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POPSCould Jupiter wreck the solar system?
"So what's the likelihood Mercury could crash into the Earth? If it did, the asteroid that most likely wiped out the dinosaurs will seem like a drop in the ocean compared with a planet 4880 km in diameter slamming into us. There will be very little left after this wrecking ball impact. But here's the kicker: There is only a 1% chance that these gravitational instabilities of the inner Solar System are likely to cause any kind of chaos before the Sun turns into a Red Giant and swallows Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars in 7 billion years time. So, no need to look out for death-wish Mercury quite yet… there's a very low chance that any of this will happen. But some good news for Mars; the researchers have also found that if the chaos does ensue, the Red Planet may be flung out of the Solar System, possibly escaping our expanding Sun. So, let's get those Mars colonies started! Well, within the next few billions of years anyhow…" Good stuff for the next science-fiction movie :-)
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POPSBoy Allegedly Buried In Horror Bullying Episode The alleged ringleader's mother told reporters her son was a sweet child and that she had lost faith in the justice system. A sweet boy?? Geeeez!! Her statement is almost as shocking as the incident itself! One can only imagine the immense fear and terror the poor victim must have felt. It's simply shocking and so hard to fathom, that kids so young can do something so heinous and horrific. Poor boy...I hope he'll be okay. :(
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POPSThe Meaning Of America I've watched it happen over the years since hate radio and its multimillionaire mavens first gave voice and increasing political clout to resentment, intolerance, bitterness, anger, frustration over broken dreams, and unfulfilled entitlement. We've turned mean. We've been encouraged to go onto knee-jerk, scorched-earth attack mode by politicians, activists, and media brokers who gained influence and financial reaffirmation. The loudest and most dominant voices don't urge us to find root causes of problems and their solutions, or to reach for true understanding. All we are told, and all we know anymore, is hitting, and hitting harder, and hurting deeper, killing, demonizing, punishing, mocking, name-calling, eviscerating, marginalizing, threatening, intimidating, bullying, bombing, and war-making.
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POPSCooperation over Competition Think about what you need to feel good about yourself right now or what you would want someone to do for you. Provide those "wish list" items for another as well as for yourself.
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POPSUnkindness and Kindness on the Internet # What Is Good and Why: The Ethics of Well-Being by Richard Kraut. 304 pages. Harvard. $35.00. # On Kindness by Adam Phillips and Barbara Taylor. 128 pages. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. $20.00 If you wonder why people are silenced and disappear, it is an old story. Perhaps, though, it is some sort of refraction of the real world where you have to work hard to find the good and the true, the kind and the wholesome.
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POPSKids "get it!" Bravo teenagers. It seems, unlike so many of your parents, YOU are beginning to understand that homophobia is ugly. You give us hope that your generation will make the big changes necessary for society's acceptance of diversity in life.
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POPSBullies Pick On Pink-shirted Frosh - School Picks On Bullies They also brought a pink basketball to school as well as pink material for headbands and arm bands. David and Travis figure about half the school’s 830 students wore pink. When the bullied student put on his pink shirt Friday and saw all the other pink in the lobby, "he was all smiles. It was like a big weight had been lifted off is shoulder," David said. No one at the school would reveal the student’s name. Travis said that growing up, he was often picked on for wearing store-brand clothes instead of designer duds.
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POPSI Want My Country Back "I love America, and I can't stand quietly by while the land of peace and liberty is being destroyed. I love the America of the Constitution and limited government - not the America of the Patriot Act and the Orwellian Department of Homeland Security. I love the America that Washington and Jefferson said should be far removed from all the age-old quarrels of Europe and Asia, while trading benevolently with people all over the world - not the America that has troops in a hundred countries while our own government prohibits us from peaceful trading with dozens of countries."
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POPSStanding Up to Conservative Bullying
Here's a bit more to explain the brinkmanship and absolutism: "Brinkmanship is being used to force the federal government to write a blank cheque for the pipeline, and indemnify Exxon against ecological disasters and further cost increases..." "Absolutism (Bush-style "you're either with us or you're with the terrorists" framing) is being used to bully Canada into committing to keep our troops in the midst of the anarchy and civil war in Afghanistan. The PR from the military is increasingly using the term 'enemy' to describe anyone in Afghanistan who opposes the continued presence of foreign troops in their country. The ideologically rabid Harper Conservative minority government routinely uses the "if you don't support our war, you don't support our troops" line to disparage anti-war groups. And today a military spokesman lambasted the Canadian media for daring to publicize opinion polls showing Canadians' strong opposition to the war, saying it was "demoralizing our troops".
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POPS'Bullying' religious culture Ineffective "But is trying to eliminate every other world view the best way to advance the Christian faith? Do believers think that they will win the hearts and minds of people by default? With all due respect to Christian brothers and sisters everywhere, that is a pretty lame approach to evangelism. The need to have beliefs validated by the world around them reveals a nagging underlying insecurity on the part of some people of faith. It seems that unless their world view is constantly affirmed by what they see and hear in the wider culture, they feel threatened, attacked."
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POPSFacing Down Bullies (And Their Enablers) "And I didn’t give even a moment’s thought to the bullies, and what their lifetime prognosis might be. Parents of these children need to be encouraged to demand that schools take action, and pediatricians probably need to be ready to talk to the principal. And we need to follow up with the children to make sure the situation gets better, and to check in on their emotional health and get them help if they need it. How about helping the bullies, who are, after all, also pediatric patients? Some experts worry that schools simply suspend or expel the offenders without paying attention to helping them and their families learn to function in a different way."
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POPSAmericanism: The good, the bad and the ugly The famous go-to-war-for “American way of life,” underlines America’s persistent claims of a monopoly on morality. What is it, this American morality? This righteousness? Is it our religious roots in the fable of the Puritan settlers, those super religious people who in their hardships were bigots, perhaps also practitioners of incest and racists soon morphing into dogmatic chauvinists who early-on labeled their dissidents and different-thinkers witches and demons. The same Americanism initiated then which today fosters the rights of the rich to become richer, the strong to trample the weak . Meanwhile, out in the empire, as long as it is distant, the Puritan legacy instills blindness to the use of cluster bombs from the stratosphere and hidden torture in places with foreign names like Guantánamo and Abu Ghraib . . . and while our neighbors in Haiti eat dirt, literally.
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POPSHow (and why) to fight Read the whole story at the source . My personal empowerment came in 8th grade. After being mercilessly bullied for half a year and it all came to a head in a confrontation with 4 of them in the hallway. The kid I laid out on the floor became my friend later, and I approached life with a new confidence. Needless to say, no one really messed with me afterwards. I don't advocate violence, but I certainly believe that when provoked or pushed you have to react with confidence, and just sometimes, you have to fight.
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POPSWork place bullying........... Imagine yourself sitting at a conference table and you offer something as a suggestion and someone looks at you and shakes their head every time,” said Joel H. Neuman, director of the center for applied management at the SUNY-New Paltz School of Business. “It can be damaging to be constantly dismissed in front of your peers,” Dr. Neuman said. “The thing that is upsetting about it is that people come to expect it and say, ‘Well, this is what it’s like around here.’ It shouldn’t be part of the culture, but often it is.
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POPSThe Seat of Bigotry Ms. Phillips evidently doesn't engage her brain before putting her mouth in motion. Her hate filled diatribe is more suited to the middle of the last century than today's reality. Unfortunately, her sentiment is rather common. If one substitutes Jew or Muslim or Black or any other non-Christian minority for atheist it immediately becomes apparent that she is a bigoted, angry person in search of a scapegoat. Given that near 85% of Americans are Christian, her blaming the 12% for all the problems society faces is ludicrous and is indicative of profound projection on her part. Her spew sounds like it was transcribed from a speech recorded in 1930s Germany, not 21st century America. Really sad.
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