they bookended it by tirading against the Bush administration, which obviously had nothing to do with the Enron collapse. It also vastly oversimplifies the California energy crisis, and makes Gray Davis (of all people!) out to be some kind of saint. Enron's and Andersen's shenanigans took place on Clinton's watch, and yet there's no mention of billy-boy in the whole program, or credit given to the Bush/Ashcroft justice department for the 15 pleas and 6 …

The first shots in the global entertainment war? http://www.variety.com/VR1117921406.html At the very least it seems to push back the current boundaries in the ongoing dilemma of news entities trying to report stories about the corporate giants that own them.

I found this quite interesting, perhaps you will too. Karl Marx, author of the communist manifesto, was a supporter of capatilism in his own way. He believed that government should be a progression, and believed capatilism should precede socialism. Read more

This is some pretty wacky (yet really cool) stuff that was done with mouse brain cells. The basic outline is as such... 1) Get some mouse brain cells (aka; neurons) 2) Grow them on a plate so that the neurons make connections with eachother 3) Teach cells to fly an airplane Yeah, so maybe it was just a simplistic flight simulator, but still this is awsome. This has to be the coolest thing i have seen in a while (outside my discipline). Anyways, some articles follow... http:// http://www.napa.ufl.edu/2004news/braindish.htm http:// http://www.wired.com/news/medtech/0,1286,65438,00.html enjoy!

http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/space/01/16/hubble.telescope.ap/ No more service flights to the Hubble Space telescope will be made. Influenced by new US manned space flight initiatives, funds previously intended for Hubble missions are to be reallocated towards the development of new vessels and equipment to be used in space exploration. The Hubble telescope is to be replaced in 2011, leaving approximately a three year gap without an operational space-based telescope, with Hubble's surmised failure being between two and three years from now.

After making some interviews and getting info from some of my sources.... Mexico has the 2 wealthiest people of the world. Carlos Slim is the 4th wealthiest man in the world, and everything thanks to an ex-pre. of mexico Carlos Salinas that stole the whole country, so... if we do the math thinking that Carlos Salinas gave the little pieces of bread to Carlos Slim and illicity get the Cake, and if in facts Carlos Slim is the 4th welthiest man in the world, that makes probably Carlos Salinas the Third, Second or Even the First Welthiest man in the world. Bill Gates is the wealthiest man in the world, but Salinas is an International Corrupt and even Gate's curre…

http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0412/p06s03-wome.html http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=8146766 It will be interesting to see how this goes. The angle I'm wondering about is the idea that a rapid pullout by Syria may end up becoming an example of why the US should NOT pull out of Iraq early.

ok, I've been recently wondering... everyone knows that US dollars are the most wanted currency in the world. Using this advantage, what if say US government secretly created money and used to buy in the market? It seems like a perfectly good idea.

Space.com is reporting that engineers found a small crack in the foam insulation covering the shuttle's external fuel tank. The crack is not expected to be a safety concern, though it delayed the shuttle rollout for a few hours. The space shuttle Discovery began its 4.2 mile journey to the launch pad today. It is scheduled to launch sometime in mid-May.

Just last week I was ranting about how the far right has been over-the-top in its criticism of the Judiciary and blaming everything in sight on "activist judges". Then the far left goes and makes their case for them. On Friday the 9th Circuit court of appeals overturned a 1995 murder conviction because relatives of the victim wore buttons with a picture of the murder victim on their clothing during the trial. No, really. Here's a link to a news article reporting the appeals court verdict: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2005/04/08/state/n172951D73.DTL Reuters/NY Time article (requires registration): http://www.nytimes.…

Churches get tax exemptions, which mean that arguably they're being supported by the government, right? Therefore shouldn't science get equal time at the pulpit? Can I get an AMEN?!

The New York Times ran a funny sidebar story today about President Bush's Ipod playlist. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/11/politics/11letterbox.html? Apparently one of his aids downloads the tunes from Apple and installs them for him, and he listens while running. Or signing important bills. Something like that. Anyway, here were some of the artists and tunes from the list. Mostly C/W, but some fun '80s stuff. Oddly, no sign of Huey Lewis's "Hip to Be Square". John Fogerty, "Centerfield" Van Morrison, "New Biography," "Brown Eyed Girl" John Hiatt, "Circle Back" Alan Jackson George Jones Alejandro Escovedo, "Castanets" Joni Mitchell, "(You're S…

Hybrid Efficiency Overstated? http://cbs.marketwatch.com/news/story.asp?guid=%7BB21CF567-A36C-4EF0-8E64-D8177D37D004%7D&siteid=google&dist=google Interesting article. Note that it's almost a year old, and gas prices are significantly higher now (more than a dollar higher in California than the example in the quote below), but I still think it's interesting. This quote seems particularly on point: I wonder why the EPA's tests are off by a higher percentage with hybrids versus regular cars.

Well, the Pope is dead. Poor old man. He died of sepsis caused by a UTI.

What are the pos/cons for abusing a child? Should it be allowed? Do you have any facts to share with us? I think that child abuse should be prohibited as much as possbile, but I also think that children should obey their parents. After all, you owe everything to them.

Looks like Saudi Arabia has a lot more oil than previously believed. They're talking about an increase of almost two-fold, and enough of it is from new sources that they're looking at a 33-50% capacity increase (from 10 to 15 million barrels per day). Of course this is just a drop in the bucket compared with the 20+ mbpd increase we're looking at over the next 5-10 years from China+India alone, but I think it does underscore the point that you can never really say that we fully understand what's going on down there. Arab News: http://www.arabnews.com/?page=1&section=0&article=61713&d=7&m=4&y=2005 Bloomberg: http://www.chron.com/cs…

On the morning of September 11th 2001, there were multiple war games taking place by the U.S. Airforce and NORAD. The point of this thread is to try and figure out how those war games may have affected the response by NORAD and the FAA and also to find out who was in charge of those war games. Vigilant Guardian Vigilant Warrior Northern Vigilance Northern Guardian Tripod II On May 8, 2001, President Bush made Dick Cheney to coordinate development of US government initiatives to combat terrorist attacks on the United States. (Source: Crossing the Rubicon, Michael C. Ruppert - Cited from White House Press release, may 8, 2001) Would that have put Dic…

I have decided to coin a new word: Fundamentalistas! Definition: Anybody who adopts a theologically-derived political ideology that flies in the face of logic and reason. Not limited to American fundamentalist christian conservatives. Usage: "There were fundamentalistas all over my lawn, drinking Jesus juice from Diet Coke cans and singing hymns." "I wanted to have an abortion, but the fundamentalistas were in front of the clinic on the only day I could get off from work."

Are any of you worried about how much pornography there is out there? It's fine to believe in free speech. But consider that 80% of school students have accidentally stumbled upon porn while on the Internet. Consider that many young people are mimicking what they see in pornography on their young friends. Even though Internet censorship is very difficult, don't you think some effort needs to be made? Or will this effort be fruitless?

Got this idea from Flareon's post in the USA thread. I thought about making this a poll, but really I'm more interested in hearing what people think about their sources and why they chose them, rather than getting some numbers on which sources are most popular. Thoughts? Just to kick things off, I'm subscribed (paid sub, for a course I'm taking) to the Wall Street Journal, and I have free online subs to the New York Times and the Washington Post. I also drop by CNN and MSNBC from time to time, but I usually start news runs at Google News (useful because it often slaps international links right alongside domestic ones for domestic events, so I can quickly see h…