Politics

Virtually anyone can be a Democrat. Just simply quit thinking and vote that way. But if you want to be a GOOD Democrat, there are some prerequisites you must have first. Compare the below and see how you rate. 1. You have to believe the AIDS virus is spread by a lack of federal funding. 2. You have to believe that the same teacher who can't teach 4th graders how to read is somehow qualified to teach those same kids about sex. 3. You have to believe that guns, in the hands of law-abiding Americans, are more of a threat than U.S. nuclear weapons technology, in the hands of Chinese communists. 4. You have to believe that there was no art before Fed…

Obesity in old age tied to increased Alzheimer's risk Link found for women aged 70 Study tracked people for 18 years ROB STEIN SPECIAL TO THE STAR WASHINGTON—Overweight, elderly women are more likely than those who stay trim to be stricken by Alzheimer's disease, researchers reported yesterday, presenting the first strong evidence linking the burgeoning weight crisis with the increasingly common brain affliction. While previous studies had raised the possibility that excess flab may increase the risk of dementia, a new study that followed several hundred elderly Swedish people for 18 years clearly showed that women who were heavy at age 70 were markedly …

From BBC: The Universe may be teeming with starless galaxies inhabiting its most isolated regions, says an Australian scientist. Graduate researcher Brad Warren, of the Australian National University, has identified galaxies in our local region of space that are mostly gas with very few stars. "If you look for gas with a radio telescope you see an enormous blob of gas. If you look for stars through an optical telescope you only see a small smudge of stars on the sky," he told BBC News Online. For some reason these galaxies have failed to form stars out of their hydrogen gas. The search is on to find out why. Read More...

About 2,000 professional astronomers from around the world are gathering in Australia for two weeks of debate about the state of the universe. Their meeting, which begins in Sydney on Sunday, is the 25th general assembly of the International Astronomical Union. Much of the conference will deal not so much with what lies in the stars, but what lies between them - the so-called dark matter of outer space which makes up the biggest proportion of the universe that can't be seen with normal telescopes. Closer to earth, scientists will discuss progress in exploring the planets, the search for inter-terrestrial life and the European projects to build what could be…

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3053137.stm LOL

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3043731.stm In what yould be an extraordinary breakthrough, Quantum entanglement between two particles has been observed in a silicon chip over a distance of 0.7 mm, potentially paving the was for a new generation of supercomputers. I would like to comment more, but without the original article, I can't say much. If someone could get the science article, that would be lovely.

"In a discovery that is likely to impact fields as diverse as atomic physics, chemistry and nanotechnology, researchers have identified a new physical phenomenon, electrostatic rotation, that, in the absence of friction, leads to spin. Because the electric force is one of the fundamental forces of nature, this leap forward in understanding may help reveal how the smallest building blocks in nature react to form solids, liquids and gases that constitute the material world around us." University of California Press Release

The mechanism by which HIV-1 eludes the human immune system is through a coat of human sugars. The antibody 2G12 has interlocking Fab arms which recognize the structural difference associated with the virus, effectively defeating the virus. The antibody, which was discovered 12 years ago, is found in a very few number of people found to be immune to HIV-1. This latest research, led by the Scripps Research Institute, identifies the precise mechanism by which 2G12 is effective, which may provide a template for synthesizing a vaccine. The paper appears in the June 27th, 2003 issue of Science. Abstract: Human antibody 2G12 neutralizes a broad range of human immunodef…

"Albert Einstein may have been right that gravity travels at the same speed as light but, contrary to a claim made earlier this year, the theory has not yet been proven. A scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) says the announcement by two scientists, widely reported this past January, about the speed of gravity was wrong.Stuart Samuel, a participating scientist with the Theory Group of Berkeley Lab's Physics Division, in a paper published in Physical Review Letters, has demonstrated that an "ill-advised" assumption made in the earlier claim led to an unwarranted conclusion. "Einstein may be correct about the speed of gravity but the experim…

From NewScientist.com: "The phenomenon that leads to "virgin births" in some species looks like a promising source of embryonic stem cells. Researchers are on the brink of obtaining human stem cells this way for the first time, and animal experiments suggest such cells are indistinguishable from normal stem cells. In parthenogenesis, an unfertilised egg keeps two sets of chromosomes and begins developing as if it had been fertilised. Some insects and reptiles can reproduce this way but even though an electric or chemical stimulus can induce parthenogenesis in mammals, the resulting embryos die after a few days. And that, according to its proponents, is the beauty o…

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2889127.stm The magnetic field appears to be behaving rather strangely at the moment, though from comments in this report, magnetic field flips which occur every 250k years or so don't appear to have any major impact on life..... of course it could be the myterious and infamous planet X having its influence, but I wouldn't count on it.

Quoted from BBC News: "Britain is planning its first solo space science mission in 20 years, BBC News Online has learned. Scientists hope to send a satellite into deep space to study solar influences on climate change. The Earthshine mission would showcase British expertise and provide vital data on climate change. Principal investigator Mike Lockwood believes going it alone will deliver answers more quickly than joining forces with other nations." I think this is quite an interesting article in respect to the fact that the UK has more or less always not believed in a committed space programme, and has merely only contributed to the ESA. I hope there are more…

Hi! I just wondered where those threads on whether a war on Iraq was justified or not are. I just heared that Congress is going to analyze Bush's declaration of war. That would have fitted to those threads - but they somehow have been deleted or am I just searching in the wrong subforum.

This is where you would go to post a new idea about a government policy, how to create new government policies, improve on existing ones, talk about creating Utopias ect... Some of my ideas Co-Operatives- These would be like farmers co-operatives except also for science and for business. The government would organize companies to work together, scientist to work together, spliting and deciding the spoils after the co-operative is done. This would try to have people work together so that they can generate more $$$ and more technology. Sounds stupid or unrealistic but it could be achieved somehow This should be run by banks. Science inco…

At 3:00PM EST today, a site created in a joint project by Caltech and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem will go live, offering access to a digital archive of 40,000 of Einstein's papers. These papers include both his scientific and personal writings. http://www.alberteinstein.info

Take a look at this. I can see where he's coming from, but personally I think that perhaps there should be a choice between a more applied mathematics GCSE and a full mathematics GCSE. One should be compulsory, because pupils definately need some basic mathematical skills.

did you know,if the gov. made drugs legal, it would be like talkin a sledge hammer to the backbone of crime. Drug smuggling is pretty far up on the list of most done bad stuff, (sorry I didn't know how to word it.) Even if we kept smuggling ilegal, there wouldn't be much to smuggle. The problem is, all good deeds have a consequence, every ones high.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- A cold virus genetically engineered to help it sneak into cancer cells can kill inoperable brain tumors in mice, U.S. scientists reported on Tuesday. The effects were so stunning that the National Cancer Institute and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration are rushing to test the approach in people with brain tumors. If it works, it will be the first treatment for malignant glioma, the deadliest form of brain cancer. Lang and colleagues used a genetically engineered form of a common cold virus known as an adenovirus. They weakened it so it could not affect healthy cells, then gave it an added genetic "key" to open the door into cancer…

This is the one and only victory Iraq can claim since the war started. NAJAF, Iraq (Reuters) -- U.S. Marines may consider themselves an elite fighting force, but they were no match for an Iraqi soccer side who thrashed them 7-0 in the southern town of Najaf. The Najaf Poets devastated a side drawn from 1st Battalion, 7th Marines, their yellow jerseys flashing past Americans who took to the field in combat boots and camouflaged trousers. Marines said about 600 locals thronged an athletics ground in the town to watch the match, organized by U.S. officers hoping to establish friendly relations with residents. The Marines, who took control of the town from …

I am not sure about the correct placing of this thread in the Politics section and I am not an expert on entropy or many sciences for that matter. I have started to take chemistry and it has started me on the path to learning more about all types of sciences and philosophies. So, this question I ask may be absurd or it may be justifiable. I do not know. I just came here because I figured I would be able to find a logical answer here from people who have thought this out. The question is: Is world peace possible according to the laws of entropy? My teacher was talking about world peace and its relation to entropy and I think he said something about how world peace wo…

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2985345.stm Supercomputer modelling of DNA formation from RNA has shown that a 4 Base DNA is actually preferable. The Bases of DNA are Adeninge, THymine, Guanine and Cytosine, but many have asked why we don't have 6 or even 8 bases instead. In the end the answer seems to come down to stability. four and six bases seem to be far better and less prone to errors in reproduction that eight bases. from this it is thought that life could have come about with 6 bases, had they developed error checking routines early on.

Astronomers from Canada and the United Kingdom have measured the mass of a black hole swallowing a quasar 13 billion light years away. They used the UKIRT Imager Spectrometer to measure the infared spectrum emitted from the quasar. Dr. Chris Willott explained "We can determine the mass of the black holes in these distant quasars by looking at the MgII emission line and comparing it with the same emission line in closer quasars. The basic idea here is that the width of the line gives an indication of the speed of the gas close to the quasar. More massive black holes will have faster moving material." The team of researchers determined the black hole is one quadrillion time…

It is the topic of the town all over the world. Do we support the US? Should the US go to war (invade) Iraq? Is America Power Hungry? Is GB a gready oil merchant? These might be some of the questions which may be surrounding you at this present time, regarding a potential war with Iraq. Personally I think that there should not be a war. There is an inprobable solution that I wouldn't mind seeing happen. Countries in dispute = Iraq and United States of America Solution = They BOTH (Not Just Iraq) Forfeit any of the weapons of mass destuction and have them destroyed. Also, the USA should allow weapons inspectors from Iraq to inspect the USA for weapons and Iraq…

Is there a real reason for war? Besides this whole "weapons of mass destruction" and "axis of evil". Bush told the people of Iraq not to destroy the oil and stuff so is he just after the oil? So what is it that that Bush's wants and why?

An interesting study of people with a certain form of epilepsy has shown that they are prone to religious visions, and a connection made with one of the founders of a religious sect (the Seventh Day Adventists) seems to confirm this. The study is in more detail here, and seems to point to a 'source' in the brain for religious type thoughts. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2865009.stm