22 June 2008

Link roundup for 22 June 2008

It's a good idea to look in your closets occasionally. You never know.....

I could have used one of these in my old apartment (link sent by Blurber).

Behold the Great Seal of Obama!

So this is what "the politics of change" means.....

Here's a discussion on the counterproductive behavior of some of Obama's followers.

The economic gap between the US and Europe is widening.

A religious cult brings horror to a Czech town.

The majority of the British believe Christianity will disappear from their country within a century.

This chilling video segment delves into the early development of the Nazis' plans for mass murder.

The Taliban are on the brink of defeat, with high-tech weapons having played a key role.

A computer has achieved a speed of 1,000 trillion calculations per second over a sustained period of time -- fully one-twentieth of the maximum processing capacity of the human brain itself.

There's more evidence that resveratrol protects the heart from aging -- and compounds duplicating its effects but up to 1,000 times more potent could be commercially available in a few years. Further advances in anti-aging technology are closer than most people realize.

A new cloning-based treatment has completely cured a man with advanced skin cancer.

Here's a brief overview of some of Ray Kurzweil's ideas.

Note: Thanks to the people who continued sending me links while I was off the internet. I haven't been able to read all of them yet, but I will.

4 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Great links! So far I've read the first two. Ha ha! the lady in the closet cracked me up.

22 June, 2008 06:41  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thanks for the Ray Kurzweil's link. It's a great place to get started getting acquainted with his interesting ideas, especially about upgrading the "suboptimal software" in one's brain - a problem I am noticing increasingly.

22 June, 2008 09:28  
Blogger Mary Ellen said...

Sorry in advance for the long cut and paste, but I thought you might be interested in this article by Glenn Greenwald. Here is a snippet from his article....

Obama’s Support for the FISA Compromise

The excuse that Obama’s support for this bill is politically shrewd is — even if accurate — neither a defense of what he did nor a reason to refrain from loudly criticizing him for it. Actually, it’s the opposite. It’s precisely because Obama is calculating that he can — without real consequence — trample upon the political values of those who believe in the Constitution and the rule of law that it’s necessary to do what one can to change that calculus. Telling Obama that you’ll cheer for him no matter what he does, that you’ll vest in him Blind Faith that anything he does is done with the purest of motives, ensures that he will continue to ignore you and your political interests.

Beyond that, this attitude that we should uncritically support Obama in everything he does and refrain from criticizing him is unhealthy in the extreme. No political leader merits uncritical devotion — neither when they are running for office nor when they occupy it — and there are few things more dangerous than announcing that you so deeply believe in the Core Goodness of a political leader, or that we face such extreme political crises that you trust and support whatever your Leader does, even when you don’t understand it or think that it’s wrong. That’s precisely the warped authoritarian mindset that defined the Bush Movement and led to the insanity of the post-9/11 Era, and that uncritical reverence is no more attractive or healthy when it’s shifted to a new Leader.



The excuse that we must sit by quietly and allow him to do these things with no opposition so that he can win is itself a corrupted and self-destructive mentality. That mindset has no end. Once he’s elected, it will transform into: “It’s vital that Obama keeps his majority in Congress so you have to keep quiet until after the 2010 midterms,” after which it will be: “It’s vital that Obama is re-elected so you have to keep quiet until after 2012,” at which point the process will repeat itself from the first step. Quite plainly, those are excuses to justify mindless devotion, not genuine political strategies.


I can also say that I agree with you...McCain looks a lot better than Obama and that's saying a lot coming from this, more than 30 year Democrat. My feelings hold even if Obama did put Hillary on the ticket....not interested. I have no doubt that he would stick her in some corner and only let her out for State funerals and tea parties. He's got too big of an ego to take her advice on anything, so it would be a waste to vote for him because of that. No matter how much perfume you spray on a skunk, he'll still stink. Obama stinks to high heaven.

22 June, 2008 14:00  
Blogger BAC said...

Thanks for the link!


BAC

23 June, 2008 20:37  

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