Politics

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…

VERSAILLES, France - A young woman and her baby were attacked in a suburban train near Paris on Saturday by unidentified men who drew swastikas on her stomach with a pen in what police said was an anti-Semitic assault. The six attackers who were armed with knives clipped the 23-year-old woman's hair, and cut her t-shirt and pants before drawing three swastikas on her body. The men of North African origin also overturned the pram with her baby of 13 months. In the attack they robbed her backpack which contained her identity papers, a bank card and 200 euros ($250). Police said the attackers erroneously assumed the woman was Jewish because she was living in Par…

Read the article: http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004...l?oneclick=true There is a link to read without registering at the bottom of the left-hand column.

I am not American nor I am in America, but the feeling I get from watching the election coverage in the local news channels and on the internet is that the elections nowdays are decided on who can stick the most dirt on the other candidate, rather than focusing on issues itself. I have heard that Bush's campaign ad features pictures of Sen. Kerry and Hilter. Kerry has also made some negative ads about Bush to counter these.

Please move if in wrong forum. Nowadays democracy is more and more like a monarchy, the head people in office make the decisions for the people that only get to vote, every four years (I think its the same in UK).Well that is represenatative government, and that is the definition, but dont you think people deserve more for their tax money, I sure do.The best democracy is in Sweden (I think its Sweden) they have a direct democracy system, where the people have mass referendums to decide policy and laws.There are some other ways for better functioning Democracy, what are your opinions. Here are some sources: http://www.wegovern.ca this is for canadian democracy…

Am I the only one who sees a dichotomy in believing abortion should be legalized (specifically second and third trimester), and capital punishment should be banned?

Anyone who thinks that WW2 was an economic boon is a fool. The depression was ending already. All over the globe, that means in countries other than the USA, where there was no New Deal. Sometimes Americans seem to have difficulty remembering that the USA isn't the whole world. Broaden your perspectives, it might help you understand things a tiny bit better. This thread originally started here, but went massively off-topic and was therefore split.

What is Racism? by Thomas Jackson The following article was Originally Published in American Renaissance, Vol 2, No. 8, see http://www.amren.com/ What is Racism? Everyone talks about "racism" but no one ever defines it. AR's assistant editor has given it a try. by Thomas Jackson There is surely no nation in the world that holds "racism" in greater horror than does the United States. Compared to other kinds of offenses, it is thought to be somehow more reprehensible. The press and public have become so used to tales of murder, rape, robbery, and arson, that any but the most spectacular crimes are shrugged off as part of the inevitable texture of Am…

Quoted from BBC News: "The Universe is at least 156 billion light-years wide, say astronomers. The estimate comes from data obtained by a space probe that is examining the so-called Cosmic Background Radiation - often called the echo of the Big Bang. The echo contains information of what the cosmos was like when it was young and how it might develop. The cosmos is 13.7bn years old but the stretching of space with its expansion after the Big Bang means that simple distance measurements do not apply." For more information, look at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3753115.stm

Is it ever ethical to torture someone in order to get valuable information? What about using various "lighter" interrogation methods? Say we have some Iraqi prisoners who *may* hold valuable information. How ethical is it to deny them sleep or food for 24 hours to weaken them before interrogation? What about giving them "truth" serum or other "light" methods of coersion? When is it ever necessary to use torture to get information?