Tuesday, February 14th, 2012
Stephan: Completely ignoring all facts, the Wisconsin Theocratic Rightists are determined to push abstinence-only sex education. This is really quite amazing since study after study has shown that abstinence-only programs don't work and, in fact, result in more unwed teen pregnancies, and increase in STDs, and... wait for it... more abortions.
Wisconsin Republicans aren’t just going after the pill, they’ve re-energized around a push to overturn the Healthy Youth Act which requires comprehensive sexual education in favor of abstinence-only education.
The push first emerged last year when Wisconsin State Senator Mary Lazich introduced the repeal effort, a bill that passed the Wisconsin Senate 17-15 just before the 2011 holiday break. Now a companion bill with nearly identical language must mast the Assembly and if it does Republican Gov. Scott Walker is all but certain to sign it.
AB 337 is the bill making its way through the Assembly and specifically removes from the existing law discussion of puberty, pregnancy, parenting, body image, gender stereotypes, contraceptive education include health benefits and proper use.
Not only does the bill remove safe-sex education it specifically modifies the definition for what is considered ‘medically accurate information
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Tuesday, February 14th, 2012
WYNNE PARRY, Senior Writer - Space.com
Stephan: Here is the latest on ice melt and sea water rise. It is not a happy story.
The melt-off from the world’s ice sheets, ice caps and glaciers over eight years of the past decade would have been enough to cover the United States in about 18 inches (46 centimeters) of water, according to new research based on the most-comprehensive analysis of satellite data yet.
Data, collected for the years 2003 through 2010, indicates that melting ice raised sea levels worldwide by an average of 1.48 millimeters (0.06 inches) each year. The loss of ice from Greenland and Antarctica has already been measured using satellite data, but the new analysis revealed that melting ice elsewhere accounted for about 0.41 mm (0.016 inches) of the annual rise.
Until now, satellite measurements from only selected places were used to extrapolate the overall ice loss outside Greenland and Antarctica.
The Aletsch Glacier in Switzerland. Glaciers and ice caps outside of Antarctica and Greenland melted enough to raise sea levels by 0.016 inches (0.41 millimeters) per year between 2003 and 2010, according to an analysis of satellite data.
‘The Earth is losing an incredible amount of ice to the oceans annually, and these new results will help us answer important questions in terms of both sea rise and how the planet’s cold regions are […]
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Tuesday, February 14th, 2012
Stephan: It will be interesting to see whether what the American population thinks and wants makes any difference to the Congress and the DHS. I wouldn't bet the rent it will have any impact whatever. I chose this poll because Rasmussen is known to be a Republican leaning polling entity.
Click through to see the actual poll and its wording.
Voters strongly approve of President Obama’s decision to use unmanned drones to go after terrorists, but they’re much less excited about the use of such aircraft for surveillance on the home front.
The president recently acknowledged that the United States has a secret drone program for killing al-Qaeda and Taliban terrorists, and the latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just nine percent (9%) of Likely U.S. Voters oppose such a program. Seventy-six percent (76%) approve of the use of the unmanned aircraft to kill terrorists. Fifteen percent (15%) are not sure. (To see survey question wording, click here.)
The program has already caused increased diplomatic tensions with Pakistan over the unintended deaths of civilians from the drone strikes. Still, a plurality (49%) of voters thinks using the drones to kill terrorists is more important than avoiding diplomatic problems with countries like Pakistan. Thirty-three percent (33%) say it’s more important to avoid diplomatic problems. Eighteen percent (18%) are undecided.
Fifty percent (50%) say the president as commander in chief has the authority to use drones against terrorists in other countries without getting Congress’ okay. Thirty-seven percent (37%) feel the president should get congressional approval before such drones are deployed. Thirteen […]
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Monday, February 13th, 2012
CYNTHIA GRABER, - Scientific American
Stephan: I have often wondered why zebras have stripes. There had to be an evolutionary benefit, but what was it in response to? Here's the answer.
How did the zebra get its stripes? One theory holds that stripes help confuse predators. But stripes might be primarily to protect zebras from ferocious
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Monday, February 13th, 2012
STEVE WATSON, - InfoWars.com
Stephan: The reach of DHS, even now is Orwellian -- and I will probably be put on some list for saying this. As a culture we are going to have to decide whether we will surrender to constant surveillance, or whether we are going to assert our personal liberties in a politically effective manner.
The only counterweight to this toxic trend is massive voter turnout on behalf of programs and politicians that support social wellness. The key is to focus on social wellness, based on data not ideology of theology.
A privacy advocacy group has swayed Congress to hold a hearing next week into the Department of Homeland Security’s practice of monitoring social networks such as Twitter and Facebook, as well as media reports and organizations, including The Drudge Report.
The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) recently obtained close to 300 pages of documents, as a result of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, detailing the federal agency’s ‘intelligence gathering
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