News Stories

[MrTerrorist]

What is public science, and why do you need it?

[Ithekro]

Technically speakinh there are at least three replacements for tje shuttle in the works. At least in terms of getting men and materials into orbit. The civilian-privbate ones should ne operational by the beginning of next year for cargo.n with manned missions after they get more experiance (up to three or four yuears). NASA,s Orion shoul ne funtional in about six years and is slated to nbe used for extra-orbital flights, while the civilian craft (Dragon and Cygnus) are for orbital work and the ISS.

Plus there is the military's space plane and of course Virgin Galactic's VSS Enterprise, and the eventual increase along those technology paths.

[SaintessHeart]

Wow, this came faster than I thought......I was expecting it to occur next year after BofA let go of their CCB stocks.

China real estate stocks drop in Hong Kong

This is probably No-2 since the CCB-BofA share dump. One more and we will have the Chinese economy spiralling downwards along with US and Euro.

[Vexx]

I keep waiting for this shoe to really drop --- all religions go through it sometime after their "adolescent years" (well, particularly the other Abrahamic faiths) and so far the "youngest brother" Islam has been pretending the problem isn't there but it just looms larger every year...

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/30/wo...hemselves.html

[bladeofdarkness]

Originally Posted by Vexx

I keep waiting for this shoe to really drop --- all religions go through it sometime after their "adolescent years" (well, particularly the other Abrahamic faiths) and so far the "youngest brother" Islam has been pretending the problem isn't there but it just looms larger every year...

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/30/wo...hemselves.html

Considering that the primary victim of Islamic motivated violence over the last half century have primarily been other Muslims, I'm surprised that a serious discussion on the matter isn't already underway.

might be a result of Islam not having a papacy equivalent.

[ganbaru]

Originally Posted by bladeofdarkness

Considering that the primary victim of Islamic motivated violence over the last half century have primarily been other Muslims, I'm surprised that a serious discussion on the matter isn't already underway.

might be a result of Islam not having a papacy equivalent.

Looking at the christian pope's history, I don't think than it would had been faster if the would had a ''muslim pope''.

[DonQuigleone]

Originally Posted by Vexx

I keep waiting for this shoe to really drop --- all religions go through it sometime after their "adolescent years" (well, particularly the other Abrahamic faiths) and so far the "youngest brother" Islam has been pretending the problem isn't there but it just looms larger every year...

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/30/wo...hemselves.html

The muslim world is just going through what the christian world went through a hundred years ago. It's more the fact that the spread of Liberalism was delayed by the imposition of various dictators and autocrats throughout the region. You can see that the countries with democratic governance (primarily Turkey) have achieved a stable mix of religion and secularism. But you can also look at the various post communist states as well.

Too much criticism is bandied about at Islam (and it's adherents) when the real criticism should be levelled at extreme reactionary religiosity. I see little difference between the extreme religious right in the US, and the religious right in Egypt, except that the latter is more willing to use violence. But then, let's not forget the Klans...

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by Vexx

I keep waiting for this shoe to really drop --- all religions go through it sometime after their "adolescent years" (well, particularly the other Abrahamic faiths) and so far the "youngest brother" Islam has been pretending the problem isn't there but it just looms larger every year...

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/30/wo...hemselves.html

The real problem is with the believers, with the manipulators at the top and retards at the bottom. I always felt that the current interpretation is Islam across the world is too narcissistic - pretty similar to the Scientologist view of "everyone else's religion suck dick but ours".

It is always claimed that "Allah is the most merciful", but why do most Middle-Eastern dwellers still kill and oppress senselessly, often targeting people that are not of their religion? Even more wrongly interpreted is the concept of "Muslim Brother" - if a "Muslim brother" takes an inhuman approach to life, why side with him?

[killer3000ad]

South Korea deploys cloned sniffer dogs at Incheon airport

A small army of elite, highly trained clones are sent on a mission to root out drugs and ammunition from the city. Every few hours they report back to their masters, to whom they've been devoted since birth.

But this isn't the set of a low-budget sci-fi flick; it's the departure lounge of South Korea's Incheon Airport, where seven "super clone" sniffer-dogs have been dispatched in the war against contraband luggage.

The pack of golden Labrador Retrievers are all genetically identical to "Chase," whose legendary snout kept him top of Incheon's drug-detection rankings right up until his retirement in 2007.

But now after years of training, the new class is following in their genetic donor's paw-prints, consistently outperforming the rest of South Korea's naturally born sniffers in the hunt for heroin, cocaine and methamphetamines.

THis is an outrage! Quickly everyone boycott Incheon airport now! we can't tolerate this next step in cloning! ZOMG Pretty soon the evil megacorps will start cloning an army of super Aryan soldiers to form a private army to take over the world on behalf of the illuminati who are really controlled by the Lizard people who already hold positions in the UN and Vatican, but have themselves been infiltrated by espers from the another future where Skynet has taken over and then I farted like a baboon.

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by killer3000ad

South Korea deploys cloned sniffer dogs at Incheon airport


THis is an outrage! Quickly everyone boycott Incheon airport now! we can't tolerate this next step in cloning! ZOMG Pretty soon the evil megacorps will start cloning an army of super Aryan soldiers to form a private army to take over the world on behalf of the illuminati who are really controlled by the Lizard people who already hold positions in the UN and Vatican, but have themselves been infiltrated by espers from the another future where Skynet has taken over and then I farted like a baboon.

Well at least the Terran Dominion SK can have their unlimited supply of Marines.

[Vexx]

Originally Posted by DonQuigleone

The muslim world is just going through what the christian world went through a hundred years ago. It's more the fact that the spread of Liberalism was delayed by the imposition of various dictators and autocrats throughout the region. You can see that the countries with democratic governance (primarily Turkey) have achieved a stable mix of religion and secularism. But you can also look at the various post communist states as well.

Too much criticism is bandied about at Islam (and it's adherents) when the real criticism should be levelled at extreme reactionary religiosity. I see little difference between the extreme religious right in the US, and the religious right in Egypt, except that the latter is more willing to use violence. But then, let's not forget the Klans...

Aye, I'm not picking on Islam as such but just noting that historically it seems like all the Abrahamic faiths go through "growing up stages" moving from intolerance/insecurity of the "other" as well as being REALLY convenient for dominating thugs to use as a hammer (aggressive prosyletizing built in) and it can take hundreds of years to get over that. Islam is only 1400 yrs old, Christianity.... well, technically only since Rome adopted it in the early 300s is 1700-1900 yrs old. And Judaism is, well, the current orthodox form is very roughly 2000-2500 yrs old.
Scientology (not Abrahamic at all but a sci-fi scam) ... well they're like "last week" and damn near psychotic they're so insecure/aggressive

[ChainLegacy]

World's Oldest Person Found Thriving in the Amazon

The glorious effects of a natural, ancient diet with the stability of the modern world.

[Haak]

Originally Posted by DonQuigleone

The muslim world is just going through what the christian world went through a hundred years ago. It's more the fact that the spread of Liberalism was delayed by the imposition of various dictators and autocrats throughout the region. You can see that the countries with democratic governance (primarily Turkey) have achieved a stable mix of religion and secularism. But you can also look at the various post communist states as well.

Too much criticism is bandied about at Islam (and it's adherents) when the real criticism should be levelled at extreme reactionary religiosity. I see little difference between the extreme religious right in the US, and the religious right in Egypt, except that the latter is more willing to use violence. But then, let's not forget the Klans...

Originally Posted by SaintessHeart

The real problem is with the believers, with the manipulators at the top and retards at the bottom. I always felt that the current interpretation is Islam across the world is too narcissistic - pretty similar to the Scientologist view of "everyone else's religion suck dick but ours".

It is always claimed that "Allah is the most merciful", but why do most Middle-Eastern dwellers still kill and oppress senselessly, often targeting people that are not of their religion? Even more wrongly interpreted is the concept of "Muslim Brother" - if a "Muslim brother" takes an inhuman approach to life, why side with him?

Originally Posted by Vexx

Aye, I'm not picking on Islam as such but just noting that historically it seems like all the Abrahamic faiths go through "growing up stages" moving from intolerance/insecurity of the "other" as well as being REALLY convenient for dominating thugs to use as a hammer (aggressive prosyletizing built in) and it can take hundreds of years to get over that. Islam is only 1400 yrs old, Christianity.... well, technically only since Rome adopted it in the early 300s is 1700-1900 yrs old. And Judaism is, well, the current orthodox form is very roughly 2000-2500 yrs old.
Scientology (not Abrahamic at all but a sci-fi scam) ... well they're like "last week" and damn near psychotic they're so insecure/aggressive

I was just reading On the Road to Kandahar by Jason Burke, right now and it had a chapter that provided an interesting insight on why violence is so a part of daily life in Pakistan:

"At the beginning of my time in Pakistan, I could not distinguish between the various forms of violence I encountered and I was astonished and appalled by much that I read, saw and reported. Then, after a year or so, I found myself becoming more habituated to the brutality that was so much a part of life of the country and began to see it's variety...However it was not violence that dominated lives but insecurity. Everyone in the country was worried about threats, potential and actual...One of the reasons this took a while for me to grasp might have been that, having been raised on the post-Enlightenment optimism of the West with it's faith in reason and progress, such endemic existential fear was alien to me. People in the West trust their technology and...more or less their leaders to protect them. For the average citizen of Pakistan, as in any country where authority depends not on consent but on force and custom, there is no such safety net." (Burke had already previously gievn examples of cases where the police were corrupt and next to useless in maintaining order and how religion provided a conveient subsitute for all the things that were still lacking in a developing society or were simply not affordabale to the average citizen. e.g. a free spiritual healer that acted as "a GP, consumer helpline, counsellor and psychotherapist all in one)

Then he goes into more detail about the Pashtuns: "But Parachar was most troubled, he told me repeatedly, not by the Shias and the supposed heresy and the divisons within Islam but the 'moral corruption' that threatened his community...it appeared to include, more or less any change that might alter the traditional customs of the Pashtun society. These customs, Parachar had decided were also 'Islamic' customs. So for him modernisation, Wsternisation, globalisation..were all fused into one great assault into what was right and certain and Muslim...And it was clear that if violence was neccessary to maintain social order, then Parachar supported violence."

[DonQuigleone]

Originally Posted by Haak

I was just reading On the Road to Kandahar by Jason Burke, right now and it had a chapter that provided an interesting insight on why violence is so a part of daily life in Pakistan:

"At the beginning of my time in Pakistan, I could not distinguish between the various forms of violence I encountered and I was astonished and appalled by much that I read, saw and reported. Then, after a year or so, I found myself becoming more habituated to the brutality that was so much a part of life of the country and began to see it's variety...However it was not violence that dominated lives but insecurity. Everyone in the country was worried about threats, potential and actual...One of the reasons this took a while for me to grasp might have been that, having been raised on the post-Enlightenment optimism of the West with it's faith in reason and progress, such endemic existential fear was alien to me. People in the West trust their technology and...more or less their leaders to protect them. For the average citizen of Pakistan, as in any country where authority depends not on consent but on force and custom, there is no such safety net." (Burke had already previously gievn examples of cases where the police were corrupt and next to useless in maintaining order and how religion provided a conveient subsitute for all the things that were still lacking in a developing society or were simply not affordabale to the average citizen. e.g. a free spiritual healer that acted as "a GP, consumer helpline, counsellor and psychotherapist all in one)

Then he goes into more detail about the Pashtuns: "But Parachar was most troubled, he told me repeatedly, not by the Shias and the supposed heresy and the divisons within Islam but the 'moral corruption' that threatened his community...it appeared to include, more or less any change that might alter the traditional customs of the Pashtun society. These customs, Parachar had decided were also 'Islamic' customs. So for him modernisation, Wsternisation, globalisation..were all fused into one great assault into what was right and certain and Muslim...And it was clear that if violence was neccessary to maintain social order, then Parachar supported violence."

You've hit it right on the head. You deserve a gold star.

People characterise Islam as a violent religion, but it's not religion that's the problem, it's the nature of those societies, which happen to be insecure. This lack of secuirty means that their inhabitants are willing to great lengths (including use of violence) to protect themselves, their tradition and their way of life.

They see the west as personifying the forces assaulting their traditions. In olden times they would just have to smolder and take it. Now they can hijack planes.

In reality they're a lot more like the Luddites of the 19th centure, futilely lashing out at the face of what is destroying the fabric of life as they know it.

It's like if a casino opened up in a conservative community in the US, while a host of other forces destroyed people's livelihoods. People might first lash out at the Casino, which has brought so much degeneracy and vice to their community. Or they might bomb Las Vegas (the "root" of gambling in the US). In reality though, there's very little they can really do.

[Zakoo]

Originally Posted by SaintessHeart

The real problem is with the believers, with the manipulators at the top and retards at the bottom. I always felt that the current interpretation is Islam across the world is too narcissistic - pretty similar to the Scientologist view of "everyone else's religion suck dick but ours".

It is always claimed that "Allah is the most merciful", but why do most Middle-Eastern dwellers still kill and oppress senselessly, often targeting people that are not of their religion? Even more wrongly interpreted is the concept of "Muslim Brother" - if a "Muslim brother" takes an inhuman approach to life, why side with him?

It's the same with all religion, christanity first and before hand, at least be aware of what happened in europe with inquisition. "If you are hitten on the left, give the right cheek" he said? Well first they were never hitten, it didn't prevented them to kill people with other's people approvement and watching the torture of the wheel or burn to death.

Humans have always been sheep, it's not really new and even less specific to muslim.

[AnimeFan188]

"NPR argues that the new oil capital of the world may soon be in North
America. “By 2017, investment bank Goldman Sachs predicts the US could be
poised to pass Saudi Arabia and overtake Russia as the world’s largest oil
producer.”"

See:

http://pajamasmedia.com/richardferna...09/30/blowout/

[Ithekro]

I was figuring that was the plan. Drain the rest of the world first. Get prices up, and then return to being the largest producer of oil on the planet. Because if the Middle East and the other oil producing regions that the USA has been supporting or fighting over the last near century have nothing left that we want...what do you think will happen?

We will probably pull out and ignore them...unless they want to buy things with what is left of the money they made producing oil. Cause if they have nothing we need, we will probably let them rot...politically at least.

[SaintessHeart]

Talking about oil.....

Explosions heard at Pulau Bukom refinery

The fire started 3 days ago in late morning/afternoon. The whole of that area even surrounding Bukom, is an oil and logistics industrial plant.

Let's hope that it isn't another BP styled error. If it is, let's hope that the idiot who decided to cut costs from safety measures died in the fire.

[ganbaru]

Originally Posted by SaintessHeart

If it is, let's hope that the idiot who decided to cut costs from safety measures died in the fire.

You don't belive much on that possibility, don't you
Such ''idiot'' would probably be in a office situated far away from any big danger.

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by ganbaru

You don't belive much on that possibility, don't you
Such ''idiot'' would probably be in a office situated far away from any big danger.

While the rest of Jurong Island gets flattened by a gigantic "enhanced blast weapon".

EDIT :

Is this the real thing or a troll just for the lulz?