Brian Radke was celebrating his 31st birthday at Walter Reed Army Medical Center when he chomped into a grilled cheese sandwich and bit something that was neither grilled nor cheese.

It was sharp, round and hard as a BB, and it had dislodged from his throat.

"Shrapnel," the Army specialist told his wife that December morning, after he'd spit it into his palm.

Scarred Beneath the Skin

A spinning black hole in the constellation Scorpius has created a stable dent in the fabric of spacetime, scientists say.

The dent is the sort of thing predicted by Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity. It affects the movement of matter falling into the black hole.

The spacetime-dent is invisible, but scientists deduced its existence after detecting two X-ray frequencies from the black hole that were identical to emissions noted nine years ago. The finding will allow scientists to calculate the black hole’s spin, a crucial measurement necessary for describing the object’s behavior.
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Scientists think that gas particles moving in warped spacetime near the black hole exhibit two types of motions, each giving rise to a unique frequency. One motion is the orbital motion of the gas as it goes around the black hole. This produces the 450 Hz frequency. The lower 300 Hz frequency is caused by the gas wobbling slightly due to the spacetime deformations.

SPACE.com -- Black Hole Puts Dent In Space-time

Next on 'Oprah' -- leaders who lie
SOMEDAY, IN AN alternate universe….

Oprah: George W. Bush, I want to thank you for joining us today.

Five years ago you sat with me and spoke about your past struggles with alcohol. But this week you did something even more courageous. You stood right up before millions of Americans during your State of the Union address and you openly confessed that you're "addicted to oil."

George: Well, Oprah, thank you. That was hard for me to say because, you know, for a Texas man, it's just not easy to face up to something like that.

Oprah: George, after you said that, I got the whole transcript of your speech, and I stayed up two nights straight, honest-to-goodness. I could not sleep, people! I was like, reading, reading. I couldn't put it down.

Next on 'Oprah' -- leaders who lie - Los Angeles Times

Munira Mirza is a commentator on multicultural issues and Islamophobia

British newspapers should publish the images. Muslims should be able to see them and judge them for themselves, that's why we have freedom of speech.

Many Muslims want the same freedoms as everyone else to debate, criticise and challenge their religion.

They want to be able to say: "Hey we're not children, we can handle criticism, we don't need special protection - we're equal."

Many don't want to be treated as a special group, seen as worthy of more protection from criticism than other groups because of their apparent victim status.

There are a lot of British Muslims who I'm sure would not be offended by the cartoons. There are, of course, many who are upset and hurt, but that's the point of living in a free society.

No matter the price, the principle of freedom must be defended. Unless we stand up for freedom of speech, we are unable to engage freely and hold belief systems - of all kinds - to account.

In Denmark, there are counter-demonstrations by moderate Muslims saying they don't want the images banned.

This idea that all Muslims have to hold the line against Islamophobia is just nonsense. We should not play the games of extremists and nor should we play into the very patronising assumptions of the British political elite about what Muslims are capable of listening to.

BBC NEWS | World | Europe | Viewpoints: Cartoon row

INTERIOR MINISTERS FROM 17 Arab countries have issued a joint statement calling on the government of Denmark "to take the necessary measures to punish those responsible." United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan was officially "concerned." Governments from Pakistan to Syria have demanded apologies not just from Denmark but France, Germany, Norway and other Western European governments.

What human rights atrocity has so inflamed their sense of outrage? A Danish newspaper published cartoons. Last September.
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Such sentiments foster the dangerous notion that governments are responsible for, and answerable to, their countries' private media. And it judges all news content, satirical or otherwise, by the standard of how much offense it gives, a surefire path toward self-censorship.

fuck their religous sensitivites
you can't commit heresy if you don't belong to that faith or alternatively you're a heretic by definition because you don't belong to that faith in which case tough. We have freedom of speech and freedom of religion.

The freedom to blaspheme - Los Angeles Times

"We're killing the planet! We're killing the planet!" Folks, I have some news for you, the planet is going to go cheerfully spinning around the sun just like it has for eons. It is simply going to do so with many fewer of us on it.

While "The Day After Tomorrow" scenario is (probably) bad science, the shutdown of the Atlantic current (which appears to actually be happening) has two big effects. One, the north pole is going to react to that funny warming thing by getting colder. A LOT colder. As in Europe and a lot of the northern hemisphere gets covered by a great big block of ice colder. Second, All of that water has to come from somewhere, guess where? Think the drought conditions ramping up across America's breadbasket are going to improve?

We're not killing the planet, the planet wants to kill us for being bad stewards.

so is the answer to say that this little experiment in sentient life should just be wrapped up or "Do not go gentle into that good night,...Rage, rage against the dying of the light."
Dylan Thomas

The answer is this little try at sentient life better get it together. The other option is 30 million years from now the cockroaches saying "There is no such thing as evolution!"

which means as advanced thinking tool users, as Bush said in the State of the Union, we need to reduce our dependence on Persian Gulf oil but not just for short term reasons. We also need to cut our reliance on Mexican Gulf oil, cut our reliance on oil full stop. Cut dramatically carbon emissions and look towards technical solutions eg nanotechnology by locking up released carbon as graphite or diamond. These are achievable goals if we face the consequences of our actions and react sensibly and intelligently. With China and India developing fast we need to be able to give them better options than simply saying they can't develop their economies and must remain in poverty for the good of the planet. We need to start colonising the solar system so we're not just confined to this globe and to start extracting the solar system's physical resources and we need to build solar power stations in space. We have a huge power station a few light minutes away which won't run out of fuel for billions of years. We must find a way to start exploiting it. At the moment this is all science fiction but I believe it is all doable before the greenhouse effect really kicks in and we have nuclear exchanges in an ever more bitter fight over dwinderling food and water, particularly food as crops fail and rainfall patterns shift and consequently the global grain belts shift and the staple crops that we rely on to feed the planet are interrupted.
Fuck the cockroaches I want our species to live up to its name of "wise man".

RE: BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Stark warning over climate change

Rising concentrations of greenhouse gases may have more serious impacts than previously believed, a major scientific report has said.
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In the report's foreword, UK Prime Minister Tony Blair writes that "it is now plain that the emission of greenhouse gases... is causing global warming at a rate that is unsustainable."

Environment Secretary Margaret Beckett said the report's conclusions would be a shock to many people.

rather a contrast to Bush who's having scientists gagged (see nyt)

Currently, the atmosphere contains about 380 parts per million (ppm) of carbon dioxide, the principal greenhouse gas, compared to levels before the industrial revolution of about 275ppm.
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"We're going to be at 400 ppm in 10 years' time, I predict that without any delight in saying it," he said.

"But no country is going to turn off a power station which is providing much-desired energy for its population to tackle this problem - we have to accept that.

"To aim for 450 (ppm) would, I am afraid, seem unfeasible."

i've never seen the figures before OMG
plus see the arctic retreat
we're in trouble

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Stark warning over climate change

International counterterrorism is said to have been successful in "degrading Al Qaeda as an organization and in decreasing its ability to conduct massive attacks." What survives is "a patchwork of homegrown networks and 'lone wolves,' where almost everyone can be linked, at least indirectly, to almost everyone else," but in casual and nonoperational ways.
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European security agencies have reported "a growing tendency of self-radicalization and self-recruitment." The latter is now thought to be more important in producing jihad candidates "than any organized international network,"
...

This radicalization of young Muslim militants in Europe is superficially religious, but usually takes place outside mosques and "more often than not involves individuals with college education."

The sources of extremism are social and political alienation, exclusion (and unemployment) among the offspring of immigrant communities, but the international drama mobilizes them.

William Pfaff: To Europe, Bush is only creating more terrorists - Editorials & Commentary - International Herald Tribune

State of the Union, state of war: They have a nice ring. When George W. Bush goes before the Congress and the nation Tuesday night, he will present himself (again) as a war president. Personally and politically, the identity defines him.
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The so-called "insurgents," who wreak such havoc, are not America's enemy. They are not our rivals for territory. They are not our ideological antagonists. Abstracting from the present confrontation, they have no reason to wish us ill.
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Al Qaeda is a free floating nihilism, not a nation, or even a network. Al Qaeda is a rejectionist idea to which deracinated miscreants are drawn, like filings to a magnet, but that drawing power is generated in Washington. Bin Laden was a self-mythologized figure of no historic standing until George W. Bush designated him America's equal by defining 9/11 as an act of war to be met with war, instead of a crime to be met with criminal justice.

Is America actually at war? - Editorials & Commentary - International Herald Tribune

The Inner Lives of Men
Categories: Men, Psychology

Something earthshaking happened a few days ago. My husband called home and announced that he had Something to Say.

quality!

Judith Warner - Domestic Disturbances - New York Times Blog