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POPSForecasts for the 25 Years... From the page: "A Crisis or an Opportunity? What Makes the Difference? The critical difference is whether you are prepared. If you’re aware of possible developments… if you see changes coming… you can take action and prepare yourself. In a rapidly changing world, new opportunities are emerging everywhere. If you get an advance notice of these possible changes, you can be ready. You can ride these waves of change to benefit your career, your business, your family and your investments." Why not changing ourselves as well? it seems as if all that will come should not affect us on deep levels, but why? part of preparation is accepting the changing of human that may come.
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POPSBlest Be the Tie That Binds A testimony of the experience of National Gathering of UCC Coalition for LGBT Concerns in Dallas June 2008. We met alongside The Fellowship and MCC sisters & brothers.
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POPS Invisibility cloaks could take sting out of tsunamis "I think that this is a great idea with much potential," says Ulf Leonhardt at the University of St Andrews, UK. "One could really imagine protecting coastlines by arrays of cleverly designed concrete poles." Such structures act like metamaterials, materials whose properties result from their structure not composition, and can be used to make invisibility cloaks for light, he says. But Guenneau cautions that large structures like islands and coastlines are unlikely to become invisible anytime soon, because building the many small islands needed to protect one is such a big job. "It's crazy – maybe only people in Dubai could do this," he adds, referring to the spectacular artificial islands built there. Smaller structures such as offshore oil platforms would be easier to protect, he says.
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POPSThe World's Greatest Aviation Innovations 9. The flying wing -- Yves Rossy keeps breaking records and defying expectations with his 8-foot-diameter, carbon composite flying wing. Last week he made a successful 13 minute, 125 mph trip across the English Channel. 10. Stealth aircraft -- What's cooler than a plane that can outsmart radar? Because the surfaces of a stealth are designed to absorb radio waves or reflect them away from the receiver, stealth planes can sneak in and sneak out undetected. Too bad they're so expensive: The 21 plane B-2 program cost over $45 billion. 11. Jetway -- Another one most of us don't think about is the long covered walkway the connects our departure gate with our plane. 12. Deicing -- Ice buildup is the cause of many fatal aircraft accidents, which is why applying monopropylene de-icing fluid to wings pre-flight has become standard operating procedure.
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POPS How A Catholic Priest Gave Us The Primeval Atom Theory
Returning to Belgium in 1925, where he worked at the Catholic University of Leuven as a part-time lecturer, his big break came two years later in 1927 when he proposed his theory of an expanding Universe to explain the movement of the galaxies, published in the Annals of the Scientific Society of Brussels. Lemaitre was still pretty hazy about how the process of expansion could have begun. Like many scientists, he was still committed to the idea of a static Universe of unchanging size... Einstein, though interested, was largely dismissive, telling Lemaitre that, "Your calculations are good, but your physics is terrible". Einstein was also a little suspicious of the religious implications of these ideas. He declined to describe himself as an atheist (or a theist, or a pantheist) and liked to use the vocabulary of religion, most famously in his misguided rejection of much of quantum physics, "God does not play dice!" British physicist, Fred Hoyle coined the Big Bang term
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POPSUS Army Invests in 'Thought Helmet' Technology for Voiceless Communication For people concerned about the ethics of the technology, Elmar Schmeisser, the Army neuroscientist overseeing the program, reassures that the technology will not allow mind-reading. As he explains, since every user has to be trained with the system, it would be impossible to use the technology against an individual´s will and without their cooperation.
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POPSTo Queer, or Not To Queer? One of the few genuinely interesting things about the Knight Rider movie/pilot earlier this year was FBI agent Carrie Ruvai's apparent queerness. Unsurprisingly, it's caused waves and will probably never be seen again. But some of the people behind the scenes aren't as homophobic as the suits.
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POPSThe Top 15 Bad Romance Novel Opening Lines 7."It was a dark and horny night..." 6."Gentle cascades of vermilion poured over Daphne's heaving, lily-white bosom. 'Call 911, Scooby,' she breathed." 5."His flatulence reared up like a proud stallion." 4."'Miss Savannah, is there room for both of us in that hoop skirt?' Chandler mocked with a slight bow and a sweep of his top hat." 3."Within minutes of their meeting, Representatives Beth (D-Florida) and Eric (R-Montana) lumbered into the bedroom where soon the unmistakable sounds of wet, naked bodies engaged in sexual congress were heard." 2."He smelled of pork. Rotting pork, in fact -- and lots of it." ...and the Number 1 Bad Romance Novel Opening Line... 1."Omaha Beach, 0800 Hours: reinforcements from 2nd Panzer Korps arrive, their well-muscled young torsos glistening with man-dew."
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POPSThe Fall of Great Cities: America's Fastest-Dying Cities
The former manufacturing backbone of the U.S. is in rougher shape than ever, still searching for some way to replace its long-stilled smokestacks. Where's it worst? Ohio has 4 of the 10 cities and Michigan has 2 cities making the ranking. So far this decade, 115,000 people have left Cleveland. Smaller changes in other regions can be just as painful: People are leaving in the thousands and they are not being replaced by either new babies or new immigrants. These cities face fleeing populations, painful waves of unemployment and barely growing economies... And they face even bleaker futures. Once great centers of business and industry, these cities now are shells of their former selves. They will have to re-shape their image & think outside of the box in order to try to attract future residents and businesses. The top 5 fastest dying American cities: 1. Canton, Ohio 2. Youngstown, Ohio 3. Flint, Mich. 4. Scranton, Pa. 5. Dayton, Ohio
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POPSHer Ultimate O Now John McCain has chosen as his running mate Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, a diligent student of Big Oil's crib sheets. She's something of a flat-earther who shares the current administration's contempt for science. Palin has expressed skepticism about evolution (which is like not believing in gravity), putting it on par with "creationism," which posits that the Earth was created 6,000 years ago." She's addicted to it baby; it's her sex; it's her power. Who says it only has to turn the big boys on?
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POPSAustrailian Rock Art - New Find This indigenous version of a history book rivals anything similar in the world and holds the key to Australia's ancient and modern history, according to scientists who have just returned from an expedition to the Djulirri rock shelter in the Wellington Range. The Griffith University archaeologist Professor Paul Tacon, one of five scientists who travelled to Djulirri, said it was of international significance, unprecedented in artistic and technical merit and telling a new story of contact between Aboriginal people and the world. Contrary to the popular view that indigenous Australians were isolated on their island continent, waves of other seafaring visitors arrived long before British settlement. For hundreds of years there may have been an export economy in northern Australia driven by the Chinese appetite for trepang, or sea cucumber.