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POPSMilitary agreement ignored by media According to the Northern Command official page, the purpose of this agreement is, "Unity of effort during bilateral support for civil support operations such as floods, forest fires, hurricanes, earthquakes and effects of a terrorist attack, in order to save lives, prevent human suffering and mitigate damage to property, is of the highest importance, and we need to be able to have forces that are flexible and adaptive to support rapid decision-making in a collaborative environment.”
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POPSLawfare - Terrorist attack US by demanding trials The author, a lawyer formally part of the Bush legal team declares: “ attorneys think that these decisions are better second-guessed by plaintiffs' lawyers and judges rather than our elected leaders.“ I always thought that was what the rule of law meant -- but if our leaders say it, it must be so ...
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POPSResearchers make insight into memory, forgetting Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) seems to be a very powerful technique for imaging brain activity that can also be used to modify it. Techniques this potent make me both excited and a bit fearful. Could it potentially become that science fiction standby -- the feared brain scrubber?
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POPSAutomated Translation from Words to Signing Finally! Soon our deaf friends will be able to understand and participate in activities among the hearing without dangerous (and unsatisfactory) implants and operations -- or depending on often unavailable human translation services. After this technology is widely available, the next step should be reversing the process -- so the hearing can interact better with the deaf.
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POPSBush Limits Availability of Children’s Health Coverage
SCHIP was created in 1997 to help insure children whose families earned too much to qualify for Medicaid but not enough to afford insurance on their own. It serves about 6.6 million children annually. Under the new policy, a state seeking to enroll a child whose family earns more than 250 percent of the poverty level -- or $51,625 for a family of four -- must first ensure that the child is uninsured for at least one year. The state must also demonstrate that at least 95 percent of children from families making less than 200 percent of the poverty level have been enrolled in the children's health insurance program or Medicaid -- a sign-up rate that no state has yet managed. Rep. Rahm Emanuel (Ill.), chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, said if the president were serious about enrolling the lowest-income children, the administration would allow states to sign up youngsters for SCHIP when they qualify for school-lunch and other federal programs.
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POPSPlane almost hit by meteor When they first offered insurance against having a satellite fall on your house in the late 1950s I thought it was a gimmick — which it is. But I’ve been hearing more and more about meteor hits. I’d say this was a ‘slow news day’ gimmick, too — but just tell that to the dinosaurs ...
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POPSPostal Rate Hike Could Kill Small Publications The article points out The Time Warner plan represents another step in the gradual reversal of the Founders' public service principles of supporting democracy through the postal service. It is the latest, largest move towards abandoning these public service priorities and permitting a system that no longer favors low-advertising, political speech -- like In These Times and The American Spectator -- over ad-heavy magazines like People and Cosmo. Subsidizing smaller publications is also a crucial policy for keeping the Internet open and vibrant. Much of the material on the web sites people visit that covers public affairs is generated by these print publications. Much of the material bloggers address originates in these print publications. If these publications are forced to slash their editorial budgets -- or even go out of business --to pay the massive postal rate increases brought on by the Time Warner plan, it will shrink the range and quality of material available on the Inte
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POPSSave Internet Radio The internet has become a way of letting unknown and little-known performers reach an audience without bowing to the power of the big media conglomerates. The retroactive and punitive royalty decision favors only Big Media and Big Corporations. Like the ruling to raise mailing rates for small publications, this is another way that freedom and creativity are being stifled and regimented under our corporatocracy. Heil Cheney!
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POPSAir Force Charges Woman in Her Own Rape I thought this kind of ‘blaming the victim’ was a thing of the past — but apparently the Air Force still is using it to make it harder for women to fully participate in being part of their ‘big boys’ club. As I recall, this same thing happened to female cadets at the Air Force Academy.
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POPSBush appointee changed scientific findings on endangered species Just as they did with issues of global warming and contraception, Bush appointees have played fast and loose with scientific data that doesn’t support their preconceived agendas. When science is ‘corrected’ to support political agendas, everyone loses. As everyone knows, extinct is forever... and bending the Endangered Species Act for short-term private profit is outrageous and should be criminal.
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POPSSaturn moon looks like a walnut As a ‘space-junkie’, I’m always fascinated by interesting stuff we continue to discover from space exploration and space-augmented astronomy and astrophysics. I hope we don’t waste this capability to feed Bush’s ego-driven demand to put people on Mars without providing the money to pay for it. ============== Current theories about the causes of Iapetus’ weird shape: <http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20070723/sc_space/walnutshapedmoonsmysterysolved;_ylt=AtCR3fko1DPF6kasRK2GwTtxieAA> "You would expect a very fast-spinning moon to have this bulge but not a slow-spinning moon, because the bulge would have been much flatter," said Dennis Matson, another Cassini project scientist at JPL. However, Mason said, "we've modeled how Iapetus formed its big, spin-generated bulge and why its rotation slowed down to its present, nearly 80-day period."
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POPSNeat cartoon imaging software When I first saw this stuff, I was totally blown away! (is that positive enough?). I included some pix below [hint: the guy in the lower left of the last frame — wearing a black t-shirt — is the inventor, who writes as “toonerstan” — nice guy for a geek
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POPSCourt rejects Ohio domestic spying suit The Bush appointed judges ruled against the plaintiffs, because they failed to show they were subject to the surveillance... Since an essential part of the PATRIOT ACT (and related executive orders) is concealing any investigations from the individuals and organizations investigated and since the Bushites regularly invoke the need for “national security” secrecy to hide this information from the courts ... this appears to be a classic Catch 22 — You don’t have the right to challenge illegal domestic spying... because you can’t prove you have been subject to illegal domestic spying,,, because they don’t have to (or can refuse to) tell you that you have been subject to illegal domestic spying...
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POPSSpinal Column Gooseneck Lamp Mark Beam is making these spine-lamps that resemble the human spinal cord -- apparently these are pure catnip for well-heeled chiropractors. <http://www.markbeam.com/spinelamp.html> Update: Great minds think alike, Here's another golden spine lamp. <http://www.wunderwurks.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=WD&Category_Code=J>
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POPSA Fair(y) Use Tale " In the fun category, Professor Eric Faden of Bucknell University has created a video review of copyright principles. You're probably thinking, "How could anyone make a video about a legal concept even mildly entertaining?" But Faden's truly inspired video works on many levels because it consists entirely of extremely short clips (often no more than one word) from a wide variety of animated Disney movies. It's thanks in large part to Disney that copyright - which was designed to encourage creativity by giving the creator control over copying for a limited time - now lasts for the life of the creator plus 75 years, or, for a work of corporate authorship, 95 years. But thanks to the short length of the clips, its non-profit educational nature, and the fact that it would in no way affect the potential market for the copyrighted works, Faden's video undoubtedly falls under fair use."
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