A Step Toward Peace?

Men arrested after Hebron attack

Until recently Israel had not allowed Palestinian forces to patrol all parts of the West Bank [AFP] Palestinian officials have said arrests made after a shootout in which two Israelis and a Palestinian died are proof that security in the West Bank is improving. Riyad al-Malki, the Palestinian information minister, said on Saturday: "We have succeeded after several hours in arresting two members of the group behind the attack in Hebron. "This is a very big achievement and proves we can take over responsibility in all the Palestinian territories," he said. On Friday, Palestinian men opened fire on three Jewish settlers hiking near the southern West Bank city of Hebron, killing two of them. The two settlers, who were later identified as off-duty soldiers, fired back at the car, killing one Palestinian. et au la belle France? "Syrian-French relations continue even at this very moment," Syrian Information Minister Mohsen Bilal said Monday morning, a day after French President Nicolas Sarkozy announced that he was cutting all ties with the Presidential Palace in Damascus "until further notice."

High Speed Rail in Cal.

California High Speed Rail's Route Debate Is Over

By Alexander Lew December 22, 2007 | 8:00:00 AMCategories: Mass Transit

This week, after months of debate, the California High Speed Rail Authority finally chose the route that will connect the San Francisco Bay Area to the Central Valley. Once in the Central Valley, trains will head directly to Los Angeles. The Pacheco Pass, which will run trains from San Francisco to the yet to be constructed Central Valley main line via San Jose and Gilroy, was endorsed by several local and state officials. They see this route alternative as the best economic, environmental, and efficient route from the Bay Area to Los Angeles. This route, however, will not serve California as well as the other alternative because of its alignment.

Twenty Questions for a Christian

Rather than argue point by point with the persistent Christians, I posted this set of 20 questions at my blog SeattleJew

1. You accept some version of the Septuagint, the Xtian "bible" as truth. Why? To my knowledge your religion teaches that there is to be no prophet after Jesus and, unlike Moses or Mohamed (or Joseph Smith for that matter), this particular revelation dis not include an claim to leaving behind a physical trace.

So what is your rationale for believing that this set of writings is divine?

2. Again, I think I know the text pretty well, where in your bible does it define the moment of life? Since the bible (and the Quran) seem blissfully unaware of DNA, chromosomes, sperm or eggs ... how do YOU decide when life begins? Lets try ti as a multiple answer questions:

Life begins when:

a. the unique combination of male and female DNA interact to form the first dividing cell. (We call that the first division).

b. the moment when a sperm penetrates the egg.

c. when the potential exists in the form of a unique male and female set of DNA.

d. when the two sets of genome are sufficiently interacting to "recombine" .. that is trade genes from one set of chromosomes to the other.

e. if and only if the two sets of DNA are viable, that is complimentary in ways that wil permit a life to develop.


f when the ball of cells derived from the zygotes has formed the first suggestion of an embryo (called a blastula).

g. When the interacting sets of DNA have begin to express a program for the nervous system.

h. when the ball of cells implants itself into the uterine layer to begin the process of forming a placenta.

i. the heart first appears.

j. when the brain first appears.

k. when the being is potentially viable without a placenta.

2. In your religion, "salvation" requires the intersession of Jesus. Does that mean that Buttho has gone to hell? how about my grandfather, an Orthodox rabbi?

3. Assuming that what you beleive in 2 is true, shouldn't we make the teaching of Islam, Judaism, and Mormonism illegal? Or at least remove children for those environments?


4. Since you associate morality with your religion, can you tell me who were the ten most moral people to live in the last 100 years?

5. Since the Septuagint began as a Roman State Document, would you accept a new version of your bible that had been vetted by independent scholars no influenced by the need to comply with Roman law?

6. The Torah is pretty adamant about worship of any statues,are Catholics pagans?

7. A number of more modern, post Jesus, folk have claimed to speak for God .. Mary Baker Eddy, Joseph Smith, Mohamed, Jim Jones, .. on hwta basis do you reject tHEIR views of the truth?

8. The predictions the Christians claim to prophesize Jesus, say he will be of the House of David. "House" in that era ONLY meant male lineage. Who was Jesus' Dad?

9. Jewish law at the time of the crucifixion required stoning for anyone claiming to be God. Should Jesus have been stoned?

10. Did Jesus ever have intercourse? How do you know this?

11. Judaism allows many wives, where does Jesus say you should only have one?

12. The critical difference between the Nazarenes under James and the Paulines, was the idea that one could become aChristian without following the Jewish law. Where is the textual basis for this claim?

13. Jewish, Islamic and Christian law all have very clear statements that require act of charity of a holy man. Act of charity are defined as giving o your own property to help others. Why are there NO act of charity in the stories of Jesus' life?

14. Jesus never ate pork, do you?

15. Thee religion based in Jesus was used as a weapon of terror for hundreds of years by the Roman State. Later versions of Christianity, used the church to enslave or even exteminate millions of Africans, Jews, and Muslims. The loot from these exercises enriched Christian institutions that still exist. Should they pay reparations?

16. You and I may well share an admiration for certain Christian sects charact4erized by charity, service and love. Given the origins of the Church, when did these wonderful versions of Christianity first appear?

17. Here is a thought problem:

I am trying to create a legal code based on the lives of famous people. Whose lives would serve best as a basis for such a code:

Confucius, the Buddha, Jesus, Hillel, Spinoza, Maimonides, Cesar Chaves. Fidel Castro, GW Bush, MK Gandhi, Saul Alinsky, Jimmy Carter, Al Gore, Sister Theresa, Benzir Bhutto, Lincoln

Choose two and list the ten riles you would derive from ther lives.

18. If God created the Universe, who created God? Did God always exist? How do you know this ... please cite text in your Bible.

19. Who created the Dinosaurs and why are they not mentioned in the Bible?

20. When we discover life around another planet, how much would you bet that this other life will worship s a God who had his son sacrifice for humans in an obscure village in some war wrecked town at the edge of civilization?

More From SJ's Words at HA

@163 Puddbud

I have never said that science is incompatible withe belief in "God." Science is incompatible, however, with some ideas abut what God may be.

FWIW, Francis Collins, the head of the Genome Project is R. Catholic and devout at that! Mendel, of course, was a monk. I know a number of Nobelists who are believers. I have another friend who is a devout Mahayanna Buddhist.

If you tak to most devot scientists, they will tell you that their beliefs are compatible with science. Most who have thought about it would side with Spinoza and Maimonides, in case you are up to doing some reading.

Spinoza and Maimonides, great teachers, taught that revelation is to be believed as a whole. The "Bible" is one form of data. So is the human genome. When they agree, there is no reason not to include the bible, when they disagree obviously the stronger form of revelation is science because science can be reproduced. So Maiminides and Spinoza both rejected the fundamentalist interpretation of the story of creation .

Do yuo have problem with this? Let me suggest YOU have a problem. You claim to beleive in something called the Bible. I assume you mean one of the flavors of the Christian Bible? But why would you consider that book to be divinely revealed?

I have read the Christian Bible and AFIK Jashka (closer to Jesus' true name than Jesus or Joshua BTW) never says ...

"Go forth and record these worlds as holy script! " That is true even for his own words .. never mind all the fantasies in your book of revelations or the books of our history that you have somehow decided are God''s word. BTW, FWIW the book of Daniel in your Bible is NOT in the Jewish canon and even if it were, the material after Deuteronomy is NOT considered revelation in Judaism since nowhere does it say , "I am God and I certify that the love poem attributes to a lustfilled David is holy>" (though we might both agree the song of songs is lovely and erotic!

So, let me turn the shoes ...

On what authority do YOU claim that the "Bible" is the word of God?

Bhutto in the Yard

Classmates Remember Strong-Willed and Patriotic Bhutto

Former Eliot House resident called Harvard 'the very basis for my belief in democracy'

CRIMSON/ ASSOCIATED PRESS

Benazir Bhutto '73, shown here after she was confirmed as president of the Oxford Union in 1976, was assassinated Thursday in a suicide attack in Rawalpindi, Pakistan.

Published On Friday, December 28, 2007 7:47 PM

By ADITI BALAKRISHNA

Crimson Staff Writer

ARTICLE TOOLS: E-mail this Article Printer Friendly Version Write a Letter to the Editor

In 1969, a young Pakistani aristocrat arrived in Harvard Yard.

She was the daughter of the ruling elite, trained to never pick up a ringing phone or travel without a driver. She wore traditional dresses and told friends about her vacations with Chinese leader Mao Zedong. In private, her constant homesickness brought her to tears.

During her four years at Harvard, Benazir Bhutto '73, the shy girl from Eliot House known as "Pinkie," prepared for her rise as a political trailblazer. As turbulence rocks her home country after her assassination on Thursday, classmates remember Bhutto as a student driven by her love for Pakistan and set apart by the vigor of her convictions.

When the 16-year-old Bhutto began at Harvard, she had her eyes on a degree in psychology, seemingly not interested in making politics an academic focus, said Anne Fadiman '74, a friend of Bhutto. But by senior year, Bhutto had switched to government and wrote a thesis on the origins of Pakistan, Fadiman said.

"Something got galvanized in her while she was at Harvard," Fadiman said. "The longer she spent away, the stronger her focus on Pakistan became."

Bhutto called Harvard "the very basis of my belief in democracy" in a 1998 Crimson interview.

Longtime friend and former U.S. Ambassador to Croatia Peter W. Galbraith '73 said that Bhutto on occasion felt the strain of balancing her identity as a "normal undergraduate" with her patriotism in an environment that did always not support her homeland.

Though she protested the Vietnam War on the Boston Common with her peers, "above all she was a defender of Pakistan, which was a fairly unpopular country at liberal Harvard" because of military assaults on civilians in present-day Bangladesh, Galbraith said.

While in Cambridge, Bhutto quickly accepted American culture—donning jeans and sweatshirts from the Coop, according to her memoirs—even if she did not fully assimilate into it, Fadiman said.

In Eliot House, classmates knew Bhutto for her cake-making skills, fervent patriotism, and "white-hot intensity," said Eliot House resident Bruce E.H. Johnson '73, now a Seattle lawyer. Bhutto was initially shy, he said, but she "became more and more interested and open to her colleagues at college."

Known for her wit, intelligence, and beauty, Bhutto was well liked within the dorm community, Fadiman said.

Bhutto showed both "extremely young innocence" and a mature, cosmopolitan worldview, Fadiman said. She was also a skilled orator, eventually becoming the first Asian female president of the Oxford Union, a prestigious debate team, during her graduate studies.

"Being able to speak beautifully had been part of the compulsory education for any politician in the 19th century," Fadiman said. "It no longer is, but it was for her."

Bhutto took her talent in communications to the doors of 14 Plympton St., hoping to write editorials for The Crimson, she said in 1998. The paper's editors at the time decided she was better suited for sports writing, but she was cut in the last round of the comp.

Bhutto maintained ties with Harvard after her graduation, delivering the 1989 Commencement address and donating $300,000 in 1995 to the Center for Islamic Studies at Harvard Law School.

In Pakistan, her political career took off, but not without hurdles.

In 1986, Fadiman attended a political rally in Pakistan and watched Bhutto speak, despite the threat of tear gas and arrest. She said that Bhutto appeared to believe "there were some things more important than one's own safety."

"She looked completely alive, and she did not look like someone who knew that she was going to spend that night and many nights thereafter in solitary confinement," Fadiman said, referring to Bhutto's imprisonment following the rally.

One of Bhutto's proudest accomplishments was breaking through the "glass ceiling" as a woman in a Muslim society, she told The Crimson in 1998. Bhutto became the first female prime minister of Pakistan and of any Islamic country in 1988 at the age of 35, a position she would fill twice.

After her second term as prime minister, Bhutto sought refuge in Dubai as an exile, driven out by charges of corruption. She may not have felt alive while in exile, Fadiman said, leading her back to her home country despite the volatile environment.

Bhutto returned from exile in October to lead her party in parliamentary elections, which are scheduled for Jan. 8. A sizeable victory for her party would have allowed her a third tenure as prime minister.

Bhutto's assassination has shaken Pakistan's political landscape and caused the government to consider postponing elections. At least nine have been killed by riots following her death, and analysts are pessimistic at best about the prospects for democracy.

"Her death is going to have a profoundly negative impact on the country of Pakistan," Galbraith said. "It is a borderline failed state and this risks pushing over the edge."

Fadiman hoped to see her college friend later this year when Bhutto came to the United States with her teenage daughter to visit colleges.

"Benazir was certainly not a perfect political leader, but she sure was a brave one," Fadiman said. "I think that she knew when she went back this time that there was a real chance she would be assassinated, but she went anyway."

—Jamison A. Hill contributed to the reporting of this story.
—Staff writer Aditi Balakrishna can be reached at balakris@fas.harvard.edu.

Here is the beginning of my post. And here is the rest of it.

September 26th, 1983: The day the world almost died

By TONY RENNELL - Stanislav Petrov, a lieutenant-colonel in the military intelligence section of the Soviet Union's secret service, reluctantly eased himself into the commander's seat in the underground early warning bunker south of Moscow.

It should have been his night off but another officer had gone sick and he had been summoned at the last minute.

Before him were screens showing photographs of underground missile silos in the Midwest prairies of America, relayed from spy satellites in the sky.

He and his men watched and listened on headphones for any sign of movement - anything unusual that might suggest the U.S. was launching a nuclear attack.

Scroll down for more .................

The year was 1983 and - as a history documentary in a primetime slot on Channel 4 next weekend vividly shows - the next six weeks would be the most dangerous the world has ever experienced.

That the U. S. and the Soviet Union had been on the brink of world war in 1962, when John Kennedy and Nikita Krushchev went head-to-head over missiles in Cuba, is well known. Those events were played out in public. The 1983 crisis went on behind closed doors, in a world of spies and secrets.

A quarter of a century later, the gnarled old veterans of the KGB, the Soviet Union's secret service, and their smoother counterparts from the CIA, the U.S. equivalent, have come out from the shadows to reveal the full story of what happened. And a chilling one it is. From their different perspectives, they knew the seriousness of the situation.

'We were ready for the Third World War,' said Captain Viktor Tkachenko, who commanded a Soviet missile base at the time. 'If the U.S. started it.'"

Here is the beginning of my post. And here is the rest of it.

As the 21sr Centyry Move On?

Pope's exorcist squads will wage war on Satan

By NICK PISA - More by this author » Last updated at 16:34pm on 29th December 2007

Comments (8)

Satanism on the rise: Pope Benedict has unveiled plans to set up specialist exorcism squads

The Pope has ordered his bishops to set up exorcism squads to tackle the rise of Satanism.

Vatican chiefs are concerned at what they see as an increased interest in the occult.

They have introduced courses for priests to combat what they call the most extreme form of "Godlessness."

Each bishop is to be told to have in his diocese a number of priests trained to fight demonic possession.

The initiative was revealed by 82-year-old Father Gabriele Amorth, the Vatican "exorcistinchief," to the online Catholic news service Petrus.

"Thanks be to God, we have a Pope who has decided to fight the Devil head-on," he said.

"Too many bishops are not taking this seriously and are not delegating their priests in the fight against the Devil. You have to hunt high and low for a properly trained exorcist.

"Thankfully, Benedict XVI believes in the existence and danger of evil - going back to the time he was in charge of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith." The CDF is the oldest Vatican department and was headed by Benedict from 1982, when he was Cardinal Ratzinger, until he became Pope in 2005.

Here is the beginning of my post. And here is the rest of it.

CORPORATISM

Lee … a response to a post by thehim.

From Wiki:

Historically, corporatism or corporativism (Italian: corporativismo) refers to a political or economic system in which power is given to civic assemblies that represent economic, industrial, agrarian, social, cultural, and professional groups. These civic assemblies are known as corporations (not necessarily the business model known as a 'corporation' though such businesses are not excluded from the definition either). Corporations are unelected bodies with an internal hierarchy; their purpose is to exert control over the social and economic life of their respective areas. Thus, for example, a steel corporation would be a cartel composed of all the business leaders in the steel industry, coming together to discuss a common policy on prices and wages. When the political and economic power of a country rests in the hands of such groups, then a corporatist system is in place

From Lee

@36
Piper,
Thank you for the 3rd-Grade-level rundown of this topic. We all appreciate it.

The purpose of government should be to zealously protect and maximize individual liberty and freedom, not subplant them all in the name of some amorphous “collective good” defined by…government.

What you don’t seem to understand is that many, many people understand that you can maximize liberty by developing institutions and systems that benefit all of society. Collectivism (either through corporations or through government institutions) can both lead to greater liberty. Trying to inhibit the creation of one or the other is the path to totalitarianism. When the corporate form of collectivism is demonized, you get Communism. When the government form of collectivism is demonized, you get Fascism. By misunderstanding the reality that corporations are a form of collectivism, you have been unwittingly supporting a political party that has been inching towards Fascism for the past few decades.

I think the exchange over at HA is missing a very important and threatening idea. Corporatism, the esseence of fascism, is a very real threat to liberal democracy. I would even bet that many Americans, liberal or conservative, would vote for the interests of their corporate ties above the interests of the nation.

First, it is importnta to understand that the modern usage of fascism to refer to the Nazi's is historically incorrect. Mussolini invented the concept of fascism. Hitler was anything BUT a fascist. Mussolini’s big idea was that the interests of large corporations and the government were congruent. He brought large corporations into the government fold. To achieve this model there had to be limits on freedom. While it is true that Mussolini glorified the Roman State, that was more a reflection of concurrent ideas of nationalism than a governing principle. indeed, under il Duce, Jews inter alia prospered. Some of what looks today like Italian racism , was simply the usual Eurocentric colonialist mentality.

Not only was there no connection to racism or supremacism, at this stage of Mussolini’s system and il Duce himself were widely feted by liberals (FDR and Gandhi esp) as a potential answer to communism.

If I look around the globe today, it seems to me that Mussolini is VERY successful. Contrary to Fukayama, Democracy as a model for state reform may not be the ultimate end of history. The success stories of the moment include China, Russia, Vietnam, Venezuela, Sweden, England, Cuba, …. While these states call themselves by different names, they are all in fact very similar to Mussolini’s Italy.

Let me suggest a different term, “corporatism.” Sounds better, no?

I define corporatism as government where corporate governance remains in “private hands” but the government itself is controlled by a cadre of folks from the same corporate leadership. In a corporate state, the state works to promote the needs of the corporations. Clinton’s concept of state “investments” is as corporatist as Putin’s engineering of “private” takeover for Yukoil.

The most dramatic examples in our current world are pretty obvious … Lenovo is owned and controlled by the Chinese Army, Putin has just, reportedly, hidden 40 BILLION he will still control after leaving the Presidency. Cuba makes national POLITICAL decisions that are int he interest of Cuba’s Communist Party which is also the management6 of Cuba’s industries. Back to the US, the push for national health care is to relieve the corporations of the burden of health care as they compete world wide.

I will not dwell on the danger of corporatism controlling the US as well. That seems obvious to me. Instead, let me point out some of the outcomes, based on traditions economics, of a corporate society.

Corporations’ own self interest which may or may not include the interest of the nation. Microsoft is a clear (and scary) example. The company exists for only one reason .. to make money for its stockholders and it does that by monopolistic efforts at controlling the internet.

Suppose Steve Balmer concluded that MS would be more functional if its headquarters were in Beijing? Under the rules of capitalism, MS SHOULD move! Of course, under the cocprate model, the same is true in reverse. Just as Boeing moves its management to Chicago to escape Union oversight in its home town, one can imagine Lukoil moving its headquarters to Basel where controls of capital are more secure than in Moscow.

The motto of a corporatist society is:

The fittest must survive.

As in Ec 101, the corporatist tells u8s that any other model hurts the people by being inefficient. The only difference is that in a corporatist state, the fitness of the corporation is more important than the fitness of the nations.

Let me point out that corporatism is utterly antagonistic to Hitlerism. There is no racism, nor nationalism in a corporatist state. The Corporate state exists for the benefit of the corporation(s). The Hitler state existed for the benefit of the Nazi racist ideals.

And Then There Was Edwards .......

Friday morning at a forum for undecided voters in Independence, Iowa, Edwards repeated his implicit criticism of Obama, saying any candidate who thinks he or she can invite corporate America to the table and achieve real results for Americans "is living in never-never land."

So he believes Barack Obama lives in never-never land?

"If he believes that, yes," Edwards said. "It's a little hard for me to tell sometimes based on the way he talks about this. I've heard him say he would give stakeholders a seat at the table. I assume he's talking about oil companies, drug companies and insurance companies."

Asked during the interview if he thought Obama or Clinton would be better at bringing about change were he not in the race, Edwards indicated his preference was Obama.

"One of them believes change is necessary and the system doesn't work, and the other defends the system," he said.

Story

Obama + Change = BUZZ

But Edwards had plenty critical to say about Obama as well, assailing comments made Friday by Obama's senior adviser David Axelrod that seemed to link Clinton's October 2002 vote to authorize the war in Iraq -- a vote Edwards cast as well -- with Bhutto's assassination. "She was a strong supporter of the war in Iraq, which I submit is one of the reasons we were diverted from Afghanistan, Pakistan and al Qaeda, who may still have been players in this event," Axelrod said.

Here is the beginning of my post. And here is the rest of it.

Xmas Brawling: Peace be Not 4 You

Antarctic base staff evacuated after Christmas brawl


Barbara McMahon in Sydney
Thursday December 27, 2007
Guardian Unlimited

Scientists at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole base
A file picture of scientists examining instruments at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole base. Photograph: Ernie Mastroianni/AP


Two men, one with a suspected broken jaw, have been airlifted from the Antarctic's most remote research facility after an incident described as a "drunken Christmas punch-up".

The brawl happened at the US-operated Amundsen-Scott South Pole station, located at the heart of the frozen continent. The station, where staff carry out a range of scientific investigations from astrophysics to seismology, is currently being rebuilt in a £76m project.

After reports of the fight reached staff at McMurdo station, the headquarters of the US Antarctic Programme, which is located on Ross Island, a US Air Force Hercules was sent to pick up the injured man and the other worker.

Peaceful Season?

Home > The News > Benazir Bhutto Assassinat...

Benazir Bhutto Assassinated: Chaos Erupts

AP | ASHRAF KHAN | December 28, 2007 02:20 PM

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Read More: Benazir Bhutto, Benazir Bhutto Assassinated, Benazir Bhutto Killed, Breaking Politics News, Bush Pakistan, Musharaff, Pakistan, Pakistan Crisis, Pakistan Democracy, Pakistan Opposition, Pakistan Uprising, Pervez Musharraf, Suicide Bombers, Breaking News

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The opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was buried at her ancestral village in southern Pakistan on Friday as riots that began after her assassination on Thursday continued across the country, leaving 23 people dead, including four security officers.

The government laid the blame for the combined shooting and suicide bomb attack on a militant with ties to Al Qaeda, and ordered the army deployed to Ms. Bhutto's home province of Sindh, where the worst violence occurred, including parts of the city of Karachi, as the protests descended into criminality and banks were ransacked, train carriages and cars set on fire, and shops looted and burned.

The government ordered an almost complete shutdown of services to try to prevent the violence from spreading. Officials suspended train services between Karachi and the Punjab province to the east, and most domestic flights were canceled. Gas stations across the country were closed, making it virtually impossible to make a journey by car any great distance. Roads were closed around the city centers where trouble was anticipated, and television and Internet services were down or only sporadic in most cities. With many Bhutto supporters openly blaming the government for the assassination, the Interior Ministry made the surprising announcement that Ms. Bhutto had died not from gunshots or shrapnel but from a skull fracture when she was thrown by the force of the suicide attack and hit her head on a lever of the car sun roof. Two high-level inquiries are being conducted into her death: one headed by the senior judiciary and one by high-level police and intelligence officials, said Brig. Javed Iqbal Cheema, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry.

Editor’s Note: The Pakistani blogsphere is not ready to beatify Benazir Bhutto into the Pakistani Aung San Suu Kyi like many in the West have done. But whether they supported her politics or not, they regard her assassination as a big step backward reports NAM contributor Ketaki Gokhale.

The frenzy over the assassination of Pakistani opposition party leader Benazir Bhutto has spilled over into the blogosphere, where emotions mirror the rising tides of violence in Lahore, Karachi and Rawalpindi, but are tempered with a strong dose of pragmatism.

Scholarly Work Before Bush

It should be noted that there was a George Bush who was a professor of Hebrew and Oriental Litterature at the New York City University (I guess this was the old name of CUNY) in the 1830s.

George Bush has authored a Grammar of the Hebrew language that has been digitalized by Google.

George Bush was also a Bible scholar. A notable work of George Bush is “The millenium of the Apocalypse“.

Great Photos From 2007

AND CARTOONS






Here is the beginning of my post. And here is the rest of it.

Sleepless in Seattle

Orexin A is a promising candidate to become a "sleep replacement" drug. For decades, stimulants have been used to combat sleepiness, but they can be addictive and often have side effects, including raising blood pressure or causing mood swings. The military, for example, administers amphetamines to pilots flying long distances, and has funded research into new drugs like the stimulant modafinil (.pdf) and orexin A in an effort to help troops stay awake with the fewest side effects.

The monkeys were deprived of sleep for 30 to 36 hours and then given either orexin A or a saline placebo before taking standard cognitive tests. The monkeys given orexin A in a nasal spray scored about the same as alert monkeys, while the saline-control group was severely impaired.

The study, published in the Dec. 26 edition of The Journal of Neuroscience, found orexin A not only restored monkeys' cognitive abilities but made their brains look "awake" in PET scans.

Siegel said that orexin A is unique in that it only had an impact on sleepy monkeys, not alert ones, and that it is "specific in reversing the effects of sleepiness" without other impacts on the brain.

Pakistan .... home f the Islamic Bomb

ASSASSINATED
PAKISTAN ERUPTS

from the Isreali POV:

There is no doubt that Pakistan needs democracy. However, the wrangling between Musharraf, Bhutto, Sharif and former Supreme Court president Iftikhar Chaudhary only strengthens the Taliban and other Islamists who are using the political vacuum to takeover sections of the countryside. This has become apparent in the Swat Valley, a formerly tranquil tourist destination where followers of Fazlullah recently captured the towns of Madayan, Matta and Kwazakhela.

Ultimately, if things continue along this path, the issues of democracy and democratization will become moot, as only one system and one voice is permitted under the Taliban: Islam and the mullahs.

The Effect on O8?

Still, the instant conventional wisdom will say that heavy news coverage of the gun and bomb attack will bolster the arguments of Sens. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.), both members of the Armed Services Committee.

Just yesterday, Clinton said in Iowa: “You never know what may happen in some part of the world that will create a real challenge to us here at home, here in Iowa."

Clinton also just unveiled a new ad, which opens with the image of a soldier's empty helmet and the words, "A nation at war."

It casts Clinton as "a leader with a steady hand."

McCain’s supporters see him as the adult in the race – someone who has more than a theoretical grasp of national security.

Happy Kwanza .. from Bush to us all.

Presidential Message: Kwanzaa 2007

White House News

I send greetings to those observing Kwanzaa.

Established in 1966, Kwanzaa is celebrated each year as an opportunity for African Americans to honor African traditions of family, community, and culture. During the seven days leading up to the New Year, millions of individuals reflect on the past and renew their commitment to the principles of Kwanzaa -- unity, self determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity, and faith.

As family and friends gather to celebrate Kwanzaa, our citizens are reminded of the many African Americans who have contributed their talent and strength to this great Nation. I commend those observing this holiday for taking pride in your rich heritage. May the coming year be filled with the blessings of health and happiness.

Laura and I send our best wishes for a joyous Kwanzaa celebration.

In the meantime, try this link: Annual 50 Worst People List

Hominid Views, the Roll'em Up Poll ... Can BO take TX?

I recommend the ongoing poll analysis by Darryl at Hominid Views. He uses polling data from across the US to create a meta analysis of how the presidential election would come out if held today, between a specific Rep and specific Dem.

I am sure that Darryl will tell you it is far too soon o take such polls seriously though it is fun that every analysis show the probability of any likely Dem beating any likely Rep by a huge level of significance .. in the 90 to 100% range!

What I find more interesting is the difference in the Obama maps vs. the other pairings. In this example, Barak beats Romney with a 100% certainty. More interesting, at this early time, is that Barak takes Texas!

I have seen a number of polls that suggest something like this. Obama is NOT "just{" the first African American candidate to vie for the Presidency, he is seen by many people as a very, very American candidate. I have seen polls where Republicans pick Barak as their favorite Dem! To many conservatives, this guy looks more like them than the Mormon or the Fundie Pastor.

If BO is the candidate, I predict a southern strategy. he may not win Texas but watch out for Virginia, Tennesee, North Carolina, and ... Georgia! Even if he does not win in those states, an effective presence will cost the Repoubs dollars they can not afford.

See thru Aluminum and Girly Guns

Death by Cute

Hello Kitty Expands Upon Arsenal With AR-15 Rifle

With previous releases, such as an AK-47 under it's belt, Hello Kitty looks poised to roll out a full army. This time around, some gun-loving nut put together a Hello Kitty-themed AR-15 assault rifle for his wife (how romantic) and posted the finished result on the interwebs for the world to see. It's so cute, it makes me want to shoot something. [Rifle Gear via Mobilewhack]

Ultrastrong and Stiff Layered Polymer Nanocomposites -- Podsiadlo et al. 318 (5847): 80 -- Science: "Ultrastrong and Stiff Layered Polymer Nanocomposites
Paul Podsiadlo,1 Amit K. Kaushik,2 Ellen M. Arruda,2,3 Anthony M. Waas,2,4 Bong Sup Shim,1 Jiadi Xu,5 Himabindu Nandivada,1 Benjamin G. Pumplin,2 Joerg Lahann,1,3,6 Ayyalusamy Ramamoorthy,5 Nicholas A. Kotov1,6,7*

Nanoscale building blocks are individually exceptionally strong because they are close to ideal, defect-free materials. It is, however, difficult to retain the ideal properties in macroscale composites. Bottom-up assembly of a clay/polymer nanocomposite allowed for the preparation of a homogeneous, optically transparent material with planar orientation of the alumosilicate nanosheets. The stiffness and tensile strength of these multilayer composites are one order of magnitude greater than those of analogous nanocomposites at a processing temperature that is much lower than those of ceramic or polymer materials with similar characteristics. A high level of ordering of the nanoscale building blocks, combined with dense covalent and hydrogen bonding and stiffening of the polymer chains, leads to highly effective load transfer between nanosheets and the polymer."

Here is the beginning of my post. And here is the rest of it.

by Laura Lundin
Air Force Research Laboratory Public Affairs

10/17/2005 - WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio (AFPN) -- Engineers here are testing a new kind of transparent armor -- stronger and lighter than traditional materials -- that could stop armor-piercing weapons from penetrating vehicle windows.

The Air Force Research Laboratory's materials and manufacturing directorate is testing aluminum oxynitride -- ALONtm -- as a replacement for the traditional multi-layered glass transparencies now used in existing ground and air armored vehicles.

Lets hope nobody tells GM. They might outsource car making to the chimps!

Current Biology -- Pruetz and Bertolani: "Although tool use is known to occur in species ranging from naked mole rats [1] to owls [2], chimpanzees are the most accomplished tool users [3, 4, 5]. The modification and use of tools during hunting, however, is still considered to be a uniquely human trait among primates. Here, we report the first account of habitual tool use during vertebrate hunting by nonhumans. At the Fongoli site in Senegal, we observed ten different chimpanzees use tools to hunt prosimian prey in 22 bouts. This includes immature chimpanzees and females, members of age-sex classes not normally characterized by extensive hunting behavior. Chimpanzees made 26 different tools, and we were able to recover and analyze 12 of these. Tool construction entailed up to five steps, including trimming the tool tip to a point. Tools were used in the manner of a spear, rather than a probe or rousing tool. This new information on chimpanzee tool use has important implications for the evolution of tool use and construction for hunting in the earliest hominids, especially given our observations that females and immature chimpanzees exhibited this behavior more frequently than adult males."

This is amazing. Lets hope nobody tells GM. They might outsource car making to the chimps!

Iowans are choosing four more years of Billary!

December 25, 2007

Poll: Obama, Huckabee slipping among Iowa men

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Call it an early Christmas gift for Hillary Clinton’s campaign: A new Iowa poll seems to show the New York senator with a stunning double-digit lead over her nearest rival among likely Democratic caucus-goers.

Clinton and Obama were neck-and-neck in last week’s American Research Group poll. But in the new survey, conducted December 20-23, she leads the Illinois senator by 15 percentage points, 34 to 19 percent. Obama is now in a statistical tie for second place with former North Carolina senator John Edwards, who has 20 percent of the vote.

According to the poll, Obama has lost some ground among male voters in Iowa: Last week, he led the field with 27 percent support, followed by 21 for Clinton and 19 for Edwards. This week, the leaders are Clinton and Edwards, with 28 and 27 percent support among Democratic men. Obama has 16 percent support, and Joe Biden has 11 percent.

Based on the role Bill has been playing, it begins to looks as if the Iowans are choosing four more years of Billary!

Impressive Endorsement for HRC

Joe Wilson "In the run up to the war and thereafter, I was in frequent discussions with senior Democrats in Washington, including Senator Clinton, and I was keenly aware of her demand for the full exercise of international diplomacy and allowing the weapons inspectors to complete their mission. Many of the most prominent early opponents of the war, including former General Wes Clark and former ambassador to the United National Richard Holbrooke support Senator Clinton for President, as do I. We do so because we know that she has the experience and the judgment that comes from having been in the arena for her entire adult life--and from close personal participation with her in the conduct of U.S. foreign policy. And we have trust in her to end the war in Iraq in the most responsible way, consistent with our national security interests.

We know that she has won and lost but always fought for her beliefs, which are widely shared within the Democratic Party. The battles she had been in have been fierce--and the battles in the future will be no less intense--and she has proven her steadfastness and is still standing. She does not have a cowardly record of voting "present" when confronted with difficult issues. She does not claim "intuition" as the basis of the most dangerous and serious decision-making. What she has is deep and vital experience, more important than ever in restoring our country's place in the world."

But Hillary Dumps her Advantage

MANCHESTER, N.H. - Hillary Clinton predicted Saturday that just electing her President will cut the price of oil.

When the world hears her commitment at her inauguration about ending American dependence on foreign fuel, Clinton says, oil-pumping countries will lower prices to stifle America's incentive to develop alternative energy."I predict to you, the oil-producing countries will drop the price of oil," Clinton said, speaking at the Manchester YWCA. "They will once again assume, once the cost pressure is off, Americans and our political process will recede."

Clinton argued that former President Jimmy Carter in the late 1970s actually started moving in the right direction toward energy independence, but his successor, Ronald Reagan, "dismantled" that work.Because costs were low, people didn't care, didn't complain," she said.

The problem with Jo Wilson's endorsement is that this is endorsing BILL not Hillary. In many ways her REAL experience is not that different than Obama's .. maybe not as good. She functioned for most of her professional liefe as Bill's wife. She used that position to make a living for them while he collected the meagre pay of an Arknasas governor. In that role she also pursued her own interests working with Margaret Wright Edelman's Children's Defence Fund. Fine enough but not all that much more impressive that Obama's career as a civil rights lawyer, community organizer and legislator. Do people really want to re-elect Bill or elect Hill?

Then we have this bizarre claim about energy. Sure, it is about time SOME d\Democrat point out that Reagan fucked our chance to use the magic of time to develop some response to the oil crisis. Bringing back Jimmy is a good thing .. at least in my book, BUT, what is all hell is she going to tell the Saudis et al? Is this the Clinton equivalent of Reagan's Star Wars promise? At least for now, the only effect of some American effort NOT to use oil would be to hurt our economy. In effect she would need to propose an energy tax .. not likely.

The other possibility, that frightens me, is that she believes in what she has said. This hypothesis has occurred to me before. It could be why she messed up health care. I hope, for her sake, that Xmas distractions will keep this bon mot off the sound bite circuit.

Anyhow .. I Ran into this Anecdote by Nathan Gardell's at Huff Post

Finally, a small footnote about Bill Clinton's remark that choosing Obama is "a roll of the dice." That is certainly what I thought of Bill Clinton when I first met the future president, then governor of Arkansas, at a small dinner at Stanley Sheinbaum's home in Los Angeles in honor of Flora Lewis, the legendary foreign affairs columnist for the New York Times. Hillary was also there. Both of the Clinton's sparkled with intelligence and energy, and most important, a sense that the time for change was right and they were the right people to lead it.

But, seemingly intimidated by Flora's vast foreign policy experience, I recall that both Clinton's talked mostly about education, only listening intently on foreign policy subjects. In fact, Bill Clinton was so quiet that someone said afterwards, "Boy, Hillary is really smart. Was that other guy
her bodyguard?"

Could this governor from a marginal state who undoubtedly intuited what the American public wanted at that moment really competently replace George H. W. Bush, the man who was ending the Cold War with a whimper instead of a bang, who ran the CIA and was the envoy to China, not to speak of Vice-President? "

So this is the dilemma. If Hillary is running as Bill II, then I am not sure I WANT to re-e;ect Bill Clinton. Actually the likely confusion of authority scares me.

If she is running as herself, then we have the need to know what she stands for. So far, however, that seems to me to be very vague. I WANT to believe that she is super smart and super competent but the evidence is that she is a very effective bureaucrat, NOT a policy maker. It seems to me the nations needs a leader, is she a leader?

The answer to Hillary's experience level, may have come in an International Herald Tribune article.:

Hillary Clinton puts her experience first

As first lady, Hillary Rodham Clinton jawboned the president of Uzbekistan to leave his car and shake hands with people. She argued with the Czech prime minister about democracy. She cajoled Catholic and Protestant women to talk to one another in Northern Ireland. She traveled to 79 countries in total, little of it leisure; one meeting with mutilated Rwandan refugees so unsettled her that she threw up afterward.

But during those two terms in the White House, Clinton did not hold a security clearance. She did not attend National Security Council meetings. She was not given a copy of the president's daily intelligence briefing. She did not assert herself on the crises in Somalia, Haiti or Rwanda. And during one of President Bill Clinton's major tests on terrorism, whether to bomb Afghanistan and Sudan in 1998, Clinton was barely speaking to her husband, let alone advising him, as the Lewinsky scandal dragged on.

In seeking the Democratic presidential nomination, Clinton lays claim to two traits nearly every day: strength and experience. But as the junior senator from New York, she has few significant legislative accomplishments to her name. She has cast herself, instead, as a first lady like no other: a full partner to her husband in his administration, and, she says, all the stronger and more experienced for her "eight years with a front-row seat on history."

....................

Clinton's role in her most high-profile assignment as first lady, the failed health care initiative of the early 1990s, has been well documented. Yet little has been made public about her involvement in foreign policy and national security as first lady. Documents about her work remain classified at the National Archives. Clinton has declined to divulge the private advice she gave her husband.

An interview with Hillary Clinton, conversations with 35 Clinton administration officials and a review of books about her White House years suggest that she was more of a sounding board than a policy maker, who learned through osmosis rather than decision-making, and who grew gradually more comfortable with the use of military power.