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The Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa returned from its seven-year trek to the asteroid Itokawa on Sunday. The capsule landed without a hitch and is expected to contain pieces of the asteroid. The capsule was recovered in the Australian outback Monday morning. The mission was the first round trip to a planetary body beyond the moon, and the fourth space-sample return mission in world history. We hope the final results are good! Congratulations JAXA! |
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| Hayabusa returns to Earth | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| Hayabusa after landing (with its parachute still attached) | ||||||||||||||||||||
Related: - http://www.jaxa.jp/projects/sat/muses_c/index_e.html - http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/06/hayabusa-returns/ - http://www.nasa.gov/topics/solarsystem/features//hayabusa20100609-revised.html - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hayabusa |
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The American Power Act is now making its way through Congress. The bill aims to lower carbon emissions roughly 40% below 2005 levels by 2030. It's almost like doing nothing... Could someone find the quote from Dick Cheney - The Daily Show and The Colbert Report are good at finding quotes like this - where Cheney said the U.S. would move to clean energy by 2025 (or maybe in 2002 he said 25 years from now)? The American Power Act seems to have the same timeline as the Cheney plan, and it will probably get worse as it moves through Congress. And when all is said and done, they'll put Obama's name on it. Don't get me wrong. I support the government's effort to build a clean energy economy. But they're ignoring science and calling it liberal. I guess Dick Cheney is just too liberal for today's Democratic Congress... |
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[UPDATE - May 5, 2010: The text below has been edited for accuracy.] On April 23, 2010, Arizona's governor signed a controversial immigration bill into law. One of the many problems with Arizona's new immigration law is that it appears to leave the door open for profiling, discrimination, racism, and abuse which would mainly affect Latinos and Mexicans living in Arizona. The law also appears unconstitutional. The Arizona state legislature attempted to modify the law in response to some of the criticism it received, but it was unsuccessful. In the time since the law has passed, America's response, along with the response of other nations, has been dramatic. There are currently protests, boycotts, and lawsuits aimed at doing away with the law. Participants include religious leaders, Arizona police officers, and officers in other states, all of whom are trying to get rid of this new Arizona law. Local governments and state officials in Arizona and in other states have also joined in, along with numerous federal officials. And this week, members of the U.S. Congress proposed a new framework for immigration reform. Both Democrats and Republicans have spoken out against the law, along with students, artists, civil libertarians, and the American President. The fight to stop Arizona's new immigration law has only begun, and I want to add my voice to efforts to stop its implementation. |
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| Woman Protests Arizona Immigration Law | ||||||||||||||||||||
Related: - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arizona_SB1070 - http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/04/23/immigration.faq/index.html |
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[UPDATE - Jun. 16, 2010: The text below has been edited for accuracy.] On April 20, 2010, a massive oil platform explosion left 11 workers missing and presumed dead, and released an undetermined amount of oil into the waters of the Gulf of Mexico off the shores of the southern U.S. After the oil platform burned up and sank, the underwater oil well to which it was attached continued to release oil into the Gulf. Early in the disaster, some estimates for the amount of oil being released were around 250,000 gallons of oil per day (five times higher than estimates that came out right after the disaster occurred). Even newer estimates are as high 2.5 million gallons per day. One government estimate of 798,000 gallons per day was used to calculate a 31% reduction in the oil spill after a temporary flow-reducing cap was successfully placed over the leak on June 3. The leak is expected to be fully stopped in August. Cleanup will take years, even decades. As the oil slick began to wash ashore on April 30, environmentalists and fishermen became increasingly alarmed. Thicker oil began reaching the shoreline on May 4, while animals began turning up dead or covered in oil days earlier. The fragile ecosystem along the shores of the Gulf of Mexico - which spans from Florida to Texas - has been devastated, both environmentally and economically. The effects of the devastation are already being felt worldwide. On May 19, concerns grew over the oil slick reaching the Loop Current, which is a powerful ocean current in the Gulf of Mexico. So, the Florida coastline could be hit even harder. The Loop Current also converges with the Gulf Stream (another ocean current along the eastern U.S.), and as a result, the risk of marine life contamination - including fish and seafood - could extend from Florida all the way up the eastern U.S. coast. In addition to contamination of marine life and the environment, tourism could suffer even more than it already has. Clearly, despite remarkable advances in the safety of offshore drilling over the last several decades, it remains a risky business - both for people and the environment. There was another disaster as recently as 2007. Yet proponents of drilling offshore in the U.S. argue that we must rush toward more drilling. Some state governments seem concerned only about competition from other states, and are hoping people won't notice the explosion, deaths, and the oil geysers that continue to pump oil into the ocean and could take months to stop. But many states are backing off drilling for oil off their shores. States like South Carolina, California, and Virginia have been pushing offshore drilling platforms, but citizens remain very concerned about the idea. Leaders are becoming more concerned, too, since tourism and fishing dollars are strongly related to a pristine coastline. In South Carolina, a state Senate panel approved a bill to drill offshore right after the oil platform exploded, but leaders say passage of the bill remains a long shot. And in California, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger ended his controversial campaign to begin offshore drilling on Tranquillon Ridge, off the coast of Santa Barbara. But after campaigning on an offshore oil-drilling platform, Virginia's governor announced that his plans to drill off the coast of Virginia by 2012 would not be delayed, despite new short-term delays put in place by President Obama. Obama responded by putting more permanent bans in place. Environmentalists said the oil platform explosion and oil spill should push the nation to develop new energy sources. "This should be a wake-up call," said David Helvarg, the president of the Blue Frontier Campaign, a marine conservation group, and author of Rescue Warriors: The U.S. Coast Guard, America's Forgotten Heroes. The oil platform was still burning on Earth Day (two days after the explosion) and it continues to leak oil. It could take several months to stop the flow of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. These oil platforms seem to have problems every few years, and they are harmful to people, wildlife, and the environment. Not to mention the fact that these exploding offshore oil platforms will never be able to pump enough oil to stop the oil wars in the Middle East. Offshore oil drilling in the U.S. only prolongs America's addiction to oil from the Middle East. |
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Related: - http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/06/05/gulf.oil.spill/index.html?hpt=T1 - http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/06/caught_in_the_oil.html - http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/37519245#37519802 - http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/20/science/earth/20tourism.html?partner=rss&emc=rss - http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/35784/ - http://www.mercurynews.com/opinion/ci_15016773 - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/03/gulf-oil-spill-photos-ani_n_560813.html - http://www.postandcourier.com/news/2010/apr/25/drilling-risks-hit-home/ - http://calcoastnews.com/2010/04/louisiana-offshore-oil-explosion-sparks-concern-in-santa-barbara/ - http://www.latimes.com/sns-ap-us-louisiana-oil-rig-explosion,0,5082315.story - http://www.ajc.com/business/weather-delays-oil-cleanup-490004.html - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deepwater_Horizon_drilling_rig_explosion See Also: - Dangerous Profits: Energy, Economics, Environment - The Petroleum Industry - Don't Get Fucked by Big Oil (updated May 5, 2010) - Scott Brown's Truck (updated May 5, 2010) - Hydrogen Fueled Cars - 350 - The Copenhagen Accord - Coal Mines or Windmills? (updated May 5, 2010) - The Oil Crisis |
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I just finished watching the latest episode of a documentary series called Point Of View (POV) on PBS. It was entitled Food, Inc., and included parts of the 2009 film with the same title. An independent film entitled Notes on Milk was also shown at the end of the documentary. I thought both films were pretty good! Part of the documentary was about genetically modified organisms (GMO's), which mostly refers to seeds used in agriculture which have been genetically modified. For example, the "Roundup Ready Soybean" has been genetically modified to tolerate the pesticide commonly known as Roundup. Nearly all GMO's in the U.S. are patented by a single company: The Monsanto Corporation. The way seed patents have been interpreted, farmers are not allowed to save the seeds produced by the crops that they plant. And Monsanto has hired a small army of ex-military and ex-police thugs to "investigate" farmers. Farmers described the "investigators" as "large, intimidating men; probably ex-military or ex-police." These hired thugs do things like tail the farmers' vehicles, trespass on the farmers' land, and conduct illegal interviews. But it doesn't stop there... Farmers are put under enormous pressure to plant Monsanto's seeds. And farmers who refuse to plant the seeds can still be intimidated by Monsanto's thugs. If the wind blows pollen from a neighboring farm using Monsanto seeds across the fields of a farmer who refused to plant the Monsanto seeds, the Monsanto thugs descend. The way U.S. patent law is interpreted, the farmer has to prove their innocence. And these lawsuits can run into the millions of dollars. Most farmers just pay a settlement offered by Monsanto because the fight is so expensive... and intimidating... In the U.S., we're told to let the free market decide. Just buy foods labeled "non-GMO" and let the free market work. But there is a thug army involved. And the free market has decided not to require labels on foods that contain GMO's. Actually, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger decided that. The California legislature passed a bill requiring GMO labeling, but Schwarzenegger caved into the thugs and vetoed it. It was a sad day because the whole country looks to California to be progressive on issues on like this - they grow more crops in California than in any other state... Farmers who refuse to plant Monsanto's seeds have it really hard. If the wind blows the wrong way, they not only get harassed by Monsanto, the USDA denies them the "organic" label even if they are organic farmers. And the non-GMO community denies them the non-GMO label. These farmers can sell their crops alongside GMO's with no labeling, but they're still going to be harassed by Monsanto. So, the free market is on the breeze? To be fair, the non-GMO community has developed a decent labeling system for non-GMO products, but it would be nice if the federal government would place regulations on GMO farmers to prevent contamination of non-GMO crops, along with a GMO labeling requirement for farmers who deliberately plant certain GMO's. That would solve most of the problems, and I think it represents the spirit of what they were trying to do out in California... Can this really be happening in America? A thug army intimidating farmers into helping Monsanto maintain a monopoly on the U.S. food supply? The "Roundup Ready Soybean?" You'd think the federal government would do something, but the federal government is partly behind it. There are all these government officials in Washington who used to work for Monsanto. Most of the world - including Japan, Europe, and Australia - has pretty much banned GMO's. Non-GMO foods taste better and are better for you. So buy them. I'll work on getting the thugs to fight Monsanto... |
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| Artist's
Depiction of a Monsanto Thug (It's actually TV's "Dog The Bounty Hunter.") |
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Related: - http://www.pbs.org/pov/ - http://video.pbs.org/video/1472879887/ - http://www.foodincmovie.com/ - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food,_Inc. - http://www.pbs.org/pov/notesonmilk/ - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_organism See Also: - Animals and Vegetarianism |
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You can do whatever you want on the Internet. It's taken over 40 years for Americans to sort through it all, but the Internet is all about free expression. President Obama famously advised Americans to watch what they say on the Internet. And I was glad an American president finally called it all out. Who knew what the Internet was? Yet, every American president since the invention of the Internet back in the '60s pretty much agrees with the Constitution. Americans can say whatever they want on the Internet, and they still have a right to the basics - things like food, shelter, safety, healthcare, and a decent job... You have a right to enjoy expressing yourself on sites like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, as well as anywhere else on the Internet... And you're having an Internet experience right now... |
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President Obama announced his plans for the U.S. Space Program in a speech he gave at Florida's Kennedy Space Center today. Although I was disappointed, Obama managed to leave me feeling hopeful. I was pleased to hear that putting humans on Mars remains a major goal. And I was relieved to learn that parts of NASA's Constellation program will be retained in order to build an American spacecraft to be used for space rescues. Obama went on to talk about ideas for reaching the International Space Station without a "space shuttle," as well as the end of the American Space Shuttle Program. The Space Shuttle will be retired soon, and it will be missed. The Shuttle has been in service for 30 years, and will have the distinction of being the world's only true "spaceship" for the next 30 years or longer... Related: - Obama's Speech - http://www.marssociety.org/ |
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Why don't more Christians in the U.S. support the separation of church and state? The separation of church and state is whole reason we have a country. Without the separation of church and state, we'd still be stuck in a world of witch burnings and witch hunts... Of course, most Christians aren't like that. They're good people. But the fact remains that there are a group of Christians who don't support the separation of church and state. Jesus-bashing would screech to a halt if Christians would just debate political issues without whipping out their Bibles. So one would think more Christians would support the separation of church and state. But for whatever reason, too many don't. Instead, many of them are on a self-righteous crusade. And they appear to have lost touch with what their religion is really about by choosing to fight every battle so darkly... |
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It's looking like some controversy has sprung up around the artwork used in the post below. The photo shows a mannequin wearing a Doctorate of Theology gown. I found the photo by typing "cap and gown" into Google and clicking around. The "formula" I used to choose the photo was "cap and gown + current events = higher ratings." It was not meant to be disrespectful to religion. Tomorrow is Easter. I think this year I'll pray. I'm going to pray that I can continue to run this blog and include a little humor without offending anyone. |
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[UPDATE - May 4, 2010: The text below has been edited for accuracy.] So you went to college? Did you have to get student loans? Because if you did, you're not gonna turn out like the other kids. All those friends you had don't really have to worry about working or making money on the Internet, so they get the best jobs. In the U.S., some people think that if you don't have $100,000 to spare, you don't belong in college. It's kind of elitist... You can see it all play out in the blood-red state of Oklahoma. Last week, a Republican senator from Oklahoma blocked passage of legislation that would allow unemployed people to stay in their homes for six more months. So, Oklahoma believes in the $100,000 beat-down... People in the military get free college in the U.S., but it's not really free. There isn't a soldier alive who can get in Oklahoma's face... Student loans leave you in debt. In Europe, college is typically included in your public education, and it makes a big difference... If you're feeling pissed off about all of this, you'll be happy to know that the new healthcare legislation that just passed includes improvements to the student loan program. But it's just a start... |
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| An Indebted American College Graduate | ||||
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What a great of example of the wreckage remaining after the Bush administration! This is America calling... Please don't hang up! (That's a Pink Floyd reference...) |
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Related: - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8590767.stm - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pink_Floyd |
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Disclaimer: Your feedback will be interpreted with these statements
in mind... This is not professional writing. It does not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s). It does not reflect the views associated with "Newsking sites" or associated entities. I sometimes put my foot in my mouth in a big way, which is why this blog can't be associated with my professional writing. My social responsibility for "blogging" has so far been undefined by society, but I do not intend for this to affect my public life. Please take it light! Prior entries may be edited (with notation?). Since it's a "blog?" I may or may not use "drugs," alcohol, and certain foods in the production of this "blog." Keep it light! I did not "just solve a problem" or "just cause a problem." For anyone. As in, please keep it light! This blog occasionally contains humor. This blog may contain numerous links to outside content. A small portion of this content may contain information some readers may find offensive. I want to apologize to anyone who is offended. Every effort is made to ensure this site complies with about 25 editing "rules," including spellling, grammar, punctuation, accuracy, HTML, etc. Your "experience" is important. Please enjoy yourself! |
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