Humanity: Good News, Bad News

[ZeaLitY]

Good News: http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/10/03/nobel.physics.ap/index.html America is just kicking all kinds of ass in this year's Nobel Prizes (so far).

Bad News: http://www.cnn.com/2006/HEALTH/09/29/sleep.health/index.html America is kicking its own ass by not getting enough sleep at night, which causes a host of problems. Thankfully, I've been told by a university student that MIT is taking action by easing off emphasis on statistical grades and overachievers and placing more focus on healthy lifestyles. Because in the end, pulling all-nighters to be brilliant will haunt you.

[Radical_Dreamer]

Good news:http://www.biologynews.net/archives/2006/10/05/researchers_seek_to_design_first_treatment_for_neuroaids.html

AIDS causes brain damage. Currently, AIDS treatments don't prevent or halt this effect. Now we're working on a treatment to handle that aspect of AIDS treatment.

Bad news:http://www.poetv.com/video.php?vid=7439

As we all know, a Republican senator has recently stepped down after logs of inapropriate chat and e-mail with underaged boys were released...five years after ABC claims to have recieved them. Also, Fox news has been listing the disgraced senator as a Democrat, most likely maliciously. Well, the "family values" party has now taken it a step further. In order to protect the child molesters in their midst, they are using...wait for it...children, to prevent journalists from asking the tough questions about the scandal.

[ZeaLitY]

Good News: Heard from critics that despite not burning gas, electric cars still tap into greenhouse emissions by drawing power created from US coal? Fear not. Plug-In Hybrids: The Cars that Will Recharge America reveals that thirty studies confirm that electric cars still overall reduce emissions, and that efficiency can only get better.

Bad News: http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/10/05/gay.marriage/index.html California's same-sex marriage ban has been upheld by an appeals court.

[Radical_Dreamer]

Nice! Even if the energy comes from the grid, it's still much easier to clean up. One powerplant doing the polluting is easier to clean up than 10,000 automobiles out polluting around as they go. Plus, you can utilize economies of scale to really benefit from renewable electricity sources, like wind and solar, to clean up the grid. There is so much good technology for automobiles that is just around the corner. It makes me really excited.

Edited for clarity.

[Lord J Esq]

I was going to say that very thing. Nicely put!

[V_Translanka]

We just need some kind of mobile windmills that we can put in the paths of hurricanes (on and off land) or something...>_>

[Radical_Dreamer]

We just need some kind of mobile windmills that we can put in the paths of hurricanes (on and off land) or something...>_>

You're liable to wind up in Oz if you take that approach.

[Lord J Esq]

Actually, I'd like to hear more of V's windmill proposal. My tropikkal kroooz researchers in Jamaica have been pursuing similar techniques, not for deflecting a hurricane, but for keeping a skybound luxury resort island afloat inside a hurricane. We call it, Hurricane Island IV. (Don't ask about the first three.) And the trick is to rotate your windmills in just such a way that the negative relative air pressure from above actually blows the island up into the sky continuously, like a stabilized tornado. The hurricane itself provides the energy; we provide the fun! Lately my teams have been working on trying to get our system to not blow up the people on the island--I mean "blow up" as in blow down, except up, rather than blow up as in boom!--and if V's scientists have any insights to offer from their antihurricane research, well, I'd pay a pretty penny, because at this point I'm beginning to run out of luxury resort vacationers.

[ZeaLitY]

Good News: Preliminary Airforce tests have failed to find radioactive debris over the test site in North Korea. Perhaps it's all a ruse?

Doubleshot: The Wall Street Journal reports that Britian basically flipped a middle finger to America concering Guantanamo Bay. Perhaps something will get done now that our closest ally is condemning the prison.

~Neutral: The US is poised to hit 400 million by 2043. Midwestern states might even lose population as the east and west coasts are poised to support the higher population the most. And they shall be smited by hurricanes, muahahah!

Bad News: Murder is up 49% and robbery up 80% this year in the United States according to ABC News.

Doubleshot: Coke is coming out with Enviga, a tea designed to raise metabolism. Studies show that drinking three can reduce 100 calories daily. Studies also show that getting your ass out on the street and walking can get the job done free. It costs $35 worth of the juice to offset a Big Mac or Sirloin Steak. Why pay for an expensive energy drink when you can burn a freaking hell of a lot more than 100 calories and shape your body by real execise? This kind of catering to lazy people is not good for humanity. People need to take responsibility for their physical well-being and stop looking for short cuts. I'm not condemning scientific applications for metabolism, but the populace should not be afraid of a little American dream hard work. Fessing up to mounting tasks at hand and declaring Rock Lee on them is the way to success. Evading them and paying out the ass for it isn't.

[Lord J Esq]

What mechanism do they use to "raise metabolism"? If it were that easy, the obesity issue would be over. Let's have some links!

[ZeaLitY]

The Wikipedia article is horrible,l but the science probably ain't so great,either.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enviga

I thin my fingers are sactually suffering from frostbite. I feel like Ican barely move them and they're tingling at the top painfully.

[Lord J Esq]

I told you not to buy that igloo...

[Romana]

Doubleshot: Coke is coming out with Enviga, a tea designed to raise metabolism. Studies show that drinking three can reduce 100 calories daily. Studies also show that getting your ass out on the street and walking can get the job done free. It costs $35 worth of the juice to offset a Big Mac or Sirloin Steak. Why pay for an expensive energy drink when you can burn a freaking hell of a lot more than 100 calories and shape your body by real execise? This kind of catering to lazy people is not good for humanity. People need to take responsibility for their physical well-being and stop looking for short cuts. I'm not condemning scientific applications for metabolism, but the populace should not be afraid of a little American dream hard work. Fessing up to mounting tasks at hand and declaring Rock Lee on them is the way to success. Evading them and paying out the ass for it isn't.

Sorry, couldn't resist... 

[Lord J Esq]

Good News:
Face-mapping video effects software makes an impression on film industry

The New York Times's Sharon Waxman talks with executives from Imagemetrics, a special effects company whose new facial mapping software could change the way movies are made. The link goes to a NYT video, and is not a permalink, so watch it while you can! This concept may be just the sort of thing the film and video game industries need to stanch the growing drain on their resources in the name of better graphics.

Bad News:
Older man robs bank in order to go to jail

There once was a man of 63 years who, in an environment where the jobs available to someone his age were mostly minimum wage, decided to rob a bank and wait out his three years till becoming eligible for Social Security...in a jail cell.

We are all responsible for our own decisions; I will agree with the inevitable naysayers that he could likely have made a better choice. But I do think of it as a failure of society when people are given an environment that does not discourage, and may even facilitate, their decision to resort to the "comforts" of jail life in order to stave off the burdens of poverty.

WTF News:
Teen questioned by Secret Service for making threat against Bush on MySpace

Upset by the war in Iraq, Julia Wilson vented her frustrations with President Bush last spring on her Web page on MySpace.com. She posted a picture of the president, scrawled "Kill Bush" across the top and drew a dagger stabbing his outstretched hand. She later replaced her page on the social-networking site after learning in her eighth-grade history class that such threats are a federal offense.

It was too late.

Federal authorities had found the page and placed Wilson on their checklist. They finally reached her this week in her molecular biology class.

The 14-year-old freshman was taken out of class Wednesday and questioned for about 15 minutes by two Secret Service agents...

[Burning Zeppelin]

The Wikipedia article is horrible

I'll pretend I didn't hear that!

Also, to all you Wikipediaens, do you have a "this user is the handsome devil of the hidden leaf village known as Rock Lee!" Userbox?

Upset by the war in Iraq, Julia Wilson vented her frustrations with President Bush last spring on her Web page on MySpace.com. She posted a picture of the president, scrawled "Kill Bush" across the top and drew a dagger stabbing his outstretched hand. She later replaced her page on the social-networking site after learning in her eighth-grade history class that such threats are a federal offense.

It was too late.

Federal authorities had found the page and placed Wilson on their checklist. They finally reached her this week in her molecular biology class.

The 14-year-old freshman was taken out of class Wednesday and questioned for about 15 minutes by two Secret Service agents...

Heh. People make jokes like that all the time here too, about Bush and Howard. I wonder why they can't take jokes from 8th graders...But I guess it can be seen as "incitation of violence". Of course, the news is nowhere near as humorous as the time some kid hugged Howard on his birthday...while holding a screwdriver. And no one noticed.