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POPS15 Quotes by Famous Atheists Bertrand Russell: “You find as you look around the world that every single bit of progress in humane feeling, every improvement in the criminal law, every step toward the diminution of war, every step toward better treatment of the colored races, or every mitigation of slavery, every moral progress that there has been in the world, has been consistently opposed by the organized churches of the world. I say quite deliberately that the Christian religion, as organized in its churches, has been and still is the principal enemy of moral progress in the world.”
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POPSThe Future of Gaming I have tried to capture some hints about the future of gaming. As the author remarks: "For now, the only way to predict the future of gaming is to predict that all predictions will be wrong." Yet, it seems that in the not so far future, games are going to deeply affect the way we perceive our world. Especially the younger generations will be affected, and to some extent it is already happening. It seems that eventually games will not only affect our perception of the world, they WILL become a substantial part of our world.
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POPSMutiny among USA Generals? Revolt over Iran? "KOLKO: Many in the US military think Bush and Cheney are out of control. They are rebelling against Bush and Cheney. Washington Post reporter Dana Priest recently said in an interview that she believed the US military would revolt and refuse to fly missions against Iran if the White House issued such orders. "CENTCOM commander Admiral Fallon reportedly thwarted Cheney's wish to sent a third additional aircraft carrier to the Persian Gulf. One paper wrote that he "vowed privately there would be no war against Iran as long as he was chief of CENTCOM." "Lt. Gen. Wright, in charge of US forces in Japan, told AP last week that the Iraq war had weakened American forces in the face of any potential conflict with China. He was quoted as saying, "Are we in trouble? It depends on the scenario. But you have to be concerned about the small number of our forces and the age of our forces." ...Spiegel Mutiny in the ranks - at the top!!!
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POPSGeorge's Legacy: Broken Bodies, Broken Countries. pt1 Shocking but not the most shocking. More shocking is that their commander-in-chip is a coward and deserter. He was AWOL more than 30 days during war. Ironic that the warmonger president, never served but killed more Americans than any other since Vietnam.
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POPSThings Americans don't like to talk about Read the whole article, it is illuminating to say the least. I thought this passage said it best: " If you listen to a lot of conservatives, they'll tell you that the difference between them and us is that conservatives love America and liberals hate America.... They don't get it. We love America just as much as they do. But in a different Way. You see, they love America the way a 4-year-old loves her Mommy. Liberals love America like grown-ups. To a 4-year-old, everything Mommy does is wonderful and anyone who criticizes Mommy is bad. Grown-up love means actually understanding what you love, taking the good with the bad, and helping your loved one grow. Love takes attention and work and is the best thing in the world."
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POPS White Radical Evangelicals Get a Pass "Thus, white evangelical Ministers are free to advocate American wars based on Biblical mandates, rant hatefully against Islam, and argue that natural disasters occur because God hates gay people...By contrast, black Muslim ministers like Farrakhan, or even black Christian ministers like Rev. Jeremiah Wright, are held with deep suspicion, even contempt. McCain is free to hug and praise the Rev. Hagees of the world, but Obama is required to prove over and over and over and over that he does not share the more extreme views of black Ministers."
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POPSsteven wright's words 18 - Hard work pays off in the future, laziness pays off now. 20 - If Barbie is so popular, why do you have to buy her friends? 21 - Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines. 22 - What happens if you get scared half to death twice? 23 - My mechanic told me, "I couldn't repair your brakes, so I made your horn louder." 24 - Why do psychics have to ask you for your name? 25 - If at first you don't succeed, destroy all evidence that you tried. 26 - A conclusion is the place where you got tired of thinking. 27 - Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it. 28 - The hardness of the butter is proportional to the softness of the bread. 29 - To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research. 30 - The problem with the gene pool is that there is no lifeguard. 31 - The sooner you fall behind, the more time you'll have to catch up. .
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POPSSpore - A Computer Game to Teach our Children Long Term Thinking This game is about evolution and exploring our universe at all scales from the microscopic to the galactic. It is about the 'Big Picture' of life, and how to think about it in a multilevel multiscale fashion. It will give a real grasp of the complexity and interconnectedness of life, and will educate the players holistic long term thinking and planning. Watch the fascinating presentation of Will Wright in TED. Toys may change the world by changing us. I am all for it, and can't wait playing :-)
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POPSChomsky - Options On The Table "There are many non-military measures to "contain" Iran, including a de-escalation of rhetoric and hysteria all around, and agreeing to negotiations in earnest for the first time — if indeed all options are on the table."
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POPSWho Is The Real Patriot? I may not agree with his religion or some of his views, but I'd rather be in his fox-hole than Dick Cheney's or George Bush's.
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POPSGuy rapes a 10 year old, he gets 2 years, serves 10 months. He gave Fenn concurrent two-year and 18-month sentences, but he will be free in eight weeks after serving eight months in prison awaiting sentence. Wright is already free as Judge Hall had already given him a nine-month sentence for inciting the girl to perform a sex act. Dr Michele Elliott, director of Kidscape said the decision had left her "lost for words". She said: "It takes us back to the 1950s when the victim was blamed if they were dressed provocatively. "No one in my opinion could mistake a 10-year-old child, even dressed up, for a 16-year-old. They are just trying very hard to find excuses. "You can never blame a child victim for sexual abuse when excusing the abuser of any kind of abuse." The NSPCC added: "There is no excuse for having sex with a 10-year-old, no matter how she dresses." This guy & his accomplice deserves to be shot. I'm sick and tired of child rapists getting next to nothing for their crimes.
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POPSNew evidence on how birds took flight Their research suggests that flight evolved with critical changes seen in fossilized shoulder bones, among late theropod dinosaurs, and early avians, and describe the fundamental wing stroke as plesiomormhic - meaning an ancestral characteristic. The researchers attached points on ten points on the bird's bodies and digitized the results. They found that the wing stroke fell within a narrow arc of 19 degrees, and the bird shifted it's body to perform it's aerobatics. They draw an analogy with the helicopter, where the agility does not depend on the angle of the rotor blades, but through modifying engine power, and shifting the body using the tail rotor. Reminds me of the helicopter designed by Leonardo da Vinci. then, until the Wright Bros, it seemed people just tried to make 'flying machines' too complicated.
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POPSGut Check Time for White Americans The Wright affair has such resonance in this campaign because Wright has shown himself to be the kind of black person that white people don't like. He brings out our prejudices. Yes, I said "our" prejudices. Part of it is Wright's ignorance and part of it is his arrogance and part of it is that he talks louder than white people would prefer and part of it is that he uses the sing-song cadence they associate with other black ministers they have grown to hate over the years such as Jesse Jackson. Obama is none of those things (OK, maybe a little arrogant at times), so Wright has been brought to the forefront as a substitute punching bag.
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POPSGreat Quotes Part 4 last few; "I detest what you write, but I would give my life to make it possible for you to continue to write." - Voltaire (1694 - 1778) "Ah! Don't say you agree with me. When people agree with me I always feel that I must be wrong." - Oscar Wilde (1854 - 1900) "I was reading the dictionary the other day. I thought it was a poem about everything." - Steven Wright
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POPSFlying Humans Wing suits are not new; they have captured the imagination of storytellers since man dreamed of flying. From Icarus to Wile E. Coyote, who crashed into a mesa on his attempt, the results have usually been disastrous.
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POPSWho murdered Ciara Durkin? Senators John Kerry and Ted Kennedy have supported Ms Durkin's family's call for a full investigation into the circumstances surrounding her death. Ciara was the 8th of 9 children, all born in Ireland. After retiring as a teacher in Galway, the father, Tom Durkin returned to the US with his wife, Angela, and settled in Dorchester in 1986 when Ciara was 9. He died of a heart attack several weeks after the family moved to Boston. As a young girl, she attended St. Mark’s Elementary School in Dorchester. She joined the Army National Guard in October 2005 after getting laid off from her information technology job at Fenway Health. Brother Pierce Durkin wasn’t home when Ciara called from Afghanistan to wish him a happy birthday. Hours later, after learning that she had been killed, he listened to her singing ‘‘Happy Birthday’’ again.