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NASA GISS has published their GISTEMP analysis for 2009: http://www.giss.nasa.gov/research/news/20100121/ 2009 was tied for the second warmest year in the modern record, a new NASA analysis of global surface temperature shows. The analysis, conducted by the Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York City, also shows that in the Southern Hemisphere, 2009 was the warmest year since modern records began in 1880. Although 2008 was the coolest year of the decade, due to strong cooling of the tropical Pacific Ocean, 2009 saw a return to near-record global temperatures. The past year was only a fraction of a degree cooler than 2005, the warmest year on record, and tied with a cluster of other years — 1998, 2002, 2003, 2006 and 2007 1998 and 2007 — as the second warmest year since recordkeeping began. So yes, contrary to various anecdotal reports of unusually cold winters, that "global warming has stalled", and other such nonsense, 2009 was actually unusually warm. Warming is continuing, and the earth has not gone into a "cooling phase". NASA also notes that the previous decade was the warmest decade on record. Latest plot of global mean surface temperature over time available here

I don't think you're going to get a lot of discussion in this thread then. Okay then, since I'm assuming you read the book, perhaps you could elucidate what some of the "proofs" are of the following: Psychokinesis, remote viewing, prayer, jinxes, and more--all are real, all have been scientifically proven, and the proof is in this book. Jinxes are real and have been scientifically proven? Really?

I think centerstage in this issue is the right for corporations to purchase ads in support of a candidate. From the synopsis of your CSMonitor article, Pangloss: As mentioned in the article's headlines, this is ostensibly done in defense of "free speech" I'm certainly an opponent of "corporate personhood" and do not believe that corporations deserve identical rights to individuals. Personally I think this is a huge backwards step which will only further compound corporate control of this country.

That it certainly is. It's also scientifically indefensible.

Where does your hypothesis propose the interface between the body and this higher dimensional mind takes place? Merged post follows: Consecutive posts merged This thread really belongs in Speculations...

I have serious doubts about the scientific validity of this book.

It certainly plays into the white guilt the average yuppie is all about. Considering Haiti was just hit by a 6.1 aftershock, vacationing there might be a bad idea

Yes, the Hameroff hypothesis regarding a mechanism which shields microtubules from quantum decoherence cannot be outright dismissed. However there's still no evidence the proposed effect is occurring. In regard to consciousness, I'm less concerned about what is possible than what is actual

I think if I were vacationing in Haiti I would feel immensely awkward

I'm curious what some of the folks across the pond (or rather, this side of the pond for the time being as I'm presently in Switzerland) think about the British government's Iraq Inquiry. http://mystateline.com/content/fulltext/?cid=130382 The latest news is that Blair will soon testify. While there are a number of people would like to see something similar in the US, my reaction to the UK in regard to Iraq is that the war was even less popular there and generally agitated the population more. At a time when US citizens were almost evenly polarized on the issue it seems Britons were adamantly opposed. It will be interesting to see how this turns out.

Yes, certainly there's Occam's razor to consider, but also lack of any actual evidence of the brain performing anything which transcends the scope of classical mechanics

Sounds like you're describing salvia divinorum. Regarding driving on it there's the rather humorous Driving on Salvia. Salvia is presently legal. It will be an interesting test of your question.

Wave generally fits under the category of collaboration software, however that's a vague term.

The FDA and DEA do not recognize medical exceptions. I think The Streets did an excellent job of answering that question: gwDRBm-qbQI (may not be your kind of music but it makes a very good point) That's a very good question. As a civil libertarian I find the illegality of "substances" to be rather silly, costly, and detrimental to society

Durr, what? I hope you're not implying what I think you're implying, because that would make you an asshole

Actually, I think the issues are inseparable. I work in Denver, Colorado. Denver has the highest density of medical marijuana dispensaries of anywhere in the country, beating LA. Just to put it in perspective, we have more medical marijuana dispensaries than we do Starbucks. This has lead to a lot of debate among the local politicians. One Denver suburb moved to ban medical marijuana dispensaries, then changed their mind and imposed a moratorium instead. It's a very tricky issue, as on one hand most politicians look down on it, but on the other hand they're generating jobs and tax revenue in a down economy. Obviously these dispensaries are not serving just medical patients. They provide a legal source of marijuana to recreational users as well. This problem is caused by the federal government's failure to recognize the medicinal benefits of marijuana. Were they to do so, marijuana could be cultivated by pharmaceutical companies, packaged in a manner that complies with the Pure Food and Drug Act, and dispensed through pharmacies.

And even then that's only half the functionality of a real presence system. An additional function of a presence system is the idea of status (e.g. Available, Away, etc). In something with a real presence system like XMPP, changes to your status are published to all of your contacts.

Your stated goal was: So long as you include a resource identifier along with the hash as part of the signed digest, this would work, provided you control the resource.

IRC doesn't have a real presence system, at least not in the same sense as XMPP. The server will not notify you when users connect to the service, only when they become a subscriber of a particular channel. Because you claimed "Uh, every popular messaging system has presence." which is patently untrue. No it's not. Have you even used Wave? Wave shows you everything in realtime, down to the keystrokes other users are typing. In that regard it's even more realtime than IM.

That's not what I said or implied. To reiterate: the FDA/DEA have not even budged on the medical issue. According to the federal government, marijuana has no acceptable medical use, despite mounting evidence to the contrary. Unfortunately the government hasn't budged on the medical issue whatsoever, therefore it remains a state-condoned gray area that, yes, is not presently in compliance with the Pure Food and Drug act because in order for the FDA to issue guidelines for it to comply they would first have to accept that it has a medical use. The real point is that the federal government has its head up its ass on the matter and that's causing considerable numbers of problems.

http://images.google.cn/images?q=tiananmen+massacre google.cn is now showing pictures of tanks and corpses when you search for "tiananmen massacre" http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2010/01/135105.htm And the State Department is now involved

Multiple studies have shown the relative harm of marijuana is approximately equal to (or even less than) alcohol and cigarettes. It's effectiveness in treating nausea associated with chemotherapy (better than drugs like Zofran in clinical studies) at least provide very compelling evidence that it should at the very least not be schedule 1 (no accepted medical use).

The large amount of market share (30%) Google was able to take from Baidu in the short amount of time Google was operating there shows that Baidu isn't exactly the world's greatest search engine.

No, I have not seen the movie, but I am a fan of the 2012 EOTW concept if only for the lulz

Yes the climate models I worked with certainly used calculus up the wazoo, as I expect any physical modeling program would