tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post7318976108114014409..comments2024-03-27T23:12:08.917-07:00Comments on CONTRARY BRIN: poli-miscellanyDavid Brinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comBlogger67125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-44431214259180711262008-08-07T13:04:00.000-07:002008-08-07T13:04:00.000-07:00"However, the polling organizations no longer ask ..."However, the polling organizations no longer ask that question."<BR/><BR/>I presume that was because people were using it out of context to give completely misleading impressions of public opinion in Iraq. (as we demonstrated)<BR/><BR/>For example the link that huxley linked to originally while there were survey questions giving the opposite impression that more directly resembles the question it seemed he was trying to answer. <BR/><BR/>Sorry to keep going back to that but it goes to the heart of honest debate - if you see evidence from the other side don't dispute it and yet proceed to act as if it didn't exist.Geniushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11624496692217466430noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-1158630679860632152008-08-03T16:24:00.000-07:002008-08-03T16:24:00.000-07:00I thought DB was.My last word on the Huxley discus...I thought DB was.<BR/><BR/>My last word on the Huxley discussion comes via <A HREF="http://www.sluggy.com/daily.php?date=080730" REL="nofollow">'Sluggy Freelance' title='You need to be able to laugh at yourself, lest others do it for you!'</A>.<BR/><BR/>(Well, I thought it amusing. OK, movin' on now...)Tony Fiskhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14578160528746657971noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-43508470542801125132008-08-01T23:49:00.000-07:002008-08-01T23:49:00.000-07:00I just thought of a better, more accurate descript...I just thought of a better, more accurate description of "The Surge."<BR/><BR/>I should be called:<BR/><BR/>"The number of troops that were required to do the job right in the first place, four years late."<BR/><BR/>So, yeah, <I>of course</I> it "worked." We finally sent the number of guys and equipment to do the job . . . four years late.<BR/><BR/>* * *<BR/><BR/>DB, you should be writing, SFnalish, about the NEXT crisis.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-35711289593994873682008-08-01T23:07:00.000-07:002008-08-01T23:07:00.000-07:00Guys, just let Huxley do his thing. He comes on, ...Guys, just let Huxley do his thing. He comes on, wails and gnashes his teeth, hurls names and moans about how he’s been treated, then does it again, and again, and never notices that that is how he started here! It’s all one note -- a concerto of self-pity -- and bears no relationship to anything that ever actually happened. We’re dealing with pathology.<BR/><BR/>Proof that the strawman he is moaning at bears no relationship to me couldn’t be simpler. The proof is this community, filled with the most independent-minded and diverse group I’ve seen in the blogosphere. Libertarians, left-wingers, Goldwater Republicans... true a majority are techno-liberals, but we snap and rattle at each other -- and stay willing to learn (Note that BD and Zorgon are still here, eh guys? ;-)<BR/><BR/>Tell me if H’s ankle-biting starts getting to you and I’ll banish the VERY ill-named troll. But I’ve only really had to do that once. (Ironically, to a leftist!) Alas, he’ll head off and storm elsewhere about being bullied by me, here, staining the rep of a man who put up with plenty. Still, I will never, ever, have anything to say to this person. Just skim past, guys. We have things to discuss.<BR/><BR/>Rocky, I have long pondered trying a better blogging system. Hell, anything would be better than blogger, which is demented and lobotoimizing. Indeed, I was one of the very first participants in a modern, web-formated blog-dicussion forum, the Caltech HyperforumUnfortunately,<BR/><BR/> I just don’t have the time to invest in upgrading. My family is after me to quit this whole thing, cold turkey! Only the feeling that I might be helping in our time of crisis, with a sliver of an idea here and there... plus the fact that I like you guys and hear stimulating stuff... keeps me at it.David Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-90230789881346804362008-08-01T21:01:00.000-07:002008-08-01T21:01:00.000-07:00Zorg, nifty astrophysics/cosmology news... thanks ...Zorg, nifty astrophysics/cosmology news... thanks for the link.<BR/><BR/>I've always really enjoyed SF that speculates about really alien intelligences. Most writers don't seem to even try and lose the anthropomorphic perspective. 10 billion years is more than enough time for a civilization like the aliens from 2001 to actually develop... Who know what the hell they are thinking, or even if they think in a sense we would recognize.<BR/><BR/>Also gets my mind running on entities that operate on much longer timescales (and potentially spatial scales). Maybe Asimov's idea of the very very long wavelength radio telescope isn't such a bad idea.Travchttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12790548845692414891noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-76477873381547286062008-08-01T18:06:00.000-07:002008-08-01T18:06:00.000-07:00FIRST STARS WERE GIANTS, BUT DIED YOUNGNew compute...<B>FIRST STARS WERE GIANTS, BUT DIED YOUNG</B><BR/><BR/>New computer simulations from Japanese cosmologists suggest that the earliest stars appeared remarkably soon after the Big Bang, only 300 million years or so. They were also apparently giants, up to 10,000 times as large as the sun, asd consequently they burned for only a million years. Since the faster a star burns, the more heavy elements it produces when it blows up, this implies that the early universe built up heavy elements by nucleosynthesis much faster than heretofore suspected.<BR/><BR/>This would suggest that the heavy elements necessary for carbon-based life must have appeared much earlier in the universe's history than previously thought. If so, this raises the likelihood that intelligent life -- and thus technological civilizations -- arose as much as 10 billion years ago. That would make the oldest civilizations in the universe somewhere around 10 billion years (!) older than ours.<BR/><BR/>I must confess I find it quite impossible to imagine the technology or mentality of a civilization 10 billion years older than ours.<BR/><A HREF="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/01/science/space/01stars.html?ex=1375243200&en=31c663d44c112feb&ei=5124&partner=digg&exprod=digg" REL="nofollow">Link.</A>Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10994509912655287453noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-61095619206033459112008-08-01T16:50:00.000-07:002008-08-01T16:50:00.000-07:00No further comment from Huxley. Interesting. May...No further comment from Huxley. Interesting. Maybe Zorgon was right.Cliffhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04198405937534052637noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-7877383248503009052008-08-01T09:50:00.000-07:002008-08-01T09:50:00.000-07:00You're talking about storing hydrogen gas, which h...<I>You're talking about storing hydrogen gas, which has atoms so small they tend to diffuse right through solid metal under pressure.</I><BR/><BR/>Along with diffusing through metal, hydrogen also weakens the metal, making it brittle and more prone to failure. Is something they're working on at my workplace. Still, the amount of infrastructure that would have to be built for a hydrogen based vehicle fuel is one reason why I think it won't take off nationwide. <BR/><BR/>The electrical grid, in as poor a shape as it is, is a much better way to distribute vehicle energy. Power production (wind/solar/nuclear/coal) can then be handled on a regional basis.JuhnDonnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06795417373366495092noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-91901149733967649352008-08-01T09:27:00.000-07:002008-08-01T09:27:00.000-07:00Barack Obama drains 3-point jumper on first try in...<B>Barack Obama drains 3-point jumper on first try in Kuwait.</B><BR/><BR/>In English, please. "Drains 3-point jumper"? (And no, I am not going to follow a link to Youtube and burn Christ alone knows how much bandwidth and money watching Christ alone knows how long a video before MAYBE the answer is somehow revealed. What, you didn't realize some people might catch up on your blog on their mobie, where every megabyte costs money?)<BR/><BR/><B>And finally... I just learned how much of the world's investment capital is held by pension funds and similar workers' retirement plans. THIRTY TRILLION DOLLARS. That is more than a third of the amount currently invested in available investment equities, including the stock of nearly all corporations. In other words, the workers already own the means of production. Wrap your heads around that one... then discuss why they aren't using that ownership power.</B><BR/><BR/>Oh, that one's easy. Because these retirement funds are administered on their behalf by banks, where the money does and doesn't get invested is decided by the banks, and the banks are run by the bourgeoisie of the bourgeoisie, the richest of the rich...<BR/><BR/>P.S. FIX YOUR F&#! BLOG COMMENTS TO ALLOW BLOCKQUOTE!!! THIS WORKS AT EVERY >>>OTHER<<< BLOG I COMMENT ON, BUT HERE IT SHOVES A NASTY PILE OF RED TEXT IN MY FACE AND WAGS A FINGER AT ME FOR BEING "NAUGHTY"! HOW RUDE!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-8070846948796203352008-08-01T07:12:00.000-07:002008-08-01T07:12:00.000-07:00More detail about the new solar catalytic process ...More detail about the new solar catalytic process for splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen <A HREF="http://www.forbes.com/energy/2008/07/30/nocera-solar-power-biz-energy-cz_jf_0731solar.html" REL="nofollow">here.</A><BR/><BR/>Several hurdles at present. The process right now requires platinum, which is rare and expensive. It's possible that researchers might be able to substitute another more common element or compound for platinum, but they'll need to research to see.<BR/><BR/>Second, you need photovoltaics to supply the electricity and the amount of oxygen + hydrogen produced will be proportional to the electric current. However, since the PV doesn't need to generate electricity directly, super-high efficiency probably isn't as important as it would be in a standard PV cell. So perhaps amorphous crystalline solar cells with lower efficiency (but costing much less, and with no need for rare elements like indium) would work.<BR/><BR/>Third, a <I><B>lot</B></I> of engineering needs to be done to turn this into a practical commercial energy-generating device. You're talking about storing hydrogen gas, which has atoms so small they tend to diffuse right through solid metal under pressure. So practical engines generating electricity from this process are probably still 20 to 30 years away.Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10994509912655287453noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-66506735723024508982008-08-01T04:58:00.000-07:002008-08-01T04:58:00.000-07:00Somewhat off topic.Some time ago you noted that th...Somewhat off topic.<BR/><BR/>Some time ago you noted that the Libertarian candidate for president was less than wonderful. I heard him answer some questions on NPR the other day. The term “fool” is one description that came to mind. He clearly has no concept of the complexity of the world in which we all live. <BR/><BR/>You are certainly right. <BR/><BR/>Gavin CraigAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-56783583939455138452008-08-01T03:30:00.000-07:002008-08-01T03:30:00.000-07:00Researcher at MIT publishes a simple method for ar...Researcher at MIT publishes a simple method for artificial photosynthesis. <BR/><BR/>From the MIT press release:<BR/><BR/><I>Inspired by the photosynthesis performed by plants, Nocera and Matthew Kanan, a postdoctoral fellow in Nocera's lab, have developed an unprecedented process that will allow the sun's energy to be used to split water into hydrogen and oxygen gases. Later, the oxygen and hydrogen may be recombined inside a fuel cell, creating carbon-free electricity to power your house or your electric car, day or night.<BR/><BR/>The key component in Nocera and Kanan's new process is a new catalyst that produces oxygen gas from water; another catalyst produces valuable hydrogen gas. The new catalyst consists of cobalt metal, phosphate and an electrode, placed in water. When electricity -- whether from a photovoltaic cell, a wind turbine or any other source -- runs through the electrode, the cobalt and phosphate form a thin film on the electrode, and oxygen gas is produced.<BR/><BR/>Combined with another catalyst, such as platinum, that can produce hydrogen gas from water, the system can duplicate the water splitting reaction that occurs during photosynthesis.<BR/><BR/>The new catalyst works at room temperature, in neutral pH water, and it's easy to set up, Nocera said. "That's why I know this is going to work. It's so easy to implement," he said.</I><BR/><BR/>MIT press release here:<BR/>http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2008/oxygen-0731.html<BR/><BR/>The full paper is in the brand new issue of Science - I don't subscribe, so I can't give a report on the technical aspects.matthewhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17757867868731829206noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-83484049775203235492008-07-31T22:11:00.000-07:002008-07-31T22:11:00.000-07:00Further snippets from that Newsweek article that M...Further snippets from that Newsweek article that Matthew point out:<BR/><BR/><I>Today's ruling is not likely to end the controversy over the BAE payments, however. The U.S. Justice Department is conducting its own investigation into whether BAE, which operates widely in the United States and has a growing portfolio of Pentagon contracts, violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in making payments to Bandar and other Saudi officials.</I><BR/><BR/>That would be interesting 'fly on the wall' time!<BR/><BR/><I>The ruling is also likely to fuel criticism that the Saudi government—which portrays itself as a key ally of the United States and Great Britain in the War on Terror—is far less cooperative than it publicly claims. "This shows how the Saudis can get foreign governments to disregard their own justice system," said Ali Al-Ahmed, the director of the Gulf Institute, a Washington-based think tank that is critical of the Saudi government. "Terrorism is being used to blackmail the West. You watch, it is only a matter of time before they do this in the U.S."</I><BR/><BR/>...or, perhaps, find that they already have.<BR/><BR/>(Actually, I would define the struggle to be against tyranny rather than terror which is, after all, merely a herding tool: generally more effective on governments than the populace)Tony Fiskhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14578160528746657971noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-62258116747715598742008-07-31T19:33:00.000-07:002008-07-31T19:33:00.000-07:00DB, any interest in moving to a different blog sys...DB, any interest in moving to a different blog system, like Scoop (the one DKos uses)?<BR/><BR/>Or if you´re willing to put a bit of money into it, IP.Blog plugs right into IP.Board, so that you can write a blog entry, and it gets repeated as the first post in a forum topic of the same name, and side conversations can go on in their own threads.<BR/><BR/>I´m even willing to host it for you on a server I have some free space on.Rocky Persaudhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02966159044771053090noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-43437620637546293402008-07-31T19:18:00.000-07:002008-07-31T19:18:00.000-07:00Tony Blair escapes prosecution by the SFO for inte...Tony Blair escapes prosecution by the SFO for intervening to help Prince Bandar.<BR/><BR/> The court ruling today, written by Lord Thomas Bingham, described how Blair himself and Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles, Britain's ambassador to Saudi Arabia, used Saudi threats of new terror attacks in Britain to get the SFO to shut down the bribes investigation. According to the ruling, Blair personally sent a "personal minute" about the matter to the U.K. Attorney General, who oversees SFO operations. Blair warned of "a real and immediate risk of a collapse in UK/Saudi security, intelligence and diplomatic cooperation," and included attachments based on information from Britain's secret intelligence agencies, M.I.5 and M.I.6.<BR/><BR/>In three meetings with the head of the Serious Fraud Office, Ambassador Cowper-Coles conveyed increasingly dire warnings about possible new terror attacks on British soil, the ruling states. "At the first meeting the ambassador had described the threats to national and international security as very grave indeed and had said that British lives on British streets would be at risk," according to Lord Bingham's ruling, summarizing the evidence presented to the court. "At the second meeting, he had again said that lives would be at risk. At the third he had spoken of a real threat to British lives."<BR/><BR/>One assistant SFO director concluded following these warnings that if the Saudis carried out their threats to withdraw counterterrorism cooperation, it could lead to "another 7/7."<BR/><BR/>Though the U.K. government declined to explicitly confirm the incident to the courts, last year London's Sunday Times reported that in a meeting with one of Blair's top advisers, Bandar personally threatened that the Saudis' "intelligence and diplomatic relations" with Britain would be curtailed unless the SFO's investigations related to Bandar were shut down. <BR/><BR/>http://www.newsweek.com/id/149626matthewhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17757867868731829206noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-63449848998487772112008-07-31T18:16:00.000-07:002008-07-31T18:16:00.000-07:00WS: I second the call for an ignore button, and ha...WS: I second the call for an ignore button, and have been having thoughts on that topic for a while. Still, your comment has <A HREF="http://groups.google.com/group/blogger-help-customizing/browse_thread/thread/e59914fd74c302d0#" REL="nofollow" TITLE="We will have to see whether the Google Gods are similarly prompted...">prompted me to action!</A><BR/><BR/>I quite understand that some people feel the 'neocon kooks' issue has been re-heated so many times as to be a public health hazard, and just want to move on. However, I might point out that the bulk of the clogged bandwidth it generates comes from people hotly contesting H and his principles. In medical terms, the situation is akin to cytotoxic shock resulting from an over-reactive immune system.Tony Fiskhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14578160528746657971noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-82695493994188657432008-07-31T17:54:00.000-07:002008-07-31T17:54:00.000-07:00Zorg... the WTO isn't *all* bad, as I think you ac...Zorg... the WTO isn't *all* bad, as I think you acknowledge. Though how folks looked at GATT (arguably more good than bad), saw flaws, and then came up with the WTO greatly magnifying those flaws... well corrupt or incompetent seems to be a common question these days?<BR/>--<BR/><BR/>As for Huxley... I wrote a long post last night that got eaten by an invalid key problem (damn dhcp address reset on the DSL modem). But in retrospect, no great loss.<BR/><BR/>The claim that the politicization of the DoJ is 'politics as usual' is absurd on its face. It is not only verboten by tradition, it is explicitly illegal!<BR/><BR/>Turing a blind eye on the long list of upper echelon GOP pols and power-brokers who are criminals is simply dishonest or delusional. And those criminals are merely the tip of the iceberg.<BR/><BR/>Quite simply, saying the shit the GOP has been pulling over the last decade is just 'politics as usual'... well that is like saying the mafia and a prostitute are the same thing. The K Street Project is the gold-standard example of organized political corruption.<BR/><BR/>I think I'm pretty much done with the Hux-ster, at least on politics and world affairs. Occasionally he says something potentially interesting, but SNR is very low. <BR/><BR/>Oh, and the whining is fucking annoying. It is *more respectful* to be straight and blunt than merely polite.Travchttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12790548845692414891noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-32844522251279684062008-07-31T10:52:00.000-07:002008-07-31T10:52:00.000-07:00zorgon the malevolent said...I... so far, have not...<I>zorgon the malevolent said...<BR/>I... so far, have not found [the kook's] responses to fall into the pattern you have predicted. -- Tony Fisk<BR/><BR/>Democrats are traitors selling the US and Western civilization completely down the river. -- huxley<BR/></I><BR/><BR/>Just because half the posts on this thread, after the previous thread got hijacked, and are either Huxley complaining about being attacked, or getting thoughtful strokes for his bruising, and we are having to re-defend statements that have a least 100 pages of thoughtful prose backing them up -- doesn't mean that this is the typical pattern of someone who hijacks blogs. <BR/><BR/>;-)<BR/><BR/>50% of the conversation gives me deja vu to 50% of last weeks conversation. It used to be, that I had to put up with NeoCons saying; "We won the election, America is with us -- you are a loon, get over it." And now I have to put up with; "I used to be a Democrat, but now I've become a NeoCon, because you guys are mean."<BR/><BR/>Oh, wow, I predicted this before seeing more here; <I>I like the blog; neo-neocon by a New England psychotherapist who switched from Democrat to neocon after 9-11. She's almost always thoughtful and insightful. Though she's got her convictions, she keeps a good tone.</I><BR/><BR/>Can we please get an IGNORE button? One day, a discussion will be over, when someone goes so far as to accuse someone of being a NeoCon, just like today when we accuse someone of being a Nazis. Just because I'm pretty aware of how things will be, or reality, doesn't mean I should be penalized. Here I am, wasting more pixels on the web, on this nonsense. I've spent two much of my life "discussing" things with people who are trying to turn a scam into the appearance of a debate of philosophy. If I find a burglar in my house, I will call the cops -- I won't be discussing Voltaire with him.Fake_William_Shatnerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09027049743048836086noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-3193056784590372702008-07-31T10:24:00.000-07:002008-07-31T10:24:00.000-07:00Huxley said:But look me straight in the eye and te...Huxley said:<BR/><I>But look me straight in the eye and tell me that the Iraqis are not better off now than under Hussein. Then tell me that their future is not even brighter still.<BR/></I><BR/><BR/>Fair enough. I don't know about "better off," but they appear to have a brighter future. And I say 'appear to' for the same reason the conservatives keep saying we have to stay there - because things could still unravel into full-blown civil war.<BR/><BR/>But consider, this was achieved at the low low cost of:<BR/>4100+ American soldiers dead<BR/>30,000+ American soldiers wounded<BR/>A severely weakened military<BR/>Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis dead<BR/>Millions of Iraqis displaced<BR/>The loss of American prestige across the globe<BR/>Billions of dollars (spent legitimately)<BR/>Billions more lost to corruption and incompetence<BR/>Osama Bin Laden <I>still alive</I><BR/>The Taliban flourishing in Pakistan<BR/><BR/>And about the WMDs which were ostensibly the reason for going in there, consider this:<BR/>We can't fight a ground war with Iran. Or at least, we don't want to. So, if we really want to prevent Iran from getting nukes, we'll have to rely on airstrikes.<BR/><BR/>Why didn't we do that with Iraq? We have a history of such actions. Why not just bomb the hell out of any facilities that looked suspicious, and left Hussein alone? He'd have died eventually, it would have been cheaper, AND we could have focused on Bin Laden.<BR/><BR/>Now, back to the EPA: Was your "which at worst IMO seem like politics as usual" directed at my post as well as travc's? Or were you going to give a more substantive response?Cliffhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04198405937534052637noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-92075738302247072352008-07-31T06:10:00.000-07:002008-07-31T06:10:00.000-07:00*chuckle* Brevity is the soul of wit and, yes, I s...*chuckle* Brevity is the soul of wit and, yes, I see your point, Zorgon!<BR/><BR/>But note that H has since expanded on why he thinks that, rather than just leave it hanging as a bit of inflammatory nonsense (which is what I think would happen if the pattern was being followed)<BR/><BR/>...hmm! I guess, on Venus, life would be simpler: you really could drop miscreants and unbelievers into the sulphurous inferno that lay below!<BR/><BR/>(haven't got around to reading those "Reason" essays in NS yet. Any good?)Tony Fiskhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14578160528746657971noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-28021799365171019742008-07-31T05:53:00.000-07:002008-07-31T05:53:00.000-07:00More cool stuff:Colonizing Venus with cloud cities...More cool stuff:<BR/><BR/><A HREF="http://www.universetoday.com/2008/07/16/colonizing-venus-with-floating-cities/" REL="nofollow">Colonizing Venus with cloud cities.</A> At 50 kilometers, temperatures and pressures in Venus' atmosphere are remarkably earthlike. <BR/>In fact, the scientist who proposes these cloud cities points out that at that altitude, Venus boasts the most earthlike environment in the solar system.<BR/><BR/><B>Scientists decipher ancient Greek mechanical computer</B><BR/><I>"After a closer examination of a surviving marvel of ancient Greek technology known as the Antikythera Mechanism, scientists have found that the device not only predicted solar eclipses but also organized the calendar in the four-year cycles of the Olympiad, forerunner of the modern Olympic Games.<BR/>The new findings, reported Wednesday in the journal <I>Nature</I>, also suggested that the mechanism’s concept originated in the colonies of Corinth, possibly Syracuse, on Sicily. The scientists said this implied a likely connection with Archimedes."</I><BR/><A HREF="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/31/science/31computer.html?_r=2&hp&oref=slogin&oref=slogin" REL="nofollow">Link.</A><BR/><BR/><BR/>Scientists say they've found the first direct evidence of liquid hydrocarbons on the surface of Titan, one of Saturn's moons. With temperatures of -139 degrees Celsius, it's not exactly a vacation resort, however.<BR/><A HREF="http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/jul/31/titan.saturn.water.nasa" REL="nofollow">Link.</A><BR/><BR/><BR/>A leading advisor to the U.S. military, the Rand Corporation, just released a new study called "How Terrorist Groups End: Lessons for Countering al Qa'ida".<BR/>The report confirms... that the war on terror is a hoax which is actually weakening national security.<BR/><A HREF="http://georgewashington2.blogspot.com/2008/07/top-advisor-to-us-military-confirms-war.html" REL="nofollow">Link.</A><BR/><BR/><BR/>And now, the best news yet: current round of WTO talks collapses. Yay! What the kids dressed in dolphin suits couldn't do in Seattle and Genoa, the greed and corruption of the mafia-like giant global corporations has accomplished.<BR/>Now that the shameful global protection racket run by corporate gangsters for the purpose of robbing from the world's poor to enrich the wealthiest 1% on the planet (and misnamed "globalized free trade") has proven too extortionate to be tolerated by the 80% of the world's economies outside the U.S. and Europe/Japan, let's hope this hideous NAFTA/CAFTA/WTO monstrosity dies for good so it can be replaced by a <I><B>genuine</B></I> global free market.<BR/><A HREF="http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_detail.asp?pp_cat=17&art_id=69415&sid=19977835&con_type=1" REL="nofollow">Link.</A>Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10994509912655287453noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-72400218156070956752008-07-31T05:12:00.000-07:002008-07-31T05:12:00.000-07:00I... so far, have not found [the kook's] responses...<I>I... so far, have not found [the kook's] responses to fall into the pattern you have predicted.</I> -- Tony Fisk<BR/><BR/><I>Democrats are traitors selling the US and Western civilization completely down the river.</I> -- huxleyUnknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10994509912655287453noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-42916737277353147332008-07-30T22:41:00.000-07:002008-07-30T22:41:00.000-07:00Huxley, Do I take it, then, that your notion that ...Huxley, <BR/><BR/>Do I take it, then, that your notion that the democrats are selling the US down the river is based on the hypothesis that 'we are in an existential war with radical Islam.' (and that dems will not acknowledge that)?<BR/><BR/>(I ask that just to clarify the terms before I respond. Meanwhile, you may be amused by David's r'oil conspiracy theory which, I think, he raises more because he thinks it *ought* to be raised rather than because he believes in it. Nevertheless, he gets it to connect enough dots to raise a few hairs)<BR/><BR/>Just to respond to one point, though:<BR/><I>However, the polling organizations no longer ask that question. (about whether Iraqis thought the Iraq war was worth it)</I><BR/><BR/>We-e-ll, I don't think there is a reluctance to ask the question. There is an ongoing <A HREF="http://www.gallup.com/poll/1633/Iraq.aspx" REL="nofollow">Gallup poll</A> that asks the question 'Do you think the United States made a mistake in sending troops to Iraq?' whose last sampling was in April, 2008 (63% yes, 36% no). (Admittedly, this is a sampling of Americans, rather than Iraqis. Like you, I would like to see more recent results from that region)<BR/><BR/>The point about the mosque bombing is fair. Another factor mentioned in the poll report to explain the initial high reading was the euphoria following on from the elections (and Hussein's execution)<BR/><BR/>But, on the whole, it would appear that Iraqis still want the US occupation to end, as <A HREF="http://www.worldpublicopinion.org/pipa/articles/home_page/517.php?nid=&id=&pnt=517&lb=" REL="nofollow">Dr Stephen Kull</A> said recently:<BR/><BR/><I>In closing, it is clear that the Iraqi people are quite eager for the US to lighten its military footprint in Iraq. More importantly it appears that they are eager to regain their sense of sovereignty. As long as they do not have this sense, they are likely to continue to have a fundamentally hostile attitude toward all aspects of the US presence in Iraq. However, as Iraqis gradually regain this sense that their country belongs to them, they will likely move toward wanting some ongoing relationship with the US, both economic and military, to help them find their way out of this troubled period of their long history.</I><BR/><BR/>As I said earlier, that would be a delightful outcome (but, oh, the means!)<BR/><BR/>Happy reading, BTW.Tony Fiskhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14578160528746657971noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-22940533571861560602008-07-30T21:36:00.000-07:002008-07-30T21:36:00.000-07:00And so to bed.Dr. Brin -- I've just started The An...And so to bed.<BR/><BR/>Dr. Brin -- I've just started <I>The Anthropic Cosmological Principle</I> by Barrow and Tipler. Fascinating stuff. I'd love to read more of what you have to say along those lines.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-41529041981809226152008-07-30T21:26:00.000-07:002008-07-30T21:26:00.000-07:00Also note that the 'silver lining' dropped from 77...<I>Also note that the 'silver lining' dropped from 77% to 61% between January and September, 2006.</I><BR/><BR/>Cliff, Tony -- Thanks for continued reasonable responses, and thanks for reading the material I linked to. I'm surprised how often people assume that a link means what the linker says and how often the link undermines what the linker said. You guys think for yourselves. Salut!<BR/><BR/>Yes, the results are mixed, as I did acknowledge in the previous thread. Nonetheless, what you may not have noticed, is that al-Qaeda's bombing of the Golden Mosque--one of the most holy Shia sites in the world--occurred in April, 2006. <BR/><BR/>As planned, the destruction of that mosque ignited horrific sectarian violence between the Shia and Sunni and basically tripled Iraqi casualties for the next 18 months. No wonder approval for ousting Hussein dropped! That it stayed at a big majority of 61% is remarkable in itself.<BR/><BR/>Of course, now that the surge has worked and Iraq is on its way to becoming as peaceful or more peaceful than South Africa, we can assume the polling on that question would go back up, in fact way up. However, the polling organizations no longer ask that question.<BR/><BR/>But look me straight in the eye and tell me that the Iraqis are not better off now than under Hussein. Then tell me that their future is not even brighter still.<BR/><BR/>Of course, that still doesn't justify the Iraq War. But it's a data point.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com