Politics

Interesting topic, just wanted to see what everyone on here thinks about it.

From BBC News: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3696306.stm "Imperial College London researchers in the UK are developing a new way of storing data that could lead to discs capable of holding 1,000 gigabytes. Current discs carry one bit of data per pit. But the researchers say that by using angled ridges in the pits, they can alter the way light behaves. The end result is a way of encoding and detecting up to 10 times more information from one pit."

A parrot living in New York has been observed inventing his own words, making humourous comments and displaying a vocabulary of 950 words. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3430481.stm

In politics fragile situations tend to explode in your face when you do not handle with care. The Bush administrations foreign policies and use of the media to intimidate the rest of the world is working... But they are too stupid to realize the consequences of their actions. N. Korea has nukes, and will not disarm them because they are intimidated by the U.S. foreign policies Can anyone honestly say they feel safer since the Bush administration began "making the world safer"?

This is been getting a lot of news recently thanks to Michael Newdow, who used his daughter to sue over the pledge of allegiance (which includes the words "one nation, under God". Now he's filing a lawsuit to keep the clergy out of the presidential inauguration. Is he taking it to far?

I'd like to know the positions of forum-goers on the issue of abortion and their reasoning behind said positions. At the moment, I'm relatively neutral on the topic, and I'd like to hear some arguments for either side. Here's a preemptive 'thanks' to anyone that posts on this thread.

I have compiled this research to the best of my ability to not only try to help myself to understand what is going on but to also share with others. This is more of an informative post than a discussion post but feel free to share your opinions or challenge this information. If you do respond please read all of the material and links contained so you understand the point of view this research is coming from. This is not an attempt to bash Bush, or start a debate between left and right point of views, rather it is an attempt to inform people of the complicity of US democracy and to try to enlist help in striving to reach peaceful solutions to complicated circumstances. The…

Source : http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=528&ncid=528&e=3&u=/ap/20050207/ap_on_hi_te/web_browser_flaw_1 Officially, the Internet's Domain Name System supports only 37 characters — the 26 letters, 10 numerals and a hyphen. But in recent years, in response to a growing Internet population worldwide, engineers have been working on ways to trick the system into understanding other languages. Engineers have rallied around a character system called Unicode. The newly discovered exploit takes advantage of the fact that characters that look alike can have two separate codes in Unicode and thus appear to the computer as different. For…

The Law lords in the UK recently decided that indefinite detention of suspected terroists without charging them with a crime, or even telling them why they were being detained was unlawful http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1375684,00.html http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1375603,00.html Does anyone think that detention without charge can ever be justified?

Personally, I wouldn't mind paying more taxes if it meant some of these programs didn't have to be cut. Bush has never vetoed a spending bill but won't raise taxes to cut the deficit. What's going on here? Bush's $2.5 trillion budget story

This guy was called "the "most lethal" ally of militant leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi". Surely he knows some things that would be very useful in saving civilian lives. What would be the boundaries you would place on interrogation methods?

I don't know how many of you have seen this documentary but I wanted to discuss some important questions this documentary raises. It's called: Hijacking Catastrophe - 9/11, Fear & the Selling of American Empire A Media Education Foundation Presentation Written & Directed by Jeremy Earp & Sut Jhally Narrated by Julian Bond http://hijackingcatastrophe.org/ Here are a couple exerpts from the film: The Wolfowitz Doctrine was a classified document, some parts of it were leaked to the Washington post and New York times... I have searched and searched and have not and most likely will not find the full document, but h…

Welp, the polls have officially closed on the first election in Iraq in 50 years! "Iraq's electoral commission said turnout was estimated at 72% - significantly higher than expected." Good for them.

I read this on another forum and thought it was interesting: 10 ways you can help prevent sweatshops

Featured article: http://www.adelphia.net/news/read.php?id=CP_2778&ps=1018 Disclaimer: It's a touchy subject when talking about lives lost, families destroyed, and money at the same time. Please use the appropriate level of sensetivity when replying to this thread.

Well, you may flame away at my "ignorance" or "lack of political knowledge", but I'm just tossing this idea out there. The system is untitled, for now. It would resemble something like this. - - - - - - - The governing body would consist of a group elected by the people entitled (for now) A Body. This party would would consist of 500 elected representatives. This body would have to meet the requirements of electing a certain number of canidates according to their political alliance, or opinion. These parties will be name (for now) the Rights, Lefts, and Neutrals. ( Original, isn't it? ) Body A would consist of: 150 Lefts 150 Rights 200 Neutral…

Iraqi's all over the world are participating in the election in Iraq. Even second-generation American Iraqis are allowed to vote. Should this be allowed?

there`s a new idea out in the UK about relaxing the rules with regards to deffending your home/property and family within it. this poll is also currently on Sky News, I`de like a Global opinion on this however What do YOU consider is adequate force to stop a criminal in your home, and Why?

I got this in my email, hope you find it humorous.

Ok, yeah this has mostly likely been asked alot but it is important. Do you think that any of these offers, which have been given to me in many forms, are fair for Gays((That is Guy on Guy not girl on girl cause ironicly that is kinda accepted by the men of america.)): 1:That we're are all sent to a remote island/antarica and live there only having new gays come in anytime there is a new one found 2: Gay registeration because if you know who is you can make sure we don't "infect" you. 3: Gas chambers, enough said. 4: We convert now and pray for forgiveness for the rest of our lives. Now which one, if any, of these fair because that is what I have …

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4093965.stm Doctors in the Netherlands are calling for new laws allowing them to end the lives of newborn babies with intolerable and incurable illnesses. What do you guys think about this?

BNP hired a black DJ by mistake http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1200735.html i cannot believe parties like BNP exist and even have support in todays day and age.

On January 19th of this year Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger allowed the first death sentence to be served in three years, and the first under Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. That is almost copied straight from a news site (because honestly if I hadn’t, there’s no way I’d have been able to spell Arnie’s name!) Anyway, I recently caught an ad for a movie on Court TV called The Exonerated. It’s based on true stories of several people who spent years on death row for crimes they didn’t commit. The original version was a play which inspired my interest in the subject of the death penalty. I specifically remember one guy who spent something like 20 years…

IBM plans to announce today that it has built the world's fastest supercomputer, the Blue Gene/L. The new system inches by the speed record of 35.86 "teraflops," with a working speed of 36.01 teraflops (or trillions of calculations per second). This is proof the US is not falling behind in the computer industry.

Believe it or not this is going to be the politicians worst nightmare come true. I don’t see any problems with this idea becoming our future governance. We can vote from any phone or net to a voting machine with our own Password and give our vote from any safe place while the voting center will be a heavily guarded one as there will be only one for a huge area reducing the election cost. Hey but I haven’t told u the best part yet, we don’t require any voting day for this system so it is possible to change our vote anytime and as manytimes as we want. As soon as we see misuse of power by the person we voted for, he will be gone out of government for good; In fact …