DrDNA

That would be cool, but wouldn't you rather see George, Dick and Donald duct tapped buck necked to the front of Abrams tanks and paraded through the streets of Baghdad? Go in, make a mess and leave it the opposition. This is basically advocating what we did in Vietnam and I think that history showed that to be cowardly, selfish and just plain wrong. Anyone that helped the West (USA) in any way would be immediately killed. Iran and/or radical Islam fills the void. I'm absolutely no fan of the "war in Iraq" but geez. Have a heart for the lives that are gonna be left in the dust. If we made a mess, and we did, we need to at least try to clean it up no matter what the cost.

I agree. It seems to be unfair and kind of crazy. All about control.

"Let us suppose that an ichthyologist is exploring the life of the ocean. He casts a net into the water and brings up a fishy assortment. Surveying his catch, he proceeds in the usual manner of a scientist to systematise what it reveals. He arrives at two generalisations: (1) No sea-creature is less than two inches long. (2) All sea-creatures have gills. These are both true of his catch, and he assumes tentatively that they will remain true however often he repeats it. In applying this analogy, the catch stands for the body of knowledge which constitutes physical science, and the net for the sensory and intellectual equipment which we use in obtaining it. The casting of the net corresponds to observation; for knowledge which has not been or could not be obtained by observation is not admitted into physical science. An onlooker may object that the first generalisation is wrong. "There are plenty of sea-creatures under two inches long, only your net is not adapted to catch them." The icthyologist dismisses this objection contemptuously. "Anything uncatchable by my net is ipso facto outside the scope of icthyological knowledge. In short, "what my net can't catch isn't fish." Or--to translate the analogy--"If you are not simply guessing, you are claiming a knowledge of the physical universe discovered in some other way than by the methods of physical science, and admittedly unverifiable by such methods. You are a metaphysician. Bah!" Sir Arthur Eddington (1882-1944)

Put another way, it is "the system" or as I prefer to called it..."the man" But not the man that will risk his neck for his brother man....the black private dick that's a sex machine to all the chicks..... SHAFT! Ya damn right! .......he's a bad mother...watch your mouth. Can you dig it?

hey YT, I think I we are seeing the beginings of chemistry intuition here. "The only real valuable thing is intuition." Albert Einstein "Trust yourself. You know more than you think you do." Dr Benjamin Spock "Trust your hunches. They're usually based on facts filed away just below the conscious level." Dr Joyce Brothers "Instinct is the nose of the mind." Madame De Girardin "Knowledge has three degrees-opinion, science, illumination. The means or instrument of the first is sense; of the second, dialectic; of the third, intuition." PLOTINUS.

Your votes will carry more weight if you vote for the same guy twice.

I used to agree with you....not long ago I believed that more people should vote, but now that I've grown more cynical (more wise perhaps....perhaps less so), I've come to believe that more voters is not the answer. Increasing voter turnout is just an attempt to tip the scales in a mindless manner. We need more concerned, informed people that will make thoughtful choices. An increase in the brainless masses, worried about celebrities, whether Paris has herpes or not, or the tone of Brittany's tummy (have you seen it, it is very flabby), is not what the world needs. I would argue that part of the problem that we are currently experiencing is caused in no small part by the electorate responding to those shallow 30 second (or less) sound bites, carefully crafted simple imagry, and low hanging fruit propoganda (eg, he or she is going to raise your taxes! or will they will permit the leftists to burn your flag!) from both sides of the fence...but little else. We are the problem. They feed us that garbage because, like amoebae, we respond to simple stimuli. It is what works. PS: I got so emotionally involved with the first part of your statement that I just skipped right over the second part: "must educate themselves before doing so". So to sum it up, I agree with you. Yep. We have had good teachers. The Romans, the Spaniards, the British...... Too bad we didn't learn the negative consequences. 1. oil 2. strategic geography and/or covert sources of revenue (drugs)

I can't speak for the rest of the country, but I can say with some certainty that I would not.

"Apocalypse Now" was about the insanity of the war in Vietnam.

When I saw the topic, I thought it was about chemical engines, which I have an interest in, but it appears that it is about rocket powered toy cars. EDIT: Not that there is anything wrong with rocket powered toy cars.

I applaud both of your introspective attitudes and willingness to throw your bodies on the proverbial hand grenade, but I disagree. I went back and re-read your posts and could find nothing inappropriate. It was....[name withheld for selfish, self-serving, political reasons]...

DMSO is not a toy. If you were to get some to "play with", and you should NOT, it should be pharmacological grade because impurities can cause death. 1. On exposure to air it forms a very high and toxic level of peroxides. 2. Side effects include skin irritation, stomach upset, sensitivity to light, visual disturbances, and headache. Improperly diluted DMSO can also burn the skin. 3. It is an *extremely* powerful solvent which can carry solutes directly into the bloodstream linke a "chemical hypodermic needle" . Because of this, severe consequences can result if impure grades of DMSO are used. Because of its fast action of taking solutes with it into the bloodstream, a substance which by itself might ordinarily have limited or no effect could cause serious damage or death if accidentally or intentionally applied to the body with or in a DMSO solution. You can read more about it here http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Is_DMSO_dimethyl_sulfoxide_dangerous&src=ansTT or just googling DMSO dangers

Here we go........

"Always" is a very strong term. There may be cases where it is in the patient's best interest to not tell the truth. For example, what if the patient is severely depressed and/or suicidal and telling them that they have terminal, inoperable cancer would send them over the top? http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/474855/medical_ethics_should_doctors_tell.html

I wish we had just one thread where we could discuss religion and everything must remain inside that room. It could be kind of like the Airing of Grievances during Festivus.

I had the 2 statements combined into one phrase so I separated them and added just a few works to make my point more clear. There was no malice intent. You replied VERY quickly as I was editing it.

Am I alone in my feeling that the Darwin fish thingy was innocent and fun?

Shows abstract thought and predictions relating pain with life and lack of pain with death how? Lets see. poke move out of the way May show some cause and effect relationship between a poke and movement. And even with that, I might add that if you poke a dog that is in severe pain, it will generally do nothing but lie there.

1. I recuse myself on the basis of my use of the terms "venture to guess" and "probably". 2. Rather than amuse everyone with a feeble attempt by me to prove a negative, I was kinda hoping that you could tell us what evidence suggests that they can.

Who's Charles Manson endoring this season?

I was not aware of the rampant use of synthetics in hospitals and the issues they bring, but I hear ya. I caught puenomonia in the hospital after a surgery and it wasn't any fun....thank God it wasn't a resistant Staph or worse. To add to that. I have often wondered just what kind of long term problems we might be creating for ourselves with the relatively new "antibacterial" detergents, dishwashing soaps, sponges, hand soaps, etc. It seems like the commericialization of something that perhaps might be left well enough alone.........

True. But I would venture to guess that most other animals (besides humans) probably do not draw positive correlations between pain and life or lack of pain and death.

I agree about the hypocracy, that's why I volunteered (embarassingly) that I have 2 fuel guzzeling vehicles. Regarding the alt fuels, of course I agree with that too, but I doubt Tata was going to lose revenue waiting for us to invent the next viable alt fuel system. The issue I was refering to was not as much about fuel consumption as much as it is about pollution. But for that matter 4 strokes are generally twice as fuel efficient as 2 strokes. I love a 2 cycle for its simplicity (there's nothing to them!) and power to weight ratio...especially on something like an off road motorcyle. But those things really are awful polluting machines. I've owned 2 stroke weedeaters, lawnmowers, motorcycles, outboard and inboard-outboard boat engines, and various other pieces of machinery and can tell you with some degree of certainty that a "clean" 2 cycle engine has yet to be developed (to my knowledge, but please free to correct me if there is something out there that I have not seen). Just watch one run sometime. They pollute much more than a 4 stroke ( at least over 2x more from what I have read, but if you watch one run, it looks like 100 times more) much of which is unburned fuel and oil, and fuel additives, like MTBE and benzene, and partial combustion products that are quite frankly VERY nasty. Not to mention the particulates. The choice to go with the 2 stroke here was most certainly initial cost and inital cost alone. The 2 stroke engine is an antiquated filthy technology that needs to go away.

While looking for information on this, I stumbled accross the following and thought it was hillarious......I'll even admit that it took a few moments to figure out the deal.... Obama Declines Kerry Endorsement by Scott Ott for ScrappleFace (2008-01-10) — Sen. Barack Obama today declined the endorsement of Sen. John Kerry, saying his presidential campaign is about “hope and change”, and he doesn’t want to “send mixed messages.” Sticking with his new stump speech refrain, Sen. Obama said, “They told us you can’t run a presidential campaign without kissing up to every Democrat who ever rode this donkey to defeat. But I say, yes…yes we can.” “They told us you can’t diss a former presidential candidate who’s a professional Vietnam war veteran,” he added, “But I say yes…yes we can.” An unnamed spokesman for the Obama campaign said the endorsement rejection is not necessarily permanent. “If we get to the convention and our campaign needs a little extra shove to put us over the top,” the Obama aide said, “then we might ask Sen. Kerry to…you know…do it.” http://www.scrappleface.com/?p=2851

Although I do love volcanoes, esp hot lava like all kids, there are also other threats to the environment. For example here is a link to a story about the new Tata Nano... "Tata Nano, world's cheapest new car, is unveiled in India" http://driving.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/driving/article3164205.ece Just what the world needs.....a billion more people driving cars.....and in this case they are powered by 2 cycle engines. I do admit feeling torn about this because I already have mine (x2 cars). And I know 2 cycle is cheaper, but couldn't they have made it a 4 cycle? Great strides have been made in small 4 cycle engine technology recently...including weight, size, cost, power, etc..