Tækniframfarir 2004

TRN's Top Picks
Technology Research Advances of 2004

The profusion of technology research in 2004 includes notable advances in biotechnology, communications, computing, engineering, energy, security, nanotechnology, applied physics and the Internet.

Til dæmis:

a DNA device that senses and attacks cancer cells
...
highly redundant, highly fault-tolerant chip design for nanowire logic circuits
...
speech recognition technology that allows users to speak silently
...
entanglement-based form of quantum cryptography

100 ár af Einstein

Miraculous visions

A century after Einstein's miracle year, most people still do not understand exactly what it was he did. Here, we attempt to elucidate

Bandaríkjamenn samir við sig

55,000 Dead: The Role of U.S. Criminal Negligence on a Global Scale
Casualties of a policy of war, negligence, and corporate greed

Much of this death and destruction could have been prevented with a simple and inexpensive system of buoys. Officials in Thailand and Indonesia have said that an immediate public warning could have saved lives, but that they could not know of the danger because there is no international system in place to track tsunamis in the Indian Ocean.

...

Dr. Eddie Bernard, director of the NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory in Seattle, says just a few buoys could do the job. Scientists wanted to place two more tsunami meters in the Indian Ocean, including one near Indonesia, but the plan had not been funded, said Bernard. The tsunameters each cost only $250,000.

A mere half million dollars could have provided an early warning system that could have saved thousands of lives. This should be compared to the $1,500,000,000 the U.S. spends every day to fund the Pentagon war machine. This means that for what the U.S. is spending for less than one second of bombing and destruction it could construct a system that could have prevented thousands of needless deaths. Lack of funding for an inexpensive, low-tech early warning system is simply criminal negligence.

...

Although the local governments had no real warning, the U.S. government did, and it failed to pass along the information. Within minutes of the massive 9.0 magnitude earthquake off the coast of Indonesia, U.S. scientists working with National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) suspected that a deadly wave was spreading through the Indian Ocean. They did not call anyone in the governments in the area. Jeff LaDouce, an official in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said that they e-mailed Indonesian officials, but said that he wasn’t aware what happened after they sent the e-mails.

In this day of instant communications, controlled in a large part by the U.S., it is possible to communicate within minutes to every part of the globe. It is beyond belief that the officials at the NOAA could not find any method to directly and immediately contact civilian authorities in the area. Their decision not to do so may have cost thousands of lives.

Even a few minutes warning would have given the inhabitants a chance to seek higher ground. The NOAA had several hours notice before the first waves hit shore. Tim Walsh, geologic-hazards program manager for the Washington State Department of Natural Resources, said, "Fifty feet of elevation would be enough to escape the worst of the waves. In most places, 25 feet would be sufficient. If you go uphill or inland, the effect of the tsunami will be diminished." But the inhabitants of the area weren't given the warning - as a result, television and radio alerts were not issued in Thailand until nearly an hour after the waves had hit and thousands were already dead.

The failure to make any real effort to warn the people of the region, knowing that tens of thousands of lives were at stake, is part of a pattern of imperial contempt and racism that has become the cornerstone of U.S. policies worldwide.

The NOAA immediately warned the U.S. Naval Station at Diego Garcia, which suffered very little damage from the tsunami. It is telling that the NOAA was able to get the warning to the US Navy base in the area, but wouldn't pick up the phone and call the civil authorities in the region to warn them. They made sure that a US military base was notified and did almost nothing to issue a warning to the civilian inhabitants who were in the direct path of the wave--a warning that might have saved thousands of lives. This is criminal negligence.

Skondin athugasemd á /.

God of the Gaps: Glass half-full or half-empty?

Náskyldir frændur okkar í útrýmingarhættu

Peace-Loving Primates' Population Plummets

"The world could soon lose the primate species that shares the greatest genetic connection to humans," said Richard Carroll, a primatologist and director of WWF's Central Africa program. "Bonobos are fascinating creatures and little understood. They have the only great ape society led by females, with a sophisticated social structure that encourages cooperation and peace and settles disputes through sex. If humans allow our closest relatives to go extinct, we have failed as a species."

Found only in the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo in Central Africa, bonobos were believed to number as many as 50,000. But preliminary results from the first systematic survey of a known bonobo stronghold found more evidence of poachers than bonobos, indicating that there may be as few as 10,000 left in the wild. Bonobos, along with other species, are targeted by hunters for meat for personal consumption and for the commercial bushmeat trade.

Ferskt úr heimi þróunarfræða

Research Points To New Theory Driving Evolutionary Changes

Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas have used canine DNA to identify a genetic mutation mechanism they believe is responsible for rapid evolutionary changes in the physical appearance of many species.

Lesið greinina!

Bush biður fyrir friði og hamingju á jörð

Bush biður fyrir friði á jörð; þakkar bandarískum hermönnum í Írak

George W. Bush Bandaríkjaforseti sagðist í vikulegu útvarpsávarpi sínu í dag biðja fyrir friði og hamingju á jörð, og þakkaði bandarískum hermönnum í Írak og annars staðar fyrir fórnir þeirra „í þágu friðar og öryggis okkar allra“.

...

„Með því að færa kúguðum frelsi leggja hersveitir okkar sitt að mörkum til að sigur vinnist í stríðinu gegn hryðjuverkamönnum, og tryggja frelsi og öryggi okkar allra,“ sagði Bush, sem dvelur um jólin í forsetabústaðnum í Camp David. Hann heldur síðan heim á búgarð sinn í Crawford í Texas.

Íbúar Falluja snúa heim í rústirnar

Falluja: Heimamenn reiðir vegna skemmda

Flóttamenn sem sneru heim til Falluja í Írak í gær brugðust reiðir við þegar þeir sáu eyðilegginguna í borginni eftir bardagana í síðasta mánuði. Þeir segja ekki einu sinni dýr geta þrifist þar við núverandi aðstæður.

...

Stefnt er að því að flóttamenn geti snúið aftur til borgarinnar á næstu vikum en þeir munu hvorki hafa vatn né rafmagn og ekki geta haft samskipti við umheiminn þar sem fjarskiptakerfi borgarinnar var lagt í rúst.

Heima er best.

Food for thought:
We are the world (USA for Iraq 2004)

Klónöld formlega hafin?

First cloned cat sold in the U.S.

The kitten cost its owner $50,000 and was created from DNA from her beloved cat, named Nicky, who died last year.

"He is identical. His personality is the same," the owner, Julie, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. Although she agreed to be photographed with her cat, she asked that her last name and hometown not be disclosed because she said she fears being targeted by groups opposed to cloning.

...

Critics also complain that the technology is available only to the wealthy, that using it to create house pets is frivolous and that customers grieving over lost pets have unrealistic expectations of what they're buying.

In fact, the first cat cloned in 2001 had a different coat from its genetic donor, underscoring that environment and other biological variables make it impossible to exactly duplicate animals.

"The thing that many people do not realize is that the cloned cat is not the same as the original," said Bonnie Beaver, a Texas A&M animal behaviorist who heads the American Veterinary Medical Association, which has no position on the issue. "It has a different personality. It has different life experiences. They want Fluffy, but it's not Fluffy."

Hver skildi nú verða fyrst kvenna til að ganga með og eignast klón af sjálfri sér?

Björn Bjarnason vanhæfur?

Þjóðarhreyfingin fær ekki svör

Snillingurinn Gervais fílar ekki fullt af peningum

Gervais: "I've Turned Down Fame and Fortune"

Ricky Gervais has turned down $18 million in earnings from a host of Hollywood roles, because he isn't motivated by money. The British comedian, who shot to fame after writing and starring in TV hit The Office, insists he is embarrassed by the amount of cash offered to him - and even rejected "so much money it was shocking" from the BBC to make another series of the spoof documentary. Among the roles Gervais has turned down are English butler Higgins in George Clooney's remake of 80s TV program Magnum PI, a part alongside Al Pacino in The Merchant Of Venice, a role in the upcoming Pirates Of The Caribbean sequel, and a cameo in TV drama 24. Gervais, 43, says, "The money being offered was criminal. But I am not interested in money. I'm interested in doing something I am proud of. Money gives me the creeps. I hate it when people print how much I'm getting paid. It's not guilt. It's embarrassing enough being an actor for a living - it's a worthless, pointless job. But when people know you earn a thousand times what a nurse earns it's f**king embarrassing. I am not proud of my earnings. I'm proud of my work. I've probably turned down £10 million."

FLEIRI SVONA TAKK!

Ég mæli með uppistöndunum hans Gervais.

Tekið af imdb.com

Aukning á aukningu aukinnar lyfjanotkunnar eykst

Útgjaldaauki TR vegna þunglyndislyfja 8% milli ára

Af þunglyndislyfjum vega tveir lyfjaflokkar þyngst eða um 97% af kostnaðinum. Annars vegar er um að ræða svonefnda sérhæfða serótónín endurupptökuhemla og hins vegar serótónín noradrenalín endurupptökuhemlar en hækkun nemur 61% í fyrrnefnda lyfjaflokknum og 36% í hinum.

Útgjaldaaukning TR stafar aðallega af aukinni notkun lyfja í þessum tveimur flokkum en ekki er um verðhækkanir að ræða nema í einum lyfjaflokki.

...

Notkun í aldurshópnum 15 til 19 ára fyrstu 11 mánuði ársins jókst miðað við sama tímabil árið á undan, notkun í aldurshópnum 5-9 ára minnkaði en breyting var í aldurshópunum 10-14 og 1-4 ára.

Þegar heildarnotkunin þunglyndislyfja er greind nánar niður fyrir aldurshópinn 19 ára og yngri sást hins vegar að notkunin í umræddum lyfjaflokki, sem varað hefur verið við, jókst en notkun á öðrum þunglyndislyfjum minnkaði.

Tengist:
Biluð börn, hvað veldur?

Fyrirtæki fara í skóla

BRANDED: CORPORATIONS AND OUR SCHOOLS

The following excerpt, from a letter to principals of School District 11 in Colorado Springs, Colorado, from John Bushey, the district's director of "school leadership," demonstrates one effect of corporate influence in our schools. One year into an $8 million exclusive vending contract with Coca-Cola Corp., Bushey wrote:

Dear Principal: Here we are in year two of the great Coke contract.we must sell 70,000 cases of the product.. Here is how we can do it: Allow students to purchase and consume vended products throughout the day. If sodas are not allowed in classes, consider allowing the juices, teas and waters.

John Sheehan, vice president of the Douglas County, Colorado, school board, was the sole dissenter to a 10-year, $27.7 million deal struck between a three-school district consortium and Coca-Cola.

...

Are corporations, with priorities of profit and shareholder return, proper partners for public education?

How Marketers Target Kids

Tengist:
Er græðgin okkar stærsti löstur?

The Land of the Free Non-Muslims

Nearly half in U.S. say Muslim civil liberties should be restricted

Nearly half of all Americans believe the U.S. government should restrict the civil liberties of Muslim Americans, according to a nationwide poll.

The survey conducted by Cornell University also found that Republicans and people who described themselves as highly religious were more apt to support curtailing Muslims’ civil liberties than Democrats or people who are less religious.

Páfagarðsmenn fríka út, eins og þeim einum er lagið

Námskeið í djöflafræðum og særingum

Háskóli Páfagarðs í Róm, Regina Apostolorum, ætlar að bjóða upp á námskeið í djöflafræðum og særingum á næstunni.

...

Námskeiðið er ætlað nýnemum og lærlingum í prestastétt og mun hefjast í febrúar á næsta ári. Verður fjallað um djöflafræði, hvernig djöfullinn birtist í helgum bókum auk þess sem skoðað verður hvernig lækna má fólk sem sagt er að sé andsetið.

Og svo eru heilaþvættlingar ríkiskyrkjunnar á Íslandi að reyna að draga úr helvítis-boðskap biblíunnar, eins og sést í athugasemdunum við predikun á 3.sd. í aðventu hjá Kristjáni Val.

Vonleysinginn Steindór

Þunglyndi trúleysinginn í Silfri Egils

Komdu jafnvægi á orkuna þína með segulmögnuðu sársaukasugunni

Randomised controlled trial of magnetic bracelets for relieving pain in osteoarthritis of the hip and knee

Conclusion: Pain from osteoarthritis of the hip and knee decreases when wearing magnetic bracelets. It is uncertain whether this response is due to specific or non-specific (placebo) effects.

...

Is the effect real?
Our study has not entirely resolved the extent to which the effect of magnetic bracelets is specific or due to placebo. Blinding did not affect the pattern of results, but the validity of the self reporting of blinding status could be questioned. Although the analysis of per-specification bracelets also suggests a specific effect, the result is only a trend and needs confirmation. Therefore, we cannot be certain whether our data show a specific effect of magnets, a placebo effect, or both.

Harrison Hetja í Falluja

Harrison Ford may lead charge in Falluja movie

In "No True Glory" he would play Maj. Gen. James Mattis, the U.S. Marine commander ordered to lead an assault on the Iraqi city of Falluja, an insurgent stronghold west of Baghdad, after four Americans contractors were killed and mutilated there by a mob in March 2004.

Ætli þetta verði raunsæ mynd?

Tengist:
Napalm notað í Falluja?
Fleiri hryllingsmyndir frá Írak
Now it's a revenge thing
Fallujah to become a "model city"
Írak rís upp úr öskunni í eldinn
American Heroes and Psychos

Biluð börn, hvað veldur?

Börnum með geðraskanir fjölgaði um 119% á 5 árum

Fjöldi barna með margs konar hegðunar- og geðraskanir, sem fá umönnunarmat frá Tryggingastofnun, hefur meira en tvöfaldast undanfarin fimm ár. Þessi börn voru 1.093 í desember árið 1999 en er nú 2.399, sem er fjölgun um 119%. Af þessum fjölda teljast um 850 börn vera með alvarlegar raskanir og fá foreldrar þeirra sérstakar umönnunarbætur, um 20 þúsund krónur á mánuði. Foreldrar hinna barnanna sem eru um 1.500 fá engar greiðslur en eiga rétt á umönnunarkortum til lækkunar á lyfjakostnaði.

Börnum með atferlisröskun fjölgar hratt

Að sögn Ingibjargar Georgsdóttur, barnalæknis hjá Tryggingastofnun, hefur greiningum á börnum með atferlisraskanir fjölgað mjög á Íslandi á fáum árum og má rekja fjölgun barna á skrá að stórum hluta til greiningar á ofvirkni og öðrum hegðunarröskunum sem meðhöndlaðar eru með lyfjagjöf.

Erum við virkilega að gera börnin okkar geðveikari með hverju árinu sem líður?

It's Official: TV Linked to Attention Deficit

ADHD has a simple cause: poor nutrition and food additives

KILL YOUR TELEVISION

Tengist:
Lyfjafyrirtæki með athyglisbrest og
Lyfjarisarnir sýna hvers þeir eru megnugir

A five-point plan to responsibly extricate the U.S. from Iraq

A New Course in Iraq

Continued military occupation is not an option – and neither is immediate withdrawal. A five-point plan to responsibly extricate the U.S. from Iraq.

Summary:

A plan for a peaceful Iraq. Unlike other plans, which favor immediate withdrawal, this plan favors reduction in offensive operations, reducing troop numbers; which is the opposite of the current plan, declaring the true intentions of the occupying force and stating why we are there and when we will leave, promote basic health standards by restoring services ; although the White House claimed that this was done already.

Lærum við eins og sniglar?

UCLA Neuroscientist Gains Insights Into Human Brain From Study Of Marine Snail

...

"Human brains have many more neurons than the Aplysia's, but it doesn't look like there is any difference on a molecular or synaptic level.

"When this animal learns," Glanzman said, "many changes take place in its nervous system. I want to understand what causes these changes for certain forms of learning; I want to understand everything there is to understand. This knowledge will inform us about the kinds of changes that take place in our brains when we learn."

...

The marine snail, which is substantially larger than its garden-variety counterpart, has approximately 20,000 neurons in its central nervous system; humans have approximately one trillion. Glanzman has a good understanding of the functions of approximately 1,000 of the neurons. The marine snail is native to California, living in tidal waters off the coast.

...

What does the marine snail learn?

"The marine snail has to process information about its environment, and it has to make associations between different stimuli, just as we do," Glanzman said. "It is capable of learning when an environment is safe and when it is not, and of understanding the danger posed by a predator."

...

"Our work implies that the brain mechanisms for forming these kinds of associations might be extremely similar in snails and higher organisms. People may think invertebrates are not very sophisticated, but we don't appreciate just how complicated their nervous systems are, and how complex their behaviors are. We don't fully understand even very simple kinds of learning in these animals."

Litla stúlkan með skærin handtekin

Handtekin fyrir að koma með skæri í skólann

Lögreglustjóri og skólastjóri í Philadelphiu í Bandaríkjunum hafa beðið móður tíu ára stúlku afsökunar á því að stúlkan skyldi handjárnuð og handtekin eftir að upp komst að hún væri með skæri í skólatöskunni sinni.

Þvílík klikkun, sem kraumar undir niðri í bandarísku þjóðfélagi þessa dagana.

Vilt þú hafa fugla í þínum heimi?

Ten percent birds to disappear by 2100: study

Their projections indicate that by 2100, up to 14 percent of all bird species may be extinct and that as many as one out of four may be functionally extinct -- that is, critically endangered or extinct in the wild.

Tengist Bæ bæ bíbí.

$7.5 trillion

Staggering National Debt Worries Economists

Thus far, interest rates have remained relatively low. Foreign governments, including Japan and China, have proved eager to purchase Treasury bonds, affording the federal government a nice rate of return. About 42 percent of America’s debt is held by other nations _ including $500 billion in the hands of China, $720 billion with Japan and $100 billion each in South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

...

It also means someone, somewhere along the line is going to be left holding the bill. Critics maintain the present generation is enjoying the fruits and shipping the bill to the next.

Ég held að þessi kynslóð, sem nú fer með völd í hinum vestræna heimi verði algerlega fordæmd í sögubókum framtíðarinnar (ef þær verða þá nokkurn tíman skrifaðar), fólkið sem ekki bara beindi byssunni að höfði Móður Náttúru, heldur tók í gikkinn líka.

Afneitunin hjá þessu liði er fullkomin.

Penguins on ice

Iceberg threat to penguin chicks

He called the iceberg "the largest floating thing on the planet right now," and said it could block four supply ships due to arrive in Antarctica in a month.

Three thousand breeding pairs of Adele penguins on Antarctic's Cape Royds face a 180-kilometer (112-mile) round trip to bring food to their chicks, because their access to ocean feeding grounds has been cut by the ice buildup.

Blessaðar mörgæsirnar, eins og þetta eru nú indæl dýr. Vona að þeim takist þetta.

Napalm notað í Falluja?

US uses banned weapon... but was Tony Blair told?

News that President George W. Bush has sanctioned the use of napalm, a deadly cocktail of polystyrene and jet fuel banned by the United Nations in 1980, will stun governments around the world.

And last night Tony Blair was dragged into the row as furious Labour MPs demanded he face the Commons over it. Reports claim that innocent civilians have died in napalm attacks, which turn victims into human fireballs as the gel bonds flames to flesh.

Outraged critics have also demanded that Mr Blair threatens to withdraw British troops from Iraq unless the US abandons one of the world’s most reviled weapons. Halifax Labour MP Alice Mahon said: “I am calling on Mr Blair to make an emergency statement to the Commons to explain why this is happening. It begs the question: ‘Did we know about this hideous weapon’s use in Iraq?’”

Enn hitnar í kolunum

'Climate Witnesses' Testify About Effects Of Global Warming

As scientists debate whether global warming is affecting Earth, “climate witnesses” told a U.N. environmental conference Friday they are already feeling the heat of the changing weather patterns they say are drastically affecting the way of life from the Himalayas to the South Pacific.

“In the past we just accepted it was the will of God,” said Penina Moce, a woman from Udu, a fishing village in Fiji. “But now we believe there could be other easons.”

...

With only a few months remaining before Kyoto takes effect, the science over global warming remains divided. The United States – the largest industrialized country not to join the treaty – has cited scientific uncertainties as one of the reasons.

...

But Anil Krishna Mistry, a 37-year-old rice farmer living in mangrove swamps along India’s border with Bangladesh, said he is worried by what he sees as changing climate patterns.

He said the region is under constant threat of flooding from heavy rains and that rising sea levels have washed away huge tracts of land and made others too salty for rice growing.

“There were 64 types of mangrove plants in the region, but now half of those species are dying out,” said Krishna Mistry. “The mangrove stands act as a barrier against high tides from the oceans,” he said, but rising sea levels and high tides are making the freshwater salty.

Tengist þessari færslu.

Horft í heila

New Technique Scans Electrical 'Brainscape'

"Our studies suggest that perception is not just a process of analyzing an incoming signal, which is what most textbooks teach and most scientists believe," said Nicolelis. "Rather, perception depends on the internal state of the brain at that given moment of time, and what behavior the animal is using to sample the environment. With this new technique we can monitor such states as attention and expectation and how they modulate how the animal processes that incoming information."

According to Nicolelis, the new results "support a global theory of brain function that holds that all these processes are extremely dynamic. And now with this analytic technique we can measure these dynamics. It gives us a new language of how to describe continuous brain function.

"One of the Holy Grails of neurobiology has been the neural 'code' by which the brain processes information. Now we can say that there is no such thing as a single neural code, because the code is continuously changing according to the internal state of the brain, and according to the strategy the animal selects to search the environment."

Stand on the shoulders of giants

Hubble og Spitzer

Spitzer And Hubble Capture Evolving Planetary Systems

The young star observed by Hubble is 50 million to 250 million years old. This is old enough to theoretically have gas planets, but young enough that rocky planets like Earth may still be forming. The six older stars studied by Spitzer average 4 billion years old, nearly the same age as the Sun. They are known to have gas planets, and rocky planets may also be present. Prior to these findings, rings of planetary debris, or "debris discs," around stars the size of the Sun had rarely been observed, because they are fainter and more difficult to see than those around more massive stars.

Víkingarnir við

Scandinavia seems like such a peaceful place. Maybe they got all the lust for violence out of their system with the whole Viking thing; or maybe it's still there, just bubbling below the surface, invisible to an outsider like me.

Segir Sean á Preposterous Universe.

Fleiri hryllingsmyndir frá Írak

Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches

Dahr has spent a total of 6 months in occupied Iraq, and has now returned to continue reporting on the occupation. One of only a few independent reporters in Iraq, Dahr uses the DahrJamailIraq.com website and mailing list to disseminate his dispatches.

Myndagalleríið er hér.

Hlakka til að sjá hvernig þetta fer

Call to prosecute over 'gay Jesus'

"Jesus Christ is being portrayed here as a foul-mouthed, drunken, promiscuous homosexual and that is an insult to my faith," Green told BBC Radio.

Hehehe.

Jæja, loksins gerir maður eitthvað af viti

Hádegismótmælastaða við alþingishúsið



Föstudagur 16.12.04
Mest 3.

Fimmtudagur 15.12.04
Mest 3.

Miðvikudagur 15.12.04
Mest 2 :(

Þriðjudagur 14.12.04
Mest 3.

Mánudagur 13.12.04
Mest 3.

Föstudagur 10.12.04
Mest 10 manns. Fullt af friðarkertum og ljósmyndari frá Mogganum og alles. Gaman að sjá hvort þessar myndir komist í gegnum ritskoðunardeildina.

Fimmtudagur 9.12.04
Mest 2. :(

Miðvikudagur 8.12.04
Mest 5 manns.

Þriðjudagur 7.12.04
Mest 4 manns.

Mánudagur 6.12.04
Mest 4 manns.

Föstudagur 3.12.04
Mest 9 manns.

Fimmtudagur 2.12.04
Mest 6 manns.

Miðvikudagur 1.12.04
Mest 9 manns. Fréttablaðið mætti og tók myndir.

Þriðjudagur 30.11.04
Mest 9 manns.

Mánudagur 29.11.04
Mest 8 manns.

Föstudagur 26.11.04
Í kringum 20 manns, flestir nemendur Kvennaskólans í Reykjavík.



Fyrir ykkur sem 'nennið' ekki að gera eitthvað í þessu, þá ættu eftirfarandi hlekkir að hrista úr ykkur sinnuleysið, ef ekki, nú, þá er eitthvað að.

Myndir frá Falluja

Hryllingurinn í hreyfimyndum

Blogg ungrar konu frá Baghdad, afar raunsætt og átakanlegt.

Fallujah Refugees Talk

Slash and Burn

Nú er ég búinn að standa með skilti fyrir utan alþingishúsið nokkrum sinnum, við afar góðar undirtektir vegfarenda og meðlima stjórnarandstöðunnar. Það sem maður tekur hvað mest eftir er að þeir stuðningsmenn stríðsins í Írak, sem ganga fram hjá okkur, þora ekki einu sinni að líta í augun á manni, hvað þá að reyna að færa rök fyrir máli sínu (nema Björn Bjarna, sem glotti, eins og hann væri að segja: "þetta er tilgangslaust hjá ykkur"). Hvað er þetta annað en slæm samviska?

Ég sé fram á að reyna (ásamt fleirum) að vera á þessum stað milli 12 og 13 sem flesta virka daga, svo lengi sem ríkisstjórnin styður Íraksstríðið. Og já, ég geri mér fullkomlega grein fyrir því að það gæti orðið ansi langur tími, en tilgangurinn með þessu er nú einmitt sá að stytta þann tíma.

Endilega heimsækið Fólkið.net og skráið ykkur á póstlistann, ef þið hafið áhuga á að vera með, ég held nefnilega að flestir, sem á annað borð láta sig mikilvæg málefni varða, hafi fengið sig fullsadda af fjöldamorðunum í Írak.

Now it's a revenge thing

Marines talk of guns and God on the front lines.

Losing his friend changed McClellan's sense of mission. "Before [Burns] was killed, I thought we were here to kill the bad ones and save the good ones," says McClellan, a wry wit who sometimes jokingly refers to himself "trigger-happy Mick." "Now I think: 'Is he the one who shot Kyle?' It's a revenge thing. Every time I see an Iraqi, I could be face-to-face with the guy who killed my best friend."

Ætli hann sé eini hermaðurinn, sem hugsar svona?

Trúlaus orðinn trúaður, loksins, 81 árs gamall

Famous Atheist Now Believes in God

At age 81, after decades of insisting belief is a mistake, Antony Flew has concluded that some sort of intelligence or first cause must have created the universe. A super-intelligence is the only good explanation for the origin of life and the complexity of nature, Flew said in a telephone interview from England.

Flew said he's best labeled a deist like Thomas Jefferson, whose God was not actively involved in people's lives.

"I'm thinking of a God very different from the God of the Christian and far and away from the God of Islam, because both are depicted as omnipotent Oriental despots, cosmic Saddam Husseins," he said. "It could be a person in the sense of a being that has intelligence and a purpose, I suppose."

Jæja, hann var allavega ekki að endurfæðast inn í einhvern sértrúarsöfnuðinn :).

Jón og séra Jón, Palestínumenn og Gyðingar

$156M awarded in teen's killing by terrorists

Þegar neyðin er stærst er hjálpin...?

Report: Little progress toward halving world hunger

Though the number of hungry people in developing countries fell in the early 1990's, that trend was later reversed, the Rome-based agency said in its annual report on world hunger. By 2000-2002 the figure stood at 815 million, just 9 million below the 1990-1992 estimate.

The report drew said the present levels of hunger cause the death of more than 5 million children every year -- or one child every five seconds

Óstöðvandi mannfjölgun er vandamálið. Hvernig dettur nokkrum heilvita manni í hug að vistkerfi Jarðarinnar geti staðið undir þessum fjölda til lengdar?

Church in Africa continues AIDS fight without condoms

Kaþólska kirkjan náttúrulega alltaf að rembast við að fylla himnaríki. Börnum ungað út til þess eins að deyja.

Dýrð sé vonda kallinum á himnum og hans hyski.

Górillur syrgja

Gorillas hold 'wake' for group's leader

After Babs the gorilla died at age 30, keepers at Brookfield Zoo decided to allow surviving gorillas to mourn the most influential female in their social family.

...

Babs' 9-year-old daughter, Bana, was the first to approach the body, followed by Babs' mother, Alpha, 43. Bana sat down, held Babs' hand and stroked her mother's stomach. Then she sat down and laid her head on Babs' arm.

"It was like they used to do in the exhibit, lying side by side on the mountain," keeper Betty Green said. "Then Bana rose up and looked at us and moved to Babs' other side, tucked her head under the other arm, and stroked Babs' stomach."

...

"She was the dominant female of the group, the peacekeeper, the disciplinarian, the one who kept things in a harmonious state," Pruett Jones said.

Þetta kemur bara sköpunarsinnum á óvart.

We are the world (USA for Iraq 2004)

Info

This short begs many questions, viewer discretion is strongly advised.

-Video
Uncensored news footage from the US invasion of Iraq 2003 - ?

-Soundtrack
We Are The World (USA for Africa) 1985.

-Genre
War, music, horror, drama, documentary, short

Torrent: We are the world (USA for Iraq 2004)

Til að hala þessu niður geturðu notað t.d. Azureus

Gengur fjölmenningarsamfélag ekki upp?

Leiðtogi CDU: Fjölmenningarsamfélagið gengur ekki upp

Innflytjendur verða að laga sig að kristilegum menningarheimi meirihluta Þjóðverja vegna þess að allar tilraunir til að búa til fjölmenningarsamfélag eru dæmdar til að mistakast, sagði Angela Merkel, leiðtogi Kristilegra demókrata (CDU)

...

„Við höfum ætíð vitað þetta. Hugmyndin um fjölmenningarlegt samfélag getur ekki orðið að veruleika,“ sagði Merkel. Hún sagði ennfremur að þýsk menning væri opin fyrir utanaðkomandi áhrifum, en í þýskri menningu væri „haldið upp á hátíðisdaga kristinna, ekki múslíma“.

...

Um sjö milljónir innflytjenda búa í Þýskalandi, og um helmingur þeirra er múslímar.

Það þarf að fara að banna þá kristilegu eins og nazistana.

NEI TAKK!

Forsætisráðherra óskar eftir tilnefningum í stjórnarskrárnefnd

Halldór gerði nógu mikinn skaða sem utanríkisráðherra. Svona maður á ekki að fá að krukka í stjórnarskránni.

Fallujah to become a "model city"

Returning Fallujans will face clampdown

US commanders and Iraqi leaders have declared their intention to make Fallujah a "model city," where they can maintain the security that has eluded them elsewhere. They also want to avoid a repeat -- on a smaller scale -- of what happened after the invasion of Iraq, when a quick US victory gave way to a disorganized reconstruction program thwarted by insurgent violence and intimidation.

...

Under the plans, troops would funnel Fallujans to so-called citizen processing centers on the outskirts of the city to compile a database of their identities through DNA testing and retina scans. Residents would receive badges displaying their home addresses that they must wear at all times. Buses would ferry them into the city, where cars, the deadliest tool of suicide bombers, would be banned.

...

One idea that has stirred debate among Marine officers would require all men to work, for pay, in military-style battalions. Depending on their skills, they would be assigned jobs in construction, waterworks, or rubble-clearing platoons.

Wikipedia explains:
Totalitarianism
Insurgent
Slavery

Hvað felst í dauðarefsingu annað en dauði?

In rare case, defendant seeks execution

"I only wish the judge to sentence me to death so no one can feel responsible for another's death, including mine," Marco Allen Chapman wrote in a letter to Judge Tony Frohlich read in court in October.

...

Harding said people like Chapman who seek execution are using the state to fulfill a death wish.

"It's almost like he wants to commit suicide and he wants the state to assist in his suicide," she said. "He knows his options. It sounds like he's looking for some control."

Refsingin felst sem sagt ekki í sjálfri aftökunni, heldur í því að sakborningnum má ekki finnast hann hafa stjórn á því hvort hann lifir eða deyr. Strax og viðkomandi er kominn með puttana í málið fer allt til fjandans. Þvílíkur god-complex hjá yfirvöldum.

Ætli Chapman sjái þetta kannski sem síðasta hálmstráið, að rugla í kerfinu með því að þykjast vilja deyja?

Lyfjafyrirtæki með athyglisbrest

Doctor says drugs should be last resort for ADHD

Ætli lyfjafyrirtækin eyði miklum fjármunum í rannsóknir á því hvernig megi lækna sjúkdóma án lyfja?

Pharmaceuticals Rank as Most Profitable Industry, Again (PDF)

In a year that saw a drop in employment rates, a plunge in the stock market and symbols of America’s economy literally come crashing down, the pharmaceutical industry continued its reign as the most profitable industry in the annual Fortune 500 list.

While the overall profits of Fortune 500 companies declined by 53 percent – the second deepest dive in profits the Fortune 500 has taken in its 47 years1 – the top 10 U.S. drug makers increased profits by 33 percent.

Collectively, the 10 drug companies in the Fortune 500 topped all three of the magazine’s measures of profitability in 2001, according to Fortune magazine’s annual analysis of America’s largest companies.

Tengist þessari færslu.

Eitthvað mikið að í Bandaríkjunum

Bus driver fired for stem cell remark

An elementary school bus driver was fired after sharing a statistic she had read about embryonic stem cell research with students, then encouraging them to tell their parents about it.

...

Superintendent Thomas Ramming said employees are generally told that political and religious discussions should be confined to a classroom setting where different viewpoints can be presented.

Á þetta ekki að vera "where different viewpoints can be repressed"?

Kapítalistar kljást í Úkraínu

Vil benda fólki á athygliverða vangaveltu varðandi ástandið í Úkraínu, hjá honum Vésteini (föstudaginn, 3. desember). Þessu hafði ég ekki gert mér grein fyrir, enda um margt að hugsa þessa dagana.

Gott þegar einhver hugsar svona fyrir mann :).

Hér er beinn hlekkur á færsluna, þakka Vésteinn!

Hákarlar verða fyrir barðinu á gervivísindamönnum

[Gary K. Ostrander, alvöru vísindamaður]

Shark Cartilage Cancer 'Cure' Shows Danger Of Pseudoscience

The rising popularity of shark cartilage extract as an anti-cancer treatment is a triumph of marketing and pseudoscience over reason, with a tragic fallout for both sharks and humans, according to a Johns Hopkins biologist writing in the Dec. 1 issue of Cancer Research.

...

"Since shark cartilage has been promoted as a cancer cure, not only has there has been a measurable decline in shark populations, but cancer patients also have been diverted from proven, effective treatments," said Gary K. Ostrander, a research professor in the departments of Biology and Comparative Medicine at The Johns Hopkins University.

Lyfjarisarnir sýna hvers þeir eru megnugir

Report: 44% of Americans medicated

Even for people under age 18, however, nearly one-fourth -- 24.1 percent -- were taking at least one prescription medication. The rate rose to 34.7 percent between age 18 and 44; for those ages 45 to 64, it was 62.1 percent.

...

Report puts U.S. spending on health at $1.6 trillion

Ég þurfti að fletta þessari tölu upp, trilljón, þetta eru semsagt eitthvað í kringum 104.000.000.000.000 kr., eða hundraðogfjórarmilljónirmilljóna.

Eftir nokkur ár verður þetta örugglega komið upp í grilljón.

Laxmaðurinn Bush

Massive salmon habitat cuts proposed

After a lawsuit brought by the National Association of Home Builders, the federal agency agreed to reconsider critical habitat designations for 13 groups of threatened or endangered salmon in the Northwest, and seven in California.

Hvers á þetta fólk að gjalda?

U.S. networks reject church gay ad

The 30-second spot, sponsored by the 1.3-million member United Church of Christ, features two muscle-bound bouncers standing outside a church, determining who may enter to attend a service and who may not. Among those kept out are two males who appear to be a couple.

...

The church quoted CBS as saying that the ad was rejected "because this commercial touches on the exclusion of gay couples ... and the fact that the executive branch has recently proposed a constitutional amendment to define marriage as a union between a man and a woman, this spot is unacceptable for broadcast."

Rosalega myndi það einfalda málin ef allir væru bara trúlausir :).

Bæ bæ bíbí

Extinction may claim Hawaiian bird

The po'ouli's numbers have dwindled because of habitat loss and introduced predators like rats, cats and mongoose. Nonnative diseases carried by mosquitoes have also taken a toll on the Hawaiian birds.

Með öðrum orðum, okkur mönnunum að kenna.

Ég er farinn að halda að Móðir Náttúra hafi verið í sjálfsvígshugleiðingum þegar hún leyfði okkur mannöpunum að standa upp.

Innrásin í Írak - ekki í okkar nafni

Endilega styrkið þetta góða framtak!

Innrásin í Írak - ekki í okkar nafni

Fólkið.