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Comment Re:Silly Mudslums (Score 1) 374

My handful of quarters as an atheist who studied these two religions:...

You're wrong. I've studied both the bible (several versions of it) as well as the Qur'an.

What it does, however, is call for the bloodshed of those who DISGRACE and VIOLATE christianity -

Say What??? Any call for bloodshed, whether to be taken literally or metaphorically, ended with Micah; the which foretold of the "Great and Dreadful Day" when "he (Elijah) shall turn the heart of the fathers ....", & etc. No mention of bloodshed. The NT in no wise mentions taking the blood (life) of anyone for blasphemy or doctrinal transgressions. No where in the NT is such license given. The ministry of the principal character of the NT is that of "reconciliation"; reconciling unbelievers to God. WADR, your exegesis is terrible and the stuff of zealots.

Comment Re:That title makes me cringe. (Score 1) 199

"But if you can do it, the cost could be 10 times less than what's used to make [crystalline] silicon panels." Back in the day when print media ruled, editors got to be editors because they knew their stuff and applied it. Nowadays it seems a certain facility with "spell check" and "font size" apps is more than enough to climb the flagpole to that erstwhile estimable position. Somebody at "Technology Review" evidently scanned the article. They took the time to intrude the redundant "[crystalline]" as if to differentiate the atomic structure of silicon wafers from what is used in breast implants and bath tub sealants. But they overlooked the need to clarify Patel's intent WRT the estimated manufacturing cost of the nanopillar solar cell technology. The burden of catching and correcting grammatical imprecision is on TRâ(TM)s editorial staff. 'Back in the dayâ¦' if an editor had been disinclined to confer with the author, the line might have been 'blue penciled to read: "But if you can do it, the cost could be [about one tenth] what's used to make silicon panels." We should give edit where editâ(TM)s due: eh?

Comment Who's your Grandma? mtDNA (Score 1) 229

Interesting supplement to this thread, albeit a tad old: "Neandertal DNA July 29, 1997 by Mark Rose" http://www.archaeology.org/online/news/dna.html The research focussed on the mtDNA (mitochondrial DNA) and says in part: "If Neandertals made a significant genetic contribution to modern humans, similarities should exist between DNA of Neandertals and that of people from Europe, where the Neandertals persisted the longest. PÃÃbo and his colleagues compared the Neandertal DNA to that from five modern populations, but it proved no closer to DNA from modern Europeans than to that from four other groups. While this does not rule out the possibility of Neandertal and modern human mixing, it suggests that the Neandertal genetic contribution to modern gene pools, if any, was small."

Comment Re:Can somebody 'splain this? (Score 1) 361

The part I want 'splained is: Why does anyone think that the stock market is a serious indicator of the state of the economy? Everyone knows the market is going to be way up in a few years because it is currently highly undervalued but because the vast majority of investing groups are buying and selling with short term gain in mind the market is bouncing around like a superball. Maybe if someone was required to hold a stock for a minimum period of time it would make stocks an indicator of something.

I empathize with your struggle to construct an intelligible declarative sentence that describes the current state of the US economy.... but... NOT "Everyone knows the market is going to be way up in a few years..."

Quite the contrary.

..."For with the US alone having unprecedented and unsustainable household, corporate and public debt of $51.1 trillion at the end of 2007 and projected to be at least $53 trillion (equivalent to nearly the whole economic turnover of the entire world) by the end of this year". [2008] Dr David Hill World Innovation Foundation Charity (WIFC) Bern, Switzerland 27th September 2008

That is a far cry from the $10 trillion ND that most Americans are led to believe [see "National Debt Clock"] is what they are carrying into 2009.

As of 2007, there were about 138 million taxpayers in the United States, including many (about one third of all filers) who don't pay any income tax.

According to GAAP and FASB, (i.e., based on the Accrual Method of Accounting) projections for 2008 put the Federal Debt at $53 trillion. This represents $384,059 of Federal Debt per taxpayer. A 2 income household is on the hook for more than 3/4 of a million dollars.

The interest on this $53 trillion (estimated to average out to 3.77%) amounts to $2 trillion, or $14,493 per taxpayer per year; which interest isn't being paid. It's 'accruing'. It's what economists call "Unfunded Debt".

The simplest, and most accurate 'splanation' is that the US is, and has been for 4-5 years, bankrupt. What we are witnessing isn't a succession of institutional and corporate bailouts and 'stop-gap' measures to buy time until things turn around. No growth potential imaginable can ever catch up to the spiraling debt, now increasing by $2.5 to $2.7 billion a day. Rather, all this busy work amounts to nothing more productive that bailing water from one compartment of a sinking ship into another.

Until the US finally gets around to declaring it's insolvency, no meaningful 'reconstruction' policies and projects are going to be formulated and undertaken.

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