Isn’t it interesting that the FDA would approve RFID implants for humans while ignoring studies indicating that they produced malignant tumors in animals? See: http://news.aol.com/story/ar/_a/chip-implants-linked-to-animal-tumors/20070910092109990001?ncid=NWS00010000000001.
It’s not inconceivable that such implants in humans could be used to track them, so of course the state’s agency would want those available and implanted.
From Catholic World News: http://www.cwnews.com/offtherecord/offtherecord.cfm?task=singledisplay&recnum=4368
Whenever I see some knew revelation on the demoniacs of the episcopate and presbyterate, like the above editorial, I think to myself “Whatever happened to the good, old days when the Church could turn over people like that to be put to death?” I mean Archbishop Mahony and company that have allowed the priests to carry on unpunished should suffer the same fate as heretics–actually they should undergo worse because burning them would demean all the heretics.
The Pope should at least excommunicate the lot. Heads should role.
As a quick overview, string theory is a branch of theoretical physics which seeks to unify Einstein’s general theory of relativity with quantum mechanics–the two most successful theories developed in the 20th century (more accurately, the standard model and GR) by supposing that fundamental particles are actually Planck-length 1D vibrating somethings (string is really an analogy) in 8 or so extra dimensions that are about the same size as the strings. This setup allows the strings to do all sorts of bizarre things and by changing their vibrations they can change particles.
But there are a few problems with the theory:
1) The string theory equations are approximations–they cannot be solved accurately
2) The strings and dimensions are unobservable
3) There are a huge number of possible string theories, only one of which corresponds to our real universe.
4) String theorists so dominate university systems that competing theories hardly have a chance to break in to the popular consciousness, as a result young physicists and the general public think that string theory is the sole idea that unifies physics.
Of the first problem, not much can be done. Approximations are not problematic in physics, save when trying to make definite predictions. My knowledge of mathematics is limited enough that I’m unsure what string theory is doing with its approximations. To be precise in regards to the second problem I would like to point out that the strings are in fact theoretically predictable, it’s just that the energy required to probe the Planck length is so huge that it will likely remain outside our reach for a long, long time. But because it is so large, the predictions of string theory remain unobservable and therefore unscientific.
The third problem is the most sticky and is used to justify the multiverse theory: if string theory is correct then each possible universe corresponds to an actual universe and so our universe is not unique or special, it just “wins the cosmic jackpot” as Paul Davies puts it. However, I would argue that the ability to change some key variables doesn’t imply that every permutation is a different universe. Authors come up with new universes all the time, but nobody would seriously suggest that they were real universes except perhaps Nick Bostrom ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simulation_hypothesis). Furthermore all proposed multiverse theories maintain that the other universes cannot interact with each other, making them unfalsifiable and thus unscientific. Another argument is that there is no mechanism that determines the laws of physics in a universe, so the multiverse theory makes no sense if each universe must be unique. There is, however, a hypothesis out there that solves those problems: God creates one universe. By create I mean selects the laws of physics, actually makes matter, etc. Paul Davies writes that the “God Hypothesis” is unscientific because it doesn’t answer the question of how. That is completely untrue, because all of the natural sciences combine to answer the question “How did God create the universe and how does He rule it?”
The socialists are doing fine here in Massachusetts, one of the huge number of places reverting to the idea of state control over marriage. The only precedent I can think of for all the hot air being wafted about gay marriage is the anti-miscegenation laws that were all repealed. But now the idea that the State can have a say in who marries who has been resurrected in regards to so-called gay rights.
The way I see it is that homosexuals are human. As such they are entitled to the natural rights all humans enjoy (the origin of these rights is irrelevant to this argument) and not, I repeat not privileges or disadvantages created by the State. The same is true for women and other races (so no affirmative action). No one has any right to decide who you can or cannot love but yourself, but back to marriage: once we dispense with the government matrimony comes down to the simple issue of who will perform the ceremony. The whole idea of marriage in the context of the State exists to redistribute wealth through tax-breaks and to offset declining fertility rates caused by social security with incentives for having children, so taking marriage out of the State’s hands puts it back in the court of Holy Matrimony before God. So two religious homosexuals would either have to live with the notion that gay sex acts are sinful or find another religion.
Then again, marriage is such a huge business that companies like Bloomingdale’s and Macy’s and what-have-you will undoubtedly seek some sort of free market common law marriage, which would be a good situation not only for LGBT, but atheists.
Welcome to my corner of the internet. I apologize for the Bush picture. I detest the man and all of his statist, socialist policies, but the picture was perfect. Later I will design the Grand Seal of the Loyal and Fraternal Order of the Rubber Chicken and use that, but for now we will have to make do with chicken bush.
Hmm . . . “Chickenbush” sounds like a Groucho character.
Have you ever felt that in this postindustrial, postcapitalist, posthuman, postcommunist, postrational, postmodern, poststructural, post office era that there are too many friggin' things with the prefix post-? If so then welcome to my blog, where I will engage in the modern fantasy that my opinions matter on whatever subject I happen to be looking at and people on the internet actually care.
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