Can NASA save the world?

This is great...

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Obama: Perception vs. reality

Obama has a 95 percent liberal rating from Americans for Democratic Reform, a liberal advocacy group that ranks all members of Congress. Yet he is often portrayed as a centrist.

Obama: Perception vs. reality - Examiner.com [This Post Continues after the jump...]

NASA broke law in Kerry bunny suit visit

oh-oh....
NASA broke law in Kerry bunny suit visit
The Flame Trench space blog by Florida Today [This Post Continues after the jump...]

Scientists bridging the spirituality gap

Interesting...

Scientists bridging the spirituality gap - Science - MSNBC.com


also, it mentions "What the Bleep Do We Know," a strange movie that lumped so many things together that it was actually interesting... [This Post Continues after the jump...]

Journal publishers lock horns with free-information movement.

Lots of copyright stuff tonight.. but that's what I'm finding at Slashdot right now...

news @ nature.com - PR's 'pit bull' takes on open access - Journal publishers lock horns with free-information movement.

Now we have Journal Publishers trying to maintain a old distribution process just to protect their market share and profit.

What does publishing and selling a magazine have to do with scientific research? Nothing, it happened that in the 20th century that was the best way to review and distribute scientific information. There is absolutely no reason to say that it MUST continue that way.

Society used to distribute milk through a "milkman" delivery method. The milkman was a middle man who added value AT THE TIME due to people not have refrigeration or lack of preservatives in milk. However, times changed and the "milkman" industry all but vanished.

Maybe the time of the "Scientific Journal" is similarly coming to an end. Science will continue, just as milk consumption has continued...


My Favorite Quote:

...it doesn't matter if they can discredit your statements [i.e. if they are not true], she added: "Media messaging is not the same as intellectual debate".

I'll say...
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At Least 25 Million Americans Pirate Movies

This is good news and bad news...
hopefully the movie studios will change tactics and not follow the heavy hand approah of the music companies. Music CDs don't have any copy protections, but DVDs do, and it failed. New HD-DVD and BlueRay have already be workaround.

Maybe they will understand they can't LOCK IT UP and SALE IT at the same time. Maybe they will understand that sharing is a part of the natural market and learn to make their product worth the price they charge. Just about everyone thinks DVDs are overpriced.

While thinking that DVDs are overprices does not justify actually stealing one from a store, I've always maintained that sharing and downloading movies is NOT the same as stealing. Most people seem to think that also. If it were, then every time you have friends over to watch a DVD you own, they are "stealing" because they get to enjoy the movie for free.

Well here's the study...
Study: At Least 25 Million Americans Pirate Movies [This Post Continues after the jump...]

Norway Outlaws iTunes

One small step at a time...

Norway Outlaws iTunes [This Post Continues after the jump...]

Stem Cell Tactics

I'm posting a link to this because it made me so angry when I read it. This guy, Steven Edwards, admits up front that he has "this nagging case of paralysis that makes me passionate about stem-cell policy"

But then he immediately says that embryonic stem-cell policy must change for FINANCIAL reason, stating that it is the #1 threat to Medicare.

So, in his first two breaths, he comes up with a "emotional" and a "financial" reason to destroy more embryos in the search for cures that won't come in time to help him or our Medicare system.

He then goes on to mock Bush's decision to limit federal funding to embryos already destroyed but never seriously mentions Bush's and millions of other people's real concern with Embryonic research.

His ultimate compromise to the allow the 300 embryo's killed since Bush's first executive order to be studied with federal money, as long as the law "encourages research into techniques that don't destroy embryos".

I'm sorry, but if you allow researchers to use the stem-cells from destroyed embryos, there would be no benefit for them to look into ways that don't kill embryos. Currently there IS a lot of effort being made to come up with ways to get stem-cells without killing embryos, and this is precisely because Bush made a firm stand on this issue. For the President to change that now would be silly...almost as silly as this article.

Wired News: Stem Cell Tactics for a New Age [This Post Continues after the jump...]

Crunching the Numbers on Alternative Fuels - Popular Mechanics

Great Artcle on the pros and cons of several options...

Crunching the Numbers on Alternative Fuels - Popular Mechanics

It covers

E85 (Ethanol)
M85 (Methanol)
CNG (Compressed Natural Gas)
BioDiesel (B20 - B100)
Electric/Hybrid
Hydrogen
Cooking Oil

all very well..


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Israel faces nuclear Holocaust warns Gingrich

I've been seeing lots of this lately...

Israel faces nuclear Holocaust warns Gingrich - News from Israel, Ynetnews

and here...

Iran: Israel, US will soon die

I don't know much about th is "ynet" news, but it Israeli owned and operated, so if that matters to you, now you know... [This Post Continues after the jump...]

Overzealous Porn Prosecution Tramples Accused's Rights

This sounds like a nightmare to me...

This and the Duke "rape" case clear show the danger of a powerful government and police force....

FOXNews.com - Overzealous Porn Prosecution Tramples Accused's Rights - Blog | Blogs | Popular Blogs | Video Blogs [This Post Continues after the jump...]

L.A. Vows Gang Crackdown (or should they just withdraw?)

The soaring violence is prompting police and politicians to promise one of the toughest crackdowns against gangs in city history.

I don't know if I support this idea of a "surge"...and they're asking for more money to do it...

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has appealed to U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez for millions of dollars in anti-gang funds and for more federal prosecutors

But this "war" is not winnable according to some...

"It's too big, it's too entrenched, it's too intimately connected with the urban setup here," Malcolm Klein, a gang expert at the University of Southern California, said of the gang problem.

If the people of LA want to kill each other, I say we should withdraw and let them... right? I mean, that is an option isn't? I know I've heard it somewhere before...

My Way News - L.A. Vows Gang Crackdown After Kids Die [This Post Continues after the jump...]

This Holocaust Will Be Different

This man has a good point...

Iran WILL use their nuclear bombs to destroy Israel. Although I don't think it will be with missiles clearly launched by Iran, but with smuggled bombs secretly provided by Iran.

And the author is right, what will the world do "after the fact"? Nuke Iran? Maybe, but only if they used missiles and we knew they did it, but even then, probably not. With smuggled bombs, there is no way to prove who did it. Israel will get a few in, but the Iranian leaders will be somewhere safe, and Iran will survive ... and Israel will be gone.

Pajamas Media: This Holocaust Will Be Different [This Post Continues after the jump...]

Kyoto, Heal Thyself

Kyoto, Heal Thyself -- Friday, Jan. 19, 2007 -- Page 1 -- TIME

Well, this IS interesting...

If ultra-efficient Japan can't wean itself from the carbon habit, what hope does the rest of the world have?

In the US, people were talking about the extreme measures we would have to take to reduce our emissions, but they were said to be exagerating...

But here is what Japan is considering..
-- "we might need to do something as extreme as 'no-car day'
-- or a 'no-air-conditioning day' once a week

Of course they already encourage (or require, I couldn't tell) businesses to set their A/C on 82.4 degrees.

and they STILL are not going to meet the "modest" goals of Kyoto!! [This Post Continues after the jump...]

New Stem Cell Research

A New Era Begins This research proves that there is an alternative to destroying humans embryos to study and use Stem Cells. The Democrats were saying they were going to fund stem cell research, If they are the centrists they claim to be, they will fund research using Adult or these "amniotic-fluid stem cells" and forgo funding for "embryonic" research which is immoral and now proven to be unnecessary.

These AFS cells look to be actually BETTER than embryonic cells for several reasons and have NO ethical baggage that I can see. Conservatives have been saying for a long time that we should not do medical experimentation on people (embryos) just because the hype says embryonic stem cells can cure just about anything. The hype machine was running full force and made conservatives out to be "anti-science" and "anti-progress" etc. Well, now the truth is coming out and we see that is a different and better way to get to the magical land of "Stem cell treatments" for many diseases. Most conservatives were never against using "stem cells" just against killing people to get those stem cells.

If any of this pans out to yield an actual treatment for a medical condition, I think this will be a good case study for medical ethics, we shouldn't allow the hype to carry us away and forget the significance of even the smallest and most helpless person, a human embryo. [This Post Continues after the jump...]

Israel plans nuclear strike on Iran

Israel plans nuclear strike on Iran

This comes as no surprise to me. Iran has threaten Israel several times, and nuclear weapons would give threats like "wiping Israel off the map" very real teeth.

While the US and other larger nations can risk Iran (and N. Korea) having a few small nuclear bombs, Israel can't. A few bombs is all it would take to wipe them out.

The world must stop Iran, peacefully through negotiations or bloodlessly through sanctions, or Israel must stop them by attacking them.

The way I see it, Nuclear Weapons WILL be used in combat again within a few years, either Iran will be the next country to use Nuclear weapons when they attack Israel (directly or by giving the bomb to terrorist who will take it to Israel), or Israel will use them to stop Iran from developing these weapon.

9/11 changed the world for the US, but this will be nothing compared to how it changes when Israel looses a major city. But I'm afraid that's what its going to take for Europe (the "west"
) to wake up and help us deal with Iran.


PajamasMedia sees things a little differently...

First and foremost - one must consider the source of this story. The Sunday Times journalist in question Uzi Mahnaimi, is a controversial figure....If his reporting was accurate, Iranian nuclear facilities would already be a smoking ruin – not once, but multiple times.

still they go on to say that..

But was the story accurate? “Listen, of course Israel has active contingency plans for attacking Iran’s nuclear capabilities. So does the U.S., so does Great Britain, so does any Western power that is thinking straight.

But it might not be as likely as I first thought...(so much for my attempts at predicting middle east events...)
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Liberal or Conservative??

Take the Quiz and post your score
http://franz.org/quiz.htm

I was a 29....but on several questions I wished I had a more "middle ground" choice. Some questions were just silly like trusting the Pentagon or the Postal service more and the CIA or the Peace Corp. Just what am I supposed to trust the Peace Corp to do? It's not like I've ever dealt with them any.

Eugene Volokh doesn't care much for the test either, and says why...
(Note I wrote my stuff before I read his...)


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The Invasion has begun!

The US was LITERALLY invaded today..... but will congress or the President do anything about it?
Guardsmen overrun at the Border

But Arnold wants to give them Health Insurance...
And Bush want to give them Social Security [This Post Continues after the jump...]

Free Will: Now You Have It, Now You Don’t

I hope this link works for everyone...

Free Will?

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/02/science/02free.html?_r=1&ei=5087%0A&em=&en=955a97875084f083&ex=1167886800&pagewanted=all&oref=slogin [This Post Continues after the jump...]

Congressional oath of office ...with a Koran

Representative-Elect Keith Ellison will take his oath of office using a Koran instead of a Bible. But its not just any Koran, but one formerly owned by none other than Thomas Jefferson.

Smart move by Ellison....

------------------------------------------------
I don't think the link will keep this story at the top, so here it is...

But It's Thomas Jefferson's Koran!

By Amy Argetsinger and Roxanne Roberts
Wednesday, January 3, 2007; C03

(washingtonpost.com)

Rep.-elect Keith Ellison, the first Muslim elected to Congress, found himself under attack last month when he announced he'd take his oath of office on the Koran -- especially from Virginia Rep. Virgil Goode, who called it a threat to American values.

Yet the holy book at tomorrow's ceremony has an unassailably all-American provenance. We've learned that the new congressman -- in a savvy bit of political symbolism -- will hold the personal copy once owned by Thomas Jefferson.

"He wanted to use a Koran that was special," said Mark Dimunation, chief of the rare book and special collections division at the Library of Congress, who was contacted by the Minnesota Dem early in December. Dimunation, who grew up in Ellison's 5th District, was happy to help.

Jefferson's copy is an English translation by George Sale published in the 1750s; it survived the 1851 fire that destroyed most of Jefferson's collection and has his customary initialing on the pages. This isn't the first historic book used for swearing-in ceremonies -- the Library has allowed VIPs to use rare Bibles for inaugurations and other special occasions.

Ellison will take the official oath of office along with the other incoming members in the House chamber, then use the Koran in his individual, ceremonial oath with new Speaker Nancy Pelosi. "Keith is paying respect not only to the founding fathers' belief in religious freedom but the Constitution itself," said Ellison spokesman Rick Jauert.

One person unlikely to be swayed by the book's illustrious history is Goode, who released a letter two weeks ago objecting to Ellison's use of the Koran. "I believe that the overwhelming majority of voters in my district would prefer the use of the Bible," the Virginia Republican told Fox News, and then went on to warn about what he regards as the dangers of Muslims immigrating to the United States and Muslims gaining elective office.

Yeah, but what about a Koran that belonged to one of the greatest Virginians in history? Goode, who represents Jefferson's birthplace of Albemarle County, had no comment yesterday.

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Pat Robertson Predicts Terrorist Attack

This is pretty specific, so I think it will either be clear that he is right or clear that he is wrong. We will find out in 10 months or so.
(I'll try and find some more direct quotes...)

(see first comment for original article is the link is dead) [This Post Continues after the jump...]