Poll: One-third of U.S. fears new attack - Yahoo! News

The real story here is not that people are living in fear - the real story is that 2/3'rds of Americans are NOT living in fear. I applaud them and am one of them. I'm refuse to live in fear - period. I'm not afraid of potential attacks or Y2K or Israel or the Four Horsemen or Nibiru or George W (the boogeyman?).

Plain and simple, no matter how many laws are passed and restrictions are placed - no matter if I have to fly naked and have an anal exam before I board, it is just not possible to prevent another attack on the US - someday, somewhere, it will happen, it is inevitable. It was inevitable before September 11th too. If you are there, your are screwed, if you are not, thank your lucky stars - but whatever you do, don't spend your whole life looking over your shoulder - just live your life well, every day - treat people well, every day, do the right thing, every day and you will find you no longer care if today is your last. Those things are beyond your pay grade anyway...

"Well over half of New Yorkers and Washingtonians are worried their cities will be attacked again, an AP-Ipsos poll found. Nationwide, a third worry their own communities will be attacked."

Working More - Earning Less - unless of course your rich...

This is the Republican way. You voted for it. They give the rich tax breaks so they can 'reinvest' in their companies and the economy - but the reality is that companies take the money and run leaving the bulk of us working harder and harder for less and less. The wealthiest 1 percent of Americans held 33.4 of the wealth in 2004... Oil companies - record year of profits while we take it at the pumps... Military industrial complex - record profits while your children die for as yet unjustified reasons...

What more proof do you need to vote differently? If you have a friend that is Republican, punch the square in the jaw and knock some sense into this country. (It's the blue collar way)

"As The New York Times reported on Monday, the economic expansion that began in late 2001 is on track to become the first since World War II that fails to offer a sustained lift to the real wages of most American workers. Although the U.S. economy has grown and productivity has been strong, American employees have not shared in the wealth they've helped to create.

The median hourly wage for American workers has declined 2 percent since 2003, after factoring in inflation. The drop has been especially notable, economists say, because productivity -- the amount that an average worker produces in an hour and the basic wellspring of a nation's living standards -- has risen steadily over the same period.

As a result, wages and salaries now make up the lowest share of the nation's gross domestic product since the government began recording the data in 1947, while corporate profits have climbed to their highest share since the 1960's. UBS, the investment bank, recently described the current period as "the golden era of profitability."

Poor Pluto and Public perturbed by Picky Planet Portrayal

Great point. Both sides have good cases, but the 'clear the neighborhood' group has just not convinced me of the purpose or scientific delineation. What are the limits? How round is round? What about the asteroid population? Trojans? What is the scientific basis for your argument? Why have a different definition for planets around other stars and a 'special' definition for our own? Not to mention, what a sad thing to let a small subset of the field exclusively vote on such an important decision without broader input - is there some reason that the vote HAD to be taken this year at that specific conference? Sounds like some folks just wanted publicity to me...

...What if, though, the IAU had taken a different approach? Perhaps astronomers could have decided not to make a formal definition of the term '“planet', finding it to be too general and vague. Instead, the IAU could have adopted specific definitions for classes of planets, based on their size (using the hydrostatic equilibrium criterion, for example) and other key characteristics. One might imagine three broad classes of planets: '“gas giant planets'” for gaseous worlds like Jupiter, 'terrestrial planets'” for rocky worlds like the Earth, and 'ice planets' for worlds like Pluto....

Evolution and You

You know, it's really strange - if you talk about DNA or genetics in general - everyone agrees that there is change, survival of the fittest (adaption) and mutation - Yet, if you call it evolution, people freak out and burn you at the stake... But you can't seperate the two - You can't hide behind 'it's only a theory' anymore - genetics PROVED Darwins basic theory a long time ago and those people just missed it. Sadly, idiots breed like rabbits and intelligent people have a reasonable litter - which only proves that smart people need more sex!!

There are only two changes in the 118 letters of DNA code that make up HAR1 between the genomes of chimps and chickens. But chimps and humans are 18 letter-changes apart. And those mutations occurred in just five million years, as we evolved from our shared ancestor.

Subsequent experiments looking at the brains of human and primate embryos revealed that HAR1 is part of two overlapping genes. One of these genes, called HAR1F is active in nerve cells that appear early in embryonic development and play a critical role in the formation of the layered structure of the human cerebral cortex.

The Fate of a Lonely "Planet?"

Who knows what the future will hold - personally, I like the idea of adding a 10th rather than reducing to 8 - it shows that we are still growing and have much more to learn about our own backyard. Perhaps its the liberal view to hope for a better future rather than protect the status quo...I wonder if this applies to anything else?

A new "scientific and simple" proposal to define the word "planet" will be released Wednesday and astronomers will vote on it next week. It is not clear whether the definition will settle a long-running debate on the status of Pluto, however.

The International Astronomical Union (IAU) will propose wording to delineate planets from other small objects at its 12-day General Assembly meeting in Prague. The meeting opened today and the proposal will be released to IAU member and to the public Wednesday.

The Oregon Coast Dead Zone Video

Click and watch this video...the carnage is hard to believe...

The most severe low-oxygen ocean conditions ever observed on the West Coast of the United States have turned parts of the seafloor off Oregon into a carpet of dead Dungeness crabs and rotting sea worms, a new survey shows. Virtually all of the fish appear to have fled the area.

“Thousands and thousands of dead crab and molts were littering the ocean floor, many sea stars were dead, and the fish have either left the area or have died and been washed away."

Dark Side Dick

Partly because the message and partly because the name is too funny, I thought I'd reprint part of this article by Paul Angelo - link through to read the whole thing. And congratulations to the folks of Connecticut for ousting a collaborator (or should I say conspirator?)...

"But the most despicable, nonsensical and telling comments come from none other than Dick Dark Side Cheney. Cheney commented yesterday that the Connecticut Democrats choice of Ned Lamont over Joe Lieberman "might encourage the Al-Qaeda types” who want to “break the will of the American people in terms of our ability to stay in the fight and complete the task.” What the f@$*!!!!??? Not that I should be shocked by anything Cheney says or does anymore, but that one is a doozie and is a perfect illustration of the Bush administration cabal’s distaste for democracy. For any politician to suggest that the American people in Connecticut or elsewhere are encouraging terrorists to attack them simply by exercising their right to ouster an out of touch politician from office is unforgivable. Our vote is the foundation of our representative democratic republic system for Gods sake!! But I guess I shouldn’t be surprised given the Bush cabal's track record of contempt for American values. Lets take count: —the Bush cabal opposes a free press; they believe the president is above the law and can pick and choose which laws treaties and Constitutional amendments he wishes to follow; they believe that torture should be American policy...(not to mention secret prisons, wiretaps and a basic dismanteling of your rights...If the cost of safety is freedom, then I'll take my chances) —

It's a long messy chain of pollution

Always remember - you might not see it, you might not know it - but YOU have an impact on our planets environment. Is it a good one? When your grandchildren see the impact you had during your life, will they be proud or ashamed?

Scientists studying hydrothermal vents, those underwater geysers that are home to bizarre geological structures and unique marine species, have discovered something all too familiar: pollution...Examining deposits retrieved from the site of an underwater volcano near Italy, they discovered lead that did not come from the underlying rocks or from any possible natural source in the nearby region or anywhere in Europe.

Instead, they traced the lead to an Australian lead mine thousands of miles away...How did it get to near Sicily? Kamenov said the most likely scenario is that the lead was mined at Broken Hill and shipped to Europe, where it was added to gasoline, burned by cars and emitted into the air. From there, the lead found its way into the sea, and then to the Marsili Seamount, where it traveled with water down into the earth and then re-emerged via the hydrothermal vents.

Genetically Modified Plants Escape

It always starts so innocently. Then the real problems begin. Pandora's Box has left the building - so what's next? OOOH, I know, a big island full of dinosaurs off the coast of Costa Rica.... The point is - folks - you CANNOT maintain control - it is just not possible in a complex system.

It is the first time a GM plant has escaped into the wild in the US, and it has managed it before securing USDA approval. The plant, creeping bentgrass (Agrostis stolonifera, carries a bacterial gene that makes it immune to the potent herbicide glyphosate, better known as Roundup.

The Minimum Wage...

$5.15 per hour * 40 hrs/week = $206.00 / week
$206.00 * 52 = $10,712.00 (not including the tax we must pay)

That's not a minimum wage - that is nearly slavery. How can you possibly expect a person to survive on such wages? Let alone raise a family, pay for health car, pay for outragously priced gas to get to that underpaying insult of a job, and occasionally eat ramen noodles. If you think that $5.15 is a liveable wage, you obviously have never tried it. (and probably serve in the Senate...) (I should note that as a UNIVERSITY LECTURER, I made LESS money than that...but that is another story)

Both parties are to blame. Our Senate has failed us - yet again. On both sides, our representatives fulfill their own agendas and coffers while passing laws they rarely even read about issues they probably do not understand. All with only one hope - to get re-elected. It's a disgrace. Of course, that's what you get when a majority of the people don't vote or cast votes about moral issues that don't have squat to do with governance. Folks, the system is broken...

Want a job (and one less leg?)

This has got to be the most screwed up thing I have seen (at least so far this month...)

Three Indian doctors caught on camera apparently agreeing to amputate the healthy limbs of beggars are to be questioned by the Indian Medical Council, an official said Tuesday.

Secretly filmed footage taken by the CNN-IBN news channel and broadcast Saturday showed one of the doctors asking for 10,000 rupees (about $215) to amputate a lower leg, leaving a stump that may draw sympathy -- and a few rupees -- from passersby.

A beggar in New Delhi told the channel he had been tricked into going for a medical check-up on the promise of a job. He came round after an injection to find one of his legs missing.

'DEAD ZONE' OFF OREGON IS SPREADING

A fundamental new trend in atmospheric and ocean circulation patterns in the Pacific Northwest appears to have begun, scientists say, and apparently is expanding its scope beyond Oregon waters.

This year for the first time, the effect of the low-oxygen zone is also being seen in coastal waters off Washington, researchers at OSU and the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary indicate.

There have been reports of dead crabs stretching from the central Oregon coast to the central Washington coast. Some dissolved oxygen levels at 180 feet have recently been measured as low as 0.55 milliliters per liter, and areas as shallow as 45 feet have been measured at 1 milliliter per liter.

These oxygen levels are several times lower than normal, and any dissolved oxygen level below 1.4 milliliters per liter is hypoxic, capable of suffocating a wide range of fish, crabs, and other marine life.

As events such as this become more regular, researchers say, they appear less like an anomaly and more like a fundamental shift in marine conditions and ocean behavior. In particular, a change in intensity and timing of coastal winds seems to play a significant role in these events.

How long can we continue to say that there is no evidence of a connection with planetary warming - what it the critical mass that turns anomaly and natural variability into an exigent crisis? (and at that point, are we too late?)

Habitable Planet Possible Around Nearby Star System

Interesting!!