Politics

For number one, the underscore can represent the jurisdiction of whatever level of government the person you vote for represents whether it's a county, state or the entire country (or even whatever other countries might use).

Innocence Lost Now that the anniversary of the September 11 bombings comes and goes and people are forced to focus once more upon that historic day, the question, for one more time, arises in many minds or is whispered openly like a curse: What kind of people could do such a thing, what sort of human beings can be responsible for so much death and destruction, what type of men can inflict so much misery upon “innocent” civilians with no thought to their personal survival or the many victims they will take with them? The answer in my mind is simple and quit obvious. If one needs to see what kind of person can do such violent deeds driven by raw emotion, illogical passi…

I thought you might like to know that today a panel of 'wise men' have decided on the technology to be used in the planned high energy e+e- linear collider. They have chosen superconducting technology. From the BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3583658.stm And the International Linear Collider site (the press release is on the left): http://www.interactions.org/linearcollider/

Did the holocaust really happen?

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority in the UK had granted the right to perform "therapeutic cloning" on human embryos to researchers at the University of Newcastle. The work will involve searching for treatments of common or incurable conditions such as diabetes, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3554474.stm

An experiment performed by Shahriar S. Afshar has raised serious doubts about both the Copenhagen interpretation of QM and, to boot, the many-worlds interpretation. Recall that to date it was thought that all interpretations of QM would predict exactly the same phenomena. However, Afshar's experiment has shown an effect that violates complementarity and partitioned universe. The experiment is very simple - it's a standard 2-slit affair, with the following modification: observe the dark bands in the standard experiment, and place wires in these dark areas. These regions are where the wave models destructively interfere. Ergo there is "nothing" there to detect. However,…

Some of the threads concerning Gay marriage got me thinking about this topic. I support gay marriage and can easily distinguish this from polygomy, bestiality, etc. What about two heterosexual men(women) who want to be married? Is a profession of love a requirement for marriage? Monogomy? What's your opinion?

Somebody at the Dublin conference made a transcript of the much-anticipated talk Stephen Hawking gave today on his proposal to resolve the black hole information paradox. They got the transcript to Sean Carroll a cosmologist/blogger at University of Chicago, who posted it here: http://pancake.uchicago.edu/%7Ecarroll/hawkingdublin.txt As you can see from the final paragraphs of the transcript, Hawking conceded his bet with John Preskill in style----the stakes being an encyclopedia, Hawking offered Preskill an Encyclopedia of Cricket. However Cricket is an obcure English pastime unknown to people in Preskill's part of the world---where they do more su…

Scientists in the USA claim to have found evidence that structures known as 'nanobacteria' are actually alive, and may be responsible for a variety of human illnesses. Other researchers are doubtful that there is enough evidence to call the structures life forms, as they are smaller than viruses and exhibit only a few features associated with life. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3729487.stm

Francis Crick, who is well known for coauthoring the paper, with James Watson, that described the structure of DNA, has died at age 88. He also worked on how information is translated from DNA to proteins, and much of his later life was spent on trying to understand the nature of consciousness. http://www.nature.com/news/2004/040726/full/040726-12.html

Interesting phenomenon of the pesticide effects on the ecosystem. Interesting still is our solution to the problem: Nothing http://edition.cnn.com/2004/TECH/science/08/04/environment.deadzone.reut/index.html

On August 3, 2004 @ 16:38 GMT (12:38 PM EDT) the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) suspended after suffering a failed command echo check between the Control Section (CS) of the STIS Main Electronics Box (MEB) and the Multi-Anode Micro-channel Array (MAMA) Control Electronics (MCE). IMPACT ON PROGRAM/PROJECT AND SCHEDULE: The STIS science program timeline was interrupted when Suspend mode was entered. The Project and Space Telescope Science Institute will cease scheduling STIS science. Alternate observations from other instruments will replace STIS observations. All other HST science instruments are functioning nominally. http://www.spaceref.com/news/vi…

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Scientists said on Wednesday they had created a new form of matter and predicted it could help lead to the next generation of superconductors for use in electricity generation, more efficient trains and countless other applications. The new matter form is called a fermionic condensate and it is the sixth known form of matter -- after gases, solids, liquids, plasma and a Bose-Einstein condensate, created only in 1995. Yahoo news report

Details as to origin are unclear at this point, but the source code to Windows 2000 has been leaked. This leak has been verified to most likely be the actual source by ScienceForums.net, a member of which having obtained and viewed the code. The code appears to be complete including the kernel. Based purely on speculation, the source of the leak is most likely from one of the 100 Universities around the world with a source code license for MS operating system. Nonetheless, this is a huge deal in the IT world. I for one will be switching to a different operating system since given Microsoft's security record, I'm sure holes will be found at an alarming rate. The …

Analyses of several white dwarf objects have revealed what could be the first extrasolar planet to actually be observed directly. Investigations are still ongoing to determine if the objects seen are not just the result of background stars creeping into the picture. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3707185.stm

http://www.atributetohinduism.com/aryan_invasion_theory.htm check out that link, read the intro at least. It makes sense, given the prejudice of white supremecists, who have imperialized the world until quite recently, that such lies would be contrived with so little evidence. I would really like to believe that Hinduism did not come from white invaders, as they've taught in history class. I assume that there must be more evidence to justify such teachings, there must be someone here who has credentials in history and can tell us how stable they think the claims for either side are. Could this be a case similar to the belief of Jesus being white, and now …

From http://theoccidentalquarterly.com/ Zionism and the Internal Dynamics of Judaism Professor Kevin MacDonald The history of Zionism illustrates a dynamic within the Jewish community in which the most radical elements end up pulling the entire community in their direction. Zionism began among the most ethnocentric Eastern European Jews and had explicitly racialist and nationalist overtones. However, Zionism was viewed as dangerous among the wider Jewish community, especially the partially assimilated Jews in Western countries, because it opened Jews up to charges of disloyalty and because the Zionists’ open racialism and ethnocentric nationalism conflicted wi…

Anybody been watching it?

Past readings of methane detected in the Martian atmosphere by telescopes on Earth have now been corroborated by ESA's Mars Express orbital craft. This find is significant for two reasons: 1 - It can only have come from active volcanoes, or life. Since volcanoes are easier to detect by many orders of magnitude, and we have found no active ones in decades of observations, it seems unlikely that they explain the gas. Active volcanoes being identified as the source would not preclude the possibility of life, since volcanic activity infers heat, which could provide both the melt-water and mineral deposits required to sustain possible Martian anaerobic bacteria. 2…

Mildly wondering what you think about it. I think it's a great idea, but with a different motive. Very simple, executions should have less grace, not that i've sat in on any recently, but i watch a little T.V. Death takes time. Make it take less. There are several forms of death that take can occur before you even have time to feel pain, some of them aren't even messy. Somebody make a list as one of the posts for this thread. See i don't care if the bad guy suffers, my philosophy is he's on death row because he's a human with bad wiring. There is no purpose anything other than instantaneous elimination of the faulty program. There is no purpose for the suffering, if …

a new worm virus has been released over the bank holliday called SASSER, read about it here or Google search "Sasser virus" http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3678725.stm or; http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/05/04/uvirus.xml&sSheet=/portal/2004/05/04/ixportaltop.html

I am personally against the Death Penalty and I think that the British Government should stop the American government encouraging Iraq to have death penalty. But I think Saddam is an exception. Even though morally wrong to execute him, denying the majority of the Iraqi people the justice they desperately need would be politically very bad. even if the justice is thinly veiled revenge. I think the iraqi people need to feel that the justice has been done, and they can finally get on with their life. With Saddam gone, the symphatisers will have nothing to fight for, and eventually they will see the benefits of a free iraq. And finally iraq will be able to deal with its terro…

"Jerusalem rebuilt as a city that brings about connectivity" is a very rough translation of Psalm 122,3 - but it could be coming true, as modern-day city fathers prepare Jerusalem to become the first city in the world to enable full wireless connectivity to the internet." http://www.israelnn.com/news.php3?id=66031

Why are people so eager to stick themselves in boxes such as "republic", "democrat" and so on? Personally I think that approach opens the door to people who would rather oppose issues with labels. Thread split off from here

I just watched "Orwell Rolls in his Grave" and it gives an excellent account how the public has been manipulated by the media. If you want to understand how America came to be in its present predicaments, I highly recommend seeing this. Two thumbs up. Director Robert Kane Pappas’ ORWELL ROLLS IN HIS GRAVE is the consummate critical examination of the Fourth Estate, once the bastion of American democracy. Asking whether America has entered an Orwellian world of doublespeak where outright lies can pass for the truth, Pappas explores what the media doesn’t like to talk about: itself. Meticulously tracing the process by which media has distorted and often dismissed…