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nformation ? TV is more biased than any other source, and nowadays the net fulfill that better than Tv will ever do

(i can't imagine taking pictures outdoors being made illegal)

It looks like the pendulum is swinging that way...

I heard a story on NPR a week ago about a new book by MIT Professor, Dan Ariely, talking about what happens to our "rationality" when we are offered something for free. From the interview, it sounds like the rules of economics break down when we are offered something free.

[Animats wrote: ]If this works, we have a permanent answer to the end of oil.

In Free Lunch, David Cay Johnston notes a trend in limiting access to the courts. In this way, If someone somewhere doesn't want a case to be heard, they just have to buy a little influence and can claim a legitimate victory. Note the reason the courts dismissed ACLU's earlier efforts in this line: only persons under surveillance have standing to sue, and the nature of the program is such that you're not allowed to know that you're under surveillance. That is, if you can prove that you have standing, you can be imprisoned. If you can prove that someone else has standing, you can be imprisoned.

In the book, Johnston details one case of a couple who owned an auto repair business in a spot where (I think) Jeep wanted green space for its factory complex. You can guess whose complaint was thrown out. These days it seems like there are only checks and balances when they're backed up by personal relationships or bullying. Note the number of subpoenas the white house has simply ignored.

If they lost them, which they couldn't have (and after Senator Leahy called them out on this they somewhat admitted that they were lost not destroyed), then they've broken the Presidential Records Act. Actually, we probably have evidence of this already since White House staffers like Karl Rove have been circumventing official record keeping by using Republican National Committee email accounts for official business. Amazing how a little oversight uncovers so much dirt...

I for one would enjoy Terry Gross trying to sell me penis enlargement pills. In other news...

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5525283 is the closest I can find offhand. New single family homes in 1950 were an average of 983 square feet, while in 1970 they were an average of 1,500 square feet.

Flying into Mir, it smells sort of like dirty sweat socks in a guys locker room. Actual smell of space, though, thats a very interesting question. When we would open a hatch, for example, that was exposed to the vacuum of space, uh, theres always a double hatch, and so you open the one hatch, you now have the pure smell of space. And its a uh, tough you know, any aroma is tough to describe, but it has a distinct smell, and its sort of a burned-out, uh, after-the-fire, the next-morning-in-your-fireplace sort of smell. And thats the real smell of the vacuum of space.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1118331

There's a Congressional whitepaper that gets put out every year or so on assessment of China as a rival/potential threat. This is a link to the 2005 version that Google found:

http://www.defenselink.mil/pubs/china.html

So yes, China is actively seeking U.S. military secrets. It's official policy. I've read in past versions before 2000 that Chinese govt. policy was also to employ all the means to deter U.S. intervention in armed conflict with Taiwan, among which was to use anti-satellite missiles to neutralize U.S. surveillance capabilities, cyberwarfare to bog down the U.S. military and country in general, and also to use economic warfare to make the United States too frightened of losing its standard of living to bother about a small island in the South China Sea.

Given China's recent successful test of Anti-Satellite weapons and forays into cyberwarfare, the level of U.S. debt China holds, and the Bush administration's willingness to sell it to them, is particularly alarming.

Interestingly enough, many of the U.S. military secrets they acquire they get via Israel, our good friends, who steal them from us at will and get a free pass from the U.S. Congress because they're our good friends. (NPR story on the leaders of AIPAC, spying on the U.S. and passing secrets to Israel: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4802479)

Yes, this submission to Slashdot refers to space shuttle technology. Maybe that technology is valuable, maybe it isn't. But if we don't shut this activity down, it will bite us in the ass more than it already has.

For instance, Clinton authorized the sale of sensitive satellite technology back in the late 90's that allowed the Chinese to significantly upgrade their long-range targeting capability. Now, the Chinese don't have that many long-range missiles, so being able to target more effectively works wonders for their nuclear capability.

Not more than a few months after the Chinese got the tech from Clinton, India, which has fought border wars with China and lost ( http://www.fas.org/irp/world/india/threat/china.htm ), suddenly declared itself a nuclear power. Pakistan, of course was right on their heels, being eager to let India know they can play too.

So Chinese espionage, and foolish U.S. administration policy, has already directly caused a nuclear standoff in South Asia and given the Chinese the ability to reach and hit cities on the western U.S. mainland.

Not in particular. There are a lot of conserved pathways and genes but not more than any other fish. They're nice because they're a more convenient model organism to use than mice or chimps. You can fit a lot more of them in a tank, they're relatively inexpensive, they have a short generation time, and they're more of less transparent so you can observe internal structures (particularly for developmental bio purposes) and use luminescent/colorimetric techniques with out having to do any dissections. So they do make a good model, in fact one of the genes involved in determining skin color in humans was recently identified using Zebrafish.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5055391

Except of course the Administration came out yesterday and said there was no Al-Qaeda in the US, just are own home grown terrorists (No, I'm not going to do the legwork for you on that one, feel free to Google it.) oh hell here it is give it a listen And what grows home terror? Oppression and fear! So you can take your Republican talking point about "Islamofascists" and go hide in your basement. Who exactly is being intellectually dishonest now?

The RIAA has come a long way since they were setup to regulate and maintain the technical standards on how vinyl records should be manufactured. Hopefully they will go the way of the vinyl record real soon...

What, you want to RIAA to make revival? While CD sales are declining vinyl record sells are increasing. More and more stores are starting to carry vinyl turntables. Yes, I've noticed this as I'd like to get one myself.

Former Catholic here - it is difficult to impossible to exercise choice in the Catholic faith when one is raised in it, as any deviation from orthodoxy results in the promise of a Nice Hot BBQ with you as the main course. If one does manage to do so (I did), then actually disentangling oneself from the clammy embrace of the church is another battle. My mother made me go to church - I tried to bail out of first communion and confirmation, and I refused to continue as an alter boy (phew! good thing, too... that was the 1970's and early 80's, when the church was still DELIBERATELY CONCEALING ACTIONS OF KNOWN PEDOPHILES AS A MATTER OF OFFICIAL POLICY AND THREATENING ANY PARISHIONER WHO COMPLAINED TO ANYONE OUTSIDE THE CHURCH WITH EXCOMMUNICATION see http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6765175 for one example).

I finally got out by getting my mom to agree I could stop going to church if I made my confirmation. I believe this qualifies as 'duress'. I didn't realize the irony until later.

I found even at that time that while there were some good people in the church, the church itself had absolutely no basis for authority other than the fear they used to force its followers into line - I cannot count the number of times the priest would come up with some crackpot notion of 'how things should be in the home', particularly with regard to the place of women, and people in the congregation would discuss the subject rabidly afterward, yet it never occurred to them that the church was so wrong that they should think of leaving, and if the church was wrong on that score, what else could they be wrong on?

Oh, right - as the Catholic who posted about Gallileo noted, a Catholic CANNOT interpret scripture on their own. I forgot that.

Any organization that actually says "you cannot think for yourself, else you are damned" deserves no respect from me, and any organization religious, commercial or civil that actively protects child molesters as a matter of policy deserves to have any tax-exempt status it enjoys revoked and have the management prosecuted under RICO. Think about it - if a large US corporation concealed an employee pedophilia ring, what would happen?

Finally, to those in the Catholic church who would claim that the amount of abuse in the church is the same as in other organizations, so it is not as big a deal as people have made it - the church put itself out as an authority AND put all it's clergy (and laity, really) in positions of trust - like a teacher, but more so. The Catholic church also claims to be a moral bastion. You can't claim that on the one hand, then claim that it is ok to wallow with the Sodomites, statistically speaking.

If you are Catholic, and read this, you can get better - the first step is to leave. It is really less painful than you might think, and you won't miss it much. Your Catholic friends and family who may cut you from their lives will pretty quickly appear to you as they really are - I think of it as 'Taliban lite'. And not all of them will cut you off - just the idiots.

Ya, the real horror of ethanol is that we're putting worse polution into the air than we are now.

This story actually coincides with an interesting story that ran on NPR yesterday about several experimental new transplant techniques that might help future transplant patients avoid having to take anti-rejection drugs, as well.

In particular, the article tells the story of one 28-year-old woman who received a kidney transplant from her mother, who was only a partial match. Prior to the kidney transplant, she also received a partial bone marrow transplant from her mother. The bone marrow transplant essentially caused the patient's immune system to become a "blend" of her own and her mother's, producing T-cells that would attack bacterial and viral antigens just like normal, but leave the transplanted kidney alone.

The results are pretty impressive. The patient originally had to take anti-rejection drugs after her first kidney transplant at age 13, and they caused a host of miserable side effects. After her more recent transplant, however, she's been off the drugs for five years and even ran 2 marathons last year (how's that for healthy?).

Unfortunately, the new technique only works for organs that you intentionally plan on transplanting ahead of time, since the bone marrow has to be transplanted first in a separate surgery. That means that organ donors who die and donate hearts, livers, etc. aren't really an option. But for a transplant from a living donor, this is a very promising new technique (some of the researchers even think that it could eventually make transplants from animals possible).

Taxes and regulatory fees always destroy economic activity. Hopefully in the case of taxes, most of that activity is replaced by government services of similar value(or of greater value in some non monetary way), and in the case of regulatory fees, it is a good thing to prevent the activity(because it created amounts of pollution completely out of line with the value of the economic activity, etc). Otherwise, it's like taking water out of the deep end of a pool and dumping it in the shallow end:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18159629

That's a weird kind of comparison!

Not as weird as in Texas, where people recently compared a UFO's size as bigger than a Walmart...

It's probably not "you people" at the EPA that are behind the executive privilege claim. The executive privilege claim is probably the result of a decision to hide the lack of support for the EPA's policy by the EPA's own employees. The Bush administration has done similar things in the past, then spun what happened as if the Bush administration was somehow on the same side as the EPA's employees.

For something similar, listen to http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4696664. This story about how the EPA's bosses creatively misinterpreted a scientist's study. A manager defends overriding the scientists by bragging about how good EPA's scientists are. IIRC, I read elsewhere that the creative misinterpretation included counting dead fish as not being sick.

Unfortunately, any government career employees who defend themselves are subject to retaliation by their own bosses.

I don't need to bash the US, because the US is still it's own biggest critic. This is the sign of a free country. The critics haven't been totally marginalized yet.

Having said that, as an European I can't help wonder why American culture is so obsessed with "freedom" and "liberty". I've yet to see what you've got we don't. Where is this obsession coming from? Perhaps you can help me here.

But since you asked, I do have more freedoms, more rights and more privacy. Let me name certain areas. My employer cannot read my email or monitor my Internet usage. I'm free to join my family after 8 hours of work, and cannot be penalized if I refuse to do overtime. Meanwhile Americans have corporations employing spies and using underhanded tactics to monitor their employees. Sure many Americans are "free" to walk out after 8 hours but they'd get fired for it.

Please write me off now for being a jealous penniless pinko weeny with an inferiority complex.

These are the things I would attempt. I would likely not succeed as few would contribute money to me to get them done (barring a true grass roots effort.)

Scale back the troops in Iraq. Leave a highly mobile force to deal with true hotspots and aid when specifically asked to by the foreign government in question. These troops need not even be stationed in Iraq. We never should have invaded Iraq and there is no good solution as to how we should exit.

Remove subsidies for corporations to build in a specific area. Building or expansion subsidies allow companies to not only take no risk, but to profit (outright grants of tax dollars) regardless of how bad a decision it is to build in an area.

Repeal laws which restrict the rights of individuals and/or which serve to create criminals out of otherwise law-abiding citizens.

Maybe this is restating what you've said, but the nice thing about switchgrass instead of corn is that the switchgrass frees up or releases from captivity the fields earmarked for use as corn-for -fuel use. This means that the recent uptick in crops-to-store-to-consumer pricing/cost should settle down. There was a big fear (in some quarters) that the cost of some foods related to/around corn/corn oils/etc would skyrocket.

But, an aside: I think all I need to do is listen to NPR/TOTN/Science Friday, SciAm, et al, and pick up things half a week to a week earlier than get posted here. (And, like going to switchgrass from corn, I can deal with less dupes...)

See:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=17910749
7 January 2008

and:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5183608
1 February *2006*

Maybe this is restating what you've said, but the nice thing about switchgrass instead of corn is that the switchgrass frees up or releases from captivity the fields earmarked for use as corn-for -fuel use. This means that the recent uptick in crops-to-store-to-consumer pricing/cost should settle down. There was a big fear (in some quarters) that the cost of some foods related to/around corn/corn oils/etc would skyrocket.

But, an aside: I think all I need to do is listen to NPR/TOTN/Science Friday, SciAm, et al, and pick up things half a week to a week earlier than get posted here. (And, like going to switchgrass from corn, I can deal with less dupes...)

See:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=17910749
7 January 2008

and:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5183608
1 February *2006*

Enter Napster. Kids are copying music and distributing it over the internet. These corporations are now trying to sell a product that is often easier to get for free online. The iPod becomes the Walkman of the 00's. The labels fear P2P and mp3s and demand copy protection, which Apple offers them in the iTMS. Now they can sell their music online, which makes it easy to find, but control how it's copied and distributed. And it will play on the majority of players. Everything is getting back to normal, but they need more money. So they want to raise prices.

But things have changed. The labels no longer control the distribution channel of their product. Apple does. And Apple refuses to raise prices. The labels have tried other online stores, including creating their own (which is probably still their end goal), with little success because Apple will not license their copy protection, nor support other methods of copy protection on the iPod. While some governments are working to legislate this, the labels can not afford to wait for legislation to solve their problem. They are forced to make a choice.

1. Concede to Apple, sell all songs at a fixed price
2. Sell unprotected, iPod compatible files at other online retailers
3. Lose more market share

At the moment, the labels have opted to sell unprotected files on Amazon.com. If the labels can restore the retail market to at least what it was, then they can more tightly control the "authorized" distribution of their product. And for the unauthorized... While it doesn't accomplish their end goal of complete control of the distribution and retail sale of their music, it's a step closer. Apple loses some of its bargaining power, and the labels can call the shots again.

Option A will reinforce a reasonable business model that will benefit the industry, the artist, and you.

I disagree. While I would rather purchase non-DRM'd music over DRM'd music, simply because I like to play music on a number of devices; I don't believe the lack of DRM benefits artists. It may benefit me in the short term, but then again the labels might just be fattening me up to eat me. I would suggest that a solution that truly respects artist and consumer needs would: decentralize the production, marketing, and distribution chain; acknowledge that technology has lowered the cost of bringing an album to market, and pay artists appropriately; and stop intimidating law abiding citizens.

To accomplish this, we must:

1. Stop purchasing music from labels that support the RIAA
2. Support independent and local musicians. Go to their shows, buy their music.

By doing this, the artists get paid more, you often get DRM-free music, and innocent people

They are going to use biodiesal because ships usually use bunker fuel which is a very dirty fuel (50 to 100 times dirtier than diesel). There are effots to get shipping companies to use cleaner fuel, and/or use grid power when tied up in port. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5438620.

My gut feeling tells me that the monies used in the entire Hubble project would have changed lots of American lives in a big positive way. What have we got out of it that is worth all those billions spent so far? Can somebody convince me?

Agreed. The money for Hubble would have been much better spent bailing out failing mortgage lenders and paying iraqi insurgents a daily wage to be non-violent.

But, don't forget the black market. People WILL get hold of these. At some point, if antibiotics became illegal, then when does the kick-in/reporting to law enforcement start for the attending physician?

Also, since we're on meds/drugs/pandemics, drug abuse should be managed in more creative ways. See:

Drug debate in Spain (4:00)
http://theworld.org/wma.php?id=01020812

Overdose Rescue Kits Save Lives
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=17578955

Global Obesity Series
http://theworld.org/wma.php?id=010108full

South Africa law focuses on teen sex (4:00)
http://theworld.org/wma.php?id=01020810

Just in case anyone's interested...

It does seem like they want it both ways. Cary Sherman (RIAA prez) was on Talk of the Nation today and said as much. Something like "we won't say it's legal, but look, we haven't sued anyone over ripping CDs, so chill out".

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=17814972

NPR did a bit on Joybubbles (Joe's handle) some months ago.

Very good listen.

Actually, the fingers are surprisingly spare when it comes to muscle. What's actually keeping them curved around the jungle gym are muscles in your arms which pull on the fingers via tendons, in a vaguely marionette-like fashion. As I understand the issue with regards to crucifiction, the more important issue with nailing through the palms of the hand is that the bones at that point are all more or less radial. They go out to become your fingers, but they lack any cross-pieces to trap a nail. (see http://www.emedicine.com/plastic/topic296.htm) Therefore, it seems to me that the question of whether or not the metacarpals or phalanges (bones in your palm/fingers) could support the weight is immaterial; the nail doesn't need to break the bones, it just needs to tear the flesh between the fingers and slip out that way. This would take far less force, especially when the nail has already been driven through the hand between two of the metacarpals.

Bringing language back into things, the division of the body into parts has historically been a bit arbitrary, and the modern English distinction between "hand", "wrist", and "forearm" is hardly universal. (I couldn't find a quick overarching study, but as an example info on body parts in indo-european languages is at http://www.utexas.edu/cola/centers/lrc/iedocctr/ie-ling/ie-sem/pie-body.html) If the hand and wrist were labeled as a combined unit in Aramaic or ancient Greek, the original word would not have contained enough information for later translators to know which of the two terms would be most accurate.

And finally, to bring this back within a hundred miles of the purported topic, looking it up I can't find many references to crucifiction in video games. Looking at Thompson's statements in the past, I do at least have to give him credit for being consistent in opposing both religious and secular violence in video games. Although I can't find any examples of religious crucifiction in video games, he did come out strongly against "Left Behind." (See http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6669946

A lot of this is already known to science. There is a family that (I think) has a prion disease such that if a family member gets it, they stay awake until they die a few months later - and it sounds like a very horrible death too.

Here's a link to the story I heard about.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6503414

For example:

The Body Has A Mind of Its Own (broadcast Friday, December 21st, 2007)
http://www.sciencefriday.com/program/archives/200712214
--
Toxic Homes and Household Toxins (broadcast Friday, December 14th, 2007)
http://www.sciencefriday.com/program/archives/200712144
--
Exposed: the seven great medical myths
http://news.independent.co.uk/health/article3273183.ece
--
Testing Toys for Lead
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16951320

That's why I frackin' HATE trying to submit to Slash. It's probably best to first post it in your journal, THEN submit. I guess it boils down to who knows who, and how well written the submission summary is.

Slash could avoid the moderator/submitter favoritism by revamping the journal system to look at the weight of a journal that is submitted for sharing. The item URL could be fed to the major search engines, then pushed to the top based on the number of qualitative and AUTHORITATIVE links.

For example, NPR, among others, talked about this black hole bullying it's neighbor DAYS ago.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=17371531

I think the URLs submitted for consideration should not depend on the half-baked commentary by moderators or anyone. The lead-in by the journal should be professional enough-- if it is via a professional journal. This would give a fairer shot to many who lack cute writing skills and yet who deserve some face time instead of the same-old same-old submitters. After all, Slash has THOUSANDS of members, yet only a FEW seem to be privileged to be recognized submitters/moderators named.

Ignoring the cost of additional paperwork and monitoring 'cause of the mercury, what about the cost to our health? From another article, found here:

The same idiot rednecks that won't buy these things unless forced are the same yahoos that will use these things for rifle practice when the lights fizzle. Bet me.

So that makes it ok then?

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7431198

Geothermal looks great on paper but AFAIK there are still tech barriers involved.

I heard a report on NPR about Iceland where they have active volcanoes (or at least volcanoish activity), and they run the whole town off of steam pipes that they shove into the ground. If you're in a spot where the Earth is conducive to it, the technology has been licked. They're traveling around trying to spread the word now, but I imagine the application will be necessarily limited, just like tidal, soloar, etc. Huzzah, I found the article http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16780339

It's definitely greener than nuclear, but we shouldn't argue about what's the greenest, as long as it's green

I don't know if I buy that as the whole story. It's been commercialized forever, yet it still managed to break the story about Watergate. It still managed to challanage Senator McCarthy. Not anymore it seems....

I'll probably raise a few eyebrows by saying this, but I'm still a fan of the network nightly news programs. They seem to be losing a lot of popularity in the youtube age but I still think there's something to be said for having only half an hour to fill and focusing on a handful of important stories.

I think the "rush to get the story" is magnified to such a degree with the 24 hour news networks that the "herd" tends to run around in circles trying to outdo itself with coverage of fairly mundane stories, i.e: the Paris Hilton/Anna Nicole Smith garbage. If one network makes a big deal out of something (Howard Dean's scream comes to mind) the others are going to make a big deal out of it regardless of it being newsworthy just so they don't "miss the story".

Any fan of the Daily Show has seen the montages of news clips of the talking heads who have no clue of the subject at hand. The vast majority of said clips seem to come from CNN/Fox News/MSNBC and the various morning shows on the networks. Maybe those shows and networks used to stand for something (CNN back in the Ted Turner days) but they don't seem to anymore. Hell, with few exceptions it almost seems like a gentleman's club exists between reporters and Government officials. Hell they even have an annual dinner together.

In any case, I find myself listening a lot to NPR podcasts on my cell (+1-650-523-6819 for a 5 minute clip updated every hour). There is also a full podcast of NBC Nightly News @ +1-415-376-7247, which is usually available within a few hours of the show. That's the best of what the current "mainstream" media offers, IMHO. Past that it comes down to knowing what to find on the web (NPR's site being my favorite) and which foreign news sources are reliable. The Newshour With Jim Lehrer also does a fairly decent summary at the start of their broadcast (if you can catch it or tivo it).

And the white house does everything they possibly can to hide email.

Your US government at work.

As covered on NPR

Well, the question has been asked. And we both know that if the Iraqi parliment tried to vote on it--well, scratch that, they did. Even Maliki says they don't need us. We just ignore them. So let's not act as if the Iraqis are clamoring for us to stay. Most Iraqis want us out. Most Americans want us out. Even most of the US military wants us out. It's just the bitter-enders in the current administration, along with their ideological allies, pretending that the Iraqis want us there and the American public wants us there and the US military wants to be there. Reality has been tested, and is not what the administration says it is.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16411904

Hard science, hard fact.

The clouds are caused by space flight, and high flying research planes. We do know, from Paul Newman'ss research, that they seem to appear following shuttle launches, and passing thunderhead clouds. They glow because they are so high in the sky, that the ice crystals are reflecting sunlight, and they are the subject of current research. We also know that they travel to the poles ( about 7k miles from the equator ), in less than 48 hours (Newman), and that they are a component of the catylisys of ozone destruction. (Schindell, Newman, GEOS letters ), but just to be clear about the answer to your question:

"Maybe the cloud is part of a positive feedback cycle that keeps the Earth's climate in acceptable ranges." It is possible that an ELE ( Extinction Level Event ) or ELP ( Extinction Level Process ) will occur, from this reducing Earth's global human population, but the current theory, that Schindell and Newman are proposing, ( they now have 16 years of data ), is that it will lead to a catostrophic loss of ozone for the next 120 years. Their conclusion, not mine, and paid by taxpayer's money.

I mean, after a few hundred million die from carcinoma* (Abarca), we will clearly see, we did the science (with taxpayer funded researchers), we had the proof, and didn't believe it. Tanzania is taking this threat very seriously, and so is Finland.

*Do the math: @Punta Aranus, 177/100,000 die. Nothern Hemisphere expected exposure to ultraviolet B, about 2.6 billion. Will we have the equivlent death rate, or a slightly higher death rate?

Do your self a favor, and hunt down the refrences.

Here are a few links:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=15662891

http://www.sellingcr.com/content/view/54/1/

"Water is a tremendous greenhouse gas. It can condense and form all these clouds. Clouds can reflect radiation. Clouds can actually insulate the surface, if you got a cloud layer overhead the surface stays a little bit warmer. So water is really crucial to the whole process," Newman says.

But, the govenment is not really interested in:
"AEAP: Atmospheric Effects of Aviation Project

The AEAP Project has ended. "

But from other refrences:

http://www.gcrio.org/ocp96/p38box.html

"Water vapor and sulfur oxide concentrations are expected to increase significantly, perhaps as much as 40%, in the stratosphere." ( 1996, again we seem of have lost interest in all this.)

with some surface-tension reducing soap

I'm gonna take a guess to say that you learned this from Mr. Wizard?

I remember this episode well - it is a simple but very awe-inspiring (at least from a geek's perspective) experiment. It goes like this:

      1) Fill a cookie tray with water
      2) Pepper the top of the water in order to *see* the movements of the surface tension
      3) Carefully place a small amount of soap in the center of the tray
      4) Watch the pepper scatter to the edges of the pan as the tension breaks

If you have a kid, then you need to go do this experiment with them NOW!

RIP Don Herbert - you are one of the main reasons that I am a geek today.

There is much more than fraud in Russian politics.

Welcome to Tapegate.

Let the interrogations begin.

Cheers,
K.

Aren't there laws about illegal wire tapping?