] Coral becomes highly stressed by changes in sea
] temperature of even one degree and the predicted
] temperatures along the reef will rise by up to six
] degrees by the end of the century.

This sucks hard. Guess I'd better plan my dive trip to OZ sometime soon.

LB

Australia reef's days 'numbered'

] You may have defeated my Southern Hook Palm technique,
] but can you defeat the 1000 styles of Rumsfeld?

LMAO!!!!

LB

Rumsfeld Fighting Technique

] Pakistan has dramatically stepped up its assistance to
] the U.S.-led campaign to capture Osama bin Laden,
] deploying thousands of soldiers into its lawless
] northwestern frontier, pressuring tribal elders, and
] allowing American soldiers from neighboring Afghanistan
] to make forays across the border, senior Pentagon and
] Pakistani officials say.

It begins.

Mercury News | 02/21/2004 | Pakistan turns up the heat on the hunt for bin Laden

] The FBI said Thursday it is giving Hollywood film
] studios, music companies and software makers permission
] to use its name and logo on their DVDs, CDs and other
] digital media in hopes the labels will deter consumers
] from making illegal copies.

Yea, this will work. The same way the "FBI WARNING" thats been on video cassettes for 25 years has stopped people from making illegal copies of those.

LB

FBI warning labels to appear on CDs, DVDs, software

"only the Polytron reduces an entire mouse to a soup-like homogenate in 30 seconds."

the Polytron

] An MIT graduate student won the Lemelson-MIT Student
] Prize and $30,000 on Thursday for inventing a device that
] makes low-cost eyeglass lenses within 10 minutes. Saul
] Griffith, a 30-year-old doctoral candidate, also created
] electronic goggles that diagnose vision problems.
]
] Griffith, who grew up in Sydney, Australia, said that as
] a child he took apart anything he could %u2014 from
] Christmas toys to his mother's camera %u2014 to see how
] they worked.
]
]
] Saul Griffith holds an eyeglass lens made with the
] machine he invented which may allow the manufacture of
] lower-cost eyeglasses.
]
] Josh Reynolds, AP
]
]
] He tried a number of what he called "fairly crazy
] schemes" before coming up with a desktop printer-like
] device that uses liquid-filled molds to produce low-cost
] lenses quickly and cheaply.
]
] Griffith became interested the project after a Kenyan
] official told him that an eyeglass scarcity was one of
] that country's biggest problems.
]
] Mass-produced lenses are fairly cheap, but an inventory
] of thousands of lenses must be kept on hand to meet
] various vision problems. That's too expensive in some
] parts of the world.
]
] Griffith's invention uses baby oil to shape car window
] tinting film into a mold. A polymer is poured in between,
] and the lens is ready in five to 10 minutes.

Pretty cool application of technology. “Just in time” manufacturing has long fascinated me, but it seems to be better suited for small runs of a product like books or CD’s / DVD’s. Even with “thousands of prescriptions”, one finds it hard to believe acrylic lenses could not be made much cheaper (like for a few cents each) ‘en masse” using injection molds on assembly lines. Why must lenses be kept on hand in these 3’rd world areas themselves? Why not give these people vision tests, produce the prescriptions to order and ship them in? Further reduce costs by offering one style and size lens – plain round “Harry Potter / John Lennon” style (when glasses are a necessity half the world can’t afford, they are not a fashion statement). Besides, round lenses mean you can use the same lens for either eye, further reducing production and inventory costs. Once the economic model is established, it should be a simple matter of supply and demand.

With this lads system, you run into the problem of manufacturing TIME. 10 minutes per lens doesn’t sound like a lot of time, and it isn’t compared to the hand crafted lens shops that promise you glasses in about an hour. But compound it against a billion people who need glasses (that’s 2 billion lenses) and it works out to roughly 38,000 man-years. So put 10,000 of these systems in production, and you can outfit the entire world with glasses in under 4 years (of production time!) but is it really going to be cheaper than assembly lines with this kind of volume? It’s certainly not going to be faster - 2 billion units is a LOT of units.

I enjoyed the article and applaud this kid’s ability to think out of the box. I think the idea is a noble one, but it's not a sound business model.

LB

Student honored for device that makes quick, cheap eyeglass lenses

] But suddenly, as of Friday, North Dakota's power-plant
] emissions have been deemed acceptable by the Bush EPA --
] despite the fact that no significant efforts have been
] made to reduce pollution in the state.

[ awesome! worst. president. ever. -k]

North Dakota 'reduces' pollution by measuring it differently

] President Bush took advantage of the Congressional recess
] today to bypass Senate Democrats and install Alabama's
] attorney general, William H. Pryor, on a federal appeals
] court that oversees three Southern states.
]
] The president named Mr. Pryor, who has gained prominence as an
] outspoken opponent of legalized abortion and as an advocate for a
] greater Christian influence in government, to the United States Court
] of Appeals for the 11th Circuit.

Well, this pisses me off.

There is, at first glance, an extreme hypocrisy in telling the Iraqi governing council that you are a methodist, and that you would like to be able to practice your religion in their country, while on the other hand appointing a fundamentalist from Alabama, whose track record clearly shows that he is opposed to freedom of religion, to a federal appeals court in your own country. The only way to resolve this inconsistency is to accept that Bush doesn't actually believe in freedom of religion. He believes in the propagation of the Christian faith, and he sees freedom of religion in the middle east as a stepping stone toward achieving that goal.

It is very very well established in history that religious states fail because they are religious states. History is very agnostic in the consistent failure of religious states due entirely to the corruption that "ultimate truth" brings to bare on a society when it carries the force of arms, regardless of what religion we're talking about or who runs it. This is not really a matter of opinion.

There are many people on this planet whose religious beliefs do not allow them to accept this fact, no matter how consistent and comprehensive the historical record has been. There is only one way to think about those people. They are irrational. Irrational + Powerful = Dangerous.

Bush Seats Judicial Nominee That Senate Democrats Blocked

IconoclasT wrote:
] Laughing Boy wrote:
] ] ] A federal appeals court has agreed to hear a request from
] ] ] the woman formerly known as "Jane Roe" to reconsider the
] ] ] 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade that
] ] ] legalized abortion.
] ] ]
] ] ] Norma McCorvey, who joined with anti-abortion activists
] ] ] nearly 10 years ago, is seeking to have the decision
] ] ] overturned, citing what she says is more than 30 years of
] ] ] evidence that abortions are psychologically harmful to
] ] ] women.
] ] ]
] ] ] A federal district judge threw out her initial request in
] ] ] June, saying it was not made within a reasonable time.
] ] ] But the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of
] ] ] Appeals has agreed to hear McCorvey's arguments March 2.
] ] ]
] ] ] "It's something that I've wanted ever since Day One, and
] ] ] it's happening," McCorvey said from her Dallas home.
] ] ]
] ] ] Dallas County District Attorney Bill Hill, whose
] ] ] predecessor Henry Wade who was named in the original
] ] ] lawsuit, has not filed a response to McCorvey's appeal.
] ] ] That may put the appeals court in the unusual position of
] ] ] hearing arguments from only one side.
]
] Why do the left and the right hop on this so stongly? You'd
] think we have much larger issues to concern ourselves with in
] this troubled planet. Do I like the idea of abortions? No. Am
] I gonna take a position and protest for or against? No.
] Frankly, I have more important things to worry about.

Yea, well we also have people protesting till they are red in the face about flags... "you can't desecrate the American flag..." "the Confederate battle emblem has to go...". The time and money wasted on these matters is insane.

LB

RE: Court to hear case to reopen Roe V. Wade

Vile wrote:
] Laughing Boy wrote:
] ] Nanochick wrote:
] ] ] ] An experimental vaccine wiped out lung cancer in some
] ] ] ] patients and slowed its spread in others in a small but
] ] ] ] promising study, researchers say.
] ] ]
] ] ]
] ] ] [wow...thats awesome. -nano]
] ]
] ] indeed it is. now they just need to figure out a vaccine
] that
] ] wipes out smoking - the #1 cause of lung cancer, and they
] will
] ] really be on to something!
]
] F**k that! I like cigarettes. Get rid of the lung cancer, and
] we can smoke safely.

Yea you’re right - never mind emphysema, bronchitis, high blood pressure, low birth weight, asthma, heart disease, stroke, pneumonia, (shall I continue?) not to mention the myriad of OTHER cancers that have been linked to smoking. Get rid of lung cancer and you'll have nothing to worry about! :)

] BTW, pollution and contamination of
] drinking water are probably worse.

WORSE??? Apparently we can chalk up one more thing attributed to smoking - chronic stupidity. Please don't make me bitch-slap you with statistics. Lung cancer is CLEARLY several magnitudes more prevalent in smokers than non-smokers. Pollution and drinking water? Sure. How many NON-smokers have you met that came down with lung cancer vs. smokers? Sure it happens, but a hell of a lot more frequently in smokers (and we won’t even get into how many cases in non-smokers are possibly caused by 2’nd hand smoke).

] IF you don't like smoking,
] then don't smoke. And if you don't like seeing others smoke,
] then kill yourself.

I’ve no problem with smokers so long as my family doesn’t have to breathe that shit too. I just wish the tobacco companies were not being held accountable for billions of dollars in lawsuits for people’s stupidity “What? I have cancer from smoking 2 packs a day for 30 years?” Of course not dip-shit – it’s the water. All that wheezing and coughing and hacking up a lung every morning was your body’s way of telling you “everything is A-OK – light up!”

And in regards to the “kill yourself” remark…
http://www.ash.org.uk/html/factsheets/html/fact02.html

Function impaired in smokers -
Sperm count reduced
Sperm motility impaired
Sperm less able to penetrate the ovum
Sperm shape abnormalities increased

One word for you - Darwin.

LB

RE: CNN.com - Vaccine halts lung cancer in small study - Feb. 19, 2004