"There's Justice In The Universe" |
Posted 5/30/2008 5:18 PM CDT One of the most effective ways
to improve the quality of life
of families around the world
and ensure a more sustainable
environmental future is to
invest in voluntary family
planning programs. Since the
1960s, the United States has
supported international health
assistance programs that
provide voluntary family planning
services. Such programs enable
individuals and couples to
decide the number, spacing,
and timing of their children
and to have the information
and means to do so, free from
violence, coercion, and
discrimination. These programs
are also the most cost-effective
intervention to avoid the
transmission of HIV. Send a
message to your decision-makers.
Real investment in family planning
will reap massive rewards for the
whole planet.
TAKE ACTION:
http://www.sierraclub.org/population/get_involved/ |
Posted 5/29/2008 7:17 PM CDT In understanding the Islamic world, we need to remember that the Muslims were the third major group to practice monotheism. The Hebrews first successfully brought on the belief in One God as related in the Old Testament. This led to Jesus bringing us into New Testament Christian practices. Since Arabs did not follow Christ, it took Mohammed’s Koran to lead them out of polytheism. They then fervently spread their belief system from Spain to the Phillipines and did not stop until 1683 when the siege of Vienna failed. Since then their luster has dimmed while Christian and Jewish interests in the Middle East have increased. It is this that their fundamentalists are reacting to so violently in such an Old Testament manner. |
Posted 5/28/2008 4:57 PM CDT It takes 75,000+ years for light to travel from one side of our Milky Way galaxy to the other. Creationists believe that our planet is only about 6,000 years old. How do they reconcile that with the fact that we’re looking at stars (with planets) in our own galaxythat are far older than that? And this doesn’t even factor in the countless of other galaxies in our region of space that are millions and billions of light years distant. |
Posted 5/26/2008 4:46 PM CDT If you’ve been following the international news relating to Zimbabwe and South Africa, then you may be interested in signing the petition at the end of the statement issued by Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu to discourage China from shipping arms into Zimbabwe: http://www.avaaz.org/en/no_arms_for_zimbabwe/“Zimbabwe is staring into the abyss. Violence is growing and the people are suffering greatly as a result. It is now vital that we all do what we can to calm the situation. In particular I join the worldwide calls to stop the supply of weapons to the country—by land, sea or air--until the political crisis is resolved. It is obvious that supplying large quantities of arms at this stage would risk escalating the violence, perhaps resulting in the large-scale loss of life. We should be proud of the African Trade Unions andgovernments who refused to let the most recent Chinese shipment off-load in their ports but China must now agree not to try and send these arms by air instead. I join the South African church leaders in urging all governments to immediately start work at the UN level to agree a binding UN arms embargo as quickly as possible. In the meantime I hope that every country will agree to a moratorium on the supply of anyarms to the country. If violence flares further in Zimbabwe, those supplying the weapons will be left with blood on their hands. It is up to every country in the region and beyond to take a stand.” To sign the petition calling on governments to stop the arms shipments for Zimbabwe click here. |
Posted 5/25/2008 5:10 PM CDT Toba was a supervolcano that erupted 73,500 years ago. It is considered by geologists to have been the largest volcanic eruption within the past 20 million years. The climatic aftermath of Toba effectively devastated the world's ecosystem from the bottom of the foodchain upwards as Earth was thrown into a
deeper period of glaciation. This resulted in the decimation of most humanoids / Homosapiens' numbers were reduced to less than 10,000 worldwide. Homoneanderthalensis numbers were only minimaly effected since they were cold adapted.
http://tobavolcano.googlepages.com/
http://www.ecotao.com/holism/hu_neand.htm
http://www.andaman.org/BOOK/originals/Weber-Toba/ch5_bottleneck/textr5.htm |
Posted 5/24/2008 4:12 PM CDT Our Milky Way Galaxy is about 100,000 light years in diameter, but only about 1000 light years thick.
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0603/m101_hst_f.jpg
Our neighboring Andromeda Galaxy (considerably larger than the Milky Way) is on a collision course with us.
It is 2 million light years distant / the collision will occur in about 2 billion years.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/1422317.stm
'Galaxy mergers' are now known to be more common than has previously thought. They were even more common in the early universe than they are today. The early universe was smaller, so galaxies were closer together and therefore more prone to smash-ups. Our own Milky Way contains the debris of the many smaller galaxies it has brushed against and devoured in the past. And it hasn't stopped munching away at its neighbors: It is currently absorbing the Sagittarius dwarf elliptical galaxy. The Milky Way isn't the top predator though, as our giant neighbor, the Andromeda galaxy, is expected to devour the Milky Way in about two billion years. The future resulting elliptical galaxy has already been dubbed "Milkomeda."
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/080424-colliding-galaxies.html
http://burro.astr.case.edu/JavaLab/GalCrashWeb/mmerger.html
Photos of Galactic Collisions:
http://tinyurl.com/5w2lp3
http://www.space.com/php/multimedia/imagegallery/igviewer.php?gid=373
Read more:
http://tinyurl.com/65rr9e |
Posted 5/22/2008 6:33 PM CDT As the Senate and House worked to create a unified Energy Bill in a special conference committee, Texas Congressman "Dirty Joe" Barton was working to oppose a compromise that would have allowed for a "renewable energy standard" to stay in the bill (the Senate version included a 10% by 2020 renewable energy standard). The 10% standard would reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 249 million metric tons and save consumers $22.6 billion by 2025 ($4.7 billion to Texans by 2020). Click below & send an email to Joe Barton and let him know that you are disappointed in his opposition to the renewable energy standard. Take Action: http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/642/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=24650 |
Posted 5/20/2008 4:32 PM CDT A colossal 100-million-solar mass black hole has been spotted exiting its home galaxy at a speed of 5,900,000 mph (2,650 kilometers per second), kicked out after a huge cosmic merger took place. The event, seen for the first time, was announced last week. When two colliding galaxies finally merge, it is thought that the black holes at their cores may fuse together... & the resulting energy releases sometimes propels the new black hole from its parent galaxy out into space.
http://tinyurl.com/47oj7j |
Posted 5/19/2008 5:18 PM CDT A young 35 million year old star that's about 9 times more massive than our Sun is currently speeding away from the Milky Way and Large Magellanic Cloud into intergalactic space at 1.6 million miles per hour. By analyzing its velocity, light intensity, and its tell-tale elemental composition, it's been determined that it came from our neighboring galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud. The result suggests that it was ejected from that galaxy by a 'yet-to-be-observed' massive black hole. The star, dubbed HE0437-5439, is one of ten so-called hypervelocity stars so far found speeding away from the Milky Way... the other escapees', however, are neutron stars that have been thrown into hyperfast trajectories by their violent death throes. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080128113256.htm
http://www.ciw.edu/news/hyperfast_star_proven_be_alien |
Posted 5/18/2008 1:18 PM CDT
An invasive species of ants from the Caribbean has recently arrived in Houston (in 2000) via ship cargo. Having no known predators, they are currently found in several Texas counties bordering Houston. It should be noted that commercial ant poisons don't work on these little buggers (chemicals 'fipronil' and 'chlorfenapyr' do work to control their numbers though). The Texas Department of Agriculture is working with A&M researchers and the EPA on how to stop the ants.
http://www.dailytech.com/New+Species+of+Ants+in+Houston+Attack+Computers+Electronics/article11793c.htm
http://www.metafilter.com/71725/The-Crazy-Raspberry-Ants-are-coming-The-Crazy-Raspberry-Ants-are-coming
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080515/ap_on_re_us/texas_ants;_ylt=Amuuu3dPi58OpMzGIOMc2Kys0NUE