Pilot Season Webisode 3

^^

New Thread>

um...

peaches?

ecrasez l'infame

http://boards.history.com/topic/The-Future-Of/Book-Review-The/800034633

mhappenow. I'm happy to see you are drumming up business. Sounds like you are pretty busy.

Most news today on the Pandemic.

I'm searching for some fun news today. We all need a laugh!

Inbetween I'm sending MB some noooz for BlueRootsRadio.

Glad I'm off today!

Wednesday is my REno day. It started at 0. my hope is to be in Reno on Wed. and Thurs. once things take off.

gonna get an Iphone for convenience in both places. Plus it satisfies my geek obsession.

om mani padme hum

whenever I think of you I smile....

partly because I can never tell when you are serious.

and the rest because you are such a good and kind human who is really smart and "from the heart"

om mani padme hum

Outside the Embassy of Sudan, 5 US reps are arrested.

Just now on MSNBC

Will search for more news coz I caught the tail end of this.

WASHINGTON — Five members of Congress were jailed Friday after protesting outside the Sudanese Embassy over atrocities in the embattled Darfur region.
"The slaughter of the people of Darfur must end," Rep. Tom Lantos, D-Calif., a Holocaust survivor who founded the Congressional Human Rights Caucus, said from the embassy steps before his arrest.

Four other Democratic House members — Reps. James McGovern and John Olver of Massachusetts, Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas and Jim Moran of Virginia — were among 11 protesters arrested on charges of disorderly conduct and unlawful assembly, a misdemeanor subject to a fine.

The five lawmakers were released after being booked at a D.C. police station and paying $50 fines. During the protest, the five were willingly arrested and led away from the embassy front steps in plastic handcuffs.

"We must hold the Sudanese government accountable for the attacks they have supported on their own citizens in Darfur," Olver said.

At the White House, President Bush met with Darfur advocates on Friday and lent his support to rallies planned in more than a dozen cities around the country this weekend to protest the violence in the embattled western region of Sudan.

"The genocide in Sudan is unacceptable," Bush said. "There will be rallies across our country to send a message to the Sudanese government that the genocide must stop. ... I want the Sudanese government to understand the United States of America is serious about solving this problem."

Dozens of demonstrators carried signs, some reading "Stop the slaughter" and "Women of Darfur suffer multiple gang rapes," in front of the Sudanese Embassy Friday morning.

The protesters cheered as the Congress members and others were cuffed, hands behind their backs, and led to a white police van by uniformed Secret Service officers.

The arrests were expected. Lantos' office issued a news release about them in advance.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-04-28-protest_x.htm

Read the piece first with Digby's comments - C&L

Surreal.

You are right mhappenow. I guess MMR is right. If you are kidding you have to put up some snark warning or smiley.

elected officials would protest what is happening in Gaza.

Hey.

Your never off.
Get crackin on some damn links already.
and watch the sailor talk today.

been reading "Division Street : America " by Studs, makes me think of you.
ecrasez l'infame

bloggerati

Europeans urged to avoid US as swine flu toll exceeds 100 - GuardianUK

Willa Chen, a 17-year-old Canton High School senior in suburban Detroit, did what many believe is nearly impossible, she got perfect scores on the ACT, SAT and PSAT.

The College Board reports approximately one student in 5,000 taking the SAT gets a perfect score of 2,400, while the odds are a little better, one in 1,000, on the PSAT, The Detroit News reported. The other major college entrance test, the ACT, which comes from a contending organization, states the odds of a perfect finish are one in 14,000

http://www.efitnessnow.com/news/2009/04/26/willa-chen-scores-perfect-on-...

----

ecrasez l'infame

*

It's spelled phonetically...

It's not that hard...

Aaaagh!!!! :}

"Only the strong survived"
Submitted by 60th Street on Mon, 04/27/2009 - 9:36am.
Yes, while we're discussing evolution, let's ignore the fact that the bubonic plague is bacterial and that swine flu and AIDS are viral...
-----------
A little knowledge can be a dangerously presumptive thing.

Now if those
new
Submitted by Leah on Mon, 04/27/2009 - 12:01pm.

elected officials would protest what is happening in Gaza.

Really - WTF.

Dozens of CIA "Ghost Prisoners" Missing
By William Fisher

NEW YORK, Apr 24 (IPS) - At least three dozen detainees who were held in the CIA's secret prisons overseas appear to be missing – and efforts by human rights organisations to track their whereabouts have been unsuccessful.

The story of these "ghost prisoners" was comprehensively documented last week by Pro Publica, an online investigative journalism group.

In September 2007, Michael V. Hayden, then director of the CIA, said, "fewer than 100 people had been detained at CIA's facilities." One memo released last week confirmed that the CIA had custody of at least 94 people as of May 2005 and "employed enhanced techniques to varying degrees in the interrogations of 28 of these."

Former President George W. Bush publicly acknowledged the CIA programme in September 2006, and transferred 14 prisoners from the secret jails to Guantanamo. Many other prisoners, who had "little or no additional intelligence value," Bush said, "have been returned to their home countries for prosecution or detention by their governments."

...

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=46629

Thanks Nando
Submitted by mhappenow on Mon, 04/27/2009 - 11:54am.
...you are such a good and kind human who is really smart and "from the heart"
------------------
At the Wellness Center reception desk:

Brriiiiing. Brriiiiing.

"Hello? Yes she is. Please hold."

[clicks other line button]

"Hello, Michelle? It's Fernando's ex on line four."

"Hello, Michelle? It's Fernando's ex on line four."

om mani padme hum

Kinda flies at the face of "only the strong" surviving, donnit? :)

Maybe I shouldn't have said anything and just have let natural selection run its course...

(Liberalism...it ain't always gravy)

"this machine kills fascists"

UAV Helicopter Brings Finesse to Airstrikes
One shot, one kill, zero pilot. That's the goal of the Autonomous Rotorcraft Sniper System, a new unmanned helicopter that's controlled with an adapted Xbox 360 controller.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/military_law/4313331.html

which one?

the U.S. and Iraq's Religious Fundamentalists

http://ww4report.com/node/7183

...Paul Harvey moment...
Submitted by mhappenow on Mon, 04/27/2009 - 12:29pm.
------
Perfectly (and not surprisingly) perceived.

There's two sides to every story. Usually both of them are half wrong.

Myths Of The Torture Apologists

Last week, President Obama made headlines after suggesting that he would support a "bipartisan" commission to investigate President Bush's torture crimes, days after he released four Bush-era Office of Legal Counsel memos that detailed torture tactics used by CIA interrogators. These practices include slamming detainees against the wall, cramped confinement, sleep deprivation, the use of insects, and "the waterboard." Asked whether Obama should "investigate whether any laws were broken in the way terrorism suspects were treated under the Bush administration," 51 percent of the public said they would favor such an investigation. Meanwhile, advocates of torture -- led by Vice President Cheney -- are doing all they can to fill the public debate with misinformation in an attempt to push back against an investigation of Bush national security policies. After years of promoting secrecy in national security, for example, Cheney recently submitted a formal request for documents that he claims prove his point that torture prevented terrorist attacks. Cheney has also made multiple media appearances defending his and his boss's approval of torture. Today's Progress Report examines some of the myths about torture being promulgated by several Bush administration officials and other conservatives in recent weeks.

http://thinkprogress.org/2009/04/22/fleischer-sleep-deprivation/

http://thinkprogress.org/2009/04/25/perino-torture-waterboarding/

He sounded abit worried last week that not that many new people have signed up lately..

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

It's Fernando's ex on line four.
Submitted by Fernando on Mon, 04/27/2009 - 12:37pm.
which one?
---------
I was exercising satirical restraint as a courtesy.

Uniformed Secret Service officers put plastic handcuffs on Reps. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), John Lewis (D-Ga.), Donna Edwards (D-Md.), Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.), along with Save Darfur Coalition president Jerry Fowler and Enough Project co-founder John Prendergast after the group stepped behind yellow police tape in front of the embassy. - HuffPo

Crank Bait: There's two sides to every story. Usually both of them are half wrong.

***

The judge that presided over my divorce said it was probably fair if we both felt cheated in the settlement.

I just felt more cheated.

we don't get that here Crank. I thought you knew that.

The Far Right's Plot to Capture New Hampshire

By PAM MARTENS

One of the most audacious and cynical corporate-backed social experiments in living memory, the Free State Project in New Hampshire, has now shifted into damage control mode. Free State operatives learned this past week of my article that appears in the current subscription edition of CounterPunch, taking the first in-depth look at their plan to entice 20,000 out-of-state ultra libertarians and anarchists to move to New Hampshire and implant an extremist brand of free market capitalism: a brand the corporate backers hope will lead to a gutting of business regulations, environmental laws, and return the state to the right wing of the Republican fold. (Currently, all three branches in New Hampshire, known for its pivotal first primary status, are controlled by Democrats.)

An effort at damage control is playing out in the Free Staters’ internet pummeling of this author and a reporter at the Keene Sentinel newspaper in southern New Hampshire, Phillip Bantz, who made reference to the revelations in the CounterPunch piece along with an eyebrow raising quote from a Free Stater on legalizing cannibalism, a demand of some fringe Free Staters.

The attacks have not gone as planned. Over 128 reader responses are now registered in the Keene Sentinel, founded in 1799, which typically receives less than 20 responses to an article. Area residents, known for tolerance, are displaying pent-up fatigue and anger with the agenda of the Free Staters.

Some of the Free State participants call themselves anarcho capitalists, promoting an embrace of free markets and individual freedoms unencumbered by authority of the state. Free State members must formally agree to the premise that “government exists at most to protect people's rights, and should neither provide for people nor punish them for activities that interfere with no one else.” [1] This premise is widely interpreted by Free Staters to mean all tax supported social welfare programs must go, along with zoning and planning and building inspectors. Public education would be replaced with home schooling or private schools.
www.counterpunch.org

Free Stater Anarcho-Capitalists! WTF!

This is interesting to me in light of Cat Chew's posting of the political test that she posted the other day. Originally, Libertarian and Anarchist weren't such bad labels [Kind of like Liberal and Democrat and Republican used to be]. Noam Chomsky is a Libertarian and I believe he identifies it as Social Libertarian - much different than the Larry Kudlows of the world. Anarchy also had nothing to with violence and punk rockers; and was about self governing with no "leader" and no hierarchy - not a half bad idea, frankly. Neither Anarchists nor Libertarians would have ever identified with any kind of overly pro-capitalism idea.

satirical restraint
Submitted by Fernando on Mon, 04/27/2009 - 12:45pm.
we don't get that here...
--------
If you are waiting for me to relent and resort to winky emoticons as a symbolic "Get it?" and punctuation-perverted elbow jab in the ribs, you are gonna expire first.

I don't even say "Get it?" in person unless saying "Get it?" IS the joke.

I consider it to be a noble and valiant (and iconoclastic) challenge to write in such a manner as to convey the tenor of a passage without including subtitles of translation.

If I am misunderstood, I point the finger at myself first. (Although there are a few bumpheads who will consistently pull down my average...but whatta ya gonna do?)

As concerns mount about the prevalence and dangers associated with the swine flu, especially after Ohio's first case was confirmed on Sunday, the Ohio Pork Producers Council today issued a statement declaring pork safe to eat.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention "has stated humans cannot contract this strain of the virus from eating pork," the council said in a statement issued Monday. "Consumers should be confident in enjoying pork just as they always have."

The Council also noted that preliminary findings have not shown the virus coming from direct contact between pigs and humans. Still, the council urged Ohio pig farmers to practice proper hygiene and to ensure vaccinations for their pigs are up to date to help the flu virus from spreading here.

On Sunday, the Ohio Health Department confirmed a 9-year-old Lorain County boy, who had just come back from Mexico last Monday, had contracted the virus. His Elyria school is closed this week. The swine flu is believed to have started in Mexico where several deaths have been reported. There have been about two dozen of the cases reported in the United States but none have been fatal.

You know how the meanings of words get changed around and shift about. I try not to get hung up. Chomsky calls himself a libertarian socialist. In the abstract, libertarian is not bad. But they place faith that the market system will work well and provide if just left alone. Economic reality shows otherwise.

If you have never seen a 350 lb. sow sneeze, I am telling you that it's a wonder to behold.

or on the springer show?

"got to be jelly cause jam don't move like that."
- A. Lincoln

ecrasez l'infame

Hogs, Pork Bellies Plunge on Swine Flu Concern; Cattle Decline
Bloomberg - ‎20 minutes ago‎
-------------
Pork Bellies Plunge?

How is a humorist supposed to make a living with headline editors hogging all of the best puns?

Submitted by passiveconsumer on Mon, 04/27/2009 - 1:28pm.
--------
You owe me a setup.

(.beat.)

ecrasez l'infame

set you up with nando's ex.

line 9.

ecrasez l'infame

(as usual)

Why would anyone get excited over a flu strain that can be treated just like any other flu; that's only infected 1300 people? Maybe killing around 100?

The U.S. annually loses tens of thousands of flu victims every year. A quick Google search reveals the average to be over 30,000 deaths a year! (around 10 years ago, it was even as high as 60k)

We're getting ready to leave for Puerto Vallarta next week. I'm getting really irritated at these paranoid closures, especially in a state that has yet to confirm a case! (There are a whole 18 total 'suspected' cases in Jalisco)

Oh, and medical professionals are telling me that surgical masks will only accelerate the spread of the virus, as they are perfect breeding grounds with their warm dark confines so close to human bodies...

The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it. ~ George Bernard Shaw

Roy Ayers and Chaka Khan - Everybody loves the sunshine.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNdFIb4SbCs&feature=PlayList&p=26F97C9574...

ecrasez l'infame

I hadn't been to the Free Staters' site since the summer of 2003, when they were still discussing which state to "invade".

Upon reaching 5,000 commitments, the Free State Project conducted a vote to select the destination state from a field of ten candidates. On October 1, 2003 we announced that our participants had chosen New Hampshire as the future Free State

Since then, theyve added a whopping 4,206 participants (720 already in NH).
http://www.freestateproject.org/intro

From the CounterPunch piece:
Hopefully, this particular plan has been outed in just the nick of time.

guess i could
Submitted by passiveconsumer on Mon, 04/27/2009 - 1:38pm.
set you up with nando's ex.

line 9.

ecrasez l'infame
------------------
Contrary to popular opinion, I'd rather laugh at 'em than write 'em.

Thanks. Keep it up.

very smooth...

The 6.0-magnitude quake was centered near Chilpancingo, about 130 miles southwest of Mexico City or 50 miles from the resort of Acapulco, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. - MSNBC

This will certainly stir the pot some.

The US government is to take majority control of General Motors in a sweeping restructuring plan that involves more plant closures and job losses and an aggressive debt-for-equity swap. - FT

a few really sick people here...

Maron. Is. God.
www.sigzone.blogspot.com

Your the pot calling the kettle!

"The northern European descendants who survived the Black Death are less vulnerable to plague-like strains of disease.

BUT I REALLY HOPE THAT THE THE PEOPLE OF OTHER DESCENT SURVIVE A PLAGUE, YES. I REALLY DO. I HOPE THAT THE DEATHS ARE MINIMAL, AND I HOPE THAT THIS FLU IS CONTAINED."
^ the capitalized text is necessary only for the brain dead and deranged amongst us, and when actually written, comes off as sarcasm

BUT people will hate me regardless and interpret things as they will, so I'm in a lose-lose anyway.

Maron. Is. God.
www.sigzone.blogspot.com

It just dawned on me how the genetically-selected-for-resistance-to-all-bad-things argument is constructed:

1.) I was born.
2.) I am alive.
3.) Thus ipso facto magnifico.

The most glaring flaw in the Genetically Selected For Invincibility theory is the inability to see a flaw in the Genetically Selected For Invincibility theory.

(It might be a latent genetic vestige of the nerve impulse delay from brontosaurus tail to the reptilian-centered synapse, but I'd be guessing if I said it was so.)

Submitted by Crank Bait on Mon, 04/27/2009 - 2:31pm.

There is a reson why AIDS is more prevalant in black communities. It is written in text books. There is a reason why blacks (rightfully, in my opinion, given the malicious nature and history of our government) have conspiracy theories about it.

It's not opinion. I don't operate on opinions.

Maron. Is. God.
www.sigzone.blogspot.com

Do you really have to keep (poorly) defending one of the most inane posts I have ever seen you make here?

(yes, i'm embarrassed for you)

"this machine kills fascists"

I wonder how Sen. Katherine Harriss' sales of the Rapture hoodie is doing in Mexico City today?

I guess we will find out if we really are the chosen people as Mormon lore suggests if Nevado de Colima or Popocatepetl starts raining lava on people next.

Submitted by 60th Street on Mon, 04/27/2009 - 2:41pm.

I was imparting a bit of knowledge to you.
If you believe that it was in any way racist or insensitive or even incorrect then I must tell you that I couldn't give a fuck if you're embarassed.

Maron. Is. God.
www.sigzone.blogspot.com

is bio terrorism. it seems to have popped up out of no where at an awfully convenient time.

MONDAY APRIL 27, 2009 09:52 EDT

Jon Meacham's subservient defense of monarchical power
(updated below - Update II)

One of the few impressive abilities of establishment journalists is their aptitude at so rapidly embracing and so loyally reciting the standard Beltway script of conventional wisdom. Newsweek Editor Jon Meacham today has a new column on torture and prosecutions that is an almost exact replica of David Broder's and virtually every other column written by his fellow media stars [on the "torture debate," the Left and Right are the extremes; I'm above all of that and reside in the Serious middle; those who advocate prosecutions are leftists motivated by ugly vengeance; any investigations (like all important government proceedings) should occur only in secret and be devoted only to asking if torture works, etc. etc.]. But Meacham did manage unintentionally to express a thought that so perfectly reflects how they think that it's worth noting (h/t Retired Military Patriot; emphasis added):

"And to pursue criminal charges against officials at the highest levels—including the former president and the former vice president—would set a terrible precedent. . . . That is not to say presidents and vice presidents are always above the law; there could be instances in which such a prosecution is appropriate, but based on what we know, this is not such a case."

Presidents and Vice Presidents aren't "always above the law" -- just most of the time. It's possible to imagine some extreme hypothetical case where it might be reasonable to want to impose accountability when the President commits crimes, but such a case is so unthinkably rare -- so theoretical -- that it's not even worth describing what that situation might be. That's the only view that can be heard on Meet the Press -- the masses must understand that it's wrong to treat Presidents the same way that ordinary citizens are treated when they break the law -- and Meacham was on yesterday with David Gregory to deliver that very message without challenge, the second consecutive week that show presented a unanimous panel endorsing presidential immunity for lawbreaking.

...

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/

"Facts are stubborn things." -John Adams.
Submitted by M the a-c on Mon, 04/27/2009 - 2:37pm.
------
You could very well be the result of genetic luck in the Middle Ages but the assumption that it correlates in any way with Twenty First Century strains of organisms (bacteria) and non-living viruses, both of which can mutate faster than you can say "I have a runny nose," is ridiculous.

And the criticism sent your way is, as dr uncharitably cited, due to your inability to see the inappropriateness and revealing nature of a comment lacking any context to make it less damning.

Whether it is strictly a misunderstanding or a true peek into your soul does not matter to me. What matters to me is that we all write unclearly or too revealingly on occasion but we usually squash it before it goes public.

It makes little difference if you don't think you blew it. If nearly everyone else sees it differently than you do, you blew it. It's the tree that was heard falling in the forest because it dropped like a rock.

Arguing that you did not blow it only serves to confirm the charge that you are too blind to see. I no longer try to defend myself against overwhelming consensus because it is insane to claim that I wrote correctly and everyone else read it incorrectly. Somebody did something wrong and the odds are that it was not everyone except me.

Lose the Maron pic. The reasons should be obvious to you. If you are not War Dog, just think about his path in here.

Run your mouth all you want, IMO. But, it would be a good idea to lose the pic.

TPM mentioned that the Mexico strain was substantially more virulent than the American one.

Also, there is the Rumsfeld-Tamiflu connection.

And, I've read some stuff about how the timing of this pushes the torture memo discussion out of the spotlight.

That's pretty much the only hints I've seen of any "quirks" surrounding the event.

Sorry no links, but I gotta run. When I get back, I'll track 'em down.

"this machine kills fascists"

Polls show that the ranks of atheists are growing. The American Religious Identification Survey, a major study released last month, found that those who claimed “no religion” were the only demographic group that grew in all 50 states in the last 18 years. - NYT

A favorite Pastafarian activity is to gather at a busy crossroads on campus with a sign offering “Free Hugs” from “Your Friendly Neighborhood Atheist.”

"You could very well be the result of genetic luck in the Middle Ages but the assumption that it correlates in any way with Twenty First Century strains"

Human Immunodeficiency Virus= 20th/21st century; less vulnerable to acquiring it

next brilliant assumption

"It makes little difference if you don't think you blew it. If nearly everyone else sees it differently than you do, you blew it."

I couldn't disagree more. Morons on this board have misinterpreted factual points that I made only to admit that they were incorrect later.
It's psychological. Do you really think that the obese, brain dead fuck in Seattle is going to side with me or even attempt to understand my point of view? Do you think that toniD is going to side with me? Do you think that you, being a friend of dr, are going to side with me?

Duurrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

And again, it doesn't matter if I'm actually correct-- which I have been about Malloy, which I have been about Hartmann, which I have been about Nietzsche, which I have been about any host of issues that you people had some sort of emotional investment in in some way. I was right... and you thought I was wrong.

Maron. Is. God.
www.sigzone.blogspot.com

And I want to add one more thing:

Speaking of mutation, AIDS, which is the only disease that I have made mention of here, mutates constantly in its host. It is its nature.

WE ARE TALKING ABOUT CONTRACTION OF A DISEASE.

Come back when you have facts.

Maron. Is. God.
www.sigzone.blogspot.com

Let's test people's knowledge of a disease.

Can anyone tell me why AIDS is more prevalent amongst gays? I want one of the geniuses who has disagreed with me here to Google this then post it here.

Maron. Is. God.
www.sigzone.blogspot.com

"BUT people will hate me regardless and interpret things as they will, so I'm in a lose-lose anyway."

**

enough said.

No, you seem to operate on searingly ridiculous assumptions and burning narcissism.

(kudos!)

"this machine kills fascists"

Submitted by Catharine on Mon, 04/27/2009 - 3:23pm.
"BUT people will hate me regardless and interpret things as they will, so I'm in a lose-lose anyway."

Haha. You get it.

So why do I try it here? I'm out for now. :)

Maron. Is. God.
www.sigzone.blogspot.com

That's why I've been saying I have a tin foil hat for this news of the swine flu.

I keep thinking of the things gone missing from the labs recently.

And the mixture they are saying is suspect. A combination of Swine flu, Avian or bird flu, and regular flu.

It just struck me as very strange.

How and where did they combine? And can they combine on their own?

rendered by Sid Vicious
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIXg9KUiy00

by Chris Hedges

Barack Obama has squandered his presidency. He had a fleeting moment to challenge the casino capitalism and financial recklessness of our economic and political elite. He could have orchestrated a state socialism that would have provided a safety net for tens of millions of Americans faced with dislocation and misery. The sums he has doled out to Wall Street could have been used to force companies to keep workers on the job or create new banks to open up credit. But he lacked the foresight and the courage to challenge entrenched power. And now we are headed down one of two frightening roads-massive deflation or hyperinflation. Neither will be pleasant........
......Deflation or hyperinflation will be our nemesis. These are the only two options left. The speculators on Wall Street and in the White House are again rolling the dice. But be assured that no matter what combination comes up we are going to be fleeced.

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/04/27-1

(There is another option: Hype up a real war with Pakistan to create jobs. And watch the Dems support it.)

kinda like the unsolved anthrax mystery.

Wayne Madsen: New swine flu feared to be weaponized strain
http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_4631.shtml

(via Prison Planet)

that would be consistent with the higher level of virulence.

New blow for dinosaur-killing asteroid theory

National Science Foundation

Impact didn't lead to mass extinction 65 million years ago, geologists find

The enduringly popular theory that the Chicxulub crater holds the clue to the demise of the dinosaurs, along with some 65 percent of all species 65 million years ago, is challenged in a paper to be published in the Journal of the Geological Society on April 27, 2009.

The crater, discovered in 1978 in northern Yucutan and measuring about 180 kilometers (112 miles) in diameter, records a massive extra-terrestrial impact.

When spherules from the impact were found just below the Cretaceous-Tertiary (K-T) boundary, it was quickly identified as the "smoking gun" responsible for the mass extinction event that took place 65 million years ago.

It was this event which saw the demise of dinosaurs, along with countless other plant and animal species.

However, a number of scientists have since disagreed with this interpretation.

The newest research, led by Gerta Keller of Princeton University in New Jersey, and Thierry Adatte of the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, uses evidence from Mexico to suggest that the Chicxulub impact predates the K-T boundary by as much as 300,000 years.

"Keller and colleagues continue to amass detailed stratigraphic information supporting new thinking about the Chicxulub impact, and the mass extinction at the end of the Cretaceous," says H. Richard Lane, program director in the National Science Foundation (NSF)'s Division of Earth Sciences, which funded the research. "The two may not be linked after all."

From El Penon and other localities in Mexico, says Keller, "we know that between four and nine meters of sediments were deposited at about two to three centimeters per thousand years after the impact. The mass extinction level can be seen in the sediments above this interval."

Advocates of the Chicxulub impact theory suggest that the impact crater and the mass extinction event only appear far apart in the sedimentary record because of earthquake or tsunami disturbance that resulted from the impact of the asteroid.

"The problem with the tsunami interpretation," says Keller, "is that this sandstone complex was not deposited over hours or days by a tsunami. Deposition occurred over a very long time period."

The study found that the sediments separating the two events were characteristic of normal sedimentation, with burrows formed by creatures colonizing the ocean floor, erosion and transportation of sediments, and no evidence of structural disturbance.

The scientists also found evidence that the Chicxulub impact didn't have the dramatic impact on species diversity that has been suggested.

At one site at El Penon, the researchers found 52 species present in sediments below the impact spherule layer, and counted all 52 still present in layers above the spherules.

"We found that not a single species went extinct as a result of the Chicxulub impact," says Keller.

This conclusion should not come as too great a surprise, she says. None of the other great mass extinctions are associated with an impact, and no other large craters are known to have caused a significant extinction event.

Keller suggests that the massive volcanic eruptions at the Deccan Traps in India may be responsible for the extinction, releasing huge amounts of dust and gases that could have blocked out sunlight and brought about a significant greenhouse effect.

************************************

What Earth Day Really Means

The Earth has been trying to kill us since God put us here. First the Earth killed all the Dinosaurs that God made because they were not made from the earth and too stupid to make the wheel …then God made man out of Mud (earth) so we could combat Earth … like eating the heart of your enemy gives you his strength.

All living things are constantly being attacked by Earth (I.e.) Hurricanes, Volcanoes, Tornados, Earthquakes, Fire and Storms. It is time to attack the Earth before it destroys us all …. That’s why on this Earth Day we should never forget what we are really here for……the total annihilation of the Earth.

Free Democracy

I'm not sold on Wayne Madsen but, you never know. I just have this feeling on this one.

But where is it coming from? US, other nation?

It reminds me of all those disaster movies about viruses that they made a few years back.

Submitted by M the a-c on Mon, 04/27/2009 - 3:19pm.
...It's psychological. Do you really think that the obese, brain dead fuck in Seattle is going to side with me or even attempt to understand my point of view? Do you think that toniD is going to side with me? Do you think that you, being a friend of dr, are going to side with me?

Duurrrrrrrrrrrrrrr...
-------------------
Wow. I'm stunned. I have to hand it to you because I am rarely stunned by anything these days.

And I am siding with you all the way: It IS psychological. Through and through. Lock, stock and barrel.

Well...not entirely. Part of it is a plain ol' sophomoric tendency to take a little bit of information and extrapolate like a wild man well beyond the cautionary and empirical nature of science.

The rest of it is a psychological curiosity.

One Israeli leader has single-handedly assured that swine flu will never come to Israel:

Israel's (ultra-Orthodox) deputy health minister has deemed it unkosher. At least the name.

"We will call it Mexican flu," said Yakov Litzman, the deputy health minister. "We won't call it swine flu."
http://washingtonbureau.typepad.com/jerusalem/2009/04/swine-flu-deemed-u...

Submitted by Kevin © on Mon, 04/27/2009 - 3:52pm.
New blow for dinosaur-killing asteroid theory
--------------
Is it just me or, first thing, does everyone else pass the cursor over Kevin's links to see if we're being Onion-ized?

If Kevin tried to save us by screaming "Fire!" on this crowded blog, everyone would die laughing.

(Bless you, Kevin.)

“We’ll race like this until we kill somebody,” Edwards said Sunday, “then (NASCAR) will change it.” - MSNBC

1987

If you incinerate Cedar Creek, you incinerate the serum.
Billy, can you hear me?
Why don't you do something? Don't kill these people to protect your lie.
This is murder, anyway you fucking slice it!
If you manipulate the truth, the Constitution...
then it's not just a town you're killing, but part of the American soul.

Outbreak '96

http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2009-04-27-pew-religion-switch_N.h...

UAE 'boosting military imports'

The United Arab Emirates has become the world's third-largest importer of weapons after China and India, rising from 16th place in just four years, a Swedish think tank has reported.

The UAE has become the biggest importer of arms in the Middle East, receiving 34 per cent of weapons sent to the region,...

The institute also revealed that the volume of weapons being exported to the Middle East has risen by more than a third in the past four years.

Sipri warned that this trend threatens to destabilise the region further.

Pieter Wezeman, a researcher for the institute, said: "While we are a long way from the levels [of imports] reached in the early to mid-1980s, this is still a worrying trend in a region beset by multiple sources of potential conflict and limited intergovernmental trust and transparency".

Sipri found that Israel was the second largest receiver of arms in the Middle East, with 22 per cent of the region's imports, followed by Egypt with 14 per cent.

Iran accounted for only five per cent of transfers to the Middle East for 2004 to 2008.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/04/200942795028699537....

That describes so much here, Crank.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oseltamivir

That's kinda scary CC

Oh yes, but. there're oodles and oodles of scary things out there.
Eventually, one of them is going to get us. Dang!
For now, if you haven't read Stephen King's The Stand: DON'T!

Here in NYC where we've had a bad outbreak at a St. Francis school where a lot of kids traveled to Mexico for Spring Break. I think they have about 100 cases confirmed so far, and they closed the school to clean it.

However, the strain here is supposedly not that virulent.

Disgruntled Japanese turn to resurgent communists

Web-savvy Japanese Communist party's message of welfare and jobs lures young voters away from sleazed-mired political mainstream

Faced with an economy in steep decline, rising unemployment and an uncertain future, a growing number of Japanese are shunning the conservative consensus and turning instead to a new brand of cuddly communism.

While the leaders of Japan's two main political parties battle poor opinion poll ratings and accusations of sleaze, the Japanese Communist party (JCP) has seen its fortunes transformed after years of being dismissed as an irrelevant hangover from the cold war.

In the last 16 months membership has soared to more than 410,000 as the revamped party courts younger voters from the working poor. Of the 14,000 ­people to have joined since the end of 2007, about a quarter are aged under 30, the party says. That contrasts with the ruling Liberal Democratic party (LDP), whose membership has plummeted from 5 million at its peak to about a million today.

By dispensing with ideological rhetoric and focusing on welfare and jobs, the JCP has struck a chord with students, the unemployed and the estimated 10 million Japanese earning less than 2m yen (about £14,000) a year.

Yasuhisa Wakabayashi is typical of the new Japanese communist. The 23-year-old Yokohama factory worker joined the party in January. "Unlike the mainstream parties, the communists aren't interested in seeking donations from major corporations," he said. "They talk about education and welfare and the problems of ordinary people. And they are honest."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/apr/27/japanese-communist-party-res...

Congress to probe swine flu outbreak

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano is to testify on the matter before a Senate panel on Wednesday. Across the Capitol a day later, other health experts are scheduled to tell a House subcommittee about the risk of the flu spreading.

The swiftly organized hearings were inspired by the outbreak of 40 cases of swine flu in the U.S, half of those in New York City. So far, no one in the U.S. is known to have died from the illness.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/8476884

Karl Rove, conservative Republicans, and Susan Collins opposed money spent on pandemic preparedness

by John Aravosis (DC) on 4/27/2009 10:01:00 AM
Now that we're in the middle of a public health emergency, the media might want to be asking the Republicans some questions about this:
When House Appropriations Committee chairman David Obey, the Wisconsin Democrat who has long championed investment in pandemic preparation, included roughly $900 million for that purpose in this year's emergency stimulus bill, he was ridiculed by conservative operatives and congressional Republicans....

[T]he arguments former White House political czar Karl Rove advanced in February to frame opposition to the stimulus package Obey crafted in the House....

Rove specifically complained that Obey's proposal included "$462 million for the Centers for Disease Control, and $900 million for pandemic flu preparations."

Who helped lead the charge against emergency disease preparedness in the Senate? None other than Maine Republican Susan Collins, who Joe has always argued is a conservative in moderate's clothing:
Famously, M
aine Senator Susan Collins, the supposedly moderate Republican who demanded cuts in health care spending in exchange for her support of a watered-down version of the stimulus, fumed about the pandemic funding: "Does it belong in this bill? Should we have $870 million in this bill No, we should not."

Even now, Collins continues to use her official website to highlight the fact that she led the fight to strip the pandemic preparedness money out of the Senate's version of the stimulus measure.

This part is especially bad:
Obey and other advocates for the spending argued, correctly, that a pandemic hitting in the midst of an economic downturn could turn a recession into something far worse -- with workers ordered to remain in their homes, workplaces shuttered to avoid the spread of disease, transportation systems grinding to a halt and demand for emergency services and public health interventions skyrocketing. Indeed, they suggested, pandemic preparation was essential to any responsible plan for renewing the U.S. economy.

http://www.americablog.com/2009/04/karl-rove-conservative-republicans-an...

Masters of disaster

So Bobby Jindal makes fun of “volcano monitoring”, and soon afterwards Mt. Redoubt erupts. Susan Collins makes sure that funds for pandemic protection are stripped from the stimulus bill, and the swine quickly attack.

What else did the right oppose recently? I just want enough information to take cover.

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/27/masters-of-disaster/

>>Do you really think that the obese, brain dead fuck in Seattle is going to side with me or even attempt to understand my point of view?

gang...stop feeding this troll. he's obviously trying to get us rankled, otherwise why would he be baiting this unnamed fat Seattlite?

If this isn't an obvious cry for negative attention, nothing is.
*************************

"The Once and Future Rajah of Bhong."

* "Humanitarian Aid Is Not a Crime" - Activist Fights Littering Charge for Leaving Water Jugs in Desert along Arizona-Mexico Border *

The Sonora Desert along the Arizona-Mexico border is a deadly place. Over the past decade, nearly 2,000 men, women and children died while trying to cross the border into Arizona. Dan Millis is a volunteer with the humanitarian and advocacy organization No More Deaths. In February of 2008, he found the body of a fourteen-year-old girl from El Salvador in the southern Arizona desert. Two days later, as he was leaving gallon-sized sealed jugs of water along the same migrant trails, he was ticketed for littering by the US Fish and Wildlife Service. He refused to pay the $175 fine and fought the littering ticket misdemeanor charge on the grounds that humanitarian aid is not a crime.

Listen/Watch/Read
http://www.democracynow.org/2009/4/27/humanitarian_aid_is_not_a_crime

Air Force One photo op causes panic in New York

Defence department version of Barack Obama's plane flies near the site of the September 11 attacks

A Boeing 747 used by Barack Obama was escorted over lower Manhattan by two US air force fighter jets Monday as part of a government photo opportunity, causing a brief scare among office workers near the site of the September 11 terrorist attacks.

Workers from several office buildings poured out onto the streets before they learned that the flights were innocuous.

John Leitner, a floor trader at the New York Mercantile Exchange Building, said about 1,000 people "went into a total panic" and ran out of the building around 10am after seeing the planes whiz by their building, near the World Trade Centre site.

"Apparently, nobody in the building was informed that this was going to happen," he said.

"Everyone panicked, as you can certainly understand."

He said the workers gathered along the Hudson river until a security officer with a bullhorn told them it was a planned exercise.

The US federal aviation administration said the government was conducting a photo opportunity involving two air force F-16 jets and the larger airplane, a defence department version of the 747 that is called Air Force One when the president is aboard. It said it notified city law enforcement about the mission.

The New York police department said the flight "was authorised by the FAA for the vicinity of the Statue of Liberty, with directives to local authorities not to disclose information about it, but to direct all inquiries to the FAA".
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/apr/27/air-force-one-new-york-septe...

>>Do you really think that the obese, brain dead fuck in Seattle is going to side with me or even attempt to understand my point of view?

(he's talking about me, isn't he?)
*************************

"The Once and Future Rajah of Bhong."

>>Do you really think that the obese, brain dead fuck in Seattle is going to side with me or even attempt to understand my point of view?

Not when you put it that way.
*************************

"The Once and Future Obese, Brain Dead Fuck in Seattle."

I scroll by some posts so I might have missed this.

Mickey the ACk...

I think he wanted to draw me into the whole `I can't get AIDS, I'm white' argument he's having.
*************************

"The Once and Future Rajah of Bhong."

Submitted by M the a-c on Mon, 04/27/2009 - 3:19pm.
...Do you think that you, being a friend of dr, are going to side with me?...
---
I can't let the jewel above pass without comment.

Most people understand what I am about to say without needing me to say it. That is important to know at the outset.

I have never met dr, never spoken to him on a telephone and we don't have one another on a gift list. He is among my most dedicated and deadly critics and I like to think of myself as equally threatening to him or, at least, a presence that provokes him to get it as right as he can under pressure.

Both of us give others a pass for minor goof-ups, poorly constructed comments and bad logic that we refuse to give one another. The giddy thrill of eviscerating a boneheaded conclusion makes presenting an idea an anxiety-ridden risk.

It is negative conditioning that encourages thoughtful consideration prior to punching "Post." Getting it right scores zero. Getting it wrong unleashes alphabetical noogies.

If you want to get a powerful taste of having a real target on your back, jump into the next spirited conversation and try to keep up without having your pants pulled down and your shirt pulled up over your face.

That's where we separate the men from the boys, although I admit that the imagery is a tad confusing.

Now, if you will excuse me, I have a wedgie from a previous engagement to dislodge.

The World Health Organization has raised its pandemic alert level in response to the outbreak of swine flu that originated in Mexico, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said today. The move means the world body has found the virus is capable of significant human-to-human transmission. WHO earlier said 73 cases have been confirmed worldwide. Forty of those are in the U.S

http://www.cnn.com/

......and involved the shooting of students by members of the Ohio National Guard on Monday,

Monday April 27 2009......

Police say a weekend brawl and riot near Kent State University in Ohio started with the arrest of a female for underage drinking.

COLLEGE PARK, Md. (AP) — The National Security Agency did not place a wiretap that reportedly intercepted phone conversations made by Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif., the top U.S. intelligence official said Monday.

Dennis Blair, the national intelligence director, declined to say which agency requested the reported wiretap and oversaw the information gleaned from Harman's conversations. Blair was speaking at the dedication of a new intelligence research facility.

The only other agency that has authority to place wiretaps on calls inside the United States is the Justice Department. It requires court approval.

Media reports have suggested the California congresswoman was overheard in an NSA wiretap seeking lenient treatment for two former pro-Israel activists. The activists were later indicted on federal charges of unlawfully possessing and disclosing classified information.

Harman has asked the Justice Department to release a transcript of the intercepted phone conversation, which occurred before 2006.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iGsRpfwoIAyFFUEw1Tqbv-...

Hmmmm!

wine and cheese pairings....

Should one serve nacho with Merlot or Bordeaux?

they do rhyme...
*************************

"The Once and Future Rajah of Bhong."

Submitted by Chubby Bubba on Mon, 04/27/2009 - 4:45pm.
...he's obviously trying to get us rankled, otherwise why would he be baiting this unnamed fat Seattlite?
--------
It's a good thing he didn't mention fish or it could have gotten personal.

GE unveils breakthrough micro-holographic disc that will have capacity of 100 DVDs

NISKAYUNA — Scientists at GE Global Research announced today the development of a computer disc capable of holding 20 times the data contained on a Blu-ray disc, or 100 times the capacity of a regular DVD, a technological breakthrough expected to revolutionize optical storage technology.

“We have gone from surface storage to volume storage,” said Brian Lawrence, a research scientist who leads GE’s Holographic Storage program.

The discs can hold 500 gigabytes, equal to the capacity of 20 single-layer Blu-ray discs, 100 DVDs or the hard drive for a large desktop computer. A gigabyte is equal to 114 minutes of uncompressed CD-quality audio.

“The day when you can store your entire high definition movie collection on one disc and support high resolution formats like 3-D television is closer than you think.”

http://www.dailygazette.com/news/2009/apr/27/0427_disc

Submitted by Crank Bait on Mon, 04/27/2009 - 4:57pm.

It's not a philosophical statement. It's not extrapolation from miniscule scientific evidence. It's not some wild theory I constructed when I was twenty.

It's something that a man-- a medical doctor who probably had a 160 I.Q.-- told a class of students at a university as he referenced the material in a college textbook. In my post-college days I am too lazy to Google search for a credible source that would back me up. But the fact is that no one has disproven me. The fact is no one will. The fact is no one has even answered my question about why the prevalance of AIDS is higher amongst gay men.

The fact is the people who disagreed with the factual point don't know shit about biology, genetics or disease.

So there. End of.

Maron. Is. God.
www.sigzone.blogspot.com

WHO raises alert level over swine flu
Submitted by toniD on Mon, 04/27/2009 - 4:58pm.
----------
#4.) Bait could not possibly post this headline without revisiting an ancient joke.

Back for a bit. If not for anything else than to pick a fight....

Mac, why don't you go to Mexico and test your "immuno-eugenics" theories...?

(and yes Glory, I just made that word up)

***

Satirical Restraint...is that like Tantric Comedy?

***

Uh, Chubbs...Sangria?

"I am NOT drinking any fucking Merlot!!!"

Everything is being put on discs but technology keeps changing.

A thousand years from now, will they be able to take our outdated discs and read them? Some books and scrolls have lasted centuries but what about the discs?

As phone company workers gird for a possible strike, a National Labor Relations Board official has slammed AT&T for refusing to bargain in good faith.

The ruling by Jonathan Kreisberg, acting regional director of the NLRB in Hartford, represents a step forward for a union that’s locked in a battle with AT&T to retain jobs in Connecticut...

AT&T “has been failing and refusing to bargain collectively and in good faith” with its union representatives, Kreisberg found.

http://www.newhavenindependent.org/archives/2009/04/nlrb_backs_unio.php

27 Apr 2009 09:43:08 AM

ISTBANGALORE: As the Obama government gets ready to raise a protectionist wall against offshoring, the US firms seem to be shipping more jobs to India.

The US firms have offshored 22,000 green technology jobs to India since January 1, 2009, Doug Brown, co-author of the influential 2009 Green Outsourcing Report, informed TNIE.

“We see the (green job offshoring) trend increasing as the US and the UK outsourcing buyers are seeking lower cost in labour and energy consumption. There are few suppliers who match credentials and outcomes of Indian firms,” he said.

The annual industry study by Brown-Wilson Group, which surveyed 4,000 global firms, was released last week.

The report lists Patni, HCL, WNS, Wipro, Mastech and Tech Mahindra among important Indian green vendors who are benefiting from the offshoring wave.

Among the non-Indian firms, Xerox, Accenture, IBM Global, CSC, Capgemini, Oracle, HP/ ED S, Aramark, SITEL and Perot lead the list.

As most of these firms run large delivery centres in India, the boom in their green offshoring business is expected to further create jobs in India.

http://www.expressbuzz.com/edition/story.aspx?Title=US+offshores+22,000+...

They should be taxed for this. Taxes to equal the savings they get by offshoring.

I guess I could get a link, but I figure you've heard it already...

This morning over lower Manhattan [you know... where the World Trade Center used to be] people saw a passenger plane flying very low followed closely by two jet fighters.

Needless to say, many people ran out of their buildings once they saw it, fearing the worst.

Turns out it was a photo-op of the President's Plane [AirForce One?] and the plane followed closely by the two fighters circled quite a bit, and quite low. How stupid can you get?

No wait, don't answer that.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/27/AR200904...

Submitted by M the a-c on Mon, 04/27/2009 - 5:10pm.
...The fact is no one will. The fact is no one has even answered my question about why the prevalance of AIDS is higher amongst gay men.
---------------
Okay, Michael. If you want to play with the big boys, you're gonna have to take your licks like an adult.

Among the zillions of documents having evidence refuting your sophomoric assumptions, following please find a link to but one. Consider yourself depantsed.

I will hold back on the wedgie pending your acknowledgement of presenting a boneheaded bit of misinformation.

Note the concluding sentence under the 1970's timeline, "The world’s first heterosexually-spread HIV epidemic had begun."

http://www.avert.org/history-aids-africa.htm

NEW DELHI: Yahoo is hiring for hundreds of job openings including nearly 150 vacancies in India, even as the internet major is set to bring down its global workforce by about 675 employees.

"We are currently hiring for key positions and will continue to invest in strategically important areas," a Yahoo spokesperson based in the US said.

While the spokesperson did not elaborate on country-specific hiring plans, the career section of the internet major's website shows that Yahoo is looking for about 150 positions in India alone.

The openings are for its operations in Bangalore, Mumbai and New Delhi, while most of them are for Bangalore. Further, the internet major has over 120 job vacancies for different offices in the US, the website shows.

The India openings are for various departments including engineering, customer care, research and product management, among others.

http://infotech.indiatimes.com/News/Yahoo-to-hire-150-in-India/articlesh...

new flu cases in Israel?

Don't even think about it. Take a deep breath. Keep your hands in your pockets and your eyes open.

Here is a passage from under the 1980's timeline located at the same link:
-------
...It is thought that the first case of HIV in South Africa was in a white, homosexual air steward from the USA who died of pneumonia (PCP) in 1982. Blood specimens showed a 16 per cent infection rate among tested gay men in Johannesburg in 1983. The small-scale epidemic was largely confined to white gay men and remained virtually unheard of in the general population in the mid 1980s. The homosexual epidemic had stopped growing by end of decade...

Are there any
Submitted by Leah on Mon, 04/27/2009 - 5:38pm.
new flu cases in Israel?
----------
Wouldn't be kosher.

[imagine rimshot button here]

i've heard that the materials breakdown and longevity is a factor of quality, humidity, temperature, usage, etc.

i found this:

http://www.osta.org/technology/cdqa13.htm

DISC LONGEVITY

How many times can a CD-RW disc be rewritten?
As is the case with all optical storage media using phase change technology there is a limit to the number of times the recording layer in a CD-RW disc can be reliably switched between its crystalline and amorphous states. Currently, CD-RW discs can be rewritten approximately 1000 times.

What is the shelf life of unrecorded CD-R and CD-RW discs?
The unrecorded shelf life of a CD-R or CD-RW disc is conservatively estimated to be between 5 and 10 years.

How long will data recorded on CD-R and CD-RW discs remain readable?
The life span of a written disc depends upon a number of factors including such things as the intrinsic properties of the materials used in the disc’s construction, its manufactured quality, how well it is recorded and its physical handing and storage. As a result, the life span of a recorded disc is extremely difficult to estimate reliably. However, to calculate disc life spans within some practical timeframe blank media manufacturers do conduct accelerated age testing by subjecting samples of their discs to environments much beyond those experienced under normal storage conditions. Generally speaking, only the effects of varying temperature and humidity are considered. These test results are then used to predict how long a disc will remain readable under more normal storage conditions. Since questionable testing and measurement procedures can seriously impact upon and compromise these estimates several international standards have been developed which specify procedures to be used conducting accelerated testing and analyzing the resulting data from prerecorded (pressed) and recordable CDs:

ISO 18921:2002, Imaging materials — Compact discs (CD-ROM) — method for estimating the life expectancy based on the effects of temperature and relative humidity

ISO 18927:2002, Imaging materials — Recordable compact disc systems — method for estimating the life expectancy based on the effects of temperature and relative humidity

For years now many media manufacturers have performed their own lifetime evaluations using these or a variety of other homegrown tests and mathematical modeling techniques. Historically, manufacturers have claimed life-spans ranging from 50 to 200 years for CD-R discs and 20 to 100 years for CD-RW. Be aware, however, that disc producers, manufacturing methods and materials change over time as do applications and cost imperatives. Consequently, those concerned with disc longevity should consult the appropriate international standards and their media manufacturer for more particular information.

It is important to remember, however, that nothing lasts forever and that technologies inevitably change. Well-designed products, such as CD-R and CD-RW, allow for seamless transition to the next generation and ultimately, since they embody digital information, contents can be transferred to future storage systems as becomes necessary to preserve whatever has been stored on the discs.

=====

there is another consideration: technology. i doubt you could find a betamax player easily so even if your tapes are good there's no hardware to play it. in the same way i wouldn't be surprised if the technology advances and the media itself is incompatible.

bottom line - if you got something important, refresh it to new media periodically or in the case of commercial dvd's etc, you probably need plan on buying a new edition periodically.

Silly sonsabitches...If they fly that low over the wrong neigborhood in NY they might just get that "Photo Op" of some crazy ptsd suffering NY'er on the roof of his house trying to shoot that plane down.

What the hell is wrong with these guys?

Submitted by dan on Mon, 04/27/2009 - 5:47pm.
...bottom line - if you got something important, refresh it to new media periodically or in the case of commercial dvd's etc, you probably need plan on buying a new edition periodically.
---------
We recommend daguerreotypes.

You did good too.

At first I was going to suggest a tweak: spell it closed as in immunoassay (at least most of the time)although it runs together two vowels.

But then there's immuno-osseus dysplasia, spelled hyphenated per the CDC EVEN THOUGH it's used adjectivally. But that's two Os together so...

Cent, why do you hate me? ;)

-----
But what in the world you think nachos have to do with sangria I'll never understand.

Be advised that these images are extremely graphic and disturbing. These are not cosmeticized pictures of this terrible reality that now threatens to expand to yet more regions of the world.

"...and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more."

The poetic prophesy above is not likely to come true any time soon. War has been romanticized in innumerable books and movies, and made fortunes for those who exploited the subject well. (Clint Eastwood is still at it, among others, with his latest opus, Flags of Our Fathers, while movie and television tycoon Jerry Bruckheimer, of Top Gun fame, a perfect example of what a cynical cultural prostitute is all about, has willingly become a one-man propaganda ministry for the Pentagon). In most movies-at least until recently-soldiers died "beautifully"-no hideous wounds, no real gasping fear in their eyes, they even got to say a few noble words for posterity, proof of a charitable destiny that, despite assigning them death, did not deny them their fifteen seconds of fame.

"There, for the Grace of You Know What, Go I."

But war is ugly. And war is also ruthless, sordid, and ill-mannered. It doesn't give most people time to proffer pretty speeches. And like death-which is its normal and inevitable companion-war remains in some ways unfathomable and mysterious. Wars can be depicted as noble only by those who are too naive, too young, too deluded, too corrupt, too sociopathic, or too stupid to understand the obscenity that killing in such an organized fashion represents. Are there "good wars"? Maybe. Nothing is absolute, not even something as heinous as war. But we'll leave that question for another day, another article. Let us say however this much: most wars in the history of our species have been useless, stupid enterprises; for all the suffering and mayhem they have caused, they have been utterly unnecessary...the instruments of knaves and the glory of fools, a massive carnage unleashed by every single form of human defect and backwardness: greed, deceit, ignorance, fanaticism and mass stupidity.

So whether a war is "good" or "bad" -while certainly an important consideration-there is one thing that all wars share, and that is they are unvelievably, obscenely ugly-as the images that accompany this article attest.

This is the real face of war, which our engines of mass misinformation will never show you. We owe it to them, to those who died, those who were hideously maimed, to look at these uncompromisingly distressing images, and reflect upon this criminal madness, to ponder the reasons why such people were put, found themselves, in harm's way...and who put them there...in the hope that eventually, more and more people will come to understand the actual mainsprings of war, to spot and reject the big lies the masses are constantly fed, and mobilize to make them-at last-a thing of the past.
FADE OUT: So, why do we fight?

Most progressives are fighting to ban this horror from human history, but not all are fully aware or willing to recognize that to do so we must revolutionize society and man. Nothing short of that will get the job done. That's why recipes that seek to neutralize a given individual or administration, while helpful, miss the point. Seeing regimes such as the Bush administration as "aberrations" outside the norm is a dangerous delusion. Bush simply carries the system's DNA in slightly more virulent form. The Establishment will go on without him. And when he's gone, it will probably replace him with a momentarily more congenial face. But the dynamic will soon reassert itself because the problem is systemic, endemic to human civilization at this point, intrinsic to its functioning, and it must be seen in that light before true remedies can be applied.

The unavoidable fact is that a system that embodies in a highly misleading wrapper of dazzling modern technology the most backward instincts that humans are capable of cannot operate for long without revealing its true nature. And that nature, at this juncture in the catastrophic evolution of our morally underachieving species, includes endless war.

One last word of caution: We suggest that only adults visit this gallery. CLICK HERE TO ENTER