Noon On The Moon


http://screwloosechange.blogspot.com/

http://margotspindelman.tripod.com/index.htm
The Ocean and The Road l more paintings l resume l links l contact
Read about this series: The Ocean and The Road

Opens September 6, 2007 - October 4, 2007
The Katharina Rich Perlow Gallery
The Fuller Building, 41 East 57th Street - 13th floor
New York, New York 10022 USA, Tel: (212) 644-7171

 Lake Nyos I
oil on canvas
45" x 70"
2007  The Ocean and The Road IV
oil on canvas
45" x 70"
2007
 The Ocean and The Road I
oil on canvas
45" x 70"
2007  Sea Level Rise II
oil on canvas
45" x 70"
2007
 The Ocean and The Road III
oil on canvas
45" x 70"
2007   
 Lake Nyos II
oil on canvas
54” x 42.5”
2007  The Ocean and the Road II
oil on canvas
54 " x 42.5"
2007
 Sea Level Rise I
oil on canvas
54.25 " x 42.50"
2007    

http://www.danablankenhorn.com/politics/index.html
 
Subject : fyi - richard branson $25MM price to extract atmosphereic greenhouse gasses
  
Date : Wed, Aug 22, 2007 10:58 AM

Why he matters: Branson has made billions from Virgin Atlantic Airways,
Virgin Trains, Virgin Limousines, and some 200 other Virgin brands. Having
done his part to deplete the ozone layer, he's now trying to make amends.

In September he announced that he will donate all profits from Virgin's
transportation businesses during the next decade -- a sum that could exceed
$3 billion -- to combating global warming. Then he and Al Gore set up a $25
million prize for the first inventor who develops a cost-effective way to
extract greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. Now he's partnered with Boeing
and General Electric to produce a biofuel to power the jets of the future.
It's the least he could do.

http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2007/biz2/0706/gallery.50whomatter.biz2/18.html

Hi Ken, and thanks...

What ever mechanical method that will extract "*Green house Gasses " from the Global Echo
system would (quickly become a weapon [In there hands] ) the challenge in a world where
"matter cannot be created or destroyed" is to NOT Burn Fuel in the first place.

 No mean feat in a world built on the technology of slash and burn uber Allis!

 Technologically speaking its typically oxy moronic the two of them view a the world in
 predictable Faustian terms... Thanks for the insight into Mr  Branson.. there are studies
 on regional "depletion of Hydrogen in enviroment near Fuel Cell factories and re-chargers
 in Germany...

What is the odds that Oxygen or some other "good" gas can be ( mas produced , "fabricated")
produced so as to off set the hot house effect?

Interesting problems...

Be well..

'CM3
Article in WSJ has graph and visuals
_________________________________

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118773008539604389.html?mod=hps_us_inside_today

The Best Way to Search Videos on the Internet
August 22, 2007

Some fascinating results can be produced when you scour the Internet
using a giant search engine like Google's. You can discover the seedy
past of a creep you might have otherwise dated, find directions to the
nearest Thai restaurant, or instantly learn how many inches are in a
mile (63,360).

But searching for video, the hottest content on the Web right now,
isn't easy. Sure, you can go to Google's popular YouTube site and look
for clips stored there. But that won't find videos from other sites,
especially copyrighted clips that YouTube doesn't offer or has removed
from its site.

This week, I tested four video-search engines, including revamped
entrant Truveo.com, a smartly designed site that combs through Web
video from all sorts of sources ranging from YouTube to broadcasting
companies. Truveo, a subsidiary of AOL, is stepping out on its own
again after spending three years in the background, powering video
search for the likes of Microsoft, Brightcove and AOL itself. It
unveiled its new site last week, though I've been playing with it for
a few weeks now.

Truveo organizes search results by grouping clips together and
spreading them out in a smart grid-like display.

This Web site, www.truveo.com, operates under the idea that users
don't merely search for video by entering specific words or phrases,
like they would when starting a regular Web search. Instead, Truveo
thinks that people don't often know what they're looking for in online
video searches, and browsing through content helps to retrieve
unexpected and perhaps unintended (but welcome) results. I found that,
compared with other sites, Truveo provided the most useful interface,
which showed five times as many results per page as the others and
encouraged me to browse other clips.

In effect, Truveo combines the browsing experience of a YouTube with
the best Web-wide video-search engine I've seen.

The other video-search sites I tested included Google's
(www.google.com/video) and Yahoo's (www.video.yahoo.com), as well as
Blinkx.com (www.blinkx.com). None of these three sites does much to
encourage browsing; by default they display as many as 10 results per
search on one page and display the clips in a vertical list, forcing
you to scroll down to see them all. The majority of clips watched on
Truveo, Yahoo and Blinkx direct you to an external link to play the
video on its original content provider's site -- which takes an extra
step and often involves watching an advertisement.

Searching on Google video almost always displays only content from
Google and its famously acquired site, YouTube. The giant search
company is working on improving its search results to show a better
variety of content providers. Still, the upside here is that clips
play right away in the search window rather than through a link to the
site where the video originated. YouTube works this way because its
clips are user-generated -- either made by users and posted to the
site or copied from original host sites and posted to YouTube, saving
a trip to the original content provider's site.

Yahoo's video-searching page looks clean and uncluttered, with a large
box for entering terms or phrases with which to conduct searches. Two
options -- labeled "From Yahoo! Video" and "From Other Sites" -- help
you sort results in one step. But the clips that I found on Yahoo
video seemed less relevant, overall, and included more repeated clips.
One search for the Discovery Channel's "Man Versus Wild" show returned
seven clips, four of which were identical.

Blinkx, a three-year-old site, distinguishes itself with its "wall"
feature -- a visually stimulating grid of moving video thumbnails. It
is like Truveo in that it also works behind the scenes for bigger
companies, including Ask.com. Blinkx says it uses speech recognition
and analysis to understand what the video is about, while the others
stick to text-based searching. And this seemed to hold true: I rarely
got results that were completely off-base using Blinkx.

But Truveo's focus on browsing and searching worked well. It
repeatedly displayed spot-on results when I was looking for a video
about a specific subject, or provided a variety of other videos that
were similar, requiring less overall effort on my part. Its most
useful feature is the way it shows results: by sorting clips into
neatly organized buckets, or categories, such as Featured Channels,
Featured Tags and Featured Categories. These buckets spread out on the
page in a gridlike manner, giving your eye more to see in a quick
glance.

This grid also lets you change the direction of your search quickly.
Tabs at the top of the page can re-sort your results according to Most
Viewed Now, Today, This Week, This Month or of All Time. Three more
tabs rearrange the results into Highest Rated, Most Recent (my
personal favorite) and Most Relevant.

The other video-search sites offered fewer details, overall, about
each clip. This meant that I had to waste time opening and watching
clips to discern whether they were what I wanted to see.

I searched for a variety of things, including a new television series
called "Mad Men" on AMC that has me hooked. The show is still just
gaining popularity, so I was curious to see what my video search would
return. A single Truveo search can display as many as 51 results on a
page, and the bucket organizational system placed all of these results
into a layout that didn't look overwhelming. Of the four sites, Truveo
had the highest number of clips related to the actual television show:
32 out of 51. On the other sites, all of which show 10 results per
page, all of the Blinkx clips, five of the Google clips and eight of
the Yahoo clips were relevant.

With the exception of a few clips, Truveo search results include a
thumbnail image of each video, its title, channel and category, and a
line about how old the clip is and how many times it has been viewed.

The top 15 results -- grouped into three columns of five clips each --
feature slightly larger thumbnail images, and moving a cursor over one
of these larger images shows a brief summary of that clip.

If your search generates numerous relevant clips on a well-known Web
site, a special bucket is created at the top right of Truveo's results
page that will hold just that site's clips. For example, if you were
to search an MTV show that's popular enough to have a lot of clips
available directly through the MTV.com Web site, a bucket is
designated just for MTV.com clips.

Truveo is considering selling this prominent bucket as an
advertisement in the future, but for now, no ads appear on the
video-search site.

With so many videos added to the Web each day, the search for online
clips can be fruitless and tiresome. Truveo starts users out with
enough relevant clips right away so that they can more easily find
what they're looking for. And its organizational buckets encourage
browsing and, therefore, entertainment -- one of the reasons for Web
video's popularity.

Truveo takes a refreshing look at video search, and as long as you
have the patience to travel to sites where content originated, you'll
find it useful. It stands apart from other search engines in looks and
functionality.

--Edited by Walter S. Mossberg
Email: mossbergsolution@wsj.com.

======++++++++++++++++
http://www.danablankenhorn.com/images/world_fuel_exports_2002_worldmapper.png

http://www.danablankenhorn.com/politics/index.html
+++++++++++++++++

TEARJERKER
Movies - Crash
Showtime Watch Crash starring .
http://www.sho.com/site/schedules/product_page.do?seriesid=0&episodeid=125753

http://www.danablankenhorn.com/politics/index.html

Grand IllusionsWith Rumsfeld and Powell gone, and Cheney’s power diminished, this is Condoleezza
Rice’s moment. Can she salvage America’s standing in the Middle East—and ...

www.theatlantic.com/doc/200706/condoleezza-rice 

June 2007 Atlantic Monthly With Rumsfeld and Powell gone, and Cheney’s power diminished, this is
Condoleezza Rice’s moment. Can she salvage America’s standing in the Middle East—and defuse the
threat of a nuclear Iran? Behind the curtain in Washington and Jerusalem with the secretary of state
by David Samuels Grand Illusions
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/prem/200706/condoleezza-rice

a2z
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070820/sc_nm/egypt_antiquities_dc&printer=1;_ylt=AsRZi9268Pi2FuxMs5foRrUiANEA

Egypt discovers what may be oldest human footprint Mon Aug 20, 12:24 PM ET
CAIRO (Reuters) -http://news.yahoo.com/photo/070820/photos_sc/2007_08_20t123233_450x300_us_egypt_antiquities;_ylt=Aijxbh5owyS0SD8cjP7jizoiANEA

Reuters Photo: Zahi Hawass, Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, stands near the Pyramids of Giza...
Back to Story -http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070820/sc_nm/egypt_antiquities_dc
Egypt discovers what may be oldest human footprint Mon Aug 20, 12:24 PM ET
 http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070820/sc_nm/egypt_antiquities_dc

Egyptian archaeologists have found what they said could be the oldest human footprint in history in the country's western desert,
 the Arab country's antiquities' chief said on Monday.

"This could go back about two million years," said Zahi Hawass, the secretary general of the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities.
"It could be the most important discovery in Egypt," he told Reuters.

Archaeologists found the footprint, imprinted on mud and then hardened into rock, while exploring a prehistoric site in Siwa,
 a desert oasis.

Scientists are using carbon tests on plants found in the rock to determine its exact age, Hawass said.

Khaled Saad, the director of prehistory at the council, said that based on the age of the rock where the footprint was found,
it could date back even further than the renowned 3-million year-old fossil Lucy, the partial skeleton of an ape-man, found
in Ethiopia in 1974.

Most archaeological interest in Egypt is focused on the time of the pharaohs.
Previously, the earliest human archaeological evidence from Egypt dated back around 200,000 years, Saad said.

Copyright © 2007 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly
prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the
content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon.

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Artificial life likely in 3 to 10 years By SETH BORENSTEIN, AP Science Writer
Mon Aug 20, 1:49 AM ET
 
Around the world, a handful of scientists are trying to create life from scratch and they're getting closer.
Experts expect an announcement within three to 10 years from someone in the now little-known field of "wet artificial life."
"It's going to be a big deal and everybody's going to know about it," said Mark Bedau, chief operating officer of Proto Life
of Venice, Italy, one of those in the race. "We're talking about a technology that could change our world in pretty
fundamental ways — in fact, in ways that are impossible to predict."
That first cell of synthetic life — made from the basic chemicals in DNA — may not seem like much to non-scientists.
 For one thing, you'll have to look in a microscope to see it.
"Creating protocells has the potential to shed new light on our place in the universe," Bedau said. "This will remove
one of the few fundamental mysteries about creation in the universe and our role."
And several scientists believe man-made life forms will one day offer the potential for solving a variety of problems,
 from fighting diseases to locking up greenhouse gases to eating toxic waste.
Bedau figures there are three major hurdles to creating synthetic life:

• A container, or membrane, for the cell to keep bad molecules out, allow good ones, and the ability to multiply.
• A genetic system that controls the functions of the cell, enabling it to reproduce and mutate in response to
environmental changes.
• A metabolism that extracts raw materials from the environment as food and then changes it into energy.

One of the leaders in the field, Jack Szostak at Harvard Medical School, predicts that within the next six months,
scientists will report evidence that the first step — creating a cell membrane — is "not a big problem." Scientists
are using fatty acids in that effort.
Szostak is also optimistic about the next step — getting nucleotides, the building blocks of DNA, to form a working
 genetic system.
His idea is that once the container is made, if scientists add nucleotides in the right proportions, then Darwinian
evolution could simply take over.
"We aren't smart enough to design things, we just let evolution do the hard work and then we figure out what
happened," Szostak said.
In Gainesville, Fla., Steve Benner, a biological chemist at the Foundation for Applied Molecular Evolution is
attacking that problem by going outside of natural genetics. Normal DNA consists of four bases — adenine,
cytosine, guanine and thymine (known as A,C,G,T) — molecules that spell out the genetic code in pairs. Benner
 is trying to add eight new bases to the genetic alphabet.
Bedau said there are legitimate worries about creating life that could "run amok," but there are ways of
addressing it, and it will be a very long time before that is a problem.
"When these things are created, they're going to be so weak, it'll be a huge achievement if you can keep
them alive for an hour in the lab," he said. "But them getting out and taking over, never in our imagination
 could this happen."

(This version CORRECTS Bedau quote to "shed new light")

Copyright © 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report
 may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated
 Press.

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http://digg.com/politics/John_Kerry_Building_7_Was_Deliberately_Demolished
http://geomag.usgs.gov/intro.php

http://www.wbgoldleaf.com

http://digg.com/politics/John_Kerry_Building_7_Was_Deliberately_Demolished

History Channel 911 loose change 2
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=history+channel+911+loose+change+2&btnG=Search

The building turned to dust? 
How much does dust weigh ? Building #7 
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&sa=X&oi=spell&resnum=0&ct=result&cd=1&q=How+much+does+dust+weigh+%3F+Building+%237...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070820/sc_nm/egypt_antiquities_dc&printer=1;_ylt=AsRZi9268Pi2FuxMs5foRrUiANEA

A Brief Introduction to Geomagnetism
The Earth's magnetic field is both expansive and complicated. It is generated by electric currents that are deep within the Earth
and high above the surface. All of these currents contribute to the total geomagnetic field. In some ways, one can consider the
Earth's magnetic field, measured at a particular instance and at a particular location, to be the superposition of symptoms of
a myriad of physical processes occurring everywhere else in the world. The challenge is to untangle the rich information content
of the magnetic field so that we can better understand our planet and the surrounding space environment in which it resides.
Obviously, it would be a daunting task to try to summarize every single aspect of the subject of geomagnetism. Indeed, the necessity
for brevity here means that our exposition will omit some relatively enormous details. Therefore, in this review for our website,
we choose to concentrate on the specific phenomena that can be monitored and studied with data collected from a ground-based magnetic
observatory network, such as that operated and maintained by the USGS Geomagnetism Program. The material presented here should be
comprehensible by anyone having taken introductory college-level physics classes, although, having said that, we imagine that some
review on the part of the reader might be required! Readers having additional curiosities about the magnetic field should consult the
list of references, and the references in those references, given in our page of Further Reading. Those having specific questions are
referred to our page of Frequently Asked Questions.

Sections

Magnetic-Field
The Spatial Form of the Geomagnetic Field
The Geodynamo
Field Variation Over Historical Timescales
The Earth's Ionosphere and Diurnal-Field Variation
The Earth's Magnetosphere
Magnetic Storms

A Brief Introduction to Geomagnetism
http://geomag.usgs.gov/intro.php

http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/april2007/230407building7.htm

Kerry is basically saying that the building was intentionally demolished to prevent a random collapse from
 damaging nearby buildings, but that premise has never been explicitly admitted, with officials clinging to
 the notion that the collapse was expected but was not aided by means of explosive charges, because to admit
 to a controlled demolition would be to expose foreknowledge of 9/11 itself.

Whether Kerry is basing his response on inside knowledge or hearsay is largely irrelevant, the fact that a
sitting United States Senator is openly contradicting the official 9/11 story as well as a multi-billion
dollar insurance lawsuit strikes at the root of the controversy surrounding Building 7.

In February of 2002 Silverstein Properties won $861 million from Industrial Risk Insurers to rebuild on the
 site of WTC 7. Silverstein Properties' estimated investment in WTC 7 was $386 million. This building's
collapse alone resulted in a payout of nearly $500 million, based on the contention that it was an accidental
event caused by the fall of the twin towers.
http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/april2007/230407building7.htm

How much does dust weigh ? Building #7 Rumsfeld Cheney  ? Condoleezza Rice ?  
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=How+much+does+dust+weigh+%3F+Building+%237+Rumsfeld+Cheney++%3F+Condoleezza+Rice+%3F&btnG=Search
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=How+much+does+dust+weigh+%3F+Building+%237+Rumsfeld+Cheney++%3F+Condoleezza+Rice+%3F&btnG=Search

[PDF] 26 Top Anomalies of 9/11 2.File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - View as HTML
Why did WTC Building 7 collapse into a cloud of dust. if no plane hit it, nor any large pieces ....
Rumsfeld, Cheney, Jeb Bush, Paul Wolfowitz and 21 other ...
globaloutlook.ca/pdfs/26TopAnomalies.thestory.pdf 

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070820/ap_on_sc/artificial_life&printer=1;_ylt=AtI.iGnVkv2FPZC_gW9Gt9FxieAA

history channel 911 loose change 2

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=history+channel+911+loose+change+2&btnG=Search
history channel 911 loose change 2

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=history+channel+911+loose+change+2&btnG=Search

screwloosechange

http://screwloosechange.blogspot.com/
http://screwloosechange.blogspot.com/
http://screwloosechange.blogspot.com/
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http://screwloosechange.blogspot.com/

Personal message:

Justice Dept. argues limits of FOIA law By PETE YOST, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 9 minutes ago
 

Opening a new front in the Bush administration's battle to keep its records confidential,
the Justice Department is contending that the White House Office of Administration is not
subject to the Freedom of Information Act.

The department's argument is in response to a lawsuit trying to force the office to reveal
what it knows about the disappearance of White House e-mails.

The Office of Administration provides administrative services, including information
technology support, to the Executive Office of the President. Most of the White House is
not subject to the FOIA, but certain components within it handle FOIA requests. Last year
the Office of Administration processed 65 FOIA requests.

However, the Justice Department maintained in court papers filed Tuesday that the Office
of Administration has no substantial authority independent of President Bush and therefore
is not subject to the FOIA's disclosure requirements.

Regarding the Bush administration's conduct, "this behavior is perfectly consistent
with the way they have handled freedom of information issues over the past six
years," said Lucy Dalglish, executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom
of the Press. "When they don't want to comply with the law, they just shamelessly
argue they are not subject to the law. It's arrogant and disrespectful to citizens."

In its filing in U.S. District Court, the Justice Department said, "to be sure, OA
currently has regulations implementing FOIA and has not taken the position"
previously that it is exempt from the Freedom Of Information Act. To justify a change, the
court papers rely on a court ruling in the 1990s that the National Security Council was
not subject to FOIA. Previously, the NSC had handled FOIA requests.

The office of administration has prepared estimates that there are at least 5 million
missing White House e-mails from March 2003 to October 2005, according to the lawsuit
filed by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a private advocacy group.

The White House has said it is aware that some e-mails may not have been automatically
archived on a computer server for the Executive Office of the President.

The e-mails, the White House has said, may have been preserved on backup tapes.

"The Office of Administration is looking into whether there are e-mails not
automatically archived; and once we determine whether or not there is a problem, we'll
take the necessary steps to address it," said White House spokesman Scott Stanzel.

The first indication of a problem came in early 2006 when special counsel Patrick
Fitzgerald raised the possibility that records sought in the CIA leak investigation
involving the outing of Valerie Plame could be missing because of an e-mail archiving
problem at the White House.

The issue came into focus early this year amid the uproar over the firing of U.S.
attorneys. It turned out that aides to Bush improperly used Republican Party-sponsored
e-mail accounts for official business and that an undetermined number of e-mails had been
lost in the process.

The Justice Department Web site, which lists all FOIA contacts inside the government,
identifies seven units inside the Executive Office of the President as responding to FOIA
requests, including the Office of Administration.

The Office of Administration "has certainly acted like an agency in the past,"
said Meredith Fuchs, general counsel to the National Security Archive, a private group
advocating public disclosure of government secrets.

Fuchs' organization filed a request in February 2006 after Fitzgerald revealed that
e-mails might be missing. When the Office of Administration finally denied the private
group's request in June of this year, the office said it was not an "agency" as
defined by the Freedom of Information Act and was therefore not subject to the law's
require

Justice Dept. argues limits of FOIA law - Yahoo! News

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070822/ap_on_go_pr_wh/white_house_secrecy

============================================================
Yahoo! News
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Liza http://screwloosechange.blogspot.com/

  Rumsfeld Cheney  ? Condoleezza Rice ?

SFWA Obituaries: Stanley Kubrick, 1928-1999 SFWA News Site ...Stanley Kubrick,
famed film director, producer and screenwriter, passed away Sunday, March 6,
at the age of 70. He was found in his home, north of London, ...
www.sfwa.org/News/kubrick.htm

http://www.bizarremagick.com/jmagusproducts.html 

http://www.bizarremagick.com/jmagusproducts.html

globalwarming.jpg
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IQ=% $ IS BS!! THEY LEAVE OUT IQ OF SAUDI ARABIA

http://www.ikoporan.org      

http://www.ikoporan.org/1_1_1_1_ikoporan_eng.asp
http://www.ikoporan.org/news/04_05_2004_eng.asp
http://www.iadb.org/etica/Documentos/Blt_06Oct2003-I.htm

INTERNATIONAL SEMINAR "THE UNRESOLVED ETHICAL AGENDA OF LATIN AMERICA"
Montevideo, Uruguay, December 1 and 2, 2003.
The objective of this event is to emphasize the importance of ethics in the
development of Latin America and promote its inclusion in the university
curriculum. The event will be inaugurated by Mr. Leonardo Guzman, Minister
of Education and Culture of Uruguay; Mr. Enrique V. Iglesias, President of
IDB and Mr. Olav Kjørven, Secretary of State for International Development
of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Norway. In addition, the Seminar will
provide a space to exchange concrete actions on social capital and experiences
on corporate social responsibility. Registration is free and open to the public
until November 21, and is available at the Inter-American Initiative on Social
Capital, Ethics and Development's website:

http://www.iadb.org/etica/Documentos/Blt_06Oct2003-I.htm
http://www.ikoporan.org/news/04_05_2004_eng.asp
http://www.iadb.org/etica

         RUNNING SCARED?  CRASH (R) (2004)
From writer/director Paul Haggis ("Million Dollar Baby") comes this Best
Picture Oscar-winning drama that follows the intersecting lives of several
Los Angeles natives whose attitudes toward race are challenged by a series
of fateful events. Chris "Ludacris" Bridges, Sandra Bullock, Don Cheadle,
Matt Dillon, Brendan Fraser, Terrence Howard, Thandie Newton and Ryan
Phillippe star in this controversial, critically acclaimed film.
watch video 
 
 Movies - Crash
Showtime Watch Crash starring .
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Dolby Digital 5.1 / CC
1 h 53 m 
 

========================================================

    http://www.agen.ufl.edu/~chyn/age2062/lect/lect_20/35_32.GIF
    http://fluoridealert.org/pesticides/effects.endocrine.adrenal.htm 
    http://fluoridealert.org/pesticides/endocrine.disruptor.gif

  http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&safe=off&resnum=0&q=thalmus+hypothalmus&um=1&sa=N&tab=wi 
  http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&sa=X&oi=spell&resnum=0&ct=result&cd=1&q=thalmus+hypothalmus
=========================================================================

http://www.lycaeum.org/books/books/metaprogramming_with_lsd_25/full_text.html

http://www.lycaeum.org/books/books/metaprogramming_with_lsd_25/full_text.html

http://humanunderconstruction.blogspot.com/2005_01_01_archive.html
http://joshqpublic.com/blog2/category/tv
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http://community-2.webtv.net/Hahn-50thAP-K9/K9History/
WORLD HISTORY OFTHE DOGS OF WAR!
A Special Presentation From Hahn's 50th AP K-9, West Germany
SiteBuilder's Note The K-9 History: The Dogs Of War!
pages are about the World's Military use of dogs in both war and peace; with
a major emphasis on both, the involvement of the United States with canines,
from about 1775 during the French Indian Wars to the present; and Britain's
seemingly intrinic leadership role with the US Army and US Air Force thru out
their military dog history, from WW I to the present
Featuring The History of The United States and Great Britain's
Military Working Dogs Throughout the Ages!
http://community-2.webtv.net/Hahn-50thAP-K9/K9History/

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/13911/13911-h/13911-h.htm
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/14663/14663-h/14663-h.htm

http://ovandony.com/

 electricity; It looks good on paper
 From
http://www.Economist.com   

Cellulose
and nanotubes combine to bring flexible batteries to the world
devices are getting more flexible, in a literal sense as well as in
their design. This week sees the unveiling of the most robust but
flexible battery ever. Pulickel Ajayan and his colleagues at
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York made it by mixing carbon
nanotubes (cylindrical, electrically conductive molecules made of
carbon atoms) with cellulose, the stuff of paper. The result, which
they report in this week’s Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences, is an energy store that is cheap, flexible and
paper-thin.

Broadly speaking, devices for storing electricity come in two
varieties: batteries and capacitors. Batteries contain lots of
incipient electricity in the form of chemicals that, when they react,
can be used to generate an electric current. Such “high energy
density” devices, however, release their potential slowly. For a
short, sharp shock a capacitor is better. This is a low energy-density
device, which stores electricity directly by charging two conductive
plates with static. One plate is positive, the other negative. When
the plates are connected as part of a circuit, the charge flows
rapidly between them and produces a far more powerful current than a
battery. This is ideal for applications such as camera flashes.

  The delightful thing about Dr Ajayan’s
device is that with suitable tweaking it can be used as a capacitor, a
battery, or both. A sheet containing two layers of nano-tubes acts as a
capacitor (each layer is a plate). A sheet containing one layer, but
with a coating of metallic lithium on the other side, acts as a
lithium-ion battery. A sheet with two layers of nano-tubes and a
lithium coating can be switched from one application to the other as
required.

The crucial component for making this material is an exotic solvent
called 1-butyl, 3-methylimidazolium chloride. This molecular mouthful
has the rare ability among solvents of being able both to dissolve
cellulose and to act as an electrolyte—that is, a chemical that can
carry charge between the electrodes of a battery in the form of
charged molecules, or ions. It is thus integral both to the
manufacturing process of the device and to its operation.

The result is a material that works at temperatures from –80°C to
180°C, and can be rolled up, folded or cut like paper with no effect
on its performance. It could be attached to folding solar panels of
the sort used in space missions, and back on Earth it could provide
portable power in deserts or at the poles.

The three-layer version, in particular, provides a unique hybrid power
supply. It has the characteristics needed for applications that
require both high-power pulses and steady, battery-like flow.
Moreover, it provides them both while charging and while discharging.
Hybrid cars are one such application. Many use dynamos to recover
their energy of motion when they brake. The recovered energy is
normally stored in a battery. However, such a car needs a burst of
energy to get going again. Dr Ajayan’s device could provide this more
effectively than a conventional battery.

Like the cells of a conventional battery, layers of super-capacitor can
be stacked together to increase output. Unlike conventional batteries,
however, no poisonous chemicals are used to make Dr Ajayan’s device.

That makes it promising for medical applications. Cellulose, which
makes up more than 90% of the weight of the devices, is already used
in implants. Carbon nanotubes are not fully tested in medical
applications, but should be inert. And the researchers did some
preliminary experiments using body fluids such as blood and sweat as
electrolytes (having sweated the 1-butyl, 3-methylimidazolium chloride
out first), and obtained encouraging results.

The next phase is to scale up the manufacturing process, with the aim
of making the material rather as you would convert wood-pulp to
newsprint. When you need more portable power, you may one day just
pull some off a roll, and go.

  -------------------------------------------

Unfortunately, we're not able to design and operate an emission-free refinery"
 
Published: Aug. 16, 2007 at 7:03 PM  

Lake Michigan pollution to get 2nd look
CHICAGO, Aug. 16 (UPI) -- BP Oil and Indiana plan to take a second look at a plan to increase
 pollution in Lake Michigan to satisfy necessary Midwest energy demands, a report says.

BP Vice Chairman Stephen Elbert said the company would look into new technology that might
reduce those discharges from the planned expansion of its Whiting, Ind., refinery, the Chicago
Tribune reported.

When BP got the new water permit earlier this year, federal and state regulators agreed there
was not enough room at the 1,400-acre site to upgrade the refinery's water treatment plant to
keep more pollution out of the lake.

The permit allows BP to dump an average of 1,584 pounds of ammonia and 4,925 pounds of
suspended solids into the lake every day.

"Unfortunately, we're not able to design and operate an emission-free refinery," Elbert said.
 
Published: Aug. 16, 2007 at 3:46 PM  

17th-century advice book up for sale
LONDON, Aug. 16 (UPI) -- A 17th-century English manual, to be auctioned next month, advises
women to use goose grease on sagging breasts and warns against yielding too quickly to men.

"The Ladies' Dictionary: being a General Entertainment for the Fair Sex," published in 1694, is
expected to bring about $4,000 at Bonhams, the London auction house.

“It's an extraordinary book, offering advice to women of all classes on a wide range of subjects,”
 Matthew Haley, a book specialist at Bonhams, told The Daily Mail. “You could call it the Cosmopolitan
 of its day.“

The author is identified only by the initials H.N.

The book includes advice on weight loss, with a further warning that women shouldn't become
“too thin and scragged.”

“No” appears to be the answer to the question “Is it proper for a woman to yield at the first address,
 though to a man she loves?”

“Besides, you will get better Conditions if the Enemy does not know how weak you are within,” H.N.
 advises. “Forgive, Ladies, all the Warlike Gibberish,“ the newspaper report said.
[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[

UnderwaterTimes Scientists Baffled As Florida Diver Captures Sea ...For now they're simply calling it
"undescribed". Jay hopes to return to Juno Ledge and find more examples of the worm. email to a
 friend email to a friend ...
www.underwatertimes.com/news.php?article_id=49652103108 -

1.
This is a printer version of an UnderwaterTimes article.
To view the article online, visit: http://www.underwatertimes.com/news.php?article_id=35827694101
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Research: Using Geometry To Navigate Is Innate, At Least For Fish

By Underwatertimes.com News Service

Alberta, Canada (2007-08-13 14:18:41 EST) Many animals, including humans, frequently face the task of
 getting from one place to another. Although many navigational strategies exist, all vertebrate species
readily use geometric cues; things such as walls and corners to determine direction within an enclosed
space.

Moreover, some species such as rats and human children are so influenced by these geometric cues that
they often ignore more reliable features such as a distinctive object or colored wall.

This surprising reliance on geometry has led researchers to suggest the existence of a geometric module
in the brain. However, since both humans and laboratory animals typically grow up in environments not
 entirely made up of right angles and straight lines, the prevalent use of geometry could reflect nurture
 rather than nature.

A new study published in the July issue of Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological
 Science, is the first attempt to examine whether early exposure to strong geometric cues influences
navigational strategy.

Alisha Brown, a psychology graduate student at the University of Alberta, raised fish in either a rectangular
 tank, or a circular tank free of angular information. Brown and her colleagues later trained the fish to swim
to one particular corner of a rectangular-shaped test arena with either all white walls (geometric information
only), or one colored wall (featural and geometric information).

Their results demonstrated that the ability to use geometry to aid navigation did not depend on exposure to
 angular geometry during rearing: in the featureless test arena, fish from both rectangular and circular rearing
 tanks used geometry to navigate. However, when features were present to help navigation, the circle-reared
fish were more likely to depend on the feature even if it meant choosing a geometrically incorrect corner.

The researchers concluded that the ability to learn about geometry for navigation seems to be innate, but the
 use of geometric cues to navigate is determined by both nature and nurture. When reared in the absence of
rectangular geometric structures, fish show a greater dependence on features for navigational guidance.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2.
This is a printer version of an UnderwaterTimes article.
To view the article online, visit: http://www.underwatertimes.com/news.php?article_id=49652103108

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Scientists Baffled As Florida Diver Captures Sea Serpent On Video; 'Undescribed'

By Underwatertimes.com News Service

The strange creature. photo by Jay Garbose

West Palm Beach, Florida (2007-05-02 15:55:25 EST) It's not the Loch Ness Monster or the Creature from
the Black Lagoon, but a creature recently caught on tape by a Florida diver does have scientists scratching
 their heads.

Underwater videographer Jay Garbose has worked for National Geographic and The Discovery Channel in
 the past.

He made his amazing discovery while on a dive on Juno Ledge, near Juno Beach, Florida.

Jay says when he first saw the giant worm like creature he thought it was a sea cucumber...then he
 realized how big it was.

The creature, which measured between seven and ten feet, has baffled scientists who have seen the video.

Friends of Jay who work at the Smithsonian say it may be some sort of Nemertean Worm, but they're
puzzled by some of its characteristics.

For now they're simply calling it "undescribed".

Jay hopes to return to Juno Ledge and find more examples of the worm.

_______________________________________________
3.  http://stix1972.typepad.com/stix_blog/science/index.html
Posts categorized "Science"
August 16, 2007
DDT
Finally the World Health Organization is going to allow poor African countries use DDT to kill off the malaria
infected misquitoes.

The Uses of DDT
August 16, 2007; Page A10
Last year, the World Health Organization reversed a 25-year-old policy and recommended using the pesticide
 DDT to fight malaria in the Third World. A new study published in the public health journal, PLoS ONE, provides
more evidence that the decision was long overdue.

The U.S. and Europe solved their malaria problem a half-century ago by employing DDT, but the mosquito-borne
disease remains endemic to the lowland tropics of South America, Asia and Africa, where each year a half-billion
 people are infected and more than a million die. Despite those staggering numbers, radical environmental groups
 like the Pesticide Action Network continue to oppose use of the insecticide. One of their favorite arguments is that
 DDT is ineffective because mosquitoes can build resistance to the chemical's toxic properties.

According to the new study, however, that concern is misplaced. DDT continues to work as a repellent and irritant
 long after it's no longer killing mosquitoes on contact. The researchers found that three out of five DDT-resistant
 mosquitoes avoided homes sprayed with the insecticide and reduced the risk of disease transmission by 73%.

Repeated studies have shown DDT to be safe for people and nature when sprayed indoors, yet other supposedly
 greener pesticides like alphacypermethrin have been touted as viable alternatives. Nevertheless, the latest
research shows that DDT continues to be the most effective tool we have, as well as among the cheapest.
"To date," conclude the authors, "a truly efficacious DDT replacement has not been found." Opponents of DDT
are only ensuring more misery and death.

WSJ  http://stix1972.typepad.com/stix_blog/science/index.html
---------------------------------------------------------
4.
 Indonesia, Valcano

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July 06, 2007
Creature form the deep discovered
A unknown squid/octopus creature was discovered in Hawaii

Curious creature caught off Keahole Point
The animal, dubbed an "octosquid," is found off the Big Isle
By Brittany P. Yap / byap@starbulletin.com
It's a squid, it's an octopus, it's ... a mystery from the deep.

What appears to be a half-squid, half-octopus specimen found off Keahole Point on the Big Island remains
unidentified today and could possibly be a new species, said local biologists.

The specimen was found caught in a filter in one of Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority's deep-sea
water pipelines last week. The pipeline, which runs 3,000 feet deep, sucks up cold, deep-sea water for the
tenants of the natural energy lab.

"When we first saw it, I was really delighted because it was new and alive," said Jan War, operations manager
 at NELHA. "I've never seen anything like that."

The natural energy lab is a state agency that operates Hawaii Ocean Science and Technology Park in Kailua-Kona,
 adjacent to one of the steepest offshore slopes in the Hawaiian Islands.

According to Richard Young, an oceanography professor at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, the specimen
 tentatively belongs to the genus Mastigoteuthis, but the species is undetermined.

War, who termed the specimen "octosquid" for the way it looked, said it was about a foot long, with white
suction cups, eight tentacles and an octopus head with a squidlike mantle.

The octosquid was pulled to the surface, along with three rattail fish and half a dozen satellite jellyfish, and
stayed alive for three days. According to War, the lab usually checks its filters once a month, but this time,
it put a plankton net in one of the filters and checked it two weeks later.

The pitch-black conditions at 3,000 feet below sea level are unfamiliar to most but riveting to scientists who
 have had the opportunity to submerge. The sea floor is full of loose sediment, big boulders and rocks, and
a lot of mucuslike things floating in the water, which are usually specimens that died at the surface and
drifted to the bottom.

"It's quite fascinating," War said. "When you get below 700 feet, it's a totally different world. Lots of fish
have heads like a fish and a body like an eel. There are fish floating in a vertical position, with the head up,
and don't move unless they're disturbed."

Christopher Kelley, program biologist for the Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory, went to the natural
energy lab Tuesday to pick up the preserved octosquid, rattail fish and jellyfish, which had been stored
in a freezer, and brought them back to UH-Manoa's oceanography department.

"It's a beautiful squid. It's a gorgeous ruby red color," Kelley said. "We really enjoy these little mysteries
 that come up."

Also during Kelley's visit to NELHA yesterday, he and War talked about a more formal sampling program to
 search for other deep-sea critters. War said their goal is to sample the intake screen more often and capture
animals alive and study them in captivity.

"This opens up a whole new area of research that UH can be involved with," War said.

In October, NELHA will be checking its deep-sea pipelines, something that usually happens every eight to
10 years, because it is worried that something might have happened to them during the earthquakes in October.

"If it's a new species, (NELHA) would like to name it," War said. "But that is sort of the honor of whoever
 classifies it."

Star Bulletin

http://stix1972.typepad.com/stix_blog/science/index.html
------------------------------------------------------------------

June 02, 2006
Armageddon
This is something that should really scare everyone. 
 Inpacts like this happened before and will happen again,
 way before we fry because of Global Warming.

Giant Crater Found: Tied to Worst Mass Extinction Ever

By Robert Roy Britt
Senior Science Writer
posted: 01 June 2006
06:07 pm ET

An apparent crater as big as Ohio has been found in Antarctica. Scientists think it was carved by a space
 rock that caused the greatest mass extinction on Earth, 250 million years ago.

The crater, buried beneath a half-mile of ice and discovered by some serious airborne and satellite sleuthing,
is more than twice as big as the one involved in the demise of the dinosaurs.

The crater's location, in the Wilkes Land region of East Antarctica, south of Australia, suggests it might have
instigated the breakup of the so-called Gondwana supercontinent, which pushed Australia northward, the
researchers said.

"This Wilkes Land impact is much bigger than the impact that killed the dinosaurs, and probably would have
 caused catastrophic damage at the time," said Ralph von Frese, a professor of geological sciences at Ohio
State University.

How they found it

The crater is about 300 miles wide. It was found by looking at differences in density that show up in gravity
 measurements taken with NASA's GRACE satellites. Researchers spotted a mass concentration, which they
 call a mascon—dense stuff that welled up from the mantle, likely in an impact.

"If I saw this same mascon signal on the Moon, I'd expect to see a crater around it," Frese said. (The Moon,
with no atmosphere, retains a record of ancient impacts in the visible craters there.)

So Frese and colleagues overlaid data from airborne radar images that showed a 300-mile wide sub-surface,
circular ridge. The mascon fit neatly inside the circle.

"And when we looked at the ice-probing airborne radar, there it was," he said today.

Smoking gun?

The Permian-Triassic extinction, as it is known, wiped out most life on land and in the oceans. Researchers
 have long suspected a space rock might have been involved. Some scientists have blamed volcanic activity
 or other culprits.

The die-off set up conditions that eventually allowed dinosaurs to rule the planet.

The newfound crater is more than twice the size of the Chicxulub crater in the Yucatan peninsula, which marks
 the impact that may have ultimately killed the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. The Chicxulub space rock is
thought to have been 6 miles wide, while the Wilkes Land meteor could have been up to 30 miles wide, the
researchers said.

Confirmation needed

Postdoctoral researcher Laramie Potts assisted in the discovery.

The work was financed by NASA and the National Science Foundation. The discovery, announced today, was
 initially presented in a poster paper at the recent American Geophysical Union Joint Assembly meeting in Baltimore.

The researchers say further work is needed to confirm the finding. One way to do that would be to go there
and collect rock from the crater to see if its structure matches what would be expected from such a colossal impact.

(source) http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/060601_big_crater.html?fark

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==================================================================

April 06, 2006
Missing Link May Have Been Found
Paleontologosts may have found the missing link from the evolutionary path of water-based animals to
land-based animals.  This is truly a very inportant find to put the pieces of the evolutionary pathway. 

Discovered: the missing link that solves a mystery of evolution

Alok Jha, science correspondent
Thursday April 6, 2006
The Guardian

Scientists have made one of the most important fossil finds in history: a missing link between fish and land animals,
showing how creatures first walked out of the water and on to dry land more than 375m years ago.
Palaeontologists have said that the find, a crocodile-like animal called the Tiktaalik roseae and described today in
the journal Nature, could become an icon of evolution in action - like Archaeopteryx, the famous fossil that bridged
the gap between reptiles and birds.
As such, it will be a blow to proponents of intelligent design, who claim that the many gaps in the fossil record show
 evidence of some higher power.
read the rest here.

Stix

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March 15, 2006

Stix
 

Stix on May 23, 2006 at 08:46 AM in Science Permalink Comments (0) TrackBack (0) 0 Comments »

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May 19, 2006
I am back from the dead
This is interesting.  A frog thought to exstinct is found in a different area.  Reminds me of the time they found an
exstinct fish in the Mississippi.  It just went to deeper water. 

Contact: Paula Alvarado
palvarado@conservation.org
202-912-1214
Conservation International

Colombian frog believed extinct found alive
Discovery shows some species can survive fungus decimating amphibians
Researchers exploring a Colombian mountain range found surviving members of a species of Harlequin frog believed
extinct due to a killer fungus wiping out amphibian populations in Central and South America.

The discovery of what could be the last population of the painted frog (Atelopus ebenoides marinkellei) indicates the
 species has survived the fungus, providing hope that other species also might avoid elimination from the epidemic
caused by a pathogenic fungus of unknown origin.

Professor Carlos Rocha and a team of researchers from the Pedagogical and Technological University of Boyacá -
UTPC supported by Conservation International, the Darwin Initiative and the Fund for Environmental Action and
Childhood made the discovery in early May in the deserts of Sarna and Toquilla in Boyacá in eastern Colombia.

The painted frog, which is found only in the deserts of Colombia's highlands, was last seen in 1995 in the area of
Siscunsi, in the same region as Boyacá. After 11 years without a sighting, scientists considered the species extinct
because of a lethal skin fungus, known as chytridiomycosis, and other hazards threatening the survival of a third of
all amphibian species around the world.

"The scientific importance of the finding must motivate us to adopt urgent measures toward saving the last of these
 amphibians, both in the wild and through captive breeding programs," said Fabio Arjona, executive director of
Conservation International in Colombia. "That will require a lot of support from the local and international communities."

The painted frog is one of 110 species of a diverse group of neo-tropical amphibians that live mostly in Colombia.
The country's amphibian population is considered among the most diverse on Earth and key in the conservation
efforts to protect amphibian species worldwide. So far, 42 of the 113 species of Atelopus found in the Tropical
Andes Hotspot that includes parts of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela have experienced population
declines of up to 50 percent.

Frogs provide innumerable ecosystem services by consuming insects and serving as indicators of overall
environmental health of an ecosystem. The disappearance of amphibians could cause numerous consequences,
 including an increase in illnesses such as malaria due to the disappearance of amphibians that feed on mosquitoes
 carrying the disease. An extinction crisis among amphibians indicates drastic environmental changes caused by
human impact such as deforestation and global warming. (source)

H/T to Junk Science

Maybe they should just look elswhere and find the frogs, like they did witht the one in the article.

Stix

Stix on May 19, 2006 at 09:24 AM in Science Permalink Comments (0) TrackBack (0) 0 Comments »

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April 07, 2006
Top 10 Jun Science stories of the past decade
Today we have the top ten list for stories at Junk Science.  They are in no particular order:

1. The most toxic manmade chemical?

2. Dial “F” for Fear.

3. Powerline scare unplugged.

4. Hormone Hysterics.

5. Secret Science?
6. Obesity statistics lose weight.
7. ‘Ear-ie’ biotech scare.
8. PETA: Milk drinking makes for future felons.
9. Choking on chips.
10. The Mother of all junk science controversies.
read the whole story here.
Junk Science is an excellent site for debunking all fo the doom and gloom stories in the MSM.  It is a must read.
Stix

 
 
 

Stix on April 07, 2006 at 08:30 AM in Global warming, Science Permalink Comments (0) TrackBack (0) 0 Comments »

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April 06, 2006
Missing Link May Have Been Found
Paleontologosts may have found the missing link from the evolutionary path of water-based animals
to land-based animals.  This is truly a very inportant find to put the pieces of the evolutionary pathway. 

Discovered: the missing link that solves a mystery of evolution

Alok Jha, science correspondent
Thursday April 6, 2006
The Guardian

Scientists have made one of the most important fossil finds in history: a missing link between fish
and land animals, showing how creatures first walked out of the water and on to dry land more than
 375m years ago.
Palaeontologists have said that the find, a crocodile-like animal called the Tiktaalik roseae and described
 today in the journal Nature, could become an icon of evolution in action - like Archaeopteryx, the famous
 fossil that bridged the gap between reptiles and birds.

As such, it will be a blow to proponents of intelligent design, who claim that the many gaps in the fossil
 record show evidence of some higher power.

read the rest here.

Stix

Stix on April 06, 2006 at 07:53 AM in Science Permalink Comments (0) TrackBack (0) 0 Comments »

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March 15, 2006
Debate between Anchoress and CBS News editor
She is so right on - The Anchoress has a marvelous take on an essay by CBS' News editor Dick Meyer
which turns into a debate between them in the combox.  It's all about an MRI study purportedly showing
 that political partisans don't use the rational part of their brains when digesting political information. 
The Anchoress wonders if strong religious beliefs might produce the same results. I've thought for a
long time that many people hve replaced their religious beliefs with political stances - you know, driving
 an SUV is the new mortal sin and pushing welfare programs is the new way to merit heaven.  The
 Anchoress also points out that many true believers are mingling their religious and political beliefs
and hurling anathemas at each other preventing any civil debate.  Now your opponent is not only
wrong about some policy, the opponent is evil. There are other notable bloggers in the combox as
 well as Dick Meyer.  This excerpt will whet your appetite for the whole thing.

Meyer and the Futility of Political Debate - UPDATED

Well, Dick Meyer at CBS has done it again! I’m not kidding, this fellow manages to find the most interesting
 things to write about - stuff no one else is looking at because most of us (and 99% of the press) run like
 lemmings to whatever breathless headline has been deemed “important,” like Birdshotgate…
Today Meyer is wondering whether is political ruminations are worth putting to paper, or is political debate
 a futile and dead thing?

He wonders about it because of a scientific study which suggests that the brains of political partisans are
 so chemically overwhelmed as to render most partisans…well…impotent to the allures of reason might be
 a good way to put it (indulge me, I’m still on a Bryn Terfel high.) It’s not merely that partisans will not listen
 reason, it’s that reason fails to elicit a productive response.This is a very interesting piece, and I highly
recommend that you read it. Here’s a teaser:

It would be reasonable to ask whether all brains — not just partisan ones — respond  t o    political information
emotionally. Westen says the answer is clearly no, that research does demonstrate that centrists or independents
 are more able to process rational and non-emotional political information.

But Westen’s MRIs show that is clearly not the case with political contradictions processed by a partisan brain.
That process is almost entirely emotional, heating up regions of the brain that govern things like forgiveness,
 relief and pleasure. The reasoning zones stayed ice cold.

Your response, I imagine, is “duh.” Partisans are emotional; stop the presses, get me rewrite. Perhaps. But I find the
graphic clarity of colorful brain scans to be sobering. It’s one thing to know that some people get obnoxious during
 political arguments; it’s another thing to see that 30 adult men who read candidates’ quotes while strapped down
 in MRI machines didn’t even fire up the thinking parts of their brains.

Sounds alarming, doesn’t it? It might be, too…except I think the study is flawed, or based on an incorrect foundation.

I’d like to see a study that compares these reactions to reactions concerning religious beliefs. I believe you would see
 very similar chemical reactions in the brain - both politics and religion come down to what you “believe” and that’s
what brings in the emotional, whacked-out and unreasonable result. For more and more people in this country politics
 and religion have become enormously commingled. And I’m not only talking about Evangelical Christians on the right.
 The secular humanists have their own “religion” as do those who worship at the altar of “political correctness” which
clearly has its own list of commandments and sins. Our very polarized, very fragmented society encourages this, largely
 (sadly) because our education system has spent so much time vaunting “self-esteem” that people have become very
 protective of whatever belief they’ve decided to hang their hat on; what I think must be right, must be valuable, must
have worth, because I am special! And because I am so special, I do not have to be reasonable.

Julia

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March 13, 2006
Oil Peak???
Are we going to run out of oil any time soon???  I think not.  But many people do.  Today in TCS Daily there is a good
article about oil.  I believe that we are always going to finds new and innovative ways to extract oil from the Earth,
and we will not run out of oil for a long time.  I also believe that when we evetually run out of oil, we will already have
 new technologoes in place to take the place of oil.  Right now we have Nuclear power, and we have cars that run on
corn based gas.  So I do not think that all of the doom and gloom will come about because of peak oil as many believe.

Running Out of Oil? History, Technology and Abundance

By Max Schulz : BIO 13 Mar 2006

Are we running out of oil? That's what the doomsayers say. We are past our (Hubbert's) peak and it's downhill from here.
War, famine, pestilence, perhaps even extinction – those are the apocalyptic scenarios posited by folks predicting the oil
age is over and the era of stringency is nigh.

Whether we are running out of oil or not, one thing we're certainly not short of is people who claim that we are. The good
news about this bad news is that, historically, the doomsayers have always been wrong.

Almost since the first discoveries of oil in the U.S. in 1859, people have been saying we're running out. In 1874, the state
 geologist of the nation's leading oil producer, Pennsylvania, warned the U.S. had enough oil to last just four years. In 1914,
 the federal government said we had a ten-year supply. The government announced in 1940 that reserves would be depleted
within a decade and a half. The Club of Rome made similar claims in the 1970s. President Carter famously predicted in 1977
 that unless we made drastic cuts in our oil consumption, "Within ten years we would not be able to import enough oil —
 from any country, at any acceptable price." And so it goes today, where a slew of books and Web sites make fantastic
claims about dwindling supplies of crude.

read the rest here.

Stix

Stix on March 13, 2006 at 01:12 PM in National Security, Saudi Arabia, Science, Web/Tech Permalink Comments (0)
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March 09, 2006
Extraterrestrial Life???
H/T To Drudge

Nasa is going to have an announcement today about possible life in our Solar System

Big NASA Announcement Today
NASA is planning to make a huge announcement today, about possible life in our own solar system.

Exact details of what we can expect to hear have not been released. We do know that evidence has been found that
could point to life relatively close to the earth.

Official word is expected this afternoon at 2 p.m. We'll have complete coverage of today's big news when it is released.
 Tune to News 13 for the complete story.
 

For more information tune to Central Florida News 13. Only on Bright House Networks.

Copyright © Central Florida News 13. All right reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Update****

From the Druge Report

NASA'S CASSINI DISCOVERS POTENTIAL LIQUID WATER ON ENCELADUS
Thu Mar 09 2006 11:21:33 ET

**Exclusive**

[Press release set for 2 PM ET release]

NASA's Cassini spacecraft may have found evidence of liquid water reservoirs that erupt in Yellowstone-like geysers
on Saturn's moon Enceladus. The rare occurrence of liquid water so near the surface raises many new questions
about the mysterious moon.

"We realize that this is a radical conclusion - that we may have evidence for liquid water within a body so small and
 so cold," said Carolyn Porco, Cassini imaging team leader at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo. "However,
if we are right, we have significantly broadened the diversity of solar system environments where we might possibly
have conditions suitable for living organisms."

High-resolution Cassini images show icy jets and towering plumes ejecting huge quantities of particles at high speed.
Scientists examined several models to explain the process. They ruled out the idea the particles are produced or blown
 off the moon's surface by vapor created when warm water ice converts to a gas. Instead, scientists have found evidence
for a much more exciting possibility. The jets might be erupting from near-surface pockets of liquid water above 0 degrees
 Celsius (32 degrees Fahrenheit), like cold versions of the Old Faithful geyser in Yellowstone.

"We previously knew of at most three places where active volcanism exists: Jupiter's moon Io, Earth, and possibly Neptune's
 moon Triton. Cassini changed all that, making Enceladus the latest member of this very exclusive club, and one of the most
exciting places in the solar system," said John Spencer, Cassini scientist, Southwest Research Institute, Boulder.

-more--2-

"Other moons in the solar system have liquid-water oceans covered by kilometers of icy crust," said Andrew Ingersoll,
imaging team member and atmospheric scientist at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, Calif. "What's different
here is that pockets of liquid water may be no more than tens of meters below the surface."

"As Cassini approached Saturn, we discovered the Saturnian system is filled with oxygen atoms. At the time we had no
idea where the oxygen was coming from," said Candy Hansen, Cassini scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)
 in Pasadena. "Now we know Enceladus is spewing out water molecules, which break down into oxygen and hydrogen."

Scientists still have many questions. Why is Enceladus so active? Are other sites on Enceladus active? Might this activity have
 been continuous enough over the moon's history for life to have had a chance to take hold in the moon's interior?

In the spring of 2008, scientists will get another chance to look at Enceladus when Cassini flies within 350 kilometers
 (approximately 220 miles), but much work remains after the spacecraft's four-year prime mission is over.

"There's no question, along with the moon Titan, Enceladus should be a very high priority for us. Saturn has given us
 two exciting worlds to explore," said Jonathan Lunine, Cassini interdisciplinary scientist, University of Arizona, Tucson, Ariz.

Mission scientists report these and other Enceladus findings in this week's issue of Science.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency.

JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology

http://stix1972.typepad.com/stix_blog/science/index.html

Stix

Stix on March 09, 2006 at 09:49 AM in Science, Space Permalink Comments (0) TrackBack (0) 0 Comments »

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February 22, 2006
Stone Age justice?
A real delimma in India about whether and how to prosecute the last isolated Stone Age tribe in the world for the
murder of 2 fishermen. 

The remarkable story behind the murders of Indian fishermen Sunder Raj, 48, and Pandit Tiwari, 52, sounds like a
chapter from a Joseph Conrad novel, but it happened here in the Andamans late last month. The two men were
killed by loin-clothed Sentinelese warriors on 27 January, after their boat accidentally drifted on to the shore of
North Sentinel Island, a tiny outcrop in the Indian Ocean.

Other fishermen, who witnessed the attack from the water, described how the pair, believed to be drunk on palm
 wine, died after they were attacked by near-naked axe-wielding tribal warriors when their craft beached on the
island, a preservation area strictly out of bounds to the outside world.

An Indian coastguard helicopter, sent out to investigate, was attacked with bows and arrows by the same tribal
warriors, leaving the pilot under no illusions as to the safety of landing. The fishermen's macheted bodies were
exposed in their shallow graves when the down-draught from the chopper's rotor blades blew away the sand.
One of the crew later remarked to police that he was surprised to see bodies. 'I thought they roasted and ate
their victims,' he said.

The incident has divided opinion in the archipelago. Relatives of Sundar Raj are calling for justice and government
compensation. But the local authorities, under pressure from international preservation groups and a largely
sympathetic local population, are reluctant to pursue the matter. And they are backed by the father of the second
victim.

'Believing in justice is one of the pillars of your society but for me it's different,' says schoolteacher RK Tiwari, slurping
noisily on a hot cup of sweet chai in his home on the outskirts of Port Blair, his grandson on his lap.

From his balcony the corrugated iron slums of the provincial capital can be seen stretching down the harbour where
the smell of dried fish and raw sewage keeps tourists away. 'My son Pandit got his own justice. He was breaking the
 law, poaching and trespassing on land that wasn't his own and he was murdered. What more is there to say?'

The 74-year-old father of seven continues: 'As far as I am concerned the Sentinelese are the victims in this, not my son.
 They live in constant terror of heavily armed poachers from Myanmar [Burma] and Port Blair. They were only defending
 themselves with bows and arrows and rocks in the only way they know how. What I do want is my son's body back
so my wife and I can bury him; we don't want retribution. It is an impossible case to prosecute anyway.'

The article goes on to describe scientists' interest in the tribe as a possible direct line back to the Homo Sapiens who
 left Africa and migrated to SE Asia.  But how to get the DNA?

Anthropologists separate the indigenous tribes living on the archipelago into two groups. It's thought that those living
 on the Nicobar islands - the Shompen and Nicobaris - are of Asian descent, while the four surviving Andaman tribes -
the Great Andamanese, Onge, Jarawa and the Sentinelese - all originated in Africa, a fact that makes their survival all
the more remarkable.

The most reclusive of all are the Sentinelese, who have violently rebuffed all approaches from the outside world. According
 to a recent study of the tribes carried out by a team of biologists at the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology in the
 southern Indian city of Hyderabad, the indigenous islanders, often described by anthropologists as 'pygmies', may actually
 represent the first Asians - an early wave of 'out of Africa', who reached the Far East more than 40,000 years ago and
have since evolved separately from most of the other native people of Asia, the South Seas and Australia.

The tribe has good reason to avoid modern man. 

The first documented contact with the islands was made more than 1,000 years ago by Chinese and Arabian travellers,
who were met with a hail of arrows when they tried to land. They described the Andamanese as three feet tall with
human bodies and bird beaks. During the 18th and 19th centuries, Christian missionaries also encountered fierce
resistance, and the islands and their people seemed destined to remain an enigma.

It was the British that made the first significant 'breakthrough' with the Andamans' indigenous tribes, even putting
them 'on display' at Calcutta Zoo after they established a penal colony on South Andaman in 1858 and attempted
 to civilise and educate the natives at special 'homes' in which they were
dressed in Western clothes and then taught to read and write.

Hat Tip to Gashwin

Lots of interface of cultures issues raised by the article     Read more

portia91 on February 22, 2006 at 09:14 AM in Science Permalink Comments (0) TrackBack (0) 0 Comments »

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February 13, 2006
"if it's consensus, it isn't science -- and if it's science, it isn't consensus."
Wonder where they get statements like this from???

"The vast majority of the most respected environmental scientists from all over the world have sounded a clear
and urgent alarm. …these scientists are telling the people of every nation that global warming caused by human
 activities is becoming a serious threat to our common future."
-- Al Gore, MoveOn.org, January 2004

"…the widely accepted notion among the vast majority of scientists [is] that human activity is contributing to a
warming planet, and that business as usual -- doing nothing about rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere --
will make things worse."
-- Sandy Tolan and John Harte, San Francisco Chronicle, November, 2005

Continue reading ""if it's consensus, it isn't science -- and if it's science, it isn't consensus."" »

Stix on February 13, 2006 at 11:37 AM in Science

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