Aardvark

Close enough to see a planet in Orions Belt? Are you sure?

You think it might be the result of chasing viewers by telling them what they want to hear and avoiding boring complications and explanations? Thats a depressing viewpoint but i admit it seems to have some validity.

We are told what is convienent for us to know and what will distract us. Anyone living under Blairs spin machine has experience of that. It just disturbs me that with so many competing outlets of news and information this is able to happen. Any ideas?

You might define justice as not, dropping nerve gas on your own people, never holding elections, shooting anyone who dares to disagree with you and trying to conquer your neighbours, all for personal glory. And the idea that a war in Iraq will automatically lead to millions of causalties is infantile and purile. As someone from Germany i would have hoped you would have learned the lessons about the need to stand up to dictatorships. Not shy away in a cloud of moral failure and cowardice.

Hooray. I'd love to see a mammoth brought back. the sooner the better. But why stop here, how abut Woolly Rhinos and Sabre Tooth Tigers? Lets go the whole hog>

The Vietnam war was being fought long before the Americans got involved. Still, i suppose America could have saved itself a lot of grief by not getting involved. I wonder what the result would have been for SE Asia if America had not tried to help South Vietnam? Things might be very different today.

Fair enough.

Going on past experience and the way they are sucking up to the Arabs now and insulting the Americans its clear they are setting themselves up as the Arabs friends in the West. The result will be getting all the juicy contracts. The Americans will be the dirty work and then let the French get all the profits.

Would be good idea, but i bet you a pound to a penny the French end up with all the oil contracts and the Americans end up with nothing.

Bringing back extinct species doesnt just have to be done by cloning. A number of expeditions to Siberia have been made in an attempt to find the frozen remains of a mammoth from which frozen sperm can be extracted. The idea is to then impregnate cow elephants and through selective breeding bring back the mammoth. I think its a great idea, and to hell with any ecological disruption.

Do you mean that half of all news in the USA is made of of verifiable lies? I'd be very interested to hear of some examples.

According to the US department of the treasury the total national debt is 6trillion 414billion 860million,990thousand and 193dollars. $6,414,860,990,193.10. Thats a heck of a lot more than 2% of the US economy. VERY VERY LARGE!!!!!!!

Sign me up. Thats one act of regime change i'm all in favour of.

I'd agree, except the Foreign Office doesnt appear to have any policies concerning North Korea.

No one is quite sure whether they have a war head or not. The Foreign Office suggests they may have 2 crude nuclear warheads. But then again maybe not. Its a very mysterious country.

Been watching those buggers for years. Glad i'm not Korean or Japanese. N'Korea makes 1984 look like a childrens book. If even the neurotically anti militaristic Japanese are talking about pre emptive strikes you know things are getting scary. North Korea is playing a very dangerous game of brinkmanship to survive. One day they will probably miscalculate. Shares in gas mask makers are a rare growth stock in Tokyo.

'Decision by indecision.' I'm not sure if Zen Buddism works in international diplomacy.

If the human race has any imagination then this terrible shuttle tragedy will only redouble our resolve to conquer the challenge of space. Space travel isnt about science or economics or any othe utilitarian justification. It's about the the spirit of exploration. The crew of the Columbia represented something very noble in a sleazy world. Manned space flight must not be allowed to be parred back by myopic beancounters and the overly timid. Its a noble endeavour and deserves our full support.

Rather than create hate, perhaps liberating Iraq from a brutal dictator might be welcomed by some Iraqis.

Working together doesnt mean agreeing. When you disagree its all the more important to work together and so better understand each other and hopefuly influence each other for the better. Simply turnng away from someone you diagree with achieves nothing.

France always behaves in the same way. Kicks up a fuss, insults, gets in the way. Then gets bribed handsomely to stop making quite such a fuss. While loyal allies like Turkey get taken for granted. If America appeases her enemies and betrays her friends ( remember the Iraqis who rose up against Saddam during the Gulf war? ) what other behaviour do you expect from people like the French?

Cowardice with a purpose. Turkey has no oil. Iraq does. Notice which one France sucks up to?

Dont underestimate the French. They will get the US to do the fighting, then move in afterwards and secure the oil for themselves posing as the Arabs friends who didnt want the war in the first place. You do the dirty work and they profit.

I believe we could make Mars habitable if we really wanted to. Its more a question of having the will. Do we have the grit, vision and determination to spend vast sums of money, years of labour and intellectual effort to do it. Considering that the effort would probably take centuries, or at the least, decades i rather doubt our species has what it takes.

Deciding that cloning is incorrect in principle because of technical difficulties now is illogical. Technical difficulties can be overcome, probably by experimentation on other species. Any difficulties such as accelerated ageing, arthritis, auto immune problems and the like can be solved. It is important not to confuse the technical problems with the moral issue. Assuming that cloning can be made safe, we have to decide whether we want to do it on its own merits. Personally i feel that government should keep its nose out of peoples reproductive activities but i can see other view points. Its an interesting question.