“Why are humans so smart?” is a question that fascinates scientists. Tadeusz Kawecki, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Fribourg, likes to turn around the question.
“If it’s so great to be smart,” Dr. Kawecki asks, “why have most animals remained dumb?” picked by DerAlt 5 months ago

Who wouldn’t support an effort to pay for college for G.I.’s who have willingly suited up and put their lives on the line, who in many cases have served multiple tours in combat zones and in some cases have been wounded?
Well, you might be surprised at who is not supporting this effort. The Bush administration opposes it, and so does Senator John McCain. picked by DerAlt 5 months ago

Albert Hofmann, the Swiss chemist who invented LSD, died Tuesday at the age of 102. Although psychedelic drug enthusiasts are busy writing online tributes to Hofmann (who died from a heart attack, not from attempting to chew off his elbow in an acid-induced freak-out), there's also a sense that few people under the age of 30 have heard much about LSD, picked by DerAlt 6 months ago

In brief, the war has become a national tragedy, an economic catastrophe, a regional disaster and a global boomerang for the United States. Ending it is thus in the highest national interest. picked by DerAlt 6 months ago

The Rev. Jeremiah Wright went to Washington on Monday not to praise Barack Obama, but to bury him.
Smiling, cracking corny jokes, mugging it up for the big-time news media — this reverend is never going away. He’s found himself a national platform, and he’s loving it. picked by DerAlt 6 months ago

AMERICANS have learned to take with a grain of salt much of the rhetoric in a campaign like the current Democratic donnybrook between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Still, there are some red lines that should never be crossed. Clinton did so Tuesday morning, the day of the Pennsylvania primary, when she told ABC's "Good Morning America" that, if she were president, she would "tot... read full post picked by DerAlt 6 months ago

"A lot of people come and say, 'Oh, that's all in the past,' " explains Yehuda Shaul, executive director of the group, which has brought 3,000 people on eye-opening trips to Hebron. On the contrary, he adds, he sees abuses as increasingly institutionalized. "The whole point of Breaking the Silence is to understand the moral price tag of a military occupation." picked by DerAlt 6 months ago

Budget expert Stan Collender doesn't even like the "tax rebate" terminology used by Washington, since many of the poorer recipients will have paid no 2007 federal income tax or amounts less than their government check. The stimulus package, he says, is really "pure borrowing … just increasing the [federal] deficit." picked by DerAlt 6 months ago

As a prelude to North Carolina's May 6 Democratic presidential primary, state voters recently were asked about prejudices. As related by the News & Observer in Raleigh, here's what the poll found:
Not me, but my neighbor is predudiced. picked by DerAlt 6 months ago

"Mr. McCain’s plan would appear to result in the biggest jump in the deficit, independent analyses based on Congressional Budget Office figures suggest. A calculation done by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center in Washington found that his tax and budget plans, if enacted as proposed, would add at least $5.7 trillion to the national debt over the next decade." picked by DerAlt 6 months ago

Ricco asked Benefield if he was drunk that night after drinking three Long Island iced teas and smoking a blunt of "reefer." Benefield said no, he wasn't drunk.

"Didn't you say you were intoxicated?"

"Yes, intoxicated, not drunk."

And worse.

Update to:http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24305660/ picked by DerAlt 6 months ago

Pumping oil is surprisingly inefficient: For decades, companies relied on ground pressure and crude secondary well-flooding methods that recovered just one-third of a field’s reserves. Now, through enhanced oil recovery techniques, companies can collect up to three-quarters, dramatically lengtheninga field’s useful life. — D.C. picked by DerAlt 6 months ago

As it prepared to invade Iraq five years ago, the Bush administration called up retired military officers to help sell the war. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and his propaganda team courted as many as 75 retired military officers who could best market the Pentagon line, particularly on television.
The deal was simple: Offer good news on Iraq, even when the news is bad. picked by DerAlt 6 months ago

It eventually came out in Iraq in 2007, when he was in a firefight. Hall was a gunner on a Humvee, which took several bullets in its protective shield. Afterward, his commander asked whether he believed in God, Hall said. "I said, 'No, but I believe in Plexiglas,' " Hall said. "I've never believed I was going to a happy place. You get one life. When I die, I'm worm food." Upd... read full post picked by DerAlt 6 months ago

ONE SAILOR calmly tells the camera that America went to war for oil. Another, while slurring drunk and again when stone sober, is shown making racist comments. Yet another naval serviceman, who counsels crew members about sexually appropriate behavior, is caught having sex with a shipmate of a lower rank.

Not exactly the message the Navy wanted to broadcast picked by DerAlt 6 months ago

In their haste to get the ships into the water, the Navy and contractors redesigned and built them at the same time — akin to building an office tower while reworking the blueprints. picked by DerAlt 6 months ago

While Eliot Spitzer will hereafter be known as Client 9, he can take comfort in the fact that he is by no means alone. About 700,000 men in the U.S. (or 0.65 percent) pay prostitutes for carnal relations each year, according to one survey. Not really focused on Spitzer

Expensive entertainment picked by DerAlt 6 months ago

Polygamist families are taught that welfare was instituted by God to assist them. Thus, wives who are not technically married as the first wife file for welfare by stating that their husband has left them and refuses to pay child support. In effect, polygamy is cheating the honest citizens of this state out of millions of tax dollars. This is Utah but is typical of polygamist wefare abuse in othe... read full post picked by DerAlt 6 months ago

A few expressed regret for participating in what they regarded as an effort to dupe the American public with propaganda dressed as independent military analysis.

...“It was them saying, ‘We need to stick our hands up your back and move your mouth for you,’ ” Robert S. Bevelacqua, a retired Green Beret and former Fox News analyst, said. picked by DerAlt 6 months ago

The state's action is the boldest yet in dealing with the industry's increasingly controversial practice of canceling individual coverage -- known as rescission -- after patients have taken ill and submitted medical bills.
Looks like "Sicko" hit this one on the head. picked by DerAlt 6 months ago

By 8 p.m. Thursday, the ABC News website had received nearly 19,000 comments, most of them attacking the tenor of the debate and the moderators. One called Stephanopolous "George Stupidopolous."



Follow up to:
picked by DerAlt 6 months ago

Their unprecedented and growing affluence underscores the gaping inequality between the millions of Americans facing stagnating wages and rising home foreclosures and an agile financial elite that seems to thrive in good times and bad. Such profits may also prompt more calls for regulation of the industry. picked by DerAlt 6 months ago

Mr. Simon earned the “legend” title with his partner Jack Kirby by creating Captain America, the superhero who arrived in December 1940, just in time to play a patriotic foil to the Axis powers. The cover of the first issue even has the good captain socking Hitler in the jaw. picked by DerAlt 6 months ago

Kari the babysitter is in for a very unusual night.
Pixar is fantastic! picked by DerAlt 6 months ago

Not anti McCain, just a quote: "And John McCain is as Regular a Guy as it gets, even though he dumped his first wife (the mother of his three children) after she was disfigured and disabled by a near-fatal car accident so that he could marry his much younger, much prettier, and extremely wealthy heiress-mistress." picked by DerAlt 6 months ago