How the Military Can Stop an Iran Attack

But the petition also addresses some of the practical concerns that have clearly motivated military officers to oppose an attack on Iran. It would open US soldiers in Iraq to decimation by Iranian forces or their Iraqi allies. It would sow the seeds of hatred for generations. Like the attack on Iraq, it would create more enemies, promote terrorism and make American families less safe.

The head of the Board of Deputies of British Jews promised Sunday to do everything he can to get the UK to act on Dafur, speaking in a panel discussion to mark the 12th anniversary of the UK Holocaust Center in Nottinghamshire.

"As I look back, I cannot tell you the shame that I feel that the words Never Again are just words," Henry Grunwald said. "It is entirely fitting that as we look back at what happened in Europe between 1933 and 1945, and as we mark the first 12 years of the Holocaust Center, we pledge ourselves to do all that we can to make sure that our government does more to prevent the tragedy in Darfur from getting even worse."

Why Men make better friends than woman

Friendship Between Women:
A woman didn?t come home one night.  The next day she told her husband that she had slept over at a friend?s house. The man called his wife?s 10 best friends. None of them knew about it.

Friendship Between Men:
A man didn?t come home one night.  The next day he told his wife that he had slept over at a friend?s house. The woman called her Husband?s 10 best friends. Eight of them confirmed that he had slept over, and two claimed that he was still there.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. ? In December, the United Nations took up a resolution calling for the abolition of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for children and young teenagers. The vote was 185 to 1, with the United States the lone dissenter.

Indeed, the United States stands alone in the world in convicting young adolescents as adults and sentencing them to live out their lives in prison. According to a new report, there are 73 Americans serving such sentences for crimes they committed at 13 or 14.

Mary Nalls, an 81-year-old retired social worker here, has some thoughts about the matter. Her granddaughter Ashley Jones was 14 when she helped her boyfriend kill her grandfather and aunt ? Mrs. Nalls?s husband and daughter ? by stabbing and shooting them and then setting them on fire. Ms. Jones also tried to kill her 10-year-old sister.

But Mrs. Nalls thinks her granddaughter, now 22, deserves the possibility of a second chance.

Television viewing has long been linked with poor eating habits. So when University of Minnesota researchers embarked on a study of family meals, they fully expected that having the TV on at dinner would take a toll on children?s diets.

But to their surprise, it didn?t make much difference. Families who watched TV at dinner ate just about as healthfully as families who dined without it. The biggest factor wasn?t whether the TV was on or off, but whether the family was eating the meal together.

The lesson for parents, say the study authors, is that being together at dinner is what counts. Having the TV on during the meal, while not desirable, can also serve a purpose if it helps bring sullen teenagers and families to the table.

The sea contains untold numbers of strange and bizarre creatures. It is said that we know more about our own solar system than we know about our oceans

Chimaeras are cartilaginous fish related to the sharks and rays, and are sometimes called ghost sharks or rabbitfishes. For defense, most chimaeras have a venomous spine located in front of the dorsal fin.

A Viperfish is a deepwater fish with long, needle-like teeth and hinged lower jaws.

The pelican eel.

A squid found in a pelican eel?s stomach.

The Dana Octopus Squid.

They emit blinding flashes of light as it attacks prey. It is believed that this highly maneuverable squid uses bright flashes to disorientate potential prey. These flashes may also serve to illuminate the prey to make for easier capture as well as a courtship and territorial display.

The Colossal Squid, sometimes called the Antarctic or Giant Cranch Squid, is believed to be the largest squid species.

The land of optimism is in the dumps, but refuses to accept how it got there

"The American, by nature, is optimistic," said John F Kennedy. "He is experimental, an inventor and a builder who builds best when called upon to build greatly." This optimism is the source for much of what makes the US simultaneously so revered and reviled, dynamic and deluded, around the world.

Healthful breakfast tips to keep you fueled all day

Funny Caricatures at the El Paso Fair

Second Earth found, 20 light years away

The Earth-like Gliese 581C circles a star in the constellation of Libra that is cooler than our sun. Photograph: European Southern Observatory/AP

Scientists have discovered a warm and rocky "second Earth" circling a star, a find they believe dramatically boosts the prospects that we are not alone.

The planet is the most Earth-like ever spotted and is thought to have perfect conditions for water, an essential ingredient for life. Researchers detected the planet orbiting one of Earths nearest stars, a cool red dwarf called Gliese 581, 20 light years away in the constellation of Libra.

"We wouldnt be surprised if there is life on this planet," said Stephane Udry, an astronomer on the project at the Geneva Observatory in Switzerland.

INSERT COIN

Bionic Nerve To Bring Damaged Limbs And Organs Back To Life

Science Daily ? University of Manchester researchers have transformed fat tissue stem cells into nerve cells - and now plan to develop an artificial nerve that will bring damaged limbs and organs back to life.

This bionic nerve could also be used in people who have suffered trauma injuries to their limbs or organs, cancer patients whose tumour surgery has affected a nearby nerve trunk and people who have had organ transplants.

WHEN I hear mention of the "Clash of Civilizations" I dont know whether to laugh or to cry.

To laugh, because it is such a silly notion.

To cry, because it is liable to cause untold disasters.

To cry even more, because our leaders are exploiting this slogan as a pretext for sabotaging any possibility of an Israeli-Palestinian reconciliation. It is just one more in a long line of pretexts.

WHY WAS the Zionist movement in need of excuses to justify the way it treated the Palestinian people?

At its birth, it was an idealistic movement. It laid great weight on its moral basis. Not just in order to convince the world, but above all in order to set its own conscience at rest.

But this idealistic movement aimed at settling in a country inhabited by another people. How to bridge this contradiction between its sublime ideals and the fact that their realization necessitated the expulsion of the people of the land?

How schizophrenia develops: Major clues discovered

Parliament on Wednesday overwhelmingly approved a possible cross-border offensive against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq, although the government appears willing to give diplomatic pressure on the U.S.-backed Iraqi administration more time to work.

Lawmakers voted 507-19 in favor of empowering the government to order the military to cross into Iraq over a one-year period, Parliament Speaker Koksal Toptan said. They then burst into applause.

Turkish leaders have stressed that an offensive against the rebels of the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, would not immediately follow the expected authorization.

In Washington, President

If you are a young Muslim American and head off to the Middle East for a spell in a fundamentalist "madrassa," or religious school, Homeland Security will probably greet you at the airport when you return.  But if you are an American Jew and you join hundreds of teenagers from Europe and Mexico for an eight-week training course run by the Israel Defense Forces, you can post your picture wearing an Israeli army uniform and holding an automatic weapon on MySpace.

The Marva program, part summer camp part indoctrination, was launched in Israel in 1981. It allows participants, who must be Jewish and between the ages of 18 and 28, to fire weapons, live in military barracks in the Negev desert and saunter around in an Israeli military uniform saluting and taking long hikes with military packs. The Youth and Education Corps of the Israel Defense Forces run four 120-strong training sessions a year.

Elana Glatt didnt like the color of the flowers at her wedding, so the Manhattan bride/attorney is suing her florist for more than $400,000.

The New York Times reports that Glatt, who practices under the name Elana Elbogen, accused the florist of taking a check for $27,435.14 and then committing a series of "egregious" faux pas -- including the use of cheaper orchids and roses -- during the Aug. 11 reception at a swanky New York restaurant.

The florist denies any wrongdoing. He tells the New York Post that Glatt is being a "bridezilla."

Whatever you think about the merits of this lawsuit, theres no denying that Elana and David Glatt have exquisite taste. Check out their gift registries at Bloomingdales, Neiman Marcus and other retailers.

In a far-reaching response to the global credit crisis, Citigroup Inc. and other big banks are discussing a plan to pool together and financially back as much as $100 billion in shaky mortgage securities and other investments.

The new fund is designed to stave off what Citigroup and others see as a threat to the financial markets world-wide: the danger that dozens of huge bank-affiliated funds will be forced to unload billions of dollars in mortgage-backed securities and other assets, driving down their prices in a fire sale. That could force big write-offs by banks, brokerages and hedge funds that own similar investments and would have to mark them down to the new, lower market prices.

Apple Inc. is reducing the price of all songs on its iTunes Store without anti-copying software to 99 cents from $1.29, bringing Apples prices on such tracks closer to those offered by Amazon.com Inc., Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and other rivals in online music.

Songs on iTunes Plus originally came at a premium though: 30% more than the standard 99 cent song price for tracks long available with DRM. "Its been very popular with our customers, and were making it even more affordable," Mr. Jobs said.

Moving Pictures

Marketers eager to stand out in print are turning to pop-ups, flashing lights?and soon, maybe even video

When Death Cab for Cutie guitarist/producer Chris Walla woke up on Monday, his "To Do" list probably read something like this:

1. Call MTV News to discuss upcoming, long-delayed solo record.
2. Call U.S. Department of Homeland Security to discuss seizure of hard drive containing said long-delayed solo record.
3. Head into town for weekly tuque fitting.

Yes, it seems that recently, Wallas solo record (which has been scheduled to come out at various points over the past, well, four years) took another step toward oblivion when the master hard drive ? containing all song files ? was confiscated by Homeland Security at the Canadian border, for reasons not abundantly clear, and sent to the departments computer-forensics division for further inspection.

If it sounds like a huge joke, Walla ensures you it isnt.

Now Cassini has helped provide the answer. Dark, organic-rich material is splattering the face of Iapetus as it orbits Saturn, like a car whose windscreen is sprayed with water from other cars on a rainy day.

The Helix Nebula: a Gaseous Envelope Expelled By a Dying Star

Gas Pillars in the Eagle Nebula (M16): Pillars of Creation in a Star-Forming Region

Uncovering the Veil Nebula

Star-Birth Clouds in M16: Stellar "Eggs" Emerge from Molecular Cloud

The Cats Eye Nebula: Dying Star Creates Fantasy-like Sculpture of Gas and Dust

The Colorful Demise of a Sun-like Star

Eagle Nebula (M16) Pillar Detail: Portion of Top

A Perfect Storm of Turbulent Gases in the Omega/Swan Nebula (M17)

Crab Nebula: a Dead Star Creates Celestial Havoc

The Bubble Nebula (NGC 7635)

The Eskimo Nebula (NGC 2392)

The Cygnus Loop Supernova Remnant

The Cats Eye Nebula

Edifice of Gas and Dust in the Cone Nebula

The Cone Nebula (NGC 2264)

Gas Plume From a Newborn Star in the Orion Nebula

Comet-like Filaments Along the Inner Rim of the Helix Nebulas Gas Ring

The Ring Nebula (M57)

Supernova Remnant N 63A

Comet-Like Knots Around a Dying Star in the Helix Nebula

Rainbow Image of the Egg Nebula

Veil Nebula - Segment #2

Artist defiantly draws Prophet Mohammed

HOGANAS, Sweden (CNN) -- Swedish artist Lars Vilks says all hes doing is taking a stand in the name of artistic expression. But because of that stand, on this afternoon hes lying low -- on the ground, in fact -- looking for bombs under his car.

"I dont think it should not be a problem to insult a religion, because it should be possible to insult all religions in a democratic way, " says Vilks from his home in rural Sweden.

"If you insult one, then you should insult the other ones."

Henry Copeland of BlogAds points out the great paradox of blog monetization ? advertisers have embraced unedited bloggers as trusted media brands, but they still don?t trust the people who comment on those blogs (via paidContent):

The appeal of blogs to marketers is their singular brand identity, making it possible to accurately target their ads. Copeland: ?Advertisers say, ?I know I can trust Blog X, but I also know that Blog X has 100,000 readers - and God knows what those
100,000 readers are going to say.?

This is why completely open systems of ?user-generated content,? e.g. social networks like MySpace and Facebook, and social news sites like Digg, still have so little commercial value relative to their scale.

Read the rest of ?Advertisers Don?t Trust Or Value Completely Open Systems? on the Publish2 Blog.

Time article on "Health" says it may be due to biological programming.

According to a new study in the Aug. 21 issue of Current Biology women may be biologically programmed to prefer the color pink ? or, at least, redder shades of blue ? more than men.

Student Credits TV For Teaching Him The Heimlich

We can only conquer this huge, contagious social cancer if we comprehend its essence and its etiological causes.

CNN reports that six years of investigations and prosecutions have turned up little evidence of Islamic jihadists at work in the United States, according to a study released Monday conducted by New York Universitys Center on Law and Security. Thanks for helping everyone see clearly what many of us already knew.There is no war on terror.

Are there terrorists? Yes, there always have been and if Bush and Giuliani hadnt failed so miserably to protect us from some Saudi criminals with box-cutters in 2001; we wouldnt have had to deal with the terrible national and personal tragedy of September 11th. But then again; Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld and Cheney needed some justification to shovel piles of money into the coffers of Blackwater, Halliburton, Bechtel and their other war profiteer buddies didnt they?

More than 90,000 Americans get potentially deadly infections each year from a drug-resistant staph "superbug," the government reported Tuesday in its first overall estimate of invasive disease caused by the germ.

Deaths tied to these infections may exceed those caused by AIDS, said one public health expert commenting on the new study. The report shows just how far one form of the staph germ has spread beyond its traditional hospital setting

Young children have an innate tendency to be aggressive that they have to learn to control in their pre-school years if they are to avoid being violent and antisocial later in life, an expert in childhood behaviour has found.

Toddlers are born with aggressive instincts rather than learning to be violent from their surroundings. What they do have to learn, however, is how to control this instinctive behaviour in the critical years before they start school, Professor Richard Tremblay of the University of Montreal said.

"Physical aggression in children is a major public problem," he said. "It is not only an indictor of aggression in adulthood, but is also leads to other behavioural problems such as alcohol and drug abuse, violent crime and continues the cycle of abusive parenting.

Photos: Airbus A380 jumbo jet

The presence in premium class of double beds, strewn for the debut with rose petals, prompted The New York Times to say that the Singapore Airlines A380 "sometimes resembles a luxury hotel rather than an airliner".

The A380 departed for Singapore on Tuesday and will enter service on a Singapore-Sydney route at the end of October.

For a majority of likely voters, meaningless bullshit will be the most important factor in deciding who they will vote for in 2008.

In response to chilly temperatures and fewer daylight hours, leaves stop producing their green-tinted chlorophyll, which allows them to capture sunlight and make energy. Because chlorophyll is sensitive to the cold, certain weather conditions like early frosts will turn off production more quickly.

Meanwhile, orange and yellow pigments called carotenoids?also found in orange carrots?shine through the leaves washed out green.

"The yellow color has been there all summer, but you dont see it until the green fades away," said Paul Schaberg, U.S. Forest Service plant physiologist. "In trees likes aspens and beech, thats the dominant color change."

The red color comes from anthocyanins, which unlike carotenoids, are only produced in the fall. They also give color to strawberries, red apples, and plums.

While many conservative commentators and editorialists have mocked concerns about climate change, a different reality is emerging among Republican presidential contenders. It is a near-unanimous recognition among the leaders of the threat posed by global warming.

All agree that nuclear power should be greatly expanded.

The debate has taken an intriguing twist. Two candidates appealing to religious conservatives, former Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas and Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas, call for strong actions to ease the effects of people on the climate, at times casting the effort in spiritual terms just as some evangelical groups have taken up the cause.

The debate among Republicans is largely not about whether people are warming the planet, but about how to deal with it.

The issue inserted itself into the presidential campaign on Friday with the announcement that Al Gore had won the Nobel Peace Prize for work highlighting the threat posed by climate change.

1. If the population of China walked past you in single file, the line would never end because of the rate of reproduction.

2. China has more English speakers than the United States.

3. Paper was first invented in China in 105 AD. It was a closely guarded secret and didn?t reach Eurupe until the 8th century.

4. China is the 4th largest country in world.

5. The Chinese year is based on the cycles of the moon. This is called a lunar schedule. The Chinese new year is different every year, but is usually comes between the end of January and the middle of February. A complete cycle of the Chinese calendar takes 60 years, or 5 sets of 12. The Chinese calendar dates back to 2600 B.C. It is the oldest known calendar.

6. 24% of the world speaks Chinese (there are over 200 different Chinese languages and regional dialects).

7. The Great Wall of China is NOT visible from outer space. It?s too thin. The only man-made structures visible from space are: The Pyramids of Giza and the Hoover Dam.

If you have a confrontation with the police - know your rights and know what you should or should not do to give them up. Just follow these 10 rules:

Follow these ten simply rules religiously and many of your rights will remain intact. I dont care how nervous, scared or drunk you are, THESE RULES ARE VERY IMPORTANT, and will help you tremendously in the short and long run. And remember - we are not your lawyer!

Microsoft mind reading

Can being mentioned on the net turn an ordinary citizen into a public figure with severely limited abilities to fight libel and defamation lawsuits? According to a Florida judges ruling -- perhaps the first of its kind in the United States -- the answer is yes.

In an Oct. 21 ruling, Florida circuit court Judge Karen Cole threw out a defamation case against two TV stations because she deemed the plaintiff -- a Jacksonville woman -- to be a public figure who had been subject to "substantial" internet debate.

In the eyes of the law, public figures are usually politicians or celebrities, who have limited rights to claim that theyve been libeled or defamed, thanks to a 1964 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Among other things, Cole said plaintiff Eliza Thomas had become a public figure because there had been "substantial public debate" regarding her and her husband on the internet.