http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/slate/~3/Ks6kHxa4a88/

http://www.slate.com/id/2198296/?from=rss

With everyone still waiting - and waiting, and waiting - for veep announcements, the Wall Street Journal tops its online newsbox with a new poll that puts US presidential hopefuls Barack Obama and John McCain in a statistical dead heat. The Washington Post leads with a report on Obama's efforts to break the tie by appealing to voters' pocketbooks; the Democratic nominee lamented US job losses while on the stump in southern Virginia yesterday. The LA Times leads with a look at the candidates' tax proposals; economists say that both candidates' plans would likely add trillions to the national debt.

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http://education.yahoo.com/college/wotd/

(adjective) drawn from many sources; varied, heterogeneous.

I've had this idea floating around in my head forever. I'd like to see what other people think of it, because my only class in physics was one semester in high school.

It seems to me that if we had spherical vision (like, if our heads were covered with eyes), we'd be able to see into the 4th dimension of space.

Our normal eyesight is basically 2-dimensional. Our field of vision is like a circle. But we know from experience that the things we see are 3-dimensional, and when we walk around a chair, for example, we infer from all of the 2-dimensional views of it, that it is 3-dimensional.

In a 2-dimensional world, like a piece of paper, maybe there are triangle and a rectangle looking at each other. The triangle's field of vision is 1-dimensional. She sees a line, with a stripe in it where the rectangle is. When she walks around the rectangle, she can tell that it is a 2-dimensional object because the length of the stripe changes.

Does it then follow that, if we could see in 3 dimensions, we would be able to infer things about the 4th? And would it be possible to do that? :-/

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheNationWeblogs/~3/YhE44_miwWk/

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/thebeat/?pid=347005

Honor the late congresswoman by enacting the election reforms she sought.

Rachel Maddow has been picked to replace Dan Abrams in their 9pm time slot while Abrams resumes his position as GM. It seems that MSNBC has taken the Liberal bias label and decided to run with it. They axed Scarbrough, Carlson and now Abrams, two conservatives and a moderate gone. I really have no pundit to watch anymore except Lou Dobbs, hell Matthews is getting too annoying for my taste now.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/08/19/rachel-maddow-replacing-d_n_119929.html

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/slate/~3/kAX7nq_HZEg/

http://www.slate.com/id/2198218/?from=rss

You know her. She's got wild eyes and rumpled hair. At some point she stopped caring about the stains on her blouse. She's hurt, angry, rejected, and she's willing to take the whole damn place down with her. She is Lady Macbeth. She is Jane Eyre's deranged pyromaniac Bertha Mason. She is Cruella DeVil and the biblical Lilith. She is Snow White's wicked stepmother, Miss Havisham, and Emily Bronte's ghostly Catherine Earnshaw. She is the oldest literary type around—the bitter madwoman, hellbent on revenge and willing to act against her own interest to win some respect. And now, to hear the media tell it, she is a Hillary Holdout; she's a PUMA (Party Unity My Ass); and she belongs to 18 Million Voices.

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  Those damn Russians are not only spamming our internet forums, but also some of the major newspapers. Just today I am reading yet another commie junk propaganda opinion in one of our finest anti-liberal dailies. When will they learn that no matter how many forums and printed sources they managed to shit up, all of the progressive people in the West will still keep thinking that Georgia is a great example of a young democracy being unlawfully bullied and attacked by an uncultivated and barbarian neighbor, who has just happened to be more powerful by the dumb luck of having vast resources of free oil in its entrails. For shame!

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheNationWeblogs/~3/zENawKEXkiQ/

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/notion/?pid=346897

C�sar's story isn't one of gold medals and Bob Costas's drooling, but it is as much a part of these games as anything done by Phelps: it's the story of someone making the trip to Beijing, not for gold, but to be heard.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/slate/~3/S-x15AqlOVs/

http://www.slate.com/id/2198221/?from=rss

Yesterday in Beijing, Roqaya al-Gassra of Bahrain won her heat in the second round of the women's 200-meter dash while wearing long pants, long sleeves, and a head covering, in keeping with her practice of Islam. Many female Olympians wear athletic clothing that does not cover their bodies; are their events broadcast in conservative countries?

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When Senators Barack Obama and John McCain both appeared at the Saddleback Civil Forum on the Presidency with Pastor Rick Warren last weekend, McCain used a myth about the supposed Judeo-Christian origin of American principles to pander to the evangelical Christian audience in a way I contrast with an Obama appearance at another Baptist church earlier this year in my 2 minute 40 second YouTube video at:

McCain Right USA Founded on Judeo-Christian Principles?

If you're interested in the sources I used for my video...

You can see the full section of the Saddleback Civil Forum interview of John McCain from which I took a short clip for this video from the CNN website at Saddleback Forum segment

I used Marion Doss's picture of Thomas Jefferson in my video under a creative commons license as described on his Flickr page at Jefferson photo

You can find the rest of Thomas Jefferson's 1824 letter to Major John Cartwright, among other places, at Book of Jefferson documents

You can find the prepared text of Barack Obama's January 20, 2008 speech at Ebenezer Baptist Church from which I took a screen capture at Text of Ebenezer Baptist Church speech

You can find the full video of Barack Obama's January 20, 2008 speech at Ebenezer Baptist Church from which I took a short clip at Video of Ebenezer Baptist Church speech

Finally, this is my first posting to the politicsforum community, so I appreciate all feedback :-)

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/slate/~3/TCFkAbLE3-I/

http://www.slate.com/id/2198117/?from=rss

Amid reports that retail sales are getting pummeled, the September fashion magazines have hit newsstands in the past week. We all know that hemlines tend to drop along with the economy, and it's no surprise that (thankfully) upper thighs are about as rare in these issues as robust mutual funds. Fashion mags have long walked the line between presenting themselves as shopping guides of wearable trends and offering glossy spreads of five-figure frocks. But do women in today's economy want to confront pages of $1,000 shoes when they are struggling to pay the rent? Or do they prefer practicality over fantasy in these trying times? We looked at six magazines to see how editors responded to the current economic waist-cinching and whether ads—not hemlines—are up or down from last year. Here, from Elle's reaction of What recession? to the recessionary lack of glamour at Glamour, are the results.

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http://www.slate.com/id/2198216/?from=rss

Condoleezza Rice has said many strange things as secretary of state, but few stranger than this remark at an Aug. 18 press conference onboard her plane en route to Brussels, Belgium:

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http://www.slate.com/id/2197749/?from=rss

How artists are mining data sets to make you see the unseen.

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http://www.slate.com/id/2197254/entry/2198219/?from=rss

Attending beach volleyball matches in Beijing raises a few inevitable questions: How is it possible for the wave to circle an arena five full times? Where do all those perky, underdressed Chinese cheerleaders come from? Did I really just hear "Pretty Fly (for a White Guy)" at the Olympic Games?

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http://www.thenation.com/blogs/dreyfuss/?pid=346832

It's a shaky situation. Hopefully, the US won't make it worse by pushing too hard and too fast.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/slate/~3/aZqmVzNbAG4/

http://www.slate.com/id/2198220/?from=rss

Once upon a time, no greater authority than King Gustav of Sweden proclaimed Jim Thorpe "the world's greatest athlete" after the Native American superjock won the decathlon in the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm. In the middle of the 20th century, decathletes such as Bob Mathias and Rafer Johnson became superstars after winning the gold medal. And who could forget—although, given his recent reality-show foray, we might wish to—Bruce Jenner pounding down the home stretch in Montreal in all of his red-white-and-blue glory?

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http://www.slate.com/id/2198245/entry/0/?from=rss

After Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in 1968, his widow, Coretta Scott King, established the King Center for Nonviolence in Atlanta and converted King's estate into a corporation ("Estate of Martin Luther King, Jr., Inc.") to collect royalties on the civil rights leader's historic writings, documents, and recordings. King's three living children, Dexter, Bernice and Martin III, are all board members of the King Center and shareholders in the corporation. (Coretta died in 2006.)

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http://www.slate.com/id/2196754/?from=rss

A roundup of Slate's coverage of China and the Beijing Games.

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http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?i=9cd528568ab7ac56ba101e9579f98ab4

http://space.newscientist.com/article/dn14573-galactic-spaghetti-monster-powered-by-magnetic-fields.html?feedId=online-news_rss20

Long streamers of gas ejected by a galaxy called NGC 1275 can only be held together by magnetic fields, Hubble images suggest

Same-sex marriage is going to be an issue this election, yet again. In all of the discussions I've had concerning the topic, I've only ever encountered two arguments, what I call the Destruction and Dilution arguments. Maybe you can provide others.

The Destruction argument is that allowing same-sex marriage will cause opposite-sex marriage rates to plummet somehow. I always get crickets when I ask what it is about same-sex marriage that would lead to this destruction of marriage in general. Regardless, the Scandinavian and Bay Stater experiences suggest that no such destruction of marriage occurs.

The Dilution argument is a slippery slope argument, that "re-defining" marriage to include same-sex couples opens the door to all kinds of bizarre things, like legalization of polygamy, pedophilia — even pedophiliac marriages — and zoophilia — even zoophiliac marriages. This argument also seems ridiculous on its face to me, but it's brought up time and again, so I'll address it during my pro-same-sex marriage arguments below.

( Read more... )

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/slate/~3/aYeBQBDWB6Q/

http://www.slate.com/id/2198214/?from=rss

Through the first days of the crisis in the Caucasus, all eyes have been on the suffering of the Georgians and barbarism of the Russians. Both are indisputable. But now it is also time to recognize that the events of the last two weeks have been a disaster for U.S. foreign policy.

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http://technology.newscientist.com/channel/tech/mg19926706.000-how-to-stop-a-new-type-of-heart-attack.html?feedId=online-news_rss20

Researchers say the best way to stop hackers from interfering with implanted medical devices is to pair them with a "cloaking device"

http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?i=cd74e6a66c06c8e1935b3771f8797b4e

http://technology.newscientist.com/channel/tech/mg19926703.200-fast-waters-run-deep-for-olympic-swimmers.html?feedId=online-news_rss20

Why have so many swimming records fallen in the Beijing Water Cube? (full text available to subscribers)

http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?i=e35915e0b87acba592dca529cc2d9f4c

http://www.newscientist.com/channel/life/dn14569-elephants-master-basic-mathematics.html?feedId=online-news_rss20

Asian elephant Ashya sums small numbers and gets it right nine times in 10, and beats our reporter

http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?i=51070ce8a79f46f0b067bf2c006e482e

http://space.newscientist.com/article/dn14571-planets-without-metal-cores-may-be-bad-for-life.html?feedId=online-news_rss20

Rocky planets can form without metallic cores, a new study suggests – they would lack magnetic fields, which are crucial for life as we know it

I got a twin mattress and box spring delivered today for my guest bedroom (now I just need a guest to put in the bed) and went to Bed Bath & Beyond over the lunch hour to pick up a comforter and some sheets for it.

As I was leaving the store with my purchases, I saw a display of various doormats, and one caught my eye. In fact, I may go and buy it the next time a 20% off postcard comes in the mail. The doormat said,

"Leave"

I laughed all the way out to the car.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/slate/~3/49aX9pLn0OA/

http://www.slate.com/id/2175223/?from=rss

More musings on Rachel Maddow.

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http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheNationWeblogs/~3/NgC-VuiKrwU/

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/campaignmatters/?pid=346742

It's probably Biden, but...

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/slate/~3/R9_NtO_YfUI/

http://www.slate.com/id/2198171/?from=rss

Someone once said the world can be divided into two kinds of people: The kind who say "the world can be divided into two kinds of people" and the kind who don't.

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http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/slate/~3/hRBxofS2RXw/

http://www.slate.com/id/2198186/?from=rss

"Everyone interesting died this weekend," wrote Choire Sicha recently. I thought he was writing about two of the more prominent editors of fiction in the '60s and '70s, Ted Solotaroff and Rust Hills, whose obituaries recently showed up days apart in the New York Times. As it happens, he meant Isaac Hayes and Bernie Mac. But I recognized the impulse to find meaning in the arbitrary proximity of people's deaths.

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http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/slate/~3/6Jfwu-nTtTw/

http://www.slate.com/id/2198179/?from=rss

NBC reaches yet another milestone on its magically sappy Olympic journey.

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http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/slate/~3/qhhJ5X_nr5I/

http://www.slate.com/id/2197533/?from=rss

A cookbook titled A Treasury of Great Recipes sounds innocuous. What's frightening about noodle casserole? Why, nothing ... except when it's cooked by Vincent Price.

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 It seems as if it is another “gift” from Dmitry Medvedev, who promised an immediate and appropriate answer to NATO, regarding the ABM system deployment in Check Republic and in Poland. "I suppose that after the crisis with Georgia, Russia has become even stronger.  It is important for Russia to keep the position of the Great Empire. In this case all the attempts to isolate the country will fail", - stated the president of Syria Bashar Asad. Russia can send a “reply” against the US deployment of ABM system on the territory of Europe with the help of Syria, i.e by deployment of its guided missile “Iskander” complex there.

http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?i=e0552ae3505a5460fa41f3134c352fda

http://space.newscientist.com/article/dn14571-coreless-planets-may-be-bad-for-life.html?feedId=online-news_rss20

Rocky planets can form without metallic cores, a new study suggests – they would lack magnetic fields, which are crucial for life as we know it

Speculation about Senator McCain's vice presidential pick continues and includes two very heterodox choices for a Republican nominee in this age: Former Homeland Security Director and Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge and Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman.

Governor Ridge is in favor of legal abortion and Senator Leiberman, while a war hawk and close ally of Senator McCain, is obviously to the left of the Republican party on a wide range of issues.

Assuming these names are more than trial balloons and are in serious consideration, what would the choice of either man mean for McCain's candidacy? How might their choice influence your vote in November?

http://www.psychologytoday.com/rss/pto-20080717-000003.html

Lash-batting as sport.

http://www.psychologytoday.com/rss/pto-20060717-000001.html

The office dress code.

http://www.psychologytoday.com/rss/pto-20040514-000003.html

Plastic surgery is about more than good looks.