Did Life Begin In Space?

hummmmmmm....

ScienceDaily: Did Life Begin In Space? New Evidence From Comets [This Post Continues after the jump...]

Gay and Christian?

This is nothing new, and I don't like the tone of this article. Nicoll ridicules the author of the book he's reviewing instead of just pointing out the book's weaknesses. While this makes for more entertaining reading (if you agree with the author) it doesn't do much for people like me trying to sort all of this out.

That being said, I still tend to agree with Nicoll and I don't understand how Christians can make homosexuality acceptable. Forgivable, yes, even forgivable without repentance, but not a "blessing from God".

Gay and Christian? [This Post Continues after the jump...]

Red faces at NASA over climate-change blunder

I had heard this was a Y2K error, but this makes it sound like a "adjustment factor" error.
Adjustment factors are scary to me because while its easy to say "this data needs to be adjusted" it's hard to say how much. So you basically get to add a fudge factor that can be set to anything. Depending on the overall data set, the adjustment factor could be set to yield different conclusions.

TheStar.com - sciencetech - Red faces at NASA over climate-change blunder [This Post Continues after the jump...]

Cellulosic ethanol: A fuel for the future?

This sounds great.. fuel from a current "waste" product. It just sounds like it takes a lot of energy to make the ethanol, so I don't know the net gain.. of course it takes energy to refine oil into gasoline too, so ethanol doesn't have to be perfect to be better than oil/gasoline production.

And the idea of using a waste or byproduct is great.

Cellulosic ethanol: A fuel for the future? | CNET News.com [This Post Continues after the jump...]

Language of NASA

FOXNews.com - Language of NASA: Breaking Down Acronyms One Letter at a Time - Blogs:

This is hilarious....

"Everyone here [at NASA] is not just smart, they're super smart. They all have four or five degrees. Their research interests include things I can't even pronounce, much less explain."

I only have two degrees (3 counting high school, but I don't think that counts) and the only thing I'm "researching" is the silly paperwork system for facility maintenance here at KSC. [This Post Continues after the jump...]

Scientists debate ethanol's benefits

Ethanol cars still burn hydrocarbons and make pollution. The main difference is that the carbon in Ethanol was taken from the atmosphere when the corn (or other plant) grew. Whereas the carbon in Oil/Gas was taken from the atmosphere millions (or thousands) of years ago.

The pollution made when ethanol or gasoline is burned will stay in the atmosphere for the same amount of time, and cause the same problems.

Scientists debate ethanol's benefits | floridatoday.com | Serving Brevard County and Florida’s Space Coast [This Post Continues after the jump...]

Rosemount going ahead with plans to force sale of land

I'm sure this is a complex issue, and this doesn't cover all the facts.
But this is an interesting case.

I firmly believe that a property owner should have absolute power to set their "asking price" for any property they own. Cities should not be able to lower that price using eminent domain unless it is to be used for something that can only be done at that location (a street widening, dam, flood control, etc..). Even then I think the city should pay 'above' market value for property if it's taking it by force. This would make the city look elsewhere (if possible) for property that is willing to be sold and also give the owner something in exchange for his involuntary lost of property.

But this case seem to be that someone bought the property knowing the city was interested, paid more than the land was worth, and now wants to make profit from the city. In this case the city's ability to "take" the land may be an important counterbalance to pure profiteering by a land owner.

Rosemount going ahead with plans to force sale of land [This Post Continues after the jump...]

Global-Warming Deniers

This is hilarious, just about everything they accuse the "Global Warming Deniers" of doing, this article does. Mainly they just present their opinion that the Science is settled and that doubters are just trying to muddy the waters and not pointing out any real weaknesses in the science.

Why should I believe this opinion piece and not the ones this piece makes fun of.

They make people, like me, that doubt the global warming hysteria out to be pure evil people that know the true but try to hide it for personal short term gain.

I'm sorry but when anyone attacks people like that it makes me mistrust what they are selling.


Global-Warming Deniers: A Well-Funded Machine - Newsweek Technology - MSNBC.com [This Post Continues after the jump...]

Earmarks - Murtha nabs $150M pork

I wonder if the new reporting requirement will actually effect anything. Just because something is an "earmark" doesn't mean it's wasted money. A lot of this does real research or provides a real service. but clearly not all of it, and clearly Congress isn't the best place to decide where this money should be spent.

On the other hand, if congress just told the DOD to spend x amount researching or building something, then the decision of where to do it would be in the hands or bureaucrats, who are not exactly above corruption themselves.

But I do find it odd that Congress is funding the operations of an office that the agency wants to shutdown. This is clearly the case of a congressman putting the interest of his district above the interest of the country and should be an impressment to the congressman. But it won't because the voters in his district expect him to bring in the jobs and money even if it doesn't consider the big picture.

TheHill.com - Murtha nabs $150M pork [This Post Continues after the jump...]

Music suit creates discord

Business & Technology | Music suit creates discord | Seattle Times Newspaper


I fail to understand the idea that some people have that they should constantly be paid for their work. Do I get paid for work produced last year? Does Honda get paid every time I drive my car? NO! so why should a song writer or performer? I honestly fail to understand this. Can someone help? [This Post Continues after the jump...]

Sen. Barack Obama Outlines Plans to Root Out Overseas Terrorists

FOXNews.com - Sen. Barack Obama Outlines Plans to Root Out Overseas Terrorists - Politics | Republican Party | Democratic Party | Political Spectrum:

"'If we have actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets and President Musharraf won't act, we will.'" -- Barack Obama

How is this different from President Bush having intelligence about Iraqi WMD and acting when the UN wouldn't act?? [This Post Continues after the jump...]

Toilet sign is free speech

The infuriating part is that if there was a HOA in this neighborhood, this sign would NOT be allowed (or more specifically, the HOA would be allowed to force this sign to be removed.)

This is where I don't understand HOA's. If the Constitution limits the power of the federal, state, and local governments, it should also limit the power of a HOA. But for some reason it doesn't.

Code officials: Toilet sign is free speech | floridatoday.com | Serving Brevard County and Florida’s Space Coast [This Post Continues after the jump...]

University of Colorado Fires Ward Churchill

Well, its about time...

FOXNews.com - University of Colorado Board Votes to Fire Embattled Professor Ward Churchill - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News [This Post Continues after the jump...]

Pope: Other Christian Denominations Not True Churches

FOXNews.com - Pope: Other Christian Denominations Not True Churches - International News | News of the World | Middle East News | Europe News

I don't know why this is such a surprise, Catholics have always said they were the one true or "universal" Church, it would be hard for them to change that now.

This is in fact, the ONLY real problem I have with the Catholic Church. I have lots of disagreements with them things I can wait to find out the truth about once I'm in Heaven (And I'm willing to bet we're all wrong!!).

I also have great respect for Catholics that live by there beliefs. I would never suggest that a Catholic do anything that violated their own conscience. I may live differently, but I'm not sure enough in my belief to impose it on them. This is where we have a problem because Catholics ARE sure enough in their beliefs to try and impose them on me. Considering the history of the Catholic Church, I just don't see how that can be supported. [This Post Continues after the jump...]

Music licensing companies come calling for royalties

Next they'll come try and make me pay for singing a copyrighted song in the shower.

This is ridiculous, how do they know which songs were sung so the right person gets the money? They don't, they are just collecting money from any place that dares offer entertainment. If they can send people to small places like this for a couple hundred dollars a year, I bet there overhead is so high the "artist" don't get anything.

It's reports like this that give the whole music industry a bad name. The artist don't benefit from this crap, they probably started out working in places like this (and worst) and if they all go out of business or quit offering live entertainment, where will the new artist come from?

They're killing music by killing the training ground!!

Music licensing companies come calling for royalties | floridatoday.com | Serving Brevard County and Florida’s Space Coast [This Post Continues after the jump...]