Politics

The second of the two mars rovers, opportunity, landed safely last night at 5:05 GMT. Continuing work on Spirit, which seemed to break down recently has pointed to an error in the flash memory. NASA engineers now have it booting up from the main RAM and it seems alot healthier now. http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/home/

In a theoretical situation, do you believe that if Iraq or Afghanistan had had a million-man army and a nuclear program, that the US would have invaded?

could someone explain to my how clinton got impeached for getting his dick sucked and impeachment was never even discussed when good ol' dubya sent thousands of troops overseas for a fabricated war on terror? it just doesn't add up.

Hello! I'd like to ask what people think of Bush's recently introduced tax cuts. Do you feel they have benifited you at all? Is it a good thing that most of the money will be going to the wealthiest Americans? How is the record budget defecit that has been created going to be dealt with? Has the tax plan made you more or less likely to vote for Bush in the coming elections?

The European Space Agency's Mars Express probe has produced strong evidence of frozen water and frozen carbon dioxide at Mars' southern polar cap. This evidence was confirmed by the new PFS spectrometer, which has significantly better accuracy than any to come before it. The find was made with Mars Express' OMEGA camera, which contains a traditional camera and an infrared spectrometer. The probe will not reach its final orbit for a few more weeks, but has already produced this amazing discovery. The probe also contained an instrument called SPICAM, which is an ultraviolet and infrared spectrometer, that confirmed the presence of water vapor and that there is more of it wh…

News just in, the NASA mars Rover "Spirit" is unable to send usefull data OR receive commands, it`s suspected a memory or a software error may have occured I`ve got no more info as yet Edit: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3421071.stm thanx to sayonara for the link

PASADENA, Calif. -- Scientists are puzzled about a patch of soil near the Mars rover Spirit lander that they now call "Magic Carpet". The intrigue has been stirred up by how soil behaved when the lander’s airbags scraped across the martian soil. That soil appears to have been peeled away. This odd performance of the soil, some speculate, could provide a window into the existence of subsurface water and, maybe, clues about whether Mars could sustain life. There’s one thing for sure. Whatever the lander’s airbags have caused, the result is a "spirited" debate. http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/spirit_gusev_040116.html http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/mer2004/rover…

Now you can (somewhat) easily build your own STM thanks to the SXM Project's Scanning Tunneling Microscope Construction Kit that includes blueprints, circuit diagrams, software, etc... all for free. The ultimate nerd project.

Nature is reporting that researchers have identified the protein, named amyloid beta, which causes plaque to form in the brain. It has long been known that Alzheimer's patients have buildups of plaque in their brain, but the link between protein and plaque was not clear. New research indicates that mice who have low levels of this protein do not exhibit dimentia in later years. Study Information: Ohno, M. et al. BACE1 deficiency rescues memory deficits and cholinergic dysfunction in a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease. Neuron, 41, 27 - 3, (2004).

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3392143.stm another article from the New York Times: and the article abstract:

Today, around 03:52 CET, Beagle 2 was expected to land on Mars surface. Also, the European Mars Express space probe entered Mars orbit at 03:47 CET. But no communication from Beagle 2 has been recieved(ESA). Although the probe may have crashed on the surface, there are also other possibilities. As Mike Healey from Beagle 2's constructor Astrium UK says, " it could have landed in the wrong place or it may not have opened successfully, and the aerial may be pointing in the wrong direction." BBC also has an article on it. I hope they manage to get contact with Beagle soon.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/space/01/04/mars.rovers/index.html Wow, that 400 million dollars wasn't a total waste. I'm happy for the little guy.

JERUSALEM, Dec. 18 -- Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Thursday night that Israel would end negotiations with the Palestinians "in a few months" and unilaterally declare new borders if the Palestinian government did not immediately act to halt terrorism. Sharon proposed what he described as a "disengagement plan" in which Israel would evacuate some Jewish settlements in the Palestinian territories and draw a new "security line," largely along the route of the massive fence and wall currently being built by Israel around much of the West Bank. http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1802&e=2&u=/washpost/20031219/ts_washpost/a13478_2003dec18 …

ESA PR 83-2003. This morning, ESA's Mars Express flawlessly released the Beagle 2 lander that it has been carrying since its launch on 2 June this year. Beagle 2 is now on its journey towards the surface of Mars, where it is expected to land early in the morning of 25 December. http://www.esa.int/export/SPECIALS/Mars_Express/SEM2T0374OD_0.html Home of Beagle 2: http://www.beagle2.com/index.htm Events time line http://www.beagle2.com/landing/timeline.htm

Today Col.Gadafi has owned up to weapons of mass destruction projects, including Nuclear and Chemical weapons. He has also stated that ALL work in this area will cease and be closed down as of today, weapons inspectors have been invited to oversee the safe disposal of these weapons, and the 20 year old blocks and sanctions against Libiya will soon be lifted Christmas or What! )

it was officialy announced today that Saddam Hussein has been captured alive, in a 6 to 8 foot deep hole in the ground, he had 2 AK-47`s a Pistol and $750,000 in $100 dollar notes. he`s been held by coalition forces at an undisclosed location, but WILL be tried in an Iraqi court the official words were "We got him" he`s been DNA tested possitive also

Japan has been forced to abandon its first ever interplanetary space mission after failing to correct an onboard electrical fault with its Mars probe Nozomi. Nozomi was scheduled to arrive in orbit around Mars in late December 2003 but will now be manoeuvred away from its target. This is to prevent it from crashing into the planet's surface and potentially contaminating it with Earth microbes. Scientists hope to find evidence that Mars once harboured life, or perhaps even that it still does. The Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) announced on Tuesday that it had been unable to correct a short circuit aboard Nozomi and would have to forsake its Mars missi…

I find it odd that somehow, in America, media portrayals of violence have become more acceptable than those of sex. Death and dismemberment is a regular occurence on television. Movies containing violence are often rated merely PG-13. Nudity, on the other hand, is never shown on television. Movies that merely show a woman's breasts are automatically rated R. If it is brief enough it might make PG-13 but usually not. And we wonder why we have become such a violent society. Personally, I'll take breasts over guns any day

James Watson, who elucidated the structure of DNA 50 years ago with Francis Crick, has published an opinion advocating the use of gene therapy to eliminate stupidity. This has generated sharp criticism relating to the technological as well as ethical feasability. To date, we do not know enough about the myriad of genes that affect intelligence, and there is also a great amount of environmental factors. Even if we did, people argue improving intelligence by genetic manipulation is not ethically acceptable. http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99993451 Personally I would love to see this happen. We'd be alot better off if everyone was smarter. Nature ga…

Excerpts From NewScientist 19:00 13 August 03 An exotic kind of nuclear explosive being developed by the US Department of Defense could blur the critical distinction between conventional and nuclear weapons. The work has also raised fears that weapons based on this technology could trigger the next arms race. The explosive works by stimulating the release of energy from the nuclei of certain elements but does not involve nuclear fission or fusion. The energy, emitted as gamma radiation, is thousands of times greater than that from conventional chemical explosives. The technology has already been included in the Department of Defense's Militarily Critical Techn…

From BBC.co.uk: They say that all the necessary technical drawings have now been completed, and - after a few minor niggles have been ironed out - all will be ready for the construction work to begin. But experts are already asking questions about the feasibility of the project. The first extra-terrestrial nuclear power station will serve the permanent research camp which, Russian scientists believe, could be set up on Mars within the next 30 years. Click here to read the full story.

Incase you haven't heard: A bunch of pranksters on the Net have rigged Google. If you search Google on "Miserable Failure" and clikc the "I'm Feeling Lucky" Button, then it will take you directly to George W. Bush's Bio on whitehouse.gov. This comes after Dick Gephardt called Bush a Miserable Failure.

I know this is not a forum for political campaigns. But I don't care. If it gets me thrown off then so what. What is happening here is horrific. Coca Cola are responsible for terrible attrocities in Colombia. Killing union officials is common place. Support your fellow workers and demand an end to the killing. Write or email coca cola and demand they stop this now. http://www.killercoke.org/

I was having a discussion with some people from work about what the turning point in world war 2 was. It was started by an american guy saying "We saved your ass, if it weren't for us blah blah blah" Which to an extent i agree with but you must admit, the allies just about scraped through. If the nazis followed us across the channel after dunkirk then what would have happend? Would the Russians have still beaten back the nazis? If it hadn't have been for the americans, we would of had it. If it hadn't been for the russians, I don't think the nazis would have been defeated. What do you lot think the most significant point of the war was?

So, what would you consider yourself? I'd say I'm more a Republican than a Democrat. I support Bush on the war, and the economy (this whole business of the rich having to pay higher percentages than the middle class and poor really annoys me). But, I'm more a liberal when it comes to human rights, like abortion and gay marraige. And I'm a big non-supporter for universal healthcare, and I'm also not for free college. If your a democrat, what primary candidate are you rooting for?