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POPSHigh Tech Slalom Ski Training A new motion capture system using a network of sensors to detect high speed movement can help skiers to improve their downhill slalom racing techniques
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POPSObama's Tax Redistribution ...Obama's plan would greatly accelerate the decades-long trend toward a federal government that depends for tax revenue almost exclusively on a few high-income people. I guess you can call greatly accelerating in the same direction, "change". Hodge acknowledges that some Americans may cheer this dramatic dependence on the highest earners, but he says the shift should be part of a larger national discussion asking questions such as: * What is the long-term effect on the economy if so few households shoulder such a large share of the tax burden? * When a majority of Americans are paying so little for government, will that majority then demand even more services than they would have otherwise? * Can a tax system so focused on redistribution be compatible with economic growth? The new study, "Hard Numbers on Obama's Redistribution Plan," is available online at www.taxfoundation.org/publications/show/23319.html.
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POPSAsking A Judge To Save The World "But Walter L. Wagner and Luis Sancho contend that scientists at the European Center for Nuclear Research, or CERN, have played down the chances that the collider could produce, among other horrors, a tiny black hole, which, they say, could eat the Earth. Or it could spit out something called a “strangelet” that would convert our planet to a shrunken dense dead lump of something called “strange matter.” Their suit also says CERN has failed to provide an environmental impact statement as required under the National Environmental Policy Act."
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POPSBetter Golfers See Bigger Holes In both scenarios, participants whose putts ended up closer to the hole drew the circle to be bigger than golfers who hit putts that landed farther from the hole.
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POPS Olympic Nightmare: Sailing Team Stuck In Algae With less than six weeks before it plays host to the Olympic sailing regatta, the city of Qingdao has mobilized thousands of people and an armada of small boats to clean up an algae bloom that is choking large stretches of the coastline and threatening to impede the Olympic competition. Algae are now blooming over more than 12,900 square kilometers, or 5,000 square miles, of the sea, according to Xinhua.
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POPSThe Costs of Trying to Save without Thinking Higher medical and hospitalization costs, lost wages, homelessness and even incarceration of mentally ill patients account for the potential increase in cost, Fleeter concluded. About 45,000 people on Medicaid could be directly affected, the study said. Other studies concluded that three of four schizophrenics suffer a relapse when switching drugs, often resulting in hospitalization, homelessness or violence and incarceration.
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POPSState Unclaimed Money More Americans should look into this unclaimed money thing, especially those who've lived somewhat of a nomadic lifestyle like I have. Would be a shame going through the daily grind and have money with the government all along.
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POPSVoyager 2 Finds Lopsided Solar System Still transmitting, the three-decade-old craft encounters turbulence in solar wind. Hurtling through space 31 years after its launch, the Voyager 2 spacecraft has sent back the most detailed view yet of the shock wave that marks the thinning of the solar wind, the charged particles streaming from the sun. That would mean they have exited the solar system and entered the interstellar medium. NASA engineers estimate that both probes' plutonium power packs have the potential to keep them broadcasting data until 2025. If we're lucky, Jokippi says, they'll let us know what they find.
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POPSObscene Military Budget is much biger than Reported Legally see the article for the cuts behind the figures here: Now, imagine that, due to a little more Pentagon/Bush administration wizardry, even this black budget estimate is undoubtedly a low-ball figure. One reason is simple enough: The proposed $541 billion Pentagon 2009 budget doesn't even include money for actual wars. George W. Bush's wars are all paid for by "supplemental" bills like the $162 billion one Congress will soon pass -- so the Department of Defense's $34 billion black budget skips "war-related funding." This means that even the overall figure for that budget remains darker than we might imagine (as in "black hole"). The Pentagon not only produces stealth planes, it is, in budgetary terms, a stealth operation. If honestly accounted, the actual Pentagon yearly budget, including all the "military-related" funds salted away elsewhere, is probably now more than $1 trillion a year.
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POPSPlease Sign: Drill Here, Drill Now Petition Background Just the facts... The average price for a gallon of gas is now $3.72, this is $.61 higher than a year ago. The U.S. Congress has acted, but in the wrong direction. Last week, the Senate voted narrowly against reversing a moratorium on oil-shale development. Federal officials and industry experts estimate that up to 1.8 trillion barrels of oil is trapped in the region's oil shale, or three times the proven reserves of Saudi Arabia. Laws and policies that restrict access to America’s abundant energy drive up the price of fuel and electricity. They cause widespread layoffs and leave workers and families struggling to survive, as the cost of everything they eat, drive, wear and do spirals higher. http://www.americansolutions.com/actioncenter/petitions/?Guid=54ec6e43-75a8-445b-aa7b-346a1e096659
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POPSIraq: Child terrorists behind growing number of attacks Al-Qaeda forms a youth group, but campfires and archery are not quite what they have in mind. A new al-Qaeda cell has been created for Iraqis under 16 years old, according to a report in the pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat. Known as the "Youths of Heaven", the report said that the cell has been active for some days in various suburbs of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad.
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POPSHEADLINES FROM THE YEAR: 2029 Postal Service raises price of first class stamp to $17.89 and reduces mail delivery to Wednesdays only. 85-year $75.8 billion study: Diet and Exercise is the key to weight loss. Average weight of Americans drops to 250 lbs. Japanese scientists have created a camera with such a fast shutter speed , they now can photograph a woman with her mouth shut. Massachusetts executes last remaining conservative. Supreme Court rules punishment of criminals, violates their civil rights. Average height of NBA players is now nine feet, seven inches. New federal law requires that all nail clippers, screwdrivers, fly swatters and rolled-up newspapers must be registered by January 2036. Congress authorizes direct deposit of formerly illegal political contributions to campaign accounts. IRS sets lowest tax rate at 75 percent. Florida voters still having trouble with voting machines.