4
POPS80-Year Anniversary Of "Black Tuesday"
More commonly known as "Black Tuesday," October 29, 1929 was the last of four so-called "black" days which ushered in the Great Depression. In fact, the stock market collapse in the U.S. for at least one month after Black Tuesday. Eventually, the Great Depression grew into a worldwide financial calamity that lasted, by most conventional accounts, until the end of World War II. By 1933, the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) was cut in half. The Depression caused many farmers to lose their farms. At the same time, years of erosion and a drought created the “Dust Bowl” in the Midwest, where no crops could grow. Many traveled to California to find work, a subject written about by John Steinbeck in "The Grapes of Wrath." Many others ended up living as “hobos” or in “Hoovervilles”, make-shift homeless encampments named after then-President Herbert Hoover. During the 1928 Presidential campaign, Hoover campaigned on a number of slogans, one of which was "Vote for Pros
3
POPSNew quantum algorithm helpes solving big problems. “Large-scale linear systems of equations exist in many fields, such as weather prediction, engineering, and computer vision”, says Harrow. “Quantum computers could supply serious improvements for these and many other problems. For example, a trillion-variable problem would take a classical computer at least a hundred trillion steps to solve, but using the new algorithm, a quantum computer could solve the problem in just a few hundred steps”. The solution could also be applied to other complex processes such as image and video processing, genetic analyses and even Internet traffic control. Sounds pretty good to me!
5
POPSDreams Die Hard
Within the context of conventional party politics - the kind that has been baseline "normal" in the USA for a long time - we see this playing out in two factions that are increasingly out-of-touch with reality. The Obama government has made itself hostage to a toxic form of pretense and lying. In order to sustain the wish for "hope" - if not hope itself - the President and his White House advisors along with his cabinet appointments, are pretending that the historical forces of compressive contraction are not underway. They're flat-out lying about the employment figures issued in the government's name. They're willfully ignoring the comprehensive bankruptcy gripping government at all levels. They refuse to bring the law to bear against "the malefactors of great wealth." They appear to not understand the epochal energy scarcity problem the whole world faces, or its implications for industrial economies. Most of all, they persist in promoting the lie that this economy can return t
2
POPSTea Party Movement's New Target :The GOP
They feel they were had by former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas), who urged them to stomach earmarks for the good of the party; by George W. Bush adviser Karl Rove, who urged them to stomach a massive expansion of education and Medicare for the good of the party; and by the rest of the Washington gang that collaborated in the largest expansion of government in their lifetime for the good of the party. Erick Erickson, founder and editor of the conservative RedState blog, said grass-roots activists are done listening. “Republicans are going to have to come our way,” he said, before going on to trash NRCC Chairman Pete Sessions and Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele for backing Scozzafava. Their “level of disingenuousness ... is disgusting,” Erickson said. His influential blog is now calling for Sessions to get the boot from the NRCC as a penalty for mishandling the race. Erickson’s bombast may seem overboard, but it captures the dep
3
POPSThe Obama-McChrystal Gap He answered, “I’m always worried about using the word “victory” because, you know, it invokes this notion of Emperor Hirohito coming down and signing a surrender to MacArthur.” … Obama either doesn’t understand " or, worse " doesn’t take seriously McChrystal’s report when it says, “While not a war in the conventional sense, the conflict in Afghanistan demands a similar focus and an equal level of effort, and the consequences of failing are just as grave.” Obama is neither smarter nor more politically astute than his generals. He tried to snooker McChrystal by requiring the general to send three options for Afghanistan catalogued as “low”, “moderate” and “high” risk. That way, he thought, he could accept a lower number of troops to be sent and still say that he followed McChrystal’s advice. But the general " seeing through that (according to a senior House member who I spoke to last week) " beat the president at his own game. The “moderate risk plan . . .
6
POPSThe Work of Dr Ward Stone It was the awesome bird photography that caught my attention and I wanted to find out a bit more about the photographer. I am sure there may be other people in New York that do more for the preservation of our Natural world, I just don't know of any. I do know Ward though. Understand my frustration when I see the Media including the company I work for going out of their way to glorify conventional celebrities like musicians and actors, who for the most part are worthless human beings as far as the welfare of the Earth and her precious animals are concerned, while a hard working champion like Dr Ward Stone is struggling to stand up to his own government as they pressure him to stop doing the valuable work which he continues to do for all our benefit.
1
POPSCommercial Espionage Not only do I think it would be stupid not to believe the Chinese do it...when the stakes are high, everyone does it. Governments, companies, whatever. The Chinese are kind of right to suggest commerical and political victimization. This is an everyday reality with all contacts.
9
POPSProp 8 lawyer admits he doesn't know how same-sex marriage would threaten opposite-sex marriage More: Walker pressed on, asking again for specific "adverse consequences" that could follow expanding marriage to include same-sex couples. Cooper cited a study from the Netherlands, where gay marriage is legal, showing that straight couples were increasingly opting to become domestic partners instead of getting married. "Has that been harmful to children in the Netherlands? What is the adverse effect?" Walker asked. Cooper said he did not have the facts at hand. "But it is not self-evident that there is no chance of any harm, and the people of California are entitled not to take the risk," he said. "Since when do Constitutional rights rest on the proof of no harm?" Walker parried, adding the First Amendment right to free speech protects activities that many find offensive, "but we tolerate those in a free society."
3
POPSAlternative to ADHD Drugs The Alternative Rx: Transcendental Meditation (TM). In the first study on ADHD and TM, middle-school-age children who did twice daily nonreligious meditations for 10 minutes reduced their stress levels by over 50 percent–resulting in fewer ADHD symptoms. “TM helps children focus on a special mantra or sound, which helps the child transcend mental busyness and stress,” says Sarina Grosswald, EdD, coauthor of the study. “This allows the child’s body to completely relax and his mind to stay fully awake without effort. The results are improved behavior, grades, creativity, and inner stability.”
19
POPSScientists create solar cells with a twist. I suppose it won't be hard to have the power to at least power a Laptop. Perhaps a Solar powered tent for camping. We are finding new ways to transform energy into media we can use, and it, with the open information on the web is only bound to improve dramatically
4
POPSRussia: We'll Nuke 'Aggressors' First Uhhhh....Mr. Obama, will you please reconsider the missile defense shield???!! Isn't your FIRST duty to protect US citizens and secondly, our allies? Or do you consider us to have any?
5
POPSFree Spirit Spheres Can you imagine a community of 20 or more of these hanging in a nearby forest? They sell complete for $125,000 to $150,000 or a shell for $39,000 to $45,000. For the truly eclectic among us.
2
POPSThe "Vision Chart Effect" in health reporting
If a person is overweight, often that's the only thing a doctor will focus on. Your knees hurt? It's because you're fat! Your skin is breaking out? It's because you're fat! You have a cavity in a tooth? It's because you're fat! You're getting headaches? It's because you're fat! For many people, this eventually discourages them from going to see the doctor, even when they have a possibly-serious health problem. Like my mother. She'd spent a lifetime being told by doctors that all her problems were because she was fat. So when she felt a lump in her breast, she latched on to the (false) conventional wisdom that "if it hurts, it's not malignant." By the time she saw a doctor about it, it was stage 4 and had metastasized to her lymph nodes. She died at age 53. She was the smartest, funniest, most loving, toughest, most dynamic woman I've ever known. I miss her terribly every day. And she died as a result of fat prejudice. Yeah, I take this personally.
11
POPSPlease let this be the future of travelling by plane Having just survived 2 24-hour transit times in less than 30 days (and uncomfortable ones at that), this just really grabbed my attention and sounds absolutely fascinating. I just hope that the seats recline a bit more.... More at the source, as well as the plans for first and business classes
3
POPSPalin: Dollar woes show need for energy independence THIS should be among the top 2 issues that Washington is addressing! How many of our economic problems could be solved just by going full-force on this desperate need? Can someone explain to me (other than the environmentalist's drumbeat) why this is so hard to implement?? I hear the talk but see no movement. Crisis indeed!!
13
POPSInvisibility Cloaks May Shield Buildings From Earthquakes "The conceptual cloak will be made up of several large, concentric plastic rings affixed to the Earth’s surface. In order for the destructive surface waves to pass smoothly into the plastic, the stiffness and elasticity of the rings must be very closely controlled. The waves that travel through the cloak are compressed into minuscule fluctuations in pressure and density and are able to travel along the fastest path available. The path can be molded into an arc that directs surface waves away from objects inside the cloak by tweaking the characteristics of the plastic. As soon as the waves exit the cloak, they return to their original, larger size." ....More at the site: http://www.inhabitat.com/2009/06/30/invisibility-cloaks-may-shield-buildings-from-earthquakes/
1
Pops
Newest Clips
Latest Comments
Most Pops
Print
Save
Turn on live update