iNow

Too inefficient. I don't know if you've never been exposed to this information, but they are wasteful, and cause easily avoidable harm. The amount of energy being pulled off the grid that doesn't get used as light, but instead radiates as heat, is unacceptable. The idea is to replace all incandescent light bulbs with compact flourescents. This will save on the order of 30% of energy use (which is HUGE), and hence put less demand on the grid for burning of coal and other fossil fuels. Since you seem not to know, you can better educate yourself on the topic at sites like this: http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=cfls.pr_cfls Klaynos - One can be reasonably confident that certain minor exceptions will be allowed. I read the ban as applying to mass distribution and general use. I'm curious though... what kind of experiments are you demonstrating in your Easy Bake oven?

I saw that too, and had a similar reaction. "Thank you, John. I just knew there was still an honorable man inside of you, and I am glad you decided to bring him out and show him off again." One thing that I worried somewhat about, though, was the woman "berating Obama" simply said she couldn't trust him because he was an Arab. I took issue with that. While I'm glad McCain stopped her and indicated her comments were inappropriate, I was not comfortable with the fact that the implicit distrust of Arab people was not seen as a bad thing in and of itself... that nobody took issue with that part of it. Maybe that's just me, though. I dunno. We're all humans sharing human problems on a big planet. I don't care about such ignorant and ancient tribal distinctions based on region of birth or tone of skin. I just don't. Here's the clip for those who are not sure what Pangloss and I are on about (the woman is about 1:15m in): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_HcBQfPDto To Pangloss' point, much of this wouldn't be happening if comments like those made by the first man were not so encouraged.

Again, I'm not at all surprised.

Pioneer - In sum, no. Your entire post is rubbish (using vague and undefined metaphor as if that somehow is supposed to add some sort of meaning).

So, you presume that Mr.want2know and the authors he/she referenced were referring to earth-based flying crafts not yet identified by the onlooker?

I wonder if she'll still do it now that she's been found guilty in the trooper gate thing...

Where did the aliens come from, then? It just displaces the question, it doesn't answer it. On another note, if aliens dropped humans here via UFOs, one would not expect human DNA to have so many similarities to the DNA of other life on Earth. We have so much in common with other organisms so far back in geologic history (simple organisms and organisms of other species, too, not just primates or mammals)... that a "cut/paste" job placing us here from a flying saucer doesn't seem to be the best descriptive hypothesis available to us. Also, since UFOs are speculative at best, that doesn't exactly lend to the evidence in favor of such an approach. Since you asked for opinions on the matter, I'll just come right out and say that (while it is, of course, a possiblility that I cannot rule out) I find this human origins by UFO hypothesis completely bankrupt on a number of different levels. I'll stick with abiogenesis and evolution which have a lot more going for them in terms of plausibility.

Both are ignorant misrepresentations trying to sway opinion with semantic spin, but one is doing it to appeal to an electorate and another is doing it because he thinks it's funny and will get a cheap laugh. That's my guess, anyway.

Hi DrO, You might also look into the terms "biometrics" and "biometry," which seem to be used interchangably with "biostatistics." Anyway, here is a list I found (after reading the wiki entry on biostatistics) which provides an extensive list of journals and books: http://hbpms.blogspot.com/2008/05/stage-4-biostatistics.html Here is also a Johns Hopkins site with free online open courseware: http://ocw.jhsph.edu/Topics.cfm?topic_id=33 Best of luck.

Have you been able to find any information yet on the terms "hypnotic suggestion" or "psychological priming?" You can also look into something known as the "primacy" and "recency" effect, also known as the "serial position effect." As always, google is a good place to start, but in this case, you might try google scholar instead so you can focus on research papers.. http://scholar.google.com/ Good luck to you and your group on th experiment. You'll have to let us all know what you did and how it turned out.

No shocker there. She's battin' a thousand.

Hence the mention of post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy.

I suggest that it's up to the professors and tutors to lead on this issue. It's really a case of behavioral inertia. Change is icky and scary, ya know? Students, if primed and reinforced properly, will come around. It's a cultural thing, I suspect. If the school fosters a culture of sustainability and minimal environmental footprints, the students will accept the alternate approach. You, of course, quite know this already, I have absolutely zero doubt about that. After all... you're Glider! I just wanted to share. When I returned to university last semester to study Chinese, the blackboard system was not only accepted by the students, but leveraged by us to make the course material much more robust and engaging. Our teacher would publish "supplements" to the course material, and we used these to open discussion threads, engaging in dialogs to help each other with questions and confusions. When people see the benefit of such a system, the desire to "do things the old way" quickly diminishes. The blackboard system also allowed us to send invites for study groups (and the end of semester party) to the entire group of students enrolled, which was a lot easier than going one-by-one to collect peoples emails and phone numbers!

We've all heard John McCain and Sarah Palin asking this question on the campaign trail, trying to stir up fears in the populace and distract us from the issues. If it weren't so frustrating and infuriating, I would find their approach funny... but, it's not. We've had nearly 2 years to get to know the man and his family. Either way, people are still trying to raise doubts, and since they can't seem to compete on the real issues facing our nation and our planet, the focus has been on character, personality, and associations instead. In response to these attacks, the Obama campaign has released this video. Give it a look, let us know what you think, and how/if you think it will impact this election.

Well, you are certainly entitled to your opinion, but it's important to note that it IS just an opinion. Here's another opinion which more closely matches my own: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2008078282_desmoinesop29.html Yet the source of this federal funding, "earmarks" to congressional spending bills, is under renewed attack by members of Congress and the news media. Most of this criticism is unwarranted. There have been headline-grabbing abuses involving earmarks, to be sure. But multimillion-dollar boondoggles — bridges to nowhere and highways for patronage — obscure the significant public good that comes from most congressional earmarking. Without this system of dispensing federal funds to local governments, far fewer projects that provide increased public safety and support economic development in our communities would get done. Our members of Congress get hundreds of requests for federal funds to pay for local projects every year. And for many years, Des Moines City Council members have worked closely with our congressional delegation, whose thoughtful review sifts out all but the most essential projects to bring home the city's fair share of federal tax dollars and benefit people throughout the community. This is what we pay a lot of our federal taxes for. But if we want the money to come back to us, we have to make these local needs known to our representatives in Congress, who were elected to do what they can for their constituents back home. One very important way they do this is by prioritizing these requests, which already have been prioritized by local lawmakers, and earmarking federal funds to secure those tax dollars for us in this Washington. If we — and they — don't do this, that money simply will go to other cities and counties in other states. The fact is, these earmarks don't abuse the system. We are neither asking for nor taking pork, nor are other Washington cities and counties. Earmarks reflect very legitimate requests, without which we would not get needed federal funding to undertake projects for the public good.

Don't forget that there are often more state level incentives on top of the federal stuff. I replaced my HVAC unit two years ago with a 17 SEER system, and got $700 back by rebate in a few weeks. I take your point about bailout versus incentive though. At least they're spending on good things instead of spa retreats for executives.

How exactly do you think the economy is going to be stimulated if the money is not put in places where it will be spent, or, more appropriate to this measure, where it will encourage lots of spending and production? Despite what the McCain/Palin ticket would have you believe, not all earmarks are bad.

When taken in context, bascule was clearly suggesting that he should each only be asked to defend comments which he himself has made, not the comments of others who are lumped into some ideological group with which you've associated him. You then tried to suggest that what he was doing with his examples ("should I ask blah blah blah about you, or this other thing about you?") were some sort of strawman... man. Okay, see the difference... guy?

You might be able to find more here: http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=products.pr_tax_credits

Good question.

Lol. Too true.

On the plus side, placed neatly into the bailout bill Bush signed last week was a long-sought and widely popular package of renewable energy incentives. They included an eight year extension of the U.S. solar investment tax credit for homeowners and businesses that install solar. It's also good since the package will enable utilities to benefit... ultimately from a 30% federal tax credit. It also erases the $2,000 tax credit cap for residential solar electric installations, which means that property owners now can claim a full 30% credit. I'm very happy to see this.

Stop feeding the troll.

The P&S Forum beckons...

I think it all has much more to do with all of the paste eaters and douchenozzles in our country who vote en masse, but maybe that's just me. Want to laugh and cry a little bit, all at the same time? The first 10 minutes of this are golden: http://www.thedailyshow.com/full-episodes/index.jhtml?episodeId=187567 The guest (Sarah Vowell) was damn funny too. Who needs qualified leadership when you have mob rule?