Kenneth W. Starr has a warning for the Obama administration: What goes around comes around. During a speech yesterday in Boston, Starr told a group of attorneys that President Obama could face an uphill battle over his Supreme Court nominees because as a senator he opposed two of President George W. Bush’s Supreme Court picks, Samuel Alito and John Roberts. Starr’s message: Elephants don’t forget. The former independent counsel during President Clinton’s Whitewater and Monica Lewinsky scandals, Starr said an aging Supreme Court means that Obama could be able to name perhaps two or more nominees to the high court. And that could lead to a showdown with Senate Republicans, who were livid with Democrats such as Obama, who filibustered and voted against the Bush picks. Starr pointed out that Obama enters office with healthy Democratic majorities in the House and Senate; however, he said ‘the salience of this very enviable position, politically, for our president is brought home by the president’s own approach to the high court during his years of service as a United States senator.’ He continued: ‘There is one historical factoid of note: He is the first president of the United […]
A drug which appears to erase painful memories has been developed by scientists. The astonishing treatment could help sufferers of post-traumatic stress disorder and those whose lives are plagued by hurtful recurrent memories. But British experts said the breakthrough raises disturbing ethical questions about what makes us human. They also warned it could have damaging psychological consequences, preventing those who take it from learning from their mistakes. Kate Winslet and Jim Carrey starred in Eternal Sunshine Of the Spotless Mind – which saw the couple use a technique to erase painful memories of each other Kate Winslet and Jim Carrey starred in Eternal Sunshine Of the Spotless Mind – which saw the couple use a technique to erase painful memories of each other Dr Daniel Sokol, a lecturer in medical ethics at St George’s, University of London, said: ‘Removing bad memories is not like removing a wart or a mole. It will change our personal identity since who we are is linked to our memories. ‘It may perhaps be beneficial in some cases, but before eradicating memories, we must reflect on the knock-on effects that this will have on individuals, society and our […]
Farmers across the tropics might raze forests to plant biofuel crops, according to new research by Holly Gibbs, a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford’s Woods Institute for the Environment. ‘If we run our cars on biofuels produced in the tropics, chances will be good that we are effectively burning rainforests in our gas tanks,’ she warned. Policies favoring biofuel crop production may inadvertently contribute to, not slow, the process of climate change, Gibbs said. Such an environmental disaster could be ‘just around the corner without more thoughtful energy policies that consider potential ripple effects on tropical forests,’ she added. Gibbs’ predictions are based on her new study, in which she analyzed detailed satellite images collected between 1980 and 2000. The study is the first to do such a detailed characterization of the pathways of agricultural expansion throughout the entire tropical region. Gibbs hopes that this new knowledge will contribute to making prudent decisions about future biofuel policies and subsidies. Gibbs will present her findings in Chicago on Saturday, Feb. 14, during a symposium that begins at 1:30 p.m. CT at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The symposium is titled ‘Biofuels, […]
CHICAGO — The pace of global warming is likely to be much faster than recent predictions, because industrial greenhouse gas emissions have increased more quickly than expected and higher temperatures are triggering self-reinforcing feedback mechanisms in global ecosystems, scientists said Saturday. ‘We are basically looking now at a future climate that’s beyond anything we’ve considered seriously in climate model simulations,’ Christopher Field, founding director of the Carnegie Institution’s Department of Global Ecology at Stanford University, said at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Field, a member of the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, said emissions from burning fossil fuels since 2000 have largely outpaced the estimates used in the U.N. panel’s 2007 reports. The higher emissions are largely the result of the increased burning of coal in developing countries, he said. Unexpectedly large amounts of carbon dioxide are being released into the atmosphere as the result of ‘feedback loops’ that are speeding up natural processes. Prominent among these, evidence indicates, is a cycle in which higher temperatures are beginning to melt the arctic permafrost, which could release hundreds of billions of tons of carbon and methane into the atmosphere, […]
CHICAGO — Seductive chemicals are hidden in sloppy kisses, scientists say, but even the most chaste caress can spark an intense hormonal response. ‘Men like sloppier kisses with more open mouth and that suggests to me that they are unconsciously trying to transfer testosterone to trigger the sex drive in women,’ said Helen Fisher, an anthropologist at Rutgers University in New Jersey. Kissing can certainly open the door to sex, Fisher said. But it can also close it: a recent study found that the first kiss was the ‘kiss of death’ for budding relationships. ‘Should you drool more? You don’t want to turn off your partner,’ Fisher warned. Kissing is a natural instinct that likely serves a number of evolutionary purposes, said Fisher, one of the leading experts in the biology of love and attraction. Men’s preference for sloppy kisses with lots of tongue may help them over come their poor sense of smell and taste. ‘What they might be doing is trying to pick up the estrogen cycle in a woman to figure out the degree of her fertility.’ Kissing also stimulates an enormous part of the brain, but love can […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
