President Barack Obama returns from the Copenhagen Global Warming Summit to be greeted by a record snowstorm. Some apparently refer to this as the "Gore Effect".
President Barack Obama returns from the Copenhagen Global Warming Summit to be greeted by a record snowstorm. Some apparently refer to this as the "Gore Effect".
Gerd Leipold, the outgoing leader of Greenpeace, admitted that his organization's recent claim that the Arctic Ice will disappear by 2030 was "a mistake." Greenpeace said in a July 15 press release that there will be an ice-free Arctic by 2030 because of global warming. BBC reporter Stephen Sackur on the "Hardtalk" program pressed Leipold until he admitted the claim was wrongLeipold also admitted that emotive reasoning is part of their modus operandi (i.e., lying is justified for the sake of the cause).
In one leaked e-mail, the research center's director, Phil Jones, writes to colleagues about graphs showing climate statistics over the last millennium. He alludes to a technique used by a fellow scientist to "hide the decline" in recent global temperatures. Some evidence appears to show a halt in a rise of global temperatures from about 1960, but is contradicted by other evidence which appears to show a rise in temperatures is continuing.What you should realize is the backdrop behind this story, the ugly truth that the models upon which global warming conjectures are built have not been confirmed by observations over the last 10 years.Jones wrote that, in compiling new data, he had "just completed Mike's Nature trick of adding in the real temps to each series for the last 20 years (i.e., from 1981 onwards) and from 1961 for Keith's to hide the decline," according to a leaked e-mail, which the author confirmed was genuine.
Global warming appears to have stalled. Climatologists are puzzled as to why average global temperatures have stopped rising over the last 10 years. Some attribute the trend to a lack of sunspots, while others explain it through ocean currents.
Hundreds of curious followers flock to Reji Kumar’s home every day to pray and ask for miracles.Now one of the country’s top zoologists plans to study the rainbow frog. But Reji, 35, who keeps the creature in a glass bottle after finding it while out watering plants, is afraid it might CROAK first.
He said: “My one problem is that this frog does not appear to eat. I keep trying to feed it but it doesn’t eat anything. I don’t know what else to give it.”
The frog was a dazzling white color when Reji, from Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, first spotted it.
HT: Slice
]]>
Abortion survivor Gianna Jessen states,
Seen this ad? In it, Senator Obama personally attacks me. I've dealt with worse; I survived an abortion. State Senator Barack Obama voted 4 times against laws to protect babies who survive abortions. Meanwhile, U.S. Senators voted 98-0 for Born Alive Infant Protections. Senator Obama says deciding when babies get human rights is above his pay grade. Tell him abortion survivors deserve legal protections too.
Isn't about time someone told the truth about Barack Obama: BornAliveTruth
]]>Scientists have transformed one type of fully developed adult cell directly into another inside a living animal, a startling advance that could lead to cures for a variety of illnesses and sidestep the political and ethical quagmires associated with embryonic stem cell research.Despite the long road ahead prior to human application, the new technology is a remarkable achievement and the researchers ought to be congratulated.[snip]
The experiments, detailed online yesterday in the journal Nature, raise the prospect that patients suffering from not only diabetes but also heart disease, strokes and many other ailments could eventually have some of their cells reprogrammed to cure their afflictions without the need for drugs, transplants or other therapies.
Earlier this year, ESCR received (another) fatal blow by published research which concluded that human embryonic stem cells are rapidly rejected by the immune system. Of course, the FDA has yet to approve any clinical trial with embryonic stem cells because these cells (whether growing or even pre-differentiated) have a nasty tendency to form cancerous tumors (FRC Blog).
Unfortunately, the technological failures and identification of a replacement for ESCR doesn't resolve the clash of worldviews and moral standards that remain at the heart of the issue.
Individuals and societies who are involved in and support ESCR view themselves as moral because their actions follow from an ethical standard that both justifies and motivates their decisions. In fact, the humanistic ethic that enables the murder of the unborn or the diseased, when pressed, will find little support in the absolute sense for the sanctity of human life that is not unborn or diseased because such sacredness can only be persuasive when derived from a transcended source (God).
Rejection of God means the acceptance of something else, some other ultimate authority or purpose from which standards for right and wrong are derived. This active replacement of Christian ethics with principles upon which ESCR is justified has practical consequences and will lead nations to progressively adopt increasingly oppressive practices that target the weak and defenseless based upon their utilitarian value to others.
The low power grayscale screen provides highly readable text and wireless connectivity, without a monthly service charge, enables readers to access the Kindle store from most locations.
With over 100,000 electronic books available, the innovative device is likely to achieve significant market penetration for mainstream book readers. In my estimation, the current offering will fail to capture many of the classic texts of interest to Christians, instead emphasizing books likely to generate significant sales. Even so, the Kindle represents the coming change to fully electronic media, in which vast libraries are at the command of the reader. An incredible amount of content is “just there”, wherever you go, in a highly readable format.
Because the electronic books are of little value once reader, I would prefer a subscription service that charged a monthly fee for unlimited books, a rental rather than purchase. This would truly place a mobile library at my fingertips without significant (initial) investment.
A webcast will be available for those who can't make it to D.C..
Speakers to include:
Despite all of this and much more, President Robert G. Mugabe's party nominated him as its candidate in the presidential election in March.
But this British adventurer is now the subject of an investigation by U.K.'s Channel 4, which already has confirmed that Grylls checked into motels on a few occasions when he was depicted on TV having slept under the stars. Other allegations have been made suggesting that the crew that records Grylls in action isn't as hands-off as it might appear to viewers.Perhaps at this point we should pause and question the legitimacy of educational/nature reality shows in which the actors unnecessarily risk life and limb in a portrayal of bravery and survival tactics. Do we really expect to a person to purposefully put themselves in a dire situation so that we can be thrilled by their eventual survival?]]>[snip]
For all its self-professed realism, "Man" always required some suspension of disbelief. Grylls often commented on the painful loneliness of being alone in the wild, but unless his camera crew was staffed by bears, he did have some company out there.
In retrospect, Grylls' preternatural unflappability in even the most dire of circumstances always seemed a bit too good to be true. In one episode, he made an interminable slog through hip-deep snow drifts in the French Alps. Braving the frigid conditions, his frustration was evident only in the following comment: "I'd really murder for a cup of tea."
For all we know now, perhaps he was sipping English Breakfast on fine china between takes.
Chinook was developed by scientists at the University of Alberta who used an average of 50 computers for two years (876,000 computational hours) to determine the best move to play in every situation of a game.
The leader of the team described the feat this way:
"We've taken the knowledge used in artificial intelligence applications to the extreme by replacing human-understandable heuristics [rules of thumb] with perfect knowledge. It's an exciting demonstration of the possibilities that software and hardware are now capable of achieving."The assembled knowledgebase of checkers combinations is rather impressive but don't you find it somewhat ironic that the strictly deterministic algorithm, with "perfect knowledge", is called "intelligent"? Leading up to this pinnacle, algorithms were created to mimic human thought by employing heuristics, Bayesian networks, expert systems and other automated inference engines.
You can get beat by Chinock here
Proverbs 15:14 The mind of the intelligent seeks knowledge, But the mouth of fools feeds on folly.
"Doing the Lord's work is a thread that's run through our politics since the very beginning," Obama told church members. "And it puts the lie to the notion that the separation of church and state in America -- a principle we all must uphold and that I have embraced as a constitutional lawyer and most importantly as a Christian -- means faith should have no role in public life."His notion of faith appears to be a hollow appeal to sentimentality, in which one assents to a particular ideal but never experiences a life altering change. Or, perhaps his view reflects a desperate attempt to find meaninging through an irrational faith that cannot be expressed or known.
One may question whether Christians have acted faithfully, but to assert that faith does not have a role in certain spheres of life is absurd.
HT: WorldMagBlog
]]>The first step, a trip to Moscow, Russia. For a procedure not available in the u-s - adult stem cell therapy at the Neurovita Clinic.
"The give you shots for four days on the 5th day what those shots have done is make your bone marrow create an abundance of stem cells."
The stem cells are drawn from Rummelt's own blood and separated in a special machine. Then they are injected into her spinal fluid. Three trips and six injections later Rummelt can use her hip-flexers to crawl. A considerable feat, after not being able to move the lower half of her body for years.
"I had no feeling, no sensation, if my leg fell I had no idea at all," said Rummelt. With therapy Rummelt grows stronger everyday she can even stand. And she can actually feel pain in her foot, five years post injury.
Rummelt credits the stem cell injections and her intense physical therapy.
The potential is quite amazing. So is this video.
It's thrilling to see the development of potential therapies for injuries previously thought to be permanent. However, you have to wonder why this has gotten to little coverage. Reflections of a Paralytic commentsIt is disappointing that this story is not found anywhere else. Any treatment that gives feeling and movement back to a patient with a complete spinal cord injury 5 years later is truly a medical breakthrough. This simply does not happen.
Research and applications involving adult stem cells simply do not get the same attention that is given to mere speculation concerning the potential of embryo destroying stem cell research. Why?
]]>