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Double Standards

Sat, 25 Oct 2008 07:09:57 GMT

clipped by: thisnamecantbetaken
clipper's remarks: What do you call it when just over 3 thousand people were killed in the September 11 attack on the US?
– An atrocity.
What do you call it when nearly 5 million people were killed in the Vietnam war?
– A mistake.

What do you call it when very rich people exploit poor people?
– Greed and selfishness.
What do you call it when very rich countries exploit poor countries?
– Globalization.

What do you call it when someone carrying a gun enters your house and steals your valuable possessions?
– An armed robbery.
What do you call it when a multinational corporation supported by armed forces enters your country and steals your valuable possessions?
– Free trade.

What do you call someone who steals from the rich and gives to the poor?
– Robin Hood.
What do you call someone who steals from the poor and gives to the rich?
– The US government.

Clip Source: www.doublestandards.org

What do you call…

What do you call it when someone gives money to a government official in return for favors?

– Bribery.

What do you call it when a large corporation gives money to a government official in return for favors?

– A campaign contribution.

What do you call a serial killer who claims that God told him to do it?

– A psychopath.

What do you call a serial killer who claims that God told him to invade Iraq?

– George W. Bush.

What do you call it when innocent people are killed by those resisting a brutal occupation?

– Terrorism.

What do you call it when innocent people are killed by an occupying army?

– Collateral damage

What do you call the 2002 presidential election in Zimbabwe where there were serious irregularities?

– A flawed election.

What do you call the 2000 presidential election in the US where there were serious irregularities?

– A victory for democracy.

Tags: perspective

All Roads Lead Somewhere

Sat, 25 Oct 2008 13:39:08 GMT

clipped by: Sheroug

Clip Source: funzu.com

Major advance in MS treatment

Thu, 23 Oct 2008 12:52:13 GMT

clipped by: JohnWaterman

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Doctors yesterday hailed a major success in the treatment of multiple sclerosis, after trials revealed that a drug had halted and reversed the debilitating effects of the disease for the first time.

a three-year trial of the drug, alemtuzumab, to compare its effectiveness against the market-leading beta interferon treatment. They recruited 334 patients with MS in their 20s and 30s, all of whom had experienced their first symptoms no more than three years ago.

Patients who were given the new drug were 74% less likely to relapse and had a 71% lower risk of being disabled within three years. But most remarkably, those on the new treatment showed fewer signs of disability at the end of the trial than they began with.

patients who take beta interferon have slowly shrinking brains

patients who have alemtuzumab have enlarging brains as the lost tissue is restored. Somehow the drug is promoting brain repair

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Drug reboots immune system

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Selectively Deleting Memories

Thu, 23 Oct 2008 15:37:59 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: "One thing that we're really intrigued by is that this is a selective erasure," Tsien says. "We know that erasure occurred very quickly, and was initiated by the recall itself."

"But people are very interested in devising a way where you could come up with a drug to expedite a way to do that," he says. That kind of treatment could change a memory by scrambling things up just in the neurons that are active during the specific act of the specific recollection. "That would be a very powerful thing," Mayford says.

But the puzzle is an incredibly complex one, and getting to that point will take a vast amount of additional research. "Human memory is so complicated, and we are just barely at the foot of the mountain," Tsien says.

Clip Source: www.technologyreview.com

Amping up a chemical in the mouse brain and then triggering the animal's recall can cause erasure of those, and only those, specific memories, according to research in the most recent issue of the journal Neuron.

While the study was done in mice that were genetically modified to react to the chemical, the results suggest that it might one day be possible to develop a drug for eliminating specific, long-term memories, something that could be a boon for those suffering from debilitating phobias or post-traumatic stress disorder.

For more than two decades, researchers have been studying the chemical--a protein called alpha-CaM kinase II--for its role in learning and memory consolidation.

In the most recent results, Tsien found that when the mice recalled long-term memories while the protein was overexpressed in their brains, the combination appeared to selectively delete those memories.

Tags: neuroscience, memory, memory erasure

Palin Wardrobe Purchases Violate McCain-Feingold Law!

Fri, 24 Oct 2008 14:58:44 GMT

clipped by: ratilfar
clipper's remarks: Oops!

Clip Source: www.juancole.com

' SEC. 313. USE OF CONTRIBUTED AMOUNTS FOR CERTAIN PURPOSES.

(a) PERMITTED USES-

(b) PROHIBITED USE-

(1) IN GENERAL- A contribution or donation described in subsection (a) shall not be converted by any person to personal use.

(2) CONVERSION- For the purposes of paragraph (1),

(A) a home mortgage, rent, or utility payment;
(B) a clothing purchase;
(C) a noncampaign-related automobile expense;
(D) a country club membership;
(E) a vacation or other noncampaign-related trip;
(F) a household food item;
(G) a tuition payment;
(H) admission to a sporting event, concert, theater, or other form of entertainment not associated with an election campaign; and
(I) dues, fees, and other payments to a health club or recreational facility.'

Tags: palin, mccain, gop, illegal, surprise, not, recession, reality, rich, elite

BLASPHEMING BUSES WILL BURN IN HELL, SAY CHRISTIANS

Sat, 25 Oct 2008 14:11:55 GMT

clipped by: tabsey

Clip Source: www.thedailymash.co.uk

BUSES which carry adverts doubting the existence of God are risking their eternal souls, Christian campaigners said last night.

The Routemasters were all regular churchgoers
The Humanist Association is to spend more than £20,000 on adverts declaring: "There is probably no God, so you should probably stop worrying and probably enjoy life. Then again, maybe not. Who knows?"

But Stephen Green, director of Christian Voice, said: "Any bus which allows itself to be abused in this way will spend eternity in the company of Satan's bus.

"They will burn alongside gay buses, buses that have had abortions and buses that knowingly took people to see Jerry Springer: the Opera."

Some London buses have refused to start, insisting the adverts have forced them to choose between their faith and their job as a bus.

Number 16, Cricklewood to Victoria, said: "If it wasn't for all those Christian adverts I carried as a teenager, I would have wound up in bus prison."

Tags: humour