Rabbit

In recent days he has appeared in North Korean released pictures (suspicious because the foliage in the background appears too green for this time of year). He was reputed to have had a surgery although another was saying this is a double, the real leader died a couple of years ago.

I don't know if there is a family successor (at 66 it is a little late to start a family now. Anyone know?

A cop of 35 years, during his last hour before retirement, notified in his last 15 minutes was suspended -- because he was wearing the wrong color of uniform shirt! Is that crazy or what?

http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2008/07/punishe...

I was just watching the CSI episode where a dead girl was found in a box. In the process there is a remark in lab about Sanders being gone. This could mean that Greg is no longer in the lab, but it could mean that Sanders is gone. When Warrick was being framed, someone in the lab phoned the gangster. So was that inside snitch caught? (I didn't see where Warrick was cleared) Was it Greg Sanders, and now he's gone? I'm confused with the missing pieces. Which episode did I miss that resolved them?

In a cheesy and otherwise forgettable movie, there was a blue alien that sang an opera tune--wonderfully. Her performance was contrasted by some silly fight elsewhere wherein a little woman was whipping up on some big, dog-faced aliens. What I want to know is, who was that fantasticly excellent singer that did the blue alien song?

I browse this forum from time to time and notice the talk of transgendered folk. Since the human body was essentially undifferentiated until about the fifth or sixth week when the gender switch flips on (and those with Y gender chromosomes become males and the others become females). The differentiated organs essentially come from the same tissue buds, so is there any consideration, really, of gene therapy to flip the switches of the trans folk. I know that Japanese researchers have produced sperm cells from eggs and vice versa, and that human nose and ear cartilidge has been grown on the backs of mice, what if ovaries are regrown as testicles or testicles regrown as ovaries and simply moved to a new place? (Just a thought, seems like there would be a bigger market for that than mouse-grown replacement noses for those so unfortunate to have lost their originals). Anyway, here's the link to what started me thinking:http://www.nature.com/gt/journal/v6/n9/pdf/3300981...

I stumbled across a good site recently, but forgot to bookmark it. It was so much fun watching the advertising video clips, Coke's bears, United's vingettes to Gershwin's tune, and such. But now I can't find it, not free ones anyway. I thought the url had "advertising" in it. It so ticks me off, and has since I've been on the internet, you run a search with the same terms and you rarely get the same results, sometimes not even close. Youtube, Yahoo, and Google have some nice ones, but there are lots of gaps in the things I find. The other site seemed to have just about anything and everything I could think of.

Any suggestions?

In reading about alcohol and lactation recently, I wonder if the MTF transgenders or even the mammary-stimulated homosexuals (commonly called shemales) ever lactate, as in produce breast milk? The hormonal players are prolactin and oxytocin, yet physical stimulus is very important, such as sucking or hearing a baby's cry. So if a transgendered was working a nursery, would that induce lactation? (Obviously, the incidental sucking of lovemaking would have hit the news if that were all it took, so that wouldn't count.)

The Ken Than article in space.com also on CNN.com tells about an exoplanet (around a star other than our own) that is a "gas giant" around Upsilon Andromeda, a star some 40 light years away. The trick is that it seemingly has a sunlit side temperature between 2500 and 3000 F (1400-1650 C) and -4 to -450 F on the dark side (they think it is tidally locked, so the same side always faces its star). The planet has a "tight orbit" and goes around every 4.6 days.

If it is a "gas" giant, and the gas is heated to some 3k F, how can it have such a cold other side. I can see that for a rocky planet, but gases expand and move when hot, and condense and sink when cold. Why would there be no circulation that moderates the temperatures? Any ideas? http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/space/10/13/fire.ice....

In the context of the news article below about NASA and a sky survey that they believe has identified all of the galaxies in about 400 million lightyears from us that have super-massive black holes in their center, how would some of these be inactive? Supposedly our own galaxy has an inactive blackhole. First, I know the idea of inactivity because all of the matter in the local space has been sucked out already, but we are talking galactic centers, the gravitational pivot on which the pinwheel (in our case) spins. So, how would something that is at the center of all that action, stars packed closer than icebergs on the north Atlantic, be inactive?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20061005/sc_space/na...

Sorry for the brief dramatic opening, but between the Permian period at the end of the Paleozoic age and the beginning of the Triassic period of the start of the Mesozoic era there seems to be a mass extinction of living things. Obviously, it was not a complete extinction, but this article by Shu Zhong Shen, et al. in Palaeoworld shows a cooling, then a warming and references others that show it was global in nature. Could it be that what we are surmising as Global Warming today is just another of several natural events that periodically happen? There were no humans 248 million years ago, or were there?

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/18711...

Monday evening I saw a featured piece on Yahoo about this male Russian singer who hits incredibly high notes. I watched the video and an otherwise unremarkable young man with very short hair was singing. In the back his orchestra had dark sacks over their heads and as I was about to give up on an excellent performance by the masked band but a fair performance by the singer, he jerked back his head and let out a sound that just floored me. I'd call it a squeal but it was much better than that. I was thinking that someone else was doing it and he was faking, but a woman in the front row started holding her head and shaking it in amazement like she was witnessing something amazing too.

I thought I remembered the singer's name but have obviously bungled it because I can't find anything anywhere close. Anyone know where I can find it again, because I couldn't when searching where I found it yesterday.

The news is that they spotted the wreckage but it would take weeks to get in there. Why don't they chalk this up as a training exercise and send some Brazilian airborne unit in to check for survivors, lend assistance, and otherwise secure the crash site? The US has a variety of units in various branches that are more than able to help out for local disasters, surely Brazil has something that could work, wouldn't they?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060930/ap_on_re_la_am...

The supposed new leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq called on the Iraqi scientists to use their nuclear and biological weapons against the Americans in Iraq. Haven't they heard that we think Bush was lying about them? Do they know something?

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,216262,00.html

The Venezuelan foreign minister was stopped at the airport, in a revenge response he says. I think he was simply an uncooperative potential passenger that shows up late for his plane and without a ticket--getting what any other suspicious and unruly person would get. Was that unreasonable for TSA to question his identity and want to search him?

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20060924/D8KB6KV80...

With all the "pushing the envelope" and edgy shows like Saturday Night Live, why is NBC so afraid of its new show--VeggieTales? It seems they signed up a children's show with charaters like tomatoes and cucumbers that talk about being nice and about, gasp, God, that NBC wants to edit out the God stuff. Why even sign up a childrens show that doesn't make parents into idiots and children intelligent put-down comic, but air one teaching kids how to get along nicely with each other--and this one needs to be censored! What do you think?

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,215266,00.html

Report says scientists say we must return to the moon. Why?

I'm not opposed to space exploration and was a fan of Gerard O'Neill's idea of cities in space. I know that space exploration has given tremendous strength to technological development that have radically improved our lives. A late-uncle who had a machine shop that worked with the Apollo program said the biggest technology improvements in machining at that time came because of auto racing and NASA. Electronics, meanwhile, have soared on technology advances begun for space. Even medicine has had quantum-leap moments in part spurred by NASA needing to understand the humans they send up.

But why MUST we return to the moon?

http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/space/09/19/return.to...

The elevations of the Great Lakes show a descending pattern: Superior, 600 ft; Michigan, 581 ft; Huron, also about 581 ft; Erie, 571 ft; and Ontario 246 ft. (www.michigan.gov/dev/)

Niagra Falls is between Erie and Ontario. The pictures always seem to show the flow at the falls facing West. Wouldn't it flow from West (Erie) to East (Ontario)? So is Niagra Falls flowing the wrong way?

If I were to move to New York City, I know they have a city income tax, but not how much. But what of Washington, DC, or as opposed to moving to Arlington or one of the surrounding cities? In light of this extra expense, which would be better to move to if I wanted to minimize my income taxes?

Using the German V-2 rocket dimensions, how high would it fly with today’s technology? It used 6 tons LOX, 4.5 tons alcohol and was 46’ high, 5.5’ across, 28k lbs launch weight, with 1 ton pay load: http://www.ww2guide.com/vweapon.shtml

Suppose we allow 1 ton for a Mercury-style crew capsule and 1 human occupant. Replace the riveted steel, say with titanium. Use a better fuel and better rocket engine. Could we get it in orbit using today's methods and materials?

The real question is, does anyone here know how to do the math?

The United Nations International Force for the Israel/Lebanon conflict (UNIFIL) is supposed to be neutral. During the recent war, however, they were posting information about Israeli troop movements, but not Hezbollah. What gives? A tad bit unethical isn't it?

http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Artic...