I found it at Yahoo News from the AP:
By STEPHEN SINGER, Associated Press WriterSat Jun 23, 5:11 PM ET
Sen. Barack Obama told a church convention Saturday that some right-wing evangelical leaders have exploited and politicized religious beliefs in an effort to sow division.
“Somehow, somewhere along the way, faith stopped being used to bring us together and faith started being used to drive us apart,” the Democratic presidential candidate said in a 30-minute speech before the national meeting of the United Church of Christ.
“Faith got hijacked, partly because of the so-called leaders of the Christian Right, all too eager to exploit what divides us,” the Illinois senator said.
“At every opportunity, they’ve told evangelical Christians that Democrats disrespect their values and dislike their church, while suggesting to the rest of the country that religious Americans care only about issues like abortion and gay marriage, school prayer and intelligent design,” according to an advance copy of his speech.
“There was even a time when the Christian Coalition determined that its number one legislative priority was tax cuts for the rich,” Obama said. “I don’t know what Bible they’re reading, but it doesn’t jibe with my version.”
A call to the Washington, D.C.-based Christian Coalition of America seeking comment was not immediately returned Saturday.
Obama is a member of the United Church of Christ, a church of about 1.2 million members that is considered one the most liberal of the mainline Protestant groups.
In 1972, the church was the first to ordain an openly gay man. Two years ago, the church endorsed same-sex marriage, the largest Christian denomination to do so. Obama believes that states should decide whether to allow gay marriage, and he opposes a constitutional amendment against it.
Conservative Christian bloggers have linked Obama to what they call the “unbiblical” teachings of his church. Theological conservatives believe gay relationships violate Scripture, while more liberal Christians emphasize the Bible’s social justice teachings.
Obama trails Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York by 33 percent to 21 percent in the most recent Associated Press-Ipsos poll among Democrats and those leaning toward the party.
Yes it’s a great way to go. Unfortunately, in my town every fourth person is elderly and the thought of all these people dying all around me, rotting away is kind of Stephen King.
The skeletal remains of an elderly woman were found Friday in her home, more than seven years after neighbors last reported seeing her.Ann M. Simmeck apparently died of natural causes, according to an autopsy conducted later Friday. She would have been 79 years old.
The autopsy could not determine the year and date of her death, believed to have occurred several years ago inside her split-level ranch home.
The home, which bears a strongly worded “no trespassing” sign, still had working electric service. Calendars and food inside the freezer were dated 1999 and earlier, neighbors who talked with investigators told The Hartford Courant.
Officers visited the property Friday and found Simmeck’s skeletal remains after a family member became concerned about Simmeck’s absence and called police.
“The last time I physically saw her was 1998, 1999,” said Mary Carlson, Simmeck’s neighbor since 1997.
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I am not a pot head, fuck, I do not even smoke anymore, have not in like 6 yrs for the most part. So why is it still legal? Because yout amazing government can never strong arm it as a single plant grown in your closet can yield more bud than the government would like, otherwise it would be very very legal. Fucking republicans.
This article though it is so reassuring to hear. Especially with the article coming from such a reliable source, Washingtonpost.com. Most professional websites pertaining to marijuana always seem and try to make it seem as bad as possible since they are generally government funded, so Im glad to see something positive for once. I do believe that this is true though! You can just tell when you’re smoking…
The largest study of its kind has unexpectedly concluded that smoking marijuana, even regularly and heavily, does not lead to lung cancer.
The new findings “were against our expectations,” said Donald Tashkin of the University of California at Los Angeles, a pulmonologist who has studied marijuana for 30 years.
“We hypothesized that there would be a positive association between marijuana use and lung cancer, and that the association would be more positive with heavier use,” he said. “What we found instead was no association at all, and even a suggestion of some protective effect.”
Federal health and drug enforcement officials have widely used Tashkin’s previous work on marijuana to make the case that the drug is dangerous. Tashkin said that while he still believes marijuana is potentially harmful, its cancer-causing effects appear to be of less concern than previously thought.
Earlier work established that marijuana does contain cancer-causing chemicals as potentially harmful as those in tobacco, he said. However, marijuana also contains the chemical THC, which he said may kill aging cells and keep them from becoming cancerous.
Tashkin’s study, funded by the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute on Drug Abuse, involved 1,200 people in Los Angeles who had lung, neck or head cancer and an additional 1,040 people without cancer matched by age, sex and neighborhood.
They were all asked about their lifetime use of marijuana, tobacco and alcohol. The heaviest marijuana smokers had lighted up more than 22,000 times, while moderately heavy usage was defined as smoking 11,000 to 22,000 marijuana cigarettes. Tashkin found that even the very heavy marijuana smokers showed no increased incidence of the three cancers studied.
Read the FULL Article
Personally, I would’ve mixed the chilis with urine instead of water. Would’ve gotten a better reaction from the guards. But that’s just me. Never the less, what a smart move!
Prisoners at Pematang Sinatar jail in Sumatra mixed hot chillies with water in plastic bottles to spray at guards.
The fiery liquid temporarily blinded the guards, allowing prisoners to grab their keys and make the break for freedom.
Sixteen of the inmates had now been recaptured, a police official said, but two were still on the run.
The men were meant to be on their way to breakfast but instead stormed the prison gate, Detective Den Martin told the Associated Press news agency.
They were spraying the chilli water and shouting “attack, attack”, he said.
A prison warder, Harianaja, told the Jakarta Post newspaper that the guards could not fight back because they were outnumbered.
“The is the first time chilli has been used to get out of this penitentiary,” the daily quoted him as saying.
Link
I actually heard that the mammoths planned on freezing their sperm in case of something like extinction…they were far more medically advanced than once thought… Ahh fuck it, forget the mammoths. Bring forth the raptors!
Bodies of extinct Ice Age mammals, such as woolly mammoths, that have been frozen in permafrost for thousands of years may contain viable sperm that could be used to bring them back from the dead, scientists said yesterday. Research has indicated that mammalian sperm can survive being frozen for much longer than was previously thought, suggesting that it could potentially be recovered from species that have died out.
Link
You dont say…
No two rain storms are alike. Dark clouds may form slowly throughout the day before a drop of rain falls, and sunny days can suddenly transform into thunderstorms. Different societies throughout history have held their own explanations for the behavior of weather – from human rituals to godly intervention – and now physicists from the U.K. and Sweden tackle one of the weirder weather phenomena: the abrupt rainfall often observed from cumulus clouds.
Michael Wilkinson, Bernhard Mehlig and Vlad Bezuglyy explain how quick showers can result from a dramatic increase in the collision rate of microscopic water droplets when the turbulence intensity in the atmosphere exceeds a threshold. Their theory, published in a recent issue of Physical Review Letters, suggests that the collision rate suddenly increases when the velocity of the water droplets as a function of position forms “caustics,” becoming a multi-valued function. When particles at the same position are moving with different velocities, the probability for collision is greatly enhanced.
“Our theory explains how turbulence can help to initiate rainfall,” Michael Wilkinson told PhysOrg.com. “It is relevant to any type of rainfall from cumulus clouds, i.e. the ‘cauliflower’-like clouds that indicate that the atmosphere is undergoing convection.”
Cumulus clouds, which develop vertically due to a convecting atmosphere, can create turbulence because convection transfers heat through circulation. This turbulence can generate the initial energy needed for moisture droplets to coalesce into full-fledged raindrops. (In contrast, stratiform clouds – which develop in horizontal layers – form in a stable atmosphere, and therefore do not elicit immediate wet forecasts.)
In the past, scientists thought that a significant cause of the increased droplet collisions was the particles clustering together in localized regions. Wilkinson and his colleagues found that, although clustering may exist in turbulent atmospheres, it does not greatly influence the collision rate, for a couple reasons. The team discovered that the collision rate remains high even when the clustering effect weakens at high turbulence intensity, and also that clustering requires a higher density than that of the particles in cumulus cloud formations.
Link
Who cares, Iraq is more important.
Millions of minors either buy alcohol online with ease or know an underage friend who does, according to a survey released today by the Wine and Spirits Wholesalers of America, Inc. (WSWA). A related audit of states conducted by WSWA confirms legislators are moving to increase online alcohol sales despite almost no compliance checks or enforcement by state regulatory agencies due largely to a lack of resources.
A new survey conducted by Teenage Research Unlimited (TRU)* confirms that a significant number of teens purchase beer, wine and liquor online. Specifically, TRU’s survey of 14- to 20-year-olds confirms:
* 3.1 million minors (12%) ages 14-20 report having a friend who has ordered alcohol online.
* Two percent (551,000) of those ages 14-20 say they personally have bought alcohol online.
* Nearly one in 10 (9%) of those ages 14-20 have visited a site that sells alcohol.
* One-third — nearly 8.9 million ages 14-20 nationwide — are open to the possibility of an online alcohol purchase before age 21.
* Seventy-five percent say their parents aren’t able to control what they do on the Internet.
* Among those ages 14-20 who have tried alcohol, 75% tried liquor, followed by wine at 64%, beer at 60% and wine coolers at 55%.
In the past year, at least 20 states passed laws expanding online sales of alcohol outside of the traditional system of safeguards associated with face- to-face alcohol sales in bars, restaurants and retail stores. While states routinely monitor offline alcohol providers and take enforcement actions when needed, WSWA’s audit*** of lead alcohol enforcement officials in all 50 states and the District of Columbia confirms that since 2002:
* 39 states and D.C. did not conduct a single online alcohol compliance check;
* Six states most likely did not conduct a single online alcohol compliance check, since they could not recall ever having conducted one; and
* Only five states conducted isolated online alcohol compliance checks (none did so regularly). In every case, decoy minors were able to buy alcohol online easily and with no ID check.
A growing number of individuals and organizations are seeking a ban on direct wine and other forms of alcohol sales. The WSWA-affiliated website has more than 24,000 individual supporters who oppose online alcohol sales. They are joined by a number of safety, medical, law enforcement and religious groups calling for stronger alcohol sales, distribution and access laws.
Linkage
Can any one feel sorry for these guys?
A sport utility vehicle crammed with suspected illegal immigrants rolled over in an attempt to outrun Border Patrol agents, killing nine people and injuring at least 12 others, officials said.
Five of the injured were in critical condition, Sheriff’s Maj. Leon Wilmot said.
The large SUV was carrying up to 22 people when the driver had tried to avoid a checkpoint on the highway, Border Patrol spokesman Lloyd Frers said.
With Border Patrol agents in pursuit, the driver attempted to make a U-turn and rolled over, Frers said. He did not know how fast either vehicle was traveling.
“The suburban was grossly overloaded, and it’s difficult to handle on that kind of (dirt) road,” Frers said.
Wilmot said the car had swerved to avoid a spike strip put out by Border Patrol agents.
Scores of illegal immigrants die each year while crossing the Mexican border into Arizona, many in car crashes. Smugglers often flee from authorities at high speeds or overload vehicles, which makes them difficult to control.
“They just pile in; they’re like sardines,” Frers said. “It’s unfortunate.”
The Yuma area, a sandy stretch of desert in southwestern Arizona, has become the nation’s busiest immigrant-smuggling hotspot. President Bush visited the area in May as part of his push for a sweeping overhaul of immigration laws.
Last month, after a crackdown on illegal border crossing, the Border Patrol’s Yuma Sector reported a 48 percent drop in migrant arrests — from 11,522 in June 2005 to 6,030 in June this year.
Link
one man, one bank, two robberies
Hey there, I have only owned AMD PC rigs and have been a huge fan for ages, so WOOHOO. Death to Intel! Lets hope they do the right thing, now that they own one kick ass chip! Ha not that AMD would ever make a video game console but they would certianly have two of the most important peices for a kick ass console in the backyard.
Officials from computer processor manufacturer Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) have confirmed rumors that the company will acquire graphics chip maker ATI Technologies in a cash and stock deal worth $5.4 billion.
The company indicated that the acquisition had been made in order to increase its presence in the commercial and mobile computing segments, as well as the consumer electronics market. The company now plans to market “customer-centric platforms” in 2007 using integrated technologies from both companies.
Although rumored since May of this year analysts had questioned the financial and strategic wisdom of AMD acquiring ATI outright. Additionally, the move could have important repercussions for the games industry, with the question of continued ATI support for Intel chipsets currently unclear. The ramifications for ATI rival NVidia’s support for AMD chipsets is also now in question. The acquisition though is not expected to have any effect on the use of ATI technology in the Xbox 360 and Wii - both of which use IBM PowerPC processors.
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