Moontanman

Ok, what has Biden said that was completely batshit crazy?

Atypical? he is running for office, he is the man who will run against the democrats to serve in Washington, he is not some distant nutter making noise. Are you saying that this guy is not the best the republicans can come up with for this election?

Sure, which one?

Peanuts are only edible when boiled, pistachios are awesome...

It's bad enough the Republicans are supporting Creationists but this guy is even further out there, he believes in Dragons!

Well there was that troll a few months ago.... he disappeared under mysterious circumstances...

Speaking of slaves, has any one read "The Domination" by S.M. Sterling? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Domination

If you click on try you go to a page with a column on each side, look down the left hand column and click on esp experiment....

The second set of cards contains none of the first set of cards so no matter which one you choose it's not in the second set...

If i was world dictator it would be benevolent... well except of course for my personal slaves... but everyone else would be free to do what ever i allowed them to do... Athena on the other hand I would lock in a tall tower and feed her with a sling shot...

When you go back to the home page choose esp experiment, it's really a trick...

Alan, seriously you can't figure that one out?

I think it's note worthy to say that being elected to public office is often seen as and used as a route to making money, from kick backs and bribes to legal insider trading and not the least outrageous job offers once you are out of office if you voted the right way the idea that anyone runs for public office to serve the people is a joke...

Voting a split ticket instead of just going for one side or the other might help a little bit...

Damn rigney, you almost sound like you are going to vote Democratic this time... I'm not sure that one term will help "fix it" but the problem does indeed lay at the feet of our legislators. We pay them only a tiny fraction of what the special interests pay them. Doesn't really matter if you like the way they vote or you do not, Democrat or Republican, they vote on most issues the way the people who own them want them to vote. Sadly their constituents are seldom the real owners... I wish I could say that my honor is worth more than that but if someone wanted to raise my pay by an order of magnitude for voting on an issue the way they wanted i might be tempted. Money is what makes our society move, grease if you will, somehow we need to make sure the grease is used to lube the machinery of our society instead of our representatives...

Welcome 12 Monkeys...

There would almost certainly have to be a small rock and metal core but it could be surrounded by a huge envelope of water in fact there are two planets in our solar system that are basically made this way... Neptune and Uranus are not gas giants like Jupiter and Saturn they are ice giants and this is what you are describing. If the Earth was covered by many miles of water at some depth the water turns to ice, not the cold ice we are familiar with but ice none the less. Neptune is made mostly of various ices kept solid under pressure, the surface of Neptune is not cold and could be covered by a layer of liquid water mixed with ammonia and various hydro-carbons like methane but not many miles down these liquids would turn to high pressure ices. Some of the new planets discovered recently may very well be such mini Neptunes and such a planet close enough to it's star could have vast planet wide oceans covering hundreds of not thousands of miles of ice over a rocky metallic core. In the case of Neptune and Uranus the atmosphere is probably pressure enough to cause water to be ice at the surface but a smaller planet with a less extensive atmosphere might have liquid water at the surface. As for life... I'm not sure such a planet would have much in the way of the ingredients for life, most of the elements necessary would be locked away under many miles of ice. Life on Earth depends at least to some extent on the recycling of chemicals through the Earths mantle through volcanoes, I'm not sure if such processes would work on an ice giant...

Again, there is no hard feelings here rigney, but you have fallen for the basic fallacy these right wing nut christians are using manipulate all christians. Christians all have to believe the same things this is simply not true, they define the parameters of christianity to exclude anyone who disagrees with them. This is what is being used to manipulate the electorate, these fundamentalists are claiming that "all" Christians have to believe in Creationism (or more accurately their definition of christianity) and if you believe in science or evolution or disagree with their basic definition of what a christian must believe then you are not a christian. I live in NC btw... I agree and that is my basic premise, to be a republican and have some chance of being president, or really even a party leader and to a great extent this applies to even to local elections, you must either be stupid or a liar, Huntsman admitted to having a brain and he was excluded almost immediately. I think it can be asserted that Republicans are no longer fiscal conservatives but are nothing but pawns of the Religious Right and the 1% (I'm not comfortable with that 1% thing as a definition) at the moment I can't think of anyway to put this and if anyone else has a better way to put feel free to point it out but the Republicans are nothing but pawns of special interest groups that either favor religious extremism or financial extremism. The rest of us who really are centrists and want what is best for the entire country no longer have a party to vote for we are forced to choose from extremes, anyone who espouses a moderate political point of view is excluded... And both Democrats and Republicans are owned by special interest groups that have no interest in the well being of the United States of America... it actually smacks of treason to me... I feel very strongly it is very similar to what happened to the Soviets, they pursued political extremes that destroyed their country from within, it was not a failure of Communism but a lack of vision to include anything else, China seems to be doing quite well by trying things outside the paradigm of Communism, we must allow for things outside the paradigm of Capitalism... Politics should not be a left/right thing, there has to be room for the best of both sides, neither side has an agenda that cannot be questioned.

How does Obama being a christian have anything to do with my argument? only six states allow same sex marriage http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Same-sex_marriage_in_the_United_States This link provides the key to this map http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Samesex_marriage_in_USA.svg

No, being Christian doesn't mean you have to reject science or even reject evolution, but the fundamentalist parts of this religion are trying their very best to make this seem to be true but they know it's not. They are doing their best to make it look like voting for Democrats means you are voting against being a Christian, voting to have atheism taught to your kids, voting for abortion, voting for teenagers being instructed to have sex, they know this isn't true but they assert it anyway in an attempt to influence the more rational segments of Christians. I agree for them not to believe in science is ridiculous that is why I assert they are liars. In everything they say are lies. They are nothing but fear mongers trying to whip the less fundamentalist parts of their religion into line by asserting lies. All the republicans want is the money and votes from Christian conservatives and to do this you cannot admit to believing in evolution, climate change, the big bang, the list goes on and on but the rejection of scientific naturalism is the goal of these fundamentalists and the goal of the republicans party is to have these peoples money and support. This is a very emotional issue, the tea party has asserted these things over and over and consistently support the teaching of creationism in schools and the rejection of climate change among other things. The Christian right is adamant in wanting creation science to be taught in schools, they do not reject all of science just the parts that contradict their religious world view. The republicans lie to make it look like they care but all they are really doing is lying to garner their support. The religious fundamentalists want to assert religious control over our society, the republicans want their support so they support the efforts of these people to change our society to match the values the fundamentalists want. They don't want freedom of religion they want the freedom to assert their religion into your life as law. it's not a joke rigney, it's not some half baked assertion either. The republicans are using the christian right to get into power so they can continue the failed policies of the past. Rigney, in my state the Christian right has passed a constitutional amendment stripping citizens of their rights, not just homosexuals either, anyone who is not married and living together is affected by this as well. The Christian right is not all of Christianity but they have a disproportionate amount of influence due to fear mongering and ignoring of any evidence that disagrees with them and out right lying about what the evidence for these things actually say. Nothing but liars rigney...

You're right and simply have to call a spade a spade of which I am one. I just don't know enough to do anything about it. Each of us know that we are being used by both political parties and don't have a grasp on either. Sheeple! I believe is the word used to define us. We definitly need a champion for the good of America, but unless a way is found to contain politicians to a single term in office, this ka-ka will go on forever and the champ will always wind up being a chump. Man or woman, when people get drunk on power, it's one hell of a tug trying to get that power back from them. Right now I'm looking at Republicans as the lesser of two evils. So a political party that supports candidates that have to either lie or be stupid is preferable to everyone else? A political party that is supported by and actively panders to people who promote the taking away of the rights of it's citizens can be trusted? A political party that is the author of our woes, supports and even promotes religious division and persecution of people whose beliefs are different is the lesser of two evils? Democrats must barbecue children at fund raisers... no wait, they are communist? Horse feathers... Oh wait I forgot, a political party that is anti science, denies reality in favor of political and financial gain as well... it would be a funny plot for a b science fiction movie if it weren't a nightmare we can't wake from...

A connection between solar flare activity and radioactive decay may be used to predict solar flares more than a day in advance. http://www.gizmag.com/radioactive-solar-flare-warning-system/23702/ http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0927650512000928

Indeed, at this point that is exactly how i see it...

More heart ache, no doubt... Worse future no doubt... Seriously rigney, the only serious difference between the two tickets is that one is supporting someone who is demostrably either stupid or a liar. The Romney ticket actually endorses creationism, both him and his running mater are so far out of contact with reality they think the earth is 6,000 years old, they think evolution is just a "theory", abstinence is the only birth control that can be allowed, and they want to teach the controversy... If this is not what they think then they are clearly liars, if they do then they are clearly stupid... either way they are endorsing ideas that are demonstrably wrong... Romney's supporters have over and over asserted that removing the rights of individuals based on nothing but the religious views written down in a 2500 year old book is the right thing to do. This book is clearly wrong about so much stuff that what little it says that cannot be confirmed is in serious doubt. They want to rule our contry and restrict the rights of it's citizens based on this book The fact they support more deregulation of banks is not surprising considering they are stupid or liars. Obama might not be much better but he does have 4 years experience in the job and is not so stupid he has no concept of reality... And Obama does not want to use a system of deregulation and top down economics that is clearly not working, even though it has had nearly free reign for decades... Now if you were looking at replacing a man whose ideas you didn't like but you knew his replacement, by his own words, was either stupid or a liar which one would you choose?

I think this is the most important aspect of this, such projects advance knowledge in a way that before space travel only war seemed to be able to do. Impossible to predict but my money is on more money eventually coming out of them than was put into to them via technological advances discovered along the way...