Somewhere along the meandering career path that led  James Webb to the U.S. Senate, he found himself in the frigid interior of a Japanese prison.

A journalist at the time, he was working on an article about Ed Arnett, an American who had spent two years in Fuchu Prison for possession of marijuana. In a January 1984 Parade magazine piece, Webb described the harsh conditions imposed on Arnett, who had frostbite and sometimes labored in solitary confinement making paper bags.

"But, surprisingly, Arnett, home in Omaha, Neb., says he prefers Japans legal system to ours," Webb wrote. "Why? Because its fair, he said."

Teenagers who pledge to remain virgins until marriage are just as likely to have premarital sex as those who do not promise abstinence and are significantly less likely to use condoms and other forms of birth control when they do, according to a study released today.

The new analysis of data from a large federal survey found that more than half of youths became sexually active before marriage regardless of whether they had taken a "virginity pledge," but that the percentage who took precautions against pregnancy or sexually transmitted diseases was 10 points lower for pledgers than for non-pledgers.

"Taking a pledge doesnt seem to make any difference at all in any sexual behavior," said Janet E. Rosenbaum of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, whose report appears in the January issue of the journal Pediatrics. "But it does seem to make a difference in condom use and other forms of birth control that is quite striking."

Eventually I did stop laughing, however, because after the initial reaction wore off, I started paying attention to the gravity of the situation.  In truth, it is not funny at all.  Offering someone the ?sole of your shoe? is considered a grave insult in the Arab world.

But even more sobering is what  Zaidi said as he threw the shoes: ?This is a farewell kiss, you dog. This is from the widows, the orphans and those who were killed in Iraq.? And after he was knocked to the ground he continued saying, ?Killer of Iraqis, killer of children.?

OK. I am not thinking it is all that funny anymore. How about you?

But the way Bush reacted is probably the best example of why our 43rd President should be run out of town on a rail. After the shoe incident, Bush tried to laugh it all off by saying, ?It didn?t bother me, and if you want the facts it was a size 10 shoe he threw at me.?

How many times do we have to see this play before we admit that it always ends the same way?

Which play? The one where gasoline prices go up, pressure rises for more fuel-efficient cars, then gasoline prices fall and the pressure for low-mileage vehicles vanishes, consumers stop buying those cars, the oil producers celebrate, we remain addicted to oil and prices gradually go up again, petro-dictators get rich, we lose. I?ve already seen this play three times in my life. Trust me: It always ends the same way ? badly.

Teenagers who take virginity pledges are no less sexually active than other teens, according to a new study.

But the results, published in the journal Pediatrics, suggest that virginity pledgers are less likely to protect themselves against pregnancy or disease when they do have sex.

Researchers say the findings suggest that virginity pledges may not significantly affect teenagers sexual behavior. Instead, they may decrease the likelihood of teenagers taking precautions, such as using a condom or using birth control, when they do have sex.

1) Residential trade contractors

2) Turbine & Turbine Generators

4) Medical equipment

5) Pet and pet supply stores

6) School bus transportation

8) Poultry processing

9) Motor vehicle towing

10) Water and sewage

12) Financial transaction processing and clearing

13) Portfolio management

14) Investment advice

16) Self-storage centers

17) Tax preparation services

18) Process and logistics consulting services

20) Security guards and armored car services

22) Junior colleges

24) Educational support services

25) Ambulatory health care services

Stay tuned for part two of this article which names the other 25 industries that grow in spite of recessions!

I am a prisoner of hope.
? Cornel West, from a speech at Penn State, 1998

Depression in 2009 ?

The MasterCard Commercial you will never see.

Depression in 2009 ?

If GM gets bailed out, the funds will never be recovered.

What Ron Paul says about the bailouts

Amount spent each year in Europe and the United States on pet food: $17 billion

Cost per year to achieve basic health and nutrition for the entire world: $13 billion

Amount spent on perfumes each year: $12 billion

Clean water for all the world: $9 billion

Amount spent on cosmetics in the US: $8 billion

Basic education for the world?s children: $6 billion

Total amount the US spends on Christmas each year: $450 billion (or 16 years worth of food, water, and education for the world)

Initial cost of the US Government bailout of failing financial institutions: $700 billion (or 25 years worth of food, water, and education for the world)

Coming to grips with the alarming disconnects of our consumerist society: Priceless

Men enjoy computer games because of basic urge to conquer

Playing on computer consoles activates parts of the male brain which are linked to rewarding feelings and addiction, scans have shown. The more opponents they vanquish and points they score, the more stimulated this region becomes.

In contrast, these parts of womens brains are much less likely to be triggered by sessions on the Sony PlayStation, Nintendo Wii or Xbox.

"These gender differences may help explain why males are more attracted to, and more likely to become hooked on video games than females," he said.

"I think its fair to say that males tend to be more intrinsically territorial. It doesnt take a genius to figure out who historically are the conquerors and tyrants of our species ? theyre the males.

After analysing the MRI data, the researchers found participants showed activation in the brains mesocorticolimbic centre, the region typically associated with reward and addiction.

Estimates for the amount of thick sludge that gushed from a Tennessee coal plant this week have tripled to more than a billion gallons, as cleanup crews try to remove the goop from homes and railroads and halt its oozing into an adjacent river.

TVA officials originally said the cleanup would take four to six weeks. Now they say they arent sure.

TVA officials originally said the cleanup would take four to six weeks. Now they say they arent sure.

Now, is the time for Jewish Americans to put pressure on our government to help Israel make the tough choices, it is the time for Arab Americans to work with their Jewish counterparts to resolve the Middle East crisis through honest dialogue, and coordinated pressure on their congress representatives.  But most of all, it is the time for all Americans to reject the notion that their own tax dollars can be used to buy weapons to demolish the lives and properties of civilians living under siege, or to provide grants to expand settlements in the occupied land.

Ive been giving away my books ever since my first novel came out, and boy has it ever made me a bunch of money.

When my first novel, Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, was published by Tor Books in January 2003, I also put the entire electronic text of the novel on the Internet under a Creative Commons License that encouraged my readers to copy it far and wide. Within a day, there were 30,000 downloads from my site (and those downloaders were in turn free to make more copies). Three years and six printings later, more than 700,000 copies of the book have been downloaded from my site. The books been translated into more languages than I can keep track of, key concepts from it have been adopted for software projects and there are two competing fan audio adaptations online.

What is certain is that every writer whos tried giving away e-books to sell books has come away satisfied and ready to do it some more.

?Debugging is twice as hard as writing the code in the first place. Therefore, if you write the code as cleverly as possible, you are, by definition, not smart enough to debug it.?

- Brian Kernighan

?Any fool can write code that a computer can understand. Good programmers write code that humans can understand.?

- Martin Fowler

?There are two ways of constructing a software design: One way is to make it so simple that there are obviously no deficiencies, and the other way is to make it so complicated that there are no obvious deficiencies. The first method is far more difficult.?

- C.A.R. Hoare

?Measuring programming progress by lines of code is like measuring aircraft building progress by weight.?

- Bill Gates

?If you want to set off and go develop some grand new thing, you don?t need millions of dollars of capitalization. You need enough pizza and Diet Coke to stick in your refrigerator, a cheap PC to work on and the dedication to go through with it.?

- John Carmack

IRVINE, Calif. (AP) - The box of crackers Debra Rogoff bought from the grocery store had some crackerjack in it - an envelope stuffed with $10,000.

Yet the Irvine woman was more curious than ecstatic about her daughters find. After all, who would leave money in such a place?

"We just thought, This is someones money," she said. "We would never feel good about spending it."

Rather than go on a shopping spree, the family called police and was initially told the money could be part of a drug drop.

The Lake Forest woman, whose identity was not released, had lost faith in her bank and decided the box would be a safer place for the money.

Can you give an overview of the benefits of meditation, including Richard Davidsons studies on mindfulness meditation?

At its core, meditation is an active process that requires alertness and attention, which explains why we often find increased brain activity in frontal lobes during practice. Usually you need to focus on something - a mantra, a visual or verbal prompt- while you monitor breathing.

A variety of studies have already shown the stress management benefits of meditation, resulting in what is often called Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction. What we are researching now is what are the cognitive - attention, memory- benefits? It is clear that memory depends on attention and the ability to screen out distractions - so we want to measure the effect of meditation on the brain, both structurally and functionally.

Explore Michigan Private Golf Communities today! Find the ideal private gated community in Michigan for you and your family. Start by clicking on the Michigan private golf community name below to learn more and read reviews. Were sure youll find several gated golf communities in Michigan that are perfect for your primary residence, vacation or retirement.

Japanese police just arrested a woman for living secretly in a strangers closet for over a year ? sleeping on a small mattress she brought with her. Considering that this woman was living in a closet for a year, Im not so sure prisontime will be too bad of a punishment.

The homeowner knew something was up once he noticed food was missing from his refrigerator. This guy must love food a whole lot more than he liked clothes, since he noticed his food was gone, but failed to notice he had a roommate!

Did Smiles Evolve to Prevent Humans from Biting Each Other?

Dec 18th 2008 | BASINGSTOKE, ENGLAND
From The Economist print edition

The way the brain buys

The science of shopping

Retailers are making breakthroughs in understanding their customers? minds. Here is what they know about you

Scientists used to assume that emotion and rationality were opposed to each other, but Antonio Damasio, now professor of neuroscience at the University of Southern California, has found that people who lose the ability to perceive or experience emotions as the result of a brain injury find it hard or impossible to make any decisions at all. They can?t shop.

"I think most people recognize political satire when they see it," Tennessee Republican Chip Saltsman told CNN. "I think RNC members understand that."

The song, set to the tune of "Puff the Magic Dragon," was first played on conservative political commentator Rush Limbaughs radio show in 2007.

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Opponents Protest Kremlins Presidential Term Effort

Dangerous Ideas : Why they did that???

Matrix 4 - Starring George W. Bush

Inventors Find Inspiration in Natural Phenomena

Around the World in 80 Questions - the News Quiz of the Year

How much attention were you paying in 2008? From Fidel Castro to Jonathan Ross, via Beijing, Alaska and the great economic meltdown, let us tease your brains with our News Quiz of the Year

2 Which planet received a Messenger in the New Year?

3 Which city roped in two Beatles and a giant spider for its year as European Capital of Culture?

4 Which actors promising career ended tragically with an accidental overdose on January 22?

5 Derek Conway MP was suspended from the Commons over expenses ? but his flamboyant son Henry grabbed the headlines. What was his nickname?

6 Who preferred the front line to "sitting around in Windsor"?

7 Who replaced Fidel Castro as president of Cuba in February?

8 Which rock was annexed by the British government in the same month?

9 Which region declared independence on February 17?

Tick tock ... tick: Extra second added to 2008

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Those eager to put 2008 behind them will have to hold their good-byes for just a moment this New Years Eve.

The worlds official timekeepers have added a "leap second" to the last day of the year on Wednesday, to help match clocks to the Earths slowing spin on its axis, which takes place at ever-changing rates affected by tides and other factors.

The U.S. Naval Observatory, keeper of the Pentagons master clock, said it would add the extra second on Wednesday in coordination with the worlds atomic clocks at 23 hours, 59 minutes and 59 seconds Coordinated Universal Time, or UTC.

That corresponds to 6:59:59 p.m. EST (23:59:59 GMT), when an extra second will tick by -- the 24th to be added to UTC since 1972, when the practice began.

The first leap second was introduced into UTC on June 30, 1972. The last was added on December 31, 2005.

Elephants ready to party as eBay ban approaches

What with a deepening global recession its been pretty much a lousy 2008 for most folks, but its closing on a very good note--if you happen to be an elephant, that is.

The proliferation in the illegal trade of wildlife species has been aided by the use of the Internet. In a recent report (PDF), the International Fund for Animal Welfare found that about two-thirds of the global online trade in protected wildlife takes place on eBays platform. The group said that poachers kill more than 2,000 elephants in Africa and Asia annually to meet demand for ivory products.

The sale of elephant ivory has been illegal since 1989 (although there are certain exceptions to the prohibition).

Darwin shouldnt be hijacked by New Atheists - he is an ethical inspiration

Less killing, more kissing: new breed of computer games bring people together

A new generation of designers and developers is putting the social element back into video games, using online networks such as Facebook as platforms to turn people from across the world into poker aces, boffins and the proud and sometimes obsessive owners of virtual pets.

Dear Mr. Santa,

This might be unusual request coming from someone who is a Muslim, but the fact I have  few things on my mind.

The children of Gaza do not need toys or video games as they do in other parts of the ?Cristian? world, so I suggest the following:

Baby formula

Bottled water

Candles

Clothing and toiletry

Batteries (all sizes)

Hearing aids for children

Meal Ready to Eat [MRE]. The same kind used by the military.

Sincerely,

Mahmoud El-Yousseph

Where does Mario go when he dies?

Dec. 29, 2008 -- Visiting -- or even just viewing photos of family members -- prompts brain activity that affects how you feel about them, your friends, and even yourself, a new study suggests.

The study is the first to compare brain activity associated with seeing relatives with that linked to seeing friends and strangers. It suggests our feelings about biological relatives are at least somewhat primal.

The findings may help explain everything from why our family can get on our nerves to why people who look like us can spark immediate feelings of trust, "but not lust," said Steven Platek, who co-authored the study with Shelly Kemp.

"We like to be around people that look more like us, but we do not find them as sexually attractive," added Platek, editor-in-chief of the journal Frontiers in Evolutionary Neuroscience. "I think it is linked to our subconscious ability to detect facial resemblances so we avoid lusting after those that may be related to us."

Long way from home ... an alligator on the beach on the NSW South Coast.
Photo: National Parks And Wildlife Service

From an alligator turning up at a scout camp near Bega - far from its native home in Florida - to rare parrots dying after over-eating grain spilled from trucks, it appears the silly season has affected Australian wildlife.

Police were called to the Noonameena scout camp in Pambula, on the Far South Coast, about 5pm yesterday after reports a crocodile was walking around the yard.

When police arrived, they found a 1.5-metre reptile being held down by a group of people using a volleyball net.

"We had to wrestle it Steve Irwin style," National Parks and Wildlife Service spokesman John Dengate said.

"But it was big enough to give us a bit of trouble before we grabbed it."

Although authorities initially believed the animal was a saltwater crocodile, it was later found to be an alligator, Mr Dengate said.

"We dont know where it came from but its likely that its an escaped pet.

Opinions about the Israeli-Palestinian dispute are so entrenched that any single outbreak of violence is automatically evaluated through a pre-existing lens, shaped by ones typically immovable beliefs about which side bears most of the blame for the conflict generally or "who started it."  Still, any minimally decent human being -- even those who view the world through the most blindingly pro-Israeli lens possible, the ones who justify anything and everything Israel does, and who discuss these events with a bottomless emphasis on the primitive (though dangerous) rockets lobbed by Hamas into Southern Israel but without even mentioning the ongoing four-decades brutal occupation or the recent, grotesquely inhumane blockade of Gaza -- would find the slaughter of scores of innocent Palestinians to be a horrible and deeply lamentable event.

But not The New Republics Marty Peretz.  Here is his uniquely despicable view of the events of the last couple of days:

Harold Pinter, CH, CBE, (10 October 1930 ? 24 December 2008), was an English dramatist, actor and theatre director. He has been called the most influential and imitated playwright of his generation.^[1] In 2005 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Pinter was also a poet, screenwriter and, in later years, a political activist. His biographer wrote that, in terms of theatrical influence, of all the dramatists of the last century, Beckett was his only serious rival. It was a measure of his power that early on in his career he spawned the adjective Pinteresque.^[2]

When Marci Needle and her husband began to contemplate divorce in June, they thought they had enough money to go their separate ways. They owned a million-dollar home near Atlanta and another in Jacksonville, Fla., as well as investment properties.

Now the market for both houses has crashed, and the couple are left arguing about whether the homes are worth what they owe on them, and whether there are any assets left to divide, Ms. Needle said.

Chalk up another victim for the crashing real estate market: the easy divorce.

?There?s an old joke,? said Randall M. Kessler, Ms. Needle?s lawyer. ?Why is a divorce so expensive? Because it?s worth it. Now it better really be worth it.?

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan ? Taliban militants are beheading and burning their way through Pakistans picturesque Swat Valley, and residents say the insurgents now control most of the mountainous region far from the lawless tribal areas where jihadists thrive.

"You cant imagine how bad it is," said Muzaffar ul-Mulk, a federal lawmaker whose home in Swat was attacked by bomb-toting assailants in mid-December, weeks after he left. "Its worse day by day."

LOS ANGELES, (AFP) ? Americas oldest man, an African-American who befriended Louis Armstrong and voted for president-elect Barack Obama "because hes black," has died in Sacramento, California, his family said.

Born in New Orleans on June 6, 1896, George Rene Francis smoked cigars until he was 75, ate a diet heavy on milk, cheese, eggs and lard sandwiches and slept six hours a day. He died of congestive heart failure at a nursing home on Saturday.

Francis, who in his life worked as a chauffeur, an auto mechanic and a barber, became a friend of young jazz trumpet player Louis Armstrong and cast his vote November 4 for Obama.

Francis was hospitalized with pneumonia several weeks ago, but asked his family to return him to his nursing home where his friends were, his daughter said.

Francis wife, Josephine, died in 1963 after 46 years of marriage. He is survived by four children, 19 grandchildren, and some 30 great-grandchildren.

Genetic Basis for Popularity

According to the investigation by Michigan State University behavioral geneticist S. Alexandra Burt, male college students who had a gene associated with rule-breaking behavior were rated most popular by a group of previously unacquainted peers.

It?s not unusual for adolescent rule-breakers to be well-liked ? previous research has made that link ? but Burt is the first to provide meaningful evidence for the role of a specific gene in this process.

?And so what?s happening is, your genes are to some extent driving your social experiences.?

Saltman: Do you think the U.S. is hooked on war?

Hedges: It?s the myth of war we?re hooked on, not the reality. There?s a huge divide between those who experience war on the ground and those who imbibe this mythic tale of honor and heroism and glory, which is rendered hollow and obscene after thirty seconds of combat.

Saltman: For you, what constitutes a just war?

Hedges: I don?t like the word just, but I certainly supported the intervention in Bosnia and Kosovo. I don?t think it was handled well, but I supported it. The lesson of the Holocaust is that if you have the capacity to stop a genocide and you don?t act, then you?re culpable. The U.S. was culpable in Rwanda and Cambodia.

Posted: Dec 29, 2008 08:30 PM PST

KINGSTON, Tenn. - High levels of arsenic and heavy metals were detected in two East Tennessee rivers near an area where a sludge spill occurred, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Monday.

Last Monday, a wall breached at a retention site at TVAs Kingston Fossil Plant in East Tennessee.

The water and ash, a byproduct of a coal-fired power plant, covered 300 acres. It also left some nearby residents homeless.

The EPA didnt detect arsenic in a water intake facility near Kingston, which is about 40 miles west of Knoxville.

But arsenic was detected in the Clinch and Emory rivers.

On Monday, a warning was issued for people who get their water from wells or springs because the federal government found high levels of arsenic in the area.

Commentary: A person who works with total focus has an enormous advantage over a workaholic whos "multi-tasking" all day, answering every phone call, constantly checking Facebook and Twitter, and indulging every interruption.

But since the turn of the new millennium, the nature of work has evolved to the point where hard work is becoming less important to a successful work ethic than another, more useful value: attention.

Columnist David Brooks, commenting in the Dec. 16th New York Times about Malcolm Gladwells latest book called "Outliers," made a statement as profound as it was accurate: "Control of attention is the ultimate individual power," he wrote. "People who can do that are not prisoners of the stimuli around them."

In a world in which entire industries bet their businesses on gaining access to our attention, which value leads to better personal success: hard work or the ability to control attention?

Hard work is dead. Are you paying attention?

Zigtag is an intelligent social bookmarking tool. It allows you to save your favorite websites by tagging them with keywords, which you can then use to retrieve the pages again at a later date. This makes it easy to categorize and organize any number of bookmarks, and is more manageable than your browsers built-in favorites tool.

The primary difference between Zigtag and other social bookmarking websites is that our tags have defined meanings. This makes the system very intelligent in a number of ways.

Will one of President-elect Barack Obama?s New Year?s resolutions be to quit smoking once and for all?

?It takes the average smoker 8 to 10 times before he is able to quit successfully,? said Dr. Steven A. Schroeder, director of the Smoking Cessation Leadership Center at the University of California, San Francisco.

?If nicotine is harmful, it is a minuscule risk compared to cigarette smoking,? he said. ?If people want to continue using gum or patches, and not cigarettes, their health will be enhanced.?

One of the best things that President-elect Obama has going for him is that he is a jogger.

PALEONTOLOGISTS in east China have dug up what they believe is one of the worlds largest group of fossilised dinosaur bones, including the remains of an enormous "platypus", state press said Tuesday.

Paleontologists have discovered 15 areas near Zhucheng city in Shandong province that contain thousands of dinosaur bones, the Beijing News reported.

"This group of fossilised dinosaurs is currently the largest ever discovered in the world ... in terms of area," the paper cited paleontologist Zhao Xijin of the China Academy of Sciences as saying.

In one area measuring 300 metres by 10 metres, more than 3,000 bones were found, the report said. Since digging began in March scientists have discovered more than 7,600 bones.

Included in the find was the largest "platypus" - or "duck-billed dinosaur" in Chinese - ever discovered measuring nine metres high with a wingspan wider than 16 metres, the report said.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 29, 2008
12:01 PM

Kucinich Calls For Independent UN Inquiry on Gaza

Israeli government attacks civilians in violation of international law

WASHINGTON - December 29 - U.S. Congressman Dennis Kucinich today released the following statement as Israeli attacks on Gaza have gone into a third day with a pending ground invasion of Gaza by Israel:

Retired Army Lt. Col. Nathan Freir wrote the report "Known Unknowns: Unconventional Strategic Shocks in Defense Strategy Development," which the Army think tank in Carlisle, Pa., recently released.

"Widespread civil violence inside the United States would force the defense establishment to reorient priorities ... to defend basic domestic order and human security," the report said, in case of "unforeseen economic collapse," "pervasive public health emergencies," and "catastrophic natural and human disasters," among other possible crises.

The report also suggests the new (Barack Obama) administration could face a "strategic shock" within the first eight months in office.

Although the number of natural disasters was lower than in 2007, the catastrophes that occurred proved to be more destructive in terms of the number of victims and the financial cost of the damage caused, Germany-based Munich Re said in its annual assessment.

"This continues the long-term trend we have been observing. Climate change has already started and is very probably contributing to increasingly frequent weather extremes and ensuing natural catastrophes," Munich Re board member Torsten Jeworrek said.

Most devastating in terms of human fatalities was Cyclone Nargis, which lashed Myanmar on May 2-3 to kill more than 135,000 people and leave more than one million homeless.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand - A passenger jet powered in part by vegetable oil successfully completed a two-hour flight Tuesday to test a biofuel that could lower airplane emissions and cut costs, Air New Zealand said.

One engine of a Boeing 747-400 airplane was powered by a 50-50 blend of oil from jatropha plants and standard A1 jet fuel.

This year has seen an unprecedented push for alternative fuels by airlines, which were slammed by skyrocketing oil prices earlier in 2008 and are now bracing for a falloff in air travel in the face of a global economic slowdown.

While Air New Zealand couldnt say whether the blend would be cheaper than standard jet fuel since jatropha is not yet produced on a commercial scale, the company expects the blend to be "cost competitive," according to company spokeswoman Tracy Mills.

The flight was the first to use jatropha as part of a biofuel mix.

Guaranteed Minimum Pension (GMP) - Error In Calculation

Finally, SPVA would like to apologise again for this error.  We are doing everything we can to correct this pension error, and provide you with the actual figures involved as quickly as possible.  There is a helpline available and the number is 0845 121 2514.  Unfortunately SPVA will be unable to supply you with any GMP figures at the moment but will write to you in late March or April 2009 when we anticipate being in a position to inform you of any change to your pension.

A Green MSP called today for an emergency ban on the shooting of common seals to try to halt an "alarming" drop in their population.

He said studies had revealed between 3000 and 5000 common seals are shot in Scotland each year.

Across Scotland and England, seal numbers dropped by 56% since 2000, he added. "This decline in common seal numbers is extremely alarming," Mr Harper said.

"In addition to the devastation of the Scottish common seal population, we are also seeing rapidly declining populations of Scottish sea birds. This would all seem to indicate that a substantial environmental change is taking place out in the North Sea."

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Green Bible highlights debate among evangelicals over environmentalism

By GINGER D. RICHARDSON
The Arizona Republic

There are Bibles for everyone from toddlers to teenage girls to recovering addicts. There are even Bibles on disc, narrated by James Earl Jones and Johnny Cash.

Conservative MP Fred Nile says he wants topless bathing banned in NSW to protect Sydneys Muslim and Asian communities.

The Reverend Nile has rejected allegations that prudishness is behind a bill he has prepared to ban nudity, including topless sunbathing, on the states most popular beaches.

Australias reputation as a conservative but culturally inclusive sociery was at risk of erosion by more liberal overseas visitors, he said.

"Our beaches should be a place where no one is offended, whether its their religious or cultural views," he said.

"If theyve come from a Middle Eastern or Asian country where women never go topless - in fact they usually wear a lot of clothing - I think its important to respect all the different cultures that make up Australia."

The practice was at risk of raising the ire of Muslim men in particular, Mr Nile said.

"I dont want to have any provocations or disturbances on our public beaches," he said.

A rescue mission of epic proportions has ended successfully as two abandoned and emaciated horses were finally freed from where they were trapped in the snowbound Renshaw mountains in British Columbia, about 200 kilometres southeast of Prince George.

Volunteers braved temperatures that plunged to minus 30 to shovel out a kilometre-long trench to reach the animals who were trapped in snow in the Renshaw mountains near the town of McBride.

?They are definitely hundreds of pounds underweight, but they are in stable condition at this point,? said Kent Kokoska, the senior animal protection officer with the B.C. Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. ?One of the horses had rain scald or frost bite on it. The other one had most of its tail missing probably due to lice. They?re definitely in a sad looking state but we feel comfortable that now they are in the type of recuperation facility that they need. So it does feel really good all around.?

The United States will enter 2009 with 305,529,237 residents, the Census Bureau estimated on Monday.

Thats an increase of 2,743,429 this year.

The bureau says that in January, one birth is expected to occur every eight seconds in the United States and one death every 12 seconds.

In addition, international migration is expected to add one person every 36 seconds to the U.S. population in January.

WASHINGTON - My, how the country has grown.

Tuesday, 30 December 2008

How easy it is to snap off the history of the Palestinians, to delete the narrative of their tragedy, to avoid a grotesque irony about Gaza which ? in any other conflict ? journalists would be writing about in their first reports: that the original, legal owners of the Israeli land on which Hamas rockets are detonating live in Gaza.

That is why Gaza exists: because the Palestinians who lived in Ashkelon and the fields around it ? Askalaan in Arabic ? were dispossessed from their lands in 1948 when Israel was created and ended up on the beaches of Gaza. They ? or their children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren ? are among the one and a half million Palestinian refugees crammed into the cesspool of Gaza, 80 per cent of whose families once lived in what is now Israel. This, historically, is the real story: most of the people of Gaza dont come from Gaza.

Hundreds of people today returned to the Israeli Embassy to protest at the countrys bombardment of opponents in Gaza.

The crowd outside the Embassy in Kensington, central London, chanted slogans in support of Palestine from behind heavy metal barriers, facing a line of around 30 police officers while a police helicopter hovered overhead.

Yesterdays protest outside the Embassy saw seven people arrested for public order offences, including assaulting police officers, during angry clashes.

The atmosphere this afternoon was calmer, with protestors who attended yesterday noting that their numbers were slightly less - adding that people were now focusing on the rally in Trafalgar Square on Saturday.

"I feel that what is happening in Gaza is complete barbarism," she said.

Swarms of small earthquakes happen frequently in Yellowstone, but its very unusual for so many earthquakes to happen over several days, said Robert Smith, a professor of geophysics at the University of Utah.

"Theyre certainly not normal," Smith said. "We havent had earthquakes in this energy or extent in many years."

"This is an active volcanic and tectonic area, and these are the kinds of things we have to pay attention to," Smith said. "We might be seeing something precursory.

The strongest of dozens of tremors Monday was a magnitude 3.3 quake shortly after noon. All the quakes were centered beneath the northwest end of Yellowstone Lake.

Art & Inspiration Blog

Post Conceptual Art at the Intersection of Cutting Edge Science and Ancient Wisdom

Is it Better to Follow or be Followed on Twitter?

On Twitter, which is it more important to follow others or be followed?

At the social networking site of Twitter, the question of whether it is more important to follow people or be followed is controversial. People try to look important by having a ratio of more followers that followers, just like the celebrities and Internet gurus on Twitter. But, does having more followers mean anything or predict success?

Should the Federal Government Bail Out State Medicaid Programs?

By Greg Scandlen,The Heartland Institute

Unemployment is growing with the current recession while state tax revenue is falling, putting financial pressure on state governments. More people are becoming eligible for the state Medicaid and SCHIP programs, but the states dont have the funds to cover them. Governors are asking Washington for $40 billion in financial assistance to help cover the shortfall.

Before approving a federal bailout of state Medicaid programs, taxpayers deserve assurance that their tax dollars would be spent in the most responsible way possible. There are many reasons to believe that enrolling the newly unemployed in Medicaid and State Childrens Health Insurance Programs is not the best use of the money.

Burris was the first African American to win statewide office in Illinois when he was elected comptroller, serving from 1983 to 1991. He served as Illinois Attorney General from 1991 to 1995. Burris previously ran and lost bids for the U.S. senate and governor.

If tapped as planned, Burris would be the sole African American in the U.S. Senate.

With the New Year right around the corner, it?s a perfect time to get a fresh start on an area of your life you?ve been meaning to overhaul.

The New Year is an exciting time. It symbolized transformation and starting new. It?s a time when you can let go of the old, shed your past and begin again.

RoveCyberGate.com

UPDATE: 12/20/08: Michael Connell Killed: VR Demands Full State And Federal Investigation

Michael Connell, the Bush IT expert who has been directly implicated in the rigging of George Bush?s 2000 and 2004 elections, was killed last night when his single engine plane crashed three miles short of the Akron airport.  Velvet Revolution (?VR?), a non-profit that has been investigating Mr. Connell?s activities for the past two years, can now reveal that a person close to Mr. Connell has recently been discussing with a VR investigator how Mr. Connell can tell all about his work for George Bush.  Mr. Connell told a  close associate that he was afraid that the George Bush and Dick Cheney would ?throw [[him] under the bus.?

10 Flimsy Paranoramal Hoaxes Everyone Bought Into

Everyone enjoys a good hoax regardless of their personal beliefs about the paranormal. The following are examples of famous hoaxes that captivated the personal interest and imagination in their time, only to let everyone down once the truth emerged. Some still believe that these are true.

1. Amityville

2. Cottingley Fairies

3. The Bermuda Triangle

4. Crop Circles

5. Uri Geller?s Bending Spoons

6. William Mumler

7. The Bigfoot Corpse

8. The Fox Sisters

9. Alien Autopsy

10. The Angels of Mons

Number of man-eating sharks in Australian waters is growing: experts

Scout leader tackles alligator found wandering campsite in Pambula

Familiar to millions of divers the world over, the corals may look like they are shimmering in the tropical waters of the Great Barrier Reef or in the azure seas of the Caribbean.

Bred by Clayton Smith, they are part of the home-grown coral farm craze that is catching on in the UK and Claytons home in Bromley is right at the centre of the trend.

Grown in the back-garden shed of marine-biologist Mr Smiths London home, his revolutionary coral farming techniques have made it possible to own a small piece of the tropics for your home.

Mr Smith, 35, said: "Coral is an incredible pet to own.

"People generally have a personal taste for their aquariums and they might want soft corals, which are wavy, or they might want the large polyp stone corals which are big and fleshy.

President Bush today added a convicted methamphetamine dealer, a cocaine distributor and two marijuana suppliers to the list of drug operators hes pardoned while in office, bringing his total of drug suppliers who have been pardoned or had their sentences commuted to 36.

Hes also pardoned more than a dozen thieves, seven embezzlers, an arsonist, several mail thieves, a man who violated the Neutrality Act and eight Thanksgiving turkeys, but theres been no clemency for U.S. Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean, who were convicted of shooting at a fleeing drug smuggler.

"You really have got to start to wonder ? does this doper (in the Ramos-Compean case) lead to somebody really big?" he said.

"fireworks"

"fireworks in Moscow"

"Newport Oregon"

"Fireworks behind trees"

"New Year Fireworks in Sydney, 2008"

"budapest fireworks"

"New Year fireworks in Moscow, Russia, photo is made from 21-st store"

"Happy New Year!"

"Fireworks San Francisco New Year 2008"

The year 2008 in photographs (part 1 of 3)

Gaza relief boat damaged in encounter with Israeli vessel

(CNN) -- An Israeli patrol boat struck a boat carrying medical volunteers and supplies to Gaza early Tuesday as it attempted to intercept the vessel in the Mediterranean Sea, witnesses and Israeli officials said.

The Dignity was carrying crew and 16 passengers -- physicians from Britain, Germany and Cyprus and human rights activists, including former U.S. Rep. Cynthia McKinney -- who were trying to reach Gaza through an Israeli blockade of the territory.

"I would call it ramming. Lets just call it as it is," McKinney said. "Our boat was rammed three times, twice in the front and one on the side. Watch Cynthia McKinney discuss the collision »

"Our mission was a peaceful mission to deliver medical supplies and our mission was thwarted by the Israelis -- the aggressiveness of the Israeli military," she said.

LONDON (Reuters) - Next year is set to be one of the top-five warmest on record, British climate scientists said on Tuesday.

That would make it the warmest year since 2005, according to researchers at the Met Office, who say there is also a growing probability of record temperatures after next year.

Warm weather that year was strongly influenced by El Nino, an abnormal warming of surface ocean waters in the eastern tropical Pacific.

The strength of the prevailing trade winds that blow from east to west across the equatorial Pacific is thought to be an important factor.

"What matters is the underlying rate of warming," he said.

Cynthia McKinney Relief Boat Hit by Israeli Ship

by Craig Schneider

A boat carrying international activists, including former Georgia congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, and medical supplies to the embattled Gaza Strip sailed back into a Lebanese port on Tuesday after being turned back and damaged by the Israeli navy, organizers of the trip said.

Lebanese fishermen cheer as the vessel SS Dignity arrives at Tyre, Lebanon, on Tuesday after being turned back and damaged by the Israeli navy, according to organizers of the trip. (Mohammed Zaatari / AP)

Different sizes of bottles and its names;

on ladder:

on floor:

Still, I can?t tell you how many times at digital media conferences this year I heard various ?professionals? who would acknowledge Dr. Horrible as a remarkable success only to immediately qualify that with something like ?Yeah, but that was Joss Whedon.? What the hell is that supposed to mean? Does he have superpowers of mind control that we?re all sheepish victims of?

Look, he literally walked into the offices of ABC Family and asked for about 150k for Dr. Horrible and they passed. They passed on what has become the most financially successful web series project to date. He rallied together his brothers and friends and said let?s do this on our own. We know how that turned out.

Let?s get this straight.  The Left shrugged at Obama?s twenty years of alliance with a minister who spouted an infamous ?God Damn America?.  They sniffed when Jeremiah Wright called 9/11 ?America?s chickens coming home to roost?.  They may have even nodded their heads in agreement when the pastor to whom Obama gave over $20,000 in 2006 accused the US government of creating the HIV virus and AIDS as a genocidal tool against people of color.

However, Rick Warren offers public support for a California proposition that keeps marriage defined as his faith prescribes, and suddenly Obama has betrayed their trust.  Really?  They see a one-time association over a 60-second invocation as a betrayal of their values, when Obama?s twenty years with, and significant material support for, a raving anti-American demagogue like Wright didn?t disturb them in the least?

At least we know where their values lie.

In July, an international team of craftsmen unveiled an unusual pair of balls - believed to be the roundest objects in the world. "If you were to blow up our spheres to the size of the Earth, you would see a variation of only 3 to 5 metres in the roundness," said optical engineer Achim Leistner. The silicon balls are designed to each contain a near-identical number of silicon atoms, and become a new way to define the kilogram.

Later in the year, archaeologists unearthed the earliest nuclear family - an adult couple and their two children, buried together 4600 years ago in Eulau, Germany. "The two kids have her mitochondrial DNA, and his Y chromosome - thats a nuclear family," said molecular anthropologist Brian Kemp of Washington State University. But the real-life Flintstones had it much worse than their cartoon counterparts. Their shared grave is one of a number in the area, apparently marking the site of an ancient massacre.

Politico reports that RNC candidate Chip Saltsmans distribution of a song called "Barack the Magic Negro" hasnt killed his chances -- in fact, the scandal "might have inadvertently helped" him win. Most of Saltsmans rivals for the chairmanship have condemned his actions, but other party members are rallying to his side.

"When I heard about the story I had to figure out what was going on for myself," said Mark Ellis, the chairman of the Maine Republican Party. "When I found out what this was about I had to ask, boy, whats the big deal here? because there wasnt any."

Alabama Republican committeeman Paul Reynolds said the fact the Saltsman sent him a CD with the song on it "didnt bother me one bit."

The Republican National Committee is holding a series of debates in January where members will discuss their ability to reach out to minorities and expand the party.

CIA Uses Viagra to Lure in Afghan Warlords

The Washington Post said it was one of a number of enticements being used.

In one case, a 60-year-old warlord with four wives was given four pills and four days later detailed Taleban movements in return for more.

?Whatever it takes to make friends and influence people,? the Post quoted one agent as saying.

?Whether it?s building a school or handing out Viagra.?

?Silver bullet?

The newspaper said the use of Viagra had to be handled sensitively as the drug was not always known about in rural areas.

It quoted one retired agent as saying: ?You didn?t hand it out to younger guys, but it could be a silver bullet to make connections to the older ones.?

In the case of the 60-year-old warlord - the head of a clan in southern Afghanistan who had not co-operated - operatives saw he had four younger wives.

Scientists plan to ignite tiny man-made star

It is science?s star experiment: an attempt to create an artificial sun on earth ? and provide an answer to the world?s impending energy shortage.

In the spring, a team will begin attempts to ignite a tiny man-made star inside a laboratory and trigger a thermonuclear reaction.

Its goal is to generate temperatures of more than 100 million degrees Celsius and pressures billions of times higher than those found anywhere else on earth, from a speck of fuel little bigger than a pinhead. If successful, the experiment will mark the first step towards building a practical nuclear fusion power station and a source of almost limitless energy.

Tons of medicine ends up in the environment each year. Much has been excreted by patients. Leftover pills may also have been flushed down the toilet. Because water treatment plants were never designed to remove pharmaceuticals, water released into rivers by these plants generally carries a broad and diverse array of drug residues.

In 2006, a pair of chemists reported that antidepressants downstream of water treatment plants were making it into the brains of fish.

Tech Buzz Some crafty dudes hacked a Nerf Vulcan chaingun to fire as fast as an M60 machine gun. See the how-to at www.manapotions.com. One of these mysteriously appeared in our office when I came back from Christmas vacation.

Does anyone know where George W. Bush is?

You don?t hear much from him anymore. The last image most of us remember is of the president ducking a pair of size 10s that were hurled at him in Baghdad.

We?re still at war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Israel is thrashing the Palestinians in Gaza. And the U.S. economy is about as vibrant as the 0-16 Detroit Lions.

But hardly a peep have we heard from George, the 43rd.

When Mr. Bush officially takes his leave in three weeks (in reality, he checked out long ago), most Americans will be content to sigh good riddance. I disagree. I don?t think he should be allowed to slip quietly out of town. There should be a great hue and cry ? a loud, collective angry howl, demonstrations with signs and bullhorns and fiery speeches ? over the damage he?s done to this country.

Just wondering

WERE ALL GAZANS NOW