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Put another way, the longer we take to eradicate the disease, the greater the risk of the virus mutating into a form that the vaccine no longer protects against, at which point we're back to square one worldwide.

Worse, within a given region, eradication of polio has to be completed within a fairly short period of time, or you risk the vaccine form of the virus mutating and causing some immune-compromised people to actually get a form of polio from people who received the vaccine . So stopping the immunization process in the middle is likely to condemn at least a few people to crippling paralysis and even death. In fact, this is exactly what happened in Nigeria just a few years ago. It is all but a certainty that the same thing will happen in Pakistan if the vaccination program does not get back up and running soon.

Maybe not worse, but equivalent⦠visitors after 3 days.

http://www.pbs.org/benfranklin/l3_wit_franklin.html
Apparently he didn't actually originate all of themâ¦
"Fish and visitors smell after three days."

There is more than enough food in the world to feed everybody.

In fact, there is not enough. The era of the global food surplus has passed.

[1] PBS article and interview with the director of the World Food Program.

http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/2007/pulpit_20070810_002683.html

Here you go.

African greys do.

Oh, you can relax. PBS Newshour is blogging that this is all a big fear mongering campaign supported by massive corporations google, shadowy "internet activists" and special interests.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2012/12/the-future-of-internet-governance.html

The truth is likely somewhere in between. The ITU really wants influence and a slice of the bureaucratic power (and budget) that would come from an increased role in the net.

They've consistently come across as ham handed, at best, in the lead up to this, and have done little to show that they are interested in an open net (or open proceedings).

They've also managed to get a surprisingly wide set of disparate groups saying that they are precisely the wrong body to receive increased control of the net.

Tesla's main secret with most of his work was harmonic resonance. The Tesla coil is a resonant coil, and his studies were clear that resonance would increase the distance that wireless transmissions could occur. One of his experiments used this very concept, and caused some damage to a power plant in Colorado Springs...resonating and amplifying the electricity collected from the earth moving through it's own atmosphere and discharging it into the ground in such quantities that it burned out a dynamo at the local power plant... http://www.pbs.org/tesla/ll/ll_colspr.html

Here's a documentary from PBS which touches on the massive domestic spying, and talks about exactly what Assange said in the interview. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/military/spy-factory.html

This was broadcast in 2009.

Despite its faults, the US's willingness to accept introspection and self-criticism is hard to match.

Yes recall http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Room_641A
They used a splitter, not at some optical landing site on the coast where you could say it was "international' traffic - the US gov went for domestic traffic in bulk.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/homefront/interviews/klein.html
What was once for Soviet interests, corrupt Europeans, Soviet influenced journalists, academics, political and peace groups is now aimed at all in the USA with all the legal options that a "battlefront of the future" offers.

Actually, if I was planning to travel to the Ukraine the exclusion zone would certainly be on my todo list, it's a cool piece of history and the pictures that have been shot around there are fascinating. The radiation levels are pretty insignificant everywhere but directly around the sarcaughous and in the cooling pond. If you want to see how minor the radiation is see this documentary about the naturalists working in the exclusion zone.

Where are you from? I was assuming Europe, but apparently I'm either wrong or you're not well informed. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/invasion/cron/

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/nature/dogs-sense-of-smell.html

Sounds to me like they can smell each chemical individually.

Iran exports Shia terror as well. Just look at Hezbollah. Iran even supports Sunni Hamas (although they have tried disastrously to shift them towards Shia Islam).

Iran supports Shia (and some Sunni) terror groups mainly as a tool in its quest for regional domination in a region filled by Sunni Arab states - they don't really aspire to be a world superpower, or to create a Caliphate, at least not in the foreseeable future. Similar to the numerous proxy wars of Cold War, where both US and Soviets supported various organizations that used means that would be unambiguously described as terrorist today.

So Iranians are much more like Soviets in that way - they do have their own repressive ideology, and it's not all that nice, but the ruling class doesn't treat it as some kind of "death or glory" manifest destiny, and they can be reasoned with. It's quite different from Salafi fanatics, who literally just want to see the world burn.

Perhaps in a way it's our fault, but back then we weren't thinking that far ahead and were more concerned with containing the soviets. Shit happens.

Leaving the past be is well and good, but only provided that its mistakes are recognized, and its lessons are learned. But when CIA brass hangs this painting in their headquarters in 2008, all while supplying AA missiles to Islamist rebels in Libya, and now talk of doing the same in Syria, well - there's serious doubt about that. I can only shake my head in disbelief and go "tsk tsk, when will you guys learn?".

Innocent until publicly proven guilty in a court of law

You are quite mistaken, and a big hint is your phase, "court of law." A court of law is used in criminal matters to judge guilt or innocence before imposing punishment of the guilty. Dealing with Al Qaida, the Taliban, and company, is primarily a question of war and military action, not law enforcement, arrests, and courts of law. (Besides, what legal jurisdiction do you propose over the tribal territories in Pakistan? The Pakistani government itself cannot reliably control events there.) Bin Laden made his declaration of war on behalf of Al Qaida, and several years and many attacks later, the US returned the favor after 9/11. So it is war, not police raids, at their choice. If you don't like that, it doesn't change the facts one bit.

Do these look like car thieves? How many police from what agency would you bring to overcome their numbers, machineguns and rocket propelled grenades? How could you arrest and try men before shooting in a situation like this?

dickwad.

Civility to match your understanding?

Innocent until publicly proven guilty in a court of law

You are quite mistaken, and a big hint is your phase, "court of law." A court of law is used in criminal matters to judge guilt or innocence before imposing punishment of the guilty. Dealing with Al Qaida, the Taliban, and company, is primarily a question of war and military action, not law enforcement, arrests, and courts of law. (Besides, what legal jurisdiction do you propose over the tribal territories in Pakistan? The Pakistani government itself cannot reliably control events there.) Bin Laden made his declaration of war on behalf of Al Qaida, and several years and many attacks later, the US returned the favor after 9/11. So it is war, not police raids, at their choice. If you don't like that, it doesn't change the facts one bit.

Do these look like car thieves? How many police from what agency would you bring to overcome their numbers, machineguns and rocket propelled grenades? How could you arrest and try men before shooting in a situation like this?

dickwad.

Civility to match your understanding?

In any case, this is a very dangerous road to start travelling on. Who decides when "a group" is "too large" to have First Amendment rights anymore? Is George Soros, with billions of dollars, "too large" and likely to have too loud a voice to have the right to use that voice? Citizen's United was apparently "too large" to have the right to free speech, even though they were a corporation formed explicitely for the purpose of making political speech and were trying to buy airtime in the face of a much larger organized political party.

Good point, but there still needs to be a distinction from speech by individuals from speech by groups. My first thought is the threshold for permissible errors needs to be much lower for groups. Due to the number of people the data past through, in 1994 certain tobacco company executives were able to "truthfully" testify before Congress that tobacco was not addictive. Every layer increased the level of doubt and by the time it was at the executive level there wasn't any evidence. Then there is the issue of large entities being able to spend massive amounts of money to drown out the message of people. While it is reasonable to handle corporations as being similar to people most of the time, they are not people.

I don't like racism, and I think that racism is wrong. However, so far as it goes, racism (of the verbal and written kind, which is what is being discussed I thought) against "whites" is less damaging to both the individual and society as a whole, than racism against "non-whites". This is because whites hold a superior position socially compared to non-whites, and are a non-marginalized, and privileged majority.

And yes, all racists are a bunch of ignorant bastards. 1) Race is a social construct. 2) Race is a meaningless construct (why is Obama black and not white?). 3) People with blue eyes are just not as good as those with brown eyes, science proves it!

Was this the clip you were thinking of? http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/episodes/ravens/video-raven-intelligence/1549/

George W's administration stopped listening to the pentagon, CIA, and NSA started going over all of the "intelligence information" personally. They read a bunch of crappy intel, got their own people to get more of it, and then backwards rationalized to attacking Iraq.

Yes, Bush thought there was a legitimate threat. Yes, Bush and his administration read scary intelligence reports. But, as the saying goes, garbage in, garbage out. They went on a fucking marketing blitz to make their case and went to great lengths to end public and silence their critics. They fooled themselves.

Gore is a scientist at heart, he would not have gotten rid of people that knew torture produced shitty intelligence.

According to http://www.pbs.org/benfranklin/l3_citizen_abolitionist.html he did own two slaves. However, his opinions evolved to the point that later in life he was the president of the Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery and the Relief of Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage

So in other words, he was a flip-flopper. :)

According to http://www.pbs.org/benfranklin/l3_citizen_abolitionist.html he did own two slaves. However, his opinions evolved to the point that later in life he was the president of the Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery and the Relief of Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage

Odd, because my best friend from my college years and his wife seemed to have no problems. Sure, you may wait a couple hours for a flight, but they go everywhere. Free. It's pretty easy to find out which flights are booked solid and which aren't. Sometimes you get lucky, sometimes you don't. They don't care, they had a list of places they wanted to go, and they'd fly to one of them (whichever) was the least solid booked flight. Of course, they were with United out of Chicago, perhaps that makes it a bit easier since they have a ton of flights going everywhere.

My guess is they're young and childless. With kids in school, working wife, etc., it's nearly impossible to hit those popular destinations when we are all available. OTOH, if I don't care where or when, sure I can find some place to go- maybe even a nice place if it's off season. Flexibility is the key and I don't have enough to make pass travel an attractive benefit. BTW, I'm Chicago based too. Is your college friend a crew member? No names necessary, just curious.

My sympathies to you.

You're kind to offer sympathies. I was bitter, but have come to accept it. However, due to how they went about terminating my pension, I will forever mistrust them, and my sense of loyalty and desire to "pull on the same end of the rope" are significantly diminished. I have learned it's just business to them and they do not value employee morale in any way- just cogs in the wheel.

I generally focus my gaze usually directly into their right eye (just pick one, doesn't really matter that much I don't think)

There's a NOVA episode that showed humans naturally look at the right eye first when seeing a face. (Meaning, we look left at the right eye of the other person). They went on to show that dogs do the same thing, theoretically a behavior that evolved as humans and dogs integrated socially.

However, this is a quick glance, not a stare.

I'll probably get some troll points for this, but after watching the recent Frontline titled Climate of Doubt, I wonder if there aren't some pretty powerful forces out there that just plain don't want weather/climate data all that much. The interviews in that show seem to indicate that the big money behind that effort (which over the last four years has somehow convinced half of the U.S. population that man made climate change is a myth, while science has gone in the opposite direction), is way more about Ayn Randian ideology than science.

All pretty scary if you ask me...like we're getting closer and closer to witch burning every day...

Here you go.

Wow, and yet Gore STILL got more votes than Bush in Florida, only to have them not counted by a conspiracy between corrupt election officials and corrupt Supreme Court justices.

My thanks go to the Washington Post and other fine newspapers for establishing this fact, so that nobody in the future will ever consider Bush 's first term to be legitimate:

History has recorded George Bush as the winner, and that is correct as the newpaper studies showed. It is a pity that even now, some people are unable to come to terms with that fact, preferring their make-believe ideas.

MEDIA RECOUNT: BUSH WON THE 2000 ELECTION

More than three months after Democrat Al Gore conceded the hotly contested 2000 election, an independent hand recount of Florida's ballots released today says he would have lost anyway, even if officials would have allowed the hand count he requested.

In the first full study of Florida's ballots since the election ended, The Miami Herald and USA Today reported George W. Bush would have widened his 537-vote victory to a 1,665-vote margin if the recount ordered by the Florida Supreme Court would have been allowed to continue, using standards that would have allowed even faintly dimpled "undervotes" -- ballots the voter has noticeably indented but had not punched all the way through -- to be counted.

The people who continue to try to derail any efforts to stop climate change amaze me.

As more and more weather disasters rack up, and as the climate actually does change, it would seem their misinformation would fall on deaf ears. But I think there is also a want on the part of a lot of people to not believe what is going on, what they are doing to their children's future, and even what they are doing to their own futures.

Not that it really matters at this point. We are ~12 years to the 2 degree C mark over average global temperature from the last century - and climbing. The 2 degrees C mark is considered kind of a line in the sand. Once we cross that, it will be especially hard to recover.

PBS Frontline is running a very topical show this week: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/climate-of-doubt/

He tried early on to introduce single payer AKA HillaryCare

When? I paid attention back then, and heard him talk about it during the election. Never since he's been elected though. Single payer advocates were shut out of negotiations about health care reform. There was a great Bill Moyers Journal from early 2009 about the issue. He used single payer to get elected and then abandoned it.

And, I'm sorry, political capital is never a reason not to even try to do the right thing. That's what integrity is all about. But Obama has none. Vote for him and you're part of the problem.

Oddly, Iran was long reputed to be the source of most of the high-quality counterfeit US notes in circulation. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/transcripts/2314secr.html

Another interesting and related link: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/roadshow/archive/200706A19.html

The comments to my post seem to support failure to see the puzzle pieces.

Actually this is all very interesting the motive of hiding financial investigation and spending which are bank related. Building 7 contained SEC investigation into various financial issues including http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/transcripts/2704stockmarket.html and the day before on 9/10 Donald Rumsfeld publicly stated the pentagon cannot account for 2.3 trillion of its spending of taxpayer dollars. Guess what department of the pentagon got destroyed! Have people seen the supposed passenger list of the plane that was supposed to have hit the pentagon (plenty high security military related) somehow let a few guys with box knives detour a plane for how long? and to do a difficult maneuver cork screw flight path to hit that specific department. What does that say about those working in military security?

And there is Julian who threatened Banks.... only to have a former Wikileaks person vanish that information too? Really? Where is the backups any intelligent IT person would had done with such information???

So you see its really not difficult to distance supporters of wikileaks from wikileaks..... And that includes me who has a $100 wikileaks t-shirt.... The guy who got the brits panties all bunched up when I suggested live online (certainly the authorities were watching) Julian had left the embassy weeks before that early morning when they damn well near violated the embassy border when they force-ably entered the building only as far as determining with certainty he was still there.

Where does Anonymous fit in? Some think it's head up by CIA, But I say "they may have started it but who is gonna finish this?"

There are other directions and methods for leaking ..... I don't have to play the Anon card.... All anyone need to is think it out with honesty. of 7 billion people on this planet, it really is the few psychopaths in command positions whom are dangerous to the rest of us. What Wikileaks in sum has exposed is just that. Those "playing the game with the bravery (cowardice) of being out of range" - Roger Waters

Then why are Muslims also attacking in so many other countries? There are Muslim terrorist attacks, all over the world, every day, and it's been going on like that for decades. Muslims are actively attacking not only Jews, and Christians, but Hindus, Buddhists, and of course, other Muslims. How could this all be due to US mid-east policy?

Is that a rhetorical question? I can see you came with well-researched answers. Not. Here's a starting point: PBS. Now, you can bring facts to the table. That's how debate and argumentation work. Otherwise its just an emotional mess. How are these comments being scored as interesting? What a bunch of ignorant twaddle. disclaimer: ATHEIST

Can anyone identify an issue - not an opinion or a general feeling or a policy goal, but an actual issue - for which Obama and Romney are on opposite sides? Something for which Obama would veto and Romney would pass, or vice versa?

Sure. Abortion and specific tax proposals are two of the most prominent issues featured during tonight's debate, though there were several others.

Each issue is a labyrinth of mis-quotes, mis-information, and nuance. Did Obama double the deficit? Or is it the debt? Or did he double it, but it's Bush's fault? ... etc, etc

I think you need to check your news sources, dude. The information is out there, but you're not going to get it from NBC, ABC, CNN or any of the other yahoos. Personally I like the newshour and if I've REALLY got questions the answers are always available if you're willing to do original research, like looking up an actual CBO report and skimming it (I've done this once or twice).

With that being said, there's only so much one can be informed and still maintain a job and family. That's ok. These people are our representatives and we elect them to act as such. Our job is to make sure they don't royally screw it up and they are not abusing their power and screwing the people at large. It's your opinion how well we citizens are doing on this.

Regardless of the R or D after the name, how about we just vote the incumbent out?

Well... that's one way to do it and I've considered it. Another way is to vote 3rd party. But my personal method is to vote gridlock. Gridlock is awesome. It pits the special interest groups against another and generally results in a stalemate where no crap gets through the system. As the 90s showed us there can be some loud sabre rattling, but the world doesn't fall apart and stuff does get done. The stuff that actually NEEDS to get done does get done and the crap stays in the committees where it belongs. Because of my views on certain issues and my perception of the respective party platforms I choose a Republican legislature and a Democratic President. I think if we had gridlock, we'd all be better for it.

TL;DR - Vote Gridlock because politicians are stupid.

That honey article is misleading -- there's nothing fake about ultra-filtered, pollenless honey.

That's correct. Ultra-filtered honey isn't proof-positive that it's fake.

However...

[...]

Food safety investigators from the European Union barred all shipments of honey from India because of the presence of lead and illegal animal antibiotics. Further, they found an even larger amount of honey apparently had been concocted without the help of bees, made from artificial sweeteners and then extensively filtered to remove any proof of contaminants or adulteration or indications of precisely where the honey actually originated.

An examination of international and government shipping tallies, customs documents and interviews with some of North America’s top honey importers and brokers documented the rampant honey laundering and that a record amount of the Chinese honey was being purchased by major U.S. packers.

Food Safety News contacted Suebee Co-Op, the nation’s oldest and largest honey packer and seller, for a response to these allegations and to learn where it gets its honey. The co-op did not respond to repeated calls and emails for comment. Calls and emails to other major honey sellers also were unreturned.

EU Won’t Accept Honey from India

Much of this questionable honey was officially banned beginning June 2010 by the 27 countries of the European Union and others. But on this side of the ocean, the FDA checks few of the thousands of shipments arriving through 22 American ports each year.

According to FDA data, between January and June, just 24 honey shipments were stopped from entering the country. The agency declined to say how many loads are inspected and by whom.

However, during that same period, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported that almost 43 million pounds of honey entered the U.S. Of that, the Department of Commerce said 37.7 million pounds came from India, the same honey that is banned in the EU because it contained animal medicine and lead and lacked the proper paperwork to prove it didn’t come from China.

“There are still millions of pounds of transshipped Chinese honey coming in the U.S. and it’s all coming now from India and Vietnam and everybody in the industry knows that,” said Elise Gagnon, president of Odem International, a worldwide trading house that specializes in bulk raw honey.

The FDA says it has regulations prohibiting foods banned in other countries from entering the U.S. However, the agency said last month that it “would not know about honey that has been banned from other countries ”

Adee called the FDA’s response “absurd.” He said the European ban against Indian honey is far from a secret.

“Why are we the dumping ground of the world for something that’s banned in all these other countries?” asked Adee, who, with 80,000 bee colonies in five states, is the country’s largest honey producer.

“We’re supposed to have the world’s safest food supply but we’re letting in boatloads of this adulterated honey that all these other countries know is contaminated and FDA does nothing.”

[...]

[Source]

And please note that for the EU, a ban against "Indian honey" is a ban against "Chinese honey", because Chinese Honey was being re-routed through India and then the UK to take advantage of their commonwealth connection so that it could get into the EU in the first place without paying huge tariffs.

And again, this is only circumstantial evidence, not definitive proof, but here is a video documentary on the start of mass disappearance of bees in China. http://w

For those who don't know, in 2005 it was announced a paleontologist had inadvertently found what appeared to be remnants of blood and or related items inside a t. Rex fossil. Three reference stories:

Story 1

Storey 2

Story 3

IF, and that's a big if, what this paleontologist has found is un-fossilized bits of t. Rex, would it be possible to see if any bits of DNA remain? As she states in the third article, she is not equipped to look for DNA and so can't do it.

Not doubting what the research has found, but if this stuff is something that is real, would it hurt to look and prove the exception to the rule?

Indefinite detention qualifies as torture. In civilized countries.

Indefinite detention is the accepted norm in military conflicts - you can be held until the conflict is over. So, I'm afriad you are quite wrong there. It is also used in many countries to keep very dangerous prisoners behind bars.

And to your other post, you stupid troll, I did not specify a country and you're cherrypicking. That is trolling.

We've already seen that Australia uses it, but so do Japan, UK, US, Sweden (and Sweden), Norway, and many other countries one generally considers part of the civilized world. Looks like you don't quite have this right.

In light of unprovoked invasion of these countries (instead of KSA),

The invasion of Afghanistan was greatly provoked - - 9/11 - perhaps you've heard of it? Afghanistan hosted Al Qaida even to the point of integrating it into the government. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia had nothing to do with 9/'11 as a government. So, you don't have this right.

the evidence of double-tap attacks on reporters and civilians,

On innocent civilians or reporters? Not so much.

executions by drone and whatever they call "collateral damage" is all that is required to make that statement valid.

The attacks by drones are attacks, not executions. You've been wrong in the particulars, and in general.

You're THE idiot. . . . you stupid troll . . . you're cherrypicking. That is trolling. . . Last, but not least, FOAD.

I guess you aren't a fan of civil discourse.

Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nikola_Tesla&mobileaction=toggle_view_desktop

Documentary video - http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/nikola-tesla-the-genius/

PBS Nikol Tesla page - http://www.pbs.org/tesla/ins/index.html

Must be nice...if you can get it. The elephant in the room of course is most of us have NO choice and since we can't just abandon our families and move the duopolies pretty much have you by the balls.

In my area your "choices" are AT&T, which hasn't moved an inch in over a decade and you'll pay $45 a month for a top speed of 3.5Mbps down and a pathetic 700k up, and that is if you are lucky and the planets align, otherwise you are looking at 2Mbps down and as low as 200k up. Then there is Cablelynx which I believe is a subsidiary of Cox, where you get anywhere from 12Mbps down to 20Mbps down but you have a cap of just 36Gb for residential and 76Gb business (although those of us that were grandfathered in seem to have a LOT of leeway while those that came after don't) with prices of $65 for just bare cable and $120 a month for the bundle. Both of those are with 2 year contracts, no contracts you are looking at $90 and $150 respectively so your ass damned well better sign on the dotted line. Finally the newest is a WISP which I predict like the last 2 WISP attempts won't last long because they have a top speed of 2Mbps down and charge $90 a month for that on top of a $175 installation fee and their service is hit or miss with a LOT more miss than hit.

So as you can see the plans pretty much cut out the poor, not that anybody other than the WISP provides them service at all because the cable and DSL both end before you get even halfway across town and neither have ANY plans to upgrade shit or move a single inch, for example my mother can literally see both the cable and DSL junction from her porch but neither will run the whole block and a half to her home so she's stuck on the shitty WISP.

What we need is to open up the lines to competition, just as we did when we broke up AT&T and allowed dialup companies to compete on those lines. if they want a monopoly? We'll be happy to give it to them for running fiber to the neighborhood and hooking up those houses they've ignored for years. We even have a reason to grab those lines as we already paid over 200 billion in tax breaks and incentives to get the ISPs to run national broadband but all we got for all that money was a low res Goatse as they instead spent the money on more cell towers so they can gouge more money with cell plans than they can gouge out of home users. Frankly I wouldn't be surprised to see corps like AT&T get out of DSL entirely as they can make so much more money charging for every SMS and minute of usage whereas they would actually have to spend money to upgrade their aging lines to compete with cable.

Come to Texas....

...which, to be fair, helped give us the President under whom, for example, the murders in the "Collateral Murder" videos took place.

and when things get really bad in the US, the ability to say "peace out bitches"

How does Texas have that ability any more than any other location? (Certainly not in law; they tried that once, along with some others, and it didn't exactly go smoothly for them. The Annexation of Texas Joint Resolution of Congress March 1, 1845 just says Texas can carve up to four additional states out of its territory:

Third, New States, of convenient size, not exceeding four in number, in addition to said State of Texas, and having sufficient population, may hereafter, by the consent of said State, be formed out of the territory thereof, which shall be entitled to admission under the provisions of the federal constitution.

if they want to.)

They aren't that stupid, they just choose to be! There was a /. article a few months back that showed that giving evidence that contradicted someone's beliefs had the effect of reinforcing their beliefs. That on top of that you have many that just don't care, don't understand, or just want to be distracted. They exist on both sides.

Based on what is readily available, linking the ice melt in the north to global warming is incorrect. This does not mean there is no global warming, I personally believe the earth is still warming from the mini-ice age that just ended http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Ice_Age.

Below are reports on what is going on. Both state facts that can be shown to draw separate conclusions. The really interesting thing is we are past the 2nd standard deviation for antarctic ice growth, which is exceeding the amount of ice lost so we are in a net positive. Just try to explain this to the average Joe and watch them lose interest really fast! Use a car analogy and you still don't get anywhere. Once evidence is shown that seems to conflict most humans ignore it because understanding the complexity exceeds the effort to survive the next week.

Earth Loses Its 'Air Conditioner': Arctic Ice Cap Shrinks to Record Low Level
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/science/july-dec12/icemelt_09-20.html
http://nsidc.org/news/press/2012_seaiceminimum.html

Polar sea ice could set ANOTHER record this year
Exceptionally large amounts of it down south right now
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/09/21/arctic_antarctic_sea_ice_record/

Nixon was. He admired them. He didn't know much about the environment, and frankly, he wasn't very curious about it. He never asked me the whole time I was at EPA -- the first time he appointed me or the second time -- "Is the air really dirty? Is something wrong with the water? What are we worried about here?" Reagan asked me that several times, when I worked there the second time. Nixon never did.

Memories of Nixon and his interest in the environment

The distance is correct, from the third ships point of view more than year would have passed.
Time effectivity slows down in your reference frame such that you cannot go faster than the speed of light.
Eistein even gave an example of this called the "Twin Paradox" which you have completely backwards, See more here http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/einstein/hotsciencetwin/ .

I am puzzled why we do not take this more seriously.

My belief is that the derivative of the logistic equation, distorted by technological advances combined with economic pressures, has its peak shifted to the right by quite some amount. Meaning the slope-up is gradual, an extended peak, and a cliff-like demise when a failing economy can no longer finance extraction costs. The area under the curve is constant ( total petroleum on this planet ), but the extraction rate is astronomical right now in a geologic sense.

I do not feel the curve shown on the Wikipedia page conveys the full impact of the problem. Its the derivative of that curve that does. That would be the oil extraction RATE. Yes, there is lots of oil on this planet - very hard to extract oil. Will our science and economy support the extraction of it?

My own feeling is I am seeing a re-run of "Rat Attack" , but its humans instead of rats, and oil instead of bamboo seeds. When the extraction rates start declining, all hell is going to break loose.

I posted this link on a related story some time back. This is a must see if you think you know how bad forensic science (or lack of science) really is:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/real-csi/

Here's the ProPublica article written in conjunction with the PBS Frontline episode linked above, for those who like to read rather than watch.

I posted this link on a related story some time back. This is a must see if you think you know how bad forensic science (or lack of science) really is:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/real-csi/

Say, somewhat neutral stats of the hassle/convictions you go trough if you cooperate vs if you don't?

Hey, buddy, you're more than welcome to try and find some yourself. I've tried before myself, so be forewarned - that Blue Wall of Silence is damn hard to penetrate.

Official policies

War on drugs: Defensive
Iraq war #1: Defensive
War on terror: Defensive
Iraq war #2: Defensive
Afghanistan: Defensive

Offensive weapons can be used in a defensive war, just as defensive weapons can be used in a defensive war. The US destroyed its biological weapons nearly 40 years ago. If it isn't done yet, it is close to done destroying its chemical weapons.

The "War on Drugs" is not an actual war, it is law enforcement action, so that is nonsense.
Iraq War #1 was a result of Iraq invading and conquering, and annexing the country of Kuwait. I'm not sure how you would have a problem with freeing Kuwait.
The War on Terror was the result of a declaration of war against the United States by Al Qaeda followed by years of deadly attacks, culminating in 9/11, which killed nearly 3,000 people on American soil. NATO stood behind the United States. I'm not sure where you have a problem with that.
Afghanistan - That was a natural consequence of Al Qaeda integrating itself into the government structure of Afghanistan, and the Taliban shielding both Al Qaeda and Bin Laden, and a natural part of the War on Terror. I'm not sure where you have a problem with that, either.
Iraq War #2 - Iraq was in material breach before the UN of its responsibilities from Iraq War #1. They were engaged in numerous illegal activities, and fired on Coalition aircraft, including American, nearly every day - an act of war. I'm more understanding of protest against this one, but it was still justifiable.

I live too close to one of the largest biodefence research companies for the US Military. It is frightening when someone moves in next door and they tell you their job is in infectious disease propagation improvement.

Darned convenient for the subject under discussion that you live there, eh? I'm curious, what other information from what are no doubt classified programs do they share with you? Or is this all just fabricated?

Sure it is to find better ways to stop the spread and kill the next pandemic, but when you have a drawer full of hammers.....

A "drawer full of hammers" puts you an enormous amount of effort, engineering, experimentation, planning, and execution away from making "hammer" artillery shells and missile warheads available. Those need to be available in large numbers if they are going to be used for military purposes, and that would be very noticeable in the open American society. I doubt that much of anyone in the US military wants to get anywhere near those sorts of weapons either. Smart weapons take care of most things. For WMD needs, the US has nukes.

Just out of curiosity, do you live under a bridge by any chance?

One more thing (dammit Slashdot! Let me edit my damned posts already!!!) --

They just did a new series (the one I linked to above is a little dated - almost 10 years old at this point). You can see that one here. It covers cosmology as well as a bit of quantum mechanics. Still very approachable.

I've been watching this NOVA series on quantum mechanics - it's been an excellent primer on this stuff for me. It's hosted by Brian Greene, a prof at Columbia who wrote a book about it for a lay audience. I think it would be very approachable for anybody with an interest in science, but without a scientific background.