HOLY CRAP!!!!

'
Holy crap is right. A "large" cave was just found in the Venuzuela Guayana, one of the worlds most inaccessable and unexplored regions. This area is one of the most biologically rich, geographically ancient and unspoiled part of the world.

Researchers say that this is, in fact, not a cave but a huge, collapsed, steep gorge.

They also found a new type of Poison Dart Frog, the Colostethus Breweri. It is a fast moving yellow and orange that lives in the small creeks and quiet pools near this cave.

Get this this: The cave picture has two small objects at the bottom. THOSE ARE HELICOPTERS! This is a freaking huge cave. This is simply amazing in my opinion...

Damn the Tea

taken from:http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060221/ap_on_go_su_co/scotus_religious_tea


WASHINGTON - A small branch of a South American religious sect may use hallucinogenic tea as part of a ritual intended to connect with God, a unanimous Supreme Court ruled Tuesday.

In its first religious freedom decision under Chief Justice John Roberts, the court said the government cannot hinder religious practices without proof of a "compelling" need to do so.
"This is a very important decision for minority religious freedom in this country," said lawyer John Boyd, who represents about 130 U.S. members of O Centro Espirita Beneficiente Uniao do Vegetal who live in New Mexico, California and Colorado.

The tea, which contains an illegal drug known as DMT, is considered sacred to members of the sect, which has a blend of Christian beliefs and South American traditions. Members believe they can understand God only by drinking the tea, which is consumed twice a month at four-hour ceremonies.

Roberts, in writing the opinion for the court, said the government had failed to prove that federal drug laws should outweigh the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which Congress passed in 1993 to prohibit burdening a person's exercise of religion.

The Bush administration had argued that the drug in the tea not only violates a federal narcotics law but a treaty in which the United States promised to block the importation of drugs including dimethyltryptamine, also known as DMT.

Religious groups of various faiths, along with civil liberties organizations, filed friend-of-the-court briefs supporting the sect. "This is just one step in the right direction in the fight for religious liberty," said Jared Leland, legal counsel for The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty in Washington.

New Justice
Samuel did not take part in the case, which was argued last fall before Justice
Sandra Day O'Connor's retirement. Alito was on the bench for the first time on Tuesday.
The justices sent the case back to a federal appeals court, which could consider more evidence.
Roberts, writing his second opinion since joining the court, said that religious freedom cases can be difficult "but Congress has determined that courts should strike sensible balances."
The case is Gonzales v. O Centro Espirita Beneficiente Uniao Do Vegetal, 04-1084.

My oppinion

Wait a minute here....

ok ok I get it. We cannot violate your religion in any way so we can't ban the druggie tea correct? So if I were to say that my religion involved me taking heroin and smoking Mary-Jane 5 times a day would that be ok? i don't think so...

But of course! If multiple people do this it has to be ok right? I mean really, can a bunch of people doped up on hallucination inducing druggie tea really be all that dangerous? Of course they can! Drugs mess with your mind man, they like do bad stuff to it dude. Drugs are bad M'kay? Even if it is for a religous purpose It should not be ok. Its your brain your messing with, your last sanctuary, the only place tha others cannot get to. And by taking these drugs you are allowing the last safe haven you have, to be simply demolished.

I understand why they need to allow us to have our religious freedoms but this is not what that should have been intended for. If they allow this to continue we may just have new religions popping up saying that doing all drugs makes them closer to God. An then we could have "religious extremists" smuggling drugs into the country and saying that it was done in the name of their god, again taking this freedom too far.

This freedom should allow us to speak our religion freely and do our religious acts, i will agree with that, however, this should not cover acts that are illegal in our country. If part of someones Religion asked for a sacrifice (human or animal) we would certainly ban that. So why not ban the tea as well? It obviously has illegal drugs in it, and we are not allowed to have (or take) those drugs, so we should not be able to drink the druggie tea.

And He Calls This Lucky?

Taken From: http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/392491p-332837c.html

WASHINGTON - The pellet-pocked man shot by Dick Cheney apologized yesterday for all the fuss the hunting mishap has caused the vice president, and said he was "lucky" the errant blast didn't do more damage.

Harry Whittington, 78, made his first public remarks as he was released from a Texas hospital after being sprayed with birdshot in the face, neck and upper body last Saturday.
"We all assume certain risks in whatever we do. Regardless of how experienced, careful and dedicated we are, accidents do and will happen. And that's what happened," Whittington said.
The GOP fat-cat donor also suffered a mild heart attack while hospitalized when birdshot traveled to his heart from his chest.

"I regret that I couldn't meet you earlier but you can see what a lucky person I am," Whittington told reporters, his face and neck clearly marked from the blast from Cheney's .28-gauge shotgun.
Nonetheless, doctors sent him home, saying he's in excellent condition, though not 100%.
A relieved Cheney, speaking to the Wyoming legislature yesterday, said, "Thankfully, Harry Whittington is on the mend and doing well."

Cheney's staff let Katharine Armstrong, the owner of the south Texas ranch where he had been hunting, break the news about the accident to a local paper a day after it happened, and Cheney didn't address it until Wednesday.

When the White House, particularly Cheney's staff, delayed the disclosure of the shooting, it set off a furor. But Whittington seemed to feel that he had caused the problem, just by getting shot.

"My family and I are deeply sorry for all that Vice President Cheney and his family have had to go through this past week," Whittington said. "We hope that he will continue to come to Texas and seek the relaxation that he deserves."

And Whittington offered his own perspective on the incident. "This past weekend encompassed all of us in a cloud of misfortune and sadness that's not easy to explain, especially to those not familiar with the great sport of quail hunting," he said.

Browbeaten by late-night comedians and an aggressive press corps, Cheney acknowledged he'd endured "a very long week." Even loyal Republicans said the GOP has been hurt by Cheney's stonewalling tactics and stubborn resistance to answer questions.

Potential GOP presidential candidate and Vietnam vet Chuck Hagel took a whack at Cheney's five draft deferments that kept him from serving in Vietnam. "If he'd been in the military, he would have learned gun safety," the Nebraska senator told the Omaha World-Herald.
But one political analyst predicted the uproar will quiet down.

"Whittington may very well have ended the feeding frenzy - big time," University of Virginia Prof. Larry Sabato said.

My Oppinion:

Whittington, do you really consider being shot with a .28 gauge shotgun lucky? I think that would not count as a lucky day to me. Yay I had a heart attack because the Vice President shot me. I am so lucky.

Whittingon should not have apologized to the VP. It is not Whittingtons fault that Cheney is such a stupid hunter. You and your family should not be appologizing. I mean really. Cheney almost killed you. And he waits a few days to speak about it? That is shameful in my oppinion.

Cheney needs to learn some gun safety. Never shoot a gun when there is someone in front of you. Duh. Even my seven year old sister knows that one.

Cheney needs to get his eyes checked as well. From what I have heard Whittington was wearing bright orange and it was at a very visible time of day. Maybe Cheney thought he was some kind of game fowl as well....

I don't know either way Whittington shouldn't apologize and Cheney should have spoke sooner

Oh Sure Everyone Blames the Toads!

Taken from:http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,18165281%255E29277,00.html

Invading cane toad evolving: study February 16, 2006
AUSTRALIA'S hated cane toads are evolving - growing faster, longer legs as they rampage through the nation's tropics.Researchers have clocked the toxic pests hopping up to two kilometres in a single night, or more than 50km a year - five times quicker than their predecessors travelled in the 1940s to 1960s.
"There is very clear evidence that toads are evolving rapidly," said Professor Rick Shine, from the University of Sydney's School of Biological Sciences.
Scientists have been examining the warty pests at Fogg Dam, 60km east of Darwin, for a year, attaching radio transmitters to track how far and fast they can travel.
Their research, published today in the scientific journal Nature, found the first toads invading an area now have longer, faster legs - which make up 45 per cent of their body length. When the cane toad was first introduced in Queensland 70 years ago - in a disastrous attempt to control insects in sugar cane fields - its legs made up about 35-40 per cent of its body length,

Prof Shine said. "Frogs and toads generally are slow moving little creatures," Prof Shine said. "(But) our toads are moving north west, and they are just going as fast as they can."
He said it was possible toads were evolving to be faster because there was some advantage to being first to invade an area - either juicier grubs or less competition for food.
Cane toads have marched across Queensland, northern NSW, and the NT, poisoning millions of native animals including in world heritage-listed Kakadu National Park.
They now cover more than a million square kilometres of tropical and subtropical Australia. The report came as the NT renewed its attack on the toad, which is fast approaching Darwin. Locals are being urged to check their yards and nearby parks for cane toads on March 14 - the official "Not in My Backyard Day" of action.
There has been fierce debate over the best way to kill a cane toad since federal MP Dave Tollner last year called on locals to smash them with golf clubs and turn the eradication of toads into a new blood sport.
The RSPCA has urged locals to wipe hemorrhoid cream on the toad before humanely freezing them, and community group FrogWatch is mulching up carcasses into Australia's first toad garden fertiliser.

My opinion:

Why is the human race so stupid? Are we honestly "smart" enough to actually let loose a swarm of freaking toads on a continent just to get rid of a few bugs? I think its amazing how a toad is evolving and yet the human mind has not evolved past smashing anything that annoys us with a club. WE ARE NOT CAVEMEN! First, we should never have releashed them onto Australia, second we should not smash them with clubs, and third this is the Australians own damn fault. They brought this upon themselves and they should deal with it in a more humane way than smacking a toad with a golf club or spreading hemorrhoid cream on them and freezing them. I dont know what your definition of humane is but that certainly is not mine.

And they call what they are doing funny names like Not In My Back Yard and FrogWatch. That is just sad. Oooh not in my back yard you are a scary toad that my ancestors released on our lands and may poison my pets. People make me sick. And then they have the nerve to call it FrogWatch??? Really now, the frogs are not suicide bombers. Oh my god watch out! Its a creepy frog! kill it! kill it! And then you Aussies hit it with a freaking Golf club. What is wrong with the world? We talk about turning frogs into fertaliser because they are doing what every animal does: eats, sleeps, moves.

What is the world coming to? I feel bad that my fellow man would be as stupid as to do something as this. I think somehow, we are DeEvolving, keeping our physical structure but our mental structure is diminishing severely. We are more interested in killing toads and tracking how fast they can go than thinking about the frogs feelings. I wonder what the frog thought when a man hit it with a golf club... Probably something along the lines of: "I'm hungry, I think I'll go eat a grub" Smack. End of it's life. Dead.

We humans care more about pointless things like how fast a toad can hop than the meaning of the toads life. I bet that toad had a family you sick person. And do you think the toad thought it was doing anything wrong? of course it didn't. It was just living out it's normal life and we kill it because of that. That is messed up. I am very appalled by this article.

They should trap the toads and relocate them somewhere else. This would be a lot more humane that the "bloodsport" they currently have going on. Call it the Toad Relocation Act instead of the Not In My Back Yard or FrogWatch days.

Anti Evolution

information taken from:http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/15/national/15evolution.html


COLUMBUS, Ohio, Feb. 14 — The Ohio Board of Education voted 11 to 4 Tuesday to toss out a mandate that 10th-grade biology classes include critical analysis of evolution and an accompanying model lesson plan, dealing the intelligent design movement its second serious defeat in two months.

The board, which became the first in the nation to single out evolution for special scrutiny under the academic standards it adopted in 2002, stripped the language from the curriculum partly out of fear of a lawsuit in the wake of a December ruling by a federal judge that teaching intelligent design in the Dover, Pa., public schools was unconstitutional.

While the Ohio lesson plan does not mention intelligent design, which posits that life is too complex to be explained by evolution alone, critics contend that the critical analysis language is simply design in disguise.

"This lesson is bad news, the 'critically analyze' wording is bad news," Martha W. Wise, the board member who offered the emergency motion, told her colleagues during 90 minutes of contentious debate here Tuesday afternoon. "It is deeply unfair to the children of this state to mislead them about the nature of science."

Darwin's defenders celebrated the reversal as a sign of a backlash against the inroads made last year by critics of evolution. But leaders of the Discovery Institute, the intellectual home of intelligent design, warned that Ohio's move would create a backlash of its own.

"It's an outrageous slap in the face to the citizens of Ohio," said John G. West, associate director of the Center for Science and Culture at the institute, referring to several polls that show public support for criticism of evolution in science classes.

"The effort to try to suppress ideas that you dislike, to use the government to suppress ideas you dislike, has a failed history," Mr. West said. "Do they really want to be on the side of the people who didn't want to let John Scopes talk or who tried to censor Galileo?"

But Eugenie C. Scott, director of the National Center for Science Education, called the Ohio vote "a significant victory" and said it should give pause to school districts and states considering changes in how evolution is taught.

The Discovery Institute had offered Ohio as a national model for its "teach the controversy" approach on evolution. Kansas, Minnesota, New Mexico and Pennsylvania have adopted similar "critical analysis" standards, and the South Carolina Board of Education is scheduled to vote next month on whether to add a similar phrase to its curriculum guidelines.

"This language from Ohio, the critically-analyze-evolution type language, is sprouting up all over, in both the local level, as well as with other state standards," Ms. Scott said. "The Ohio board has recognized its error, and other school districts should not make that same error."
The model lesson plan is voluntary, and it is unclear how many of Ohio's 613 local school districts use it. At Tuesday's meeting, Robin C. Hovis, a board member who urged its deletion, said that "we allow a Dover risk to remain if we leave this lesson plan on the shelf."

The vote followed Mrs. Wise's failed effort last month to kill the lesson plan, after which Gov. Bob Taft, a Republican, called for a legal review of the lesson in light of the Dover ruling. On Tuesday, a board member who supports the critical-analysis approach tried to pre-empt Mrs. Wise's motion by asking the attorney general to take a formal look, but defenders of evolution prevailed in a parliamentary maneuver.

Michael Cochran, one of three lawyers on the 19-member board, criticized Mrs. Wise's supporters as undoing a lengthy process that had led to adoption of the standards with an emergency motion on an afternoon that four members, three of whom support the lesson, were absent.

"It is absolutely disgraceful that we've had this for three years, and we can't wait another month," Mr. Cochran said. "I think that's by design. Not intelligent design, but by design."
Deborah Owens Fink, who along with Mr. Cochran voted against eliminating the critical-analysis language, said after the meeting that the vote was just another round in the culture war, not a knockout.

"There are no permanent victories in politics," Ms. Fink said. "You do not get paradigm shifts overnight. Whether the ultimate victory is today or it's tomorrow or it's two years from now, people demand that they get open discussion of this issue."

My Opinion:

Why the hell would anyone in their right mind ban Evolution teachings? Isn't that breaking the first amendment? Also, why would you want to hide knowledge of something like Evolution? If we continue to hide knowledge from the people we will come closer to a Brave New World or 1984 every day. If we continue to HIDE knowledge instead of SHARE it we might as well not even learn it. Sure it may seem to be against the Bible, that which Christians and many other religions hold so dear, but I think that this is a little harsh.

If a family did not want their child to be taught about Evolution they should have a different class that perhaps has them re-read Genesis or something, So either way you are learning about a THEORY of the creation of mankind, be it evolution or christianity. Or maybe, just maybe, they could homeschool their children and shelter them even more, so they only learn what the parents want them to.

Why is it that Science and Religion cannot live with the other? Does one fear the other? Why do religions continuously try to abolish everything that goes against them? In ancient times they banished the number Zero because they feared it. Are they so weak as to ban Evolution itself?


Either way I feel that we should not hide science, but use it to advance into a better future. Obviously not into a future like Brave New World or 1984 but a future still.

Albert R Gonzales

Taken from:http://www.gameshout.com/news/022006/article3101.htm


Gonzales called the National Security Agency surveillance of phone calls and e-mail without a warrant an indispensable "early warning system" against attacks, but skeptical senators, including some Republicans, challenged his assertion that the Constitution and the U.S. Congress gave President George W. Bush the authorization to act.

During the often testy daylong hearing, Gonzales fielded scores of questions but repeatedly declined to answer, citing the secrecy of the program and saying operational details could not be made public without ruining the ability to monitor contacts between militants abroad and their U.S. affiliates.

Visibly frustrated, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, abruptly broke in at one point: "Of course, I'm sorry, Mr. Attorney General, I forgot you can't answer any questions that might be relevant to this."Leahy accused the administration of acting "illegally without safeguards."New York Democrat Charles Schumer told Gonzales, "I know it's been a long day for you. Especially with all that bobbing and weaving, it's not so easy."

Gonzales refused to discuss the scope of the program that Bush authorized in 2002, any successes, possible abuses or any safeguards in place.Some Republicans also criticized the administration, saying it should have asked Congress to authorize the program specifically, instead of relying on a broad authorization to use force after the September 11 attacks, the Constitution and inherent executive authority.

Chairman Sen. Arlen Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican who chairs the committee, said while "the president of the United States has the fundamental responsibility to protect the country ... the president does not have a blank check."Ohio Republican Mike DeWine said the administration would stand on firmer ground if it had sought specific congressional backing, and Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said he never envisioned such eavesdropping to be part of the post-September 11 legislation he helped pass.

He also said that in times of war other Presidents such as Washington and Lincoln have used electronic surveillance to monitor enemies.

my oppinion

Gonzales needs to speak the truth. He continued to deny all questions and refused to answer most of them. That is not cool. We need to know what is currently going on and he will not tell us what is happening. I can see reason behind hiding information in some cases however, I think that this would not be one. He was dodging all of these questions way too much.

And please, someone please, inform me as to how in the hell Abraham Lincoln used electronic surveillance to monitor its enemies? God that was a stupid statement. sad really....

Worm set to attack on february 3rd

Information taken from http://www.sci-tech-today.com/news/Kama-Sutra-Worm-Set-for-Attack-Friday/story.xhtml?story_id=00100040P7W8

Security analysts are warning us computer users about a new and probably destructive Internet Worm that can destroy important documents. The worm, called the Kama Sutra, is making the rounds now, but is scheduled to have its first massive attack on February 3rd.

This malicious worm targets computers running Windows and spreads mainly by copying itself to shared network locations and then sending itself to e-mail addresses found on afflicted computers. With subject lines that read "the best videoclip ever," "give me a kiss," and "school girl fantasies gone bad," the worm entices computer users to open the attached file.

"This worm feeds on people's willingness to receive salacious content on their desktop computer, but they could be putting their entire company's data at risk," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos.

According to Sophos, on the third of each month, the worm will attempt to disable existing antivirus and firewall software and also will delete specific files, such as Microsoft Office documents.( great...)

The worm is also known as Blackworm, Nyxem-D, and W32.Blackmail.E, among others. There are disagreements in the security industry about the severity of the worm, with Symantec and F-Secure taking different positions on the issue.

To address what is so far the most expansive malware attack in 2006, speculation among security vendors and researchers has focused on the destructive nature of the worm. Unlike most viruses currently in the wild, the Kama Sutra code is not intended to reap the code writer a windfall of ill-gotten gains. The hacker designed the worm to create mayhem by destroying documents

Frost & Sullivan analyst Rob Ayoub said he is not convinced that the worm represents the work of an old-school hacker, but did suggest it is unusual. "This is just something we haven't seen in a while. It's not a botnet or a zombie. It's a throwback to malware that only seeks to create havoc."

Analysts are urging computer users, especially home users, to make sure that they have up-to-date antivirus software installed on their machines. "There should be no excuse for any data being lost on February 3 by this worm, but there is always the danger that some home users will not have heard that warning," Cluley said.