Links With Your Coffee - Wednesday
- xkcd - A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language - By Randall Munroe
- McClatchy Election 2008 blog
Hours after Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, introduced articles of impeachment against President Bush, his campaign says his website "was shut down by a series of suspicious and fast moving events."
Kucinich said he was getting an "overwhelmingly positive and powerful" response to his proposed impeachment when some uknown or unseen force stopped his effort to get out more information.
- Plants Found to Show Preferences for Their Relatives - NYTimes.com(tip to David, Mark, and koma604)
From its diminutive lavender flowers to its straggly windblown stalks, there is nothing about the beach weed known as the Great Lakes sea rocket to suggest that it might be any sort of a botanical wonder.
Yet scientists have found evidence that the sea rocket is able to do something that no other plant has ever been shown to do.The sea rocket, researchers report, can distinguish between plants that are related to it and those that are not. And not only does this plant recognize its kin, but it also gives them preferential treatment.
- Bacteria make major evolutionary shift in the lab - life - 09 June 2008 - New Scientist
A major evolutionary innovation has unfurled right in front of researchers' eyes. It's the first time evolution has been caught in the act of making such a rare and complex new trait.
And because the species in question is a bacterium, scientists have been able to replay history to show how this evolutionary novelty grew from the accumulation of unpredictable, chance events.
- Iraqis Condemn American Demands - washingtonpost.com
High-level negotiations over the future role of the U.S. military in Iraq have turned into an increasingly acrimonious public debate, with Iraqi politicians denouncing what they say are U.S. demands to maintain nearly 60 bases in their country indefinitely.
Top Iraqi officials are calling for a radical reduction of the U.S. military's role here after the U.N. mandate authorizing its presence expires at the end of this year. Encouraged by recent Iraqi military successes, government officials have said that the United States should agree to confine American troops to military bases unless the Iraqis ask for their assistance, with some saying Iraq might be better off without them.
"The Americans are making demands that would lead to the colonization of Iraq," said Sami al-Askari
- Terry » Archive » THE GOD DELUSION (VIDEO)RICHARD DAWKINSAPRIL 29th, 2008
- Atheist Sees Image of Big Bang in Piece of Toast(tip to Chris)
- Henry Miller's unfond memories of NYC - Boing Boingvideo
- Robert Ritchie: Regime change in heaven | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk
Comments
ROFL @ "Atheist Miracle Toast"
Oh snap! Look who showed up in my grilled cheese:
http://www.firstshowing.net/img/religulous-poster.jpg
"I have always been an Atheist and to see my life choices validated on a piece of toast is truly astounding"
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Kucinich voted with his party, against his own measure. / WTF Sad
yes3x, Kucinich didn't vote against his own measure. Where did you get that idea? He did voted with 100% of the Democratic members and 24 Republican members of the House to send Resolution 1258: Impeaching George W. Bush, President of the United States, of high crimes and misdemeanors, to the House Judiciary Committee, headed by John Conyers. (You know, the committee before which Scott McClellan will soon testify.) That's a way of keeping it alive, not killing it.
Here is the portal to info about the resolution, and here is a record of the vote.
The Bush administration is doing its uttermost to begin large-scale military action against Iran. John Conyers is trying to use the threat of impeachment as a deterrent (and you can help). But conviction requires a 2/3 vote in favor in the Senate. Ain't gonna happen. Therefore, the only reason to impeach is to bog down the administration in legalities, essentially grinding the gears in an attempt to halt a runaway vehicle.
An increasingly likely scenario at this point seems to be, Israel attacks Iran, Iran retaliates, and the White House uses this as justification to begin its next war. By the way, if anybody thinks having forces in neighboring Iraq will make it easy to invade Iran, part of the article the last link leads to reports:
I'm not sure what we can do about any of this, but it's important to be well-informed.
At this point, the longer term projections seem to point toward one of two scenarios:
Either Iran, Iraq, Syria, possibly Pakistan, and other Islamic nations band together and rise up to become a unified political bloc (a la the EU and Unasur, only with a strong religious bent) or war will lead to collapse of the global economy. Of course, it's pretty easy to draw a direct line of cause and effect between Western imperialism and a Middle Eastern backlash, but don't expect the vocal political right to ever acknowledge that.
Just when things were looking up politically here at home, it looks like serious gloom internationally in the immediate future.
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