Seeded From Space...

Okay, with the word panspermia... I keep picturing little space sperm floating throughout the universe and planets (like the Earth) hanging out like eggs. I know, that is what the theory is supposed to make you think. Very silly if you ask me. What would be another name for it? Anyone? Bueller?

This also reminds me of what we have found recently about the bacteria that exists below the crust, deep below it that is. Existing on energy released by radiating particles. Could these bacteria be employed in cleaning up our radioactive waste? Like bacteria that is used to help clean water in water treatment plants. Hrm.

One worrying bit, could the red rain in India be a result of this deep earth bacteria being erupted out of a volcano? Since bacteria has been around the longest, it only makes sense that it would have evolved to survive in any environmental conditions. Do you suppose the deep earth bacteria was the original anaerobic bacteria from the beginning of life on earth could've burrowed into the earth when the atmosphere started changing?

Searching for 'our alien origins'
By Andrew Thompson
BBC Horizon

In July 2001, a mysterious red rain started falling over a large area of southern India.

Locals believed that it foretold the end of the world, though the official explanation was that it was desert dust that had blown over from Arabia.

But one scientist in the area, Dr Godfrey Louis, was convinced there was something much more unusual going on.

Not only did Dr Louis discover that there were tiny biological cells present, but because they did not appear to contain DNA, the essential component of all life on Earth, he reasoned they must be alien lifeforms.
( Read more... )

Doh! Rummy's in TROUBLE

Will they do it? Is it really gonna happen? Will the festivities continue? One can only hope. If they actually have the evidence for this, and win... What happens to all those people who were convicted if they were "only following orders"? Not that I condone torture but how do you do one without doing the other? And what about rendition? Where does that fit in? Because the claim that "everyone is doing it" is supremely childish and isn't an acceptable excuse for torture.

Rumsfeld faces German legal test

A lawyers' group has asked Germany to sue former US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld over alleged prisoner abuse in Iraq and Guantanamo Bay.

( Read more... )

Bullshit Alert!

I'm sorry, but this is such utter bullshit. Women finally get some studies done on how their bodies work and what diseases are worse for them and how they work in their bodies and so forth and men are complaining because they aren't the main focus and that they have to share the research dollars and efforts? WTF?! Men (on average) are more likely to suffer an early death because of factors other than disease. Like gunshot wounds and criminal activities - no I'm not saying all men are criminals sheesh. I think what, in the statistics that they are misquoting, should be explained is cause of death. And people in minority groups are known to die due to reasons that are rooted in poverty. Oh, those medicare programs are to benefit the children, not the mother. GAH! The only thing I'll agree on is that prevention is the best medicine. All people need to remember that; it is in the choices we make every day about what we eat, how much we exercise, what stresses we allow in our lives and so forth. Back to the old Nature versus Nurture debate.


November 14, 2006
Health Disparities Persist for Men, and Doctors Ask Why
By RONI RABIN

In recent years, women’s health has been a national priority. Pink ribbons warn of breast cancer. Pins shaped like red dresses raise awareness about heart disease. Offices of women’s health have sprung up at every level of government to offer information and free screenings, and one of the largest government studies on hormones and diet in aging focused entirely on older women.
( Read more... )

Psychiatry Catch All - Who suffers most?

November 11, 2006
Troubled Children - What’s Wrong With a Child? Psychiatrists Often Disagree
By BENEDICT CAREY

Paul Williams, 13, has had almost as many psychiatric diagnoses as birthdays.
( Read more... )

Yay for Primi!

A friend of mine is in the New York Times theater section. W00T for good reviews. I just hope that CoB and I will be able to get into the city before the run time ends.


November 14, 2006

THEATER REVIEW | 'JOB'S PASSION'
Job and Jesus Combine to Overcome
By ANITA GATES

There are bad days, and then there are bad days. As Job, a prosperous, gregarious man living in biblical times, is napping after a dinner party, messengers begin arriving.

One tells him that an earthquake has destroyed his iron mines in Lebanon. The next informs him that his shipyards in Alexandria have collapsed. “I’m going to go to the office and straighten everything out,” Job tells his guests. Luckily he has insurance on his holdings, through Caesar. Unfortunately a third messenger arrives, with news of a military coup and Caesar’s death. Then Job learns that all four of his children have died.

The biblical Job, faced with these disasters, agonized but never cursed God. The Job in Hanoch Levin's "Job’s Passion," now at Theater for the New City, quickly announces his conclusion that God does not exist. Although the play sometimes flaunts irreverence for irreverence’s sake (the vomit metaphor is particularly hideous), this dizzying array of images finds both humor and rich meaning in misery.

Mr. Levin, who was 55 when he died in 1999 , spent much of his career getting on the nerves of would-be censors in Israel, where he was born, lived and worked. His 1982 play, “The Patriot,” depicted a Jewish settler shooting a Palestinian. “You, Me and the Next War” (1968) questioned Israel’s self-congratulatory militaristic self-image, and “The Queen of the Bathtub” (1970) ridiculed Prime Minister Golda Meir.

In “Job’s Passion” (1981), which benefits from lively direction by David Paul Willinger and clever translation by Shay Azoulay , it may seem that Mr. Levin has gone to an awful lot of trouble just to declare God’s nonexistence. But the play is also an indictment of humanity. (If some entity created us, it wouldn’t necessarily want to stick around and take credit.) And the play suggests that persecuting people for their religious beliefs is both awful and inevitable.

Mr. Levin combines the stories of Job and Jesus, having Job (Primy Rivera in an excruciatingly brave performance) sentenced to death by a particularly painful method of impalement. So much for the nobility of suffering.



A character in the Felliniesque circus scene clarifies what may be Mr. Levin’s most heartfelt thought: “Don’t ask for a reason. Just observe the spectacle.”

"Job's Passion" runs through Dec. 3 at Theater for the New City, 155 First Avenue, at Ninth Street, East Village; (212) 254-1109.

Borat, Suckiness Incarnate, Offends Everyone.

I think I'm almost finished blogging for the day. I've been very expressive today - though really I'm just reading a lot of articles that I then want to either talk about or just post them. Easier to post them than to print them as PDF's in my Documents Folder.

You know that desire to laugh that you get when you are so offended you don't know what else to do? Expand that offensiveness for two hours and you get Borat. I think, like Carpetbagger, I am offended by it because it was based entirely on deception. People signing releases that they didn't read because they made assumptions about the veracity of the person who explained that they were something other than what they were. Entirely understandable is the reaction that the government of Kazakhstan is having over this movie. Now, I haven't seen it myself yet, and I don't know when or if I will. I'm not entirely sure of the motivations of the people who made this film. Was it to expose people and what they truly feel like under their P.C. facade or was it intentional entrapment of individuals who were pushed and induced into behavior by the supposed charismatic journalist? Again, the reviews I'm reading are saying it is so offensive they are disgusted by it and the guffawing amusement that the average moviegoer exhibits. Carpetbagger is a NY Times blogger.

November 14, 2006, 9:31 am
Throw the Borat Down the Well

( Read more... )

In other news, the Rev. John Hagee of San Antonio said support for Israel was “God’s foreign policy.” Many conservative Christians say they believe that the president’s support for Israel fulfills a biblical injunction to protect the Jewish state, which some of them think will play a pivotal role in the second coming. Many on the left, in turn, fear that such theology may influence decisions the administration makes toward Israel and the Middle East. Some of this is a replay of news from last year, but focused on how it is playing out in the ongoing negotiations for negotiations with Iran. *sigh* Don't these people realize that bringing on their version of the end of the world isn't what they are supposed to be pushing for? Besides, what use the self-fulfilling prophesy? Forknowledge influences future events by creating reasons for decisions in the present. This argument is ancient, whether our lives are ruled by destiny - which is much easier to believe in - or whether we create our own futures based on the choices of each individual overlapping. Then again, The Israeli government and its American allies have been building their alliance with evangelicals for decades. Israeli officials began working closely with Mr. Hagee and his church, for example, a quarter century ago, when he met several times with then-Prime Minister Menachem Begin. Moreover, (white )evangelicals make up about a quarter of the electorate. If you recall my previous posts on mega-churches and their growing influence, ever since Pat Robertson and his ilk started evangelizing on television even. Gah. Reminds me of Stigmata and End of Days and the rift that has always existed in the christian flavored church. Here's a thought, would the people who worked diligently to bring on the end of the world as we know it be held responsible by their god for all the people who die as a result of their maneuvering? Evangelicals are scary. Just the word evangelicals makes me think evil angels.