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POPSillusion of progress The progress lies instead in real, physical PRODUCTION of wealth, and improvement of the population's general welfare.
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POPSPerino: Jobless should just return to the workplace The Bush administration’s refusal to extend a helping hand to those punished by the economy it created is nothing new: Last month, the White House threatened to veto a second stimulus package over opposition to an expansion of food stamps benefits.
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POPSGAO testifies surge has not met goals Only 4 of the 18 benchmarks have been met and only 1 benchmark has been met since the 3 that were met as of Aug. 2007 report. Petraeus is careful not to credit all the progress to the surge of U.S. troops in 2007. The sea change came last year from a series of movements now known as the Awakening. So would the Sunni Awakening have succeeded without the surge? Possibly, he concedes. The 18 benchmarks by which to measure the surge's success are here: http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/07/20070712.html
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POPSWomen Test Limits "Now, women are taking courses run by nongovernmental organizations, getting educated and learning ways to improve their family incomes. Most important, the women have won over the men, she said. “Their minds have changed,” Najiba said. “They want to share decisions, not too far, but they want to give us some share.”
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POPSArab League to meet over Sudan ICC issue Sudan’s appointment of a special prosecutor was seen as concession that would provide leverage to the Arab League and African Union (AU) when requesting a resolution from the UN Security Council (UNSC) deferring Al-Bashir’s indictment under Article 16 of the ICC Statute. Sabdarat said today that the prosecutions have made some progress with some suspects in detention and being investigated. He also lashed out at Ocampo saying that he crossed his limits as a prosecutor by discussing his case on “satellite TV’s”. The ICC Pre-Trial Chamber I headed held a closed meeting with Ocampo this week regarding his application for the first time. It is expected that they may take up to three months to issue a decision. Sudan has not ratified the Rome Statute, but the UNSC triggered the provisions under the Statute that enables it to refer situations in non-State parties to the world court if it deems that it is a threat to international peace and security.
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POPSWhen is a holocaust not a holocaust? (cont.)Thus, the number of people available for being killers or victims is markedly reduced. Moreover, extensive ethnic cleansing has taken place in the country (another good indication of progress, n'est-ce pas?). Sunnis and Shiites are now living more in their own special enclaves than before, none of those stinking mixed communities with their unholy mixed marriages, so violence of the sectarian type has also gone down; and the powerful movement of Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr has had a cease-fire in effect for many months, unconnected to the surge. On top of all this, US soldiers, in the face of numerous "improvised explosive devices" on the roads, have been venturing out a lot less (for fear of things like ... well, dying), so the violence against our noble lads is also down. Remember that insurgent attacks on American forces is how the Iraqi violence all began in the first place.
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POPSThe U.S. Needs to Open Up to the World It's better for everybody to have a stake in society than to have a resentful underclass bent on wrecking things. To many Americans, this sounds like socialism, big government, the nanny state. But so what? The result is: Europe has less gun crime and homicide, less poverty and arguably a higher quality of life than the U.S., which makes a lot of us wonder why America doesn't want some of what we've got. America as a gated community won't work, because not even the world's sole superpower can build walls high enough to shield itself from the intertwined realities of the 21st century. There's a better form of security: reconnect with the rest of the world, don't shut it out; stop making enemies and start making friends. Perhaps it's asking a lot to expect America to act differently from all the other empires in history, but wasn't that the original idea?
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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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POPSauction for taking off and landing? had no idea this happens! 3 airports at NY? i thought they had 2? the FAA proposed slot auctions at the three New York area airports. It figured that by forcing airlines to pay for taking off and landing at certain times, rather than just scheduling flights congestion could be moderately reduced
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POPSEthical considerations for biologically uplifting nonhuman animals Through the application of Rawlsian moral frameworks, and in consideration of the acknowledgement of legally recognized nonhuman persons, it can be shown that the presence of uplift biotechnologies will represent a new primary good and will thus necessitate the inclusion of highly sapient nonhumans into what has traditionally been regarded as human society.
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POPSDecoding the sense of smell In future work, the team plans to work with researchers worldwide, including MIT's Media Lab and Department of Biology, to develop a portable microfluidic device that can identify an array of different odors. Such a device could be used in medicine for the early diagnosis of certain diseases that produce distinctive odors, such as diabetes and lung, bladder and skin cancers, Zhang said. There are also a wide range of industrial applications for such a smell-based biosensing device, he said. One application i can think of is developing an antidote for smelly things, people etc.. :)
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POPS"Should a belief in witchcraft exclude someone from holding high office?"
article continues: Despite whatever you may feel about the moderate adherent of christianity, surely you can agree that witches and general witchery do not exist. Human beings have made some progress over the years, and a portion of that progress is our disbelief in notions like witchcraft and demon possession. In my view, an earnest belief in something so outrageous indicates a defect in one's mental faculties. Accusations of witchery have largely been a political construct. That is not to deny that many people over history have chosen to describe themselves as such, but allegations of congress with the devil and the ability to cast spells on others was merely maneuver of the church accomplish political gains. Most of the victims of this happened to be women of insignificant standing in their community; often they were old and barely lucid, or outcasts due to appearance or behavior. Factoring in primitive attitudes and easily incited citizens looking to blame someone for what were
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POPSConcensus Reached, Will Make Final Announcement Tomorrow According to lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, the plan proposed by Mr. Paulson, which would see the federal government buy up to $700 billion in toxic mortgage-linked assets, will form the core of any solution. Sen. Judd Gregg (R., N.H.), one of the lawmakers taking part in the talks to thrash out an agreement, said Saturday morning that the negotiators would stay in the meeting until an agreement is reached. "The basic understanding is once we get into that room we are going to stay there until we have an agreement," he said.
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POPSAdam Smith Meets Climate Change I don't follow the debate on how to create carbon markets as closely as I'd like. But this is an interesting idea about dividing emissions permits into two classes--for people helping and people really helping. Another thing worth pointing out is that even if Brazil, India and China didn't sign on, they'd still end up adapting many of the technologies that carbon markets would force. Carbon caps, for example, would accelerate progress toward more efficient solar power. But once that technology is there, and the price is lower than hydrocarbons (which most people in the solar industry, at least, believe will happen) then it will make sense for India to slap solar panels on all their roofs too.
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