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POPSGOP Senator: Republicans are Running Scared The question here is what lesson do Republicans think they've learned -- will they conclude that they're unpopular because their ideology has been pretty thoroughly been disproved or will they just assume they've got some sort of marketing problem with "messaging" and "branding?" That's the question to ask if you want to know when they're getting out of this hole. If they assume the latter, they'll remain sunk.
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POPSPlato -- Ebooks And Resource Links This post has over 50 books on Plato, as well as almost 50 external related links that focus on Plato. The post to get to these links is http://bookyards.blogspot.com/2008/07/plato-ebooks-and-resource-links.html
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POPSAngelo Mozilo's Bedfellows For the sake of its shareholders and the taxpayers who are ultimately on the hook, Fannie should immediately launch an internal investigation into the terms offered to Countrywide, and exactly what role Messrs. Johnson and Raines played in the negotiation of these terms. Did these men exert any pressure on Fannie employees to do business with Countrywide? Congress also needs a full accounting of the contacts between Countrywide and the politicians receiving favors from the lender. Did Countrywide ask for and receive assistance from the Friends of Angelo? Meanwhile, until it is clear how much Countrywide will benefit from Senator Dodd's proposed $300 billion mortgage rescue – and exactly how Mr. Dodd came to do business with Countrywide – Congress should call a halt to legislating bailouts. Taxpayers deserve no less. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121357125417575867.html?mod=opinion_main_review_and_outlooks
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POPS Mexicans Protest Canadian Mining Company
"Not only does the mine require an estimated 32 million litres of water per day, there are serious concerns that the cyanide will contaminate the aquifers, says hydrologist Mario Martínez. "There are cyanide heap leach pads (large pools) right on top of an aquifer." "Once the ore is removed from the Cerro de San Pedro pit, it is trucked two km to specially prepared outdoor pads, where a solution of water and cyanide is sprayed on the ore to dissolve the gold and silver out of the rock. The water is treated to remove the precious metals and recover some of the cyanide. "spent ore" is removed and piled into hills already more than 20 metres high "Sixteen tonnes of sodium cyanide are being used daily, and there is a great risk it could seep into the aquifer" The mining company assures that the cyanide is managed in a closed circuit and that the surface of the leaching pools are covered by special plastic membranes, injected with air and monitored by leak detectors.
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POPSCan a Child Love a Robot? An interesting look at some of the possible moral development implications for young children when animals are replaced by robots. This article was written when the study was ongoing, so not many conclusions are drawn.
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POPSMcCain in 2005: Gitmo Detainees Deserve Trials Or Should Be Released This clip contains direct quotes from McCain when he appeared on Meet the Press almost exactly three years ago and is easily referenced in the Lexis/Nexis. McCain is a blatant doublespeaker. He will say whatever is necessary to garner the support he wants. It's not about right or wrong for him, it's not about ethics, hell, it's not even about what the American people want. It's purely about playing the game for him and you simply can not trust a person whose doublespeak is as egregious as his. He doesn't even believe his own words, those being fed to him by the "divinity" of the masters who rule him.
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POPSHigh Price For Integrity Prison guard does the right thing, even under severe pressure from a gang of fellow guards. A gang in the very real sense of the word. Interesting article.
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POPSAs Seen at the Republican Party State Convention in Texas. The passionate defenses of free speech are amusing, inasmuch as nobody needs protection for speech that is unlikely to offend. On the other hand, the defense itself is kinda like pleading the Fifth. Or in other words, people using the first amendment defense should just admit they are racists and stop trying to pretend otherwise. Ethics aside, it's just so much less embarrassing for everyone involved.
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POPSSynthetic Biology: funders move to address social and ethical challenges It reviews what synthetic biology is, where it has come from, and where it is going, as well as making recommendations to research funders and the scientific community about how social and ethical issues should be addressed. These include: * The need for scientists to engage with the public early in the development of synthetic biology to ensure that research does not get ahead of public attitudes * Synthetic biology must not be over-hyped by its supporters and critics should not exaggerate the risks it poses * Reviewing current regulations and guidelines to ensure that an appropriate governance framework is in place before most synthetic biology applications are introduced
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POPSBad anti-counterfeit proposal This could be used to limit intellectual freedoms. If the hardware can be taken and seized then ALL its contents are taken without appeal and without protection. There would be certain people who would attract this sort of suppression because of their political or social views. Imagine a political protester or a writer crossing a border when this is in place. This is a BAD one.
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POPSIslamic Conference for Dialogue Concluded The statement emphasized that dialogue is one of the most important outlets through which Muslims can perceive the world, and achieve a set of goals, the most important of which is to introduce Islam, its legislations and humanitarian principles, in addition to its rich civilization. Dialogue also enables Islam to contribute to the march of human civilization and to respond to and correct the erroneous slanders raised against Islam, and to address the challenges facing the world owing to distancing themselves from religion and its values. Accordingly the world of today fell in the grip of vice and injustice, terrorism and Human rights violation. Dialogue also provides an opportunity for Muslims to defend causes of human rights and legitimate issues, and create a public opinion in its defense. Enemies of Islam are planning to disqualify Muslims from this legitimate area of struggle to pave the way for the dominance of one culture.
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POPSJane Goodall: We Need A New Mindset "We should admit that the infliction of suffering on beings who are capable of feeling is ethically problematic and that the amazing human brain should set to work to find new ways of testing and experimenting that will not involve the use of live, sentient beings." "Her call comes as the European Commission prepares to publish draft legislation to update the EU’s animal experiments directive (Directive 86/609 EEC). The existing law is out of date (over 20 years old), with hundreds of thousands of animals currently receiving no protection at all." "Dr Goodall was joined by biomedical researchers, MEPs and animal protectionists at a Replace Animal Experiments in Europe event in Brussels. Event organisers, the Dr Hadwen Trust for Humane Research and the Humane Society International (HSI), are spearheading a campaign to accelerate European efforts to replace animal experiments with more ethical and reliable methods."
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POPSWe just sent a letter to the VA Inspector General. "A single staff member, out of VA's 230,000 employees, in a single medical facility sent a single e-mail with suggestions that are inappropriate and have been repudiated at the highest level of our health-care organization," he said. In light of that remark, here is a portion of the press release VoteVets.org and CREW sent out this morning: In the wake of the disclosure by CREW and VoteVets.org of an internal VA e-mail advising VA mental health staff in Texas to consider a diagnosis of adjustment disorder in place of a PTSD diagnosis as a cost-cutting measure, both organizations have received new information from VA employees and veterans attesting to the fact that this practice is widespread and systemic. VA Secretary James Peake has repudiated the email as not reflecting VA policy. Details on the e-mail can be found here. Go to source for links
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POPSHomeland Security & Border Agent Corruption Rampant Money and sex rule over law and order. You can put a man in uniform, but that won't make him good, only gives him a cover or even opportunity. Amazing article documenting wide-spread corruption. Just another example that Americans should be more concerned about internal corruptions and crimes than foreign enemies.
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POPSCanada exports asbestos...WTH? "Canada is the only developed nation still producing asbestos, called a deadly threat by the International Labour Organization, the World Health Organization, the International Association for Cancer Research and many more health agencies."
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POPSMore Headaches for McCain’s Camp CONT: NEWSWEEK has learned that UBS is also currently the focus of congressional and Justice Department investigations into schemes that allegedly enabled wealthy Americans to evade income taxes by stashing their money in overseas havens, according to several law-enforcement and banking officials in both the United States and Europe, who all asked for anonymity when discussing ongoing investigations.
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