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POPSWhy is pleasure so suspicious? "The best sort of life, says Epicurus, is one that is free from pain in the body and from disturbance in the mind. That sounds a rather negative credo for a 21st-century devotee of the good life. Were he writing self-help books today, Epicurus would probably acknowledge that you can aim a little higher than that. He might point out in his own defence that health and peace are essential preconditions of happiness, and are easy to belittle if you are lucky enough to have them. But perhaps his most useful observation for the discerning hedonists of today, when such an intoxicating variety of gratifications are dangled before them, is a reminder of caveat emptor: "No pleasure is in itself evil, but the things which produce certain pleasures entail annoyances many times greater than the pleasures themselves."
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POPSMinnesota Prosecution of Activists Leads Way to Characterize Dissent as Terrorism (cont.)As the ACLU revealed in 2006, the Pentagon has surveilled Americans opposed to the Iraq war, including Quakers and student groups, and has shared this information with other government agencies through the Threat and Local Observation Notice (TALON) database. As well, the FBI “has collected extensive information on the tactics, training and organization of antiwar demonstrators and has advised local law enforcement officials to report any suspicious activity at protests to its counterterrorism squads, according to interviews and a confidential bureau memorandum,” Eric Lichtblau reported in November, 2003.
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POPSAfghana-What-Now? I came across this after writing a morning post about how little talk there was about the future at the RNC last night. Matt Yglesias makes an interesting observation regarding another ignored issue:
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POPSTelescope spots monster galactic cluster They theorize that the fact that it's 7.7 billion light years away (as far as they know) meant that it was before the acceleration due to dark energy made it impossible for galactic clusters that large to hold together. It reminded me of a poem by Hughes Mearns. 'Antigonish' As I was going up the stair, I saw a star that wasn’t there. It wasn’t there again today, I wish, that star would stay away. (I thought I'd adjust it to cover Light years, and dark matter.)
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POPSCows and Their Internal Compass Unlike some city folks who have no clue as to north and south, cows and deer may have a built-in compass. A new study and observation reveals that not only birds and butterfly's but also large mammals may have a compass.
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POPSBunking with Scientists PORTAL, ARIZ. Southwestern Research Station of the American Museum of Natural History Scientists at this field station in eastern Arizona study native Mexican birds and hummingbirds. The three cabins sleep up to 15 people each, and meals are served in the dining hall. "Everyone sits family-style, so guests can get to know the staff," says director Dawn Wilson. 520/558-2396, research.amnh.org, $75 with meals, open spring and fall. CHURCHILL, MANITOBA Churchill Northern Studies Centre Up to six people can stay for free at the remote station if they volunteer to plant trees and collect data. Staff researchers give lectures on the region's subarctic climate and lead regular hikes to the habitats of arctic foxes, snowy owls, and polar bears. The facility also has a 300-species herbarium and an observation dome for viewing the aurora borealis in the winter. 204/675-2307, churchillscience.ca, open year-round.
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POPSEiffel Tower gets new observation deck This is pretty cool. I have mixed emotions about this. I am a fan of history & not making modifications to historical emblems & such but at the same time, I find this very cool. I also think it looks kind of cool. I don't know. What do you think?
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POPSElderly Chinese Women Ordered into Re-Education After Protest Applications Are Ignored It is the toughest penalty to be reported against any of those who followed up a government announcement that it would allow protests in three Beijing parks during the August 8-24 Olympics. So far, the police said they have received 77 applications and none has been approved. On August 17, the two elderly women each received a document from the city authorities ordering them to serve one year of re-education through labour – an administrative punishment that does not require any judicial process – from July 30 this year to July 29, 2009 for “disturbing public order”. Li Xuehui, son of of Mrs Wu, said: ”Wang Xiuying is almost blind and crippled. What sort of re-education through labour can she serve? But they can also be taken away at any time.” The two women had remained at home but were under observation of a neighbourhood watch group, he said…
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POPSScribd - online publishing One of early problems Scribd encountered was that there was no good format for displaying its documents, as formats like PDF, Microsoft Word, and PowerPoint were designed before the Internet existed. In response, Scribd created iPaper, the first document format built for the web. Like YouTube's player did for video formats, iPaper standardizes all document formats into one viewer that can be seamlessly integrated into webpages. Recognizing the value of this technology, Scribd released the Scribd Platform, which allows any website to use iPaper to display their documents.
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POPSYou want Loyalty from a Bug F^^Ker ? you sure not kidding once you cum inside you dam straight she's gone want loyalty plus a check for that kid on the way. Here's where the test runs into a problem when your trying to explain this to all the member of your loyal group ! Right Ladies ?
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POPSOODA Loop On 911 the perps sought to disrupt the collective OODA Loop
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POPSsalmonella very interesting observation about some strains being resistant.
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POPSPrelude to the Higgs: A work for 2 bosons in the key of Z You might rightly ask yourselves why would I bother to clip this scientific gibberish. Actually this experiment, makes science a step closer to a critical junction, the discovery of the Higgs Boson, a.k.a the 'God' particle. A very substantial part of our understanding of the physical universe is put to a critical test. It worth a clip...
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