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http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/11/07/health.care/index.html Well, it passed the house... on to the Senate. We will see. And while we're at it, how do you feel about the bill in its current form?

What would it like to be an animal other than a human? What would it be like to be a human who never had any sensory input, ever?

Apparently the Republicans have learned their latest debate tactics from pre-schoolers: eMdlcnK_MI4 Wow. I'm surprised they don't mute their microphones. Are there actually recourses for dealing with douchebags who refuse to play by the rules and just want to scream NANANANANANANANA (or should I say I OBJECT I OBJECT OBJECTION OBJECTION) and prevent any actual discussion from happening? I am afraid I am not up on my parliamentary procedures. Someone needs to remix this into a music video.

It is not very compelling when you consider that no scientific body of national or international standing expresses a dissenting opinion. However, in support of the IPCC's position you have an extensive number of organizations: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_opinion_on_climate_change#Statements_by_concurring_organizations

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Here_Comes_Science Just saw these guys last night... they've kind of been in my collective unconscious since I saw Particle Man on Tiny Toons, but I saw their YouTube videos for their latest album, Here Comes Science, and they're pretty awesome. What's especially awesome is they released a follow-up scientifically correct version of " ", called Why Does The Sun Really Shine? (The Sun Is A Miasma of Incandescent Plasma): sLkGSV9WDMA So yeah, some science-loving nerd rock there for ya. As I understand it, the original song is actually a cover of an educational song from the '60s, so no fault to TMBG on that one, because the song is awesome.

Short answer: no?

Long-term memories are programmed into the connection structure of your cerebral cortex by a part of your brain known as the hippocampus. The long-term potentiation Genecks described occurs there. It's actually a pair of structures... hippocampi? The hippocampus is effectively the "top" of your conscious experience. It absorbs all the patterns you encounter throughout your day which were not recognized by lower levels of your conscious experience (which takes place in the neocortex). Throughout the day it collects these unrecognized patterns, then at night while you sleep it programs them back into your neocortex. If you have trouble forming long-term memories, it may be because your hippocampus is malfunctioning.

So today he started naming off people who died in Republican-represented districts because they didn't have health insurance. K1pSfEyqOQI The Republicans freaked, moved to adjourn and strike the names from the Congressional record. Wow.

All of that could be solved by surrounding the ship with a plasma field, among other things.

Likewise, I think you need to look up the definition of "facetious" Perhaps now I'll take a less jovial tone... you're repeating hearsay, then washing your hands of it. That is in bad form, sir.

Is it society's job to fix broken people after they break themselves? Or should this guy, if American doctors have managed to save him, continued paying medical bills his entire life?

Can you provide some estimates of the alternatives? That would be helpful in evaluating them.

That was really the sentiment of this thread: it takes very very little to go from being a perfectly healthy person to having a debilitating and potentially fatal injury. Can you imagine, had this guy lived, how many operations he would have to go through to have something resembling a normal face again, and how much that would have cost? All because of one little slip... While the activity he was performing was obviously unsafe, my point is something like this can happen to anyone, anytime.

Except shortly thereafter, we developed fusion bombs which made Hiroshima look like a splash compared to a tidal wave

Please note that I don't fault them for it. It was a tough decision either way, and I don't downplay that. I'm just saying, in 20/20 hindsight, having visited the Hiroshima Peace Park and seen the devastation the bombs wrought firsthand, I would not have dropped the bombs. That is all.

Yes, it does. In addition to the 220,000 people killed by the bombs, they also left people countless people suffering for the rest of their lives due to radiation exposure, and also lead to widespread birth defects.

So you base your decision to use nuclear weapons to end the lives of hundreds of thousands of people on "just plain common sense". I'm sorry, I need more justification than that.

Why are these the only options? Well, as you're the one claiming that they'd all result in more deaths, can you actually support that claim somehow? Why would any of the available options necessarily incur a higher death toll than using a nuclear weapon? If nuclear weapons are so effective at ending wars, why haven't we used them in all subsequent wars? Why didn't we nuke Vietnam?

If we hadn't dropped the bombs, over 220,000 people would've died who otherwise wouldn't have? I find that premise hard to substantiate. Also, we're talking about a large number of children here. The city of Hiroshima, expecting a firebombing, had all the native children clearing fire breaks/fire lanes, so they were all outside directly beneath the blast when it occurred.

If I understand the juxtaposition of the concepts in the title correctly, it's some rather clever wordplay by the author, centered around the relationships between "classical" and "romantic" ideas. The author just started namedropping Quality. I suppose I'll learn a bit more soon.

Making claims and not supporting them... I can see why you're a fan of Fox! </facetious>

I don't know. I do not have sufficient knowledge of the history of WWII to even begin to make a suggestion. However I cannot, in good conscience, ever condone the use of a nuclear weapon, unless more people are doomed to die if the weapon isn't used than if it is.

I'm not a fan of shifting the burden of proof, sorry

Being against nuclear weapons makes me pro-firebombing? Zuh? The firebombing of Dresden, Tokyo, etc was morally reprehensible.

Bailout (TARP) != Stimulus (ARRA) Please don't conflate the two. Thanks.