Current Events - Actual things on the News

[chrisfan]

So anyway, since NdY suggested an actual topic would help, here's an actual topic ...

Bill Frist is getting a lot of heat for reversing his stand on stem cell research. Is his position really all that much of a dramatic reverse? Seems to me it makes quite a bit of sense.

The aspect of stem cell research that has always concerned me is the idea of creating embryos precisely for the purpose of harvesting their stem cells. Frist is still against that. Quite honestly - that's the aspect of the president's and the far pro-life position on this issue that makes no sense to me. It's better to destroy embryos outright than to use them for research?

I have no problem with encouraging people who have an excess of embryos after going through IVF to allow other couples to adopt the excess. But I don't believe you can force them to. When you start IVF, you have no idea how many tries you will need. IT's better for the woman's health to NOT go in to harvest over nad over and over, and that's why you take so many at once.

I do firmly believe that a line should be drawn before we get to creating for the purpose of destroying. But if we create the embryos for a very reasonalbe purpose (IVF) and they are not used for that purpose, it seems to me that Frist is right in saying that using those for research is a more humane option than destroying them.

[Thorngrub]

IN the news: Planet "X" - the tenth planet - finally discovered by today's laboring scientists, with their hip new technology. They're calling it "Xena", after the Warrior Princess.

Funny thing is of course, this ain't nothin' new. The ancient Babylonians knew all about a tenth planet - referred to as "Nibiru" (another name for "Marduk", an old "god" referred to in Sumerian texts). Many are familiar with the great "battle" between Marduk ("Nibiru") and Tiamat, which is interpreted by astute linguists as actually being 2 planets. Our own Earth is allegedly the results of this ancient cosmological impact, the remnant left from Marduk and Tiamat's collision.

Here is the link to the discovery of the tenth planet of our solar system:

observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1539933,00.html
*See copied & pasted article below *
and another one (for cross-referencing)
www.space.com/scienceastronomy/050729_new_planet.html

And here is a link detailing the Babylonian Mythos of Marduk (Nibiru) Vs. Tiamat:

members.aol.com/zetaomega/nibiru.htm

Funny how our "advanced technology" and "scientific awareness" is only now catching up with facts known well by ancient Babylonians, huh.

*This has been an authentic bit of real current events, on the news*

[Thorngrub]

*sigh*, here's the text from the "Guardian Unlimited" article's broken link, for your perusal:

The little rock causing a galactic storm

It's been named after the warrior princess. But the only fighting involved with Xena is between scientists, bitterly divided as to whether she is our latest planet, or just a jumped-up asteroid

Robin McKie
Sunday July 31, 2005
The Observer

Astronomers have found a new world orbiting the Sun. The giant lump of rock and ice is larger than the planet Pluto and is now the farthest known object in the solar system.
The discovery was announced by US scientists yesterday and the object has unofficially been named Xena, after the TV series starring Lucy Lawless. 'We have always wanted to name something Xena,' said Michael Brown, a member of the team that made the discovery using telescopes at the Palomar Observatory, outside San Diego, California.

Preliminary observations suggest Xena - officially known as 2003 UB313 - is an extremely strange world. It is currently 9 billion miles away from the Sun, roughly 100 times more distant than the Earth, and is now about three times more remote than Pluto. At its present distance, the Sun will appear so small in the sky it will almost be indistinguishable from other stars.

Xena will also be incredibly cold. Its surface temperature is likely to be only a few degrees above absolute zero, while a year there - the time Xena takes to make one passage round the Sun on its highly elliptical orbit - will be the equivalent of 560 Earth years.

Despite its distance, the little world is also proving to be highly controversial. Astronomers cannot agree whether it is a planet or just a jumped-up asteroid. Its discoverers are claiming Xena is the 10th planet. Other astronomers say it is just another of the Sun's minor planets. There are thousands of minor planets in the solar system, but only nine fully fledged major planets.

The last full planet to be discovered - in 1930 by US astronomer Clyde Tombaugh - was Pluto. But recently some astronomers have campaigned to have Pluto downgraded to 'minor planet' status. It is so small - its diameter is a mere 2,200 kilometres - that it is unworthy of the status of full planet, it was argued. This bid was finally rejected after heated scientific debate.

But now the discovery of Xena, which is only slightly bigger than Pluto, will re-ignite that row. Both Pluto and Xena are components of the Kuiper Belt, which is made up of thousands of small asteroid-like objects, many mere lumps of rock, that sweep the outermost depths of the solar system. As members of the Kuiper Belt, neither Pluto nor Xena should be rated full-fledged planets, it is argued.

The trouble for astronomers is that they do not have an exact definition of a planet. Many say that, if Pluto had been discovered today, it would not have been called a proper planet. In 1999 one group from the US Minor Planet Centre proposed that Pluto be given a new joint classification so that it would keep its position among the major planets, but also be given a designation as a minor planet. The centre dropped the proposal after outcry from those who saw it as a demotion.

Gareth Williams of the centre said he still supported dual status for Pluto, but did not think Xena should be added to the registry of major planets. It should be left as as a minor planet 'permanently', he said.

But Mark Sykes, director of the Planetary Sciences Institute in Tucson, Arizona, disagreed. It should be classed as a full planet, he said. 'The kinds of questions we would ask about this object [Xena] would be planet-like questions,' he said. For example, does it have an atmosphere and what sort of geological processes generated its apparently bright surface?

This view was backed by the leader of the team that discovered Xena. 'It is definitely bigger than Pluto, and I would say it counts out as the 10th planet,' said Brown.

Xena was first spotted in January. Since then scientists have been checking its position and size before making their announcement.

They had hoped to hold back for longer, but a secure website containing details of the discovery was recently hacked and the hacker threatened to release the information.

For Brown, the discovery is particularly satisfying. Five and a half years ago, he bet fellow astronomer Sabine Airieau five bottles of good champagne that he would find a Kuiper Belt object larger than Pluto by the end of last year. In December, having failed, he bought the champagne to send to her. Then 2003 UB313 was spotted on 8 January.

'I lost the bet by eight days,' Brown said. 'But she graciously decided she would let that window slide and I would win the bet. That means I get to drink 10 bottles of good champagne. And I think I will.'

[Thorngrub]

And also on the news:
Frozen Lake Discovered In Crater On Mars

www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Mars_Express/SEMGKA808BE_0.html

Check it out:



Pretty cool, huh?

[Thorngrub]

I'm tellin ya peeps . . . It shouldn't take recent discoveries such as these (10th planet; lake on Mars) to tell ya how deeply, steeply buried in the [shadow=gray,left,300]DARK AGES[/shadow] we still truly, and verily, are.

"Wake Up" time is coming. . . .hold on to yer seats

[Thorngrub]

Of course, "Xena" (the lump of rock & ice larger than Pluto just discovered orbiting our sun) may just be a large chunk thrown off from Marduk & Tiamat's legendary epic "battle" (i.e, collision). . . It probably got sent off on its own erratic orbit, to be (re)discovered this year by our modern astronomers. I wonder if there are any traces of our DNA imbedded within its structure?

[shin]

Fascinating shit, Thorn.

[shin]

I figure if they can name a planet after a cartoon dog, they can name one after a TV princess.

[Thorngrub]

Jul 29, 2005: Enceladus at Close Range - During the very close flyby of Enceladus two weeks ago, multiple Cassini instruments, working simultaneously, made the remarkable discovery that heat and water vapor are escaping from the interior along the prominent “tiger stripe” fractures near the moon’s south pole.

For full story about the recent activities/discoveries of the Huygen's Probe:

ciclops.org/

[Thorngrub]

There are some AWESOMEly detailed pics of Enceladus if you follow some links above. . .

[Thorngrub]

By the way. . . if you haven't checked out, (and I mean, DOWNLOADED TO YOUR PC) GOOGLE EARTH, then you just don't know what you're missing . . .

earth.google.com/

"A 3-D Interface To The Planet"

Believe me .. .YOU WANT TO DOWNLOAD THIS THING IMMEDIATELY.

It's only 10 Megs. . . not a lot of memory for what you get.

And what you get is . . . . .freakin' amazing. You can zoom in anywhere on the planet, and get right down into any street on any city (practically), and then DRAG with the little hand-icon the streets along, as if you're literally maneuvering down them, and you can go anywhere you freakin want.

It is the most amazing thing.

What are you waiting for -?

[Thorngrub]

Hmmm.....it might be more than 10-megs. . . *do it anyway*, it's incredible

[pissin2]

You jerk, I don't want to hear about space! That's not a current event! Take it to the space board!

[ken]

Or the Mars board. Current Events means American politics. Dumbass.

[pissin2]

Back to that religion article, I think they should do an extensive study on prayer. If you can show me a chart or like a pie graph where 9 out of 10 people prayed they would beat their brain tumors, and out of those 9 it worked, and then the guy that didn't pray died, then I'd be like "God damn. It works."