this absolutely amazes me.  so far four volunteers--all of whom are totally unable to move their arms, legs or bodies due to injury or disease and using a device that isnt implanted in their brains or require any invasive installation--have been able to successfully learn to control a computer cursor by visualizing how and where they want it to be positioned. here's what it looks like:  here--as reported in the la times dec 7, 2004--who's responsible and their descrip...

even tho the aclu is derided by the close-minded as a group of leftist athiest kooks out to destroy christianity and deprive everyone of rights (that frequently turn out not to have been rights at all), the aclu stood up for a far-rightwing church in a valiant attempt to prevent the city of new york from infringing on the first amendment rights of its members.   the activist federal new york judge (one of the worst of that whole genre) who originally heard the case, r...

tv don't get much more interesting (and possibly even entertaining/informative) than this folks.  thanks to an odd coupling of the sundance network and court tv (and here i thought it was only good as an insomnia cure) in the public interest, four first amendment project films will be aired on both networks...2 tonite and 2 next tuesday nite.  sundance is a premium cable channel here but court tv is--to the best of my knowledge--included with most cable packages at no extra charge. ...

the classic example of what is and isnt news goes like this: 'dog bites man'  aint news 'man bites dog" thats NEWS. i once was given a copy of the ussr's version of 'the readers' digest'  (cant remember the name of the silly thing) which was exactly the same size and format only with even worse content.  one of the articles stuck in my memory tho: "what ukrainians eat".  turns out, the story coulda been much better digested cuz it focused mainly on dishes made of...

aids/hiv was initially characterized as the 'gay disease'. as such, it inspired a lot of fear and hatred, not much sympathy and scores of cruel, smutty jokes before it became obvious that the general public was also susceptible. it's currently estimated that at least half those infected with hiv or living with aids are women and that percentage is consistently increasing.  in some areas of the world (subsaharan africa and india), the rate of infection among women is 60%.   ...

okay maybe some kids--those who live in areas where rodent vermin (like rats and mice) aren't a problem--aren't getting a fair shake when it comes to good-tasting rat poison pellets...but ya can't fault the bush administration's epa for effort.  as many as 50,000 kids, ages 6 and under, have ingested rat poison (pellets are the most commonly used form) this year alone.  the consequences range from internal bleeding, anemia to coma with long-ranging complications.  th...

throughout the latter stages of his re-election campaign, president bush insisted the first national iraqi election since saddam was deposed would take place in january 2005.  on november 21, 2004, iraq's election committee set january 30, 2005 as the date on which iraqis will choose a 275-seat national assembly, a kurdish national assembly and 18 provincial governing consuls.   that is also the last day by which such an election must be held in ...

if this is a hoax, blame it on the nice folks at sunbelt-software.com Home Office (London, UK) to the People of America To the citizens of the United States of America, In the light of your failure to elect a suitable President of the USA and thus to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence, effective today. Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will resume monarchical duties over all states, commonwealths and other territories. Except Utah,...

the earth was created in 6 days 6000 years ago and the grand canyon proves god sent a great flood to cleanse the earth of  ''the wickedness of man' according to a book entitled Grand Canyon: A Different View currently offered for sale to tourists who visit  grand canyon national park's six stores.  written by tom vail who describes how--while working as a rafting guide in the canyon in 1994, ''telling folks that the exquisite and varied rock layers came about through complete...

bringing the fallouja insurgents under control will advance the possibility of iraqi elections one giant step forward.  of all the groups in iraq, the one that has the most to win and least to lose--the shia--has been calling for elections for over a year through its grand ayatollah sistani. which makes maysan--a shiite majority province nominally under control of british forces in southeastern iraq--even more of a conundrum because it may ultimately prove to be the final and most probl...

i've had a very distressing personal problem for a while.  to put it as briefly as possible, my lizard didnt seem to be responding the way it shoulda.  as recently as a year ago, it certainly didnt require any effort on my part...the ol lizard would be up day and nite. as you can see from this pic taken last weekend, my lizard appeared to be pretty much permanently down for the count.   this isnt the kinda thing a guy can talk about to even his closest f...

im curious to know if any ju democtrats are active in their local (state, county, city, district, precinct/ward) democratic party organization and for how long?

on 11/12/2004, representatives of both the libertarian and green parties announced they were going to file an official demand that ohio presidential ballots be recounted.  under ohio election laws--the correct interpretation of which requires the rosetta stone, a ouija board, divining rods, spitting on your bait, an eviscerated chicken and the supreme court's 2000 decision that awarded florida's electoral votes to gw bush--any losing candidate can demand a recount within...

okay...like others, i'm guilty of havng wondered how a man who didn't seem to have a heart could possibly have a history of heart problems. unlike a lotta partisans, i don't have problem conceding when i'm wrong. pix don't lie. he has one.  as you can see, it's a professionally implanted halliburton CA102...the mini version of a product the company sells to iran.   (when asked if he'd purchased the 10 year no-bid, full-coverage replacement, o...