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1851 - The telescope was patented by Alvan Clark of Cambridge, Massachusetts.

1966 - Gemini 12 launched on 4-day flight

1982 - Space Shuttle Columbia launches first commercial satellite. Columbia's previous launch included the most advanced spy satellite to date, w/ high tech telescope powered by CCD sensors.

COINCIDENCE? I THINK NOT!

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“I took a sheet of paper, divided it into debt and credit columns on the arguments for and against God and immortality. On Christmas Eve I wrote 'bankrupt' at the foot. And it was on Christmas morning 1895, after I had celebrated three Masses, while the bells of the parish church were ringing out the Christmas message of peace, that, with great pain, I found myself far out from the familiar land--homeless, aimlessly drifting. But the bells were right after all; from that hour on I have been wholly free from the nightmare of doubt that had lain on me for ten years.”
-- Joseph McCabe, on his epiphany & leaving the priesthood

FROM THE CHURCH OF INEFFABLE STUPIDITY:

The moral of the story: If you wish to keep your faith, never take out some paper and total the arguments for and against god.

a) Rape kits not provided by US military.
Women serving in our military suffer from rapes (by our male soldiers) twice as often as civilians. Yet, our military refuses to provide them with rape kits (which would help ID the rapist AND advise of any STD transmission.)
I guess our military really is a lot like Alaska - clueless.
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b) The Cognitive Benefits of Nature

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Thoreau would have liked this study: interacting with nature (at least when compared to a hectic urban landscape) dramatically improves improve cognitive function. In particular, being in natural settings restores our ability to exercise directed attention and working memory, which are crucial mental talents. The basic idea is that nature, unlike a city, is filled with inherently interesting stimuli (like a sunset, or an unusual bird) that trigger our involuntary attention, but in a modest fashion. Because you can't help but stop and notice the reddish orange twilight sky - paying attention to the sunset doesn't take any extra work or cognitive control - our attentional circuits are able to refresh themselves. A walk in the woods is like a vacation for the prefrontal cortex.

http://scienceblogs.com/cortex/2008...22_to_7_287_28_2008&utm_medium=email

In unrelated news, in their never ending quest to support Big Pharma, the Bush administration erased the last environmental laws it somehow missed in the last 8 years. Now, all pristine forests will be shaved clean and exploited for natural resources. Oil drilling, open mining, dumping of toxic wastes will be the norm, not the exception.

As mental and physical illnesses increase as a result, Big Pharma profits are expected to skyrocket.
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c) AIG
ANOTHER JUNKET? what is WRONG with these a$$holes?
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Even as the company was pleading the federal government for another $40 billion dollars in loans, AIG sent top executives to a secret gathering at a luxury resort in Phoenix last week.

Reporters for abc15.com (KNXV) caught the AIG executives on hidden cameras poolside and leaving the spa at the Pointe Hilton Squaw Peak Resort, despite apparent efforts by the company to disguise its involvement.

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/WallStreet/story?id=6223972&page=1


We should be investigating these guys for fraud, and putting them behind bars. Instead, their dearest fiends in Treasury and the White House reward their bad behavior?

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d) Sarah Palin
she was caught speaking in almost complete sentences this morning, trying to explain the election.
The past few days, she has been going thru her wardrobe, (which she denies that she got), trying to segregate RNC clothing, (which she denies she chose), including the accessories and the First Dude's clothing, (which she denied were ever received), in order to give the RNC lawyers, (who she claims don't exist), who are traveling to Alaska (which she denies) in order to reclaim $200,000 of an insane shopping spree (which she claims is false) that continued for two straight months (which she claims is exaggerated - it was only four shopping trips in total).

Ah, implausible deniability. Gotta love it, you betcha.

An independent observer would look at Sarah and realize just how powerful and incredible figure she has become . . . for the Democrats. If she represents the best and the brightest from the GOP, look for a generation under Democratic control.

"There was never a good war or a bad peace."

Benjamin Franklin